Iris and I soon arrived at the massive Ferris wheel that was apparently hugely popular with couples and got in line. When our turn came, we got into the gondola. Thankfully, there were no crazy gimmicks on the Ferris wheel. Other than the fact that the gondola didn’t sway or creak at all, it was hardly any different from a Ferris wheel on Earth.
“Wow! Look, Rekka. It’s so pretty.”
“Yeah, it really is.”
The meticulously planned lights down below illuminated a beautiful picture like a painting. It harmonized with the black sky overhead, making an exquisite display of darkness and light. Yet despite the spectacular scenery before me... I fidgeted nervously in the cramped gondola, acutely aware of how close I was to Iris. For some reason, I had been extremely conscious of her presence all day.
“Earth to Rekka? Aren’t you acting a little too nervous?”
“P-Put a sock in it, R...”
“Oh, no, your retort has no power... Ah!” R clapped her hands together in realization. “Come to think of it, isn’t this your first proper date? You were being controlled by Rosalind’s charm when you went out with her, and the date with Hibiki was more of an undercover investigation.”
“Th-This is technically to save Rachelle, you know...”
“That’s funny, considering you left her in the dust. I seem to recall you pointing that out to Iris, too.”
I hated to admit it, but R was right. This was the first time I was out with no other purpose than just being on a date. Was that why my heart was beating so fast...?
“Hey, Rekka...”
“Y-Yeah...?”
My heart nearly stopped when I heard Iris say my name, but I tried to reply as calmly as possible.
“Do you... have anyone you like?”
“Excuse me?!”
I couldn’t contain myself that time, and started violently enough that I banged my head against the gondola window.
“Ow, ow...”
“You okay? Is there a bump?”
“No, I’m fine, but... Why the sudden question?”
“Huh?! Oh... I was, um, just wondering?”
She didn’t sound too convinced of her own answer, and she sat there fanning herself with her hand nervously.
“W-Well? How about it? Is there anyone you like?” she asked again, looking at me with expectant eyes.
Uh... How was I supposed to answer that?
“I am also extremely interested in the answer to this question.”
Great, now R was staring at me, too. What was I supposed to say when I suddenly got put on the spot about who I liked...?
“I don’t think so... Not yet.”
“No? Even though you have so many girls around you?” Iris questioned me further with a half-relieved, half-disappointed expression.
“Well, there are actually a lot of misunderstandings surrounding that topic, but... It’s not a decision I can make lightly...”
“You worded your own pathetic traits very nicely there.”
Why don’t you take a hike outside the gondola, R?
“I see...”
Iris fell silent at my answer, looking slightly downcast. She stayed like that until we reached the peak of the Ferris wheel, where I finally spoke up out of worry.
“...Iris?”
When I called her name, she flinched a little in surprise and looked up at me. Her expression was serious, like she’d just made some kind of resolution... Or so I was thinking as she got up from her seat across from me and moved to the free seat right next to me. Our shoulders were close enough to touch. I could feel her body heat like this, and it all made my heart beat faster.
“Rekka...”
“Y-Yeah...?”
Iris tilted her head faintly, peering up at me from a slightly lower angle.
“You don’t have... anyone you like right now... right?”
“That’s right...”
“Then... it’s okay, right...?”
What is? Just as I was about to ask, Iris placed a hand against my thigh and leaned in towards me. Her cheeks were so red that they looked like they’d be hot to the touch, but in comparison... I really thought my chest was about to burst.
“It’s okay, right?”
“Wh-What’s... okay...?”
“You still haven’t decided who you like yet, right?”
“Y-Yeah.”
“Then... I’ll be the one to take your f-f-first...!”
Iris stumbled over her words as she spoke, and just as she was about to finish her sentence...
Clunk!
The gondola, which had hardly budged up until now thanks to its superior space engineering, suddenly shook violently.
“Kyah!”
“Wah!”
Iris clung to me in surprise, making me yell for a different reason. But wait, what had just happened?
Clunk, clunk...
The shaking continued, though it was much less severe than before... Hm? It almost sounded like someone was walking on the roof of the gondola. Sure enough, with a creak, the gondola door was then pried open.
“Oh, Rekkaaa...”
“R-Rosalind?”
The unexpected appearance of an unexpected player made all my gears grind to a halt. The aura radiating off of Rosalind’s entire body was terrifying. The grim reaper? No, a vampire.
“At last, I’ve found you.”
“H-How did you follow us all the way into space...?”
“We borrowed the spaceship of that scientist girl.”
Shirley, huh? Come to think of it, she did have her own spaceship. Did that mean she was here on Ciel, too?
“Rekka!”
“Rekka! We finally caught up!”
Next appeared Satsuki and Rachelle. They were flying through the air with magic and wings, respectively.
“Now you’ve gone and done it, little girl,” said Rosalind, eyeing Iris.
“Ugh! Why did you all have to interrupt us now?! We had such a good mood going, too!”
“As if we’d let you get away with that, you fool!”
“I won’t let you get a head start!”
“Haaaaahh... Such good love energy...”
