No Game No Life - Volume 11 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

PARALLEL THINKING

POINT AT INFINITY

 Spratul was flipped upside down.

An explosion rang out as everything vanished—not only the garden, but the entire building, too.

Sora was in the bath while Steph and the girls were resting in their rooms when the building disappeared—the four of them were shell-shocked at the wasteland that stretched as far as the eye could see.

“…Huh? Wha—? Huh…? Wh-what just happened…?”

A confused Steph asked a question that the rest of the group already knew the answer to.

The Spratul that Foeniculum had constructed was completely redesigned.

Someone had spent the stream’s tips to remodel the entire set, including their house. Actually, they weren’t yet finished remodeling.

Everyone aside from Steph could see who was responsible.

“…I don’t get it. I don’t get it. I just don’t get it…”

They spotted a figure floating high in the sky among a tumultuous maelstrom of black bubbles.

It was Shiro. She was looking down and mumbling to herself, black bubbles appearing en masse from her smartphone.

The group watched as with every word that left Shiro’s mouth, one of the bubbles popped and altered their surroundings.

This much was clear: Shiro was spending a vast number of points to remodel the space to her own liking.

That answered Steph’s question as to what had happened. The next question was: What was going to happen? No one present knew the answer.

All they could do was watch in fear as Shiro—with overwhelming ghastliness—quite literally redesigned the world and herself in a way that was nothing short of apocalyptic…

“I don’t get it, I don’t get it, I don’t get it, I don’t get it, I don’t get it—”

Their house and the garden were erased, leaving nothing but a blank stretch of earth that then turned into a barren wasteland.

Shiro’s long white hair grew longer, and the tips darkened.

 Ugh, I don’t understand anything. Not a thing.

“Romance, affection, lovers, little sisters—I don’t understand…any of it…”

As each word escaped her lips, another bubble popped in tandem.

The Spratul, a spatial phase boundary, was the Fairies’ domain.

And within the confines of their own domain, a Fairy’s powers were second only to a god’s—a power Shiro was harnessing for herself.

Mountains erupted from the ground and formed valleys; the bloodred sky swirled with storm clouds, Shiro at their center.

Clad in sinister, dark clothing befitting the atmosphere, she spoke once again.

“But—I do know one thing… It’s as clear as day…”

The world is an enigma. Few things are truly knowable.

So when people discover one of the few knowable truths—something abundantly clear—they cling to it, build their entire thought process upon it.

The only thing Shiro knew was what she could never comprehend.

Her answer to this massive doubt? Let the clearest emotion within her—irritation—take over.

Eventually, she remade the world into a fantastical hell and took the throne as its demon queen.

She lifted her gaze, exposing a grin as she looked down at her brother and announced almost in singsong:

“ Hey, Brother. Who do you think you are, acting so cocky?”

She was saying: It’s all your fault I’m so upset.

“Why do I have to worry so much about you in the first place? Weird, right? Hee-hee, hee-hee-hee— Ahhh, I feel great. My mind is working smoothly. This is the first time in my life that I’m thinking so clearly. Feels like I could solve all the universe’s mysteries! Heh-heh, heh-heh-heh… Ah-ha-ha-haaa!!”

Shiro spoke with a yet-unseen level of eloquence, her laughter exuberant enough to shake the heavens.

 Shiro usually had trouble articulating herself because of how quickly her brain operated. Her mouth wasn’t physically capable of keeping up with her mind.

Therefore, her sudden eloquence was hard proof that her brain had ceased all thought.

What felt like clear thinking was actually a delusion created by a stark lack thereof…

Little did Sora and the others know—Shiro herself included—that this transformation signified, well—

“I am Black Shiro—here to give Brother his final judgment.  ”

—a mental break.

Shiro was babbling in the midst of a blinding, all-consuming fit of rage…

“…Right! Now that things appear to be settling down, it’s time for some questions.  ”

Steph managed to snap out of her stupor before the rest of the group—perhaps because she was the most confused of them all. She smiled, then shouted, “First! What made Shiro blow a gasket this extreme?! Second! What does she mean by Black Shiro?! Isn’t that an oxymoron?! Third! Why are you naked, Sora?! Would it kill you to put some clothes on?!”

“First! I’d like to know the answer myself!! Second! Another answer I’d like to know!! Third! I was in the bath—and I’m not naked!! Don’t be frickin’ rude! Can’t you see the towel?! This towel is the difference between a wholesome bath and breaking the law!! You better watch your phrasing!!”

“Being ninety-nine percent naked means you’re effectively one hundred percent naked!!”

“You can’t just write off that last percent!! Don’t you know it’s that very one percent that owns more than half the world’s wealth?!”

“I don’t want to hear that when you’re buck naked!! Just stay away from me until you’re covered!!”

“I am covered, though!! Wait—did my clothes disappear with the house?!”

A silent Jibril and Emir-Eins remained vigilant to their bizarre surroundings.

Meanwhile, Sora and Steph resorted to their usual back-and-forth routine amid the confusion, when…

“ That’s exactly what I’m talking about, Brother.  ”

…Shiro—or Black Shiro, as she called herself—spoke up.

As she did, one of the bubbles popped, creating a massive pillar under Sora that lifted him into the air.

“Whoooaaaaaa?! Now what’s happening?!”

“M-Master?! I’ll come save you right awa— What the?!”

“Report: Mobility compromised. Analyzing Estimation: An invisible wall has been purchased?!”

Jibril and Emir-Eins leaped into action once they heard their master’s shrill scream, but they found themselves trapped within an invisible cage—another product of Shiro’s tip spending.

Eventually, the pillar that Black Shiro had materialized reached eye level.

Wearing only a single towel, Sora quivered on top of the pillar. Were he to fall from this height, he’d surely perish.

“That’s exactly what pisses me off, Brother. You’re so pathetic.  ”

Shiro, dressed in jet-black attire, sneered as she chided Sora.

“You’re antisocial—weak both mentally and physically—an absolute loser. And yet here you are, setting up these half-assed flags with beautiful women like you’re in some sort of C-list rom-com. Nothing pisses me off more.  ”

She continued with a macabre grin. “You gotta follow through on all those flags. Didn’t they teach you that in school? Oh, that’s right. You didn’t go to school, ’cause you’re a pathetic NEET.  ”

“Hey, I’m not the only one who skipped scho— Never mind! I didn’t say anything!!”

Shiro silenced Sora’s knee-jerk response with a smile before asking:

“Hey, Brother? Do you actually want a girlfriend?”

“……Huh? Um……?”

He did, from the bottom of his heart. Desperately. He thirsted for it like water in a barren desert.

Sora hesitated, unsure whether that was the right answer to give Shiro. But she simply asked another question.

“You want one, even though you can’t talk to girls without your little sister being there? Seriously, you can hardly even breathe without me.”

“ ”

“If you really want a girlfriend, then indulge me: What do you wanna do once you have one?”

“ ”

“You have no idea, do you? I know you don’t. And that’s ’cause I know everything about you.  ”

“ ”

“Yep. Everything. I know every single thing about you, Brother.”

“ H-hey, c’mon now—”

Sora tried to get a word in edgewise, but…

“Girls avoid you like the plague. Your personality sucks. You’ve got virtually nothing to offer outside of gaming. And you’re not even good enough at gaming to beat me without cheating. You’re like an infant who can’t even crawl yet. The multiverse’s ultimate lowest being, the bottom of the loser food chain. That’s the kind of loser you are. I know all this better than anyone else, no matter what you do to make yourself look good. Right, loser?   Looooser!   C’mon, try to deny it. You won’t, ’cause you’re a loooooooser.   Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!   Looooser!  ”

“……I’m sorry…for even…being born…”

Unable to refute his sister’s assertion, the most Sora could do was apologize to all of creation for his existence.

“A loser like you, in a rom-com with a beautiful woman—no, multiple women? You’re not delusional enough to think you could actually ever date them, are you? That’s like a paramecium trying to date the world’s most popular superstars all at once. Surely you can see how absolutely insane that would be, right? Are you listening? Did I stutter? …I’m asking you a question here. Answer me already, you loser.  ”

“The only thing inherently wrong about all this is my very existence!!”

“Ughhh, so annoying.   Everything about you pisses me off.  ”

Tears streamed down Sora’s face as he saluted his sister, which proved only to annoy her even further. She tapped away at her phone.

“But there’s good news for you yet, Brother. Everything’s gonna be okay.  ”

She spent another chunk of points, producing a storm of bubbles…and off in the distance…

…something covered the gate with the A SPACE THAT ONLY COUPLES CAN LEAVE sign hanging from it.

“You just need some training, and Black Shiro will break you in nice and slowly—together, just the two of us—behind closed doors.  ”

 Shiro had erected a massive castle.

She wrapped her brother in a gentle embrace and, with a kind, warm smile, told him:

“You’ll learn your place. You’ll learn not to be so brazen. You’ll never again dare to want a girlfriend. I’ll condition you so that you’ll be desperate to apologize for even laying your loser eyes on a woman.   Only then will you truly know your place. ’Kay?  ”

The moment she’d finished, two wings sprouted from her back and she took off into the sky.

With Sora in her arms, Shiro flew toward the castle far off in the distance.

The only thing she left behind was her boisterous laugh.

“ Very well! I don’t need to ask what’s going on anymore. It seems fairly obvious at this point.  ”

The three girls remained imprisoned within four invisible walls.

They were left speechless, completely taken aback by the intense turn of events.

Steph had been the first one to come to her senses. She then screamed:

“That castle is a cheap love hotel, isn’t it?! It doesn’t get more inappropriate than that!!!”

““ !!””

The two others gasped at the simple summation of the peril they faced.

Indeed, Black Shiro had flown away with her brother to a castle-themed love hotel.

A giant heart-shaped statue sat atop the castle, which was lit up in alluringly fluorescent purples and pinks.

It was a hotel as seedy as they come… It couldn’t be misconstrued for anything other than a haven for perversion and depravity.

“Penitence: Competition incapacitated via utilization of tips, followed by disciplining, brainwashing, and bondage of Master—a brilliant idea. Why didn’t this unit think of that? This unit is such an idiot.”

“That’s not what we should be regretting right now!!”

“…Lord Shiro is as cunning as always, I see. I’m quite impressed.”

“You shouldn’t be impressed, either!! We have to bring them both back here, or the world is going to fall apart—!!”

