Chapter 72: The Aftermath

(Alisa's POV)

I was a monarch.

My life was settled from the moment I opened my eyes for the first time. At that moment, fate that had been running down for millennia, from rulers to rulers, warriors to warriors, peasants to peasants. The moment I was born, my mind was set that I had to be a ruler. I understood my sole purpose, and so did the others.

When I lived as a ruler and went through that life, I understood how dull my life was. My servants and my people never betrayed me, as they were bound to that fate. I realized I was just a doll, a puppet that only moved because of the engraved fate installed in it, never moving according to its own will.

But when I looked at humans closely, they had something I never had. The freedom to choose what they would become, and how they protected each other even though they were weak.

Even though they always created conflict, I liked this feeling. Being embraced even though these two were weaker than me and surely would die when this rock shattered their bodies.

---

The next day, after what happened, Minoru couldn't sleep at all as he watched his family sleeping in the shelter.

About what happened yesterday, he knew it wasn't him.

He didn't know where it came from as he stared at the meteor. He knew that no matter how much he forged his mind, body, skills, and senses, he couldn't overcome something like a meteor.

That's the human limit. Even though the world knew how dangerous 001 was, it was impossible for him to survive just ten shots from bullets, let alone a meteor falling straight on his face.

However, he survived.

Clack!

It was morning, and Minoru picked a black coffee from a vending machine and went to the other side of Itomori High School to see the sunrise. As he arrived, he sat on the grass and opened the can.

"How are you feeling, Alisa?"

Minoru glanced at the bluish-haired girl as she nodded slightly.

"I'm fine."

Confirming her nod, Minoru took a sip of the coffee. However, she must have a serious mental state after overcoming a life-and-death situation. As he thought this, he looked down at Itomori's lake.

'This place is as good as before, as if a meteor never fell here.'

Minoru recalled the blinding light that saved him, Ai, and the kid next to him.

'Does magic exist now?'

Such a question might be silly, but he knew information that normal people didn't know at this moment. Though he knew that soon people would know it too. But again, busy days lay ahead for him.

Minoru took another sip as he felt many gazes looking at him.

"Alisa."

The bluish-haired girl glanced at him, her red scarf hiding her lower face.

"Wanna be my daughter?"

---

(Kaguya's POV)

I was wondering if Yanagi-sensei would want to switch bentos with me later. My chef really went all out to make this bento, so I think it will be to his liking.

Entering my class with a smile, I went to my seat and was greeted by this year's transfer student.

"Good morning, Kaguya." She smiled warmly at me, and I smiled back, "Good morning, Princess."

"Hmm~ as I said before, please drop the 'Princess.' Call me casually."

"Ahaha… I forgot about that," I said, thinking about this girl.

Speaking of her. Why are you so clingy to sensei? Well, she's not clingy; it's just her soft, warm attitude that gives me that impression. I could tell that Teresa liked Yanagi-sensei.

More importantly, why is he surrounded by so many girl students? Isn't that too... hm… forget it.

"Everyone, I'll go check on sensei first!"

"Eh? No, it's alright, Yotsuba-san. I'll do it for you."

"But, I'm the class rep!"

Right now, I should prepare since it's Yanagi-sensei's class. However, after the first-class bell rang, sensei didn't come.

"Hey, did you guys see that light from the meteor?"

I glanced at Hayasaka's clique.

"That's right~ I saw it too. But, doesn't that mean people got hurt?"

I frowned a little. That's right, yesterday I didn't expect the comet to split.

"I hope everyone is okay."

The sound came from Teresa, who sat in front of me.

"I think people had enough time to evacuate thanks to the crucial information from Her Majesty, Eileen, Teresa."

I remembered that the Queen broadcasted it yesterday, and it did happen.

"Ahahaha… thank you, Kaguya," Teresa said with a smile, but somehow it seemed different.

After some time, Yotsuba came back with the news that Yanagi-sensei wouldn't be coming today. That's something I never expected from him. After all, sensei is someone who never slacks off.

"For real?! This is super serious!"

The annoying sound came from Hayasaka's clique as every girl started to gather there.

"That's sensei, right?"

When I heard it, I left my seat to see what was going on.

---

(Lina's POV)

This morning, I received news that the meteor didn't destroy a place called Itomori, as Queen Eileen had told the world. However, it wasn't because she was wrong but something else destroyed the meteor and saved Itomori from destruction. 

The news that shocked me was that my friend, James Moriarty, was the one who stopped it.

"Is this information credible, Sylvie?"

Sylvie nodded at me with an uneasy face.

"Yes. It was confirmed by Colonel Benjamin Canopus, who stayed there to evacuate the prototype drone. Professor Moriarty drove a jetski to the meteor crash site. He must have gone there to pick someone up, but when the meteor was about to hit, suddenly a light destroyed it to dust."

