Extra Chapter 2: The Unchanging Bad End / A Future That Can Change

Meeting your "fated one" and ending up together—if that doesn’t happen, you’ll somehow end up miserable and die.

People tend to brush it off rather lightly, but it's honestly a terrifying idea. All of Rentarou’s girlfriends are, without exception, extremely unique. That’s their charm—but also the root of what can make things go wrong.

In fact, before they met Rentarou, those very traits often backfired, making things difficult for them in life.

…What if. What if Rentarou hadn’t been Rentarou? What if he wasn’t that serious, sincere, and cool guy who could go all-in for someone like her? What if none of them ended up with their fated partner? What would’ve happened to them then?

“How would it turn out, I wonder? Sure, they’re destined to die unhappy, but… the process, I can sort of picture it…”

Yeah… their worst sides would come to the surface… and from there, it would just—

.

.

.

.

.

…Huh? Who’s this? And where even is this? A completely white space—no windows, no doors. In front of me stands a person. No—maybe not even a person. The clothes look familiar, so this must be—

“Doubting whether I’m human, are you? Of course I’m not.”

A Divine being. Having already been reincarnated and met the literal god of love, it’s easy to believe this isn’t a lie. Still, his hairstyle’s wild. Like the love god, he’s pretty much bald—except for this weirdly long tuft of hair sticking straight up from the middle of his head. Looks kinda like horns.

“Ah, forgot to introduce myself, didn’t I? I’m the god of birth. The love god and I… used to watch Friday night movies together back when we were on the job.”

So this guy’s the one. The god of birth. The root cause of all this mess. At least the love god had the decency to speak to Rentarou directly. This guy? Just dropped off some ridiculous message. Honestly, my opinion of him is rock bottom.

Sure, he did at least make me look more like a girl, so both I and Rentarou could adjust more easily. But even so—if he hadn’t pulled this stunt in the first place, none of this would’ve happened. So yeah, it seriously pisses me off.

“…So? Where are we?”

“Ah, don’t worry. This is just a dream. Once you wake up, it’ll all go back to normal. Back to your usual life.”

Okay, good. Then let’s make this quick. I want to get out of here and back to my everyday life already.

“The reason I called you here is simple. That unhappy death you mentioned earlier—when one doesn’t end up with their destined one. I thought… I’d show it to you.”

“…Why?”

“……You think I’ll just tell you? This is a trial. Don’t worry, though—I’m only going to show you your own case… though, there’s more than one version. We’ve got time to spare, see?”

“Why would you drop a joke when it’s so hard to respond to anything right now?”

A trial, huh. One of those divine tests or whatever. I guess I’ve got no choice but to go along, since I can’t exactly leave. Still, something feels off. “Don’t worry”? Why say that? …Anyway, I’d really appreciate it if Rentarou came to save me. Like, please help me~ kind of thing. Maybe he’ll show up, even in a dream.

---

And so, for some reason, I ended up having to watch… my own miserable death? Not that I’m into it—well, who would be into that kind of thing?

Projected onto the wall in front of me are eight monitor-like screens, showing versions of my past—or rather, possible endings that could’ve happened to the past me.

“The first divergence. What if, back when you were still a guy… you had never become friends with Rentarou Aijou?”

“…What happens then?”

What appears on the screen is a version of me that looks nothing like who I am now. Lifeless, motionless. My hair is a mess—wild and unkempt beyond comparison. My eyes are dead. A massive old scar visible through the gaps in my clothes gives the impression I’d been in some serious accident.

“You suffered a major injury and barely survived… but in the end, you became nothing and died. You never had the chance to change. Unable to live a life worthy of your name, you sank into despair and died alone. That’s this ending.”

“…Yeah, that’s… kinda exactly what I imagined.”

A major injury—so in this timeline, I must’ve never shaken off my death wish and ended up with that scar. That fear probably froze me in place, keeping me from ever changing. Honestly, if Rentarou hadn’t been there, it’s not too far-fetched.

