Project Necro is an official initiative by Re:Library.

Right before Amaterasu’s full lineup, fired up and ready to go, stepped out of Ama-no-Iwato, Shouta-kun lit the (chocolate) cigarette in his mouth in a practiced motion and asked:

“Master, you know the wheelchair-bound yakuza, right?”
“More or less.”
“Can’t we just work something out? Like, if we ask to borrow the time machine, maybe they’ll just let us?”
“……”

I exchanged a glance with Shiori.

*C-calm—!*
I mean, we were completely set up for a fight.
Both Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi got bad blood from the ruins incident. We stole their time machine and they stole it back from us. They hit us and we hit them back. A fight after that is just a matter of course.
But he noticed it—He noticed the possibility of *talking*.
*Not that it’s a bad thing, okay? It’s not bad! But if anyone were going to notice, I thought it would be Kuma-san or Touka-chan.*

Unlike in the Ruins event, there really is no need to fight Tsukuyomi in the “Person from the Future” event. I had set things up so that Rin-chan’s return and the showdown over the time machine would happen, but, just like Shouta-kun said, there’s also the option of not fighting.

That said, I figured nine times out of ten we’d go down the battle route. I was completely counting on it—already making arrangements for temporary housing for the Tsukimori residents in case their mansion got leveled by the battle, estimating rebuilding costs, and checking evacuation routes. Besides, I’d already set up all the filming cameras in the area…

But, hey, it’s fine. It’s a good thing.
If we can settle things by talking instead of trading blows, that’s definitely better. Even if the opponent is the obnoxious Tsukuyomi, being able to think of a peaceful solution first, without jumping straight to violence, is a wonderful trait.
Even with overwhelming psychic power at his command, and the ability to slip through legal loopholes to do whatever he wants, he doesn’t get drunk on his own strength—he chooses nonviolence. That overflowing goodness is almost blinding to my dirty, jaded heart.

*Still, if I’m honest, I did want to see Tsukuyomi vs. Amaterasu. I mean, it would absolutely be fun…*
*I guess this is my punishment for trying to set up a blatantly lawless violent action in a civilized country…*

Shouta-kun blew out a puff of chocolate-scented smoke and pressed me for an answer.

“Well? What’s it gonna be, Master? I don’t feel like fighting tooth and nail just for that yuri orc.”

*Ah… so that’s the reason? Not morals or a sense of justice, but just not wanting to? That’s pretty in-character for Shouta-kun, actually. Well—*

“Yeah, let’s give it a shot.”

If I think about it positively, this gives me time to tweak Tsukuyomi’s side and balance the power gap.
This time, we’ll go with Shouta-kun’s proposal and make an effort to avoid combat.

We split into Shige-jii’s car and Shiori’s car, drove close to the Tsukimori mansion, and parked in a coin lot.

“I’ll go. Wait for the signal.”
“Master, be careful.”

I gave Shouta-kun a small wave and headed alone to the Tsukimori manor. If negotiations broke down, I’d send the signal and we’d storm in.

The mansion’s front yard was no longer cluttered with the temporary tents like before, replaced by a beautifully restored landscape. Instead of the jumble of illegal immigrant men, women, and children of every race, there were now groups of black-suited, tattooed, rough-looking men constantly coming and going, giving me suspicious looks. I had always thought this place looked like a yakuza den, but now this is definitely the main residence of a yakuza boss.

The mansion’s guards knew my face, so they let me in without question.

“Oy, which family are you with?”
“……”

Seeing me cutting in line and heading straight for their boss, a thug came at me with curiosity and suspicion. I shrugged at him without answering. I did have the urge to drop my identity and scare him, but I’d save that for another time.

And just like that, with no obstacles, I arrived in front of the boss. He scowled slightly, sipped his tea, and spoke.

“I’d like to say ‘good to see you’… but you cut ties and left Tsukuyomi. You’re just a civilian now. I can’t give you too much special treatment. What do you want?”
“I want to borrow the time machine. Once is fine. I’ll pay the fee.”
“Hmm. Fine.”
“Oh, seriously?”

Negotiations settled in a second.
*Immediate decision! Way too fast! Are you sure you don’t need to think this over?*

“What are you so surprised about? If you’re paying, I can lend it out. You wouldn’t abuse it anyway. But I’ll tack on compensation for what your daughter stole. That’s on the parent.”
“Ah, yeah, of course.”