“But, little Dora, how are we to fight back without the tablet? It’s nowhere to be found.”

“W-we’ll…just…!”

 How were they going to break out of their invisible prisons?

Both Jibril and Emir-Eins were unable to use magic in the Spratul.

To spend their tips, they needed Sora and Shiro’s smartphone or the tablet they’d been borrowing—both of which Black Shiro had disposed of, along with their house.

The three ladies stood there in silence. They were out of options—or so they thought…

“Hoo boy, I really up and screwed the pooch on this one!! Everything happened so fast, I forgot to turn the video back on!! You guys only had the audio!! Oh, but don’t worry, my dear viewers.   I’ll release the video of Black Shiro later!  ”

Foeniculum chose this moment to burst onto the scene, shattering the silence.

“Just where have you been?! Wait, did you say sound only? Were you watching—no, streaming—this entire time?! Why didn’t you stop Shiro?!” Steph shrieked at the Fairy, who had been recording them incognito.

“Me?! Stop her?! Why would I wanna do that?! We’re just gettin’ to the real interesting part!! In fact, things couldn’t possibly get any better!!”

Foeniculum answered her with a question and a twisted grin.

“Geh-heh-heh, this is the perfect chance to rake in some serious dough. All I gotta do is make a few adjustments to the next game. This one’s a Fairy classic. And it’s called—”

Over-the-top background music played as Foeniculum announced the title.

“—the Save the Damsel in Distress from the Demon Overlord and Live Happily Ever After Game!!”

 A Fairy classic…

Jibril had mentioned something about a turf war—one where Fairies painted over one another’s territories…

Nothing about this game’s title suggested anything of that sort, though.

The three ladies squinted with suspicion, unsure what the rules might entail. Foeniculum ignored them.

“The rules are simple!! From here on out, we’ll be providing each contestant with their own share of the tips!!”

The moment Foeniculum pointed, several poofs sounded.

Three small flowers manifested near Steph, Jibril, and Emir-Eins. They showed a flat panel of light—a touch screen.

“With the exception of our damsel—Sora—the four remaining contestants can use their tips to buy soldier units! As a bonus, I’m throwin’ in a stipend, enough to purchase one hundred soldiers each. Give it a try!!”

Jibril and Emir-Eins shot each other a cautious look.

Steph, on the other hand, appeared confused but nonetheless followed the directions.

She proceeded to tap the INFANTRY button on her screen.

Immediately afterward, a stream of bubbles surged from her flower screen and seeped into the ground.

“Eeeep?! There are so many of them!! And they all look like me with a huge flower blooming out of my head!!”

Steph shrieked as four clones of herself emerged from the earth.

“Graaah… Urrrgh…”

“And all they can do is make moaning noises?! This is getting creepy!!”

“…They look more like zombies infected by a parasitic plant…”

“Observation: Lady Dol often wears a flower in her hair. A vocabulary limited to Graaah and Urrrgh is similarly appropriate for Lady Dol’s intellect. Conclusion: This is a horde of Lady Dol clones. The horror.”

Steph didn’t have a spare moment to get angry—especially at Emir-Eins’s particularly rude prognosis—before Foeniculum went on:

“Eh, they’re just a bunch of NPCs that’ll shoot out soul points. I kinda skimped on their appearance, so just ignore those li’l details! Anyway, see those flowers on their heads? They’re loaded with soul bubbles that you can shoot at all the stuff Black Shiro made. That’ll paint it back to normal!!”

The Fairy then began fiddling with her screen.

Just like she said, one flower-zombie-Steph raised a finger and launched a stream of bubbles, which stuck to the invisible walls before bursting with a series of loud pops. The popped bubbles splattered like paint, reverting the area around them back to the way it was.

The invisible walls dissipated, and the sinister terrain was once again a field of flowers.

“And since Black Shiro has her own castle, I’m gonna give you three your own bases, too!!” Foeniculum shouted. Three gargantuan flower buds appeared out of nowhere in the opposite direction of Black Shiro’s castle.

“Here’s the gist of things!! Contestants will purchase soldier units and deploy them around their respective bases! The units will then paint over the terrain and the enemy armies! Any units hit with soul paint will be out of the game!! There’s two hours to knock the other players out of the battle and rescue Sora!! Once those two hours are up, whoever holds hands with Sora wins the game and receives the coveted prize of coupling up for a day!!”

Once she had finished giving her viewers a rushed explanation—

“All right!! Now I just gotta get Black Shiro and the gang to agree to the game. In the meantime, please enjoy the footage from earlier while I figure this stuff out.  ”

—Foeniculum started playing the video of Shiro’s fall from grace. After double- and triple-checking that both her mic and camera were shut off, she turned to the three ladies and said:

“So there you have it. You guys’ll be playin’, right?”

“…I suppose I should ask: Do we actually have a choice?”

“What’re you talkin’ about?! Of course you have a choice! Have I forced you to do anything against your will so far?!”

 Um, for starters, we’re trapped in your Spratul. Perhaps the past ten days of our imprisonment have all just been a figment of my imagination.

Foeniculum shrugged off Steph’s suspicious scowl. “Besides,” she added, “it’s y’all’s day off. Spend it however you want. Just bear in mind that the gate is inside that castle, and Black Shiro has her brother all to herself—who knows what’ll go down in there.  ”

With a snicker, she hinted at the possible outcome. Of course, she wasn’t going to let anyone skip out on this game.

The three ladies exchanged looks—and reluctantly raised their hands to pledge by the Covenants……

Shiro had taken Sora to her strange off-pink castle, where he found himself in an equally strange off-pink room.

This quote-unquote throne room featured the gate out of the Spratul behind a heart-shaped throne, along with a similarly heart-shaped bed. Sora, unbothered, was trapped in a cage.

“…Right-o, Shiro. Is it okay if your big brother asks what’s about to happen to him?”

“Hey, Brother—asking me to state the obvious is another thing that makes you a loser.  ”

Shiro peered at Sora through the bars of his cage. She had a sphinxlike grin about her.

Sora nodded. “So it’s safe to assume that things are exactly how they look. Okay, fully understanding how much of a complete and total loser I am… There’s something I need to be entirely honest with you about… Listen well, little sister of mine.”

He looked directly into Shiro’s lifeless eyes and told her:

“Your plan isn’t going to work.”

“  ”

Shiro paid no mind to Sora’s firm gaze or to his warning. She took another step closer to him.

“It’s blatantly obvious that you’re making a mistake.”

“  ”

Intense fear welled up inside him as his sister took another step closer.

“You said you’re gonna train me—I’m not against this. If that’s what it takes for you to forgive me, then train me all you want. In fact, if it’ll make me even a half-decent person, then by all means, go right ahead.”

However. Shiro took another step toward her brother, who maintained his resolve. “No eleven-year-old girl should have a thing like that in her possession. Put it on the floor right now.”

Sora was looking at Shiro—specifically at the disturbing paraphernalia she clutched in her hands.

“And here’s the most crucial part: The human anus is an exit and most definitely not an entrance!! This kind of discipline resolves personality defects only in pornography!! You shouldn’t be capable of coming up with that kind of R-rated content!! And lastly—even losers like me have basic human rights, so I’m begging you here… Please stop what you’re doing!!”

The resolve with which he tried to persuade his sister crumbled into groveling.

A teary-eyed Sora shrieked as Shiro approached him, intent on robbing him of his purity.

“Oookey-dokey!   Sorry to jump in at the fun part, but I’m gonna have to stop ya there.  ”

Sora’s saving grace was the same voice that always appeared out of nowhere.

“This is supposed to be an all-ages stream. Let’s keep it PG-13—and for gawd’s sake, Black Shiro, wouldja put that away already?! You’re gonna get our stream pulled!! Do you know how hard it is to blur that out in real time?”

Foeniculum poofed onto the scene and promptly snatched the X-rated object from Shiro’s hands.

“Also, how long do you plan on staying naked, Sora? I get wanting to give the viewers some fan service, but keep this up and it’ll veer into some nasty territory.”

“Goddammit, I’m not naked!! And for the millionth time, I don’t know what happened to my clothes!!”

“All right, all right. Both yours and your sister’s clothes got blown away in the explosion, but I found ’em. Here ya go.”

“Hell yeah!! My favorite shirt!!”

“Our soul paint can’t destroy your personal belongings. Now hurry up and make yourself decent, will ya?”

Foeniculum chucked his clothes into the cage, which Sora donned as quickly as he could.

In the very next instant—he and Foeniculum gulped as they felt an intense aura emanating from Shiro.

“Why are you here…? Wait—you’re not gonna get in my way, are you?  ”

 Is an eleven-year-old Immanity girl supposed to be this terrifying…? Foeniculum wondered.

The sheer intensity of Shiro’s gaze appeared to shake the castle walls. Foeniculum’s face spasmed.

“D-don’t you worry about that!! I’d never get in your way—I’m actually here to help you out, Black Shiro!! With a family-friendly game!!”

She barely managed to justify things before jumping into the game’s rules.

……… 

“ And that’s all you gotta do!! Whaddaya think?! Wanna give it a go?!”

Evidently, Steph and the others had already consented. Upon hearing Foeniculum’s explanation, Sora was the first to ask a question.

“So, uh… Between Spratul and Sprite Tune, I can’t help but notice a lot of things here sound like this one video game… So I gotta ask—you guys don’t know about our world, do you? I’m not gonna name names or anything, but the similarities are downright uncanny!!”

Shiro and Foeniculum ignored Sora and faced each other.

“Nope.   I’m not gonna play your game.  ”

A grinning Shiro answered bluntly and apathetically.

“Aw, really? ’Cause if you win, you and Sora will get to be a couple—”

“I don’t care about being a couple with him anymore. I just want him to never again think about getting a girlfriend. So I’m training him to do just that. That’s why I don’t wanna play your game.   Kya-ha-ha!  ”

She turned to her brother with a sinister grin, intent on getting back to his scheduled discipline.

“Got it!” Foeniculum replied. “Then how about we add an extra clause for you if you win?!”

Shiro stopped on a dime at the Fairy’s proposal.

“If you can protect him from the other contestants for two hours, Sora won’t be able to get a girlfriend for the rest of his life. We can swear on the Covenants to make it happen!! How d’you like them apples?!”

“WHAAAAAT?!”

