I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 1 Read online

  “We Namidares have a special bloodline, you see.”

  “A special bloodline?”

  “Yeah. I guess you could call it the Namidare bloodline. Whenever a Namidare boy turns sixteen, he becomes... well, something special. Something a little unusual.”

  “This is the first I’ve heard of this. It makes me sound like the hero of a manga or light novel or something.”

  “You’re pretty sharp, Rekka.”

  I had been joking, actually, but for some reason he gave me a compliment. What was sharp about that?

  “This special something makes you rather like the hero of a manga or light novel.”

  “Do I turn 2D or something?”

  “I kind of wish I got the chance to do that. You might not be able to come back if you did, though.”

  “My head hurts...” At this point, I decided my dad was just making things up.

  “So what is our ‘bloodline,’ exactly?” I asked, intending to mostly ignore him. The trick to achieving a happy family life was not just telling him to shut up.

  “It’s hard to explain, meow.”

  “Don’t say ‘meow.’ It’s creepy.”

  “I’m trying to be creepy-cute! So anyway, it could be manga or a light novel. Just imagine a story where a demon kidnaps a princess, and a prince comes to save her.”

  “A story?”

  “That’s right. But let’s say that in the story, the prince loses in battle to the demon. Or let’s say he never existed. What would happen to that story, you think?”

  “A bad ending, right?”

  “That’s right. And when that happens, we Namidares get called into the story to take the hero’s place. That’s just one example. A story can be any kind of weirdness that we find ourselves in.”

  “A story, huh?” It was a little abstract, but I got what he was saying.

  “Basically, our bloodline has a tendency to get caught up in strange things. Also, we have a tendency to run into aliens, psychics, and people from the future, nyo.”

  “Don’t say ‘nyo,’ either. And I don’t know anybody like that.” I didn’t want to get caught up in any stories, anyway. Not that any of it seemed in the least bit plausible.

  “But...” As I chewed the lettuce in my salad, I thought to myself... If this was true, I’d just run away and leave the story behind. If I was just a bystander who was getting caught up in it, that meant it was supposed to be somebody else’s problem, right? So I wasn’t really obligated to help anybody. And no way in hell was I going to.

  “Sounds pretty rough.”

  “Hahaha! You don’t believe me at all, do you?”

  “What, did you really expect me to believe that? If it was true, wouldn’t you be off creating world peace right now or something?” I looked at my dad, who was chowing down on a chicken wing. He was clearly nothing but an ordinary stay-at-home dad.

  “It depends on the individual, but from the records our ancestors left behind, it seems like once you become an adult, the ‘stories’ stop coming for you.”

  “That sounds pretty convenient for you.”

  “You don’t trust me, huh? Well, that’s fine. Once you find yourself caught up in a story, you’ll have no choice but to believe. So anyway, get ready for that to start tomorrow.”

  “Sure, okay.” Were we finally done?

  Well, it was a pretty entertaining way to spice up a birthday. I could give him that.

  “Oh, there’s one more thing.”

  “There’s more?”

  “Yeah. This is important.” My dad put down his chopsticks.

  I looked up from my food to see what was up, and saw my dad had a surprisingly serious expression on his face. I sat up straight without even thinking about it.

  “A lot of really difficult things are about to happen to you. We’re just normal people, so we can’t solve all the problems like a real hero could. If you think your life is in danger, it’s okay to run. But... I don’t want you to just give up on the stories you find unfolding around you. Can you promise your dad that?” I hadn’t seen him looking this serious in a long time.

  When I was still a little kid, I’d once found a cat in a cardboard box that was floating down a flooded river. While I stood there panicking, my dad ripped off his shirt and jumped into the water without a second thought. Then he’d taken the sick cat to the vet, and once it was better, he’d run all over our neighborhood trying to find it a home. To a kid like me, he looked like a hero.

  “Yeah, I’ve got it. I don’t know if I can be the hero of a story, though.” Maybe I’d remembered how he’d seemed to me back then, because I nodded.

  I still thought this whole bloodline thing was a joke of my dad’s, though.

  My mom finished her packing for tomorrow and came into the dining room.

  “Hey, guys!”

  It might be weird for me to say this, but my mom was really pretty. She was often mistaken for being a decade younger than she really was. I had no idea how my dad had managed to land someone like that.

  “You’re late, hon! The food’s almost gone! And I worked so hard to make it, too!”

  “I’m late because I’ve been doing all your packing, Jigen.”

  “You were the one who said you wanted to do it.”

  “And I said that because if I let you do it, your stuff wouldn’t have fit in the trunk.”

  “Hahaha, sorry.”

  Mom sat down, and we all started to talk. It was our last night together, so we talked for a long time. I forgot all about the stuff Dad had said about the Namidare bloodline.

  ▽

  Why was R talking about the stuff my dad said? “What gives you the right to talk about my bloodline?”

  “You’re the person most responsible for causing the War of All. I’ve researched you and everything else concerning the Namidare bloodline.”

  I don’t get any privacy, huh? Wait, more importantly...

  “What’s the War of All?”