“Next. Let’s say you did meet Rentarou and became friends… but then the two of you drifted apart.”

“Just thinking about it feels worse than dying…‼︎”

It already hurts so much even now. I can stand watching it, sure, but if it ever actually happened, I’d be more than just ‘in trouble.’

“With Rentarou—the one holding you up—gone, you fall into reckless despair. Your tendency to jump into danger doesn’t change, and now there’s no one left to stop you. As for how that ends… well, I’m sure you can guess.”

What shows is me, covered in bruises and cuts, still trying to stand up to delinquents. Behind me, a child crouches down, holding their head in fear.

I see, I see. Still holding onto some goodness, but half out of desperation—recklessly throwing myself into danger without caring about what happens. If Rentarou hadn’t talked me down back then… yeah, I could’ve ended up like this for real.

“Next! The timeline after you became a girl. From here on, we’ve got six to go through rapid-fire. Turns out we’ve got more time than expected, so I’m speeding things up, alright?”

“Pretty sure you’re not cut out for serious storytelling.”

“One! The stairs during your escape! You fall down ‘em and that’s it, game over‼︎”

“Well, yeah. At that speed, of course that’d happen.”

Me, slipping on the stairs and falling headfirst. I’ve never been athletic to begin with—no stamina either. Honestly, the fact I made it down from that rooftop in one piece back then was a straight-up miracle.

“Two! A car! Even if you’d made it to the school building… you run out without looking and get hit by a passing car. Game over‼︎”

“‘Cars can’t stop on a dime,’ huh… yeah, that checks out.”

The screen shows me running into the street and getting hit. What is this, one of those elementary school safety videos? I mean, sure I was panicking, but yeah… not looking both ways? If that had killed me, well… at least it’d make sense.

…Huh? Is it just me, or is the god of birth out of breath? His face is turning pale… did he eat something weird for lunch?

“Three! A fall‼︎ While running home to get away from Rentarou, you trip, then trip again, then roll all the way onto the tracks… and get hit by a train! Game over‼︎”

“This is the bad kind of Rube Goldberg machine… it’s just awful in every sense. And using the same ‘trip and fall’ plot device again? Not great.”

Whoa, that’s some serious momentum. Honestly, with how hard she's falling, she might just die from the tumble alone. Well, there are days where things would probably go like this if Rentarou wasn’t around… like those times when her luck with falling is unusually terrible.

"...Fourth! She somehow makes it home, but overwhelmed with guilt for not facing Rentarou, she starts cooking! However, she can't focus, and in the process, she accidentally slips with the knife..."

"...And it ends up stabbing her in just the worst way, huh. Ugh, that actually feels like something that could happen when you're cooking. I hate how real that sounds."

Look at how that knife moved, though. It bounced off like five things before stabbing her—honestly, it’s almost artistic. What even was that? Some kind of passive-aggressive take on that janky Pythagoras Switch from earlier?

"Ugh... Fifth! While holding the lunch she made to make up with him..."

"...She rushes off to school, almost drops the lunch under the bridge, barely catches it, but then slips and falls off the bridge… that’s game over, huh."

I’m starting to predict the pattern here. Is the God of Birth even okay? She looks like she’s about to puke. Don’t bother trying to hide it, I heard you going “ugh…” just now, you know?

But still, the way she keeps falling off bridges and the way all my past fates have ended… especially after I turned into a girl, it all feels oddly familiar somehow… what is it?

“Haa… Haa…! Sixth! She does make it to school, but runs in the hallway… and tragically becomes the victim of the vice principal’s deep kiss! Since she’s a girl now, the VP doesn’t realize it at that point... Gah!”

“How the hell is a deep kiss considered equivalent to death?!”

