Outbreak Company: Volume 3 Read online

  Chapter One: Yup, It’s Another World

  I, Kanou Shinichi, was on the horns of a dilemma.

  Warm, wet breath brushed against my cheek. I couldn’t help noticing how very white the fangs in those open jaws were...

  What a dumb thing to be thinking at a time like this!

  I’d heard that when people are in a really life-threatening situation, they sometimes forget where they are, as a sort of coping mechanism. Maybe that was what was happening to me. Why else would I be admiring trivial details, instead of trying to find a way to get out from under the fang-baring beast who had just jumped on top of me the moment we saw each other?

  A moist tongue emerged from the dark cavern of its mouth and ran over its teeth. I guessed it was licking its lips at the sight of prey. It might as well have exclaimed, “Bon appétit!”

  I was literally, like, five seconds away from dying.

  This is bad. This is really, really bad.

  This is really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, bad!

  If this were an anime, this would be the moment when the picture freezes and the words “really bad” are printed all over the screen until they lose all meaning. I could see how bad things were, but the shock and the suddenness of the situation left me trapped by my panic; “bad!” was the only thing that could break through into my conscious mind. Granted, there was another me that seemed to be looking down calmly on the whole thing, but even so...

  In the silence of the dim room, all I could hear was the beast’s harsh breathing. The windows were closed and the curtains drawn, the only source of light being the few rays of the morning sun that slipped in around the edges of the drapes.

  I was being held down on the floor of the room, and on top of me was a wild beast.

  The beast was using its limbs to pin my arms and legs. The creature wasn’t actually that heavy, but it seemed to know how to hold a person down—it was pressing precisely on the muscles I most needed to be able to move. I tried to make my extremities work, but I couldn’t sit up or scramble away. Now I knew how a cornered animal felt.

  Predators who use up energy unnecessarily just bring themselves closer to starvation, so when they hunt, they strike only the most vital points on their prey to prevent any resistance. The pinned, powerless bunny rabbit (i.e., me) can only lie there trembling and waiting for the inevitable.

  To put it in chess terms, it was checkmate. I couldn’t move anything really useful, and that left me without a lot of options.

  Was this how it was all going to end? Eaten in my own house by some unidentified creature, with no idea what had really happened to me or why?

  No—wait, Kanou Shinichi! You aren’t a rabbit! You still have the most powerful weapon humans possess!

  My mind started working desperately. Humans have intelligence. We have our wits! That’s what separates us from the animals! Now my brain labored to dispel the haze of panic. I needed a phat plan to break me out of this jam!

  Arms? Legs? Pinned flat.

  Fingers? Mobile, but there was nothing to grab.

  Head? I could try a headbutt, but with my arms held down like this, I had serious doubts that I could reach my opponent.

  Think... Think... Think...

  What’s this? Human intelligence is exhausted?

  Despair overtook me as I ruminated. I found that you can think of whatever you want, but if you don’t have the physical power to pull it off, it’s not going to do you any good. Look, I might have been sort of a big deal when it came to arguing on the internet, but punch me or stab me and, well, that was it.

  No—wait again!

  I can’t give up yet!

  Words! Maybe I could talk my way out! That’s it, Kanou Shinichi! You still have the power to throw up a smokescreen of pointless chatter!

  I placed all my hope in the very last weapon available to me.

  O Spirit of Words, speak through me! Help me say something really awesome! Help me throw this creature off with my gift of the gab!

  “Uh... Um...”

  No response.

  “Can I... talk to you for a minute?”

  No response.

  Whaaaa?!

  Aw, this isn’t going to do any good! What am I even doing?! Chatter doesn’t help if the other person doesn’t understand what you’re saying! The beast on top of me stared at me with a glint in its eyes, obviously ready to dig in at any moment.

  “A beast...?”

  I’m not about to say that I’d calm down, but a quasi-rational thought did suddenly strike me.

  As we’ve established, I was in a room, indoors. The curtains and windows were closed, making everything dark. But the morning sun that leaked in between the drapery was just enough to dimly illuminate the creature holding me down. It was deep in shadow, yes, but the darkness wasn’t total; I could make out a little bit.

  On top of that, my eyes were slowly getting used to the dark. My attacker’s jaws were perilously close to my head, filling my vision. But if I could stay calm enough to pull my own head back, maybe I could at least get a sense of who I was dealing with here.

  When I did, I let out a sound of dumbfoundment.

  “............Huh?”

  The creature’s face seemed to be covered in fur; that was why I had immediately thought “wild animal.” But on closer inspection, it was just really long hair falling down around its face.

  Well, not quite. The hair was definitely more fur-like than normal.

  “Hold on...”

  My eyes had finally adjusted, and I could make out the contours of the face in front of me. I hadn’t imagined the gleaming eyes and the fangs; there was definitely a beastly quality to this person. But...

  “Elvia?!”

  Yep. The face was that of a girl I knew well. Elvia Harneiman, a werewolf. She had long ears covered in beast-y fur, and (better believe it) a big, fluffy tail.

