Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!
Are there some good readers here? Cause I have a new chapter of NovelsNomi for you! :P
Okay, Christmas jokes aside, it's not exactly all peachy. In particular, I said this would be the final chapter, but unfortunately it isn't.
I originally planned to make one big chapter that'll contain this and the story conclusions, but this part (without author's notes) is 7000 words... so I have opted to make 2 chapters instead.
Moreover, it's not a super-related chapter (hence the title). I mean, yeah, it greatly concerns the plot of this story, but I suspect some of you will consider it very much a filler we could go without...
...on the other hand... I promised you some explanation, so if you're interested on why certain things happened the way they happened, this chapter might be for you.
With that being said, this chapter is not easy to read, so you probably should read it a bit slower and at your leisure. Also it references a few things from previous chapters and the manga. I tried to make this explanation as easy as I could, but the effect is still questionable, as some pieces of the big picture will appear detached until near the end of the chapter.
I apologize for all that.
Anyway, we can talk more after the chapter, so here we go.
(* * *)
Previously on the World Light Novels Only Know:
The silent merge of timelines continued overnight and others besides Keima and Eri start to remember Tōru, Asami, Shino and Aoba. Keima advises Ayumi and Chihiro to stop associating themselves with him so openly during class, but both girls argue otherwise.
Those interactions, as well as Yui-Aoba confrontation he witnessed by chance, make Keima realize the current status quo and relative calmness will likely end soon and he'll have to face daily interactions with his new-found female friends who he doesn't want to push away.
On another day Nikaidō leads Keima to another school building where Haqua and Vulcan are waiting. The two girls finally reveal to Keima the truth about Vulcan's orb. All 3 parties get a bit emotional and the discussion gets out of hand, before Vulcan finally apologizes to Keima. Both girls make Keima an offer to use the next orb in order to confirm whether the timeline threat is over and give Keima some time to think the off over.
I know we all want to know what Keima's answer will be, but first we have one more stop. Here it goes.
Enjoy!
(* * *)
There was a soft click as the door became unlocked and then slowly swung open.
A lone figure of a woman entered the apartment, putting the keys on the sideboard, before taking of her coat and boots. The figure then walked through the apartment, taking of her clothes slowly and carelessly leaving them on the bedroom floor as she proceed into the shower.
Fifteen minutes later when the water was turned off and Yuri Nikaidō emerged from the bathroom she felt much better, though still tired. Being a teacher was a very specific job. And it wasn't just about 'being friends with students'. Yeah, maybe it was if you were a primary school teacher and after that for some, but not for her. You couldn't just solve everything by force, like her old instincts were telling her, but being lenient was wrong too. Nikaidō was glad kids nowadays could enjoy their lives without the looming threat of war, their biggest worries being an English test or confessing to their crush.
Still, old habits die hard as they say and Nikaidō was reluctant to let students run carefree, to put it mildly. Indeed some even called her 'a teacher from Hell' (Nikaidō had to stop herself from snickering at that). She didn't mind though, she'd rather have students fear her a bit, keep them at least partially vigilant. After all, even in the human world life could be brutal and demanding. As much as Nikaidō and Kodama didn't match much, they agreed about that particular point.
Having said that, being a teacher was tiring.
Nikaidō wasn't really a workaholic, she'd gladly laze around, but that'd require letting students do what they wanted and she refused to do that. Winter break was approaching, but it wasn't here quite yet, meaning a lot of paperwork and other organization work instead. That, coupled with the recent festival, midterms and other, more paranormal, events, meant Nikaidō just couldn't wait for the break to start.
She put her sweatsuit and slippers on and walked to the fridge. She opened it and furrowed her brows, not impressed by what she found inside. She didn't feel like going out to eat in this weather. Instead, she walked to her bedroom and picked up her cellphone, intending to order some food, but before she could make a call, she noticed something weird.
When she went to shower earlier, she just tossed her clothes on the floor... but now she saw that all of her discarded clothes were on her bed, folded neatly.
"What the-"
And then she heard someone clearing their throat behind her.
By some fluke of fate Nikaidō didn't yelp or drop her phone, but she still leaped into the air, her slippers losing contact with the floor for an instant. The teacher whipped around and saw a figure standing there.
"Haqua!" Nikaidō yelled, irritation mixed with relief and embarrassment. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"
"T-that wasn't my intention!" the purple-haired devil assured, clearly embarrassed as well. "Also, I'm sorry for intruding, Chief!"
"It's kinda too late for apologies and I'm not your chief anymore," Nikaidō said as she sighed, "I've told you that... repeatedly..."
"You have," Haqua agreed, "in fact you said it enough times that you should stop trying to stop me from calling you that."
"But why do you keep insisting on calling me that?" the teacher asked simply.
"Because you selflessly acted to save the New Hell," Haqua said grimly, "you sacrificed your youth, faith, body, even your loyalty... and were branded a traitor for your trouble."
"It's fine, Haqua," Nikaidō tried to reason with her former subordinate, as she wasn't that bothered with it.
"No, it's not fine!" Haqua snapped, before she calmed down, hands fiddling with her scythe. "Still... even if everyone else ignores your achievements and forgets about you... I'll always remember. You'll always be the chief I'll continue to look up to, Chief!"
Nikaidō sighed.
"It can't be helped I guess," she said, "you and Katsuragi are stubborn as a mule, after all."
"Glad we understand each other, Chief!" Haqua smiled and Nikaidō rolled her eyes.
"Anyway, you didn't come here today just to tell me that, did you?"
