There wasn’t much we could do on the museum floor. Holing up there would only get us cornered, so we left the dark floor and moved elsewhere despite the danger.

Luckily, this was Kukyou City, known as a disaster prevention city. A small storeroom had plenty of supplies: canned fish, an umbrella built to survive intense gusts of wind, synthetic fiber bags, powerful battery lights, rope that could be used for mountain climbing, and a bag with an insulated surface that looked like aluminum foil. With a little bit of tinkering, it could all be used as a weapon.

“Can we really defeat vampires with this!? This looks like some kind of craft made over summer vacation!!”

“Ayumi, vampires come in a variety of types. But in this case, all of the ones in Kukyou City were turned into vampires by Erika earlier in the day. Meaning…

We ran into a vampire on the landing while heading down the stairs.

Before the young man could move, Ayumi opened a one-touch umbrella. Aluminum foil had been pasted across the surface. It looked like a reflector in a photography studio and she s.h.i.+ned a powerful disaster battery light on it.

The concave lens focused the violently bright light into an even more powerful spotlight which s.h.i.+ned on the vampire’s face down the stairs.

“Vampires are weak to light!!” I shouted.

“Kh.”

When he flinched back, I took my next action. I swung around a synthetic fiber bag attached to the end of a rope. It felt heavy and there was a reason for that: it was filled with cans, creating a morning star that would crush a normal human’s skull in a single blow.

I used centrifugal force and the height difference to swing it down on the vampire.

He seemed unable to move with the light and the fear squeezing at his heart, but a part of his heart must have proudly known no physical attacks would work on him.

But he was wrong.

The dull sound was reminiscent of a blow from a heavy sandbag. At the same time, something sharp burst from bag. It was solid fuel that had been broken to pieces before stuffed in with the cans. In other words, it was ash wood kindling. I had been able to tell it was ash wood because it had smelled the same as the sticks used in the previous bombs.

Vampires were annihilated when stabbed through the heart by stakes made of specific types of wood.

“Gyaaah!?”

For the first time, I did real damage.

The vampire’s arms were taken out, so I went for another hit. This time, he was unable to block the morning star and took it to the center of the chest. I felt the heavy blow land.

The sound of his annihilation was horribly dry.

Before he even collapsed, his body turned to ashes and scattered across the stairs.

“It worked…” Ayumi sounded shocked as she held the umbrella and battery light. “It really worked!! But they’re only supposed to be weak to sunlight!!”

“Erika would’ve seen through it right away, but the new vampires don’t know the difference! By confidently declaring our victory, we can trick them and they’ll tense up. Then we trick them again by using a morning star with ash wood hidden inside. We can make it like this. Vampires might have insane specs, but we might be able to settle this without letting them use those specs!!”

We descended the stars and walked down the hallway. We ran into a few vampires on the way, but we broke the sprinklers on the ceiling, shouted that vampires couldn’t walk over running water, threw soap with wooden stakes stabbed into it onto the floor for them to step on, and otherwise tricked them to keep them from moving. And I used that slight bit of time to swing around the can morning star.

I was scared, but this wasn’t impossible.

We could defeat the vampires!

“User, our previous entrance point is beyond that door. The boat should still be there.”

“Okay. We can escape. I’m not sure what to do once we do, but we can at least avoid dying here!”

“Onii-chan, if we write in our owners.h.i.+p of another building with the doc.u.ments there, we’ll have a place to hide. a.s.suming, that is, someone doesn’t let himself be seduced into letting her inside!!”

Meanwhile, we opened the door.

As soon as we did, I heard a forgotten voice from my smartphone.

“You’re mean…”

“Eri-…”

“You’re mean, Satori-kun. I’ve heard the reports. You’re killing all my vampires, aren’t you? Now I’ll have to make more…urp.”

“Quit drinking yourself sick on blood! You don’t have to force yourself! Now do some exercise to help your digestion!!”

“Fuguu!! Are you saying it’s okay if the zombies are taken out!?”

