I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 3

by Namekojirushi

  But...

  “Rekka Namidare, we’ve wasted enough time.”

  Suddenly, Hibiki interrupted my train of thought.

  “I’ll make this as plain as I possibly can. Give up on Kult Graphimore, and on this world.”

  “What?!” Kult screamed.

  “Hibiki, what are you saying?”

  Hibiki’s words were so unexpected that I was more surprised than Kult was.

  “What’s important here is human lives. He’s got a tool that can take people to other worlds. Using that, he can safely evacuate everyone to anywhere he chooses.”

  Hibiki’s solution was simple, clear, and effective. Everybody in this world who survived was gathered inside Kult’s walled garden. It wouldn’t be that hard to move them somewhere else.

  But Kult was frowning.

  ...Wait a second. If the solution was that simple, why hadn’t Kult come up with it himself? He was the one who’d invented colored doors in the first place.

  “Is there some reason you can’t move to another world?”

  “That would mean leaving Meifa here alone,” Kult solemnly replied. “The spell used to seal Zolphiakd is a delicate one. It wouldn’t withstand the dimension jump through the door. If I tried to force it, it could destroy the seal.”

  “I see...”

  Even if the woman he loved was never going to wake up, Kult couldn’t leave her behind in a doomed world that was going to be destroyed.

  “Of course, I intend to move everyone out of this world before the end. I just can’t leave Meifa behind while there’s even a one percent chance. Even if that means I die along with this world.”

  The glimmer in Kult’s eyes spoke to the strength of his will. I was moved by his conviction, but...

  “Hmph. That’s stupid.”

  Hibiki wasn’t.

  “There’s a guaranteed way to save this world. Why wouldn’t you do it? What if something unexpected happens and someone dies, all because you’re too busy screwing around?”

  “No... I mean, maybe, but at least think a little about how Kult feels.”

  “Which is more important? Human lives, or his stupid feelings? Are you an idiot?”

  “Ouch...”

  “You too, Kult Graphimore. I’m not going to let you die either. You’re leaving this world with me. Soon.”

  Everything Hibiki said was right, and there was no way I could tell her she was wrong. But...

  “What about Meifa? If we’re talking about people’s lives, what about hers?” I pointed to the woman in the sleeping capsule.

  Hibiki frowned.

  “What is it with men...? She’s not waking up anyway. She can’t, right? She’s using herself to seal away a demon. It’s better that she go to sleep with this world and never wake up again. It’s more compassionate for her, and it’s a good way to get rid of the darkness-eating demon for good, right?”

  “Why you...!” Kult trailed off. He was staring down Hibiki, seething with rage.

  “...Hibiki.” I frowned at her.

  “What? Did I say something that was wrong?”

  Maybe she wasn’t wrong, but...

  “There still might be some way to save them, right? Both Meifa and this world.”

  “And what if someone else gets hurt because you dragged this story out unnecessarily while chasing some pipe dream? Would you take responsibility for that?”

  “Gah...!” I groaned a little. She had me there.

  Keeping other people from getting involved... That was what mattered most to Hibiki. It was the reason we were together now.

  “We bring enough misery to the people around us already. We should always be doing whatever it takes to minimize that.”

  “Still... I don’t think this is the best happy ending.”

  “The best happy ending? You know that’s impossible for us to ever achieve. We can’t even protect the people we love.” Hibiki’s past guilt oozed from her words.

  I knew how she must feel, but...!

  “But if we just give up, that’s the end!”

  “Shut up. You’re only saying that because you don’t want to feel guilty about what happens.”

  She had me there, too. And yeah, I knew it. I was just being selfish.

  But... even so...

  “I don’t like giving up without a fight.”

  I refused to give in.

  “Wow, sounds like you’re having a rough time,” came a voice from above. R was floating in the air, lying flat and looking down at us dispassionately.

  Hibiki was the one to break the stalemate.

  “...!”

  “Gwah!”

  She closed the distance in a single stride and punched me in the stomach.

  “Looks like I need to teach my husband a lesson.”

  “Husband? Are you still talking about that?”

  I dropped to my knees, sweating profusely.

  “You’re weak. I guess I’ll train you a little while I’m at it.”

  “...Don’t underestimate me!”

  I stood up, trying my best to ignore the pain, but Hibiki knocked me back down with a leg sweep.

  “Gwahh!”

  “You’re too weak.”

  Damn it! I didn’t even stand a chance! Another strike came down on me mercilessly as I lay there.

  “Gwah! That hurts! Those boots are steel-plated, aren’t they?”

  “You’re imagining it.”

  “You’re going to kill me!”

  “I’m going easy on you.”

  “You’re definitely lying! Gyah! Mgyah! Ggah! Stop! Stop it!”

  I curled myself into a ball as she kicked me again and again. I couldn’t even hold my own against her. There was no way I could beat her. I just had to endure while trying to talk her down.

  “There’s still time! We don’t need to jump to conclusions! We can think about this and find a better way!”

  I tasted blood in my mouth, but I kept yelling at her anyway. And the only reply I got was more wordless kicks.

  Crap... I didn’t expect to have to argue with her in a place like this! I needed some way to get her to rethink things—Huh?