"No," Haqua replied. Her disposition suddenly changed, becoming more serious. "I have something to report, Chief."
"We've seen each other earlier today, when I escorted Katsuragi to you and Vulcan," Nikaidō reminded her, "why didn't you tell me then?"
The teacher felt a bit nervous and for a good reason. The last time Haqua sought her out to "report something" discreetly like that it ended up with Dokurō's position as a double agent threatened and Haqua herself being thrown in prison.
"I didn't think that was a good time," the purple-haired devil explained, "we were both busy with other stuff... and this thing kinda needs to be talked over carefully without distractions."
"Did something happen?" Nikaidō asked bluntly, though she doubted it was like this. "Or do you think something is about to happen?"
"No," Haqua shook her head, "it's just something I have been thinking about."
That sounded very vague, but Nikaidō nodded.
"Alright," she said, "gimme a minute."
(* * *)
"We should have at least half an hour before the food arrives," Nikaidō said as the two of them were seated by her kitchen table.
"It should be enough time," Haqua assured her.
"So what did you want to talk about?" the dark-haired woman asked.
"As you can imagine, it concerns what has happened recently," Haqua said.
"You mean the timeline merge," Nikaidō remarked, feeling like Captain Obvious. Well, Chief Obvious. Teach Obvious. Whatever.
"You see, I've been thinking about your twin timelines theory," the purple-haired devil said, "about why things happened like that. This theory explains a lot... but I just couldn't stop thinking about it..."
Nikaidō nodded.
Actually, anyone who knew Haqua remotely well wouldn't be surprised by this. While practice might not be her strong suit, Haqua could reason and theorize really well. Granted, she seemed to be less smart than Keima, but part of it was because of her superiority complex and her feelings towards him. Yes, even without those Keima's reasoning ability was better, but that that didn't mean Haqua wasn't a genius herself.
She was.
And when she was faced with something bugging her, she was very prone to keep thinking about it day and night until she figured it out.
"Go on," Nikaidō said.
"So... your basically theory is that your orb acted on the 'choose the best future' condition," Haqua started, "and that meant 'future with the best chance of restoring the goddesses', right?" Nikaidō nodded. "And the fact that the orb latched onto two futures is just a side-effect of you not making the conditions precise enough?"
"Basically, yeah," Nikaidō admitted, "what about it?"
"Well, your reasoning there sounded logical," Haqua said.
"...but?" the teacher prodded after a moment.
"But I think you might be slightly mistaken."
Nikaidō was quiet for a moment.
"Do explain," she said finally.
Honestly, she wasn't mad about being wrong (okay, maybe she was, just a little bit), but she wondered what she could've missed. She curiously, and a bit anxiously, watched Haqua transform her hagoromo into some sort of parchment after which the devil bit her lip.
"The first problem is that this thing is... difficult," Haqua said, "I mean it took me a while to figure it out and part of the reason why it's so hard is because you need to look at this from a few points of view, before you can put all the pieces together and see the big picture," she paused, "so parts of my explanation may seem detached or unimportant at first... I'll try to explain it in the most comprehensible order I could come up with... but that doesn't mean it'll actually feel comprehensible to you... so I apologize for that."
Nikaidō nodded. She had faced similar issues when trying to explain her twin timelines theory, so she could understand Haqua's concerns fairly well.
(* * *)
"Let's start with an example," the purple-haired devil suggested as she made a gesture with her hand. The clean hagoromo parchment came to life and lines and colors started to appear as if painted by an invisible paintbrush.
The parchment showed a picture of two cartoonish girls. Both had different clothes and hairstyles, but wore identical happy expressions on their faces.
"Are those?" Nikaidō started.
"Elsie and Eri, yes," Haqua confirmed.
Nikaidō snorted. "You make it sounds like they're two different people."
"Cause that's kinda my point here," Haqua said. When Nikaidō looked at her weirdly she continued. "Let's start with Elsie. At the time when she met Katsuragi she had me and Rimyuel, who she considered precious to her, and she was still a devil. And that how it was supposed to stay. Her friends at school, Katsuragi's mother. Katsuragi himself... they were just temporary. She was supposed to leave all of them behind when the contract between her and Katsuragi was completed, right?"
Nikaidō nodded.
"Now think about Eri," Haqua continued, "she had to leave me and Rimyuel behind... but she got to be part of the Katsuragi family... and not only recently. It's like she was with Katsuragi from when they were born!"
"Yes," Nikaidō confirmed, "but one thing doesn't agree: in the end Eri got to both keep you and Rimyuel as well as stay with Katsuragi and her new human friends!"
"My point exactly!" Haqua said. "Basically only one of those outcomes should happen! You can't both have the cake and eat it. But Eri did!"
"Because she warped reality," Nikaidō said, confused, "we've known this for weeks."
She couldn't understand why Haqua was bringing that up, but the purple-haired devil didn't reply, instead she made her hagoromo parchment change. Now it turned into a digital globe, showing the map of the world.
"Just remember it for now, let's move on... to how the Weiss and Runaway Spirit Squad work in general" Haqua said.
Nikaidō blinked. That was a rather... sharp change of topic.
"Weiss were a minor problem until 10 years ago, when the great escape happened," Haqua started. As she spoke, a spot appeared over Japan on her magical globe and a myriad of dots erupted from it, "ever since then the Weiss have spread all around the world, but in most of the countries their density was small. In Europe, for example, it was more difficult to trace them than to actually catch them. That's why the majority of personnel in the branches like the European were in sweep teams, not capture teams."
"Yes, I know!" Nikaidō said impatiently. "It was me who helped to implement this system!"
