Book 1 Chapter 2
I fled from the school but wasn’t sure where to go.
I decided to pedal my bike toward the shopping district and noticed my surroundings growing noisy.
“The load on the system is growing.”
“Is Erika or Ayumi going on a rampage and creating more of the undead?”
Either way, I could not check the details without my administrator privileges. I was the same as a normal user fleeing from the disaster according to the standard parameters.
And even without those privileges, I could tell.
The thick smell of blood from the school’s carnage was gone, but that was no reason to rest easy.
There was a prickliness to the air. It was a tense atmosphere like facing a burning fuse or like being thrown into a room just before a dust explosion while wearing a wool scarf.
I would often say I had a bad feeling about something, but it wasn’t like a premonition ever left me with a good feeling. It was always these bad feelings that came rushing in!!
“Has it started?”
“They are making a real effort now.”
I heard glass shattering and someone screamed, so I stopped the bike. With each noise, the Class Rep clung to me from behind and looked around nervously. My heart skipped a beat at the soft sensation on my back.
“Um, I’m not really interested in the zombies and vampires. I’m not looking for reality there. To be honest, I don’t care what else happens as long as I have the Swimsuit Class Rep’s warmth.”
“When you say that, it leads me to somewhat question my purpose as a disaster environment simulator.”
“Do you have any idea how much of mankind’s knowledge went into recreating this bouncing and jiggling!? In fact, this world goes beyond the appearance and touch!! It provides the taste and smell too!!”
“My question remains.”
It was still daytime.
Since the vampires on Erika’s side could not act, it would be the zombies on Ayumi’s side who had started moving freely outside the school.
Zombies were slow and their bodies were rotten, so they could not defeat a vampire in a one-on-one fight. I could see why Ayumi would want to secure as much of an army as possible before nightfall when our older sister could increase her numbers.
However.
At first, the waves of people on the streets continued on unchanged even though something was clearly wrong. It was a strange new sight. But once the zombies poured out into the crowd, everyone started running. But the pedestrians waited at the lights, lined up at the elevators, and were otherwise polite.
Then the red tragedy rushed in.
They were pinned down, bitten, and otherwise introduced to the ways of the wild.
No matter what they did, those doomed to die would die. Following the rules would not keep them safe.
And after they realized that, the change was a quick one.
“Outta the way! I said outta the way, you dumbass!!”
“I was first!!”
“Let go! That’s my bag!!”
The flow of people transformed into disordered chaos. They ran from the sidewalk, ignored the lights, and dragged down or trampled others. But they did not all have a destination in mind and they were not all focused on escaping the multiplying zombies. Some of them broke car windows, snatched handbags, or rushed toward shop cash registers.
“User, the current area is growing more dangerous.”
“But you won’t tell me how to avoid it, I notice.”
“Because I am a disaster environment simulator.”
“Are you just going to watch as I’m killed!? You sadistic grim reaper!!”
We held that conversation while avoiding the waves of people by hiding behind a metal dumpster on the end of the road. If we kept our distance from anything valuable and tried not to stand out, I was pretty sure we wouldn’t stimulate the looters’ greed. Hmm! But I’m kind of worried about the Bikini Class Rep’s smallish sexy body!!
But unfortunately for those looters, the greedier they got, the more excess stuff was weighing them down. Those with tons of food or money in their hands were grabbed by the zombies in a moment of inattention. And what happened then goes without saying.
A gust of wind blew through and bloodstained yen notes flew through the air.
“That smell” filled the scene once more.
“This is a complete mess. Any ideas, user?”
“Yeah, what are they going to do?”
Vampires were weak to direct sunlight, so it had been a complete tragedy that the initial stage had been during the day. If the zombies continued spreading their influence, Erika’s side could be wiped out before the first night even began.
“No, not that. I was referring to your own safety.”
“Oh, you mean this isn’t enough? Is this like hiding my head in the sand with my butt sticking out!?”
“That pointlessly loud shout was the last nail in the coffin.”
“A-a-a-a-anyway, what are we supposed to do? I managed to find the Class Rep, so I don’t need this catastrophe anymore! Is there some kind of goal we can get to!?”
“I believe we must continue fleeing until this crisis ends on its own.”
“Hmm. With vampires, you generally have to defeat the big boss to win, but with zombies, it does seem to be more about fleeing forever. I don’t see how this can end…”
“In other words, you must side with your younger sister and work to kill your older sister for the quickest path to logging out.”
