My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister Volume 5 Chapter 3

Back-to-back rounds.

We had to play two rounds back-to-back.

"Cough."

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't see either. My eyes, nose, and mouth stung like they were being rubbed with coa.r.s.e salt. By the time I realized I had been thrown into the seawater, my body was tugged by an incredible force.

"Cough, cough! Ghwah!?"

I flailed my arms and legs wildly, but it was no use. I eventually realized that multiple currents were intertwining like living creatures and I was trapped between them.

I reached into my bag and pulled a thin cord.

Two pillow-sized balloons inflated. I had obtained them by taking apart a cheap life jacket. I clung to them as I made my way to the surface.

I had been caught at ground level this time and the water was about 5 floors' worth. That was 15 meters. Would I make it? I had to! I prayed and clenched my teeth.

"Bwah!?"

My mouth finally breached the surface. I felt dizzy, but I wasn't sure if it was simply oxygen deprivation or if the water pressure had caused a minor case of decompression sickness.

I did not at all feel like I was saved.

After all, this dark sea was full of who-knows-how-many people infected with parasites. We still did not know how the infections occurred, but I couldn't be optimistic. I had to a.s.sume the water was infected.

And…

"Himatsuri-san?"

The current swept me along as I clung to the balloons and glanced around.

Himatsuri-san, where are you!? Dammit!!"

There was no response as I called for her.

The surging water glowed with a sticky bluish light much like glow-in-the-dark paint. I was tossed around on the surface but somehow managed to grab onto an electronic sign sticking out from the side of a building.

Where was she?

Dammit, there was no way I could overlook that bright blonde hair and champagne-colored dress!!

What would I do?

Stay put, or dive down to search for her?

"…I can't."

I shook my head. There was zero visibility in that muddy water, so searching through it in the middle of the night without a proper light would be suicide. I had no way of staying in one spot and I had no oxygen tank.

But there was something I could do.

I clenched my teeth and tightened my grip on the sign. Over and over, like some kind of magic words, I told myself it would be okay while thinking back to that fight in the simulator. A small sign was attached at each floor, creating a vertical row of signs saying Harumi's Yakiniku, Marukawa Detective Agency, and so on. I used them as a ladder to reach the roof. I had to climb about three floors. I endured the blowing rain and somehow made it to the top.

I aimed my smartphone's lens around the roof.

"Maxwell, find something I can use as a rope. And a float!"

"Sure. In the home garden s.p.a.ce, I see a vinyl rope and a fertilizer bottle. If the latter is empty, it should supply buoyancy."

Every second counted, so I pulled out the rope, tied one end to the bottle, leaned over the roof's railing, and stared into the surging water.

"Is Himatsuri-san there?"

"I do not see her."

The flow of water was swift and complex. Had she already been swept far away?

That might not be so bad if she had managed to escape to safety on her own.

But just as I thought that…

The water split before my eyes and an enormous ma.s.s leaped out toward me.

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"

I screamed and fell on my a.s.s.

It was the giant shark.

The Leviathan.

It could pull this off just by using its ridiculous ma.s.s of muscles as a spring. Tripping was the only reason I dodged the jagged rows of teeth that pa.s.sed right above my head. The 30m beast flew in an arc that pa.s.sed just above the roof, bit right through the water tank, and dropped down the other side.

That was way too close!

Is it attacking directly instead of using its parasites!?

"Warning!"

"I know!!"

And I could not have the shark kill me here. I had to find Himatsuri-san and pull her out of the water.

I heard the water parting once more. That giant form may have been turning around before building up speed for another leap.

I did not have the firepower to directly defeat the Leviathan. That left only one thing to do.

"Dammit!!"

I got up and ran with all my might. I used all my weight to tackle the door into the building and broke the lock. Just as I collapsed inside, a violent wind roared behind me and I heard more and more metal being destroyed. The Leviathan must have charged in and crushed the industrial air conditioner unit that was the size of a small storeroom.

My legs locked up with fear, but I forced myself to run down the stairs.

"What are you going to do?" asked Maxwell.

"Divert its attention elsewhere."

Fortunately, I had seen a certain name on the signs I used to climb up the building.

"Harumi's Yakiniku. Is this it!?"

On the 6th floor of the multi-tenant building, my body sc.r.a.ped along the walls of a narrow hallway and I ran into the empty restaurant. I ignored the customer floor full of grill-equipped tables and entered the kitchen. I pulled out a hunk of beef from a giant silver fridge and opened the lid to the kitchen garbage bucket.

"Sharks are sensitive to the scent of blood, aren't they? I hope that isn't one of those common beliefs that isn't actually true."

I had to try anything I could. I wouldn't be able to search for Himatsuri-san with the Leviathan locked onto me.

I headed to the window in the kitchen. As the rain blew onto it, the usual messy hand-drawn map covered the gla.s.s: today's exit.

That was our one and only means of survival since we had no way of fighting, but I didn't have time to compare it with my map app at the moment.

"Maxwell. I'll take a photo, so you a.n.a.lyze it and check it against the map app. If that doesn't work, use the maps from pamphlets and sites you find in the web cache like before."

"Sure."

I grabbed the fire extinguisher installed by the floor and smashed the window with the thick metal container. The blowing wind and rain rushed in and I was. .h.i.t by the shards of gla.s.s I had just created.

"Uehp! Dammit!!"

But I couldn't worry about that. I took the beef, the fat which couldn't be sold, the garbage, and the juices and blood that oozed from damaged meat and I dumped them all out into the water.

If that drew the Leviathan's attention, I could get away from it. Once I had my freedom, I could resume my search for Himatsuri-san.

Please.

Please fall for it!!

Just then, the wall to the side was blown away.

It was…the Leviathan.

Despite the bait, it tackled into the multi-tenant building and destroyed the wall. The kitchen was not all that large, but I was still blown from one end to the other.

"Gbah! Ggehah, ubwah!!"

I crashed into the tile wall, fell to the floor, and writhed around in pain. I couldn't breathe… It felt like an invisible hand was pressing on the center of my chest, so I couldn't draw in any air!!

…But I was still lucky.

I had not been hit by the giant shark's teeth. If it had bit me, my torso would have been split in two. I had only been hit by a piece of the building that had broken off when the shark broke through the wall.

That thing was more than 30m long. Only its nose could fit inside the cramped kitchen, but I was still hit by some kind of invisible pressure that threatened to crush me.

