Well, what did you expect? I’m not a miracle worker!
The thing about my fantasies—ahem, my simulations—is that when all’s said and done, coming up with the powers was the part I’d put the bulk of my energy into, more or less. I’d always been great at coming up with outrageously mighty powers, but being able to figure out how to overcome those powers was one of those skills that separated pro creators from the masses.
Anyway, the only strategy I’d been able to suggest was so pathetic, it left the room in a state of heavy, oppressive silence.
“B-But, umm...it’s too early to give up, guys! I’m sure we’ll find a way somehow!” I frantically insisted. I was spouting empty, irresponsible platitudes, and I knew it, but it was all I could think of to ward away the cloud of despair that was settling upon us. “It’ll be fine... I know there’s something we can do. No matter how broken Kiryuu’s power may be, if we put all of our powers together, I’m sure we can find a way to beat him!”
“To beat him?” Chifuyu chimed in, sounding almost mystified by my words. She’d been silent throughout the entire conversation, but now, at long last, she decided to make herself heard. “Andou, you want to beat him...? Why?”
“Huh...?”
“Are we going to fight Kiryuu?”
“I-I mean...I guess...probably?”
“Why?” Chifuyu repeated, still looking as blankly confused as could be.
When she put it that way...I didn’t know what to say. Why did we have to beat him? Why did we have to fight him?
That’s...actually a great question.
I’d been operating under the assumption that we’d have to fight him just because it felt like the natural thing for us to do. I’d let that preconception inform all my plans...but when I sat back and thought things through from a more calm, detached perspective, I couldn’t think of a single reason we’d actually want to fight him.
Huh? What are we even fighting for? Actually...were we ever even fighting in the first place?
“Wh-What do you think, Tomoyo?” I asked.
“Huh? Wh-Why’re you making this my problem?”
“Well, like...you’re his sister, right? Isn’t that, y’know, a sign? Did the two of you promise that someday you’d settle your score once and for all when you were little or whatever?”
“Hell no we didn’t.”
Huh. No major sibling conflict foreshadowing, I guess. Hmm...
Future Sagami had seemed pretty convinced that Kiryuu had been dead set on having his final showdown with Tomoyo, at least at first...but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the two of them didn’t have anything in particular to fight over. They didn’t even seem to be on especially bad terms. Sure, there was that whole thing about them being half-siblings, but from everything I’d heard, it seemed they got along pretty well anyway.
“I’m kinda with Chifuyu on this. Like, why should we have to fight?” said Tomoyo. “I know there was all that stuff about us getting a wish granted if we manage to last until the Final Eight...but, like, what am I even supposed to make of that at this point? It’s not like anyone’s going to beat my stupid brother regardless. Who’d get excited about bashing their head against an unbreakable wall?”
“I don’t really like the idea of fighting either,” said Hatoko. “It’s not that I don’t have any wishes it’d be nice to have granted...but I don’t want them granted badly enough to feel like asking the spirit to do it for me, and I definitely wouldn’t want to fight anyone to make it happen.”
“I am in full agreement. Fighting for the sake of self-defense would be one thing, but proactively seeking out a fight for the sake of self-interest holds no appeal for me,” Sayumi chimed in as well.
Everyone was speaking up in favor of the pacifist approach, and when I really thought about it, I wasn’t surprised. God-tier supernatural powers aside, we were just a bunch of ordinary high schoolers. You couldn’t just say “Okay, now fight!” and expect us to actually go and do it. Maybe things would have been different if we’d gotten a detailed explanation of the War and what it would entail way back in the beginning, like all the other Players had...but we’d been kept isolated from all of that up until just moments ago. We were getting thrown into the thick of it at the eleventh hour—the climax of the whole event—and, like, who would take that well? Of course we’d balk at jumping in headfirst.
“O-Okay, I get all that...but do we really have a choice?” I asked. “Kiryuu’s going to be coming after us regardless of what we want. We might not have any good option other than fighting him, y’know?”
I still remembered what Sagami had told me: Protect the literary club. Nobody had any clue what Kiryuu’s goal was, but it also didn’t matter. One way or another, he was most definitely trying to pull us into the Spirit War. There was every chance we would have to fight, regardless of our own wishes.
“Hmm. Okay, but Juu,” Hatoko began, a look of concern on her face. “Kiryuu’s power—the Reverse, umm, something or other...? It’s all really complicated, and I don’t understand how it works at all...but it’s supposed to be really ridiculously strong, right? Strong enough that our powers can’t do anything against it?”
“R-Right,” I replied.
“So even if we do fight him, we’ll just lose, right? What’s even the point, then?”
I stood there for a moment.
Really?
I mean, like...really? She’s not wrong, sure, but where are we even supposed to go now that that’s on the table?
The way I saw it, a character with a power so over-the-top you’re left wondering “How are you even supposed to beat that?” appearing in a story just meant that the protagonists would keep fighting, never giving up until a path to victory revealed itself. It was such a classic pattern it was practically obligatory...and the point Hatoko had just made had brutally and ruthlessly torn it to shreds.
“So, what, Hatoko...? Do we just give up? Do we sit back and wait for him to come take us out?” I asked.
“No, that’s not what I meant,” said Hatoko. “I was thinking we should just talk it out with him.”
“T-Talk it out...?”
“Yeah. He’s Tomoyo’s big brother, so I’m sure he’ll understand if we just talk to him!” Hatoko said with a big, confident smile.
I wanted to dismiss her proposal as nothing more than the naively pacifistic complacency of someone who had no clue how much danger we were really in...but found that, when confronted with the idea of just talking it out, I couldn’t actually come up with any objections. All I could think was “Actually, that does make sense.”