1 Prologue

Huff...huff...huff...I slowly fell into a steady trance as I leisurely jogged on a treadmill. My dark red hair swayed to the beat of my music and the sound of my feet pounding on the machine resounded throughout the empty room as I escaped from the problems that were swarming my mind. Whenever unpleasant memories started attacking me I would always turn to running.

Running away was the only thing I could ever do with this weak and powerless will of mine. It was what I did when she died, it was what I did now.

There go the memories again. With my face twisting in displeasure, I unconsciously picked up my slow jog into a sprint I desperately tried escaping from my own dark thoughts. My breathing fell out of sync with my feet and I suddenly found it terribly hard to breathe.

Slipping on a drop of sweat that had fallen onto the conveyor belt I instantly found myself staring at the ceiling, gasping for breath while enduring the aching pains all over my body.

"Yuri!? You okay?" My older brother yelled from upstairs, most likely surprised at the loud noise my tumble had caused.

"Ah, yeah yeah, no problem whatsoever. I was just clumsy and dropped my water." I lied through my teeth as I quickly picked myself up from the ground.

Sneakily splashing some water on the ground to cover up my lie, I fixed up my appearance and turned towards the doorway.

"You shouldn't lie to Kai like that big sis. I know he's way too overprotective, but there's a good reason for his worry." Said the figure who had suddenly appeared in the hall.

"Oh! Toku, didn't know you were there." I stated while using a towel to mop up the water. "Don't tell him 'kay? He's busy working on an assignment dad gave him so I don't want to be a bother, you know?" I answered while grinning at my expressionless little brother.

"Hm, sure." He responded with his black eyes staring uninterestedly at me before going back upstairs, his small figure and short black hair seemingly radiating boredom.

Toku took after our handsome father, just like Kai had, with natural Japanese features and striking eyes. Although many girls in his grade had favorable opinions on him, he held to interest in the other gender.

Ahhhh, what a waste of good looks, little bro, please hurry and bring in another female into this family! I prayed in my heart, clasping my two hands in front of my chest for a more dramatic effect. My looks were given to me by my foreign mother, who had lived in America until she had fallen for my dad, who was a transfer student at the time. After she died we moved back here in Japan but...Guh, these annoying thoughts just keep popping up today, how unlucky, especially since it's the glorious weekend.

Furiously shaking my head to get rid of the ideas that kept plaguing my mind, I snatched up my phone and towel from the ground walked upstairs.

"Yuri~! Today's the day! Sapphire is finally getting released!" Kai sang out once he saw me come up the stairs. His wavy dyed blond hair shining under the light, contrasting his dark brown eyes. "It's everywhere on the news right now, let's set up our capsules!"

Yup, today was the day when my father's company would finally release the world's first virtual reality game to the general public. Ever since moving back to Japan ten years ago after my mother's death, to escape the harsh reality that surrounded them Kai and my dad absorbed themselves in their research on virtual reality theories. Toku had dedicated himself to taekwondo, whereas I hid in studying and running. Surprisingly, their research had born fruit, and leaks of the game development had shocked the world. Over millions of people had already pre-ordered the capsules a year early, causing a stock of 50 million to sell out within a day.

My dad, Rei, had named the game after his wife, and many quests and cities also held close relations to her. Of course, only he knew the plots and hidden secrets of the game, since he had forbidden Kai or Toku and me to help him with his creation.

Thus, we could all play the game without cheating or prior knowledge. Sapphire was a very free game, all the game NPCs were given high intellect AI bots that could recreate emotion and improvise from knowledge gained from the main system. Basically, the game was a self-learning program, but that information was cut off from the world in fear of foreign countries disturbing the peace. In the game there were only a few rules that applied, most banned crime and harassment, making Sapphire a safe game for even young children to enjoy.

"Hey Yuri, are you listening?" Kai asked with a pout of his face. "Man, you seem to always get caught up in your own thoughts, let dive into the game already!"

"...hey brother, how old are you?"

"Hm? Don't tell me you forgot my age!?!" He cried out in shock and terror, disbelief showing plainly on his face. "I'm 21 okay?! My birthday is April 12, don't tell me you forgot!"

"Ah sorry, I might have mixed you up with Toku."

"Kuh?!"

Watching my older brother slump to the floor depressed, I mentally sighed. Why is his mental age so low?

God, even Toku seems mature compared to him, someone please help this stupidly dense brother of mine. Maybe a girlfriend could set him straight, ah but that won't work, he's too dense. After all, he has tons of girls chasing after his handsome features, but he doesn't seem to notice any of them. How disappointing.

"I'll go set up my capsule now then," Toku said monotonously while walking around Kai's despairing figure. "The game releases in two minutes, you guys should start too."

"Sure thing!" I replied with a cheerful smile, ignoring the sobbing man on the ground behind me.

"Guhhh, don't think your brother will fall from just this!" He shouted while leaping up and running after us.

No, you did just fall from that, brother, you okay? For some reason, you seem even weirder than usual.

We set up the settings of our respective gaming capsules and sat inside. The game's time was accelerated twice as fast as reality, so one hour in the capsule meant two hours in the game. I leisurely brought the helmet over my head and leaned back inside of the capsule. Turning on the power, my world turned white and the game started booting up.

What new world awaited me in here? Would it be a pleasant world or a sad one? I guess only time could tell.