Chapter 6: A Long Way From a Hero

By the time Harissa used her sending magic to get us back to my world, and Iris’s warp got us back to Earth, it was past 11:00. We just barely made it in time for the meteor.

I’d already had Satsuki find out how King Satamonia was going to drop it. His plan, she said, was to use some kind of meteor cannon loaded aboard a spaceship to launch it at a high speed, and then use teleportation to make it appear right in Earth’s skies.

According to her, that spaceship was already parked several million kilometers away from Earth. It would only be four or five minutes until it hit. Normally, it was impossible to predict the path a meteor like this might take, and by the time you noticed it, it would have already hit you. But this terrifying weapon took time to prepare. It was a sign of how nasty a guy King Satamonia was.

The meteor his spaceship was readying was around fifteen kilometers long. It was almost the same size as the one that had caused the dinosaurs to go extinct.

We headed right under the impact point to stop it. Satsuki, Harissa, and I went down to the surface, and Iris stayed in space aboard her spaceship. I had another job for her.

“Whew...” I looked around. It had been a while since I’d seen Earth.

Geography wasn’t my thing, so I didn’t know where I was, but it was a big open field dotted with cherry trees. It must have been in a different time zone than Japan, because the moon was only starting to rise.

This was where I was going to stop King Satamonia’s meteor, and finish things with Messiah. The three of us finished our preparations for the last battle. Satsuki and I sat down under a big cherry tree, and Harissa became invisible and hid.

All we had to do now was wait for Messiah to answer Satsuki’s magical summons.

I was so nervous about the battle that my throat was choking up. So was Satsuki, it seemed. Neither of us spoke.

“Why not say something to make her feel better?” R whispered to me.

I turned toward my childhood friend. She sat there, unmoving and staring at a single point on the ground, as she whispered something in a soft voice. That was her habit when she was really nervous. Yeah... if neither of us said anything, we’d go crazy before the fight started, and then we’d have no hope of winning at all.

I looked up at the tree as I spoke. “I guess they’ve got cherry blossom trees outside of Japan, huh?”

Satsuki jumped a little at my voice, and then looked up from the ground toward the tree above her. “You can find them all over the warm parts of the northern hemisphere. I guess this is the same kind of tree we’ve got in Japan, huh?”

“Oh, hey. The cherry blossom trees at the high school were in full bloom. You didn’t come to school today, so you didn’t get to see them, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go see them tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” She smiled just a little.

The heavy weight on our shoulders got just a little bit lighter.

“At this point, we’ve just gotta see this through.” I balled my hands into fists and took a deep breath. “I’ll protect you, Satsuki.”

“Thanks, Rekka.”

And the climax of the stories silently came. Ten minutes before midnight, a man came down from the sky and landed on the ground before us: Messiah Kyandistrapps, the strongest mage of the modern era. I hadn’t seen him for eleven hours or so, but he still had that stupid smirk on his face.

He seemed a little surprised to see me. “You’re that boy, huh? I thought you ran away.”

“Haha...”

Well, from his perspective, that’s probably what it looked like at the abandoned factory. I had ended up running and leaving Satsuki behind, after all.

“Why would I run from a pussy like you?” But I laughed, instead. I could see Messiah’s eyebrows twitch.

“A pussy, you say?”

“Yup. Why would I run from some idiot wannabe who thinks he’s the strongest mage in the world?”

“Oh? Then who might you be, then?”

“I’m the strongest mage in the world, obviously.”

“What?”

My words were an obvious provocation. I was the one who’d used Satsuki’s magic to summon him here. Normally, that would make you suspect a trap, but I figured he’d fall for my provocations.

He was confident that he was the strongest mage. That he wouldn’t lose, no matter who he fought, or what kind of trap they set. That’s why he’d come.

“So what do you want to do with me?” Messiah chuckled.

I twisted my lips into the most evil-looking grin I could muster. “I want you to make a contract and duel me. The loser swears to never bother Satsuki again. That, and to release her parents.”

Satsuki had told me that contracts between mages were based on demonic contracts, and that even the strongest mage couldn’t break one. If I could beat Messiah under such a contract, he’d have no choice but to leave her alone.

“Very well, boy. But—” Messiah raised a finger. “Why don’t we add a condition that the Daughter of Omniscience must always obey the winner of the duel?”

