I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 5

by Namekojirushi

  I looked up, and Squallow was almost on top of me, blade at the ready. I couldn’t get out of the way in time!

  “Stop it!”

  Fam’s headband shattered as she screamed, and the space around her warped and twisted in an expanding sphere. Everyone, except for the girls who had retreated to the far side of the room, was caught up in it. I suddenly felt like I had a terrible headache.

  “Ugwah!”

  W-Were these the electromagnetic waves of a gremlin’s horn? Had her emotional outburst made them go out of control?

  Of course, everyone in the sphere was affected by it. Rosalind was doubled over in pain just like me, but Squallow the cyborg and his android secretary were far worse off. They both had bodies of delicate machinery, and it looked like they’d actually been damaged by the waves. They had fallen to their knees. They were shaking and shuddering with smoke billowing out of parts of their mechanical bodies.

  “Uha... ah...”

  Krrsh!

  Then there was suddenly a loud snapping sound as the ring on the secretary’s right hand shattered. As it fell to the floor in countless pieces, I realized that what looked like a ring was actually filled with tiny circuit boards.

  Then, Squallow...

  “G-Gaah...!”

  He was moaning in pain as his body continued to smoke, yet it felt like the light had returned to his eyes. He was trying to turn his head, but it only moved in stuttering fits, so he turned his whole body to face Fam.

  “Gwah... F... Fam...”

  He finally said her name.

  Intermission 3

  Planet Berano, several hours after the pirate attack.

  The morning sun was rising by the time the Estashionian reinforcements arrived. The vessel they sent was big enough that they had to take over an entire island and remove all the tourist ships before they could dock, but Iris wasn’t sure why they would only send one.

  “What’s wrong, Iris? You don’t look happy,” Hibiki asked.

  The two girls were standing a ways off from the dock as they watched the soldiers unloading relief supplies.

  “For starters, I don’t like how long it took them to get here... But that’s no warship.”

  “What?”

  “It’s technically a military vessel, but it’s a cargo ship. It wouldn’t last ten seconds in a fight.”

  “I see. Well, it’s normal to send supplies for a relief effort, but...”

  “It doesn’t make sense, does it?”

  Even if they were gone now, the planet had been attacked by pirates. Shouldn’t they have at least sent an escort ship to defend the supplies and patrol the area once it got there?

  “Wait, is that...?”

  Iris caught sight of a girl in diplomat’s clothes giving orders to the soldiers.

  “That’s Pleates.”

  “You know her?”

  “There’s this technology exchange thing that all Galactic Federation planets participate in. Estashion and Finerita are both major tech powers, so we see each other a lot,” Iris explained as she watched Pleates with a small frown. “When Daddy would give speeches, I would sometimes talk to her since we were around the same age... But we weren’t exactly friends, you know?”

  “Yeah, I get the idea, more or less.”

  “You sure pick up on things quick, Hibiki. It’s easy to talk to you.” Iris laughed a bit, then sighed and started to walk forward.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to have a little chat with Pleates. Not that I’m looking forward to it.”

  “Then I’ll go with you.”

  The two girls started to weave their way through the crowd of soldiers.

  “...Hm?” Pleates saw them coming and turned to look in their direction. “Geh! Is that you, Iris?!”

  “‘Geh’? That’s my line, Pleates.”

  Neither one of them was interested in pleasantries.

  “I see you’re as bratty as ever.”

  “Better than being an old lady who’s pretending to be younger than she really is.”

  “Who are you calling old? I’m only in my twenties!”

  “Uh-huh. And I’m still in my teens.”

  “Arrgh!” Pleates screamed.

  “Iris, that’s enough wasting time...” Hibiki poked Iris in the side.

  “Fine, fine. Pleates, why are you so late? Estashion’s army should’ve been here a long time ago.”

  “That’s not your problem, is it?”

  “It is my problem. The place where we were staying was attacked.”

  “So what? Unlike Finerita, where it’s so boring that the leader’s daughter can go off to other planets to play, Estashion is always busy. A single planet of ours getting attacked by pirates is a small concern. Of course it’s going to be low priority.”

  Hibiki sneered.

  “Berano’s under your protection, isn’t it? This was a genuine emergency, and they needed your help. If you had a reason for being late, that’s one thing, but we’re talking about people’s lives here. That shouldn’t be at the bottom of your to-do list.”

  Pleates ran her fingers along the braid hanging over her shoulder.

  “Yes, they are under our protection as long as they don’t cause any problems.”

  “What? That’s not what it means to protect something.”

  “Hmph! You’re as stupid as your friend Iris, brat. Planets like these are just cash cows. You milk them for all they’re worth, then put them out to pasture. Not that a little brat like you would understand that.”

  “Tch...!”

  “Hold on, Hibiki.”

  Iris held her hand up to keep Hibiki from jumping on Pleates.

  “Pleates, you just told a lie, didn’t you?” Iris said with a glare.

  “What?!” Pleates’s face froze. “Wh-What are you talking about? I’m not lying...”

  “I never told you, but when you lie, you always play with your hair.”

  “What?!”

  Pleates only then seemed to realize what she’d been doing. She quickly let go of her braid, but she knew she’d been caught red-handed.

