Chapter 6: The Arakawa Particle

“Critical failure has occurred. Laboratory Block E-2 will be isolated. Researchers please evacuate immediately. I repeat...”

As the alarm was being issued by an unnatural sounding mechanical voice, I held my head in my hands, trying to figure out how it had come to this. I could see Mom screaming at the other side of the block.

You’ve done enough! Hurry up and escape! I thought. I’ll input the termination program into the apparatus, so there’s no need to worry! This all started with me doing something unnecessary. I’ll take responsibility!

Rather than evacuating, I turned to face Mom who was busy yelling something, and I opened my mouth wide to tell her, “Thank you for raising me.” Then I inputted the program into the particle converter in front of me.

Looks like a self-destruction procedure started...

The scenery around me began rapidly distorting. Finally, my vision abruptly went black...

**

Kouki Arakawa’s Point of View

The Academy was closed for the day, and I was visiting my mom while she worked on her main project at the Space Particle Research Institute. Mom had said she really wanted me to help her investigate new particles. I didn’t think my being there would be of any use to her, but I couldn’t refuse after she smiled and said, “Please.” If I had refused, I’d just have been repeating the same mistakes I’d seen Macho Man make, so that wasn’t an option.

“Kouki, this way,” my guide from the institute told me.

They really do have a lot of equipment here, I thought as I looked off to one side. Isn’t that thing over there a personal particle rifle? What are they doing with a thing like that?

My guide saw me looking and explained it to me. “We use that in particle research. Most information might be of no relevance, but we have no way of knowing where we might find some hint.”

He went on to explain that Block E-2, where Mom was waiting, had an armory filled with everything from military-use powered suits to experimental gravitational collapse bombs.

If Saito heard about this, he’d probably get excited and start acting weird, I thought as we continued walking.

Before long, we arrived at what appeared to be our destination.

Mom gave me a smile and said, “I see you’ve brought Kouki with you. Well, then, the experiment will begin in five minutes.” Then she began to prepare the experiment.

I feel like I really shouldn’t be here.

The researchers around me were even exchanging whispers as they looked to me. I imagined most of them were saying, Why is there a kid here? Whenever I looked at them and they looked away from me quickly, I started to feel as if I might cry.

Not wanting to get in the way... or rather, not wanting any other researchers to see me, I moved to a desk in the corner of the room and sat there quietly. From there, I watched over the experiment while making sure my expression didn’t betray thoughts like, I can’t wait to get home and laze around.

“Okay, let’s begin the experiment,” my mom announced.

A piece of apparatus in the room began to whirr, and an alarm sounded. But nothing happened.

Mom tried starting the apparatus once more, but again, nothing happened, and an awkward feeling filled the room.

All of the researchers turned to face me in unison.

“What do you think?” one of them asked me.

How should I know? Why are you even asking me?! I don’t even know what you’re researching or what you’re trying to do.

I tried asking Mom what kind of response would be considered a success, and it seemed they wanted to see an instantaneous flash. According to Mom, if the particle could be observed as predicted, there’d be a connection to another space and the surroundings of the apparatus would momentarily jump into the other space. The particle would then be destroyed, releasing its energy, which would cause an instantaneous flash.

I don’t get it at all. But I don’t feel like I can say that when everyone is expecting so much from me, so I’ll just say something that sounds sensible.

“Make the testing area darker, don’t let even the slightest bit of light be overlooked,” I said. “And please turn up the instrument output a little.”

After the researchers had put my ideas into practice, they tried the experiment again, and unsurprisingly nothing happened.

Well, what did you expect? If I could think up a way to make the experiment work, Mom would have been able to make it work already.

Feeling disheartened, I watched the researchers hold a discussion while I took a particle structure model in my hand and began idly rearranging it to pass the time.

“Kouki, that’s... That’s it!! That’s the answer,” Mom suddenly shouted while looking at the model that I was holding.