And I heard an odd sound of moving air. At first, I thought it was the Leviathan breathing, but it couldn't be. It was a fish. I did not produce air bubbles when breathing.

Which meant…

"Warning: the gas line has been ruptured. If the pipe itself is damaged during a power outage, the gas will leak out."

I did not have time to follow along with the smartphone text any further. I practically rolled through the half-collapsed and rain-filled kitchen to reach the customer area. The giant shark moved its nose to follow along and I heard some kind of small snapping sound. It had likely crushed some kind of metal.

It happened just as I moved out of the kitchen.

I was rolling along the floor, but a powerful blow hit me in the back and sent me flying through the air. It was a gas explosion. There was heat, noise, light, and a shockwave, but it was the sound that came from my neck that frightened me most of all!!

"Gbwah!?"

I couldn't brace for impact and rolled across the floor. I only stopped after breaking through the thin part.i.tion between tables.

I looked back toward the kitchen and saw fire spewing from the rectangular entrance. But that wouldn't be enough to kill the Leviathan. It had charged toward us while explosive flames erupted all around it in the industrial complex.

"It will be coming soon," said Maxwell. "Prepare yourself."

"Why didn't it go for the bait!? I thought a shark's nose was better than its eyes or ears!"

For one thing, the seawater was not perfectly transparent, so marine lifeforms could not focus too much on sight. Or so I thought. Had that trivia quiz show been making things up!?

"I have not confirmed any of the details, but I could make an educated guess here."

"That's fine. You are a simulator, after all."

"In addition to blood, sharks use the specialized ampullae of Lorenzini on the sides of their head to read the faint electric currents in the seawater."

"Electric currents?"

"Sure. A living being such as yourself has bioelectricity, so a shark would be able to distinguish you from some frozen meat."

So it only ate live bait. This lord of the ocean was quite the gourmet. But that did make sense. I still didn't understand the logic behind the glowing ocean, but it was made to be a convenient feeding ground for the Leviathan. That was why the city was entirely flooded, so there also had to be a reason for the blackout.

In that case…

"Where would the employees be a lot…? I know, the register counter."

"Could you tell what you intend to do?"

I climbed over the counter as I replied.

"If we send electricity into the water, we can take out its prized nose. It's sensitive enough to detect the faint current from a human body, so it doesn't even have to be as powerful as a stun gun."

"No. The power is out, so I doubt you could find such a power source."

"Have you forgotten, Maxwell?" I rummaged through the things below the register. "This is Kukyou City, home of disaster prevention. There's always at least a flashlight around."

Once I switched it on, I slammed the lightbulb's protective cover against the corner of the counter.

With an explosive noise, the customer area's wall was broken through from outside and the giant shark crashed through the opposite wall and escaped into the ocean. The tables and chairs were a complete mess. If I had not moved to the register on one end, I would have been killed instantly.

And that open hole was actually convenient.

The flashlight was broken and the wiring exposed, so I chucked it through the hole in the wall and into the water.

The giant shark veered from its path as it made a U-turn and tried to charge back this way. It swam diagonally and broke through the neighboring building instead.

I shrank back and whispered into my smartphone.

"Let's get going. This won't last forever."

The Leviathan was an Archenemy with a basic structure very much like a shark's, but it was not actually a shark. For example, a vampire might look like a bat, but they were tougher and cleverer than a mere bat. Similarly, the Leviathan might have sensory organs a real shark did not.

To find Himatsuri-san, I made my way to the roof where I would have a better view. Meanwhile, Maxwell used a social media speech bubble to speak.

"User, I have found a region of the map app that matches the window map."

"Where's the exit this time?" I asked as the rain blew against me on the roof.

"s.h.i.+nryoku Inn in the mountains."

"…Wait. What did you say?"

"There is no doubting it. The door marked 'today's exit' is there."

…That was too far away.

I glanced down at the roaring blue water and desperately gathered strength in my legs as they threatened to give out.

First of all, traveling from the coast to the mountains required crossing the entire city. But there was only so far you could go while jumping from building to building. It was possible in the dense areas like the shopping district, but the residential areas filled with more separated houses would be entirely flooded. I could not travel far just using roofs.

But would I have to do it anyway?

No matter how unreasonable it was, death was the only option if I stopped here.

"In that case…"

I looked around the roof that had been torn apart by the giant shark's repeated attacks and I spotted a metal box. I would have been screwed if this was a normal regional city, but this was Kukyou City, home of disaster prevention.

Any commercial facility that gathered a certain number of people would have one of these: a motor-equipped rubber boat that inflated like an airbag at the push of a b.u.t.ton.

I had used one during the fight between Erika and Ayumi in the simulation. Even though entering the water had been close to suicide, so I had wanted to avoid it if possible.

I removed the large clasp in the metal box.

"Maxwell, simulate the flow of water. Calculate out where Himatsuri-san would have been taken from our starting point."

"Sure."

With a "poof!", the rubber boat took shape just like in a crash test scene on a car commercial.

I tossed the inflated rubber boat in the water and climbed in myself. It would be carried by the current even without the motor running. My only complaint was the lack of brakes.

"Based on the speed of the water and the pa.s.sage of time, the most likely location is by the trees of the train station plaza 400 meters ahead."

"She really was swept away…!"

I used the motor which doubled as a rudder to steer the boat through the current. A great ma.s.s seemed to split the water's surface behind me. That squeezed at my heart, but there was no turning back now.

What about Himatsuri-san?

Where was she?

Where the h.e.l.l was she!?

My panic threatened to make me overlook her. I swung my smartphone's backlight left and right before aiming it forward again.

I saw what looked like golden fabric tangled around the top of a tree sticking up above the water.

It was her dress.

"Himatsuri-san!!"

I shouted her name, but she did not seem to have the energy to respond. I controlled the motorboat and somehow managed to get close to the treetop. I made sure the boat wasn't swept away while also making sure I didn't injure her with the propeller and I pulled half-conscious Himatsuri-san into the rubber boat.

"Pwah! Pant, pant…"

In her drenched dress, Himatsuri-san lay sprawled out in the boat, gasping for breath. The cabaret girl style of dress left her thighs exposed up to the base, but she did not seem in any state of mind to care.

And this was no time to be focusing intently on human observation.

This time, the water split apart directly behind us.

"Dammit! Maxwell, navigate us!!"

"Sure. But there is an overwhelming difference in speed between the disaster-relief rubber boat and the Leviathan. The rubber boat can only move at 100kph, but you cannot escape the Leviathan by moving in a straight line. It is not a mere shark."

