My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister:Volume5 Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Part 1

It was a good thing I had my waterproof smartphone. Without Maxwell, we may not have been able to safely leave the blast furnace, not to mention avoiding the workers while we did so.

Since I was with Himatsuri-san, I naturally returned to that high-rise apartment building where my mom, Magatsu Taori, lived.

But late at night after midnight, a vampire visited at the 8th floor window.

“Satooori-kun.”

“Erika.”

“You need a serious lecturing, so prepare yourself.”

When she said that, I could only seat myself in front of my sister who had gorgeous blonde ringlet curls. That vampire sister was part of the nocturnal group, so she should have been at school at this time. That meant she had skipped school to pay me a visit, so I couldn’t just refuse her.

She must have been quite angry and unable to control her emotions because she put her hands on the hips of her black gothic lolita dress, looked down on me, rudely pointed right at my nose over and over, and finally hugged me for some reason.

But.

“Ayumi-chan was in quite a panic after seeing you disappear, so you need to go speak with her later.”

…Telling my family I was safe was embarrassing, but I had to do it.

“Since Ayumi wasn’t taken with me, it looks like only the people targeted by that giant shark, the Leviathan, are dragged into the glowing ocean. That’s a relief at least.”

“…But this doesn’t really make sense.”

“You thought so too?”

“Yes. If the Leviathan is trying to attack mom over the seven deadly sins stuff, then it should have targeted Archenemy Lilith first and foremost. Even if it specializes in trickery or harassment, it’s hard to imagine why it would target you but overlook Ayumi-chan. You’re both mom’s family after all.”

…That was right.

If the Leviathan’s goal was to take away the people important to my stepmom, it would have taken Ayumi as well. And it would have no reason to continue targeting Himatsuri Asami.

“This might have nothing to do with the seven deadly sins. Could there be some other reason why it would attack just the humans of Kukyou City like Himatsuri-san and me?”

“Come to think of it, mom, Ayumi-chan, and I are all Archenemies. …It could also be that the power to drag people into that lost sea only works on humans.”

In that case, the harassment theory returned. It might want to target Amatsu Yurina, aka Archenemy Lilith, but could not. And the same was true of a vampire like Erika and a zombie like Ayumi. That was why it targeted a close relative like me who was a pure human or other people who lived in the same city as her.

The way I kept shifting from one theory to another showed how little confidence I had, but it was also because this was very important and I could not let myself settle on an answer to easily. I made a mental note of this meaningful blank in my knowledge.

“So what are you going to do now, Satori-kun?”

Erika asked that fundamental question while sitting on the bed next to me. And I knew she was not asking about where I would spend the next night.

“If you fall into that lost sea when you contact water, it seems to me you could stop it by tying a rope around your waist and typing the other end to some sturdy piece of furniture like a bed or dresser.”

“I considered that.” I sighed. “But I don’t know the exact conditions for what is carried over to the other side. If the furniture or column is dragged down with me, it would only weigh me down. That would make it hard to escape the Leviathan, but it would also prevent me from getting above the water if I started in a flooded area. I’ve already experienced a start from the surface, but this would be even worse.”

“I see.”

I of course only had one life. No matter what absurd challenge awaited me, it was all over if I died. I would not last if I attempted a trial and error method in that extreme environment. And we had so little data on that glowing hell that it would be difficult for Maxwell to put together a simulation.

“I also considered staying in a small room with no water. I would of course need drinking water in a sealed container with a straw opening.”

“Right.”

“But the problem is that the Leviathan is targeting me for some reason. This isn’t random. So if I find some way of escaping from that hell, I doubt it will just sit idly by.”

“But I thought the Leviathan could only harm you after pulling you into that lost sea?”

“Have you forgotten, Erika? It can pull other people in there as well.”

“Oh. And in that case…”

“It might use other people to rob us of any safety we find in reality. I haven’t seen that giant shark speak, but it could probably carve writing across a building wall if it wanted to.”

We were up against an Archenemy.

Whatever it looked like, I had to assume it had at least human level intelligence. Whether it also had enough of a conscience to communicate properly was a different matter.

High intelligence did not always lead to a spirit of mercy and benevolence. In fact, animals that – just like humans – harmed others for fun instead of food or defense were much rarer than ones that would commit suicide to protect the food cycle of their group.

“You mean it could make a threat like, ‘Splash water on Amatsu Satori to bring him to me. Otherwise I will continue targeting you day after day and night after night.’?”

“Just like me, they only have one life and can’t use trial and error tactics. The Leviathan might intend to kill them all anyway, but the other participants would have no way of knowing that. Most of them probably wouldn’t know who ‘Amatsu Satori’ is, but if it keeps making the demand and killing them, it will eventually come across someone who knows who I am. This is all happening in the one city, after all.”

With those methods, it didn’t particularly matter if I had water near me or not. Some malicious person could bring the water to me.

And I wanted to avoid a situation where people were being indiscriminately killed in order to harm me.

As I had thought before, just not touching water would be best. But I was afraid of never considering anything beyond that. I also had to think of a way to survive if I did run across that giant shark.

I had started at my mom’s elevated apartment and the ground level coastal container yard, so I knew just how much the starting point could change things. If I visited the hardware store and some discount stores, I would probably see a treasure trove I had not noticed the day before.

Part 2

And another thing.

“Hi.”

“Himatsuri-san.”

On Erika’s insistence, I went to school for the day, so it was afterschool. We had agreed to meet in front of a large discount store in the harbor sightseeing district’s shopping area, so I saw Himatsuri Asami-san’s incredibly gal-ish hair and champagne-colored dress.

We entered together and she asked me a question.

“So how are we going to attack this problem?”

Carrying the shopping basket seemed to be my job by default. She had a natural swagger to her walk and I could just hear her saying she refused to carry anything heavier than a handbag. She seemed like the type to only have cards in her wallet.

“Looking back, I think we were pretty passive last time.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re moving between two different areas, but we were too hesitant to mess with things on the other side. It’s not like anyone’s going to get mad at us if we smash and destroy things there.”

That hesitation may have come from it looking just like the city we lived in. But the real scenery did not change even when some buildings collapsed in that glowing ocean. The industrial complex had received the double punch of the flooding and the flames, but there was nothing in the news back in reality. We were worried about that world for nothing.

Himatsuri-san turned to the side to slip through the gap between shelves of makeup and candy that stuck out a fair bit. Her shapely breasts nearly bumped into the products as she spoke up like she had just remembered something.

“Come to think of it, we barely made it last time. Especially with that smokestack door at the end! We would’ve been screwed if kicking it down hadn’t worked!!”

“Yes, which reminds me.”

I wanted a crowbar or some other item that would use leverage to break open most any door. …Carrying around an actual crowbar would not end well if we were questioned by the police, so I wanted something else that could accomplish the same thing.

“We also need some way of remaining buoyant. We can’t rely on floating objects like last time, so we need something on our person. Of course, since we’re up against a giant shark, it would be best to not get in or even approach the water.”

“Are you planning to walk around with a float or rubber boat? That’s going to affect your everyday life.”

“I have an idea that might work. Only might though.”

