My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister:Volume9

Illustrations

• 

  Cover

• 

  Amatsu Satori

• 

  Amatsu Erika

• 

  Class Rep

• 

  Itou Helen

• 

  Umikaze Speechia

• 

  Saeki-Sensei

• 

  Shoumi

• 

  Yamagaki Oikaze

• 

  Nabetsukami Kyouji

• 

  Jinno Serina

• 

  Okiai Yuuko

• 

  Tougemichi Kyusu

• 

  Sakanakawa Teppei

• 

  Hotaruzawa Kezuri

• 

  Hecate

Chapter 0

Out-of-season snow was falling outside the window.

“Now for the weather report. The temperature has been all over the place recently, but if this person catches a cold, you know the world must be ending. I mean, of course, our meteorologist Tanaka Alice-san.”

In the lazy time after dinner, a lively voice played from the living room TV. It was nearly 10 at night, so they were replaying the daytime news, meaning there was nothing new to see. The staleness of it all was extra strong for someone who spent so much time online.

“Hey, Ayumi?”

“Yeah, Onii-chan?”

I heard a crunching sound coming not from the TV but from my lap.

Yes, my cute little sister with black twintails (the ends of which were rolled up like dinner rolls) was lying on the sofa with her head in my lap. She had already had dinner, but she had a bag of salt and seaweed chips with her.

“Isn’t this, y’know, the opposite of how it’s supposed to work? If we’re doing a lap pillow, it should be my head in your lap, Zombie girl!”

“Oh, shut up. We believe in gender equality in this house.”

“Well, if you want equality, then lend me your lap! You’ve been doing this for a whole hour now, so this isn’t even about the principle of the thing anymore. My legs are going numb!!”

“You can blame Onee-chan’s long bath for that. Fuguu, how long is she going to make me wait!?”

Unlike my sweaty Zombie sister who loved going jogging in running clothes year-round, my sexy Vampire sister really seemed to enjoy her baths. When she didn’t have her night school to go to, she would generally stay in there for ages like this.

“You’re a girl too, so if you don’t like it, go take a bath with her.”

“You live in a dream world, Onii-chan. If you barge in on someone in the bath, you’re gonna get slapped even if you’re both girls. …You don’t actually think we join each other in the fitting room to help each other try on different outfits, do you?”

“Well, you should! Why even be the little sister to such a hot older sister if you’re not gonna take advantage of it!?”

“Fuguu!? You really do live in a stupid dream world, don’t you!?”

She sprang up from my lap and then seemed unsure if she should lower her head again or not. She childishly pouted her lips while dangerously close to me on the same sofa.

“Onii-chan, are your legs really that bad?”

“I could really use a break, yeah.”

“Fugu. Fine, then let’s swap.”

My eyes must have widened.

My wondrous little sister actually sat up on the sofa and then patted her lap.

Um, and to be clear, she hadn’t taken a bath yet, so she was still in her usual running clothes. Which meant she was wearing extremely aggressive shorts that left her thighs entirely bare, if you can believe it!

“Gender equality, remember?” she said. “It wouldn’t be fair for me to reap all the benefits, so c’mon.”

“I wonder if it’s gonna snow today?”

“Stop looking outside, Onii-chan! This is embarrassing for me too, so just lie down already!!”

Ayumi had a bad habit of growing stubbornly self-destructive when she felt cornered, so she grabbed my hair and shoved my head down. Down where, you ask? Just a few miniscule centimeters away from a middle school girl’s crotch!!

I was lying face up, so I got a look at her upper body from a rare angle.

Hm, you really are short on curves, my sister. Although I can just about see your bra through the gap between your tank top and skin, so that hardly matters right now!!

That was when she reached out to the side and grabbed something. Then she brought it to her mouth.

I heard an odd crunching sound.

“Wait, um, Ayumi? Ayumi-san?”

“Man, there’s nothing quite like getting back to the basics after mastering something. Is there any flavor better than salt?”

“The crumbs! The seaweed and salt crumbs are falling on my face!! Hey, explain yourself, Zombie! I’ve never been so disappointed in a lap pillow!!”

“Since when do you have so much lap pillow experience, Sommelier Onii-chan?”

Ahem.

I mean, I have a lot of people who like this combination of kindness and superiority, like my sexy older sister or my handful of a stepmom. Not to mention the forehead glasses Class Rep next door who can seem harsh on the surface but is a merciful goddess on the inside.

My little sister, who loved to jog but also loved munching on chips after dinner, resumed watching TV.

“I wonder how long this snow is going to last.”

“Who knows. That depends on the cargo ship burning out at sea.”

My response there was not meant as a non sequitur. It was a proper answer to her question.

Meanwhile, the weather forecast continued on TV.

“Tomorrow’s weather will be more of the same: bright and sunny everywhere. But the temperature is going to drop off, so make sure to look after your health.”

“They aren’t talking about the snow,” said Ayumi.

“Because that’s beyond the scope of a weather forecast,” I replied.

Out-of-season snow was falling outside the window, yet my little sister was wearing skimpy running clothes. Well, that girl would wear shorts even in midwinter, but she was appropriately dressed for the weather today.

At 10, the weather forecast switched back to the news and they got to the top story.

“The rescue operation out at sea began three days ago, but waiting for the fire to run its course looks like the only realistic option. The Noble Ingot, a cargo ship registered with Panama, was carrying several raw materials used in the production of polyethylene. The heat of the flames has sent those material airborne as a thin fog, but as they cool in the air and harden, they fall back down like snow.”

“The end result would be classified as a microplastic,” said another reporter. “In this case, they are smaller than 0.5mm, but the point is that the small pieces of plastic cannot naturally decompose and thus remain after the precipitation ends. There is much concern about the effect on the local environment.”

“On the other hand, the out-of-season snow has been a hit on social media, so some online commentators are speculating this will mean a boost to sightseeing.”

“Unlikely. The microplastic snow gets tangled with high-voltage power lines and transformers, so it can cause shorts when it melts. They have already stopped the trains for that reason and who can predict when ordinary power sources and traffic lights will go out or malfunction. You could try to drive down there yourself, but what if they shut down the roads and you’re stuck there? That would be tragic.”

“If you live nearby, please think twice before trying anything rash. This is an emergency. If you pay the affected area a visit and the roads are shut down, you might have difficulty finding somewhere to stay.”

That about summed it up.

Ayumi peered down into her bag of chips directly above my face.

“I wonder what’s going to happen.”

“It’s hard to say.”

“This was the last bag and mom and dad can’t come home thanks to the train situation. Fuguu, I really have a bad feeling about all this.”

The situation was a lot like when a city’s functions were reduced or paralyzed due to volcanic ash.

But unlike with volcanic activity, there was no pressing threat to our lives. The cargo ship fire itself might have been considered a disaster, but the problem was not that fire out at sea. The problem was the “unmelting snow” that continued to silently accumulate. Everyone was just kind of watching it happen because the government was not setting up shelters or anything like that. Even the news didn’t mention anything about disaster relief funding.

“What’s going to happen to us?” asked Ayumi.

“Again, it’s hard to say.”

We were awfully relaxed for knowing so little about our own immediate futures.

According to Maxwell, the problem was how new a threat microplastics are.

In the world of law, the Basic Act on Disaster Management defines a disaster as damage caused by a list of certain natural or human causes, or the causes given in an official Cabinet Order. That means a disaster does not have to be natural in origin. A dam breaking or a forest fire started by a cigarette butt qualifies as a disaster. As long as it fits one of the dangers already viewed as a risk, the laws would kick in for natural and manmade disasters alike.

Sending out rescue teams, the JSDF, or whatever else was all based on that thought process. The adults could all point to the law allowing them to take action and know they were doing everything by the book.

But that left a large loophole.

A truly unfair one.

“If the type of disaster isn’t mentioned in the law, it doesn’t officially count as a disaster and there is no government support. If this was ordinary sand or ash, they would apparently have already sent some macho men in camouflage to help out.”

“Fuguu.”

“Our city is free to do what it can on its own, but to be honest, there’s only so much a single city hall can accomplish. Without outside assistance, I bet the most they can do is unlock their big warehouse and hand out cup noodles to everyone.”

But it was unknown how long it would take for this new microplastics disaster to be officially registered in the law. Time seems to slow to a crawl when I try to watch those Diet broadcasts and it’s hard to keep track of what they’re even talking about.

“Then what about the police?” asked Ayumi. “We have rescue teams inside Kukyou City, don’t we? I mean, it’s a disaster prevention city.”

“As a general rule, they can’t say no when you need help.”

“And we need help now!”

“But what happens when every single person in the city calls them at once? One family asks them to shovel the snow from their walk, one family asks them to knock the snow from their roof, and another has a newborn baby or a bedridden grandparent. There’s no way they can prepare an organized evacuation like that. They’d spend all day just listening to everyone’s complaints.”

Once again, they would have a set plan in place for an earthquake or a flood, so they might have gotten the shelters set up fairly quickly then.

But with this, we weren’t going to die right away, so everything was running so much slower.

The overly diligent police officers would be stuck doing odd jobs all day and the less diligent ones would have started to pretend they couldn’t hear all those requests. If they put on their uniform and went out on a patrol in their police car or bicycle, they would never make it anywhere before being overwhelmed by requests.

It was like we had slipped through the cracks.

Like society had been intentionally and carefully designed to not affect the human heart like this.

“What’s Maxwell saying?” asked Ayumi.

“…”

“She isn’t just gathering search results, right? You might waste it on making the Class Rep do virtual swimsuit dances all the time, but Maxwell is a disaster environment simulator. Fuguu, what does she have to say about the snow?”

Yeah, that’s the thing.

I really wished Ayumi had stopped asking after I chose not to answer. The worst thing at a disaster scene was to throw in uncertain information that would only spread a vague anxiety and dissatisfaction. That tended to bring the place to the boiling point in no time flat.

Even I wasn’t sure how to respond to Maxwell’s answer:

“Sure. There is an 85.5% or higher chance that this is an intentional attack.”

How was I supposed to pass that on?

It would only lead to a panic.

“The most likely targets are Mrs. Yurina, since she led Absolute Noah, or you, since we know the unknown force using the name JB is targeting you. The overall scope is unknown, but they may have begun a new game.”

We didn’t know much about JB.

Absolute Noah was a secret organization led by my stepmom Amatsu Yurina which had tried to build a giant ark that would allow us to survive the cataclysmic Calamity. I had seen hints of JB’s presence ever since the incident related to Archenemy Echidna who had led to the fall of Absolute Noah.

The first person to actually use the name JB was the thin young man behind the previous incident that had started in a broadcast tower and even gone to outer space.

But he was killed in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, so he probably hadn’t been working alone.

It was a group.

They apparently had a giant server system created by gathering together junk plus a military-grade simulator called Freischutz, but I had no idea what they wanted or who they were. I didn’t even know if they were a human organization or an Archenemy one.

I only knew that JB was unhappy with the current world and they were after me instead of my Seven Deadly Sins stepmom, my Vampire older sister, or my Zombie little sister. And not just as a hostage to get to any of them through me.

“…”

My stepmom, Amatsu Yurina, was actually the Archenemy Lilith, putting her on a mythical level, but she was stuck outside of the city. Since she was able to stay there, whoever was behind this attack must not have seen her as a target.

That meant the target was me.

It was terrifying to think the entire region had been swallowed up in an attack only meant for a single high school boy.

And as ridiculous as that might seem, this was no laughing matter. JB had done this before. They had flooded Tokyo, prepared a giant spaceship, and altered a god all to make a move on me.

The JB I had seen had been shot to death by another identical-looking JB in a Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department holding cell. I don’t know if that was his twin or if it was a 3D mask or what.

But anyway, this being an attack was only a prediction made by Maxwell.

It would be hard to convince anyone else of the danger when I only had a simulation to go on.

Even I still found it hard to believe. Maxwell had narrowed it down to either me or my stepmom, but this was a big city. Even if this was a malicious attack rather than an unfortunate accident, it felt like there had to be more target candidates than that.

…Of course, I knew that was just the denial talking.

“It might be hard to imagine with the lack of an obvious explosion or flash of light, but if things remain as is, Kukyou City will entirely cease to function within a week. I have repeated the calculations 107,072 times already and the results are indisputable.”

The geography and climate made this city extremely disaster prone, so disaster prevention researchers and security companies had moved in to take advantage of that.

Yet the entire city was going to fall apart so easily?

Maybe it was like coming into contact with a brand-new disease you had no immunity for.

I didn’t know if this was a manmade disaster targeted at me, but it was true there were people out there who were none too fond of me.

And they had previously gone as far as bringing down the country’s largest broadcast tower, sending the JSDF after me in a flooded city, and launching me into space.

The city would cease to function after a week.

We had just reached the end of the third day.

What if the situation worsened and the police and fire department ceased to function? Wouldn’t it be easy enough for someone to use that as cover to kill me?

“User, you must make a decision. The game has already begun, so any delays will only allow the damage to spread.”

I was not a hacker.

My friend Anastasia liked to call me one, but those skills were only what I had learned to build Maxwell.

Was I really going to use them here?

I knew these skills were dangerous, but was I going to use them before a clear enemy had come into view, like I was launching a preemptive missile strike?

Wouldn’t that make me no different from that group that could manipulate the weather, remade gods into their pawns, and used a simulator for evil?

“There sure is a lot going on today,” said Ayumi while leaning back in the sofa and letting me use her lap.

I looked up to see the newscaster quickly reading through a new paper passed in from the side.

“We just received word from the Unified Traffic Center that all highways and other roads in the Kukyou City area will be closed due to the effects of the microplastic ‘snow’ produced by the cargo ship accident out at sea.”

First the trains and now the roads.

“That’s all land routes cut off.”

“Fugu. Even for trucks? What are the convenience stores going to do?”

The naval routes were blocked by the burning cargo ship and the firefighting boats surrounding it and the airplanes had been stopped much earlier. Microplastics that would get in everything and then melt when exposed to heat were the last thing you wanted near an engine.

So with the roads closed, the city was closed off.

There really was nowhere to run.

[Crawler Search] Microplastics [The Words You Need!]

There is no strict definition, but it refers to extremely small plastics. Instead of being intentionally manufactured, they are created when littered plastic bags, containers, straws, etc. are broken down by weathering, friction, and other causes. In recent years, it has been discovered they accumulate in animals’ bodies after being orally ingested, but their threat is much greater with the environment Kukyou City finds itself in now.

Before the term microplastics was widely known, some countries and defense companies were using them for the R&D of widescale nonlethal weaponry they hoped to use to “safely suppress” a large city or military facility. They are easy to produce and can be spread over a wide area using a missile or bomber and the small plastic pieces would work their way deep inside electronics to short out the circuitry, transformers, and power generators for electrical and communication systems. They were hoped to be a cheaper and safer alternative to detonating a nuclear bomb outside the atmosphere to make use of the electromagnetic pulse, but the cries of protest about the effect on the environment ruined their image as a “safe and nonlethal weapon” and the projects stalled.

Iron sand and wood chips were proposed as alternative candidates, but iron sand can be oxidized when stored improperly and wood chips can be broken down by microbes. Either one would have been difficult to store in the tons required and presented a risk of overheating or combusting.

Chapter 1

Part 1

“Wow.”

The next morning, I was shocked to see the roof of our house.

Some excited elementary school kids ran by behind me. Even kids that age had phones these days. The prismatic effect of the snow falling on a sunny day was too amusing a sight to pass up, so they were snapping all sorts of photos with their phones.

Everyone wore masks whenever they went out like it was normal. They had become as much a necessity as food and water.

“Is that around 10cm?”

“No,” replied Maxwell. “It is 8cm at most.”

I held my phone up much like the kids to give Maxwell a look, but we were interested in the roof. We could see the natural(?) accumulation there, untouched by feet or tires.

“So is that about a centimeter per hour?”

“In this case, the microplastics are proven to be heavier than water, so the roof could still be in danger.”

The snow was not real, so it would not melt in the sun and drip off the roof.

My dad and stepmom had used their full grownup power to shovel the snow until yesterday, but now it would be up to us.

But we had to be careful.

Kukyou City was home to a surprising number of Archenemies like a Mermaid, a Dark Elf, and even a Siren, but they were laying low at the moment.

The police and fire department were not functioning properly and we could not rely on outside aid. Things looked relaxed enough, but the situation was actually pretty serious.

I could only guess, but the Archenemies probably wanted to keep a low profile in this isolated space where the rules no longer applied. The Colosseum that had pit immortal against immortal to reduce their numbers must have taught them just how frightening truly unrestrained humans could be.

For example, an Archenemy with ten or more times the physical strength of a human might be overwhelmed with people asking them to shovel their walk or knock the snow from their roof. Much like someone who just won the lottery. Then they would be left exhausted simply helping out other people. I was worried about our roof, but letting my sisters deal with it to ensure the safety of just our own house could be dangerous in a different way.

“The snow is still a problem once it is knocked from the roof,” said Maxwell.

“Yeah, I know.”

You couldn’t just knock it off and leave it there. It wouldn’t melt on its own, so leaving it in the sun wouldn’t make it drain away in the ditch. Piles had been carelessly shoved over to the edge of the road to clear the way as much as possible, but those piles were already growing taller than me.

“If only we could slap it with a label calling it some kind of valuable resource. Then people would fight over who got to take it away for us.”

“No. The multiple components carried by the cargo ship have been mixed together.”

“And the dust, dirt, and nitrogen oxide in the air has probably contaminated it too.”

“Sure. So you do understand. Going to the effort of separating out the components to recycle it would likely cost more than those components are worth.”

I guess wishing someone would do it despite the cost was a childish way of thinking. I still felt like it would be effective if some wealthy person paid for that service as a form of charitable donation.

Tokyo had recovered pretty quickly from being flooded in that bomb cyclone, so I really wanted to believe the tech was there.

Just then, the neighbor’s front door opened in a hurried fashion.

“Hyah! What are you doing there, Satori-kun? Am I really running that late today!?”

“That’s a lot of energy for so early in the morning, Class Rep. Did you oversleep?”

She had long black hair swept back and she had a decent figure, even if it was not quite on my sister Erika’s level. The always beautiful Class Rep was of course wearing a mask, but those good looks were cheating. When she wore a mask, it seemed to give her a charming mystique. With me, it only made me look like I was up to something.

“You saw the news last night, didn’t you? They’ve shut down the roads. I doubt we’ll be able to use the convenience stores or the cafeteria for lunch, so I had to make myself a lunch real quick. Argh, and I thought it would be so easy since I was using mostly frozen things!”

That was exactly what I would expect from her since she loved to plan everything out. Plus, this made her a source of handmade lunches made by the childhood friend next door. How was it possible for a simple lunch to sound more valuable than a bar of gold!? Was she trying to kill me with cuteness!?

“What are you going to do for lunch, Satori-kun? I imagine someone as online as you heard the news before I did.”

Worry not.

I came prepared.

“I brought some CalorieGates. Four is enough for a meal.”

“I can’t believe you! That’s just another name for hardtack! Why would you choose to suffer like that!?”

That was the kind of opinion you arrived at when you only followed the outdated information on TV. To be honest, I had to be better off than the people who trusted the talk shows and thought they would be healthy if they ate nothing but lean meat. Before all these snow-related problems, I had bought an industrial-sized box full of them to help me through my all-nighters and that had come in handy now.

The Class Rep, being a Class Rep, put her hands on her hips and glared at me. (She could really pull off the perfect Class Rep pose. It was a thing of beauty.)

“Satori-kun, give me half of that hardtack later on.”

“I know the maple flavor is good, but if you don’t watch what you’re eating, you’ll gain weight.”

“I’m saying I’ll give you half my lunch in exchange! You claim that stuff is healthy, right? Then it shouldn’t be a problem if I eat some of it too!”

!?

It took every ounce of self-control I had to avoid striking a triumphant pose. This is what I was talking about! Only our Class Rep would be so unnecessarily caring in a way that came completely out of the blue like this!!

“Oh, my! What a dreadfully uneven trade. My user is clearly the only one gaining anything from this!”

Maxwell, shut the hell up. I honestly don’t know how this happened either and I have no chance of reproducing it, so don’t you ruin this for me!!

“Y-you know?” The glasses Class Rep was fidgeting a little. “This is embarrassing for me too. Ahh, I can’t believe I’m sharing my lunch with the neighbor boy at my age.”

“Hm, this reaction does not look favorable for you, user. I sense no bittersweetness there. Is this similar to someone letting a filthy abandoned dog eat their dinner because they would feel guilty otherwise?”

“Shut up or I’m dumping your storage container in the sea, Maxwell. And I’m more than willing to play the filthy abandoned dog if it means the Class Rep will feed me her lunch in the middle of the classroom!! I just know she’ll considerately keep her left hand below the chopsticks in case the food falls!!”

“I-I never said I’d do that!!” she protested.

“She suggested it yet now she is blushing about it?” said Maxwell. “This glasses forehead Class Rep appears to possess some highly complicated thought processes. Is this what they call a tsundere?”

You’re wrong there, Maxwell. While she can be irritable and angry, she is throwing the doors of her heart wide open to reveal what she is truly feeling deep down, so it doesn’t qualify as tsun. You only call someone a tsundere when they can’t be honest about what they’re feeling deep down. Heh. You’ve started using a lot of emotional terms for a program – like bittersweet and guilty – but it looks like you still have much to learn. The internet is overflowing with cute girls, so go observe them as a form of training. And don’t stop until you finally understand that a Class Rep only needs to be a Class Rep. No extra additives like “tsun” or “dere” are needed there.

“Wait, this means I’m going to be walking to school with you, doesn’t it?”

“Eh heh heh. We can hold hands if you want, Class Rep.”

“…………………………………………………………………………………”

“Don’t look so disgusted with the idea! You’re supposed to raise your voice and get after me in a Class Reppy way when I make jokes like that!”

“That is what happens when you ask for an unearned reward, you fool,” said Maxwell.

I walked to school with that pure Class Rep.

There were signs everywhere of people having fought with the microplastic snow, but their methods varied. There were no established rules, so where the people preferred to stay at home or were just sloppier, the road tended to be blocked up enough that only one lane was clear. At least I didn’t see any homes collapsed under the weight of the snow. Yet, anyway.

“The city dump truck didn’t come by today.” The Class Rep sounded worried as she observed her surroundings. “The microplastics don’t melt, right? So they’ll block up the roads if no one takes them away. Can they not send out the trucks because they can’t get any gasoline delivered to the city?”

“You might consider reminding her that dump trucks generally use diesel.”

“Maxwell, are you trying to sabotage what I have going here?”

My childhood friend gave me a curious look, but I was not about to let her see my phone’s screen.

“The snow gets in my hair too.” She held a hand to her head. “Maybe I should wear a knit hat tomorrow.”

“No!! Cover up that glorious forehead and all you have left are the glasses, Class Rep!”

“It would seem you are perfectly capable of sabotaging yourself, user.”

It might seem surprising, but despite the state of the city, we saw quite a few boys and girls in the same uniforms as us. Once we arrived at school, a whole bunch of students were entering the school building which was wearing a thin layer of white makeup. The strange look of the city didn’t matter. Unless someone spoke up to stop it, the usual routine continued. That was just how the world worked.

We arrived in our classroom 5 minutes before morning homeroom began. The Class Rep had been worried about the time, but she still managed to arrive with time to spare. Like always. About 80% of our classmates were there. The rest may have hurt their back shoveling snow for the first time in their life.

And one other thing was different from normal.

“Quiet down, everyone. It’s time for morning homeroom.”

“?”

The teacher who walked in with that sharp statement was not our usual homeroom teacher. This young woman was invading our territory and acting like she belonged.

“Your usual teacher was caught in traffic and won’t arrive in time. It probably would have been faster to walk. Anyway, I am here as your replacement. My name is Saeki. I have to visit a few other classrooms too, so let’s get started, shall we?”

What a rip off. With our teacher gone, we could have had the day off and it would be the adults’ fault, but this unnecessarily motivated person instead delivered the day’s announcements with a smile.

She must have taught a different year because I didn’t recognize her, which made it a little hard to ask questions.

“There is still a lot we don’t know about the ‘snow’, but that is no reason to give into fear. This is a temporary problem, so it will work itself out in time. Oh, and one other thing.”

Once her businesslike overview of the announcements was complete, she started on something else.

“I know this is a bad time for it, but you have a transfer student joining your class today. That’s a reason for applause, don’t you think?”

Some of my classmates voiced their confusion about why someone would transfer in now, but the cargo ship fire only began three days ago, so it may have been too late for this new kid’s family to change their plans by then.

“By the way, the transfer student is a blonde-haired green-eyed girl. She’s 15, but she came from an experimental school that doesn’t use the standard 6-3-3 system, so her education level is identical to yours and she’s also especially talented. So rejoice, boys! Do you have your phones ready? Remember that it’s first-come-first-serve on lending her your textbook. Now, onto the introduction!”

I heard footsteps as a new element invaded the familiar scene of the classroom.

She had a small build and whitish-blonde hair. Instead of a standard braid, her long hair was only braided together at a few spots down its length. Her hair and skin created a stark contrast with her brand-new blue blazer uniform.

Then there was her identity.

“Hello, everyone. I am Umikaze Speechia.”

No, not her name.

Something else mattered more.

I had seen her before. I had seen her entirely nude on a spaceship of all places.

In other words…

“I am registered as an Archenemy Scylla. It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.”

Maxwell had called the city’s situation an attack as opposed to a disaster. The people who had intentionally flooded Tokyo were almost certainly involved and it was pinpoint targeted at the city I called home.

“Warning.”

In that case, what was this?

“We have too little information, so she should not rush to judgment,” said Maxwell. “That said, we of course should run a simulation based on the worst-case scenario. It is too late to consider that scenario once it has already dug its fangs into you.”

A girl who had been there during the previous incident had all of a sudden appeared before me for no fathomable reason. It would have been weird not to be cautious.

And if I’m being honest, the situation was awkward enough without that. I mean, I’d never actually spoken with the Scylla, but I had seen her naked. Because she had been preserved as a body double for that alien…well, that queen who thought she was an alien.

That would supposedly make her another abductee and thus harmless, but like I said, I had never spoken with her. She had looked an awful lot like a victim last time, but I didn’t actually know who she was on the inside. She may have been thoroughly “educated” after being abducted to turn her into their loyal soldier, or she may have volunteered to play that role. I didn’t know her, so I couldn’t say anything for sure about her.

So which was it?

On a more fundamental level, wasn’t it awfully weird to change schools with all this going on? Was thinking through all this even worth it when I had so little information? And could I just be overthinking all this in the first place?

“You can sit wherever you like, but with so many people absent, you’d have a hard time knowing which seats are open. What day is it today? Well, never mind. I’ll just do it by alphabetical order. Amatsu! Your ‘A’ name earns you the privilege of helping out our new student today. Umikaze, that means your seat will be the one right next to Amatsu Satori there!! A round of applause, everyone!”

I was still growing pale over this new development when our substitute teacher, Saeki, made that crucial decision for me.

That girl was approaching my territory.

She slowly pulled back the chair and sat right next to me. She was close enough to stick a knife in my side if she had one.

And then she scooted her desk over until it touched mine.

“I do have a full set of textbooks,” said the blonde girl with a smile, “but I wasn’t sure what optional reference books like an atlas to get. Can I share yours?”

“Eh? Um.”

I couldn’t seem to find my tongue, but she leaned in toward me and whispered in my ear.

“(You don’t need to be so nervous. Let’s be friends. Okay, Amatsu-kun?)”

Part 2

“Amatsu-kun, Amatsu-kun.”

How many times did Umikaze-san call my name throughout the morning?

As far as I could tell, she was just a girl who was not hesitant to ask questions. She wanted to know how far we were through the textbook, if an app was fine for a dictionary and encyclopedia, and other clarifications about the local rules.

“This is important. If I don’t get the basics down quick, I’ll fall behind.”

“Hm, if you say so.”

I had never transferred schools, so I had never had to switch to a different publisher’s textbook in the middle of the year.

“Also.”

The blonde girl had a small dolphin attached to the knock of her mechanical pencil and she pressed that against her lips while winking at me. But…wait. There was something more going on here. Was she grabbing the hem of her skirt below her desk!?

“You really stand out if your skirt is too long or too short, so I want to know what the standard length is here.”

“Bff!?”

“Not that I expect you to have the answer to that, Amatsu-kun. But just out of curiosity, it might be amusing to hear your preference.”

“Amatsu! Stop staring at the transfer student’s face and pass the printout back!!”

I quickly obeyed the male teacher’s instructions. Since he said I was staring at her face, he must not have noticed what I was really staring at. Umikaze-san herself was facing forward again like nothing had happened. She was toying with printout with the same fingers that had grabbed her skirt a moment before.

How could I even describe the day I was having?

I guess I could say I was used to having someone tug on my sleeve now.

But anyway.

“Sounds like you’ve gotten yourself into another mess, Senpai.”

It was lunchtime.

I didn’t see the problem myself, but the forehead glasses Class Rep didn’t like the idea of exchanging lunches in the classroom and we had finally found a nice private spot in the corner of the library when someone else arrived.

The short girl with short, fluffy blonde hair was everyone’s lovable underclassman, Itou Helen.

Also, her arrival had left the Class Rep frozen solid. The Class Rep’s mind had gone blank just like when someone happened to see her in the shower. Why do I know how she looks when that happens? Ask that Class Rep next door who has a bad habit of keeping the window wide open during the summer.

“No, um, it’s not what it looks like! It’s um, how should I put it!?”

“Are you saying it’s not two people eating lunch? Because that’s what it looks like to me. By the way, I brought sandwiches for lunch. If you want to trade some of your small rice balls for some, now’s your chance, Miss Glasses.”

“Miss Helen is being awfully outgoing today,” said Maxwell.

“(I want to believe she’s actually flustered. I mean, if that super introverted small animal of a girl is forcing her way into an established social circle, we should really assume it’s an emergency.)”

“Did you say something, Senpai?”

“Just that a sandwich sounds really good right now.”

We ended up engaging in a three-way trade. I only had four CalorieGates, so what I traded for was a major decision. Each trade was a full quarter of my lunch.

“By the way, Itou-san, how much have you heard?”

“That the new transfer student is a Scylla and that she’s been all over you for no reason. And it doesn’t look like she just feels lost and wants to rely on her guide. When you moved classrooms, she left on her own without issue. Senpai, keep in mind that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

“I know what you mean.”

It didn’t quite feel like I was being used, but maybe that was a testament to how skillfully Umikaze-san was doing it.

A mystery transfer student had arrived at the same time as the unnatural snow from the cargo ship fire.

Was assuming a connection from that alone no better than the superstition that hanging a Teru Teru Bouzu from your eaves had caused the sunny weather the following day?

And.

“I can’t believe her. I just can’t. You already have me, an all-encompassing Circe Witch, so why would you even need a Scylla? I can do the exact same things she can with my witch’s potions, so the individual creature is entirely unnecessary. And she’s the same age as me, so it’s not fair she gets to be your classmate and sit right next to you. Hmph.”

Itou-san began muttering to herself with a dark look on her face. Was this why she was being so outgoing? And come to think of it, how exactly was she monitoring what happened in our classroom? I wanted to believe the school’s windows were not crawling with geckos and frogs.

At any rate, the Class Rep finally joined the conversation with Helen-chan who wanted to relieve her anxieties. A true forehead glasses girl could judge the appropriate social distance from someone with a sort of radar that bounced off of ordinary conversational topics.

“Itou-san was it? From the look of this tuna salad and eggs, I take it you don’t use a food processor?”

“Th-those things will shred your chicken and vegetables and whatnot regardless of the grain. I know it’s faster, but, um, I can’t really trust them.”

Oh.

The more ordinary topic snapped Itou-san out of her weirdly high-energy state. She even scooted toward me as if trying to keep as much space between herself and the Class Rep as possible.

Meanwhile, the forehead glasses girl must have picked up on that distancing move. Instead of pressing further into Itou Helen’s business, she changed the focus of the conversation with a smile.

“I can’t manage that myself. Once I know something is easier, I can’t resist the temptation. For example, I don’t think I could survive without a dishwasher anymore. This lunch is the same. Half of it is made from frozen foods you only have to thaw out at room temperature. And the rice balls I made with a kit where you just have to stick the rice inside a mold.”

“That’s not…a bad thing. Um, I just don’t like to learn new ways of doing things.”

“Even though you made sure to cut off all the breadcrust before making these sandwiches? I’m impressed. I tend to skip those small details before long. Because I know it will taste the same either way.”

“N-no, it’s not about that. I’m just afraid what people will think when they see me open my lunchbox. It’s only for me to eat, but I still feel like I need to make excuses to people while I’m making it. I’m so pathetic.”

Itou-san had started off like she was peeking out the cracked door with the chain lock still in place, but now she was leaning out over the table and revealing her innermost thoughts. The Class Rep did not have an immortal body and she could not shoot flames from her hands, but this was a special “power” she had that Maxwell’s calculations could not reproduce.

That power had saved me a lot in the past.

Especially back when my first mom and my dad were fighting on a daily basis.

“Looks like the snow is picking up some,” said the Class Rep while looking out the window.

It would depend on the cargo ship fire, but the amount of snow generally shouldn’t change. Still, the wind could greatly affect how much was hitting one particular window.

“But isn’t all this originally the plastic materials loaded on that one 100 or 200m cargo ship? Isn’t it weird for that to cover the entire city and everything for dozens of kilometers around it?”

“The ship was only carrying the highly-concentrated base materials, so during the melting, cooling, and hardening process, it’s going to take in a lot of air and impurities, preventing a simple calculation from telling you how much there will be.”

I could explain all that like some kind of know-it-all, but that didn’t mean I had the slightest clue what was going to happen next. Nothing was blowing up and our houses were not being blown away, so we had just kind of let things play out. And now that the trains and roads were shut down, it was too late to leave the city.

“I wonder what’s going to happen,” said the Class Rep.

None of us had an answer.

Part 3

“Umikaze-san, are you in a club yet?”

“Um, a club? What kinds do you have here?”

“You really aren’t in one yet!? Um, we are from the cooking research club!”

“Hey, no fair! We want to snag her as our manager!”

“Hold on. Are you only interested in clubs? Because our school also has a committee system with the Student Council at the top.”

Once one of them got started, everyone else stopped just watching and a crowd formed around her. Such are the privileges of good looks, I guess. And since she’s so short, she was looking a lot like a timid small animal with so many people around her.

Our afternoon classes were over, but we still had one major task left: cleaning. No one was opening the windows with that unnatural snow outside, but the small grains still got inside with so many people moving in and out of the building. Think of it like the sand crunching underfoot at a busy seaside restaurant.

“A kid in the next class had their air conditioner break.”

“Really? What are they doing at home then?”

Some of the boys were chatting as they left the classroom, but Umikaze Speechia-san made sure to help push the desks to the back of the classroom and filled a bucket full of water.

“I did what you asked, but are you sure this is safe? The hallway faucet didn’t seem to have a filter attached.”

“These microplastics are around 0.5mm. Since they’re bigger than pollen, you can run it through ordinary gauze or a mask to filter them out.”

“That’s a surprise. Such a working class method.”

“Anyway, are you sure you didn’t want to go check out any of the clubs? We could’ve done the cleaning for you.”

“You want me to shove my work onto someone else on my very first day here? I don’t see that leading to a happy school life here.”

She was an Archenemy Scylla.

The Scylla was from Greek Mythology, right? That monster attacked ships, but I wasn’t familiar with the exact story.

“The Scylla is an Archenemy that looks like a beautiful girl with multiple animal heads added on,” explained Maxwell. “The number of heads differs between accounts, but the standard is 6. In the story in which the Witch Circe creates her, she has three dog heads. In other words, the details are unknown.”

“What’s your source for this?”

“A walkthrough site for that demon hunting action game everyone is playing these days. Let’s go hunting!”

Dog heads? That didn’t seem to have much to do with the ocean, but that’s just how legends are sometimes. A witch’s broom wasn’t originally designed for flight, for example. It’d be pretty cute if Umikaze-san was good with dogs, though.

But…

“(That’s not super helpful. It doesn’t tell me what kind of Archenemy she is. Is she good at swimming? Does she bite? Does she lure you into the sea with her song like a Mermaid?)”

“In the legend, 6 members of Odysseus’s crew are easily devoured right there on their ship. That means her victims are not ordinary people; they are the hero’s party.”

“For real? So is she like those enemies that hit the entire party with instakill magic?”

“I can only predict that she can be very fierce indeed when she needs to be…but it is true nothing mentions HOW exactly they are eaten. It says she used the dog heads like she was fishing for them, but the details are unclear. It could even be that the heads stretch out like a Rokurokubi.”

“Do you need something?” asked the blonde girl who was leaning down toward a bucket and wringing out a rag. The way she was leaning over with her hands occupied meant the view of her short skirt from behind was quite risqué.

“Well, um, uh.”

“You’re weird sometimes, Amatsu-kun. C’mon, we need to finish cleaning.”

Yeah.

Maybe it was due to seeing her naked back on that UFO, but I was having a hard time judging my social distance from this girl now that she would smile and wonder about things like normal. It didn’t help that she had no idea I had seen her like that. It was a lot different from when I would open the door and find Ayumi or Erika changing, so it made me nervous.

“Amatsu-kun, do you have any plans after this?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I only just moved here, so I was hoping you could show me around the city a bit too. I want to at least know the best places to go shopping and such.”

“In this snow?”

“Oh? The snow isn’t going to last forever, right?”

She was blonde, polite, and a Scylla.

Looking at it like that, I could see why Itou-san felt a weird rivalry there, but those two were so different in almost every other way.

If Itou-san was like a hard, not-yet-ripe fruit, then Umikaze-san had the sweetness of a fruit overripe to the point of nearly rotting. While she was never rude, I got this sense she liked to feel superior to the people around her.

“Is this good enough?”

“Yes, do it gently so you don’t whip up the wind.”

By the way, the step after sweeping was not to dust the floors with a cloth. The microplastics were small enough that dusting would send them into the air, so it was more efficient to just use a wet rag.

Once all the cleaning was done, we returned the desks to their normal positions and Umikaze-san pulled a new mask from her bag.

“Okay, let’s get going, Amatsu-kun. Show me around the city.”

“Sure, sure.”

People in the hallway were saying goodbye to her by name, so it didn’t look like she would have any trouble getting people to remember her name.

Then my phone vibrated.

“Warning,” said the social media speech bubble on the screen. “Have you realized it yet, user?”

“…?”

“The Archenemy Scylla was seen within Kukyou City during the extreme sisterly fight Miss Erika and Miss Ayumi fought in virtual reality. She was inside the Bright Cross lab hidden below the city. How she arrived there is unknown, but this means this is not her first time in this city. She has been here before.”

And that would mean…

“Whether or not she means any harm, she is almost certainly lying. You should assume she is hiding something.”

That supported the hunch I already had.

She gave off the sweetness of a fruit on the verge of rotting. She was never rude, but she liked to feel superior to the people around her.

Part 4

“If you need to shop, you can find most anything here.”

“The train station area? This is where I arrived in the city with my luggage in tow.”

“If you can’t find something here, online shopping is your best bet. The selection gets worse the further out you get.”

“Oh, you mean like Wild@Hunt? I honestly don’t use them much. There are other movie and music streaming services out there.”

Now, Umikaze-san seemed fairly popular in person, but what about online? My bet was she had made quite a few new social media friends today.

I was walking around town afterschool with the luxurious blonde transfer student. …When did I end up attempting a stage with such a super hard difficulty rating?

Our uniforms made us look like a couple in matching clothes. We were even both wearing masks.

“Isn’t there a harbor here? You have a lot of fancy stuff on land and sea, right?”

“You must mean the harbor sightseeing district. Visitors from outside the city gather there on the weekends and holidays, but we’re still a pretty regional city. There just aren’t that many well-developed areas. You’ll see what I mean if you check on a map app. Leave this area and there really is nothing at all. Not even a field or parking lot, just a bunch of solar panels.”

“Those maps just confuse me when I don’t have something specific to look up on them. They’re too big. I only use them for finding the shortest route to a restaurant or something.”

Maybe that was how some people did it.

There were so many reviews and ratings for restaurants I never had no idea which ones to trust. And if she was fine with just looking at a map on her phone’s small screen, I guess she wouldn’t have asked me to show her around in the first place.

“You can probably look around here for a bit and, if you don’t find what you’re looking for, check an online store. You won’t find much more than here even if you take a train to the next town over.”

“I see. I don’t claim to be an expert, but if the online stores have everything already, why not just go there first?”

“I normally would.”

But Kukyou City had been locked down. There was not much chance of any trucks showing up from outside. I also didn’t like using online stores for everyday items. For privacy reasons. Would you want the company server to flag your house as being in the top 10 consumers of tissues? Of course, you could say the same thing about those monstrous point cards at brick-and-mortar stores. They might be financially convenient, but they made up for it by extracting even more valuable information from your purchasing habits.

“Oh?”

We heard some shouting in the distance. It seemed to be coming from a fairly large discount store. We took a peek while keeping our distance and saw customers of all ages arguing with an employee at the entrance.

“Nothing you say will change that our delivery trucks have been delayed, so we’re running short on most everything.”

“Liar! You’re hiding them in the back! Show us what you’ve got in the back!!”

“The filters! Bring out the water filters! You can’t fool us. Everyone else is going after the electronics shops, but we’re smart enough to know you’ve got them here too!!”

“I have a child at home! Unlike you young people without a care in the world!!”

They were saying some awful things. They were abusing the idea that the customer is always right. Or did they even count as customers if they were only causing a scene without buying anything?

“What’s going on there?”

“They’re talking about water filters.”

Idiots.

