FATE
'This is weird...' A student thought as he looked at his surroundings.
"If you look at your stats, my dear heroes, then you can see what abilities you have as well as multiple info about your own self."
The student walked to the king and yet, no one batted an eye, even fellow classmates didn't even look at the student.
He waves his hand in front of the kind but the king just keeps on talking as if the student is a mere ghost.
'...Is it because of this?' The student looks at the red threads that are attached to the king and he looks back at his fellow classmates and sees that they are also attached to a thread of red strings.
"..." The student looks back to the red strings on the king and reaches his hand out.
-----
"Hmm?" The student looks around, confused at how the surrounding is suddenly turned into a white void the moment his finger touches the red threads.
He hears footsteps behind him and he turns around.
"Freeze!"
His body froze up as a spear is pointed right at his eye, a simple thrust and it's enough to cut his eye. The attacker is but a young girl with black hair tied up to a pony tail and wearing white robs with a golden spear as her weapon.
"Now now, Hina, I know you're new but still." Another girl pops out behind the assailant, wearing the same attire but this time different coloured hair.
The student looks at their clothes and sees that they wore a name tags on their white robs. Black ponytail girl is named Hina Ehara and the red haired girl is named Alina Rose.
Alina pushed Hina's spear down so that it doesn't kill him.
"There, now that's way better. You don't need to threaten and almost kill anyone that breaks fate's rule y'know."
Break Fate's Rule.
That piece of wording caught the student's attention but he doesn't show it and just acts nonchalant by cracking his neck.
The two girls focused back on him and grabbed his hands and began to lead him somewhere.
"Hnngh... You both are rough." As they led him further into the white void, he began to see more girls here the more they dragged him further.
Some of the girls look at him with disgust while some look at him with curiosity but there's one thing certain about every single one of them.
They don't look happy at all at the sight of him.
They're disgusted at what he has done.
They're curious at how he got in this situation.
-----
After a bit of walking, the two girls dropped him off and left him alone with the being that is in front of him.
A ball of red threads.
He looked at his surroundings and saw that a bunch of red strings dangle from the non-existent sky.
He turned back to the ball and it turned slightly. He could've sworn that the ball was staring back at him with the way it turns in place.
"You..."
A loud booming voice came out from the ball, shaking the entire place.
The student holds his head in pain as the voice rang through his skull.
"You... The one who has broken the balance of this world... Identify yourself."
"...Why should I? I don't give my name to strangers." The student stopped holding his head with his hand and glared at the ball.
"And especially not to some ball of yarns."
He walked forward, not afraid of the intense atmosphere of his surroundings and the hostile looks of those girls on his back.
"Fate... There's a saying in my world that's called 'The Red Strings of Fate'. That's you isn't it? Fate, or rather, a concept of fate?" He stood right in front of the ball, glaring at it.
The ball stares back.
"You know what I am... And yet you're unafraid. Do you really think you could change fate, interloper?"
"Of course."
Spear in hand.
"After all..."
A quick dash to that man.
"The reality is... We control our own fate."
-----
He quickly dashes to the side, turning mid dash to look behind him.
"I can hear your loud footsteps y'know."
The black haired girl, Hina Ehara thrust her spear at where he was before stopping to not hurt the red strings of fate.
"Shut up!" She turns her spear at him but before she can thrust the spear forward, he grabs the spear, holding it in place.
"What!? How did you- Ghhk!" The boy punched Hina's face, making her staggered back and let go of the spear.
The student immediately uses this chance to get a hold of the spear to defend himself from the red threads and those girls.
"You're no ordinary human, aren't you?"
He looked back to the red strings of fate. "No, just a normal human with great reaction time due to how much rhythm games I've played, I guess."
The student looks back and immediately parries the incoming spears from multiple girls.
"Control your own fate, was it? Do you even realize what you just said?"
The student said nothing as he ducked under a spear and used his own spear to deflect yet another spear that was thrown at him.
"You're suggesting to break the balance of this world. We have been controlling the fates of this world ever since the beginning."
