Hyperdimension Nepzaki ReStart: The World ReStart1 Prologue & Chapter 1, a hyperdimension neptunia fanfic

"Please, hurry! We don't have much time!"

Bit by bit, everything was falling apart. This world… This dimension… It no longer belonged to us.

"J-Just… Give me a second, this asshole is-guh!"

Everything we had fought for in the last 10 years, maybe even longer, had all just been for… nothing.

"Papa!"

"Keep the door open, I'm going to help Tam!"

"Then m-make it quick! Even though a lot of us are-ngh! H-Holding this door open, we can't hold it for m-much longer!"

All of this… All of this is happening because… because we believed in that one lie…

"Tam! The path is clear, we have to-"

"WATCH OUT!"

"Uwah!"

All of this… because we acted too late…

"T-Tam! Y-You're-"

"S-Shut up, and keep moving!"

All of this because…

"They're inside! Everyone shut the door!"

… No…

It's because… I was a fool.

Far below the surface, where the world falling apart, was an abandoned temple. The structure was worn out from age, both the inside and outside had moss growing in it, unidentifiable creatures lurked in the shadows, and much more.

It was incredibly dark and quiet as well. There were seemingly no sources of light anywhere in the area, and the living creatures had made no sounds at all. All of this instantly changed in a matter of seconds though.

Outside the temple was a platform that had strange writings and drawings inscribed into it. That platform had soon shined a bright blue color, causing anything in the surrounding area to do the same. Seconds later, a large group of people would materialize onto the platform, they were a combined number of men and women, some children.

Everyone who had appeared in the platform was injured or wounded in some sort of way, whether it be physically or mentally. It had looked as if they had just emerged from the battlefield.

"Histoire… Please tell me... that we're safe…" The Tsundere Goddess, otherwise known as Noire, was trying to regain her breath as she spoke. "I hate to say it, but… I don't we'll last with another encounter…"

"I-I believe so…" The small book fairy, known as Histoire, didn't sound too sure. "This place is on the very border of our dimension, so we should be okay. However, you must remember that this dimension is no longer in our control, so it will only be a matter of time before our location is exposed."

"This is where we're going to hold our last stand, huh?" The Goddess with a violent air to her, also known as Blanc, cracked her knuckles. "So be it… As long as we have enough time to do that Re;Start ritual that you were talking about, I'm fine with being in a rundown place like this."

The unidentifiable creatures that lurked around in the dark corners of the ruin watched as the group descended from the platform one by one. They were heading straight for a temple, hoping that they'll find what they need.

"Argh!"

"Whoops, sorry aboot that, Red!"

"T-Try to be more careful, Zest…"

While everyone in the group was in terrible condition, there was one person who was in more pain than anyone else in their group. Located on the aforementioned person stomach was a large gash that looked as if it would've killed a normal person instantly.

"How are you holding up, Tamazaki…?" The intelligent God known as Akio, but more commonly as Kashi, asked his wounded friend.

"You want a sarcastic answer or an honest one?" The God with a somewhat malicious past, also known as Terra, asked Kashi. "Cause I'm sure both answers will give you a general idea of how much pain he's-"

The wounded started to cough up blood before he even got the chance to finish his sentence. Kashi, Terra, and the person helping the wounded walk winced at the sight and decided to quicken their pace.

Lagging behind the main group was another group that consisted of people who seemed somewhat younger than those in the main group. Just like those who were older than them, they also were in bad condition. This was strengthened by the fact that the person who looked the oldest in the group was carrying someone who was barely conscious on their back.

"It's not going to be long until he finds us here, huh…?" The twin-tailed girl, otherwise known as Uni, rephrased Histoire's words. "Sitting here and waiting for that to happen is… pretty scary, honestly."

"W-What's going to happen when he f-finds us here?" The young girl dressed in blue, known as Rom, had looked as if she were trying to control her urge to cry. "A-Are we going to d-d-die?"

"D-Don't say that Rom!" The young boy dressed in gray, otherwise known as Caem, covered his ears. "N-Nothing is going to happen! We're going to be-"

Caem stopped midway through his sentence to think about what could possibly happen when they were found. His mind became flooded with scenarios, all of them had eventually ended in their eventual demise.

"Y-You don't have to try to make me feel better, Caem… I already know what's going to happen…" Rom started to cry. "T-Thank you for t-t-trying…!"

"... This is just fuckin' depressing…" The boy who carried a person on his back, otherwise known as Luth, muttered under his breath. "I can't believe the entire world is coming to an end because we trusted that shithead..."

"There's nothing we could've done about it, Luth." Uni turned her head to the boy while continuing to walk. "By the time we knew what was going on, it was already too late…"

"I just hope that this Re;Start ritual will be the answer to our problems…" The oldest looking girl in the group, also known as Nepgear, whispered. "This is our last chance at fighting back…"

"... Why did you guys rescue me…?"

The person who Luth carried on his back was a boy who looked somewhat similar to Caem. The boy had 3 names, those being Elijah, Tamal, and Taem. Out of all three, he seems to only respond to Taem.

Uni, Caem, and Rom had moved up to the main group, leaving Luth, Nepgear, and two others with the boy. The four exchanged looks with one another, seeing who would be the one to give him the answer he wanted.

"Why do you care?" The red-haired boy, also known as Alex, decided to speak up. "Even if we tell you, it's not going to matter in the next few hours."

"If it's not going to matter, then you might as well-"

"It's because you're important." The girl in pink who looked identical to Rom, also known as Ram, interrupted Taem. "I don't know about all of this ritual stuff that everyone keeps talking about; it sounds kinda creepy if you ask me."

Taem turned his head to Ram, who turned her head the other way.