"I know…that!!"

But we had no hope if we abandoned the boat either. If we were going to cross the flooded city to reach the mountains, we needed the boat to follow a course across the water. So we could not abandon it if we were to reach the "today's exit" door.

"Maxwell, a.n.a.lyze the images from the smartphone lens! Locate any power sources other than the home power, like battery-powered products!!"

"Sure. The first on the list would be this smartphone and rubber boat."

That could have been interpreted as sarcasm or a joke, but unfortunately, the simulator was entirely serious.

Yes.

This was not the only boat. They were stored all around the city, so we could always use a different one. The problem was that we had no time to come to a stop and I couldn't think of any projectiles capable of destroying a distant box. But even so…

"Maxwell, mark any targets on the footage!"

"Sure. I will display them based on their proximity to the Leviathan's predicted path."

I viewed the scenery through my smartphone and saw a glowing outline around a rubber boat storage box. That just meant I had to steer the boat so the area representing the shark's course aligned with the box.

It could maintain perfect balance and charge straight forward even in such a powerful current.

It tore through the half-submerged rooftop and its belly turned the boat storage box into sc.r.a.p metal. Once the damaged battery fell in the water, the giant shark began veering unnaturally off course once more.

The effects did not last long, but they were there all the same. Sending electricity into the seawater apparently messed with its sensory organs. It didn't really matter if this was true of all sharks or if it was unique to the Leviathan.

"If we could predict how it would veer off course, we could probably get it to skewer itself on a piece of rebar sticking out. Its own ridiculous strength could probably break through its muscles."

Himatsuri-san must have been exhausted and p.i.s.sed off because her thoughts had s.h.i.+fted toward attack. But we could not hope for that much. Getting back alive came first. We could use the information we received here to put together a plan once we got back. We did not have to challenge this 30m shark in an all-or-nothing gamble. We knew our odds were poor and we only had one life to work with.

We left the shopping district and cut across the residential district. The entire area was flooded and we could not see any tall obstacles that stuck up above the water's surface. I knew my house and the Cla.s.s Rep's house had to be below that water, but it did not seem real.

"This is bad," said Himatsuri-san. "We can't slow down the shark here!!"

The boat batteries were waterproof, so the flooding would not be enough for their power to leak out. Plus, we could not destroy the boxes deep underwater while traveling along the surface.

And if we could not divert the giant shark's path, it would catch up and swallow us whole. The intense current would not slow it down.

I estimated we had about 30 seconds.

Maxwell did not have an answer, so what were we supposed to do in this fruitless current? Where were we supposed to go!?

"Himatsuri-san, do you have a phone!?"

"Eh? Well, I have my smartphone…"

"You've backed up what's on it, right?"

"Hey, wait! I need that address book and the photo I took with that girl!!"

Before she could fight back, I s.n.a.t.c.hed the smartphone from her hand, prepared the nail file I used as a screwdriver, stabbed it into the center of the screen to split open the LCD, and tossed it into the water.

The approaching shark veered off target again. The Leviathan's diagonal path took it just barely past us and we felt the same powerful wind as when a dump truck drove by.

But survival was a win.

We weren't as fast as the shark, but the boat was bouncing along the choppy waves at more than 100kph. We quickly made it to the other side of the quiet residential district.

We would next find ourselves at the mountains.

Tall conifer trees poked their heads up above the water. I skillfully weaved left and right so the shark would collide with them and we finally reached the slope that rose up from the water.

"Himatsuri-san!"

"You owe me for that smartphone!!"

We held hands like friends and dove inside a narrow hand-dug tunnel.

The giant shark made a jump directly behind us.

We heard a roar like a head-on collision between a tractor-trailer and a bus. I flipped over, felt my heart pounding, and looked back to see the giant shark's mouth covering the entrance to the tunnel.

The large teeth snapped shut a few times, but they could not reach us. Unlike the hollow buildings, the tunnel was contained solidly in the mountain slope.

After some resistance, the Leviathan pulled back.

Himatsuri-san was collapsed next to me and we exchanged a glance, but we could not exactly take a peek outside of the entrance to see what was happening. If the shark made another jump, it was all over.

"For now…let's go further in."

"Yes."

The tunnel itself was a portion of the path up the mountain, so it ascended. Once we exited the tunnel, the water would be far below us and the giant shark would have a harder time targeting us. …Although that was not a guarantee of safety when it could perform a dolphin jump several times the length of its 30m body.

We hesitantly left the other end of the tunnel.

It was still pouring rain.

But there was no sign of that giant shark. Except for a fin that looked like a giant boulder as it parted the water's surface far below and moved off into the distance.

"Did it give up…? Has it decided to focus on another target on this field?"

"I'm not sure. Maxwell, do you know what's in that direction?"

"Your search conditions are too vague and have received a great many hits, but the greatest risk among them would be the Kukyou Dam."

"…The dam?"

"If it destroys that to raise the water level, this area could flood as well."

I felt dizzy.

My face had to be as pale as Himatsuri-san's.

"Maxwell, display the route to the inn where the 'today's exit' door is! We need to get out of here while we still can!!"

"Sure."

"Wait…why!?" asked Himatsuri-san. "It couldn't destroy this hand-dug tunnel, so tackling that thick dam isn't going to-…"

"A dam's strength isn't the same everywhere. If it pinpoint targets the water gates, the one point of destruction could spread to the entire dam."

"Due to the great pressure, it only need be a single crack," explained Maxwell. "It might be best to think of it like a pa.s.senger plane falling apart in flight due to the smallest hole."

Whatever the case, this was not good. We followed Maxwell's instructions to move off the asphalt mountain road and walk along an animal trail created by parting the underbrush. It was a pitch-black route right out of a test of courage. If the situation hadn't called for it, I would have avoided walking down it even with Maxwell's guidance.

And there was something up ahead.

I heard something stepping on the underbrush, sensed a presence, and saw a silhouette between the trees.

"…Who is it?"

We were not the only ones dragged into this demon lord's ocean. We had no way of determining whether there was a single "today's exit" door or multiple, but if the other partic.i.p.ants were following the map in the windows and mirrors to find the goal, then it was possible a large number of people would be gathered at the same inn.

But something wasn't right.

It was odd.

I immediately turned off the smartphone backlight. Himatsuri-san's face remained tense and she did not run over to whoever it was. In fact, her wet hand grabbed at my coat. Her fingertips were trembling.

