While they chatted, I pointed the Mind-Melding Device at them and pressed the button. Their conversation was rather interesting, after all.
“Umm, so about Rekka...”
“Rekka, meow? He used to look after me when I was a little kitten, meow.”
“I-I’d really like to hear more about that time!”
“Why, meow?”
“I want to know what Rekka was like when he was young!”
I really want to hear more about when Ai was young!
Tetra. You’ve got it the wrong way around there. She seemed to realize her mistake after yelling it out loud, and tried to cover it up by flailing her hands. So she was interested in Rekka’s childhood, huh? Was it the mentality of wanting to know everything about the person she loved? Very cute of her indeed. Ai tilted her head as she pensively watched Tetra panic.
“Do you love Rekka, Tetra?”
She pitched her question at Tetra directly, though it was obviously a dead ball.
“Hwah?! Wh-Wh-What are you saying, Ai?!”
Sure enough, Tetra was unable to respond properly. Her eyes darted about nervously.
“Am I wrong, meow?”
“U-Um, uh... Y-You’re wrong.”
You’re not wrong, but...
Tetra replied hesitantly, but denied her own denial in her heart.
“Is that so, meow? I love Rekka!”
“?!”
Was Ai playing catch or dodgeball with her questions? She was really keeping Tetra on her toes. But this was a good chance to change my Mind-Melding target from Tetra to Ai.
“U-U-Umm, when you say you love Rekka, do you mean... love-love?”
“Huh? Of course, meow. Love is love, meow.”
“I-Is that so...?”
“When I visited Rekka’s room the other day, I told him I wanted to do something for him as thanks, meow.”
“You visited Rekka’s room?! Something as thanks?! Wh-What happened?!”
You shouldn’t get worked up like this, Tetra. It’s not good for your blood pressure.
“When I told him I’d do anything for him, he asked me to let him pet me all over my body, meow!”
“A-All over... your body...”
Tetra started to sway on her feet as though she was having a dizzy spell. When Ai was talking about Rekka petting her, she meant in cat form. But Tetra had no way of knowing that with the incomplete information she’d received. Hmm... Ai’s thoughts and words were in complete agreement with each other, so there was no point to the Mind-Melding Device with her. It would help if she’d think something that I could write down in my report—oh, speak of the devil.
I really was fully prepared to do anything though, meow. Does Rekka only see me as a cat? I’m old enough to have kittens now, meow. It might have ended with just petting this time, but next spring I’ll be in heat and unable to hold back, meow! I wonder what a half-human, half-nekomata kitten would look like...
Well, that far surpassed my expectations. I had assumed that heroines without their own stories would take their time developing their feelings like your average rom-com... Perhaps she doesn’t make love as complicated as humans do because she’s a cat? Falling in love is just that—falling in love. So now that she was in love, would everything else be straightforward? It was a tremendous catch to reel in at the very end, but it seemed my mission was now complete. Time to go home... Hmm?
“Transmission received.”
Oh? A message from the future at this time?
“Singularity Branch Point Observer R. What is the status of the special mission?”
“It’s going smoothly. No need for concern. But I believe I sent a progress report several days ago.”
There shouldn’t have been a problem... or so I thought.
“Your progress report was received. However, it was deemed to be insufficient.”
“Excuse me?”
“We seek a more detailed report.”
What were they thinking?
“More detailed, you say? But I have nothing more to report on at present, and summer vacation is almost over. Once school starts again, Rekka will be commuting and moving around constantly every day, making it difficult for me to leave his side unnoticed. Any further investigation is...”
“Then conduct the rest of the investigation during the remainder of summer vacation.”
H-Huh? There were only two days remaining of summer vacation. Fifty-three more hours, to be specific.
“With all due respect, re-investigating all the heroines in the time remaining would require leaving Rekka’s side for a whole two days. The risk of my absence being noticed is far too great, especially when my original task was to stay by his side at all times—”
“Your objection is overruled. Accept the order quietly.”
“...Understood.”
“Good luck.”
The transmission ended there, but I continued to glare at the hovering text window for a while longer. I had my suspicions about this special mission from the beginning, but... Now more unreasonable orders had been piled on top of it. I couldn’t refuse the orders of my superiors, so I had no choice, but...
“It’s annoying, so I’ll leave it for tomorrow.”
Tomorrow was the summer festival, anyway. Most of the heroines would be gathered there, making it the perfect chance for additional investigation.
So, I decided I should end my investigation here as originally planned and quickly head back to Rekka’s house. He was trying to finish the rest of his homework by himself before I left—I wonder if he’s done by now? I set aside my complaints about the higher-ups for the moment and turned my thoughts to Rekka instead as I started on my way home.
Episode 4: An Assassin from the Future and Summer Vacation
“I... I’m doooooooone...!”
I slumped over my desk weakly and dropped the pencil in my hand. My mountain of homework was finally complete. Just before the end of summer, no less.
“Now I can go to the summer festival tomorrow without feeling guilty...”
