NOVEL WEB Prologue: Paper Crane
When she opened her eyes, she already knew this wasn't where she was supposed to be. The silent downpour from the grey sky up above. The faceless crowds bustling all around her. The confusion sent her into a quivering mess on the ground. Her mother was not at her side, her favorite plush toy not in her arms. She could only look around frantically in her lonesome.
What happened? How was she here?
The young girl gritted her teeth and bit back a sob.
'Aragaki Kobeni.'
That thought made her pause.
Kobeni.
That was her name.
It was written with the letters 'small' and 'red.'
Her father once told her that it alluded to the red rose, that she was a witness to their love. Although that was from her father's perspective. Her mother however told her when she woke up from a nightmare one night, that red was the color of hero. She told her with a smile that it was the color of courage.
That she was her little heroine. Hence, the reason why she shouldn't be sitting here in the rain, crying her eyes out like a crybaby that she certainly was not.
The little girl stood up and wiped her tears away. She couldn't help but frown as she saw the attire she was currently wearing and tilted her head. It was a light green standard hospital gown. Unlike how everything around her was monotone like she was spirited away into an old film, there was color on her. Though not only that...
The only color she saw around her was red.
The same color as her eyes.
"Umm..."
No matter how long she mulled over it, she couldn't come up with anything.
What happened to her?
Koneni looked at the red LED light on the billboards and started walking. As her two bare little feet stepped onto the street full of puddles, she realized that the rain did not make her wet. The little girl frowned. One more mystery to solve. The other people did not seem to notice her as well. Mysteries...
She suddenly paused as her thoughts caught up.
Why was she still calm?
A six year old little girl like her should be crying for her parents, right? How come she was still so calm despite everything? She was supposed to be a kindergartener... wait, kindergartener? Since when was she a kindergartener? No, not only that, what happened before this? Where was her mother?
"Ugh!"
The sudden headache caused her to collapse.
It was the same as before, nobody seemed to notice a little girl in a hospital gown sitting in the rain. It was as if she did not exist, which was not true at all. She knew she existed. Kobeni breathed out slowly when the pain eased up into a dull throb. She then looked around once again before finally standing up stock still.
Shibuya Intersection, how was she here?
She was familiar with it, but...
Not only that she had never been here, she had never come close to Tokyo. She only knew of the small town she lived in. She knew the fastest route from her home to the market, to the kindergarten, to the hospital, and to the park.
Kobeni glanced at Shibuya Station before sighing.
It was at that moment that she saw it.
"Paper crane?"
There was no way she could miss it. It was a red paper crane, specifically a dry red paper crane in this downpour. It shouldn't even be there, but the fact that it was red - the only color she saw around here - made it somewhat important. The little girl could not help herself and picked it up. If there was mystery, there should be clues. An uncontrollable smile bloomed upon her face as she started the search for more clues - more paper cranes. If there was one, there must be more!
Ah! There! She saw one!
The girl rushed over and officially began the game.
If there was the second one, then the third, fourth, and fifth should be...
She ran around finding one paper crane after another, up until this clue finding game brought her to the final one that had appeared in the middle of the intersection. However, before she could reach it, a mysterious hand snatched it off the ground.
Her eyes could not help but follow that pale hand...
And suddenly, the reward of this game was right before her.
"Are you lost? Want Onee-chan to help?"
The girl who called herself 'onee-chan' was no older than fifteen and was in a black serafuku. Her body line was well hidden beneath a white cardigan, giving off a soft and kind air. After that was her shapely legs, also hidden from view in a pair of black pantyhose that practically begged to be touched. She eyed the dry uniform before looking up at the single most defining feature of the young girl, her eyes.
Those red eyes that reminded her of rubies in a kaleidoscope.
The same eyes she saw in the mirror everyday.
Was this Onee-chan... Hiiragi Kobeni?
"Ugh!"