From there, we got into the numbers. The price we settled on for a single use of the time machine was, well, I couldn’t tell if it was expensive or cheap. *It’s not like I know the going rate for time machine rentals!* But given that I never would’ve considered paying it if I didn’t share a bank account with Shiori, it was definitely a huge sum.
*I really am sorry for being the husband carried on his wife’s income. I mean, I do earn something myself by supplying resources to Kaneyama Tech, so I’m not a total deadbeat…*

With negotiations wrapped up, I left the mansion and headed back to the coin parking where everyone was waiting. All we had to do now was bring Rin to the time machine inside the Tsukimori mansion and send her back to the future.
If nothing happened, the “Person from the Future” event would end peacefully with a happy ending—

“Where’s Rin?”
“Huh? …Wait? She should’ve been here just a moment ago… Kaburagi-san is gone too…?”

Rin’s figure had vanished. Mikage-chan looked around, and the others started to stir restlessly.
I noticed a slip of paper stuck to the car’s hood. The handwriting was unfamiliar, but Rin’s signature was on it.

“Ah—…”

After reading it three times over, I scratched my head and showed it to everyone. Shouta-kun took it upon himself to read it aloud.

“Uh— ‘I’ve taken Mommy into custody. She is being confined with three meals, naps, and heating. If you want her back, make Tsukiyomi’s Ninja and Baba into a couple.’ …Huh? The Ninja’s a woman? …‘Let the ship sail. Sago Rin.’ This brat’s seriously not reflecting at all. Does she wanna get herself killed?”
“You can’t kill her. Even alive, she can still experience hell.”

As Shouta-kun ripped up the paper, Touka-chan said this flatly with a noh-mask-like blank expression, all while burning the scraps. The rest were speechless.
*Man, this is awful. Since exiling doesn’t work, she goes for confinement—that’s not the issue here. And “it’s fine since Mom’s in good hands” is also not the issue. It’s like… on a fundamental level, she’s not reflecting at all…*

*Rin-chan, even your father can’t defend you on this one. You need a harsh punishment.*
*So—*

“Kaya, do it.”
“’Kay.”

When I said that to Kaya-chan, who was fogging up the car window and doodling on it in the back seat, she cheerfully replied.

We split into Shige-jii’s car and Shiori’s car, drove close to the Tsukimori mansion, and parked in a coin lot.

“I’ll go. Wait for the signal.”
“Master, be careful.”

I gave Shouta-kun a small wave and headed alone to… *hmm?*

“Kaya, what are you doing?”
“Mm. Mom told me to do it like this.”
“Mmphhh!”

When I was about to head for the Tsukimori estate, I found Kaya-chan sitting on top of Rin-chan, who was tied up, gagged, and left on the ground. Beside them, Shiori let out a deep sigh.

“I didn’t think Rin would actually go this far. Thank you, Kaya-chan. Grandma will give you head pats.”
“Grandma!”

Kaya-chan hugged Shiori and got patted, while everyone else wore puzzled faces at the incomprehensible scene.

“What is this?”
“Well…?”

Even asked by Mikage-chan, Shige-jii didn’t come up with a convincing lie on the spot.
But I knew exactly what had happened. *Sago Kaya had turned back time*—meaning Rin had, *just as her letter suggested*, run wild again.

“Kaya, what are you doing?”
“Mom asked me to.”

Looking back and forth between the bound-and-struggling-like-a-caterpillar Rin-chan and Kaya-chan who sat on top of her, Shouta-kun asked in utter confusion. Kaya-chan answered as if it were nothing.

“She said she wanted to erase her worst dark history.”
“Huh?”
“Future Mom asked me to run an errand—’go stop Young Mom,’ she said.”
“…Huh???”
“Grandpa, give me some blood. Like five or six drops.”
“Yeah, sure.”

I partially deactivated my ever-present barrier, bit my thumb, and let some blood well up. Kaya-chan sucked it off my finger.

“Okay, going home. Bye, everyone!”
“Mmphhh!”

Having replenished the energy for time travel, Kaya-chan licked her lips and waved energetically. Rin-chan writhed on the ground, trying to escape. The next moment, both of them vanished without a trace.
Sago Rin had been taken away by Sago Kaya and returned to the future.

“Wait, hold on—what the hell just happened?”

Shouta-kun clutched his head.
About half of the espers in our group seemed to have grasped the situation and were nodding to themselves, while the other half were completely left behind.

Shiori glanced at me, but I shook my head. I’d let her do the explaining—I didn’t feel confident I could explain it well.

I turned up my coat collar, leaned my back against the car door, and listened closely to Shiori’s flowing explanation.
In any case, both the time machine and the future persons were back where they belonged.
The Future Person arc thus comes to an end.