Volume 3 Chapter 3 (2/2)

”Oh, my, my. Was the abandoned hospital's incomplete data not enough to make a proper hunter?”

”E-Erika, can the Cla.s.s Rep, um, return to normal? How do we make her human again!?”

”Cla.s.s Rep-chan was born a 100% pure human. The only reason she's being treated like a half-vampire is because of an artificially-altered curse. That means we only need to shut off the source of that curse.”

”Oh,” I almost said

Wasn't this something Erika herself had told me about?

”The Polish Vampire Princess… Is the cursed coffin the source!?”

That virtual reality had been partially used to repeatedly overwrite my memories and trick me into thinking the Dhampir Cla.s.s Rep and the b.l.o.o.d.y dress vampire were different people. The convalescent hospital's Ghost must have decided that cutting and pasting pieces of the existing material would confuse me a lot more than just inputting more and more nonsense data.

…The virtual reality had included a photo of a specimen girl among the director's possessions, but was that someone who had touched the coffin before today or had it been entirely fictional data? I had no way of investigating that now.

Red darkness squirmed beyond the thick but broken acrylic panel and behind the disordered counter. There was no time. The Cla.s.s Rep was about to get back up.

”Wh-wh-wh-wh-what do we do, Erika? We have to save her! Even if we know about the coffin, we have to keep her from moving! I can see her panties and every last bit of them is soaked red!”

”Satori-kun? It sounds to me like a few different desires are mixing together there.”

”Fuguu. And why are you only relying on Onee-chan!? I'm here, too…”

”Tremble, tremble. But it's the Cla.s.s Rep's panties! And, Ayumi, are you good at anything other than eating and sleeping? A wa, a wa wa!”

”That's not an answer.”

”That's not an answer.”

Our conversation was cut off by a thick sound much like a musty futon being struck with a stick. The gla.s.ses forehead Cla.s.s Rep had leaped over the counter like a wild animal crossing a hurdle and she was charging at us head-first!

My sisters exchanged a glance and Ayumi grabbed my hand and fell back. Meanwhile, Erika took a step forward.

The Cla.s.s Rep and Erika clashed head-on.

It was hard to believe the sound it produced could come from blood or flesh colliding and it even shook the walls.

The Cla.s.s Rep approached in a straight line like an animal, but Erika moved around in a circle. Her gothic lolita skirt and gorgeous blonde ringlet curls spread out around her like a large flower as she faced the Cla.s.s Rep like a matador.

To be honest, I couldn't at all follow what was going on even from so close.

Maxwell used the smartphone data to calculate out what happened while those rapid blows and deafening noises occurred right in front of me, so he provided that information after the fact. It was like listening to a local reporter with a bad connection describe a foreign sports broadcast. If I had tried to fight, I probably would have had my face or torso pierced several times over before I could even move.

…Had I really returned to reality? Was this really not another virtual reality???

I adjusted my grip on the hairband-like dive device.

”M-M-Maxwell. I'm only a burden here and I can't bear much more if this. Please just let me pa.s.s the time in the Cla.s.s Rep Swimsuit Dance Paradise…”

”Hey! Scrawny Onii-chan!! Don't you dare run away now!! I'm confiscating that!!”

”Stop! You don't know your own strength and the dive device is sensitive and expensive! Let go! Give it back!!”

”Fuguu!”

”Ah!?”

While my little sister and I got in a fight on an entirely different level from Erika and the Cla.s.s Rep, the crucial high-tech hairband slipped from stupid Ayumi's hand and flew through the air.

Erika's slender hand grabbed the spinning device.

She then faced the Cla.s.s Rep who was charging toward her like a wild animal.

”Special Attack!! Double Hairband!!”

It fit perfectly on the Cla.s.s Rep's head. This was the heretical act of placing a hairband on a girl who was already wearing one. It bothered me as much as having a gla.s.ses girl wearing an extra pair of sungla.s.ses on her forehead. And when I glanced at my smartphone, I saw the text indicating the simulation had begun.

