“My red thread is gone... do you have a spare?”
“I do, but you can’t use it without someone to give it to...”
“I see...” What should we do? At this rate, Harissa wouldn’t be able to go home.
“Poor Harissa, huh? She’s got no place to live here, and of course, no money. Guess she’ll just have to die in the street, huh?” R whispered in my ear.
I needed to find a way to get her home, but before that, I needed to make sure she’d be okay. “Harissa, do you want to live at my place until we find a way to get you back to Aburaamu?”
“Huh? C-Can I?” Harissa suddenly perked up, as if something very exciting had happened.
“Hey!”
“Rekka!”
For some reason, both Iris and Satsuki were glaring at me, but Harissa didn’t hear either of them. She was grabbing my shirt and asking me over and over again if it was really okay. At this rate, she was going to ruin my clothes.
“Of course it’s okay. I was the one who asked you to come. So of course I’m going to take responsibility for that.”
“R-Responsibility!” Harissa’s cheeks turned crimson. I didn’t know why that word turned her into a tomato up to her ears, but at least it didn’t seem to upset her.
And for some reason, the two girls behind me got even more upset.
“What? I’m not letting that happen!” Iris said.
“Me neither. I can’t let my childhood friend turn into a lolicon,” Satsuki said.
“Who are you calling a lolicon?!” I screamed.
“Harissa’s obviously younger than you.”
“I’m thirteen years old! I can get married whenever I want!” Harissa said happily.
I guess marriageable age in Aburaamu is thirteen. But wait... That wasn’t what we were talking about!
“That’s right! Harissa can stay at my place.” Satsuki came up with a good suggestion.
“That’s it!” I agreed.
But...
“No! I want to live with Sir Rekka!” Her idea was eventually shot down by Harissa’s fierce opposition.
“I’ll just have to live with Rekka, too!”
“What are you talking about?!”
Iris started acting weird in the middle of it, and we never did come to a good conclusion.
“There’s no better option, okay? Harissa doesn’t have a place to go. Satsuki’s got her parents to think about, but I live alone. So it makes more sense for her to say with me.”
“That’s right!”
“...”
“...”
Only Harissa seemed happy about it. The other two seemed disgusted.
“I swear I’m not going to do anything weird, okay?” Not that I had any clue why I had to swear that.
“Just so we’re clear, I’m going to come and make sure you’re not doing anything weird.” Satsuki was insistent.
“Right...” I didn’t even have the energy left to argue.
With Harissa’s problem finally solved, we said our goodbyes to Iris.
“Yeah... See you later.” She said goodbye much more easily than I expected, then got back in her spaceship and flew beyond the horizon. Come to think of it, Iris had gotten quiet halfway through the conversation, as if she was thinking about something. But I was too tired to wonder what it was.
“Okay. I’m going to bed, Satsuki. See you tomorrow... or today, I guess. See you at school.”
“Yeah. Try to get at least a little sleep, okay?” Satsuki and I said our goodbyes, and we each headed for home.
I was too tired to do anything else, so I showed Harissa to my parents’ room and then dived into bed.
Ah, damn... I’m going to fall asleep right away. I’m going to fall asleep in five seconds.
“Rekka, Rekka.”
“Please... just let me... sleep.”
R was saying something, but I knocked her away and closed my eyes.
I’d just had the longest day of my life. It wasn’t my fault if I overslept a little, and it wasn’t my fault if I went back to sleep after that. And it wasn’t my fault if I was late, so good night.
“REKKA! WAKE UP!”
“Uwah?!” Suddenly, someone yanked off my blanket and rolled me out of bed.
R couldn’t touch physical objects, and Harissa didn’t know what time school started, so who woke me up? I found the answer as soon as I opened my eyes.
“S-Satsuki?”
“Get up already. You’re going to be late.” Satsuki was in my room like it was the most normal thing in the world, wearing the high school uniform I hadn’t gotten to see her in yesterday. It made her look a lot more grown up, somehow.
“Huh? No, wait... why are you in my room? What about the locks?”
“Uncle Jigen gave me a key. He said to keep an eye on his wayward son, so he didn’t get too out of hand while he was gone.”
“That stupid old man!” Why didn’t he tell me sooner?! What if I’d let my guard down and left a bunch of embarrassing magazines lying around my room?! Fortunately, I’d been able to avoid that this time, but from now on, I’d have to be careful. Particularly since it would be so much worse to let my childhood friend see them than my family.
“So you did sleep in a different room than Harissa?”
“Of course.”
“Good. Then I don’t have to use my magic.” What kind of magic would she have used on me if I’d slept in the same room? This might be worse than living with my parents.
“Hahh...”
“Don’t start your morning off with a sigh.”
