They've lost. There's no denying it. And it's his own fault.

Kubo's standing there laughing as the city collapses around them. Rindo drops to his knees in horror, the broken pin on the crumbling ground in front of him.

He can't breathe. It's over. Even if he survived now…

"Your fatuity never fails to make me smile…"

"No…! Curse these Noise!"

Hishima and Shiba…

"Nagi! Fret! You good?"

"Not at all! Help me!"

Fret…

"Hrgwhh…!"

Nagi…

"Gah!"

Beat…

"Beat! Agh!"

Even Neku…

"Later… loser."

Shoka…

Everyone…

They're all gone. Because of him.

He's the one who has time travel. He should have all the time they need. Isn't that the point of time travel? To fix the past and save the future? To prevent the end of the world?

They've failed. Because of him. Because Neku was right and he shouldn't have been using his powers. That he hadn't once stopped to think about the possible consequences. That he didn't listen to Minamimoto's explanation a few days before. That he hadn't realized that those birds meant anything. That he couldn't just stick with one decision. That his indecisiveness led to this.

His indecisiveness, something Fret had always complained about him, led to the end of the world.

There are no more second chances. Kubo made sure of that. The sky had turned red and the buildings had started disintegrating into the hold and sigil in the sky.

If they hadn't tried to help, hadn't been forced to play this stupid game, maybe Fuya or Kanon or Motoi would still be alive. Maybe they'd have been able to solve this. Maybe they could've done what he'd never been able to.

He's a terrible leader. Sure, Fret had assigned him to be the leader, but he should've done a better job of it. He should've convinced Minamimoto not to leave them. He should've taken Motoi's advice with a grain of salt, not blindly trusted him. Hell, he didn't have any evidence that proved he was An0ther either, even if that was true in the end.

Should've done so much more to prevent all the deaths, all the resets, all this destruction.

And now? All his friends are dead. Worse than dead. Gone, without a single memory that lingered in the world.

He wonders what Kariya, Uzuki, and Coco are doing right now. They trusted him. They put their faith in him to end the game for good. They're probably gone, too. Overwhelmed by Kubo's Noise that he strengthened and created.

This is all his fault.

And there is no fix.

The world is going to end.

"The Game's over, kid!" Kubo gloats. "And now, so's Shibuya!"

And even as a weird strange light rains down from above onto Kubo, whose screams can barely be heard over the wind it kicks up, Rindo can't find himself to hope.

Even when the city's returned to normal, and his Mom remembers that he exists for the first time in three weeks, texting him as if he left the house to hang out with Fret mere hours ago.

Even that feels like it happened years ago.

Everything's as it should be in the eyes of the world. The sky is blue, the city is as loud and bustling as ever, the life-sucking Syndrome wiped from their minds.

Except his friends are still gone. No one remembers that they exist.

The world may not have ended, but his own sure did.

Rindo understands for once what the phrase to lose the battle but win the war means.

He can't be happy. He can't enjoy what he used to. FanGO goes untouched.

His friends are dead.

The city is safe, but he lost.

It was a game that he had no choice but to lose.

And it was all his fault.


This one tried to switch to all HTML text too. I saw the 1.6k words in the doc right when I went to post and went, "wait that can't be right, it's less than 1k" so here we are with this awkward author's note