No Game No Life - Volume 2 - Chapter Pr

OPENING 

You’re playing an RPG, and you hit a door you can’t open. Isn’t this what you think? If I can use magic, why can’t I just bust this door the hell open? But you can’t. Why not? Because those are the rules . 
—Games and real life are different. People like to say this as if you can’t tell the difference. But have they thought about how they’re different? They’re probably just thinking in terms of is it real or not? Now, as much fun as it might be to debate whether sports are reality or a game, we won’t go there. What I want to talk about is a more fundamental difference between games and reality: absolute rules . 
If we look at the previous example realistically , ignoring rules, you don’t need to worry about a door. You can just break it and continue. When the fate of the world is at stake, who needs to look for the key? If all you need is a key to claim whatever’s inside as your own, then it seems like even if you just smashed the chest open, you’re hardly going to get sued for destruction of property. Looking at it another way, if the door is so strong that you can’t even break it with magic capable of defeating the Devil, couldn’t you just break through the wall instead? Heck, you could even grab that insanely tough door and use it as a shield while fighting the Devil. Same for the legendary sword in the stone: You don’t have to pull the sword out—just break the stone. But they don’t do that. Why not? 
Because then it would be boring. 
That’s right: Rules are there to make the process of reaching the end fun. In shogi , to capture the king; in soccer, to score more goals; in an RPG, to defeat the final boss. There’s nothing cool about reaching the end without following the rules. Thus, the rules of games have a shared absoluteness . 
—Do you see it yet? In reality—there is no ending. Victory isn’t secured when certain conditions are fulfilled, and beating someone doesn’t bring peace. Lovers never live happily ever after. For better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, every single relationship reaches a dead end . Therefore, people set their own endings using their own arbitrary interpretation , and they create their own arbitrary rules to go along with them. If I make more money, I win. If I have more fun, I win. Just thinking in terms of winning in the first place makes you a loser… 
Let’s try a little thought experiment. Imagine you’re playing shogi , and all of a sudden, your opponent starts moving pieces around however he wants with no rhyme or reason. And then, without even capturing your king, he looks at you as if to say, How’s that? I won. 
…How did you react? Could it be that you wanted to punch him in the face? But can you think of a game where everyone plays that way? That’s right—that’s reality . 
—Games and real life are different? No shit. We have a few words for the people who smugly state the obvious: Don’t even try to compare them, n00b. 
 
Eight twenty-three-inch widescreen monitors. That was the whole of their world. 
A little planet, thirteen thousand kilometers in diameter at its equator. A world with its surface covered in a fiber-optic network…Earth. On this planet, the concept of distance had been forgotten. Connecting to the Internet allowed one to transmit thoughts fast enough to go around the world seven times a second. It was possible to connect with someone on the other side of the planet as if they were right by one’s side. 
—People said the world had expanded boundlessly. 
—But they thought the world had shrunk suffocatingly. 
Everything necessary for life could be delivered with a single click. The discarded boxes robbed the close room of its original breadth. In that enclosed space where the artificial light of their displays blinked upon them—no, rather on the other side of those monitors, the net space built in hexadecimal—that was their whole world. 
Cramping the room even further were the countless PCs and consoles. The wiring connecting them and numerous controllers, these things robbed their quarters of even so much as space to walk. Illuminated within this setting were two faces devoid of expression. These belonged to the brother and sister who were presently waging a fierce battle against some unknown players on the other side of the globe. The brother was a young man with black hair and black eyes. The sister was a girl with white hair and red eyes. The contents of the screen were chaotic, while the contents of the room were still. The siblings’ headphones even monopolized the sounds of their true world . All that could be heard within the room were inorganic, mechanical noises and the clicking of the pair. 
