Chapter 57:

　　I had to wait 18 more years for my tenthborns to grow up enough to complete my master plan. Thankfully nothing untoward happened inbetween. Levy had mastered enchantment magic, which she'd taken an interest into as an extension of solid script spells. It was useful for virtually everything. For instance, if you entered the 'remove body hair' enchantment zone, you could get the instant shave people always dreamed of. There were also 'de-odorize' enchants, 'zap all bugs' enchants, 'don't feel hungry for the next 12 hours' enchants, 'don't feel sleepy for the next 12 hours' enchants, enchantments that set your room to whatever exact degree temperature you wanted, enchantments to style your hair, enchantments to block out noise coming from outside, and so on. She soon became the wealthiest person on Eden as everyone flocked to pay for her services.

　　Whatever annoyed you in life, there was an enchant for that. And the best part was the enchant lasted for a full year or your money back. Levy's solid script used to produce temporary phenomena, but combined with the glyphs she'd studied from Fried and the helpful hints from Mavis, Rin Tohsaka, Sara Chrysalis and other mages at the Research Institute, their lifespan had increased this far.

　　Lucy's books were made into popular and successful anime. With the public's encouragement she was already working on more.

　　Simply for novelty's sake, I cajoled my wives into a threesome with me of every possible combination between the 101 of them (there were 5,050 total), and then one-upped it with a foursome of every possible combination, which we were still working on (since there were 166,650). I felt the benefits of polygamy would never be truly plumbed until this final frontier was conquered, and luckily, after 150 years, all my waifus knew and loved each other enough that they weren't entirely averse to the close bodily contact involved. It took a great deal of daring to insert Cute-sama into a threesome (and then a foursome!), but she did say to treat her like a normal girl, so all I could do was happily comply with her directive. When it was my turn to fondle Rose's breast in my left hand and Cute's in my right, Rose gave me a knowing look that I couldn't help but own up to with a smirk.

　　I decided the city had become large enough to merit some grandiose building projects, so I renovated the shrine into a monstrous palace with a marble statue of Cute-sama towering up from its central point. Around her were marble statues half the size of our Creator (though still enormous and exquisitely detailed such that anyone could immediately tell them apart from ground level) of the primogenitures of Paradise, her 100 sister-wives and 1 husband, who looked outwards across town in a protective square around her, ever-vigilant that her Law be honored and upheld. With Siri to do the work all I had to do was design my new imposing edifice and then away the AI went. I of course banned any other buildings from competing with the skyline that my new Shrine dominated. Let Paradise, let Eden, let the entire galaxy always know who had made their lives possible. Let all our names be remembered for eternity. It still wouldn't be honor enough for how well we had done our jobs to get things this far.

　　I told Sora again and again how grateful I was for her love. We had married even before we arrived on Eden, and she had taken care of our home, the mansion, and raised my children like the perfect housewife ever since. Unquestioningly, uncomplainingly, she had done everything I asked and asked nothing in return. When I told her how guilty I felt for only giving 1% in return for her 100%, she shushed me with a kiss on the lips and assured me Cute-sama had removed all jealousy from her heart, so it had never been a problem. Such was the quality of my chosen ones.

　　I was aware nothing lasted forever, though, and I was blessed to have gotten this far without any additional losses from either my wives or children. That was why I called for a family reunion in the year 160 E.T., now that my tenthborns were full grown enough to look the way they should to my augmented reality glasses.

　　I gave everyone their most iconic costume as they walked in the ball room door and instructed them to change. Courtesy of Siri clothes could always be churned out, of any difficulty level, at will. Yuna held a concert in her songstress dressphere, singing 'Real Emotion' and '1,000 Words' (I had asked her to do so because it matched our 1,000 children), while everyone partook of Siri's variegated cooking. The buffet was enormous and covered all possible appetites, decked in every known sauce. Alcohol flowed freely, again of every known type, alongside drinks of a more cowardly sort.

　　Once everyone had gotten into a good mood I took Yuna's place on the stage. "My dearly beloved, we are gathered here today for a simple and a profound reason. We've never taken a family portrait together. Now we shall. I've hired a professional photographer to arrange things, so it's our job to just do whatever he says. This is also being recorded in 3d for a virtual reality experience equivalent to the photo, so no details will be lost. This comes in two stages. The first stage is the full family together, aside from those living in exile, all 1,098 of us. It's going to take a long time to set up, but you're all grown-ups so I trust you can gaman through it. The prize is an everlasting, irreplaceable memory, that yes, we once all were here together, and yes, we all are one united family, and yes, we really are this handsome and beautiful when we dress to the nines."

　　The crowd gave out a shout and a fierce round of applause in favor of this assessment.

