I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 9 Read online

  “Then it’s our turn next!”

  “You can go first, Iris...”

  “Aw, but I want to go together!”

  Iris forcefully grabbed my arm before I could stop her. Me, on the other hand... My cowardly self was flailing.

  “No, no, no! Two people at once is actually dangero—”

  “Wheeeee!”

  My panicked shouting and Iris’s screams of delight overlapped as we fell. After a surprisingly long time in the air, we made a grand splash into the pool.

  ▽

  Once the lifeguard was done thoroughly lecturing us, Corona lent me her shoulder as I staggered away from the pool.

  “Are you all right, Rekka?” she asked worriedly.

  “Yeah... I will be,” I managed to answer.

  It was just the two of us now. Iris and Lea had really gotten into diving, so they were still going at it.

  “Do you want to rest somewhere?”

  “Yeah... Take me to where the umbrellas are over there.”

  “Leave it to me.”

  Corona moved closer to me to help bear more of my weight as she shouldered me.

  “...”

  It was an act of goodwill on her part. I shouldn’t be having any dirty thoughts. And I must not lower my gaze at any cost...

  “Rekka, now’s your chance. If you pretend to fall here, a special event will happen.”

  Shut up, swimsuit-obsessed girl from the future.

  I triumphed over my carnal desires and safely made it to the resting place with tables, chairs, and umbrellas. It was surprisingly crowded, so I was looking around for a place for us to sit when I spotted a familiar face.

  “What’s the matter, problem child? Did you drown?”

  “Something like that, President Momone.”

  “I see.”

  President Momone smiled in a rather unconcerned way and gestured to one of the chairs at her table. I gratefully took a seat. President Momone, Tokiwa, Rosalind, and Suzuran were already seated at the table for six, so Corona and I made a full house.

  “Are you taking a break too, Tokiwa?”

  “I’m looking after her. Midori has a weak constitution, after all,” President Momone answered for her.

  “Mm...”

  All Tokiwa could manage was a sound. She sat there, motionless and practically draped over the table.

  “Oh, look, her chest is squished against the table, so—ow!”

  R was running her mouth again, so I secretly flicked her on the forehead.

  “What about you, Rosalind? Suzuran?”

  “I don’t like flowing bodies of water,” Rosalind replied flatly.

  Come to think of it, that was one of her quirks as a vampire. Just as I was thinking that, President Momone offered her own two cents...

  “Hahaha! You sound just like a vampire saying stuff like that,” she laughed, assuming it was a joke.

  My two upperclassmen were unaware of the superhuman and supernatural origins of some of the other girls. If only they had any idea...

  “...!”

  Tokiwa suddenly straightened up a little and shimmied over Rosalind... then suddenly clung to her.

  “Gyah! Wh-What is it?”

  “...”

  Tokiwa was saying something to Rosalind, but her voice was too soft for me to hear.

  “What? You mean to ask me if I am truly a vampire?”

  Ah, of course. Tokiwa loved those kinds of stories.

  “Bah! You’re tickling my ear! If you insist on knowing, I am a—!”

  “Rosalind!”

  I rushed to stop Rosalind from revealing her true nature by shooting a desperate, pleading look.

  “...Human! A girl your age should know there’s no such thing as creatures of the night. Now let go of me already!”

  “Oh...”

  Rosalind pulled Tokiwa off of her and watched indignantly as Tokiwa dragged herself back to her seat.

  “Wait, Tokiwa! Your swimsuit!”

  I noticed something “wrong” with Tokiwa’s swimsuit and immediately covered my eyes with my hands.

  “...?”

  “Watch it, Midori. Shuffling like that pulled your swimsuit down.”

  I heard President Momone exasperatedly explain the situation to her. I then waited patiently.

  “You’re good now, problem child.”

  “Thanks...”

  Phew, that was close...

  “Goodness, there’s no helping this girl,” Rosalind sighed in a tired voice.