Hold on, I’ve got a bad feeling about this... This is that same feeling I had when I struck down the ballistic missile and everyone had a “misunderstanding.”

I desperately tried to get this through to Mom, but she simply replied, “Don’t worry! I know exactly what you want to say, Kou,” and she didn’t listen to me.

“Mom... you don’t understand anything,” I mumbled in a quiet voice, but she didn’t hear. And you’ve started casually calling me Kou again.

Mom was in serious-mode, giving out instructions with fearsome energy, and there was no way to stop her. All I could do was quietly watch. When the preparations were finally over, Mom tried the experiment again.

“Light emission phenomenon confirmed!” a researcher cried.

Everyone in the room began to cheer. I watched it all going on around me, and then I realized something.

The light was getting stronger.

Other people seem to have realized it, too, and they were frantically trying to shut off the apparatus, but they didn’t seem to be having much success. A sensor that had detected an anomaly then began to sound an alarm.

“Critical failure has occurred. Laboratory Block E-2 will be isolated. Researchers, please evacuate immediately. I repeat...”

Everyone in the room ran for the exit all at once. Another researcher had grabbed Mom by the arm and was urging her to evacuate.

I, on the other hand, couldn’t keep up with everything that was happening. My knees felt weak, and I couldn’t move.

“Um, someone...” I wanted someone to carry me, but my voice just trailed off into nothing.

Isn’t this the kind of time when that old guy, Baldy, should be showing up?! Where the hell is he right now?!

Then an isolation door slid shut before my eyes.

**

Miki Arakawa’s Point of View

I’d been in a good mood since this morning because of Kouki coming to help with my research today.

I heard my staff talking in whispers around me.

“So, this boy is her son?”

“I heard he recently created a cure for the European tragedy.”

My son himself sat in a chair at a desk in the corner of the room and watched over us, probably so he could take in everything at his leisure.

A feeling of confidence grew inside of me. There’s no way we can fail...

This experiment would use the equation that Kouki had constructed to prove that other dimensions actually existed. It had been decided that the particle we expected to observe would be known as the “Arakawa particle.” I wanted it to be named the “Kouki particle,” after its true discoverer, but that was rejected because it didn’t roll off the tongue as well.

Once all of the preparations were complete, I said, “Okay, let’s begin the experiment,” and pressed the activation switch.

But nothing happened. I tried the experiment once more, but once again, nothing happened.

“What could be wrong?” a member of my staff asked me.

I had no answers, and let it slip that I was wondering what Kouki was thinking. In that instant, everyone turned to face Kouki in unison. Kouki opened his mouth in shock as everyone looked at him.

“Make the testing area darker, don’t let even the slightest bit of light be overlooked,” he said at last. “And please turn up the apparatus output a little.”

I’m sure he was shocked. It was our research, and yet we’d given up thinking for ourselves and were relying on a child. We put his ideas into practice and tried the experiment again, but there was absolutely no reaction.

I gathered my staff to discuss it, but we were forced to conclude that the experiment had ended in failure.

Just then, I looked over to Kouki and saw that he was doing something with a particle model. He had rapidly rearranged it into something that blew me away...

My predicted particle bonding was wrong?!

I suspected that Kouki had known from the start that the experiment would fail. However, if he’d said that right away, he would have wounded our pride. Having reached that conclusion, he was only showing us his original solution now that our experiment had failed.

After inputting the bonding model that Kouki had made, I began the experiment for the third time.

“Light emission phenomenon confirmed!”

When I heard the announcement, I was elated! Kouki’s equation hadn’t been wrong. But I soon realized that something wasn’t quite right. The light emission phenomenon wasn’t diminishing in the slightest. In fact, the affected area was gradually growing.

An emergency alarm sounded.

“Critical failure has occurred. Laboratory Block E-2 will be isolated. Researchers please evacuate immediately. I repeat...”

One of my staff members led me to safety, but Kouki wasn’t with us.