These girls, fate's minions, are endless. Everytime he knocks one down, 5 more pop out with their spear ready.
"Humans should always be on the good side, Demons should always be evil. The hero must always win against The Demon King!"
The student drops his spear, looking at the red strings of fate.
"How dare you control lives like that."
The huge amount of strings tied on one person.
This yarn ball.
This fucker, control everyone in the world.
They control how a person sees, how a person feels, how a person breathes, how a person's heart beats.
The strings he saw on the king, eyes, mouth, ears, tongue, finger, even each of his toes, are tied with red strings when he last saw the king.
He takes a step towards the red ball.
"That's stupid."
Another step.
"That isn't how reality works."
He stood in front of Fate itself.
"We control our own fate."
-----
"What makes you think that you stood a chance against me?"
A surge of red strings shot out from the ball, immediately making a hole in the student's chest.
"Do you really think I won't immediately kill you, child? You're just a normal human, one's not controlled by me, but still a normal human nonetheless."
The student looks down at the hole in his chest, blood pouring out of the hole and his mouth. Distraught, he tries to stick his hand in the hole to see if it's real and when he puts his whole arm inside, it comes out of his back.
"..." The student looks back at Fate, his arms back to his side.
"...wait..."
The student immediately thrust his hand forward, grabbing Fate.
"You... Where is that death girl when you need her!"
More red strings shot out from various angles, piercing through the student and making holes on their body.
And yet.
He persist.
He squeezes Fate, cracking it as the surrounding also cracks in response.
"Stop it.... Now!!!"
He experienced terrible fates that befall others.
He lived as a young woman with a terrible childhood who has been saved by a demon only to be betrayed by that same demon and eaten by them.
He lived as a young priestess in love with a hero before the hero suddenly disappeared and became depressed and suicidal until finally killing himself by hanging.
He lived as one of his own classmates that has been summoned far away from the initial summoning circle and became a source of entertainment for the death goddess, dying multiple times without rest.
His grip on Fate loosened.
Blood drips from his mouth and from the various holes on his body.
His body grows weaker by the seconds as he keeps living through the horrible fates of people of this world.
Depression.
Frustration.
Manic.
Fear.
Stressed.
He experienced every death.
Joyous.
Laughter.
Serenity.
Gratitude.
Awe.
He experienced every life.
"... So what?"
Just as he's about to fall, he regains his footing, his strength returns as he grasps onto Fate harder.
"There's... Hahh... Always a person... Out there... That's suffering more than me... But they kept going forward, kept living through it... Just because I suffered a lot, just because I'm frustrated, depressed, full of fear of you, doesn't mean I can just give up..."
"The reality is, there's always someone that suffers more than me, so don't ever go giving up just because of this, me."
The student pressed his fingers harder, his nails started to tear some of the red strings and in results, cracking the white void around them.
Until finally...
"Alright! I give! I give!"
A young voice came out of the yarn ball. Looks like it stopped using that menacing deep voice huh.
"Wh-what do you want? I'll give you anything! A life of luxury! A life full of girls falling for you! Money will rain down on you! Anything! Just let go of me!"
The student looks at Fate for a lot longer before finally letting it go.
"Fix me first."
-----
The student took a deep breath, he should've died right there but it seems death doesn't exist over here by what Fate said earlier.
He looked at Fate.
"Here's the deal..."
He heard footsteps behind him but then there were sounds of strings shooting up from the ground and the footsteps stops.
The footsteps are probably from those girls with spears. They're Fate's soldiers after all, they won't die.
But it's nice to know that Fate won't do anything now that it knows that a normal human like him can't be killed because of this dimension they're in.
"Don't control us like that, instead you should guide us to our fate instead of forcing us to follow it."
The first rule of the deal.
"Changed the past, if you're fully intend on freeing them all from their forced fate, change the past to fit their present choices."
The second rule of the deal.
"And lastly..."
-----
"Hey Al! Are you just going to stand there!?"
"Yeah yeah..."
The student said as he followed his classmates to this new world.
Free from the shackles of fate.