"And this is why most of our force was needed in the East Asia and Australia," Haqua continued, "that's why even the ones born in the west, like me, were assigned to here... Still, even inside East Asia, most of the Weiss were in Japan with the highest density near Maijima City."
"Yes, even after 10 years we had Weiss crawl out of the woodwork in the areas we already checked and re-checked," Nikaidō agreed, "they can lay dormant and undetected, waiting for the opportunity," she said and then crossed her arms over her chest, "I still don't see where you're going with this."
Haqua sighed.
"Just bear with me," she said and made another gesture.
The parchment changed again, first zooming on Maijima and then becoming a 2D map. Nikaidō looked at it. In the center there was a circle showing the Maijima city. Then another outer ring showed some parts outside of the city, including Narusawa, some countryside and even something that looked like USA. Nikaidō furrowed her brow.
"What's all this?" she asked.
In response, points of light started to appear on the parchment. Most of them in Maijima, but also some in Narusawa, the countryside and in the USA.
And each point was accompanied by a name.
"Are those?" Nikaidō started.
"Katsuragi's conquest targets," Haqua confirmed.
Nikaidō didn't say anything, but her gaze told Haqua to continue.
"Your goal was to save New Hell, and the human world by extension," the valedictorian started, "and this was to be done by reviving the goddesses and restoring the power."
Nikaidō stayed quiet. This much was obvious.
"For this plan to work, certain things had to happen," Haqua continued, "of course we're talking about the 'a gamer nerd restores goddesses by kissing their hosts' scenario, so Katsuragi obviously had to meet Takahara, Nakagawa, Shiomiya, Kujō and Goidō."
The corresponding points on the map turned from white to green.
"Of course, Katsuragi would also need to come with contact with Tenri," Haqua said and another point turned green, "in order to set the correct future he'd also have to meet you, Shiratori's granddaughter and that Yūzaki woman," another 3 points changed colors.
"There are some more other minor considerations as well..." Haqua continued, "namely it was the conquest of Nanaka Haibara that gave Diana the push to tell Katsuragi about the other goddesses..." Nanaka's dot turned green. "Next, there were the conquests of Goidō and the older Kasuga. Those were necessary for Katsuragi to stop just focusing on the Weiss and put his energy into the goddesses search... and the latter required the conquest of the other Kasuga sister as well..." two more points changed colors, "I think the encounter with Rimyuel was necessary for Katsuragi's growth too... and even if it wasn't, after Kasuga's and Goidō's conquests went south, you and Rimyuel had to do something and thanks to your false Weiss signal, Rimyuel's and Katsuragi's paths were certain to intersect..."
The purple-haired devil hesitated before continuing.
"For a while I wondered about that Aoyama girl... Katsuragi meeting her was a bit accidental after all... but then I remembered she was also an early conquest, back when Katsuragi was only getting his bearings on his situation... back when he made the decision to keep sticking to his gaming tenets... I also think that Katsuragi meeting Aoyama again during Goidō's conquest might've also been important to help him understand the girls better and strengthen his resolve... So far, this brings us to this."
Haqua indicated to the map, where Rimyuel's and Mio's points were green by now, like many other points.
But there were still several points that remained white.
"Those that are left are Amami, Yoshino, Nagase, Akuragawa, Fuse, Ikoma, Hinaga and Uemoto," Haqua recited easily, making it obvious she had thought over it repeatedly, maybe even rehearsed it, "thus 8 girls in total."
"Go on," Nikaidō said after a moment.
The teacher still wasn't seeing the overall point, but she could tell Haqua was becoming more excited by the second.
"So... we all know how Katsuragi is... or rather how he was before and how he changed," Haqua spoke, "I mean when this thing started he didn't care for the girls as long as his own life and gaming time weren't in danger... but now he's different. He cares. He displays it weirdly and likes to be left alone most of the time, but he does care... Even for girls that have little connection with him, like that old lady Hinaga, or that are of very questionable morality, like that Yūzaki woman."
"That follows, more or less," Nikaidō said.
Haqua made a gesture. This time multiple additional points, red this time, flashed over the map.
"What are those?" the teacher asked.
"Other Weiss victims," the devil replied, "of course there are much more of them in the world, but I'm focusing on the area around Maijima," she then looked up at Nikaidō, "you do realize all of them are girls, right? They are someone Katsuragi might've wanted to save."
"Don't be ridiculous," the dark-haired woman snorted, "there's been likely thousands of Weiss in our prefecture alone. Katsuragi can preach all he wants, but it still took him around a week to conquer a girl, sometimes much longer than that... He wouldn't be able to save those girls," Nikaidō gestured to the red dots on the map, "no matter how amazing and resourceful he seems or claims to be," she crossed one of her legs over the other, "besides think about it. If he wanted to conquer a girl that was a hundred kilometers away from Maijima, then the travel time alone would be a problem. And what if Katsuragi failed to meet one of the goddesses when focusing on some girl out of town like that?"
"My point exactly," Haqua said with satisfaction.
"W-what do you mean?" Nikaidō asked surprised.
Haqua made another gesture and a part of the map was enclosed in some border, including mostly the Maijima Private High School grounds and the neighborhood of Keima's house.
"This," Haqua pointed to the map, "is something I call the 'neighborhood' or 'convenience zone'... inside this zone Katsuragi can conquer any girl without endangering his 'goddesses' mission. Provided he won't try to tackle too many, of course. Anyway, most of the girls were centered around the school grounds, which made it easy for Katsuragi to meet and conquer them."
Haqua paused briefly before continuing.
