As the game master, H.I. Player, I meet Gretel at St. Lucia Academy

1998, St. Lucia Academy...

Welcome, dear fellow reader, to this, a most unusual tale. Before we return to the game board, we have to take a brief pit stop twelve years in the future past the events of the Rokkenjima incident... Hm... I may have even been alive at this point. No no, not quite, I died just a bit earlier. Now there's an odd thought. Still, let's forget my woes for a bit and instead focus on the life of a stranger... we'll call her "Gretel" for now. Here in 1998, she attends the girl's boarding school, St. Lucia's Academy. This is not a joyful time in her life... Ah... This is a life bereft of love. Hopefully she will find somewhere she can feel happy... but... perhaps we may consider all of this a diversion of hers.

As a game master, I'm not opposed to a little diversion myself.

Our Gretel is a victim of a certain incident. Although she lives in wealth, she does so without her family, with a cruel aunt who hates her very existence and sees her as an emblem of all of her own personal strife. Gretel does not have family and she does not have friends. At school, she is bullied and tormented. A certain scandal has held her in its grasp for nearly her entire life, and as such, the young lady is like a leaf blown upon the wind. The life she knew was cold and when she projects that same outward coldness, others reject her. As such, she is a girl who has forgotten how to love. She's a girl buried in her own memories, of a brighter time before she lost her family. She's a girl retreating into a world of fantasy.

Fantasy is to be found in a good book, they say, so she reads often. Do you find it embarrassing that a girl of her age speaks to imaginary creatures of whimsical magic? I find it charming. After all, aren't I myself often party to a witch's secrets? Still, there is much she can learn from the tomes and grimoires she reads... they tell of magic, the kind Kinzo courted and Maria idolized, the kind I myself never imagined I would wield. Without love, you may see a sad girl talking to herself. With love, I instead see a host of fantasy creatures, just as she does.

Ah... Today she's found a new book. Someone's left it on her desk, after all. What a generous gift they've given her: somehow, some soul has collected a bootleg copy of my own tales and placed them upon that scratched and vandalized wooden surface. It's a bit naughty for a girl on campus, Gretel, but I hope it pleases you. It's a tale of magic, which you love, and love, which I hope that you may come to love...

"... Child of Man, you've been waxing poetic for a while now. It is both tiresome and droll... but more importantly, it is grossly uneducated. Do you really think that this young girl will be pleased to find your story? There is such a thing as viewing a story with too much love. Come, come... Try to see the real intention of that work left upon Gretel's desk..."

"Someone's got a funny sense of humor. So funny I want to vomit."

Gretel thumbed through my story disapprovingly. This wasn't the first time an anonymous classmate had left her this publication, though she'd never taken the time to read... evidently, some Witch Hunter somewhere once found my story and then began to distribute it among the masses in this crude format, a few copies to different locations. I must confess, I've seen it tossed in the garbage, burned, torn apart... I've even seen it make it onto a late-night television show, where it was critiqued very roughly. It pains me to remember. Still, I love my story, and-

Aaaaah! Gretel, pick that story out of the garbage! You haven't tried it before, have you?! There are some very nice details in there, even for young girls! Oh, it's very romantic! I'm sure it's going to become popular whenever a Witch Hunter picks it up and publishes it in a more attractive format!! So retrieve it now, won't you?!

"... Pathetic Child of Man. Sometimes, the hardest part of getting someone to read a story is to make them stop dismissing it as something unworthy of their time. If you think getting people to read books was difficult in your era, just wait until mankind reaches the social media era... Ahem..."

Ah... I don't know what this witch is talking about, but please, Witch, help me resuscitate this route I've failed to even get started.

"I have already helped you. You're 'alive' and viewing this scene, aren't you? You have your Pink Trigger. This child, Gretel, is a believer in magic. Use that instead of whatever 'smart' foreword you thought up to catch the reader's attention."

You witches never make things easy... Fine, I'll appear to her. I wanted to do that anyway. But... if I do so as a creature of magic and with Gretel as my only tether, the only observer of my magical appearance... if she rejects me, then I will shatter into pieces on the floor. Not merely out of depression. You understand? If Gretel doesn't accept my existence and acknowledge my game, then I will not exist.

So please be careful, my fellow reader...