“Where’s the entrance to the underground that Rain used?” I asked.
“There’s a staircase to the right, but...” Shirley replied hesitantly. “It’s no good. The submarine won’t fit.”
“And we can’t force our way through?”
“The building would collapse. The sub is sturdy enough to plow through without a problem, but Rain...”
“Damn... Hey, Rain! Rain!”
I kept calling for her, but there was no response. What could have possibly happened this deep in the ocean? It must have been really out of the ordinary to make an ocean-dwelling mermaid like her scream down here...
“I don’t care—we have to go save her! Shirley, how many diving suits do you have?”
“I brought one for everybody, but it would be reckless to all go at once.”
“Then it’ll be me and...”
I was suddenly reminded of the conversation we’d had earlier about how deep sea diving requires specialized training. I couldn’t ask any of the girls to go out with...
Knock, knock!
My train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the sound of someone knocking on the sub window. Wait... Someone... knocking on the window? I turned to look.
Knock, knock!
On the other side of the thick glass, Rain was waving to us all. She didn’t have her headset on, but she didn’t appear to be hurt, either.
“What? Did you drop your mic or something?”
Don’t scare me like that...
I sighed with relief to see her safe, but... Why had she dropped her mic? And what was that scream about?
“My apologies. That would be because I scared her...” an unfamiliar voice said.
“Huh?”
It certainly wasn’t the voice of anyone we’d brought with us. I turned to see who it was...
“My name is Nyanyan Atlantia. I have been waiting for you for a very, very long time.”
...and saw a half-transparent girl sticking just her upper body through the wall of the submarine, bowing her head with a piteous look on her face.
Chapter 2: The Priestess of Atlantis, Nyanyan
“An ethereal being...?”
“Yes. You see, if you take the ether—the smallest unit of life—out of the physical body, it can be preserved indefinitely. It is through such a ritual that you see me before you here. But whereas I have been released from the mortal coil you know, my spirit is now bound to this place,” the exotic-looking girl who introduced herself as Nyanyan explained.
“So you’re kind of, like, haunting the place?”
I didn’t understand this whole “ether” business, but it sounded an awful lot like being a ghost. Basically, she was immortal in a way, but it came with serious drawbacks.
“And Rain ran into you underground and mistook you for a ghost, dropping her mic in her surprise?”
“Yes, I’m very sorry.”
Rain’s shoulders slumped as she sunk to her knees—her tail transformed back into legs, of course. Shirley and I had both told her it was fine, but she was a conscientious girl by nature and was still apologizing.
“Well, putting that aside... Who are you and what are you doing here, Nyanyan? If you’re bound to this place, you must have some connection to Atlantis, right?”
She was a ghost haunting—no, she was an ethereal being bound to a sunken temple of Atlantis. If she were really a ghost, that would imply she had died. But she’d said something about a ritual. That implied that she—or someone else—had made her this way.
“Listen, Nyanyan, if someone forced you to become an ethereal being and is keeping you prisoner here, I’ll—”
I probed into the possibility the ritual had been against her will, but Nyanyan shook her head gently.
“Thank you for your consideration, but I chose to become this way. You needn’t worry.”
That was a relief to hear for now, but it also brought us back to my original question: who was she and what was she doing here?
“I used such extreme means to evade the clutches of death and have waited here, vigilant and alone, all these years... I did it all to fulfill but a single wish.”
“A wish?”
I repeated her words in a question, and she nodded her head solemnly.
“So, please, I beg of you... Save my homeland from destruction.”
Hearing those words left me bewildered for a moment.
“Your homeland...? You mean Atlantis, right?”
“Yes.”
“...”
How was I supposed to tell her that it had already been destroyed? Like, hundreds of years ago. Did she not realize we were already on the bottom of the ocean? Was there even a way to save this place? I looked over at R just in case.
“You guessed it. She’s a heroine.”
Yeah, go figure. But that meant that there still had to be some possibility of saving this story. No, hold on... I can’t get ahead of myself. Based on what Nyanyan had said, she became ethereal on purpose so she could wait here for someone. Surely she wouldn’t have done that without a plan—without a plan to save Atlantis.
“Nyanyan, do you have some idea of how we might save your homeland?”
“I do,” she said with a nod. “Please continue through to the innermost sanctum. Your vehicle can make it there, though you must be careful not to bump the pillars.”
Following Nyanyan’s instructions, Shirley began carefully navigating ahead.
“Sorry, do you have a moment?”
While we were moving deeper into the temple, Hibiki approached Nyanyan.
“Yes. How can I help?”
“If you’re Atlantian, is there any chance you’ve seen this crown before?” Hibiki asked, indicating Sherlyn’s head.
“That’s...!” a shocked Nyanyan gasped when she laid eyes on the crown.
“Do you know it?”
“Most certainly. That is the very same crown that has been passed down through generations of the Atlantian royal family. There is no way that I would mistake it,” Nyanyan declared with confidence.
That seemed pretty definitive, yeah.