The headache came back with vengeance. This time it was strong enough for her to lose her balance and fall down. However, before her body could fall into the puddle on the ground, a pair of arms pulled her into an unexpected embrace. The warmth she felt from this perfect hug did nothing to dissuade her pain, but...
It was this sweet scent that calmed her down.
She took a deep breath and looked up.
"What is going on?"
"You alright?"
She frowned as the answer she wanted was just another question.
Her small hands reached up to the older girl's face as she was wrecked with confusion. This familiar face that resembled her mother, these eyes that she always saw in the mirror every morning, everything in front of her was as real as it can get. Such realization caused her to retract those hands to her own face.
It was the same. Every single thing...
"Kobeni? What... What is all this? A game?"
All she got was a smile.
"That's right. This world is like a game for you, isn't it?"
A quiet shriek escaped her lips as the older girl unceremoniously picked her up and started walking, leaving behind all the paper cranes the two of them had gathered.
For her - the small Kobeni - there was only confusion in her head. She looked down at her other self - the big Kobeni - and pursed her lips. There were many questions she wanted to ask, like this monotonous world and those red paper cranes.
Especially these memories that were certainly not hers.
She could somewhat understand what was happening already.
This world was the game world.
[Moonlit Paradigm] was a massive role-playing game released in Japan and was subsequently translated for players all over the world. The setting of the game was in the modern era where magic and technology walked hand-in-hand. What really made it stand out however, was the myths from all over the world featured in the game. That was one of the many aspects that pulled in the players.
In the life she once lived before, she was one of the translators working on the game. So technically, she knew pretty much everything that happened in the game, ranging from lore intensive secret missions or the backstory of many interesting characters. With everything combined together as well as the cliffhanger that was the ending, the game of course got the second installation not long after the first hit the shelf. It was those experiences that made her realize just how this world was similar to the game. The game which was now reality, her reality...
"What's going on?"
The older girl simply smiled and tightened her hold.
"Hmm, this is what you'd call a parallel world."
Kobeni bit her lips in thought.
"Is this Isekai?"
"Yup!"
That confirmation did not help her predicament.
"But if... If I'm Hiiragi Kobeni, then who are you? Another Hiiragi Kobeni?"
Her words simply disappeared into the sound of the downpour. The empty places in her mind were slowly being filled as she started to remember everything in the past six years of her life as Kobeni. And because of that, her tears simply just won't stop.
"Hey now, you'll make me want to cry too..."
"What's the meaning of this?"
She finally recalled what exactly happened before waking up here.
It was her birthday. It was the happiest day of her life, because her father had promised he would take her and her mother out for dinner. Early this morning, he had come to visit the two of them, saying that he finished all of his work ahead of time and would drive her to school and bring her mother to the hospital.
She remembered it clearly, she was smiling all day long.
This evening, they would have dinner together.
Father, mother, and Kobeni!
It was supposed to be like that, if that truck hadn't crashed into their car.
She could remember it, scene by scene, of what actually happened. Her father tried to steer the car away, and that ended up with his side in direct collision. He lost his life almost instantly. The same couldn't be said for her mother who got out the passenger seat to protect her. It was the black of nothingness after that.
But she knew. Because she remembered, she knew.
"Father... Mother... No, not like this. No..."
The arms around her squeezed.
"On our sixth birthday, our birth parents - Hiiragi Hiroyuki and Aragaki Shion - both of them lost their lives in an accident. It started out fine, but it ended up one of the worst days of our lives. But you can't be like this. Our most important person is waiting for us to wake up. So wipe those tears off and chin up, kiddo."
The bell chimed above their heads, causing her to look up.
The little coffee shop they had now found themselves in was pretty close to the station. And after finding themselves a table, they were now facing each other once again. It was at this moment that the other girl smiled sadly and closed her eyes. She wasn't an innocent kid, she knew the meaning behind that soft smile.
"It won't be like those web novels, right? That I'll replace you?"
The girl raised a brow at her and laughed.
