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

by Namekojirushi

  “A nekomata, huh?”

  “Nekomatas have two tails, meow. See?”

  Ai stuck her bottom out my way and slid her shorts down a little, revealing two hidden tails.

  “Meow?!”

  “I-I got it, okay?! Just hurry up and pull up your shorts!”

  “M-Meow?”

  She tilted her head in confusion.

  “No, really! Please!”

  I could see half of her backside with her shorts down like that, and the other three girls were glaring daggers at me. The latter of which was definitely the more pressing issue, mind you.

  “It’s a little old-fashioned having an animal you once saved return as a pretty girl, but I’d expected nothing less from you, Rekka,” said the peanut gallery—R—as she rubbed her chin in the usual fashion.

  At my behest, Ai finally pulled up her shorts and turned around to face me again.

  “But Rekka and Satsuki sure got a lot bigger, meow. I didn’t recognize you guys at first.”

  “I didn’t recognize you either, Ai.”

  I mean, come on...

  “I can still return to my old form, meow. That’s how we usually live. We only turn to people when we come into town, meow.”

  “Huh? How come?”

  “Cats with two tails stand out, meow. But when we turn into people, we can wear clothes to hide our tails and hats to hide our ears.”

  “I see.”

  Wearing clothes would be a little suspicious on a cat, yeah. I nodded, impressed with how much thought they’d put into it.

  “So, why were you hurt, Ai?”

  “Oh... That’s...”

  Ai hesitated there. Whatever it was seemed serious, so I tried to approach the topic carefully.

  “Did something happen? If there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know.”

  “Mmmeow... I don’t mind telling Rekka and Satsuki...”

  Ai glanced over at Iris and Harissa. Was she worried about them overhearing?

  “What? What’s wrong with us?” Iris asked.

  “We don’t really like involving humans in our affairs, meow. If you make a fuss, we’re the ones who have to suffer the consequences.”

  Ai probably trusted me and Satsuki because of our past. I suppose it was normal she’d be a bit reserved around other people. Harissa fidgeted nervously, but Iris puffed out her cheeks indignantly.

  “What? You worried people are gonna see your ears and tails? Then feast your eyes on this!”

  I wondered what Iris was up to, but she slid her normally-hidden tail out from under her skirt and showed it to Ai.

  “I’ve got a tail, too,” she declared.

  “M-M-Meow?! Are you a yokai too, meow?!”

  “I’m an alien,” Iris announced proudly, her hands on her hips.

  “Um... Iris? Your skirt is riding up like that, so please put your tail away...”

  This time it was just Satsuki and Harissa glowering at me.

  “S-So, yeah, Ai. That’s how it is. The truth is...” From there, I explained the Namidare bloodline to her. “...So you can trust my friends, too. They’re pretty much all used to supernatural things, so they won’t cause any trouble for you or your kind.”

  “O-Okay, meow...”

  Perhaps I’d overloaded her with too much information at once. It looked like her head was spinning. But after a few moments, she collected herself and began telling us her story.

  “Erm... So it all started when I came down from the mountain with everyone, meow.”

  “When you say everyone, do you mean other nekomata?”

  “That’s right, meow. We nekomata all live together.”

  “I thought cats liked to be alone? Is it different because you’re nekomata?”

  “Having two tails makes life pretty difficult, meow... But anyway,” Ai said, her tails flicking from right to left behind her. “Recently, lots of people have started to visit the mountain we lived on, meow. It would have been terrible if they discovered us, so we decided to go down the mountain. But then we ran into another group of yokai and some trouble... All the other nekomata were captured, meow.”

  “What did you say?!”

  I raised my voice without thinking. But if all of her friends had been kidnapped, this was a real emergency.

  “Meow... I was the only one who managed to get away. But I had nowhere to go, so I was just wandering around. And then I collapsed, meow.”

  Which I guess brought us up to speed, considering that’s how we found her.

  “All right. Let’s go and save your friends, Ai.”

