Volume 3 Chapter 6 (1/2)

”Ah!?”

A dull shock ran through the left side of reenery and felt daht air of the forest The hooting I heard overhead was probably fro When I looked up at the sound for no real reason, I saw the pale moon

…Where was I?

Still seated, I looked all around At the very least, I wasn't inside the convalescent hospital Nor was I in the facility's courtyard There was nothing artificial about this place Only rolling hills of damp earth and a sea of half-rotten leaves I was surrounded by the twisted silhouettes of trees and about half of those were collapsing from rot

I was deep in a forest with no sign of artificial caretaking, where the trees destroyed each other in the fight for sunlight and nutrients The ie re left in bed with no one to look after them

I was outside the abandoned hospital

I was deep in the forest

”…What is going on?”

My memories didn't reach this point

The Class Rep and n of what had happened to take me here from the Peace Committee Convalescent Hospital I couldn't just assu until now had taken place in virtual reality The Class Rep had become a Dhampir and my stepmom was Archenemy Lilith No matter how unrealistic it was, I had to accept it

But then what?

If it hadn't been virtual and it had all been solidly real…then had I experienced so that caused me to lose my short-term memory?

The skin on

My one and I couldn't be sure what I had done in the ot, the creepier it felt

I had experienced so similar back when I had built Disaster Environht had been the norm foron the hour every hour That way I would only suffer a small time loss if I did fall asleep

…But once I slept for six hours straight And during that time, I had apparently eaten and chatted with Ayuht me a bento

That didn't mean I had a second personality I had beenalarm every hour and when I had eaten the bento with Ayumi It was just that none of the memories had been written to my brain

This felt just like that

But that had been an abnorht It wasn't so that just happened for no reason

It took a lot to trigger it

But what exactly had it been this time?

”Erika, Ayumi…?”

I spoke softly into the darkness and then tiltedive away my position

”Oh, right Maxwell”

I searched through my pockets and was kind of iht now, not even those noruaranteed

”Maxwell, what in the world happened? Where did my sisters and the Class Rep-…?”

”Warning: I do not recoer Level: Max Top Priority”

I frowned at the e that interrupted me

And just like bugs drawn to the sole light in the dark, dark forest, that stepped on the squishy humus The sound ca…

”Ah!?”

My pounding heart rang loud inan excessive amount of blood because I didn't have to touch my throat to tell the blood vessels on the sides were throbbing irregularly

I was still in the deep, dark forest But ed And I round because my hair and clothes were covered in hu away in an absolute panic

…What had happened?

I felt in ers stopped Using ht would be visible from hundreds of meters away I still didn't knoas in this deep forest, but it didn't seeood idea

The Class Rep, my older sister Erika, my little sister Ayumi, and my stepmom

What had happened to them? Why was I alone? Were they okay?

I slowly crouched down and carefully observed s I couldn't sense anyone there, huh to put my mind at ease It felt like the darkness as a whole had becooing to crush uard down

Whatever the case, I wanted information

Earlier,knohere I was This ti down into the soft humus, stuck my smartphone inside, and then hit the switch It was far fro than before

”Maxwell”

”Sure”

”What happened? My short-term memory iped clean twice now, so I can't rely on my own mind I want an objective opinion”

”Sure Generally, such things are a subconscious attempt to reject a fact or existence that you find difficult to accept This is not a physical change to you brain structure, so do not worry”

”You're kidding, right? Thatthat wipes your h this dark forest without any other witnesses How can I not worry? Besides, why am I in the forest? What happened to the convalescent hospital?”

”It collapsed”

I hadI hadn't expected a serious answer

And certainly not that answer!

”Coll…apsed?”

”Sure It occurred approxio On your own instructions, the Peace Committee Convalescent Hospital's Ghost was coe But the space requireet location and the coine seeht recorder, but its connection has currently been lost You said you would dig it up later”

”…I don't remember any of that”

I held my head in one hand

I did understand the logic of it An unidentified monster had risen fro had collapsed Maxwell or the Bright Cross's Laplace hadn't been able to leave the Ghost there and had tried to rescue it With the abandoned hospital itself gone, there was no more reason to stay there And if the monster that had crushed the Peace Committee Convalescent Hospital had been let loose, ould have had to get as far away as possible It was easy enough to see why I would be hiding in the dark forest

But

What had happened in the abandoned hospital?

