"What did you think?" Lala asked with a confident smile.
Her expression changed when, instead of finding the enjoyment she expected in Yuuji, she found an awkward expression.
"Wasn't it fun?" she asked worriedly.
"Huh! Ah, no! It was fun, it's just... it was a little awkward."
"...Huh?" Lala blinked in confusion before realizing it and smiling mischievously. "Wait, you're embarrassed?"
"I wouldn't say..."
"Hehe, an embarrassed Yuuji is pretty rare to see." Without even letting him finish speaking, Lala laughed playfully.
"Let's just move on to the next memory." Yuuji gave up and tried to change the subject.
Lala nodded and wrapped her arm around Yuuji's while raising the other one.
"Let's go!" she shouted while pointing at the sky for no particular reason.
Instantly, the entire environment changed. The cold of Everest was replaced by the warmth of the Caribbean as the surroundings transformed into one of the countless beaches scattered across the Caribbean islands.
Yuuji immediately noticed that not only had the scenery changed, but both of their clothes had changed into swimsuits as well.
"...T-this..." Yuuji couldn't help blushing again as he felt Lala's exposed skin against him while she hugged his arm. She was now wearing only a yellow two piece swimsuit that barely contained her curves.
"What's wrong?" Lala asked as she pressed herself even closer against him, a smile showing just how much she was enjoying Yuuji's reaction.
"...Alright." After closing his eyes for a second, Yuuji opened them again and forced himself to calm down as he focused on the more important matter. "What kind of relationship do you and I have in the future?"
"Hehe, who knows?" Lala laughed without answering.
"Do I have some kind of ability?" Yuuji asked.
"Oh? How did you figure that out?"
"A beautiful alien genius wouldn't pay attention to me for no reason. I'm not that egotistical. But more importantly..." Yuuji looked down at the arm wrapped between Lala's soft breasts. Not only were they soft, they were unrealistically large. That was obvious from her swimsuit, which not only seemed too small for her, but was also pressed deeply into her soft flesh in an extremely sensual way. It took all his self control not to react. "There's no way the future me wouldn't react to this."
Just from Lala's actions and words, it was obvious that the future Yuuji didn't react that way to her. Still, Yuuji found it hard to believe there would really come a day when he wouldn't react to something like this.
Of course, if he got used to it, maybe he could. But considering that Yuuji was still the kind of person who believed in true love and soulmates, after all, he was only fifteen years old and had grown up seeing the world through television and books, it seemed unlikely that he would become such a womanizer that a beauty on Lala's level wouldn't provoke any reaction at all.
The other possibility, of course, was that he himself had become someone who no longer fit within the ordinary.
Not only would that explain why he didn't react to a situation like this in the future, since after entering a supernatural world something like this wouldn't be nearly as overwhelming anymore, it would also explain how he naturally fit into everything Lala had said so far.
"So you use your abilities so you won't react?" To his surprise, instead of answering, Lala became indignant. "And you dare make fun of me whenever I react?" she complained.
Yuuji raised an eyebrow curiously. Gathering all the courage he could and driven by a desire to change the situation, he extended his free hand toward Lala's waist and gently pulled the pink haired princess closer until they were face to face.
Caught by surprise, Lala turned her blushing face away.
"W-what? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?"
"Eeeh?" Seeing her like that, Yuuji smiled knowingly, feeling as though he finally understood his future self and calming down at last.
"I see, it's not that I started acting differently in the future" Yuuji realized. "It's simply that seeing your reactions is fun enough to tempt me into doing things I normally wouldn't."
"W-what are you trying to say?" Lala complained. "First of all, you should know I don't always react."
"But that would only make seeing your reactions even more fun, wouldn't it?"
"...Whatever, let's go see your memory. What happened here?" Lala changed the subject in embarrassment as she slipped out of Yuuji's grasp.
"Actually, we were just stopping by the Caribbean while preparing to head to the Bermuda Triangle. So it was just a relaxing day at the beach" Yuuji explained. "How are you going to make this more fun? We already used surfboards before, so repeating that won't be very exciting."
"Mmm... I have an idea" Lala said after thinking for a moment. "Actually, there's something I want to confirm.
Can you tell me everything you did that day?"
"Not much. I spent the day with my parents enjoying the beach, sunbathing, and swimming a little" Yuuji shrugged.
"Then let's do that. Let's go find your parents first!"
"Why do you want..." Yuuji was interrupted when Lala naturally took his hand, waiting for him to guide her.
"Alright" Yuuji sighed.
...
"Yuuji, you're back from...? Who is she?" Clara, happy to see her son returning from his walk along the beach, reacted when she saw him come back holding a girl's hand.
"I'm Lala, I'm his gir..."