"But… if this is going to work, then we need you since you're an Aspirant." Ram finished. "That it's! Nothing more, nothing less!"

Taem stared at the girl for a second before facing forward. Ram did the same right as he stopped looking at her and sighed to herself quietly. "(Why did Caem want us to save him…?)" The girl in pink thought.

Both groups had finally entered the temple after walking for a few minutes. The moment they stepped in, the entire temple had lit up with lights that shone as bright as the ones outside the temple. The temple had multiple rooms, but a good number of them were blocked by debris. While the group could easily move the debris away from the other rooms, there was no need for them to since what they needed was standing right in front of them.

Sitting right in front of the group was a computer console that looked to be turned off. Right next to said computer console was a pod that looked as if it could fit only one person. Histoire flew toward the console and looked for an on switch, Alex and Nepgear went over to help her, while everyone else looked around and waited for further instructions.

"O-kay, down you go, Red!" The person who had been helping the wounded person with a gash in their stomach, also known as Zest, helped them sit down. "Yeesh, dat looks like it urts' a lot!"

"I-I'll m-manage…" The wounded person, also known as Trenton Tamazaki but prefers to be called the latter, was practically whispering. "Damn… t-this hurts a lot more t-than I thought it would…"

"I'm sure you'll be fine, Red!" Zest attempted to reassure his blonde ally. "Just take it like a pain of salt!"

That pun had forced everyone to stop what they were doing, regardless of whether they were actually doing something or not, and collectively turn their heads in Zest's direction. Tamazaki simply looked up at the man with a look of awe on his face.

"... Sorry, dat one slipped out…" Zest frowned with downcast eyes.

"Histoire, would you mind giving us a refresher of how this Re;Start ritual works." The mature Goddess, also known as Vert, asked the book fairy. "You've told us the necessary steps we need to take in order for it to work, but I cannot seem to recall if you told us what it would do."

"Oh dear, you mean to tell you aren't aware?" Histoire looked astonished. "I-I must've used up most of my memory then. I could've sworn that I asked someone to explain the procedure to the rest of you…"

Histoire… Your memory isn't as bad as you think it is. I'm the one you told about the ritual, but… I guess you must've forgotten after you fell unconscious. You did get hit pretty hard, so I'm not surprised that you forgot a few things…

"Oh well, I guess it can't be helped…" Histoire sighed. "Allow me to start from the beginning. The Re;Start ritual-"

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Gods…what exactly are they? Some believe they are the entities that created our world, while others believe that they don't exist...kind of funny if you think about it. If those people who don't believe a God, say they don't believe in a God…who created our world? Who exactly gave us life? Who gave us a meaning, and why did they do so?

…

There are many times when I think to myself, "What if…there was a world where Gods lived with their people, a world where they formed relationships with them, a world where they gone through countless trials with them…

…

My name is-

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CONTINUING PROGRAM…

(Side A)

- Tamazaki; Trenton Tizius Tamazaki. This is the story of how I was pulled into a new world and was given the responsibility of protecting a Goddess.

Hyperdimension Nepzaki Re;start1: Return of an APL

Dimension: B9-7A6 (Earth)

Location: Echomonty Memorial Highschool

Time: 1:22 PM

It was a clear day from what I can remember. Echomonty was one of the most well known highschools in the state, they say that those who enroll into the school, are destined to succeed in their lives… though, if you were in the school, you knew that saying was a complete lie.

For me, I was a average student. I got decent test scores, with sometimes me getting mastery on them. Although I wasn't really well known, I had a good reputation among some of the teachers and students in my school. The only club I was apart of was the martial arts club, but that was only because the club had invited me, apparently lots of people had mistakenly thought I was apart of the club.

That's only my school life however, there's still my personal life I have yet to talk about, but I'll get to that later. As for now, I have to tell you about how everything began, I want you to trust me when I say that things are about to get…interesting…

"Alright, I want everyone to take your se-Brian, I swear to God I will shave all that hair off your head if you don't put that comb away!" My Living Environment teacher was like this all the time, whenever she get angry with a student, she would say things that even most comedians would chuckle at.

The environment and atmosphere sort of varied depending on the class I was in. Some of my classes had everyone being silent, while others had everyone acting like monkeys trapped in a cage that was slowly being lowered into boiling water…that's pretty much the only example I could think of that was pretty accurate.

While my teacher went off on poor Brian, I took out the things necessary for this class and placed it on the table. The classroom was as big as any normal classroom. Since this was Living Environment, I had to share a table with someone. Fortunately, they were a close friend of mine and not some moron.

"Hey, Trent?" My friend suddenly saying my first name out of nowhere caused me to wince. One thing about me is that I don't like my first name. There's just…something about "Trenton" that I hate, which is why I have everyone refer to me as Tamazaki. I'll save the "Trenton" story for another time, mainly because I don't want to put myself in a bad mood.

"Huh? Oh, what's up Cel?" Is what I responded with. Although I don't have any problems making friends, I do have a bit of anxiety and a speech impediment. The anxiety is nothing major though, my palms just randomly get sweaty when I'm nervous about something.

"I just want to make sure, but…the Pep Rally IS today, right?" Cel asked me in a nervous tone. Today was our winter Pep Rally, which was going to be held inside the Gymnasium. The only reason why Cel asked was because she's apart of the dance team, and wants to make sure that I'm there to see her dance.

"Yeah, that's right." Is what I replied with. The Pep Rally starts next period, and usually, I have a free period. This means that I have the option to stay in school, or go home early…You most likely know what me and everyone else who had a free period picked then. "Don't worry Cel, I promised you that I was going to stay and watch you dance."

