▽
“Lea, connect us with telepathy one more time!” I yelled loudly.
Yuuhi had shut it down earlier with her mysterious power.
“It’s up!” Lea’s replied telepathically.
“Everyone, listen up!”
I quickly told everyone my plan telepathically so that Yuuhi couldn’t hear it, but she wasn’t going to just sit there and let us get away with that.
“Break!”
Just like that, our telepathic link was cut again. It didn’t do anything to the past heroines, however. They were still fighting at full strength under Yuuhi’s control.
Tch, so she can pick what abilities she cancels! How annoying!
It seemed Yuuhi could pick and choose which powers she targeted with her break ability. That was cheating on a whole new level of unfairness... It was probably how she’d avoided detection via Satsuki’s Magic of Omniscience until now too.
But unlucky for her, my plan was short and sweet. There were just two steps, and I’d already finished telling the girls everything.
“Ealim Nekram!” Harissa shouted, casting her invisibility spell over us once more.
Once they lost sight of us, the past heroines were stopped in their tracks. This was step one.
“...”
“...”
L and I made eye contact. In accordance with step two, she pulled a certain device out from her sleeve.
“Break!”
When Yuuhi used her mysterious power again, the invisibility was lifted. We reappeared as one would expect, but not everything was as it had been. Something was different about Corona, who’d been facing off against L.
“?!”
Iris took one look at her and froze. That was because Corona no longer looked like Corona... Indeed, thanks to L’s hologem, she now looked like me.
“Hah!”
Iris, following the orders she’d been given under the charm, attacked “Rekka Namidare” as she perceived him. Corona, however, had no idea what was happening. She was suddenly being attacked by her ally, and without any mirrors in the room, she would never know why. Moreover, the hologem generated a disguise with science and technology rather than psychic powers and magic. Yuuhi’s cancellation ability would, hopefully, be ineffective against it.
While Iris and Corona were tricked into dueling each other, L, the doctor, and I were free to do as we pleased. We took the opportunity to make a break for Yuuhi.
“Yuuhi!”
“...”
I called out to her, but she only glared at me. There was a keen glint in her eye.
“So you’re the same as ever... You never give up. I should’ve known. It runs in the family.”
I ignored Yuuhi’s words as I clenched my hand into a fist.
“Chirika! Shirley!” she called.
“What?!”
At Yuuhi’s beckoning, Chirika and Shirley jumped out of the rift to the mirror dimension. Chirika immediately sprung at L, while Shirley went after the doctor. Both of them ran past me to get to their targets.
“Tch!”
“Shirley, no!”
L and the doctor both had to come to a halt to deal with the new incoming threats.
I see! She’s wary of me returning them to their senses, so she won’t bring them out unless she has to!
That meant I had to settle things before she brought out any more reinforcements. We could really be in trouble here!
I continued to run for Yuuhi, who clenched her fists too. It was clear neither one of us was backing down. The moment we were in range of each other, we both swung. It was almost like we were mirror images of each other.
“...!”
“...!”
Fist met fist with terrific impact on both sides. It staggered both of us, but the moment of reprieve gave Yuuhi just the opportunity she needed.
“Rekka Namidare, I’ve prepared the perfect opponent to defeat you.”
“And who would that be?”
“An old friend of yours, you could say.”
At that, Yuuhi summoned someone else from the rift...
That blue hair. That old-school military uniform. That tiny build. That unreadable face.
Yuuhi was right. This was a good friend of mine.
“R?!”
When I called her name, R looked at me as expressionless as ever.
“Enemy strength confirmed. Elimination target acquired,” she declared quietly.
“What are you saying, R?! Elimination target?! Don’t you know who I am?!”
“There’s no use,” Yuuhi spat coldly. “After her system ceased functioning at a binary level, I completely rewrote everything. She’s no longer one of yours.”
“What?!”
Yuuhi’s words shook me greatly.
“That’s impossible! There’s no way you could hack into my R’s system!”
Even the doctor, who was being kept in check by Shirley and her scientific weapons, was shaken with disbelief.
“...”
Yuuhi, however, ignored us both.
Come to think of it, we still don’t know who out of the extremists was able to use the doctor’s time translocator!
I didn’t really understand it myself, but the time translocator was supposedly extremely difficult both to install and to operate. I’d seen that much firsthand when a small error had warped L directly into my room on her mission to assassinate me, causing the whole plan to fail miserably. But somehow, between then and the attack on the past, the extremists had figured out how to use the time translocator with enough precision to accurately send a small army of giant robots back in time. It was possible... that was all Yuuhi’s doing. That had meant she had the skill and know-how to rival the doctor, which in turn meant that it was conceivable that she’d reprogrammed R.
“Eliminating target.”
“Guwah!”
The blue beam of light R fired from her fingertips pierced through my limbs. With the smell of burning flesh filling my nose, I collapsed on the spot.
“Damn... it...”
At times like this, I was all too aware of how powerless I really was. If only I had all those special powers like my future self... Really, it would be a huge help if I were just a little more fit. Or a little smarter. I just needed something to give me an edge... Then maybe I would’ve been more of a main character.
There was nothing special about me. I was always relying on other people. In other words, my friends were my only real power... But Yuuhi had taken them from me. Especially R, who’d been by my side since the very beginning. She’d never lent me her powers like the heroines, but she was always there for me. And Yuuhi... She’d taken even that from me.
I... don’t have anything left...
R slowly approached where I was writhing on the floor.
“This is the end.”
Her fingertips began glowing a second time. I didn’t even have to look to know they were aimed at my head now.
“Rekka!”
“Sir Rekka!”
“Brother Rekka!”
Realizing the trouble I was in, the heroines abandoned their fights and tried to rush to my aid.
“Do not interfere.”
With a wave of her hand, R threw up a semi-transparent blue barrier around us, preventing the future heroines from getting any closer. That gave the past heroines the opportunity to catch up to them, and their respective fights resumed once more. There was no one left to stop R.
“This is goodbye.”
I stared straight into the blue light that flew forward from her fingers. Just before it reached my face...
SHNK!
A red barrier appeared to block it.
“L?!”
She must have used her particle relocator to get inside the R’s barrier! This was the complete reverse of what had happened in my room months ago: L was now saving me from R’s attack. There was a clear difference in power, however, and R’s beam pushed L further and further back. She was going to be overwhelmed. However, just as I thought that...
“Why do I have... SUCH A STUPID LITTLE SISTER?!” L yelled angrily.
“...”
The light in R’s eyes wavered a bit. At that, the red barrier and blue beam both burst, cancelling each other out.
“Aaargh!”
Ignoring the pain in my legs, I stood up and started running towards R. Forcing strength into my numb arm, I made a fist. In the end, when all of my power had been taken from me, the only things I had left were this fist and...
The belief that no one can ever really steal the bond between us!
R locked eyes on me. Light began gathering at her fingertips again, this time aimed directly at my forehead. But I was aiming for her forehead too.
“SNAP OUT OF IT ALREADY!” I shouted, swinging my fist.
Thunk!
I landed a solid blow, sending R’s cap sailing through the air. The blue barrier surrounding us disappeared.
“...”
“...”
R walked over and wordlessly picked up her hat, which had landed quietly on the floor some distance away. She then looked at me and said...
“Punching a girl? You turned into quite the brute while I was away, Rekka.”
She spoke in her usual mocking tone as she slipped her cap back on, pulling it down to cover the reddening mark on her forehead. Fighting the pain, I mustered a laugh.
“Don’t be like that, partner.”