—They thought the world had shrunk. Electronic data networks had enabled the ability to see the other side of the planet without moving. But what that led to was a data tsunami that far exceeded the limits of individual cognition. The explosion of data had not created boundless connection, but the opposite. The surplus of information was a poison that made people retreat to their own little worlds which were biased toward what they wanted to hear. Countless little closed communities. Isolated, ever-smaller, shallow individual ideologies. And someplace else, another realm distinct from reality: the boundless universe of games. Their eyes as they peered into the worlds beyond the monitor… Sometimes they concentrated so hard that they fell under the illusion that they were actually in those other worlds . That they weren’t the dregs of society, bound in this cage the size of sixteen tatami mats. Sometimes they were heroes, standing up to save countries. Sometimes they were heads of the greatest guilds in the land. Sometimes they were mages, sometimes they were elite commandos, sometimes assassins. The common thread was that the world always revolved around them. Clear victory conditions were laid out. 
The young man let out a sigh. Eight twenty-three-inch widescreen monitors. How long had it been since they had become his whole world? 
The two reigned undefeated in all kinds of games. In the little world beyond the monitor, they were practically an urban legend. In the little gaming sphere to which they belonged, they were truly heroes, just like in the games themselves. But whenever they looked away, the scene was the same as ever. Artificial, quiet, cramped. The small, isolated world…of the dregs of society. In these moments, the young man would find himself overwhelmed by a sense of dysphoria, the sensation of jamais vu : Is this really my room? Taking the thought further, he idly wondered with no basis in reality— Is this really the world in which I was meant to live? 
“Yes, you’re right.” 
A voice responded to his internal monologue. Sora surveyed the same world he and his sister had looked on countless times, but suddenly standing within it—an unfamiliar boy, innocently smiling. 
—Wait. Had Sora seen him before? He searched his memory, but before he could speak, the boy went on. 
“This isn’t where you were meant to live. So…” 
And— 
“…that’s why I’ve given you a new life. ” 
Past and present, fiction and reality. All of Sora’s memories clouded. His increasingly hazy consciousness started stripping away the reality of the world. That’s when he suddenly realized— the usual . 
“…… Oh, I see. It’s a dream. ” 
Then, just like all dreams…it ended. Impossible to pinpoint precisely when, his consciousness returned… 
 
The Kingdom of Elkia: the capital, Elkia. In this city, now the last bastion of Immanity after losing territory in one failed bid for dominion after another. In a corridor of the Royal Castle, a girl walked unsteadily. Stephanie Dola. A red-haired, blue-eyed noble girl of the finest breeding, granddaughter of the previous king. 
—However, the deep fatigue indicated by the dark circles under her eyes and her heavy steps robbed the young lady of her natural refinement. Clutching playing cards with a creepy smile, wobbling her way to the bedchamber of the king, she gave the impression instead of…a ghost. 
“Heh, heh-heh-heh… This is the day you get what’s coming to you.” 
As the newly risen sun came to reap her post-all-nighter consciousness, Stephanie—aka Steph—chuckled restlessly. 
“— Sora , you’re awake, aren’t you?! It’s morning!” 
Bam, bam. Her hands preoccupied with cards, Steph kicked the door, rudely addressing the king by his first name. But… 
“Beeep. The party you have dialed is pretending not to be available.” 
“—Huh?” 
The voice that answered from inside the room was not the king’s. Rather, it was a groggy, monotonous impression of a woman. 
“Please move away from the door immediately and be sure not to barge in.” 
“—Sora, is this some kind of joke?” 
“No, I’m serious, d00d.” 
“For the God’s sake! I’m coming in, all right?!” 
He was probably just playing a game anyway—wait, scratch that, he definitely was. Spurred on by the irritation of fatigue, as if to kick in the door—no, actually kicking in the door—Steph entered the royal bedchamber to find… 
“I’m sorry I’m so sorry I really wasn’t joking I honestly just can’t right now I didn’t mean anything really I’m serious please I’m sorry I’m sorry…” 
—The king, crouching on his bed, clutching his head, apologizing profusely. His visible trembling was so pitiful as to elicit tears. However, Steph, having seen something similar before, looked around the room as she spoke. The chamber was littered with so many books there was no place to step. Books and countless games. But what set Steph to muttering was the absence of the thing that should have been there but wasn’t. 
