5 - Farewell, Humanity

Of course, it took a while for both Akuto and Brave to agree to Yoshie’s plan.

“We may still be able to stop the asteroid.”

“I agree with the boss.”

The two of them spoke in tandem.

“But you know... We know that the Jeweled Branch had no effect on it,” Yoshie said coldly.

Keena had tried waving around the branch like a magic wand, chanting nonsense spells. But while she could do her ordinary magic with it, nothing special was happening.

“I know that. But...”

“I know what you’re going to say. Giving up doesn’t suit your personality. But there’s no physical way to do anything about that asteroid.”

“Is the Faceless Power that strong?”

“Yup. It’s the will of an entire species. In order to match it, you’d need to have all of humanity be one person.”

“Then if we can bring humanity’s will together...!” Hiroshi’s eyes were shining, like he thought he’d just had a great idea.

Yoshie shook her head, though.

“You couldn’t do that with the Republic. And non-mana civilizations don’t even have the ability to turn their will into power,” she said. “The Faceless Power is a terrifying curse.”

“Then there’s really nothing we can do?”

“Probably not. But you know, I think anybody except Akuto’s free to try anything they like.” She sighed.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Akuto’s going to need to go to the afterlife for us. So we can’t have him dying. Of course, the Empress is going into cold sleep, so we can’t have her dying before or after either. And we need Brave to carry the capsule up to orbit. But if anybody else dies, either before or after, it’s not a problem.

“That sounds... really ridiculous, somehow,” Akuto said, a little confused.

“Everybody else just has to be ready to die, after all. Anyway, we’re doing this tomorrow. The reason why it’s tomorrow is that the asteroid lands tomorrow night. Until then... anybody’s free to do whatever they like. Even commit suicide,” Yoshie said, indulging in a moment of dark humor.

○

“I still refuse to accept this,” Lily sighed. The table in the student council room was laden with snacks. The trio were sitting around it, gobbling them down.

“Yeah... It’s pretty pathetic that our last meal is convience store junk food,” Mochie said.

Lily frowned at her.

“That’s not what I meant. I meant the fact that there’s no way to fight back.”

“But all the stores are closed, and we can’t get anything that’s appropriate for a last meal, gya.” Kanna complained too.

“Shut up. You only get a good last meal if you’re on death row. What would you even want to eat, anyway?” Lily asked. Both Michie and Kanna thought for a moment before answering.

“Rice and miso soup.”

“Rare steak. With potatoes.”

Lily snorted.

“Yeah, I thought it’d be something like that. Not really any different than junk food, is it? You never drank soda or ate junk food because you were worried about your weight. So you’ll never get another chance to eat this much. Eat up.”

“You’re right, aren’t you gyah?”

“Melon bread’s got lots of calories, after all...”

The two of them went back to wolfing down the junk food.

“Gugah.”

Arnoul, however, hadn’t eaten a thing.

“Sure, you don’t eat, do you... Huh? Headmaster?” Lily shouted in surprise.

The headmaster’s face was poking out from behind Arnoul.

“Eh, I’ve got nothing to do, so I came to get some junk food too.” He reached for the potato chips.

“You didn’t have any last minute stuff to do?” Lily asked, stunned.

“When you’re as old as me, the temples stop giving you work. I’ve been really bored.” He sighed dejectedly. The other teachers had all been summoned by the various temples to help quell the panic that was taking place.

“Don’t you have any family to spend your last hours with?”

“Well, when you live as many centuries as I do, you don’t, really...” he laughed. His laugh was a dry rattle.

“I’m sure young maidens like you would prefer a younger man to spend the end of your lives with, though.”

“Nah...” Lily chuckled, but Kanna seemed to take him seriously.

“That’s right! The problem is we don’t have any boys here!”

“Gugah.”

Arnoul tried to quiet her down, but then Michie joined in, too.

“That’s right! I spent my whole youth without a boyfriend!”

“Gya-gya!”

“Calm down. There just weren’t that many guys who were good enough for us, that’s all,” Lily said, tossing a piece of chocolate into her mouth.

“Well, you’re lucky. Anybody who hit on you, you just hit them in the face.”

“That’s right. Nobody ever tried to date us at all!”

The two of them sighed sadly..

“Be quiet. The world could end at any time, so if you want to date somebody, tell them,” Lily said sarcastically.

“Hmph. I should’ve attacked the first good man I saw.”

“That’d make you just a wolf woman...”

“I don’t want to hear that from someone who’s basically a vampire girl. Anyway, is there anything you regret not being able to do, President?” Kanna suddenly asked.

