That World of Otome Games is Tough for Us - Volume 1 - Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1:

I Want to Be Happy

AN ANGRY VOICE ECHOED through a cramped apartment.

“Please, give it back, I’m begging you! I saved that money for my daughter!” A woman with thoroughly disheveled hair desperately clung to a man’s waist. 

The man’s hair was long and blond, though the roots had gone completely black after months without bleach. Thick stubble covered his face, and lack of hygiene and poor health had left his cheeks gaunt and pale. But even under all that, the man had a naturally unscrupulous air. His hand was clenched around an envelope full of cash.

“And I’m tellin’ ya, I’ll pay ya double what I’m takin’. My luck’s turnin’. I can feel it.”

He was addicted to gambling. Like every day before, he’d spent all morning squandering every yen he had to his name. Only once his funds had dried up did he come crawling back to her apartment, where he’d managed to unearth this hidden envelope, which he was now trying to make off with.

The woman frantically shook her head. “It’s her birthday. You can take anything else, but not that money,” she sobbed, still clinging to him.

She had only one child; the man in her apartment wasn’t the father. Moreover, she wasn’t really raising said child, her parents were. The woman only got to see her daughter a couple of times a month, and today was one of those special days. She’d set this month aside especially for her daughter, and she had been looking forward to this day for forever—until her boyfriend used her spare key to barge in and overturn everything.

He hadn’t always been like this. When they first started dating, he’d been full of motivation and tirelessly chased his dreams. Then, at some point, he started gambling every day and frittering away all his money.

The woman refused to relinquish her grip, and the man’s cheeks grew fiery hot. He clenched his fist and slammed it into her head. The force of the blow sent her hurtling back and into a wall. In a stroke of misfortune, her head jerked back and banged into a pillar. Her hands instinctively shot up to cover the injury as she groaned in agony.

“Hey…?!”

The force of her head’s impact on the wall had left a blood stain. The man stared, gobsmacked. But this wasn’t the first time he’d been violent with her. He recovered quickly, likely assuming she would be fine—just like she’d always been—and shoved the money into his pocket.

“Th-this only happens ’cause you disobey me!” he snapped. “Learn to behave a little, why don’tcha?” With those final words, the man scrambled out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him. His hurried footsteps echoed as he clambered down the stairs outside.

Somehow, the woman managed to pull herself upright and lean against the wall she’d been thrown into. Blood gushed from the open wound on her head. Her mind was hazy. She knew she needed to call for help—which meant locating her phone—but her body wouldn’t move. Even when she saw her phone lying just a few meters away, even when she commanded her arm to reach for it, her limb wouldn’t respond.

“Crap. I guess today’s not going to work out after all. Don’t think I’ll be able to make it to her party…”

The woman had been waiting for this day for weeks, but there was no way she could go now, not like this. Her mind raced. How could she apologize to her daughter? But in the midst of this, her mind turned to lamenting her present circumstances.

“Why does it have to be like this? Things used to be so good. Back when I lived at home, when I had a family, when I was going to uni… Then I went on that stupid overseas trip with my friends…” As she remembered that last part, the tears she’d held back, even through the pain, finally began to stream down her cheeks. Everything about that moment came rushing back. “Why…? Why’d you have to die, Big Brother?”

The most pivotal turning point in her life was, unmistakably, her older brother’s death. During university, she’d briefly left Japan on a trip abroad. She hadn’t had a job at the time, so she’d wheedled the cash out of her parents by saying it was for driving lessons to obtain her license. She’d felt a little guilty, but she’d figured it would be fine as long as she got a job when she got home and earned the money back.

Unfortunately, her parents had discovered her deception and were furious. They’d sent her a barrage of enraged texts. But since they were interfering with her vacation fun, she’d blocked them.

She chuckled dryly. “Ha ha, I wonder if things’d be better now…if I hadn’t blocked them back then.”

At the time, she’d figured her brother and parents would just give her an earful when she finally got back. She’d bought a bunch of souvenirs for them, figuring she’d have to suck up to them for a while until they finally forgave her. But strangely, she’d been plagued by a sinking feeling in her stomach, as if something was terribly wrong. It’s your imagination, she told herself. After all, she was having so much fun.

The day she returned, she unblocked her parents’ numbers and her phone was instantly flooded with messages. Thumbing back through them, she found one that simply read: Your brother is dead. She was dumbstruck. She remembered her friends, who were still with her at the airport, asking her what was wrong.

The woman didn’t remember much of what happened after that. The next thing she knew, she’d barged into her brother’s funeral when it was already halfway over. By the time she arrived, he had been cremated. Everyone in attendance, her relatives included, thought it bizarre that she’d come so late.

And by the time she realized where she was and what was going on, the funeral was nearly over. Even then, the tears wouldn’t come.

