461: This is Goodbye

Chapter 461: This is Goodbye

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The embrace ended, and Neji and the Kimi doll stood in a seemingly endless expanse of white space. As they parted, the stark, blank void around them felt strangely intimate, a private universe for just the two of them.

"Hng," Without a moment's hesitation, Kimi suddenly leaned in again, but this time not for a hug. Her eyes sparkled and before Neji could react, she kissed him deeply, a rush of warmth and affection pouring into the gesture.

Neji was taken aback for a moment, but before he could even think, he returned the kiss, feeling a connection that transcended the physical form in front of him. It was a moment of profound intimacy, a connection bridging the gap between reality and the echo in front of him.

Kimi backed off a minute later and wiped her lips, grinning at him. Her features, vividly reminiscent of the person Neji knew, beamed with an infectious energy. 

"You got better than the last time, young master," she said, her voice bubbling with excitement. "I feel left out."

Despite her smile, a wave of sadness washed over Neji. Neji gazed at her in shock and amazement. "Kimi, are you... I mean, what are you exactly?" he asked, his voice a blend of curiosity and a subtle ache of longing.

Kimi's bright smile didn't waver. "I'm like a piece of the real Kimi, but not quite her~ A very small piece. Hmm, think of me as a special echo of her – with her memories, feelings, and a dash of extra cheerfulness!" She twirled around playfully, her cat ears twitching in delight.

'She sure is right about the extra part,' he thought. While Kimi was quite cheerful after her depression ended, this one felt weird. As if she was trying to recreate what she once was…

Neji's heart was a mix of emotions – but he knew this wasn't her. She just said it herself. Still, this was a part of her…

Neji pulled her by her waist and kissed her again. She gave in to the kiss, melting like cotton candy, and smiled at him with glossy lips when it ended.

"You're impatient."

"So, you're not the complete Kimi." He said mostly to remind himself. "Can you tell me about her? Where is the real Kimi now?"

Kimi stopped twirling and faced him, her smile didn't waver but her eyes lost their light. "It's complicated, young master. But, hmm, I don't know about it myself. I was created a few eons ago, so my memories aren't up to date."

"What?"

"So start…" she looked at the side. "Back in Fate World, that happened right? You were sent to the Prime by Eurynome."

Neji frowned. If she knew what happened in the Fate World, how was she not up to date with the other things?

"There, I picked you up. I showed you a glimpse of your first life."

"So you know I am a reincarnator…"

She put her arms behind her and looked at her feet, slowly waving her body weight over one foot. "Sorry… It's been a while for me. So yes, I do. I know many things."

"And you created that world? No wonder. I thought it felt too weird and convenient for Eurynome to create it for me."

Neji nodded in understanding, he was glad to be finally getting some answers. 

However, Kimi looked awkward. "I am… sorry again. For not telling you. Actually, I was Lucille back then. Well, it was the real Kimi. She was trying to do an experiment with you. She failed, though. After she sent you back to the Fate world, she made this Doll that I am right now."

"...."

Neji looked at her.

'True, Lucille was acting off. But…'

No, Kimi had no reason to lie. But he was curious, "Why?"

"I couldn't exist twice at the same time, so I had to take some other form." She said and before he could ask what she meant, she answered. "I'm a time traveler… I returned from the distant past to meet you here. It's a lot more complicated than that, but I am not allowed to say everything. There are certain rules I need to follow. Only the real one can tell you everything."

"...." Neji frowned at her. She did give him answers, new information, but that only complicated things for him. And she was saying she couldn't tell him everything?

Neji gave her a frustrated look. "You… you're still keeping secrets from me after all this? When will you stop? No, have you ever been truthful with me? Have I always just been a pawn to you?!"

"Uh??" Kimi frowned and blinked. Seeing his weird expression, she quickly jumped at him. She pulled his face into her chest and held him down. He resisted a little but gave up himself. 

'Dammit.' he was weak for this right now.

"...." Feeling his weird mood, a pang of worry and confusion filled the doll's heart. "What's… going on, young master? I am not sure about anything you just said."

"Who is the Director of the Last Act?" Neji raised his head and looked into her eyes. 

She frowned. "What about her?"

"She's dead. The Primordial killed her."

Kimi's eyes trembled. "W-what? But- no. She shouldn't have died. Even if it's the Primordial, she's strong enough to at least escape from him. This is-" Before she could say anything, Neji interrupted her.

"Buddha and some other Abstract Entities surrounded us. The Primordial came out of nowhere, he was teaming up with the Cube entities, and she fought with him. She died in the end, and we barely got to escape. But that's a whole other story. Right until that, she wanted to kill me and reincarnate the First Gamer into my body. What's all that about?"