The human silhouette's head was wobbling unsteadily and their shoulders were at mismatched heights as the blowing rain hit them.

Something dripped from their face. At first I thought it was raindrops or possibly tears or snot running down their face.

But it was not.

They were fat, balled-up leeches.

They pried open the eyelids, descended from the nostrils, and dropped dropped dropped dropped…

"Gh, ahhh!?"

I cried out and moved back, but the sole of my shoe slipped and my back hit the tree trunk behind me.

They must have noticed that because their head clearly turned to face us.

…d.a.m.n!

"A parasite host!? Are they stationed near the goal to stop us!?"

The path no longer mattered. I grabbed Himatsuri-san's hand and ran out into the full undergrowth.

The infected people were used to enter areas the Leviathan's giant body could not and drive out its prey. They were like hunting dogs. They had handled narrow pa.s.sageways and the insides of buildings, but it seemed they also covered the elevated mountains.

So if we just let them chase us around, we would be pushed back to the flooded area.

Plus, I heard a deep roar in the distance.

"Eek! Wh-what?"

Himatsuri-san cowered down and jumped.

The giant shark seemed to have begun its attack on the dam. Even if both locations were in the mountains, the fact that we could hear it meant those attacks were more powerful than civil engineering explosives. I doubted just one or two hits was going to break it, but with no way of stopping it, it was only a matter of time. It would eventually collapse, so we had to reach the exit at the inn before that happened. The infected hiding in the forest were a threat, but if we held back out of fear, the water level would rise and this area would flood.

"Maxwell, do leeches have any kind of weaknesses?"

"They are generally weak to fire and will apparently let go of your skin if you burn them with a lighter…but that is true of most any lifeform. It is unusual for fire exposure to make something more active."

Besides, we could not light much of a fire in this pouring rain. And even if we did have plenty of firepower, we would probably start a largescale forest fire. Burning down the demon lord's ocean did not really matter, but we had to avoid killing ourselves with the fire and smoke we started.

"But if you need something…"

"What is it, Maxwell?"

"Sure. As they were attached to a shark, they are likely a variety of sea leech. In that case, wouldn't they be unfamiliar with this mountain forest environment with so many plants and trees?"

"Be more specific."

"Sure. Just like a papercut, wouldn't they be shredding their body's soft surface when they move around here?"

I looked down at the ground covered in underbrush.

…Were those plants their weakness? If so, would they grow weaker as time pa.s.sed, unlike in the sunken city? It did make sense since the marine Leviathan was forcibly using what was available to it.

"But we can't just wait until the spiked floor damage takes them out…"

Still, it could help that they were not at their best. If they disliked the forest and the mountain, we probably didn't have to worry about the leeches leaving the infected people's bodies and crawling along the ground.

We gathered a long stick from the ground and poked along ahead of us as we continued on. I didn't want to use the stick for a fight since we didn't know how powerful the infected people's bodies were. I was just checking to make sure one of them wasn't hiding behind a tree or below the underbrush.

Another loud roar rang out.

It sounded like a bell counting down to destruction.

We continued on while occasionally hiding behind cover to let a human silhouette move past.

"…That's it."

We walked between the trees and parted the tall underbrush to finally reach an open area. There was a wooden mansion on the mountain slope that had been intentionally made in an older style.

There were a few figures wandering around the parking lot and front entrance, but they did not seem very intelligent. I had asked Maxwell for course corrects a few times as we left the original route, but they did not seem to react much to the sound or light.

These were not the Leviathan's primary means of attack. It was a lot like attacking with the lice in your hair. These infected people were clearly inferior to a vampire like Erika or a zombie like Ayumi.

"…It's dangerous, but I guess we have to go for it. Himatsuri-san."

"I know. The forest behind us has the infected wandering through it too, so it isn't any less dangerous."

We did not have the guts to approach the inn gate from the front.

We stayed low and walked quickly along the wall, but there was an unsteady infected person at the back entrance too. They could apparently be given simple instructions and stand guard. We turned back while making sure we were not spotted.

But they were only standing guard at the entrance points.

The wall between those points was about 2 meters tall.

Himatsuri-san could climb over if I gave her a boost from below.

"Nnnnnhh…!!"

I was a little worried about her pulling me up, but that worked too.

Once we were on the inn grounds, the hurdle was a lot lower. We did not know the total number of infected, but the inn was divided into many rooms, which gave it as many windows as a school or hospital. They could not post a guard at all of them, so we had plenty of ways in.

We located a window without an infected person looking out it and quietly approached. It was probably locked, but that just meant we had to break it without making much noise. I used the method Maxwell had taught me before. I stabbed the nail file screwdriver into the gla.s.s near the internal lock. I did it again a few centimeters away. After creating a small triangular shard, I removed it, stuck my finger through, and opened the internal lock. It was a burglar's method, so I felt my heart pounding even though I wasn't up to no good.

The dark j.a.panese-style building had deep shadows inside. It was impossible to tell where the infected might be wandering.

"…Maxwell, where is the 'today's exit' door?"

"Sure. It is the door to the detached room bordering the courtyard."

That was quite a noticeable spot. I wasn't even sure we had needed to enter the main building, but cutting through it had to be shorter than circling around it.

Once inside, there were a lot more blind spots. The long stick was an absolute necessity. I would open a door, stick the stick through, and only poke my head through once there was no reaction.

We climbed out through a hallway window and entered the courtyard.

We spotted the detached room while the blowing rain hit us. Something like a small hut was located in the center of a j.a.panese garden. It felt more like a s.p.a.ce for drinking tea than a guest room. It was connected back to the main building by narrow bridges across several ponds.

We ignored that path and rushed over to the detached room while remaining low to the ground.

That was when an explosive roar arrived from the distance. It was likely the giant shark's attack on the dam. But this one sounded different - wetter. My instincts told me that was bad news. The water gate must have been smashed enough for the dam to break.

"Himatsuri-san!!"

"Yes!!"

We could not worry about appearances. We could not predict how long it would take for the water to reach this level. All the noise caused windows to open or shatter as several infected people crawled out of the main building. They were not just on the first floor. They dropped down from the second and third floors as well. If we were caught it was all over, so we ran full speed toward the detached building.

today's exit.

We saw the glowing orange light of that door. A deluge of water and so many hands pursued us as we tackled that wood-paneled sliding door…

"Bwah!!"

Even back in reality, it took me a while to get up. Earlier, I probably would have been trembling with the joy of survival, but I didn't feel that this time. It was lucky there was no one around this detached room, but I was too out of it to even think about that.

