Guide to Surviving SSS-Class Yanderes

Tot did not move when Takeshi appeared in the dream space.

She only turned her head toward him with the same quality of attention the statue's stone eyes possessed, but amplified. It was not the attention of someone observing something interesting. It was something more focused than that and far less comfortable to receive.

Takeshi remained where he was.

Ophélia was still sitting on the floor that did not exist, her head tilted forward and her hair covering part of her face. She had not reacted to his arrival.

"I came for Ophélia."

Takeshi said.

Tot did not respond immediately. She continued looking at him for several seconds with that attention that contained no recognizable component of human emotion, yet was clearly processing something.

When she spoke, her voice came from every direction at the same time, without any specific point of origin.

"I know."

"Can you let her leave?"

Takeshi asked.

"I can."

Tot replied in a voice that carried no particular inflection.

"The space they built in this temple uses my structure, so I have complete access."

"Then let me take her."

Tot tilted her head slightly. It was not a gesture of refusal.

"I can let you take her out."

She said.

"But there is a condition."

Takeshi waited.

"You stay here."

The dream space had no background noise, but the silence after that sentence had a different quality from the silence before it.

"With me."

Tot finished, and there was something in those words that Takeshi could not accurately classify, but it definitely was not indifference.

Takeshi processed the situation.

Tot could remove him from the dream space or leave him there indefinitely, and there was no visible mechanism Takeshi could use to force an exit without her cooperation.

"Ophélia needs you."

Takeshi began.

"Ophélia can function without my presence."

Tot replied.

"She has done so for years."

"There are people waiting outside. If we do not leave together, they will try to come in."

"They cannot enter without my permission."

Takeshi changed approaches.

"If I stay here, I cannot protect Ophélia from inside this space. The next time someone tries to hurt her, I will not be able to do anything."

Tot looked at him.

"If you leave her here, nothing can hurt her because she will be outside the world where those threats exist."

"That is not protecting her. That is abandoning her."

"It is keeping her alive without risk."

"It is not the same thing."

Tot did not immediately respond to that. She looked at him for several seconds.

Takeshi tried another angle.

"You have a shrine. Ophélia takes care of it. If I stay here, she will know it happened because of protecting her, and that will affect how she takes care of the shrine."

"Ophélia is devoted regardless of what happens to you."

"She is now, but I do not know if she will still be after this."

Tot tilted her head again.

"That does not change my condition."

Takeshi searched for another angle and found none that Tot could not block just as easily. She was a goddess with access to information he did not have and standards of reasoning that did not follow exactly the same logic he used.

He could not persuade her with arguments.

He needed something else.

He thought about the system. About what he knew regarding how this world worked. About what the chaotic goddess had built and what he would eventually have to resolve.

"There is a god who brought me to this world."

Takeshi commented.

Tot did not respond, but something in her attention shifted slightly.

"That god built this game, and I am part of that game."

Takeshi looked directly at her.

"As long as that god exists, this world remains a game. Including your shrine. Including Ophélia. Including everything you care about within this world."

The silence lasted longer than the previous ones.

"What are you proposing?"

Tot asked.

"When I defeat the god who brought me here..."

Takeshi said.

"I will surrender myself to you, and you can do whatever you want with me, but first let me take Ophélia out of here and let her return to the world."

Tot stared at him for a length of time Takeshi could not accurately measure.

The attention he had felt since arriving in the dream space intensified for a moment.

Then it returned to its previous level.

"I accept."

Tot replied.

The space between Takeshi and Ophélia vanished. In the next instant, he was standing beside her.

Ophélia looked up when she heard his footsteps.

Her eyes recognized him immediately, but there was no relief in her expression. There was something closer to resignation.

"Why did you come?"

She asked.

"To get you."

"You did not have to do that."

Takeshi sat down on the nonexistent floor beside her.

"Yes, I did."

Ophélia looked away toward the darkness of the dream space.

"I came alone. I knew I should not have done it, and I did it anyway. Everything that happened afterward is a consequence of that decision."

"Yes."

Ophélia looked at him. She clearly had not expected him to confirm that.

"And I still came to get you."

Takeshi continued.

"That is exactly the problem."

Ophélia looked forward again.

"Every time I make a mistake, someone has to fix it."

She paused.

"I am a burden to everyone."

"The mistake you made today was real..."

Takeshi confirmed.

"I am not going to tell you it was not."

Ophélia did not respond.

"But one bad decision does not turn a person into a burden."

Takeshi looked at her.

"It just makes them a person who made a bad decision."

"The difference does not change the outcome."

"It changes what you do afterward."

Ophélia remained silent for a moment. Then she spoke.

"What if the next mistake is worse?"

"Then we deal with it."

"Why?"

Takeshi thought about how to answer that in a way that was genuine and not a sentence constructed simply to make her feel better.

"Do you remember what I told you at the apartment?"

He finally asked.

Ophélia looked at him.

"I promised I would do everything I could to protect you."

Takeshi held her gaze.

"That promise does not come with conditions attached. It is not only valid when you make the right decisions."

The dream space remained silent.

Ophélia looked at him for several seconds without saying anything. Then she lowered her gaze toward the floor.

"Just like in the book."

