“Before that, may I say something?”
“What is it, Shirley?”
“It’s really cramped in here!”
Well, she was right about that. There were nine of us in total. Harissa was upstairs taking care of Mio, so I was downstairs with Satsuki, Iris, Tsumiki, Tetra, Lea, Hibiki, Rosalind, Suzuran, and Shirley. We weren’t packed in the living room like sardines or anything, but yeah... It was a bit cozy.
“I’m glad I left Fam and Rain with Garnet,” Shirley said with a sigh.
The two of them were supposedly doing summer homework under Garnet’s tutelage right now.
“Why is everybody starting off summer vacation studying?” I couldn’t help asking.
“Part of my job is supervising their education. Of course, I’m not keeping them cooped up the whole day, you know.”
Shirley’s policy was to get them to do a little bit every day, she explained. But since the two younger girls were at home doing schoolwork, Shirley had come to my impromptu meeting on their behalf. They weren’t happy about it, however. Shirley had taken so long to convince them to stay home that, despite living just across the street, she hadn’t arrived until about the time that Rosalind and Lea had.
“Enough talk,” Rosalind declared. She was sitting right in front of the air conditioner. Perhaps she didn’t like the heat. “We have a lot to do. We should divide and conquer on this.”
“I agree,” Hibiki said as she raised a single finger. “We’ll divide the responsibilities between us, but let’s start with going over exactly what needs to be done.”
“Okay, we should tackle Ellicia first. That should be simple enough. All we need to do is make sure she’s safe for now.”
“This Yang guy with psychic powers is after her, right?” Iris asked.
“That’s right, so we need to find her before he does.” Hibiki nodded and turned towards Satsuki. “Yang’s power is what you’d usually call ‘telepathy,’ right?”
“Yes. It’s essentially the power to affect the mind.”
“Is it different than the telepathy I use?” Lea asked.
“Your magic connects people by bringing their thoughts together. Yang’s power is a little different,” Satsuki explained. “He can directly affect someone’s mind, or their soul. In this case, you can think of them as the same thing. Memories and thoughts are recorded in your brain, but also imprinted on your soul. Yang can read people’s memories by accessing those.”
“Huh? I don’t really understand how that’s different,” I said.
“It’s the same in some ways. Think of it like this: magic spells or psychic powers are more or less specialized skills with an explicit function, typically. But Yang’s... His is versatile.”
“Versatile?” I asked.
“Let’s say you have something you need to cut. You could use scissors, or you could use a knife. Either would work, but knives can cut a lot more than scissors can. You can use them on lots of things and in lots of different ways. Yang’s power is a little like that. He can use his telepathy to alter people’s minds and memories, not just read them.”
Huh... So that’s what he’d done to seal Mio’s memories. There was more than one way he could use his power, but the problem was that not even Satsuki knew the extent of what he could do with it.
“This kind of feels like seeing someone walk toward you with a baseball bat in the park. You have no way of knowing if they’re going to hit you or if they just want to play baseball.”
“Sounds like someone who’ll be annoying to fight,” Rosalind said with a sneer.
“Yes, and Yang seems to be the leader of a group of psychics like him and Ellicia. Only a few are chasing after her, but if we screw up, there could be more,” Satsuki added.
“Then we should pick people who are competent in a fight,” Rosalind suggested.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “We’ll need Satsuki on the Ellicia team to keep track of her whereabouts. How about we send Iris and Rosalind, and have Satsuki guide them? Does that work for you guys?”
“Sure.”
“That’s fine with me.”
“Very well. Suzuran, come with me, too.”
“Yes, mistress,” Suzuran complied.
“I’m in, too,” said Hibiki. “But too big of a group will just slow us down, so this is probably enough people.”
So Satsuki, Iris, Rosalind, Hibiki, and Suzuran would be the team that went to save Ellicia.
“Shall I join them as well?”
“You too, Shirley?”
I was a little surprised to hear the space scientist volunteer for what could be a bodyguard mission. She wasn’t much of a fighter.
“I won’t be running and jumping like the others, but if we’re up against a psychic, I may be able to help a little.”
“What do you mean?”
“Planet Estashion did extensive research on psychics, as well.”
Just how far had their research gone?
“There are many different kinds of creatures in the universe, including some species that only communicate with each other via telepathy. If you’re going up against someone who has a power like that, I won’t be much help in a fight, but I can at least share my knowledge on the subject.”
“I see.”
It was a good enough argument, and I had no reason to turn her down. Shirley would join the Ellicia team, then.
“So me, Iris, Rosalind, and Suzuran are the assault force while Shirley and Satsuki are our support. Satsuki can keep tabs on Ellicia and keep us informed over the phone,” Hibiki suggested.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“By the way, where is she now?” Hibiki asked.
“Hmm... She’s nearing the city limits. We have a little more time,” Satsuki said.
“Can you guys hang back for a bit then? I’ll fill you in on what we’ll be doing, too.”
Of course, by “we,” I meant the rest of us who would be tackling Mio’s story.
“I don’t see why not,” Satsuki said as she sat back down on the couch.
