Chapter 24:

　　"Are you an idiot?" Sara Chrysalis' yellow irises narrowed in disgust. She was one of my wives who hadn't gotten pregnant yet, so I was spending the night with her. When I told her my decision to step down as mayor her response was swift and biting.

　　"Huh?" I asked, dumbfounded. Kuon had just agreed it was a good plan a few hours ago, so what could we have possibly missed?

　　"I think it's a good idea to pay attention to us for the nonce. I agree that it's impossible to get any work done in a situation like this." Sara held up a finger for each point, sipping her beloved coffee as we sat on the bed together. We had been casually watching musicals together that suited her 1950's London upbringing but I decided to pause the movie and listen to her for now.

　　"But!" Sara pointed the finger of her free hand at me. "What is this nonsense about needing close-in-age siblings, so that we have to shut everything down and become a breeding factory?"

　　"You're opposed to having multiple kids?" I asked, astonished.

　　"No, silly. If you want a dozen I'll give you a dozen." Sara looked at me like a lost cause. She was so much smarter than the rest of us she probably always felt that way, but she only showed it so openly around me. Maybe because I was the stupidest person in the village, or maybe because she trusted me to know her love ran deeper than anything else. "Why are we all breeding like crazy right now? Why are you trying to get me pregnant?"

　　"Because I want everyone to have kids together, with no one left behind." I answered, not getting the question.

　　"So doesn't that mean every one of our children already have 99 close in age siblings to play with and grow up beside?!" Sara couldn't believe I still hadn't noticed.

　　I stared at her, bemused. "Technically, yes, they're all half-siblings. But--"

　　"No buts! Not just technically!" Sara put down her coffee so she could strangle me. "We're one big happy family, right?"

　　"I hope so." I replied.

　　"We all live under the same roof, right?" Sara asked again.

　　"A really big roof, but yes." I agreed again.

　　"So why can't our children be brothers and sisters to each other? What is stopping them? Who is holding them back?" Sara asked.

　　"But each of you at least have your own rooms. . ." I objected.

　　"And real families don't? Real siblings don't?" She arched an eyebrow.

　　"But if we only cross paths every once in a while--" I started.

　　"You mean during breakfast, lunch, dinner, bathtime, and whenever one of us picks up our kid, walks over to a friend's room next door, and chats?" Sara asked.

　　"You mean the mothers are already commingling?" I asked, surprised.

　　"What did you think they were doing?" Sara sighed, sitting back on her rump and giving me a pitying look. "The babies are already crawling all over each other at daycare. They're crawling all over each other when the mothers put them down next to each other to play. They're throwing food at each other during mealtime and splashing together in the tub. If you told them they weren't brothers and sisters, they'd be the most startled people in the mansion."

　　So there was no rush to give my children people they could relate to and depend on. They weren't 100 single children. They were members of one big 100 child family. It simply blew my mind.

　　"Honestly, for such a huge fan of polygamy, why do you doubt its validity at the crucial moment? Isn't it great that our children have so many relatives? Isn't this what makes us special?" Sara asked.

　　"Then, once I've given everyone their firstborn. . ." I struggled through the implications.

　　"I do want one of those. I think you were right to frantically push the pace there. It's no fun being the sex doll while all these cherubs laugh and run through the halls calling out to Mommy." Sara Rukawa said. "But after that, there's no rush at all. We can have our next kids five years from now, ten years from now, and they'll always have dozens of siblings. Because you have all of us breeding with you together, at the same time. If there's one thing in this world we have enough of, it's siblings. This entire harem is designed to maximize the number of siblings in the world."

　　"So people could return to work again, and fewer would drop out of the workforce next time, because I won't have to get everyone pregnant at once?" I figured it out.

　　"Just start cumming in our mouths, or take it out and spurt on our thighs, or let us stroke you out at the end and spray it over our belly and breasts. I'm sure you can think of something you'll enjoy. Meanwhile the pregnancy rate will go down, and we can get back to making music, starships and games." Sara Rukawa bowed with a flourish, even though she was already sitting in bed with me, which looked amazingly cute.