“…Hm? Sora, are you alone?” 
“Yes I’m alone so alone no more reason to live probably never should’ve been born in the first place I’m sorry after you go I’ll just be a good boy and hang myself so please—” 
“…Brother…? You’re making a racket…” 
As the king babbled breathlessly, a lethargic voice rose up in complaint. Recognizing it immediately, Steph sighed and murmured: 
“So Shiro is here. What are you doing?” 
“—Huh?” 
At this revelation, Sora whipped his head in Shiro’s direction. She must have fallen while sleeping. A girl as white as snow, crept up the side of the bed. Sora moved to embrace her in an uproar. 
“Ahhhhhhh, I’m sooooo glad! Oh God, my sister! I almost hung myself by mistake thanks to your sloppy sleeping. What do you have to say for yourself?!” 
As the brother wept openly, rubbing his cheek against his sister, Shiro. The sister considered him with a cold squint out of sleepiness…though probably not exclusively that. 
“…Brother…that’s, too much…” 
“What?! Are you saying you don’t understand your brother’s feelings?!” 
Sora bolted to his feet and crowed with grand gesture. 
“Then tonight! While you’re sleeping, I’ll put you in the closet! And when you wake up, I won’t be—” 
“………!… Hk … Ngh …” 
Before he even finished speaking, Shiro already had tears in her eyes, perhaps imagining it. 
“See?! Now do you see how I feel?” 
“…I’m sor-ry…I’m…sor-ry, for not sleeping better…” 
As Shiro wrung out a sincere apology between sobs, Sora stroked her head. 
“No, I’m sorry. I went too far. I was a bad brother to make you imagine such a catastrophe.” 
“… Hk … Yeah…” 
At this point, the man—who moments before had been shaking like a newborn gazelle and begging forgiveness—turned powerfully, pridefully, back to Steph with a proclamation. 

 

“So it must be the bed’s fault! Steph, get rid of this bed and lay out a futon!” 
“H-hngg?!” 
Steph, who had been watching the siblings’ antics as if she had already seen it all, raised a queer voice in a panic at the dilemma now facing her. 
“Th-th-this is the bed of the royal chamber! Do you know how much history—?” 
“Whatever. Sleeping or not, for Shiro to leave my side, it had to be the bed’s fault. Maybe it’s tilted?” 
Shiro instantly nodded in agreement. Steph thought— How ridiculous . 
“I-I’ll have you know that bed is worth enough to feed a whole family!” 
“Then sell it and feed a family. It’s a good deed. There’ll be a happy family.” 
“…Y-y-y-you…” 
As Steph trembled speechlessly at Sora’s tyrannical reign, something occurred to the king. 
“Oh, right. The stuff in this room belonged to the previous king—your grandfather.” 
It seemed Steph’s reaction had sparked something within Sora. Clapping his hands together, he spoke as if inspired. 
“So this is what we’ll do: Steph, starting today, this is your room .” 
“Wha—! …Th-this is the king’s bedchamber !” 
“And I am the king. Anyplace I choose to sleep, be it a doghouse, becomes the king’s bedchamber .” 
Somehow maintaining a straight face, the king spouted off sophistry as if it were breathing to him. 
“So get me a room in the building the castle’s maids use. For the bed, you should just stick a mattress on the floor, of course.” 
For a moment, Steph was unable to follow Sora as he declared that a futon would be far, far preferable. After a few seconds, she reacted. 
“A-a maid’s room…? We’re talking about a little shack at the edge of the castle grounds! It’s wood, you know?!” 
“Mm? Now this I can’t overlook. Are you dissing wood?” 
Sora cleared his throat with an ahem and began. 
“It’s superior in ventilation, absorbency, insulation, seismic resistance, wind resistance, and everything. Truly a castle as far as a shut-in is concerned. As long as you watch out for fire, there is no architecture that compares to Japanese—” 
In the middle of his diatribe, Sora seemed to think of something. Reaching for his tablet , which had been on the solar charger by the window… 
“Oh, I knew it. I did have a book on Japanese architecture.” 
