My Vampire Older Sister and Zombie Little Sister:Volume8 Chapter 1

Chapter 1

This was the worst.

The worst, worst, worst!

Why hadn’t I started working sooner? I had a tendency of doing this with any problem. I knew that, but all I could think about was how every part of this was the worst!!

“Fuguu! Onii-chan, why did you react to Onee-chan so much differently? You brushed it off when I said it, but you agreed as soon as she said it!!”

That was obviously because talented Erika’s words held more weight than dumb Ayumi’s, but saying that would only create a bigger rift between us in this tiny box. And now my mind was too busy trying to figure out what I was supposed to say to get us to work together.

“Anyway, I just need to get the idiot working instead of thinking.”

“It sounds like you’re just thinking out loud there, but surely you aren’t talking about me, right? Cause I’m pretty sure the title of idiot goes to you right now, Onii-chan!!”

“Oh, so you’re aware the idiot is you under normal circumstances? Hah hah hah. That’s surprisingly smart of you, Ayumi. Yes, quite surprising.”

“Okay, now I definitely need to punch you!!”

I was pretty sure I had just called her smart, yet my little sister grew red in the face and started struggling, so Erika had to restrain her from behind. Zombies had ten times the muscular strength of humans and Vampires had twenty times. That difference between the two Archenemies was pretty clear when they were not using their infectious abilities.

“So how exactly are we supposed to escape the elevator?”

“Hmm…”

It hurt that my phone had no signal in this small box and I couldn’t get any help from Maxwell. I all of a sudden found myself with nothing but knowledge from dramas and movies to draw on. But when I aimed my phone’s backlight toward the ceiling, I didn’t see any obvious panels to remove. Same for the floor.

“Fuguu. Movies are fictional, so do those obvious panels even exist in real life?”

“If we can’t hope for that, what do you think we should do, Ayumi-chan?”

“Let go of me already and get those boobs off of my head.”

That comment from my twin butter roll little sister could not have made me more jealous, but she also made a suggestion.

“But if there isn’t an exit already, can’t we just make one? I mean, with an Archenemy’s strength we can just break open a hole leading up or down.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! We have no idea how precarious a situation this elevator is in, so what if breaking a hole in it makes the entire thing crumble like a cookie!? We’ll all fall to the ground together!!”

My objection should have been perfectly reasonable, but it was drowned out by that disconcerting metal creaking.

Ayumi pouted her lips and gave a rebuttal.

“Then are you suggesting we wait here for the entire elevator shaft to break apart?”

Oh, no. I definitely didn’t like that look in her eyes. If I didn’t come up with a good argument soon, she really was going to do it. Oh, god. Her ability to pry open an elevator barehanded was bad enough, but why did that stupid sister have a way of forcing unnecessary time limits onto me!?

I looked up and started treading in place like someone watching the long line at the train station bathroom as their limit fast approached, but…hold on.

“The ceiling isn’t a single panel. There’s a slight depression here.”

A closer look showed a line running down the center. It was about 10cm wide and that straight line was dented inwards a little.

After freeing Ayumi, Erika crossed her arms in a way that squished her large chest.

“Come to think of it, the elevator was air conditioned before the power went out. And there must be an opening to get the cool air in here.”

That was Erika for you. Unlike that idiot who only ramped up the sense of danger for no reason, her every word was meaningful and sounded like some crucial hint.

“In that case, did they hide the vent so it isn’t immediately apparent?”

My phone’s backlight was accentuating the indentation but there would normally be fluorescent lights shining from the ceiling. I bet I would never have noticed without this shadow up there.

And if there was an air conditioner in the ceiling, they would need a way to do maintenance.

“They at least change the filter…right? The ceiling might be made of a surprisingly flimsy material. If it’s plastic and easily removable…”

I couldn’t see above the surface, but there might be a vent and escape panel beyond there.

“Fuguu. But it’s too high up to reach.”

“C’mon, use your head. For example, we could have a certain idiot get down on all fours as a stepping stone.”

“Onii-chan, you’re the one that needs to use your head, you actual idiot! There are better ways, like riding on each other’s shoulders!!”

In that case, I was bound to be the giant robot’s legs. But who was I to combine with: Ayumi or Erika?

