My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister:Volume1

Illustrations

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  Cover 1

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  Cover 2

Chapter 0

Part 1

[Pick up] Multiple IC Student IDs [Net files]

Amatsu Satori

15, Male

Public Kukyou 1st High School (General Education)

First Year

※Human

Amatsu Erika

17, Female

Public Kukyou First High School (Night Division – Special College Prep)

Second Year

※Archenemy “Vampire”

Amatsu Ayumi

14, Female

Private Elixir Girls Middle School (Vocal Music Scholarship)

※Archenemy “Zombie”

Part 2

[Pick up] Local Net Radio Opening [Net files]

Okay, okay! Tonight’s Brand New Stars begins!!

The wind is still blowing like crazy out there, so I’m guessing there’s a lot of you holed up your cheap hotel rooms wishing you hadn’t chosen today to do some sightseeing!

But this awful weather is what it’s all about! Make sure you get a good taste.

Here in Kukyou City, we’ve always had a lot of natural disasters. The cold wind blowing down from the mountains to the west collides with the damp air on the coastline to the east, creating a ton of instability, so we’re especially well known for our tornadoes and lightning strikes. But our greedy spirits are always going to find a way to benefit from bad news! Prestigious universities are lining up to send research teams to understand the complex mechanism behind various disasters in the hopes of predicting them in advance. They’re also building technology to reduce the damage done. Shocked, aren’t you?

We aren’t known as the Disaster Protection City for nothing. We’ve got doors like bank vaults below each house and metal-walled tornado shelters to protect our residents when it matters. If you check with the firefighting hoses stored here and there along the roads, you’ll also find rubber boats in case of flooding. And get this! They use the power of carbon dioxide gas to inflate like an airbag!!

In other parts of the city, we have special bundles of sensors known as Weather Spheres and backup power systems just in case. Kukyou City is full of experimental things like that, so anyone into survival or outdoorsy stuff will be salivating at all the things they see around town.

In the near future, the disaster prevention and protection systems developed here might just find their way to your cities.

And maybe you think the name Kukyou City is a little ominous. It sounds just like the word for crisis, so you’d expect to see it in a closed-room murder mystery, right!? But it’s not like anything ever happens at the Tenryu River or at the Yashajin Pass and the locals really aren’t bothered by it.

Oh, the intro’s starting.

Now, now. Let’s get the first song going! This one’s known for being the ending theme to Feast of the Undead, that gory movie opening this week!

Part 3

“If a zombie and vampire went all out, which one would win?”

That topic came up after I took my bath.

I think everyone naturally wants to mess with their phone after getting out of the bath. A ton of pointless SNS messages like “eating dinner” or “on a walk” will pour in and the new messages pile up in the short time since you last checked. And everyone will get upset if you don’t respond, so you can’t take it too lightly.

But things were a little different that day.

My younger sister Ayumi had taken a bath before me and she was lying on the living room sofa with a popsicle in one hand.

“Your smartphone’s been buzzing up there on the table. It sounded like an incoming call.”

“'Kay.”

I looked away from her face as I gave my brief answer. She was in middle school and, um, how should I put it? I was having trouble figuring out where to look. Her black bangs were cut straight across and she had long twintails that spiraled at the very end. Her flat but growing body was covered by a thin camisole and shorts, so just lying there was enough to see her somewhat flushed belly and similarly flushed thighs just about up to the base.

However, her face, belly, arms, legs, and pretty much everywhere were covered in stiches like a poorly-made stuffed animal.

This was not because she was fighting some serious disease.

She just happened to a bit of a zombie.

“Oh, honestly! It’s hot! So hot! I dried myself off so very, very thoroughly, but I’m still sticky all over. I’m gonna rot. My body’s gonna rot!!”

“Throwing a tantrum isn’t going to change the one-popsicle-a-day rule.”

“Then fan me, Onii-chan! One fan isn’t enough! I need more manpower!!”

She shoved a fan into my hands while still lying on the sofa, but that presented something of a problem. Her camisole was pretty baggy, so I could just about see her modest breasts down the neck.

“Besides, if you’re itchy, you should use your preservative. Isn’t your body temperature supposed to drop when you cool that and give yourself an IV?”

“Boo…”

For some reason, she pouted her lips between her twintails that had ringlet curl tips (which I thought looked like dinner rolls).

Meanwhile, the person elegantly lounging on the opposite sofa cut in with a grin on her lips.

“You’re missing the point. Ayumi-chan just wants to indulge in her Satori-kun a little longer. Isn’t that right?”

“N-no!! It really is just too hot to bear!!”

My older sister Erika’s smile remained intact when Ayumi yelled at her.

She was a sexy girl with waist-length blonde hair in splendid ringlet curls. She had gentle eyes and was a year above me in school. However, I had an inkling that Ayumi wouldn’t turn out like this even after a few more years of growth.

That said, my older sister gave me just as much trouble figuring out where to look. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be pajamas or underwear, but she wore a light pink negligee that was see-through enough to make out the skin below it.

She was so perfect I had to wonder why she wasn’t the student council president. She was almost flawless if you ignored her obsession with cleanliness and how long she spent in the bath. Not that I was sure I would call Ayumi’s excessively short baths a positive trait.

“Onee-chan, what are you doing over there?”

“Mom and dad can’t get home because the trains were shut down due to the strong winds, remember? I’m sitting here waiting impatiently for a chance to use these disaster goods☆”

The table was covered in a pile of canned food, candles, portable radios, helmets, and bundles of rope. Although the cans were all pineapples and white peaches, so I wasn’t sure we could live all that long on just that.

“I really doubt the power will go out. I mean, this is Kukyou City, right?”

“Eh heh heh. But, but. Why is the thought so exciting?”

“Onee-chan, if you’re really worried about a blackout, shouldn’t you start by moving the contents of the fridge to a cooler?” asked Ayumi while munching on the vanilla popsicle that had started to melt. “You’d be in trouble if your blood and substitute plasma went bad, right?”

Oh, that might sound concerning, but it isn’t anything too heavy.

This was not because Erika was fighting some serious disease.

She just happened to be a bit of a vampire.

“…”

Not even I knew how this had happened.

Those two became my new sisters when my dad suddenly got remarried, but Ayumi was already a zombie and Erika was already a vampire by then.

There’s probably some detailed explanation that would fill up about 400 pages when written out, but that doesn’t matter here. As long as we got along, they weren’t going to take a bite out of me.

My negligee-wearing older sister gave a gentle comment.

“More importantly. Satori-kun? Ayumi-chan was right about your phone buzzing. Shouldn’t you call whoever it was back?”

“Oh, that’s right. Excuse me a moment.”

I grabbed my smartphone from the table and walked to the kitchen located across from the living room. I checked the call history and touched the most recent one to redial. Soon, a familiar voice reached my ear.

“Sorry. Were you busy with something else?”

“No, you’re good. More importantly, what do you want, Class Rep?”

“It’s about tomorrow.”

The girl I was speaking to was actually our neighbor. She was a childhood friend of mine known for her forehead and glasses. Unlike Erika and Ayumi, she was a normal human.

“With this wind, odds are school will be canceled tomorrow, but you still have to do your homework just in case. Even if you come crying to me after waking up to find a clear blue sky, I’m not letting you see my notes.”

“Ugh.”

“And even if school is canceled, you can’t waste the day having fun. Since you won’t have the teachers around to manage your time for you, you’ll have to work even harder to study on your own.”

“Oh, god. I can’t believe this Forehead Glasses Class Rep.”

“What was that!?”

I heard the yell from outside the window, not the phone.

In fact, the neighbor’s window burst open so a face with prominent forehead and glasses could yell at me with the look of a wild beast.

“I thought you swore to never call me that again back in sixth gra- dwah!? Th-the wind! It’s whipping at me even indoors!!”

“I’m more interested in why you’re in a bath towel! Your phone has a camera on it, so taking it in the bath with you is a bad idea!!”

“How is that impor-…hyah!?”

“And way to go, Class Rep!! You don’t even take off the glasses in the bath, huh!?”

“Stop! Making! Fun! Of! Me!!”

The Class Rap was badly beaten in the first round of the North Wind and the Sun, but she just barely managed to grab at the edge of the towel and hold it in place.

“Pant, pant… A-about the glasses. I need them to tell the shampoo from the conditioner. Anyway, what are we going to do if school is canceled tomorrow? Should I head over there to help you study?”

“Even if you’re just next door, this wind and rain would destroy your umbrella and you’d be left soaking wet. I have Ayumi and Erika, so I’ll be fine.”

“…Personally, I think those unbelievable sisters are the main problem.”

She muttered something under her breath before speaking to me again.

“Well, just keep up your steady pace like you do at school and anything else is fine.”

“What will you be doing tomorrow?”

“Watching some movies.”

Wait. What happened to studying?

“When I was cleaning my room, I found a few I’d never gotten around to watching after renting them online. The company I used doesn’t charge late fees, but I have trouble working on anything else when I leave a task undone.”

“Hm. Knowing your tastes, I bet I know what genre they’re from.”

“(Those aren’t my tastes. It’s to go along with you three.)”

“Hm?”

“Nothing. And yes. They’re all ones with zombies, vampires, axe murderers, and mysterious slime aliens. Oh, and I think there’s one about a showdown between two different monsters.”

“Neat.”

It was supposed to be a casual chat.

I didn’t meant anything by it.

The thought just so happened to occur to me based on what the Forehead Glasses Class Rep said.

“If a zombie and vampire went all out, which one would win?”

I hadn’t noticed.

I hadn’t noticed the gravity of what I was saying.

And I couldn’t deny part of that had to be with how much of my mind was focused on the Class Rep’s sexy body barely covered by the bath towel.

“Wouldn’t you know better than anyone, Satori-kun? You’ve seen them both up close.”

“Yeah, but I’ve never seen those two get into a real fight with hair grabbing and stuff. They’ll argue over who gets the last popsicle, though.”

“I wonder how it would turn out for real?”

“Yeah, they both have supernatural strength and can increase their numbers by biting people.”

Two presences may have been slowly approaching behind me, but I didn’t notice at all.

I never would have imagined how this would turn out.

“It may seem like apples and oranges, but it might end almost too quickly once it starts,” I said. “Y’know, like when they have the ‘Judo vs. Karate Match of the Century!’ and then it ends after a single round and everyone’s disappointed.”

“Ah ha ha. Maybe so. …Um, well, everyone has their own opinions on these things, so I can’t say anything for sure.”

“Hm? What’s wrong, Class Rep? Why are you ending that topic so suddenly?”

“Ha ha ha ha ha. Okay, I think I’m going to hang up. Satori-kun, I don’t care what happens to you tonight. There’s no excuse for not studying tomorrow, okay?”

“?”

The call ended.

Immediately, intense strength grabbed both my shoulders.

I was spun around, but…

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!! If Ayumi spins me to the right and Nee-san spins me to the left, I’m not going to spin either way! Are you trying to tear me in half?”

“Onii-chan.”

“Satori-kun?”

They must have known competing over this would get them nowhere because both sisters circled around in front of me.

Their smiles were frightening.

I could almost see the dark shadows falling on their faces.

“Satori-kun, about what you were talking about…”

“Wh-what I was talking about?”

“That’s right, Onii-chan. About whether a zombie or vampire would win in a fight.”

Oh.

Oh, crap. This isn’t heading anywhere good.

I finally found – no, captured – my sense of danger as those two girls’ faces moved disturbingly close to mine with beaming smiles.

“The zombie would obviously win.”

“The vampire would clearly win, wouldn’t she?”

Their sweet-smelling voices were in perfect unison.

That was exactly what I would expect from those two who kept their ringlet curls even in the bath. And if they were so perfectly in synch here, couldn’t they please stop fighting!?

“That look! You don’t believe me, Onii-chan!!”

“Satori-kun, you think a vampire is a sickly nocturnal human who turns to ash in the sunlight, don’t you?”

They spoke at the same time, but this time there was no harmony and sparks flew as their gazes clashed.

“Then how about we test it out?”

“Yes, let’s show him which one is the true Queen of the Night.”

“Pff. Queen of the Night!? What’s with you vampires? You’re like the embodiment of cringe.”

“I don’t want to hear that from a rotting second year in middle school. And are you trying to say zombies are at the top!? Pfa ha ha. Are you referring to the zombies that get one-shotted by anything with the ‘holy’ attribute? Or maybe those poor kids who are the only one that gets damaged by the healing magic? Ha ha ha ha.”

“Why you…!!”

“You got a problem with that!?”

The camisole + shorts and the see-through negligee got into a scuffle. I really didn’t know where to look. In fact, while I would stubbornly refuse to admit it if they asked, I was pretty sure I could see some things. No, I could pretty clearly see a number of things.

Wow. So that’s what a girl’s body is like there.

I wasn’t sure what to do and ended up nervously standing there and staring, but my sisters ignored me and gasped for breath as they argued at point-blank range.

“Oh, honestly! This isn’t going to get us anywhere!!”

“Agreed. Besides, our true value is in amassing pawns, not individual fistfights. It’s all about the horror as we see who can acquire more people and fill up the city first! We could never settle this in a one-on-one fight!!”

“Then are we gonna do it!?”

“You said it first! Don’t blame me when you regret those words!!”

What were they planning?

Ayumi and Erika continued ignoring me as they made a simultaneous announcement.

“We’ll start a pandemic in Kukyou City! Who will conquer the city first, the zombies or the vampires!?”

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

Wait.

Wait, wait, wait, wait!! Hold the phone!!

What did those monsters just say!?

“Y-you can’t do that!! What kind of idiot destroys an entire city over a fight between sisters!? And it won’t just be cute girls turning into vampires and zombies. Who wants some greasy old man zombie!? Are you sure you want to deal with that!?”

“That’s not what we meant.”

My negligee-wearing sister turned toward me and waved a hand my way.

“Satori-kun, you have that environment simulator you made, right? Can we borrow that?”

“That thing completely recreates Kukyou City in virtual reality, right? We can safely spread all the horror we want as we bite at the people realistically running around, right? Let us use that, Onii-chan.”

…

“I’d rather not!! That’s meant to simulate the damage done by earthquakes and tornados, determine where the congestion occurs as the panicked people try to flee, and figure out how to get everyone to safety. It isn’t meant for some cruel FPS like that!”

“Ohh?”

“Ohh?”

The air seemed to grow sticky.

Why did they both give me a sidelong glance in perfect unison when they were supposed to be fighting?

And Ayumi took the first shot with the ends of her twin tails curled around like dinner rolls.

“Are you trying to say alien invasions and wars between giant robots are serious scenarios?”

“Gh!?”

“That must mean secretly borrowing a detailed 3D model of the Class Rep next door and having her do a seductive dance in a risqué swimsuit is the proper way to use it☆”

“G-ghaahhhh!!!???”

How do they know about that!?

Th-th-th-the Sexy Class Rep Dance File Set’s folder was supposed to be stored where no one would ever find it!!

“Well, I’m sure any boy would want to see their serious and strict Forehead Glasses Class Rep shaking her hips more than a reggae dancer.”

“But I’m betting that Class Rep wouldn’t just almost kill him if she found out. Right, Onii-chan? We might end up with one of those ‘humans were the most frightening monster of all’ endings.”

Tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble, tremble!!

“So. If you lend us the key to the simulator, no one has to see that downer of an ending.”

“That thing’s meant to simulate natural disasters, right? Then it’s probably built to handle crazy parameters like this!! Zombie vs. vampire! Who will survive to the end!? Sounds like a fun theme, right, right, right!?”

There was nothing I could do.

I tearfully handed over the USB hardware key hanging from my neck.

That completed the preparations for the showdown of the century.

Ayumi and Erika both grabbed devices that looked like wireless headphones.

They were mind input devices. They were meant to let you experience a fictional disaster (or a Class Rep’s swimsuit dance) by linking you to my environment simulator named Maxwell, but rather than provide alternative input for your senses, its data provided you with the dream you wanted.

Heading back to their rooms must have been too much work because they lay down in the opposing sofas.

“Okay, you be the judge, Onii-chan. Use your god’s-eye-view to monitor the data from outside.”

“Eh heh heh. Satori-kun, I’m willing to overlook a bit of mischief, but in the interest of cleanliness, try not to get my hair or clothes dirty.”

As soon as they put the headphone-style devices on and flipped the switch by the ear, the girls lost consciousness like they had been unplugged from the wall.

“Oh, honestly.”

Once the commotion ended, the roaring wind seemed to grow much louder.

There was nothing for me to do there, so I decided to do as my little sister said and judge their virtual fight using the monitor in my room. For a touch of revenge, I stopped by the fridge to borrow the treasured pudding they had been looking forward to and I walked down the hallway with a spoon in my mouth.

The stairs led up to the bedrooms on the second floor and down to the basement.

But that basement did not hold Disaster Environment Simulator Maxwell. It was the entrance to the tornado shelter that every house had in Kukyou City. The door was as round and thick as a bank vault door. It had excited me when I was little, but I had never actually had a chance to open it.

I climbed the stairs to my room.

I placed the pudding on the study desk, tapped at the computer in sleep mode, and then got a call on my smartphone.

However, it was not from a classmate or my childhood friend the Forehead Glasses Class Rep.

“What is it, Maxwell?”

The simulator with its own SNS account displayed a message in a speech bubble.

“I have a concern related to a task labeled high priority.”

“Be more specific.”

The disaster environment simulator was made for realistic scenarios, so it may not have been able to handle a direct showdown between a zombie and a vampire. I could only guess that it had hung up when an error occurred somewhere.

But that was not the case.

Maxwell made another post.

“This is related to the Class Rep Swimsuit Dance File Set which was set at maximum secrecy.”

“…”

“If she dies during a simulation, the data will automatically be sent to the related organizations in order to put together countermeasures toward her cause of death.”

“…Crap.”

“So if the Swimsuit Class Rep falls victim to the current zombie and vampire simulation, the file set you have kept hidden may be exposed to the outside world. What should I do about that?”

“Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!! Craaaaap!! Anything but thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!”

I tore at my hair.

I wasn’t going to let some old men I’d never met learn about and mock me for my fetish! That was worse than being a fish on the chopping block!!

I quickly moved my fingers to my computer, which was a remote control terminal for the simulation.

But…

“Maxwell, explain to me why my cancel simulation commands are being rejected!!”

“Sure. Amatsu Erika and Amatsu Ayumi have both logged in with administrator privileges, so their privileges are equal to your own. I can also speculate that their extraordinary parameters as a vampire and zombie are applying pressure to the entire system, creating too much chaos for outside commands to be accepted.”

“Meaning?”

“You cannot forcibly cancel the simulation.”

“I can’t believe this!” I shouted while pulling a headphones-like mind input device from a drawer.

The virtual city would soon be overrun by zombies and vampires. If the Swimsuit Class Rep fell victim to that, my social life was truly over. Not only would those old men with formal titles like “professor” be mocking me, but who knows what would happen to me if the Forehead Glasses Class Rep herself learned about the Swimsuit Dance File Set. Iron fist…elbow…oh, and I was pretty sure she had earned 2nd Dan in kendo. I was truly hoping she wouldn’t actually use a wooden sword on me.

That left only one thing to do.

“Maxwell, you don’t have to think about taking back my privileges. Can you slip me into the running simulation as a normal user?”

“Sure. But as a normal user has fewer privileges than an administrator, you will be able to participate, but you will be at a considerable disadvantage. For example, you cannot do anything related to ending the simulation, so you cannot end your participation on your own. You will be forced to continue on until the ending the administrator has in mind.”

In this case, that would be a definitive conclusion in the zombie vs. vampire showdown.

Whichever one won, the virtual city would have sunk into an ocean of blood.

I could not take this lightly just because it was virtual reality.

It was exactly the same as the city we lived in every day. Just like with an earthquake or a tornado, I would have to watch until the very, very end as the city was destroyed by a zombie and vampire.

This was a disaster environment simulator.

The parameters were a little out of the ordinary, but it would still fulfill its proper purpose.

“I’m still doing this. It’s better than being killed by the Class Rep in reality. Maxwell, prepare to log me in. I’ll head on in as soon as that’s done.”

“Sure. Rewriting certain privileges. Reregistering you as a normal user.”

My goal was clear.

As the zombie and vampire went on a rampage and created more rampaging monsters as secondary and tertiary damage, I had to do whatever it took to protect the Swimsuit Forehead Glasses Class Rep until it was all over.

Now, allow me to repeat the fundamental question once more:

If a zombie and vampire went all out, which one would win?

Part 4

[Pick up] Today’s Blog, Report of Completion. [Net files]

Tah dah!

I’ve been writing about the production of Maxwell for a while now, but it’s finally complete!!

Even I was worried whether an individual could really make an environment simulator, but I’m glad I somehow pulled it off.

Maxwell’s core unit is made up of the VS-Life 3D handheld game systems that went on sale just the other day. Yes, the ones that were recalled after the initial lot started giving people electric shocks. Due to the retail network, the used shops couldn’t send them directly back to the manufacturer. Since they couldn’t sell them, I managed to buy up a bunch of them dirt cheap, opened them up, and parallelized the processors.

But securing the processing power wasn’t the biggest problem. That award goes to the cooling system and power supply (mainly the transformer part).

Maxwell’s main body fills up about a single storage container, but I needed another whole container for those two things.

And Kukyou City really is a unique place. While I had to put it together all on my own, a bunch of people helped me as I tried to build this disaster environment simulator. I doubt universities and research labs would normally just reveal the management flow for their parallel machines. We just think about disaster prevention and protection differently. Then again, I do have to supply the simulation results to the various research labs to repay them!

Maxwell is made by hooking together about 1400 of the processors from those new systems, but they’re all working pretty well. It’s going great. When I put in the parameters for a typhoon or wildfire, it shows me where the people gather and where the congestion is in the fictional city. Oh, and this simulator doesn’t need you to model the residents. It uses the small traces left in the buildings, equipment, resource consumption, and energy consumption to determine where people have to be and builds up the human data that way. What an age we live in.

My next task is figuring out how to put all this processing power to use.

Namely, I need an interface.

There are a few mind input devices on the market, so maybe linking to the simulation with those can let you see how the people flee during a realistic disaster. I have a feeling that would be good for preparedness training.

Part 5

[Pick up] Parameter Adjustment Handwritten Notes File [Net files]

Memo memo.

Vampire. ← Nee-chan. Cowtits.

• Generally immortal. Bullets don’t work. Strength is 10-20 times normal.
• Automatically regenerate any damage taken.
• Take lethal damage from direct sunlight when outdoors. However, they can get along just fine indoors even during the day. No reports of taking damage from artificial sources such as UV lights.
• Crushing their head won’t kill them. A stake from ash wood or hawthorn kills them instantly when driven through the heart. Also, thorough damage to the heart by other means keeps them from moving. When in their coffin during the day, destroying the heart with something other than their weakness and then burning their entire body will kill them. Burning them without destroying the heart works too. (Do holy water or silver bullets work? Are they different than werewolves? Watch out for mixed legends. I should probably ask my sister.)
• Can’t cross flowing water. Mainly means rivers. But what about plumbing and sewers? +Oh, yeah. My sister can’t swim at all, can she?
• When visiting someone else’s house, can’t enter without the owner’s permission.
• Don’t show up in mirrors. The human eye and cameras can see them just fine.
• To turn someone into a vampire, they have to suck a lethal amount of human blood. (1-2 liters?)
• Can only turn humans into vampires.
• They suck blood to acquire occult energy. Not enough and they can’t maintain their body. They also eat just like a human does.
• Turn to ash when they die.
• They have individual skills (changing size, controlling the mist or wind, and transforming into a bat, a wolf, or a bug) and strength varies depending on the individual. This is kind of like genetic mutations, so a vampire apparently can’t intentionally make someone into the kind of vampire they want.
• They have a defined social hierarchy based on the queen.
• The queen’s orders are absolute, but they generally have high intelligence. The same or greater than humans.
• Said to be based on a blood curse, so they’re more on the occult side of things. There doesn’t seem to be any scientific sense behind their weaknesses or the path to usurpation. ← I just inputted everything according to the legends.

Part 6

Zombie. Idiot. Flat chest. ← No, that isn’t a compliment.

• Generally immortal. However, they can be damaged like normal by blades and bullets. It would be most accurate to say they continue moving even after being destroyed. Their strength ranges from 1-10 times what it was in their human form, but that drops as the rotting progresses.
• Ayumi is covered in stitches because of her special preservation treatment, but normal zombies don’t need that.
• They ignore any damage they take. The damage can be healed by sewing it up.
• Their potential is the same during the day and at night.
• Crushing their heart won’t kill them, but destroying the brain kills them instantly.
• A small bite is all they need to infect a healthy human and create another zombie.
• They attack people for food.
• An individual’s strength is reliant on the original human’s build and muscles.
• They have been confirmed to infect non-human animals like dogs or cats. (What about bugs, lizards, and fish? How far does it go? I should ask my sister.)
• They have no hierarchy, so they won’t listen to anyone’s orders. ← As I said, they’re idiots.
• Their intelligence deteriorates as the rotting progresses. ← They can preserve their intelligence by continually injecting themselves with preservatives like my sister does.
• They come from the Acute Zombie Powder created by altering a virus found in the Caribbean using the drugs spoken of in the Haitian legends. So genre-wise, are they biological?

Not much to write for this one. ← There isn’t much to you zombies, is there?

Chapter 1

My awakening was as unpleasant as having the ringing of the alarm clock pound at your head when you were exhausted but having trouble sleeping.

After shaking my foggy head and focusing my mind, I realized I was not in my bedroom.

I saw a clear blue sky.

I smelled a damp green scent.

I was surrounded by several reinforced concrete buildings. By the time I realized I was at the high school’s courtyard, the energy of a crowd reached me through the bright air.

The clock in the center of the courtyard said it was 2 PM.

A Weather Sphere that monitored for any signs of or damage from a tornado or flooding sat on top of the clock. It looked like a super high-tech Stevenson screen and it was full of cameras and meteorological sensors.

However.

Even now, students were seated at the desks, classes were being taught in the classrooms, and the school was running like normal in Kukyou City.

Wow, I hate this feeling.

It was like the calm before the storm, or a peace I knew would soon be destroyed.

The skin of my fingertips crawled.

I was wearing my school uniform, my usual collapsible bicycle with a cargo rack stood next to me, and my pocket contained my smartphone and a cheap balloon drone. The drone synced with my phone and let me take video from the sky, so it was in the presets for when I had fun “here”.

Yeah, that’s my bike all right.

It even had the cargo rack placed pretty high up for how small the wheels were. That was thanks to a rather forceful request from Ayumi and Erika who wanted to ride on the bike with me.

Just to be sure, I rang the bell next to the handlebars.

Then I spoke to the smartphone in my hand.

“Maxwell, display the physics on that action.”

“Sure.”

Lines of numbers immediately filled the smartphone’s screen and scrolled without end. This was the hidden side of the scenery I was looking at without much thought. Inside the bell, the spring contracted, recoiled, and was released. There was an action and reaction when the hammer hit the bell itself, the bell itself vibrated, the sound propagated through the air and reflected off of the surrounding terrain, the multiple waves collided to combine or counterbalance each other, etc. It was all listed out there, but a human like me would need a month to look through it all.

That was why I let Maxwell give the overall conclusion.

“All green. The disaster environment simulator was constructed without issue.”

“Oh, good. That’s what I wanted to hear.”

I sighed and addressed what worried me most.

“Let’s get down to business. Are you synced with the Class Rep like usual?”

“Sure. Perfectly.”

In the disaster environment simulator, everyone would move “just like in reality”, but then the Class Rep could not change into a bikini and dance a sexy dance for me. So as an emergency measure, I had Maxwell’s system possess the Class Rep to take manual control.

It was an emergency measure only built into the Class Rep’s file set, so it wouldn’t work on Ayumi or Erika. In other words, I couldn’t get back at them by making them do a reggae dance. If I opened too many backdoors like that, the disaster prevention foundation helping with the data analysis would notice. And they’d laugh at me.

My secret folder had hidden both the swimsuit set and the backdoor possession program.

“I’m in the school courtyard. Maxwell, tell me where you are. Let’s meet up ASAP.”

“Due to the change in your privilege level, searches and other administrative modes are temporarily unusable. I recommend having me use visual confirmation of the surrounding landmarks to meet up with you.”

“You’re kidding, right? I’m supposed to search for a single person in a city of 800,000?”

And as if searching for the Class Rep wasn’t bad enough, the real trouble would soon begin.

A zombie and a vampire would face each other head-on and fill the city with the walking dead.

In fact, it had already begun.

“Hot!? Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hooooooot!!!!!!!”

Some kind of black mass cut past me while screaming and rolling on the ground.

It had started right off the bat.

This was a beautiful girl in a black gothic lolita dress and a mini-hat on her splendid ringlet curls. In other words, it was my older sister. As soon as she was dropped into virtual reality, the direct afternoon sunlight had hit her, so she was starting to sizzle all over. She was even turning into ashes a little, so she broke the hallway window and jumped inside.

That was an unusual sight for a clean freak like her.

I hid in the bushes and watched.

Hearing the high-pitched noise, the perfect female teacher who was also a childhood friend and a returnee (she taught English) ran out of a nearby classroom to see what was going on.

“Wh-what is this!? Hey, you’re Amatsu’s older sister…aren’t you? Did you break this windo-…”

“Chomp☆”

“Kiiiyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Erika went right for it with quite the comical voiced sound effect.

She didn’t hold back at all! She dug her fangs right into the teacher’s throat!

Talk about making up your mind quickly.

Wasn’t this like having cutlet curry served to you the moment you woke up!?

Erika was suddenly in top form, perhaps because she had escaped the direct sunlight by getting inside. I was seriously conflicted over whether or not to go in and stop her, but I had no weapons and facing my vampire sister would only get me bitten.

…Or so I thought?

“Gulp, gulp.”

“…Uuh.”

“Gulp, gulp.”

“…Ahh.”

“Bh!? Gbweh!! Cough, cough. W-wait, don’t you have way too much blood, Sensei? Urp…”

My sister was about at her limit just by making one more vampire.

That was because she had to drink enough blood to be fatal. For an adult, that was between one and two liters…which meant it was like chugging an entire family-sized drink bottle. And this was a thick liquid that caught in the throat and stank of rust, so it may have been a bit much for that light eater. Her lunchbox was super small.

And it made no sense. She was already at her limit only five or ten minutes after starting. If she couldn’t do it, there was no reason to force herself. She had brought this on herself and now she was looking dizzy! Although her face was looking nice and smooth, so maybe there wasn’t anything to worry about!!

But at the same time…

An explosion of screams and shouts burst from the school building. However, this was not because a class full of students was panicking after my sister suddenly bit into a teacher’s neck.

The commotion was on the second story of the building.

I filled the balloon with gas and sent the drone up into the air so I could see what was going on through one of the windows.

“More pawns! More! Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp.”

“Wah, wah!! Amatsu…-san!?”

“Yes, yes. Sorry, sorry. Can I at least get a quick bite in!?”

It was already pandemonium up there.

For some reason, I was reminded of a special sale that let you pay 500 yen for as much as you could stuff in the plastic bag.

You really are being sloppy about this, Ayumi!!

Apparently both my sisters had their issues. If they were this much alike, why did they have to fight so much!? And didn’t I get a say when I was always caught in the middle!?

The source of the commotion was my little sister. She had black twintails with only the very ends curled, she was slender and flat-chested, and she had stitches all over her body. She was wearing a marathon runner’s midriff-revealing jogging suit with only the top of a track suit over it. It made for quite a healthy and sexy outfit. It amounted to a thin tank top and hot pants, so when my flat little sister wore it, I could just about spy the adorable mounds through the armpit or neck. She had a smartphone on the belt around her thigh, but was that for a health management app? You’re a zombie!!

And…

Ayumi ran from classroom to classroom biting any handy boy or girl. After a few dozen seconds, the bitten kids turned pale and similarly attacked students and teachers. My vampire sister had to drink a liter or two of blood, but my zombie sister apparently only had to take one bite. From there, she became a glutton(?) only interested in flesh.

Meanwhile, ugh, the smell around me changed.

I felt like an invisible wall of rusty odor was pressing against my face.

Then a ton of zombies practically poured down the stairs as they rushed to the first floor.

They were packed in like sardines and clearly looked just like corpses, but they were still fresh. Simply put, they were not rotting yet. Of course, Ayumi underwent a preservation treatment every day to keep her skin white and springy, so maybe zombies just didn’t rot away that quickly. …Either way, they would eventually fall apart if nothing was done.