The discount store had most everything we needed, but the atmosphere changed when we approached the area with hardware tools and anti-crime goods. Instead of an area for a happy family, it felt more like a place for muscular men to secure the materials for some secret plan.

“A life jacket?”

Himatsuri-san sounded confused by what I reached for.

“They’ve started selling them like normal to prevent accidents when playing in rivers. Plus, this is Kukyou City. We specialize in disaster prevention.”

The size did not really matter, but it would have been weird to buy children’s ones for a high school boy and college(?) girl. I chose one that fit my body type.

Maxwell displayed a speech bubble on my smartphone screen.

“They work the same as a car’s airbag. Pull on the string and several chemicals mix together to instantly produce nitrogen gas and inflate the balloon.”

“Now we don’t have to walk around with a float or rubber boat. It only takes up the same space as a bento box. And even if we don’t actually wear the life jackets, taking them apart and sticking the balloon portion in our bags should give us buoyancy.”

It would of course be best to wear one under our clothes, but that would stand out when walking around town or attending school. It was all about compromise.

“What are we going to do about a crowbar? We can’t just carry one of those around.”

“Just like lock-picking tools, you can’t just walk around with something used to open locked doors. Unless you’re a professional locksmith, you’ll be arrested.”

I kind of missed Vegas where you could walk around with a multi-tool knife or even a handgun.

Simply checking the tools corner would not help here. We instead visited the personal grooming section where Himatsuri-san and all her brand name attire fit right in.

“Umm. Nail clippers with a nail file?”

Those things would indeed be difficult to use in place of a crowbar. But we needed to change our viewpoint.

“What we’re looking for in a crowbar is the solid metal body and the L-shape that lets us use leverage. But if that’s all we need, we don’t need to risk walking around with one of those. A bridge railing, a sliding window frame, an electronic sign’s frame. Steel parts bent at a right angle are everywhere. We don’t have to worry about breaking things over there, so if we need something, we can just remove the screws and borrow it.”

“I see. But then wouldn’t we want a screwdriver?”

“Just like a lock pick, you can get in trouble for carrying those around without a good reason. Maxwell, will this product work?”

“Sure. The maker’s design document says the stainless steel nail file is made from a single piece of metal with the rubber grip attached afterwards. Remove the grip and the thinner portion below should function as a flathead screwdriver.”

Needless to say, a flathead screwdriver could remove either a flathead or Phillips screw. The size of the screw would also matter, but we wanted a sturdy piece of metal we could use as a crowbar. We wouldn’t need to remove extremely small screws, so we only had to think about middle and large sizes.

“The nail clippers can work as pliers. It’s the same concept.”

“It would be somewhat difficult, but you can likely grab the screw or bolt and turn it with that,” said Maxwell.

It was roundabout, but that was why it functioned as camouflage. I wanted to avoid letting my fear of the glowing ocean make me screw up in reality and have the police or a teacher keep me from acting. Because it might be more than just the shark who was working against us.

“But it looks like we really don’t have a way of defeating that giant shark,” said Himatsuri-san. “I just hope it doesn’t learn and figure out how to respond to each of our methods.”

“About that…”

I was hesitant to speak up because a lot of this was unknown to me as well.

“We assumed we couldn’t defeat the Leviathan because a hunting rifle at close range wouldn’t be enough to break through its thick muscles and fat and because we can’t get our hands on greater firepower here in Japan. That was the assumption.”

“And?”

“But I noticed something during the industrial complex battle yesterday. If we can destroy that glowing ocean with reckless abandon, then can’t we throw out that assumption? They didn’t actually work, but the exploding tanks and collapsing smokestack had to be more destructive than a hunting rifle.”

“Ah.”

“We can’t walk around with a bazooka or drive a tank around. But since the glowing ocean is based on reality, we can use anything found in the real Kukyou City.”

“You mean we might be able to win? Yes, that’s right! We could blow up a tanker truck or break off the top of a mountain transmission tower and send that high-voltage current into the flooded area!!”

“Let’s try one thing at a time. That shark is going to force us there either way, right?”

It would be difficult to blow up a tanker truck or destroy a transmission tower right away. But there were a few simpler methods that would still be fatal to marine life.

I only had so much allowance money, so I had to go with what I could afford.

“Where are you going?” asked Himatsuri-san.

“The appliances section that prioritizes low prices over quality.”

“What are you looking for?”

I had a vision, so I immediately answered her.

“An old model of washing machine.”

Part 3

We didn’t know when the Leviathan would challenge me to today’s round, so we wanted speed.

The buildings and objects in the real Kukyou City would be present in that sunken world.

“All this is pretty heavy once you gather it together…”

It was probably unusual for someone to be aware of its weight.

I set down the sack on the edge of the road and took a break. It was camouflaged among the sandbags meant for frozen roads in the winter, so no one was going to move it.

While that giant shark was frightening, I couldn’t exactly set up a bunch of plastic explosives around the city. The safest option was something entirely useless in reality but dangerous in that demon lord’s ocean.

But that was easier said than done.

The battlefield was the entire city and no one knew where the “today’s exit” goal would be. I might be able to choose the starting point by diving into that blue hell through some kind of water, but I could not rely on guesswork since the route I would have to take depended on the goal’s location.

That meant I had to set up those sacks all across the city.

We used Maxwell’s container yard as a work area. We prepared a giant pile of those sacks, loaded them one by one on my collapsible bike, and distributed them around the city.

Himatsuri-san was wearing a mask and goggles while mass-producing the sacks, so the distribution was my job.

Maxwell used a social media speech bubble to speak from the smartphone I had attached to my collapsible bike’s GPS holder.

“Couldn’t you increase your work efficiency by asking for Miss Ayumi, Miss Erika, and the Class Rep neighbor’s help?”

“That could draw the Leviathan’s attention to them and I’m not getting them registered as participants. Everyone around me is way too kind, so they would probably run headlong into trouble if I told them.”

That also meant I couldn’t ask for help from Itou Helen the Witch or Muramatsu Yukie the Dark Elf. They had extraordinary powers that could not be explained with modern science, but they would have difficulty in a brawl against a 30m shark in a sunken city.

Ayumi and Erika had been helpless against our stepmom, who was Lilith, a true demon lord. And the Leviathan was apparently on the same level as her. This was on a different stage. Being an Archenemy was not enough to ensure someone’s safety here.

“All I’m doing is travel back and forth between the city and the container yard. I can handle that myself. It’s not worth dragging other people into this mess.”

“Sure. If that is your decision. But that does not mean the others will accept it.”

“I’m aware of that. Once this is all over, I’ll apologize for leaving them in the dark.”

Kukyou City had a wide variety of locations: from the coast to the dam in the mountains. Carrying the sacks out one by one and then making a U-turn back to the container yard took hours.

The distribution was far from even and the sun had long since set by the time I had positioned a decent amount of them. It was so late a high schooler would get in trouble for still being at the arcade or karaoke box.

“Warning: Continue any longer and the patrolling police officers will not overlook you. What you are doing is harmless, but they will order the sacks removed if they are discovered. You should avoid any noticeable actions.”