Something’s definitely wrong here. I mean, calling this death in the first place is weird, and saying it’s “tragic” in the middle of it is also weird, and then the person showing me this is about to vomit—wait, is that blood?! Are you okay?! Is this some kind of psychological damage or something?

…And wait, isn’t it kind of sad to keep using the vice principal as the punchline? What do you mean, it cuts too close to the source material so we should stop? Fair enough.

“T-this brings us to the end…! So… how was it? The possible futures you might have faced…!”

“Felt like I just sat through a really half-baked collection of bad endings from a visual novel or something.”

That weird sense of déjà vu earlier—yeah, that was it. Visual novel bad ends. It had that vibe where the devs realized there weren’t enough events late-game, so they just crammed in extra bad endings to pad out the branches. That last one was totally a last-minute addition ‘cause they were running out of ideas.

---

"Are you okay, Kawaru?!"

"Rentarou⁉︎ Why are you here…!?"

I don’t know how, but while I was patting the back of the God of Birth—who was hunched over and coughing up blood—Rentarou popped out from the monitor. Wait, where the hell did you come from?! Are you even real? …Yeah, this is definitely the real deal.

"I got help from the God of Love… But more importantly, are you okay, Kawaru?! Did the God of Birth do anything to you!?"

"I'm fine, but… wait, how did you come out of there? Wasn’t that supposed to be my bad end… huh?"

…Am I seeing things? The footage of the bad endings—it’s changed, hasn’t it? The version of me with dead eyes and covered in injuries is now outside, talking to someone with a sparkle in my eyes. The one protecting a kid from delinquents is now lying on top of some beat-up punks while being rescued by someone. And those six brutal deaths after I turned into a girl? In every one of them, I’m in a princess carry, completely unharmed.

"Hey, Rentarou? Did something happen on your way here?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah… I kept finding different versions of you along the way. I couldn’t just leave you there, so I helped each one. First I found you all beat up and managed to convince you to come outside, then I found you surrounded by delinquents and took them all down, then when you were about to fall I caught you, when a car was about to hit you I slid in and pulled you out of the way, I caught the knife with a sword block, grabbed you when you were falling off the bridge, and as for the vice principal… well, I proved you’d turned into a girl…"

"You hesitated at the end there, didn’t you? What are you hiding? …Not that I’m gonna press."

So that’s what happened. No wonder the bad end footage changed. Man… I see now. Even when I’m too far gone, you still manage to make it in time. That’s amazing. You really are my future husband. I don’t think I’d make it to the future without something like this. After seeing all those scenes, there’s no ignoring how fragile I really am—like I could die tomorrow.

---

"So, why the hell did you do something like this?"

The once-white ground was now dyed bright red. At the center of it all, I directed my question to the crouched-down God of Birth.

"It was... meant to be a trial for you..."

"A trial, huh? Don’t give me that crap. You were the one who hit your limit halfway through, weren't you?"

Just as I was about to press the God of Birth further—who was already averting his eyes—a shiny bald head popped up from the ground. That head... it belonged to the God of Love!!

"Sorry 'bout that, Rentarou, Kawaru. This fool did something real dumb..."

And with that, the God of Love began to explain. Why the God of Birth had done something like this. As for why the guy himself wasn’t explaining it? Apparently, he was flat-out refusing to say a word.

"I wasn’t planning to spill it either, but... I just couldn't stand watching him try to take the blame all on his own like that, y’know? Besides, I messed up too."

Take the blame? What does that even mean? Since I finally got to see Rentarou, I pressed up close and started listening carefully. Even if this is a dream, Rentarou’s so warm. I love him.

So, here’s the whole story. That whole bibiin! moment happened after I became a girl, but apparently, the “soulmate detection” system kicks in even when you're still a guy. The bibiin! and the soulmate judgment are probably separate processes or something.

