Disclaimer: I don't own The World God Only knows
I wanted to write up my interpretation about how chapter 266 went down. Bear in mind that, it could be wrong but even if it is, I hope you enjoy the story.
"Nii-sama, please wake up. Dinner is ready." I woke up to stare at Elsie's smiling face. The black sky above her seemed to glitter with lights. Clusters of stars hang overhead, decorating the night sky with an empty white shade. Tsukiyo would probably describe it as natural beauty but I had other matters to focus on. The smell of well cooked fish drifted towards me as I spotted a table with two chairs arranged parallel to each other rather like a romantic date.
I brought myself to a sitting position with my familiar 17 year old body and called her name. She replied with her usual babble of her terrible dishes with her all too familiar childish enthusiasm. The fish flopped off the table and Elsie chased it much like a young girl might chase a butterfly. Once done and seated, I questioned where she have been, and much like before she apologised in that childish tone of hers.
"Also, it was really hard to stop time too." She brought up a remote and flicked though channels until the T.V. screen displayed Haqua and Nora dashing through a cave. The scene flicked through to the others and it appears everyone is fine. Good.
"Looks like everything is finished. And they all lived happily ever after." I thought back to the start of this whole mess. The contract request to conquer a girl, just one. Not the Goddess or the runways spirit hosts. But one specific girl.
"Not yet," I calmly stated. "We still have business regarding you, don't we?" Elsie stared blankly for a moment before I carried on "In the end, what were you exactly?" From the start, she was always optimistic but almost completely unhelpful. At least when compared to skills of the other New Devils I later on met. After all if they wanted me to really capture the runway spirits with love I would have been partnered up with Nora, her ability to look into the heart would have been a tremendous help in the conquest. Instead I was stuck with a completely incompetent naive girl.
Though at first I assumed it was just negligence from Dokurou Skull part, after the whole time travel and the meeting with Dokurou in the flesh, there would be no way this was due to negligence. The orb had the power to search through all realities and pick the one most suitable, there were several situations where the Goddesses would be stronger as evident by the reality where all the Goddess host fought for me during that absurd lunch fight. Common in Dating Sims, when you set up a harem like that their love points must be high otherwise they would have turned on you. Yet even then apparently the future of that world would end up in a apocalyptic setting according to that Dokurou in the dream.
So why pick this reality?
What made this reality different. If the Goddess strength played no role, if it all led to the same ending then the Goddess aren't a factor. I made mistakes and I'm not proud of them. Yet this was the outcome that the orb needed.
So what was it? What was the factor that was necessary for that bad ending?
Who was it that appeared first after the contract mentioned for me to conquer a girl?
Who was it that just happened to have Kanon skills when we needed to replace Kanon?
Who was it that gave the hint necessary for me to discover the school history and in turn led to me discovering the Shiratori name?
Who was it that was there when I came back to my world from the parallel realities only to return back to them again?
"You're right!" She waved her arms as if it that would explain everything. "It looks like I was the last boss!"
So it was her after all. "Hm."
"Huh? You're not surprised?"She twisted her face comically.
"I had a feeling that something was up. After all a stupid person like you being part of an elite group like the runway spirit squad seemed very strange indeed."
"Wow! As expected of Nii-sama! Even I didn't realize that myself!" She sunk a little into her seat as her mood tuned sombre. "But because I was summoned once again I remembered a little about my past." She went on detailing her past, about how the 'bad people' awakened her or in other words used her as a weapon. The chief reincarnated her to protect her and anyone else she might be used against.
"The reason the chief sent me to the human world.. I get it now! I really love this world."
It was then all the pieces fell into place. Why this reality was necessary.
Because she loved this world.
In the reality with an all boys school, though she is carefree she wouldn't have fit in. Guys would talk about girls or she would be teased by her childishness or something that would make her uncomfortable. Added to that she would have to constantly hide her gender, while her magic skills were improving she wouldn't be able to use illusion magic to hide any offending part leading to more stress.
The parallel world where all the girls are clearly affectionate with me, in that world they would've ignored Elsie to focus on pursuing me. That pain of abandonment may cause her to hate this world, she might not show it but it will be there.
In that 8 bit world, my attention was entirely on Yokkyun, I wouldn't have connected with Elsie. I might have not even attempted to conquer any other girls. Elsie might have even become jealous.
That's why in this world, where she doesn't have a spark of resentment in her heart, she's willing to die to stop being summoned again.
"Nii-sama, when you were with me, were you happy?
"You were a huge inconvenience. I lived in an ideal world, but you involved me in a ridiculous and disorderly world like this... It's all your fault! However...There was no game worth playing more than this. I'm very satisfied."
And I was. At the start I saw this world as a crappy inferior to the gaming world. No one followed the beautiful logic of Dating Sims and was plagued by bugs. Yet, I was dragged in by her, and slowly I saw more to this world. I realized I was pushing my ideals against everyone much like Nagase-sensei was and assumed it was superior.
But ideals won't work like that, they are guidelines for that single person, something to aim at, but it's not always perfect. Akari and I discussed what a world full of perfect people would be like, she fully believed that the right course for human to take is to become perfect and, even if well intentioned, it's not the ideal world.
Kaori wanted the world to change because it didn't fit in with her ideal. She thought that the children that were studying were happy because they're idiots but she's wrong, they're happy because they're moving forward because the ideal is to move forward. She wanted to create an ideal world for us both but that would never happen because her ideal is wrong to begin with.
"Nii-sama, you already know don't you? How this game is going to end."
"Yeah, we don't have much time." The surroundings were starting to shift, the floor morphed into that of the appearance of waves.
"Ni-sama! I have one final request!" Elsie whispered into my ears, though I don't know why she didn't just say it out loud.
"Well, do as you please!" I felt arms wrap around me as my smile faded into a grimace.
"Nii-sama! Thank you so much!" My neck stiffened when I felt Elsie's hand hold the collar in its place "Well then, let's head back!" The collar phased through me back into her hand, my contract with hell it seems is now over.
"Katsuragi-kun!" The crashing waves brought me back to consciousness.
"Keima-kun." Fresh air entered my lungs as I approached an awake state.
"Wake up!" My eyes snapped open, Kanon, Tsukiyo, Shiori, Ayumi, Yui and Tenri were all surrounding me with worried looks in their eyes. I was back in the real world then. However there is still a task to do.
I must arrive at the ending.
There you have it, any grammar/spelling mistakes you spot, please let me know.
As for my opinion for the ending. I enjoyed it because Keima made a choice, which can be said much more than other generic harem animes.