Prologue: Shiro Shirone

My name is Shiro Shirone, and to be honest, I've never been great at maintaining long-term relationships. But that's not really relevant right now.

It feels weird talking about this, especially after what happened that day. I had only gone three days without taking my meds, so I thought I was just having a psychotic episode. I wish that's all it was.

The whole sky was this deep purple, and the ground had these weird circles on it. They don't seem weird to me now, just... difficult. But what really freaked me out were the voices. I mean, who was talking? It wasn't me, and it wasn't any voice I recognized.

The good thing is that Mei was with me. I don't think I could've handled being alone. I'm independent, but getting emotionally attached is tough, you know? And that heart attack I had was brutal. But then, out of nowhere, I heard this clear voice in my head: "System Open."

Um, what? That's what I said at the time. I don't want to get ahead of myself with the details just yet. All I wanted was to go home. Maybe I still can.