Chapter Text
A little bit of information before I let you jump into the story.
I always found it weird how mature and nonchalant Hiro is towards the events that happen to him and his friends.
So Hiroko will act more like her age, but still have that form of independency due to having neglectful parents. She believes the only person she can truly depend on is herself. As the story progresses, she’ll learn to lean on her friends more and become more open.
In Ghost Game, Hiro’s mother is never around, and Hokuto literally left to go on an adventure in the Digital World without much thought about his son. His actions even cause indirect trouble for Hiro and his friends.
So I kinda played into that even more here.
Chapter 1 – What’s the Time?
Black tendrils spread across the land, devouring all in its path, nothing was spared. Plantlife itself withered and died, the leaves from the trees falling. Water dying up, the ground cracking and turning into dust.
Everything was dying.
A strange creature burst from the dying bushes, brittle leaves turning to dust as they were touched. One of the tendrils of darkness grabbed the creature, and it screamed in pain… before bursting into particles that floated away.
The world was dying… the Endbringer devouring the world before moving onto the next... then the next… and the next.
Never stopping, always hungry. Never satisfied until everything was gone.
Come find me… Hiroko...
Before it’s too late...
Hiro snapped her eyes open and sat up in bed, panting hard as sweat covered her face. She glanced at her alarm clock, seeing she still had at least an hour before needing to get up. With a groan, she flopped back down, her tired eyes looking up at the ceiling as remnants of her dream came to mind.
For the past month, the thirteen-year-old girl had been having strange dreams of a world being destroyed by something dark, something cold. A world dying, and strange creatures she had never seen before, being killed by said entity. It always ended with a voice, asking her to find them. Who exactly, she had no idea.
Hiro honestly didn’t know what all this meant, unless it was nerves finally getting to her. After all, today was the day she’ll be attending the entrance ceremony of Hazakura Private Academy. She had worked hard to be accepted, and now it was all paying off.
Maybe the dreams were due to the complicated dynamics of her family? Her parents never married, and her dad had sole custody of her, since her mum was too busy working abroad and climbing the career ladder to be a mother.
Hiro had begged her to attend the ceremony, but all she got was excuses. She was use to this by now, but it still didn’t stop the hurt she felt.
She was better off alone anyway.
Her father, despite his cheerful and playful personality, was no better. Most of the time he was too busy coming up with new crazy or wacky inventions to properly rise a child.
Hiroko Amanokawa, or Hiro as she preferred to be called, had to learn to be independent very early on in life, to accept that the only person she could rely on completely, was herself.
She closed her eyes and tried to fall back to sleep, but after half an hour, she gave up. Her mind was too wired with thoughts now, excitement and worry slowly seeping in due to knowing that soon, she’ll be moving into Hazakura girl’s dormitory.
A brand-new chapter in her life that Hiro was both looking forward to, and dreading.
She got up and climbed out of bed, deciding to just have a shower and be done with it. It’ll fully wake her up hopefully, and have her fresh and bright eyed for the ceremony. She yawned and grabbed what she needed, before heading out of her room for the bathroom.
As she passed her father’s room, Hiro could see a light under the door, indicating that her dad, Hokuto was awake and most likely working still.
She stopped and hesitated for a moment, then reached out and rapped her knuckles against the door. “Dad?”
There was a bang, and a flurry of movement. “Come in, come in!” Came a chirpy voice.
Hiro pulled out the door and stepped inside, seeing her dad at his desk in the corner, several empty mugs scattered on every surface, including a half empty pitcher of what was obviously coffee. His hair was a mess, yet his eyes held a wild look as he typed away frantically on his computer. “What’s up pumpkin? Need something?”
He barely looked up at her, too busy with whatever he was working on.
“Ummm, my opening ceremony is today.” Hiro spoke softly, trying not to get her hopes up too much. “You won’t forget to come, right?”
“Hmm?” Hokuto stopped typing and looked up, his hand reaching up to nudge his glasses back into place. “That’s today? Ohhh, hmmm.” He looked back at his computer with a pained expression. “I have something really important to do pumpkin, but I’ll try and make it ok? Trust me, this is really important.”
Hiro opened her mouth, wanting to insist that today was important to her, but she stopped, then simply gave a resigned smile. “Ok dad.”
Without another word, she stepped out and closed the door before walking off.
As Hiro expected, her dad never showed up. Not even a simple text message or phone call to tell her he wasn’t coming, or to congratulate her. Not that she expected as much. Despite the hurt she felt, she managed to push it down while avoiding watching other parents fawn over their children, pride and joy on their faces.
After the event had ended and she began to make her way home, she tried calling her dad several times. Each attempt had failed, the auto female voice stating the number she was attempting to reach was unavailable.
“Seriously dad?” Hiro grumbled as she walked, before shoving her phone into her red hoodie pocket she wore. No doubt her dad was sleeping, passed out at his desk after working all night.
It wasn’t the first time this had happened, and definitely wouldn’t be the last.
The moment she got home, she kicked off her trainers, and slipped her feet into her slippers before making her way to the kitchen. She pulled on an apron and began to prepare breakfast.
