Chereads / Happy Eroge Life! / Chapter 9 - Chapter 9: Always Stay with Me

Chapter 9 - Chapter 9: Always Stay with Me

"FATE"

FATE is an extremely powerful being that maintains the order of events in the whole universe. She takes an appearance of 18 - year old girl with short blue hair wearing a Gothic black and white dress tied up with several red ribbons. She is one of the 10 guardians protecting the universe. Her official title is "Guardian VI, the guardian of fate. She's also ranked 9th strongest guardian among the 10

FATE doesn't really have a weapon instead she controls the ribbons around her dress that she calls "Red Strings of Fate", it was a gift from LOVE after noticing that FATE needs a way to defend herself. These ribbons acts like tentacles that can do multitude of things such as ensnare targets, stab and slice by hardening and speeding up ribbons and many more. The most notable thing that these ribbons can do is to alter the very future of the universe itself. She can change the outcome of the future of any being. She can even change the fate of a fellow guardian. She commented that changing the future of a person is like "controlling a puppet" using her ribbons. While she lacks attacking power, she can just change the future to remove any unwanted outcome making it impossible to hurt FATE

Her personality is cold and emotionless. She can be a bit sharped-tongue and come as rude to many people. She always serious to her job as guardian, unlike her best friend LOVE. For some reason, she only trusts LOVE and only involve herself with other guardians if necessary. LOVE described her as a "Kuudere mixed with a Tsundere"

Despite her cold personality, she does it with a purpose. Because her emotions can change the flow of timeline of the whole universe. For example. Whenever she is angry, the fates of the people usually end up with a bad outcome. While when she happy, the fates of the people change into a good outcome. FATE sees positive and negative outcomes as both failures thus she remains emotionless. LOVE still wants to see her smile just one time

Currently, she made a bet with LOVE about a young boy finding love using the "EROGE system"

-o-o-o-

Meanwhile in NoWhere...

LOVE and FATE are getting excited over the power they gave May

"Looks like it worked" LOVE said as they watched May sleep on her bedroom

FATE took a long stare at May and saw her glow a red aura a bit "Are you sure you can control this?" FATE repeated her question still doubtful to their decision

"Yup! This is going to be fun!" LOVE cheerfully replied

LOVE started to look serious "But first, we have to deal with him" LOVE faced FATE

And speak of the devil. Suddenly, a golden door appeared in NoWhere. The 2 guardians looked over to the new golden door

The door opened and revealed a 25-year old man with slightly cracked spectacles wearing a white lab coat. His eyes had dark circles along with them, looking like stressed out

"You 2 idiots better have a good explanation for this kind of crap" the man threw a folder full of pictures to the 2 guardians.

"Nice to see you, TIME" LOVE replied sweetly. But TIME still looked irritated to the 2 girls

This is TIME, Guardian of Time. Guardian VIII. The 2 girls kept their uninterested face to TIME

"Now explain. EXPLAIN WHY THE WHOLE TIMELINE IS FULL OF INSANE AMOUNTS OF ANOMALIES!" TIME shouted at the 2

"That's pretty mean TIME. Yelling at 2 innocent girls" LOVE started to cry fake tears

FATE used her ribbons to grab the folder full of photos. FATE took a glance in the photos

"LOVE, you may want look at this" FATE said to LOVE with her usual emotionless voice

The 2 female guardians looked at the photos

There's a photo where Eren is seen crying at May's bloody body with her bones protruding from her skin. Apparently, May was killed by a moving bus. Eren failed to save May. He never left his room ever since

The photo was labeled TIMELINE _M47 – FAILED SAVE [BAD END]

LOVE took another photo from the folder. And this time, Eren is seen discovered Eilene's corpse after being brutally beaten by Jess with a baseball bat. Eilene's head was completely cracked open. Eren puked while the police took over the scene. Eren blamed himself for not noticing soon enough to stop Jess

The photo was labeled TIMELINE _31L3N3 – BAT HEAD [BAD END]

FATE looked to another photo. This time, Eren went insane after receiving his new power. He tried to kill all the possible HEROINES. He stabbed May with a kitchen knife and bled to death and he burned Eilene to ashes while she was reading in the school's library. Eren was shortly caught by the authorities. But he took his own life before he apprehended by the police. He shot himself with his own gun

The photo was labeled TIMELINE _3R3N – WENT INSANE [BAD END]

And the other photos have even worse results. Hundreds if not thousands of BAD END's in different timelines have been created after LOVE and FATE started their bet

"Ok, we may have created a BIG problem" LOVE said

TIME sighed "You can't just screw with time like that, you'll strain the time itself. I could barely hold it stable after what you've done" TIME said to the 2 guardian

FATE stood up "Ok, I'll deal with this while LOVE stays here and monitor Eren" FATE said

LOVE said nothing as she saw FATE follow TIME through the golden door

"Just don't anything too crazy while I'm gone" FATE warned LOVE

"Don't worry! I'll keep watch while you and TIME fix the timeline" LOVE smiled at them

LOVE watched them disappeared to the golden door

LOVE giggled "Oh FATE. I think it's too late to say that" LOVE looked a May's glowing body. Her body gaining more and more power

-o-o-o-

The day of May's tournament has finally come, she should be happy. All her training for this single moment, Eren even helped her for this

But...