　　Of course, none of this would work without the Silver Crystal. But Sara was right. I could have a dozen children with all my wives and still keep 80% of the workforce active, if only we chose to do so. I had been blinded by my own prejudice. If a polygamous family lives together in loving harmony, half siblings would be full siblings for all intents and purposes. Since everyone here loved each other's children like their own, what was there left to fear?

　　"So the sex will continue but the crying will eventually stop." I felt like I was floating in relief.

　　"I don't know how many mothers want their next child immediately. Maybe they love motherhood and want more and more. I don't know how I'll feel until you give me mine." Sara warned.

　　"So the crying will continue after all." I sighed.

　　"But I'd be astonished if all 100 of us want to plunge right back into motherhood the moment our firstborn turns three. The storm will pass." Sara predicted confidently.

　　"So the crying will stop after all." I brightened up.

　　"I feel like if I told you to jump off a cliff, you would immediately do so. You don't have to trust everything I say implicitly." Sara rolled her eyes.

　　"But I do." I said helplessly. Was there anyone who was smarter, harder working, more diligent and dutiful than Sara Chrysalis? As far as I was concerned, everything she said came in red text.

　　Sara blushed when she realized I was being serious and quickly turned to press play on the remote again. "I want to finish this movie before we have sex so be quiet and let me listen."

　　I sidled up against her and pulled her hand over to my lap, interlacing her fingers with mine. She squeezed my hand once, with all the love in her heart, and let our shoulders and legs warm each other side by side for the rest of the movie.

　　By the time The Sound of Music ended, I was so drunk with the need to touch her more I stripped her myself.

　　Sara only nodded and spread her legs, indicating she was ready for me immediately. I felt like we'd been having sex for hours. I could smell her hair, feel her warmth, her softness, and every twitch of her body the entire time, so enticingly close but far away. I was orgasming only twenty seconds after thrusting my way in.

* * *

　　"Look, Nii-san. I can walk everywhere in the mansion by myself!" Sagiri puffed out her meager chest, showing me pictures of all the rooms she'd entered.

　　"Technically that still makes you a hikikomori." I smiled, loving the cutest little sister in the world. If all girls would docilely stay at home like her, men could keep their wives all to themselves forever. This made her the perfect woman.

　　"And the mansion is full of treasures. I can go to the public bath and watch women come and go, in shitagi, full nudes, touching themselves all over. Can you believe it, 99 different beautiful women, all irresistibly lewd, showing themselves off to me on a daily basis. Elf ears, dog ears, metal tails, dog tails, big breasts, medium breasts, breasts even smaller than mine -- it's an all you can eat buffet. My illustrations are continuously inspired. I never got such amazing service at home. Other worlds are great -- really great!" Sagiri gave me a big thumbs-up.

　　"I've been secretly taking videos, so I can consult my models whenever I want. See?" Sagiri showed me a video of Mira slipping and falling on her butt in the bathhouse, all her body parts moving in interesting ways. "Or look at this!" Sagiri flicked right and now I was watching Orihime using a washcloth to rub between, under, and over her enormous breasts. "Or this!" Eruru's tail was swishing back and forth, only her nude back and butt showing as she washed Aruru's hair and ears, whose own tail was curling and uncurling involuntarily with pleasure, also with her back and butt bare.

　　Sagiri was oblivious to the torturous foreplay she was putting me through, especially since I was spending tonight with her in the hopes of getting her stubbornly unpregnant body pregnant.

　　Sagiri's next scroll was a video of her dancing back and forth, wearing only a t-shirt as she did her laundry. When she started jumping up and down I kept thinking I could almost see it, I could almost see it.

　　Sagiri blushed and turned off her smartphone. Apparently that hadn't meant to be part of the show. Too bad, it had been the best video so far. . .

　　"You're Elf's illustrator now, right?" I cleared my throat, my face red just like hers.