“Congratulations,” R said flatly, clapping her hands. “I expected you to be the type to leave the homework until the very last day, to be honest. That, or the type to be scolded by the teacher for not finishing it at all.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I would be, but Satsuki and I always go to the local summer festival every year.”
“Oh, so you did your homework because you wanted to see her in a yukata.”
“No... because she’d get mad if I didn’t finish it...”
When Satsuki got mad, she would give me the cold shoulder instead of yelling. It really sucked... At any rate, that’s how I managed to finish my homework before the end of vacation every year.
“So, where are they holding the summer festival?”
“At the community center plaza up the hill.”
“What do you do there?”
“Visit stalls and stuff. Oh, Tsumiki and Tetra said they might be helping with one from the shopping district... There’ll also be a wooden frame put together with taiko drums playing on top, and at the end of the night, there’ll be fireworks.”
“Ooh! I’m looking forward to the fireworks,” R said, finally sounding interested.
Since she normally wasn’t able to touch anything, the idea of watching the fireworks must have been exciting. It’d be nice if she could enjoy more things like that.
“They’re no match for the fireworks show at Sumida River, but ours are still pretty nice. We should go earlier this year to get a spot...”
“Yes, please!” R nodded, agreeing before I had even finished my sentence.
She was expressionless as always, but for some reason she seemed kind of happy.
As I basked in the comfortable feeling of being free from homework, I went over my plans for tomorrow in my head, when—
RRRIP!
It sounded like something was tearing through the air.
“?!”
I threw myself back i
n my desk chair and swiveled around in a panic. The disturbance had happened in the empty space over my bed... that was no longer empty.
There was some kind of rift there. It tore itself bigger and bigger with a grating, ripping sound. So, nothing had torn through the air—the air was literally tearing.
“What the hell...?”
Though I was pretty acclimated to crazy experiences, this still took me by surprise. To think I’d get involved in such a bewildering situation just studying in my room... Had my bloodline leveled up?
“...”
R was staring at the rift in silence. It stretched vertically until it was large enough for a person to pass through, then suddenly spread itself open. Then, a petite silhouette appeared from inside.
“Whew... I finally arrived!”
That was what she said after stepping out of the rift. It was a girl who looked slightly older than Harissa or R. She wore a red, caltrop-patterned, long-sleeved kimono with black knee-high socks and fancy geta sandals. With her fashion sense and sharp facial features, she gave off a rather mature impression. She stepped out onto my bed in her sandals and stretched her arms.
“Mmm... All right, time to get to work on my mission...!”
Then she stopped cold. She took one look at me and froze like a deer in headlights.
“...”
She mechanically stuck her hand into one of the sleeves of her kimono and pulled out a small piece of paper—probably a photograph—and compared me to it. After looking between me and the photo several times, she pointed a finger at me.
“Aaaaah!” she suddenly screamed. “H-How?! I thought I set my materialization point away from the target’s location!”
What? What was happening here? Why was I being screamed at by a girl who’d suddenly appeared in my room? She panicked for a moment before clearing her throat with a cough and straightening up. She looked at me with determination.
“Commence mission! Apprehend the target!” she said, pulling a gun out of her sleeve.
“Huh?”
Now when I say gun, I don’t mean a pistol. It was more like the laser gun Iris had... Hey, wait a minute! I still don’t know what’s happening!
“Die!”
“H-H-Hang on a sec! Wait! Whoa!”
I threw myself backwards to get away from the gun, but the sudden shift in weight toppled my desk chair right over. The girl pulled the trigger. The next instant, a deadly-looking red light tried to disintegrate me... but suddenly struck a semi-transparent blue wall and scattered.
“What?!”
The red girl was shocked. To be fair, I was too.
“Restrictions released by covert Special First Class authority. Shields activated. Transmitting inhibitor identification sonar. Status: clear.”
The blue girl muttered her usual cryptic nonsense calmly, positioning herself between me and the red girl as though to protect me.
“R...?”
“Stay near me, Rekka. Don’t worry about Harissa. The sounds and impacts that occur in this room won’t be heard from outside, and I’ve placed a shield over the entire room. It’ll keep her from rushing in here.”
R adjusted her hat and looked at her opponent quietly. The girl who had fired at me without warning glared at her menacingly in return.
“It’s you, R!”
“I was informed of your disappearance from the protected residential division. Why are you here, L?”
“Shut up! It’s none of your business!”
The red girl—L—screamed in an outrage and fired off another shot, but the red light was again deflected by R’s shield.
“Your attacks are futile. You’d need a gun on par with the main battery of a super dreadnought class battleship to break through my shield.”
“Damn it!”
“Stop resisting and surrender. I wish to talk to you.”
“Shut up!” L shouted.
With that, she stowed her gun and pulled a kunai from her sleeve. The blade looked red-hot, and she used it to slash at the shield with all her strength. But R didn’t budge.
“An electromagnetic voltspear? It seems like you’ve equipped yourself with the latest gear. Considering that and your materialization via space-time translocator from before, just who is pulling your strings?”
“Stop speaking so calmly! It’s infuriating!”