  “Mistress, would you like something to drink?” Suzuran asked her afterward.

  But once more, President Momone interrupted.

  “Using ‘mistress’ makes you sound like a maid.”

  “...!”

  Tokiwa’s eyes lit up once more at the mention of maids. Her body might be weak, but her curiosity couldn’t be beaten. After that, Corona’s identity as a Demon King was also nearly revealed too, but we continued spending some time together anyway.

  ▽

  Before I knew it, it was three o’clock. The amusement park itself closed at 8:00 PM, but some of our group had curfews, so we decided we’d leave at around 6:30. Considering the time it took to get changed, that meant we had to head to the changing rooms at 6:00. But that was still three hours away. There was no point in rushing, so I leisurely headed towards my next destination.

  “Where are you going now?” R asked.

  “I haven’t been to the water slide or the river ride yet... I guess I’ll check out the slide first.”

  I chose at random, and I turned left at the forked path accordingly. The water slide was one of the more popular attractions at the water park. Depending on how crowded it was, there might be a line. It wouldn’t be the best place to hang out with any of the girls, but I figured I should try it at least once before we left. And as I was standing in front of the elevator up to the water slide...

  “Oh, Rekka.”

  “Mio?”

  I bumped into Mio, who was waiting in line, too. She seemed to be by herself.

  “Is it just you, Mio?”

  “Nope. I came with Tsumiki and the others, but we got separated.”

  The water slide elevator only took three people up at a time. Only once those three had gone down the slide could the next three go up. Letting too many people go down the slide at once was dangerous, so limiting the number of riders was a safety precaution, but it had unfortunately meant that Mio had been separated from her friends.

  “But I’m glad you’re here now, Rekka,” she said, smiling bashfully.

  I was glad I arrived just in time to go up with her. We chatted about this and that until the elevator came back down and opened its doors with a ding.

  “Next guests, please!”

  “Let’s go.”

  “Okay.”

  We went through the door held open by an attendant and rose up to the top of the water slide. It was actually pretty high up. A little higher than the high dive from earlier, even. The slide itself had many twists and turns, and it was the longest in the prefecture according to the attendant. That wasn’t a particularly impressive distinction considering how rural our prefecture was, but it certainly seemed to be worth giving a try.

  “Do you want to slide first, Mio?”

  “Ah, um...”

  When I asked Mio that, she fearfully peered down...

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I-It’s higher than I imagined...”

  Then she looked up at me with puppy-like eyes.

  “If it’s all right with you... could we go down together?”

  “Huh? Is that allowed?”

  I asked the attendant, who nodded in response.

  “It’s perfectly fine for younger children and their guardians. You’re siblings, right?”

  “Um... Yes.”

  It was a pretty blatant lie, but I didn’t want to have to leave the frightened Mio alone because the attendant changed their mind. So we prepared to go down together,
with me holding on to her from behind.

  “You have to hold on tighter, or we’ll get separated on the way down. It would be dangerous for the person in front, so make sure your arms are nice and snug around me.”

  “Okay... You sure, Mio?”

  “Y-Yeah,” she answered in a trembling voice.

  Hmm... She didn’t sound so sure. Was this really okay? Flustered, I wrapped my arms around her waist and held on tight. She fit perfectly in my arms with her back pressed up against me, and her thighs had an awful lot of skin contact with mine...

  “All right, I’m going to send you two down now,” said the attendant.

  And then we started our descent.

  “...Yah!”

  Mio tensed up at each turn when the centrifugal force tossed us around. She was pressing herself against me reflexively, so I had to hold on tightly to make sure I didn’t let her go. But I had to make sure we had some fun, too!

  “Mio! I’m gonna lean us back!”

  “Huh? Huh?!”

  “Here we go!”

  “Kyah!”

  I leaned back, pulling Mio back on top of me.

  “Well? What do you think of the view?”

  “Wah!”