“Where’s Kouki?! Did my boy get out?” I screamed.

As I was screaming, I saw Kouki still at the other side of the block. He was smiling strangely as if the problem was something minor.

This is serious; why aren’t you evacuating?! I wanted to scream.

Then I saw Kouki pick up the emergency termination manual that was sitting by the particle converter.

“He stayed behind to stop it?” I cried.

We had put our own safety first and evacuated while the boy had been alone in thinking about how to stop the apparatus. We all realized that we had forced a child to do the work that should have been handled by our employees.

Even though it was too late, we started trying to pry open the isolation doors so we could do it ourselves. However, once closed, the isolation doors couldn’t be opened without following proper procedure.

Amidst it all, I saw Kouki turn toward me and mouth some words to me.

Tha. Yuu. Fo. Rai. Sin. Me.

“Thank you for raising me” was probably what he was saying.

I pounded on the isolation door, oblivious to the blood dripping from my palms. “Kouki! Kouki!!”

A dreadful thought occurred to me: this might be our final parting. He must have finished entering the termination program because he turned to me with a satisfied look on his face.

My son and the research block both disappeared before my eyes.

May 20, 2102: Critical Failure at the Space Particle Research Institute.

Although no researchers or civil employees were injured, Kouki Arakawa, the son of lead researcher Miki Arakawa, was caught up in the incident, and his whereabouts afterward were unknown.

Numerous pieces of prototype military-use equipment were stored in the vanished Laboratory Block E-2, and a search for the missing person and a simultaneous search for the missing equipment were both considered to be matters of urgency.

**

Kouki Arakawa’s Point of View

I woke up and looked at the area around me. I saw the disordered contents of the room and the destroyed particle converter.

“I’m quite sure I managed to input the termination program,” I said to no one in particular.

I wonder if the termination was successful? If that’s the case, someone should have come here to help me right away. Does that mean it failed?

I thought about it for some time without reaching a conclusion before eventually deciding that I should find out what was happening outside.

“Oh man, I can’t open the isolation door.” I stood before the closed isolation door doing my best to pry it open, but it wouldn’t budge.

I sat down in front of the isolation door and tried to think of a plan. I remembered the person who’d guided me here telling me that powered suits and suchlike were stored somewhere in this block.

I searched the area trying to find the storage room, and found a powered suit on the other side of a broken, reinforced door that was hanging off.

“Storage room?” I murmured. “This is more like an armory.”

Inside, I saw numerous military-use weapons densely packed into the room. Each item was conveniently accompanied by an instruction manual, presumably so that they could be used by researchers without training.

After looking over the equipment, I equipped a prototype powered suit for use in outer space that looked like it would hold out even if a fire was blazing on the other side of the isolation door. There was an angel design drawn on its chest, probably because it could fly above the clouds.

I used it to pry open the isolation door, and beyond the door, I found wreckage and a swarm of robots that seemed to be surrounding the area.

For a moment I panicked, but I hadn’t died once and then gotten reincarnated just for show. I kept calm and focused on grasping the situation.

1. Where am I? The suit’s GPS and the position information on my terminal aren’t functioning, so I don’t know.

2. Who’s surrounding this place? I’ve detected no country-specific identification signals, and the appearance of the robots gives me nothing to go on.

3. Have I been reincarnated again? I have no memory of dying, and the probability seems low based on my surroundings, but it’s unclear.

In conclusion, everything was unclear.

This sucks... I’m so tense that I think I might wet myself. I just want to go home.

One of the robots from the robot squad before me began flying toward me. It suddenly spoke to me in Japanese: “Tell us who you’re associated with.”

Is this Japan? I wondered.

As I was trying figure that out, it spoke up. “Everyone, disengage your weapons! Show some respect to our messiah.”

It spoke in a loud voice that reverberated through the surrounding area. The robots around us immediately came toward me, and they all made a movement that I thought was a salute.