“Sure. I told you in front of the tower that I might die, but that I was ready for it, right?”

“Yeah, gya.”

“What did that mean?”

“I... think I expected to die fighting. I wanted to go out in a blaze of glory... But instead I’m just sitting here eating junk food.” Lily laughed in self-derision.

“That’s part of being young... I understand how you feel, but not everybody gets to be a hero. When something’s not going to happen, it’s best to just give up on it,” the Headmaster lamented quietly.

“I wanted to do everything with a bang.”

“That’s how the world ends. It just quietly fades away. Many civilizations in the past died the same way, I’m told. But perhaps, this may not be the end. That man may still yet have something in store for us...”

“Akuto Sai, you mean?” Lily asked.

○

Meanwhile, someone else was saying a last goodbye to his girlfriend. Hiroshi and Yuko were walking along the beach.

“Sorry I’m not more cheerful...” Yuko apologized.

Hiroshi shook his head.

“It’s fine! It’s not your fault! No place is open in town, and it felt like we’d just be all gloomy if we stayed there...”

“Yeah... But you know, it feels weird. The world’s going to be destroyed soon. And if it isn’t, then everybody is still going to die...” Yuko said, staring out at the sea.

“I-It’s fine. They say even if you die, you don’t really die... That there’s life after death. S-So you know, even if you die, you’ll be okay...” Hiroshi said, but there was no strength behind his words.

“I know. Yoshie told me. But do you believe that? I mean, I don’t really know, but in the end, I guess we might just be some characters some author invented?”

Yuko leaned up against Hiroshi, unable to hide her fear. Hiroshi felt the weight of her body, and realized he didn’t really believe what Yoshie had said, either.

“It’s weird... What does it really mean, that this world might be fictional?”

“Yeah... I mean, if you die, you die, right? I don’t want that...”

“Yeah..”

All Hiroshi could do was nod.

“And you’re taking Keena... her highness... up to space, right? If you do, I’ll never see you again.”

“I have to do it anyway. It’s important. If it works, I may be able to bring everyone back to life...” Hiroshi said, stumbling over his words. But even as he spoke, he still couldn’t bring himself to believe it.

“It can’t be true! I mean, even right now I’m thinking my own thoughts... I’m me!” Yuko buried her face in Hiroshi’s chest and began sobbing.

“It’ll be fine... Brave is... I mean... I am... allowed to do whatever I want whenever the mission’s done. So I... I’m going to stop the asteroid myself. I can still do things in space. So I know I can...” Hiroshi said, and then Yuko looked up at him.

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. I’ll protect you. You, and humanity.”

“Wow... You really are a hero.”

“Don’t worry... I’ll protect you... I’ll protect you...”

Hiroshi kept repeating himself. He wasn’t sure if he was lying or telling the truth, or just trying to calm Yuko down. He didn’t know if she believed him. He didn’t know anything at all. But he didn’t want his words to end up as a lie. That, at least, he knew.

And then suddenly, the reality of his death came crashing down on him. He’d been in many situations in the past where death was a possibility. But this time, it felt totally different.

“I’ll... protect you...” He repeated to himself, and then gave Yuko a kiss.

○

“I got authorization for our operation. Officially, we’re sending Keena Soga into space.” Yoshie said as she entered a meeting room inside the Marlay village. There was nobody there but Akuto. He had the Robe of the Fire Rat in front of him, and was reading the manual on how to use it.

“Officially?” Akuto asked, looking up from the manual.

“Nobody knows if the Robe of the Fire Rat actually works. Honestly, I don’t either.”

“It does,” Akuto said, cutting her off.

“Huh?”

“It works. Fujiko gave up her life to get it for me.”

Without Fujiko, The One would probably have destroyed it.

“You’re right. If The One wanted it broken, that means it probably does something.”

“That’s another way of looking at it,” Akuto said, and then stared again at the small parabolic antenna.

“Whether it works or not, we won’t know what it does until we try to use it,” Yoshie said with a sigh.

“The afterlife, huh?” Akuto murmured.

“If it exists, what do you think it’s like?”

“It’s hard to say... I don’t know if I entirely believe it myself. If this world is fictional.. Like some dream of the Law of Identity, then there should be an afterlife... But I still wonder, what happens if I’m wrong?”

Yoshie laughed, sounding a little tired.

“If even you feel that way... then I can understand why everybody else is worried.”

“You’re giving me too much credit... but it makes me happy that you feel that way.”

Yoshie’s eyes took on a distant look.

