"Only ten minutes left. Are you sure we should just keep waiting?" Lala heard an anxious voice while she saw nothing but darkness.
"Unless you know someone else who can deactivate it, waiting is the only option left."
"But..."
"It's okay, brother. Yuuji is right, we can only wait now."
While Rito kept trying to find another solution, Lala finally opened her eyes and woke up.
"Mwaaah, good morning... No! Assistant, you are a traitor! Bad morning for you."
Remembering everything that happened before she lost consciousness, she tried to move, but she was completely surrounded by Yuuji's Third Arm Sash, which prevented any movement.
"Sorry, boss, but they need you to deactivate your bomb" Yuuji apologized.
Since he did not have that mission, nor the consequence of dying if it exploded, he was not as disturbed as the others.
Leaving aside Rito, who was terrible at hiding his emotions and was only nervously rambling, Mikan and Haruna were also quite tense, although they were doing their best to stay calm.
"I will not deactivate it. And it is not just a bomb, do you know how much effort it took me to make it for people to keep reducing it to simple gunpowder when they talk about it? Do you think particles that can reduce a city to nothing grow on trees? Do you think mixing two opposite energies without it exploding is easy?"
"Sorry?" Yuuji apologized, not entirely sure what she was talking about.
"Good, I accept your apology. That is why I always liked you more than that traitor assistant over there" Lala said while glaring angrily at Rito.
"She definitely holds a grudge. What did you do to her in this world?" Yuuji asked.
He was genuinely curious ever since he learned that she planned to destroy an entire city just to get revenge.
"That... does it matter?" Rito said somewhat embarrassed.
"Trust me. If you do not resolve whatever happened, there is no chance she will help you."
Yuuji laughed, clearly entertained by the situation. A drama like this would never happen in real life given Lala's personality, or at least that was what he thought.
"You are right" Rito said as he realized it and slapped his cheeks to become serious.
"I apologize. I did not mean to betray you, but it was for a reason that is important to me."
Hearing Rito's apology, Lala reacted by looking at him with disdain.
"Who would forgive you? I will not trust you again" she said while making a small pout.
"This..." Rito looked at Yuuji without knowing what to do.
"Tell me what happened and I will try to help you."
Rito took Yuuji a little farther away so Lala would not be able to hear them.
Fortunately, the Third Arm Sash was several meters long, so Yuuji could move quite far without letting go of Lala.
"What happened?"
"The context of our characters was given to us when we arrived in this world, like information.
According to mine, Lala was a rejected girl who never trusted anyone when she was little.
My character was the first and only person she ever trusted. After growing up together in poverty, we decided together to become villains and eventually created a multi-millionaire organization."
"Hmm." Yuuji nodded while listening.
"However, when I made other friends and did not want them to get involved, I decided to leave the group. Lala tried to convince me not to do it and promised she would not hurt them or involve them, but I did not listen and left anyway.
To make it worse, later I ended up becoming a hero, which made her resent me.
By the way, heroes killed her parents. That is why she did not trust anyone when she was little."
"What a dramatic story..." Yuuji murmured. "Who created all these backstories?"
"This..." Rito did not know what to say.
"I have no idea."
"What?" Rito asked.
"I said I have no idea. Just keep apologizing and do it seriously" Yuuji said.
Rito did not even wait for him to finish. Seeing that Yuuji did not have a solution, he decided not to waste time and went back to keep trying to convince Lala.
[Host, shouldn't you try to help more?]
"What can I do?" Yuuji replied mentally. "I thought it was a very serious problem, that is why I asked him to tell me so I could help"
[And this does not count as serious?]
"It is not serious in itself, he just left. More than serious it is something specific. Having betrayed her trust once, obviously she will not trust him when he apologizes."
While watching Rito keep apologizing to Lala while she ignored him in a childish way, Yuuji went to sit next to Mikan and Haruna.
"Hyaaa!"
As soon as he sat down, Haruna jumped slightly and let out a small scream.
"S-sorry. I am a little nervous."
"It is okay, I understand" Yuuji said.
"Aren't you worried?" Haruna asked when she noticed his composure.
"Well, I really do not think Lala created something that would kill you. Maybe you would just lose a life or something like that, like in a videogame."
Then he added jokingly,
"And besides, I do not have your mission, so I can run away quickly."
"You really trust Lala a lot, don't you?" Mikan said. "When they told me Lala had a best friend who was not Rito, I worried about her.
I thought it would be someone who would just take advantage of her kindness. But I can see you really are her friend. I am very glad."
Mikan spoke like a mother worrying about her daughter's relationships, which made Yuuji laugh a little.
