“And thus the world met its end...”
Korone thought about reading a poem, but her network link was dead. The Earth’s gods were long gone.
“And so this and that happened, and then the Earth ended.” She decided to say it in her own words. “Silently, without sound, but with a big boom.”
When she saw that the Earth was nothing but a ball of boiling magma and water, she got into her futon.
“Goodnight, everyone,” she said to no one in particular, and the station’s power turned off.
6 - Limbo
Junko Hattori’s memories were fragmented, but clear. She remembered being burnt by the colorless flames. She could remember the terrifying feeling, a mixture of heat and pain. She remembered being inside that hell, and how the psychological pain was far worse than the physical. But now, that feeling was just a memory. Her body was unharmed. She was dressed, and standing by a beach. The waves were lapping at her feet.
The ocean.
The beach.
She looked around. All she could tell was that she was on a beach somewhere, at a bay. She was standing on a short, crescent-shaped beach. On the right side was a cape, and behind it, a dark jungle. And to her left was a massive, sheer cliff. This was no ordinary cliff.
She looked up it. It seemed to go on forever and ever. It broke through the clouds and went up as far as the eye could see.
Impossible.
That was Junko’s conclusion.
If this world was still Earth, what she was seeing was impossible. The cliff’s height and length seemed to go on forever. At least, they went as far as she could see. And what was more, the cliff was collapsing into the ocean at a constant speed. At its bottom it was turning into blocks that looked like CG polygons, before disappearing into the ocean. But for all that, the cliff didn’t seem to change at all.
Some kind of... infinite cliff?
She felt a sudden chill as she looked up at the cliff, which extended high into the heavens. And then she saw something even more frightening. The sky she was looking up at was dark. There was no sun, just a dark heavy layer of clouds. Normally, even on a cloudy day you could tell where the sun was. This world had no sun. But strangely, she could still see her surroundings. It was somewhere between night, and a cloudy day, in terms of visibility.
A VPS, perhaps? She wondered, as she looked around at the sea.
But there was no sign of the unnatural characteristics that VPSes always exhibited. In a VPS, the waves would be coming in at a set tempo, immediately obvious to even a casual observer.
Did I... die?
She began to wonder if this was the afterlife. The terror she felt began to grow stronger. B-But even if I did... why am I here alone? She decided to think logically, in order to drive away the fear. If this were the afterlife, she wouldn’t be here alone. Many people died with her at the same time. I-I guess for now, I need to go somewhere...
She started to walk. She was able to walk across the beach. She could hear the sand crunching beneath her feet. She wasn’t going anywhere near that cliff. Which meant that going into the jungle was her only choice.
The jungle was filled with thick vegetation, forming an impassable wall of green. Even if it was her only option, it was still worrying, not knowing what could happen there.
Akuto...
As she grew more and more worried, the name suddenly came to her. But there was no way she would see him here, she knew. And her sadness only grew. The tears came naturally. She wiped them off her cheeks and looked forward. If I can still think, it means I’m not dead... Which meant if she kept walking, eventually she’d get somewhere.
She started to walk toward the jungle. And then, she heard water splashing behind her. She turned around in shock. Someone was crawling out of the sea.
Junko screamed and tensed up. The man seemed to have just washed up on the shore.
I-I didn’t see anything a moment ago...
There was no way she could’ve missed him. The man must’ve just washed up on shore a few moments ago. He slowly stood up, staggering and splashing. It was a tall man. Suddenly, he looked up. His hair was stuck to his face, but there was no way that Junko would fail to recognize him.
D-Don’t tell me...
The doubt kept her from speaking for a moment. He saw her first, and shouted.
“Junko...!”
And then, when she heard his voice, she was sure.
“Akuto...!”
Junko ran over to him without thinking.
“I’m so happy... I knew I’d find you!” Akuto said, just as Junko leapt into him and gave him a hug.
“Akuto!”
The two of them fell into the water with a splash.
“Uwaahn! Akuto!”
Normally Junko was reluctant to show her feelings, but this time she couldn’t control herself. She broke down in tears. This must’ve seemed strange to Akuto, because he pulled her head back to look at her face suspiciously.
“Are you... really Junko?”
“What? How rude! What about you? Are you really Akuto...?”
Junko responded, and then she must’ve gotten scared, because she backed away from him toward the beach at incredible speed.