There are a lot of different microplastics, but this snow is larger than pollen. That meant you could filter them out by placing a pollen mask over your faucet with a rubber band. If you were still worried after that, you could make your own filter with sand, gravel, and activated charcoal. Those overly effective commercial filters would wear out in no time.

“If you don’t have anything to sell, why are you even open!?”

“Why are they paying you if you’re not selling anything! What a scam!!”

“You dare lie in front of my child? Look her in the eye and say that again!!”

Chain stores like that had to follow corporate policy no matter what happened, so I did feel bad for them. Their 10-8 work schedule had to continue unabated. The individually run bakeries and cafes could choose for themselves to close up shop and lower their shutters.

“Do they really think there are filters there?” Umikaze-san’s hands wandered hesitantly in the air, but she ultimately chose not to intervene. “It feels more like they just want an excuse to release their pent-up frustrations on someone.”

“I have to admit, I’m kind of jealous that they get paid just for standing around with no merchandise to sell. If not for the people harassing them, my part-timer stepmom would probably be pissed to hear about it.”

“…”

Just then, I felt a tug on my right sleeve. I looked over to see Umikaze-san looking worriedly at the store.

She may not have realized she had grabbed my sleeve.

If the legends about the Scylla were accurate, she had the power to defeat a full party of legendary heroes.

“They look scary now, but I bet those people normally seem just like anyone else,” she said quietly.

I honestly had a hard time accepting that about someone who would drag their small child into the middle of an argument to have their way, but I could see why the Archenemy minority like her would be afraid. Bias and discrimination could be hidden behind any of the ordinary faces seen around town and it would rear its ugly head during emergencies like this where there were 10 survivors but only 5 spots on the lifeboat.

It might be best to keep an eye on how Erika, Ayumi, Itou-san, and the other Archenemies around Kukyou City I knew – like the Mermaid and Dark Elf – were doing. The fable of the ant and the grasshopper did not apply here. Even if the Archenemy minority carefully stockpiled water and food, the human majority would come and steal it from them after carelessly devouring all their own food.

And they would justify it by saying “they’re only Archenemies”.

Attacking people for such a nonreason was absurd, but the system of majority rule would allow the majority to get away with even the most horrific forms of oppression.

“I’m a human being and I deserve respect! Don’t think you can get away with this!!

“We’re all human here! Can’t we talk this out?”

“Don’t you have a human heart!?”

You could see it the words they chose. I was human and I even I felt caught in the crossfire by it.

Part 5

Night had fallen.

“Okay, that should about do it.”

“That was awfully kind of you,” said Maxwell.

I had spread old newspaper out on the living room floor to work on a somewhat outdated robot dog. The microplastic snow had gotten inside it and messed with the connections, so once I opened it up and blew some compressed air inside, it was good as new.

“Maybe it’s just a toy, but these things can keep your mental health up.”

“No, I mean that you were willing to repair it for free. That seems inefficient to me.”

“It’s fine. Fiddling with machines is good for my own mental health.”

And now the Elf named Sakai Iori could dry her tears. She was one of the Archenemies in the city, but since she was still in elementary school, I wanted to do what I could to help her out.

“Fuguu. Mom and dad still aren’t back,” said Ayumi while staring out the living room window.

Our parents had not returned today either. They had already told us as much with a social media message, but it felt different now that night had fallen and they really weren’t back. We were at home, but this was an emergency. Things clearly were not right.

Blonde ringlet curls Erika (a legit Vampire) had taken our stepmom’s place in the kitchen. She must have had some leeway in her attendance record because she had zero intention of attending her night school until this trouble was over. That aproned beauty only cared about getting credit for the class, so she viewed school differently from Ayumi and me.

“Tah dah! Today’s dinner is curry rice!!”

“Are you sure you should have cooked so much, Erika?”

“Curry keeps well and you can create a lot of variation with some minor adjustments. You just leave all the meal planning to your capable big sis, okay?”

Fair enough. I could survive for a while with my CalorieGates, but I had been craving something more flavorful.

In our house, you could eat in the living room or dining room. Today, we went with the former.

“Let’s eat, shall we?”

“Whoa!? Onee-chan, your curry isn’t spicy at all!”

Ayumi’s eyes went wide with surprise after her first spoonful, but Erika did not seem to think this was a mistake. How frequently she went for a sip of water suggested she thought this was plenty spicy.

We had left the TV on and nothing there suggested an emergency. It was playing a bland trivia quiz show where no one yelled at anyone else and it created a mood reminiscent of plastic melting in the hot sun.

“Wait, wait just a moment. …I remember seeing some fake news about this. It wasn’t that. W-was it the mail? I swear it was something like that, but what!?”

“Is he going to waste his Double Up round!? Keep in mind this man graduated from Setagaya faster than anyone else in the world! Did that higher education go to waste!?”

“Hey, I can work a cash register! No, wait, now isn’t the time to go for a cheap laugh. …Um, was it the mail!?”

They burst out laughing in a very “TV studio staff” kind of way.

This was all backwards. The scary stuff was supposed to be happening on TV while we watched it from the safety of our living rooms, right?

Just then, my phone vibrated on the table, sliding to the side.

“Warning.”

“Satori-kun, not during dinner.”

Erika gently stopped me before I could do anything.

It seemed wrong to me that the TV was fine but phones were poor manners, but since she had done all the cooking, it wasn’t my place to argue. Without lifting the screen up to check, I tapped the phone with my finger as if to say “calm down”. What happened next made it hard to judge whether or not Maxwell had understood my meaning.

A deafening disaster alarm blasted from the phone

“Max- you idiot!!”

“I said warning, did I not!? That should have been enough to know you needed to sneak the phone underneath the table to check.”

“Can’t it wait? Are you sure whatever it is is worse than getting Erika in a bad mood!? I mean, look: she’s bending that spoon and not with psychic powers!”

“It is urgent.”

I had no choice but to postpone dinner and walk to the dining room where I checked my phone with my back against the fridge.

“So what happened?”

“My online patrols have shown an unnaturally rapid spread of information over the last hour. This is what is known as fake news.”

“Is that all? There’s a disaster going on, so you can find idiots spreading misinformation everywhere! Anyone can make fake photos and audio these days.”

“No. This appears to be the work of an expert.” Maxwell displayed some strange things on the speech bubbles. “It is spreading through posts on social media and message boards, but the original poster went through dark web servers to make tracing them a challenge. Also, following the posts shows they were posted in several stages that were almost certainly designed to use psychology to rapidly inspire anger.”

“…”

“I am basing this on your digital copies of The Psychology of Winning Hearts and Counseling for Your Deepest Secrets. I have also seen similar methods in the cold reading business books that were popular a while back.”

Don’t ask why I decided to check out those books during some lonely nights. That’s not the issue here.

“How dangerous is this?”

“Extremely. At the very least, the person behind it has mastered the techniques more than the authors of those books had. Instead of simply intellectually understanding the ideas, the speed and accuracy seen here suggests they have built up a program based on a flowchart of the process. They must have created their own manual on manipulating people’s mental states, much like con artists. This was carefully planned.”

Now, then.

Fake news came in many types. You could say a dangerous animal escaped from the zoo, or you could say swarms of insects showed some unusual behavior before the disaster. Regardless, someone out there was spreading some kind of false information, but who and what kind?

“Give me a list of URLs for the posts. I’ll check them at my own pace.”

“Sure. I could provide a summary for you, though.”

Several speech bubbles appeared with alphanumeric strings on them. Those were automatically converted to links, so I only had to tap them with my finger to check the social media and message board posts. And afterwards…

“I see.”

“There were already rumors that large electronics retailers and discount stores were hiding water filters, but this has intensified it. It even references a specific store and the number of security guards they have. It might as well be asking people to attack.”

The posts also said inaccurate things about the law. Like that with a large enough demonstration or riot, the police couldn’t arrest everyone because there wouldn’t be enough holding cells, so you could do whatever you wanted without getting arrested. …Nonsense. Shoplifters and molesters tended not to see it this way, but an action didn’t become a crime once you were arrested for it. It was a crime from the beginning. Escaping for the time being didn’t mean you were off the hook forever. If the police used the security cameras, fingerprints, or whatever else to gather enough evidence, you could still be arrested later on.

“Maxwell, make a fake account and post a link to a site explaining how to make a simple filter using activated charcoal.”

“It was buried in three seconds. With this speed, I doubt it is just the original fake news poster. Enough of the general posters are invested enough in the lie that they may be refusing to accept any information to the contrary.”

“That’s a bad sign.”

“What did you think I meant when I said ‘warning’, you imbecile? The people are being manipulated into attacking Huge Camera Electronics in the harbor sightseeing district. An attack on the store is enough of a problem, but a riot also greatly increases the risk of a fire.”

“And the firefighters can’t do anything right now.”

“I will add that microplastics gather air between the fine particles, meaning they are highly flammable under the same conditions required for synthetic yarn. The microplastic substance people are calling snow covers the entire city and a fire is estimated to spread with a max speed of 80km/h or more. Depending on the wind, my simulations say a fire in that part of the city could even reach this residential district.”

That sounded ridiculous, but that was because I was used to Japan’s humid climate. In America and Australia, it was not uncommon for areas dozens of times larger than a domed stadium to be lost in a forest fire. In fact, they apparently had bad fires in Edo back when Japan had a lot of wooden buildings crammed in close together. Fires would continue to spread until something extinguished them.

“Maxwell, can you pick up any security camera footage from near that store?”

“I do not recommend viewing it. It would only make you reluctant to continue on.”

How many people were there? Was it like certain parts of Tokyo on Halloween?

“But if it is that bad, what can we even do? We can’t drive around those water trucks used by the riot police. And even if we could knock out the rioters, we can’t throw them in a holding cell.”

“Since this riot is artificially made, the person behind it needs to do more than spread oil. They must also throw on a match to ignite it. It is unknown if the online posts will be enough to trigger an actual riot.”

“You mean they’re on the scene themselves? Either to provide the planned ignition, or to come up with an adlib if their online posting isn’t enough?”

“Most likely. Plus, the posts they have already made contained a few photographs that would require being in the city. Whoever is behind this is here.”

The concept of an ignition for a riot might seem too abstract to imagine, but you can think of it like this: Imagine a tense situation where the police and some gang members all have their guns aimed at each other and then some unrelated third party suddenly pops a balloon. What happens then?

With an ignition, the explosion could be controlled.

They would use some method to scare the already on-edge group. It could be a fire, electricity, a camera flash, a loud noise from a speaker, or just shouting really loudly. On the other hand, if the crowd really did want those water filters, they had to be worried about their health to some extent.

So…

“Maxwell, you don’t need to locate them right away, but search the entire Halloween-level crowd with the security cameras and look for someone with pepper spray or a strong-smelling substance. They’ll be the ignition.”

“Sure. But are you sure that’s what it will be?”

“I am. They’ll want something obvious enough even an idiot will notice it. This is all meaningless if most of the crowd doesn’t get what’s going on. Just swinging a bat around at random in a crowd isn’t going to start a riot.”

Whether the crowd numbered in the hundreds or the thousands, we didn’t have to deal with them all. If we could eliminate the one or a few ignition people, we could prevent this from developing into a real riot.

We couldn’t let the city be enveloped in flames while the fire department wasn’t working. I was scared too, but I couldn’t ignore this when we couldn’t call the police.

This was my hometown.

“Erika! I swear I’ll eat that curry, so save some for me. Don’t you dare throw it out!”

“Wait, I’m supposed to be getting after you, but how can I be mad when you treat my cooking with such care!?”

“Fugu? The convenience store shelves are all empty. Where are you going, Onii-chan?”

Erika was panicking about something else entirely, but dumb Ayumi’s wild instincts were starting to tell her something, so I grabbed a mask and left the house before she could ask any more questions.

However…

“Satori-kun? What are you doing out?”

Ugh!?

A mere three steps out the front door and someone called my name. I saw the strict forehead glasses Class Rep holding a shovel out in front of her house. She was of course clearing the out-of-season snow.

This was all over if she realized what I was up to.

I couldn’t let her stop me and bringing our precious Class Rep to the scene of a possible riot was out of the question. I had to find a way to weasel my way out of this one!!

“Eh heh heh. You know I run a blog just for fun, right? I’m gonna top the trending charts by getting a ton of photos of this out-of-season snow! That way I can get a bunch of followers while avoiding the social media sites run by giant IT companies!!”

“…”

Oh, crap. She’s gonna hit me with that shovel!

She saw right through my lies and spoke to my phone instead of me.

“Hey, Maxwell?”

“No. I can only respond to commands from my registered user.”

“Then do it for Satori-kun. You have two options: spill the beans, or watch as I beat him over the head with this shovel and drag him back home.”

“Sure, guest user. If the impending riot downtown is not prevented, there is an extremely high risk of a fire covering hectares of land. I could provide plenty of facts to back this up, but I would prefer you simply trust me since I am a disaster environment simulator.”

Ah, you stupid AI!

I quickly tried to hide the screen, but it was too late.

“Satori-kun.”

“You can’t, Class Rep. The police might not show up if we call them, so I can’t possibly take you with-”

“Erika-saaan! And Ayumi-chaaaan!!”

“Don’t call them out here too! Okay, okay, I get it!!”

This Class Rep really did have my Achilles’ heel in her grasp, didn’t she!?

“(Maxwell, is there any way of losing her?)”

“No. Even if you managed it, she would only wander there on her own. She already knows we are headed downtown, so she will almost certainly head to the train station area first.”

And whose fault is that!?

I scratched at my head, but the cat was out of the bag. I had to treat her as someone who already knew the truth.

That meant changing how I thought about this.

“You can come, but you need to follow my instructions. We really are headed into danger here. A single wrong move could spell disaster and there are no second chances.”

“Fine, but are you really headed somewhere so dangerous with just a phone and no weapons?”

“…”

I had no answer to that one and she casually displayed the thing her hands.

That is, the snow shovel.

“Shouldn’t you at least have one of these with you?”

[Crawler Search] Air and Flammability [The Words You Need!]

Materials catching fire and burning refers to a chemical reaction where the material rapidly oxidizes. So even when in contact with a heat source of tens of thousands of degrees Celsius, nothing can burn without oxygen-containing air or another oxidant. Pre-LED lightbulbs are a good example of this. The inside of the glass is a vacuum, so the filament will not burn. Although it will still transfer heat energy, so this logic does not mean you could embrace the sun without harming yourself.

Also, fire or heat are not necessary for ignition. For example, materials can combust and turn to black charcoal when exposed to powerful acids. What matters is that oxygen is bonded with the target material over a short period of time.

Under special circumstances, the air gathered within substances like cotton, feathers, or wool can accomplish this. The greater the surface area in contact with the air, the greater the oxygen consumption and thus the greater the scope of the combustion. A well-known example is how fluffy cotton almost seems to explode when it is set on fire.

Even materials that generally burn slowly or that melt and scorch instead of burning can burn much faster when shaped in certain ways. For example, even metal and plastic can create a blazing pillar of fire if the conditions are right.

Chapter 2

Part 1

It was nearly 8 at night.

The employees might still be there at that time, so the risk would actually have been less in the middle of the night.

“It’s eerily quiet,” hesitantly said the Class Rep while holding her shovel close.

Now that she had calmed down, she may have realized just how odd it was to carry that around. Then again, it was more normal than usual with all the snow around and there weren’t any police out to question her about it anyway.

“Class Rep, check your mask.”

“?”

We would arrive at the downtown area soon. Her glasses would make it even harder to identify her, but I still wanted to reduce the risk of being seen as much as possible.

I felt a ripple-like tremor.

It was far from powerful and did not seem like an earthquake. Still, it was irregular and intermittent. I could also hear it from the rattling of the snow-covered manhole covers and drain grates.

“Wh-what?” The Class Rep tightened her grip on the shovel. “It’s like there’s a kaiju stomping around.”

“You could call it a giant monster, I suppose.”

The corner up ahead would take us out to the main road, so I held a hand out to stop the Class Rep while I poked my head out.

The tremor hit my body like a solid impact.

How could I even describe it?

The closest comparison I can think of is the cheering at a sports stadium.

But the emotions at the root of this were the polar opposite. It was undiluted anger, resentment, displeasure, and dissatisfaction. It was like every type of aggressive emotion had been mixed together, cooked with a powerful heat, and turned into a thick sludge.

What were they saying?

I didn’t want to differentiate any of their individual statements. People were packed onto the 6-lane road as tightly as on a crowded train and they were all shouting whatever hateful things they could come up with.

“What…in the world?” The Class Rep sounded dazed as she carelessly held the shovel. “Isn’t this about the water filters at the electronics store? That means this must continue for hundreds of meters past here. It’s like New Years at a major shrine.”

This was not a news story from some country you’d never heard of.

These were the people of our own hometown who normally greeted us around town or recommended us clothes at the store. These weren’t zombies from a video game and they had not been driven insane by some kind of infection. Ordinary people from our city had reached this point. Discovering this side of them was something of a shock.

“An accurate count is impossible since people are arriving and leaving all the time, but I estimate there are over 5000 people there,” said Maxwell. “Given the city’s population density, that is a relatively small number.”

“But it’s still enough to fill a dozen schools.”

“You really do not want to know how many people are shouting about this online.”

As someone with my social life focused on school, any group larger than the entire student body felt insane to me. I couldn’t get a good grasp of how many people this was.

If that group exploded, who could say what would physically happen. They really were a kaiju crushing the city underfoot as it walked aimlessly around.

If I tried to oppose them head-on, I would be trampled in no time.

I had to focus on their weak point. For whatever reason, someone was spreading fake news to cause a riot, so they would need to provide a final ignition. That person or persons would be the minority here.

The microplastic snow would burn.

Without the fire department functioning, a fire could end up burning through a huge chunk of the city.

“Maxwell, have you located the igniter yet?”

“No. I have not found anyone with pepper spray or a stimulant. The street cameras cannot actually see into people’s bags or below their clothes.”

“Not even with IR?”

“Security cameras are not the same as indecent hidden cameras capable of seeing through white swimsuits.”

The Class Rep tried to take a worried look at my phone, so I quickly hid the screen from her.

“Then look for anyone with a helmet or mask covering their face. Especially if it hides their eyeline.”

“There are too many to list.”

“Are any of them using specialized equipment for blocking facial recognition? You can also narrow it down to people wearing two different shoe sizes or shoes with unusually tall soles. Your gait can be used to identify you, so people who really want to avoid being IDed will use physical tricks to change how they carry their weight.”

“Sure. 9 people are hiding their face and standing at an unnatural angle. Of those, 5 are holding a drink bottle in one hand, two have injuries from fights, and one has removed their mask to vomit. The last one has nothing visible.”

“Show me the location of that last one.”

The displayed photo was a tanned girl with her red hair worn in a ponytail. She looked my age or a little older. She wore a tank top and shorts and her jacket was tied around her hips by the sleeves. She had the look of a basketball player. Her baggy top gave glimpses of white, untanned skin.

The scarf was one thing, but it was highly unusual to be wearing sunglasses at night. Plus, she was carrying a sports bag over one shoulder.

“That’s got to be them.”

“There may be more than one person hidden in the crowd.”

“Once we deal with her, we can steal her phone and check her social media and address book. After locating anyone in the same area, we can narrow it down to anyone who might be hiding pepper spray or another stimulant. How I get to her is up to you.”

“Sure.”

Deal with her, huh?

What language was I speaking? What did that vague phrase actually mean here?

I had listed a number of tactics, but I had actually already abandoned the idea of multiple bad guys in the crowd. Looking for people hiding their face and standing oddly would lead us right back to those previous 9. It seemed unlikely anything would make me once more suspect the ones I had already ruled out, but it would make no sense for one of the bad guys to be hiding their identity while another was not. Members of the same group would share the same techniques and the same awareness of the risk.

That girl was most likely the only enemy here.

If she pulled some pepper spray from her bag and sprayed it around, this place would boil over.

If she didn’t care to control it, she could start a riot right this instant. There was no time.

“So she’s about 200m away. What’s your recommended route?”

“Is your map app’s recommended route good enough? Then travel 200m straight there.”

“If you can’t find one, just say so, geez. I’ll come up with something myself.”

I wasn’t about to push into that crowd while accompanied by a girl.

A mountain of people filled that 6-lane road.

However…

“This way, Class Rep.”

“Eh?”

“The independently-run businesses are closed, but the chain stores and department stores are still open. Maxwell, check the electronic locks and home security for the back entrances and unlock them if possible.”

“And if I am unable to open a door?”

“I’ll force it open.”

I didn’t hear any shattering glass or screams, so this had to be the right choice. The main road was packed full, but we could avoid the crowd by cutting through the shops from building to building.

That might sound odd, but before they boiled over, they would maintain those boundaries. They required a justification for their actions. They were here because they believed the misinformation about Huge Camera hiding filters, but that didn’t give them an excuse to attack other stores.

Of course, I could only do this because I could get all the many doors unlocked for me.

We would move from back entrance to back entrance and emergency exit to emergency exit.

The back areas were not visible from the main floor of the shops, so I was hoping we would not run into any employees on the way.

“It is open,” said Maxwell.

“Let’s get going, Class Rep.”

I grabbed the knob and turned it, but it did not catch and no alarm sounded.

We found a narrow, dark hallway.

I didn’t know what was the storeroom and what was the office, but we had to cut across the building to reach the next one over.

This one turned out to be a sporting goods store, or so the brand names on the stacks of cardboard boxes suggested. An indoorsy guy like me was far from an expert, but my little sister had made me tag along her when she was picking out her jogging clothes.

Coming in from outside was the tricky part, but going back out from the inside only required unlocking it myself. That would be no trouble at all.

“Wow,” groaned the Class Rep.

She was reacting to the deep tremor we could feel and hear. It was not loud enough to call deafening, but the ground was definitely shaking below us. I had to shudder at the thought of people causing that because it felt like when a train passes by. And if things went wrong, that could all be headed our way.

We were already in the danger zone, so it was too late to get cold feet. The only way to survive was to continue onwards. You couldn’t jump across the ravine without taking a running start. The two of us continued on through the narrow passageway.

“Huh, they don’t put security cameras in the back of the store, do they?”

“Not unless one of the employees is stealing from the safe.”

We couldn’t let our guard down since a phone’s camera could be spying on us from anywhere with a 2mm hole, but Maxwell did not send any warnings. Besides, the exact same camera technology would be viewed as a spy device if it was not made clear there was a camera there.

“There’s the door.”

Leaving the building only required opening the lock from within, but doing that with an emergency exit would set off the alarm. Just to be sure, I checked for any cords attached before turning the knob.

We were in a different alley than before.

The adjacent building’s back entrance was only a few meters away.

“So now it’s wash, rinse, and repeat?” asked the Class Rep.

“Around 200m would mean three or four buildings from here. Maxwell, is the target moving?”

“Sure. She is moving toward the electronics store because the entire crowd is pushing in that direction, but it is within the margin of error. She was located near Huge Camera to begin with anyway.”

If you wanted to hide in the crowd for nefarious purposes, you would want to be nearby but not right on the front line. Trees were much more conspicuous once they moved outside the forest.

We snuck through the back of a clothing store and a department store to approach the target individual.

“You have covered the distance,” said Maxwell. “You have no choice but to leave through the front of the store and enter the crowd.”

“You really think I’m doing that? It’s too dangerous. Maxwell, run a fluid mechanics simul-”

I was cut off by the high-pitched screech of a feedback loop.

A megaphone!?

I grimaced and covered my ears. We were done with the safe back areas anyway, so we moved out to the front of the store. We were on the first floor of a department store. The employees at an accessory shop and a glasses store were crouched down and hesitantly looking out the window and they shrieked when they saw us, but now was not the time to worry about that.

We stayed inside and pressed our backs against the decorative pillar near the glass door.

I could hear something other than the angry yelling and shouting one would expect from the crowd filling the street immediately outside the door.

“Listen to what we, the consumer, have to say!! It is our right to buy your merchandise, so stop hoarding the filters we need for our health and peace of mind!!”

Others shouted in agreement, creating a great tremor. It all gathered together like crashing and receding waves.

The Class Rep shrank down with the shovel still in her hands.

“What? What’s going on? Is that person one of the bad guys too?”

“No,” replied Maxwell. “They have made no eye contact with the target. Generally, accomplices will pay an unnecessary amount of attention to each other.”

It occurred to me that the participants could have been recruited online so none of them knew what any of the others looked like, but now was not the time to think about that.

“Where’s the basketball girl!?”

“30m into the crowd from you. She has stuck one hand inside her sports bag.”

Was she the type to make use of every opportunity, even if it wasn’t part of the plan!?

“Maxwell, run a simulation!”

“I could, but that crowd is like a train at 300% occupancy. No movements I could calculate would allow you to run to her right this instant.”

That wasn’t what I meant.

The point here was to stop that sporty tanned redhead from doing whatever she was doing to trigger a full-fledged riot.

“Run a fluid mechanics simulation. But instead of water or air, use the people out there in place of the free-moving molecules.”

“What exactly is the objective of this task?”

“Look into the change in density. How can I push on that crowd to most efficiently apply pressure to the ignition girl in the middle! But keep it low enough that it won’t kill her, of course.”

I glanced at my phone and ran out from behind the pillar, leaving the Class Rep behind. I threw open the glass door and a few members of the crowd turned toward me.

But it was too late.

“Continue straight from there,” said Maxwell.

“Hragh!!”

I used my whole weight to tackle them with my shoulder. In a one-on-one confrontation, they would probably have dodged it, but that wasn’t possible while packed together so tightly.

I felt a softness reminiscent of the thick mats used for the high jump. Yes, my shoulder sank in rather than being knocked back. The force was transferred inward.

Still, this wouldn’t be enough to knock everyone over like dominoes. I was up against a giant kaiju. An unexpected tackle from an indoorsy guy like me wasn’t going to make it topple over.

But what about the people inside that rubber costume?

Everywhere I looked, I saw heads, heads, and more heads. The place had already been like a packed train, so changing the density just a little could be used to apply pressure to a desired point.

“Gyah!?”

I heard a weird cry from beyond the crowd.

Chicks could wind up mysteriously dead on chicken farms during the winter. As the chicks gathered together for warmth, they could apparently crush one at the center to death.

A bunch of people glared at me, but I made it look like an accident by holding up my phone like I was taking a selfie. These people had all gathered here like Tokyo on Halloween or a Shinto shrine on New Years. They were the type to accept a lot of weird behavior if it was done to stand out.

“Maxwell!”

“The target was enveloped by the crowd. I cannot see her head with the overhead cameras.”

“Then we don’t know what happened. Did we prevent her from acting or not!?”

“Just before she disappeared, I saw her sports bag’s shoulder strap slip from her arm. The crowd has begun pushing against each other starting from your position and it is gradually moving, so it should not be possible for her to reclaim her dropped bag.”

So were we safe for now?

The loudspeaker voice was shouting again from a short distance away.

“Hand over the filters! Or do we have to attack!? We’ll do it, I swear!!”

He did not seem to be getting much traction with the other people.

And he must not have wanted to take the lead and accept the accompanying risk. No one stepped forward and they all watched to see what everyone else would do, effectively holding each other in check. The tense situation continued unabated, but they were gradually losing steam without anything to ignite them. We could probably wait for it to all taper off and fall apart.

“(Satori-kun.)”

The Class Rep approached me while keeping her voice low.

The crowd actually seemed to welcome the masked girl with a shovel. They mistook her for someone committed to their cause.

“(So what ended up happening?)”

“(Real battles aren’t fought by lining up in front of each other and starting on a ref’s whistle. This is over already, so we need to find somewhere safe – yes, somewhere elevated and away out of the crowd’s reach – and keep an eye on things just to be-)”

I trailed off and stopped.

I reacted to my own words by looking up into the night sky.

There was something there.

Something was coating the windows of the many buildings in this downtown area. Was that the snow?

But…it had solidified there?

If it had formed solid sheets instead of powder, didn’t that make it a lot like panes of glass or a guillotine blade!?

“Warning, a gust of wind is coming.”

The instant I saw Maxwell’s message, I pushed the Class Rep to the ground.

Immediately, giant blades came loose from the building walls and dropped toward the ground.

Part 2

It was well-known that even a screw or pachinko ball could be deadly when dropped from a tall building.

Guillotines came in a variety of sizes, but you never saw one more than 3m tall.

So.

Ten, twenty, and maybe more thick blades dropped from the sky above.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!?”

I could only scream.

Even if you noticed it coming, there was no dodging it in a crowd equivalent to a train at 300% occupancy. Not all the plastic boards dropped straight down; some began to spin as they peeled from the wall. But that meant a lot of them did fall like a guillotine.

I had pushed the Class Rep toward the department store window where the second floor wall stuck out like eaves. That was probably meant to keep sunlight from reflecting off the glass and preventing anyone from seeing through the show window, but it had saved us here.

“User, it is not over yet!”

“Yeah. Everyone’s gonna want a safe zone. They’ll be rushing inside the stores, below the eaves, and anywhere else with a roof. And if they come charging in like a good sale just started…”

“No. My initial warning was referring to a different risk.”

“…?”

What else could there be?

I looked up in curiosity and saw the scenery swelling out in the distance. No, wait. Hadn’t Maxwell’s speech bubble said a gust of wind was coming?

“The snow on the ground – the microplastic snow – is blowing into the air?”

Then I heard several crackling sounds of static electricity.

That might sound normal enough, but wasn’t lightning formed from the friction of water and dust rubbing together inside the fluffy cumulonimbus clouds?

Was that cloud of snow essentially an electrified thundercloud!?

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no!!”

I grabbed the Class Rep’s wrist and stood up while turning back the way we had come. We practically collapsed through the open glass door to tumble into the department store.

“Inside! Get inside!!”

From the floor, I shouted out to the crowd outside, but no one followed us. They must have been too confused so soon after the guillotine.

I recalled that glass was an insulator.

A moment later, white powder coated the glass like a giant balloon being pressed against it and then…what? What was that? Instead of the zap from a stun gun or a power cable, there was a deep boom like a thick tree being split down the center.

What had happened?

What was going on out there!? Weren’t there more than 5000 people crammed together like a packed train!?

“They’re okay…aren’t they?” hesitantly asked the Class Rep while getting up.

The tremor of their marching feet and the shouting from the loudspeaker were both gone.

There wasn’t even any screaming or crying.

“It isn’t just us, right? There are a bunch more people out there, right!?”

“…”

I had no answer.

I wanted to believe they hadn’t all been killed, but the curtain of white powder covering the windows actually seemed like a blessing at the moment. I couldn’t imagine our mental states if everything out there had been visible.

Was it just not possible for people to overcome a true natural disaster, no matter how hard we tried? Now we had no idea what had become of the tanned redhead who had been riling everyone up online and attempting to trigger a riot here. We couldn’t even ask her why.

But.

My phone vibrated again.

“Warning.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

There was more?

This true disaster still had more in store for us!?

“The wind was an irregularity caused by the buildings in the area. It is a short-term phenomenon and the static electricity cloud will clear up soon. That is not the problem.”

“Then what is the problem?”

“Sure.”

I didn’t want to know the answer.

I was sick of watching things get progressively worse here. But turning a blind eye would only allow it to get even worse than that. We had to monitor things if we wanted to survive this. So like it or not, I had to leap at any chance for info.

And Maxwell explained just how bad the situation was.

“That static electricity has started a fire nearby.”

Part 3

Forest fires would burn hectares of land in America or Australia, yet the actual source of the fire often remained unknown. It could come from a cigarette butt, negligence with a campfire, a car or drone accident, or even intentional arson, but something else could also lead to a true hellscape.

Namely, static electricity.

In areas with dry air, dry grass or leaves brushing together in the wind could become a deadly trigger. Kukyou City was coated with microplastics that built up air within them, so it might as well have been piled up with dried grass. And if the source of the fire had a voltage stronger than a stun gun…

“This is bad.”

The glass door should have cut us off from everything out there, but my nose detected a change. It detected scorched air!

“This is really bad!! Once it starts to spread, we can’t stop it!!”

“You could make an emergency call, but it is unlikely the firefighters will arrive safely and put out the fire,” said Maxwell. “If the police and fire department were functioning properly, this unregistered demonstration would never have been able to happen in the first place.”

“What, because they benefited from the lack of emergency services, they’re not allowed to complain when it comes back to bite them? I’m not accepting that. I don’t know how many survivors are out there, but I’d have nightmares if I just let them die!!”

These were the people of my hometown.

I hadn’t seen any, but some of my classmates could be among them!

“Maxwell, how are things outside?”

“No. That spark took out the roadside cameras. No one in the crowd has made an emergency call, so all their mobile devices were likely destroyed.”

“I guess it’d be faster to check myself.”

Luckily, it was only a little past 8. The department store was still open for business, so the Class Rep and I ran up the escalator.

We didn’t have a specific floor in mind.

The second floor’s bookstore and boutique had thick decorative sheets covering the windows to keep sunlight out, so we continued on up to the third floor. We approached the break area with a line of vending machines and looked down from the window.

The microplastic snow was blowing elsewhere in the wind and the scene beyond that thin white curtain came into view.

“Ugh,” groaned the Class Rep.

It was worse than I had expected. Not a single person had gotten up from the ground. The entire major road was covered by collapsed people. I wanted to believe no one had died, but after that guillotine and high-voltage current, it didn’t look like any of them were going to be moving anytime soon.

I swept my eyes across the road and soon found the Huge Camera building with a large LCD screen on its wall. That was the electronics store being targeted by these people’s misguided complaints.

And I saw something else as well.

“Is that it?”

Past even that building, I could see a single line of black smoke. When I looked down toward the ground, I could see a flickering orange light that was definitely not electric in origin.

“Isn’t that fire taller than we are?” asked the Class Rep.

“It is unusually tall. One of the roadside trees must have ignited like a torch.”

This had all begun with that lightning-like blast of static electricity. It must have primarily “struck” anything sticking out like a lightning rod, so this made sense.

And the fire was unexpectedly close to Huge Camera. If the fire spread to the rioters immobilized by the high-voltage current, that was the end right there. They would all be roasted whether they were still alive or not.

We had to do something.

But what could we do? We weren’t professional firefighters. But we could still move around. We didn’t have to be Hollywood heroes. There was no need to expect so much. What could we realistically do as amateurs!?

“Hold on.”

“Eh? What is it?”

The forehead glasses Class Rep shrank down while still holding the shovel in both hands.

Yes…that was it.

“This can work. …Maxwell, I have a new simulation for you to run!”

“Sure. Give me the parameters.”

“W-wait, Satori-kun! A fire extinguisher isn’t enough to put out anything larger than a campfire. There’s nothing we can do against a fire taller than us!”

“Not necessarily.”

Our goal wasn’t to put out the tree fire; it was to prevent it from spreading elsewhere. If it never spread anywhere else, I didn’t care if that tree burned to a crisp.

“Let’s get moving. Time is of the essence. This gets a lot harder if the tree fire spreads to the microplastics on the ground!”

“Wait, um, Satori-kun!?”

Confused, she glanced over at the fire extinguisher box in a corner of the hallway, but I wasn’t interested in that.

I ran back down the escalators and shouted to the nervous department store workers.

“Hook a hose up to a fire hydrant or at least a faucet! You need to have water ready!!”

“Eh? What???”

“There’s a fire outside and it’s too late to prepare once it’s reached you!”

It looked like no one was going to listen to some kid in a mask. And I was really only telling them so I wouldn’t feel bad if they came to harm. Whether or not they acted on my warning was their choice.

I opened the glass door and rushed outside.

I heard groans from all around.

I detected a scorched smell, but also something else. It was a lot like rust, but different.

“Satori-kun.”

“We can’t, Class Rep. The fire comes first!”

I wanted to help the injured too, but all of those suffering people would die if we didn’t stop the fire. We had to harden our hearts and shake free of the temptation.

“But spraying water on that fire isn’t enough to put it out!”

“Which is why that’s not the plan. If we can blow away the air filled with microplastics, the fire shouldn’t be able to spread!”

The Class Rep clearly had some guts since she had not frozen up in this extreme situation.

We were far from safe here. More hardened microplastics could fall away from the building walls like a guillotine at any time and a gust of wind could blow another thundercloud across the entire road.

“Plastic is plastic. It won’t burn in a fire unless the conditions are just right. It’s not ideal for it to melt and spread toxic gas around, but that’s better than letting the fire spread!”

“So you’re going to spray it with water?”

“Crushing it flat with a steamroller would work just as well. Think of it like squashing a down blanket to get all the air out.”

We also didn’t have to do that for the entire road. We only had to isolate the burning tree.

“It’s the same firefighting method they used in Edo.”

“?”

She didn’t seem to get my hint and she still held the snow shovel.

Fire extinguishers weren’t the only way to put out a fire. You could also move away, destroy, or cut off all nearby flammable objects.

Once the conditions needed to burn were no longer met, plastic would only melt like cheese when exposed to heat. That would help cut off the spread of the fire.

We could end this negative chain reaction and begin a positive one.

Fires would burn until they had a reason to go out, but they had no escape if you provided a reason to go out in all 360 degrees around them.

“The closest fire hydrant to the fire is within the rectangular manhole 50m ahead of you,” said Maxwell.

“I can’t see that with all the snow! And I can’t open that without a special opener anyway!!”

“Then turn left just beforehand. Huge Camera is still open for business, so it would be fastest to acquire the necessary items there.”

There?

But would they help us so soon after a mob of rioter nearly attacked them?

“Class Rep, leave your shovel at the entrance. We don’t want to scare them.”

“Fine, but are you sure this is a good idea?”

The burning tree was right next to Huge Camera’s entrance. Walking toward the store was enough to feel the prickling heat on my face. It wasn’t everyday I got to look up at an entirely unmanaged fire taller than me. My knees felt an instinctual fear, much like when looking down from the edge of a cliff.

“Locate any other options just in case.”

“Sure.”

I gave Maxwell that instruction while stepping through the glass door.

Fortunately, they did not immediately attack me.

“Y-you!?”

“?”

I was pretty sure I didn’t know this person.

But I must have visited this store often enough for the young male employee to recognize me. I must have asked a about a bunch of weird components for Maxwell.

The store itself was familiar to me, so I knew the layout. The first floor had their phone shop, internet provider, and a café and bookstore for people waiting on their contracts to be finalized. Most people went up to where they had the major appliances, TVs, audio systems, video games, computers, routers, and other more niche electronics, but they also had a trendy restaurant on the top floor.

I was glad to see the employee was willing to talk.

I just had to ask.

“Do you have any water?”

“!”

“Not a water filter! We need to stop that fire out front or it’ll spread to this building!!”

Locating the hydrant out on the road would be difficult enough, but then we would have to shovel off the snow, pry off the heavy lid with the opener, lift up the metal pipe, and attach the hose. We would never finish all that in time. And the water line might be clogged with microplastics, making it unusable. But an indoor hydrant was different. Its tank would be isolated, so the snow wouldn’t have affected it.

That said, no one would want to reach for the fire alarm if they didn’t have to. Even elementary school kids knew that was asking for trouble.

“I’m not sure company policy allows for that…”

“Show me the manual and we can analyze it for you. Maxwell.”

“Sure. This is only based on the version provided on the official website, but Article 3 Section 2 and Article 8 Section 9 say employees are obligated to protect store facilities, merchandise, money, and personal information. The building is under obvious risk of burning down, so it would be appropriate to use the store’s provided equipment to put out the fire even if it is technically outside the building. In fact, failing to take basic precautions when the fire’s spread to the store is so easy to predict could even lead to disciplinary action based on company policy.”

Now.

Was the wide-eyed employee shocked by the skill of my program, or did he think I simply had a human secretary working for me?

“Access the fire department site and tell me how to use the fire hydrant. A report from a fire safety lecture would be good enough! Hurry!”

“Sure, sure. Yelling at me will not make the signal speed any faster, you know? How illogical（´-`）”

“You pray when your computer or phone’s signal is weak or the HDD is acting up, right?”

“Don’t expect me to agree with you there, Satori-kun,” said the Class Rep.

The fire hydrant was the same kind as the one in our school’s hallway. It had a red light and a fire alarm installed along with it and a white hose was folded up at the bottom of the door.

The pump…was already hooked up. The end had a nozzle larger than a doorknob and the hose was fixed to it already.

“Kukyou City’s standard indoor firefighting equipment has a 50m hose, so it will just barely reach the fire outside,” said Maxwell. “Each floor has its own equipment for extinguishing fires.”

“Urgh!”

I grabbed the metal nozzle thicker than my arm and pulled on the hose with a grunt of exertion. It was not easy keeping it from catching on the model stands, the life size cardboard version of a celebrity, and other obstacles in the phone section. And it was heavier than I expected. This was not a job for one person. Weren’t the assistant directors at TV stations tasked with dragging the large camera cables around the studio like this? Anyway, I struggled my way along to get the hose out to the closest glass door.

It was time to face that fire again.

“Class Rep, you hold this.”

“Eh? Eh? I don’t know how to use it!”

“The water won’t come out until someone turns the valve back inside the store. Just hold it tight against the side of your hip. It shouldn’t spray unless you turn the nozzle’s ring, but if it does go off suddenly, the thick metal nozzle will smack you in the jaw if you don’t have a solid grip on it. I’ll be right back!”

I didn’t have time to stick around. The fire could spread beyond the tree at any time. A branch or the entire trunk could break and pieces would fall to the microplastics on the road.

I darted back inside and cut across the store to the metal door still open on the wall. This wasn’t the time to think about how far to turn that valve. I just grabbed it and turned it as far as I could.

The hose on the floor started to swell out and that spread explosively out from here.

“Oh, crap.”

It was moving too fast, so it was going to beat me back!

I heard a scream outside.

“Waahhh!?”

“Class Rep!!”

I dashed outside to find someone battling a great serpent. And with a deafening spraying sound.