Erika seemed to have given up after finally making the one teacher into her servant. When I checked in the window using the drone, I saw her lying on her back in the hallway and patting her stomach with her slender hand. I was pretty sure she would fall asleep if I patted her head and sang her a lullaby.

But as long as the Swimsuit Class Rep wasn’t taken out, anything was fine by me.

In fact, wouldn’t it be for the best if my sisters settled things right away and the simulation ended?

“Mwa ha ha!! Now do you see what true infection is like, Onee-chan!? You don’t need the one-of-a-kind skill of an expert artisan!! It’s mass-produced fast food that covers the globe!! Now, prepare to be swallowed up by a mob of the dead!!”

Yeah, that girl did like her burgers and fried chicken.

It was something like 70 against 2.

Just as Erika finally got up from the floor, a crowd of zombies poured in from a different staircase too. The way was blocked in both directions.

Normally thinking, she was hopelessly outnumbered.

But once the wall of zombies started bumping shoulders, something strange happened.

“…Gau…”

“Ohhhhhhhhhh.”

“Oh, you wanna fight?”

“Flesh.”

Ah…

They were at it again.

They were devouring each other!

The zombies were supposedly on the same side, but they started glaring at each other, grabbing each other, and devouring each other’s shoulders.

Oh, dear. I didn’t want to see any of those colors and they’re splattered everywhere!!

Slender Ayumi seemed just as surprised.

“H-huh!? What are you biting at each other for!? Over there! My sister’s over there!! She’s right there, so hurry up and go get her!!”

“Hungry.”

“Flesh.”

“Flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh, flesh.”

Oh, I get it.

The more soldiers in your army, the more they had to be fed.

And unlike vampires, zombies had no clear hierarchy and no queen. They ignored all orders and simply jumped at the nearest flesh to satisfy their hunger. It didn’t matter to them if that flesh was a little rotten.

Simply put, they were idiots.

That description worked just as well for zombies as a whole and Ayumi in particular.

I stared up into the sky with a distant look in my eyes, but then I spotted a small drone. It was a six-rotor multi-copter rather than the balloon type I was using. As a disaster countermeasure city, there were lots of drones around. The university and disaster prevention foundation tended to send them around with meteorological sensors onboard. Someone may have been smart enough to send one out after noticing the situation at the school.

And that wasn’t the main issue now.

I had to focus on my stupid little sister.

“Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah!! Oh, no! They’re coming this way! Whyyyy are you locked onto the original, you ungrateful zombies!?”

“Eh heh heh. Oh, Ayumi-chan. You sure are a troublemaker☆”

“And when did Onee-chan recover!?”

“Why would they be grateful when you’re the one that bit them? Won’t their fading minds want to take you down with them? I bet they feel pretty heroic targeting you.”

Erika sounded pretty full of herself, but let’s not forget she had sucked that one teacher’s blood.

It would be a hell of a thing if the real versions of these people ever found out who was killed first. That could easily put some cracks in some relationships!!

I peeked in from the courtyard, but I didn’t see the Swimsuit Class Rep among the cannibal zombies.

“Heh heh heh. And while your pawns are killing each other, Ayumi-chan, I think I’ll get in a biiiiit of a preemptive strike☆”

“What? How? Even if they’re self-destructing an awful lot, you’re still outnumbered more than ten-to-one. I don’t care how cool and stylish a vampire is; you can’t take out the entire group around you like in a samurai show.”

“Wellll, I was thinking of increasing the number of my own pawns.”

“Even through your dress, I can tell your stomach is sticking out, so how?”

“You want to know?”

My vampire sister gave an elegant smile.

“Bfhhhhh!!!???”

“Vomiting!? You’re vomiting blood!?”

“Eh heh. Eh heh heh. Pant, pant. If the tank is full, then I just have to empty it out. I’ll empty out my stomach so I can suck more blood!!”

She was a lost cause.

What had happened to being a clean freak!? Was she the kind of girl who disturbed everyone around her by forcing herself to order a ton of food just to prove that she could eat a lot? Was her nickname “The Merlion”? And we weren’t talking about a sexy teacher holding her head due to a hangover, so what was I supposed to do with an elder sister character with a habit of throwing up!? How was I supposed to categorize this scene in my mind!?

“Anyway.”

The Swimsuit Class Rep did not seem to be at school, but my sisters were stuck there for the time being. Those two could have fun on their own. I needed to leave the school while the getting was good and find the Swimsuit Class Rep who was defenselessly wandering around Kukyou City.

“Sure. I have found you, user.”

But as soon as I turned around, the Class Rep was right there.

Despite the pandemonium, I was still at school during the afternoon.

Gentle sunlight fell on the pristine school building and everyone should have been wearing their school uniform.

But the forehead glasses Class Rep wore a swimsuit.

She stood there in confusion while wearing a white bikini.

“Well, that’s just unnatural!! Completely unnatural!! I feel like dying for dressing you up in that!!”

“I was merely obeying your request, user.”

The Class Rep did not question it.

She looked at me with a puzzled look and then looked to the broken hallway window.

“I entered the parameters myself, but that is quite a disaster.”

“Well, it is a vampire and zombie trying to show off their power.’

“Erika’s dress is unusual enough, but a middle school girl like Ayumi rampaging through a high school while so scantily clad is quite a rare sight.”

“I don’t want to hear that from a Bikini Class Rep!!”

“User, you seem dissatisfied, so should I switch to the Class Rep’s normal behavior pattern? (y/n)”

“Sure, sure. Let’s try it out. I’m open to anything that will comfort me!!”

Her pupils dilated a little.

“Ah! Amatsu’s older sister is at school in a dress!!”

“Well, that is more like her, but is she still ignoring the bikini!?”

“And Ayumi-chan is…wait. What is she doing at the high school?”

“Are you blind to everything inconvenient!? Y’know, like the red stuff splattered on the walls or the flesh-colored stuff lying on the floor!?”

The situation may have been so out of the ordinary that it took some time for her mind to catch up.

Or maybe her self-defense instincts were just a little off.

Either way, my comment seemed to help her focus on reality.

“G-…”

So she saw it.

She saw the zombie, the vampire, and “everyone else” who was scattered about after getting caught in the middle of my sister’s competition.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

When she screamed, every head that could still move turned to face us.

And that included Ayumi and Erika.

“Maxwell!! Cancel the Class Rep mode! Are you trying to get us killed right away!!!???”

“Sure. Completing request.”

My only option was to climb aboard my bicycle with the Swimsuit Class Rep on the cargo rack.

As a side note, I was feeling a little sad.

At times like this, the Class Rep apparently went “gyah”. I had always imagined it would be a cute “kyah”, but I guess you can’t have everything.

[Pick up] The Meaning of the Bright Cross Disaster Prevention Foundation (PR Use) [Net Files]

As I am sure you are all aware, Kukyou City is designated a National Reinforced Planning Zone. The city is colored in the unique light of the disaster prevention and damage reduction business. Due to geographical issues, Kukyou City has long suffered from a variety of natural disasters, most notably flooding and lightning strikes, but we can take advantage of that trait to help reveal the inner workings of tornadoes and the notoriously complex mechanism behind their formation.

Of course, many corporations, research institutions, and universities are involved in this project, but unfortunately, conflicts form between different schools and companies.

Our existence might seem entirely meaningless to many of you.

But by acting as a cushion and a buffer to ensure capable people do not end up fighting among themselves, we can draw out the greatest specs from the participating groups.

We centralize the budget request and supervision process and we ensure that no two participating groups are duplicating any projects. That allows the most efficient use of the limited personnel and equipment. That is the purpose of our foundation.

The foundation itself is young, but we are a branch of the Bright Cross, which has a 1500 year history over which it has constantly fought the plague, dysentery, cholera, the Spanish flu, and more. Its activities are beyond number: disaster relief, emergency food distribution, financial support, improving medical technology, ending dangerous rumors in disaster areas, finding data on past disasters buried in old books, and more.

By inheriting that iron will and developing the cutting edge in technological information, we intend to reduce the victims of any future disasters as much as possible.

That is the greatest desire of our Bright Cross Disaster Prevention Foundation and its very reason for existing.

Chapter 2

I fled from the school but wasn’t sure where to go.

I decided to pedal my bike toward the shopping district and noticed my surroundings growing noisy.

“The load on the system is growing.”

“Is Erika or Ayumi going on a rampage and creating more of the undead?”

Either way, I could not check the details without my administrator privileges. I was the same as a normal user fleeing from the disaster according to the standard parameters.

And even without those privileges, I could tell.

The thick smell of blood from the school’s carnage was gone, but that was no reason to rest easy.

There was a prickliness to the air. It was a tense atmosphere like facing a burning fuse or like being thrown into a room just before a dust explosion while wearing a wool scarf.

I would often say I had a bad feeling about something, but it wasn’t like a premonition ever left me with a good feeling. It was always these bad feelings that came rushing in!!

“Has it started?”

“They are making a real effort now.”

I heard glass shattering and someone screamed, so I stopped the bike. With each noise, the Class Rep clung to me from behind and looked around nervously. My heart skipped a beat at the soft sensation on my back.

“Um, I’m not really interested in the zombies and vampires. I’m not looking for reality there. To be honest, I don’t care what else happens as long as I have the Swimsuit Class Rep’s warmth.”

“When you say that, it leads me to somewhat question my purpose as a disaster environment simulator.”

“Do you have any idea how much of mankind’s knowledge went into recreating this bouncing and jiggling!? In fact, this world goes beyond the appearance and touch!! It provides the taste and smell too!!”

“My question remains.”

It was still daytime.

Since the vampires on Erika’s side could not act, it would be the zombies on Ayumi’s side who had started moving freely outside the school.

Zombies were slow and their bodies were rotten, so they could not defeat a vampire in a one-on-one fight. I could see why Ayumi would want to secure as much of an army as possible before nightfall when our older sister could increase her numbers.

However.

At first, the waves of people on the streets continued on unchanged even though something was clearly wrong. It was a strange new sight. But once the zombies poured out into the crowd, everyone started running. But the pedestrians waited at the lights, lined up at the elevators, and were otherwise polite.

Then the red tragedy rushed in.

They were pinned down, bitten, and otherwise introduced to the ways of the wild.

No matter what they did, those doomed to die would die. Following the rules would not keep them safe.

And after they realized that, the change was a quick one.

“Outta the way! I said outta the way, you dumbass!!”

“I was first!!”

“Let go! That’s my bag!!”

The flow of people transformed into disordered chaos. They ran from the sidewalk, ignored the lights, and dragged down or trampled others. But they did not all have a destination in mind and they were not all focused on escaping the multiplying zombies. Some of them broke car windows, snatched handbags, or rushed toward shop cash registers.

“User, the current area is growing more dangerous.”

“But you won’t tell me how to avoid it, I notice.”

“Because I am a disaster environment simulator.”

“Are you just going to watch as I’m killed!? You sadistic grim reaper!!”

We held that conversation while avoiding the waves of people by hiding behind a metal dumpster on the end of the road. If we kept our distance from anything valuable and tried not to stand out, I was pretty sure we wouldn’t stimulate the looters’ greed. Hmm! But I’m kind of worried about the Bikini Class Rep’s smallish sexy body!!

But unfortunately for those looters, the greedier they got, the more excess stuff was weighing them down. Those with tons of food or money in their hands were grabbed by the zombies in a moment of inattention. And what happened then goes without saying.

A gust of wind blew through and bloodstained yen notes flew through the air.

“That smell” filled the scene once more.

“This is a complete mess. Any ideas, user?”

“Yeah, what are they going to do?”

Vampires were weak to direct sunlight, so it had been a complete tragedy that the initial stage had been during the day. If the zombies continued spreading their influence, Erika’s side could be wiped out before the first night even began.

“No, not that. I was referring to your own safety.”

“Oh, you mean this isn’t enough? Is this like hiding my head in the sand with my butt sticking out!?”

“That pointlessly loud shout was the last nail in the coffin.”

“A-a-a-a-anyway, what are we supposed to do? I managed to find the Class Rep, so I don’t need this catastrophe anymore! Is there some kind of goal we can get to!?”

“I believe we must continue fleeing until this crisis ends on its own.”

“Hmm. With vampires, you generally have to defeat the big boss to win, but with zombies, it does seem to be more about fleeing forever. I don’t see how this can end…”

“In other words, you must side with your younger sister and work to kill your older sister for the quickest path to logging out.”

“Don’t make it sound so sinister! But what do we do now? Even if we’re going to flee, it’s unrealistic to think we can ride through this panicked crowd on a collapsible bike, but I can’t think of any good hiding spots during a panic like this.”

Meanwhile, the waves of people began pressing in toward us. Instead of an orderly current in a single direction, they were scattering in every direction like a clump of oil being squashed by a giant hand.

I could no longer tell if they were survivors or zombies.

Either way, I could easily be crushed to death if they all pressed in, so I supported the collapsible bike on my shoulder, grabbed the Class Rep’s soft hand, and escaped into a nearby building.

Beyond the glass door, I found…

“DIY… A hardware store?”

“User, I do not think locking a glass door will be very effective.”

The first floor of the building was a store the size of a supermarket. There were no employees left at the registers, so they must have already fled. We quickly dove behind a nearby shelf and the high-pitched sound of breaking glass soon followed. Then I heard a sticky dripping sound and smelled a rusty odor. It may have been someone badly injured, but I prepared for the worst. I had to assume this was the zombies.

“Can we leave through the back entrance?”

“If we are to move, we should do so soon, but it would be difficult to sneak through without anyone noticing us.”

“I know that and I’m not that hopeful.”

Luckily, there were plenty of home improvement tools here. I knew this was virtual reality, but I was still hesitant to take things from the shelf without paying. But at this point, there was no point in holding back. If the Swimsuit Class Rep was taken out, I would (after some twists and turn) be killed back in the real world.

Only the Class Rep mattered now.

I threw out all other morals.

Whether zombies or vampires, I was not obligated to let them kill us.

“Maxwell, grab some duct tape from that shelf. Oh, and a stainless steel mug too.”

“? User, please provide the purpose of this command. You seem to be holding a mop.”

“That’s right.”

I spun the end of the mop to unscrew it and attached the stainless steel mug to the handle.

“A survival expert did this on the satellite adventure channel. It was an episode on how to survive in a winter mountain cabin if you were surrounded by a pack of wolves.”

“That seems like an awfully unique simulation scenario.”

“It’s better than zombies and vampires, don’t you think?”

Meanwhile, a ton of zombies stepped in through the shattered glass door. They would notice us before long. Even in this virtual space, my heart was pounding unpleasantly hard and I could not control it.

“This is what the guy used: a stone-throwing staff. The most well-known method is to spin the stone around and around with a belt and use the centrifugal force to give it plenty of force and distance, but it’s hard to hit a target like that. But with this thing, you get some centrifugal force just by swinging it down from above, so it’s easier to just pick up and use. Even an amateur can figure it out after two or three practice shots.”

I had the Class Rep hold the mug and mop handle while I peeled up the sticky part of the duct tape. That made an unexpectedly loud noise and I thought my throat was going to dry up. I could not tell what the zombies were doing on the other side of the shelf, so I quickly peeled off the tape and wrapped it around the mug’s handle and the mop’s handle.

“And this thing barely makes any noise. It can throw a fist-sized stone more than fifty meters, so we can almost unilaterally smash the zombies’ heads. The human skull is only as hard as a flowerpot, after all. And even if I miss, I can duck back as soon as I throw it so I’m hidden by the time it makes a noise. Unlike humans, zombies shouldn’t be able to figure out where the attack is coming from. After all…”

“Zombies are not very smart?”

“Now you’re getting it, Maxwell.”

We affixed an L-shaped crowbar to the opposite end of the mop. That’s what I would use in a close-quarters fight. It was a medieval peasant’s weapon known as a battle hook. The simple weapon could drag a knight down from his horse or break through thick armor if swung with centrifugal force. Once again, my knowledge came from a satellite channel’s history quiz show.

I left the collapsible bike with the Class Rep, held my makeshift weapon, crouched down, and began to move.

“You said that was a stone-throwing weapon, but where will you acquire a ‘stone’? There seems to be a section with garden gravel packed in bags.

“They said stones are actually not the best choice because the size and center of gravity varies so much. Oh, I know. Let’s borrow these metal nuts. The ones big enough to fit over my thumb should be heavy enough.”

I grabbed a few and stuck them in my pants pockets.

Our goal was the back entrance.

I wanted to avoid running into the zombies if possible, but I would have no choice if they cut off our route. The situation was still in motion, so sitting around would only let the zombies surround us. Doing nothing was the worst option of all.

We snuck along, following the green lights guiding us to the emergency exit, and we had nearly reached the thick metal door.

But then the Swimsuit Class Rep whispered to me while holding the collapsible bike.

“(User.)”

“(Yeah.)”

There was something there.

I felt a great pressure in my gut. Beyond the shelf, only a meter away, I could hear something like rustling cardboard. Instead of rationally grabbing something, it sounded more like an unintelligent creature sticking its head in the box and biting at everything inside. Whoever it was had likely become raw meat. I looked around, but I could not see another way around. I could not look down from above, so I could not predict where other zombies would be waiting.

I listened carefully.

There was only the one sound. It did not sound like more than one overlapping.

“(I should do this.)”

That was my conclusion.

“(The other routes are entire unknowns and we might run into an entire group of zombies, so it’s safer to fight the known risk here. Maxwell, you stand back just in case. This is all for naught if the Class Rep is taken out.)”

“(Sure. But user, at this range…)”

We were too close. I could not make full use of the stone-throwing staff. It would be more effective to make a full swing with the battle hook made by attaching a crowbar to the other end.

“(I guess I just have to go for it.)”

“(According to a history quiz show, old samurai mansions had intentionally narrow hallways and low ceilings to prevent an attacker from swinging their sword properly.)”

“(Y’know, the kind thing to do would be to keep that trivia to yourself when I’m using such a long weapon!)”

I scolded the tactless AI (I don’t know why that surprised me) and slowly circled around the shelf by the exit to reach the zombie. Sweat soaked my hands as I held the mop handle.

Why was I so nervous?

Was I afraid of the zombie that would not hesitate to devour any survivors? Was I reluctant to crush the head of something humanoid? This was no time to be thinking about that, but a strange heat ruled the back of my mind.

I forcibly shook it off and peeked behind the shelf.

There was one there.

It was just five meters away and defeating it gave us a clear shot to the exit.

Wait…what is that?

That’s a tiny toy poodle the size of a stuffed animal, isn’t it!!!???

“Wait, Maxwell, wait!! Can’t you pause and rewind this!?”

“With the temporary loss of administrator privileges, the timeline slider and parameter branching options are currently unavailable.”

“But…that…but! I have to defeat that? To be blunt, won’t that turn the entire world against me? I’m sorry for thinking I was so badass as I secretly thought only the Class Rep mattered and that I would abandon all other morals!! But can’t I at least act cool in the privacy of my own mind!?”

“User. Whatever your opponent is, you will become a zombie if they infect you with the Acute Zombie Powder. The threat level does not change.”

“It isn’t even saying ‘mah’ or ‘vah’. It’s saying ‘nyah!? But it’s a dog!!”

“But it is a zombie.”

“It’s playing with a gardening nameplate! And the name sounds like a teddy bear’s name!!”

“I doubt it has any rationality left. It’s head is coming off.”

“But…still. C’mon, you get it, don’t you? I can’t beat up something like this!! It’s too much for me!!”

“Meanwhile, the enemy target seems to have noticed you. You have lost the advantage of a surprise attack.”

Oh, god. What am I supposed to do!?

They were not coming from the route to the exit, but I heard wet footsteps from all around. I couldn’t stay here for long, so I had to defeat the zombie in front of me. But that wasn’t easy. I knew this was a disaster environment simulator, but it was still going to tear my soul apart!!

“User.”

Maxwell sounded worried and provided an alternative possibility.

“If defeating it is too much, then you can always give up. This is only a simulator, so getting bitten and becoming a zombie will not harm your body in reality.”

“…”

I just about gave into that idea.

But.

But!!

“No, no, no! I can’t do that. If the Swimsuit Class Rep dies here, the university and lab will find out about the dance set and that will eventually lead to the real Class Rep really killing me in a real fight!! I-I have to choose between doing this in the simulator or dying in reality. It’s wrong to protect something virtual at the cost of your real life!!”

“Then.” The Class Rep tilted her head. “Don’t you have to do this?”

“Ah.”

Meanwhile, the mini zombie trotted over to me.

The five meter difference shrank further. I couldn’t let it rush at me. Whatever its size, it was still a zombie and even a toy poodle was a dog. I could not underestimate its ability to dash. I could not escape it on foot. It was possible I’d become a victim right away.

Now that it had locked onto me, it was all over.

A peaceful resolution was no longer an option.

My trembling hands held my weapon with the L-shaped crowbar duct taped onto the end of the mop handle.

“Ayumi!! We’re having a talk about this later!! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Long story short, the Swimsuit Class Rep and I opened the thick metal door and ran out of the hardware store. Luckily, the zombies were all on the road out front, so the walking corpses had not filled this road yet.

And I was feeling ill.

“Urp.”

I threw away the stone-throwing staff, placed a hand on the wall, and vomited quite spectacularly. This was in a simulator, but it had apparently accurately calculated out the contents of my stomach. Once I had nothing else in my stomach, tears spilled from my eyes.

It was painful even though I knew it wasn’t real.

But the Swimsuit Class Rep rubbed my back and made a calm suggestion.

“We are not safe here either. Rather than flee at random, it would be more efficient to have some kind of destination in mind.”

“I’m worried about my room back in reality. It isn’t covered in vomit, is it? In fact, I might be suffocating on it…”

We were in a corner of the shipping district. We were one road off the main street, so it was full of what looked like second-string shops.

Where were we to go next? How far had the zombies spread? I thought about using my smartphone to access the balloon drone flying in the sky, but then I saw a middle-aged man and woman run full-speed out from another road.

They were desperately trying to run away from “something”.

Which meant…

“Oh, damn. They’re coming to this road too. Those two led the zombies here!!”

“User, I notice you are merciless when it is an older woman you are talking about.”

I did not have time to respond.

Being outside was dangerous, but if we went inside and there were too few entrances, we would be surrounded and they would pour on in. Then where were we supposed to go!? My mind was overwhelmed.

The Class Rep and I hid behind a drink vending machine by the wall.

“What do we do? What can we do? We can try to outrun them, but we only have a bike and we’re toast if the road is blocked by a crowd. But staying here is a bad idea because the number of zombies is going to skyrocket with all the people in the shopping district. Do we go or stay? Which is right?”

“User, time is passing while you think. This is not an RPG.”

“Oh, honestly!! Just dance, Maxwell!! Maybe that will help draw out my maximum stats!?”

“That seems to be an entirely inefficient request, but I shall comply. Dance, dance.”

For a while, I curled up on the ground and enjoyed the Bikini Class Rep dancing in front of me.

…Sigh…

Why are human beings so enthralled by nothing more than a series of curves…? I wondered while calming myself with a veritable explosion of panicked people almost right next to me.

Then my smartphone received a call.

It was from my older sister.

“Satori-kun… What are you doing over there?”

“K-…”

All my body’s hair stood on end and I screamed despite the situation.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? Where are you watching me froooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!?”

I quickly looked this way and that, but I saw no sign of Erika anywhere. That was hardly surprising, though. She shouldn’t have been able to step outside into the direct sunlight.

“Dance! Dance, dance!!”

“Maxwell, stop that already!!”

“I am merely faithfully carrying out your request, user.”

“And I’m telling you to stop!! I’ve come back to my senses, so seeing my own desire on display like this is making me want to kill myself!!”

After I tearfully stopped the Swimsuit Class Rep, my sister finally continued the phone conversation.

I felt like I had come home from school to find my hidden porn stash piled up on my desk. No one won in this sort of atmosphere!! It was itchy! My entire body felt itchy for some reason!! I wanted to twist my body like a cloth and scratch all over my back!! The only viable option was a self-destructive strategy of revealing everything and enjoying the embarrassed look on my beautiful sister’s face!!

“I was distracted by the initial impact, but I guess this means you’re ‘here’ too, Satori-kun.”

“Y-yup. What are you planning to do, Erika?”

“It’s true sunlight is the natural enemy of a vampire, but that doesn’t mean I’m out of options. Getting carried away and playing a bit of a prank at the school may not have been the best idea, though. Urp.”

“Erika?”

“It’s nothing. But only a handful of people saw what I did. As long as I silence them, I can hide among the crowds.”

“What…?”

“Oh, do you want more of a hint? Zombies and vampires are both the undead, but there is one definitive difference. Zombies are always rotting and it’s only a matter of sooner or later, but vampires can maintain their beauty indefinitely as long as they have a supply of blood. That is an important difference. After all…”

The voice on the phone briefly cut off.

And a moment later…

“Ohhhhhh!! Kill the zombies!!!!!!”

“Let’s take back our city from the Archenemiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiies!!”

“We have Erika-san with us! Obey our leader!!”

They were more like explosions of sound than voices.

A group of several…no, dozens of people charged into the chaotic shopping district. They were wielding metal pipes, hammers, and large machetes. They mercilessly swung those weapons down on the heads of those who had already become zombies. Crushing the zombies’ heads was guaranteed to kill them.

Since they were attacking in broad daylight, they could not be vampires.

But they were not zombies either.

That meant they were the same as me.

“Erika, you got the normal humans on your side!?”

“Oh? Isn’t that how vampires work? No vampire introduces themselves as an enemy of mankind. We pretend to be a kind neighbor and create more of our kind night after night to secretly take over the entire city. The fear comes from not knowing who is and isn’t a vampire. That is a fear that zombies just can’t provide☆”

She was overcomplicating it, but it came down to a simple fact: nothing beats being attractive!!

The indiscriminate attackers were the heroes.

A lot of them were police officers and firefighters. I could hear some loud bursting sounds, so was someone shooting a gun!?

“The city council, the police, the firefighters, the TV stations, the corporate branches, and entertainers and commentators with a lot of sway. Taking over a soul by sucking their blood is a time-consuming process and there’s a limit to how many I can make…so shouldn’t I go for those Achilles’ tendons instead of just anyone?”

“How? I get wanting to expand your reach, but you can’t head out into the sun!”

“Oh? There are plenty of ways. For example, borrowing a fully enclosed ambulance.”

I heard cheerful laughter from my sister.

“Even if the enemy isn’t making any more progress, it wears you down mentally when things go south quickly and you’re stuck behind some strange barricades. Plus, out-of-shape VIPs are the first to call an ambulance over the most trivial of things. I just had to wait for them to step right into this moving trap.”

Would that really work so well?

Or had she set several plans in motion and the ambulance was just one of them?

The method itself wasn’t what mattered.

The fact remained that she had secretly taken over the important points of the city’s infrastructure.

“I focused on the police and the news, so the mass media has already alerted the entire city to the zombie outbreak.”

And she had likely omitted any mention of vampires.

“I’ve turned Ayumi-chan into the bad guy while also gathering the survivors at the nearest theatres and stadiums to secretly give myself some chain-reaction spots. Heyyy, Satori-kun, how many bombs do you think I’m making in the city right now?”

If that spread to all of Kukyou City, the balance of power would greatly change.

This wasn’t a fight between a vampire and a zombie.

The people of the city saw the zombies as their only opponent. They were oblivious to the fact that the person they were relying on was also a frightening enemy and they were sending out all their resources to wipe out the zombies.

Of course, she would secretly take action “as a vampire” once night fell. She would surreptitiously bite the survivors and nonchalantly increase the number of fellow vampires.

Out of the zombies, the vampires, and the healthy humans, two out of three would be attacking Ayumi.

That could not be fun for my little sister.

She might start crying when she found out.

The number of zombies grew in the blink of an eye, but the healthy people had an overwhelming majority. She had wanted to grow her numbers during the day, but she had hit a stumbling block. If she could not overturn this before sunset, a difficult fight awaited her.

Had this settled it?

But just as I wondered that, a new beep came from my connected smartphone.

“Sorry, Erika, I have another call.”

“Ehhh? It has to be that girl, so can’t you put it off until later?”

“It’s only polite to answer.”

“Yes, I suppose you have to be polite.”

Once I had permission, I answered the call. A voice chat using the smartphone’s camera began.

It was of course with my zombie sister Ayumi.

She was holding her phone in her hand, so it was an extreme close-up shot.

And it was shaky too.

“What is it, Ayumi? I feel like I’m watching a porn video here.”

“Could you at least say it looks like a self-shot video?”

“…”

“Self-shot just makes it sound even more like porn.”

“Your senses are rotten, Onii-chan!! And anyway!!”

The zombie girl, whose twintails had rolled ends, shouted at me but then lowered her voice and spoke with a smile.

“Tah dah… Where do you think I am right now, Onii-chan?”

“?”

“I set it up like a quiz, so the least you could do is answer. Argh, why don’t my siblings ever want to play along?”

“Do you know what’s going on, Ayumi? I can’t root for one over the other, but it looks like you’re in trouble. Kukyou City is fast turning into the site of a witch hunt.”

“Hee hee. Yeah, the power balance might have looked that way before. With the normal people teaming up with the vampires to attack us, the zombie side might have been pushed back. Things were only going to get worse and they might have gotten you too.”

She sounded oddly calm.

And then her initial question hit me again. Where was Ayumi anyway?

“But that’s only with human-based monsters. It’s assuming a clash between people. …So I just have to change that assumption. I just have to make zombies of creatures stronger than humans.”

Huh?

I had a bad feeling about this. No, it was more than just a feeling.

No. Oh, no. Stupid Ayumi is the type of person who hits it out of the park whenever she does actually use her head!!

“Wah!!”

I heard a surprised yell from a short distance away.

I looked over and saw the poor zombie killing squad fighting the crows and wild dogs swarming the corpses.

“I think they get infected when they peck at the corpses! Watch out for the animals now!! We can’t end this without burning the corpses or something!!”

…

It can’t be…

Come to think of it, there was that toy poodle earlier…

“Vampires can only suck human blood, but the zombie virus can infect all sorts of living creatures! So!! The answer was…I went to the zoo!! Now, now! Question 2: How many different types of ferocious beasts are there at the zoo and how many of each are there!?”

“Ehhh!? You’re filming porn with the animals at the zoo!? Ayumi, once this simulation is over, we need to talk!!”

“Take this seriously!! I’m the one that needs to have a talk with you and Onee-chan! You’re making fun of me, aren’t you!?”

For both zombies and vampires, the key to survival was increasing their number of pawns.

But what if the original people were only in the way?

That was why Ayumi had given up on the normal people.

Oh, honestly!!

Why is my little sister so good at being a killer!? Come to think of it, she would always buy weird-colored swimsuits and then pout about it later. Something about thinking it was a cute and frilly pink one and finding out it was actually a legit O-back. She really is an idiot!!

“Ah ha ha! My zombies don’t have to focus on humans. Any animal can become a zombie. But what about Onee-chan? If I wipe out all the survivors and turn this into a ghost town, she can’t make any more vampires. Then day and night are the same. No one’s scared of a vampire standing all alone in the desert! We can come out in force and torment her to death!!”

[Pick Up] Employee Training Leaked onto a Video Site [Net Files]

What, you still have work left?

It’s already five. Spring may have started, but the sun still sets early. Either take the rest home with you or leave it until tomorrow.

What? Overtime?

Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t know how they do things elsewhere, but that doesn’t fly in Kukyou City. I’m not talking about welfare or whatever. You look like you only just moved here, so I’ll tell you just this once.

Don’t wander around outside after dark.

If you can’t get your work done that way, then get up at five in the morning and show up early to make it work. That’s what everyone does.

And well, I doubt you’d do it, but don’t rummage through the trash in back alleys or mess with the offerings in the graveyards. Again, I don’t see why an office worker getting paid a living wage would have to do that, but just FYI.

Why do those rules exist?

You don’t know? Haven’t you seen those “!” marks on the road signs? They aren’t asking you to watch out for animals. It’s for “something else”. The signs tend to be in nondescript empty lots here in Kukyou City, but can’t you imagine what you’re supposed to be watching out for?

Well, okay.

You’re apparently even more hard-headed than I thought you were, so I’ll spell it out for you.

Archenemies are pretty common in Kukyou City.

And by that, I mean the undead.

[Pick Up] Illustrated Blog in Anticipation of a Field Trip [Net Files]

Our field trip is tomorrow.

The zoo is a great place. There are all sorts of animals there. Even a whole bunch that don’t live in Japan.