Wait just a minute. By “messiah,” do they mean me?

“Please accept our apologies, Messiah,” the robot said formally. “Would you be so kind as to accompany us?”

I couldn’t quite grasp what was happening. The only thing I could say was, “Okay.”

**

Nina Ackroyd’s Point of View

My birthplace, the Ackroyd Empire, had been at war with the demon lord’s army.

Two years ago, my father, His Majesty the King, had ordered the full-scale mobilization of his empire and gambled the empire in its entirety on a decisive victory against the demon lord.

There had been many great battles and minor skirmishes, and we had suffered countless casualties, but today we had finally surrounded the demon lord’s castle. We’d believed that this would mean victory, but what had been waiting for the soldiers of the empire’s armies was pure despair.

Demons had poured out of the demon lord’s castle in numbers beyond counting. We had only just barely been able to surround the area, and we weren’t sure we had the strength remaining for such a fight.

Perhaps it’s impossible for us to continue fighting? I thought desperately.

Morale was plummeting, and defeat seemed inevitable from the very start. But then something happened.

The surroundings of the demon lord’s castle suddenly became distorted and were bathed in an intense white light. For a moment, I closed my eyes as if I’d been staring directly at the sun.

When I next opened my eyes, what I saw was the wreckage of the demon lord’s castle, which had been blown apart, with not a single part left standing.

The demons that had been pouring out had also disappeared without a trace. The extent of the destruction was such that only the remains of an elder dragon, which were said to have unrivaled toughness, was just barely discernible. A building of unknown nature seemed to have materialized in the center of it all.

“Princess, what shall we do?” a soldier who also served within my imperial guard asked me.

What makes you think I’ve got all the answers?! I wanted to yell angrily; but I was the highest ranking authority here, so I couldn’t do that.

The best I could do was give an order to buy some time: “All forces, encircle the area and keep watch. If anything moves, do not attack carelessly.”

What even is that thing?! I thought wildly. Maybe it’s the work of an ally, but if they had a weapon this powerful, they would have first sought a favor from our country in exchange. Does that mean we’re facing a new enemy?

“This is a nightmare,” I moaned.

That’s right, a nightmare. Fighting against an enemy who could blow up the demon lord’s castle and kill an elder dragon with a single blow will be no laughing matter. No human could stand against such an opponent.

“There’s movement! Something is emerging from inside!” called out one of my soldiers.

That brought me to my senses. Indeed, a figure was emerging from the building. It was awfully big; I estimated that it was roughly twice the size of the magic armor we were using. The thing that emerged didn’t attack us; it simply stood there.

“What shall we do? There’s only one opponent. We could all strike now,” the soldier counseled.

“Wait, I’m going to take a closer look,” I said. “Don’t attack before then. If anything happens, destroy me with it.”

Not that you’d stand a chance, I thought. But I stopped myself from saying that. There’s no way you could defeat that thing, and all of our allies would be obliterated in an instant.

I was biting my lip as I arrived in front of the thing.

Majestic... That seemed to be the right word to describe the appearance of this thing. Despite being surrounded by so many soldiers, it stood there completely at ease.

“Tell us who you’re associated with,” I asked it.

In response, its neck moved just slightly so as to face me.

It seemed it had some intelligence. If it only had the intelligence of a creature like an orc or a goblin, that would be a problem, but if we could have a discussion, we might be able to resolve this peacefully.

I was slightly relieved and felt able to look at the thing calmly. Then I realized that the emblem of angels was drawn on the thing’s chest.

I immediately understood: the thing was a messiah sent by the gods as humanity’s savior. I instinctively began giving orders to my subjects.

“Show respect to our messiah!”

As expected of well-trained soldiers, they acted on my words before they had time to form doubts.

As it should be. It would not do to show Him disrespect.

I chose my words carefully before addressing Him. “Please accept our apologies, Messiah. Would you be so kind as to accompany us?”

