Michael’s gaze sharpened slightly. "If you touch their fate now, will it affect them?"

Jester was silent for a second before replying. "Based on the knowledge I currently possess, it should."

Michael’s expression changed slightly.

Jester continued before he could misunderstand. "It should affect them, but not necessarily in a harmful way. At least not if the interference is minor. My current understanding suggests that light contact with a thread causes only subtle adjustments. The danger increases only if the interference becomes forceful, repeated, or directed toward a major outcome."

Michael thought for a moment. So it wasn’t harmless. But it also wasn’t automatically dangerous. That made sense. In the end, fate was still fate. Anything related to it couldn’t be treated casually.

Still, his curiosity was already fully awake.

"Then let’s try it," Michael said. "But if it turns bad, we stop immediately. I’m serious. We’re not going to accidentally harm innocent people just because we’re testing something."

Jester accepted it without question. "As Master wishes."

The faint golden runes across Jester’s body pulsed once.

Below the building, the two Supers Association staff members continued speaking. In Jester’s vision, which Michael could now see as clearly as if it were his own, something changed.

Around the two men, several faint golden bubbles began to appear. They floated quietly around them, some close, some slightly farther away, each one shimmering with a vague instability that made them seem as though they might burst at any moment.

Michael narrowed his eyes. "...What are those?"

"Their fate," Jester replied calmly.

"That many?"

"It depends," Jester said. "If one were to count the totality of a person’s fate across an entire lifetime, it would be beyond counting. The world is not fixed. It is unpredictable. Even the smallest change can give rise to new paths. These are only the immediate outcomes most strongly connected to their present state."

Michael understood partially. And at the same time, he didn’t.

Before he could say more, Jester had already reached toward one of the bubbles. The moment his will touched it, Michael’s vision blurred.

Then a scene appeared.

The two men were still standing beneath the building, still talking. For a few seconds nothing changed. Then the building above them groaned. A fracture spread. And in the next moment, the damaged structure gave way. Stone, steel, and broken concrete crashed downward. The two men didn’t even have time to react before they were buried beneath it.

They died.

Michael’s pupils shrank. The vision disappeared. "What was that?"

"One of their immediate fates," Jester answered at once.

Then he turned to another bubble.

Again a vision formed. This time there were differences. The man on the left shifted first. The other laughed a little more. Their words were not exactly the same. A bird flew overhead in this version. One of them looked up for half a second.

Then the building still collapsed.

Again they died.

Jester moved to another. One of the men tried to leave earlier. The other stopped him to say one last thing. The timing shifted. Their positions shifted. The angle of the collapse changed slightly.

But the result was the same.

They died.

Michael fell silent. Bubble after bubble revealed slight variations but ultimately the same end. By the seventh one, Michael had already understood enough. His expression changed slowly as the meaning settled in.

So this was fate.

Not some poetic concept. These bubbles were possible outcomes already gathered around the present. And if nothing changed, those two men were going to die.

Michael stared at the golden bubbles with a weight that had not been there before. "...I see."

For the first time, fate became a little clearer in his mind. It wasn’t a single fixed line. It was a cluster of likely paths born from the current state of things.

His voice turned lower. "So if no one interferes, this is what happens."

"Yes, Master. At least from the immediate futures currently gathered around them."

Michael’s eyes remained on the bubbles. Then his gaze shifted toward the damaged building above the two men.

He disappeared from the living room and appeared in midair above the city. Below him, the building in question sat directly beneath his position. He was just about to move when Jester’s voice stopped him.

"Master. Wait."

Michael’s body paused mid-motion, his gaze still fixed on the building below. "What?"

"I would like to try something first."

Michael frowned faintly. Under normal circumstances he would not have entertained the idea. But at this distance with his current power, stopping the collapse at any moment was not difficult. Even if something went wrong, he could intervene before the two men died.

So after a brief pause he said, "Fine. But be quick."

"As Master wishes."

Jester’s voice remained calm. "There are two ways to change fate. The first is direct. The second is indirect."

"The direct method is what Master intended to do. Appear physically, interfere with the material sequence of events, and force the outcome to change."

Michael understood that immediately. "And the indirect?"

"Interfering with fate itself."

The moment Jester said that, Michael’s shared vision shifted again.

Around the two men, the golden bubbles changed. More of them began to appear, but unlike before, these new ones were blank. They emerged rapidly one after another, surrounding the two men in far greater numbers than before. At first they contained nothing. Then scenes began flashing inside them.

One bubble formed a scene, then vanished. Another emerged in its place. More appeared. More vanished. Some flickered violently. Some stayed a fraction longer before disappearing, as if rejected by something unseen.

Michael watched in silence, feeling as though he were observing a system rapidly recalculating itself.

Then gradually the number of bubbles began to shrink.

Ten. Seven. Four. Two.

And then only one remained.

But unlike the others, this final bubble did not simply fade. It burst outward in a silent golden rupture.

Michael was still processing what had caused the change when he noticed something different below.

The two Supers Association staff members were still talking. Then one of them suddenly paused.

"...Why do I feel hungry all of a sudden?"

The other blinked. "...Now that you mention it, same."

The first let out a tired breath. "Let’s go back to the branch and grab something before I collapse for real."

The second gave a weak laugh.

Without delay, both of them stepped out from beneath the building. The damaged structure above them groaned. And in the next instant, the building collapsed exactly as it had in every other bubble Michael had seen. Stone, steel, and broken concrete crashed down violently.

But this time, the two men were no longer beneath it.

They stumbled back in shock, staring as dust and debris exploded across the street where they had been standing only moments before. One of them went pale. The other cursed loudly.

Neither of them knew it.

But this was the first time they had survived.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​