My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister:Volume7 Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Part 1

The long night was finally over.

Had we gained anything from it or not?

“Fuguu. Morning”

Ayumi looked and sounded sleepy when I ran into her in in the hallway. As a Vampire, Erika was probably fast asleep in the coffin below her bed.

It was like an Ouroboros, that snake biting its own tail.

I had thought we were done with that goddamn Evil Spirit already, but now it was back in the picture. And Karen was the most frustrated by this. That was hardly surprising when she might have destroyed any evidence leading back to the Hidden Cloud when she eliminated that organization herself.

The actual total was unknown, but the enormous secret server system had more than a billion accounts that went unmonitored by anyone in the world. Whether the system was maintained by an individual or a group, that had to be the actual core. The key to all the answers was the Evil Spirit which had already been destroyed.

“So all we did was waste a bunch of time.”

But it was too late now.

It was the same feeling as sitting down hard while forgetting I had an ultra-thin smartphone in my back pocket.

I was muttering to myself while preparing for school. With nothing else to do, I was back to my usual routine.

…Normally, it would be best not to get involved. To be honest, Karen was so unsure of herself that I couldn’t rely on her. I wasn’t afraid of an attack from the Hidden Cloud. No, I was more afraid of that drifting Valkyrie giving up on everything and beginning a bloodbath of a witch hunt based on false accusations.

“Good morning, Satori-kun.”

“Class Rep.”

I ran into my forehead glasses childhood friend as soon as I stepped out the door. Her entire soul had been ripped from her body due to those rotten girls and Evil Spirit, but she seemed fine now.

“Ugh. I was out of school for a while, so I hope I won’t feel left behind in class.”

“You weren’t out that long. The flu keeps people home for just as long all the time.”

“Only because you recklessly rushed out there, Satori-kun.”

But that was why her unexplained and untreatable coma had not been picked up by the TV or online news. Missing school for that long wasn’t enough to gather attention.

…But as forgiving as the world could be, the car chase caused by Karen and me had made some headlines. It was pure luck that my appearance and name had not ended up in the news.

Needless to say, I couldn’t approach the core of Evil Spirit by checking those trucks again. Same for the zoo they had left. For one thing, Karen was the one who had found that information, so she would have already reinvestigated it and hit a dead end when it didn’t turn anything up.

But the Class Rep said something unexpected.

“Bleh, my arms and legs still feel funny. It’s like when someone dislocates a joint and it gets dislocated more easily afterwards. When I tense up in a weird way, I feel like my ghost or spirit is going to leave my body…”

“I don’t know what to tell you there. What does it feel like to be just a soul?”

“I can’t really say since my memories are pretty hazy. They must really be stored in the head or brain instead of ‘the heart’ or anything vague like that. But there are bits and pieces that feel like the tip of an iceberg, so it’s very disorienting. Kind of like a half-remembered dream that just won’t leave you.”

“Well, it isn’t that you’re losing the distinction between dreams and reality. You’re simply remembering the very real things that happened when you were just a soul, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“This is nothing like that… It’s sticking with me way more than it should and these incomprehensible phrases in a foreign language are filling my mind. Can I really focus on my studies like this?”

“…What?”

“Eh? W-wait, don’t look so worried. It’s not like I have a bad headache with it or anything.”

“Sorry, it’s not that I’m not worried about you, but that’s not what I was asking about. …What’s this about a foreign language?”

“I don’t know what language it is. Just that it isn’t Japanese.”

…But the Class Rep had had no trouble communicating when we went to Las Vegas, so she had to know a practical level of conversational English. That ruled out English too.

Come to think of it, hadn’t I been attacked by a foreigner when I was checking the backs of those armored trucks?

Yes.

That’s right.

“After corrupting that zoo, Evil Spirit was hiding their products in the blocks of meat for rare carnivores. That way they could gather products from around the world without arousing suspicion…”

I had misjudged it.

It had not begun in the zoo. That was only a safe midway shipping center. There was a different starting point: outside the country.

We were talking about an international company that spread far beyond this small sheltered island nation.

And if worldwide black market goods and payments were being gathered at the zoo, where would it all have to pass through?