“They say that people who did neither good nor evil don’t have the right to even go to hell. Which am I, do you think? I know I haven’t done anything good... So what end do you think the Law of Identity has prepared for me?”

“I’m not sure. But to me, you don’t seem like a girl who never did anything.” Akuto smiled.

“And even if the Law of Identity did make this world, we all have minds of our own. With a strong enough will, maybe we can affect the world.”

“A strong will, huh? Even if we’re fictional characters?”

“That’s right. We’ll be able to accomplish something big. If we can’t even believe that, I don’t think we deserve to be here.”

“A strong will that can accomplish something...”

Yoshie said to herself, and then nodded, as if convinced of something. And then she gave Akuto a mischievous grin, and moved her face close to his.

“Hey, if that’s true, I’d like to try out my own will on something.”

“Your own will?”

“I want to see if a character’s will can change the flow of a story,” she said, pursing her lips and closing her eyes.

“W-Wait a second...” Akuto said, confused.

“If Keena’s will is mixed in with the Law of Identity, then she wouldn’t want to let me kiss you, right? So I’m testing to see if this works,” Yoshie said, and leaned in closer.

“Um... uh...”

“Stop being stubborn. Come on!” she yelled at him.

Akuto gave in and drew his face closer to hers for a kiss. However, it was on the cheek.

“Hmph!” Yoshie pouted.

“Damn... I guess that’s as much as my will can do.”

She laughed.

○

The next day, the others arrived in the Marlay village by teleportation via Lily’s yacht. They went into the tower lab, where the Marlay elder was examining the Swallow’s Cowry Shell.

“I was right, only one person can fit in this.” Nonimora sighed. The only ones present were the Marlay elder, Nonimora, Akuto, Hiroshi, and Yoshie.

“She’ll just have to accept it. This is fate,” Yoshie said.

The mission was a top secret one. The public hadn’t been informed that Keena was coming here.

“I don’t really like this. It feels like we’re lying to people,” Hiroshi said, looking at the mana screen.

The news was showing shots of panicked citizens, as well as the empire gathering its surviving forces to destroy the asteroid. The government was insisting that it could destroy the asteroid once it entered the atmosphere. So the plan’s to take this capsule up to orbit, and then take a break?”

“That’s right. Then she can watch the end of the world... or I guess she doesn’t have to. After that, she goes into cold sleep, and then Akuto goes into the afterlife.”

“And nobody knows what happens then.”

“Correct.” Yoshie nodded.

“I’m not scared to die!” Nonimora shouted to no one in particular, jumping up and down. “In the Marlay tribe, heroes surpass even death.”

“That’s good to know. I hope it’s evidence of something, actually. Anyway, it’s about time...” Yoshie glanced at her watch.

The door to the lab opened. Keena came in, wearing a white dress. It probably wasn’t intended as a burial dress, but supposedly it was the fanciest dress the palace had. Except for the lack of a train, it looked like a bridal dress. Both the old knight who was her servitor and Korone were behind her. But when she entered the room, the old knight silently walked away.

“She’s pretty, huh?”

“Yeah.”

Hiroshi and Akuto nodded to one another. Keena hated frilly clothes like this, so the fact that she was wearing this was a sign of how serious she was. Akuto looked at her face, and saw that she was wearing a thin layer of makeup.

“Guys...” she said, but then fell silent. But no one seemed bothered by the fact that she didn’t say another word. Instead, they all motioned her into the capsule.

Keena silently climbed inside. Just before the door closed, she finally spoke up.

“This isn’t the end, everybody! It isn’t goodbye!”

She was trying to make herself sound as confident as she could.

“We know.” Yoshie and Nonimora smiled.

The capsule closed tightly, with no time for further words. Hiroshi equipped his Brave suit, put Korone, who was carrying the Robe of the Fire Rat, on his back, and then turned to Akuto. Akuto lifted the capsule and flew upward through the tower.

Nonimora and Yoshie waved as they departed. Instead of waving back, Akuto nodded at them. He and Brave flew up high into the sky, carrying the capsule with them.

When they broke through the atmosphere, Akuto deployed a mana field around himself, while Brave used his gravity control to allow them to move. Once they arrived at the now-abandoned space station, they opened the airlock and placed the Swallow’s Cowry Shell inside.

The station was an experimental one, with only a small space for the crew, but there was enough room for the four of them to talk. Out one window they could see the Earth, and out another, the distant sight of the advancing asteroid. They opened the capsule after making sure there was oxygen for Keena to breathe.