“The idiot wouldn’t be any help, so I guess Erika.”

“Geh heh heh. Is that so? You’re going to regret that decision, you actual idiot.”

“?”

I was unsure what she was even talking about now. Having my face held between Erika’s warm thighs through those tight and thin leather pants sounded like a fantastic reward to me.

“Well, whatever. Okay, Erika, I’ll crouch down, so you climb on.”

“Yes, yes. Oh, dear. Placing my legs around a boy’s head is surprisingly embarrassing.”

As for me…what a strange world this was! The front of her long skirt was left open to draw attention to the leather pants, but this put my face completely inside the skirt! Having the inside of a skirt on my face was like traveling to some fantastic alternate world. I could feel her thighs on my cheeks and also something super soft touching the back of my head through the leather. This enclosed alternate dimension smelled so strongly of her it was like I had traveled to the older sister universe!!

“Erika…um, if you could move this from in front of me, I might be able to actually see.”

“O-oh, dear. Sorry. …But this is weirdly exciting, isn’t it? I-I can’t believe I’m mounting a boy and using my own two heads to uncover his head…”

Erika elegantly lifted her skirt with both hands, so I could actually see now. The cooler air must have hit her inner thighs because they squirmed on my cheeks. It was such a disappointment that I couldn’t see the look on her face right now.

Anyway, we were solidly joined together, so now I just had to stand up.

“Oh!?”

What was this!? The resistance was incredible. It was like she refused to budge at all. Was this a rock? A boulder!? I had not expected this at all, so my hips and back were protesting!

“Wait, what is this, Erika? Is it related to that stuff about a Vampire’s muscular strength???”

“Um, oh, dear…it isn’t that, but how am I supposed to explain this?”

Erika began fidgeting nervously while seated on top of me and lifting her skirt, but then Ayumi cut in.

“Onee-chan’s just kind of heavy.”

“Whbwubh!!!??? A-A-Ayumi-chan, why would you suggest anything so ridiculous!?”

“There’s no way a plump and curvy body like that is light. I don’t need to see the number on the scale to tell. How many times do you think I’ve taken one of her punches with her full body weight behind it during our sisterly fights? Add fat to a body, and it gets heavier. It doesn’t matter if that fat is in the boobs or butt. That’s why I said you’d regret that decision, Onii-chan. Could you really not tell who would be lighter: your big big sister or your little little sister?”

“N-no, I’m not heavy at all! I-I mean, put me in a sexy swimsuit and throw me in the pool and I’ll float like the light big sister I am.”

“Fuguu. Everyone floats in the pool, even babies and sumo wrestlers.”

“A-a-a-anyway, it doesn’t have to be for long, but please just lift me up! I need this for my dignity as a big sister!”

As a boy, I also didn’t want to be labeled a scrawny guy who can’t carry a girl on his shoulders or in his arms, but it was no use. She was heavy enough to begin with and, now that she was panicking, her hips were going wild like she was using a rodeo machine. Her weight kept shifting back and forth too much for me to stay balanced. Not to mention how a certain part of her kept squishing and smushing against the back of my head through the black leather pants. There was nothing I could do…

“Ah ha ha! Onii-chan’s getting crushed my Onee-chan’s big butt. In a side-scrolling action game, she’d definitely be one of the enemies that suddenly falls from the sky. Y’know, like a millstone or boulder.”

“Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!”

“Oh, no! It’s sumo wrestler Onee-chan! Crash! Wa ha ha ha ha!”

“Stand up! I’m begging you, Satori-kun, just stand up for me now and I’ll do anything for you later!”

It just wasn’t possible… I felt bad since she was getting legitimately tearful, but there was no use in trying any longer. We weren’t making any progress unless we swapped positions.

So…

“Fugu.”

“What’s wrong, Ayumi? You don’t seem happy.”

“Why are you on my shoulders, Onii-chan!?”

“Shut up. I learned my lesson with Erika. I’m not gonna try to show off. From a biological and anatomical standpoint, Archenemies are stronger than humans, so it’s perfectly fine and makes the most sense for me to be on top.”

“Unlike Onee-chan, I’m light. Unlike Onee-chan!!”

