Chapter 317 - Tokyo from Future Past

“Guys, you’re not going to believe what we found,” was the first thing I said after calling everyone for a conference.

Each Electi and their Master had gathered at the royal castle of Sistina.

Eryn and Cornelius sat side by side, next to Katalina and I – almost as if we had partner swapped between summoner and hero. Saki and Ludmila were together, the orphaned Electi of Sistina.

From Sanshiro, Lady Kaguya had her guardians at her side, eager to find out more about what secrets this world had in store. And across from them, Lau and the young ones – Chrys and Yi Long – had an expression of worry that our hard-fought peace would soon be disrupted again.

Finally, Koujiro sat at the end of the table, the sole Electi of Macali, along with Relia, the Master within his wives.

The jumbled thoughts that Koujiro and I had after visiting the ruins in the Forbidden Lands warranted such a summons. And as I told them about the all-too-well-known city in our past worlds, the otherworlders simply fell silent in surprise.

Koujiro and I had landed in what appeared to be the electric town of Tokyo. And as we glided through the streets, Koujiro pointed out various landmarks that confirmed our suspicions. Frankly, I had only seen such a depiction of Akihabara in photos and romanticized in popular media. But Koujiro’s mutual love of otaku things made it clear that he had roamed the very same streets, shopped at the stores, and steeped himself in its culture.

After the initial shock, Koujiro launched himself back to the sky, getting another look at the place. It hadn’t occurred to him while falling, but now he was sure of it. Tokyo Tower, the Metropolitan Government Buildings, Rainbow Bridge, Asakusa Temple, Shinjuku Crossing, and the Imperial Palace – Koujiro named them off one by one, confirming that the entire capital of Japan was the identity of these ruins.

We pushed ourselves onward, hovering above the streets for some sign of a terminal, but with such a huge metropolis, where would we find it? Eryn and Cornelius had spent weeks looking around for it, making our thirty-minute time limit seemingly impossible.

“If I had to guess, it’d be in one of those important buildings, either the government offices or the palace. No idiot would put it in Tokyo Tower. That’s the first thing to get wrecked every time Tokyo gets attacked in a movie.”

Certainly, that was the case here. The tall structure had long collapsed, flattening the city blocks where it tipped over. The sight of it demolished made me wonder if the terminal was even still intact and functioning. Unlike the other ruins, this entire city was out in the open.

“If only there was some kind of waypoint or beacon that can guide us. Riding in this mobile suit feels very much like a video game that I half expect some HUD would just turn on-, Wait!”

I jumped out in front of Koujiro, an idea fresh on my mind. Calling up my Eyes of Providence, the sight before me shifted to the world of mana. I looked down upon the city streets where a faint outline of white traced the roads and buildings. A look past the edge of the city only showed a pitch-black emptiness, like nothing existed outside of its boundaries.

This city was still alive, if just barely. It gave off a dull glow of mana, like when I entered the other ruins. I wondered if it would be safe to step outside but found no reason to risk it. Finding the terminal was more important for now.

With a bird’s eye view of the city, the flow of mana breathing across the surface could be traced to some focal point. Directing Koujiro toward its source, it wasn’t long before we found the source.

“Shit, really? Really, Japan! Have you not learned?!”

The energies all converged at… as much as we hated to admit, Tokyo Tower. I sighed at that discovery, placing a hand over my face. At least, that could explain why the tower itself was in such bad shape. Fortunately, whatever we were looking for was underground, somehow intact enough to continue as a power grid all this time.

We landed carefully around the base of where the tall structure once stood, scanning the place for some pedestal that activated the terminal like last time.

“Over there, under the pile of stuff.”

I pointed at where the mana seemed to converge, a room that was partially submerged into the ground. Whatever was built around it had caved in. Fortunately, we had a mobile suit to dig up the large pieces and casually toss them aside.

Several minutes later, something familiar was unearthed. The very same terminal that we found in the other ruins poked out from the wreckage.

Koujiro brought the mecha to the ground and crouched right before it. The cockpit hatch popped open, and a large metal hand was held in front, giving us a place to climb right up to the terminal without touching the ground.

The two of us carefully approached. Each step was taken with a sharp breath, as we were half-expecting to drop dead without any warning, but thankfully, not even the slightest drain of mana could be felt.

I reached down and touched the top of the pedestal, injecting my mana into it. And with a ‘ping’, it responded with a mechanical voice.

“Greetings Apostle of Critical. As you are not assigned to Site 304, access to this terminal is limited. What can I do for you today?”

“Strange. The other one referred to me as the Apostle of Mana, but not this one. I wonder what is going on.” I wondered aloud.

“Our system detects that you possess the rights of the Apostle of Critical, Apostle of Mana, and Apostle of Life, none of which are assigned to Site 304.”

“Then, who is assigned to this place?”

“The Apostle of Attack.”

I turned to Koujiro who looked at me with a chuckle.

“Looks like we’ll have to bring Miss Yuri Boy Smasher here to get the full access. But for now, what can we access?”

I chuckled awkwardly at the weird nickname that he came up with. But that was understandable. Koujiro got a right straight to the stomach the last time he tried to flirt with her. Such a blow would crush a normal man that didn’t have Koujiro’s defense stat.

“Basic operation of Site 304 can be restored from hibernation. It has been 608 years, 2 months and 14 days since last operation. Do you wish to proceed?”

“600 years?!” we both shouted at the same time.

“But then, that Saki-, she was, she was-”

Another incarnation of the Saki that we knew.