"…Damn it Trent, you know how much it hurts when you make me blush." Cel whispered. I don't know if it's obvious, but I like Cel. I'm not sure if she likes me back, or if she likes me as a friend since she's always giving me mixed signals. One day though, I'll have to confess to her, otherwise some other guy might come along and take her. "Hey…after school, could we go to the park? There's one place that I want to show you."

"I'd love to go to the park with you. I don't have to get my brother from his school today since his friend's father is picking him up." I told Cel. At times like these, I'm really glad that I know everyone in my neighborhood, otherwise I would've missed out on an opportunity like this.

"Great!" Cel gave me her signature smile, which just caused a thousand butterflies to fly around in my stomach. I stared deep into her dark brown eyes as she stared into my light green eyes. It feels like I was staring into her eyes for almost an eternity, she must've felt the same way since she didn't look away.

"Trenton! Celia! What did I say about making love with each other using your eyes?!" Our teacher dragged us out of the fantasy world we were in and back into reality. Celia and I both apologized to our teacher, she started class shortly after.

About halfway through class, our teacher assigned us some work we had to do independently. The whole classroom went completely silent as we worked. Living Environment was a subject I struggled with, but I managed to get through. As I was about to write my name on the sheet, I heard…something.

"Ta….ma….ki" I faint voice had called my name. My initial reaction was to look around the classroom to see who was calling me, but no one was looking in my direction. Usually, when this type of stuff happens, someone is trying to mess with you and get on your bad side. Fortunately, I've dealt with this type of problem enough times to block it out completely.

"…ou…ar…he…on…" I heard the same faint voice whisper. Now that I'm hearing this voice again, it doesn't sound like anyone in the classroom. I took a look around the classroom once more, but didn't see anyone who could have matched the voice. The thing that was really bothering me was that no one seemed to be noticing the voice, not even Celia heard the voice, yet she was sitting right next to me.

At moments like these, I would sort of start getting worried about someone calling out to me and saying things that I can't seem to understand. However, I'm in a classroom at the moment, if I were to suddenly start screaming and panicking now, people would look at me funny, and my reputation would drop dramatically. For now, I decided that it would be best for me to keep calm and stay quiet about the voices.

(20 minutes later…)

The bell had finally rung, indicating that the period was over. I sighed and dropped my writing utensil on the table before leaning back in my seat. Shortly after the first two times of hearing that voice, it suddenly disappeared. I do want to know if this is some sort of new mental disease that only affects me out of the other seven billion people living in this world.

"Poke~" I immediately recognized Celia's voice as she poked my cheek. I looked over at her as she gave me her signature smile, which woke up the butterflies that were resting peacefully in my stomach. "I got to go now, I have to go get changed for the Pep Rally." Celia was looking at me like she was expecting something from me, luckily it was pretty obvious to what she wanted.

"Cel, stop worrying, I already told you that I'm going to be at the Pep Rally" I told her. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll be somewhere that's close to the doors, that way you'll definitely be able spot me in the crowd of people sitting on the bleachers." If you were able to see Celia's face, you would notice that her nervous expression had suddenly disappeared and was replaced with a relieved one.

Celia and I walked out of our Living Environment classroom, and quickly noticed a large group of people walking past us. "Oh! That's the Dance Team…I guess I should go after them…"Celia had said the last part in a sad tone. Since Celia was leaving, I automatically knew that she was going to start becoming nervous again once I was out of her sight. I took my attention off of the Dance Team and turned towards Celia, I then proceeded to pull her close into an embrace, catching her completely off guard. "H-huh? T-Trent…?"

"It's going to be alright, I already know that you're going to do great out there." I whispered into her ear. Celia has told me many times before that whenever I whisper into her ear, her problems to seem to fade away. I would say that this is just Celia trying to compliment me, but two other people have said the exact same thing, and both of them being my siblings. "Do your best and try not to worry too much, okay?"

"Y-yeah…I'll do my best, for the Dance Team and…-" Celia stopped herself at the end of her sentence, and moved over to my ear, causing my face to a little red. "For you~" Celia then placed her lips on my cheek for a few seconds, turning my face completely red. After that, Celia backed away from me and ran after the Dance Team, making sure not to look back. I placed my hand on the side of my face and watched Celia walk away with her friends.

"Did she just kiss you on the cheek?" Some person I didn't really know walked up to me and asked this question. When it comes to people I don't know in this school, I act differently around them. If I know their the type of student who causes trouble a lot, I'll usually give them the death stare or tell them to back off. "Piss off and mind your own business, you microscopic brained chimpanzee." I told them before walking away.

It didn't take me long to get to the Gym, as not a lot of people were waiting around in the hallway. When I got into the Gymnasium, I noticed that nearly all of the bleachers were packed. Since it's November, it's starting to get pretty cold outside with winter around the corner. The weather today seemed to be a bit…extreme, with it being between 40 and 30 degrees, with weather like that, no one is leaving unless they have to.

I remembered telling Celia about sitting near the entrance, so I quickly surveyed the two bleachers that were right beside the doors. Luckily, there were a few openings that didn't seem or were going to be occupied. I walked over to bleachers and made my way to the very top and took my seat, I looked around to see if I was getting any stares from anyone, fortunately I wasn't and decided to relax for a bit.

Now that I'm thinking to myself, I really wonder what that voice in my head was all about. The first time it spoke to me, there was no doubt that it was trying to say my name. However, the next part seemed kind of fuzzy, as I didn't really understand what they were trying to say. There are three things that bothered me about the voice, one being that I wasn't really able to tell what gender the voice had matched, as it sort of sounded like a male and female voice.