“Understood, Maxwell. We can finish this up tomorrow.”

I called Himatsuri-san and told her it was time to head back home.

“…You’re talking to a young woman waiting alone in a dark container yard, but you’re not being a man and offering to accompany me home? Ohhhh, I see.”

“Oh, hell. Fine then!!”

That gave me my final job for the day. I whipped my exhausted body into motion and followed Maxwell’s navigation to the container yard.

The city was the same as always.

Even this late, groups of boys and girls younger than me were walking through the shopping district. The people entering the train station without paying any attention to their surroundings were likely salarymen with families. Despite the signs stating the local regulation against calling for customers, there was almost always a young man next to the crosswalks wearing an izakaya apron, spinning a menu around on his finger, and somewhat sternly calling out to people. The convenience stores and gyudon restaurants were so unchanged they made me think they would keep running even after the destruction of the human race.

It was late at night, so the date would be changing soon.

…And yet we still hadn’t been attacked. Would it not happen today? Did we have an advantage if we made sure to be careful about water?

If I did not pay attention to the weather forecast, I could be caught off guard by the rain like before.

“Maxwell.”

“Sure.”

“…How did your research go? Y’know, looking for victims of a giant shark.”

“No. I have not made a report because I have not found anything worth reporting. I have gone back ten years in the electronic versions of the local newspaper, but there are no mentions of strange corpses that sound related to this. I am constantly intercepting the radio transmissions from the police and firefighters, but I have found nothing promising. The first reports from the scene cannot be altered, so it does not seem the incidents are merely being suppressed by some kind of pressure.”

“That makes it sound like the victims go missing…”

“Sure. On a national scale, more than 80,000 missing people are reported to the police every year. Although most are voluntary disappearances such as someone skipping town in the night or running away from home, so they are not considered criminal in nature. Thus, simply searching for missing people would not be enough to narrow it down.” Maxwell paused for just a moment. “However, when looking just at Kukyou City, the number of missing persons reports has increased starting a month ago. The Bright Cross was still active back then, so they are not necessarily all due to the Leviathan, but I have found several cases with interesting witness reports.”

“Such as?”

“That the missing person was oddly afraid of water before they went missing. That they were found soaking wet. That they would mysteriously disappear and then reappear somewhere else entirely. And so on.”

…All of those matched Himatsuri-san and my situation.

And that was just what had been reported to the police. There had to have been more people who never told anyone and tried to bear with it themselves.

All of my effort had gone into fighting the Bright Cross.

I hadn’t noticed the SOSs of these people living in the same city as me.

What if?

If I had also been involved in the Leviathan incident back then, would I have been able to defeat that blue bunny girl, Valkyrie Karen? Could I still have rejected the Bright Cross’s ideas by proclaiming I would free all Archenemies from that rule of fear?

“There’s no point in thinking about that…”

Even if the Bright Cross had offered their help in defeating the Leviathan in exchange for allowing the Colosseum to continue, I couldn’t have agreed. That would not have been an option regardless.

Once I arrived in the deserted container yard which looked perfect for some kind of late-night deal, Himatsuri-san noticed me while leaning against Maxwell’s container and doing her nails. She cheerfully waved one of those shiny slender hands.

“So you finally got here, video game generation boy.”

“Please don’t throw me into a category too broad to be meaningful. It’s not like I’ve ever had a chance to play a table arcade game.”

That reminded me that the hot spring inn in the mountains was rumored to still have a legendary alien invasion shooting game along with its ping pong tables and massage chairs, but I had no idea if that was true.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter.”

With a groan of effort that made her sound a bit like an old lady, the cabaret girl sat down on the collapsible bike’s cargo rack. Was she friendly and boyish, elegant and classy, or an old lady? It was hard to tell with her. Instead of solidly straddling the luggage rack like Ayumi, she sat sideways with her legs together. That much matched her apparent wealthy upbringing.

“Driver, take me to Taori-san’s apartment. Wow, my hair is soaked with sweat and the sea breeze. My pride won’t let me work any more!”

“I wasn’t aware freeloaders had any pride.”

Himatsuri-san did not seem to care as she wrapped her slender arms around my waist and clung tightly to my back. She made it look like her sitting in the back was the default.

And she apparently did not care about another aspect of this because I was just a kid: I-I can feel two soft masses on my back! And don’t fidget those delicate-looking hands around below my navel!! H-hwah. What is this sweet smell? It isn’t like the Class Rep’s shampoo or Erika’s perfume. It seems oddly unhealthy and immoral. It must be some kind of luxury makeup or something!!!!!!

She probably only thought of it like holding onto a body pillow or a giant cushion because she did not hesitate to rest her cheek against me and lean her body weight on me.

“Hm? Your heart is already pounding? Are you out of breath already, indoor boy?”

“I have my reasons!”

“Well, you have been pedaling this bike all over the city. Hm, that’s weird. A boy’s sweat isn’t unpleasant at all. I wonder why that is. Sniff, sniff.”

Himatsuri Asami showed no restraint whatsoever. Even if she thought of this on the same level as spotting a stray cat walking along a fence, I wasn’t sure what category to file the memory under.

My mom, Magatsu Taori, lived in a high-rise apartment building nearer to the coastal shopping district than a quiet residential district. It would not take long to pedal the bike there from the harbor block.

Or it shouldn’t have.

But while waiting at the light to cross the pedestrian scramble in front of the train station, I spotted something unpleasant out of the corner of my eye.

“Maxwell.”

“Sure. I have confirmed it with the camera lens.”

A warning message appeared on the smartphone in the GPS holder.

There was someone on the other end of the pedestrian scramble. There were not many people around since it was past 11, but I saw a stubbly man in a gray work jumpsuit with his hat pulled deep over his eyes.

I did not recognize him.

The problem was the heavy-looking object he held in his right hand: a white plastic bucket. And just the bucket would not be so heavy.

Besides, it was odd to be walking around with a liquid-filled bucket without any other janitorial equipment. That would be like taking a test with an eraser but no pencils, mechanical or otherwise.

Himatsuri-san also seemed to notice.

“What is that…? Detergent?”

“Or water.”

The dry sound of the word seemed like it would split my lips.

Water.

The entrance to that death match.

The light was going to change soon. Once it was green, he would be released. It was worth being a little worried, so I grabbed the handlebars again. I considered changing our route, but then I saw something else that was very bad for my heart.

Standing a short distance away was someone who looked like a cabaret girl with stiff hair of a far lower grade than Himatsuri-san. She had a coat that looked synthetic folded over her arm. It was probably meant to cover her exposed skin instead of keep out the cold, but I caught a glimpse of something below it. Was that the muzzle of a water gun? If it had a hand pump, I couldn’t just laugh it off as a children’s toy.

It only had to be enough water to fit our vertical bodies, so a manhole-sized puddle would do it. That meant a bucket or a large water gun were valid weapons.

“Dammit! Maxwell, search for an escape route!!”