That was obvious on an island nation surrounded by ocean.

“The harbor? Part of Evil Spirit might have escaped Karen’s destruction there!”

Part 2

…But I should have considered the time and place when I dramatically shouted the answer.

“Satori-kun, what did I just say about you recklessly rushing places? Come here. We’re both going to school! Got that!?”

“Kh, I had always dreamed of having my childhood friend drag me to school by the ear, but I never expected it to happen!”

The smartphone in my pants pocket was vibrating as a warning, but I ignored it. Don’t say anything, Maxwell. I know you’re only trying to sabotage me here!

…And to be honest, I didn’t actually have to visit that dangerous place myself. Once in the classroom, I could pull out my smartphone at my desk and tell Karen to check the harbor.

But this was Maxwell’s response:

“No. I do not recall you exchanging addresses with Valkyrie Karen. You also do not know where she is staying, so we cannot find the landline number either.”

“…This is the problem with gods who just pop up whenever they want.”

I began to wonder how we had stayed in contact so smoothly until now. Thinking back, she had just showed up most of the time, hadn’t she?

She would not answer people’s prayers and would descend to provide a divine revelation at her own convenience. How much of a selfish wife was she?

This was a real problem.

I had no way of knowing how long the Evil Spirit group working at the harbor would remain in the city. In fact, they would want to leave as soon as possible to go into hiding. They would be waiting for the first chance to flee the country. It was possible I didn’t have time to wait until night when my Zombie little sister and Vampire older sister could attack.

I had no choice.

I took action before morning homeroom started.

…Oh, I really hate how accustomed I am to doing things behind the Class Rep’s back.

“What are you up to now, Senpai?”

“Wah!?”

I had slipped out of the classroom, but a quiet girl’s voice stopped me near the building entrance.

This small animal type was far more petite than the Forehead Glasses Class Rep. She had shoulder-length wavy blonde hair and white skin. It was my cute underclassman Itou Helen.

“Don’t scare me like that… Wait, did I say that out loud?”

“No. But I could see Maxwell’s text on your phone’s screen.”

“You were spying on me, you perv?”

“Per-…!?”

And unfortunately, I didn’t need a secretly-lewd little girl right now. I mean, it would be nice to have a Circe Witch whose potions could give herself and others the traits of plants and animals, but that didn’t meant I could drag her into danger whenever I wanted.

“Senpai, are you getting into trouble again?”

“Get out while you still can, little girl. You’re not a delinquent like me, so you need to stay in school until classes are over. And you even have something like a volunteer bodyguard unit, so there’d be trouble if people found out you were involved in this.”

“…”

“See ya later,” I said to smoothly avoid whatever she was going to say next while I threw on my sneakers and left school. I didn’t have any time to spare. I didn’t even know if Evil Spirit’s smuggling group was still at the harbor and hanging around school increased the risk of being found by the Class Rep.

But as soon as I left the school gate, my smartphone vibrated in my pocket, so I checked the screen.

“Warning: Based on analysis of the nearby security camera footage, Itou Helen is tailing you at a distance of about 30-40 meters. What should I do?”

“Are you kidding me? Why is she following me?”

“You mean you were not intentionally tempting her to come?”

“How could anyone see it that way? And even if I was acting a little suspiciously, I can’t think of a single reason why she would skip school to follow me into danger.”

“Letting her hear that would likely only fill her with hatred.”

At any rate, I couldn’t ignore this, so I turned a random corner and stopped to wait. The plan was to shout “boo!” and scare that small animal girl when she poked her head around the corner. However…

“She’s still not here… That’s odd. You said she was only 30-40 meters behind me, right?”

“Warning.”

Just as Maxwell’s text reached me, something fell from directly above.

“Boo.”

“Wagh!! Wait, what!? Above me!?”

My cute underclassman was clinging upside-down to the building wall. I don’t know if it was a frog or a newt, but she must have given herself the traits of some animal or another! And did she not care she was wearing a skirt while flipped upside-down!?

My heart was pounding in my chest as Itou Helen hopped down in front of me.

