Chapter 111: Last and Unexpected Adventure: Earth/Chaos

Chapter 111: Chapter 111: Last and Unexpected Adventure: Earth/Chaos

"Yuuji, Yuuji, the two months are almost over. Do you have enough skills?"

"Well... I have no idea?" Yuuji answered, a little embarrassed.

"Eh?" Lala tilted her head in confusion.

"I have quite a few tickets, but I haven’t used any of them yet. I’m saving them so I can use them all at once at the end" Yuuji explained. There was no particular reason for it, it was simply a personal preference.

"Yuuji, you’re strange sometimes" Lala whispered to herself.

"What?"

"No, nothing" Lala shook her head, looking away guiltily. ’Although some problems would have been much easier to solve with more skills’

"So, where are we going now? Since our trip is almost over, why don’t we go on vacation to some paradise planet and enjoy these last few days?" she asked, deciding to change the subject.

"Hmm" Yuuji thought about it for a moment before nodding. "That’s a good idea. I think I have enough tickets anyway"

With Yuuji’s confirmation, Lala immediately started looking for somewhere to go. Unfortunately, their plans were interrupted almost instantly.

Riiing! Riiing! Riiing!

"This boring ringtone keeps annoying me. What kind of operating system doesn’t let you change it?" Yuuji complained before answering skeptically.

"I already took care of it last time, so don’t even think I’m going to do your work again while you’re on vacation" Yuuji said as soon as he answered, not giving the person on the other end a chance to speak.

"...Rito" Clara’s serious voice replied, immediately alarming Yuuji. "This time, it’s something serious"

...

After receiving such a strange call without any explanation, Yuuji was forced to cancel his plans and return to Earth immediately, arriving there in half a day.

The original plan had been to land the ship on the helipad on the roof of the family mansion, since the space inside the ship was distorted, meaning that the space it actually occupied was not much larger than what a helicopter would occupy.

However, when they arrived, they found that there was no longer a helipad on the roof... nor was there a roof, in fact, there wasn’t even a third floor anymore.

Their home had been reduced to ruins and rubble, with traces of destruction, fighting, and even craters everywhere. Workers were busy moving everything and loading it into trucks that continued hauling away the rubble little by little.

The area was filled with machinery meant to clean up the disaster.

"Yuuji, what happened here?" Lala asked worriedly.

"I don’t know either" Yuuji replied, knowing just as little about the situation as she did. "Mona, find my parents"

[Immediately. Searching... Found. They are in the apartment building where you lived a few months ago. They have currently purchased the entire building]

"Thanks"

Following Mona’s instructions, Yuuji and Lala headed there and soon saw his parents waiting for them outside. They landed the vehicle on the roof and jumped directly to the ground from there.

"Phew, that was fifty floors. Not bad, Rito" Clara whistled in amazement.

"Mom! Is this really the time? What happened to the house? Are you... What happened to you?" Yuuji interrupted himself halfway through his sentence when he noticed a huge scar around his mother’s neck, similar to a healed burn that surrounded her entire neck like a collar.

"...About this, I was attacked pretty badly" Clara replied without giving any further explanation, but Yuuji wasn’t convinced.

"What kind of attack leaves wounds like that? It looks like someone tore your head off."

"...Haha" Clara laughed nervously. "Actually, Yuuji, remember when I told you that even if you died, we’d resurrect you? It seems we can’t do that anymore"

"What?! You mean...? Who did it? I’ll kill them!"

"Calm down, Yuuji"

"No, how can you be so calm, Dad? Mom, she..."

"I know, I was there" Eicchi interrupted him in a sharp and direct voice. "But if we had only wanted revenge, I would have gone instead of calling you, right?

The problem is that there’s an issue with the person responsible."

"An issue with the person responsible?" As soon as his father mentioned it, Yuuji realized it as well. "Yes, how did they leave the house in that state? Doesn’t it have countless defenses? I even added some myself"

"They attacked from inside" Clara explained with a helpless sigh and a conflicted expression.

"How is that possible?! How could a threat have entered the house in the first place without you or me noticing?"

"Yuuji, calm down, you’re not thinking clearly" Lala told Yuuji. "If you didn’t detect a threat but it was there, then the only possibility is that you didn’t consider it a threat"

Normally, Yuuji would have already realized that himself, but in his current state, after learning that his mother had been killed, he wasn’t even thinking rationally. However, after Lala reminded him, he finally realized the problem and was forced to calm down.

Of course, it wasn’t that her words simply made him calm down, he forced himself to remain calm and think clearly after realizing the truth of the situation.

"Darkness" Yuuji realized.

He also understood why his parents weren’t seeking revenge and had decided to call him. After all, when it came to Yami, they didn’t know her as well as he did and wouldn’t know what had happened.

Indeed, upon hearing Yuuji’s words, Clara’s eyes lit up with excitement as she grabbed him by the shoulders.

"You know what happened to her? That’s great! Do you have a way to help her?" Clara spoke with intense emotion radiating from her. Rather than holding a grudge, she was only worried about Yami and wanted her to return to normal.

Yuuji sighed mentally. That was simply the kind of person his mother was.

"Yuuji, can you explain what happened?" Eicchi asked. Although he wasn’t as emotional as Clara, he still considered Yami his daughter and wanted to help her.

Yuuji nodded and explained the origin of Yami and Darkness to them.

In short, Darkness was a second evil personality hidden inside Yami, one that would only awaken once she felt truly at peace. This was because the team of scientists who created Yami alongside Tearju, and later expelled her from the team when they wanted to turn Yami into a weapon and she refused, hated peace.

But to properly explain this, Yuuji had to explain Tearju’s background, Yami’s origin, and the entire conflict of objectives behind her creation, so it took Yuuji quite a while.

"Ah, then Tearju should be able to help her, right? I was so worried and anxious waiting for you that I haven’t even talked to her yet. What an oversight" Clara suddenly realized this and immediately contacted her.

Yuuji didn’t have much hope that Tearju would know anything. Leaving aside the fact that she wasn’t involved in the creation of Darkness, literally the first step the team of creators took toward creating Darkness was expelling Tearju from that very team. Yami nowadays wasn’t simply the data inside a computer that had created her consciousness years ago, she had evolved into a complete lifeform, and her brain was no longer something her creator could understand.

Even so, Yuuji let his mother call her for three reasons. First of all, she was Yami’s mother, so she deserved to know. Second, perhaps Yuuji’s assumption was wrong and she really did have some idea. And third, Yuuji wanted to ask her about other things.

Tearju arrived only a few minutes later, and the group had already gone inside and was waiting for her in the reception room.

Yuuji and Eicchi were both sitting in individual chairs with their arms crossed, looking toward the door every few seconds, while Clara watched them with a smile at the similarity in their actions.

"Ow, ow, ow" But the sharp pain she felt in her neck interrupted her smile. "This really hurts. How long does it take to take effect?"

"Oh, it’s already finished" Lala replied naturally.

"Already? That fast?" Clara said as she took out a mirror and looked at her neck, which was now even more flawless than before the scar. "This cream is incredible! Lala, please give me some more"

"Eh? Of course. Take the whole jar if you want" Lala said, handing her the entire jar of cream she had just applied without really caring.

"Now I understand how you have such smooth and soft skin" Clara said, looking Lala up and down as if she had just made a great discovery.

"No, I’ve never used any skincare products. My mother says there’s no need to fix something that’s already fine" Lala denied with an innocent expression.

"...I really envy her alien genetics"

"Haha, that’s the first time I’ve heard someone say that about me. Usually they only say that about my mother" Lala laughed, finding the situation amusing.

"What? Then your mother is even prettier than you?!"

"Of course. My mother has been recognized as the number one beauty in the galaxy since before she even married my father, after all"

"That can’t be" Clara said in disbelief, doubting that there could really be someone prettier than Lala. Of course, tastes varied, but Clara had to admit that if there were different characteristics by which to judge a woman’s beauty, Lala would get the highest score in all of them. And while Yuuji knew that this was because she was literally the protagonist of this world, Clara tended to think it was because she was an Alien princess.

Still not believing it, she looked at her son. "Rito, have you seen Sephie beneath the veil she always wears? Is she really that beautiful?"

"Eh? Yes, although I don’t think she’s as pretty as Lala" Yuuji quickly replied, caught off guard by the sudden question before reacting. "Wait, Mom, is this really the time to be talking about that?"

"Yes, dear. We don’t know Yami’s current situation, so we should focus" Eicchi agreed.

"You two worry too much, you know?" Clara said. "I’m worried about little Yami too, but I have complete faith in you, Rito. Before, I was worried that you didn’t know what was happening, but now that I know you understand what’s going on, I’m sure you’ll find a solution.

You’re that kind of person, after all. If something is troublesome, you’ll see it through to the end and get yourself into trouble just to prevent future problems.

