Fate

I follow the crew below deck.

Ishmael and Pip are being treated by Queequeg.

Queequeg kisses Ishmael on the forehead.

"Are they going to be okay?" I ask.

"They should be fine. It was only a mild whipping." Queequeg says.

"There really is no way of stopping Ahab, is there?" I ask.

"I've seen Starbuck point a harpoon gun at her while she was asleep, but she couldn't bring herself to go through with ****." Queequeg says.

"I don't want to kill anybody anyway, but I don't know any other solution." I say.

Fedallag steps into the room. "There is nothing we can do. It is fate."

"How do you know? How do you honestly know?" I ask.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Fedallah says.

"Try me." I say.

"I read it in a book. Then I died. And reincarnated as a character in that book." Fedallah says.

"You mean like me?" I ask.

"Huh?" Fedallah asks.

"I also reincarnated from a world where many things here are fiction." I say.

"I reincarnated into a singular work of fiction called I Reincarnated as a Homunculus in a Steampunk World with Famous 19th Century Characters but Everyone is Gender-Swapped." Fedallah.

That is a long name.

"Was that a light novel?" I ask.

"A CHYOA. It is about a boy who reincarnates as... It's in the title. I know you are actually a boy." Fedallah says.

"I never said I wasn't. Wait! Are you telling me everyone thought I was a girl?" I ask.

"Why do you think the rest of this crew are women? Captain Ahab is... insecure about her gender. And her father... You're only allowed on the ship because Ahab thinks you're a girl." Fedallah says.

"Her father? I have been wondering how she just happens to have the same scar and a missing leg, like her grandfather." I say.

"Ahab II wanted to avenge his father, but he was too cowardly to do so himself, so he raised his daughter, Ahab III to do so. He scarred her face and cut off her leg to make her emulate Ahab I. She killed him in ****, but she blames Moby Dick for all her suffering. Although it cost him his life, Ahab II succeed in making his daughter, the splitting image of his father." Fedallah says.

"If you knew about this why didn't to try to stop any of it?" I ask.

"When I found myself in this world, it was in the body of a grown woman, and Ahab II had already met his end. I tried to warn her against her quest, when I was supposed to agree with her, but she wouldn't listen to me. When if you attempt to alter anything, it will still happen, though sometimes in a different way." Fedallah says.

"You know everything I tried, right? I think I know what I need to do." I ask Fedallah about everything I am supposed to try.