Volume 3 Chapter 1 (1/2)

(Garlic Count: 1)

I had to think about the environment I found myself in and what I could do

”Your memories seem confused”

”Well, can you blaarlic!? I have no idea how I ended up here!”

The Class Rep sat on the bloody rooarlic body on her lap

”First, this is an old convalescent hospital on the border of our Kukyou City and the neighboring city It's deep in the forest, so you wouldn't even know it's there except for satellite i like Mobile Earth It's a bit of a mystery why they would build a hospital here, but it may have been for patients who didn't want to be seen It ran into difficulties and the director and the rest of thelike they had skipped town, so all the rusted medical equipment was left here”

I was actually uess she had to go over things in order And I wasn't about to co Class Rep and I was resting on her lap! Rub, rub!!

”We received perovernate what happened It was for social studies We wanted to knohy the hospital couldn't stay in business and why it hasn't been deation, announce the results in class, and learn how difficult the world of adults can be”

”A secret hospital kept out of view and thelike they had skipped town? That doesn't sound quite so simple”

Especially with that bloody dress girl wandering around If she had so to do with the old hospital, then it was possible the disappearance of the director and the rest of the ht

Were they buried somewhere around here?

Or were they lurking in the shadows just like that bloody dress girl?

Those options seemed entirely possible

”Ah ha ha Looking back on it, yes But our teacher and the government worker didn't seem too worried about it They ierous, they would have stopped us, right? Or so we thought But rong The truly frightening things are hidden so that no one knows they're there Why didn't I realize that no one would be caught by a trap if they could predict it was there?”

I can't believe this

My older sister Erika was a vahbor? A turf rival? To be honest, I doubted that bloody dress girl would just leave if I used , I wasn't even sure she could understand hue And I wasn't about to test it

She was somehow different from Erika or my little sister Ayuirls, weren't they? But I couldn't see anything like that here

She was a pure monster

If she sensed us with her eyes, ears, nose, tongue, or skin, ould lose our lives We were surrounded by the atht where we could not afford to run across so like that

After thinking through all that, I asked the most fundamental question of all

”…What do we do?”

”Good question” The Class Rep kept arlic body on her lap ”First of all, we can't defeat that I' that from a moral or huht be able to te direction, but there is simply no way to defeat her and settle this once and for all”

I produced a gulping noise, even though I wasn't sure arlic body even had a throat or saliva

”B-but But we can't just continue hiding here, can we? That won't solve anything”

”Ah ha ha True enough We can't call for help since our phones don't have a signal And even if our teacher or the govern for us e didn't return…if they enter the hospital without being warned first, they'll just suffer the same fate I don't think we can count on help froht actually increase the number of vampires”

With that, the Class Rep held garlic ot up from the bed and approached the wall of the room…which I now realized was a dusty hospital room

She actually approached thecovered by a light-blocking curtain

”Look”

She opened the edge of the curtain just a crack and placedin

We were quite high up It looked like the third or reen sea spreading out below

”The sun is still high in the sky If we could get out of the hospital, I don't think that vampire would be able to pursue us”

”True But, Class Rep, doesn't that mean the opposite as well?”

”Yes”

The Class Rep likely didn't want to say it out loud But to share our information, I took on that unpleasant task

”If we don't get out of here before the sun sets…the vampire can pursue us outside In that case, there would be no saving us We'd be caught in the forest before we reached the city”

(Garlic Count: 1)

It turned out I could do a surprising lot as a garlic

”Oh”

I left the Class Rep's hands and rolled along the floor I was only a garlic body with no hands or feet, but it was like I could control ravity It felt like there was a ser, hollow ball and I could move that to roll in any direction

Controlling that s it bounce upwards, I could juh as the Class Rep's navel seemed to be my limit

”But how are we supposed to fight that bloody dress girl like this? Just being in the sah for me to freeze up It wouldn't be possible even if I had , and could split a boulder with a piece of newspaper”

”But, Satori-kun, don't they often say that garlic is a vampire's weakness?”

”But how are we supposed to use that garlic, my kitten?”

”Umm, throw it at her?”

”Throw…!?”