Besides, Rito, I just realized that you’re not the best person to ask about Lala. You’re not critical at all"

"Yes, Yuuji, I’m worried about Yami too, but I’m sure we’ll solve it. If something goes wrong, let’s use time travel as a last resort, although my father would kill me if I did that" Lala added. "And I also think Clara is wrong, you’re completely honest and unbiased"

"Yami!"

While they were discussing, a voluptuous woman with loose blonde hair and glasses, dressed in a long white lab coat, came running in. It was immediately obvious that she had abandoned other matters halfway through and hadn’t even changed before coming.

"Yuuji, what happened to Yami?!" she asked upon noticing Yuuji there, knowing that he would be the one who knew the most about Yami’s situation.

Although Clara had given her a basic summary over the phone, she wasn’t aware of all the details, so Yuuji also had to explain the origin of Darkness to her.

"It can’t be, to think they did something like that" Tearju clenched her fists tightly in anger, and her eyes reddened. "How could they treat my daughter as nothing more than a weapon?!

I always thought... that my daughter simply hated me for abandoning her. I never imagined what they tried to do to her"

"Now isn’t the time to lament the past, Tearju" Clara told her. "If Darkness activated, that’s proof that Yami enjoys her current life and has completely moved past her previous life. If she herself has already moved past it, we’re nobody to pity her. What we need to do now is make sure she can continue enjoying her present.

Tearju, do you have any idea how to return Yami to normal?"

"I... I’m sorry, it’s impossible" Tearju apologized. "Yami is the perfect lifeform. My goal was never to create a robot that follows orders, but a real person, and no person would have code controlling them.

Yami was born from the code and body I created, yes, but she’s a real person now, and what I knew about her is no longer useful"

Tearju explained, reaching the same conclusion Yuuji had already reached on his own.

"I understand" Clara nodded. "Then there’s nothing you can do?"

"No. Yami, and now Darkness, is a unique being in a unique situation. If there were at least a similar situation I could observe and compare, I could try to find a solution" she explained disappointedly.

"About that, it’s actually not a unique case" Yuuji interrupted.

"Eh?" Tearju blinked in confusion. Leaving aside the fact that they were saying Yami and Darkness weren’t unique, how could Yuuji know about something even she didn’t know?

"Mona, can you..."

[Right away]

Without Yuuji even needing to finish explaining, Mona projected images of two women. Both were physically around the same age as Yami, barely younger than her.

"The girl with the red braids is Mea, and the girl with dark hair and dark skin is Nemesis" Yuuji explained. "They’re not exactly like Yami and Darkness, but they could be considered somewhat similar"

"I... I’ve never created anyone other than Yami" Tearju denied in confusion.

[It wasn’t necessary] Mona replied. [Let me explain. The organization Miss Tearju joined to create Yami didn’t actually exist until a few months before she joined it. It was a fake organization created for the sole purpose of gaining her trust.

The organization was originally a group of galactic-level criminals with a record of zero attacks. Their goal was always to ensure their success before finally taking action. Such an organization specialized in biological weapons research and had absolutely no inhibitions about experimenting on living beings without their consent.

However, this organization used most of its resources on Project Nemesis, a biological weapon capable of controlling antimatter. But the project ended in an utter failure because the body they created was incapable of sustaining itself, withstanding the antimatter it was supposed to control, and surviving as a real living being.

It was this failure and the loss of most of their resources that forced them to reveal themselves for the first time and break their rule of only acting if they knew they would succeed, which would later ultimately lead to their destruction.

Understanding that they couldn’t achieve success on their own and could no longer afford to waste resources, they used the few resources they had left to establish a scientific organization with a clean record and attract the greatest biological technology expert in the entire Milky Way, the Golden Inventor, Miss Tearju Lunatique. It worked exceptionally well, and once Yami’s body and consciousness were ready, they expelled Tearju and began their true plans to turn Yami into a lethal biological weapon.

But they vastly underestimated the difference in intelligence. Using their ’crude’ methods on something created by Lunatique’s genius ended in an uncontrollable disaster. Darkness awakened and destroyed everything around her before leaving and deactivating, becoming Yami again.

The few survivors attempted to hide again, but once they had become public, it didn’t take long for Gid to find them, and the entire organization was completely destroyed. There was a single survivor, fortunate enough not to have returned to the organization and to have taken refuge somewhere else.

This last scientist returned to the most hidden location they had, their original base, and using the experimental data from Yami’s creation, created the being known as Mea. But just like Yami, she barely awakened before killing the researcher and then regaining her consciousness.

Finally, Mea encountered what remained of Project Nemesis, and since she could no longer resist for much longer on her own, she merged with Mea, transforming into a separate consciousness that lives inside her and takes control from time to time. She also became a sort of mentor to her]

Everyone listened in surprise, especially Tearju, who had no idea about the entire mess she had gotten herself into, helping a criminal organization and technically helping destroy it as well, in addition to helping create Mea. Yuuji was listening with equal surprise.

Although Yuuji knew about the creation of Nemesis, the creation of Mea based on Yami’s data, and the current relationship between Nemesis and Mea, obviously these weren’t things he should know, so he had told Mona to explain them as if they were part of what she had discovered on her own.

But aside from that, Yuuji was also learning everything else for the first time. The To Love-Ru manga had never finished in his previous life, so he had no idea about the entire complicated process.

Even so, he quickly assimilated it and reacted. "Of course, I’m basing this on you needing data from artificial beings. If natural beings work, Run and Ren also count as two personalities in one body"

"Eh? Ah, no, impossible. But if I can study the relationship between Mea and Nemesis, I might discover something.

But speaking of that, does that mean Mea is my daughter too?" Tearju reacted once she was addressed, dismissing the possibility of studying Run and Ren.

"I’m not sure. Technically, she uses research data from when you created Yami, which contains your genes, so she could be.

She’s almost as much your daughter as Yami, so you can consider her that if you want, but I really don’t think she’ll consider you her mother" Yuuji denied.

"Eh? Why not?" Tearju asked in confusion, as if she hadn’t learned anything from her previous experience with Yami.

"Unlike Yami, Mea doesn’t even know you. Besides, she’s been influenced from the very first minute by Nemesis’s teachings, a biological weapon created to kill from the beginning"

"I see, but I can still try to convince her, and perhaps Nemesis too"

’Nemesis?’ Yuuji raised an eyebrow skeptically. Mea could be saved, but Nemesis? Perhaps if you were stronger than her, you could defeat her and force her to become a good person, but actually changing her personality or convincing her with words? Impossible.

"If you want to try, do it. But only after we investigate them and help Yami"

From Yuuji’s point of view, what Tearju wanted to do was none of his business, so she could do whatever she wanted, but first he would capture both of them by force so Tearju could do her scientific work and see if she could help Yami.

"Thanks, I’ll at least try. So let’s... Where are they?" Tearju suddenly realized that she had no idea where Mea and Nemesis were.

"I don’t know either. Now it’s your turn" Yuuji explained. "Work with Mona to find out which scientist survived the disaster involving Yami and where he went. Mona will search for all the members you remember"

"Eh? But if you don’t know which scientist escaped or where he went... how would you know that he did in the first place?"

’I based it on memories from when I read the manga and reconstructed the rest based on what I had already investigated about Yami in this world’ Of course, Yuuji couldn’t say that, so he simply gave some excuse.

"A fortune teller told me"

"...What?"

"A fortune teller told me" Yuuji repeated.

"Yuuji, even I wouldn’t believe..."

"Tearju-sensei, you’re wasting time that you could be using to help Yami, you know?" Yuuji reminded her, ignoring her question.

"Ah, you’re right, sorry" Tearju agreed, immediately beginning to describe all the researchers she remembered to Mona.

"Rito, you should treat your elders with more respect. You shouldn’t treat her like an idiot even if it’s to hide your secrets" Clara reprimanded him after witnessing the entire exchange.

"I’ll apologize later" Yuuji shrugged. It wasn’t disrespectful if the other person didn’t perceive it that way. "Anyway, while they’re working on that, let’s look for Yami. Darkness’s only goal is to destroy peace, and with her strength, who knows what kind of problems she could cause"

"Please do" Eicchi nodded. "If Yami destroys a country, it’ll be difficult to cover up"

"It’s a shame we didn’t see where she went, but at least we know she isn’t in Japan"

’Not in Japan?’ Although Yuuji trusted his parents, he still doubted it this time and dialed a number on his phone.

"Hello? Yes, sorry to bother you out of nowhere, but I have a question for you... It’s very important... Have you seen Yami?... Yes, my little sister, blonde, deadly, and she likes wearing black clothes... I understand, thanks for answering anyway... No, it’s not necessary. If you haven’t seen her either, then I don’t think Mikan has seen her... Why? In short, an evil personality awakened and I have to find her and cure her... Yes, don’t worry. Goodbye" Yuuji’s call ended in less than a minute with disappointing results.

"Rito, we told you she wasn’t in Japan, so why are you calling a classmate?" Clara asked, recognizing the voice on the other end of the D-Dial.