I could tell.

I had pushed my body too far. Unlike the previous one-time rounds, the charge timing had put us through two back-to-back. That meant we were safe for almost a full 24 hours now, but we could not relax. The extra burden from this time had left our bodies so worn out we were unlikely to recover in time.

I checked my smartphone and saw it was still 12:50.

Not even an hour had pa.s.sed.

Each second felt way too long!!

"We need to…get home," said Himatsuri-san as she stirred on the tatami mats. "I lost my…smartphone…so I can't call. Taori-san is going to be worried…"

…I was impressed that her normal timetable was still in effect. If there was a time-limited sale, she might have headed out while soaking wet.

But her comment set my gears in motion again. No matter how I felt, the hands of the clock would cruelly continue to turn. They would not stop or turn back for my convenience. That was what her words told me.

"Let's get home…"

But where was home for me?

My stepmom's house or my mom's apartment? I was in an awkward state in which I didn't know where to go.

"…Yes, I need to get home."

I was like a walking corpse. I still didn't know where I would go as we followed Maxwell's instructions to slip past security and crawl out of the inn's grounds. Like this, I could hardly laugh at the people with parasites filling their head.

Sometimes you feel nostalgia for TV footage of a rural area you had never visited. The nonexistent idea of "home" in my head may have been something like that.

And once we left the inn's grounds, we were in the mountain. Dragging our drenched bodies down the winding mountain path was going to wear us out even more. Curse that Leviathan. Do its attacks never end?

"The infected might be returning to reality too. We need to be careful in the darkness."

"R-right."

Luckily, we were not attacked by any more infected along the mountain road lit by the occasional streetlight. We were pa.s.sed by some brightly-lit cars that were blasting music, but the drivers must not have wanted to mess with a boy and a girl soaked with seawater despite being in the mountains. The frustrated delinquents racing along the mountain road left us alone.

After more than an hour of building up lactic acid in our thighs, we finally reached the bottom of the mountain. It was just before 2, so the trains were no longer running. It was not a good time for a student to be wandering around the city.

"Maxwell, gather the current locations of any patrolling police and place them on the map. I want a path around them."

"Sure. I will also access the servers of the appropriate educational inst.i.tutions and include the movements of any patrolling teachers."

"…You two can do anything, can't you?"

Which "home" would I return to?

I agonized over it for a while, but I ended up dragging myself to my mom. I went to Magatsu Taori's apartment. It had a lot to do with Himatsuri-san accompanying me. If I had been alone, I might have chosen neither and curled up in the container yard instead. These were the entirely pa.s.sive thoughts of a spoiled child. Running away from home was supposed to bring about independence and self-sufficiency, but I had only increased my dependency.

"Oh? Why are you coming back so wet lately? But I suppose there's nothing to worry about if you were with Asami-chan."

My mom's eyes opened wide, but she did not ask too many questions. She was kind…or I think that was why. Maybe she was scared too. Our relations.h.i.+p was extremely unstable, so she may have been trying to avoid any unnecessary conflict.

I took a shower after Himatsuri-san and changed into the pajamas that had been prepared for me. Then I sat and thought in one of the guest rooms.

The microplastics had showed some effect.

The giant shark could control people using parasites. The controlled people would appear in the glowing ocean and in reality.

With a battery or some other source of electricity, we could temporarily divert the shark's aim.

…That was all we had learned. The one about electricity was especially important. If dry cell batteries from a convenience store were enough, we could stock up on extra lives for a few hundred yen. Best of all, we could carry them around in the real city without gathering attention, unless we had a truly excessive amount.

But this was a shark-like Archenemy, not an actual shark. Its intelligence could be equal to or greater than a human's. It could always learn from and overcome a method we had already used, so we could not rely on this too much. But that was no reason to abandon it altogether.

"…Either way, I can think about this more tomorrow."

Even if it was technically already "tomorrow".

I knew I had risked my life to earn this time, but I pathetically found that I could not move once I got in bed. My nerves were worked up, but my body was exhausted.

It looked like this was as far as I was going to get…

"Senpai."

After school, I had agreed to meet someone in front of the school.

We had finished today's match just after midnight, so we had a full day to work with. And I had of course been spending that time working.

I was meeting with a small girl with naturally wavy blonde hair cut to shoulder length. She was Itou Helen, an undercla.s.sman from school.

She was an Archenemy. A Circe Witch.

This cute undercla.s.sman was the new queen of the Colosseum and she could use animal-transformation potions. To be blunt, a witch like her seemed like she would stand a better chance against a giant shark than my vampire older sister or zombie little sister.

…I didn't want to get anyone else involved, but I was just that desperate at this point.

"You said we would be visiting the aquarium, didn't you?"

"Yes. I made an appointment via smartphone during cla.s.s, so the caretaker will give us some specialist knowledge."

About sharks, obviously.

"But if it's too specialist, I might not be able to keep up, so I wanted someone who could dumb it down for me."

"No. I can provide any information you might need, user."

"Maxwell, you can only give me the information I have you search for. For better or for worse, it's like peering in the mirror. I can't find a direction I hadn't considered already."

Himatsuri-san was not an option for a different reason. She was as much a layman as me and having someone else tilt their head along with me would not help. That was why Itou Helen made for the best "interpreter". She could speak with a biology expert and also talk on the level of a high schooler.

My small undercla.s.sman placed a hand over her mouth and giggled.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking how you two haven't changed at all."

I wasn't sure what that meant.

But anyway.

Our destination was the harbor sightseeing district's shopping area that had been so useful to me lately. Since so much seawater had to be brought in and out, it was probably easier to build an aquarium on the coast.

It looked like a combination of several giant cubes with the walls and roofs bubbling, so it made me think of some kind of modern art. They must have wanted to be a date destination for older couples because the restaurants inside mainly served alcoholic beverages and had a lot of fancy-looking Western names. The nearby zoo was meant for families and pushed a lot of character goods, so the government office was probably compartmentalizing them.

Their peak hours were at night, so the lady behind the acrylic panel at the ticket counter looked bored.

"I'm Amatsu who called in an appointment," I said to her.

"Yes, yes."

It was Itou Helen next to me who tilted her head quizzically.

"Um, Senpai? Do we not have to buy tickets?"

"The caretaker lecture is probably charged differently. I doubt it's going to be cheaper than normal, though."

A middle-aged man in a work jumpsuit walked out a bit later and we entered through the aquarium's main entrance.