“Senpai, I don’t know what you’re up to, but even I can tell you’re full of openings. I don’t want to think about how quickly you would end up dead.”

“Ugh… When did my cute underclassman learn to put so much force behind her words?”

“Girls grow up fast. Now, I don’t want to get in your way, so please show me where to go. Having an Archenemy helping you can’t hurt, can it?”

“Yeah, but this is legitimately dangerous. I can’t just bring a girl there and I sure as hell don’t want to deal with your unofficial-but-still-ultra-scary bodyguards after the fact…”

Before I could react, my slender underclassman suddenly hugged me and snapped a selfie with her smartphone.

…

Huh?

Oh, crap. I shouldn’t have left that happen. Looking at the photo now, she’s stretching up with her eyes closed and her chin raised, so it looks a lot like she’s asking for a kiss. And why does it look like my hands is reaching for that innocent underclassman’s little butt!? I-I swear, she’s turned faked evidence into an art form here. I’m screwed if those unofficial bodyguards see this!

“Now are you more in the mood, Senpai?”

…I think this underclassman got the wrong lesson out of the whole Colosseum thing.

Part 3

A harbor full of criminals might sound like a strange, foreign world, but not so for me. After all, I stored Maxwell in the container yard there.

The guards and workers knew me, so I didn’t have to worry about being thrown out.

That allowed me to bring Itou Helen with me to that safe zone.

“Now, the harbor is a big place. If Evil Spirit has corrupted it, where would they be?”

I knew they were not in the container yard. I would have noticed something before now if they were.

“Wouldn’t a section neither of us has analyzed be the most suspicious?” asked Maxwell.

“Is there anything like that left? You investigate everything whether I tell you to or not, don’t you?”

“Sure. Everything from the harbor facilities to the employees.”

Why was a program merely hinting at the answer?

“I recognize this self-important way of not answering questions. Did the simulator learn by watching you, Senpai?”

“…Now I’m worried about you too, Itou-san.”

“Simply put, there are a few offices that are located within the harbor but are not technically affiliated with it,” explained Maxwell. “For example, an ocean pollution inspection office run by an environmental protection group. It is an NPO with no financial ties to the harbor and that exists outside the harbor’s chain of command, so searching the servers on the harbor management intranet turned up nothing and I overlooked them.”

In other words, a “powerful weakling”. They were making full use of the idea that the pen is mightier than the sword.

And Evil Spirit had used that to create a smuggling base. They probably created an atmosphere as prickly as a hedgehog and refused to even respond to fire inspections.

“Knowing what our target is speeds this up.”

We didn’t know how many human and Archenemy forces Evil Spirit had available, so I couldn’t let my guard down even with a Circe Witch at my disposal. If they had foreseen skirmishes with other organizations over use of the harbor, they would have strengthened themselves a fair amount.

I wanted to hurry since they could escape at any moment, but I also wanted to avoid as much risk as possible. That meant I needed information.

“Maxwell, can you hack into that office’s computers? Or do you need Anastasia’s help for that?”

“No. I doubt we could find much even with that white hacker’s assistance.”

If that hacker girl heard that, it would probably trigger a small Japan-America war, but Maxwell had to have a reason to sound so certain.

“Based on the past half a year of power consumption records, I doubt they have a proper computer inside, so it seems they are not even using an isolated one for standalone data processing.”

“You’re kidding, right? That office is the source of corruption that’s opening a hole in harbor security and setting up a flow of money and goods. They would need some pretty strict data management or they would have no receipts to prove anything if there was some trouble and a precious treasure went missing. Evil Spirit isn’t just one or two burglars and a large organization needs a server system to hold it together. There has to be something there.”

“Such as?”

“Let’s see… What if they have a big battery or a generator in there? Or what if they’ve filled an RV or truck with communication equipment that they park alongside the office at regular intervals?”

“No. Wouldn’t they just use that vehicle as a mobile base instead of using the office?”

“Hmm.”

This was outside Itou Helen’s area of expertise, but that cute blonde underclassman spoke up with a confused tone.

“Senpai, I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“That, um, server system? I assume you mean a big computer, but are you sure it really exists?”