“Don’t make it sound so sinister! But what do we do now? Even if we’re going to flee, it’s unrealistic to think we can ride through this panicked crowd on a collapsible bike, but I can’t think of any good hiding spots during a panic like this.”
Meanwhile, the waves of people began pressing in toward us. Instead of an orderly current in a single direction, they were scattering in every direction like a clump of oil being squashed by a giant hand.
I could no longer tell if they were survivors or zombies.
Either way, I could easily be crushed to death if they all pressed in, so I supported the collapsible bike on my shoulder, grabbed the Class Rep’s soft hand, and escaped into a nearby building.
Beyond the glass door, I found…
“DIY… A hardware store?”
“User, I do not think locking a glass door will be very effective.”
The first floor of the building was a store the size of a supermarket. There were no employees left at the registers, so they must have already fled. We quickly dove behind a nearby shelf and the high-pitched sound of breaking glass soon followed. Then I heard a sticky dripping sound and smelled a rusty odor. It may have been someone badly injured, but I prepared for the worst. I had to assume this was the zombies.
“Can we leave through the back entrance?”
“If we are to move, we should do so soon, but it would be difficult to sneak through without anyone noticing us.”
“I know that and I’m not that hopeful.”
Luckily, there were plenty of home improvement tools here. I knew this was virtual reality, but I was still hesitant to take things from the shelf without paying. But at this point, there was no point in holding back. If the Swimsuit Class Rep was taken out, I would (after some twists and turn) be killed back in the real world.
Only the Class Rep mattered now.
I threw out all other morals.
Whether zombies or vampires, I was not obligated to let them kill us.
“Maxwell, grab some duct tape from that shelf. Oh, and a stainless steel mug too.”
“? User, please provide the purpose of this command. You seem to be holding a mop.”
“That’s right.”
I spun the end of the mop to unscrew it and attached the stainless steel mug to the handle.
“A survival expert did this on the satellite adventure channel. It was an episode on how to survive in a winter mountain cabin if you were surrounded by a pack of wolves.”
“That seems like an awfully unique simulation scenario.”
“It’s better than zombies and vampires, don’t you think?”
Meanwhile, a ton of zombies stepped in through the shattered glass door. They would notice us before long. Even in this virtual space, my heart was pounding unpleasantly hard and I could not control it.
“This is what the guy used: a stone-throwing staff. The most well-known method is to spin the stone around and around with a belt and use the centrifugal force to give it plenty of force and distance, but it’s hard to hit a target like that. But with this thing, you get some centrifugal force just by swinging it down from above, so it’s easier to just pick up and use. Even an amateur can figure it out after two or three practice shots.”
I had the Class Rep hold the mug and mop handle while I peeled up the sticky part of the duct tape. That made an unexpectedly loud noise and I thought my throat was going to dry up. I could not tell what the zombies were doing on the other side of the shelf, so I quickly peeled off the tape and wrapped it around the mug’s handle and the mop’s handle.
“And this thing barely makes any noise. It can throw a fist-sized stone more than fifty meters, so we can almost unilaterally smash the zombies’ heads. The human skull is only as hard as a flowerpot, after all. And even if I miss, I can duck back as soon as I throw it so I’m hidden by the time it makes a noise. Unlike humans, zombies shouldn’t be able to figure out where the attack is coming from. After all…”
“Zombies are not very smart?”
“Now you’re getting it, Maxwell.”
We affixed an L-shaped crowbar to the opposite end of the mop. That’s what I would use in a close-quarters fight. It was a medieval peasant’s weapon known as a battle hook. The simple weapon could drag a knight down from his horse or break through thick armor if swung with centrifugal force. Once again, my knowledge came from a satellite channel’s history quiz show.
I left the collapsible bike with the Class Rep, held my makeshift weapon, crouched down, and began to move.
“You said that was a stone-throwing weapon, but where will you acquire a ‘stone’? There seems to be a section with garden gravel packed in bags.
“They said stones are actually not the best choice because the size and center of gravity varies so much. Oh, I know. Let’s borrow these metal nuts. The ones big enough to fit over my thumb should be heavy enough.”
I grabbed a few and stuck them in my pants pockets.
Our goal was the back entrance.
