Vol 1 Chapter 6 (1/2)

Chapter 6

“Puhah!!”

The Cla.s.s Rep and I brought our heads above the dark water’s surface.

The thick barrier of water seemed to have kept the sound of the bell from our ears.

But we could already sense a change.

Yes.

“What…? The water isn’t flowing…?”

“Sure. The flow of water seems to have stopped for some reason.”

Placing my hands on the edge of a roof was enough to tell. The incredible current had completely stopped. The calm water’s surface was more like a lake than a river.

“Of course it has,” said Erika as the zombies continued to devour her.

However, the composure never left her face.

My S older sister seemed to be an expert on the other end of the spectrum as well.

“The Upior’s one-time-only action has made everywhere within a kilometer of here into undead territory. That alone has given me between ten and twenty thousand vampires. Hm, all that setup during the day didn’t quit work, but…well, the legend about the bell does say it curses the people the same age as the Upior at death, so maybe it doesn’t work on everyone. Regardless, this gives me an overwhelming advantage.”

“…”

“And with this many people to work with, I can move onto the next phase. Heyyyy, Ayumi-chan? If you pulled out the drain plug with a ton of hair floating in the bath, don’t you think it would clog up the drain?”

“It can’t be.”

“Vampires can’t cross running water.”

She spoke decisively.

It was like flipping over the chess board after being put in checkmate.

“But what if I have my vampire minions jump into the water until they clog up the water’s exit? Running water might be a problem, but once it stops running, it isn’t anything to worry about. Isn’t that a simple solution?”

“It can’t be!!!”

Ayumi made a split second decision.

She threw out the chance she had been aiming for. She purposefully let go of it. She jumped back toward us and landed on the top of a telephone pole that held a Weather Sphere as it poked up above the dark water. As soon as she did, countless figures burst out of the water from every direction.

They were vampires.

These were the people who had been separated by the flowing water.

It was like surrounding a small bug with an even larger cage.

The small rooftop ruled by around thirty zombies was easily retaken by a rush of hundreds of vampires. They quickly tore the zombies to pieces to punish them for disrespecting their queen.

Using her vampire minions like hair clogging a drain? She looks all soft and cuddly, but how much of a queen is my sister!?

“Onii-chan!!”

Ayumi shouted toward me, but I held the nearby Cla.s.s Rep tightly in my arms as I floated in the water. I wasn’t going to let her get away from me again. If I had to keep rescuing her from my powerful older sister, I would never survive even if I could give myself multiple lives in the simulation!! And when the weird results were automatically sent back to the university and lab, those old guys would laugh at me and then the real Cla.s.s Rep would smash my real face in with her real iron fist! I was going to take this secret to my grave!! …My intention must have gotten through to my zombie little sister because she clicked her tongue and grabbed my back collar while standing on the telephone pole.

“!! Onii-chan, you Cla.s.s Rep obsessed idiot!!”

“This is what I came here for!!”

“Fuguu!! Stuuuuuuuuupid Onii-chan!!”

As the Cla.s.s Rep and I dangled from her arm, she hopped to the rubber boat we had used to get here.

We sank down and then bounced back up.

Ayumi had no allies around now. The unorganized swarm of zombies was being wiped out by the reorganized army of vampires.

“We need to get out of here! If she captures us here, Onee-chan won’t show any mercy! You and the Cla.s.s Rep will be vampires in no time!!”

“I know that!!”

I quickly started the rubber boat’s electric motor.

“But where are we supposed to go!?”

“This really feels like the climax, doesn’t it?”

“~ ~ ~”

Ayumi rudely chewed on her thumbnail.

Meanwhile….Oh, no. They’re keeping up with us. Several vampires were jumping from building to building in the sunken city!!

Not even the horsepower of a motorboat could outdo vampires with the power of the night. They were catching up and they would jump onto the boat before long.

“!!”

I grabbed what was loaded into the boat and threw it at them.

All I had done was remove gas from the generators at the camping grounds, fill small drink bottles with it, and then shake them to mix the gas with the air inside. Even lighting them so they exploded would not do much damage to an immortal vampire.

But vampires would die if their heart was pierced by a stake of hawthorn or ash wood.

