I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 14

by Namekojirushi

  “Rekka...”

  Wha...? Where am I? I was slowly waking up to someone calling my name, when...

  “Rekka Namidare, get up this instant!”

  Wham!

  A furious kick rudely brought me back to reality.

  “Ow!”

  “Just how long were you planning on sleeping?!”

  Opening my eyes, I saw a teary-eyed L standing over me. I’d apparently passed out half on top of a pile of rubble, so I was looking up at her from an awkward angle, but there was no mistaking how she was glaring at me. What was it this time? She was always in a nasty mood whenever we ran into each other, but this was a little different. She was definitely mad, and it was definitely at me... But whatever.

  “Yeah, uh, thanks, L... You were the one who saved me, right?”

  I thanked her for getting me (both of us, really) away from the robots, but I still wasn’t totally sure what had happened. I had no idea whatsoever what was going on. I was oblivious as to why a group of giant robots was trying to kill me, much less how or why L would protect me from such a technologically advanced threat.

  Completely lost, I took a quick glance around. Buildings were busted, and there was rubble everywhere, but the area was still familiar to me. If I recalled correctly, this was the neighborhood on the far side of the school opposite my house.

  “This... is pretty far from the station, isn’t it? How did you get me here?”

  I doubted a little girl like L had carried me all this way. Moreover, I doubted anyone—little girl or not—would have been able to escape the robots’ encirclement. But lo and behold...

  “So you have forgotten,” L replied with a sigh.

  “Forgotten?” I asked quizzically.

  If I’d forgotten something... A lapse of memory or amnesia... Yeah, that would actually explain a lot of what had been bothering me today. But...

  “What have I forgotten?”

  L seemed to know, so I turned to her for answers. Her first response, however, was to click her tongue.

  “I can’t trust you! Even if everyone else forgot, you should’ve remembered! You... You dumbass!”

  “Sorry...”

  Getting reamed like that seemed a little unfair, but I decided to humbly apologize anyway. I guess that’s just how important whatever it was was to me... And to L. This had to be why she was so angry, so I needed to remember as soon as possible.

  “L, please tell me.”

  L took a deep breath to calm herself, and then said...

  “Satsuki Otomo.”

  “Satsuki...? Guh!”

  The back of my brain prickled. The Otomos were my next-door neighbors... They were Dad’s friends... And they’d been taking care of L... But no, that wasn’t it. No, no... There was something more. Something else that connected us. It was... Satsuki.

  Satsuki was a girl’s name, but Auntie Otomo’s first name was Sanae. So who was Satsuki? Their... daughter?

  “Gah...!”

  My forehead felt like it was splitting down the middle. Memories were slowly starting to flow out of the recesses of my brain... Sixteen years’ worth of them. And on the surface of it all was the name and face of my childhood friend who lived next door.

  “Yeah, Satsuki...”

  I was remembering...

  “Uargh!”

  But the torrent didn’t stop. Far from it. It was like the floodgates had opened.

  Iris Fineritas Cyphercall. Harissa Hope. Tsumiki Nozomuno. Tetra Metra Retra. Lea. Hibiki Banjo. Chelsea Margaret. Rosalind C. Bathory. Suzuran. Shirley Madagascarwel Blood. Rain Waterchild. Fam. Mio Kotozuka. Ellicia Otto. Zaia Gardendos Corona. Lyun Sylpheed. Rachelle. Zeta Zenonia. Kiri Hayashibara. Nyanyan Atlantia. Chirika Shinomiya. Sherlyn Doteyes.

  The names and faces of girls I knew resurfaced one after another.

  “Guh... Agh!”

  So much was pouring into my mind that I thought it was going to blow, but it still didn’t stop.

