I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 10 Read online

  Prologue 1-1: Rachelle

  Love was grand. That was what Rachelle, angel of love and passion, thought every day.

  Love was grand. People were able to overcome all sorts of difficulties in the name of love.

  Love was grand. Even the most harmless person could become a valiant warrior in the name of love.

  And, most importantly...

  Passionate love can fill my stomach...

  Grrrowl...

  “...Hmph!”

  Rachelle elbowed her growling stomach in an attempt to shut it up.

  Grrrowl...

  But it didn’t comply.

  “I’m hungry...” she whined, finally giving up.

  The concept of hunger was different for angels than it was for humans. Angels couldn’t eat human food to satiate their appetites. Instead, they absorbed an invisible power called spiritual energy to sustain themselves. The exact type of spiritual energy an angel absorbed depended on the individual. As the angel of love and passion, Rachelle found her nourishment in the energy produced by humans who were passionately in love.

  “I’m so low on energy, but I still have to do my duty... It’s tough being a low-ranking angel... Argh! If only I had the energy levels of an archangel, I’d have so much more power!”

  Grrrowl...

  Rachelle’s vehement complaining used up even more of her already-dwindling stamina, and her stomach added a complaint of its own.

  “Harrumph!”

  Dizzy with hunger, Rachelle’s wings faltered for a moment, nearly causing her to fall.

  “Whoops...”

  It was a close call, but she managed to regain her balance and stay steady. She continued to fly onward, now looking up at the sky as she pressed a hand to her rumbling tummy. Maybe she had reached her limit.

  The reason for her hunger was, of course, her lack of angelic nourishment—spiritual energy. When angels failed to absorb their particular flavor of spiritual energy, they would cease to exist. In other words, Rachelle was on the brink of starving to death.

  “I... I have... to hurry... and get there...”

  The place Rachelle was trying to reach in spite of her dizzying hunger pains was an enormous source of love energy. The area Rachelle was in charge of was so far away from it that she’d only belatedly realized how powerful a source of love energy it really was. It was the most potent thing she’d ever seen. It would be enough not only to fill her ravenous stomach, but even increase her powers of love and passion by tenfold, with change to spare. And in order to reach this holy land of love energy, Rachelle was prepared to cross the ocean—or die trying. The energy source was located in the countryside of a nation that the humans called Japan.

  “There... it is...”

  Her head spinning, Rachelle finally arrived at the massive outlet of love energy. More specifically, it was a convergence point for said energy: a certain boy. However...

  “Hahh...”

  Perhaps it was due to the relief of arriving at her destination, or perhaps she had simply pushed herself past her limits. The strength left Rachelle’s body, and she spiraled downwards towards the spiky-haired boy walking below.

  Prologue 1-2: Zeta Zenonia

  President and general director of Zenonia Channel, the galactic netvision company broadcasting throughout the entire Galactic Federation. That was Zeta Zenonia’s title.

  As long as their channel passed the galactic netvision review, anyone could broadcast via the Galactic Federation Network. Some people like Zeta created their own shows as a company, while other individuals broadcasted their obscure, niche hobbies as a pastime. With the galactic net, audiences would select the channels they wanted to watch and pay the viewing fees for those choice channels, creating a direct correlation between viewership and income. A channel could only grow as its subscriber base did, naturally making the battle for viewers fierce—and Zeta Zenonia very tired.

  People in creative lines of work tended to be tired all year round, but the sagging bags under Zeta’s eyes after these last few weeks could rank her in the Federation Book of Galactic Records.

  “Heh heh heh, it’s done... Wait, ‘heh heh heh’? I’m not some evil villain.”

  Having worked through the night, she was delirious enough to mutter to herself. But it didn’t stop her. Zeta lifted up the project proposal she’d sacrificed her beauty sleep for and scanned it with a dangerous glint in her eye.

  “Heh heh heh... Aw, crap, I said it again. Whatever, it’s done. This time I have created a perfectly planned avant garde project.”

