Extra: Under the Fireworks

The golden firework lingered above Oakhaven before breaking apart, scattering tiny sparks that drifted toward the rooftops and vanished.

Another rose in its place, smaller and pale blue.

The explosions had grown quieter now, with longer pauses between them.

Egel was holding both of Mordecai’s hands while watching the fireworks over the city, where thousands of yellow windows flickered beneath the changing colors. Mordecai glanced at her and noticed the moisture gathering in her eyes.

‘Oh, no.’

“I always wanted this,” she said quietly. Her gaze remained fixed on the sky. “When I was little, back on the farm, there was a festival every autumn in the next town.” A small, painful giggle. “We never went because we couldn’t afford it. But on the last night, if you climbed the hill behind our house, you could see the fireworks.” She smiled at the memory. “They were so far away…Tiny little flowers in the sky. I even remember that Regel was terrified of the noise, so she’d hide under her blanket while I sat outside watching them.”

’Mmh…’

Egel rubbed her thumb over his knuckles, softly.

“I used to imagine that one day I’d go to that festival. That I’d watch the fireworks with someone. Someone I…”

She stopped.

Her cheeks turned scarlet, and her mouth snapped shut with an audible click of teeth.

“Ah! I mean… I wasn’t… That’s not what…” She lowered her head. “Please forget I said anything.”

‘Oh, for fuck’s sake.’ Mordecai knew this scene way too well.

The interrupted confession… the flustered heroine… the desperate attempt to pretend nothing had happened.

He’d seen it so many times that he could practically recite the dialogue before the characters opened their mouths.

Somewhere in his imaginary ranking of the ten most overused romance tropes, this one occupied fourth place.

And now it was happening to him.

‘Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. This should be the moment where someone interrupts us, right? Perfect.’

He was preparing a suitably cynical response when Egel hunched her shoulders and tried to hide her face behind her collar. Even her hands were trembling.

Mordecai sighed.

The poor woman looked like she’d committed some terrible offense simply by wanting to spend an evening with him.

“Please, don’t be embarrassed, Egel.” He gave her hands a gentle squeeze while his voice dropped an octave, mistakenly activating his [Malicious Edgelord Rizz]. And then, privately, he began praying.

‘Please faint. Do that. Please, just this once. Get so embarrassed that your nose starts bleeding and you collapse on the grass. That’s what happens in all those terrible romantic comedies, isn’t it?’ He glanced toward the hotel. ‘Come on, System. You’ve recycled every other cliché in existence. Give me this one.’

Unfortunately, Egel remained conscious, because Mordecai forgot the beautiful chapter where she went through 2000 years of cultivation.

The divine muscle mommy even started crying.

At first, she tried to hide it. She turned her face away, attempting to wipe her cheeks against her shoulder without letting go of his hands. But that didn’t work.

More tears followed, running down her chin and dripping onto their joined fingers until she finally gave up trying to conceal them.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m crying again.”

“Egel…” Mordecai felt a very wrong shiver down his spine.

“I used to be strong. I really was.” Her voice trembled. “I trained until my bones bled. I fought monsters, carried everything on my back, and never cried.” She tried to laugh, though it came out rather badly. “I thought I couldn’t afford to cry. If I started, I might never stop. Regel needed me, and I had to be strong enough for both of us.”

Mordecai listened.

“And then… you came along.” She looked down at their hands. “You built me a gym. You saved me and Regel. You held her hand, and then you let me hold yours. And tonight…” Her fingers tightened slightly. “Tonight, I realized I don’t have to be strong all the time.” She swallowed, trying to steady her breathing. “I’ve never been this happy, Kaitoyama. And I say never. And I’m terrified.”

“Terrified?” Mordecai replied, while he felt a painful squeeze on his hands.

She nodded.

“Because I’ve finally found a reason to be happy, and I don’t want anyone to take it away.”

Another firework opened behind her, scattering white and silver light across the grass.

Egel drew a shaky breath.