“Hmm,” said Erika. “Aren’t zombies kind of meant to be taken out? I mean, they really s.h.i.+ne when they keep attacking while the panicked police officers shoot them like crazy.”

“Kh. You have a point!!”

“And I’ve had enough.”

She sounded like she had lost her nerve.

As I worked with the Swimsuit Cla.s.s Rep to push the rubber boat out onto the dark water, I felt a shudder run down my spine.

Something wasn’t right.

Something was horribly off about things outside.

“Satori-kun, if you won’t give in and if you’ll bare your fangs against your own sister, then I’ll have to go all out too. Yes, it’s too late to come running to me now.”

“User.” The Cla.s.s Rep looked up into the night sky and gave a report. “There is no moon. The weather is clear and there is no apparent meteorological explanation.”

“Wait a second. Then is something covering the night sky…? No, wait. Ayumi, get back here! The doc.u.ments don’t matter!! Get on the boat! Hurry!!”

“Eh? Ehh?”

Ayumi’s confused voice was drowned out by flapping wings.

Yes.

This wasn’t just a million or ten million. Far, far more bats than that covered the entire area like a sandstorm. I had no idea how many bats a single vampire could separate into, but this was far too many. A pillar of bats rose from the city like a tornado. And they gathered toward a single point in the night sky. They concentrated there and became a black sphere. This was the process a vampire used to become bats and then return to being a vampire. It looked like several vampires’ worth of bats gathered together into a single giant ma.s.s of flesh.

“I don’t know where you’re hiding, Satori-kun, so I’ll just wipe the entire building from the map.”

Vampires were said to transform into bats.

They were thousands if not tens of thousands of meters up and who knows how many vampires’ worth of bats they were.

“The Varcolaci. That Eastern European vampire is said to fly through the sky and devour the moon or the sun. Obviously, literally eating a celestial body would be a tad difficult, but don’t you think they could figuratively pull it off by causing an eclipse?”

Only Erika’s voice surrounded me.

This was the all-encompa.s.sing scale of a queen.

“Eh heh. Let’s say the average weight of a man or woman is 65 kg. For 10 people, it’s 650 kg. For 100, 6.5 tons. For 1000, 65 tons. So what would it be for 10,000 people? Now, what if a ma.s.s of that weight appeared at an alt.i.tude of 25 km? What if it appeared up there at the thickest point of the ozone layer which deflects the sun’s harmful rays? Satori-kun, I know this is a silly thing to ask of a sciency person who built his own disaster environment simulator that’s all about physics calculations, but are you good at math?”

“…”

650 tons. Some large pa.s.senger planes or military transportation craft were more than 300 tons, so it might not seem like too much. Dropping an airplane or two isn’t going to cause an earth-shaking crater, right?

But even the biggest confirmed meteorite was only about sixty kilograms.

It was all about the conditions. What would happen if something more than ten times larger than the world’s biggest was dropped on the earth? Even if the starting point of its fall and its initial speed were different, it would still reach terminal velocity from that height.

I was left speechless, so Erika made her announcement over the phone.

“I call it Moon Mortality. …A solar eclipse during the middle of the day wouldn’t be possible, though. There’s also a risk of being exposed to sunlight even at night when sending them up to the ozone layer, but it’s still better than being exposed to direct sunlight during the day. The rest is just like the human parasol. Now, now. It’s time for a surefire trump card that only works during the sunless night. Are you ready for the false asteroid strike? I hope you enjoy it☆”

This is insane!!

Erika, I know you’re a clean freak, but have you never heard of restraint!?

Something large enough to cause a lunar eclipse was going to drop straight toward the earth. Something 25 km up should have been invisible if it did not emit a powerful light, but I could indirectly sea it because it blocked out the moon. We would not survive no matter where in the building we hid. The Cla.s.s Rep, Ayumi, and I pushed the rubber boat out onto the dark water and planned our escape.

“A dark ma.s.s is moving in the sky. This is faster than expected. I estimate it will land in twenty seconds.”

