That Time I Got Sent to Another World Where All of the Girls Are Super Hot and Super Into Me Because I Am Super Strong and Have Very Powerful Abilities that God Gave to Me Because Me and Them Were Friends When I Was in Grade School and God Is Actually A Loli Who is Also in Love with Me Because I Am A Super Epic Person Who Will Defeat The Demon Lord Who Threatens The Entire World but the Demon Lord Actually is in Love With Me and the Demon Lord is a Super Hot Busty Babe Who is Actually Just Trying to Get My Attention Because I Have a Cellphone That Can Contact the Internet and Can Get Anything Shipped To Me Within 2 Days But I Barely Need It Because I Am Actually the Most Strongest Guy Alive Because I Have Super Strong Powers Like Being Able to Lift Your Mom Really Easily Which is Nearly Impossible Because Your Mom is So Fat But is Actually A Secret Anime Busty Babe Who is Really into Me Because I Am Super Cool and Better Than Your Dad Because He is Super Lame Which I Am Not

Anchor 2.42.2 - In which Wanda has a bad omen about the upcoming journey

"Uh... so what are we looking for?" Ciel asked, turning to the others as Hiro disappeared beyond the railing of the ship above them. Wanda looked around, anxiety pressing down around her. She didn't really have an answer for Ciel, since her knowledge of ships extended only to fanfiction. To Wanda, they were all equally deathtraps. Something told her that it wouldn't make a difference which ship Hiro wound up picking arbitrarily.

Sunlight entering through the west window to alight on the properly-positioned vase to echo the Brilliance throughout the room. Ensure the Northeast corner contains a plant bearing blue flowers, and-

Movement caught the corner of Wanda's eye, nose, and ear. She glanced towards the disturbance, before smiling and patting Bonbon between the shoulderblades to get her attention.

"Bonbon-chan, look, wan!" Wanda shouted, patting the elf chef on the back and pointing to a group of [Beach Elves] gathering at the neck of the dock, where the wood met the sand. "It's your team from the cooking contest, isn't it, wan?"

DEHUMANIZE YOURSELF AND FACE TO BLOODSHED. DEHUMANIZE YOURSELF AND FACE TO BLOODSHED. DEHUMANIZE YOURSELF AND FACE TO BLOODSHED.

Bonbon was having a bit of a crisis after the contest. Wanda could sympathize with her feelings of worthlessness and futility, even if Bonbon's particular crisis was basically baby's first nihilism. But she swallowed her smugness to be there to help comfort her friend. She'd already offered her a few of the least-addictive drugs she had, but the chef had strangely refused.

She followed Bonbon as they walked over to meet with the cooks. Wanda looked down at the spliff in her hand, sorely tempted. She clenched her fist, then tucked it into her dedicated Downers pouch. She'd been Lucid since she woke up, and her head was throbbing from the continuous noise. But she couldn't afford to go numb, not after what she'd heard this morning.

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The Voices never stopped, although she could temporarily silence them with drugs. What did change was WHICH Voices she heard. None of them responded to her or interacted with the world in any way, but she usually heard about 5-10 Voices at any given time. Many of them were bizarre, random, or entirely unintelligible. However, none of them lied. She'd confirmed the truth behind the word of the Voices, which is why she'd been nervous since she woke up.

[Lost Knapsack, leather. Contents: One (1) red wool sweater, handmade. One (1) apple, rotten. One (1) wedge of cheddar cheese, rotten. Canvas bag containing 15 silver. Book, "The Innkeeper's Busty Daughter", water-damaged. Lost by: Roger Mansworth. Lost: 3 months, 2 days ago. Location: X:518.36 Y:120.93 Z:56.22] [Lost Necklace, Pearl. Lost by: Samantha Smith. Lost: 2 years,

"Chef..." one of the cooks said to Bonbon, his voice cracking with emotion. Bonbon offered him a wan smile, while Wanda offered them a 'Wan!' and a smile. The cook looked to his associates for support, and stood tall, putting his hat on proudly.

"Your recipes... the skills you taught us... we won't forget it, chef!" He exclaimed. The other cooks nodded their agreement, huddling together and gathering around Bonbon as they shed tears of happiness. Bonbon's ears twitched, and she held up her hands in front of her to ward off any potential attacks. However, her defenses were useless against the [Emotional Damage] they were hitting her with. She reeled back from the critical hit, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Wanda stood at the ready in case Bonbon needed help dealing with them. She could shove them away, or-

DEHUMANIZE YOURSELF AND FACE TO BLOODSHED. DEHUMANIZE YOURSELF AND FACE TO BLOODSHED. DEHUMANIZE YOURSELF AND FACE TO BLOODSHED.