“Kaitoyama, I… I…” her body trembled as she moved her gaze between their hands and the ground.

‘NO.’

Mordecai’s thoughts went into full emergency mode.

‘Don’t say it. Please, for the love of everything holy, don’t say it. If you say it, I’ll have to answer. And how the hell am I supposed to answer? Pyroas and Lucy will be a huge problem. I have responsibilities. A company. Employees. A schedule! There must be a regulation for this. Section 14.2, perhaps. Employee Wellness. Romantic Confessions Outside Business Hours. Something! SYSTEM!’

He tried to look away.

A firework would do, or the moon, maybe. Hell, even a passing bat would have been a welcome distraction.

Instead, he found himself looking directly into Egel’s eyes.

Her cheeks were streaked with tears, and her lower lip trembled every time she tried to speak. For all her strength, she seemed genuinely frightened of what he might say next.

He’d spent the entire evening treating this ridiculous date as another event manufactured by the System. Another quest, another trope, another opportunity for the Higher Realms to laugh at his expense.

But Egel had no idea what a romance trope was.

She’d spent most of her life protecting her sister, training until her body gave out, and fighting battles other people were too frightened to face.

And now she was standing in front of him, struggling to confess her feelings.

Mordecai couldn’t bring himself to laugh at her.

He knew that expression.

He’d seen it before.

And suddenly, he remembered Tokyo.

He was standing on a panoramic place in the city, and that was the day where he was about to confess his feelings to Lucy.

His palms were sweating, and his electrician heart was beating so hard that he was beginning to suspect it wanted to escape through his ribs.

In his hands was a bouquet of hydrangeas.

He’d spent nearly an hour choosing them at the flower shop, much to the growing impatience of the poor employee who’d been helping him.

Now they were slightly crushed on one side because he couldn’t stop gripping the stems.

He tried to prepare a good confession, something not too cliché or poetic. He just wanted to be himself.

And now that the moment had arrived, he’d forgotten every word.

Lucy stood a few steps away.

She wore a simple blue dress with thin straps, its hem still damp from the rain. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, and she kept glancing between his face and the flowers.

He remembered how nervous she’d looked.

How she’d smiled when she realized the bouquet was for her.

And how her eyes had filled with tears before he’d even managed to say anything.

And then, their first time after that beautiful date.

Everything was the same of that day, with the exception that Kaito was the one who was receiving the confession.

Mordecai blinked.

Oakhaven returned around him, with its enormous moon and extravagant fireworks, but the memory refused to leave.

Egel was looking at him with the same expression Lucy had worn that evening.

The resemblance was so strong that, for an instant, he almost expected to see a blue dress and a bouquet of hydrangeas between them.

He remembered being that nervous.

He remembered how difficult it had been to offer someone his heart without knowing whether she’d accept it.

And he remembered how badly he’d wanted her to.

‘Lucy…’

The sarcastic commentary in his head stopped.

For once, he had nothing clever to say.

No sarcastic comments against the bad tropes or against poorly written heroines.

He could only watch Egel struggle with the same fear he’d known all those years ago.

“I love you, Kaitoyama.”

There it was.

She said it quietly, almost apologetically, but she didn’t look away.

“I owe you my life. You’ve done so much for me, and I…” Her voice faltered. She took another breath. “I want to protect you. Forever.”

A perfectly timed golden firework burst above the city, illuminating her face.

Mordecai opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Egel stepped forward.

She was fast. Far faster than she’d been before those two thousand years of cultivation had been forced into her body.

One moment, she was standing in front of him. The next, her arms were around his neck.

She rose onto her toes.

And kissed him.

Mordecai froze.

He’d expected something considerably more dangerous from a woman who could crush his fingers without noticing and had recently attempted to feed him spaghetti at the speed of a military projectile.

Instead, the kiss was surprisingly gentle. A little awkward, too.

