"Onii-chan?" He knew it was only a memory, a figment of imagination that had come to life by the strange magic of… Whatever Stuart had done to him. Yet Hachiman couldn't do anything about it.

Her face was just as he remembered it. Komachi stood in front of him as if no time had been spent away from home, dressed comfy and looking confused as to why her brother was just standing in the middle of the living room.

"I…"

"Jeez, pull yourself together. At this rate Komachi will worry that you're feeling sick."

Hachiman tried to speak, but his throat felt clogged with all the thing he hadn't been able to tell his little sister. He tried again, but found no purchase in his mind. As it had been thrown into disarray. So instead he followed his instincts and took the little girl in his arms.

"Kya!" Komachi jumped in surprise "Onii-chan?!"

Hachiman buried his face in the little girl's shoulder. Not letting go.

"You're here…" He couldn't help saying the obvious.

"Well, duh. This is Komachi's home too."

Home.

They stayed on the couch for a long while. Not doing anything in particular. Simply hugging each other as the clock ticked but never really advanced. He stayed like this for minutes, hours, days. Even weeks as the book fed on his happiness.

After so long, he felt at home.

"Claes." Hachiman stated as the brunette entered the room.

Where was Alan anyway?

"...Ascart." She replied shyly, making Hachiman flinch as she made herself comfortable inside "Sorry, I thought you'd be more comfortable if I called you that…"

"No, I…"

"It's weird, I know." Claes chuckled humorlessly "How were the others?"

"I think I hate them now." Hachiman frowned. The words came easily enough now. After Campbell and Hunt bled their hearts at him like that.

"Sorry." Was all the brunette could say.

"They're scared." Hachiman replied. He didn't know when they sat down, staring at each other from their respective bed but he didn't hate it.

"I'm sorry." Claes repeated.

"...Thanks." He wanted to say it didn't matter. That he knew she hadn't done anything wrong. But his mind was a mess, and he did feel a little better now.

"I'm always troubling you." Claes chuckled "Even now I tried to hide knowing you probably saw something they shouldn't hear."

"You sent Campbell." Hachiman pointed out.

"That's… Complicated." It must be. Knowing your sweetheart had the knowledge Claes did couldn't be easy to swallow.

"It always is." Hachiman lowered his head.

"That's not reassuring." Claes smiled "Then again, Nicol-sama doesn't do reassuring."

"I feel like I was put in a blender and spat back out." Hachiman groaned.

"Oh no, are you alright?"

"It's an allegory." Hachiman clarified when the girl tried to reach out.

"Ah." Claes sat back.

"You're the dumbest person I've ever known." Hachiman said.

"It's why we're here." Claes replied bitterly.

"No. Had I been quicker. If I had noticed…"

"To be fair even Gerald-sama didn't see things turning out this way." Claes looked away, thinking "And he's like a super genius. So I don't think we could've actually done anything to stop this."

"That's a loser's mentality." Hachiman chastised her.

"I suppose I am one." Claes lowered her head.

"..." Hachiman closed his eyes tightly.

"... I'm thinking in terms of game parameters again aren't I?"

"I don't know." Hachiman admitted "I've never played this game."

"I did. Multiple times. Katarina usually met really gruesome endings in almost every route." Claes explained.

Had she mentioned it before? It put in context a lot of her behavior, and Hachiman didn't like thinking her whole personality had been built around not dying.

"I saw my sister, from my past life." He explained. He didn't like feeling bad for Claes, he hated it in fact "She was… The same as I remember. Bright, cute, supportive…"

"I had a lot of family." Claes explained "I haven't forgotten them, I just never stopped to miss them."

Hachiman lifted his chin.

"Why?"

"I don't know. Because thinking about them wouldn't make me return? There were so many things to do, new things to discover. Being gloomy and nostalgic was simply impossible."

"Impossible you say." He almost couldn't believe her.

"I mean, last time I saw them they were fine and well. They were smarter than me, I'm sure they're living their best life." Claes explained.

Their best life…

Hachiman wanted to think that Komachi mourned him. That his parents cried, that the house now felt emptier. Even if only a bit. But they worked for their children, and Hachiman believed they'd never let Komachi down. And she was great, so full of life and opportunity. If someone had a shot at living a long fulfilling life, that was his sister.

Don't be sad.

I'm glad you're okay.

Hachiman covered his face. He didn't want Claes to see him like that.