May sighed as she stared outside of the train window while her teammates are chatting inside the train. She discovered that the tournament is held in another city, meaning Eren can't watch her compete in the tournament

"So much for promises" May said to herself

She looked outside. Currently, she and her other teammates who are participating are using the train in order to go to the tournament

"Hey May, are you alright? You seem depressed" one of her teammates asked

"No, I'm okay. I'm just little train-sick" May lied as she continued to stare outside

Her teammate believed her and walked away.

In reality, she has been thinking really hard after she that creepy nightmare

"Time is running out, dear May"

"What was that dream?" May thought as she subconsciously put her hand to her chest

May thought about it since that very night

"I'm in love with Eren" she thought

She can't help it. From an outsiders perspective, it's almost they're already dating but she never really had the courage to say it directly to Eren

She remembered the time where got her favorite ribbon

"Hey May?" 8-year old Eren said

"What is it?" 8-year old May turned around and faced her

"Surprise! Happy Birthday May!" Eren exclaimed as he held out a poorly wrapped present

May noticed his poor handiwork "Uh, okay" as she unwraps her present

She opens it and revealed a white ribbon

"I remember that you said you hate your hair flying against the wind, so I thought that looked cute to you" Eren explained

May blushed "F-Fine! I'll accept this or whatever!" May says it in most tsundere fashion

She tied up her hair into a ponytail using the ribbon she received

"There! It would probably look weird now. Right?" May asked Eren

Eren blushed at May's new appearance "You actually looked even cuter than I expected" Eren commented

May blushed at Eren's complimented, extremely embarrassed "D-Don't just say like that!" as she punched Eren out of full embarrassment

And that was the time she fell in love with her best friend

When she first met him, he immediately saw her weakness, acting tough and brave. But instead of taking advantage of it, he made her false courage into a real one. He became her best friend, someone she could trust

That Eren. He is extremely idiotic and can be annoying at most times but...

But despite being a dense idiot, he is extremely kind and friendly. Most guys just show off their strengths and quirks to impress girls but Eren sees the weakness of others and helps them overcome it with his helping hand

That's why after I win this tournament, I'm going to confess my feelings to Eren

-o-o-o-

Bridgeton Arena, 1:03 pm

At last, May is finally here. The Tournament, the one she trained weeks for. The one Eren helped her to improve. May blushed a bit after remembering Eren

"Right! Time to do this!" May is full of determination

The tournament started. She watched her teammates compete in several sports, all of them trying their best to win. They got some victories and some losses. And finally, it's May's turn to run

She lined up with other runners

{Alright folks! We have May Reed from Central High, Gerald Fest from Soukyo Academia, Clairre Javen from Bridgeton High all competing in the 100m sprint}

May heard the P.A. system announce their names. May took a deep breath and memory of Eren flash inside her mind

"I won't let you down coach" May replied to herself. She readied herself as the countdown started

3...

2...

1...

GO!!!

May sprinted as fast as she could. She could hear the crowd cheering for their respective teams. Her blood coursing to through her body, she quickens her pace but the other runners overpass her. She tried to run faster but the distance between her and the other runners started to widen.

{Uh oh! Looks like Central High is starting to lose steam!}

She heard the P.A. system and started to lose hope

"I'm sorry Eren" May thought as few tears escape her eyes "I can't do it"

But suddenly, she noticed a particular person cheering in the crowd. She recognized that familiar black-haired boy

"EREN?!" May said in complete surprise

"RUN MAY RUN!" Eren continued to cheer for her

"Eren came" May said to herself in disbelief "That dummy actually came!"

At that moment something inside of May started to expand and grow

And in that time she only has one thought...

One Goal...

One STRONG WILL

And that will is...

"I'll definitely win! For Eren!"

And suddenly a red panel appeared in front of her

[BOND with Eren has increased, STRONG WILL unlocked!]

[STRONG WILL activated!]

She was too focused on running to even notice the panel full of notifications

"NYAAAAAAGHHH!!!" May shouted in full of determination

May's eyes glowed red and suddenly, she had a boost in strength and speed. She went faster and faster almost to the point where's going to speeds faster than a racing car, each of her steps cracking the track itself due to the amount of force she exerting

{What this?! Central High's athlete is gaining an enormous amount of speed!} The announcer shouted

The spectators are getting amazed at May sudden comeback

Eren stared at May but he focused his attention on a familiar panel in front of her

"Wait, is that the..." Eren is shocked at what he was seeing

May is almost at goal. She ran even faster until she saw the finish line pass over her

The crowd cheered for the victor

-o-o-o-

The tournament finally ended. Teams either celebrate in victory or comfort themselves in defeat

"Where is she?" Eren looked for May. After that race, May suddenly ran away to somewhere else. He asked her teammates for her whereabouts but they haven't seen her anywhere. He looked around more until he saw her alone in the empty hallways staring at nothing

Eren noticed May's face full of despair. She noticed Eren's presence and turned her head to face him. Eren was devastated as he saw her face. The face pretending to happy, her usual fake smile that Eren hated

"I lost Eren. I placed 2nd" May said with a sad weak smile

"May... You tried your best" Eren tried to comfort her

"Even after you kept your promise and went all the trouble to get here. I STILL FAILED!" Tears started to roll down in May's cheeks

Time froze...

