Junko made no attempt to move away from Akuto and he did not make her. A forest lay before them and they had to enter it. That alone would be worrisome enough, but this was the world of the afterlife. Technically, they did not know what this place was, but that was the only name they had for it. Whatever the case, they were definitely completely lost.

Ahead of them was a forest, behind them was an ocean, and both seemed to extend forever.

They stood on the beach and that sh.o.r.e felt like the scenery of an ending to Akuto.

“This isn’t a virtual alternate dimension…or is it? Either way, look at this imagery.”

“Yes, it is oddly appropriate for the imagery of the afterlife.” Junko peered into the forest. “Didn’t Dante’s Divine Comedy begin in a forest?”

“I know what you mean, but we have no faith in that way. We have only borrowed that Christian imagery. It is strange that this is so fitting for imagery of the afterlife, though.”

As he spoke, Akuto held Junko’s hand and urged her into the forest.

“Anyway, the forest is the only place we can go.”

The beach did not continue forever, but it was surrounded on either side by almost perfectly vertical cliffs.

“Y-yes. But it still worries me. And there is not a path through the forest.”

She hesitantly followed him into the trees.

“I can clear a path for us,” suggested Akuto.

But to their surprise, they found a small forest path after moving past two or three overlapping trees.

“Good, a path. That really helps,” said Junko with a stiff smile.

“But this also means people have come here before.”

Akuto stepped onto the path and looked ahead, but he could not see where it led. The path had no undergrowth, the dirt had been packed down, and it continued on while winding through the trees.

“Does this mean there is someone here?” asked Junko while looking around worriedly. “P-please give me a break… Honestly…”

“There’s nothing to worry about,” said Akuto as he moved ahead.

“Of course there is,” she said while begrudgingly following him. “Anyone here would be of the dead.”

“We’re dead too.”

“I do not feel like it at all.”

“Most of mankind should be dead. If we a.s.sume everyone is here, the threat should be no different from before.”

“You really are quick to find an answer.”

She had started walking hesitantly, but after a while, her pace grew lighter. Even so, she continued to cling to his arm and he matched his pace to hers.

“Looks like it’s the same even here,” said Akuto.

“Wh-what is? I feel like this world is a lot different from the one we lived in.”

“No, I meant we can still see just fine even in the forest. Did you not notice? There’s light here.”

She looked around and realized he was right.

“Oh, now that you mention it. I could not see the sun, but I could still see on the beach.”

“And yet the leaves are growing so thickly overhead. There’s no light source and yet we can see. That’s what it comes down to.”

“Since this is the afterlife, it might not be that strange. Oh, right. Didn’t beasts attack at this point in the Divine Comedy?”

She sounded afraid and they happened to hear a distant howl at that very moment.

“Eee!”

She jumped in fright, but Akuto could tell it was a four-legged beast such as a wolf or lion and he tilted his head at the howl that gave some sense of its form.

“I never heard a howl like this while working part-time at the zoo.”

“R-really? Then is it a demonic beast?”

Junko’s voice was still trembling.

“I doubt it. At any rate, there was no sign of life until now.”

“No, there was not,” she agreed.

The b.e.s.t.i.a.l howl ended.

“Hm,” grunted Akuto as he came to some sort of understanding. “Then there must be a city at the end of the trail.”

Junko’s eyes opened wide at that.

“What? That cannot possibly-…”

She trailed off as they took a gentle curve and their vision opened up.

A city was visible down below. The two of them were standing in the mountains behind the school and they had a good view of the usual Imperial Capital.

“Wh-what…but…this is…”

She grew confused.

The capital had the same peaceful atmosphere as before the war, so it felt like they had travelled a few months back in time. Based on the sunlight, it was still a bit before noon. The difference in time of day helped make her feel dizzy.

Akuto had predicted this, but even he could not remain calm.

“I was right… But it’s still a little surprising.”

“H-how can you just accept this!?”

She lashed out at him both due to surprise and due to not understanding how he had predicted this.

