Book 3 Chapter 2
Part 1
“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 space 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 Class 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 button 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 space 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 Class 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 bloody 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 butter rolls. The girl in a skintight track outfit was my little step sister. She was also a zombie with stitches 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 masses 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 passing 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 mass 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 pawns 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 passed 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 class 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.”
What?
I had ordered Maxwell to attack Ayumi and Erika? And I had climbed inside a morgue chamber and escaped into a virtual world in the meantime?
Why? What for!?
I had trouble believing Maxwell’s answer, but then he provided some essence of credibility.
“Your Class Rep had turned into a hunter Dhampir, so you needed to fight your sisters in order to retrieve her from the Archenemies.”
Again.
This overturned everything again.
What had happened here!?
“The initial conditions are mostly the same as inside the virtual world. This is a department store for anti-Archenemy technology, so it can turn a human into garlic with a mind of its own and it can turn a living human into a half-human, half-vampire. That is, a Dhampir.”
“Biting isn’t the only thing that can turn you into a vampire,” said Ayumi. “There are cases where someone was cursed to become a vampire because they committed a religious or burial taboo. In the Class Rep’s case, an item that curses you just by touching it was modified to adjust the density of the curse. And that was of course to artificially mass-produce high-quality hunters.”
“W-wait. Does that mean the Class Rep is…?”
“Sure. After taking a step into the realm of the Archenemy, she was captured by the immortals who feared being hunted by her. Simply put, she is in grave danger.”
“No, not by the immortals. By Onee-chan. Fuguu. Don’t treat me like the bad guy, too. I’m here to save the Class Rep and Onii-chan.”
“No. Once faced with your sister, you are sure to give in to your emotions. It is best to eliminate any dangerous and uncertain elements.”
“Shut up, you malfunctioning maid. Surely you don’t think a scrap heap like you can settle things with Onee-chan. Biting people to increase her numbers isn’t the only thing a vampire can do.”
“…”
“…”
C’mon, enough of this heavy silence. And I didn’t realize how the Class Rep was so popular.
“Maxwell, I rescind my command. We’re working with Ayumi now.”
“But…”
“Please. And, Ayumi.”
“Heh heh hehhh. What is it, Onii-chan?”
“…While I appreciate the unlimited service-time with those soft things pressing against my back, is this the anniversary of something?”
“…!!!???”
I came clean and yet I was nearly strangled by her slender arm.
Part 2
“Uuh…”
We moved from the dark hospital basement to the first floor. The stairway up from there was filled with trash, so we exited to the hall just in time for my cute little sister to groan like a stray dog with an empty stomach.
“What is it, Ayumi? Is it raw meat time for zombies?”
“No! Fuguu!! Oh, god. It’s so hot and stuffy. And when my deodorant spray is out of gas!!”
“Eh? Will you be okay? You’ll start rotting on the inside if you get lax with your preservative treatments, right?”
“It isn’t that serious, but…uuh, fuguu.”
“I believe Miss Ayumi is worried about the odor of her sweat.”
“Ah!! M-M-M-Maxwell, why did you have to say that!? You have no tact at all!”
“Additionally, it seems that Miss Ayumi’s self-consciousness about her odor is connected to her holding you from behind earlier. A human would not secrete sexual attraction pheromones so blatantly, but Miss Ayumi has not sufficiently studied such fields, so based on superstitious beliefs-…”
“Fuguu!! Fuguuuuu!! I-I-I-I-I’ll smash you to pieces, you piece-of-junk simulator!!!!!!”
“Stop it, Ayumi. Destroying my smartphone won’t do anything to Maxwell in his container. And more importantly, here.”
“Fugu?”
“They’re wet wipes. Want to use them?”
“Fuguu.” For some reason, she pouted her lips as she accepted the disposable package. “Fine, but don’t look this way.”
“Why? How much of yourself are you planning to wipe down?”
“Don’t imagine it! And that wasn’t what I meant! A-a girl doesn’t want to be seen taking care of herself like this. It’s not the same as being seen naked or in your underwear, but get a clue! Fuguu!”
“Miss Ayumi is saying she does not want to be seen raising her arm and using the wet wipe on her armpi-…”
“Ahh, ahh, ahhhhh!! Maxwell, you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you!?”
“…Since when did you two get to be such good friends?”
This was never going to end otherwise, so I turned my back on Ayumi in the hall.
After a while, I heard some hesitant rustling of clothing.
“Ayumi.”
“What? Don’t you dare suddenly look back!”
“I won’t. But are you sure you’re okay?”
Even the immortal had limits. What we called “exhaustion” was more than just lactic acid building up in our muscles. I had a feeling the Bright Cross’s Colosseum had been a way of wearing Archenemies down like this instead of battling them head-on.
But without knowing what I was thinking about, Ayumi sent a mischievous-sounding voice toward my back.
“You say that, but is there anything you could even do if I did say I couldn’t keep going?”
“Don’t act like I’m completely useless. You’re light, so I could carry you on my back.”
“Bfff!?”
“?”
“N-no, it’s nothing. It’s nothing!”
For some reason, Ayumi started sounding strange.
We made our way to another staircase since the one was blocked by trash.
“This is nothing particularly unusual,” said Maxwell. “Statistically, my user has lately increased the frequency at which he suggests he carry Miss Ayumi on his back or princess carry Miss Erika.”
