My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister:Volume8 Chapter 4

Chapter 4

There was no time to think.

There was not even time to be afraid of those slimy aliens with frog-like skin the color of dry grass.

My mind was full of terror. The dark and the storm kept me from seeing the top of the broadcast tower above us.

“Dammit, which way is it going to fall!?”

Staying inside a building would be safer than blindly heading outside.

I understood the reasoning. It was probably accurate and without fault.

But only when the standard assumptions still applied.

If that 650m mass of glass and steel beams collapsed like a giant’s club swinging down, what building could stop it? None of them could. Not in a world where a screw could pierce right through my body. The buildings around here would only be crushed, reinforced concrete and all!!

Indoors and outdoors was the same. If we stayed put, we were dead. We would be slaughtered. That severely limited our options.

“Run away, Ayumi, Erika! We have to run away!!”

If it simply fell in one piece, it would cover 650m. If it broke apart in midair and the wind carried the shower of shards, it would cover an even wider area. Making a mad dash directly away from the Skytool probably would not be enough.

I had to think about it.

“Run against the wind!”

Ayumi’s eyes bugged out as her track jacket flapped in the wind.

“Fugu. Onii-chan, what are you talking about!? The storm is nearly blowing you off your feet, so we’ll never make it far like that!!”

“Did you forget the wind will carry all the shards, Ayumi!? Actual physical distance isn’t what matters. If we run upwind, the odds of having something fall on us are a lot lower. Isn’t that right, Maxwell!?”

“Sure. But since the actual terrain is not flat, continuing to run in any one direction will be difficult. Plus, the winds intertwine complexly thanks to all the buildings, so understanding which direction is ‘upwind’ will not be so easy.”

While I read that text on the screen, I felt powerful grips on both my shoulders. Needless to say, that was my sisters. I had said we needed to run against the wind, so…

“Waaahh!? That’s pretty much a cliff!!”

“The Skytool’s base is a 5-story mall, so we’ll find this drop-off no matter which way we go, Onii-chan.”

Yeah, but…

“So let’s do our best to survive, Satori-kun. Go! Let’s go!☆”

“Wait, wait! That’s five stories! That’s taller than a school building!!”

My struggling was useless with an Archenemy holding me from either side.

The pull of gravity seemed to suddenly vanish.

I could tell we had jumped over the railing.

But, um, what was this?

It was pitch black below, so I couldn’t tell how high up we were! Did we have 10cm to go or a few dozen meters!? I couldn’t brace myself when I couldn’t see!!

“Awaabfwah!?”

I had intended to scream for a while longer than that, but we landed unexpectedly soon. I once more used my phone’s backlight to check on the ground below my feet. I wanted to know I was safe and I knew there was a greater threat to think about right now, but if I didn’t check, I swear my heart would have stopped.

We had supposedly been 5 stories up, but this made sense once I thought about it. There were other houses and buildings as well, so we had apparently ended up on some other rooftop.

I did not have time to calm my pounding heart. With the sound of sizzling air, a few strands of my bangs scattered. I also heard a horrific sound at my feet like a thick wood board had cracked apart. It took me a second to realize what had happened. A bolt or something had fallen from high in the sky!!

A hand reached me from a torn sleeve.

“Let’s go!”

“Wait, hey, Erika!?”

Why did Erika’s usually elegant voice sound so panicked? I should have used my head more and questioned what she must have seen with her vampiric night vision.

In the pouring rain of the storm, my sisters jumped from the roof while still moving against the blowing wind.

It was like a bombing.

With a deafening roar, the building roof we had left sank down. It vanished. No, several steel beams thicker than railroad rails had fallen on it and crushed the entire building!?

Fear clutched at my heart, but we were in the air again. We could not return to the spot we had just left.

More and more sounds if impact rang out as the collapse of buildings and houses seemed to trigger a chain reaction. The thick darkness obscuring the view may have been a good thing in this case. If I had seen how high up we were or the destruction all around us, my hips would definitely have given out.

“Damn, there’s this much falling debris even when we’re move against the wind!?”

Creeeeeeeeeak.

The collapsing Skytool raised a death cry. The glass, the steel beams, and all other falling objects were influenced by the blowing wind. We were upwind and the amount of debris should have been smallest here, so what kind of hell would someone downwind be experiencing!?

“Warning.”

Just as I was wondering that, words appeared on my phone’s screen.

I was trying to give myself some guilt-free relief by forcing even greater misfortune upon some hypothetical person, but apparently that counted as tempting fate.

“The wind current overhead has changed. It appears to be developing an S-like twist from top to bottom.”

“Huh?”

“Simply put, there is a much greater risk now that the top of the Tokyo Skytool will fall towards you. This qualifies as an extreme warning.”

“Wha-, bu-, waaaaait!?”

My sisters picked me up and jumped, so there was nothing I could do. I felt us land on a shorter building somewhere, but that solid feeling suddenly sank down and vanished. The steel beams and whatever else crashed down, broke through, and smashed up the flat footing we had found. We were all dragged inside the building like an antlion pit. I heard an unpleasantly soft sound amid it all, so was that one of those slimy boomerangs?

I may have been lucky the antlion pit did not shred my flesh and blood with the rebar or jagged concrete pieces jutting out from the edges.

“Gh.”

Erika groaned, but she did not seem to be injured. Vampires couldn’t enter homes without permission from the owner, right? That may still have had some effect even if the house had collapsed into ruins.

But this was not over yet.

Steel and glass continued to fall from high in the sky, so a concrete roof over our heads did not mean much. If we happened to be in the exact spot something fell, it would pierce us along with the building. We had to move. If we came to a stop, we were as good as dead.

“Pant, pant, pant.”

I could not even speak. I waved my phone’s backlight around randomly to find us in the corridor of what looked more like a multi-tenant building than an apartment. The narrow corridor was piled so high with cardboard boxes and beer cases I had to question whether it had followed the fire code in the first place, but the concrete rubble had also half buried it and a small waterfall of rainwater was getting in thanks to the storm.

There was no time to worry if we were making the right decision.

