Chapter 1: The Angel Who Fell from the Sky

With my hectic summer break behind me, today was the first day of the second semester.

“Why is the end of summer always so depressing?”

“You just don’t want to go back to school. Also, it’s still pretty hot,” Satsuki said with a sigh as she walked along next to me.

While the calendar had just flipped over to the first of September, you’d never know it. The glaringly bright sun was still beating down on us. We’d only left my house a few minutes ago, yet sweat was already running down my neck.

“The whole point of summer vacation is, like, to have a break because it’s too hot to study, right? Shouldn’t they revise the constitution and extend it until the end of September?”

“The constitution doesn’t dictate how long summer vacation is, the Board of Education does.”

How does one go about making a direct appeal to the Board of Education, I wonder? I fanned myself with my hand as I pondered such silly thoughts. Man, global warming sure is brutal.

“Hahh... I hope it cools down soon.”

“Oh, Rekka, you just don’t understand the romance of summer.”

Aaand there goes the peanut gallery. It was R, of course, the girl from the future who was always floating beside me and wearing her military-style uniform.

“Just take a look at Satsuki right next to you. Her blouse is already transparent from sweat.”

“As if I’d look.”

“What won’t you look at?” Satsuki asked.

“Oh, no, it’s nothing. Just talking to myself.”

“Okay...”

We were walking so close together along the deserted road that she must’ve heard me whispering to R. Guess I’d have to cut our conversation short until we got to school. To make sure she got the point, I subtly dragged my thumbnail across my neck.

“Of course, of course. You’re the type who’s all too willing to throw away perfectly good chances at romance a dozen at a time. I guess there’s no way someone like you would understand the romance of summer.”

So even though I couldn’t talk anymore, she had no problem continuing to go on one-sidedly about her disappointment. How unfair.

Several months had passed since she appeared on the day of my high school entrance ceremony. She now had a larger variety of expressions compared to when we first met, but her strange sense of dad-like humor was still completely mystifying. Just what kind of training had she gone through before arriving in this era? I’d like to see her parents...

“Oh?” R suddenly said, pointing off into the distance.

I followed her finger with my eyes to see some familiar faces waiting at the crossroad up ahead.

“Hey, Iris. Rosalind. Good morning.”

“’Sup, Rekka?”

“Hmph. Haven’t seen your face since the summer festival, Rekka.”

They both greeted me as they pushed off the fence they were leaning on and approached.

“Were you waiting for us? Maybe not so much Iris, but that’s pretty rare for you, Rosalind.”

I usually walked to school with Satsuki, and Iris would join up with us halfway from time to time. Frequently sleeping in kept her from showing up every day. Rosalind, on the other hand... I’d only ever walked to school with once. And that was a while ago.

“Th-That’s not a problem, is it? Or are you saying it’s unpleasant to have me around?”

“Huh? No, nothing like that.”

“Then it’s fine,” Rosalind said abruptly, refusing to field any further questions.

I didn’t know why she was being so defensive about it, but, more importantly... Why was she giving Iris and Satsuki such a smug look?

“Tch, my advantages are being whittled away...”

Satsuki seemed to be grinding her teeth over something I couldn’t comprehend, either.

“What on Earth...?” I mumbled.

“That should be my line, Rekka. Do you have tofu for brains? There’s got to be a limit to how dense you can be.”

R was on my freaking case again. Not only was what she was saying mean (and... especially hurtful), I couldn’t even defend myself with the girls around since she was invisible to them.

“Hahh... It’s starting to seem more and more like the War of All is an inevitability. Good grief, this is all too much,” R said with a heavy sigh as she exaggeratedly slumped her shoulders.

While it was a horrible way to put it... Hmm...

The War of All was an event in the future that we had discussed several times now. And I certainly didn’t doubt her when we talked about it. Considering that people from the future had sent R all the way here to prevent it, and the way countless stories continued to unfold around me, it was hard to believe it was all made up.