Sylvie then showed me a footage. When she said dust, it wasn't a metaphor; the meteor literally turned to white dust.

James, what did you just do?

"I'm sorry, ma'am. Yes, I understand," Sylvie said after taking a call. "Lina, you have a call from the President."

I flinched as I picked up the phone, "This is Agent Angelina Kudou Shields, sir."

[At ease.]

For a while, the President made small talk before getting to the point.

[Detective, we just received classified news from NASA. They found some unnatural energy gathering on Mars, and yesterday they found similar energy in Itomori. This energy, we are calling it Magic.]

I gulped as I heard this from the President.

Does that mean?

[As you thought. This energy was, without a doubt, what destroyed the 164-foot meteor that was supposed to destroy Itomori in Japan. And according to Colonel Benjamin Canopus, we suspect that James Moriarty is the first magician.]

"Ack— I'm sorry, sir... Magician?"

[It's our new term for humans who can harness magic as a weapon. That's a magician.]

Wait, James can use this energy called magic? At this point, my head froze with the amount of information I got, and the President pulled me back to reality.

[I heard about your mission to recruit scientists for a potential pandemic. I see you're trying to convince your college friend, Professor Moriarty. Good job, detective. With this, as the President, I'll give you my full support to make him American.]

After some time, I sighed deeply. The President had just elevated my side mission to another level. To recruit the first magician, James Moriarty, to the US before he falls into enemy hands.

---

(Eileen's POV)

"Rachel, I never thought he'd keep this secret until now," I took a sip of my tea, "Maybe this is why he's never failed his missions."

Within my office, I was enjoying tea with Rachel when I received something really interesting, the man who possibly destroyed the meteor was James Moriarty.

"That's impossible. If he could use magic for his own good, why didn't he blow up the organization he works for?" Rachel said with a serious tone as I nodded.

"I agree with that. Maybe he's just special."

I put my cup down as I couldn't hold my shaking hands after hearing this good news. My whole body was trembling with joy because it's certain that James will be the first one to change the world. Well, it's not his first time making a lot of changes in this world with me, as his most valuable partner.

"What do you think about this, Rachel?"

Unlike me, I could see that Rachel was worried.

"I'm just worried that everyone will start targeting him."

I giggled.

"Well, that's not something new for him, Rachel. After all, we're talking about the man who's been hiding his identity all the time. But, I already noticed this as I signed a new mission for Agent Twilight."

With Twilight protecting my sister in Japan, he could also keep an eye on James since he's an undercover teacher at my sister's high school. With this, I don't have to worry about America's dogs trying to get their dirty hands on my James.

---

(Aqua's POV)

When I saw my father drive away on the lake, I thought my parents would die, leaving us orphans. Because no matter what happens, humans will never win against a 50-meter meteor. However, magically, the three of them survived.

Future historians considered that day a turning point in history.

On April 14, 2014, an incident occurred where comet fragments fell into Japan. Then, when the meteor was about to hit, a bright light enveloped it until the meteor turned into dust. 

It was revealed that a large energy suddenly appeared as the meteor was about to hit. When that happened, my father and mom were there. However, my father is suspected to be the cause of that light, the light that defeated the meteor and turned it into ashes.

[Yanagi-sensei! Are you the first magician?!]

[Please leave a comment!]

[Professor Moriarty! How do you explain that light to the people?!]

[Are you on humanity's side?!]

"Were they too harsh on Dad?"

Right now, I was watching the news with Ruby as the media blocked father's way to enter his workplace.

"You can't stop people's curiosity. Well, the world is about to change starting now, and our father happens to be part of it."

Ruby just glared at the screen as she sighed.

"I hate it." She said, holding her legs together, "That's why he has to leave us."

It's been two weeks since then. Besides that historical event, I stopped switching bodies with Mitsuha. Also, our parents adopted Alisa into the family. And as Ruby said before, our father decided to live separately from us since everyone is looking for him, including the media.

Thanks to this, Ai's identity was never revealed to the public as everyone is focused on the man behind the blinding light that defeated the meteor. Shortly, our father will live in a different place than us, and our daily life without him will be different from now on.

"Young master. Should I prepare the dinner?"

When he left this apartment, it seemed Rachel knew what would happen. So, she sent her maid for us.

"Let's wait for everyone to come back. And stop with that 'young master,' Amelia-san."

I already knew about her, so there's no problem with that. However…

"As you wish, young master."

She keeps calling me young master with her stoic face, even though I told her to call me by my name, dammit.

After a while, everyone was here.

"Hey, we're back!" Ai just arrived with Alisa and Miyako, "What's wrong?" She took a look at the screen, and her face said, 'Ah, that's how.'

"Mama! I want Dad to come back here!" Ruby said with teary eyes.

