Chapter 305: The Country of Mirrors

Peeking through the "door," I saw nothing but silence on the other side—no zombies in sight.

It appeared to be a city intersection in Tokyo, right in the very center.

"This is..."

"Shibuya—right? The scramble crossing. Heehee."

Nanami answers immediately. She might have visited here often before the apocalypse.

I looked up at the outdoor billboard, its lights extinguished.

"Yeah, I know. I've seen this before. Once, I went to a fancy burger place."

"About Fat Burger? Hehe. I like that place too. It's delicious, isn't it?"

"Haha."

I don't need to go into how fancy it felt—made my backside itch a bit... But I suppose that's not worth mentioning.

"Still, something feels off..."

"Of course it does. The other side of the door is a mirror image. It's reversed left to right."

"Aah, that makes sense."

The other side was just a degraded copy of our world, wasn't it.

Just to be sure, I toss in a crumpled piece of paper. Nothing changes. Only a scrap of paper tumbles through the howling wind of the abandoned city.

"Nothing unusual."

"Good. Then I'm going in."

"Understood."

I respond in a somewhat deputy-like manner, watching Nanami leave.

Nanami stepped forward with her camera still in hand, hopping lightly to the other side.

She positioned herself as if stepping over a door,

"Hehehe. Right now—I'm straddling the world!"

She's such a cheerful person.

Even if people pass by, nothing particularly special seems to happen.

I, Mayumi, will follow right after Ran-chan.

"Seems like there's no achievement reward at all—just coming here won't do anything."

"True. It would seem something like that would happen."

I thought I'd finally hear the usual line from that phantom voice again.

We're now suddenly standing right in the middle of Shibuya's Scramble Crossing, in a world that mirrors our own.

Around us, we can see the plaza in front of Shibuya Station, the walkway leading up to Dogenzaka, and various buildings lined with outdoor advertisements.

The advertisements appear to be written in mirror text, but they don't particularly evoke a sense of era— the electronic products displayed all seem to be the latest models.

The weather is overcast, stretching endlessly.

"So, what are your plans from now on?"

"Nothing in particular. Just scouting for good shots, going here and there."

Hmm.

Exactly where does this 'good shot' actually end up?

"Would be awesome if we found someone actually alive somewhere."

"I don't think that's likely."

It was Nanaretsu-chan who spoke up.

"The other side of the 'Door' has already been investigated five times by 'Guardians.' No one was found who seemed capable of communication."

"Still, who knows? Maybe some people managed to escape to underground shelters or something."

"That's unlikely. If anyone were alive, Tooru's karma would have plummeted all the way to the depths of the earth due to the mass casualties."

"Even that might be judged as having no impact, no matter how many outsiders you kill."

"That's… true."

"Besides, just because things have been that way until now doesn't mean they'll stay that way forever. Right?"

"…You're absolutely right."

"Plus, the change in karma might just be because Tooru's keeping quiet."

"Tooru isn't… someone like that."

"Who knows~♪"

Ran-chan stumbles over her words.

Honestly, I don't think it's worth discussing this here.

Since we're redirecting the conversation,

"By the way, if you weren't blessed with that kind of shooting success, what would you do with the video?"

"In that case... what should I do? Maybe I'll just go wreck some nearby buildings for fun?"

"I'd rather not waste magic on something meaningless like that."

That would just mean taking on unnecessary risks.

We glanced around the wide boulevard stretching in all directions,

"Then let's get moving for now. Let's go look for that... 'capture rate'."

"Yep. Let's head to Hachiko first, Hachiko."

With no objections from anyone, we followed her suggestion.

▼

The result? We found out...

To the zombies, the Hachiko statue seemed to be a tourist spot with absolutely no reason to gather.

"Who would've thought we wouldn't end up facing off against a horde of zombies..."

Nanami filmed the Hachiko statue with a slightly deflated expression.

"I'm gonna take this whole pedestal back later. I'll polish it till it shines and hang it in my room as a decoration."

The zombies we spotted along the way were few and far between.

Most of them were just immobilized because they fell from a height or something like that—pretty boring, really.

"Normally, a scene where we slaughter zombies would be a good filler. But since Nya-kkyi already did the flashy kill scene earlier..."

"Hey, isn't this going to end up being a 'no footage captured' punchline in the end?"

"Well... it's common for this kind of突击-style project to build up expectations and then deliver nothing, you know."

They had set out on a nocturnal adventure in search of grand exploits, but not a single cat had shown up.

That was about it.

Still, there was a faintly puzzled expression on her face.

One of the guardians—Seven-Split Orchid.

"...Hmm. This really does feel off."

"What's wrong?"

"There are just too few zombies. It's unreasonable, even by any stretch of the imagination."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"I can't believe it. Shibuya Crossing—don't you remember? That was the very first area where the 'zombies' appeared."

Ah...

Now that you mention it, I think I've heard something like that somewhere before.

"In the original world, that place was so overrun with 'zombies' that it was impossible to enter... Doesn't that seem odd?"

"I suppose, but... isn't that just how this world is?"

"Then, well..."

She wore a thoughtful expression, clearly harboring some idea.

"Hey, Nanami-san."

"Hm?"

"Could I pick our next destination—home, if you don't mind?"

"Sure, whatever. Where do you have in mind?"

"I'd like to see Tokyo from a high vantage point, if possible."

"Hmm. Then it must be there."

"Yes. From there, it shouldn't take more than an hour to walk... Tokyo Tower."