Epilogue
Epilogue
After destroying Atlantis, I lost consciousness... and the next I woke, I was in the Great Library of the Heavens. I was lying in a bed in the Laputian king’s private quarters, surrounded by the worried faces of my friends.
“Long time no see, huh?”
Ow, ow, owowow! I’d gone for a lighthearted greeting, but they all just started punching me! They held back a bit, but I guess using the Mask of Greed without letting them know was a bad move after all.
In reality, it took Sherlyn’s magic and everyone’s power to turn me back into a human afterwards. I’d have to do a special favor for not just Rachelle, but all of them once we returned to the future... which made me kind of want to remain in the past.
▽
And so, I don’t know if it was because I had turned into a demon and destroyed an island, but I could barely move for a while. In that time, a lot happened... Well, omitting most of the details, various events transpired with the girls nursing me back to health that greatly pleased Rachelle, and I was finally on my feet two days later.
For the record, the island of Laputa landed safely thanks to all of our efforts. In fact, it fit rather snugly in a valley, I was told.
“We intend on filling in the gaps between the island and valley, and camouflaging it as a mountain... later,” the king had said. “Either way, however... Laputa isn’t suited for the agriculture needed to sustain the Atlantians. They will need to make their own settlement nearby...”
After that, the entrance to the Great Library of the Heavens was sealed for the Laputian king to manage by herself. The technology that Laputa held was far more advanced than what existed in this era. On the off chance that it was leaked out and used maliciously, it had the potential to cause great tragedy. She said it was a countermeasure to prevent that from happening.
Although she may act mischievously at times and governed a nation of one, the king of Laputa was still a fine, wise ruler.
“Even so, Laputa already looks a lot like a mountain without any camouflage. There aren’t many manmade objects on it to begin with, and the Great Library of the Heavens is worked into the summit,” I muttered to myself as I looked up at the former island from its base.
The Laputian king had told me she needed a sense of the environment and a perspective from the base in order to complete the camouflage, so she’d sent me to take pictures... with a Laputian-made camera, of course. But since she’d asked nicely, here I was snapping one picture after another.
“...”
“Hm? What’s wrong, Chirika?”
Chirika, who had come with me to the base, was looking up at the mountain (the former island of Laputa) with a conflicted expression. When I noticed, I tore my eyes from the viewfinder and tried asking her about it.
“Nothing. I hadn’t noticed when we were in the air, but this island—or rather, this mountain—looks similar to the Disappearing Mountain where I fought the Gold Yaksha.”
“Huh?”
That was where she’d travelled back in time too, right? Was this... the same place?
“I can’t say that it’s identical, but looking at its overall shape and the scenery... There’s a close resemblance,” Chirika said as she tilted her head.
“Maybe the former island of Laputa was just called the Disappearing Mountain in your time?”
“Mm... Perhaps.” Chirika accepted my muttered words and nodded.
Wait a minute... Laputa was only able to make an emergency landing in Japan because I destroyed Atlantis, right? Which means Atlantis sunk into the ocean... Which means before the timeslip, Laputa hadn’t been able to reach Japan since Laputa would have sunk into the ocean along with Atlantis. But in that case, Chirika couldn’t have climbed the Disappearing Mountain and come to my time period, so we wouldn’t have been able to impress the king with her Silkworm Slash, which means that we wouldn’t have been able to save all these stories...
“Huh?”
“What a time paradox, right?” R commented in amusement when I cocked my confused head to the side. “It’s a phenomenon that occurs on rare occasions when interfering with the past. Well, that’s only what this is if Laputa really is the Disappearing Mountain.”
Fair... It was possible that Chirika only thought they were similar. Maybe it was a totally different mountain after all.
“Hmm...”
My head was starting to hurt, so I decided to give up thinking about it any further.
▽
Now that all the stories this time had been solved, it was time to send everyone back to their proper time periods. As for how exactly we’d do that, the Nyanyan we’d met at the bottom of the ocean had told us to consult the king of Laputa. We did, and she revealed to us that the device used for time travel was at the top of the Great Library of the Heavens. In other words, at the summit of Laputa.
“So where’s the... What was it again? The Timeshift Device?”
“It’s that pillar... over there. That is... the core.”
There was a single steel obelisk in the direction the king was pointing, standing in an open space at the top of the mountain.
“Hm...”
“What’s wrong... Chirika?”
“It’s just strikingly similar... Except the Disappearing Mountain had a lone cedar tree instead of this metal structure.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but indeed... The metal tower certainly does stand out. I’ll have to take note of that with the camouflage. A lone cedar... might do quite well.”
