I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 1

by Namekojirushi

  “W-Wait!” The screen went black and the transmission ended.

  Midnight tonight? A meteor? If I failed, Earth was doomed? Did I do something really bad?

  ▽

  The meeting with the Owaria ended after that, and I was handed over to the chairman. But instead of questioning me, he just left me with Iris and headed back to his office. He was probably trying to do her a favor. I was grateful for that.

  Iris had taken me to her room, where I sat down on a plush sofa. She’d left the room to get some drinks and something light to eat, and wasn’t here right now. My watch told me that it was 5:00 PM. The meteor would be hitting Earth in seven hours.

  “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?” Somebody tell me how one guy is supposed to stop a meteor, if there even is a way. “Can you think of any way to stop it, R?”

  “Couldn’t you strap some dynamite to yourself and slam into it?”

  “I guess not.” If that would work, I actually would’ve been willing to do it. Well, R wasn’t allowed to help resolve the stories, so I hadn’t expected much to begin with... but I still was desperate for any help I could get.

  As I leaned back into the sofa and stared up at the ceiling, Iris came back into the room, accompanied by a floating robot carrying plates. “Rekka, are you okay?”

  “Yeah...” I didn’t want to worry her too much, but I didn’t have enough strength left to pretend I was all right.

  Iris put something that looked like drinks and cake on the table and had the robot leave the room. A few moments after we were alone, she spoke, hesitantly. “You’re not going to eat?”

  “Sorry. I’ll just have my drink.” I didn’t have any appetite right now. I’d settle for wetting my parched throat.

  Iris sat down next to me, touching neither the food nor the drinks. She didn’t look like she was doing well, either.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Huh?”

  “You’re not looking so good.”

  “Not as bad as you.”

  “Ack! You might be right...” I scratched my head and took a glance at her.

  “Does your spaceship have anything on it that can shoot down a meteor?”

  “It’s capable of getting rid of space debris, but... sorry. I can’t handle a meteor.”

  “I see... man, I’ve gotta do something!”

  Iris seemed sad. “I’m sorry. This is my fault.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m the one to blame.”

  “No... it’s my fault.”

  “Huh?”

  She’d gotten a lot meeker over the last few minutes. I finally looked down from the ceiling and at Iris’s face.

  She was staring right back into my eyes. “Why did you save me back there? You had nothing to do with this.”

  “Come on, isn’t it a little late to be asking this?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “No, I’m not blaming you.” Iris seemed to be feeling guilty. Well, I could understand that, but that wasn’t how I wanted her to feel. “It’s normal to want to help a girl when she’s crying, right? Don’t worry about it.” It felt like I could’ve phrased that better, but that’s what I said.

  But Iris must have been surprised by my answer, because her eyes went wide for a moment. Then, she laughed a little. “You’re pretty dumb, aren’t you, Rekka?”

  “I get that a lot. I don’t agree, though.” Well, if she was smiling again, that was all that mattered. But...

  “I’ve made my decision. I’m going to marry King Satamonia.”

  “Huh?! What are you talking about? You hated the guy!” I wasn’t sure how to handle Iris’s sudden change of heart.

  But there was a resolve hidden in her smile. “I still hate him... but at this rate, your planet’s in danger, right? If I give myself to him, he’ll be satisfied and end this stupid game.”

  “Listen...” I tried to get her to give up, but Iris was unshakable.

  “But you know, I don’t want him to be my first kiss. So please, Rekka... Take my first kiss, okay?”

  And now she was blushing red and telling me to kiss her. “K-K-Kiss?! No, wait! Calm down!”

  “I’m serious!” Her serious expression was very pretty. Any man would be happy to kiss a girl like this.

  But I summoned all my self-control to knock that desire away. If I kissed her here, she’d be satisfied and go off to marry King Satamonia. If that happened, her story would head straight for a bad ending.

  The one way I could stop her was to convince her I knew how to stop the meteor. But I couldn’t come up with anything. What should I do? As I frantically worked what little brains I had to come up with an answer, something in my pocket began to vibrate.

