So, we’ve talked about your origins as an original character without a story, the godlike powers that you were given, your discovery that your creator, Kasumi, had committed suicide, and your war against her world that followed.

Aquila:    Yes, the war – my great shame. I really was lost in grief and anger back then.

And your war ended with you using your “miracle” power – something that could only be used once in your lifetime – to resurrect Kasumi and take her with you to a world of your own creation.

Aquila:    That’s correct. If we had stayed in her hub world – that’s what we call the worlds that create the story worlds – she would have faded away. Hub worlds don’t tolerate people coming back to life like that. Once we were there, we decided that we would live the rest of our lives together in peace, creating and adding things to our world. Our world was even cut off from any of the information streams – the streams of energy that create and maintain the story worlds – so that we would be left alone.

What made you leave?

Aquila:    We had two visitors. Daiki Yamato and Captain Infinite just showed up about five years after my war ended. It turns out that Daiki’s sword could make direct paths between worlds, just as I can. It was quite a surprise – people aren’t supposed to be able to do that. Usually, to get from one story world to another you have to travel along an information stream to a hub world first, and only then go to a connected story world. Daiki had been knocked off course when an information stream from another hub world had crossed the one he was using, and he was trying to get home to his fiancee. Cap – sorry, Captain Infinite...he’s an American superhero originally named Matthew Markham – had agreed to help him get home. I wanted to help as well, and Kasumi wouldn’t let me leave without her. So it ended up being the four of us.

Why did you want to help?

Aquila:    To make things right, I guess. I had hurt so many people and spent so much time doing bad things, and I wanted to do some good for a change. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was still lost – I’d just gone from being lost in anger to being lost in guilt.

And what happened then?

Aquila:    It was a bit of an adventure, but we got Daiki back to his fiancee, this lovely half-wolf demi-human named Athena. I ended up being her maid of honour at their wedding. That was after I nearly got killed in battle sorting out the problem with Daiki’s devil king. I still don’t remember the details – apparently severe blood loss can cause memory problems – but the devil king targeted me specifically and I was somehow lured away from the wall we were protecting and got hit in the artery in my leg. If it wasn’t for Cap cauterizing the wound with his laser eyes and getting me to an aid station, I would have died. From what I was told, it was a long night for the healers. Most of my body had already shut down from blood loss by the time they got to me. It was a week before I could put any real weight on the leg again, and I walked with a limp for about two months after that. I also joined Cap in his promise after that battle – I swore that I would never take another life.

How did you deal with the devil king?

Aquila:    After the battle, he was willing to sit down and talk, and we found out why he was fighting. He was trying to save his civilization from starvation. So, Kasumi and I made him a new world where he and his people could live in peace. And then we got Daiki and Athena back to Daiki’s version of Osaka. They were married about six months later.

And what happened then?

Aquila:    Cap joined Kasumi and I in a bit of sight-seeing on our way home. There was a favour Daiki asked us to handle, though – before he had met us, he had met this schoolgirl named Natsuki in what he thought was a high school romantic comedy, and he was worried about her. He wanted us to check up on Natsuki and her friends.

Why was he worried?

Aquila:    Natsuki had figured out the nature of her reality – that she was a fictional character in a story – because of the clues Daiki had accidentally dropped. Daiki was worried that she wouldn’t be able to cope with it.

And how was she when you got there?

Aquila:    She was a wreck, along with her friends. Daiki had been wrong – they were the harem in a ecchi harem comedy. Neither Natsuki nor any of her friends – Yuri, Sayori, or Yukari – had slept properly in over a week by the time we got there...and that was the least of their problems. Nothing they did felt real, and as the main girl Natsuki was being molested daily as the protagonist kept tripping and falling on her. Yukari had figured out that she was a yandere, had already started stalking the protagonist, and was terrified that she was going to hurt her friends. We couldn’t leave them that way. So, we explained their options to them, and they chose to come and travel with us. We made sure that they understood the consequences of their decision, though. Information streams don’t just create story worlds – they keep them in compliance with the story. We explained that once they were gone, the next information stream update would create replacements of them who had never left, and if they ever came back, it would either erase one of the duplicates or merge them together. To this day we don’t know which one it is. They understood, and still wanted to come. They’ve been with us ever since.

So you started travelling together?

Aquila:    We told ourselves that we were going home the long way around, but that was a lie. We just loved travelling together. The seven of us helped out with Daiki and Athena’s wedding, and then we ventured out into the story worlds. Before we knew it, almost four years had passed, and we were so far away from the world we called home that it would take months of direct travel to get back there. That was when we stumbled into your war.

And what was the first sign of trouble you noticed?

Aquila:    Well, that would be the murder.

NEXT: “Murder”