“This isn’t much of a conversation.”
Behind her shield, R hadn’t moved an inch. L continued to unleash her attacks on us. Several dozen blows later, she finally accepted that it was useless and tried to back away... tripping right over a dictionary I had lying on the floor.
“Ow!”
It seemed this girl was quite a klutz. R and I exchanged a silent look. The girl rubbed the back of her head before paying any mind to us. She then gasped suddenly and scrambled back up, blushing red as she pointed her finger at us.
“Tch, fine! Immediate contact with the target was unforeseen, so I’ll retreat for now! Just remember this—”
“Wah!”
L started disappearing from her feet up as she spoke. What was going on?
“I’m definitely better than you, R!”
With those final words, L completely vanished.
“She even had a particle relocator prepared... How troublesome,” R said.
“Wh-What was that about?”
Despite being smack in the middle of it all, I felt completely lost. Um, I was attacked just now, right? And R protected me from this so-called L. Wait...
“R, are you secretly, like, super awesome or something?”
“Huh? What are you saying, Rekka?” R’s shoulders slumped. “I’ve been telling you this whole time that I’m extremely high-spec.”
▽
The day after I survived the late-night assault. It was now the day of the summer festival, and I had guests from another world in my house. They were the sylpheeds, Lyun and Sophie.
“Hmm... So you have wear these ‘shoe’ things in this world.”
Lyun inspected the zori sandals I handed her. Spirits usually went barefoot, so I had gotten a pair for both her and Sophie. The sisters then tried them on.
“It feels weird between my toes...”
“But they’re kind of cute, Sis.”
“I suppose you’re right, Sophie.”
I had specifically gotten a cute pair meant for girls, so I was glad they seemed to like them.
“Your sylpheed clothes look enough like a dress that all you have to do is put away the ring around your head, and you should blend in fine.”
We were going to a festival, after all. Slightly strange outfits would just be written off as costumes.
“What about Mio?”
“She’s recording her new song right now, so she can’t make it. She was really sad about missing it, though.”
Pop star Mio was busy working during her summer vacation, so she didn’t get a lot of time off. She’d had to make special arrangements just to go to the pool with us.
“Too bad... I wanted to hear Mio’s singing again.”
“In that case, I bought her newest single at the concert the other day. Want to listen?”
“Really, Nammy?!”
The sylpheed sisters and I continued to chat away until the doorbell rang. Iris, Hibiki, Chelsea, and Ellicia had arrived.
“’Sup, Rekka?”
“Haven’t seen you since the pool, Rekka.”
“It’s been so long since I came to Rekka’s house!”
“This is my first time here.”
The four of them all greeted me, and I led them to the living room where Lyun and Sophie were.
“I thought we were right on time. Where’s everybody else?” asked Hibiki.
“Tsumiki and Tetra are helping out at the shopping district’s stall. Lea went on ahead with them. Rosalind, Suzuran, and Corona are heading straight there from the mansion. Tokiwa and President Momone will meet up with us there, too. Fam still hasn’t finished her homework, so Rain and Sh
irley are helping her with that before they come.”
“What about Satsuki? I don’t see Harissa here, either...” Hibiki said, looking around the kitchen curiously.
“Oh, Harissa’s at Satsuki’s house—”
Before I could finish my sentence, the doorbell rang. It was Satsuki and Harissa, both now dressed in yukatas. Harissa was wearing one of Satsuki’s old ones. They’d gone over to her house to change so Satsuki’s mom could help them.
“Thanks for waiting. Changing took quite some time.”
Satsuki had her hair tied back. She was clutching a purse in one hand and Harissa’s hand in the other. She seemed to be supporting Harissa, who wasn’t quite used to walking in geta. Huh... Seeing her geta reminded me of the incident with L last night, but I didn’t let it show on my face. I was trying to keep that between me and R.
“Wh-What do you think?” a yukata-clad Harissa asked, looking up at me nervously.
“Me...? Well, it suits you. It’s very cute.”
“Th-Thank you very much!” Harissa bowed her head in embarrassment.
“Rekka, what about me?”
“Hmm? Isn’t that the same yukata you wore last year, Satsuki?”
“Stupid!”
With tears in her eyes, she gave me a swift karate chop.
“It’s also cute, too...”
“You’re too slow!” Satsuki huffed and turned away to take off her shoes.
We then moved into the living room where everyone else was, and the girls who were unfamiliar with yukatas all came over to get a look at Satsuki and Harissa.
“Sheesh. I’m always left utterly dumbfounded at how thickheaded you can be.”
“Quiet, you.”
I retorted to R’s comment on the conversation between me and Satsuki just now. Actually, now was a good time to ask her about that while everyone else was distracted by the yukatas.
“By the way, are you sure I shouldn’t be concerned about that L girl?”
“Yes, don’t worry. Just leave it to me,” R replied while spinning on the spot.
After seeing how easily she’d repelled her, I felt better, but...
“You know, it’s rare having you save me for once.”
“That’s because it had nothing to do with your bloodline.”
“Huh?”
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 9 Page 12