  I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.

  As she lay in the capsule, there was something that looked like a black mist swirling around Meifa’s chest...

  “Hbwah!”

  I felt a blow to the back of my head, and then I saw stars.

  Ugh! I needed to concentrate on Hibiki, not some weird haze. But there was nothing I could do...

  “Lie there and think about how stupid you are for a while. I’ll handle the rest.”

  “You...!”

  I looked up at her, frustrated, but then...

  Somehow Kult had undone the ties on his hands, and he was now standing up.

  “Jump to the right!” I screamed out of reflex, and both Hibiki and I leaped.

  Not a moment later, Kult’s capsule shattered in a flash of light, freezing over where we’d just been standing.

  “Fwahaha! You should never let your guard down!”

  As Kult laughed, I saw what looked like a pair of nippers and a sliced-up spool of wire at his feet.

  ...That jerk. Had he said he wanted to sit down because he knew there were nippers in his desk drawer? And the way he’d shouted out and gasped earlier must have been to distract us while he got them out...

  After he laughed, Kult glared at us angrily.

  “I will not give up until the end! I made a promise to Meifa that I would protect the world she saved, no matter what! And I’ll do whatever it takes!”

  I realized he meant that he still intended to use Hibiki to activate the Infinity Reviver and save this world.

  But I didn’t want to sacrifice anyone!

  “Kult! Please, wait a second!”

  “Not a chance!”

  No dice, huh? He didn’t look like he was willing to parley.

  “We’re getting out of here for now. We can’t beat him unless we’re fighting
close quarters,” Hibiki said, still calm.

  She was probably planning to retreat, and then catch Kult in another trap.

  “All right. But we can’t just run. This walled garden world is pretty small. There aren’t many buildings, and they’re all small. The terrain is open, too. I don’t think it’s a good place to set traps or ambushes.”

  “So even if we run, he’ll catch up to us and then it’s over, huh? So what do we do instead?”

  “...Run back to our world. The red door on the top floor didn’t disappear like the blue one did. If we go through it, we can get back to our own world. Probably.”

  “I guess that’s our only choice.”

  We whispered our plans to each other.

  “Now give up!” Kult shouted.

  “Run!”

  I gave the signal to Hibiki as Kult yelled. We turned and bolted.

  “Gnuh! Wait! You can’t escape!”

  I could hear Kult yelling at us from behind.

  “Don’t turn around! Run as fast as you can!”

  “R-Right!”

  If we were going to run, we had to do it fast. And we kept going without looking back, leaping up the stairs two at a time as we went.

  “W-Wait! Wait! Waaait! Gwaah!” Kult was still screaming in the distance, but he almost sounded hurt.

  Oh, that’s right. Hibiki had destroyed his jetpack. He couldn’t fly now. Maybe he hadn’t had to run in a long time. He certainly didn’t look like he got much exercise.

  And so we left the slowpoke magical scientist behind, and reached the third floor without trouble.

  “Rekka Namidare! Open it fast!” Hibiki shouted, looking at the red door.

  “R-Right!” I grabbed the doorknob and turned.

  And then...

  Clackety clack.

  Huh? Did the doorknob make a weird noise?

  “Hurry up and go in!”

  “Uwah!”

  Hibiki kicked me in the back, and once again I went headfirst into the weird, squished space beyond the door. The sensation of being in a pool of sticky liquid covered my whole body as I fell through to who-knew-where.

  But when the feeling subsided...

  “Gyah!” I landed on my face. Again.

  And then Hibiki came right behind me and stepped on my back.

  “Fgyah!”

  “...Why are you lying on the ground?”

  “Just move. You’re heavy.”

  “...”

  Crunch.

  “Gnyah!”

  Why did she have to step on me twice?! This really wasn’t my day.

  I stood up and turned around just in time to see the blue door disappear. I figured they were only meant to be temporary, while the red doors were permanent. I didn’t know what the real difference was, but that seemed to be how they worked.

  “...Hey, where are we?” Hibiki asked.

  “Well, we’re out behind the... school?” I started to answer her, but suddenly stopped.

  I hadn’t noticed because I was busy eating dirt and getting walked on, but... Why were there trees laughing at us? Why were their nuts laughing at us?

  “Whoa!”

  There weren’t any psychotic plants like this on the mountain behind the school. What was this freaky fantasy forest? It was sufferable now that it was still light out, but once night fell, it would be seriously scary.

  “Wait, why is the sun out anyway? When we went through the first door, it was nighttime on Earth.”

  And then something fell on Hibiki’s shoulder.

  Um... It was kind of gelatinous... Wait, a hairy bug?!

  “Hibiki, there’s something weird on your shoulder.”

  “Hm? KYAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

  Hibiki took one look at hairy jelly bug on her shoulder and let out an unearthly scream as she grabbed on to me.

  She was... surprisingly soft.

  “Hey! Wait!”

  There was something dangerously soft being pushed up against my chest. That... That something soft was rubbing against me! And her face was close, too!

  I quickly tried to shake her off, but she was holding on to me too tightly.

  “H-Hey, Hibiki! Get off me!”