"...." the doll frowned but not at him. She opened her mouth and closed it. She hoped Neji realized that the Director died to ensure he could escape, but she didn't say that. Her eyes stared at the air and it seemed a million thoughts spun in her head. 

In the end, she let out an odd laugh. "I… see. Her death shouldn't have come like this. This is more than just bothersome. Ugh..."

"Hey, can you at least tell me what you're mumbling about? Or is that too a secre-"

"Young master," Kimi interrupted him by kissing him deeply. When it ended, she held his face and looked deep into his eyes. Her blue eyes, which were much brighter than Neji remembered, held incredible sadness. It was an odd scene for Neji. "You are… my everything. I love you more than all of the stars in existence. You might not understand how much I mean it, but… I really do. It pains me to see you not trust me. I'm not trying to deceive you by hiding things from you."

"In fact, when I see you like this, I really do want to tell you everything despite the repercussions. But I'm physically unable to. I am programmed that way, to not tell you everything. It's for the better. As I said, I time-traveled. Everything needs to stay in a certain sequence for reality to stay the same." She kissed him again.

Neji was calm by then, and seeing that she smiled. "That said, I am able to tell you a lot more than you know right now. Starting with time travel."

With that, she began her story. 

* * *

At first, after the teleportation happened, Kimi found herself in High School DxD.

Her journey began in this universe as she took on the identity of Yuhei Kotazaki, a teacher at Kuoh High. She encountered Issei Hyoudou, but their meeting ended with his untimely demise when he tried to inappropriately approach her. 

Then, utilizing her space-time abilities, she delved into the memories of Yuhei to unravel the workings of this new world. 

After spending months there and a few restarts, where she killed - and was killed by - many people, prompting restarts after restarts, Kimi's actions indirectly caused a big, interdimensional war. 

The foreign Gods attacked DxD while she hid in a pocket dimension.

She also realized that, due to the Restarts, she was losing her memories. It was not a good sign, and therefore she was in a very bad mental state.

But Kimi didn't give up. All alone, she planned her actions and waited for her opportunity to claim the [Dimension Lost] Sacred Gear, and used it to search for Neji.

However, instead of finding Neji, her long-waiting love, she appeared in the Jujutsu Kaisen universe.

Kimi encountered Satoru Gojo, a man who had striking similarities to Neji. The situation turned out in a way that Kimi had to fight Gojo, a super strong sorcerer known for his Limitless and the Six Eyes, and to make things worse, he was being backed by the Will of the World.

Kimi utilized her vast array of powers in a heated confrontation with Gojo. The battle was intense and harrowing, however, Kimi's accumulated powers and strategic prowess eventually led her to triumph.

Kimi won, and as a prize for the victory, she stole his Six Eyes to implant them on herself. She grew stronger than ever.

After using [Dimension Lost] once more, she again failed to find Neji. This time, she appeared in the World's End Harem verse.

It was a world where a deadly virus had drastically reduced the male population. It had a character, Shota, who resembled Neji to some degree. That's why the stupid Sacred Gear had brought her there.

Disgusted by the rampant exploitation and moral decay, Kimi unleashed her wrath on the civilization. She obliterated this world with her godly powers, eradicating its corrupted inhabitants. To make things worse for them, she used tentacle magic to turn them into human livestock.

After leaving that world in search of Neji once again, she found herself in "Bleach". The world of Shinigamis. 

Here, she confronted Tōshirō Hitsugaya, another Neji lookalike. She absorbed his powers and decided to spend a bit more time in this world than usual, to grow. 

Her time in the Bleach universe was marked by an accumulation of strength and abilities, as she dismantled the established order of the Soul Society, leaving her mark in that ruined world.

After that, she used [Dimensional Lost] one more time. That was a mistake.

Kimi's manipulation of time and space had caught the attention of an eldritch horror, leading to a perilous confrontation. This encounter proved to be beyond her capabilities, which resulted in her being eaten by the monster, resulting in a reset of her timeline. Once more.

Technically, that was the end for Kimi. It could be said that she died to that monster, because her existence had vanished entirely from the Omniverse.

Though more accurately, she had been shot back to the past. To the very beginning of the Omniverse. Where she met an entity beyond Omniversal time and space; one of the two who claimed to be the 'One Beyond Omnipotence'.

* * *

Neji listened to her story till the end.

Her 'Perfect Run' began when she appeared in DxD world and ended when the spell broke loose and dragged back to the very beginning of the Cube Omniverse. 

Neji realized then that the reason why Lady Luck said his five girls were scattered across five worlds, but there were signs of two girls in just DxD world, was because Kimi had left her tracks in both. Since she was in Bleach in the end, her trace was recorded to be there. Everything fell into place, like a puzzle solved.