But while I didn’t think it was made up, that didn’t necessarily make it feel like it was real. I just wasn’t quite sure how I could end up as a super sleazy womanizer that would cause the destruction of this world and all those other worlds and outer space and different dimensions and you name it...

“Rekka? What’s wrong?”

“Rekka? Is the heat getting to you?”

“You all right, Rekka?”

I couldn’t believe that these girls before me, all worrying for my well-being, would stir up that kind of trouble. Okay, so they did bicker every now and then, but wasn’t that normal for friends? I honestly couldn’t imagine them fighting over me in such a way that it would start a war that would involve the entire universe and hurt untold numbers of innocent people.

“Ah... No, it’s not...”

I tried to come up with a random excuse for spacing out... And that’s when it happened. An angel fell from the sky, landing splat on the asphalt in front of me.

“O-Oh...? Wait, huh?”

It was as strange a start to a situation as usual, but good grief... This was a bit much. I mean, you could seriously hear the “splat.”

“Ugh... Hack, ack...”

The girl on the ground had a halo over her head and white wings sprouting from her back. No matter how you cut it, she looked like an angel. And not the cosplay kind. No human would have survived that kind of high-speed collision with the street from that high up. But this angel didn’t look completely unscathed, either.

“That is an angel... right?” I asked.

“Probably...?” Satsuki tilted her head, unsure of her answer.

“What’s an angel?” asked Iris. As an alien, she was unfamiliar with the concept.

“That’s just an idiot,” Rosalind offered bluntly.

Even though she a hundred-percent looked like an angel, everyone was a bit skeptical that that was really what we were looking at. I mean, well... didn’t angels come down from the sky in a beam of light and all that? That “splat” just now was more like a comedy sketch.

“...Uuurgh...” The aforementioned angel gave a pained groan.

“This... is a heroine, right?” I discreetly asked R.

“So it seems,” she replied in her usual deadpan way.

Yeah, she was too pitiful to just leave there, so I thought I should at least ask...

“A-Are you okay?”

“Nuuu...”

Figures. She wasn’t okay. She certainly didn’t look like it, either.

The angel sluggishly raised her disheveled face. As she did, her wings shrunk with a flutter. Apparently they could change size.

“My name... is... Rachelle...”

“Rachelle, is it? I’m Rekka Namidare.”

“You’re... Rekka...? I’ve been... searching... for you...”

“Me?”

“Yes...”

Searching for me? Judging by her reaction, she didn’t seem to know anything other than my name. Which left me wondering why she was looking for me in the first place.

“I have... a favor to ask... of you...” Rachelle wheezed between breaths like she was nearly too exhausted to even speak.

“What kind of favor is it?”

With me, Satsuki, Iris, and Rosalind here, we could probably solve most problems. What could Rachelle possibly need?

“S-Show me...”

“Show you?”

“Ca...”

“Ca?”

“Show me a scene of carnage, please!”

“...I beg your pardon?”

This angel really liked to defy expectations, huh? Unable to comprehend her nonsensical request, I fell silent with shock. The girls standing behind me also dropped their jaws in astonishment.

“Hmm...”

R was the only one who seemed to be turning something over. I glanced over at her, but didn’t pay her too much mind. There was something far more pressing at hand, so I turned back to the girl.

“So... I think I may have misheard you. It sounded like you asked to see carnage...”

“Yes! That’s exactly it!”

“Why are you responding with so much enthusiasm now...? Anyway, why would you want to see something like that?”

“Well, you see...”

Just as Rachelle was about to answer, she was interrupted by her loudly growling stomach.

“Oh, my...”

Her cheeks flushed crimson as she looked down in embarrassment. While I could have chosen to pretend not to hear it and to ignore it, I figured it would actually be more polite to offer her something to eat.

“Are you hungry? Should I get someone to bring you some food?”

I started to turn to the girls standing behind me, but Rachelle stopped me.

“Ah, no... We angels cannot eat the foods of Earth. Thank you for your kind offer, however,” she said.

Hmm... So, angels couldn’t eat food.