　　"Since Nii-san suddenly lost your writing talent." Sagiri pouted. "I've been illustrating for Elf's newest series instead. 'Dark Flame of Dark Elf.' I have so many great samples, and she's constantly putting her characters in nude situations, so the ero is many levels higher than when I was a kid. In fact, since there's no censorship to our publishing here, Elf has started to write in sex scenes, based on her experiences with you, and I've been drawing them up based on my experiences with you, and it's just. . .heeheehee. . .poyuuuunnn. . ."

　　I put my hand on her head and stroked her hair, and she smiled and closed her eyes. "You've adjusted really well, haven't you?" I asked happily.

　　"It's better here. All the annoying people who used to try to break into our house are gone, and no one ever tells me to go to school, go to school. I can still share my illustrations over the internet, too." Sagiri reported to me as I stroked down her long hair like a comb, then started back up again at the top.

　　"If you're connecting to Earth, don't tell them anything about our private lives." I warned.

　　"Like how I'm 13 years old but Nii-san took my virginity and now we're trying to have a child together?" Sagiri asked, smiling.

　　"Down with censorship! Loli incest banzai!" I repeated myself like clockwork.

　　"It's fine. I'm not stupid you know. I'd never reveal our secret lair and hidden base to the enemy. I want to be as far away from other people as you do. And I'd never turn Nii-san in to the pigs." Sagiri promised. Was that Elf's influence leaking through in her speech patterns? "Besides, Nii-san isn't Nii-san anymore, so you haven't actually had incest with any of us. On top of that, we weren't even blood related to begin with, and in truth I'm nearly 18 now, so don't get so full of yourself. Soon enough even Ai-chan will be a legal loli and your playacting as a brave rebel against the Man will be at an end."

　　"Kirino, Kobato, Mirajane and Mikan were the only blood-related sisters. The rest are stepsisters or cousins. It's not that I'm deadset on incest or anything, the vast majority of the romances I wished for were normal, socially accepted ones. I'm just tired of people telling us who we can and cannot love. Isn't there enough heartbreak in the world, why do some of the only happy couples in the world have to be violently torn apart to suit some prude somewhere? It doesn't affect them in the least, so why can't they leave us alone? There are people who only fall in love once, who are only loved once, in their entire lives. If you force that couple apart, you may as well have murdered them. You took away everything that mattered to them in their entire life. A loving couple is one of the rarest, most beautiful wonders of the world. It's one of the only justifications for humanity's continued existence. When you spit on it, you're not trampling over one boy and one girl's feelings, you're trampling over all good feelings everywhere, over holiness itself, over the purpose of life in general." I grew impassioned.

　　"I wish you were my sisters, just so I could stick it to the Man every time I stuck it in you. I'd feel no greater pleasure than to defy them and their evil, abhorrent, vile, despicable laws. And all those birth defects they keep going on about? Bring it on, I have an entire stable of healers who could fix them up with the flick of their wrists." I snapped as an example.

　　"Well, you'll get your way eventually. Every single one of our grandchildren will be the product of a sister-brother pairing. Unless you intend to gobble up your own daughters, in which case we can have some papa-daughter pairings." Sagiri replied drily.

　　"These were the 100 wives I wanted. If I took any more, if I broke the initial contract, that would justify you all cheating on me with all our new sons. There's no way I'm going to let that happen." I swore. "Besides, Makina already cries out "Oh, papa, papa, there, there there," in bed so I get all the daughter play I could ever need."

　　"Should I call Nii-san Papa from here on?" Sagiri looked at me as though to say, 'ah, mou dame mitai.'

　　"Like I said, I get all I need from Makina!" I protested my innocence. Imoutos were infinitely sexier than daughters, I swear!

　　"Everyone here is so nice." Sagiri leaned her head back into my chest, so I gave up stroking her hair and wrapped my arms around her waist and hugged her from behind instead. "I was afraid of all the strangers you stuck me with, but watching them from my web camera, I got to know them bit by bit, and now they're all family, just like you. Myusel especially, she would always cook me tasty meals and leave them at my door, with little notes like 'gambatte!,' and 'genki ni'. She never tried to starve me out like Nii-san did."

