“I only use my power of words on myself as a self-imposed restriction. I don’t think I’ll be much help to you now, or in the future.”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Even if you’re a heroine, it’s not like you have to listen to everything I say.”
“Hahaha! It’s exactly that, Rekka—your refusal to rely on my power even now—that makes you so incredible and unique.” Touko had a good laugh to herself before turning to future Rekka. “That said, if any attacks come my way, I’ll simply have no choice but to protect myself.”
“Huh? No, that’s dangerous. You should just stay back.”
“What?” Touko’s shoulders slumped. “Listen here, you! When someone makes concessions for you... Argh, just forget it! I’m willing to defend you right now, so just get that through your thick skull and accept it!”
Unsure why Touko was suddenly so mad, I couldn’t help cocking my head to the side.
“I see you’re as insensitive as ever, even at a time like this, Rekka,” R said in her usual exasperated tone.
“Gosh, I’m so mad,” Touko continued. “I’m so mad at you, Rekka... That the Rekka over there should kneel!”
“!”
Surprised, future Rekka instantly dropped to his knees. Touko’s power of words surpassed any other supernatural, scientific, and physical powers. Not even future Rekka could lift a finger if she forbade it.
“The power of words, huh? None of my heroines could use that. There must have been some deviations in our fates after all,” future Rekka said, struggling to lift his head as he remained kneeling. “But did you know such alteration abilities are limited to the range of one’s perceivable world?”
“Huh? What are you—”
“Enclosed World: White Cube!”
The moment future Rekka uttered those words, a white box appeared out of nowhere and surrounded Touko. She had to have been inside it, but it didn’t so much as rattle.
“Phew...”
Letting out a heavy sigh, future Rekka stood up.
The effect wore off?!
“What... What did you do?”
“I shut her inside a pocket dimension, essentially. As long as she’s there, her power of words can’t affect us here.”
“Wha?!”
“Like I said, alteration powers are limited by one’s perception. She’s effectively isolated from this world right now and therefore has no power over it,” future Rekka said flatly as though he were stating simple facts.
Come to think of it, though... When I solved Touko’s story, I took her to an isolated game world to bypass her power too.
And, yeah... It wasn’t like Touko could affect the world outside while we were in the game.
That meant future Rekka was right. As long as Touko was trapped somewhere else, her power wouldn’t work here.
“Tch...”
While she herself wasn’t as strong as Lea or Iris, Touko’s power was unmistakably one of the strongest. But future Rekka had come up with a way to get past it, just like that...
“Too bad. But I figured it wouldn’t be that easy.”
“Hibiki?”
Before I knew it, all the girls who could still fight had rallied around me.
“No one’s given up yet, and no one’s running away. Hang in there, Rekka.”
“Yeah... I know!”
Encouraged by Hibiki, I clenched my spirit armor-clad fist. This time, we’d all take him on together.
“We’re finally reaching the finale!”
I could see the tension in future Rekka’s face as well. He too knew we’d entered the final stage of this fight, though it was a little too pathetic to call it that.
Even without Iris, Corona, Lea, Touko, Satsuki, Tsumiki, and Suzuran, we had well over twenty on our side. But no one had managed to land a single hit on future Rekka. Our strongest fighter left was Rosalind, but he didn’t have any trouble dodging her attacks. He’d been doing it all along as he oh-so carefully knocked out heroine after heroine. He’d been as gentle as he could so as not to hurt them.
After a while, Satsuki and Suzuran returned to the fray, but nothing changed... Future Rekka simply kept dodging and attacking. Just how OP was he to be able to pull this off?
But it’s no use... Even if I tell him what I’m thinking right now, he won’t understand. He’s forgotten... He’s forgotten the most important thing.
That’s why I had to deck him. I had to beat it into him.
“Uaaargh!”
I borrowed more of Lyun’s power to charge forward.
“Force Cancel: Purge.”
“?!”
But suddenly, Lyun and I were separated. Did he dispel our spirit armor?! I got up in a hurry, but Lyun was already unconscious.
“It’s not the same as Yuuhi’s ability, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve too.”
“If you could do that all along, why didn’t you earlier?”
“If I had, the fall might’ve killed you.”
“That’s why you just cursed Lyun... so Rachelle or someone else would have the time to come save me.”
What a bastard.
“It’s over now.”
Future Rekka swung his fist, but just before it came down on me...
“Oh no!”
