Ryoma’s deduction was a misunderstanding that Outers and those who learned about worldviews commonly fell into. Ende compared the various worldviews to stories herself, but to her, that was nothing but a metaphor. She had never thought that by thinking of the world as a fabrication, and yourself as a character in that world, that you could deny the world itself.
There shouldn’t be any way to deny it. It was just like the story of the butterfly’s dream.
“Well, never mind that,” she said. “If you’re aware of your ‘Protagonist’ status, that’s impressive by itself. Now what, concretely, did you acquire?”
“Oh, you mean these?” Ryoma held out his hand and murmured something. Five cards appeared in his hand.
“Wow. You awakened an Outer ability?” she said. “I see. I guess it is protagonist-like to awaken mysterious abilities when it’s convenient.”
Ryoma was not, precisely, an Outer, but he certainly resembled one. He could exist outside of the destiny he’d be born into, and get involved in the destiny of others without realizing it.
“Plot convenience doesn’t mean that the story always proceeds in ways convenient for the protagonist,” he told her. “It means, more precisely, that events will conveniently occur to move the story in the direction the writer wants it to go. Which means I don’t actually know if things are proceeding in my favor, do I?”
“That’s true,” Ende said. There are unlucky protagonists out there where nothing they do works out, and they always end up at rock bottom. So how do you use those cards?”
Ende looked and saw that all the cards had the same pattern to them. They probably had two sides.
“These are event cards,” he said. “They let me choose what’s going to happen next.”
As he spoke, Ryoma pulled out one card and released it into the air. The card glowed, then disappeared, and it told those standing there what had been written on it.
“Event: Little sister Shiori Takei is killed by Enemy X.”
Ryoma released another card. He ended up with five cards again, which suggested that after he used one, it was restocked.
“Event: Big sister Kotori Takei is killed by Enemy X.”
“Event: Childhood friend Mio Morikawa is killed by Enemy X.”
“Combo Event: All close friends and relatives are killed.”
“Special Event: Anger-based awakening.”
“I see,” Ende said. “So you can actively meddle in the story. But this seems a bit drastic, killing off all your leading ladies. Not that I’m one to talk, seeing as I sent you down that road...”
“Huh? What are you talking about? I didn’t kill them.” Ryoma looked at her in confusion.
“Huh? Is that how it seems to you?” Ende felt a moment of hesitation upon realizing the degree to which she seemed to have broken him. She had been hoping he’d pick up a certain degree of determination, but he’d gone so far that it seemed to have had the opposite effect.
“My sisters and childhood friend weren’t leading ladies, they were just bait to make the story more exciting,” he explained. “Besides, if I ever need them, I can just trigger a resurrection event, right?”
It was a statement that called his protagonist potential into question, yet Ende smiled. She was a bit anxious, but it was unlikely that any monster could beat someone who had shaken off his restraints to this degree. If he could use his protagonist advantage to its fullest, there was a chance he could win the Divine Vessels War.
“But ‘Enemy X’ and ‘awakening’ and stuff... it’s all a bit vague, isn’t it?” Ende asked.
“Eh, the details can be filled in later.”
Perhaps those were the sorts of details that were filled in later. Right now, they existed in a state of infinite overlapping possibilities.
“Well, it’ll be a little lonely without any love interests around,” Ende said.
“I have plenty of love interests, though.”
Ende thought he must be referring to the many girls he’d saved during his long career.
“Why do I need to haul around that old-fashioned group with me?” he added. “They were fine for what they were, but I can’t have them butting in all the time. Besides, a new love interest always shows up when it’s time for a new arc.”
“Hmm, it might sound a little strange coming from me, but are you sure about this?” Ende asked. She wondered if she’d driven him too far. It was like his personality had completely changed. It was hard to imagine him as a protagonist anymore.
But perhaps that was only natural. After all, he’d been forced to die tens of thousands of times in the course of less than an hour. It might have been too much to hope that he’d remain sane.
“Ah, well. Maybe that’s what it means to become strong. By the way, do you remember our original objective?” Ende asked, feeling a bit nervous now. Now that Ryoma had so much power, he might not care about the Divine Vessels War anymore.
“Of course I do. I’ll gather the Divine Vessels, make my wish, and get myself a peaceful, normal life where nobody bothers me.”
She had a feeling he’d gone too far to ever return to a normal life now, but it would be no use to point that out, so Ende decided to continue. “Well, good. By the way, have I told you about Yuichi Sakaki? He’ll likely be your strongest opponent, so you should beat him first.”
Ryoma barely seemed to be listening to Ende as he examined his five cards. He seemed entirely focused on picking his love interest. “Why’s that? Does he have some really great Divine Vessel?”
“He’s an ordinary human, just a kind of dangerous sort,” she said.
Having lost Soul Reader, and with no Divine Vessel hosted in him, Yuichi didn’t have any special powers. But if one got mixed up in his sister Mutsuko’s world, there was a very good chance that they could lose before they even figured out what was happening.
“I’ll pass on the serial killer,” Ryoma said dismissively. “How can a serial killer even be a love interest? And a web novel author? Do they make love interests like that now?”
“There’s been demand for creative types for a while,” Ende said. “Now I wonder... am I included in those?”
“There’s no demand for bossy tomboy love interests,” Ryoma said.
“How insulting. In this one instant, you’ve made a few enemies, you know?”
“Let’s see, a vampire?” he mused. “That’s silly. Way too cliché nowadays. Out of these, then, I guess I’ll take this one.”
Ignoring Ende’s grumblings, Ryoma tossed a card into the air.
“Event: Love interest appears. A hero girl falls from the sky.”
“Heroes and falling from the sky are both pretty cliché too, but there didn’t seem to be anything better.” Ryoma laughed dryly, and the effect of the ability activated immediately.
A black hole opened in the ceiling of Ende’s library.
A girl fell from it, and Ryoma hurried to catch her.
“Amazing... it really takes effect that quickly?” Ende was impressed. When an Outer controlled destiny, they basically had to nudge the related entities into place over time, but Ryoma’s ability was completely direct, influencing the principles of causality themselves.
“Huh? Where am I? Who are you?” The girl looked all around her.
“Who are you? None of this makes any sense!” Even Ryoma, who caught the girl, seemed confused by her sudden appearance.