As the Laputian king muttered that, she prompted us to move beside the steel tower. The Timeshift Device was activated by pouring a huge amount of energy into the tower part.
“Rekka and I are from different time periods, so is it really all right for us to go together?”
“It’s... not a problem.” the king answered briefly.
I’m... I’m sure it’ll work out one way or another.
“If you’d like... I can send you to any location you prefer.”
“You can do such a thing?”
“As long as there are coordinates... Yes.”
“In that case, I can help,” volunteered Satsuki.
The two of them then began preparations to use the device. With her magic, Satsuki’d be able to find coordinates for us in no time.
“What about you, Chirika? Do you want to set a location point?”
“Unfortunately, I have no idea what coordinates are.”
“Then you can just get Satsuki to help look it up. Hey, Satsuki.”
I asked her to help search for the information Chirika needed. At any rate, once the preparations were completed, we were finally ready to return to the future.
“Rekka, I can’t express how grateful I am to you... And Chirika and Sherlyn too. You all saved me. Thank you.”
As the only one in the right time period, Nyanyan was seeing us off with tears in her eyes as she thanked us.
“Don’t worry about it. You saved me too, after all,” Sherlyn said with a smile, pointing at Nyanyan’s head. “That crown suits you much better than it did me.”
“Thank you... Thank you so much,” Nyanyan said, wiping her eyes and smiling.
Without Atlantis, she no longer had a kingdom to rule, but she would still lead her people in their new land.
“Take care.”
“You too, Rekka.”
After Nyanyan and I exchanged our farewells, I looked to Chirika, who was standing with her arms crossed.
“This is goodbye for us too, Chirika. We’ll both be going back to our own times.”
“Yeah, you’re right...”
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
Chirika looked rather restless for some reason, so I tried asking her about it, but...
“Nothing. It’s just...” she murmured and turned away. “I am also indebted to you. If you were from my time, I would have recommended you to my lord for an appropriate reward.”
“Ahaha, I’m honored. Although I wouldn’t do well with the whole samurai thing.”
“Indeed, you’re not diligent enough,” she said with a sigh.
I guess she saw right through me.
“But you have both courage and quick wits. You may have some surprising uses in directing people on the battlefield.”
“You think so?”
That was some strangely high praise coming from her...
“That’s... That’s actually not what I wanted to say. What I meant to tell you... was...”
Chirika had been acting weird for a while now.
“Urgh. I’ve been under the care of the princess this whole time, so I’m not sure how to talk to boys at times like this...” Chirika continued to mutter to herself.
Could it possibly be that she was sad to part ways? We were from different time periods, after all. Our goodbye here would be goodbye forever. We had gone on an adventure together that transcended time. She may have disliked me a fair bit in the beginning, but maybe... Just maybe, we were a little bit closer now.
“Well, take care of yourself, Chirika. I’m not sure we’ll ever see each other again, but with my bloodline, you never know,” I said, offering my hand out to her.
“...Yeah.”
Chirika stared at my hand for a few seconds before she hesitantly returned the handshake and nodded with a smile.
“Now... Let us commence the timeshift,” the king called out as a white light began flooding out from the device. “Perhaps fate will bring us together again.”
She must have overheard my talk with Chirika, and said those words in a final parting. The white light then enveloped us all, and the last thing I saw was Nyanyan waving.
▽
And so we safely returned to the future. Or rather, the present.
“Phew, I’m tired...”
“Me too...”
After returning home, Harissa and I first changed our clothes before melting into the sofa to rest. Rachelle was just floating around.
“Rekka, can I borrow your shower?”
“Sure, go ahead.”
Sherlyn had come from overseas, so she was resting at my place for now too. Chelsea had tried to take her back to her place, but she smoothly turned her down and chose to stay at my place instead. Well, Chelsea’s apartment was a few stations away like Hibiki’s was, so I guess it was easier to just stay here. Thanks to Satsuki and the Laputian king, we’d returned in town not too far from my house. And it was a good thing, too. I was exhausted from our time-traveling, high-flying, water-racing adventure.
“And to think I still have school tomorrow. I want to rest, but my attendance...”
It was a difficult decision. I really wanted a break... This was probably why Chirika had said I was lacking diligence, huh?
All things considered, this was the first time I’d ever had to part ways with a heroine for good. While there had been heroines who lived in space or other worlds, I could still go visit them whenever I wanted.
But, well, considering all the stories I get caught up in, I guess something like this was bound to happen eventually. Really, it was more amazing that all the heroines I’d rescued so far came together like they did.
