Chapter 634: The Other Me and a Shining Future

“That should do it…”

I adjusted the framed picture on the wall of my office and nodded in satisfaction. Inside was the family photo we took yesterday. …Well, since our ages aren’t too far apart, it looks less like a family portrait of parents and children and more like a whole group picture from a branch school.

I’ll also frame a copy and display it on my desk. It will be a comfort when I’m tired from work. When Yakumo and Frei are born, I’ll have to display their pictures too. Will I be able to fit them all on the desk? Maybe if I leave about half the space open…?

Ah, I should make albums too. I can manage the photos on my smartphone, but it’s better to keep physical prints separately. I’ll need to prepare nine of them.

After finishing today’s work, I went to see the children. Today is the last day I get to spend time with them. I have to send them back to the future tomorrow. Thinking that, my steps felt heavy somehow. I shouldn’t be like this…

When I reached the living room, perhaps because the farewell was tomorrow, everyone was gathered together.

Yakumo and Frei were sparring with their swords in the garden beyond the terrace, and Yae and Hildegard were watching them from the terrace. The two of them looked like they wanted to join in, but I really had to ask them to refrain for now. Their bellies aren’t showing yet, but they are pregnant women, after all…

Quun was disassembling an RC car at a table in the corner of the terrace, and Leen was sitting next to her, reading a book she bought on Earth.

Yoshino was playing the ukulele we bought in Waikiki on Earth, and Sakura was softly singing along.

Arcia and Lucia were evaluating the cookies they had baked for each other, and Elna, Elze, Linne, and Linze were savoring the cookies.

Kuon was playing a handheld game I bought for him and Steph, and Yumina and Sue were watching them with affectionate smiles.

“Daddy! Are you done with work?” Steph asked. “I’m done. I have nothing left for today.”

“Yay! Then let’s play together!”

Steph raised both hands enthusiastically, but her controller fell. You can’t do that during a fighting game. Seizing the opportunity, Kuon’s character landed a special move and won the match.

“Brother is meanie!”

“A match is a brutal thing.”

Steph was pouting and angry, but Kuon was unperturbed.

By the way, Kuon’s handheld game console was immediately [Analyzed] by Doc Babylon and is now a completely different thing, equipped with options like a wireless dedicated controller and an aerial projection device. Kuon plays with it in its normal state when alone, but when playing with family or multiple people, he seems to attach the options. Well, the screen is small and the controller is tiny otherwise.

“Daddy, you play too!” Steph demanded. “Hohou. To challenge me, who was born in the birthplace of video games. Very well, I’ll be your opponent,” I said, uttering a line fit for an antagonist, and took the controller, switching out with Kuon.

I’ve never played this fighting game, but it’s the latest installment in the past series I played with Grandpa. Many of the characters from back then are still in it. The controls probably haven’t changed much since then. I chose the main protagonist, a character you could call a classic, and went up against Steph.

“Nu, guh, gah!?”

“Eh, what was that!?… No way.”

I lost two rounds in a row almost instantly. Or rather, I don’t even know what happened to me… I thought I was punched once, then continuously kicked and punched, then launched into the air, and then some kind of special move flew at me.

Wait, you guys haven’t been playing games for even a month, have you…? The growth of children is terrifying…

“Touya, while it’s good to let her win, please play properly. Steph won’t enjoy it otherwise,” Sue said, unaware that she was pressing me. “Ha, haha… Well, my eyes are blurry from the paperwork, so I can’t show my real strength today, maybe?”

Yumina, next to me, saw what was happening and smiled wryly.

Afterward, we spent the day like a family unit, playing board games, listening to Sakura’s songs and Yoshino’s performance, and tasting Arcia and Lucia’s tea sweets.

I decided with my wives to spend this final day normally. It’s not a permanent farewell. We will all meet again someday. Yakumo and Frei will be with us in a year. I know the day will come when we all live together again. So, it’s fine to act normally.

The children slept with their respective mothers in separate rooms. As a result, I was alone. Lonely…

Well, it can’t be helped. The children must be cherishing this last night too. A father is someone who endures in times like this, probably. I got into bed and lay down.

…I can’t sleep.

Tossing and turning pointlessly, I thought about everything that had happened. The house became lively when the children arrived. That became our normal life without me noticing, and I became afraid of losing it. I want to keep them here if I can.

But that would be a betrayal of my future self. My future self also parted with the children in the past and must have experienced this loneliness.

Earlier, I told myself it wasn’t a permanent farewell out of bravado, but I’m still lonely… I’ve become quite sentimental.

“The future is so far away…”

“Not really. Once you get there, it feels like it went by in a flash.”

I jumped up at the sudden voice. In the dimly lit room, a young man was sitting on a chair next to a desk in the corner, illuminated by a lamp.

