Prologue
Prologue
“Her name is Yuuhi Namidare. She came from a parallel world completely separate from ours, where, you could say, she’s her own Rekka Namidare.”
“She’s... a Rekka Namidare?”
The way future Hibiki revealed Yuuhi’s identity left me reeling in shock. Yuuhi was... her own version of me?
“Um... Do you mean this is actually my future self?”
Future Rekka had disappeared seemingly off the face of the planet—no, the universe. Was he... somehow the girl standing in front of me right now? Was Yuuhi my future self? Hibiki shook her head at my conjecture.
“No, that’s not what I meant. Your future self is an entirely different person.”
“Then who is Yuuhi...?”
“I just told you, didn’t I? She’s a Namidare from a parallel world,” Hibiki said, looking over to Yuuhi...
“...”
Who only glared at us silently.
I was one thing, but she showed no fear even in the face of the dozens of heroines now surrounding her. And it wasn’t just bravado.
There’s a reason she won’t back down... At least, that’s what her face says.
She had the steely gaze of someone who’d fully committed themselves to something. It was a look I’d seen several times over the past few months. It told me that, at the very least, Yuuhi hadn’t done any of this half-heartedly. But, well... half-hearted or not, if Yuuhi really was the one who’d caused the War of All, that was no small strike against her. Especially with the future heroines who lived in this world.
Meanwhile, my heroines—the ones from my timeline who Yuuhi had been controlling with the power of the Doppel Stone—were presently looking around very confused. They’d just been released from their mind control, so they didn’t understand why they were even here.
“Rekka...”
“Sir Rekka...”
Satsuki, Harissa, and all the other girls came over to me. They probably wanted to know what was going on, but unfortunately, there wasn’t really time to explain. We were still in the middle of a glare-off with Yuuhi... But this couldn’t last forever. Someone had to do something.
“Say, uh, Hibiki...”
“What?”
“The world Yuuhi came from—this parallel world you mentioned. Could you explain that to us as best you can?”
Upon hearing my question, future Hibiki went a little wide-eyed in an expression of mild surprise.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Nothing. It’s just been a while since I had to explain something to you. Now that I think about it... You used to rely on me a lot more in the past, huh?” Hibiki nodded with a faint smile, fondly reminiscing for a moment.
Frankly, I didn’t see what was so touching about that...
“So, about that parallel world...”
“Ah, right. Sorry, sorry,” Hibiki said, snapping back to her senses. “Well, to put it as simply as possible, it’s the mirror image of our world.”
“The mirror image of our world...?”
“Is it really that strange? I’m pretty sure it’s a fairly common concept in the kind of manga you like to read.”
“Er, it might ring some bells...”
“Well, whatever. I’ll take it from the top.”
According to Hibiki, this parallel world was one very similar to our own. It was, after all, a mirror image of it. It had planets and a sun just like ours... The look and feel were very much the same, but despite that, there were key differences between them. Things that were subtly different or even outright inverted. And, yes, that apparently included my gender.
“In other words... Yuuhi is a female Rekka Namidare from a parallel world?”
“That’s the gist of it, yes.”
Hibiki confirmed my generalized understanding of the situation. While it may have been modest, it was enough for me to go on for now.
“Okay, so... What is the me from a parallel world doing here?”
“Who knows? I hadn’t gotten that far yet in my recon,” Hibiki said with a shrug. “You should ask her yourself.”
Yuuhi, however...
“...”
Was still silently staring us down. She wasn’t the only one with a stern expression, though...
“...”
“...”
“...”
All of the future heroines were glaring right back at her. The doctor’s earlier words were still echoing in their minds...
What if Yuuhi Namidare was the real culprit that caused the War of All? She might have been behind the terrorist attack on the Greater Galactic Federation, the very event that triggered the war... But there was no denying that there had been plenty of incidents to fan the flames of tension and discord between the heroines before that. Then there was also my disappearance...
