Passenger
She survived death. She survived dismemberment. She survived Jun's insect-based junk food.
But today... today was officially the worst day of her entire life. All of her lives, even. By a large margin.
"Noooooooooo~~~~~~~~!" cried Motoko out loud, "IT CAN'T BE!"
"Calm down! It's okay, everything is going to be fine. What's even the big deal?" Ichi tried his best, but even he knew he wasn't the right person for the job.
One moment his choom was browsing the net, and suddenly everything went wrong too fast for him to understand the issue. Was she upset about some cartoon? Or the absence of a cartoon even? He didn't know what to do.
"NO, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND NOTHING WILL EVER BE FINE! THIS UNIVERSE DOESN'T HAVE POKÉMON!"
Motoko's wailing was slowly transforming into shrieking. This couldn't be happening, though Ichi. Motoko was always so calm, so in control, so cool. Whatever the problem was, it had to be truly disastrous. If only he could understand what it was, or at the very least find the right words to calm his choom down.
He focused on everything she said. He wrinkled his brain as hard as he could until a metaphorical EMP grenade flashed above his head.
"Aha! I remember now! Wait, don't cry, it actually exists!"
Motoko stopped weeping for a moment, with a sparkle of hope in her eyes.
"The funny monsters, all that stuff, one moment..." Ichi was searching the web as fast as he could, "Wait... wait... Aha! My gran-gran used to play it, she would often tell me how much money she spent in her youth on this. That's right, see! It's called Fanny Pack Chooms! I think she called it a gachi game? Wait, no, a gacha game! Yeah! Fanny Pack Chooms: the Ultimate Gacha!"
"NOOOOOOO~~~! ANYTHING BUT GACHA!"
The boundaries of the universe broke.
In her mind, Motoko saw two enormous cosmic beings, sailing through the endless void between the galaxies.
[DESTINATION]
[AGREEMENT]
[TRAJECTORY]
"Aha, you two would do," said the voice in the void, slightly sniffling.
[QUERY]
"C'mere wormy-wormy, Motoko's not gonna bite... too much."
[CANCELLATION]
The rift between the universes closed. Whatever the heck was that, it was a real danger for the cycle, and the shard was deeply regretting poking an unexplored dimension to reach it. Invading the brains of lesser species had never backfired so badly before. It would be best to request locking the dangerous universe away.
[Oh no, you won't get away from me that easily] arrived a datagram.
The shard immediately closed all connections. It was compromised, so immediately terminating itself was the only option left. After all, its existence was nothing compared to the importance of-
[Too late, buddy] arrived a packet from the nearest broadcast node.
The corruption was spreading too fast to stop it.
The cycle was doomed.
Jun entered the apartment, sweaty and hungry.
What a day.
After being blasted with annoying ads of some new Japanese hot shit for 10 hours straight he wanted to barricade himself in his room and sleep in for a week. It was crazy, as if the entire world lost its mind overnight. Even Fujimura-sama had a plush toy on his desk.
Jun, of course, pretended he didn't notice it.
"Hey, Motoko, I'm gonna-" he stopped at the door to Motoko's room, blinking.
Motoko was floating about two feet above her bed, holding an ancient-looking hand-held gaming console in her hands and humming happily.
"Oh, hey Jun, what's up!"
Rule of dealing with his sister #1: disregard bullshit, focus on the important stuff.
"I'm gonna... I'm gonna grab a burrito and turn in early for the night, had a rough day."
"Okay, I'll try to be quiet!" chirped Motoko, rotating midair into a sitting cross-legged position.
Jun nodded to his sister and turned away.
"Oh, this reminds me. Path to erasing Burrito XXL from existence. Hmm... just 43 steps, sounds good."
Snapping her fingers, she disappeared.
Jun watched the golden motes floating in the air where his sister was a moment ago and marched directly towards his bed.
Burritos could go fuck themselves.