Next Prologue
After the giant robot was defeated, the other robots suddenly disappeared. They’d probably retreated to the future. L and I returned to town and met up with my parents, President Momone’s group, the doctor, and the current king of Laputa.
“Your Majesty, thanks for saving us this time. Sorry for asking something like that on short notice.”
“We don’t mind... It was an emergency, after all. You can help... clean up the library later.”
“Ugh...”
I groaned a little just thinking about how many books she owned. Nevertheless, we’d succeeded in driving off the enemy. But...
“But at this rate, they’ll just recuperate and send more robots...”
They’d probably be even stronger when they returned. It was a gloomy situation, but...
“I actually have something to discuss with you concerning that matter, Rekka,” said the doctor.
“Oh?”
I turned to face the doctor as she started talking with a serious expression.
“I’ll get straight to the point. Rekka, I want you to come with me to the future.”
“What?!”
My eyes widened at the unexpected proposal. No, was it really that unexpected? I’d half figured something like this would happen. Back when I tried to capture an enemy robot and get in touch with the future...
“Something happened in the future, right?”
The heroines disappearing and the robots attacking... Everything that had happened today probably originated in the future.
“What exactly is going on there?”
“First, the moderate faction was attacked by extremists—the hardliners, as they call themselves,” the doctor prefaced. “I didn’t understand why they would do such a thing at first, but everything changed when I received a certain transmission from R.”
“From R?” I asked, cocking my head. “Come to think of it... what happened to R? Do you know, doctor?”
“She’s sleeping right now.”
“Sleeping?”
If memory served, R didn’t sleep...
“In the first place, kidnapping the heroines from this time line and erasing them without a trace was only possible because the enemy mastermind used Touko Iwazu’s power of words.”
“Touko?!”
I mean, I guess that made a certain amount of sense. Her power could do practically anything, but...
“I don’t think she’d do something like this...”
“I didn’t say her personally—I said her power. After she was first rendered powerless to resist, her power was copied with the Doppel Stone.”
“The Doppel Stone...”
The stone that had the power to copy supernatural abilities... It had previously been at the center of a dispute with Nartessia and the Margaret family. If it was used to copy the power of words, then...
“But the enemy made a miscalculation. You remember how R was once forcefully removed from your side with the power of words? After that happened, I developed a device to shield its user from the power of words to prevent that from happening again.”
“Really?”
“R realized the enemy’s scheme before anyone else, but that was after they made their move... So she used the device to protect the heroines of her own story.”
The heroines of R’s story were the heroines of my everyday life, like President Momone and Tokiwa. R had saved them... Furthermore, I’d only been able to regain my memories because R had shielded me from half of the memory-blocking effect in the first place. It was thanks to her that one crack in the floodgates was all it had taken to blow them wide open.
“But why did R disappear, then?”
“That device was still in development and had issues regarding energy supply. R compensated for that by using her own energy instead. As a result, R’s demi-material existence lost its physicality, and she was unable to maintain herself, putting her in an indefinite state.”
“What?! Is she dead?!”
“She’s fine. I said she was asleep, didn’t I? Once things have calmed down, I’ll be able to bring her back with... a certain amount of certainty.”
Hearing that, I—as well as L, secretly—heaved a sigh of relief.
“But the problem right now is the enemy mastermind who planned this... We don’t know their objective. If they were aiming for your life, there would’ve been easier methods that didn’t involve kidnapping the heroines. However, that action was the precise weak point that had a profound influence on both the past and future... as well as the War of All itself.”
“What exactly does that mean?” L asked the doctor.
“The truth is that even though we know the extremists exist, we still don’t know who’s behind it all. L, I believe you were recruited by their leader... Do you know who it is?”
“I haven’t met them directly, no.”
“I figured not. Whoever it is, they’re very thorough in making sure they don’t reveal themselves.”
“...”
A mastermind with an unknown identity and goal, huh? How unsettling.
“Rekka.” The doctor took a deep breath there before continuing, “If I bring you to the future, you may be dragged into the War of All whether you like it or not. I actually wanted to avoid that, but I hope you can forgive us for failing you there... However, at the same time, I can’t help but feel hopeful that this may just yet be the key to resolving the War of All.”
“...”
“I believe I told you about how you Namidares are crossroad keepers with the power to change fate. And of all the Namidares, you possess an unusually strong power to do so.”
The doctor had said that was the reason I’d gotten caught up in so many crazy stories at such a crazy rate.
“If there was anyone who could stop the War of All involving countless worlds, countless dimensions, and as many intersecting lives as there are stars... Then it would have to be a very special crossroad keeper like you, Rekka,” she declared bluntly. “We still don’t know who the enemy mastermind is, but they’ve quietly played a very fearsome hand. We have to make a move too, or we’ll be cornered. I know I’m asking for the impossible, but...”
“You don’t need to say any more than that, Doctor,” I interrupted. “R and Satsuki and the others... even the future world will be in trouble if I don’t go, right? So I’m going.”
“...Thank you.”
“It’s fine. What will you do, L?”
“I’ll go too... I’ll make them pay for what they’ve done.”