  “You did it when you lied about your age the first time we met, when you lied about how big your breasts were, and when you tried to lie about the little gut you were getting.”

  “She lies about herself that much?” Hibiki asked.

  “S-Stop it! Just stop!” Pleates begged, half in tears.

  Iris had been talking so loudly that a few of the soldiers were starting to stare.

  “Now, if you don’t want me to spill some more embarrassing secrets, you’d better tell me exactly what it is you’re hiding. If you keep lying to me, you’re going to cause a diplomatic incident.” Iris stuck out her chest proudly.

  Pleates mumbled to herself for a second before reluctantly speaking up.

  “...There was a sighting of a dangerous criminal near Estashion. We had to mobilize all our manpower and focus on guarding and screening the immigration control gate.”

  “What? The whole planet’s surrounded by a transparent shield, and the only way in is through that gate. Why did you need the whole military to guard it? Who is this criminal?”

  “The rest is classified. I can’t tell you.”

  Iris tilted her head in confusion. Something didn’t add up.

  What’s going on? If the Estashionian army is willing to go all out to stop this guy, it must be some major criminal or a terrorist...

  But anybody that the Galactic Federation had a warrant out for would be public knowledge to the entire federation, so it was strange for Pleates to suggest that information on such a criminal was need-to-know.

  Pleates is with the Estashionian military, so if she’s saying it’s classified, then...

  The criminal would have to be someone from Estashion, and it probably involved their military secrets. If they were guarding their immigration gate, it sounded more like someone was trying to flee the planet. But if they let some dangerous criminal li
ke that escape, they had a duty to notify the rest of the federation. Either way, Estashion was hiding information.

  I can try pressuring her about that, but I don’t think she’ll tell me any military secrets. The only other blackmail I’ve got is the poem she wrote and read for me when she got drunk that one time. I could try just reciting it...

  But Iris knew she didn’t have time to play games. The pirates that attacked Berano, and then the criminal sighted near Estashion... At first glance, the two seemed to have nothing in common, but the timing was too perfect. It was even the criminal’s appearance that had caused Estashion to delay sending aid. It certainly didn’t seem like a coincidence.

  She knew there had to be some connection, but unfortunately, Iris didn’t think she was capable of figuring out what it was. Part of it was the lack of information, but another big part was just that she knew she wasn’t cut out for that kind of mental heavy lifting.

  The best person for the job would probably be... Satsuki, yeah.

  Her thoughts turned to her classmate who was still waiting at Ryugu Palace. She didn’t like the idea of admitting that Satsuki was smarter than she was, but she knew she couldn’t afford to be worried about her ego right now. If her guess was right, Rekka could be in even more danger at the Seageists’ base than he thought.

  If Rekka’s in danger, then I don’t have time to sweat the small stuff.

  Iris filled Hibiki in and then headed back to Ryugu Palace.

  Chapter 4: Who’s Changing What?

  The room was quiet. It was in disarray from the fighting, but at least it was over now. Rosalind was keeping a close eye on the incapacitated secretary. Squallow was on his knees, unmoving. Fam was by his side, watching over him with worry in her eyes. Shirley was checking the facility for anything that she might be able to use to repair him. And Rain...

  “Rain, are you okay?”

  “Yes...” Rain nodded as she slowly approached the motionless Squallow.

  She’d come here because she wanted to talk to him, but she was dragging her feet now. She looked like she was afraid to even speak.

  “Oh...”

  Fam realized that she had something important to say, and after a moment’s hesitation, left Squallow and walked over to me.

  All of Squallow’s motor systems had been compromised, and right now he was on his knees, unable to move even a centimeter, I would’ve expected him to fall flat on his face, but he was staying upright, either through pride or sheer force of will.

  And slowly but surely, Rain approached the former merman king.

  “Lord Squallow, you may know this already, but I am Rain Waterchild, princess of the merfolk and daughter of Muse Waterchild, the queen who banished your people from Berano.”

  I watched the two of them carefully. It seemed a safe bet now that the currently incapacitated secretary had been controlling Squallow, but it didn’t change what had happened. Squallow and his people had been exiled from their home planet. You could control someone’s thoughts, or even their actions, but not their feelings. It was possible that he really did hate the mermaids.

  “Boss...”

  Fam had put on a spare headband and was now standing next to me. She was watching over the two of them the same as I was. She looked worried, so I put my hand on her head.

  “The thing that was making your boss act weird is gone now. Now you just have to believe.”

  “Shut up! And don’t touch my head!” Fam shouted as she knocked my hand away.

  But the same was true for me. All I could do now was believe in Squallow—believe in the person that Fam believed in.

  “I hate you... for what you did to my mother.”

  Squallow said nothing.

  “But I know that what my mother, no, what all of us did to you was unforgivable. I hate you, but I also want to atone... What should I do? I want to forgive you, and I want you to forgive me, but what do I do to make that happen? I’ve been thinking about it ever since I was captured. Please tell me what I should do.”

  Squallow listened silently as she talked, but soon...

  “I’m sorry... about... Muse...”

  “Sir Squallow...”

