I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 15 Read online

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Color Illustrations

  Character Introductions

  Prologue

  Chapter 3: The Status of the Future

  Chapter 4: Searching Out Connections

  Chapter 5: Beyond a Billion Stars

  Chapter 6: The Problem Right in Front of Me

  Next Prologue

  Afterword

  About J-Novel Club

  Copyright

  Prologue

  In a world unlisted in the Akashic record, a girl was born with a certain fate. She was raised rapidly within that world in order to meet that fate. It was sometimes painful, sometimes cruel, and always heavy. But she never let it weigh her down, because she believed it was something worth doing. Without ever uttering a single complaint, she accepted her destiny.

  Sometimes that meant fighting to the bitter end. Sometimes it meant helping others. Sometimes it meant clinging desperately. Sometimes it meant having to make a choice. It was by no means easy. No, it was cruel and harsh. There was never a relaxing moment, but there was happiness.

  There were moments she received gratitude. Moments she was able to save people. Moments when they encouraged her. Moments they showed her great kindness. And those moments spurred her onward. All the pain she experienced gave her grit to endure just as the happiness drove her forward. That was how she lived.

  She wasn’t always strong, but her way of living tempered her like steel. And then, one day... A hole opened in the world. At the center of her broken world surged forth darkness and despair. But even then, she didn’t give up.

  Chapter 3: The Status of the Future

  In repelling the army of giant robots that had suddenly appeared, we successfully defended my hometown for the time being. But if left alone, more and more enemies would continue to come from the future. In light of that, the doctor invited me to return to the future with her via the time translocator... in order to save the abducted heroines and, if possible, to catch the mastermind behind their kidnapping.

  According to the doctor, the mastermind of this so-called radical faction might have some kind of connection to the War of All...

  The War of All. In a way, it was the root of everything. Well, R had once said the real root of everything was me, but...

  Anyway, a fight over me between the heroines had apparently erupted into a full-on war that spanned all known worlds and dimensions.

  Really thinking about it, it just sounds so unrealistic.

  Especially the “over me” part. I honestly couldn’t process the idea of being so valuable that so many heroines would seriously fight over me. I guess I shouldn’t say “me,” though... We’re talking about my future self here—future Rekka.

  And as the doctor had just informed me, future Rekka had apparently been missing ever since the War of All first started. Who knew where I was or what I’d been doing? Especially at a time when everyone needed me the most...

  It felt a little weird kicking myself for something I personally hadn’t even done—again, we were talking about future Rekka here. But whatever.

  Future Rekka’s absence was actually what was causing the War of All to drag on. After all, the War of All was pretty explicitly about me. In essence, the whole reason for the war and the desired spoils from said war had gone missing. If this were a race, you could say the goal had up and vanished. And so the race would keep going forever... meaning ceaseless war with no end in sight.

  Apparently, several of the future heroines believed I’d been captured and confined by another heroine. They all suspected each other, of course, making the fight between them even more complicated. All of that tension had reached a head, and that was how we ended up with the War of All.

  “The time leap will be over soon,” the doctor suddenly announced, pulling me out of my thoughts.

  Right now, we were inside the flow of time, where sensory perception was altered in a strange way. I could hear the doctor’s voice even now, but I had no idea where she was.

  “And then we’ll be in the future?” I asked.

  “Yes. It’s a little weird to say this while we’re inside the flow of time itself, but in another minute or so.”

  “So, where will we come out in the future?”

  “Agency headquarters.”

  “I see.”

  We were in the mountains just outside of town when we entered the flow of time, so apparently the time translocator could leap through more than just time? Or were we simply returning to agency HQ because that’s where the time translocator was located? Well, as long as we knew our destination, it didn’t matter to me.

  “L, are you worried?” the doctor asked, now turning to her daughter.

  L, however, only answered with silence. After helping us repel the giant robots, she’d followed me and the doctor back to the future.

  Come to think of it, L must have mixed feelings about going back to the agency.

  L was originally part of the agency too. She and R were both artificial lifeforms called Kiklim that were created by the doctor. L came first and was designed to be dispatched to me in the past, but when it was determined that more functionality was necessary for the mission, R was created to replace L. L was then decommissioned and put into society to live a normal life, but she wasn’t satisfied with that. She ended up defecting and worked with the radicals to try and assassinate me under orders from whoever is behind the hardliner faction. No matter how you looked at it, she’d betrayed the agency. It was safe to assume that her continued silence now wasn’t just because she was nervous about going home.

  “It’ll be all right, L,” the doctor said to reassure her.

  “...What will?”

  “I’ll protect you, L. No matter what anyone else says, you are my daughter.”

  “D-Don’t say such embarrassing stuff! Not while Rekka Namidare’s here!”

  Is she feeling shy?

  I listened to their rather heartwarming exchange as I waited for the time leap to end.

