Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

Volume 12, Chapter 6: Limbo

There was a gap in Hattori Junko’s memories, but what she could remember was quite clear.

She remembered being burned by colorless flames.

That horrifying sensation that was not quite hot or painful returned to her. She had most certainly been inside that hell that had forced an endless mental terror on her rather than anything physical.

But now that sensation was only in her memories and there was nothing wrong with her body.

She was wearing clothes and standing at the waterside.

Waves were approaching and receding at her feet.

She stood at the ocean. She stood on a beach.

She looked around and concluded she was on the shore of a bay. She stood on a small crescent moon-shaped beach, the right side formed a rocky cape, a jungle lay behind her, and a giant cliff was to the left.

The cliff was not a normal cliff.

She looked up and it seemed to continue forever. It broke through the clouds and as far as she could see.

She decided such a cliff was impossible.

Unless she was in some alternate world, that sight simply could not be.

The cliff seemed infinitely tall and wide. At the very least, it continued as far as the eye could see. Also, it was crumbling toward the ocean at a set speed. The surface of the cliff fell toward the ocean as if blocks were being torn off or CG polygon data was vanishing. Nevertheless, the cliff’s location did not seem to change.

—Is that an infinitely appearing cliff?

Fear gradually filled her as she stood before the cliff that continued far past the clouds and into the heavens.

And then she noticed something even more frightening.

The sky above was dark.

There was no sun and the dark clouds pressed heavily down on the heavens.

Even on a cloudy day, the location of the sun was usually noticeable, but there was no sun in this world.

Oddly enough, she could still see her surroundings.

The amount of light was halfway between darkness and a cloudy day.

—Is this a virtual alternate dimension?

Suspecting that, she looked to the ocean, but she did not find any of the unique unnatural aspects of a virtual alternate dimension. If it was one, the waves would have an unnaturally steady tempo, but they did not.

—Am I…dead?

She began to wonder if this was the afterlife.

Fear further crept into her.

—I-if so…why am I here alone?

To distract herself from her fear, she tried thinking logically. If this were the afterlife, she would not be alone. A lot of other people would have died along with her.

—Anyway, I have to go somewhere.

She tried walking and found she could move along the beach. She heard her footsteps on the sand.

She doubted she could approach the cliff, so there was nowhere to go but the jungle.

The jungle’s dense vegetation formed a green wall she could not see past. Even if she had no choice but to go there, being unable to tell what lay ahead made her uneasy.

—Akuto…

In her unease, that name naturally came to mind, but she was not going to meet him here and it only increased her sense of emptiness.

Tears naturally formed and she wiped them away as they began trailing down her cheeks.

—If I can still think, it must mean I am not dead.

In that case, she would arrive somewhere if she continued walking, so she moved toward the jungle.

As she did, she heard a splash behind her and turned around in shock.

Someone was crawling up from the ocean.

She let out a shriek while taking a defensive stance.

The person appeared to have been washed up onto the beach.

—But I did not see anyone before.

She would not have been that careless, so she could only assume this person had appeared only a few moments before.

With more splashing, the person unsteadily got up.

It was a tall boy.

He suddenly raised his head and Junko could not mistake that face even if the hair was plastered down by the water.

—I-it can’t be…

She was so doubtful that it took her a while to actually speak aloud.

He spotted her and managed to speak first.

“Junko!”

The voice settled it for her.

“Akuto!”

Without even thinking, she ran over to Akuto.

“Thank goodness. I really could find you here!” he said.

She leaped toward him and embraced him.

“Akuto!”

Her momentum sent them both toppling into the ocean with a tremendous splash.

“Wahhhhh! Akuto!”

She usually restrained herself, but she let loose and cried here.

But he seemed to find that suspicious because he raised her face from his chest and looked doubtful.

“Are you…really Junko?”

“How rude! And what about you!?”

When she asked that, she must have actually grown afraid because she quickly moved away from him and took a defensive stance on the beach.

“Are you really…Akuto!?”

Seeing that, Akuto laughed.

“Ah ha ha ha ha. You really are Junko.”

Seeing him holding his sides, her look of suspicion gradually changed to embarrassment.

“You idiot! Of course I would be worried about that when I see someone who should not be here!”

“Well, yes. I understand being worried, but you were the one that defenselessly jumped into my arms.”

He laughed again.

“Dammit! This humiliation… I-it really is you!”

She pointed at him and he stopped laughing.

“Yes, we probably are both the real ones. After all, this is the world of the afterlife.”

“Ehh?”

She was utterly shocked.

While Akuto and Junko were meeting, Hiroshi stood alone in a forest.

—This doesn’t feel real at all. It doesn’t feel any more dangerous than being thrown into a different world.

Even if this was the world of the afterlife, he was worried that there was a risk of dying here.

“And why am I wearing the suit?” he complained when he noticed it.

He had not seen a mirror, but the visor lay before his eyes and he could see the suit on his hands.

However, he seriously doubted the suit was functioning. He had been unable to fly or attack and the monitor light within the visor was not lit. Even so, he could see through it and his movements were not obstructed. If the battery had simply died, the suit would have been much heavier.

He doubted he had simply been brought here as he was when he died. It seemed more likely one took on their image of themselves in the afterlife.

