Episode 4: An Assassin from the Future and Summer Vacation

“I... I’m doooooooone...!”

I slumped over my desk weakly and dropped the pencil in my hand. My mountain of homework was finally complete. Just before the end of summer, no less.

“Now I can go to the summer festival tomorrow without feeling guilty...”

“Congratulations,” R said flatly, clapping her hands. “I expected you to be the type to leave the homework until the very last day, to be honest. That, or the type to be scolded by the teacher for not finishing it at all.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I would be, but Satsuki and I always go to the local summer festival every year.”

“Oh, so you did your homework because you wanted to see her in a yukata.”

“No... because she’d get mad if I didn’t finish it...”

When Satsuki got mad, she would give me the cold shoulder instead of yelling. It really sucked... At any rate, that’s how I managed to finish my homework before the end of vacation every year.

“So, where are they holding the summer festival?”

“At the community center plaza up the hill.”

“What do you do there?”

“Visit stalls and stuff. Oh, Tsumiki and Tetra said they might be helping with one from the shopping district... There’ll also be a wooden frame put together with taiko drums playing on top, and at the end of the night, there’ll be fireworks.”

“Ooh! I’m looking forward to the fireworks,” R said, finally sounding interested.

Since she normally wasn’t able to touch anything, the idea of watching the fireworks must have been exciting. It’d be nice if she could enjoy more things like that.

“They’re no match for the fireworks show at Sumida River, but ours are still pretty nice. We should go earlier this year to get a spot...”

“Yes, please!” R nodded, agreeing before I had even finished my sentence.

She was expressionless as always, but for some reason she seemed kind of happy.

As I basked in the comfortable feeling of being free from homework, I went over my plans for tomorrow in my head, when—

RRRIP!

It sounded like something was tearing through the air.

“?!”

I threw myself back in my desk chair and swiveled around in a panic. The disturbance had happened in the empty space over my bed... that was no longer empty.

There was some kind of rift there. It tore itself bigger and bigger with a grating, ripping sound. So, nothing had torn through the air—the air was literally tearing.

“What the hell...?”

Though I was pretty acclimated to crazy experiences, this still took me by surprise. To think I’d get involved in such a bewildering situation just studying in my room... Had my bloodline leveled up?

“...”

R was staring at the rift in silence. It stretched vertically until it was large enough for a person to pass through, then suddenly spread itself open. Then, a petite silhouette appeared from inside.

“Whew... I finally arrived!”

That was what she said after stepping out of the rift. It was a girl who looked slightly older than Harissa or R. She wore a red, caltrop-patterned, long-sleeved kimono with black knee-high socks and fancy geta sandals. With her fashion sense and sharp facial features, she gave off a rather mature impression. She stepped out onto my bed in her sandals and stretched her arms.

“Mmm... All right, time to get to work on my mission...!”

Then she stopped cold. She took one look at me and froze like a deer in headlights.

“...”

She mechanically stuck her hand into one of the sleeves of her kimono and pulled out a small piece of paper—probably a photograph—and compared me to it. After looking between me and the photo several times, she pointed a finger at me.

“Aaaaah!” she suddenly screamed. “H-How?! I thought I set my materialization point away from the target’s location!”

What? What was happening here? Why was I being screamed at by a girl who’d suddenly appeared in my room? She panicked for a moment before clearing her throat with a cough and straightening up. She looked at me with determination.

“Commence mission! Apprehend the target!” she said, pulling a gun out of her sleeve.

“Huh?”

Now when I say gun, I don’t mean a pistol. It was more like the laser gun Iris had... Hey, wait a minute! I still don’t know what’s happening!

“Die!”

“H-H-Hang on a sec! Wait! Whoa!”

I threw myself backwards to get away from the gun, but the sudden shift in weight toppled my desk chair right over. The girl pulled the trigger. The next instant, a deadly-looking red light tried to disintegrate me... but suddenly struck a semi-transparent blue wall and scattered.

“What?!”

The red girl was shocked. To be fair, I was too.

“Restrictions released by covert Special First Class authority. Shields activated. Transmitting inhibitor identification sonar. Status: clear.”

The blue girl muttered her usual cryptic nonsense calmly, positioning herself between me and the red girl as though to protect me.

“R...?”

“Stay near me, Rekka. Don’t worry about Harissa. The sounds and impacts that occur in this room won’t be heard from outside, and I’ve placed a shield over the entire room. It’ll keep her from rushing in here.”

R adjusted her hat and looked at her opponent quietly. The girl who had fired at me without warning glared at her menacingly in return.

“It’s you, R!”

“I was informed of your disappearance from the protected residential division. Why are you here, L?”

“Shut up! It’s none of your business!”

The red girl—L—screamed in an outrage and fired off another shot, but the red light was again deflected by R’s shield.

“Your attacks are futile. You’d need a gun on par with the main battery of a super dreadnought class battleship to break through my shield.”

“Damn it!”

“Stop resisting and surrender. I wish to talk to you.”

“Shut up!” L shouted.

With that, she stowed her gun and pulled a kunai from her sleeve. The blade looked red-hot, and she used it to slash at the shield with all her strength. But R didn’t budge.

“An electromagnetic voltspear? It seems like you’ve equipped yourself with the latest gear. Considering that and your materialization via space-time translocator from before, just who is pulling your strings?”

“Stop speaking so calmly! It’s infuriating!”

“This isn’t much of a conversation.”

Behind her shield, R hadn’t moved an inch. L continued to unleash her attacks on us. Several dozen blows later, she finally accepted that it was useless and tried to back away... tripping right over a dictionary I had lying on the floor.

“Ow!”