We didn’t have time to just sit around. I jerked the handlebars over to forcibly change course and began pedaling away from those two. At the same time, the pedestrian scramble’s light turned green and the stiff-haired cabaret girl tossed aside her cheap coat. And it did not end there. I heard something heavy hit the ground and looked back to see a washbasin’s worth of water fall in the exact spot we had been stopped a moment before. They had dropped it from a window or rooftop!

“Warning: Be on the lookout in all directions. I cannot predict a route. Watch out for assassins lying in wait!!”

“What are these people!?” asked Himatsuri-san. “Are they trying to send us to that shark’s place!?”

“It’s either that or they want to see you with wet and see-through clothes. Which seems more likely to you!?”

It was past 11. The day was nearly over. If it was true we could only be taken into the water once a day, the Leviathan would not want to waste that ticket.

“Who are they!? Why would our fellow humans side with that giant shark!?”

“I don’t know. They might have been threatened in that glowing ocean!”

I pedaled full speed around a nearly circular bus roundabout, but on the way, an employee messing with a hose in front of a family restaurant sprayed water at us and a drunk in a suit chucked his beer can at us. We could not let that hit us or ride over the puddles they created on the road. The more time passed, the farther the minefield would grow.

I swerved in an S-pattern and managed to get past the roundabout and away from the train station.

“Dammit!!”

Then I slammed on the brakes. I used the lever for the front and back wheels and also pressed my feet against the ground.

An old man was flinging water out of a ladle to cover the way ahead, but that wouldn’t be for uchimizu this late at night.

This was far more troublesome than the ones trying to hit us directly. If the road was covered with a puddle too wide to jump across, we would lose our escape route.

I twisted my body around to check and saw a few people clearly running after us.

It was now or never.

“Himatsuri-san, get off!”

I snatched the smartphone from the handlebars, abandoned the collapsible bike, and ran into a nearby alley. Himatsuri-san seemed to be following close behind.

“What do we do? Where do we go!?”

“That’s the thing…”

I heard the sound of rubber soles on the ground up ahead, but we didn’t have time to see who it was. We were surrounded. So we climbed over a short metal door as if for a fence and began climbing the emergency stairs clinging to the building wall. I heard splashing water from below. This was creating a major commotion, but no one would think it was any more than some mischievous people having a water war in the middle of the night. The police weren’t going to bother showing up. And yet our lives really were at risk!

“What do we do? Where do we go? Climbing is only going to leave us cornered at the top!!”

“Yes! We’ll be hit eventually like this. And if they cut off the entire train station block with that uchimizu, then we’re trapped. So we have to change our priorities!”

“?”

“If we know we’re going to be chased by the giant shark in that flooded world, then we need to at least give ourselves a decent starting point.”

I wasn’t proud of this decision. I couldn’t decide whether or not this was the right thing to do. But sitting around wasn’t going to help.

“The glowing ocean is submerged up to about the 5th floor, so we can’t start from a puddle on the ground. We need to least avoid starting on the ground level!”

I felt a powerful tug on my arm, so I pitched forward and came to a stop. I looked back in confusion and saw Himatsuri-san clinging to my left arm like a child. She was pale-faced and shaking her head.

“Himatsuri-san.”

“We can’t do that.”

“Himatsuri-san! We can’t stop here! We can’t escape them even if we turn back now!!”

“We just can’t!! That thing is beyond human understanding. We can’t just assume we’ll be lucky enough to survive again!!”

We had made all sorts of preparations.

We had bought materials at a discount shop, worked in the container yard, and distributed out secret weapon throughout the city.

But that did not mean we would be mentally prepared when the time came. Plus, I wasn’t exactly a survival expert. There was no guarantee our plan would really work, so I understood why Himatsuri-san hesitated to make the running start.

But that girl with her blonde hair in a giant flashy hairdo did not have another plan. And complaining was not going to fix anything here. The gun had been cocked and we had no idea when it would fire!

“Anyway!!”

There was no time to worry about appearances. I somewhat forcefully dragged her to the multi-tenant building’s roof like I was bringing a struggling child to the dentist.

“Ah, ahh, ahhhh…”

She looked like she would collapse the instant I let go of her hand. It did not matter that a younger boy was watching her. She no longer cared.

And I couldn’t blame her.

It didn’t matter if you were an adult or a child. Anyone would be afraid.

Her puppy dog eyes wavered with uncertainty and pleaded me not to abandon her.

They pleaded me not to let go of her hand even on the other side.

“…”

I gave a wordless nod just before I heard the unreliable emergency stairs creak. I turned back to see a man in a gray work jumpsuit climbing them. He held a white plastic bucket. I recognized his stubbly face. It was the man I had first noticed at the pedestrian scramble. Thinking back, he had seemed the most murderous of them all.

I doubted we could escape.

The water would pour down on us and the puddle at our feet would drag us into the demon lord’s ocean. There was no stopping it now.

So…

The thought that came to mind may have been similar to a hopelessly dark joke. But as inappropriate as it might be, these were the words that came to me.

“Himatsuri-san.”

“Wh-what?”

“Let’s bring him with us. It pisses me off to think the guy causing this commotion gets to watch on from a position of safety.”

She looked dumbfounded at first.

But then she laughed.

I was glad because that at least meant she liked my sense of humor.

And as the work jumpsuit man showed some confusion when he sensed the change to the atmosphere, the two of us gave a cry and charged right toward him…

Part 4

I didn’t feel any water this time.

That may have been a first. We were sitting on a multi-tenant rooftop as if we had fallen on our butts. I felt a dull throbbing pain in my hips. It was a stormy night with a widespread blackout that left everything dark. And the flooding beyond the building’s railing emitted a pale blue light that reminded me of glow-in-the-dark paint. …You’ll be fine. Remember when you fought Erika in the simulator? You can find a way through this.

And…

“Rah!!”

Himatsuri-san was collapsed next to me, but she thrust out her long leg to kick something away. It was the work jumpsuit man who we had dragged along with us. But there was something odd about it. He was entirely limp, so the kick sent him rolling along the roof until he came to a stop like an abandoned tricycle collapsed on its side in the park.

I had no time to think too much about it and no obligation to bother with him. I pulled my waterproof smartphone out of my soaked pants and called up the camera function.

“Maxwell, use the zoom. Check the other buildings’ windows. Photograph and analyze the ‘today’s exit’ map!”

“Sure.”

I got up and walked to the railing while the blowing rain pounded on me. The flooding was especially bad this time. I looked down and couldn’t even tell where the roads had been. The taller buildings were sticking up out of the blue torrent and that was the only hint of the original city left.

It was difficult to see the windows of the building we were on, so I pointed the camera lens toward the windows of a building across the floodwaters.

“I have confirmed an identical pattern in every pane of reinforced glass. This is not something created just by the blowing raindrops and gravity. I have confirmed the ‘today’s exit’ text and the arrow. It would take a very twisted point of view to see this as anything other than the same situation as before.”

“Where exactly is it pointing? Link with the map app to check.”

The map’s quality was about the same as one drawn in crayon by a child. And it was zoomed in to only show the two or three nearest intersections. I had to wonder how anyone without this kind of support had ever found the location. You would have to be as familiar with the city’s layout as a taxi driver or newspaper deliverer to know.

But.