“What?! You...” Of course, I tried to tell him where he could stuff his condition, but Satsuki interrupted me.

“It’s fine. I believe in you. So I don’t mind at all.” She looked at me and smiled kindly.

It would be really lame if I couldn’t say something here. “Leave it to me.” I couldn’t lose this fight.

“Now, agree to the duel contract.” Satsuki stood between me and Messiah, and performed the ritual.

“I assent,” I said.

“Of course, I assent,” Messiah said.

Both of us nodded, and Satsuki changed the spell to complete the contract. Translucent black chains rose out of the ground and wrapped themselves around us, binding something within our bodies. Supposedly, if we broke the contract, the chains would rip our souls apart.

The stage was set for the duel. I had Satsuki step back so that she wouldn’t get caught up in it.

“Rekka, don’t die, okay?” She said to me, with tears in her eyes.

I laughed. “Hey, I’m going to win, right? So there’s no need to worry.”

“You’re right. Good luck, Rekka.”

“Sure thing.” She moved back fifty meters or so, and prepared to watch the duel.

Messiah and I squared off, the cherry blossom tree standing between us in the background.

“I can tell at a glance that you’ve no talent for magic. I don’t know what it is you’re planning, but you’re about to learn that the tricks of the incompetent are of no use against me.”

“Heh... I can’t wait to see the look on your face when I kick your ass.” I laughed again and took a quick glance at my watch.

Five minutes to midnight. Everything was on track.

“Here I go!” I broke into a run and started to go clockwise around the cherry tree. As I ran, I drew the laser gun from my belt. Harissa had made it invisible for me, and Iris had adjusted it to tone down its power. I pulled the trigger, and a spear of light flew at Messiah.

“Oh?” But the defensive wards in front of him blocked it. I’d expected this, but still, Messiah’s defenses were incredible. “I thought you had no talent. Was I wrong?”

He seemed a little surprised, but not at the attack. He was surprised at the fact that I’d used, or seemed to have used, magic. He had totally underestimated me.

He raised a hand to shoulder height. “Now it’s my turn.”

I started to run as fast as I could to escape from his fingers.

“It’s useless. Unless, of course, you can run faster than light.” Pale sparks started to appear in the air around him. The sparks grew into small bolts of lightning that wrapped around his arm. “This is the end.”

A blast of lightning headed straight for me. The fastest man on Earth couldn’t escape from a bolt of lightning.

That’s why I had a trick ready.

The lightning turned away from me and crashed into the ground.

“Agghh!” I’d avoided being directly hit, but the shock of the lightning’s impact had kicked up dirt and small stones, and some of them had hit me. I’d quickly moved my arms to protect myself, but my whole body felt like I’d been punched. I didn’t think I could take too many hits like that, but I’d survived this one.

“I missed?”

Messiah seemed confused. He’d intended to end this in a single strike.

“Hah! You suck!” I yelled as loudly as I could, as blood poured from my forehead and biceps.

He sent two or three more spears of lightning my way. My taunts must have been getting to him. All of them bent away to the left or right. None of them hit me.

The trick was a simple one. Satsuki had told me in advance that Messiah’s favorite type of magic was lightning magic. So I’d seeded the ground with powerful space lightning rods that Iris had prepared for me.

Even magic lightning was still lightning. It would be drawn toward a lightning rod before it would go after a human body.

Normally, the rods would be easy to spot, but Harissa’s magic had made them invisible, too. And thanks to my laser gun, Messiah was convinced I could use magic. As long as he was under that suggestion, he would think I was using magic to deflect his lightning.

Of course, if he used anything other than lightning, I was screwed, but the difference in our strengths was obvious. I couldn’t hurt him, and he could keep attacking me as long as he liked. Since there was no chance of him losing, he’d probably put his pride ahead of his victory, and keep using his favorite type of magic.

I couldn’t count on that to last forever. But I didn’t need it to last forever. I just needed it to last for a little while! Only thirty seconds left until midnight!

“Messiah!” I screamed his name, and pointed for him to look up at the heavens.

“What?” Messiah froze and followed my finger.

My plan was a simple one: to tell him that King Satamonia’s meteor was my own magic. The proud Messiah would then destroy “my” meteor for me. All right, time to get your butt to work, mage!

