"Want some ice cream?"
In front of the freezer full of cones, Kanoya Rui suddenly turned and asked Shimazaki Yuna this.
She gave him a strange look.
"…It's November."
Winter. No snow yet, but the chill outside was enough to freeze someone stiff—and he wanted ice cream?
But Rui brushed off her look without a care.
"You can eat sukiyaki in summer, right? Then you can eat ice cream in winter. Anyway, the whole building has central heating. No reason not to enjoy it."
He shrugged, his tone carrying a bit of helplessness. "Mainly, I don't know when I'll have to go back to my own world. If I decide to wait until summer for ice cream, and then… I never make it to summer—what then? If the taste is right in front of me, I can't leave regrets."
If he returned to his world—or if he never did, if he died in battle—then he'd never get another chance to enjoy these foods. Knowing that made him cherish them all the more. Losing something was what taught people how to treasure it.
Yuna sighed. She could understand Rui's thinking, but that didn't mean she'd risk a cold or stomachache for ice cream. She wasn't one of the Created. For her body's sake, she decided.
"Two cups of hot milk tea. Extra coconut jelly."
On a freezing day like this, hot milk tea was the only answer. A single sip, warmth pouring into the stomach, spreading outward to every limb.
While they waited, they whispered. Coming here was less for the food than for a private talk.
"Sōta hasn't really recovered."
Rui dug into his ice cream with the little wooden spoon, then said this around a mouthful.
"Sōta's just an ordinary person. The most ordinary. He gets jealous, makes mistakes, feels inferior. No different from some passerby wandering the streets, lost in life. If one bit of advice could truly wake someone like him, then the world wouldn't be full of people dying without ever finding what they really want."
Yuna's tone was calm, as if she were speaking of something unrelated to herself. She never once turned to look at Rui, standing beside her.
"The more one learns, the deeper the madness. The more one thinks, the harder it is to escape. Humanity treats wisdom and knowledge as divine gifts—but at times, they're poison that hasten self-destruction. To think is to wake… but also to drift toward folly. What Sōta needs right now isn't endless self-consuming thought."
True thought and wisdom were Meteora's kind—stripping away illusion layer by layer until truth shone through. Not Sōta's kind, chasing his own tail, exhausting himself like a wanderer in a labyrinth. Yes, there was a chance of finding the exit—but far greater was collapsing before reaching it.
"He needs a pause button. Something to pull him from the deep sea onto the shallows. Or rather—"
"A place to shift his focus. Somewhere to keep him busy, not brooding. Right?"
Rui bit the spoon between his teeth, watching the clerk hand Yuna their teas. With a sigh, he added, "Feels like being a fool wouldn't be so bad. No need to think about anything—just focus on what's in front of you. Like this ice cream. So good."
"Wisdom and thought are a gift of the gods. But dullness and forgetting are blessings too. Everyone has their view, their stand. …Where are you going?"
With milk teas in hand, they turned back. They had to rejoin Van Gogh and Sōta. In the time they'd spent together, Rui had noticed—Van Gogh and Yuna were tied by an invisible thread. Not as extreme as Sora and Shiro, but Yuna simply couldn't bear to let Van Gogh leave her side for long.
But suddenly, Rui stopped. Then turned and ran—back toward the ice cream stand. Yuna blinked in confusion.
And then she heard him yell over his shoulder—
"I think I got a 'buy one, win one free'! I've gotta cash in my prize!"
"…"
Yuna stared after him, speechless.
Seriously? You're worried about redeeming that? Your expenses here are all reimbursed by Kikuchihara-san's government budget. Even if you bought out every ice cream in the store, no one would blink. Every shop in this building is state-run. And you're fussing over a freebie?
When they returned to their seats, Yuna handed one milk tea to Van Gogh.
One for herself, one for Van Gogh.
Soon Rui came back too—holding a brand-new, unopened ice cream.
"You guys have any hobbies?"
He swept his gaze across the three, then asked out of nowhere.
"Hobbies…"
Yuna was first to answer. She touched her chin, thought a while. "Probably drawing. Especially drawing with Van Gogh."
"Ehehe… Van Gogh loves drawing with Yuna too…"
Her low laugh sounded, head bowed. "Drawing… Van Gogh loves drawing… because besides drawing, she doesn't know what else she can do… ehehe… sorry, Van Gogh's saying things like that again…"
She ducked her head further, sipping milk tea like an ostrich, as if that could make people and their gazes vanish.
"That's nice though. Having a friend with the same hobby. Double the joy, right?"