The second thing that bothered me about the voice was that I didn't recognize it at all. I at first thought it was someone whispering to me in class, but it looked like no one was trying to communicate with me at all. My second thought was that someone was doing this from outside of the classroom and was trying to play some kind of prank on me, but if that were the case, someone like Celia would've heard the voice as well.

The third and final thing about that voice is….well, it sounded…troubled. Just by the tone of their voice, you could tell that they were worried about something. This thing…or person…I know that this might just be a possibility and I can just be spouting random nonsense, but…could they be calling…For help? Is it a possibility that their in some sort of danger and I'm the only person who can save them…?

…

Man, look at me spouting all of this nonsense. Some random voice is calling me for help because they're in some sort of danger? In my opinion, that would make a bad plot for any kind of story since it's so overused and worn out. I'm probably just a bit tired since I went to bed late last night, working on something that is apart of my personal life.

"Up next, give it up for Echomonty's Senior High Dance Team!" I noticed that the principal of our school was speaking through a microphone. Apparently, I was so wrapped up with the voice in my head that I never noticed that the principal had did her speech, and the basketball team as well as the football teams was introduced. I should probably push this to the side for now and save this for another day…or week….yeah, you should know where this is going.

I looked over to my right to see the Dance Team making their way through the doors, sure enough, Celia was one of those people. The Dance Team made their way to the center of the Gymnasium and got into position, everyone stood perfectly still as they waited for the person who was in charge of the sound to play the music. After some time of waiting, the music finally began to play.

Everyone in the Gymnasium began to lose their composure and started to stand up and cheer, the same went for the people who were in front of me. I needed to make sure that Celia was able to see me in case she were to start getting nervous, so I stood up. I was able to get a clear view of Celia, although she wasn't facing my direction, I managed to see a smile on her face, which was enough to make me smile.

After a few more songs, the Dance Team had finished their part in the Pep Rally. All I could hear were claps coming from every direction, I couldn't even hear what our Principal was saying, despite it being over a microphone. The Dance Team was waving at everyone, Celia seemed to be looking around for me, so I decided to stand up on the bleachers, despite how dangerous it is, and try to catch her attention. Thankfully, she spotted me and started to smile and wave at me.

"Tama…zaki…"I heard the same voice, which was accompanied by a sharp pain that ran through my head. I placed my hand on my head and noticed that my vision was starting to get blurry, I sat back down in my seat, with my hand still on my head…I heard it again…I heard the voice again, this time it was much clearer. "You…re….the….e"

"I need…some water." I said to myself as I got up from my seat and made my way to the exit, not noticing Celia, who was wondering where I had disappeared to.

As I was walking through the hallways of the school, I quickly noticed that they were completely empty. The Pep Rally was usually for grades 9 through 12, meaning that 7th and 8th grades had to resume with their normal schedules. I expected to see kids from those grades wandering around, but nope, I saw no one, aside from me roaming the halls…Well, at least that's what I thought.

"AAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!" All at once, I was able to hear a large amount of females screaming from far behind me. This was accompanied by the sound of running footsteps, I turned to find out what was going on, but as soon as I did, I was blinded by something, pushed to the ground, and heard some large crashing sound that came from…some sort direction.

"What the Hell?!" I shouted as I pulled the cloth off of me and looked around. The first thing I noticed was that I was on the floor, which wasn't really hard to figure out. The second thing I noticed was that there was a wrench on the floor, which seemed oddly suspicious. The third thing I noticed was the item used to blind me, it was a black sweatshirt. "Wait a minute…isn't this sweatshirt-"

"There you are, you pervert!" I heard a girl shout. I looked up and saw that I was being surrounded by girls, boys, teachers, and security guards…pretty much everyone in the Gymnasium. "That's him! He's the one who did it!" I would just like to say that I don't like where any of this is going, I'm practically being surrounded by almost 75 percent of the school right now, something like this is never a good sign.

"Um…Could someone explain what's going on here? Cause I'm not really seeing the picture…"Is what I asked, but apparently, doing that seemed to make everything worse as everyone's disgusted stares turned into deathly ones. It appears that me talking isn't really going to help me I'm this situation I'm in, so I might as well keep my mouth shut until I need to use it.

"W-why?!" A familiar voice asked. My head automatically turned towards the source, my eyes shortly met with Celia's, which were currently trying to hold back a large amount of tears. I couldn't help but look at Celia, my face was fully worry, yet I was still able to show that I was confused. "W-why did you do it?! What was your r-reason for doing it?!"

"Cel, what are you-"

"DON'T CALL ME CEL, DAMM IT!" Celia's voice had drastically risen. This wasn't the Celia I knew anymore, as she actually scared me when she raised her voice. Apparently, I did something that had caused all this to happen, but…What did I do exactly…? "Why Trenton?! Why did you flood the girl's lockeroom?!"

…Was…I just accused…of flooding the girl's lockeroom…?

…

"W-Wha-…WWWWHHHHHHAAAAAAATTTTTTTT?!" Is what I shouted out to the top of my lungs. This was ALLLLL just one giant misunderstanding! Why am I suddenly being accused of flooding the girl's lockeroom?! It doesn't make any sense! I left the Gymnasium over three minutes ago? How could I possibly have time to do that in the span of three minutes?!

"W-Wait! This isn't what it looks-" I tried to finish my sentence, but I felt a hand land on my shoulder. I turned my head to see one of the security guards shaking their head at me. All I did was let out a sigh of defeat and wait for my demise to come.

CONTINUING PROGRAM…

[Side B]

- Silver; Silver Amadeus Tamazaki. This is the story of how I was pulled into a new world and was given the responsibility of protecting a Goddess.