Ayumi the Zombie pulled on my hand and we ran through the half-destroyed building. The shape of her small butt showed right through her white shorts, but I was too panicked to focus on that. It did not at all feel like we had escaped inside a sturdy building. Yes, it was more like being inside a cave as it threatened to collapse. With each heavy sound that erupted nearby, the ceiling or walls would collapse toward us. The piles of rubble moved almost like living things and we were done for if they managed to bite our wrist or ankle.

“What are we supposed to do now!?”

“Run to the window! Then jump out!!”

Erika was probably trying to motivate me, but the thought only scared me. Jump out? What floor was this? Even if this was a short multi-tenant building, we had fallen through the roof, meaning this was the top floor!

But then a thick steel beam broke through the ceiling directly behind us, cutting off any other route. I stumbled a bit and lost my balance right in front of the starting line. It was no use. I could not go on or head back.

“Waaahhh!!”

I had done my very best.

Yet for some reason, my vision dropped straight down.

Oh, no. Had that steel beam broken the floor apart!?

Erika seemed to notice what happened to me, but she had already jumped out the window. Fortunately, Ayumi had found a way to come rescue me. No, wait. She had simply stopped at the last second and fallen with me!!

“Dbh, bh, Ayumi.”

“The rainwater is pouring down like a waterfall, so you’ll drown if you open your mouth, Onii-chan. Here, this way.”

I couldn’t believe this. What floor were we on now?

Rubble blocked every single horizontal direction while the ceiling and floor were full of holes. Plus, everything was still pitch black. This felt like a maze, but one where the entire building could collapse at any moment.

“The water pouring in is too strong to climb back up. It’s a pain, but we’ll have to head down to the ground.”

“It’s that bad? Even with your Zombie strength?”

“Get Maxwell to calculate out how hard climbing up a waterfall is. Even on a normal slope, this wouldn’t be possible.”

Not to mention that climbing higher was a bad idea on its own. Instead of attempting a death-defying jump from up there, wouldn’t it be safer and faster to head down to the surface?

Even now, screws, nails, glass, steel beams, and those strange slimy brown things were pouring down. We just could not see it from here. If we stayed here, we only increased the risk of being caught in the collapse when a direct hit inevitably brought the building down. We had only had one option ever since the roof had been broken through. If we did not stay on the move, we could not avoid being hit.

“Okay, Ayumi. Let’s head to the ground.”

“Do you really understand what that means? Things are dangerous down there, too.”

“?”

I was puzzled, but now was not the time to play a riddle game with my stepsister whose wet white tank top was plastered to her chest. She tugged on my hand as we ran down the dark and half-crushed corridor. I shined my phone’s light around to search for the stairs or a sufficiently large hole in the floor. We could hear near-constant violent impacts from the floor above. Needless to say, that came from the many falling objects.

After descending three floors, we finally arrived on the first floor. Which was when I discovered lukewarm water rising up nearly to my hips. It caught me off guard, so my lower body was hit by an uncomfortable wetness, like I had pissed my pants.

“What, it’s flooded!?”

“Of course it is when the rain’s coming down like this. Onii-chan, once we’re outside, watch out for the ‘landmines’ in the muddy water. There will be screws, nails, and glass, but also steel beams being carried by the current. It’ll be just like those logs used as battering rams in old samurai dramas.”

“Y-you’re kidding. What good is watching out for something you can’t see!? I’m not psychic!!”

“Do you think we have time now to climb up onto the smashed rooftop? Don’t let go of my hand, okay!? Here goes!”

With the floodwaters nearly up to my hips, the door would not budge whether we pushed or pulled. Once Ayumi used her Zombie strength to break it with a kick, the water rushed in with even greater force.

Was this for real!? It was a legitimately powerful current! We might as well have been drowning in a river here! Why did everything that idiot Ayumi did eventually come down to brute force!?

“Ghh, I’m slipping to the side.”

“No, Onii-chan! Don’t try to swim to make it easier! Once your feet are off the ground, you’ll never be able to stand up again!!”

We argued while a large mass of black leather was swept in from upstream in the current formed by the many small streams arriving around all the obstacles.

It was Erika floating in a sprawled-out pose.

“Oh, no!!”

“Oh, right. Vampires have trouble with flowing water, don’t they?”

How could Ayumi sound so calm!? I frantically grabbed Erika’s slender wrist and pulled her toward me. Floating in the water made her fairly light.

But wait. Huh?

“This could be bad. The Tokyo Skytool was right next to the Sumida River, wasn’t it? I have no idea where it is with all the water everywhere, but if we run across it, won’t it act like a wall in the way!?”

“No,” said Maxwell. “The Tokyo Skytool is located where another river branches off of the Sumida River. In other words, it on the inside of a Y-shape. If the flowing water of a river or the ocean are off limits, then you only have one available direction left.”

“A-and which way is that?”

“The exact opposite side of the Skytool from your current location. Also, the larger Arakawa River is waiting for you in that direction.”

So were we really and truly screwed!?

However, Ayumi tilted her head in an oddly cute way for a Zombie who was taking the full brunt of the raging current and whose clothes had grown fairly see-through.

“But Onee-chan rode the bus with us on the way here. She crossed the bridge just fine then.”

“…?”

“The world’s most famous Transylvanian count slept within his coffin while traveling down a river by boat,” said Maxwell.

Come to think of it, there had been a few times on the bus ride that Erika had fallen asleep like a switch had been thrown. I had assumed it was because we chose a night bus for her sake, but night and day should have been reversed for a Vampire anyway. Had that been her way off crossing the rivers?

A long trip like this may have been a frightening thing for her. Her gothic lolita dress and leather pants were like a heavy-duty riding suit, so they were somewhat different from what she normally wore.

So…

“We have to do this while she’s still dizzy. Onii-chan, let’s drag Onee-chan over the river.”

“Do idiots ever stop relying on brute force?”

My phone’s light was just about the only light around. We had no idea what was flowing in the hip-deep muddy water, a manhole cover could have been lifted from the opening, and there could be a ditch nearby. We also did not know where the river in question actually was. I had endless reasons to fear that cold water.

