First, Legend of a Real Hero: Galactic Great was switched to a live broadcast at the last minute. Even on Japanese television, emergency broadcasts would interrupt scheduled programming when it was serious enough. And since this was the definition of serious and Zeta owned her own channel, I figured she’d be able to swing that without too much trouble.
Next, the Galactic Beauty costume was retrieved from Iris and given to Kiri. She was currently wearing it over her Star Prism transformation. Luckily the suit adjusted to fit the wearer, so that wasn’t a problem.
The last piece of the puzzle was getting Zeta and her staff to spread the word about the live broadcast. Zeta had said that the concept of this project was to have a real hero fight against real evil. That being the case, I thought that people getting to see it unfold live would give it added credibility and realism, thus giving rise to Legend of a Real-Time Hero: Galactic Great. It turned a daring project into a reckless one, but Zeta had said it was better than nothing and given it the green light.
Now, as long as the project became a hit, Zeta’s story would be saved. And there was an additional benefit to the skyrocketing viewership...
“Wow, I’ve never felt power like this before! There are so many people supporting me right now! Rekka, this is amazing! I had no idea there were this many people in the universe!”
“Yeah. Also, call me Galactic Great.”
“Okay, Great!”
“Hey! No nicknames!” Zeta snapped immediately.
The other benefit was that all the viewers would be supporting Kiri. Galactic Great was a superhero show. Almost everyone watching would be cheering for the good guys, especially since this was real. Sometimes viewers were sympathetic to the villain in fictional works, but with real lives at stake here, everyone would be cheering for evil to be vanquished. They’d be cheering for the hero, Kiri—or Galactic Beauty in this case. And the result was just as expected.
“But how did so much support reach Ki—Galactic Beauty so quickly?” I asked.
“Easy,” Zeta said rather proudly. “I posted a spoiler that her character could power up through viewer support. Well, the audience isn’t just kids, so it’s not like everyone will believe it. But those kinds of skeptics won’t think this is really real anyway. All we had to do was sit back and wait for the real fans to hype things up.”
So she was running this just like one of those hero shows they’d put on in department stores and whatnot... Thinking back on it, I remember cheering for the hero with all my might as a kid. Whenever the hero was in need and heard the rallying cries of their fans, they’d always get back up to face the bad guy.
“Here I go!”
And now, Kiri—powered up by the cheering of people all throughout the universe—valiantly charged into the group of heroines. Her strength and speed were overwhelming, and she knocked the girls unconscious one by one.
“Now it’s your turn!” Kiri shouted as she charged at Lea.
“Hah! Curse you!” Lea cried.
Like the other heroines, Lea had also been caught off guard by Kiri’s sudden burst of power, but she’d pulled herself together in time to defend herself. Not even a powered-up Kiri could take Lea’s Leviathan form so easily, leaving them fairly evenly matched.
“Hey, don’t let Galactic Beauty do all the hard work! No one wants to see Galactic Great just lazing about!” Zeta barked through the transmitter.
“I mean, I see your point, but...”
The fight this time was mostly reliant on Kiri’s power-up. Getting Iris to take off the suit and buying time until the viewership numbers hit our target goal had fallen on me, but now that our plan was fully underway, there wasn’t much left for me to do... Or, really, there wasn’t much I could do.
“No, wait...”
Thinking back on it, I’d been able to make even the ferocious Rosalind fall silent earlier by doing that. It was a little embarrassing, but I couldn’t let Kiri take on the burden of fighting all of the heroines by herself. It was too risky and wouldn’t look good for the show. If there was something I could do, then I had to give it a try, even if it was embarrassing!
At present, the heroines still resisting were Iris, Rosalind, and Corona, plus Lea with Tsumiki riding on her head. Five girls in total.
“Iris!” I yelled the name of the girl closest to me and charged towards her.
“Huh? Yes, Rekka—?!”
Iris immediately froze after what I did. But of course she would. If anyone did that to me, I’d freeze up, too. After all, I’d thrown both of my arms around her and was hugging her tightly.
“AAAAAAAAAH!”
A collective angry roar rose up from the other girls around me, but I continued to hold on to Iris with all my might.
“U-Um, umm, Rekka... Oooh...”
Iris blushed bright red. I could practically see the steam coming out of her ears as she collapsed.
“My, my... It looks like you overheated her brain with such a forward, aggressive approach. Very sexy,” R commented flatly as she peered at Iris’s face.
Honestly, my brain was about to overheat, too...
“Well, I suppose the heroines have all been injected with a heavy dose of Rachelle’s mysterious love energy... I imagine your plan was only successful because you’ve never made a proper move on her before, so I guess you being so obtuse actually worked in your favor this time.”
“Shut up, R.”
After laying Iris carefully down on the ground, I ran over to Rosalind next and embraced her the same way.
“R-R-R-R-Rekka?!”
Her body was a lot more delicate than Iris’s, so I held her gently. The other girls were still shrieking in protest, but I closed my ears to them and focused on Rosalind. She was actually the one who’d given me the idea for my plan to hug the heroines into submission; she’d been shockingly docile in my arms earlier. So I cast aside my shame and embraced her as tenderly as I could until she fainted.
