kscans

Chapter 213 - Cheat Punk VS Villainess

"A Tokyo with no people... what a strange sight."

In the early hours of December 23rd, Satou, accompanied by the usual three, Yanagi, and Onisaki, was visiting the fake Earth that had just been completed. They were currently standing in the very heart of Shibuya, Tokyo. The city streets had been replicated down to the last detail, but there wasn't a soul in sight. To be sure, there were others who had already entered this Earth to begin preparations, but most of them were holed up in their strongholds. These six were about the only ones casually strolling through the city.

"Hey, was it really necessary to recreate it this realistically?" Takahashi asked.

It would all just be flattened into empty land once the fighting started anyway. Wouldn't it have been fine to just build their strongholds in a vast, empty wasteland?

It was Yanagi who answered her question before Satou could.

"Perfectly identical. Is that not the most crucial part?"

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"This Earth is meant to serve as a substitute, a lid for the original Earth, is it not?"

Yanagi suggested that it had been replicated so perfectly to minimize any problems when it was eventually returned. His thinking was correct, and Satou nodded deeply.

"That's right. If it were just a matter of physics, creating a rough approximation of the planet would be fine."

But spiritual matters were another story. It might be easier to imagine it like a jigsaw puzzle. If you took one piece out of the completed picture and tried to fit a fake one in its place, the puzzle would never be complete if it was too big or too small. If it left gaps or was forced in, distorting the shapes of other pieces, it would no longer be a perfect image. That might be fine for a puzzle, but it was not for the Earth.

"When we put the Earth back in its original position later, it’d be a disaster if problems occurred because its shape had changed. I’m already messing with the laws of this planet for the final battle. If I don't balance the books in other areas, things will get seriously ugly."

Though he said it was perfectly identical, there was a critical difference in this fake Earth. It was a measure absolutely necessary for the decisive battle to take place. The prime example was the principle of life and death. Any life registered on this fake Earth could not die. Even if they died, they were designed to come back to life. Then again, such an unreasonable feat was only possible because Satou was present. If he were to die, the altered laws would also shatter into pieces.

"Well, that aside. Chika-san, if you would."

"Of course."

Chika closed her eyes, focused her mind, and activated the power of the Star Priestess.

"...This is..."

"...Is it not working well?"

"No, quite the opposite. I connected to it surprisingly smoothly, and I was able to draw out my power."

"I see. So it looks like a success."

Satou let out a great sigh of relief. His standard for scoring was that being the same as the real Earth was a passing grade, so anything more was an excellent result.

"What does this mean?"

"According to what Satou-kun said, shouldn’t it have to be exactly the same?"

"Oh, no, this part is different."

It wasn't that he had specifically tuned it for Chika. Rather, Chika's power had been amplified as a side effect of something else he had done.

"Magic, sorcery, onmyodo, senjutsu, taoist arts, curses... and a bunch of other stuff. As you all know, this planet is loaded with buffs to be used during the final battle."

It was the result of a great many people, human and otherwise, getting involved.

"But I was thinking, maybe I could set something else up through a different channel."

"A different channel?"

"Yeah. I tried asking the ‘real Earth’ to give us a buff."

<<...Come again?>>

"It’s a story I heard from Kawasaki a while back."

Satou recounted the conversation he'd had in the bath about the universe.

"I’ve accessed the planet’s memories... its records, but I never considered the will of the Earth itself."

There were no known instances of anyone being able to converse with the Earth itself. This was true not just for humans, but for the gods as well. However, based on what Kawasaki had said, it seemed to have something akin to a will.

"So I figured I might as well give it a shot. It wasn't like I could actually have a conversation, it was more like sending a one-way message."

If you don't want this desire to end, you'd better cooperate. With that, Satou had opened a line between the fake Earth and the real one.

"And the result is what you see. The support from Earth came through loud and clear."

"...So that’s why my power..."

"Yep. It's a buff from the Earth. It's only natural that the power of Chika-san, the Star Priestess, would be amplified."

Satou let out a small breath, looked out over the city, and spoke.

"I've done everything I can. Listen up, all of you. Make sure you leave behind plenty of lingering regrets today and tomorrow."

"...Should you not normally say that one should leave no regrets behind?"

"Idiot. That's exactly why you lost to me."

He laughed with a frivolous kerakera.

"When I went to crush you and Chika-san, I was already thinking about a mountain of plans for the next day."

"...Come to think of it, you did say something about having to go to the game shop to pick up a game you'd preordered after the date changed."

Chika recalled the old days and gave a wry smile.

"Well, if this were a matter of life and death between individuals, regrets might hold you back. But in a fight where the fate of the world and its very existence is on the line, it's better to pile those regrets on as high as they'll go."

When the scale is too massive, humans become defiant. And in that moment, what pushes a defiant fool's back, Satou said, is a heart-burning desire.

"I've got a mountain of regrets. For starters, there’s the kids’ graduation party I lied about and postponed."

Chika was the one who reacted with a twitch to those words, but fortunately or unfortunately, Satou didn't notice. In this place, only Chika knew that the children would be participating in the battle. They had approached her, judging her to be an easy mark.

"How about the rest of you? Do you have them? Reasons to long for tomorrow, your lingering attachments."

When Satou asked with a somewhat fearless expression,

"Of course, I do. It has not even been a year since I made my comeback. I cannot let it end here."

"That’s right. We still have a mountain of things to do. We can't let it end in a place like this."

Yanagi and Onisaki laughed.

"Takahashi, Suzuki, what about you two?"

"...You bet I do. I can't die until I see the kids I'm looking after now graduate from kindergarten."

"Spoken like a true nursery school teacher. But that makes my regret of wanting to eat more delicious food seem so small."

Takahashi and Suzuki smiled fearlessly.

"Chika-san?"

"Let's see. Until Rika gets married... no, wait. I want to hold my grandchild. My grandchild. But if I'm being greedy, my great-grandchild too..."

"Hahaha! That's it, that's it! Let's get greedier and greedier!"

Let’s pile up a mountain of regrets. We'll use that pile to smash through anyone who stands in the way of tomorrow, Satou declared.

"What about you, Satou-chan? Do you have any besides the graduation party?"

At Onisaki's question, Satou nodded emphatically.

"You know it. I’m curious about what happens next in the manga I'm reading. It ended at a really good part. And the Christmas Eve limited-edition deli food at the local supermarket... the chicken, you know? I want to eat that too. It's so good. Also, a suit! I've been wanting to get a new one. And new shoes to go with it."

Satou's regrets and desires knew no bounds. The four of them couldn't help but laugh as he listed them off so smoothly and effortlessly.

"And... well, this is kind of embarrassing, but you know? Hehe, there's this, uh... you know? One of my regular adult establishments? I was checking their homepage and they have a new girl. She’s cute. I can tell that her picture is definitely not false advertising. I was thinking I just have to go... and yeah, I mean that in the dirty way too, you know?"

The gazes of the three women turned ice cold. But Satou, cheerfully rattling off his desires, was completely oblivious.

"...So this is what we lost to."

"...I feel like I could cry a little."

And so, on to the final battle.