"Take down Shadow, give us back our descendants!"
"Take down Shadow, give us back our descendants!"
"Take down Shadow, give us back our descendants!"
Ah... it happened.
Sitting by the window, Cid looked down at the people on the street who, despite the scorching sun, still held their banners high and shouted out their hatred. In his heart, he silently wailed for them.
"They're pretty ridiculous, aren't they?"
A tray loaded with food was set down across from Cid. Asagi Aiba sat, following his gaze toward the street.
"Hey, Asagi. What brings you here?"
Cid asked in confusion. He was wondering whether there was anything he needed to ask Asagi Aiba about this time. Somehow, he had triggered Asagi, who ranked as a top-tier intelligence tool in his mind in terms of cost performance.
"I finished my work, so I came to find you and talk about that guy we ran into last time."
"Hm?"
Last time? What had they run into last time?
Cid let out a puzzled sound and shifted his gaze from outside back to Asagi Aiba. But Asagi Aiba seemed to misunderstand, thinking his confusion was directed at the protesting crowd outside. She looked at him in shock, as if she were staring at some primitive caveman.
"You really are way too lazy. Or did you seriously not notice anything at all?!"
"..."
Faced with Asagi Aiba's shock, and considering he was the one who had crushed that thing, Cid chose to remain silent and tried to let the topic slide.
"You're unbelievable. Even I noticed it, and I'm a woman, but you didn't."
Did I make the wrong choice?!
Watching Asagi Aiba talk on her own, Cid thought to himself that maybe because he had always treated her as an intelligence-gathering tool, Asagi Aiba had somehow developed the habit of reporting information to him on her own.
"The whole thing is actually pretty simple. It seems Shadow did something seriously huge, and now the entire world has become sexually indifferent..."
Stop. Please stop. I admit I was the one who smashed that thing, but wasn't I in a hurry to repair the world at the time?
Cid looked away, his expression painfully awkward. As he watched the massive protest in the street and listened to Asagi Aiba describe the effects, he forced the corners of his mouth into an awkward but polite smile.
How should he put it? When the other him grasped "Harmony of Heaven, Earth, and Man," the power she had stolen from him was also nearly exhausted.
Under those circumstances, to obtain even the bare minimum body needed to fight him, the other him chose to extract a concept from the world that matched "Harmony of Heaven, Earth, and Man," creating a body that fit her essence.
And the essence of the other him was the erotic trash he had expelled from himself. To satisfy both the world and her own essence at the same time, the concept extracted could only be her "Absolute Love."
In the end, because he was in a hurry to repair the world and had no time to wait for that "Absolute Love" to dissolve on its own and return to its original place, he shattered that "Absolute Love" directly. The result was this. All sex that was not intended for reproduction had been shattered.
Animals were not really affected, since beasts had no love, only reproduction. But for humans, creatures who were practically in heat twenty-four hours a day... well, the consequences of blowing apart a certain part of the world really were a pain.
To be clear, love, lust, and reproduction overlapped in some places. The thing that had been extracted and then shattered by him was precisely the part where those three overlapped.
In other words, if the other person's goal had been to turn this world into an Inner World, then because he destroyed that thing, this world had now become incredibly pure.
Reproduction was reproduction, love was love, and lust was lust. The three had been cleanly and clearly separated.
To put it simply, love had become Platonic romance. Liking someone no longer meant wanting to screw them. Lust at first sight could happen, but force could not be used, because it would not stand up. Reproduction was purely for reproduction. Sleeping with you did not mean I liked you.
As for the standard of reproduction, various animals could be used as reference. Damn it, why did this twisted world feel even more absurd than the so-called Inner World...
Fortunately, for a "Slaaneshi" component like this, the world would grow it back after a few years. It was not a big deal and there was no need to worry. It was just that... during this period, with lust being banned and brain capacity indirectly freed up, there was no telling whether some people would start thinking too much.
"At first, people didn't notice. But as more and more people went to the hospital for checkups, they discovered their bodies were strangely healthy. They just couldn't function normally no matter what..."