  “Just what the name implies. A war that involves everything. I’m unable to tell you most of the details.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they’re deeply connected to my mission.”

  “Saving the future, was it?”

  “Yes. Your father, Jigen Namidare, told you about the Namidare bloodline, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “At this point, I expect you don’t fully believe it. But please understand, before I continue, that everything you heard is true.” R seated herself in a formal pose in mid-air.

  “In the future I came from, Rekka Namidare was involved in many stories, and saved many, many girls at the center of them. Heroines, you might call them.”

  “Heroines?”

  “Princesses of fantasy kingdoms, mysterious transfer students, that sort of thing. Almost every story has a heroine, right?”

  Well, that was probably true.

  “By the way, Rekka.”

  “?”

  “You’re indecisive, and you don’t know how to deal with girls, do you?”

  “Bwah?!” Where did that come from? I almost yelled. The boy in glasses next to me was looking at me funny.

  “W-Well, I guess I’ve never had a girlfriend. Does that matter?”

  “Of course it does. In the future, you will save countless heroines, and cause them all to fall in love with you. But you never actually do anything about it. In the end, the girls you ignored will start a massive war over you, the War of All.”

  “Really?”

  “Really. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here, and the War of All wouldn’t have taken place.”

  “Wait a second! He told me that when I grew up, the stories would stop involving me!”

  “Even if you’re no longer being caught up in stories, the girls you save don’t simply cease to exist, you know? Nor do their feelings for you. You know, you’re a lucky guy to have all those girls in love with you.”

  “...”

  “I told you, you don’t actually ne
ed to type out the ellipsis.”

  I was freaking out so much, I couldn’t think of anything to say. You have to understand, I’ve got a delicate heart.

  “Wait, why is there a huge war? It was started by a bunch of girls, right? How did it get so big?”

  “You’re very naïve, aren’t you? The records show that you saved several hundred heroines. As I just said, I can’t give you the details, but many of them were involved with the typical sorts of stories you’d see in a manga or light novel. So imagine that. Imagine if all the different characters from all the different manga and light novels started fighting. What would happen?”

  “I imagine the earth blowing up about ten times over.”

  “Yes. It’s something of a little apocalypse, you might say.”

  Of course, I didn’t know that any of this was true. It was all just a hypothetical. But it was a fact that R was right here in front of me.

  “I want to make sure you’re not some kind of hologram. Can I touch you?”

  “Certainly. Touch me wherever you like.” R subtly stuck out her chest. Did she want me to touch her there?

  “A handshake is fine.”

  “As you wish.”

  Shake-shake. I was able to touch her. It was true that only I could touch, see, or hear R. Did that mean the stuff about the Namidare bloodline and the War of All was true, too?

  “My mission is to bring you and one of the heroines together, and thus end the War of All before it starts. I’ll be watching you every minute of the day until you finish your mission, so hurry up and seduce someone, please.”

  “Seduce?!” R’s voice was so calm when she said it that I couldn’t stop myself from shouting.

  The boy in glasses next to me, as well as the teachers, were all staring. It hurt.

  ▽

  Except for me embarrassing myself, the entrance ceremony finished without any problems. The new students all went to their classes and introduced themselves, there was a short homeroom class, and then it was time to go home.

  “Hey, you said that in the future, I saved people in a bunch of stories, didn’t you? Which means that even if something weird does happen to me, I can’t die, right?”

  “You’re an idiot, aren’t you, Rekka?” R sighed from the back of my head. Evidently, she was incapable of moving more than five meters from me, so no matter where I went, she floated along nearby. What would happen when I had to go to the bathroom? “I explained that I came here to change the future, right? The fact that I’m here is already causing that to happen. There’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to help finish the stories like you did in my timeline’s past.”

  “Wait. Isn’t that really bad news for me?”

  “Well, from the perspective of the people in the future, you’re the one who ruined everything. If you were to just up and die, it would serve you right, wouldn’t it?”

  “I’m not that interested in helping you guys out anymore.” Today was my sixteenth birthday, and my first day of living on my own. And now I was supposed to do my best to save the future, too? All the excitement I’d started to feel at the prospect of my new life was draining away.

  “You know, your name makes you sound pretty tough, but you actually look like kind of a wimp. Your looks are pretty average, too. I don’t understand why everyone was so interested in fighting over you.”

  “Shut up.” There was always the odd barb mixed into R’s words. Was that her personality? Or maybe...

  “Do you hate me enough that you want me to die, too?”

  “I couldn’t say. I’m an artificial life form called a Kiklim, created to complete this mission. So while I have knowledge of the future, it doesn’t feel very real to me.”

  “An artificial life form, huh?”

  “By the way, I’m two years old. If you hit on me, that means you’re a pedophile.”

  “Big words for a girl who’s still in diapers.”

  “How rude. I may look formal on the outside, but my underwear is surprisingly sexy. Would you like to see?”

  “No.”

  Still, two years old? Was that why her expression and voice were always so flat? It kind of explained how she seemed a little unbalanced.

