The True Endgame

Ryouta, now staring up at his ceiling fan, hopes that Rock covers her ears and doesn"t go above deck while they"re offline. He doesn"t want her witnessing their lewd acts. Rock is pure and her innocence must be maintained!

He looks over at his computer screen. Nell said that she didn"t have Fiscord, but that she would get it and add him on there before going to sleep. He"s curious what kind of person she"ll be on there given how Serra behaves so much more bubbly and hyper in text.

"Tournament won, a.s.shole killed by fishing rod, Nell saved, discovery of Ull not being a super a.s.shole – I mean, Nell did tell me that he donates to exotic animal shelters, so of course he couldn"t be all that bad. Anyways, Fan, I think I"ve earned the right to catch up on all of the sleep I"ve missed over the past few days. Wait, am I actually calling you Fan now? I swear, I"m going to start naming my food and furniture if I keep this up," Ryouta says.

Fan continues spinning its blades around.
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Ryouta closes his eyes and falls asleep no more than a minute later.

Once more, he has that dream – nightmare, of his childhood friend. Aiko.

His dream is full of vivid detail. Everything from the shapes of clouds that he memorized while staring up at them on the road to the sounds of chirping birds is just like it was on that day.

"Aiko! Wait!" Ryouta shouts, his body a mimicry of what it once was as a child.

"H-hero! Slow down!" Aiko shouts at his dog that she"s walking, but it"s more like the dog is walking her with how strong and fast he is. A girl as small as her should never be walking a dog as large and powerful as Hero is.

Ryouta knows what is going to happen. This has all happened before, yet despite knowing what comes next, he chases after her none the same.

His only regret from that day is not being able to save Hero. He has never once regretted being able to at least save Aiko, though.

Ryouta spots the autotruck destined to ruin his legs coming down the street. It may be obeying the speed limit, but it is on a road that parents have been telling the city to lower the limit on because of the children for years.

"Automated vehicles have never been the cause of an accident involving a loss of human life. One hundred percent of accidents where a human has died have been because of natural disasters impossible to predict and compensate for, or people not respecting the road and using their heads to avoid mistakes that should be common sense. Even then, pedestrian deaths have experienced a drastic drop since automated vehicles have been steadily replacing human-driven vehicles. The autotruck in this latest tragedy performed exactly as it should have, and no humans were even killed. Yes, one was. .h.i.t, but where were the parents? Why did the parents allow a small child to walk a dog that she could not handle on her own, and why did the boy who got hit run out into the road when he clearly saw danger approaching? It is a misfortunate accident, but it could have been avoided had the parents done their job."

That"s what the local news reporter is going to say after what is about to happen. Ryouta remembers hearing all about it on the television that was in his hospital room. Hearing that it was his parents" fault always p.i.s.sed him off, and Aiko"s parents would be sure to use the reporter"s logic for why their daughter was almost killed. Never once did they thank his parents nor himself for saving Aiko. Instead, Ryouta and his parents were blamed for it all happening and all contact between the families was cut off when Aiko"s parents moved away to force her away from him.

"Aiko!" Ryouta shouts, rushing out onto the road.

He made the mistake of only pushing her before.

Aiko stands still in the center of the road, unaware of what is about to happen, and petting Hero now that she has finally got him to stop.

In real life, Ryouta pushed Aiko forward to knock her out of the vehicle"s path and was too slow to save Hero. However, him not being able to save Hero is the only thing that prevented him from taking the full force of the hit.

Ryouta lunges forward and pushes both Aiko and Hero at once forward, barely pushing them out of the way.

Without Hero between Ryouta and the incoming autotruck, the vehicle slams right into him and rolls his entire body instead of just his legs underneath its wheels.

He looks up, unable to feel anything below his neck, and sees Aiko and Hero safe.

He looks at the clouds. They are just like how he remembers them.

He closes his eyes. If this is what happened in reality, he would never be opening them again. Instead, it is just a dream, and he opens his eyes to the sight of his fan swishing above and cold sweats covering his body.

"Seriously?" Ryouta groans. "I finally get some sleep and that is what I dream about? Come on, that"s not fair."

Ryouta wipes away the only tear on his cheek before crawling out of bed and limping over to his computer.

He only managed to get a few hours of sleep, but at least Nell finally got around to adding him on Fiscord. At least, he a.s.sumes that "Hero"s Princess #5693" is Nell. Who else could it be?

The moment that he accepts the friend request, her profile picture loads and shows a girl with dyed hair similar to Nell"s in-game hair, but she"s wearing a frilly dress that looks more like a cosplay than proper clothes. She"s even winking while making a peace sign for the camera. Her hair is straight like Nell"s as well, but it looks like it might be even longer than it is in-game and completely covers her forehead unlike Nell"s whose stops just above her eyebrows.

Ryouta can barely make it out with how small the picture is, but he sees just enough of the room behind her—that he a.s.sumes is her bedroom—to tell that it looks really nice. Like, rich girl nice. There is a giant mirror and a vanity behind her that is covered in makeup and has a bunch of wigs on stands, some pretty dresses hanging from the wall next to it, and everything is bright pastel colors.

"I think I get where the princess delusions come from now," Ryouta says. More importantly, as shallow as it makes him feel, he is really happy that she is just as attractive and cute in real life as she is in-game. There is always the worry of getting romantically, or s.e.xually, interested in somebody over the internet and then realizing that they aren"t exactly attractive in real life.

That"s one less thing to worry about, and with that, he can limp back over to his bed to hopefully get some more sleep that is not plagued by old memories.

Instead of dreaming about changing history by saving Aiko and Hero, and dying in the process, he dreams about sailing on The s...o...b..ll with n.o.body but Rock by his side.

While he steers The s...o...b..ll to a decent fishing spot, Rock runs about on the deck gathering all of the fishing supplies together. She picks up buckets of bait by biting the handles, carries Rod in her mouth to Ryouta, and… wait, does Rock have a mustache?

Ryouta looks down at her. Yep. Rock has a mustache. A black and twirled mustache.

Good thing that this is just a dream. It looks kind of cute and is definitely amusing, but he would rather Rock not take after Blackstache.

Once The s...o...b..ll reaches a spot where a bunch of birds keep on diving into the water to grab some fish, Ryouta and Rock both sit down on the side of the ship and cast their fishing poles. He isn"t going to question Rock sitting on her back two legs and holding a fishing rod in her front paws.

Most of Ryouta"s dreams from that point until he wakes up involve going on various adventures with Rock. They go diving together, but Rock just sinks to the bottom of the ocean and prances around playing in the sand and chasing fish on the bottom. They turn The s...o...b..ll into an airship and Rock takes Serra"s job of manning the ballista to shoot flying cats out of the sky. The final dream involves Rock taking on a feminine, human form by turning into a busty girl with dog ears and a dog tail, but Ryouta feels so guilty and excited by this dream that he wakes up before anything happens.

Rock is pure and her innocence must be maintained!