It seemed this girl was quite a klutz. R and I exchanged a silent look. The girl rubbed the back of her head before paying any mind to us. She then gasped suddenly and scrambled back up, blushing red as she pointed her finger at us.

“Tch, fine! Immediate contact with the target was unforeseen, so I’ll retreat for now! Just remember this—”

“Wah!”

L started disappearing from her feet up as she spoke. What was going on?

“I’m definitely better than you, R!”

With those final words, L completely vanished.

“She even had a particle relocator prepared... How troublesome,” R said.

“Wh-What was that about?”

Despite being smack in the middle of it all, I felt completely lost. Um, I was attacked just now, right? And R protected me from this so-called L. Wait...

“R, are you secretly, like, super awesome or something?”

“Huh? What are you saying, Rekka?” R’s shoulders slumped. “I’ve been telling you this whole time that I’m extremely high-spec.”

▽

The day after I survived the late-night assault. It was now the day of the summer festival, and I had guests from another world in my house. They were the sylpheeds, Lyun and Sophie.

“Hmm... So you have wear these ‘shoe’ things in this world.”

Lyun inspected the zori sandals I handed her. Spirits usually went barefoot, so I had gotten a pair for both her and Sophie. The sisters then tried them on.

“It feels weird between my toes...”

“But they’re kind of cute, Sis.”

“I suppose you’re right, Sophie.”

I had specifically gotten a cute pair meant for girls, so I was glad they seemed to like them.

“Your sylpheed clothes look enough like a dress that all you have to do is put away the ring around your head, and you should blend in fine.”

We were going to a festival, after all. Slightly strange outfits would just be written off as costumes.

“What about Mio?”

“She’s recording her new song right now, so she can’t make it. She was really sad about missing it, though.”

Pop star Mio was busy working during her summer vacation, so she didn’t get a lot of time off. She’d had to make special arrangements just to go to the pool with us.

“Too bad... I wanted to hear Mio’s singing again.”

“In that case, I bought her newest single at the concert the other day. Want to listen?”

“Really, Nammy?!”

The sylpheed sisters and I continued to chat away until the doorbell rang. Iris, Hibiki, Chelsea, and Ellicia had arrived.

“’Sup, Rekka?”

“Haven’t seen you since the pool, Rekka.”

“It’s been so long since I came to Rekka’s house!”

“This is my first time here.”

The four of them all greeted me, and I led them to the living room where Lyun and Sophie were.

“I thought we were right on time. Where’s everybody else?” asked Hibiki.

“Tsumiki and Tetra are helping out at the shopping district’s stall. Lea went on ahead with them. Rosalind, Suzuran, and Corona are heading straight there from the mansion. Tokiwa and President Momone will meet up with us there, too. Fam still hasn’t finished her homework, so Rain and Shirley are helping her with that before they come.”

“What about Satsuki? I don’t see Harissa here, either...” Hibiki said, looking around the kitchen curiously.

“Oh, Harissa’s at Satsuki’s house—”

Before I could finish my sentence, the doorbell rang. It was Satsuki and Harissa, both now dressed in yukatas. Harissa was wearing one of Satsuki’s old ones. They’d gone over to her house to change so Satsuki’s mom could help them.

“Thanks for waiting. Changing took quite some time.”

Satsuki had her hair tied back. She was clutching a purse in one hand and Harissa’s hand in the other. She seemed to be supporting Harissa, who wasn’t quite used to walking in geta. Huh... Seeing her geta reminded me of the incident with L last night, but I didn’t let it show on my face. I was trying to keep that between me and R.

“Wh-What do you think?” a yukata-clad Harissa asked, looking up at me nervously.

“Me...? Well, it suits you. It’s very cute.”

“Th-Thank you very much!” Harissa bowed her head in embarrassment.

“Rekka, what about me?”

“Hmm? Isn’t that the same yukata you wore last year, Satsuki?”

“Stupid!”

With tears in her eyes, she gave me a swift karate chop.

“It’s also cute, too...”

“You’re too slow!” Satsuki huffed and turned away to take off her shoes.

We then moved into the living room where everyone else was, and the girls who were unfamiliar with yukatas all came over to get a look at Satsuki and Harissa.

“Sheesh. I’m always left utterly dumbfounded at how thickheaded you can be.”

“Quiet, you.”

I retorted to R’s comment on the conversation between me and Satsuki just now. Actually, now was a good time to ask her about that while everyone else was distracted by the yukatas.

“By the way, are you sure I shouldn’t be concerned about that L girl?”

“Yes, don’t worry. Just leave it to me,” R replied while spinning on the spot.

After seeing how easily she’d repelled her, I felt better, but...

“You know, it’s rare having you save me for once.”

“That’s because it had nothing to do with your bloodline.”

“Huh?”

“That was an assassin from the future.”

“An assassin?!”

She said such a dangerous word so casually that I doubted what I’d heard.

“The future... That’s where you came from, right?”

“To speak of it as a place is odd... But you have the right idea, I guess.”

“Why would an assassin come here from the future, though?”

Personality aside, I thought R and I had been getting along pretty well. So why would an assassin be coming after me from her future?

“Humanity remains the same regardless of the passage of time—past, present, and future.”

“Huh?”

“Do you remember how I told you the War of All could be avoided with your death, Rekka?”

“Y-Yeah.”

I recalled having a conversation like that with R before.

“I was mobilized by the agency I belong to with the goal of saving the future by making you choose a heroine. However, that option might not be supported across all dimensions, worlds, races, or alliances in the future.”

“Which means?”

“There may be those who would choose to eliminate the cause of the War of All at its root—you.”

Well, that was alarming to hear.

“But you don’t need to worry.” R’s optimistic attitude didn’t waver. “Such radicals are few and far between. The dominant power in the future is the agency, and they wish for a peaceful solution. That’s why yesterday’s exceptional situation warranted me protecting you, Rekka.”