Our teacher said people studied some hard stuff called “immunology” and that lets important people donate all sorts of animals to the country. But that isn’t very popular anymore, so we can see the animals whenever we want.

At any rate, our zoo is the best.

I’ve heard a lot TV stations come by to film the rare animals.

Even comedians visit it!

I wonder what kind of animals I’ll see tomorrow.

Just looking at the pamphlet is so exciting.

They have lions, tigers, elephants, hippos, pandas, and penguins!

I hope I can get to sleep tonight.

That’s my only worry.

Chapter 3

I took the collapsible bike back from the Swimsuit Class Rep, rested it on my shoulder, and pulled her into a nearby multi-tenant building. I didn’t want to stay on the ground floor, so we ran up the emergency stairs.

The Swimsuit Class Rep glanced out the window and commented on the scene outside.

“Wow, it’s already started.”

“Yeah, an elephant’s already shown up.”

“And people’s very skeletons are being crushed beyond recognit-…”

“You don’t have to report all the details! If you have the resources for that, then use them to read me a porn novel! And do it in the Class Rep’s strict voice!!”

“After being pushed back onto the cheap bed, Kyouko looked up at the man’s face as he leaned in close. The breath that left her red rouge lips was as sweet as-…”

“Wait, stop. I don’t need that vision mixed into this grotesque scene! And where did you get data on a porn novel!?”

The inviable wall of rusty-smelling “pressure” was far stronger than before.

I shut all the floor’s windows as hard as I could.

This was bad.

What was bad, you ask? The zombie people were being crushed as much as anyone else. Sometimes the ferocious beasts butted heads and got into fights and I could tell their rampage was crushing cars and motorcycles.

It was all so insane I felt some inappropriate laughter coming on.

That was how unrealistic it all was.

If a bear or lion had shown up first and started chomping on people, we might have gone pale and trembled. But an elephant? Just by stomping through the shopping district, the people who were supposed to be there seemed to have been transformed into mere “things”. It was too much to actually imagine the pain for myself.

There were also plenty of rhinos and hippos.

The twitching masses of blood being thrown around…were unlikely to be survivors. That vitality could only belong to zombies. Just like at the school, they had no unity whatsoever.

And it seemed like my little sister was going through an herbivore-loving phase. Oh, no. She might be holding a grudge for our argument over the strongest animal during that trivia show we were watching. But Onii-chan still thinks that pyramid wouldn’t exist if herbivores were unbeatable.

“This is strange.”

“What is?”

“Aren’t those animal zombies a lot more beaten-up looking…that is, injured than Ayumi and the other human zombies? With a lot of them, I can see their bones…”

The zombies were only walking around, so they would not end up that way at the normal pace of decomposition. Ayumi had supposedly only attacked the zoo a moment ago.

I wondered if it was due to the fighting between animals, but Maxwell provided a different explanation.

“It may be an issue of compatibility.”

“?”

“Miss Ayumi is a slender girl who could probably do gymnastics or figure skating, but the animals are all masses of muscle. The Acute Zombie Powder allows them to surpass their upper limits, but that risks an increase in their speed of self-destruction.”

“So everything has its downside, huh?”

I groaned.

Rotting without healing was just how it worked with zombies.

In that case, the elephants and rhinos would probably be knocked out of the fight fairly quickly after their giant body’s strength was increased beyond its limits. They would be taken out by their own weight and power.

That said, we couldn’t just wait around for the giant ones to destroy themselves. That was like waiting for a time bomb’s battery to die because you didn’t know how to disarm it. Odds were pretty good it would blow you up first.

“So why are the rhinos and hippos so aggressive? If the zombification increased their hunger, wouldn’t they be fighting over the grassy empty lots or the river water?”

“They may just be fighting back as the human zombies bite them. But the animal zombies cannot distinguish the normal people from the zombies, so they go after everything with a human-sized silhouette. They are attacking that fried chicken mascot as well.”

“What a pain-in-the-ass combination!!”

I could generally tell which animals were on the biggest rampage due to the blood splattered on them like marks on a plane for each enemy shot down. The African elephant was at the top. Nearly its entire body was red and it had flattened silhouettes stuck to it that almost looked like nothing more than skin. Had those been normal people or zombies? Could they still move like that? I seriously doubted it. At any rate, I wanted to avoid joining them there.

“As the simulation has yet to end, I can deduce that she is fine, but isn’t it possible Miss Ayumi has been crushed by one of them or ended up inside one of their stomachs?”

“I want to believe not even Ayumi is that dumb, but then again…it is Ayumi.”

With Ayumi, I couldn’t be 100% certain that wouldn’t happen.

Unlike Erika, she was unpredictable in a negative way. She would say she had bought some underwear even more adult than our older sister and end up with some kind of cute and frilly girl’s loincloth shipped in from overseas!

“And they do not seem interested in entering the buildings.”

“I wonder why not. Maybe the elephants and rhinos are afraid of small spaces like this. The ceilings are low and there are all sorts of store shelves inside. You see them sleeping under trees, but you don’t really see them escaping into cramped caves.”

“Even as zombies?”

“I’ve never seen animal zombies before, so I don’t how they’ll act.”

Normal zombies continued walking upright even after abandoning all rational thought and that was a very human trait. Just as zombies didn’t start running around on all fours, ones based on other animals might continue following their primitive instincts.

That said, our safety was not assured up in the building. The elephant seemed to be the biggest one, but Ayumi would have prepared some other animals. There had to be a mixture of herbivore and carnivore, big and small. When debating over the strongest animal while watching TV, what was it Erika and I had said that made that herbivore-supporter cry? At any rate, there might be some that could enter the building and climb the stairs or maybe even climb the drain spouts like they were trees.

Was it cheetahs that could climb trees? Or leopards? Wait, no. Jaguars???

At any rate, I had to watch out for the big felines!!

Although if those carnivores were out there, I was pretty sure they would be chowing down on the normal humans and zombies alike, but then what happened inside the animal zombie’s body? It was hard to picture things on the microscopic scale, but the odds of infection likely grew when more of the virus was present. They were dangerous regardless, but would they gain an infection boost when they bit someone?

Increasing the power of a bite with viruses and bacteria reminded me of the Komodo dragon’s fangs.

H-huh? Am I restricting myself with this pointless trivia? An idiot like Ayumi wouldn’t give it that much thought and once I’m bitten by the animal, it doesn’t much matter whether I make a pretty zombie or one that’s falling apart.

“User, what will you do now?”

“Hmm. I don’t want to stay put, so let’s see if we can move between rooftops.”

Heading down to the surface would be suicide. Once the animals locked onto us, we couldn’t escape and the color red was splattered everywhere. Plus, I couldn’t tell which of the half-crushed remains had been humans and which had been zombies. Even a corpse too flattened to move on its own could be dangerous and zombies were indistinguishable from normal corpses if they couldn’t walk around.

That meant it could be a minefield.

I didn’t want one of them to stand up while we were running through the sea of blood.

The animal zombies being powerful didn’t weaken the normal zombies any. A single bite would turn me into a zombie regardless. The more of them there were, the more hopeless the situation was.

I wanted to go for an elegant midair stroll using the buildings packed in so close together.

“Also, pay close attention to the lighter on the desk there.”

“I’m not one to talk after all the stuff I took at the hardware store, but it looks like you’ve finally learned how to loot too, Maxwell. Then again, I kind of want to see that serious Class Rep turn into a shoplifting girl, so I say go for it.”

“No, that. Isn’t it possible the animals will keep their distance from a fire?”

“Yeah, you do often hear that animals are afraid of fire. But…”

“But what?”

“To be honest, it’s more of an urban legend, so I’m not sure how credible it is. I could understand if they’d run afoul of a forest fire in the past, but are animals really afraid of fire? I feel like they’re more likely to gather around something bright. Y’know, like bugs around streetlights.”

“…”

The Swimsuit Class Rep silently set down the lighter she was toying with.

Instead of trying to take them on, we had to find a safe way to escape. To kill an elephant, we would need a magnum round or a shotgun slug. It was far beyond what a handmade stone-throwing weapon could accomplish. I pulled out my smartphone and spoke to the Class Rep next to me.

“Maxwell.”

“What is it? Should I pose for a photo?”

“No, you can do that later!! What happened to the balloon drone flying around up above? This says it’s right above us.”

“Sure.”

I looked to the screen.

The Swimsuit Class Rep moved close to also look at the screen. She smelled nice even in this virtual world.

“Awaiting instructions…”

“Maxwell, can we jump from rooftop to rooftop? I mean, the buildings look pretty close together.”

“I would have to see the actual scale to judge that. But look at this…”

“Yeah, the city is stained with blood all over.”

Looking down from our eye in the sky, I we could see the horrific state of the zoo. Even from the sky, the roads in the area were colored red like the aftermath of a bizarre Spanish tomato-throwing festival. I could not even imagine how many lives had been used to create that artwork.

“Hey, um, I keep zooming out, but I’m not seeing an end to the gore.”

“The entire place was taken out.”

“Yeah… I’ve zoomed all the way out and it’s still all red. How many people have to die to cause this?”

“Calculating…complete. Eight hun-…”

“I didn’t actually want to know the answer! ‘Eight hun’? Not a single good answer starts that way!”

It was not limited to the shopping district. I could not view the distant residential and high-rise office districts, but I could see black smoke rising from them.

The stain had begun at a single point, but it was spreading across the entire city.

Our viewpoints were on too small a scale to notice, but eight hundred thousand people were caught in the middle of this.

“Whatever the case, it would be best to escape the shopping district as soon as possible.”

“Even though there’s a herd of animal zombies out there, not to mention the red minefield where someone could get up and attack you at any moment? Moving around at random sounds dangerous.”

“Of course. But the Acute Zombie Powder is not the only virus in the world. With that many corpses rotting, I believe many more pathogens will begin to spread. And some of them might travel through the air. …No, with that many, the concentration of gases produced in the decomposition process might be dangerous.”

“…”

Amazingly, there were actually worse deaths than being bitten by a vampire or zombie.

What was going through the heads of the people who monitored the city through the Weather Spheres that checked for signs of and damage from tornados and flooding? Eight hundred thousand people were sinking into a sea of blood and there was nowhere to run. That nightmarish scene may have led them to hang themselves.

I didn’t know how long we had, but I had a feeling the zoo animals had more germs than the humans. That meant they would decompose faster and they would spread more biological toxins. We had to make a run for it before those things could run rampant in that red medium.

“Elephants, rhinos, hippos, and…what is that?” I asked. “Were giraffes always that violent!?”

“It is not every day you get to see a panda attack someone.”

“Well, they are a type of bear.”

“Why is the ground moving like that? Is it a group of hamsters?”

“No, it might be moss or something… That swollen lump there might be modeled after a brain.”

“Does it work on plants too?”

“I don’t have any proof, but maybe that’s why she’s such a glutton and always finishes all of her food. If she doesn’t finish her apple or squash, please don’t tell me it would start to move on its own.”

“I merely inputted the parameters as you requested, but calling this a virus outbreak might drive bacteriology and immunology experts insane with anger.”

“And does this mean Ayumi’s started biting the moss and rocks she sees lying around…?”

“She is making full use of her stupidity (front teeth sparkle).”

“Oh, well said, Maxwell-san.”

Something cut across the drone footage. I thought it was a bird or something, but it turned out to be another drone. However, it did not seem to be piloted by anyone. It was wobbling unsteadily as it continued in the same direction forever.

It seemed to have lost its signal from whoever was flying it from the surface.

“User, this is the footage I found by following the unknown drone.”

“Pin that location and zoom in. …What’s that? A tour bus?”

A large bus had ignored a one-way sign and drove right through the shopping district. It ignored the corpses collapsed on or getting up from the road and ran them all over to escape the shopping district.

But that was a short-lived dream.

A powerful impact hit the side of the tour bus. It was that African elephant. Its eight ton body charged in from the side of the road and slammed into the bus from the side. Even a truck would flip over from that. And this was an elephant that Ayumi had zombified. Since it was acting so aggressively toward a vehicle, some cars may have already run into it.

After losing balance, the bus crashed into a supermarket for trendy foreign foods.

Then the rhinos and hippos gathered around.

The windows on the other side shattered and several figures jumped out.

They were well-built and dressed in black, but what were they? They didn’t look like police or firefighters.

At any rate, “they” climbed down and then reached up toward the windows to help lower down the normal people that followed.

“The elephant is coming.”

“Ahh, ahh! Wow…Not good! Not good, not good, not good! Wow! Not good!!”

“User, try to say something other than ‘not good’ and ‘wow’.”

“I can’t think of any other words besides ‘red’!! Giving up on their escape and staying inside the bus will only mean waiting for death and climbing on top of the bus now won’t help.”

“They are indeed screwed. The elephant’s nose is like a tentacle.”

The core of my body trembled in fear as I watched the pandemonium of the strange rescue team and dozens of people they had been trying to rescue. Not even a giant mass of steel had allowed them to escape that deadly shopping district, so how could they do anything without that?

My collapsible bike was made of metal pipes, so I could swing it around as a blunt weapon, but it was obvious what would happen if I took on heavily-equipped soldiers who looked like they could raze everything in their path.

At any rate, we used the emergency stairs to reach the roof.

The concentrated smell was like a punch to the nose.

Just breathing in and out struck my entire body with a rusty-smelling wind.

But…

“User, do you think it is possible to jump over the gap?”

“Not a chance!”

That was the only answer I could give.

From the sky, the buildings had looked close enough to easily make the jump if I worked up a little courage, but from the rooftop, it was obvious that the buildings were not all the same height. Jumping to a roof three or four stories shorter would probably break my ankles and there wasn’t even a 1% chance when the situation was reversed.

But as I’d already said, descending to the ground was truly hopeless. A tour bus weighing more than ten tons had been flipped over and I could still hear a great many animal noises. Only a superhuman who could catch a crane’s wrecking ball would be able to break through there. The normal human zombies kept biting at the animals, which essentially poked at the hornet’s nest and made the animals impossible to predict. Not even throwing some canned food or a smelly sock and making a run for it while they were distracted would work here.

Which meant…

“Maxwell, search for a ladder or wooden plank. If we use something that lets us cross over despite the height difference…”

As I spoke, I looked back to the roof entrance we had come through.

I spotted a gigantic snake climbing the stairs.

In fact, our eyes met.

Was it an anaconda?

It looked about ten meters long.

Hey, its eyes are surprisingly cute!!

“…!!!!!!”

Forcing a joke did nothing to erase the fear.

Neither of us had moved, but I already felt a squeezing at my heart. A thick but invisible wall of menace surpassed the limits of the physical world and tried to break my core.

But a moment later, I heard the sound of “something” bursting. It was like the sound of a of soda can being opened multiplied several dozen times over. Then “something” passed me by in midair.

At first, I thought it was a rocket or missile with smoke trailing behind it.

But I was wrong.

Something heavy collided with the giant snake. It had a head, two arms, and two legs. It was a human. What had looked like the smoke of a rocket was actually his body’s surface crumbling into gray dust. If he was turning to ashes in the sunlight…was he a vampire? The tackle had not accomplished much, but the anaconda was distracted by the new target. It ignored us and coiled around the vampire instead.

“Yahoo☆”

A relaxed female voice reached me from a taller building’s rooftop.

I looked up and saw my older sister there.

My older sister?

It was still daytime and she should have turned to ashes in the direct sunlight, but that was not happening.

Why not?

“Wah, wah, waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!???”

“Eh heh heh. Thank you for the over-the-top reaction☆”

Erika stood there elegantly with quite a few men, woman, boys, and girls around her. It was like a jigsaw puzzle using human bodies. Or like a giant umbrella or dome. It covered her and fully blocked out the sunlight.

“She’s done it! She’s finally done it!!”

“User, you are quickly growing incomprehensible.”

“How can I stay calm in the face of such a psychedelic vision!?”

The disturbing umbrella was likely made from my sister’s vampire minions.

She had called it “hot” before, but what did it actually feel like to turn to ashes and crumble away while you were still alive? At any rate, the 3D puzzle dome was turning to ashes starting from the people on the outside. But they did not react. It wasn’t clear where they were coming from, but new vampires would jump in to fill the holes. By repeating that process, my sister and their queen remained unharmed.

And…

“Oh, it can still move?”

Erika sounded conversational, but she was looking at the zombie anaconda thrashing about to fight the person scattering ashes everywhere.

And the queen cheerfully snapped her fingers.

“Do something about that.”

Something jumped over her head. The trails of ashes looked like those of missiles or acrobatic jets, but they belonged to the vampires who were being burned away by the sunlight. Win or lose, this kamikaze unit would be annihilated. They stabbed into the anaconda’s side with ferocious speed.

The zombification must have strengthened it because their attacks were all deflected.

“But only from the outside,” said my sister as she smiled below her human parasol.

The anaconda must not have wanted its hard-won flesh to turn to ashes because it began to swallow a living(?) vampire whole.

Not long afterwards, rice-sized caterpillars poured from the anaconda’s eyes like a flood of tears.

“We vampires can transform into a great variety of animals,” said Erika in her dress. “Bats, wolves, rats, moths, and so on. Even if a ferocious beast tears us apart and swallows us bit by bit, we can still transform inside its belly. This one became countless moth larvae and ate through the thick blood vessels to reach the head.”

“Ah.”

“Zombies cease to function as long as the brain is destroyed. That’s how Ayumi-chan and her type work, isn’t it?”

It made my skin crawl.

This was entirely different from having your head beat in with a hammer or tripping on some stone steps and hitting your forehead on a corner. Dozens if not hundreds of small caterpillars would crawl through the inside of your body, reach the inside of your skull, and stir up your brains like clay. And it would not stop until you were dead. It was truly hellish.

And it would be no different for a bear, tiger, or crocodile.

Because their jaws were so strong and they did not need to bite their prey into small pieces, they had plenty of space in their bodies for the vampire bugs to crawl through.

As we watched, the giant anaconda gave a large jerk. Its brain had likely been fully destroyed. The cascade of bugs spilling from its eyes crumbled into ashes as soon as they reached the sunlight.

“Does that mean…a vampire would win in a fight against a zombie?”

“Now that I can’t say. It would be hard to move around after being bitten apart by Ayumi-chan’s small mouth and we might lose control of the flesh after it’s infected by the Acute Zombie Powder. Plus, it isn’t realistic for a vampire to bite a zombie. There are some exceptions like the Upior, but vampires generally only suck the blood of the living. …And even if I was lucky enough to get an Upior, it would be a waste to use it to fight the Acute Zombie Powder.”

My sister changed the subject there.

“But anyway, if you can blow away a one billion yen tank with a fifty thousand yen rocket, doesn’t that sound a lot better than a tie? We just have to fill those powerful elephants and hippos with bugs to stir up their brains and then use old-fashioned external attacks on the animal zombies that are human-sized or smaller. Then there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

The zombie would die and there was no saving the vampire.

Just like using a bullet to kill a target, it was a strategy that assumed some consumption.

“User,” modestly interrupted the Swimsuit Class Rep.

She pointed to the drone footage on my smartphone.

Similar kamikaze units were on the attack on the ground and all over the city. As the sunlight washed over them, multiple vampires would sometimes cling together for something like a three-stage rocket. One after another, they would push through until they reached their ferocious target. They planned to be eaten so they could transform into tiny bugs inside the animal zombie’s body and stir up the animal’s brain. After their job was done, they would be annihilated by the sunlight. It was all meant to perfectly achieve that cycle.

All that deadly violence was worn down in no time.

“…”

The ferocious beasts did not go quietly. In fact, as soon as the rhinos and hippos were taken out, the flattened human zombies stuck to their outer surface began to squirm. Unless the brain was taken out, zombies never died. The vampires who had finished off the giant animals were quickly pinned down.

And this was out in the sun.

Even if the human zombies could not deliver a decisive blow, the vampires would turn to ashes if they were delayed even a little.

For a normal human, this would have been like having nightmarish jack-in-the-boxes spring all around them in the moment of relief after defeating a powerful foe.

And if the zombies could still move after being flattened that much, was it possible some of them were still moving inside the carnivores’ stomachs? No, given the width of the esophagus, it probably wasn’t possible for them to be swallowed without destroying the brain. But the more zombies the animals ate, the greater the concentration of pathogens. Erika had sad they might lose control of their chunks of flesh if the Acute Zombie Powder infected it, so it was still possible those swallowed zombies could lead to an unexpected comeback. A large percentage of moth larvae could be wiped out in a microscopic attack.

But…

Even so…

My older sister was only thinking about cost performance, so she was ignoring her own side’s losses. It was like ignoring the soldiers clinging to a tank for transportation and blowing up the tank itself first. As long as they could pursue and hunt down the scattered and fleeing soldiers, these losses did not harm the vampire side in any significant way.

The rocket had blown away the tank.

They just had to load their launcher with an identical rocket and target the fleeing grunts.

If a single tactic worked across the board, the different varieties of enemy did not matter.

“There we go.”

My sister in the gothic lolita dress hopped down to my rooftop so elegantly she seemed weightless. The queen smiled as her many minions sizzled and vanished just to grant her selfish desire to move around under the sun.

“It’s nice to see you again, Satori-kun. I really am a bit of a clean freak, so I’m not too fond of this zombie outbreak business. But I’m willing to put in some effort for you. Kyah☆”

“…”

A distant look entered my eyes. Was my aesthetic sense really okay with a human parasol girl fidgeting and covering her face with her hands?

I was growing more and more confused by her definition of “clean freak”!

But did that mean that both Erika and Ayumi were idiots to the core!?

“But you’re so mean, Satori-kun. I was working so hard, but you ran the other way as soon as you saw me.”

“You look gentle at first, but are you actually a huge S?”

“Eh heh☆ It was fun slipping into human society while pretending to be human, but I felt I was hitting a limit there and decided to reveal my true form. I even helped you out by destroying Ayumi-chan’s advantage and showed up to cheer you on, so I was hoping you’d be more excited.”

“Your…true form?”

“Yes. At the city council, the police stations, the broadcast stations, the newspapers, and all the other places where mankind was putting up their final resistance while hiding behind barricades, I consumed them from within to expand my control. I had already taken over their chains of command, but now everyone meant to maintain law and order has been wiped out. Well, there might be a few police officers who were out on patrol, but they can’t do much without the power of their organization, right?”

Erika gave the beaming smile of someone seeking praise by showing off their piano contest trophy.

“Also…oh, right. I’ve set things in motion at the chain-reaction spots where the civilians were gathered in theatres and stadiums. A third of the city’s population and all the important institutions will belong to me and my vampires!! Kyahah☆”

“This is not a ‘kyahah’ kind of issue, Onee-chan!!”

I had always wondered whether zombies and vampires were really all that different.

But they were different. Completely different.

Zombies like Ayumi tore down law and order. They destroyed the city, smashed the bonds between people, filled the streets with the dead, and brought civilization to a screeching halt. That was their brand of horror.

But vampires like Erika were the exact opposite.

They created law and order. They entirely ignored the civilization that humans had built up and filled the city, the country, and the world with a new order with their queen at the top. Yesterday’s rules no longer applied and we were all thrown into an insane vampire’s world.

They were both part of the horror genre, but zombies and vampires were entirely different.

I started to think that no one could defeat this.

But…

“Urp.”

“Erika?”

As my older sister elegantly held a hand to her mouth, she turned away from me for some reason.

“Wait just a moment, Satori-ku-… Ugh, urp. If I take a deep breath, I’ll be fine.”

“Oh, honestly. This is what happens when you force yourself after eating such tiny lunches all the time.”

“No! You can’t, Satori-kun! Rub my back that gently now and…no, this is no time to be rejoicing. Mgh, ah, ah, ahhhh!!”

Erika suddenly ran off with her psychedelic human parasol. She ran toward the edge of the square rooftop and then leaned over it.

“B-bghhh!!”

“Wahh!! You idiot, why are you spewing that stuff onto the world below!? You’re turning into a scarlet bomber!!”

“U-ugh… It saddens me that you don’t understand that I wanted to preserve my pride by not doing that in front of you.”

Below the human parasol, my sister lamented while bending over and sticking her shapely butt out toward me.

“Besides, you’ll make fun of me if I don’t go this far. Bhh.”

“Eh?”

“At the conveyor belt sushi place, at the buffet, and at the all-you-can-eat cake place, you always look so happy feeding more and more to Ayumi-chan who can keep eating forever. …And you just said I eat tiny lunches.”

“Were you hoping to match that crazy meat-eater when it comes to food!? No one wants that from a clean and kind older sister!!”

Was she like the greatest pro baseball player or something? It was hard to find things she couldn’t do, so did she want to go for anything she could do to score more points!?

“(User, user.)”

Then an index finger poked at my shoulder from the side.

When I looked over, the Swimsuit Class Rep leaned in and whispered to me.

“(Miss Erika is leaning out over the rooftop railing and she is not looking this way. Isn’t this your chance?)”

“?”

I was confused, so Maxwell felt the need to say it.

“(I’m telling you to go for that butt with both hands! Won’t she fall?)”

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

“N-no, that sounds like a bad idea. I’d be done for if it failed! When she gets mad, she crushes walnuts in her hands with a smile on her face!”

“Is that so?”

“Besides, we haven’t even taken statistics on whether a vampire would die from being pushed off a roof.”

“Then to provide support for such an indecisive user, I would like to assist you. Take this!”

“Wait, what, Maxweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!?”

In physics class, there was an experiment to demonstrate the propagation of forces where multiple metal balls were lined up and clacked together like pendulums. That experiment flashed through my mind.

In other words, the Swimsuit Class Rep gave a shove to my back and my hands grabbed…or rather, pushed on my older sister’s large butt through her dress.

“Ah.”

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?

She utterly vanished.

The dome-shaped human parasol was dragged down with her.

My mind seriously went blank and I frantically leaned out. What floor was this? Was there concrete or asphalt below? This was a disaster either way!!

Or so I thought.

“Satooori-kuuun?”

“Hyaaaaaaaaah!? She’s clinging to the wall…to the vertical wall!?”

“Vampires have a grip strength ten to twenty times greater than a human’s, so bouldering is a cakewalk☆ More importantly, you didn’t think anything about my butt being big, did you?”

“Oh, no! I’ve never seen her anger gauge this full! Is the concrete wall creaking!?”

The 3D jigsaw puzzle dome of the human parasol was fine. They all climbed up the wall like they were going for a world record in group gymnastics.

The queen spoke with a smile.

“Satori-kun, try to guess how angry I am?”

“P-pun-pun?”

“Oh, c’mon. This is more of a biki-baki.”

“Isn’t that the sound of bulging veins from a martial arts or delinquent manga!?”

“So I’m hoping you can put me back in a good mood. Are you ready?”

“Wh-what?”

I flinched.

My gothic Lolita dress sister bent her hips and her face moved in toward me while she kept her arms behind her back.

A sweet aroma…no, that rusty smell floated toward me.

“I was holding back in the real world, but this is a virtual world, right? So don’t you think we can go for a nice, sweeeet kiss followed by a delightful bite? Right, right? Aren’t you listening? I did it because I had to, but I’m a little sick of sucking the blood of people I don’t even like. I can’t stand the taste of cigarettes, alcohol, perfume, or grease. It’s awful. But you, Satori-kun? You’re perfect☆”

“I had a feeling this was coming!! With the zombies gone, it had to shift to a vampire fever, didn’t it!? This isn’t the peace I wanted!!!!!!”

“Eh heh heh. Give up and let your Onee-chan have her way with you☆”

Her slender arms embraced me from the front. And her large breasts bumped into me. As she rubbed her cheek against me, I was paralyzed like jolts of electricity were racing through my body.

“Eri-…time out! C’mon, I said time out! This is really a bad idea!!”

“Heh heh. You say that, but I can feel your heart pounding. You can’t hide the movement of your blood.”

I heard a wet sound from my neck.

But it wasn’t her fangs.

Is that her lips? It’s just the sweet sensation of her ski-…wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah!!

That was when I saw something unpleasant over her shoulder.

“M-Maxwell! Stop just coldly watching it happen with the Class Rep’s face!!”

“I was doing nothing of the sort. I had nothing to do and entered standby mode. If you have any orders, please give them.”

Eeek!! What is this guilty feeling!?

And is Erika getting even more heated up with me in her arms!?

“Yes, yes. I can feel Satori-kun’s carotid artery just on the other side of this skin. I can feel the hot blood…the gathering of youth… Heh heh. Eh heh heh. Pant, pant. What do I do? I only meant this as a joke, but now my heart is pounding so much I’m not sure I can hold ba-…oh, dear.”

Erika suddenly came back to her senses and pulled back a bit.

A moment later.

“Now!!”

It started with a high-pitched shout.

I looked back just in time to see something jumping over from another building.

“What! Do! You! Think! You’re! Doing! Onii-chaaaaaan!?”

“What? I’m-…bfoh!?”

I don’t know if she messed up or if it was intentional, but something suddenly filled my vision.

What was it, you ask?

Is this soft sensation Ayumi’s crotch…aghrbr————

The shock was so great that my user seemed to lose consciousness, so I, Maxwell, shall fill in the gap for him as an emergency measure.

Miss Amatsu Ayumi was a short, slender, and cute girl with her long black hair in twintails with the ends curled. She jumped in from a different building with her legs and spread landed with her thighs around my user’s head as if for a backwards piggy-back ride. Then the two of them spun vertically. After enjoying the bliss of shoving his face in his younger stepsister’s crotch, the two of them and the collapsible bicycle he held dove right over the railing and off the building.

“Oh, how bold. I’m so jealous of their youth.”

“As a more fundamental problem, I find it odd that my user’s neck did not break. Is that also due to his youth?”

Maxwell, signing off.

——————glmlnmvryuh…what is this floating sensation?

We had apparently hopped right off of the rooftop.

My head was finally freed from Ayumi’s extremely healthy (even though she was a zombie) thighs.

But she still grabbed my collar with one hand in midair.

I did not even have time to fear the fall. We spun around some more, completely messing with my inner ear, and my back collided with something soft on the ground several floors below.

We had landed on the corpse of the elephant that Erika’s vampires had killed.

I was lying on my back and Ayumi was straddling me.

She was puffing her cheeks out.

“Fuguu!!”

“Ayumi, a good first step would be using human language.”

“You were making fun of me, weren’t you!? You thought a zombie like me couldn’t beat a vampire like Onee-chan, didn’t you!? You thought I was only a half-rotten mid-boss, didn’t you!?”

“You’re overthinking this.”

“You’re always staring at Onee-chan’s boobs! But you walk right past me even when I just got out of the bath!!”

“Well, there’s a bit of a difference between you and-…ow!!”

“Then what about the Class Rep!?”

“Don’t be silly! Why can’t you tell that hers may be small, but they have a rare ability to make their glorious presence known!?”

“You don’t…you don’t think anything of me, do you? Fuguu!!”

“I give, I give!! Ayumi, you’re really overthinking this. I’m not thinking any of the things you’re so worried about. In fact, I have no idea what’s going on in your head.”

“Really? I’m pretty sure I heard some irritating things in there.”

“Really. For one thing, I’m far too worried about the Class Rep (finding out about all this and killing me) to even think about you-…oborgergorch!!”

“…!!!???”

She shook my collar back and forth while straddling me and I nearly vomited.

Then our older sister looked elegantly down at us from the top of the building.

“Ayumi-chaaan.”

“Onee-chan!!”

“Have you used up all your precious trump cards? If you have another plan, I would recommend using it sooner rather than later☆ After all…”

Still protected by her human parasol, the queen pointed straight up with her slender index finger.

“The sun is going down and evening is arriving. It will be nighttime before long now.”

“Grr, grr!!”

“And Satori-kun, you’re acting an awful lot like none of this matters to you.”

“Well, it doesn’t reall-…ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!!”

Ayumi tugged on my ear and our queen of a sister continued smiling.

“Are you sure you should be saying that? I believe I just gained a trump card against you.”

“?”

“This. Girl.”

She moved her raised hand to the side and her alluring fingertips traced across a slender chin before pulling it toward her.

“…Class Rep.”

“I won’t bite her right away.” Erika gave a melting smile. “If I did, we wouldn’t have anything to fight over. Right, Satori-kun?”

“!!”

I could see how this was set up.

The zombie side had my little sister Ayumi and me.

The vampire side had my older sister Erika and the Class Rep.

All the important pieces had been placed in the two camps and Erika was telling us to fight over them.

“You can’t, Onii-chan…” said Ayumi as she also looked up at the roof.

Still straddling me, she grabbed my collar with both hands.