  I use the word “werewolf,” but she wasn’t really some kind of supernatural monster. She was just a girl, and a pretty cute one at that. Her big, round eyes and her slightly unkempt hair were the most distinctive things about her. She wasn’t very showy, but her plain looks had an attractiveness all their own.

  I was very confused, first because someone had suddenly jumped on top of me and pinned me down, and (more importantly) second, because of the hungry-animal eyes with which that person had looked at me. Taken together, I had been left with no idea that this was my normally laid-back, easygoing housemate. Most of the time, Elvia was less of a wolf and more of a puppy.

  Then again, and on careful reflection, this was Elvia’s room. Breakfast time had come around and Elvia hadn’t shown up, so I’d come to check on her. This being Elvia’s room, it was only natural that the inhabitant was Elvia, and therefore even more natural that it was Elvia who had jumped on top of me. Wait a second... Was that natural?

  “Okay... uh... Elvia...-san?”

  “Hooo... haaaah...”

  The only answer was the continued slap of moist, warm breath against my face. I took a fresh look into her glowing eyes, and I couldn’t shake the sense that it wasn’t the gaze of a rational being. If this were a manga, her eyes would have spirals in them to suggest that she wasn’t in her right mind.

  This was bad. I mean really bad.

  Yes, I had gone from being pinned down by a mysterious beast to being pinned down by a girl I knew, but nothing else had changed. If anything, this was probably worse. Being eaten alive by a wild animal—I mean, I for sure didn’t want that. But being eaten alive by a girl I was friends
with—what kind of bizarre horror-story stuff was that?

  How can I explain this? It was like being betrayed by something you trusted. No, not quite... It was like one day, a cute little stuffed toy suddenly grew fangs and attacked you. The fear came from the rupturing of the quotidian expectations of everyday life.

  Enough! Now was not the time for meta-commentary.

  If I was dealing with a girl, here, then my idea of talking my way out of this might still work.

  “Elvia... Let’s all just calm down, okay?”

  “Hooo... hooo ...”

  “Right, put those fangs away, now. Say, were... were your teeth always this long?”

  “Hooo... haaaah...”

  Her jaws were open in an ear-to-ear grin. Her tongue, bright red, slid across her lips.

  “That... That lip-licking thing you keep doing is really... kind of unsettling. Uh... Breakfast is on the table, you know. If you’re hungry, how about you come have some?”

  “Haaaah... haaaah...”

  “Hey, if I’ve done anything to upset you, I apologize. L-Let’s talk it out, Elvia.”

  “Haaaah... hooo...”

  This wasn’t getting me anywhere. It was like she couldn’t even hear me. In fact—

  “Eeyikes!”

  I found myself letting out a terrified scream. Not only had my coaxing not convinced her to come have breakfast; instead, she shoved her face right up next to mine and, as if to say “Bon appétit for really real!”, licked my cheek with her tongue.

  “S-See? I don’t taste so good, right?”

  No response.

  “Myusel makes a breakfast that’s much more delicious than me! How about you have some, Elvia?”

  No response.

  Elvia didn’t say anything, but her tongue worked its way from my cheek down my neck. This was about all I could take.

  Kanou Shinichi, dead at seventeen.

  Eaten by a beast girl he met in an alternate world.

  Ugh. I really didn’t want to end up with that carved into my tombstone. Actually, my family was Buddhist, so that wasn’t the sort of thing we would have put on a grave marker anyway.

  Once again I found myself thinking a bunch of random and totally useless things.

  “............Huh?”

  The fangs never came. In fact, Elvia, having finished her tour of my throat, seemed to have taken an interest in my clavicle and was now proceeding on to my chest. I thought I had read somewhere that when a carnivore wants to finish off its prey, they usually do it with a bite to the throat. Maybe werewolves didn’t work the same way?

  “Elvia...-san?”

  “Haaaah... Hooo...”

  Elvia grabbed my shirt in her mouth with what seemed to be annoyance, then shook her head violently, tearing it. When she found she couldn’t pull it off, she straddled my hips and began ripping at it with her hands. Her claws shredded it is easily as if she were mulching a piece of paper. There was way more strength in that little body than you would expect.

  This had to be...

  “Hold on.”

  Yeah, hold on.

  It couldn’t be...

  A beast girl. Crazy eyes. Not acting normal. Harsh breath. The words came together in my mind like the pieces of a puzzle, and they all pointed to one thing.

  “Hey, Elvia, you aren’t...?”

  No response, of course.

  “H-Hey, that tickles, it tick—oh! No! You can’t go— Elvia! Eeeeyikes!”

  Elvia had licked my chest and then continued downward...

  “Elvia! Elvia-san! You can’t— This isn’t the place for— Well, it sort of is, but— Just stop!”

  No answer at all. Elvia went along, sniffing and licking my body.

  When I looked at her again, it occurred to me that she was practically naked. Elvia was never one to wear a lot of clothing, and while in her room she basically stripped down to her underwear. I’d seen her in her room before, so this wasn’t exactly new to me, but under the circumstances it seemed a little more erotic—I mean very erotic—I mean endlessly, infinitely erotic. The cleft of her breasts was completely visible above the tube top wrapped around her chest, and as far as her bottom half, she had traded her usual pants for what amounted to a loincloth, way sexier than hot pants or whatever.