In response, he quietly consented. “Okay.”

I quickly gave instructions to my men, and the imperial capital was informed that the war against the demon lord had ended together with the appearance of the messiah. His Majesty the King then declared that I was to guide him to the castle so that the king might thank him personally.

As I was guiding the messiah to the imperial capital, I realized that I’d been so rude that I hadn’t removed my magic armor to greet him face-to-face.

I regretted it so much that I thought I might die.

**

Kouki Arakawa’s Point of View

The road ahead was filled completely by the people cheering.

That wasn’t really too surprising, since we’d just put an end to the Demon Lord War after two long years. Although the whole thing happened completely by chance...

Oh man, my stomach is in knots.

Princess Nina, who had been piloting one of those robot things, had already told me a lot by the time we reached this point on the road.

She told me about the hopeless and devastating war they had fought, and she told me more about this world.

It seemed that in addition to having been reincarnated, I’d now traveled to another world. The place where I’d materialized had been the interior of the demon lord’s castle; and the aftermath had not only obliterated the castle, but had also blown away all of the demons.

“It just happened by chance. I wasn’t aiming for anything,” I told her.

“Of course. If the messiah had gotten serious, there wouldn’t have even been any wreckage left.”

I tried explaining, but she didn’t understand at all; her interpretation was way off.

You know, it could have been a disaster. If the place where I’d materialized had just been shifted by just 500 meters, the imperial army would have been blown away. If that had happened, one hour after traveling here, I’d have been overrun by the demon lord’s army and killed. Even in a story, you wouldn’t expect anyone to be able to just immediately start fighting the demon lord right after traveling.

The whole time we were talking, the carriage I’d been riding in had been steadily approaching the king’s castle. When we were close enough to see the castle gates, I noticed someone kneeling on the ground.

The carriage approached and then stopped, and the person surprised me by saying, “Welcome to my country, Messiah. I am King Wolfric Ackroyd.”

Why would the king be kneeling in wait for me?! I thought in disbelief. Couldn’t his imperial guard stop him?!

Ordinary behavior for someone like this would be to look at me with suspicion and claim that no one needs a messiah.

Even if there is a misunderstanding, you shouldn’t be humbling yourself before me like this!

“I’m Kouki Arakawa. Thank you for your kind invitation,” I said, returning his greeting as calmly as possible.

I made sure not to say the things I was thinking. If I spoke to him like that, he’d probably respond with, “Off with his head!”

“First, please accompany me to the throne room so we can express our gratitude,” the king told me. “Over dinner, we can discuss what offerings we’d like to give you.”

With that, he guided me into the castle. I was surprised to find that when we reached the throne room, for some reason it was me who was made to sit on the throne.

Everyone who held an important office in the country came before me to bow their heads, and all expressed gratitude to me for “gracing us with your present manifestation.”

There are so many people here that at least one of them should be able to fully understand what I’m saying, I thought, before interrupting their speeches.

“Everyone, please. Listen to me. I’m...”

I frantically tried to explain.

During an experiment to connect two spaces, I had just happened to arrive in this world. In the other world, my mom and my friends were worrying about me, and if possible, I wanted to return as soon as I could.

I made my explanation as easy to understand as possible. I saw some of the people actually began crying while I was explaining. It seemed as though they sympathized with my situation, and there was even one man that looked like a strong warrior who began crying while looking at me.

I was relieved that I’d been able to make them understand. Nina then told me, “There is a way for you to return, Messiah!” and she explained the details.

The gist was that this country had a secret technique known as the “hero summoning ritual.” If I strongly wished to return to my own world while they were performing the ritual, I’d be able to return.

Magic is awesome!

Come to think of it, the fact that I was able to talk to them like this had to be because there was some sort of constantly-active translation magic.

My mom was always saying, “Nothing compares to science!” but if I showed her how things worked in this world, she’d probably fall flat on her face.