"Rito tends to attract trouble, so I wanted to try my luck. Since she isn’t with him, she really shouldn’t be in Japan"

Yuuji explained, although inwardly he felt quite regretful. ’Damn it, if I’d known this was going to happen, I would have waited a little longer before fixing Rito’s fate problem’

[Young Master Yuuji, I located Yami.]

"What? Oh, I’d completely forgotten you existed" Yuuji remembered at Peke’s notification.

[That hurts, even for me.]

"Haha, sorry" Yuuji apologized, embarrassed. "So, where is she?"

...

"Lithuania. What would Yami be doing here?"

[I cannot be certain, but based on her current objectives, her intention could be to blow up the enormous nuclear power plant located in front of you, Young Master Yuuji]

"Have you learned to be sarcastic, Peke?"

[I don’t know what you’re talking about, Young Master Yuuji]

"Fine" Yuuji conceded, deciding not to argue.

Ignoring Peke, Yuuji focused his gaze on the facility in front of them.

"There are two reactors here?" Yuuji raised an eyebrow.

[Yes. The Ignalia Nuclear Power Plant has the two most powerful reactors in human history, with two RBMK-1500s. Almost 50% more powerful than the reactor involved in the famous Chernobyl incident, although the number is not exact since the maximum power was reduced after that incident.

But don’t worry, Young Master Yuuji, one of them was shut down at the end of 2004]

"But the other one is still more powerful than the one at Chernobyl"

[Yes, but it really doesn’t matter. The damage caused at Chernobyl depended on many circumstances, and the fact that the reactor here is more powerful doesn’t necessarily mean that an explosion would result in a worse incident]

’Although being as bad as Chernobyl would already be pretty bad’ Yuuji thought. ’I really don’t know much about nuclear energy, so let’s leave it at that.

Although, technically, one of my jobs should be nuclear technician, but I never learned anything about that’

"Even so, if Yami left so long ago, why hasn’t she destroyed it yet?"

For one thing, Yuuji already thought wanting to blow up a nuclear reactor was rather excessive. In the original story, you could barely say she did anything bad, even when she destroyed some things around the city, so why, when she was the one involved this time, had Yami decided to be smarter?

"Destroying a nuclear reactor is pretty smart, at least more so than just destroying things here and there. It seems Darkness still has Yami’s intelligence, since she studies every day with Mikan under Ruri’s tutoring" As if she had heard his thoughts, Lala expressed her admiration for Yami at that moment, followed by an explanation.

’Okay, so that’s why’ Yuuji had to admit.

"By the way, Yuuji, can you hear it?"

"Yes" Yuuji nodded.

Both of them had superhuman senses, so despite being more than three hundred meters above the facility, they could still hear from the sky what was happening inside. It sounded strange, to say the least, a mixture of meaningless noises.

Wings, screeches, voices, the sound of flesh being pierced, and above all, continuous crying.

Yuuji and Lala exchanged a glance and descended.

They weren’t stopped, as there was no one outside guarding the place, allowing them to enter easily and head toward the source of the noise.

As they made their way through the corridors, everything soon started becoming strange. The walls were destroyed, the lights weren’t working, and there were cracks all over the floor. There were clear signs of fighting, but there was no trace of blood or bodies.

"Strange, no one died?" Yuuji murmured in confusion. ’It’s impossible for ordinary workers to be this strong, right? Darkness is Zastin-level’

"Or perhaps those who died don’t have any blood or corpses" Lala theorized.

Hearing her description, Yuuji suddenly had an idea and felt a headache coming on, but they had already reached their destination, so he had to stop investigating for now.

What was in front of them wasn’t the reactor control room. It wasn’t even a place near the reactor. It wasn’t even an important room, which was strange given Darkness’s intentions at the facility. The room was nothing more than a small, empty white chamber. A broken red light flickered every now and then, illuminating the room and what was happening inside.

In one corner, curled up against the wall with her head hidden between her knees, a young blonde-haired girl was crying.

"Mom... sniff... sniff... I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to do it... Mom... sniff... I’m sorry."

It was only thanks to his enhanced senses that Yuuji could hear her, as everything around them was chaotic.

"Damn it, just hold her already"

"But sir, she..."

"Shut up and go" The first man to speak pushed his companion toward Yami, who was still crying.

"No, I don’t want to! Please, no!"

The young man tried to step backward, but his companions pushed him forward while he desperately screamed.

"...Oh, no" Suddenly, the young man stopped speaking, and his entire body tensed when he noticed that his foot had taken a step backward, entering the one-meter radius around the girl. "Ple..."

Swish!

Before he could even attempt to beg for his life, Yami lifted a strand of her hair and, without even needing to transform it, moved it at such a speed that it was impossible to see, swinging it like a whip and cutting the young man’s body in half.

Before the eyes of Yuuji, Lala, and all his companions, the young man turned to ash before disappearing.

"That damn family. The Yuuji family is going too far!"

"Yeah, do they think they can do whatever they want in this half of Europe? Don’t they know who controls it?"

"Those bastards didn’t even come themselves, they sent their daughter"

As they shouted, they pushed against each other, and some accidentally fell toward Yami. The men who had been shouting moments earlier opened their eyes in panic as they tried to hold onto their companions.

"Damn it, let go of me! I don’t want to die!"

Swing!

Another strand pierced everyone who crossed the one-meter area, and the place fell silent for a second before everyone started shouting indignantly again.

"Damn it, if only it were nighttime"

That was the last piece of information Yuuji needed to understand what was happening.

Beings without corpses who turned to ash, who were stronger at night, and above all, were extremely arrogant and unreasonable. Capable of watching their companions die but starting to complain the moment they realized they weren’t in danger? There was only one race like that.

They were in the territory of the one who ruled half of Europe and had prevented the Yuuji family from expanding into Europe, Dracula.

According to what his parents had told him before, the problem with Dracula wasn’t that he was overwhelmingly powerful, but that the vampire virus connected all its victims and operated through a hierarchy. Dracula could observe every vampire that existed, know what they were doing, and see what they saw. Everyone directly bitten by Dracula could feel and see everything that happened to those bitten by them, as well as those bitten by those who had been bitten by them. And so the chain continued, with each level of the hierarchy being able to know and control everything that happened in the lower hierarchies, while Dracula could control the entire race.

In short, they had absolute unity, which made them extremely troublesome.

The problem was that this also meant Dracula already knew that the daughter of his enemies was here, and he probably wouldn’t take long to send more vampires to cause trouble.

Realizing that he needed to hurry, Yuuji used Earthbending directly, creating an enormous wall that rose from the ground and pushed all the vampires in the room toward the corner where Yami was.

"What’s happening?!"

"No, I don’t want to die! Let me go!"

"Damn... kughhh!"

"I don’t wa... kughhh!!!"

Once the walls reached the one-meter limit around Yami, Yuuji lowered them. There were no vampires left in the room.

"Yuuji, were those vampires? They were pretty weak" Lala commented.

"They’re extremely weak during the day. Don’t worry about that, we need to leave quickly or we could accidentally start a war between the Yuuji family and the vampire nobility" Yuuji explained as he approached Yami.

"Mom... I’m sorry..."

"Yami"

Upon hearing the voice, Yami’s crying finally stopped, and she raised her face. Her eyes, red from crying so much, looked at Yuuji with a gaze filled with guilt.

"Yuuji, I... I’ll kill you!" Although it seemed like she was about to apologize, halfway through her sentence Yami suddenly changed her attitude and attacked Yuuji, transforming her hair into two enormous blades and cutting perpendicularly toward the center, right where Yuuji was standing.

"Divide" Yuuji quickly stole her strength, being at her level, and easily caught both blades. "Yami, listen to me, you have to..."

Yami ignored him and divided her hair into thousands of thin metallic strands that shot toward Yuuji’s body and pierced through him.

Yuuji transformed into a Slime to evade the attack, causing the blades to slip from his hands. They retracted and fused into a huge cannon, which Yami fired toward the retreating blue slime.

Yuuji returned to his normal form, and with a gesture of his hands, the terrain changed. An enormous pillar rose from the ground, pushing Yami back, while a slope rose directly behind her feet, making her stumble. Finally, as she lost her balance, an enormous hand made of earth emerged from the wall and deflected the cannon toward the ceiling.

This entire sequence happened in less than a second, so Yami had no time to react and fired into the sky, piercing through several floors of the ceiling and opening a gap that allowed sunlight to enter, finally illuminating the dark room.

"I don’t think she wants to talk" Lala said upon seeing Yuuji approach.

"Yeah. Since she seemed to be in shock after killing Mom, I thought I could reason with her, but it seems seeing me only made her return to her Darkness state"

"Of course" Yami said with a sadistic smile, having heard him. "You are the highest-priority target to destroy"

After saying that, Yami disappeared, appearing behind Yuuji in the blink of an eye with her hair transformed into two enormous hands that sought to crush him.