“I can’t let her have you here, Onii-chan! So I won’t let you do anything rash!!”

She swung me around with tremendous strength.

I was pulled up as she hopped to her feet and we ran off through the bloody street before I even had a chance to board the collapsible bike in my hand. Or rather, she dragged me through the bloody street.

There were corpses everywhere and some might have been zombies that would get up and grab at our ankles, but we had no time to worry about that.

Something far worse was coming.

We had turned our back on the vampire queen.

“Hee hee.”

Our older sister did not bother to give chase.

It was probably a way to show her confidence, but even with her human parasol, it was an away game for her in the sun.

Time was on her side.

Night was arriving too soon for us to put together any kind of plan. The stage would soon belong to Erika alone.

“Hee hee hee. Hee hee hee hee.”

“Fuguu…!!”

There was no scorn in her laughter. It was more like the warm affection of viewing a family member’s growth, but that stabbed into my little sister’s back all the more.

Ayumi bit her lip to bear with it as we escaped the shopping district together.

What could we do against a monster like that?

Was there any way to rescue the Class Rep now that she was in Erika’s grasp?

[Pick Up] Report on the Acute Zombie Powder [Net Files]

Originally, Zombie Powder refers to a new virus discovered in the Caribbean. It mostly infects livestock.

It spreads orally.

However, it resides in gelatin matter, especially tendons, rather than flesh and blood and the infection mainly spreads when the carrier consumes the living tissue of a healthy subject.

It is extremely weak to the open air, so the virus is quickly exterminated when directly floating in the atmosphere or even when the blood or saliva is exposed to the air as spray. As such, the risk of infection is nearly zero unless the carrier bites deep enough to reach the tendons.

At this point, the virulence to humans is weak and in many cases there are no symptoms at all. The virus cannot be entirely exterminated, but it will live in a state of coexistence for the rest of their life and causes no apparent problems in their day to day life.

The Acute strain was artificially created by transforming the Zombie Powder virus with a few different chemicals.

The fact that one of those chemicals has long been used in Haiti is of especial symbolic interest, but that is straying from the topic at hand and will be set aside for now.

As the Acute name suggests, it is extremely virulent and has a nearly 100% chance of causing symptoms in both infected livestock and infected humans. In fact, a cellular change has even been seen in some plants which should not even have animal gelatin matter. That should likely be classified as an infection as well.

The symptoms include an extreme sense of starvation, slowed blood flow, and the vitality to continue moving even after the heart has been crushed. Most likely, the oxygen and nutrients transported by the blood are being transported in some other way to preserve brain function even when the other organs have failed, but it is still unknown what medium is used.

Also, they have no community queen like vampires do, but there are some rare individuals who maintain a high level of intelligence and sense of self even after infection.

This new request for additional funding is absolutely necessary to pierce this darkness with the scalpel.

[Pick Up] Regional Plans [Net Files]

As mentioned in the message the other day, a look at the geographic conditions suggests Kukyou City is an eligible candidate.

The term penal colony may bring to mind a remote island, but many of them existed inland as well. Kukyou City’s predecessor was one. While it looks like a picturesque land surrounded by the sea and mountains, it can actually be made into an isolated land just by blockading a few highways and railroad tracks.

And for our purposes, simply isolating it is not enough. If it were, we could simply use the South Pole or a desert.

Isolation is nothing more than a last resort and safety measure.

Given our purpose, it must have a certain level of population density and a high level of society. These conditions must be seen as the higher priority.

The land must have a certain level of economic activity while also allowing for a suppression plan divided into multiple levels in case the unexpected occurs.

With that in mind, Kukyou City is the best candidate in Japan if not the entire world.

It is of course necessary to lay some groundwork in the city council, the police, the firefighters, etc., but Kukyou City strikes an excellent balance even there. It falls into the framework of a National Reinforced Planning Zone, so whoever controls the money that comes with strings attached can take almost complete control of the city.

Local government treasuries are always in dire straits.

Of course, that’s partially because we’ve set things up to make our move easier.

As long as we have everyone’s approval, we are ready to begin the task at any time.

Let our good hearts guide us to benevolent action.

Chapter 4

Everything was dyed orange.

Evening had arrived and we had no time left. In less than an hour, night would fall. Our sister had already turned things in her favor more than once and now her time to shine would truly begin.

I was still separated from the Class Rep.

She was being treated like the flag in the zombie and vampire’s game of capture the flag.

If she was killed in this disaster environment simulator, that result would be sent to the uptight researchers at the university and lab. They would learn about the swimsuit dance and make fun of me. And that would eventually lead to my death. But not in virtual reality! The Class Rep’s iron fist punishment would kill me in the real world!! Yet she was now trapped in the center of the vampire army led by my older sister.

Ahh.

I think my smile is going to be faintly visible in that sunset before long…

Ayumi and I had left the flat coastal shopping district and moved to a mountainous region. The area included a dam, an observatory, and a hot spring inn. The ski slope was the biggest draw, but a partially bald mountain was all you’d be able to see at this time of year. I pedaled my collapsible bike up the zigzagging turns of the mountain road. With both of us on the bike, Ayumi had to press up against my back, but her hunger did not seem directed at my raw flesh for the time being.

Thanks to leaving the crowds, we were freed from that iron smell and that may have helped.

Hooray for negative ions.

A few images reached me from the balloon drone I had left in the city.

Smoke was rising from buildings here and there, but the commotion seemed to have entered a lull. There were no more swarms of panicked people. But that was not because rationality had returned; they had likely realized that panicking would only get them killed.

There was also no sign of a largescale conflict between the zombies and vampires.

The city center was already dyed in Erika’s colors. The eerie stillness seemed to indicate the arrival of a new order.

“What do we do now?”

I may not have asked that question because I was hoping for an answer from my little sister.

What were we going to do now?

I was asking myself. Before, I had felt like I was a bystander watching Erika and Ayumi’s sisterly fight. Even if they started grappling or the virtual city grew soaked with blood, I could have observed it impartially.

But that was off the table now.

I had to get the Class Rep away from Erika. I had to rescue her and regroup with her. And to do that, I clearly had to join the fight.

I had to fight Erika.

Ayumi had the unfair advantage of being a zombie and she had set everything up in her favor, but not even she had been able to stand up to that vampire. This was too great a foe.

How much help would I really be if I joined in?

No, how far was I willing to go?

“What do you think you can even do?” asked Ayumi in a muffled and sulking voice as she wrapped her arms around me and pressed her face against my back. “What do you think you can do after joining in right before checkmate?”

“Oh, c’mon. This is bad enough as it is, but now I have to help motivate my capricious little sister? I’m not getting paid for this, you know?”

“Fuguu.”

“Okay, okay! Don’t cry!! I’ll do everything I can, I swear it!! So don’t get your tears and snot all over my back!!”

“Really?”

“I have to do something about the Class Rep problem anyway. Even if things aren’t looking good, I’m bound to have a better shot if I have a swarm of zombies on my side. I mean it!”

I tried saying everything I could, but my little sister did not respond.

Only the sound of the pedals filled the evening mountain road.

Finally, she spoke.

“Um, Onii-chan?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you seriously love the Class Rep?”

“Bfhh!!”

The bike just about fell over, but I swerved in an S-shape and somehow managed to regain our balance.

“Why would you ask that without any warning, you incarnation of youth!!”

“Fuguu!! Fuguuuuuuuuuu!!”

“Aggaggh!? And why are you squeezing my torso like a vise!? It might be wrong to ask this of a zombie, but try to control your emotions!!”

Unable to bear it any longer, I placed my feet on the road.

After we stopped on the slope, my little sister began pressing her face against my back again. Thanks to that, I couldn’t see her expression even when I twisted around.

“Fine then, Onii-chan. The one with you now and the one teaming up with you is me, not the Class Rep.”

“Oh, is your tantrum finally over?”

“Hmph!! Zubiii!!”

“Gyah! Why would you blow your nose on my back!?”

She finally removed her face from my back and climbed down from the bike.

“Ayumi?”

“I’m hungry. That’s a problem for a zombie like me, but you need to refuel too, don’t you? Stay here and I’ll go get us some food.”

“H-hey!”

Before I could stop her, the zombie girl ran off into the underbrush.

Was she going to kick a vending machine to break it or was she going to swipe some vegetables from a farmer’s unmanned stand? Or maybe she was going to find some wild fruit or catch some wild animals. I wasn’t going to get my hopes up. As her big brother, I would be happy as long as she didn’t start feasting on a pot full of rotting arms and legs.

But when she returned, Ayumi held something unexpected.

“What’s that? Barbecue?”

“There’s a campground nearby. I remember going there on a field trip.”

She held several metal skewers and their contents gave off the lovely aroma of cooked fatty meat. Speaking of which…

There’s meat, meat, meat, and…um…meat…and…huh? More meat…???

“Why did you only grab the skewers of meat!? You meat-obsessed zombie!!”

“Sh-shut up!! Have you ever heard of a health-conscious zombie that eats vegetables!? You should be thankful it isn’t raw meat!!”

I could not figure out why Erika was jealous enough of the meat-obsessed idiot that she forced herself to drink a stomach full of blood!!

Anyway, after crawling through all that blood and gore, I didn’t have much of an appetite…or so I had assumed. But once I saw the freshly-cooked food, I started salivating. Biological reactions were a frightening thing.

“Now that I think about it, this is a simulator, so I can eat whatever I want without gaining weight. That’s crazy.”

“But I think I read some reports that it’s so realistic that it can trick your brain into producing some weird chemicals. Y’know, like growth hormones and stuff.”

“You’re kidding. So you can gain weight without actually eating anything? B-but I’m a zombie, so if I need to I can just pull out some of my own flesh to lose weight. Ah ha ha ha ha ha.”

“Ayumi, I don’t think liposuction counts as a diet.”

Ayumi must have noticed the hunger on my face because she obediently gave me a few of the skewers.

“But what are we going to do now?” she asked while munching on the meat.

“That’s the real question…”

“Night will be here soon. And that’s the vampires’ time…Onee-chan’s time. My zombies didn’t spread as far as I’d hoped and the vampires under Onee-chan’s command are just going to hunt them all down. In fact, it’s probably already happening.”

That was when we heard something slicing through the air. I looked up from the mountain road and saw several small camouflage-painted helicopters. They were flying in formation from the mountains to the plain.

Ayumi spoke quietly while tearing into the barbecue meat.

“JSDF observation helicopters? That was fast. It must have really shocked the city council and police to be taken out so easily. They may have stopped worrying about appearances and given up on protecting their own turf. Normally, they would never ask for outside help.”

“Ayumi, what’s with the monologue?”

“I guess it’s a habit for recon flights, but they’re pretty dumb to make a low-altitude entry like this… They won’t stand a chance against Onee-chan.”

“You just don’t feel like explaining any of this to me, do you? A little sister is supposed to listen to her big brother, you know?”

I tried tracing a finger along the stitch running across Ayumi’s soft belly.

It was dramatically effective.

“Heeyan!? F-fuguuu!! Onii-chan, what are you doing!?”

“Why did you entire body convulse like that!? What kind of feeling just ran through you? I think that scared me more than you!!”

“W-well, it’s like the feeling of tickling a half-healed scab but amplified several dozen times over… Mutter, mutter. Zombies have their own unique issues…”

But this was no time to be messing around.

It could be easy to forget, but my little sister had just predicted some deaths with a pitying look in her eyes.

And her prediction proved accurate.

As the military helicopters approached the high-tech office region with its tall shop buildings and broadcast towers, a change occurred.

As they flew between the fifty-story buildings and broadcast towers, they seemed to start malfunctioning and crashing, one after another. I couldn’t tell what was happening from this distance, but it was obviously more than just engine trouble. I could sense intentional malice.

“There’s a bunch of smoke rising from the ground,” said Ayumi as she stared into the distance.

My zombie little sister may have had better eyesight than me, but I swore in my heart I would start touching all over her stitches if she tried to show off any more.

“But that’s a decoy. While they focus downward, the vampires under Onee-chan’s control are jumping down. It can be from the high-rise building rooftops or the top of the broadcast towers. They fall down, hit the rotors, and blind the pilots by covering the glass with red tomato juice. Then the helicopters crash.”

“Wait, hold on. But…wow…”

Even I could see what happened next.

A giant broadcast tower made from dozens if not hundreds of steel beams was broken off at the base and swung down as if by a giant. The few helicopters that had survived the first attack were caught by the mas of metal and brought down. Nothing remained after that.

“That was only a recon unit, but even military helicopters moving at 400 kph wouldn’t have escaped. The plain is quickly becoming Onee-chan’s empire. At this point, it’s like figuring out how to enter a territory that doesn’t allow even a needle through.”

“Erika sure is an S.”

“Well, she is a queen.”

“When I mentioned the bathroom scale the other day, she hit me with a cushion. And I was only saying I would buy a new scale since she had been going nuts on top of the old, malfunctioning one.”

“That was entirely your fault, Onii-chan.”

Then something else happened.

Heavy noises reverberated in my gut.

But this did not come from the city center where our sister lurked. It was the opposite. Black smoke was rising from the edges of Kukyou City.

Ayumi didn’t even bother looking over this time.

“After what just happened, the JSDF blew up the bridges and tunnels. They’ve given up on rescuing the survivors and are preventing the damage from spreading.”

The police, the military, and even the zombies were no match for Erika.

A hopeless atmosphere surrounded us.

But…

“Ayumi.”

I spoke up to break free of my negative thoughts.

“Let me ask you something instead: how far are you willing to go?”

“Onii…-chan?”

“I’m talking about more than just biting people to make more zombies. Are you prepared to defeat Erika even if it means destroying the entire world?”

“Do you…do you have an idea?”

“Vampires often go through individual mutations that give them unique skills: turning into a wolf or a bat, shrinking down to slip through the cracks in window frames or coffins, and more. So if we were going to search out their weaknesses, it would require analyzing every single individual vampire in the city.”

“Well excuse me for only being able to create stupid zombies that can’t learn anything. Fuguu.”

“Hear me out, Ayumi. But the basic aspects of a vampire are shared by all of them. They’re all weak to direct sunlight, they can all be defeated by destroying their heart, and all the rest. And a lot of those are a lot like fairly illogical jinxes: they need permission from the owner to enter someone else’s house, they can’t cross running water, and they don’t show up in mirrors. Compared to the virus-dependent zombies, they seem to have a lot of excess fat.”

“What about it?”

“Did you overlook one of those, Ayumi?”

I focused in on the one important point.

“Vampires can’t cross running water.”

Ayumi the zombie girl remained silent for a while.

She blinked her eyes.

Finally, she seemed to realize what I was getting at. Even though she was a zombie, I could see her face growing pale.

“Wait a second, Onii-chan. Are you saying what I think you’re saying!?”

“For better or for worse, we escaped to the mountains instead of along the coast. We’re in the right place, so let me ask my initial question again. …Ayumi, how far are you willing to go? How much will you do to get back at our sister?”

“Fine, then,” said Ayumi as she bit into the barbecue. “Let’s do it.”

The feeling welling up inside her was not avoidance or anxiety. It was a sense of catastrophe. The look in her eyes was enough for me tell she was wrapped in the inappropriate elation and expectation of someone secretly enjoying the night of a typhoon.

I too devoured the skewered meat like it was our last supper.

“We don’t have time. Let’s get started once we’ve finished eating. The vampires will rule the scene once night falls. …And that assumption will lead Erika to let her guard down, giving us an opening to attack.”

“And her advantage comes from having an organized group. If we break down that coordination, it should damage her even more than it would zombies like us!”

After our meal, we climbed back onto the bike.

Our destination was quite nearby.

On the way, I mentioned something I had been curious about.

“By the way, Ayumi, you always leave the housework to Erika, but you can pull off some surprisingly wild cooking. Are you the type that’s second to none with an iron plate and a spatula? Sizzle sizzle! Clank clank!!”

“Eh? What are you talking about? I just attacked some of the people camping out there and stole their food.”

“…”

A zombie was still a zombie.

I just about threw it all back up, Ayumi!!

[Pick Up] New Article on an Occult Site [Net Files]

Japan’s Top 100 Spiritual Spots!!

Do you think it’s too soon for a test of courage? Summer is just around the corner and it’s too late to choose a spot once it begins! So here’s some advice for you!!

You can see the full list with the links below, but I’ll be going into more detail on one in particular. Tah dah! It’s the Kukyou Dam!!

The dam looks pretty old, but, well, maybe you’ve heard of it as a famous suicide spot? It’s the standard place for the climax of that Something-or-Other Mystery Theatre. But, but! A surprisingly few number of people actually know where it is.

The stars are of course the ghosts of the suicide victims! A couple overwhelmed by debt drives their car right off the edge, a crazed addict strips naked and jumps off, or someone lights themselves on fire in some kind of ritual and then dives off. (Man, I really don’t want to drink the water that comes from there.) But that isn’t all. People hang themselves in the nearby forest or slit their wrists in the public bathroom. Not to mention the carbon monoxide poisoning, tongue biting, or plastic bag over the head… A lot of them make you wonder why anyone would go all that way if that’s the method they were gonna choose!

But there are also some unconfirmed rumors.

Apparently, some bad people hang out there, taking advantage of all the suicides. The tours for people hoping to spot a corpse and the people waiting around hoping to film a suicide are the relatively decent ones. There are apparently some twisted people who pursue the people there to commit suicide and use hateful methods to take them for everything they’re worth. Really, it’s a lot like a variation on the rumors about Fuji’s sea of trees. There are even rumors that a murderous group in search of a convenient but lesser-known spot moved here after the sea of trees grew too well-known.

The credibility seems about 50/50 to me, but it is true there are a lot of weird deaths and people going missing.

Maybe there’s something even bigger than the rumors suggest.

If you’re visiting during summer break and feel like taking a ghost picture, it might be best to keep a GPS tracker and a security alarm with you.

Of course, electronics are well known for malfunctioning in spiritual spots. Ha ha.

[Pick Up] The Class Rep’s Voice Recorded by a Talking Cat [Net Files]

Satori-kun next door hasn’t been very happy lately.

His dad and mom are always fighting.

His family might break apart soon. I overheard them talking about it.

Satori-kun is always smiling, but he sometimes looks really sad when no one’s looking.

I don’t know how it would feel to have that happen.

I mean, a family is an absolute. I don’t think I would know what to believe if I saw mine fall apart.

But.

Even if you can’t believe in anything in the world, it doesn’t mean the world has changed. There have to be lots of things around him he can believe in. No, because he’s having such a hard time, all those things have to come to him.

But I can’t just expect it to happen.

I can’t hope someone else will do it.

I need to start by becoming something like that.

Even if everything he can believe in falls apart, I need to be something that will never betray him, that he can always believe in, and that will never change.

I will become someone like that.

I have to.

Chapter 5

Night fell.

That meant the vampires were freed from the bonds of sunlight and could unleash their true power.

“Erika.”

“What is it, Satori-kun?”

Over the phone, Erika sounded gentle, kind…and most of all, triumphant. She would not wait until the morning. She would not give up her turn. I could hear it in her voice.

“It’s getting dark around here, but what do vampires eat? With that many of you, you’ll need a lot of supplies just for dinner.”

“Hee hee. Don’t worry. As long as we have fresh blood, we can survive in the wild or in the mountains or wherever else. Of course, eating hamburger steak and cabbage rolls like normal provides nourishment for the heart. So for the time being, I’ve ordered them to expand our forces while finding their own supplies. Of course, things might change once the vampires cover the entire city…Urp.”

“Um, Erika?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. I’ll be back to normal after a few deep breaths. …I refuse to let Ayumi-chan beat me. If I work at expanding my stomach bit by bit, I’ll be able to shock you with how much blood I can drink.”

“You don’t have to compete over that and that isn’t what I’m looking for in a girl!!”

“By the way, what about your dinner, Satori-kun? I always take care of the cooking when mom isn’t around, so did you manage to find something? I’m honestly kind of worried.”

“Yeah. Ayumi and I ate barbecue together”

“What!? That sounds like so much fun! Why didn’t you call me!? Aren’t we family!?”

“Huh? I thought a clean freak like you wouldn’t like sitting outside with smoke everywhere and getting your hands all messy.”

“Satori-kun, it is being a clean freak that gives me such a clear distinction between what is and isn’t clean. Now, which is cleaner: letting yourself enjoy an event or refusing to take part due to sour grapes? And no fair! Noooo fair! Why is Ayumi-chan the only one that gets to be with you!?”

“Sorry, sorry.”

I moved the phone from my ear when she started yelling.

And then I said it.

“But this is all your fault.”

“…Oh?”

The cellphone signal could not carry an atmosphere or aura, but I still felt a squeezing at my chest.

But I didn’t care.

I had decided I would save the Swimsuit Class Rep from the vampires. And I was willing to make a mess of the simulated Kukyou City to do it. So this was not the time to declare war. Erika had already done that when she captured the Class Rep.

“I’m only saying this once, so listen up.”

“Okay.”

“Take the Class Rep and escape to an elevated place. If it’s a building, get to at least the third floor. To be honest, I haven’t done the detailed calculations, so the higher the better.”

“Hey, Satori-kun. I don’t want to ruin this moment because my heart is pounding hearing my cute little brother sounding so cool, but I’m going to do it anyway. I don’t know what you’re about to do, but do you really believe you can defeat me? After my overwhelming victory during the day, do you really believe you can even touch me at night?”

“Didn’t I say I’m only saying it once? This is all wasted if the Class Rep is caught in it.”

Yes.

Normally, she would have been right.

But…

The deluge of water pouring from the broken dam overturned all of that.

A giant reservoir of water in the mountains supported the city’s water supply.

I had gotten some help from Ayumi the zombie girl to take control of the dam. No, to destroy it.

It was obvious what would happen to the city downstream. The Weather Spheres meant to predict flooding were entirely useless.

“Satori…-kun!? Wait, don’t tell me…!!”

“Is the water already there? It doesn’t rush in as a solid wall. It will start rising at your feet, but the next thing you know, it’s several meters deep.”

I viewed the nighttime city from the mountain road, but then moved the smartphone from my face a little.

The aerial image from the drone showed the roads filling up with dark water in no time at all. The buildings looked like lines of square stones cutting across a pond.

In truth, the depth and speed of the water did not matter.

The main point lay elsewhere.

“Vampires can’t cross running water.”

“!?”

“So prepare yourself, Erika. A vampire’s strength comes from their twisted social structure with the queen at the top. You can’t take advantage of that if you’re trapped on separate rooftops. And it goes without saying that the water won’t stop the zombies from moving around the city.”

Our battle preparations were complete.

I had no more reason to wait, so I hung up and got to work.

“Onii-chan, where can we find a boat!?”

“This is a disaster prevention city! We can find one just about anywhere!”

Next to the roadside metal cases for fire hoses were identical sized containers. When I opened one and turned the valve, a rubber boat with an electric motor inflated like an airbag.

“More importantly, Ayumi, are you okay? You’re injured!”

“Hm? Why are you worried about a zombie’s injuries?”

She gave a quick wave of her bloody hand. She had been like this since getting back from the dam. I could guess that the workers had put up a valiant fight to prevent the entire city from being flooded, but it was odd that the top of the zombie side had been this badly injured. Was there something more to the dam?

She used a sewing set’s needle and thread to roughly sew up the wounds like she was repairing a stuffed animal.

“We need to hurry, Onii-chan. Time isn’t going to wait around!”

“Well, if you’re fine, okay. But be more careful next time! You’re a girl, after all!!”

“C’mon, you’re making me blush. Oops, my arm came off.”

“Ayumi, make sure you get thaaaaaat!!”

We placed the rubber boat on the water that was as dark as the sea at night. First Ayumi climbed on while continuing to sew and then I followed with the collapsible bike in my arms.

I hadn’t even thought about how to use one of these since they had taught us in school, but I managed to use the motor that doubled as a rudder to steer us along the great muddy stream and toward Kukyou City.

“How are we on zombies!?”

“I made some more at that campground and at the dam! Once there are enough of them, they’ll multiply like crazy on their own!!”

I used the aerial footage from the drone to steer the boat toward where Erika was. The buildings rising from the sunken city whooshed by on either side of us.

The pandemonium had already begun.

The vampires could not cross flowing water, so they were stuck on the building rooftops. Then the countless zombies rose from the water, climbed the walls, and swarmed the isolated vampires. Even if there were more vampires in all, the zombies outnumbered them on the individual rooftops. After that, they were helplessly devoured.

Wow…I know it’s not fair to judge zombies like this, but you certainly can’t call them smart…

“Good, it looks like they’re multiplying just fine. Go get ‘em, men!!”

“It looks like the drowned corpses and the ‘uninfected’ who aren’t part of either group can both be turned into zombies. But it also looks like we aren’t powerful enough to turn a vampire into a zombie or vice-versa.”

“That doesn’t matter as long as we can get back at our smug sister.”

We discussed the situation as our rubber boat raced across the dark water.

Using the drone, I could tell exactly where Erika was and that was thanks to one of the vampire’s major restrictions.

A vampire could not enter a house without permission.

Our home and public facilities like a school were exceptions, but she could not set foot inside any private property. That meant she was stuck out on the rooftop.

To her and the other vampires, the world was made up of separated square fields.

I just had to peer down at them with the drone.

The balance of power had been reversed in no time. The vampires were no longer a group centered on their queen, so a local difference in numbers was enough to defeat them individually.

“Onee-chaaaaan!!”

Ayumi shouted over the roar of the rubber boat’s motor.

We were right next to the rooftop where Erika waited.

A chapel bell tower was visible next to it, so it was not that tall a building.

We practically crashed the boat into the edge of the half-submerged rooftop. While I tied the boat on with a rope, my little sister climbed onto the roof and faced the vampire in a gothic lolita dress.

Erika had a servant on either side of her like bodyguards. Those two, Erika herself, and the forehead glasses Class Rep were the only ones there.

I heard splashing from all around us.

Five, ten, fifteen, twenty… More and more arms broke through the dark water and grabbed the edge of the roof. Then the zombies pulled themselves up. Ayumi’s forces looked like they were crawling up from the depths of hell.

Ayumi jabbed a finger toward our older sister’s face and gave a shout.

“This is checkmate!! Okay, it’s time to pay the piper. Don’t think I’m going to forgive you if you apologize now!!”

“Don’t act so proud. This devilish resolve was definitely more Satori-kun’s style.”

“That doesn’t matter!! Onii-chan is mine right now!!”

“Oh, my. I’ll kill you for that one, little sister.”

“Fuguu!!”

The abandoned Swimsuit Class Rep stared at me with blank eyes that said “awaiting instructions”.

I can’t stand that look anymore! You stupid simulator!!

“Hmm.”

Then Erika glanced over at me instead of Ayumi.

“So you’re willing to put this much of a fight for your precious Class Rep? Even when it’s just empty simulation data being controlled by Maxwell? Yet you never seem too interested when the two of us fight over you in the real world.”

“Of course I’m scared!! If she finds out about that swimsuit dance file set, she’ll beat me more than just half to death! Ohh, I so don’t want her upset at me!!”

“I see, I see,” said Erika while nodding twice.

And then…

“…That really pisses me off…”

“Eh?”

“Oh, nothing☆”

All of a sudden, she put on a bright smile.

“Now, then. Ayumi-chan, you tried to sound cool with your checkmate line, but let’s take a look at the exact situation here. Do you really think a vampire will be so easily defeated at night?”

“You think you’re so great, don’t you? Get her, men!!”

Wow, this little sister gets really carried away as soon as she has the upper hand!!

She’s hopeless! And when she was sobbing not long ago!

After the command from their evil ruler (or maybe that didn’t matter at all since they had no hierarchy), the zombies rushed in from every direction. Erika ordered her two servants out to stop them, but they were outnumbered. There were more than thirty zombies, so the two vampires were forced down onto the rooftop and then devoured.

That just left Erika.

Perhaps to preserve her dignity as a queen, she did not use the Class Rep as a shield.

“Hey, Ayumi-chan.”

“What!? I’ve never been happier, so I guess I’ll hear what you have to say!!”

“What do you think our original plan was?”

The zombies rushed toward Erika.

Unlike vampires, zombies were not organized. Ayumi had dashed toward Erika not to deliver the finishing blow, but to grab the Class Rep’s hand and pull her out of harm’s way.

We were finally reunited.

However, I could not just rejoice because a swarm of zombies was grabbing at Erika.

But this was the end regardless.

Once we had a result, the simulation would end and it would all be over.

Or it should have been.

Even as the crowd knocked her to the floor, my older sister looked my way and continued smiling.

That clean-freak was torn bloodily apart.

“Don’t worry. My wounds will regenerate unless they take out my heart.”

“…”

“And there’s no reason for you to feel sorry. I’ve been making progress in my own way.”

I finally felt a chill down my spine as I watched her expression remain unchanged even as she had more and more bites taken out of her.

“Ayumi-chan, why do you think I started off by focusing on the administrative institutions like the police and the city council?”

“What are you talking about, Onee-chan?”

“Surely you didn’t think it was only so I could control the influential people and the information sources in order to send both the humans and the vampires against your zombies☆”

…What was this feeling?

Was there something more? How many new forms did this final boss have!?

“Vampire skills are a lot like a mutation. No one knows what skill you’re going to find. So if there’s one you want, you have to keep making more vampires and hope you get lucky.”

Vampire skills could be a number of things.

It could mean turning into a bat or a wolf and it could mean changing size.

But wasn’t there one truly inhuman skill?

One that almost overturned the definition of a vampire as a bloodsucker?

“Yes, yes. If you just want to kill a lot of people, then a Kallikantzaros or a Nelapsi would be fine. If you want to be more surreptitious about it, then a Doppelganger or a Vrykolakas is more than enough. But a vampire that takes blood from the dead rather than the living is much harder to come by. I really must have the luck of a queen to have hit the jackpot today☆”

Erika never stopped smiling as the zombies pinned her to the floor and devoured her.

Conversely, Ayumi’s face paled.

And yet this should have been checkmate for her.

“I wanted a vampire that appears in old Polish literature. It can move during the day, it sucks blood from the hearts of the dead, and it can bite its own flesh in its coffin to suck the life force from its relatives. Of all the many legends, not many are quite this cruel.”

Her voice contained the joy of someone who had successfully hidden the perfect present and was now hiding it behind their back, waiting to reveal it.

“It is known as the Upior and it is said to ring a church bell and kill every single person who hears it☆”

My spine was flash frozen.

But Erika was not done speaking.

She had more to say beyond that secret weapon.

“Didn’t I tell you, Satori-kun? The Upior can suck blood from the hearts of the dead. After everyone within range of the church bell falls dead, she just has to turn them all into vampires. With the modern population density, that would be a thousand people? Ten thousand? It might even reach a wondrous hundred thousand.”

“That’s impossible… The entire city was flooded. Even if the bell rings, the Upior can’t pass over the water!”

“But! What if the order was reversed?”

“…”

“Eh heh heh. I said the Upior can move around during the day, didn’t I? Instead of her fangs, the Upior sucks blood using her long, skinny tongue that stabs people like a thorn. And didn’t I say I wasn’t taking over the police and the city council for no reason? I had tens of thousands of people gather in stadiums and theatres. Those are not the most hygienic environments, so bug bites are hardly uncommon. Yes, the Upior left her scars in advance. Hee hee. Why didn’t that cause a commotion? Because we released plenty of flying bugs to give people a nice excuse for themselves. The Upior could casually walk around biting them all while they were packed in like it was rush hour. And when the Upior bites a corpse, they become a vampire. So don’t you think the process could be reversed a little? And if it can…”

The vampires had originally revealed their identity and attacked the people trapped inside the barricades. They had sucked their blood one by one, creating more vampires.

But they wouldn’t have been able to suck the blood of every last person in a stadium.

A lot of the people would have run for their lives.

But what if that had not been enough to save them?

What if they had only thought they were safe? What if they had only been allowed to go free for the time being and they had no say in their own fate?

“You can’t…” cut in Ayumi.

But Erika did not stop.

“The bell just has to ring once and every last person we put in a ‘reservation’ for will die and immediately turn into a vampire thanks to the Upior’s mark. Doesn’t that sound like it work? Hee hee. Unlike the rest of us standard vampires, the Upior doesn’t have to suck a lethal amount of blood. Since the target is already dead, it doesn’t take much blood for the effects to kick in. Plus, if we turned all of the survivors into vampires during the day, the sunlight could have wiped them all out and we would need a further stock of humans to continue on. Now, a question, Satori-kun.”

“You can’t!!”

