Mashiro Hiro - Act 0: Save Gaia

"Uh... where... where am I?" he croaked in the bright light, "What... what... happened?"

Hiro placed his hand on his forehead. "It hurts..." Hiro thought before suddenly, "UUUREEEEKKK!"

A slosh of Hiro's breakfast burst out of his mouth and onto the red carpet floor below him. Red carpet? Hiro looked around him; his classmates and homeroom teacher were there, either holding their stomachs or throwing up their breakfast or whatever they had. Suddenly, he remembered. "Bright light... There was a bright light... Maiko!"

Hiro searched frantically around his location and eventually came across an unforgettable burning red hair in the crowd. "MAIKO!" Hiro rushed towards the red hair on all fours and began shaking the girl who owned it while frantically calling 'Maiko'.

"Yeah yeah YEAH! I FUCKING HEARD YOU! Stop shaking me; I feel like vomiting out my insides now thanks to you!"

Hiro sighed in relief; she still got her charm. "Where the hell are we?" Hiro began asking.

"Don't ask me! I am clueless as you are!" Maiko scolded him, still not over Hiro's shaking ordeal on her.

Hiro peered at his surroundings: the floor was layered with red carpets now embroidered with dots of vomit, flags with a somewhat familiar yet alien symbol dotted around the sides of the walls; the ceiling was pretty high and there was a blonde-haired lady wearing a crown and a fancy blouse sitting on a golden throne- Hiro's widen at the sight of the blonde-haired lady.

One thing that struck Hiro was how beautiful she looked; her skin looked smooth and shone faintly due to its peachy-white color. Her hair was like gold and her lips were slightly rose-pink from her makeup. At that time, you could say that Hiro fell in love with that woman for those few seconds.

"I see that everyone has calmed down a bit from the summoning," the woman finally spoke, "My name is Queen Selia Violet Gerechtigkeit. I am the queen of the Kingdom of Gerechtigkeit."

"Gerechtigkeit? Isn't that-" Just before Hiro finished his thoughts, someone had already said it out loud.

"Hmm... I know not of this game called Omnipossibilia," Queen Selia answered, "What I do know, however, is that this world is in danger."

Everyone had their toes itching in excitement; Hiro was too. He never thought he could be that isekai protagonist he had always wanted to be ever since he first laid his eyes on the ridiculously overpowered anime character. "Maybe I can start a harem with Maiko... and maybe that queen. Yes yes," Hiro tried to hide his pleasure.

However, Hiro's dreams were crushed when Queen Selia called for her son. Well... all the boys in the throne room had their dreams crushed; someone had already taken the Queen's hand in marriage. The girls were the ones next to be charmed by the impossibly handsome blonde-haired son of Queen Selia that walked into the throne room. "What do you ask of me, mother?" the blonde-haired man with doctor's clothing asked as he bowed in front of her.

"Bring the Orb of Benevolence."

The prince's green eyes suddenly jolted wide open. "But mother... That's..."

"I know... I wouldn't have asked you to bring it if your father hadn't asked of me to do so before he passed," Queen Selia assured her son.

"Very well," the prince of Gerechtigkeit left the throne room.

"Now... I should inform you of what we're dealing with that threatens not only the realm of Gaia but others as well," the Queen signaled to her subordinates and they left the throne room, returning with something quadrupedal and white with red eyes encased in a giant steel cage.

That 'something' bashed against the sides of the cage and bared its sharp teeth towards Hiro and his classmates. "An animal? No, it's not something I've ever seen in Omnipossibilia. What is that?" Hiro questioned the living being inside that cage.

"You're probably wondering what that thing is," Queen Selia acknowledged Hiro's and his classmates' confusion, "That thing... is what you call... a Glitch."

"A Glitch?"

The queen nodded before continuing her explanation. "They are usually quadrupedal creatures that behave like normal wild animals. They practically are as easy to kill as normal demons so we can deal with them on our own," the Queen pulled out a hidden rapier from behind her throne and stabbed the creature when it lunged at her from the cage, killing it, "Of course, if the Glitches were just like this thing, we would have been fine by ourselves. The problem is this..."

Queen Selia signaled some subordinates with pieces of paper in their hands to pass those papers to Hiro and his classmates. Hiro received a colored picture as if it was taken by a camera. "Omnipossibiilia doesn't have cameras so how...?

"That picture was taken by my husband before he passed. And was the first case of a humanoid glitch. Although my husband took it down very easily, his other wife lost her life due to the lack of information on Glitches."

Hiro looked at the picture again. "Her husband is from another world!? But when did he-"

"If I would answer your thoughts, yes, my husband was from another world. Well, he was born here, but his soul is from another world," Queen Selia answered Hiro's unspoken questions.