"Now, the girls outside of the 'convenience zone' are more problematic," she said, "of course some of them would be captured by other teams and some still await to be saved till this day. However, some of them also stumbled into Katsuragi's convenience zone by accident or fate. For example, the older Kasuga was visiting her younger sister, so Katsuragi also stumbled upon her. Of course, it was more chance than fate, but as I said, the 'failure' of Hinoki Kasuga's conquest was something Katsuragi needed to experience to switch his focus to the goddesses... actually, seeing Kasuga's Weiss rampage over the city was something I needed to experience as well..."
Haqua stayed quiet for a moment after that, as if reminiscing something. Nikaidō didn't interrupt her, waiting patiently for the purple-haired girl to continue.
"Anyway, back to those 8 girls," the devil said finally, "I'll try to keep it short. All of them are 'volatile' in some way, which explains why Katsuragi stumbled upon them in one timeline, but not in the other."
"How so?" Nikaidō asked.
"Let's start with Tōru Amami," Haqua suggested, "she goes to a different school than Katsuragi and her attribute is 'randomness'. Katsuragi and Elsie had trouble finding her even when they were looking for her with a sensor, so if it wasn't for Katsuragi buying those games and getting caught in that specific fire, him and Amami would never meet."
Nikaidō nodded. That seemed logical.
"Let's move to your kōhai, Jun Nagase," Haqua said, "she fully developed the gap in her heart because of Katsuragi... If she was assigned to a different class, she would not develop the gap, at least not this early."
"Oookay..." the dark-haired woman said.
"Next is Shino Akuragawa," the devil continued, "of course, she'd get the Weiss anyway, regardless of what Katsuragi did... but the only reason she came to Maijima was because Katsuragi bought that cursed game! And the reason he bought it was because of some random power outage that caused him to get off his train before he planned!" Haqua explained. "The old 'ghost' lady Hinaga was also a coincidence! Yes, Katsuragi was guaranteed to meet her during O-bon, but I reckon she got the Weiss very recently, because the Weiss didn't yet realize staying inside the gap of elderly woman was pointless."
"So if Hinaga had gotten the Weiss a few days later," Nikaidō interrupted, "which was possible given it's a countryside, then Katsuragi would've left without realizing she was possessed," she then paused, thinking for a moment, "and that rāmen girl was from another town and Katsuragi met her by pure accident as well."
"Exactly," Haqua said.
"Okay, that's a nice theory," the teacher admitted, "but there are still 3 girls left... and I can't understand why Asami Yoshino wouldn't get a gap in her heart in the other timeline."
"Oh, the answer to that is simple," Haqua smiled, "she would get the gap in both timelines."
"Then why Katsuragi detected her Weiss only in one timeline?" Nikaidō furrowed her brows. "The two of them are in the same classroom for crying out loud!"
"Because having a gap in your heart and being possessed by a Weiss are two different things," Haqua said.
"...I don't get you," the teacher admitted.
Haqua sighed.
"Just having a gap doesn't make you possessed. There also needs to be a free Weiss nearby!" she explained. "The school grounds have a lot of teenage girls and are close to where the Great Escape of Runaway Spirit happened, so that would make it a great feeding grounds for the Weiss... which is exactly why we had this area under close monitoring... so even the school grounds had limited number of Weiss."
"What does it matter?" Nikaidō asked.
"It matters," Haqua started, "because in one timeline Katsuragi met me and conquered Kosaka right after conquering the younger Kasuga... but in the other timeline there was the double conquest of Amami and Yoshino after Kasuga but before Kosaka."
"So?" Nikaidō still didn't see the point.
"So who's conquest was started in the first timeline around the time Yoshino's conquest came about in the second timeline?"
At this Nikaidō's eyes widened.
"It was-"
"Jun Nagase's, your kōhai's," Haqua confirmed.
"Wait a moment," the dark-haired woman straightened herself, "are you saying that the reason Yoshino wasn't possessed in the first timeline is because the Weiss that would posses her possessed Jun instead?"
"Yes and vice-versa," Haqua confirmed, "or probably the Weiss that was supposed to posses Yoshino, possessed Kosaka instead... and the one that was supposed to originally posses Kosaka possessed Nagase instead."
"That's..." Nikaidō wanted to say 'ridiculous', but she reconsidered, "plausible..."
"What's more," Haqua continued, "I dug up some info about Aoba Fuse. You know she was bored, right? So she tried various things to find something that would interest her... in particular, she join and quit a lot of clubs in your school... including the swimming club... the trainer of course saw a great potential in her, but Fuse wasn't interested and quit immediately."
"You want to tell me that Fuse was possessed while hanging around the club by the same Weiss that would otherwise possess that middle schooler Ikoma?" Nikaidō asked.
"Exactly," Haqua nodded.
The teacher stayed quiet... trying to take in all that Haqua told her. It was certainly interesting and explained some stuff...
But still...
"Wait, how does that link with what you said before?" the teacher asked. "How any of this disproves my theory?"
"It's not exactly disproving it, more like completing it," Haqua sighed, "look, I'm not 100% sure of this myself and even having thought through it a couple of times I still find it difficult to properly explain this."
"Just try," Nikaidō advised.
"Okay... then next point: why did the Chief create you?" Haqua asked.
"Huh?"
"I'm sorry for how it sounds," Haqua continued, "and yes, I think the Chief wanted to have another chance at life... but the primary reason you were born was to serve as guardian. You were supposed to protect the orb and assess the savior."
"Yes," Nikaidō admitted reluctantly. Her beginnings were both a happy and sad topic.