  The water slide had no top to it, so the blue sky was clearly visible. And now that we were lying down instead of sitting up, there wouldn’t be as much bouncing around since we didn’t have as much resistance. She could look up now instead of down, too, so it should be less scary this way.

  “This is amazing, Rekka! We’re moving so fast!”

  “Right?”

  I supported Mio’s body to make sure she didn’t slip away from me in her excitement, and before long, the sensation of the slide against my back suddenly disappeared out from under me. We’d reached the small splash pool at the end of the slide. With all our momentum from the ride down, we went immediately underwater, but the pool was shallow enough to easily stand up in.

  I took a deep breath, but Mio was coughing for air next to me.

  “You okay?”

  “I swallowed a little water... but I’m fine.”

  “Here.”

  I offered her my hand and helped her stand up. There wasn’t anyone lined up after us, but it wasn’t a good idea to hang around at the bottom of the slide. There was no telling when someone might come out. So I hurried out of the pool with Mio.

  “Did you have fun?”

  “Yeah. I...” Mio blushed. “I felt a little nervous being o-on top of you, though.”

  “Yeah, sorry I pulled on you out of the blue like that.”

  Doing something like that would make anyone’s heart jump. Just as I was thinking that...

  “Rekka!”

  “Sir Rekka!”

  “Y-You...!”

  Satsuki, Harissa, and Tsumiki appeared from a nearby crowd and closed in on me. They’d probably been waiting for Mio to come down.

  “Why do you two get to slide together?!”

  “That’s unfair! That shouldn’t be allowed!”

  “You had your grubby hands on Mio, didn’t you?! D-Doing that to an idol is unforgivable!”

  “Uh, sorry?”

  Why were the three of them so mad? I stood there in confusion as a bright red Satsuki furiously avoided eye contact with me.

  “Next... Next is my turn!” she stammered.

  Seriously, what was she so worked up over?

  “Sorry, I think they only let you do that with smaller kids,” I said, recalling the attendant’s words.

  “Then it should be fine for me! Now, Sir Rekka, let us go!”

  “Hey! That’s sneaky of you, Harissa!”

  “Yeah, real sneaky!”

  This was starting to get out of hand. After that, I checked with the attendant to be sure, and it seemed you could still go down the slide two by two with adults if you asked. Apparently they got requests like that a lot. That being the case, I figured I’d suppress my embarrassment and go down the slide with Satsuki and Tsumiki, then with Iris and Rosalind who appeared after that... But why did it feel like the attendant was getting more and more annoyed?

  ▽

  When all was said and done, I ended up going down the water slide with everyone more than once. It felt like the skin on my butt had rubbed off through my swimsuit... But at least I got to do something with each of the girls. I was relieved I had at least met my playtime quota.

  We all split up after having our fun at the water slide, so once again, I found myself wandering around alone. That is, until I ran into Shirley.

  “Oh, Rekka. Have you seen Rain?”

  “Huh? Oh, no, not recently. Is she missing?”

  “I haven’t seen her since we all split up at the water slide. She’s probably with someone, but I don’t know where she is, so please let me know if you see her.”

  “All right.”

  “Thanks,” Shirley said, and quickly disappeared into the crowd to keep looking on her own.

  “Did she get lost?” R asked.

  “Hmm... Well, she’s probably fine if she’s with someone.”

  We had over 20 people in our group, after all. It was hard to think she’d gotten separated from everyone. She was probably off doing something with someone else.

  “Shirley’s like a guardian to Rain and Fam, worrying and looking for her just in case like that...”

  “Sure is. Well, where to next, Rekka?”

  “I haven’t been to the river ride yet, so there, I guess.”

  “I see. So you’re going to wait for a new heroine to come floating down the river à la the legend of Momotaro.”

  “Hey, don’t jinx me. What if one really appears like that?”

  The fact that I couldn’t completely write off the possibility was terrifying. Anyway... I eventually made it over to the river ride.