“Hey, um, Satori-kun!? Do something about this jet!!”

“Didn’t I tell you not to touch the nozzle ring!?”

She was so strict most of the time, but she could be so careless at other times! And now she was soaking wet with tears in her eyes! Was she trying to kill me with cuteness!?

I wanted to help her, but we had no way for her to hand that rampaging hose over to me. The instant she loosened her grip, it would smack both of us in the jaw.

I had no choice.

That’s right, no choice!! She couldn’t hand it over to me, so I had to reach around from behind her and grab the hose along with her! Desperate times call for desperate measures!! And I had a childhood friend to save!!

“Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no!”

Nice. She was so panicked and dizzy that she didn’t notice. This was my chance to get right up in there with her!! Not to worry, soaking wet girl, I’ll warm you up!!

“I’m so glad I went to all this effort. Good deeds really are rewarded.”

“This is not a statement on the plausibility of such an illogical idea, but I do think you should go to hell,” said Maxwell.

Also, the forehead glasses girl had been trying really hard to aim for the top of the burning tree, but that was the wrong tactic. We were trying to soak the microplastics on the ground to flatten them out and get rid of all the air so they couldn’t catch on fire. Once the fire had nowhere to go, the tree fire would simply burn itself out.

So we had to go like this.

I aimed at the bottom of the tree. I held down on the top of the hose to get it under control and then sprayed on the ground, starting with this side!! It was all about soaking the ground all around that tree!!

“Kyah!!”

She shrieked when the water bounced off the ground and hit her, but dealing with the microplastic snow came first. I guided our double grasp on the hose forward and further out. We sprayed the pressurized water at the base of the burning tree like we were firing a laser beam.

“The snow-covered ground has sunk down between 15 and 20cm,” said Maxwell. “This is working. The air-filled microplastics appear to have been squashed together by the water.”

Man, holding the metal nozzle with both hands was hard while also holding a phone. My hands were shaking so much I was afraid I would scratch the screen or camera lens.

We had to spray the water all around the bottom of the burning tree…but we couldn’t move to the other side. The hose was too short. We had no choice but to spray past the tree from where we were.

Then I heard a loud snap as something solid broke.

“Wh-what?”

“Get back, Class Rep! It’s falling!!”

I dragged her back while still partially holding her in my arms from behind.

It was like standing directly in front of an orange-glowing waterfall.

The tree trunk had broken halfway up and it was falling toward the road. I could hear several of the burning branches breaking at once and a ton of embers flew up into the air when it crashed into the ground.

But that was all.

I heard a sizzling like water on a hot griddle and I smelled the noxious odor of melting plastic, but no wall of fire erupted out in front of me like when dry grass ignited. In fact, the fallen tree’s fire shrank like it was being smothered by something similar to melted candy.

“…”

“…”

Sitting on the ground with her in my arms, the Class Rep and I remained motionless for a while. We weren’t even focused on the hose that had left our grasp and was now going wild nearby.

Was it over now?

I had feared the embers might have flown too far when the tree fell, but when I turned my head to look, I didn’t see anything else on fire.

“Maxwell.”

“Sure.”

“Is there any chance this will happen again today?”

“That would depend on the wind and on the density of the snow accumulated on the ground, but it could easily happen many more times.”

“What ignition sources are there other than static?”

“I could list them out for you, but it would be meaningless. Modern humans cannot live without fire and electricity. Even if you try to cut back, the small microplastics can still get into the transformers and power lines and cause a short.”

We had survived for today…or for this minute anyway, but what would we do next? A minute from now, another fire could start elsewhere and engulf the entire city. Even with a disaster environment simulator, predicting all of those and stopping them simply wasn’t possible. Then was I supposed to prevent the fires from spreading in advance? Was I supposed to spray water over the entire city while more and more out-of-season snow poured down on it all the time? That’s insane!

“Satori-kun.” Still in my arms, the Class Rep sounded worried. “Hey, Satori-kun. If it’s over, we need to help the people on the street. There might be a lot of injured people out there.”

“I know that.”

Our ordinary lives were predicated on everyone’s safety in this city and I could tell that safety was crumbling away. We might be caught in a fire and killed a minute from now and the threat remained even if we went home and locked all the doors and windows. Every part of the city could be engulfed in flames depending on the wind direction. It didn’t matter if you were awake or asleep.

I couldn’t let things stay like this, but what could I do to change it!?

[Crawler Search] Evacuation [The Words You Need!]

Evacuation is one emergency option when a largescale disaster or incident has rendered ordinary life at home too difficult to continue. Some will simply move in with a relative or rent a room at a weekly apartment, but in some cases, the government will designate a shelter or build temporary housing.

In the last case, the conditions needed to begin construction vary, but they include the destruction of basic infrastructure that will mean long-term outages of electricity, gas, or water, and cases such as flooding or wildfires where the affected residents need to be removed from the area or they will continue to face the same risk.

In emergencies, shelters must be constructed swiftly, but (or perhaps therefore) the decision to construct them must be made very carefully and not just any open space can be used for a shelter. The size must be calculated out based on the expected number of occupants and the economic effect, so not just everyone in the affected area can use them.

For example, if a certain prefecture or city is hit by a disaster, the priority will be the registered local residents and any commuters or travelers from outside the region will be a lower priority.

It is also well-known that doctors, firefighters, and anyone with other special skills will be given priority.

Chapter 3

Part 1

I was trying to use my screwdriver a silently as possible when I heard light footsteps climbing the stairs.

“Hwuh? What’re you doing up already, Onii-chan? Mornin’.”

“Are you kidding me?”

It was my Zombie little sister instead of my Vampire older sister and that could only mean one thing.

I groaned, looked out the window, and cursed when I saw the morning sun shining through the gap in the curtain.

I had spent the whole night fighting with the breaker located above the dressing room’s door. I made sure to warn Ayumi who was wearing a baggy T-shirt and reaching for the nearby doorknob while rubbing her eyes.

“The toilet isn’t working.”

“What!?”

“The only way to flush it is to fill a bucket in the bath. …Damn, and it isn’t just our house. There’s a bigger power outage going on.”

“Which is what I told you ages ago,” said Maxwell.

Shut up. I need to find a way to recharge my phone, you know?

Maxwell was actually located in the harbor container yard and the industrial power supply used there was still up since it used a different transformer and power line route than our home line, so I had thought the problem was somewhere in our house, like the meter or the switchboard.

“With the power, water, and gas supply, the wave of infrastructure privatization has taken several different forms. Some of those include mid-level facilities that piggyback off of the general power grid.”

“Talk about inefficient.”

“Using the same line prevents them from taking advantage of the unique traits possible through privatization. If their fees remain the same, they will only gain a slight advantage and they will inevitably lose enough customers to die a slow death. I imagine they will attempt various strange price-cutting measures such as buying up solar power to take advantage of the ecological tax cuts and burning city gas to produce power on site.”

Based on this, the outage would be one of the many branching power lines or transformer substations instead of the major power station.

The general households were all without power, but the factories and water purification plant supported by a separate industrial power supply were still up and running. But some of the newer infrastructure facilities used the household power supply, so those would already be down.

“Dammit, mom. I was wondering what that odd pamphlet from the phone company was about.”

My barefoot little sister in a T-shirt was frozen in front of the door since she was struggling to accept this was really happening, but I had to ignore her.

“Rather than the entire city’s power going out, it is more like 40% of it went out and the rest has grown unstable as it attempts to pick up the slack,” said Maxwell. “That means it is not a complete blackout, so you can rest easy there. The contents of the refrigerator should keep as long as you only open and close the door when absolutely necessary.”

“You expect me to boot up my desktop when the power could go out at any moment? The risk is the same.”

I was pretty sure my stepmom had bought an emergency radio and TV with a hand crank generator attached, but where had those gotten off to?

“If I can’t find them, I could always modify the dynamo for my bike’s headlight. This phone is 5 volts and how many milliamperes?”

“You are wasting your time,” said Maxwell. “You should have just had some hot milk to drink and climbed into bed.”

“Humans aren’t that simple.”

I would have had an easier time getting to sleep if I had just polished off a large cup of instant noodles. It was like there was this huge weight in my gut.

There had just been too many injured people. I felt like I had spent all night switching back and forth between applying pressure to wounds and washing my hands.

Almost everyone gathered in that downtown area had only been zapped, but 20 or 30 of them had hit by the “guillotines” of microplastics hardened on the building walls.

I really didn’t want to think back on what I had seen there.

Those were the people who had been vaguely aware they were being lied to but still used the online rumors as an excuse to go nuts. If that riot hadn’t been stopped, who knows what would’ve happened to the employees at Huge Camera. So could you call this their just deserts? Unfortunately, I couldn’t accept that. Those were the people from my hometown. If you could continue sneering at them after seeing them holding their bloody shoulders or legs and crying like a child, then you were a real piece of work.

In the current situation, there was no guarantee an ambulance would arrive if we called for one.

It had helped that the rioters were bonded together by a misguided sense of victimhood. It probably helped that the trains were stopped because a lot of people there had come by car. All we had been able to do was wash the injured’s wounds, tie the wounds tight with scraps, and shove them into the back of relatively large vans and SUVs. Hopefully they had arrived at the hospital safely…and I could only pray the hospital itself was still functioning.

To be honest, I really didn’t want to go to school after that.

I didn’t have it in me.

“No power, gas, or water. They won’t even be able to bake bread. We also have to do something about the contents of the fridge.”

The only thing that kept me going through my ordinary morning routine was the Class Rep. Checking on social media wasn’t enough. I had to see her for myself to make sure what happened yesterday wasn’t affecting her too much. And I had to help her if she needed anything.

Psychological wounds could stick with you.

I knew that all too well. And she was the one who had saved me back when my parents got divorced. So I couldn’t screw this up if she needed help.

Part 2

The out-of-season snow had piled up again.

That was the microplastics sent into the air from the cargo ship burning out at sea. When they gathered air like feathers and wool did, they could burn from the slightest ember.

But the home water supply was unstable, so you might not get anything when you turned on the tap. You couldn’t even try to keep yourself safe by periodically spraying water around with the hose.

“Good, the school still has its water,” said the forehead classes Class Rep with a glance toward the schoolyard drinking fountain. She sounded both exhausted and relieved. She must have received the same morning baptism of no drinking water, no shower, and no flushing the toilet.

“The parks and schools are made to function as evacuation shelters in emergencies,” I explained. “So they either have water stored up in a tank, or they’re hooked up to a special water line.”

“I see.”

That was all she said.

I had been worried after yesterday, but she seemed to be doing fairly well. Maybe she had decided she could not wallow in shock when faced with the growing issues of no water and no power. It could be similar to preparing to live on your own immediately after graduation.

A wet mat was sitting out in the entranceway. We wiped our shoes on that to get the microplastics off and then stuck them in our shoe lockers. We would be wearing our slippers inside anyway, but it was still nice to clean them off.

Once in the classroom, Umikaze-san, the girl with her long blonde hair braided together at only a few spots down its length, called out to me.

“Good morning, Amatsu-kun.”

“Morning.”

“I hear car batteries are getting stolen left and right out there. And the solar panels out in the fields too.”

I understood why people would want to do that, but where were they planning to set them up? The stolen panels would have to be placed somewhere sunny to be useful, which would also make them really conspicuous.

A bunch of people were gathered in one corner of the classroom. It took me a second to realize it was because the school had power.

Either because it used the industrial power or because it had a generator to function as a shelter.

“Is your phone’s charge okay, Amatsu-kun? All the outlets are full up at the moment, though.”

Someone had apparently brought a long power strip from the A/V room and everyone was using that to charge up their phones and other mobile devices.

“Now that I’m here, I feel utterly exhausted.”

“I know what you mean,” agreed the Class Rep.

Some people might think the presence of power and water would make you feel better, but that wasn’t how it worked.

“Is this the only place left where we can live our normal lives? Take a step outside of here and we can’t even use a microwave and need a water truck to bring us something to drink.”

It may have been similar to spotting the chocolate section at the convenience store while you were on a diet. Or was this like the melancholy at the end of summer break? Convenience and comfort did not always bring peace of mind. If you knew from the beginning it would not last, even a bright and shining jewel would only bring pain.

Were the water trucks even running?

Could we really survive just by staying put at home?

We all sighed while Umikaze Speechia observed us.

“…”

Part 3

“I think the school should be used as a shelter.”

I think it was around 2nd period when I received that message on my phone.

It happened while the math teacher, who could have stayed home but decided to actually do his job, had his back turned to write on the blackboard.

Glancing over at the neighboring seat would have been no different from some moron afraid he was going to get in trouble for eating his lunch early. Even if I did look, I knew I would only find Umikaze-san facing the blackboard and copying the equation down in her notes.

Incidentally, I had looked into her social media connections. I had never transferred schools before and didn’t know how it worked, but it looked like she still had connections with her friends from her previous school. Outside of her real-life friends, she also showed an interest in tennis and hard rock bands.

“I mean, if we head home without any power, gas, or water, we’ll just get depressed right? I don’t know how it works, but the school still has some semblance of civilization intact. I bet everyone here wishes they didn’t have to go home today.”

Maybe so.

I couldn’t just stay here with Erika and Ayumi back home, but the biggest draw was the air conditioning. Once you had a taste of that, there was no going back. My phone was honestly enough for TV and internet and I could manage on food with an electric water boiler or microwave even if the cafeteria and school store weren’t functioning.

The running water mattered most of all.

Not only did that give you something to drink and live your normal life, but you might also be able to protect the area around the school from a microplastic snow conflagration if we wet things down in advance. Being able to protect the place you were using for shelter meant a lot.

But on the other hand…

I typed on my phone below the desk so the math teacher wouldn’t notice.

“I don’t know how the system works. Are we really allowed to stay at the school?”

“Don’t people sleep over like normal while preparing for the cultural festival? I’ve never heard of anyone needing to submit some kind of form for approval with that.”

That was true, but still.

I asked Maxwell the same question.

“No. The cultural festival rules are more of a continuing tradition than anything explicitly stated as allowed, so that is a weak argument. Residences and lodging facilities are legally considered separate things, but the former must meet the residence requirements spelled out in the Building Standards Act and the latter must follow the Hotel Business Act or the home sharing rules.”

“Really?”

“You cannot live just anywhere that has a roof. Calling a community center or phone booth your home would be against the rules.”

I copy-pasted that and sent it to the blonde Scylla, but she did seem happy with the answer.

“Isn’t the school a kind of shelter meant to help out in times of need? This is exactly when they should open it up for that.”

“I couldn’t agree more, but once again, I don’t know the rules. You want to open it up, but the students don’t own the school. So who do we go crying to? The principal? The mayor?”

“Sure. The right to use an evacuation shelter belongs to the head of the local government, so you would need the signature of the prefectural governor. But since the current situation has not been designated a disaster, the government office will likely follow the flowchart in their rule book and reject the request.”

“Is there no loophole or anything like that?”

“This microplastic snow would probably be classified as smoke or chemical pollution produced by a naval fire, but ‘would probably’ is not good enough. A country of laws is a system that can only respond to situations within the bounds of what has been described within its laws. Thus, responses based on emotion or ‘common sense’ do not apply. Even if a stretchy-fluffy disaster occurred before your very eyes, the JSDF could not be immediately sent in to assist you. Not unless a stretchy-fluffy disaster has been clearly defined. So you cannot expect much outside assistance until the relevant government offices have analyzed the many documents and filled in any gaps with additional clauses.”

Wow, that was a lot of speech bubbles in a row!

When you knew you weren’t going to like what they said, reading them all was a huge pain.

“So it has to be a part of their flowchart? Isn’t there something in there to account for exceptions?”

“No. Just as you cannot use an evacuation shelter to host a cookout, they may not be used for unapproved purposes. Government offices generally do not allow anything not explicitly mentioned on their list, so a newcomer threat like microplastic snow is unlikely to get a response.”

“There you have it,” I said while forwarding all that to Umikaze-san.

“Who says it has to work like that? It isn’t right for people outside the city to turn down our requests for help when we’re the ones that are in trouble!”

“Umikaze. Umikaze Speechia,” called the teacher. “Can you solve this problem?”

“Eep.”

She shrank down in surprise.

That math teacher must have noticed her getting all worked up. It probably didn’t help that being a blonde transfer student made her stand out a lot.

Ugh, fine.

“Maxwell.”

“Sure. That one is a piece of cake. (｀・ω・´)”

I had no choice but to send the Scylla the answer to the problem on the blackboard. If she had her phone confiscated during all this chaos, she might not be able to get it back.

Part 4

It must have begun as small ripples of conversation occurring below the surface.

It was not until lunchtime that it exploded out onto the surface.

I think it was a mixture of the students being able to interact more openly and frustrations building when people found they could not buy anything at the cafeteria or store.

It was like throwing oil on the fire.

Frustrated voices shouted in anger all over the school.

“What is the Student Council doing!?”

“The teachers are happily eating their lunches in the faculty room while we starve out here.”

“Hey, is this the right format for a petition? This website says it is, but I dunno if I trust it!!”

A lot of people were making a fuss, so I definitely didn’t want to be used as an outlet for their frustrations.

The forehead glasses Class Rep approached me.

“Satori-kun, do you want to head outside?”

I wasn’t dumb enough to ask why. The other students weren’t just hangry. They were even directing their anger toward the teachers who had made their own lunches at home. We didn’t want to end up a target of these people who were left hungry after their lack of foresight led them to assume they could always find bread to buy at the school store no matter the circumstances.

“Umikaze-san was talking about opening the school up as a shelter.”

“Yeah?”

“But that might not be as much of a paradise as it sounds. Do you want to try sleeping in the same room as other people with this kind of tension hanging in the air? Who knows what they would steal the instant you shut your eyes.”

It might sound like fun if you were with your friends, but we were talking about the entire student body.

We ended up eating our lunches on a stairway landing without incident. Without any power or water at home, the Class Rep ate a sweet bread that looked premade.

She finally spoke up hesitantly.

“But, Satori-kun.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think the water trucks are really coming? They’ve even stopped collecting the microplastics that fall on the roads when people clear their roofs.”

“No. It would depend on the demand for water, but if they went around like normal, the trucks would likely be attacked.”

I couldn’t show her Maxwell’s message on my phone.

This was an emergency, so we couldn’t complain if things were less than ideal. On the other hand, if we compromised here, things would only get worse. It was wrong to think of this as a set of scales.

We had to remain calm and stay our normal selves.

And it was important to remember that not everyone would be moving at the same pace as you. Some people might hit their limit before we did and start behaving oddly. As you could see with the craziness people got up to at coming-of-age ceremonies, if people thought they had an excuse, they would readily do things they never would normally. Even though there was no guarantee you could get away with those things just because it was a coming-of-age ceremony. Schools were a collection of a lot of people, so it wouldn’t hurt to be on our guard.

“This is a school, right?”

“Yes?”

“Because it feels more like a powder keg to me. Not that I’ve ever actually seen a real one.”

Part 5

After a conversation like that, I guess can’t exactly say it happened “suddenly”.

In the middle of our first afternoon class, static exploded from the classroom speaker and everyone grimaced.

“What is it now?”

Our English teacher looked more displeased than anyone at having her pronunciation demonstration interrupted. She lifted her slender chin to view the source of the noise.

Everyone waited for more instead of assuming it was a malfunction because we could hear a rustling of clothing coming from the speaker.

Someone had done this on purpose and they had some reason for doing it.

I typed on my phone below my desk.

“Maxwell.”

“There is no sign of anyone operating the broadcast equipment over the internet. The odds are extremely high that someone switched it on from the broadcast room.”

Did that mean it was starting?

Finally, a quiet, trembling boy’s voice spoke with the volume (accidentally?) cranked way too far up.

“I-I am Yama- no, um, I am Student Council Treasurer Yamagaki! Good day to you all!!”

“Kh.”

I plugged my ears at the volume instead of anything he was saying.

His halting way of speaking showed just how nervous he was.

“I think…this is wrong! The school is a…is supposed to be a shelter!! So how is it not being used during…during this emergency!? Isn’t this when it’s…it’s supposed to be used? I, um, think we should do it. Um!”

He was cut off by a metallic sound like a crack of lightning. The door must have been flung open. A voice I assumed belonged to a male teacher shouted in anger and I could hear a scuffle.

“A vote!”

But the boy did not stop.

He was probably being pinned down, but he still got out what he wanted to say.

“Let’s decide for ourselves! This is our school, so it should be our choice!! We can vote…and decide whether or not to use the school as a shelt- agh!?”

The broadcast ended with such violence I could only assume the cable had been pulled instead of the switch flipped.

No one said anything for a while.

Silence fell over us all.

The only sound I heard was my phone vibrating in my hand below the desk.

“Warning.”

“I know.”

“Much of how this happened remains unknown and I doubt he was the one to make that choice. This feels like the work of a class’s popular students wanting to get their opinion out there but having no real authority to do so.”

“That isn’t what matters. This means it’s started, Maxwell!”

Umikaze Speechia-san was within reach at the next desk over and I couldn’t leave the Class Rep who was a bit further away. But I couldn’t carry more than two people.

“I-I wonder what that was about.” The English teacher smiled and tried to smooth things over with obvious tension in her voice. “You can’t do whatever you want just because it’s an emergency, everyone. In America, they break down doors or walls with an axe if people are trapped inside a building during an emergency, but they actually have places constructed with cheaper and flimsier materials to allow for that. What you’re allowed to do during an emergency is decided ahead of time. Really, this is the problem with you Japanese people who just assume emergencies aren’t going to happen. Now, let’s get back to the lesson.”

But.

Even after that, the silence continued.

The English teacher’s words vanished, like they were being swallowed up by a dark cave.

Everyone was staring at her.

And anger was slowly but surely filling the air.

This was the first afternoon class.

Things had changed during lunch. In a few hours, school would be let out and every last student would be forced out of the school. They would be shoved out into the microplastic-filled city where they had no access to power or water. That realization was creeping up on everyone. It was just like how the first day of Golden Week or summer break felt very different from the last day.

“Wh-what?”

It was hard to believe 30 or 40 people were crammed into that space.

The teacher spoke up a little more forcefully than necessary, perhaps because she felt intimidated and perhaps because she did not want the children to notice that.

“Back to the lesson! Open your textbooks. Read the next line when I call on you!!”

But it was no use.

It didn’t matter if she was right or not. Damn that broadcast. Mentioning a vote when the majority were so upset was a really dangerous thing to do!!

The boy being cut off in a struggle with a teacher had only made it worse. That made it feel like we were being oppressed. I couldn’t even remember the nervous boy’s name, but he had done a brilliant job of making himself a martyr!

My phone vibrated, but this was not from Maxwell.

“Yeah, but she actually got to eat lunch. Unlike the rest of us.”

“The teachers all have cars. That means they have air conditioning and a battery for electricity.”

“How long do we have to sit here listening to her? Are we supposed to form a nice polite line while we starve to death?”

The messages were coming fast.

The auto-scrolling couldn’t keep up.

And the class’s frustrations hidden on social media soon showed themselves in the real world too.

It was like a cigarette butt had been tossed onto some dry grass. A wall of fire formed after a short delay.

“Shut the hell up.”

I couldn’t remember which sport he played, but it started with a large athletic boy.

“We don’t have crap. We didn’t eat any lunch. Or breakfast for that matter! And there’s nothing waiting at home for dinner either! What gives you the right to look down on us with your skin and hair all pristine!?”

His food issues weren’t any of the teacher’s concern and she hadn’t caused the microplastic snow, but logic no longer mattered here.

“Calm down. Please calm down.”

“You can only stay calm cause you’ve had food today!” cut in another student.

The meaning of majority rule was changing.

A reversal was underway.

The English teacher must have thought she could maintain control if she dealt with this one angry student, but her shoulders jumped now that the situation had grown beyond that.

Yes.

As long as you could face an abnormal situation with your own rules, your might feel angry and afraid, but you wouldn’t panic. If you still had some sense left, then nothing was more frightening than finding the majority was against you.

I doubted the Class Rep or Umikaze-san had been caught up in this, but the situation was tense enough to deter either of them from trying to stop it.

“I’ve done nothing wrong. And if you’re not gonna help us, why should I listen to your stupid class?”

“She’s just making fun of us.”

“I’m worried! I can’t relax, so how am I supposed to focus on school!? Huh!? Well!? You got any advice there!?”

I heard a loud boom and crash from the ceiling. Had someone lifted their desk overhead and slammed it against the floor?

That meant it wasn’t just our class.

The entire school had gone crazy.

“Sensei.”

The English teacher looked close to tears, so my voice must have sounded like a ray of hope to her. She saw me as one of the few remaining sensible people. She thought I was on her side. But I had to disappoint her. I could only carry the Class Rep and Umikaze-san since she was so close by.

So the most help I could give was a single shouted word.

“Run!!”

What did I do?

Just as everyone’s eyes gathered on me, I grabbed the hand of the blonde girl sitting next to me. And I squeezed tight.

“Kyah!”

“Class Rep!”

It was all or nothing now.

Nowhere was safe anymore. I had to watch my position to make sure I wasn’t swallowed up. I ran toward my familiar childhood friend and tackled her without slowing down.

Why?

Because that was the shortest route out of the class.

What was?

The window.

The glass shattered and the three of us were flung out into the empty air. This was the third floor. That would have been dangerous with asphalt below, but I never would have pulled a stunt like this without having Maxwell simulate it first.

There was a flower bed below.

Plus, the area near the building’s walls was piled high with the microplastic snow after it was shoveled from the roof or cleared from the road. It was piled over a meter high, creating a mat thicker than the one used for the high jump.

“Pwah!”

“S-Satori-kun. I get what you were doing, but a little warning would have been nice!”

“I hate to interrupt when your heart is pounding and your voice cracking, but if I’d had time for a warning, I’d have had time to come up with a better plan!”

I heard a shattering sound overhead and ducked down on reflex. Clear shards rained down unnervingly close by.

Umikaze-san had looked over absentmindedly and her eyes bugged out when she realized what it was.

“That’s glass!”

“And I doubt that’s the last of it. Throwing a desk is enough to break a window, so we need to get away from the walls!! Hurry!!”

I was pretty worried about Itou-san, even if she was an Archenemy and could take on the traits of different plants and animals with her witch’s potions. I sent her a message on my phone to see how she was doing, but I couldn’t think of anything I could actually do for her at the moment. It mattered a lot that she was in a different year from us.

I looked back at the school building and it looked like a deadly labyrinth to me.

I heard yelling and sounds of destruction. Someone must have pulled the fire alarm because it was ringing loud. The ordinary school routine was nowhere to be found. …The school had entirely fallen apart.

“What…do we do now?” worriedly asked the Class Rep while crouched down and holding onto my blazer.

Since she wanted options, she must not have been thinking about returning to the classroom. That was a relief.

And.

It was honestly a good question.

The school wasn’t going to be holding any classes anymore and it wasn’t even a safe place to be. It had power and water, but I couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to go to sleep in there now. …To be honest, there was no advantage to staying. Our best bet was probably to sneak over to the shoe lockers, retrieve our shoes, and leave.

But…

“That is quite a commotion.”

Umikaze-san frowned when we actually snuck over toward the entrance. She probably was trying to be stealthy, but her blonde hair was really conspicuous when viewed from behind.

But what were they doing to cause all that noise? It couldn’t just be the windows or sliding doors. It was so loud it made me wonder if they were destroying the reinforced concrete walls.

“Eek, eek!”

A male teacher ran outside while letting out some pathetic screams. He was pulling along…oh, that English teacher. I was glad to see she was safe, but it made me wonder if those two were an item.

They weren’t being pursued by anyone and we already had our hands full, so we hid behind the shoe lockers until they were gone.

Umikaze-san the Scylla had promoted the school as a shelter early on, but I doubt she had expected it to become so post-apocalyptic. She looked somewhat pale.

“Ignoring this might be bad,” I said.

“Because it could start a fire like before? Satori-kun, you can’t chase after every little thing yourself.”

“Not that. This could be even worse than last night.”

I leaned out from behind the shoe lockers and looked down the hallway.

I didn’t want to find trouble, but…dammit.

“Class Rep, Umikaze-san. You two head off the school grounds.”

“Wait, you aren’t coming with us, Amatsu-kun?”

“I can’t.”

I shook my head.

The Class Rep gave me a worried look, but I couldn’t back down on this.

This was a problem that would 100% come back to bite us if I didn’t deal with it now.

“Hey, Class Rep. If they do turn the school into a shelter, who do you think would be in charge?”

“Eh?”

“It won’t be the adult teachers. And I doubt it would be the Student Council since they work with the teachers so much. There would be a backlash from the rest of the students if those honor students tried to take charge.”

“But wasn’t that initial broadcast by, um, someone from the Student Council? What was his name again?”

Umikaze-san shook her pseudo-braid and tilted her head in thought. I knew the feeling. I couldn’t remember the boy’s name either even though he had actually pulled the trigger on all this.

“If that was a decision made by the Student Council as a whole, the President would have made the announcement. I’m betting that was a rebellion.”

And…

“But did he really grab that mic of his own free will? I can’t say for sure since I’ve never actually met him, but he sounded like as much of an indoorsy type as me. I doubt he wanted to gather attention like that.”

“Then whose idea was it?”

“Someone who wanted to get their opinion out there but lacked the authority to do so. Someone who decided to use the Student Council name.”

That meant it wasn’t one of the adult teachers. They had been in a position to force their thoughts onto us students.

Another student had grabbed that mic with a smirk and forced that job onto a shy and inconspicuous Student Council member. And it may have been more than one person who convinced their sacrificial lamb to climb on up there.

“You can almost picture the kind of shallow but popular kids who would do something like that, right? The ones who would end up making the decisions almost by default once the students are in charge.”

“That doesn’t make me want to stay at the school, but why is it dangerous?”

The Class Rep sounded like she wanted to just let them have at it if they wanted.

But.

“Keep in mind, Class Rep, that food doesn’t just appear out of thin air at a shelter.”

“Oh.”

Yes.

This would be an unofficial shelter run by kids. We couldn’t just let them have their way. What if their selfish rules ended up spreading beyond the school?

“The idiots hoping to use their popularity to establish a reign of terror will start by turning food into a currency. But it’s not like they can start tilling fields. They’ll almost certainly attack nearby homes and convenience stores as a group. They’ll say they have to if they want to survive and they’ll sidestep any personal guilt by calling it majority rule. People get scary once they start talking like that. The unruly crowds in Tokyo on Halloween will be nothing compared to this.”

Once they started forming factions and a power balance set in, it was all over. Without the police to intervene, a group of several hundred was no laughing matter.

A great predator would be born in this city.

If more and more people began to enjoy that state of lawlessness, Kukyou City really was done for.

And if food replaced money, it was possible those leaders would demand a “tax” from whatever you found for yourself.

“I have my home to think about. Erika and Ayumi live there too, so do you think I want to allow a new era where people feel free to break down the door or windows to take whatever they want? And they might be interested in more than just food.”

They wanted to stand up to the microplastic snow. They wanted to work toward a solution. That alone was fine, but you couldn’t add a primitive form of political power and military might into the mix. After a disaster, it was apparently not unheard of for visiting volunteers to transform into tyrants. When you had a clear line established between the helpers and the helped and you belonged to the former group, it could convince you that you were something special.

“I need to tear apart this school,” I said.

This wasn’t about good or evil. If anything, it was the logic of a villain. But I had something to protect. I couldn’t sit idly by while this malice grew and grew and threatened to sweep across the residential area where my sisters lived.

Call me a filthy person if you want, but if there was a decent chance of my family coming to harm, I was willing to crush other people’s hope.

“Even if they think they’re fighting back against the snow, I can’t let someone toy with hundreds of people by getting them all worked up over this. I won’t let them become a predator. I need to break this up.”

“But…” Umikaze-san the Scylla looked alternately between me and further into the school building. “Does that have anything to do with the school at this point? I mean, wouldn’t something similar happen if a bunch of people gathered at a city park with modified motorcycles?”

“Maybe so, but if those popular kids thought they could take control that way, would they have bothered getting the help of an ‘outsider’ from the Student Council? For that matter, would they have even come to school when the transportation is down and they have to walk the whole way?”

When you got down to it, whoever had pushed that shy Student Council member to start this wasn’t fully committed to being a villain. They didn’t want to follow the rules, but they wanted to rules to protect them. They didn’t want to be just another member of their class, but they didn’t want to go as far as starting a biker gang or whatever. That meant it could be worse, but it also introduced a unique risk. When people got themselves worked up like that, you couldn’t expect them to apply the brakes themselves.

“A small group can’t cause too much trouble. Their frustrations will remain no more than that. We can’t give them the weapon of numbers. It’s a lot like how you don’t want to go back to your normal routine after staying home sick and having your every need catered to. Once you get a taste of that life, you don’t want to stop if you don’t have to.”

I could only make predictions.

It was messed up to take water and power from everyone based only on negative suspicions made before any real damage had been done.

But don’t forget.

This wasn’t a spontaneous accident. Someone had pushed the Student Council member to make that announcement. Even if the majority only wanted help, that could be twisted if someone was maliciously guiding their actions.

So we weren’t waiting for harm to be done.

It had already begun.

If we were too late to respond, a horrific predator would be born in this city. No one would be able to stop the overgrown malice wreaking havoc on our home.

You had to stop the snowball before it got rolling. You couldn’t wait until it had grown dangerously large.

“You two head outside. The other students might not stay in the school once they get worked up. You need to get out of here while you can. Run as far away as possible!”

With that said, I made my way into the school building alone.

Once in the hallway…let’s just say it wasn’t great. People had been throwing a lot of desks and chairs. Windows were broken all over and the microplastic snow crunched underneath my feet. I understood being upset, but the school wasn’t going to function as a shelter if they kept this up. They might as well sleep outside, so they might end up damaging their lungs.

The ones making the most noise were probably the ones who had been relying on the cafeteria or school store. They were starving. But it wasn’t like rioting was going to fill the shelves with food.

“Maxwell.”

“Do you have a plan for stopping the rioting? Taking on the entire school alone seems like a bad idea to me.”

I knew that.

I had to continue going to school here after this was over, so I wanted to avoid isolating myself by making an enemy of the entire student body.

So I had to choose my target more carefully.

“That guy, um, I really wish I could remember his name. The Student Council Treasurer…what was his name?”

“Sure. He said his name was Yamagaki. His given name is unknown. Searching the school’s local server. Since he is the Student Council Treasurer, he is almost certainly Yamagaki Oikaze of Class 2-1.”

“Way to go, Maxwell. I must have done a good job building you if you can remember someone like that.”

“You are being too cruel here, user.”

“Anyway, let’s find that sad sack and have a chat. A chat about who exactly pushed him to make that ridiculous announcement.”

“And once you identify the person or persons behind it?”

“I teach those wannabe kings a lesson. Before they can become a great predator. I’ll show everyone how pathetic they really are so everyone knows no good will come from following them. Maxwell, you said I’m alone, right? Well, so are they. For now anyway.”

I climbed to the third floor in order to reach the broadcast room. Everyone had boiled over not long after the broadcast ended, so he couldn’t have gone too far.

And then…

“(Satori-kun.)”

I like to think I showed a lot of courage in not letting out a frightened cry just then.

Someone had grabbed at my clothes from behind.

“Class Rep? And Umikaze-san too?”

“Don’t bother asking why,” said Umikaze-san. “My house isn’t far from the school, so it’ll be overwhelmed first if things blow up here.”

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

I held a hand to my forehead on the stairs while using my other hand to point toward the hallway.

The broadcast room was there, but also…

“Where do they keep the shelter equipment!?”

“Where’s the food!?”

“You started this, so start acting like a leader!!”

A deluge of angry voices reached us like the crowd shouting at a soccer match. A few dozen people were gathered in a corner of the hallway, blocking our view of the broadcast room door.

Was I afraid of the large group?

Was I disturbed by their twisted pursuit of justice?

Needless to say, they were surrounding that Student Council member named…um, what was it again? I needed to talk with him, but I couldn’t get past that thick crowd of people who were acting a lot more hostile than people crowding a store during a good sale. They looked about ready to throw the Student Council Treasurer out the hallway window.

I gave the other two some blunt advice.

“It’s not too late. You should really leave the school before getting caught up in this.”

“And what will you do, Satori-kun?”

“Not even going to listen to my advice, huh? …If I can’t solve this peacefully, I’ll have to do it violently. I’ll knock all those people out of the way and run off with the Student Council moron.”

“B-but there’s so many people. Even the star of a kung fu movie would have difficulty there.”

I of course had no intention of rushing in with fists clenched. Angry rioters were still human, so they could use their heads. Some of them were probably starting to use utility knives and fire extinguishers as weapons by now.

Not much would be as meaningless as being accidentally killed by someone who wasn’t thinking straight.

So I wanted a projectile that could take out the entire group at once without approaching them.

“Where are you going to find that?”

“Oh? You can find the perfect tool just about anywhere, Class Rep. It has a long history of use in riot suppression, so you see riot police using it a lot.”

“?”

“You even used it just yesterday.”

The primary flaw was the impossibility of doing it surreptitiously. Like I said, I still had to go to school here after this was over. I didn’t want to make an enemy of the entire school, so I needed to cover my face before doing this.

“Class Rep, you always carry panty hose with you even though you don’t normally wear them, right? In case the air conditioning is on too high.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Wh-what kind of conversation was that?” asked Umikaze-san. “You childhood friends scare me.”

Before long, I had a (new) pair of borrowed panty hose over my head. I made sure to aim my phone’s camera at my face to confirm I got a facial recognition error before moving on to the next step.

What was that?

What else could it be?

I grabbed the hose from the fire hydrant on the wall and began spraying pressurized water.

The white torrent erupted out like a beam cannon and swept aside the outer layer of students before they knew what was happening.

“Gyah!!”

“Who the hell is that!?”

“I can’t breathe…or see! Gwahh!!”

The long, straight hallway had been packed full, so they had no way of avoiding the stream. Once the outer layer of boys and girls collapsed to the floor, the inner layer lost their human barrier and were hit as well.

It didn’t matter if they had utility knives or fire extinguishers.

The water pressure was enough to shoot down a rock if they threw it at me.

And they couldn’t run away with such a large crowd packed in there.

“Ah, ahh.”

I saw someone cowering down beyond them. The hostile group collapsing from an unknown attack must have looked like the only opportunity he was going to get because he scrambled to his feet and tried to make a run for it.

“Gyah!?”

But I sprayed a powerful blast of water into his back. He doubled over and flew farther than I had expected.

Not that it mattered.

Still dragging the heavy firehose with me and making sure no one on the floor grabbed at my ankles, I approached the shy boy flapping his mouth wordlessly on the floor.

I of course stuck the metal nozzle right in front of his face.

“Wha- buh- what?”

“Tell me what I want to know. And don’t try to lie to me.”

“Who even are you!? A Student Council member is not going to do what some guy wearing panty hose over his head says!”

“Really? Let’s see if you can say that again after drinking…oh, let’s say 10 liters of water.”

“…”

“Then again, your teeth might come out before it all gets in your stomach. And to be clear, I’m not bluffing. Honestly, I kind of want to do it regardless. And I’m sure you know why that is. How are we supposed to use the school as a shelter on our own? You destroyed our school life based on some dumb idea that won’t even work. And since you were dumb enough to think that might work, I’ll be very clear: a lot of people are not happy with you. A lot more than you think.”

Part 6

As it turns out, 10 liters all at once would have ruptured his abs or diaphragm, so I stopped at 2 liters. Thanks for the advice, Maxwell. This was the same as a large bottle of mineral water, so he could handle it.

“Awegh, blegh…hill me…just kill me.”

“I want names.”

“…”

“Do you need another liter of convincing? I just hope I can control it that well. Sorry if your front teeth come out and are washed down your throat.”

“I’ll halk! I’ll talk!!”

Maybe he deserved some praise for briefly trying to hold his tongue out of concern for his friends. Hopefully those friends felt the same way about him, but it certainly didn’t seem like it.

“Nabetsukami Kyouji, Sakanakawa Teppei, Okiai Yuuko, Tougemichi Kyusu, a-and Jinno Serina.”

“Oh, really?”

“Wait! It’s drue, it’s true!!”

I had already decided to act skeptical no matter what he said. I was an amateur and couldn’t say anything for sure, but at least he didn’t give me an ugly smile and take back what he said.

I figured he was worth trusting a little bit.

I tossed aside the firehose.

“You’re free to go, but I wouldn’t recommend staying at the school.”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do!”

Defiance the instant I let go of the hose, huh?

Fortunately, I had considered this.

“I recorded you squealing just now, so go crying to them asking for help and I’ll send them that data. Then they’ll gang up on you first.”

“Eek!”

“So get the hell out of here, squealer. Go!”

I clapped my hands together to motivate him and he ran down the stairs with amusing speed. He just about tripped and fell.

“A digital recording will not function as evidence,” said Maxwell. “Especially when the confession was obtained through duress.”

“That was just a threat. I only needed to scare his guilty conscience.”

I pulled the (new) pair of panty hose from my head and used a hand to fix my mussed-up hair. The Class Rep and Umikaze-san hesitantly poked their heads around the corner.

“S-Satori-kun?”

“That guy didn’t just get away, did he?” asked Umikaze-san. “You released him cause you have an answer, right?”

“Maxwell.”

“Searching the school’s local server and social media accounts. Nabetsukami, Sakanakawa, Okiai, Tougemichi, and Jinno are indeed students at the school. However…”

“What? Just get to the point. Do you like baiting me into hitting the ‘read more’ button that badly?”

“Those five appear to have a point in common. And that point would lead to trouble if it got out.”

Maxwell displayed the information across a few different speech bubbles.

“They are all registered as Archenemies.”

“What?”