"But why need a guardian at all?" Haqua asked and immediately proceed to answer. "From your and Katsuragi's memories I reckon it was to make sure he wasn't evil or something."
"I became more of a guide in the end, but yeah, that was my purpose," Nikaidō confirmed, "futures and timelines are fickle things, so there was a chance of the savior turning out to be someone evil... Fortunately, Katsuragi wasn't evil. I mean not that kind of evil," she added.
"What if he had other problems though?" Haqua suggested.
"What do you mean?"
"Like, imagine that Katsuragi would say 'okay, I'll save the world... for a billion yen'."
"That'd certainly be a problem," Nikaidō said, "but he didn't put up any conditions."
"No, he didn't," Haqua said, "not consciously at least."
At this Nikaidō's eyes widened.
"What do you mean?" she inquired.
"What I mean is basically that the orb, the future, the timeline, all of this was depending on Katsuragi and his personality," Haqua said, "now I as Hell don't know why he was chosen by the orb. Was there no-one better in Maijima, the prefecture or the entire country? Was there no other way to save the goddesses but have some nerd seduce their hosts? Were all other guys worse and less trustworthy? I don't know... but the point stands that Katsuragi was chosen," Haqua emphasized, "and thus, even if he wasn't the one who created the orb, he affects it."
"Affects it?" Nikaidō repeated.
Haqua nodded. "Your theory was that the orb was affected only by your condition and Katsuragi was just fulfilling it... now my theory says the orb was trying to satisfy two conditions. Two parties. The first was you," Haqua continued, "for that the orb needed to find the best future where the goddesses were saved. I think there were multiple timelines that matched this condition... basically, if that was all the orb needed to consider, then it would just choose one of those timelines and that'd be all. No twin timelines. No merge," Haqua paused for a moment, "but, as I already said, I think the orb needed to satisfy the other party as well."
"By that 'other party' you mean Katsuragi?" Nikaidō asked.
Haqua nodded and created another hagoromo parchment, which showed a tree-like structure.
"What's that?" Nikaidō questioned.
"Those are examples of possible choices and timelines, just fir visualisation," the devil said, "you see, the problem is the limitation of time and space. As you've said before, some girls are just too far away. If Katsuragi wanted to conquer any of them, he wouldn't be able to save the goddess, so, according to the 'first' orb condition, such choices were no good."
The first parchment showed some of the red points turn to green, indicating that Katsuragi went to capture a 'far-away' girl that he wouldn't normally stumble upon. At the same time one of the goddesses' dots turned from green to white, indicating failure to capture her. The other parchment highlighted the matching timeline, which ended in explosion and the timeline collapsing.
"This is a 'space' limit, which means Katsuragi was restricted to meeting girls that are nearby or that are required to save the goddesses, plus some girls he could easily meet by accident, like Uemoto, Nagase and such," she paused for a moment, "but the 'space' is not everything. There's also 'time'... in other words, if Katsuragi spends too much time on conquering other girls then he'd not have enough time to conquer one of the goddess hosts... or to play games. So such futures were also no-go."
This time no red dot was affected. Instead all of the 8 remaining white points turned green, indicating Katsuragi captured all of the 'volatile' girls... but again one of the goddesses dots turned back from green to white. Since one of the goddesses hosts wasn't saved, the other parchment showed another timeline collapse.
"All that means our options were limited," Haqua continued, "for example, we have the 'first' of the merged timelines where Katsuragi encountered Nagase, Ikoma, Hinaga and Uemoto," when Haqua said this one timeline branch on the tree was highlighted. Simultaneously, on the main map, the points representing Jun, Minami, Rieko and Sumire changed from white to green to indicate their captures, while points of Tōru, Asami, Shino and Aoba turned to white, indicating they were never captured.
Thus, not all of the 'volatile' girls got captured, but the goddesses were saved and the timeline remained stable.
"Of course, we also have the 'second' merged timeline," this time another branch was highlighted, with Tōru's, Asami's, Shino's and Aoba's dots turning green while Jun's, Minami's, Rieko's and Sumire's turned white instead.
"I think there were also some other mixed possibilities," Haqua said, "like, for example, Katsuragi conquers Amami, Yoshino, Ikoma and Uemoto in one timeline and Nagase, Ikoma, Rieko and Uemoto in the other... the problem here is that while he conquers 4 girls in each timeline, 2 of them appear in both ... so he would never save Akuragawa and Aoba in neither timeline. Even if the merge happened, only 6 of those 8 girls would be saved."
"I don't think I follow you anymore," Nikaidō said, putting hands to her head, trying to focus.
"Basically, there are many possible configurations here..." Haqua said. "Maybe there are even some configurations where there are more then two closely-tied timelines... like 3 timelines or more... but I guess those configurations weren't preferred, because merging three timelines is waaaay too risky... anyway, I'm nearly done here, so bear with me for a bit more, Chief."
"I'll try," Nikaidō said.
"If my theory about both you and Katsuragi affecting the orb decisions is correct," Haqua spoke, "then your objective was to save the goddesses and New Hell, we know that... but what was Katsuragi's objective?"
"To be left alone?" Nikaidō reasoned.
"To some extent, yeah, but if it was only that, then he wouldn't save the goddesses, so no, my point is different and, in a manner of speaking, simple."
Haqua closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them Nikaidō knew the purple-haired devil meant business.
"Katsuragi," the devil said, "wants to save girls."
This should have been such a simple statement, so obvious, but it left Nikaidō flabbergasted.
"What?" she asked. "But we're talking about real girls here, not his game heroines!"