In other words, R was still staying out of things that involved my bloodline and stories, but she’d help with any trouble originating from the future. I guess that made sense. I would have preferred her helping out on a more regular basis, but it was a bit too late to start complaining about that now. It seemed like she’d be willing to protect the heroines, too, so I was at least grateful for that.

“I am your ally, after all.”

“...Didn’t you say when we first met that if I died, it would serve me right?”

“Oh, please, Rekka. You shouldn’t take all the snappy jokes from yours truly, the fantastic and adorable R, seriously.”

“I don’t know what’s so snappy or joking about it when you speak in such a monotone voice.”

R and I continued to chat until Satsuki called for me. I still had my worries, but I decided to focus on having fun at the festival for tonight.

▽

“Whew...”

One relatively tiring hike up the hill later, we had arrived at the community center where the summer festival was being held. We passed through the completely full parking lot and headed for the grounds where the stalls were set up. We’d passed quite a few people on the way there, but the festival itself was absolutely packed in comparison. It was enough to make you wonder where they’d all come from.

“Wow, that’s a lot of people,” Harissa muttered, echoing my sentiments. Her geta clacked against the ground noisily.

“The hustle and bustle of festivals is the same in every country.”

“You must have seen lots of festivals before, Chelsea.”

“I guess so. I’ve even seen some where you throw tomatoes and oranges. Oh, and sometimes phones, too.”

“...Is that really a festival?”

I vaguely remembered hearing about a tomato-throwing festival before, but what was this about phone-throwing? The world was a big, strange place.

“The Carnival in Rio was amazing, too. It might be a bit too much for Rekka, though.”

The Carnival in Rio? Was that the festival where people paraded in those elaborate, revealing costumes...? Yeah, that might be too much for me. As my imagination ran wild, Chelsea realized I was blushing.

“If it’s just the costume you want to see, then I have one. Shall I wear it for you sometime?” she asked with a teasing laugh.

“N-No, that’s all right!”

“Really...?” Chelsea poked my bright red cheeks mockingly.

“Come to think of it, you don’t have many other big sister types around you,” R mused, nodding pensively with a finger pressed to her cheek.

It’s true that Lea and Corona were older, but they would never do something like this... Wait, who cares about that? More importantly, how was I supposed to deal with Chelsea right now? Her chest pressed up against my shoulder as she leaned in... I had no idea what to do, but someone suddenly pulled on my other arm.

“Rekka, I’m not really used to Japan yet. Could you tell me more about it?” Ellicia asked as she pressed up against my other shoulder.

“Ooh, Ellicia’s packing a nice set, too. Good for you, Rekka, getting all that sisterly love.”

She was definitely enjoying this! I really wanted to yell at her, but couldn’t in front of everyone.

“Hey, Nammy. Weren’t you going to tell me and Sophie about Earth today?”

“...Found you, Rekka...”

Lyun approached from in front of me as Tokiwa jumped on me from behind, completely sandwiching me in. I was trapped with no way to escape now.

“...”

And worst of all, Satsuki and the others were looking pretty unhappy...

“What’s this, problem child? Seems like you’re up to no good again.”

“Please save me...”

I begged the latest arrival, President Momone, for help. At least our group was coming together. That was a good thing at least... sort of.

“Are Rosalind and the others here yet?”

“She was here just a moment ago, but two of her group went missing, so she went to look for them.”

“Two of them?”

The mansion group consisted of Rosalind, Suzuran, Ulaula, and Corona. If two of them went missing... it’d be Ulaula and Corona, I guess? They’d probably gotten distracted by something and had wandered off.

“Then I guess we can get going, too. We’ll mostly be walking around, so we’ll run into them eventually.”

I mean, all four of them stood out, so they should be easy to spot. And so our group of 11 headed over to where the stalls were set up.

“So, what brings you to Japan, Ellicia? Don’t tell me you’re only here for the festival.”

“Well, sort of. Yang’s establishing a Japanese branch of the organization soon, so I’m supervising that, as well.”

Yang was the leader of the psychic organization that Ellicia was a part of.

“We’ve got a few branches around the world, but this is our first one in Japan.”

“What made you decide to open one up here?”

“Because you’re here.”

“Me?”

“We wanted to keep up our relationship with you.”

That was... a surprise.

“I’m really not anyone that special...”

“I guess what they say about the Japanese being humble is true.”

“That’s not what I meant...”

“You’re very special, Rekka,” Ellicia stated firmly. “What you showed me that day was so extraordinary... especially for someone who’s lived the kind of life I have. You solved a multitude of problems all by yourself when any normal person would have been overwhelmed dealing with just one of them. And I was a part of that... that’s why I—”

“It wasn’t like I did anything on my own. If it were just me, I’d be useless.”

I was able to solve the four intertwined stories because I had everyone’s help. And as Ellicia and I were talking about that, Harissa, Lyun, and Sophie approached.

“Sir Rekka, there’s something interesting over there.”

“Nammy, come with us for a sec!”

“Hurry, Nammy!”

“Wh-Whoa, stop pulling me!”

I was being dragged over to the goldfish scooping game.

“Hey, what is this? Are they real?”

“Yes, they’re real. They’re animals called goldfish.”

“Wow...”

“Wow...”

The sylpheed sisters expressed their awe in unison. Now that I thought about it, the only living creatures in the spirit world were spirits. They’d never seen animals before, much less a whole pool of goldfish.

“What do you do with these goldfish?”

“You fish them up with the scoop. See?”

