Everyone could have died. It's a thought which keeps Ringo awake at night until she can't take the scenarios anymore. Requested by badgerdactyl on tumblr!

based on the prompt: "Oh...don't cry."
content warning: descriptions of an anxiety attack.

New Game Plus

She had been an average middle school student. She liked science, mathematics, and studying. She helped run her parents' grocery when they were away, and naturally, she loved apples. She hung out with her friends in the club room conducting experiments or playing games, and on weekends, they explored Suzuran and had sleepovers.

Then, that average, simple, cozy life crumbled into a fine, fine dust right before Ringo Andou's eyes.

Magic was real. Interdimensional travel was real. A skeleton drinking tea was real. Popping multicolored blobs in a specific pattern triggered a surge of electricity to rush through her body, confirming it was very, very real when she saw smoke drifting from her fingertips.

All logic was thrown right out the window. Everything she had once known was turned upside down, and she was thrust into the plot as the heroine who knew nothing. She didn't know what to do. She was dragged around by other teenagers who understood the situation far better than she did, Puyo battling after Puyo battling for answers that she could have gotten by simply asking them if only they weren't so adamant in battling.

But it was fun. Meeting new people and understanding their quirks, it was fun. She had new friends even if they severely confused her. Amitie was kind, Raffina was bold, Sig was a bit spacey but he helped. Even Skeleton-T and his...duplicates, if she could call them that, gave her tea bags from his world for her to try when she got home.

And the world was almost destroyed. As simple as that sounded, the world she had once loved, it all could have been destroyed.

It was a revelation which kept her awake at night and forced her mind to race. What if she had failed? What would have happened to everyone? Would Ecolo really bury it and kill thousands, millions, or billions as they hollered and laughed at their feeble cries? And she had helped them, going along with their insane plot, fighting people at the slightest provocation until the world nearly unraveled before her eyes all because she thought they were a person she had known for mere minutes.

Arle congratulated her when it was over. Amitie and her friends cheered. Ecolo was gone, presumably back in the throes of spacetime. Hands grabbed Ringo and squeezed until she felt all the blood in her body coagulate, but she smiled because she was the heroine who felt the weight of the world on her shoulders

Even if it was so heavy that her spine felt like it would snap in two, even if the insanity of it all left her shaking at midnight, she was the heroine. It was her role, and she played it well. She was the shining light cutting through a dark, twisted plot. She defeated the villain who cackled that she was nothing more than a pawn in their game, but Ringo wasn't a fool.

Everyone could have died. No survivors, no Suzuran, no Japan, no Earth.

Nothing.

She tried downplaying it. Keeping the pain locked up in her heart was almost too easy. She smiled and studied, trying to return to the life she once knew. She practiced Puyo like it was another game and traveled to new worlds filled with strange customs that she absorbed because to her, it was all new knowledge.

But the nights were cruel when she stayed in her bed. Late nights became dawn. Surmising what would have happened, analyzing intangible data in the form of memories, untaken paths, and supposed consequences, she played those scenarios in her head again and again and again until one day, and she hadn't realized it, they had taken her over.

If I hadn't battled Rulue, would Arle have been freed?

What if even half of the Puyos crushed the planet, what would the consequences be?

Everyone could have died.

If I hadn't learned Puyo, would Amitie and her friends have saved the world?

Will Ecolo return? What can I do then? How can I stop them if they've become stronger?

Everyone could have died.

Suppose I couldn't protect Arle. Would Ecolo still be possessing her? Would she have been the only one alive?

Everyone could have died.

Everyone could have died.

EVERYONE COULD HAVE DIED.

The scream left her before she could stop herself. She raked her fingers through her curly crimson hair. The world became a viscous blur of colors as tears welled in her eyes and rolled down her scarlet cheeks. She shot up in her seat and didn't hear the metal chair clatter onto the tiled floor, her own wailing too powerful.

Eyes locked on to her. Confused voices rose up. Lights from smartphones blinked as students recorded her. The teacher dropped his pen, his wrinkled face paling as he stood, stupefied as Ringo sobbed in her hands.

An arm looped over her shoulder. Her feet moved according to someone else's will. She heard comforting words being whispered as students piped up, nosier ones demanding to know what was wrong with her. Those flippant students could never have fathomed what she endured, and it made her cry a little harder as he rubbed his thumbs along her hands to pry them away from her eyes.

"Oh, Ringo," Maguro murmured as they stepped into the hallway, the bright teal lockers hurting her eyes, "don't cry. "

"How-how can I not?" she blurted, her voice shaky, a tone he rarely heard.

"Is this because of… " He trailed off and itched his neck.

She sucked down a breath and saw the world shatter into more pieces than scientifically possible. Lava damaged the stars. Oceans spilled out and burned until they were charred specks. Not even bleached bones remained. Only Ecolo's laughter did.

"It's over, " he said, but his words sounded much too hollow to be true.

"They could come back. Stronger, faster, more powerful than I can-" She choked on a sob and covered her mouth, her eyes bulging to show their full whites.

Maguro gripped her shoulders, but when she flinched, he massaged them, slow, soothing circles on the body ridges which made a chill race up his spine.

"How long have you been worrying ?"

She didn't reply. He almost didn't want to know.

"I've been worrying, too. " He coughed out a chuckle. "It's-it's all so weird, right? Magic powers, me using my kendama as a weapon, you using math terms as spells, it's all so weird. "

"It all happened so suddenly, too," she said, wiping her eyes. "We can't...go back to how things were."

Admitting it made her heart tighten. She felt her ribs jab into her lungs with every breath. The easygoing life she enjoyed could never come again as the spotlight shone down on her with lights too hot and too bright.

"We're still here. We can still enjoy things like how they used to be, " Maguro said, lowering his voice. "You, me, and Ris, we'll still have fun together. There's just…" He glanced at the classroom door. "...new responsibilities, I guess. "

A muted chuckle pressed against her lips. "When did you get so mature?"

He smirked, a puff of air spearing through the spaces of his teeth. "Same time as you did, I bet. "

"Everyone could have died," she said, clutching her elbows.

"I know." He closed his eyes. "I know. "

"We would have been...responsible."

"No. " Maguro furrowed his brows and dug his fingernails into his palms. "That was Ecolo's fault, not ours. They wanted to do something messed up. They chose to try to ki-" He cleared his throat. "You know, they tried, and we stopped them. "

"Maguro…" Ringo pressed her palm to her eyes and wiped them, and he never wanted to see such a despondent expression on her face ever again. She sniffled, took a breath, and murmured, "I'm scared about next time."

He took her hand in his and said, "I'm scared, too. "

They weren't Arle and Schezo. They weren't Amitie and Sig. They were not Andou and Sasaki, but Ringo and Maguro, two middle school students thrust into chaos and survived with scars which wouldn't heal so easily.