“I cannot locate a corresponding location.”

“What?”

“It may be an issue with the precision of the hand-drawn data, but this combination of intersections does not exist within Kukyou City.”

“That’s impossible. That app is really high quality for being free. The offline data should be enough for this. It should even have the entire spider web of private roads in the residential district.”

“No. No matching location exists.”

“Wait a second, Maxwell. Does that mean it can set the goal outside the city!?”

The storm pounded on my body and the world seemed to distort around me. I suddenly felt hopeless. This would mean today’s door could be in an Egyptian pyramid or even a space station!

“I have determined there is an issue with the hand-drawn map. Shall I relax the search conditions?”

“…”

The placement was random. And there was a chance of it being impossible to reach. The unfairness of those rules hit me all over again.

“…No, wait.”

“Yes?”

“The map app does have all the small roads that fill in the gaps of the city, but it just use empty boxes for private land and buildings. It might have private roads that everyone uses and semi public roads jointly funded by several companies like that industrial complex, but it doesn’t have the roads inside amusement parks or malls!”

The only condition was for it to be a door inside the city. If it was the door to a private home’s bath, it would not show up on any map, paper or digital. Did that giant shark want us to go on a treasure hunt!?

“To determine the internal structures of as many buildings as possible, I am searching publicly-released pamphlets and guide maps remaining in the web cache. I have found a matching location.”

“Then it must not be a normal house. Where is it, Maxwell? A department store? The airport?”

“Sure,” came Maxwell’s usual affirmative. We had finally made the first step. This was far better than running around at random. We had a chance at survival.

Or so I thought.

But then Maxwell gave the answer.

“It is the underground mall spreading out from the train station of the harbor sightseeing district’s shopping area.”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What was that supposed to mean?

I looked down at the world visible beyond the metal railing.

I heard the roaring of rushing water.

“But, wait.”

I finally managed to get that much out.

“Everywhere is covered in five stories of water! And we’re supposed to dive down into an underground mall!?”

“Sure. I cannot find any other hits for the geographical conditions. Of course, I only have access to the data remaining in the web cache, so that is not a 100% guarantee. It could also be within the former Bright Cross’s secret facility, but the odds are good it is that location in the station’s underground mall.”

“Then…what? We’re supposed to dive about 15m down in that torrent of water and search through the labyrinthine underground mall for a door that might not even open due to the water pressure!? And all while a submarine-sized shark is chasing us!?”

I could not even count how many deadly barriers were in our way now. And the dangers of that sunken city had to be far greater than what an amateur like me could imagine.

“No.”

But Maxwell had a different view.

“It is possible the underground mall has not been flooded.”

“What?”

“Kukyou City is known as a disaster-prevention city that promotes disaster research, so shelters and rubber boats can be found everywhere here. It is possible the disaster shutters operated correctly and sealed off all the entrances to keep the floodwaters out. And what little water is getting in through the gaps may be quickly pumped back out.”

“…”

That did make sense, but it was still a gamble.

The entirety of the city was flooded by that glowing ocean and there was a largescale blackout. We didn’t have time to scope out the full extent of the damage, but if the backup power was also out, then the shutters and pumps would be useless.

After some thought, I realized we had no other option. Once the giant shark noticed us, it might start tackling the multi-tenant building that was already creaking from the pressure of the water’s current. And we had no idea what would happen if we did not pass through the designated “today’s exit” door. Would a new door be designated once the day ended, was the flow of time different here and the day would never end, or would the door’s orange light vanish, leaving us trapped forever? We could not carelessly boycott the door without knowing that. All we knew was that passing through the “today’s exit” door before we were killed would allow us to live another day.

I sighed and scratched at my hair which had grown annoyingly heavy after soaking up so much of the storm’s rainwater.

“…It’s dangerous, but we have to do it.”

“Sure. And even if the underground mall is safe at the moment, it might only be a matter of time. Its current safety is no guarantee of its safety 5 minutes from now.”

That was right.

I still didn’t get why the Leviathan bothered giving us an exit each time, but if it liked to give its prey a fighting chance, then it was entirely possible it would say we had been given an exit but lost our chance because we were too slow.

“Let’s hurry, Maxwell. You too, Himatsuri-san!”

I shouted over the storm.

And we once more began our death match with a giant shark in the sunken city.

Part 5

I glanced at my smartphone and saw it was 11:30 PM.

The day would be over in half an hour, but in this extreme environment, who could say how many ways there were for us to die in the time it would take to make 10 cup noodles. My knees felt week when I looked down at the roiling water, but I forced myself to remember the simulator as a sort of good luck charm.

“Maxwell, we need to reach the train station first. Search for a route from our current position.”

“Sure.”

Our final destination was the underground mall, but there was no need to dive down all 15m within the surging water. Kukyou City was famous for its disaster prevention and recovery research. It would be safer to break a window on the upper floors, enter the station building there, and work our way down through the giant airtight container.

I linked my smartphone’s GPS with a new map app that provided altitude differences for use with drone flights. The offline data would be more than enough, but anyone would have tilted their head at the shortest route displayed using a red line. It was clearly ignoring the roads. Checking the number of floors in the buildings showed that the route followed buildings of similar heights that were close enough together to jump across with a running start.

And even that was not enough to ensure our safety.

“The wind is so strong. Do we really have to run and jump through this?”

Yes, we were in the middle of a powerful storm of blowing wind. Keeping straight during the running start was difficult enough, the rooftop was slick with rain, and my phone’s backlight was not enough to judge distances well in the blackout. And a single mistake would send us plunging down into the floodwater.

“How about you at least break off your heels?” I suggested.

“A-are you kidding? These are a limited model from Trisme’s Paris Selection and they won’t recover afterwards like the buildings in this glowing ocean will, dammit!!”

She complained but did not hesitate to actually do it, so she did not seem to be the kind of wealthy person who was overextending her finances and on the verge of bankrupting herself with credit card purchases. To her, a brand name item like that was still something that could be thrown out if need be.

…She was really a mysterious person. She seemed to be staying in my mom’s apartment, but what kind of life had she come from originally?

I was wearing athletic shoes, but I had never been the athletic type. Even after preparing as well as I could, a sudden surge of wind could send me right down into the water.

“Notice: I will display the wind direction based on the noise picked up by the mic, so please use that for reference. You will likely fail to make the jump if you attempt it with a complete headwind or within 30 degrees of one.”

“Is that the extra arrow here? It’s spinning around and around like a broken compass.”

“Sure. This is not a normal environment. You are in the middle of a storm.”

The gaps we could and could not cross changed depending on the wind direction, so it did not look like we could take the shortest route. We also could not just stand around forever. I had to remember that we might have to take some wide detours.

And with that…

“Let’s get going.”

“Yes, let’s go.”

The man collapsed on the roof did not matter.

We had to start by getting to the next building.

I rummaged through my pocket and pulled out the nail file I could use as a flathead screwdriver. I used that to remove the metal railing and secure a route for the jump.

…This was a test case. If we failed here and plunged into the water, we could not hope to make it. Luckily, the great height did not make my legs lock up in fear. Was that because my peace-dulled mind did not equate a fall into water as deadly or did the glowing ocean simply not feel real?