“I couldn’t cry, even though he was dead,” she recalled bitterly. “He was the picture of health only days before. I never dreamed the next time I saw him, he’d be nothing but ash.”

Once the ceremony was over and everyone else had left, her parents explained the situation to her. They didn’t yell. They didn’t cry. They just dispassionately scolded her for lying to them and for failing to respond after they desperately tried to reach her.

It had been raining, but that hadn’t stopped her parents from banishing her from their house without further discussion. Not even her father, ever the indulgent one, had stepped in to help her.

As the downpour raged, it finally sank in that her older brother was well and truly gone. She dissolved into tears, sobs racking her chest.

That, the woman thought, was when her life really began to go downhill. She dropped out of university and turned to the adult industry to keep herself afloat. It turned out she had something of a talent for it, and in no time at all, she was able to accrue a large sum of money. Unfortunately, all the men she attracted were complete lowlifes. Some wanted her for her bank account, others simply cheated on her time and time again. One even knocked her up before running off, refusing to help her or their child.

The woman had raised her daughter herself, at first, but after her health took an unexpected nosedive, she was unable to work enough hours. She turned to her parents for help. When they saw the situation she was in, they insisted she couldn’t be trusted with her daughter. Her parents forced them to live apart.

“Why can’t anything ever go right? Wasn’t there a time when…?” When everything had gone exactly right no matter what. But she had been young, then. As far as she could tell, the greatest difference between then and now was that she’d once had her older brother. Now, not so much.

“I was an idiot. But so were you, Big Bro! No one ever said you should push yourself that hard for a stupid game.”

She knew she had taken advantage of him. Before leaving on her trip, she’d dropped in on him, hoping to hit him up for cash and dump her game in his lap. She’d been avidly looking forward to the game since well before its release, but when she actually tried playing, it had infuriated her with its insane difficulty, which had made it impossible to clear. She had foisted the game onto him hoping he would clear it for her. She’d never dreamed he would pull all-nighters to do it.

“Dummy. Why’d you have to die?”

In the corner of her eye, she spotted the old console and game case, now covered in a thick layer of dust. It had been years since she touched the thing. The cartridge for the third installment of that same series was currently inserted into it. The USB she had given her older brother sat nearby, untouched. He had fulfilled his promise and cleared the entire game. Strange how he’d always kept his word. The memory made her eyes mist over.

It had become too painful to lean against the wall, so she tipped sideways and lay on the floor.

“Wait. I can’t die yet. Mom and Dad still haven’t forgiven me. Besides, I haven’t seen my daughter in forever… I want to see her.”

The woman could practically feel her life draining away. An intense fear gripped her. She tried again to stretch her hand toward her phone, to call for help. But gradually, the terror dissipated, and resignation took its place.

“Save me,” she whispered feebly, “Big Bro…”

As her life gave out, her last wish was for her late brother to rescue her one final time.

***

Snowflakes peppered the forest at the base of a mountain. Every last leaf had fallen, leaving the tree branches bare. Despite the absence of any real path, a petite girl bundled in a fur coat made her way through the thicket undeterred. A large rifle was slung over her shoulder, standing in stark contrast to her tiny frame.

A thick layer of snow coated the ground and crunched under her feet. Her shoulders rose and fell with labored breaths as she trudged onward, no matter the difficulty she faced navigating through the wilderness.

Her breath came out in visible wisps. When she opened her mouth, frigid air stole inside her body, winding into her lungs and sapping her of warmth.

“It’s…it’s this way!” She strained her ears, following the faint sound to her destination, where a beast was caught in one of her traps.

This beast was like nothing she had ever seen. It resembled a bear, but unlike the bears from her world, it had a mane like a lion.

The girl whipped her rifle from her shoulder and loaded a bullet. This old weapon could only fire a single shot. She spread her legs to steady herself and fired at the beast. Sadly, the creature’s instincts made it jerk just in time, and it avoided a fatal hit.

Annoyed, the girl cursed under her breath. “I didn’t wanna waste multiple shots on you!” She ejected the empty shell and loaded another bullet.

Blood gushed from the creature’s open wound. Droplets splattered the snow, staining it crimson. The beast thrashed in place, straining at her trap. The tree it was bound to creaked ominously.

“You gotta be kidding me!” In her surprise, the girl’s hands jerked as she fired. Her shot veered off course, once again failing to strike a fatal blow.

The tree keeping the creature in place splintered in half. Now loose, the creature charged toward her.

The girl spun on her heel and scrambled away. She ejected the second empty shell from her gun and shoved in another bullet. The creature was hot on her trail. Its jowls opened wide, ready to crush her skull. She whipped around, and—

Bang!

The hollow crack of a gunshot echoed through the forest.

This time, she had shot it straight through the head. It teetered, unstable, still able to move. The girl scooped up a thick branch near her feet and lifted it high overhead before bringing it down on the creature with all the might she could muster.