“…Please don’t forget that your every word is slowly killing your big sister’s soul…”

Now that she had been abandoned after the failed giant robot combination, Erika was curled up facing a corner of the dark and cramped elevator. She was muttering to herself, so things were not looking good. I had to free her from this gloomy room sooner rather than later.

“Okay, Ayumi, a little more to the right. Giddy-up!”

“Don’t grab your little sister’s cute twintails like reins!”

When Ayumi snapped back at me, I gently squeezed her face between my thighs to silence her and reached for the ceiling panel gap. When riding on her shoulders, I wasn’t quite sure where to put my legs. I was afraid I would touch her chest through the white tank top.

The ceiling felt like…plastic, just as I had suspected. I stuck my hand into the gap down the center and it felt like the space inside extended further to the side than up. It may have been like an extremely flat T-shape.

I bent my index through little fingers like claws and grabbed the panel. When I pulled down, I found it was awfully light. And it bent easily, like I was applying pressure to a plastic panel.

“Fugu, is it going to work?”

“Yeah. I’m a little afraid of breaking it and having small pieces fly out at me, but…here goes!!”

It felt like a spring was tugging back at it, but when I applied more force that resistance suddenly vanished. With a dull sound, the bent plastic panel broke. No, it was more like an existing clasp had come undone.

I failed to catch it and the panel covering half the ceiling fell to the floor.

“Watch out!? Wait, only half?”

“There was a line down the center, so I think it was two panels with each one supported by a clasp there.”

I removed the other one in the same way and then aimed my phone’s backlight inside.

There was a round manhole-sized hole in the center and it was covered by something like a fine window screen. That was probably the air conditioner filter. There was a bunch of other stuff in there like the wiring for the lights, but I didn’t see any hole big enough to climb through.

“Ugh. There’s dust everywhere. We were breathing air after it went through there? They need to change those more often.”

“If there isn’t anything else in there, does that double as an escape hatch?”

The filter was easily removed by grabbing the edge and rotating it halfway around. Dustballs fell down and Ayumi got after me about it.

Inside there was a dirty ventilation fan. It was safe to touch with the power out, but…

“I can’t get this out. Ayumi, do you have anything that works as a flathead screwdriver? Like a flat and thin piece of metal?”

“Aren’t those weird little gadgets more your thing, Onii-chan? Whenever we go to Donk or Hangu, you always run straight to the niche tools section.”

“Stop right there, Ayumi. Let’s stop examining people’s fetishes and get back on topic.”

“It’s a sex thing!?”

It was no use. The idiot kept getting further off topic. I had no choice but to rely on Erika who was rotting away in a corner of the elevator.

“E-Erika, do you have anything that might work as a flathead screwdriver? That fancy gothic lolita dress looks like it has a lot of parts to it and I bet you have a lot of makeup tools and other little things tucked away.”

“…”

“(I wonder if it’s all the metal stuff you’re carrying that made you seem so abnormally heavy, meaning it was all a misunderstanding. But if you don’t have anything, then I guess it wasn’t a misunderstanding and the world is a simple place after all.)”

Amatsu Erika immediately hopped to her feet and rebooted.

“Yes, that’s right. That is exactly right. It wasn’t me! And your mature older sister is nothing like Ayumi-chan who foolishly decided to walk around Tokyo with no makeup or supplies. Look, look, looook. I’ve got all sorts of things hidden away in here.”

“Looks like she doesn’t have anything useful, Onii-chan. I’m not seeing anything sturdy enough to use as a screwdriver.”

Erika returned to the corner and Ayumi lowered me for the time being.

“Fugu. I’m on top next time.”

“Hold on, sister. You want to rub your thighs against me that badly? Well, who am I to say no to my little sister’s perverted desires? Bring it on!”

“Fuuuguuu!!”

Ayumi’s face grew red and she started flailing around like she had a steam engine inside her.

When we checked the items Erika had placed on the floor, we found a handkerchief, tissues, makeup, a wallet, a notepad, a phone, and…

“O-Onee-chan has snacks! Tater Sticks!!”

“Don’t get distracted, Ayumi. And those are Erika’s.”

But Ayumi had been right about nothing here working as a screwdriver.