“Twenty? That means it’s moving faster than a kilometer per second! That isn’t a free fall, so is it actually accelerating? And what kind of name is Moon Mortality, Erika!? I didn’t realize you were such a difficult adolescent!!”

“Eh heh heh. It’s because I have such a pure heart.”

The ma.s.s covering the moon did not pursue us. Maybe Erika did not have an accurate idea of our location, maybe she could not overturn her initial command to crush the real estate building, or maybe the building was just a demonstration to break us mentally.

I didn’t know the answer, but the moment still arrived.

Ayumi alone wasn’t sure what was happening, so her eyes darted around.

“Eh? Eh? What? What’s happening, Onii-…”

“Just grab onto something!!!!!!”

The next thing I knew, all light and sound were erased from the world.

No, it must have been the scenery before my eyes that was erased.

I could not tell up from down.

As soon as the rubber boat curved sharply behind a giant building, a tremendous shockwave pa.s.sed by overhead. Not only did all the gla.s.s shatter, but it looked like a giant arm had knocked over the reinforced concrete. We were behind shelter, but the boat still flipped entirely over. And hunks of concrete larger than trucks rained down.

“Uuh!?”

There was no strategizing or tactics here. It was almost all up to luck.

We sometimes sank below the water, sometimes brought our heads above the water, and swam around without knowing which direction to go.

Luckily, Ayumi, the Cla.s.s Rep, and I all avoided a direct hit.

But we had no time to relax.

I looked to my smartphone and checked the footage coming from the balloon drone that was still airborne. I saw a giant crater.

The real estate building had been annihilated and something spread out from there.

My clean freak of a big sister was not done cleaning up.

“Oh, no… A huge wave is coming!!”

I knew this was dangerous, but there was nothing we could actually do.

We were swallowed up and tossed about.

I felt like a s.h.i.+rt in the was.h.i.+ng machine.

I had no idea how far I had been taken. A few dozen meters? Hundreds of meters? Ayumi and her zombie strength holding onto my hand may have been the only reason I survived.

“Puhah!!”

We all reached the surface.

Luckily, the overturned boat was nearby. We managed to flip it back over and climbed on. d.a.m.n, my collapsible bike must be at the bottom of the water.

“The central financial business district appears to have been annihilated,” calmly reported the Swimsuit Cla.s.s Rep.

She kept her eyes on the night sky where the moon was hidden once more.

“And I believe the false asteroid strike may not be a one-time thing. My sample data is too small to say for sure, but I believe it takes a total of eight minutes for the countless bats to form a black bullet, fire, and land.”

“If she starts stamping districts off the map like that, there’s nothing we can do. Are we toast? Please tell me no! If the Cla.s.s Rep finds out about the swimsuit dance set, she’ll beat me up!!”

“…”

We began to lament, but my twintail little sister remained silent.

No, she was muttering something under her breath.

She was apparently lost in thought.

“We need someplace capable of enduring an asteroid strike level of catastrophe… There would work…but…no, I can’t get my priorities backwards… What door wouldn’t have been flooded? Yes, if we were swept four hundred meters from Hughes Real Estate…but if that’s the only route, they’ll be rus.h.i.+ng there…”

“Ayumi! Hey, Ayumi!! She’s off in her own little world. Take this!! (tap tap tap).”

“Unyaaahn!!!??? Y-you stupid Onii-chan! Do you want attention from your little sister so bad you’ve gotten in the habit of touching her st.i.tches!? Stop that!!”

“Next time, I’ll count them one by one and figure out how many you have across your body. Anyway, what do we do!? I’m not some brilliant detective, so if you have an idea, tell me!!”

“C-count them…across my body…even those embarra.s.sing places…count all of them…”

“Ayumi!!”

“Cough, cough!! R-right, we need to get to the hospital on the hill! We need to start there!!”

The rest went quickly.

No, perhaps the extreme tension had just messed with my sense of time.