“I have no proof, but I think this reflects our desires,” he answered.

“Our desires? I still do not really understand.”

“I had a feeling the things happening here were related to what you were imagining.”

“It is true everything I was afraid of seemed to happen,” she agreed.

“Yes, and that would explain why we can see without light and why we heard that beast in the forest.”

“Perhaps.”

Junko closed her eyes and focused her mind, but opened them again after a few seconds.

“But are you sure?”

“If this world – this world of the afterlife – does change based on our thoughts, only powerful thoughts must work.”

“I should be able to do that because it is the foundation of magic.”

She produced a mana sphere in her hand and made it rotate.

“That may only work because it’s a familiar action. Given the structure of this world, my thoughts may be the strongest.”

“I wonder if what happened on the beach was due to my subconscious thoughts. I was not controlling my fear or anxiety.”

“Perhaps. If so, it would show a bit of the possibilities and limits of this world.”

At that point, another voice cut in.

“Hey.”

They turned toward the slightly silly-sounding voice and found Kita Yoshie walking up the path.

“Kita-san?”

“Yoshie?”

They both spoke in surprise and stared at the girl’s face.

This was definitely Yoshie.

“I see you’re suspicious.”

“Of course we are. After all-…”

Yoshie cut Junko off and began speaking herself.

“No, I understand. It’s not surprising. I can’t say anything for sure as I only just got here, but based on the events or phenomena I’ve seen here…”

She used her usual roundabout manner of speech and this time Akuto cut her off with a bitter smile.

“In short, this place grants the wishes of the dead?”

Yoshie grinned and nodded.

“So you caught on. I guess I should’ve expected it of you.”

Junko shook her head in confusion as she watched them.

“I already heard about that, but then isn’t it odd for you to be here, Kita-san? After all, it means you might only be here because he or I wished for it.”

Her expression was perfectly serious and it was true they could not say for sure this was the real Yoshie if that were the case.

However, Yoshie replied without hesitating.

“That’s definitely a possibility. But is it a problem even if that’s what happened?”

“Eh? Are you saying it is not a problem?”

Yoshie’s comment had caught Junko by surprise.

“I have memories of being here before running across you two. Of course, you could say those memories were created just now, but those memories more or less guarantee we can live here just fine as long as we don’t think about it too much.”

She sounded confident.

“Is it…really okay?”

Junko was still concerned, but Yoshie further a.s.sured her.

“Our words can reach others and we have differences in opinion. I can sense our individual personalities here. If you know me, you’d know I had my doubts and investigated. However, it’s impossible to prove the existence of others, so I decided to just not think about it.” She pointed toward the city. “Look, the city is up and running. That happened while we weren’t looking. If nothing else, life is back to normal.”

Akuto sensed something odd about that statement and raised his eyebrow.

“If nothing else?”

Yoshie shrugged as if hesitant to speak.

“There are of course a lot of differences. It would be best to hear about it from the student council president. It would get complicated if I explained it.”

Yoshie then began walking toward the academy.

“Are we going to school?” asked Junko nostalgically.

“That’s right. It’s just easier to live there.”

It appeared to be cla.s.s time. No students could be seen outside, but a look in the windows showed students filling the cla.s.srooms.

“It’s just like it used to be,” commented Akuto.

“Yeah, but something you’ll find strange is waiting here.”

With that comment that hinted at something to come, Yoshie called up the student council president with a student handbook. She then took Akuto and Junko to the student council room.

The school building’s layout had not changed, so there was no real need for her to show the way. Lily had called for them during cla.s.s time and she seemed to have predicted this.

“I thought you might be interested in this,” she said sarcastically with no change of expression.

She showed them a mana screen on the desk containing data supplied by the “G.o.ds”.

“You might be wondering about the lack of a greeting, but it doesn’t feel like any time has pa.s.sed. It hardly seems strange to have you two in here.”

Lily suggested they take a seat.

“It’s a moving reunion for me,” said Akuto seriously.