"She's Lala, my new friend I just met on the beach" Yuuji quickly interrupted before she could say something strange.
"A friend, huh?" Clara said as she examined Lala from head to toe. "Well then, it's a pleasure to meet you... Lala? That's a rather unusual name. Although your features are mostly Asian, where are you from?"
"I'm the Princess of Deviluke."
"Princess?" Eicchi frowned. "I've never heard of Deviluke. Where on Earth is it?"
"Oh, Deviluke isn't on Earth. It's on another pla..."
"Deviluke isn't a country. It's just the name of her town, a little known town in... Saitama" Yuuji interrupted, making up an excuse on the spot. "And Princess is just a nickname."
"Oh, I'll look it up later" Clara nodded. Fortunately, back then cell phones still weren't advanced enough to instantly search for something and verify whether it was true.
"Ah, here, take this. It's called a touchscreen phone and you can use it to quickly search for informa..." As if she wanted to challenge reality itself, Lala tried handing Clara a touchscreen phone.
"She's joking, it's just a toy!" Fortunately, Yuuji interrupted her again, quickly snatching the phone away and throwing it into the nearby water.
"Yuuji, even if it's just a toy, don't throw things into the water. You're polluting" Eicchi scolded him.
"And besides, it wasn't yours. I apologize for my son's bad manners" Clara said, bowing slightly toward Lala before looking seriously at Yuuji. "Go get it."
"...Yeah" Yuuji sighed helplessly.
As he walked toward the water, he couldn't help glancing back at the pink haired girl happily skipping after him.
"Lala, you understand the problems caused by randomly saying strange things, right? I don't want this entire memory turning into one giant interrogation."
"Yes" Lala nodded confidently.
"And you also understand that giving futuristic technology to my parents is already bad enough, so doing it in a way that exposes the lie I just made up to cover for you is even worse?"
"Of course."
"Then... why the heck did you do it?" Yuuji asked, doing his best not to lose his temper.
Lala smiled as she walked closer and poked Yuuji's cheek with her index finger.
"Just to tease you" she answered with a grin.
"You..."
Before Yuuji could react, Lala ran away and jumped into the water.
"Try to catch me!"
"Didn't we already do this?" Yuuji complained.
Splash!
"Whatever" he said as he felt a sudden jet of water hit him directly in the face, fired by Lala with something that definitely wasn't just an ordinary water gun.
Without paying much attention to that detail, Yuuji ran after her, and the two of them started a water fight, completely forgetting what they had originally come there to do.
...
"So in the end, you didn't change anything all day. Sunbathing, playing in the water, having lunch at a themed restaurant, everything was exactly the same.
Is that really alright? Won't it ruin my chances of getting out of here?" Yuuji asked once the day's memory came to an end.
"Not really. After all, you had fun, didn't you?" Lala asked.
"...I did" Yuuji suddenly realized before smiling. "I'm cured."
But Lala merely looked at him like an expert watching an overconfident rookie and clicked her tongue.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, of course you're not.
But to make sure I'm right, let's move on to the next memory."
"You could just explain... I guess not."
Yuuji sighed again, already used to it, as the scenery around him changed once more. Now he was aboard a themed cruise ship right in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle.
"And now, behold one of the most mysterious treasures ever recovered from the depths of the Bermuda Triangle" a guide announced while pointing toward a simple metal triangle that the crowd observed with disappointment.
"Sir, isn't that just a metal triangle from a factory?"
"No, no, no. Think about it. Even though it's called the Bermuda Triangle, that's just a name humanity gave it. What were the odds there would actually be a triangle in Bermuda?
If this area is an artificial Bermuda Triangle, then this is the real Bermuda Triangle." The guide passionately explained while pointing at the artifact.
"But I thought reaching the bottom of the ocean was impossible" another tourist said skeptically.
"Well, that's..." The guide scratched his head awkwardly. "That's because the triangle itself expelled this artifact from the very center of the Earth. The scientists in charge confirmed that it had been at the deepest part of the sea."
"Sir, the bottom of the ocean and the center of the Earth aren't the same thing."
"Sir, the brochure said this exhibit has no scientific backing."
"Sir..."
"Well, why don't we talk about its effects instead?" The guide clapped his hands to interrupt everyone. "Legend says that if people whose bonds are strong enough touch the triangle's three corners at the same time, their souls will be bound together forever."
"Mr. Guide, and where exactly did these legends come from?"
"...The scientists?"
The crowd didn't answer. They simply continued toward the next equally unrealistic exhibit, completely ignoring the guide, who stumbled slightly before following after them.
Yuuji was about to do the same, but stopped because he remembered what had happened the first time he experienced this.
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)