Everyone noisily clambered into the gondola through the open door, and Rachelle looked like she was trembling with excitement. She was totally a fallen angel, wasn’t she? No one should enjoy people fighting that much. Since the angel was apparently going to be useless, I tried to stop the girls myself, but...
“Silence!”
“You stay out of this!”
“Keep quiet, Rekka!”
It apparently wasn’t my place. I was at a genuine loss wondering what I should do, when...
“Urgh, what a pain! Hmph!”
Rosalind hit the upper limit of her anger and transformed into a huge group of bats.
“Wha?! Wai—”
“I can’t see!”
In no time at all, the gondola was filled with darkness and screeching animal sounds. And amidst it all, I suddenly felt like I was floating...
“Huh?”
Just like that, my body was carried away against my will at an alarming speed.
“Huuuuh?!”
I still hadn’t completely gotten my head around what was going on, but it seemed I’d been lifted out of the gondola by a swarm of bats.
“Rosalind?! Are you trying to steal the lead, too...?! Who do you think got us here?!”
“Hey! Give Rekka back!”
I could hear Satsuki and Iris’s angry shouting over the bats screeching and flapping their wings. What was Rosalind trying to do? Where was she taking me? The bats eventually descended towards the ground, where Rosalind resumed her original form. In place of the bats that had been carrying me, I was now in Rosalind’s arms.
“R-Rosalind, please let me down.”
“I refuse!”
Easy to say when you’re not the one being carried bridal style! Ignoring my earnest request, Rosalind ran through the park carrying me.
“Where a
re you going?”
“We’re going on our date next, obviously.”
“Huh?”
“Good grief, I can’t believe you’d be so entranced by that girl that you’d dare leave me behind. You’re always inciting these feelings of jealousy within me...! Argh! Just remembering it pisses me off! I’m not letting you go back to Earth for a while!”
“H-Huuuh?!”
She seemed to work herself up into a rage halfway through that, but had I done anything wrong? I was pretty sure the only thing I’d done today was get dragged left to right by the girls...
“Hold it right there!”
It sounded like Iris had caught up to us.
“Tch! Persistent girl!”
“You’re not one to talk!”
She had a point there...
“If you two don’t cut it out right now, I’m going to show you what I can do!”
Satsuki had caught up with her flight magic, as well. I could tell she was boiling with rage even from afar.
“Hey, shouldn’t you stop this, Rosalind? They seem really mad.”
“Ha! What they think is irrelevant. If they interrupt my date with you, I’ll just have to beat them down myself!”
W-Was it just me, or did she sound a little too serious just now? A chilling shiver suddenly ran down my spine.
Just then, something caught Rosalind’s attention from another direction. She clicked her tongue before taking off with a great leap... with me still in her arms. I tried to follow Rosalind’s gaze with my eyes and spotted something the size of a table tennis ball sailing in an arc through the air. It burst upon impact with the ground, releasing crackling bolts of lightning that snaked this way and that.
“Uwah! Why is there lightning on the ground?!”
Lightning was meant to be in the sky, right? No, this part of the park was covered with a dome, so there shouldn’t be lightning here at all.
“What a shame. You evaded it.”
“...Hmph. Shirley, was it?”
Appearing from the shadow of one of the rides was my blue-haired scientist neighbor, Shirley. So, she’d come to Ciel after all.
“W-Wait a minute! That lightning just now was your doing, Shirley?!”
“It’s an electromagnetic binding trap. Small and conveniently portable.”
“That’s not what I’m asking! That’s dangerous!”
“Don’t worry. It’ll only make you a liiittle numb.”
She flashed a cold smile. It was kind of terrifying. But one way or another, it looked like she was joining the fight to try and snatch me from Rosalind, too. Satsuki, Iris, and Rachelle weren’t too far behind.
“Jeez! Why did you all have to get in the way of my date with Rekka?!” Iris stamped her foot in frustration, shattering the pavers in the sidewalk.
“And who exactly said you could run off with him?” Flames of wrath burned deep within Satsuki’s disgusted eyes.
“You lot believe you can best me, a vampire?” Despite being surrounded on three sides, Rosalind provoked them boldly.
“Oh? But I haven’t shown you all my wonderful devices yet.” Right now, Shirley looked as cunning and calculating as she had the day she’d tried to destroy Estashion.
And with that, the girls fell into a silent stalemate as they glared at each other.
“Ah! Aaah, yes!”
Rachelle’s eyes were practically spinning in circles. She was thrilled, but there was cold sweat pouring down my back. Because right now... it sure felt like this might be the most dangerous place in the whole universe. The situation was hopeless enough for such thoughts to pass through my head.
“Well, well, Rekka. What are you gonna do now?”
R’s mocking words felt harsher than usual. Even if I wanted to, was there anything I could do?
Rachelle had stopped reeling from her love energy deficiency and had become much more lively, so her story seemed to be resolving itself well... Granted, it was at the cost of my own personal situation worsening by the minute. It seemed my life was only going to get more risky the more heroines I saved. What was I to do? It certainly didn’t help that Rosalind was still carrying me like a princess.
