That Goes for Me Too
"...So, you're saying the wish would turn Kiki Island's time back? To when your family was still alive."
"Yeah..."
Having bared her soul down to the rock bottom, Alice nodded with a hand pressed to her forehead. Talking about the present and the past like that, I couldn't help thinking of him.
He always told me to move forward. I never understood it back then, but he valued the present and the future far more than the past.
Of course, Alice clung to her past — but she wasn't trying to throw away her present either.
'Unlike me.'
"But is there really any need to turn it back? If your family is the goal, wouldn't it be better to just save them alone?"
"If it were just about saving them, I wouldn't have bothered making a wish in the first place."
Alice stared blankly at the ceiling, her eyes slowly brightening as if retracing an old memory.
"I still remember it like it was yesterday. Back then, we were happy even without blessings, without any of this money-making. I want that time back. Not just the people — the situation itself."
"......"
"Is that too much to ask?"
Turning back time. Returning to the past. Obviously impossible — and yet, precisely because of that, this might actually be doable.
'If it's limited to Kiki Island alone.'
Tear the resort off the island and restore it to what it once was. Wipe the islanders' memories back to that point in the past. And since there was no way the people could have died to the Celestials and Demons, bring every last one of them back, whole and complete.
...Do that, and Kiki Island would return to the past.
Of course, that wouldn't truly be going back. Put it in book terms, it would be like the scene where a regression begins. No matter how loudly someone declares their regression on page twenty, the story doesn't return to page one — it flows on into page twenty-one.
Kiki Island, likewise, would simply unfold into a new future modeled on the shape of its past.
'If you're being pedantic, it'd be like an IF story, I guess.'
"It wouldn't be impossible."
An ordinary person looking at that might genuinely think, 'I really did go back in time!' From the perspective of someone being carried along, there'd be no way to tell whether the page read twenty-one or one. If it felt like page one to them, then for all intents and purposes, that world was page one.
But I was different.
I felt, with a vicious, gnawing clarity, that the page had merely turned.
More precisely — I couldn't not feel it.
'That wretched blood.'
The blood of the Celestials makes you see what you never needed to see, and feel what you never needed to feel. These newly-made ones imitate the people I hold dear, but I know.
'They are not the same beings. Not even close.'
No matter how hard you brainwash yourself, a fake is a fake.
"...They do say ignorance is bliss."
"H-huh?"
"Nothing."
"You seemed... really serious just now."
"Oh, I am serious."
Dead serious, in fact.
"I was just weighing the price for kidnapping Lily Elbrit's precious people."
What would be an appropriate price to extract? Especially considering they'd gone and ruined my vacation.
Crack.
Crackle, crumble... The strawberry badge shattered to pieces in my hand.
For some reason, that made me even angrier.
Kiki...?
"Th-the blessing...!"
Alice recoiled in horror. The three Rildongbu members, who had kept quiet this whole time, were no better.
"B-boss...?"
"The hammer."
"Pardon?"
Clank.
"I'm in the mood to swing it."
Looked like I had no choice but to bring it down on someone.
The White Savior requests salvation (physical)!!
"...Our condolences."
KA-BOOOOM...!!!
"Are you insane?"
"Whoa."
The island shook to its core. A massive tremor rattled the whole landmass, and beneath the banana statue — their destination — the underground began warping like something gone mad.
Psshhh...
Mana-soaked rock crumbled to sand at the mere touch of the shockwave. The Blessed One swallowed hard.
"...We are so, so screwed."
"Why is she this furious?"
"...If you have to ask why she's angry after a kidnapping, the question itself is the problem, no?"
"No, look at this."
Crere switched the screen. In a single instant, the shattered statue had been split open, and a woman in pure white had come down to sit right on top of it.
Deep, dense killing intent bled from the woman's blue eyes. Worse, the statue itself had been forged by one of the Great Races — solid enough that even Crere striking it wouldn't have left a scratch.
"I mean, this isn't even reality. There's no reason to be THAT angry."
"Don't know, damn it. Handle it yourself. I can't hold out."
"Layer an illusion at the entrance and go. I'll handle the rest."
Feeling the underground collapsing around him, the Blessed One laid out the most powerful illusion he could manage right at the entrance. Casting it after she appeared would be too late — a Lily already at full fury would rip his head off the moment she spotted him.
Pre-laying it was inefficient, but it was the only way...
Tap.
A pure white foot stepped through the illusory entrance.
'She's caught!'
But the thought died the instant it was born. Lily frowned briefly, then simply swept the illusion away as if brushing off a bug.
"Unbelievable..."
She shook that off like it was nothing—
"No regrets, right?"
"W-wait—"
CRUNCH!
