42

"Hello, friends, lovers, and fiancés. What a lovely welcome party," I say with a smile. "We should do this more often."

"I-I-Issei! Who are those two?" Rias says in her classic flustered voice.

"Hmm?" I say with a look of curiosity before looking at the Sherlock sisters pinned to my body. "Oh, these two? This is Liese, and this is Selina; they're your new sisters."

"""WHAT?!""" most everyone says, including Selina and Liese, excluding Arin, Claudia, Sora, and Levi; the last two are bent over laughing.

"Well, technically, I've only claimed Liese, but I'm hoping Selina will come along as well. I hate the idea of splitting up such a lovely set," I say. I know I'm being an ass right now, but I think the extra Mage King Element in me is fueling my personal chaos, and I just can't bring myself to give a fuck.

A sea of wide-eyed faces stare at me like I'm insane. "Well, I mean, it's not like we don't have the room."

"Yeah," Sora says helpfully. "With what we've picked up from Liese, we should be able to triple the area we have."

"Really?" I ask. Sora nods. "We should totally do a sleepover. Rias. Sona. You're both invited, and your peerages, too. Rias, I assume Gasper is still out, but you can even bring Kiba if you'd like. Though since we'll all be in one place, maybe having someone on the outside wouldn't be a bad idea to keep an eye on the city."

"Issei? Are you alright?" Rias asks. It dawns on me at this point that I am feeling a bit manic, like what used to happen when I popped a caffeine pill with a Mountain Dew chaser while studying for finals.

"I think he's magic high?" Levi says, looking at me curiously with barely contained mirth.

I point at her and take a deep breath to try to center my thoughts. "Oh! I think she might be right. Too much magic! Sasami, any ideas on how to regulate this."

Someone asks, "Who's Sasami?"

[Hmm... You may want to consider adding an Enhanced Magic ability of at least B-rank. That should allow you to process this influx of mana faster and level you off. It'll also help with your spells and magic power.]

"Yeah, that sounds good. I've been meaning to address that anyway. I've got the points, so we might as well make it A-ranked, and while we're at it, make one for strength and vitality as well," I say. "Oh, and Quantum Mind, that should help me with the overflow of information I have."

[It would also augment your other mental abilities like Parallel Processing, Thought Acceleration, and even Dreamscape.]

"Oh, cool. Let's do it."

"Who's he talking to?" someone asks.

"No idea," someone, I think Mio, says.

[Sure thing, Issei. By the way, you've been talking out loud, and the girls are looking at you like you've gone crazy.]

"Oh, shit," I say. Looking up at the worried faces around me. "Um... Could you ladies just forget what I just said?"

I hold up my hand, regaining some excitement. "Oh! I really do want to do a sleepover this weekend, though. I promise it'll be totally worth it. There's so much I want to show you. It's like perfect for training magic and techniques and stuff."

I frown a little. "The only downside is that we can't train our bodies in there," I say, feeling lucidity trying to clear my thoughts but then, with a lewd smirk, I chuckle. "Well, there is still that other method. How about it? Are you feeling stronger since our morning session Rias?"

She blushes prettily but then thinks a second before frowning. "Actually, I do. I didn't think it would happen that fast. It's not just my magic, but my body feels stronger and... lighter somehow. "

"Told you," I say and look at Liese, who is still pouting with what has to be a glazed-over expression. "I told them. I can make any of you girls stronger. You don't need the silly Mage King Element. I can custom build you some abilities that'll knock your socks off, and if we fu-"

"Issei!" Mio shouts.

"Hmm?" I redirect my gaze to Mio, and a second later, my reason kicks back in. "Oh! Thanks, Mio. I almost spilled more beans than I meant to. Let-let's change the subject for a moment."

I look around at the gawking girls eventually coming to rest on Sona. I smile. "Missss Sitri. I meant to... come to see you. I feel bad that I haven't spent much time with you. You are one of my fiancés, and Rias has gotten most of my attention. I am remiss in not rectifying this earlier, and I ask for your forgiveness. Perhaps, we can take some time this evening, if you are available, to get to know one another a little better."

