Harem Hero

The Future, Now

"It's nice to meet you, Dad."

Everything falls into place, the red hair, his resemblance to you. This guy is supposed to be your son? Inevitably, there are a lot of holes in this story that ignite an immediate scepticism within you. "Wait a second, what do you mean 'Dad?' I'm not even married to Rias – and I'd sure as hell know if I got her pregnant somehow. I wouldn't hear the end of it!"

"You're right. Devils don't grow any faster than a human does, so how do you think a twenty-something year old version of your son is running around?"

"...Time travel?"

He snaps his fingers, "Bingo, got it in one. Sorry for showing up unannounced and all, but I needed to make a dramatic entrance to save your skin back there."

You frown, "I don't need your help."

"Prideful as always. I know, everyone is in good hands with the 'Incandescent Devil-Emperor' here. Even though this is an... early version of yourself – before a lot of important things happen to you. But you don't have a way to beat Vali at the moment."

You double take, "I'm called what?"

"Devils really love elaborate nicknames," he laughs, "For example, in the future you're regarded under several different titles. Aside from the Incandescent Devil-Emperor, you're also known as the Ruin King, the Mirror-Holder, the Shatterer..."

"Okay, we get it," Mitsuru interrupts before he can reel off any more of them. She seems to be taking this news a lot better than you are at the moment. You're a devil AND a father. "You were the one who broke into the lab a few days ago. Why?"

He shrugs, "Good old Dad here told me to leave that paper with you."

"I did?" you repeat, "You mean 'me' from the future?"

"Correct. Utilizing advanced technology and some devilish magic, we're capable of sending people through time. It was essential that I came back here, to this specific time, to give you this information."

"The form change system," Mitsuru continues, "You want me to complete it."

It's true that his assistance has resulted in the development of a new weapon. But the arrival of this imitator doesn't bode too well for your chances. She can summon equally powerful foes to try and take you down, if she can get over her personality quirks for long enough to realise that anyway.

He continues; "Time travel isn't a get out of jail free card. When you go rampaging through the past, it doesn't actually change the future. Everything that is happening now, happened before the time travel technique was even discovered in the first place. No matter what I do here, things are already set in stone to happen in that specific way."

Mitsuru closes her eyes, "An infinite loop."

"Sure, let's go with that. You both made it very clear to me that I needed to come here and give you this information. You've been preparing and researching how to do so for decades. In essence, the 'you' from the future is cheating, and giving you some of the answers now to set things into motion. From here, you'll both develop the technology and magic based on your own discoveries, and repeat the process all over again by sending another version of me into the past."

"That still doesn't answer why you need to be here," Mitsuru contests, "Are you saying that I couldn't discover the way to make my system work? If I couldn't do that – how did this future version of me get this thesis paper?"

Zandias grits his teeth; "That's the tricky part, we don't know. The real source of that information is a complete mystery. If this really is an infinite loop there's no way for us to find out. We can only guess that one copy of Mitsuru set this into motion by constructing the very first time machine."