Inverse Fate

He fished it out of his pocket, the preview showing an email from his work account. His brows shot up. 'An offer?'

He was half-expecting some kind of payment he'd forgotten to request, or maybe a reminder to do something he hadn't done yet. But no, this was a different breed of email.

Riku grabbed one of the tall kitchen stools and plopped down at the wooden counter, which was as much of a table as it was a divider. Leaning back slightly, he read through the email at a leisurely pace.

The formatting was neat. The sender's name looked like some prank-like company, which made him suspect it was a prank, naturally. And by the time he reached the end, he was absolutely sure it was one.

He snorted. 'Come on now, Ai Hoshino's Private Accountant? Are you being real?'

Riku was only eighteen. Barely out of high school, with just six months of work experience from his vocational internship and another six months of post-graduation jobbing. He was currently employed as a General Accountant at a Villa & Resort, and yeah, he'd been there almost half a year, but calling him a "seasoned professional" would be like calling a toaster a "master of culinary arts." Not quite there yet.

He wasn't exactly a seasoned veteran in the field. This email felt like one of those mass job listings sent to every accountant under the sun, operating on a "first come, first served" basis—assuming Ai Hoshino even existed. Otherwise, he had no damn clue why he of all people got picked. 

He was about to roll hit delete when—

[Inverse Fate's System Activated]

Riku froze.

'What the fu—'

A holographic screen materialized out of nowhere, right in front of his face.

[The more the heroine's fates are overturned, the greater the rewards…!]

[Develop relationships with the heroines to gain Fate Energy. With Fate Energy, you can unlock Rewrite Destiny, Karmic Extraction, Paradox Blessings, and Timeline Rifts.]

[First Target: Ai Hoshino]

[Ultimate Goals (can be changed): Avoid her death, erase her destiny with Kamiki, and create a completely different fate in exchange for Kamiki's disappearance.]

Riku stared at the screen blankly. His mouth opened slightly, trying to figure out if he'd just hit his head in some way that would make this make sense.

'For real?'

The screen blinked.

[For real]

Riku's eyebrow twitched.

This had to be a joke. This was literally the start of one of those cheap recycled stories that were like junk food for the brain. You know the kind—where some random guy gets a "special system" handed to him out of nowhere and now he has to save the world, or in this case, "rewrite destiny" or whatever. And of course, the "plot" would involve getting close to "heroines" to gain "Fate Energy."

Riku scoffed. 'Why me?' he thought. 

The screen started to flicker again.

[Because it's—]

And then, it just... stopped. No follow-up. No explanation.

Riku pursed his lips, his eyes flicking back to the email. It mentioned meeting at a restaurant he actually recognized. Honestly, if this was a scam, the worst he'd lose was a bit of gas money. Big deal.

He snorted. 'And how old is Ai now, anyway? Wasn't she already a mom at eighteen? If we're the same age, does that mean I'm gonna end up babysitting her kid too? I need to change her fate of death? Rewrite her destiny by preventing her from ever meeting Kamiki? And then what, I'm supposed to bang her and create a happy family with me instead? Well, that's not the worst option...'

He quickly shook his head. 'You need to figure out if she even exists first, Riku. Then you can daydream about all that other crap.'

Riku's eyes went back to the email, which had a meeting time that was absurdly close—today at 2 PM.

With a snort at the sheer ridiculousness of the situation, Riku stood up from his seat. He wasn't about to get scammed or ambushed in a public place. Grabbing his motorcycle keys, he thought, 'Worst case, I lose an afternoon. Best case, I get to meet some weird girl with a wrecked fate and change her entire destiny.'

***

"—Riku-kun!"

As Riku was about to step inside the restaurant, a woman's voice called out his name.

"Huh?"

He turned around, mildly confused, only for his entire expression to freeze.

'Well, damn, this is real shit…'

Standing there was a woman in her mid-twenties. Her dark brown hair was long and wavy. Dressed in a stylish yet practical business-casual outfit—probably designer, considering how well it fit—she had an air of confidence around her. Her features were quite sharp, probably around mid twenties.

After she got close to him, she smiled. "Are you ready for your interview?"

Riku almost scoffed. 'Do they have no HRD department to handle this? How could— oh, nevermind, if they knew, that girl would probably die.'

Riku forced a polite smile. "Of course."

'I should say as little as possible…'

He didn't want to say something weird due to his obliviousness regarding the circumstances.

"In that case," she looked at the restaurant. "Let's have a drink first. Ichigo is going to take a while, and I have a lot to discuss with you before he arrives."

Riku glanced at the restaurant again. He knew the prices here, so he wasn't too worried about going broke before the end of the month.

"Alright."

They made their way to a reserved table, ordered drinks and food, and were served water and a basket of warm garlic bread to wait.

Miyako let out a sigh, her lips curling into a small smile. "Ah, you're a lifesaver, Riku-kun~! Now that you're done training at that villa, you can fully focus on taking care of her kids...! This will be your first time meeting Ai, but you should already be used to her twins by now. I wish you the best of luck—!"

'What's this woman rambling about?' Riku was speechless.

He had no idea what she was saying at all.

***

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