“Now that you mention it, why aren’t you joining the rescue operation? Normally you’d be the first to volunteer for that kind of thing,” Tsumiki, who’d been leaning up against the wall, chimed in.
“That may be true, but let me explain.” I paused and took a breath. “While you guys deal with Ellicia, I’ll be taking care of Mio.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mio said she was pushed off a building. That means somebody pushed her, right?”
“But Otomo said that she wasn’t actually pushed, right?” Tsumiki asked.
Nobody knew the power of Satsuki’s magic better than me, but...
“Mio’s story is a little strange. There’s too much about it that doesn’t make sense. How she knew my name, why Yang sealed her memory...”
Even the Magic of Omniscience couldn’t read people’s thoughts. There was no way of knowing what Yang—a perfect stranger who was literally just passing by—had been thinking when he sealed Mio’s memories.
“Whoever pushed her off that building, if someone really did, is one problem, but Yang and his crew are another issue altogether. He stopped at sealing away Mio’s memories, but that might only have been because he was busy chasing Ellicia. If someone else from his group comes after Mio now, there’s no telling what they might do.”
“I see. You’re saying it’s not safe to leave Mio alone while we focus on Ellicia’s story.”
“If nothing else, there’s a chance that Yang means Mio harm,” Hibiki added.
“Yeah, so I want to make sure we keep her safe, too. She’ll need a guard or something.”
“Is that why you didn’t ask me to go with the Ellicia team?” Lea asked, seemingly somewhat confused. “I am strong, but if these people are really that dangerous, you might need somebody who can do more than fight. And unfortunately, I’m afraid that’s all I can really do. Well, I guess there is my water magic.”
“That’s why I
want you to come to Aburaamu with me.”
“Aburaamu?” Lea asked, even more confused.
“Harissa’s home world,” I explained.
“Harissa can go back to her world now?” Satsuki asked, eyes wide.
At that point, I explained to everyone where Harissa had come from and the new magic she’d invented to try and get back.
“So, you’re going to hide Mio in another world, huh? I suppose that’s as safe as you could get, yeah,” Shirley said with an exasperated shrug.
She seemed to feel like I was cheating. And maybe I was. If this were a game of chess, what I was planning on doing was akin to keeping my king safe by taking it off the board and hiding it. But as long as it kept Mio safe, I didn’t care if anyone called me a coward for doing it. It wasn’t like I had a way to fight Yang’s group head-on.
“Shouldn’t you let the two upstairs know what’s going on then?” Tsumiki asked.
“I’ll go get them,” Tetra offered and ran up the stairs.
As she left, Hibiki turned to me.
“I understand where you’re going with this, but what happens after you get to Harissa’s world?”
“The first thing we’ll do is find a safe place for Mio. Then I’ll come back and join your team. That’s the plan, anyway. Speaking of, can I have something personal of yours?”
“Of mine? Why?”
“When I come back, I’m going to use Harissa’s new spell. It’ll be faster that way.”
“I see. In that case...”
She took off one of the fingerless gloves she always wore and handed it to me.
“The more personal, the better, right? This is about as good as you could ask for.”
“Cool, thanks. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”
“Oh, but...” Suddenly Hibiki started to mumble. “D-Don’t do anything weird like smell it, okay?”
“Do you think I’m a pervert?”
“That’s exactly why I’m telling you not to smell it!”
“I wouldn’t!”
“That’s not fair, Hibiki! He should take one of my boots or my hairpiece!” Iris jumped in.
“Wait, I’ll give him my ribbon,” Rosalind offered.
“I’m still not smelling anything!”
Is that what they really thought of me? It was a little unsettling, but I didn’t have time to waste on something so stupid. Instead of arguing, I cleared my throat and got things back on track.
“Anyway, my plan is to keep her in Aburaamu until we figure out how to resolve her story. We can focus on Ellicia’s first, and hopefully catch Yang. If we do that, we might be able to learn how to get Mio’s memories back, and we can go from there.”
“Understood,” Hibiki said with a firm nod and stood up. “If we have a plan in place, I think it’s time for us to get moving.”
With our plans hammered out, everyone got ready to do their part.
“The Ellicia team will be using our house as a base,” said Shirley. “You’ve got plenty of preparations to make before leaving, so there’s no reason for us to crowd you here.”
Shortly after Shirley and her team left, Mio, Harissa, and Tetra came down into a now much emptier living room.
“Rekka...”
As soon as Mio saw me, she dashed across the room.
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
“This just makes me feel better...” she whispered softly as she wrapped her arms around my waist.
She’d practically freaked out when she heard my name the first time, so I was a bit stumped by the apparent one-eighty.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Tsumiki glared at me with narrow eyes.
“She’s just a little girl. Maybe she’s scared?”
“MIO the idol is our age, you know.”
“What?!”
How?! She looked just like an elementary school girl!
“She made her debut three years ago when she was in middle school. You do the math.”
“How does everyone know so much about idols?”
“I’m a fan, duh.”
“Oh, I didn’t know.”
“It’s not a big deal or anything...” Tsumiki turned away, perhaps embarrassed to admit that right in front of an idol.