“……………………”

Sora’s loud display of shock went in one ear and out the other. Shiro took a full ten seconds to ponder the offer before…agreeing to the conditions with a smile.

“Mm. I can live with those terms. All right—I’ll play your little game.  ”

“No, it’s not all right!! Why’s it gotta be my neck that’s on the—?! Aieeee!!”

Sora couldn’t stop himself from speaking up, but he was promptly silenced by Shiro cracking a whip outside his cage.

“Sorry, Brother. I couldn’t hear you. Could you say that one more time for everyone? It almost sounded like you want to get a girlfriend despite how much of a total and utter loser you are… I must be hearing things, though, right?   So—what were you gonna say?”

“Just that I’m a loser!! A big loser at that!! You guys go ahead and set up the game, goddammiiiit!!”

A sobbing Sora relinquished his human rights to his younger sister, when—

“Excellent!! I’ll go give the others a refresher on the rules! Oh, and one more thing: In this game, you’re only allowed to use your own tip pool. Give it your all, okay?!”

—the PURCHASE button on Shiro’s smartphone was disabled. Foeniculum disappeared with a small poof.

A small flower appeared in midair beside Shiro. It had a built-in touch screen.

Shiro glanced at the screen before closing her eyes in thought. Sora joined her in mentally scrutinizing the game’s rules.

 They could use soul tips they received from the viewers to buy soldiers and place them on the map.

She needed to destroy her enemy’s units in order to defend her base and protect Sora.

“So this is essentially your run-of-the-mill RTS—a tower defense game. Piece of cake.  ”

She snickered to herself and—without a moment’s hesitation—began tapping away at her flower screen. Sora knew this version of Shiro all too well.

 She’d already calculated her path to perfect victory. At this point, all she needed to do was press buttons.

This was the face he wanted to see whenever they played on the same team.

That same expression meant her opponents’ unstoppable and impending defeat.

Sora was neither Shiro’s ally nor her foe in this game. He sobbed quietly to himself and thought:

Ah—fare thee well, potential non-bachelor Sora…

Thunder rumbled through the bloodred sky; the barren wasteland below stretched beyond the horizon. This eerie, postapocalyptic scene was rendered even ghastlier by the army of five thousand flower-zombie Stephs.

At the very edge of the horizon stood Black Shiro’s base: the off-pink castle, where Steph’s legion of flowery ghouls was heading. Steph watched from her own base—a giant flower bud—via her screen while she racked her brain to figure out how the game worked.

 It didn’t take her long to discover that her soldiers would keep marching unless given specific orders to do something else.

Black Shiro’s terrain was incredibly difficult to traverse—not only was there a valley filled with rubble, but she’d stationed her own soldiers who fired soul bubbles upon sight of enemy units. When these bubbles hit their targets, they splattered in a three-foot radius, reverting the area back to the one Black Shiro had created.

The game screens could display either a bird’s-eye view or a first-person view of a single unit.

Players could also change the direction their army marched or select multiple units and have them concentrate their fire at specific locations.

However, just as Foeniculum had explained to the group, individual units came with a set amount of soul bubbles in their cranial flowers. Those units disappeared when their bubble reserves ran out.

Therefore, no one could afford to fire off soul bubbles indiscriminately.

Steph watched her army trudge through the valley without giving them any commands.

Having her soldiers fire bubbles into the valley reverted it back to its original flower field, which acted like a bridge and made it possible for her army to cross.

 Perhaps she should have taken a longer route in order to save on her soul bubble stock.

Steph finally had a handle on the game flow.

Come on now, Stephanie Dola… Come on!! You need to hurry!!

The rules stated that she needed to defeat Black Shiro and get Sora back within two hours—however!!

“An eleven-year-old girl just kidnapped someone—her brother—and brought him to a love hotel!! Stopping her within two hours isn’t exactly a cakewalk!! We need to save him before it’s too late!!”

Thus, every ka-ching that sounded signaled more tips going down the drain.

Without giving it a second thought, she bought more and more soldiers—and plowed her way through the quickest route to the castle.

The five-thousand-strong Steph army was currently crossing the bridge over the valley when all of a sudden the tail end of her troops vanished.

“ What? What’s happening?!”

Her numbers were being depleted in the blink of an eye. She frantically switched to first-person perspective and saw something behind her rearguard troops—a Black Shiro with a flower blooming from her head firing some sort of beam—and then she lost the visual.

“What the heck is that?! She’s not shooting soul bubbles!! Is that even fair?!”

Her rearguard units were being blasted into oblivion by Black Shiro’s onslaught.

Steph screamed as the tragedy unfolded. Foeniculum’s voice echoed from the screen beside her.

“All’s fair in the battle of love!! Anyway, that’s just one of the equipment options for your units; take a look at your flower screen!!”

A panicked Steph fiddled with the UI and eventually found the options Foeniculum was referring to.

There were different kinds of units available besides the INFANTRY: 10 POINTS button Steph had been spamming, like SNIPER: 30 POINTS and PARATROOPER: 50 POINTS, among others.

…Evidently, she could’ve been spending more on stronger units this entire time.

The Black Shiro units firing at her were snipers, which attacked from outside her infantry’s firing range, rendering them defenseless.

“You didn’t mention these options in the rules!! Talk about a paltry explanation!!”

“You’re all in the same boat, princess!! What, you need the manual to spell everything out for ya?! Any gamer worth their salt has to figure out the tricks for themselves!!”

“Well, excuse me, but I’ve already come to terms with the fact that I’m a terrible gamer!!”

An upset Steph could only watch while her many soldiers were taken out in one fell swoop.

As the beam plowed through her units, it also turned the terrain back to Black Shiro’s desolate, bloodred creation.

That meant Steph’s flower bridge was gone, too. As it disappeared, the soldiers traversing it fell into the valley below. Meanwhile, Steph spotted figures overhead flying straight for her.

“ W-wait, what?! B-Black Shiro’s army has already made it this far?!”

“That’s what happens when you send all your units out of your base!!”

Steph shrieked as a small squad of paratroopers came speeding toward her.

“Um, uh, how can I fight off those paratroopers?! Should I buy some snipers? Wait—I’m out of money!! I need to pull my infantry back— Agh, they can’t make it past Black Shiro’s snipers!! …Hold on… Is this already over for me?”

“Sheesh, you suck at this!! How were you ever the chief minister of Elkia?!”

“My work is primarily political by nature! Are there any administrative elements to this game?!”

“Handling military funds and keeping track of your units fall well within that territory!! You’ve already failed to do both of those!!”

…And just like that, almost too easily…Steph’s base was soul-bombed by Black Shiro’s paratroopers.

With every attack that landed, a big chunk of the base was vaporized, leaving behind gaping holes for Steph to see the paratroopers for herself.

…It was only a matter of time before the soul bombs hit Steph, kicking her out of the game.

Certain of her demise, Steph chuckled defeatedly…

“…Heh, it’s not even a question. I could never hope to beat Shiro at a game.”

“Uh, more importantly—I can’t believe you’ve survived this long in

a world where games determine all things!! Damn, that’s some incredible luck ya got!!” Foeniculum shuddered at Steph’s incomprehensible handicap but then said, “I’ll be honest, I don’t think even Black Shiro imagined she’d be able to take your base out this easily. She’s probably more surprised than anyone!!”

“Heh, don’t spare it another thought. I can even picture the look on her face; she likely knew this was coming.”

“ I just took a peek at her, and you’re exactly right… You’re real perceptive, I gotta hand it to ya.”

At roughly fourteen minutes into the game, this was practically a record for Steph.

A single tear glistened in the corner of Steph’s eye as she looked up to the heavens and accepted her defeat. But then—

—she gaped in astonishment upon seeing Black Shiro’s paratroopers get blown out of the sky.

 What was it this time?

Steph pulled up the view from one of her soldiers who’d managed to make it past the barrage of sniper fire.

“Oh… Right!! Why am I trying to do this alone?!”

It was a group of flower-zombie Jibrils—snipers.

Steph squealed with joy as they shot down Black Shiro’s paratroopers.

That’s it. Our goal is to defeat Black Shiro—it’s a team battle!!

With Jibril and Emir-Eins on my side, we may just—

“ Nope! Noooope! I know that’s not how these things work!! I’m starting to learn what these nebulous flags are that Sora and Shiro are always referring to!!”

 She wailed an instant later when Jibril’s snipers turned their rifles on Steph’s infantry as soon as they’d cleared Shiro’s units.

“…Why oh why must we fight even when we share a common enemy…?! Why can’t we team up for this one…?!”

“I mean…you were the one who tried to charge in first for the kill.”

“Charge in first…? I did no such thing!!”

“Then why didn’t you try to team up from the very start?”

 What…?

“If your real goal was to stop Black Shiro, then working together should’ve been the obvious choice, right? But you didn’t do that. Instead, you went solo for the chance of becoming a couple with Sora for a day. Am I wrong?”

“There’s a key difference between this game and the others: By rescuing Sora and holding hands, at least one of you will become a couple with him. As long as all the players vie for this position, then they’ll never want to team up—same goes for you, yeah?”

 Right.

Over the past ten days of games, no one had managed to couple up with Sora.

Steph found herself conflicted. Was this why she rushed her army’s charge?

She was certainly eager to stop Sora and Shiro from doing anything unethical… Her intentions in this regard were earnest.

But could she truly deny having any desire—even an iota of it—to become a couple with Sora?

It was either admit her feelings, or—

“ I’m terrible at games; I simply failed to realize teaming up was an option!!”

—admit to her incompetence. And after a moment of hesitation, Steph chose the latter.

As soon as she shouted her reply, she caught sight of Jibril’s units. They were already at her front door.

Steph held up both hands before any of them could begin firing.

“Heh-heh… Go ahead. Pull the trigger… But promise me this.”

Steph accepted her impending defeat and smiled with relief.

“ Protect everything that is ethical and peaceful in this world. I’m counting on you, Jibril…”

With that grim final wish, Steph closed her eyes and waited for her death—

“Um… I’m not going to shoot you…”

—only to be answered by a shocked yet cheerful voice.

“I can’t have you give up yet. I certainly won’t be able to defeat Black Shiro on my own.”

The voice was coming from within the horde of flower-Jibrils.

…Upon closer inspection, one of them lacked any cranial flora.

Steph’s jaw practically dropped the moment she realized it was the actual Jibril speaking to her.

