We would probably never get another opportunity like this. Yuuhi was surely already thinking of a way to escape, but the future heroines would inevitably take their resentments out on her first. I had to think of something before future Iris showed up. She’d lost her father at the beginning of the War of All, so she more than any of the other heroines had a lot to hold against Yuuhi. And if future Iris had a temper anything like the Iris I knew...
Wait...
The Iris I knew was here too, but she didn’t know anything yet. As soon as she heard that Yuuhi was responsible for her father’s death, she would probably snap too. It was perfectly understandable, all things considered, but it could cost us this chance to negotiate with Yuuhi... perhaps permanently. We had to get to the bottom of things here and now before that happened. That’s what my gut was telling me.
“Hey, Rekka! Come on, tell us where we are already!”
“Er...”
It was then, just as I was about to question Yuuhi, that Iris walked over and shook my shoulder. But she had a point. It was high time I gave the heroines an explanation. I just couldn’t take my eyes off Yuuhi...
“Um, L, would you mind filling in everyone who came from the past about what’s going on here? Just skip all the risky parts, okay?”
“What are you talking about? What do you want me to skip, exactly?”
“Errr...”
I wanted her to skip the part about how Iris’s dad was dead, but it was hard to spell that out right in front of her. As I was racking my brain, however...
“I can fill everyone in.”
“R? But I’m the only one who can see you.”
“Not so fast. Everyone can see me now.”
“Huh?”
I turned around in shock to see all of the girls staring directly at R, paying attention to every word she was saying.
“Rekka, who is that?”
“She’s floating?”
“How old is she?”
I was thusly pelted with questions about R one after another. Yeah, they could definitely see her, all right...
“Hey, R, what’s going on? What does this mean?” I asked.
“It seems Yuuhi reprogrammed me. She removed certain functions pertaining to my camouflage processing. Well, let’s just treat it as a convenience for now,” R said before moving on to fill in the heroines about what had happened.
Well, it was probably safe to leave that to her.
“Now, I’m sure everyone here is wondering what Rekka has done to me over the past few months where no one other than him could perceive me...”
Wow, okay, it wasn’t safe at all. I mean, I guess this was R’s typical way of joking around... Albeit reluctantly, I decided to trust her and forcibly turned my attention back to Yuuhi.
“...”
She was still staring at me with her unflinching poker face, but the determination residing deep within her eyes was plain as day. And that... I couldn’t believe that was evil.
“Yuuhi.”
“What?”
Relying on my intuition, I asked, “Just what kind of story are you involved in right now?”
“?!”
The future heroines collectively gasped at my question. Their faces betrayed that they hadn’t even considered that possibility. Future Hibiki was the only one who didn’t seem surprised. After all, she was the one who’d revealed that Yuuhi was another version of me. She probably had her own hypotheses, despite not knowing Yuuhi’s exact motives.
“Wait a minute,” future Satsuki said. “So... what? Are you saying this Yuuhi girl caused the War of All just to solve someone’s story?!”
Her tone of voice made it perfectly clear how unacceptable the very idea was to her. To the girls from the future, what I’d suggested just now was probably ridiculous.
“I don’t understand, Rekka.”
“Well, I don’t really want to believe it myself...” I scratched my head. “But if Yuuhi’s really a Namidare, then the reason for her actions probably has to do with a story she’s caught up in.”
That said, I couldn’t even imagine what kind of story had warranted all this. Just how badly were the threads of fate entangled that something like the War of All was necessary to fix things? Only Yuuhi knew.
“So what is it, Yuuhi?”
“...What are you going to do when I tell you?”
“You finally responded, huh? As for the answer to that question...” I sighed. “If you’re a Namidare, then you should know.”
At that, Yuuhi’s expression grew grimmer before she said, “What’s with you?”
“I’m not sure how to answer that.”
“Can changing a single point in the timeline really make such a big difference...?” Yuuhi muttered to herself.
Difference? Change? I was curious what she meant, but more importantly, I’d finally gotten her to show an interest in talking with me. I had to keep things going, and so I said...
“I don’t know what kind of story you’re involved in right now, Yuuhi, but I’ll help you find a solution for it.”
“...”
There, she fell silent once more. But, in exchange...
“Rekka... Do you really intend on helping her?” future Satsuki spoke up.
“Satsuki?”
I turned to see her looking at me with a conflicted expression. And she wasn’t the only one. The other future heroines were looking at me the same way. I knew what must be going through their minds.
“Of course, there will be conditions,” I said to them as well as Yuuhi. “If we succeed in solving your story, I want you to assist us in putting a stop to the War of All.”
“Can you really do that?”
“If Yuuhi is a Namidare—moreover, if she was really the cause of all of this—then she should be able to use the time translocator to return to the past and change history, right?”