"I'm sorry." Claes repeated "I should've done more."

"You should have treated the others like people." Hachiman retorted without thinking.

"They were supposed to grow up to kill me! What was I supposed to do?!" Claes slammed her fist on the side of the bed, amounting to nothing at all but expressing her distress clearly.

"They were kids." Hachiman pointed out.

"So was I!" Claes retorted.

"We've…" …Never been kids. Or so Hachiman wanted to say.

He looked back at his time in this world, at the dumb arguments he got with Alan and Claes over the years. The way he smugly made fun of Stuart and how he stopped involving himself when the prince started to grow stronger and smarter.

They had been kids. Hachiman had been let out with servants watching him, being brought inside when he got hurt, and slept to mother's bedtime stories even though he thought he was too old for them. He had closed himself off after first arriving, and slowly worked his way out of his shell because Sophia was way too cute to worry…

Would it be fair to fault Claes due to her own childishness?

Hachiman lowered his head.

In the end, he enjoyed this life too. He too had indulged in his newfound youth, being swept by his body once more even though he had once gone through that process already.

"I thought I had it all under control, that I could just take the loss and roll with it." Claes continued "I thought only I could fail."

"That's naive. Even if you thought everyone would behave like their game selves, where did you draw the line with reality?" Hachiman replied.

"I… Never did." Claes admitted.

"So you thought that they were your friends… While paradoxically thinking one day they'd end up trying to kill you?" Hachiman blinked in surprise "Are you dumb?"

"Well, dark magic is a thing." Claes pointed out.

"Why didn't you prevent it then?!" Hachiman separated his arms to either side.

"I didn't remember the dark magic!" Claes replied "I was only told of the president's route. I'm not even sure I knew of the magic itself or not anymore!"

"You can romance a brainwashing maniac?!" Hachiman tried not to yell, but he didn't quite succeed.

"It's called gap-moe, you absolutely uncultured swine!" Claes deployed the big words on Hachiman without a second thought.

Hachiman got to his feet and grabbed her by the shoulders, face red and teeth hurting from how hard he pressed them. Only for Claes to not even flinch at the touch.

"This is…!"

Only then did Hachiman belatedly remember Claes' physical attributes were off the charts. She would solo everyone in this building without breaking a sweat, if she had to. And her ability to deadlift things bigger than herself hadn't even come into that equation.

"...Serious…" Hachiman exhaled, feeling cold after he came back to his senses.

"I'm serious too." Claes crossed her arms, pouting.

Hachiman chose to go back to sitting in front of her. Luckily enough, Claes hadn't registered him as a threat. So he didn't run the risk of being folded like wet cloth for being too emotional. Truly a miracle, one that he thanked the heavens for.

If he died, would he go back to his original world? Not something he wanted to find out, even if he missed Komachi dearly.

"So… The game." He tentatively commented.

"Yes. That." Claes sighed "The game."

Was there a winning condition? Had Claes and Campbell getting together screwed with that?

Could he go back to Komachi without dying?

"I'm sorry, Nicol-sama. Really." Claes added "If I had known you weren't really the game Nicol I could've… I don't know."

"How could you confuse me with a game character?" Hachiman frowned.

"...I'm not very smart?"

"No, you're not." Hachiman agreed.

"To be fair, I couldn't have guessed the Ministry was involved."

"There is something magical called connecting the dots. Looking for how things make sense for them to be working the way they are." Hachiman groaned "You should try thinking from time to time."

"..." Claes looked down "I deserve that."

Hachiman sighed. He didn't feel better for berating her.

"Can I at least know why I was sealed within the book?"

"Gerald-sama was affected by dark magic." Claes replied immediately after Hachiman finished his sentence.

He stood up and blasted the pillows off the bed with a wind bullet.

"Really?! Is that it?! Is this all dark magic?!" Hachiman grabbed at his hair, trying his hardest to not just make the whole room blow up. Cringing and struggling to not to scream "Come on give me something, anything at all other than that. I'm sick and tired of this."

"Ummm… Maria-chan and I are kind of… A thing now…" Claes uselessly offered.

"I knew that since the beginning." Hachiman retorted.

"What do you mean the begi-?"

"I don't know what to do. I don't know how to feel. All of this, ever since before the book. But now…" Hachiman dropped to the bed, arms to either side as he stared at the roof.

"I know that feeling." Claes slowly said "The conflict, the powerlessness. I've felt it too."