  “What?” It was the phone that Satsuki had given to me in the abandoned factory.

  Chapter 4: I’m Just a Normal Guy. Can I Defeat the Ultimate Mage?

  “Is that you, Satsuki?”

  “Rekka! I’m so glad I got through to you!”

  I hadn’t really believed it when I’d picked up the phone, but my childhood friend was on the other end of the line. I was a little curious about how I was getting cell phone coverage on planet Finerita... but that didn’t matter. “Satsuki, I’m glad you’re safe.” That, at least, was a relief.

  “That’s what I was going to say! You just disappeared, and I was so worried!”

  “Um... sorry.” She was right to be mad. I felt bad for mistaking Iris for her in the abandoned factory, so I just apologized.

  Satsuki sighed. “So, where are you now?”

  “Um... in space, I guess.”

  “Huh?” I could tell from her voice that she hadn’t expected that answer.

  “It’s been a busy day.” So much had happened that I didn’t think I could explain it all at once.

  As I tried to come up with some way to explain things, I felt Iris angrily tugging on my shirt. “Hey, Rekka! Aren’t you talking to me right now?”

  And then Satsuki on the phone said, “Huh? That was a girl’s voice. Rekka! Where are you really right now?!” The anger started to come back into her voice. Why? I had girls yelling at me in both ears, and I wasn’t sure what to do.

  “Whatever. I’ll be there in a second. Then you can explain.”

  “Huh? You’re coming here?” Suddenly, the phone in my hand started to glow a pale blue.

  “Follow the voice, to connect here and there, and carry me to him.” I could hear what sounded like Satsuki singing, and the blue glow got stronger.

  “Uwah!”

  “Eeyah!”

  There was a dazzling light, and a blue shadow leaped out of the phone. When the light faded, Satsuki was right in front of me.

  “What? Huh?” I was astonished, but Satsuki just started to calmly look around the room. Her eyebrows were raised to begin with, but they got even higher when she saw Iris sitting next to me.

  “I can’t believe you really were with a girl. Rekka, you’re going to explain this to me, aren’t you?”

  “U-Um...” It had been years since I’d seen her really get mad, and I didn’t know how to handle it. I was sunk too deep into the sofa to get up and run away.

  “Ooh, here comes the lover’s quarrel.” Shut up, R!

  I needed to come up with a way to get out of this situation. Oh, I know! “Iris! Show Satsuki your tail! Your tail!”

  “Huh? My tail?” Iris looked confused.

  “Her tail? Rekka, what are you talking about?” She must’ve thought I was trying to con her somehow, because her expression became even fiercer.

  I begged Iris to to show Satsuki her tail.

  “I don’t mind, I guess. Here.” Iris brought out the tail that had been hidden under her butt and waved it back and forth. It shone a lush silver. Its light seemed to me like the light of salvation.

  “Huh? She really has a tail... huh?” Just like I’d hoped, Satsuki’s expression turned from anger to confusion. I piled on.

  “Satsuki. First, let’s talk things throug
h, okay?”

  “...Fine.”

  And that’s how I got through a situation that was, in a way, more dangerous than Demon Overlords or meteors ever could be. Whew.

  ▽

  Satsuki said she wanted to talk to me alone, so I begged Iris into leaving the room. The whole time I was begging her, she kept whacking my thighs with her tail, and she seemed really upset. Since my side of the story was so complicated— and since I still hadn’t come up with a way to get her to forgive me for grabbing the wrong girl’s hand at the factory— I had her tell me her side of the story first.

  “You may not believe this, but...” That was how Satsuki began.

  “No, don’t worry. After today, I’m willing to believe almost anything.” After all, I’d run into wizards, aliens, other worlds, and people from the future already.

  “Hmm?” Satsuki seemed suspicious, but I told her I’d explain later and asked her to go on. “I’m... I’m actually a mage.”

