A Story About the Future

A Story About the Future

According to Takanashi-san.

Two years from now, Japan will be unable to cope with the successive appearances of monsters, and the government's functions will fall completely silent. For several years after that, the Japanese who survive using evacuation ships will flee overseas.

I will die in battle defending the last ship. One of her ancestors will also be aboard the evacuation ship.

One year after Japan is swallowed by monsters, several countries, beginning with China, will be destroyed by monsters.

Humanity will gradually lose its habitable territory to the monsters. Through the fusion of magic and science, humanity will succeed in turning non-Gifted people into a fighting force. Though we will push the monsters back somewhat, we will still be at a disadvantage.

A hundred years after the 'Day of Return,' the remaining human territory will consist of half of the United States and the British mainland alone.

However, the United States will also be on the verge of having its defensive lines breached, while Britain will have allowed monsters to land on its mainland.

Humanity's extinction will be only a matter of time.

"...So that's what you're saying?"

"Yes. Exactly."

I tried to summarize Takanashi-san's account in my own words, but it was utterly unbelievable.

However, I couldn't dismiss it as mere delusion.

I glanced at the device she had held out to me. The screen displayed a female version of my character, and it was a model of phone I had never seen before.

I didn't know much about smartphone models, but the games on this device were, at the very least, things that didn't exist in the modern era.

These days, even individuals can make games, but could anyone really create something this elaborate...?

To be honest, I was beginning to believe about seventy percent of what she was saying. The device was part of the reason, but, despite how inappropriate it was, the words 'time slip' made my heart flutter.

Anyone would be fascinated by the idea of a person from the future. If possible, I wanted to believe her.

But I didn't want to believe the part about myself becoming famous in such an outrageous way.

"...Phew."

While I was making my normally underused brain work at full capacity, Takanashi-san looked satisfied as she drank what was less 'coffee with sugar' than 'coffee-flavored sugar.'

Perhaps noticing my gaze, she set her cup on its saucer and straightened her back.

"I'm sorry. I seem to have lost a little of my composure over the sweets of this era."

"...Um. Is food scarce in the future, a hundred years from now?"

"Yes. I once heard an officer boast that becoming a military officer meant you could eat a dish made with a natural egg once a month."

"That's... something. Since people are trading game figurines, I assumed there was more room to spare than that."

"The food shortage is caused by monsters spreading curses that cause crop diseases. Crops can only be grown properly inside special barriers."

"...The monsters eat humans, yet they're also working to reduce the human population?"

"I don't know the details, but I heard that the places ruled by monsters aren't covered in curses. Apparently, they raise humans there as livestock."

"...I see."

In other words, humans had become livestock. If they wanted food, they had to let the monsters raise them.

Perhaps what she meant by humanity's extinction was the end of humanity's existence as human beings.

"Also, your figurine was produced in a limited run of one thousand. If humanity had had a little more room to spare, I think they could have added two more digits to that number..."

Maybe humanity had already stopped being human.

"It is said that the people who escaped thanks to you wished for everyone to remember Yahiro-san, at least, so games and figurines were created. It is a wonderful thing."

I wished those people would look up the meaning of 'returning kindness with evil' in a dictionary. About a hundred times.

I was starting to want to shout, 'Humanity is foolish!' like a villain from a manga, so I changed the subject.

"But to think a time machine had been completed. I suppose that's what you can expect from the future a hundred years from now."

"...? No. My time slip to this era was not caused by human technology."

"...You mean it was a Gift?"

"Yes. In the first place, I don't even know whether the being involved was human."

I pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose at her words.

I wished she had told me that part at the beginning. A certain tanuki—no, cat-shaped robot's theme song had been playing in my head, after all.

I had even pictured a robot soldier from the future who had become a state governor.

"Could you tell me about the circumstances at the time and the person who activated the Gift?"

"Yes. The Kenning that housed me was participating in the defense of an underground facility. However, the unit was wiped out, and we were unable to contact headquarters. In the final transmission, I was told that they would prevent the disaster from spreading by sealing off the entire combat zone with a barrier, so I believe entering or leaving was impossible."

...I felt as if I had been hit with some outrageous information right from the start.

I swallowed the question that had somehow risen to my throat, but prompting her to continue with my eyes was a little difficult.

Maintaining eye contact with a woman for too long was mentally exhausting. Also, considering the possibility that my gaze might wander toward those magnificent twin peaks, I encouraged her to continue by remaining silent.