"Although he had many wives..." the prince's voice came from behind the cage, "He was still a loving husband and father 'til the very end. He taught me to treasure all life and to only take it if necessary."

The prince placed a small chest on the carpet and opened it. Just then, an orb suddenly flew out and explored its new cage with curious intent like a bird who just learned how to fly. It flew from classmate to classmate before eventually circling Hiro and as if it had legs, perched on top of his left shoulder. "Looks like the Orb of Benevolence has chosen you. What's your name?"

"H-Hiro! Mashiro Hiro!"

"Hiro... your mission will differ from everyone else's, but much more dangerous. Do you bear the responsibility?"

"YES!" Hiro shouted enthusiastically.

"Very well. Maids... bring all the summoned heroes except the Orb's owner to their rooms," just as she said that, an army of maids began introducing themselves and led Hiro's classmates, including Maiko, out of the throne room.

When it is just Hiro, the Queen, and the prince inside, the Queen finally sighed. "The Glitch could not be stopped by just you heroes."

"Huh?" Hiro was shocked at her words, "Then why did you summon all of us?"

The Queen sighed. "It's to buy time to bring in the ones who can destroy the Glitch," the Queen explained, "You are one of them."

"Then-"

"However, you can't destroy them all by yourself. You need others like you and those others are-"

"My brothers and sisters," the prince finished his mother's sentence, "My brothers and sisters, including me, receive weapons that were previously wielded by our father. And they are all very powerful."

"They all bore a similarity: they all have 'Lumiere' as their first name. For example, my son, Lumiere Gerechtigkeit."

"So... I have to find all these people and get them to fight the Glitch and BOOM! Gaia is saved."

"If it were so simple, yes," Lumiere Gerechtigkeit answered, "But it is not so simple."

"We know the locations of every one of them except two: Lumiere Nyarin and Nagari Lumiere," the Queen continued, "Lumiere Nyarin disappeared when she turned ten. Some said that she's now a slave, but I don't think she would turn into one that easily. Nagari Lumiere was last seen in her homeland but disappeared one day. Her mother won't tell us anything nor do any of her people."

"So how am I supposed to find them?"

"That... is what you have to figure out."

Hiro was baffled. He sucks at problem-solving and he has to figure out how to find two people that even a Kingdom couldn't find; that's not nice.

"Even if you did find them, your powers combined won't be able to destroy the Glitch."

"What!? Then, what else am I supposed to do!?"

"Find the diary of my late husband, Lumiere Aegis Crow. It contains the events that he had gone through before his fall in battle. It will definitely have something that would help increase your power."

"Oh, that's simple. Where is it?"

"That..." the Queen hesitated before continuing, "We don't know."

Hiro's face was filled with disappointment; he shouldn't have asked.

"But you have to hurry."

"Why?"

"You're not the only one trying to find that diary," the prince answered, "There are some pretty strong people after that diary. Of course, we can deal with most of them, but the real problem is that it attracted certain infamous pirates."

The prince gave Hiro a bunch of wanted posters consisting of bounties of over 10 billion yeris (Omnipossibilia in-game currency). "Those are some high bounties."

"Yeah, those bounties all belong to the strongest and most infamous pirate crew, the Devil Pirates."

"That is really childish. What do you want me to do next? Find Luffy and his Straw Hat Pirate Crew?"

"I don't know who is that, but no. If you take down even one of them by yourself, that would be a miracle in of itself."

"Are they that strong?"

"Yes. Each crew member could handle multiple fleets all at once without dying."

"Cool," Hiro regret being enthusiastic about this mission, "How about the Captain?"

"That... if you ever fight with him, I will guarantee 100 000% that you will lose."

"That's... a high percentage. Is he that strong?"

"Enough to destroy an archipelago with one punch."

"Okay... that's pretty strong."

"Yeah... Now imagine that guy with my father's diary."

"The world's doomed."

"Exactly."

"Enough chit-chat," the Queen stopped the chat from going too out of hand, "I believe you have everything you need to know when it comes to knowledge. I will give you the locations of the other 'Lumiere's tomorrow morning. For now, rest."

A maid appeared to lead Hiro to his room. "Don't forget to make a party. You need it," Lumiere Gerechtigkeit tipped Hiro before Hiro left the room.

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As maids began cleaning the vomit stains on the carpet, Lumiere turned to his mother as he picked up one of the wanted posters. "Hey, mother..."

"Yes?"

"Do you think... that the captain of the Devil Pirates is a 'Lumiere'?"

"Definitely not. Your father only had six children with that name. I don't recall him having a seventh. Why?"

"No... just thinking..." Prince Gerechtigkeit scrunched up the part of the poster with the picture with his hands; however, the name could still be seen: The Devil. Wanted Dead Or Alive! 50 billion euris.