Why were there so few farewells with the heroines anyway? I think R said something about how her story prevented them from leaving in the middle, right? Wait... In that case, why did I part with the heroines this time? Unless...
Just as I was pondering deeply about such things, the doorbell rang.
“Ah, a guest.”
“It’s fine, Harissa. Let me get it for once.”
I stopped Harissa from getting up and headed towards the front door.
“Coming! Now, who could it... be?”
The sight that awaited me when I opened the door was...
“Long time no see, Rekka.”
“It’s been a while.”
“It has, boy.”
The politely bowing Nyanyan, a gently smiling Chirika, and the king of Laputa all greeted me.
▽
For now, the four of us moved to the living room. Harissa was quite surprised to see them, but Rachelle had a hungry look in her eyes, so I tied her up with a rope and left her in my room on the second floor before she got too annoying.
At any rate... the three people sitting on the sofa were no different than when we last saw them just a short while ago. If anything, the only thing that had changed was their outfits; they were now all dressed in modern clothing. The Laputian king was even on a Segway instead of her flying sphere.
“...All right, please explain what’s going on, Your Majesty.”
“Oh... You want us to explain it?”
“You seem the most knowledgeable, after all.”
“Very well...” Sandwiched by Nyanyan and Chirika on the sofa, the Laputian king nodded once. “We used our cloning technology to transfer their memories and put them into cold sleep... only to wake them in the modern era.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because they requested it, of course,” she replied, glancing over at the girls in question.
I followed her gaze.
“Is that true, you two? But why?”
“Because we wanted to see you again,” answered Nyanyan. “After parting ways with Rekka, we Atlantians were taken in by the people of Shangri-La.”
“Really?”
“Yes. We were foreigners to the people of this land, so it wasn’t easy for us to settle here. But after we’d helped them, the people of Shangri-La were happy to welcome us there, so we staked out some land and made a life for ourselves with them.”
“Wow... But could all the Atlantians really fit in Shangri-La?”
“It’s another dimension, so to speak, so it was a much bigger world than you might expect.”
I see. Apparently what I saw of Shangri-La was only a small part of it.
“That’s great.”
“Yes. Without Atlantis, I was able to cast aside my title as king and simply work together with everyone to live happily.”
Nyanyan lowered her eyes slightly as she recalled those days. Her face looked exactly like it had when I last saw her, yet she seemed so much more mature.
“That was how I was able to fulfill my duty, but I still had one last regret I couldn’t shake.”
And that was probably her wish to see me again, I guess.
“That was when I asked the king of Laputa, who I remained friends with even after I moved to Shangri-La, and had her make a new body to copy my memories into. She then put me to sleep until your time period rolled around so I could come see you after you returned from Atlantis.”
“I see... Well, I guess I understand things from Nyanyan’s point of view now.”
I looked to Chirika next. When she noticed my gaze, she simply raised an eyebrow.
“But what about you, Chirika? You returned to your time period, right? So what made you go back to the Laputian king?”
“My reasons were the same as Nyanyan’s,” Chirika answered readily with a smile. “Let me tell you about what happened first. When I returned to my original time, there was no legend of the Gold Yaksha, and the princess was safe and sound.”
“I see. That’s great.”
“Indeed. After that, I intended on serving her until my body crumbled to dust... But one day, the princess dismissed me.”
“Dismissed?”
“To put it simply, I was fired.”
“Huh?! But why?”
Despite my surprise, Chirika continued to talk with a peaceful expression.
“She told me I was always looking off into the distance and thinking of someone else. The princess had already wed by that time, so my duty as a bodyguard was mostly ceremonial. She said that she was freeing me to go search for my own happiness.”
So that’s what she meant by a dismissal. I was relieved it wasn’t as bad as it sounded.
“And so, I relied on my memory of that time you were taking photos of the mountain to find the Great Library of the Heavens, and I had the king of Laputa accommodate me.”
“I see.”
I mostly understood what was going on after hearing them out, though I still had some questions.
“But aren’t the two of you rather young? Based on your stories, you both were much older when you went back to the king of Laputa...”
“Don’t mention age,” Chirika said with a sharp glare, making me shrink away.
“Cloning doesn’t copy the age of the body at the moment of cloning. It takes the genetic information from one’s cells and grows a new body through cell division. From there, the body can be put into cold sleep at any age,” Nyanyan explained carefully, clearing up my questions for now. “We wanted to reunite with you as the girls you knew.”
“Indeed.”
