Vol 1 Prologue (1/2)

Chapter 0

Part 1

[Pick up] Multiple IC Student IDs [Net files]

Amatsu Satori

15, Male

Public Kukyou 1st High School (General Education)

First Year

※Human

Amatsu Erika

17, Female

Public Kukyou First High School (Night Division – Special College Prep)

Second Year

※Archenemy “Vampire”

Amatsu Ayumi

14, Female

Private Elixir Girls Middle School (Vocal Music Scholars.h.i.+p)

※Archenemy “Zombie”

Part 2

[Pick up] Local Net Radio Opening [Net files]

Okay, okay! Tonight’s Brand New Stars begins!!

The wind is still blowing like crazy out there, so I’m guessing there’s a lot of you holed up your cheap hotel rooms wis.h.i.+ng you hadn’t chosen today to do some sightseeing!

But this awful weather is what it’s all about! Make sure you get a good taste.

Here in Kukyou City, we’ve always had a lot of natural disasters. The cold wind blowing down from the mountains to the west collides with the damp air on the coastline to the east, creating a ton of instability, so we’re especially well known for our tornadoes and lightning strikes. But our greedy spirits are always going to find a way to benefit from bad news! Prestigious universities are lining up to send research teams to understand the complex mechanism behind various disasters in the hopes of predicting them in advance. They’re also building technology to reduce the damage done. Shocked, aren’t you?

We aren’t known as the Disaster Protection City for nothing. We’ve got doors like bank vaults below each house and metal-walled tornado shelters to protect our residents when it matters. If you check with the firefighting hoses stored here and there along the roads, you’ll also find rubber boats in case of flooding. And get this! They use the power of carbon dioxide gas to inflate like an airbag!!

In other parts of the city, we have special bundles of sensors known as Weather Spheres and backup power systems just in case. Kukyou City is full of experimental things like that, so anyone into survival or outdoorsy stuff will be salivating at all the things they see around town.

In the near future, the disaster prevention and protection systems developed here might just find their way to your cities.

And maybe you think the name Kukyou City is a little ominous. It sounds just like the word for crisis, so you’d expect to see it in a closed-room murder mystery, right!? But it’s not like anything ever happens at the Tenryu River or at the Yashajin Pa.s.s and the locals really aren’t bothered by it.

Oh, the intro’s starting.

Now, now. Let’s get the first song going! This one’s known for being the ending theme to Feast of the Undead, that gory movie opening this week!

Part 3

“If a zombie and vampire went all out, which one would win?”

That topic came up after I took my bath.

I think everyone naturally wants to mess with their phone after getting out of the bath. A ton of pointless SNS messages like “eating dinner” or “on a walk” will pour in and the new messages pile up in the short time since you last checked. And everyone will get upset if you don’t respond, so you can’t take it too lightly.

But things were a little different that day.

My younger sister Ayumi had taken a bath before me and she was lying on the living room sofa with a popsicle in one hand.

“Your smartphone’s been buzzing up there on the table. It sounded like an incoming call.”

“'Kay.”

I looked away from her face as I gave my brief answer. She was in middle school and, um, how should I put it? I was having trouble figuring out where to look. Her black bangs were cut straight across and she had long twintails that spiraled at the very end. Her flat but growing body was covered by a thin camisole and shorts, so just lying there was enough to see her somewhat flushed belly and similarly flushed thighs just about up to the base.

However, her face, belly, arms, legs, and pretty much everywhere were covered in stiches like a poorly-made stuffed animal.

This was not because she was fighting some serious disease.

She just happened to a bit of a zombie.

“Oh, honestly! It’s hot! So hot! I dried myself off so very, very thoroughly, but I’m still sticky all over. I’m gonna rot. My body’s gonna rot!!”

“Throwing a tantrum isn’t going to change the one-popsicle-a-day rule.”

“Then fan me, Onii-chan! One fan isn’t enough! I need more manpower!!”

She shoved a fan into my hands while still lying on the sofa, but that presented something of a problem. Her camisole was pretty baggy, so I could just about see her modest b.r.e.a.s.t.s down the neck.

“Besides, if you’re itchy, you should use your preservative. Isn’t your body temperature supposed to drop when you cool that and give yourself an IV?”