I pointed to the parent who was helping their child attempting to nab one with a paper scoop. It was like a game because the paper dissolved quickly and you didn’t get many chances to try. There was a dad next to them who was using the corner of the pool to round them up and nab one after another... Wow, he was good. While I watched him work his magic, Harissa tugged on my sleeve.

“Sir Rekka, what do you do after you get one?”

“Oh, you get to keep it as a pet.”

“As a pet?!”

“I’m pretty sure we have an unused tank back at home.”

Harissa eyes sparkled when she heard that.

“Do you... want to try?” I asked.

“Please!”

“Me too, Nammy!”

“All right, all right. You want a go too, Sophie?”

“Yeah!”

I paid the man running the game and got three scoops.

“Here,” I said as I handed them out to the girls. “This won’t last long in the water, so you gotta make it count.”

“Got it!” Harissa replied energetically.

Lyun and Sophie looked ready to go, too. But less than five minutes later...

“Aaah!”

Lyun’s scoop was the last to break, but not one of them had anything to show for their efforts. I guess goldfish scooping was a little difficult for three beginners. Well, it wasn’t like I was any good at it, either...

“Sir Rekka, please give it a try!”

“Huh?”

“That’s right, Nammy! You catch them for us!”

“Good luck, Nammy!”

The three girls turned their hopeful eyes on me... causing me to break out in a cold sweat. What was this? The tension of a man about to prove his worth in an all-or-nothing battle... One I couldn’t afford to lose! I silently paid the man again and got a scoop and bowl for myself. I honestly had no confidence, but I had to try.

Once the scoop broke, it would all be over. I had heard once that it was best to move it in and out of the water at a diagonal angle. The less contact it had with the water, the better, of course. Only a fool would put the scoop straight in the water and try and chase a fish with it that way. I concentrated on narrowing my field of vision, imagining a rectangular space in the goldfish pool and fixing my gaze on it. As soon as a goldfish swam in that imaginary box, I’d nab it. That’s all I was thinking about. Nothing else passed through my mind. I focused on this single task. And then, when the moment came...

“Aha!”

My right arm reacted nearly reflexively. The scoop entered the water at a perfect 45-degree angle, caught the fish, and exited the water the exact same way—wait, why was it so heavy?! There was no way a goldfish weighed this much. But that was as far as my train of thought reached before I snapped out of my zen concentration mode and back to my senses. And what I saw in my scoop... was a fish snapping its teeth at me.

“Whoa!”

It was a fish, so I didn’t scream all that loudly, but I dropped the scoop for fear of being bitten.

“A-A piranha?”

I’d never seen one in person before, but that was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the fanged fish.

“Wh-What is that?! How did it get in there?!”

The man running the game was so surprised that he fell out of his chair. The other customers started to back away, too.

“Get back, you three...!” I said, waving a hand at Harissa and the sisters.

Just then, the piranha jumped straight out of the water at me like it was chasing after prey that had gotten away.

“?!”

I instinctively covered my face, but even after several seconds passed, I still didn’t feel anything biting me.

“Are you all right, Master Namidare?” someone asked.

I fearfully moved my hands away from my face and saw Suzuran standing there in her usual maid outfit, casually holding a silver knife with a piranha skewered on it. Behind her were Rosalind, Corona, and a disgruntled Ulaula. They’d apparently all managed to find each other.

“Here.”

“Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

I grabbed Suzuran’s extended hand and stood up.

“Tch...”

Did I just hear someone click their tongue? I turned around to look and caught a glimpse of someone in red disappearing into the crowd of people... before they promptly tripped over a stone and face-planted into the ground.

“You all right, missy?”

“Oww... Huh? Yeah...”

A man passing by seemed to be extremely concerned, brushing off the dirt on her kimono for her. She just squirmed in embarrassment.

That was L, right? I became sure of it when she suddenly snapped her head in my direction and shot me a dirty glare. Then she took off into the crowd and disappeared successfully this time. Watching her run off, the only thing I could think was that she was gonna trip again any minute if she kept it up.

▽

“Sheesh. It’s a good thing nothing bad happened to Rekka. Otherwise that stall owner would be in a lot of trouble...”

“That’s enough, Rosalind. He gave us goldfish as an apology anyway.”

The man had given us three goldfish for the trouble. I didn’t think he was responsible, but Harissa really wanted them, so I accepted graciously.

“Thank you as well, Suzuran. For saving me.”

“It was nothing,” she replied coolly.

Like usual, her emotions didn’t really show on her face. She was a little like R in that sense, just way nicer. She even laughed on occasion, which I wished she did more. But setting that aside for now, there were more important matters at hand...

“R.”

“Yes?”

“That piranha... Was that L’s doing?”

“So it seems,” R said with a nod.

“Didn’t you say you’d protect me from L’s attacks?” I whispered in her ear to avoid any of the festival-goers overhearing.

“And I did. Yesterday. Just so you know, if I hadn’t protected you then, you’d be atomic dust right now.”

“...Huh? Seriously?”

“Yep, seriously. But regarding the incident just now, I sensed Suzuran approaching and deduced there was no need for me to get involved since she would take care of it. I could have done what she did, but as you know, I cannot be seen by other people. Wouldn’t it be troublesome explaining to the crowd how the piranha suddenly vanished?”

“...Well, when you put it that way, yeah.”

“I’m glad you understand. I must say a piranha was a rather primitive tactic... but it was successful in that I only had my guard up for futuristic weapons. She sure does have some unique ideas. Perhaps she tried the piranha because no weapons from the future can break through my defenses.”

“Okay, so...”

“What is it?”

“Do you and L know each other?”

That’s what it was starting to feel like, so I had to ask. L seemed like she had a lot of hostility towards R, and R kept talking about her like she knew her well.

“L is my older sister.”

“Oh, okay... Wait, your what?!”