“Hey, Onii-chan, couldn’t you use the edge of a coin? Like a 1 yen or 100 yen one?”

“The thickness wouldn’t be right. Something a little thinner would be better. And in a situation like this, I don’t want to force it and strip the screw.”

“Hmm. Oh, she has nail polish. You could break the bottle and use a shard.”

The edge of the glass wouldn’t be strong enough, but nail polish gave me an idea.

“Erika, I’ll be borrowing this nail polish. Can I also tear a page out of this notepad?”

My curled-up older sister waved a hand my way. I wasn’t quite sure if that was a yes or no, but I tore out the page anyway.

“Fugu? What good is that flimsy paper? I doubt it can turn a screw.”

“Not yet, no. First, let’s get the thickness right. By folding it over and over like this.”

“Hmm. The corner looks kind of sharp and solid, but I still don’t think it can turn a screw.”

“That’s where the nail polish comes in.” I waved the fairly expensive little bottle of makeup. “What if we soak this folded-up paper in nail polish and let it dry? It’ll be able to scratch the leather cover of this notepad. And as long as it doesn’t need to last long, it can turn a screw.”

“Fugu. But we haven’t tested it yet. What if the paper screwdriver breaks before we get the screw out?”

“How is that a problem? We can just remake it. And the next time, we can alter the thickness of the paper or amount of nail polish to see what works best.”

“Onii-chan, you really do like this kind of thing, don’t you? Y’know, these crafts or research projects or whatever you want to call them.”

“Well, I am a boy.”

“Pretty sure that doesn’t explain it.”

How long would it take for the nail polish to dry? Surely no longer than 10 minutes, bit I wasn’t really sure.

The metallic creaking happened against as we waited.

Ayumi needlessly looked up.

“That’s pretty loud, but it doesn’t seem to be doing much.”

“It’s hard to say really. Since we’re in a dangling elevator.”

“Why does that matter?”

“Let’s say you have a string hanging from the center of a perfectly level board and you tie a weight to the end of the string. If you tilt the board while the weight pulls the string taut, what will happen to the weight itself?”

“…Fugu?”

She cutely tilted her head.

Seriously?

“The answer is nothing, right? Whether the board above is perfectly level or tilted, the string is pulled taut, so the weight won’t rotate or sway. This elevator is the same. Everything seems level in here, but the entire broadcast tower may have been tilted by the storm.”

Only then did Ayumi’s face silently grow pale.

Then again, actual elevators had more than just the wires. There were metal rails for the emergency brakes and thick rubber padding. Plus, the elevator shaft itself was a limited space. The dangling box would hit any of that if there was much of a tilt at all. For the time being, I doubted there could be more than the tiniest tilt. Or I hoped so at least…

And it was thanks to Ayumi and Erika that I could think like this in the first place. If I had been alone in the elevator, I never could have kept my cool and I might have been curled up on the floor thrashing about.

“Okay, it’s dry. Ayumi, time to get back to work.”

“Fine, but I’m on top this time.”

“Man, you sure are deadest on pressing your thighs against-…”

“Enough of that!! I just don’t like getting stuck with the thankless task! You need to treat me more like a girl, Onii-chan!!”

Ayumi stubbornly used her small, stitched-up hands to shove my head down and into the crotch of her white shorts. My little sister really needed to learn how to act more ladylike! And I had no hope of resisting thanks to her Zombie strength!!

“Okay, this is certainly soft and warm, so I’m not about to complain. Rub, rub.”

“Hey, I didn’t ask you to take advantage of the situation either!”

When Erika glanced over at us and muttered “oh, he lifted Ayumi-chan so easily” in a voice of true despair, I felt kind of bad about doing this.

“Now it’s featherweight Ayumi-chan’s turn. A little to the left, Onii-chan.”

“You could show some mercy, you know? Anyway, here’s the nail polish screwdriver.”

“Fugu.”

Ayumi took the handmade disposable tool and then started squirming. I couldn’t see what was happening up there, but each time her body tensed up, more thigh pressure would squeeze my face. My body temperature was rising and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

That was when I heard a heavy thud.

“What, did you get it off!?”