  “Oh? Rekka, what’s that?” Suddenly she grabbed my head and turned it to the side, as she pointed at a small electronics store on the shopping street. The window display had a row of big-screen TVs that were playing the afternoon news.

  “Those are televisions.”

  “I know that. My question was about the program.”

  “Hmm? It says, ‘Large Power Outage in City, Residents Saw Lightning Fall From Clear Blue Sky.’”

  “I can hear the voices as well as you. That’s not my question. Is that one of those so-called news programs?”

  “Huh? Is that it? Hmm... Yeah, that’s a news program, right.” I didn’t expect her to ask me what the show was, as opposed to what was on it right now.

  “Huh, so that’s a news program. Rekka, please get closer.”

  I moved in front of the TV like she asked. R started to examine the TV carefully.

  “Are there no TVs in the future?”

  “How rude. Of course there are. But even if I know what one is, this is my first time actually seeing one. They’re not needed for my mission, after all.”

  “I see.”

  R’s calm, composed demeanor was gone. She was staring at the TV with shining eyes. She looked just like a little kid. I didn’t know exactly what a Kiklim was supposed to be, but she was just a normal girl to me.

  And she’d never even played with friends, or done anything for herself, too.

  It wasn’t fair, I thought.

  It was still hard for me to believe, but if what she said was true, and I had ruined the future... why had they entrusted fixing everything to a little girl? She said that’s why she had been created, but that was completely abnormal. Was the future such a mess that something as abnormal as that could happen? If it was, then as far as I was concerned, it wasn’t my problem.

  It wasn’t my problem at all.

  But it seemed like it was my fault that they’d sent R back into the past. If R couldn’t touch or talk to anybody but me— if I was the only one who could save her— then maybe I couldn’t just abandon her. She was a bit of a brat, but if you considered her age, her behavior wasn’t so bad.

  “I’ve got a TV at home. When we get back, you can watch it as much as you want. If there’s a movie or TV show you want to see, I’ll get it from a rental shop for you.” R had been glued to the TV screen, but when she heard my words, she spun around and looked at me.

  “Really?”

  She still had no real expression on her face. Was I just fooling myself if I thought she looked a little happy? But that was good enough for now. I nodded.

  “I’ll be living on my own from now on, so we can have a little party to celebrate. Wait, I guess you can’t eat, can you? I suppose we can get some more DVDs, then.” I thought I was being pretty nice, considering I was a student who didn’t work a part-time job. But for some reason, R was staring at me skeptically.

  “Just so we’re clear, I’m not one of the girls you can seduce, okay?” For the first time in my life, I was so shocked by something someone said that I fell down backwards, onto my butt.

  “Stop being stupid and let’s go.” I grabbed R by the hand and started to walk. She was floating in the air, so I didn’t feel any weight, but her hand felt warm.

  I had a lot of stuff to think about, like the future and the Namidare bloodline. But for now, it seemed my most pressing concern was how I was going to live with my strange new roommate.

  So anyway, that’s how R and I met.

  That’s how I reluctantly took my first step out of my normal, ordinary life, and into the world of the extraordinary.

  I really didn’t want to consider the possibility that I was already up to my neck in it.

  Chapter 1: Multiple Starting Lines

  1-1: Summoned by a
Childhood Friend’s Letter

  When I went to grab the newspaper out of the mailbox, there was a letter inside of it, too.

  “Huh?”

  “Is something wrong?” asked R.

  “No, but... there’s a letter here for me. And it doesn’t have a stamp?” Had the sender put it directly into my mailbox? But who would do that? “Let’s see, who’s the sender... Wait, it’s from Satsuki?”

  “Someone you know?”

  “Childhood friend. Wait, why wasn’t she at school today?” That was strange for her.

  I fiddled with the letter in my hands as I opened the front door and took off my shoes.

  “Is this Satsuki the sort of delinquent who’d skip the first day of school?”

  “No, the exact opposite. In middle school, she was the student council president.”

  “Huh. That’s certainly odd, isn’t it?”

  “You sound like you know something about it.”

  “That’s not true at all. Why would you think such a thing?”

  That bugged me a little... but for now, I needed to read the letter. I tossed my bookbag on the living room sofa and tore open the envelope. Eraser shavings poured out.

  I opened the carefully folded letter, and saw that it was written in Satsuki’s familiar handwriting.

  Dear Rekka Namidare,

  I have something very important to tell you. I wanted to tell you in this letter, but I think it’s better to tell you in person. I’ll be waiting all day at the place where we always used to play.

  —Satsuki Otomo

  Her handwriting was always so neat. Nothing had been erased on the letter, but there were eraser shavings inside the envelope. Did that mean she’d rewritten it a few times? That wasn’t like her.

  “That’s not a very helpful letter, is it? It doesn’t say a word about what she actually wants to talk about.” R had come up next to me at some point, and was peering at the letter.

  “Well, we’re going to meet up and talk about that now, right?”

  “You’re leaving now?”

  “The letter said she’d be waiting all day. She can be weirdly stubborn sometimes. If I don’t go, she might really wait all day.”