“Honestly, sometimes I think I’m the parent.” Hiro grumbled as she began to fry a piece of bread, an egg and some bacon on the large frying pan, the sounds of sizzling filling the kitchen. The moment she was done, she arranged the food on a plate on a tray, along with a glass of orange juice before carrying it up the stairs towards her dad’s room.
“Dad, I’m coming in.” She balanced the tray on one hand while reaching out to push open the door. “Wake up and…”
Hiro trailed off as she stopped, her emerald green eyes widening in disbelief. Where her dad’s desk sat, was gone… leaving only behind a circular hole in the floor that seemed to sizzle, wisps of smoke floating into the air which smelled strongly of electrical burning.
“Dad?” She placed the tray down on the bed before carefully walking over. In the circular indent was a strange looking device, that looked like a watch. She hesitated, before picking up the device, then looked around the room.
Hiro was completely alone, her dad was gone.
When the police finally showed up, even they were baffled at the state of Hokuto’s room, and his sudden disappearance after Hiro had finished explaining.
“And your mom?” One of them had asked, kneeling down before her with a concerned expression.
“She’s at work…” She answered politely, hands behind her back as she stared ahead, still in a state of shock as she held onto that strange device tightly. “She goes to different countries helping refugees.”
“Can you contact her?”
“I just got a hold of her earlier, she’s shocked.” Hiro said, then paused, before looking towards the spot where her father’s desk use to be. “Does this mean he went missing?” Her voice was soft and low.
The man looked uncomfortable. “Well… that’s what he’ll be classified as.”
She lowered her head, holding back the urge to cry. “I s-see…” Despite what she felt towards her dad, he was still her dad. Now she really was truly alone.
Had something terrible happened to him? Had someone taken him, or had one of his inventions finally backfired?
There were no answers to find, and no one around to give them to her.
A day later, Hiro moved into the female dorms, which shared the cafeteria and recreational space with the male dorms. Since she had a place here, the police deemed it unnecessary to place her into temporary care, while investigation into her father’s disappearance was under way.
Plus, money wasn’t an issue for her living or school expense, since her mother sent payment to her account monthly. A gesture most likely done so her mother wouldn’t feel too guilty for abandoning her duties as a parent.
As the days went by, and school began, Hiro fell into a new normal routine. Her dorm room soon felt like home, a place she found solace in as she did homework, or look up rumours on the hologram ghost phenomenon that had been around for a few years now.
Every morning, she got ready with the other girls in the shared bathrooms, before heading down to the cafeteria for breakfast. Hologram menus which they could select their meals from, before paying with their phones.
After six months of living here, it was a cool October day as Hiro sat down for dinner after the school day had ended. With her homework completed, she opted to browse the social school network while eating her beef and rice meal.
[The Sewn-Lip man appeared again.]
[Creepy!]
[That’s what I saw! The body’s all glitchy!]
[I heard they’re not exactly ghosts.]
[They’re probably just advertisements, a hologram sign.]
[No, they’re hologram ghosts.]
[They’re ghosts that look like a buggy hologram, right?]
[From the urban legends!]
Hiro chewed as she read through the chats, her interest peaking. She failed to notice someone sitting down at her table, to engross in her phone.
[Someone witnessed one in Sapporo. There’s a victim too.]
[A victim? That’s scary!]
[I hear the lips are sewn.]
[Seriously?]
[I hear your alarm goes off. The hands of the clock spins round and round. They say your time gets stolen.]
[What the heck? That makes no sense lol.]
[They say you’re asked what time is it now.]
[Do they die?]
“Earth to Hiroko~ Hellooooo!”
“Gah!” Hiro jumped in alarm, almost sending her phone flying as a hand was suddenly waving in her face.
There sat Kotaro Nomura, her friend, and only friend. She didn’t exactly go out of her way to make friends, rather focusing on schoolwork instead. Yet Kotaro went out of his way every day to sit with her during meals, chatting her ear off or begging for help with homework.
He was annoying, an absolute menace towards girls (except for her for some reason) and the typical class clown. Yet as the days and weeks went by, she realised she rather enjoyed and looked forward to his company and banter.
Maybe having a friend wasn’t so bad. Though she doubted this friendship would last. Nothing lasted forever.
“What?” Hiro asked, unable to keep the annoyance out of her voice.
Kotaro clapped his hands together in a begging motion. “Can I look at your homework? Hiro~?” he sang her name, only making her more annoyed.
“Fine.” She grumbled, as she accessed her homework files on her phone, and sent it to the boy’s email. “But you better not copy, write it yourself.”
“Yahoo! You’re the best!” Kotaro cheered, beaming away. “And ah, can you pass the soy sauce too?”
Hiro simply hummed and picked up the bottle before handing it over. It wasn’t like she needed it anyway as she got back to eating her now lukewarm meal.
“Oh, a friend in need is a friend indeed~!” Kotaro sang, before he leaned forward slightly with a grin, his eyes gleaming. “You saw the ambulance at school yesterday?”
Hiro looked up after swallowing some rice. “Yeah. What was that about?”
“They say the Sewn-lip Man showed up!” He grinned, while shaking soy sauce onto his bowl. “How scary is that!”