I wasn’t sure what she meant.

I prompted her to continue and she did so.

“Um, couldn’t they just write all the numbers down in paper notebooks? That way not even the greatest expert could steal their data with a computer.”

“…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………”

“N-no, I’m probably wrong. Sorry. I really shouldn’t have tried to contribute. Never mind. Please forget I said anything. Oh, this is so embarrassing.”

“No, I think you’re right. Yes, paper. That’s it, Maxwell!”

“Sure. Miss Itou Helen, let me buy you a drink some time. (*´ω｀*)ノ韭”

“Eh? Eh?”

My cute underclassman grew flustered, but she had definitely accomplished the most here.

“Itou-san, are you familiar with punch cards? Y’know, those paper cards with holes in them. You sometimes see them in old manga and anime when they show those fridge-sized computers.”

“Y-yes. But I thought those had gone away just like records.”

That view would probably anger some audiophiles, but that was probably how you saw it without specialty knowledge.

Anyway.

“Not entirely. Punch cards are still used to manage data. And in cutting-edge facilities.”

“Eh?”

“Printing technology has improved quite a lot since the old days, so enough memory space to hold several movies can be printed on a card along with an ultra-thin printed circuit board,” explained Maxwell. “You end up with something like a bendable piece of cellophane.”

“If you then punch holes in the card, you have something that no machine can read as-is. The only person who can read the data is the person with the second card that fills in the holes,” I added. “Since severing a wire thinner than a hair physically prevents the electricity from getting through, there is no chance of an outside cyber-attack stealing the data. I’ve heard of major corporations keeping their secret ledgers separate from the company servers like that. And since the one card is impossible to read on its own, you can walk around with it in your wallet without fearing what happens if you drop it, forget it somewhere, or have your possessions inspected.”

“I-I see. I’m not sure if that counts as high-tech or low-tech. Um, it reminds me of how the two sides of business deals would press two halves of a broken board together to prove they were dealing with the right person…”

That was basically the same idea. The world of technology did not always leave the past behind. It was all built on a foundation of the past, so returning to that was always an option. There was so much to learn.

Now, it was time to apply that idea to Evil Spirit’s smuggling base.

“They’ve compressed a library,” I said. “The office shelves will be lined with binders or file books stuffed full of cards. I don’t know if it’s in alphabetical order or by date, but they’ll have the shelves, binders, and pages organized in some way that allows them to manage the massive amount of data without a server system to search with.”

“But, Senpai, how is that different from the broken board? The data inside wouldn’t be necessary to check the holes in the card and see that the other person’s card matches it, right?”

“Criminal organizations love high-spec computers because they want to apply randomized processing using long numbers like pi in their search for truly unbreakable encryption. But with punch cards, data encryption isn’t all that important. You can’t read the proper data without physically filling in the printed circuit board’s holes, so they can omit all the cyber-attack countermeasures.”

“Meaning?”

“All they would need is a card reader attached to an outdated mobile device. And those use internal batteries, so it wouldn’t change the office’s power consumption.”

That was enough to see their Achilles heel.

You couldn’t read the data just by inspecting the mountains of cards on the office shelves. Their external business partner had to bring in the corresponding card. Gaining both parts of just one set required opposing both groups, so how much worse would it be to gain both parts for all the cards on the office shelves? That just wouldn’t be possible.

So instead…

“Let’s tamper with the mobile device or card reader they use to read the combined cards. Then we can steal all the data as they’re reading it.”

Yes, there might be thousands or tens of thousands of cards, but there would only be so many readers. And to prevent having them stolen, no one would walk around with them. Capture this one location and we could access all the data.

Part 4

The harbor area was comprised of a petrochemical complex, a commercial port, and a container yard. There were also couples-oriented attractions like an aquarium, restaurants with a nice view at night, and souvenir shops. It seemed to be made entirely of concrete and the beach and fisheries were classified separately.

The environmental protection group office that Evil Spirit was misusing was at the 3rd dock of the commercial port’s cargo area. I recalled the area being in the news because of an infestation of foreign bugs getting in with the containers.

Anyway.