Was Yuuhi really behind all of that?
It was true that with her ability to negate supernatural powers, she would be able to escape detection by Satsuki’s Omniscient Magic and get away with all sorts of things. Furthermore, she was the leader of the extremists, whose goal was to kill me in order to put a stop to the War of All...
Now that I think about it, the doctor once said the War of All could only be stopped by someone like me with a special relationship with fate.
And if that was the case, then the real goal of the extremists was...
Was she actually trying to kill me to ensure that the War of All would never end? Wait, wouldn’t future me die too if she killed me?
If so, then wouldn’t the War of All be prevented if the heroines couldn’t fight over me in the future? But then... Huh? Argh, now I’m all confused!
This wasn’t any good. I was just spinning my wheels at this point.
“Say, Yuuhi...”
In the end, I would only figure things out by asking her directly.
“Are you really the cause of everything?”
“...”
“I can’t understand silence.”
“I have no need to answer you.”
“Then would you answer me if there was a need?”
We would probably never get another opportunity like this. Yuuhi was surely already thinking of a way to escape, but the future heroines would inevitably take their resentments out on her first. I had to think of something before future Iris showed up. She’d lost her father at the beginning of the War of All, so she more than any of the other heroines had a lot to hold against Yuuhi. And if future Iris had a temper anything like the Iris I knew...
Wait...
The Iris I knew was here too, but she didn’t know anything yet. As soon as she heard that Yuuhi was responsible for her father’s death, she would probably snap too. It was perfectly understandable, all things considered, but it could cost us this chance to negotiate with Yuuhi... perhaps permanently. We had to get to the bottom of things here and now before that happened. That’s what my gut was telling me.
“Hey, Rekka! Come on, tell us where we are already!”
“Er...”
It was then, just as I was about to question Yuuhi, that Iris walked over and shook my shoulder. But she had a point. It was high time I gave the heroines an explanation. I just couldn’t take my eyes off Yuuhi...
“Um, L, would you mind filling in everyone who came from the past about what’s going on here? Just skip all the risky parts, okay?”
“What are you talking about? What do you want me to skip, exactly?”
“Errr...”
I wanted her to skip the part about how Iris’s dad was dead, but it was hard to spell that out right in front of her. As I was racking my brain, however...
“I can fill everyone in.”
“R? But I’m the only one who can see you.”
“Not so fast. Everyone can see me now.”
“Huh?”
I turned around in shock to see all of the girls staring directly at R, paying attention to every word she was saying.
“Rekka, who is that?”
“She’s floating?”
“How old is she?”
I was thusly pelted with questions about R one after another. Yeah, they could definitely see her, all right...
“Hey, R, what’s going on? What does this mean?” I asked.
“It seems Yuuhi reprogrammed me. She removed certain functions pertaining to my camouflage processing. Well, let’s just treat it as a convenience for now,” R said before moving on to fill in the heroines about what had happened.
Well, it was probably safe to leave that to her.
“Now, I’m sure everyone here is wondering what Rekka has done to me over the past few months where no one other than him could perceive me...”
Wow, okay, it wasn’t safe at all. I mean, I guess this was R’s typical way of joking around... Albeit reluctantly, I decided to trust her and forcibly turned my attention back to Yuuhi.
“...”
She was still staring at me with her unflinching poker face, but the determination residing deep within her eyes was plain as day. And that... I couldn’t believe that was evil.
“Yuuhi.”
“What?”
Relying on my intuition, I asked, “Just what kind of story are you involved in right now?”
“?!”
The future heroines collectively gasped at my question. Their faces betrayed that they hadn’t even considered that possibility. Future Hibiki was the only one who didn’t seem surprised. After all, she was the one who’d revealed that Yuuhi was another version of me. She probably had her own hypotheses, despite not knowing Yuuhi’s exact motives.
“Wait a minute,” future Satsuki said. “So... what? Are you saying this Yuuhi girl caused the War of All just to solve someone’s story?!”
