Leah sat inside her room that felt more like a hotel room. It was barren and dispite putting her clothes up and putting her trinkets out, and even putting her favorite sheets on the bed, it felt like she wasn't suppose to stay here long.

Her grandparents weren't really people she talked to. She has only seen photographs from her mother's childhood. Her mother never spoke of them. She remembered asking her way her mother's parents never was invited to dinners and hoildays. Her reponse was that they lived far off and they really wouldn't want to come anyway. Leah never asked again after that. Her mother seemed much to sad.

Leah ran her hands over the sheets as she thought about the passing of her parents. Brushing her fingers over the small star shape patterns in the covers. Fuzzy and soft.

It came quickly and suddenly. There was no foreboding atmosphere or weather. Nothing out of the normal. She had gotten a call when she received the news. It felt unreal. Like didn't actually happen. It took a few days for the weight of the situation to crash down on her.

Leah had no one to take her in. Most of her family was dead, too hold to take care of anyone, or they simply couldn't afford another mouth. Leah was upset that she was probably going to end up in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. But she could never be mad at them. Their hands were truely tied. It would be cruel to hate them after all they tried to do.

Leah had come to the conclusion that it couldn't get any worse. She probably should've heeded her father's advice about not tempting life. After a few calls, they found some distant relatives to take her in.

In Japan.

Which is a completely different country.

Leah sighed, feeling more than hopeless. She curled up in the back of the bed, sitting there, hoping to disappear. Her grandparents, which her mom never spoke of, had taken her in. But Leah had a feeling it was more out of obligation than them actually caring about her.

They didn't abuse her, they made sure she had everything she possible could need. They even had given her a good sum of money to spend on how she pleased through the year. But they just mostly ignored her. Leah felt like a ghost, and this caused her to be even more scarce.

Making friends seemed to be hard. Leah could speak japanese, but her pronunciation was off. Her understanding of the culture was limited. She grew up in the U.S. most of her life even if her mother was never shy about teaching her the language and practicing parts of the culture.

Some kids avoided her or whispered about her. Most ignored her which was a blessing and a curse. It was worlds better than being picked on but it was not good for her loneliness.

Leah turned out the lamp and rolled over. It was past midnight and she probably wouldn't be waking up on time tomorrow. She wasn't looking forward to the boring routine that had became the last few months.

She hoped that things would be marginally better soon.

·`°Next Day°´·

Leah stuck her hands into her pockets and carried on quietly through the streets away from school. It was mostly boring and uneventful, which Leah wasn't complaining. At least, not really. It was just not any better. But at least it wasn't getting any worst.

Her grades have been maintain around average but in all honestly, they've dropped. Leah just couldn't pay attention, lost in her own head, trying to break free from sulking.

The only person that was making this more unbearable for herself was herself. She needed to grow up. She had more than three months to mourn her parents and now it was starting to stop her from living life.

Leah pinched her cheeks as hard as she could, trying to… she wasn't really sure. But hopefully it worked!

'Stop it', she thought to herself. 'You need to do better! No one is going to pull you out of this mess but you!'

Leah looked ahead to she a small book shop. She place a hand on her pocket.

'Books! You know how to read japanese and it's a lot less embarrassing than speaking it! Maybe I can at least find some entertainment!'

Leah made her way to the shop, trying to ignore a passerby that gave her an odd look. He probably noticed her cheek pinching. Oh… She ran faster as embarrassment filled her mind.

Entering the small shop was… refreshing. Calm, quiet; it had that book smell, if that even made any sense. Leah brought her hand up to a shelf and looked around. There was a lot of books, mangas, light novels; such things like that. The shop also sold small toys, collectables, snacks, and dvd collections. Leah grabbed a few mangas that seemed mildly interesting. Romance, fantasy, spirits, super powers; she was only half paying attention. She would surely find some enjoyment no matter the content. Better than nothing.

She headed down the shelves before reaching the back. She only recognized the pocky boxes. She remembered a 'friend' teasing her due to her mother being japanese. Leah found it a bit insensitive, but pocky honestly wasn't that bad. Just simple. She grabbed one and turned around, but something caught her eye.

A poster for a game; Starcrossed. Apparently there was going to be an event for it. She hummed. Maybe she should look it up?

Leah walked over to the check out desk and put her soon to be purchases on the counter. The person behind the counter seemed to be a woman in her mid twenties that really didn't want to be there.

