Work Text:
“Did you not wish for it?”
Ace had. Every time, he had written something that could bring him closer to her on as many DGP cards as he had been given.
But he had long stopped wishing for it. Lighting a flame in his heart to beg her to come back for him, for answers. He’d accepted that was something he would only find himself, fighting through the game. Winning, and winning, losing to the memory of her.
It felt unfamiliar, now, in this empty room, littered with rubble. To wish. By his side, the person without a face waited, unassuming.
Dangerous.
But Ace still had the Geats buckle. Waiting for the next game, this one halted without a winner yet the man said he had won all the same, by surviving. Lies, but to what end?
“There has never been such blatant disregard for the rules by a game master before to disfavour one of our contestants,” he’d said. Ace knew there had been. “Under the circumstances… we owe an apology.”
More sobering than even the ruined room that sent an unreasonable wave of panic through his heart was that they could not farm this for content and ratings. Away from the cameras, this could only be a trap. He just couldn’t see why. To kill him? They always could. And losing Ukiyo Ace’s life would be a blow to his plans but information was just as valuable as more games played.
“I don’t have a card.”
The man shook his head. “Cards are for the person making the wish in your stead.”
Ace had already learned one thing.
“There is no guarantee this wish will be granted. But we thought it best to offer you the opportunity.”
Why? The question bothered him as they walked around the circle of ruins, until they stood on the opposite side.
“Because of the card?”
“Not at all. The enemy damaged the system.”
A dud wish, then. A test, to see if the wish-granting device was fixed.
Why him? Why now?
Ace didn’t wish.
There was no card.
He didn’t wish.
Eyes open, Ace made a wish.
I want to see my mother.
Would it be rejected? Would the system still kick him out? Would the man realise—
In front of his eyes, the shattered pieces of a marble statue rose up, joined together but the cracks did not disappear, spidering through every limb. Stone grinding, barely held together by the wish.
A goddess.
‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Ace.’
A wishgranter.
‘I love you. We lo…’
His mother looked just the same as he remembered. Just as sad, fading away again. Deafening, the statue collapsed back into nothing, into dust and chunks of marble. Glittering where it was broken.
Ace felt broken too. Nauseous with the idea that they had used his mother, used her, used her for millennia.
That he had.
His hand, shaking, went to the driver. The man without a face made a gesture and it disappeared right under his fingers.
“Why…”
He felt heavy. Slow. Hadn’t thought he’d care if he died. He shouldn’t, now. He had his answers.
Even so.
“Your mother can never grant another wish.”
Then how…
Slow. He should— avenge her.
He would die.
They had saved him. Just today. Sacrificed their wishes to keep him alive. A waste.
But they weren’t here.
“They will not come.”
“How—”
They were on a screen. Sitting with Tsumuri at the lounge. Troubled, looking for something that wasn’t there.
“Tycoon’s parents were sacrificed to your mother.”
“Stop lying.” Ace wished it sounded like a lie.
“It wasn’t a normal game. Na-Go’s father wanted a new child. One that would be perfect.” The man turned what could have been his face to them. “I wonder… what he would think about it.”
The horror of it hurt. Burned. After everything Ace had seen there was still room for stone to dip in his stomach, weighing it down with realisation.
Michinaga was dead. Neon would be shattered. Keiwa would lose himself. Ace had seen it too many times.
Heavy. He felt heavy. He needed to avenge his mother. When he took a step, gravity dragged him down.
How had his wish been granted?
It couldn’t be—
Was that his fate? Their fate? His mother…
“It will take some time,” the man told the empty room. Pushed Ace to his side like the gravity meant nothing to him. “But time… is what we have most of.”
He disappeared too.
Something like a breath came out of Ace’s throat, scratchy. The world narrowed down to his mother’s broken form. To endless darkness, and few stars.
They were a projection too.
—
Time passed. It stood still.
Buffa was alive. In pain.
Na-Go was crying. Tycoon was screaming, at everything, at her.
There was a wish. Niram came, kneeling down, holding the card in front of him. Putting a hand on his shoulder. “Can you do it?”
His sincerity was more sickening than the game master’s cruelty.
Ace had no choice.
His mother…
The DGP lost. He didn’t feel any different.
The girl laughed at him. Buffa stared.
“Geats?”
“We’ll be in and out,” she grinned. “Oh, he’s gonna be a cute fox, I see it now.”
Ace did too, thin, flaming lines like another Geats mask in front of his eyes.
It hurt. It felt like dying. Just barely, he could see his fingers turning to stone.
Buffa left without a word, in more pain than when he had been dying. Shaking Na-Go out of her nothingness. Shaking Tycoon, unmoving in his anger.
It let him win. Step all over everyone. The DGP won.
The man without a face brought him to the room. To the wishgranter.
“I want to see it. I want to be certain.”
Tycoon’s steps came to a screeching halt.
“Is he…”
“He’s in no pain. He was born for this.”
‘I love you.’
He wasn’t. It hurt hurt hu—
“Ace…”
That was… his name. He had one.
Tycoon knelt down. His gaze was dead, and his – Ace’s – must have been the same.
“I see. I understand. You were right, game master.”
A card, in his hand. Ace knew what it read without seeing. Save everyone.
Save them?
Someone else would die.
“Why is he turning to stone?”
“That is how the goddess’s power works. It simply takes time.”
The card dropped down. “So that is why he can’t grant my wish yet?”
“Soon.”
