The True Endgame

Fenrir has to be careful not to accidentally ram, or get rammed by, any other ships as he sails to the rear of the tower. The port city is an extremely busy one with at least a dozen vessels of various sizes entering or leaving at all times.

Serra looks ready to drop the ship"s anchor as soon as they reach the spot, but Fenrir commands her not to. He explains that he"s worried it might scare the fish or at least disturb them. For that same reason, he tells the girls not to talk too loudly or make much noise in general.

Neither of the girls knows how to fish, but Serra lets Ca.s.siel get lessons first.

It gives Serra more time to pet Rock.
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"Alright, are you watching?" Fenrir asks.

Ca.s.siel nods and stares at his hands. He"s never seen her look so focused before.

It"s pretty cute.

"Alright, first you reach into the bucket and grab a shrimp. Once you grab one, you have to make sure to hold onto it tightly enough that it won"t break free but not so tightly that you"ll hurt or kill it." Fenrir reaches into the bucket and tries grabbing one of the shrimp. He winces a bit when one of them manages to cut his hand, but he eventually gets a good grip on one to pull out.

And then it jumps right out of his hand onto the deck.

Rock rushes over to it and tries playing with it.

Rock discovers that she doesn"t like the taste of shrimp when she accidentally bites it hard enough to pop it open in her mouth.

"Alright, let"s try again," Fenrir says.

"Are you sure you"re the one who should be teaching me this?" Ca.s.siel asks. "Here, just let me try." She reaches into the bucket. A c.o.c.ky smile spreads across her lips when she picks out a shrimp much faster than he did, but then the exact same thing happens to her.

Instead of biting the shrimp to try and play with it, Rock barks at it until Fenrir has a chance to pick it up.

"Are you sure you"re the one who should be giving me sa.s.s?" Fenrir asks Ca.s.siel and gets a glare in response. "Alright, once you have the shrimp, you want to run the hook right through the center of its body. Try not to get too close to its head. You want it to stay alive."

"Why?" Ca.s.siel asks.

"Because if it"s alive then it"ll be swimming around and grabbing attention. Fish are more likely to notice it and try eating it," he explains while sliding the hook through the center of the shrimp. Ca.s.siel cringes from the sound it makes as the hook punctures the shrimp"s sh.e.l.l. "Once you have your bait ready, you want to hold the rod in your dominant hand like this," he grips the rod so that the foot of the reel is between a couple of his fingers, "have a bit of line freely hanging and then hold the line against the rod with your finger, open the bail like so, and aim at where you want to cast your line to. Now, this next part is all about timing. You want to raise the rod up like this, and then halfway through your swing, you need to let go of the line. Watch the tip of my rod to see when I release."

With his explanation over, Fenrir swings his rod forward and releases the line when the tip reaches halfway through where he was aiming it. The line goes flying out over the water! It is a smooth cast that lands almost exactly where he was aiming. "And then you close the bail! You want to open the bail when you want the line to go out, and close it when you don"t want to give more of it. Make sense?" Fenrir asks, looking over at Ca.s.siel whom looks unimpressed.

"Looks easy enough," she says. She goes through all the steps he went through. First is grabbing another shrimp, sliding it onto the hook, and then preparing to cast the line.

Her first attempt results in the hook being sent straight down into the water off the side of the boat. She knows that it isn"t right, so she reels it in to try again. Her second attempt gets the hook snagged in her hair, so Fenrir has to help her unhook herself. The third attempt reaches about halfway to her target, but… the shrimp slips off mid-cast.

She expects to see Fenrir looking at her all smugly when she looks at him, but instead, he"s setting down his rod against the side of the ship so that he can help her out.

"You"re doing pretty good for somebody who"s never done this before. Probably better than I was when I first tried fishing in VR. Here, let"s try changing your posture a bit," he says. How respectful and patient he"s being with her is something that she"s never experienced a guy treat her like before. It makes her timid and blush.

Her blushing only grows more intense when he grabs her hips from behind to help position her. "Alright, so I think part of your problem is that you"re angling your body and leaning into your casts. You don"t need to do that. Just face straight, try not to lean with it, and cast with your arms and wrists. You"re not throwing a punch or thrusting a spear, so keep your shoulders still. Got it?" he explains, hands still on her waist as he stands behind her.

"Y-yeah," Ca.s.siel answers, struggling to keep calm.

Serra and Rock are both watching Ca.s.siel from the sideline. Serra has found there to be great enjoyment in watching Ca.s.siel struggle around Fenrir when he doesn"t realize what he"s doing.

"Alright, you"ve got it this time. Just do what I said," Fenrir says, finally taking his hands off of her and stepping to her side."

Ca.s.siel takes a deep breath and readies the rod. She aims the tip towards her target, raises it above and behind her, and then swings it forward while letting go of the line mid-swing.

The hook and shrimp splash down exactly where she was aiming!

She looks up at Fenrir to be her usual smug and satisfied self that she is whenever she does something perfectly, but when she sees how excited and happy he is for her, it makes her heart flutter and her cheeks redden. Instead of being smug, she just turns her head away and thanks him. "Thanks for helping me. How do I… how am I supposed to know when there"s a fish on the line?" she asks.

"No problem, Ca.s.s Ca.s.s. And you can tell whenever you feel your line being tugged on. Bobbers can help, but we don"t have any. Just hold the rod and try feeling for—" Fenrir"s explanation is cut off when something tugs on her line! It isn"t just a quick tug, either. The fish is definitely hooked. "You"ve got one! Alright, start reeling in slowly. If you feel it pulling to the left, lean your rod right, If you feel it pulling to the right, lean your rod left."

Ca.s.siel looks panicked. She"s reeling the fish in as quickly as she can without trying to read the fish. But, when Fenrir gets behind her and holds her by her hips again, she relaxes. "Calm down, you need to be smart," he says. She listens. "Alright, now, stop reeling. First, you need to raise the tip of the rod up, and then you"re going to slowly lower it. I want you to reel in quickly while you"re lowering the tip, but then stop when you go to raise it again."

Ca.s.siel does her best to follow his instructions. She raises the tip, reels in while lowering it, leans the rod to the right when she feels the fish running to the left, and repeats.

"There! I see it! Come on, you"ve got this, it"s almost here!" Fenrir cheers her on. Serra is holding Rock up to look overboard with her. "Alright, just lift your rod and reel it in the rest of the way!"

Doing exactly as he"s saying, Ca.s.siel raises the rod and reels it in until the fish is hanging from the line over the ship"s deck. On the line is a small fish no larger than her hand with a striped side and spiny dorsal fin. It tries wriggling around on the hook to break free but eventually gives up.

"Congrats! You caught your first fish. Let me get it off the line for you," Fenrir says, grabbing the fish with one hand and removing the hook from its mouth with the other. "Want to hold it?"

Ca.s.siel nods, taking the fish into her hands.

It flops out a second later to jump all over the deck. Fortunately, Fenrir manages to get ahold of it before Rock does after she jumped out of Serra"s arms.

"Alright, great job. Seriously. Now, let"s put this in the barrel," Fenrir says, taking the fish over to the barrel of water that he brought up from below deck. He gently lowers the fish into it before returning to the girls.

Ca.s.siel is already putting another shrimp on her hook. He wants to tease her since she looks like she"s enjoying it way more than she thought she would, but he doesn"t want to ruin her excitement. Serra, however, looks like she wants a turn.

"You can use my rod, Serra," Fenrir says.

Serra quickly turns around to cover her mouth and snerk.