“The Upior could safely move around during the day and I sent her to a total of eight civilian fortresses such as stadiums and theatres. She probably made her ‘bug bites’ on almost three hundred thousand people. So what percentage of that will turn into vampires at the ring of this bell?☆”

I did not have time to give an answer.

Ayumi tackle the Class Rep and me into the dark and cold water.

As soon as we hit the thick wall of water, a heavy ringing shook the world above.

[Pick Up] About Vampire Mutations [Net Files]

In addition to the standard traits, most vampires have a special skill. These are most likely mutations created from a mixture of the victim’s own traits and the skill of the vampire that bit them. One group is attempting to establish a link between this and the chromosome damage caused by cell death while the blood is being sucked out, but that will likely end in failure.

Their fighting spirit will be broken when they try to physically explain how that leads to shrinking one’s body or transforming into a wolf or a bat.

I have seen quite a few samples, but one of them stands out as the worst.

The Upior.

That vampire has its origins in Poland. The worst part is the fact that it has several ways of attacking people without biting them.

The worst of those is a church bell.

The Upior can remain active during the day, but they will also sneak into churches to ring the bell during the dead of night. Anyone who hears it and whose age is close to the Upior’s when it died will be killed.

You might think they are somewhat lucky to only be killed.

You might think that is better than becoming a vampire.

But that isn’t the case.

The Upior has a wide variety of abilities. Not only can it move around during the day, but it also rings a bell at night. Those traits are complete opposites.

And there are further legends.

While most other vampires wander to suck the blood of the living, the Upior is said to prefer sucking blood from the hearts of the dead.

If the Upior caused devastating damage to a village or town in a single night and then sucked the blood of the dead – in other words, if it turned the dead into vampires – the living who had escaped the initial damage would be swallowed up by the swarm of monsters. They would have no way to defeat the powerful vampires surrounding them and they would be overwhelmed by the pure numbers.

Can we really defeat a monster like that?

That vampire has strength, intelligence, and numbers. What human advantage is left?

Chapter 6

“Puhah!!”

The Class Rep and I brought our heads above the dark water’s surface.

The thick barrier of water seemed to have kept the sound of the bell from our ears.

But we could already sense a change.

Yes.

“What…? The water isn’t flowing…?”

“Sure. The flow of water seems to have stopped for some reason.”

Placing my hands on the edge of a roof was enough to tell. The incredible current had completely stopped. The calm water’s surface was more like a lake than a river.

“Of course it has,” said Erika as the zombies continued to devour her.

However, the composure never left her face.

My S older sister seemed to be an expert on the other end of the spectrum as well.

“The Upior’s one-time-only action has made everywhere within a kilometer of here into undead territory. That alone has given me between ten and twenty thousand vampires. Hm, all that setup during the day didn’t quit work, but…well, the legend about the bell does say it curses the people the same age as the Upior at death, so maybe it doesn’t work on everyone. Regardless, this gives me an overwhelming advantage.”

“…”

“And with this many people to work with, I can move onto the next phase. Heyyyy, Ayumi-chan? If you pulled out the drain plug with a ton of hair floating in the bath, don’t you think it would clog up the drain?”

“It can’t be.”

“Vampires can’t cross running water.”

She spoke decisively.

It was like flipping over the chess board after being put in checkmate.

“But what if I have my vampire minions jump into the water until they clog up the water’s exit? Running water might be a problem, but once it stops running, it isn’t anything to worry about. Isn’t that a simple solution?”

“It can’t be!!!”

Ayumi made a split second decision.

She threw out the chance she had been aiming for. She purposefully let go of it. She jumped back toward us and landed on the top of a telephone pole that held a Weather Sphere as it poked up above the dark water. As soon as she did, countless figures burst out of the water from every direction.

They were vampires.

These were the people who had been separated by the flowing water.

It was like surrounding a small bug with an even larger cage.

The small rooftop ruled by around thirty zombies was easily retaken by a rush of hundreds of vampires. They quickly tore the zombies to pieces to punish them for disrespecting their queen.

Using her vampire minions like hair clogging a drain? She looks all soft and cuddly, but how much of a queen is my sister!?

“Onii-chan!!”

Ayumi shouted toward me, but I held the nearby Class Rep tightly in my arms as I floated in the water. I wasn’t going to let her get away from me again. If I had to keep rescuing her from my powerful older sister, I would never survive even if I could give myself multiple lives in the simulation!! And when the weird results were automatically sent back to the university and lab, those old guys would laugh at me and then the real Class Rep would smash my real face in with her real iron fist! I was going to take this secret to my grave!! …My intention must have gotten through to my zombie little sister because she clicked her tongue and grabbed my back collar while standing on the telephone pole.

“!! Onii-chan, you Class Rep obsessed idiot!!”

“This is what I came here for!!”

“Fuguu!! Stuuuuuuuuupid Onii-chan!!”

As the Class Rep and I dangled from her arm, she hopped to the rubber boat we had used to get here.

We sank down and then bounced back up.

Ayumi had no allies around now. The unorganized swarm of zombies was being wiped out by the reorganized army of vampires.

“We need to get out of here! If she captures us here, Onee-chan won’t show any mercy! You and the Class Rep will be vampires in no time!!”

“I know that!!”

I quickly started the rubber boat’s electric motor.

“But where are we supposed to go!?”

“This really feels like the climax, doesn’t it?”

“~ ~ ~”

Ayumi rudely chewed on her thumbnail.

Meanwhile….Oh, no. They’re keeping up with us. Several vampires were jumping from building to building in the sunken city!!

Not even the horsepower of a motorboat could outdo vampires with the power of the night. They were catching up and they would jump onto the boat before long.

“!!”

I grabbed what was loaded into the boat and threw it at them.

All I had done was remove gas from the generators at the camping grounds, fill small drink bottles with it, and then shake them to mix the gas with the air inside. Even lighting them so they exploded would not do much damage to an immortal vampire.

But vampires would die if their heart was pierced by a stake of hawthorn or ash wood.

Luckily, an outdoorsman had brought a small encyclopedia with them. I had only needed to wrap a rubber band around each small drink bottles and use that to attach the small branches used for kindling. It was the same as wrapping spare utility knife blades or barbed wire around a homemade bomb to increase its destructive power. This created a shrapnel bomb specifically for vampires!

After a loud explosion, the leaping vampires veered off course and fell into the dark water. I couldn’t tell if I had defeated them or not.

I heard gentle laughter from somewhere.

“You’re so mean…”

It was Erika.

We were running the motorboat at full speed, but we never seemed to move any further from her voice.

The voice reverberated oddly throughout the wide outdoors and pursued us indefinitely.

“You’re so mean, Satori-kun. Why do you have to hurt and defeat my vampires? You’re making your sister sad. My heart might just tear apart…”

“Wah!! I’m sorry, Erika!!”

“Don’t let her get to you, Onii-chan!! Who cares what that girl and her giant ass say!?”

“Eh heh heh. We need to talk after this is over, Ayumi-chan. Urp.”

“Oh, no. I bet you’ve turned into a bat or something to pursue us, but did you decide to bite some survivor’s neck along the way!?”

“Onee-chan has some nerve for someone who eats such tiny lunches! She can’t make a vampire without sucking a lethal amount, so half-assing it doesn’t accomplish anything!!”

We could not lose her no matter how far we fled.

We might have been safe inside a building, but there was barely anywhere like that left. Which made sense since we had flooded the entire city!

“No, there’s somewhere left, Onii-chan.”

“?”

I frowned and Ayumi turned to the Swimsuit Class Rep instead of me.

“Maxwell! …is what I should call you, right? It’s hard to tell with the landmarks underwater, but the Hughes Real Estate building is this way, right!?”

“No. You have been temporarily granted higher privileges, but the system’s authorized user is still Amatsu Satori. According to the security policy, I must reject commands from other users.”

“Onii-chan, can I bite her a little?”

“Calm down, Ayumi. That would waste all our efforts here! And don’t be so weirdly stubborn, Maxwell! I authorize Ayumi’s command!!”

“Sure. To reach the aforementioned Hughes Real Estate Kukyou City Central Branch, continue forward four hundred meters, turn right, and continue another fifty meters. However, I believe the first floor reception desk will have been flooded.”

“…So you’ll listen to what Onii-chan says while shaking your little butt for him, will you? Maybe I should bite you for some divine punishment…”

“Ayumi. Why do you want to get to the real estate building anyway!?”

“Have you forgotten, Onii-chan?”

We created an impressive crescent moon wave as Ayumi forced the rubber boat through a tight turn while skillfully maintaining our balance.

“Vampires can’t enter people’s homes. They need the owner’s permission.”

“Oh.”

“I bet that’s a legend that came from the fear of a cult gradually spreading through a town and going door-to-door to find new members, but all that matters is that it works on Onee-chan! Look over there. That’s the sign for Hughes Real Estate!!”

The rubber boat charged toward it.

We smashed the building’s third story window and sent the rubber boat flying right onto the carpeted floor. Zombie Ayumi could not bear to wait for the boat to stop, so she jumped out and rolled.

It was dark inside, but that may have been due to the flooding. I used my smartphone’s backlight for light and shouted to Ayumi.

“Ayumi! Erika and the vampires are already here!!”

“I know that!! Um, um, there it is! This is the original document showing who owns the building. If I rewrite it real quick…”

Steel racks were filled with cardboard boxes stuffed with files. Ayumi had followed the alphabetic labels to pull out the file she wanted and then threw it onto a work table.

She crossed out a few entries with a fountain pen and wrote something else in their place.

“This building belongs to us now! Onee-chan and the vampires can’t get in without our permission!!”

“Ayumi, yelling your plan is cool and all, but why did you just stop moving?”

“I want to make the finishing blow, but I don’t have our family seal.”

“Oh, honestly!! This is a foreign company, so a signature should work just fine!!”

I snatched the pen from her and signed my own name.

At that very moment, I heard something being repelled. I looked back in surprise and saw a vampire seemingly flattened against the window. But we had broken the glass to get in through there, so there shouldn’t have been anything in its way.

Several more vampires tried to jump through, but the result was the same. The glass did not break, they could not get through even when the glass was already broken, and they could not get in through the doors.

I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Did we…make it?”

“It’s hard to say. This is Onee-chan we’re talking about. She isn’t going to take this sitting down. Let’s get somewhere where the vampires can’t see us.”

“Instead of trying something, it might be best to wait until morning when the sunlight will be on our side.”

I left the document storage room with Ayumi and the Swimsuit Class Rep. We left the rubber boat and collapsible bike there.

As a high schooler, I knew nothing about real estate buildings. The general reception areas were apparently primarily on the first and second floors, so we were in a negotiation space for elite customers. To be blunt, there were works of art and antiques sitting around and a ton of small lockable rooms, so it looked more like an entertainment space than an efficient office.

The elevators did not work, probably due to the flooding.

As we used the stairs to climb higher, the place looked more and more like it was meant for entertainment.

“Wow, what is this?”

“It’s like a private museum.”

The floor was filled with glass cases of various sizes. They contained paintings, sculptures, and contraptions from around the world. A giant carnivorous dinosaur skeleton acted as a centerpiece. The paintings and sculptures looked pretty creepy with my smartphone as our only light in the darkness, but in proper lighting, even I may have been overwhelmed and I knew next to nothing about art.

A kid like me couldn’t tell what the point of it was or how it helped with real estate deals. Some TV ads would list the names of the affiliated companies or show off a factory’s excellent skill rather than trying to get the viewers to buy anything, so was this the same kind of “adult vanity” seen in those “ads directed at the very corporation that made them”?

Whatever the reason, we were grateful.

It created a fair bit of cover and there were no windows because direct sunlight would be bad for the gallery. This area would be a black box to Erika and the vampires outside. …Assuming they didn’t have any weird skills like clairvoyance or bat echolocation.

“Wait a second, Onii-chan. It says this section is an Eastern Europe collection.”

“Hm?”

“It’s almost all about vampires. Does Onee-chan have a fan?”

I walked over and did indeed find what looked like a vampire section. There was a giant coffin, a crown covered in jewels, and a similar staff. There was a painting of an old castle on a lake, and…ew. Based on the description, it had been made by mixing real blood into the paint.

There was also a bathtub that a medieval noble had supposedly filled with fresh blood as well as torture and execution devices thought to have been used to efficiently remove the blood. There was even a long line of hammers and old stakes. It wasn’t clear if it was really based on the vampire legends or if it was more about the entertainment of nobles who were viewed like monsters.

The Swimsuit Class Rep tilted her head.

“If we use these, could we do more efficient damage to the vampires?”

“That’s like saying you could defeat an expert in ancient martial arts if you had a flintlock gun. It might be somewhat effective, but there’s no real reason to pull out an antique. Wouldn’t it be better to make full use of our modern stuff?”

There was also a section of things related to zombies.

It was mostly documents on the cultures and customs of the Caribbean region.

“Voodoo? But the display is mostly normal suits and coats. It doesn’t seem very religious to me.”

“The religion was created more recently, so they didn’t have to use all that dated attire.”

“Hm. I thought it was all about zombies zombies zombies, but I guess there’s more to it than that.”

“The Houngan are the priests who manage all the administrative ‘customs’ and the zombies are a technique of providing punishment. People tend to focus on that since it’s more exciting, but they also have a system for making normal prayers such as for a good harvest or for rain.”

“Isn’t that a cross there?”

“Voodoo has a tendency of taking in other religions and working them into their own traditions. To think the chemicals they created would combine with a virus and create that acute version.”

As we spoke, my cellphone rang.

It was from Erika.

She was already sniffling from the very start.

“Sniff… You’re so mean. You’re so mean, Satori-kun. How could you go have fun with everyone in your secret base while leaving your older sister out in the cold and all alone…?”

“Uuh…”

“You can’t, Onii-chan!!”

Just as I felt an ache in my chest, Ayumi kicked me in the butt. The powerful leg strength of a zombie lifted my feet from the floor and nearly took out my hips.

“Don’t feel any weird guilt about this! Tricking the owner of a house into giving them permission is a standard vampire move!!”

“But Ayumi. When you see a hungry kitten in a cardboard box out in the rain, you know it’s manipulative, but it still gets you right in the soul. It’s a cliché for a reason! Did you hear what Erika said!? Mean, fun, everyone, out in the cold, all alone. She’s too good at this. How can I abandon her after she’s pierced my heart with so many fishing hooks!?”

“Then hang up! She can’t shake your resolve if she can’t access you. Hurry up and hang up on that girl and her giant boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooobs!!”

Then I heard a rustling sound over the phone.

It sounded like cloth?

“Um, what are you doing, Erika?”

“Oh, it’s feeling a little hot, so I’m just stripping. Why?”

“Bfff!?”

“Oh, no!!” shouted Ayumi, but our sister continued speaking.

“As you know, I’m a clean freak, so I can’t stand being all sweaty. Oh, but if you want to see, Satori-kun, you have your smartphone, right? Let’s call a truce so I can deliver a live show right to you. Aren’t you curious where I start when I wipe myself down with a wet tissue?”

“Eh? Really!? Let’s do that!!”

“You…” Ayumi went pale. “You idioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot!!”

Immediately afterwards, I heard glass shattering on a different floor.

Eh? Wait, ehhh!?

“Thank you very much for permission to come in, Satori-kun☆ Eh heh heh.”

“What? I didn’t give you that. Weren’t you talking about using my smartphone…?”

“You perverted Onii-chan!! She said she would deliver a live show right to you. She never said anything about a video or transmitting it! If she meant she was going to go right to you and strip there, then you gave her permission to come in!!”

“Vahh!!”

It was too late. I could hear the rushed footsteps approaching us. I could only take this seriously.

“Ayumi, Maxwell. Let’s try to fix this.”

“We need to have a talk when this is all over, Onii-chan!!”

“I am relieved you are back to being your usual worthless self. Your behavior had been a little too ‘cool’ since the destruction of the dam, so I had been analyzing it to discover what kind of error it was. Fortunately, my worries were unfounded.”

“If we need to have a talk with anyone, it’s Erika! How could she bait me like that? And if she used that promise to get in here, I’m definitely making her go through with it afterwards!! Where does that clean freak of a sister start when washing herself? Gulp…!?”

“Bff!? Eh?” said Erika over the phone. “Wait, Satori-kun! Ehh!?”

At any rate, our safe zone was gone. We could not wait around until morning with all these vampires coming in.

“I guess we’ll have to get back to the boat.”

“Yeah, but how!? The vampires are pouring in and there are no people here to make zombies out of! We’ll be overwhelmed with both quantity and quality at this rate!!”

It was true that a vampire would not die if we hit it with a stick or stabbed it with a knife.

And unlike zombies, they were intelligent. They could work together to cut off our escape and they could search each room one by one. Hiding under a desk or behind a trashcan would not save us.

But…

“If they’re intelligent, we can use a method that wouldn’t work against zombies.”

“Onii-chan…?”

“We can trick the vampires. While zombies will rush in to bite you on instinct, the ability to think should create an opening in the vampires.”

[Pick Up] Afterword to a History Book (Electronic Version) [Net Files]

It might be due to an image campaign, but the fact remains that very few heroes actually face monsters in single combat.

Unlike people’s standard image of a hero, they often win through deception.

In Japan’s case, Yamata-no-Orochi was defeated while drunk. In Norse Mythology, Thor, the great thunder god, disguised himself as the goddess Freyja to take back Mjolnir.

Many were mentioned in this text, but the stories of heroes slaying monsters are truly fascinating. They often display the culture’s characteristics and their taboos.

For example, they do not like a deceptive enemy, but their own deception is acceptable.

For example, how deceptive can a hero be before he becomes a coward?

For example, what kind of deceptive tactics can be justified when used to subjugate an enemy?

Looking at those factors can show you the customs and culture of that region. It resurrects the scent and atmosphere of that time period far better than visiting a hundred ruins or reading a thousand documents. It is truly the most any historian could ask for.

But make no mistake.

These deceptive tactics and acts of subjugation are being viewed in hindsight. Only after much planning and countless coincidences did they snatch victory by pure chance.

No one in the world can be fully deceived.

But very few people do not grow angry when they realize they have been deceived.

What if you are faced with a monster that cannot be defeated by standard methods?

What if you use deceptive methods to overcome that gap?

And what if you still fail to win?

You can easily expect to receive a penalty far harsher than losing while using the standard methods. After all, when someone is enraged over being deceived, the words mercy and leniency vanish from their vocabularies.

Chapter 7

There wasn’t much we could do on the museum floor. Holing up there would only get us cornered, so we left the dark floor and moved elsewhere despite the danger.

Luckily, this was Kukyou City, known as a disaster prevention city. A small storeroom had plenty of supplies: canned fish, an umbrella built to survive intense gusts of wind, synthetic fiber bags, powerful battery lights, rope that could be used for mountain climbing, and a bag with an insulated surface that looked like aluminum foil. With a little bit of tinkering, it could all be used as a weapon.

“Can we really defeat vampires with this!? This looks like some kind of craft made over summer vacation!!”

“Ayumi, vampires come in a variety of types. But in this case, all of the ones in Kukyou City were turned into vampires by Erika earlier in the day. Meaning…

We ran into a vampire on the landing while heading down the stairs.

Before the young man could move, Ayumi opened a one-touch umbrella. Aluminum foil had been pasted across the surface. It looked like a reflector in a photography studio and she shined a powerful disaster battery light on it.

The concave lens focused the violently bright light into an even more powerful spotlight which shined on the vampire’s face down the stairs.

“Vampires are weak to light!!” I shouted.

“Kh.”

When he flinched back, I took my next action. I swung around a synthetic fiber bag attached to the end of a rope. It felt heavy and there was a reason for that: it was filled with cans, creating a morning star that would crush a normal human’s skull in a single blow.

I used centrifugal force and the height difference to swing it down on the vampire.

He seemed unable to move with the light and the fear squeezing at his heart, but a part of his heart must have proudly known no physical attacks would work on him.

But he was wrong.

The dull sound was reminiscent of a blow from a heavy sandbag. At the same time, something sharp burst from bag. It was solid fuel that had been broken to pieces before stuffed in with the cans. In other words, it was ash wood kindling. I had been able to tell it was ash wood because it had smelled the same as the sticks used in the previous bombs.

Vampires were annihilated when stabbed through the heart by stakes made of specific types of wood.

“Gyaaah!?”

For the first time, I did real damage.

The vampire’s arms were taken out, so I went for another hit. This time, he was unable to block the morning star and took it to the center of the chest. I felt the heavy blow land.

The sound of his annihilation was horribly dry.

Before he even collapsed, his body turned to ashes and scattered across the stairs.

“It worked…” Ayumi sounded shocked as she held the umbrella and battery light. “It really worked!! But they’re only supposed to be weak to sunlight!!”

“Erika would’ve seen through it right away, but the new vampires don’t know the difference! By confidently declaring our victory, we can trick them and they’ll tense up. Then we trick them again by using a morning star with ash wood hidden inside. We can make it like this. Vampires might have insane specs, but we might be able to settle this without letting them use those specs!!”

We descended the stars and walked down the hallway. We ran into a few vampires on the way, but we broke the sprinklers on the ceiling, shouted that vampires couldn’t walk over running water, threw soap with wooden stakes stabbed into it onto the floor for them to step on, and otherwise tricked them to keep them from moving. And I used that slight bit of time to swing around the can morning star.

I was scared, but this wasn’t impossible.

We could defeat the vampires!

“User, our previous entrance point is beyond that door. The boat should still be there.”

“Okay. We can escape. I’m not sure what to do once we do, but we can at least avoid dying here!”

“Onii-chan, if we write in our ownership of another building with the documents there, we’ll have a place to hide. Assuming, that is, someone doesn’t let himself be seduced into letting her inside!!”

Meanwhile, we opened the door.

As soon as we did, I heard a forgotten voice from my smartphone.

“You’re mean…”

“Eri-…”

“You’re mean, Satori-kun. I’ve heard the reports. You’re killing all my vampires, aren’t you? Now I’ll have to make more…urp.”

“Quit drinking yourself sick on blood! You don’t have to force yourself! Now do some exercise to help your digestion!!”

“Fuguu!! Are you saying it’s okay if the zombies are taken out!?”

“Hmm,” said Erika. “Aren’t zombies kind of meant to be taken out? I mean, they really shine when they keep attacking while the panicked police officers shoot them like crazy.”

“Kh. You have a point!!”

“And I’ve had enough.”

She sounded like she had lost her nerve.

As I worked with the Swimsuit Class Rep to push the rubber boat out onto the dark water, I felt a shudder run down my spine.

Something wasn’t right.

Something was horribly off about things outside.

“Satori-kun, if you won’t give in and if you’ll bare your fangs against your own sister, then I’ll have to go all out too. Yes, it’s too late to come running to me now.”

“User.” The Class Rep looked up into the night sky and gave a report. “There is no moon. The weather is clear and there is no apparent meteorological explanation.”

“Wait a second. Then is something covering the night sky…? No, wait. Ayumi, get back here! The documents don’t matter!! Get on the boat! Hurry!!”

“Eh? Ehh?”

Ayumi’s confused voice was drowned out by flapping wings.

Yes.

This wasn’t just a million or ten million. Far, far more bats than that covered the entire area like a sandstorm. I had no idea how many bats a single vampire could separate into, but this was far too many. A pillar of bats rose from the city like a tornado. And they gathered toward a single point in the night sky. They concentrated there and became a black sphere. This was the process a vampire used to become bats and then return to being a vampire. It looked like several vampires’ worth of bats gathered together into a single giant mass of flesh.

“I don’t know where you’re hiding, Satori-kun, so I’ll just wipe the entire building from the map.”

Vampires were said to transform into bats.

They were thousands if not tens of thousands of meters up and who knows how many vampires’ worth of bats they were.

“The Varcolaci. That Eastern European vampire is said to fly through the sky and devour the moon or the sun. Obviously, literally eating a celestial body would be a tad difficult, but don’t you think they could figuratively pull it off by causing an eclipse?”

Only Erika’s voice surrounded me.

This was the all-encompassing scale of a queen.

“Eh heh. Let’s say the average weight of a man or woman is 65 kg. For 10 people, it’s 650 kg. For 100, 6.5 tons. For 1000, 65 tons. So what would it be for 10,000 people? Now, what if a mass of that weight appeared at an altitude of 25 km? What if it appeared up there at the thickest point of the ozone layer which deflects the sun’s harmful rays? Satori-kun, I know this is a silly thing to ask of a sciency person who built his own disaster environment simulator that’s all about physics calculations, but are you good at math?”

“…”

650 tons. Some large passenger planes or military transportation craft were more than 300 tons, so it might not seem like too much. Dropping an airplane or two isn’t going to cause an earth-shaking crater, right?

But even the biggest confirmed meteorite was only about sixty kilograms.

It was all about the conditions. What would happen if something more than ten times larger than the world’s biggest was dropped on the earth? Even if the starting point of its fall and its initial speed were different, it would still reach terminal velocity from that height.

I was left speechless, so Erika made her announcement over the phone.

“I call it Moon Mortality. …A solar eclipse during the middle of the day wouldn’t be possible, though. There’s also a risk of being exposed to sunlight even at night when sending them up to the ozone layer, but it’s still better than being exposed to direct sunlight during the day. The rest is just like the human parasol. Now, now. It’s time for a surefire trump card that only works during the sunless night. Are you ready for the false asteroid strike? I hope you enjoy it☆”

This is insane!!

Erika, I know you’re a clean freak, but have you never heard of restraint!?

Something large enough to cause a lunar eclipse was going to drop straight toward the earth. Something 25 km up should have been invisible if it did not emit a powerful light, but I could indirectly sea it because it blocked out the moon. We would not survive no matter where in the building we hid. The Class Rep, Ayumi, and I pushed the rubber boat out onto the dark water and planned our escape.

“A dark mass is moving in the sky. This is faster than expected. I estimate it will land in twenty seconds.”

“Twenty? That means it’s moving faster than a kilometer per second! That isn’t a free fall, so is it actually accelerating? And what kind of name is Moon Mortality, Erika!? I didn’t realize you were such a difficult adolescent!!”

“Eh heh heh. It’s because I have such a pure heart.”

The mass covering the moon did not pursue us. Maybe Erika did not have an accurate idea of our location, maybe she could not overturn her initial command to crush the real estate building, or maybe the building was just a demonstration to break us mentally.

I didn’t know the answer, but the moment still arrived.

Ayumi alone wasn’t sure what was happening, so her eyes darted around.

“Eh? Eh? What? What’s happening, Onii-…”

“Just grab onto something!!!!!!”

The next thing I knew, all light and sound were erased from the world.

No, it must have been the scenery before my eyes that was erased.

I could not tell up from down.

As soon as the rubber boat curved sharply behind a giant building, a tremendous shockwave passed by overhead. Not only did all the glass shatter, but it looked like a giant arm had knocked over the reinforced concrete. We were behind shelter, but the boat still flipped entirely over. And hunks of concrete larger than trucks rained down.

“Uuh!?”

There was no strategizing or tactics here. It was almost all up to luck.

We sometimes sank below the water, sometimes brought our heads above the water, and swam around without knowing which direction to go.

Luckily, Ayumi, the Class Rep, and I all avoided a direct hit.

But we had no time to relax.

I looked to my smartphone and checked the footage coming from the balloon drone that was still airborne. I saw a giant crater.

The real estate building had been annihilated and something spread out from there.

My clean freak of a big sister was not done cleaning up.

“Oh, no… A huge wave is coming!!”

I knew this was dangerous, but there was nothing we could actually do.

We were swallowed up and tossed about.

I felt like a shirt in the washing machine.

I had no idea how far I had been taken. A few dozen meters? Hundreds of meters? Ayumi and her zombie strength holding onto my hand may have been the only reason I survived.

“Puhah!!”

We all reached the surface.

Luckily, the overturned boat was nearby. We managed to flip it back over and climbed on. Damn, my collapsible bike must be at the bottom of the water.

“The central financial business district appears to have been annihilated,” calmly reported the Swimsuit Class Rep.

She kept her eyes on the night sky where the moon was hidden once more.

“And I believe the false asteroid strike may not be a one-time thing. My sample data is too small to say for sure, but I believe it takes a total of eight minutes for the countless bats to form a black bullet, fire, and land.”

“If she starts stamping districts off the map like that, there’s nothing we can do. Are we toast? Please tell me no! If the Class Rep finds out about the swimsuit dance set, she’ll beat me up!!”

“…”

We began to lament, but my twintail little sister remained silent.

No, she was muttering something under her breath.

She was apparently lost in thought.

“We need someplace capable of enduring an asteroid strike level of catastrophe… There would work…but…no, I can’t get my priorities backwards… What door wouldn’t have been flooded? Yes, if we were swept four hundred meters from Hughes Real Estate…but if that’s the only route, they’ll be rushing there…”

“Ayumi! Hey, Ayumi!! She’s off in her own little world. Take this!! (tap tap tap).”

“Unyaaahn!!!??? Y-you stupid Onii-chan! Do you want attention from your little sister so bad you’ve gotten in the habit of touching her stitches!? Stop that!!”

“Next time, I’ll count them one by one and figure out how many you have across your body. Anyway, what do we do!? I’m not some brilliant detective, so if you have an idea, tell me!!”

“C-count them…across my body…even those embarrassing places…count all of them…”

“Ayumi!!”

“Cough, cough!! R-right, we need to get to the hospital on the hill! We need to start there!!”

The rest went quickly.

No, perhaps the extreme tension had just messed with my sense of time.

Luckily, the vampires did not pursue us. They were too busy forming a single mass in the night sky to cover the moon again. And next time, they might lock onto us more accurately. If that happened, we couldn’t escape. The entire district around us would be wiped out when they landed.

The hospital on a large hill was nearby.

We were soaking wet as we got the boat onto the roundabout out front and ran in through the outpatient entrance. The building was still standing, but all the glass was broken. I had trouble telling if that was due to the zombies and vampires or if it was due to Erika’s special attack.

“I estimate the final attack will hit within two minutes.”

I shuddered at those words.

Visiting hours were over, so the hospital was deadly silent.

The Swimsuit Class Rep tilted her head and looked around.

“Is no one here?”

“Hmph. Don’t be ridiculous. Now, Onii-chan, this way. We need to take the stairs to the basement!!”

“To the basement?”

“We don’t have time! Just trust me!!”

I ran after her and down the stairs, but they did not take us to a room or a hallway.

It was a door.

An enormous door.

The round metal door was more than three meters across and looked like it belonged on a bank vault. These doors could be found below every house in Kukyou City yet no one had ever opened them. Yes, this was a door to the tornado shelter.

The Class Rep brought a hand to her mouth.

“I see. If we escape beyond this thick door…”

“Yeah, it is a shelter, but I’ve never seen these doors open. Can they even be opened from the outside?”

My little sister with the rolled up ends to her twintails stood tall and gave a triumphant snort as she glared at the door.

“Onii-chan, you wait here with the Class Rep.”

“?”

“I’ll go grab the ‘items’ needed to open this.”

She immediately turned back the way we had come and ran up the stairs, leaving the Class Rep and me behind. I was dying to do something with two minutes until the attack, but there was nothing I could do and nowhere else to go. I could only leave this to Ayumi and the door in front of me naturally caught my attention.

It said Bright Cross Disaster Prevention Foundation.

“Maxwell, did you manage to simulate what’s inside here?”

“Sure.”

“Then do you know what’s inside?”

“No.”

I had not expected that answer.

But the Class Rep explained.

“The system automatically creates a virtual space based on the inputted data. I cannot provide an oral explanation of a supernatural vampire’s usurpation patterns. It is merely being calculated based on the parameters provided by a third party.”

“Hm. So that means…”

“I have received general data on Kukyou City and the holes are filled with predictive calculations, but each object is not directly designed. It is all born of automatic calculations, so I cannot supply data on what I have not directly experienced.”

It sounded simultaneously complicated and simple.

“My mind and body are both exhausted… Maxwell, can I use the Class Rep’s lap as a pillow? While she’s wearing the swimsuit?”

“Sure. I do have to wonder why you would flee into escapism while already in a virtual world, but I will fulfill the task I am given.”

“Ahhh…”

“You seem to be melting, user.”

“Just so you know, I’m confident I could keep smiling even if I was caught in a cave-in as long as I had the Swimsuit Class Rep’s thighs.”

I lay sideways on the floor. I curled up like a baby and let myself rock in the cradle of thoughtlessness for a while, but then I heard a sound from the stairs.

Then Ayumi’s voice reached me like a wind blowing up from the depths of hell.

“…What are you doing, Onii-chan?”