What had happened to the others who should have fled with me?

”Maxwell, are you aware of what happened? No, of what showed up there?”

”Sure”

”It seems I lose my memories if I directly see whatever it is So, Maxwell, I want you to tell me indirectly …What happened? What kind of threat is here and what happened to the Class Rep and the others?”

”Sure Explaining it would be sih, but I am not certain that information would be helpful for you I must warn you that I do not currently recommend this course of action”

”…What? Is it really that dangerous? Just to remind you, I've already seen a vampire, zombie, and demon lord with my own eyes”

”No This is not a simple matter of bodily structure This problem is related to your heart It is too deeply connected to the very formation of your personality, so it is difficult to predict what internal changes will result from contact with the requested information”

Maxwell's roundabout and self-i left me initially unsure what that actuallywhen she could not lie in response to radually hit home

”…Are you saying it's someone I know?”

”If that is what you have decided”

”Quit beating around the bush Just tellto harm everyone!? Just tell me!”

But Maxwell did not respond

No, she sent a higher-priority e

”Warning”

I didn't wait any longer I switched off the san toI tried to make as little noise as possible as I walked across the damp humus and next to a nearby tree

…I wasn't going to let the saain

There was so different about this person than the Dhampir-ized Class Rep or Archene the pursued by Medusa and her petrifying eyes

…Rrr, rrr, rrr, rrr…

They slowly approached with so the? I had no way of knowing I simply tried to keep the tree trunk between us in order to hide myself

My throat grew dry froed to someone else If I shouted, no one would come Even if I called 110, the police would never arrive in tier japan It was the forest of some bizarre cult

…Rrr, rrr, rrr, rrr…

I focused on the noise I had been hearing

It had to be a chainsaw or so and whoever-it-alking around with it held at their hip It was obvious ould happen if their eyes captured a poor target My heart was squeezed by a feardishtening than being bitten by an Archenemy

I couldn't afford to have erous situation I doubted I could continue escaping if I didn't have a plan I needed to understand I had to find a way to understand who my enemy was and what the situation was Only then could I decide whether to fight or flee The idea of acting rashly frightened

…The conditions were still athem directly? So what if I did it indirectly?

Whilefrom one tree to another, I focused onthe backlight to read the response would be suicide in this darkness So with the screen still dark, I gently held it out froh school student would have used their smartphone screen as a hand mirror at some point

If even this was enough to affect ive up, but I couldn'tthes werethe chainsaould not wait around The longer I hesitated, the more they would corner me

…Rrr, rrr, rrr, rrr, rrr, rrr…

They were approaching

At this point, I began to suspect they had knoas here froave into the pressure, screauaranteed to lock onto me So I had to bear with it Bear with it and find the answer I had to strip the veil of the unknoay from this source of fear

Still hiding behind the tree trunk, I held out just the sle The branches and leaves overhead blocked out a lot of it, but there was soht now, I could see them I could reflect them in the dark smartphone screen, and…

”Ah”

Then I saw them

My mind had erased my memories to protect me, so there had been no reason to seek it out It was obviously going to do ood

Thrill seeking, Pandora's Box, the joy of violating taboos Those concepts came to mind and then vanished once more

I regretted it

The s a brutal mass of metal far too involved to simply call a chainsaw And that person was…

”Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

My ain

The next thing I kneas fleeing at rando over and over in the dark, dark forest I doubted it was due to peeking at that ”soafterwards Iand then seen them directly

I was scared

So very, very, very scared

…They had not held a si wood It was clearly a custoonally across the chest and a large V-shaped handle like a weed eater For one thing, a nor blades lined up side by side Nor would they have a giant crossbow - so big it looked hard to draith human hands - attached at the top of the chainsaw, the area that would be the back of the blade for a sword

That was not a tool; it was a weapon And it was a huned to pursue bipedal prey through a dark forest

If that was targeting e There was no point in using the idling engine's noise to judge how far away they were

But

For so other than that direct threat which came to mind

Would it be rude to refer to her as my ”previous mom”?