But I certainly hadn’t expected an explosion to erupt far too close for comfort. Orange flames blossomed and I felt a prickling heat like when you stood too near the stove.

“Bwah!? Wh-what!?”

“A tank of propane or something was floating there. Staying here isn’t going to end well, Onii-chan!”

We were in the water, but we had to worry about fire elemental attacks? And it did not look like this had been just a tank or two stored behind someone’s house. Was it a collection of several from an apartment complex, or had a truck been transporting a full shipment of them? More and more of them exploded while the danger zone crept ever closer.

“Crap. Crap, crap, crap!!”

It was not like the previous dangers had gone away. Even now, countless glass shards and steel beams were pouring down from above, the hip-deep current carried dangerous objects, and we still did not know what those dry brown, crop circle-y, slimy things were. But it turned out human minds were not that strong.

All that danger was wiped from my mind.

It was overwritten by something else.

If I was caught in one of those explosive blossoms, it was all over. I kept my grip on Erika’s slender shoulders while Ayumi and I followed the current to distance ourselves from the army of propane tanks. I had struggled with Erika’s weight on the elevator, but I could handle her with one hand while she floated limply in the water.

“It’s too dangerous out here. We need to get inside a building somewhere!”

“What about the steel beams falling from above, Onii-chan?”

Some kind of large bubble burst up ahead of us. I thought maybe a manhole cover had been forced up, but that was not it.

I could see its eyes.

Its eyes? What’s eyes???

What home had that thing escaped from!?

“Watch out, Ayumi! It’s a croc! There’s a white croc there!”

“Oh, iiis there?”

“You don’t have to get all competitive just because it’s a monster known for its bite! We need to get inside a building!”

“And again, we don’t have time to travel along the rooftops! If we stay in one spot for too long, the steel beams will hit us! Plus, we’d have to carry Onee-chan around with us!”

“I’m not interested in the rooftop!!”

I rushed over to the window of an already-broken house, but I wasn’t climbing inside. It was probably as dark and flooded as an undersea cave in there. The current would be even more complex and there could be household tools like saws or kitchen knives floating around.

I wanted something else.

“Get on, Ayumi! We can use this storm shutter as a raft!!”

“Fugu?”

“If it’s not buoyant enough, we can tie on buckets or plastic tanks. I want to see if it sinks with all three of us on it!”

What was it made of? Aluminum? Stainless steel? Either way, getting the storm shutter to float on the water like a surfboard was not easy. I held it in both hands so it wouldn’t be swept away by the current while Ayumi placed Erika on top. Then the two of us climbed on as well.

“It’s…floating?”

Ayumi was on all fours and extremely cautious.

Good. By matching Ayumi’s movements while staying at the opposite angle from her, it wouldn’t suddenly capsize on us. Once things had calmed down more, I could get after her about how the shape of her butt showed through those skintight white shorts.

“If we just want to follow the current, this is faster than swimming and we don’t have to worry about the rebar and glass in the current. Here, Ayumi.”

I reached for an aluminum clothesline pole floating in the water and handed it to my little sister.

“We have no rudder, so you’ll have to direct us by pushing off the ground with this pole. Listen, only use it to change directions. Don’t try to fight the current.”

“Even with my Zombie strength?”

“That thing was floating in the water. It’s only meant to let clothes dry over it, so use too much force and it’ll break.”

The raft was moving as we spoke, so we couldn’t wait around. What else did we have to do? Oh, right.

“If things look even a little dangerous, immediately abandon the raft and jump off. We don’t know where the Skytool’s steel beams will fall, after all. This thing is convenient, but don’t hesitate because of it.”

“Whoa.”

Ayumi was struggling with the clothesline pole. What was that biting at the other end of it? It looked like a tropical fish of some kind. I didn’t know its name, but it did look bigger than a piranha!

“Do you still want to jump back in the water, Onii-chan?”

“What is wrong with Tokyo’s rare pet lovers? If it comes to it, weigh the risks. Would you rather deal with what’s in the water or the steel beam falling like a meteor?”

At this point, we were talking about choosing between an instant and painless death or having to watch out body gradually eaten alive. Measuring the extent of the damage was no longer enough. No, wait. I had to stay strong. Ranking different deaths against each other was a waste of time. I had to focus on ways to survive.

And while I hesitated from that, a speech bubble appeared on my phone.

“Warning.”

For some reason, I doubted this was good news.

Creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak.

I was used to hearing that noise by now, but it was so much louder this time!! Ayumi and I looked up toward the Tokyo Skytool’s scream and saw something very odd.

For a brief moment, it looked like the torrential rain had stopped.

“Fugu!? The Skytool is blocking the sky!!”

The wind was blowing too, so that “ceiling” did not fully block out the rain. Still, this was on the same scale as a god splitting the ocean and creating mountains!!

It was coming.

Not just the sprinkling of steel beams. This time, the full 650m Tokyo Skytool would be falling toward us!

Should we remain on the raft?

Should we jump into the water?

“Ayumi, get us over to the wall!!”

There may not have been a right answer.

As soon as she used the clothesline pole to push the raft against the concrete wall of a multi-tenant building, an explosive boom sounded overhead.

The entire steel tower had crashed into the building rooftop!?

Against that weight and height, the building’s reinforced concrete might as well have been sponge, but it still bought us some short time. The multi-tenant building itself seemed to sink down as it held up that massive weight. Various pieces of debris shot out like a mille-feuille crushed from above in a careless attempt to slice it with a fork, but this was still better than taking a direct hit from the Skytool’s viewing deck.

The raft was traveling through a tunnel-like space.

I could only lie on top of our defenselessly sleeping older sister while shouting at my little sister.

“This won’t last. Ayumi, get us out of here before the building is entirely crushed!!”

“I’m trying but – argh! – this thing is way too weak! The clothesline pole is bending!!”

The reinforced concrete building was squishing down like butter left in the car during midsummer.

Would we make it out?

Or wouldn’t we?

“Enough, Ayumi. Grab Erika and jump-…”

“Fuguu! Not yet!!”

She gave up on the bent pole and instead moved her legs which were showing off the stitches up to the base of her thighs. She pressed the soles of her shoes against the building wall and kicked off.