I wanted to avoid running into the zombies if possible, but I would have no choice if they cut off our route. The situation was still in motion, so sitting around would only let the zombies surround us. Doing nothing was the worst option of all.
We snuck along, following the green lights guiding us to the emergency exit, and we had nearly reached the thick metal door.
But then the Swimsuit Class Rep whispered to me while holding the collapsible bike.
“(User.)”
“(Yeah.)”
There was something there.
I felt a great pressure in my gut. Beyond the shelf, only a meter away, I could hear something like rustling cardboard. Instead of rationally grabbing something, it sounded more like an unintelligent creature sticking its head in the box and biting at everything inside. Whoever it was had likely become raw meat. I looked around, but I could not see another way around. I could not look down from above, so I could not predict where other zombies would be waiting.
I listened carefully.
There was only the one sound. It did not sound like more than one overlapping.
“(I should do this.)”
That was my conclusion.
“(The other routes are entire unknowns and we might run into an entire group of zombies, so it’s safer to fight the known risk here. Maxwell, you stand back just in case. This is all for naught if the Class Rep is taken out.)”
“(Sure. But user, at this range…)”
We were too close. I could not make full use of the stone-throwing staff. It would be more effective to make a full swing with the battle hook made by attaching a crowbar to the other end.
“(I guess I just have to go for it.)”
“(According to a history quiz show, old samurai mansions had intentionally narrow hallways and low ceilings to prevent an attacker from swinging their sword properly.)”
“(Y’know, the kind thing to do would be to keep that trivia to yourself when I’m using such a long weapon!)”
I scolded the tactless AI (I don’t know why that surprised me) and slowly circled around the shelf by the exit to reach the zombie. Sweat soaked my hands as I held the mop handle.
Why was I so nervous?
Was I afraid of the zombie that would not hesitate to devour any survivors? Was I reluctant to crush the head of something humanoid? This was no time to be thinking about that, but a strange heat ruled the back of my mind.
I forcibly shook it off and peeked behind the shelf.
There was one there.
It was just five meters away and defeating it gave us a clear shot to the exit.
Wait…what is that?
That’s a tiny toy poodle the size of a stuffed animal, isn’t it!!!???
“Wait, Maxwell, wait!! Can’t you pause and rewind this!?”
“With the temporary loss of administrator privileges, the timeline slider and parameter branching options are currently unavailable.”
“But…that…but! I have to defeat that? To be blunt, won’t that turn the entire world against me? I’m sorry for thinking I was so badass as I secretly thought only the Class Rep mattered and that I would abandon all other morals!! But can’t I at least act cool in the privacy of my own mind!?”
“User. Whatever your opponent is, you will become a zombie if they infect you with the Acute Zombie Powder. The threat level does not change.”
“It isn’t even saying ‘mah’ or ‘vah’. It’s saying ‘nyah!? But it’s a dog!!”
“But it is a zombie.”
“It’s playing with a gardening nameplate! And the name sounds like a teddy bear’s name!!”
“I doubt it has any rationality left. It’s head is coming off.”
“But…still. C’mon, you get it, don’t you? I can’t beat up something like this!! It’s too much for me!!”
“Meanwhile, the enemy target seems to have noticed you. You have lost the advantage of a surprise attack.”
Oh, god. What am I supposed to do!?
They were not coming from the route to the exit, but I heard wet footsteps from all around. I couldn’t stay here for long, so I had to defeat the zombie in front of me. But that wasn’t easy. I knew this was a disaster environment simulator, but it was still going to tear my soul apart!!
“User.”
Maxwell sounded worried and provided an alternative possibility.
“If defeating it is too much, then you can always give up. This is only a simulator, so getting bitten and becoming a zombie will not harm your body in reality.”
“…”
I just about gave into that idea.
But.
But!!
“No, no, no! I can’t do that. If the Swimsuit Class Rep dies here, the university and lab will find out about the dance set and that will eventually lead to the real Class Rep really killing me in a real fight!! I-I have to choose between doing this in the simulator or dying in reality. It’s wrong to protect something virtual at the cost of your real life!!”
“Then.” The Class Rep tilted her head. “Don’t you have to do this?”
“Ah.”
Meanwhile, the mini zombie trotted over to me.