“Okay, then do you know about the curse cast on it too?”
“Yes... I believe so,” she answered, this time averting her eyes.
If she knew about the curse and what it did, then she probably understood what kind of situation Sherlyn was in right now. That would explain her reaction.
“Great. That means we can cut to the chase. Is there any possibility you know how to undo the curse? If you do, please share it with us.”
“Very well... But I would ask that you be patient. It will be much easier for me to explain how to remove the Mouse Bind once we reach the inner sanctum.”
I was guessing “Mouse Bind” probably referred to the name of the curse. Hibiki and Sherlyn both agreed to wait, however, and we all looked out the windows as we made our way to our destination. We eventually made it through the room with the pillars and arrived in a wider room with what looked like a rectangular altar enshrined in the center.
“This is the temple’s divining altar,” said Nyanyan.
“Divining altar?”
“This is the technological heart of Atlantis... and why I chose to become ethereal.” There, Nyanyan took a graceful bow. “Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Nyanyan, the daughter of the previous king of Atlantis and the first in line to succeed the throne.”
“Which means... you’re a princess?!”
I mean, I thought she was extremely elegant and regal—despite being a ghost—but I hadn’t expected her to be a princess.
“I figured you were royalty, but to think you’re the crown princess... So, you do know about the curse—this Mouse Bind—don’t you?”
In stark contrast to my surprised self, Hibiki was calmly asking Nyanyan for details.
“The Mouse Bind is a charm to prevent thievery. If anyone other than an Atlantian—or rather a member of the Atlantian royal blood—wears it, it will continue to c
onstrict around their head until they perish. The only one that can undo it is the king of Atlantis himself.”
“The king of Atlantis? So... there’s no way for you to undo it?”
“No... I’m afraid not,” Nyanyan said as she lowered her head.
Those words should have induced utter despair in the subject of said curse. But all Sherlyn had to say in a voice that didn’t sound panicked at all was...
“Jeez... What a pickle.”
Which left me freaking out instead.
“Aren’t you worried, Sherlyn?”
“Hm? Oh, sure I am,” she replied almost indifferently.
“Sure doesn’t seem like it...”
“There’s still time yet. And if I’m going to cry, I’ll save it for the one-hour mark, you know? It’s not like sniffling about it right now is going to save me.”
That comment left me as awed with Sherlyn as I was when we met. It seemed my first impression of her wasn’t that far off the mark.
“Ohoho, what’s this? The older sister type heroine turns out to be manlier than the hero himself?” R cackled.
...And I couldn’t argue.
“Now, don’t get me wrong. If you’re telling me there’s absolutely no way of saving me, even I’m going to be upset,” Sherlyn said, looking to Nyanyan with a wry smile.
It was like she was asking if there was still a way. And in response, Nyanyan answered...
“There is... one way.”
There, everyone’s eyes fell on her.
“The divining altar has a great many powers, but among them is the ability to stitch together space-time coordinates and jump between points.”
“Bwuh?!”
Several people on board sputtered and stared at the ethereal princess with unbelieving eyes.
“Wait, what...?” I asked. “What does ‘stitch together space-time coordinates’ mean?”
“Erm...” Shirley wiped her mouth, hesitating to explain for once. “To put it simply for you... It’s not dissimilar from the save function in a video game. The stitched space-time coordinates are quite like the timestamp on a save file. So if what she says is true... If things ever go wrong, you could use this so-called altar to return to your previous save point and redo them.”
“H-HUH?!”
Yeah, okay, the video game analogy made sense to me, but once it made sense, it blew my mind. A free pass to go back in time for infinite mulligans had to be breaking some kind of rule! And, actually, that raised another question altogether...
“If you have such an amazing hidden trick up your sleeve, how did Atlantis come to sink in the first place?”
“There’s a complex reason for that,” Nyanyan answered, casting her eyes downward with a forlorn expression. “Traditionally, the space-time coordinates for Atlantis were stitched together anew once a year so that, should a natural disaster or some other great calamity befall us, the king could return to the past to prevent it. That was how we maintained our prosperity. However...”
“Did something happen?” I asked.
Nyanyan gave a small nod and closed her eyes. Then the space next to her warped, and an older guy with a tough physique and hair styled like a seahorse on his head suddenly appeared.
“Huh? Who? Where... Oh, it’s just an image?”
“This is one of the abilities of etheric technology. I am able to project memories from within my mind as images for all to see,” Nyanyan explained at our surprise. “This man’s name is Boboza... He was the younger brother of the previous king, my father. He’s also the man who staged a coup d’état to seize the throne after my father passed away.”
“A coup?!”
“So this Boboza man became the next king instead of you?” Shirley asked, adjusting her glasses.
“He staged things just before my coronation ceremony, to be precise. I was captured by my uncle and imprisoned in the dungeon of this temple.”
“...That’s despicable.”
How could he imprison a girl like that? A feeling of disgust welled in my chest, and I could tell it was showing on my face.