  “I see.” I’d already more or less guessed that when she’d come jumping out of the phone. It was probably magic that had let me talk to her on the phone in the first place.

  She seemed a little bewildered by the fact that I believed her so easily. “Rekka, you’re acting kind of weird. You hate things that aren’t normal, right?”

  “I still like normal best. But that doesn’t mean I have to deny everything that isn’t normal, right?” Even if somebody had a problem that wasn’t normal, they were still normal on the inside, just like Iris and Harissa. “You know I’d never doubt anything you said, too.” Satsuki blinked several times, and suddenly looked away.

  “Hmm? What’s wrong?”

  “Never mind... just don’t look at me.” I could see, through the gaps in her long hair, that her cheeks were a little red.

  “Did I say something I shouldn’t have?”

  “No... That just makes me really happy. I kept thinking forever that maybe you wouldn’t believe me... that you’d think I was a weirdo and start to hate me.”

  “I’d never hate you. We’ve been friends since we were kids, right? And how long have you been worrying about this, anyway?”

  “Since day care.”

  “Bwah?!” Why... Why was she so damn stubborn?! Why did she always have to try and keep everything to herself? That settled it. I had to save Satsuki. “So what’s with that Messiah guy? Can he use magic, too?”

  “That’s right. Messiah is after the Magic of Omniscience that my family has.”

  “The Magic of Omniscience?” Come to think of it, Messiah had called her the Daughter of Omniscience.

  “It’s a spell. One that gives me access to the Akashic record.”

  “...What’s the Akashic record?”

  I could see R looking annoyed at me for interrupting with a stupid question. Sorry I’m not smart like you!

  “The Akashic record records everything that’s happened in this universe since the dawn of time. You can use it to explain all of history’s mysteries, and to discover things which have been hidden from history as well. And since things are recorded in it in real-time, you could do things like use it to learn which countries are planning on starting a war.”

  I only understood about half of that, but her last example was very clear. It was a very dangerous spell.

  “But that’s if you used it for evil. You could also use it to find a tragedy that’s happening somewhere no one knows about it, and put a stop to it. That’s why my family’s passed it down for so long, so if the world is ever about to be destroyed, we can stop it.”

  “...Wow.” Talk about a big deal. I could only gasp in amazement.

  But Satsuki seemed a little upset. “But I didn’t want this magic. I wanted to be a normal girl. If I were a normal girl, I could’ve lived a normal life, and always stayed by your side. I wanted to experience a normal love, too. If not for this magic, Messiah never would have come after me...”

  “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.” Hadn’t I just said that just because somebody had a problem that wasn’t normal, that didn’t mean they weren’t a normal person? I knew better than anybody that Satsuki was a quiet, normal girl. The Magic of Omniscience was far too great a burden for her to bear.

  “No... there’s no reason for you to apologize.” Satsuki shook her head. “It’s people like Messiah, who are trying to use the magic for evil, that are to blame. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have to run and hide. But... I don’t think I can hide anymore. Messiah’s supposed to be the strongest mage in the world.”

  Satsuki chuckled bitterly. “It’s said that he killed a god and gained its powers. His magic is strong enough to blow up a mountain and leave no traces left. There’s no way I can beat him.”

  “But you managed to escape from him at the factory, right?

  “My magic’s specialized for escaping at times like this... But Messiah has far more magical power than I do. I can’t keep running forever.”

  “Then why not have them keep you here? We’re off Earth, after all.”

  “I can’t do that. Messiah has my mom and dad. The reason he’s not using them as hostages is so that he can enjoy taking his time tracking me down. But if he never finds me, who knows what will happen to them.”

  “Hmm... your mom and dad, huh? I see...” I guess she couldn’t just abandon her parents. If she couldn’t run, and she couldn’t hide, her only choice was to defeat him. But he was the strongest mage alive. Just from listening to her, I could tell that there was no hope. “So... what exactly does Messiah want? Is the Magic of Omniscience in a book or something?”

