Vol 1 Chapter 8 (1/2)

Chapter 8

I was probably only unconscious for a few seconds

“Kh…ahh…”

I shook round Ayumi the zombie was okay I orried about the Swi up Ih for the strings to come untied

And ere beyond the thick bank vault door

And we found…

“O…hat is this?”

“…”

I let out a hysteric corim look to her eyes

It was eway than a rooeway that continued into the distance Bright and darkly inorganic fluorescent lights lined the walls and metal rails ran by at our feet The rails ider than for a normal train

228D ritten on the wall in large letters

Was that the tunnel’s nuhway?

“I wanted to avoid co here if at all possible, but it was our only choice”

“?”

Had Ayumi been in this shelter beyond the door before?

With that question indown the tunnel and found a fork in the path But this was not just a Y-shaped intersection More and more tunnels branched off at short intervals and the rails cole path

“If this connects to the various hoas pipes”

“Really…? But this place really makes me think of a secret base in a Sentai show”

“And…” The Swiround shelter not flooded?”

“What?”

“The destruction of the dam should have flooded the majority of Kukyou City and identical doors can be found below every house With soh, if any one of those doors opened, a great flood of water should have rushed in”

“…I have a bad feeling about this”

Ayuhout the conversation

Finally, she stopped biting her lip and made a quiet comment

“Of course it didn’t flood…”

“Why is that?”

“This isn’t really a tornado shelter Even when a powerful typhoon blows in, the doors never opened right?”

Now that she mentioned it, that was true But then why did this network of tunnels exist below the city? Safely digging the tunnels and disposing of the dirt had to have cost a fortune, so I doubted they would build a secret base just to show off or just for the hell of it

“User, perhaps it was a way of spending excess budget Just like how they dig up roads for no reason towards the end of the fiscal year”

“If so, the people behind it are the worst”

“Ah hah hah The world runs on pointless things and hobbies What good is a disaster environment simulator in real life?”

“Don’t deny your very reason for existing like that”

“That isn’t what this is It’s-…!!”

Ayu

She irabbed the Class Rep andtunnels

“Hunshots!?”

“If you think they ht have been firecrackers, you must have a really peaceful view of the world, Onii-chan…”

As Ayumi made her sarcastic comment, there eat on her brow and a dark red hole in her shoulder

Before I could say anything, a shudder ran down my spine

There was so different about Ayumi

Iat the side of her face was enough for so the back of my neck

Meanwhile, that little sister placed her index finger onmy way

She spoke in a frighteningly low and cold voice

“You two stay here I’ll go silence them”

“Ah Wait, Ayumi!!”

I did not have time to stop her

She was like a gust of wind Ayueway and vanished I heard shouts of anger, surprise, and fear punctuated by gunfire

“It’s the Acute version! She’s finally gotten in here Shoot her, shoot her!!”

“What happened to the eroup leader’s instructions!?”

“There’s no tiht in front of us!!”

The series of explosive sounds were clearly different frouns carried by police officers Were they assault rifles? Subuns? I didn’t kno the detailed classifications worked, but I was pretty sure these were military weapons

Perhaps due to the enclosed space, a radually grew stronger

But as this?

This was even more out there than Archenemies like Ayumi and Erika

None of it seemed real and I was unable to keep up But that was the weird part This was the city I lived in, so why did I feel so out of place here?

For one thing, ere “they”?

What was lurking just below the world I lived in!?

“M-Maxwell This is a disaster environht?”

“Sure I question your judg it for vampires and zoiven”

“Then does this subterranean world exist in the real Kukyou City too!? And is it honores the Swords and Firearms Control Law!?”

“Sure Verification is impossible as this is only a constructed data space based on predictive calculations, but just like the big bang theory, it is a prediction as close to the truth as possible”

“…I can’t believe this”

I looked around again in a daze

“This doesn’t feel like being in a video ga more realistic than a battle between zo the real world Why is there so about Tokyo’s subway tunnels that are h”

“Zombies and vampires sound more unusual than tanks to me”

I had thought this was a nice city to live in since it was near the ocean and the mountains The focus on disaster prevention had been a little annoying and restrictive, but being oversensitive seemed fine when it was meant to keep us safe There eird people like zo around, but that hadn’t seees of shi+buya or Akihabara I’d seen on TV

But…

What was Kukyou City?