“Boo…”

For some reason, she pouted her lips between her twintails that had ringlet curl tips (which I thought looked like dinner rolls).

Meanwhile, the person elegantly lounging on the opposite sofa cut in with a grin on her lips.

“You’re missing the point. Ayumi-chan just wants to indulge in her Satori-kun a little longer. Isn’t that right?”

“N-no!! It really is just too hot to bear!!”

My older sister Erika’s smile remained intact when Ayumi yelled at her.

She was a s.e.xy girl with waist-length blonde hair in splendid ringlet curls. She had gentle eyes and was a year above me in school. However, I had an inkling that Ayumi wouldn’t turn out like this even after a few more years of growth.

That said, my older sister gave me just as much trouble figuring out where to look. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be pajamas or underwear, but she wore a light pink negligee that was see-through enough to make out the skin below it.

She was so perfect I had to wonder why she wasn’t the student council president. She was almost flawless if you ignored her obsession with cleanliness and how long she spent in the bath. Not that I was sure I would call Ayumi’s excessively short baths a positive trait.

“Onee-chan, what are you doing over there?”

“Mom and dad can’t get home because the trains were shut down due to the strong winds, remember? I’m sitting here waiting impatiently for a chance to use these disaster goods☆”

The table was covered in a pile of canned food, candles, portable radios, helmets, and bundles of rope. Although the cans were all pineapples and white peaches, so I wasn’t sure we could live all that long on just that.

“I really doubt the power will go out. I mean, this is Kukyou City, right?”

“Eh heh heh. But, but. Why is the thought so exciting?”

“Onee-chan, if you’re really worried about a blackout, shouldn’t you start by moving the contents of the fridge to a cooler?” asked Ayumi while munching on the vanilla popsicle that had started to melt. “You’d be in trouble if your blood and subst.i.tute plasma went bad, right?”

Oh, that might sound concerning, but it isn’t anything too heavy.

This was not because Erika was fighting some serious disease.

She just happened to be a bit of a vampire.

“…”

Not even I knew how this had happened.

Those two became my new sisters when my dad suddenly got remarried, but Ayumi was already a zombie and Erika was already a vampire by then.

There’s probably some detailed explanation that would fill up about 400 pages when written out, but that doesn’t matter here. As long as we got along, they weren’t going to take a bite out of me.

My negligee-wearing older sister gave a gentle comment.

“More importantly. Satori-kun? Ayumi-chan was right about your phone buzzing. Shouldn’t you call whoever it was back?”

“Oh, that’s right. Excuse me a moment.”

I grabbed my smartphone from the table and walked to the kitchen located across from the living room. I checked the call history and touched the most recent one to redial. Soon, a familiar voice reached my ear.

“Sorry. Were you busy with something else?”

“No, you’re good. More importantly, what do you want, Cla.s.s Rep?”

“It’s about tomorrow.”

The girl I was speaking to was actually our neighbor. She was a childhood friend of mine known for her forehead and gla.s.ses. Unlike Erika and Ayumi, she was a normal human.

“With this wind, odds are school will be canceled tomorrow, but you still have to do your homework just in case. Even if you come crying to me after waking up to find a clear blue sky, I’m not letting you see my notes.”

“Ugh.”

“And even if school is canceled, you can’t waste the day having fun. Since you won’t have the teachers around to manage your time for you, you’ll have to work even harder to study on your own.”

“Oh, G.o.d. I can’t believe this Forehead Gla.s.ses Cla.s.s Rep.”

“What was that!?”

I heard the yell from outside the window, not the phone.

In fact, the neighbor’s window burst open so a face with prominent forehead and gla.s.ses could yell at me with the look of a wild beast.

“I thought you swore to never call me that again back in sixth gra- dwah!? Th-the wind! It’s whipping at me even indoors!!”

“I’m more interested in why you’re in a bath towel! Your phone has a camera on it, so taking it in the bath with you is a bad idea!!”

“How is that impor-…hyah!?”

“And way to go, Cla.s.s Rep!! You don’t even take off the gla.s.ses in the bath, huh!?”

“Stop! Making! Fun! Of! Me!!”