“Then what do you eat?” I asked the obvious follow-up question.

“We angels sustain ourselves by absorbing an invisible power source known as spiritual energy. Different angels absorb different kinds of spiritual energy based on their domains, and we cannot absorb energy from any other angel’s domains.”

“Spiritual energy, huh? What exactly is that?”

“It comes from humans, mostly in the form of emotions, passions, and the like.”

“I see. So what kind of angel are you, Rachelle?”

“I am the angel of love and passion.”

Love? What an angelic domain. But just as I came to accept her answer, Rachelle suddenly slumped her shoulders.

“However, recently I’ve been unable to absorb enough energy no matter where I go, resulting in my current sorry state. As you can see, I can’t even fly anymore.” She sniffled as she spoke about her current situation.

In other words, solving her hunger should solve her story. Which led me to another obvious question.

“Shouldn’t you, like... be able to find love everywhere? I can’t imagine it’d be that uncommon...”

I’d heard about the birthrate declining in Japan, but it wasn’t like romance was completely dead. I didn’t know the first thing about absorbing energy, but was there really so little love in the world than an angel would be starving for it?

“It’s true that half-assed romance is available everywhere, like some cheap, watered-down wine.”

“Um...”

Did this angel just call romance half-assed? How... unangelic.

“I’m not sure if I understand, but... Are you saying that half-assed romance doesn’t cut it?”

“No, it doesn’t.”

Well, that was one mystery solved?

“Like I said before... I am an angel of love and passion,” Rachelle said, heavily emphasizing the passion part. “Which means...”

“Which means?”

“Which means I need a romance that boils hotter than magma, clings stickier than syrup! A love so aggressive and exciting that it burns your entire body with a single touch—otherwise I can’t absorb the love energy!”

Rachelle got worked up and pumped her fist into the air...

“Owww...”

And immediately seemed to regret it. She doubled over with a pathetic groan and lost all her momentum. Anyway...

“A clingy, sticky romance?”

While I wanted to question what was specifically involved in that kind of love, I already had somewhat of an inkling.

“Show me a scene of carnage, please!”

That’s what she’d originally asked for.

“I see... If it’s a scene of carnage that Rachelle needs in order to collect love energy, then she certainly came to the right place with you, Rekka.”

“The hell?” I unthinkingly retorted to R out loud. “But even if you ask someone for carnage... it’s kind of...”

I turned back to Satsuki and the others for their opinions.

“Yeah, to be asked that out of the blue... And aren’t most scenes of carnage born from jealousy, not love? Envy is one of the seven deadly sins, right?” said Satsuki.

“Carnage? That makes no sense. You can’t just ask someone for that,” added Iris.

“That’s right. We’re not entertainers,” agreed Rosalind.

Each of the three girls all seemed to have some resistance against Rachelle’s request. Well, of course they would—or so I thought, when...

“But I guess I don’t mind flirting with Rekka,” Iris said, suddenly hugging my arm.

“What?!” both Satsuki and Rosalind nearly howled.

Of course, I was panicking, too.

“I-Iris?! What are you doing?!”

“If you and I get suuuper lovey-dovey with each other, that’ll create this love energy stuff she needs, right?”

“N-No, I’m pretty sure Rachelle just asked for carnage...”

“Whatever. I’m sure we can make enough love energy if we just flirt enough for several couples, right?”

Huh? Wait, really? In other words, Iris was suggesting that if we generated enough love energy, it would be dense enough to equal a scene of carnage? What? Would that really work? I was pretty sure the passion produced by acting as a dumb couple was different from anything involving carnage, but...

“W-Well, Rachelle? Can love energy be generated by a single person—or rather, a single couple? No way, right?”

I was hoping she’d say no. My arm ensnared by Iris was pressing up against something... perky... and soft... I was internally screaming.