Please, Asagi, stop talking. You're embarrassed too, aren't you?
Cid, who had already mentally clawed out a three-bedroom apartment in sheer awkwardness, kept smiling as he looked at Asagi Aiba, who clearly thought what she was saying sounded ridiculous too.
Seriously, his world was supposed to have a perfectly normal royal-road hot-blooded style, so why had it almost turned into a twisted Inner World for no reason?
"Let's talk about what you mentioned earlier instead. Why did you come to see me?"
"Oh, right..."
Cid wanted to clarify that he had not done such a thing, but having an Eminence in Shadow jump out to explain would seriously damage his cool factor. It would make him seem like he was craving attention. So he said nothing and calmly changed the subject.
"There are a few things I want to ask you."
Asagi Aiba set down the juice in her hand, straightened her expression, and spoke seriously.
"When I found out you were still alive back then, I was careless and didn't ask. But I think some things still need to be cleared up. How did you survive?"
"Eh?"
At Asagi Aiba's question, Cid showed just the right amount of confusion, and it came straight from the heart. He genuinely did not understand what Asagi Aiba was talking about.
"To be honest, as your friend, I really want to believe you survived by luck. But... I thought back carefully, and when I saw you, you didn't even seem injured!"
Asagi Aiba recalled how she, Sayaka Kirasaka, and the others had barely escaped with their lives. They had thought Cid was dead and had been on the verge of tears, only to see him without a single wound on him. Her expression turned strange.
If her mind had not been inexplicably clear these past few days, and if she had not started overthinking after finishing work, she might not even have noticed this...
"The World!"
Thud!
"Asagi, Asagi! What happened to you?!"
Seeing Asagi Aiba suddenly faint, Cid cried out in a panic. He no longer had any appetite to continue eating. He stepped forward to support Asagi Aiba and prepared to take her to the infirmary.
With Asagi Aiba on his back, Cid avoided his classmates along the way and tossed her onto a bed in the infirmary. Looking at the unconscious blonde beauty on the bed, drops of cold sweat seeped from Cid's forehead.
Before today, in his mind, Asagi Aiba had been a friend who was good for everyone. Not only would she naturally adapt to the role of a background character, she had even sought him out, a top-tier background character, to hide herself.
To him, a protagonist hiding her true identity and strength coming to him was nothing less than recognition of his status as a background character. Better yet, she was a top-tier utility character with an intelligence attribute.
But now, it seemed he had overturned the cart. What should he do now?
Cid narrowed his eyes and began to think.
Honestly, this was the first time his identity had been exposed without the right atmosphere or without him playing along with some role-play. He had no experience with this at all.
Kill her? Forget it. They had been friends for so long. Even if Asagi had no outstanding achievements, she had still worked hard. Then...
Cid pulled a crowbar from who knew where and stared at Asagi Aiba with an unfriendly gaze. It seemed he could only use his evolved version of the Great Memory Erasure Technique. You'll be the first person to experience it.
...
"Mm... Cid, why am I here?"
"Hey, Asagi, you're awake. The surgery was a success. You're a girl now!"
"I was already a girl... Ow!"
Asagi Aiba forced her eyes open and saw Cid sitting in front of her, flipping through a book. She instinctively tried to retort to that bizarre joke, but the moment she turned over, a sharp pain shot through the back of her head and made her cry out.
"What happened to me?"
She wanted to know where she was, but the last thing her mind remembered was sitting with Cid, eating and chatting. Then nothing.
Aside from that, for some reason, Asagi Aiba felt like she had forgotten something. Something related to... she could not remember.
"Eh? Asagi, you don't remember?"
"I don't. Do you know, Cid?"
Seeing Cid's surprised look, Asagi Aiba tilted her head, hoping to get the reason she had passed out from him.
Given the situation, did Cid know why she had fainted?
"Of course I know. While we were eating, we were talking about some pretty intense things you'd encountered over the past two days. Those things might just have happened to provoke Shadow, who came out of nowhere. Then Shadow attacked you, knocked you out, and I brought you to the infirmary."