“Rekka!”
“Run for it!”
Tetra, Nyanyan, and Rain grabbed future Rekka’s arms and legs.
“...!”
I could see the hesitation in his eyes. The three girls were as fragile as Zeta and Tokiwa. If he didn’t want to hurt anyone, he’d have to be extra careful with them.
This is my chance!
I ran like the girls asked me to, but forward instead of backward. With him held in place, this might be my one and only chance!
“Haaaaah!”
Future Rekka didn’t bother to shake off the other girls. He was prioritizing keeping them unharmed. So in order to intercept me, rather than using his own limbs, a semi-transparent fist came flying out of his chest.
I forgot about that!
If he could use that power to defend himself, of course he could use it to attack too! My eyes followed the fist in slow motion, as though I was moments from death. It was the perfectly timed counter. There was no way I could avoid it. I didn’t know how much power was behind his ethereal fist, but if it made clean contact with my chin, I would most certainly be knocked out. Once that happened, it would all be over.
“!”
I grit my teeth, stubbornly bracing myself. If I psyched myself up enough, maybe I could withstand the punch. I’d seen someone do something like that in a manga before... And I was gonna make it happen here and now! With that in mind, I focused intently on the approaching fist... Which was suddenly blocked by a semi-transparent red wall. Someone then grabbed me by the collar and my vision went black. It came back after a few seconds, and...
“You’re too reckless! You dumbass!”
“Oh, L.”
It was L who’d saved me. She’d probably used her barrier and the particle relocator.
“Uh...”
I looked around to see where we were, and we hadn’t moved that far. We were only about fifty meters from future Rekka. The teleportation had only taken a few seconds, but in that time, he’d managed to put Tetra and the other girls to sleep. That meant we were the only ones left.
“Argh, jeez... I’d read the materials, but your future self is ridiculously strong,” she complained.
“Damn right he is. He’s the strongest main character in the universe, you know?” I returned L’s deliberate banter.
She then grabbed me by the shirt. “Hey... you don’t intend on leaving everything to him, do you?”
“Nah.”
“Good. We much prefer you as the main character, anyway.”
“Huh?”
L placed an awful lot of emphasis on the “we” part of that sentence, but she didn’t explain. She simply stood up.
“Got it?! We’re going to send him flying!”
And with that, she took off running.
“Wait!”
What is she doing? And who is “we”?
No matter how clumsy she was, this was... No, was she really just being clumsy and careless right now? Here, of all places? Or was she trying to tell me something else? Something she couldn’t say directly?
Was she wary of being overheard...?
With the diverse range of superhuman abilities future Rekka had, it wasn’t impossible that he had super-hearing too. L might have even done a scan of him and figured out exactly which parts of his body had been altered or enhanced. So what was the point, then? What was the actual message she was trying to convey to me?
I followed after her, closing in on future Rekka.
“...”
He was just standing there, quietly waiting for us to arrive—which would happen in just a few seconds. And during those long, long few seconds, I replayed L’s words in my head over and over again.
We’re going to send him flying? We...? Oh, duh!
That was it! Once I realized who she meant, I almost turned to look... But I stopped myself. I couldn’t ruin everything by revealing the secret too soon. If this went well, we might really just catch my future self by surprise. This would be our only chance, though. If I messed it up, it would all be over. It was a miracle I’d managed to figure out what L meant in the first place... But here we were. And I was going to believe—believe that it would all work out!
“Hah!”
L reached future Rekka first and unleashed a quick roundhouse kick at his shins. He dodged it without even looking, then placed a finger against L’s forehead while she was still crouched low.
“Ah...!”
And just like that, L fell unconscious. It was the same technique that had knocked Yuuhi and the others out harmlessly.
“...”
“...”
Future Rekka and I locked eyes. There was a scant seventy centimeters between us. We were both in punching range of each other. This one blow would decide everything.
“Aaaah!”
I left everything to my momentum as I ran and let my fist fly.
“...”
Future Rekka saw through it all. The trajectory of my fist. The position of my chin. How to knock me out in a single move. He saw through it all and prepared his counterattack. But I’d thrown everything I had into my punch, meaning I had nothing to defend myself with. L was out now too, so not even her barrier could save me. All the other heroines around me were defeated. There was no one in sight left to help me... But just then, someone gave me a little push from behind and my whole body pitched forward, making my fist accelerate faster than future Rekka had expected.