“Nabetsukami Kyouji is a Spriggan and Sakanakawa Teppei is an Ogre. City records confirm this.”

“…”

That was bad news.

I glanced over at Umikaze-san.

She was a Scylla.

“Hold on. But my plan was to threaten to reveal their names, personal information, and what they’d done if they didn’t break up their little game here.”

“That would be a bad idea,” said Maxwell. “If it gets out that the five who brought so much chaos to the school were all Archenemies, the human majority would direct their anger in a different direction. Entirely innocent Archenemies like Miss Itou Helen could easily become a target of that hate.”

Archenemies were a minority.

Was that why those five had wanted to take control? So they wouldn’t become targets?

But this meant dealing with those 5 would not end the rioting that had begun with turning the school into an unofficial shelter. Human relationships were tricky. This was going to make dealing with the disaster much more difficult. This could even create a rift between the humans and Archenemies leading to a cold war between them. There were harmless Archenemies like Itou-san and I couldn’t let them be dragged into this mess.

I couldn’t let the school transform into a witch hunt that marched the streets searching for victims.

What could I do?

What could I do to end this?

“Well, we definitely can’t ignore this. We can’t let Nabetsukami, Sakanakawa, and the other three build their kingdom.”

“Sure. But you must think up an actual way of stopping them.”

Part 7

That did not leave much that I could actually do.

I wasn’t the type to stand out at school. I couldn’t get up in front of the student body and give a speech and I couldn’t become a social media star. I would have a hard time cooling everyone’s heads with mere words.

“Even if we do stop those five, we need something else to stop the rioting.”

“Sure.”

“We have to get the students to give up and leave the school without relying on some cheap conspiracy. Otherwise, they’ll either starve or damage their lungs.”

There was only one answer.

It would have to do a lot of work here.

It was valuable and I didn’t want to waste it, but this was necessary to save everyone here. And the system was designed to save people anyway.

“Class Rep, Umikaze-san.”

“Um, w-what is it now? You look like you’re up to something again, Satori-kun.”

“Leave him be. When a boy gets some dumb idea, he won’t listen to reason, so you might as well just let him go through with it.”

I wasn’t too fond of what those two were saying, but I was trying to take this possible shelter from everyone, so I couldn’t exactly call myself a hero.

I told them what they had to do.

“Get to the entranceway immediately.”

“And then what?”

“Grab an umbrella for yourself. This won’t be fun for you otherwise.”

“What? As a weapon???”

They tilted their heads, but I didn’t answer. Everyone’s anger was focused on the teachers for now and I doubted those two would get caught in any trouble unless they tried to protect the teachers.

But it was still a possibility, so I had to change things.

Now.

That just left my part of the plan.

“Maxwell, search the school network for usable vulnerabilities.”

“Sure. The school intranet appears to use industrial model Winners machines for increased compatibility.”

“In other words, it’s a treasure trove of vulnerabilities.”

“The more users, the more people who search out vulnerabilities to take advantage of, so the fault does not lie with Winners itself. Regardless, the host server used to manage network data traffic does not have SP2295811 applied, so it is vulnerable to wn022-91 attacks.”

“Wasn’t that on this month’s update list? It should have gotten that automatically.”

“No. While it was an important update, it seems they manually opted out of this month’s update due to a new bug causing issues with certain wireless keyboards and headphones.”

“Wasn’t that bug fake news started by a phony engineering blog?”

“An excellent example of how cyber attacks involve more than just malicious code distributed over the internet. Anything from the BD-aqua.C line will run on the system.”

“Including the emergency system?”

“Sure. I can access everything from the copiers to the central server and even the personal laptops some of the faculty have brought from home. It is fortunate that Laplace was removed from the school.”

Good.

That conversation had used up about 3 minutes. The girls would have managed to borrow someone’s umbrellas at the entranceway by now, so I didn’t have to worry about them getting all wet and see-through in front of someone other than me.

“Okay, Maxwell, create a backdoor and activate every sprinkler in the school. Soak the entire place.”

It was like pouring rain.

Screams echoed from every classroom and hallway. It sounded like they were still panicking and had not reached the level of anger yet.

That said, my goal was not to have them all take a cold shower.

I crouched low and reached for the floor while getting soaked myself.

“Good, it’s mixing with the microplastics.”

“Removing them by wiping things down with a cloth would be difficult,” said Maxwell. “Even if the sprinklers are stopped now, it would take two or three days before a livable environment was restored here.”

Yes.

The students wanted to stay at the school because they thought it was an easy way of staying safe. If it was a mess and required hard work to clean up, it lost that charm.

However, I did not assume this had solved everything.

I had sent the Class Rep and Umikaze-san away because I was headed into danger myself.

“Maxwell, let’s change location. You can find those 5’s appearance based on their names, right?”

“The school is built for privacy, so the only cameras are around the external fence and on the faculty entrance’s intercom.”

“Then use their phones.”

“I cannot infiltrate just anything.”

“Even when they’re almost certainly piggybacking off of the school’s wireless routers? Maxwell, you just said the school system uses vulnerable Winners machines, so their phone security doesn’t matter. Attack the school and figure out where their phones are connecting from.”

While a mountain region might be covered by a single giant antenna tower, cities used a patchwork network of small devices, meaning you could track people this way. Even with GPS turned off in your settings, people could still work out just how long you spent holed up in the bathroom stall.

“All 5 are connected to access point 2F-w-new-mobile. That is on the west side of the new building’s 2nd floor, so in the area of the A/V room.”

That formulaic name made me want to cry. Was the password still the factory default too?

“This only locates their phone signals,” warned Maxwell. “They might not be there themselves.”

“If they were smart enough to set up such a ‘clever’ trap, they wouldn’t let their phones auto-connect to public networks in the first place. That’s just dangerous.”

It was not uncommon to run across antlions that disguised themselves as harmless-looking access points and stole all your personal data, or beehives that sent anyone nearby a virus while disguising it as a system update alert. I wished people knew better than to let their phone connect to the closest network automatically while they walked around town. It was like walking from one end of a minefield to another and trying to cover as much ground as you could. Needless to say, it was too late once you actually stepped on one.

“But the A/V room, huh?”

“You are not planning on taking all five of them on yourself, are you?”

“For a simulator, you really don’t think things through, do you? They’re all Archenemies, so I couldn’t even beat them one on one.”

If I got in a sibling fight with dumb Ayumi, she would overpower me no matter how right I was, so my life as a big brother had quickly taught me to abandon any dreams of being a macho man. There was an insurmountable wall between humans and Archenemies, so it didn’t matter how hard you worked or how strong your willpower was.

Archenemies didn’t fear humans because of our strength or bite

“Nabetsukami, Sakanakawa, Okiai, Tougemichi, and Jinno. The first two are a Spriggan and an Ogre, but what about the rest?”

“They are a Dryad, a Werecat, and a Sea Bishop.”

So none of them were electrical.

My footsteps sounded odd as the rubber soles of my shoes scraped against the wet floor. I walked down the hallway until the A/V room’s door came into view.

The people in there had forced that plain Treasurer to make the provocative broadcast that sent the students out of control. The teachers had been driven off the school grounds and an unofficial shelter run by us kids was a disaster waiting to happen. If they left the school with handmade weapons in order to “acquire food” or whatever else, they could spread the harm to the part of town where my sisters lived.

I had to end this before that happened.

And I couldn’t create a meaningless conflict between humans and Archenemies either.

So I had to do it in one fell swoop.

“Use whatever nonstandard methods you can to affect the power current and knock them all out. The A/V room must be full of TVs and audio equipment and the floor will be soaked with water just like out here.”

Zap!!

Even out in the hall, the violent bursting sound slammed into my eardrums.

“Can I touch the door?”

“Sure. That is not a problem.”

I didn’t need to force myself to make a brave entrance or anything like that.

I reached for the A/V room’s door, and…

“Whoa! What was that weird noise!? Oh, god! Are you all right!?”

I shouted in feigned surprise and rushed in.

The room stank of burned plastic and it was filled with business desks not seen in an ordinary classroom, but some of them were knocked out of place, presumably when the five inside there had collapsed.

I lifted them up and turned them over when necessary to keep them from drowning in the puddles on the floor.

“There’s only three of them here. The others must have left. Dammit.”

“Take photos of the ones there,” said Maxwell. “I will determine who is missing.”

That took less than a minute.

“Okiai the Dryad and Jinno the Sea Bishop are missing. Watch your surroundings.”

Was this a joke?

I was supposed to deal with this using plain old physical strength!?

“Ugh…who are…you?”

“Maxwell, zap ‘em again.”

With another loud zap, that boy (I didn’t know which one he was) passed out again and I tied their hands behind their backs with power cables. That didn’t end it, though. I had to deal with the two who had run off. They would try to get the rest of the students on their side either online or in real life, so I wanted to settle this before that could happen.

“I want to know more about the two who escaped, Maxwell. You said they were a Dryad and a Sea Bishop, right? Those sound like pretty minor Archenemies, but what can they do?”

“They are Okiai Yuuko and Jinno Serina. I am searching for their phone signals using the school’s wireless routers.”

Just the two girls in the group escaped? I started to wonder if girls more resistant to electric shocks than boys, but then Maxwell provided the answer.

“A Dryad is a nymph that lives inside an oak tree, so they are a type of spirit spoken of in Greek mythology. They managed the trees and forests in which they lived, so they are known for attacking and cursing lumberjacks. The most well-known is a hunger curse that causes you to cut your own body apart to eat it until you die.”

“I want to hear everything. What about the other one?”

“Sure. A Sea Bishop is a rarer Archenemy mentioned in a Swiss animal encyclopedia. They look like a cross between a human and a fish, but they do not have a fish tail for a lower body like a Mermaid and they are not an obvious monster like a Fishman. They are literally a bishop of the sea and how they attack is unknown.”

“That’s all? I thought I said I wanted to hear everything!”

Also, I had learned not to refer to Archenemies as monsters in front of my sisters. That was considered discriminatory language.

“The fact remains that there are no reports of them harming anyone. Much like the Tsuchinoko and Jinmenken, the only stories are about sightings. The only other thing worth mentioning is that Sea Bishops are thought to be in the upper class of the marine world.”

“Like my Vampire sister?”

“In a way. If we assume the entire ocean has a hierarchical society like seen in the story of Ryugu-jo, then the title of bishop would make them a mid-level religious leader. In Medieval European terms, that places them just below the king, so similar to the nobility. They might be an Archenemy that convinces others do the work and recruits soldiers instead of fighting themselves.”

That was bad news.

Talking about the king of the sea reminded me of that giant shark who belonged to the Seven Deadly Sins. You know, Archenemy Leviathan. He had definitely had a unique community built up with the Remoras and Sirens obeying him.

If a Sea Bishop was a manager of some sort, they sounded like a pretty high level one.

Ocean monsters came in two general categories. There were the Remoras and Leviathan who attacked ships with their great strength or size and there were the Mermaids and Sirens who used their song or beauty to lure people into the sea.

It was hard to say with so little information on Sea Bishops, but they sounded like the latter type. That meant I had to watch out for brainwashing or other psychological attacks. It could come as a song like with Mermaids, but it wouldn’t necessarily use sound.

“I guess they at least don’t seem to infect others like Zombies and Vampires. What about the Dryad on that front?”

“Very little risk. They can only reproduce by dropping seeds to grow more trees or by having a child with a human, neither of which is relevant unless this becomes a decades-long battle.”

I needed to come up with a theory about how they survived the electric attack. The Sea Bishop probably did something with water to avoid it. Had she also protected the Dryad because it was easy to manipulate a plant Archenemy using water? Was she meant as a pawn to keep in reserve?

The human body was 60-70% water, so at least she hadn’t gone ahead and manipulated me like that. Of course, if Jinno Serina the Sea Bishop could control people that easily, she probably wouldn’t have been skulking behind the scenes like this. She could have controlled the school as a queen instead of joining with those other four and involving a Student Council member.

For now, I couldn’t see any way the Dryad would be controlling the Sea Bishop. Unless it was something crazy like the Dryad’s plant body sucking up all the water creating the Sea Bishop’s ocean home.

But Archenemies often did crazy things, so I couldn’t let my guard down.

On the other hand…

“They immediately ran away.”

“Sure. It was a wise decision.”

“Was it really? I could zap them remotely, but I still had to actually go there to make sure they had all been taken out. What if Okiai or Jinno had pretended to be out? They’re Archenemies, so they could have taken off my head with a surprise attack.”

Also, Dryads were all about counterattacks since they would hit you with a formless curse if you harmed one of their trees. No species was better suited for playing dead.

“They would have had no way of knowing if it was an attack or an accident, if it was the work of a human or an Archenemy, and if it was the work of an individual or a group. It seems reasonable enough to run away and try to get your bearings. And since they were up to no good, mightn’t they have been feeling more nervous than normal?”

“Then they could have at least left a camera-equipped ‘present’ behind like a phone or security buzzer. Isn’t that what a nervous or scared person would do? Running away without learning anything new takes them right back to square one. They’ll just be hit by another surprise attack. That wouldn’t make them any less nervous.”

Okiai Yuuko the Dryad and Jinno Serina the Sea Bishop.

They had felt threatened enough to run away while leaving their friends collapsed in that room. Something had motivated them to run away right that instant without even considering any tricks or traps.

But what?

What would an immortal fear anyway?

“From the look of things, Jinno Serina the Sea Bishop is probably in control.”

“What makes you say that?” asked Maxwell.

“She avoided the electricity. Probably using the water in some way.”

Could she use some kind of water magic just like some occult bishop?

If so, activating the sprinklers should have worked to her advantage. A space filled with water should have been like a giant pair of jaws for her, so she should have been able to play dead and wait for her chance to strike. But instead, she had fled. That meant the A/V room was not a perfect environment for her even though she could presumably manipulate water to some extent.

Besides…

“Sea Bishop, not Water Bishop. But she has probably successfully taken control of the Dryad who lives in an oak tree grown from rainwater.”

Wait.

Was that not true after all?

Something felt wrong here. I needed to toss out my assumptions. This might be more complicated than I thought.

I needed to keep every possibility on the table.

For example, what if the special Archenemy was the Dryad instead of the Sea Bishop? She was supposed to be a spirit within an oak tree, but there were a lot of different oaks.

“Maxwell, run a search.”

It would be best to know the exact species of tree. And that information might not be accurate. After all, Dryads were talked about in the age of Greek mythology millennia ago. Just like oxygen was named for a supposed role in making acids it never actually had and the red king crab was misclassified before it was discovered to be a relative of the hermit crabs.

“Oaks are acorn-producing trees in the Fagaceae family,” said Maxwell. “There are many different types, including some that are common in Japan, such as the white oak and the ubame oak.”

“Next, can you narrow that down some?”

And.

If the Sea Bishop was controlling the Dryad’s body or cells using her water control, was there any way a human like me could take advantage of that?

If so, an opportunity presented itself.

I checked the search results on my phone.

“I think I see now how the Sea Bishop and Dryad are linked and why they escaped.”

Part 8

Once I had a goal in mind, I could designate a destination in this dizzyingly-large open world game we call life.

I had Maxwell tracking Okiai Yuuko and Jinno Serina’s phones using the school’s wireless routers.

Then it was like connecting the dots of a constellation. I just had to walk down the hallway to the correct location.

The school was made to contain hundreds, but finding those two was not difficult at all.

For one, it was unlikely the Dryad and Sea Bishop had left the school grounds. If their tough Archenemy bodies could handle the microplastic snow without issue, they wouldn’t have gone to all that trouble getting a Student Council member to make an announcement that lit a fire among the students.

I brushed up my damp bangs as I stepped out of the A/V room and walked down the hallway.

My destination was in sight.

“Maxwell, secure an attack method using the school intranet. One that doesn’t use water this time.”

“I will search, but there is only so much a purely cyber approach can accomplish.”

“I know that.”

The entire building seemed soaked with water. A lot of the boys and girls I passed by were unsure what to do about the disastrous state of their classroom floor. I felt bad, but I hadn’t had a choice. If they had opened an unofficial shelter with no outside support, the lack of food would only have led to a riot fueled by frustration and group psychology.

“Senpai.”

A lovely voice called out to me amid the tense atmosphere. I looked over to see my underclassman Itou Helen poking her wet head out of a classroom with a towel over it.

“What are you doing? Um, it doesn’t look like you’re joining the rioting.”

“I’ll explain everything. By the way, Itou-san, do you approve of the idea of us kids taking over the school as a shelter without any adult support?”

“You’re joking, right? We would just be holing up in the school and establishing our own selfish rules instead of going home, right? And with the cafeteria and school store out of food, what would we even eat tomorrow?”

“Exactly right. I’m glad to see we can still be friends.”

Since she could cook for herself, I had assumed she wouldn’t be one of the morons who truly believed food would be coming if they waited long enough, but it was still a relief to have confirmation.

She also seemed relieved. She may have left the classroom to get away from those who were thoughtlessly advocating the shelter plan.

But…

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

It could be easy to overlook since it helped me, but something about this wasn’t right.

Itou-san looked like the harmless and nervous type, but she did not seem bothered by the fact that it was technically class time. She normally wouldn’t have stepped out into the hallway just because she saw someone she knew. …I wasn’t one to talk, but everyone really was being gradually affected by what was going on. It had nothing to do with how sensible you were or weren’t. Maybe it was like the “average” line everyone used as a measuring stick was moving.

Also, Itou-san’s wet clothes were somewhat see-through and clinging to her skin, but I decided it was best not to mention that.

The short-haired blonde underclassman shook her head like a wet puppy as I explained.

“So you’re saying this isn’t a natural explosion of frustrations and someone is pulling the strings behind the scenes?”

“Yes, it’s a Dryad named Okiai Yuuko and a Sea Bishop named Jinno Serina. That they’re both Archenemies makes this trickier.”

“…”

“Do you see how delicate a situation this is now? If this spreads, it could pit the humans against the Archenemies, so I want to end it in secret.”

She looked worried, but it meant a lot to have an Archenemy like her on my side. That alone meant it was no longer purely human vs. Archenemy. Once it was good Archenemy vs. bad Archenemy, we had more freedom to act.

“Their phones have switched to using access point 1F-e-new-mobile,” said Maxwell. “Okiai and Jinno are probably both in the home ec room on the east side of the new building’s 1st floor.”

“Yeah, that’s a good spot for them. Until panicked and hungry students try to get at the bags of sugar and flour, anyway.”

“Um, why there?” asked Itou-san. “Do they want the knives and meat tenderizers as weapons???”

“There’s a better weapon there that doubles as a lifeline for them. Anyway, Maxwell, have you found a way to attack?”

“Sure. That room’s equipment meets smart house standards, so I can control any of it. Shall I open up the gas?”

“No, you shall not. Everything outside the building is covered in the air-filled microplastics, so I want to avoid any fires.”

“Then I shall access the induction cooker. Activating it without a pot on top will send out powerful microwaves. The miniscule vibrations may affect Jinno’s control of water. Much like a microwave oven.”

I couldn’t rely entirely on Itou-san just because she was an Archenemy. She was my cute underclassman, so I couldn’t let her get hurt.

The home ec room was right there.

It had two entrances, but I was near the front one.

“(Maxwell and I will make a mess of things inside first, so you wait for my signal, Itou-san.)”

“…”

My short underclassman did not respond. She seemed curious about something else. She was silently looking up at the ceiling instead of the sliding door to the home ec room.

“Senpai,” she said as a warning.

I looked up too, just in time for some large mass to crash through the ceiling and pour down on us.

“Gh!?”

The ceiling in this case was not a thick layer of reinforced concrete. It looked like there was a space for power cables and sprinkler pipes above a single thin board. And we were right next to the home ec room where people would be cooking. It probably had a special duct for smoke in addition to the standard windows and ventilation system.

Anyway.

I didn’t have time to check and see what this was. My vision faded as my entire body felt an impact like someone had hit me in the head with a concrete block. Strength left my arms and legs and I collapsed onto the wet floor.

Dammit.

These were Archenemies, so I could only blame my own lack of imagination for assuming they would walk on the floor and open the door like a human.

What about Itou-san?

Was she okay!?

“Who are you?”

I heard an unfamiliar girl’s voice from unexpectedly close by.

I felt someone grab the side of my head and shove it into the wet floor. It hurt and I couldn’t breathe! I was seriously afraid my skull was warping like a plastic bucket experiencing too much force!

“I thought something was amiss. I sensed a stalker creeping up on us. So are you the jinx that plagues us? Can we get back on track if we get rid of you???”

Damn that poet. Can’t she be more straightforward!? I knew these were supposed to be the popular kids, but someone like this would not have a fun year at the center of the class. It would take a lot of effort for them to simply stay on the rails they had set up.

And was she what had broken through the ceiling to fall on us? Damn, I couldn’t turn my head and she was too close to get a good look. I could only tell it was a girl in a uniform.

But she was naïve if she thought holding my head down was good enough. I could still strike back. She should have smashed my phone instead of worrying about a skinny guy like me.

Modern electronics didn’t even need you to operate them manually.

I only had to shout with my head still pinned down.

“Maxwell! Use one of your attack methods to blast her off of me!!”

“Sure. Then I shall borrow one of the bug zappers.”

You normally wouldn’t find one of those in a classroom or school hallway, but I guess the room for cooking classes would gather bugs.

With the unique bursting sound of electricity, orange sparks erupted into the hallway from the outside window.

That was probably worse than a handheld firework.

“Gyah!?”

The girl screamed when the sparks showered down on her. She apparently couldn’t be poetic about that. And while it looked like a lot, it would only provide a bit of heat without doing any real damage. The sparks from an electronic device were not necessarily going to shock you.

The mounted position worked when you could push your weight down on someone from above, so in the instant she lost her balance in shock, I shook her from below to throw her off of me. Then I rolled the other way to grab my phone from the floor.

“(Got any other weapons?)”

“Only detonating this phone itself.”

This was not good.

I grabbed a fire extinguisher fallen nearby and threw it, but then I heard an odd sound. Something flew past me from right to left and then the thick fire extinguisher split apart in midair.

“Dammit!!”

I got up and moved back while narrowing my eyes to view past the powder.

Who was it?

What was it?

Hearing wet footsteps, I gulped from tension and kept waiting…but hold on.

If this person was wild enough to break through the ceiling for a surprise attack, would they really walk straight through a curtain of powder? I would be hidden from her as well, meaning she would have to figure out what to do, but would she really just stop thinking altogether and charge straight in?

The wind blew in through the broken window along with some “snow”.

That created some gaps in the fire extinguisher powder and I could tell there had been no footsteps. Something like cables (tree roots? plant vines?) were dangling down from the ceiling and had bundled together while shaking up and down enough to make a bit of splashing in the puddles.

Then where was the girl herself!?

“Warning.”

My only option was to collapse backwards with all my might.

The thin ceiling panel broke through again and rubble poured down like a waterfall on the spot I had just vacated. And wait, did this mean all those building materials and the fluorescent light had fallen on top of me during the earlier attack? With someone’s body weight added in!? A human could have their head split open by a single potted plant, so it was a miracle that first attack hadn’t killed me.

I somehow managed to avoid a clean hit.

I stood up while finally getting a good look at my enemy.

“…”

She was a girl with short black hair. She had a gloomy look in her eyes. Our school’s blue blazer uniform was wet and clinging to her impressive bodylines, but that wasn’t the first thing I noticed. She had what looked like reindeer antlers on the sides of her head. They were actually sharp tree branches and she also had less noticeable ones on her arms, legs, hips, and elsewhere.

She may have been able to grow leaves as well as branches because I heard a papery rustling sound when she simply tilted her head.

Her feet were not touching the floor.

She almost looked like a marionette because the roots coming from the collar, back, and skirt of her uniform continued on up into the broken ceiling, leaving her dangling down like she was making a poor attempt at a breaststroke pose.

Roots.

Plants.

Which meant…

“The Dryad…Okiai Yuuko!?”

“And whooo are you?”

I heard the roots strain and then the short-haired girl pulled back up into the ceiling in the blink of an eye. It was like watching a fish yanked up by a hook. She was an immortal, so I couldn’t just grab at her to stop her. I didn’t have much information on her as an individual, but if she had gorilla-level strength or could squeeze tighter than an anaconda, making contact with her would be a bad idea.

I shouted up at the ceiling.

“That Student Council guy, whatever his name was, has already given in. You can’t take over the school in the name of making it a shelter now!”

There was no response.

Apparently, she wasn’t going to take the bait that easily. She was still in control of the situation.

The meaning of up and down had entirely changed.

The ceiling now looked like a dangerous river where a large croc awaited its prey. I had gotten away unharmed before by scaring her with the exploding bug zapper, but that wouldn’t work forever. She would get used to it. I had to assume I was done for the next time she grabbed me.

“Maxwell, she’s using the smoke exhaust vent for the home ec room, right? Is there anywhere I can do to escape that?”

“No. She would have no trouble breaking out of the stainless steel duct with that strength, so you should assume she has access to the entire space above the ceiling panels.”

That’s what I was afraid of.

I also couldn’t abandon Itou-san who I had lost track of thanks to the rubble and the fire extinguisher powder. Plus, I had business at the home ec room. If I didn’t collect what I needed, Okiai and Jinno might recover after needing to abandon their friends in the A/V room.

I had to do something about that “shark-infested” ceiling.

I had to drag her from that silent space, so I had to think. What did I need to pull that off?

“The ceiling is a mess because of the Dryad’s actions.”

“Sure. I doubt anything up there is restricting her movements.”

Not my point.

A Dryad was an oak tree spirit from Greek mythology, but she wasn’t a perfect and unshakable being. If she was, her group wouldn’t have had to take the school from the adults to remake it into their castle. She must have had her reasons for going along with that nonsense.

The answer was obvious.

What had they wanted to evacuate from?”

“Maxwell, find the emergency switch for the smoke exhaust.”

“Why?”

“The microplastic snow! Suck that into the device and it’ll be hell up there. The Dryad won’t be able to stay up there forev-”

I trailed off and further tension filled the atmosphere.

I was hit by a great pressure that felt like having a fist-sized rock shoved into my mouth.

No, that wasn’t it.

Someone had tackled me head on while I was looking up at the ceiling!?

My feet left the floor.

This was bad because I didn’t know how to fall properly!!

“Kwahh!!”

I managed to hold my hands behind my head to protect it, but my back still slammed into the floor hard. It knocked the breath out of me and my vision really did flash in and out.

This wasn’t the previous Dryad, Okiai Yuuko.

It was another girl.

So was this Jinno Serina, the Sea Bishop!?

“No.”

I heard a dull straining sound, but not from the girl climbing on top of me. It was coming from my own body as she crushed it below her!?

“Gwebh!! M-Maxwell, are you sure this is a Sea Bishop!? Something isn’t – gah! – something isn’t right!!”

I couldn’t escape!?

She was a girl of average height, so as indoorsy as I was, I was still bigger than her. Yet I couldn’t break free. And this didn’t feel like she had taken judo and knew how to apply her weight. It was a simple matter of her being heavy! It was like being crushed below a fallen tree!!

Wait.

A tree?

Was I mistaken the whole time? Come to think of it, the girl who crashed down through the ceiling never introduced herself. She had been dangling down from what looked like tree roots, but…

“Was she Jinno the Sea Bishop!?”

“Oh, you did your homework.”

I had assumed the water user was controlling the plant.

But was it actually the other way around?

“But I won’t let you interfere. Serina-chan and I are surviving this together!!”

Jinno also couldn’t use her power without a certain amount of water around, so had Jinno needed Okiai as a lifeline since the plant girl could store plenty of water within herself!?

But.

Why had they fled to the home ec room? The school was already flooded by the sprinklers, yet they had left the convenient A/V room and abandoned their other friends to come here.

“You’re a Dryad, an oak tree spirit.”

“So what if I am?”

“It seemed odd to me you would get along so well with a Sea Bishop. Fresh water and sea water are just too different. But you’re an ubame oak, aren’t you? Those are planted on the coast to keep the sand in place, so you prefer some salt to pure fresh water.”

The Sea Bishop must have run away because she was not used to fresh water and the ubame oak Dryad had run away for the same reason. So what had they come to the home ec room for?

They had wanted salt.

So!!

“Maxwell, activate the closest fire hydrant pump. Ramp up the pressure with the valve closed if you have to – just blow through it!!”

“Sure.”

Water erupted from a nearby wall with the force of a white explosion.

It hit Okiai Yuuko who screamed and rolled off of me before writhing on the hallway floor.

Ubame oaks could grow strong even in the salty ocean, but this one must have adapted so well she could not accept normal fresh water anymore.

“Wh-why?”

Contact with all that fresh water at once seemed to have done a real number on her.

Okiai Yuuko the Dryad could not get up and her arms and legs simply trembled.

“Seri…-chan.”

They had used the Student Council as a shield.

They had attacked the adult teachers.

They had spread chaos throughout the school.

They had done it all to take control of this school. But I felt like I had just seen what lay at the root of it all.

For these two, it had all been about surviving with their best friend.

“Maxwell, that’s enough.”

Just as I said that…

“Warning.”

I heard something hard shattering overhead.

I only managed to collapse backwards in time because of the previous surprise attacks.

All the building materials and the girl herself came crashing down like a waterfall.

She stepped on Okiai Yuuko the Dryad who was convulsing in the wet hallway.

“This isn’t over yet.”

“What are you doing!?”

She was stepping on the other girl.

Even though she had to have as much a weakness for fresh water as the Dryad!?

She had previously dangled down from what looked like tree roots.

The Dryad had definitely been in control.

But.

I realized I hadn’t actually seen what the Sea Bishop’s power was.

The other girl spoke from beneath her foot.

“Seri…na…-chan.”

“I will survive this, no matter what it takes! This isn’t anywhere near enough. The Student Council didn’t work, the other Archenemies didn’t work, so who will work for me next!? Who will shield me now!?”

“…”

Archenemy Sea Bishop.

Jinno Serina.

She seemed poetic too, so maybe that was why she and Okiai had gotten along so well. The way she spoke made it hard to tell what she really meant. Was she simply selfish, or did she have some more twisted sort of nature?

“Maxwell.”

“No. Growing emotional will not increase your physical specs. I do not recommend attacking an Archenemy head on.”

“I wasn’t suggesting that. If you aren’t going to help, then don’t bother saying anything.”

Jinno’s eyes moved.

But not toward me.

Was she looking at my phone?

“Can you use…that to save me?”

I heard a deep boom.

Sea Bishops were not as famous as Vampires or Zombies, but they were still immortals. I would be blown away in a head-on collision.

So I moved to the side.

I rolled hard enough to crash through the home ec room’s door.

Jinno Serina followed me. She ran parallel to me, maintaining the exact same distance. And what did that mean? I heard a loud impact as she broke through the classroom wall as easily as someone running through a paper sliding door or screen.

It wasn’t as thick as an outside wall, but a wall was still a wall.

She really was an Archenemy. That impact must have had as much force as a car accident!

“Tch!”

I had of course gone in there because the many counters had a lot of possible weapons on them, but I was quickly reassessing that decision. Based on what had just happened, she could probably crush a stainless steel sink easier than I could an aluminum can, so was I really brave enough to grab a knife!?

“Give me a protective shield. A rosy life is so close I can almost taste it. I long for an indestructible foundation on which to stand! I yearn for a support that brings stability and thus happiness!!”

Had someone who insisted on talking in such a pretentiously poetic way really been the center of her class? Her classmates couldn’t have liked having to decode everything she said!

She took a sharp turn to charge back at me, so I finally grabbed a weapon. Instead of a knife, I went for a juicer shaped like a giant mug.

Even I knew I should have gone for a real weapon instead.

I raised it over my head and slammed the bottom down against her head, but she shrugged it off.

A dull impact hit the center of my gut.

She tackled me!?

“Gwah!!”

I flew straight over the teacher’s desk with a sink installed and my back slammed into the blackboard on the wall. It seriously felt like I was pinned to the wall for a full second.

Then, just like a basketball falling into the hoop, I dropped straight down to the floor. I tried to get up, by my limbs were trembling and refused to obey me. It scared me how my body no longer felt like my own.

This wasn’t even about being able to transform into a bat or lure people in with a song.

The basic difference in physical strength between human and Archenemy was too great.

I heard wet footsteps. Instead of ordinary slippered feet, this was the unique sound made when there was a liquid between the rubber sole and the floor.

Was she circling around the teacher’s desk?

Or was she climbing over it?

Damn, that sink was blocking my view!

“The planning phase was the most fun. I enjoyed talking with them most then.”

“!!”

I decided to act on the worst-case scenario.

My arms and legs wouldn’t move, so I gathered strength in my hips and twisted them to roll to the side.

I heard a loud boom.

Jinno Serina tackled right through the stainless steel counter and crashed into the blackboard, halfway embedding herself inside it!?

“But I wonder.”

Nothing had changed.

Her tone of voice and expression were the same. Did she think nothing of the fact that she would have killed me had I not dodged that!?

“What would it have changed if we had succeeded? It’s all like a poison pumped into our minds. We were all living in a waking dream. Still, it was all so much fun while we were planning out how to create our own little country.”

I could hear the sound of gas leaking out, but the Sea Bishop looked entirely unfazed as she calmly extracted herself from the wall. Even after an impact like that, the blackboard didn’t break. Well, I guess they generally have a metal plate behind them since magnets stick to them. Why was my mind even focused on something so unnecessary?

I was afraid to face what did matter.

Even though I had to focus if I wanted to survive!!

“Are you saying you regret what you did. Little late now, though.”

“We did go through a lot of boring work.”

A white powder spilled from the storage space below the destroyed counter and into the water on the floor. I couldn’t tell if it was salt or sugar. But unlike the Dryad, she could move around just fine after being exposed to the water. She must have already gotten the salt she needed.

“But I’ll do it. Boring though it may be, I can’t bear to let go what I already have in my grasp. The fruits of our labors have piled high. Yes, it was all so boring. It is sure to bind us and rob us of all freedom in the end.”

“…!”

Was she still intent on being the school’s ruler? Even though she could have avoided any further conflict by grabbing a bag of salt and making a run for it?

I couldn’t let this become the center of a panic.

The riot could spread beyond the school and the idea of a child-run shelter was flawed from the beginning. If the “organized rioters” began to attack the convenience stores and homes around town, Kukyou City would become much more dangerous. Dyadic group experiments had psychologically proven that groups had a harder time showing restraint than individuals. If I let that invasion begin, it could bring harm to Ayumi, Erika, the Class Rep, or Itou-san.

I wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Maxwell.”

“You are a force of evil. Everyone here wants to use the school as a shelter, so you are a force of evil for ruining that plan. If we announce your name to the school, we can all enjoy the fun of a public execution together.”

“…”

“The police are not coming. We are the law now and you will be the first to prove it. You will make a fine example, so we must present you as a force of evil. If we all fill in the hole together, then we can all trust in the new laws together. Being buried alive is a scary thing, after all.”

I wasn’t talking about that.

And I felt like she got sidetracked partway through there.

It was dangerous to turn the school into a chaotic fortress. An unofficial shelter with no one to manage it was a bad idea, so the students had to be released before they developed into a mob of rioters. But that didn’t mean I was going to deprive them of a shelter.

Did you forget?

This was a city of disaster prevention research thanks to the abnormally high number of disasters it experienced, and that had led the Bright Cross to set up base below it.

I had eradicated that organization, but they had not been able to remove all trace of their presence.

Yes.

For example…

“Maxwell, access the door to the underground shelter and unlock it!”

I still had this option.

Even if those tunnels had originally been used to abduct Archenemies from their homes.

“The windows are broken, the floors are soaked, and the microplastic snow is getting in, so do you really think the school building is going to be more popular than the legit shelter that covers every last part of the city?”

“…”

“Your special privilege ends here. They aren’t all going to rush to the school for shelter. With a better option available, no one’s going to stay here!!”

But.

This was actually fairly meaningless.

There were only tunnels down there and no stores of water or food. And while it was clean now, the snow would get in after the door was opened and closed enough times.

However.

No matter how worked up people were, they would remain quiet while moving from one place to another. That blank period would give them time to cool down. They would realize the conditions were the same at school and in the underground shelter. They would realize a place to stay without any actual supplies was not enough to save them. Then they would realize that the best option was to head back home.

“I don’t care what happens as long as I can prevent them from rioting. I don’t have anything against the students.”

This was not a fundamental solution.

We did need food and water to stay alive.

But the microplastic snow was not permanent. It was caused by the cargo ship fire out at sea. This would end once that died down and the people outside the city had to have some kind of plan to help us.

They would know we were in trouble.

The current situation was a lot like being trapped in an elevator.

The correct answer there was to stay put until the professional rescuers could arrive. If you gave into the pressure of being stuck inside without any food and you took some desperate action, you would only be putting yourself at greater risk.

Jinno Serina tilted her head.

And she spoke in a flat voice.

“I said I can’t bear to let go.”

“You did. So how about you force all the students to stay here? How about you lock them up? But do that and you’re the one they’ll see as a ‘force of evil’.”

That’s always how it was with good and evil.

There were no absolute standards to measure them.

If you gave the majority a new goal to focus on, they would change their view completely. But I did know you couldn’t call yourself righteous if you were intentionally trying to manipulate such things.

“I will close the door. Once that shelter is locked tight, I can redo it all.”

“That won’t work.”

“Hand me that key. Your smartphone!!”

“You can steal my phone, but Maxwell won’t obey your instructions!”

I could hear her muscles straining from here.

Was she really going to smash me to pieces like I had been hit by a truck? Was she not even considering how that would look once the “snow” was gone and the city was open again!?

She was preparing to tackle me.

Damn, and my arms and legs still refused to move.

I didn’t even think I could roll out of the way this time!!

And then…

Boom!!

Something burst.

It exploded.

My breath caught and a shockwave shattered all the windows in the room.

But.

Jinno Serina’s tackle had not caused this.

“Gh.”

She held her face.

She fell to the floor and rolled around.

“Ahhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!”

She curled up like a shrimp and thrashed her limbs around like a pinwheel firework not quite going off right.

Was that a gas explosion?

It was true a gas line had apparently broken when she crashed through the teacher’s counter, but I doubted this would have happened at the perfect time by pure coincidence.

“Pant, pant.”

Someone was slowly approaching while leaning against the room’s entrance which no longer had its sliding door.

It was the person who had vanished after the initial surprise attack.

“Itou…-san?”

“Are you okay, Senpai?”

She looked like she had just swung something with her now-empty hand. Or had she thrown something? The blackboard was part metal. And some metals would produce sparks…

Small Itou Helen grabbed my hand and lent me her shoulder to help me up from the floor. My uniform was a mess of water and small pieces of wreckage, but she did not seem to mind.

But.

What was I supposed to do now?

Could I simply thank her? I may have made a mistake setting this up. If I had done things better, she wouldn’t have had to resort to violence.

She must have noticed me glance over at Jinno Serina who was still writhing on the floor because that underclassman smiled in a self-deprecating way.

“That isn’t enough to kill her. I know because she’s an Archenemy like me.”

She spoke about it so dryly, maybe because they were fellow Archenemies.

Anyway, had this prevented the school from transforming into a mob of rioters? The students who went to the underground shelter would walk around to every nook and cranny and find only despair, but it would give them time to calm down.

The school and the underground tunnels were no different.

Without any supplies, a big space did not help all that much.

And without the extra trouble these places brought, it would be more comfortable at home.

“What a waste of everyone’s time.”

It wasn’t like I would be rewarded for solving this. I had only wasted water and food and I still didn’t know what had caused the microplastic fire.

Not to mention that I had destroyed another part of my usual routine.

The students had accepted things and calmed down, but would the teachers return after being attacked like that? Would we have classes tomorrow?

For now, I could see no good reason to stay at school.

There was no point in figuring out which period it was. Once I saw the students calm down and leave, I would head home too.

“…?”

That was when I heard shouting voices in the distance.

It reminded me of a cheering crowd at a stadium.

But what was this? It wasn’t coming from the direction of the opened underground shelter.

“Senpai.”

In a reversal of a moment before, I felt Itou-san tremble while lending me her shoulder. For her, cheering crowds may have been an unpleasant reminder of her time at the Colosseum.

“Maxwell, can you access the security cameras? That cheering seems to be coming from outside the building. You might be able to see something with the front gate or parking lot cam-”

“Warning.”

That speech bubble was not a good sign.

And there was more.

“I have been warning you of this from the beginning. The microplastic ‘snow’ is very likely an intentional attack. And Umikaze Speechia the Scylla has made some unnatural statements and actions.”

“What? Why bring up those things now?”

“My recommended course of action is to leave through the passageway leading to the gym and climb over the fence. That is the best way to escape while reducing your risk.”

I didn’t get it.

Maxwell apparently wasn’t willing to display the security camera footage on my phone. Maybe that was to not worry me unnecessarily, but I couldn’t calm down until I’d seen it for myself.

Itou-san and I exchanged a glance and then slowly went to view the source of the cheering. We didn’t do anything special. We only approached a broken window and looked out to the snowy schoolyard.

We were met by an explosion of sound.

A large crowd was gathered there.

“It was him!! It was Student Council Treasurer Yamagaki here who got us all riled up with that announcement!”

“What are you, stupid? Did you really think you could control the whole damn school yourself!?”

“Get him. We’ve got plenty of ‘snow’, so bury him alive! Kill the bastard!!”

The crazed shouting reverberated directly on my skin more than in my ears.

…Damn.

I let that slowpoke go, but he managed to screw it up and get himself caught!?

“Wh-what does this mean, Senpai? Aren’t those people on the ground there the ones who tried to take over the school? Is someone else out there instigating violence?”

“No.”

The students were angry.

Someone had tried to control them and it had all started with that schoolwide announcement. And everyone was easily fooled, but they also got mad when they realized they had been fooled.