“No. The screwdriver broke, so I punched through the fan part. Seemed easier.”

Why was she like this!?

I let Ayumi down and took another look. Oh, god. That filthy ventilation fan in the manhole-sized opening really was gone. Oh, geez. She’d punched it right on out and there was only the gaping hole left.

Was that really a good idea?

It had to have been as heavy as the outdoor units on a train’s roof. I doubted there was anyone at the bottom of the elevator shaft, but we were hundreds of meters up. It was dangerous regardless.

But anyway…

“Looks like it’s open.”

“Fuguu! Now we just have to escape!!”

I lifted Ayumi on my shoulders again and she climbed up top. Needless to say, this was because it looked like a hard job. Think of it like doing a pull-up on a bar located above your head. Without someone to help pull me up, I was never getting up there.

After I lifted Ayumi up, she kicked her legs and wiggled the small butt in her white shorts for a bit, but she finally managed to get onto the elevator’s roof.

“Whoa, there isn’t much space up here. It’s kinda scary!”

“Ayumi.”

When I called her name, she poked her head through the round hole. At least she was quick to respond at times like this.

“I guess you’re next, Onii-chan. Since I doubt you could support heavy old Onee-chan from below.”

“I see you’re quick to throw insults as well! Erika’s gonna cry, so give it a rest!!”

I pretended not to hear the resentful voice saying my kindness only made it worse.

When Ayumi leaned down, I could reach her by stretching up. It would normally be difficult to pull up someone who weighed more than you in a position like that, but Ayumi was not normal. It was lucky my black jacket’s sleeves only came down to the elbows. My skin was less slippery.

“Here goes.”

“Don’t pull too hard and tumble backwards, Ayumi.”

“Will you never stop treating me like a dumb child, Onii-chan!?”

She eventually managed to pull me up on top of the elevator.

“Yikes.”

“See what I mean? It’s scary.”

There was no light here either, but I could sense something there before turning on my phone’s backlight. I could tell just how close by death was. The Skytool supposedly had the country’s fastest elevators, but we really were stopped at precisely 0km/h.

I had climbed through an elevator shaft in Las Vegas too, but I still wasn’t used to the sight. And I had also seen when the safety touted so confidently by the adults crumbled around me…

When I actually lit up my phone and aimed it outwards, I saw a large empty space extending to the side. That would be because there were eight identical elevators lined up alongside each other. As for down…there was no railing and we were on top of a narrow and unstable box, so I wasn’t about to approach the edge to look down.

In that shaft lined with wires and emergency brake rails, we only had about three square meters to work with. There was nothing at all beyond that. And we were not supported by a concrete foundation or steel beams; we were dangling from a mere 10 wires. Yes, they were steel wires, but they were no thicker than my fingertip.

Do you think worrying about that makes me no better than the primitive people who see a metal boat or airplane and say there’s no way it can float or fly?

Well, could you continue to trust it when the elevator had been stopped by “something” the original designs had not accounted for? You couldn’t know for sure unless you were actually caught in this situation and climbed up onto the elevator roof yourself.

And now that I was up here, I could see some hinge-like parts on the edge of the round hole that dumb Ayumi had punched open. The fan had probably been designed to pop upwards like a rice cooker or a submarine hatch.

“Erika, it’s your turn.”

“But, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but…”

“She’s sitting in the corner and not responding, Onii-chan.”

“Erika. If you don’t climb up, Ayumi and I will have to climb back down and work together to lift your ass up here.”

“Wow… Imagine how sad it would be if the two of us together couldn’t lift you, Onee-chan. Maybe you could find an excuse to tell us, but could you really lie to yourself about it?”

Erika stood up more forcefully than I’d ever seen before. She glared up at us and…wait, were those tears in her eyes!?

“Ayumi, that’s enough. This isn’t funny anymore.”

“Fugu.”

“Again, Satori-kun, your kindness hurts most of all!!”

My older sister let out a roar and finally gave a glimpse of her Vampire fangs while my little sister pulled her up.

Once we were all on the roof, it felt even more cramped. I didn’t want to look down, but I also wanted to make sure I didn’t accidentally slip.

…Anyway.

I was too scared to look down, so I shined the light on a nearby wall.

