Hitori (Alone) - 0
"To be alone."
That had been the fate bestowed to me since the day that I had been born, with my name eternalizing this fact into my body.
But, therein lay the problem. I wasn't actually alone, I had a loving family, and I grew up as a normal kid with a slightly above average IQ compared to most adults.
Well, not completely normal, but normal enough for me to live a happy life.
Until the accident.
The event where I lost everything.
All alone in a foreign country, I had been forced into the foster care system, as none cared about me.
Until the Schattans adopted me and truly made me one of their own.
The two had met 5 years ago, and had gotten married soon after, having found a partner for life in each other.
But then, devastating new had been broken to them.
That it would be very, very unlikely that Emily would be able to reproduce.
Falling into a depressed state, Rick had tried many different way to cheer her up, from parties to dates, but nothing could work, and everything turned out awkward in the end.
Yet, at one of her lowest moments, Emily reached an epiphany.
If she couldn't conceive a child, then couldn't she just adopt one?
Feeling all giddy about it, she had talked about it with Rick, and, having agreed, they both rushed off to their local adoption agency, wherein they had met me.
Listening to my story, they had both decided to adopt me on the spot.
Of course, the decision was one thing, but the process was a whole other thing, as it took them a little more than two months to finally finish filling out all the legal documents and for me to be able to move into their home.
The wait was worth it though, because, after that, my life was total bliss.
Yet, in the end, I could never forget those 6 years, in which I had wallowed in my sorrow.
Thinking about that time now, I could only sigh.
At the age of 7, I had been on vacation with my family to America.
My parents had died during this trip, whilst my biological sister, who had been with my grandparents at the time, had disappeared from my world after I lost all connection with my home, Japan.
During this time period during which I was dealing with the immediate grief from the loss of my parents, I had tried to commit suicide a grand total of 7 times.
Each time, I had failed due to various reasons, and in the end, I had just given up, resigning myself to the fate of living an unlivable life.
Yet, my brain continued to run, as it reigned supreme over my body.
Starting at the age of eight, I had needed something that would help me express my emotions, my sorrows, my loss, my pain, my suffering, as I was already too depressed by this point, so I started writing a story that I published by the chapter, online, about a handsome 20 something asian young adult that was transmigrated into another world and was forced to fight against 20 calamities. I had poured my everything into this web novel, my self pity, my grievances, my sadness, my desperation, and the feeling of being alone.
I had made my story about a regressor, who, no matter what, couldn't defeat the 20th calamity. This didn't change no matter what he tried to do, no matter what he changed after each regression, no matter how much stronger he had gotten, even after the 1,000th regression.
The main character had eventually fallen into a pit of despair, just like me, and had eventually become cold to humanity. In the end, he had become the 20th calamity himself, finally succeeding in destroying the whole planet and then his own soul, his regressions finally ending, ultimately putting an end to his legend.
I had finished the series at the age of 13, after 10,107 chapters.
The reason was simple really, it was the fact that I finally had the hope of adoption on the horizon.
Thinking back now, the only comment I could make about the story was that it had been my best friend through those dark times in my life, being the only thing that I could share my thoughts freely to.
But now, I had moved on, and that was the end of it.
I had never looked back once, and I never thought that I would even see the book again in the future.
All until the fated day.
...
14th January, 20XX - Austin, Texas - Hitori Schattan, 16 Years Old:
"Waaaah! Wa... wa, waahhhhh!"
Here I was, smiling stupidly, as I gingerly held my little sister in my arms, a little piece of happiness who was a combination of my mom and dad, a new life, a gift to the world.
Rocking her back and forth, trying to keep her from crying I looked up and out the window of the hospital, as I felt something burning in the back of my eye.
"Hitori... you're crying."
Hearing the gentle voice of my dad, I turned to him, as I couldn't help but feel surprised.
"Huh?"
Bringing my hand up to my cheek, I realized that the tears had been flowing for a long time, as they continued to fall on and wet the blanket holding my little sister's delicate body.
Gently thrusting my sister into the arms of my dad, who had yet to touch her, I ran outside of the room for a second, not knowing what was happening to me.
'Happiness, a sense of joy greater than any emotion before it.'
Crouching onto my knees, leaning my back against the door I had just left through, I couldn't help but let it all out, as more happy tears streamed down my face.
"I am overjoyed..." I muttered, as I tried my best to comprehend the situation
Such foreign words if the old me had been hearing this, as even I couldn't believe the story of my life up to this point.
I continued to cry by myself, as the majority of the night passed in the blink of an eye.
...
Walking out just as the sun was peeking its head above the horizon, I was holding my little sister again, as my dad helped my mom to our car, her body too tired from the after-birth shock and from not sleeping all night.
"Hitori, couldn't you have given her an english name?" My dad asked, a dumb smile on his face, as he questioned my choice in naming my sister.
"It's a beautiful name for my cute little sister. I don't see anything wrong with that. Also, it would just be your fault for trusting me with the name."
Smiling back at him, I just felt a little amused as his mouth clammed shut, and he focused on supporting my mom.
"Step."
"Boing!"
'Huh?'
Hearing a weird sound, I stopped walking for a second.
"Hitori, is there something wrong?"
"I just feel... weird, dad."
"Alright, but tell me if you're feeling sick, okay?"
"Yeah yeah..."
Still feeling a little uneasy, I took another step.
"Step."
"BOING!"
As a loud noise suddenly assaulted my ears, I couldn't help but jump a little from the shock.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
With my sister starting to cry again, both my parents looked back at us, only to see a horrified expression on my face.
"N-no..."
Uttering those final words out, I could only look at my parents with one emotion on my face, loss, the inability to do anything.
And then, I started falling, as I clutched my little sister tighter, curling up into a protective ball around her.
Bad luck... it had finally come for me.
---
A/N: I little side-note, IQ is based off of how smart you are in relation to your peers, so with a score of 100 representing the average adult, is should show you that the MC was actually a lot smarter than most adults when he was 8, thus allowing him to write the novel. And also, I never said the novel was a good one...