“Um, what is this Shura…?”
“Ah, please wait a moment…”
Saying this, she pressed her right thumb against her temple, leaving my question hanging in the air.
“I’ve made contact with Mr. Rodin, father’s vice-chairman. He will join us to continue…”
As she said this, the upper body of a man appeared in a hologram projected on the wall. He had sleek black hair combed fully back and a stern yet gentle smile.
[This is Rodin, captain of the Kawashima Guild’s flagship King Krusher. What is it, Peach?]
“Vice-Chairman, I’ve safely rejoined the Chairman.”
The man named Rodin pointed at me and broke into a boyish grin.
[Ah…? Oh! It really is Tonbo! So you made it to space, does that mean you were able to save your hometown of Chiba?]
“Eh? Uh…”
[Ah right, you’ve been rewound. I’m Rodin, your partner, comrade-in-arms…subordinate, friend, and even your son of sorts.]
“Um…Rodin-san?”
[…Hey! Tonbo!]
Suddenly yelled at loudly from the other side of the screen, I involuntarily flinched.
[Don’t use ‘-san’ with me again. No honorifics needed!]
“Oh, yes…”
Had I stepped on a landmine? The man in a Napoleon-esque jacket snorted in displeasure.
[Anyway, let’s move on. Listen Tonbo, before the rewind, you asked me this:]
“Y-Yes…”
[If all went well…I would go to space again on the Psyco Dragon ship.]
His words made my heart pound. I had just come to space aboard the Psyco Dragon. Raising an eyebrow before me as my heart raced, Rodin continued:
[And you said the rewound you would probably be a helpless kid again. So you asked me to take good care of you on my end.]
The me before the rewind seemed surprisingly trustworthy.
[It was a request from none other than you. I’m busy, but fulfilling it won’t be too difficult…However, if you’ve forgotten everything, you probably want to know the situation first? Along with your companions?]
“Ah, yes. Um…yeah.”
Unlike my fumbling response, the three behind me were composed.
“I’d certainly like to know.”
“Since we’re not from this galaxy, I’d like to connect to the interstellar net too.”
“…………”
Rodin nodded exaggeratedly, saying “So your new companions are strays,” and clapped his hands.
[But it’ll be a bit long. Peach, arrange the net for that concubine over there, and get the others some booze or something.]
“No, we’ll get the drinks here. Right, Tonbo?”
[Ah?]
“Sir. Our fathers would not speak before earning trust.”
[Like Tonbo wouldn’t trust me, his old pal?]
“He has lost all memories.”
[Hah, you think that’s possible? I’m asking you, Tonbo.]
Rodin gave me an intimidating look, but…he was someone I had just met.
[You’ve forgotten running around under Vipe’s flames while pissing yourself? Going to the galactic police branch to avenge your grandson’s grudge? Tricking the elves to seize this King Krusher? Really forgotten it all?]
“……….”
“You knew he had, sir……”
Rebuked by Peach, Rodin grumbled while rubbing his jaw and rotating his neck…well, looking resigned.
While the situation was awkward for me, for some reason I didn’t actually feel scared being yelled at by him. I just sensed an indescribable loneliness from him.
“Um, about the net connection…”
“Over here. I’m Yuri. Nice to meet you, Peach-san.”
“Here’s the public line access key.”
“Thanks.”
While the girls chatted, I went ahead and brought drinks for everyone – a famous and once medicinal Earth soft drink. Perfect for a headache-inducing conversation.
[Alright, let me start with how things got to this point. It goes back to when you were around your current age, before the rewind.]
“Mmm.”
[You told me that back then, a Yamata no Orochi attacked your hometown of Saitama…turning Chiba and the capital into burnt fields…]
He spoke while looking around as if recalling an old story, then suddenly exclaimed “Ah!”
[That’s right! So how’d it go in the end? Were you able to protect your hometown?]
Rodin asked with seeming concern.
“Ah, well…I was able to defeat the serpent at least.”
[Oh, I see! So you did protect it! Awesome, that’s great news!]
He seemed genuinely delighted, smiling happily.
[You’d always say you wanted to save your hometown, y’know? You came to space in some toy-like ship you got with your skill, saying you had nowhere to return to…but you never gave up on that dream.]
“……….”
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[Your sister’s name is Chieri, right? Back then you kept saying drunk that you should have called her to the university in Tokyo.]
He had mentioned the Kanto region being devastated earlier…if that serpent had advanced to Chiba with my sister Chieri still there, I may have had regrets like that.
[Once you learned of a way to rewind time, it was full steam ahead. You abandoned centuries of preparation and effort, losing all memories of us, just to turn back the clock.]
“I was prepared, but…with Father gone, the Kawashima Guild’s territory shrank to a third and many of our people scattered.”
[Peach, who cares about that? The man achieved his dream!]