“No, I was simply too childish back then. There’s no helping the hatred my uncle felt for me... However, the detail of great importance here is that my uncle staged the coup d’état three days before Atlantis sank. Furthermore, in order to prevent me from returning to the past, my uncle restitched the space-time coordinates the day the coup succeeded.”
“So... In other words, the save point is now three days before Atlantis sank rather than a year before?”
“That is correct.”
Yeah, that made a big difference.
“But even if you can only return to three days before it happened, can’t you at least then warn everyone to run away?”
“The ritual to return to the past is a heavily guarded secret, handed down only to the legitimate king. As soon as the previous king passed away, I was entrusted with it... but returning to the past requires a certain amount of preparation. Atlantis sank with absolutely no warning at all, so it wasn’t possible to go back in time to that fated day. The best I could do was become ethereal, which was a ritual that didn’t require any advanced preparation.”
“I see...”
Basically, multiple events had conspired to spell the ruin of Atlantis.
“Even with this amazing technology, the city was still destroyed in the end...”
“Sadly, yes...”
When Nyanyan finished explaining everything, I paused for a moment before approaching the topic once more.
“Um, this is rewinding a bit, but basically what you want to ask of us is to return to the past and stop Atlantis from sinking, right?”
“Verily, it would be wonderful if my homeland were able to survive... But I know not why it so suddenly sank. Preventing it may be impossible.”
“Really? But then...”
So that wasn’t her wish after all? I was about to ask, but she gently shook her head.
“It’s true that is what I wished for when Atlantis first sank. But after taking this form and spending these many years at the bottom of the ocean all alone, I have realized just how many people I relied on to live before,” Nyanyan said, bringing her hands together as though in prayer and bowing her head. “That is why all I desire now is for the former citizens of Atlantis to survive. I wish for their safety and nothing more.”
“...I see.”
I refrained from saying anything unnecessary at Nyanyan’s earnest words.
But a story to return to the past and redo it, huh? I’d done something similar once before, and this seemed every bit as hairy.
“There’s just one thing I’d like to confirm. I’ve travelled to the past once via psychic powers, but in that instance, it was only my memories and my mind that were sent back. My body stayed where it was. But in this case, we’d be going back so far in time... It’s not like I existed hundreds of years ago, so how does this work?”
“If you exist in the time and space you rewind to, then your current body disappears and your mind slides into your body of the past. This is a phenomenon that occurs no matter what other conditions exist. It is likely the work of a higher power acting to prevent the paradox of two ‘you’s from existing at the same time—or so our kingdom concluded.” There, Nyanyan paused for a breath. “However, if you don’t exist in the space-time destination you’re rewinding to, said paradox is a nonissue. In that instance, both your physical and mental beings would travel to the past together.”
“Cool. That means getting back won’t be a problem.”
I crossed my arms and began pondering how we would go about doing this, but Hibiki took the opportunity to step forward.
“You mentioned a method to break the curse earlier. What would that be?”
“As I said, the only one who can do so is the true king of Atlantis. I am merely an ethereal being, and more importantly, I did not officially ascend the throne. And so, if you wish to lift the curse on that girl, you must travel to the past, see
that the coronation ceremony takes place, and then have the next king of Atlantis free her.”
“All right, but just to be clear... You said the coordinates are set to after this Boboza guy completes the coup, right?”
“Yes.”
“So then the deed is done. Now, what to do...?”
“Shall we put our heads together?”
“Yeah.”
Hibiki and I included Nyanyan as we turned to the rest of the group and sorted out the situation. First we had Nyanyan’s story. In order to get her a happy ending, we needed to return to Atlantis of the past and save her people from the sinking city within three days. Then there was Sherlyn’s story. Saving it would also involve returning to the past, where we’d need to get either Nyanyan or Boboza on the throne and have them remove the curse.
“Wait, if we make Boboza king, won’t Nyanyan be killed?”
“You needn’t worry about me.”
Or so Nyanyan said, but Hibiki immediately shook her head.
“No, this is a legitimate problem. This Boboza guy already succeeded in his coup, right? If we show up with Sherlyn wearing the crown, he’ll treat us like thieves and imprison us too.”
“Well, I am a phantom thief,” Sherlyn added jokingly.
“You... You just hush for now,” Hibiki said, rubbing her temples and sighing. “Anyway, this means we’ll need to factor in a rescue operation as well. We’ll need to get Nyanyan out of that dungeon for her to take the throne.”
We may end up leaving that matter to chance... but oh, well. The biggest issue now was...
“...”
Persuading Chirika, who had been sitting out of the discussions with a silent, sour look on her face this whole time. Well, maybe persuade wasn’t the right word. I was kind of dragging her around against her will, after all. And I had yet to do anything about saving her story, either. The reason I wanted to bring her along was mostly because I didn’t want her acting on her own. Of course, it was also because I didn’t want to get separated and ruin my chances of saving her story, but... would she accept that?
“No... I have to persuade her no matter what.”
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 12 Page 5