“My future self…?” I asked. “Correct. I haven’t changed that much, have I?”

The person sitting there was me. No, you’ve changed quite a bit. I feel like he’s a little taller than me, and his face looks a bit more mature. If I have to point out what’s bothering me, it’s the voice… My own voice never sounds right when I hear it myself…

…Yeah, well, he’s quite handsome, isn’t he? Oops, I praised myself. That’s embarrassing.

Wait, did he come from the future? I thought we weren’t allowed to travel through time except when crossing worlds…

“Ah, I got permission from the World God and Granny Tokie. Besides, I met my future self twelve years ago too, so this is all according to plan,” he said. “Is that so…”

That means I’ll go to meet my past self in twelve years, too? Will I remember?

But twelve years later? That would make me about thirty? He looks barely over twenty, though. Did my growth stop after becoming a God Race member after all?

“That’s right. My growth… or rather, my aging stopped. The problematic thing is that I can’t grow a beard either. I have absolutely no presence. I wore a fake beard for a while, but the wives hated it, so I gave up.”

Ooh, such side effects… Although, not having to shave every morning seems like a good thing.

“First of all, thank you. For looking after the children. It must have been tough?”

“Well, of course… wait, since it’s me, you should know that, right?”

“Well, it was twelve years ago, so I don’t really remember how it was. I don’t recall it being particularly tough.”

Am I alright? Am I starting to lose my memory? That’s way too early.

“I knew it would happen, but when I couldn’t feel the children’s magic anymore, I truly got anxious. I was on pins and needles until Granny Tokie appeared.”

“Wait? Don’t the children return to the exact moment in time they disappeared from?”

I thought I heard Granny Tokie explain that.

“They don’t appear the moment they disappear. There’s a lag of a few dozen seconds. It felt like an hour. That’s why I was so happy when they returned safely.”

…Hmm? Based on the story, the me in front of me isn’t the future me who is about to send the children off? Is he the me after that? Well, he’s still me, so I guess it’s not strange.

“I’m not the future me who sent the children back. I came from a few weeks after that. I just went to Earth with the children to see Dad and Mom.”

“Eh, right after returning, you went to Earth again!?”

Well, the future us might be different, but the children just returned from Earth a week ago. And yet they went again? It’s like a sequel to a time-travel movie where they send someone back to the future, only for them to return right after…

“Dad and Mom must have been surprised… Wait, did you go to Dad and Mom’s time, which is different from the time we went to?”

“Yes. The flow of time is different here and on Earth, but I went to Earth twelve years after the time you went to. Fuyuka is already a middle school student.”

Fuyuka is a middle school student…! I can’t imagine that. But she is actually older than the children, so that is the normal age difference in his time.

“Next time I take the children to Earth, I plan to go to the past. Otherwise, Dad and Mom won’t be able to see the children at all for twelve years,” he explained. “Ah, I see… That’s complicated…”

Even if we visit Earth every year, we can’t take the children with us… I guess next year’s homecoming will have Yakumo and Hildegard staying home with their newborns. I plan to send photos and things over, since that doesn’t seem to be a problem.

“Speaking of which, did Dad and Mom ever come to the other world after all?”

“Yes, this time’s trip to Earth was for that reason. I’ve been planning it with them for several years, and this time I brought the three of them back. It’s fine to introduce them to the children now.”

Eh?! So they’ve already come to the other world?! Well, this is twelve years from now, but… Are they moving here?

“No, it’s more like a year-long homestay this time. We’ve made sure Fuyuka’s is considered overseas study. They’re going to decide what to do after living here for a year, but I’m thinking of going back and forth every year as an option.”

Yeah, completely moving might cause various problems… But will Fuyuka be alright? She must have commitments with school.

“Well, somehow… she got used to this world in just a few days… She’s learning magic and is running around excitedly, and it seems she’s even registered as an adventurer…”

“Our little sister is… aggressive?”

Are you serious? Big Brother is worried… Unlike us, she doesn’t have the boosted abilities from God, so. I assume there’s no immediate danger since Blanca, the dependent dog god, is constantly with her…

“Mom is also obsessed with magic, and Dad is excited to see the Frame Gears…”

“Ah… I can kind of imagine that…”

My father was the one who showed me robot anime when I was a child. I remember Mom saying she watched Magical Girl anime when she was little. This is the result of things playing out naturally.

“Well, if they’re enjoying themselves, isn’t that good? Think of it as belated filial piety.”

“You’re saying that like it’s someone else’s problem, but you’ll experience the same thing in the future, you know? You should be prepared now.”

Ugh. A perfectly logical arrow flew at me. It’s the obvious truth.

“Mom tried to register as an adventurer too, but I managed to stop that. When I told her to ‘Act her age,’ she gave me a good punch. If you remember this in twelve years, don’t say that.”