Rui leaned his cheek against his hand, spoon in his mouth, speaking with honest envy. "I really wish I had someone to talk mecha models with…"
He did love mecha models. When not fighting in his Gigas Machina, he'd hang around shopping malls—half for the food, half for the models.
Especially the ones tied to him. His own Gigas Machina's figures. With the government footing the bill, he'd bought plenty to line his room.
He even planned to bring them back to his world someday.
"Mecha is man's romance!"
Clenching his fist, Rui shouted the classic line with passion—then whipped around toward Sōta.
"You agree, right, Sōta?!"
"Uh…"
Caught off-guard, Sōta froze, pulled out of his thoughts. All he could do was nod dumbly.
But he wasn't lying—he did like mecha. Well, he liked most things in 2D, really. Mecha was just one among them.
Like how no one ever has just one favorite waifu.
Since the plan was to distract Sōta with hobbies, to ease his tension, then it had to be with something he liked.
Rui had thought of taking him flying—but the [Gigas Machina] cockpit was single-seater. Two could squeeze in, but three? Impossible. He wasn't about to force two girls to cram in there with them.
So, in the end, they chose instead to go with Yuna and Van Gogh—to see their drawings.
"I'm curious too. About your work."
Rui smiled. "Meteora said all the Created who appeared here shared one trait: their worlds and themselves had huge popularity. Matsubara-san and the others told me… Van Gogh-sensei's works were even more popular than Selesia's story, right? But I haven't seen any characters from them show up in this world…"
"If Van Gogh-sensei's characters appeared, that would be a real problem…"
Sōta had clearly read Van Gogh and Yuna's manga. His words slipped out naturally.
Which only made Rui more curious.
"They're that powerful?"
"Plenty are strong… but their trouble isn't just power level."
Sōta thought back, tongue clicking. "Take the first arc's final boss—Goetia. He caused the Incineration of Humanity by destroying seven key points in history, collapsing all of human history. And then there are the Heroic Spirits—Servants summoned into the world. Any first-rate Servant can level cities, even destroy nations."
Saber Artoria's Noble Phantasm could flatten a mountain.
Karna's anti-country Noble Phantasm could turn entire ranges into magma pools.
Vlad III could transform a kilometer radius into a field of impaling hell.
Ozymandias could throw a pyramid-sized fortress like a firecracker.
Compared to that, the Created here, wrecking a few streets and an overpass, really were small fry.
If Karna and Arjuna fought in this world—think the government could keep it under wraps? Think people would still believe in "gas explosions"?
He shuddered, but then forced himself to reason it through.
"…Probably exactly why Van Gogh-sensei's characters haven't appeared. They're too strong. Altair can't control them."
After all, every Created who had appeared so far was dragged out by Altair. Popularity alone wasn't enough—too powerful, and they slipped beyond her leash.
Strong but manageable = not popular enough.
Popular enough = too powerful to control.
As the meme went:
"What do you like in a 2D character? Face? Body? Personality?"
No. Version strength.
XP tastes change, but tier strength is eternal king!
If a character had both XP and tier? Even better. I've been saving for years just to roll this card today! That's not gacha addiction—that's dowry for my waifu (or husbandu)!
Yes, Van Gogh's manga had fans. But with so many strong characters, the spotlight split. The ones popular enough to manifest were the terrifying monsters.
Like Tiamat. Hugely popular. But would Altair dare touch her?
"…From the way you put it, that world sounds too dangerous."
Rui's face twisted, uncertain whether in awe or fear. "Nation-destroyers everywhere… feels like living there would be hell."
"It's fine. Humanity in that world already went extinct."
"…What?"
"Several times."
"…WHAT?!"
Wait—what?! Billions of people, extinct. Just like that?
Extinct several times over?!
What were they, cats with nine lives?
That world, was everyone some kind of Paradox Meltdown Phyllis?!
And what about the protagonist?! Isn't that their job—to stop world destruction?! What kind of protagonist lets humanity go extinct multiple times?!
Yuna's words had Rui rattled. He'd wanted to see Van Gogh's work before—but now… it didn't sound like a fun read.
"Lots of tragedies? Tons of knives?"
"Impossible."
Yuna waved her hand with absolute confidence. "Totally positive, uplifting, wholesome."
Beside her, Van Gogh furrowed her brows, mouth opening—only for Yuna to press her down, silencing her before a word escaped.
Something felt… off. But Rui let it slide.
Please. He was the protagonist of his own world! Like hell a manga was gonna stab him.