Her tone of voice made it perfectly clear how unacceptable the very idea was to her. To the girls from the future, what I’d suggested just now was probably ridiculous.
“I don’t understand, Rekka.”
“Well, I don’t really want to believe it myself...” I scratched my head. “But if Yuuhi’s really a Namidare, then the reason for her actions probably has to do with a story she’s caught up in.”
That said, I couldn’t even imagine what kind of story had warranted all this. Just how badly were the threads of fate entangled that something like the War of All was necessary to fix things? Only Yuuhi knew.
“So what is it, Yuuhi?”
“...What are you going to do when I tell you?”
“You finally responded, huh? As for the answer to that question...” I sighed. “If you’re a Namidare, then you should know.”
At that, Yuuhi’s expression grew grimmer before she said, “What’s with you?”
“I’m not sure how to answer that.”
“Can changing a single point in the timeline really make such a big difference...?” Yuuhi muttered to herself.
Difference? Change? I was curious what she meant, but more importantly, I’d finally gotten her to show an interest in talking with me. I had to keep things going, and so I said...
“I don’t know what kind of story you’re involved in right now, Yuuhi, but I’ll help you find a solution for it.”
“...”
There, she fell silent once more. But, in exchange...
“Rekka... Do you really intend on helping her?” future Satsuki spoke up.
“Satsuki?”
I turned to see her looking at me with a conflicted expression. And she wasn’t the only one. The other future heroines were looking at me the same way. I knew what must be going through their minds.
“Of course, there will be conditions,” I said to them as well as Yuuhi. “If we succeed in solving your story, I want you to assist us in putting a stop to the War of All.”
“Can you really do that?”
“If Yuuhi is a Namidare—moreover, if she was really the cause of all of this—then she should be able to use the time translocator to return to the past and change history, right?”
The latter half of my question was directed at Yuuhi. That was something I’d been able to do for Chirika and Nyanyan’s stories. And if Yuuhi was a Namidare too, then she also had the power to change fate... She was a crossroad keeper, as the doctor called it. Since she’d forced the fate of this future world onto the path that led to the War of All, then the reverse should also be possible. The war had spread across all known worlds, all of space... It had wrought destruction on a scale that could no longer be undone. Just like how the doctor had sought me out, there was no other way to handle this than to go straight to the source... And the source, in this case, was Yuuhi herself. If we could gain her cooperation, we could change the awful past to save this future world that had fallen to a twisted fate... Or so I hoped.
As for the crucial part, Yuuhi’s reply...
“Impossible.”
“Whaaat?!”
Her unexpected response left me in a fluster, but there was more to what she had to say.
“It’s impossible for you to solve the story I’m involved in.”
“Ah, that’s what you meant.”
Whew! We were saved. I thought she’d meant it was impossible to stop the War of All.
“We won’t know if it’s impossible or not until you explain things, so get talking.”
“...You’re rather forceful.”
“I’ve been leveling up that ability over the last half a year or so. Anyways,” I said, glaring at Yuuhi a little. “Just so we’re clear, I’m annoyed at you right now. My manners may be suffering a little for it.”
“Hmph... Well, I’m no saint either.”
“Obviously.”
It wasn’t like I had forgiven Yuuhi for starting the War of All just because it had to do with a story she was caught up in. She’d still hurt the future heroines. This world was still in shambles. None of that changed. I couldn’t forgive Yuuhi for it, but it wasn’t like punching her here was going to solve anything. Without her cooperation, we might not be able to nip the War of All in the bud. There was too much involved to proceed safely without her. That was the only thought holding my rage back right now.
“Just talk already,” I ordered Yuuhi for the third time.
She remained as displeased as ever, but finally said, “If you insist that much, I’ll tell you.”
She then proceeded to explain in a tone that clearly conveyed her lack of expectation...
“I’m currently wrapped up in a goddess’s story.”