And so the doctor, L, and I were headed for the future. Because of the attack on the agency headquarters, that was all the time translocator was capable of right now. I turned to my mom and dad who had been listening to the conversation...
“So I’m gonna be away for a bit.”
“Away to the future, huh? Even I haven’t been there yet,” Dad said lightheartedly, patting me on the shoulder. “Well, do your best. Make sure you bring me back a souvenir!”
“No way!”
As if I’d have the time for that.
“Well, you know I’m worried. But I also know I can’t stop you,” Mom said with a sigh, shaking her head tiredly.
“Sorry to worry you, Mom.”
“All children worry their parents, son,” Mom said, hugging me once. “If it gets dangerous, make sure you run away. You take after your father... You’re both so reckless.”
“...”
That would probably be impossible, but I nodded silently. Mom probably knew it was an empty promise, but she smiled as she let go of me gently. I then approached President Momone.
“Um, so that’s how it is. I’ll be absent from school for a while.”
“Don’t worry. I think school will be closed for some time. But is that really all you have to say to us?” President Momone said, raising an eyebrow unhappily.
That seemed to be the consensus of everyone there, as several other pairs of eyes began glaring at me too.<
br />
“Um... E-Er...”
“Tch. It was our mistake for expecting something tasteful from you at a time like this,” President Momone said with a bitter smile.
That... That felt profoundly insulting.
“Pfft. Well, it’s fine. That’s just what I’d expect from you anyway.”
“R-Really?”
“Yeah. I’ve taken a liking to that part of you. I’ll cry if this ends up being our final farewell, so don’t make me cry.”
“Y-Yes, ma’am!”
Hearing her encouragement, I nodded eagerly. Ai, Yulia, Poppy, and Yorun all walked over to me next. We exchanged words, but not words of farewell—promises to meet again. As I was returning their temporary goodbyes... Tokiwa suddenly clung to me.
“Come back safe,” she said in her usual whisper.
Everyone freaked out when she jumped on me, but it was somehow comforting to see her acting like normal. That said, it felt like she was clinging to me a little tighter than usual...
“Well, I’ll be off now,” I said, waving at everyone.
“Let’s go.”
There, the doctor activated the time translocator. The next thing I knew, my vision blurred, and I found myself in a strange space. When I asked, apparently we were in what was known as the stream of time—what made time travel possible. It was weird. I couldn’t feel my limbs at all, but I was hyper-aware of everything. It seemed the time translocator was actually what was moving us through the stream of time.
“Hey...”
Fortunately, I could still move my mouth. I didn’t know how long it would take to arrive in the future, but it would be awkward to just stay silent the whole time. So I decided to ask the doctor something that had been on my mind...
“What is ‘future’ Rekka doing right now?”
The War of All was the result of me not settling down with a heroine, so what on earth was future me, the cause of everything, doing in the future? It was something I’d been wondering for a long time now. And hearing my question, the doctor replied...
“In the future, you’ve been missing this entire time.”
—To be continued—
Afterword
It’s the fourteenth volume of the super space-time-defying romantic comedy, and we’ve finally entered the final arc! Hello again to everyone who came from volume 13, and hello for the first time to everyone who bought all 14 volumes at once.
This is the first multi-volume story since volumes 7 and 8. Moreover, this is a story I always wanted to do (I feel like that’s been happening for the last several volumes), so I’d like to write the conclusion properly.
It’s a little soon, but now on to the acknowledgments... To Nao Watanuki, I’m sorry for causing so much trouble submitting the manuscript late this time. Thank you very much for the doctor’s design and the wonderful two-page spreads. To my editor, Mr. Kinoshita, thank you very much for checking the plot and manuscript this time, too. Last but not least, my sincerest thanks to everyone who’s involved in the Little Apocalypse series: the editors and marketers at HJ Bunko, the shops that stock these books, and the readers that pick them up! Please continue to support the series. Thank you all, so, so much.
It’s the illustrator, Nao Watanuki, and it’s time for the usual afterword page!
In this volume, we finally meet the doctor, who’s only showed up in text before. Until I read the manuscript for this volume, I had no idea about her background... Did any of you pick up on it? I like how you can still see a hint of you-know-what in her hair.
Whenever there are characters I can’t fit into the insert illustrations, I always want to put them in the afterword. But this time there were too many characters that didn’t get to make an appearance, so...
At any rate, Rekka sure has his hands full!
To Namekojirushi and the editors, thank you for all your hard work. Since everything came down to the wire this time, the supervisors had to take on a lot of extra work, but thanks to them, this volume has safely reached the world like all the others. Thank you very much! We’re finally approaching the real meat of the Little Apocalypse series. I hope to see you again next volume—same time, same page! Thanks for reading.
Nao Watanuki
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Copyright
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 14
by Namekojirushi
Translated by Mana Z
Edited by Megan Denton
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 Namekojirushi
Illustrations Copyright © 2015 Nao Watanuki
Cover illustration by Nao Watanuki
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2015 by Hobby Japan
This English edition is published by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo
English translation © 2019 J-Novel Club LLC
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: June 2019
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 14 Page 11