There were a few reinforced concrete structures about the size of a school or hospital, but there was also a two-story prefab building. It was about the size of two convenience stores stacked on top of each other. It stood out as an obvious later addition and it had a power cable leading to a nearby building for electricity. Everything from fiber optic cables to nuclear shelters were buried underground these days, so it was strange seeing such a thick line out in the open.

“Maxwell, check the surrounding data. Pay special attention to the presence of cameras and sensors aimed in from outside.”

“Sure. I have found cameras located in the gaps between containers, on the building’s roof, and on top of the streetlights. They are all pet-monitoring cameras sold in electronics stores, but they will see you if you approach the office. Shall I deal with them?”

“Cut their power. I want to intentionally trip an alarm and see what happens.”

We took up a position a good distance away and forcibly cut the camera footage.

…

30 seconds passed.

“…Um, Senpai?”

“I know. No reaction is the most troublesome reaction of all.”

If a bunch of armed macho men had rushed out to see what was going on, we could have sized up their fighting force, but it wasn’t going to be that easy. Was the lack of reaction because there was no one there or because this was not enough to faze them? I had no way of knowing.

“Not that. Um, that prefab building is built along the edge of the concrete wharf, isn’t it?”

“What about it?”

“Well, if the cameras are only set up to catch someone ‘approaching on foot’, couldn’t we approach from the ocean? We wouldn’t even need to dive underwater. If I took on the traits of a jellyfish or sea anemone, I could cling to the wharf or breakwater low enough to not be seen but still out of the water.”

…Did I have a useful underclassman, or what?

Before long, Itou Helen drank the mysterious contents of a test tube, grew a few translucent tentacles from the back of her hips, and approached Evil Spirit’s base above the water but below the ground just as she had suggested. Me? I was nothing more than a burden. I was clinging to that slender girl’s torso like a koala. And from the front. Yeah!!

“Senpai, that tickles.”

“Man, having permission is the most wonderful thing. Life feels so different when you have something to live for.”

I had my arms and my legs solidly wrapped around her while I pressed my cheek against her from the front. My arms were trembling a fair amount, but…yeah, this had to be the work of endorphins. The cute underclassman power was fully numbing my exhaustion and pain!

The waves could not reach us, but we were below the surface.

Itou Helen clung to the concrete wall as she circled around behind the office.

“The cameras and sensors cannot see you on the ocean-facing side,” said Maxwell. “I estimate that is due to the lack of ground to walk on there. No one should notice you as you climb up.”

“There’s an unbelievably small window up there. Is it in place of a vent?”

“Sh. Wait a second, Senpai.”

Itou Helen’s blonde hair parted as triangular cat ears popped up. They spun around like parabolic antennae, focused on the prefab building’s wall, and enhanced her cuteness.

“I don’t hear anything inside.”

“…”

I could think of a few different possibilities:

1. Evil Spirit just so happened to be out and they would be back eventually.

2. Evil Spirit had already withdrawn from here and they would never be back.

And…

3. Evil Spirit had somehow detected our approach and were holding their breath waiting for us to enter.

“Whatever the case, we need to be careful. This could get nasty.”

“I’m most worried about you, Senpai.”

I heard some buttons being undone and then Itou Helen’s blazer and blouse slid down to expose her slender shoulders. Something grew from each of her bare shoulder blades. They were a crab’s…no, a mantis shrimp’s club legs. They could strike with overwhelming speed and, if their kinetic vision could keep up, it was possible they could strike down a spray of machinegun fire from head on.

“Here I go.”

“Okay.”

It was finally beginning while I was still in koala mode with my chin on her shoulder and my cheek pressed against her.

Just as I thought I heard a spraying sound from her mouth, her mantis shrimp punch moved to smash the frosted glass with a thin transparent film over it. There was no high-pitched shattering sound or knife-like shards. There was only a muffled sound like someone striking the thick side of a plastic greenhouse and the entire piece of glass fell from the frame in one piece.

Oh, god. What had I turned that nervous little animal of a girl into!?