That thought made me stagger. As far as I’ve known, we had been on this world for only several years. Not counting Lau, who had been living here for decades, there was no other way to explain how another Saki existed that long ago.

“Do you wish to proceed?” the terminal asked again.

“Yes, yes. Please turn it back on,” I answered in haste, barely able to respond properly.

The hum of mana rippled through the ground, feeling stronger with every moment. Like a switch had turned on, the environment suddenly filled with the comforting fullness of mana. It was like parched air that instantly became moist and warm, soothing my throat and filling my lungs with a breath of vitality.

It felt familiar enough that I decided to brave touching down upon the ground. Climbing down the metal hand and sticking one foot out, I tapped the surface that now hummed white in my vision. Seeing that no harm was done, I let myself fall the rest of the way.

“Well, I’m not dead or dying. It’s probably safe to climb down as well.”

Koujiro nodded before doing a grand leap off the hand, landing with a heroic pose. I casually stuck my foot out in a sweeping motion, upsetting his balance and watching him tumble face first.

“Do your theatrics when you have an audience to impress. You’re 600 years late for this one.”

“Aw, c’mon. A guy has to take every opportunity to practice looking good.”

I was about to retort with an evil stare and a brandished knife… until I noticed something behind Koujiro.

“Is that… an arm? Oh my god, Koujiro! ‘You murderer!’ Your robot crushed someone! Hahaha!”

I waltzed over there, thinking that there was no way that could be. Seeing as this site had been inactive for hundreds of years, it was probably some mannequin’s arm or something stuck in the wreckage. I gave it a swift, playful tug.

Out came an entire body.

“Wehhhh!!!”

“What!!!”

Our eyes flew open wide as the body of some girl came loose from under the pile. She flew through the air before landing with a heavy thud upon the ground.

“Ah!!! I didn’t think-, I mean, I was just joking about it being a dead body! What in the-, oh wait, are those wires coming out of her?”

After initially freaking out at how realistic the body was, I finally noticed that it had the makings of a robot with torn off limbs and a smashed torso. Wires and machinery poked out of a shell that felt soft like a human’s touch. The limb that I was gripping squished like muscle and sinew under skin, but that was just a well-constructed illusion.

Turning her head towards me, the face of a normal Japanese girl, eyes closed, gave me such an eerie feeling that I had to drop her from my grip. The uncanny valley of the whole appearance gave me the willies.

“Holy moly. She’s built so life-like. Do you think that she’s connected to the terminal somehow?” Koujiro walked up and prodded her all over with fascination.

“I wouldn’t doubt it if she is. Maybe we can find out something if we restore her. I’ll have Katalina take a crack and see if anything is recoverable. With such fine detail, it has to be holding secrets.”

That was the one thing that felt off about this place. Despite the setting of Tokyo looking like modern day 21st century, there was an android before us that seemed much more advanced than would be possible. The questions about this place didn’t seem to stop.

Fortunately, it looked like we had accomplished our main objective – activating the terminal.

I pulled out my communicator and dialed up Katalina, who instantly became excited about all the details. And with that, everyone was called up for an emergency meeting to discuss what to do next about the place.

Ruins that appeared both high-tech and familiar to our original worlds. The fact that us Electi were ‘registered’ as Apostles in the terminals. How these ruins came about, lost to the rest of this world.

There were so many things that didn’t add up. And as we discovered more about these ruins, the guesses for what they all meant simply grew wilder and wilder. The only thing we could do was put our heads together and think about what this all meant.

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“Do you think all of Tokyo somehow got isekai-ed along with one of us?” Wen Lu pondered aloud.

“If it was ‘my Tokyo’, then that wouldn’t make sense. I recall dying before arriving here, and it wouldn’t make any sense why my home would get sent along with me.” Saki felt skeptical about that hypothesis. But then again, nothing could explain how she appeared on this world twice, with a 600-year gap in between.

“What if you died and got isekai-ed a second time and don’t remember it? I didn’t realize that I had a life before this one until some strange memories were unlocked.”

I drew upon the weird memories that had been revealed to me. I had apparently lived other lives without my knowledge, until they were unlocked in some way. Perhaps, that was the case for her as well.

“Happens once, a coincidence. Happens twice, suspicions arise,” Cornelius said, looking over to Eryn. “After a third, one cannot help but call it a trend.”

There were already many instances where one of the Electi had experienced a life different than what was believed. Chrys and I had met on the battlefield in a past life. Eryn experienced an alternate reality which led to the creation of the Demon. And now, Saki and Lamps had ‘Apostles’ with their same powers living in a different age in history.

“Our information is limited at the moment, so it will be hard to draw any conclusions. The best thing to do now is to gather more intel about this new set of ruins, which apparently Miss Saki holds the key to.”

Katalina spoke in a calm manner, but when I peeked over from my seat next to her, I saw her knees fidgeting impatiently. A small, holographic screen was under the table, where half of her attention was, looking at all the new data. She was eager to leap out of her chair and do some analysis.

And then, I recalled.

“Ah, speaking of intel! I wonder if this android we found would help at all. It feels strangely out of place in the setting, so it being there has to be purposeful, you think?”

I pulled out my Item Box, where I had stuffed the broken android’s body for storage. It spilled out of the portal and onto the table we were sitting at.

But then, Saki stood up with a clatter of her chair and backed away. We all turned toward her, seeing that she was white as a ghost, trembling at the sight of the broken heap on the table.

“N-No, no, impossible! R-Rika-chan!”

Even though the robot was all beaten up and torn, the face of her once friend in her original world was left unblemished. It haunted her with closed eyes, a slight grin upon its face.