Jhin stood on a familiar modern street when the phone in his pants pocket buzzed slightly — a text message from his Boss.
"Employee of the Month, that colleague of mine messed up the code for the connecting passage again. When you head back, you might experience a period of timeline disarray. Once things return to normal, your little girlfriends will be teleported to the Main World. Other than that, no other issues."
So something did go wrong after all... Well, at least I'm back. But why didn't I end up straight at home?
Jhin scratched his head, puzzled, then opened his personal terminal to contact Nymph: "Hey? Nymph, I'm back."
"Master, welcome back."
"I brought you some specialties from Another World. I should be home in about ten minutes or so."
"Okay."
Hearing the little angel's lovely voice again after so long filled Jhin with nostalgia, and he sadly wiped away a tear.
Such a beautiful voice — so why does her singing sound like the end of the world? Oh, my Nymph...
"Ah! I knew that silhouette looked familiar — and yep, that voice confirms it's him!"
"No way."
"H-hey, hey, let's go check it out!"
"Interesting."
A scramble of footsteps sounded from behind him, and in the blink of an eye Jhin found himself surrounded by four people. Looking at the faces before him — familiar yet somehow strange — he let out a relieved laugh. "Long time no see. Or maybe I should say... nice to meet you, future Kessoku Band?"
Of course, when timelines get scrambled, this kind of thing is simply unavoidable.
Now in their twenties, they hadn't changed much in appearance, though their demeanor had matured considerably. Their personalities, however... seemed to have changed quite a bit.
Stars practically sparkling in her eyes, Hitori Gotoh pulled Jhin straight into a hug, her voice unusually excited: "It's Student-Days Jhin!! Ahh, so nostalgic — is this what they call The Youth?"
What is with this cheerful, lively personality? Did you and Kita swap personalities or something?
Too busy failing to stop Hitori Gotoh's hands roaming all over him, Jhin turned his gaze to Nijika, hoping to get some answers from her.
"Okay, okay, Bocchi-chan, we're out in public — save whatever you're planning for when we get home." Kita Ikuyo pulled her off, only to end up glued to Jhin herself, refusing to let go — looking exactly like a little girl who couldn't resist petting and nuzzling her favorite plushie.
An air of weary resignation radiated off Nijika. "Long story short, thanks to your tireless efforts, Bocchi-chan finally became a bright, outgoing sunshine girl — but only around you. Happy now?"
"No, no, no — honestly I'd rather it wasn't limited to just me. What exactly did I do?"
"Who knows? We're just one of many possible futures, after all." Nijika threw up her hands helplessly. "According to Nymph, with the timeline in disarray, you're the only fixed anchor point. Everything else from different timelines can only be influenced by you — never the other way around."
"So the present is the only thing that's truly real, huh."
"As expected of you — quick on the uptake."
"So I guess it's fine no matter what I ask right now?"
"Sure, though I'm not really in the mood to answer... why don't you ask Ryo instead?" Having said that, Nijika seemed to burn through the last of her energy — after barely managing to peel Kita Ikuyo off, she simply draped herself over Jhin, unwilling to move an inch.
"Ryo... huh? What's with those sparkling eyes?"
That moneygrubbing Ryo sniffed at Jhin's side and declared with absolute certainty: "I can smell it — you're carrying a lot of money right now, and it's cash!"
"Where'd you even get that superpower..."
"Pay up and I'll answer your questions."
"Pardon the odd question, but... aren't you my wife?"
"Of course I am, but even married couples should keep clear accounts." Ryo held out a hand that practically reeked of money and beckoned with her fingers. "One question, one thousand."
"Fine, fine, fine, I'll pay." Jhin pulled a ruby from his storage space — one of the many minerals he'd collected on the Astraea continent. "This should be enough, right?"
Ryo swiftly tucked the ruby away into her own storage space, then flashed a gentle smile only a devoted wife could manage. "Darling, what did you want to ask?"
"Seeing you like this kind of kills my urge to ask..."
The rest of the group fought over Jhin like he was some oversized body pillow, but Ryo paid them no mind. She pinched her small chin, thought for a moment, then said with a beaming smile: "I've got a pretty interesting piece of news. You'll definitely want to hear it."
"Go on... I'm listening."
"It's about your daughter."
Looking utterly drained of will to live, he perked up just slightly, wrapping an arm around his future wives to gesture for Ryo to continue.
"Her name is Jhimin."
Hearing that name, the corner of Jhin's mouth twitched.
Wasn't that the name he and Megumin had picked out for their future daughter...
"What about her?"
Ryo shot him an amused glance. "When she was seven, she marched right up in front of you two and declared, all proud of herself: 'So my future boyfriend doesn't get beaten to death by Dad, I've decided to go find myself a girlfriend first!'"
Jhin fell silent for a moment, figuring that with his temperament, if he ever saw someone trying to steal his daughter's heart, he probably really would resort to violence.
What wild boar dares to root around my precious little cabbage? Don't they know I'm known as the Boar Slayer in Another World?
"Ahh, you went quiet. Guess by this point you've fully become a daughter-obsessed dad, huh?" Hitori Gotoh giggled, pinching her boyfriend's nose.
"Don't I have any other daughters?"
Nijika gave him a half-lidded look and snarked, "This guy isn't even considering the possibility of having a son."
Ryo scratched her head as she answered. "In this particular branch of the future, you've only got the one daughter — Jhimin — for now. Mostly because none of us want to raise a little blabbermouth who can't keep a secret, and we don't want to worry about her sneaking off to drag you away for video games whenever we want some alone time."
With that, she pulled up a photo on her personal terminal to show him. "Here, this is what your future daughter looks like."
It was a photo of an elf-like, adorable black-haired girl with striking mismatched eyes — one red, one blue — her long black hair tied into a lively side ponytail, wearing an ornate black gothic dress, flashing a peace sign and smiling at the camera.
"Yeah, adorable. Definitely my daughter. Mind sending me that photo?"
"That'll cost extra."
Jhin handed over another gem — an emerald this time — and only then did he get his hands on the photo of his future daughter. He wasted no time setting it as his wallpaper.
That act stirred up a round of commentary from the girls... no, better call them the future wives' squad.
"Straight to the phone wallpaper, huh."
"Guess it's true what they say — a daughter really is her father's lover from a past life."
"But Mom's already pressuring me to have kids — what do I do?"
"Just bring Jhimin back with you, why not? Knowing how sharp she is, she'd have no trouble pretending to be your daughter."
Ignoring their teasing, Jhin called out: "Hey, wives — should we head home, or go somewhere else first?"
All four girls shot back in unison: "Which wife are you asking?"
"Uh... all of you, obviously. Majority rules."
____
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