The Zombie Archenemy had ten times the muscular strength of a human.

The raft quickly picked up speed.

We slipped out of the tunnel of steel beams and rubble.

Just then, a powerful shock shook my body. Instead of the entire broadcast tower, a part of the exterior had apparently broken apart.

“Fugu!?”

“Oh, hell. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.”

We had survived the big piece falling, but the steel beams falling now were much more numerous than before. We picked up too much speed, bumped into a beam sticking up from the water, and got stuck there.

“Just getting through here isn’t enough. We need to give up on following the current.”

“Give up? But what else can-”

Ayumi trailed off.

It looked like the Tokyo Skytool had fully collapsed now. That meant the falling objects problem was almost entirely gone. No more glass or steel beams would rain down on us.

Thus, the remaining threats were the things hidden in the water: the dangerous pets and the debris that acted like mines or caltrops.

Which meant…

“The Skytool.”

“Yeah, it acts like a giant bridge while lying on its side.”

The giant mass of steel beams had collapsed at an angle, knocking over the houses and multi-tenant buildings in its way. But it had not completely sunk to the surface. Traveling along it would be the best way of keeping out of the water.

“You can only hope those unidentified creatures are not clinging to it,” said Maxwell.

“Oh, right. Them. What even were they, anyway?”

Even with this abnormal weather, it seemed unlikely some wind and rain would be enough to knock over the country’s largest broadcast tower. That tragedy had only occurred because those boomerang things with froggy skin had clung to one side to overbalance it.

“Fugu. So what do we do?”

“Can you carry Erika, Ayumi? Whether those things are Archenemies or not, I doubt they could still be clinging to the tower after that fall. They had to have been knocked off.”

Those were not the only dangerous animals out here. Traveling through the floodwaters would be a lot more dangerous.

Now.

Even if it had been crushed, there was no way we could get on top of the collapsed tower by climbing up the outside wall in this blowing rain. If we could use stairs, we needed to use them as far as they would take us. I took the clothesline pole from Ayumi and stirred up the bottom of the floodwaters nearby. There was no sign of sharp glass or rebar. Nor did any dangerous pets bite at it. Okay, I was still scared, but now was our chance!

“Let’s go, Ayumi!”

“Fugu!”

I threw myself into the muddy water. During a disaster like this, there were no guarantees. We could only choose what was “relatively better” and death was a very real possibility on both sides of the scales.

We wanted a house that was near our makeshift boat, directly contacting the collapsed tower, looked like its stairs would still be usable, and that had a broken entrance since the water pressure would make opening the door nearly impossible. We were lucky to find just the one place that matched all those conditions and we waded through the hip-deep muddy water to get inside.

“It’s dark. Again. Will my phone’s battery last?”

“If you wish to preserve the charge, I would recommend avoiding any unnecessary commands,” replied Maxwell.

It was a small home spread out across three floors due Tokyo’s limited land. But the first floor was flooded and the ceiling was bowing. The place would be uninhabitable after this.

But on the other hand, there really was no one here, just like in that multi-tenant building. That felt especially weird in an ordinary living space like this.

“Where are the stairs? We need to get as high up as we can. Come with me, Ayumi.”

The stairs were soaked too. They had taken the brunt of the steel tower hit and looked half crushed from the outside. Rain was pouring down like a waterfall from a large hole in the roof.

That was a tragedy for the house, but it made a valuable relay point for us to safely reach the tower. We used my phone’s light to carefully climb the creaking wooden stairs.

Once on the second floor, we had escaped the hip-deep water. The threat of attack from a dangerous pet was not entirely gone. Carnivorous fish were not the only things that could swim in that water. Venomous snakes and crocs could swim too.

“But to put it another way, we know we have a source of food if we need it.”

“Fuguu. I don’t like the sound of that. I’m a Zombie, but you’re the one that always eats the weirdest things. You always go for the bizarre foods on our family trips.”

Ayumi was purely carnivorous and Erika had to consume blood products and plasma substitutes, so they seemed more careful about what they ate than most people. Humans, on the other hand, were omnivores who could eat anything.

But we had more to discuss than food.

“Look, Ayumi, I found a towel. Dry yourself off, okay?”

“Why bother when we’re headed right back into the rain? That’s like a shower, so what does this muddy water matter?”

She looked puzzled, but I placed the towel over her twintailed head anyway.

Amatsu Ayumi had not picked up on her big brother’s concerns. Those jogging clothes were thin enough already, but soaking them with water made it so much worse! She needed to dry off and cover up!! This did not even have the protection of the nametag like her gym clothes did!! Erika was passed out and defenseless (while wearing a thick outfit with a lot of black leather), so how did she seem more ladylike here!?

And.

To be blunt, staying here and waiting for rescue did not sound realistic. With the Skytool fallen, the only direct threats were the storm and the floodwaters. It kind of looked like we would be fine if we got inside a sturdy building and stayed well off the ground.

But that only worked if we could find a sturdy building around here. This house was half-destroyed and could collapse at any moment.

Plus.

Our family had unique issues in situations like this. Because two of us were Archenemies. A Vampire like Erika was weak to sunlight and a Zombie like Ayumi would start to rot if she stayed in unhygienic places for long. We could not stay in this building with holes everywhere that would let the sun and the storm in. We could not survive here.

So no matter what, we had to escape to a safe location before dawn. Where exactly we could find that safe place was the real question here, but we at least needed to get away from the Skytool. This was Tokyo’s city center. If it was this empty, there had to be largescale shelters set up somewhere else. At this point, those shelters seemed like Penglai or El Dorado.

All of this was buzzing in my mind as we climbed to the third floor.

There was no ceiling.

Broken wood beams were scattered about and the entire third floor had been crushed down to half its height. The oppressive atmosphere clutched at my heart. A complex arrangement of steel beams lay across the third floor while half embedded in the cheap-looking inner walls and wood flooring. That was the Tokyo Skytool. The scale was so different I had trouble grasping its shape at first.

It felt kind of like having a bridge extending out from the third-floor balcony, I guess.

