“Her name is Yuuhi Namidare. She came from a parallel world completely separate from ours, where, you could say, she’s her own Rekka Namidare.”
“She’s... a Rekka Namidare?”
The way future Hibiki revealed Yuuhi’s identity left me reeling in shock. Yuuhi was... her own version of me?
“Um... Do you mean this is actually my future self?”
Future Rekka had disappeared seemingly off the face of the planet—no, the universe. Was he... somehow the girl standing in front of me right now? Was Yuuhi my future self? Hibiki shook her head at my conjecture.
“No, that’s not what I meant. Your future self is an entirely different person.”
“Then who is Yuuhi...?”
“I just told you, didn’t I? She’s a Namidare from a parallel world,” Hibiki said, looking over to Yuuhi...
“...”
Who only glared at us silently.
I was one thing, but she showed no fear even in the face of the dozens of heroines now surrounding her. And it wasn’t just bravado.
There’s a reason she won’t back down... At least, that’s what her face says.
She had the steely gaze of someone who’d fully committed themselves to something. It was a look I’d seen several times over the past few months. It told me that, at the very least, Yuuhi hadn’t done any of this half-heartedly. But, well... half-hearted or not, if Yuuhi really was the one who’d caused the War of All, that was no small strike against her. Especially with the future heroines who lived in this world.
Meanwhile, my heroines—the ones from my timeline who Yuuhi had been controlling with the power of the Doppel Stone—were presently looking around very confused. They’d just been released from their mind control, so they didn’t understand why they were even here.
“Rekka...”
“Sir Rekka...”
Satsuki, Harissa, and all the other girls came over to me. They probably wanted to know what was going on, but unfortunately, there wasn’t really time to explain. We were still in the middle of a glare-off with Yuuhi... But this couldn’t last forever. Someone had to do something.
“Say, uh, Hibiki...”
“What?”
“The world Yuuhi came from—this parallel world you mentioned. Could you explain that to us as best you can?”
Upon hearing my question, future Hibiki went a little wide-eyed in an expression of mild surprise.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Nothing. It’s just been a while since I had to explain something to you. Now that I think about it... You used to rely on me a lot more in the past, huh?” Hibiki nodded with a faint smile, fondly reminiscing for a moment.
Frankly, I didn’t see what was so touching about that...
“So, about that parallel world...”
“Ah, right. Sorry, sorry,” Hibiki said, snapping back to her senses. “Well, to put it as simply as possible, it’s the mirror image of our world.”
“The mirror image of our world...?”
“Is it really that strange? I’m pretty sure it’s a fairly common concept in the kind of manga you like to read.”
“Er, it might ring some bells...”
“Well, whatever. I’ll take it from the top.”
According to Hibiki, this parallel world was one very similar to our own. It was, after all, a mirror image of it. It had planets and a sun just like ours... The look and feel were very much the same, but despite that, there were key differences between them. Things that were subtly different or even outright inverted. And, yes, that apparently included my gender.
“In other words... Yuuhi is a female Rekka Namidare from a parallel world?”
“That’s the gist of it, yes.”
Hibiki confirmed my generalized understanding of the situation. While it may have been modest, it was enough for me to go on for now.
“Okay, so... What is the me from a parallel world doing here?”
“Who knows? I hadn’t gotten that far yet in my recon,” Hibiki said with a shrug. “You should ask her yourself.”
Yuuhi, however...
“...”
Was still silently staring us down. She wasn’t the only one with a stern expression, though...
“...”
“...”
“...”
All of the future heroines were glaring right back at her. The doctor’s earlier words were still echoing in their minds...
What if Yuuhi Namidare was the real culprit that caused the War of All? She might have been behind the terrorist attack on the Greater Galactic Federation, the very event that triggered the war... But there was no denying that there had been plenty of incidents to fan the flames of tension and discord between the heroines before that. Then there was also my disappearance...
Was Yuuhi really behind all of that?
It was true that with her ability to negate supernatural powers, she would be able to escape detection by Satsuki’s Omniscient Magic and get away with all sorts of things. Furthermore, she was the leader of the extremists, whose goal was to kill me in order to put a stop to the War of All...
Now that I think about it, the doctor once said the War of All could only be stopped by someone like me with a special relationship with fate.
And if that was the case, then the real goal of the extremists was...
Was she actually trying to kill me to ensure that the War of All would never end? Wait, wouldn’t future me die too if she killed me?
If so, then wouldn’t the War of All be prevented if the heroines couldn’t fight over me in the future? But then... Huh? Argh, now I’m all confused!
This wasn’t any good. I was just spinning my wheels at this point.
“Say, Yuuhi...”
In the end, I would only figure things out by asking her directly.
“Are you really the cause of everything?”
“...”
“I can’t understand silence.”
“I have no need to answer you.”
“Then would you answer me if there was a need?”