Finally, Yuuji, Lala, Yami, and Tearju arrived at the home of the first three.
There, Yami showed her creator her room and all of its functions.
When Tearju told Lala, "Amazing, I couldn't have made something like this at your age" the princess nearly fainted from happiness on the spot.
She even began showing her the entire house and all of its functions, something that surprised even Yuuji, since he had no idea that, besides her own room, Lala had also modified other parts of the house.
This included the kitchen, which was connected to a space with an almost infinite food supply so that, according to Lala, "What happened last time won't happen again."
Apparently, all the doors had long since stopped being made of wood and were now made of a transmutable material that, the moment an unidentified person so much as touched them, transformed into a material stronger than any found on Earth while also deploying several weapons with different effects depending on the threat level.
The walls had a similar function as well.
The hallway contained several defense systems, even being capable of moving the walls themselves. Finally, apparently the television remote control was indestructible and had a function to restore the house to its original state if it were ever destroyed.
"When did you add all of this?"
"One day."
"Yeah, I guess I'll just accept that answer" Yuuji sighed, having no desire to investigate any further.
"What do you think?" It was Yami who asked the question.
By then they had already finished touring the house and were now in the dining room.
"It's... very secure?" Tearju answered somewhat hesitantly. "I had heard that Princess Lala was a rather troublesome person who was always looking for fun, so I expected more chaotic and nonsensical technology, but seeing that most of it is defensive, I can tell that she truly cares about all of you.
Not only by turning the house into a fortress, but even by avoiding adding more unusual functions so she wouldn't put you in danger."
"Of course. Yuuji and Yami are two of the most important people in my life, and I would never put them in danger" Lala declared confidently.
"I suppose Princess Lala isn't as childish as the rumors say" Tearju said with a smile.
"With that, there's only one person left" Yami interrupted, making Yuuji realize she hadn't really been introducing the house this whole time, she had been introducing Lala.
"Even though he was with us the entire time, he barely spoke unless it was necessary or someone addressed him first.
Even when someone spoke to him, he looked for a way to avoid things he considered troublesome or to keep the conversation from dragging on, yet he never harmed others to accomplish that.
He's a lazy but kind person.
Yuuji Rito, my older brother."
"Ah, it's a pleasure" Tearju said with a bow.
"We've already met throughout the whole trip here, haven't we?" Yuuji smiled. "There's no need for this."
"No, there is" Yami immediately denied. "When I first met Yuuji, I tried to kill him."
"Eh?" Tearju reacted immediately.
"But he threw me into another world at war for two whole years, so we're even.
Even when we first met, I only forgave him because he turned out not to be my target in the first place, just a small mistake."
"A-a small mistake?"
"Yes. Besides, he had also sent me to that other world by accident, so it was a mistake on his part too" Yami nodded. "We both made small mistakes, so we're even.
After clearing up the misunderstandings, we worked together to escape that other world.
But after we separated, I realized the trust I had felt toward him from the very beginning seemed unnatural, so I scanned myself. Apparently I had been affected by some kind of magic that made me feel a sense of familiarity toward him.
My first thought after discovering that was to go kill him."
"Eh?"
"Eh?"
Not only Tearju reacted to that, but Yuuji as well, who had absolutely no idea about this story.
Yami ignored them and continued.
"But I had already been wrong about him twice before, so I decided to simply ignore it and continue living my life normally after removing the influence.
It wasn't fun. I stayed with Mikado-sensei for a few days while eating the snacks she gave me every now and then. If I had gone back into space, I could have found a job and earned money, or I could have used galactic currency in countries connected to Deviluke's network. But for some reason, at that time I didn't feel like going back into space. Constantly moving around and completing missions, never staying anywhere or forming relationships with anyone... I didn't like it.
Time passed quickly until one day, while I was waiting outside a bakery looking at the food, I met Mikan, and after talking with her I decided to go see Yuuji and Lala again to find a job on Earth.
Even though I wasn't sure if I could trust him after what happened last time, I decided to do it anyway. Although I don't know whether that feeling was real or if I simply missed the sense of familiarity he had caused.
Yuuji kindly, or perhaps out of guilt, gave me a job and a place to live. Not long afterward he even became my older brother. Everything happened too quickly to process.