Nina and everyone are so kind. I wonder if they’ll let me return home with a souvenir. Later I’ll try coming up with an excuse for asking, I thought to myself as we moved to another room to have dinner.

“This is Kurghitos salad.”

The food they served at dinner was delicious. Let me put that more eloquently: The food was insanely delicious!

What is this? Based on the name, it was a food unique to this world, and the taste was something I’d never experienced. They told me that they would perform the ritual to send me home tomorrow morning, so I enjoyed the food served at dinner without worrying.

Then the king began to speak with a strange look on his face. “The truth is, I have a favor to ask of you, Messiah.”

I was in a good mood, so I urged him to continue, and said that I’d do what I could to grant his request. At this point it seemed I was stuck with the name “Messiah.”

“So that we might deal with any further calamities caused by demons in the future, would it be possible for you to leave just a fraction of your power in this world?”

Well, if it’s helping people, I don’t mind.

After warning them that it might not be much use, I answered, “In that case, I’ll leave behind some gravitational collapse bombs, the suit I’m using, and twenty laser rifles, along with the instruction manuals.”

“We’re truly grateful!” he cried. “Thank you so much!”

“Don’t worry about it!” I said. “You’re helping me get home, after all, so this much is fair.”

I followed up by mentioning that for a while now, I’d been wondering whether I might receive something to commemorate the occasion.

The king then gave me a dragon scale, a nationally treasured gazelle butterfly specimen, and a set of armor worn by imperial nights. Nina gave me a silver wolf blanket.

Afterward, I returned to the room they’d given me with a grin on my face.

The next day, I was following Nina’s instructions as I made preparations to return home in the room where the ritual would be held. As the sorcerers were charging their magic, I asked a question that had been bothering me all this time.

“If you’d summoned a hero at the start, wouldn’t the war have ended sooner?”

“If the hero hadn’t had the ability to defeat the demon lord, it would have been futile,” Nina told me. “Our sorcerers don’t have enough magic power to be able to take such chances.”

I see... That makes sense. They aimed to solve things by themselves without using power wastefully.

I felt admiration for these people as the sorcerers told me that preparations were complete.

I guess it’s time to go home...

I turned to Nina to say my goodbyes.

“Well then, this is goodbye, Nina.”

“Thank you so much, Messiah.”

As I entered the summoning circle, I secretly took a picture of Nina using the camera function of my terminal, and then focused my mind on my original world.

The king, who was standing near me, told me, “When our sorcerers are done recovering their power, we’ll continue by returning the items you’ve left behind, Messiah.”

My vision then went black once again...

**

Nina Ackroyd’s Point of View

While I was explaining our world to the messiah, our carriage soon arrived at the imperial capital.

On the way, we passed through numerous portals, and the messiah inspected them with great interest each time. That sort of technology probably wasn’t used anymore in the world of the gods where the messiah lived.

As we continued on to the castle and joined the main road, the townspeople began cheering loudly.

“Long live the king! Long live Nina!”

“Hoorah! The demon lord is defeated!!”

It was these smiles I wanted to protect, and it’s all thanks to the Messiah sitting beside me, I thought, smiling, as His Majesty the King, who was kneeling in wait, came into view.

A crowd gathered, trying to catch a glimpse of the messiah who even His Majesty would wait for in such a pose.

The carriage then stopped before His Majesty.

“Welcome to my country, Messiah. I am King Wolfric Ackroyd.”

“I’m Kouki Arakawa,” the messiah said. “Thank you for your kind invitation.”

As the two exchanged greetings, the messiah surprised me. Even though he had shown us such power, he interacted with his Majesty without even a hint of self-importance. I’d have forgiven him for yelling, “Don’t address me so casually, you worms!” But by addressing the king as an equal, he allowed us to keep our dignity.

I wish this country’s idiotic nobles would take a lesson from him, I thought ruefully.

“First, please accompany me to the throne room so we can express our gratitude,” His Majesty said. “Over dinner, we can discuss what offerings we’d like to give you.”