The white-painted steel beams were as thick as a concrete telephone pole. The cross section was round instead of square. That would be hard enough to climb on under the best of circumstances, so how bad would it be while slick with rain?

I hesitantly touched a cold steel beam and walked across the mess of a floor to reach the edge of the crumbled outer wall.

I did not have time to look down.

A gust of wind smacked me in the face like a solid blow and I nearly fell back onto my ass.

“Whoa!?”

Had the wind always been this strong!? I couldn’t believe I had been walking around outside with that blowing in my face. The short time spent inside must have reset my senses to normal.

The tower had looked like a sturdy bridge when looking up from below, but to reiterate, the individual steel beams were only as thick as telephone poles. There were no railings, they were slick with rain, and the wind was blowing unpredictably. Let your guard down for a second and you’d fall.

It scared me that this was the relatively safe route, but complaining about this was not going to make the surface route through the floodwaters any less difficult. Needless to say, the many sharp obstacles, the dangerous pets, and the propane tanks would lead to an even greater tragedy than this.

“Fuguu. What should we do, Onii-chan?”

“I don’t think we have a choice.”

That was when I remembered Ayumi could not use her hands while carrying Erika on her back. Even if the tower was made up of a complex arrangement of intersecting beams, there was no way you could walk across it without using your hands.

That meant we needed some way of freeing up her hands. Would a plastic rope work? If not, we could wrap duct tape around them several times over. Zombies apparently had ten times the strength of humans. Ten people would be enough to lift someone up, so if Erika was bound to her back as if in a baby carrier, she would be able to move around just fine.

“Ugh.”

That was when we finally heard something from Erika’s alluring lips.

“Ayumi…-chan? And Satori-kun too.”

“Sorry, Erika. The situation isn’t looking much better. We’re still in the middle of a flooded area. Maxwell, check a baby products site. See how the ropes are arranged to distribute the weight and run a simulation.”

My blonde ringlet curls sister took a few deep breaths to calm herself and she finally climbed down from Ayumi’s small back. She may have looked so pained because we had carried her into someone’s house without permission.

“I’m…fine. I can’t fight like this, but I can walk slowly while propping myself up with a hand.”

“Onee-chan, don’t fight your Vampire nature here!”

“I more or less heard what we’re doing. You’re crossing that, aren’t you? That won’t be easy, even for Ayumi-chan.”

“Fugu.”

“But the biggest threat is to you, Erika. Fine, change of plans. We can play trains instead.”

Strapping her to Ayumi’s back would indeed be safest, but I didn’t want any conflict between us during this disaster. I wanted to respect her opinion whenever possible.

“We’ll all tie this plastic rope around our waist. It’s a lifeline. If any one of us slips and falls, the other two can brace themselves and pull the fallen one back up. Got that?”

If our timing was poor, one person falling could instead drag the other two down with them, but it was best not to mention that. The Zombie and Vampire had extraordinary strength, but their weight was no different from that of a lovely girl, so I wanted to believe I could handle this as long as they did not both fall at once.

Still, this was not a sure thing.

We had to choose the relatively better option.

“Erika, raise your hands so I can wrap this around your waist. By the way, how much do you weigh?”

“F-forty-seven…”

“Fuguu!? Pay attention to what you’re saying! And that’s lighter than me!? You have to weigh more than that. I can feel your weight on my back, and I seriously doubt it’s all your waterlogged dress!”

“This is an emergency, so it really isn’t the time to lie about your weight, my curvy sister. Okay, Maxwell, make an estimate using the VR player data from the past simulations. You can estimate her eating and exercise habits too if you want. Just tell me how much heavier she is now!”

“You two? We need to have a serious chat once all this is over.”

We formed a line with me in front, Erika in the middle, and Ayumi in the rear. The most unsteady and risky one was Erika since she was affected by the flowing water as a Vampire. I wanted her in the spot where she could recover most easily.

To be honest, only she knew how much she could fight this weakness. I had used the water weakness as a surprise attack to cause the 13 Eastern European Families to pass out…but that had all happened in a hallucination caused by that Voodoo Bokor. There was no guarantee it would work like that in reality. Could a Vampire overcome it if they steeled themselves and went for it, or were they doomed to pass out regardless? I had to keep an eye on her.

My phone’s light was simply absorbed by the darkness up ahead, so we could not see how far the collapsed tower extended.

“Maxwell, I’m going to put my phone in my pocket. I don’t think I can do this with just one hand.”

“Sure. I know it is trite, but take care.”

“Okay, let’s get going, you two.”

“Understood…”

“Fugu.”

We hesitantly and carefully set off.

I used both hands to grab another steel beam running by at about face level and gradually slid the rubber soles of my shoes forward to take the first step. Once we started on this route, there was no turning back. Nor could we stay in place. Fortunately, walking along the collapsed tower did not mean we would have to continue this tightrope walk for a nonstop 650m. The shock of the fall was bound to have broken it into multiple pieces and we could take breaks when we arrived at the roofs of the houses or multi-tenant buildings that acted as bridge supports.

We couldn’t let the big picture scare us.

We couldn’t let the scale overwhelm us.

We could take it a step at a time. Just like someone kicking a pebble to the next manhole over and over on the way to school. If we made sure to avoid any mistakes at each step along the way, we could achieve a new record. This was entirely doable.

First, we had to reach the top of a multi-tenant building that looked at most 20m away.

Then a gust of wind blew in from the side like an invisible mass.

My little sister’s track jacket swelled out.

“Fuguu!?”

“It’s okay, Ayumi. Stop moving and hold your ground! If a human like me can do, then there’s no way it can overpower you!”

The other beam we were using like a railing did not run parallel to the one we were walking on. It was gradual, but it was angled downwards. I did remember hearing the Skytool had a unique design. I hoped that small margin of error wouldn’t cause problems down the road.

The wind wildly changed directions and intensities. When I gripped the steel beam and clenched my teeth to steady my feet, I ended up looking down. I saw the dark torrent below. A height of three stories could be deadly. Hip deep water did not seem like enough to cancel out the impact.

But.

“What? There’s something weird about the water’s current.”