"I am Tanabe."

"Oh, um, I'm Amatsu. This is Itou."

I had already explained what I was interested in over the phone. Itou Helen looked disappointed as we walked right past the jellyfish and squid tanks, but we were only here for the sharks today. I grabbed her hand and had her hurry on past.

"Ah."

She gave a quiet cry, but then she hung her head and said nothing more. Her ears looked a little red, but we had to keep going.

"Oh?"

Then a girl called out to us. She was a gloomy-looking girl with long, glossy black hair. Not even her cheerful hoodie and hot pants could rid of her of the gloominess surrounding her. But who was she?

"I was hoping for more of a reaction than that. I'm Kuroyama Hinoki the Mermaid. You remember me, don't you?"

"That mermaid who appeared on a national broadcast with only her hair to cover her nudity is wearing normal clothing!?"

"…I see you were focused on exactly the wrong things. So what are you doing here?"

I was also curious what the mermaid was doing here, but she probably longed for the company of the marine life from time to time. Just as a vampire like Erika tended to gather bat goods. And how a zombie like Ayumi loved meat and would decorate her smartphone case strap with small manga meat and fried chicken toys.

I explained the situation.

"A shark Archenemy? That sounds interesting."

"You can follow along if you want, but I can't afford anyone other than myself and Itou-san."

"Don't just a.s.sume I need your help," she said bluntly.

Speaking of Itou Helen, she had fallen silent and was squeezing my hand. Ow, ow! This really hurts! Was she always this strong? Is it because she's an Archenemy!?

Tanabe-san did not seem to mind the extra person tagging along. Explaining something to two people was the same as explaining it to one. It made me question why we had to pay more for the extra person, though.

"You wanted to know about sharks, correct?"

"Y-yes. Specifically, the fierce ones like the great whites."

"Then we should visit the tank in the back, not the one out front." Tanabe-san smiled. "An aquarium's back area is quite large. More water is stored out of sight of the guests than in the tanks they can see."

I didn't know exactly how the aquarium worked, but there was probably a lot of behind-the-scenes work. You had to do more than just feed the fish every day. In addition to purifying and filtering the water, the tanks had to be cleaned, the fish had to be checked for disease, and arrangements for sp.a.w.ning and birthing had to be made. And clean seawater was necessary for all of it.

I wasn't really sure how they kept the fish in the tanks from fighting and eating each other, so I decided to let him explain everything.

The caretaker led us through a staff-only door and the pa.s.sageway grew a lot narrower and plainer. The floor was a bit damp too.

"They don't look it, but sharks are actually quite cowardly."

"Cowardly?"

"That is why they actively work to eliminate any kind of threat they see."

That made sense.

It reminded me of a poorly-trained dog that barked at anything and everything.

"On the other hand, they can be oblivious to things they do not deem a threat. That is why sharks are known as a treasure trove of parasites like remoras and sea leeches. Of course, in the long term, they will rub their bodies against rocks to remove them."

"So…would they just ignore a drowning baby?"

If so, we might be able to avoid the shark's focus by disguising as something powerless.

"It's hard to say. As a sea creature, the very act of a human swimming is an unknown to them, so they would probably fear it and attack. And they would also attack if they mistook the baby for their prey."

Unsurprisingly, it was not that simple.

When I thought about it, I realized a 30m shark would already see us as powerless.

There was something else I wanted to ask:

"As an aquarium worker, you might not like this next question."

"I do not mind."

"How would you defeat a big shark like that? Since you have them in the aquarium, you must have a way of safely defeating them and transporting them without killing them."

"Yes. It is also possible to cultivate them from eggs, but a net is used to capture them. If they struggle too much, they will apparently be knocked out with an electric shock from an electrode on the end of a harpoon. Electricity travels through the ocean quite well, so it does not have to be millions of volts like a stun gun."

Electricity again.

The power outage in the glowing ocean felt even more unfortunate. Of course, we could also get ourselves electrocuted and that world was created for the Leviathan's convenience in the first place

"The effect of the shock would be relative to the shark's size. So, um…"

"Think of it like a 30m great white."

"They generally only grow to 7 or 8 meters at the largest. At that size, you might need a direct hit from a real lightning strike to knock it out."

That was another possibility crossed off the list.

…Or was it?

There was a constant blowing storm in that blue h.e.l.l. I didn't remember seeing any lightning, but could I find a way?

Just like I had created an artificial hurricane that spun in the wrong direction in Las Vegas.

"And using a net to cut off its escape would be difficult at that size. The relations.h.i.+p between size and muscle strength is not simple proportional one. It increases at a quadratic rate, so it would just capsize the fis.h.i.+ng boat."

I agreed with him there. That thing could smash right through a smaller building.

…But could we get a net tangled around its body? It had no arms or legs, so it would have difficulty getting it off. Even if a single net didn't accomplish much, we might be able to obstruct its movements if we got enough of them caught around its tail fin or dorsal fin.

What else did I need to ask about?

"I've heard that sharks detect an animal's electricity and attack that."

"Yes. As I said, electricity pa.s.ses through the ocean quite well. As I'm sure you know if you have seen any video footage of the deep ocean, the water is not perfectly clear and it gets dark below a certain depth. So sight is not the main focus when hunting in the ocean."

Tanabe-san continued walking down the pa.s.sageway.

"That said, they also use the scent of blood. Expert opinions are split when it comes to the bioelectricity, so it is the basis of a lot of speculation and legends."

"Related to electricity, you mean? Like, um, being able to fire electricity from their nose?"

"Ah ha ha. I haven't heard any that go that far. But I wonder… All living creatures have their own electricity, so if a shark used its sharp senses to monitor the bioelectricity escaping its body, it might be able to adjust the minute movements of its muscles to emit a specific pulse. But it would not be like a stun gun. More like a pulse or electric signal."

But wait.

A specific, ordered pulse too weak to cause an electric shock.

Emitting a specific signal using the electricity that all life forms had.

Could it be?

But wasn't that too far-fetched?

"A dive device…"

Itou Helen tilted her head next to me, but I didn't have enough specifics to explain.

But what if there was a way to take a signal similar to those in your nerves and transmit it through water or moisture?

Then wouldn't that extraordinarily-large Leviathan function as a virtual reality facility equipped with an ultra-powerful broadcast tower and supercomputer?

Of course, if that was all it was, I could not explain why the entrance and exit were in different locations or why injuries suffered in that glowing ocean remained in reality.