It seemed we were going to move to a new location. I took the opportunity to return to my room and change into a formal dress before hurrying to the throne room.

There, everyone who worked at the castle, from army officers to civil officials, were bowing before the messiah to express their gratitude, but the messiah didn’t look pleased.

Why would he be unhappy? I wondered. Then he suddenly began to speak.

“Everyone, please. Listen to me. I’m...”

I was shocked by what he had to say. It turned out that it had been entirely by chance that he had seen our tragedy unfolding through a tunnel connecting the world of the gods to our world. Ignoring the protests of those around him, he had forced the sacred particle converter to stop and risked everything to intervene in our world.

What a compassionate being... I thought. He came to save us even though it meant sacrificing himself.

Everyone was so moved by his self-sacrifice and compassion that they began to cry. Even Axe Kyou, a man considered the archetypal warrior, began to softly weep.

Unsurprisingly, the messiah’s one regret was having to leave his family and friends behind. He told us, “I’d like to return if possible.”

No sooner had he spoken that an idea occurred to me. I yelled, “There is a way for you to return, Messiah!”

When I told him there was a way, I saw the messiah smile for first time. Everyone present supported the use of the summoning ritual, and Axe Kyou left his seat, excitedly shouting, “Gather all the sorcerers in the kingdom!”

After the commotion in the throne room, we attended a peaceful banquet. Dishes prepared to the best of the court cook’s ability were served to the messiah, who found them to his liking.

His Majesty then made an unthinkable request.

“So that we might deal with any further calamities caused by demons in future, would it be possible for you to leave just a fraction of your power in this world?”

For a moment, the atmosphere was tense as we feared the messiah would be displeased by the request and would reduce the empire to ashes overnight.

Does His Majesty understand what he’s saying? I glanced at His Majesty and saw sweat was running down his face as he waited for an answer. It seemed he had understood and asked anyway.

Far from reacting as we feared, the messiah replied cheerfully. “In that case, I’ll leave behind some gravitational collapse bombs, the suit I’m using, and twenty laser rifles, along with the instruction manuals.”

Then, with some hesitation, the messiah asked whether he might receive something to commemorate helping us defeat the demon lord of this world.

We’d already prepared gifts of the highest quality to give to the messiah, gathered from within the castle, and when we presented these to the messiah, he was pleased and thanked us many times.

The next day, it came time for the messiah to return. While the sorcerers were charging their energy into a summoning circle, the messiah asked me a question with a serious face.

“If you’d summoned a hero at the start, wouldn’t the war have ended sooner?”

“If the hero hadn’t had the ability to defeat the demon lord, it would have been futile,” I explained. “Our sorcerers don’t have enough magic power to be able to take such chances.”

In the end, I lied to him...

Such things had been discussed, but the conservative nobles had protested, We don’t need no hero! and hadn’t been willing to cooperate. I had chosen words that I thought wouldn’t cause him any unnecessary concern on his way home. He seemed to believe me.

The sorcerers then informed us that they had finished their preparations.

“Well then, this is goodbye, Nina,” he said.

“Thank you so much, Messiah.”

The messiah entered the summoning circle and closed his eyes.

His Majesty, who was standing beside me, quickly told him, “When our sorcerers are done recovering their power, we’ll continue by returning the items you’ve left behind, Messiah,” and in that moment, the messiah vanished.

“Looks like he made it home,” His Majesty said softly.

He continued to look at the summoning circle with a somewhat lonely gaze, and then finally he recovered his senses and spoke:

“Well then, after we’ve dispatched the remaining items, there are some internal problems our kingdom must deal with. Then there’s also the aftermath of the Demon Lord War.”

I looked at him and saw him looking full of life for the first time in two years. I suggested, “Let’s build a statue to honor the messiah who saved this world.”