Was this only noticeable when viewed from above?

Or could I see so little without my phone’s light that I had started seeing things?

My phone vibrated in my pocket…but no. I needed both my hands right now, so I couldn’t read Maxwell’s message.

“The wind has died down, Satori-kun.”

“Okay, let’s keep going a step at a time. First, to that building there. We’re about halfway there, so 10 more meters.”

Could we make it?

We could.

It wasn’t that far.

“Made it! Yes!!”

“Kyah!?”

“Erik- khhh!!”

Just as I set foot on the edge of the half-crushed multi-tenant building, I did not even have time to turn around. I heard a sharp scream from Erika and then my vision blurred. I knew it wasn’t possible, but it felt all the world like someone had grabbed me by the torso and performed a belly-to-back suplex on me.

Oh, right! The rope around my waist!

After realizing I was being tugged backwards, I quickly swung my hands around. I felt something hard and did everything I could to hold on tight to the fallen tower’s steel beam.

My gut hurt like its contents were being squeezed out of me, but I finally managed to look back.

I saw Erika’s face a step lower than me.

Of course, there were no actual steps here. She was simply dangling from the same rope wrapped around my waist.

“Erika, are you okay?”

“Pant, pant. Sorry, Satori-kun.”

“Ayumi, are you okay too!?”

“What good are you, Onii-chan? If I hadn’t braced myself, both of you would have fallen together.”

Ayumi could apparently pull Erika up on her own. But that would probably hurt her stomach, so I kept one hand on the steel beam and reached my other hand out to Erika. That would distribute the weight. With the weight on any one point lessened, the rope wouldn’t dig into her as much.

Slowly but surely, Ayumi pulled Erika up.

“S-sorry. I really am sorry, you two. When I saw Satori-kun reach the rooftop, the relief hit me. Even though I was still on the beam.”

“Fugu. These things happen.”

“And quit apologizing. You would have saved either of us if the situation was reversed. This was nothing special.”

Even as I spoke, I realized she might feel this way because of who she was. She was used to saving people, but she may not have been used to being saved herself.

But anyway.

We had arrived at the first checkpoint: the half-collapsed multi-tenant building rooftop. We could cross the fallen broadcast tower. We had proven it and set a precedent. So could we just repeat the process? Ayumi did not look happy as she stared into the distance with her soaked white tank top and shorts plastered to her skin.

“Fugu. But, Onii-chan, how far do we have to go to reach the goal?”

“Well, all the people who lived here must have been evacuated somewhere. Or they at least went somewhere where it isn’t flooded.”

“But where exactly is that?”

Damn, I didn’t have an answer to that. We had too little information. Where was the goal? The pursuit of comfort and convenience had left the city center full of artificial things, but it had to have some slopes and height differences. I wanted to believe this was not a case of all 23 wards being wiped out and the entire Kantou Plain being flooded.

Then my phone vibrated so much it made a loud buzzing sound.

“Oh, right. Maxwell.”

“I doubt you can start a fire in this storm, so I suppose this is the perfect chance to strip off your clothes to warm each other up. If you would like to get to know your wet and see-through sisters a little better, I will go kill some time in some corner of the internet or another.”

“Quit sulking. If that’s really all you have to say, I’m throwing this phone right in the water.”

“I wish to discuss that very water.” Several speech bubbles appeared from Maxwell. “You noticed something odd about the current before and you were correct. There appears to have been a change in the currents around the wreckage of the Tokyo Skytool.”

“Fugu? Why? Did all the debris clog up the path it was using before???”

“No. Quite the opposite, in fact. Things have been cleared out quite a bit. When compared to the map data, the water level has clearly dropped, as if a line has been drawn at the border of the Y-shape formed by the Sumida River and its branch. The flooding on the surface is being swallowed up along the path of the river.”

Erika had elegantly sat down, but she looked woozy simply seeing the word “river”. She must have pushed herself pretty hard. Ayumi and I supported her shoulders as we continued the discussion.

“But, Maxwell, I thought the Sumida River had flooded already?”

“No. The flooding had multiple sources, including backflow from the manholes and rainwater gathering in low-lying areas. Also, the currents we are seeing now were not present before the tower collapsed.”

“You mean…oh, I get it.”

“Fugu?”

“Sure. Just like the Tama River and the Arakawa River, the Sumida River has a largescale utility conduit built below it for disaster response purposes. If there is too much rainwater on the surface, it can be directed underground instead. The floodgates built alongside the river have likely been opened to guide the water in there.”

“Basically, it’s like pulling the drainplug at the bottom of the bath, Ayumi.”

“What? Why do that now? They left the city to flood! Why not do that in the first place!?”

“There are a number of reasons why they couldn’t, but…Maxwell, do you think it was the Skytool’s collapse that triggered it?”

“I cannot say for certain as I have not infiltrated the servers of the meteorological agency or water department, but most likely. The Tokyo Skytool was the final fortress worth anything in the flooded Sumida area.”

“What does that mean?”

“Listen, Ayumi,” I said. “If you pull the drainplug, all the bathwater goes away. But what if there was a small bug floating on the water? A living creature.”

“Oh.”

“Because the city was flooded, they couldn’t open the floodgates so easily. It would put any survivors at risk. And that Skytool acted as a symbol of there still being life in the city. Once that broke, so did everyone’s spirits. I imagine they decided there couldn’t be any survivors and gave the go ahead.”

“But that’s so irresponsible!”

“I agree, but in a disaster like this, no one can know how many survivors there are or where they’re located. In the end, they have to act based on estimates.”

This meant we were right to leave the dangerous flooded area and cross the collapsed Skytool instead. If we had remained floating in the water, we would have been sucked up by one of those blackholes lining the river. Once those maws opened, there was no escape.

So.

“We can’t turn back now. And we’re done for if we slip.”

“You must take a positive view of this,” said Maxwell. “The overall water level has been greatly reduced starting with the Sumida River. Please cross the river using the Tokyo Skytool. You should find the other side is relatively safe. Climb the slope there and you will be past the water.”