“Can you stop my magic?!” I lowered my index finger down from the sky to make it look like I was doing something. Say, strike him with the falling meteor. Now all that was left was to see if he really was the strongest mage of the modern era. It was weird, but at this point, I had no choice but to believe in him.

But instead, Messiah just stared at me. “So where is your magic?”

“Huh?” I looked up to the sky in panic. All I could see was a full moon and the shining stars. There was no sign of any meteor.

I stopped myself from screaming and turned to R for help, but she just shook her head. Just when I really needed her, too. Come on, give me a hand here!

Messiah laughed at me. “I’ve figured you out. Everything you do is a bluff. It’s all an act, a farce. And as long as you maintain the farce, you’re fine. But as soon it ends, you’re nothing.”

He was right. I clenched my trembling hands into fists.

“Enough of this, boy.” He raised his hand up to the sky.

A swirl of electricity, so powerful it could be seen with the naked eye, began to form. The sparks of lightning began to collide, growing larger and forming into a ball.

Was this the thing he’d tried to use at the factory? But this time, it was several times bigger.

A lightning sun. I didn’t know if those were the right words for it, but I could tell that touching that thing at all would fry me with billions of volts, and there would be nothing left. There was no way those lightning rods could stop that thing. This was the power of the world’s strongest mage.

He looked at me with arrogance in his eyes. “You’ve done well... for one so powerless, that is. You may boast of your bravery in the next world.”

“Powerless, huh?” He was right, and I knew it.

In the end, I was just a fake. A long way from a hero. I wasn’t special. With only the slightest flaw in my plan, I was just a helpless boy.

But still, I didn’t relax my clenched fists. These fists were a bluff, too. I’d never been in a real fight in my life. I’d spent my whole life trying not to stand out, so that was only natural.

But my hands were always ready to become fists. Anyone can make a fist, when they want to protect someone. When you make a fist for someone you want to protect, you can fight anything— a mage, a meteor, or even a demon overlord from another world. Even if I wasn’t a real hero, I could still fight anything.

I threw away my invisible laser gun, and started to run as fast as I could with my empty fists. But not toward Messiah.

“Haha, it’s too late to run!” I ignored Messiah’s laugh, and ran as fast as I could towards a single point.

Since that spaceship was already here, it was hard to imagine that King Satamonia’s threat was a bluff. So where was the meteor? My guess was that he hadn’t intended for it to land at midnight. Midnight was when he launched it. So if I could just withstand this one last attack, there was still a chance!

“Rekka!”

“Stay out of this!” I yelled, both at Satsuki, who was trying to run towards me, and Harissa, who was invisible and hiding.

I needed to beat Messiah by myself, or the contract wouldn’t be valid. Anything I planned in advance was allowed, but if someone else intervened in the duel, everything would be ruined.

“Thank you for leaving the Daughter of Omniscience out of this. I don’t want her getting killed, either. Boy, you are quite brave. Stupidly so, in fact.” Messiah laughed and slowly lowered his hand. “You made an excellent clown. Now die!”

“Nwaaaahhh!” I jumped and slid along the ground under the cherry tree.

“Haha! It’s not real lightning! You cannot escape my ‘Divine Judgement’ spell by hiding under a tree!” And then, a hammer of lightning came down, as if heaven was visiting divine punishment upon a sinner.

It was a brilliant light that swallowed everything. The nightmarish lightning burned everything around me. The tree and the surrounding ground were utterly annihilated, and the air was filled with smoke and a burning stench.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t tell if I was alive or dead. There was a strange feeling, like I was floating. It made it hard to think. What happened? Did I fail?

“Now there is no one left to interrupt our wedding. Come with me, and give me the wisdom of omniscience!” I heard Messiah’s voice. The sound of his melodramatic words pulled me back to reality.

He was still talking, but Satsuki wasn’t saying anything. That’s right. There’s no need to say a word. Just you wait, I’ll...!

I tried to move, but my body wasn’t responding. Why, damn it? Was I dead after all? It still felt like there was nothing in my hands.

“None can resist the contract. Disobey, and you’ll be ripped apart from the inside out. Are you all right with that?” All I could do was just listen to Messiah’s voice.

“Give up, Daughter of Omniscience.”