Which means... if things had stayed the same and we’d remained just two guys, and Rentarou and I hadn’t ended up together, I’d basically have been doomed to die. Knowing that ahead of time, the God of Birth—who already knew what gender I’d be born as—thought maybe he could somehow steer us together by making me look more like a girl. And well, Rentarou did end up confessing, so in a way, I guess it kinda worked.

But the problem is, we never actually ended up together. And if we had kept drifting apart like in Episode 1... that would’ve sealed the deal. My death would've been practically guaranteed. Huh, I see...

So the only way out of this was for me to become a girl and get that bibiin! moment with Rentarou and start dating him. But... turns out, the God of Birth doesn’t have the power to turn people into girls. What the hell. You acted like it was just too much hassle when you passed along the message!

Apparently, since the God of Birth is a being who affirms the fact of being born, changing someone's gender would be like denying the gender they were born with—basically a rejection of their entire birth. And that’s something he just can’t do. Damn, that’s complicated.

But as luck would have it, thanks to Senpai Kusuri’s medicine, I became a girl. Changing gender might be denial, but “being reborn as a girl” is something the God of Birth can affirm.

So yeah, the God of Birth fixed my gender as female, and that brings us to now. Oh, and apparently I’m so fragile I could die if you so much as look away from me, so he’s been helping out here and there. Like how I didn’t get caught up in any major accidents when Rentarou wasn’t around—that was thanks to him. Makes sense now.

"Then... why didn’t you just say that? Instead of telling me something like, 'some jerk who messed with your life for fun,' why not just tell the truth…?"

"...Seibetsu Kawaru. You have a strong sense of good. That’s exactly why... if you knew I’d been helping you, you’d probably feel grateful, wouldn’t you? Even knowing the real cause was me and the God of Love. But to a god, gratitude... faith... those things are everything. And that’s exactly why... accepting it from you would be wrong. I don’t have the right..."

"God of Birth..."

"This one’s been regretting it all along... That mistake on that day. If it wasn’t him, he never would’ve gotten so emotionally involved. Watching over a single human every single day without fail... to the other gods, that kind of behavior is straight-up insanity."

"Then why... why would the God of Birth do something like this‼︎ To go so far for Kawaru, only to hurt her like that...‼︎"

"Rentarou, can we just call it even since it didn’t hurt that much?"

“…Haa. I really can’t win against you two… You too, God of Love.”

And with that, the God of Birth began to speak his true intentions. You know, the usual behind-the-scenes kind of stuff. I’ve always liked that kind of thing.

“…I intended to play the villain. I wanted to show Seibetsu Kawaru a tragic ending, and have Rentarou Aijou rescue her from it, deepening their bond even further. Plus, the resentment aimed at the God of Love would shift to me instead.”

“The reason I chose a tragic ending was for that. Seibetsu Kawaru, I wanted you to feel a sense of danger. One wrong move, and you could’ve ended up like that. Sure, you usually have Rentarou Aijou’s help, but situations like that could very well happen. Well, that day, I was pulling strings behind the scenes, so death was never actually possible.”

“As for the vice principal’s kiss… that was partly to even out the numbers, and honestly, I thought it’d be too pitiful if you lost your first kiss. Before I knew it, I’d slipped it into the tragic ending…”

I mean, how should I put it… Yeah. It’s one of those classic cases where someone tries to do something cliché, but because it goes against who they are, it just doesn’t work. I mean, come on, he’s the God of Birth. A bad ending—death, basically—must be something he truly despises. That probably explains why he looked so pained, even coughing up blood.

The closest image I can think of is that one time. When Karane was sitting in the Hanazono family’s lie detector. She shouted out “I love you!” and the machine immediately blared “Lie! Lie!” Probably felt like that to Rentarou back then. And also like that girl who shows up later—wait, am I spoiling something? Then forget I said that.

Anyway, this whole thing is probably the result of someone forcing themselves to do something that just doesn’t suit them. I feel bad we pushed him into that. I mean, even in his words, his goodness just kind of leaked through.

