The ceremony ended, and then it was time for the reception, and then by the time they got into their car and left, the sun was setting. There was no honeymoon, but by the time he got home that night, Akuto felt like he was on top of the world. Anything he wanted, he could have. Anything money could buy, he could get as much as he wanted. The weather was perfect.
The things he couldn’t buy with money, the things the rich always wanted, like adventure and life, were already his.
Days of wine and roses.
He ate, drank, laughed, got mad, and loved.
For a young man like Akuto, the nights were the most thrilling. The girls all drew lots to determine the order they’d be spending the night with him.
On the first night, Junko had covered her face with her hands. They’d both gotten into bed naked once, but that was when they were trying to recreate a novel in virtual phase space. It was a very strange situation, Akuto remembered.
“You were fiddling with a vase of roses with your fingers, weren’t you?” Akuto said. Junko laughed and finally took her hands off her face. They both looked at each other and laughed, and then there was an awkward silence.
“Are we really doing this?” Junko asked.
“I want to,” Akuto said.
She laughed, nervously, before pressing herself up against him.
After that, there was no time for talking.
Junko got under Akuto, wrapping her limbs around his, and pressing so close that he couldn’t see her face. Akuto wasn’t quite sure what to do either. But when he felt her wetness and warmth down below, he wondered for a moment whether he should do something like he’d seen in porn. When he pushed his manhood up against her, she said nothing, so he tried to push deeper.
Junko twisted her body, sliding up the bed.
He didn’t want to grab her, so he moved up with her.
His manhood touched her again, and there was a slick wet feeling that made him shiver.
Junko let out a strong, short breath, and twisted again. She slid up the bed, and Akuto followed her.
They did this in complete silence, again and again. It only came to an end when Junko hit her head up against the headboard.
“Oww...” she gasped in pain.
Akuto laughed. She chuckled too.
“I-It’s not that I don’t want to do it...” Junko said. She let go of Akuto’s body and stretched out the sheets and comforter to where they’d been before she’d started squirming around. Akuto moved away from the headboard as well. They held each other again, and Junko let out a short gasp. Their parts touched, and Akuto was surprised at how cold they were as well.
“S-So this is how it works... I never really thought about it.” Junko said, surprised at how wet they both were. Akuto nodded.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
This time she nodded back.
He pushed forward.
He could feel her around his whole manhood, but there was some resistance. Junko moaned softly, and wrapped her limbs tighter around him. When he stopped, though, she whispered.
“Go ahead.”
He held her head in his arms, and let the force of the legs wrapped around him push him inside. She thrust her head back, revealing her throat.
○
The theory behind time travel may have been complicated, but the execution wasn’t. A switch was flipped to change the mode of the Brave Suit, and now, by just putting in some numbers and a location, he could go anywhere he liked. However, this was also proof that time travel had been done many times. In other words, what Boichiro said was likely true.
“You’ll keep coming back here.”
—No, you just screwed it up.
Hiroshi chose for his first target the lab that Fujiko had found, the place where mana civilization was first developed. He had plenty of information about it, and knew exactly what year to go to. And he knew what data he had to destroy to put a stop to the research.
There was very little money available for mana research at the time, and even the slightest delay would’ve killed the project. He broke into the facility, wearing his Brave Suit. There were guards, but none of them had guns. He knocked them out, with his lasers set to minimum power.
He searched for the computers with the data he needed. In this era, anything that was put into a computer was also printed out and filed. He decided to just burn the whole room. There was nothing in the room that could explode. The fastest way to do this would be to throw the papers and computers into a pile and light the papers on fire.
Hiroshi threw all the papers into a big mountain and tossed the computers on top of them. He destroyed the fire alarm sensors with his molecular cutters, then used his lasers to start the fire. He waited to see if the computer’s cases would melt. They did.
He had three more rooms to go.
But when he got to the last one, the police had arrived. Someone must have called them after noticing the fire, and they were carrying weapons.
—Am I going to have to kill them? he asked himself, suddenly uneasy. But he soon realized there was nothing to fear. The police had nothing but primitive revolvers, easily dealt with. He couldn’t use a mana screen to block the bullets, but his auto-tracking lasers could.
The cops were scared. Fortunately for both sides, they decided not to resist further.
—Whatever else I do, I don’t want to kill anybody. he said to himself.
But...
—Wasn’t I supposed to save humanity? he thought, and shivered.
What he was doing now was a crime, even by his own standards. He was fighting a cop and burning computers and papers. There didn’t seem to be that much difference between that and murder.
—Boichiro must have killed people.
A small sacrifice to save the many.
A simple calculation.
But in a story, actions like that were never treated as acceptable.
He’d wondered for a long time if this world might be somebody’s story. But even if it was, no, precisely if it was, the simple answers had to be the right ones. That was how ethics worked.