“Y-You really are Akuto, right?”
Akuto laughed when he saw this.
“Hahahahaha... Yeah, you really must be Junko.”
As Akuto doubled over laughing, Junko’s feelings of suspicion turned into feelings of shame.
“Y-You dummy! Normally you’d worry, right? If you were in a place like this, and somebody who had no business being here showed up.”
“That’s right. I can understand why you’d be worried. Ignoring the fact that your first action was to leap straight at me...”
Akuto was still laughing.
“D-Damn it! This is so humiliating... Y-You’d better be the real Akuto!”
Junko pointed at him. Akuto stopped laughing.
“Yeah, you and I are both probably real. This is the afterlife, after all.”
“What?”
Junko couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
○
Hiroshi had no way of knowing it, but at the same time Akuto was reunited with Junko, he was alone in the jungle.
It doesn’t feel like I’m dead... It feels more like I’m in a dangerous, unfamiliar world. Hiroshi thought to himself. This may be the afterlife, but there still seemed like there was a chance he might die.
“Why am I wearing my suit, anyway?”
He didn’t have a mirror, but he could see his visor in front of him, and when he looked at his hands he could see the Brave gloves. But the suit didn’t seem to be working. He couldn’t use his flight power or his attacks, and there was nothing lit up inside the visor. But he could still see what was around him, and it wasn’t slowing him down at all.
Normally if the battery cut out, the suit would be too heavy to easily move around in. It was hard to imagine he’d show up in the afterlife in the form he’d had when he died.
Maybe, he thought to himself, you show up in the afterlife in the form you imagine yourself. And if that’s the case... maybe I can see the people I imagine myself meeting.
But he didn’t see anybody in the dark fortress. For that matter, he couldn’t think of anybody he’d want to imagine meeting.
As he walked, he found a path through the forest. It was a narrow trail, probably only used by animals, but it lead to an area where the trees got thinner, that might have been a clearing.
Who do I want to meet that’s already dead? Hiroshi thought to himself.
A face came to him.
Actually...
By the time the thought came to him, the man he wanted to meet was already nearby.
“I didn’t expect to see you here...” A calm voice said.
There was a tree stump up ahead, and a man was sitting on it.
“Boichiro Yamato...” Hiroshi whispered.
He was the one who’d given Hiroshi the Brave
Suit, the time traveler who’d created CIMO8. And, he realized, a man who knew more about what this world was than anyone else.
“So it’s you, huh?” Boichiro said. He was wearing a suit that Hiroshi recognized, and was far calmer than he should have been, considering the circumstances.
He didn’t know why the man felt so out of place here, but he knew that he didn’t like his smile.
“Actually, Yuko’s probably dead too,” Hiroshi said.
He’d forgotten that fact. If he hadn’t forgotten, perhaps he could have seen her first. He regretted remembering Boichiro instead.
“I apologize. But I’m sure you understand that I didn’t want to run into a man here, either.”
That was the kind of man Boichiro was, come to think of it: annoying and flamboyant, but smart enough to understand what Hiroshi was thinking from a single sentence.
But still, there seemed to be some kind of fate in their meeting here.
“You know... that this is the afterlife,” Hiroshi said.
Boichiro already seemed to know everything.
“I’ve been here longer than you, after all. Though from my perspective, I only just arrived.”
“You did?” Hiroshi frowned. A lot of time had passed since Boichiro’s death.
“That’s right. Just a little bit ago. Perhaps time is experienced differently here.”
“That would... make sense, actually. But how did you know this was the afterlife, then?”
“CIMO8 had a deep understanding of this world’s nature. I had The One working for me, after all. I know most things.”
Come to think of it, Boichiro had to have recruited The One.
“Then you know about the Faceless Power, and the other stuff?”
“I knew from the start. But you refused to listen to a word I said.” Bochiro grinned sardonically.
“There was no way we could believe it. Not back then.”
Hiroshi felt a little guilty, so he mumbled a bit as he spoke.
“I’m not blaming you for it. I kept my actions secret because I knew people wouldn’t understand.”
“But The One was trying to destroy humanity...”
“I knew what he wanted. That’s why I should’ve done the ritual first.”