“Wha—?! Is that you, Jibril?! Wh-why are you here?!”

“Well, there’s no rule that states a player can’t leave their base.  ”

 Their objective was to render the other players unable to fight.

There was indeed no rule that prevented the players from leaving their respective bases.

Moreover, Steph’s base was fairly easy to reach, given its lack of defenses.

Jibril smiled confidently. “Furthermore…I was listening to your debate earlier, so allow me to retort: It is possible for us to team up.”

“…Huh?”

She went on to explain how that was precisely why she’d come here.

“With Lord Shiro—that is, Lord Black Shiro—in such a state of disarray, I thought there might be the slightest of chances that I could defeat her. However, this was not this case… In fact, she appears to have an even greater edge to her than usual.”

Jibril showed her screen to Steph as she spoke.

 It displayed Black Shiro’s troops moving every which way through a set of ruins.

Despite having fewer numbers, she was able to position her units exactly where Jibril could least deal with them. They were getting crushed.

“The only way to outdo this overwhelming advantage in skill is to create an overwhelming advantage in numbers—we need to work together.”

“B-but…”

“Yes, as the Fairy already stated, this shouldn’t be possible so long as the three of us want to become a couple with Master. In which case—we simply rid ourselves of this desire.”

Jibril spelled out the one way to make this happen, which was:

“We will swear on the Covenants not to hold hands with him at the end of the game.”

“ ?!”

“If you swear with me—then we’ll be able to team up, won’t we?”

 Sh-she’s right!! We can’t work together if we’re all after Sora. But if we throw that possibility out the door, then we’ll be able to cooperate!!

It seemed unlikely that Emir-Eins would forfeit her desire to couple up with Sora…but still.

If Steph and Jibril banded together, Emir-Eins would have no reason to fight solo—

“B-but then…what will you be fighting for, Jibril…?”

Steph questioned what the Flügel stood to gain in this strategy.

“It’s quite evident that Lord Shiro—or Lord Black Shiro, I should say—has lost her mind,” Jibril replied with a tormented expression. “If Lord Black Shiro emerges victorious from this game, Master will be unable to fall in love with anyone—not just for the duration of this game, but for the rest of his life.”

“ !!”

“Though I am hardly capable of even understanding romance and affection, there is no doubt in my mind that these are Lord Shiro’s true intentions.”

 And although Jibril claimed she couldn’t comprehend such emotions…

“I, therefore, have no choice but to achieve an outcome that defies my master’s wishes—and indeed, Lord Shiro is one of my masters.”

She cherished her duty as a servant over her own feelings.

She was going to prioritize those most important to her—the people she loved.

“We must prevent Lord Black Shiro from winning this game. That is my only goal, Dora. Will you join me?”

Steph felt her chest tighten as Jibril bowed down before her.

She’s right—my true goal is to bring Shiro and Sora back from that love hotel.

And just look at Jibril. This elegant, proud, beautiful angel is asking for my help. I couldn’t possibly turn her down!

“A-all right!! You’ve convinced me. I’ll work together with you—”

She gazed lovingly at Jibril and went to take her by the hand—

“Foolishness: Reconfirming stupidity of the Flügel race. This unit is flabbergasted. Siiigh…”

—but just then, someone appeared from the gaping hole in Steph’s base opposite the one Jibril had entered.

It was Emir-Eins, here to stop this alliance. She, too, stood among an army of soldiers that looked exactly like her.

 Do you people think my base is some sort of public park?

Yes, come right in. You’re welcome to just stroll on through…

Steph half expected Shiro to show up as well. Her gaze grew empty and distant.

“Declaration: Impossible to form alliance by forfeiting desire to hold hands with Master. Pointless. A foolish idea. Stuuupid.”

“What’s this…? Is that how you say ‘please kill me’ in your robot language? You learn something new every day.  ”

Jibril’s desire to team up flew from the gaping hole in Steph’s base the minute she was provoked.

Emir-Eins calmly ignored Jibril’s palpable murderous intent.

“Recommendation: Reconsider the purpose of personal tip allocation.”

 Personal tip allocation.

She was referring to the tips each player received to purchase soldiers.

Why would the viewers—Fairies looking to see real, passionate love—send tips to one person in particular?

Emir-Eins was questioning their support for individual players.

Steph and Jibril gulped.

“Self-Evident: Viewers send tips to the individual they wish to see coupled with Master. They are backing their favorite player. Revelation: The true object of this game is a tip war to determine the best couple.”

How could this notion possibly go unnoticed? A disturbed Emir-Eins continued.

“Inevitability: Forfeiting any desire to become a couple will end the possible outcomes of Master × Lady Dol and Master × Irregular Number. Fans of these combinations will no longer send you two tips. Building an army will become impossible. Banding together is pointless. Stuuuupid.”

“ ”

Even Jibril’s expression tightened up when an expressionless Emir-Eins scoffed at her and Steph.

 Right… This is why Foeniculum said they wouldn’t be able to fight together.

If Steph and Jibril forfeited their desire to become a couple with Sora, then Sora × Emir-Eins fans would be the only ones sending in tips.

That would essentially amount to Emir-Eins fighting Black Shiro all alone…

“Thank gawd you finally figured it out!! Ya had me scared the game was gonna end there for a hot second!! As the game master, it kills me that I can’t drop you guys any hints!!”

The three ladies were relieved to have finally realized the purpose of this game, although Steph howled in fury at Foeniculum.

“Why didn’t you just tell us that in the first place?!”

“’Cause it’s more interesting this way!! Now that you’ve figured this out, what are you gonna do?! This is where the real game begins!!”

 That was indeed the most pertinent question here. Now

what?

Setting aside Steph as she thought about the problem at hand…

Outwitted by Emir-Eins, Jibril was shaking with embarrassment. Practically groaning, she spoke up.

“………I see. So our goal is to hold hands with my master. That being said, we still have a shared interest in defeating Lord Black Shiro…”

She’s right! Our goals align until we’ve defeated Black Shiro!

Jibril’s new suggestion had Steph excited—but that excitement was short-lived.

“Idiot: Irregular Number’s intelligence is astonishingly low. Implementation of negative IQ scores recommended.”

“………You should thank your lucky stars that I’m doing this for our masters. Otherwise, I would have blown a fuse long ago, despite all my benevolence.  ”

It took every fiber of Jibril’s being not to wring the cyborg’s neck, however—

“Question: Irregular Number, do you think we could possibly defeat Black Little Sister with merely three times our current power?”

“ !”

Jibril gritted her teeth, unable to argue otherwise.

A few moments passed before Steph caught on.

Emir-Eins was right… Even if they did join forces, that gave them only three times the firepower.

And that might not even be an accurate estimate. It was anyone’s guess as to who was more powerful; that depended on whom the viewers most wanted to pair with Sora.

And this was Black Shiro they were up against.

 The one and only Shiro…

She, together with Sora, made up Blank—and even without Sora, she was the stronger gamer of the two.

Not only that, but she was on the defensive—this was incredibly advantageous. Just as Jibril had stated earlier, they weren’t going to be able to compensate for that overwhelming advantage in skill with just any numbers—they needed equally overwhelming numbers.

“Huh, b-but—do you mean to tell me that you think we’ve already lost?!”

Emir-Eins wouldn’t come all this way just to tell them victory was futile.

She must have had some sort of answer.

Surely she was going to offer a way to defeat Black Shiro!

At this point, even Jibril was willing to rely on Emir-Eins for a solution.

Her face contorted from her sheer reluctance, Jibril waited for her sworn enemy to speak.

“Cooperation: We shall form the Girl-on-Girl Alliance.”

An intrepid grin spread across Emir-Eins’s expressionless face as she gave them her answer—an answer that left Steph and Jibril equally confused…

 Roughly one hour had passed since the game began.

Shiro dealt with Steph and the others’ armies all while continuing to discipline her brother.

Even with the PG-13 restrictions in place, she chose the cruelest methods of breaking his spirit bit by bit…

“All right, Brother. Let’s say it a few more times. You are—what was it?  ”

“A loser. Despite my rock-bottom social standing, I commanded the beautiful Steph to fall in love with me. And yet I neglect her, because I’m a loser. The unattainably gorgeous Emir-Eins has feelings for me, which I neither affirm nor reject in the vain hopes that something will develop naturally. I didn’t feel a lick of regret when the stunning Laila referred to me as her darling, and—”

That’s right… Sora was going through the long list of misdeeds he’d committed over the years.

“—I’m a total pathetic loser at the very bottom of the loser hierarchy, where I belong— Eek?!”

Sora finished his spiel with lifeless eyes but was met with a crack of Shiro’s whip.

“You’re a total pathetic loser at the very bottom of the loser hierarchy of all living beings, where you belong—you can’t even remember a simple sentence? Loser.  ”

“It w-was highly inappropriate for a loser of my caliber to go and twist your words. I merely find it a bit difficult to compare myself to other living beings, considering how much of a gargantuan loser I am…!!”

Sora had spent the last hour getting his inferiority drilled into his head.

It had reached a point where he felt as if other living creatures, no matter how insignificant, shouldn’t even be lumped together with him just to prove his loserhood.

And yet Shiro smiled tenderly at him.

“…You’re not the only one, Brother. There’s other losers like you—other antisocial lady-repellant virgin NEET shut-ins. That’s why it’s important to include all other life-forms in our comparison. And there’s only one girl in the entire universe who will ever accept you the way you are.  ”

 Bullshit… That’s not even possible.

A girl like that could exist only in fiction. She’d have to be a living goddess.

Sora slowly raised his head to argue as much, and then—

“See? She’s right here, Brother.  ”

—through the iron bars of his cage, he laid eyes upon her: a living goddess, smiling at him…

“Come on, Brother. You know that by now, don’t you?  ”

 Ah… Ahhh…

Shiro’s sweet whispers traveled through Sora’s ears and implanted themselves into his weary brain.

“No matter how big a loser you are, Brother, I’ll always be there for you.  ”

 Ahhh… Ahhhhh…

Her voice melted through his sense of reason before corroding every crevice of his mind.

“I’ll make all your food. I may not be the best cook, but I can learn. I can take care of you in other ways, too, like with money. All you have to do is let me pat you on the head while you play your mind-numbing games. There… That’s a good boy.  ”

He could feel the warmth of her hand stroking his hair through the iron bars.

Sora’s thoughts began sinking beneath the intense weight of Shiro’s tender love—a love that accepted him for who he was.

