#089 – I couldn’t have asked for a better friend

#089 – I couldn’t have asked for a better friend Initiate voice call with user: KaiEbikoOfficial? Y/N (86522 DP available) I stared at the confirmation message with no small amount of trepidation. After that little debacle with the secret area in the dungeon yesterday, I’d spent a lot of the day resting... but also reflecting again. Mostly on my actions and how the past me from Earth would never be able to casually decapitate even a small animal, much less dungeon monsters shaped like people. That, combined with how cavalier I’d been about stuffing things into my soul via Soulbound Item and Fusion, began to paint a pretty grim picture for my depleting sanity. Oh sure, I could still pretend to be fine, just like always, but I could tell that I wasn’t. In part thanks to Jane pointing certain things out to me. It didn’t help that people in chat often goaded me into doing things that sane people wouldn’t do. And in doing so, little by little, I had begun to lose something vital. My humanity...? My sanity...? My common sense...? Probably all of the above? Sure, Vcubers tended to be pretty eccentric. Some might even say crazy. But for most of them, that was supposed to be an act. A show for the audience. We were performers. But what if having to live through several life or death situations in a hostile, alien world blurred the line between what was my act and who I really was? When I’d first grabbed the sword in the spaceship dungeon, I had been desperate, but maybe part of me had seen it as a prop. Or maybe like a video game power-up. I mean, swords were cool and I liked being cool, you know? Same went for the Soulbind Item. Even if I could feel it, I... still only considered it a thematic upgrade. But this wasn’t a game. These items and skills weren’t just props, they were tools to help me survive. And just like a fire could cook your meal or burn down your house, sometimes these tools could have real consequences for using them. Like Soulbound Item. To put it simply... Ebiko had been right to be worried about me fusing things into my soul like it was no big deal. Granted, I couldn’t really do much about it now, unless I wanted to unequip Soulbound Item and never equip it again... Which, despite everything, I was reluctant to do, since I’d spent so many skill points on it and its upgrades now. But... I could at least try to be more careful with what I fused into my soul. I should try to be more careful. And of course, there was the fact that Ebiko had been worried about me and I’d more or less just brushed her off. Of course she would get pissed. I would be pissed too if I found out that my friend had been hurting themselves while hiding it from me, and then brushed off me being worried for them. Regardless, I wanted to wait for her to come back. And I’d done that, but... it had been four days since she had last visited my stream. I was starting to get worried that I might have screwed our friendship forever. I wanted to apologize. And, well, I could also just message her, but that kinda felt like... not taking this seriously again. Like I was chickening out. I had to actually talk to her. I took a deep breath, checked that John was indeed far enough that he shouldn’t hear what I was saying, and confirmed the call. Call with KaiEbikoOfficial Requesting voice call. Please wait... I immediately felt all the anxiety as I sat there and listened to the phone ringing sound, waiting for Ebiko to pick up the call. I waited and waited... And on the fourth ring, Ebiko... ...rejected the call. I felt my heart drop to my stomach. Was this really it? Had I screwed our friendship forever? What if– KaiEbikoOfficial: busy rn ...Oh. ...I probably should have messaged her first anyway, huh? Well, now I just felt double stupid. AotoNana: Okay, sorry. Please let me know when you can talk. I mentally sent her a DM and then deflated a sigh. Dammit. I couldn’t even apologize properly. Maybe this dead world eroded not just my humanity, but also my social skills. Hah! I had been a shut-in Vcuber! As if there had been anything to erode in the first place! Actually... wasn’t my current situation kinda similar to how I’d lived back on Earth? I was basically just all alone here in my room with my only real social contact being chat and my Vcuber friends. It was just that my room was now world-sized and filled with weird dungeons. ...Yeah, that comparison didn’t really work, did it? KaiEbikoOfficial: ok you can call I blinked as one of my forks delivered the DM to me. Then with a bit of trepidation, I pressed the call button again. She picked up on the first ring. “Hey, Nana.” Her tone sounded different from her usual cheer. It immediately tripled my anxiety. “H-Hey, I... uh... I’m sorry! I’m sorry for... being a jerk. For being so thoughtless and stupid and for just brushing you off! I’m sorry!” There was a moment of silence after my outburst and I suddenly felt even more anxious. Why the hell were normal relationships so hard? The parasocial ones were so much easier... “...You’re talking about the soulbind thing, right?” “...Yeah.” “Well, no... I... I feel like I have to do it at some point, but...” I still felt apprehensive about it, obviously. “Okay. Don’t do it yet. I’m gonna brainstorm the locked skills thing with everyone and maybe we can even figure out what the limit break will be about, alright?” I nodded, finding myself smiling. “Alright! That’s... yeah, okay.” “Hmm? Something wrong?” “No, it’s just... Thanks, Ebi. I... You know, I was just really worried after we last talked. Worried that you never wanted to talk to me again.” “Of course not! It’s because I was worried about you!” I couldn’t help it, I laughed a little. “I’m glad... I’m so glad...” I sniffed, blinked, and then noticed my vision getting blurrier and liquid flowing down my cheeks. Huh...? Why was I crying...? “...Nana?” I quickly wiped my face, thankful that she couldn’t see me, and did my best to hide what just happened. “Yeah?” I said, doing my best to keep the moisture out of my voice. “...I’m glad too.” Ah, dammit. The tears were flowing again. Was this what it was like to have someone truly care about you? It felt... really nice. I could get used to the feeling. “Sorry, I just... thanks. Really, thanks, Ebi.” “Of course, Nana. We’re friends and I’m getting you out of that world no matter what.” Ah, parasocial relationships had nothing on having real friends... “Yeah! Screw this world! I’m getting back home even if it kills me!” I exclaimed, probably loudly enough that John heard me. “Nana, no! Don’t die getting home!” she chastised me, but I could hear the joking tone in her voice. We laughed and talked for quite a while longer after that. I felt lighter, happier, and more determined than ever to succeed. Although when I brought up the incausal rifts again, Ebiko had something to say. “Oh, right. There was something else I wanted to tell you about.” “Something else?” “Yeah, so we were going through the achievement list that you screenshotted for us and... some of them were kind of concerning.” I frowned. “Like, what...?” “Umm, hold on... Okay, so, look up a tier three achievement called ‘Back in a jiffy’.” I hummed and did as instructed. Back in a jiffy - Complete your first incausal rift. “Huh. Complete? Hmm... Okay...” There were some mildly concerning implications there. After all, I’d thought that these rifts would let me go back in time, but ‘completing’ one would imply that I would do something in the past and then... what? It would spit me back here? Also, ‘your first incausal rift’? “That’s not all. There’s another achievement for the second rift and then the third, search for...” I went silent as I read the achievement name, feeling mildly disturbed, but searched for them anyway. I hope you aren’t breaking the timeline - Complete your second incausal rift. Tier four achievement. It... had more weird implications. Firstly, it more or less confirmed that these incausal rifts allowed time travel, but also... What was up with that name? Who wrote the achievements text, anyway? Who was the ‘I’ in that achievement name? The fate weaver, right? It had to be. But then... That would mean... “And there’s a third one in tier five. Search for...” I felt a chill go down my spine as I heard the achievement name. Numbly, I scrolled to the tier five section and found the achievement anyway, though. You could have stayed there and been happy, but now you’ll never see them again - Complete your third incausal rift. I stared at it for a while in stunned silence. Ebiko might have been talking, but I couldn’t hear her. My full focus was on this absolutely cursed achievement name loaded with implications. “Ebi...” I said, my throat dry. “What the fuck does this mean?”