Even so, I realized Yuuji was a kind person who cared about me.
Because opening up to him worked, I wanted to try it with more people, Mikan, Lala, Ruri, Mikado-sensei. Now I have many people I care about.
Now I'm able to understand people well enough to introduce them to you today, and I know people are more complicated than what they seem at first glance.
That's why I'm very grateful to Yuuji for being my older brother.
And that's also why I wanted to give you a chance, to understand you better and find out if you can become another one of the important people in my life."
"...YAMIIIII!"
Tearju's response was to throw herself at Yami and hug her while crying.
"YYami, I, I'll do everything I can to become an important person in your life because... sniff... because you... sniff... are the most important person in mine!
You have no idea how much I missed you all these years.
I don't care about inventions, research, or fame. I... I just wanted to be with you again like before, as mother and daughter."
Yami didn't answer, but it wasn't because of her usual stoicism. The many expressions that crossed her face over the span of just a few seconds revealed that she was anything but calm at that moment. She even trembled slightly under her mother's embrace.
Finally, she simply wrapped her arms around Tearju in return.
That only made Tearju hug her even tighter as she continued crying.
"I... missed you too" Yami murmured with a small smile.
...
"Waaah, Yuuji!" In another room, Lala threw herself at Yuuji, crying as well.
"Why are you crying too?" Yuuji asked half jokingly, though in reality he gently patted her head while she let it all out.
"Are you feeling better now?" he asked when Lala finally pulled away from him, her cheeks slightly flushed with embarrassment.
"Y-yes, sorry about that. Should we go see how they're doing?" Lala asked.
"No. They have a lot to catch up on."
"I-i see. Yami is really brave for facing her trauma like that. I don't know if I could do it. And Tearju too, even after suffering such an injustice and believing her daughter hated her, she never stopped trying to contact her."
"Yeah, facing your fears head on isn't easy, that's the whole point of fears" Yuuji acknowledged. "Very few people could face them that way."
"But isn't it thanks to Yuuji too? If it weren't for you, Yami wouldn't have opened up to other people in the first place" Lala said.
"It wasn't really thanks to me, it was thanks to a skill."
"'Your' skill."
"Yes, but..."
"Then it's thanks to you" Lala interrupted. "Anyway, I'm sure Yuuji could do it too, don't underestimate yourself."
"I think you're overestimating me instead" Yuuji said with an ironic smile. "Facing your fears, huh?
Alright, let's do it."
"Eh? Do what?"
"Face my fears. If you don't face your fears, you'll never overcome them. Besides, I had to do it anyway if I wanted to solve the problem we caused in the other universe.
What kind of older brother can't do something his little sister can? And I can't betray your faith in me either."
"Oooh, Yuuji, even though I don't really understand, it sounds important, so do your best and I'll support you" Lala declared.
"More than your support, I need your help. Do you have something that lets me enter my own memories?"
"Eh? Not right now. I could build something for you in a little while if you need it. But if you don't want to wait, I do have something that lets you enter your dreams." Just as she said, Lala simply focused on supporting him without asking too many questions. Besides, she could already guess most of it.
"My dreams?" Yuuji asked, confused, unable to see the connection between the two ideas.
"Yes. Dreams and memory are closely connected. In fact, many dreams are fragments of memories that left a deep impression on us. So, if the memories you want to enter are important enough to be connected to your dreams, we can use the machine to enter your dreams and create a dream specifically based on those memories."
'Memories that left a deep impression, huh?' Yuuji thought with an ironic smile. 'They're the memories filled with the strongest emotions I've ever had.'
"Alright, let's do that before I regret my decision" Yuuji decided.
"Then I'll go get the Sheep-Ship" Lala nodded excitedly.
While she went to fetch her interestingly named invention, Yuuji spoke with Mona.
'Mona.'
[I know. I'll make sure to connect you to your real memories instead of this world's memories. That will make it much more effective.
Don't worry, Master. Making sure you can only access those memories and nothing else from your previous life is easy. I was already a top level AI across the entire galaxy even before evolving. After I used the All Spark on myself, every piece of technology in this universe that uses any kind of software is like a toy to me.]
'As reliable as always' Yuuji smiled.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)