What giant secret did this city hold?

And there was even a thick door to this underground space in our own house!

“User”

The Swihts

My sinking head sprang back up and I looked her way

“E-eek! Eek, eek!!”

Someone practically rolled out from another tunnel Their outfit seemed completely unrealistic Soldiers in black protectors and carrying eles or Detroit, but this was japan What kind of rules had they brought into this country?

And he did not bother telling me

His hips had given out and he was half unabout to drown in his mask thanks to his own spit

“M-monster! A monster!! Goddammiiiiiit!!”

I tensed in surprise, but oddly enough, I felt no fear

Perhaps a gun was just too unrealistic a weapon to feel like an actual threat

And he never did er

Soed down another tunnel and enveloped the soldier’s entire body

It was like a flash flood

But it was not a liquid It was hundreds or even thousands of black bats It e stone to find tons of bugs hiding underneath

“Ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhh…!!”

What was happening to him?

Inside the h enored sill plant in the midsummer The hand withered like a dried tree as the moisture was stolen

By the time the bats left, his remains looked like old scraps of cloth But the bats had not filled their stomachs There was blood splattered everywhere, so they must have repeatedly sucked the blood and then spat it back out

Then the countless bats coothic lolita dress

“Ugh Peh, peh How can Ayumi-chan bite people like this?”

“E…”

“Hi Did you miss me, Satori-kun?☆”

“Erika!?”

I held a hand to the side to protect the Swimsuit Class Rep

Seeing that, Erika narrowed her eyes sadly

“We really didn’t want you to know about this place…but it seeirl let the blood rush to her head Apparently she’s willing to use everything ‘down here’ if it ”

Gunfire continued down another tunnel But it eaker than before Or rather, the nu

What are you doing, Ayumi?

Are you doing stunts with no CG or wires when zombies are supposed to be slow!?

“The Bright Cross is merciless, so she’s desperate to ensure no stray bullets reach you”

“The Bright Cross…?”

I repeated the name

“You’re kidding, right? Why do the people with donation boxes by the cash registers have a secret underground base with guns? Are they actually the MIB or so?”

“Eh heh heh Of course not This isn’t anything as kind as threatening any witnesses That’s why Ayu this so seriously But unlike vampires, zoreater the chance of one of the you It’s her unfortunate flaw”

“Well, she is a zombie”

“In fact, a thinking zombie is a pretty unattractive idea”

I realized she was changing the subject, but I was afraid to force her back on topic

It was the same for Ayumi’s secret

Especially when I could see the displeasure on Erika’s face

The menace of the zombies and vampires honestly paled in comparison

What was this place?

Hoere Erika and Ayumi connected to it?

Erika snapped her fingers and the countless bats scattered like a sandstor tunnels I soon heard more screams and shouts

Erika laughed

“A lack of long teric problem And zombies rot, so they cannot blend into hu people Their best use is to destroy the city’s infrastructure with pure nuht if they use their head a little”

That may have been true

What if, instead of starting with an all-out attack, she created only two or three fellow zoround them up in a disposer, andplant to infect everyone? It reers or a worker who fell into a vat of acid at the soda plant The animals that had pecked at the defeated corpses had been infected just as well as the people bitten by a zoreatly shi+fted the power distribution between zombies and vampires

“But the way she charges right in is also the best part about her To be honest, I’ sister”

“Hm?”

“Hee hee You don’t get it, Satori-kun? I’ back in the real world, but in this virtual world, I want to bite you, get in the same coffin as you, and flirt with you 24/7”

“Maybe you do, but the thought scares me!!

“Satooori-kuuun?”

“Stop! Don’t hug me! What happened to that serious ath…how many centimeters are they!?”

“Serious atmosphere? What about this was at all serious?”

She approached me like always

I was helpless against her storm of skinshi+p She had her arms around me in no time

Her fangs were a mere three centimeters from my neck

She pressed her large breasts against me, breathed warmly onto my ear, and whispered

“But in the end, I just can’t bring myself to bite you”

She sounded just a little sad

“You would definitely hate me if I did, it would ruin our relationshi+p, and it wouldaard once we returned to the real world Those thoughts just circle around and around inabout the future is important, but it always holds irl and took action first and thought about it later, ht be so much easier”

She placed her hands on my shoulders and then moved back

Her face held her usual composed look now

Ayuirl impulsively created as many zombies as she could and used their numbers to destroy the city’s infrastructure

Erika the vampire queen slipped into human society, slowly but surely increased her number of pawns, and took over to establish a new order based on vampires

“This isn’t lianization”

“What do you mean?”

