Firstly, thank you for levelgap for the review, you made me have a lot to think about for the special reason of Ichiei's condition. Have some idea on it, although I dunno when to reveal it. Maybe on a much more later chapters.

In another note, thank you for your amazing story for giving me the inspiration to write this one!

I would like to thank you guys for reading this far on the story!

Let's fall lower to the rabbit hole together.

Insert evil smile here.

Heh.

Jokes aside, I really am thanking you guys from the bottom of my heart, truly.

Fun fact: I was listening to a certain vtuber clipper on Utube who made an hour of a certain fox sound on loop.

It took me 3 and a half loop to get the plot fleshed out for this one.

ouch.

As always, AN on the bottom~

...

So anyway,

Enjoy~!

Disclaimer: any and all events that are on this story is a fanmade, its fiction, completely unrelated to any kind of real life events,etc. it surely as heck does not belong to me. Every character that were included in the story belongs to their respective owner.


Sagami Ichiei was speechless.

In front of him, a rectangular blue translucent panel just seemed to materialize out of nowhere. The panel was black outlined and there were something written on it. This just happened after he had agreed to help Fubuki make contact with the outside world through the use of Vtuber avatar. As innocently looking as Shirakami Fubuki was, she actually had a sharp mind. In fact, she was the one who suggested him to let her talk to other people using a animated 2D avatar. The reasoning was plausible as well, by making her looks like her 2D avatar, none would realize she actually looks like that in reality. It was an unexpectedly good plan from her.

It seems like she got the idea after watching those streaming videos posted on WhyTube, the one with 2D avatars placed on the bottom right of the screen.

All she needed was to make one. Fortunately for her, she didn't have to go as far as to commision one by herself.

Sagami Ichiei, afterall, had the knowledge to create one already. And he couldn't bear to see Fubuki's lonely expression she had made in the past few months when she thought he wasn't looking.

In lieu of this, he accepted Fubuki's proposal and went on to his self-made computer rigging, time to create something to keep his fox friend happy.

Yes, ichiei have considered Fubuki as a friend, both of them.

After a while living with the bubbly persona of Shirakami Fubuki (white), he had grown attached to her and her positivity inducing presence. Thus, same with Matsuri's case, he would atleast cherish and protect their life with his eternal one.

Even if he already knew he couldn't be with them for long, Sagami Ichiei was happy with his current life.

And he would do anything to keep them happy.

To do that, first, he would need to press the power up button of his own PC setup.

That was the plan anyway. Before he was suddenly assaulted with the blue panel. The word 'CONGRATULATIONS' was written in bold futuristically looking font. Below that was written.

You have made a Starter Contract with entity : Shirakami Fubuki [White]

Rank : Unique

Contract Duration: Permanent

Date : March 20

Dumbfounded, Ichiei tried to touch the screen, only for his hand to helplessly pass through, causing him to lose his balance and fell of his chair.

Not long after, Ichiei started to get back up on his feet and stared at the panel with confusion written on his face.

'Weird'

After making sure he wasn't going crazy, Sagami Ichiei pressed the big gray looking rectangular panel inside the blue one which he assume was the button, the word written on it was 'CONFIRM'.

After the button was pressed, Ichiei's vision was filled with more of the same panel, this time in black with light green numerical words written on it. The numbers shifted from up to down in a really fast rate, as many more panels filled his vision. One panel intrigued him in particular.

Booting the I.C.C Program . . . . . 25%

Booting the I.C.C Program . . . . . 67%

Booting the I.C.C Program . . . . . 99%

I.C.C Program installed.

Connecting with main frame network. . .

Connection established successfully.

Synchronizing User data. . .

Synchronization complete.

Searching for Database. . .

Database Found : encrypting data. . .

Data successfully encrypted.

Launching the I.C.C Program-

...

Ichiei's vision, as well as his other senses were suddenly cut off. He couldn't perceive anything and the deafening silence of the dark space surrounding him feels so unreal. It's like he had came in contact with the concept of nothingness itself. It's like he was back, to the realm of limbo where he will then need to open his eyes into a new reality. The thought of even going back in time scares him, as well as giving him a new look of indifference as he had already resigned himself to those cursed path.

Fortunately, his current state didn't last that long as he could feel his senses back to normal. He could see that he was still in his own room, the digital clock on his desk had shown him that not even a second had passed.

20:31

'That was... by far one of the worst experience that could've happened'

He thought to himself, as he finally letting go of the breath that he was unconciously holding.

As soon as he had calmed his panicked state, Sagami Ichiei started to scan through his vision which were filled with game-like interface.

[SAGAMI ICHIEI] - Lvl.4

Age : 17

Gender : Male

Life Points(LP) : 200

Essence Points(EP) : 3

Experience of Production(ExP) to next level : 25

Skills :

Mastery of Sounds

Mastery of Arts

Mastery of Schematics

Mastery of Numbers

Mastery of Words

Mastery of Martial Arts

Mastery of Literatures

Mastery of Technologies

.

.

.

.

... and the list kept on going, but what have taken his interest was the last skill placed on the very bottom.

He Who Knows No Rest [Passive]

'He who tried to reject time, thus time shall reject him'

the usage of this skill will brought the users mind as well as his knowledge back in time.

Time limit : 24 years.

Time until next reset : 7 years.

...

Ichiei's face were hidden under his dark hair, his mouth won't utter a single word after knowing the fact about his life. A single terrifying fact.

