“What the hell was all that?” Yuichi demanded after enduring Ende’s seemingly interminable narration.
“What do you think? It’s how I kill you,” Ende said. “In other words, that’s how you’ll end up if you defy me. Well? Starting to get afraid yet?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid,” he said. “For your sanity, being able to roll out a story like that in a cafe in broad daylight.”
“Hmph. So you don’t like the ‘our battle continues’ ending, huh? What about a Swordmaster-style ending, dragging everything to a conclusion? Or the revelation that it was all a time loop? A big tough enemy appears and beats you to a pulp, but you wake up and it’s spring vacation, and you restart from the part where you got Soul Reader? Well, I guess that’s an offshoot of the ‘our battle continues’ ending, but it’s a bit of a twist at least, right?”
“Look... what exactly are you trying to accomplish?” Yuichi asked. Ende seemed to have a wild imagination at least on par with Mutsuko’s.
“The point is, no matter how good a fighter you are, that alone won’t get you anywhere,” said Ende. “Even if I can’t beat you in a hand-to-hand fight, I can think up a strategy to accomplish what I’m after.”
“What strategy does it take to get me into an underground martial arts tournament or send me to a demon world?” he demanded. It was so absurd, he could barely even argue. He even found himself missing Mutsuko’s delusions.
“Outers have all kinds of powers that let them arrange situations to their advantage,” Ende said. “It would be no trouble for me to slot you into some absolutely ridiculous plotline.”
“But that doesn’t necessarily mean I’d die, does it?”
“Oh? You’ve got more of a protagonist mindset than I thought. You’re only viewing things within the limitations that exist within your own setting and the needs of your story. You think that as long as you work hard, things will probably work out, right?”
That was true. He was fairly confident he could find his way out of any bit of weirdness she got him mixed into.
This wasn’t mere arrogance on his part; he thought it was important to take the stance that you would never give up, no matter what happened. As long as you didn’t give up, then no matter what situation you found yourself in, there was probably something you could do. Your situation could always change. Yuichi tried to think that way at all times.
“But let’s say, hypothetically, that an atomic bomb was dropped on you and it exploded,” Ende said. “You’d die, right?”
“That’s a pretty extreme example! You think you can make that happen, huh?”
“I can,” she said. “That’s how Outers work. Of course, it would be difficult to prepare an atomic bomb right here and now, but poison gas could be arranged easily enough. If all I wanted was to kill you, I could do so easily with a little manipulation of your surrounding environment. It’s easy to kill a single person if you don’t care how it’s done. You know that, don’t you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re really gonna drag innocent people into this?”
“No, no, nameless extras don’t count, story-wise. They’re just numbers, there for impact. Of course, knowing you, you might just manage to luck your way out of an atomic bomb or poison gas, too. You’re Mutsuko Sakaki’s little brother, after all.”
“What are you...” The things she was saying sounded like threats, yet she voiced them all so casually.
The most terrifying thing about it was that Ende was serious. Everything she said had the weight of sincerity, even that delusional nonsense from earlier.
“Now, let me ask again,” Ende said. “Will you return to the Divine Vessels War?”
“What happens if I refuse?”
“Good question. I might start with the people who are connected to you on the outermost fringes. There’s a chance that the people close to you may be protected by your worldview, and you might be able to stop me. But can you protect your distant relatives, your casual playmates from when you were a child, the people you’ve met that you barely even remember? Maybe I’ll have a little killing spree among them just to spite you a little.”
“Damn you...” She seemed completely harmless on the outside, but her calm way of speaking about mass murder was a reminder to Yuichi that Outers really were complete garbage.
“Well, I’ll ask you again after a few obituaries of your relatives and friends,” she said. “Though, since they’re unconnected to the story, it’ll be a little lacking in dramatic weight.”
“You... You’d go that far to get me involved in some stupid game?”
“Calling it stupid is mean to Nergal,” she said. “Though I’d agree that the rules are rather arbitrary and tedious, so maybe it is pretty stupid.”
“So all I need to do is participate, right?”
“Of course. If you come back of your own volition, I won’t have to motivate you, so I won’t have to destroy any extras. Like I said before, it’s not like killing extras really makes things more exciting.”
“First Makina, now you... are all Outers like this?” Yuichi demanded.
“Of course we are. We’re absolute garbage, only interested in what’s fun. I thought you already knew that, though.”
“Let me ask one question. Is it possible to kill all you guys and reach a ‘happy end’ storyline?”
Most people wouldn’t even bother asking something like that of an enemy, but Yuichi had a feeling Ende might just take him up on it.
