The Butterfly Effect: I Refuse This Ending

Luna’s costume settled.

I stared at it.

Bunny ears. White and slightly too large for her head, flopping at the tips with a weight. A matching white outfit trimmed in pale gold, a small cotton tail visible from behind.

"What."

"The gods voted," she said, with the dignity of someone who had not just manifested in a bunny costume.

"They voted for that."

"Unanimously."

"Thor included?"

"....."

"...The vote was not unanimous."

I pressed my hand over my mouth.

She straightened her ears with two fingers, adjusted her cuffs, and looked at me with the full weight of being older than my entire world.

"If you laugh," she said, "I will find a penalty that has nothing to do with your testicles."

I did not laugh.

I made a sound that was not a laugh. Technically.

"Villain Halo Mastered," she said loudly, moving on with the energy of someone closing a door on something they would not be discussing further. "The aspect now operates at full capacity. No story point drain. No time limit."

"Right," I managed.

"You’re welcome."

I looked at the ceiling for a moment and collected myself.

"So the gods just sit around and vote on your outfit."

"It’s a reward system."

"For them or for you."

She said nothing.

"Luna."

"It rotates. Some sessions are more dignified than others." ...."This was not one of those sessions."

I looked at her again.

"You look like a very small, very dangerous rabbit."

"Thank you."

"That wasn’t a compliment."

"I know."

I sat down on the edge of the bed and let the amusement settle. The room was quiet. Lina was asleep next door. The divine spin notification had faded from the corner of my vision.

"Luna."

"Yes."

"How many people got pulled in? From my world."

She was quiet for a moment.

"More than you think," she said finally.

"Are any of them in this world?"

"Some."

"Are any of them close to me?"

"I can’t tell you that."

I nodded.

"Rin,"

Luna didn’t respond.

"She’s still there. In the hospital."

"Yes."

"Does time move the same way? If I go back, will she age while I’m here? Does she..."

"Time runs parallel," Luna said. Her voice had gone quieter than usual. "What passes here passes there at the same rate. She is exactly as you left her."

I let that sit for a moment.

Same rate. Which meant every day I spent here was a day she spent in that room with no one sitting in the chair beside her.

"You could have led with that," I said.

"You didn’t ask."

"I’m asking now. Is she okay."

Luna looked at me for a long moment.

"She is stable," she said. "The same as always."

The same as always.

Ten years of the same. The same pale face, the same quiet breathing, the same hand that didn’t squeeze back. I had built my entire life around that sameness because as long as nothing changed she was still there. Still waiting, even if she didn’t know she was.

"I just need to not die here," I said. More to myself than to her.

"That would be advisable," Luna agreed.

I laughed. Short

The room went still.

After a moment Luna moved. She crossed to the bed without announcing it, bunny ears and all, and sat beside me with her back straight and hands in her lap. Then she looked at me and said, with complete absence of ceremony:

"Lie down."

"...What."

"You haven’t slept properly since arriving at this estate. Your recovery rate drops when you don’t sleep. It’s inefficient."

"I sleep fine."

"You lie on the bed and think about your sister until your body gives up. That isn’t sleeping."

I looked at her.

She looked back. Ears slightly askew from the motion of sitting down. Tail visible at the edge of my peripheral vision.

"Lie down," she said again.

I don’t know why I did it.

Maybe because she was right.

I lay down.

Luna shifted. Settled. And then, with the calm certainty that Lina applied to everything, she placed my head in her lap.

I stared at the ceiling.

The bunny tail was visible from this angle too.

"This is strange," I said.

"Go to sleep."

"You’re in a bunny costume."

"I am aware."

"This is genuinely one of the stranger moments of my life and I woke up in a dead man’s body two months ago."

"Go to sleep, Ren."

Not Kael.

Ren

The hand that settled lightly on top of my head didn’t move. Didn’t pat. Just rested there, ears drooping slightly to one side.

I was asleep before I decided to be.

***

The blue screen flickered.

[Goddess of Love...]

[Aspect Acquired: Ether Authority]

[A mana form untouched by elemental alignment.]

Name: Kael Ardyn

Title: Trash of the Family

Level: 4

Class: [NONE]

Stat

Strength: D

Dexterity: D

Agility: E+

Endurance: E+

Magic: E+

Aspect: Ether Authority

Divine Skill: Villain Halo

Active Abilities: Fireball / Wind Blade / Basic Mana Pulse / Hell’s Fire

Passive Abilities: Infinity Mana Breathing

Traits: Mana Veins

Mana Heart: Silver Mid-grade