"That might be so, but Katsuragi still cares about those real girls!" Haqua shouted. "Yes, he's an obsessed game jerk that was pulled into all of this against his will... but even he couldn't leave those girls alone," her tone suddenly changed, "did you ever think what would happen to Amami, Fuse, Ikoma or Uemoto if Katsuragi didn't conquer them? Well, I don't think they'd die, but still, they'd be miserable... they would abandon their dreams, maybe even families..." Haqua paused, her eyes getting a distant look, "I'm not as... close to all those girls as Katsuragi is... but I'm glad I live in a timeline where all 8 of those 'volatile' girls were saved by him."
The devil paused again before sighing.
"It's kinda hard to face it," she continued, "but Katsuragi has changed. Sure, he still doesn't like the real world and most of its people. But he makes exceptions. He might have problems accepting that. He may deny that when asked. He might not like that girls trying to seduce him in the aftermath... He might not like them interrupting him everyday... but he cares! He cares about people he called his friends! He said it himself, right? In his letter to Ayukawa he wrote, and I quote, 'those people are my friends and I want to continue walking with everyone else', right?"
Nikaidō just blinked.
Haqua speaking of Katsuragi's in such a way and openly like that, quoting his lines word-by-word was... unusual to say the least.
"Katsuragi calls himself a god," the devil continued, "who says he can conquer any girl and do anything. He's arrogant and proud. He brags and looks down on others. He acts as if he was an actual god... but he isn't! He's just a human with physical limitations like all humans! So he would preach he'd save every heroine, but he cannot do that! It's like I showed you before. When he's conquering Amami and Yoshino he can't conquer Nagase! When he's conquering Akuragawa and Fuse he can't conquer Ikoma and Hinaga!"
Haqua started to speak faster and with more force, voice laced with some emotion. Excitement was there, no doubt, but also something more.
"Katsuragi can appear as if he had 6 arms," the devil continued, "but he has only two in the end! And even he cannot be at two far-away places at once! Even he cannot change the laws of physics and fate! My point is: Katsuragi could try all he wanted, but there was no timeline where all those girls," she gestured to all white and green points, "would be saved without jeopardizing the goddesses! It was impossible even for someone as resourceful as Katsuragi to do this! Since he's just a human, his resourcefulness was finite in the end!"
"But all those girls are saved now, aren't they?" the moment Nikaidō asked this, she realized something. "Wait..."
"Exactly," Haqua said.
It looked like she was really trying to stay calm, but from her voice and face it was clear the excitement was getting the better of her.
"It's physically impossible for Katsuragi to save all the girls, because he's just a human... but is he?" Haqua asked. "How do you think he'd answer when asked that? He'd say 'I'm a god!' He'd say 'if no scenario works then I'll just make one!' He'd say 'I don't have the resources to do this? Then I'll get someone who has'!"
"Get someone who has?" Nikaidō repeated. And then it dawned on her. "You mean..."
"Katsuragi couldn't change the laws of physics and fate... but Elsie could!" Haqua said. "Have the cake and eat it thing I said in the beginning, remember?"
"Uh... yes, Nikaidō said.
"What I think happened... is that Katsuragi unconsciously directed your orb to choose those two timelines we merged," Haqua said as she indicated to her parchment, "and this is because out of all the available timelines those 2 were the only ones where he saved all of those 8 girls in total."
All of the white points on the first parchment turned green, indicating that Katsuragi saved all the girls, except the red ones: the one who already were too far away to save in the first place.
"In other words, Katsuragi's 'condition' has forced the orb to connect to two timelines... but like all timelines they started to diverge... which in turn forced use to use Eri's power again to merge them. Don't you see?" Haqua stood up now. "From your point of view the two timelines were a disaster... an unexpected wrench... an accident... both from Katsuragi's point of view it's a gift! No, not a gift. A directive! A plan! A scheme of the god of conquest!"
Nikaidō just gawked at the devil.
"Do you remember that metaphor that miko have used?" Haqua asked as she continued. "Eri as the engine and Katsuragi as the steering wheel? You see, Eri was just the power source behind the merge! But it was Katsuragi who was in control! Two Katsuragi's in fact. They were the ones who dictated how the merge would happen!" she gushed excitedly.
"Wait a moment... you said this thing was unconsciously?" Nikaidō managed to ask. "How is that possible?"
"To be honest, I think it was half-unconscious," Haqua spoke, "I think Katsuragi didn't specifically plan for this, but he wanted to save all the girls! He said so himself!"
"When?" Nikaidō asked.
"During the final confrontation with that Yūzaki woman," Haqua said. When Nikaidō looked at her questioningly, the devil continued. "You were there when the two of them were arguing, right? Yūzaki said that you couldn't rely on others, that they'd only drag you down, that you should live only for yourself. That you had to use others to be happy. But what did Katsuragi say to that?" Haqua could barely hold here excitement anymore. "He said he thought there was a way for everyone to be happy! That there was a good ending for everyone!"
"Wait a moment..." Nikaidō said as her mind went back to that day 10 years ago.
There was always something about that particular moment that had always bugged her no matter how much he thought about it.
The moment Haqua described just now. When Keima was telling Kaori Yūzaki this... he suddenly looked as if he was 17 instead of his 7-year old form.
Nikaidō had always figured it was hallucination of sorts... that she was just seeing things...
But now, listening to Haqua...