“A goddess?” I was taken aback for a moment. “A goddess... You mean, like, a deity?”
“Duh.”
What? A deity? That was... on a level far more intimidating than I’d imagined. The future heroines and the past heroines who had just finished listening to R were all looking at each other in shock too. But... if this was a story that involved a mirror world, then maybe the heroine had to be something like a goddess for it all to make sense.
“Ahem... W-Well, all right, so your heroine is a goddess,” I said with a cough, pulling myself together. “What does her story entail?”
“A game that wagers worlds for worlds.”
“A game?!” Another unexpected response made me cock my head further to the side. “A game... Wait, if it’s a game, then does that mean the goddess is playing against someone else?”
Single-player games did exist, but the wager Yuuhi mentioned implied there was another party involved.
“That makes sense... She’s in a bind against whoever her opponent is, which is how she ended up a heroine. So, who’s the opponent?”
“Another goddess.”
“Another one?!”
“There isn’t just one deity, you know.”
“Okay, so there are multiple gods... Or at least two of them, you say?”
“Two at the very least, as far as I know. One is the goddess of my world, and the other is the goddess of yours.”
“Wha...?”
“Earlier, Hibiki over there told you I came from a mirror world.” Seeing my confused expression, Yuuhi began explaining. “The world I was born in, like Hibiki said, is a completely separate world from the one you and your heroines live in.”
“You mean... When you say ‘world,’ you mean something different from, like, the other worlds that Harissa and Corona live in?”
“That’s right. Imagine a large box.”
“A box?”
“Now imagine the world you live in, the world Harissa Hope lives in, and the world Zaia Gardendos Corona lives in all shut away inside the same box, just partitioned apart from each other within that box.”
“...”
So the places we’d been calling “worlds” were all actually within the same universe. That meant Yuuhi was from a different universe... somewhere outside the world-box we lived in.
“What I’ve just described is the correct unit of a world. Now, for each world-box that exists, there also exists a deity that created said box.”
“You mean... The goddess of my world and the goddess of your world, like you said earlier?”
“Exactly,” Yuuhi confirmed with a nod.
“I see.”
Okay, that much made sense. This whole world thing and...
“Hm?”
That was when something hit me.
“Wait, does that mean the goddess of your world is in trouble because...”
“Because of the goddess of your world, yes.”
“...Seriously?”
When she put it that way, I suddenly felt a little guilty.
“Wait a minute! That’s not Sir Rekka’s fault! This is all the goddesses’ fault!” Harissa suddenly interjected angrily.
It seemed, thanks to R’s explanation, the heroines from my timeline were all caught up to speed now.
“I don’t recall stating it was Rekka’s fault,” retorted Yuuhi.
“Then are you implying it’s this world’s fault instead?” future Harissa asked this time.
Wow, it was kinda hard to tell them apart... For convenience, I think I’ll just refer to my heroines by their names and the heroines from the future as “future (insert name here).”
Future Harissa continued her questioning, “I don’t know what this game between goddesses has to do with it, but why did you think it was okay to start the War of All in our world?”
“Well... Let me explain the game to you next,” Yuuhi said with a furrowed brow.
Just thinking about it seemed to upset her.
“First... What should I even compare it to? For a god, a world is basically their own miniature sandbox.”
“Miniature sandbox?”
“That’s right. In the limitless box of their world, they create whatever worlds they want, provide them with necessities, then watch over their growth.”
“So it’s like a world simulation game, basically.”
I hadn’t played many games like it, but I was familiar with the concept—games where you made a farm or a restaurant or an amusement park, then raised cows, invented recipes, created attractions, and other various things to make your world grow bigger and bigger.
“...Which makes us the characters the gods have created to fill their worlds.”
“That’s right. That’s not a bad way to think of it,” Yuuhi said with a shrug at my unhappy muttering.
The world we lived in was a goddess’s miniature sandbox... While that may be the truth, hearing it stated outright wasn’t a great feeling.