I accidentally raised my voice at the somewhat unexpected answer.

“Hmm? What’s wrong, Rekka?”

“O-Oh, n-nothing.”

I nervously waved off a concerned Satsuki who’d turned around to see what I was yelling about.

“Really? Oh, they’re selling candy apples over there.”

“I say sister, but we’re not related by blood. I believe I’ve told you before how I’m an artificial life form called a Kiklim. L is a Kiklim from the prior generation.”

Satsuki had struck up a completely different conversation with me, so R continued to explain without waiting for my response. Thanks to that, I understood a little bit of the picture. As we lined up at the candy apple stall, I took out my phone and started to type.

But why is your sis targeting me?

She’d mentioned how I might be targeted in order to put a stop to the War of All, but why would her sister be doing that? If she was a Kiklim like R, surely she was made by the same “agency” or whatever. So surely they were on the same team. Right...?

“L was the one who was supposed to be sent to you, Rekka.”

Really?

“Yes. So she underwent a one-year training course for this mission, but... Well, even if I explained it to you, you wouldn’t understand, so let’s just say that there were several issues that cropped up, leading to the production of a fifth generation.”

And that fifth generation was R, I guess. Did that mean L was discarded after being taken off the mission...?

What happened to L after that?

“In the future, artificial life forms also have human rights. So L was sent to a protected residential division to take courses that would habilitate her into normal society so that she could live an ordinary life... But she disappeared from there a little while ago.”

Disappeared?

“Yes. The agency did everything they could to locate her, but never did... until the other night when she suddenly appeared here.”

So, after she vanished, she had a change of heart and came to this time to assassinate me? Cool. That could only mean one thing.

“She was probably taken in by one of those groups that want to see you dead, Rekka. While I cannot deduce whether she was brainwashed or converted of her own will, chances are that’s what happened.”

Yeah, totally cool... At least I now knew why she might be trying to assassinate me.

“Here, Harissa.”

“Wow! Thank you so much!”

I handed Harissa the candy apple and tried to clear my mind, when...

“There’s no need for you to worry about L, Rekka,” R said, interrupting me.

I pulled out my phone again.

Why not?

“Like I said before, this has nothing to do with your bloodline, so I will deal with L myself,” R said flatly, pulling her hat down so I couldn’t see her eyes.

Even though she said that...

I stealthily pointed my index finger so that only R could see it. She turned to look in the direction I was pointing, where L was hiding—or trying to hide—behind a stand, clearly tailing me. Oh, she just dropped something and was getting scolded by the stand owner.

R and I exchanged looks silently. While the piranha before really did surprise me, I was starting to doubt whether such a clumsy girl really needed to be “dealt with.”

After that, L continued to interfere—replacing the ring toss rings with chakrams, sneaking a strange white powder into my cotton candy, and such—but didn’t cause much trouble on the whole.

“I feel like I keep seeing the same girl around.”

“R-Really?”

If anything, I was having more trouble coming up with excuses to give Satsuki and the others about it. They would worry if I told them I was nearly assassinated, and I didn’t know if I should tell them about the War of All in the future, so I kept quiet about L.

“...Oh? It’s already eight.”

Over an hour had passed by in the blink of an eye. With our curious group gathered, I’d been dragged straight from one place to another. Before I realized it, we were in the full swing of the festival. The fireworks were supposed to start at nine o’clock... Would Rain and the others make it? Just as I was wondering about them, I felt the sensation of something soft squishing up against my back.

“Rekka... I’m tired.”

“Ack! There you go again trying to seduce Rekka with your oversized peaches!”

“...Peaches? If it’s Momo you’re looking for, she’s over there...”

No, Tokiwa, that wasn’t what Rosalind was talking about at all...

“You know, if you’re overwhelmed by the crowd, you should take a break,” I suggested to Tokiwa, whose face seemed rather pale from what I could see as she crawled up on my back.

“...Yeah. Since it’s a special occasion, I wanted to stay with you, though...”

It was hard to deny her when she put it that way, but I couldn’t afford to carry her on my back until the end, either... mostly because of Rosalind’s mood.

“Oh, um... that’s right! Tsumiki and Tetra said they were helping out at a stall, right? Let’s check it out!”

It was an obvious ploy to change the subject, but thankfully no one had any objections, and we all made our way over to the stall from the shopping street.

“Oh, if it isn’t Rekka.”

“Rekka!”

Tsumiki and Tetra were on promoting duty when they saw us and waved.

“What’s up? You guys busy?”

“There was a long line before, but things have calmed down now. You might as well buy something while you’re here.”

“What are you selling, anyway?”

“Kebabs.”

“Heck yeah!”

I asked to see if the girls wanted any, but surprisingly few of them did—only Chelsea and Corona.

“Um... we’ve eaten a lot already.”

“Too many calories, you know?”

“I’ve had enough greasy food...”

The rest of them all just said the same things. It seemed like they were all on the same page, except for Hibiki, who looked like she wanted some, but reluctantly gave up after counting something on her fingers.

“I’m always active, so I don’t really worry about things like that.”

“I’ve never worried about such things before in my life.”

And so Chelsea, Corona, and I ordered kebabs for three.

“Coming right up! Lea, three skewers!”

“Roger that.”

“Wait, Lea’s the one grilling them?”

“Huh? What, you didn’t notice?”

I couldn’t see her through all the smoke from the grill until she started waving it away to say hi.

“I heard you came with Tsumiki and Tetra, but I didn’t think you were helping out, too.”

“I’ve been asked to help out at other places, too, so I’m making my way around.”

“Sales always are always up when Lea helps out,” Tsumiki added.

“And all the other stores said I could eat their leftovers once the night is over,” Lea said as she flipped a kebab over happily.

