Chapter 37:
The year was 61 E.T. I waited outside the mansion door, on the street streaming with children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Everyone still walked between the few structures that served our entire community. In Earth terms we were still a pitiful flyspeck of a village, so 'traffic' wasn't really a concept yet. The structures had all grown over the years, though. The mansion had more floors, the power plant generated more power, and the studio released more anime than ever before.
The mansion which housed our entire extended family opened up and produced a mother and child with brown hair and yellow eyes. The child was wearing a white beret and a blue dress. It was to be her first day of school.
"Shall we go, then?" I held out my right hand.
"Unn." Ushio nodded nervously, and stretched out her left hand to hold mine. Her right was already snugly being held by Nagisa's left hand. The three of us abreast, hand in hand in hand, started walking the slow pace of our youngest child towards the schoolyard swathed in the bloom of everlasting cherry trees.
In my mind, 'Chiisana te no Hira' was playing at full blast.
"Papa, itai?" Ushio looked up at my face worriedly.
"No, it doesn't hurt, Ushio." I said. "I'm just so glad you're here." Since my hand was already occupied, all I could do was let the tears run down my cheeks unobstructed.
"Naitena, Papa. . . Papa, daisuki." Ushio removed her hand from mine and patted my hip, which was the furthest she could reach to console me.
* * *
"Well, there you have it." I stood in front of the shrine offering box. "I started as a puddle of blood on some pavement, and thanks to your generosity, and the outrageous wish you granted in full, my new life in another world has come this far. If I had lived this long on Earth, I'd be old and decrepit or dead by now, one or the other. I would have zero children, I'd probably still be a virgin, I would have lived paycheck to paycheck, or maybe I would've pulled some disability scam and lived off of social security. The only person I would've ever talked to was the clerk at the supermarket, because if I said anything more I would have been persecuted for hate speech.
Here all the wealth of the planet is mine to toy with as I please. I'm so rich and powerful I don't even know what left to do with it. I can say anything I want to 100 different wives who love, appreciate and understand me. I have a great job, ruling the city and instructing the youth in all the beauty of this world. I've had the greatest and most sex of any man in history, with the most beautiful girls imaginable, who never asked for anything in return, who say I paid them all upfront before our first kiss. I'm still as young as the day I got here, too. Not a single ache or pain to show for all these years. I could pick up soccer or football if I wanted. And I have 500 children, whom I've drilled myself for years to remember each and every one of their names and faces, so I can greet them in the streets or in the mansion or in the baths whenever we cross paths.
And would you believe it, a lot of my children have gone out of their way to thank me, for bringing them into this world. They're very glad they were born here and not over there. Some have even thanked me for leading them down the right path. Cute-sama knows Earth isn't doing so hot anymore. It's on the wrong path, and getting there very quickly. All we have to do is check the news on the internet to see. My kids are beginning to see why exactly we're special, and what hand I had in that. . .and they love me for it. . .even though I barely played a single day of catch with them. . .they see what this was all about, that their mothers, and their father, have been working nonstop for their sake, so that Eden can be a decent place to raise a family. So that in Eden you can build a home.
I guess my next dream is to hand Ushio off to her husband on her wedding day, and see that she's set for life like you did for me. Well, if you want to come play, you're always welcome here. I know it must be painful watching over Earth, it's pretty rotten, thankless work. But here on Eden we've already built you an abode. We'll welcome you with open arms. You can marry the pick of the litter and settle down with us. . .well, give it a thought at least."
I poured a bottle of sake on a rock set aside for the purpose as an offering, sighed and stood up, having failed to win Cute-sama over yet again today.
My body was young, and my memory had been adjusted to properly remember even elven lifespans of material, but I was starting to feel old all the same. I'd said everything I had to say, thought everything I had wanted to think, and done everything I'd wanted to do. It was difficult to stay engaged when everything ran so smoothly on autopilot.
I suppose, with the power of my wives, I could always invade and conquer Earth next. Save their souls, show them a better way, share our endless wealth with their teeming hungry hordes. But the very idea of it was exhausting and unpleasant. Why should I do anything for people like that? Every single problem in their lives was a result of their own choices. You couldn't help such hopelessly deluded idiots. All it would do is drag us down with them. Even though we'd win the war, we could never win the peace. We would never get through to them why our world worked and theirs did not. They'd cling to their fallacies all the way down to the grave. So to hell with them. Maybe it was time to cut off our internet connection and forget Earth existed entirely.
But no, I guess it was important to document their self-destruction to the very end, so that no one could doubt the error of their ways. We could reference their bad example so as not to follow it, so let the information flow freely. Let it become beyond dispute that I was right and they were wrong. Let it become the final history lesson they impart to our children.
Eden didn't need them. We would just go our own way.
* * *
Girls' Side:
"Was it a good life, Christopher?" Cute asked as her favorite subject walked away. Just because she was transparent, he sure gave up fast. She felt like running after him and hugging him from behind, stopping him in his tracks and making him turn back her way. Maybe if she begged all the other wives, they'd be okay with her being the 101st?