“This is the true face of ‘justice’. You apply the title to whatever is most convenient for you at any given moment. These aren’t religious leaders or monks, so you can’t expect them to stay consistent until the day they die.”

“Then…?”

“They’ve found a new target.”

This was what happened once you lost the majority’s support.

But.

There were no adult teachers or police here. Could I just let this happen because he had brought it upon himself? It had been necessary, but I was the one who had brought the students back to their senses by opening up the underground shelter.

I heard rushed footsteps from the ceiling. Then I heard struggling and a scream.

Something was beginning.

Something unknown and unstoppable.

“Found one. I found another one in here!”

That sudden shout made me jump.

But the large boys who entered the trashed home ec room were not interested in Itou-san or me.

They were focused on Jinno Serina the Sea Bishop.

And the groans I heard out in the hallway were from Okiai Yuuko the Dryad whose arms were being twisted behind her back.

It wasn’t just the Treasurer. Had the group collapsed in the A/V room been captured too?

All I had done was open the shelter.

The plain Treasurer made sense since he had named himself during that announcement, but how had they identified the others so easily? Those five had never revealed their identities.

…

“Wait, it can’t be.”

“Senpai?”

I couldn’t afford to gather attention right now.

Defying these boys would get me killed.

I knew that, but I still forced out a scratchy voice.

“What…what are you planning to do to them?”

“You’ve seen the mess they made. And it looks like they made you suffer more than most.”

I was answered by an athletic-looking boy who stood a head taller than me.

He was not burning with rage.

Nor was he grinning with twisted enjoyment.

This was justice.

It was separate from any of those emotions, which allowed him to speak from a phony place of courage.

I had seen justice in many forms already: the Bright Cross, the Colosseum, and Absolute Noah.

But I felt like a robber wearing stockings over his head would have looked more human than this boy.

He grabbed a stainless steel kitchen knife from among the wreckage of the counter. The tension immediately skyrocketed. But he grabbed it by the blade and held the grip out toward me.

“You can do the honors.”

“…”

“We can’t let this kind of violence go unpunished. You should know that better than anyone given how battered you are. So you do it. Execute her by your own hand to bring peace back to our school.”

“……………………………………………………………………!?”

[Crawler Search] Vigilante Justice [The Words You Need!]

Vigilante justice refers to violence committed by an unauthorized individual or group when the existing legal system is no longer functioning and those involved believe punishment is necessary. For example, it could refer to additional punishments applied when the legal punishments are deemed too lenient to preserve order within a group washed up on a desert island.

You can imagine how people would be unable to go to the police or courts during infighting within a criminal organization or trouble over failure to pay out at an illegal gambling venue. In those situations, vigilante justice is used to establish punishments based on unique rules.

However, vigilante justice is not the correct term when the majority wields violence against a minority or individual in excess of what is necessary to preserve order, in order to extract money from them, or simply because they do not like someone. Most people will immediately think of lynch mobs as an example, but if you and your pals surrounded a would-be robber or rapist and beat them while they were powerless to fight back, that too would fail to qualify as vigilante justice.

Any violence meant to reinforce the benevolent rules is generally thought of as vigilante justice, but you must not forget that it is a criminal act to harm others because you decide your choices supersede the usual laws.

If you force everyone to obey a rule saying anyone who attacks someone weaker than them is to be summarily executed or if you go along with such rules when forced upon you and you dirty your hands to maintain order within that closed environment, the people who arrive from outside will not forgive you for what you have done. Even at the scene of a disaster or military conflict, the police will later use forensic science to track you down as the criminal and a judge will find you guilty in accordance with the usual laws.

Terms like “legitimate self-defense” and “the plank of Carneades” have become commonly known largely due to their use in entertainment, but you should assume such things almost never apply in an actual court of law.

It does not matter if the normal laws feel hopelessly idealistic in an extreme environment and it does not matter if you have a baby at home. Those exceptions are rules you have invented for yourself and have no basis on the actual laws written down in our legal system.

Chapter 4

Part 1

I heard a roar like from the stands after a homerun.

“Where are the other criminals!!”

“Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty!!”

We were in the home ec room, but outside the broken window, everyone was boiling over in the schoolyard which was colored white by microplastic snow.

“S-Senpai.”

Itou Helen held my uniform to stay close to me. She was a Circe Witch – an Archenemy – but her timid side stood out now, presumably because the sinister calls for blood reminded her of the Colosseum.

I stared at the grip of the proffered knife for a while.

“What’s wrong? Hurry up.”

The boy holding it did not sound impatient or like was trying to rush me.

Nor did the other students restraining Okiai Yuuko the Dryad out in the hall.

They contained no doubt whatsoever.

Their eyes were actually shining bright.

But that’s what made it so scary. Their tone would probably remain the same even if I tried to calm them down. Getting them to cool down or provoking them further would not change that they felt the culprits deserved death. If they were going to explode either way, I couldn’t find any course of action other than doing my best not to provoke them!

Once they thought I was one of the “criminals” disturbing order, I was done for.

So I had to take the knife here. I couldn’t afford to have them doubt me because I hesitated. But what was I suppose to do after I took it? Weren’t we being taken past the point of no return here?

The knife boy spoke clearly.

“Can’t you hear everyone? They’re all waiting. So let’s drag these two out there and line all the criminals up in a row. That’ll be more effective than doing each of them separately.”

“M-more effective?”

“That’s right. More effective at preserving peace. We need to show everyone what happens if they don’t follow the rules. Having to do this over and over would just be meaningless loss of life. And wouldn’t you feel kind of bad even for the criminals if they died in vain?”

What world had I wandered into?

Preserving peace? Died in vain? None of this sounded real to me. It made me feel like I was playing through a quest in an online game.

Why did we have to preserve peace?

Did we really have to bloody our hands for that, especially when the deaths could be in vain?

Once the disaster was over, the police and media would arrive like normal. Could he really say all this in front of a camera? Could he no longer imagine that basing everything on his own made-up rules would make him a laughingstock?

Going along with this would only lead to murder.

But fighting it would place me on the side getting killed.

“(Wh-what are we supposed to do, Senpai?)”

My pale-faced underclassman whispered in my ear while still clinging to me. She must not have had it in her to ask for a full-blown strategy meeting right now. I could feel her trembling through my uniform.

But we couldn’t openly speak in front of that guy whose eyes were sparkling with justice. Instead, I let her see my phone’s screen.

The following message log was displayed there:

“Maxwell, check their registration. Are any of them Archenemies?”

“No. However, I failed to detect when you mistook the Dryad and Sea Bishop for each other, so perhaps you should not fully trust me on this.”

“I don’t need a machine getting all self-deprecating. So that’s three humans and they’re armed. But no projectiles. Still, they do have blades and I don’t want to just rely on Itou-san.”

“If you get Okiai Yuuko and Jinno Serina on your side, you will outnumber them four against two. And your side will be mostly Archenemies.”

“I’m not sure that will work so well. We just got done fighting those two.”

“This is a fluid situation and the rioting students have already switched sides once. With their lives at risk, those Archenemies will have no choice but to lend you a hand.”

I was a little afraid Itou-san wouldn’t have enough of a poker face, but I had to let her know what the plan was. After all, our lives weren’t the only ones at risk here.

Okiai Yuuko and Jinno Serina were down, but they hadn’t broken any bones and they hadn’t been cleanly knocked out with a blow to the head or gut.

So why were they so weak right now?

Why had those two come to the home ec room in the first place?

The large boy pressed me further.

“Hurry it up. Everyone’s waiting.”

“You’re right.”

I slowly let out a breath while wrapping my fingers around the knife’s grip.

And I kicked the large bag at my feet as hard as I could.

“Here! You wanted salt, right!?”

I started with the hallway.

Jinno Serina had been hit by a gas explosion, but Okiai Yuuko the Dryad had only been weakened by exposure to fresh water. Her power would return if salt was dumped into the soaked hallway.

A roar burst out almost like an explosion.

It looked like a chocolate-colored tornado erupted from the collapsed girl, but were those branches or roots?

“What!?”

The athletic boy in front of me could only shout because I had taken the knife he was offering me…meaning he no long had it.

As big a guy as he was, he was unarmed now.

All I had to do was raise my voice.

“Itou-san, take care of this!!”

I heard the sound of a test tube of liquid being swallowed and then I heard the wet roar of several transparent whips tearing through the air. Those were jellyfish tentacles covered with venomous barbs. A single slap from one of those would not be a pleasant experience. The boy was now collapsed on the ground and trembling with his back bent to an unnatural extent.

I heard a viselike sound as Okiai Yuuko grabbed at the doorframe with strength she had fully lacked just a moment ago and peered into the home ec room with a monstrous look on her face.

“Serina-chan!!”

“Okay, we won’t touch her! We never planned to take you two hostage, so let’s keep this peaceful. Itou-san, you don’t touch her either!!”

Also, that girl still cared about the other one this much even after the Sea Bishop stepped on her earlier? Maybe you could call it eternal friendship, but this felt like something more twisted.

But we had bigger issues now.

The executioner with the bright eyes was down. His actions qualified as “justice” here and we had defied him, which could only mean one thing.

“We’ve finally made an enemy of the entire school.”

I had to go over what we knew.

Simply getting upset wouldn’t solve anything.

“Most of the students are gathered in the schoolyard. They plan to publicly execute that plain Treasurer and the three Archenemies who were passed out in the A/V room. We can’t let that happen, so we have to let them escape somehow.”

Okiai Yuuko knew immediately what she was going to do.

“I’m running away with Serina-chan,” she said while lifting Jinno Serina’s limp form up in both arms.

“Are you? Then make sure to bring a lot of salt.”

“…”

A searching pause followed.

Surely she wasn’t actually hoping I would stop her, right?

“Look, I’m not going into battle alongside someone who might still be an enemy, so I’d prefer if you left. But if you get caught again as you try to run off, I’m not saving you again. We’re not heroes in full-body tights, so we can’t arrive in the nick of time every time someone’s in trouble.”

“Senpai,” called Itou-san.

This sounded like more than just wanting to drag me away from Okiai and Jinno. She was over by the broken window.

“Isn’t that person a friend of yours!?”

“Hm?”

I wasn’t comfortable with taking my eyes off those other two, but that question was enough to grab my attention. When I looked out the window again, I saw well over 100 people gathered in the schoolyard. With that many, it wouldn’t be surprising for a classmate to be among them.

“No, in the center. The girl in glasses standing in the very center of them.”

“Class Rep!?”

The row of seated “criminals” were not the only ones at the center of attention.

The forehead glasses Class Rep stood there looking unsure what to do while holding a snow shovel that could probably crack open someone’s skull if swung hard enough. I could tell she had been pushed into the center of attention and she did not know how to get back out again.

There were even tears in the corners of her eyes.

At this rate…

At this rate, was she going to be forced to bloody her hands as an executioner!? And the more she refused, the more anger would be directed her way!! She had no way out, dammit!!

That was when I heard a phone ring.

But it wasn’t mine.

Itou-san shook her head too.

The Dryad used a whip-like tree root to toss something my way while holding her unconscious friend close.

I caught it in one hand to find it was the smart flip phone that had been in the collapsed boy’s pocket.

It was receiving a call and I groaned at the registered name displayed for the number.

There had been hints.

…How had the students learned about the five Archenemies when they would only have heard the Treasurer’s announcement?

…Why was the Class Rep in trouble when she should have escaped much earlier? Who was it she had supposedly escaped with?

Would I answer the call or ignore it?

I wasn’t sure, but if this was a scheduled check, then not answering it would also let them know something was wrong. And I wanted as much info as I could get.

I took a deep breath and then answered it.

“Umikaze Speechia.”

“Oh, how brave of you. It didn’t occur to you to try to mimic his voice and claim nothing was amiss?”

Yes.

She could have done it.

She had heard my progress reports when I was getting that Treasurer to talk with the firehose. She would have known those popular kids were behind the plain Treasurer’s actions.

And I couldn’t overlook that she had left with the Class Rep. That meant she could have caught the Class Rep by surprise and taken her hostage.

Why?

Don’t ask me, but she was the only one in a position to have done it. The only other possibilities I could think of were someone who could turn invisible or someone who was bugging the place, so which option would you bet on?

“You know, I’m impressed you managed to take the throne as queen like this. I mean, as pretty as you are, you’re a new transfer student, making you practically an outsider.”

“It’s the same as insider trading. If you know what’s going to happen ahead of time, you can play your cards just right. This was a controlled chaos. I just had to insist to the others that there was someone else behind that announcement. They thought I was crazy at first, but once it turned out to be true…well, just look at me now. I made a bet in the currency of trust and it paid out splendidly.”

Everyone would naturally be more cautious during a disaster, but they would also more strongly want the relief of being part of a solid group.

So if something managed to break through their heart’s defenses, it would reach that reliance hidden behind the caution.

The transfer student had become a mysterious but pure leader who had appeared out of nowhere one day.

“So what, you’re Joan of Arc now?”

“You didn’t know, did you?”

She kept talking.

Did she want to remain in control of the conversation no matter what?

She continued her talkative ways even though that meant revealing cards she could have kept hidden.

“The Archenemy Scylla is an immortal from Greek mythology that attacked the heroes’ boat and killed six of the crew. But was it great strength or an alluring song? You didn’t know how the Scylla actually killed them, did you? After all, the Scylla has nothing itself.”

“…”

“The Charybdis. There was another immortal in that part of the ocean. Three times a day, that enormous monster would swallow up tons of seawater and spit it back out to disturb the ocean and the ships on it. The Scylla simply used that opportunity to board the storm-rocked ship.”

A giant monster.

An Archenemy that took advantage of chaos.

“So you’re an immortal that sides with the very panic that fills people aboard a ship that could sink at any moment?”

“Jay Bee.”

She dragged out the pair of letters, but my heart skipped a beat when I heard them. Itou-san, on the other hand, may have been confused as she listened in by pressing her cheek up to mine.

But I recognized it.

Hadn’t Maxwell warned from the beginning that the microplastic snow was likely an intentional attack and that the transfer student had said some suspicious things?

JB.

I knew that did not just refer to an individual. The previous JB had been killed inside a holding cell at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and the footage had been uploaded to a video site.

They had Freischutz, a true military simulator.

This wasn’t just a collection of junk like the Voodoo Bokor’s group had prepared. This one was the real deal. Although they seemed to care more about the machine at the center than the people it ordered around.

Had she really spoken that name?

This wasn’t just Maxwell’s worst-case scenario – she had said it herself!!

“I am Umikaze Speechia of JB. I have business with you and I have just finished setting the stage for that. …This girl is important to you, isn’t she? If you won’t do the execution yourself, it will be up to her. And if you let enough time pass, the furious students will tear your adorable Class Rep limb from limb. I don’t even have to tell them to do it. That’s just how it will turn out all on its own. Because this little world here has been rewritten that way.”

Damn her.

Damn her!!

“If you want to raise a battle cry and come running to save her all on your own, be my guest. I do love feasting on ‘heroes’ after all. But there are no hiding spots in the open schoolyard, so I really don’t see how you can take on more than 100 blood-starved boys and girls who have lost their moral compass. Even an Archenemy would have to fear the violence of numbers presented by the humans here.”

“Don’t be so sure.”

“Oh, how adorable. Are you done bluffing now that that failed? But how much can you accomplish with that phone of yours? This open schoolyard is a mass of primitive violence. It’s such an analog place, so digital means aren’t going to get you very far, don’t you think?”

It ended there.

She hung up on me.

“JB.”

“Sure,” said Maxwell. “I warned you of this from the beginning.”

“But what about Umikaze’s social media presence? If all of that was camouflage, then how do you explain her friends from her old school?”

“Maybe she managed to hide her identity at her previous school and the one before that, or maybe all of those supposed friends are actually working for JB in some way. Online friends are not always what they appear to be.”

“…”

She had not given me a specific time limit. If I didn’t act now, the Class Rep might be deemed a traitor and placed on the chopping block ahead of the “criminals”. That was bound to happen given how confident Umikaze had sounded.

“Damn her. I’ll make her regret being so flippant about that!!”

“Wait, Senpai. Rushing in there blindly won’t solve anything!!”

That wasn’t my plan.

We couldn’t call the police right now. If I acted rashly, who would be left to save the Class Rep? I understood that, goddammit!

“Maxwell, gather some information from home construction sites.”

“No. I will not tell you how to build a handmade weapon. Such a plan is unrealistic.”

Why did that simulator think I wanted to do something so stupid? Did everyone have dreams of rushing in and singlehandedly tearing through a crowd of enemies or something!?

It was true I had to remove the students from the schoolyard…because that would also remove the giant Charybdis monster created from the panic. And I had to do it now. But I didn’t have to do it via violence.

“What I want to build is a balloon or a blimp. I’m short on time, so make it a simple one. And since the microplastic snow is flammable when it’s taken in plenty of air, the less fire used the better.”

“Do you plant to escape via the sky? You will need a very large balloon indeed if you expect it to carry people.”

“Why would I want to escape? The point is to rescue the Class Rep! It just has to float, that’s all.”

“It depends on the weight you wish it to carry and how long you wish it to remain airborne, but the simplest balloons only require a trash bag, duct tape, and a spray can filled with nonflammable gas.”

“As long as it won’t fall out of the sky too easily, anything’s fine. We need to stimulate their greed.”

Okiai Yuuko looked me in the eye when I mentioned escaping, but I ignored her. Besides, they couldn’t do much with their weird charisma stripped from them. And once that was gone, it was gone.

This was about a monster.

The Charybdis had swallowed up this disaster environment and the Scylla was holding its leash.

“We have no time. Help me build this, Itou-san.”

“O-okay!”

Part 2

We needed a trash bag and some duct tape.

That and a permanent marker to mark it up with.

Scissors would probably be better than a utility knife. We also borrowed some other things from the faculty room, but…

“Maxwell, which gases are nonflammable.”

“Photograph the ingredients listed on the back of the spray can.”

“Can we really believe what the manufacturer says? I mean, they say the fish at cheap sushi places is actually deep sea fish a lot of the time.”

“The disposal warning differs depending on the flammability. But just to be sure, I will run an online search of the product name to double check.”

Itou-san looked curious what my phone was saying but also didn’t feel right taking a peek without permission. It was really cute. And I didn’t care if she saw this, so I tilted the phone so she could see.

Maxwell was explaining the general idea we were going for.

“With balloon aircraft, most people think of hot-air balloons that heat the air to stay afloat, but blimps generally secure buoyancy using a lighter-than-air gas.”

The explanation felt more for Itou-san than for me. That was unusual for Maxwell who tended to focus on whoever had user privileges.

“All you need is a bag to contain a lighter-than-air gas. The principle alone is much simpler than an airplane or helicopter.”

“But just the principle,” I added. “If you use a flammable gas, then static electricity could trigger an explosion, so you need to be careful.”

We had found most of the tools we needed in the faculty room. Girls weren’t the only ones who brought spray deodorant to school.

“Okay, let’s head up to the roof.”

“Um, Senpai? I get that we’re making a balloon, but how is that supposed to save your Class Rep?”

“It’s true the Scylla is unbeatable right now. We don’t stand a chance as long as she’s taming that giant monster atop the ship she’s made out of this school.”

A Zombie like Ayumi had 10 times human strength and a Vampire like Erika had 20 times, but that also meant brute force was not an option for them when up against more than 100 people. And just because they were highly infectious as Archenemies did not mean they would want to bite people at random. The Charybdis grew larger as it drove people mad with fear and panic, so it had to be the last kind of enemy they would want to deal with.

But.

“Umikaze’s monster is supported by a lie.”

“?”

“It’s all based on the illusion that they’ll drown if they don’t secure a spot aboard this ship. That’s the source of their fear. So we only have to wake them from that dream and tell them it’s safe to get off that ship.”

The balloon would have to be pretty big to be effective and it would be inefficient to cram it out a window or door after inflating, so I chose to work on the roof.

It was fortunate we could open the door from within. The roof was flat, meaning the snow could accumulate there more easily. And even a few centimeters could block an outward-swinging door.

“Let’s get started. I’ll use the marker to draw out the lines on the bag, so can you cut along them, Itou-san? Then can you help me use the duct tape to attach the same symbols together? Y’know, circle to circle, triangle to triangle, and so on.”

“Make sure to leave as little a gap as possible,” added Maxwell.

All the while, the Class Rep was being worn down psychologically while standing in front of all those people. Who knows how long the mental scars would last, but I wanted to free her from that ASAP.

We cut up some 50L plastic bags with scissors to create flat pieces reminiscent of a geometry net. Then we used the duct tape to connect that together based on Maxwell’s instructions to create a single large bag out of it.

In the end, we had what looked like a rugby ball large enough to fit a van inside.

I narrowed down the opening, stuck the end of the spray can inside, and pushed down with my finger.

It noisily began to inflate little by little. And once it was full…

“Wow, we haven’t done anything and it’s leaving the roof, Senpai. It’s already floating!”

However, we couldn’t actually load anything onto that balloon. It was too poorly balanced to carry a person and we had no way of accurately dropping bricks or stones on a desired location. Making something float and piloting it where you wanted to go were two very different things.

But this was enough.

We only needed to release this empty balloon into the sky and let the wind carry it away.

Once the plastic bag had enough lift, I pulled the spray can out and tied up the opening. Just the one didn’t feel like enough, so we made a second and third one as well. We duct taped the completed one to the roof in the meantime. It was a lot like a dog’s leash or a ship’s rope. But tying it to the railing on the edge would have made it visible during the preparatory phase, so we had to avoid that.

“Okay, is that good enough, Senpai?”

“It’s perfect.”

Itou-san looked pretty happy about that. I couldn’t have asked for a better assistant.

Once we had done it once, the others went faster. Who knows if this would come in handy in the rest of my life, but I always loved a task I could lose myself in.

“Maxwell, the internet is still up around here, right? Then create a few anonymous accounts and attack the school’s social media. Attack in waves to get a certain text trending.”

“What message would you like?”

That I already knew.

Archenemy Scylla. Umikaze Speechia of JB. If you’re using information as a weapon to create the giant Charybdis monster, then you can’t complain if I strike back using information too.

“Have the accounts say they’ve discovered a safe way out. Say the trains and roads might be down, but you can still escape the city via air.”

Once the message was sent, I used the scissors to cut the duct tape holding one of the balloons in place and let the plastic blimp fly high.

It couldn’t actually accomplish anything since it was at the mercy of the wind. In fact, it couldn’t even carry someone.

But no one had gotten a close look at it.

“Attention is growing rapidly,” said Maxwell. “More and more photos of the balloon are being uploaded.”

“Add a celebratory post that sounds like it’s from someone onboard. And make sure to mention that there are only so many and it’s first come first serve.”

I stuck just my phone up from the roof and snapped a photo of everyone aiming their phones up. It was a simple trick, but seeing themselves photographed from that overhead angle would make them feel left behind on the ground.

They would feel like the pathetic losers still stuck down there.

It all resulted in a low rumbling.

Countless feet were running from the white schoolyard to the school building.

“Senpai, um, how does this help!?”

“They see the school like a ship they need to survive, but what if a rescue helicopter descends from the sky? The captain of the ship can yell and yell, but the crew and passengers won’t listen. They’re bound to rush toward the heliport.”

Maybe Umikaze was trying to stop them all. Both with her voice and with online messages. But it was too late. Once she lost control, her precious Charybdis fell apart.

We released the rest of our balloons and then gathered up our tools.

“We’ll be caught in the crowd if we stay up here, Itou-san, so let’s head down. A path that doesn’t run into them would be best.”

“O-of course!”

Fortunately, the school had more than one stairway. Even with the blood rushing to their heads, the students would all take the shortest route, like they were rushing to get the last of a product on a good sale. We chose the stairway on the other side of the school, so we didn’t run into any of them.

We could hear their thundering feet from across the school.

Itou-san trembled.

If we had used the other stairs, it would’ve been worse than getting caught in a landslide.

But on the other hand…

“They just left the Class Rep and the ‘criminals’ out in the schoolyard. There’s no moat or castle walls formed from angry people, so I won’t let that Scylla have her way.”

We descended to the first floor and grabbed our shoes at the entranceway. But maybe it would have been easier to walk around outside in our slippers.

Umikaze was in that wide-open schoolyard, so walking out the front entrance would be too dangerous. She would be panicking with her fortress collapsed and guilty people tended to do the same thing when they felt trapped.

In other words…

“S-Senpai, isn’t that bad?”

“…”

“Umikaze-san is using the others as shields! She’s using them as hostages!!”

I knew that.

The Class Rep had been given a snow shovel and pressured to kill the “criminals”. The garbage that had given the command would never have been unarmed herself. That would introduce the risk of the Class Rep using the shovel against her.

This was really the Scylla’s only option after losing the crowd. But that didn’t mean I had to go along with it. I mean, she wasn’t going to hand over the Class Rep if I did what she said and the students rushing to the roof would realize they’d been had sooner or later. I had to end this before they came back down.

We couldn’t stay in the entranceway forever.

This would get a lot worse once we were found.

We moved back into the hallway, snuck into the nearby infirmary, and then checked out the window while crouched down low.

I spied out like I was a periscope.

“Looks like the ‘criminals’ have their hands tied behind their backs, but the Class Rep only has her arms grabbed. Umikaze’s weapon is a fruit knife. I don’t know how much strength she has as an Archenemy, but it isn’t like she has a machinegun.”

That might sound like a ridiculous possibility to even consider, but keep in mind that she was with JB. Those were the people who had flooded Tokyo and created a UFO so large it seemed to cover up the sky.

“B-but…” Itou-san hesitantly spoke up next to me. “I should be able to defeat her, if that’s all we want to do. The Scylla Archenemy was supposedly created from one of Circe’s potions after all. …But that’s not the same thing as saving your Class Rep. And now that she has her guard up, won’t it be a lot harder to sneak up on her?”

“Not necessarily.”

My cute underclassman looked puzzled by my immediate answer.

“Maxwell, Umikaze has a fruit knife. Do you think St. Elmo’s fire will work?”

“Sure. The wind speed is 2m/s and visibility is 5km. This density should be fine. It will be lacking in reliability and lethality, but that plan is more realistic than heading to the shop room and modifying a nail gun into a sniper unit.”

“That isn’t the only metal thing out there. For example, there’s the Class Rep’s glasses frames and her skirt’s zipper. Could it affect those too?”

“It is possible, but highly unlikely. In fact, St. Elmo’s fire does not require the object be metal. It was originally seen on sail masts made of wood and cloth.”

“The Class Rep is holding a shovel.”

“If you refuse to trust me, I can always provide you a detailed list of all my calculations.”

I knew it was dangerous and it could even start a fire like the one we tried to prevent yesterday.

Itou-san asked a question while looking more and more troubled.

“Um, Senpai? Who is St. Elmo? Is that some other Archenemy friend of yours?”

“Not in this case, no.”

I listed up the necessary conditions in my mind as I spoke.

Having working infrastructure here was nice, but standard household power wasn’t enough. If I was going to amplify the power, an electric heater would probably be best. I didn’t want it to be too flashy, so it needed to be a gradual glow more than a full-on corona discharge. Picturing something like an electrical ground might be the best way of looking at it.

“The microplastic snow is like a plastic mat. Rub against it too much and it gathers static. That’s what started a fire yesterday.”

“Oh?”

My underclassman tilted her head with a curious look while I messed with the cable to an electric heater that had grown discolored in the sun and that someone had apparently pulled out in this off season.

“But that also means it’ll gather up any electricity we give it. Like a capacitor or a thundercloud.”

Doing that on the ground would be difficult because the ground would absorb all the electricity.

But microplastics too fine to see were dancing around in the air as the wind blew.

I didn’t even need to open the window. I stuck the end of the cable against the aluminum frame of an outward-facing window to send the electricity out through that.

I couldn’t calculate out the time.

But I had guessed it wouldn’t take long.

“St. Elmo’s fire is similar to a will-o’-the-wisp. People used to believe it was an occult phenomenon, but it’s really a simple scientific one.”

“Scientific?”

“And the Scylla, Umikaze Speechia, is holding a pointed fruit knife. You can see she still is.”

Having that cute underclassman around had a way of getting me to talk a lot.

Maybe this was why eccentric professors whose social lives and relationships were in tatters still liked to keep a puppy-like assistant around.

“The discharge affects pointed objects like that.”

The ship’s mast would act like a lightning rod to gather the electricity from the electrified fog or air and that would produce a glow.

In other words…

“It’s the same logic used in electrical induction.”

After a loud “zap!!”, lightning light appeared in the surrounding air and very obviously shot toward the tip of the fruit knife.

It was like dripping one last drop of water into a cup filled to the absolute limit.

Except we did it to the air and the microplastic snow there.

They had gathered up energy like a natural(?) capacitor, but once they crossed a certain threshold, all that electricity bared it fangs and naturally gathered around the best nearby conductor.

“Ghhh!!”

It used the fruit knife in the Scylla’s hand as a lightning rod.

The blonde girl did not let go of the metal blade. No, her shocked fingers may not have been able to move.

But all I needed was for her to flinch a little bit.

I just had to make sure she could not stab the Class Rep right away.

“Maxwell!!”

“Warning: amplifying the electricity with the heater’s circuits only provides around 800 volts. That is not enough to be lethal, so be prepared for resistance.”

That might not sound like much when you could buy million-volt stun guns online, but it was more powerful than the electric eels that killed people in the water. Erika and Ayumi would probably be upset to hear me say it, but I would’ve been too afraid to do this against anyone who wasn’t an Archenemy.

I threw open the infirmary window and scrambled out into the schoolyard.

I was a few dozen meters away from the Class Rep and Scylla. The instant I was out, I felt a tingling pain run along my cheeks, but I had to be imagining that. If I had been shocked, I would have fallen down with my arms and legs convulsing.

I was an indoorsy type and not particularly athletic and the microplastic snow was not helping matters. It caught at my feet like the sand on the beach.

Umikaze was going to recover from this.

Could I run over and take the knife from her before then?

The Class Rep’s life depended on it.

I couldn’t leave this up to a gamble.

So…

“Get down, Class Rep!!”

I meant that as a warning to help the Class Rep escape the still-standing Scylla’s arms, but it was also meant to draw the Scylla’s attention to me.

The microplastic snow flew up into the air.

She was not in a position to grab the Class Rep and use her as a human shield within a single second, so she had only one way of ensuring her safety. She had to kill me since I could be carrying a projectile weapon and she couldn’t predict my actions.

She flipped the fruit knife around in her hand, and…

“Shh!!”

She let out a sharp breath and threw the knife toward me with the force of a crossbow.

We had no idea if the hospital was even operating right now, but I was honestly willing to let that blade stab deep into the arms crossed in front of my face if that’s what it took.

Because it meant I had gotten that blade away from where it could harm the Class Rep.

“Senpai.”

But that isn’t what happened.

Something like a transparent whip moved in from the side and safely snatched the fruit knife from the air.

It was a jellyfish tentacle.

Those things could grab at fish swimming freely through the ocean, so an object flying in a straight line was a piece of cake for it.

My underclassman puffed out her cheeks while running alongside me.

“If you keep trying to be such a badass, I really will be mad at you.”

A white explosion erupted at her feet and I toppled over just from being nearby.

Itou Helen had kicked off the ground to run along the snow toward Umikaze.

“You!?”

“Hello, fellow Archenemy. But your position as an Archenemy is exactly why I will not hold back against you. The privileges of the minority can go straight to hell.”

That was all this really was, but Umikaze must have had a hard time grasping what had happened.

What had bowled me over had really only been a side effect?

“Did you think you could defeat a powerless human barehanded? Is that why you felt safe giving up your knife to keep us back?”

I heard a few more explosive sounds.

The two slender blonde girls had begun to fight.

The Archenemy Scylla was a sea predator with six giant dog heads growing from her hips. She was powerful enough to kill six human heroes at once.

Just as I was wondering what kind of monster she was, her lower body suddenly exploded. The stomach of her blazer and blouse were pushed up to reveal six animal heads each larger than her own. Skinny animal legs extended down from below their jaws like long beards. There were more than 10 of those legs in all an they kicked at the snow below like they had a mind of their own, but not in a human way.

The change did not end there.

The two legs that had extended below her skirt had transformed into a single beautiful fish tail. She would swim through the ocean with that mermaid tail, but once atop a ship, she would move swiftly around with those many legs and feast upon her prey with the giant jaws. The dog aspect had seemed weird for an ocean monster, but apparently that was to make her amphibious.

However.

I had no way of predicting where the first attack would come from.

With a human opponent, you could focus on where their arms or eyeline were directed, but I couldn’t decide what I needed to focus on with a Scylla.

Would she kick at me with those many legs stronger than a horse’s, or would she decapitate me with slap from that giant fish tail? Of course, the most frightening possibility was being torn apart by the dog heads that had slaughtered a party of heroes. But I didn’t even know if she would start off with some major attack or if she would use a series of smaller attacks to ensure she finished off her prey.

And yet…

“…”

Itou Helen did not hesitate to step forward.

She used her momentum to rush right up to the Scylla and violence immediately broke out.

“Really!?”

The Scylla naturally took action at having her threat ignored.

Her many legs were apparently only used to move around on land. She used her mermaid tail to kick up the snow from the ground to blind her opponent and then she sent out the giant animal heads without even waiting for Itou-san to flinch.

But.

“Is that all you can do, Scylla?”

Itou-san shrugged it off.

She moved her small body to dodge as much of it as possible.

And when that was not enough to avoid one of the heads or the fish tail, she would block it with a jellyfish tentacle, a scorpion tail, or snake fangs.

But the one who let out a grunt of pain each time was Umikaze, the supposed attacker.

Itou-san was defending with various venomous needles.

“Then you can hardly complain if I use an even greater power against you. A trained martial artist’s fist can be used as a deadly weapon and an Archenemy’s physical strength is little different.”

She seemed so different from the nervous little animal she became in front of a crowd of humans.

She made it look like she could stand up to even the most powerful opponent as long they were alone.

That sounded logical enough, but it wasn’t quite right.

Wasn’t she basically saying she could take on a lion as long as it was alone?

“What’s with that underclassman? Does she think she’s a honey badger?”

But I realized something from this.

The group malice of the Charybdis was gone and we didn’t have to worry about the hostages.

It really was one-on-one.

That meant the Circe Witch was in control.

The Scylla was a violent Archenemy, but one story said she had gained that form from a potion made by the Circe Witch. And there was no story about her later taking revenge on the witch using that power. So didn’t that establish a power balance where Itou-san could easily overpower her?

Plus, hadn’t she been named the new Queen of the Colosseum after defeating every Archenemy that crazy bunny girl sent at her and ultimately taking on Ayumi and Erika one-against-two?

“Grarakbwah!”

The Scylla shouted something, but I couldn’t make it out. She couldn’t even speak properly anymore. Her lack of any projectile weapons was devastating for her. Every time she attacked, she was pricked with several different kinds of venomous needles, allowing plant and animal toxins to reach her bloodstream.

For a split second, I saw her look my way from below eyelids too swollen to be the result of a simple fist to the face. But…

“Keep your eyes on me.”

A jellyfish tentacle thicker than a human arm caught Umikaze straight on the face. It was a horizontal blow that sent her rolling back along the ground, sending white snow flying.

But it was Itou-san who looked puzzled by this result.

“Oh, no. I think she intentionally let me knock her away.”

This didn’t sound like something from a real fight.

When I looked again, I saw Umikaze had broken through the metal fence surrounding the school grounds. She got up from the snowy pavement and ran off without trying to fight any longer.

Itou Helen let her shockingly brutal trump cards retract into her hips and back while she commented in a somehow dry way.

“But that blow was just for good measure. I only needed to make contact with her, so that should make more than 200 venomous needles I got in her. Senpai, there’s nothing to worry about. She will collapse all on her own after some time has passed.”

“…”

“Um, Senpai?”

My silence drew out her nervous side again.

She may have thought she scared me by overdoing that fight.

But I honestly felt the opposite.

For how many options a Circe Witch would have, she had honestly gone way too easy on her. Maybe she just didn’t have the cruelty inside her.

“Just to be sure, you didn’t use fast-acting poisons, right? I don’t know how long it’ll last, but she can still move for a bit, right?”

“Y-yes. Since she’s a similar type of Archenemy, the venoms won’t work as well on her, but more than that, I couldn’t give her too much of the paralyzing neurotoxins because that could kill her. But sooner or later, she will reach her limit. She’s already been defeated – it just has to catch up to her.”

That wasn’t good enough.

Not for this.

We weren’t in a defined arena like at the Colosseum, so we couldn’t give our opponent the luxury of time.

“Itou-san, can you use your phone? It didn’t break during the fighting?”

“Um, yes. What about it?”

“What are your parents, siblings, or other family members doing right now? Are they at home, are they out working, or are they safely outside of Kukyou City? You need to check on them all! Now!!”

I waved my arms to call the Class Rep over too.

My parents were outside the city, so I could assume they were safe unless Umikaze had someone she could call up and order to attack them. That left my sisters, the Zombie and Vampire. Ayumi was at the fairly heavily fortified rich girl’s school, so the real threat was to Erika who spent her daytime hours closed within her coffin back home.

Meanwhile, my underclassman was having trouble keeping up.

“Um, uh, what are you talking about? What more is there?”

“Umikaze Speechia is feeling cornered. She lost her fortress here at the school and the Charybdis she had set up has collapsed. She knows now she can’t beat you in a straight fight and the venom in her veins gives her a time limit. She’s backed into a corner and has to act now, so she’ll want some way of turning this around before she passes out.”

“Don’t worry. No matter what that weakened Scylla tries, I’ll protect you, Senpai.”

Nothing could have been more reassuring than seeing her clench her fists in front of her meager chest and let out a determined snort, but that wasn’t the point right now.

Yes.

This wouldn’t be a problem if Umikaze tried to attack us.

“She was briefly queen of the school, so she would have been able to access any room in the school and access anything stored there.”

“What does that matter?”

“What if she used a faculty room computer to access all the student data? What if she has our home addresses?”

“…”

“She could have used the principal’s office or the headmaster’s office just as well.”

She seemed to finally get what I was saying. The previous courage drained from her face and she paled just like she had when faced with that hopelessly cruel human malice that turned people against you for doing the right thing and stripped away everything you had.

I recalled that her brother had been part of the former Bright Cross, but that didn’t mean he would always be fully equipped for combat and he was still only human. And what about her parents? If they were ordinary people and still in the city, then they were in grave danger.

Yes.

In that final moment, Umikaze had glanced over at me on the ground instead of at the powerful foe right in front of her.

She had the makings of a real piece of shit who would rely on tactics like this whenever things didn’t go her way.

“It’s obvious enough what she’ll try to do to turn things around. …She’ll take a hostage close to either me or you. And since she can’t use our friends at school, she’ll go straight for our families. So we need to end this before she can do that!”

Part 3

Our daily routine was broken even further.

It was the afternoon but still not late enough for school to be out, yet we left the school grounds and entered the city.

“…”

The Class Rep was still shaky from shock, but that was exactly why I didn’t want to leave her back at the school. Yeah, I’ll admit it. It was half my fear of the moral hazard there, but half my own selfishness. So I took her hand and had her come with me.

Even though I normally wouldn’t physically be capable of that or even able to work up the courage to try.

“Maxwell.”

“Sure. I am still in contact.”

However, there was no way of reaching Erika since she was asleep. I instead called Ayumi while searching around the area, but there was no sign of Umikaze anywhere.

“The microplastic snow is still falling and will have covered up any footprints, but this is more than that,” said Maxwell. “As a Scylla, Umikaze Speechia can use those special legs and a fish tail. That means she can distribute her weight to not leave footprints and maybe even swim through a river or through the sewer down a manhole. Using a 2D map app to look for possible escape routes will not be enough to track her down.”

A silent missile had already been launched.

Our job was to get ahead of it and shoot it down before it hit.

Unfortunately, we didn’t know who exactly Umikaze was going to attack.

“Wh-what do we do? What can we do?”

After we left the school grounds, Itou Helen’s previous courage seemed to vanish. She looked about ready to gnaw on her thumbnail if left to her own devices.

But this situation left us with no choice.

“Itou-san, we need to split up.”

“Eh?”

“We don’t know where the ‘missile’ is going to hit, so staying together will only slow us down. You go ensure your own family is safe.”

It might look like I was abandoning her, but this was actually the right thing to do. She could defeat the Scylla on her own without a scratch. The Class Rep and I would only weigh her down and having to check on a stranger’s family or my sisters would be too much of a burden when her own family was at risk.

“But if Umikaze got there first and took your family hostage, make sure to contact us. We’ll sneak in and save you. No matter what she threatens to do, do not get rid of your phone.”

“B-but what if she’s gone after one of your families!? You’re human, so you can’t protect them!”

“I’ve contacted Ayumi and she’s an Archenemy, so things will change once I meet up with her. Doing it like this is the only way that makes sense.”

“…”

“And if we split up, it’s impossible for her to wipe us all out at once. If Umikaze shows up at our place, I’ll contact you. I’d really appreciate it if you came to rescue me.”

“Don’t do anything rash before I get there.”

She looked terribly conflicted.

But she had to be worried about her family.

“I mean it, Senpai.”

She probably wasn’t going to leave me herself, so I raised a hand to say goodbye and made my way down a separate street.

The Class Rep was with me.

While we naturally took the same route, that childhood friend spoke to me.

“Hey, Satori-kun. I’m sure that girl noticed what you were doing.”

“I know she did.”

Umikaze Speechia was a villain.

But she was also a coward, so she was more aware of the hierarchy of power than anyone. She would never choose the option that would force a battle with someone she couldn’t beat.

If she could choose between a human and an Archenemy, she was bound to aim for the human who she could beat.