"B-by the way, where are we…going?"

Unlike when she spoke to me, the friend who had fought through the Colosseum with her, Itou Helen sounded somewhat shy when speaking to Tanabe-san. She seemed to be hiding behind me a little.

"Well, I thought I could provide a more detailed explanation while we viewed the real thing."

I thought he meant he would show us a great white shark.

But when he opened the metal door, I found something entirely unexpected awaiting us.

It was a 30m shark.

The Leviathan itself was floating calmly inside a special-sized tank.

"Sh-…"

I thought my heart stopped when I saw it.

That thing would be able to break right through the pressure-resistant gla.s.s.

"s.h.i.+t!!"

I cursed and faced Tanabe-san in his work jumpsuit. I heard a wet sound as something soft oozed out of his eyes and mouth. Itou Helen and Kuroyama Hinoki screamed when they saw it.

The Leviathan spread its infection using the parasites attached to its body. And they existed in the real world, not just the glowing ocean.

…I had known that, but dammit!!

If the pulse using the shark's unique sensory organ was used to interfere with people's brains and send us into a virtual world like with a dive device, then the giant shark that acted as a broadcast tower had to exist in the real world. It wouldn't just exist on the battlefield!

"Itou-san! Kuroyama-sa-…!!"

I tried to tell the girls to run away, but then something happened.

"Wait, boy. I mean you no harm."

I could not move.

Not a finger.

Breathing, blinking, and other actions that did not require conscious thought continued, but that was all. It was like I had been turned into a statue!

…It could interfere with our brains.

Was the deep voice I had heard part of that…!?

"Like it or not, I am one of the seven deadly sins. A simple trick like this should not surprise you."

"I will allow you to speak."

"Bwah!? And I'm supposed to believe you? I'm supposed to trust you unconditionally while you could kill us at any time!?"

"I would prefer to not restrain you like this, but when communicating with this method, the binding of your physical body is an unavoidable side effect."

It was sending electrical signals directly into my brain instead of using words or writing. I felt a squeezing in my chest when I realized I had no idea what kind of chemical changes were occurring in my head.

"And the ability to kill you at any time is also unavoidable. I have no weapons or armor. Simply appearing before you allows me to kill you. That is all this is, so do not read too much into it."

"Then what about Tanabe-san? Or the other infected people in the city!? Are you going to claim that was unavoidable too!?"

"I am saying I would like to reconcile our differences of opinion about such matters."

The Leviathan apparently had no way of forming facial expressions, but there was a hint of pity in the voice that sounded directly in my head.

It's looking down on me!? Dammit!!

"Besides, why would I place myself in this tank for no reason? This is on the coast. Sending the pulse out from the beach would be little different."

Tanabe-san was…not moving.

Was he frozen just like us? Along with the parasites coming from his eyes and nose?

"I abandoned the vast ocean in the hopes of showing my intent to 'disarm' myself and create a venue for conversation, child of Lilith."

"What for…?"

"To correct your mistaken a.s.sumptions," said the Leviathan. "Didn't you find it odd? If I had created that lost sea to attack humans, why would I create a 'today's exit' every time? And no matter how much human cleverness they used, did you really think puny humans could defeat a shark after being swallowed up by seawater?"

"It is true I have the power to separate people from reality. As I am doing now. But the means alone are not enough to prove someone is the culprit. If someone was murdered with a kitchen knife, you cannot punish every household that has a knife in their kitchen."

"Wait…" With my body frozen, I could not even gulp. "What does that mean? What are you trying to say?"

"I have only constructed an exit from that lost sea and chased after the people there so as many as possible would escape. You could say I am performing a cyber attack on the virtual s.p.a.ce constructed by the game master so I could create an unintended secret exit."

It almost seemed to be imitating my voice as it explained.

"In other words, I am not the one who created that lost sea or the one forcing you to suffer there. There is someone else. Can you please understand that?"

I couldn't believe it.

I still couldn't believe it, but what the Leviathan said made sense.

For one thing, I hadn't known why the Leviathan was after us. Since it was connected to envy of the seven deadly sins, we had speculated it might be trying to attack me over my connection to my stepmom, the demon lord of sloth, but that had honestly been a weak guess.

I still hadn't found a good reason for it.

So did that meant the Leviathan simply didn't have a reason to fight us?

"I…no, we have no interest in what Lilith is doing. Including that Absolute Noah plan."

"Why not? That's the ticket to escape the Calamity which will affect 7 billion people."

"Those 7 billion only live on the limited land of this planet. We live in the depths of the ocean, so the Calamity on the surface is of no concern to us. Even if an ice age begins and all land is buried in ice and snow, we will have plenty of light and heat near the submarine volcanos."

…That was a good point.

"Although it does seem that Lilith's group would be concerned by the possibility of someone surviving without their ark. They probably think the infection will remain."

I did not know what exactly the Calamity was, but even if it was a plague spreading across the land or a giant meteor cras.h.i.+ng down, the dark world several thousand meters underwater might not be affected.

Humans simply could not survive there.

"You said 'we' just now, didn't you?"

"As a demon lord, I ruled over many of the marine Archenemies. Including the mermaids like her."

Kuroyama Hinoki did not respond to the Leviathan's words because she was frozen in place. She had to be panicking on the inside.

"We originally banded together to protect ourselves from the out-of-control Bright Cross working for Lilith. But it did not develop into a largescale conflict because humans generally do not interfere in our habitat."

The Bright Cross had already been destroyed, so the Leviathan's organization should have lost its reason to be.

"Yes, with the Bright Cross's destruction, we should have found peace and been able to disband. Should have."

"It was not just the Bright Cross that confused its methods for its objective. Some of us refused to disband and began to wander in search of an enemy that allowed them to continue fighting. And the convenient victims they found were Lilith and those around her, since she led Absolute Noah, the organization the Bright Cross had worked for. You are Lilith's child and have been given a ticket to the ark, so you were an especially attractive target to them."

A battle to protect their home.

That alone sounded nice enough, but if what the Leviathan said was true, they were more like a pack of mad dogs focusing on a nonexistent threat.

"Their attacks are affecting all of Kukyou City and I imagine that is because Absolute Noah's roots run that deep in this city, but it likely also comes from them holding a hostile view of the residents who are unwittingly protecting Lilith."

"…They? Who are they?"

"Are you ready to believe me now, child of Lilith?"

"I'll decide that for myself. Besides, if you're completely innocent, what do you have to say about the parasites infecting Tanabe-san and those other people?"