  A draconic Demon Overlord. The ultimate mage. A king from the Galactic Federation. A family restaurant in dire straits. Mole people. The Perfect Beast. A scientist from another world and his sleeping love. A nine-tailed fox. The clayman war. A darkness-eating demon. A sick little brother. A binding past. A pre-programmed puppet. Space pirates. A dying planet. An underground dungeon. The Ghostdemon sickness running rampant in the spirit world. The Psychic Hazard. The third Demon King. A live-action show filmed on the fly. Enormous kaiju and the superhero who fought them. A violent tale of love and passion. The plague of Shangri-La. The fall of Atlantis, and the falling Laputa...

  “A-Ah... Damn it...”

  I wiped the spittle dribbling from my mouth and coughed another two, three times.

  “How could I forget... such a crazy half a year?”

  I’d practically been shotgunning stories, saving heroines left and right with the help of my new friends. Remembering it all, I shook away my headache and got to my feet.

  “So you finally remember?”

  “Yeah. Thanks, L.”

  “I didn’t do it for you,” she declared with a huff. “I just couldn’t find Satsuki on my own. So this... This is probably something that only you can solve.”

  “Satsuki, huh? I see...”

  Apparently L had been searching for her while I was oblivious. I wish she’d told me sooner, but I guess she had her own conflicted feelings about it. I was basically her enemy, after all. But seeing as how she’d saved me, I was filled with nothing but gratitude for her right now.

  “For now, L, please tell me what’s going on.”

  “I don’t know everything myself,” she replied, shaking her head in disgust. “All I know is that several of the heroines around you—Satsuki included—disappeared and everyone forgot about them.”

  “Everyone did?”

  I guess they had to... If I’d been the only one who’d forgotten, it would’ve been easy to pick up on the discrepancy. But Ai hadn’t mentioned Tetra at all, and Yulia hadn’t mentioned Suzuran at all. That was unusual, so it was safe to assume they’d forgotten too. The heroines had been erased from everyone’s minds, including mine. It was hard to believe, but here we were... I’d have to accept it if I wanted to move forward.

  “But what about President Momone and Tokiwa, L? R told me they were heroines too.”

  “I don’t know. It’s just...”

  “Just?”

  “They were technically part of R’s story, yeah? I know because I was originally created to fulfill the same role as R, but those girls were meant to be heroines in your daily life prepared for when you run away from the more brutal stories.”

  “...”

  I had to wonder... I didn’t remember R’s explanation perfectly, but I do think she mentioned that President Momone and Tokiwa were a slightly different type of heroine from Satsuki and the others. I believe she said there wasn’t that much difference between them overall, but now that they and the other everyday heroines were the ones left behind, there had to be something special about them. Wait...

  “Speaking of which, where is R?”

  I glanced around once more, but there was still no sign of anyone floating around in a military uniform. Just where had that carefree, snarky girl gotten off to? I was hoping L knew, but she merely shrugged her shoulders.

  “I don’t know of her whereabouts, but the unthinkable must have happened for her not to be at your side.”

  “Yeah...”

  Whether it was outer space or other worlds, R always followed me wherever I went. She said that was part of her job, part of her functionality. So...

  “Does that mean R has ceased to function?”

  “That’s not a bad way of thinking about it.”

  L answered my question with a nod, but that opened up many more. In particular...

  “Who could even do something like that?”

  First and foremost, R’s existence should only be perceivable by me. So if no one could see her, then no one should know about he
r. And if no one knew about her, then no one should have been able to do anything about her. Moreover, I knew she could defend herself. I’d seen her do it against L, and she was proud of those abilities. The only time I’d ever seen someone get the better of her was against Touko and the power of her words...

  “Touko, huh...?”

  Come to think of it, I still hadn’t managed to get in touch with her.

  “Let’s see...”

  I hurriedly took my phone out of my pocket. Thankfully, it wasn’t broken, so I dialed Touko’s number in a hurry.

  Brrring, brrring, brrring...

  It rang and rang and rang without any hope of her picking up.

  “Damn...”

  It was hard to believe Touko would do something like this maliciously. But in this ridiculous situation, it wasn’t impossible to think the enemy was taking advantage of her somehow. I was worried about her, but unfortunately I didn’t even know where she lived. I couldn’t even go check on her.