　　"I told you that was a gokai." I complained.

　　"Someday, I want to fly atop Valefor in the sky, like I did when I first arrived here and we circled the world. I want to be able to go anywhere and do anything. I'm sure I could draw something even better then." Sagiri said. I actually hoped she would stay my caged bird, but if going outside would make her happy, I guess I should support her.

　　"I'll hold you tight so you don't fall off." I offered.

　　"Nii-san wa koi nakute ii. Jibun kara dekiru." Sagiri replied crossly.

　　"Then I'll look forward to the illustrations you make after your return." I amended.

　　"Arigatou." Sagiri smiled, snuggling deeper against me. "I have a thousand years to leave the mansion, so I can take it step by step. Even if I fly to the other side of the world, I'd want to fly right back here to tell you about it, so you don't have to worry about anything. Even when I become independent, I'll still be yours forever."

　　My heart warmed up as she addressed my most hidden worries and doubts. Really, there was no topping Sagiri.

　　"Matasetene. Nii-san, mou ii-yo." Sagiri took my hands and guided them up her body until they were cupped around each of her breasts over her pajamas. She turned her head to look up at me and I lowered mine to kiss her on the lips.

　　"Nii-san, daisuki." Sagiri whispered as we melted into one.

* * *

　　Aerith and I walked through the flower garden Flora had built as part of the schoolyard. We passed by a bunch of babies being entertained by Illyasviel blowing magical bubbles and multi-colored sparkles with Ruby as they laughed and clapped.

　　"It's good to be alive." Aerith said, taking a deep breath of the flowers' fragrance and stretching her arms over her head, one holding the other at the wrist. Aerith and Tifa were of course modeled after their beautiful Remake versions, just as Rosa and Rydia were modeled after their PSP Complete Collection opening fmv versions. If she had still been the bunch of floating blocky rectangles from the original intimacy would have been a hurdle too high, even for me.

　　"I cried when Sephiroth jumped out of nowhere and stabbed you clean through. And then your theme started playing and I couldn't believe it. Jenova attacked, Sephiroth ran away, and the whole time I was fighting your theme was playing overhead, that quiet, calm, happy theme, even though you were already dead." I said, torn up just describing it.

　　"So something like that happened." Aerith put a hand on my arm sympathetically. "But it's all over now. We're safe here. Eden is the safest place in the universe."

　　"I wonder what Cute-sama was thinking, putting me here. This empty world. If I had wished for something else as my 'one bonus,' like a flaming sword or something, I would have starved to death, not knowing left from right. Was I really lucky to wish for all of you? Or did she see through my intentions, and know what I really wanted was to have you all to myself? Really, truly, all to myself?" I mused.

　　"Why not ask her at the shrine? Isn't that why we built it?" Aerith suggested.

　　"Heh, I've prayed to her before, but she never answers. It's like -- 'I did all I could for you, bucko, from here on you're on your own.'" I imagined her.

　　"You never know. Maybe next time you come to the shrine she'll be there, floating over the offering box, saying, 'Sashiburi! Asobi mashou!'" Aerith encouraged me.

　　"As someone who lived on after death and did all sorts of divine interventions, maybe you know Cute-sama best. Maybe she's just waiting for the right time, like you did." I smiled at the thought. I'd love to meet that beautiful Goddess again and show her what I'd made of her beneficence.

　　"I wasn't referring to Sephiroth you know." Aerith smiled enigmatically. "Of course it's great that he didn't stab me this time. But since I was a computer code to begin with, this really is the first time I'm alive. And I have you to thank for that. A life away from the slums, away from danger, away from sickness, bubbling with beauty and life. The world isn't in danger from overpollution. We haven't polluted it at all. Of course I loved you in our first world, too. You were strong and brave and inspired me to do what I must. But I love this you, too. The kind and fun loving Christopher who prefers living in Paradise to cutting down enemies. I think this is the sort of life I would have chosen too, if I had had a choice."