“Whose fault is that? Oh, right. Did your parents come back?”
“Yeah. They’re fine. Both of them are doing better than I expected.”
“I see. Glad to hear it.”
“Yup. Oh, right. I made breakfast. Call Harissa and we can all have it together.”
“Oh, that’s great.” Lured by the promise of food, I quickly changed into my uniform and went downstairs with Harissa.
I’d put her clothes in the wash, so she was still wearing my mom’s pajamas that I’d lent her yesterday. They were way too big.
“We need to get you some clothes too, Harissa.”
“Y-Ywwweaahh...” Harissa yawned as she spoke. Maybe she had low blood pressure in the mornings.
After we both washed our faces in the same sink, we lined up at the dinner table. The table was lined with rice, grilled salmon, and miso soup. It was a real Japanese breakfast.
“Let’s eat!” We all put our hands together, and then started to use our chopsticks.
“Man, this is great stuff, Satsuki. You’re such a good cook.”
“It’s really good! I’m glad I came to this world!”
“Thanks,” Satsuki grinned.
“I’ll come and cook for you from now on, so if you have any requests, let me know, okay?”
“Huh? Every day?” Harissa and I said in unison.
Satsuki’s eyes narrowed. “Is that a problem?”
“Nope!”
“No!”
We had no choice but to obey. But for some reason, this didn’t feel like the end.
And after Satsuki and I left Harissa behind and arrived at our homeroom, I found out I was right.
“Ahem... I know this is sudden, but I’d like to introduce a transfer student.”
“Hi, everybody! I’m Iris!” Iris stepped out from behind the teacher, a dazzling smile on her face.
“All right, let’s find a place for you to sit.”
“I’d like to sit next to Rekka!”
“All right, I suppose.”
Hey, teacher! Stop her!
Iris hummed a happy tune as she moved her seat to the left of mine. Satsuki, by the way, was sitting to my right. She had a much scarier look on her face than she’d had this morning. I wanted to run away.
“Good to see you again, Rekka.”
“Y-Yeah...”
“You too, Satsuki.”
“...Yeah.”
Hey
, don’t glare at each other across me! How come you two get along so badly? I can see the sparks flying between you.
“Hey, Iris. Why are you still on Earth? Didn’t you go back to planet Finerita?”
“I asked Daddy for help, and he got me all kinds of stuff. He owes me after what happened with King Satamonia, so it was pretty easy to convince him to let me go to school on Earth.”
I could just see the frown on his face when she asked him. But why come all the way to Earth? She blushed when I asked her.
“Aw, you know why! I’m training to be a wife! A W-I-F-E!”
“Whose wife? And get off me!”
“Your wife, of course! You told me you fell in love with me at first sight, right?”
“That was just to piss off King Satamonia... and wait, I can feel your breasts! Get off me!”
“Nope! Not happening!”
“Please!”
The whole class is staring at me! I hate sticking out! And Satsuki has this really creepy look in her eyes! So do the rest of the boys in the class!
“Iris, please get away from Rekka.”
“No.” Iris ignored Satsuki and started to press her— Guys, you know it’s wrong to push away a girl, right? It’s not just that I’m giving into this soft temptation, right? Well, of course, nobody was going to understand that.
“Give me a break...”
Looking just at what had happened, I’d ended up living with a girl, and my childhood friend was coming over every morning to wake me up, and I’d just met a beautiful girl who’d transferred into my class. So why did I feel so exhausted? Someone, help me...
▽
So basically, this whole thing was my fault, and R’s fault.
“Ahem... As I explained before, the War of All was started by the girls that you saved, but actually, not all of them participated in the war. Some of them agreed to give up on you and withdrew, so only about eighty percent of the extant heroines participated in the War of All. However, my coming to you has caused you to be caught up in a story where you save the future by choosing someone from among the girls you met. In other words, as long as you are the protagonist of my story, all girls you encounter will be considered a part of my story, and all their stories will be treated as events in my own. Thus, any of the heroines who would withdraw on their own will disappear, and all the others will gather to you.”
“What?”
“Oh, you didn’t understand that? Hmm... I suppose I’ll have to dumb it down. Let me put this in a way that even your tiny brain can understand.” R shook her head dramatically and stuck her index finger right in front of my nose.
“Say goodbye to your gray life of loneliness, and hello to a harem, filled with love, lust, and sweet romance!”
“I don’t understand at all...” I dropped my head down onto the table. “Basically, until I commit to a girl, more girls are going to keep showing up, right?”
“Great news, huh, Rekka? Every man wants a harem, right?”
“Shut up!”
Damn. The whole class was looking at me. Nobody else could see R, so from their perspective, I was just slamming my head down on the desk and screaming into thin air. All the exhaustion from yesterday came rushing back to me.