The five meter difference shrank further. I couldn’t let it rush at me. Whatever its size, it was still a zombie and even a toy poodle was a dog. I could not underestimate its ability to dash. I could not escape it on foot. It was possible I’d become a victim right away.
Now that it had locked onto me, it was all over.
A peaceful resolution was no longer an option.
My trembling hands held my weapon with the L-shaped crowbar duct taped onto the end of the mop handle.
“Ayumi!! We’re having a talk about this later!! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
Long story short, the Swimsuit Class Rep and I opened the thick metal door and ran out of the hardware store. Luckily, the zombies were all on the road out front, so the walking corpses had not filled this road yet.
And I was feeling ill.
“Urp.”
I threw away the stone-throwing staff, placed a hand on the wall, and vomited quite spectacularly. This was in a simulator, but it had apparently accurately calculated out the contents of my stomach. Once I had nothing else in my stomach, tears spilled from my eyes.
It was painful even though I knew it wasn’t real.
But the Swimsuit Class Rep rubbed my back and made a calm suggestion.
“We are not safe here either. Rather than flee at random, it would be more efficient to have some kind of destination in mind.”
“I’m worried about my room back in reality. It isn’t covered in vomit, is it? In fact, I might be suffocating on it…”
We were in a corner of the shipping district. We were one road off the main street, so it was full of what looked like second-string shops.
Where were we to go next? How far had the zombies spread? I thought about using my smartphone to access the balloon drone flying in the sky, but then I saw a middle-aged man and woman run full-speed out from another road.
They were desperately trying to run away from “something”.
Which meant…
“Oh, damn. They’re coming to this road too. Those two led the zombies here!!”
“User, I notice you are merciless when it is an older woman you are talking about.”
I did not have time to respond.
Being outside was dangerous, but if we went inside and there were too few entrances, we would be surrounded and they would pour on in. Then where were we supposed to go!? My mind was overwhelmed.
The Class Rep and I hid behind a drink vending machine by the wall.
“What do we do? What can we do? We can try to outrun them, but we only have a bike and we’re toast if the road is blocked by a crowd. But staying here is a bad idea because the number of zombies is going to skyrocket with all the people in the shopping district. Do we go or stay? Which is right?”
“User, time is passing while you think. This is not an RPG.”
“Oh, honestly!! Just dance, Maxwell!! Maybe that will help draw out my maximum stats!?”
“That seems to be an entirely inefficient request, but I shall comply. Dance, dance.”
For a while, I curled up on the ground and enjoyed the Bikini Class Rep dancing in front of me.
…Sigh…
Why are human beings so enthralled by nothing more than a series of curves…? I wondered while calming myself with a veritable explosion of panicked people almost right next to me.
Then my smartphone received a call.
It was from my older sister.
“Satori-kun… What are you doing over there?”
“K-…”
All my body’s hair stood on end and I screamed despite the situation.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!? Where are you watching me froooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!?”
I quickly looked this way and that, but I saw no sign of Erika anywhere. That was hardly surprising, though. She shouldn’t have been able to step outside into the direct sunlight.
“Dance! Dance, dance!!”
“Maxwell, stop that already!!”
“I am merely faithfully carrying out your request, user.”
“And I’m telling you to stop!! I’ve come back to my senses, so seeing my own desire on display like this is making me want to kill myself!!”
After I tearfully stopped the Swimsuit Class Rep, my sister finally continued the phone conversation.
I felt like I had come home from school to find my hidden porn stash piled up on my desk. No one won in this sort of atmosphere!! It was itchy! My entire body felt itchy for some reason!! I wanted to twist my body like a cloth and scratch all over my back!! The only viable option was a self-destructive strategy of revealing everything and enjoying the embarrassed look on my beautiful sister’s face!!
“I was distracted by the initial impact, but I guess this means you’re ‘here’ too, Satori-kun.”
“Y-yup. What are you planning to do, Erika?”
“It’s true sunlight is the natural enemy of a vampire, but that doesn’t mean I’m out of options. Getting carried away and playing a bit of a prank at the school may not have been the best idea, though. Urp.”
“Erika?”
“It’s nothing. But only a handful of people saw what I did. As long as I silence them, I can hide among the crowds.”
“What…?”
“Oh, do you want more of a hint? Zombies and vampires are both the undead, but there is one definitive difference. Zombies are always rotting and it’s only a matter of sooner or later, but vampires can maintain their beauty indefinitely as long as they have a supply of blood. That is an important difference. After all…”
The voice on the phone briefly cut off.