"Got it. I fainted while we were eating, hit the back of my head, and then you brought me to the infirmary, where I slept until just now."
Asagi Aiba took out her phone and asked Mogwai to pull up the surveillance footage. Combined with Cid's explanation, and after removing the parts where he was obviously talking nonsense, she quickly figured out what had happened.
"Looks like I really have been under too much work stress these past few days."
With a sigh, she attributed her fainting to overwork. Asagi Aiba rolled her shoulders, only to suddenly frown.
"Why do I feel like I forgot something?"
"If you forgot it, that means it wasn't important. Don't worry about it."
"That makes sense."
She nodded in agreement. Although she could not remember what she had forgotten, anything she could forget probably was not important enough to dwell on.
Good. Looks like everything's settled.
Cid smiled in satisfaction. It seemed his upgraded memory-erasing technique had worked. He had buried part of Asagi Aiba's thoughts into her subconscious without grinding down her spirit. Truly powerful.
"Well, since you're fine now, I'll get going."
Cid stood and waved to Asagi Aiba. Since he had confirmed there was no problem, there was no need to stay by her side any longer.
"You're leaving so soon?"
"It's not that soon. Did you forget? I've joined Rias's squad now. I'm no longer a member of the Home Club."
Cid gave a casual explanation. He had no real complaints about joining Rias's side.
"Huh? Cid, weren't you kicked out by Rias-senpai ages ago?"
"?"
Cid stopped in his tracks and gave her a puzzled look. Asagi Aiba immediately realized something was wrong with what she had said.
"It's a rumor, just a rumor. Everyone's been saying you were kicked out by Rias-senpai because you were too weak. The rumors about you seem to have been updated these past few days..."
"Fake. My sister gets along pretty well with President Rias."
Ah... if only that rumor were true. Then I wouldn't have run into this mess.
Thinking that, Cid stopped paying attention to Asagi Aiba and turned to leave.
"...Wait, that's not right."
After Cid left, Asagi Aiba, still feeling awkward, lay back on the bed and planned to rest for a while to ease the pain. Then she suddenly frowned.
"Normally, whenever there's gossip about Cid, I'm the first one to check it and share it. What exactly was I busy with before I fainted?"
It was a simple deduction. Hobbies and work. Asagi Aiba was the type to look for gossip after finishing her work, and that particular rumor had been updated yesterday.
The fact that she had not checked it immediately yesterday meant she must have been held up by something. But now... why could she not remember what had delayed her?
"Could it be... Cid wasn't lying? I really was attacked by Shadow!"
She picked up her phone and began giving orders to the blue mechanical cat on the screen.
"Mogwai, pull up the data for me. I suspect there's something wrong with my memory!"
"Yes, Young Lady!"
...
Good. The Great Memory Erasure Technique was very useful.
Walking along the road, Cid looked at the crowbar in his hand and acknowledged the value of this skill.
It did not attack memories. It attacked emotions, making people forget on their own. It really was too strong. However...
Cid took out his phone and searched through the news from the past few days. As expected, although most of the news was still dominated by the destruction and reconstruction of the world several days ago, a small number of media outlets had begun releasing local news one after another.
Either citizens in different places had shown extraordinary wit and discovered safety problems ahead of time, or criminals who had gone uncaught for more than ten years had suddenly been arrested and sent to trial.
There was no doubt about it. Uninstalling lust, the app that had occupied most of the human brain's memory, had directly boosted people's processing speed by quite a bit.
This is bad!
Cid forced a smile. A single slip-up had nearly exposed him, and now that everyone's intelligence had risen this much, it was probably only a matter of time before his identity was dug up. He had never been the intellectual type!
Should he turn it back down?
Looking at the intelligence "Core" within the world, Cid felt there might still be a way to save this. As long as he lowered it, people's intelligence would drop along with it, and he would no longer have to worry about his identity being exposed. But... was he really going to do that?
"Cid, you're here."
"Yes, President Rias."
Cid greeted Rias, who was wearing sportswear, and gave up on the idea. It would be no joke if he accidentally turned everyone into idiots. He would just have to play it by ear.