—In that case, the people I meet here might also appear as they envision themselves.

However, he saw no one in the forest and he could not think of any dead person that he wanted to meet.

As he thought, he found a path out of the forest. It appeared to be a narrow animal trail, but the trees thinned out as it went along and it led to a clearing.

—Is there anyone who was already dead that I want to meet?

He worried over that question and then a certain man’s face came to mind.

—Come to think of it…

By the time he thought that, the man was already next to him.

“I didn’t expect to meet you here,” said a calm voice.

A man sat on a stump further along the path.

“Yamato…Bouichirou,” muttered Hiroshi.

This was the man who had given him the Brave suit, he was the enemy who had once put together CIMO 8, and he was a time traveler. Thinking about it now, he was also the person who had most thoroughly understood the structure of the world.

“So it is you,” said Bouichirou.

He wore the suit he had once worn and he gave a calm smile that did not seem appropriate to the situation. Hiroshi was not entirely sure why it did not seem appropriate, but that smile may have been what he did not like about Bouichirou.

“Come to think of it, Yuuko-san should have died too,” he said.

He had completely forgotten. Otherwise, he would not have thought of Bouichirou as the first person to meet. He wondered why he had not thought of her first.

“Sorry about that. I hope you understand that a boy is not my first choice of who to meet here either.”

The intelligence to understand what Hiroshi had meant and his pretentious manner of speech both irritated Hiroshi, but that was just the kind of man he was.

Hiroshi had no choice but to feel destiny at work in this meeting.

“I understand that this is the afterlife,” said Hiroshi because Bouichirou seemed to understand everything.

“I suppose I arrived here before you, but it feels to me like I only just arrived.”

“You only just arrived?”

Hiroshi was suspicious because a lot of time had passed since Bouichirou’s death.

“Yes, just now. The passage of time may be different here.”

“That may not be too surprising, but how did you know this was the afterlife?”

“CIMO 8 had a deep understanding of the world’s structure. With The One as a subordinate, I understood most of it.”

Now that he mentioned it, he would have been the one who had scouted The One.

“Then you understood about the Formless Power and everything else?”

“Yes, I understood it all from the beginning, but none of you would listen to me.”

Bouichirou gave a cynical smile.

“It wasn’t something we could believe back then.”

Hiroshi felt guilty and tried to dodge the issue.

“I am not blaming you. I was working behind the scenes because I knew it was something the people would never understand.”

“But The One was trying to destroy mankind.”

“I was well aware. That was why I attempted to complete the ceremony before he could act.”

Bouichirou had attempted to exchange vows with the Law of Identity. At the time, they had not understood why his ultimate objective was to send mankind to another universe as thought entities, but it made a sort sense now.

“But that just seems unnatural.”

“What is truly unnatural is that we can move about here in the afterlife. If mankind has been completely destroyed, all of the Formless Power will eventually be absorbed.”

“So we can’t rest easy just because this world here exists?”

“When it comes down to it, mankind has only two paths available. One is to be destroyed, become the Formless Power, and be used in another universe. The other is to become thought entities and shift to another universe of our own volition.”

“But there might be another way,” replied Hiroshi without thinking.

However, Bouichirou decisively shook his head.

“How many times do you think I travelled through time?”

Those words held great weight.

But for some reason, words of opposition left Hiroshi’s mouth.

“But aniki would be able to…”

“Be able to what?”

The look in Bouichirou’s eyes grew sharp.

Despite his confusion, Hiroshi was not going to let go of his theory.

“He…might be able to do a better job of it.”

Bouichirou once again shook his head.

“You only think that because the Law of Identity chose him.”

“Chose him?”

“The Law if Identity is the world’s storyteller. That means we cannot escape what has been said of us no matter what. That is why I attempted to exchange vows with the Law of Identity and have the story of the world changed. In other words, I chose to have us shifted to another universe.”

“You mean there is no third option?” asked Hiroshi in confusion.

“There is not,” said Bouichirou with a nod. “Think about what has happened in this world of the afterlife. Why were we able to meet? Was that not because it was convenient for the Law of Identity? Doesn’t it seem like a sort of plot convenience? This ‘aniki’ of yours, Sai Akuto, hated the stories that the people blindly believed in, but hasn’t he carried out the role of the protagonist in the story revolving around the Law of Identity? Can he truly escape that? Even in the afterlife, we are merely being forced into some sort of role or another. How are we to escape from the story that has been told of us? How are we to escape this eerie story structure?”

Hiroshi had no way of arguing against that.

“But if you can travel through time…”

Even so, he grew oddly stubborn.

“It would seem time in this world is linear, just like the human mind…no, just like a story. This is not a world of theoretical physics where the theory of relativity applies. That is why time travel is possible, but that linearity is another part of being a story. In other words, no matter how much you attempt to correct it, everything will be drawn back to the set story.”

Bouichirou thoroughly explained the issue.

“But…”

Hiroshi trailed off as he suddenly realized why he was so intent on there being a third option.

He was not content with his role of hero.

“Can’t you at least tell me how to travel through time? If you do…I can…”

He could not speak further, but he wanted to use this meeting with Bouichirou the best he could.

“You can what?” asked the man coldly.

“I can be the one to try to escape the story this time.”

His voice was low yet determined.