“It doesn’t say how high up we are.”

Knowing that would tell us whether we should head up or down.

“Fugu. But don’t we have to go up? I mean, this elevator we’re standing on is in the way, so we can’t go down.”

Ayumi must have had good night vision because when I shined the light in the direction she pointed, I saw a ladder running up the wall that was made of steel beams arranged in X-shapes. She was right. Our elevator was in the way, so we couldn’t climb down whether we wanted to or not.

“Let’s just hope we aren’t actually 10m off the ground and this means we have to climb more than 400m to reach the viewing deck.”

But a fall onto concrete from 10m or 100m was equally deadly, so we couldn’t just stay here.

Which meant…

“We’ll have to climb up to the viewing deck and either call for help from there or climb back down using the emergency stairs.”

“Y-you’re kidding, right? A ladder and stairs? This might be worse than your average mountain climb.”

Creeeeak, groaned the structure around us.

It seemed we did not have time to think. All our options sounded bad, but sitting around was not going to help.

Come to think of it…

“Is the entire tower tilted? …No, I can’t really tell.”

The set of ten wires would always be vertical, but the elevator shaft’s walls might not be. Comparing the two was not enough to know if the tower was tilted.

Just then, I heard a noise from overhead.

“…?”

It was some kind of scraping sound and Ayumi looked up with a puzzled expression.

Then something roared past as it fell down the next elevator shaft over.

“Wahyah!?”

“Wait, Ayumi! Grab onto something!!”

It was in the next lane, so it could not directly hit us, but just like when a train rushed by in a subway tunnel, a powerful blast of wind hit us on that unstable rooftop. It could be the elevator wires or the ladder on the wall, but we had to grab onto something or we would fall!!

“Ayu-…”

“No, Satori-kun! I’ll get her!”

I started to reach out, but Erika must have been afraid I would only get harmed too. She moved out in her gothic lolita dress and leather pants to grab Ayumi’s wrist while the smaller girl’s track jacket flapped wildly in the wind.

Also, hadn’t that elevator been throwing orange sparks everywhere? Did that mean the emergency brakes weren’t working!?

Far below us, I heard something akin to an explosion. Erika spoke up while holding our little sister close.

“That took 5 seconds while moving at approximately 250km/h. We must be more than 300m up.”

“Then the viewing deck will be about 150m above us. I’m not sure how exhausting that will be on a ladder.”

Then something occurred to me.

I had thought it could not directly hit us since it was in the next lane, but was that really true? How long would those normal assumptions apply in this emergency? And the scraping sound had not stopped. Come to think of it, what was making that noise? It had warned us of the coming elevator, but what were we actually hearing?

Could it be?

“Erika, Ayumi! Get down immediately!!”

“Onii-chan?”

“The snapped wires are falling!! From a height where a single bolt can be deadly!!”

There was nothing we could do.

The thick wires whipped every which way like snakes with wills of their own as they fell. They scraped against the wall, damaged the steel beams, and sent sparks flying, so it was like a storm descending upon us.

I didn’t have time to count how many of the 10 wires in the set must have snapped all at once.

“Kh.”

Erika suddenly shoved Ayumi away from her arms.

It happened so easily.

Her beautiful right arm was forcefully severed at the elbow.

It was an unthinkable visual.

The hemorrhaging blood was like a colorful fountain.

“Ghhhh!!”

“Erika!”

I wanted to help, but with something this over-the-top, I wasn’t sure what I could even do. And with her face pale and sweaty, she reached out her remaining hand to stop us.

She clenched her teeth and gathered strength in the half of her right arm that remained. That seemed like it would make the bleeding worse, but that was not her intent.

She was a Vampire.

“Hhh, ahhhh!!”

In a sight even more shocking than the squirting blood, a brand new arm burst from the elbow, although the lower half of the sleeve remained missing. She clenched and unclenched her fist a few times as if seeing how the arm was doing.

“Are you…okay?”

When I hesitantly asked that, she smiled and nodded…but I could tell at a glance. If she really was okay, she wouldn’t have had to force such a perfect smile.

Ayumi was still sitting where she had fallen on her butt.