  ▽

  At the end of the time leap was a rainbow explosion of color. I was dazzled and blinded for a moment, leaving me feeling a little dizzy.

  “Whoa...”

  It was bad enough that I staggered and kind of tripped over my own feet... Wait, my feet? Before I even realized it, I could feel them again. And that wasn’t all. I could feel the warmth of my palms which I’d reflexively pressed against my eyelids, so it seemed I’d recovered the feeling in my body altogether. My perception was back to normal, meaning...

  After blinking a few times, I opened my eyes to see the interior of a room. It was unfamiliar to me, as I’d expected, but it had sort of the same feel that the interior of Shirley’s and Iris’s spaceships did. It was definitely futuristic—technological, but with a metallic luster that was unlike anything I’d ever seen back home.

  “Is this your headquarters?” I asked in awe as I looked around the room.

  “That’s right. Welcome to the agency,” the doctor replied with a smile as she exited the time leap too.

  “Hmm...”

  So this was agency HQ... It was honestly smaller than I had imagined. Really, it was only about as big as my room at home. And when I looked around, it was pretty messy... Did someone live here? It certainly didn’t look like some important facility. In fact, it looked more like someone’s personal bedroom...

  “Argh, good grief! You left your room a terrible mess again! Why are you so terrible at managing your own life?!”

  L took one look at the tragic state of the room and suddenly started to yell
angrily. The target of her anger was none other than the doctor.

  “Ooh! It’s been so long since I’ve gotten to hear one of L’s lectures!”

  “Don’t call it a lecture!”

  In the face of L’s vicious rage, the doctor grinned from ear to ear. I see... Judging from their conversation, this was the doctor’s room. Well, considering she was an important figure in the agency, it wasn’t strange to think she had a residential space at their HQ. After getting to know scientists like Shirley, I kind of just assumed they were all diligent, fastidious people in all aspects of their life... But that apparently wasn’t so with the doctor. L began to clean up the doctor’s room as she continued fuming.

  “Honestly, this is just... Ugh! You’ve just left your underwear on the floor after taking it off!”

  “...!”

  I restlessly shuffled my feet as I avoided looking.

  “Uh... So, why did we come out in the doctor’s room? Isn’t there somewhere, um, more appropriate for the people of the agency to gather?”

  If we were going to discuss our plans, a meeting room or something seemed like it would’ve been a better option.

  “Well, let me start by explaining everything from the beginning,” said the doctor. “First, headquarters—that is, where we are now—was attacked by the radicals roughly 30 hours ago.”

  Apparently it was a surprise attack with no sign of warning. There was some damage to the facility and a few people were injured, but thanks to the doctor’s defense system, the attacking radicals were driven away.

  “But thanks to their attack, the agency was in complete disarray. Right up until the moment I departed for the past, the damage assessment had yet to be completed.”

  Even though the agency had fended off the attack, it was seriously compromised in the process. It could no longer function normally now, and its normal functions mostly centered around me. Like monitoring me to see if I was handling the heroines properly, which stories I was involved in, how any decisions I made affected the past, my general health, and... Wait, huh?

  “What about my privacy?!”

  “Well, to us, you’re something of a historical figure. The facts of your daily life are simply research material to us.”

  “Aaaaah!”

  It’s true that historical figures like the great war generals of the Warring States period had all their habits and hobbies listed in textbooks only to be treated like light trivia by modern-day people, but still! Seeing me clutch at my head, a troubled look crossed the doctor’s face.

  “I-It’s all right. It’s not like we keep tabs on you while you’re in the bathroom or right before you go to bed.”

  “If you did, I’d end myself right here!”

  That didn’t make me feel any better.

  “All right already... Just keep going,” I urged her to continue, my head still spinning.

  “Okay. An emergency transmission from R indicated to me there was trouble in the past. Said emergency transmission, however, came over a private channel rather than an agency one.”

  “So...? Is that a problem or something?”

  “Well, it meant that the only one who knew you were in trouble was me.”

  On top of that, the agency was under attack by radicals at the time.

  “Naturally, I couldn’t share information like that freely. Moreover, the agency was expending most of its resources just defending itself, which forestalled any decision to act on what was happening in the past.”

  I’ve heard people say that organizations become inflexible when they get too big. So, yeah, in the heat of the moment with that much chaos going on, I can see how it would’ve been near impossible for them to make a move.

  “But, Doctor... You weren’t actually all that late when you showed up, you know?”

  Though she hadn’t arrived with the kind of perfect timing you’d expect in a movie, she’d still showed up in time to help us all out.

  “It was plenty late,” L said in a huff as she turned away.

  The doctor then grimaced a little before continuing, “L’s right. I should’ve acted with all swiftness. But if I had gone through the proper procedures, I still probably wouldn’t have made it to the past even now.”

  “Proper procedures? What do you mean?”

  I had a feeling already, but asked anyway. The doctor then replied...

  “It was my decision to bring you here to the future.”