Her name isn’t “Daughter of Omniscience,” it’s Satsuki.

“You have no choice but to become my bride.”

Hell no. Satsuki’s my childhood friend.

“Or if you find it so painful to become my bride, shall I use my magic to rip out your mind and turn you into a living doll? All I need is the Magic of Omniscience. I don’t care about the rest of you.”

If you don’t shut up, I’m going to kick your ass. Marriage is something you do to make both people happy. That’s the normal way. But you just see Satsuki as a tool. As her childhood friend, there’s no way I’m letting you get away with that!

My rage passed the boiling point and woke up my mind. I clenched my fists tightly and stood up in the smoke.

“That’s the worst damn proposal I’ve ever heard in my life.”

“What?!”

I knocked the dust off my clothes as I listened to Messiah’s shocked voice. I was covered in soot, but mostly unharmed. Evidently, the impact had just knocked me unconscious.

“H-How?!” I saw Messiah truly astonished for the first time that day.

“There’s no time for surprise, asshole.” I pointed up into the night sky one more time.

The moonlight around us vanished, and the world was shrouded in darkness. In the next instant, the light came back. This time, it wasn’t the gentle light of the moon and stars. It was a fiercer light, the burning crimson flame of a meteor as it scorched its way through the atmosphere toward Earth.

“This is my magic, for real this time!”

“—?!”

All right. Time for you to shine, “strongest mage.” Time for you to save the Earth.

“Damn it! What is this magic?!” Messiah acted fast. He formed several dozen of his “Divine Judgment” bolts at once. “No one can defeat Messiah Kyandistrapps!”

The balls of lightning smashed into the surface of the burning red meteor. The whole night sky was lit up with the resulting blasts. The mage’s lightning was gradually whittling away the alien’s massive meteor. It was like something out of a light novel or manga. Yet it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before it was all over.

“No one can match me in magic!” At last, Messiah shattered the final fragment of the meteor into pieces. “Hahh... hahh... hahh... hahh...” He staggered, panting. He didn’t fall to his knees, but his arrogant attitude was gone.

Most of the fragments of the meteor would probably burn up in the atmosphere. Even if something did survive, Iris was waiting in her spaceship to take out the smaller chunks.

My plan to destroy the meteor was a success. All that was left was to defeat the strongest mage.

“Aarrhhhh!” I screamed and leaped out of the smoke.

“What?!” Messiah spun around in shock. He hadn’t seen me coming.

He’d used a tremendous amount of magical power and concentration to destroy the meteor, and when he succeeded, he would let his guard down for a single instant. That was my only chance.

He didn’t have time to fight back with his magic. My attack would hit him first. Normally, the battle would’ve ended here.

But Messiah just grinned slightly. He still had his defensive wards. Satsuki had told me that a hundred mages working together couldn’t destroy them. That was what made him the strongest of them all, and that was why he was smiling.

So I—

I swung the invisible Hero’s Sword right through Messiah’s wards, and ripped them wide open.

“Wh-What?!”

I heard the shock in his voice as I turned my hand around. It was another simple trick. I’d had Harissa turn the Hero’s Sword invisible and plant it at the base of the cherry tree. That was all. The Hero’s Sword could cut through any magic, and in a battle against a mage, it had the potential to be my trump card. But if I’d used it from the start to block all his magic, it would’ve put him on his guard. That’s why I’d hidden it, and waited for the perfect time to strike. This was my last plan.

And it worked. I’d defeated both Messiah’s Divine Judgment spell and his invincible shield! “This ends now!” I swung the Hero’s Sword once more.

“Uwaaaahh!” Messiah’s screams echoed across the fields.

The scream quickly stopped, and silence came. There was no one there to sound the bell to celebrate my victory. Maybe that’s why I was still nervous, and why I was still gripping the hilt of the sword tightly.

Please, anyone, just let this be over! I don’t know if anyone heard my plea, but...

“Why?” Messiah whispered. My invisible blade was at his neck, and a tiny bit of blood was dripping off it.

“I don’t know how, but you broke my wards. I can feel it. So why don’t you defeat me?”

“That’s just how I do things. Unless, that is, you’re not willing to admit defeat.” There was nothing less normal than murder, of course. I glared at Messiah in one final bluff.

“Fine. I lose.”