　　"In another world with 100 ikemen, huh?" I tried to imagine it.

　　"I'm not that desperate!" Aerith blushed and held both her arms straight down paralleling her legs with her wrists bent outwards. "Mou, shirimasen."

　　"If I'd wished to live here only with you, we probably would have both starved to death together. Or I guess eaten each other. So in a way my endless lechery saved the world, you know?" I continued teasing her.

　　"Why is it always so extreme with you? I could have found some edible plants. We would have built a tree house, then I could take out my staff and go hunting. You could cut the hides and fashion us with new leather clothes, go fishing in the streams. . .soon enough we'd have babies and then they'd help us in our old age. . ." Aerith imagined.

　　"Without the Silver Crystal, before we could even see the first village be founded, we'd die of old age. And with all our children related to each other and no healers left, they'd all die of some congenital defect or other." I prognosticated.

　　"Ara, but I have miraculous healing powers. I'd cleanse our genes of any defects and our descendants would be set for all time. And due to being half-Cetra, my spirit could still take care of them even after death." Aerith countered.

　　"I'd forgotten about that." I admitted. "But I still prefer my wish."

　　"I do too. Tifa's here with me. And all the others make the world so much more lively. I greet everyone as they come in to the tavern and wave them goodbye when they leave, and I get to see their happy faces every day. They always have a kind word for me. It's better with 100. You may have 100 sexual partners, but the rest of us have 100 friends." Aerith agreed.

　　Aerith was such a good person. It felt like I shouldn't even tarnish her with my dirty hands, even though the whole point of today was to try and get her pregnant.

　　Aerith interrupted our walk to grab up Cloud from the sandbox. "It's auntie Aerith, Cloud. Takaii Takaii. Takaii Takaii."

　　The baby giggled and smiled, though he had Tifa's black hair instead of his proper blond. Maybe I should have named him Zack?

　　"I wonder what you'll name my child." Aerith said, still making silly faces for Tifa's son.

　　"Tanoshimi." I responded enigmatically. "But we won't get any until we can find somewhere private."

　　"Oh? For a pervert king like you, right here in the middle of school in broad daylight should be fine." Aerith put Cloud down and returned him to Nemu's care.

　　That's true. Since everyone here has had sex with me anyway, why couldn't I flaunt our bodies right out in the open in front of everyone? It would be another first time. . .

　　"Don't mind me♪" Nemu smiled politely. "Plus the children are too young to remember or care."

　　"Alright then! Let's do it!" My desire evolved into decisive conviction.

　　"Arrreeeeeehhh," Aerith spun around as I ripped off her long pink skirt.

　　"No way! Nii-san, you're really going to do it?" Nemu squealed, stepping between us and the four or five babies that were under her watch to obscure their view.

　　"Love feverrrrrr!" I tackled Aerith to the grass, pulling off her vest and ripping down her blouse. Even four years in, I was still enjoying new things.

* * *

　　"Nii-san wa zurui. Zurui-yo." Nemu cried as we sat together on the couch of my master bedroom. The plan had been to watch Happiness Charge Pretty Cure together but somehow things ended up like this. "Haven't you been really mean to me ever since we got here? That stunt at the daycare, what you told Ai, isn't it always me being singled out? Are you still pretending not to love me after all this time -- even though there's no one left to get in our way? Even your sperm is bullying me. I'm the only one left without your child."

　　Oi oi, weren't there still dozens? Asa's floating head appeared inside my mind and repeated, 'Women think with their hearts, and their heads only follow.' If Asa were here she'd know what to say to calm Nemu down, huh. . ?