And a moment later…
“Ohhhhhh!! Kill the zombies!!!!!!”
“Let’s take back our city from the Archenemiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiies!!”
“We have Erika-san with us! Obey our leader!!”
They were more like explosions of sound than voices.
A group of several…no, dozens of people charged into the chaotic shopping district. They were wielding metal pipes, hammers, and large machetes. They mercilessly swung those weapons down on the heads of those who had already become zombies. Crushing the zombies’ heads was guaranteed to kill them.
Since they were attacking in broad daylight, they could not be vampires.
But they were not zombies either.
That meant they were the same as me.
“Erika, you got the normal humans on your side!?”
“Oh? Isn’t that how vampires work? No vampire introduces themselves as an enemy of mankind. We pretend to be a kind neighbor and create more of our kind night after night to secretly take over the entire city. The fear comes from not knowing who is and isn’t a vampire. That is a fear that zombies just can’t provide☆”
She was overcomplicating it, but it came down to a simple fact: nothing beats being attractive!!
The indiscriminate attackers were the heroes.
A lot of them were police officers and firefighters. I could hear some loud bursting sounds, so was someone shooting a gun!?
“The city council, the police, the firefighters, the TV stations, the corporate branches, and entertainers and commentators with a lot of sway. Taking over a soul by sucking their blood is a time-consuming process and there’s a limit to how many I can make…so shouldn’t I go for those Achilles’ tendons instead of just anyone?”
“How? I get wanting to expand your reach, but you can’t head out into the sun!”
“Oh? There are plenty of ways. For example, borrowing a fully enclosed ambulance.”
I heard cheerful laughter from my sister.
“Even if the enemy isn’t making any more progress, it wears you down mentally when things go south quickly and you’re stuck behind some strange barricades. Plus, out-of-shape VIPs are the first to call an ambulance over the most trivial of things. I just had to wait for them to step right into this moving trap.”
Would that really work so well?
Or had she set several plans in motion and the ambulance was just one of them?
The method itself wasn’t what mattered.
The fact remained that she had secretly taken over the important points of the city’s infrastructure.
“I focused on the police and the news, so the mass media has already alerted the entire city to the zombie outbreak.”
And she had likely omitted any mention of vampires.
“I’ve turned Ayumi-chan into the bad guy while also gathering the survivors at the nearest theatres and stadiums to secretly give myself some chain-reaction spots. Heyyy, Satori-kun, how many bombs do you think I’m making in the city right now?”
If that spread to all of Kukyou City, the balance of power would greatly change.
This wasn’t a fight between a vampire and a zombie.
The people of the city saw the zombies as their only opponent. They were oblivious to the fact that the person they were relying on was also a frightening enemy and they were sending out all their resources to wipe out the zombies.
Of course, she would secretly take action “as a vampire” once night fell. She would surreptitiously bite the survivors and nonchalantly increase the number of fellow vampires.
Out of the zombies, the vampires, and the healthy humans, two out of three would be attacking Ayumi.
That could not be fun for my little sister.
She might start crying when she found out.
The number of zombies grew in the blink of an eye, but the healthy people had an overwhelming majority. She had wanted to grow her numbers during the day, but she had hit a stumbling block. If she could not overturn this before sunset, a difficult fight awaited her.
Had this settled it?
But just as I wondered that, a new beep came from my connected smartphone.
“Sorry, Erika, I have another call.”
“Ehhh? It has to be that girl, so can’t you put it off until later?”
“It’s only polite to answer.”
“Yes, I suppose you have to be polite.”
Once I had permission, I answered the call. A voice chat using the smartphone’s camera began.
It was of course with my zombie sister Ayumi.
She was holding her phone in her hand, so it was an extreme close-up shot.
And it was shaky too.
“What is it, Ayumi? I feel like I’m watching a porn video here.”
“Could you at least say it looks like a self-shot video?”
“…”
“Self-shot just makes it sound even more like porn.”
“Your senses are rotten, Onii-chan!! And anyway!!”
The zombie girl, whose twintails had rolled ends, shouted at me but then lowered her voice and spoke with a smile.
“Tah dah… Where do you think I am right now, Onii-chan?”
“?”