But regarding her words...
'Do I trust Lala? Yes. But more than that, I trust the world of To Love Ru and its logic.'
That was the basis for his belief that nobody would die there.
[5 minutes]
"But just in case we really die, I think I should apologize to Lala."
"Did your character also do something to her?" Yuuji asked while looking at Haruna.
"No... not my character, me.
Actually, I went to her house today to help Rito with his homework, but it seems I interrupted something. Lala had built something and wanted to show it to him.
Rito was afraid it would go wrong and hurt me, so he told her no and said he did not trust her... Somehow they ended up arguing.
I feel like I am a third person in their relationship ruining everything." Haruna sighed with resignation.
But Yuuji only focused on the important part of her story.
"Wait. So you are a friend who suddenly appeared and made Rito betray Lala."
"That is... one way to put it?" Haruna said, feeling a little hurt.
"And you? What is your story in this world?" Yuuji asked, now looking at Mikan.
"Me?"
Mikan pointed at herself, surprised that the conversation had ended up including her.
"Yes, you" Yuuji said quickly. He had a bad feeling.
[3 minutes]
"I was born blind in this world, but when I turned twelve I awakened ocular powers that allow me to copy the abilities of anyone within my field of vision."
Seeing that Yuuji seemed to be in a hurry, Mikan summarized her entire story in a single sentence.
"Does that resemble something that happened recently?" Yuuji asked.
"No... I think."
"Are you sure?"
[2 minutes]
"Yes, nothing happened... Ah!"
Halfway through the sentence, Mikan seemed to remember something.
"Actually, today when Lala told me about you, I became curious and wanted to know more about your abilities and other worlds. But I do not think she noticed."
"Of course she noticed" Yuuji said while standing up and walking toward Lala and Rito.
'Not only did she notice. This entire world was created for you' he thought.
'Although Lala lost her memories for some reason, even so, even if only subconsciously, she is defining the main plot.
From giving Mikan what she wanted, to making Rito and Haruna's situation identical to the one in the real world.
I did not realize before because my story is completely different from the real one, but it makes sense. Lala did not know I entered by accident.
If that is the case, then the first thing Lala would do after entering this world and bringing others by accident would be, of course, finding a way to get everyone out.
A way she is sure will reach everyone.
Then...'
Yuuji released Lala from the restraints and instead stole the bomb that Rito was holding in his hands, pulling it toward his own.
"Yuuji! What are you doing? I already convinced her and she told me how to deactivate it, give it to me."
"Sorry, Rito, but this is our way out. If it does not explode, there will be terrible consequences."
'Waiting two entire days' Yuuji thought to himself, but he did not say it out loud.
"H-how are you so sure?"
[90 seconds]
[85 seconds]
[80 seconds]
"What the hell? Why is it moving so fast?" Yuuji said when he saw the numbers changing rapidly.
"Because I did not finish deactivating it.
You have to give it to me. We can activate it again later if it really is our way to escape."
"There is no need. We can leave right now" Yuuji said.
"Big brother, I think we can trust Yuuji."
"No, Yuuji, you must give the bomb to Rito. We can activate it later, Rito is right."
"Make it explode, E.V. Let us all perish together with this treacherous world!"
Seriously? Aren't you exaggerating a little? Yuuji thought while looking at Lala.
"Sorry, but I will let it explode"
After saying that, Yuuji sank into the ground, teleporting away from the place through a black door that appeared on the floor beneath his feet.
[35 seconds]
"Alright, let us wait a bit."
Now he was once again on the same rooftop where he first appeared in that world.
But after an entire day had already passed, the midday light was gone and the sunset painted the entire place orange.
Yuuji simply sat on the edge to enjoy the sunset while patiently waiting.
While he did so, a light blue portal appeared beside him.
Lala stepped through it and then sat next to him.
"Shouldn't you have escaped the city?" Yuuji asked.
Lala had no idea they would simply leave that world instead of dying, so Yuuji assumed she would go as far away as possible now that she was free.
"With my assistant here, how could I betray him and escape on my own?"
Lala said with a smile while removing her mask and looking at the sun disappearing on the horizon.
[15 seconds]
"So, anything you want to say before we die?" Yuuji asked.
[10 seconds]
"No, but..."
[5 seconds]
"But?"
Instead of an answer, Yuuji felt a warm and soft sensation on his left cheek that only lasted for a moment.
[0 seconds]
Before he could react, the diamond-shaped bomb resting on his lap reached zero.
The container opened, revealing what looked like a small red firefly.
An instant later it exploded, taking the entire city with it at such an absurd speed that nobody had time to react.
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)