After a long silence of getting checked out, the women spoke up. "Payment", she inquired, tapping the screen that displayed the price.

Leah nodded, fumbling with her pockets to get the money out. As she handed it over, she realized she spent all the money she had taken with her. She suddenly became aware how quickly her money went by. She might want to be more aware of it if she was going to make it last. She wasn't sure when her grandparents would give her more.

Leah took her bag and left in a hurry, wanting to get off the streets before nightfall.

Coming home was just… empty. Both her grandparents were either not home or somewhere else in the big house. Leah wasn't one to be a bothered either. Heading quickly to her room, she shut her bedroom door and started to get set up for tonight. Leah had a vague idea on how she wanted to spend her time, but to be honest, she just wanted to do something more than just sulk.

She got into her pajamas and got her laptop. She did what her friends back at the states would say was stupid and defeats the whole point.

She watched someone else play Starcrossed.

The game had apparently been shipped over and a translated version cane about. It was rather popular it seemed but… well… not for it's intended purpose.

Everyone liked to make fun of the game. And as much as Leah wanted to say it had some postives, the game was just really bad. A romance dating sim like experience that kind of had a sci-fi fantasy mash up with poorly written dialogue, a bland and blank slate like main protagonist, apparently a lot of…um… very explicit scenes if you turn on the mature settings. It was honestly a mess.

And then there was the infamous Chiho. A white haired girl with silver and lavander eyes. She quite pretty. Then you come to know that she's extremely whiny and unlikable. And insanely cruel. Despite being the antagonist, Leah though she would have some likable qualities, but nope. She wasn't even enjoyable as a villian. Everyone wanted every scene to end as soon as it began.

The terrible villian and boring hero made it quite clear that the story was broken at it's core.

Yet, it was still popular. Leah had a feeling it was because the game basically let you live out a power fantasy. Let's you date all the guys, be a hero, have everyone love you, and be a badass. You become a ruler eventually dispite how illogical it was.

Even if the game was bad, the videos were funny. And Leah found herself hooked. At the end of each day, Leah watched the videos, making fun of it with others in the comments. She had something she started looking forward to, no matter how small.

And then things started to get a little more interesting…

·`°A Week Later °´·

Leah was walking home from school, novel in hand. She had finished it but planned on leaving to the book store to buy another. As she was nearing the store, a group of kids from her school came up, making her jump.

"Hey, you", one of the guys called out. Leah looked up at him like a deer caught in headlights.

"Huh", she said dumbly.

"You're new here, right?" A short girl with short hair asked her, smiling. She held her books to her chest, looking at Leah with friendly eyes.

Leah felt nervous. She shrugged before answering. "I was new four months ago." Leah winced, hoping the girl didn't take it as Leah being snarky.

The girl simply giggled, making Leah's shoulders relax in relief. "Of course. I'm Omura Rina. I figured we should've welcomed you but you seemed so closed off."

Leah mentally kicked herself. Of course hiding in corners wasn't the best way to make friends, and here she was pouting about it. "Erm… Leah. Jackson… Leah." It felt a bit odd, but that was how names were said here, right? Last, than first name? "Sorry about that…"

"No need to apologize", Rina said, dismissing her worries. "Want to come with us? As a welcoming gift? We're heading to the Starcrossed event diwn the road."

Leah eyed the other boys and girls behind her. The guys seemed way less excited than the girls, but none gave the impression that this would be a bad idea. Besides, this was what Leah was waiting for, right? To make friends?

"Um, sure! I'll tag along." Leah gave a small smile, trying to not look like a starled animal. Rina waved Leah along.

Leah followed right behind Rina, finding herself flocking to her. Rina just seemed so nice and friendly. Something that Leah missed.

The walk to the building wasn't partically eventful, but she slowly got to know Rina, even if it wasn't much. Rina seemed like the sweet, bubbly, extroverted girl who would become your friend simply because she thought you looked lonely. Leah learned she was a great student and a volenteer. She was a very… high achiever. Her parents sounded pretty intimidating from what she heard from their teasing. But Rina took it in stride.

When they got there, there was a lot of people. Leah stayed right next to Rina who gladly lead her around, talking about Starcrossed, it's wonderful world, and all the cool things you could do. Leah… didn't really agree. Like; at all. But Rina seemed so happy talking about it and Leah didn't want to ruin that for her. How could she?

"So, where did you move from", Rina asked, her eyes focusing on her.