Their appearances were identical to how they looked when I saw them last, yet there was something serene about the both of them now. Perhaps that was the effect of the lives they’d lived and all the experience they’d accumulated in the meantime. Incidentally, the two of them were both freeloading at the Great Library of the Heavens right now. They were learning everything they needed to know about the modern era from the king of Laputa.
“Come to think of it, is the Great Library of the Heavens still disguised as a mountain? Where is it?”
“Roughly 30 minutes south of here.”
“Oh, that’s nice—wait, that’s really close!”
There were quite a few mountains in the countryside, but... to have a beast sealed underground, a former flying island camouflaged as a mountain, and a vampire’s estate not too far away... That could only happen in this town.
“And so...” There, Chirika abruptly cleared her throat. “Now that you’ve reunited with us like this... Don’t you have something to say?”
“Yeah, I’m definitely glad to see you again.”
“That’s not it. Isn’t there anything else?”
“Well, uh...”
“What about to me?”
For some reason, Nyanyan joined the conversation, and the both of them looked right at me. I could tell they wanted something, but I wasn’t sure what.
“Erm... Would you like to stay for dinner? Harissa’s cooking is delicious.”
“Raaaargh!”
“Urrrrgh!”
The two of them instantly fell off the sofa.
“Hey, you! The first thing you have to say upon seeing me after I’ve been pining for tens, no, hundreds of years is praise for another woman’s cooking?!” Chirika immediately stood back up and grabbed my collar with all her might, lifting me up.
“H-Hey, it may have seemed like several hundred years to you, but we were separated for less than an hour to me!”
“See? That’s why I told you it’d be more effective to wait three days. Chirika just had to insist on coming to see you as soon as possible,” Nyanyan said with a sigh, causing Chirika’s face to turn bright red.
“But you wanted to see him just as much! And don’t reveal things like that!” she yelled loudly as she repeatedly hit Nyanyan.
But it was my turn next. The still-red Chirika then violently pointed a finger and a glare my way.
“And you! Just why do you think I came here to see you in the first place?! You should be able to tell that—”
Just as Chirika was about to shout the last half of her sentence, the living room door opened with a clack as Sherlyn walked in, having finished her shower.
“Oh? Nyanyan and Chirika... The king, too. What are you all doing here?”
“Hold it right there, Sherlyn! Put on a shirt first!”
She’d managed to get a bottom on, so how come she was only wearing a towel draped over her shoulders on her upper half?!
“What? But I get hot after I take a shower...”
“Just do it!”
I pushed Sherlyn down the corridor while trying to avert my eyes. After a few minutes, she returned with clothes on, and we rehashed Nyanyan and Chirika’s stories for her.
“Hmm...”
As she dried her hair with a towel, Sherlyn gave the two girls a knowing nod. They both looked away.
“Well, I was hoping to cunningly steal a certain treasure like a phantom thief, but I guess this means I have to give up for today.”
“What treasure?”
Was there anything in my house that was worth stealing to a phantom thief? Don’t tell me she wanted my wallet...
“Your chastity.”
“Bwuh?!”
The words that left Sherlyn’s mouth made everyone other than the Laputian king nearly jump out of their seat. And then there was R, of course, who was her usual self.
“Sherlyn! What are you saying?!”
“Oh, nothing. It’s just that you caught my eye. I’m the type that likes to take the things I want, you see.” Sherlyn laughed heartily, without a care for the incredible glares that were being directed at her. “Hmm, I wonder if I should move to this area too. Are there still free apartments in the building Chelsea lives in?”
For some reason, Sherlyn began pondering her plans for the future. Was it just my imagination, or was the temperature in the room gradually rising? I was at loss, cold sweat dripping down my back, when all of a sudden I heard a loud stomping from the next floor and then someone running down the stairs.
“I have detected a large amount of love energy and descended! Now, where is it?! Show me that lovely scene of carnage!”
It was Rachelle. She’d apparently been able to rip right through the rope with her freshly replenished love energy.
“Hey, wait a minute, Sherlyn. I’ve waited 500 years for this, you know? You should at least give me the first go.”
“In that case, I’ve waited a thousand years longer than you, Chirika! If you’re going to talk about order, shouldn’t I go first?”
“Isn’t it first come, first served?”
“Aah, yes! That’s it! Premium love energy is flowing into meee!”
My living room was gradually descending into chaos...
“Hey, Your Majesty...”
“What?”
“Could you put me into cold sleep, too? Maybe until winter break?”
“Being sly like that won’t help you, boy.”
The king bluntly rejected me, and all I could do was look up at the ceiling and sigh.
—Fin—