Chapter 20 Mysterious Fanfic Author Crashes Reality
I had one request.
One peaceful, unbothered, unshipped date with Ashrin.
Just one.
We even planned ahead this time: no glowing scrolls, no cursed cutscenes, no random story flags. We booked a quiet mountaintop cafe in a timeline so stable even the coffee beans had character arcs.
Then Liora showed up wearing a floor-length coat made of ominous wind and vibes.
"They think I'm the Chosen One," she said, stepping dramatically onto the terrace.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because I declared it," she replied, with the smile of someone seconds away from becoming an antihero.
Ashrin blinked. "Is that why there's a prophecy printed on your cape?"
Liora did a spin. "It rhymes."
Despite her entrance, the date was going surprisingly well.
We had food.
We had quiet.
We had no metaphysical breakdowns for a full twenty-two minutes.
Until the sky ripped open and a massive ink quill stabbed into the mountain.
"WHY," I said flatly.
A booming voice echoed overhead:
"Chapter One: The Rewrite Rebels Break Up—Forever."
Ashrin immediately stood up and threw his soup at the sky.
Liora pulled a megaphone out of somewhere and shouted, "YOU WANT A MONOLOGUE? I'LL GIVE YOU A MONOLOGUE."
Then she launched into a speech that began with "I was born at the edge of a glitch" and ended with "...and that's why I deserve a dragon."
Meanwhile, the ink quill unfurled a scroll the size of a football field across the horizon.
It was a new script.
One written in real time.
I walked up to it and read the title:
Chapter 0: What If the Villainess Never Met the Glitch Knight?
My chest tightened.
Ashrin appeared beside me, eyes locked on the lines forming as we watched.
"This rewrite," he said, voice low. "It's not a parody. It's a reset."
"Someone's trying to erase our story."
A hooded figure stepped from the scroll itself.
Tall. Calm. A smile that knew too much.
"I'm the Editor," they said. "The cleanup crew for unstable narratives."
Ashrin narrowed his eyes. "You're the one behind the fanfics."
The Editor grinned. "Correction. I'm the one behind the replacements. Your story's gotten... messy."
Liora summoned her cult. The duck appeared in a flash of sparkles. It had backup.
But the Editor just raised a hand.
And everything froze.
Except me.
And Ashrin.
"Why?" I demanded.
"Because stories evolve," the Editor said. "And sometimes, the world needs a new lead."
They handed me a scroll titled Rewrite Proposal.
Inside was a new version of me: elegant, tragic, romantically available to everyone but Ashrin.
Ashrin grabbed it. Ripped it in half.
The world twitched.
But didn't crash.
"...Interesting," the Editor said. "You're stronger than the last version."
I stepped forward.
"We're not just surviving your rewrites," I said. "We're rewriting you."
Ashrin pulled out a quill of his own. "Let's see how you handle being a side character."