"Oh", Leah said, looking away. She wasn't expecting the conversation to turn to her. "I'm from the U.S., my mom is from Japan so I have relatives here."

"Really? Is that why you pronounce things so weird", Rina pointed out innocently.

Leah died a little inside. "Yeah… I guess you could say that…"

"Hey!" Rina pointed over at a stand of mangas. "They're selling the Starcrossed series! You could buy a copy and we can read it together!"

Leah had determined that buying the novels or mangas wouldn't be a waste if time as long as she could spend more time with Rina.

As Leah began to head over, she noticed something odd. Some of the guys were missing from the group behind them. She quickly brought it to Rina's attention.

"It's probably nothing", Rina said. "Namiko and Rei said they had to go home. Some of the guys probably followed as well."

Leah nodded and dismissed it. They were Rina's friends after all. She would know them the best. Leah and Rina continued to go through the mangas and novels. Leah decided to pay for it as she felt guilty since she had done nothing to earn Rina's kindness. Rina was pretty much over the moon and accepted, vowing that she'd return the favor. Leah could only imagine how quickly that would escalate in the future.

Wait, would there be a future? Leah really liked Rina and hoped so.

Rina had eventually purchased some food for them.

"It's really nice to meet someone who's willing to hear me ramble on about Starcrossed!" Rina smiled, blushing slightly. "I know I must be annoying-"

"What? No!" Leah quickly shook her head. "I've love hanging out with you!"

"Really?" Rina looked up at Leah with a hopeful look. Her smiled seemed softer but just as pleasant as her usual smile.

Leah felt herself become flustered. "Erm… yeah. You've been really nice to me, and… that means a lot to me."

Rina smiled. "I'm glad. I love to make others happy!"

Leah nodded, walking out with Rina to the edge of building. She continued to talk about Starcrossed.

"There's several games", Rina noted. "I think like five? I planning on buying the first game. I read all of the novels and the short manga series! But…" She looked away, bitting her lip. Leah tilted her head, a bit concerned. "Okay! So, I love the series but not really for it's intended purpose."

"Um…. What?"

"Chiho", she answered, smiling. Leah felt herself sigh mentally. "She's so cute! And she's very pretty! She has the best outfits! It's a shame she dies at the end…"

"Erm… isn't Chiho childish? And complains a lot?" Leah tried to choose her words carefully so that she could disagree without making Rina feel bad. "I mean, she kind of was in the game…"

Rina perked up. "You've played the game?!"

Leah pulled into herself. "No. I actually watched someone else play it…"

"Oh." Rina no longer seemed excited but didn't seem disappoint either, so that's good, right? "Well, yeah, but didn't it tell her backstory?"

"Backstory?"

Leah was a bit scared as she watched Rina's expression flickered from horrified, sad, to rage in a few seconds. "They forgot Chiho's backstory?!"

Leah tried to think back, her mind running over every detail of the vidoes. Not a single bit of history for anyone really, well, besides a few bits of world building. She actually remembered the commentator saying that there wasn't really any stories to uncover for any of the characters.

"There wasn't much of a backstory for any of them-"

"Injustice", Rina shouted. Some heads turned to look at them oddly. Leah began to feel extremely self-conscious, but Rina didn't even bat an eye. "How could they leave out such details?! You don't mind spoilers, right? I mean you watched gameplay of it so…"

"Uh, no, it's fine. I mean… uh… you can spoil", Leah replied, tripping over her words.

Rina pulled away, smiling gleefully. "Okay, so Chiho is still annoying but there is a reason she's like this. Her parents wanted nothing to do with her as her hair was white, a mark of the prophecy. Her parents distance themselves and most in the kingdom avoided her when possible. She was meant to get married with Takeo, but he hated her. After her parents died, Chiho gradually became more and more an attention seeker, simply wanting to be acknowledge."

Rina turned back to Leah, her eyes sparkling. "I get that threatening others and taking over the galaxy on a whim isn't good, but the more you read, the more you realized that she's more of a child that never got a chance at being treated like one, so she's acting out."

Leah wasn't completely sure she agreed, but it dud sound like a case of self-fulfilling prophecy. It was also possible that Chiho was made way more whinny in the game.

Rina leaned against the wall, putting her purchases in her bag. "One of the biggest things I'm excited about is the anime! I heard whispers of them making one for it! Novels, manga mini series, a game, and now an anime!" She zipped her bag up and stepped forward to open the door to the outside of the building.