  Damn it... I finally regained my memories, and now there was so much to think about. It was like one massive, tangled knot of a mess. But still... I had to sort things out in order.

  “L, what is your relation to the giant robots?”

  “...What do you mean?”

  “Don’t play the fool now. You were talking to one of them, and they knew who you were. What’s the deal?”

  I distinctly remembered the robot pilot calling L’s name. They’d asked her what she was doing when she stepped in to save me. There was clearly some kind of connection between them. I patiently waited for L’s response, and she eventually sighed heavily and clicked her tongue.

  “Fine... They’re fellow hardliners.”

  “Hardliners?”

  “Yeah, we’re a faction from the future that’s taken, well, a hardline stance regarding you,” L explained as she drew circles in the air with her fingers to demonstrate the two factions. “The agency, including R and others, is trying to change the future by keeping you alive. We call them the moderates. Us hardliners are trying to change the future by killing you. That’s the short of it.”

  “Yeah, R kind of mentioned something like that...”

  The War of All was set to take place in the not-so-distant future and would span all of space, every parallel universe, and any alternate worlds. And the cause of it all? That would be me. L and R were both agents sent from their respective factions in the future to do something about it, but their methods were drastically different. R wanted me to settle down with a heroine to prevent the war. L wanted to kill me to prevent the war.

  So if these giant robots had also come from the hardline faction, it suddenly made sense as to why they were after my life. Fortunately, the moderates like R seemed to outnumber the violent hardliners, but... Honestly, what was going on in the future was something I had never really given much thought. Did all this mean they’d finally come for me...?

  “Say, L, if you’re also one of the hardliners, shouldn’t you know where they hid Satsuki and the others?”

  It was hard to imagine the disappearance of the heroines was unrelated to the rest of this craziness. The hardliners had probably done something with them... Or so I imagined, but L seemed reluctant to confirm one way or the other.

  “L...”

  “...”

  “I understand that you have your own circumstances, but I want to save Satsuki and the others. You do too, right?”

  L had said she was searching for Satsuki. So, setting her feelings for me aside, we should at least be able to work together on that. Surely that’s what she wanted, too. There was no reason for her to have saved me otherwise. But then again... If she’d known about today’s attack in advance, why didn’t she save me sooner? Moreover, why hadn’t she saved Satsuki? She’d specifically said, “I couldn’t find Satsuki on my own.” Did that mean I was wrong about her involvement? Don’t tell me...

  “Is it possible you don’t really know anything about what’s going on, L?”

  “...!”

  She didn’t say a word, but her face said everything. Despite being a hardliner, L hadn’t been clued in on today’s attack. That’s why she didn’t know where Satsuki was, and why she’d been searching for her alone.

  “Yeah, you got me... I knew nothing about this attack. If they could send those huge standalone armaments into the past, then it should have been easy for them to fix the communication issue with me... But they didn’t tell me anything!” L shouted in an explosion of emotion.

  Tears welled in her eyes, threatening to spill down her cheeks.

  “...”

  I reached out and patted her on the head.

  “...”

  Normally she would have shaken me off, but today she simply hung her head and said nothing.

  ▽

  After taking some time to collect ourselves, L and I began sorting out the situation.

  “Part of this is just guesswork, L, but I assume it was the hardliners that did all this. I mean kidnapping Satsuki and the others, wiping everyone’s memories, and sending the robots to kill me. Is that right?”

  “Most likely.”

  “Hmm... There’s still so much we don’t know, though.”

  Putting the whole assassinating me thing aside, why would they kidnap the heroines? Or rather, why would they leave some behind? How had they managed to wipe everyone’s memories selectively? Where were R and Touko? And why hadn’t the hardliners contacted L?

  “I gotta ask, L... That robot earlier wanted to know what you were doing.”

  “What about it?”