”Or how about grating it and spreading it across the floor? Maybe that would create a sort of barrier”

”Wait, wait, wait! First of all, I feel like we're just throwing hts out in the trash!+ You can't treat ood care of le life inside me!”

”But, Satori-kun, didn't you multiply before?”

”Hm…hmm???”

”Y'know, if we stick you in a flowerpot, give you water, and open the curtain to let sunlight shi+ne on you, then you start to flower…”

”No, wait I don't remember any of this!”

Where was I trying to go?

But I wanted to know everything arlic body had e, what had happened to theardless, I wanted to try it out

”There isn't a flowerpot in this room, is there?” asked the Class Rep

”Eh?”

”I think there was a withered houseplant at the nurse station The building's water isn't running, but the fire hydrant on the third floor was broken and the wall-…”

”If it's gonna be that kind of pain-in-the-ass quest, then forget it! You wait here, Class Rep We're up against a zombie, so a nor around”

But if garlic like ht past e Not that I wanted to test it out if I could avoid it

So I rolled toward the door, leaving the Class Rep in the hospital room The floor was covered in sweet blood, like so, but I couldn't coh the cracked door and entered the hallway

It was just as diht that h the s sealed by curtains and wooden boards

And it was far more cluttered than I had expected

Several filthy buckets were lined up and rustedone side of the hallway The stairway leading doas coe at one point I couldn't rely on theof a labyrinth There were no cigarette butts and no spray paint graffiti No oneto this inconvenient place just for fun

”Is that the nurse station?”

But it was not difficult to find where I wanted to go Unless the designer had not knohat they were doing, the nurse station would be located at the intersection of several halls In other words, where the h It was best to place it at that ”prime traffic point” so they could i help and observe people's cos

”Still…”

There was indeed a flowerpot on the counter It only had soh But hoas I supposed to carry it? I apparently needed water and sunlight as well

”Let's see”

I arlic I could reach the height of the Class Rep's navel, so I could just barely jump up onto the counter

But…

”I don't have any aruess all I can do is push it”

The flowerpot was ceramic, so it would probably break if I dropped it There was nothing I could do

Man, being a giant garlic was really inconvenient If I really could ht be able to push it down fro it from below

I took a break as I thought about that And when I looked down from the counter…

”Oh”

I spoke without thinking

Even if the one on the counter was hopeless, there was soe bucket-like pot meant more for a ”tree” than a flower at the end of a row of benches in the waiting area in front of the nurse station

And it had a large plate-like thing below it That plate et It was erous for a person to drink, but that shouldn'tsome dirt The Class Rep's information was not all that reliable I was just about to run around on an unnecessary quest while that strange bloody dress girl andering around I decided to complain to the Class Rep later and have her let me rub all over her!

I hopped down froe pot and the nearby sill were both easy enough to ju on the thick curtain, but I lass and the curtain and slowlythe sill

Pant, pant Moving a single curtain was a lot of work I really missed arlic Had a wicked witch cast a spell on me? In that case, would I not return to norlasses Class Rep princess kissed me? Pant, pant!!

”There”

At any rate, the pot hat mattered now

Like a h the dusty air and onto the dirt As expected, it was damp It had a bit of a sour sarlic

…What did it feel like to multiply?

Even if I did arlics, but it was still strange to think about I couldn't fully backup Maxwell due to his specs, so not even that program had experienced this

But…huh?

Wait a second

I have a giant garlic body, but aren't I only round because of the few cloves gathered together? Multiplying doesn't mean for this round body to spit apart into 4 or 8 pieces and scatter the contents arou-…agagagagagagagagah!?

(Garlic Count: 8)

I nearly lost consciousness

In fact, I wasn't entirely sure I hadn't Was this really the saarlic led me to ponder the same questions as with a teleportation device

”Oh, come on…”

The rearlic sat at the center of the pot And it was surrounded by eight identical giant garlics, including arlics would not ht” and ”left” and theythe individual toes, but if I focused, I couldthem up on the floor

As I looked down from the pot, I was convinced

This was not copying arlic bodies, but there was only one ” them So the me that had split apart there and themoved, not copied

Which meant…

”Wow It's like having infinite 1-ups! All I need is water, dirt, and sunlight, which isn't all that difficult to get I can arlic? If it can multiply a thousand or even a million fold, even a 10,000 yen note can kill soarlic, so I can hold back a vampire! Ah ha ha ha ha!!”