Lily gave a cruel smile.

“Stop that, world destroyer.”

She once more urged them to look at the data on the mana screen.

“This is the world before I was judged to be the demon king,” concluded Akuto after glancing through the list.

“I hate how good at that you are,” complained Lily. “But it does help since I hadn’t memorized all the statistical data. Let’s go as far back as it will let us.”

She sent the years of the statistics in reverse and Akuto nodded as he watched it.

“Yes, it’s the same as the data I remember. Return the time to the present. A birth certificate should come in in a few more minutes. If it does, it means we’re repeating history.”

“Does that mean this world of the afterlife is recreating the world from about two years before we died?” asked Junko.

Lily shook her head.

“It’s similar, but I don’t think it’s the same. As you may have noticed, there are no L’Isle-Adams here.”

“Really?”

Junko sounded surprised.

“Really. Arnoul is the only student council officer missing. Korone and the manual labor L’Isle-Adams are missing as well. Humans are working to maintain their lifestyle and…”

“Keena,” cut in Akuto.

“Yes. Keena alone is missing.”

“Are those two points the only changes?” asked Junko.

“The empress is Kazuko and there is no record of the black magicians being oppressed. If we’re going to describe the situation without getting overly conceptual…”

“Yes?”

“We’re at peace. It’s enough to leave me bored out of my mind. There’s no uprising by the black magicians, Zero isn’t ruling over us all via the G.o.ds and the L’Isle-Adams, there’s no record of the Republic even existing, and there’s no sign of any foreign countries resisting the empire.”

Lily folded her arms and rested her elbows on her desk.

“And that’s why you aren’t seen as unusual, Akuto-kun. You aren’t a demon king.”

“Really?” he asked back.

She nodded.

“Does that make you happy? You may have your doubts, but the demon king is said to be dead and he hasn’t been resurrected. There aren’t even rumors about it. It’s almost disappointing.”

Akuto’s expression made it clear he did not know how to take that.

“Th-this is not a bad thing,” muttered Junko in confusion. “No, it really is not. Good, good.”

However, she did not appear to have accepted it and she was watching Akuto’s expression.

“Is the timeline different here? Or is this merely the world someone wished for? Also, we have our memories of the past, but do the other people not?”

He was doubtful.

“This gets tricky if we start talking about time.”

Yoshie started to speak, but Lily stopped her.

“That would just confuse the issue, so please stop. The only people who have their memories are those close to you who knew the truth.”

“Oh, right. I know you don’t want me talking about time, but there’s something I have to say and I’ll do it quickly. Traveling through time was a future technology that only Yamato Bouhichirou could use. You remember, don’t you?” asked Yoshie.

“I do, but the device I used was-…”

“A completely different technology. I know. But there’s another fact here that may actually be completely natural: Brave – that is, Hiroshi – is not here and he’s the one who would have inherited the time traveling device.”

Lily looked back at the screen displaying statistical data.

“The name Miwa Hiroshi is in here, so he is here. He just hasn’t shown himself yet.”

“Keena wasn’t a part of this world from the beginning, but Hiroshi was? Then where is he?”

Akuto asked those questions to no one in particular.

Hiroshi was in the forest outside the city and he was facing a man he would never forget.

“Yamato Bouichirou.”

His journey there after dying was the same as Junko and the others, but he alone had travelled along a different path. He had entered the forest as if being guided and he had all of a sudden found Bouichirou sitting on a tree stump. He himself did not know if this was destiny or if he had wished for it.

Even so, he felt this was a starting point toward what he needed to do. He had to ask Bouichirou several questions. Countless questions had been left unanswered by the man’s death.

“I met the people from your team,” said Hiroshi sarcastically.

“From that tone, I take it you did not enjoy the experience. They could be a rough bunch.”

Bouichirou treated Hiroshi like an old friend and laughed. He seemed gentler than before and, when combined with his beautiful features, it surrounded him with an aura that charmed any who spoke with him.

Hiroshi had intended to complain, but that aura slowed him down.

