Chapter
3:
Waking
up from our second night together was a good deal better than the
first. This time Sakura Kinomoto had made sure there was at least a
floor beneath us, a roof overhead, and an endless array of futons
lying side by side on the currently empty wood for us to sleep with
together. In truth, I hadn't gotten much sleep, however, and had
instead been dreading the break of dawn, as I went over and over in
my head what I wanted to say.
"Okay
everyone, gather around. As Mayor I have a major announcement."
Now that everyone had had a good night's sleep with a roof over
their heads, I felt this was a necessity. God had created such an
obviously paradoxical situation there was no way I could cover it up
through good acting for long, and if they figured it out on their own
while I was still trying to deceive them I could irreparably lose
their trust. Only the truth would suffice now.
"I
gather from the conversations so far that each of you thinks I'm your
dearly beloved. For instance, Ai recognizes me as 'shishou,' which
would be Yaichi from Ryuuou no Oshigoto." I began my
explanation with trepidation.
Ai
nodded, not seeing the problem.
"But
it's obviously impossible for me to be both Yaichi from Ryuuou no
Oshigoto and Endymion from Sailor Moon. So one or the
other of you is wrong, right?" I pointed out the obvious
contradiction that must have been bedeviling them up until now.
"Well
the answer is you're all wrong. I'm none of those people, but only a
human from Earth named Christopher. I died in a truck accident and
my soul rose up to meet God in heaven, where she commiserated with my
loss and offered me a new life with any one granted wish to even the
scales. The wish I asked for was you. I wanted to marry all of you.
For that to happen, to gain your willing participation, God had to
transplant your feelings for your most special person onto me, which
is the cause of the multiple personality overlay. If that most
special person was originally a female, she gave you an alternate
memory of having instead had said relationship with me, a male, from
the beginning, while still preserving the original memory intact as
well, giving you a sort of twice-lived life. The same is true of
Wakaba, who is also Akane, and has memories from both lives equally
inside of her." I explained. Wakaba nodded, suddenly getting
why she could remember growing up in two different places with two
different names among two different families with a deep sense of
relief.
"Before
you go blaming God for granting such an unreasonable wish, I need to
explain something else. All 100 of you were created by God just for
this moment, just to be my wives, so at no point was anything taken
from you. Originally, you were only characters I fell for in various
stories told on Earth, computer code or black squiggles on paper.
Your bodies and souls, your memories and personalities and feelings,
were all hand crafted by God's imagination based on said stories and
the prerequisites of my wish, and came into existence whole just two
days ago. In a sense, you had nothing to lose, so the life God has
given you as my wife can only be a plus for both of us."
"I
have only the deepest admiration for all the men you see me as, so
relating to all of you as said figures isn't a problem for me. I'll
always try to live up to their example, but remember I'm not actually
any of them. I don't have their superhuman abilities, their winning
personalities, or even their names. I can only do my best, as
Christopher, to make each and every one of you happy in the only way
I know how, as myself."
"If
any of you find this hard to swallow, I can easily enough demonstrate
my veracity. Louise, you can open up a portal to Earth with void
magic, right?" I singled my pink-haired waifu out from the
crowd. She nodded gingerly so I gestured her forward.
Louise
walked up next to me and took out her wand, starting a long chant and
giving it a try. With a look of pleased surprise, Louise watched as the portal opened
up in front of the entire crowd. "Now if you could enter my old
place at this address and retrieve all the books you can see, the
truth should become readily apparent." I handed her a map.
Louise
nodded and concentrated, the portal shifting its focus to the new
location. She then hopped through and came back a few minutes later
after rummaging through my stuff. Light novels with her own
illustration on the cover as well as manga and game cd covers of many
others in the area spilled out of her arms and onto the wooden floor
of our newly summoned mansion.
The
girls gathered around as their eyes widened in shock. Leafing
through the contents of the pages, events they had thought private
and known only to themselves about their lives were displayed for all
the world to see.
"I
know all your back stories because I fell in love with your stories.
I know you all as well as your most special person knew you back home
or better, depending on the story's perspective. These back stories
are why I fell for you just as much as they are why you have fallen
for me. With these stories as our foundation, I have no doubt our
loves can blossom in this new world without losing in the least to
what's come before." I prophesied.
"I'm
sorry none of you got to meet God, she was even brusque with me so I
guess it couldn't be helped, but surely only a miracle could account
for all of you appearing here at once, all from different worlds, all
with your powers intact, all able to communicate with each other, and
all in love with me. And where there are miracles there must be
Gods, so my account should be just as believable to you as it is to
me, the very person who met her." I hoped.
"If,
knowing this, any of you wish to walk away or delete yourselves,
there's nothing I can do to stop you. I won't force you into
anything. But I would still implore you all to at least give 'us' a
try first. We've done well so far, so why not into the future as
well? This is a really great collection of people, I guarantee it.
With your help, I promise to make all our new lives a Paradise
without equal." I solemnly swore. After that all I could do
was stand nervously in front of them and await their verdict.
Teletha
looked at the cover of Full Metal Panic!, then back to my face, then
back to the books again. After that she took a deep breath and
looked me in the face. "Even if you tell me you're not actually
him, even though I can see your face and the face on the book is
different, I can only see you as him. Every memory in my mind and
every instinct in my body confirms it. I suppose if it's all true,
and God wanted to make sure we loved you to fulfill your wish, this
is one feeling that cannot budge. I guess that means I can't help
but play into God's hands and love you all the same. Nor do I see
any reason to prevent my own happiness. Marrying you was my dream,
so why should I have to go out of my way to spoil it myself?"
A
lot of the other girls started nodding and murmuring in agreement as
she spoke, until by the end she received a standing ovation.
"If
you thought you could weasel your way out of marrying me and run away
again you've got another thing coming." Louise grabbed my arm
and glomped herself against it possessively. After Saito pulled the
mother of all ditchings by trying to run back home the day after
their second wedding night I guess she had rightfully gotten a little
paranoid.
"The
white-haired girl speaks for me!" A voice far back in the crowd
concurred.
"Me
too! And me! Me!" More voices rang out. It looked like God's
method of pairing us up wasn't so fragile or ad hoc after all. I had
my doubts but I guess omniscience knew what it was about.
"In
that case, I guess the next order of business is introductions. For
instance, the white-haired girl is Teletha Testarossa from Full Metal
Panic! Once we've brought all your source works over, it would be
helpful if you all read up on each other, but for now I can at least
tell you each other's names and the basic outline of your various
settings. This may take a while so let's form a queue and I can
introduce each of you to the crowd one by one, for everyone who wants
to give life here a try."
In
the end all 100 lined up and, with the help of Riko's refreshments, I
talked long into the night.
*
* *
After
two weeks of Sakura-based construction and manufacturing everyone had
been able to move in to their new rooms enjoying modern amenities.
Life was at least up to 1950's standards for all. The next step was
expanding our residential district into a commercial, civic,
recreational and industrial district. My waifus tended to be
passionate in the pursuit of jobs or hobbies so there needed to be a
space where they could be themselves if I wanted this village to
truly approach the standards of 'Paradise.'
Etc. Etc. The rest can be found at https://diamed-the-road-less-traveled.blogspot.com/2019/02/in-another-world-with-100-waifus-part-1.html
This already perfect book is getting even better with its 15th revision so there's every reason to dive in and try it out for yourselves. This time the plot hole has been well and truly filled.
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