Hachiman looked at her, only his head off the bed as the girl stared at the connected fingers.

"It's frightening. Thinking it'll consume your all. That there's no escape." She continued "But… Being with my friends is helping, bit by bit."

"How come you feel bad for Keith but not your real siblings?" Hachiman accused her.

"Keith is my real brother." Claes frowned, angry for real for a moment "And the last time I saw him he was in despair."

That was it? The difference lay in how they had felt the last time she saw them? No. That couldn't be right. Even if Claes was dull as a piece of paper, Hachiman knew she could be crafty whenever she actually tried. She might be book dumb, but Claes was still a real human being. Thinking of her as this simple monkey girl would be doing the same she did to the others, to the so-called characters of the game that now pleaded to be helped.

Did she not love her previous siblings? Did she love Keith in a different way?

Did she feel like she should've helped more?

"You want to save him." Hachiman exhaled.

"...Yes." Claes looked guilty "I know he did a lot of bad stuff but… I want to help him."

Hachiman fell silent again, thinking.

Even if things were different, neither had any way of helping their other world family anymore. Nothing in this world suggested any way to travel to, or even the existence, of different realities. Hachiman might not be a scholar, but he took enough books from his father's library to know this much. That the difference between artifacts and direct magic rested on a slight change of channeling their mana. That mages could only shape the world so much before the world pushed back, figuratively and literally.

…

If Sophia was in trouble, would Hachiman not want to help her?

…!

"Where's Sophia?" He sprung to his feet like a spring. Suddenly alert.

"Eh? Not sure." Claes looked surprised, but quickly came to her senses "She wasn't with us. When you were trapped, was she?"

"No. I don't think so…" Hachiman tried to remember, but his brain was too messed up for it.

He dashed to the door.

"Eep!" Campbell jumped in place while Hunt pulled back.

"Sophia?!" He didn't have the presence of mind to ask a coherent question.

"Not here." Mary Hunt immediately replied "Nicol-sama, please calm down. Your sister is…"

"Somewhere we don't know." Hachiman hissed.

He felt his heart in his throat, as if it would give out at any moment. He felt it again, all those mixed emotions rushing and colliding into a vortex that clouded his mind more and more.

He had lost Komachi already.

But he too could lose Sophia now.

It was all dark magic. It was all around him. In the corners, and dark alleys. In the corridors of the most prestigious academies and research facilities.

"Nicol-sama, you're scaring me." Campbell said "Do I need to heal you or…?"

Hachiman grabbed her in lieu of an answer. Not with his hand, or arm, or any physical way.

The wind answered his call and the two girls screamed as their feet were swept and they flew toward Hachiman.

He was already going for the room's window when Claes grabbed a blanket and pushed stuff around it.

"...?" It gave Hachiman a second to pause, midway to opening the window.

"You're pulling us into flight, right?!" Claes balled her fist "Let's go! I'm not good for a lot of things, but I'll help however I can!"

She had pulled herself together so fast…

Hachiman had to learn a thing or two from her.

He reached out, and Claes hugged him around the neck from behind.

"Flight…?" Hunt sounded panicked, levitating like she was and almost unable to speak due to the roaring wind "No, no, no…! You cretin…!"

Hachiman pushed, and the window was almost blown out of its frame when the group was propelled out of the building. Soaring through the sky like a demented group of chickens thinking they could fly.

Hachiman did his best to cushion the fall as they landed on the roof of this or that building, and pushed his mana to get momentum to launch them all again.

"What about Alan-sama?!" Claes yelled to be heard over the air.

"I'll grab him!"

"How?!" One of the girls replied.

He knew it didn't solve anything. He knew this could be him running away again. But he didn't want to lose someone again. Someone that he could actually reach and hug.

"Welp, he launched himself in the air." Larna Smith said to herself as she saw the people she was supposed to look out for start being catapulted over the town "So brutish… No wonder lord Lanchester hates him. We're moving out."

The shadows became brighter, the people occupying them vanishing with their magic tools helping them erase their tracks.

"Keep them safe my…" She motioned over her face, a ring with a strange color brightening a little and turning back into the inn's maid before shifting into a different face.

C'mon. She thought. End this already.

Win or lose, Dan Ascart was now wasting resources playing this silly game of chicken. This researcher woman didn't care whether he won or lost. Only that the Ministry stood tall at the end and she was allowed to continue her research.