Episode 1

My name is Aries. Aries Baxter. 19 years old. And a student from America studying abroad in Japan. The last year and a half here has been a wonderful learning experience. The scenery. The culture. The gangs.

Are chasing me! Why are they chasing me? I did nothing to the them. I was an unintentional witness to a crime. Why me?

I find myself trapped in a dead-end having nowhere to run from the large group. I didn't even have time to curse my bad luck before they started beating me with whatever was in hand. Chains, bats, crowbars. I was being beaten to death.

"Hey!"

A beautiful woman with flowing seafoam green hair was suddenly in between them and me as if by magic. She turned drawing closer to the lump of meat that was my body. She kneeled down before me. None of them dared to move. Was she my savior?

No.

A dull sensation radiated from my heart. She had stabbed me with a knife. The edges of my vision blacked. I reach a hand out as her old eyes stared back at me.

"W-why?"

She stood back up. "I'm sorry but you can't be allowed to live after witnessing my assassination."

She turned and smacked the biggest man out of the group.

"Boss?"

"We do don't have time to waste on useless nobodies, expose of it quickly if it serves no purpose."

"Sorry boss." The big guy rubbed his baldhead."

She continued to chastise him even as my vision finished fading to black. If I wasn't dying it would be a funny scene due to the contrast of size She was tall but looked no more than 140 pounds while he was 250 easy. Everything went dark. Then I woke up.

The sounds of a lark culled me awake. It took me several moments to adjust and realize I didn't recognize a single thing in this extravagant yet modest room. I sit up to get my bearing and my arm seemed to be ensnared by something.

That something was a foreign set of arms the was connected to another's body. That arm was connected to a body with a head full of greenish hair. My mouth opened and a silent scream escaped.

I hear a faint bell that I couldn't pinpoint where it came from. Then suddenly a screen pops up in front of me.

[HACK MENU  unlocked]

I nearly flip from the bed.

Her eyes shot open. her eyes and lips smiled merrily. A huge contrast to the grim stares from last night.

"Good morning Aries."

"Good...Morning." I utter nervously.

She sat up. The sheets of covering her body slid down revealing her small ****** and perfect skin. I shift uncomfortable.

"You look like you seen a ghost."

She didn't seem to remember she had just killed me last night. Wait. I'm actually still alive? What's happening

"Who...who are you?"

She slides from the bed and pulls her panties up. She turns her head to me. "You might break your wife's heart if you continue your jokes."

"Wife!?"

"Of about 7 hours." She holds up her ring finger

"But...I'm only 19!"

"Yeah. Marrying a man 10 years under so suddenly, it was almost too much for my father to take."

Her phone rang and she answered while picking up the rest of her discarded clothes and putting them on.

Another screen popped up

[New Hack(s) Available]

The girl doesn't seem to be able to the see the screen. I open it and look at what's in this so called hack menu. It held a seemingly unlimited amount of options but all but three were hidden behind question marks. The two not hidden said "Body Strengthening rank 1", "Accelerated Healing rank 1" and "Tantojutsu rank 1"

It seems that there will be cost to unlock hacks. But this first one seems to be free but the other two cost "hack points" of which I didn't seem to have any of. I might be losing my mind but I'll indulge and activate the free body strengthening. You should always make the most of your dreams.

"Sorry Aries Something came up that I have to take care of. I'll make things up to you later."

A cough came from behind her near the door from a man in a black suit and tie. Had he been there the whole time?

"Mikako-sama we should hurry." He spoke.

She smiles and heads out. I quickly get dressed and leave Mikako's hotel room and headed down to the lobby stopping just short of it after finding that Haruko was still there.

A message box entered my view.

[HP Quest.]

{Follow Sarada Mikako undetected}

{Reward: 10 hack points}

So this is how I get hack points, questing? Maybe I've played one too many RPG's. Mikako leaves the lobby and gets into a black car. She was going to get away. Was I gonna fail the quest already?

A bike catches my peripherals. I hop on it and follow after the speeding SUV. I pedal my hardest for the next twenty minutes, being sure to stay hidden enough to not be spotted, until the car stops at mansion. I strangely didn't feel the slightest bit exhausted. Mikako and what I took as her guard left the car and entered the mansion. I snuck around back and found a window I could peek in from.

[Quest completed. 10 hack points acquired.]

Mikako was sitting on her knees in a room facing an older man. Beside her was another less developed and shorter woman with long light purple pigtails was also seated next to her. The three all had serious looks on their faces.

"Mikako. My daughter. The time for your ascension to Hand is close. Your training and ability have seen an unprecedented level of cultivation."

"But Uncle I have also met the requirements. Not only that I accomplished them far quicker and efficiently than Mikao. Am I not a better fit for Hand?" The small girl responded almost in a plead.

"Emiru. I only entertain you being here as a favor for my dying brother. Of course the Hand cannot come from a branch of the main family but from the main family themselves."

"It isn't unprecedented. After all, you weren't original a part of the main family until your grandfather become the Hand."

"My decision stands. Mikako will become Hand and you shall serve her. To do otherwise would disrupt order and sow chaos amongst the clan."

"You ask for me to submit to someone so much more weaker than me?" Emiru angrily objected.

Mikako laughed unable to contain the wickedness in it. "Cousin. You seem so distraught. Serving under me is a true pleasing."

Emiru rose to her feet visibly annoyed but swallowing it. "I'd rather die! Both her abilities and skill are a stain on this family she is not strong or worthy enough to carry the Sarada name in comparison to my own. She has still yet to accomplished her final task. Instead she comes back with a sham marriage."

"The marriage is a cover. The reason I'm chosen is because I have skill in subtlety which you lack." Mikako clapped back.

"If spreading your legs is subtle, then yeah." Emiru muttered under her breath.

"Enough Emiru! You will do as told lest suffer my wrath."

Emiru settled down and Mikako began to speak

"In reference to the final task, everything is in place today I will bring the final requirement, a suitable human sacrifice. I have spent untold time and effort grooming this one personally."

"See to it that you do. The ritual will take place in mere days."

"It will be done father."

Emiru walks from the room taking her loss "gracefully".

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