“Argh!”
The first one to break the tension and make a move was Iris, as expected. She used her superior physical abilities to close the distance between her and Rosalind in the blink of an eye and tried to grab me.
“Not so fast!”
“Dwah!”
Rosalind evaded Iris’s extended hand by taking a huge leap to the side, putting more distance between them.
“Heavenly wind, ancient wind, return what rightfully belongs back to dust.” Just then, Satsuki’s wind magic blew through in a violent gust.
“Like I’d fall for the same trick twice!” Rosalind roared, extending her sharp nails instantly and slashing through the wind.
Satsuki sounded surprised at this development, but that wouldn’t be the end of it. All of a sudden, something exploded beneath us. I was thrown to the side, rolling along the ground a few times.
“Shirley! Aren’t you using toys that are a little too dangerous?!”
“I didn’t bring any of the really dangerous items. That just now was only a small subterranean landmine with all the proper safety measures in place.”
“Just so you know, the moment you said ‘landmine,’ any and all talk of safety was out the window!”
“It merely aims to disrupt the opponent’s sense of balance with a little shock... But I’ll be careful next time. Now stand. You’re coming with me,” Shirley said, reaching her hand out towards me.
She was smiling, but it was just as cold and creepy as ever! I thought she’d mellowed out a fair bit after coming to Earth... It had been a while since I’d seen her merciless side. The aura she was exuding told me she wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I went to take her hand, when...
“I won’t let you!”
Satsuki flew in, grabbed my extended hand forcefully, and whisked me away into the sky.
“S-Satsuki! I’m going to fall!”
“You’re flying with magic, so it’s all right!”
“Just put me down!”
“There’s no time for that!”
Satsuki cut the conversation short there, her voice audibly seething with rage. She tried to fly out of the Night Area to get away from the others as quickly as possible.
“You know, having the heroines fight over you like this... It’s almost like a little preview of the War of All.”
Not the best time for bad jokes, R!
“Um, Satsuki, why don’t we just calm down a little? Rachelle needs to be present to gather any love energy, so...”
“What?! Are you saying you want to go on a date with Rachelle, too, Rekka?!”
“Huh? No, no one said anything like that...”
“But you went on a date with Iris, right? Just the two of you!”
“Th-That was because she forced me to...”
“That’s so unfair! You’re showing too much favoritism towards Iris, Rekka!”
Favoritism? Why was Satsuki so worked up about this?
“I... I wanted to...”
Her face bright red, Satsuki was trying to tell me something when my vision suddenly went black.
Skree, skree, skree!
“Whoa! Rosalind’s bats?!”
It didn’t seem like Rosalind had any intention of giving up yet, either.
“Ugh!”
Satsuki started to fly in a zig-zag pattern through the park in an attempt to lose the bats on our tail. Of course, Rosalind wasn’t the only one in pursuit. Iris was jumping from attraction to attraction, and the shoes Shirley was wearing allowed her to float above the ground, gliding at a smooth speed as she chased us. As we fled, we entered an area of the park I hadn’t seen before.
“Hold it right there! This is a film set! It’s off limits to the general public!”
“Huh? Kyah!”
“Wah!”
Satsuki reacted t
o the word “off-limits” by stopping midair, causing her to lose balance.
“Thanks!”
“Ah!”
Iris took that opportunity to grab me.
“Welcome back, Rekka. You must have been lonely without me, right?”
“I honestly don’t feel like I was gone that long...”
Considering how she’d been chasing me the entire time, it didn’t feel like we’d actually been separated at all. But no matter. I had to put a stop to this horseplay. I’d start by scolding the instigator, Iris, then apologize to everyone else... Yes, good plan.
“Hey, Iris.”
“Kyah!”
Just as I tried to start talking down Iris, the pole she was standing on snapped in half from a blow by Rosalind’s wolf arm. She toppled over, taking me with her... And wow, we were way up in the air.
“When did we get so far up?!”
“While you were lost in thought, Rekka,” R answered nonchalantly.
But this was no joking matter!
“Kuh!”
“Rekka?!”
On the spur of the moment, I grabbed Iris and turned so that I was below her. Based on the glimpse I’d gotten from above, there was some kind of tent below us...
Smash!
“Uwah!”
“Kyah!”
“Ubwaaaaah!”
We crashed through the roof in a tangle of tent parts, but luckily managed to avoid any major injuries. Apparently, the tent had acted as a cushion and had broken our fall.
“Iris, are you all... right?!”
“Ah!”
My first thought was for Iris’s safety, but I quickly came to the realization that there was something soft pressing against my face. Yup. When the shock of the fall finally wore off, it was plain as day. My head was perfectly wedged between her breasts.
“I-I-Iris! S-Sorry! It wasn’t on purpose!”
“Ah... Don’t try to talk there...” Iris protested in a weaker voice than usual, prompting my mouth to snap shut.
And there I remained frozen, unsure of what to do next.
“Aaaaah!”
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 10 Page 4