In that case, I had to focus on increasing my numbers I didn't want to repeat that sensation of arlic was clearly in control, but the pain reached me equally I crammed all of them inside the bucket-like pot and they all burst out like popcorn

Pop, pop, pop, pop

But it was really picking up speed Each one didroom would be filled in no tiarlic avalanche

…Splat

”Ah”

My garlic head heard a wet sound And one of my sensations was instantly bloay Why hadn't I realized it? When playing hide-and-seek, increasing your nuarlic Why didn't you think about the smell, you complete moron!?

I slowly turned around

As expected, the bloody dress girl appeared fro to the left or right, her claung toward htni-

(Garlic Count: 300)

”Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

I screamed

I could only scream and run away

The garlics scattered in every direction I had no idea what percentage of them were sliced apart by claws or crushed underfoot I couldn't count them all I had been filled with pain and fear at first, but those sensations quickly nu your hand in the cold snow and waiting, I couldn't feel the stimulation and pain once it passed a certain point Each tiarlic was crushed and had its insides splattered out, my mind hopped to another one I instinctually understood that once that stock ran out and o, I really would die

…It seeirl was the real deal Garlic was fairly hard when it was raw Wasn't slicing uncooked vegetables with your nails a greater feat than a karateoff the neck of a beer bottle?

But

To put it another way, noas I had just one garlic body re All the rest were expendable I could replenish ain later I could build upsure I didn't stand out this time

The unpleasant sounds of so smashed, sliced, or even crushed came from all over

Dammit, did she just tear apart that steel fire door like it et paper!?

”…!?”

But I wasn't the only one that was afraid That bloody dress va juice that splattered fro on her Even if I couldn't defeat her, I could knock her back That rising hope drove the pain and fear even further froet arlic away from here!

And once I knew that…

”Men, attack!!”

I cried out like I was raising the fan held by a suroup They had no arh as the Class Rep's navel If they got close enough, they could hop up and tackle the vampire

Of course, it wasn't that easy to hit her Most of thearlic by a ind of claws But that was fine The juice that splattered on her in place of blood would do da coated in my bodily fluid! L-look the other way and complain that it smells!!

”Oh”

A few of the garlics got too close and slipped below the bloody dress's skirt I was a step away, but I could see what they saw like an i at the same time

When the skirt group looked up, I could see that even her panties were soaked red It was a little e! But I showed no mercy I finally had a chance to tackle her Juether!!

”…Gh…!?”

When the multiple hits flew up at her, the bloody dress was knocked upwards

This was my chance

To reiterate, I could not defeat the vaarlics to escape safely I could replenish my lives later What mattered noas to leave one of them alive

The bloody dress girl was focused on the garlics hopping around inside her skirt, so her gaze was directed straight down The floor and walls were coated with the Special Satori Juice froarlics If the entire area had beco

She wouldn't notice if I acted now

This was my chance to escape

I was located on the ground a step away, but I rolled away and left the rest to the ones still there

(Garlic Count: 21)

I knehat I could do

If I created too arlics, it was difficult to rew too great, they would be noticed

But if I created a smaller unit of elites, I could handle even that hopeless wandering monster While one made a coirl, another could escape along with the Class Rep

…There were two things to keep in mind

First, it didn't matter how many ti lives fall to zero Second, there was only one Class Rep She had no extra lives, so I could not allow her to even be scratched

I could die to protect her

Huh? That sounds awfully badass for a garlic

”…Class Rep?”

Or so I thought before I ran across the next bit of trouble

When I returned to the old hospital room, I couldn't find the Class Rep anywhere

”Class Rep!? damn!”

Just to be sure, I checked below the bed, but there was no sign of arlic, but I felt i at the back of my head

But wait I had to calirl with arlic army I doubted the Class Rep had been taken out by her This was still dangerous, but there was still hope My first priority was finding her as she continued her dangerous one-girl expedition

But then an unpleasant thought occurred to me

”…Why airl is the only vampire?”

If the bloody dress girl could ht be other victiement who had suddenly disappeared like they had skipped town? The Class Rep had said ere investigating so for school, but was it really just the two of us? If orking in a larger group and other students or a teacher were here too, then where had they gone???