Things progressed quickly from there. Itou Helen grabbed the top of the windowsill with both hands, swung her entire body like a pendulum, and dove legs-first into the prefab building. Since I was clinging to her, it was a lot like riding a roller coaster.

“Senpai, stay with me.”

When my feet finally felt solid ground below them, I exited koala mode, but that seemed to have mildly angered Itou Helen.

But anyway…

“What is this smell?”

It wasn’t old paper.

At the very least, there was no sign of anyone here. Just as we had guessed, the place was full of steel racks and binders. Needless to say, they all contained the cards meant to defend against cyber-attacks.

The oppressive atmosphere was similar to a small used book store. Or maybe like wandering into a small 3D maze.

But like I had said, there was no one here.

That was obvious at a glance. I couldn’t imagine even a ninja or spy could hide their presence here. The air was just too stagnant for it. It was like time had been frozen here well before we arrived. It felt like we had wandered into the wrong place.

“…Senpai.”

Itou Helen belatedly stepped closer to me. This silent pressure was different from a direct fistfight. It felt like we had been holding a shield in front of us when a blow arrived from an entirely different direction to hit us in the side. The shaking of my eyes was enough to know the adrenaline-blunted fear was gradually returning.

…But what were we so worried about that we could not even bring ourselves to search for the card reader? We knew there was no one here, so what else could it be? It felt wrong to feel so utterly cornered without knowing what it was. We were searching for the cause, even if only to find a way to escape this feeling. We trusted that solving the mystery would reduce the fear.

There were some things in the world you were better off not seeing.

But we ignored that possibility.

“Ah…”

When I peered down the aisles created between the steel racks, I opened my mouth and let out my voice like a complete moron.

Within that strange smell that reminded me of katsuobushi or dried meat, I found it.

A light brown lump was seated and leaning against one of the steel racks. It was a size or two too small to be a human.

I learned something new that day.

I learned just how small and light the human body became when it was dried out and all the moisture was removed.

Part 5

I did not scream in a clichéd fashion.

I simply fell down into a sitting position. I forgot to inhale or exhale and only managed to flap my mouth open and closed like a goldfish.

“Senpai, is something the-…?”

Itou Helen froze mid-sentence. She must have seen the same thing I had, but I was too preoccupied to ask.

That one light brown lump was all it took to make the entire world feel rotten.

I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. Or even if it was an adult or child. It felt so stripped of humanity that it would have been easier to believe it was a piece of dried driftwood or a Buddhist statue.

“But what does this mean?”

Had this not been Evil Spirit’s smuggling base? Had they not left their elites here to open a hole in harbor security and allow their products in and out?

I had to think.

I couldn’t give up on thought.

…I didn’t need to find the answer right away. I had to list every possibility I could think of. It simply wasn’t possible that I couldn’t come up with even a single reason why that would be here.

“That’s right…”

Possibility 1: Evil Spirit handles any kind of product. Maybe it had yet to be packaged or it had been returned, but this was a black market product.

Possibility 2: Evil Spirit had already withdrawn from here and they left this here as a scapegoat – a lizard’s tail.

Possibility 3: A third party had discovered this place before we did and attacked Evil Spirit.

…To be honest, none of them felt convincing.

“Warning: the specific mummification method is unknown, but given the possibility of toxins and infectious disease, please avoid touching it,” said Maxwell. “Also, touching a corpse is not recommended from a legal standpoint.”

“…”

I already knew that.

I wanted to say that out loud, but my lips refused to move. There was apparently a discrepancy between my mental shock and physical shock. Fingerprints, hairs, sweat, saliva. I could no longer remember how many traces of my presence I had left here.

“Senpai.”

I was at a complete loss, but my cute underclassman tugged on my jacket.

“What should we do, Senpai? Should we, um, call the police?”

I didn’t have anything clever to say.

I’m pretty sure I just sat there for quite a while.

Finally, my tongue moved with the speed of a slug and I managed to speak.

“Maxwell. Let’s do this without touching it. We’ll use the camera to analyze it as much as possible.”

“That does not sound pleasant, but sure.”

What was that mummy? Was it part of some kind of Voodoo ritual? Damn, if only I had Ayumi with me. These regrets always had a way of catching up with me.

