If we reach 100 power stones, there will be extra chapters.
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"So this is… Earth?"
Saya looked around with wide eyes.
After blinking a few times, she said in surprise,
"This… are we in Japan?"
Yuu nodded.
"Exactly. One of the many Earths in the multiverse."
"Multiverse?"
The boy shoved his hands in his pockets and smiled calmly.
"Umu. There are infinite Earths. Some completely different from yours, others almost identical. This one, for example, isn't much different from the one you know."
Saya stared at him in awe.
She'd read about multiverse theories before the apocalypse, but to think she'd one day experience it with her own eyes...
Incredible...
"I thought a date in a monster-filled world might be unpleasant. That's why I picked this one."
"I-it's not a date!"
Yuu had already heard that line too many times today.
"Yeah, yeah. I get it."
Saya frowned and glared at him. In fact, she looked ready to bite him.
"What? Your face looks cute when you get mad like that, you know? Makes me wanna tease you more."
"Shut up, baka-Izumi!"
A couple of passersby glanced at them curiously, and Saya suddenly realized something.
They were still holding hands.
Her eyes widened slightly, and she immediately let go as if she'd been burned.
"H-hey! Don't make people get weird ideas."
Yuu shrugged.
"Get weird ideas, huh? I'm not so sure about that."
She was the one who'd been holding his hand and hadn't wanted to let go.
"Y-you…!"
Saya clenched her fists, but in the end, she sighed and walked ahead, pretending she hadn't heard him.
Now that they were on Earth, she didn't feel the same fear as before. After all, it was a normal world, so she could walk peacefully.
However…
As they walked down the shopping street, she noticed a lot of girls turning their heads to look at Yuu. Some whispered to each other, others just followed him with their eyes.
"…!"
She noticed a girl walking over, smiling shyly.
Saya shot each of them a sharp glare.
Within seconds, the girls got spooked and quickly looked away, to the sides or down at their phones.
Yuu tilted his head slightly.
"Hm, why'd all those girls suddenly walk away?"
"Oh, I dunno."
"Hah… what a shame. I thought that one girl wanted to give me her phone number."
Hearing Yuu's pitiful tone, with his shoulders slumped as he watched the girl who'd been approaching him now walk away, Saya's orange eyes gleamed with a faintly threatening light.
"Hmph!"
So annoying.
Saya huffed.
She kept walking, but this time a little closer to Yuu. It seemed she didn't want any girl to even think of approaching him again.
He smiled. He'd said those words and faked being disappointed about not getting a girl's number all just to tease Saya. As a result, he was starting to really enjoy this jealous tsundere side of her.
"Hey, Izumi-kun."
After a few minutes of silence, Saya looking around as they walked, she suddenly spoke.
"What is it?"
"A few days ago, I was surviving in a shelter full of zombies, bugs, and mutated animals. And now, being in such a normal world…"
She didn't finish the sentence, but Yuu understood what she meant.
"You like it?"
Saya thought for a moment.
"I don't know. It just feels like I went back in time. Like those days never happened."
But they did happen.
"You wanna go back?"
Saya looked at him.
"I didn't say that."
They kept walking. During that time, the sun began to set. The city lights turned on one by one.
A normal sunset in a normal Earth.
"Hey, Izumi-kun."
"Hm?"
"If you're a god… do you think you could make my world normal again?"
A world where the apocalypse never happened.
That question.
"Who knows?"
"..."
She didn't say anything else, but Yuu noticed how she clenched her fists slightly.
She must've been thinking about her family and friends, what would've happened if the apocalypse had never occurred.
"Saya."
"What?"
"Wanna go see that world?"
Saya froze. She looked at him with wide eyes.
"You can… do that?"
"To your earlier question…"
Do you think you could make my world normal again?
"Yes, I can do it."
Saya lowered her gaze. A whole minute passed in silence before she finally shook her head.
"No. If I went there, none of this would've happened. You'd probably make everyone forget. I'd forget everything too."
She wouldn't remember her journey in Orario, nor this one.
"And that'd be bad?"
Saya smiled faintly. A small smile.
"I don't know. But… I think I'd rather stay here."
Here.
With Yuu.
She didn't say it out loud, but that's what her heart said.
Yuu nodded and clapped softly.
"I see."
A few seconds later, Saya stopped walking. She lifted her face and looked straight into his eyes.
"You were testing me, weren't you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Don't play dumb. From the start, you brought me to this world to make me remember what it was like before the apocalypse. And you guided the whole conversation just to get my answer."
She'd figured it out.
Yuu looked up at the sky. The first stars were beginning to appear.
"As expected of Saya."
"Why? Why'd you do it?"
"Because I wanted to."
"That's not an answer."
"It's my answer."
Saya frowned. Then her expression changed. As if she'd suddenly realized something important.
"What would you have done if I'd said I wanted to go back in time? That I wanted the apocalypse never to have happened?"
"Going back in time's pretty easy for me. Changing realities so the apocalypse never happened… I can do that too."
After a pause, he added,
"But I would've refused. I wouldn't have done anything."
Saya snapped her head up.
"What? Why not?"
"Because then I never would've met Saeko. Or Rei. Or Shizuka." He lowered his gaze to her and held it. "Or you."
"I don't wanna lose them. And I don't wanna be forgotten."
Saya's eyes widened.
"Is that… something a god should say?"
Her voice sounded strange. She looked at him like she was seeing someone completely different.
"How do I put it? It's kinda selfish."
"I really don't like being a god. I just wanna be human."
He turned fully toward her. And when he did, their eyes met under the moonlight.
"So… do you despise me now?"
"What?"
"Now that you know I'm not after everyone's salvation. That I'm not the savior of your world's humans. That I'm just a selfish god who doesn't wanna be forgotten."
Will you hate me for that?
Saya shook her head.
Slowly.
Then she smiled.
"Now… I like you even more."
"Pfft!"
He couldn't help it.
Yuu burst out laughing.
"'Like you even more'? Now I realize Saya's actually pretty straightforward."
"S-shut up!"
Her face flushed red. She shot him a fierce glare, her small fang peeking out.
"Forget what I said."
"Too late."
"Yuu!"
She even called him by his name.
"It's already recorded here." He tapped his head. "Can't forget it."
"You're… you're…"
She couldn't find the words.
She just turned and started walking fast, fists clenched, her face completely red.
"How cute."
They kept walking while the city lights glowed brighter.
'Like you even more,' huh?
Those words lingered in his mind.
'That Saya didn't despise me for it… makes me a little happy.'
As Yuu touched his chest, sorting out his tangled emotions, he couldn't help but smile a little.
"What're you laughing at?"
It seemed Saya had been glancing at him from the corner of her eye, because she immediately asked that.
"Nothing."
"Hmph."
She walked faster, a few steps ahead. But then she stopped and turned her head slightly.
"Hey, Yuu."
"Hm?"
"Since you don't want a world where you never met the girls or me, then…" She looked a bit embarrassed, but still met his gaze firmly. "I choose not to forget you."
"..."
Yuu studied those beautiful orange eyes behind her glasses. A sincere gaze. He liked them even more now.
"Thanks."
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