Chapter 1: Best Girl

Chapter 1: Best Girl

"Minami is clearly best girl! Just look at how cute she is!"

"Cute? So what? Can't you feel the mature vibes that Jess gives off? I can hardly stop myself from calling her mommy!"

I was arguing with my friend, Nathan, over characters in a dating game we both played. By the way, Minori is definitely superior in every way. She has short light brown hair and clear blue eyes. She may not be the tallest, but that just makes her better!

Her youthful energy shines through the darkness, bringing light to all like a saint. No, she is a saint!

As for Jess, she's just a lame woman that has overly large breasts.

...Huh? Are you confused over why I'm describing insignificant game characters instead of the two main characters of the story?

Well, there's no real point, the waifus are what people care about. ...But I guess I can give you a basic description. I'm a real tall lanky guy with black hair while Nathan was short and stubby with brown hair. If he knew I thought he was stubby, he would freak out, but that's just the truth.

But more important than his looks was his trash and shallow taste in women.

"You only like her because Jess has big boobs!"

Nathan flared immediately after, pointing at me accusingly with his face flushed red.

"That's not it at all! Besides liking someone for big boobs is hardly anything compared to a pedo that likes little kids!"

My eyelid twitched when I heard that. With a glare, I put up my middle finger and leaned in right next to his face.

"Her canon age is 20! It's 20! That's literally legal, it's not even barely legal, but super legal!"

Nathan crossed his arms, staring right back at me without even the slightest bit of fear.

"Yeah, just like how all those lolis in anime are three thousand years old? She's as tall as an elementary schooler!"

My eyes narrowed.

"How dare you height shame short people? Plus, aren't you basically the same height as her anyway?!"

Without shame, Nathan put a hand on his chest and proudly declared his stance.

"I'm ugly anyway! Since when did height matter? Plus, 2D girls don't judge based on looks, and 2D is just superior to 3D."

I let out a snort and crossed my arms as well.

"You may have made a good point, but Jess is still way too slutty!"

Nathan just barely parted his lips, his voice coming out like a threatening hiss.

"You dare?..."

I could feel the walls around us disappear as the ground beneath turned into rocks laced with magma. We were standing right next to the mouth of a volcano, right about to erupt. And then, right when all hell would break loose...

"Keep it down! Stop shouting all the damn time!"

The door to my room slammed open, and my Mom appeared, looking pissed off. Both me and Nathan froze and turned to her slowly, bowing down like disciplined soldiers. It was not our first time doing such a thing.

"Sorry, Mom!"

"My apologies, Madam!"

My mother let out an exasperated sigh.

"If you two really want to be like this then go out to the park and talk, alright?"

The two of us hurriedly nodded.

"Ok."

"Yes ma'am."

With that, the two of us hurriedly left the house with our tails tucked in between our legs. We stepped out onto the streets. There were a decent amount of people around, but that was a given considering that it was midday on a Sunday.

The two of us stood there casually, with not a single hint of the previous fierce battle we had just had. Nathan smacked his lips while staring at the sky. He did it unconsciously, and I could tell that it was something he did when he was thirsty.

"You want me to get us some drinks?"

Nathan waved his hand dismissively before putting both hands in his pockets.

"Nah, I still owe you for the last one. I should get it"

I raised an eyebrow and turned to look at him strangely.

"You do? Didn't you buy last time?"

Nathan shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, what you bought was like, twenty cents more expensive than the one I did."

I blinked several times, wondering why he was even keeping track of things like that. With a sigh, I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever, are you really going to make a fuss about twenty cents?"

Nathan laughed and scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"Sorry, sorry. The usual please."

With that, the two of us went over to a nearby vending machine. After fishing out a few coins, I casually slipped a few in with one hand and tapped the button to select a drink with the other.

Two sodas fell down to the bottom. I grabbed them both and handed one to Nathan. He took it and thanked me before we both cracked it open and drank.

As we walked on the streets silently for a few moments, Nathan suddenly spoke up.

"Say, why do you think Bryson was such an asshole?"

My eyelid twitched. Ah right, I forgot to mention that my own name was Brian, so I felt a little attacked even though I knew it wasn't targeted at me. n.)OVelb1n

In response to his question, I shrugged my shoulders.

"I dunno. It's probably because he was the villain of the story, right?"

Nathan rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"Not like that. Bad people don't just spring up out of nowhere... I think. There must've been something behind all of that."

I let out a sigh.

"You're just overthinking it. He's just a villain because the game needed a villain."

Hm... now that I think about it, I forgot to explain the context again. We were talking about a game called "Downfall from Grace". I thought it was a kinda weird name, though Nathan liked it a lot. Speaking of Nathan, there was a distinct frown on his face.