"I was the only one who survived, and I wandered through the underground. Then a 'golden-haired girl' appeared."

"...Huh?"

Thinking it couldn't be, I raised my head.

"Could that person have been the one with an eyepatch...?"

"Yes. She was a strange-looking girl who called herself Demi-chan of the Demiurge and wore a swimsuit beneath a white lab coat."

Her clothing had been different, but she was the girl who had appeared in the broadcast on the 'Day of Return'...

"Demi-chan told me, 'I will send you to the world of a hundred years ago,' and activated her magic. Before I had time to ask any questions, I was sent to this era."

"...I see. Thank you for explaining."

"No. It was no trouble."

The self-proclaimed Demiurge. Her true identity was still unknown.

The more information we obtained about monsters and Gifts, the clearer it became that she was an utterly monstrous being. Everything else about her, however, remained a complete mystery.

Her real name, her Race, her origin, her purpose. I heard that the governments of various countries were trying to contact her over all these questions, but... no meaningful information had reached the public.

Precisely because she was such a being, I could believe that she might somehow be capable of time travel.

She was a famous person... or being, at any rate, and had become the subject of tall tales everywhere, so that alone didn't make her story any more credible.

"Demi-chan also provided this house. In the space where I was housed, there was an address, the documents necessary for living in Japan, and a provisional adventurer's license."

"Um... This may be a small point, but a pilot 'boards' a machine. Saying you were 'housed' in it could be misleading."

I pointed out something that had been bothering me for a while.

To be honest, given how desperate the future seemed, I had begun to wonder if that might be the case...

At my words, Takanashi-san tilted her head. Then she spoke as though explaining something obvious.

"No. 'Boarding' would not be appropriate. The container holding my brain was directly connected to the devices and the Kenning."

"───...I see."

My worst prediction had come true.

I swallowed the next words that nearly escaped by drinking my coffee.

...It was bitter. Come to think of it, I hadn't put any sugar in yet.

"My grandfather offered his body as components for a magical tool, and my grandmother obtained citizenship as a result. However, when my grandmother died, my right to live in human territory as her dependent disappeared. Therefore, when I was seven, I volunteered to become a component of a Kenning, and all the parts other than my brain were used as materials for magical tools."

"...Is that normal in the future, a hundred years from now?"

"I suppose... it is not unheard of. Volunteers who still possessed human bodies also became Kenning pilots. I was told by my instructor that if I worked for ten years, I could regain a body through another surgery, and then earn citizenship by continuing to work as a pilot."

"Ten years..."

It was too much. I no longer knew what to say.

I had wanted to believe her story, but now I wanted the opposite.

I didn't want to believe it. I could only pray that it was nothing more than the delusions of a girl whose chūnibyō had gotten out of hand.

"...I'm sorry for asking so many questions."

"No. If there is anything I can answer, please ask whatever you like."

"Then, while we're at it, just two more—no, three."

I was far beyond being nervous around the opposite sex by then.

They were absurd stories I would have laughed off before the 'Day of Return.'

Her eyes were utterly serious as she spoke of such things. Despite feeling cowed by the amethyst color of Takanashi-san's eyes, I moved my lips.

"What is your purpose in coming to this era?"

"...It is said that humanity's extinction began in Japan. Demi-chan told me, 'Do as you please.' Therefore, I intend to act in order to prevent humanity's extinction."

"And how will you do that?"

"I don't know."

"...Huh?"

A question mark appeared over my head at her unexpected answer.

"Um... What about using knowledge of the future to prevent the tragedies that will occur in this era, or something like that...?"

"I underwent surgery at the age of seven and spent the rest of my life inside the Kenning. I could browse the Internet and play games through a terminal, but I received no education in history. Furthermore, almost no records of this era remain a hundred years in the future."

"What...?"

"I know the names of some famous people from this era, including Yahiro-san, but I do not know who will do what, when, or where. My meeting you was a coincidence... or perhaps the result of Demi-chan's judgment."

So she had no plan at all.

Takanashi-san was looking at me with eyes that sparkled far too brightly.

"It is an honor to meet the hero I admired from childhood. Please, let us protect humanity's future together."

"...Um... What about the time paradox caused by changing the past...?"

"Demi-chan said this is a different worldline. Therefore, I believe there is no problem."

"Then wouldn't the future a hundred years from now be different in the first place...?"

"... ...!!"

Takanashi-san's eyes widened as though she had only just realized it.