“That’s so selfish… Did you even think about how Kawaru felt…!?”

Even after hearing everything, Rentarou was still furious. Well, of course he is. Maybe I could forgive it, but… I know how merciless he is toward anyone who hurts his friend-slash-girlfriend. What now…? He might actually punch a god. Actually, might? Who am I kidding—can one punch even cover it?

Somehow managing to calm Rentarou down with a tight hug, we turned to see the God of Birth sitting kneeling on the white ground. What’s he planning to do now?

“Well then… Seibetsu Kawaru. Now that my true motives have been revealed, there’s no helping it. Here I am. …I truly… am so sorry…!!”

Whoa, hey. No, you can’t do that. You’re a god, right? You can’t… you can’t be doing a dogeza.

“I’m sorry…! Maybe I should’ve done this much earlier…!! I didn’t show enough sincerity…!!”

He pressed his forehead to the ground so hard it started to bleed, apologizing deeply. Even Rentarou, as angry as he was, couldn’t keep that up. I mean, obviously. He’s been atoning in secret this whole time, and even this mess was something he did because he genuinely cared about us.

“Then how about this? If you grant my request, we’ll call it even.”

“Kawaru…”

“It’s okay, right, Rentarou? He’s already tried so hard to make up for it… and he apologized too.”

“Very well. If it’s something within my power, I’ll do anything I can…”

“Hey, God of Birth, you don’t need to go that far…!”

“What are you saying! What I did was that serious! If it’s for atonement, I’ll do anything—!”

“…Then become my grandpa!!”

“…Huh?”

---

“But I must say, I’m truly surprised, God of Birth… to think you’d become a grandpa!!”

“Indeed… I’m still half in disbelief myself… fufu…”

“What’s this? I’ve never seen you look so happy before…! By the way, why didn’t you say anything about that?”

“Ah… you mean the part where I gave Rentarou Aijou the chance to overturn Seibetsu Kawaru’s tragic death? No special reason… I simply forgot to mention it. He was having a bit of a crisis, after all… something like, ‘Am I really protecting Kawaru?’ wasn’t it? Of course he’s protecting her! Otherwise, how else could it be that ‘every last possibility of Seibetsu Kawaru’s tragic future vanished the moment she became Rentarou Aijou’s girlfriend’? Finding that divergence point in the trials was no easy feat…!”

---

The next day. Somehow, both of us remembered what happened in that dream-like whatever-it-was, so I’ve been chatting a lot with Rentarou. Naturally, while getting a piggyback ride‼︎ I love it‼︎

“Why did you say something like that, Kawaru? I mean, it’s weird coming from the guy who was about to punch a divine being, but… calling him your grandpa…?”

Yeah, I get it. Even I know that what I said was kind of nuts. But still… it’s what I genuinely wanted to say.

“Well, I mean? He did say he’d do anything… and, in both my past and current life, I never got to meet a grandpa. Plus…”

“Plus?”

“Like… he’s always been watching over me, helping me when things got dangerous… sometimes throwing tough trials at me, but secretly being pretty soft about it. I just felt like… if I did have a grandpa, maybe he’d be like that…”

“…I see.”

Rentarou smiled at me like he really understood. Hm… I feel like there’s some distant commotion going on. Oh well. Whatever happens, Rentarou’s here, the whole family’s here, and now… I’ve even gained a really reliable grandpa.

---

“Hey, stop that right now, God of Birth!! She doesn’t need that much financial luck!!”

“But it’s Kawaru we’re talking about, isn’t it!? There’s no such thing as too much money! Don’t you dare close the gate to the Fortune Bank!!”

“Still, this is way over the top…!! You need to show at least some restraint—”

“I care not for restraint! Now move aside!!”

“If I move, you’ll immediately transfer it, won’t you!? Just what exactly are you to Seibetsu Kawaru…!?”

“Out of the way!! I’m her grandpa, you hear me!!”