If the flooding was gone, then our Vampire sister would recover from her weakness to flowing water. That did not solve the fundamental problem of evacuating to safe darkness before dawn, but it would let us move much more efficiently.

“Okay, let’s get started again, you two.”

“It hasn’t even been ten minutes. Onee-chan still looks pale!”

“It’s fine, Ayumi-chan. Satori-kun is right.”

Erika understood even without a lengthy explanation. I had opened my mouth but I found the words were no longer necessary.

If we rested too long in this storm, our rain-chilled bodies would tense up and letting the wind pummel us here could mean losing our sense for the balance needed on that tightrope walk. Also, we were perfectly worked up and focused right now. This deadly tightrope walk was not normal. If we rested and our heads cooled down, we wouldn’t be able to pull it off as effectively.

We had to continue past this half-crushed multi-tenant building.

The distance to the next rest point was longer than last time. It appeared to be around 30m. There were other houses and buildings in between, but none that intersected with the fallen tower.

“…”

A low rumbling came from directly below. Were we right alongside that larger river? It was hard to tell since things were flooded, but that was probably the current pouring into one of the floodgates.

“So is this the Sumida River?”

“Ugh…”

“Erika.”

Erika grew unsteady like someone with anemia, so I quickly grabbed her shoulders to support her.

“I’m…fine. If we cross here, we can escape the flooded area, right? We just need to get out of here. So let’s hurry.”

Was this like someone who could not handle seeing blood? It would be best not to say anything that would make her think about the river.

Also, she was right.

If Maxwell and Erika were correct, the utility conduits used for flood control had been opened. If we crossed this river, there was a good chance the water on the ground would have receded and we would be safe. Then Erika could recover.

It was time to go.

We had to go.

With the plastic rope still tied around our waists, I took the lead, stepped up onto the horizontal steel beam, and made my way through the slippery-looking darkness. There was nothing to worry about. We had done this once already. We had the experience. The distance was a little longer, but that just meant doing the same thing a little longer. It was nothing tricky, so-

“Ah

wah

!?”

……………………………………………………………………………………Hwuh?

“It’s okay, Satori-kun. Ayumi-chan, stand firm. I will pull him back up.”

“Fugu. Leave it to me.”

Gravity seemed to vanish not three steps into it. The rope hurt as it dug into my waist. It seemed to take an absurdly long time for me to realize I had slipped and fallen. A blank gap filled the back of my mind while my supposedly weakened older sister pulled me up. I could not even feel my coat that had been so wet and heavy.

This was not something you could get used to.

In fact, growing relaxed and careless was much worse.

My pulse pounded painfully in my chest. If we fell into this flooded area where the giant floodgates were open at even intervals alongside the river, we would be swallowed up by those blackholes. A single mistake could spell doom for us all. I finally felt the icy fingertips of death on my throat.

“Ah, ah, ahh.”

“It’s okay, It’s okay, Satori-kun. Take a deep breath and let the touch of death leave you. Your sisters will take care of it if anything happens, okay?”

With her left hand on the other beam we were using as a railing, Erika reached her right hand (the one with the torn sleeve) around my shoulders and held my head to her chest despite the unsteady footing.

Stopping for even a single second could not be easy on this narrow beam. And how terrifying was it to be tied to a human who could panic and do something stupid at any moment?

But both of them waited for me to recover.

We were both soaked to the bone, but her warmth soaked into my panicking heart. It was like wandering a snowy mountain for what felt like forever and then finding a cabin where you were served hot milk. We lived in an age of smart devices and efficiency, but physical contact meant a lot at times like this.

I recalled the reality of our situation.

I rebooted my thoughts.

I could tell her pulse and warmth had driven away the blank clinging to the back of my mind.

“I’m fine,” I finally said while removing my face from her chest. “I’m fine now. Let’s get this over with. Let’s cross this steel beam and escape to safety.”

We had to be careful.

We could not take shortcuts because we were “used to it” or “had experience”. As long as we took each step without making any mistakes, we could reach the goal. I felt the slick metal below my feet, grabbed the other beam with both hands, and faced forward.

30 meters.

That was not some crazy distance. Just think about my trip to school every day. I did that with ease and it was a lot further than this.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps.

The dark water was swallowed up with a roaring sound below as the three of us slowly crossed the fallen tower.

This would work.

It had to work.

My hands were cold. I was gradually losing feeling in them. My black, short-sleeved coat was getting in the way. Was that really hard metal I was holding? It felt different, perhaps because of the rain. We seemed to be about halfway across, but we had to be extra careful at milestones like that. Otherwise we would lose our focus like Erika had just before arriving at the previous building. And when I had screwed up right away on the second attempt. Milestones were dangerous. Our previous failures proved it. You were at the most risk when you felt relief.

“Erika, Ayumi. Be careful.”

“Fugu. I know. And don’t forget I’m the only one with a clean record here.”

“Ayumi-chan, that’s exactly the kind of thinking that will get you in trouble.”

A step at a time.

I focused on the gusts of wind that occasionally slammed into my face and on the slippery footing. I was pretty sure I hadn’t screwed up. At the very least, I hadn’t lost my focus and relaxed. We were at the halfway point and I had managed to stay concentrated.

So.

I can say for sure that what happened next was not our fault.

A violently bright artificial light blinded us as if blocking the way forward.

“Ugh!?”

At first, I had no idea what had happened. That wasn’t an explosion. It was like a white wall had slammed into my face. Instead of blinding me, it was more like a pain in my temples. I forgot all about my situation and reflexively reached a hand up to protect my eyes, but that made me wobble. My throat went dry, but Erika supported me from behind.

What was this!?

“Fugu!!”

“No, Ayumi! Don’t move!!”

It felt like invisible awls were being driven into my temples, but I still tried to peer from between my fingers to see what was happening. Unfortunately, I could not see anything through that light. The contrast between light and shadow was too great, so I couldn’t tell what lay beyond the light.

This was no more than light.

There was not a metal or concrete wall in our way.

But we were crossing a fallen tower in a storm. If we stepped just 10cm the wrong direction, we would plummet into the floodwaters.

I tried to calm my pounding heart.

I stayed put to check on the situation.