"Even the slime can’t escape this" Yami said behind him in a low murmur.

It was true. Even if he turned into slime, that wouldn’t save him from being crushed, but...

"Divide"

With three times Yami’s strength, Yuuji simply extended his arms and caught both enormous hands without any trouble.

Despite being stopped, the hair didn’t retreat. Instead, it advanced, wrapping itself around his arm like a symbiote and moving toward the center until it completely enveloped his arms and pulled outward.

"You don’t... have the strength to do that" Yuuji said, pulling as well to bring his arms together in the center, then pulling hard to bring Yami closer.

"Divide"

Yuuji stole more of her strength, leaving Yami even weaker than her normal form, and hit her in the jaw with a kick that knocked her unconscious.

"That was fast" Lala said in surprise.

"It had to be fast. Fighting in this place is a bad idea. Hopefully defeating her will be enough" Yuuji sighed. "Come on, we have to escape before more problems show up"

Lala nodded and flew behind Yuuji, both of them leaving through the hole Yami had made earlier. Even so, she asked in confusion, "Yuuji, why are vampires so troublesome? Aren’t they pretty weak? Ah, is Dracula going to come personally?"

"No. Dracula isn’t that strong either, and his strength comes from numbers. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to show up" Yuuji denied.

"Then..."

"According to my parents, Dracula controls a number of vampires equivalent to 40% of Western Europe’s population" Yuuji explained before Lala could finish speaking. "Enough to be the president of any country in that area and control almost all of those countries. The worst part is that these millions of vampires are completely loyal to him. He might not be particularly strong on his own, but getting them to turn against Japan and even starting a war isn’t too difficult for him"

"Eh? Yuuji, how the hell does your family still exist?" Lala asked in surprise after hearing that explanation.

"For the same reason Dracula is still alive, because neither side can be sure they can finish off their enemy with a single blow. Attacking the vampire faction is useless if they don’t find Dracula and deal with him. And destroying the Yuuji family is useless if my parents manage to escape. They would become avengers who would pursue Dracula, and he would never feel safe"

"I see. It seems the situation on Earth is pretty complicated"

"Yeah, and that’s even..." Yuuji clicked his tongue, interrupting himself when he saw the tens of thousands of individuals surrounding the nuclear plant, covering the entire sky and ground. "They’re all using their powers under sunlight, so they’re at least Dukes. Looks like we’re going to be here for a while"

"Yuuji, if you don’t mind the chaos, I have an idea"

Yuuji directed his gaze toward Lala, finding the kind of expression she had whenever she wanted to do something she considered fun.

"Chaos, huh?" Yuuji repeated. "Have fun"

"Hehe" Lala smiled in satisfaction and pulled an enormous cylinder out of her D-Dial, making Yuuji and Lala look tiny beside it.

"Heirs of the Yuuji family. As the formal representative of the progenitor of the blood and Original Vampire, my lord Dracula, I am here to request an explanation for the intrusion into his territory, in addition to..." One of the vampires surrounding them took a "step" forward and began speaking grandly.

"What is he saying?" Lala asked in confusion. She understood every word he was saying, but when they were put together, she couldn’t understand what he meant.

"It doesn’t matter. They don’t get out much, so when they can, they’re quite talkative. Ignore them. They didn’t bring 90,000 bloodsuckers here just to talk to us"

Lala raised an eyebrow in confusion but ultimately trusted Yuuji and shrugged before throwing the enormous cylinder she was holding toward the sky. To everyone’s confused gaze except the pink-haired princess, the cylinder rose into the air until it reached an altitude of one kilometer before stopping vertically.

Shaaaa!

The upper and lower sections opened.

From the lower section, a kind of extremely taut, bright pink rope was fired toward the ground, embedding itself into it. Meanwhile, from the upper section, eight ropes thinner than the first shot outward at equal distances, traveling three kilometers before beginning to descend, finally reaching a distance of five kilometers. Once they reached the ground, they tightened just like the first one, forming four semicircles around them.

Finally, a semi-transparent pink energy wall connected them all, forming a barrier.

"I thought you had less ostentatious ways of creating a barrier"

"I do, but this one is special" Lala nodded. "Although I didn’t expect them to simply let me deploy it"

"They haven’t finished their speech yet" Yuuji said, something that even sounded stupid to him. "Anyway, throw the bombs and let’s go"

"Eh? You realized what I’m going to do?" Lala complained upon realizing that he had ruined her surprise.

"You’d have to be stupid not to"

"Moooh, fine" She pouted before taking out several colored spheres and throwing them at the nuclear facilities below. "Let’s see, one normal one, one to increase the reach and range, another to enhance the effect, and another so that it has uniform power instead of splitting up. Good, let’s go"

Lala grabbed Yuuji by the arm and teleported them until they were above the barrier.

"...Lastly, know that resisting is useless, as there is no escape" The vampire at the front finally finished his long speech before looking around in confusion. "Eh? What happened?"

"They... placed a barrier around us and then fled"

"What?! And why did no one act?!"

"Well, your speech was so incredible, sir, that we also became immersed in it and lost track of what was happening around us" the vampire beside him explained with a forced smile.

’Damn it, isn’t it because you’re the only vampire prince here and we can’t even attempt to disobey your orders or we’d die?’ he complained internally.

"I see. Well, since they escaped, I’ll simply return. I only recently became president, so I have to go govern this little country His Majesty Dracula gave me" the old man said without giving the situation much importance. "Break that barrier and let’s go"

’Son of a bitch, so you just wanted to get away alive and continue enjoying your position’

"By the way" the old vampire added, looking toward the young man in front of him with a gaze that made him feel as though he could read all his thoughts. "I entrust you with the task of informing His Majesty of our failure this time"

"What?!"

"Is there a problem?" The older vampire raised an eyebrow.

"O-of course not, my lord"

"Good, now let’s go, I have to..."

Boom!

Meanwhile, Yuuji and Lala were several hundred meters above them, watching with interest.

"What happened? Why didn’t they do anything?"

"Hmm, it seems that the so-called absolute unity and supreme loyalty among the vampire race has some problems" Yuuji said with amusement.

A few seconds later, when the explosion subsided, the barrier surrounding them began to spiral as it reduced its width until it looked like a pole, then it reduced its height as well, becoming the cylinder Lala had thrown at the beginning.

Once its use was complete, it disappeared, immediately returning to Lala’s D-Dial.

But in the area where the nuclear facility had previously stood, there was now nothing but an enormous green meadow.

"What..."

"Tadaaan! Amazing, right? Eco³X, or ExExEx-Kun, can destroy any facility located inside the barrier it creates and eliminate any kind of artificial effect it has caused on the environment. I created it for an ecological fair a few years ago.

"The only flaw is that there can’t be beings with intelligence above a certain level or corpses of such beings inside the barrier" Lala explained excitedly with a proud expression.

"You’re as incredible as always" Yuuji praised her, genuinely amazed. "With so many things, you really don’t have something that can solve their problem right now?"

Yuuji pointed at his younger sister with his chin, he did not do so with his hand because it was holding her unconscious body in his arms.

"Sorry, that’s not my area of expertise" Lala apologized.

’Do you even have an area of expertise?’ Yuuji really wanted to ask, but held himself back.

"That’s a shame. Let’s go home and see if Mona already has some results"

[I have them, sir] Mona interrupted.

"Perfect"

...

"Ninety thousand vampire counts and marquises, that could become a problem later" Clara said with a helpless expression upon hearing about the trouble Yuuji had gotten himself into along the way.

"I thought you said earlier that it wasn’t important?"

"No, no, no. I only told you that you really shouldn’t listen to them when they brag about their rank because they’re all arrogant and every rank likes to feel superior. But vampires have so many ranks that someone can be above ten ranks and still be almost at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Don’t you remember? You replied to me at the time: ’That’s too much to remember, in short, I can kill any rank without worrying’.

I thought you were joking at the time, I didn’t think you would actually do it.

Marquises and counts are rank four, above them there are only vampire princes, vampire elders, and finally Dracula. That millennia-old bloodsucker is definitely going to come looking for trouble sooner rather than later" Clara explained.

"Then... I’m sorry?" Yuuji apologized, feeling that perhaps he had gone a little too far.

"Ahhh, it’s fine" Clara sighed. "You know, this time, if it weren’t because it was necessary for Yami, I really would have punished you. But for now, it’s better that you focus on helping Yami"

"Ma’am" Ruri suddenly appeared beside Clara, carrying Yami in her arms.

"That’s much better" Clara nodded upon seeing the clothes Yami was wearing now, her usual black dress, although not the real one, but one of the many Clara had had made beforehand.

"Was there really a need to waste time on that?"

"It was!" Clara and Ruri answered at the same time.

"I understand that you want to put an end to peace throughout the entire galaxy and all that, but why the hell did you make her wear that outfit? Do you want my daughter to look like an exhibitionist?" Clara complained.

