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

by Namekojirushi

  Slam!

  “Hm?”

  Just as I was about to unlock my front door, however, my next door neighbors’ opened. My dad had always been good friends with the Otomo family, so they were sort of looking after me now that I was living alone.

  “...”

  Figuring that I should greet them if they were going out, I stopped what I was doing and turned to say something. The person who’d just come out of their house, however, wasn’t who I was expecting.

  “Oh...”

  It was a young girl in a red kimono named L. I think she was around nine? I wasn’t exactly sure; I was just going based on looks. She wasn’t the Otomos’ daughter or anything. She was just someone they’d taken in recently. I didn’t know the details, but apparently they’d found her shivering under the bridge one rainy day. I was curious what her story was, but Uncle Itsuki had never said anything about it. They seemed to have whatever was going on under control. But as for L...

  “Tch.”

  She looked my way and clicked her tongue.

  “Yeah, uh... Good evening to you too.”

  “Tch...”

  For some reason, L hated me. She glared at me every time she saw me.

  “What are you even doing?” she asked.

  “Huh?”

  What was I doing...? Her sudden accusatory tone left me bewildered. But instead of explaining, she continued to silently glare at me for a little while before running off somewhere.

  What was that about? Did she just hate me that much? Or... was she mad because I wasn’t doing something I should have been? I wanted to know, but the only person I could ask was already gone.

  I had that nagging feeling in the back of my mind, but there was nothing for me to do other than go inside now.

  ▽

  After dinner, I was reading manga on my bed.

  “Wahahaha!”

  Laughter resounded from the portable TV sitting on my desk. There wasn’t anything I was particularly interested in watching, but having the background noise made the otherwise quiet house seem a little less lonely. I was actually supposed to be doing my literature homework right now, but I couldn’t find the motivation and was dragging out the inevitable as usual.

  “Wahahaha!”

  More laughter from the TV. It was honestly just a waste of battery to have it on while I wasn’t really watching it, but I left it on anyway because anything was better than silence.

  “Oh, that’s right. I have to contact Touko.”

  Remembering the invitation Yorun had tasked me with at the supermarket, I picked up my cellphone. I pulled up my contacts list and selected Touko Iwazu’s number.

  Brrring, brrring, brrring...

  “...She’s not picking up.”

  Could she not hear the phone ringing? Or was she just away from it right now? She didn’t seem to have a voicemail set, though. It just kept ringing. I gave up after counting 20 rings and decided to try again later. I then went back to reading my manga, but...

  Knock, knock!

  Suddenly, someone was rapping at the window.

  “Hm? Oh, it’s you again.”

  This was the second floor, but that didn’t give me too much pause as I opened the window. Hanging just outside was a girl with cat ears and a broad grin.

  “Meow! Good evening, Rekka!”

  “Ai, I told you not to come in the window.”

  “I’m sorry, meow.”

  Her apology sounded genuine, but never once had Ai entered my house through the front door. Honestly, I’d kinda given up on it, so I didn’t say anything more as I let her inside. For the record, Ai’s cat ears were the real deal. She even had a tail sprouting from her backside. That was a roundabout way of describing it, but Ai was a nekomata. She was a kitten I’d found and looked after at the local shrine when I was a kid, but she’d grown up into a yokai. It was a rather strange story, but I was happy to have been reunited with her. And that was thanks to my bloodline. She’d come to me because she was in trouble, and President Momone and I had worked together to resolve the problems with the local yokai. Ever since, Ai would come over to play like this sometimes.

  “Come to think of it, Rekka, I heard you found another new yokai.”

  “Well, it was President Momone who found him. Speaking of which, is he getting along with the locals?”

  “Things are going just fine for now. He’s not violent, at least. We’ll give it some time and then discuss the possibility of him staying with us permanently,” Ai replied as she rolled around on my bed.

  The local yokai and nekomata were technically separate groups, but they’d formed an alliance in the face of adversity that they continued to uphold even after the food shortage was solved. They clearly communicated on the regular, considering Ai already knew about the yokai I’d recruited earlier in the day with Hito.