I forced myself to look, as if prying open my eyes.

The source of the light appeared to be fairly far away.

And there were multiple sources.

They looked to be about 100m away. That was further out than the next goal we had set for ourselves. It looked like several artificial lights were lined up horizontally on various building rooftops.

Yes.

This was the midpoint of the 30m tower bridge. Were those lights set up on the other side of the Sumida River as if to protect it?

“Search…lights?”

They were artificial.

That meant someone was there.

The Tokyo city center was pitch black, but there was still someone there. This should have been good news, so why did I not feel remotely happy about it? I felt a creepy sensation like I had run across a complete stranger while exploring an abandoned school or hospital.

We were still supposed to be in the deserted area. This was supposed to be a dark forest of concrete, so it felt wrong to find someone walking through there.

Did the normal rules apply here?

They would, right?

While we waited there, clinging to the steel beam of the collapsed tower, a voice amplified by a megaphone reached us.

It was a cracking male voice.

“Stop right there! You are attempting to cross the Sumida Blockade Line!!”

“The Sumida what?”

There was no way my voice could reach them since the lights looked at least 100m away. Their voice was hard to make out since it was played from multiple sources like the disaster speakers in a park.

But I could not let this slip past me.

If I missed what they were saying, we were dead.

I felt a tremor down my spine. Just like I had so many times today.

“Move back slowly! Slowly, you hear me!? Return to where you came from and we will not have to take defensive action!!”

But.

Even so.

I could not understand the noise hitting my eardrums as a voice. This could not possibly belong to someone with a heart. I mean, return? From this precarious situation??? We weren’t on some wide road where we could just turn around. If a single step was just 10cm off, we would be swallowed up by the floodwaters below. Once we started, there was no turning back! Didn’t they understand that!?

But Erika whispered in my ear with a pale look on her face. She had to be suffering more than me while breaking the taboo on crossing flowing water.

“Satori-kun, jump down on my signal.”

“Eh? What? But…down there?”

Wasn’t that the floodwaters?

The simple current was deadly enough, but the shards of glass and metal debris would bare their fangs and there were dangerous pets like carnivorous fish and crocs hidden there. Not to mention the propane tanks. Jumping down there was unthinkable. Besides, who were these searchlight people to be bossing us around like this?

I felt like I had a point, but it turned out the majority rule was against me.

“The people behind those lights appear to be the JSDF. If we sit here any longer, they’ll fill us with holes using 7.62mm semi-auto weapons.”

“…”

But that doesn’t make any-

And even if it is-

Wait, hold on!

“Are you kidding me!?”

“Satori-kun, that is not the real problem here.”

I could not believe my ears. What more could there be? This was the JSDF? Weren’t they something like cousins of the police? Wouldn’t it be a huge scandal if they aimed real guns at us!?

“They went to the trouble of shining the searchlights on us and giving us a warning. I imagine they have to obey their orders, but they themselves feel guilty about what they’re doing.”

But.

But.

How could she sound so sympathetic and caring at a time like this?

“Satori-kun, they are not like the Bright Cross or the Colosseum’s soldiers. Do you know what they’re so afraid of?”

“…?”

Afraid???

Come to think of it, the flooding and the broadcast tower collapsing due to the out-of-season bomb cyclone were bad enough, but wasn’t there some other worrying issue at play here?

What had Ayumi encountered in that restaurant office on the Skytool’s viewing deck? No, what had we seen covering the surface of the tower while descending on the window washing gondola?

What had Maxwell called them?

“Unidentified intelligent…”

No.

But that would mean…

“…extraterrestrial lifeforms?”

I had seen that name. I had seen something that seemed to fit the description. But wait. Wasn’t that some kind of codename? The police and firefighters were calling them aliens over the radio, but that was only some special lingo, right?

And yet.

And yet, and yet, and yet!

Erika did not say anything more. She only moved her eyes to indicate something. I slowly – very, very slowly – looked over in that direction to check.

The broken tower had fallen on its side and crushed several buildings, so it looked something like an ugly bridge.

It provided hand and footholds similar to a poorly-designed jungle gym.

Those handholds had felt strange, so I had assumed it was just the tension and cold affecting my fingers.

But that was not it.

A break in the thick rainclouds allowed the moonlight to join the multiple searchlights.

And that revealed a crop circle pattern colored a dry brown. The fallen tower was absolutely covered with those boomerang-shaped masses with a frog-like skin texture.

[Mobile Temp] How to Use Manual #1 for Quarantining Foreign Species [File 06]

Tokyo is a heavily populated area, so evacuating all of the government workers and general residents during a flood and while restricted to land routes would have been difficult. But you used air routes such as transport helicopters and tiltrotors to swiftly clear the traffic and congestion to quickly complete the evacuation. That is impressive, but it is not enough.

The information you were given was incomplete. I will now distribute what was missing.

Once I have confirmed you have all read the document, I will immediately retrieve it. This cannot remain in your possession and you are forbidden from copying or photographing it. Memorize it and never forget it until the day you die.

This manual – known as Manual #1 for Quarantining Unknown Species – was created by the Ministries of Defense and of Health, Labor, and Welfare with the Bright Cross acting as an outside supervisor. You can think of the previously missing pieces as being what was most heavily influenced by the Bright Cross.

As you know, the international organization known as the Bright Cross no longer exists. However, the fact remains that they have secretly fought against infectious foreign species more than anyone else. And they did so in modern times, not some old legend about slaying monsters.

It is unknown if this particular case really falls under the category of an infectious foreign species, aka an Archenemy. But this document most closely matches what we need to combat and suppress what we are currently facing.

The JSDF lacks numbers and experience, but we can make up for the former with unmanned technology and make up for the latter by absorbing the knowledge of our predecessors.

Hence this document.

So memorize it and do not let anything get through.

Our objective is to seal off the quarantine area, not needless bloodshed. But we can never bring this chaos to an end if we do not hold this line. The training of your bodies and every last bullet you have been issued are a product of the people’s taxes. You must not let any of it go to waste.

Protect your country.

I assure you your actions are justified, so do everything you deem necessary here.

That is all.

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