“Sorry for being so hard on you. But it’s all for your own good.  ”

 Hard on me? What’s she talking about?

Sora couldn’t come up with a single thing she’d told him that fit that description.

Everything she’s said so far is an undeniable fact… This goddess is merely enlightening me.

Intent on giving in to the sensations on his scalp…Sora closed his eyes—

“I’ll make sure aaaall your desires are met, Brother… Even your carnal—”

“…Aaaand stop right there. Time out. You sailed right past that foul line…”

Foeniculum appeared out of nowhere, just in the nick of time to bring Sora out of his trance.

 Whoa?!

What the—? What was I just thinking about?!

“Grrr—why do you keep stopping me?! I had Brother right where I wanted him!!”

“You were starting to get a li’l too descriptive… Try to allude to it more without actually saying it. We gotta keep things PG-13, after all… Don’t get me wrong, I feel bad about jumping in on things, but rules are rules…”

Sora gasped in utter shock even as Shiro lashed out at Foeniculum.

 H-holy shit!!

I was this close to being my little sister’s sugar baby…!!!!

Calm down. Think this through, Sora, eighteen-year-old virgin!!

I had some hope in Shiro’s ability to help facilitate my evolution from loser to decent human being, but becoming my eleven-year-old sister’s gigolo?!

That would bring me from loser to something worse—it’d make me the scum of the earth!!

A fierce conflict unraveled within the confines of Sora’s mind as the two girls bickered.

“Also—as the game master, I’m not really supposed to say this, but…it’d make for a pretty lame ending if you lost without your head in the game. Maybe focus a little more on the task at hand.”

Foeniculum’s grimace was met by a suspicious scowl from Shiro. Only a short amount of time had passed since she’d last looked at the screen, which she turned to once more.

“ What…the…?”

Shiro’s relentless grin finally vanished as she groaned in shock.

The screen—which had once shown her army obliterating Steph’s—now had her own army being painted into oblivion with the enemy’s advance.

“H-how did they get this strong? …No—how did they get this many units?!”

It wasn’t strategy or positioning that allowed the girls’ forces to overpower Shiro’s.

It was raw numbers. The trio’s units engulfed Shiro’s army like a tidal wave.

“What’s…happening?!”

Shiro merely wailed in confusion as she watched the unmanageable disparity in numbers play out.

So—what was happening?

The answer to Shiro’s question could be found in the unlikeliest spot: Steph’s base.

“Now, what should we do next? Should we have little Dora strip for us?  ”

“Uuuuhm?! Would me stripping actually serve any purpose?!”

“Negative: Significance of Irregular Number stripping Lady Dol exists. This unit may also do the stripping. Selection: Whom would you like to strip you?”

“You want me to pick?! But I…can’t pick between you two— No, I don’t want either of you to strip me!! This is going on the Linkernet!! I’m not into undressing in public!!”

“Don’t be shy, Dora. I’ve seen your body before. There isn’t a single inch of you that you need to feel ashamed about.  ”

“ What? Wait… J-Jibril, does that mean—?”

“Evaluation: Now that’s what I call girl-on-girl, Irregular Number. Massive amounts of incoming tips confirmed. This unit will reinforce the right flank of our front line.”

“Is that so? We should have you play with Dora next; that will give me a chance to increase my numbers as well.”

“Hey!! Heeey?!! I’m a person, too, you know! You can’t just play with my emotions like this!!”

 The more the girls canoodled, the more the tips came pouring in.

Every time the trio partook in girl-on-girl play with each other, a violent symphony of ka-chings followed, which in turn meant Jibril and Emir-Eins purchased more and more soldiers.

This was what was happening.

This was Emir-Eins’s Girl-on-Girl Alliance…

 …………

 ……

 Forty-six minutes earlier:

“Cooperation: We shall form the Girl-on-Girl Alliance.”

A puzzled Steph and Jibril listened as Emir-Eins began explaining her idea.

“Amendment: We three cannot join forces because the only form of support we’ll receive will be on an individual level: for each of us to become Master’s girlfriend. New pairings must be formed.”

And by that, you mean…? the other two ladies’ gazes implored. Emir-Eins calmly continued.

“Confirmation: The rules state: Two contestants who finish the game holding hands will become a forced couple for a day. This is not limited to a single couple. This unit presumes two contestants other than Master can be paired up as well.”

Emir-Eins pointed out a loophole in the rules before elaborating.

“Proposal: We players should create our own rules: She who captures Sora and Shiro one hundred and eighty seconds before the game ends will be deemed the winner. Losers will surrender unconditionally. Winner dictates which two couples will form. These will be the terms of our alliance, which we three will swear on the Covenants.”

“…Um, huh…? What happens after that?”

Steph wasn’t following. Jibril jumped in to help her.

“We’ll be able to receive tips from individuals who support our pairings.”

“Affirmative: Specifically, viewers who ship Irregular Number × Lady Dol, this unit × Lady Dol, and this unit × Irregular Number. Tips may also come from those who ship Little Sister × Lady Dol, Little Sister × this unit, and Little Sister × Irregular Number—expanding the tip potential for a total of nine different possible couples.”

In other words, they were going to work together until they defeated Black Shiro and won Sora back, and then—

“Wait a moment—that doesn’t really count as us working as a team, does it?!”

“Yes, that’s what makes it an alliance.  ”

“Affirmative: Defeat Black Little Sister and rescue Master—this is the common desired objective among all viewers except those who ship Little Sister × Master. The alliance will cease once the objective is complete. We will return to our respective bases to resume the turf war—the battle for who will take Master’s hand. Krieg.”

In other words—they weren’t just vying to pair up with Sora.

They were also inciting a tip war that would decide a second pairing.

Emir-Eins had come up with this plan, which Jibril comprehended easily. Meanwhile, Steph thought…

…They’re both starting to sound like Sora. He’s poisoned their minds…

And thus, the three raised their hands and made the famous unbreakable pledge:

Aschente—…

 …………

 ……

And thus, the fans of girl-on-girl action proved to be lucrative tippers. The trio’s alliance had amassed well over three hundred thousand units—

“Um!! I can’t keep up with the controls!! Can somebody please help me?!” Steph shrieked as she failed to maneuver so many units at once. “Is it just me, or am I getting way more tips than both of you?!”

“Obvious: Viewers’ most desired pairing: this unit and Irregular Number. Clearly.”

“And in order to give the viewers what they want, you, Dora, need to earn the most money.  ”

They were correct—the viewers wanted to see a Flügel × Ex Machina couple.

In order for that to happen, Steph needed to be the one to capture Sora and Shiro.

Unfortunately, Steph didn’t have the gaming prowess to see this through. What happened at the start of the game spoke volumes to this fact.

Therefore, to make a JibEm couple happen, the viewers needed Steph to defeat the two women after the trio’s alliance defeated Shiro—the odds of which were practically zero if Steph was left to her own devices. The viewers knew they needed to pump Steph’s army with cash while the Girl-on-Girl Alliance was still in play.

The problem was, Steph’s army had grown too large for her to control properly.

She needed Emir-Eins to help guide her, and even then her units weren’t fighting at a reasonable capacity for their size.

Both Jibril and Emir-Eins wanted to work on their own armies, but—

“Revelation: The Girl-on-Girl Alliance can bring in tips for purposes other than changing the outcome of this game.”

And thus, Emir-Eins revealed her second ace in the hole.

“Announcement: If this unit amasses four hundred thousand points in tips—this unit shall kiss Irregular Number.”

“ Wait, what?! Are you being serious, Emir-Eins?!”

Emir-Eins is going to kiss somebody other than me? Jibril of all people…?

As an emotionally perplexed Steph shrieked, Jibril put her foot down.

“Not in a million years.   I’d rather lick a pig’s ass.  ”

“Agreement: Kissing Irregular Number… Ew. But we must face the truth. We need more power.”

This was true—as hard as it was to believe.

Despite their insurmountable advantage in troops, the Alliance had yet to overwhelm Black Shiro.

They needed even more tips, or else she was going to take them out.

“Presentation: Increased tip procurement possible should Irregular Unit make a similar offer. Current firepower is too low to defeat Black Little Sister. Question: Will Irregular Unit put her own inhibitions before her master?”

“ !  !! ~~~~~! ……!!”

…Jibril couldn’t come up with a single retort.

She clutched her head; her expression twisted from the inner conflict she faced—a rare sight.

Steph watched with bated breath—until Jibril finally made her decision.

“…How about if we’re tipped over four hundred thousand points, I’ll kiss little Dora?” she forced herself to say.

“Wha—?! Why me?!” Steph replied with a shriek.

Emir-Eins nodded. “Test: Appropriate firepower must be acquired by whatever means necessary. But let it be known: This unit will do anything to defeat Black Little Sister and steal Master back. Anything.”

They could give kissing a trial run, but Emir-Eins was willing to go way further than that—even by kissing Jibril.

“So…Dora. Do I have your consent?”

“Ummmm?! My first kiss isn’t for sale!!”

“Of course, Dora. I won’t force you to do it… If you really don’t want to…”

“Wait, Jibril—don’t look at me like that!!”

 Calm down. Calm down this instant, Stephanie Dola.

You only feel this way because this space amplifies your love for others—

Steph convinced herself to turn down the dejected Jibril; she knew her feelings for the Flügel were mere delusions—

“Opportunity: This unit shall also kiss Lady Dol for four hundred thousand points. Only if she wants to, though… Do you not want to share a kiss with this unit?”

Emir-Eins made a similarly sad puppy dog face and approached Steph from the opposite side of Jibril.

…No, you see… I-it’s not—like that—

……………………

And thus, a teary-eyed Steph agreed to their terms, so long as it was on the cheek.

“Report: Just barely able to procure necessary firepower. The right flank is moving in to destroy the final line of defense.”

“Then leave the left flank to me—this is our last push.  ”

The two women homed in on Black Shiro’s last line of defense with a kiss.

Steph, meanwhile, had her hands on her cheeks, both of which had been kissed by Jibril and Emir-Eins. She stared off into space.

…Oh, dear grandfather……

Your darling Stephanie just sold her body for money…

That said, she was less embarrassed about being kissed than she was relieved that she didn’t have to pick between the two women.

In fact, Steph was in tears because her heart was beating so fast from the two kisses.

 No matter how this game ends, I may find myself at a loss.

