Volume 3 Chapter 2 (1/2)
”Waaaaah!?”
I tried to sit up and my forehead hit something heavy.
First of all, where was I?
What had all of that been?
I groped around in the darkness and found I was trapped in something like a long, narrow, and cramped metal box. It felt like being in a thick cleaning supplies locker collapsed on its side. Of course, none of the surfaces would budge no matter how much I pushed or pulled. Nothing opened or even creaked. I was quickly overcome by an invisible pressure from all directions.
…Also, I wasn't garlic anymore.
I had arms and legs like normal and I had a forehead. I felt all over my own body like some kind of pervert and found I really did have a human body.
That was the normal state of affairs.
But in that case, what had everything before this been? I scratched at my sweat-soaked hair and felt something like hard plastic. It was the dive device used to connect my dreams to the disaster environment simulator and input my senses.
Which meant…
”It was a game? …It really was some cruel s.p.a.ce created by Maxwell!? Well, of course it was. I mean, none of it made sense. I remained calm and kept going even with dead bodies all around, I kept talking to myself like it was an RPG, the Cla.s.s Rep was a vampire, then a dhampir, and then a vampire again, and no one questioned that I was garlic!!”
Some semblance of reality finally returned to my thoughts. I felt along the side of my hip and pulled out my usual smartphone from my pocket. For some reason, there was a cable connected to a fairly large rapid charger. I couldn't let anyone know how jealous I had been when I borrowed that one from Muramatsu Yukie the Dark Elf. I pressed the b.u.t.ton and the screen lit up. The ceiling was much closer than I had expected. It felt like being closed inside a steel coffin with the lid welded shut, so the pressure squeezed at my heart all the more.
”Maxwell.”
”Sure.”
A short text SNS speech bubble answered me. Maxwell wasn't human; he was the administrative agent program for the disaster environment program I had built myself.
The actual machine was in a distant container…so that meant I had a signal here.
”Explain the situation. What's going on here?”
”Due to a complicated situation, it was necessary for you to remain in a 200L s.p.a.ce for three hours. But it was doubtful you could last that long in utter silence, so I sent the command to have your mind moved to virtual reality. Would you like to view the detailed log?”
Three hours.
Was that why I had used the quick charger? The smartphone's battery might not have lasted without being plugged in.
”So what was the complicated situation? And…where am I?”
”Warning: In the interests of your mental health, I do not recommend revealing that information.”
”But I'm curious.”
”Sure. Brutal Archenemies are wandering around outside and you are currently hiding from them. By the way, you are in a hospital's old morgue and you are currently hidden inside Cold Storage Chamber A-05.”
”Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”
I tried to sit up again and slammed my forehead violently against the top.
Y-y-y-y-you've gotta be kidding me! I don't know what's wandering out there this time, but how am I supposed to bear just lying around here!?
”Max- how do I open this- there's gotta be a door some- ahhh, ahhh!!”
”Sure. You have grown somewhat incoherent, but I believe I can overcome that with my autocomplete functionality. The door to the cold storage chamber is at your feet.”
”!!”
I kicked out with my heel. It seemed to be structured like an extra-deep coin locker, so I somehow managed to get the door open and tumble out.
”Ugh, dammit… This is no joke…”
”Warning: As you have left before the estimated time, the risk of being captured by the Archenemies has increased. I recommend taking evasive action.”
It was dark outside the chamber as well, but not because it was night. It was thanks to the lack of windows. The battery display was full, so I pulled out the charger cable and pointed the backlit smartphone around to view my surroundings.
It did not seem at all like a clean hospital. The backlight wiped away just enough of the thick darkness to see a bare concrete floor and walls. They had large cracks running through them and stainless steel tables were flipped over and abandoned.
”What is this place…?”
”Sure. This is the Peace Committee Convalescent Hospital, an abandoned hospital built in the forest on the border of Kukyou City.”
”…?”
Wasn't that the same as the virtual reality where I was garlic and the Cla.s.s Rep had crushed me underfoot?
Something flashed by the wall. I turned the backlight in that direction and saw digital counters on the rows of locker doors. They were probably temperature displays.
But there hadn't been any power during the garlic simulation.
”Maxwell, does this hospital have power even though it's abandoned?”
”The investigator hooked up their own diesel generator. All of the fluorescent lights are out, but that must be why some of the computers and medical equipment have come back to life. However, there is an unpredictable risk of an electrical fire because the state of the internal connections is unknown.”
”Investigator…?”
Did that refer to the hospital director or young man from the garlic quest?
”So who are the brutal Archenemies wandering around outside? This isn't another simulation, is it? So is one of them the Polish Vampire Princess?”
I asked several questions all at once, but Maxwell's response was not what I expected.
”No.”
”Hm? That isn't it?”
I frowned, but I didn't have time for a leisurely game of twenty questions.
The steel door to the morgue was suddenly kicked open from the outside.
”!?”
I flinched back from the deafening noise and pointed my smartphone in that direction. My heart shrank in fear as I briefly thought of the b.l.o.o.d.y dress girl, even though I knew she was only from that virtual world.