"Katsuragi didn't know of the twin timelines back then," the purple-haired devil said. "Hell, since he only knew his timeline he didn't even know some of those girls existed... but nonetheless he wanted for them to be saved too!" she said with emphasis. "Even if it wasn't conscious, he had lead the merge, so we would arrive here: in his otherwise unreachable 'best ending' scenario! This 'merged' timeline we're in shouldn't exist, but Katsuragi doesn't give a shit about 'should'! He got to both have the cake and eat it! He violated the unbreakable laws of time-space continuum just for this! Remember Vulcan saying that the goddesses felt like pawns in someone's scheme after they have sent Katsuragi to the past?"
"Umm... yeah," Nikaidō said.
"It was not nearly accurate!" Haqua said. "It wasn't just the goddesses who were the pawns! We were all pawns on Katsuragi's chessboard! You think you have used Katsuragi to save the world? Let me tell you! It was Katsuragi who used you. He used the goddesses, your orb and Eri's power to do this! And since this was done unconsciously, it basically means Katsuragi has used his former uncaring self to get where his current self wanted to be! In a world where all of his real-life heroines were saved! Remember how he complained that real world was imperfect and lacked load function, right? It's ironic when you think that the orb basically allowed him to load from bad ending and mold the timeline into the one he wanted!"
"This," Haqua finally sat down, a smile of satisfaction on her lips, "is my theory!"
Nikaidō didn't reply.
Not after five seconds.
Not after fifteen.
She just stared at the devil.
Part of her brain told the teacher that all this didn't make sense.
It was too far-fetched. Too vague. Too convenient...
But then again, Nikaidō's own theory was like that from the very beginning as well... and yet it was (mostly) true.
In fact, Haqua's theory was somewhat less far-fetched and vague... yes, it was hard to accept, but it did explain quite a few things.
The teacher also noticed something about Haqua.
It was something she hadn't seen in her before. Not personally at least. When she was Dokurō the chief, she mostly remembered Haqua as frustrated graduate who often made practical mistakes... but back in school, with theory, Haqua was a genius who could spend hours in a library to do her homework flawlessly. Someone who liked to analyze stuff, even pointless stuff. Someone who was proud of their work and accomplishment.
Nikaidō realized she personally had never seen such a look of accomplishment on the purple-haired devil's face.
"You look like an elementary school kid who got excited over a homework project," the dark-haired woman said, "you're not in school anymore though... and I'm not your teacher."
"And if you were?" Haqua asked.
"If I was... then I'd have to say your theory could use some polishing, especially the way you present it... but aside from that: well done, student," Nikaidō smiled as she leaned back, "that's a job well done."
Haqua immediately straightened herself, her entire body and face almost radiating pride and satisfaction.
For a few moment the two ladies, the devil and the human, stayed quiet, each thinking about what have just been said.
"Thank you for sharing all of this with me," Nikaidō said finally, before pausing as an idea struck her, "who else have you told this?"
"No-one, of course," Haqua said.
"Do you... plan to tell that to anyone else though?"
"I don't know," the purple-haired devil furrowed her brow, "not sure if I should."
"How about the goddesses?" Nikaidō asked. "Or Katsuragi?"
Haqua smiled weirdly. "Katsuragi is both the first... and the last person that should hear about it."
"Why?"
"Are you kidding me?" the devil snorted. "The goddesses, then the time-travel, then Eri's reality warping then this... Hell, I used to think Katsuragi was just a human, low-life one at that... and then these things have been popping one after another... who knows what might happen if he learns of this..."
"And yet, you've told him about Vulcan's orb," Nikaidō noticed.
"T-that's different!" Haqua defended. "I'm not fully happy about it, but we had to tell him!" she then sighed. "But still it's probably better if Katsuragi doesn't know about what I've told you."
"So he's really a know-nothing Buddha just like Eri said, huh?" Nikaidō mused. "Maybe you're right... the only reason my original plan worked so well was because Katsuragi knew so little... makes me think it's a good thing you and Katsuragi started on a wrong foot..."
"Why?" the devil asked.
"If you were more friendly with him, he would ask questions more readily and you would answer them more readily... and if he learned too much he might've stopped using love to exorcise Weiss... which could've been catastrophic when the goddesses came about."
"Fortunately, I wasn't friendly with him," Haqua snorted, "and why would I be? The guy's insufferable!"
"Yeah... I know of quite a few females who'd say he's insufferable," Nikaidō decided to tease her former colleague a bit, "wonder if any of them actually mean it..."
"I'm not sure I follow you, Chief," the devil said, but she was fooling no-one.
"I wonder how are you really feeling about Katsuragi," the dark-haired woman clarified with a smirk.
"I'll make you a deal, Chief," Haqua suggested, " I won't answer your question. In return, I won't ask you how you really feel about Katsuragi."
"Touché," Nikaidō replied.
As on cue there was a buzz, as the household intercom came to life.
"There's our food," Nikaidō said.
"Our?" Haqua repeated, surprised.
"I ordered two portions," the teacher explained as she stood up and walked towards the door, "I would have liked to give you a medal for figuring all this shit out, but I can't... so at least I'll invite you to dinner. My treat."
"Umm... it's very kind of you, but I actually have paperwor-"
"No buts!" Nikaidō said, for once pulling rank on her former subordinate. "Consider it an order."
"Yes, ma'am!" Haqua said, lips curling into a small smile.
(* * *)
Whew... that was one Hell of a conversation (pun intended).
And sorry to whoever didn't really enjoy going through it.
Also, a bit of behind-the-scene stuff. To be honest, this part is relatively new idea. I didn't plan to do it originally. Just the merge and proceed to ShioriNomi... but I started thinking and I managed to piece together this "nice" and "little" theory. So from one point of view this is filler-ish... on the other hand it ties a lot of stuff together.