  Squallow’s words were strained, but he was looking straight at Rain as he apologized.

  “I... The others, too... We bear no ill will towards the mermaids... That decision... was one we made... together...”

  Rain gasped and quickly raised the sleeve of her kimono to cover her mouth. Her eyes were open as wide as they could possibly be, and her entire body was trembling.

  So the expulsion of the mermen was something that both sides decided on together?

  “There was no other way... to save Berano... our homeland... our beautiful seas... Even if we die... as long as the sea remains... we will be together again...”

  Squallow explained that even after being forced into refugeedom and piracy, their dead were secretly sent back to Muse on Berano, who saw to proper burials for them.

  “Then what was in that picture book...” Rain said in a weak voice.

  She fell to her knees, still covering her mouth. She cried to herself in silence, unable to say another word.

  Even after they’d been exiled from Berano, the mermen still had a connection to the other merfolk. What had Squallow felt when he was forced to kill the queen? What was going through her mind? And most of all, why had the secretary done something like this?

  “Squallow, I know you’re not doing so great right now, but can you answer some questions for me?” I walked up to his side and asked.

  I could see his eyes move, and he looked at me from where he kneeled.

  “Yes, boy... I owe you... a debt, as well. I’ll answer... any questions I can....”

  “Thanks. First, who is that secretary? Why did she make you do this?”

  “I’ll start... with the second question.... They’re after the Mermaid Princess’s Tear. That much... I am sure of.”

  “They?”

  As in more than one person? So it wasn’t just the secretary?

  “That secretary... was brought here a year ago... by the cybernetics engineer.”

  The one who’d strengthened the Seageists? That’s right. Fam said the engineer showed up a year ago, too...

  “The engineer said they were giving me an operation... to make my brain more powerful... and implanted a chip in my skull. Ever since then... I’ve been unable to move of my own free will...”

  “A chip?”

  “That ring sends... orders to the chip...”

  Wait, the ring that Fam’s electromagnetic waves destroyed?

  “Rosalind, can you pick up that ring for me?”

  Maybe it could lead us to the engineer.

  “Hmm... This? What is it? It looks like some kind of toy...”

  Rosalind seemed confused as she picked up the pieces of the ring. She was probably talking about the ornamentation.

  “Oh, I’ll help.”

  Shirley had been standing next to Rosalind, so she bent down to pick up the pieces, too.

  “Squallow, is there anything else you remember about the engineer? I could use some kind of clue to help figure out who they were.”

  “Their name... face... and voice... were probably all false. Thinking back... they were carefully hiding their true nature. I don’t know if anything I have... will help you. No... There is one thing...” Squallow took a breath as he paused to remember. “Once... they revealed their true self. We were trying to bring life... to the seas here... We had hundreds of creatures in aquariums... But one of them made the engineer scream...”

  “Scream?”

  Was there something in the aquarium they didn’t like?

  “What was inside?”

  “A turtle...”

  And just as Squallow answered me...

  “Garnet, wake up,” Shirley commanded.

  “Yes, ma’am,” the android answered.

  “What?!”

  What was going on?! Hadn’t Fam shut he
r down?!

  Right before my astonished eyes, the secretary jumped on Rosalind and grabbed her arms, but that wasn’t enough to stop a vampire.

  “Hmph! You’ll have to do better than that!” Rosalind laughed.

  But...

  “Watch out!”

  Rosalind had no idea there was another enemy right behind her.

  Fwoosh!

  A needle shot out from Shirley’s medical gun, piercing Rosalind’s neck on contact.

  “Aah...”

  It was enough to stop her dead in her tracks. It was the same Time Stop that Shirley had used to freeze the turtle at Ryugu Palace.

  “You let your guard down because you thought that I was no match for you in combat. Well, you were essentially correct, but there’s more to fighting than just brute strength.”

  “Shirley...”

  “Yes? Is something the matter, Rekka?”

  Shirley stood up, as did her secretary, Garnet. Smoke was still billowing out of the android’s body, but she was up and about now.

  “Oh, you’re wondering how Garnet can still move? That’s because I prepared for this. A year ago, when I infiltrated these pirates, that girl...” She pointed at Fam. “I knew that gremlin was always hanging around the captain. I couldn’t have all my work being ruined by her electrical interference, so I put a powerful protective coating on Garnet and on the ring, the master chip that controls the captain, as well. It looks like it wasn’t quite powerful enough, though.”

  Shirley kept talking in a light and easy tone like she was just explaining a magic trick. But what she was really saying was...

  “Shirley, you were the one behind all this?”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  She’d been the one who infiltrated the Seageists and implanted the chip in Squallow. She’d been the one who made him attack Berano. She’d been the one who was after the Mermaid Princess’s Tear.

  “...You know, I did think it was a little strange.”

  “You mean about me?”

  “You hated turtles so much, I couldn’t help wondering how you managed to make it down to the sea dome when the only way to get there was the turtlebus.”

  I thought it was strange, but I hadn’t given it too much thought. I figured it was just like how people who were afraid of heights or cramped spaces would still get on airplanes to go on vacations. I figured she’d found a way to put up with it for a short while if the payoff was high enough. But it looks like I was wrong.