“Uwaoh!! I completely forgot about you…”

“That’s the worst thing you could’ve said!”

For some reason, Ayumi was upset as she descended the stairs and she slapped the top of my head as I hurriedly got to my feet.

No, wait.

Ayumi-san, that isn’t your hand, is it? Where did you get that big manly hand from!?

“Don’t show me something that gruesome right when I wake up!!”

“It’s your fault for going to sleep while your cute little sister was out working.”

“You damn zombie!!”

“Of course I’m a zombie! …Hey, Onii-chan, do you know what these are?”

Ayumi pouted her lips while swinging around her “victory prize” that was severed at the shoulder.

“They’re the fingerprint and iris of the guy who runs the place. That’s what we needed.”

I couldn’t quite place the word “iris” for a second, but it all clicked into place when I saw what was rolling around in her other hand.

It was an eyeball.

Ahhhhh! It looked me in the eye!!

Where did you get that from!? This isn’t like picking up acorns!

I was shocked, but Ayumi faced the thick door and went through some kind of authorization process. Finally, I heard a complicated metallic sound and the round vault-like door slowly opened toward us.

“We have less than thirty seconds until the false asteroid strike. Beginning countdown: 10, 9…”

“Hurry, Onii-chan!! Oh, I hope we can actually lock this thing from the inside!”

Before it fully opened, we forced ourselves in through the gap.

This was a tornado shelter.

Every house had one, but no one had ever gone inside.

It was truly our last resort.

And as Ayumi feared, we did not have time to lock it behind us.

As the thick door slowly opened and closed, it was hit by an intense shockwave from outside. It was slammed shut like a deadly bear trap. Just the little bit of the shockwave that made it through the gap still managed to toss us through the air.

I did not have time to complain about the pain in my eardrums or my fear of losing the pull of gravity.

I was slammed to the floor and my vision sank into darkness before I could grab the reins of my consciousness.

[Pick Up] An Unnatural Suicide Note Written on a Word Processor [Net Files]

I’m sorry.

I was elected mayor for six terms and I thought I had worked myself to the bone during them all, but now only words of apology fill my mind. But no matter how hard I work this puny brain, it won’t be enough. So I must give up on conveying this through words and do so with my actions.

This may only be an excuse, but Kukyou City was in dire straits. If we had not been designated a National Reinforced Planning Zone, we would have fallen into bankruptcy just like so many other regional cities.

But I never thought it would lead to this.

I will not ask you to forgive me.

I had been informed of the facility. I thought I understood its necessity based on the reports I was given. But now that I have seen it near completion, everything I thought I knew has shattered. That is too much. If that is actually used, how many shouts and screams will sink into an ocean of blood? How little hope will remain for the future?

I thought about stopping it.

I did everything I could.

But there was nothing I could do. To them, the mayor is nothing more than a doll with a replaceable head. If I defy them any further, they will replace that head. They have implicitly made that very clear. Their expression never changed and there was no smile in their eyes.

I apologize for giving up.

But it’s too much for me. I cannot support that any longer.

My soul will never reach heaven if I do.

But I can bring that soul to the grave before it is defiled any further.

[Pick Up] Smartphone Video Intercepted by Echelon JP [Net Files]

Their so-called “secret base” was just a small space made of cardboard boxes and galvanized iron sheets gathered below a bridge. But if it was left alone, it would become a home for bugs, so it had to be cleaned periodically. That group of friends took turns cleaning it and it was a small boy who arrived that day.

Was that coincidence for better or for worse?

He found two beautiful girls already there.

“Oh…sorry. This was your secret base, wasn’t it?”

“Hey, Onee-chan can’t go out in the sun, so can we borrow the place until the sun goes down!?”

Only the boy’s group of friends was allowed to use the secret base.

So he had a simple solution: make those girls a part of his group of friends.

“Well, if you’re fine with that…”

“Oh, dear. But do you really want people like us in your group?”

He did not mind. His friends did not like excluding people. They ended up talking about different topics, and the two girls eventually noticed a slight change.

“Hmm. So your mom and dad are always fighting?”

“Everyone has their own worries.”

He had hidden it at first, but that had not lasted long. The girls had done everything they could to draw it out of him. The next thing he knew, he could not stop. He cried as he revealed the worries he had never told anyone about before.

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

He was sick of hearing cheap words of consolation. He was tired of being treated gingerly and given nothing but useless platitudes. No one ever saw his problems through to the end.

“Ha ha☆ Then how about I become your big sister?”

“Ah! No fair deciding that on your own, you two!”

The boy had been confused as the two girls laughed.

“Hey.”

Then they had brought their beautiful faces in close, looked the boy in the eye, and asked a testing question.

“What would you do if I was a vampire?”

“What would you do if I was a zombie?”

Chapter 8

I was probably only unconscious for a few seconds.

“Kh…ahh…”

I shook my head and looked around from the ground. Ayumi the zombie was okay. I was worried about the Swimsuit Class Rep, but she was already getting up. Impressively, even that blast had not been enough for the strings to come untied.

And we were beyond the thick bank vault door.

And we found…

“Ow, ow, ow…wh-what is this?”

“…”

I let out a hysteric comment, but Ayumi only gained a grim look to her eyes.

It was more like a tunnel or passageway than a room. The exposed concrete formed a half circle passageway that continued into the distance. Bright and darkly inorganic fluorescent lights lined the walls and metal rails ran by at our feet. The rails were wider than for a normal train.

228D was written on the wall in large letters.

Was that the tunnel’s number like for a highway?

“I wanted to avoid coming here if at all possible, but it was our only choice.”

“?”

Had Ayumi been in this shelter beyond the door before?

With that question in mind, we tried walking down the tunnel and found a fork in the path. But this was not just a Y-shaped intersection. More and more tunnels branched off at short intervals and the rails complexly intersected. It was more like a spider web than a single path.

“If this connects to the various homes, it may naturally grow as complex as plumbing and city gas pipes.”

“Really…? But this place really makes me think of a secret base in a Sentai show.”

“And…” The Swimsuit Class Rep paused. “User, why has this underground shelter not flooded?”

“What?”

“The destruction of the dam should have flooded the majority of Kukyou City and identical doors can be found below every house. With some exceptions such as the elevated hospital we entered through, if any one of those doors opened, a great flood of water should have rushed in.”

“…I have a bad feeling about this.”

Ayumi remained silent throughout the conversation.

Finally, she stopped biting her lip and made a quiet comment.

“Of course it didn’t flood…”

“Why is that?”

“This isn’t really a tornado shelter. Even when a powerful typhoon blows in, the doors never opened right?”

Now that she mentioned it, that was true. But then why did this network of tunnels exist below the city? Safely digging the tunnels and disposing of the dirt had to have cost a fortune, so I doubted they would build a secret base just to show off or just for the hell of it.

“User, perhaps it was a way of spending excess budget. Just like how they dig up roads for no reason towards the end of the fiscal year.”

“If so, the people behind it are the worst.”

“Ah hah hah. The world runs on pointless things and hobbies. What good is a disaster environment simulator in real life?”

“Don’t deny your very reason for existing like that.”

“That isn’t what this is. It’s-…!!”

Ayumi was stopped by the sound of something bursting.

She immediately grabbed the Class Rep and me by the hand and ran down one of the branching tunnels.

“Hm? What? Were those gunshots!?”

“If you think they might have been firecrackers, you must have a really peaceful view of the world, Onii-chan…”

As Ayumi made her sarcastic comment, there was sweat on her brow and a dark red hole in her shoulder.

Before I could say anything, a shudder ran down my spine.

There was something different about Ayumi.

I moved my mouth, but no words came out. Just glancing at the side of her face was enough for something like electricity to prickle along the back of my neck.

Meanwhile, that little sister placed her index finger on my lips without looking my way.

She spoke in a frighteningly low and cold voice.

“You two stay here. I’ll go silence them.”

“Ah. Wait, Ayumi!!”

I did not have time to stop her.

She was like a gust of wind. Ayumi charged down the passageway and vanished. I heard shouts of anger, surprise, and fear punctuated by gunfire.

“It’s the Acute version! She’s finally gotten in here. Shoot her, shoot her!!”

“What happened to the emergency evacuation plan!? What are the group leader’s instructions!?”

“There’s no time to wait for that! The hand of death is already right in front of us!!”

The series of explosive sounds were clearly different from the small handguns carried by police officers. Were they assault rifles? Submachineguns? Light machineguns? I didn’t know how the detailed classifications worked, but I was pretty sure these were military weapons.

Perhaps due to the enclosed space, a mixture of a fireworks-like smell and a rusty smell gradually grew stronger.

But what was this?

This was even more out there than Archenemies like Ayumi and Erika.

None of it seemed real and I was unable to keep up. But that was the weird part. This was the city I lived in, so why did I feel so out of place here?

For one thing, who were “they”?

What was lurking just below the world I lived in!?

“M-Maxwell. This is a disaster environment simulator modeled after Kukyou City, right?”

“Sure. I question your judgment in using it for vampires and zombies, but I will accurately carry out whatever task I am given.”

“Then does this subterranean world exist in the real Kukyou City too!? And is it home to some group that completely ignores the Swords and Firearms Control Law!?”

“Sure. Verification is impossible as this is only a constructed data space based on predictive calculations, but just like the big bang theory, it is a prediction as close to the truth as possible.”

“…I can’t believe this.”

I looked around again in a daze.

“This doesn’t feel like being in a video game anymore. Something more realistic than a battle between zombies and vampires is invading the real world. Why is there something like an army below our city? We’re not talking about Tokyo’s subway tunnels that are made to allow tanks through.”

“Zombies and vampires sound more unusual than tanks to me.”

I had thought this was a nice city to live in since it was near the ocean and the mountains. The focus on disaster prevention had been a little annoying and restrictive, but being oversensitive seemed fine when it was meant to keep us safe. There were weird people like zombies and vampires walking around, but that hadn’t seemed any weirder than the images of Shibuya or Akihabara I’d seen on TV.

But…

What was Kukyou City?

What giant secret did this city hold?

And there was even a thick door to this underground space in our own house!

“User.”

The Swimsuit Class Rep interrupted my spiraling thoughts.

My sinking head sprang back up and I looked her way.

“E-eek! Eek, eek!!”

Someone practically rolled out from another tunnel. Their outfit seemed completely unrealistic. Soldiers in black protectors and carrying machineguns may have been a common sight in Los Angeles or Detroit, but this was Japan. What kind of rules had they brought into this country?

And he did not bother telling me.

His hips had given out and he was half mad with fear as he aimed his sinister-looking gun my way. He shouted something while seeming about to drown in his mask thanks to his own spit.

“M-monster! A monster!! Goddammiiiiiit!!”

I tensed in surprise, but oddly enough, I felt no fear.

Perhaps a gun was just too unrealistic a weapon to feel like an actual threat.

And he never did manage to pull the trigger.

Something black charged down another tunnel and enveloped the soldier’s entire body.

It was like a flash flood.

But it was not a liquid. It was hundreds or even thousands of black bats. It made my skin crawl, like I had flipped over a large stone to find tons of bugs hiding underneath.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhh…!!”

What was happening to him?

Inside the mass of black, a hand wandered through empty air, convulsed violently, and then wilted like an ignored windowsill plant in the midsummer. The hand withered like a dried tree as the moisture was stolen.

By the time the bats left, his remains looked like old scraps of cloth. But the bats had not filled their stomachs. There was blood splattered everywhere, so they must have repeatedly sucked the blood and then spat it back out.

Then the countless bats combined into my sister in a gothic lolita dress.

“Ugh. Peh, peh. How can Ayumi-chan bite people like this?”

“E…”

“Hi. Did you miss me, Satori-kun?☆”

“Erika!?”

I held a hand to the side to protect the Swimsuit Class Rep.

Seeing that, Erika narrowed her eyes sadly.

“We really didn’t want you to know about this place…but it seems that girl let the blood rush to her head. Apparently she’s willing to use everything ‘down here’ if it means winning.”

Gunfire continued down another tunnel. But it was weaker than before. Or rather, the number of guns firing was shrinking.

What are you doing, Ayumi?

Are you doing stunts with no CG or wires when zombies are supposed to be slow!?

“The Bright Cross is merciless, so she’s desperate to ensure no stray bullets reach you.”

“The Bright Cross…?”

I repeated the name.

“You’re kidding, right? Why do the people with donation boxes by the cash registers have a secret underground base with guns? Are they actually the MIB or something?”

“Eh heh heh. Of course not. This isn’t anything as kind as threatening any witnesses. That’s why Ayumi-chan is taking this so seriously. But unlike vampires, zombies are indiscriminate, so the more she makes, the greater the chance of one of them attacking you. It’s her unfortunate flaw.”

“Well, she is a zombie.”

“In fact, a thinking zombie is a pretty unattractive idea.”

I realized she was changing the subject, but I was afraid to force her back on topic.

It was the same for Ayumi’s secret.

Especially when I could see the displeasure on Erika’s face.

The menace of the zombies and vampires honestly paled in comparison.

What was this place?

How were Erika and Ayumi connected to it?

Erika snapped her fingers and the countless bats scattered like a sandstorm through the many branching tunnels. I soon heard more screams and shouts.

Erika laughed.

“A lack of long term thinking creates a huge strategic problem. And zombies rot, so they cannot blend into human society and have trouble deceiving people. Their best use is to destroy the city’s infrastructure with pure numbers…but they might find a different way to fight if they use their head a little.”

That may have been true.

What if, instead of starting with an all-out attack, she created only two or three fellow zombies, ground them up in a disposer, and mixed them into the dam or a food processing plant to infect everyone? It reminded me of rumors of worm burgers or a worker who fell into a vat of acid at the soda plant. The animals that had pecked at the defeated corpses had been infected just as well as the people bitten by a zombie. That might have greatly shifted the power distribution between zombies and vampires.

“But the way she charges right in is also the best part about her. To be honest, I’m a little jealous as her big sister.”

“Hm?”

“Hee hee. You don’t get it, Satori-kun? I’m holding back in the real world, but in this virtual world, I want to bite you, get in the same coffin as you, and flirt with you 24/7.”

“Maybe you do, but the thought scares me!!

“Satooori-kuuun?”

“Stop! Don’t hug me! What happened to that serious atmosphere? Ahh, these are so soft…mgh, mgh…how many centimeters are they!?”

“Serious atmosphere? What about this was at all serious?”

She approached me like always.

I was helpless against her storm of skinship. She had her arms around me in no time.

Her fangs were a mere three centimeters from my neck.

She pressed her large breasts against me, breathed warmly onto my ear, and whispered.

“But in the end, I just can’t bring myself to bite you.”

She sounded just a little sad.

“You would definitely hate me if I did, it would ruin our relationship, and it would make everything awkward once we returned to the real world. Those thoughts just circle around and around in my mind. Thinking about the future is important, but it always holds me back. If I was more like that girl and took action first and thought about it later, my life might be so much easier.”

She placed her hands on my shoulders and then moved back.

Her face held her usual composed look now.

Ayumi the zombie girl impulsively created as many zombies as she could and used their numbers to destroy the city’s infrastructure.

Erika the vampire queen slipped into human society, slowly but surely increased her number of pawns, and took over to establish a new order based on vampires.

“This isn’t limited to things on the level of an organization.”

“What do you mean?”

“A zombie continually destroys the host body through the process of infection. That’s what we see as the body rotting. On the other hand, a vampire optimizes the host body and gives it a greater body and greater skills than it had in life. This might make vampires sound more cost effective and convenient, but that isn’t actually true,” said Erika. “When you get down to it, all vampires do is optimize. We can only grow within the pre-established framework. The individuals do gain inherent skills in a sort of mutation, but not even that amplitude leaves the framework. …We can’t provide changes so dramatic they destroy the host, but zombies can.”

“Zombies don’t look that great to me…”

“No, user. As a species, zombies are quite impressive. They are not limited to humans and can make any animal or plant their host.”

“Exactly. This gets us back to the framework I was talking about. If the human race is destroyed, vampires die with them. After all, we require blood. But zombies are different.”

Had zombies given up on thinking because they were the superior species and had vampires honed their thinking because they were the inferior species?

It felt like discussing the differences between dinosaurs and humans.

“Now, then.”

Erika clapped her hands together in front of her large chest.

“It’s time I went to clean some things up. I’d really like to be your guide here, Satori-kun, but that girl seems to have gone a little overboard on making more zombies. I need to recover my advantage. I’ll go make everything nice and clean☆”

“Erika?”

“If you’re in trouble, visit the closest vampire, okay? The zombies won’t listen to you, but I ordered my minions not to attack you or the Class Rep. Please use them as shields if you’re surrounded by zombies. Also…”

As she left, she turned around with a faint smile on her lips.

“I know this might be selfish, but please don’t hate us after you see this place☆”

A moment later, her head split open like a watermelon.

“Ah…”

The smile and the sad atmosphere were all driven from my mind by the gunfire I heard after the fact.

But…

Even so…

The “pieces” of Erika that had scattered through the air did not fall to the ground. They came to a stop in midair and transformed into countless red butterflies. The butterflies shined like glow-in-the-dark paint and rushed toward her wound. Like broken pottery being repaired, her face was remade in no time.

And…

My older sister stood before me with a sharp light in her eyes I had never seen before.

“Consecrated steel that was soaked in holy water during its cooling treatment. They’re going all out now…”

“Erika…?”

“Nothing to worry about☆ Didn’t I tell you I’ll be fine as long as my heart isn’t taken out? And wasn’t that pretty? They’re both lepidopterans, but it took a lot of work to change it from moths to butterflies. Rats and bats are so dull, so I tried out a lot of things.”

She clapped her hands in front of her chest again, smiled, and then whispered something.

“But if I don’t do something about these little flies, it could get in the way of settling things with Ayumi-chan. I can’t have the zombies making a comeback after I wore down their numbers so much, so perhaps I should get just a biiiit serious.”

That was all.

She ran down another tunnel too fast for a normal person to keep up. A few vampires joined her and supported her. A few gunshots tried to stop her, but they were quickly silenced and replaced by cries of despair and meaningless pleas for mercy.

“Has…has the group leader still not given us any instructions!?”

“He was bitten a while back!! Dammit, I’m out of spare ammo…”

“No, I don’t want to die.”

“Why!? None of the doors will open!! Nooooooooo!?”

I had no desire to peek around the corner.

When the zombies and vampires had filled the streets, these people had not opened the doors. But once the city flooded, they had been trapped inside the doors. The intense water pressure kept the doors from opening and the underground tunnels were now a giant labyrinth of death with Ayumi and Erika inside.

“Oh, dear. My sister is really in top form.”

“She had a sorrowful look, but she seems more than willing to fight.”

“I’m beginning to suspect she only gets those sad looks when she’s actually feeling completely full of herself.”

“She would do more than beat you up if she heard that.”

The Class Rep and I discussed the situation.

What was this giant underground space? What kind of secrets did it hide? And which was “ranked” higher, those secrets or my sisters?

The door to the shelter had said Bright Cross Disaster Prevention Foundation.

As I walked through the spider web of tunnels, the entire place seemed in a state of pandemonium.

I did not even need to hide anymore.

The kinds of protectors seen in movies were no use. Large blood stains were splattered on the floor, on the walls, and on the ceiling. We barely saw anyone that qualified as a “survivor” and they were mostly either a zombie or a vampire. And they were so busy biting at each other that no one focused on us.

Used-looking guns were lying on the ground, but I didn’t even think about picking one up. I was afraid I would shoot myself in the foot if I tried to use one.

I put up with the rusty stench, pressed against the wall to slip past the “people” focused on feasting, and continued deeper in. As I did, the look of the place changed.

“There are metal bars.”

“Yes, but they are broken.”

“The scary part is the teeth marks on them. Please tell me Ayumi isn’t that much of an idiot.”

“Vampires are also an Archenemy known for biting, but it is very interesting that Miss Ayumi is the first to come to mind.”

There had been a door made of metal bars just like the ones blocking a prison passageway, but a great strength had bent the bars, torn the door away, and thrown it aside.

“Without that, we would have had to search around for a way to unlock that door.”

“It’s like the remnants of a dream after your sparkler goes out.”

After we stepped through there, the atmosphere entirely changed.

First of all, the zombies wandering around were wearing much more intellectual clothing. It was all lab coats and tight skirts.

Instead of bare concrete on the walls and floor, there was clean wallpaper and linoleum. The mysterious rails were gone from the floor and the place looked more like a residential space than a tunnel.

All of the doors had fancy locks, but they had all been forced open by some great strength.

“My sisters sure are kind.”

“The ones being bitten by them might beg to differ.”

“In fact, this is too many doors to choose from. Can’t they give me a single path to follow?”

“Oh? You fall under the idiot category as well, user?”

I peeked inside one door and saw something like an operating room. I say it was “something like” one because I had never seen a real one. It had some of that sort of equipment, like those lightbulbs gathered like a lotus root. Were they called surgical lights?”

Another door led to something like an examining room.

A cabinet with a broken lock contained lots of medical files, but I could not read them because they were written in a foreign language. Didn’t medical things tend to use German?

But when I opened another door, I found a long line of giant refrigerators.

“This looks like a specimen storage room.”

“With this lineup, is this place a hospital?”

“Is that really a question? This appears to be highly specialized equipment.”

“If they’ve got the equipment, then why aren’t there any female doctors in glasses or kind nurses?”

“Because those are figments of your imagination?”

I opened one fridge and found several test tubes arranged twenty to a case. They all had rubber caps and I was hesitant to touch them. They were all filled with a dark red liquid.

The sides of the test tubes had labels and I recognized one of the names.

“…Acute Zombie Powder.”

“That is the same virus carried by Miss Amatsu Ayumi.”

Or should I assume this was Ayumi’s blood they were storing?

I checked the other fridges and found what I was looking for.

Eastern European Queen-style Vampire Curse – Type A Rh+. I did not understand all the details, but queen, vampire, and type A all matched Erika.

“I had thought it was strange.” I naturally started speaking. “What do a zombie or vampire do when they get hurt or sick? They probably rely on their natural toughness or healing in most cases, but things have to sometimes get too bad for that to cut it.”

“Then is this a hospital rather than a lab?”

“I can’t say. And it might be both.”

That said, there was nothing here to take with me. I definitely didn’t want to touch the samples and get myself infected. It would make me wonder why I had worked so hard to get this far.

I left the sample storage room and continued walking through the facility. It was obvious when we reached a new section. We passed through another broken door of metal bars and the wallpaper and floor changed again.

This time, it was harder to tell what kind of place it was.

“What is this?”

“It looks like a train station.”

The Swimsuit Class Rep was correct.

When I cracked opened a thick door, I found a train station. It was a large one with several intersecting tracks, like you would find in a big city.

But why was this here?

It did not seem to function as an actual subway station. The tracks ended before reaching the wall and it lacked the equipment needed to bring trains in. It was more like a stage set.

Another door led to a department store’s fresh food section.

Another led to a burger restaurant’s seats.

Another led to a pool locker room.

Finally, we found what looked like a school classroom and gym. They had all been precisely reproduced in isolation, but they were more like models. They looked realistic, but they were not functioning.

The school classroom had large teeth marks on the edges of the desks and the blackboard eraser.

When I opened the burger restaurant’s cash register, I found toy money.

The locker room had a “well done” sticker on the wall.

“…This is all starting to make sense.”

“Is this a facility meant to role play a normal life?”

I couldn’t say how true it was because I only knew what I had seen online or in movies, but when a criminal was holed up with a hostage, the special forces would apparently build a detailed set and spend hours practicing their entrance while the negotiator bought them time.

And when spies were preparing to infiltrate an enemy nation, they would apparently practice the language and customs on something like a movie set before moving on to the real thing.

This underground facility reminded me of that.

But unlike a military operation, I doubted this was rooted in a desire to harm or deceive people.

Or I hoped it wasn’t.

I traced my finger across the “well done” sticker in the pool locker room.

“My sisters seem to have some connection to this place. What they said and the blood samples are enough to know that.”

“Then what is the meaning of these sets?”

“They didn’t suddenly come to the city. Before coming to my family, were they put through something like an aptitude test here to make sure they could blend into human society?”

Of course they were.

Now that I thought about it, it was obvious. Both of them could easily destroy a city or two if they got serious, so we couldn’t have them saying, “I bit him in a moment of weakness☆”.

This was a highly realistic disaster environment simulator.

If the conditions were right, the same thing could happen in the real world.

“What was that hospital section then? Is it to treat any injuries or illnesses? Or is it part of how they judge whether or not they’re too much for human hands?”

“That is one question. But…”

The Swimsuit Class Rep touched the pool locker room’s plastic curtain.

The bottom of the curtain had a piece missing as if it had been torn off by an incredible force.

“Where do they go if they do not pass the test?”

“…”

I had a bad feeling about this.

It was a sticky feeling very unlike the mess with the zombies and vampires.

We left the pool locker room and walked down the hallway until we reached the metal bar door to another section.

The lock was broken yet again and the metal bars were horribly bent.

We easily slipped through and found what awaited us.

Level 1

The words were printed prominently on the wall.

When I first stepped through one of the doors along the passageway, I did not know what it meant.

I saw a tiled floor and a few stainless steel countertops. It looked more like a school home ec classroom than an organized restaurant kitchen. The walls were lined with cabinets and they were full of countless cooking equipment, such as knives, cutting boards, pestles, meat tenderizers, pressure cookers, frying pans, and so on. There were also plenty of juicers, eggbeaters, microwave ovens, and ovens.

However, there were a few odd aspects to it all.

“This is a kitchen, but I don’t see any plates or cups.”

“Nor are there any refrigerators. Where do they store the ingredients?”

“They can only pretend to cook here. …Ah!? Could it be for having fun with a naked apron!?”

“Please try to focus, you utter moron.”

Level 2

In another section, we found a room filled with equipment that made it look more like a small workshop than a garage.

It had plenty of home construction tools. There were hammers, saws, power drills, planes, crowbars, vises, and others you would find in a hardware store, but there were also lathes and presses for metalworking and power saws on fixed stands for cutting wood. A careless mistake could take off a hand or a foot, so I decided against touching any of the switches.

But I couldn’t see any rhyme or reason to this.

If the previous one had been a home ec classroom, was this a shop classroom? Were they special classrooms for the fake school? But the equipment here seemed too specialized for that. Maybe if it was a school with a specialization in industry or something.

Level 3

This one was weird.

Even I was realizing something was up.

A large room was filled with nothing but bathtubs. Some were metal, some were glass, and some were some sort of plastic. And an incredible stench came from the countless giant cases. This wasn’t just paint thinner or gasoline. It was such a powerful chemical odor that I thought I would pass out if I stayed there for long.

A variety of bottles were lined up in cabinets along the wall, but the labels only contained special symbols that I couldn’t begin to interpret.

But the Swimsuit Class Rep was able to comment.

“These resemble the chemical vats used for plating.”

“What…?”

“But this is not how to use them. These tubs contain sulfuric acid, aqua regia, hydrofluoric acid, and similar substances. This is much like the bathtubs of fear seen in mafia movies.”

“…”

The first room had been full of tools to pound on “something” to soften it, chop it into small pieces, and boil or cook it away, but there had been no fridges for ingredients or plates to serve the food.

The next room had contained equipment for chopping “something”, crushing it, opening holes in it, and breaking it down into pieces, but there had been no wood or metal to work on and no completed products.

The final room contained tubs of chemicals used soak “something” in powerful acids, but there was no sign of anything needing to be plated.

The three rooms seemed nonsensical at first glance.

The theory about special classrooms had been destroyed by Level 3’s plating factory.

Then what was this place?

I tried to think back over everything. What did the three rooms have in common? What had the people of this shelter used them for? What good were those rooms for the Bright Cross Disaster Prevention Foundation that had likely been involved from the moment Kukyou City joined the National Reinforced Planning Project?

Hadn’t the Swimsuit Class Rep asked a certain question?

What happened to “them” if they did not pass the test?

Uuh…

“Uoooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Something like electricity burst inside my head and I realized I was screaming.

The possibility of zombie or vampire victims wandering around was driven from my mind and to the other side of the universe.

What had been happening here?

What had been happening in this other world hidden below our feet as we ate food and went to school like normal in Kukyou City!!!???

No, I knew the answer.

This was a general department store for the undead…for Archenemies. The people here would research them and give them rehearsals if they looked like they could fit into human society. And if they could learn the human rules properly, they could join the sunny world of Kukyou City. They would be given a normal life, like Erika and Ayumi had done.

But…

What if they hit a roadblock somewhere?

What if they were deemed too dangerous to be released into the outside world? The answer was obvious. The rails would mercilessly switch over and a different future awaited those undead.

That was Levels 1 through 3.

Those were the different stages used to dispose of Archenemies!!

I recalled the rows of bathtubs. That went beyond a part-time job washing corpses and they weren’t anything as kind as pools of formaldehyde. There were rumors of people dumping a corpse into a tub of powerful acid and there were rumors of an old man having a heart attack with the hot water heater on and being found as a human stew. But what they were casually doing here was easily worse than those rumors!

“…Maxwell.”

“Sure.”

“Scan the entire facility. I don’t care how, but don’t miss a single hair!!”

“Due to the rewritten user privileges, you are temporarily unable to use administrative mode. Only visual records are possible.”

“Goddammit!!”

I felt dizzy, but I couldn’t tell if it was due to the odor from the chemical tubs or due to the horrific reality before my eyes.

I left the room and took a deep breath.

I then recalled the heavy equipment that ignored Japanese culture, the spider web of tunnels that reached everywhere in the city, and the thick doors. Those weren’t to help us in case of disaster. They were to quickly arrive on the scene if one of the undead went on a rampage and to drag them back into the darkness.

By separating out the first few, they could minimize the damage by stopping it before it developed into the city-wide horror movie I had seen.

Was that right or wrong? It may have been the right thing to do.

But this city’s methods lacked any kindness at all.

Those doors were in every house’s basement, so there was no locking them out. Your home was supposed to be where you could truly relax, but things were set up so they could swiftly appear and abduct you even if you were taking a bath or sleeping in your own home.

“User.”

“What…is it? Pant, pant… Are you saying there’s even more?”

“Sure. There is a passageway and room we have yet to check.”

The Swimsuit Class Rep was the same as always.

“So as you said, there is ‘more’.”

“…”

What good was any further investigation?

We were veering off of the main point. I had been caught in my vampire older sister and zombie little sister’s sisterly fight and I had to prevent the Swimsuit Class Rep from dying and thus showing up in the report that would be sent out. I was clearly straying from that initial objective.

But…

Even so…

I couldn’t ignore this. What had Ayumi and Erika gone through in the past? And it was more than that. Could I really say they were freed from the curse of this underground world? What if they were still caught in it?

Plus, I was worried about the Archenemies other than vampires and zombies. Were they living freely in the outside world, were they waiting their turn underground, or had they already been disposed of?

If they were a true monster that could not be spoken or reasoned with, there may have been no need to worry about it. And that may have been exactly how the Bright Cross saw it as they ran this underground world.

But I knew that the people known as the undead were not like that.

That was obvious just looking at Ayumi and Erika. What if, back in the real world, people just like them were pushing up against doors that would never open?

“…”

How could I pretend I hadn’t seen this?

Something was happening beyond thick walls that kept any shouts or screams from escaping and I was close to finding out what.

I had no idea how many Archenemies had been disposed of in this facility without anyone knowing.

But I knew what they had to have been thinking in that instant.

They would have been afraid of being erased from existence without anyone knowing. They would have forced out a desperate scream in the hopes that at least one person would hear it. I hadn’t made it in time in the real world, my method of reaching here had been thoroughly twisted, and I was probably entirely different from the person they had been imagining, but I was still in a position to possibly fill that role.

If I let that chance escape, this secret would likely be forever sealed away.

Could I let that happen?

Of course not.

Even if I was straying from my main purpose here and even if it mean abandoning that original objective, I couldn’t just ignore this!!

“Maxwell.”

“Sure.”

“Let’s keep going. Let’s open every last door.”

What was it driving my heart at that moment?

Was it kindness? Anger? Curiosity? Foolhardiness?

I didn’t know.

Whatever it was, it pushed me forward.

Would I be better off not knowing what I would find?

Even that I couldn’t say.

All I knew was what I saw written on the wall:

Level 4

[Pick Up] Attached File – Status of the Colosseum [Net Files]

Two group leader decisions confirmed. Beginning disposal of the Werewolf.

Rating: None.

Captured the Werewolf from the surface using Tunnel Network 228D.

Rating: A.