Because even if they beat Black Shiro, rescued Sora, and by some strange miracle, Steph came out on top…

 Whose hand will I hold…?

The agonizing decision had shattered Steph’s heart into pieces…

 There was no way to know how many units another player commanded.

Yet despite her perfect positioning and controls…Shiro’s army was being dominated.

Shiro quickly figured out that her enemies had amassed more than twenty times the man power of her own troops.

She had no clue how Steph and the others had managed to pull it off.

Rather—she couldn’t tell how they’d managed to join forces.

Nevertheless, the trio’s combined armies were tearing through her defensive line, so Shiro furiously revised her tactics and worked desperately to resist the onslaught.

“…Hey—why am I not good enough for you…?”

The words slipped out of her mouth as she tapped away at her screen—but her question…

“Mmmnn?! Mmmnn, mmmnn! Mmnnn?!”

…wasn’t for Sora, who flailed around in his cage, bound and gagged.

“Even though…I can do anything Brother wants me to?”

It was for the great army that pushed through her defensive line.

“I can even make him food—maybe not as good as Steph can, but I can try.”

For the people who made that great army possible.

“My boobs may not be as big as Jibril’s, but they’re still growing.”

Those who were funding Steph and the others.

“I may not be as beautiful as Emir-Eins! But I’ll learn how to do my makeup and wear pretty clothes!!”

Her question was for…the viewers.

“I can’t become his girlfriend like they can—but I can do everything else!!”

She was making a plea to Sora × Shiro shippers out there.

“So why…? Why aren’t you giving me any tips?!” she screamed—cursing those who tried to steal her brother away from her.

And yet Shiro already knew the answer to her own question.

This was a game for the viewers to decide who would become Sora’s girlfriend.

Were Shiro to win, the game would end with Sora single—not only that, but he’d never be able to get a girlfriend for the rest of his life.

The Fairies wanted to see love and romance; only a handful of them would even consider supporting Shiro’s outcome.

 I know this. I know this, but—!!

“…Is finding love…really that important…?!””

The great army had made its way to her castle.

She was about to lose. Picturing what that would mean, Shiro shouted herself hoarse.

“Is it wrong for me to want to be with him forever, even if we can’t be lovers?!”

 Her brother was going to hold hands with somebody other than herself.

Even if it was only for a day, Sora and his girlfriend were going to share a tender gaze, a genuine smile…

“…No… I don’t want that to happen… NOOO!!”

Shiro imagined the scene—and finally began crying.

Large tears ran down her cheeks and landed on her screen as it displayed what was unfolding—and she knew.

There was no longer a way for her to stop the great army that had broken through her defenses…

Falling to her knees, a sobbing Black Shiro—no…

“…I…only have Brotherrr… I don’t need, anyone else…!!”

This was Shiro doing the crying. She’d unknowingly released herself from her delusion.

“…Don’t take…Brother away, from meee…”

This was her only plea; her sole desire.

Without even realizing she was back to normal, she screeched at the top of her lungs:

“ Don’t, leave me all alooone!!”

Shiro covered her face with her hands and began wailing. She didn’t even notice who was standing behind her…

 An hour and forty-seven minutes since the game’s start…

The Girl-on-Girl Alliance had reached the off-pink castle—they’d infiltrated Black Shiro’s base.

They were approaching the throne room, where Black Shiro, and probably Sora, were—however.

“Wait—how are we losing this many units when we’ve made it this far?!”

“Common Sense: Siege warfare begins after penetrating the enemy fortress. Our enemy’s defenses are focused in the castle keep. Numeric advantage means nothing here.”

“She has no reinforcements, though, so keep flooding her castle with troops, Dora. These are the basics of warfare.  ”

“Unlike you two, who lived during the Great War, I was born in a peaceful world!!”

The Girl-on-Girl Alliance was met with Black Shiro’s meticulously placed infantry.

Ignoring the casualties that fell to the onslaught of bubbles, the trio’s armies forced their way into the throne room.

Once inside, the Alliance was under attack yet again.

One unit’s final visual showed Shiro’s last line of defense—a group of snipers that blasted away anything that made it through the door. Behind them was the figure they were guarding.

“What are we going to do?! We can’t make it into her room!! Wait, what if we destroy the wall—?”

If they couldn’t make it through the door, they could just create their own.

“Negative: Forced entry.”

Emir-Eins, however, simply had her own infantry push through.

 The snipers’ rate of fire couldn’t keep up with the influx of units, and they had a limited amount of soul ammo remaining.

Emir-Eins continued flooding the throne room with infantry, only to see them blown away by Shiro’s snipers.

This went on until the snipers inevitably ran out of ammo.

Emir-Eins waited for the right moment to send in snipers of her own, which all fired in tandem. The paint cleared, revealing that Black Shiro’s snipers had been entirely decimated.

The assault had splattered paint everywhere, reverting more than half of the throne room into its original field of flowers.

The girls found Black Shiro in one corner of the room. She was slumped over, no more soldiers at her disposal.

“…It took us more than forty minutes to get here with a combined army of seven hundred fifty thousand… I would expect nothing less of Lord Shiro.”

“Agreement: The level of damages sustained far surpassed this unit’s calculations. However—this is the end.”

 Pshplat. The sound of soul paint being fired.

It flew through the air—piercing Black Shiro in the chest.

The impact sent her flying backward, where she lay motionless on the ground…

 ………

“We—we did it!!”

We’ve saved this world’s ethics—and world peace!!

Steph cheered and turned around to share this triumphant moment with her allies, and that’s when—

No—it happened before she’d even finished cheering. She heard more shots fired.

The two shots of soul paint slammed into Steph. She collapsed, still smiling as her face hit the floor.

“ Pardon?”

 What happened?

Steph had no idea what was going on, so of course she failed to realize…

…that Jibril and Emir-Eins had shot her from behind.

Getting hit by another player disqualified Steph; she had been defeated.

And thus, her flower screen—along with her entire army—

disappeared into thin air.

All Steph could do from the floor was watch as Jibril and Emir-Eins dodged each other’s fire.

“ What’s this? What are you doing, you heaping pile of junk?  ”

“Self-Evident: Exactly what Irregular Number is doing. A pointless question. Another testament to your stupidity. Pffft.”

They pitted their remaining units against each other and began bickering…

“…Ummm.   My apologies, but could either of you explain what’s going on? If I remember our pact correctly, we were going to defeat Black Shiro, take Sora back, then start over—”

Steph finally realized—she’d been betrayed.

She was starting to get used to all the deceit when her mind caught up to the turn of events.

The only thing that still confused her was how Jibril and Emir-Eins had managed to break their pact despite having sworn on the Covenants.

“I’ll be honest, I actually quite like the way you can be a total doofus sometimes, little Dora.  ”

“Um… What? I…”

Steph blushed at Jibril’s snide comment. Emir-Eins proceeded to explain things.

“Confirmation: We formed an alliance. We swore on the Covenants to the following terms: She who captures Sora and Shiro one hundred and eighty seconds before the game ends will be deemed the winner. Losers will surrender unconditionally. Winner dictates which two couples will form—that’s it.”

“Anything else was nothing more than a promise.  ”

And promises are meant to be broken.

Steph didn’t need to hear Jibril say as much for her to understand.

“Our alliance ended the moment we defeated Lord Black Shiro—we are once again at war. Haven’t you learned from Master by now that timing means everything when it comes to betrayal?”

Ohhh, I see.  

I knew there was something strange about how unconcerned they were with me amassing all those troops.  

 They needed to turn on each other as soon as they defeated Black Shiro. The three ladies had all the time in the world to rescue Sora once the other two were out of the picture.

This was why Jibril and Emir-Eins went to Steph’s base and hid their troops there.

And now that they’d taken out Steph and Black Shiro, the two armies were at a standstill…

“Deep Regret: Ambush has failed. But no matter. We will regroup at our bases and resume fighting as planned. Bring it on.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea. I’m so glad we can finally cut the buddy-buddy routine and just—kill each other.  ”

After a brief exchange of hostilities, the two turned on their heels and started heading back to their respective bases.

Now out of the game and without her flower screen, Steph was nonetheless certain: The two armies were about to engage in all-out war.

“…It always ends this way…”

“What’s wrong? We’re going back to our bases now, just like we promised.”

“Okay, but one problem: I’m the only one whose promise was broken!!”

“Prediction: Lady Dol would not have lasted this long anyway. This unit believes it’s fair to say that this is within the realm of our promise.”

“It most certainly is not!! Just because the results are the same doesn’t mean it’s okay!!”

Steph heaved a sigh as she watched Jibril and Emir-Eins leave.

“I guess it’s fine… At least I was able to prevent one man from shacking up in a love hotel with an underage girl. That was my original goal…after all…”

I also won’t have to struggle with deciding whose hand to hold.

Steph convinced herself that this was the best possible outcome. However:

“There is one thing bothering me, though…,” she said absentmindedly. “Shiro was wearing Sora’s shirt… Was that a coincidence?”

Jibril and Emir-Eins stopped in their tracks and looked back at Steph.

“ What did you just say, Dora?”

“Hm? Well, I mean…when a girl wears a boy’s shirt, it tends to suggest that a certain something occurred… So I just wondered if we might have been a bit too late… What? Am I overthinking things?!”

Jibril and Emir-Eins instantly replayed the scenario in their minds.

Yes—Black Shiro was wearing a shirt.

They remembered—the words written on it before they fired the killing blow.

 All too late, they realized it read I   PPL.

“No—it can’t be—?!”

“Confirmation: …Shock:  Impossible.”

The two ladies scrambled to their screens, only to fall speechless at what they saw.

Every single unit they’d sent into Black Shiro’s base had been obliterated.

 Jibril and Emir-Eins both determined that the moment their paint hit Black Shiro would signal the start of their battle for Sora’s hand.

It goes without saying that their units in Black Shiro’s castle were the first to receive their new orders.

And if Black Shiro was in the throne room, then Sora also had to be nearby.

The two ladies needed to capture both Sora and Shiro—they obviously couldn’t let their opponent get a head start.

However—Jibril’s and Emir-Eins’s armies had been completely decimated. This was virtually impossible!

At least one of their armies should’ve had some units left, even if only a few. There was no way both sides would lose every last soldier during the final battle!

In other words: Somebody had taken out their remaining units.

 And who was that somebody? It was obvious.