Luckily, the vampires did not pursue us. They were too busy forming a single ma.s.s in the night sky to cover the moon again. And next time, they might lock onto us more accurately. If that happened, we couldn’t escape. The entire district around us would be wiped out when they landed.

The hospital on a large hill was nearby.

We were soaking wet as we got the boat onto the roundabout out front and ran in through the outpatient entrance. The building was still standing, but all the gla.s.s was broken. I had trouble telling if that was due to the zombies and vampires or if it was due to Erika’s special attack.

“I estimate the final attack will hit within two minutes.”

I shuddered at those words.

Visiting hours were over, so the hospital was deadly silent.

The Swimsuit Cla.s.s Rep tilted her head and looked around.

“Is no one here?”

“Hmph. Don’t be ridiculous. Now, Onii-chan, this way. We need to take the stairs to the bas.e.m.e.nt!!”

“To the bas.e.m.e.nt?”

“We don’t have time! Just trust me!!”

I ran after her and down the stairs, but they did not take us to a room or a hallway.

It was a door.

An enormous door.

The round metal door was more than three meters across and looked like it belonged on a bank vault. These doors could be found below every house in Kukyou City yet no one had ever opened them. Yes, this was a door to the tornado shelter.

The Cla.s.s Rep brought a hand to her mouth.

“I see. If we escape beyond this thick door…”

“Yeah, it is a shelter, but I’ve never seen these doors open. Can they even be opened from the outside?”

My little sister with the rolled up ends to her twintails stood tall and gave a triumphant snort as she glared at the door.

“Onii-chan, you wait here with the Cla.s.s Rep.”

“?”

“I’ll go grab the ‘items’ needed to open this.”

She immediately turned back the way we had come and ran up the stairs, leaving the Cla.s.s Rep and me behind. I was dying to do something with two minutes until the attack, but there was nothing I could do and nowhere else to go. I could only leave this to Ayumi and the door in front of me naturally caught my attention.

It said Bright Cross Disaster Prevention Foundation.

“Maxwell, did you manage to simulate what’s inside here?”

“Sure.”

“Then do you know what’s inside?”

“No.”

I had not expected that answer.

But the Cla.s.s Rep explained.

“The system automatically creates a virtual s.p.a.ce based on the inputted data. I cannot provide an oral explanation of a supernatural vampire’s usurpation patterns. It is merely being calculated based on the parameters provided by a third party.”

“Hm. So that means…”

“I have received general data on Kukyou City and the holes are filled with predictive calculations, but each object is not directly designed. It is all born of automatic calculations, so I cannot supply data on what I have not directly experienced.”

It sounded simultaneously complicated and simple.

“My mind and body are both exhausted… Maxwell, can I use the Cla.s.s Rep’s lap as a pillow? While she’s wearing the swimsuit?”

“Sure. I do have to wonder why you would flee into escapism while already in a virtual world, but I will fulfill the task I am given.”

“Ahhh…”

“You seem to be melting, user.”

“Just so you know, I’m confident I could keep smiling even if I was caught in a cave-in as long as I had the Swimsuit Cla.s.s Rep’s thighs.”

I lay sideways on the floor. I curled up like a baby and let myself rock in the cradle of thoughtlessness for a while, but then I heard a sound from the stairs.

Then Ayumi’s voice reached me like a wind blowing up from the depths of h.e.l.l.

“…What are you doing, Onii-chan?”

“Uwaoh!! I completely forgot about you…”

“That’s the worst thing you could’ve said!”

For some reason, Ayumi was upset as she descended the stairs and she slapped the top of my head as I hurriedly got to my feet.

No, wait.

Ayumi-san, that isn’t your hand, is it? Where did you get that big manly hand from!?

“Don’t show me something that gruesome right when I wake up!!”

“It’s your fault for going to sleep while your cute little sister was out working.”

“You d.a.m.n zombie!!”

“Of course I’m a zombie! …Hey, Onii-chan, do you know what these are?”

Ayumi pouted her lips while swinging around her “victory prize” that was severed at the shoulder.