Now, thanks to the contract we’d made before the battle, Messiah could never go after Satsuki again. Her parents would be freed, too, and that would be the end of that.

I finally relaxed my grip on the sword. I wanted to drop to the ground in relief, but I couldn’t yet. There was still one last story to take care of.

▽

I opened my eyes, and saw the council’s chairman before me, looking a little shocked.

“You really can teleport with this thing, huh?” Iris’s father was staring at Satsuki’s cell phone, seemingly impressed. Of course, it wasn’t high technology; it was a magic spell cast on the phone. But I didn’t have time to explain all that.

“Chairman.”

“I know. I’ll open a line to planet Satamonia immediately.” I’d already told him part of our plan, and he left the room and started to lead us down the hall.

We’d hurried back to planet Finerita using magic instead of the spaceship to keep King Satamonia from trying to cheat. It was possible that he’d drop another asteroid, or that this time he might try to attack planet Finerita. There was no telling what a guy like him could do when he was on the ropes.

“Do you have that information ready?” Iris’s dad asked as we headed up the Owaria tower in the open elevator.

“Of course. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”

“That’s right. You may not look it, but it seems you’re a man who does what he says he’ll do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have made it back here alive.”

“That’s a compliment, right?” It kind of felt like an insult.

“By the way,” he said as he glanced behind me. “It seems like you’ve got another girl with you?”

Wait, why did he suddenly seem thirty percent sterner than he was a moment ago?

“Well, I needed her.”

“I was surprised when your childhood friend, Satsuki, appeared. I guess you’re popular with lots of girls besides Iris.”

“Huh? Nah, Harissa just wants to pay me back for some help I gave her, and I hate to keep saying it, but Satsuki is just my childhood friend. And the whole ‘lovers’ thing with Iris was just an excuse, too. I’m not popular with any girls.”

“Hmph.” For some reason, he put his hand up to his temple and sighed. “My daughter certainly picked a tough one,” he whispered.

“Rekka’s so dense, he’s going to cause an interstellar war after all.” R nodded, her pose matching the chairman’s.

What was all this about?

At last, we arrived at the Owaria’s round table on the top floor. The lights were lowered, and I could see the bitter face of King Satamonia on the wall monitor. When his blurry eyes saw me, blood vessels popped up on his face like a toad.

“Boy! You...”

“Eeyaaaaah! It’s a f-f-f-frog-pig monster!” Harissa screamed and fell back on her butt the instant she saw King Satamonia.

“Mgrrg... Wh-Wha?” King Satamonia was interrupted, and could do nothing but open and close his mouth.

“Ghuhh... heh-heh-heh...” For some reason, we all found this really funny, and it was hard to hold back laughter. Iris was on the verge of busting a gut, and Satsuki had her hand over her mouth to stop herself as best she could.

“King Satamonia, I’m sorry to keep you waiting.” The chairman, the only one of us who wasn’t about to start laughing, motioned for the girls to sit.

I stayed standing in a place where I could glare right at King Satamonia’s ugly mug.

The skinny chief of staff was still standing next to him. He knew how to keep his short-tempered king under control. The meteor last time had basically been his idea.

This time, I wouldn’t let him win. I would end things right here.

I started off the conversation. “King, I think you know this already, but I won our game. You have to give up on Iris.”

Just like I suspected, King Satamonia wasn’t willing to give up that easily. He stared at me silently. He was just like politicians back on Earth. Even when he was clearly in the wrong, he still wasn’t going to admit it.

But the fact was, he’d lost. His face just turned a purplish red while he said nothing.

The skinny chief of staff stepped forward. “There’s no need for us to keep such a bargain.”

“Oh?” I readied myself to face my real enemy, the skinny man. “I guess the great space king’s not that great, huh? He can’t even keep his promises.”

“It was our king who was the first to propose to the lady Iris. You came along and proposed your funny little game, and our great king simply played along with you for his own amusement. Of course, this doesn’t actually nullify the marriage.”

“Th-That’s right!” King Satamonia regained his good cheer, but I was ignoring him. My opponent here was the chief of staff.

“So you’re not going to give up on Iris?”

“Of course not. There’s no reason for my liege to do so.”

“No reason, huh?” So if he did have a reason, that meant he’d give up.

