*Bit of a trigger warning: chapter includes suicide*
Hmm? Who's bed is this? Wait a minute, what am I talking about? This is my bed of course. But why does it feel like it's not?
I open my eyes to the ceiling of my bedroom, the seemingly regular occurrence now feels alien, as if it's the first time it has happened.
I get up from bed and notice a teal coloured scarf sprawled out across it. Instinctively, I pick it up and wrap it around my neck. It was strange to do so though, as it was currently summer.
With the garment now equipped I make my way to a mirror. The moment I lay my eyes on the full body mirror an image flashes in my mind.
It's a boy in a dark jacket wearing a teal scarf, his vibrant red hair dancing in the breeze with his scarf. His face was smiling and just as vibrant as his hair, bright like the sun that shone on it.
It was me, I don't know how or why but I knew that was me. The image disappears as quickly as it arrived and I'm left looking at my current reflection in the mirror.
I see a boy with red hair and teal eyes wearing a scarf that matches their eyes. Then it clicks, I'm currently thirteen and that image was me later on in life. And there was one word that could describe my current face, empty.
The face that looked back at me held no emotion, as if it no longer cared about anything. I attempt to smile, but fail. I use my fingers to lift my lips into a smile which doesn't fix much.
Sure I'm smiling but the eyes that stared back at me seemed dead which just made the smile creepy. I drop my fingers and look at my face one last time.
Empty eyes and a blank face looked back at me.
It looked wrong, like I was someone I'm not. My face looked the exact opposite of the happy image that flashed in my mind. Then even more things start to click. My name is Y/N L/N.
Wait a minute, no it's not. What kind of name is that? My name is Nathaniel Cross and I'm supposed to be dead.
My past life wasn't the greatest to say the least, but I made do, for a while. My parents died in a accident when I was six-teen and I was left alone to take care of my sister, Natalie, who was still twelve at the time. It was hard at first but I worked harder.
I dropped out of school and got a job, I stayed home to take care of the house, and I did my absolute best to take care of my sister and make sure she still went to school. She was all I had left, I had to do all that I could for her.
I'd never forget the day when my sister smiled for the first time since the accident. When I saw that smile I knew that everything was going to be okay.
But life is unfair. Some years later another accident occurred and this time it took my sister's life, leaving me all alone.
I remember going through my days like a programmed robot, living life doing the same thing on repeat. Wake up, eat, take care of the house, and sleep, over and over again.
Nothing was new, everything I did and thought felt the same, including how I saw the world, pointless. It was when I realized this did I adopt the blank face I saw in the mirror.
I stopped doing anything outside of my routine because I saw it as pointless. All I needed was my routine, and I never faltered from it until one day.
I was cleaning the house at the time and I decided to enter my sisters room. It always hurt having to remember that my sister was gone, so I never wanted to go to her room. Yet there I was.
I saw a monitor connected to a computer and the memories hit me like a freight train. When our parent died my sister stopped going to school and would spend most of her time playing on the thing. Nothing I did would be able to pull her away from it. So I thought 'if you can't beat em, join em'.
I started to watch her play and even asked if I could try them myself. Little by little she opened up to me and eventually she apologized in tears for how she had acted. She started to go to school again but we still played games together.
They were fun times that I'd never get to experience again. But I still tried anyways and I booted up the computer. The first thing I saw was the start screen of a otome game called 'Love Love Skyward Academy'. A strange but straightforward name to say the least.
I remember catching a glimpse of this screen when I told her to go to school on that fateful day. She quickly listened to me and shut off the computer. With a smile and a quick 'thank you' sent my way, she grabbed her stuff and ran off to school. She never got to try the game, let alone make it to school that day.
Maybe it was guilt but I felt that I owed it to her to complete the game. I felt like I had a reason again, thus my routine had changed. I spent most of my hours playing that game but still made time to finish all my chores.
The game is set in a fantasy world with swords and magic. It's a world with floating islands and airships. Without the fantasy and magic the things that world is a lot like ours. The technology is more or less the same and there are many cities. Even though it's a swords and magic type game there are still a few modern things like vehicles and guns scattered about, but futuristic weaponry like guns are extremely rare and are called lost technology. There were also some items that could only be wielded by the protagonist that were so strong that they were basically cheat items.
Gameplay wise it's your traditional otome game, but there are times where it becomes a RPG. As the protagonist you could create parties with the love interests or side characters and do battle with enemy ships, monsters, and demons. You can even go on adventures with them to increase their affection.