However.

“Warning.”

“Did you find something, Maxwell?”

“Pay careful attention to the corner of the lips and the neck.”

Bluish-white light marked a portion of the scene viewed through the smartphone screen.

And that was when I saw it.

Fangs in the mouth…

…and a bite mark on the neck?

“Wait…”

A powerful alarm began blaring in my head. My experience told me just what these things meant. I couldn’t help but reach that conclusion.

“Then…then what is this? Does it mean this is a Vampire like Erika?”

Were they part of the 13 Eastern European Families?

Damn. All I had was this transformed mummy to look at and I had only caught a glimpse of the Vampires other than Fly and Meslayate. I wasn’t confident enough to say which one was which.

“Knowing they are a Vampire does not tell us whether they were a victim or attacker,” said Maxwell. “Did a Vampire attack Evil Spirit, or did Evil Spirit kill a Vampire? It is impossible to say.”

“But they’re mummified. Don’t Vampires turn to ashes when they die?”

“Beheading and burning corpses are methods used to prevent them from becoming Vampires. And one reason Vampires suck blood is to preserve the youthfulness of their body and improve their complexion, so the opposite might be possible. Although it is unclear if this was intended to kill them or restrain them nonlethally.”

“Um…you’re doing a lot of speculation there. We don’t even know how they were dried out. Was it with fire and heat, or was it with a drying agent like concentrated sulfuric acid or calcium chloride?”

Itou Helen started listing off chemicals while peering over at my smartphone and Maxwell provided an accurate response.

“I would like a source for your claims. It is always possible they could begin moving in that state, so I do not recommend touching them until we have more information.”

A Vampire had to suck out a lethal amount of blood to create another one, so it shouldn’t be that easy.

But if two people were grappling and rolling on the floor, would sucking blood be a viable attack method? They might bite with their mouth instead of constricting a joint or artery with an arm or leg.

I had already seen what that Voodoo Bokor could do in the underground tunnels.

But anyone could be turned into a Vampire if they were bitten by one. And that did not just give you extra powers; it came with a common set of weaknesses that could effectively level the playing field. It was possible a Vampire would “weaken” a Bokor like that and immediately do something they themselves feared to settle things quickly.

However…

“We’re switching from Evil Spirit and back to the Vampires again?”

Something bothered me about this.

We had arrived here by gathering all the hints lying around, revealing the true faces of various enemies, fighting, and surviving.

But.

Wasn’t this a kind of weird?

“The presence of a Vampire corpse here may mean the assumptions and safety of the 13 Eastern European Families have crumbled,” said Maxwell. “It is possible one of the members did this and then hid that fact, or that someone from Evil Spirit became a Vampire and took one of the proper members’ places.”

“Oh, my. That sounds dangerous, Senpai. You need to let your older sister know right away.”

“No. We should suspect all of the Vampires equally, including Amatsu Erika, and rebuild a safe zone by clearing your suspicions one at a time. Luckily, it is currently daytime, so the Vampires’ options are limited. This will be another long night, so you should come up with a plan for after sunset.”

No.

That wasn’t it.

I didn’t know who was on my side and who wasn’t. Wasn’t this just like when Fly Villiers had set up that game? Besides, the issue bothering me was nothing so recent!

“Are we really on the right track here?”

“Senpai?”

“I mean, it makes no sense! First Evil Spirit, then the Vampires, and what next? Are we going to find the Hidden Cloud again, negotiate with a hacker, and find Evil Spirit yet again? It feels like we’re making progress, but we aren’t at all! It’s not a perfect loop, but aren’t we spiraling around the same circle with only the specific radius of the vortex changing each time!? We just end up in the same place over and over!!”

“No. Please make a suggestion based on objective evidence, not your subjective impression. Let’s say you roll a die three times and get 6 each time. Humans will imagine a special meaning or unseen rule behind it, but it is a simple matter of probability. Your issue here has no basis in fact.”

Yeah.

Probably not.

Looking at it normally, I was acting crazy. We kept finding hints and making progress, so it was silly to decide we were at a standstill.

But wasn’t it a little too blatant?