Stories where the hero was forced to choose between his lover and the world were common, but those stories were wrong. They had to be. But if those were the stories people preferred, then what he was doing right now was something most normal people wouldn’t accept.
He felt the cold chill of guilt run down his spine, and a deepening sense of loneliness. He finished his work in front of the police officer, and then used the Brave Suit to go back to his own time.
○
“This means there’s two days when I don’t get to be with you!” Fujiko said, draping herself off of Akito as if the idea gave her physical pain.
“It’s just two days.”
“No, it’s two whole days!” she complained. She was lying on the bed, wearing the black underwear she’d bought especially for this day. Her eyes were shining as she spread her hands out toward Akuto. She was acting completely naturally, but Akuto knew that she’d practically interrogated Junko the other day.
“What was it like when he was holding you in his arms?”
“I’m sure it was very big, and powerful too.”
“How long did the pain last? ... No, my experience doesn’t matter. I’m asking because Akuto’s is special.”
She and Yoshie were trying their best to get the details out of her. Of course, Junko said nothing. And in the end, the two of them were practically resorting to torture. Naturally, Fujiko didn’t have any experience at all, herself. He, however, didn’t have much more.
With Junko they’d both been too awkward to do much of anything, but this time, it was different. Would he just be making things worse for Fujiko? He ran his hands down her body, and then said the first thing that came into his head.
“People have really different bodies, don’t they?”
“What...?” Fujiko gasped in protest. “D-Don’t talk about other girls at a time like this!”
“S-Sorry. Y
ou seem more... feminine... It feels like.”
In fact, she had a unique softness to her skin. It felt like his hand would sink into it forever. Junko’s body was lithe, and seemed to push back against him. It seemed to him like he should try touching the girls each in different ways.
Either she was happy that he’d said that, or happy that he’d shut up, because she didn’t say anything else. Akuto pressed himself up against Fujiko’s soft body. His upper body felt like it was sinking into water, or being painted with warm oil. He ran his hands down every part of her body, fondling, not just touching.
While he focused on the parts that made her moan the loudest, she began to run her hands down his body as well. Her fingers ran from his sides down to his hips. She grabbed him down there, and tried to move as if to lead him somewhere. When he adjusted his hips and pushed, he felt a sensation like he’d never felt before, like his skin was being covered in something soft and wet.
The two of them were both shaking with pleasure, but it was Fujiko who moved first. With a provocative smile, she pushed her body against his from below.
○
He’d eliminated the root of mana civilization. But the past hadn’t changed. No, the past had changed, in fact.
“The birth of mana civilization came at a different point?”
Hiroshi asked Boichiro, who was sitting in front of him.
“The data from the lab wasn’t salvaged. A professor wasn’t working that day, and he’d received the data via email. From there, he redeveloped it all by himself. Became a hero for it, in fact. That’s the ‘current’ history.”
Boichiro had the hint of a smirk on his lips. It seemed like the grin of a devil, yet also bore a hint of pity. Either way, it was a smile that said he’d seen this coming. This angered Hiroshi.
“Security was tight at that place. No way in hell did they just send all data to some random scientist!”
Boichiro shrugged.
“Yup. You’re exactly right. But there’s no way of knowing what, exactly, happened. That’s how history works.”
“You don’t need to make it sound like a conspiracy. Like somebody made it all up.”
“No, it was made up. Really.”
“Really?” Hiroshi’s eyes went wide at this surprising statement.
“Correct. Only those who were present for it know what happened in history. And we weren’t there. Even if somebody just overwrote history entirely, we’d have no way to know.”
“Then there’s no way of knowing the truth about anything!” Hiroshi shouted.
“There is no such thing as truth. This whole world is a piece of fiction.”
“Then what you told me about time before...”
“Correct. Change something somewhere, and something else is added to fix it. Things are changed. Someone changes them.”
It was hard to believe. But since Hiroshi could go see for himself, there was no reason for Boichiro to lie. If that “someone” was the Law of Identity, she was being very cruel. Without her allowing the world to be changed, the world would be destroyed. If she didn’t want that to happen, shouldn’t she be helping Hiroshi?
As he thought about it, Hiroshi could feel his mood begin to blacken.
If I kill someone, then maybe...
Maybe changing something big, like that, would keep the Law of Identity from stopping him. He was reluctant to kill, but if this really was the afterlife — not that he had any proof of this — there was no problem.
The person he killed would just come here slightly sooner than planned. And if one death could change things...
“Thinking back, you never managed to kill anybody important, did you?” Hiroshi said, provocatively.
Boichiro understood what he was getting at, and his mouth twisted into a strange sort of smile. But the two of them said nothing more.
○
As for Yoshie’s part, she was nervous, but also curious, and curiosity won out. She would stare at Akuto’s body and touch it, especially enjoying the reaction of his manhood.
“It’s one thing to know about something, but it’s different to actually see it for yourself,” Yoshie said. She was wrapped in a towel that exposed nothing but her head and hands, playing with Akuto’s body as he sat naked on the bed.