How typical of Lea to be lured in by food...

“Okay, these are done,” she said.

“Thanks.”

We handed over the money and got our kebabs.

“Ooh! Delicious!”

“You’re using some good meat.”

“This is pretty different from meat in the demon world.”

We each gave our opinions as we chowed down on the kebabs. As I was eating, Lea beckoned me closer. I leaned in, wondering what she wanted.

“It’s actually not beef; it’s my meat.”

“Ack!”

Leviathan meat was meant to be an offering for the gods! No wonder it was so good! Lea grinned like a child that had pulled off the perfect prank. I was about to say something in return, when suddenly...

“Mmph! Mmph!”

I heard a muffled voice from behind the stand that made me freeze on the spot.

“Lea, is there someone back there?”

“Hmm? Yeah, there is.”

She retreated to the back for a moment, then came out again holding a tied-up L by the scruff of her neck.

“I caught her over there just a while ago. She’s been causing mischief all over the place.”

“Hmph! Mmrgh!”

L was murmuring something from under her gag and glaring at me with somewhat tearful eyes.

“Yeah, about that... Lea, could I borrow that for a second?”

“I don’t mind.”

I took L from Lea and headed for a secluded place away from everyone else.

▽

We ended up in front of the main building of the community center, a fair distance away from the festival grounds. The center itself was closed, so there was no sign of anyone around.

“Pwah!”

I removed the gag from L, who didn’t say anything despite all her mumbling earlier. She just stared at me.

“Um...”

Ah, crap... I hadn’t really thought about what I was going to say, either. Maybe start with an opener?

“Hey, L.”

“Don’t act familiar with me, world’s worst womanizer.”

“Okay...”

What was I supposed to do? That hurt more than I’d expected. As I was reeling from being insulted right out of the gate, R stepped forward.

“L, stop this already. You are not capable of assassinating Rekka.”

“What?! Are you saying I should give up? That I’m inferior to you?!” L yelled with all her emotions bared.

But R just calmly replied, “It’s only natural that I would have superior abilities to you.”

“What did you say...?!”

“L, we are artificial life forms. That makes us manufactured products. It’s natural for the newest generation to have higher specs than older models. You could say that’s the whole point. New versions are evolutions achieved by continuous optimization and refinement, after all.”

“H-Hey, R...”

What R was saying made logical sense, but it was a heartless way of putting it. I tried to stop her, but L’s rage lashed out first.

“What... What’s with that?! I was the one who was meant to take that mission!”

“...And so you decided to side with those trying to eliminate Rekka because you were removed from the mission? Just stop.”

Huh? Was it just me, or did R seem a little angry...? She was her usual expressionless self, sure, but she legit sounded kinda mad. No, I had to worry about mediating between these two before anything else.

“Why don’t you both calm down first, you two?”

I stepped between them with my back facing L, and then I heard something snap behind me. I turned around to see L had cut through the rope restraining her with a kunai and was making a break for it... right up until her geta strap snapped, sending her hurtling into the ground.

“...”

Did she hit her head? She was silently lying on the concrete...

“You okay?” I ran over to her and helped her up. “Ah, you skinned yourself a bit. I’ll get Satsuki or Harissa to heal you up—”

“D-Don’t touch me!”

L slapped my hand away and took a few steps back. She must have been embarrassed. Her cheeks were pretty red.

“Y-You have no reason to be treating me nicely!” she screeched before disappearing like she had in my bedroom the night before.

“Seems I failed to convince her...” R mumbled.

“Convince her? It sounded like you were provoking her.”

“Huh... You think so?” R did several midair somersaults before quietly saying, “I guess I’m not as good at this as you are.”

In that moment, she had a rare moment of truly looking like a girl her age, which made me regret what I’d just said. But I pulled myself together.

“The fireworks start at nine. Let’s go back to the others.”

“...Right.”

We left the lot and headed back to the festival where everyone else was.

▽

After telling Lea that L had gone home after promising to never cause trouble again, we got back to the business of enjoying the festival.

“Hey, Brother Rekka!”

“Rekka.”

“Fam, Rain.”

It wasn’t long before we ran into Fam and Rain—who were finally done with Fam’s homework—as well as their guardians, Shirley and Garnet.

“We somehow made it in time for the fireworks.”

“I’m glad. You sure must’ve had some holdup, huh?” I asked a somewhat shaken Shirley.

“Fam hadn’t touched most of the more time-consuming tasks, like her research project. We had to start by searching for projects that could be done in half a day, then find a way to motivate her into doing them... I’m exhausted.”

“Wow, good work.”

Shirley could probably do a middle school science project in her sleep, but as a teacher, her greatest struggle was motivating a reluctant Fam to do it for herself. And despite what Fam had accomplished over the last day, it seemed like Shirley might really be the one deserving of praise.

“Would you like a sip of this? I mean, if you don’t mind that I’ve already drunk out of it...”

I offered her some of my half-finished slushie. The drink in the pouch was a mixture of sweet juice and crushed ice, making it perfect for the fun mood of the festival.

“Thank you.”

There was a sparkle in her bespectacled eyes as Shirley accepted the slushie from me and put her lips to the straw.

“Aaaaaah!”

For some reason, the other girls around me started screaming, but Shirley continued to sip with a refreshed expression. After drinking most of the bag, she let out a big sigh.

“I feel like all my stress from today has been released,” she announced grandly.

“That’s so unfair, Sister Shirley!”

“Don’t make a fuss, Fam. I’ll buy you one, too.”

“That’s not the issue!” Fam shouted, stamping her feet.

“Hmph...”

Rain, who was standing next to her, looked like she was about to throw a tantrum, too.