Later, to be confident that the demon lord had been successfully conquered, the Ackroyd kingdom used the relics of the messiah to drive away the demons that had attacked us so many times; and as a result of continuing to fight without ever giving up, we finally succeeded in eradicating all demons.

It became a rule that all kings were to be given the middle name Arakawa, and children were raised listening to the story of the legendary messiah, the story of how the Messiah had left our world with an ideal future, just “by chance.”

The items left by the messiah were carefully dispatched from the summoning circle as the kingdom had promised. However, we weren’t able to overcome the waves in space very well, and rather than transferring them to the year 2102, they were actually scattered throughout the world of 1915 and claimed by various nations.

Research on these items led to the early conclusion of the Second World War, but that’s another story...

**

Miki Arakawa’s Point of View

It had been two days since Kouki had disappeared before my eyes in the incident. I had arrived at the laboratory block of the Space Particle Research Institute, which remained sealed.

“Kouki, where did you go?” I whispered.

I’d lost count of how many times I had whispered the same unanswerable question.

When I’d contacted Shuuichi, he’d given me encouragement by saying, “That boy’s as wise as he is strong. I’m sure he’ll return.” But he had appeared depressed when we were together.

When I’d told Kouki’s friends about his disappearance, they had also been terribly depressed. In particular, the girl named Alice had seemed to be more shocked than I was as his mother; when I told her, she collapsed on the ground.

“Everyone is worried, so come home soon,” I said quietly.

I was speaking to the empty space that had been so mercilessly hollowed out before my eyes.

It’s no good. Being here just makes me feel despair, I thought sadly.

Just as I was about to turn and leave, a reaction just like the one that had happened when the converter went out of control began occurring again.

The space became warped, and a pure white light began to spread out. The flash of light shone brightly for an instant, and then there was Kouki standing before my eyes.

I didn’t know how, but he was wearing western-style armor; a cloth glowing silver was in his hand; and he was holding a case containing a specimen of butterfly I’d never seen before.

He noticed me and, after thinking for a while, he tilted his head and said, “Hi, Mom. I’m home,” as if he was greeting me after just returning home from school.

I held him while crying... My child who I’d thought I would never see again had returned to me.

“Ouch! Mom, let go!” He looked angry, probably because I’d put too much force into it.

When I asked him where he’d been and what he’d been doing for the last two days, he told me the most incredible story.

With a smile, he explained that he’d “just happened to be transported to a demon lord’s castle in another world and destroyed the castle;” he’d been “invited as a state guest by the king of the nation that had been fighting the demon lord;” and he had “received local products as souvenirs when returning home using magic.”

My own son’s adaptability surprised me. I joked that he was “like a messiah from a fairy tale.”

“Yeah, they actually called me ‘Messiah.’ I didn’t feel worthy, so I found it embarrassing,” he said, laughing with me.

Then he told me all about the things he’d brought back with him from the other world and photographs he’d taken there. Those surprised me, too.

He’d brought back a dragon scale, armor from the Ackroyd kingdom’s army, a specimen of a butterfly native to the other world, and a lap blanket made from a silver wolf, which was a type of demon.

I told him I’d like them for my research but he said, “No, these are souvenirs. Mom, you can have just the scale,” and he handed only the scale to me. The rest, he handed to a bald bodyguard who was nearby.

I kind of... I really wanted the other items, too, but for now I was just happy that Kouki had returned safely.

Then I remembered something I’d forgotten. Although Kouki doesn’t know it, over six million armed personnel were mobilized to search for him around the world.

I contacted Shuuichi to put a stop to that.

While thinking of how to deal with the major nations of the world, I sighed over a worry completely different from the one that had been bothering me just a few minutes ago.

May 22, 2102: After Having Gone Missing in the Incident, Kouki Arakawa Returned Under His Own Power.

Based on secret information from the intelligence departments of various nations, it was believed that Kouki Arakawa traveled to another world using the theory he’d constructed himself, and then returned to us.