Vol 1 Chapter 8 (1/2)

Chapter 8

I was probably only unconscious for a few seconds.

“Kh…ahh…”

I shook my head and looked around from the ground. Ayumi the zombie was okay. I was worried about the Swimsuit Cla.s.s Rep, but she was already getting up. Impressively, even that blast had not been enough for the strings to come untied.

And we were beyond the thick bank vault door.

And we found…

“Ow, ow, ow…wh-what is this?”

“…”

I let out a hysteric comment, but Ayumi only gained a grim look to her eyes.

It was more like a tunnel or pa.s.sageway than a room. The exposed concrete formed a half circle pa.s.sageway that continued into the distance. Bright and darkly inorganic fluorescent lights lined the walls and metal rails ran by at our feet. The rails were wider than for a normal train.

228D was written on the wall in large letters.

Was that the tunnel’s number like for a highway?

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

“?”

Had Ayumi been in this shelter beyond the door before?

With that question in mind, we tried walking down 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 complexly intersected. It was more like a spider web than a single path.

“If this connects to the various homes, it may naturally grow as complex as plumbing and city gas pipes.”

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

“And…” The Swimsuit Cla.s.s Rep paused. “User, why has this underground 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 some exceptions such as the elevated hospital we entered through, if any one of those doors opened, a great flood of water should have rushed in.”

“…I have a bad feeling about this.”

Ayumi remained silent throughout 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 h.e.l.l 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-…!!”

Ayumi was stopped by the sound of something bursting.

She immediately grabbed the Cla.s.s Rep and me by the hand and ran down one of the branching tunnels.

“Hm? What? Were those gunshots!?”

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

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

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

There was something different about Ayumi.

I moved my mouth, but no words came out. Just glancing at the side of her face was enough for something like electricity to p.r.i.c.kle along the back of my neck.

Meanwhile, that little sister placed her index finger on my lips without looking my 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. Ayumi charged down the pa.s.sageway 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 emergency evacuation plan!? What are the group leader’s instructions!?”

“There’s no time to wait for that! The hand of death is already right in front of us!!”

The series of explosive sounds were clearly different from the small handguns carried by police officers. Were they a.s.sault rifles? Submachineguns? Light machineguns? I didn’t know how the detailed cla.s.sifications worked, but I was pretty sure these were military weapons.

Perhaps due to the enclosed s.p.a.ce, a mixture of a fireworks-like smell and a rusty smell gradually grew stronger.

But what was 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, who were “they”?

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

“M-Maxwell. This is a disaster environment simulator modeled after Kukyou City, right?”

“Sure. I question your judgment in using it for vampires and zombies, but I will accurately carry out whatever task I am given.”

“Then does this subterranean world exist in the real Kukyou City too!? And is it home to some group that completely ignores the Swords and Firearms Control Law!?”

“Sure. Verification is impossible as this is only a constructed data s.p.a.ce 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 game anymore. Something more realistic than a battle between zombies and vampires is invading the real world. Why is there something like an army below our city? We’re not talking about Tokyo’s subway tunnels that are made to allow tanks through.”

“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 were weird people like zombies and vampires walking around, but that hadn’t seemed any weirder than the images of s.h.i.+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 s.p.a.ce in our own house!

“User.”

The Swimsuit Cla.s.s Rep interrupted my spiraling thoughts.

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 machineguns may have been a common sight in Los Angeles or Detroit, but this was j.a.pan. 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 mad with fear as he aimed his sinister-looking gun my way. He shouted something while seeming about to drown in his mask thanks to his own spit.

“M-monster! A monster!! G.o.ddammiiiiiit!!”

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 manage to pull the trigger.

Something black charged 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 made my skin crawl, like I had flipped over a large stone to find tons of bugs hiding underneath.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah, ahhh…!!”

What was happening to him?

Inside the ma.s.s of black, a hand wandered through empty air, convulsed violently, and then wilted like an ignored windowsill 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 sc.r.a.ps 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 combined into my sister in a gothic 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 Cla.s.s Rep.

Seeing that, Erika narrowed her eyes sadly.

