By the time Takeshi landed, all eight of them were squirming on the ground. And after he hit the ground, Akuto grabbed Takeshi by the collar and flicked him in the jaw with his index finger. Takeshi’s head flung backwards, and his brain shut down for an instant, unable to handle the violent impact. In other words, he passed out.
Akuto tossed him on the ground in front of his comrades, and nodded, satisfied.
“I’m glad you didn’t kill them... but they’re still all going to hate you now, right?” Junko asked in exasperation.
“Maybe, but they’re not going to want to fight me now. Also, I’ve decided on how to deal with them in the future.”
“Deal with them... how, exactly?”
“A religion, I guess? One of the old ones. They lack sympathy for others. They don’t think about the future. For people like that, all you need to do is give them a goal in life. As long as they have some kind of goal, they’ll blindly dedicate themselves to it. Ultimately, the traditional religions exist for the sake of people who can’t think, and can’t accept that their suffering is their own fault,” Akuto said, a cold edge to his voice.
“Is that really enough?” Junko asked, flinching at his harsh statement. She still hadn’t gotten used to the fact that sometimes he could be very cruel.
“There were people who believed in the old systems. Really believed. But now we can feel the existence of a real god, right? Someone had to have built this afterlife, after all. So they can study theology.” He opened his student handbook to call Lily.
“What? You want me to ask my dad to make a new department? And then put you in charge of it?”
Lily’s father was a high priest, and had the authority to do it. Using the old data, and the methods of governance used so far, it would be easy to recreate a traditional religion. Akuto nodded, satisfied that he’d found something to dedicate himself to.
“I don’t know how time works here, but it’s going to take years to educate people,” Akuto said. His words sounded prophetic.
They weren’t, however, a prophecy, but a prediction. Though that didn’t make them any less accurate.
“Several years? If we spend that long here, won’t we graduate?” Junko asked.
“Oh? Wasn’t Akuto already planning on graduating? And that’s when our new life is going to begin, right? Come on, our new home is waiting.” Fujiko jerked her head in the direction of Yoshie.
“That’s right. Let’s get going.”
Yoshie began to lead the way.
They got on a train at the school’s station and rode two stations down. Yoshie led them to a high-rise near the city center. Security was tight in the building’s lobby, and there was an automatic lock that kept out the lower classes. This was a living space that was only open to the chosen.
“The whole 60th floor, the penthouse, is ours,” Yoshie explained, as she pushed the button for the elevator.
Akuto looked around the lobby. There was a shopping mall with a boutique, a cafe, a jewelry store, and other tenants. A whole floor of this building would be quite sizable.
“The whole thing?”
“It’s less blatant than building a mansion somewhere. And we won’t have to go up and down stairs, too. Our garden’s going to be artificial, but there’ll be aquariums and flower gardens, too. We could keep some animals if we wanted.”
The button for the top floor was locked so that nobody but Akuto and his friends could get inside. Yoshie led the way, opening the door to their new home. It was sleek and modern, the style that they were all most accustomed to.
“We each have our own room, separate from Akuto’s. They all have their own closets and bathrooms, so you can spend all your time in there. But we’ve also got a living room, a garden, a big bath, and a pool, so I’d prefer you spend your time there. And then there’s...”
After showing them most of the room, she grinned mischievously as she put her hand on the last doorknob.
“The bedroom.”
There was a double bed with a rococo-style canopy. In the back, there was a glass shower and sauna. The ceiling was mirrored, and the whole room was lit up with orange indirect lighting.
“This is, um...” Junko blushed and murmured to herself.
“Well done! So this is Akuto’s personal bedroom, right?” Fujiko let out a scream of joy.
Yoshie, however, shook her head.
“This belongs to everybody.”
“Everybody?”
“Yeah. It’s for anybody who wants to use it.”
“For a foursome?”
“If you’re feeling up for it.”
“I... I definitely am.”
“Yup. I sure am.”
“...I’m not, I don’t think. I want Akuto to be mine and mine alone.”
“Well, we can work out some kind of reservation sheet, or a rotation...”
Fujiko and Yoshie began to discuss specifics, but Junko shut them down.
“H-Hey! What are you talking about?”
“We’re talking about how we’re going to have sex. Our situation is unique, and that’s why we need to discuss things...”
“Don’t be so stuck-up. I know you want to get laid too.”
Yoshie and Fujiko both looked at her, annoyed.
“B-But that doesn’t mean...” Junko tried to come up with some kind of answer, but then she saw that Akuto was trying to sneak away, and yelled.
“...This is what happens when you can’t make a decision! We’re going to have a wedding for everybody! Anything that happens after that is fine!”
Both Fujiko and Yoshie’s expressions changed. Their mood shifted from “horny” to “romantic” in an instant.
“A marriage!”
“A wedding!”
“Wedding!”
“Wedding! Wedding!”
Everybody except Akuto began to run towards the living room. Akuto followed, wondering what they were doing. When he saw that the three of them were already picking out spots to hold the wedding, he sighed, shrugged, and went back to close the door to the bedroom.
Starting that evening, a strange, but somehow peaceful, life began.
During the day, he worked and studied to build what he called “The Pure Church”, and in the evening, the three of them were there to see to his needs. He knew them all very well, but actually living with them taught him some new things.
Yoshie was friendlier than he thought. She had a habit of pressing her body up against Fujiko and Junko too, not just him. She was also selfish and easily distracted. When she got excited about something she was working on on her computer in her room, she wouldn’t come out when anyone called her. And when Fujiko tickled her neck to break her out of her concentration, she got seriously mad.
Fujiko was just like he thought, but once she’d opened up to someone, she had a habit of oversharing, and getting lazy. She would do the cooking, cleaning, and washing if she felt like it, but if she didn’t, she’d just leave it to Junko. She also had a nasty habit of leaving half-eaten bags of potato chips and other snacks lying around. When you threw them out, she’d get mad, too, saying that she was planning on eating the rest of them. Akuto, however, was required to be perfect at all times. And since Akuto would try his best to be perfect when she demanded it, Yoshie and Junko were constantly getting mad at her.
Junko, for her part, let her clean freak flag show early. She complained that she was the only one who did any chores, but she was never satisfied if things weren’t perfectly clean, and refused to even use maids or other cleaning services. Anything that needed doing, she’d do it herself before they could arrive.
She didn’t like ordering out either. It was “unhealthy”, she said. Instead, she would even go out and buy the ingredients herself. However, she seemed to have trouble opening up to others. Whenever Fujiko and Yoshie were getting a little too close to Akuto, she would try to pull them off. She would never, however, try to take their place. But even as she kept her distance from Akuto, she would be constantly staring at him (and sometimes panting), like some kind of indoor stalker. Of course, Fujiko didn’t like this, and would try to bring them both to the bedroom, but Junko would always pitch a fit and run. Lately Fujiko had mostly given up.