  “Whaaat?! You didn’t have permission to do that?!” L yelled in surprise.

  “Legally, I’m probably in a lot of trouble.”

  “Wait, wait, wait... How is this okay?”

  “It’s not, but I made the call. As far as I’m concerned, this was the only option,” said the doctor. “The fact that the radicals attacked the agency and sent their minions after Rekka is already enough to completely distort the future.”

  “That’s true...”

  “On top of that, they’ve abducted the heroines of the past. No... If their move here was a distraction, their real goal was kidnapping the heroines, and they’ve likely brought them here. But I can’t predict what they intend on doing next or what’s going to happen now,” the doctor said, turning to me. “It’s possible that this moment is an important crossroad of fate. If there’s anyone who can lead us in the right direction at this juncture, it would have to be a very special crossroads keeper. Like you, Rekka.”

  “...”

  Her grandiose wording made me a little uneasy, but in the end, the doctor and I shared a goal. We wanted to save the heroines. If that so happened to be part of an even bigger, fate-deciding story... Then I’d just solve that too. I had no objection to getting involved. But one question still remained...

  “That aside, why did you bring me to your room of all places, Doctor?”

  “Well, to put it simply, I’ve been acting on my own without the agency’s knowledge. So if they found out now, it’d be a bit of a hassle.”

  “I see.”

  “That being said...” Here, the doctor’s tone of voice turned rather serious. “I don’t believe we can accomplish much with just the three of us, so I’ve called in someone trustworthy to help out.”

  Come to think of it, while L was cleaning up her room, the doctor had been messing around with some kind of device.

  “Okay, who is it?” I asked.

  “Someone you know well, technically,” the doctor replied.

  “Someone I know?”

  There shouldn’t be anyone that I know in the future... Wait, was this going to be like what happened with the doctor? The doctor was the king of Laputa in the past, so maybe this was just the future version of someone else I knew in the past?

  “Your life is already starting to take a different shape than that of the Rekka I know—future Rekka, if you will—thanks to the agency and R’s interference. But sort of like with the king of Laputa and myself, it isn’t entirely different. There are lots of commonalities, and plenty of heroines you both saved. The person I called here is one of those heroines.”

  “So it’s a heroine that both me and future me have saved before?”

  There were so many possibilities that that didn’t really help narrow the options at all... But just then, there was a sharp knock at the door.

  “Doctor! Let me in!”

  That voice... It was a little different, but there was no mistaking it.

  “Entry permitted. Come in, Satsuki.”

  At the doctor’s order, a light above the door turned green, and the door slid open. On the other side of the it was a mature-looking woman who resembled Satsuki.

  “...Rekka!”

  “Wah!”

  She ran over to me and embraced me tightly, giving me a bit of a startle. S-Something soft was...!

  “Rekka! Oh, Rekka!”

  “Is that you... Satsuki?”

  “It is! It’s me, Satsuki!”

  So this was future Satsuki, huh? Honestly, I was surprised. She’d really grown into herself as a
woman... Even though I knew it was just Satsuki, my heart refused to stop pounding nervously.

  “Hey, Satsuki. Don’t you think that’s enough?”

  “Oh!”

  She hadn’t let go of me even after quite a long minute there, but the doctor’s friendly reminder spurred her into finally releasing me in a hurry.

  “S-Sorry. It’s just been so long since I’ve seen him,” Satsuki apologized with a red face.

  “N-No, that’s fine...”

  I shook my head and told her it was all right, though my heart was still racing.

  This is kind of weird. I know her, but this is the first time we’ve ever met. I have no idea what kind of relationship we have here...

  She seemed to know, however. She did hug me out of the blue and all...

  “Ahem, now...” the doctor said, forcefully clearing her throat. “I’m sure you don’t really need me to introduce her to you, but this is the Satsuki Otomo of this time line. She’s also a part of the agency like me.”

  “Um... It’s nice to meet you?” I said, politely bowing my head.

  “Likewise... Sorry about earlier. I know you’re basically a different person, but seeing you conjured up so many emotions that I just...” Satsuki explained, hiding her blushing cheeks behind her hands. “It’s been so long since I last saw you...”

  “...!”

  My heart stopped pounding and skipped a beat altogether. I knew she wasn’t really talking about me me, but still...

  The slightly awkward mood lingered in the room until the doctor cleared her throat again and got us back on topic.

  “So what do we do now?”

  “Let’s see...” The doctor paused there to think for a bit. “Before anything else, it might be best to give Rekka a simple explanation of this time period.”

  “Oh, good point. Actually, I’ve been wondering this for a while now, but how many years in the future are we?” I asked.

  “Stop right there!”

  “Mrgh?”

  The doctor suddenly threw her hand over my mouth, muffling my words. Contrary to my idiotic appearance, the doctor was dead serious.

  “I almost forgot about that. First and foremost, there’s something you must be warned of.”