"Exactly" Ruri agreed. "That was more of a thread than clothing. How is it possible that the parts that matter had less fabric than the parts that don’t?"

"Once she wakes up, we’re going to have a very serious talk with her" Clara said, and Eicchi, who was watching from the side, agreed.

’If Yami, who was so sad and felt so guilty about what she did to Mom that she was able to influence Darkness, knew that she was going to be punished not for that, but for the way she dresses, I wonder how she would feel’ Yuuji thought with amusement.

[Yuuji, Tearju sent a message saying she’s ready]

"Finally, let’s go then"

In reality, the idea of dressing Yami was simply something Clara decided to do when she saw her and realized that they had time anyway. The reason Yuuji and Lala were still here waiting was because Tearju had gone to get some equipment from her laboratory that she said she needed or that could help them.

Once she finished there, she could teleport directly to the spaceship, so there was no need to go pick her up.

Finally, Yuuji and Lala said their goodbyes and went to the spaceship, obviously taking Yami with them. Both because leaving her here would be dangerous and because Yuuji was still using her strength at the moment, strength that would be useful against Mea and Nemesis.

"You came, good, let’s go" Tearju said hurriedly as soon as she saw them arrive, taking Yami into her arms. "Are you sure she’s okay?"

"As I told you the other five times, she’s just unconscious" Yuuji told her before turning his gaze toward the uninvited passenger.

Feeling his gaze, the girl spoke in a firm voice and with a determined expression. "Even if I can’t help, I’ll still go. Yami is my best friend and I want to be by her side"

’Rito must have told her’ Yuuji guessed.

"Alright, just don’t do anything dangerous" Yuuji gave in, deciding that he did not want to argue right now.

"Of course! Thank you so much!" Mikan nodded.

With one extra passenger, the spaceship disappeared from Earth, leaving a trail of light behind as it reappeared in starry space.

After going through more than a hundred names, Tearju’s memory was incredible, Mona had finally found one who had fled and had not returned with all the others at the time, accidentally saving himself from being eliminated by Gid.

After tracking his movements for months, before he simply stopped leaving his location entirely, Mona located him on a rather distant planet, one that would take them almost half a day to reach.

Fortunately, Yuuji and Lala had already been traveling for two months, so the journey did not seem boring to them. And because Mikan and Tearju simply kept looking at the unconscious Yami with concern while sharing stories about her, the journey once again felt like it was just the two of them.

By pure coincidence, or perhaps by an arrangement of fate, the last destination of Yuuji and Lala’s journey, which was also an emergency destination, had a rather peculiar name.

"Yuuji, we’ve arrived at Chaos!" Lala informed him several hours later.

"To think that I left Chaos Studios and came to the planet Chaos, maybe chaos follows me?" Mikan murmured while looking out the window.

Perhaps thanks to Ruri teaching her well, despite this being her first time stepping aboard a spaceship, seeing space, and even seeing another planet this close, she continued acting with her usual composure.

Or perhaps it had something to do with her concern for her friend overcoming everything else, or perhaps Ruri really had not taught her anything like that at all and it was simply Mikan’s personality, which consisted of worrying about others while neglecting everything related to her own safety.

"Believe me, if chaos followed anyone here, it would be me" Yuuji laughed.

"While we’re landing, I need to remind you all. Antimatter is dangerous and has properties that invert all kinds of physical laws. While I can reverse this by returning everything around us to normal, it’s not something I can do individually, so always stay close to me" Lala explained, getting everyone’s attention.

Immediately afterward, in front of everyone’s eyes, she put on a black fingerless glove on her right hand, with a black gem placed on the back of her hand. Once she had put it on, she waved her hand and opened and closed her fingers several times, looking for a comfortable position.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

Finally, she snapped her fingers three times rapidly in the air before smiling in satisfaction. "Good, that should be enough"

"Then... let’s get out" she said as the door opened.

"Yes!"

"Let’s go"

"I’m right behind you"

Once the three of them got down, they looked around, all of them equally amazed by the beauty of the place. The place they were in was... chaotic. That was the word Yuuji found to describe it.

There seemed to be light, but it was a cold and gray light that made everything there look the same color, while also reducing the temperature to a point where it was not cold, but there was a constant chill. The place existed in a sort of state halfway between day and night. The planet itself was not particularly large, at most around a thousand kilometers in total circumference around the entire celestial body. On top of that, everything was one enormous modern city in ruins.

The ruins were probably the result of a battle, as there were clear signs of artificial destruction. The most striking thing about this was that many of these pieces of debris and traces of destruction were not on the ground, but floating in the sky as if they had no gravity, completely opposing the planet’s actual gravity, which was similar to Earth’s. On the other hand, there were also occasional craters of different sizes in the ground, but what was strange was that the objects found at their centers were far too small to have been responsible for them.

"What happened here?" Mikan asked, surprised by the place.

Obviously, none of them had an answer for her because they were all equally surprised. But without a doubt, the most surprised were Lala and Tearju.

The princess crouched down and picked up a small stone from the ground, throwing it toward one of the floating pieces of debris. The stone collided with the floating debris and fell naturally to the ground, while the object itself was pushed as if it were a balloon, drifting away from the force.

"Incredible, this is individual physical inversion" the two said in unison.

"What madness, how did they manage this? Antimatter is outside the range of things living beings should be able to control" Lala murmured.

"If they managed to build a being capable of doing this, did they really need me?" Tearju murmured, equally confused.

"If it were truly possible to apply the effects individually, the research direction of antimatter would completely change from weapons to enhanced individuals"

"Ah, Yuuji!" While the two continued looking around in surprise, they were alerted by Mikan’s shout.

She had seen a small floating stone nearby and jumped to try to grab it. However, the moment she touched it, she felt her gravity decrease, and the momentum from her jump caused her to keep rising higher and higher.

"Wait!" Yuuji left Yami on the ground and used the Third Arm Sash to catch her. "Let go of the stone"

Without the stone, Mikan’s weight returned to normal, and Yuuji brought her back down to the ground.

"T-thanks for that" Mikan said gratefully, slightly embarrassed once they placed her on the ground. "Sorry for the trouble"

"It’s..."

"It’s not individual!" Lala shouted, interrupting Yuuji before he could answer. "But how is it possible that there it’s an individual effect while here it’s shared? Could there even be areas where the effect is spread over a larger area or something similar?"

"Even so. This place is extremely important and could be the key to discovering how to use antimatter effectively" Tearju said. "This isn’t a hidden planet. How is it possible that there are no records of such gravitational effects even if nobody knew they were caused by antimatter?"

"Maybe nobody ever made it out alive?" Yuuji theorized.

"Huh? Wouldn’t that be very suspicious? They would have sent someone to investigate"

"Unless the culprit can pretend to be the victim and leave"

"But that wouldn’t work forever" Mikan denied.

"But it would buy them time. Once it becomes too suspicious, they only have to leave"

In reality, in the original storyline, Mea and Nemesis later became bounty hunters like Yami, so it was confirmed that they eventually left the place and lived a life that was not too different from that of fugitives.

"Once we get back, we have to report this immediately, this could revolutionize the... Yuuji!"

"I know!"

Clank!

Halfway through her sentence, Lala saw something and warned Yuuji, but he had already noticed it.

The Third Arm Sash extended and collided head-on with a long red braid being used like a rope that was trying to take Yami away. The sound of fabric and hair colliding produced a metallic sound, demonstrating that neither of them was normal.

"Tsk" Mea clicked her tongue and jumped backward, quickly retreating.

"I wasn’t expecting guests. May I know who you are and what you’re doing here?" Mea asked as if nothing had happened.

"For someone who just tried to kidnap my sister, you’re pretty good at pretending you don’t know anything" Yuuji said.

"I’m sorry about that, she looked like someone I know" Mea smiled.

"What an incredible coincidence" Yuuji smiled as well.

"Yeah, it really is"

Bam!

Even with an innocent smile on her face, Mea disappeared from where she was and appeared behind Yuuji.

Fortunately, Yuuji still had almost all of Darkness’s strength, so reacting to such an attack was easy. Seeing Mea’s movements almost in slow motion, he turned around and delivered a kick that she was unable to dodge, sending her flying hundreds of meters away due to the force.

Mea’s braids transformed into weapons resembling metal grappling hooks with long chains that latched onto the ground and stopped her momentum. Mea was left suspended in the air, and those same hooks swung around through the air, attacking Yuuji in a cross-shaped attack.

"Huh?" Mea blinked in confusion when Yuuji simply disappeared from where he had been.

"Kughhh!" Only for her to feel the full force of his blow against her back the following second, pushing her with such force that she reached the ground before the weapons that had previously been attacking Yuuji.

"Ptooo, ptooo" Mea crashed into the ground and bounced several times over several meters before getting back up and spitting dirt out in annoyance. "Bleh, how disgusting" she said, making a disgusted face.