But Tsumiki wasn’t the only one. With Mio refusing to let go of me, all the girls were giving me dirty looks. I tried to ignore it and fill in Mio and Harissa on the plan.
“Psychic powers? Magic? Other worlds?” Mio looked absolutely baffled.
It’d been a while since I’d encountered a heroine who didn’t know about that kind of stuff, so I had Harissa use her invisibility magic to prove it was all real. Mio still seemed a little confused, but she agreed to my plan nonetheless.
“All right. We’re going to use the Hero’s Sword to get back to Aburaamu Castle. I’m considered a hero there, so the king should give us all a safe place to stay. Then we’ll gather enough Red Threads to allow us to travel between worlds as we please. Then we’ll come back here and meet up with Hibiki’s team.”
Tsumiki, confused, raised her hand and said, “I don’t need to go, do I? I can stay here and help Shirley or something.”
“Well, you see... We don’t know how long Mio’s going to have to stay there, so...”
I actually wanted Tsumiki there so Mio would have someone to talk to. I was hoping she’d be less lonely and scared that way. It could have been anyone, really, but Tsumiki had said she was a fan of MIO’s, so it seemed like a good idea. And Tsumiki seemed to figure it out. She sighed and shrugged.
“All right, I’ll go with you guys.”
“Then I’ll stay here and help Shirley,” Tetra offered.
“Thanks, both of you.”
With that all agreed upon, it was time to work out the rest of our preparations.
▽
Everybody split up to take care of what they needed to before travelling to another world, and we all met back up at my house a little while later. We gathered in the backyard with backpacks of food and clothing, and we waited for Harissa to finish drawing the magic circle that would transport us back to her world.
“Whew, it’s done.”
Harissa took a deep breath when it was finally complete. The magic sending circle was a complicated series of interlocking patterns, and in the middle of it sat the catalyst from a Red Thread and the Hero’s Sword. With that all in place, we were finally ready to go.
“All right, it’s time,” Harissa said.
She began her incantation and touched her staff to the circle. Both of them began to glow with green magic.
“Eclena Cashu!”
With those words, her magic energy began glowing so brightly that it looked like it was on fire. And it only got brighter. White light filled my vision. I then felt myself floating, and for a moment I had no idea where I was. The one thing I felt was Mio’s warmth as she clung to me.
▽
And so we crossed the boundary between worlds. As my senses returned to me, I felt my feet touch the ground.
“...Hmm?”
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I did was make sure everyone was okay. I was glad to see that they were.
Next, I looked around a bit. We’d ended up in a huge room with two doors, one in the back and one in front of where we were. There wasn’t anything else in the room, but the ornately decorated pillars holding up the stone ceiling told me it wasn’t just any old room.
Thinking back on it, Aburaamu Castle was a stone building, so with all I had to go on, it seemed like we’d ended up in the right place. At least, that’s what I thought...
“H-Huh?” Harissa was looking around, apparently confused.
“Harissa, what’s wrong?”
Seeing her like that made me a little nervous, and that feeling only grew worse when she could hardly answer me.
“U-Um, I...”
“Don’t panic. Take your time. Just tell us what’s going on.”
I put my hand on her shoulder and had her take a deep breath
to calm herself down.
“I don’t think... this is the room where the Hero’s Sword was kept.”
“What?!” Tsumiki gasped, then put her hand over her mouth when she realized she’d made a mistake.
But it was too late. Harissa was already starting to panic. I could see tears in the corner of her eyes.
“I’m so sorry. I failed...” Harissa hung her head.
I looked around the room again. Come to think of it, this place did seem a lot bigger than the basement I remembered. The chamber with the Hero’s Sword in it was much smaller. More than a basement, this seemed like a proper castle dungeon.
“Well, we’re certainly not in my yard anymore, and it’s not like there are a lot of stone buildings around. Maybe we’re just in a different part of the castle?”
“I thought so too at first... but the air is different here somehow. It doesn’t feel like I’m home.”
“I-I see...”
“I’m sorry...”
So, we were lost in a different other world. It was at that point that a certain thought crossed my mind: Maybe this wasn’t great.
Chapter 2: The One Boring Way to Clear an Underground Labyrinth (July 20th)
“Anyway, we’ve got another catalyst, so we can still return to Earth,” Harissa said.
She then took the Red Thread catalyst out of her pocket to show everyone. With that and the glove Hibiki had given me, we’d be able to get home.
“Whew... So, it’s not like we’re stuck here.” Tsumiki sighed in relief.
“But, um...” Harissa looked glum as she started to mumble.
I wondered for a moment what might be wrong, and then it dawned on me.
“That’s right... You only have one more of those, don’t you?”
“Yes...”
I knew what that meant, but the other three girls looked confused.
“The spell she used to get us here—and the same spell we need to get home—takes a magic item called a Red Thread. It’s something made in Harissa’s world, and can’t be replicated in ours.” Since Harissa didn’t look up to it, I explained. “And we only have one more of them. In other words, if we use it to get home, she can’t go back to Aburaamu.”
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 7 Page 5