“I was nearly killed countless times. Was that on your orders?”

“Of course not. I had realized it to a certain extent, but they lacked the same virtues I possess. All I can offer you is an apology, though.”

“I don’t need your apology. Did they die and come here too? If so, I have something else to complain about.”

“Who can say? But it sounds like they would be unable to look me in the eye now.”

Bouichirou smiled.

“They wouldn’t be able to look anyone in the eye. They caused a ma.s.s immigration to this world by following your ambitions…or maybe not exactly your ambitions. It may have been a misunderstanding or an intentional distortion of what you wanted.”

Hiroshi left his wording vague, but it seemed to get through to Bouichirou.

“Yes, I thought it might come to that. And I gave up because I thought that might be an acceptable alternative.”

“Don’t act like you understood everything.”

“Fine. I was not trying to speak badly of those who died, but I did try to prevent that destruction.”

Bouichirou’s tone of voice increased the discomfort within Hiroshi.

“What are you trying to say?” he asked harshly.

“How about we explain this in chronological order? You know I tried to change history, correct?”

The man gave a self-deprecating smile.

“Yes, I do.”

“That was because I saw the world’s final great demon king awaken and I saw the extra-universal G.o.ds arrive to destroy the world.”

“I know that too. To avoid that, you said the demon king and the Law of Ident.i.ty had to exchange vows, right? I didn’t really get what you meant, though.”

“Yes, but I never accomplished it.”

Hiroshi nodded as he thought back on his memories.

“I understand that much. To be saved by the Law of Ident.i.ty, Zero and the machine G.o.ds tried to turn mankind into data just like them and then send them to another dimension. That way it would not matter if mankind was destroyed. And it was aniki – the current demon king – who gave us some extra time.”

“Yes. And as a result, the future changed from the one I knew.”

“Are you saying that was a mistake?” asked Hiroshi.

Bouichirou shrugged.

“It’s hard to say whether it was or not. This world of the afterlife is that extra time. This here is the extra time that the demon king gave to mankind. It is not over yet.”

“It isn’t over yet?”

Hiroshi tilted his head.

“However, this place may be the end. Having no end may be the end. In other words, time may flow for all eternity here.”

Bouichirou’s words made Hiroshi sigh.

“Could you maybe phrase things in an understandable way?”

“Sorry. I’ve always been like this and I can’t seem to stop. The future may have changed from the one I knew, but you could say the conclusion was exactly as I predicted. I know what happened in the history you experienced. I negotiated with the thought ent.i.ty named The One in order to reach an agreement with the extra-universal G.o.ds. They too wanted a world they could live in without fear of an inter-universal invasion.”

Hiroshi worked to understand. Once he broke it down into individual elements, he found he could grasp the meaning.

“But The One betrayed you.”

“Yes, and the Republic attacked the empire despite having been so calm. They appear to be unrelated events, but if you view them on the backdrop of an invasion from outside the universe, most everything can be predicted and linked together. The devices left behind by the early magical civilization, the black magicians’ plan, and the Formless Power were all prepared to face that invasion. The fact that the invasion was a success means the future ultimately could not be changed.”

“When you put it that way, I can sort of understand,” said Hiroshi. “But if this place is our ‘extra time’, don’t we still have a chance?”

“Still have a chance? What do you mean by that?”

It was now Bouichirou’s turn to ask a question.

“A chance to change the past. It seems simple to me. We stop the internal conflict and the elimination of the magical civilization and instead advance a plan to win the war against the extra universal G.o.ds.”

Hiroshi sounded confident and he pointed at the bracelet that was the Brave suit.

“I can travel through time with this, right? Is it still possible even after dying?”

“You sure are hasty. In the end, do you want to save mankind?”

Bouichirou’s eyes opened in surprise.

“I don’t know, but I sense something like destiny here.” Hiroshi grinned. “At the very least, the demon king can’t save mankind, right?”

“If that is what you wish, then fine.” Bouichirou shook his head. “But changing the future is difficult.”