"What do you want from me? Why do you know Konjiki no Yami? And why are you so strong?" she asked, alternating her gaze between Yuuji and Yami, who was being carried by Tearju at the moment. Upon noticing the golden-haired scientist, her eyes widened in surprise.

"I’m Yami’s older brother. She has a problem, so I came looking for you because you can help me cure her. You don’t need to worry about why I’m so strong"

"Brother?... pffft" Mea, who was still wondering what Tearju was doing there, heard Yuuji’s answer and could not contain her laughter. "You’re not her older brother. I can tell that you’re a real person. And Konjiki no Yami would never join another family"

"Yami is also a real person, so me being a real person doesn’t affect anything. And although the previous Yami wouldn’t have accepted a family, the current Yami has already moved past her past.

But let’s stop talking so much. Actually, I want to talk to Nemesis"

"My master? Why would you want to talk to her?" Mea was surprised. Why would someone who clearly knew Mea and Nemesis want to talk to Nemesis? Did they want to die?

"It’s not that I want to, but you know what she’s like. If I take you to help me, she won’t agree and she’ll cause trouble, so I’d rather beat her up from the beginning and leave her with no other choice"

"You talk as if my master is more of a nuisance than the most dangerous lethal weapon in the universe" Mea frowned, feeling that the person in front of her had far too much confidence.

"If we’re speaking in your terms, the most lethal weapon in the universe is unconscious over there, and I was the one who knocked her out. So I wouldn’t be afraid of your boss" Yuuji shrugged.

"Fine, since you seem to care about... Yami, I’ll do as you say. But don’t blame me if you end up dead"

Upon hearing her answer, Yuuji was quite surprised. She was much easier to deal with than in the Anime, where Mea was basically a conspirator, but he supposed that was because this was happening earlier. Of course, the fact that she could not defeat Yuuji and knew nothing about him, while he seemed to know her well, could also be part of the reason why she was so easy to deal with. Finally, the fact that she wanted to see him get beaten up by Nemesis might have influenced her a little as well.

Even so, Yuuji did not spend too much time thinking about it before moving.

Mea covered herself, believing it was a surprise attack, but then saw Yuuji return with Lala at his side and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Seriously? You brought your girlfriend?"

"Yuuji, I thought you had forgotten about me" Lala said.

"Of course not, I’ll need you in a moment" Yuuji told her before looking back at Mea. "We can start"

"...Whatever" Mea said, deciding not to think about it too much. But while she appeared quite calm on the outside, inside was another matter.

’Master, that’s what they said, come out and beat them up. You have to avenge me’

’Are you crazy?!’ A voice echoed loudly in her mind, confusing her.

’Huh? Master, what’s wrong? Although that person who claims to be Konj... Yami’s older brother defeated me, I don’t think he’s stronger than you, right?’ Mea asked in confusion. ’After all, nobody can stand against your dark matter’

’Nobody except her. Do you know who she is?’

’This... should I know her?’

’Damn it, this is the result of my poor upbringing’ Nemesis lamented. ’Lala Satalin Deviluke, the first princess of Deviluke and the entire Milky Way. And as if the importance of her title alone weren’t enough, she’s also the best inventor in the galaxy. Listen, I’m barely stronger than you, and the reason for my greater strength comes from my control over antimatter.

But she’s Lala Satalin Deviluke. If my control over antimatter counts as a unique power, then she has thousands of unique powers and creates a new one every week’ Nemesis explained.

’Huh? She’s that dangerous? Then, we’re not going to fight?’

’What’s there to fight about? Judging by Tearju being here, she’s telling the truth about Konjiki no Yami having a problem. She’s also important to us, so just help them...’

Halfway through her sentence, Nemesis stopped upon noticing something about Yami.

"Master? What happe... arghhh!" Mea, who was initially surprised by her master’s sudden silence, fell to the ground clutching her head while groaning in pain.

She soon fell silent as her body began to change. It shrank by several centimeters, changing from her adolescent height to that of a child. Her body also regressed in age until she became the figure of a young girl. Her skin darkened, becoming brown. Her hair became straight and long, turning dark brown, and her eyes became dark golden.

As soon as she appeared, she extended her arm without saying a word, and Yuuji and Lala’s bodies became extremely heavy, even beginning to crush the ground beneath them due to their weight, while the increased gravity around them kept them immobilized.

"You! What did you do?! It’s impossible for Darkness to be defeated! She’s the ultimate weapon, the absolute destroyer of all peace in the universe, she can never be defeated!

Impossible! My entire life’s goal is to manifest her. How can it be possible that she has already manifested and they even defeated her? No, it’s not possible. It’s not possible! IT’S NOT POSSIBLE!!

...Ah... I understand now... that’s it. It’s you" Nemesis looked at Yuuji with a gaze devoid of any light. "You’re related to someone I killed before, aren’t you? Yes, that must be it. This whole thing is an act to avenge yourself. Too bad for you, haha, I didn’t fall for your act. Tell your girlfriend that she can undo whatever she did, I already know that’s not Darkness"

"Yuuji, she..." Lala murmured, somewhat frightened by her reaction.

"Don’t feel bad for her. Although she lost her reason to live, her reason to live from the beginning included turning the entire universe into a dystopia" Yuuji reminded her. Although he also had not expected to see Nemesis act like that so suddenly, remembering her original goals made any trace of pity he might have felt for her quickly disappear.

"Lala"

"Y-yes, sorry" At Yuuji’s words, Lala quickly recovered and snapped her fingers.

Snap!

Immediately, the pressure of gravity and the weight of both of them returned to normal. Yuuji held Lala and attacked Nemesis, moving at a speed impossible to follow with the naked eye.

But just as his fist was about to connect, Nemesis’s body expelled a repulsive force that pushed Yuuji away and continued moving him several dozen meters through the air until Lala snapped her fingers again.

Snap!

"What was that?"

"She simply inverted all of our momentum and then inverted any kind of friction, removing it from the equation. It’s... fascinating"

"Is it possible to do that?"

"I... don’t know. Current research has only led to the discovery that antimatter could invert gravity and weight, but it’s estimated that this is less than 5% of what is actually possible to do with it" Lala explained.

Before Yuuji could say anything else, they felt the same force as before, being pulled toward Nemesis this time, while she turned her hair into two enormous clawed hands to attack them.

Snap!

Lala snapped her fingers just in time for them to regain control of their bodies and barely dodge the attack.

Before they could celebrate, both of their bodies became extremely light and rose several meters before the opposite happened, slamming them hard against the ground.

This happened at full speed several times until Lala finally snapped her fingers.

Snap!

"Uff, that was dangerous" Lala said, composing herself.

"Why?! Why?! Why?! Why won’t you just die already?! Why won’t you undo this illusion?! I already know everything is fake, it makes no sense!! Don’t you understand? It makes no sense? Stop doing this!"

"It’s not fake, Nemesis. Trying to activate Darkness makes no sense" Yuuji replied.

"You say it makes no sense?! That the very purpose of my entire life makes no sense?! Is that what you’re saying?!"

"Nemesis, you can find another meaning for your life. One that perhaps doesn’t involve the deaths of billions?" Lala said, trying to make her see reason.

"Shut up! What do you know?! You don’t understand anything! You were loved from the moment you were born! Unlike me, whom nobody ever wanted!

I... I... That’s... physical, tangible strength? Are you taking it from Darkness?" Nemesis suddenly realized before laughing, interrupting everything she had been saying. "Hehehe, so that’s how it is"

Nemesis extended her arm toward the space separating Yuuji and the unconscious Yami and clenched her fist tightly.

Yuuji looked at his own body in surprise, noticing that it was beginning to lose the strength he had stolen, and that it was returning to Yami.

"Hehe, you’re not so strong now, are you? I knew it, Darkness is so powerful, the ultimate weapon, how could she be defeated by a nobody? Hahaha, now... cough... cough"

Nemesis saw her speech interrupted by a sudden cough, followed by a black liquid substance coming out from inside her.

"Divide"

"It doesn’t matter. It’s fine, as long as Darkness lives, I..." Nemesis stopped again and looked at Yuuji in surprise.

"What did you just do?"

"Isn’t it obvious? You returned my strength to Yami, so I stole yours" Yuuji replied, trying to attack again, still without success. He was completely repelled once again by Nemesis.

Unfortunately, he did not steal her control over antimatter, so it accomplished little besides angering Nemesis.

"No! It’s mine! My power! It’s mine alone!"

She said as she tried to reclaim her power. But this time it was more difficult than the last, every opening on her face began bleeding a black substance due to the exertion.

"Stop, you’ll die!" Yuuji shouted at her. Even without understanding antimatter, he still understood what was happening to her.

"It doesn’t matter. As long as I can free Darkness from the problem that you are, she will be able to unleash her full potential. She will be the perfect being, she will reach the epitome of life" Nemesis said with a fanatical expression.