“I feel kinda... guilty... that we’re the only ones surviving,” Keena said.

“It’s still the best option we have. Please just accept it,” Korone replied, taking out a futon from her bag for herself to sleep in. The inside of her pocket was a VPS. Since it depended on power from Earth to work, it wouldn’t be useful for much longer. This futon would probably be the last tool that Korone pulled from it.

“Why a futon?” Akuto asked.

“When the Empress awakes once more, I need to be by her side... This futon is made from special fibers. If I get inside and shut down, I’ll stay fresh for around another thousand years.”

“I see... wait, fresh?” Akuto asked.

“Fresh for a thousand years... My own idea of a joke, I guess.”

As they spoke, the asteroid was getting larger and larger in the far window.

“It’s almost time, isn’t it?” Hiroshi asked. Korone poked his side with her elbow. Hiroshi looked back at her, confused. She got into her futon before continuing.

“I’m going to sleep. I’ll see you all in the next life.”

Hiroshi finally understood.

“Oh, um... I’ve gotta go, boss. I’ve got something I’ve gotta do.”

“Something you have to do?”

“Yes. I’m gonna stop that asteroid, or at least try to. If I’m gonna die anyway, it’s better that I go out with a bang, huh?”

And that was all he said, before heading out the airlock. There was a small “Fwoosh” sound as the air escaped, and then silence. Akuto thought to himself that they could’ve said a longer goodbye, but he satisfied himself by thinking that Hiroshi truly believed in this world.

“I guess I should get to work, too...” he said, but Keena stopped him.

“Hey, Ackie.”

“What is it?” He turned around. Keena was right next to him, staring at the ground.

“You don’t have to be that worried...” he said, but then suddenly Keena looked up at him. Her face was bright red. She didn’t look like she was depressed, or sad.

“W-What is it?”

“W-Well...” Keena said, and then started to fidget. The words were on the tip of her tongue, but they weren’t coming out.

“A-Are you okay?” He asked again. And then she started to talk.

“I know this might not be the end... but I’m going to sleep for a long time, right?”

“I think so. You might wake up right away though... maybe.” Akuto nodded.

“Do you think I’ll forget what happened when I was asleep?”

“I’m sure you will. Even if you wake up years later, it’ll be like you slept a single night.”

“Then it’ll be okay, right? You’ll come to wake me up, right?” Keena said, staring into his eyes.

“I’m sure I will.” Akuto answered gently, trying to make her feel better.

“Yeah... Okay, then I can sleep without having to worry. But will you promise me?” Keena asked.

Akuto’s eyes betrayed his hesitation.

“I already... I already promised you, just now. It’ll be fine. I’ll come back. I don’t know for sure where I’m going, but...”

“No. Promise me. Now...” Keena began to fidget again.

“What?”

“Now... let’s get married now.”

“M-Married...?” Akuto was caught off guard.

“Y-Yeah. I mean, it’s not the last time, but it might be the last time. And I... I kind of want a promise.”

Keena was rambling, a forced smile on her face.

“Um... uh... well...”

“Is that... a no?” Keena’s expression clouded.

“I-It’s not a no, but...”

“T-Then let’s do it! I’m wearing a white dress right now... And I mean, you kissed Nonimora too...”

She started to flail her hands as she spoke.

“A-Are you serious?” Akuto said, and then he grabbed Keena’s flailing hands and lightly held them.

“Y-Yeah... I’m serious,” she said, and then looked down at the ground.

“If you’re serious then... yes.”

“Really?!” Keena looked up at him with bright eyes.

“Yeah... I’m serious, but um... what do I do?”

Keena suddenly looked just as confused as him.

“Y-Yeah. What do you do, actually?”

“Well, most of our friends are too young to get married... So I’ve never even been to a wedding.”

“Y-You put a ring on me, right?”

“B-But I don’t have a ring...” Akuto said, confused.

“Then, um... how about this?” She jumped into his arms.

“Huh...?”

Akuto staggered under her weight for a moment, and then looked down to see that she was looking into his eyes with trembling lips.

“Ackie...” she said, and then fell completely silent. Her eyes were slowly closing. Akuto knew what she meant. He brought her close and softly moved his face to hers, before quietly giving her a kiss.

○

The door to the Swallow’s Cowry Shell closed. On the other side of the window Keena was waving at him. Akuto waved back. He followed the instruction manual and flipped the switch. Gas poured out and filled the capsule. The window clouded up and Keena gradually faded from view. She breathed in the gas and went to sleep immediately, but Akuto kept waving as long as he could see her face. Before long, a notice appeared on the console saying that the cold sleep process was complete. He glanced at it, and then backed away.