“…What?” 
“Great, let’s build a house on the castle grounds!” 
“Huh…?” 
Leaving Steph behind as she utterly failed to follow him, Sora went on, heated. 
“What do you think, Shiro? Our dream, right?! Don’t you think that’s a great idea?!” 
“…Where…would we build it?” 
“Heh-heh, I know exactly what your concerns are, my darling little sister!!” 
He accentuated his speech with English. As if to say, “You think your brother wouldn’t think of that?”…he pointed, bam —to the castle courtyard . 
“Over there, it’s closer to the outer ward where the maids stay, so we’d have no problem getting supplies. It’s also close to the castle kitchen, so we can shut ourselves in just like always! It’s also got a fair amount of greenery and a nice breeze, and very few people pass by! Plus, thanks to the castle wall, there’ll be practically no sunlight at all in the morning! Can you even imagine a better place than this?!” 
Shiro lifted a hand at Sora’s boasts. 
“…No objections…” 
“Great! So, Steph.” 
“Uh, um, y-yes?” 
Steph stood slack-jawed, in awe at these developments. 

“Get us some experts on wooden architecture. Yeah, this is probably an unknown style of architecture in this world, so I guess we’ll need a few ultra-top-class artisans and twenty or so staff? I guess if we explain how to pick the wood, they can take care of the details.” 
—By way of a late introduction, these two siblings are Sora and Shiro—the king and queen of Elkia, the last nation of the human race, “Immanity.” Who spend days without leaving their room. Who read and play games all day and night while making unreasonable demands. 
—This is what you call tyranny . 
“~~~~~~~ Sora! Get ready for a game !!” 
Steph appeared to be out of patience with the tyrants. She clutched her cards in her hands, glaring daggers at Sora as she yelled. For today—she would rain down divine punishment upon them. 
—But. 
“—…Oh?” 
At the mere mention of the word “game,” Sora’s eyes narrowed, all emotion extinguished. Though Steph had seen this instantaneous transformation many times before, it still made her shiver. The pitiful man who just had been shivering had suddenly metamorphosed into a smug, silly big brother. Then with the flip of a switch, the contents of her heart were exposed so that no matter what she did, she’d be in the palm of his hand—his mechanical calmness gave that illusion. With a military boldness, his face became that of a game master . 
—Considering her response more critically, Steph felt a flash of heat in her face and a skipped beat in her heart as he looked into her eyes. The legacy of the game she had played with him before… The proof that the tab from her utter defeat had not been forgotten… This seemed to blunt the resolve with which Steph had arrived. As her ears turned red and her eyes turned away, Sora asked: 
“Does this mean you’re challenging me to a game under Aschente ?” 
“Uh, why, yes…that’s exactly what it means.” 
“…The Fifth of the Ten Covenants… The party challenged…has the right to determine…the game.” 
Shiro mumbled out the Covenant she had memorized. 
—It was an absolutely binding Covenant that the God had set down for this world. An immutable law that could not be defied for any reason. 
“Hmmm… And yet…you challenge—me? To a game of my choosing ?” 
—The game had already begun. Steph had readied her counter to Sora’s psychological maneuvering. 
“Oh, dear me… Could it be you suggest that you, the greatest gamer among humans, will not e-entertain me with a game outside your specialty?” 
Though Steph had desperately planned this line out and practiced it. Her voice cracked a bit, and she sounded as if she were reading a script. Sora chuckled and grinned at her smugly. 
“I see. So you got a little argument ready ahead of time—what’s your wager?” 
When playing an absolutely binding game under the Ten Covenants, what to wager was also part of the negotiation. 
“Heh-heh-heh… If I win—” 
But, as if that question was what she was waiting for, Steph grinned back. 
“Sora, you’re going to become a decent person!” 
Whammo ? ! …Steph’s finger leveled at Sora. Then—silence. 
“Uh…uh…?” 
“Oh, I see how it is.” “You got me there.” These were the sorts of reactions Steph had been expecting. Instead, Sora shouted with a twinkle in his eye: 
“That’s—right—if the Ten Covenants are absolutely binding, then they would make that kind of thing possible?!” 