So not only it explains why some girls were conquered in one timeline and not the other (and yes, some of the predictions in some of the reviews were super accurate, it was fascinating to read them and be like "yup, that's exactly the reason"), but also why there were two connected timelines in the first place.
In particular, it referenced one very particular moment from the manga: where Keima confronts Kaori Yūzaki while being in his 7 year-old body... then he talks about "being able to see a world/ending for everyone"... and he suddenly look 17 year-old for a moment.
This part always interested me. There was no explanation for it. The only ones who could make Keima appear older like that were either Dokurō (but could she really do that?) or Elsie, using her true powers (unconsciously of course... and she wasn't even in the room).
And aside from who/how we also didn't get explanation why.
So, while my theory doesn't fully answer the 'how' part, but it answers the 'why'. Keima made unconscious wish (or more like belief in his case) for an ending where everyone could be happy. In this case the 'everyone' involves all the girl Keima could reach... and since there's no future where he saves them all (due to space and time constraints as Haqua has explained), he just influenced the orb to adjust for this.
All in all, this chapter seems really meta. Not only is this an "intermission" chapter inside what is already "intermission" story, but also this entire scene basically is "Haqua and Nikaidō talk about the author's headcanons" :P
Anyway, pretty much all I wanted to explain about the timeline merge and tied loose ends. If you have any further questions about that, you can ask me either on the KamiNomi discord server (and I invite everyone who isn't there already to join, there are great people there) or through Private Messages.
Of course, aside from this, there's another question. What happens with the orb now? What will be Keima's decision? Will Shiori get her chance?
For the answers to that you'll have to wait for the next chapter. I'd really like for it to appear before the end of December, but I doubt it'll happen, even though I'll have more time to write. But it'll come eventually, so stay patient, my great readers. :)
That's it for now! Stay tuned for the next chapter, and, in case you don't get to hear from me till 2021: Happy New Year! Let it be better than 2020 for you in all aspects!
See you next time!
(* * *)
As usual, I thank you for all your reviews, follows and favorites, especially in this time and with me taking so long to get to ShioriNomi. Anyway, here are replies to the latest reviews:
El Sasori69: hello. And yes, you have a point. With my plot-device-using skills I could do that, so it's more a question of how I decide to do it. I suppose your ending would be 'insert your chosen girl', which is of course nice in many ways. It also gives me a bit of Season 3 ending (Keima walking through the door and stuff). We'll see, I guess. Thank you for your review and suggestion.
Red Glasses: yes, it did. Hopefully this chapter will post without problems. Also, since you're posting as a guest I had no way to reply to you :/. Anyway, thanks for caring. :)
Mint-Car92: thank you very much for your review. Heh, I just can't describe everything, writing takes too long already, so I couldn't put more Yui-Aoba details here :P. Yup, as Keima says himself "as long as there's save data, there's hope" ;). Heh, a lot of characters (Haqua, Diana, Vulcan, Ayumi, Chihiro even Shiori) sometimes spoke trash about Keima and ignored his arguments, simply because they didn't know stuff... or knew stuff, but couldn't admit they were wrong. So Vulcan acting harsh is not exactly new here :P. Yup, "Vulcan" and "sorry" don't match anywhere :P. Now I feel bad, cause I promised the final chapter and this is not it. I'm sorry! T.T
Big Bad Beowulf: hello, good reader :). I'm glad you found the chapter tense and are happy about the 'cat is out of the bag' thing :). Yes, of course, the LN girls will appear from now on in the story, including inside-the-orb (if it happens :P). Thank you very much for your review. Also sorry you had to wait so long.
William F Somebody: hello my dear reader :). Yes, Ayumi's no longer in love with Keima, but there's nothing preventing her from falling in love with him. As for Mercury and Apollo, it's kinda the opposite. Yes, Ayumi's love for Keima's gone, but before that happened, it was at it's maximum. And that caused Mercury to finally be able to leave Ayumi's body (which has been mentioned at the end of AyumiNomi). The same goes for Apollo. Both goddesses are now fully restored and free. Actually, a few chapters ago, they returned in order to help with the merge thing (they can re-enter their hosts, but they are able to leave now). And this was actually one of the reasons Vulcan made her orb (as explained in this chapter): to help goddesses quickly regain their power and free their hosts. Yup, that's how Keima is :P. Lol, laughing at the frying pets image xD. Well, regarding Keima and the orb, you have point, just as Vulcan did, but Keima still might have some doubts, but we'll see what happens next chapter. Regarding your questions about the orb. Some still have to wait for the next chapter. As for what happens if the girl fails: you might want to re-read the last chapters of KamiNomiNai. In short, as long as there's enough love (from both Keima and the girl, not really important who they love), the orb world continues... or so Vulcan says :P. I also think the orb will remove the love regardless of how well the orb scenario went... or so Vulcan says :P. Yup, I'm glad Vulcan apologized too :). As for the rest, we'll have to wait and see. I'm excited too! :D Thank you once again for your review.
Ghost Man: hm... ... ... you might have a point about the cold there ;). Yup, meshing continues and my plans (except writing time) proceed nicely... muahahaha! :D Heh, friendship defeats reputation :P. Hm... ... ... Nikaidō :P. I think Vulcan's middle name is "mean" :P. Except her height: it's below mean ;). Thank you very much for your kind words and for your review :).
nemo uchiha: thank you very much. As for your question, I think I already answered the best I could through PM.
masterZen: I hope you managed to find the light novels and work throught them :).