  “Rekka, will you pet me on the head?”

  “Sure, sure.”

  I sat down next to Ai and stroked her head gently. Her hair had a curious texture, closer to animal fur than human hair. Doing this almost felt like petting a real cat.

  “Mrow...”

  And when I scratched between her ears, she comfortably began purring. This was nice and relaxing for both of us, but I honestly preferred petting Ai when she was in cat form. She looked unhappy the last time I’d asked her to transform for me, however, so I made sure to save asking for when she was in a really good mood.

  “Oh, meow! That’s right!”

  “Huh?”

  Ai suddenly sat up, stuck a hand in her pocket, and announced, “I found something strange earlier, meow! So I’m giving it to you as a present, Rekka!”

  “Something strange?”

  “Meow! A strange creature, to be precise!”

  So it was alive, huh? But what kind of creature would a nekomata consider strange? If it fit in her pocket, maybe it was a bug or something? I wondered as I waited for her to show me, when...

  “Here mew go!” Ai declared as she pulled an exhausted fairy out of her pocket.

  “Poppy?!”

  “Mrow?!”

  Ai recoiled at my sudden shouting, but I had bigger things on my mind at the moment.

  “Poppy! Hey, are you okay?!”

  I immediately snatched the fairy from Ai’s hand and called out to her. Poppy was yet another girl I’d met thanks to my bloodline. She was probably on her way to visit me when she coincidentally ran into Ai, who didn’t know about her. Ai had probably handled her carefully so she could bring her to me, but just being grabbed was enough to seriously hurt a palm-sized fairy.

  “Poppy! Poppy!”

  I kept calling her name, worried the situation had taken a turn for the worst. Then...

  “Ugggh...”

  Poppy let out a pained groan as she slowly opened her eyes. I heaved a sigh of relief to see her safe for now, then went downstairs to get her some water and breadcrumbs.

  “...Phew, I’m alive again.”

  “I’m glad to see you’re okay.”

  “I had no idea you were Rekka’s friend. Please forgive me, meow...” Ai said, bowing her head to the recovered Poppy.

  “It’s okay. My wings aren’t broken or anything, so I’m just fine.”

  “I’m really sorry, meow...” Ai apologized again, her tail drooping.

  Poppy flapped her wings and flew up into the air so she could pet the dejected catgirl on the head.

  “See? I can fly just fine, so there’s nothing to feel bad about.”

  Pet, pet...

  “Mrow...”

  Consoled by Poppy, the smile returned to Ai’s face. Despite the difference in their sizes, Poppy almost looked like Ai’s mother right now.

  “I’m Ai, meow.”

  “And I’m Poppy. It’s nice to meet you, Ai.”

  “Likewise, meow!”

  Poppy shook the finger Ai had extended to her in a handshake of friendship. Things had been tense for a moment, but it now seemed like the two of them would be good fri
ends.

  “Now that there’s three of us, should we do something?” I asked.

  “I want to watch TV, meow!” Ai immediately raised her hand and volunteered.

  “Oh, that sounds nice. I’d like to watch TV, too,” Poppy agreed with a nod.

  Both Ai and Poppy often came by on their own, and now that I thought about it, they both usually ended up settling down in front of the portable TV when they came over. Were they that interested in it because they didn’t have TV where they came from? They both lived outside, after all.

  “All right, let’s watch TV.”

  “Okay! Oh, but isn’t the TV a little small for the three of us...?” Poppy suddenly realized with a look of surprise.

  It was true that the portable TV was ill-suited for multiple people watching it at once. But there was no need to worry.

  “There’s a regular TV in the living room, so let’s go down there.”

  “There’s a TV downstairs too, mrow?”

  “So you have two of them? That’s amazing!”

  It was honestly kind of silly to have my own personal TV in my bedroom when I was the only one in the house... Huh? There it was again. That strange feeling. Except it wasn’t really a feeling this time so much as it was a question. And a simple one at that. Why had I bought a portable TV after I started living alone?