Hyperdimension Nepzaki Re;start1: Return of an APL

Dimension: B9-7A6 (Earth)

Location: Giorgio's Diner

Time: 2:41 PM

It was supposed to be a clear day from what I could remember, but I'm pretty sure the meteorologist had lied. Midway through the day, it had started to rain, and it wasn't light rain either; those water droplets were coming down hard!

Fortunately, I didn't have to deal with the rain. I was busy working my waitress job at a place called Giorgio's Diner. Despite the name, the person in charge here isn't actually named Giorgio.

I've been a regular at this diner for a really long time now. How long, you might ask? Let's just say since I was still in Elementary and go from there. Eventually, when I got older and started looking for a job, the people here hired me instantly since most of them had known me before I could form coherent sentences.

But I'm not here to talk to you about my experiences as a waitress at a diner. I'm here to talk to you about how all of this began. So sit back and relax, because this story is going to be… interesting…

"May I have a meatloaf plate?"

"Pot roast please!"

"Um! Um! I want a grilled cheese sandwich, and chicken nuggets, and apple juice, and ice cream, and-"

For the first few hours, everything seemed normal. Customers ordered food from us, waiters and waitresses, we send their order to the back, and once the customer's food was ready, we'd deliver it to them either by hand or trolley. After they finish eating, they'd pay for a meal and tip us before eventually leaving.

Obviously, there was more to this than what I had just explained, like cleaning up the tables after customers had left, finding seats for parties that are bigger than we have space for, and a lot more unpleasant things! I was just listing what I had to deal with on that particular day.

But even though I had to deal with a lot of bad things during my time as a waitress, I loved my job. After all, the good and bad things usually balance after a while!

"Pete! We've got another order!"

I delivered another slip of paper with a customer order to the kitchen in the back. Waiting for me was one of the cooks who had just gotten off their break and was about ready to head back to work, his name being Peter.

"Seriously? I just got back too!" Pete had a visible look of frustration on his face. He took the slip of paper from me and paraphrased its contents. "Steak well done, eggs sunny side up, baked pota-BAKED POTATO?! WHAT IS THIS?!

Despite how Pete was acting right, he didn't actually hate his job in any sort of way. As I said before, he was just really frustrated since we were getting bombarded with orders. It sorta made sense to me since it was on a Friday, but at the same time, it really didn't.

"Hey, I just take the orders and deliver the food!" I put my hands up in defense as I backed out of the kitchen. "Questioning people's taste is your job, not mine!"

I never did get to hear the rest of what Pete said before I backed out of the kitchen, but I'm pretty sure he was on the verge of having an aneurysm… all because of a baked potato.

Once I got back to the main part of the diner, I did a quick time check. I don't remember the exact time, but I was supposed to go on my 30-minute break 5 minutes from that exact moment.

After checking the time, I figured that I should go see if any customers needed anything from me before I went on my break. Right as I was beginning to walk away, one of my co-workers had bumped into with a trolley on purpose.

"Woah there, it's not smart to stand in the middle of the road like that, ma'am." The guy who bumped into me had a smug look on his face. "Thank God I was able to stop. It would suck if I had run over a beauty like you."

The guy who was trying to pick me up— or at least I think was trying to pick me up— was my coworker Emile, or E-Mail as I liked to call him. He had only been working as a waiter for a couple of months, and unlike Pete, he actually didn't like his job at all.

Despite him hating the job, he still stayed there regardless. You know how he was just trying out pick up lines on me earlier? Well, I'm not the only girl he's tried it on. Anytime our manager wasn't around, he'd always find some way to flirt with them, regardless of the circumstances.

Unfortunately, it's not that easy to sweep a girl off her feet so he always ended up getting shot down or worse. The girls who work there are immune to his romance attempts since some of them were in relationships while others just weren't interested in him; I was in the last category by the way, but for one reason that I will not disclose of just yet.

"It sure would've! Hospital bills are expensive, you know." Emile had instantly deflated when I said that to him, but his demeanor returned to normal moments later. "That's a lot of food on that trolly, are you delivering to multiple people at once?"

"You would think that, but no." Emile motioned for me to come closer to him, and while I was hesitant, I did what he wanted. The guy pointed to a lone old man sitting at one of the booths by himself. I don't think he was overweight or anything, he seemed pretty fit for a man his age. "That old guy over there ordered all this food for himself, I think. I'm not sure how a guy his age is going to eat all this food himself without having some sort of health problem."

"Maybe he's ordering that much food because he's with a party that has yet to arrive at the restaurant?" I'm not going to bring it up later because I'm going to be too distracted with the events that happen later on, but it turns out that old guy really was ordering all of that food for himself! I vaguely remember seeing him scarf down all that food at once and leave the diner, he was completely fine too!

"I want to believe that, but this guy was really specific with his order, and when I say really specific, I mean REALLY specific." I'm pretty sure I was debating whether to get 911 on standby at that point. I say this because there was a lot of greasy food on that trolley, and past experiences have taught me that if someone orders more 4 greasy dishes for themselves, then you should have some sort of medical personnel on standby… that old man had 9 DISHES!

"... I'll ask someone to supervise him while he eats." I was sort of nervous, so I didn't want to take any risks and judging from the look Emile had given me before he walked off with the trolley of food, he didn't want to either.

After asking someone to supervise the old guy, it was finally time for me to go on my break. I went into the break room that was far off into the back of the restaurant. Inside the break room were a couple of lockers, a few tables surrounded by chairs, and an entire kitchen area that was much cleaner than the actual kitchen in the restaurant.

The first thing I did upon entering was head straight for the lockers and enter in a combination. When I finally opened it, I was instantly greeted a buzzing phone. Normally, I turn off my phone while I'm at work and put it in my locker, so when it was buzzing, I was caught off guard.

