A/N: Hehe... I've watched the clip of Ace being bound with barbed wire in the opening intro far too many times already. I kept thinking about a situation where Ace would end up being sealed somewhere

It was too late.

It was too late for him to realize what wrong he had inflicted on Ace's heart. Even though the two of them did settle on their differences just hours prior to the final round of the so-called Desire Royale, he didn't actually apologise properly to Ace about the harsh words he had said to Ace when Daichi revealed the 'truth' about Ace's mother and Ace's true nature. When he found out that Mitsume was actually forced to become the Goddess of Creation, he and Ace decided to make up and be friends again and work together to end the game. And now that he realised that fact, perhaps he should have had that brief talk with Ace before the final battle.

Ace was really a very kind person... a fact that one normally would not be able to notice if they had never spent any time with Ace to get to know him better. When he thought about how many times Ace had been playing in the DGP—across different eras and lifetimes—perhaps he could understand the reason why Ace had always acted as if he was always a cunning trickster.

Because in this world where everyone risked their lives in order to have their wishes granted, it was unavoidable for you to encounter different kinds of people with different kinds of personalities and moralities. You won't be able to survive long in the DGP if you were too kind or trusting. And you'd also encounter people like Nadge-Sparrow who easily mix truth and lies to mislead you to their advantage. And despite how he should've known better after being tricked once by that guy, Keiwa always ended up being tricked.

And indirectly, he has caused much hurt to Ace. Because Ace had opened up his heart to him. Yet because of some misleading information, he had distanced himself from Ace and treated him as an enemy for a good portion of the Desire Royale.

And somehow in the middle of that chaos, Ace somehow thought up a way to free his mother from her cruel fate while also providing a chance for other people to still be able to gain access to the Goddess of Creation's powers.

If he could've somehow figured out about Ace's plan much earlier, could he be able to stop Ace from proceeding with his plan?

.

Keiwa turned his head to glance at Tsumuri, who decided to sit on the ground beside him as well.

"How long... has it been since the last Desire Royale?"

He had to ask about it, even though it shouldn't have been long since he and Ace had last fought together. Which was why Tsumuri's next answer took him by surprise.

"It's been a month."

Keiwa almost swore aloud. "What? How?" That shouldn't be possible! How could he not realize that something had been seriously wrong for a whole month?

"H-how..." Keiwa's voice shook as he tried to force his words out of his mouth. "How many times had the new DGP been played since the last time I was in the 'show'?"

Tsumuri's answer was very short. "This was the very first one ever since Ace became the Creation Deity."

Before Keiwa could even let out a sigh of relief, Tsumuri continued explaining.

"But Ace had first used his newly acquired power as the new Creation Deity to revive the DGP players from the past four DGPs that have been killed during the games back to life. And during this past month, the new Game Master had been making preparation to restart the Desire Grand Prix again. There were also a few test runs being done as well."

Keiwa felt himself getting sick the more Tsumuri told him about the preparation to restart the DGP. He thought back about the many times Ace tried to tell him that his mother had been suffering while continuing to grant the wishes of the players and the Game Masters who had been controlling her.

Does that mean right now, hidden inside the Desire Temple's hidden room... Ace had been suffering alone? How could he do nothing for Ace while being aware of that fact?

xxx

"When will the first round of the new game start?"

"The new round will start once every chosen player has submitted their Desire cards."

.

What kind of wish should he write on his Desire card?

For the first time in his life, Keiwa realised how reckless he had been acting so far. Because he was never one to be thinking of practicality, so most of the wishes he had written on his Desire cards had been pretty idealistic. Now that he thought about his past exploits, he shuddered to think how much of a cost that could have been consumed from the games had he won the game as the new Desaity and granted them the opportunity to make his wish come true. While the wishes he had written were made with noble intentions, what kind of sacrifices he could've incurred without being aware of the truth? He never thought JUST thinking up an appropriate wish could be so hard. Keiwa sighed.

How did Ace figure out what wish to write on his Desire card all these times? When Ace wasn't even allowed to write in the wish that he had actually wanted, how did he think up all the seemingly 'pointless' wishes while taking his time and strategising his tactics to find out how to find his mother?

Neon once told him that Ace said that he couldn't write the wish to meet his mom on his Desire card. So that means, the same thing should happen to him if he tried to write about wanting to see Ace on his Desire card. So he needed to find another way for him to be able to save Ace. And should he make a wish so recklessly, what if he was eliminated from the game prematurely? If he wasn't killed off in-game he would return to normal life, but he will forget about the wish he had written. He would even forget that Ace had been sealed as the new Creation Deity. Then who would save Ace afterwards if not him?

And he couldn't afford to play the long game the way Ace used to do. With every new round of DGP games, Ace would continue to be tormented while being under the control of the DGP staff. How could he do that to Ace? How could he abandon Ace after the man sacrificed so much for him? He needed to save Ace as soon as possible!

Should he ask for help? But even if he made contact with Neon and Michinaga-san... what good will that do with him being the only one with a Desire belt? Unless the others were also given the chance to join the game, he couldn't request assistance in the game. And even if he could, how could he possibly ask the others to risk their lives for his selfishness? When they've already returned to their own lives, blissfully unaware of the DGP's existence.

What a difficult quandary...

But perhaps now he could understand how Ace used to feel while spending thousands of years trying to find his mother. Perhaps now he could finally understand the extent of Ace's desperation to save his mother.

xxx

Ah... whatever.

Perhaps he should have acted more boldly and strengthened his resolution to fight for his wish until the bitter end. He might not be as strong a fighter as Geats, but that didn't mean that Tycoon was in any way weak. Compared to the first time he joined the DGP, he was a lot stronger this time. So even if Geats was not by his side, he shouldn't have fared worse.

Keiwa gritted his teeth as he finally wrote his wish on his Desire card...

.

[I want to have the power to save my best friend.]