　　Every time Nemu sobbed the bell around her neck gave off a quiet ring, and I was reminded what a fragile girl she had always been right beneath the surface. Sickly and scared of being rejected, burning with forbidden love, she had almost died from the power of Sakura Yoshino's jealousy and the wishing tree. Having lost her original family, from the very beginning all she ever had was me. The two of us had lived alone together even during middle school. If I were to treat her coldly, she wouldn't have a single ally left in the world. I had tied that bell around her neck, long long ago, in her origin, and she had continued to wear it as proof that she was my property ever since.

　　Nemu might be the waifu who loved me most in the world. The tone of veiled disgust she used around me in public was only to keep from drowning in the strength of her feelings and exposing them to the public at large, it was all a veneer to protect her pride. But I had returned every tsun-tsun remark she had made with my own needle back, playing along, having fun with our pretended antagonism, and here we were.

　　"It used to be the two of us, and then the three of us with Aisia, but now it's 100 and Nii-san couldn't care less about me." Nemu sobbed. "It's just ijiwaru bakari."

　　I went to the fridge and poured her a cup of barley tea. Then I knelt down so I could look into her downward cast face and offered it to her.

　　"Iiranai." Nemu sniffed, trying to hide her distorted face from me.

　　"I thought you knew I was only joking. I thought we were having fun, playing around." I explained.

　　"Maybe if it's once or twice, but Nii-san!" Nemu angrily brought her eyes up to my level, the bell on her neck ringing from the sudden jerk. "When it's every single time! When there's nothing kind inbetween!"

　　"I guess sex doesn't count." I proffered hopefully.

　　"Isn't that me showing my love for you? A beautiful girl like me, letting you do whatever you please with me, of course any boy would jump for it. Do you take me for a fool?" Nemu asked angrily.

　　"No." I responded, angry at myself. I hadn't done anything wrong, so I refused to apologize. Nemu dug her own grave by always being mean to me first, so what did she expect would happen? But if I didn't apologize, what else could I do to cheer her up?

　　"I do love you, Nemu. I always have. Since we were kids together. You should know that by now. How long have we been married? Heck, Yume is our own granddaughter. Jishin motte." I cajoled.

　　"That was then, right?" Nemu challenged. "What about now?"

　　"Now you're the one girl in the world I tease the most. Boys only tease the girls they like, right?" I answered.

　　Nemu laughed, then she shook her head. "Zurui. Nii-san wa zurui."

　　"I could stop, but then I wouldn't know how to act around you at all." I admitted. "Wouldn't that feel even more distant?"

　　Nemu nodded silently.

　　"We're bound by the red thread of fate. From childhood to old age, and now again with eternal youth, we'll be going back deep into our old age again. We'll always be together. We've always been together. Out of all the girls I could have ever dreamed of, I chose to spend my second life with you. I admit it, no amount of sex with you can ever prove I love you, not like how you can easily prove your love for me. But I could have wished for someone else. I could have had sex with someone else. Anyone else I wanted. But I wanted you. I wanted to marry you, again, just like last time. I wanted to have sex with you again. I wanted to have children with you again. Because I can't ever get enough of you. The two of us are inseparable. That's the sort of relationship we have. We're stronger than anyone, so jokes and pranks, they're like water off a duck's back. We know we'll always be together, so who cares what it looks like to the world? We know the truth. Neh?"

　　"Unn." Nemu nodded, her bell ringing softly. "I'm sorry. This is our only night together and all I can do is yell at you like always. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I doubted you. I know better. I really do."

　　I crawled atop the couch and pulled down her skirt, then her panties. I carefully unbuttoned her shirt and exposed her beautiful cleavage and the illicit flash of her bra. Then I unclasped that and revealed her perfectly shaped, perfectly sized, perfectly colored left breast and nipple, with her shirt still obscuring her right breast from view. Finally I lifted up one of her legs high into the air to get it out of the way and placed my erection against her.

　　Nemu shuddered with recognition and looked at me with teary eyes. It was the exact same position as our first time had been, ages ago in a different world. "I love you." She whispered.

　　"I love you too," I smiled encouragingly down at her, and then I thrust my way back into her heart and through.