I took the phone out of the locker and looked at the number that was calling me, half expecting it to be spam, and half expecting it to be a wrong number. It was… neither of those.

"Echomonty…?" Echomonty was the name of the high that I graduated from two years from that point. I kinda forgot how many years it's been since I actually graduated from the school since time works differently in this dimension than it did back on Earth. While Echomonty was the name of the school I graduated from, it was also the name of the school my younger brother was going to.

I tapped the green icon on my screen and put the phone up to my ear. "Hello?"

"Good afternoon, am I speaking to Ms. Silver Tamazaki?" The voice on the other line had been someone I didn't recognize, but I could almost immediately tell that it just wasn't some school nurse calling to let me know that my brother had a black eye, ruptured spine, internal bleeding, and memory loss which they would then proceed to treat with a simple ice pack… Seriously, I don't understand why those nurses in the nurse's office thought that answer to everything would be a stupid ice pack!

"Yes, that would be me."

"Excellent. I'm Mrs. Reynolds, I'm the Principal at Echomonty High School." I was pretty surprised that really wasn't just the nurse's office calling me with that whole ice pack nonsense. "I am calling regarding a major event that took place 20 minutes ago that involved your child. This is a very urgent matter and I would like to request a meeting with you in my office."

As I said, I had a feeling that the phone call was going to be a lot more serious than what it normally would be. I knew from the moment I picked up my phone, it was going to be nothing but bad news. Even though she hadn't told me what this was about, I automatically assumed that this wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Um-"

"Ta….ma….ki"

A faint voice had said my name— or my last name as a matter of fact. My initial reaction was to look around the room to see if someone was calling me, but to my surprise, I was the only one in the room. My co-workers did like to play tricks on me from time and time again, so I didn't really think much of it.

"…ou…ar…he…on…"

I heard the same faint voice whisper, and after I heard it again, it hadn't sounded like any of my co-workers. I took a look around the break room once more, and just to be safe, I even poked my head outside the room, but I didn't see anyone suspicious… or anyone at all.

At moments like these, I would sort of start getting worried about some unknown person calling out to me and saying things that I can't seem to understand. But unfortunately, I was in a public place as well as on the phone with the principal of my brother's school. Losing it right then and there wouldn't help anyone.

"Hello? Are you still there, Mrs. Tamazaki?"

"O-Oh yes! Sorry I was just checking on something!" I had almost forgotten that I was on the phone with the school principal. "You said you would like a meeting at your office? I'm currently at work at the moment, but I'll talk to my manager and before leaving."

"Thank you, I'll see you soon."

After I hung up, I sort of stood there and took in what that call was really about. The principal had said that an event that involved my child had happened, and she needed to meet with me in her office. I'm pretty sure I glossed over the fact that she had thought that my younger brother was actually my child.

It wasn't until I stood there for about a full when I realized what that call was about. I didn't even consider the possibility that something terrible had happened to my brother, like he was killed, or was taken as a hostage, or something bad!

… Okay, maybe I was overreacting a bit, but can you blame me? As the oldest out of 3 siblings, I have to worry about the safety of my little brothers, especially since our parents weren't there to protect us anymore.

So yeah, I didn't really start worrying until I had started to think about for a minute or two. I slipped my phone into my pocket and left the break room in search of my manager… And that was the exact moment my terrible karma had taken form.

I left the break room and looked around for my manager, but to my dismay, she was nowhere to be found. I asked a few of my co-workers if they had seen here, but they didn't have a clue as to where she could be either.

"Yoo-hoo, Ruby!"

For whatever reason, I turned around after hearing this. I didn't know why at the time since Ruby wasn't my name. Then again, Ruby and Silver are kinda in the same category if you think about it, but I'm still not sure.

"Oh, Denikè! You're here early!"

Now for someone actually important: Denikè Sato! Although she's not going to be important until much much MUCH later, I might as well tell you a bit about her now… or at least this version of her.

This Denikè was my co-worker back when I worked at Giorgio's Diner, she wasn't exactly a waitress like me but a cook—and a damn good one too! I'm also not afraid to say that she was, and still is, one of my best friends.

I did think that it was kinda weird for her to have white hair since that was a pretty unnatural hair color to have in [REDACTED], but it must've been normal where she was from. Also, just like Denikè we all know, she spoke in a heavy accent that I'm still unsure about to this very day. What is it, Russian? German? French? I don't freaking know, but it gets weirder when you find out what her nationality is, that's when you get REALLY confused!

"Yup Yup! Denikè was really bored at home since Papa and Mama are preparing for Uncle Zest's visit." Oh yeah, she refers to herself in the third person as well, but you probably already knew that. "Papa said to Denikè "Denikè, stop breaking stuff and go to work!" So Denikè said "Okay!" and went to work."

"Wow, that story was a lot more… tame than usual." Denikè usually tells me one really bizarre story every time she sees me. I can't rate how bizarre these stories are, but one story, in particular, involved her mother riding a bear to the grocery store… I think that might give you a good idea as to how crazy these stories are. Honestly, I want to say that they're fake, but I hang out with Denikè a lot when we're both off, and the amount of crazy things I've seen makes it impossible to say that her stories are fake.

"Papa kicked Denikè out of the house so quick that she didn't have time to see the resolution…" Denikè out her finger on her chin and looked up. "But Denikè thinks she might've heard a "BOOM" after Papa kicked her out…"

"Yup, there was the punchline." Although it wasn't insane, it certainly was a weird one. "Hey, Denikè, if you-"

"Tama…zaki…"

I heard the same voice, which was accompanied by a sharp pain that ran through my head. I placed my hand on my head and noticed that my vision was starting to get blurry. I stumbled back a bit and hit the wall behind me. Fortunately, I was standing in front of a wall and not a door or an open space, otherwise, I would've fallen and… Well, it wouldn't be pleasant.