“You don’t have enough blood. But you can’t just go out and suck some either. Onii-chan is one thing, but I’m undead too. You didn’t have to put yourself in danger to save me!”

“It’s true you won’t die since you’re a Zombie, but you can’t regenerate your body like I can. If your arm was severed, we would have had to go down and retrieve it.”

Erika sounded like she was cracking a joke, but this was no joke.

She looked like her core had been broken, but she still pointed up and spoke to me.

“More importantly, that might not be the end of it. Since that elevator fell, the others might as well. And each time, that gust of wind and the snapped wires will leave the elevator’s lane and attack all the shafts. Shouldn’t we hurry to the viewing deck? It’s too dangerous in here.”

…She was right.

The same thing could happen again at any time. The very elevator we were standing on could suddenly drop out from below us. That meant we needed to get to the ladder on the wall as soon as possible. Erika was exhausted and needed a break, but now was not the time.

“Erika, sorry, but you need to keep going a while longer.”

“Hee hee. It’s okay, Satori-kun. You don’t need to apologize for this.”

I took the lead with Erika after me and Ayumi last. If a human like me was on the bottom, I might not be able to catch Erika if she missed a rung and fell.

As a Vampire, she could also transform into a crow or a bat, but…no. That wouldn’t let her fly vertically like a helicopter, so she would end up running into the walls and the smaller body would only make the wind of a falling elevator pummel her harder. Plus, if she crossed into another lane, the actual elevator could hit her.

Since she had already taken damage, it was impossible to predict what would happen the next time.

So we would stick to this.

It was far from reassuring, but climbing the ladder one rung at a time was the best way to avoid risks here.

We climbed the ladder in silence.

…I couldn’t help but wonder what was going on up above or in the Tokyo Skytool as a whole. A power outage trapping us in the elevator was bad enough already, but now one had fallen after its wires snapped. And it hadn’t looked like the emergency brakes were working.

That was when I heard that scraping sound from overhead. It was almost like a ricocheting bullet.

“…!? It’s happening again! Another elevator is falling!!”

We knew it was coming, but there was nothing we could do other than cling to the ladder and wait for the storm to pass.

A powerful gust of wind blew through as a boxy hammer dropped down quite close by and a few serpentine wires followed after on their way to the ground. If one of those hit me in the back, I’d be dead. It wouldn’t just cut me to the bone; it might even bisect me right then and there.

I was scared.

Scared.

Scared!

This was the country’s largest multipurpose wide-range broadcast tower. I had thought the only real difference would be its height, but the elevator shaft was like another world entirely. We were only talking about a few wires and a metal box, but it felt like they were living creatures baring their fangs against us. And with no claws or fangs of my own, I could never defeat those metal beasts. Squeezing my eyes shut and praying for a miracle felt crazy when we were talking about inanimate objects, but I had nothing else to rely on in that moment.

It really was scary.

Goddammit.

Whatever emotions I was feeling had to be used to fuel my climb upwards. Staying here would help nothing. In fact, staying in this unstable position would only wear out my muscles faster. And once my arms ran out of strength, I would fall. Worse, if I stopped, I was blocking Erika and Ayumi’s way up. So I didn’t care what emotion it was, I had to throw it all on the fire. Dammit, goddammit. We happened to have a three-day weekend, so we went to Tokyo to have some fun. We were here to scout out places for the surprise party to celebrate our dad’s new job, so who cares about some storm and bomb cyclone!? I wasn’t going to let myself fall in this narrow shaft and die all on my own when I wasn’t even fighting someone!! I was going to live. No matter what, we were all going to survive, return home, and smile together like normal!!

“Pant, pant!”

I couldn’t remember how many rungs I had grabbed and stepped on.

But I was making progress.

And eventually…

“There it…is! The elevator door!!”

This elevator went straight to the viewing deck, so it would only have doors at the ground level and the viewing deck. There was also a special viewing deck higher up, but we could ignore that for now since you had to use a different elevator to reach it.

With the power out, it took some doing to work the door open with one hand while holding onto the ladder, but once I found you could operate the thick clasp with something like a metal lever, I had it open in no time.

I lifted the clasp and pulled on the sliding door.

“It’s open? Onii-chan!!”

“Bwah!”