She sighed a little, looking a little sad. "But if they messed everything up this badly in the game, I can only imagine how the anime would go…"

Leah quickly tried to cheer up Rina, hating how she looked so sad about something she was so excited for a few minutes ago. "Hey, maybe they'll return to their roots this time!"

Rina looked up. "You really think so?"

"I've seen it happen before."

That seemed to have brought a smile to Rina's face as they exited into the alley. "Thanks, Leah."

Leah smiled a bit. "You're welcome, I'm just glad-"

Leah felt as hands grabbed her behind. One covered her mouth and they started to pull her back. Leah immediately started to struggle, panicked. She kicked and screamed, trying to get away from whoever had her. Her mind flew into a flurry of thoughts, trying to figure out what was happening. Was she being kidnapped? Was she going to be killed? Worse?

She heard Rina scream. Adrenaline flooded Leah's veins and she started pulling away harder. She finally got free enough to use her elbow and flung it backwards as hard as she could into mystery attacker. She must of hit him in the face like she hoped. He let go of her and Leah hit the ground. Her hands stung and she was sure she sprained her wrist. She quickly backed away from the attacker to see he was masked and cursing. He held his nose, blood soaking through the cloth mask.

Leah turned around towards Rina to see she was being held up as well. But the other started laughing. They let Rina go, Rina running over to Leah, checking on here.

What the hell?!

The second attacker lifted up their mask to reveal it was one of the girls from Rina's group. She cackled, throwing the mask to the side. "I can't believe you let her hit you!"

The first attacker yanked off his mask, revealing one of the guys that were apart of the group as well. "Oh, shut up! She's stronger than she looks!"

"Hiroshi, Sayako?!" Rina's voice was high pitched and panicked.

Sayako grinned ear from ear. "Come on, Rina! I got you good, didn't I? Have some appreciation. Talking this guy into doing it was a hassle."

"And look what good that did", Hiroshi growled, pointing at his more than likely broken nose.

Rina jumped up, pulling Leah to her feet. "Why?! I can't believe you two!"

Hiroshi seemed to be off to the side, grumbling and nursing his nose. Sayako only got frustrated and threw her hands out. "What's the big deal? It was just a joke! We weren't even going to do anything to hurt you. Just scare you!"

Rina pushed Sayako as hard as she could, sending her stumbling back. "Sayako! You scared us! It wasn't funny at all!"

Sayako slowly got upset like they were the ones in the wrong and not her. "It was a joke! Stop being a baby about it!"

"It was not a joke! We thought we were in danger!"

"But you weren't!"

"How were we suppose to know that!"

Leah just started to walk off with her wounded pride. She wanted to get as far away as possible. She felt like she had been made a fool of.

Rina started to chase after her, but Leah kept going. The entire situation scared her, but now she just felt bad. Was this nornal? Or was it just her? She knew that many talked behind her back and told stories about her, so it wasn't far fetched to think that it was a dare or funny prank on the new kid.

Now she was pissed. Pissed because they scared her. Why the hell would they do that?! What would they even get from it, huh?! Oh, she swears, she goning to-

"Leah!"

Leah waved Rina away. "Leave me alone Rina! I'm going home!"

"Leah! I'm sorry! I swear I didn't kniw about this!" Rina sounded like she was about to cry. "Please don't leave!"

Leah ran out into the road, heading back down the street. The sun was already starting to set, the sky turning dark. She felt someone grabbed her by her shoulder and turn her around. Leah twisted to see Rina.

"Rina…", Leah said quietly, feeling the heat leave her.

"Leah, please-"

"Rina! Look out!"

Leah turn to look around, processing that it was Sayako shouting just before seeing bright lights and the glint of metal.

It happened so quickly. Leah felt pain but didn't remember experiencing the next events. She felt light headed and sick. The breaking of bones and the sickening wet cruch.

Then nothing.

It felt empty. Like time was lost. It was like sleeping. How hours would go by, yet it felt like minutes.

Then she felt warm. Something soft and silky was underneath her, and she could feel the scratchy material on her skin. Her throat felt horribly dry, but no pain. She didn't even feel sore. Was she in the hospital?

She felt tired. Too tired to bother with waking up. How long has she been out? Did her grandparents know? Did anyone?

Leah awoke up, only to find the room wasn't even close to a hospital.

It was far worse.