But these days, the person I thought of as ”ht Erika and Ayumi with her

But that didn't mean I hated or disliked that person Even if she had made less of a presence for herself than an Archenemy like Dee

…To ed quite a lot

No matter how kind she had been or how proud I had been to have her asback The rails had switched over and she was gone I iined a lot had happened between her and otten divorced after a lot of agonizing over the decision But all that remained in my heart was a hopeless ee that even the coe of ”a family that supported each other no matter what” could not survive a true storm

I still couldn't forget that ie

I could still picture her back walking away after she left through the front door And I could see the door after she never once looked back and it slammed shut That was the er

Why was I re that now?

Wasn't it obvious?

”Why? Why, hy, hy, hy, hy, hy, hy, hy, hy, hy, hy, hy!?”

I ignored all assuh the dark forest They rip because I heard an explosive roarup Behindchainsaw blades and the an to ferociously rotate But that didn't h the rotten forest Meanwhile, I pulled out rily shouted a question at Maxwell

”Maxwell!!”

”Warning: In your current situation, bright lights and loud noises will-…”

”That doesn't matter I don't have ties! More importantly, what is that? Why is atsu Taori - wandering around the forest with a murderous triple chainsaw!?”

”No I do not understand the situation any more than you do”

I felt a pain deep in my eyes

I could not look behind me With a direct look, either the fear of the blades or so else would led fro roar of the triple chainsaws, I kept my eyes forward and continued to run

”However, it is undeniable that this Magatsu Taori climbed the stairs from the convalescent hospital's basement floor”

What did that mean?

Was this the monster sealed in the basement because the abandoned hospital had feared it ht forest with a hu a triple chainsaith a crossbow?

Was it all my…blood-related mother?

”This is insane…!”

I could understand that in of my vampire older sister and zoht have had a secret too But Magatsu Taori was my blood-related mother Half of my blood was inherited from her If she was an Archene about that It was true Itou Helen the Witch hadn't been aware she was an Archenemy, but this was different from that There hadn't been any hints of this whatsoever I just couldn't believe that I wasn't a pure human

Or had my mom been bitten or otherwise turned into an Archenemy after the divorce? If so, that was very sad and hard to accept I thought I was fairly understanding of my vampire older sister and zombie little sister, but I didn't want thee indiscriminately

”Pant, pant!”

The bu Unlike a schoolyard or asphalt, it sappedfor breath in no ti around the internet often said not to leave footprints and not to break any branches, but I couldn't give things like that any focus whatsoever with aht up with me I couldn't sense any of her forine Before we could even speak, she would slice vertically through me or fire a metal bolt between my eyes or into my heart Then it was the end That was the only possible future That back that never once looked back and the echoing sound of the door coldly sla shut would not leave my mind

But using thatreality was apparently a bad idea

”Gh!?”

Without warning, a slender arm stuck out horizontally from behind a tree trunk in front of me I spun around it by the neck as if I had been hit by a lariat I didn't have ti on reflex, sorabbed my collar and pulled me behind the thick tree

It was a bewitching wo red hair tied back with a hair tie She wore a blouse so thin her black bra showed through and jeans so tight the shape of her butt showed through

”Yahoo, Satori How have you been?”

”Mom…”

”Heh hehn So you still see me as your mo Archenemy Lilith Heh heh heh How cute”

I couldn't e of it by eainst me Her behavior was a bit of a probleed and yet had been born in BCE times I wasn't blessed with a ”normal” family due to my parents' divorce, but I was pretty sure this was not normal behavior between a mother and her son!

”Ugh, cough Mo on? Where are the Class Rep and my sisters…?”

”Hot split up as we ran away, but I'atsu Taori has no real reason to attack the Class Rep from next door And even if she does defeat Erika or Ayu them Froht Cross's stance on killingshe knew, her husband had married one of those ive ine itover her fierce opposition to Archenemy persecution”

”It's so troubling, isn't it? She was probably an amateur Archenemy advocate who had heard bits and pieces of information She must have been a sensible person who attacked your father for working with the Bright Cross, but she was unaware he was shouting for reform frorown into twice the hatred once it cooled”

Wait, don't tell me…