What should I do? Perhaps because of her unusual environment, this person seemed to be seriously 'out of step.'

"Ah. Then, perhaps the me in your world wasn't a man to begin with...!"

"No, you should have been male. There are photographs of you as well."

"Ah, I see."

Even though photographic records of me remained, I had still been turned into a woman.

I had my reservations, but a certain Shinsengumi vice-commander and a certain dragon of the Restoration had also been gender-swapped. Perhaps it really was possible.

...I had even played a game featuring a gender-swapped version of that vice-commander, so I really couldn't say anything.

An R18 game, you ask? Well... the world isn't full of places that check your age.

The fact that knowledge from the future was of no use sent my thoughts wandering down a side road.

Somehow, I managed to steer them back on course.

"R-right! Then let's show that Kenning thing to the Self-Defense Force or someone. If non-Gifted people can use it without surgery, it ought to be useful."

"No. A theory that monsters have infiltrated Japan's politicians is widely known, so I do not trust them very much."

A shocking truth had just been revealed...!

Why didn't you say that sooner????

...Calm down. First, I must not become trapped by the idea that 'Takanashi-san's story is true.'

Be cool. Become cool, Yahiro Kota. People had been telling me since I was little that I was a child who could do it if I tried!

...Though I can't remember ever accomplishing much no matter how hard I tried!

"Oh, right."

"Y-yes. What is it?"

Takanashi-san gave her hands a light clap.

"I once heard that the Prime Minister will be caught up in a spiritual disaster and die sometime this month. The 'Gray Valkyrie' was active in Tokyo just before that, so it stuck in my mind a little."

"...What?"

Some more outrageous information had just come out of nowhere.

＊　　　　　＊　　　　　＊

After that, there was so much information that I decided to take a moment to sort out my thoughts.

Takanashi-san saw me off, and I left her house. To my surprise, it was only a five-minute walk from my own home.

...Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered Mom saying that a new house had been built in the neighborhood recently. Was that the one?

Had the self-proclaimed Demiurge prepared it in advance? Or had she taken it from someone?

I didn't know. My head felt as though it might burst from the sheer amount of information.

The important things for now were these three: 'The self-proclaimed Demiurge sent Takanashi-san to this era,' 'She wants to stop the tragedies that are going to happen,' and 'She has no clear idea what tragedies will happen or when.'

...No. I should add, 'Whether this story is even true in the first place.'

I desperately tried to line up evidence in my head that Takanashi-san's story was a delusion. But once again, I couldn't get my thoughts in order.

Enduring a headache, I returned home. When I pulled the doorknob, it wouldn't move. It seemed to be locked.

When I checked my phone, I found a message from Mom saying, 'I'm going shopping with your father.' It had apparently been sent a while ago, so they would probably be home soon.

I replied belatedly and opened the door with the key they had given me before I left.

"I'm home..."

No one was there, but I called out anyway as I stepped inside.

After washing my hands and gargling, I headed for the living room with my backpack hanging from one hand.

For some reason, I desperately wanted to empty my head. I would watch a recorded anime and reset my mood. A yuri slice-of-life anime should have aired yesterday.

With that in mind, I turned on the television.

'—That's why. In the first place, I cannot believe in the existence of Gifted people.'

It seemed to be some kind of news program, with a professor speaking knowingly about something.

'Look at this graph. The number of crimes committed by Gifted people is almost the same as the number of spiritual disasters! The numbers prove that they are extremely dangerous beings!'

Thinking it was the usual sort of content, I reached for the deck's power button.

However, there was the matter of the spiritual disaster... Takanashi-san had said the Prime Minister would die from one this month. Could anything be done about it?

Even if I called to warn them of the danger, they would probably think it was a prank or, at worst, a threat.

No—well, assuming Takanashi-san's story was true—

'We're interrupting the program with breaking news!'

"Huh?"

An urgent voice came from the television.

The screen switched, and a female announcer stared into the camera with a tense expression, a script in her hands.

'A spiritual disaster has just occurred in Tokyo!'

"...What?"

'We have also received information that the Prime Minister and five cabinet ministers are out of contact. The scene is in a state of extreme confusion—'

...Sometime this month meant today, huh.

I couldn't process what was happening, yet that was the idle thought that came to me.

Apparently, I could no longer struggle in vain by insisting that I 'didn't believe it.'

Japan would be destroyed in two years. And apparently, the world would be destroyed a hundred years from now.