  If it had been while my parents were still in the house and there was something I really wanted to watch, it would’ve made sense. But why had I gone out of my way to get one when I had the regular TV all to myself? Was it just to have background noise while I was reading manga? No, that didn’t make sense either. I could always just read manga on the couch in the living room. So was it to watch TV while I was on the computer? I never really did that, though. Was it to watch TV somewhere other than the living room? Maybe outside? No, that still couldn’t be it. There was nothing wrong with the living room, and it wasn’t like I ever took the TV outside.

  Though I had a monthly allowance—no, because I had an allowance, I had to be careful how I spent my money. And a portable TV was definitely a luxury for a high school student with no job. Spending money eating out every day was one thing, but had I really bought something so expensive without a good reason? Even for someone as stupid as me, that was a little... And yet, here it was. So the question remained: why had I bought it? Was it... really for myself?

  “Rekka?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Ah, sorry. Was just thinking to myself.”

  Ai and Poppy both looked concerned, but I brushed their worries off with a smile. I had spent so much time today pondering so many weird things that I was starting to get a headache. Honestly, right about now, turning my brain off and watching some TV sounded great. Homework could always wait.

  With that settled, it was time to go downstairs. And just as I was thinking that...

  BOOOOOOOOM!

  An incredibly loud explosion sounded from outside.

  Chapter 2: Daily Life, Destroyed

  “Wh-What?!”

  “Mrow! What’s that noise?!”

  “Eek!”

  The tremendous sound that echoed from outside made us freeze in shock on the stairs.

  “...”

  We then all stood silent for several seconds, bracing ourselves for whatever would happen next...

  KABOOM!

  Another explosion, or at least what sounded like one... or rather two, and then three in sporadic succession.

  “What on earth...?”

  I had no idea what was going on. I turned around on the stairs and headed back up to my room. Opening the window that Ai had entered through earlier, I leaned out to see what I could see, which...

  “Wha?!”

  How should I put it? I’d seen them on television and in comics before, but I’d never even heard of something on this scale existing in real life before. It was a robot. No, scratch that. It was a giant robot. And not your typical kind, either.

  It had a stout, headless body with short arms growing out of its spherical torso. All told, it was roughly the size of a two-story house. It walked on two stubby legs, leaving cracks in the road where its heavy-looking feet plodded. Its arms stretched out too, leaving gaping gashes in the houses and other buildings it walked past. But the biggest problem was that this wasn’t the only robot... There was a whole swarm of them, and they were collectively destroying the town.

  “Mrow?!”

  “Wh-What is...”

  Ai and Poppy were rendered speechless upon seeing the unfathomable destruction. I considered myself to be pretty well-adjusted to crazy stuff (I mean, here I was about to go watch TV with a fairy and a catgirl), but this was the first time I had ever seen something so unthinkable. I had no idea what to do. In the end, the first one to unfreeze was Ai.

  “That’s right, meow! We have to check if everyone else is safe!”

  “R-Right!”

  Ai probably meant the nekomata and other yokai. But when she said “everyone,” my mind turned to the likes of President Momone and Tokiwa. Of everyone I knew, I was worried about them the most.

  “I’m headed to Tokiwa’s house! Ai, you head to the mountain where the nekomata are! If you can meet up with them safely, I’d like you to stay put. As long as the robots don’t come towards the mountain, anyway. If things go south, head for Kibi Shrine. President Momone will know what to do.”

  The yokai were probably already on top of things, but having a backup plan never hurt. If anyone could help them, it would be President Momone and her family.

  “Mew got it!”

  With a meow, Ai leaped out of the window. I grabbed my cellphone, then ran down the stairs and out the door.

  “Wait for me, Rekka!”

  “Poppy? Aren’t you going to check on your friends too?”

  “They all live in a forest far from here. I’m sure they’re safe, so I’d rather help you right now, Rekka!”

  “Thanks!”