"You…re….the….e"

"Ruby…?" Throughout all the pain I was going through, I was able to hear Denikè's voice. I still didn't understand why she was calling me Ruby, but that was the last thing on my mind. "What's the matter?"

"I-It's nothing, Denikè. D-Don't worry about it." In actuality, this was something I felt like she really did need to worry about. My head was throbbing and it was somewhat becoming unbearable the more time had passed. "D-Denikè, can you do me a favor and let Zaria k-know that I'll be leaving for the day. Something urgent came up, and I have to take the rest of the day off…"

"Okie Dokie, Ruby! I'll let whoever that is know!"

I really wish I had caught wind of what she said earlier since I feel like it would've made some sort of difference.

…

Aww, who am I kidding? That wouldn't have changed anything.

"Long time no see, Echomonty…"

I stood outside of the building of my old school, which hadn't changed in the slightest. I had a lot of fond memories of that place, some bad, but most of them were good. Thinking back on it, I graduated at the top of my class, didn't I? It's been such a long time, I'm having a hard time remembering the specifics. It's not like I was striving to become a scholar or was forced, it just… came to me, I guess.

I knew that standing there and reminiscing about the past wouldn't really make the fear that something happened to my brother go away, but it did help me calm down a bit.

I entered into the school, and although it had only been 2 years opposed to 10, it had felt like nostalgia had sucker punched me in the gut. It didn't help that my head was still hurting and that I had to walk all the way to school.

Since I knew where to go, I arrived at the principal's office without asking for help from any of the janitors, or staff that was wandering around the school. Once again, I was worried and afraid of opening that door, but I would soon find my body acting on its own and opened it.

(I waited silently inside the Principal's office, I didn't want to make a sound if I did, I know that things wouldn't end well for me. The Principal was sitting at her desk which was right in front of me, so I was sort of too afraid to move a muscle. All I could do was wait silently inside the Principal's Office, and wait for-)

"Hello? Mrs. Reynolds?"

[I poked my head into the room, and upon doing so I noticed both Mrs. Reynolds and someone looking at me, although he only looked for a second before turning back around]

(A certain someone popped their head into the room. I turned my head for a split second to make sure that it was who I thought it was…turns out, it was who I thought it was… )

"I'm sorry it took me so long, my car is sort of in the repair shop right now, so I had to walk all the way to the school."

"It is fine Mrs…-"

"Oh, you don't have to call me Mrs. Tamazaki!"

[I closed the door behind and walked over to a seat in front of Mrs. Reynolds' desk and sat down right next to the boy]

(The person walked into the room and closed the door behind them, they then came over and took the seat right next to me.)

"I'm only Trenton's older sister, so you can just refer to me as Tamazaki or Silver."

[I guess this is would be the best time to introduce him. The person who I was sitting next to was obviously my younger brother: Trenton, or Tamazaki as he likes to be called. I'm not sure why he likes being associated with our family name, but it's cute, so I don't care! Out of me and my two siblings, Tam-Tam is the middle child since he was born exactly two years after me. Why do I say exactly? We share the same birthday, that's why! The two of us were born on November 11th, which was actually four days ago during this time and now, making me 20 and him 18.]

(This person is my goofball of an older sister, Silver. Out of me and my two siblings, Silver is the oldest out the three of us, with her being older than me by exactly two years…Why do I say exactly? Silver and I were both born on November 11th, but I was born two years after her. Our birthdays were only four days ago, so that makes me 18, and Silver 20.)

"Older sister? Might I ask what you're doing here instead of your parents then?"

"Well…a two years ago, our parents had died on their way to [REDACTED]. There was a plane crash with very few survivors..." [I told Mrs. Reynolds] (Silver told the Principal). "Ever since then, I've taken the role of caring for Trenton, as well as our little brother who's currently 12, acting as their Guardian."

(Silver graduated from school two years ago and was even given a scholarship, but because our parents had passed away, my brother and I would've been sent to an orphanage or a foster home since there would be no legal adult to take care of us. Silver knew that this would happen and decided that her family was much more important than her education, which is why she decided to stay home instead of going off to college.)

"Two years ago, you say… That's it certainly-"

The Principal had looked like she realized something.

"That crash…A relative of mine was supposed to get on a plane that was supposed to travel to [REDACTED] 2 years ago as well, but they were late for their flight." Mrs. Reynolds said. "I was unaware if they had made it onto the plane or not, so I was somewhat afraid when I saw the news report on television. Now that I think back to it, one person the news reporters interviewed-"

"Looked like me?"

"... Was it you?"

[All I did was shake my head. This was a topic that was quite hard for me and Tam-Tam to talk about, considering how much it affected us and our little brother, which is why we practically don't bring it up at all]

(I really just wanted to cover my ears and close my eyes at this point. I just hated how they talked about this so casually… well, at least somewhat casually. Silver really didn't want to talk about this, and Mrs. Reynolds must've known that she was overstepping her boundaries at that point]

"I am terribly sorry for your lost…"

"It's alright, but…"

[I looked over at Tam-Tam after noticing him being quiet since I stepped into the room]

(Silver looked at me and noticed I wasn't really in the mood to say anything. )

"Didn't you call me here to speak about Trenton?"

(I was visibly cringing at this point, not because I didn't want to hear what happened again, but because Silver was going to have to hear this unnecessary story.)

"Well, yes…"

The Principal fixed her glasses on her face before clearing her throat. From the looks of it, I don't think the Principal wanted to speak about this topic at all.