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

Gunfire continued down another tunnel. But it was weaker than before. Or rather, the number of guns firing was shrinking.

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 something?”

“Eh heh heh. Of course not. This isn’t anything as kind as threatening any witnesses. That’s why Ayumi-chan is taking this so seriously. But unlike vampires, zombies are indiscriminate, so the more she makes, the greater the chance of one of them attacking 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?

How were Erika and Ayumi connected to it?

Erika snapped her fingers and the countless bats scattered like a sandstorm through the many branching tunnels. I soon heard more screams and shouts.

Erika laughed.

“A lack of long term thinking creates a huge strategic problem. And zombies rot, so they cannot blend into human society and have trouble deceiving people. Their best use is to destroy the city’s infrastructure with pure numbers…but they might find a different way to fight 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 zombies, ground them up in a disposer, and mixed them into the dam or a food processing plant to infect everyone? It reminded me of rumors of worm burgers 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 zombie. That might have greatly s.h.i.+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’m a little jealous as her big sister.”

“Hm?”

“Hee hee. You don’t get it, Satori-kun? I’m holding 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 atmosphere? Ahh, these are so soft…mgh, mgh…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 skins.h.i.+p. She had her arms around me in no time.

Her fangs were a mere three centimeters from my neck.

She pressed her large b.r.e.a.s.t.s 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 relations.h.i.+p, and it would make everything awkward once we returned to the real world. Those thoughts just circle around and around in my mind. Thinking about the future is important, but it always holds me back. If I was more like that girl and took action first and thought about it later, my life might be so much easier.”

She placed her hands on my shoulders and then moved back.

Her face held her usual composed look now.

Ayumi the zombie girl 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 p.a.w.ns, and took over to establish a new order based on vampires.

“This isn’t limited to things on the level of an organization.”

“What do you mean?”

“A zombie continually destroys the host body through the process of infection. That’s what we see as the body rotting. On the other hand, a vampire optimizes the host body and gives it a greater body and greater skills than it had in life. This might make vampires sound more cost effective and convenient, but that isn’t actually true,” said Erika. “When you get down to it, all vampires do is optimize. We can only grow within the pre-established framework. The individuals do gain inherent skills in a sort of mutation, but not even that amplitude leaves the framework. …We can’t provide changes so dramatic they destroy the host, but zombies can.”

“Zombies don’t look that great 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 framework I was talking about. If the human race is destroyed, vampires die with them. After all, we require blood. But zombies are different.”

Had zombies given up on thinking because they were the superior species and had vampires honed their thinking 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 time I went to clean some things up. I’d really like to be your guide here, Satori-kun, but that girl seems to have gone a little overboard on making more zombies. I need to recover my advantage. I’ll go make everything nice 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 Cla.s.s Rep. Please use them as s.h.i.+elds if you’re surrounded by zombies. Also…”

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

“I know this might 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 atmosphere were all driven from my mind by the gunfire 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 b.u.t.terflies. The b.u.t.terflies s.h.i.+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 me with a sharp light in her eyes I had never seen before.

“Consecrated steel that was soaked in holy water during its cooling treatment. They’re going 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 b.u.t.terflies. Rats and bats are so dull, so I tried out a lot of things.”

She clapped her hands in front of her chest again, smiled, and then whispered something.

“But if I don’t do something about these little flies, it could get in the way of settling things with Ayumi-chan. I can’t have the zombies making a comeback after I wore down their numbers so much, so perhaps I should get just a biiiit serious.”

That was all.

She ran down another tunnel too fast for a normal person to keep up. A few vampires joined her and supported her. A few gunshots tried to stop her, but they were quickly silenced and replaced by cries of despair and meaningless 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 from opening and the underground tunnels were now a giant labyrinth of death with Ayumi and Erika inside.

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

“She had a sorrowful look, but she seems more than willing to fight.”

“I’m beginning to suspect she only gets 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 Cla.s.s Rep and I discussed the situation.

What was this giant underground s.p.a.ce? 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 movies were no use. Large 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 zombie or a vampire. And they were so busy biting 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.”

“Vampires are also an Archenemy known for biting, but it is very interesting that Miss Ayumi is the first to come to mind.”