Luckily, an outdoorsman had brought a small encyclopedia with them. I had only needed to wrap a rubber band around each small drink bottles and use that to attach the small branches used for kindling. It was the same as wrapping spare utility knife blades or barbed wire around a homemade bomb to increase its destructive power. This created a shrapnel bomb specifically for vampires!

After a loud explosion, the leaping vampires veered off course and fell into the dark water. I couldn’t tell if I had defeated them or not.

I heard gentle laughter from somewhere.

“You’re so mean…”

It was Erika.

We were running the motorboat at full speed, but we never seemed to move any further from her voice.

The voice reverberated oddly throughout the wide outdoors and pursued us indefinitely.

“You’re so mean, Satori-kun. Why do you have to hurt and defeat my vampires? You’re making your sister sad. My heart might just tear apart…”

“Wah!! I’m sorry, Erika!!”

“Don’t let her get to you, Onii-chan!! Who cares what that girl and her giant a.s.s say!?”

“Eh heh heh. We need to talk after this is over, Ayumi-chan. Urp.”

“Oh, no. I bet you’ve turned into a bat or something to pursue us, but did you decide to bite some survivor’s neck along the way!?”

“Onee-chan has some nerve for someone who eats such tiny lunches! She can’t make a vampire without sucking a lethal amount, so half-a.s.sing it doesn’t accomplish anything!!”

We could not lose her no matter how far we fled.

We might have been safe inside a building, but there was barely anywhere like that left. Which made sense since we had flooded the entire city!

“No, there’s somewhere left, Onii-chan.”

“?”

I frowned and Ayumi turned to the Swimsuit Cla.s.s Rep instead of me.

“Maxwell! …is what I should call you, right? It’s hard to tell with the landmarks underwater, but the Hughes Real Estate building is this way, right!?”

“No. You have been temporarily granted higher privileges, but the system’s authorized user is still Amatsu Satori. According to the security policy, I must reject commands from other users.”

“Onii-chan, can I bite her a little?”

“Calm down, Ayumi. That would waste all our efforts here! And don’t be so weirdly stubborn, Maxwell! I authorize Ayumi’s command!!”

“Sure. To reach the aforementioned Hughes Real Estate Kukyou City Central Branch, continue forward four hundred meters, turn right, and continue another fifty meters. However, I believe the first floor reception desk will have been flooded.”

“…So you’ll listen to what Onii-chan says while shaking your little b.u.t.t for him, will you? Maybe I should bite you for some divine punishment…”

“Ayumi. Why do you want to get to the real estate building anyway!?”

“Have you forgotten, Onii-chan?”

We created an impressive crescent moon wave as Ayumi forced the rubber boat through a tight turn while skillfully maintaining our balance.

“Vampires can’t enter people’s homes. They need the owner’s permission.”

“Oh.”

“I bet that’s a legend that came from the fear of a cult gradually spreading through a town and going door-to-door to find new members, but all that matters is that it works on Onee-chan! Look over there. That’s the sign for Hughes Real Estate!!”

The rubber boat charged toward it.

We smashed the building’s third story window and sent the rubber boat flying right onto the carpeted floor. Zombie Ayumi could not bear to wait for the boat to stop, so she jumped out and rolled.

It was dark inside, but that may have been due to the flooding. I used my smartphone’s backlight for light and shouted to Ayumi.

“Ayumi! Erika and the vampires are already here!!”

“I know that!! Um, um, there it is! This is the original doc.u.ment showing who owns the building. If I rewrite it real quick…”

Steel racks were filled with cardboard boxes stuffed with files. Ayumi had followed the alphabetic labels to pull out the file she wanted and then threw it onto a work table.

She crossed out a few entries with a fountain pen and wrote something else in their place.

“This building belongs to us now! Onee-chan and the vampires can’t get in without our permission!!”

“Ayumi, yelling your plan is cool and all, but why did you just stop moving?”

“I want to make the finis.h.i.+ng blow, but I don’t have our family seal.”

“Oh, honestly!! This is a foreign company, so a signature should work just fine!!”

I s.n.a.t.c.hed the pen from her and signed my own name.