"I am sorry." Neji apologized. 

She nodded without him saying what he was sorry for. "It's alright, mistakes happen. It was a tiny detail, it's not weird that you forgot. And even if you hadn't forgotten and told me, I doubt I would have sat still." 

"The [Armor of Singularity] passive skill is undeniably the cause behind all this." Kimi continued, "It stops time travel in the timeline you are on, to keep you safe. It's the thing that kept blocking my Regression spell from reaching you. But we can't blame it, that's also the same thing that has stopped thousands of others from time-sniping you."

And if there was someone strong enough to time travel in his timeline, they'd have to confront the Beyond Omnipotent beings. Their fates were sealed.

From what she told him, she was Tier 50 back when she made the biggest jump. Surely, that wasn't strong enough to time travel in his timeline? Otherwise, the OBOP would be busy all day taking care of stray time travelers; Tier 50 was nothing in the grand scale of things, after all.

"Then how did you manage to make that jump?"

"I didn't travel in your timeline. My spell was made to search for you though, but it was also only designed to go to the past. So I kept being tossed backward in time as my spell kept searching for you—until there was nothing left to search and I formed before the Big Bang." she said. "There, the feminine part of the Beyond Omnipotence picked me up. She was beyond the realm of time, so she knew I came from the future. She would have killed me, but since I was your… woman, she let me be. I did have to go through punishment though; it was not fun. They're not nice people."

"Eons later, at one point, Kimi sent a part of herself to the future. I am not allowed to disclose why, and the reason for that is that she's embarrassed – she wants to tell this to you by herself. Anyways, the real Kimi appeared in the present time and met you as Lucille and she kept you stuck in a time-loop for a few years, trying to finish an experiment. It was a failure till the end. Time ran out and she sent you back to Fate world. Before she returned back in time because her own time was running out, she made this doll –me– and left me to meet you here~ This is the reason why I don't have the latest memories. That wraps up the story in a circle."

Saying so, she fell silent. Now Neji had a clear picture of what happened to Kimi after the teleportation happened in the Hero Academia world. And he blamed himself for all this, for the careless mistake of letting her learn that spell to begin with—and to not have warned her about the danger of using it.

It also gave him a good idea about how… old she was. Despite the amount of time that had passed, she still loved him. Neji had nothing to say.

"That's all. I can't talk any further," she said, sighing. "You'll have to ask my real self to know the latter details. I am not sure why she's not with you yet.

Neji nodded. He understood. He wasn't fully satisfied with half the story, but it was enough. "Then where can I find the real you?"

"The Kimi you know is deep within the… Director." With a sad tone, she said. Neji's veins cooled. "So from what you said, it's too late to meet her. If she's been killed by the Primordial, it's the end. I… your Kimi is really dead."

Neji didn't show any reaction. Despite the false hope that Godmother had tried to give him earlier, he had already taken it for granted that Kimi was gone. One way or another, she was dead. Still, he couldn't keep a pang of pain away from his heart.

"Aha," the Kimi doll looked down at her hands. It was turning white, mixing with the surroundings. "Looks like I'm at my limit. So the Director truly is dead… if she was around, I could have sustained this for a much longer period."

"Tell me. How do I bring her back?" Neji grabbed her shoulders and demanded. "There must be a way. There has to be one!"

She smiled bitterly, "There isn't a way like that, young master. She was killed by the Primordial. No revival magic can bring back a person killed by the Primordial. He is the pinnacle of both of the Omniverses, hailed as the Slayer of Omnipotents. It's… just how things have turned out." Her eyes were teary. Clearly, she didn't want this either.

"No," Gears rolled in Neji's head. "There is someone. Someone beyond him. If… If it's them, will they be able to help? You should know if you're from the past. Come on, tell me before you go!"

Almost her entire body was white now. She looked just so similar to the star-like appearance of the Director right now.

Even in her last moments, her blue eyes trembled. "It's not a good idea to make deals with the Beyond Omnipotents. They're a bunch of bastards. Someone like me isn't worth that much effort."

"I-" 

"Shh, young master," she pressed her lips on him one last time. "I… will miss you. A lot. I'm sure you will too. At least I'm glad I got to confess to you properly, one time. Hopefully, I managed to clear my image, that I'm not someone who manipulated you. I feel extremely sad… it's gut-wrenchingly painful that the real me can't even witness this last moment of ours." She raised her head and smiled, even while tears fell down her cheeks. "Goodbye, young master."

With her last words, her entire body burst into particles of light. The light spread around and the garden regained its color.

"...."

He slowly sat down on the soft soil and looked up at the distant sky. 

Neji let out a roar that seemed to shake reality.

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