  “Well, I don’t really know how to say this, but...”

  I tried to choose my words carefully, but couldn’t think of a nice way to put it. I watched L’s expression closely as I continued.

  “It’s just, if—and I mean if—you’d been completely abandoned by the hardliners, I don’t think they’d have bothered to ask what you were doing. Even if they didn’t contact you before, the fact that they’re willing to contact you now means they haven’t completely abandoned you, I think.”

  “Yeah...”

  L frowned a little when I repeated the words “completely abandoned,” but ultimately nodded. The robot pilot had asked L what she was doing because they wanted to know her true intentions. In other words, the other side was asking why L would save me—why she would get in their way. It was a bit of an odd inconsistency. There was nothing to be gleaned from it yet, but it was something to keep in mind.

  “Is there anything else that’s been bothering you, L? Any other odd details about this?”

  This story was clearly centered on the future, which was something I personally didn’t know a whole lot about. L was a much better expert on the subject, so I was hoping she could fill me in on anything I might have missed.

  “Something bothering me?” After pondering it for a moment, she suddenly looked up. “Now that you mention it, yeah. I wonder why she hasn’t done anything yet.”

  “She? You mean R?”

  “No, I mean the doctor. The person who created both me and R.”

  “The doctor?”

  Thinking back on it, this “doctor” figure had come up once before in a conversation—or rather a yelling match—between R and L.

  “If R has ceased to function, then she should be aware. But for her not to react at all... It’s strange,” L murmured, her brow furrowed in irritation. “Tch, what is she doing at a time like this?”

  “Hmm...”

  From what I could remember of their conversation/yelling match, L had complicated feelings about her.

  “I guess we should be relying on the doctor, then.”

  “What?! Why on earth would you say that now?”

  “Well, if you’re angry that she hasn’t done anything, that must mean you trusted her to do something if R was in trouble, right?”

  Her words revealed her true feelings. It was precisely because L hoped the doctor would do something that she was disappointed she ha
dn’t.

  “N-No! I wouldn’t trust her for anything!”

  “Don’t say that. She’s like a mother to you, right? I’m sure she’s doing what she can for both of you in the future right now.”

  “Probably not for me...” she muttered, averting her eyes.

  To be fair, L was right to be wondering what the doctor was up to right now. If she was constantly monitoring R’s status, then she should have indeed noticed the abnormality occurring here. And it would follow, then, that she should have taken some sort of action by now. It was possible she had, I guess. But since the robots had made it here, it was probably safe to assume it wasn’t going well. But if that was the case, what had gone wrong?

  Was the doctor not actually monitoring R? Had she somehow failed to realize what was going on? If we discounted unlikely, hard-luck scenarios like that, then there was one possible scenario that came to the forefront... Perhaps it wasn’t that the doctor hadn’t done anything. Perhaps she couldn’t do anything. For example, what if the moderates in the future were also under attack? That would definitely explain a delayed response. Honestly, things weren’t looking good...

  The worst part of all was that Satsuki and the others had been kidnapped. I’d only gotten through as many crazy stories as I had because of them and their powers. That wasn’t to say I thought President Momone, Yulia, and the others left behind were useless. I just didn’t think we’d be enough to face off with a dozen super-powered robots. In order to defeat them, we’d probably need Lea or Corona... But they weren’t here right now.

  Rather than wishing for what I couldn’t have, however, I was better off spending my time coming up with an alternative solution. Preferably, I’d like to wait for the doctor and a rescue from the future. But it wasn’t the wisest choice to sit around waiting for something that may or may not happen. I racked my brain trying to think of other ideas. Iris’s father held an important seat in the Galactic Federation... But that wouldn’t do us any good. Without Iris or Shirley, we had no way of getting into space in the first place. And without our mages, there was no way to get to other worlds, either. That meant I had to think of something here on Earth. Let’s see... That included the psychic organization Ellicia was a part of, Chelsea’s Margaret family, and the king of Laputa.