“Let me think... Angelic domains are pretty strict in that regard, so if it isn’t a scene of carnage, it won’t...” Rachelle trailed off in the middle of her sentence like she’d just come to some kind of realization. “Hmm, yes, yes... That just might do it. While it’s true that passion is more easily produced when numerous girls are warring against each other, the same effect could be produced by one girl flirting with Rekka with the force of several girls. As long as there’s enough flirting and clinginess, that is.”

“Wha?!”

Hang on there! That’s about as sharp left of a turn as you can take! Back up!

“So if someone could emulate a passionate romantic comedy with Rekka right now, it would be a great help... Ah, and I don’t mind who does the flirting.”

For some reason, it felt like Rachelle was emphasizing certain things as she addressed the girls. Contrary to her bright, sunny smile, I felt like I had been dumped in ice as a cold sweat flowed down my back.

“Oh, she’s good...”

Meanwhile, R was her typical self. And... as for Satsuki, Iris, and Rosalind...

“...”

“...”

“...”

Whoa! They were glaring at each other with terrifying looks. Why?!

“I have a proposal,” Satsuki said as she raised her hand.

“What?”

“What is it?”

Iris and Rosalind kept their eyes locked on each other even as they answered.

“Let’s find a peaceful way to settle this. You both know about my magic, right? There’s no way for anyone to sneak a head start... Even if someone snatched Rekka away, they wouldn’t be left alone for very long.”

“Hmm... While you have a point, you could easily use that advantage for yourself.”

“I’m the one suggesting we solve this peacefully. I promise not to do anything funny, so you two better not pull anything funny, either. How about it?”

“Well... It certainly is difficult to flirt while on the run...”

“Right? So...”

“But I’m going to get that head start anyway!”

No sooner than those words left her mouth, Iris grabbed my arm tighter and took off in a dead sprint.

“Aah!”

“Hold it right there, girl!”

I could hear Satsuki’s yelp of surprise and Rosalind’s angry howl from behind us.

“W-Wait a minute! I won’t be able to absorb the energy if you aren’t near me!”

And Rachelle’s frantic screaming, too.

“Oh, my, how bold of Iris.”

R, of course, was her usual self.

“H-Hey, Iris, what are you doing?!”

“We’re saving someone, aren’t we? That Rachelle girl said I just needed to flirt with you, Rekka.”

“You kinda left her in the dust, though...”

“Don’t sweat the details! Just go on a date with me today!”

There was no stopping Iris when she set her mind to something.

“Where do you want to go? It’s hot, so maybe the pool... But we did that already, so an amusement park might be nice instead!”

“You two...!”

Iris suddenly pitched forward and ducked. Rosalind sailed over our heads in a flying kick, landing with a screech on the ground several meters away.

“I told you to wait!”

“Oops, sorry! I couldn’t hear you at all!” Iris replied with a catty smile, like she was deliberately working up the already enraged Rosalind.

“Rekka! Iris! I’ve finally caught you!”

“Wow! What a magnificent kick! Aah, yes, such passion!”

Satsuki flew over to us with her magic, followed by Rachelle in the rear, who was trying to cling to her... Whoa, Rachelle’s expression was nuts. Her eyes were rolling all over the place. Satsuki, however, looked just about as furious as Rosalind.

“Rekka! Why did you run off with Iris?!”

“Huh?! This is my fault?!”

I plead innocent.

“I should be the one to flirt with Rekka!” cried Rosalind.

“Why?! I was the one who said it first!” shouted Iris.

“Both of you, stop being so selfish! I want to flirt with Rekka, too!” railed Satsuki.

Basically, the three of them were bickering with me smack dab in the middle. This... This had really gotten out of hand somehow. Resolving this would be more trouble than Rachelle’s actual story, in a way. Speaking of... I was sweating bullets, but Rachelle was looking more and more excited.

“That’s great, everyone! Keep at it! More!” she practically cheered.

“You’re actually a fallen angel, aren’t you?!” I shouted.

There was no angel that would be glad to see a fight like this!

“How rude! Can you not see these pure white wings?!”

“That could be white out!”

“Unfortunately, I’m a pure angel, through and through!”

