(Tsuki POV)
I found myself back in Aniue's courtyard, feeling quite listless at the moment.
After Aniue calmed down, he proceeded to explain a little sheepishly about why he acted that way and revealed the truth of how I would have treated him had things gone differently.
To think that I would go that far just to get Aniue to remember me…
That wasn't a Universe where my relationship with Aniue was bad from the start, that was a Universe where Aniue was not saved from me…
I wanted to deny that I would ever treat Aniue like how he had described but… I could honestly see myself doing those things had things turned out a little differently.
Ughh… I'm so embarrassed…
"Oh, you're back," The little sister wanna be noted, writing something down on her notepad. "You're really slow, you know? The others are completing their jumps at least twice as fast as you are."
I scowled, "I had to fight a stupid God to even get to Aniue. For me to still be able to keep up is already an achievement."
"Pfft… Say what you want but you know that everything that happened in those Universes are being recorded right? I heard Onii-sama tell you what you did to him."
Nooo! She's the last person I wanted to know about it! She's definitely going to use this as part of her arguments with me from now on!
I already see it… She's going to make that insufferable smug face at me and say "At least I don't beat my Onii-sama with a stick".
Arrrghh!! I hate this!!
"There, there, if it makes you feel better, you're not like that in this universe right?"
I looked up to see Aniue smiling at me… Eh? Wait, why is Aniue in his female form?
Aniue must have realised the surprise on my face and he explained, "Oh, I'm currently consolidating all the versions of me throughout all the universes and gathering them in this universe. It just so happens that this body came from a universe where all the genders are flipped."
Ughh… Now that Aniue mentioned it… I'm reminded of what happened in my previous jump…
I poked my fingers together, "Ummm… Aniue… Is it true that…"
"That you held me captive and did various tortures in an attempt to make me remember my past? Unfortunately, yes."
I knelt down on the ground and grasped my head in shame, how could I be so stupid?!
The little sister wannabe laughed evilly at me, "A real imouto of Onii-sama will never hurt him! Therefore, I am the real imouto! Wahahaha!"
Aniue patted my head, "It's ok, in this universe, it never happened, so technically you're still safe."
Waaahh!! Aniueeee!! Why are you so cool!! I love you!!
Ahem…
"Oh, that's right, I saw a dragon that spoke in Aniue's voice. Does Aniue know about it?" I asked, remembering the giant dragon that was seemingly trying to kill Aniue while I was dealing with the stupid God.
He nodded, "I realised there's a number of universes where I don't actually meet any of you, that would leave you guys unable to even meet that version of me so I went ahead to use a few of me to reset those universes."
"Eh? Doesn't that mean that Aniue can simply go to those Universes and fix yourself, anyway?"
He gave me a wry smile, "Did you forget? I'm not even sure what is normal for me right now. Who knows if I were to make myself better or worse if I were to just try to 'fix' myself?"
"Unn… Then how much of Aniue have we fixed right now?"
"Hmm… We're doing quite well actually, I've already consolidated twenty percent of myself while Iris is currently stuck at twenty eight percent."
So even with so many of us working together, we're still eight percent behind?
No, I shouldn't look at it that way, we did start off later than she did so we actually stand a chance of catching up with her.
That means we should speed up our process a little.
"I guess I should go for my next jump sequence then. What do I need to do?"
The little sister wannabe started typing on her machine again when a ringing sound came from her waist.
With one deft flick of her wrist, she took out what looks like a phone from her lab coat and eyed the screen with a serious look on her face. I did notice that her lips curled into the barest of frowns when she saw the contents of it.
She paused for a moment before turning to Aniue, "I'm sorry Onii-sama… But this call is a little private."
Aniue did not even make a fuss and merely nodded before going off to another part of the courtyard, where I only just noticed several other versions of Aniue were also gathered there.
The fact that she told Aniue to leave must mean that the call was related to those tentacled monsters so I moved closer to her to see what it was about.
The moment he was gone, she tapped a button on her device and a hologram of someone wearing a military uniform appeared.
"Supreme Admiral! I have bad news!" The hologram spoke in a hurried tone.
She nodded at him, "Go ahead."
"Our scanners report that those monsters have increased their speed significantly suddenly! They will be reaching us in at most another twenty four hours!"
"What?! Do we know what made them do this?"
"We do not know, Supreme Admiral! Do we open preemptive fire?"
"No, no, no. That might make them even more agitated. Have all ships line up in firing formations and make sure all stars of death are prepared to fire at any given moment! Stand by for further orders!"
"Supreme Admiral… The stars of death will require another twenty eight hours to get into firing positions…"
She gritted her teeth, "Do it as fast as you can then! I'll figure something out!"
"Roger that, Supreme Admiral!"
The hologram shut off and she turned to me with furrowed brows, "We need more time… Even with the other versions of sister Eris, I don't think we can hold them back for very long…"
"But if we were to go and face those things now, that bitch might overtake us in controlling Aniue!"
She bit her thumb, "We have no choice… We'll need to split up. Those who have already ascended should go and face those tentacled monsters and stall them for as long as they can… The others will continue to help fix Onii-sama. Then Onii-sama can go and deal with those tentacled monsters!"
I frowned, "Isn't the whole point of keeping this a secret is to prevent it from affecting Aniue if he gets involved?"
"If we had already fixed him by then… I believe it shouldn't be a problem. Fact remains that right now, they are rushing straight towards us and we might all lose Onii-sama."
"Do you think I can…"
"Don't be stupid, you still have yet to ascend. If you go there as you are you won't be able to do anything. No, let them handle it. You and the rest should just concentrate on going to the other Universes to get Onii-sama back."
I nodded, agreeing with her on this arrangement.
Who knew that things could go so wrong in such a short time?