“Humgh?!” 
As Sora swayed toward Steph with unexpected enthusiasm, Steph averted her face which had erupted in crimson. 
“I-I-I mean, you commanded me to fall in love with you…which means—” 
—That’s right. At the end of their previous game, through some sort of trickery, Sora had demanded that Steph fall in love with him. It was obvious that she had been forced to fall in love with him against her will. Therefore… 
“I-I see… I’d totally overlooked that—!!” 
This is what it meant to have the scales fall from one’s eyes. Sora looked fervently to the heavens but then gasped and shouted again. 
“Th-then don’t say ‘decent person’—make your wager that I ‘get a life’ !” 
“—Get a…life? What’s that supposed to mean?” 
“It’s an expression. It’s pretty much like being a decent person… Come on! Let’s bet it, let’s play… I’ll lose!!” 
“Uh, w-well…” 
While Steph stood bewildered, unsure how to deal with this manic response, the brakes were suddenly slammed on from an unexpected direction. 
“…Brother, you can’t…lose to someone other than…me…” 
“Wha—?! My—my sister, are you going to life-block your big brother?” 
“…Blank can’t…lose…” 
“Ngk—!” 
That’s right: Sora (Sky) and Shiro (White). When the characters for their names were combined, they formed Kuuhaku : “Blank.” And “  ” couldn’t lose. It was a promise the two had exchanged back in their old world —. In a world without rules, it was an absolute and immutable rule that they had established for themselves. But now Sora looked back in despair as if dropped from heaven to hell. 
“That’s… But! I mean, there’s no way I would actually lose to Steph playing for real!” 
“Wha—?!” 
The siblings ignored Steph’s facial contortion and went on bickering. 
“…I don’t care…” 
“Come—come on, just think! A life , a real life , with flowers and sparkles and shit! Sh-Shiro, let’s do it! You set it as the condition. There’s no problem if it’s you, right? I’ll lose with all I’ve got! Come on, maybe chess…?” 
“…But…I refuse…” 
“Aah, God, shit! Steph!!” 
“Y-yes?!” 
Sora put his hands together in supplication and pleaded with her from his heart. 
“I’ll stake it on the one-in-a-million—no, inexpressible-without-imaginary-numbers chance that you might actually have a game you can beat me at! I’m begging ya, Steph!! Answer my hope, tinier than a quantum!!” 
“Heh, heh-heh…hee-hee-hee…hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee… Y-you’re asking for it, buster!!” 
Her face twisted by the rain of verbal abuse, Steph laughed. 
“The game is— blackjack !” 
…… 
“—… Hhhhh …” 
“… Hff …” 
As the siblings each heaved their own sighs with their own meanings, Steph wobbled, unable to grasp the implication of either. 
“Uh, what? What’s that?! I do have a chance at this game?!” 
As Sora just sighed again and with Shiro seemingly having lost all interest, Steph yelled: 
“I’m the dealer! Sora’s the player! This will prevent Sora from cheating, and even if he does, I can catch him and win! Skill has nothing to do with it if it’s a game of pure luck , right?!” 
Sora looking out the window, a single tear glistening on his cheek. 
“The character for ‘fleeting’ is written with ‘person’ on the left and ‘dream’ on the right… Well, whatever. Steph, don’t lose hope. I’m sure next time you’ll blah blah blah.” 
As Sora messed with his nails and lazily launched into his presumptive victory speech, Steph gnashed her teeth at him. 
“H-how dare you…?! J-just you wait! Aschente! ” 
This word was an oath that committed one to an absolutely binding wager under the Ten Covenants—but. 
“Yeah, yeah… Aschente. ” 
“Oh, come to think of it, I forgot to say what I would wager…” 
“Yeah… Anything’s fine, really… Hff …” 
“Y-you—!” 
With Sora’s utter conviction of imminent victory goading her, Steph silently reminded herself not to be rattled. 