“Nnn... ngh...”
Eventually, Rosalind’s porcelain cheeks turned rose red and she went limp in my arms.
“H-Hey, you! How could you do something so disgraceful?!”
“Tsumiki!”
“Wha?!”
Using the power of the suit, I launched myself up onto Lea’s head to get to Tsumiki, who was angrily yelling at me for hugging the other girls. My sudden appearance took her by surprise, and I took her into my arms.
“Wait, y-y-you... H-Hey...”
“Please don’t be mad.”
“Eep!”
If she did, there’d be another fight—which was why I’d whispered softly into her ear to try and keep her calm. Tsumiki reacted much more than I was expecting, flinching and stiffening up... Was what I said really that surprising? She seemed to lose the strength in her knees and sunk to the ground.
The only girls left now were Corona and Lea, but I’d need to get Lea out of Leviathan form before I could hug her. Somehow or another...
“Rekka...”
“Hm?”
Just as I was thinking that, Lea transformed back into her human self.
“That’s unfair. Hug me, too,” she said as she walked up to me with slightly flushed cheeks.
“Wait. Me, too,” Corona said, doing the same.
Everything was going so smoothly that I had to wonder... But if this was what it took to get them to settle down, I’d gladly embrace both of them.
“I know I said you were useless and getting jerked around by the heroines today, but I take it all back. Well done, Rekka, you harem-hogging bastard.”
“Compliment me or insult me—pick one.”
Of course the peanut gallery had to comment after things finally quieted down.
“You’re kind of amazing, Rekka...” Kiri said in slight awe as she approached.
I didn’t know what she was so taken aback over, but whatever.
“Rachelle! Galactic Beauty and I have used our powers to free everyone from your evil grasp! Now it’s your turn!”
I mean, all we’d really done was knock them out, but I had to make it sound good for the sake of the show.
“Bwahahaha! You’ve done it now! At least you turned out the be the man I thought you were! However...” Rachelle flung her hands towards the sky and summoned a mass of love energy between them that was bigger than anything I’d seen yet. “All I have to do is make you two prisoners of my love energy, too! For the sake of my ascension into archangelhood, with benefits including three meals a day and an afternoon nap, I’ll have you become my love slaves!”
“I get what you’re trying to say, but you’re making it sound perverted...”
I shouldn’t be surprised she was ultimately after something so silly. No matter how much of an nuisance Rachelle was, she wasn’t really evil at heart. She was just drunk on too much love energy and had lost herself to its effects.
“You just wait, Rachelle! You can forget about ascension; I’m going to knock you down a peg! Now, Beauty!”
“Yeah, Great!”
“I said no nicknames!”
Zeta was mad, but we didn’t have the time to deal with her. Rachelle was on the verge of flinging that mass of love energy at us. Kiri and I linked hands and faced the angel in the sky overhead...
“What should the name of our secret weapon be?” Kiri whispered in my ear.
“Its name? Can we just call it whatever you normally do?”
“No way! Right now we’re Galactic Great and Galactic Beauty, you know? We need an appropriate name.”
“That’s right, fool!” chimed in Zeta. “Give me five seconds.”
“Please make it two!”
We didn’t have that much time to spare!
“All right! Shout this—”
Zeta came up with a name for our attack on the spot. And just as she did...
“BUUUUUURNING PASSION!”
Rachelle released her torrent of pink light. Kiri and I wasted no time unleashing an attack of our own.
“GALACTIC STAAARBUUUUUUURST!”
When we shouted the name of our move, a sparkling vortex of starlight shot forth from our hands. It collided with Rachelle’s pink ray midair, and the two lights struggled to push each other back. Sparks were flying everywhere.
“Nnngh!”
“Rrrgh!”
“Aaargh!”
We all grit our teeth and dug in to resist. Except Kiri was doing most of the work on our side... The Galactic Starburst attack we’d just used was really Star Prism’s special ability, Starlight Healing. It was a technique to purify evil, and with it, we were aiming to purge the excess love energy in Rachelle’s heart that had sent her on this rampage in the first place.
“Nnnnngh!”
So, essentially, this was all up to Kiri. I was only holding her hand and playing along for the sake of a good show. It wouldn’t be as cool if Galactic Beauty finished off the villain by herself. I’d known this was how it was going to go down from the beginning, but damn... Here I was being useless again. Was there really nothing I could do to help?
“Hngh, ugh...” Kiri groaned in pain, and our starlight ray began to weaken.
Had Rachelle become too powerful after absorbing love energy all day? She’d kept the heroines fighting right up until the very end... Maybe the support of people all across the galaxy wasn’t enough for us to win this after all.
“Ahahaha! This is the end!”
Rachelle poured more love energy into her beam, intending to finish us off with it. Was this the end? Just as that thought crossed my mind...
Squeeze.
Kiri tightly grasped my hand.
I’m such an idiot... Here she was, doing her best even though she was still groaning in pain. How could I chicken out first? Pull yourself together, Rekka Namidare! Who are you? The man bestowed with the Namidare bloodline, that’s who! I’m the one who has to save the heroines!