Ende froze up, mouth slightly agape. After a moment, she began to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh, well, I never even imagined that scenario. That could be fun in its own way. But that’s all down the line, isn’t it? You should probably deal with the situation right in front of you first.”
“I never said I was rejoining the war.”
Yuichi didn’t have to. But Ende was going to do whatever it took to get him to come back, and taking the bigger picture into account, he was starting to think that it was probably the better option just to play along.
“So, what do you want me to do?” he asked, at length.
“I want you to go looking for a young man named Ryoma Takei, find him, and fight him.”
“Who’s that?” he asked. Since she wanted Yuichi to return to the Divine Vessels War, that guy was probably a participant. He would need a Divine Vessel to get back into the war, so maybe that was what this was about.
“As you’ve inferred, he’s a Divine Vessel host,” Ende said. “He’s also a pawn I’ve prepared for your sake.”
“I don’t quite follow. I understand that you want me to fight him and take his Divine Vessel, but what do you mean by ‘go looking for him’?” Yuichi wouldn’t want to fight Ryoma unless he determined him to be a shady character, but he could determine that after he met him.
Therefore, he didn’t mind looking for him — but the fact that Ende had asked him to go looking suggested that she didn’t know where he was, either.
“Ryoma’s label is ‘Protagonist.’”
“Protagonist, huh?” he said. “Does that make me a side character? But isn’t everyone the protagonist of their own life?”
“I don’t mean it in that trite way,” she said. “He’s a bit special. Monika explained to you a bit about worldviews, didn’t she? It’s all based on that.”
“I more or less grasp it.”
“Each worldview has a personification — a Worldview Holder. But while a Worldview Holder is definitely that world’s central figure, they’re not necessarily that world’s protagonist. There are worldviews that don’t have protagonists, too, of course.”
“Could you dumb it down a little for me?” Yuichi was genuinely still having a hard time understanding it all.
“Oh, put simply, he’ll overshadow you, like a protagonist swap, if we’re comparing worldviews to stories. Ryoma, a character from another story, is going to take over your world’s protagonist role.”
“So what?” Yuichi asked.
“Huh? He’ll be the protagonist. Don’t you find that threatening at all?” Ende’s eyes widened. She seemed surprised by his reaction. “Fighting a protagonist makes things pretty grim. Things always conspire to make sure the protagonist wins in the end, after all. That’s why I didn’t go with the atomic bomb or poison gas I mentioned earlier.”
“I think you just can’t actually arrange that kind of stuff,” he said.
“No, it’s because you’re a protagonist. Protagonists are sheltered to an absurd degree. Villains can’t use attacks that are totally inescapable, because no matter how bad things get, the protagonist needs to preserve some chance of winning. Even if it’s absurd. That’s why villains tend to be idiots who never even consider their most efficient options. Don’t you think that’s unfair?”
“You’re a little too eager to sympathize with villains,” he said. “Anyway, I feel like we’re getting off the subject. Does this mean you don’t know where this guy Ryoma is?”
“Yeah. Ryoma’s a protagonist but he’d never made use of the fact. So I tried cracking his shell a little... but I went too far and he went crazy.”
“You...” Yuichi was dumbstruck by Ende’s tone. She might as well have been saying “my bad.”
“So then he ran off somewhere, and I don’t quite know what to do.”
“Can’t you use your powers to tell where he is?”
“Since a protagonist has the power to alter worldviews, it makes him harder for us Outers to read. Typically when it comes to worldview manipulation, it’s all about whoever acts first.”
“Any clues?” Yuichi asked.
“I think he means to participate in the Divine Vessels War, so he’ll probably be searching for those. But I can’t be totally sure about that, either.”
“How irresponsible can you get?” Yuichi was utterly disgusted by how little she seemed to care about the mess she had caused.
“At first I’d planned to manipulate him to get him to attack you. But that doesn’t seem like it’ll work now, so I changed my plan to have you attack him instead.”
“That’s not exactly a plan,” Yuichi shot back. “And you said that if I don’t fight him, you’ll kill the people around me? You’re really an awful person.”
“Yeah, I am. So, what now?”
It seemed his only choice was to go along with her ridiculous offer. Outers didn’t seem like they’d do anything too crazy as long as things were generally following their plot outlines. If things ended up getting too out of hand, the stories as they perceived them would fall apart.
Ende didn’t just want to defeat Yuichi. She wanted to make sure it happened in a way that was enjoyable and interesting. Which meant that she would probably keep her promise.