"Technically, nah..."
"Wha?"
"You'll replace me, that's for certain. But I won't really disappear, you see. Our situation is not exactly normal. You're my last hope, Kobeni-chan. You're one last bid from this tired and broken soul at finally righting all the wrongs in the world."
The weight settled in her stomach as she listened.
She looked down at the table between them. The red origami paper that hadn't been there a moment ago seemed to pop out against the polished wooden surface of the table. It was as if the innocent paper was taunting her. The other girl seemed to know how she felt, as she chuckled and picked the paper up. Although that very action from the girl who had all the answers caused her to tremble in irrational fear.
Kobenit bit her lips when a folded paper crane was set down.
"Legend says that if we fold a thousand cranes, our wish will come true."
The second paper crane followed not long after.
"One thousand cranes."
Kobeni repeated that as if to taste the words.
The other girl simply smiled and set down the third crane.
"Do you believe in this legend? That our wish will be granted?"
"In this world where humans can best even gods?"
Her other self laughed as if hearing a good joke.
It's not funny, however.
Kobeni narrowed her eyes at one of those humans before looking down. Those eyes that she had likened to beautifully cut rubies caused her all kinds of unease. It was because she was afraid of those eyes that she looked down and saw a red origami paper sitting innocently on her palm. She almost tossed it away if not for this voice.
"Nine hundred ninety ninth."
Another paper crane was set down onto the table.
Those eyes now looked directly at her.
"Six years, why now?"
Her other self looked out the window with no answer. Kobeni narrowed her eyes once more before looking away from the other person as well. It wasn't only her that had lost both her parents today. They were not only her parents, but this girl's too...
"Because I came back to this moment too."
Kobeni paused.
"Coming back? You don't mean..."
She could feel physical pain from that one helpless smile.
"I didn't expect to wake up again, you know? So it was quite a surprise to find myself waking up from a coma weeks after the accident, ten years into the past. Watching those I had come to loved disappears again one by one was painful, it was like a torture designed specifically just for me. My desire for justice was replaced with a desire to just... sit back, relax, and watch as the world burns."
"Bloodied Rose of the East, Benibara."
It was a childhood nickname that became a taboo.
This young girl whose smile seemed so brittle and fragile...
Was she truly the Last Boss of this game?
Unthinkable...
"This isn't the first time I've played this game, you see."
She could only let out a dry laugh at that fact.
It must have hurt for her other self, losing family over and over again like that. Her own face seemed to have settled into an indifferent mask as her logic warred against her conscience. The little girl heaved a sigh and looked up from the paper in her hand. She could only frown at the mask the other girl had put on.
"You must've been tired, right?"
"Compared to what I've done, it's not enough."
The tired smile on the older girl's face caused pity to swell up in her chest. Nature and nurture were two most important elements that gave birth to the pitiful demon lord sitting in front of her. The Hiiragi Kobeni she knew was a wicked kid who would do anything to see her goal accomplished. The lives lost at her hands were...
Kobeni took a deep breath and asked.
"How long was it?"
"Hmm?"
"How long have you been hurting yourself like this?"
This sad look didn't fit the evil overlord she once thought she knew...
Was it Karma? Punishment?
Penance?
They both locked eyes, and it was her first victory in this staring contest. Kobeni smirked at that and peered down at the three paper cranes on the table. She sat there silently as the older girl poked them around with her fingertips, and then looked down at the red origami paper that was still in her hands.
"Paper cranes, one like these, are a symbol of hope."
Her other self bit her lips in thought.
"Every time I start over again, I'll fold one more. From one to ten, and from ten to hundred. Starting from the day I woke up from coma to the last moment I drew breath. There were many times that I just snapped, you know. Some lives were longer than a decade, while some were even shorter than half a day…"
What she was able to understand made her look away again.
It was then that she saw it. The nine hundred ninety ninth paper crane.
She looked down at the paper in her hands.
"Going through all of that, how can you still smile?"