With her mind dragged into virtual reality, the Cla.s.s Rep collapsed to the floor.

She was entirely motionless.

Not an arm, a leg, or even a finger moved.

”…Did we just discover the ultimate restraint for Archenemies?”

”Hmm. It wouldn't work against any that don't have brains or that attack on a subconscious level, so you can't let your guard down.”

”And, Onii-chan, this means the Cla.s.s Rep is in that simulation eternally watching herself dance around in a swimsuit, doesn't it? Will she be okay? I just hope it doesn't trigger some kind of Gestaltzerfall.”

That was a shock.

”M-M-Mwaxwell-shan!?”

”No. To preserve the privacy of those partic.i.p.ating in my simulations, I cannot tell you what is happening inside. …But when I supplied the curled-up Cla.s.s Rep with an NPC based on your physical data, the situation took a turn that I would have difficulty describing…”

”Wahhhhhhhn!?”

Screaming wasn't going to solve anything. The only way to switch to a different simulation set was to log the Cla.s.s Rep out and wait for it to be set up again, but that would release the wild Cla.s.s Rep once more. Unfortunately, she was going to have to face herself (dancing in a swimsuit) for a while longer.

”Hey, Erika. The Cla.s.s Rep was turned into a Dhampir by weakening the curse of the Polish Vampire Princess's coffin, right?”

”What about it, Perverted Satori-kun?”

”I'm getting attacked here too!? B-but anyway, have you checked in the bas.e.m.e.nt? In the radiology department's…um, temporary storeroom for something-or-other, there just might be a steep staircase leading further underground.”

”Hm.” Erika placed a hand on her slender chin. ”But wouldn't you have a hard time getting there, Satori-kun? An abandoned hospital's radiology department seems like it would contain some preeeetty dangerous chemical substances.”

”Uuh!?”

I suddenly realized that I had been a giant garlic in the virtual reality that the abandoned hospital's Ghost had shown me. I wasn't that way anymore and I didn't have a protective suit. …And even if I found one on a hanger here, I couldn't exactly trust it.

”And, Onii-chan, we checked around and there are a lot of thick locked doors that we couldn't destroy. And the bas.e.m.e.nt floor was the biggest example. We couldn't open most of the doors down there.”

…I see. Even if I know where the door is, I don't have the key now.

”Um, was the director collapsed in the pediatric department or rehabilitation room? It would be great if he had his half-opened briefcase with a key ring and ID card inside.”

I hesitantly asked my question, but Erika and Ayumi only exchanged a glance and shrugged. It seemed real life did not match the virtual reality to that extent.

”Anyway, it does sound like the bas.e.m.e.nt floor is most suspect since we haven't searched very much of it.”

”Fuguu. So we have to do it by force in the end? But unlike Onee-chan, I can't regenerate my body. We'll have to pick up 'something like a crowbar'.”

…Apparently Archenemies did not consider the option of ”search for the key”. Of course, we were in the middle of a dangerous area, so we couldn't just decide to ”put it off until we found the key” or ”try something else since we didn't know the code”.

”You wait here, Onii-chan. The dive device restraining the Cla.s.s Rep's mind is connected to your smartphone via Redtooth, right? If you leave, the connection will be broken and she'll wake up.”

”W-wait, Ayumi. But…”

”Don't worry, Satori-kun. I'd really rather not bring up that time of our lives, but we were the fierce fighters who survived the fearsome Bright Cross's Colosseum. Searching around a bit will be easy for us.”

”Um, what about the key?”

”Think about it rationally: If this is using the cursed coffin, the Cla.s.s Rep has to return there periodically to recharge her power.”

”That means it would be over already if it was locked up tight, keeping Cla.s.s Rep-chan out. But that hasn't happened. There must be an open path to the coffin; we just haven't found it yet.”

With that, I smiled at them and they left.

Would they be fine? Of course they would be. In fact, if a full-power zombie and vampire weren't enough to handle whatever it was, a human like me wouldn't stand a chance. I would only be a burden for them.

