The True Endgame

"So, what did you two think?" Fenrir asks the girls.

"Was fun," Serra says with a thumbs-up.

"It… was better than I thought it would be," Ca.s.siel admits.

"I"m glad you two enjoyed it," Fenrir says. He"s good at telling when people are being genuine or not, and he doesn"t detect any falsities in their statements. They genuinely enjoyed themselves and he couldn"t be happier about it. As cheesy as it makes him feel, knowing that they"re finding fun in fishing is the most fun he"s had in this game thus far.

The s...o...b..ll is docked back into its "guest parking" spot.

There is commotion on the docks as a girl with bright orange hair runs around hara.s.sing various crews along the pier.

"Come on! Need an engineer? I"ll do it for free!" the girl shouts, offering herself to everybody she sees. "You there! Let me – ah! Where are you going? Why are you runnin" from me?!" she chases after a frightened man for a short while before getting distracted by somebody else. "You there! Lookin" for an engineer? I"ll – wait! Why does everybody keep runnin" from me!?" she shouts, chasing after three men all escaping together. "Somebody let me join their d.a.m.n crew for the tournament!"

"I… think we should leave before she sees us," Ca.s.siel suggests. Serra expresses her agreement by tugging on Fenrir"s shirt.

Yet, he doesn"t budge. When the girls look at him, they see a man who looks like he just got an idea.

The two girls look at each other. They have a bad feeling about this.

The orange-haired girl spins around and happens to make eye contact with Fenrir.

She charges straight at him with starry eyes. "You there! Need an engineer?! I"ll do it for free! Just let me work on your ship!" she shouts at Fenrir.

"You there!" Fenrir shouts, pointing at the girl running straight toward him. "Need a crew? You can join ours for free! Just work on our ship."

If there are two things that Fenrir can easily recognize, they are: one, when somebody is trying their best to accomplish something while n.o.body gives them a chance; and two, the type of person who has a few screws loose and it probably dangerous to keep around but ingenious. Fenrir has worked with many people just like her before.

"Really? Do you mean it?! Are you sure?! I mean, I"ll work on any ship, but I can"t believe you"ll actually take me!" the girl shouts.

Ca.s.siel and Serra feel like this is moving way too fast. They want to interject, but they trust in Fenrir"s judgment for now.

"I do! But first, you have to tell me why everybody is so afraid of you," Fenrir says.

"Because every ship I"ve been on has sunk because it couldn"t keep up with me."

Ca.s.siel and Serra both turn to look at Fenrir. There"s no way that he would agree to having her, right?

"I see," he says. Serra and Ca.s.siel are relieved to see him being serious about this. "Welcome aboard The s...o...b..ll!"

Serra and Ca.s.siel turn to see the orange-haired girl"s expression from being rejected, rightfully so – wait, what did he just say?

"You – you can"t seriously be taking her, can you? Didn"t you just hear what she said? She said she"s sunk every ship she"s ever been on, and she doesn"t even sound guilty about it!" Ca.s.siel shouts.

"She said it"s because the ships couldn"t handle her. The s...o...b..ll can handle anybody and anything," Fenrir explains.

"The s...o...b..ll is just a small ship we stole from some n.o.bodies! It"s already in bad condition!"

"What"s your name?" Fenrir asks the orange-haired girl.

"Strism, Tabitha Strism!" Tabitha says.

"Can you fix our girl up and make her better than all of these other ships, Tabitha?"

"If I can"t, n.o.body can!"

"See?" Fenrir asks, looking at Ca.s.siel. "Tabitha here can help us out."

"You have no idea who she is! We have no idea if we can trust her! What if she messes everything up? What if she breaks something or steals our ship?!" Ca.s.siel questions, feeling like the only logical person here right now.

Rock walks up to Tabitha"s feet and sniffs her.

Tabitha crouches down and pets Rock"s head with a huge smile on her lips. "This puppy is adorable! I"ve never seen one made out of rock before! This game is somethin", ain"t it?"

Rock licks Tabitha"s hand and nuzzles against her.

"If Rock likes her then she"s okay," Serra says.

"Be nice to our newest crewmember, Ca.s.s Ca.s.s," Fenrir says, poking her side. The unexpected poke causes Ca.s.siel to make a surprisingly girly squeak.

Fenrir, Serra, Rock, and Tabitha all look at Ca.s.siel.

"I will kill you all if you say anything," Ca.s.siel threatens.

"I won"t say nothin" if you let me join," Tabitha says.

"Deal."

"Great!" Fenrir exclaims. "We"re just one crewmember short now. By the way, Tabitha, what does an engineer even do in this game?"