"Is this the magic speaking?" Sona asks rhetorically. "I'm not sure you're in your right state of mind."

I wave her off. "I'm fine, just a little residual high. It should wear off any minute. Sasami. How long until I fully adapt to the extra magic?"

[About two minutes, but the effects are going to get worse before they get better. Also, you spoke out loud again.]

"Goddammit," I say. Looking up as Sona again. "Two minutes."

"Magic drunk Issei is kind of hilarious," Aika says. Then with an evil smile, she says, "We should take advantage of these two minutes."

The other girls look at each other before Mio asks. "Issei, who is Sasami?"

"Sasami? Sasami is great," I say, slurring my speech. "She used to be one of my abilities, but then I used another ability to give her a name, and that let her develop her own consciousness and stuff, so now she's like my very own Jarvis... but so much better, because in my Dreamscape she looks just like one of the most adorable characters from an anime I used to watch. OH! Hey, Suss-smee, we should totally make the Light Hawk Wings. That would be so awesome!"

[That would require the ability to create at least double S-ranked abilities, Issei. Seventy seconds to lucidity, by the way. You may wish not to say anything more until then.]

I wave it off. "It's fine. It's fine," I nuzzle my face into Liese's neck, taking in her sent and squeezing her tight. A little part of my brain is telling me I'm being 'that guy,' but the big part of my brain doesn't care, currently, as there is still an overwhelming amount of free magic coursing through me and it. "I'm glad I got you before you could do that stupid Baal P-something magic and trap yourself in time. It's really hard to cuddle with someone outside of time. I would have gotten you out eventually, but this is better. It's also better for Selina. She misses you."

The mages all freeze, shocked by what I've said. Well, except for Arin, she just looks blank yet oddly curious. I frown a bit myself. "Hey, any of you magicky people know what this Mage King stuff is all about? I mean, the version from another universe involves dominating the Trinity Seven and using them to destroy the world or some such nonsense. Still, magic was a little more like playing with a loaded gun in that world since you could cause these things called Breakdown Phenomena that would literally eat the world. Honestly, it almost felt like a metaphor for drug addiction where magic would fuck your world up, but all the mages swore they were in control when everyone knew deep down they were a bad day away from destroying themselves or the world. Man, I hope it isn't like that here," I ramble semi-coherently. "And Arin, I don't know if you know but are you and Hijiri sisters here or some kind of split fragments of a goddess, 'cause while fragmented goddesses are cool and all, I wouldn't be opposed to something a little less complicated. I'll love you either way, but these last couple of weeks have been a lot to unpack. That reminds me, we should have a date too since you're also my fiance. Oh, if we do it in my Dreamshcape, time there is weird and stretched out, we could take like a week-long date with only a night of sleep or something."

[Ten seconds. And with Quantum Mind and the Time-Space magic you've absorbed from Liese, every hour of sleep is now equivalent to one week in the Dreamscape, Issei.]

I didn't even hear Sasami. "That whole world of yours is even more convoluted than Mio's, and I'm here trying to figure out if I have to worry about transforming into some evil version of myself and vaporizing the planet or if Lilith's dad is coming over from another dimension to fuck shit up, or some other esoteric bullshit that I don't even really know about cause I never read the books..."

[Three.]

[Two.]

[One.]

"And that's another thing. Mira you-"

[Cognitive impairment corrected.]

A wave of clarity like throwing off a weighted blanket washes over me. I shake my head. "Should ignore everything I just said. In fact, all of you should ignore what I said. I know you won't, but you should."

Everyone just stares at me wide-eyed and mouth agape—cue the awkward silence.

.

.

.

"Alright, explain," Sona says. Tsubaki and Mira are standing right behind her.