And if she knew enough about my family, she would know the only presence in my house during the day was my Vampire sister who couldn’t leave her coffin.

But.

“To be honest, I’ve had her do too much already. She fought a few times before saving you, Class Rep. She was even crushed beneath a collapsed ceiling.”

I had no guarantee of success.

Itou-san had bailed me out every step of the way. I had failed miserably already, so I couldn’t continue relying on her. If I kept going to her since she was an Archenemy, how could I ever make up for it if something happened to her?

“But that underclassman might not appreciate this, you know?”

“…”

“Then again, it might be how you actually worry about these things that leads so many Archenemies to open up to you.”

This was the usual route home, but my feet felt so heavy. The weight in my gut seemed to grow with every step I took.

And.

“Fugu?”

I heard a familiar voice once we arrived in front of my house.

Ayumi was impatiently hopping up and down on the road in front of the small gate next to the newspaper box.

“I ran all the way home since you said to hurry back, so why did you leave me waiting here?”

…?

Ayumi’s question suggested she had not found any trouble yet.

“Where’s Umikaze? Do you mean nothing happened after all???”

“Don’t ask me.”

Umikaze Speechia was an Archenemy.

A Scylla was an ocean monster, so she would have a different range of movement than humans like us. Had she not been after a hostage after all and instead dived into the ocean to swim away from Kukyou City while all ordinary transportation routes were sealed off?

“I wonder what’s happening with, um, that girl?”

“Her name is Itou-san.”

I called my cute underclassman just to be safe.

“No, there’s no trouble here,” she said. “Well, other than the trouble I’m in with my mom for returning from school so early.”

Based on the normal routine, that made sense.

Our school had partially devolved into a fight for our lives, but none of it would sound real to anyone outside the school. Social media was so full of misinformation that no one would be taking anything there seriously.

So.

“Um, Senpai, what are we going to do now?”

“Hm?”

Umikaze hadn’t shown up.

But we had to qualify that with the word “yet”. Since we didn’t know where she was, we would have to stay on our guard. Taking a hostage was the simplest and most effective method for Umikaze, so things might be peaceful now, but that could change in the very near future.

Which meant…

“Any home or workplace she could have looked up in the school’s database is too risky. We’ll have to move our entire families elsewhere until we settle things with her.”

“Um, but how?”

“We’ll have to find a room for them, so maybe a weekly apartment or a business hotel. And if all of those are full up…given the state of the city, sleeping in a car would be too dangerous. In the worst case, we might have to use a manga café or spa.”

“No, um, I don’t mean that.”

My underclassman wasn’t sure what to say, but I finally realized what she meant.

She hadn’t asked where we would go.

She had asked how.

“Umikaze-san is your classmate and she hasn’t actually broken into anyone’s house yet.”

“Are you for real?”

The Class Rep and I exchanged a glance.

Reality had suddenly rushed in at us.

Her family was not going to act until a crime had actually been committed.

This felt like dealing with a cop who only did the bare minimum to continue taking home a paycheck.

“H-how am I supposed to convince my parents? Asking them to leave home and live outside with the microplastic snow falling isn’t going to go over well. I feel like they might just get mad without really hearing me out.”

Part 4

If this were a movie or a drama and we knew a great enemy or disaster was approaching our home, we could throw a bag full of clothes to our family and shout “Get in the car, now!”

But what were you supposed to do in reality?

“Fuguu.”

On that front, I was fairly lucky.

My parents were stuck outside the city and thus relatively safe, so I didn’t have to convince them. That left Erika and Ayumi, but neither of them was normal. They were weirdly used to this sort of thing, so that “now!” would actually work with them.

This would be more of a problem for…

“Oh, no. Is that Class Rep having to argue with her mom? It’s been half an hour since she went in, but she still hasn’t contacted us.”

My little sister was as impatient as ever.

“Here, Ayumi, you’ve got snow on your head.”

“Fugu. That’s microplastic, so it won’t come off if you brush at it with your hand.”

I had thought the Class Rep would be out soon, but snow had accumulated on our heads out here. We should have brought an umbrella.

We hadn’t solved the Umikaze Speechia problem.

Itou-san had pumped her full of venom, so she was as good as defeated already and she would pass out sooner or later. But at the same time, the Circe Witch and the Scylla were related Archenemies, so that venom wouldn’t work as well against her.

So there was no guarantee.

Even if she was barely clinging to life, if Umikaze refused to give up and managed to attack someone in their sleep, that was that. We couldn’t abandon our families until we were 100% certain of their safety.

Everything outside was covered in the microplastic snow.

Its flammability had already been proven yesterday. Some malicious person could start a great conflagration like a single spark starting a wildfire.

“What do we do if that Class Rep comes crying to us?” asked Ayumi.

“We’ll have to go convince her mom ourselves.”

“But how do we do that???”

Ayumi had been like this the whole time.

I doubt she had any real problem with the Class Rep’s mom, so it felt more like she had seen a ghost and was wondering how to avoid being sent to a mental hospital after trying to explain what she saw to someone who stubbornly denied the existence of ghosts.

To be clear, the Class Rep’s mom was a normal person.

She was not a special or rare sort of person like my biological mom Magatsu Taori who had modified her own body for use against Archenemies or like my stepmom Amatsu Yurina who was in fact the ancient Demon Lord Lilith.

She was an adult woman who was fairly pretty for her age. Unlike my mom, she was a fulltime housewife. She did not have a part-time job or job she worked from home. Despite having glasses in common with the Class Rep, she had a gentleness to her that her daughter lacked, but she was also not some weak-willed person who would let her child tell her what to do. She had enough sense to not just accept the things said on talk shows and in tabloids, but she could be convinced to purchase the latest fad health foods or diet products advertised on midday infomercials. If I remembered correctly, she had a weakness for ads that emphasized time saving and efficiency.

Yes.

For better or for worse, she was an ordinary person.

Before Ayumi and the others became a part of my life, back when my original parents had turned my home into warzone where things could get bad at the drop of a hat, that normalcy had looked so bright when I saw it through the window.

“Fugu, I think you would have the best chance of convincing her, Onii-chan.”

“Don’t be silly. She isn’t some naïve person who will believe anything I say.”

I had taken shelter at the neighbor’s during that “war”, so she knew my tastes in food and what kind of pillow and toothbrush I liked. She had done so much more for me than she had to for a simple neighbor, so I was forever thankful. In that sense, she was like a third mother to me after both Magatsu Taori and Amatsu Yurina. Man, a chart of my relationships would be a real mess, wouldn’t it?

“Maxwell, create a conversational flowchart.”

“Will something like a phone scam guide work? Although I doubt it will be very effective.”

I had to offer the Class Rep some help before long.

I felt like it would break my spirit to ask something so seemingly absurd while looking the woman in the eye, so I decided to call her instead. I could tell I was getting cold feet before even starting, but that was because Maxwell had likened this to a scam. That made me feel like maybe this would work even with an adult.

So I called up the Class Rep’s phone.

I made an actual phone call instead of sending an email or leaving a message.

But…

“She isn’t answering. Is she being lectured right now or something?”

“Really? It’s going that bad?”

Her mom had never seemed like the type to just give an angry lecture like that, though. She had been the type to cut off all escape with a merciless barrage of super reasonable arguments and to do it all in the gentlest tone of voice possible.

It rang a few times before the connection died.

…?

“What’s wrong, Onii-chan?”

“Maybe nothing…”

I tilted my head while staring at my phone that had returned to the home screen.

Didn’t her phone connect to the voicemail service after a bit? Why had she switched that off now of all times???

This was different from being unable to touch her phone while her mom lectured her or being told to power it off until afterwards.

So what was this?

“Ayumi, just to be absolutely certain, you didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary when you arrived ahead of us?”

“Fugu. I checked all around inside the house, but nothing was out of place. There was no sign of anyone hiding in there and I could hear Onee-chan breathing inside the drawer she uses as a coffin. Although I didn’t actually open it since it’s still daytime. Besides, you’re the only one with a key to that queen size bed. Even she can only open it using the internal lock within the drawer below the bed.”

“Then what about the neighbors?”

Ayumi did not answer.

And her face gradually grew pale.

Yes.

During the ordinary routine, you could not just enter the neighbor’s house to search around. She would only have looked at the exterior and noted that none of the windows or locks were broken.

Umikaze had to have done something, but she had not been at my house or Itou-san’s house.

And hadn’t I mentioned that she was a coward and thus more aware of the hierarchy of power than anyone? She would focus her attack on humans instead of Archenemies. She would go for the weakest target first.

Which meant…

What if this was an SOS from the Class Rep? What if she was in too pressing a situation to send an email or message? What if all she could do was hold her phone behind her back and change this one little setting, hoping I would notice?

Archenemy Scylla.

She did not make the attack herself. She waited for the ship to cross the strait to reach her.

“Dammit, she’s in the Class Rep’s house! Is that where she laid her trap!?”

Part 5

Umikaze Speechia was waiting.

The Class Rep had sent an SOS from the silent neighbor’s house.

The most important point was to not allow the Scylla to realize we had realized the truth. Does that sound confusing? Basically, we didn’t want to provoke the hostage taker. We were already a step behind and things would only get worse if she grew more cautious.

“(Ayumi.)”

I started off by confirming the rules via the social network app on our phones.

Our real instructions would be passed through the phone and everything we said out loud would be fake.

“Ayumi, we should probably bring an umbrella after all.”

“Fugu. Do you think we need a brush too?”

I had my Zombie little sister head back into the house. Separating the human from the Archenemy was risky, but we had no choice here.

She had to be watching.

She would be holding her breath and peering out through the gap in the curtains to spy on every little thing we did out front.

So we had to use that to our advantage.

We would fix her gaze on one of us.

Ayumi had gone back inside, but I was still out on the street. That would leave Umikaze Speechia feeling uneasy. Especially since the phone in my hand could call in Itou Helen.

“…”

I would be messing with my phone regardless since I needed it to contact Ayumi, so why not use it to scare Umikaze at the same time? I was powerless to do anything myself, but I could at least scare the Scylla into watching me. Just like someone running an ego search despite fearing what they would find.

She had broken into someone’s house, prevented anyone from going in or out, and taken the residents hostage, but now she would be peeking out through the curtains in paranoia.

You’re nothing more than a criminal, Scylla.

This is just sad.

What happened to the Umikaze who was a mysterious transfer student, who behaved politely but always kept a position of superiority, who was beautiful, and who had an inimitable talent as an Archenemy?

A social media message arrived on my phone, but it was not from Maxwell.

“I’m inside the house. What do I do now, Onii-chan?”

“You’re free to move around because the Scylla’s eyes are on me. But you only have as long as it takes to grab an umbrella, so at most 3 minutes. Any longer and she’ll get suspicious.”

“And what am I supposed to do?”

“Use the 2nd floor balcony to climb in through their window. Or if there’s snow blocking that up, jump over onto the roof.”

The 2nd floor jump between houses was scary, but a human like me had done it on occasion. Zombies had 10 times the strength of humans, so Ayumi wouldn’t have any trouble at all.

Umikaze may have thought she had tricked Itou Helen and me by staying a step ahead of us at every turn, but she had broken into my childhood friend’s house. I knew the layout like the back of my hand.

She had underestimated that decade of experience.

“Miss Ayumi appears to have jumped from one roof to the other,” said Maxwell.

“I can see that.”

“Are we going to continue waiting on the ground as a distraction?”

“Of course not. We need to get ready in case dumb Ayumi screws this up.”

“Fuguu! This is a group chat, so I can see everything you type, Onii-chan!!”

Ayumi used her phone’s camera to begin a video chat. She used the phone’s screen to display the social media chat while using the lens on the back to show us everything she was seeing. …Of course, that meant she was walking around while using her phone, so I was a little worried about how her vision and one of her hands were occupied.

That meant we were still communicating via text, but the messages now popped up at the top of the screen. The way the video wobbled a lot as she typed in her message made me feel a little queazy.

“There must be at least two hostages,” I said. “Locate them first.”

“I know that.”

Ayumi moved from the roof to the balcony.

She checked in the windows of a few rooms.

“Doesn’t look like they’re on the 2nd floor. They could be in a closet or under a bed, though.”

“The Scylla wouldn’t be able to see me out here from there, so we at least know she isn’t hiding there. Anyway, can you open the window? If you have to break it, have Maxwell search out a good method.”

“No, it opened. I can get in through here.”

With one of the windows open, she stepped inside with her outdoor shoes still on.

“This looks like a married couple’s bedroom.”

“Don’t spend too long looking around. We’re short on time.”

But…

Even if the curtains were blocking out the light and keeping it dark, it was hard to believe that footage was of the Class Rep’s house that had seemed like such a safe space.

The rooms hadn’t been ransacked and there was no rust-smelling liquid splattered on the floor or walls, but I could still sense something sinister even through the camera.

Almost like Ayumi was exploring an old, abandoned building.

How lived-in the place looked, the cute stuffed animals, and the smiling mascots looked creepy because they felt almost out of place.

“Umikaze Speechia might not have a blade at the Class Rep and her mom’s throats. She might have placed a portable gas cylinder in their hands and then bound them with duct tape to do it more remotely.”

Ayumi made sure to check under the bed, below the dresser, in the closet, and anywhere else someone might be hidden. Then she cut silently across the room and apparently stuck her head out into the hallway. The phone in her hand was not held quite as high as her eyeline, so I could not see the hallway myself.

“Onii-chan, does that mean, in the worst case, securing the two hostages and the hostage taker will mean moving in on three points simultaneously?”

“If you need help, just ask. I can assist you from out here.”

“Then my top priority’s gotta be the Scylla.”

She put it dryly, but she was right.

It was natural to want to rescue the hostages first, but Ayumi would only be able to secure one of them at a time. So instead of playing her single card on just one of the hostages, it was safer to use that card to capture the single hostage taker. If the Scylla could not do anything, no one would get hurt.

“Nothing out of the ordinary on the 2nd floor. I’m heading down to the 1st.”

“Wait, Ayumi. There’s only one stairway. And unlike at school, walking on it will make noise someone below can hear. You can’t let her notice you.”

I knew the risks. It was scary, but it had to be done.

I did my best to act natural while I wandered up in front of the Class Rep’s house. That alone made it feel like I had run into a solid barrier of air. The Scylla was definitely watching. Instead of walking past their fence, I pressed the intercom button next to their mailbox.

“Class Reeep? Are you still not done? Hey, Miss Forehead Glasses!”

I decided to ring the intercom over and over.

I wanted that noise to distract Umikaze and cover up the sound of Ayumi descending the stairs.

The Scylla wanted to trap us, so she wouldn’t want me to realize I was being watched. What does that mean? It means she would want the Class Rep’s house to seem as normal as possible. This silence may have been her trying to decide whether or not to ignore the ringing intercom. But since she knew I knew the Class Rep was inside, she couldn’t just pretend like no one was home.

So what would she do?

Would she try to mimic the Class Rep’s voice over the intercom, or would she grab the Class Rep’s phone and send me a message saying she’s changing and can’t come out right now?

It didn’t matter to me.

What mattered was Ayumi’s view I could see through my phone. She was descending the stairs maddeningly slowly in her effort to be as silent as possible.

I was pretty sure the intercom monitor at the Class Rep’s house was on the dining room wall. If the Scylla was biting her thumb in front of that, my sister would not encounter her in the entranceway at the bottom of the stairs.

Right?

Hopefully the Scylla wasn’t pressed up against the front door using the analog peephole to look out.

My sister finally took the final step and her feet arrived on the 1st floor.

“Made it.”

“The dining room is highest risk. Check around before going there. See if you can find the Class Rep or her mother.”

“Class Reeep?” I called out loud again while moving from in front of the main entrance and circling around into the garage space. I came across the bath window before reaching the back garden.

The frosted glass window was closed, but I aimed my phone toward it regardless.

“Maxwell, analyze the polarization pattern and reconstruct the image.”

“There is no one inside.”

Frosted glass altered the image a lot less than a randomized digital mosaic. If you could send a laser from your phone to analyze how the light was scattered or analyzed the pattern of the reflected light, you could easily display the “original image”.

…This is for emergencies only. Do not abuse the ability, gentlemen.

I continued on around to the garden where the window had normal glass. Except there were white lace curtains in the way. The location meant this would be the living room. A simple cloth curtain was enough to prevent mathematical analysis from seeing through, but…

“Maxwell, switch on the night-vision camera option. Use IR to see inside.”

“Sure, sure. Why must I have a perverted user who only ever asks me to help him peep? (￣ー￣)”

It was well-known you could see through white swimsuits with IR, but you could do the same with thin dresses and curtains too.

“Nothing detected.”

“There are only so many places on the 1st floor you could stuff two people: the bathroom, the dressing room, and the dining room I’d already identified as a threat.”

Did Umikaze have the hostages lying at her feet? Even if their hands were tied behind their back, they could still resist. Keeping them there would take guts even if you were an Archenemy.

Or was she not thinking clearly due to the venom from Itou Helen?

That was no reason to relax. Just like with someone who had nothing left to lose, this would only make her a lot harder to predict.

“Be on your guard, Ayumi. The Scylla and the hostages might all be in the dining room.”

“But I’m in the dining room.”

“!?”

When that message popped up on the top of the screen, I just about had a heart attack.

I frantically moved aside the camera app I had filling up the small screen.

But.

Would Ayumi really have time to type out that message if she was facing Umikaze Speechia while a hostage or two were used as a human shield?

I brought back up the video that let me share my sister’s vision.

“…”

The stove and sink seemed lower than the ones in our kitchen. They must have been designed for the Class Rep’s mother’s height. I wasn’t as familiar with the price of kitchen stuff as I was with computers and phones, but it looked like each item had been chosen based on what suited her best instead of trying to keep a consistent aesthetic.

Ayumi opened up all the spaces that could be hiding someone: the fridge by the wall, the oven, the storage closet, and even the under-the-floor storage for spice bottles and an emergency supply of cup noodles.

“There’s no one here.”

“They must be somewhere else then.”

“I’ve checked the bathroom and dressing room. I even checked inside the diagonal drum of the washing machine. There’s no one in the house.”

“How is that possible, dammit!?”

I didn’t have it in me to continue acting.

I swore loudly and entered the living room from the garden. The dead silent room filled me with an awkward feeling, partially fueled by how I was standing inside with my outdoor shoes on. This was the awkwardness of entering someone’s house when they were out.

Ayumi poked her head out from the dining room.

She had apparently completed a circuit of the 1st floor.

That twin butter roll sister shook her head.

“Maxwell, what about the door to the underground shelter?”

“No. Only the one for your high school was opened. I doubt it is possible Umikaze Speechia could have used that to get in or out.”

“Even though you say she was probably in that facility back when it was running?”

“That only puts her at the same level as Miss Ayumi.”

Just to be sure, I peeked down the stairs to that door, but I could tell just from shining my phone’s light down there. I didn’t see anyone in front of that door which looked like it led to a bank vault.

I came to a stop in the foyer.

They weren’t here.

No one was here.

The Class Rep, her mom, and even Umikaze had vanished like a ghost ship out at sea.

Where had they gone?

What had the Scylla done and were those two all right!?

Part 6

“…”

I needed to calm down and focus.

I had to throw out all speculation and think about what had actually happened.

The first thing I knew for sure was that the Class Rep had entered her house alone.

I knew her phone’s settings had been changed.

And I knew she had vanished from that house.

Everything else was speculation.

She had definitely disappeared, but the changed setting might not have been an SOS. It was even possible Umikaze Speechia had never been here.

But what would that mean?

Could the Class Rep have chosen to flee through the back garden of her own volition while we were waiting out on the street? Or could her mom (who we didn’t actually know had been at home) threatened her and taken her somewhere?

“It’s no use. I can’t figure anything out.”

“Fugu.”

Throwing out my assumptions was turning into an obsession that was in turn keeping me from thinking. I was avoiding the most straightforward possibility.

I had to think through this honestly.

I had to stop forcing myself to look for more-unlikely possibilities and I had to gather up what hints I had. But what conclusion would that lead me to?

“The Class Rep’s house would have been the best target for Umikaze.”

There must have been some kind of attack.

But the house had not looked ransacked and none of the windows or locks had looked broken.

It wasn’t impossible they had run afoul of some random robber or home invader, but that idea didn’t sit right with me.

The most likely option was Umikaze.

The living room window I had climbed in through had not been locked.

The Class Rep’s mom would have been surprised to see someone show up through there, but what if that person was wearing the uniform of her daughter’s school and said she was her daughter’s classmate? And what if that girl, who held a finger to her lips to ask for silence, had looked sickly pale from all the venom in her bloodstream?

That woman would have realized things were dangerous outside the home.

But.

That was exactly why she might have invited in the haggard girl, especially if she claimed to be her daughter’s friend. The girl wouldn’t be a stranger, so she couldn’t just throw her back into the danger outside.

On the other hand, Umikaze would not strictly need to deceive the woman.

If it didn’t work, she could break the window and use the woman as a human shield. Her trap would no longer function then, but she would still end up with the upper hand.

However…

“If Umikaze left along with her hostages, what actual options remain for her?”

Whether or not she was aware of it, the venom in her bloodstream would knock her out sooner or later.

So…

“Fugu. Come to think of it, she couldn’t win by taking a hostage and holing up in a single location. I mean, a long-term battle is bad for her, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but running around with a hostage isn’t much better for her. Time is on our side, so we would only need to surround her from a distance and tell her to give up and come on out. We wouldn’t even need to locate her and capture her.”

That’s why I had assumed she would go for a short-term trap. I had assumed I was meant to notice something was amiss with the Class Rep and go investigate next door where the Scylla would be waiting to strike.

But she was gone.

She had run away.

Why would she draw this out like that?

“No, that is not an adequate explanation.”

“Maxwell?”

“If we assume Umikaze Speechia the Scylla has run away, how do we explain the disappearance of the two hostages?”

“Because she wanted them as human shields in case we tried to chase after her, right?”

“One hostage would be sufficient to stop you, user. I do not know how much stronger a Scylla is than a human, but taking two possible enemies with you while woozy from venom is highly illogical.”

“Fuguu. I really don’t want to hear the answer, but what if she brought them with her so they couldn’t give us any hint where she was going?”

“No. Then she could have simply killed the mother or the daughter and left them here. What reason would she have not to at this point?”

My heart felt like an invisible thread was squeezing it tight.

“I cannot see what the Scylla is trying to do. User, if you had an unknown venom in your veins, what would you want to do first?”

“I’d want an antidote, I guess.”

“Sure. Before choosing whether or not to defeat your enemy and whether or not to preserve your position, you would want to eliminate that venom. Yet Umikaze Speechia came here first instead of visiting a medical specialist. Why is that?”

“Fugu? But didn’t Onii-chan say it’s an Archenemy poison? A normal hospital can’t help you with that.”

Itou-san was a Circe Witch, so she used animal transformation potions.

A serum or antidote for the original animal’s venom might be able to save her, but those clear tentacles were a rare thing. Japanese hospitals wouldn’t be able to heal the venom from an Australian jellyfish.

Which meant…

“Even if she went somewhere else first, her ultimate goal would be Itou-san. She would demand an antidote for the venom.”

That meant she would want a hostage to get Itou-san to do as she said, so she would want to capture someone close to Itou-san.

And yet…

“No.”

Maxwell’s message felt like an attack.

“The forehead glasses Class Rep’s mother is like a friend of a friend for Itou Helen, so they have likely never even met. She would be unable to abandon the woman for moral reasons, but would seeing the woman in danger really make her feel like her heart was tearing in two?”

“…”

“Umikaze Speechia cannot defeat Itou Helen. The Circe Witch is the Colosseum Queen and she is also ranked above the Scylla. With that power balance in place, Umikaze cannot leave any room open for resistance. This will all be a waste if the antidote she is given turns out to be an even more powerful venom. So coming here seems like too much of a detour.”

“Fugu. So is she first using those hostages to get Onii-chan to obey and then using him to get that Circe girl to obey?”

“No. Like I said, that is too much of a detour. The Scylla cannot determine how long until she passes out, so she would want a solution as quickly as possible.”

If she was simply after an antidote, she would have attacked Itou-san’s family, taken them hostage, and used them to negotiate despite the risk. She had to act now due to the venom, so was Maxwell saying she would ignore the realistic risks and take a gamble?

But that isn’t what had happened.

Then had Umikaze come here for some other reason? We couldn’t work out where the Scylla had gone until we figured out what that was.

“M-maybe she didn’t give it that much thought.” Ayumi sounded hesitant to say this. “Maybe she’s desperate and wanted to take someone else out with her.”

“No. I have nothing to fully reject the possibility of her acting on illogical emotion, but if it could have been anyone, she would not have specifically targeted this house. For example, she could have set fire to the microplastic snow around the school to burn down that former fortress of hers.”

That was a frightening thought, but Maxwell was right. Umikaze had some kind of goal in mind. Taking hostages with you had to be a lot more difficult than I could imagine. It wouldn’t be as simple as putting a cat in a carrier to bring it to the vet.

Umikaze had come here.

Why?

She had taken the Class Rep and her mom away instead of killing them here.

Why?

“My house and the Class Rep’s are next door, yet she chose this one.”

“Isn’t that because she wanted to attack the powerless humans?” asked Ayumi.

“Even though the only person at our house was Erika who has to sleep during the day? She couldn’t resist any more than a human.”

“Then why?”

“She would have been feeling woozy from the venom, so a coffin would be too heavy to carry around as a hostage. I mean, that coffin is the drawer below a queen size bed. But if she dragged Erika out, she would turn to ashes in the sun. She wouldn’t be much of a hostage if she died. Umikaze needed someone who could walk on their own two legs.”

“Isn’t that still too much of a detour for simply pressuring Miss Itou Helen into providing an antidote?” asked Maxwell.

“It could have been anyone.”

Look at it the other way around.

Someone really had disappeared, so Umikaze must have had a reason for choosing them.

“She stole our personal information from the school database and that would include information on Itou-san’s family. She would at least know that Itou-san is the only Archenemy in her family. And what would Itou-san do if she’s shown a hostage?”

“…”

Ayumi was a Zombie.

She had incredible strength and she could make more Zombies by biting people.

But having power did not mean you would just use it blindly. Archenemies could join the rest of us at school because of that element of trust.

“Archenemies aren’t feared because they have monstrous power. It’s only when they lose the conscience that guides that power that they get treated as monsters. So what Archenemies fear most is having people think they’ve lost that conscience. …Itou-san won’t be able to hold back in front of her family. Even if the hostage is a complete stranger, she can’t choose to not hand over the antidote.”

Plus, Itou-san was generally the nervous small animal type.

Her experience in the nationally-broadcast Colosseum probably played a role, but she did not like having attention focused on her.

She was afraid of betraying people’s expectations.

She was afraid of standing up on the stage in the spotlight. If her family or any of us pressured her to hand over the antidote, she would hesitate to attack the Scylla even when she could easily win. Because she was afraid of destroying her relationship with her family or school friends in the process. She did not want her family to look at her with fear in their eyes and think of her as a coward or a monster.

If she screwed that up, she would lose everything.

Because when one available option made her look like a saint, every other option looked barbaric by comparison.

The Scylla was an Archenemy that used location and situation to divide up a group and plunge them into panic so she could control them as she pleased.

“That would be a dangerous gamble for her,” said Maxwell.

“Take it up with Umikaze. She might not be thinking straight thanks to the venom. But we do know she went for option 2. She’s after us as friends of Itou-san instead of just grabbing some random passerby.”

Itou-san could not choose to abandon a stranger in front of her family, but just in case she would choose to attack anyway, Umikaze must have wanted me or the Class Rep.

“But that does not explain why she took both hostages,” said Maxwell. “The Class Rep alone would work for that plan.”

That…was a good point.

We were the ones that could not allow a single person to be lost. Umikaze wouldn’t care.

“…”

But wait.

If I couldn’t make sense of it no matter how hard I thought about it, was I wrong about some fundamental aspect of it?

“Maxwell.”

“Sure.”

“How much time would Umikaze have had left once she arrived at this house?”

“I have very detailed data on Miss Itou Helen’s specs from when I was supporting her in the Colosseum. To be blunt, it is strange that Umikaze Speechia is even still conscious. That may be due to the commonality between a Circe Witch and a Scylla.”

“In that case…”

“Did you figure something out, Onii-chan?”

Archenemies without special powers weren’t the only ones influencing this situation.

Even without Maxwell’s assistance, a human could find something they could do.

So could it be?

“Umikaze would have been so woozy she could barely stay standing.”

“Fugu. And?”

“But that wouldn’t eliminate her malicious intent. In fact, being so close to her limit could mean any attempt at playing innocent failed. …But the Class Rep’s mom is human. I was admittedly a lot younger at the time, but she had enough of a heart to shelter a stranger like me when she didn’t have to. So she would probably do the same for someone else. But what if she learned the person who showed up at her home without warning was actually lying in wait to harm her daughter?”

“Ah!?”

“Do you think she would have just let it happen? Sure, she was up against an Archenemy, but Umikaze would have been barely staying on her feet and it’s not like she could just call the police. She probably would have felt pressured into doing something herself.”

What did that mean?

Everyone had vanished from the house.

But what if it hadn’t been the Scylla who wielded violence there?

“Y-you mean that Class Rep’s mom did it!?” asked Ayumi.

“I have no proof, but that fits the situation better. Ayumi, did you see any bloodstains on the way here?”

“Of course not!”

“Neither did I. …That means it wasn’t a blade. Did she catch her off guard and wallop her with a dryer or something? If the house has power, she could have even electrocuted Umikaze.”

“Fugu? Wasn’t the intercom working?”

“That runs on a battery. Just like the smoke detectors on the ceiling.”

But that aside…

“Even if she did catch the Scylla by surprise and knock her out, I doubt she’s killed her yet. Then there would be a corpse inside here.”

Ayumi started to breath a sigh of relief, but then she noticed what I had said.

“Yet?”

“Why do you think they’re all gone? Kill her in the house, and they’d be the top suspects.”

The police were not functioning at the moment.

No matter how it looked, we had no idea how peaceful things were below the surface. The endless downpour of microplastic snow would cover up a lot of evidence and signs.

“B-but! I find it hard to believe she would attack someone like that. We’re talking about someone who crosses to the other side of the street when a dog barks at her while she’s taking a walk!!”

I walked through the house again while listening to Ayumi. I had my eyes on the floor. Everything looked nice and clean, but that was what struck me as odd. It was too clean. There was no keeping all the microplastic snow out when you opened and closed the door and that would make the floor all crunchy, but there was no trace of anyone having being in here other than us.

Had someone cleaned it all up very recently?

I crouched down on the dining room floor.

“This isn’t alcohol. It’s faint, but there’s a distinct chlorine scent.”

“Check the storage closet,” said Maxwell. “Do they have any industrial Perfect Wash?”

“Fugu?”

“That was originally a bleach used to get tough stains off of dress shirt collars and whatnot,” I explained. “But when used undiluted, I’ve heard it can fully break down DNA – that is, blood and saliva stains. That’s become famous enough that you sometimes see it used as online slang.”

Ayumi was dumbfounded.

But that didn’t sound like something a housewife would know offhand. I grabbed the recipe-searching tablet affixed to the fridge. You couldn’t trust fingerprint locks. Those same fingerprints were already all over the screen’s protective sheet.

Once past the lock screen, I performed a few operations and found this: “Bloodstains, how to eliminate”

“Even when you erase your local device’s search history, it’ll still be somewhere, either at a local base station or on the company server. And that you can’t erase without some very special software.”

I took a slow breath.

And I turned toward Ayumi who had gone pale.

“She must have been really mad that someone was not just attacking her daughter but doing it just to ‘use’ her. I don’t know if she plans to dump the unconscious Scylla in a river or bury her in microplastic snow and set it alight, though.”

“She would…she would go that far? Fugu, but all she wants to do is save that Class Rep! Hit the Scylla to knock her out and she’s done!!”

“Ayumi, the police aren’t functioning right now.”

“Which is why she protected that Class Rep herself!!”

“And what does she do with the unconscious Scylla afterwards? She can’t hand her over to the police. And if she just dumps her somewhere, that girl will be back for revenge soon enough. Leaving her here would be even worse. You never know when she’ll come attack you in your sleep. Tying her up won’t work either because an Archenemy might be able to cut the bonds with sharp claws or by twisting her joints at inhuman angles. So how is she supposed to protect her daughter?”

This wasn’t about greed and she didn’t even particularly hate the Scylla.

But.

She would do whatever it took to protect her daughter.

“This tracks with her past logic. She’s the one that always sheltered me back when my home was like a warzone. The neighbor kid should have been like a total stranger and she would have known she was only bringing a lot of trouble onto herself, but she did it anyway.”

“…”

“So how far would she go for her own daughter? This isn’t about being human or Archenemy or being a professional or amateur. Umikaze seems to have overlooked this, but everyone in Kukyou City has the agency to make their own decisions. So once someone decides to do something, they’ll do it. No matter what.”

She would protect her daughter.

But she would not have her daughter branded the daughter of a murderer.

So she would see this through.

It was her kindness that motivated her to go to such lengths to protect.

And to do that, she couldn’t smash open the Scylla’s skull in her own home, splattering evidence everywhere, and she couldn’t hide a corpse in her home since it would rot more by the day, making its presence harder and harder to overlook.

So if she was going to kill the girl, she would do it outside.

Instead of hiding the corpse, she would dump it.

And in a way that would lead no one back to her. But not to defend herself. It was all to keep any dark shadows from falling on her daughter’s future. Wasn’t that why she was seeing this through to the very end?

The police were not functioning and order had collapsed, so if Umikaze was killed and dumped outside, anyone could have done it. And if she was soaked in water while she rotted or burned until she carbonized and then a long enough time passed between her death and the investigation, the information from the cadaver would be much less specific, leaving the police in the dark once they finally arrived.

To be honest, that probably wouldn’t work all that well to throw off a real forensic investigation, but that isn’t what mattered here. It only mattered that the Class Rep’s mom thought it would. An when people felt cornered, they apparently had a tendency to either grow paranoid of everything around them or to start baselessly assuming everything would work out in their favor.

“That has to be it. She knocked woozy Umikaze out by catching her off guard, cleaned up the blood, and then carried her from the house. And she went through the back garden so we wouldn’t notice from out front.”

“Then where’s that Class Rep!?”

“Her mom is trying to kill someone in order to protect her. She’s obviously trying to stop it.”

She could have shouted to let us know something was wrong, but maybe she had feared doing that would cause her mom to panic and kill the Scylla right then and there. Or maybe she had thought calling for help would be socially devastating for her mother.

A lot of people would keep quiet about cases of bullying or abuse because they felt they could not call the police. Not because they wanted to protect the abuser but because they wanted to protect the victim.

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree with that mother and daughter.

They thought they could solve it on their own and they felt they had to do it themselves. Because otherwise their attempt to save someone they cared for would actually harm them.

Sometimes those thoughts could lead you in the wrong direction.

“Maxwell, run a search.”

“Sure. For what?”

“She plans to dispose of the Scylla’s body, but a fire would be too conspicuous in a residential district even during the day. She’ll probably use water. So she’ll want a nearby river, waterway, or ditch. She didn’t take her car, so she can’t have gone too far. She must be within 100 or 200 meters of here! Just locate any dirty body of water large enough to submerge someone and let them rot!”

Ayumi looked entirely lost, but what we needed to do had been obvious from the beginning.

I just had to point out one thing.

“Remember that SOS?”

“Fugu?”

“The Class Rep was biting her lip because she couldn’t ask anyone for help with this, but she still left us a hint by changing her phone’s voicemail setting. Small as it might be, she still left a mark for us to find. She thinks fighting on her own here is best and she’s doing her best to convince herself of that, but she did it anyway. The Class Rep and her mother might keep secrets, but they’re not bad people deep down. She only wanted to protect her family and their ordinary life from a home invader while she can’t call the police. …What’s so wrong about that? We’ve gotta go save her before she goes too far!!”

Part 7

Having Ayumi wait out in front of the house had kept this from being even worse.

Maybe that woman hadn’t wanted to make a lot of noise, but she had chosen not to use her car to carry the unconscious Scylla away. If Ayumi had arrived later and the woman had been able to drive her car out of the garage like normal, she could have gone more than 100 times as far.

“The closest possibility is Babbling Brook located 50m north of the Class Rep’s house,” said Maxwell. “It is called a brook, but it is really just an artificial waterway.”

“Give us three…no, five different possibilities. She couldn’t have taken Umikaze far, but she wouldn’t want to kill someone too near her house either.”

This was extremely out of the ordinary for her. Enough so that she frantically made an internet search for methods after taking that first step. None of this was well planned out. It was like she was searching blindly and unsure what to do. There was no predicting when she would suddenly change course.

“For now we have to get to that Babbling Brook place!”

This was my home, but I didn’t know all those rivers and stuff around here had actual names. I would probably recognize the place once I got there.

My bicycle wasn’t much use in the unnatural snow. It was like the tires were slipping on a soft sandy beach. Since the closest one was 50m away, it would be faster if I ran there on foot.

“Ayumi, if you can run on this snow, then go on ahead. Please!”

“There’s…there’s still hope!!”

She had 10 times the strength of a human.

So much of her stich-covered skin was exposed and the snow seemed to explode beneath her feet when she took off running.

I knew there was still hope.

It took energy to harm someone. A lot of it. It was even said murderers who attempted to dismember their victim’s corpse would often gather all the necessary tools and get started but ultimately give up partway through after finding out how troublesome and time-consuming it was.

That woman was only human.

Even carrying the unconscious Scylla would take a lot out of her, so her extreme tension was probably allowing her to push past her usual limits.

But that wouldn’t last forever.

So there was one big question: would she manage to walk all the way to the river and “do the deed” before she ran out of mental gas?

If she managed to smash open the unresisting Scylla’s skull or even just threw her into a river, that was that. A Scylla was apparently an aquatic immortal, but I didn’t know if she could actually breath underwater or if she could use such an ability while unconscious.

The brook in question ran through the residential district.

It was not even as wide across as the roads around here and it only had a small concrete bridge across it. There was nowhere to play and nowhere to fish. It looked a lot like an artificial waterway meant as a safety valve that would guide rainwater away.

The snow must have piled up on the bottom because the water filled it up to the banks despite no real increase in rain recently. The road was only a few dozen centimeters above the water level.

Ayumi had arrived ahead of me and she was leaning out over the small bridge’s railing. She was staring down at the water, but she shook her head when she noticed me.

“No, it doesn’t look like they’re here! The snow doesn’t look disturbed!!”

“We’re running short on time.”

That woman had carried a 50kg weight this far and then walked right past this river to go elsewhere. Even though it would have all been over “for the time being” if she dumped the body in the water here.

She had shaken free of the temptation. Just like someone trying to decide between stopping at a half marathon or turning back for the full marathon, and choosing the latter.

She was not going to come to her senses like this.

She was not just running on temporary tension. The needle had to still be turned all the way over to maximum. She was not going to stop partway through and she would see this through to the end once she arrived at her destination.

“Ayumi, let’s split up. Share your map with Maxwell and head for the further away rivers while I check the closer ones. You’re a lot faster than me, so please!”

“B-but then what about you?”

“Things have changed. We aren’t up against a full-power Scylla, so I don’t need an Archenemy’s strength to protect myself. So go! Hurry!”

Ayumi was still hesitant, but she must have understood that being even a second too late would bring us back the point of no return here. She finally managed to shake free of something and ran to the other side of the bridge while using her phone as a guide.

“Maxwell, where should I go!?”

“Travel 80m west from your current location. You should come across an exposed portion of Crescent Moon Creek.”

“Exposed?”

I couldn’t come to a stop.

I had to run full speed even as the snow tried to grab at my feet.

“Most of the creek is actually a culvert, so it is covered by the ground. There have been complaints about the water quality and the smell because the lack of sunlight and oxygen has caused the plankton to die, allowing only the putrefying bacteria to multiply and turning the creek into sludge.”

That was perfect for dumping a body since it would decompose more before discovery.

But this taught me there were areas so close to home I was entirely unfamiliar with. Things looked so different when viewed from an unfamiliar angle and the supposedly orderly city layout seemed like it was set up to lead me astray.

Eventually a rotting eggs smell reached my nose.

It was the stench of sludge.

The creek was a public property, so no one could clean it up or put a cover over it even if they knew that was the source of the stench. I could see why people were submitting complaints to city hall if it smelled like this 24/7.

But if you wanted to get rid of something and have it decompose beyond recognition, this would be the place to go.

“!?”

I quickly came to a stop as I came across the goopy-looking river and hid behind a corner of a wall there.

Someone was there.

And they were not alone.

That swaying blonde hair really did stand out. I stuck just my phone out around the corner to check with my camera.

“Search targets located,” said Maxwell. “The forehead glasses Class Rep and her mother are there, with Umikaze Speechia over the latter’s shoulder.”

“Contact Ayumi and call her back here.”

This looked more like a road than a bridge. The creek full of thick water was flowing a level below here, but the current took it underneath the ground itself. I couldn’t tell what it did after that. It really did feel like no more than a waterway.

At the intersection, I could see movement by the guardrail running alongside the road located a level above.

An adult woman carried the Scylla over her shoulder and a glasses girl was clinging to her and trying to stop her.

I had finally found her.

I had found the Class Rep!!

“Why wouldn’t she have knocked her mom over on the way here?”

“Umikaze Speechia is in no state to cushion her own landing,” said Maxwell. “She may have been worried that doing so could end up subjecting the defenseless girl to a modified belly-to back suplex.”

The woman’s other hand held a hammer…no, it looked like one, but was it actually a meat tenderizer? She may have grabbed something from the kitchen.

“Mom!!”

After coming this far, the Class Rep let out a pained cry.

But it did not reach the woman.