Having my retort retorted only irritated me even more. I was about to say something else, when...

“Why are you flirting with her?!”

Three angry girls yelled at me so loudly that I instinctively shrank back a bit. Ugh, they weren’t even going to let me complain...

But then they fell oddly silent. The silence was punctuated by rather rough breathing... It was almost like I had been thrown into a cage of wild tigers.

“Hrah!”

Rosalind moved first. She distracted Iris with a feint to the side before diving to grab me.

“Not a chance!”

“Heeeeey!”

Iris swung me around like a fan to evade Rosalind’s grasp, leaving her snatching at thin air.

“Curse you!”

Rosalind regained her balance and prepared to leap at us once again, but then...

“Heavenly wind, ancient wind, return what rightfully belongs back to dust.”

Suddenly, a tremendous gust of wind blasted the three of us to the ground.

“Satsuki?! Why are you joining them?!”

“There are some things I refuse to give up!”

“Still, wasn’t that kind of dangerous just now...?”

“I made sure it was only enough to knock you over!”

“Y-You don’t say...”

I could hardly argue when she shouted at me like that.

“Now this way, Rekka!”

Satsuki extended her hand to help me up from where I had landed on my butt.

“Erm...”

Everyone had been acting so weirdly that I honestly hesitated for a moment... but I ultimately figured Satsuki should be okay and took her hand.

“Hah! You’ve done it now, Satsuki!”

But Rosalind was the next one up, and she had an ominous glint in her eyes. As a vampire, she had the special ability to charm people just by looking at them.

“Now, return Rekka to me.”

Her scarlet red eyes should have completely enthralled Satsuki completely, but...

“Uuuuuurgh!”

Satsuki conjured all of her remarkable willpower and refused to let go of my hand. She had fallen victim to Rosalind’s charm once before, and it seemed like she wasn’t going to let it happen again. I had to wonder what was motivating her like this.

“Mrgh! Stop resisting!”

The gleam of crimson light in Rosalind’s eyes grew stronger.

“Ugh...!”

Satsuki groaned in pain as she slowly uncurled her fingers from around my hand, one by one... And eventually, she let me go.

“Thanks!” cut in Iris.

“Aaah!” both Satsuki and Iris screamed.

While they were dueling it out, Iris had come in from the side and snatched me right out from under their noses.

“Sorry about this, Rekka!”

“Huh? Um, what? Wait... Uwaaaah!”

Iris tucked me under her arm and jumped upward, leaping from roof to roof as she fled the scene.

“Hey, don’t go overboard!”

“I’ll be fine! I once carried you and Tetra at the same time, remember? This much is a piece of cake.”

“I meant don’t go overboard on me!”

Her jumping through the air like that was genuinely terrifying.

“What are we even running for? Satsuki brought it up earlier, but you can’t run from the Magic of Omniscience, you know?”

With the Great Omniscient Magic, Satsuki could access any and all knowledge that had ever existed. Tracking us in real time would be a cinch for her. There was no escape.

“Don’t worry! I have a good idea.”

“A good idea?”

“All we have to do is go somewhere she can’t get to even if she knows about it,” Iris said, taking out a familiar-looking compact mirror from her uniform pocket.

“Is that... the device to summon your spaceship?”

“Yup!

With a wink, Iris pressed a button on it. Instantly, her summoned spaceship was overhead. Initiate abduction procedures as usual, I guess.

“Wait, by ‘good idea,’ you meant going into space?!”

“Satsuki and Rosalind can’t follow us there, right?”

“No, I guess not... But where are we headed?” I asked as we began floating up into the air.

“Hmm... let’s see...” Iris paused to think for a moment before clapping her hands together in delight. “I know! Let’s go somewhere with an amusement park.”

“Do they have those in space?”

“Duh! Ever heard of Ciel, the planet of leisure and recreation? Let’s go there together!” she exclaimed as she swam over and clung to me tightly.

I could hear angry shouting from below... but I decided to ignore it for now and leave that problem for later.