This was bad

The garlic arroup, but this changed the difficulty level Even if I could draw the bloody dress girl's attention to one spot, there was nothing we could do if there was another va the other route Since we couldn't view everything fro the corridors and stairways had turned the hospital into a life-sized labyrinth where any turn could lead to a literal dead-end If we ran across a vaht between two va the situation

I couldn't let the Class Rep be taken out

The ”other viewpoints” in a corner of arlic arirl had apparently been wiped out Noas back to a single life and she could freely wander the abandoned hospital

But I had to do this

Only I, the giant round garlic, could protect the Class Rep from the vampire

(Garlic Count: 1)

Nohere was I supposed to search for the Class Rep? I realized I had yet to go around to the entire floor

That said, I could not rando the Class Rep's nairl was still on the same floor If I was killed noould lose my last life I wanted to keep my risk of death to a minimum

What would I do?

How could I find the best answer?

I thought as I rolled across the hospital roo, why had she left the hospital room now? She had immediately hid below the bed and held her breath just fro a noise, so she would have wanted to avoid an adventure if at all possible And while the rooirl's tantrue

So it may not have been that she fled because another vampire had shown up

…But if she chose to leave, then why? Had she needed food or water? Had she heard cries for help from another survivor? Had she looked out theand seen so? It was no use It was all speculation without any actual evidence to back it up

It looked like I would have to head out and investigate myself

I poked half of the garlic out through the cracked door once more There was…no one in the hallway The roo into the dangerous ”outside”

”Oh?”

I hadn't noticed before, but I noticed soain: footprints What looked like a red irl and the narrow line was fro the hospital roo in a different direction

”The Class Rep?”

I decided to roll in that direction But this was dangerous If the bloody dress girl had also seen the footprints and pursued her prey, the person trying to hide would have an overwhelh to do that

And I found another odd thing before reaching the creator of the footprints

”?”

A white powder drew out a circle with a diameter of about a meter in the center of the hallway It looked kind of like a ic circle I hesitantly approached it The powder…seemed to be norood-luck charn for demolition work

But with this, I felt like I had gathered a number of puzzle pieces

A large abandoned building, a wandering zoend that fit those conditions

”The Polish Vampire Princess”

I re o

The fairy tale princess had oddly never had her naiven

”A beautiful princess lived in a castle But the princess lived such a selfish and luxurious lifestyle that she earned the resentment of the people She fell victim to a powerful curse and she turned into a vampire”

At the ti my sister, were queen-like people with sexy proportions

”Night after night, the Vaainst her servants and knights”

That lifestyle had made me think of a spider She never left her own territory, she set up a web and preyed on those who entered it, and she used her own beauty and circumstances as bait

”There was only one way to save the princess While she andering, you had to find the coffin located somewhere in the castle, seal the lid, and never let her enter it again The coffin was the source of the curse and its effects cannot replenish inside her as long as she does not sleep inside it So if she was shut out for a set period of ti a normal human”

That was a fair bit different froends

Even after spending a long time as a vampire, she could be returned to normal if the proper process was followed That was a favor not heard of in other stories

”However, that was no easy task After all, the castle was like a complex labyrinth and the Vampire Princess was immune to all attacks There was no way to defeat her before locating the coffin deep inside the castle If she found you, it was all over The one and only way to survive was to draw a circle on the floor hite chalk The Vampire Princess could not see you if you were inside there Just like Hoichi the Earless Thus, the only option was to head deep into the castle while playing a deadly game of hide-and-seek”

My sister giving a japanese coa Buddhista princess in a dress

”By the way, this was apparently the sort of story where the knight who returned the princess to norot to marry her later on Kyah!”

My garlic movement came to a stop when I remembered that

”Why did Erika tell me that story?”