“U-Um... The fireworks should be going up soon. Shall we hurry to the baseball field?”

The stalls were all set up along the track and field area of the community center, while the adjacent baseball field was what would be used for the fireworks. It was where our school’s baseball team did a lot of their training. The fireworks would be launched from the pitcher’s mound, while the spectators would either sit in the stands or watch the dancing lights in the sky from the bank around the outside of the field. We arrived early enough to secure stand seats, but we took up a good amount of space with the whole group of us.

“Should we bring a picnic blanket and watch from the bank next year?”

“That’d probably be better,” I said, agreeing with Satsuki, who was seated next to me.

“How about we watch from the sky in my spaceship next year? Just the two of us!” Iris suggested, leaning in over Satsuki.

While watching from the sky sounded nice, just the two of us was a little... But I couldn’t say that out loud with her chest pressing against my arm!

“Or do you want to do it this year? If you wait here, I can bring my spaceship over right away!”

“Oh, Iris! Don’t say such selfish things,” scolded Satsuki.

“That’s right, Iris. Hogging Rekka to yourself isn’t nice,” chimed in Chelsea.

I felt a little like I’d been rescued. Until...

“Hey, Iris is going to steal Rekka. Don’t just sit there, Hibiki! Say something!” chided Chelsea.

“Huh? Wah!” Hibiki yelped as Chelsea slapped her back.

With that, Hibiki, who was sitting behind me, pitched forward and smacked into me.

“H-Hibiki?!”

“S-Sorry! Are you okay?”

I was fine but, umm... her unexpectedly large breasts were pressed right up against the back of my head, making me sweat profusely. Not to mention the nice smell tickling my nose...

“Hmph!”

“Gwah?!”

Two elbows jabbed into me from both sides.

“Good grief,” R sighed, just as the fireworks were launched.

Kaboom!

“Eeeeek!”

Sophie squealed at the sound of the fireworks and clung to her sister’s arm.

Pow!

But her expression changed from fear to surprise when she saw the dancing lights in the sky. The spirit sisters weren’t the only ones in awe, either. Aliens, mole people, demons... Considering how varied our group was, this was the first time a lot of them had seen fireworks. Granted, I thought they were amazing too, even though I’d seen them every year.

The shells the pyrotechnician loaded into the mortar on the mound would launch into the air with a bang. Seconds later, a fire flower would bloom in sky. There was really only one way to describe it: beautiful. Both the spectators in the stands and on the bank looked up in wonder at the final fireworks of the summer together. It was sort of like a herald of the end of summer vacation, which made them almost a little sad. And just as the show was almost over, the most amazing thing yet happened.

“...!”

I thought I heard something struggling. The fireworks had distracted most of the others from noticing, but a few of them realized that something strange was happening on the mound while we waited for the next firework. It was hard to see in the dark, but it looked like there was a scuffle. Someone was throwing a fit. It looked like they were surrounded by adults trying to hold them down. And the one responsible for said tantrum was none other than...

“...L?!”

My eyes shot open wide as she took something out of her red sleeve with a snap, causing the pyrotechnicians trying to catch her to collapse all at once. She had probably used some kind of futuristic technology on them. With her freedom secured, L approached the firework-launching mortar and—just as I was wondering what she was up to—used all of her strength to knock it over sideways. The mortar mouth was now pointed right at where we were sitting in the stands.

“Kyaaah!”

“Whoa! That’s dangerous!”

The people who saw what was happening started to scream, causing a panic to break out. L paid no mind to them as she stood on the mound, lit a match, and threw it into the mortar... but nothing happened. While that in itself was fortunate, the problem came afterward.

She was probably wondering why the shell hadn’t launched, but L got up from her crouched position, uncovered her ears, and walked around to the front of the mortar to peer inside.

“That idiot!”

This type of mortar had gunpowder inside that ignited to launch the fireworks. Things would be fine if the match she threw in had extinguished itself before reaching the bottom... but what if it hadn’t? What if it just hadn’t reached the end of the mortar yet? Or what if something caused the gunpowder to ignite?

“Rekka?!”

Someone called my name, but I ignored them as I pushed through the confused crowd trying to scatter. If the gunpowder ignited and launched the shell, L would be in serious danger where she was standing! That alone drove me forward in a daring leap from the stands to the baseball field.

“Bweh!”

It was dark, so my landing was a little clumsy. But now wasn’t the time to be worried about that—I lifted my head from my sprawled position on the ground. When I did, I saw a flash of light from within the mortar. From there on out, it was like everything happened in slow motion. Like time itself had warped and slowed. It was impossible for me to reach the mound and save L from where I was in the corner of the field. Even if I had superhuman speed like Iris or Rosalind, it would still be impossible. Not even my magic-wielding friends could have made it in time. But there was still one person who could save L!

“R!”

Could I have shouted her name in time in that slow-motion world? Who knows... But it didn’t matter, because the exact same thought had occurred to R already. The shield she used to protect me from L’s attack activated to wrap around the mortar in the distance. The explosion was restrained to the semi-transparent blue cocoon. It didn’t even singe L, who was standing right in front of it. The shield capable of negating weapons from the future completely suppressed the explosive force of the firework. It even nullified the shock wave from the blast—not even one of the sleeves on L’s red kimono fluttered.

“Hahh...”

I exhaled all the air in my lungs in relief as my sense of time returned to normal. Perhaps my sigh was audible, as L whipped around with wide eyes locked on me and R.

“...!”

She then turned the other way and ran away from the mound, disappearing into the night. I didn’t care about me, but I would’ve liked to hear her at least thank R... Oh, well. At least we were safe.

“Thank you, R. You saved us.”