The Blessed One was crushed flat under a pure white hammer and vanished on the spot.
The moment the hammer came down, two people registered in Lily's eyes. With a flash of light, she smashed straight through the bars and gathered them up.
KOOOM! KOOOM!
The underground was caving in. Debris rained down, but Lily looked up at the sky without a trace of fear.
Falling rubble was no concern to begin with — and with her current blessing, Kiki, luck itself was assisting her. She could raise all the hell she wanted and not so much as singe a hair.
"You care more than I gave you credit for, huh?"
Flutter. Light poured into the ruined underground, and there stood a man bathed in brilliance. Behind him unfolded blessing after blessing.
"Crere."
"I don't understand why you bothered scheming to stall for time. You could have just left the bars and called it done."
She raised the hammer. Crere hid behind his blessings and thrust out his hand.
Zap! A verdant bolt of lightning swallowed Crere's left hand whole, erasing it.
And then, into the clear sky, a god robed in verdant light descended.
"The Great Gate shall open."
The Great Gate shall open.
The gate of the Altar opened.
The Great Races numbered six in total. Each of them held a unique authority, and gathering the powers of all of them would grant an audience with a special being who could make wishes come true.
"......"
Alice had told me about the Great Altar. It was where the Great Races lived. Step inside, and you risked unstable power, the constant danger of having your blessings stolen — but there was one good thing about it.
'It means I get to meet them, doesn't it?'
"There you are."
Kiki. I had come face to face with the race that had granted me my blessing.
The entity whose location I'd known and nothing else turned out to be a slot machine half my size. Displaying a gleaming 777, it spun happily in circles around me.
Beyond it stood Crere. The races numbered four in total. I'd already hammered down the illusion-wielding user — though come to think of it, he'd died on his own before my strike ever landed, as if he'd made some kind of contract. He'd probably been planning for this outcome from the very beginning.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Applause echoed through the color-streaked, empty space.
"To witness the great Lily here of all places. What an honor."
"Can you actually bear the consequences? Your resort's owner just kidnapped and assaulted a guest."
Dungeon or not, Kiki Island was one of Deoen's top three commercialized tourist destinations. Coming out like this amounted to throwing away everything they'd built.
Kuk.
Kukukuku... KWAHAHAHA!!!
Crere burst into deranged laughter. What was wrong with him?
"Ahh... you just say exactly what you're thinking, don't you?"
Worry not.
Behind Crere, the Great Races each began spewing forth their blessings. Perhaps because this was an island, because this was inside the Altar, the pressure was staggering. It was power weighty enough to be a genuine threat.
"Here, you'll lose your blessings — and you'll never be able to speak of me again."
Kiki!
The slot machine flared with rage and pressed itself flat against my side. But outnumbered, it was already growing fainter. If this went on, my luck would be stolen too.
"This is a mental world, driven by willpower, not physical ability. Even someone as exceptional as you can't use that magnificent strength here."
"......"
"And before you ask — yes, the same goes for me. But behind me stand four races, each with outstanding willpower and a lofty standing."
Snick.
"Your luck, on the other hand, merely raises fortune. Zero combat power, mediocre willpower."
KIKI!!
"Luck that can't even talk. All it does is eat fuel. I agonized over who to bring along, and honestly, I'm relieved it turned out this—"
"Willpower, you say..."
Ah.
"...Huh?"
Kiki...?
Pure white wings unfurled.
The scale and majesty were on a different dimension entirely from the wings I'd spread on the Snowy Mountain. The space around me warped, and something descended, asserting its presence upon the world itself.
A pristine white ring settled softly above my head. A divinity so vast that no comparison was possible wrapped around my entire body.
Under the aftershock of that overwhelming power, Crere and the races scrambled backward.
But this wasn't the end.
"Pharaoh."
A hand of golden stone tore through the fabric of dimension and thrust its way out. From within the Void Space, an ancient monster that had once conquered an entire desert revealed itself.
The great emperor who had spent thousands of years in a world of the mind.
"What in the blazes are these trash heaps?"
"Adorable little darlings, aren't they?"
The statue had granted me a portion of itself. That portion had moved at my will, and in the next breath, transformed into the golden hammer that symbolized the emperor himself.
Whuum.
It had been a while for this, too.
"Th-that's impossible..."
"Weren't you the one saying I'd never be able to speak of this again?"
Same goes for me.
Grind... grind... As if unable to accept the presence within it, the Great Altar began to crack apart. Tens of thousands of golden soldiers, spilling out of nowhere, flooded the space to its every corner.
And the master of it all —
I, Lily Elbrit, declared:
Ah, and don't worry your pretty head about it.
Even if the wish itself can't make it so —
"I'll make it so myself."