— That’s right, calm down. This is your chance. Inside, Steph screwed up the corners of her mouth and crowed. A game of pure luck? Like hell. Even though she’d been busy, it went without saying that she’d been practicing a trick all night and was confident she could pull it off. The dealer gets to shuffle the cards. Which meant that if she could line up the cards in the shuffle in a way that looked legitimate, she could win. It wasn’t as if she’d be slipping in cards. There was no way you could prove it. The Eighth of the Ten Covenants: “If cheating is discovered in a game, it shall be counted as a loss”—which meant as long as it wasn’t discovered, you could cheat ! (“Heh-heh-heh-heh… You’ll rue the day you looked down on me!”) 
—But Steph didn’t realize… Such a trick would never be enough to secure her victory over Sora… 
 
—Beyond the horizon. Chess pieces loomed, massive enough to throw off one’s perspective, as if the towering mountains in the distance were merely pedestals for them. Perched atop the king piece, kicking his legs, sat a boy. Whistling merrily, he held a blank book and quill. 
“Hmm… It’s hard to know where to start.” 
Apparently thinking about how to start a story he was writing, eventually the boy seemed to think of something and started moving the quill. 
“‘—Once upon a time, there was a world in which all exercise of armed force was forbidden and all conflicts had to be resolved by games, as an absolute rule…’ Yeah. I guess that looks good, more or less?” 
Nodding from the top of the piece higher than the heavens, the boy looked far into the distance and muttered: 
“…I wonder if it’ll start moving soon… the first piece .” 
The boy’s name was Tet. He was the supreme creator of this place— Disboard , a world where everything was decided by games. Before the long-ago Great War of the gods put him on the throne of the One True God, he was known as the god of play . And now this One True God looked out into the distance, as if projecting his thoughts to a faraway lover. 
— Question: is this a sign of the fall of Immanity? 
This haughty voice suddenly rang out of thin air. 
Or: is it a sign that thou wilt at last make thy move? 
Seemingly a bit peeved by the intrusion, Tet nevertheless smiled. 
“Eavesdropping on me talking to myself? I can’t say I think much of your hobby.” 
The being spying on Tet, the One True God, was able to communicate with him, albeit brokenly. Without a doubt, it was one of the Old Deus, ranked first among the races—and even so, still limited in power. Of course to the One True God, it was obvious who the creature was, though not particularly interesting. 
— Question: Space-time distortion observed before new Immanity monarch determined. Inference that thou wouldst intervene: true, false? 
To this question, Tet merely shot back languidly: 
“You guys really are a bore.” 
As if about to meet his lover again, Tet grinned impatiently. 
“I’m not on anyone’s side. You don’t have to understand. Just go on playing your meaningless games.” 
And then with a smile that embraced great hope in the midst of great despair: 
“ They are coming. To my doorstep—and you guys can’t stop it.” 
As if (literally) unable to see the disembodied voice resounding around him, he instead turned his gaze to Immanity’s last city—Elkia. Though, to the One True God, even hundreds of years must have seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, his eyes were like those of a child standing at the door in anticipation of a trip to an amusement park, unable to wait five minutes for his parents to get ready. Confirming that the presence behind the voice that had rung from the air had vanished with a ffp , Tet mumbled: 
“Please don’t make me wait too long, Blank.” 
He kicked the edge of the piece he was sitting on with his heels. 
“I can hardly stand it anymore. If you make me wait too long— I’m going to have to visit you, aren’t I ?” 
Twisting his mouth into an impudent grin, he whispered: 
“Oh, that’s right. Next—” 
Apparently having thought of how to continue his story, Tet twirled his quill. 
“‘One day, a pair of gamers was invited from another world to a country of Immanity, the lowest-ranking race among the Ixseeds. Coming to the last bastion of beleaguered Immanity—to Elkia—they defended it from other races and became the king and queen—and that is where everything started’… I like it!” 
—The scribbles he wrote, now a story, would soon be an epic passed down among the bards for generations. Penned by the hand of the God himself, foretelling the gods to come. In other words: the prologue to the newest myth—.