Levels 1-3 complete. No effect seen. Awaiting instructions from group leader.

Rating: E.

On instructions from group leader, moving to Level 4.

Rating: None.

Decided which specimens to use. The Shoggoth and Berserk awaiting disposal were freed from their cells.

Rating: B.

The battle has begun.

Rating: A.

The battle is complete. The Berserk and Werewolf are dead. Finished off the barely alive Shoggoth.

Rating: B. (Or maybe C? Awaiting decision.)

Situation complete. Responsibility transferred to the cleanup team.

Rating: A.

Overall Rating: B. Points to consider: The theory is apparently based in statistics, but the “cannibalism” method is highly based in luck and is hard to call a reliable disposal method. We must quickly improve our equipment and training so that we are able to dispose of them on our own.

Chapter 9

When I walked through the bent and torn-apart metal bar door, the atmosphere changed yet again. There was no wallpaper and the floors and walls were made of smooth silver stainless steel. It felt like being thrown into a giant sink.

It was just like that tunnel.

The area no longer seemed lived in.

Both Archenemies and “personnel” had likely walked through the previous rooms and passageways, and some consideration had been given to that fact. But this was different. It felt like this place had been created “only” for the undead like Erika and Ayumi.

“Now things are finally feeling like a secret lab,” said the Swimsuit Class Rep.

“It isn’t often you find a lab that feels too open.”

There were a few doors along the hallway.

When we checked inside, we found a room with small doors along one wall. They were far thicker and sturdier than coin lockers. The silver metal doors contained digital counters that flashed with a red light.

“Minus forty degrees.”

“You could hammer a nail with a banana.”

“No, Maxwell. When you’re saying that with the Class Rep’s voice, you have to say it would ‘make your banana rock hard’.”

“Sure. Once the simulation is complete, I will use every recorded address I have to share that valuable opinion with everyone.”

“I get that you want to kill me, so will you forgive me if I bow down and beg?”

Yes, I had finally remembered.

This too was based on movies and dramas and I had never seen the real thing, but these rows of small thick doors were a lot like the morgues I had seen on police dramas.

To be honest, I was hesitant to open them.

But I was the only one around to reach the truth. The more I averted my gaze, the more I would regret it later.

I turned the lever to unlock one door and then opened it.

Something white burst out and the contents were sent out by an electric slide.

At first, it looked like a transparent glass coffin.

But it wasn’t.

“Is that…ice?”

“User, that is not the surprising point. What has been frozen is what matters.”

I knew that.

My brain was trying to run away. I was afraid to look directly at it.

A girl even younger than me was frozen there. She only wore a thin surgical gown and it barely hid her body at all. She was lying on her back, her eyes were closed, and her hands were clasped in front of her chest. Due to her pale skin and the abnormal environment, the sight did not inspire any lust. But I had a feeling that was the greatest insult to this girl.

Just looking at her, I could not tell how she was different from a human.

I checked the small nameplate above the door. It said Scylla.

“What’s a Scylla?”

“A female monster from Greek Mythology. It has twelve legs and six heads and it is said to have killed and devoured six voyaging heroes.”

“You’re kidding, right? But this girl’s body looks perfectly normal.”

“There are various theories as to the Scylla’s origin, but one of them says a beautiful girl was turned into a monster by a witch’s potion.”

So was she the Scylla itself that could switch back and forth using potions? Or was she the witch who could mix the potion to create a Scylla? There was no way to tell now that she was on ice.

I looked away from her and checked the rows of doors.

The nameplates were small and hard to read, but I could see several other names: Yaksha, Harpy, Troll, Aka Manto, Leanan Sidhe. The temperature display had vanished from some of the doors. Those three were labelled Werewolf, Shoggoth, and Berserk. What did that mean? I tried opening one, but it was empty, leaving me with no hint.

“This reminds of the stories of coin locker babies.”

“It would certainly be unprecedented if every last locker had a baby in it.”

The edges of the nameplates had small scratches on them. And they were not there by accident. They seemed to be a sign or tally marks, but for what, I couldn’t tell.

I started looking away from the doors…and then I noticed something and quickly looked back.

“I found it…”

“Found what? …Oh.”

“Zombie and Vampire.”

“There are likely more specimens than just those two.”

Those two doors also had no temperature display.

I opened them and found no one inside.

I had a bad feeling about this.

The edges of those two nameplates were covered in small scratches. It was far more than any other specimen.

A computer sat on a work desk. I moved the mouse to cancel the screensaver and it displayed some kind of graph. I recognized some things there. The name fields had entries like Harpy and Troll and the numbers were also familiar. I checked back and found they really did match the number of scratches on the nameplates.

The lowest number was one.

And they all cleanly came to a stop at five.

But the Vampire and Zombie entries rose above that.

It looked like an error that caused something to ignore the set upper limit.

But what did the graph mean?

“Thinking about it isn’t going to give me the answer.”

I left the room and found there weren’t many rooms left to check. The climax was nigh. I was approaching the truth of Level 4. The Swimsuit Class Rep and I could only follow the path. We passed some zombies or vampires in lab coats or protective suits, but they had almost all killed each other after intense fighting.

We came to an especially large door.

It had likely been solidly locked. Perhaps even more so than the round shelter doors. Unlike the metal bars before, this had not been destroyed with brute strength. There were bloody handprints around, so it had likely been unlocked with the fingerprint and iris of whoever was in charge, just like Ayumi had done at the hospital.

And this was a double door.

I could tell something special lay ahead, so I gulped.

Levels 1 through 3 had been bad enough. And Level 4 was bound to go far beyond that. But I could rid myself of all regrets if I stepped through that door. Whether it was by coincidence or whatever else, I had to see it after coming this far.

“Maxwell.”

“Sure.”

After our brief exchange, we hesitantly slipped through the gap in the double door.

And we found…

A round space even larger than a gym.

“…”

There were no strange torture tools and no pile of sinister weapons. The large open space may have looked like an anticlimax.

But it was not.

A prickling pressure assaulted my entire body. This was a place of concentrated death, where many lives had been lost. An atmosphere of regret and shame clung to me like heavy oil. Even if it had been scrubbed clean, even if all the splattered blood and flesh had been wiped away, and even if 99.9% of the germs had been killed with antibacterial sheets and silver ion spray, there was something that could never be cleaned away. And this place was inundated by that unknown factor.

It wasn’t set up to remove the air and create a vacuum, to spray out poison gas, or to become a giant microwave.

There was nothing here.

And that was what made it so strange.

This was Level 4, the deepest level with so much death covering it. So the lack of any obvious malice only made it more frightening.

This should not have happened.

After coming this far, how could I truly find “nothing”?

“Eh heh. Eh heh heh. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised we wound up here in the end.”

“Yes. This is the best place to settle things once and for all. We swore we would escape here when we were trapped in this spider web, but if we’re going to settle things between us, maybe this was the only real option, Onee-chan.”

Near the center of the round space, my sisters faced each other like a quick draw from a Western.

Neither one had any pawns left. It was only the two sisters facing each other with their bloody clothing fluttering in the air. It was an extremely primitive style of battle.

And after I saw that, it finally clicked into place for me.

Levels 1 through 3 were used to dispose of Archenemies who were deemed unable to adapt to human society. And the higher the number, the more thoroughly they would be destroyed.

So what was Level 4?

If the previous cooking equipment, hardware tools, and chemical tubs were not enough to fully destroy them, what final secret did the Bright Cross have waiting in this underground world of theirs?

Would they use a cross or holy water?

Would they detonate a nuclear or thermobaric bomb underground?

No. A cross or holy water wouldn’t work against a virus-created zombie girl like my little sister and a nuclear bomb wouldn’t necessarily kill an occult being like my older sister. To be absolutely certain, Level 4 would need a more definitive and appropriate fighting force.

I just had to remember what I had seen.

The Scylla had been sleeping in something like a morgue. But was that really a corpse? If they wanted to dispose of her, why would they preserve her? And would anything be left over to preserve?

Also, this round space had been protected by an abnormally thick double door. It was almost like a prison gate meant to ensure no one could escape once they were placed inside.

In other words…

“Is this a colosseum where the captured undead are made to kill each other!?”

It was a truly horrific idea.

I started to think I was a crazy sadist just for coming up with the idea.

But my sisters reacted differently.

Instead of expressing disgust or scorn, they laughed.

“Yes, I was the colosseum’s master of victory. No matter how many matches they made me fight in a row and no matter how much of an advantage they gave my opponents, I would always survive, so they were at their wit’s end trying to find a way to dispose of this vampire of the night.”

“Yes, I was the colosseum’s master of escape. I would remove my stitches so I would fall apart and pretend I was defeated. And when they would throw me out, I would escape from this spider web as a zombie of the day.”

The thick door would never open until one or the other was dead.

By continually dividing the total number by two, this round space would reliably reduce the number of Archenemies. And within those never-ending battles, victory earned them nothing and a single defeat meant death. Those days had to have been true hell.

“Just like a casino’s win rates are fine-tuned to profit the house, we were doomed to destruction. Yes, in just five battles, the demon of statistics would bare its fangs.”

“But we survived. We told statistics and probability to eat shit and miraculously slipped through the gaps of the supposedly absolute parameters. We clenched our teeth and held onto our lives. We were stained with blood and crawled pathetically forward, but we had to use every means available to us.”

But in that hell, they had survived.

They had done whatever was necessary.

All while praying they would one day be freed from this prison of blood and gore.

“…Why?”

I could not suppress my voice.

Why had they never given up hope? The words in my mind were terribly inappropriate and seemed to reject the lives they had lived. It may have sounded like mocking those two for grabbing at straw while they drowned.

But the question still came to mind.

How had they maintained hope in a space so steeped in cruel malice? Even if they had been released into the outside world for some reason, why had they thought they could adjust to and blend into human society and all of its ignorant smiles?

This was a disaster environment simulator.

The parameters it was given had been ridiculous, but Erika and Ayumi could do this same thing in the real world.

So why hadn’t they destroyed the world in their despair?

The answer was simple.

With a small smile, the zombie girl and vampire girl gave their answer.

“Because I met you, of course.”

“Because I met you, Onii-chan.”

That acted as a trigger.

Their first step sounded like an explosion and they charged straight toward each other. At this point, they did not bother attacking with a large group or cleverly manipulating the normal people.

It was one-on-one.

They grabbed each other’s thrusting hands, pulled at their hair, opened their mouths, and tried to bite the other. The zombie went for the vampire and vampire for the zombie. They knew they could not just conveniently turn the other to their side, but they did it anyway. They knew the risks and they showed no fear of their own destruction. They did not have the luxury of neatly and elegantly facing each other. One pushed the other down, the other spun around, and they rolled along the ground, trying to come out on top.

“Ahh, ahh!! It’s all coming back to me and it’s pissing me off! I had set up the perfect escape plan, but on that day, you decided to rush in and bite me for some reason!!”

“You were the one that had set me up to destroy you for your plan, so what’s wrong with getting something out of it for myself!?”

They sounded as carefree as girls hitting each other with stuffed animals and cushions, but their fangs and claws tore through their clothes and soft skin.

The sisters shouted at each other even as they were soaked in red.

“But, Onee-chan, you got careless and they found us right away!! If it had only been me, I could have escaped to the outside world and lived in hiding!!”

“Oh, dear. But isn’t that your own responsibility for looking after me when I couldn’t move around during the day? As your big sister, I thought that kind memory made for a nice story.”

“Fuguu…!!”

“Oh, my, my☆ It makes you that embarrassed?”

They had gone beyond normal injuries. They had more than just torn skin and red blood oozing out.

I saw pink things, white things, soft things, and hard things. So much was visible in their wounds that I was amazed the human body contained all that.

“But there’s one thing I can never forgive you for!!”

“I’m so jealous that you can be so honest about this.”

“If I had escaped on my own, only I would have met Onii-chan there!! But then you and your boobs had to interfere!!”

“Hee hee. But it was so obvious where Satori-kun was looking, so I couldn’t help but tease him a little.”

“You boob monster!!”

“Oh? Well you’re a…a…um, do you have anything, Ayumi-chan?”

“Fuguu!!”

Had I met them somewhere before?

That would have been before the remarriage. Nothing else made sense. They were talking about how they had been “quickly taken back” and yet they had never vanished since they started living with us.

“What’s wrong, Onee-chan!? Is your belly so full you can’t move!?”

“What about you, Ayumi-chan? Do you need to eat more flesh to regain your strength!?”

Which meant…

They seemed to suddenly remember I was watching, so they looked over at me while continuing their death match.

“That was when we gained hope.”

“If the outside world had someone like that, it seemed like a shame to destroy it.”

“So we bore with it when they brought us back to this spider web.”

“We worked to score a perfect 100 to delight those villains who forced the disgusting human rules on us while pretending they were good people.”

What had I said?

When I had met them long ago, what had I told them without knowing their situation?

If I restarted the simulator with administrator privileges and entered the necessary parameters, it was possible I could find the answer.

But that wasn’t necessary.

As my sisters fought to the death, they spoke together.

“This is what you said☆”

“ ‘Then if you bite me too, can we all be friends together?’ ”

They were not horrific monsters.

They did not need to be disposed of just because they could not adapt to the spreading human society.

Those sparkling eyes had seemed to admire something.

It was not the same as giving in and obeying. It was not the same as “allowing” them to live among the ever-growing human population.

That was the human side taking a step toward the undead side.

It was a desire to join them.

No.

It was because those pure words had been ignorant of everything involved that they had reached those girls’ worn-down hearts.

They had reached their hearts and reminded them of something.

“Ridiculous, isn’t it? Those words knew nothing of the world’s pain and suffering! But they still saved us!! We were willing to give up on anything and we were fine with breaking our fangs or throwing away our wings. We just wanted to meet that boy again!! We wanted to become the wonderful person he saw us as!!”

“But at the same time, we wanted to become the kind of undead that could impress that boy when we met him again!! A mythical god? The ruler of hell? A legendary hero? We wanted to show him the ultimate Archenemy that could flick all of those aside with ease!!”

Finally.

When I heard that, I felt like a mystery had been solved.

And I don’t mean the disgusting colosseum or the Bright Cross. I meant the very first mystery: why had my sisters begun this fight when they usually got along so well?

If a zombie and vampire went all out, which one would win?

It should have been a casual comment in my phone conversation with the Class Rep. It should have been an idle question.

But it had been a decisive statement that caught at Ayumi and Erika in a gentle and soft place.

So there had been no stopping them.

The disaster environment simulator was only a rehearsal. It was only a digital farce with a little more detail than a video game. But they would settle it here. Those sisters who shared everything were willing to devour each other’s flesh and blood to keep the title of the #1 undead for herself.

They did not want to give it up.

That was the humanity inside those Archenemies’ hearts.

“…Maxwell.”

“Sure.”

“Using any privileges you can, is there any way of ending the simulation here?”

“There is not. Your privileges have been rewritten, so administrator privileges are temporarily unusable. And as Amatsu Erika and Ayumi used your hard key, none of you have greater privileges than the others. That reduces the risk of a single user possessing all privileges, but at the same time…”

“Things tend to get stuck in the status quo. So none of us can stop it.”

“It all comes down to whether the zombie or vampire will win. The result processing will begin once that is settled in some fashion.”

Of course it would.

We wouldn’t be trapped in this virtual world forever. If one of my sisters died as they rolled around and tore at each other’s flesh and blood, we would be safely returned to the real world. That would probably happen in another five or ten minutes.

But I didn’t want that.

Even if it wasn’t logical, I just couldn’t accept this.

If the undead devoured each other and either the vampire or zombie died, we could all smile with our happy ending. That was the best method and the optimum answer, so we had to go with it no matter how cruel it was.

That sounded like the Bright Cross’s reasoning, so I wanted to vomit. It was no different than Level 4’s colosseum.

This battle had begun with Erika and Ayumi’s selfish desires.

They had forced me to go along with it.

So…

I would make sure it was my selfish desire that ended it!!

The intent of the simulation didn’t matter.

I would tear down that pre-established harmony.

I didn’t want this.

I understood how they felt.

But that wasn’t the same as unconditionally accepting those feelings.

What could be more obvious? If your sisters were trying to kill each other and wouldn’t stop until one of them was soaked in the other’s blood and the other was lying in a pool of blood, anyone would want to stop it.

I was here.

I could affect this. It was possible I could change something.

Even if it was as trivial as a breeze rustling the leaves in a tree.

I couldn’t just watch on without doing anything. How could I!? I had to reflexively tell them this was wrong! Isn’t that what family is for!?

I knew Ayumi was the type to boldly charge forward and then later start to nervously wonder if she should have done that. She liked sunbathing despite being a zombie, she had poor taste in clothing despite following all the fads, and she would come crying to me on the weekends, forcing me to go shopping with her. She was incredibly athletic and loved moving her body, but she worried on her own that it wouldn’t be fair to join a team when she was an Archenemy!!

And I knew Erika would readily pout her lips despite how mature she looked. She was a vampire, but she would freak out and cling to me if a single roach crawled out from behind a dresser or cabinet. She needed to drink fresh blood, but she still loved eating a normal meal while we all sat around the table. And she was smart enough to do just about anything, but on her career planning form, she straight up wrote that her dream for the future was to become a lovely wife!!

I knew them.

I truly knew them.

They were not throwaway characters from an RPG or FPS. They weren’t monsters created only to be defeated by someone. They could think, worry, suffer, struggle, and work to reach for happiness! I knew they were their own people with their own personalities!!!!!!

So.

I only had a split-second opening.

As Erika tried to get on top, she used her leg to kick Ayumi away, creating a slight opening. In that instant, they planned to charge right back at each other before they could even catch their breath.

If I was going to end everything and interfere, it had to be there!!

“Wha-…ah!?”

“Satori-kun!!”

They cried out in surprise, but it was too late.

I heard something soft being torn.

They had opened their mouths wide to target each other’s throats, but those jaws and fangs mercilessly rushed toward me instead.

The zombie and the vampire both bit me at the same moment.

There was no saving me now. But this was for the best. At the very least, I might not have to watch my beautiful older sister and cute little sister cough up blood and tear their organs apart.

I had eliminated that possibility.

It was a small difference, but I had to fill it.

Even if it was one piece at a time.

That was the only way to reach the impossibly distant stars.

“Ah, ahh, ahhh.”

“It can’t be. Is this flavor…ugh…Satori-kun’s…?”

Honestly.

Why were they freaking out now?

I had been forced to watch this the entire time. Even if it was only virtual, I had been forced to see both of them trying to kill each other all this time.

It was time they felt even an instant of that pain.

It was time they saw the suffering that had brought me.

As they stepped back in confusion, I reached out to them. I pulled them back in and pressed their lips against my bloody neck.

I wasn’t going to let them escape after all this.

I wasn’t going to die for no reason.

I would settle this once and for all.

But in a way they had never expected!!

“Erika, Ayumi. You seem to be mistaken about something.”

“Wh-what are you-…?”

“A battle between a zombie and a vampire isn’t about a physical brawl. It’s a battle of infection, right? Isn’t that why you needed a simulator? So what good is forgetting that and starting to grab at each other’s hair…?”

I tried to say more, but blood caught in my throat and I choked a bit before continuing.

I couldn’t die yet.

I couldn’t let go of my consciousness until I had said this.

“So your final battle needs to be one of infection, right? Since there are no more survivors around and you can’t go for benchmarks in quantity, you’ll have to settle for something on a smaller scale.”

“Onii-chan, do you mean…?”

“A zombie and a vampire.” I let out a weak breath. “According to you, it’s hard to turn a zombie into a vampire or vice-versa. But if both of you bite a normal person at the same time, which one will infect the victim’s body first? Which will take control? Which will become my master? …Isn’t that the perfect challenge? At the very least, it sounds more exciting than the kind of brawl you could have in the real world…”

My mind was fading.

My vision was falling into darkness.

Mixing them together had apparently been a bad idea. I had never had my blood sucked by a vampire or been bitten by a zombie, but this had to have been worse than a normal reaction.

“Onii-chan! Wait, Onii-chan! Why are you going pale!? Why aren’t your eyes moving properly!?”

“U-urp…! I let my guard down because it’s only virtual. I never thought it would be this painful to see up close!!”

You morons.

But I was glad. The fact that they went pale here was proof that they were “human”. They had caused pandemonium inside the simulator, but there was more to them than that.

“…”

At any rate, this settled things.

But how would it turn out?

Which did I think would win? After being bitten by both a vampire and a zombie, which did I think would rule me?

No, that wasn’t quite the right question.

Which did I hope would win?

“I think Erika will win and I will become a vampire.”

“I think Ayumi will win and I will become a zombie.”

[Pick Up] Response to the Automatically Transmitted Results [Net Files]

• Public Kukyou 1st High School

The zombie and vampire outbreaks both began here.

The situation was detected by the Weather Spheres and by the intelligence team’s drone.

But the central team was slow to make a decision. The situation progressed while we planned to snatch away the zombies and vampires and cover up the situation without the more than three hundred students and faculty noticing.

• Harbor Shopping District

As it was daytime, the zombies had the advantage. The infection spread from the aforementioned high school.

A few blocks around the shopping district were consumed.

The Bright Cross was split on how to respond.

The central team that focuses on the underground activity wanted to prioritize a cover up, but the intelligence team that works aboveground wished to prioritize rescuing people. In the name of preserving secrecy, the central team refused to allow normal citizens underground and a portion of the aboveground intelligence team split from the Bright Cross.

The vampires began manipulating information in secret.

At this point, they had at least sent spies to the city council, police stations, and broadcast stations. It is also estimated that they are working with an Upior that can move freely during the day, but our net has yet to catch it.

With the vampires and normal citizens pursuing them, the zombies invaded Kukyou Zoo. By infecting many animals and freeing them from their cages, the panic has spread. Animals and plants not from the zoo have also been seen infected.

The vampires have given up indirectly controlling normal citizens and are fighting back at full strength.

The runaway portion of the intelligence team seems to have used a tour bus to pick up normal citizens, but they were attacked by the zombies and wiped out.

The police stations, city council, and the city’s other important institutions are overrun with vampires from within the barricades. The damage has also spread within the unofficial shelters where the normal citizens have gathered in theatres and stadiums. The vampires are taking over and gaining the upper hand. The devastating damage to the city infrastructure has sent shockwaves through the Bright Cross as well.

After a meeting, the central team has given up on solving this problem using only Kukyou City’s own forces. Assistance from the JSDF and other external forces has been requested.

• Central Business District

The JSDF answered our request and sent a unit of helicopters into Kukyou City (on the pretext of responding to a natural disaster).

But the vampires wiped out the helicopter unit. Seeing the gravity of the situation, the JSDF has given up on saving the Bright Cross and normal citizens and is instead focusing on preventing the damage from spreading. The bridges and tunnels were destroyed, isolating the entire city.

Definite flaws in the Bright Cross’s chain of command are appearing.

The central team continues giving impossible orders and the response team, intelligence team, medical team, and cleanup teams are losing faith in them and growing more disobedient.

• Kukyou Dam

The zombies have attacked Kukyou Dam.

To preserve the secret hidden in the reservoir lake, most of the remaining intelligence team and response team were sent out, but the dam was still destroyed.

Not only does this expose the bottom of the dam, but the flooding of the entire city will cause problems later. The various doors cannot be opened due to the water pressure, so we are trapped inside.

• Harbor Shopping District (Flooded)

The chain of command has entirely collapsed, so the Bright Cross can no longer function as an organization.

We are only given simplistic or short-sighted resistance or evacuation missions and they are simply a waste of time.

Meanwhile, the vampires were allowed to ring the Upior’s bell, securing them a large number of pawns set up during the day.

• Central Business District (Flooded)

The sporadic fighting between the zombies and vampires continues, but the Bright Cross cannot head out to confirm.

The zombies had already flooded the city and now the vampires have presumably used the legend of the Varcolaci’s lunar eclipse to create a false asteroid strike which has annihilated the central business district. Kukyou City has entirely ceased to function as a city. The JSDF has temporarily withdrawn and pulled back their line of defense. It was discovered the vampires’ leader has a cellphone and a government negotiator attempted to contact her, but she refused to speak.

• Public Kukyou University Hospital

After the flooding sealed the doors and the false asteroid strike outside, the Bright Cross’s opinions are split over whether we should hole up here or head outside.

The one door we can open is the one in the elevated hospital, but a zombie has attacked there. The zombie seems to have stolen the fingerprint and iris of a Bright Cross member still in the hospital and unlocked the door that way.

The surface group in that hospital was annihilated in the second false asteroid strike.

The zombies and vampires entered through Underground Tunnel Network 228D, so the Bright Cross has lost our only exit.

The response team and cleanup team attempted a final resistance but were defeated.

• Bright Cross Disaster Prevention Foundation Underground Activities Facility

The invasion of the zombie and vampire could not be stopped.

The infection has spread deep into the facility and all functions as an organization have ceased.

• Summary.

The report from the Maxwell Civilian Cooperative Disaster Environment Simulator has been given a secrecy classification of S.

The provided data is incredibly useful, but great care must be taken in how it is used. If anyone treats this treasure trove of data as ridiculous excess, they must lack the intelligence to take part in this project.

The most valuable information is the time schedule with which the zombies and vampires brought Kukyou City to ruin and how pathetically reactionary every one of our actions was.

Let me put it simply.

If this exact scenario occurred in reality, we would be helpless with our current equipment and the number of victims would be the same.

The Weather Spheres distributed throughout the city, the Underground Tunnel Network creating a retrieval infrastructure, the heavily-armed response team meant to use those tunnels, and the Level 1-4 disposal rooms are all meaningless. This could not be more obvious by the fact that the Archenemies were allowed inside our underground base at the end.

We must reform our system ASAP.

Also, we must avoid taking any hasty action in response to this. If we take any forceful measures driven by anxiety or fear, we will leave holes open for the vampires and zombies to attack and I do not even want to think how many people they will turn into their pawns. We must also be very cautious how we handle Amatsu Satori, the boy who owns the simulator. This was only a virtual field reproduced by physics calculations on a machine build by an amateur with no help from a university and with no educational history, so it has almost no credibility. No matter what he announces to the world, we can silence him by calling it a simulation based on erroneous calculations, but we could also dispose of the boy for coming into contact with these secrets. But if we rush to do so, it would make an enemy of both the vampire and the zombie. Acting without a plan could easily provide a short-term victory but a long-term defeat.

This has also increased the possibility that we would ultimately fail if we attempted to seal off this land like the penal colony it once was. Do not forget that a single mistake could lead an entire nation to ruin after they asked the Bright Cross for protection.

Although that could change if we could establish a new order.

Make sure you do not crush that slight remaining hope with short-sighted thinking.

We will conquer all “disasters”.

And we are well aware that “they” exceed human understanding.

-Bright Cross Disaster Prevention Foundation Central Team

Chapter 10

“…Phew.”

I woke up in my second story bedroom.

I removed the headphone-style mind input device from my head and wiped the sweat from my brow. Unlike a commercial piece of hardware, this was a homemade one without any safety devices, so that ending had made my heart race.

I already heard a commotion downstairs.

They probably weren’t satisfied with that result.

I finally, heard them rushing up the stairs and Ayumi tearfully burst in without even knocking.

“Onii-chan, Onii-chan, Onii-chan, Onii-chaaaan!!”

“What? So how did it turn out? Since you’re crying, does that mean you lost?”

“Fuguu! No. I definitely won!!” She puffed out her cheeks to an amusing extent. “But you died before it was done! Before you could fully become a zombie or a vampire!!”

“…Oh, dear.”

That meant it had been a draw.

She showed no sign of noticing the pudding container on my desk, so she must have been quite mad.

And then my sexy older sister with her blonde ringlet curls and pink see-through negligee showed up at my open door.

“Oh, how rude. He only died because you started shaking his head when the vampire side started winning.”

“Fugu!?”

“He had already been bitten on both sides, so when you added that extra burden, his head came right off…”

“Fuguu!! Not true!! I know what happened! Just at the emotional moment when we were going to see if he lived or died, you secretly started biting him again and again!!”

“I-I have no idea what you are talking about. Ho ho ho.”

“This was supposed to be a battle of infection, but you kept going and going: chomp, chomp, chomp!! That means this one didn’t count! If we did it again, I’d definitely win!!”

“Yes. Perhaps we should restart the simulator so I can go for a perfect victory right from the beginning.”

“Now you’ve said it!!”

“Yes, I have. Is that a problem?”

Wait, wait. Hold on.

If we start a second round now…what happens? Are we starting on an infinite loop here?

You have to be kidding!!

“Hear me out, you two. This isn’t a phone app, so you can’t restart Maxwell for a second round that easily.”

“Ehhh!?”

“Can’t you do it, Satori-kun? What if I beg? By the way, I start with my right side when washing in the bath☆”

“That confession came out of nowhere…no, wait. You remembered that!? But no matter what you say, I can’t do what I can’t do. It’s homemade and I’m kind of afraid the cooling system won’t hold up. Use the system on such a large scale in quick succession and it could overheat and set the container on fire. That’s all for today and these things are best when they’re one-time things, right!? Okay, the end! We’re back home!!”

“Fuguu…”

“Instead, maybe we can see who can secretly kiss Satori-kun in his sleep the most.”

I heard an ominous comment, but we were done for the day.

I had solved the problem, I had protected the Swimsuit Class Rep, and I had kept my secret file set from reaching the Bright Cross Disaster Prevention Foundation, so everything had turned out for the best.

After driving my sisters back to their rooms, I breathed a deep sigh and then spoke to the smartphone in my hand.

“Maxwell.”

“Sure.”

The letters danced in an SNS speech bubble. After checking that, I made a vocal request.

“Can you prevent the results from being sent to that foundation or at least rewrite them into some decoy information?”

“I can only obey the tasks I am given. Give me the command and I will comply immediately.”

“So is there no way to do it automatically? I’m going to be up all night otherwise.”

“Is this about the Swimsuit Class Rep problem?”

“Don’t make that sound like the Y2K problem or the AI rebellion problem. Although I guess it’s the same level of catastrophe for me.”

I fell silent for a bit.

Data on the zombie and vampire rampage would of course be sent to the Bright Cross. What would they think when they saw how their system had completely collapsed? And what would they do to me now that I had opened those unopened doors and viewed the darkness of their colosseum?

“Maxwell.”

“Sure. Ending command standby. What is it?”

“Once we finish find a way to rearrange the results to be transmitted, I want to compile a new simulation set. If you need to defrag or cool your hardware, get it done now.”

“Sure. What should I name this new file?”

“Good question.”

I pretended to think, but I already knew the answer.

The rest was a matter of resolve.

I had a vampire older sister and a zombie little sister. …How far was I willing to go for that family?

To give an answer and to take the first step up those stairs, I spoke the file name.

“What about ‘Destruction of the Bright Cross Disaster Prevention Foundation’?”

The stormy night was not over yet.

The next fight had long since begun.

Afterword

With that, this is Kamachi Kazuma!!

The theme this time was a disaster environment simulator. Where do the hundreds of thousands of people in a city escape to when disaster strikes? Where does the congestion and confusion occur? And will the damage grow while they are stalled? There are apparently supercomputer projects made to answer those questions. The small rice grains representing people run all around over the map on the screen. It’s kind of interesting and kind of scary and it makes me wonder what I would do if I was really a piece of data placed in an unwinnable situation with no escape.

When I was thinking about how to make an exciting story out of that mechanical grim reaper’s prophecy, I ended up twisting it into a great war between zombies and vampires.

They’re both seen as horror monsters that bite people to expand their ranks and eventually swallow up an entire city, but as you saw in the story, they are quite different when you look at it rationally.

The zombies focus on increasing their numbers and create a blatantly abnormal situation, but cannot be stopped as they use their overwhelming majority of violence to destroy the city’s infrastructure. They’re a lot like a tough crowd of rioters.

The vampires look beautiful, so they can blend into human society and increase their numbers little by little until they’ve taken over all the important parts of the city’s infrastructure. And their secret biting ritual is extremely bloody. They’re a lot like a cult taking over.

This is a question without a definite right answer, but which one do you all find more frightening?

To focus on the simulator aspect, I made the protagonist Satori and his partner Maxwell behave in a silly manner while they viewed things from a detached perspective. I think that probably gave this a different feel than an actual horror story. I was trying to make the first volume a lighter entrance to the series that you could read through easily despite the gruesome things going on, but what did you think?

I think these horror stories can be fun in a different way if you think about the “what ifs” of what you would do in those situations. I worked to have the characters’ dialogue and actions help with that. I hope you enjoyed your own adventure in a city overrun by zombies and vampires.