I hadn’t even had time to ask her to do it. R had moved completely of her own will, saving not only L, but all the spectators from harm. Perhaps R had considered L’s clumsiness, foreseen the accident, and made preparations to counteract it before I had even moved. That was just how skillful she was.

“It’s nothing worth thanking me for,” R replied curtly and adjusted the hat on her head.

▽

After miraculously overcoming that last incident without any injury, the year’s summer festival came to a close. And safely, for the most part. All that was left was to head home, but the police stopped me for questioning because I had seen the perpetrator up close. I asked everyone else to go on ahead of me, and answered all I could with the other pyrotechnicians. All told, it took about 30 minutes.

By then, there were barely any people left around. Only the festival workers who were cleaning up afterward were still on the grounds. I cast a sidelong glance at the people closing up their stands as I left the community center. There was nobody outside along the road up to the community center, either. All the visitors had long since left, while those cleaning up had yet to do so. Perhaps precisely because it was that liminal moment...

“Whew...”

The surroundings were too quiet. I exhaled loudly in what may or may not have been a sigh. I had a feeling this would happen. I spotted it immediately—that red kimono peeking from the shadow of a utility pole.

“I can see you.”

“Hwuh?!”

After a small squeal, L revealed herself hesitantly. She had a rather awkward expression. I waited for her to speak.

“...Why did you save me?”

“Anyone would have done the same,” I answered with a shrug.

“Liar! I came to erase you, you know? Why would you save someone like that...”

“That’s just the kind of person Rekka is,” R answered. “He’s the type of person to move instinctively when he encounters situations like that. He’s exactly as the doctor described to us...”

L reacted to the word “doctor” with a twitch.

“L, I don’t know what you’ve been told or by whom... But who do you think you should trust more: the person who told you to kill this gullible idiot, or the doctor who told you to protect him?”

“Shut up! Don’t talk about that person before me!” L suddenly raged, glaring at R furiously.

“By that person, do you mean the doctor? Why would you say that? The doctor was really worried when you disappeared.”

“Lies! The doctor threw me away!” L continued to shake her head, denying R’s words “We were created to save the future, you know?! That’s what we were designed for! What we were trained for! And... And the doctor took that away from me! That means I have no purpose anymore!”

Suzuran’s face suddenly flashed through my mind. Before Suzuran was Suzuran, she was a homunculus named Silver Slayer. Her body was made of quicksilver—a vampire’s weakness—and like her namesake suggested, she was created to slay them. L seemed to be in a similar situation. She’d been created for a single purpose, but that job had been taken away by her little sister. I couldn’t even imagine how crushed she must have been by that.

That was probably how the one R said was “pulling the strings” took advantage of L’s dejection. It may have been a different method, but it was still a mission to “save the future” that they’d given her.

“L, the agency did not remove you from your mission with ill intent. The doctor simply...”

“Shut up! You don’t understand how I feel! How a reject like me feels...!”

“...”

“The doctor threw me away because my specs were lower than yours, no?! I’m a useless reject... That’s why I was tossed in the protected residential division!”

“Just stop it already.” R’s attitude suddenly changed as she shut L down.

“R?”

R ignored me and approached L in a careless—near defenseless—way, and then grabbed her by the collar.

“Useless reject, lower specs... As if the doctor would abandon you over things like that! There’s no way I would abandon you over that!”

R was shouting with all her emotions on full display, and her roar made L cower. She must have been pretty shocked, too... I’d never heard R talk like that.

“It’s true that after you were transferred to the protected residential division, the doctor got too busy with my final adjustments to visit you. But the doctor was still always thinking about you! And when I went to visit you after my adjustments were completed...”

“Sh-Shut up!” L smacked away R’s hand as she stumbled over her words, then distanced herself.

“L!”

“I won’t be fooled by your words! I’m going to save the future and prove my worth on my own!” L yelled at R.

She then started to disperse into particles, but before she disappeared, she pointed at me and said, “I’m never going to give up!”

Now only R—who had just stiffened up—and me were left on the dark street.

“R.”

“...It seems I really can’t do it as well as you, Rekka,” she muttered as she adjusted her hat. Then she did a flip in the air and regained her typical expressionless demeanor. “Now, let’s hurry back home. Harissa’s waiting.”

“Y-Yeah.”

I descended the hill with R moving at her usual place by my side. We were both silent for a while, but then...

“Hey, R...”

“What is it?”

“What are you going to do about L?”

“Who knows?”

“Don’t say that...”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’ll be sure to protect you if L tries to target you again.”

“That’s not what I mean...”

“Well, there’s nothing else to be done with someone so stubborn,” R said, casting her eyes downward.

“She’ll be back before long, knowing her.”

“I’ll try convince her again when she does.”

“I see...”

If R wasn’t giving up, then it would probably be fine.

“But let me know if there’s anything I can do to help, okay? I’ll try persuading her, too.”

“Oh, really?” For some reason, R got a gleam in her eye when I said that. “Then once we return home, sleep with Harissa.”

“Wh-What?!” I spluttered loudly, completely flustered.

“Didn’t you say you’d help me? If you would just put an end to my story and stop the War of All, L would have no reason to target you anymore. Everything would be solved, and that’d be that.”

“Ugh...”

“What are you grumbling about? You even celebrated your engagement in Harissa’s hometown the other day. Now go enjoy your spousal privileges.”

“Th-That was just a friendly visit! Harissa never said anything in the end, anyway...”

“That’s because you didn’t seal the deal. But whatever. I can settle for a summer fling instead. Let’s head to Iris’s spaceship immediately.”

“We can’t do that, either!”

“Oh? Are you saying you won’t be satisfied with just one? Then we can visit Rosalind’s mansion and Rain’s place, too...”

“That’s not the problem!”

—Fin—