"How? Belief, I suppose?"
"Belief?"
She repeated that one word. The smile on the other girl's face had yet to disappear, on the contrary, it seemed to widen even more. She caught a glimpse of hope in those tired eyes before they looked down at her own moving hands. She was folding the thousandth paper crane.
She's not book smart, but she's not stupid either...
"I can still smile, because I believe that my wish will be granted, Kobeni-chan."
"Such blind faith. I'm not a miracle worker. You do know that, right?"
Her other self bit her lips. Those experienced ruby red eyes still locked onto her. It was as if they were staring into her soul or something. And in the next second, a bright smile stretched across her face, dissipating whatever sign of fatigue she was seeing until there was only satisfaction left in its place. It was a beautiful sight.
"I believe because it's you."
"Huh?"
She pouted at the laughter from her other self.
"You don't need to understand it, at least not now. It won't be long until everything makes sense. Still, it is a surprise that my other self from an alternate reality is a man. Oh well, it doesn't matter how much I want to talk to you, I only hope that we won't see each other again in the near future. This world is in a twilight zone. If possible, I don't want to see you here ever again, but that'd be asking too much..."
Her hands stopped from the dejected tone she was hearing.
Kobeni raised a brow at the other girl before looking back down at the paper crane she was folding. The thing about alternate reality was sure to cause her headache, but the fact that she was sitting here was already enough proof. The little girl heaved a quiet sigh and nodded. She knew what was waiting for her in the future. That was precisely why she knew it wouldn't be her last time in this grey world. She had to wonder if she would be seeing this smile again when it was time...
Kobeni set the thousandth crane down onto the table.
"If possible, I don't want to trouble you."
"That's too late already."
Chastised, her other self reeled back and chuckled quietly.
She took a deep breath before shaking her head.
"So what's the wish?"
"Eh?"
"Your wish. I'm not sure if I'll be able to fulfill it, but you must have something you want, right? So tell me. It doesn't matter how hard it will be, I'll make it come true. Just don't ask for something impossible though, especially not building a harem. I can't do that, I seriously can't! I can barely make a single relationship work!"
She heard a hearty laugh and felt a head pat from the older girl.
"If that's the case, can you make 'Kobeni' happy?"
"I knew it," was her flat reply.
"Can you do it then?"
It was an undeniable request. She picked the last paper crane up and held it aloft between them. That wish of hers was both easy and hard at the same time. Since she knew most of the hurdles to come, she knew how hard it was going to be to fulfill that wish. Because 'Kobeni's happiness' could only be one thing...
It was her family. Specifically, Hiiragi Yurika.
Her beloved half sister.
She could still remember it. That brittle smile on her pale face, dirtied with fresh blood like a splash of red on white canvas. It was a painful sight that etched itself into the forefront of her thought. The scene she saw through the monitor that day mixed with the memory that was certainly not hers. She could still recall her own scream that echoed after hearing the last 'I love you' uttered with dying breath.
The only light left in Hiiragi Kobeni's life was extinguished that day.
"When you said happiness, you wanted me to save her."
"Can it be done? That kind of wish?"
She only smiled and got up, her little fist thumped against her chest.
"Of course I will do it! That's Yurika-nee, you know!?"
Her other self gave a teary smile.
"Thank you. I'm sorry, and thank you for fulfilling this selfish wish..."
"Hmm? How could it be selfish? That's our beloved sister!"
The young girl in the hospital gown stood up, her hands placing a red paper crane down onto the polished tabletop. Her little feet brought her frail form toward the cafe's door before red eyes looked back. The small coffee shop that had been lively was now silent. Not a single soul in sight, not the customers, not the employees.
Not even the older girl that should be sitting there smiling at her...
"That wish, I'll make it come true. Promise."
Aragaki... No, Hiiragi Kobeni bit her trembling lips and stepped through the door.
Leaving only a single red paper crane as the symbol of that promise.