"Man, if Bryson really is just a villain for the sake of being one, then doesn't that make the story so... lame?"

I couldn't help but smile, because I knew he was going to say 2D, but quickly realized that the game was indeed 2D. Nonetheless, I had no idea why he was so caught up by the villain of the story.

"Forget Bryson, nobody really cares about the villain in a video game. If anything, why is Natan so wishy-washy with everything he does? In the story, he hardly cares for any of the people in his harem! Instead, he's so focused on saving the damn kingdom, that he lets them die because of it!"

Nathan's face twitched. He was also a little sensitive to how similar Natan's name was to his but shook it off as fast as I did.

"Hey come on, you make it sound like it's easy to save an entire damn kingdom! I guess Natan just isn't that bright or something."

He then promptly shook his head.

"Ah, whatever. It's just a game anyway. Thinking about it too much is probably stupid."

I snickered.

"Did you just age sixty years or something? Since when have you said anything like that?"

Nathan clicked his tongue.

"What are you talking about? I've always been a wise sage, so naturally, my maturity is far beyond my age."

With a chuckle, I responded sarcastically.

"Oook."

Nathan opened his mouth to say something, but before that I reached out my arm, stopping him from going forward.

"Look in front of you, dimwit. It's a red light."

Nathan's eyes flew open as he stumbled backward a few steps. He was about to step into the middle of the street. Although he probably wouldn't have been hit because there weren't that many cars, and most people would've braked, there was always a chance that being careless could've ended with him dead.

Nathan took in a deep breath.

"Ah, shit. Thanks for keeping me in check."

I shook my head.

"I'm pretty sure that's not what that means, but just be more careful next time."

Nathan nodded.

"Yeah."

As we were talking, I couldn't help but realize that there was a strange screeching sound in the distance. A few moments later, the light turned green. Nathan and I walked down the sidewalk and just behind us were a mother with her daughter.

I then heard a scream coming from the left, but it was a little hard to make out because it was from far away.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

I turned to look and noticed that a truck was barreling down the street. There was a terribly anxious look on the driver's face. His brakes seemed to be dysfunctional for whatever reason.

I narrowed my eyes and hurried on.

"There's a truck coming! Get out of the way!"

Nathan hurriedly reacted, quickly getting off the road and onto the sidewalk like me. Nathan let out a sigh of relief, but before he said anything, his body froze up as he looked back. A grim expression was on his face.

I matched his gaze and noticed what he was looking at.

Both the mother and daughter froze up, just like a deer in the headlights. The truck driver panicked when he saw this, and in a fit of panic, he tried to steer to the side, attempting to avoid them. Unfortunately, it was far too heavy, making it do a weird drift.

The end result was that the truck spun sideways, then began tipping over onto both the mother and daughter. It cast an ominous shadow along with a frightening creaking sound.

Without a word, both Nathan and I flew forth before either of us even understood what we were doing.

Nathan wrapped his arms around the mother's waist and threw her away, while I picked up the girl, holding her up from underneath her shoulders, and chucked her aside.

After doing that, both of us desperately scrambled away from the truck.

...But we were too late.

With a terrifying crunch, I felt the bones in my legs shatter. My hip was also decimated, leaving only my top half unharmed. And it appeared to be the same for Nathan as well.

I don't really know why, but somehow both of us were facing upward.

When I looked over, I felt slightly dizzy. I also noticed that his face was as pale as a sheet. With a small smile, he spoke to me.

"It's kinda weird... it doesn't hurt."

I gave the tiniest semblances of a nod and returned the smile.

"Yeah... same here. But it does... feel cold."

Nathan also gave the slightest nod back.

"It does feel... cold."

There were voices that seemed to be coming from the mother and daughter, but for some reason, I couldn't really hear them. It seemed as though Nathan couldn't either.

For our last moments, we just looked at each other, seeing only the two of us.

I weakly laughed.

"We're really stupid, aren't we?"

Nathan couldn't help but laugh as well.

"Yeah, but that's what I like most about us."

I saw his facial expression relax and I imagine mine did as well.

Then, it was all black.

...

When I eventually came to, a blurry vision of what looked like an irresponsible brat appeared in front of me.

He spoke just like how he looked.

"Eh? It's Bryson, the asshole for no reason."

The guy was pointing at me with his jaw wide open. When I got a better look at him, I couldn't help but feel my jaw drop and point back as well.

"Natan? The incompetent airhead that glosses over the obvious?"

It took me a second, but I realized that I reincarnated into the game world of "Downfall from Grace". And from the look of the bra- erm guy in front of me, it seemed like Nathan did too.