The World Beyond Our Reach

Chapter 1: This isn't Right

 Her mother called out, "Hiro! You're going to be late again, get up and fix yourself!" The brown hair colored teen groaned as she tiredly sat up. She was spending too much time playing games, typical. "I'm coming down mom!" She sighs as she lazily stands up and walks downstairs. She looks at her mother, "mom, was there any mail for me today? I mean, I'm expecting a package." She said as she headed to the table and sat down to eat her breakfast. "There's a DVD that was sent here, is that what you mean?" Her mother asked as Hiro nodded brightly. "Yes! That's my new game so I'm exhilarated to play it!" 


The adult shook her head, "I'm starting to think there's no future for you." The girl just shrugged mischievously, "oh well! I'm going to try to make you proud someday so, why not?" She shrugged as she headed to the bathroom to do her morning business. After a couple of minutes, she heads out of the bathroom of course, fully dressed. Her mother gave her the lunch she prepared, "have fun in school, dear." She had a mischievous grin as she snickered "It's school, what's so fun about it?" She said as she took her lunch from her mother and shoved it inside her bag. She leaves her house in a hurry.

After a while of walking silently, she came across a delinquent or so it seemed. The delinquent was picking on a student. So, she pulled out her phone and silently had it on the recording. She tucks it in her vest as she goes towards the bully. "Hey there buddy, could you back off? I don't think he deserves to get bullied by a monkey-like you." This girl has a snarky personality and of course, can pick a fight with anyone. The tall delinquent looks down at her, "and? Who cares about what you say? Are you tryna pick a fight with me, girly?" He cracked his knuckles but our protagonist seems uninterested in it.

"I mean, I don't think I could do anything about it! Why I'm just a helpless little girl一is that what you wanted to hear from me?" The girl looks at the delinquent seemingly bored. "Look, I'll save you the embarrassment unless you want to get insulted by a pathetic little girl. You should just stop bullying him." He cackled loudly, "and who would believe you?" She had a mischievous smirk, "Well you see, I've seen too many animes to know what'll happen next, and besides aren't we graduating soon?" The delinquent seems troubled, "what do you mean? Of course, we are gonna." She turned around and pulled out her phone. "I recorded our conversation, and could get you expelled." The girl smiled innocently. "I may look innocent but my personality doesn't scream my face." She chuckled mischievously, "I won't show it to other people if you want." The girl tucks the phone inside her vest. "If you stop bullying people, I won't show it to anyone." The delinquent groaned in frustration because of her blackmail.

 The girl, now blackmailing her own senior without fear, whilst enjoyment tilted her head innocently. "You have five seconds to tell me or I'll go run to the teacher if you try to take my phone away then I'll just tell the principal about you stealing which can also lead to your expulsion." She crossed her arms, "well? I'm very much waiting." He groaned in annoyance as he just left the scene defeated. Hiroyuki shook her head as she looked at the student, in the distance she thought it was a girl. Looking up close, it was a guy. The student was just there looking at her, "If you want to say something just say it." The student silently stood up, "I- uh... sorry for the trouble...miss..?" Hiroyuki just silently observes him for a couple of seconds as she looks at her watch, her eyes widened. "Just shut up and run. We're going to be late!" She was about to run away but suddenly stopped. "And, it's Hiro; drop the miss since I'm not some girly girl you'll see around the school." She smiled mischievously to the boy, as she ran away swiftly. Fortunately for her, she was able to reach the school in time. 

She entered the classroom as she looked at the unfamiliar teacher or so it seemed. Thinking it was nothing she just sat down on her seat next to the window and so, the lessons started. While the teacher was still talking she was hearing a few boys talking about some cursed game but took nothing of it. "They are just hallucinating, there's no such thing as a cursed game. There's no meaning behind curses, to begin with." She mumbled under her breath as she continued to listen to the teacher to continue her daily routine until she finished school once again.

She was walking home alone again as usual as she was, she passed by the same student before. She looks towards his direction, seemingly enough he seemed to have noticed her. "Miss一 I mean Hiro, you ran off earlier. I couldn't have thanked you for saving me." The boy said although he was with someone who looks like him. Hiroyuki looks at the two, "I'm assuming he's your twin brother?" He nodded, "yes! He is my twin brother, Oliver." The twin brother of the student waved, "Oh right! My name's Yonder, nice to meet you." The two smiled at her, for a second there, to her they looked like bad people...

She shook her head, trying to shake off those bad thoughts. "They're not bad people, snap out of it!" She said to herself as she continues to scream at herself for thinking such nasty thoughts about people. Being a Japanese exchange student in some American school is already pretty bad for her. Not only that, she's already having a hard time getting along with people; so far the whole semester has been pretty much bad. Yonder looked at her and waved his hand in front of her face. "Hellooooo-? Earth to Hiro are you dead or what?" She finally snapped and realized she was still talking to them. 


She blinked as she looked at them, "oh sorry... I just feel tired and all." She chuckled brightly as she nodded, "I'll talk to you two tomorrow! My mom's going to scold me if I stay even later than before." And with that, she went back to her casual pace until she reached her home. She opened the door and removed her shoes, casually putting them in the shoe rack. She went back up to her room afterward. She flops on her bed, obviously pretty beaten up by her school, while laying on her bed, her eyes landed on the game disc. She shrugged and took it off her nightstand and played it on her television. 

She saw a saved file, which she kind of wondered about. It's a new game; she bought it in the game store and it was already used? She sighs and just goes to the saved file, interested in what it has in store. Once the file was opened it seemed to be glitching so much for some reason. "What the hell is wrong with this game..?" She asked herself as she turned to the TV once again but seemingly enough, the character she was playing was not there anymore. This caught her off guard as she threw the controller away in fear. "Wait-- wait, l-let's calm down... it's impossible for a character to disappear during a gameplay right?? This isn't a horror game! I swear to my life this isn't a horror game right?" She stood up going to the disc when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

She shrieked in terror and turned around. Her mother was just as confused as her when she just suddenly shrieked. "What's going on Hiro? I just came to ask you if you wanted to eat dinner with me, your stepfather and stepbrothers..." Hiro sighs in relief as she felt herself calm down, "Yeah, yeah, thanks mom... I'll follow you downstairs in a bit." She replied as her mother nodded and closed her room door. She took the disc and unplugged the game. She shoves it inside her pocket as she followed her mother downstairs. She sat down next to the youngest stepbrother, Lucase. He taps her shoulder as he tilted his head innocently. "I heard your scream upstairs, what happened?" Hiro just shook her head, "I accidentally saw a cockroach is all." He didn't seem to be convinced but he kept quiet about it. After a couple of minutes, the finished their dinner and without a word she went back to her room. To her surprise she saw a guy sitting on her bed seemingly waiting for her. 

She took out her phone as she slowly retreated until the guy spoke. "Oh, you're here." She blinked as puts her arms on her hips. "Oh? Why, thank you for noticing now tell me... Why are you in my room?! Are you here to rob me or...? If you are my wallet is inside the bag just stay away from me, man." He chuckled nervously, "I'm the guy in the game." He pointed at the TV. She chuckled hysterically. "Wait, wait that's very funny, get the hell out of my room cosplayer!" She grumbled angrily as  she didn't believe his absurd claims. He went towards the TV and shoved his hand inside it, it passed through. "I told you, I'm not lying."