"Let me ask you something instead: Have you ever actually seen those parasites detach from my body? They are not limited to sharks. Marine life is much more merciless and fierce than you think. When a drowned body washes up on the beach, it is swarmed by a frightening umber of lobsters, crabs, and other creatures. And I believe I told you it was a portion of our marine Archenemy group that has refused to disband and is searching for a reason to continue fighting."

…Was the giant shark trying to say it was not involved with the parasites?

To be honest, this did not erase all of my suspicions about the Leviathan. Even if this was true, the Leviathan itself could be part of the group searching for another enemy.

I had to be extremely cautious.

And that meant I needed as much information as possible.

"Let's say all this is true. Then whose reins slipped from your fingers?"

"Ah, so we have finally reached that question."

Its voice sounded like someone after the train was stopped by an accident and it took more than an hour to reach a store that should have taken only 10 minutes.

And the Leviathan gave the answer.

"Do you know what a Siren is?"

That was an ocean spirit from Greek mythology. Just like the Mermaid and Lorelei, they were beautiful women who led sailors astray with their song to sink the s.h.i.+ps and drown the people. But they did not have a fish tail for legs. If anything, they had beautiful feathers and were bird-like, I think?

"From the look on your face, I take it you are somewhat familiar with them."

"They're bird creatures and the origin of the general word 'siren', right?"

"Good enough," said the Leviathan. "Yes, they are ocean Archenemies, but their nature is closer to that of birds. Thus they are one of us, but they may not be able to ignore the fate of the small bit of the world outside the ocean."

That reminded me of the story about bats not being able to become land animals or birds.

"…Archenemies that lead you astray with their song, huh?"

I moved just my eyes to glance over at Kuroyama Hinoki.

She was a Mermaid Archenemy, just like you would find in a picture book, but she lacked the power to drag so many people into a glowing ocean. Was every variety different? They appeared similar to us humans, but they were completely different.

"I didn't realize Sirens had anything to do with parasites."

"She is at the center of this breakaway group, but she is not acting alone. She has surrounded herself with Remoras."

"Remoras? Aren't they just parasites?"

"I suppose I was hoping for too much there. They are not listed in any set mythology, after all." I thought I heard a mocking note to the Leviathan's voice. "They are an Archenemy described in an encyclopedia written by a self-styled academic named Pliny. They are a marine lifeform the size of a small fish with suckers on their back. But once they attach to the bottom of the hull, they will bring even the greatest wars.h.i.+p to a stop. And they cause strange and wild hallucinations."

Suckers and hallucinations.

That really did seem to fit the conditions for the culprit.

"An action needs more than just the means. A motive is also necessary. And while the Remoras interact with sailors by attaching to the hulls of s.h.i.+ps, they still remain in the water. On that front, it is not surprising to find the flying Siren has a greater motive and attachment to the land-based human world."

"Got any ideas there?"

"We were Archenemies who banded together against the Bright Cross. We did not ask each other too many questions. But since they have broken away, they must have their reasons."

"Then what about Tanabe-san…?"

"I am being contained here using some academic research that has yet to be released to the public. The Siren's group must have detected that and taken control of the caretaker to deter my actions. All I can do is keep him from acting, not resolve the fundamental problem."

I see.

Setting aside whether or not it was true, I felt like I had gotten as much information as I could from the Leviathan. And with that in mind…

"So what do you want me to do? Since their big boss has bothered to show up and give me this input, I can only a.s.sume you want to guide me toward something as your p.a.w.n."

"Their former big boss, you mean. I am no more than an Archenemy now. That group is a thing of the past. It has been from the moment you took down the Bright Cross."

"…Do you resent me for that too? For bringing chaos to the world?"

"Not at all. It is true the elimination of the Bright Cross took away our group's purpose for existence. It was sad vacating that fortress in which we shared both good times and bad, but that was a new beginning. I think we need to shake free of the past and continue forward. Come to think of it, I never thanked you. Thank you, child of Lilith. Thank you for having a heart capable of feeling anger for us Archenemies."

…What I did wasn't that great.

That comment rose in my throat, but I managed to swallow it back down. I couldn't spit on the fact that I had saved Itou Helen and Kuroyama Hinoki.

"So this Siren has no intention of leaving the pyramid structure of your opposition group?"

"More than that, you could say they have nailed up the fortress's gate with boards, cut off all contact, and are wandering around in search of an external enemy they can claim is threatening our internal order."

"Then you didn't create that…?"

"I am merely interfering in the s.p.a.ce the Siren created for the Remoras."

So the unseen Siren had created a VR s.p.a.ce and the Leviathan was using a cyber attack to embed a backdoor in it?

"They must be made to realize that our group's time is at an end. That is what I want."

I really didn't have a choice.

Whether it was the Leviathan or this Siren behind it, I would lose my safe zone once this day was over and I could be dragged into that glowing ocean by a puddle at any time.

I could determine the truth of the matter then.

"The next time we meet in that glowing ocean, I might run away from you," I said.

"That is fine by me. As long as your lives are saved as a result."

There was a souvenir shop by the aquarium exit, so I looked around it with my cute undercla.s.sman and the person who stripped when she got serious.

Itou Helen seemed to have grown to like jellyfish because she was testing the small, medium, and large jellyfish body pillows to see which one was most huggable. And even though a Mermaid like Kuroyama Hinoki would count as a type of fish, she was watching the sample footage from a dolphin video disk.

Perhaps due to the alarm clocks and penlights they sold, there was a section selling dry cell batteries.

Batteries.

Those cheap extra lives could throw off the giant shark Leviathan's aim.

I grabbed a three-pack hanging from the display by a thin stainless steel rod and I debated the issue while toying with it in my fingers.

Since I was debating whether or not to buy them, was I beginning to believe that giant shark on some level?

That it meant no harm.

That the true culprit was a Siren.

…Calm down.

I had only heard one side of the issue. What if this Siren really did exist and she started placing all the blame on the Leviathan? I was worn out from the two rounds in a row and I doubted I could do that again. And next time, the enemy would have learned, making things even harder to survive. If the Leviathan was lying about everything and I made no preparations today, I might never return from that glowing ocean.

And yet…

I hesitated.

I hesitated to purchase the batteries I could use against the Leviathan.

"Senpai?"

I heard Itou Helen's voice from the side. She had apparently settled on the medium-sized jellyfish pillow. She held the round thing between her arms so it hid her mouth and she gave m