We were like a bird being led by a trail of seeds on the ground. Was I really finding this information of my own free will? Had I narrowed my vision too far?

I didn’t know who had done it.

But if they were spending their own money to lay a trail of bait on the ground, they had to be leading us somewhere. Or did they just want to distract us? But from what? What was going on outside this vortex? What did they gain from this? It was like braving the darkness with nothing but a cheap flashlight. Something crucially important could be sitting right outside the narrow beam.

I had an uncomfortable feeling like someone had maliciously shut off the lights, handed me a puny flashlight, and then laid out reflective landmarks. I couldn’t celebrate at this new discovery.

“Where did it really begin?”

I groaned.

I muttered.

I had to shut off the light and let my eyes adjust to the darkness.

I wouldn’t find anything by taking the easy way out and following the obvious trail. I couldn’t rush toward the light. I had to brave the darkness. There had to be something beyond this unpleasant feeling.

“Evil Spirit, the 13 Eastern European Families, the Hidden Cloud. That forms one cycle. I can’t escape the vortex by following that never-ending circle. Then where did I enter this closed vortex? Where was the interchange or junction?”

I could swear I heard cracks running through space itself.

Words left me like from a tightly-stretched magnetic tape.

“Senpai, there was no beginning.”

“Sure. You are overthinking this.”

“We found a new clue, so isn’t that enough? Let’s see where it leads us.”

“Yes, that is the best option.”

I felt like I was going to hear someone say “there is a cave east of the village” before long. It sounded like a conversation, but there was never anything behind it. When did you two get so flat!? This was what happened the instant I started focusing outside the vortex. Of course everything was going to seem weird!!

There was something wrong with the entire world.

But I had to have already seen the answer.

A simulator, the Great Spirit, the zoo, a car chase, a Bokor, Zombies, Voodoo, Vampires, flies, rotting, the multi-purpose building, an event, an abandoned factory, a Werewolf, transformation, a shallow connection between a billion people with the possibility of multiple accounts, hackers, VR.

There was plenty of material to work with.

This was not the time to rush onwards. I had to come to a stop and turn back. I had to rollback my awareness. I had to focus on the vortex and outside it.

I had to set aside the concepts of enemy and ally, cast off the bonds of common sense, and declare reality unnecessary.

At some point, something had been injected into this incident.

But when?

I needed to figure that out.

Where had it first started feeling off?

Part 6

“Finding a mummified corpse there is just too much to accept.”

“Could a Hidden Cloud with a billion accounts worldwide really exist?”

“I doubt just Ayumi and I could have defeated Meslayate in the abandoned factory to rescue Erika.”

“It seems suspect that I was able to defeat the entire 13 Eastern European Families in the Starlight Kukyou multi-purpose building.”

“Did I really defeat Fly Villiers, the military uniform Vampire, in that elevator?”

“I can’t believe what happened in the fight with the Bokor in the Bright Cross’s underground tunnels.”

“The car chase with Valkyrie Karen was too bizarre.”

“Did the Class Rep really have her soul removed by those three girls?”

[crucial notice] Corporate Pamphlet Concerning VR Competition [on the pinup board]

The standard nowadays uses the same excess brain activity during sleep that dreams do, but in the early days of VR, a variety of methods were attempted and discarded.

You may remember the goggle variety that combined flashing lights with déjà vu, the helmet variety that controlled the active portions of the brain by heating and cooling the head, and the mask variety that used a cocktail of scent particles to stimulate the hippocampus.

But did you know that these crystallizations of precision machinery were actually inspired by a variety of other fields?

The dreamcatchers of North American natives. The Dionysian Mysteries used by ancient Greek priestesses to receive divine oracles. The Norse ritual of the Seidr trance. The Fan Hun Xiang incense passed down from ancient China. The Astral Projection and Telesmatic Images of modern Western magic. Even without any specialized knowledge, the word “self-enchantment” might summon the right image to mind.

Many methods of actively viewing or controlling dreams and hallucinations have been tested since ancient times, so we must learn from the past just like developing a new bulletproof jacket based on the structure of a spider’s web.

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