"Ruby, err… dad will be back later, okay?"

"No! I want him back now. It's been two weeks, and I don't want to wait any longer."

Looking at Ruby, Ai looked troubled. I bet she didn't know what to do about the current situation. In the first place, we didn't want him to leave home. However, the situation forced him since he didn't want to harm the family. The fact that the media is always looking for him is bad for Ai.

Also, he said something about someone possibly knocking on our door to kidnap him. I thought it was just a joke, but he was serious about it. But, he said, if he's alone, he'll be alright. So, all we can do is trust him.

---

(? POV)

"I'm sorry, Kageno-kun. I didn't feel we were going to make it."

"I-I see."

On the school rooftop, there was a guy who fell to his knees as the girl he hit on rejected him brutally.

It was me.

I was doing a side character quest, like any side character in any anime. That's right. I was confessing to one of the many idols of my high school, Nishino Akane. Of course, she still had the common sense to reject me, the side character.

However, something like this is nothing to me. I was just doing this as my side character event because I want to be something else.

I always admired the shadows that run the world from behind the curtain. That's something I like more than becoming the protagonist who becomes the hero.

-Sensei!

-Nishino, you're still here?

-Yeah, how about a coffee first?

I heard the girl I had just confessed to talking with the man with silver hair.

Yanagi Minoru.

How should I explain him?

The time I met him, he was dragging that poor guy and tossing him into Tokyo Bay like fish food. Later, Yanagi-sensei did a solo quest to wipe out the famous thugs of the Shuei-clan yakuza and the Bee Hive gangsters from America.

I didn't expect him to be teaching math in my high school either. However, he must be involved with the underworld. Well, I didn't want to get close to it.

But later, when I was doing my routine magic in Tokyo's sewers, I happened to meet the last boss of the underworld with a cool mask and a strong detective I didn't know about.

Thank God I'm still alive.

However, I knew that if I fought those guys, there would be no place for me since I hadn't trained my body to overcome bullets.

Yes, I need magic! I need more power!

Later, I went home. I watched the news again as it kept broadcasting about Yanagi-sensei.

I grinned, "First magician. That's interesting."

To defeat the nuke, I'll need magic of my own.

---

Minoru walked through the school corridor, contemplating when his organization would make their move after recent events.

They would surely be curious about how he survived and if he had magic capable of destroying the meteor. However, it's been more than two weeks and nothing major had happened, except for some assassins trying to kill him out of the blue.

It was also hard for him to be away from his daughter, but there was nothing he could do.

"Yay~ The midterm is finally ending! I can't wait to change into my summer uniform!" Chika said, jumping up and down.

Right now, he was in the student council room to hear about their progress on the upcoming event. The Banquet that would be held to welcome Shuchi'in Academy's sister school from France.

"Sensei, thank you for finding us a great chef. Though, I never expected that you know someone from the Nakiri family," Kaguya said, impressed.

"Hmm…" Minoru hummed. "That's a long story. Back to the point. Does that mean we're good to go then?"

Shirogane Miyuki nodded, "That's right, sensei. We don't have a problem with the event. However, we received a sudden email that their student council will be visiting us this afternoon. Which is now."

Minoru started to recall that he had never received such a sudden change in the schedule.

"How rude. At least, they should have informed us beforehand."

"That's okay, Kaguya-san~ After all, I'm curious what kind of student council they are."

"Fujiwara, their student council is not different then ours. Whatever." Kaguya sighed and glanced at Minoru, "Sensei, are you fine with it? You can leave if you want to."

"That's okay, I'll greet them first before leaving."

Minoru said as he looked at a nervous Miyuki. He then noticed that Miyuki kept reading a French textbook. Does that mean his French is not that good? He could just greet them in English though.

Knock Knock.

"Ah~ they're here~"

Fujiwara then ran to the door as Kaguya and Miyuki followed her, while Minoru just stood in the center of the room and waited.

"Welcome~~~~!"

Fujiwara opened the door, and Minoru's eyes widened slightly.

His mind was calm, but his killing intent was boiling. He had already made it clear that Kaguya was his target, or maybe the organization wanted to know about what happened lately, so they sent her here? 

However, he knew she would never make a move easily, even if the organization forced her to.

Minoru kept watching them talk first as he kept an eye on her. 

It was then that a fairly tall woman with a pale complexion, bobbed light lavender hair, and a long fringe covering much of the right side of her face noticed him and kept her purple eye on him for a while. She then escaped from the group and walked to him.

"Good afternoon, we're sorry for this sudden change of plan, sir. Even after that, I'm honored by how you still welcome us. I'm the student council president, Fiona Frost. Pleasure to meet you, sir."

Minoru stared at the emotionless teenage, trying to find an answer.

---

A/N:

That's the end of volume two!