But if that was the setup here, the bloody dress girl would have a coffin somewhere in the abandoned hospital If I could find that before I was defeated, I would win This wasn't part of the world's arlic, I could probably coat the coffin lid with my juices to act as a seal I didn't kno many there were, but that would likely allow all of the survivors to escape the hospital alive

But this va one There were a lot of different kinds of vampires, but a Polish Vampire Princess probably wouldn't die if you drove a stake through her heart Sunlight ht slow her down, but it wouldn't annihilate her After all, she received an endless supply of energy as long as the coffin existed as a source for the curse Sucking blood was secondary Her fingernails could shred through garlic and even steel fire doors like wet paper If she could continue that kind of destruction at full power indefinitely, she er as an individual than Erika as feared as a Queen-class Group destruction of a city was a different h She see around, unable to control herself, but that y

”And the Class Rep didn't have any chalk”

I spoke it aloud because it was so important

Since this chalk circle existed in the hallway, I had to assume the survivors were familiar with the story So why had the Class Rep hidden below the hospital rooe circle on the floor?

Probably because she had run out of chalk

She hadn't even had a little bit left

The a able to draw a circle brought death closer She would only be able to rely on the few safe zones that already existed How frightening had it been to be unable to draw a circle if she needed to? That erous hallhile still in that situation

”…Wait”

That one to collect soer and fled to so at it that way, I could understand why she left that small room which was not a 100 safe zone even behind the door or under the bed I had told her to wait forWe couldn't secretly contact each other with a cellphone or sht have just missed each other like that

…The problem was the existence of this chalk circle near the hospital room and the absence of the Class Rep inside it

”So did she go looking for more chalk? …But where?”

Had there been any at the nurse station? I didn't recall a blackboard or chalk there The schedule and e board had been a whiteboard that used markers In that case, where would they have a blackboard in a hospital where cleanliness was crucial?

”The rehabilitation rooht have it set up like a school The Class Rep ht be there too”

In that case, I couldn't blaarlic, I knew just how much of a difference it meant to have some extra lives in stock

I decided to search around the pediatric depart

…I needed to eliminate the most likely option first I had to follow the snored the chalk circle and continued down the hall I would probably find a likely location for chalk at the end of those tracks

With that, I continued down the hallway

It was difficult getting past the junk covering the hallway in places and a normal person would have had to turn sideways and press their back against the wall a lot of the ti that would make a useful tool There were boards and supports for collapsed steel racks, but it was obvious ould happen if you faced that bloody dress girl with only a piece of wood She orse than a er

There weren't any pots or watering cans either It was difficult rolling into the darkness without a chance to increase my number of extra lives If I was killed now, it was all over I wouldn't be able to save the Class Rep either

I kept that in mind as I rolled on and on The trail of footprints in the dust seemed to avoid the nurse station and approach the hall where the elevators and eathered

But…

”Wait a second,” I said after rolling out into the elevator hall ”Where's the Class Rep? Why did the footprints vanish!+?”

The footprints in the dust suddenly stopped

But what had happened here? Had the Class Rep traveled along the wall or ceiling? Had she sprinkled soination was co like that

I had to think

Noto just disappear here She one off soht have been afraid of the va her down before she acquired those extra lives and thus used some kind of trick Or what if a third party had done this? My tension grew For example, what if she had been attacked by a va? But in that case, the area should be covered in blood Both fro, rose-sirl

…Whatever had happened, that vampire may not have been involved

Supposedly, one way of not leaving any tracks in the jungle was to wrap several layers of thick cloth around your boots The Class Repin the piles of trash and erased her tracks before heading off again

At any rate, I had to continue the search

First, soras overlapped and an extra bar stuck out froular peak This was the fourth floor and it had nothing to do with pediatrics That was apparently on the third floor

”But…”

The hospital was not as big as I had expected It had only five floors and that contained all of the hospital roo rooeneral hospital was contained in the saery, ophthaly, pediatrics, dentistry, cosy, etc There was a lot of variation, but the actual number of beds was fairly li patients had to be fairly cramped And this was deep in the forest, not near a train station I wasn't quite sure how hospitals were run, but I could kind of see why the old ht have skipped town

…A small number of beds, ample services, and a location deep in the forest and away fro eyes This may have been a pricy hospital for VIPs Politicians and corporate executives apparently still could not let the public know if they were severely ill An athlete ery to their elbow or knee if thearound

But why had that bloody dress girl shown up here?

If she was a Polish Vampire Princess, she could not leave on her own and find a new haunt She had to stay with the cursed coffin That would mean the coffin had been carried here

For one thing, as she?