"Well…About three hours ago, our school had held its winter Pep Rally. After the Dance Team had done their performance, they left for the locker room. About five minutes after, there was screaming coming from the girl's locker room in the basement. As we were about to investigate the source of the screams, someone wearing a sweatshirt and hood ran out of the locker room and ran down the hall. Not even seconds later, all the girls who were in the locker room ran out and chased after him, dripping wet. We soon found Trenton on the ground with the exact same sweatshirt in his hands, and a wrench that appeared to be brand new."

[After hearing that story, it was REALLY REALLY hard to contain my urge to laugh. I mean seriously, who does that! That entire story sounded like something you would only see in an anime, and that's saying something! I know I believe in Deniké's absurd stories all the time, but come on! I'm not that gullible!]

"If you're trying to say that my brother is the one who flooded the girl's locker room, then I'm going to have to say that I don't believe you."

(I swear when Silver had said that, I'm pretty sure she had snuck in a giggle in between one of those words that only I had caught wind of)

"Ahh yes, I had a feeling that you would deny it."

[That sentence sounded pretty evil if you asked me! It sounded like this entire thing was just a plot against my brother for some reason.]

(I really didn't like the tone of voice she was using to talk to my sister, it just didn't seem…genuine, just way how she said it makes it sound like she was the one who was in charge of all of this… the thing with the locker room…not the school, if you were thinking that.)

"We ran a fingerprint scan on the wrench, and found that the fingerprints that were on the wrench, matched Trenton's perfectly."

["I'm sorry, what?"]

("W-wait…WHAAAT?!")

[While I was shocked, Tam-Tam was so confused that he regained his ability to speak. That was also why I didn't believe a thing that Mrs. Reynolds had said because his reaction was so genuine]

(I couldn't stay quiet after hearing that, mostly because it didn't make any sense! I never touched that wrench at all, yet they were able to find my fingerprints on it?! Nothing at the moment of time was making any sort of sense to me at all!)

("I never even touched that thing! How were my fingerprints on it?!")

"Trenton, you've had enough time to defend yourself. Allow me to speak to your sister please."

Want to know what I was thinking right then and there? Well, it went something along the lines of "Fuck you for not letting (me)[him] speak!"

(That woman really thought that I was lying during the entire time I spent trying to explain to her that I was innocent and did nothing wrong. If only you knew how mad this made me… Oh, wait! You'll find out VERY soon how mad I was!]

[I'm usually a pretty happy and bubbly person as I'm told by many people, and I agree with them! But at that point, I was really starting to feel angry— an emotion that I had rarely felt.]

Mr. Reynolds soon pulled out what looked to be a sweatshirt from behind her desk and showed it to both of us with a somewhat evil look on her face.

"Now… , does this sweatshirt happen to belong to your brother?"

"Oh, I wouldn't really know."

(Silver seemed a bit embarrassed by this and rubbed the back of her head.)

"When it comes to shopping for clothes, I usually go by myself, the same goes for Trenton, who goes clothes shopping with our brother. I don't really check to see what type of clothes they buy, after all, two boys are living alone with one girl! Meaning privacy is sort of a big thing in our home…"

(Silver was telling the truth. My brother and I usually keep things that are related to guys to ourselves, the same goes with Silver, who can't really tell us kind of stuff since she's the only girl in the house.)

"Very well then…Trenton? Let me ask you this question."

[Mrs. Reynolds turned to my brother and gave him a look that made me want to jump out of my seat and slap her for.]

"Trenton, this sweatshirt that I'm holding in my hand…does this happen to belong to you by any chance?"

[Tam-Tam was really quiet. Something was telling me that this actually was his sweatshirt, but he just didn't want to admit it.]

"…Yeah…That's my sweatshirt…" (I was basically muttering.) [My brother muttered] "But… I'm telling you! I never did it! I never flooded the girl's locker room! I would never be able to do something like that, especially with-"

"That's enough Trenton Tamazaki! These lies you're telling are not acceptable!"

The Principal had dropped the sweatshirt and took out a pen and began to jot something down on a paper, before saying something would cause my anger levels to rise.

"I don't believe you're parents would find this type of behavior-"

[I was about ready to do what I said earlier and slap the Hell out of this lady for saying something she had absolutely no right in saying. How could you say something like that, especially after telling us a relative of yours was fortunate enough to survive the plane crash that our parents had died from? How could you say something like that after practically forcing me to bring up memories that I had tried to repress on a daily basis?! I was already unsure about this woman, but after that, I could confidently say that I fucking despite her.]

(The moment those words had left that woman's mouth, I couldn't contain my anger anymore and shot up out of my chair so fast that it fell over. I slammed my hands her desk, not caring about the coffee mug that I had just shattered, or the shards of glass that were in my hand, or the fact that I bleeding over the entire table)

"YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO SAY SHIT! SO SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH AND MIND YOUR OWN GOD DAMN BUSINESS!"

(There was a very long pause after those words had left my mouth. Mrs. Reynolds had backed had gotten up from her chair and was backed against the wall. Honestly, if Silver hadn't placed her hand on my shoulder, I probably would've done something that would've landed me in prison.)

[We were all silent, and for good reason too. I stood up grabbed my brother's shoulder, since I knew that as long as it was there, he wouldn't do anything else to harm that woman we despised.]

The both of us soon noticed on Mrs. Reynolds desk was a pink slip of paper that had read "EXPULSION SLIP". Although she never finished writing the name, the two of us knew whose name was going to be on that paper.

["…Trenton, let's go…" I picked up his sweatshirt from the floor and made my way over to the door.]

("... Yeah." I looked at her one last time before following my sister out)