"...That’s it" she suddenly said. "Life"

She looked at Lala with a sadistic smile. "You can have thousands of strange devices, you can reverse whatever you want, you might even have a resurrection device. But you can’t stop this"

Nemesis stopped trying to reclaim her power and instead extended her index finger toward Yuuji.

"Kughhh!" Yuuji suddenly spat blood and fell to the ground, barely managing to remain on his knees.

"Yuuji!" Lala quickly knelt beside him and tried to help him, but no matter how many different artifacts she brought out, none of them worked.

Snap! Snap! Snap!

"Why isn’t it working? Yuuji, are you..." Lala did not continue speaking because Yuuji had suddenly lost consciousness. "No, no, no, wait, I’ll find a way to heal you"

"Hehehe, it won’t work, Princess Lala. You... have no idea what antimatter is. You think it’s simply another element you haven’t managed to understand. But the truth is, antimatter doesn’t even belong to our spectrum of reality, it’s an error that should never have ended up in our world.

Just as there is the world we can see, there are thousands of other spectra that we cannot, and antimatter belongs to one of them, one where absolutely everything works in reverse. What you call controlling antimatter is nothing more than using that error to connect something to that other place.

Do you understand, Princess? He’s not dying, quite the opposite, his life is synchronizing with another spectrum of reality that we can’t even see. One where death is life. If you can’t even see that place... how could you save him?"

After saying this, Nemesis collapsed face-first onto the ground, barely able to move her head toward them to laugh.

"...Why? Is it really worth dying just so Darkness can succeed?" Lala asked.

"Hehe, Darkness is me, and I am Darkness. I was abandoned before I was even born, labeled as an error. Don’t you understand? Once Darkness succeeds, that will prove that I’m not an error, that my life has meaning, that there really was a genuine reason for me to be abandoned. Darkness is a perfect being, being abandoned so that something like this could be created is... at least... that at least... would have some meaning... Kuuu!"

Taking advantage of her weakness, Tearju stabbed a needle into Nemesis’s neck, rendering her unconscious instantly.

"Quick, heal him!" Tearju urged the stunned Lala.

Lala did not even answer before trying all the previous artifacts again, but this time she only needed the first one before it began healing Yuuji.

"...Am I still alive?" After a few seconds, he opened his eyes. "I could have sworn I was still kneeling, but the next second I lost consciousness"

"Yuuji! Are you okay!" Lala exclaimed happily, hugging him. "You can rest for now, we’ll take care of the rest. We need to give you a complete examination just in case"

"No, I need to..." Trying to stand, Yuuji almost fell back down if Lala had not caught him. "Thanks for that"

"Yuuji, you need to rest. Even if your body has already physically recovered, that doesn’t eliminate the physical and mental exhaustion from almost dying" Lala explained worriedly.

"I know, but... Divide. If she woke up, it would be a problem. Besides, that already made me feel a little better"

If Darkness woke up, it would be a dangerous situation, so Yuuji prioritized stealing her strength again. This also caused the strength stolen from Nemesis to return to her, making what had seemed like a completely dead body at least begin breathing weakly but steadily again.

"How did you manage to defeat her?" Yuuji asked curiously, although he knew Nemesis could control antimatter, the truth was that he had no idea her ability was so disastrous and insane, capable of doing so many strange things. He also had not expected Nemesis to be willing to die just to kill him.

"It’s an inhibitor designed to shut down artificial beings that I create. You never know what might happen"

"Is it powerful enough to stop Nemesis?"

"It’s more that Nemesis’s level isn’t that high, she just has an absurdly powerful ability.

Besides, my purpose in creating artificial beings is for them to become real people, so as they evolve, the artifact would eventually stop working quickly, meaning it’s not particularly useful. But Mea’s technological level is... rather primitive, and she was already quite weak, so it worked" Tearju explained.

"I see. Well, good thing you brought that or I would have died" Yuuji smiled. "Oww"

"Yuuji, don’t joke about that" Lala scolded him, hitting him on the shoulder.

"Alright, sorry. I don’t want to almost die again either, if that helps. Let’s return to the ship and see what we can do"

...

"Yuuji, I’m sorry. In the end, I couldn’t help at all and could only stand there watching while you got hurt" Mikan apologized once they were on the ship.

Yuuji simply dismissed her apology with a wave of his hand.

"Don’t say stupid things. I’m the one who should apologize, if I had known it was so dangerous, I wouldn’t have let you come in the first place. I put you in a really dangerous situation there"

"N-no, of course not. You were the one in danger, you don’t need to apologize" Mikan immediately said.

"How horrible" Tearju said, bringing her hands to her face in shock, causing Mikan and Yuuji to stop talking and look over as well.

They were in the ship’s medical room, and both Yami and Mea were there. Nemesis’s body had returned to Mea’s form after being unconscious for a while.

Tearju was looking at some X-rays she had taken of Mea with enough horror that Yuuji, Lala, and Mikan approached to look as well.

"She’s crazy" Mikan murmured after seeing it.

"At this point, she’s basically a hollow structure. Her entire interior was completely destroyed by antimatter. The mere fact that she’s still alive is proof of the incredible technological level she possesses" Lala said.

"Yeah, although compared to Yami it’s nothing, she’s still something created using the Golden Inventor’s experimental data, after all" Yuuji agreed.

"Haha, you’re embarrassing me" Tearju said, scratching the back of her neck in embarrassment before suddenly reacting. "No, wait, this isn’t the time to think about that. Lala, I need your help, if she stays like this, she’ll die soon"

"Of course, helping my idol is something I’ve always wanted to do" Lala immediately nodded and went to help her.

While Lala took care of repairing Mea based on Tearju’s data, Tearju herself investigated ways to help Yami. After all, if Darkness and Yami woke up at the same time, it would be a huge problem.

After a while, Tearju and Lala decided to put a simple additional modifier on Nemesis so she would not be able to use her abilities, similar to handcuffs for abilities.

"Yuuji, should we really help our enemy who almost killed you?" Mikan asked as she watched the two of them work once she saw that Mea was already fine.

"Neither of them are the type to care about that, after all" Yuuji sighed, also doubting whether it was a good idea.

"Mea is a good girl who was simply influenced in the wrong way by Nemesis, she even cooperated with us before" Tearju said. "As for Nemesis, it’s not her fault"

"It’s not her fault? She seemed pretty aware of what she was doing while trying to kill me" Yuuji raised an eyebrow.

"I know, but you heard her. She’s just a poor abandoned girl trying not to feel like one. Everything she did, she did because she wanted to feel that there was a reason why she was abandoned beyond simply not being wanted"

"First of all, that’s a pretty massive reduction of her actions and motives. Second, it doesn’t matter, there is no justification for wanting to harm innocents. Even the most exaggerated stories of revenge draw the line at taking revenge on the guilty. Once you cross the line and want to harm innocents, you’re the guilty one" ℴ

"But... in the end, she didn’t hurt anyone, right?"

"What about all the other people who approached that planet before?"

"Then, at the very least, she deserves a chance. I think if she’s given the opportunity, she’ll be able to regret her actions and finally correct herself" Tearju insisted.

"...Fine" Yuuji sighed, finally giving in.

"Really?" Tearju asked excitedly.

"In the end, I’m not the one in charge... yet. And if I didn’t agree anyway, what’s the other option? Kill her? I’m not going to do that.

But if you truly believe she can change, then you need to find a way to keep her under control until that happens. You need someone who can contain her and also guide her, because I assure you, a normal prison won’t keep her contained, and if she escapes, she’ll keep trying to accomplish her goal without changing anything" Yuuji explained.

Of course, he did not have any good feelings toward Nemesis after she had almost killed him, but he also did not want to seek justice through his own hands.

But although his words were reasonable in theory, putting them into practice would be almost impossible, causing Tearju to remain silent for a while, having no idea what to do.

"Huh? Is there anywhere like that? You couldn’t even defeat her, right? And I don’t think people stronger than you would want to work as children’s disciplinarians.

Maybe I just need someone strong and I’ll take care of the correction? Mmm, although I don’t think it would have the same effect. What am I going to do?"

"About that, I have an idea" Mikan raised a hand, unsure whether she should intervene.

"You do? Please tell me" Tearju immediately clung to her words, as if she were the only ray of light in an infinite darkness.

"A-ah, it’s just an idea, so I’m not sure if it’ll work, but... what if she becomes a servant in Deviluke?"

"Oh, that’s a great idea. My father is always happy when someone strong joins him, and I don’t think Nemesis can defeat him. Besides, as the ruler of the Milky Way, obviously Gid wouldn’t let her cause chaos throughout it!" Lala immediately expressed her agreement.

"B-but can someone really just enter like that and become a servant?"

"Obviously not, but you’re forgetting who I am. My father would never refuse a request from his daughter" Lala said, proudly puffing out her chest.

