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In his many years of existence, Kusanagi Godou had discovered a rather interesting fallacy within human behavior.
He called it the 'Fat-Dress Paradox' in honor of a particularly painful experience with Erica in the past that had enlightened him.
His finger hovered dangerously above the doorbell. Right now, he was faced with an important choice.
But what was life, if not a string of important choices? Loosely speaking, fate was nothing more than a very tall decision tree. Godou realized this long ago, and thus to him, decision-making skills were arguably the most important skills.
Rational and normal humans generally made their choices using the same method: pros versus cons. In other words, humans made their decisions based on what was beneficial to them.
Godou liked to think of himself as a rational and normal human being, despite what countless of other people had told him.
If something was advantageous to him, he'd do it. If something was disadvantageous to him, he wouldn't.
Fighting Heretic Gods and other Campiones for fun? Big no-no. It was tiring. It was destructive. It was painful. All for what? A little bit of extra power? Totally not worth the trade-off. If lives were at stake, then maybe he would reconsider.
This little distinction was Godou's pride and joy. Unlike every other Campione he'd met...He. Was. Normal.
Because he made his choices like normal human beings. He went to grocery stores when there were sales. He stopped at red lights. He ignored Heretic Gods waving big pointy swords at him, demanding a challenge.
Normal.
But, the world was imperfect. And thus, imperfect information existed. Hence, the aforementioned pros and cons were difficult to accurately determine. There would always be a certain degree of randomness and uncertainty in every decision.
Cue the 'Fat-Dress Paradox'.
It had started out with, in Godou's opinion, a very innocent question by Erica.
"Godou? Does this dress make me look fat?"
They hadn't been going out very long yet, and Godou was surprised that the beautiful and normally self-assured Erica Blandelli had asked such a question. Obviously, there must have been something different about that particular dress compared to the others.
So he'd taken a very long time to inspect the Erica before him. Erica had an amazing body. She wasn't quite as slender as Liliana, but the curves she had that Liliana didn't more than made up for it.
Except...not this time. The dress was tight at all the wrong places, and loose at where it needed to hug her skin. Overall, it added volume to Erica's figure.
So, "Yes" was his very innocent answer.
What happened next wasn't innocent at all.
Naturally, the next time Erica posed the same question to him, his answer had been a quick "no", even though his true opinion was the opposite.
And Erica went along with it. That night had been, by all accounts, flawless. Except Godou hadn't enjoyed it one bit. Erica had called it perfect, and Godou had nearly broken down from guilt and regret. Because if she'd worn a different dress, things could have become even more perfect. He'd deprived Erica of that greater experience.
And so, when the scenario repeated itself once more, Godou could only reply with a very reluctant "yes".
He did the same the time after that.
And then the subsequent one.
And so on.
The results never changed.
And then one day, a bruised and battered Godou reached a realization. There was literally no benefit to him saying "yes". He was consciously and consistently making a decision that was completely detrimental to him.
That...that was not normal at all. In fact, despite being legally and medically wrong, a common definition of insanity was 'doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.' By that definition, wouldn't that make Godou insane?
Impossible. Godou had refused to accept such an outrageous claim.
There had to be a normal explanation for it.
And so, after hours of trawling online forums, Godou stumbled upon a support group for netizens stuck in the same boat as him. He discovered that there were countless people facing the same dilemma as him everyday. People who just couldn't bring themselves to say 'no' to the landmine-esque question despite said answer being the 'safe' answer.
His relief had been palpable.
So he was normal.
But the behavior clearly was not. With great gusto, Godou engaged deeply in conversation with his comrades. There had to be a logical explanation for it. Why else would so many normal, non-insane, non-masochistic men commit the same mistake over and over again?
The answer lay in imperfect information. The fact of the matter was this: Godou and the rest did not reply "yes" to the loaded question because they knew they were going to be beat up. They replied "yes" in spite of it. They did so because they had a dream. They were united by a common desire that one day their partners would not get offended and beat them senseless, and instead agree with them and wear a dress that looked better on them.
The odds were slim and the risks were high. But his experience as a Campione had taught him one thing: the importance of hope. They could not give up simply because the wall before them was too high. They needed to persevere, to press on and stick to their beliefs despite the furies of scorned women. The future was not set in stone. There could come a day when instead of getting angry, Erica, or any other woman, looked into the mirror and said "you're right. It does make me look fat", before changing into another dress. And Godou was determined to live to see that day.
Because it would mean that his actions were justified and more importantly, normal.
And thus, the 'Fat-Dress Paradox' was born, and Godou used to it to describe any situation where a perfectly normal person like him made a choice that would almost guarantee disastrous results, for the sake of achieving that tiny, one-in-a-million chance of a miracle happening.
The present Godou sighed. It came from a mixture of nostalgia and irony. He'd only recently realized that a human choosing to fight a Heretic God fell perfectly within the definition of the 'Fat-Dress Paradox'.
No matter, the past was in the past. The important thing was the future.
He finger sunk into the button. The gate had been left open, and Godou had walked up to the front door of the huge estate before him without interruption. There was a giant garden around him, complete with lawn chairs
and umbrella-equipped tea tables, but there was nobody outside either.
Ding Dong!
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Want to read more?
The next 10+ chapters are already available on my Patreon!
By joining, you'll get:
📖 Early access to future chapters
🗳️ Polls to shape the story
🎁 Exclusive content for Patrons
🔥 Bonus scenes & content you won't find anywhere else
👀 Don't fall behind—others are already ahead!
👉 patreon.com/FanfictionTakashi
(If link doesn't show, just search on Google: FanfictionTakashi Patreon)