“Well, fine... Suppose that this world is a deity’s world simulation game. How does that relate to our current situation?”
“This is what I heard from the goddess of my world,” Yuuhi explained. “One day, the goddess of my world, Sith, was challenged by the goddess of your world, Maine, to a little wager in order to alleviate their boredom.”
“This is the game you were talking about?”
“That’s right. The so-called game was to see whose world was happier.”
“Whose world was happier...?”
When it became clear I wasn’t processing what she was saying, Yuuhi went into further detail. Apparently, the goddesses were able to measure the amount of happiness within their worlds. Sith and Maine—who were sisters—decided to compare their worlds’ happiness and compete to see who could make the happier world.
“The winner was supposed to achieve a certain lead over the loser, but there was no time limit, so the game continued for thousands of years.”
“Why would they do such a thing...?”
“Even humans like to compete. This is no different.”
I didn’t really think of sim games as a competition, but... I could understand the feeling of wanting to boast about the world you made to someone playing the same game. I guess it was like how my classmates were obsessed with that one game (I think it was some kind of cat collecting app?) and loved bragging about the characters they had to everyone else. This was just the divine version of that.
“So what does the game have to do with the story of the goddess you’re involved with? Sith, was it?”
“It’s very simple from there.” Yuuhi crossed her arms as if to hold back her feelings. “The goddess who loses the game loses their world. Sith and her world are on the verge of defeat right this moment.”
“...?!”
Yuuhi stated it so simply that the ridiculousness of what she said took a second to set in on me. The goddess who lost the game would lose their world... In other words, Yuuhi’s world would vanish.
“Hold on a minute,” the doctor interjected. “The world that’s about to lose is your world? Not ours?”
Huh... She had a point. If this was a match to compete and see who could get the happier world, it certainly seemed like the world afflicted by the War of All would be on the losing end.
“I see. So in order to ensure your goddess would win, you decided to cause the War of All in our world...” the doctor mused.
“That’s not it,” Yuuhi said with a shake of her head. “Sith’s world was the first to fall behind in happiness, and I learned the truth of it all once I became involved in her story. I had to cause the War of All here just to return things to a level playing field.”
“That’s...”
I started to say something, but the words escaped me. What Yuuhi had done was unforgivable, to me and to my world. But she’d only done it in order to save herself and her world. I’d assumed the mastermind behind all this would have to be the worst enemy ever after sacrificing Iris’s father just to start an intergalactic war... But she really wasn’t the atrocious villain I thought she’d be.
When I looked at Yuuhi, I thought I saw steely determination in her eyes...
But looking at her now, I realized that wasn’t really it. As stoic as she was, she looked like she could crumble at any moment.
“Do you understand now, Rekka Namidare? Without sowing misfortune in your world, I cannot save my own.”
I clutched at my chest. What... What emotions were running through Yuuhi when she said that just now? Did she think she was the final boss that was going to destroy the world or something? That would be ridiculous. She was her world’s version of me. That meant, just like me, she was a perfectly normal girl. She just had a special bloodline that was different than most. How had things turned out so awfully for her...?
“A story about destroying one world to save another, huh?”
“...”
“You didn’t have a choice, did you?”
“That’s right. That’s why—”
“But now I’m here.”
“...!”
There, Yuuhi went a little wide-eyed, and I felt the gazes of all the other girls gather on me. Yet strangely enough, I wasn’t nervous. The scale of Yuuhi’s story was incomprehensible, and in the end, I was just a regular guy. But even so, in spite of that, I’d saved plenty of stories before now. This... This was it. From the very first time half a year ago... No, from the moment I was dragged into R’s story after my bloodline awakened... This was what it had all been leading up to.
I looked up at the blue-haired girl floating next to me.
“What is it, Rekka?”
If this was the story that would settle things between me and her, it was probably fated from the moment we met that I would make this decision. I turned to address Yuuhi, R, and everyone else.
“I’m going to save the world.”