  Finally it started to register: she wanted to eat me, all right... but not for breakfast!

  “No effin’ way! You want to eat me like that?!”

  What had I done to deserve this reward?! Was I about to cash in my V-card?!

  No! This is not the time to be thrilled about this!

  “Whoa! Elvia, you can’t, you’ve got to stop!”

  I won’t try to deny my libido, but I do fancy myself a gentleman with a certain modesty. No, seriously.

  And anyway, in the 3D world, you can cause all kinds of trouble for yourself by touching a girl. I was sticking to 2D brides! Okay, not really, but if you let yourself get carried away, you can wind up in some very scary places.

  “Hooo... haaaah...”

  Still, my words were obviously not getting through to Elvia.

  She had never really been the type to jump a guy, so this had to be due to, you know, estrus or something. I mean, that’s the trope, right? Beast girls go into heat!

  It’s just instinct, it’s just instinct! I repeated over and over to myself. She can’t help it! I can’t act like she’s hot for me, because it’s just instinct and she’s innocent! Deeply and totally innocent! As if that changes anything!

  My words, of course, were powerless in the face of her overwhelming elemental drive. But that didn’t stop me from shouting, “No, no, no, don’t, don’t, don’t—Elvia, doooooon’t!” My words rang through the house, accompanied by the sound of my pants ripping.

  My name is Kanou Shinichi. I’m general manager of the parallel-world-first general entertainment company Amutech.

  My story begins at the dawn of the twenty-first century...

  In Japanese domestic territory, specifically in the “Sea of Trees” near Mount Fuji, a hyperspace tunnel to another world was discovered. An alternate plane of existence, just a hop, skip, and a jump away from us.

  The tunnel isn’t very wide, and there’s no way to either enlarge it or block it off, so it sat there, a ripple in spacetime.

  In utmost secrecy, the Japanese government sent a survey unit through the tunnel, and they succeeded in making contact with the organisms who ruled this new land—a human state. They convinced this state, the Holy Eldant Empire, to open relations with Japan in the interests of a mutually brighter future.

  This other world was something of a godsend, and our unlikely encounter with it almost certainly a first in human history. The establishment of cordial relations was a real coup.

  Japan, however, didn’t trumpet any of this; instead, they kept it all dead secret. This was due to certain expectations that had coalesced among the country’s ruling elite.

  This was another world, after all. It had unknown lifeforms, culture, technology—and resources. The cultural level of the Eldant Empire was on a par with Middle Ages Europe, so there might not be much to gain from them technologically, but the biological and mineral resources here were all but untouched—practically no one even knew whether they were there. That meant it would be easy to bilk the Eldant Empire into handing them over. Start with some pleasant “dialogue” to get their guard down, and then it was open season on whatever was over there. At any rate, that seems to have been the deplorable thinking taking place among the less savory elements of the Japanese government at the time.

  But the best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry... even the nastiest ones.

  The government had made first contact and enticed the empire to open relations, but what should they use to promote “friendship”? The magic in this new world made it easy enough to communicate; the trouble came after that. The Japanese delegation brought over lots of little gifts—all kinds of traditional cultural trinkets—in hopes of currying favor with t
he Eldant Empire, but the Eldant side just didn’t seem that interested in any of them.

  The fact that the size of the hyperspace tunnel was constrained, and that they were trying to do all this without alerting any other countries, meant that very large objects, or large numbers of objects, couldn’t be brought over to the new world. Too much activity, and America or someone was sure to smell a rat, and then Japan’s plum little find would be snatched away from it.

  What the Japanese government hit on then was the same thing that had powered Cool Japan—a bit of uniquely Japanese culture that had proved capable of crossing linguistic and cultural barriers. That’s right: anime, manga, video games, and light novels. Otaku culture.

  As it happened, this otaku stuff was every bit as popular in the Eldant Empire as it had been elsewhere on Earth. So Japan set about really leaning into the otaku angle, and Amutech was their foothold for doing so.

  Now, this plan was very much the work of bureaucrats, people who were not well equipped to deal with the unprecedented and who didn’t even know what kinds of otaku goods might be worth sending over. On top of that, they were busy with domestic infighting because of an impending change in administration, and the government didn’t have the time, the budget, or the people to give its full attention to deciding which cartoons would be most interesting to a bunch of Middle-Ages peasants in some other universe. So the bureaucrats did what bureaucrats do best: they delegated.

  “What if,” they thought, “we grab ourselves an otaku from somewhere and send him over to run the company for us?”

  So they set up a front company, ran a help-wanted ad worthy of a gang of swindlers, and found a dyed-in-the-wool otaku and former home security guard whom they gleefully sent packing through the hyperspace tunnel. That was me, Kanou Shinichi.

  “Hrrnngrrahgghhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

  An inarticulate scream echoed through the house. It was weird-sounding enough to make me pretty embarrassed for myself, but what else could I do? Elvia was licking me all over, and it kind of felt good but also really tickled, and I was finding it hard to sound like a normal person.