  Zeta continued to snicker under her breath as she praised herself. If anyone had been watching, she would have indeed looked like a suspicious character up to something nefarious. But since she was alone in her room right now, that wasn’t a problem.

  Her room was currently littered with empty energy drink cans and various snack trash. Zeta could no longer even recall exactly how long it had been since she’d started working on this. That was how bad it was this time. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say her career as a director and the fate of a dozen or so employees were relying on this project, after all.

  Zenonia Channel was the netvision company Zeta had established in her teens. Now in its third year, the company was fluctuating between average and above average in terms of scale and viewership. She had originally established the company out of her love for and desire to create anime. Particularly the superhero kind. She had taken out all kinds of loans to buy her channel rights and create her debut work, which was luckily a hit. After getting sponsors, repaying the initial start-up debt, and wrapping up her debut work after a good two-year run, it was time for her next project, which had unfortunately been a flop.

  What was she thinking back then? Looking back on it now, she’d probably wanted to challenge herself by making Zenonia Channel’s second work a documentary on unexplored regions. If she had stopped to think about it at the time, she would have realized that the viewers who enjoyed her first superhero anime were expecting something similar as a follow-up. And when that didn’t happen, of course they were disappointed, and her viewership plummeted accordingly.

  Really, it was as simple as that. If she’d stopped to think about it, she would have realized it. But what was done was done.

  “All right! There’s no way the company will go bankrupt with this!”

  What she was working on now was a new project plan to save her failing company. After a quick nap, Zeta would get started on promoting it and gathering funds. Perhaps she should come up with a promotional catchphrase and a good sales pitch...

  But first, I need sleep!

  And so, she decided to turn in for now. Zeta set her project proposal back down on her desk and kicked a path through the empty cans and bags to her bed. Sleep was one of the few pleasures her occupation could afford, so her bed was one of the latest models in all the galaxy. It guaranteed a sleep so peaceful, not even a meteorite could disturb you. It was even sturdier than your average shelter.

  Ahh! But when I wake up, I’ll probably start second-guessing my project proposal...

  Objectively, she knew that her self-praise earlier was just the result of a writer’s high. But for now, all she wanted was some shut-eye. So she put her worries aside and threw herself into bed.

  Prologue 1-3: Kiri Hayashibara

  Kiri Hayashibara was a hot-blooded girl. A middle schooler overflowing with vitality. She was in the softball club and had energy to spare. She wouldn’t consider herself manly, but she had been fighting with boys that picked on girls ever since elementary school. She believed that actions s
poke louder than words.

  Kiri Hayashibara was a man of justice. Or, more accurately, a woman of justice. She hated evil and unnecessary violence. But there wasn’t any particularly profound reason for such hatred; it wasn’t like she had a traumatic past or anything. She just couldn’t stand things like that. That was all there was to it.

  Thanks to her simple and straightforward personality, she believed in immediate judgments, immediate decisions, and immediate responses—which was both a good and bad thing. Basically, it was how she’d ended up in her current situation.

  “Yaaaaah!”

  Kiri landed on the ground with an exceedingly girly shriek. A small crater had formed at her feet from the impact of her landing, but it wasn’t because she was heavy. She had simply fallen from a tremendous height. As for where she fell from...

  “GRAAAAAAAAH!”

  She had been smacked down by the ridiculously large front legs of the kaiju that had just let out an earsplitting roar. Kaiju. Yes, kaiju. The very dictionary definition of one, no less. It was so typical that it could have crawled directly out of a Sunday morning TV show.

  It stood on two thick hind legs, had a long tail, and two short arms attached to its torso below a fat neck that held up an atrocious head. The rough hide all over its body was rock-hard. It stood far taller than any building around, so it went without saying that it simply dwarfed Kiri. Just standing at its feet made her feel like a speck of dust.

  “Damn! At this rate, the people of the town will be..!”