  “I wonder if anyone’s around?”

  The river ride had lots of bends, but it was basically just one giant elliptical loop. Because of that, it took up the most area in the dome. It’d be tough trying to find anyone in it.

  “Eh, I’ll run into someone eventually if I float along long enough.”

  “But if everyone flows down the river at the same speed, you’ll stay the same distance apart.”

  Thank you, voice of reason... I guess that meant it’d be best to stand by the edge and wait for someone to float past.

  Deciding to do just that, I found myself a spot where I could look left—upstream, where both the water and people were coming from. Just as I was wondering if anyone would float past, I spotted something eye-catching. Within the mass of people and swim rings approaching was an extremely familiar head of pink hair. It was Rain. And she was drowning!

  “Rain!”

  It was rude to dive into the river ride, but I didn’t have the time to worry about anything like that.

  “I’m coming!”

  I quickly swam over to the drowning mermaid princess and grabbed her with both hands, trying to calm her down.

  “Listen! Hold on to me and you’ll be fine, okay?”

  “O-Okay...”

  I carefully swam back to the poolside with her, making sure her head stayed above the water. Then I lifted her up to the edge. Fortunately, she hadn’t swallowed much water and was fine after a bit of coughing.

  “I’m sorry for the trouble...”

  “Don’t worry about it. But... how did that happen? For a mermaid like you to drown...” I asked, whispering the last part so no one around us could hear.

  “Um... It’s embarrassing to admit.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I... can’t swim.”

  “...Huh?”

  Apparently, this was how it went. On Rain’s home planet—the ocean planet of Berano—she used her mermaid tail to swim. She could take on a human form, but she always swam with her tail... meaning she’d never tried to swim with her legs before. But even then, she was still a mermaid. She hadn’t wanted to tell anyone that—despite the fact she was a water-dwelling creature—s
he couldn’t swim. That’s why she’d snuck away from Shirley to practice on her own. She’d come to the river ride because it was relatively shallow and she thought the artificial current might help her move naturally in the water.

  “I think it’d be better to practice in a normal pool first,” I suggested.

  “Y-You think so...?”

  With her secret attempt to practice swimming gone completely awry, Rain hung her head in defeat. She was fidgeting quite a lot, so she must have been embarrassed that I saw it all happen.

  “Hmm... Hey, I know. I’ll help you practice swimming.”

  “Huh?”

  I smiled at the apparently shocked Rain.

  “Well, I’m not much of a teacher, but I can at least hold your hands while you learn to kick.”

  “Oh... Okay!”

  ▽

  “Here, you can stand in water this deep.”

  Rain and I were in the shallowest lane of the regular swimming pool where I’d raced Hibiki and Chelsea earlier, but it seemed they’d moved on. There weren’t many people around at all. Just a middle-aged man quietly swimming laps in the far lane, probably trying to get some exercise in.

  “So, how far have you gone with your human legs? Can you put your head underwater?”

  “Um, I’m not particularly scared of diving in the water.”

  “I figured you weren’t really scared of the water since you’re a mermaid and all... which means all you need to learn is how to swim.”

  “That’s right. And how to breathe, too. I can breathe in the water as a mermaid, but my powers are halved in this human form, so I need to adjust to that.”

  “All right. Then let’s start with kicking.”

  “Right!”

  I took Rain’s hands in mine. She squeezed my hands in return and slowly sank into the water, trying to lift her feet up behind her.

  “Uh...”

  But it didn’t seem to be going well. Despite her efforts to float, her midsection kept sinking, so her legs refused to come up.

  “Straighten your body out a little more.”

  “L-Like this?”

  When she tried it, her legs slowly came floating up behind her until her heels were sticking out of the water.

  “Just like that. Keep your knees straight, too.”

  It seemed she was just having trouble getting a feel for how to control her legs in the water. Once she overcame that, the rest would be easy.