I give my thanks to the image illustrator Mahaya-san and my editors Miki-san, Onodera-san, and Anan-san. I probably shouldn’t say this when I was the one to write it, but due to the disaster environment simulator gimmick, I think it must have been hard to grasp the exact “color” of this one. It isn’t pure horror, but it isn’t bright enough to be a comedy either. It was a somewhat complicated structure, so thank you for sticking with me.

And I also give my thanks to the readers. The situation and conditions obviously matter a lot, but do you think a group of vampires or a group of zombies would win? I hope you liked those girls who were kind at heart even if their abilities and actions were quite gruesome.

And I will end this here.

…Isn’t the protagonist something of a monster himself for building that simulator on his own?

-Kamachi Kazuma

?

[Pick Up] An Introduction to Tomorrow’s Victims [Net Files]

Hello, this is Maxwell.

Here is a list of those most in danger according to the predicted results of the disaster environment simulator. But do not feel bad. Whatever the calculation results, they can be useful reference material. This was only a digital rehearsal, so instead of letting the results get you down, I hope you will use them to reach new discoveries and the next course of action you should take.

Now for the results.

Serial 01: Harusaki Meika

Estimated Probability of Death: 75.5% (100% if she talks to Erika)

Age 27, Female, English Teacher. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

The female teacher who first had her blood sucked by Erika in Chapter 1. Returned from overseas and admired by everyone. A super teacher who wears a mini tight skirt and high heels perfectly, but she is actually tired of forcing herself into that role. If, when noticing something is wrong, she abandons that role and flees outside, her risk drops to 22.1%.

Serial 02: Andou Yudoki

Estimated Probability of Death: 51.0% (100% if he does not escape into an empty classroom)

Age 17, Male, High School Second Year. Greatest Risk: Crushed to death by the crowd.

One of the first students attacked by Ayumi in Chapter 1. Does not stand out much and actually escaped being bitten while all the other students were, but his risk rose when the zombies all began moving at once. Seemed to know who Ayumi was even though she is in middle school? If he escapes alone into an empty classroom, his risk drops to 17.0%.

Serial 03: Natsukawa Haname

Estimated Probability of Death: 98.9% (100% if her classmates notice her exorcism goods)

Age 16, Female, High School Second Year. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

One of the first students attacked by Ayumi in Chapter 1. Thinks she has spiritual powers and started an occult research club, but that led everyone to rely on her and use her as a shield. If she jumps out the classroom window when the panic begins, her risk drops to 16.6%.

Serial 04: Matsumoto Seiji

Estimated Probability of Death: 88.7% (100% if he can’t keep his eyes off of Ayumi’s bare belly)

Age 17, Male, High School Second Year. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

One of the students attacked by Ayumi in Chapter 1. Was already interested in Ayumi and was all for becoming a zombie at her hand, but ended up being bitten by the (male) gym teacher next to him. He was filled with such regret that he slammed his head against the wall and ended his life as an undead. If he does not grow fixated on Ayumi, his risk drops to 13.0%.

Serial 05: Tamura Ryoudai

Estimated Probability of Death: 65.5% (100% if he tries to fight Ayumi with his bamboo sword)

Age 32, Male, Gym Teacher. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

The zombie that said “Oh, you wanna fight?” in Chapter 1. Intentionally pretends to be a frightening teacher to keep the students in line. Kind at heart. With his mind simplified as a zombie, the speech patterns of his mischievous younger days came back. If he hides in the bathroom, his risk drops to 30.0%.

Serial 06: Itou Helen

Estimated Probability of Death: 70.4% (100% if her big brother Itou Tamago does not come to save her)

Age 15, Female, High School First Year. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

The zombie that only said “flesh” in Chapter 1. A taciturn half-Japanese girl who is often adored like a doll due to how little she speaks. For her to say “flesh”, she must have been very hungry. If her big brother Tamago shows up to save her, her risk drops to 2.1%.

Serial 07: Akutsu Gatsuto

Estimated Probability of Death: 69.0% (100% if he goes to find Helen)

Age 18, Male, High School Third Year. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

The zombie that repeated “flesh” over and over again in Chapter 1. Highly focused on his studies for the entrance exam wars, but also a major member of the Helen Defense Force. He was repeating “flesh” so insistently not because he was hungry but to fulfill Helen’s demand. If he escapes alone to the bicycle parking area, his risk drops to 10.9%.

Serial 08: Miyagawa Iyo

Estimated Probability of Death: 58.8% (100% if she tries to use the elevator instead of the stairs)

Age 38, Female, Housewife. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

Her risk shot up when the zombies attacked as she waited for the elevator in Chapter 2. It may have been divine punishment for trying to use the barrier free elevator. After becoming a zombie, she was crushed by the elephant in Chapter 3. If she uses the stairs instead, her risk drops to 25.0%.

Serial 09: Ongyou Akio

Estimated Probability of Death: 87.6% (100% if he cries out in surprise)

Age 20, Male, Part-Time Worker. Greatest Risk: Crushed by the crowd.

One of those fleeing during the panic in Chapter 2. Starts fleeing from the zombies before most others, but his panic spread to those around him and he ended up caught in the stampede. If he stays in place and hides in the flower bed, his risk drops to 31.0%.

Serial 10: Atsugami Makina

Estimated Probability of Death: 51.9% (100% if he shoves Himatsuri Asami)

Age 18, Male, Unemployed. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

The man who stole a bag during the panic in Chapter 2. He did not expect to the victim to be killed when he shoved her. His mind went blank and he ended up attacked by zombies. Had his head smashed in by someone with a metal pipe in the same chapter. If he takes Himatsuri’s hand and escapes with her, his risk drops to 19.2%.

Serial 11: Himatsuri Asami

Estimated Probability of Death: 98.9% (100% if she does not let go of her handbag)

Age 22, Female, College Third Year. Greatest Risk: Cerebral contusion after being shoved.

The woman whose bag was stolen during the panic in Chapter 2. She is the daughter of a wealthy family and covered in brand-names, but if her parents really loved her they would not have covered her in money as if asking for people to attack her. Her family was plotting a “murder based on probability”. If she changes into a cheap track suit, her risk drops to 5.5%.

Serial 12: Sagai Yuichi

Estimated Probability of Death: 82.1% (100% if he carries too much food)

Age 25, Male, Shop Clerk. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

A man who tries to carry stolen food instead of money. He is an extreme horror buff who fantasizes day in and day out what he would do to survive during a zombie outbreak, but his very first move got him bitten right away. Carrying too many supplies is apparently a problem too. If he focuses on hiding, his risk drops to 22.3%.

Serial 13: Yasukawa Tatsu

Estimated Probability of Death: 67.3% (100% if she continues protecting her beloved dog)

Age 78, Female, Unemployed (lives off of a pension). Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

One of the zombies that broke down the hardware store’s door in Chapter 2. An old woman with sturdy legs who walks her dog daily. Hid when the zombie outbreak began, but was discovered due to her barking dog. But she ignored the risk and continued holding the beloved dog in her arms. If she does not go for a walk, her risk drops to 26.1%.

Serial 14: Takashima Yukute

Estimated Probability of Death: 80.4% (100% if he skips his career counseling at school)

Age 18, Male, High School Third Year. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

One of the zombies that broke down the hardware store’s door in Chapter 2. Unsure whether to find a job or go to college, but not due to academic ability or economic circumstances. He simply cannot imagine what he wants to do with his life. With no real attachments, he did not panic even after becoming a zombie. If he finds what he wants to do if he survives, his risk drops to 2.0%.

Serial 15: Mitsue

Estimated Probability of Death: 79.8% (100% if she tries to protect her owner)

Age 3, Female, Toy Poodle. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

The canine zombie that blocked Satori’s way in the hardware store in Chapter 2. Yasukawa Tatsu’s dog. Her actions increased her owner’s risk, but she continued barking in an attempt to keep the zombies away and protect her master. If she remains calm and obeys Yasukawa Tatsu’s commands, her risk drops to 17.5%.

Serial 16: Sawabe Michinori

Estimated Probability of Death: 91.0% (100% if he draws a large crowd of zombies)

Age 42, Male, Self-Styled Company Man. Greatest Risk: Beaten to death by other people.

A man in Chapter 2 who calls himself a rich bachelor and carries the business card of an executive for a major car maker. But since he was wandering through the shopping district during the day, that identity is suspect. He ran around with a large crowd of zombies after him, so other people viewed him as a risk. If he stops trying to control people’s hearts with his over-the-top acting, his risk drops to 25.0%.

Serial 17: Daikuma Kasuka

Estimated Probability of Death: 93.9% (100% if she does not realize Sawabe’s identity and stays with him)

Age 39, Female, Self-Styled Heiress of an Old Noble Family. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

Marriage scam artist accompanying Sawabe Michinori in Chapter 2. Neither of them realized the other was deceiving them. After Sawabe’s death, the others tied her up and threw her out on the street so they could escape from the zombies. If she parts ways with Sawabe earlier, her risk drops to 11.5%

Serial 18: Akayama Tarou

Estimated Probability of Death: 58.1% (100% if he joins in when Erika’s asks people to fight)

Age 24, Male, Police Officer. Greatest Risk: Crushed by an elephant.

A police officer firing on the zombies for Erika in Chapter 2. His risk skyrockets when he runs across the rampaging elephant in Chapter 3. Rather than acting in the name of justice, he likes the feeling of power he gets when holding a gun. If he throws away the loud gun, his risk drops to 20.0%.

Serial 19: Sugita Masuke

Estimated Probability of Death: 53.6% (100% if he goes along with his colleagues)

Age 30, Male, Firefighter. Greatest Risk: Ruptured organs after being gored by a rhinoceros.

A firefighter who attacks the zombies for Erika in Chapter 2. His risk skyrockets when he runs into the rampaging rhinoceros in Chapter 3. Rather than of his own free will, he was afraid of being left behind when everyone was fired up and ready to fight. If he flees the shopping district on his own, his risk drops to 31.3%.

Serial 20: Raphael Hopper

Estimated Probability of Death: 69.0% (100% if he obeys Nezumi Kikka)

Age 25, Male, Bright Cross Intelligence Team. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

Bright Cross member that gathered information with the other drone Satori saw in Chapter 1. In Chapter 3, he was attacked by zombies and lost control of the drone. He was furious with the central team for not allowing them to rescue the civilians as the damage spread before their eyes. If he remains entire selfish, his risk drops to 25.6%.

Serial 21: Nezumi Kikka

Estimated Probability of Death: 94.2% (100% if he tries to rescue the normal citizens with the bus)

Age 41, Male, Bright Cross Intelligence Team Leader. Greatest Risk: Crushed by an elephant.

A Bright Cross member using the tour bus to rescue civilians in Chapter 3. Broke away from the central team and acted on his own. He did nothing wrong, but his actions created cracks in the organization and created even more victims. If he limits who he can rescue and moves on foot, his risk drops to 14.5%.

Serial 22: Kaminaka Seiko

Estimated Probability of Death: 50.1% (100% if she boards the tour bus)

Age 23, Female, Housewife. Greatest Risk: Crushed by an elephant.

A woman who climbs on top of the stopped bus in Chapter 3. Stopped by the shopping district to buy food for a camping trip with her old friends from school, but the zombies attacked. If she continues hiding in the supermarket freezer room, her risk drops to 19.0%.

Serial 23: Ichikawa Mahiko

Estimated Probability of Death: 85.9% (100% if he continues monitoring Himatsuri Asami)

Age 29, Male, Bodyguard. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

Servant who became a human missile to protect Satori from the snake in Chapter 3. Originally a city councilor’s bodyguard and part of Himatsuri Asami’s “murder based on probability”. In other words, his services were viewed quite highly. If he saves Himatsuri and escapes with her, his risk drops to 7.5%.

Serial 24: Nabenaka Hikari

Estimated Probability of Death: 63.4% (100% if she avoids reality in the arcade)

Age 13, Female, Middle School First Year. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

One of the servants who protects her queen from the sunlight as a human parasol. She wanted to commit suicide but did not have the courage, so she was found wandering around instead of going to school. It is unclear if she was glad for the chance to die for someone else’s sake. If she works up the courage to go to school, her risk drops to 10.0%.

Serial 25: Yawaragi Gouzou

Estimated Probability of Death: 55.9% (100% if he wastes time at the cafe)

Age 45, Male, Secretary. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

One of the servants who protects his queen from the sunlight as a human parasol. He was a city councilor’s second secretary, but he found no opening into the world of politics even at his age and saw little hope of a future. If he does not take a roundabout detour, his risk drops to 19.5%.

Serial 26: Endou Ayana

Estimated Probability of Death: 81.4% (100% if she offers herself to Erika)

Age 19, Female, Housekeeper in Training. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

A woman who became a human missile for Erika in Chapter 3. A beauty-obsessed woman who needlessly fears that she will only age and decline once she turns 20, so she rejoiced when she learned about the vampires. After obtaining the eternal youth she wanted, her first job was to become a human missile. If she hides behind the pillar until Erika is gone, her risk drops to 14.4%.

Serial 27: Mikhail K Karvenkov

Estimated Probability of Death: 92.5% (100% if he continues his roadside speech in front of the train station)

Age 23, Male, Self-Styled Medium. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

A man who becomes a human missile for Erika in Chapter 3. Claims to come from an exorcist bloodline, but the details are unknown. Since he was bitten by a vampire almost immediately, he was probably a known fraud in his home country and came here in search of a new world. If he ends his roadside speech and picks up some help wanted ads, his risk drops to 17.0%.

Serial 28: Hatsuyo

Estimated Probability of Death: 70.4% (100% if she cries out from her cage)

Age 15, Female, Elephant at the Zoo. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

African elephant that goes on a rampage in the shopping district in Chapter 3. She is less friendly than an Indian elephant and continues causing accidents for the zookeepers despite being a popular attraction. She loses a battle against the vampires, but seemed satisfied after her rampage. If she stays asleep in her cage and does not try to act tough, her risk drops to 5.0%.

Serial 29: Hin-yarin

Estimated Probability of Death: 83.5% (100% if Ayumi ends up choosing him)

Age 5, Male, Snake at the Zoo. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

Anaconda that goes on a rampage in the shopping district in Chapter 3. Not venomous. Born in the zoo, knows nothing of the wild, and apparently quite fond of the zookeepers. …But still causes plenty of accidents. He was trying to play with Satori, not harm him. Although he would end up squeezing the boy to death. If he hides in the tree in his cage, his risk drops to 17.7%.

Serial 30: Kinari Kenka

Estimated Probability of Death: 70.1 % (100% if he makes a low altitude entry)

Age 27, Male, JSDF. Greatest Risk: Contusions across his body during the helicopter crash.

One of the unit that used recon helicopters to scout out Kukyou City in Chapter 4. Because he made a textbook low altitude entry, he fell prey to the vampires. If he avoids a low altitude entry, his risk drops to 30.8%. If he requests to sit out the mission due to a migraine, his risk drops below 15.0%.

Serial 31: Ranritsu Ryuji

Estimated Probability of Death: 82.7% (100% if he goes camping alone)

Age 23, Male, Office Worker. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

Man whose barbecue was stolen in Chapter 4. Did not know about the commotion. Took some paid leave yet could not get anyone to join him, so he was delighted when Ayumi called out to him while he was camping alone. But as soon as he gave her the most delicious-looking skewer, she bit him. If he hears the commotion on the radio, his risk drops to 10.5%.

Serial 32: Bakuishi Akemi

Estimated Probability of Death: 57.8% (100% if she does not use her cold to leave early)

Age 35, Female, Dam Worker. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

Zombie who helps destroy the dam in Chapter 5. Her intelligence did not remain after infection, but destroying the control panel allowed the water to build beyond the dam’s limits before it finally burst. Seemed displeased with her current job. If she leaves the control room, her risk drops to 22.5%

Serial 33: Kurosuna Jouji

Estimated Probability of Death: 94.5% (100% if Ayumi attacks)

Age 28, Male, Bright Cross Intelligence Team. Greatest Risk: Heart ruptured when Ayumi stabs her hand into his chest.

Bright Cross member who defends against Ayumi’s attack on the dam in Chapter 5. Could not allow the water to be removed due to the important facility at the bottom of the reservoir lake. Thought to be involved in several suicides and missing persons, but he was no match for a full power zombie. If he changes into a work uniform and pretends to be a normal employee, his risk drops to 25.5%.

Serial 34: Waniguchi Hitomi

Estimated Probability of Death: 91.2% (100% if she runs away without turning off her radio)

Age 25, Female, Bright Cross Response Team. Greatest Risk: Shot to death.

Bright Cross member who defends against Ayumi’s attack on the dam in Chapter 5. Was frustrated with the central team and did not really feel like fighting. Used the confusion to escape the sinking ship on her own, but the other members shot her in the back. If she pretends to be dead, her risk drops to 19.0%.

Serial 35: Adachi Kirara

Estimated Probability of Death: 53.3% (100% if she heads out to the convenience store for a break)

Age 17, Female, High School Third Year. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

A vampire attacked by a swarm of zombies on an isolated rooftop after the dam breaks in Chapter 5. Sick of the hopeless entrance exam wars, she started wishing a meteor would hit just before the panic began. She was devoured while lamenting that she had not actually wished for this to happen. If she continues studying at home, her risk drops to 15.5%.

Serial 36: Tegusa Satori

Estimated Probability of Death: 68.7% (100% if Erika learns his name)

Age 20, Male, Part-Time Worker. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

One of the servants by Erika’s side when the dam broke in Chapter 5. Erika liked that he had the same name as her brother and kept him around to the end. He had little power or skill as a vampire and was easily taken out by the zombies. If he does not head back to the city after escaping to the mountains, his risk drops to 12.5%.

Serial 37: Edanaka Ayumi

Estimated Probability of Death: 70.8% (100% if Erika learns her name)

Age 14, Female, Middle School Second Year. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

One of the servants by Erika’s side when the dam broke in Chapter 5. Erika liked that she had the same name as her sister and kept her around to the end. Erika seems to be interested in coincidental symbols and jinxes in addition to her logical thinking. Perhaps she is the kind of big sister who likes fortunetelling? If her bicycle does not blow a tire, her risk drops to 20.3%.

Serial 38: Yamada Hikosuke

Estimated Probability of Death: 50.0% (100% if his eyes are drawn to a busty zombie)

Age 18, Male, College First Year. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

One of the zombies holding down Erika in Chapter 5. A well-known lover of large breasts. Was sad to become Ayumi’s servant and was delighted to attack Erika, but he realized something was wrong about biting at her breasts and managed to regain his ability to think and ran off even while infected. If he holds his breath and hides in front of the swimsuit poster, his risk drops to 15.0%.

Serial 39: Elfenia Redmist

Estimated Probability of Death: 99.2% (100% if she loses her smartphone that contains her translation app)

Age 15, Female, Middle School Third Year. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

The vampire who rings the church bell as an Upior in Chapter 5. Was shocked when an online ancestry search showed she came from a famous witch bloodline. It is unknown if that was related to manifesting the skill Erika wanted. If she picks up a multilingual Kukyou City guidebook, her risk drops to 9.0%.

Serial 40: Umaie Shinta

Estimated Probability of Death: 53.6% (100% if he leaves the warehouse when the bell rings)

Age 17, Male, High School Second Year. Greatest Risk: Turned into a vampire by the Upior.

One of the people turned into a vampire by the Upior in Chapter 6. Ran away from every new problem and miraculously managed to survive the zombies, vampires, and flooding, but he could not avoid the Upior’s bell. If he focuses on a goal and flees out to sea on a boat, his risk drops to 15.5%.

Serial 41: Emclais Stairer

Estimated Probability of Death: 51.5% (100% if he continues monitoring Erika too long during the panic)

Age 31, Male, Embassy Worker. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

One of the vampires that tries to jump onto the boat but is hit by a wooden stick bomb in Chapter 6. Works at an embassy for a certain Eastern European nation. Arrived to inspect the disaster prevention city, but was actually there to monitor the queen-class vampire and to investigate a way to control her within Kukyou City. If he does not hesitate to escape the city at the earliest stage, his risk drops to 11.8%.

Serial 42: Etsu Harutomi

Estimated Probability of Death: 80.5% (100% if he continues working during the panic)

Age 18, Male, Part-Time Janitor. Greatest Risk: Turned into a vampire by the Upior.

The vampire who fought Satori and Ayumi on the stairway landing in Chapter 7. Believes in maintaining the status quo and does not like moving forward or back, but the situation changed regardless. He had only just become a vampire, so he did not understand the limits of his own body. If he leaves the theatre that was his workplace and shelter, his risk drops to 17.7%.

Serial 43: Yuhi Eika

Estimated Probability of Death: 54.1% (100% if she does not shout to the recon helicopters for help)

Age 23, Female, Unemployed. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

One of the vampires who fought Satori and Ayumi in the real estate building hallway in Chapter 7. A jobless college graduate, but taking a part-time job to make ends meet is apparently not an option. She acts like her ideal self on her SNS accounts, but she is frightened by the difference between that and her real self. If she maintains her silence while hiding behind cover, her risk drops to 23.5%.

Serial 44: Umibe Jin

Estimated Probability of Death: 61.0% (100% if he is caught in the traffic jam after the bridge is destroyed)

Age 19, Male, President of a Startup Company. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

One of the vampires who fought Satori and Ayumi in the real estate building hallway in Chapter 7. Made a fortune with the board game he invented as a kid. Everything was going well, but as he approached twenty without knowing any real hardship, he began to worry that he had never grown up and was only a large child. If he trusts in and escapes with his secretary, his risk drops to 7.8%.

Serial 45: Sakihata Nobara

Estimated Probability of Death: 70.8% (100% if she leaves the bathroom)

Age 20, Female, Security Guard. Greatest Risk: Turned into a vampire by the Upior.

One of the vampires who fought Satori and Ayumi in the real estate building hallway in Chapter 7. Was beginning to panic over her inability to get married. She actually avoided annihilation during her battle with Satori and Ayumi, but she was entirely destroyed by Erika’s Moon Mortality. If she bears with being alone in the bathroom, her risk drops to 13.4%.

Serial 46: Mother Sirius

Estimated Probability of Death: 84.5% (100% if she obeys what the death Tarot card tells her)

Age 25, Female, Fortuneteller. Greatest Risk: Blood loss by a vampire.

Real name unknown. A vampire used by Erika to create the Moon Mortality false asteroid strike in Chapter 7. About a tenth of her is worn down with each strike, but she has especially high odds of killing her enemy. The accuracy of her fortunetelling is not very high, but she is an expert at drawing out people’s worries. If she does not do her own fortune, her risk drops to 15.3%.

Serial 47: Sunadono Mina

Estimated Probability of Death: 67.1% (100% if she remains in the building until the city is flooded)

Age 16, Female, High School First Year. Greatest Risk: Blown up by Moon Mortality.

A high school girl blown away by Moon Mortality in Chapter 7. She despaired after being left behind in a Kukyou City building after the flooding. Just as she wished she could have been killed by some flashy special move instead, the attack struck. The same attack made many other victims, but she had the highest probability of death. If she does not give up and escapes on a boat, her risk drops to 14.7%.

Serial 48: Fukamori Setsuna

Estimated Probability of Death: 70.6% (100% if he sticks with Sunadono Mina)

Age 17, Male, High School Second Year. Greatest Risk: Blown up by Moon Mortality.

A high school boy blown away by Moon Mortality in Chapter 7. Stayed with Sunadono Mina. Has a habit of saying “it’ll work out in the end” no matter what happens, but he also has a habit of exclusively relying on others. He said the same thing as he watched the cityscape being blown away, but his entire building was annihilated a moment later. If he acts alone, his risk drops to 20.5%.

Serial 49: Ozu Katana

Estimated Probability of Death: 59.0% (100% if Kukyou City is flooded)

Age 14, Male, Middle School Second Year. Greatest Risk: Turned into a vampire by the Upior.

A vampire used to create the second Moon Mortality in Chapter 7. Worries about how hard his name is to read despite the simple kanji it uses. After being turned into a vampire without being bitten, he was confused what had happened, but he was used for the attack before he could figure anything out. If he avoids the stadium being used as a civilian shelter during the day, his risk drops to 11.4%.

Serial 50: Suzunari Yuka

Estimated Probability of Death: 80.3% (100% if Satori’s group arrives at the hospital)

Age 25, Female, Nurse. Greatest Risk: Blown up by Moon Mortality.

A normal nurse at the university hospital in Chapter 7. Knows nothing of the Bright Cross. She stayed in the hospital, but the building could not withstand Moon Mortality’s destructive power. She figured being a vampire would be better than being a zombie, but a third fate awaited her. If she flees in an ambulance before the flood, her risk drops to 15.8%.

Serial 51: Nishina Akito

Estimated Probability of Death: 94.0% (100% if Satori’s group arrives at the hospital)

Age 34, Male, Bright Cross Medical Team. Greatest Risk: Throat injury in a battle with Ayumi.

The doctor whose parts Ayumi used to open the basement door in Chapter 7. He was secretly an observer for the Bright Cross. Ayumi killed him as painlessly as possible before retrieving the parts she needed. She seemed oddly considerate when compared to the other victims. If he flees on a medical helicopter, his risk drops to 3.3%.

Serial 52: Inori Touta

Estimated Probability of Death: 89.0% (100% if he doubts the Bright Cross’s decisions)

Age 50, Male, Mayor. Greatest Risk: Suicide by drowning?

The mayor hinted to have committed suicide in the [Pick Up] section. His body was found in the dam’s reservoir lake and it was apparently treated as a suicide, but based on the suicide note, the state of his corpse, and the location it was found in, it is possible he was killed by the Bright Cross. If he does not try to investigate on his own, his risk drops to 40.0%.

Serial 53: Umizoko Takara

Estimated Probability of Death: 90.0% (100% if Ayumi locks onto him)

Age 25, Male, Bright Cross Response Team. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

Bright Cross combat member who tries to stop Ayumi from entering the underground facility in Chapter 8. Using the underground tunnel network to occasionally attack the undead and being attacked within the tunnels are very different circumstances. He doubted the perfection of a god who allowed the undead to exist and mocked his colleagues who prayed to god. If he stops for a sermon at the train station, his risk drops to 18.7%.

Serial 54: Itou Tamago

Estimated Probability of Death: 91.9% (100% if he does not join the surface rescue group who broke away)

Age 22, Male, Bright Cross Response Team. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

His risk skyrocketed when he fought Ayumi in the underground facility in Chapter 8. He was conflicted between his work with the Bright Cross and his contact with his much younger sister. He wanted to run away and find her as soon as the attack began. Perhaps becoming a zombie just like Helen was some small consolation. If he immediately leaves to rescue his little sister, his risk drops to 3.0%.

Serial 55: Temporary ID #180

Estimated Probability of Death: 93.8% (100% if he does not give up on his comrades and continues calling out to them)

Age 25, Male, Bright Cross Response Team. Greatest Risk: Accidentally shot to death.

After one of his colleagues was turned into a zombie by Ayumi, their gun went off by accident and shot him in the underground facility in Chapter 8. He committed a crime in the outside world and swore his allegiance to the Bright Cross in order to avoid prison. He has a temporary ID so that his old identity can die before his new identity is complete. If he turns himself in to the police and fights alongside the police in the station, his risk drops to 13.3%.

Serial 56: Hikawa Orochi

Estimated Probability of Death: 99.9% (100% if he aims his gun at Satori)

Age 39, Male, Bright Cross Response Team Leader. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

Had all of his blood sucked out by the many bats that Erika turned into in Chapter 8. He is the fierce warrior in charge of the Bright Cross’s response team and he has had many successes in battle. But after the chain of command collapsed, he fell into confusion. Erika’s decision to not place him under her control may have been based in emotion rather than logic. Nothing he could have done that day would have reduced his risk.

Serial 57: Ishiue Makaku

Estimated Probability of Death: 90.5% (100% if he continues waiting for Hikawa Orochi’s orders)

Age 25, Male, Bright Cross Response Team. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

Bright Cross member attacked by Erika and her vampires in Chapter 8. He blindly believed in his team leader’s strength and waited for him to return until the very, very end. Has a habit of saying “these were my orders” and believes that all the inhumane activities in the facility are the responsibility of the higher ups. If he questions the organization and refuses to show up for work, his risk drops to 20.5%.

Serial 58: Kodachi Junka

Estimated Probability of Death: 90.4% (100% if he does not pretend to be one of the corpses)

Age 25, Male, Bright Cross Response Team. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

Bright Cross member attacked by Erika and her vampires in Chapter 8. A realist and a money-worshiper who says he will do any job as long as he is paid. He enjoys hunting down the undead. In the end, he was forced to act as a VIP’s shield for a few dirty yen notes. If he realizes the value of the flowers on the way to work that day, his risk drops to 17.3%.

Serial 59: Thomas Johnson

Estimated Probability of Death: 97.0% (100% if he flips a coin and obeys the answer)

Age 30, Male, Bright Cross Response Team. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

Bright Cross member attacked by Erika and her vampires in Chapter 8. Thinks gaining strength is the best way to distance himself from death and ultimately joined the Bright Cross. A standout member of the response team, but he only wishes to be a stronger version of himself and has no fixation on the undead. If he rescues an old man on a whim on his way to work that day, his risk drops to 10.0%.

Serial 60: Dorosawa Hanako

Estimated Probability of Death: 90.5% (100% if she causes a panic)

Age 28, Female, Bright Cross Cleanup Team Leader. Greatest Risk: Blood loss from a vampire.

Bright Cross member attacked by Erika and her vampires in Chapter 8. Increased her risk by staying in front of the door that would not open due to the flooding. Her emotions got the better of her, she could not maintain her rational thinking, and she repeated some unnecessary actions. She has also taken a non-permanent spot on the central team where some of the team leaders gather to make decisions. If she helps put out a house fire on the way to work that day, her risk drops to 15.5%.

Serial 61: Eiri Ryouka

Estimated Probability of Death: 98.9% (100% if she is found by Ayumi who knows her)

Age 27, Female, Bright Cross Medical Team Second-in-Command. Greatest Risk: Infection by Acute Zombie Powder.

One of the zombies wandering the medical block in Chapter 8. Eager to research the undead who are running rampant in the world. Some of the undead who were disposed of while maintaining their original forms are now models in her lab. After turning her into a zombie, Ayumi started to bottle her up, but Ayumi got bored and stopped partway through. Nothing she could have done that day would have reduced her risk.

Serial 62: Nizuma Mayuko

Estimated Probability of Death (including calculations estimating past events): 89.9% (100% if she is captured by the Bright Cross)

Age 18, Female, High School Third Year. Greatest Risk: Blows to the entire body by a Shoggoth.

The girl referred to as a Werewolf in the [Pick Up] section. Sent to the Level 4 colosseum and attacked by another undead. She begged her opponent to work with her to the very end. She had a human boyfriend and dreamed of being a gentle wife in the future. If she does not hesitate to reveal her wolf form in front of her boyfriend when the Bright Cross attacks, her risk drops to 10.8%.

Serial 63: Makigami Atsuo

Estimated Probability of Death (including calculations estimating past events): 87.1% (100% if he is captured by the Bright Cross)

Age 27, Male, College TA. Greatest Risk: Shock after having his entire body dissolved.

The young man referred to as a Berserk in the [Pick Up] section. Sent to the Level 4 colosseum and attacked by another undead. Thought Nizuma Mayuko was too naïve but could not mock her for it. Tried to protect her and was badly injured. If he does not ask his human professor for help when the Bright Cross attacks, his risk drops to 17.9%.

Serial 64: ???

Estimated Probability of Death (including calculations estimating past events): 95.5% (100% if they are captured by the Bright Cross)

Age ??, Sex Unknown, Occupation Unknown. Greatest Risk: Chemical treatment by the Bright Cross.

The slime creature referred to as a Shoggoth in the [Pick Up] section. Their original identity and life in human society are entirely unknown and it is highly likely they were always like this. Cannot be spoken or reasoned with and actively attacks the other undead in the colosseum. Finished off by the Bright Cross while nearly dead after the battle. Nothing they could have done that day would have reduced their risk.

Serial 65: Amatsu Satori

Estimated Probability of Death: 100.0% (Set in stone from the moment the simulation began. Cannot be changed)

Age 15, Male, High School First Year. Greatest Risk: Unknown.

The boy who died at the very, very end of the disaster environment simulation. His consciousness faded just before the result, so he does not know what happened to himself in the end. …But according to the two girls who saw him die, he had a smile on his face even after death.

That is all.

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