Whatever the case, this was the starting line.

We had about 10 meters to make a running start. When I started forward, Himatsuri-san seemed drawn forward alongside me. The crosswind felt like an invisible mass as it hit our upper bodies from below and then we leaped from the edge of the roof.

It was about 3 meters to the adjacent building.

There was no difference in height.

That was not that far, but time seemed to stop as soon as I made the jump. No, had the wind direction changed!? I felt like an invisible wall had slammed into my face and a cold sweat further soaked my already wet body.

But I had made the jump, there was no turning back. I could only stare at the other roof as if in prayer.

Once my body caught up with my mind, it had been flung on top of the neighboring building. That one had not had a railing in the first place. Unable to stay on my feet, I collapsed to the wet rooftop and took deep, almost-choking breaths.

Himatsuri-san actually seemed to have handled it better than me.

“Let’s move on to the next one,” she said. “We can’t just stand around.”

“I know…that. But that headwind…”

“Headwind?”

She looked confused.

Was it possible there had been no headwind and I had just imagined everything slowing down due to fear? I felt like reality and my imagination were blurring together.

I checked the available routes and the constantly-changing wind on the smartphone map and then we made the jump to the next building.

“What is that shark doing?” asked Himatsuri-san with her fancy blonde hair completely flattened by the wind and rain. “I doubt it would just ignore us after going to so much effort to invite us here.”

“…”

I didn’t want to think about it too much, but a possibility did come to mind.

Since Himatsuri-san and I were together, this source of fear was not divided into an individual room for each person. We were all in here together like an online game. That meant there could be people other than us here. If the killer shark was not here, then it was probably with someone else.

It was possible it had gotten a better catch than expected and was having a feast.

“For one thing, was that water attack only targeted at us? If everyone who has succumbed to the giant shark was targeting any of the participants who were being relatively cautious…”

But I did not manage to say any more.

Far in the distance, a giant form parted the water and shot straight up.

The crosswind did not affect it in the slightest. It may have been most like a dolphin jump. But the act appeared so much more sinister when it was done by a shark measuring over 30m long. A dolphin jump took the creature three or four times its body’s length, so at that size, it could reach the roof of a 40-story luxury apartment building!

“Th-the only building I can think of taller than that is a broadcast tower…”

“More importantly, why did it jump?” asked Himatsuri-san. “It wasn’t a performance meant as a greeting, was it?”

That image only brought fear and disgust. It reminded me of the giant fish in the amazon that would jump near the water’s surface to catch flying insects in their mouths.

Then what was this thing eating?

It was not insects. That was for sure. Had someone been jumping from building to building there, just like us?

“D-dammit. Are you kidding me!?”

Had I really come to terms with that idea? Was I only feigning calm after being left hopelessly behind?

Someone had died there.

Shouldn’t my legs be trembling as I collapsed to the rooftop?

“H-hey, what is that thing that looks like a wall? A-a huge wave!?”

“…That’s because the shark bastard fell into the water. Watch out!!”

I didn’t have time to wallow in sentiment.

The two of us clung to the legs of the water supply tank on the roof, but the wave fortunately did not envelop that. I still felt the low vibration below my feet and felt a painful squeezing in my chest.

The very building had been shaken.

Working out the fluid mechanics equations would probably have made me shudder. It was possible the entire building could collapse…

“H-Himatsuri-san!”

“Yes!”

We quickly ran toward the next building. If the Leviathan had eaten the other group just now, it would change course. And it had come to a complete and utter stop within the powerful current. It was clearly aiming our way. Was it coming!?

After we jumped to two more buildings, a powerful destructive sound struck us from behind. The giant shark had finally tackled a building to bring it down. Was it trying to take away our footing to drag us down into the water, or was it trying to get us to jump so it could swallow us whole in midair? We did not have time to worry about the details. We just had to move on to the next building.

The train station was still a bit away.

Would the Leviathan reach us first!?

That was what I thought, but…

“H-hey. Isn’t it acting weird?”

“?”

“That shark looks more like it’s writhing in pain that going on a rampage. Could it be…?”

Was our trap working?

Was that what she was asking?

Part 6

The glowing ocean was based on the real world. So if a traffic light was destroyed in the real world, it would also be destroyed here.

Changes could be carried over. We had taken a simple action when we realized that.

“Whoa, whoa. What is this? Are they all crushed plastic bottles!?”

“Yes. About a container full. Kukyou City isn’t great with anything not related to disasters, so they’re treated as non-burnable trash instead of being recycled. They’re just sent to a landfill, so no one will miss them if we borrow them. I rewrote the trash disposal data to have them sent here instead.”

That said, it had been an awful lot.

The work would have been endless using a household juicer. That was why I had looked for a super-cheap washing machine. I didn’t need a tilted drum or color loss prevention AI. An outdated two-drum one like you would find at the entrance of an old apartment could be bought for less than 10,000 yen if you knew where to look.

From there, we only had to attach a few ruler-like scrap pieces of stainless steel inside the rotating drum. I already had an industrial power source for Maxwell, so as long as I used a transformer to adjust the voltage and amperage to household levels, the motor would turn. I hadn’t even needed to hook it up to a water hose.

“Himatsuri-san, you just keep throwing the plastic bottles in this shredder.”

“Um?”

“I’ve drawn a red line with permanent marker on the inside. Once the powder has reached that line, hit the drain button to send the powder out through the hose and into a sack. And of course don’t stick your arms inside or they’ll be caught in the rotating drum or handmade blades.”

“What exactly is this supposed to make?”

“Microplastics, the enemy of almost all marine life.”

The word could be seen all over TV and the internet like it was some kind of fad, but I was willing to use whatever I could.

“We fill some sacks up with them and then place those around the city. Nothing will happen here in reality, but in that flooded hell, they’ll be caught in the current and scatter the microplastics everywhere. That should do definite damage to the shark’s heart and gills.”

A shark of that size would be able to swallow a human or a car, but entering through the esophagus and through the gills were too different things.

“But if we leave them on the side of the road, won’t they be picked up as illegally dumped trash?”

“We just have to put them somewhere that they won’t look out of place… I know. We can camouflage them with the sandbags for frozen roads.”

We had set our trap.

We had spent a full day tearing up the plastic bottles, stuffing them in bags, and placing them around where no one would notice them.

We had not managed to cover all of Kukyou City, but that did not matter when the shark was approaching our home base. With knowledge of the terrain and the power of a simulator, it was possible to predict what areas would have more microplastics and which courses would be especially thick with them. Maxwell’s test calculations said some areas would have 1200 times the microplastics of the natural sea. This weapon was truly limited to the glowing ocean.

Now we just had to continue fleeing while luring the shark into the damaging areas.

We don’t have teeth as big as yours, but we prepared an invisible weapon. Now, breathe it in and feel the pain.

Part 7

Each time the Leviathan thrashed around, its rows of giant teeth tore through the corner of a building rooftop like it was tofu and its tail fin smashed an office building’s windows along with the wall around them.

It was in pain.

It was clearly suffering.