“We didn’t need to know that, Maxwell! And what was that about Onee-chan? I don’t like the sound of that! Fuguu!!”
“Wait, don’t cling to me after telling me not to turn around!”
Meanwhile, Ayumi and I walked down the dark hallway.
I decided to gather my thoughts on the current situation.
This was the Peace Committee Convalescent Hospital, an abandoned hospital built in the forest on the border of Kukyou City, and it was apparently actually what remained of a facility for the development of anti-Archenemy technology. Any possible connection to the recently-destroyed Bright Cross was unknown. But if that older sister of mine felt a serious threat here, whatever was hidden here would be the real deal.
For some reason, the Class Rep and I had come to the abandoned hospital and she had touched something. That had hit her with an artificially-modified curse and turned her into a Dhampir, a half-human and half-vampire.
Currently, the Class Rep had fallen into Erika’s hands and Ayumi and Maxwell were tripping each other up while trying to retrieve the Class Rep. That was what had apparently set up this complicated isosceles triangle of a battle.
Or so I thought.
However…
“Oh, my, my. You two are so mean, using my absence to fill Satori-kun’s muddled mind with falsehoods…”
It happened on the moonlit rooftop.
There were almost no humans to turn into zombies or vampires here, so Maxwell reigned supreme with so many deadly motocross machines at his disposal. Even if he could not fight and win, he could easily determine her location. Erika could not escape Maxwell’s eyes, so we successfully ran reached her on the rooftop.
That girl with long blonde hair in gorgeous ringlet curls was wearing a gothic lolita dress and she put on a bewitching smile.
“Satori-kun, do you really think I would harm Class Rep-chan?”
“Well…”
“A pure human would be one thing, but she’s a Dhampir right now. That makes her a half-vampire. She’s pretty much one of my own, so why would I need to be so cruel to her?”
…Now that you mention it…
I was a human, Maxwell was a program, Ayumi was a zombie, and Erika was a vampire.
If the Class Rep really had become a Dhampir, a human like me and a vampire like Erika would be the most similar to her.
And you didn’t know which way a Dhampir would develop. She might join the human side and become a hunter, but she might succumb to the blood curse and join the vampires.
“It wasn’t me that spilt up you and Class Rep-chan. Now, who was it that couldn’t trust her as a half-vampire and took immediate action assuming she would bite Satori-kun? My, my. Wasn’t it Ayumi-chan and Maxwell?”
Kh…
“No, Onii-chan, don’t let her trick you! She’s the one that captured the Class Rep!!”
“No, questioning it is good,” said Maxwell. “Compare what they have said and done and you should be able to conclude which one is correct.”
Which was it?
Ayumi, Maxwell, or Erika? Which one was trying to harm the Class Rep!?
I chose…
Part 3
There was something I had to check on before I rushed to a decision.
“…Maxwell.”
“Sure.”
“I have a fundamental question: Why are my memories so muddled?”
“…”
Yes.
It was true I couldn’t spend three hours inside a morgue’s cold storage chamber trembling in fear of death. I would want to distract myself, even if that meant a fictional world. I understood that all too well.
But simply using virtual reality would not muddy my memories that much.
Since it had happened, there had to be some other reason for it. And it was not knowing the initial conditions that left me unsure who was on my side. Plus, Maxwell would know the most about my muddled memories.
After all…
“That wasn’t my first time through that virtual reality, was it? I had to have been repeating it over short periods of time like consecutive machinegun blasts. And if that information was overwritten about ten thousand times, it might be able to make a mess of my short-term memory.”
That was a technique only possible with the artificially-designed experience points of a virtual reality. It could be used to confuse my sense of time and physical experiences.
I may have only been released because a margin of error – or a sense that something was “off” – had grown with each run-through and it had passed the acceptable level. Or perhaps I had been released because my short-term memories had been successfully erased.
Either way…
“Maxwell.”
If he had intentionally robbed me of my short-term memories to drive a wedge between me and my sisters…
“No, who are you?”
Smartphone: Pearphone 8 Omega
Maxwell: My user’s mobile device. The carrier uses a cheap SIM. I am not actually located on the smartphone, so I am merely connected to it from my container via high-speed wireless communications.
It is an outdated model, but it was actually discontinued because the specs were too high to continue selling at a profit and the later model had its specs lowered. OS updates are no longer provided by the official site, but my user is forcibly downloading files for the later model and keeping it updated like that. That shows just how much he cares for it.
[keep watch] Message Written on the Horse Knight Chip [from the ghost cat]
Even if I can get as much funding as I want, this specification document still seems so strange. It is based on a motocross bike used for off-road racing and it is equipped with a gyro system for absolute vertical stability. And it of course has to withstand the recoil of the gas-operated pile driver, chain gun, and howitzer hanging from the support wings. Even while standing, driving, or using its suspension to bounce up stairs.
They are linked to the Ghost that administrates the facility and they act as its arms and legs. Steel hunters that will not become vampires when bitten, hm? I see. It’s a decent justification…but am I really only developing equipment for use against Archenemies? I really don’t want to find out these were sent into a warzone and used to take more human than Archenemy lives. And I really don’t want to be forced to work at gunpoint by the very machines I created. That’s just like the brazen bull that was first used on the very man who created it.
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