She casually dropped Umikaze to the ground like she was setting down a bag of cement. The long blonde hair braided together at only a few spots down its length was snaked out across the snow.

How much of the damage would the microplastic snow have absorbed?

When the mother than mercilessly raised the meat tenderizer, the Class Rep rushed straight at her. The “hostage” was now on the ground, so she no longer had to hold back out of fear of harming Umikaze.

But.

Even so.

Did you forget, Class Rep? Your mom is wielding that blunt weapon in order to kill someone. Clinging to her hips from the front will only get you hit on the exposed back or head.

So if you’re really a mother, I really hope you can recognize the very child you’re trying to protect.

“Maxwell, support me!”

“This course of action is extremely not recommended.”

“I have my doubts too, but the Class Rep is in trouble if I don’t do it!!”

At this point, I didn’t have time for anything clever like contacting the Class Rep somehow and having her distract her mom while I snuck up from behind and grabbed the weapon away.

There was nothing as fancy as “planning” here.

But if I introduced a target who was within reach and would cause more trouble than the Class Rep, she was abound to redirect her hostility that way.

Of course, I wasn’t an Archenemy. I was only human. And I didn’t have a gun or knife.

But this was the only way of making her feel danger right now.

I was wearing a mask to avoid breathing in the microplastics, so I could hide my identity by wrapping a large handkerchief around my head like a bandanna.

I couldn’t be Amatsu Satori right now.

I had to become Mystery Boy A as I popped out around the corner of the wall.

I aimed my phone toward them and produced as many bright flashes and loud artificial shutter noises as I could.

I forced my voice into a bit of a falsetto and shouted as loud as I could.

“Ah ha ha!! Holy crap! The apocalypse really has arrived in Kukyou City! I’ll get loads of view from this! Internet advertisement cash here I come!!”

Yes.

She had dragged the Scylla from her house to avoid having her home be the murder site. She wanted to dump the body in a river because she thought letting the body decompose would confuse the forensic investigation.

But.

All of that went out the window if she was photographed in the act. She would fear my phone’s camera more than a gun or knife, more than an Archenemy’s strength, and more than her daughter clinging to her.

“…”

She slowly turned her head toward me like a machine and focused her eyes on me.

I guessed we were more than 10 meters apart.

And yet.

I heard…something slicing through the air?

As it passed right by me???

“Warning: this is why I said this was not recommended!!”

She had done a windup like a baseball pitcher.

And then she threw it.

I finally realized the object that flew right past my face was the hammer-like meat tenderizer.

Wait, was that it stabbed into the concrete wall behind me!?

“This continues to not be recommended! Major warning: do not take your eyes off your opponent during such a critical situation!!”

I heard a short shriek.

When I quickly looked forward again, I saw the Class Rep’s attempt to tackle her mother had been foiled when she was tossed aside by a single arm.

That woman was looking my way.

With mechanical-looking eyes that were disturbingly lacking in emotion.

This was the same look she had given Umikaze Speechia the Scylla.

The rusty nails look coming from beyond her glasses was something the Class Rep had definitely inherited from her.

She had locked onto me.

“Tch. I missed.”

She kicked off the snowy ground and raced straight toward me.

This was not a Zombie like Ayumi or a Vampire like Erika.

She was human.

Simply human.

But.

This wasn’t about her biological specs. It wasn’t even about the actual clash. My legs had been drained of all power from the moment I heard her low voice that sounded like it came from a wrinkled witch. This was the neighbor who had protected a complete stranger like me since I was little. She may have seemed even kinder than my actual mother. She was like an absolute safe zone for me, so when I felt her directing real and merciless killer intent toward me, it really did feel like my legs were going to give out below me.

Yeah.

Home was the same as school.

There was no such thing as a truly unconditional safe place on this entire planet.

“Warning!!”

“Gah!?”

With just one arm, she grabbed at my throat and lifted my feet from the ground. And without slowing down, she slammed my back against the concrete wall behind me.

I…couldn’t breathe?

This was insane.

I was pretty sure she had never even tried out kickboxing as a form of exercise, so could she really manage this just by swinging her arms and legs around? Was this really the work of that gentle woman who looked good in glasses!?

Her mind was boiling over with anger, but this boost in strength was not just a plus for her. She had to be damaging her own body on the inside.

“Stop, mom! You need to stop this!!”

The Class Rep was shouting while still lying down on the microplastic snow a short distance away.

That pulled my mind back before I could fall unconscious.

The woman also increased her brutality.

So she could protect the Class Rep.

We both wanted the same thing, but that had taken us in very different directions.

I was starting to fear she was really going to use just her hand to crush my throat and break the thick bone within.

But…

You may be willing to go to hell for your daughter’s sake, but I don’t want to see her cry either. And to avoid that, you need to remain a part of the family you’re trying to protect! Because I know you’re not a murderer or conspirator! You’re the kind of person who comes rushing over when you hear a child crying!!

Families weren’t guaranteed to say together forever. They would break apart if you didn’t consciously work to hold them together. I knew that all too well. I still had nightmares about it.

So.

I really did respect you for constantly protecting the Class Rep’s family. Because I know how much of a miracle it is to hear ‘welcome home’ when you step through the door in the afternoon. It told me there really were people out there like the ones you saw in dramas and on movies. My family couldn’t manage it, but it taught me that all that talk about family bonds wasn’t just a complete lie. You are about half the reason I didn’t fall into despair about the world as a whole!

So.

Don’t you dare.

Don’t you dare let go of all that just because you hit a bit of a bump in the road!!

“It makes me so sad to see you like this!!”

“?”

Was she taken aback because I yelled from so close, or had she finally realized she recognized my voice?

For whatever reason, her grip on my throat weakened slightly, so I took that chance to move my empty hand behind me.

I reached for the concrete wall.

I felt around to find the hammer-like meat tenderizer stuck into the wall and I grabbed it.

“Wait…are you Satori-kun!?”

“Hello, Shoumi-san. Agh…but it’s time you came to your senses!!”

I struck with the makeshift weapon as hard as I could.

But not at the face in front of me.

At the wall behind me.

I grimaced at the dull pain from my wrist, but that wasn’t all that happened. The microplastic snow was clinging to everything out here, so the impact that ran through the concrete wall stripped the minute particles from it and sent them soaring through the air.

She was wearing glasses.

And while she had blown past her body’s limits, she was not used to getting all that much exercise. She was out of breath and her temperature was elevated. Anyone who wears glasses probably knows what that means.

Yes, the lenses were fogged up.

That was why she failed to hit my head when throwing the meat tenderizer. She had walked here carrying a 50kg weight, so of course she was out of breath and overheating. And what if the microplastic snow rushed in toward her while those lenses were faintly damp?

This time, her vision was truly reduced to zero.

“Kyah!?”

Your vision of course allowed you to see things, but it also helped a lot with keeping your balance. You can see that easily enough by shutting your eyes and seeing how much harder it is to balance on one leg. Shoumi-san began to wobble with her vision suddenly dyed white, so I swung my body to the side while still dangling from her hand. I also grabbed at her wrist with both hands and twisted it to the side with me. Both of us collapsed onto the microplastic snow.

Then we rolled along the ground.

We were fighting to get on top and to be the one holding the meat tenderizer.

“If we let her live, she will try again. She will be back to attack again until she is successful! Capturing her and tying her up isn’t enough! She’ll just get away!! So!!”

“So…what? You’re going to kill her!? You’re going to smash her head in with this meat tenderizer!?”

“Yes!! She already knows where we live and my daughter is beyond my reach everyday at school! There are too many openings. Just one knife to the gut and I can’t save her!!”

“Can’t you see that decision – that kindness – is making the Class Rep cry!?”

“!?”

I couldn’t overpower her.

Shoumi-san’s mind was burning too bright with anger, so she wasn’t thinking straight but she was more powerful than me! She was going to win this struggle!

“Be a good boy, Satori-kun. Just hand over the meat tenderizer. Now!!”

“Hell no.”

“Please help me save my daughter. All you have to do is relax your grip. I don’t want to have to hit you!!”

“Each and every word you think is helping her is only tearing her life to pieces!!”

I didn’t care anymore.

She had the upper hand while leaning down on top of me, but I was going to have my say!!

“Are you insane? However they might act elsewhere, parents can’t afford to do the wrong thing in front of their kid!! They can’t destroy their child’s image of them! I thought you understood that! Isn’t that why you couldn’t bear to see the warzone next door and took in a stranger like me!?”

I must have had a dark look in my eyes back then and I’m sure I really would have rotted away if she hadn’t given me a warm blanket and some hot milk.

So now it was my turn.

You’re the one who protected these feelings burning in my heart. Instead of falling into a jaded worldview and deriding the idea of hoping for a miracle, I can actually believe there is some kindness in this world.

So.

So.

So.

I refuse to give up here.

If your heart really has gone empty and you don’t have anything left with which to save the Class Rep the right way, then I’ll return what you gave me in the past!!

This opportunity came from you originally, so hold your head high and let me save you!!

“Maxwell!!”

“Loud noise warning.”

The blast of noise was so loud I thought it would blow out my phone’s speaker.

That alone wouldn’t do any damage.

Not even a smartphone was that convenient.

But.

Shoumi-san had already been blinded by the microplastics sticking to her glasses, so what would happen if her inner ear was shaken by an ear-splitting roar?

“?”

She wobbled to the left while on top of me. And she may not have even been aware of it.

I used that to my advantage.

“Ahhhh!!”

I twisted my hips to throw her to the side. I climbed on top of her instead and used my weight to pin her down.

But even after that, she smiled thinly up at me.

With a hint of self-deprecation.

“What are you going to do now?”

“…”

“You are where I was 30 minutes ago, Satori-kun. You might have the upper hand now, but as soon as my hands are free, I will go and kill that girl. Tie me up with rope or handcuff me if you like, but I will break free. And once I break free, I will kill her. So what do you do!? Try to persuade me? Put me to sleep with a drug? Seal me up in some secret underground room? None of those are realistic! Now you know what the one and only actual answer is, don’t you!? The only way to stop a criminal who won’t listen to reason is to kill them!!”

Maybe so.

Maybe so, but still!

“Maxwell.”

“No,” she said. “I’m asking you. You’re the one that irresponsibly stopped me and is thus exposing my daughter to danger, so don’t think you can escape this by running to your machine for answers.”

“Kh.”

I was pinning her down and held the meat tenderizer, but my heart was going to be swallowed up if she kept this up!

When she lectured you, she would cut off all other options with a bunch of super reasonable arguments that even a child had to accept.

This person really was Shoumi-san.

No matter how far she had fallen!!

“And don’t try to say it would make my daughter sad. We both know this is about something more important than that. So what is it you want to do in front of that daughter? Answer me! And if you can’t, then get off of me!!”

She hopped up from below me.

She was going to throw me off of her!?

“…!!”

I clenched my teeth and raised the meat tenderizer.

By the time I held my phone toward her face with my other hand, she had almost entirely broken free.

It almost looked like a golf practicing app.

Lines indicating the ideal angle, level of force, and speed of the swing were displayed over the real image shown on the phone.

But the real image in this case was the glasses woman’s skull.

I used the meat tenderizer with a light enough touch that it was like pressing a switch on her right temple. I was pretty sure it was a light enough blow that it would cause the entire stack to collapse in a game of Daruma Otoshi.

But because I followed the guide, the force propagated accurately into her skull and rattled it just enough for her eyes to go unfocused. I quickly stuck my thumb in her mouth because it looked like she was going to bite her tongue from the shock, but she did not react at all to having something stuck into her mouth.

She had passed out.

“Pant, pant!!”

“Just to be sure, you should remove her snowy glasses and check her pupil’s reaction when you shine your phone’s light.”

I didn’t have it in me to follow Maxwell’s advice there.

I heard someone trudging through the snow on trembling legs to approach me. I slowly looked up while still sitting on top of the woman.

“Satori…-kun? Are you okay?”

“Sorry, Class Rep. I couldn’t find an answer for anything.”

“Those questions were meaningless. She didn’t have an answer herself.”

That was true.

No one had an answer.

But Shoumi-san had hoped I would have one, even though she felt irritated by my sudden arrival while she felt pushed to the limit. So she had tried to get me to give one. If I had been able to give her an answer, I might have been able to end all this and eliminate all her concerns by telling her she didn’t have to kill Umikaze and telling her she could protect her ordinary life without any blood on her hands!!

She had been about to kill someone because she couldn’t find another answer, so she had wanted someone to stop her more than anyone, but even I had ultimately taken the easy way out and relied on violence. So it all left me with a bitter aftertaste.

“Maxwell, what can I tie her up with?”

“Your belt or zip ties would work. Plastic rope digs into the skin, so tying them too tight can cut off blood flow.”

I dug through my pockets and found a few zip ties for tying together cables. Don’t ask why I had them on me. That’s just how workshop boys are. Think of it like how dog lovers always have dog fur on their clothes. For now, I used one of those to tie unconscious Shoumi-san’s hands behind her back.

And.

This was not over yet.

“Where is Umikaze Speechia?”

The Class Rep had left everything there to come check on me.

Which meant…

“…”

I saw someone slowly walking while half dragging her heavy body along using the guardrail.

She wasn’t walking toward us.

She didn’t have that much fighting spirit left.

She had turned her shabby back on us so she could sneak away. Her long blonde hair swayed side to side like an old grandfather clock’s pendulum.

Yeah, that makes sense.

She already had venom pumping through her veins and then she was nearly killed after being caught off guard by Shoumi-san who she had underestimated for being a mere human. Now was not the time for her dignity as a JB member or as an Archenemy. She could only bite her lip and tremble in shame as she ran away.

It reminded me of the skinny young man from JB who had been shot to death in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department holding cell. The video hadn’t shown his face as he died, but I imagine it was something like this.

But.

I was sick of being tossed around by her selfishness. If it weren’t for her actions, the Class Rep and Shoumi-san never would have suffered like that.

If I let her go, she would try to strike back the first chance she got.

I still didn’t have an answer to the questions that woman had hit me with. In fact, I had instead wielded a blunt weapon against her when she was only driven by her worries.

“Satori…-kun?”

But I did know one thing: I couldn’t let her go.

This had nothing to do with being human or Archenemy.

I got up from Shoumi-san while still holding the meat tenderizer that looked like it was designed based on a hammer.

I slowly stood up.

I couldn’t let that girl get away.

No matter what.

“Satori-kun!?”

Part 8

That small figure was trying to run away on shaky legs.

She was curling up her back as if to protect herself and occasionally looking back over her shoulder in the most pathetic way.

Since she was running, she had to know what she had done was wrong. She had known it was wrong, but she did it anyway. And when it didn’t turn out the way she wanted, she had tossed it all aside and run away to save her own hide.

I couldn’t just let her go.

I only had to use that conspicuous blonde hair as a guide.

“Heh.”

I hadn’t meant for it, but a breath of laughter escaped from the bottom of my gut for some reason.

I heard a dull sound from my hand.

It came from the grip of the hammer-like meat tenderizer I was squeezing tight.

Oh.

Is this what it felt like for Shoumi-san, who isn’t an Archenemy or a pro assassin, to lift me by my neck with a single hand?

Even if someone tried to stop me or more or less threatened to take away my future, I wasn’t going to listen. I had my hands full just keeping the next five seconds from falling apart.

I was vaguely glad that I hadn’t squeezed my phone in that same way.

“Don’t you run away…”

I understood now why she had thrown the meat tenderizer at me as her very first attack.

You couldn’t plan further than five seconds out in this state. You couldn’t wait long enough to lure your fleeing prey into a dead end so you could attack them there.

My mind had progressed further than that, but my body refused to listen, like it was staggering forward. I wasn’t going to stop. Because this was the correct answer straight outta the textbook!

“…from meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

Something caught at my right arm.

Just as I prepared to throw the meat tenderizer at the coward’s back, the Class Rep frantically grabbed at my arm with all her strength. The meat tenderizer slipped from my hand and spun off in the wrong direction.

But that was fine.

I didn’t need that weapon.

“Stop, Satori-kun.”

I could find stones to hit her with if I dug into the snow around here. And if I didn’t want to place any suspicion on the Class Rep or that woman, then it was a lot cleverer to find a weapon out here.

I had a vague idea that I could tear her leg muscles like this and then maybe she wouldn’t be able to get back up.

That sounded good to me.

And shut up, conscience. I don’t want to hear from you right now.

“Please!! Don’t you resort to violence too! Don’t leave me all alone!!”

The Class Rep shouted something while her feet were lifted from the ground and she swayed like a pendulum.

A pleasant scent tickled at the tip of my nose.

She was using both arms to cling to me, so a lot of softness and warmth was reaching me. Ignore the situation and we probably looked like a boyfriend and girlfriend pressing shoulders together.

But…

(She’s getting away.)

However…

(Class Rep, she’s getting away. Then she’ll strike back. And what about Shoumi-san? It’s all that Scylla’s fault. She’s an Archenemy. What were her good points? A transfer student. I thought she was a friend. Is there anything that will make her hesitate? JB. She was after me. It’s my fault. Because I just sat there and let it all happen!!)

The scales were shaking.

The cup sitting on the scales was beginning to spill its overfilled contents.

Would I stop here, or would I continue one? Would I let her live, or would I kill her?

Would I give up, I would I break free?

I clenched my teeth so hard I thought they would break.

And I shouted the thought on my mind at the very last moment.

“Class Rep!!”

I couldn’t have sounded more pathetic.

It must have sounded oddly distorted, like I was peeling something off of the back of my throat.

But then I felt her arms around my neck instead of my arm and we tumbled down onto the snow together.

“Ah.”

None of it felt bittersweet.

She was sobbing and wailing while clinging to my chest. Almost like she had completed her round of Russian roulette without dying.

Had it been that bad?

Had it looked that likely I was going to kill someone here?

“Ahhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

I heard a silly fwump sound.

Umikaze Speechia must have tripped over her own feet.

She had been trying to escape while propping herself up on the guardrail, but now she had collapsed limply into the microplastic snow. Her long blonde hair trailed behind her. Itou-san’s venom must have finally caught up to her. After collapsing forward, the Scylla showed no sign of getting back up.

And.

“Fugu.” With a dull thud, Ayumi dropped straight down on top of Umikaze with the intensity of a lightning bolt.

She must have been leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

My sister crouched down with her feet together atop the face-down Scylla and she looked over at me.

“What the heck, Onii-chan!? You tell me to rush here and I get here to find you hugging your Class Rep while ignoring the harsh reality around you? What happened to her mom!?”

“You just ended this. Although I was kind of hoping to show she wasn’t even worth killing.”

Part 9

Things might look over and done with, but this was in fact not at all over.

Once I had Umikaze Speechia the Scylla’s arms bound behind her back with a zip tie, I managed to lift her up onto my shoulder.

But…

“Ghhh.”

“You’re not a trained firefighter, so why would you think you can do that, Onii-chan? Here, give her to me.”

“But Shoumi-san managed to walk through the snow carrying her… And you’re in charge of her anyway.”

“Fugu? The neighbor?”

“She’ll honestly be too much for me once she comes to, so I was hoping you could restrain her with your Zombie strength once she starts struggling.”

Yes.

We had knocked her out for now, but the Scylla would begin plotting revenge as soon as the venom left her body. And Shoumi-san would do everything she could to kill Umikaze Speechia to prevent that. It didn’t matter that this was her daughter’s classmate.

We had stopped things for the time being, but we hadn’t actually solved anything.

“Looks like our only choice is to drag them back home.”

“Fugu. Your Class Rep really looks like she wants to help.”

“No way. I want her to remain pure. I’m not getting her involved in this.”

“Wait, hold on. What about me?”

Ayumi, a very convenient girl I could summon with the tap of a button on my phone, glared at me, but I ignored it.

Our first destination was my house.

Maybe we should have left Shoumi-san with the Class Rep and let them go home, but I really didn’t think the Class Rep could handle her alone. If she woke up and still had that inhuman strength left, she would be able to tear right through a zip tie or duct tape.

It was less than 200m home, but my arms were exhausted by the time I got back while dragging Umikaze Speechia by her legs. She was in her school uniform, so her underwear was fully visible the entire time. But in that situation, it didn’t even seem like a treat.

But getting home wasn’t the end.

I still had another job to do just in case.

I caught my breath and then grabbed the shovel and broom from the entranceway.

“I’m going to erase the track made while dragging her. Ayumi, you look after things here.”

The falling snow would likely cover up the track on its own, but it couldn’t hurt to manually alter the microplastics already on the ground. Anyone who didn’t know the situation would only see me as a pierce of garbage who dragged an unconscious teenage girl back home with him.

Even after the poisoning, Umikaze had showed no sign of relying on a hideout kept by another JB member.

I doubted she had any direct colleagues or subordinates, but I didn’t want to get on the wrong side of a muscular young man who got the wrong idea about what was going on. It wouldn’t be surprising to find someone using the pursuit of justice as a way of blowing off steam while the disaster kept them indoors and their frustrations built. I really didn’t want to get beaten up further after all this.

Oh, and one other thing.

“I heard you captured the Scylla, Senpai.”

“I did.”

I called my underclassman and had her join me. After completing the work outside, I went back into my house.

“Eek!?”

The venom must not have worked well on her after all because Umikaze had already woken up in the living room, but she scrambled back on her butt the instant she saw Itou-san. Her arms were still bound behind her back, so her short skirt did some interesting things there. Not that it mattered when I had already seen everything while dragging her here.

Yes.

The higher-ranked Circe Witch could physically prevent the Scylla from doing anything more. But I couldn’t have Itou-san watching over her 24/7, so this was still only a temporary solution.

My underclassman put a hand on her lovely hip and a transparent jellyfish tentacle crawled out from her lower back.

“Looks like she’s woken up already, so should I inject her with a more powerful dose of venom? Oh, but if she’s developed some weird antibodies, the second time could cause anaphylaxis.”

“That won’t be necessary. I honestly called you here in case she wasn’t waking up and I needed an antidote.”

“Um?”

She tilted her head in the cutest way and the jellyfish tentacle bent to form a giant question mark.

Umikaze must have learned a hard lesson about that venom because she was seated with her back against the wall and trembling with her hands still bound behind her back. I crouched in front of her and got down to business.

“JB.”

“!”

“You sounded pretty confident when you said that. And you did all this to apply pressure to me. Now, you know what I mean by ‘all this’, don’t you? I’m not just talking about taking over the school.”

“…”

“Let’s discuss how this all began.”

Maxwell had mentioned that the microplastic snow was almost certainly an intentional attack instead of a simple disaster.

“How much is JB involved in this? Are you the person who built their Freischutz simulator, or are you someone it’s bossing around? And how much of this will recover if I deal with you?”

That might sound powerful, but having to ask all that was an admission that I was several steps behind. I had confiscated her phone, but not even Maxwell could break into it. I had no idea how much of that was reliant on their simulator, though.

But.

Confiscate her device and she loses all that. Just like I’m a normal high school boy without my phone.

I couldn’t let her notice.

I could only hope she was caught up in the moment.

“Wh-what do I…” She gave a pale-faced glance over at my underclassman’s wriggling jellyfish tentacles. “What do I gain if I tell you any of that?”

“I can persuade her.”

I didn’t mean Itou Helen.

When Umikaze looked where I pointed my thumb, she jumped so hard she fell over onto her back. This time, her underwear really was on full display.

Yes.

Shoumi-san was lying on the sofa.

“I don’t want to make a murderer out of her either, so let’s find a good compromise here. …I can’t solve the microplastic snow issue without you. That means it will be all thanks to your help that we can save her daughter. That will be enough to stop her. So talk. Before she wakes up.”

“…”

“If you don’t, I really don’t see how I can stop the bloodshed. If it comes to that, I’ll cut your zip tie, so just run away form here as fast as you can. I’m not on your side, but like I said, I don’t want any more blood on her hands.”

I didn’t make any weird threats.

I didn’t exaggerate.

I simply told the truth. Sometimes, that was the most frightening thing. That Scylla controlled groups in a closed environment using lies and panic, so she would understand better than most how valuable the truth was.

There was no stopping that woman.

She would do whatever it took to protect someone she had found to be more important even when weighed against the rest of the world.

Umikaze had to understand at this point how frightening a parent could become when they really and truly felt the need to act.

She gulped and she must have realized there was no other way of escaping this situation. She finally parted her lips and moved her dry throat to push out a trembling voice.

“I-I mentioned the Charybdis, didn’t I?”

“The monster that works in a pair with the Scylla, right? The students at the school became that giant monster when their panic made them form a single aggressive mob.”

A Scylla alone was not a powerful Archenemy. The Scylla simply attacked people in secret during the panic caused by the Charybdis.

But.

“That isn’t quite accurate,” she said. “There is a monster and I do specialize in taking advantage of the panic it causes, but the panicking students were not the monster.”

“…?”

“They were the heroes tossed about aboard the ship…in other words, they were my food. I can control them, but they aren’t my equal partner.”

Then what was the monster?

Could the giant man-eating monster be the Freischutz simulator? No, that wasn’t it.

After some thought, I arrived at an answer.

“The microplastic snow is the great storm – that is, the artificially created disaster – meant to shake the large boat and send the heroes into a panic,” she said.

“You mean the giant sea monster that created that storm is…?”

“The Noble Ingot cargo ship still burning out at sea and sending out an endless supply of snow. That is the partner, the Charybdis, that JB prepared for me. But that isn’t all.”

“?”

This went beyond anything I expected. She was starting in on a different topic.

Taking some semblance of the initiative may have relaxed her tension because she laughed a little.

“Didn’t you find that cargo ship fire odd? It’s been days since the fire began and it still isn’t showing any sign of being extinguished. Even though the firefighter boats surrounding it are professional equipment. Do you really think the fire would last this long for no reason?”

“An unextinguishable fire? But how could JB create something like that? I put out a microplastic fire near Huge Camera with just an ordinary firehose.”

“That only works with the snow accumulated on the ground,” said the blonde girl. Wait, no. There’s more than one blonde here. Said the wicked blonde girl. “But the cargo ship is the source of the microplastics, so the amount in the air there is far greater. The coast guard appears to be using a foam extinguishing chemical meant for use against petroleum products, but coating the ship’s deck and floor with the stuff isn’t enough. There, it can burn in the air when the density is right. Simply put, the heavy extinguishing chemical passes right through it. Right through the air that could ignite.”

The Charybdis was a monster that created a giant whirlpool to trap a ship full of heroes.

“I can’t believe this. So the firefighters or coast guard or whoever they are won’t accomplish anything no matter how hard they try?”

“But once they correct for their mistake, the Noble Ingot’s fire will not last long. All that remains is to find a way to get word to them during this blackout.”

I finally felt like the goal was in sight.

[Crawler Search] Ocean Fire [The Words You Need!]

Ocean fires are fires aboard ships, oil rigs, megafloats, and other ocean structures. The definition is vague since fires on islands or reclaimed land connected to the ground qualify as ordinary fires, but some experts insist that fires on bridges, artificial islands, and underwater tunnels qualify.

Ocean fires tend to be taken less seriously than wildfires and fires at industrial complexes because of the low risk of it spreading to residential areas on land, but they are extremely risky fires that pose a significant risk of secondary damage to the firefighting crews sent there.

With fires on large ships such as cargo ships and cruise ships (and submarines, although those are rare in Japan), searching for survivors can be difficult because the smoke fills the corridors, turning it into a smoky labyrinth, and extinguishing the fire comes with a great variety of risks such as the possible ignition of the fuel or flammable cargo, the flooding of different areas of the ship, electrical shocks from shorts in the electrical system, and even the entire ship tilting or sinking. They can be seen as some of the most difficult fires to extinguish.

Ocean fires are dangerous even when they are the result of an accident, but the risk doubles when they are set intentionally. A large ship traveling between different nations can contain weapons not found in your home country and domestic cases might not be a good reference for how often guns or explosives will be found.

That is why ocean fires tend to be handled not by the ordinary fire fighters but by the coast guard who are trained as divers and for unexpected naval combat. That might sound simple enough, but the Fire and Disaster Management Agency belongs to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications while the Japan Coast Guard belongs to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, so they often fight hard to be the ones placed in charge of a case that will make them look really good on the news when they solve it. Not because everyone wants to be a hero, but because those obvious results are an excellent way of demonstrating why they deserve a larger budget in the next fiscal year. It can be hard to tell since they are paid from the people’s tax money, but government jobs are indeed jobs and they are always focused on profitability – in other words, on cost performance.

But to put it another way, ocean fires are so dangerous that they stop worrying about such things when it comes to them.

Chapter 5

Part 1

Night had fallen.

I heard soft footsteps descending the stairs. It was Erika, my Vampire big sister.

But my sexy sister wearing only a sheer pink negligee (!?) tilted her head as soon as she entered the living room.

“Oh?”

She was apparently puzzled by the smell of food before since she had not started doing the cooking herself.

Without any power, none of the lights were working.

But keeping my phone’s light on all the time would be a waste of its battery, so I had created a simple light by placing a flashlight shining into a clear bowl flipped upside down. I had based the idea on those lights in night construction zones that resembled the paper lanterns at the Hinamatsuri.

We had cooked the food using a portable stove sitting on the table. The water supply had been stopped too, so we had used bottled water for that. After flavoring it with the curry Erika had made for us yesterday, we had added some vegetables like potatoes and corn that kept well at room temperature.

Cooking rice without power or running water would have been too difficult, so we had used udon instead.

The end result was a fantastic curry bowl, but while I keep saying “we”, I didn’t make it.

“Erika-chan? I know this is your home, but do you have to walk around dressed like that?”

The glasses woman tending to the earthenware pot spoke in a gentle but chiding manner.

Needless to say, it was the wife next door, Shoumi-san.

“You made this?”

“Sorry for using your kitchen without asking, but it looked like you had some things that needed to be used before they went bad.”

“I’m only borrowing the kitchen from our mom anyway. And I’m sure she would be comfortable with you taking over in her stead. But…hm. I see you leave the potato skins on.”

They looked amiable enough.

They mentioned a bunch of stuff about nutrition that went over Ayumi and my heads, like it’s best not to wash them too much and that cooking them destroys the vitamins.

To be honest, we had barely managed it this time. It had of course helped that Itou-san could physically prevent Umikaze Speechia from doing anything and that the Scylla herself had told us how to solve the snow problem.

But in the end, it came down to emotions.

The most logical of explanations may not have been enough to convince Shoumi-san. She might have decided it was still “safest” to kill the girl and eliminate all possibility of trouble.

She had temporarily pushed past her normal limits due to her extreme tension, so once she managed to calm down, things would revert to neutral.

But even that was only an optimistic theory. Whether or not our neighbor would ever truly be the same again was a gamble.

Still, I hadn’t given up on her.

Because I believed she was worthy of forgiveness.

I had waited this long because I wanted to include my Vampire sister as part of our fighting force. And because I had wanted to give Maxwell time to gather and analyze data.

Since the ordinary household power was out, none of the streetlights were on outside. The living room TV was dead too.

Ayumi was holding a small emergency TV (with a hand crank generator) that our mom had probably bought off an informercial and immediately shoved in a closet. The Class Rep and Itou-san were shoulder-to-shoulder with her to see the screen. And damn those three were cute altogether like that.

“No further news has come in regarding the Noble Ingot cargo ship fire. The flames continue to burn. The coast guard’s firefighting boats continue to battle the blaze, but experts say this fire includes flammable plastic materials instead of just fuel, so some are saying the only option is to wait for it to burn itself out.”

I could hear the female broadcaster from here.

The news was the same as it had been yesterday and the day before.

They weren’t accidentally reading yesterday’s script without noticing the wrong date at the top, were they?

Yes.

“Come to think of it, it never did make sense.”

Not even those firefighting experts could put out the ship fire with their fire extinguishing foam. Because even when the foam covered the deck, the fire could send the microplastics into the air if the density was right.

But…

“If they continue spraying ordinary water, they should be able to knock all the snow out of the air.”

If we wanted them to put out the fire, we only had to get accurate information to them.

That might sound reasonable enough, but those magic words of 20/20 hindsight could be applied to most any situation. If we had realized this from the beginning, we could have done this much sooner.

But we still had a chance to fix this.

“Maxwell, I’m about ready to hear what data you’ve gathered. Or do you need more time?”

“Questioning my abilities as a machine before asking a question will not improve my performance. (´Д` ) Hmph.”

It sure seems to make a difference with you, but does that mean I’m ignorantly anthropomorphizing you too much?

“The cargo ship burning out at sea was a toy prepared by JB from the beginning,” I said. “It’s burning now to provide the monster needed for the Scylla to operate within the city they’ve intentionally isolated. So let’s check over things one at a time. …What’s the coast guard doing? Umikaze made it sound like they’re honestly trying to put out the fire but failing.”

“Sure. They are mostly the firefighting division arrived from the next city over. The two cities have an agreement to assist each other if an industrial complex fire or something similar makes the local harbor facilities unusable.”

“The next city over.”

They wouldn’t have an infinite supply of that chemical fire extinguishing foam. If they were reloading at the harbor there, then going there to speak with them could have been an option, but…

“Then going to them directly isn’t an option, is it?”

“Sure.”

“Then what about sending them a transmission? You and me are communicating right now.”

“Their firefighting boats use a special band for their ship radios, so reaching them with an ordinary phone or over the internet would be very difficult. Leaked videos are common nowadays, so they apparently have their private phones gathered up and stored in a safe before they head out on a job.”

“Are you saying their boats don’t use GPS?”

“Excuse me. All of their industrial communication devices require a special data key for emergency workers. Breaking into that on such short notice is not realistic.”

Which meant…

“Maxwell, I want to use a drone. I can use a speaker to get my voice directly to the firefighting boats out at sea. That way we can tell them to use seawater instead of that foam.”

“Will they really listen to some anonymous advice? They will follow standard procedure by always looking up to their commanding officer to see what to do. There is no room for adlibbing there.”

“They’ll be desperate for anything that might work right now. Once they find out the water works, they’ll know what to do.”

Drones came in a number of varieties, but I had heard helicopters and planes couldn’t fly in this snow.

But the drones I used weren’t the multicopter ones that looked like crane flies. I used balloon drones made by attaching a rubber balloon to the top of a spray can.

However, they did use a small propeller for changing direction and the microplastics would probably wreak havoc on the motor and gears.

I didn’t want to send one flying too far.

“Let’s get as close to the ocean as we can, launch a drone from there, and try to get this info to the coast guard so they’ll start using ordinary water.”

“That makes sense, but there are still risks.”

“Do you think JB has more than just Umikaze here?”

We all glanced over at the wicked blonde girl, but the Scylla seated on the floor shook her head.

“My connections to the rest of JB aren’t that strong. I don’t know any details on the cargo ship set up as Charybdis or on their defenses here.”

“…”

“Wait, keep that scary woman away from me!! I-I really don’t know anything!!”

I was beginning to see how to keep her compliant.

If she was being difficult, I could let Itou-san the Archenemy or Shoumi-san the Class Rep mom handle it. She was a much less dangerous villain than the Valkyrie widow(!?) named Karen.

I still didn’t have a clear idea of what exactly JB was. Only that several criminals seemed to be cooperating via a network. In other words, they were all linked by the Freischutz simulator. We had bigger issues right now, but once the snow problem was dealt with, I had to get her to tell me more about that.

“Even if there is no further JB presence here, there are still other threats,” said Maxwell. “Kukyou City has been pushed to the limit, so it is at high risk for severe moral hazards. You are talking about visiting the harbor at night. Anything could happen there.”

Was the idea of the benevolent citizen only an illusion?

I would die just the same no matter who stabbed me, so I had to be careful.

“Fugu. But aren’t the coast guard experts? Why can’t they figure out for themselves that they can put out the fire by switching methods?”

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to break through their professionalism and the preconception that they need to put out this fire as quickly as possible, Idiot #1?” asked Maxwell. “And did a musclebound meathead like you neglect any brain training to the point you failed to realize that there are several legal barriers in the way of what you suggest, and that Japan’s public agencies tend to have their freedom restricted to a considerable degree, you simpleton? Now, if you don’t feel like being actually useful, how about you go over and start counting the wood grain on the floor.”

Ayumi bit her lip and started trembling in place, so I went over and hugged her. It felt like that was my duty as a big brother right then.

But anyway…

“If we can get the Noble Ingot extinguished, this will all be over.”

Firing an anti-ship missile that skimmed just off the ocean’s surface would probably be able to sink the cargo ship, but the world didn’t give us such a convenient option.

And…

“We need to gather data on the ship. If someone’s still onboard, we need to make sure the coast guard focuses on rescuing them.”

Umikaze shook her long blonde hair side to side as she looked around with obvious caution.

“Even if they’re one of JB’s cast members?”

“Even then. Try to understand my stance here. And the fact that I’m actually speaking with you here right now should show I actually mean it.”

Cast member, huh?

There are so many other terms they could use: staff member, agent, soldier, employee, teammate, brother/sister, comrade, pawn, ally, etc.

How did they refer to Freischutz? That is the name of an opera, I suppose.

“So the harbor at night, huh?”

How many drones did I have ready to go?

There were so many possible barriers in my way: a JB ambush, the city’s desperate people, and the microplastic snow to name a few. It would be best to not assume the very first drone would work.

“Normal water works better against that snow than chemical fire extinguishing foam. We need to contact the coast guard’s firefighters and get them to finally extinguish that cargo ship fire.”

Part 2

Things had changed.

Rain was pounding on the roof.

“It’s pouring.” Ayumi looked out the living room window. “If only this would put out the cargo ship fire.”

“We wouldn’t be that lucky.”

It might help some since it would take the microplastics out of the air, but you never heard of firefighters leaving a burning building because it was raining and that would take care of things for them. We still needed the help of the coast guard.

Once the microplastics around the city soaked up the rainwater, the risk of a large fire reduced considerably, so we did still need to view this rain as a blessing.

“Anyway, Ayumi, are you ready to go?”

“Fugu.”

That was not a clear yes or no (and she was the type to wait till the last second to do her summer homework), so I helped her check through her backpack which had a single shoulder strap…and just as I suspected, she wasn’t ready at all.

Zombies needed a lot of special care, like needle, thread, disinfectant, and preservatives. Especially when it was raining and that rain would be tangled with microplastics. Really, she probably shouldn’t have been going outside at all.

“If you want to lose the title of ‘idiot’ then you need to start looking after your own bag.”

“It’s all of you who call me that for no good reason!”

I helped my tearful little sister get her things in order while thinking about what we had to do.

Ultimately, we had to get the Noble Ingot fire put out.

That required letting the coast guard firefighters know their current efforts were a waste of time and they should use ordinary water instead.

It might be difficult to get a drone out in this snow, so to reduce the risk of it crashing, we were going to the harbor to launch it from the shortest possible distance.

That would solve the microplastic snow problem plaguing Kukyou City.

The group walking to the harbor was me, Ayumi, Erika, Itou Helen, and Umikaze Speechia.

“Okay, the idiot’s ready now, so let’s get going.”

Shoumi-san took a break from efficiently using the limited water to wash the dishes and poked her head out into the living room.

“Are you sure this is a good idea? Shouldn’t you go to the police instead?”

“They’ll start functioning again once we’re done. We can leave the rest with them then, so don’t worry.”

“…”

She wanted to find a reason to stop us, but she knew full well the police would be no help here. That was why she had taken matters into her own hands when it came to protecting her daughter.

Meanwhile, the Class Rep gave me a complicated look since she had not been chosen to join our group, but I wasn’t going to change my mind on this. Mostly because bringing her into danger would in turn put Shoumi-san on edge. The extreme actions she had taken only worked on a limited basis, so she could not rely on that monstrous strength forever.

And one other thing.

“C’mon, let’s go, Umikaze.”

“Ugh, you’re really making me betray JB, aren’t you?”

After seeing that other JB “cast member” shot to death in a police holding cell, I understood why she wasn’t thrilled by the idea.

But on the other hand…

“(Would you prefer to stay here with Shoumi-san?)”

I whispered the magic words in an ear with blonde hair falling over it and the Scylla froze in place.

I didn’t trust her not to cause trouble, but that was exactly why I couldn’t leave her behind with the Class Rep and her mom. I didn’t want her plotting revenge and she could end up being torn limb from limb if Shoumi-san started having doubts again. The woman was smiling now, but that was only because we were providing some guarantee of safety.

She would do anything for her daughter.

In that sense, she was a perfectly “normal” person.

Erika called to us from the entrance.

“I have the umbrellas ready. We appear to have more than enough for everyone.”

“Why does a family of five have so many umbrellas?”

The rain was unexpected, but we couldn’t change our plan now.

Kukyou City was at its limit.

Umikaze of JB had been agitating people today, but who could say what tomorrow would hold. Conflict could be sparked by all sorts of things that didn’t even need to be connected to a villain’s plans or Freischutz’s calculations. What scared me most was for widespread rioting to envelop the city after developing naturally, outside of any conspiracy or plotting. With no clear cause, you couldn’t find a way to prevent it.

So before that happened, we had to break Kukyou City’s bonds and set it free.

“Okay, Class Rep, Shoumi-san. We’ll be going.”

“Take care. And I mean that.”

The Class Rep sounded worried as we stepped out into the night with various colors of umbrella.

The rain sounded awfully heavy on our umbrellas, but was that due to the microplastics in the air? I could see some dark gray sludge on the surface of the umbrellas.

Hopefully the drone would be okay.

I doubted the rain could knock it from the air, but it could lead to some unexpected malfunction.

“The snow feels different underfoot now, Senpai.”

Itou-san tilted her head while trudging through the snow and carrying an umbrella too large for her short stature.

We didn’t want the snow to take in enough air to become flammable, but it caused a different problem when it grew wet and flat.

It became heavy and hard.