Yeah, that too. She didn't think that Bonbon was in any actual danger, at least not right now. Wanda glanced nervously back at the boat, stepping away from Bonbon to give her a bit of privacy and also not have to deal with sappy feelgood bullshit. If she could keep her mouth shut and not butt into Bonbon's conversation, things might work themselves out. But she wasn't holding her breath about that. Because again, the Voices always spoke the truth. Some of them made predictions, like the Voice currently taking up her attention.

Harrison Bellview, choking on meatball, three years, six months, one week, three days, twelve hours. Granthar the Inconvenient, heart attack, fifty-three years, four months, one day, 5 hours. Lucas Potter, liver cancer, one year...

The Death Notice, as she'd come to call this particular Voice, had been running since this morning. It was one of the more morbid Voices, even if the information it provided was direct and easy to understand. It unerringly announced the impending deaths of random people, as well as the cause, and the time remaining until their death.

Wanda hadn't yet been able to discern any pattern to the names, the dates, or the causes. They weren't people related to her. Her location didn't seem to have any bearing on it, so far as she could tell. And there didn't seem to be any organization or pattern to the deaths either. But sometimes, she would hear a familiar name. Like she had this morning. And more worrying than that, the words that had accompanied the name:

"...Drowned during shipwreck, zero days, twelve hours."

A shipwreck in twelve hours. The predictions always came true. There was no resisting Fate. She'd known that from the start, before the Voices had started, but that hadn't stopped her from struggling against it in the past. There were only a few Voices that gave her actionable predictions, but when one arrived, she was quick to try to avert it. Anything to try to refute the grim thesis that had been imparted to her long ago.

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She'd failed, of course. And it seemed to her that even her struggles served to further Fate. A week before she'd met Hiro, she'd been walking down a crowded street when she overheard a spoken name, and found herself feet away from a man fated to die that evening, from a heart attack. She'd acted impulsively. Rashly, even. He was going to die anyway, after all. But if it wasn't by a heart attack... If it wasn't this evening... If she could prove Fate wrong...

It had taken three [Police Cops] to pull her off the man's body and wrestle the knife out of her hands. They'd arrested her, then hit her with a few [Piledrivers] for good measure before transferring her to the local [Hot Girls' Gulag]. She'd been exhilarated at first, but quickly reinhilirated when she was told the good news: the man had survived after all. The [Police Cops] were ready to release her after they filled out the paperwork.

An unexpected event, but not an unpleasant one. Had she actually managed to avert Fate? Was it time to re-evaluate her philosophy? Things looked promising, until that evening, when the man died of a heart attack during a standard bloodletting procedure. She was convicted of murder after that, and later sold to [Thrallmart] to fund the warden's Gacha addiction. And from there... well, the rest was history.

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Wanda sat in silence, broken only by the constant and cacophonous babbling of the Voices. Her tail had stopped wagging entirely. She didn't know why she bothered. Fate was unavoidable, and she'd managed to accept it. If you were a slave to Fate, best to simply go with the flow, and live for yourself. There was no sense worrying about the inevitable, after all, and eventually everybody will die, and the universe will collapse. You had to live it up while you were still living, and damn the consequences. Or so she thought. Yet why now, the moment another opportunity to defy Fate presented itself, was she struggling again?

Nothing she'd said had convinced Hiro in the slightest. He was still dead-set on going after the ghost pirate for... some reason. Fate, obviously, but most of the time it seemed to work more... subtly. Wanda wasn't sure if Hiro really had things like 'motivations' or 'ambition'. It seems like he sometimes just kind of did things arbitrarily. Still, Hiro was the most ridiculously overpowered person she'd ever met, and he apparently had ties to Kamiko? If anybody could defy Fate, she expected it to be him.

But nevertheless, she'd pulled out several trump cards, including effectively propositioning him, and nothing had seemed to sway him an inch. Hopeless after all, then. Well... maybe a different approach might have more luck. She wandered over to Ciel, who was leaning hear ear against one of the ships and tapping on it like it was a melon from a greengrocer's. The unsure look on her face slipped away as she saw Wanda approach.

"Wan! Is it ripe?"

Ciel coughed, blushing a bit as she looked away from the ship.

"Uh... hey, Wan-chan. I'm uh... not really sure what it is I'm looking for. How do you pick out a boat?"

Wanda gave her best "Who gives a shit?" shrug, before cocking her head to the side, letting her ear(dog) flop inside-out.