  “...Are you sure, meow?”

  “What do you mean? Of course I’m sure.”

  “But this is risky business, meow. And you guys don’t have nine lives.”

  “It’ll be fine.”

  I’d been through so many unbelievable situations at this point that there was no way I was going to turn my back on Ai now. Especially not if she needed my help.

  “Th-Thank you, meow... B-But don’t push yourself too hard, meow.”

  Ai emphasized her reminder for me to be careful again. She was right to do so. Though it might be on a smaller scale this time, trouble was still trouble. We had to hurry since we didn’t know what might happen to her captured friends, but we couldn’t just go charging in recklessly, either. Pondering how we should proceed, a certain someone came to mind.

  “I know! At times like these, we should call an expert.”

  ▽

  I contacted the certain person I had in mind, and found out they just so happened to be eating at Nozomiya right now, so we put a hat on Ai and made our way to the restaurant. Sliding the door open with a rattle, Tetra greeted us.

  “Welcome!”

  “Huh? If it isn’t Rekka. You here for dinner this time?” Tsumiki called, leaning over the kitchen counter. “Wow, there’s even more of you. I wonder if we have a big enough table open...”

  Satsuki, Iris, Harissa, and Ai came in after me, and Tsumiki’s eyes wandered over the rest of the store when she saw them. She was checking if there were any tables available that could seat five people.

  “No, we’re here for—”

  “Hey, problem child.”

  Before I could explain, my reason for coming spoke up on its own. I turned to see a girl in an eyepatch seated at a table, leaning on her elbows over an empty plate.

  “President Momone, please don’t call me that in my own neighborhood.”

  The thought of my neighbors hearing the student council president call me a problem child made me shudder.

  “My bad. So, what did you want from me?” President Momone brushed off my protest and got straight to the topic.

  When it came to expertise in ghosts and yokai in this country, people always thought of priests and shrine maidens first. And with President Momone’s background as a shrine maiden, I thought she’d be the perfect person to ask. We all went and gathered at her table—Tetra brought more chairs over for us —and I explained the situation to her in a hushed voice.

  “Hmm... a quarrel between nekomata and other yokai, huh?” With a toothpick in her mouth, President Momone glanced at Ai. “Well, it’s a good thing your friends were weak, at least.”

  “...What do you mean by that, meow?”

  “Don’t take offense. I genuinely mean it’s a good thing. If your little spat had turned into a long and violent battle that brought harm to any humans, experts would have come in to intervene and exterminate the lot of you.”

  Ai gasped.

  “P-President Momone!”

  I tried to get her to put a lid on it, but she just brushed me off like she would a fly.

  “That’s why I’m saying you were lucky. My grandfather is personally informed of every yokai-related incident that happens in this area. The fact that I didn’t know about this one means there wasn’t any major damage. Think of it like wild bears—as long as they don’t come into town and bother anyone, they don’t get shot. At least, most of the time
.”

  “Um... does that mean you’ll help out?” I asked, a little sheepish and worried.

  “Good question. I feel like mediating fights between yokai is slightly out of my jurisdiction, but...” President Momone leaned on her elbows like she was thinking and chewed on her toothpick absentmindedly. “When you said you came down from the mountain, which mountain were you talking about?”

  “It’s a nearby mountain behind a human school, meow.”

  “Hmm... That’s gotta be our school.”

  In other words, Mitsuhashi High where we all went. For some reason, President Momone grinned when she heard that and tossed her toothpick into the ashtray.

  “All right, let’s go. Lead the way, nekomata.”

  There was no need to ask where. Based on our conversation just now, there was only one place she could mean: the place where her friends were captured. But there was one thing I didn’t understand. Why was President Momone motivated all of a sudden? It was like something had piqued her interest. When I asked her about it, she gave me an answer I should have expected.

  “I told you before. I’m the student council president, and that school is mine. Any issues concerning it will involve me—which includes the surrounding mountains, if need be,” she said with a proud huff of laughter.