This person had ambushed the leftover forces in secret as Jibril and Emir-Eins duked it out in the throne room; they’d likely waited for this very moment when the two factions realized who was behind everything.

“Um, I’m starting to get tired of asking this, but what’s going on?”

No longer able to access her screen, Steph didn’t know what had Jibril and Emir-Eins so shocked.

Although…I probably would’ve asked the same question even if I still had my screen, she thought.

“…Foeniculum, was it? Allow me to confirm something, if you would.” Jibril ignored Steph’s question and spoke to her screen.

“Hey, hey! What’s up?  ”

“…Can Lord Black Shiro hear this conversation…?”

“I’m not tellin’ her anything, and you guys can’t contact each other. C’mon, you know that already.”

Jibril bowed to Foeniculum. “Yes, I was aware. I was merely confirming so that I could give appropriate praise where praise is due.”

She sounded strangely happy, then closed her eyes with a look of deep respect.

 What’s going on?

The answer to Steph’s question was clear as day.

 Black Shiro’s army was still in the fight.

She must have faked getting shot. The meaning of this was similarly self-evident:

Black Shiro had predicted that the three of them would team up against her.

She’d placed her soldiers in such a way that the Alliance would be forced to take her out of the game with sniper fire.

Once that happened, the trio would betray each other.

Black Shiro’s units had lain in wait, concealing her remaining firepower…until they were dispatched at the precise moment to annihilate the trio’s armies.

All this without a lick of enemy intel.

Somebody had pulled this off without knowing the terms of the Girl-on-Girl Alliance.

 Shiro? No, it wasn’t her.

Steph and Jibril alike knew there was only one person capable of pulling this off. Even Emir-Eins, who was still just partially acquainted with the group, knew who this person was.

Someone behind—no, next to—Shiro.

Where he always was. This could only be his doing…

“My master is indeed wise. His brilliance quite honestly has me speechless.”

“Respect: He defeated us all without uttering a single word. He turned the tables on us in one fell swoop. Master is incredible… I’m in love.”

The two began singing Sora’s praises, a cycle Steph broke with a scream.

“Whaaat?! Sora helped Black Shiro?! But if she wins, he’ll never be able to get a girlfriend for the rest of his life! Wait, doesn’t that mean—?!”

No… But that essentially means…

…he’s…made his decision…

“That is correct, Dora. Go ahead and cry if you need to; it’s all right.”

“Presentation: This unit’s shoulder. Temporary access granted to Lady Dol. Shall we cry together…?”

They would’ve had the slimmest chance of victory had they been up against Shiro by herself, but a game against Blank was a lost cause…

Not only that—the girls had lost more than just this game.

Steph took Emir-Eins up on her offer and cried on her shoulder.

The trio had guessed right.

Back at the off-pink castle, Black Shiro’s fortress…

“Mwa-ha-ha… Ha-ha-haaa, AHHH-HA-HA-HAAA!! Pitiful. Look at how tenuous their bonds are without a common cause!! So weak—so easily manipulated!!”

It wasn’t Shiro who was tapping away at the screen but her brother—Sora.

He executed a stunning series of maniacal cackles as if he were a real Demon Overlord.

 Sora indeed had no knowledge of the Girl-on-Girl Alliance.

However: I knew things would turn out like this, he thought with a dastardly smile.

“There is but one way to build such a vast army under these circumstances: Create separate conditions to pick a winner before the game’s end, and the victor chooses who holds hands with whom. This made it possible to amass tips from the girl-on-girl shippers—am I right?!”

 Sora’s declaration wouldn’t reach the girls.

But since he knew the viewers were listening, he let them in on his secret.

“I deduced the terms of their victory were to capture either me or Shiro—maybe even both of us.”

In which case, it’s simple, really: We just need to pretend that we’ve run out of units…when we’ve actually hidden them.

The players don’t know how many soldiers are in their opponents’ possession. Piece of cake, then.

“All we had to do was make it look like Shiro had been taken out of the game… That one move put an end to their alliance! Then, we simply waited until the Alliance members defeated each other before ambushing them. Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am!! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!”

Sora laughed out loud once he’d finished explaining.

 Making it look like Shiro had been hit was the only real gamble he’d made.

Without any concrete proof that his method would work, he’d based his gamble on the slimmest evidence.

That evidence? Something Foeniculum had mentioned:

Our soul paint can’t destroy your personal belongings.

Were this true, then Shiro’s shirt would act as a paint-proof vest, which meant—

—even if paint got on his shirt, it wouldn’t touch the player wearing it!!

They tested the theory beforehand with one of Shiro’s soldiers—and indeed, the paint was unable to penetrate Sora’s T-shirt.

Granted, they couldn’t test whether that would take the player out of the game.

Not only that, but should the enemy’s paint hit her anywhere other than the shirt—which was particularly likely if the final blow was made by any soldier other than a sniper—it would most definitely mark Shiro as out.

Thus, it was imperative to lure the enemy into using a sniper for the killing blow.

There still remained a chance that, despite pulling this off, the enemy would check the point of impact as well—this would spell the end for the siblings.

This gamble of his was high-risk, high-reward. Sora grinned from ear to ear.

“Here’s where things get interesting!! They’ve already taken Steph out of the game—it’s just Jibril and Emir-Eins left, the couple the viewers want to see most!! So who are they gonna support this time?!”

Steph was the only person in the Girl-on-Girl Alliance who could make the Flügel × Ex Machina couple come to fruition.

However—this was no longer the case now that Sora had sussed out the terms of said alliance.

“I bet they’re gonna support Shiro—which means me!! Hope you two ladies are ready to be dominated by overwhelming skill and numbers!! MWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!”

Thus, in a single move, the tables were turned from inescapable defeat to total victory.

Sora was acting more like a Demon Overlord than his sister—and speaking of whom…

“…H-how…?”

Shiro had followed her brother’s directions with the paint-proof shirt and listened to his entire spiel.

She stared at him in astonishment before stammering a single question:

“…How…did you get out of the cage, Brother…?!”

Shiro had put Sora in a cage before the game started.

She’d even had him handcuffed and gagged.

And yet—he’d suddenly appeared behind her and started tapping away at the controls while explaining his strategy.

She questioned where Sora had learned this Houdini act—but his answer shook her to the core.

“I just walked right outta there. You never locked the cage or the handcuffs.”

……What……?

“The gag was really loose, too. You made sure I could escape at any moment, didn’t you, Shiro?”

The Demon Overlord candor now gone, he’d reverted to his usual kind smile, which made Shiro think.

 I didn’t mean to do that.

She wasn’t sure if she’d forgotten to lock him in or if Sora was telling the truth.

Whatever the case—Shiro grew even more desperate.

“…Then…why didn’t you push me away…?!”

“I’d never push you away,” replied a bewildered Sora, leaving his sister speechless.

 What’s he talking about?

I don’t get it. What does he mean—?!

“…B-but after all I put you through, after everything I said to you…don’t you find me repulsive?! I—I don’t even know…what I want, or what I’m doing anymore!! You should hate me for all this!! Why aren’t you pushing me away?!”

Why are you being so nice to me…?!

Why are you helping me?! If I win…

“…You’ll never be able to get a girlfriend for the rest of your life!! Why are you on my side?!” Shiro shouted, her voice quavering in confusion.

“Hm, I’d rather you ask one question at a time, but first of all—did you do anything that terrible to me?”

Sora tilted his head, puzzled. For a second, Shiro felt as if she saw the light escape his dark eyes, and she froze.

 H-huh?

“At least I don’t feel like you said anything particularly cruel to me. I am a loser—it’s a fact—and it was wrong of me to try getting a girlfriend. I mean, think about it. ‘Never get a girlfriend for the rest of my life’? Let’s not kid ourselves here; I couldn’t get a girlfriend even if I wanted to. Any Covenant-binding wager that prevents me from getting one is no skin off my nose. So, like, the way I see it is: no harm, no foul.”

 Wait. Did I actually break him…?

Shiro began panicking internally just a little—when Sora answered her other question with a warm, gentle smile:

“I’m always on your side, Shiro.”

“ ”

Shiro listened blankly…and at last, she understood everything.

It finally clicked—something that she should’ve known all along…

“No matter what you want to do or try, I’ll always be there for you. You wanna go to hell? I’ll gladly join you. Wanna destroy the world? Just tell me when and where.”

 In this world where the Ten Covenants exist…

…how and why did she kidnap, imprison, and even whip her brother?

Sora had already answered this question back when Shiro was crying in the bath.

Doesn’t matter if you want to yell at or hit me. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you feel better.

He accepted her for who she was.

He would stick with her through thick and thin.

Not only that:

“If you really do hate me—if you really can’t forgive me—then that’s fine. If you want me to go away because you think I’m a loser, if you never want to see me again—I’ll do just that. I dunno how I’ll manage afterward…but… Yeah…”

 I’ll accept your feelings even if you can’t stand me. But…

“Until then—I’m never gonna abandon you, and I’ll never leave you crying all by yourself.”

This was the wish Shiro made when she cried to herself.

Her brother was there to answer that very wish—

“So, uh, your loser brother, who may or may not have been sexually attracted to you, this super-gross life-form mentally and physically at the bottom of the loser food chain in any dimension, will always be there for you, until the day you want me to leave.”

Shiro told herself:

That day will never come.

Not in a million years, so—

Sora joked the way he always did—but his next words were genuine.

Just like always, the weight of his words was likely lost on Sora himself as he said them.

And those words were—

“You and me, Shiro. We’ll always be together.”

—without question, an eternal vow…

…………,

They didn’t make her heart flutter.

She didn’t blush, or tremble, or even tear up.

Her maelstrom of tumultuous emotions abated until it almost felt like they’d been one big lie.

Shiro gazed at her brother’s face—into his eyes—as she listened to him speak those words…

…Ahhh… This… This is what I wanted…

Yes… These words she’d heard so many times.

Ones that didn’t make her anxious or giddy—they felt just like the sunrise at dawn.

They were right in front of her face, so natural and familiar by now—so she just listened, as relaxed as could be.

Suddenly Shiro had another fleeting thought.

She recalled the first time she’d heard him say these words.

It was the day they’d first met. At least that’s how she remembered things—but she knew that was wrong.

She knew she’d felt just as she did in this moment.

She must have felt a spark one time he’d said those words—but when was that?