"Wan! Why are we going sailing? I thought we had to beat that mean [King], wan!"

Ciel's expression darkened, her posture tensing as she looked inland, presumably towards the [Valley Elves].

"I mean... we definitely need to deal with [King] Chad too. It's... kinda tough." She crossed her arms, staring hard out at distant hills. "The [Valley Elves] have been raiding villages and caravans. But... so has this Ghostbeard guy. Kinda seems like we need to deal with both of them, right?"

DEHUMANIZE YOURSELF AND FACE TO BLOODSHED. DEHUMANIZE YOURSELF AND FACE TO BLOODSHED. DEHUMANIZE YOURSELF AND FACE TO BLOODSHED.

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Wanda winced, partially from Ciel's stern sense of right, and partially from the steadily-increasing throbbing in her head. Were the Voices getting louder, or was it just starting to build up? She didn't think she'd be able to stay Lucid for much longer, but she had to keep listening. Just in case there was something she could use. Some clue to a way out. As for Ciel...

"Wan! But we promised the [Paladins] we would beat King Chad, wan!" Wanda protested. "The [Beach Elf] King said we don't have to beat Ghostbeard, wan!"

Ciel shifted uncomfortably, brushing her fingers against the Kamiko emblem on her belt. "Well... sure. Nobody's forcing us t'do it. Or technically hiring us t'do it. But... it's the right thing to do, ain't it?"

Wanda sighed, reaching out to pat Ciel on her head. Perhaps Hiro was rubbing off on her in bad ways, but it seemed the most appropriate response to all that. She cocked an eyebrow as the [Paladin] closed her eyes, apparently enjoying the headpats more than one might expect. Wanda nodded to herself. Ciel was apparently pretty touch-starved. She'd file that away for later.

She left Ciel to... whatever she was doing and went to check up on Bonbon. The elf chef was crying quietly, the other cooks having departed into the sunrise, waving at her as they walked away in slow motion. Wanda sidled up to Bonbon, grinning a reassuring smile.

"Wan! Are you okay, wan?" she asked. Bonbon sniffed quietly, nodding as she wiped her eyes.

"Y-yes... I'm fine, Wanda-san. Thank you for asking."

"What happened, wan?"

Bonbon didn't reply at first, simply staring out at the beach while she collected herself. Wanda waiting impatiently, glancing back at the ship that Hiro was inspecting. He'd been in there a while. She doubted she had much leeway. Still, she tried not to let her worry show on her face, continuing to smile at Bonbon.

"They, um... the cooks told me..." Bonbon began. "They said that even though they lost the cooking competition, they wanted to keep cooking. They're going to open a new restaurant. They plan to use the recipes I taught them, and they... they wish to come up with new ones as well."

Wanda opened her mouth to say something inane, then thought better of it.

"Wan! It sounds like you've made a big difference in their lives. I expect it's probably fairly affirming for you as well."

Bonbon gave her an odd look, but nodded. "Yeah. I suppose it is." She continued to sniff, fishing a lace handkerchief out of her pocket and gently blowing her nose on it. Wanda clenched her fist. This was a bit of a hail mary, but...

"Wan!" she said, "You should go help them. I bet they need a lot more recipes and training! I'm sure Master will be able to take out Ghostbeard on his own. We can come pick you up afterwards, wan!"

Bonbon thought about it. Wanda held her breath, but the elf just shook her head, as the Animal-ears-person-folk (dog) had known she would.

"It's... tempting. But I really shouldn't. I wasn't very sure about following Hiro-san on account of his recipes being hard to follow... but if I hadn't followed him, I would have never arrived at this village. And his recipes are still useful, despite the fact that most of them have large gaps in the practical knowledge needed. If I stayed here, I couldn't really guarantee that he would actually come back for me, right?"

Wanda couldn't deny it. She sighed, reaching out to give Bonbon a one-armed hug. Bonbon made a quiet noise of surprise as Wanda embraced her, shifting uncomfortably as she accepted the hug. The elf backed a step away as Wanda released her, her hand automatically checking on her coinpurse.

To Bonbon's surprise, the coinpurse was still there and untouched. "Wanda-san...?" she asked, looking up at the doggirl in concern. "Are you... feeling alright?"

Behind her, she could hear banging and thumping that seemed to indicate that Hiro would soon be making his appearance again.

"Wan..." she replied, deactivating her [Drug Invulnerability] and letting mindless bliss flow over her once more. "Just worried about getting seasick, wan!"

She smiled wistfully at Bonbon, her worries and the Voices fading into nothing as the doors to Hiro's ship were thrown open.