“But it’s not enough! Not even this can keep it from moving!?”

Himatsuri-san shouted that while we jumped from rooftop to rooftop.

There had been fears of negative effects from inhaling microplastics. It was supposed to be something like pneumoconiosis in humans. This did definite damage, but was it not as immediate as a knife or bullet!?

And of course, the monster had even more strength than normal while thrashing around in pain. It could no longer aim carefully, but each impact had even more explosive force behind it. That was how it seemed anyway.

“Himatsuri-san!”

“Eh? What? That doesn’t lead to the station!!”

She sounded confused when she saw which direction I pointed and started running in. But she seemed to follow me in the end.

I heard what sounded like the air bursting behind us. Was it a roar or a collapsing building?

The giant shark pursued us and destroyed even reinforced concrete in its direct approach.

“Do we have any chance left!? What do we do now!?”

“In all likelihood, we’re screwed!” I glanced back over my shoulder. “It can knock down buildings if it tries, but that doesn’t mean it can do so effortlessly.”

It may have been like how tearing a single piece of paper was easy but 100 sheets of paper could stop a bullet.

“Keep in mind how big it is. If we lure it into a cramped area with concentrated buildings and narrow roads, it might get stuck and won’t be able to move.”

At 30m long, it was the size of a small submarine. When I thought about it rationally, there were surprisingly few areas of the city it could freely swim through.

The way it had destroyed the reinforced concrete buildings as it approached had been frightening, but didn’t that also mean it wasn’t able to avoid them and kept brushing up against them?

“But won’t it thrash about and knock over all the buildings! It’s gotta be really mad!”

“We just have to get into the station and head underground before that happens. The microplastics aren’t a devastating blow, but it means a lot to know it can’t just ignore them. We can bring that information back with us and use it for next time!”

To avoid the Leviathan trapped in an alley, I chose a wide detour while taking wind direction into account and jumping to buildings with a similar height. I had no idea how long this would last, but it did not seem like that monster was about to tackle the station and squash it flat.

We were on a multi-tenant building that stood 5 or 6 stories tall and the train station was 13 stories tall thanks to the observation platform restaurant at the top. The heights did not match up, so it would be difficult to enter through the roof. However…

“The trash has piled up here.”

Some kind of decorative thread was strung across and the rubble and scrap metal flowing in the water had gotten tangled in it. In one spot, the piled-up garbage reached a width of several meters. The floodwater seemed to pass by below it, so it was almost like a floating island or bridge.

“If we cross that, we might be able to break a window and get inside.”

“Are you serious!? If it sinks the instant we step on it, it’ll dump us straight in the water!”

To be safe, I used the nail file as a screwdriver to remove a home TV antenna from the roof and used it to test my weight on the path ahead before actually stepping on it. After confirming it was solid, we crossed.

The window seemed to be made of reinforced glass for high-rise buildings, so it did not budge when I threw the metal antenna rod at it.

“Please strike the window with the tip of the nail clippers’ grip portion. That should more efficiently create a crack.”

I followed Maxwell’s advice and stabbed the window like I was using an ice pick. A spider web of cracks ran through it, so I stabbed at another spot. It was like a game. Once several spider webs overlapped the same spot from three or four different directions, the window fell apart.

“Hurry, hurry.”

“I am!”

This method was apparently meant to open a small hole near the window’s inner lock to pass your index finger through, so it took some doing to create a hole large enough for someone to pass through.

Even so, I managed to create an entrance and we crawled inside the train station.

“Bwah!”

Indoors, we had steady footing and no blowing rain. That should have been a vast improvement, but we actually trembled now that we had this normal environment. We had remembered just how drenched we were.

I checked my smartphone and saw that about 5 minutes had passed. I wasn’t sure if I should ask “that much?” or “that’s all?” Either way, that giant shark was not going to sit idly by. It had to have nearly regained its freedom after smashing up those more-than-half-submerged multi-tenant buildings.

I swung my smartphone’s backlight from right to left and searched for the stairs down.

“We need to get going. Who knows when we’ll run across further trouble.”

“R-right. Uuh, it’s kind of cold…”

Himatsuri-san held her own shoulders and shivered as we advance through the dark station’s department store. My smartphone’s backlight was all we had to rely on. The elevators would not be running during this blackout, so we had to find an escalator or emergency stairway.

“Is that an escalator?”

We headed the way Himatsuri-san pointed and descended the stopped escalator. It felt like an unsteady flight of stairs. But it only brought us down one floor. We had to search out another route to arrive underground.

“Why are you going that way?”

“There’s an emergency exit sign. It’s hard to tell with the power out, though.”

We walked down a long straight corridor with one wall covered by reinforced glass windows filled with that blue light that looked like glow-in-the-dark paint.

Just then, something slammed against the outside of a submerged window.

“!?”

“!!”

We rapidly backed into the opposite wall. And it was more than just the loud noise that scared us.

The fifth floor which was barely above the water and we were a floor below that. It was completely flooded outside, so why was a middle-aged man plastered against the window!? I hadn’t seen this even in the simulator!

“H-hurry! We have to save him…!!”

Himatsuri-san pleaded me while her hips gave out and she panicked. She was right, but something seemed horribly off about this to me.

To us, it was like viewing a tank in an aquarium, but that glowing blue water was rushing by. How was that man clinging so firmly to glass which had nothing to grab onto?

And just as I wondered that, I saw something.

Something like sticky, slug-like bugs wriggled out of the man’s mouth and nose.

“Uuh.”

This time.

This time, the scene before my eyes truly surpassed my psychological limits.

“Waaahh!?”

I fell back onto my butt. Himatsuri-san stopped begging to help him and instead froze in place with eyes wide.

What were those?

What was going on!?

Trembling, I glanced down at my smartphone where Maxwell explained in a social media speech bubble.

“They appear to be a sea leeches, but they look much more sinister than any in the encyclopedia.”

“Sea leeches?”

“Without even referencing the remora, sharks are a treasure trove of parasites. From the adult forms to the eggs, they are exposed to danger in every stage of life.”

We watched as the window filled up. It was like watching leaves plaster themselves against a wet window during a windy storm. Three, four, ten, twenty…no, even more! As far as the eye could see, the windows were filled with people plastered to them!?

Was this the answer?

The giant shark itself swam through the open sea. But for smaller areas it could not reach, it used its leeches and remoras to chase down and force out its prey.

They worked cooperatively.

The injuries received in the glowing ocean remained in the real world. In that case, were the Leviathan’s pawns not simply being threatened? Were they being controlled by the parasites filling their bodies!?

This was an Archenemy.

Those immortal beings were seen as sources of infection and reproduction.

We had thought the only real risk was in the glowing ocean. We had thought the giant shark could not reach us once we escaped this place, no matter how violent it might be.

But we were wrong.

People were dragged onto the battlefield, infected by parasites, and then controlled in reality. We had no way of knowing who was being controlled! And we couldn’t just physically block them out!

“Himatsuri-san, we need to hurry! I don’t know what this is about, but this place has got to be dangerous. That reinforced glass isn’t going to last forever!”