"Well, I fix your ship up, keep her runnin" well, make some modifications – that sort of stuff! I used to work with the scholars, but our group got fired for causin" some trouble. We got replaced by those half-goblin things up there runnin" the place now," Tabitha explains.

"What sort of trouble did you cause?"

"Nothin" much. We just kinda blew up some of the city, but they repaired it in no time!"

"Fair enough."

Ca.s.siel is regretting accepting the deal.

"Why do you want to join a crew so badly for the tournament?" he asks.

"Because! Everybody"s always laughin" at me and doubtin" my ability. I want to prove to everybody that a few accidental explosions and failed experiments don"t mean that I ain"t the best engineer there is! What better way than to let my mods help a ship win the tournament? I"ve even got a schematic all prepared for catchin" the big baby in the final round!"

"Seriously? That"s perfect, because I had no idea how I was going to catch that after hearing about it."

Neither Serra nor Ca.s.siel knows what they"re talking about. They were too busy fishing to try and listen in on his conversation with the NPC captain.

"I just need about… forty gold to buy all the parts!" Tabitha says, smiling as widely as ever.

"Yeah, we don"t have any money," Fenrir says.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Twenty gold?"

"Nope."

"Ten?"

"I wish."

"Five?"

"Sure. Just kidding, no."

"…"

"…"

"So ya want me to go and mod up your ship to be the best there is, install somethin" that"ll capture a serpent bigger than your ship likely is, all without any fundin"?" Tabitha asks.

"You got it. Think you can do it?" Fenrir asks.

A fire lights up within Tabitha"s eyes. "You bet I can! I"m fired up! Such a tall order with next to no money available to fund it… I"m excited! We"re going to blast all those other ships out of the water! We"re going to capture the big baby and bring it home to take home the trophy! We"re going to—"

"Win this together," Fenrir finishes her sentence, offering her a handshake.

She accepts it.

Serra and Ca.s.siel don"t exactly know what"s going on due to how fast it all just happened, but they"re pretty sure they just saw the foundation of another… bromance?

Tabitha pulls out a thin cloth from her overalls" pocket to wrap around her forehead, going underneath her raised twin tails.

Serra likes Tabitha just because she makes Serra no longer the shortest crewmember. Tabitha is a few inches shorter than Serra and looks younger as well.

As Fenrir would describe her, she looks like a tomboyish loli.

"This is Serra, that"s Ca.s.siel, and the pup down there is Rock. We"ve got two more guys who I"ll introduce you to later," Fenrir says. "Oh, sorry. And I"m Fenrir."

"Nice to meetcha"ll. Gotta ask though, Mr. Wolf. If anything, it"s kinda suspicious that ya trust me so easily. What gives?" Tabitha asks.

"That"s easy. You remind me of myself."

Tabitha grins from ear to ear. "Good! I can tell me and you are gonna get along, Mr. Wolf. Just show me where my new baby is and I"ll bring my tools over!"

Fenrir leads her to The s...o...b..ll"s parking spot.

"Ya sure she"s gonna be able to keep up with me?" Tabitha asks, looking the sloop over with wary eyes. "Ships bigger and stronger than this girl have failed me before. Wouldn"t want us all to sink in the middle of the tournament."

"I believe in her. You just need to believe in her too," Fenrir says, placing a hand on Tabitha"s shoulder.

"That"s the kind of thing I like to hear! A captain"s trust in the ship is almost as important as the engineer! I"ll go and bring all my stuff over and get to work right away. You won"t even be able to recognize her by tomorrow!"

"You hear that, girl?" Fenrir asks. Rock looks up at him, a.s.suming that he"s talking to her, but he"s looking at The s...o...b..ll instead. Rock whines in jealousy. "Tabitha here is going to take care of you and make you even more awesome than you already are."
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Tabitha happily runs off to collect her things.

"Are you really sure about this? What if she screws us over?" Ca.s.siel asks Fenrir.

"Who cares? It"s just a game. Sure, I want us to do good in the tournament and hopefully win it, but even if we lose, it"s just a game. What"s the point in playing it if we"re not having fun? We"re going to have fun, and by taking her on, she"s going to get to have fun as well. The more people having fun, the more successful of a game it is," Fenrir explains.

Serra hugs his arm. Ca.s.siel has no good response to what he said. "Yeah… just a game. It"s easy to forget that sometimes. That excuse never works up in the empire, but I guess it"s true," she says.

"We"re going to have fun no matter what happens. If we win, we win. If we lose, we lose."

Hearing him say that removes a ton of stress that has been weighing Ca.s.siel down. His belief is the exact opposite of everybody she"s played with before him – of everybody who only cared about winning and being the best.

"Having fun is the true endgame, don"t you know?"