The Cla.s.s Rap was badly beaten in the first round of the North Wind and the Sun, but she just barely managed to grab at the edge of the towel and hold it in place.

“Pant, pant… A-about the gla.s.ses. I need them to tell the shampoo from the conditioner. Anyway, what are we going to do if school is canceled tomorrow? Should I head over there to help you study?”

“Even if you’re just next door, this wind and rain would destroy your umbrella and you’d be left soaking wet. I have Ayumi and Erika, so I’ll be fine.”

“…Personally, I think those unbelievable sisters are the main problem.”

She muttered something under her breath before speaking to me again.

“Well, just keep up your steady pace like you do at school and anything else is fine.”

“What will you be doing tomorrow?”

“Watching some movies.”

Wait. What happened to studying?

“When I was cleaning my room, I found a few I’d never gotten around to watching after renting them online. The company I used doesn’t charge late fees, but I have trouble working on anything else when I leave a task undone.”

“Hm. Knowing your tastes, I bet I know what genre they’re from.”

“(Those aren’t my tastes. It’s to go along with you three.)”

“Hm?”

“Nothing. And yes. They’re all ones with zombies, vampires, axe murderers, and mysterious slime aliens. Oh, and I think there’s one about a showdown between two different monsters.”

“Neat.”

It was supposed to be a casual chat.

I didn’t meant anything by it.

The thought just so happened to occur to me based on what the Forehead Gla.s.ses Cla.s.s Rep said.

“If a zombie and vampire went all out, which one would win?”

I hadn’t noticed.

I hadn’t noticed the gravity of what I was saying.

And I couldn’t deny part of that had to be with how much of my mind was focused on the Cla.s.s Rep’s s.e.xy body barely covered by the bath towel.

“Wouldn’t you know better than anyone, Satori-kun? You’ve seen them both up close.”

“Yeah, but I’ve never seen those two get into a real fight with hair grabbing and stuff. They’ll argue over who gets the last popsicle, though.”

“I wonder how it would turn out for real?”

“Yeah, they both have supernatural strength and can increase their numbers by biting people.”

Two presences may have been slowly approaching behind me, but I didn’t notice at all.

I never would have imagined how this would turn out.

“It may seem like apples and oranges, but it might end almost too quickly once it starts,” I said. “Y’know, like when they have the ‘Judo vs. Karate Match of the Century!’ and then it ends after a single round and everyone’s disappointed.”

“Ah ha ha. Maybe so. …Um, well, everyone has their own opinions on these things, so I can’t say anything for sure.”

“Hm? What’s wrong, Cla.s.s Rep? Why are you ending that topic so suddenly?”

“Ha ha ha ha ha. Okay, I think I’m going to hang up. Satori-kun, I don’t care what happens to you tonight. There’s no excuse for not studying tomorrow, okay?”

“?”

The call ended.

Immediately, intense strength grabbed both my shoulders.

I was spun around, but…

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!! If Ayumi spins me to the right and Nee-san spins me to the left, I’m not going to spin either way! Are you trying to tear me in half?”

“Onii-chan.”

“Satori-kun?”

They must have known competing over this would get them nowhere because both sisters circled around in front of me.

Their smiles were frightening.

I could almost see the dark shadows falling on their faces.

“Satori-kun, about what you were talking about…”

“Wh-what I was talking about?”

“That’s right, Onii-chan. About whether a zombie or vampire would win in a fight.”

Oh.

Oh, c.r.a.p. This isn’t heading anywhere good.

I finally found – no, captured – my sense of danger as those two girls’ faces moved disturbingly close to mine with beaming smiles.

“The zombie would obviously win.”

“The vampire would clearly win, wouldn’t she?”

Their sweet-smelling voices were in perfect unison.

That was exactly what I would expect from those two who kept their ringlet curls even in the bath. And if they were so perfectly in synch here, couldn’t they please stop fighting!?

“That look! You don’t believe me, Onii-chan!!”

“Satori-kun, you think a vampire is a sickly nocturnal human who turns to ash in the sunlight, don’t you?”

They spoke at the same time, but this time there was no harmony and sparks flew as their gazes clashed.

“Then how about we test it out?”

“Yes, let’s show him which one is the true Queen of the Night.”