Boichiro had been trying to perform a ritual with the Law of Identity. Looking back, the ritual would have turned humanity into beings of pure mind and sent them to another universe. At the time, he hadn’t understood that, but now he could see the logic.
“But that’s not natural...”
“Neither is the fact that we’re here in the afterlife, talking to each other. But in the end, the Faceless Power will absorb all. Humanity has already been destroyed.”
“Then we’re not safe just because the afterlife is real.”
“Mankind has, in the end, only two choices. Either be destroyed and become a Faceless Power of its own, to be used by the inhabitants of another universe. Or become beings of pure mind and transition to another universe.”
“But there may be some other way...” Hiroshi said, but Boichiro just shook his head.
“How many times do you think I’ve looped through time?”
There was a heavy weight to his words. But for some reason, Hiroshi still disagreed
“But maybe the boss...”
“What?”
Boichiro’s gaze became more intense. Hiroshi faltered for a moment, but kept talking.
“But maybe the boss... could do something you couldn’t.”
Boichiro shook his head.
“It only seems that way because the Law of Identity chose him.”
“Chose him?”
“The Law of Identity is the author of the world. There’s no escaping from what she writes. That’s why I chose to do the ritual with her, and rewrite the world... and move us to another universe.”
“Then there is no third path?” Hiroshi asked, uncertain.
Boichiro nodded.
“None. Think about what’s happening here in the afterlife. Why did we meet here? Because it’s convenient for the Law of Identity, right? Doesn’t it feel like you’re inside a story? Isn’t it the case that the man you call “boss,” Akuto Sai, is hated due to blind belief in stories? But he’s the hero of the story involving the Law of Identity, isn’t he? Can he escape from that? Even here in the world after death, we’re being forced to play out our roles. How can we escape from a story that somebody else is writing?”
Hiroshi couldn’t come up with a good answer.
“But if we can travel through time...” he said, stubbornly grasping for the first thought he had.
“Time in this world is curved. Like a mind, or no, like a story. I don’t mean relativity, like in physics. That’s why time travel is possible, because what’s important isn’t time, it’s the story. No matter what you do, the story will go on,” Boichiro said.
“But...” Hiroshi interrupted, but then he realized why he was so obsessed with finding a third path. It was because he wasn’t happy with his role in the story, as the hero.
“I just need you to tell me how to travel through time. If I can do that, then...”
He didn’t know how to finish his sentence, but he wanted something good to come out of this meeting.
“And then?” Boichiro asked, coldly.
“I... this time I will find a way to escape from this story.” Hiroshi said, his voice quiet, but firm.
Afterword
Hello everyone, it’s been a long time. It’s me, Shoutarou Mizuki.
I’m really sorry I kept you all waiting for so long.
Words can’t express my gratitude for the people who looked forward to and bought this book.
After I finished writing volume 11, I got panic disorder and depression, and couldn’t write anything for a whole year and a half.
Some people say that anybody deeply involved in a subculture is likely to get depressed as they get older, and that’s just what happened to me. I feel like I’ve witnessed the birth of a new folk belief.
But joking aside, my symptoms were really bad. At the start, I couldn’t even get in a train, bus, or car. And after that it was constant insomnia, headaches, and stiff shoulders.
I still have shoulder problems and sleeping disorders.
I haven’t fully recovered, but I’m at the point where I can write.
I think that with your support, I’ll be able to get better.
I know it’s selfish, but please continue to support me.
Also, everything that came out after volume 11 was either not a novel, or something I wrote beforehand.
I definitely didn’t abandon the book.
I know this feels like I’m just making excuses, but this is my explanation for the delay in the release.
We’re almost at the climax of the book. There’s one, maybe two volumes left to go.
I’m not fully recovered, so it may take a little more time, but I hope you’ll stay with me.
Also, lately, let me thank those involved from the bottom of my heart.
I caused a lot of problems for you beyond what’s normal.
Especially my editor, O, and Soichi Ito. I have no words.
Please don’t abandon your poor author!
We’re almost to the end! I hope you’ll keep reading.
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Copyright
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 12
by Shoutarou Mizuki
Translated by Adam Lensenmayer
Edited by Christopher Foxx
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 © 2012 Sho
utarou Mizuki
Illustrations Copyright © 2012 Souichi Itou
Cover illustration by Souichi Itou
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2012 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: August 2019
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 12 Page 10