  “It’s s-slimy! It’s a slimy bug! I hate both those things! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!”

  I don’t think she heard me at all. She only held on tighter.

  She was practically strangling me now, and things were starting to get dangerous somewhere else... I quickly knocked the hairy jelly bug off her shoulder.

  Ugh... And I got a little of the green jelly goo on me.

  “See? It’s gone.”

  “It... It is?”

  She still sounded on the verge of tears as she fearfully looked at her shoulder, but she sighed with relief when she saw that the bug was actually gone.

  When she looked back up, her eyes met mine.

  “......”

  “......”

  What was going on...? It was weirdly awkward.

  “You sure get all the cliché events, don’t you? Is that part of the bloodline of the Namidare, too?” R asked in a strangely serious tone.

  I ignored her.

  A moment later, Hibiki pushed me away.

  “S-Sorry...” she said.

  “No...”

  Hibiki looked away from me. Her face was beet red. This was so different from how I’d seen her act up until now. I just scratched my cheek, unsure of how to react. But if she was scared of slimy things and bugs, that almost made her seem like a normal girl.

  Anyway... So after a moment of being sidetracked, it was time to get back to business. I was reaching the limit of how long I could avoid eye contact.

  I raised my head and looked around again.

  “Where are we?”

  The trees just kept laughing in answer to my question.

  Intermission 2

  When she looked at the clock, it was already past 10:00 PM. Satsuki was getting tired. She sighed a little and stopped casting her anti-curse spell.

  “Zzz... Zzz...”

  “...”

  She’d kept the spell up for four hours now, but Harissa still showed no sign of waking up. Maybe she never would...

  The idea flashed through Satsuki’s mind, but she vigorously shook her head. The sleep spell on Harissa was more powerful than she’d expected. She was starting to lose hope.

  She hadn’t known Harissa that long, but Satsuki liked the little mage from another world. Just a poor girl who’d suddenly lost the ability to get home.

  Right after she’d started living at Rekka’s house, she’d asked Satsuki to teach her how to do chores. She said that she wanted to help Rekka.

  She had probably been good with housework to begin with. All Satsuki really had to do was teach her how to go shopping and use modern appliances. Harissa had quickly taken over all the chores in the Namidare household. It was cute to watch her doing her best to help Rekka.

  Actually, Satsuki regretted teaching her how to use the kitchen a little. As a result, she’d had fewer chances to make lunch for Rekka herself. Harissa’s cooking was in the style of her home world. It had a unique flavor that was really good.

  In that sense, she was one of Satsuki’s rivals for Rekka’s heart. (The fact that it was “rivals” in the plural was bad enough.) But as a person, Satsuki didn’t mind her.

  It was like having a little sister, Satsuki thought. That’s why she wanted to help her no matter what.

  “...Okay.”

  Satsuki began casting her spell again. Once more, the blue light gathered in her hands and softly enveloped the sleeping Harissa.

  “......”

  As she cast the spell, Satsuki found herself thinking of her childhood friend.

  “Rekka...” She whispered the name of the absent boy.

  Normally his name brought a warm light to her heart, but now it cast a black shadow.

  She knew Rekka was out there trying to save Harissa. That much she was certain of. That was the kind
of boy her childhood friend was.

  He could be lazy, he hated to stand out, and he never picked fights. He was a boy who loved what was normal, and hated causing a fuss. But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t do it to save someone in trouble. He’d complain, and he’d say he wished that someone else would do it for him, but...

  “In the end, Rekka wouldn’t give up on anyone...” She said nostalgically.

  Satsuki had once come across a stray cat, but her parents told her to throw it out. Rekka subsequently found her crying, and told her that he’d help find a new owner for it.

  “My dad saved a cat by the river a while ago, and I helped him find someone to keep it,” he’d said.

  He even told her he knew all the best places to put up signs. But...

  “No! I want to keep it myself!”

  Satsuki had been selfish then.

  In her own childish way, she’d fallen in love with the cat. At first, he’d tried to persuade her otherwise... but when he realized it wasn’t working, he took her and the cat to the neighborhood shrine.

  “Let’s keep it here and take care of it.”

  “Okay!”

  For a time after that, they’d visit the shrine day after day. They brought it milk to drink and blankets to keep it warm.

  After a year or so, the cat grew up and wandered off somewhere. But Rekka had stayed with her until the end.

  He thought it was normal for people to be happy. And he seemed to think it was normal to try and protect that.

  But... now he’d rebuffed Satsuki strongly, and hurt her as a result.

  Maybe he didn’t mean to. Maybe he had a good reason. Maybe Satsuki had just misunderstood what he was doing, and was getting upset for no reason. But even so...

  She didn’t know what to do. They’d been together ever since they were little, and this was the first time something like this had ever happened.

  Because... she loved Rekka.

  The slightest disturbance shook her heart to the core. Those wounds were deep.

  No matter how much she thought it over—no matter how much she loved him—she couldn’t understand him now. If she could, there wouldn’t be a problem at all.

  Not even the Magic of Omnipotence could reveal how people felt. The black uncertainty ate at her heart.

  A piercing, aching pain...