Vol 1 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Chapter 4

Everything was dyed orange.

Evening had arrived and we had no time left. In less than an hour, night would fall. Our sister had already turned things in her favor more than once and now her time to s.h.i.+ne would truly begin.

I was still separated from the Cla.s.s Rep.

She was being treated like the flag in the zombie and vampire’s game of capture the flag.

If she was killed in this disaster environment simulator, that result would be sent to the uptight researchers at the university and lab. They would learn about the swimsuit dance and make fun of me. And that would eventually lead to my death. But not in virtual reality! The Cla.s.s Rep’s iron fist punishment would kill me in the real world!! Yet she was now trapped in the center of the vampire army led by my older sister.

Ahh.

I think my smile is going to be faintly visible in that sunset before long…

Ayumi and I had left the flat coastal shopping district and moved to a mountainous region. The area included a dam, an observatory, and a hot spring inn. The ski slope was the biggest draw, but a partially bald mountain was all you’d be able to see at this time of year. I pedaled my collapsible bike up the zigzagging turns of the mountain road. With both of us on the bike, Ayumi had to press up against my back, but her hunger did not seem directed at my raw flesh for the time being.

Thanks to leaving the crowds, we were freed from that iron smell and that may have helped.

Hooray for negative ions.

A few images reached me from the balloon drone I had left in the city.

Smoke was rising from buildings here and there, but the commotion seemed to have entered a lull. There were no more swarms of panicked people. But that was not because rationality had returned; they had likely realized that panicking would only get them killed.

There was also no sign of a largescale conflict between the zombies and vampires.

The city center was already dyed in Erika’s colors. The eerie stillness seemed to indicate the arrival of a new order.

“What do we do now?”

I may not have asked that question because I was hoping for an answer from my little sister.

What were we going to do now?

I was asking myself. Before, I had felt like I was a bystander watching Erika and Ayumi’s sisterly fight. Even if they started grappling or the virtual city grew soaked with blood, I could have observed it impartially.

But that was off the table now.

I had to get the Cla.s.s Rep away from Erika. I had to rescue her and regroup with her. And to do that, I clearly had to join the fight.

I had to fight Erika.

Ayumi had the unfair advantage of being a zombie and she had set everything up in her favor, but not even she had been able to stand up to that vampire. This was too great a foe.

How much help would I really be if I joined in?

No, how far was I willing to go?

“What do you think you can even do?” asked Ayumi in a m.u.f.fled and sulking voice as she wrapped her arms around me and pressed her face against my back. “What do you think you can do after joining in right before checkmate?”

“Oh, c’mon. This is bad enough as it is, but now I have to help motivate my capricious little sister? I’m not getting paid for this, you know?”

“Fuguu.”

“Okay, okay! Don’t cry!! I’ll do everything I can, I swear it!! So don’t get your tears and snot all over my back!!”

“Really?”

“I have to do something about the Cla.s.s Rep problem anyway. Even if things aren’t looking good, I’m bound to have a better shot if I have a swarm of zombies on my side. I mean it!”

I tried saying everything I could, but my little sister did not respond.

Only the sound of the pedals filled the evening mountain road.

Finally, she spoke.

“Um, Onii-chan?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you seriously love the Cla.s.s Rep?”

“Bfhh!!”

The bike just about fell over, but I swerved in an S-shape and somehow managed to regain our balance.

“Why would you ask that without any warning, you incarnation of youth!!”

“Fuguu!! Fuguuuuuuuuuu!!”

“Aggaggh!? And why are you squeezing my torso like a vise!? It might be wrong to ask this of a zombie, but try to control your emotions!!”

Unable to bear it any longer, I placed my feet on the road.

After we stopped on the slope, my little sister began pressing her face against my back again. Thanks to that, I couldn’t see her expression even when I twisted around.

“Fine then, Onii-chan. The one with you now and the one teaming up with you is me, not the Cla.s.s Rep.”

“Oh, is your tantrum finally over?”

“Hmph!! Zubiii!!”

“Gyah! Why would you blow your nose on my back!?”

She finally removed her face from my back and climbed down from the bike.

“Ayumi?”

“I’m hungry. That’s a problem for a zombie like me, but you need to refuel too, don’t you? Stay here and I’ll go get us some food.”

“H-hey!”

Before I could stop her, the zombie girl ran off into the underbrush.

Was she going to kick a vending machine to break it or was she going to swipe some vegetables from a farmer’s unmanned stand? Or maybe she was going to find some wild fruit or catch some wild animals. I wasn’t going to get my hopes up. As her big brother, I would be happy as long as she didn’t start feasting on a pot full of rotting arms and legs.

But when she returned, Ayumi held something unexpected.

“What’s that? Barbecue?”

“There’s a campground nearby. I remember going there on a field trip.”

She held several metal skewers and their contents gave off the lovely aroma of cooked fatty meat. Speaking of which…

There’s meat, meat, meat, and…um…meat…and…huh? More meat…???

“Why did you only grab the skewers of meat!? You meat-obsessed zombie!!”

“Sh-shut up!! Have you ever heard of a health-conscious zombie that eats vegetables!? You should be thankful it isn’t raw meat!!”

I could not figure out why Erika was jealous enough of the meat-obsessed idiot that she forced herself to drink a stomach full of blood!!

Anyway, after crawling through all that blood and gore, I didn’t have much of an appet.i.te…or so I had a.s.sumed. But once I saw the freshly-cooked food, I started salivating. Biological reactions were a frightening thing.

“Now that I think about it, this is a simulator, so I can eat whatever I want without gaining weight. That’s crazy.”

“But I think I read some reports that it’s so realistic that it can trick your brain into producing some weird chemicals. Y’know, like growth hormones and stuff.”

“You’re kidding. So you can gain weight without actually eating anything? B-but I’m a zombie, so if I need to I can just pull out some of my own flesh to lose weight. Ah ha ha ha ha ha.”

“Ayumi, I don’t think liposuction counts as a diet.”

Ayumi must have noticed the hunger on my face because she obediently gave me a few of the skewers.

“But what are we going to do now?” she asked while munching on the meat.

“That’s the real question…”

“Night will be here soon. And that’s the vampires’ time…Onee-chan’s time. My zombies didn’t spread as far as I’d hoped and the vampires under Onee-chan’s command are just going to hunt them all down. In fact, it’s probably already happening.”

That was when we heard something slicing through the air. I looked up from the mountain road and saw several small camouflage-painted helicopters. They were flying in formation from the mountains to the plain.

Ayumi spoke quietly while tearing into the barbecue meat.

“JSDF observation helicopters? That was fast. It must have really shocked the city council and police to be taken out so easily. They may have stopped worrying about appearances and given up on protecting their own turf. Normally, they would never ask for outside help.”

“Ayumi, what’s with the monologue?”

“I guess it’s a habit for recon flights, but they’re pretty dumb to make a low-alt.i.tude entry like this… They won’t stand a chance against Onee-chan.”

“You just don’t feel like explaining any of this to me, do you? A little sister is supposed to listen to her big brother, you know?”

I tried tracing a finger along the st.i.tch running across Ayumi’s soft belly.

It was dramatically effective.

“Heeyan!? F-fuguuu!! Onii-chan, what are you doing!?”

“Why did you entire body convulse like that!? What kind of feeling just ran through you? I think that scared me more than you!!”

“W-well, it’s like the feeling of tickling a half-healed scab but amplified several dozen times over… Mutter, mutter. Zombies have their own unique issues…”

But this was no time to be messing around.