  It was a rather roundabout way of saying it, but... I guess that meant she was going to help. Was she being so indirect because she was embarrassed? Or was that just her excuse for taking a job that was really outside of her purview? Well, it wasn’t like she would answer me if I asked anyway, so I took the liberty of assuming the latter. And that meant President Momone had gone out of her way to make up an excuse to help us out.

  “Wait a minute, Rekka! If you’re going to use my place as a meetup location, you have to order something while you’re here!” Tsumiki complained just as we tried to leave.

  “Sorry, we don’t have time to eat.”

  “Hmph...” Tsumiki narrowed her eyes at me suspiciously, but seemed to realize something when she spotted Ai behind me. “Then let’s make a deal.”

  “A deal?”

  “L-Let me join your study session tomorrow!” she demanded, angrily pointing the ladle in her hand at me.

  Come to think of it, she’d seemed awfully hung up on the study session talk the other day, too...

  “Don’t you need to work?” I asked.

  “Th-The occasional break is fine!”

  “I see. You’re more than welcome to join us if you can. The more the merrier, after all.”

  “D-Deal! But now you’ve promised. No take-backs, got it?”

  I had no intention of taking it back, but Tsumiki was rather insistent on that point.

  “Let’s move, problem child.”

  “Ah, okay. See you tomorrow, Tsumiki.”

  “Yeah... see you.” Tsumiki nodded once, then waved her ladle as she saw us off.

  I caught up to President Momone, who was already out the door. She seemed kind of exasperated.

  “You’re a natural genius at making people around you jealous.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “What? Don’t you guys think so, too?” she asked, looking to the other girls.

  “Wh-What are you saying, President?” Satsuki asked in return.

  “I don’t get it either!” Iris announced.

  “U-Um...” Harissa stuttered.

  I didn’t understand a single one of their reactions.

  ▽

  As I’ve mentioned before, the town we lived in was fairly rural. The further you strayed from the station and highways, the more farms and open fields you could see. Rosalind’s mansion was out in the countryside, too. Not too far from where she lived were a multitude of warehouses once used by a now-abandoned factory. Of course, with the factory closed down, the warehouses were defunct too. Ai led us to the yard there and pointed to one of the warehouses.

  “That one, meow. They’re inside there.”

  “You friends are being held there?”

  “That’s right, meow.”

  President Momone tapped the wooden sword she’d retrieved from home against her shoulder.

  “I forgot to ask earlier, but what kind of other yokai are we talking about here?”

  “Hmm...” Ai thought carefully about it for a moment. “They had lots, meow!”

  “You sure are birdbrained for a cat,” President Momone said with a heavy sigh.

  “Meow? But... how can a cat be...”

  “I expected as much,” President Momone said, looking at me. “Let’s go.”

  “We’re going in already?”

  “A warehouse this size can’t hold much, especially not with hostages. From what I can see with my spirit sight, they’re not very powerful yokai, either. There’s no point in dawdling, and I want to go home and take a bath soon.”

  “Y-Yes, ma’am...”

  With Ai’s friends in possible danger, it was probably better to rescue them quickly anyway.

  “Harissa, you wait outside the warehouse and make sure no one sneaks up behind us.”

  “Okay.”

  And so the rest of us followed President Momone towards the warehouse door.

  “Nekomata, you wait here,” she said as we got close.

  “Wh-Why, meow?!”

  “Be quiet! Listen, if you charge in there with us, the captured nekomata might be used as hostages. But if you’re not there, the yokai will think we’re there to exterminate everyone. That’s why you need to come in after we’ve taken out the other yokai.”

  “...M-Meow?”

  “It’ll be fine, Ai. Just leave it to us. You can come in once it’s safe,” I said, trying to reassure her.

  “Okay, meow!” she replied, nodding enthusiastically.

  President Momone didn’t seem too impressed by her change in attitude, though.

