My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister

I bought a new smartphone.

I mention that to show that money was still being circulated. In other words, the world had not ended.

“Because American federal bankruptcy law applied, Wild@Hunt, known as the largest American online store, has begun settling its debts. The seven division that acted as its primary pillars are being sold to pay off those massive debts, and at the same time…”

“Good, it can stream video just fine.”

“Truth. Did you really have to buy it at an airport duty free store?”

Anastasia said that with a sigh. She must have already left her suitcase with the airline because she was only dragging around a carry-on bag far too compact for an overseas trip.

“I was using an old model with high specs, so you can’t actually find it at normal electronics shops. They’d just smile and recommend the latest model which comes with all sorts of sharing functions.”

“Japan is a nice country, but your mobile contracts are hopelessly complicated.”

At any rate, Anastasia and I sat on a leather sofa in a glass-covered lobby (which was a members-only deal with “royal” in the name).

“Wild@Hunt caused so much trouble, but it looks like they’re just moving to a new shell without changing much of anything on the inside.”

“Well, their business will never die as long as there’s a demand,” said Anastasia. “It isn’t just us net addicts who would scream if we learned Wild@Hunt had shut down. There are probably towns, cities, and even entire countries that rely on them.”

The commotion had distracted everyone from the Techno Parade hacker festival, but the participants’ posts were all very excited. Because they got to be a part of a worldwide incident. They could enjoy pretty much anything, so there was no point in worrying about them.

But…

“Nothing is really over, is it?”

“No.”

According to my stepmom, they never found the Echidna after she fell over the railing. Absolute Noah was completely useless with so many important components replaced with bug parts and they had lost the planetary simulator (the Echidna’s brain) that had all the crucial data on the Calamity. The ark had lost its unifying force and the group was falling apart.

But that did not mean the Calamity was gone. Without the Echidna, we had no way of knowing when it would burst. But we knew the sickness was there, so symptoms would develop eventually.

At least we had managed to save the Banshee, the Sylpheed, and the others using the bird based on the Caladrius that the Echidna had prepared as a defense against the ticks.

“About all this.”

“Yeah?”

“Did the Echidna really do it all on her own? The people in Absolute Noah weren’t stupid. I feel like she would have needed support from elsewhere to hijack it on such a large scale.”

Something bothered me about the Echidna’s ideology.

The adorable children born between her and her beloved had been killed by the gods and heroes, so to strike back at the gods who normally did not appear, she had tried to create a global disaster. And she based it on the divine revelation to Noah before the flood.

But wait.

If she followed the story of Noah’s Ark, would she really find Zeus, Hera, and the other Greek gods she wanted to attack? She seemed to be treating the concept of “the gods” too broadly. It wasn’t just an issue of different people using the term differently. She used it like a container that encompassed everything each member of an organization thought of when they used the term.

In that case…

“…The Echidna might not have been working alone.”

That baseless thought crossed my mind despite the minimal evidence.

“There might be a group of people who want to strike back at ‘the gods’.”

“In that case, this problem isn’t over.” Anastasia shrugged. “I mean, is the Calamity even a naturally-occurring thing? It might be an artificial thing this organization created to rattle the gods. We have to question everything now.”

With Absolute Noah scattered, there would likely be another large shifting of power behind the scenes. People who had been held down by Absolute Noah might start rising to the surface.

At the same time, the Echidna’s organization, which had tried to create extraordinary destruction and chaos with the ark, would likely try something else. Would they hijack something again, or would they do something themselves? I couldn’t say, but I knew something would happen. And soon.

Many different interests would cross paths and the world enter a period of chaos. What weapon could I rely on during that?

That was obvious. The power to separate fact from fiction: data.

“Anastasia. I have high hopes for you.”

“And I for you, Truth.”

International Flight WQF-109 left the runway on schedule and I watched the airplane grow smaller from the glass-covered lobby.

“Satori.”

My dad approached as if he had been waiting for just this moment. As always, he wore a messy shirt and slacks. He looked like a middle-aged office worker who let the little things slide. But what was that I had seen from him in Absolute Noah?

“Since we left the city to visit the airport, why not get something to eat at the mall? They seem to have some unusual restaurants there.”

“That’s fine, but I hope you’re going to call mom first. If she’s made lunch for us, this will escalate into a small war.”

My dad groaned at that. Our family had its issues, but I felt like this man let too much slide in the everyday things as well as the serious things.

We had ridden his car to the airport, so we made our way to the underground parking garage. The exposed concrete stood out more as we descended the slope and I got to the real topic at hand once there weren’t many people around.

“Dad.”

“Yes?”

“Do you have a power you can use to fight? Just like mom, Erika, and Ayumi do?”

“What do you think?”

He smiled a bit and asked a testing question while walking alongside me.

But he must not have really wanted me to think about it because he soon continued.

“If my brain really could rival a planetary simulator, I don’t think your first mom would ever have left me. I could have handled that more intelligently. Right?”

“…”

This was all a bluff.

He had fooled the Echidna who had manipulated the entire ark, replaced its components with her lab parts, and hijacked everything. Did he want to talk about what happened back then in the same way?

“But dad.”

“Hm?”

“If you really were that skilled at deceit, I doubt you would have fought with mom like that. You wouldn’t have argued with her so seriously. You would have easily evaded it all.”

“If you say so,” he said with a bitter smile.

I had no idea what the truth was anymore. Neither version of him seemed to fit my dad.

But he added something else with bitterness in his voice.

“Hey, Satori.”

“Yes, dad?”

“…I wish we could have saved the Echidna.”

That had to be who he really was. These were the honest thoughts he could only reveal to me because I was his blood-related son.

So I replied with the same honesty.

“Yeah, so do I.”

Back to Chapter 9