She said very quietly.

Takeshi remembered the first time she had said that, at the apartment, late at night, and how she had immediately changed the subject afterward.

This time she did not change the subject.

When she looked up, there was something in her expression that was different from the resignation she had worn moments before.

"Okay."

The dream space vanished.

It was not gradual. It was a complete transition from darkness without reference points to real light, stone flooring, and air with a defined temperature.

Takeshi opened his eyes in the central hall of the temple. He was kneeling before Tot's statue with Ophélia beside him, who was also waking up.

Aoi immediately knelt beside Ophélia. Nyx approached from the other side. Sable kept her distance but did not leave the room.

Ophélia blinked several times and looked up at the hall's vaulted ceiling. Then she looked at Takeshi.

"It worked."

Ophélia said.

"It worked."

Takeshi confirmed.

The sound of multiple footsteps came from the corridor. Merwyn appeared at the entrance to the hall with four people behind her, all dressed in clothing that was not a school uniform.

"I am glad you are okay."

Merwyn said while looking at Takeshi.

She moved over to Ophélia and began coordinating with the people she had brought to examine her. One of them carried basic magical healing equipment. Another inspected the seals on the walls with a professional expression that indicated he knew exactly what he was looking at.

Takeshi stepped aside to give them room.

The next day, Takeshi left the apartment with enough time to reach the shrine before Ophélia had to leave for school.

He had been walking for two blocks when he heard footsteps to his right.

Aoi was walking along a parallel street with her bag over her shoulder. She saw him at the same time he saw her.

Neither said anything. They continued walking in the same direction.

At the next block, Nyx emerged from a side street. She looked at Takeshi and Aoi. She joined them without asking where they were going because it was obvious.

The three of them walked toward the shrine in silence for half a block.

Then Aoi spoke.

"We have things we need to talk about."

"I know."

Takeshi replied.

"Today."

Aoi said, making it clear it was not a question.

"Today."

Takeshi confirmed.

Nyx was walking on Takeshi's other side.

"Me too."

"I know that too."

[both of them walking beside him at the same time]

["we have things we need to talk about" Aoi had not forgotten anything]

[Nyx had not either. Both of them waited until today]

[Takeshi between the two of them on the way to the shrine. This is going to be a difficult conversation]

[or several difficult conversations at the same time]

The shrine appeared at the end of the street.

The three of them stopped in front of the entrance.

Aoi and Nyx turned toward Takeshi with a quality of attention that was different from the one they had shown on the walk.

"About Sable."

Aoi began.

"What she said in the temple about dating and getting information from the clan."

"And what you said at the apartment about having options."

Nyx continued.

"Both of those things need an explanation."

Aoi demanded.

Takeshi opened his mouth to answer.

He did not get to say anything.

The shrine door opened from the inside, and Ophélia appeared in the entrance. She was wearing shrine attire, not her school uniform. Her complexion looked better than the night before, and her posture was her usual straight and calm one.

She looked at the three of them standing at the entrance.

Her eyes stopped on Takeshi.

Ophélia walked the four steps separating them, took his face in both hands, and kissed him.

It was not a brief or ambiguous gesture. It was direct and completely without hesitation.

It lasted three seconds.

When Ophélia pulled away, Takeshi had not fully processed what had just happened. Aoi and Nyx had not said anything either.

[OPHÉLIA KISSED HIM]

[RIGHT IN FRONT OF AOI AND NYX]

[no warning. no beating around the bush. directly]

[Aoi and Nyx saw everything]

Ophélia lowered her hands and looked at Takeshi with the same calmness that always characterized her.

"I am in love with you."

She said in a completely steady voice.

"I have been for a while, and I could not find the right way to tell you."

She paused briefly.

"Yesterday, when I was in that place and you came to get me, I realized there was no reason not to say it directly."

Takeshi did not respond because he had absolutely no prepared response for this.

"I am going to find a way for you to accept my feelings."

Ophélia continued.

"I do not know how long it will take, but I will find a way."

She said it without excitement or visible nervousness. Simply as a fact she had decided to declare.

Then she looked at Aoi and Nyx.

Aoi had been completely motionless since the kiss.

She turned toward Takeshi.

"The conversations we needed to have can wait..."

Aoi said.

"But this cannot."

Takeshi looked at her.

"Me too."

Aoi declared.

Nyx had been looking at Ophélia since the kiss with an expression Takeshi had never seen on her before. When Aoi finished speaking, Nyx turned toward Takeshi as well.

"I am not going to fall behind either of them."

Nyx commented. Her tone was direct and unambiguous, intended to make absolutely certain her meaning was clear.

All three of them were looking at him.

Takeshi looked at Ophélia, then at Aoi, and then at Nyx.

None of them said anything else. It was unnecessary.

Takeshi looked at the shrine entrance behind Ophélia, then at the street they had come from, and finally at his own stats automatically.

[Life: 100%]

[Sanity: 78%]

[Points: 10]

The situation in front of him was not an attacker, a cosmic entity, or a temple full of guards and priests. It was three people who had just declared something that had no tactical solution.

'I have a very long road ahead of me.'

That was the only conclusion he could make with certainty.

All three of them were still looking at him, and the day had only just begun.