  As Kiri cursed to no one in particular, a strange creature appeared behind her and called out to her.

  “Star Prism! You okay?”

  “Yeah! I’m fine... but...”

  Kiri a.k.a. Star Prism craned her neck to look up at the kaiju. The longer she looked at it, the more hopeless the situation seemed.

  “...”

  “You’ve depleted your hero gauge fighting evil too much! You can’t win like this!”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right... But I won’t let this year of fighting go to waste!”

  It was only a year ago that Kiri had taken up the ridiculous title of hero. It all started when she ran into Starmon on her way home from the softball club. She was startled at first by the strange creature that spoke like a human, but soon warmed up to Starmon’s brash personality. That was all before she’d learned the shocking truth.

  Surprise! Earth was on the verge of destruction! And of course it had to be by an evil organization aiming for world domination!

  Said evil organization was teeming with villains and spies—far more than the police and military could ever handle. But, Starmon said, if Kiri formed a contract, she’d be able to transform into Star Prism and stop their schemes.

  “Okay! I’ll fight!”

  Staying true to her usual policy of immediate judgment, immediate decision, and immediate action, she readily agreed to Starmon’s contract.

  And so, for the past year, she’d been fighting the evil organization and its underlings. She’d faced all kinds of difficulties and hardships in her fight, but one week ago, she’d finally made her way to the final boss.

  However, just before she was able to deal the finishing blow, he went berserk with rage and summoned a space kaiju to destroy Earth in his stead.

  “If I cannot have this world, then no one will!” he’d shouted as he was defeated.

  And so Kiri was left with one hell of a souvenir. Accordingly, Kiri and Starmon had come to a remote area of Hokkaido on the first day of the second semester in order to face the kaiju from space. And that brings us up to about a minute ago, when Kiri was smacked into the ground by one of the kaiju’s front legs mid-jump. She’d been leaping for its big, stubby head.

  “GRAAAAAHH!”

  Its thunderous roar reverberated through the air. Each step forward it took shook the ground. Fortunately, there was no risk of innocent bystanders getting hurt in a remote area like this, but there was no telling what kind of damage it would do if it reached the cities. Considering its massive stride, it could reach the closest one in less than an hour.

  “So... what should I do?”

  This was where Kiri’s policy of immediate judgment, immediate decision, and immediate action came in handy. Even if she was no more than a pesky fly to this kaiju, she knew she needed to distract it and keep it from doing greater damage elsewhere. The best-case scenario would be if someone realized what was going on and evacuated the city before anything could happen. But it wasn’t all good news...

  “I don’t think I can defeat it after all...”

  This was where the downside to Kiri’s M.O. tended to catch up with her. It was simply too reckless to challenge such an enormous enemy with no plan. Defeat was only inevitable. And unlike in sports, there were no mulligans. Defeat here would mean the end for Kiri, Earth, humanity... Everything.

  I can’t even use my special ability in a remote area like this... Starlight Healing can’t purge the evil from a kaiju, either...

  The kaiju was moving on instinct. Its natural desire was to feed on others as a carnivore; there was no malicious intent behind it, rendering Kiri’s purifying power “Starlight Healing” useless.

  “Oh, well! There’s no point in hesitating now!”

  Kiri slapped her cheeks to get herself back in the game. Even if she couldn’t win, she still had a job to do as a distraction. Even if no one noticed the kaiju in time to start evacuations, she could at least buy enough time for the boy and girl she’d just met to get away. She had no idea what they were doing in such a remote area of Hokkaido in the first place. The boy had desperately tried to stop her from challenging the kaiju, telling her to run from the danger.

  He was wearing weird clothes, too...

  Well, Kiri didn’t really have any room to talk. Appearances aside... If it meant a nice person like that could live in this world for just a little longer, that was reason enough for Kiri to fight. And so Kiri abandoned all thoughts of escape and threw herself into the futile battle at hand.

  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 ch
ances 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.