Story wise it's a game where the protagonist is just a village girl who encounters a ruin with things that would change her life. After the lucky encounter she saves a man from some monsters. The man turns out to be a teacher at the magic school depicted on the home menu and the place the protagonist would meet all her romance targets. After witnessing her skills the teacher says he'd recommend her to the principal of the school despite her being a commoner. She ends up getting the chance to attend the school made for the elite as a honor student.
At the school, like most otome games, she encounters multiple male students and that's when the player decides which 'route' to take. I completed each one, and found out that my sister's favourite character didn't have a route.
The whole reason on why she bought the game was because she saw a certain red haired, scarf wearing boy on the cover. I'm glad she never got be disappointed at the fact that he was a side character.
The thing that separated this otome game to the others is that it had a second story. Normally otome games have one protagonist and then a group of characters that they meet. But this one had two protagonists.
There is a option in the game to play as a male protagonist and choose between a cluster of female student routes. In the game both of the protagonists storylines happen at the same time and at the same school but they never overlap.
No character from one of the protagonists storyline ever interacts with the characters from the other storyline. Having the protagonist for a otome game and a galge made the game suitable for both genders, making the game immensely popular.
But I completed all routes in the other storyline as well. Normally this would be when the main character of the story would move on from his past, but not me.
I felt empty once again and made myself reconstruct my mundane routine. But then I realize that even in my routine, everything was pointless. So I did one more pointless act after apologizing to my family.
I hung myself.
Now I was here, remembering all of this. Then I start to remember who I am now.
The boy who was my sisters favourite character, and who I am currently, is named Robin Cross. What a coincidence.
The main point of his story is that his parents were killed by demons when he was still a kid. This led him to acquiring a massive hatred towards them and would go berserk whenever he saw one. Even just thinking about demons would make his blood boil. But he's not here anymore, I am, and I don't feel anything when I think of them.
The second unique part about him is the scarf he always wears. It was given as a present on his seventh birthday and it has some special properties. The magic scarf can act like a sentient being that is loyal only to Robin. It can move, lengthen, change shapes, and somewhat has a mind of its own. The fabric it's made of is like a circuit for mana allowing it to do these things when mana run through it.
This magic scarf is what has been taking care of Robin all these years. He's lived alone in his parents house and the scarf is basically his nanny. The scarf can cook, do laundry, tuck him into bed, everything. In fact, on paper the scarf owns the house. Since Robin was a side character this small amount of information was all the game gave about him.
Then there was his character's personality. His role in the game was the comedian who made jokes about everything, just the funny guy. I'm the worst person to play that role because of my emotionless attitude.
He wasn't very strong in the game, since the game wanted the player to use the main leads in their party instead of some random mob.
The game also decided that he dies in a scripted event in which demons attack the school. If my sister saw that she'd have never played the game again.
All that information was about me now I suppose. I decided to take a bath while I figure out what to do next.
As I take off all my clothes in my bathroom I hesitated on entering the tub without my scarf. Without it on I felt more naked than I already was. So I put it back on. It seems like I still hold some of Robin's feelings.
I found it ironic that I could only feel comfortable when this garment was wrapped tightly around my neck.
So I take a bath with it on.
This was relaxing, but I had more things to do today so I decide to end my time here now. As I get out of the tub, one end of my scarf leaves the bathroom and comes back holding onto a pile of clothes. I thank it and put on the clothes.
I now wore a plain white shirt and some jeans. Plus my scarf of course. In the tub I made my decision on what I would do next.
My sister liked this character for whatever reason so I'll make sure he gets a good ending. Of course I could just never go to the academy but my sister liked this character so I was going to make sure he was still part of the game's story. I was going to use my knowledge and determination to become strong enough to go against my decided fate. I was going to live on as Robin Cross.
This was my new game plus.
I made breakfast with the help of my scarf and was going to begin my story. The year was 3037 and around four years later the protagonists of this world would arrive at the academy and start their stories. I had four years to become strong.
I had my purpose, and I'll do whatever it takes to succeed. I put on my shoes and walk out my door.
As I walk out the door I am greeted by a barrage of sunlight. I quickly cover my eyes with my arm and wait until they adjust.
Robin: "And so I take my first steps." I say under my breath.
And I set off to my first destination.
The female protagonist's village.
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Here is the start of my new story. This is just the prologue so it's pretty short. If you haven't read any of my other works then know that I usually make my chapters 3000-5000~ words each. Meaning I release them fairly slowly. But I hope you enjoy this book or my other ones if you decide to read them. See you next chapter!
-End of pre-recorded message
-Note: eventually the chapters become 5000-8000+ words because I thought 3k-5k was too little. Occasionally they'll hit around 9k words, I just can't help myself at times.