When he put it that way, I did feel a bit self-conscious sitting here.
[Well, it has been forty years since the Mō Ryō King Tonbo disappeared…Your son Beaver who succeeded you did his best, but regular people can never truly take an Shura’s place.]
“Eh? Son? Regular people? There’s too much information…”
[Ah, got sidetracked. Basically, four hundred years ago your hometown was burned and you became a Shura, coming to the Shura realm…What’s wrong?]
I raised my hand to stop Rodin on the other end.
“This Shura you keep mentioning, what exactly is it?”
[Well…exactly as it sounds – people who live as Shura. Those desperately wanting something, willing to kill anything in their way. Or those who just love killing people. Such people get pulled into another world called the Shura realm to slaughter each other, with the survivors becoming Shura.]
“I…see. Another world?”
[The Shura realm is like a training ground for us Shura made by someone. Shura kill each other there to grow stronger and eventually leave. You used to liken it to leveling up in a game.]
It did sound kind of game-like. This Shura realm seemed like some winner-takes-all war game.
[Shura go there to fight and get stronger over and over. But most die in the process – that’s the typical Shura life. However, there was one insane guy who made it through ten times. Any guesses who?]
“You mean…Rodin?”
[No, you Tonbo Kawashima!]
Now that he mentioned it, Peach had said something about that earlier…
[So four hundred years ago when you came to space, you happened to gain Shura qualification by chance. You killed brutally strong Shura over and over, gaining power to warp space itself. Then forty years ago you poured all that into rewinding time to save your hometown.]
“…But I have a question.”
[What is it?]
“If time was rewound, how do you all remember it?”
[That’s because you could only rewind the planetary system your hometown’s planet was in. Even the strongest Shura can’t control the entire universe at will.]
“I see…”
Could it be that the famous occult story of constellations shifting positions overnight, the so-called “Great Earth Migration” from my childhood, was caused by me?
[Well, that was a bit rough, but that’s your story so far. Any questions? Well, I don’t think you have any, but…now that you’re back, there are various people I need to contact. Sorry, but limit it to two or three questions.]
When I looked back, Mars, Princess, and Sierra had already come quite close.
“First, I think it’s best to ask what they want Tonbo to do,” said Mars.
“Princess agrees with that. We can’t make countermeasures without being presented the conditions,”
“Also, should we ask a bit more about the Kawashima Guild?” Sierra chimed in.
“Good idea, let’s do that,”
Sierra just brought her face closer and sniffed, but at least the discussion was summarized.
“Um!”
[Go ahead, ask anything, Tonbo.]
“What do Rodin and the others want me to do?”
[Huh? Nothing in particular.]
“Nothing?”
[Yeah, I was just told to say ‘welcome back’ to you after you came back from being rewound. Momoko Peach over there… only went to pick you up on your orders too, right? It’s up to you to decide what to do from now on, obviously.]
“My orders? …What?”
“Father said you’d be returning on the spaceship Psychodragon. The beacon signal you had arranged in advance started appearing in this area the other day, so the fleet was searching for it.”
“Huh?”
“With the battle against the bioweapons today, they finally pinpointed your location and came to pick you up.”
“Um, did they not say anything about what I should do after being picked up?”
“No, nothing specific.”
Mars’ paw gently tapped my confused back.
“Tonbo, could the Golden Head Dragon Company be set up by these people?”
“Ah, I see. That’s one way to look at it.”
[What’s wrong?]
“Well, you know the Golden Head Dragon Company? The company that sold me the Psychodragon…”
[Sold it to you?]
“Yeah, they sold it to me in exchange for the material of the great serpent that attacked my hometown…”
Come to think of it, if it was predetermined that the Psychodragon would end up in my hands before fighting the serpent, things don’t quite add up.
[Was the other party Tita from the Hitch family?]
“I don’t know the family name, but they did introduce himself as Tita.”
[Well then, you were being tested, Tonbo. This Tita is your apostle as a Shura . Deities like to test people, you see.]
Rodin said with a hearty gahaha laugh.
an apostle, huh…they did call me ‘your Tita’ now that I recall. But I don’t remember becoming a deity, and being tested by someone I don’t remember is just too much. So that dreadful company did have a connection to me after all…
[By the way Tonbo, why did you come out to space this time? One of your usual anime imitations?]
I wonder what kind of image this person has of the Kawashima Tonbo…Though I can’t deny I have that side to me.
I gestured towards Mars standing diagonally behind me and said to Rodin:
“Actually, Mars’ hometown is in the galaxy next door, and I really want to take him there no matter what.”
[I see. So to put it simply, Mars was sent here via skill transfer from the neighboring galaxy in a near-death state? And you felt sorry for him when you saw his form and helped him out, right?]
“Eh?”
Somehow…this person really might understand me as his companion. He seems to comprehend me too well.
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