"Ah, in that case, please" Tearju bowed. "And thank you too, Mikan, for the idea"

"It’s nothing, it was just an idea"

’Now that I remember, Nana was responsible for changing Mea’s mentality in the original storyline, so it’s a good idea. As for Nemesis, that’s Gid’s problem’ Yuuji thought with an amused smile as he imagined the headache Nemesis would be for Gid before making a bewildered expression. ’How strange, I feel like I’m forgetting something’

"By the way, shouldn’t you be here talking instead of over there with Yami and Mea?"

"Oh, Mea was easy to fix with Lala’s devices and my guidance" Tearju explained naturally. "As for Yami, she’s already been dealt with"

"Huh? That easy?" Yuuji was surprised.

"Yes, Mea is almost literally a replica of Yami in terms of Hardware and Software. And Nemesis is the prototype of Darkness.

So the Mea/Nemesis relationship is almost identical to the Yami/Darkness relationship. With the exception that while in the first case they are two personalities, Darkness isn’t actually an extra personality, she’s more of a... personality?

Aaaah, I know it sounds strange. But think of Mea and Nemesis as two distinct identities that can control the body, and, in very broad terms, this is also the easiest way to understand a personality disorder. But Darkness is still Yami, just with another personality. Although I’m using the same word here, she’s not changing her identity, she’s not changing who controls the body, she’s simply changing every aspect of her personality, causing her goal to become destroying all peace.

This is also the reason why she attacks her close ones and nearby places first instead of focusing on the entire universe, because since she’s not another personality, Darkness’s actions depend on what Yami considers to be peace"

"I understand more or less. So, if I had to guess, you removed that part and made Yami retain control in both forms, right?"

"Exactly!" Tearju immediately nodded. "It was pretty easy, but I couldn’t have known about this if I hadn’t seen how the Mea/Nemesis relationship works in her mind"

"Then it was worth almost dying" Yuuji sighed in relief.

...

"...Yuuji" After a few hours, Yami woke up. She could have done so earlier, but Lala had been making sure she did not, something she no longer needed to do now that Darkness was no longer a problem.

"Yami, you finally woke up! Are you okay?" As soon as she woke up, Mikan hugged her, relieved to see that she was fine.

"Mikan, what are you doing he..." Yami remembered something halfway through her sentence and lowered her head. "Yuuji..."

"Mom is fine, don’t worry about that" Yuuji interrupted her.

"Huh? But I..."

"I used an ancient artifact to resurrect her."

"...An ancient artifact? Why do humans have such strange things?" Yami said, wanting to complain but unable to hide her smile. "That’s good"

"Yeah, although she’s going to scold you quite a bit"

"I deserve it after..."

"Ah, it’s not because of that" he interrupted her again. "It’s because of your clothes. You know what parents are like with the clothes their children wear, and yours crossed the line by a lot"

"But it was like a swimsuit? It looked really cool and evil" Yami said in confusion.

"Wait, you chose to wear that?" Yuuji realized.

"Yes. I simply felt the urge to destroy the universe and all peace. But I was still myself. I thought that if I was going to do bad things, I should dress accordingly"

"You know, Yami? At this point, I can’t defend you anymore"

"???" Yami tilted her head in confusion, not understanding what was wrong with that. Although she would find out later and never forget it again.

"Who is she?" she asked, changing the subject.

"You can consider her your younger sister, she has a situation similar to yours, so we went to see if she could help you" Yuuji explained.

"I see. Then I should thank her"

"No, no, no. It’s best if you don’t interact with her for now" Yuuji immediately stopped her.

"Why?"

"Because she’s evil. She almost killed me a few hours ago"

"I see" Yami nodded without changing her expression much. "Then I should kill her"

"Neither" Yuuji stopped her again.

"Yuuji, you’re confusing. Why shouldn’t I kill someone who almost killed my brother?" Yami asked, frowning.

"What Yuuji means" Mikan intervened, "is that Mea is quite dangerous but she has a reason for it, so perhaps there’s a way to make her reconsider"

Mikan explained the situation involving Mea and Nemesis to Yami.

"When can I visit her?" she asked Lala.

"You can go whenever you want. Knowing how strict my father is, you can go in a month and she should already be more cooperative, at least"

"Then thank you" Yami said, even though she still did not actually know either Mea or Nemesis.

"Mnnmh. Where am I?"

"Looks like there’s no time, you two catch up in the meantime" Yuuji quickly intervened, taking Lala and Mea with him as he left the place.

"Yamiii, thank God you’re okay. I was so worried" Once they had left, Tearju could no longer hold herself back and hugged her daughter while crying. If Yami had needed to breathe, she might have suffocated.

"Mom, you’re annoying" Yami managed to say, though she did not push her away.

’First an annoying mother, then a brother, and now an equally complicated sister. This is more chaotic than when I was a bounty hunter’ Yami thought with a smile.

...

On a cliff high enough that the rain could not affect him, a young-looking man with black hair stared into the distance without any particular objective.

The calm was interrupted by a sudden noise behind him, making him frown.

"Dad, here you are. We went to the throne room and Mom told us you were here. I need to ask you a favor" Lala said as soon as she appeared.

"A favor from you? Go ahead" Gid said, intrigued. If he had to list all the things his daughters had asked of him, Lala’s name would have stopped appearing on the list many years ago.

Lala smiled and pushed the nervous Mea in front of Gid.

"I want you to make her a servant of the castle. She’s very strong, so she needs to always stay close to someone who can easily defeat her, which is why we brought her here. Besides, she likes causing trouble, so she needs some correction" Lala explained.

"Lala, it’s not that si..."

"Thanks, Dad, bye-bye" Without letting him finish speaking, Lala and Yuuji disappeared from the place, leaving nothing but the king and the frightened red-haired girl behind.

Gid exhaled helplessly and looked at the girl in front of him with a raised eyebrow. "So... you’re supposed to be strong and you want to cause trouble?"

"N-no, Your Majesty. I would never... Die!"

Halfway through her sentence, Nemesis took control and inverted Gid’s life.

"Mmm? I see, two entities in one body, you must be the troublesome one then. By the way, thanks for the massage, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt one that good"

"W-what? Massage? How are you fine after the antimatter? No, I’m fine too, my power simply can’t penetrate your skin. What kind of absurd defense would you need for that?"

"So it’s antimatter, no wonder. As for my defense, I don’t know. I once reached the limit of what this galaxy can withstand, and it didn’t keep increasing after that, so just round the number around there."

"Limit of..."

"Well, you talk a lot. At least you can give good massages, so having you as a maid isn’t a waste, but first you need to learn to respect your employers.

I know"

With an idea in mind, Gid appeared behind Nemesis at a speed she couldn’t even react to and threw her off the cliff with all his strength.

"Eh? Wa-waaaaaait!" Nemesis screamed as she fell and disappeared among the clouds.

"Your Majesty, are you sure this is okay?" Zastin asked, appearing beside him.

"She should be able to use that ability to survive," Gid replied with complete confidence.

"That’s not what I mean, sir. I mean taking responsibility for looking after her, isn’t that basically Yuuji Rito dumping his problems on you?" Zastin explained.

"Hahaha, of course it is" Gid laughed with amusement. "But both you and Yuuji forgot something. It won’t even be a year before this position changes owners and that girl becomes his problem again"

Zastin, realizing it once Gid reminded him, smiled with amusement just like his king.

...

"We’re back on Earth" Yuuji said, stretching once he touched solid ground.

"Yeah, and this time we won’t be leaving for a while" Lala nodded. "Everything is back to normal"

Yuuji looked around for a moment. Yami was being scolded by her parents, Tearju was watching from the side, and Rito had come to pick up Mikan.

But Run and Haruna had come with Rito, which meant Yui had come with Run, and Risa and Mio had come with Haruna as well.

"Rito, your mother asks if, since all your friends are here, we should have a small celebration party for your return and Lala’s, as well as Yami’s safe return" Ruri said, suddenly appearing like a ninja.

"What does she consider small?" Yuuji asked.

"A banquet with all the food on the planet, so you can remember what home tastes like"

"Sounds fun, let’s do it" Lala replied, raising her hand before Yuuji could answer. "I haven’t cooked like this in two months, so I’m excited"

As Lala ran off excitedly, the sky suddenly darkened with no fewer than one hundred thousand winged people in suits.

"Yuuji family, you dared to attack our territory and thought you would get away with it?!" shouted the one at the front in the sky.

"Hey, mosquitoes, can’t you see we’re going to have a party for my son’s friends? Come tomorrow" Clara complained as green energy surrounded her hands.

The energy surrounded several vampires and compressed them until they died.

"Get lost!"

"What disrespect toward this old man! Attack!" shouted the vampire who had spoken earlier, offended.

Immediately, a fight broke out between both sides.

"Yeah, we’re back to normal" Yuuji sighed.

______________________________________

+10 Chapters in advance on Patreon.

p-atreon.com/IAMME26

(just delete the hyphen)

80 power stones = 1 extra Chapter (cumulative)