“Haha…”

Not funny. Well, Mom gave birth to me in her teens, so she’s young, but she’s still almost fifty in the future, right…? Being an adventurer at that age is pushing it…

It seems my parents are quite unrestrained after coming to the other world. They’ll definitely move here… I don’t know what Fuyuka will decide, though. There are plenty of people who leave home to live alone after junior high, so it wouldn’t be surprising if she does. Though having her family in another world is rare… I also left home during my first year of high school, albeit under unusual circumstances.

“Well, Fuyuka living on Earth alone is one option. But, you know…”

My future self grimaced, crossed his arms, and looked up at the ceiling.

“If both Dad and Mom are gone, I’m worried that she won’t have any brakes anymore…”

“Is our little sister such a delinquent?”

That’s strange. Fuyuka should be a sweet, angelic child. What happened during those twelve years?!

“Sometimes I think she might be Grandpa’s reincarnation.”

“Don’t say such terrifying things…!”

That cute angel couldn’t possibly be Grandpa’s reincarnation! If it were true, I’d go complain to the World God in a second.

“Hearing you talk, I feel like Fuyuka is more suited for the other world…”

She might as well live here forever with Dad. You can make it work even without a high school diploma.

“She wants to be a game creator. So she wants to go to a vocational school over there. She said her activities here in the other world are ‘research’ to add realism.”

“She’s already planned her life…?”

“She wants to create the ultimate Otome game.”

“Why in that direction…?”

The face of my sister-in-law, Linze, who might be the source of this, popped into my head, but surely not…?

Or rather, did Fuyuka become like that due to the influence of my nine sisters-in-law…?

Wait, an Otome game is a dating simulation game for women, right? Her coming here for research means a romance game set in a fantasy world? Hearing that a child who was toddling just a few weeks ago has suddenly developed such a hobby makes me feel weird… Well, to her, it’s not sudden.

Well, finding a life goal early is a good thing… right? Right?

“I feel like a very difficult future awaits me…”

“Suffer and worry, young man. It’s a path I also took. It’s impossible for you to skip it.”

Seeing me troubled by various anxieties, my future self grinned maliciously. Ugh, this guy has a bad personality! Damn it, it’s me!

“Well, whether it’s the children or Fuyuka, they will eventually walk their own paths.”

“That’s a little lonely…”

I know it. We can’t be together forever. Children leave their parents and eventually become parents themselves. Just like I did. Did Dad and Mom experience these feelings too?

“Even if our paths diverge, they can also converge again. Besides, we have nine reliable partners, don’t we? We’ll walk a long path together with them forever. There’s nothing more reassuring than that, right?”

“Haha, you’re right.”

That’s true. No matter what hardships await us, we can overcome them with them.

It’s sad to part ways, but if I think about the wonderful future that lies ahead, it might not be a big deal.

“Thank you. I feel a little better now.”

“It’s nothing, since you’re just encouraging yourself.”

“Hmm? Were you told the same thing twelve years ago?”

“I don’t remember every word, but I probably was told the same thing.”

What a meddling self I am. Well, I’m grateful for it. They say “a kindness is never wasted,” but this is a rare example of it coming back directly to oneself.

“Well, I should leave now. There’s an opening ceremony for the Ether-Vision tomorrow.”

My future self stood up from the chair.

“Is that the TV thing Kuon was talking about?”

“Yes. For now, I’m planning to create a few units with the good singers Sakura is teaching and have them sing different songs.”

“So you’re producing idol groups, huh…”

He’s not planning on holding a popularity contest, is he? I always think that about popularity contests—a child always comes in last place, so I wish they wouldn’t do it… They say the entertainment world is dog-eat-dog, a ruthless place where you eat or are eaten. Well, top stars are born from environments like that, though…

“I plan to do dramas and plays, not just singing.”

“It really is a TV program, isn’t it…”

The future Brunhild seems to be becoming the world’s hub for information dissemination. I need to look ahead and work hard.

“Well, see you someday. Although I think it’s better if we don’t meet too often.”

“Hmm, that time would probably be when some major problem occurs…”

“Right. Goodbye, me.”

“Goodbye, me.”

Flick, and my future self disappeared without a sound. For a moment, I wondered if it was a dream, but my pinched cheek hurt. It wasn’t a dream, then.

I got into bed and lay down. Strangely, the lingering anxiety and loneliness I had felt earlier had completely vanished. I wonder if my future self also felt this sense of peace.

It’s alright. Our future is bright. A warm future where the children smile is definitely ahead of us. If so, I will believe in it and do what I can.

Thinking of that future that will someday come, I eventually drifted off into the world of dreams.

And then, the morning of farewell arrived.