I'm currently sitting in the antechamber of the Student Council meeting room on a plush couch surrounded by gorgeous women. It would be a lovely thing if not for the conversation we were about to have. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of saying, 'SURPRISE, you're all fictional characters put here for my amusement by omni-dimensional gods.' So, I will be leaning heavily on my Mask of Thespis ability and dramatizing the truth just a touch. Or a whole shitload.

Mio is off to the side, pacing a little, nervous about what she is about to hear. I kept the Sherlock twins at my sides, Liese, because I was worried that she'd get in trouble and the other because... well, because I dragged her along. Arin had relocated and was sitting on my lap with her arms wrapped around my neck. It was cute, and I gave her a peck on the cheek which caused a slight pink to blossom on her cheeks.

Everyone else spreads out around the room except for Sona and Rias, who are sitting on the couch directly across from me. They were lovely, if not precisely comfortable sofas, but who really cares.

I've been silent a bit longer than they wanted, and I could see them getting agitated. I hold up a hand. "Hang on. It's not that I don't want to answer. I'm just not exactly sure how to begin this."

After another moment, I start. "Do you remember about how I told you that I'd seen versions of this world?" I ask. A few of them nod. Obviously, I hadn't told the Trinity Seven folks about this yet, but that would change now, and Rei and Saeko may have heard some from Sona. "Well, it's a little more complicated than that."

I sigh. "I want you to think of this world as a hub—the center of a wheel. As I'm standing at the center of the hub and looking out, I can see worlds as spokes of the wheel, but not just a single world, many worlds and many versions of those worlds.

The worlds I see most clearly are worlds where I'm a central figure, or more specifically, versions of me are prominent figures. That is where the consistency ends, though. Sona, I see you and Rias and most of your peerages in one set of these myriad worlds. In that one, I am Rias's only pawn, and I have an annoying personality that's obsessed with breasts to the exclusion of logic and common sense. I honestly don't know how I end up with so many amazing women in that world.

In fact, that personality, and the version of me from the world that Rei and Saeko are a part of, are my least liked versions of myself. One's an obsessive pervert, and the other is a bit of a self-righteous ass and a bad friend. At least, in the beginning, he is. He gets better."

"W-what about me?" Mio asks. "Am I from one of those worlds?"

"You and Maria are at the center of a different world. My biggest complaint about the 'me' in that world is that he wallows in self-pity about what happened in the Hero Village, though not as much as the first two wallow in their personal demons. Caring for you and Maria is one of the catalysts for pulling his shit together. After observing that world, I realized a few things and became determined to avoid certain pitfalls so that I can reduce your suffering as much as possible. The same is true of the others as well. It ripped me apart watching any of you girls suffer."

"Un. Me?" Arin says, squeezing me.

"You, my dear, and most of the rest of the mages here are another world, though I didn't see too deep into that one, more like flashes and short scenes. I think it had to do with the nature of the world. It was a world that was created and destroyed over and over again. It made things confusing, to say the least."

"Are those all the worlds?" Tsubaki asks.

"Oh, gods no. I couldn't see everything, but I'm not using the word 'myriad' lightly to describe the number of worlds, and what's worse is that the further out you go along the spokes, the more worlds appear. Some with minor variations on the initial ones and others barely recognizable. Some I'm at the center of, and some I'm scarcely a tangential thought.

I'm not nearly as powerful in those first spoke-worlds as I am here, in the hub. The reason is that I do not possess as much potential in those initial worlds as I do here. I believe all the potential those other 'mes' possess has been condensed into this version of me."

"In your world," I say, pointing to Sona and Rias. "I possess the Boosted Gear but have a low aptitude for magic."

"In yours," I indicate Mio. "I can perform Banishing Shift, and I have my training from the Hero Village."

"In your world," I say, stroking Arin's hair. "I have a Mage King Element and Sora, but none of my other skills or training."

"And in your world, Rei. I'm just a regular guy living in extraordinary circumstances. There is no magic in that world, and an apocalypse comes, and many people die. I didn't see too much after that. Maybe the world ends, maybe it doesn't.

And that is somewhat the problem I was facing. People I cared about getting hurt or killed. Fates that I refuse to allow, ones I'm not entirely sure about, and a lot of unnecessary heartache.

