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Somehow, we managed to make it to the town near the divine trial and find an inn before dark.
“M-My legs are killing me...” I groaned from where I lay face-down on the bed.
Yuuhi wanted to set out for the trial first thing tomorrow morning... But could I even pass the trial in this condition?
“You should really work on building your stamina, Rekka.”
“I tell myself that every time, honestly,” I admitted as I started rubbing my calves and doing some light stretches. “But man... Yuuhi walked all that way too, and she didn’t even bat an eye. I guess I really am out of shape...”
“Well, I’m sure Yuuhi’s done her share of training. You, however, are a lost cause,” harped R.
“How many times have we had this conversation?” I asked.
“Dunno,” she said with a shrug.
“Depending on how things go, this might be the last time...”
“We’ll see.”
There was the question of whether or not I would pass the trial in the first place, but even if I did and managed to meet with the goddess of this world... No matter how it went, things would probably come to an end one way or another soon. And that included the War of All. Once that was resolved, R’s mission would be over, and there would be no more reason for her to follow me around. My longest-running story yet would finally be over.
Thinking about it that way is a little sad...
I got lost in my thoughts for a moment. But unable to stand the silence, I opened my mouth.
“What will you do once your mission is over, R?”
“Well... I’ve never considered that before.”
“Will you go patch things up with L first?”
“That will be my highest priority, yes.”
“What about afterwards?”
“Like I said, I haven’t thought about it.”
“There must be something you want to do.”
“You realize you’re talking to a workaholic, don’t you?”
“You’re pretty lazy whenever we have time off. Always watching TV and stuff.”
“TV, huh? Yeah, actually... Spending my days lazing about in front of a television sounds pretty good.”
“So you’re going from workaholic to couch potato?”
“Well, I’ve been working since the day I was created, so I think it’s high time for a vacation.”
“But who’s gonna take care of you? The doctor?”
“Good idea. L and I will live with the doctor and have her look after our every need.”
“That sure sounds nice.”
Hearing R talk about L took me back to when they were first reunited in my room that night. L had come to assassinate me, but R protected me. So much happened after that... The summer festival when R bared her heart and shouted at L was particularly memorable. It was clear she’d always been worried about her older sister. That she’d always cared for her. If the two of them could live together with the doctor, their creator, I’d say that was a pretty happy ending.
“Ah, but I still have all those foreign soap DVDs in your room that I haven’t finished yet.”
“Can’t you just watch them in the future?”
“I don’t know if the appropriate media players still exist in the future.”
“Good point.”
“Rekka, will you still let me come visit you every now and then once everything’s all said and done?”
“Sure, I don’t mind,” I said with a nod. “But try to limit visits to when I’m at home, okay? If you suddenly appear while I’m in class, I might scream out loud.”
“I doubt something like that would do anything to jeopardize your already compromised reputation.”
“Just how much of a weirdo do people think I am?!”
“Oh? Do you really want to know?”
“No. Never mind. I didn’t ask that,” I protested, sticking my fingers in my ears.
And so my trivial conversation with R continued into the night. When I thought about how it might be our last chance to chat like this, I didn’t want it to end. Looking back on it now, everything began when R first appeared out of the blue during my high school entrance ceremony... We’d been talking ever since.
But as we continued to tonight, the door to the room eventually swung open. It was Yuuhi.
“What’s up, Yuu—WHA?!” I stammered, falling right off the bed in a fluster.
“What’s with all the racket?” she asked, unperturbed.
But I didn’t get it! How could she be so calm like this?! She... She was...
“Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?!”
“What are you talking about? I’m wearing underwear.”
“That’s not enough! And what’s with the towel?! Did you just get out of the bath or something?!”
“Yeah, there’s a communal shower here. It’s just down the hall.”
“You walked down the hall like that?!”
“And?” she replied unflinchingly.
She made no attempt whatsoever to cover herself. Everything important was just barely covered by her towel, but her toned figure was freely on display.
“Did you leave your sense of shame in the shower, then?”
“I don’t have time for things like shame.”
There, Yuuhi walked inside and shut the door behind her without any hint of blush on her face. She walked over to the bag of things we’d picked up before settling at the inn and pulled out a shirt.
“Please put something on downstairs too...”
“My jacket and pants are in the wash.”
Despite my protests, Yuuhi sat down on her bed in only a shirt and underwear.
“Why don’t you go shower too, Rekka?”
“I will. Later.”
I honestly wanted to get out of the room as soon as possible right now, but there was something I needed to do first. This was my chance to get some answers.
“For now, let me ask you something, Yuuhi.”
“What?”
“Why did this world’s happiness start to decrease in the first place?”
Really, that was the biggest question.
“Well, several thousand years passed after the goddesses began their little game, and not much happened. The happiness levels of each world remained constant. I mean, there were some fluctuations along the way, certainly. But there was never any sort of mass event that sent one world leaning one way or the other.”
That made sense. The game would’ve been settled long ago otherwise. It was only because the worlds were neck-and-neck in happiness levels that the game continued to this day. But something had to have happened eventually to put Yuuhi’s world at such a disadvantage after all that time. We needed to figure out what it was.
“I mean, I guess the margin could have just widened slowly over thousands and thousands of years and this is the result, but... Can you think of anything, Yuuhi? Anything that might have caused this?”
“Well...” Yuuhi paused there for a moment before asking me, “What do you think the Namidare bloodline really is, Rekka?”
“What? Why bring that up now?”