Satsuki, Iris, Harissa... and R. A harem? Just the four of them were running me ragged. Any more and I was going to get a hole in my stomach!
“I just want one girl, like a normal person.”
“Then hurry up and pick one.”
“It’s not that easy...”
It was time for break. The last class was gym, so it would take some time for the girls to finish changing and come back to the classroom. This was one of the few times of the day I had to rest, and I needed to get some rest while I could. But as I went to close my eyes, the door to the classroom suddenly flew open with a bang.
“Sir Rekka! I got a little lost, but a very nice person told me the way here, and I’ve managed to successfully bring you your lunch!” Harissa came into the classroom, cheerfully swinging a bag with a lunchbox inside.
I was glad she didn’t get lost, but... I really wish she hadn’t shown up at school in her pajamas. I really wish she’d stop calling me “Sir Rekka,” too.
Then Satsuki and Iris showed up.
“What’s Harissa doing here?” Satsuki was very calm, but her eyes were locked on Harissa’s lunchbox. By the way, if my memories were right, Satsuki had made us both lunches this morning in the kitchen.
“Rekka, I’m hungry after exercising, too. Let’s eat!” Iris, however, was completely oblivious.
And of course, it was still fourth period.
The alien and the girl from another world began to argue about who was going to eat with me. Instead of trying to stop them, Satsuki joined in.
I would’ve preferred to eat alone, but... for some reason, I ended up having to decide who I wanted to eat with. But of course, I couldn’t do that, so I ran out of the classroom like a scared rabbit.
“Wait!”
“Wait!”
“Wait!”
I could hear their footsteps coming after me.
“Oh dear. You’re just like the protagonist of a romantic comedy,” R said.
“Whose fault is that?!”
This wasn’t the everyday life I knew! But this was my new daily life.
“Someone, anyone, save me from this!” As I ran down the hallway as fast as I could, I screamed out an SOS to any super-hot hero princes who might be living somewhere in this world. But of course, deep down, I knew there weren’t any.
Gyah!
—Fin—
Afterword
Greetings to both new readers and those of you who’ve followed me from my last series. It’s me, Namekojirushi.
For this work, I’ve decided to write something different than I usually do. It’s similar to the “shibari” or “challenge run” play style you see sometimes in action games and RPGs, where you try to beat the game without using healing or powerful items. I don’t mean that I’m physically tying myself up when I write it. A few seconds after I wrote that, I said, “Ouch,” and stared at the screen.
While this afterword might not be off to the best start, we’ve got a little more to go. Put simply, this is a story where the hero and a girl from the future work together to resolve a giant super-dimensional catfight involving childhood friends, princesses, country girls, mages, aliens, people from the future, psychics, people from other worlds, et cetera, et cetera.
That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but if you’ve read the book already you should understand what I’m saying, right? If you haven’t, try to guess which parts of that I made up. Then, head right to the cash register to buy the book.
Huh? I thought I was almost done, but I’m not. I guess I have fill up two pages with this afterword. Last time it was only one page. That’s double! Double! Since the work I have to do is now doubled (for emphasis), I’d like to move on to thank yous and apologies.
Thanks to Mr. Nanbu, who gave me valuable encouragement while I was putting together the plot. You can treat me a little harsher, you know? I don’t mean in an S&M kind of way; I mean during our meetings.
Thanks to Nao Watanuki, who understood exactly what I was trying to get at with my rather awkward prose, and even drew in backgrounds to fill in all the details. You even designed the clothing and the props and all the other stuff, and I practically forced you to do most of the work. I can’t sleep with my feet facing you anymore. I should be praying to you five times a day.
And thanks to my friend F, who helped me come up with the names, as well as those who offered encouragement and advice while I was writing my next work.
And lastly, thank you so much to the reader, who picked up this book. If there’s another volume, I’ll do my best on it, so I hope to see you there.
Illustrator’s Note:
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’m Nao Watanuki. This is my first job doing art for HJ Bunko. My favorites are the cute little Ha
rissa and the Warp Watch. I hope that I’ve managed to bring out some of the charm of the characters, and it would make me very happy if you found a character you liked.
Lastly, thanks to Mr. Nameko and the editors.
Nao Watanuki
Background Text:
I’m at my limit! (Beta) Nao Watanuki
Laser Gun - Slim and simple so it fits in a belt
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Copyright
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 1
by Namekojirushi
Translated by Adam Lensenmayer
Edited by Alicia Ashby
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 © 2011 Namekojirushi
Illustrations Copyright © 2011 Nao Watanuki
Cover illustration by Nao Watanuki
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2011 by Hobby Japan
This English edition is published by arrangement with Hobby Japan, Tokyo
English translation © 2016 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: January 2017
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 1 Page 13