Sometimes the difference in power was too great to make up for with ingenuity. Even if you had polished your swords and spears, pored over the map, and carefully come up with a plan for a 100-against-100 battle, you would still be helpless if it was 100 man-eating tigers that approached your 100 warriors. That was what it meant to face an Archenemy in a serious battle.

”That aside, the Cla.s.s Rep sure is cute while she's asleep. And knowing that nothing I do will wake her up right now feels so immoral. Maybe I should wipe off all this mystery blood soaking her body. Eh heh heh.”

I held my head in my hands next to the sleeping Cla.s.s Rep.

Erika and Ayumi said they would be back right away, but they shtill haven't come byack.

”Dammit…”

Was it not that simple? If there was some cruel trap in the real radiology department, they might have been caught while investigating it based on the virtual reality information.

But.

What if it wasn't a trap?

There weren't many other things that could do serious damage to a vampire or zombie. Normal troops probably couldn't do it and even a group of those killer motocross bikes wouldn't be able to take them out.

I glanced toward the window which was covered by a thick curtain. It was night. Late at night. No matter how much the lights of civilization covered the planet, that was still a dangerous time that brought you closer to death.

An eye for an eye.

A snake best knows how to catch a snake.

…I didn't want to consider it, but could there be another unknown Archenemy lurking here?

Either way, I couldn't just ignore my sisters' long absence. I also wanted Maxwell's backup, but if my smartphone moved away from the headband-style dive device on the Cla.s.s Rep's head, her mind would be freed from its virtual reality cage.

Which meant…

”I'll just have to carry the Cla.s.s Rep with me. And if I rub against her along the way, it's not my fault!!”

”User, why is it you seem unable to stop smiling?”

Maxwell: What appears to be a commercial light off-road motorcycle was equipped with a variety of communication and electronic control equipment. The gyros attached to the front wheel keep it balanced and the adjustable wings attached to the seat have various weapons installed to make it an anti-Archenemy unmanned weapon. The levers, pedals, and gauges for a manned motorcycle all remain, but that may be just for fun.

A focus on quant.i.ty over quality shows this weapon likely came from the concept of letting one's industrial strength do the talking. Its actual suppression ability is not actually all that great, but it is the perfect weapon when looking at the personnel loss ratio.

When making curves, the wings can fold upwards to allow the actual motorcycle to skim just off the ground. That and the jumps it makes using its suspension make it surprisingly nimble, so watch out for surprise attacks.

Maxwell: A commercial VR device with discretionary pricing, but its average market value is just under 30,000 yen. The processing s.p.a.ce that the human brain uses for dreaming is utilized to show the user a vision in reality. Thus, playing late at night is strictly forbidden.

It is a receiver that uses short-range wireless communications and the processing is done by a mobile device or game system, so the dive device itself has a very simple design. That may be to keep the device light enough to reduce muscle exhaustion while wearing on the head. …But then why is the price so high?

Depending on how it is used, it can be switched on to forcibly ”knock out” an opponent, so it has excellent specs as anti-Archenemy ”handcuffs”.

It was never a normal facility, but there have recently been even more strange guests that usual. No, I should call them creepy.

There was a general contractor with eyes like a hitman who was carrying a bunch of cement and there were those young women with their faces entirely hidden by robes. They looked like fortunetellers, but they weren't. They're called ”wors.h.i.+pers” and they're hired to do jobs in the underworld. I'd really rather not look them in the eye.

The other guards even claim the researchers who collapse from exhaustion are buried behind the walls underground. Given the sharp-eyed contractor with cement and the strange wors.h.i.+pers, it certainly sounds plausible, but I don't think it's that simple.

Calling it a ”seal” would be more accurate. I mean, they aren't going to be placing normal corpses behind the walls. After all, this is an anti-Archenemy research facility. No one here would be surprised to have a corpse get up and walk around, so I can only think they've opened the gates to h.e.l.l or something.

…Come to think of it, I haven't seen her in a while.

She showed up partway through and received such a warm welcome, but…no, it couldn't be.

<script>