If King Satamonia was really in love with Iris, the reason didn’t matter. I still hadn’t experienced it for myself, but if you were willing to give up on someone, you weren’t really in love with them. You were just greedy.

I couldn’t let him have Iris.

“Satsuki, give it to me.”

“Right. I’ve made it easy enough for even you to understand it.”

“Thanks... though that sounds kind of mean.” Satsuki wasn’t against saving Iris, but she looked unhappy. Did they really not get along that much?

“Dense as wood,” R said.

Putting that aside, I took the pile of papers that Satsuki handed me and started to read from the top of the list. “Galactic Year Grigory 707. Dispatching the Seventh Fleet to the third planet of the Oraul System, unregistered galaxy 305748.”

“What?!” The thin man’s eyes went wide as he stared at the papers in my hands.

I kept reading from the list. This was a list of all of King Satamonia’s misdeeds. Satsuki had used her magic to find them, and Iris had put the most important of them in a list. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand half the words on the list, but I got the hint that he was up to some pretty wicked things.

“You bastard...” Iris’s father, who had been unfailingly polite to King Satamonia so far, was smashing his fists into the table in rage.

The king and his chief of staff had turned to a pale purple. Every evil deed they’d ever hidden was coming to light.

“Boy...” The chief of staff glared at me with a twisted expression on his face.

“You know what it means that I’ve got this, right? Give up on Iris.”

“Do you have proof?”

“Nope. But I’m sure that if somebody had this list, they could find some. Wouldn’t you agree?” If I had Satsuki look, I could find physical evidence, too.

But it wasn’t good to go too far with this. He was the leader of one of the biggest militaries in the Galactic Federation. If I pushed him too far, he would explode.

What was important was to focus on getting what I wanted. Even without proof, this would surely damage King Satamonia’s standing in the Galactic Federation. It might be enough to turn the whole Federation against him. And what’s more, he had no idea how I’d gotten it. That meant he’d be feeling paranoid.

“From now on, you leave Iris, planet Finerita, and of course, Earth and us, alone. If you can do that, I won’t turn this list over to the Galactic Federation.” Now all that was left was for skinny there to decide which was more important: his king’s selfish desire to marry someone, or the chance of damaging his planet’s political position.

“My liege, I recommend we withdraw for the day.”

“Wh-What?! But...” The king tried to insist, but the skinny man shook his head.

“That list has the potential to destroy our whole nation. Surely a wise king such as yourself can recognize its dangers.”

“I... Hmm... you’re right, yes.” The chief of staff’s flattery improved the king’s mood, and he smiled what he must have thought was a magnanimous smile.

“Boy, out of respect for your desperate pleas, I will withdraw my proposal. Be grateful to me! Gwahahahaah!” The screen turned off, and the lights in the room came back up.

“Whew.” I’d been standing for so long, but at last I could relax. I collapsed into a nearby chair. Actually, I’d been hurt, too. No more. I couldn’t even stand up anymore.

Come to think of it, everything had happened in a single day. People from the future, people from other worlds, mages, aliens... How many people had I met in the last day? This wasn’t normal at all.

R, who had been with me the whole time, was floating upside down and giving me a lazy salute, just like when we’d met. “Good work. I’m amazed you’re still alive.”

Don’t act like you’d be happier to see me dead.

But that didn’t matter. I just wanted to sleep. I wanted to sleep right now. I had school tomorrow, but if I went to sleep now I could rest for seven hours. Yeah... time to sleep. Let us all master the path of sleep.

“REKKA!”

“Gwargh?!” But that wasn’t going to happen.

Iris, her cheeks flush with joy, jumped on my lap and began to give me a bone-shattering hug.

“Rekka! Rekka! Rekka! Thank you, Rekka! I’m free now! I can stay with you as much as I want!”

No, um... my bones are literally about to shatter. Stop hugging me with all the force of a being several times stronger than any Earthling, please? Oh, I think I can see a field of flowers...

“Hey! Get away from Rekka!” Then Satsuki joined in, pulling on my collar to get me away from Iris.

Wait, you’re strangling me! I’m going to die! I’m going to die!

“Th-That’s right! Sir Rekka is my hero!” And now Harissa was pulling on my ankles! It felt like I was going to be torn apart.

Ow... wait, I’m really going to pass out...