“Is it really? You said you died and the future changed. In that case, simply changing it can’t be that hard.”

“No, it did not change. In the end, you all came here.”

He pointed toward the ground with a cynical expression.

“Here?”

“The afterlife.”

“Having all these different worlds is confusing. The real world, virtual alternate dimensions, outside the universe, non-virtual alternate dimensions, and the afterlife. Does that cover it?”

Hiroshi frowned and Bouichirou corrected him.

“Not quite. What you referred to as ‘outside the universe’ and ‘non-virtual alternate dimensions’ are the same thing. Not much is known about those alternate dimensions. We only know there are likely an infinite number. You had the rest right and the Law of Ident.i.ty is related to them all. Most likely, she created them. That is why they are relatively easy to understand.”

“Keena-chan created them and so we can understand them?”

“To me, she was Sudou Rimu. When I say we can understand them, I mean those worlds can be simply described. You merely need to understand that our universe was created by the Law of Ident.i.ty.”

“Can you really be so sure? And weren’t we talking about traveling through time to change history?” complained Hiroshi.

He was losing track of what he wanted from the conversation and Bouichirou laughed when he noticed.

“If you are to travel through time, I want you to understand that our knowledge and our world contradict each other.”

“Is it just me or are you straying from the point again?”

“I am not. According to our knowledge, what is time?”

It was an abstract question, but Hiroshi realized it had taken a step toward the core of the issue. To redo the world and avoid that conclusion, he had to understand what time was.

As a student, he had a certain level of education about the physical concept of time, so he gave the textbook answer.

“Time is relative and it can be compared to the s.p.a.ce in which an object moves. The higher the speed, the larger the s.p.a.ce the object can move through and the more possible phenomena it can encounter, but the object can only move in one direction. In two-dimensional terms, it is like only being able to choose one point on the circ.u.mference of an expanding ripple in the water.”

“That is more or less it. A single object cannot exist in multiple places simultaneously, but that rule falls apart here. That is why I was able to travel back in time.”

Bouichirou picked up a branch and drew a line on the ground.

“An object cannot exist in multiple places simultaneously because time actually has a smallest unit. If time – that is, the s.p.a.ce you compared it to – can be infinitely divided, the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise can be achieved.”

He made a mark at the center of the line and then another mark at the center of the newly divided line’s right half. Once he had divided it 32 times, the width of the marks was greater than the width of the line portion.

“If these marks represent matter’s smallest unit, this is how it works.”

“I understand that, but how does that relate to being able to travel back in time? In fact, this understanding of time means you can’t transcend it.”

“Exactly. In the water ripple model, the other points on the circ.u.mference are nothing but possibilities. In other words, they are what could have happened but did not happen. Even if a single piece of matter returns to the previous point, the rest of the matter is no longer there. However, the world we are so familiar with did not function under the water ripple model.”

He used his foot to erase the line and drew a different line.

“This world is constructed in a way impossible under the laws of theoretical physics. You could say this world is like a recording on a single tape or like a chapter of text. It has linearity.”

He drew multiple squares on the line and the number of squares increased the further right he reached.

“All matter exists simultaneously in these squares and the past remains as the past. You can view the past as a pile of blocks that continues to grow larger. In that case, it is possible to rearrange the blocks.”

“And that’s why it should be possible to rewrite history and change the future,” agreed Hiroshi.

“Yes. Changing it is possible,” replied Bouichirou.

“Then tell me how to use the suit.”

Hiroshi pointed toward the Brave suit glowing on his wrist.

“I will of course do so, but as I said in the beginning, I must warn you that this is useless.”

Bouichirou gave a troubled frown.

“You keep saying that, but why is it useless if it’s possible to change history?”

“As I said before, you will ultimately come here for some reason.”

He pointed toward the ground.

“In other words, to the afterlife?”

Hiroshi frowned, but Bouichirou’s expression remained unchanged.

“Yes. And you will likely return to this spot and this instant countless times.”