The sky was heavy with rain, and countless leaves fell as the wind thrashed about as it wished. There was blood everywhere, on every room, on every curtain, on every floor of the broken down school building—one that was within the screen of a device.

  A girl had died there, a virtual girl, in a game. But Natasha didn’t play games, she never did but everything felt real. The comments of the chat, the camera in front of her face and her loud voice that was filled with emotion.

  As well as those eyes, those hidden eyes that couldn’t be seen as there were blocked by those pretty eyelids and lush eyelashes.

  The girl, that looked awfully like her, spoke harshly—“Why the f*ck am I a background character?! See if I’ll still play this game? What ‘it’s still just arc 1, wait till arc 5’! No way!”

  And then it cut off and she was thrust back into reality, one where she was still crushing over this one guy in class, one where she was still just a lousy stalker, one where she didn’t have visions of alternate lifetimes—one where she didn’t have to see the sky abruptly shattering with unknown power.

  “Ah…” That last part was incorrect.

  The sky had indeed turned red and shattered with an unknown power. Stood behind the school grounds, while obsessively watching another girl try to confess to her crush—behavior she might have to correct later—Natasha Satoshi Ivanova, blinked her eyes in confusion.

  Seeing that sky, her mind went to work again and she instinctively reached out to clutch her chest. The pendant that was left to her from a small age was hung there, despite being made of mysterious glass the object never reflected light or shone in any way.

  It was blinding.

  ‘Bright, hot—cold, comfortable.’ Was the experience that was driven into her mind, and unknown terms and forms manifested into her mind. She had yet to know what they were, or what it is she was supposed to do with them.

  One thing she realized for certain, was that ordinary was now merely a fantasy in this fantasy.

  Something in her mind clicked; and she heard faint clicking in the distance as her awareness, for a moment, spread across the world. Along with the mysterious knowledge of that other self and the now rising sense of transcendence that overcame her with that blinding light at her chest, Natasha began to comprehend—and it was not slow, like before.

  Many had awoken, as to what, she didn’t know but it was something of an extraordinary nature. Within her heart, that now became a [Heart] of hearts, she knew that she would be apart of everything that was happening from this point on.

  Still confused, she heard that voice again—“No but like, think of the implications of this right. In this game, there are potentially thousands of girls gaining insane HAX for no reason! All over the world! And my character yeah, me, she dies because of some freaking time loop!”

  —!!!

  Her heart skipped a beat.

  Natasha’s eyebrows raised, but she didn’t move.

  Even as the world went crazy and the sky started shedding it’s red glow, she didn’t move. She stared hatefully at the girl in Leon’s arms, clinging to him for safety.

  That should be her!

  Even though she was hateful, she still knew her place. Staring at the star shaped halo scarred into the very essence of the sky, Natasha had a slightly worried expression. Taking a final glance at the now separate pair, she rushed out of the back and made her way to the front courtyard.

  It didn’t take her long to arrive at an empty club room, with the commotion outside, you would have to be crazy to stay inside at this time and miss all the excitement.

  While she was crazy, she still had a hint of self-control and knew what was the priority now. Clutching at the glass pendant, she took a look and saw four glittering stars are the center.

  Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

  The stars where not uniform and shifted intermittently with unclear dimensions and speed to their movement within the glass ball. Their shape and size were also not clear, with one going from being 3-pointed to 8-pointed and even further climbing higher or scaling lower and lower than before.

  Natasha hummed, she had never seen a 1-sided star before or even a 0-sided one. This was clearly impossible and as she sat down near a deserted club room she felt the need to examine this phenomena.

  —“Like I was saying, even though she is a mob from a plot perspective, having silver hair and red eyes are NOT mob traits. As a Streamer with 3 Million followers, I would like at least the fairness of surviving past the tutorial. ‘This is the fate of big-chested narrow-eyed heroines’ That’s unfair! Also, are you guys checking out my chest, I swear all of you are wolves! If you continue being this perverted, you won’t get a girlfriend you know!”

  Natasha hummed, listening to the voice that wouldn’t fade and absorbing bits and pieces of memory that bled over from a place beyond time and space. She didn’t freak out, she had navigated absurd and abnormal situations before.

  She didn’t find anything wrong with the pendant, but she was sure she would get something out of it. Sitting down in the deserted club room, the girl felt a small tug in her mind before she felt one in her pocket, she looked down at it, her phone was there.

  Her phone beeped—it was her alarm for when Leon typically left his club activities, it was currently in the extremely late evening.

  [Alarm — Leon’s Leaving Time]

  [6:10 PM]

  [Snooze for; 10 Minutes]

  [Snooze] [Dismiss]

  The phone rang, and Natasha tilted her head slightly thinking back to the girl she with Leon.

  ‘How long did he spend with her? Maybe, 10 minutes…? His practice ended at 5:40 and she called him over at 5:45 so over 15 minutes since I left around 6:00… Lucky.’

  Natasha whistled, and the voice sounded again. This time, her calm rumination was interrupted with bad news.

  —“Also, why did Leon have to die to save those people? Even for a normal guy, he was still able to get them all out of that situation. Tsk Tsk, what bad luck, getting confessed to, just to get sacrificed when the world turned to shit moments later. These Magical Girls, tsk tsk all they do nowadays is cause and go through torture porn.”

  Natasha immediately froze, and just at that moment everything around her did to.

  A faint sound of clocks ticking came into her ears, and she instinctively looked down at her phone. The time had changed—it was now 6:00 Pm.

  The ringing, naturally had stopped as well.

  Natasha’s heart instantly tightened, what she had heard earlier coming to her mind and she couldn’t help feeling a bit of trepidation.

  Time Loop! There was a time looper somewhere!

  It wasn’t her!

  Was she about to lose her memories?

  If she did then who would go to rescue Leon?

  —“’Is this racism toward Russians?’ Well, I ain’t gone say anything, but you feel me… Aye. Low key, I thought I said I was half-Japanese too... ‘What if I could talk to my other self?’ Well I’d tell her ass to get on over there and beat up that 1 Star Meta-Beast before she and the others get their shit rocked that’s what. But alas, does it matter, she’s dead now…”

  ‘I’m alive, I’m alive, things can still change.’ Her eyes lit up.

  She didn’t know why she didn’t lose her memories when time reversed, as it was clear she wasn’t the time looper, but she didn’t care. Maybe because she as also one of those Magical Girls?

  If so, what was her powers?

  All questions for later.

  Natasha instantly started moving, even if she didn’t know what the voice was, her mind somehow instantly registered it as some parallel version of herself playing a game version of her universe.

  And it seemed that not only was this version more talkative, but she didn’t shy away from talking to others either, if those 3 Million followers were taken into account. And although it seemed she rage-quitted a game because they killed off her—they’re, our, me?—character that was modeled after her, she still absorbed a lot of knowledge judging by how she jumped from question to question with ease.

  It was currently August 14th 2022, so Natasha could agree with her sentiments of Racism toward Russian’s. Well, Natasha certainly wouldn’t want to meet a Ukrainian in this day and age at this time either. The faces of other pure blood Japanese students were already much.

  However she didn't have time to entertain all these thoughts, shaking her head, Natasha dashed out of the empty club room and straightforwardly ran left.

  It was a direction instinct decided on and while she had only seen it play it’s part once, when identifying that strange mind girl as her from another timeline for some reason, she was intent on trusting it again.

  If not it what else could she trust.

  —“’People are still racist to mixed bloods even if they are part of their race…’ That’s true, ha ha. In fact I’d say they do that even more.”

  Natasha agreed with that sentiment