I collapsed out first, pale-faced Erika came next, and Ayumi tumbled into elevator hall last. That was when I realized I couldn’t close my fingers like I wanted. My grip must have been at its limit. If that ladder had been just 10 rungs longer…

But we were safe.

…Or were we?

“What is this?”

I couldn’t get up and simply lay flat on the floor when the next question hit me. It was approaching 8PM, but we could assume that almost no one had been moving in and out of the tower since around 6:30 when the elevators stopped.

The number of people in here should have been the same as near dinnertime on the first day of a three-day weekend.

And yet…

“There’s no one here? But how can that be!?”

When I spoke in the darkness of the power outage, my voice echoed like I was shouting in an empty tunnel. Without even the green of emergency exit signs and red of fire extinguisher signs, it was truly pitch black. It may have been even more silent here than in the elevator shaft.

Ayumi must have also realized how unusual this was.

“B-but if even the workers aren’t here, maybe they were all evacuated. Y’know, the Skytool people were probably waving little flags and leading the guests down the long, looong emergency stairs.”

“No, Ayumi-chan. It doesn’t look like that is enough to explain it.”

“Erika?”

“Yes, Satori-kun. Doesn’t it seem a little too dark here?”

“Yeah, but that’s because the Skytool’s power is out.”

“Unlike in the elevator shaft, this viewing deck is lined with windows. And this tower is in the middle of Tokyo’s city center. Need I remind you that this city has long been known as the Nightless City?”

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Wait, hold on. This has to be some kind of joke.”

I checked my phone, but it still had no signal. We were out of the elevator shaft, but I still couldn’t check the online news or trending terms on social media. I scrambled to my feet and ran over to the window-covered viewing deck.

Even though heading to the emergency stairs would be much more useful for escaping this tower that could collapse at any time.

For some reason, I wanted a glimpse of the million-dollar view through that reinforced glass.

But.

Blowing rain pounded against the reinforced glass covering everything. That was all. There was no bright nightscape or even a single lit lightbulb. Only thick darkness surrounded us.

…Where were we?

Was this really Japan’s capital? Surely we were actually deep in the woods somewhere, right???

“What happened?” I muttered blankly.

I could not process the question myself, so I just spat it out like an idiot.

The emergency stairs?

Escape the tower?

Would we really be safe if we thoughtlessly descended into that mysterious darkness?

“What happened outside while we were sitting around in that elevator!?”

My phone still said no signal.

I could not reach Maxwell who could have given me all the answers.

[Mobile Temp] Population and Power Consumption in the Tokyo Metropolis [File 03]

Based on the most recent census, the total population of the Tokyo Metropolis (including Okutama and the islands) is 12,704,502.

Male: 62%. Female: 38%.

The fertility rate is at 1.3 and trending downwards, so even the 23 wards are affected by the aging population despite how densely packed they are with people.

Temporary residents such as commuters from other prefectures and domestic or foreign tourists are not included in this number. If they were included, it is estimated the total number would increase by about 150%.

Gathering that many people into a space of approximately 2187km² is unusual even on a global scale and, as public safety has improved, it has gained one of the largest active populations in the world at all times of day and night. There are of course cultural and national factors involved, but not even Paris, London, or New York are this active in the middle of the night. One suggested factor is the extreme spread of late-night businesses intended for the general population, such as convenience stores, burger shops, family restaurants, gyudon shops, karaoke, street food, izakayas, and more. When looking at the capital cities of the G8 nations, Tokyo has the highest rate of minors out at night despite regulations meant to stop it.

And the lack of caution about being out at night does not stop with the minors. For example, after working in the office past the last train, it is not uncommon to choose to walk home through unfamiliar streets to save on taxi fare. That choice would be downright unthinkable in that major gun nation.

On the other hand, living up to the title of the Nightless City leads to a seemingly bottomless thirst for electricity. Since the spread of renewable energy has not kept up with that power consumption, there have been many international cries of protest. When comparing the graphs of pure productivity and power usage, it becomes clear that the Tokyo Metropolis’s efficiency is second from the bottom among G8 capitals.

This country’s capital has forgotten what night is.

Whether that is a good thing or not is harder to say.

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