“A zoh the process of infection That’s e see as the body rotting On the other hand, a vareater body and greater skills than it had in life This ht make vampires sound more cost effective and convenient, but that isn’t actually true,” said Erika “When you get down to it, all varoithin the pre-established fraain inherent skills in a sort of mutation, but not even that aes so dramatic they destroy the host, but zombies can”

“Zoreat to me…”

“No, user As a species, zombies are quite impressive They are not limited to humans and can make any animal or plant their host”

“Exactly This gets us back to the fra about If the human race is destroyed, vampires die with them After all, we require blood But zombies are different”

Had zo because they were the superior species and had va because they were the inferior species?

It felt like discussing the differences between dinosaurs and humans

“Now, then”

Erika clapped her hands together in front of her large chest

“It’s tis up I’d really like to be your guide here, Satori-kun, but that girl see onice and clean☆”

“Erika?”

“If you’re in trouble, visit the closest vampire, okay? The zombies won’t listen to you, but I ordered my minions not to attack you or the Class Rep Please use them as shi+elds if you’re surrounded by zombies Also…”

As she left, she turned around with a faint smile on her lips

“I know this ht be selfish, but please don’t hate us after you see this place☆”

A moment later, her head split open like a watermelon

“Ah…”

The smile and the sad atunfire I heard after the fact

But…

Even so…

The “pieces” of Erika that had scattered through the air did not fall to the ground They came to a stop in midair and transformed into countless red butterflies The butterflies shi+ned like glow-in-the-dark paint and rushed toward her wound Like broken pottery being repaired, her face was remade in no time

And…

My older sister stood before ht in her eyes I had never seen before

“Consecrated steel that was soaked in holy water during its cooling treat all out now…”

“Erika…?”

“Nothing to worry about☆ Didn’t I tell you I’ll be fine as long as my heart isn’t taken out? And wasn’t that pretty? They’re both lepidopterans, but it took a lot of work to change it from moths to butterflies Rats and bats are so dull, so I tried out a lot of things”

She clapped her hands in front of her chest again, s

“But if I don’t do soet in the way of settling things with Ayu a comeback after I wore down their nuet just a biiiit serious”

That was all

She ran down another tunnel too fast for a normal person to keep up A few vaunshots tried to stop her, but they were quickly silenced and replaced by cries of despair and less pleas for mercy

“Has…has the group leader still not given us any instructions!?”

“He was bitten a while back!! Dammit, I’m out of spare ammo…”

“No, I don’t want to die”

“Why!? None of the doors will open!! Nooooooooo!?”

I had no desire to peek around the corner

When the zombies and vampires had filled the streets, these people had not opened the doors But once the city flooded, they had been trapped inside the doors The intense water pressure kept the doors froiant labyrinth of death with Ayumi and Erika inside

“Oh, dear My sister is really in top form”

“She had a sorrowful look, but she seeht”

“I’ets those sad looks when she’s actually feeling completely full of herself”

“She would do more than beat you up if she heard that”

The Class Rep and I discussed the situation

What was this giant underground space? What kind of secrets did it hide? And which was “ranked” higher, those secrets or my sisters?

The door to the shelter had said Bright Cross Disaster Prevention Foundation

As I walked through the spider web of tunnels, the entire place seemed in a state of pandemonium

I did not even need to hide anymore

The kinds of protectors seen in e blood stains were splattered on the floor, on the walls, and on the ceiling We barely saw anyone that qualified as a “survivor” and they were mostly either a zo at each other that no one focused on us

Used-looking guns were lying on the ground, but I didn’t even think about picking one up I was afraid I would shoot myself in the foot if I tried to use one

I put up with the rusty stench, pressed against the wall to slip past the “people” focused on feasting, and continued deeper in As I did, the look of the place changed

“There are metal bars”

“Yes, but they are broken”

“The scary part is the teeth marks on them Please tell me Ayumi isn’t that much of an idiot”