　　"Once the full portrait is done, we're splitting into our 101 nuclear families. I'm going to take a photo with my wife in the back row as we happily overlook our ten beloved children who are facing the camera in the front row. I want the ten of you to hold hands all across the line, as one united family. Even if you don't mean it, think of it as a favor to the mother who raised each and every one of you with infinite tender care. Pretend for our sakes so that we can look upon a dream of a happy home every now and then, okay? The photographer will decide the perfect arrangement of who goes where, so just follow the instructions."

　　"I will also be looking at the full family gathering and the 101 individual gatherings before I line up alongside you. Don't mind me, I'll join you before the picture is taken, it's important for me to remember this moment precisely as it happened, looking at it, not away from it, for the same reason the photos themselves are important." With a perfect memory and augmented reality, I wanted to see for once in my life the full lineup of all my favorite characters in fiction in all their favorite outfits together, so that I could then see it as many times as I wanted for the rest of my life. I couldn't do that while looking at the photographer.

　　Characters from live action shows naturally looked like the actors who had played them, while characters from books took after their descriptions or cover art. They stood out dramatically from the crowd, but that was the choice I made when I branched out into the real people category. Cute's miracles couldn't save me from myself.

　　The worst aspect of the augmented reality goggles were the inhuman creatures like Happy, Rokumon and Teepo. It wasn't so much that they looked completely inappropriate alongside the rest of their family, the real problem was that they were so small I could barely see them. At least Charles was generously presented in her transformed state and Shirahoshi had been shrunk down to human size for my sake. Oh well, you live by augmented reality, you die by augmented reality. Some of my family were flying puppets and cats. So sue me.

　　"Once the photos are taken, I thought it would be fun if the 100 different families competed with each other in a board game tournament. Each family has to choose what to do each move as a united group. The first round will be Carcassonne. The second round will be Settlers of Catan. The third round will be Monopoly. The fourth round will be Sorry. The fifth and championship round will be Clue. Cute's family has graciously opted to be the judges and rules managers in case of disputes, since they're a little too omniscient for their own good. If the games take too long and we run out of time in the day, don't worry, the party can extend into tomorrow or the next day and no harm will come from it. Food and drink at the buffet will be available around the clock. The winning family will officially be crowned 'Best Family.' Here's the trophy waiting for the winner. I'll mosey on through all the families and play alongside whoever I feel like at the moment, since I technically am part of every family. If you lose, you're free to go back to your apartments and change out of your clothes. You're also free to stick around and cheer on the winners. Even if you lose a board game, please don't lose your self-esteem, these games are rather chance based and aren't meant to be taken seriously. It's more about the journey than the result."

　　"Before you leave, be sure to take your copy of the photos and VR tape. The named care package also includes one of my favorite songs that I think matches you best. You'll have worked hard for them, and there's no telling when they'll become the only thing we have left of each other, at which point their value will dramatically increase. Any questions?" I looked around at the enormous crowd in front of me, my mouth a little dry from such a sustained speech. As Mayor I had to do a lot of public speaking so these sorts of things came naturally to me.

　　There were no questions, so I handed all further instructions over to the photographer. It was the little things that ended up mattering the most. Such a simple thing, a family photo, but out of such things Paradise was made.

* * *

Girls' Side:

　　"Yushis, I wanted to thank you again for saving my life." Christopher casually worked his way through the crowd to one of the independent rules judges.

　　"Mama only let me intervene because it was an accident, if you actually upset Tifa there will be nothing any of us can do, so please be careful Papa." Yushis remonstrated with her mortal half.

　　"Does that mean I'm also immune to lightning bolts and meteorites?" Christopher asked hopefully.

　　"If I'm in a good mood." Yushis smiled mercurially.

　　"Look Father!" Yukino pulled on Christopher's sleeve to get his attention and brandished three zodiac keys in her outstretched hand. "Mother arrived here with her ten contracted spirits, but she told me the remaining three were always meant for me. When I asked Cute-sama she assured me they were scattered somewhere across the world, so I went on a quest to find them. It took all these years, but now I can follow in Mother's footsteps!"

　　"That's nothing." Zack interjected. "Do you know how many Materia my mother came with in her backpack? And every time she mastered one a new one was born, until the whole apartment was rolling around with them, and I got to inherit them all. . ."

　　"My Mother's even worse!" Selphie protested. "She's always wandering around the city walking the dog and looking for 'draw spots,' so we never get anywhere on time. And occasionally she'll make someone stop and perform an endless ritual on them in the middle of the street until she nods happily and proclaims '100!' It's so embarrassing!"

　　Ganbatte Christopher! I'm always watching you. Rin Nohara thought to herself as she watched her Hokage desperately attempting to bond with all thousand of his kids in a single day with a deep and abiding smile.