Shiro had no idea, no matter how many times she ran through her memory banks—so she smiled with relief.

 Ah… I knew it.

I was right. Guess I was just a bit confused.

This love of mine—started long before I was born.

I was scared he wouldn’t like me, that he’d abandon me, that he’d get sick of me. I was so anxious, so scared…

Lovers are so fleeting. It’s a relationship so ridiculously fragile, one that can end at any moment.

Me and Brother…

We must’ve finished all that business long before we were born…

 …………

With ninety seconds left on the clock, the game was quickly approaching its end—

“Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!! At long last—it’s time for the viewers’ paid requests! Here’s mine: I order Jibril and Emir-Eins to hold hands!! Yo, Foeniculum!! Hurry up and give them my demands— Uh, wait. I’m technically not a player in this game, so I guess Shiro’s gotta do the asking. Whaddaya say, Shiro?!”

Just as Sora had predicted, all the soldiers came to a sudden halt when the two remaining players surrendered to the winner.

He ordered the pair to become a forced couple for a day, and Shiro heeded his demands with a brief nod before taking out her phone.

Returned to her senses, she glanced at the gate behind the throne—and then at the numbers displayed on her smartphone.

 The group had far surpassed five billion points.

Shiro realized the true intent behind Foeniculum’s game.

 I see. So one of us can leave if we buy a key…

We all thought that buying this key would be the hardest part—but we were dead wrong.

The real problem was the other four members—they needed to pair up in order to pass through the gate.

Foeniculum realized the group needed to make enough money to buy a key and win the game.

So who would end up as couples, and who would use the key?

If they formed two couples, that meant either Shiro or Sora would have to be paired with someone else.

No way the group would be able to decide that peacefully—so this was Foeniculum’s solution to get them all out of the Spratul in one piece…

Furthermore—Shiro had unwittingly failed to lock her brother’s cage and handcuffs.

What was her subconscious intention behind placing the throne room in front of the gate?

 That’s obvious, Shiro thought with a small grin, thoroughly convinced.

…She currently had both the smartphone and the tablet in her possession.

I’m the only one who could possibly know that we’ve achieved our goal of five billion points.

I need to take advantage of this situation—this is an opportunity.

Shiro was back to her normal self. Employing her usual thought process, she devised a plan.

True… I managed to remember that Brother and I are more than lovers.

But still—am I fine with keeping things the way they are?

 Might as well take our relationship a bit further.

Though Shiro was back to her regular self, she was still dressed as Black Shiro.

“Hee-hee… Brother, I’m so glad you finally learned your place. You loooser.  ”

Shiro peeked at the screen from behind Sora.

“Now you’ll never be able to get a girlfriend.   You’ll be with your little sister forever.  ”

“Yup. Pretty awesome. You know what’d be even more awesome, though? If you’d turn back into your regular self,” he responded with a grimace.

Meanwhile, Shiro’s brain groaned as it operated at full capacity.

…How did I do it earlier?

How did I speak so smoothly?

Losing her mind had caused her to cease all thought and speak eloquently—so she was simply emulating those conditions.

She kicked her brain into overdrive to do the impossible. Her head felt ready to split open.

However—she didn’t care if it did. She was going to take this relationship one step further!

Her brain was going a mile a minute to re-create her Black Shiro persona.

“Okay, repeat after me:   ‘I’m a perverted loser who’s been sexually attracted to his little sister.’  ”

“Right. I’m a perverted loser who can’t deny that he may have been sexually attracted to his little sister.”

“‘I’m a pathetic loser whose little sister is allowing him to stay by her side.’  ”

“I’m an extremely lucky loser whose benevolent little sister was willing to look past how pathetic I am and let me stay by her side.”

“‘I take responsibility for confusing my little sister and pledge to make a pass at her.’  ”

“I take responsibility for confusing my little sister and pledge to make a— You want me to do what?!”

Shiro silently approached Sora. He’d reacted just as she predicted.

“Brother…I told you to repeat after me.  ”

With the same grin painted across her face, she crept closer—one step at a time.

Overwhelmed, Sora tried to retort while he backed away from Shiro.

“I’m not gonna do anything like that to you!! Talk about unforgivable!!”

He kept backing up until he hit the wall—which was actually the gate.

Shiro made her eyes tear up—it was time to finish him.

“But Brother…you said you’d do anything I want you to… Were you lying…?”

“I know I need to take responsibility for how much confusion I caused you due to how big of a loser I am!! I promise that, if you still want me to do something like that once you’re back to normal, I’ll consider maybe potentially doing something somewhere down the line!!”

Sora saluted as he rattled off his knee-jerk response.

…Mm. I can live with that.  

Shiro flashed a satisfied smile, and then—

“Tiiiiiime’s up!! The game’s finished!! Our forced couple for the next day is—Jibril and Emir-Eins!! Yeehaw!!!!”

—an announcement from her screen confirmed that the game was over.

Her brother would remain a bachelor for the rest of his life.

She also confirmed that the two of them could hold hands without becoming a forced couple.

Shiro then tossed her phone aside before bodily throwing herself at Sora.

“Whoa, what’re you doing?! I was being sincere, you kno ?!”

She grabbed his hand and pushed him through the gate behind him.

Sora reflexively opened his mouth to speak…

…but she kept him quiet by closing it with her own.

The two were enveloped in light as they passed through the gate. Shiro slowly removed her lips from Sora’s and, with flushed cheeks, whispered in his ear:

“You promised…okay?  ”

Foeniculum and her viewers witnessed everything…

Indeed…Shiro had no intention of leaving the Space That Only Couples Can Leave with anyone but her own brother.

The viewers watched as Shiro and Sora—the pair who realized they were more than a couple—left the Spratul first.

They were followed by Jibril and Emir-Eins, locked hand in hand as they bickered all the way through the gate.

A teary-eyed Steph eventually showed up alone, a dreary smile on her face—although not having to pick a partner came as a huge relief when she found Shiro’s smartphone with the key ready for purchase.

That was the end of the stream.

“All righty then…I’m pretty sure y’all know what that means—”

The ka-chings kept on coming; Foeniculum turned to the camera and addressed her viewers.

“This concludes the Space That Only Couples Can Leave private stream, brought to you by yours truly, only on Channel Foeniculum.”

 The tips were still pouring in, but the program had long since reached five billion points…

The viewers knew exactly what this meant; they’d been told what the goal was beforehand.

It was part of the terms of service required for subscribing to Foeniculum’s private channel.

“ Okay, lemme check with y’all one more time…”

Therefore, what Foeniculum said next wasn’t an explanation, but a confirmation—a speech.

“Most Fairies serve the Elves just to get a taste of their love lives. I’ve always been against this personally. And that’s because I think love between members of the same race is boring as heck!!”

There are sixteen races in this world.

So why does everyone stick to their own kind? Why be satisfied with such basic love?

“You folks called me crazy when I said this. Y’all wrote me off as nuts…”

Yep. Everyone used to laugh at Foeniculum, the bottom-of-the-barrel streamer.

“Now I need to ask… You think I was the crazy one?!”

That same Foeniculum was speaking to her over 1,800,000 subscribers—every single Fairy who wasn’t an Elven Gard slave.

“Whoever wants to see the next episode of this love story—follow me!!”

That’s right: This wasn’t the end.

It was the just the prologue!!

“Us Fairies are gonna work together with those kids to create a new world!!”

The world they were trying to make would be full of the love Foeniculum had showed her viewers over the past ten days.

“Just imagine!! Immanities in love with Flügels or Ex Machinas. Hell, even Flügels and Ex Machinas are on the table. An Immanity and an Elf, maybe even an Old Deus and a Werebeast—plus, the Immanity-on-Immanity love we saw was pretty incredible, too. All this passion I’m talkin’ about—our new world is gonna be chock-full of the stuff!!”

That’s right… She wasn’t talking about a dream of hers or her hopes for the future. The love she spoke of already existed—she’d shown it to her viewers.

“If any of you folks ain’t interested, now’s your chance to familiarize yourself with the UNSUBSCRIBE button. But hear me out!!”

If you aren’t going to take the step that needs to be made…!!

“We’re all Fairies here, children of the god of love, Alram!! We’ll go so far as to sell ourselves into slavery to get our fix of other people’s romantic endeavors!! It’s a Fairy’s duty to fill the world with love—so if any of you pathetic Fairies ain’t about that life, you ain’t welcome!!!!”

Within seconds—her screen was buried in a wall of comments, all saying…

“““YES, YES, YES!!!”””

Foeniculum grinned as her viewers flooded the chat.

Excellent. Now then…

She raised both arms and proclaimed to her people:

“As your agent plenipotentiary—I, Foeniculum, think it’s high time for a rebellion.”

The next instant, an immense amount of soul power began spiraling around the Fairy representative’s wrist.

It was none other than the five billion souls she’d gathered from her Fairy viewers, as planned.

More raw power than what had been used to engulf Elkia in a Spratul—

“We’re gonna see the love of a lifetime unfold—something that’ll change the world!! No more will we live in those shitty dark ages where we scraped by on Elf drama!! That ends today!!”

She was going to use the indescribable soul power at her disposal to steal Elkia back.

Those souls converged and transformed before Foeniculum’s voice rang out once more:

“We’re gonna take on Elven Gard together with Sora and the gang!! We’ll hit the Elves wiiiiith a Sprite Shade!!!!”

The spatial phase boundary rumbled from this declaration of war……

The five participants had escaped the Space That Only Couples Can Leave—the Spratul that Foeniculum had created.

Being ejected onto an uninhabited island off the coast of the Eastern Union left them baffled at first.

But they wouldn’t have to suffer for too long. They’d just heard Foeniculum’s voice from somewhere nearby…

The moment she said the phrase Sprite Shade, all their suspicions and confusion flew out the window.

The answer to everything was in their lost memories—all of which had been restored.

Ah yes—the entirety of their memories.

Memories so meticulously erased to keep the five of them from realizing the truth.

The memories involved a sort of poison that Sora and Shiro had created.

And just as suspected, that included the details of how they had ended up in this game.

Namely—

—their memories regarding Blank’s first major loss…

Their poison had been used against them—and they lost.

There was no room for excuses. This was a clear-cut defeat. They’d been utterly, categorically beaten.

 By Elven Gard.

More specifically, by Elven Gard’s president.

The Elf agent plenipotentiary—that man—had defeated them…