Please choose a type of response

A-[Pessimistic]

B-[Caring]

C-[Friendly]

⚠️Warning: Choosing the wrong choice can permanently lock the route of Heroine May! ⚠️

"This again" Eren said in annoyance. The first time he saw this, he was unsure of his feelings

But now, my decision is made" Eren said to himself

"I'm in love with May"

I can't deny it

Since childhood. I have a special connection with May. Maybe he was dense in the past to notice, but now my mind is clear as soon I saw her smile. The smile she showed at their date, a real genuine smile instead of her fake one

She could have abandoned him as his parents did. But May stayed by his side no matter how people think about their relationship. May is harsh and rude but she still a person I trust and love

This decision isn't made by these stupid powers, but his own feelings

[You made up your mind, +100 ???]

Eren chose Option B *Saved, Timeline Selected

Time resumed...

"Don't say that May!" Eren declared

"Huh?" May looked up to Eren still sobbing

["Charming Speech" Skill Activated!]

"You're not a failure! You trained hard for this!" Eren said

"But I am! All those time training with you, wasted! I lost!" May replied back still crying

Eren replied back with an even determined voice "Even if you didn't win the tournament, even you placed 2nd. It doesn't matter, because you're always 1st in my heart" Eren poured all his feelings to his words

"I don't understand. Why are trying to say?" May sobbing in front him slightly blushing from his words

"I'm saying, I love you, May" Eren confessed also blushing

May stopped crying and looked up with Eren wide eyes

[May is speechless! +100 affection]

[Relationship Level Up! Crush Crusher to Strong Willed Girlfriend]

[Achievement Unlocked! The Question: You confessed to a Heroine]

[Achievement Unlocked! God Like!: You acquired 100 affection points at once]

"Did you really mean that Eren?" May asked him still can't believe that Eren is confessing to her

Eren suddenly kissed her on the lips. May's eyes widen I surprise as Eren heard a camera snap a picture

[Memento Unlocked!]

["Baka Eren" saved into Gallery]

"Is that a valid answer?" Eren said as he smiled. May stayed quiet for a moment

BOOONKK!

May hit Eren in the head with her fist "Owww! What was that for?!" Eren rubbed where May hit him

"That's for kissing me suddenly" May replied

"Come on-" Eren was interrupted by May kissing him back in the lips. Eren was caught off guard but he eventually kissed back. They kissed for a whole minute. Both of them embracing their feelings together

"And that's for being such a nice guy, I love you too Eren" May smiled at Eren

[Achievement Unlocked! The Answer: She said Yes!]

Eren just smiled back to May

"Thank you for always staying with me" Eren said

[..., +50 ???]

-o-o-o-

Meanwhile somewhere in Central City...

Eilene is drifting in some kind of void

"Huh? Where am I?" Eilene looked around and saw nothing but few blue streaks in this dark void

Suddenly a blue silhouette appeared in front of her. Eilene can't see its face but she noticed several red ribbons surrounding her

"Greetings, Eilene" it replied in a feminine but a monotone voice

"Who are you and how do you know my name is Eilene?" Eilene asked the being

The blue being stayed silent

"Please, I'm getting scared" Eilene pleaded to the being

"Soon, I'll give answers but you must answer my questions" the being responded with her emotionless voice

"Ok" Eilene replied

"What gives you courage?"

"What are you afraid of?"

"What do love?"

"Do you believe in FATE?"

Eilene stayed silent

"Let me give you one more question" the being replied

"Who is one you were FATEd to meet?"

Eilene instantly remembered Eren

"I-I d-don't want to answer" Eilene stuttered

The blue being stared at Eilene with its emotionless demeanor

The being sighed "Well, you better say something to him before..."

SHHHHIIIKKKKK!

"AAHHHHHH!" Eilene was stabbed right into the chest with one of the blue being's ribbons. The ribbon retracted causing blue light pour out Eilene's wound

"...it's too late" the being finished her sentence

Eilene collapsed as more blue light pour out from her wound

-o-o-o-

Eilene immediately rise up her bed sweating from her nightmare

"That was some intense nightmare" Eilene replied to herself. She noticed she was crying while asleep, with tears stained in her cheeks

"Hmm?" Eilene noticed something in front of her

A blue colored panel

Eilene Rose

Age: 18

"Shy Heroine"

Charm: 25

Bond: 32%

GIFT: Serene Paradise

Eilene wiped the rest of her tears and when she looked again the panel was gone

"Am I hallucinating?" Eilene said to herself

Eilene shrug it off and went back to sleep