“Kiri!” I yelled her name loudly enough that she could hear me over all the commotion, and tightly squeezed her hand back. “No matter what happens, I’ll save you! No matter what!”
Even if Rachelle overpowered us here, I wouldn’t bend to the ridiculous power of her stupid love energy! I’d overcome Rosalind’s charm before! And even if Kiri ended up brainwashed by Rachelle, too, or the other heroines woke up and started attacking again, it wouldn’t matter! I’d still save them regardless!
I dug deep and screamed internally with all my might. The next moment, there was a flash of something bright. From within Galactic Beauty’s suit came the light of a thousand stars. Then, the ray shooting from her hand intensified dramatically.
“Ngh.... UUUAAAAAAAAH!” Kiri gathered the last of her power and yelled hard enough to lose her voice.
“No way... KYAAAAAAAAH!”
Kiri’s empowered starlight ray deflected Rachelle’s love energy and surged forward to engulf the angel and put her to sleep before gently lowering her to a soft landing. Just before she reached the ground, the aura of love energy surrounding her scattered. When it did, her wings turned white once more, which I took as a sign she’d be her normal self when she awoke—her normal annoying, dumb angel self. And once she was taken care of, Kiri and I both fell to our knees and panted for breath.
“Hahh... I’m so exhausted...”
“Same...”
“Yeah, I guess I don’t have any room to talk... That was all thanks to you, Kiri.”
“That’s not true.”
“Huh?”
“Because...” Kiri smiled from under the visor of her helmet and pointed to her chest. “You managed to reach me. Just as we were about to be crushed, I felt a large wave of support come from you.”
“I see....”
“Can you two save the subtle flirting for after you’ve wrapped up the show properly?”
Zeta’s quietly seething transmission made us both start in a panic.
Epilogue
“Hey, Rekka...”
“...”
“Hey, don’t ignore me.”
“...”
“Hey, hey, hey!”
“...”
This was my room in my house, so what was a freeloader doing here?
Said freeloader, of course, was none other than the angel who had been flapping in circles around my head for a while now—Rachelle. R, who found this whole situation rather amusing, was floating around in circles after her. But for once, she wasn’t the source of my irritation.
“Why are you here again?”
“Erm, my assigned territory may have been waaay further down south, but when I told the archangel in charge that there were lost lambs wandering between the realms of love and passion here, he graciously relocated me. So in short, I have permission to be here!”
“What about my permission, huh?”
After Star Prism’s special ability purged all of the excess love energy from Rachelle’s heart, she was completely back to normal. We’d more than saved her from starving, so her story should have been properly resolved, but she was still following me around for some reason. When I tried to interrogate her about that further, she simply replied...
“It’s true I had too much love energy the other day, but if I stay by your side, I’ll never be wanting for love energy again! Please look after me from now on, my lord and savior.”
And as promised, she’d basically been worshiping me like a god ever since. I’m pretty sure that would be grounds for excommunication in most religions, but I wasn’t really sure how things worked for angels...
Well, Rachelle didn’t need food since she sustained herself with love energy, and she slept in the clouds at night, so though I called her a freeloader, all she really used was the shower. She didn’t put any burden on Harissa, either, so I’d pretty much given up and let her be for now.
But Rachelle aside, I had an extra homework assignment on my hands as punishment for skipping the opening ceremony at school. Satsuki, Iris, and Rosalind had all gotten the same punishment, too. I wonder how they’re holding up. Wa
it, since we were skipping school together, people are probably going to get the wrong idea... Maybe I should come up with a way to deflect that first.
Procrastinating with thoughts like that, I ended up getting nothing done. And in the middle of my doing nothing, I heard the doorbell downstairs.
“Sir Rekka, you have a visitor!” Harissa called.
I got up and Rachelle followed me. We headed down the stairs and into the living room to find...
“Yo.”
“Zeta! And Kiri!”
“Wassup? It’s been a while.”
“What are you two doing here?” I asked as I brought a chair over and sat down across from them.
Rachelle was idly spinning in circles in the corner.
“It’s about Legend of a Real-Time Hero. Since you were the one who came up with the idea, I decided to give you an update report.”
“Oh, I see.”
She honestly didn’t have to go to all that trouble for my sake, but I got the feeling Zeta was something of a perfectionist and wouldn’t be satisfied otherwise, so I let her proceed as she pleased.
“First of all, we’re adopting the Galactic Starburst as canon since it got used in the first episode. And since girlie here is the only one who can use the attack, we’re keeping her on board as Galactic Beauty from now on.”
“Heehee...”
Kiri laughed bashfully, but I was kind of worried.
“Are you really okay with that, Kiri? You’ll be fighting things like that kaiju from now on, you know?”
“Don’t worry. Talk of a live show where you can watch a real hero fight has spread like wildfire. The audience we got that day smashed viewership records from the last decade, and it’s established now that an integral part of the show is that the heroes get their power from viewer support. And with as much support as we’re getting, there’s nothing to fear.”
For the record, when we measured how much Kiri had powered up with all the support she’d gotten (apparently Zeta’s fancy spaceship had the equipment to do that), she far outclassed even the old man who was originally meant to play Galactic Great.
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 10 Page 12