I mean, the amount of suffering and close calls poor Asia has to endure is just terrible. It's like her innocence just attracts the worst of the worst. She dies at least once and is threatened with sexual assault multiple times by several psychopaths.

And by the way, if, in the future, I randomly splatter someone all over the place. Trust me. I have a reason, and they've earned it."

"So all the women you've been surrounding yourself with," Sona says with a slight frown. "We're all your lovers from these other worlds?"

I smile at her question. "Not entirely. I exercise my free will and choose my partners. Not everyone has that choice in this world."

She frowns. "What do you mean by that?"

"Think of it like competing timelines. Those worlds feed into this one and try to claim dominance over this hub. They seem to try to enforce their timeline on those individuals they share.

The world you're from is trying to push you and the other devils into the same version of events of that world. As a version of me exists in multiple worlds, they push against each other, and none can gain a foothold allowing me to be nearly immune to their pull."

"These worlds are controlling us?" Rias asks.

"Not exactly. It's more like they're trying to guide you to a certain outcome. If you ever noticed that you said something that doesn't exactly fit with the conversation, it may be what I call a 'glitch.' The other world is trying to force a scenario and failing. This generally only happens in pivotal situations according to that world's timeline. A scene like this one never appears in any of the timelines I'm aware of, so there shouldn't be a problem here."

"Are all of us present your lovers in the other worlds?" Akeno asks with a hint of nerves.

I smile. "Not all of you, though the most I can confirm is from the devil universe and the demon universe," I say, indicating Rias and Mio, respectively. "In the devilverse, Rias and the rest of the female members of her peerage plus a few others outside the peerage become my wives. In the demonverse, Mio, Maria, Zest, Yuki, and several others as well."

"So, I wasn't your wife in that other universe?" Sona asks.

"No, but I'm not restricting myself only to love those women. While loyal and eventually powerful, the 'me' from that universe was not smart enough to stand next to you. I made my decision to pursue you based on my attraction to you, not what the different universes wanted, and every one of you is someone I want at my side."

"Why?" someone, possibly Lilith, asks.

"Because I want to be the one to bring a smile to your faces. I want to be the one to hold you in my arms, to wipe away your sadness, and celebrate your victories. I want to be someone you can rely on and stand by your side. I want to be the one to make you blush and laugh."

And moan and cum and all those other things I'm not saying out loud, so I don't ruin the mood. All of the women seem to be blushing, even the ones I haven't formed a relationship with, like Mira, Akio, and even Levy and Claudia, of all people. I think this is one of the perks of the Harem Protagonist occupation I possess. Strangely, cheesy bullshit like that somehow works on this large group of ordinarily intelligent women. Ecchi-logic at its best, I guess.

"You called them devilverse and demonverse; what about the others?" Saeko asks.

"Oh, well, I'd call the mage universe the magicverse, and yours would have to be the zo-ah-ah-ahahaha," I say, stumbling to a stop before considering what to say. "Hmmm. Spoiler alert. I'd call yours the zombiverse."

Everyone let that sink in a minute, then the realization dawns, and some of the girls pale.

"But I thought there wasn't any magic in that universe?" Rei asks with a frown.

"Exactly, which is why a lot of people died quickly. They had no survival instincts or power. Hell, you've probably felt it here, I bet. Our clinging to societal etiquette could lead to our suffering if we don't curb those instincts when dealing with unreasonable supernatural threats. It's kill or be killed."

Rei frowned, considering the implications. That's a good thing. She needs to think long and hard about what she's gotten herself into and what she will do in the future. Oddly enough, her decision may have saved Hisashi's life. Lucky bastard.

"Why can you see all this and no one else?" Sona asks.

"No idea; maybe because I'm the commonality between several worlds, I have some sort of privilege. Maybe there is some other reason." Like I made it all up. Although, in some ways, it is kind of true... from a particular perspective. The initial world is the canon and wiki, while the extended worlds are the heaping pile of fanfictions that I've read. That thought sent a chill up my spine. Some of the fanfics I've read are... disturbing. There are some angry, angsty mother fuckers out there writing some demented shit.