“Soon,” Keiwa agreed. Looked through him. “Ace can do anything.”
He didn’t believe it; not anymore. Niram had. The girl had. The person without a face did. And Ace felt the lack of his, Neon’s, Michinaga’s belief in his petrifying bones.
—
Time must have passed.
Neon was stronger than anyone gave her credit for, but nobody can be strong alone. Ace was different. He thought he had been. Hubris. Then this should be nemesis. At the end of all things, tisis.
He hoped it came earlier than it had for his mother. Though she’d done nothing wrong, she had paid for everything her creators should have been burdened with.
“I’m sorry,” Neon told no one. Ace heard. “He’s angry at you because of me. Because I exist. This is all my fault.”
“No. It was mine.” Keiwa’s head hung. He hadn’t wanted to come here, now. “This isn’t what I wanted at all.”
Buffa joined them. Said nothing, though he bit his lips through.
“I want to live and it feels disgusting.” She fell down, a puppet without strings but they picked her back up. Carried her to someone’s bed. Hers. “It should be her. It should be them so why am I so afraid of—”
“I want you to exist.”
The shock of Michinaga’s words stopped her cold. Struck her quiet. He would never have said that even a few days ago. Shaking, she stared at him. Turned to the person who could only stay silent.
“Keiwa… You… are here…”
“I can’t. If I say it, it means I want my parents dead.” His face hid in his hands. “If I don’t, it means I want a world without you.”
There was nothing left to say. The room was still for so long they might as well have been the ones made of stone.
“I wish there was…”
But Michinaga didn’t wish either.
“…maybe, a world where everyone…”
But Neon could not say it in front of Keiwa either.
“…a world where everyone gets their wish.”
Ace did too. A world where everyone could be happy, where he never had to see them hurt again. How had he fallen so quickly? Should he not have known better? It always ended in tragedy.
The next morning – time passed, it did – Keiwa went to the man without a face.
“How long do I have to wait?”
“Your wish is far-reaching, no?”
“What if I just want my parents back?”
The man considered him. “That can be arranged. We have had a few deaths this round, even our new god should be able to do it.”
“I… want to save them myself. Offer my wish.”
The faceless man did not think this would simply doom someone else. For a moment, Keiwa hadn’t cared.
At the same time, Neon and Michinaga went to find a person called Ziin. What could he do?
What could anyone do, now? Ace was… no, not happy. He didn’t think he could feel happiness anymore. But watching over them was the last thing he could do. They would get out of the game, continue living their lives, and that would have to suffice for him when there was no reversing this. He’d even learned to bear the pain enough to hear his own thoughts, to direct his gaze at them instead of letting it get trapped inside this lightless room.
They still made it there. Came for him. Fought each other, just long enough for the faceless man to sigh.
“Don’t feel sorry for him. That is his life’s purpose.”
“You’re wrong.” Neon was… glowing. Residual power from Mitsume, Ace realised with a horrible longing. “Whatever I was made for, I can only follow my own path. Ace is no different.”
“And it’s not too late. As long as he isn’t stone, there’s still time.” Right. Among many other things, half of them lies they had to sift through, the girl had told Michinaga this.
But Ace was more stone than person, now. More marble.
Keiwa stopped pretending, turned his back on the faceless man. “I don’t want my parents to feel like their existence cost people’s lives. You should have known this.”
“It doesn’t matter,” the man said, content that it was true. “None of you can change the world. You can’t make the people watching care if you, or he, live or die.”
Even in this time, humans didn’t. In this world of finite joy.
A world where everyone could be happy. If such a thing existed… if it could be made reality…
As if hearing his voice, they turned to look at him, distorted through the fox’s features. Misshapen arms reached for him, even knowing he couldn’t reach out in turn. He lost sight of them when the man attacked, stronger than Zombie, than Beat, than Ninja. Ace could have made them new buckles, ensured their survival if only someone asked him to. Would have used his soul to make them if he had to. Lapidifying, now, along with the rest of him yet watching them lose still hurt worse.
Blood dripped down his back where Neon had fallen, dripped down her side. “I’m sorry, Ace.”
“No,” Michinaga growled. “It’s not over yet.”
“It is.” The man was right. In a few moments, they would die, and Ace would be…
Michinaga didn’t give up. Always rising again, like the buckle that was so fond of him even though half his limbs were broken. “Whatever that world looks like, I want to see it!”
The words broke something inside him. Something like the stone.
“Please, let it come true,” Neon whispered, so close, her warmth fading.
Keiwa gasped around the blood pooling in his throat. Spit it out, dark red on the colourless floor. “A world where everyone can be happy. That’s my wish, Ace!”
‘Including you,’ he heard, repeated several times over.
Even though Keiwa had won, it felt like—
The bell rang over Ace’s world. Loud, breaking everything to atoms and reforming it in the same moment. The last in which people would be used as sacrifices to an unwishing deity.
In the aftermath, they were alone in the room. Alone, with his mother. A brief respite before they needed to find Tsumuri, get her away from the game but he simply could not get up to do it. They helped him stand, calling his name and oh, Neon and Keiwa were crying.
After Ace had sworn to make them happy too. He smirked at them, pretending it didn’t shake, letting them carry him away.
“I’ll be fine, you know,” he said. Faint, but Michinaga heard.
“Never doubted it.”
Ace didn’t call him out on the lie. There was so much time yet for that. A lifetime, if he had anything to say about it.