“I set it up like a quiz, so the least you could do is answer. Argh, why don’t my siblings ever want to play along?”
“Do you know what’s going on, Ayumi? I can’t root for one over the other, but it looks like you’re in trouble. Kukyou City is fast turning into the site of a witch hunt.”
“Hee hee. Yeah, the power balance might have looked that way before. With the normal people teaming up with the vampires to attack us, the zombie side might have been pushed back. Things were only going to get worse and they might have gotten you too.”
She sounded oddly calm.
And then her initial question hit me again. Where was Ayumi anyway?
“But that’s only with human-based monsters. It’s assuming a clash between people. …So I just have to change that assumption. I just have to make zombies of creatures stronger than humans.”
Huh?
I had a bad feeling about this. No, it was more than just a feeling.
No. Oh, no. Stupid Ayumi is the type of person who hits it out of the park whenever she does actually use her head!!
“Wah!!”
I heard a surprised yell from a short distance away.
I looked over and saw the poor zombie killing squad fighting the crows and wild dogs swarming the corpses.
“I think they get infected when they peck at the corpses! Watch out for the animals now!! We can’t end this without burning the corpses or something!!”
…
It can’t be…
Come to think of it, there was that toy poodle earlier…
“Vampires can only suck human blood, but the zombie virus can infect all sorts of living creatures! So!! The answer was…I went to the zoo!! Now, now! Question 2: How many different types of ferocious beasts are there at the zoo and how many of each are there!?”
“Ehhh!? You’re filming porn with the animals at the zoo!? Ayumi, once this simulation is over, we need to talk!!”
“Take this seriously!! I’m the one that needs to have a talk with you and Onee-chan! You’re making fun of me, aren’t you!?”
For both zombies and vampires, the key to survival was increasing their number of pawns.
But what if the original people were only in the way?
That was why Ayumi had given up on the normal people.
Oh, honestly!!
Why is my little sister so good at being a killer!? Come to think of it, she would always buy weird-colored swimsuits and then pout about it later. Something about thinking it was a cute and frilly pink one and finding out it was actually a legit O-back. She really is an idiot!!
“Ah ha ha! My zombies don’t have to focus on humans. Any animal can become a zombie. But what about Onee-chan? If I wipe out all the survivors and turn this into a ghost town, she can’t make any more vampires. Then day and night are the same. No one’s scared of a vampire standing all alone in the desert! We can come out in force and torment her to death!!”
[Pick Up] Employee Training Leaked onto a Video Site [Net Files]
What, you still have work left?
It’s already five. Spring may have started, but the sun still sets early. Either take the rest home with you or leave it until tomorrow.
What? Overtime?
Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t know how they do things elsewhere, but that doesn’t fly in Kukyou City. I’m not talking about welfare or whatever. You look like you only just moved here, so I’ll tell you just this once.
Don’t wander around outside after dark.
If you can’t get your work done that way, then get up at five in the morning and show up early to make it work. That’s what everyone does.
And well, I doubt you’d do it, but don’t rummage through the trash in back alleys or mess with the offerings in the graveyards. Again, I don’t see why an office worker getting paid a living wage would have to do that, but just FYI.
Why do those rules exist?
You don’t know? Haven’t you seen those “!” marks on the road signs? They aren’t asking you to watch out for animals. It’s for “something else”. The signs tend to be in nondescript empty lots here in Kukyou City, but can’t you imagine what you’re supposed to be watching out for?
Well, okay.
You’re apparently even more hard-headed than I thought you were, so I’ll spell it out for you.
Archenemies are pretty common in Kukyou City.
And by that, I mean the undead.
[Pick Up] Illustrated Blog in Anticipation of a Field Trip [Net Files]
Our field trip is tomorrow.
The zoo is a great place. There are all sorts of animals there. Even a whole bunch that don’t live in Japan.
Our teacher said people studied some hard stuff called “immunology” and that lets important people donate all sorts of animals to the country. But that isn’t very popular anymore, so we can see the animals whenever we want.
At any rate, our zoo is the best.
I’ve heard a lot TV stations come by to film the rare animals.
Even comedians visit it!
I wonder what kind of animals I’ll see tomorrow.
Just looking at the pamphlet is so exciting.
They have lions, tigers, elephants, hippos, pandas, and penguins!
I hope I can get to sleep tonight.
That’s my only worry.
Back to Chapter 1