His mind was in a disarray.

After all this,

his eternal suffering,

his damned existence,

his never ending cycle...

Rejected by time itself ?

He didn't even tried to reject time! In fact, he just wanted to live longer! Was there anything wrong with that?!

Sagami Ichiei was enraged after the sudden revelation, angry for the fact that someone like him became the victim of time itself with no means to fight back.

Before he could even start to throw some stuffs to quell his burning anger, another darker blue translucent panel popped on his face, it read 'Message' on the top left. Reluctantly he humored the sender by reading it, the words on it stated 'You are ready. Let the lady of FATE guides you', below it was another button which let him chose either to accept or reject.

"Well, if I'm already rejected by concept of time, why not make it two for two?" He challenged as he pressed the reject button, not realizing the gravity of his situation.

'I have been doing that since my first ever death anyway.' he reasoned himself.

Another screen popped up.

'You are ready. Let the lady of FATE guides you.'

Another more popped up.

'You are ready. Let the lady of FATE guides you.'

And another, and another, and another more.

Ichiei's vision was filled with blinding white words that dictated 'ACCEPT THE FATE' all over his vision written in multiple colors.

A heartbeat.

Thump

An abrupt stop.

Ichiei hunched over as his left hand tried to grip his chest, where his heart was. He could feel the beats of his heart as it grew faster and faster. Cold sweats pouring down his face, a shadow of a hand grabbed his neck and began to choke him. His eyes slowly rolled over as he tried to keep his blurred vision, conciousness started to left him. His body felt like it was combusted in molten lava, his skin itched as if small creatures had crawled under.

His mind then worked at full overdrive, which made his brain thought at 20 times the speed of an average person, a special skill he had acquired in the past life.

It comes with a cost of course.

A cost he didn't need to think about right now.

He could feel his body slowly dying.

Like the tick he was familiar with had reached the 24 count mark.

"Ghak! Kugh! Agh!"

With a massive amount of struggle, in the unbearable pain that he was in, He finally managed to utters these two words, swallowing his pride.

"...I A-ack! A-Accept...!"

Forced to choose between another unfulfilling quick death or to live with someone else in control of his action, although a little late, Ichiei's answer was obvious enough.

Better a weak dog who lives, than a mighty lion who died.

He still had so much to live for in this life, afterall.

For them.

A certain grumpy fox.

A certain childhood friend.

and a certain bubbly god incarnate.

He doesn't care for that as long as he can spent the rest of this life with them, however short he had left.

Not long after, the messages vanished one by one, before it were completely gone. Like it was never there in the first place. Ichiei's sighed in relief, his gaze went to the digital clock once more.

20:34

Only three second had passed.

It felt longer.

It felt...

Awful.

Ichiei in his downtrodden state went to the bed. He just wanted to sleep the night away, Fubuki's avatar could wait, he loved her truly, but he couldn't do that in his current condition. He just wanted to take his sweet time after those teriffyingly 3 second of his doom.

He feel sick.

Thus, Sagami Ichiei closed his tired eyes and accessed the world of dreams.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"Thank you everyone! I'll end the stream now! See you guys later~" a single figure could be seen waving both of her hands inside the monitor screen. Rows upon rows of chats filtered up bidding their goodbye as well congratulate her for the good work.

The camera shut off before the female figure eased her body on the chair, her head leaned back.

"Fuah~"

"Good work, Sora, here take a drink"

"Thank you, Aisha-chan. So what's next on the schedule?"

"Let see. You would need to do a meeting with the head branch in the next hour and a half. Apparently they were talking about doing another audition to get some new aspiring members in. And they'd like your input as one of the core members. After which we will go on with the daily dance practices for your next song cover." Aisha remarked as she flipped through the notepad, her eyes peered with such focus as to scan the marked texts.

"Wait, let me stretch for a moment. Give me a sec. hnggh~ Fuuh..."

"Pfft..."

The one named Aisha only let out a little snicker, which in turn make Sora feel embarrassed.

"...! Don't laugh! My body just feel stiff after sitting on the chair for a long time!" A tinge of redness could be seen on her cheek, her mouth turned into a pout.

"Ahaha, I know. You always tried your best Sora, so its okay to make a small fuss about it. Its a given to be a little stiff after such a long stream. Shall I try to message you then? We did have a bit of free time before the meeting." Aisha offered.

Tokino Sora only smiled back as she nodded. She then began to relax herself on the chair, while Aisha walked to stand behind it before both of her arms extended to touch Sora's shoulder, gently kneading them.

"Hnngh~ your shoulder rubs are the best~"

"Uhn."

"..."

Sora's stiff body soon morphed into a more relaxed state, her mind entered into a sense of tranquility. She began to feel sleepy, as her eyes started to droop.

Sora uttered something before her eyes finally closed shut.

"...Thanks, A-chan"


[AN: andd...cut! So we get a small explanation on the gamer HUD that Ichiei had gotten his hands on, as well as the 'program' it came from.

I.C.C Program, I have many ideas on how it will mean but still can't decide if I want this or that to be the main idea for the story flow.

I can't decide which path I wanted Ichiei to go through damnit!

ahhh!

Well, anyway, that's my take on the 'partial-gamer' part of the story. Dunno if its good or not.

And we also get a bit of timeline reveal! Tokino Sora and A-chan! Yay!

Thank you for reading!!

See you next chapter-

['Connection' program deactivated ]

Hope to improve~