"So, you're the central pillar of our entire world?" Sona asks with a raised brow.

I laugh. "Well, I don't know about that," I say, then continue after gathering my thoughts. "Have you ever wondered why there is such gender disparity? Why there are eight women for every male born?"

She frowns. "You're saying that men are all existing in multiple worlds, and that reduces the number of overall men in this world, because like you, they are effectively more than one person?"

"Not all of them. At least among the worlds I've seen, some men are repeated on other spokes, and some are not. Some on those outer worlds don't appear to exist here at all, or they are women here."

'Pfft. I wouldn't know what that's like,' Ddraig says.

'More than half of your incarnations have been women,' I respond. Ddraig is a pretty standard gender-bend since guys often feel weird about some dude-dragon watching their main character get it on with his harem. Like somehow the manly incorporeal dragon is there rooting Issei on, 'Yeah, slap that ass. Get it, partner. Make her call you, Big Dragon.' Thinking about that, I suddenly understand why people gender-bend Ddraig so often.

"What the hell are you people talking about!?" Mira growls out, finally losing patience. "This is ridiculous. It's impossible. He's making it up."

"Does the hub example not make enough sense? Maybe I should compare it to a melting pot that merges the various worlds and burns off the extraneous parts? Would that work as a better analogy for you?" I ask.

"None of it works because you're trying to trick us," Mira says.

"If you're saying I'm withholding information, you're right, but the core of it is pretty accurate. This world is indeed made up of various other worlds."

"And I'm saying that's impossible," she growls.

I blink. "Isn't that the very foundation of your magic?"

"Merged worlds?"

"No, the impossible."

"That's- It's not the same."

"No, he pretty much has you there, but it's way beyond what a mage could do," Levy says calmly.

"Yeah, it is, but who said anything about a mage doing it. I doubt any of the gods of this world could, but what if there is something beyond them? What if there was something or somethings that controlled these multiple universes?"

"Multiversal beings an order of magnitude greater than the gods of any one universe? Yeah, that would do it."

"The fact is that we don't even know if they created this world from those worlds or used this world to create those others," I say.

"You're just making assumptions now. There is nothing to suggest that these... overgods, even exist or that he's not just lying to us," Mira says, but there's doubt in her words. It touches on things she's questioned herself.

"He's been accurate with his predictions so far," Rias says. "And he's right about the... 'glitches.' I've noticed them myself in the past. Conversations that don't make sense, the feeling that something is trying to guide me to do something that feels strange."

"That- There could be any number of reasons for that. It doesn't mean what he's telling us is true. He's already admitted that he is withholding information," Mira argues.

"Well, of course, I am. Are you going to give us all the information about how your magic works? All of your research? If I gave you all my knowledge, it would impact how you develop. I'm already pushing my luck. Remember, I've told you I saw all these worlds, and I've seen how all of you grow into amazing people.

It's one of the reasons I care about you all so much. I'm a little worried that I'll damage your growth to those amazing people if I interfere too much, but I can't stand some of the sufferings that I've seen you all go through. So, I have to walk a tightrope between my desire to see you grow and my desire to protect you."

"W-why are you looking at me?" Mira says, her face aflame. "I-I barely know you."

"But I know you," I say. "I know that before you met Akio, you were shy and tended to isolate yourself from others, afraid that you'd hurt someone with your magic. I know you're unrelenting in your quest for justice but that you occasionally feel concerns that you may take it too far. I'm betting that incident the other day with me and what was influencing you shook your confidence."

"Y-you don't know me at all!" she shouts and storms out of the room.

Being the good friend she is, Akio peels herself from the wall and goes to follow her. "Akio," I say. "If you can, come to my house Saturday night for the sleepover. I promise it will be worth the while. And try to bring Mira if you can."

"I'll think about it," she says and closes the door.