Her lips were warm and tasted faintly of tomato, chili pepper, and the salt of her tears. Her arms trembled around his neck, but she was careful with him. Almost absurdly careful, considering what those arms were capable of doing.

Mordecai couldn’t move as a familiar pressure had settled over his limbs.

Oh. The System, of course.

It had taken control of his body again, locking him in place because the scene apparently required a perfect romantic shot.

‘You little…’

He tried to summon the usual outrage, but nothing came.

And as the AI-generated fireworks continued overhead, he realized something rather uncomfortable.

He wouldn’t have moved anyway, because his mind had wandered back to that rainy evening in Tokyo… To the bouquet he’d nearly crushed…. To Lucy’s blue dress… and to the way she’d looked at him when he’d finally found the courage to speak.

He remembered being young and terrified, standing in front of the woman he loved with no guarantee she’d love someone like him.

For years, those memories had hurt too much to revisit.

Tonight, he let himself remember.

The kiss lasted five seconds, and Mordecai felt every one of them.

When Egel finally pulled away, she kept her eyes closed for another moment. Then she looked up at him, wearing a small, dazed smile.

The System released its hold.

Mordecai remained where he was.

Above them, the sky flashed white as the fireworks entered their finale.

[KISS SCENE COMPLETE.]

[REWARD: 20,000 SOUL COINS.]

[BONUS QUEST STATUS: “A Dinner With the Muscle Mommy” happy ending confirmation pending.]

The notification glittered in front of his face, but he barely noticed it.

Another window appeared, filling with messages so quickly that the text blurred into a stream of colors.

[HIGHER REALMS LIVE CHAT]

Dibbs57: WORTH EVERY SINGLE COIN. I’M CRYING.

Gooner_King: FIRST KISS 😭😭😭😭😭

LUKAS_THE_GREAT: bro that hydrangea flashback?? who wrote this??

Power_Scaler99: ok I admit it, that was good

Gooner_King: ELEVEN OUT OF TEN. MORDECAI MARRY HER.

Dibbs57: I’m making it a petition.

Mordecai blinked at the messages and let them scroll past.

He didn’t even have the energy to complain about the audience.

Egel had stepped back a little. She wiped her cheeks with the back of her wrist and let out a shaky breath, apparently only now realizing what she’d done.

Her smile was almost painfully shy.

“That was my first kiss,” she said. She glanced down at the grass before looking at him again. “I wanted it to be with you.”

The fireworks were coming to an end. The last golden sparks drifted over Oakhaven, disappearing one by one until the only light on the hill came from the lanterns and the warm windows of the hotel.

Mordecai stood with his hands at his sides.

He should say something.

Anything.

He could make a joke, maybe. Or he could explain, as gently as possible, that this had all become terribly complicated.

There were boundaries to consider. Responsibilities. People waiting for him.

He knew all that, but the memory of Lucy was still painfully clear, and Egel was standing in front of him with the happiest expression he’d seen on her face all evening.

His mouth opened, but nothing came out, and Egel watched him for a moment.

Her smile faltered.

Then she lowered her gaze, looking embarrassed again. Mordecai saw her take a breath before she approached him and wrapped both arms around his.

She pressed her face against his shoulder.

“Please,” she whispered into his coat. “I don’t want to go home yet.”

Mordecai looked down at her.

Egel raised her head. Her blue eyes were still wet, and she was blushing so hard that he briefly wondered whether her Chi was about to escape again.

“I want to sleep with you.”

He stared at her.

Behind him the AI-generated hotel that hadn’t existed ten minutes earlier was flickering with more lights while a saxophone song very close to “Careless Whisper” was playing in the background.

Above him drifted the last wisps of firework smoke.

In his arms was a woman who’d just confessed her love, kissed him, and was now asking to spend the night with him.

And somewhere in the corner of his vision, the System was still waiting for confirmation of its precious happy ending.

Mordecai looked at Egel, then at the hotel, and then back at Egel.

…Fuck.

For the first time in his entire second life, he had absolutely no idea what to do.