  “By the way, problem child, you owe me one for this.”

  “Huh?”

  “I’ll have you repay me eventually, so prepare yourself.”

  That was... kind of terrifying. But President Momone opened the warehouse door before I could even object.

  “Ah, wait!”

  The rest of us followed after her in a hurry... and immediately found ourselves face-to-face with the monsters in the warehouse.

  “H-Humans?!”

  “Why are they here, gyao?!”

  “Blub blub blub blub blub!”

  “Galumph, galumph, galumph...”

  It was almost like a yokai exhibition. It was basically “The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons,” just on a much smaller scale. Inside the warehouse was a talking tanuki, a fish-headed person, a flying head, a ball of fire, a scoop endlessly flowing with water, a human body with limbs but no face, an umbrella with legs, a girl in a bucket, and so on... Nearly every kind of yokai imaginable. Including a bunch of nekomatas bound with rope on the floor behind the others.

  “Man...”

  I had been to another world full of Japanese monsters before with Hibiki, so while I was surprised, I was somehow able to reign in any discomposure. Iris had experience meeting all kinds of different species in space, so she was only mildly taken aback by their appearance. And President Momone, as our resident professional, didn’t even flinch. But...

  “K-Kyaaaaah!”

  “Wh-Whoa! S-Satsuki?!”

  Even the assortment of yokai before us covered their ears—those with hands, at least—at Satsuki’s hysterical screaming. She leaped at me, wrapped her arms around my waist, and held on for all she was worth. Come to think of it, she’d reacted similarly when she mistook Tokiwa for a ghost that time in the old school building...

  “S-Satsuki! Why did you follow us if you were afraid?!”

  “It was a mistake! Ai wasn’t scary at all, so I completely let my guard down thinking other yokai would be the same way!” Satsuki opened her closed eyes a tiny bit and took another glance at the yokai. “Nooo! Kyah! Save me, Rekka!”

  She squeezed her eyes shut and hel
d on to me even tighter, refusing to budge an inch. I was starting to worry she might just break me in half...

  “Urgh!”

  “Hey, Satsuki! Get away from Rekka!” Iris shouted.

  “Nooooooooo!”

  “What did you lot even come here for?” President Momone asked in disbelief.

  “I’m not sure what’s going on, but we can’t have you humans knowing that we live here! Everyone, attack!”

  “Yeah!”

  “Raaah!”

  “Let’s get ‘em!”

  At the leader tanuki’s command, all the other yokai charged at us. However...

  “S-Satsuki! Let go of me!”

  “Nooooo!”

  “Rekka! Get away from Satsuki already!”

  “Huh?! It’s my fault now?!”

  With the exception of President Momone, we were completely unprepared. But she looked unconcerned. She simply took off her eyepatch and sighed once more.

  “Problem child.”

  “Y-Yes?”

  “You owe me twice now.”

  Before I could get in a word edgewise, the wooden sword in her hand was slashing through the air. In the blink of an eye, the front line of yokai rushing at us were mowed down.

  “Amazing...”

  President Momone was almost absurdly strong. The yokai dropped like flies every time she swung her sword. Upon closer inspection, the wooden sword in her hand was glowing faintly. Just like her right eye, it was constantly changing color.

  “Gyao! W-We’re no match!”

  “Wh-What do we do, Pon?!” The flying head asked the tanuki—Pon, apparently—who pointed at us still messing about.

  “T-Take the weak-looking humans over there as hostages!”

  The nekomata behind them would have worked just as well as hostages, but thanks to President Momone’s foresight, they had no idea. Instead, the yokai believed this was their only chance and attacked us with everything they had.

  “Tch! They’re heading your way, problem child!”

  The flying head slipped past President Momone and rushed at the rest of us.

  “Nooooo! That’s the scariest one!” Satsuki screamed with tears in her eyes.

  She was holding on to me so tightly that I couldn’t move. The head was just about to come down on us, but...