But who I saw was even more unexpected.
”Huh? Onii-chan?”
”Ayumi!?”
Long black hair was worn in twintails with the ends twisted not into twin croissants but twin b.u.t.ter rolls. The girl in a skintight track outfit was my little step sister. She was also a zombie with st.i.tches all across her body. She was a proper(?) Archenemy. I could never hope to win a sibling quarrel with her.
I went limp with relief upon seeing that familiar face.
”O-oh, Ayumi's here. I don't know the details, but is Erika here, too? If so, there's nothing to worry about. I mean, you two are unbeatable.”
But an odd speech bubble appeared on my smartphone.
”Warning.”
”Ahn?”
Next, a deafening sound burst out as if to crush my heart.
Ayumi herself was swinging her brutal limbs around wildly.
”Wha-?”
”It doesn't really matter, but just wait there a bit, okay?”
With that casual comment, my little sister bent and twisted her legs, hips, and back while sometimes supporting herself on a leg and sometimes flipping upside down on an arm. She spun around and around like she was breakdancing.
Her fists and feet used that centrifugal force to pierce through the ma.s.ses of metal rapidly flying in from the hall.
”What are those?”
They were about the size of motocross bikes. The two-wheel vehicles used their large spike-like suspension to bounce off the floor and they had various weapons hanging from the arms that extended to either side like an attack helicopter. The support wings seemed to bend and fold up when making curves or pa.s.sing through doors, but that wasn't the problem. They had a chain gun that didn't need a magazine, a narrow electric saw, and…was that a gas-operated pile driver aimed at Ayumi!?
Ayumi arched her back into a bridge and just barely dodged the thick spike. From there, her rising right leg continued on up and smashed the ma.s.s of steel.
The flow of time returned to normal.
Another three or four of them attacked, so the Ayumi Storm destroyed those Winged Motocross Dangerous Delinquent Babies.
”There. That should do it for now.”
”W-wait a second, Ayumi! What are we even fighting against here? Is the Archenemy this time tin dolls or something!?”
”Huh? You don't know, Onii-chan? When fighting against a highly-contagious Archenemy, the standard tactic is to wear protective suits or leave the fighting to bloodless dolls. Although if you're up against a cursed doll, that can actually get your unmanned weapon hijacked.”
When fighting against an Archenemy…?
Then had the Winged Moto(etc.) been sent in by a human group similar to the Bright Cross?
”And they're the perfect p.a.w.ns for Maxwell's side to separate you from us, Onii-chan.”
What does…
…that mea-
”Gh!?”
Ayumi circled behind me while my mind went blank. She pa.s.sed an arm around my neck and squeezed with the inside of her elbow!
At the same time, at least five more of the motorcycle drones clattered in through the broken metal door. It was an explosive situation. And the motorcycles must have had gyros installed because they skillfully came to a stop and glared at us!
”Hey, Maxwell, hey! If you want to protect your adorable master, call off your troops!! You know Onii-chan's a zombie the instant I bite him, right!?”
Ayumi shouted that warning and she seemed to be focused on the smartphone screen she could see past my shoulder. She was waiting for a response. And neither Ayumi nor Maxwell seemed to be joking today!
”No. I cannot hand my user over to you monster sisters at the moment.”
”Gbweh. Ayu-…xwell…what is going-…?”
”Do you know what facility this is, Onii-chan?”
…
”A secret hospital that turns humans into garlic?”
”Close but not quite.”
She gave a serious answer to my desperate joke.
”It's a department store for anti-Archenemy technology. That said, most Archenemies can be handled by priests and exorcists. That includes abominable snowmen, werewolves, zombies, and skeletons. But there is one exceptional field that has so many variations that it has a specialized cla.s.s of hunters. Now, which Archenemy is that?”
”Vam…pires.”
”Yes. That's why Onee-chan is so on edge. She insists we must get rid of this entire dark legacy before someone else can get at it. She's probably still on a rampage up above.”
”What about…you, Ayumi?”
A place filled with technology for fighting Archenemies could not be a fun place for her. Even if it was not directly targeting her, increasing the technology for defeating another type of undead was still an indirect threat. Just like boiling metal in wine would bring it closer to being a room-temperature superconductor, you never knew what would lead to a breakthrough.
But my little sister readily replied while pressing her body up against my back.
”Me? I don't really care. In fact, once you become immortal, your life tends to be lacking in hurdles toward improvement or the stimuli needed to grow. So it would be kind of nice if I did have a natural enemy. It's like a game. You don't want to just be unilaterally defeated, but setting things up so you can compete isn't all bad.”
…But Erika was different.
My instincts told me a strange sisterly fight had broken out in this abandoned hospital.
And…
”Maxwell.”
”Sure.”
”So what are these things, anyway? I don't remember giving you these dangerous toys.”
”Sure. I rewrote the system permissions for the unmanned weapons stored in this facility. Their development codename seems to have been Horse Knight.”
”…And why are you fighting with Ayumi and Erika using those new toys of yours?”
”Sure. Because you commanded me to.”