“They’re the fingerprint and iris of the guy who runs the place. That’s what we needed.”

I couldn’t quite place the word “iris” for a second, but it all clicked into place when I saw what was rolling around in her other hand.

It was an eyeball.

Ahhhhh! It looked me in the eye!!

Where did you get that from!? This isn’t like picking up acorns!

I was shocked, but Ayumi faced the thick door and went through some kind of authorization process. Finally, I heard a complicated metallic sound and the round vault-like door slowly opened toward us.

“We have less than thirty seconds until the false asteroid strike. Beginning countdown: 10, 9…”

“Hurry, Onii-chan!! Oh, I hope we can actually lock this thing from the inside!”

Before it fully opened, we forced ourselves in through the gap.

This was a tornado shelter.

Every house had one, but no one had ever gone inside.

It was truly our last resort.

And as Ayumi feared, we did not have time to lock it behind us.

As the thick door slowly opened and closed, it was. .h.i.t by an intense shockwave from outside. It was slammed shut like a deadly bear trap. Just the little bit of the shockwave that made it through the gap still managed to toss us through the air.

I did not have time to complain about the pain in my eardrums or my fear of losing the pull of gravity.

I was slammed to the floor and my vision sank into darkness before I could grab the reins of my consciousness.

I’m sorry.

I was elected mayor for six terms and I thought I had worked myself to the bone during them all, but now only words of apology fill my mind. But no matter how hard I work this puny brain, it won’t be enough. So I must give up on conveying this through words and do so with my actions.

This may only be an excuse, but Kukyou City was in dire straits. If we had not been designated a National Reinforced Planning Zone, we would have fallen into bankruptcy just like so many other regional cities.

But I never thought it would lead to this.

I will not ask you to forgive me.

I had been informed of the facility. I thought I understood its necessity based on the reports I was given. But now that I have seen it near completion, everything I thought I knew has shattered. That is too much. If that is actually used, how many shouts and screams will sink into an ocean of blood? How little hope will remain for the future?

I thought about stopping it.

I did everything I could.

But there was nothing I could do. To them, the mayor is nothing more than a doll with a replaceable head. If I defy them any further, they will replace that head. They have implicitly made that very clear. Their expression never changed and there was no smile in their eyes.

I apologize for giving up.

But it’s too much for me. I cannot support that any longer.

My soul will never reach heaven if I do.

But I can bring that soul to the grave before it is defiled any further.

Their so-called “secret base” was just a small s.p.a.ce made of cardboard boxes and galvanized iron sheets gathered below a bridge. But if it was left alone, it would become a home for bugs, so it had to be cleaned periodically. That group of friends took turns cleaning it and it was a small boy who arrived that day.

Was that coincidence for better or for worse?

He found two beautiful girls already there.

“Oh…sorry. This was your secret base, wasn’t it?”

“Hey, Onee-chan can’t go out in the sun, so can we borrow the place until the sun goes down!?”

Only the boy’s group of friends was allowed to use the secret base.

So he had a simple solution: make those girls a part of his group of friends.

“Well, if you’re fine with that…”

“Oh, dear. But do you really want people like us in your group?”

He did not mind. His friends did not like excluding people. They ended up talking about different topics, and the two girls eventually noticed a slight change.

“Hmm. So your mom and dad are always fighting?”

“Everyone has their own worries.”

He had hidden it at first, but that had not lasted long. The girls had done everything they could to draw it out of him. The next thing he knew, he could not stop. He cried as he revealed the worries he had never told anyone about before.

“It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

He was sick of hearing cheap words of consolation. He was tired of being treated gingerly and given nothing but useless plat.i.tudes. No one ever saw his problems through to the end.

“Ha ha☆ Then how about I become your big sister?”

“Ah! No fair deciding that on your own, you two!”

The boy had been confused as the two girls laughed.

“Hey.”

Then they had brought their beautiful faces in close, looked the boy in the eye, and asked a testing question.

“What would you do if I was a vampire?”

“What would you do if I was a zombie?”