We had to run. I didn’t want to be torn to pieces by the giant shark’s teeth, but having the depths of my head infected by parasites that sucked all my body’s blood sounded even worse.

The legends said the Leviathan was a source of food that could feed all the people in the world. I had thought a 30m body didn’t seem like enough, but now I was afraid the real food source was all the parasites it could produce endlessly!

The ominous creaking of the reinforced glass rushed us onward as we relied on the unlit emergency exit signs to run down the passageway.

We soon found the emergency stairs.

There was an indoor stairwell completely surrounded by walls next to the elevator. The storm and current would mean nothing there.

“Hurry up!”

“I’m going as fast as I can!!”

I was afraid of my wet shoes slipping, but I grabbed the railing and ran down the stairs from the fourth floor.

With all the metal shutters closed in the underground mall, it was just like a labyrinth. There was no light, so the remaining battery for my smartphone’s backlight was the same as our lifespan.

The shutters covered the glass windows, so we didn’t even have the sloppily-drawn map.

“Maxwell, where is the goal door?”

“Sure. Turn right at the second intersection. The shutter is closed, but there is a human-sized metal door next to it. That is the ‘today’s exit’ door.”

That was when I heard a great roar from overhead. Then a low tremor shook the ceiling. And it did not stop. In fact, it was getting louder!?

“One of the windows must have broken. The aboveground area was already flooded outside, so it’s pouring in like a dam releasing its water!!”

Had the infected people plastered to the windows caused this? If so, the leeches and other creepy parasites coming from their mouths and noses would be mixed in with the flash flood. If we were caught in that, it was all over.

“A-anyway, to the exit!! There’s no turning back now!!”

That went without saying. We would not be safe without climbing more than 5 stories, so fleeing upwards was not an option now. And once the underground mall flooded, the water pressure would probably keep us from opening the “today’s exit” door.

So we had to run for it.

We had to turn right at the second intersection up ahead and pass through that door to reality!!

“!?”

“!?”

We ran as fast as we could. Behind us, we heard a sound just like waves crashing against rock. We could not even look back. We were supposed to turn at the second intersection, but Himatsuri-san started turning at the first. I had to grab her arm and correct her course before we turned at the proper place. My shoes skidded across the floor as I did. My entire throat was dry. Unable to stop myself, I slammed into the opposite wall, somehow managed to avoid falling over, and started running again.

The stores with long French-looking names all had their shutters down. I had no idea what kind of stores they had been, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was the small employee door next to the shutter in question.

That door was glowing orange.

And it said “today’s exit”.

“Make it.”

I could not bring myself to check on the torrent of water behind us. If I saw it, it would probably bind my soul with fear and I wouldn’t be able to run any further. So I faced forward as I ran full speed and held my hand as far forward as I could.

“Make it!!”

I grabbed the knob and more tackled the door than opened it. That produced a loud noise, but that was all. Only then did I realize I had to pull the door not push. I dragged my aching body along as I actually opened the metal door and slipped through. I collapsed through to the other side.

And…

And…

And…

Part 8

“Pant! Pant! Urp…!?”

I couldn’t believe that was my own breathing.

Himatsuri-san and I were soaked and lying on the cold floor together. She stared fearfully back at the puny metal door.

But it was not destroyed and no dirty seawater flowed out.

Today’s battle was over.

We were no longer in the glowing ocean. It was the usual calm and peaceful Kukyou City.

“Ha…ha ha.”

The giant shark could use those leech-like parasites. We had no way of knowing how far the infected had spread into the real world or how to physically locate them. The situation had grown more serious, but we still had smiles of survival on our faces.

“Ah ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!”

If it was before midnight, the last train would not have left yet and there might still be some station employees left even if the store was closed. We couldn’t explain what we were doing inside a store after it had closed, so we should have been calmer. We knew that, but we couldn’t help ourselves. If we could not tell ourselves this had been a happy day, then we would break right here. We were being attacked by bizarre infected people and a ridiculously-large shark had picked a fight with us, so if we viewed things in a negative light, we would be too overwhelmed to move.

So we continued laughing.

It was like how loneliness was amplified more than 100-fold when working alone at night. We could not stop this ritual until the dark feeling in our chests was entirely gone.

How long did that take?

Tears had welled up in our eyes by the time we finally calmed down.

“Let’s head home.”

“Yes…”

With that quick exchange, we followed Maxwell’s instructions through the shutter-filled underground mall and headed aboveground. I couldn’t even think about what kind of security there might be or how we were slipping past it. I was so exhausted I started wishing Maxwell had a body to princess carry me with. This was not the first time, but I was reminded just how exhausting it was to fight for your life. It was on another level entirely from a soccer or basketball game in gym class. The weariness seemed to remove the very core of your mind.

I was tired. I wanted to sleep. Like a log.

Himatsuri-san and I arrived aboveground and saw a group of drunken salarymen and college students.

“…I wonder how many of them have a head full of leeches.”

“I don’t want to think about it. Hey, want to grab a bite to eat? Taori-san probably has a meal waiting for us, so she would be upset if we ate a full meal, but some fries should be fine, right?”

“You can eat fries this late?”

“We’ll split a serving. That should be fine, right? And my heart is even more worn down than my body. I want to recover by enjoying that extremely simple flavor…”

I did understand how she felt. It was the same as wanting to rush to a karaoke box the instant you were freed from the tension of a major exam.

At any rate, we had our survival ticket for the day. The microplastics had had some effect and we could use that experience to do even better next time. With another day, we could accomplish anything.

With that in mind, Himatsuri-san and I walked to a burger shop in a cramped multi-tenant building. We were exhausted, but we were still on our guard. We avoided any puddles and we kept our distance from any passersby since they could always be controlled by the leeches.

But while we were waiting for the light to change, a large dump truck passed by right in front of us. Its tires drove through a puddle and splashed water our way.

Normally, we might have just complained about it for a moment.

But we currently could not even shout out in surprise.

“…”

“…”

We were soaking wet.

There was a new puddle at our feet.

And I glanced down at my smartphone. The clock said 00:03.

The day known as “yesterday” had ended and the day known as “today” had begun.

Which meant the Leviathan had already recharged…

“A-are you kidd-…!?”

I didn’t even have time to complain.

We were instantly dragged back into the demon lord’s ocean.

[Self Record] Report on Parasites [Leviathan’s Record]

Shockingly, more than 80% of the lifeforms confirmed on the planet are reliant on some other lifeform to survive. And humans are no exception. It is obvious if you think about it, but humans cannot survive on their own. From food to clothing, we are blessed by other lifeforms. Do not forget that even petroleum was originally animal protein.

You think that is mere wordplay?

Then what are parasites from a scientific perspective? They are lifeforms that attach to another lifeform and absorb nutrients without supporting or killing it. Although there are some that will bring about the death of their host.

Snails and mantises are well-known for being hosts to parasites that control them, but that is not actually all that rare. Even humans have countless gut bacteria inside their bodies. And have you ever changed what you thought you would eat based on how your stomach was feeling?

All lifeforms are controlled by something.

And the biggest slaves of all are those who are oblivious to it and stubbornly deny the possibility.

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