Maybe it was like a down blanket that had soaked up a bunch of water. I could hear some creaking sounds and looked around to see a thick tree in a nearby yard close to breaking from the weight of the snow.

“I hope this won’t be too much weight for the roofs,” said Erika who was using a bat umbrella.

I didn’t want to tell her, but I was pretty sure this would damage the roofs.

My feet slid on the snow instead of sinking into it. My footing was as unstable as walking on a surface fully coated with wet leaves. Hopefully cars and motorcycles wouldn’t slip on this.

This was yet another reason why Kukyou City couldn’t wait much longer.

The city would cease to be a city if it was left at the mercy of the microplastic snow.

Our destination was the coast, but not the beach in the shopping district. We were interested in the concrete industrial area. The container yard where Maxwell was stored was there.

I asked Umikaze some more questions on the way.

“So the water filter misinformation related to Huge Camera was you too?”

“That was meant to create an external enemy and provide a demonstration that would help me take over at the school. They needed some close-to-home concern or they wouldn’t think to stay in the school and find weapons, right?”

I couldn’t believe it.

While we had been risking our lives to protect the city, we had been helping JB gather data for manipulating people.

Erika twirled her black bat umbrella while asking a cautious question.

“Then are there more JB people in Kukyou City?”

“Don’t ask me. We’re connected through Freischutz’s network, but I’ve never actually met them. If I knew where any of them were, I would have gone to them first.”

I doubted she was lying about that.

Not only had she not gone to anyone for help after being poisoned by Itou-san, she had worked on her own to take over the school. If she had someone else she could work with, I bet they could have found a way to take over the school without revealing who they were. With an accomplice, they could create whatever alibis they needed.

JB.

It seemed like a huge organization, but I had a poor picture of what exactly it was. Or rather, it was hard to figure out what had brought its members together. Absolute Noah had used the very obvious bait of surviving the destruction of the world, but what interests and beliefs bound these people together?

“A jailbreak.”

“What kind of jailbreak?”

I had to ask that question since I was a huge electronics geek.

To jailbreak a phone was to break free of the protections put in place by the manufacturer’s settings and customize it however you liked. That violated the warranty, so everything you did from there was your own responsibility and what you thought was a convenient piece of free software could turn out to be a virus.

“We want to break free of this boring world,” said Umikaze. “Amatsu-kun, have you ever questioned the fact that the world runs on the decimal system?”

“Why would I?”

“1 day is 24 hours, 1 hour is 60 minutes, and 1 minute is 60 seconds. You can look at the units of weeks, months, and years too if you like. Do you see the number 10 anywhere in all of that?” The wicked blonde girl laughed. “Why is a kilogram a kilogram? Why is a meter defined the way it is? There are of course plausible reasons and stories for each and every one of those things, but those are all excuses, aren’t they? The dollar is the standard global currency because someone benefits from it. Same with English being the lingua franca. Don’t you find it odd that the Japanese write programs with English characters? Chinese and Indian programmers do the same. Because that’s ‘the way it’s done’. The meter and the gram are no different. That was made ‘the way it’s done’ because someone found it easier that way.”

This reminded me of the twisted way the former Bright Cross chose to have humans manage Archenemies because it was “easier” that way. Except this was on a much wider scale.

“So we in JB are casting a stone of doubt on our worldview and on all the definitions we accept as normal. We will tear down all presuppositions, renew everything, and construct a liberated world not bound to anyone’s vested interests. That is our idea of a jailbreak. To break free of the unseen rule of all the things everyone just accepts without bothering to question them.”

“So you’re looking up from the bottom of the pyramid?”

“In that sense, we’re the opposite of Absolute Noah that gathered the most privileged around the world to survive a great disaster together. In JB, we hate nothing more than those people who look down on the rest of us and force their rules onto us.”

Of course, these were the words of an enemy within JB, so I didn’t know how much of this I could believe. It would be best not to accept any of it until I had some more objective evidence.

In the worst case, it was even possible this was a sales talk that Freischutz had constructed to efficiently lure people into their group.

But who did they think was responsible for the “rule” they were trying to break free of?

Were they blaming humans or Archenemies?

Or did they blame the mysterious gods like Valkyrie Karen?

“I don’t know if it’s all of you or Freischutz who’s really in control there, but what you see here is what JB is actually doing.”

“…”

“Jailbreaking a phone will force the risk of viruses and hacked accounts onto unsuspecting ordinary users. Because you’re opening a hole in the safe network and that allows malware in. …Isn’t that essentially what you’re doing? If people learn their safety is being threatened for some stranger’s ‘freedom’, most people aren’t just going to accept it. Maybe the way things work now is designed to prop up someone’s vested interests, but what you’re forcing onto them is a heavy burden too.”

Maybe she didn’t have an answer to that.

Anyway, we walked through the rainy city to reach the ocean.

Itou-san gulped below her umbrella.

“It’s finally time, Senpai.”

“Yes. It’s almost 9. I don’t know when your curfew is, but I want to get you back home before you’re in too much trouble.”

“Could you not bring up that very realistic problem right now!? Ah, ahh! How am I ever supposed to explain this!?”

I was the one that had gotten their precious daughter involved in this mess, so if her parents were going to get after anyone, it should be me. But I decided not to mention that.

I could go apologize to them in secret and let them punch me while that cute underclassman was none the wiser.

And…

“Ohhhh, we’re really at the harbor at night.”

Ayumi excitedly waved her smallish plastic umbrella around, but I doubted she had started watching industrial tour videos for fun. So had she been watching police dramas or gang movies?

The harbor itself was not operational.

The entire bay had been blocked off for the firefighting and no ships were allowed in or out.

But there were still valuables in the containers and warehouses.

Even with the power out and the streetlights off – no, because of those things – they would still have night guards on duty. Otherwise, Maxwell’s container would have been crushed by the snow here. The guards’ presence was not appreciated at the moment, but I couldn’t forget to be thankful in general.

And I found what I was looking for.

There was a tear in the tall fence surrounding the harbor. I had heard a forklift had run into the fence and it never got fixed.

“This way.”

“Ugh, we’ll have to fold up our umbrellas to get through there,” said Ayumi. “And in this thick rain.”

I knew my way around the place since Maxwell was located here. Under normal circumstances, I would have gone and said hi to the guy at the gate.

Once through the hole in the fence, we weaved our way through the large warehouses and large piles of containers and trudged through the heavy, waterlogged snow to reach the wharf.

We wanted the shortest distance possible.

That meant leaving the area where Maxwell was and walking to the ferry loading zone that had a large space for loading and unloading cars.

The snow was piled up and a bunch of rain-wet cars were lined up there.

Boats were moored there, but I saw no sign of any people around.

“Fugu. This doesn’t look like a car company left an incoming shipment of new cars here.”

“It might be the opposite. People drove here hoping to leave the city, but the boats weren’t running and they were stuck.”

It was really dark with the streetlights out, but the ocean was unnaturally bright. A sunset-orange light was flickering there. It was a lot closer than I had expected. It was in front of the horizon, so…less than 3km probably. That was like the distance from one train station to another in a big city.

The Noble Ingot was still burning out there.

That was the Charybdis disaster gadget prepared for JB’s Scylla.

It was the cause of all this.

“Okay, let’s get started.”

Part 3

The reason the Noble Ingot fire had yet to be put out was the poor compatibility between the microplastic snow and the chemical fire extinguishing foam the coast guard was using. They could cover the ship in foam, but that wouldn’t fully stop the fire from sending the microplastics into the air. They could put out the fire if they set aside their special equipment and used seawater. The water would tangle with the snow in the air and cause it to fall.

But the rain wasn’t enough.

We did need the help of those professionals.

We had to send a drone from here to inform the firefighting boats out at sea.

“So how exactly do we do that?” asked Ayumi.

It seemed a bit late to be asking that, but maybe it was a sign of her trust in me that she had come all this way without knowing what we were doing.

“No, wait. She’s just so stupid it sounds like there’s some deeper meaning there, but there really isn’t.”

“Just answer my question!!”

I showed tearful Ayumi what I had brought with me.

“Here, Satori-kun.”

“Thanks.”

Erika placed her bat umbrella over me while I worked, but all I was doing was hitting the switch of a hairspray-sized metal can to inflate a balloon.

It was the same basic principle as the trick we had used at school.

The balloon was shaped like a meter-long rugby ball.

Balloons did not require much energy, but they weren’t fast. However, letting it float out there for too long would increase the risk of a malfunction. Desperate times called for desperate measures, so I had customized it into something like a blimp this time.

I could control it with my phone, so no special controller was necessary.

It could move forward, back, up, and down with its two small motors and by letting gas in or out.

I let go to see how it floated.

“Ohh, that’s really cool, Senpai.”

It was a shame the phone controller required both hands. Otherwise, I would have given Itou-san such a headpatting while she leaned forward with eyes sparkling.

Anyway.

I had wanted to take some time to practice since this was my first time doing this, but the microplastic snow and heavy rain meant a risk of the motors malfunctioning. It would probably be best to get right to it.

I sent the blimp-like drone out over the dark ocean while keeping it high enough to pass right over a truck. It had a camera, but for some reason, I watched it leaving instead of watching that footage.

I had no idea how willing the coast guard’s firefighters would be to listen to us, but this had to be far better than doing nothing at all.

Reach them.

Please reach them safely.

But those wishes were interrupted by static from my phone.

“Fugu? It’s falling, Onii-chan!!”

Ayumi sounded panicked, but failures weren’t all that unusual. The question was why it had failed. If we didn’t find an answer, we would only end up wasting all the spare drones. I analyzed the camera footage as best as I could.

And…

“It was shot down? Be careful everyone!! Hide behind a car and stay down on the-”

“Interesting. I didn’t expect you to directly interfere with the cargo ship.”

I heard a voice followed by the din of twisting metal from the side. A lot of twisting metal. Something had shot through the roofs of all the cars neatly lined up like at a soccer field’s parking lot. The entire line of cars was crushed and the large holes appearing in them were moving toward us!?

“Satori-kun!!”

Erika tugged on my arm and we rolled across the filthy ground together.

Her bat umbrella flew through the air and was shredded before it reached the ground.

The noise around us seemed distorted as the crushed and flipped-over scraps exploded. If not for the rain soaking the microplastic snow, who knows how far the fire would have spread.

We couldn’t just use the cars as shields. We were up against something that saw the cars as explosives instead of metal barriers. We’d just get blown up along with them.

But on that note, what was even happening here? Had a stealth fighter equipped with a Gatling gun made a strafing run or something!?

“This is fascinating even for JB, but…oh, I get it now.”

“Ugh.”

Umikaze Speechia’s butt trembled while she crawled along the ground a short distance away. No, she may have been trying to make a run for it during the confusion.

“One of our own leaked info to you,” said the voice. “That explains why the game pieces surpassed our expectations.”

The voice came from the side deck of one of the abandoned ferries moored here.

And I recognized the person looking down at us.

It was a girl with a red ponytail and skin tanned a light brown. She wore a baggy tank top and shorts, much like a basketball player.

“The girl from Huge Camera?”

She was the one that had been instigating a riot there.

Which meant she would be on JB’s side.

“Then again, capturing a traitor and convincing her to betray us is in itself beyond what Freischutz predicted. Amatsu Satori, you really are the final hurdle standing in JB’s way.”

What had happened to the others?

Where were Ayumi and Itou-san?

I couldn’t let her notice me looking for them, but I felt like anything I did here would work against me.

“So however it happened, I am glad you came here.”

The redheaded basketball girl gestured as if grabbing at empty air.

No, that wasn’t it.

“I came all this way to kill you, so I need to deliver on that.”

The microplastic snow would burn under the right conditions. It could also harden like a guillotine blade. I thought I fully understood that.

However.

I never imagined it could be shaped to be launched in a straight line like a bottle rocket!

“I-I’m part of JB too!? Are you really willing to blow me up along with him, Hotaruzawa Kezuri!?”

“I’m sorry to say your priority is ranked very low. Not that I know where my priority ranking falls within JB as a whole.”

Something flew toward me with the force of an artillery shell.

Part 4

To be honest, I was completely useless since all I could do was roll.

Our opponent could fire shells on the level of tank guns with the rapid-fire speed of a machinegun. And she would have plenty of materials with all this microplastic snow around.

“Kh.”

Erika grabbed me and rolled to the side just before the snow and the concrete below it were torn up in the spot we vacated. The cars here only looked like giant bombs to me now.

There were so many explosions and so much smoke you could forget it was raining.

“(Satori-kun, our top priority has to be the Circe Witch.)”

“Itou-san?”

“(Umikaze Speechia is only behaving because of the threat that girl poses to her. This Hotaruzawa girl is bad enough, so we really don’t want Umikaze rejoining the fight against us too.)”

Right. That was right.

Umikaze was a formidable Archenemy and she hadn’t had a change of heart and joined our side or anything like that. She would return to JB if she had the chance. That Hotaruzawa Kezuri girl made it sound like JB had given up on her, but who could say how Umikaze would respond to that.

Would she side with us since we were opposed to JB?

Would she attack us in the hopes of getting back in their good graces?

Would either option scare her enough that she chose to flee into the ocean or something?

Or would she return to the Class Rep’s house to have her revenge?

“I can’t predict what she’ll do. Dammit, but I know we can’t just ignore her!”

“Oh? You have guts ignoring me, Amatsu Satori-kun.”

I heard a voice from an impossible direction: directly above.

Had Hotaruzawa jumped from the ferry’s side deck!? Did she use the explosive force of the microplastic!?

Worse, there was a glittering blade in her hand. And I’m not just talking about a butcher’s knife or fruit knife. This was a full double-edged sword longer than she was tall.

“Satori-kun!!”

Erika shoved me aside while still collapsed on the ground. She rolled in the opposite direction herself.

A meteor crashed down between us.

“Kah!?”

I had avoided a direct hit, but I still had the breath knocked out of me. Had the impact blown away the waterlogged snow, slamming it into me with the force of a shotgun!?

“Hm. Convenient, but it could stand to be sturdier.”

The sword blade had entirely shattered, so Hotaruzawa spun the grip around like a baton. Even though it still had to be more dangerous than a broken beer bottle.

“But I’m willing to use whatever’s available to me.” The redheaded basketball girl turned to face me. “If I manage to kill you with a pen, that’s still a win for JB, Amatsu Satori-kun.”

“Ahhhhh!!”

I heard a shout from behind Hotaruzawa Kezuri as Erika performed a tackle toward her hips from behind with strength 20 times that of a human.

That was enough destructive force to launch her airborne if it hit, but the basketball girl did not even look back.

She spun the remaining grip of the sword behind her, stabbed it into the Vampire’s shoulder, and then used that like a handle to swing Erika around. She tossed her away along with the grip.

I heard a great crash as Erika slammed into the side of a nearby truck. The impact dented the stainless steel box of the cargo space and the tires slide to the side.

But.

What the hell was that!?

I had managed to crush her with the crowd so easily back in front of Huge Camera, but was she really capable of this when given enough room to move freely!?

“Erika!?”

“I am only interested in you.”

The basketball girl casually walked toward me.

She got so close that our lips would have touched had I moved my face even slightly.

“So let me make this clear: do not try anything here. You will only lose more people if you do.”

“…!!”

I couldn’t restrict myself.

I couldn’t narrow down my options.

Preventing me from acting by filling me with guilt and negative premonitions was a common technique for stage magicians. You were supposedly free to choose whichever of the 5 cards you wanted, but the next thing you knew, you were doing exactly what the magician wanted. I could never win this if I let that happen to me.

JB had a military-grade simulator called Freischutz.

I couldn’t imagine what all it could do since the military would be interested in a lot: tomorrow’s weather, the actions of enemies and allies alike, weapon designs, the economic influence of war, and even the propaganda effect of movies and dramas. So I had to assume there was more to Hotaruzawa’s threat.

This was odd.

I couldn’t tell you exactly what, but something seemed odd about this if she really was the person who had been trying to trigger a riot near Huge Camera. So I couldn’t stop thinking about it and I couldn’t give up!!

“Amatsu Satori-kun.”

She was so close.

This close, I couldn’t even guess what she was going to do!

“You can give up or you can continue to struggle, but this will end the same either way.”

I heard a sparking sound as if from a bug zapper.

Oh, right. Plastic was used in the capacitors that store electricity, wasn’t it!?

“I hope you will choose wisely.”

It was like a point-blank lightning strike.

Instead of shaking my eardrums, the boom seemed to grab and shake all of my bones.

I couldn’t breathe.

Dammit, fire, arrows, swords, and lightning? Was she using the microplastic as RPG magic!?

But…I was alive?

“Senpai!!”

It was my cute underclassman Itou Helen who had yanked me away, not the high-voltage current. That allowed me to just barely avoid it. The lightning flew through empty space and stabbed into a car. The car’s paint was discolored either by electrolysis or by the heat.

But.

Hotaruzawa Kezuri did not seem remotely troubled.

“I see. So she will be the additional sacrifice.”

“!?”

“No, Senpai! Don’t fall for it!!”

My breathing was rapid and the back of my mind felt numb. Dammit, was I starting to hyperventilate from the pressure?

“Who…what are you? I already know JB has a Scylla.”

“You mean what species I am?”

She laughed and stuck her hand in the duffel bag she carried over her shoulder.

She pulled out a softball-sized mass.

If that was a bunch of microplastic filled with air, then would it explode too!?

“I am only human.”

She threw an explosive much larger than a grenade.

Part 5

The explosions and shockwaves continued for a while after that.

“Don’t worry.”

While I rolled through the dark smoke and thick rain, Itou-san pulled me behind a van and spoke to me.

“These indiscriminate attacks aren’t that dangerous. It looks like your older sister managed to escape too, so she won’t be taken hostage!”

“What about Ayumi?”

“Some guards were coming this way, so she went to deal with them. Um, but she seemed to be ‘dealing with them’ in a fairly violent way.”

Was she karate chopping them on the back of the head or something? Well, ordinary guards wouldn’t have guns. And letting other people show up here would only give Hotaruzawa more targets.

Anyway, that meant the real threat was the Scylla, Umikaze Speechia. Itou-san was busy dealing with me, so she was free to act.

How much had Freischutz predicted here? Hotaruzawa had seemed surprised we were here at all.

“This is strange.”

“Senpai?”

“I’ve seen Hotaruzawa before. She was trying to instigate a riot in the city. But if she had this kind of power, she would have been able to fight back against me. In fact, she wouldn’t have even needed the riot. She could have destroyed the city herself.”

“Um, maybe she wanted to hide her Archenemy power. I mean, if I broke into a safe with my Circe Witch power, I might as well be telling everyone it was me who did it.”

Hotaruzawa had said she was human, but Itou-san was apparently not willing to take her at her word there. It was admittedly silly to accept everything your enemy said.

But…

“Even if you ran into some unexpected trouble? Maybe she can resist grasping at straws when she starts to drown, but wouldn’t her real identity slip out when she was on the verge of passing out?”

The dull explosions continued.

Was Hotaruzawa blowing away obstacles at random, or was one of my sisters running around?

“She’s definitely a threat, but I bet her power is limited in some way.”

“Um?”

“Maybe it takes a while to set up or maybe it only works at a specific time or place. Whatever the case, she couldn’t do it in that shopping district, but she can use it here in this ferry loading zone!”

I had to think back and remember when and where Hotaruzawa Kezuri of JB had first attacked and what it was she had attacked.

“Could that ferry itself be her secret base?” asked Itou-san.

“Not a bad idea, but it would have been abandoned here once the ocean was blocked off. That would be hard to work into a larger plan.”

But that guess had to be in the right direction.

I poked my head out from behind the toppled van to take a look. The booming and rumbling was pretty bad, but I couldn’t tell where Hotaruzawa was. Hopefully that meant she couldn’t see me either.

“Maxwell.”

“Sure.”

“I want to get to the ocean. Use the noise from these explosions to find a course for me that keeps me hidden behind the scraps, flames, smoke, rain, or whatever else. Display it on my screen if you can.”

“Why the ocean, Senpai?”

“The answer is probably there.”

I snuck out from behind the van when I heard an especially loud explosion. I stayed low to the ground as I moved behind another vehicle.

Then I repeated the process.

Past the ferry, an orange light shined out on the dark, dark sea. The cargo ship was still burning out there.

“The first thing she attacked was the drone I sent out.”

“And? JB doesn’t want us getting word to the coast guard so they can put out the fire.”

“I don’t like trusting everything Hotaruzawa says, but the cargo ship fire and microplastic snow probably are only the means to an end. Their goal is to kill me. …So why wouldn’t she just target me with that first surprise attack? I was staring down at my phone, so she could’ve easily killed me then.”

“Huh, that is weird.”

“That means she didn’t choose the drone as one of several possible targets. The drone was the only thing she could see at the time.”

It also made no sense for her to be out in this thick rain waiting for an attacker who might not be coming.

Showing herself here must have been an unplanned move.

That meant it wasn’t Hotaruzawa on the side deck who first spotted the drone. Something else had seen it and informed her while she was inside the ferry.

So.

Where was that “something else”?

“There are no lights on with the power out. The burning cargo ship really stands out in the dark, so we would’ve been hidden by the shadows while up on the wharf. That’s why they didn’t see us.”

I launched one of my spare drones while explaining. But I didn’t need to inflate rugby ball balloon with a spray can this time. In fact, I just tore off the communicator and camera since that was all I needed.

“Which can only mean one thing.”

If Hotaruzawa Kezuri really was human, then someone else had to be lending her this supernatural power. Like an Archenemy, or maybe a god. That Voodoo Bokor had manipulated a god to extract her power and the queen of that spaceship had been created by modifying a god. I didn’t know how it worked his time, but there had to be a source to those powers.

Naturally, I couldn’t let Hotaruzawa know what I was up to.

“They’re on the ocean. If they’re on a small motorboat or something with no lights on, they’d be nearly invisible in this darkness. Unless you were right up on top of them!!”

That explained why Hotaruzawa Kezuri hadn’t done anything supernatural near Huge Camera. She had needed to be by the ocean.

The cargo ship and firefighting boats kept anyone from moving out to sea, but you could still have a boat out in the bay. It’s just that no one bothered because it wouldn’t accomplish anything. The boat would only be hidden in the darkness during the night, so they may have kept it moored up somewhere during the day.

After thinking she could handle herself without this trump card and failing in the city, Hotaruzawa may have decided to stay here by the ocean.

Whatever the case, I chucked the rolled-up camera and communicator out to sea like a baseball.

Immediately…

“There you are, Amatsu Satori-kun.”

“Run, Itou-san!!”

I had no idea what had exploded, but a nearby car flipped over and the thick rope holding the giant ferry in place was torn through.

My cute underclassman’s hand slipped away.

“Senpai!”

Itou-san had jumped the nearly three-story height to the ferry’s side deck in a single bound, but I didn’t go with her. And that was fine with me as long as she was safe. I rolled behind some burning scraps instead.

“Maxwell, analyze the footage,” I said into my phone. “Did you find anything on the ocean!?”

“More than simply find something, someone grabbed the camera out of the air.”

Hm?

I couldn’t have done that on purpose, but it didn’t seem like a simple coincidence. Had they moved their boat into place? I checked the screen in confusion and saw a close-up shot of a woman’s face.

But…what was this?

It was a slender woman wrapped in a loose cloth outfit, but she wasn’t alone? No, it looked like three women standing back to back, but that wasn’t it. This really was just one person. It was like a female version of an Asura statue.

She took in a quick breath, so I assumed she was going to say something.

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeech!!!!!!

Instead, I was hit by a splitting headache and the scraps I was using as a shield made scraping noises as they…slid to the side?

“Ah, kah, kwah, ahh!?”

“Warning: I have cut the audio. Are you okay, user!?”

Maxwell seemed to think whatever that was came through my phone, but I was pretty sure it hadn’t.

I had no real logic to back it up, but I could just tell it was true. Had…I moved those scraps? With psychic powers or something!?

“I do not know who this is, but can you hear me? Hello?”

“Magzvell!?”

“Oh, dear, I do apologize. You are a gentleman, aren’t you? If you happened to be a woman, that would have granted you my magic.”

Granted me her magic???

What was she talking about? And hadn’t the audio been cut? Was this not coming from my phone!?

“I am Hecate, known to the Greeks as the power source for all witches. I had been working with Hotaruzawa Kezuri for my own reasons, but now you have discovered the Achilles’ heel that is my location. It is a shame, but it seems JB is not all they claimed to be.”

“Pleez find sum uther way uf speeking to mwee!?”

The headache vanished.

Hotaruzawa Kezuri had made it sound like our presence here was a surprise despite their use of the Freischutz military simulator. She had lost sight of us when we simply hid behind a car.

Was this why?

Had this place been distorted by the presence of some much greater monster!?

I checked my phone and saw Hecate holding something out toward the camera. It was soaking wet, but was that a sketchbook? She had written out some Japanese text on it.

“It is the conveyance of my will that matters, not my voice. The headache will remain no matter how I communicate.”

“Dus she wunt me to kill her!?”

I felt dizzy and rolled along the ground.

I couldn’t just hide behind the scraps. JB’s Hotaruzawa Kezuri would not leave me be. I was too dizzy to get up, but I did manage to roll underneath a surviving four-wheel drive vehicle.

The headache remained.

It was like my skull was going to shatter from internal pressure!!

“What…are you? Agh, why are you helping…Hotaruzawa?”

“I am that which grants power to all witches. But since I guide people toward their awakening as a witch when I merely contact them, I am not free to interact with human society as I wish.”

“…”

“Why must I be bound like this? Because those around me are weak. If JB’s jailbreak will change the rules of the world, I thought maybe I could achieve my objective as well.”

What was this?

She was way too strong.

This was worse than the giant shark Leviathan who had been so full of his own power he went on a rampage. Hecate was powerful because the world was made wrong and she was fighting to see how she could strip away her own power to gain more freedom.

How could you control something like that?

Hotaruzawa Kezuri, and JB as a whole, couldn’t hope to handle a monster like this.

“Now may be the time to leave,” said Hecate.

“Urp, then get lost. My family and my underclassman’s lives are at stake here.”

“Attachments are a hard thing to break. You know it cannot last, but you still keep going, thinking ‘just a little longer, just a little longer’. Very well, one who was not chosen by Hecate. If you wish for me to leave sooner rather than later, then present me with an event capable of severing my attachments here.”

What?

My look of skepticism was answered by a message sent through my phone.

“Umikaze Speechia, was it? Let me meet that Scylla. That will bring this bit of fun to an end.”

That was all.

The video footage cut out and the headache clouding my mind entirely vanished.

“What do you think, Maxwell!?”

“The information comes from a walkthrough site for a demon slaying action game, but there appear to be a few different stories about the Scylla’s origin. In addition to the one where a powerless girl is transformed by the Circe Witch’s potion, there are stories where she was the child of two different monsters.”

“…”

“One says she is the child of Typhon and Echidna and another says she is the child of Phorcys and Hecate. Yet another story says she carries the blood of Crataeis. Of course, I doubt there is a direct blood relation between that Hecate and this Scylla, but it may be enough to draw her interest.”

The Scylla.

After all this, the focus was back on Umikaze.

Where had she gone!? If she was going to be important, I kind of hoped she had passed out somewhere around here!!

“If you cannot find Umikaze Speechia, she may be willing to accept Miss Itou Helen instead,” said Maxwell. “Because Circe is sometimes said to be Hecate’s sister or daughter.”

“Don’t let anyone know that. What if Hecate gains an interest in my cute underclassman and spirits her away to some alternate dimension?”

The giant four-wheel-drive vehicle above me was blown away like it was peeled from the ground.

I felt like a bug discovered beneath a stone.

“There you are, Amatsu Satori-kun.”

It was Hotaruzawa Kezuri.

Had she simply directed a microplastic explosion in a single direction? That was the same principle as an anti-tank rocket, but I doubted I could figure out how it worked even if I had Maxwell calculate it out for me.

She had awoken.

She was one of Hecate’s witches.

I had thought her use of the microplastic as both fire and lightning was way too convenient!!

“The goddess contacted you, didn’t she?” she said.

“I’m willing to bet she sounded a lot different when speaking to you.”

I slowly moved back.

I felt like letting out a careless cough would mean coughing up blood.

I had touched her Achilles’ heel, so she was not going to let me get away.

Silently, she raised a palm more frightening than a handgun and directed it toward the center of my chest.

“And I’m sorry to say that you’re not the main attraction here,” I said. “Where did Umikaze go? I have business with her.”

I heard a dull sound.

“Don’t underestimate me. I slowly placed a stranglehold on Kukyou City in order to put you under enough psychological pressure that I could control you without needing to kill you. I could have killed you in less than a second if I had used my full power against you!!”

“Well, a second’s already passed, but I’m alive and well.”

She didn’t say a word more.

She bit her lip hard and seemed to focus her mind on her outstretched hand. What was going to fly from there? A microplastic explosion? A microplastic shell? It was possible I would be killed before I even managed to identify what did it.

However…

“Fuuuguuu…”

I had heard a grinding sound for a bit now, but it was not coming from her back teeth.

“…uuuuuu!!”

The car parked next to her started to move with its engine still off.

This was the work of strength ten times that of a human.

If you gathered ten humans, you could move a car with brute force alone. Of course, you would generally want to remove the hand brake before you tried it. It helped here that the tires slid on the fine microplastic snow.

“What?”

This unexpected attack came from her blind spot.

The bumper slammed into the redheaded ponytail girl’s hip and she was pushed up onto the hood.

But it did not end there.

“Heave-ho,” said a casual voice.

It came from my gentle older sister, but while a Zombie had 10 times a human’s strength, a Vampire had 20 times the strength. With 20 humans, you could lift a 4-door station wagon like a palanquin.

So she only needed her two hands to raise it up like a giant piece of plywood.

The two cars created a brutal sandwich.

“E-Erika. And Ayumi too.”

“We didn’t kill her. There is plenty of space inside the hood for a kitten to hide in, so she’s probably just trapped within the crushed metal.”

“Fugu. But this only buys us some time. After everything she managed with the snow, she’s sure to break free given enough time.”

We needed to use that time to eliminate the source of her power.

That meant convincing Hecate to leave.

“I have an idea, so come with me, everyone. Let’s finally end this.”

Part 6

We left the ferry loading zone.

Even in the rain, it helped that the place was coated with microplastic snow. They were faint, but the footprints remained.

“Fugu. Looks like she climbed up on the embankment,” said a soaking wet Ayumi.

That was pretty high up, so I suggested lifting them up, but the girls all fidgeted in response.

“U-um, Senpai? Sorry, but, um, I’m wearing a skirt.”

“Y-yeah, me too.”

“Show some tact, Onii-chan.”

“Why are you worried about me seeing your underwear, idiot? You’re wearing shorts.”

“Shut up, that’s not a perfect solution! Like, um, you could see up the leg hole, or…mumble mumble. Anyway, you go up first, Onii-chan!!”

This hardly seemed fair, but I did as I was told and climbed up the embankment.

There were only concrete blocks and the dark sea past this point.

“The Scylla is an ocean Archenemy, right?” asked Itou-san. “Wh-what if she jumped in like a Mermaid?”

“Unlikely,” I said. “The footprints keep going.”

We pursued her.

We gave chase.

Finally, I heard a rattling sound. We were closer to the public beach than we were to the industrial area now. Some jet skis were moored to the embankment and floating in the sea. They had probably been stopped here to avoid paying the pricey harbor fees.

And there I saw someone swinging down a large rock she had picked up from somewhere.

“You can’t just hotwire it to get the motor started, Umikaze Speechia.”

“!?”

“This is over. Hotaruzawa Kezuri is out of the fight and the cargo ship fire will be out soon. That means no more microplastic snow, so your special power is gone.”

She spoke quietly with her long blonde hair hanging heavy from the filthy rain.

“You have that Circe Witch with you and JB’s Hotaruzawa is borrowing Hecate’s power, so whichever group won, they would be here to harm me. But if I knew they were coming, I thought I could prepare a little surprise for them.”

An unpleasant odor reached my nose.

Wait, is that what she’s doing!?

“By the way, you said I couldn’t start this thing’s motor, didn’t you? Exactly – this isn’t an engine. And with a few of them side by side here, I could easily help myself to their large batteries, couldn’t I?”

“Oh, no!! Everyone, jump into the water!!”

The most I could manage was pushing Erika in since Vampires were weak to running water, be it a river or the ocean.

Kaboom!!

A powerful explosion and flash of light rushed in from the side.

The instant my vision started to spin, the concrete blocks stacked up as a breakwater fell toward my back.

Had she set this up in a gap somewhere!?

“Ah…gah!?”

Batteries would explode if handled incorrectly. That could be a problem with phones and laptops, but it was truly dangerous with vehicles. Because those batteries were so much larger.

“Amatsu-kun.”

Umikaze walked over.

Her long hair, which was braided together at only a few spots down its length, swayed with dirty droplets scattering from the golden-shining end.

She was still holding that conveniently-sized rock she had been using to break the lock.

Had Ayumi and Itou-san fallen into the ocean? They were probably busy keeping Erika from drowning, so they wouldn’t be able to help me out right away.

So was I screwed?

I wanted to resist, but the excruciating pain in my spine kept my arms or legs from moving. It was like a crucial gear inside my body had slipped out of place.

“Lucky for me, you’re not all that smart,” she said.

“…!?”

With a smile, she raised the softball-sized rock. Was this really how I was going to go? Not to Hecate or a witch, but to this!?

Shortly thereafter, I heard a dull thud.

I had not shut my eyes, so I saw what had happened.

That was not the sound of the rock. Umikaze had not moved. Instead, she swayed side to side and then collapsed limply to the ground.

And behind her, I saw who had hit her on the back of the head.

“C-Class Rep?”

“Maxwell gave me your GPS signal.”

I had no idea where she had found it, but she was holding a metal spike with a loop at the head. It was probably meant to for holding a rope in place.

She rested its side on her shoulder and breathed from her nose.

“I knew I couldn’t just let you go on your own. You’ve always been hopeless without me, Satori-kun.”

[Crawler Search] Online News [The Words You Need!]

The fire burning on the Noble Ingot cargo ship has been confirmed extinguished.

The fine microplastics, referred to as snow, leaking from the ship appear to be clearing up as well. Kukyou City and the neighboring municipality have announced they will work together to clean it all up, so the travel infrastructure and more should recover before long.

Response to this case was delayed because opinions were split on whether it qualified as a natural disaster or an accident, but volunteers from all over the country have announced they will be arriving to help.

The popular rock band Cannon Slinger announced on social media they will be holding a concert in Kukyou City and the response has been… (Read more)

Chapter 6

The Noble Ingot fire had been extinguished.

Not all the microplastic snow had been cleaned up in the city, but it helped a lot that no more was falling. A ton of dump trucks had come from outside Kukyou City to carry away the snow.

“They’re called the greater wax moth,” said the forehead glasses Class Rep. “Their larvae actually eat plastic. They were saying on TV we can introduce those here if shoveling the snow isn’t enough.”

There were a lot of animals that you had to wonder how they ever evolved that way. And didn’t the greater wax moth infest beehives?

With all the confusion still ongoing, school wasn’t going to start back up for a while yet, but I doubted it would be all that long now.

Once back home, I found Ayumi lying on the living room sofa.

“Fugu. Everything on TV’s so boring. What they’re saying sounds reasonable enough, but none of it actually solves anything.”

“What are they supposed to say? If you can’t find a culprit, then you have to rule it an accident. And on TV, they can only say what has been confirmed true. Even if someone is clearly dead after being eaten by a croc, they can only say they’re ‘in cardiac arrest’ until a doctor has declared them dead.”

“You’re as bad as them.”

“What do you want from me?”

My clumsy older sister had been shoved into the ocean at the end there and she was asleep in her coffin right now since it was daytime. …But I had a feeling she wouldn’t emerge even once night fell unless I apologized.

“Fuguu. But we worked so hard to fix this, so I hate seeing them act like they know what they’re talking about.”

“We can’t go public with what happened and you know it. If you’re bored, go help mom.”

That mom, Amatsu Yurina, was folding the laundry in a corner of the living room while humming along with the TV’s background music. She must have been ecstatic that the power was back on and at her age that apparently meant she wanted to do some ironing. The way she was acting, she might not be willing to give up the work even if you offered to help.

JB.

There was no mention of that name on TV or online. There had been no crew aboard the Noble Ingot, but the ignorant people had all reached their own conclusions, ranging from ‘it was a ghost ship’ to ‘the crew fled after screwing the pooch so bad’.

You want to know what happened with Hotaruzawa Kezuri and the uncontrollable goddess Hecate?

We gave unconscious Umikaze to that god of witches, but we still have no idea what Hecate wanted with her.

But that must have satisfied her in some way because, the next thing we knew, she was gone and the limp Scylla was all that remained.

Hecate had not seemed interested in the mysterious JB and she had not even tried to take that blonde girl away with her.

She lent people her power for fun.

On a whim.

When she felt like it.

We had not been able to leave Umikaze Speechia or Hotaruzawa Kezuri with the normal police. Because the “previous JB” had been shot by another member of that group in a Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department holding cell after that incident.

But I only knew one place with better security than that.

“Mom.”

Absolute Noah.

The actual ark had been more or less destroyed and the group really only existed in name only now, but I didn’t know any other group with roots hidden all over the underside of the world.

Where had Hecate gone?

Like I said, Umikaze was still with us and Kukyou City was not flooded with witches. Also, there had been no motorboat out on the ocean. She may have chosen some deserted part of the world to go on a secret journey.

But anyway…

“Sorry about throwing this trouble in your lap.”

“It’s fine, Satori,” she replied cheerfully.

Yes.

She really did sound like it was no problem at all while she was down on the floor folding my pajamas.

“So, Satori. What do you think JB will do about us holding those two criminals?”

“Eh? Well, they won’t be able to do what they did last time, so won’t they be at an impasse?”

“No. They will come for them no matter what it takes. If they didn’t want the police to learn about their group, then they really won’t want us to,” she stated quite plainly. “And that actually works out really well for us. I am thankful for this, Satori. If I told the others we needed to start a war ourselves, I might get some complaints from our own weary people. But if JB is attacking us, we have no choice. We have to defend ourselves, right?”

“Wait a second, mom. What are you talking about?”

“We have feelings too. Remember Charlotte the Echidna? Do you know how much JB’s appearance affected her and others like her? But if we hunt down JB, they will be drawn back to Absolute Noah. No matter what happened, our power will all return to where it belongs.”

No.

Wait.

That wasn’t why I had left Umikaze Speechia and Hotaruzawa Kezuri with her.

This wasn’t meant to start a new war!!

“Absolute Noah may have stopped functioning, but that doesn’t mean the Calamity is gone. We did discuss this a fair bit, but we never did find a fundamental solution, so it can’t hurt to hold onto the ark. I want to get the ark back up and running as soon as possible and that requires excellent personnel and funding. And I’m sure JB needs that too. I don’t know what exactly their jailbreak entails, but I can imagine they need a lot of skilled personnel. …So the two groups will now be fighting over anyone they can use.”

She had said she was thankful.

So was it me?

Had I dumped new oil on Amatsu Yurina’s fighting spirit that might have been fully extinguished given enough time!?

“A war is beginning.”

Her words were frightening and inexcusable, but she sounded somehow refreshed while speaking them.

“And we are not up against a natural or manmade disaster this time. This is a battle between organizations.”

Step 01

Shall we begin the war?

>Continue

(Clicking continue qualifies as agreement. Your choice cannot be changed later.)

[Crawler Search] Afterword [The Words You Need!]

With that, this is Kamachi Kazuma.

Vampire/Zombie is on its 9th volume!! This time, I focused on microplastics and wanted to design a unique sort of natural(?) disaster, so I went with unmelting snow.

I also focused on human relationships in a closed environment since I hadn’t done that very much. You’re in an isolated city where you can’t call the police or the firefighters and you might not be able to continue buying food much longer. …But that’s exactly why I think most people wouldn’t just start doing whatever they wanted all at once. Without some kind of trigger, they would continue following their usual routine even in that bizarre environment. Or maybe they wouldn’t even notice how strange things had gotten.

That’s why things started out slow in the story.

This was an area I hadn’t touched on much before, but I hope you enjoyed it.

The Archenemies I focused on this time were the Scylla and Charybdis. Originally, the Scylla was apparently the kind of monster that lured you in with its beauty and then attacked, but I changed that to more of a psychological warfare sort of thing. I wrote this while trying to link the storm-tossed ship to Kukyou City while it was closed up by the microplastic snow, but what did you think?

Since Volume 8 was about the sisters, I had the Class Rep do more this time. That forehead glasses girl seems to work better as the damsel in distress than the reliable partner. I did debate whether or not to have her go along to the final battle, though.

With Yurina, Taori, the Echidna, and Karen, I’ve realized this series has a lot of young wives and mothers, but I view the Class Rep’s mom as a normal human with no special powers who looks after Satori as a neighbor. That’s why I thought I could use her to show Satori clenching his teeth and keeping her from crossing a point of no return when a normal person’s normal emotions were pushing her too far. I do love mysteries and problem where the fate of the world hangs in the balance, but I think the protagonist who solves or faces those things should be the kind of person who can’t ignore the smaller worries and issues either.

I give my thanks to the image illustrator Mahaya-san and my editors Miki-san, Anan-san, Nakajima-san, Yamamoto-san, and Mitera-san. It’s easy enough to write that a Scylla or Charybdis are affecting the whole city, but that only works when you have a lot of people to be affected by it. This was reliant on everything that has been built up so far. Thank you.

And I give my thanks to the readers. The microplastics issue feels more close-to-home these days thanks to the introduction of paper straws and things like that, but what did you think of this?

And I will end this here.

Oh, no. Itou Helen might be too convenient.

-Kamachi Kazuma

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