  I sat Poppy on my shoulder and ran into the chaos. As far as I could see, there were five or six robots. They didn’t seem to be moving in any sort of methodical way. They were mostly just thrashing about wildly.

  “Run for your lives!”

  “This way! Over here!”

  “Move it!”

  “You’ll run over someone if you use your car! Move on foot!”

  “Help! Has anyone seen my child?!”

  The streets were full of people fleeing their homes in a panic. Fortunately, however, our town wasn’t as densely populated as the larger cities, so there was still room to maneuver. I did my best not to run into anyone as I squeezed my way through the shopping district and hurried towards Tokiwa’s place.

  I remembered that she said earlier that her parents wouldn’t be coming home tonight. And with her weak constitution, it’d be dangerous for her to try and evacuate by herself. It was possible her childhood friend—President Momone—was already en route, but I couldn’t count on that. President Momone was strong, but she also had a strong sense of duty. More than just the local yokai were relying on her right now, and I knew it would be hard for her to turn her back on them to prioritize helping one person. Especially since... Just the same as I was predicting her actions right now, she was probably predicting mine. And that meant she was counting on me to go help Tokiwa in her place.

  Moreover, I had this strange feeling. It was like once I started running, I left all the hesitation and doubt inside me behind. It was almost like my brain and body were conditioned for this. I mean, I had been involved in plenty of crazy stuff before thanks to my bloodline, but nothing ever on this size or scale.

  But in spite of that—in spite of all the chaos—I somehow managed to stay calm. Even as I was rushing around, I was thinking a step ahead. Was I always like this? I even had the leisure to be wondering things like that as I kept running. Granted, that didn’t mean I had time to come up with an answer.

  Before I knew it, Tokiwa’s house came into view. Since the robots h
adn’t reached her neighborhood yet, there were no noticeable signs of destruction here other than a few cracks in some concrete walls from all the tremors. That said, there were no signs of life here, either. It seemed everyone had already evacuated. Hopefully Tokiwa had managed to get away safely too... But I had to know for sure. I opened the front gate and ran right up to her door.

  Rattle, rattle, rattle!

  “It won’t open...!”

  Do people really bother to lock up when fleeing in situations like this? I guess it’s not impossible... But my gut told me it was more likely Tokiwa was still inside. I didn’t have a key, though. It was a shame I didn’t have the strength to kick down doors like people did in the movies. If only she were here...

  “Nngh...!”

  Suddenly feeling dizzy, I staggered on the doorstep.

  “Rekka? Are you okay?”

  “Y-Yeah, I’m fine. Just a little lightheaded.”

  I swear someone’s face flashed through my mind just now, but... I didn’t have the time to be worried about that. I still needed to find out if Tokiwa was okay.

  If her front door had had a glass panel, I could’ve smashed through it with a rock and unlocked the door from the inside. But all there was was the mail slot, which was too narrow for me to get anything more than my hand through. Yet just as I was about to go look for another way in...

  “Wait, Rekka!”

  “What’s wrong, Poppy?”

  “I’m pretty sure I can get through there!” Poppy declared, pointing at the aforementioned mail slot.

  It was true a fairy had a fairer chance of getting through it than I did.

  “All right! Give it a go!”

  “Wish me luck!”

  Poppy took off from my shoulder and flew for the door. I opened the mail slot for her and nervously waited to see if she’d be able to fit through. Fortunately she managed to squeeze in, and a few seconds later, I heard the click of her unlocking the door from the inside.

  “Poppy, you’re the best!”

  “Let’s hurry and find this Tokiwa person!”

  “Yeah!”

  I left the ground floor to Poppy and headed to the second floor myself. As I climbed the stairs, I briefly wondered if it would’ve been better to leave the upper floor to Poppy, since she could fly and all... but it would be a waste of time to backtrack and switch with her now. Or perhaps I just had a feeling. That if Tokiwa was still in the house, she’d be upstairs. I knew where her room was, so I went and opened the door... and there was Tokiwa, collapsed on the floor.