“Now, on to the next step,” he said to himself, and then went over to the Robe of the Fire Rat, which had been placed in the corner. All he had to do was stand in front of the antenna portion and flip the switch.

“Akuto.”

Suddenly, he heard a voice.

“Huh?”

He turned around and saw Korone sitting up in her futon.

“You seemed to be having a lot of fun a moment ago.”

“H-Hey, you don’t have to put it like that. I thought you were asleep! That’s not very nice,” he said, turning red.

“I’m sorry. I simply wanted to be a witness to humanity’s end.”

“Well... maybe it would be good if there was somebody left who could talk about it.”

He was kind of annoyed, but when he thought about it, he realized that it might not be such a bad idea.

“Alright, take care of the rest here.”

“Of course.”

She nodded, but then spoke as if she’d remembered something.

“Um... Do I not get a kiss?”

“...Are you serious?”

“No.”

“I figured,” he laughed. He stood alone in front of the Robe of the Fire rat, and flipped the switch. Suddenly, he vanished.

○

Korone looked out the window. No one was left. If she shut down her motors, there would be no sound here at all. Once she shut down, she would last a thousand years or until someone woke her up. If, when that happened, mana-based civilization still existed, she could be completely rebuilt. Failing that, her data could be read as long as there was electricity. She made one final attempt to access to the gods. They had nothing particularly important to say.

“We simply failed in our mission. Everything will disappear.”

Those were the gods’ words. No matter what she asked, the answer was the same.

“Everything will disappear.”

It’s not a bad phrase, she thought to herself. But both she and Keena would remain, for a millennium at least.

“When everything disappears, what is left?” she whispered. If nothing else, her data would be restorable even after a thousand years. Or would the whole universe disappear with Keena’s death? No answer was forthcoming.

“For the gods, everything will disappear.” she said, and looked out the window.

Yes. For the gods, everything would disappear. She was just a terminal on the network. She didn’t have a self, like the gods did. The asteroid was close enough that she could see the energy coursing over its surface. From this position, it seemed like it was half the size of the Earth. It probably wasn’t actually that big, but it was still obviously big enough to destroy the planet. It felt less like an asteroid, and more like a huge ball of energy. Like a sphere full of churning, molten hot liquid.

A call came in. It was from Hiroshi.

“Korone... are you listening?”

“Yes.” Korone answered.

“I’m about to stop the asteroid...”

“The odds of that working are precisely zero,” Korone said coldly.

“I know that... but you didn’t have to say it.”

“No... If you know it, shouldn’t you not be trying?”

“I have to. I promised.”

“I see. You promised. But that won’t change the result, you know.”

“I know... but I wanted someone to hear me, in the end.”

“Very well. Let us converse.”

“I’m about to create a plasma ball and slam into it. Can you see me?”

“I can.” Korone zoomed in her vision. There was a small dot of light in the asteroid’s path. It was Hiroshi.

“Here I go! Here I go... You know, I don’t actually know what to say at a time like this. Am I just supposed to shout really loud? I can’t think of anything...”

“Hiroshi.”

“What?”

“If nothing else, in the end, you were a hero.”

“Thank you... ah... uwah...”

There was nothing left on the line but static. Hiroshi’s light was silently absorbed by the light from the asteroid.

“Goodbye,” Korone whispered softly.

The asteroid got closer and closer to Earth. The torrents of energy on its surface spiraled out like tornadoes and wrapped around the planet. From the Earth, it must’ve looked just like the scene of destruction that Boichiro Yamato saw. Perhaps in the torrents, the minds of alien beings could be seen. But even they soon lost their meaning. The asteroid itself soon crashed into the planet, shattering its crust.

Korone heard no sound at all. But as the crust rose up in a wave and fell, tens of thousands of people must have been screaming. The explosion from the impact swelled up, rippling like a living thing, and tearing away the planet’s atmosphere. The shock waves traveled through its core and erupted on the other side. In their wake followed tidal waves and pieces of the Earth’s crust. When the waves faded, all that remained were clouds of dust and boiling oceans.

“And thus the world met its end...”

Korone thought about reading a poem, but her network link was dead. The Earth’s gods were long gone.

“And so this and that happened, and then the Earth ended.” She decided to say it in her own words. “Silently, without sound, but with a big boom.”

When she saw that the Earth was nothing but a ball of boiling magma and water, she got into her futon.

“Goodnight, everyone,” she said to no one in particular, and the station’s power turned off.