“You’re not supposed to play with it like that...” Akuto complained.
“I need to know all about it, though,” Yoshie said calmly.
This left Akuto feeling somewhat annoyed.
“I guess we’ll both need to get to know each other’s bodies, then.” Akuto wrapped his hand around her back and grabbed the towel, pulling it off.
“Hyah!”
Her white skin was exposed, and she struggled to hide her body. Akuto pulled the towel, pulling her forward as well, and bringing her into his arms.
“I thought you were the type to not get upset about being naked.”
“This is a special occasion... You should understand that.”
Yoshie blushed, but Akuto was having none of it. He pulled the towel over them both and then pinned down Yoshie’s legs.
“It’s one thing to know about something, but it’s different to actually see it for yourself,” he said, as he moved his hand down below.
“I’m sorry. I apologize, so...” She struggled, but she was nowhere near as strong as Akuto.
“I’m just playing with the space between your toes.”
“You mean the space between my thumbs?”
“Sorry, it’s an old joke. But I’m kind of surprised that this is what it feels like.” Akuto laughed and then held her tight.
“You’re mean, you know that?”
“Mean? Well, they have told me that I’m the worst person in the world.”
He pressed inwards, without waiting for her. She let out a gasp of surprise, mixed with a very different feeling.
○
Hiroshi shot down the black mage that was carrying baby Akuto and fleeing from him.
When he saw that Akuto was dead, he averted his eyes from the baby that had been crushed from the fall.
3 - Many Possibilities That Are Now Lost
The days went by.
It was unclear how much time meant in the afterlife, but if you counted the seasons, it had been five years. Akuto and the girls should have gotten older, but their appearances hadn’t changed.
Akuto probably wasn’t going to age, given who he was, but the others seemed to be not maturing at all. All the students of Constant Magical Academy graduated and the school was shut down, but then it reopened as a community center. The teachers stayed on as staff, or got other jobs in public service.
The city itself grew, and there were subtle differences in people’s relationships. But nothing really changed beyond that.
Because there were no new deaths.
And no aging.
And more than anything, there was no way to flee this world.
“I’m not going to feel well tomorrow if we do this... But um, it’s not like I don’t like it.”
Junko said as Akuto got into bed. He’d lost count of how many times he’d slept with the three of them since then, but it wasn’t always fresh and surprising. The first year one of them had been in his bed every night. With three of them, each of them had two days when they slept alone. So they were always willing, but by the second year they’d calmed down enough that some nights they just lay and talked.
“Have you ever actually not felt well? ...I mean, I’m asking strictly out of curiosity. Not that I really want to do it tonight,” Akuto said.
He and Junko looked at each other.
“Well, no... No, I haven’t. I do... put on weight, though,” Junko said after a moment’s thought.
“Some people think that the person you are today and the person you are tomorrow are different people.”
“Yeah. That’s right. But what does it mean if you don’t change at all? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yeah. I know that scientifically, some perc
entage of my body will be new cells by tomorrow. But I don’t know if that’s how it works here. But our relationship has developed... and changed a little.”
He leaned forward and gave her a kiss. Their tongues intertwined for a moment before he moved away.
Junko narrowed her eyes and spoke.
“I said we’re not doing it today.”
“...You’ve stopped blushing. Of course, I don’t mind. But before you came here you wouldn’t even let me kiss you,” Akuto said. Junko’s expression froze.
“Don’t tell me... you’ve fallen out of love with me.”
“Sorry if I scared you. If you love someone even more, that’s still a change in your relationship. Anyway, our bodies don’t change, but our feelings do.” Akuto said with a serious look on his face. Junko nodded.
“That’s true, but... Why are you saying something like that when you know it’s going to spook me?”
“It’s been bothering me more and more, lately. The true nature of this world.”
“Stop it...” Junko said with an expression of fear on her face.
It was less a natural expression and more like something she wanted Akuto to see. Akuto knew this.
“I know, but I’m scared, too.”
“Scared?”
“My life right now is like the definition of happiness. I have a fulfilling job. People appreciate me. I have people to love, and people who love me...”
“I’m never going to stop loving you,” Junko said hurriedly, but Akuto shook his head.
“I know. That’s not what I’m saying.”
“You’re scared that it might not last?”
“That’s not it either. I’m scared that it will. We’re not going to die. We’re not going to fall out of love. Which means... we’re finished,” Akuto said, biting his lip as if he had trouble getting the words out.
“Finished?”
“We’re not going to create anything new. I’m trying to reform those thugs, but the method I’m using is an old one, and it’s almost weird how they never do anything I don’t expect them to. In other words, there’s basically nothing left for me to do.”
“But you said it was fulfilling...”
“Yeah. But to me, it’s basically grunt work. I like the work, it doesn’t bore me. But there’s nothing new to be done.”
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 13 Page 4