  If he was after it... it must be something he could steal. Maybe if I knew what, I could come up with some kind of plan.

  “Messiah is after me.”

  But I didn’t expect her answer. “Huh?”

  I must have had a stupid look on my face, because she continued. “Messiah wants to make a contract with me and become the Contractor of Omniscience. The Contractor is given access to the Akashic record as well.”

  “Why did you make it into a system like that? Doesn’t that make it easy to steal?”

  “You know how a kid gets half their genes from their mom, and half from their dad? If we wanted to make sure that a child could always use the Magic of Omniscience, both their parents had to be able to use it.”

  I see. They really put some thought into it. Wait... huh? Huh? Wait a second. Did that mean that the contract was...

  “That’s right. Whoever makes the Contract of Omniscience with me becomes my partner for life.”

  “Wh-What?!” Five or six of my blood vessels almost burst. “That fake-ass noble! He’s gonna pay!”

  “Rekka, calm down.” But Satsuki was still calm. She motioned for me to relax and continued. “I’m really happy that you’re getting mad over me. But you can’t beat Messiah. You’re not a mage. You’re a normal human being.”

  “Grr!” She was right. It was infuriating, but the Namidare bloodline didn’t give me any special powers. I didn’t have any ability that would let me fight a mage.

  But that didn’t mean I was just going to give Satsuki to him! “...There’s one way.” Satsuki moved closer to me. I could see there was resolve in her eyes.

  We were sitting on a big sofa, but it was still just a sofa. All she had to do to close the distance between us was slide over a little. I could feel her breath on my shoulder.

  As she stared at me, her cheeks flushed, my heart skipped a beat. “Wh-What’s that?”

  Her cheeks got even more flushed. “You... and me... can make the contract first.”

  “Y-You and me? C-C-Contract?”

  “My parents lost the ability to use the magic after I was born. In other words, I’m the only person in the world who has it. And there can only be one Contractor. If I make the contract with you before he forces me to do it with him, he won’t attack me anymore.”

  “No, wait! I get the idea, but if I’m your lifelong partner, does that mean...” If I started imagining dir
ty things at that, who could blame me?

  Satsuki must’ve been able to tell what I was thinking, too. Her face looked like a boiled egg. “Rekka, you dummy,” she said. “W-We wouldn’t do that right away! I-I’m not some kind of pervert!”

  “R-Right. Sorry. There’s a more peaceful way to do it, right?” That made me feel a lot better.

  “Tch,” R clicked her tongue.

  Seriously, knock it the hell off! I just coughed a little. “So what do we do for this contract?”

  “Kiss.”

  “Huh?”

  “...Kiss.” No matter how many times I asked, the answer didn’t change.

  “Kiss... like, the band?”

  “No. The other kind of kiss.”

  Which one? The one for grown-ups? By now, Satsuki was leaning into me. I was sunk deep into the sofa again, and there was no way to escape.

  “Do you not want to kiss me?”

  “It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s um... uh!” My mind was in chaos as I frantically searched for a way to get her to stop. “You can’t kiss someone like this, right? And if you kiss a guy like me, it’ll hurt you.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Huh?”

  “I wouldn’t ask anyone else to do this. Only you.” Her face was right in front of me.

  “S-Satsuki?”

  “I’m okay with this because it’s you...”

  “Um, uh... well...”

  “I want it to be you.”

  My mind was a total blank. What was I trying to do again? Kiss my childhood friend? Huh? Why?

  “Kiss! Kiss!” R was clapping and laughing at me.

  Shut up and leave me alone, damn it!

  Soon Satsuki’s lips were so close, they were almost touching me.

  I had to stop her, but I didn’t know how. My mind was too blank for me to come up with any way to stop this, so I was just about ready to give in.

  And then the door blew up.

  The owner of the room, Iris, came flying in. It seemed that she’d been spying on us, and for some reason, she looked pissed. “Hey, you! What do you think you’re doing, trying to steal my Rekka?”