She sat up straight and raised an eyebrow. “Huh? At our school? Isn’t that just an urban legend? It’s all over the school’s social network.”
“Hmmm-mmmm!” Kotaro hummed as he began to eat, slurping his noodles in an annoying way.
Hiro wrinkled her nose, wondering for a brief moment why she was even friends with this guy, before picking up her phone to glance over the messages once more. Things around here would be a lot more interesting if rumours like the sewn-lip man was true.
Then again, she couldn’t help find fascination in all these Hologram Ghost stories that have been popping up lately.
“From the rumours, a second-year girl. The people I’ve spoken to, assume she’s dead.” Kotaro spoke up, as he wiped his mouth with his napkin.
A second-year girl… that must have been Himiko. Hiro had overheard some of the girls this morning from the washroom, talking about Himiko being gone from the dormitory. She had assumed it had been from ill health.
Could she really be dead?
Hiro shook her head slightly as she applied logic to the situation. “It can’t be true. No one would be able to talk about the Sewn-lip Man if they had died. Makes no sense.”
Kotaro smirked, then leaned forward towards her once more as he narrowed his eyes. “They say she heard it… What time is it now?”
“Time you two hurry up and finish eating, the canteen is about to close.”
They both blinked and turned their heads to see a silver haired boy standing by their table, smirking down at them with his arms crossed. Kiyoshiro Higashimitarai. The dorm leader for the boy’s dormitory.
Kiyoshiro turned his gaze towards Kotaru. “You’re in charge of the third floor for the next two days, make sure it gets done.”
“Y-Yes Kiyoshiro.”
The teen clicked his tongue, before raising a finger with a smug expression. “Ah ha ha, it’s dorm leader while we’re here. Remember?”
Hiro rolled her eyes, before noticing Kiyoshiro’s right hand, which was completely covered in bandages. In fact, every time she had seen him since being here, he always had his hand wrapped up. “Hey… what’s with the hand?”
“Maybe the Sewn-lip man got him.” Kotaru sniggered.
Instantly, the smug look on Kiyoshiro’s face changed as he suddenly slammed both his hands down on the table with such force, the noise made the whole canteen go quiet as every pair of eyes looked over at them.
Hiro jumped, feeling shocked at the sheer panic in the teens face, and the anger in his eyes as he glared right at Kotaru.
“Don’t joke about things like that!” he yelled, voice cracking and shrill. “What if you jinx us and the Sewn-Lip man gets me? Are you going to take responsibility!? Well!?”
Kotaru could only stare in disbelief, as did everyone else in the cafeteria.
“Woah woah, calm down!” Hiro said, feeling bewildered as she raised her hands. She had never seen her senior act like this before, granted Kiyoshiro had always been a bit of an oddball, but even this seem too much of an extreme reaction for him.
He looked at her, then abruptly stood up as he pulled his hands away from the table. “Make sure you get those dorm chores done.” He said stiffly, before walking off out of the canteen.
Everyone stared for a bit, before hushed conversations started up again as people either went back to what they were talking about before, or discussing what had just occurred.
“He’s as weird as ever.” Kotaru muttered.
“Yup.” Hiro agreed, nodding her head.
The next morning, after a particularly boring double maths lesson, Hiro almost cheered when the school bell rang.
She wasted no time packing up her things, before heading out with Kotaru who happened to be in the same classes as her.
“Oh man, I thought my brain was about to melt!” he moaned dramatically, waggling his fingers at his head as they both walked down the hallway.
Hiro rolled her eyes, yet couldn’t help smiling at his over-the-top behaviour. “It wasn’t that bad.”
Kotaru gasped before placing a hand on his hip, while using his other hand to wag a finger towards the girl. “Ah ah ah! I totally caught you nearly falling asleep at one point. If I hadn’t thrown that paper ball at you, why… you would totally have gotten into trouble!”
She huffed as they turned and headed down the stairs. “Seriously? I was not falling asleep! And that was you who threw that paper ball?”
“Guilty.” He grinned, looking pleased with himself.
“Oh, Miss Amanokawa! Perfect timing.”
Hiro blinked and stopped at the bottom of the stairs, glancing at her music teacher who had spoken. He was a short dumpy kind of man, with big round glasses that made his eyes appear bigger than they actual are. Next to him was a pile of cardboard boxes.
“Can I ask a favour? Will you carry these to storage?” He asked, smiling as he gestured to the boxes.
“Ah, yes, sure.” Hiro shrugged, agreeing without even stopping to think about it.
Kotaru sniggered and nudged her playfully with his elbow. “Oh, work hard, Hiro!”
“Nomura, you too.” The teacher said, sounding stern as he crossed his arms. “I saved the heavier boxes just for you. Chop chop lad.”
Hiro smirked at her friend, as Kotaru looked shocked before slouching with a reluctant expression. “Aww!”
After dropping off the last few boxes in the storage building, Hiro walked out and closed the door behind her as Kotaru grumbled and rubbed his lower back.
“Ugh, even my hands hurt! Why do you willingly take these on?” He said, giving her a fake glare and a pout.
They began to walk back, heading along the path that would take them to the entrance of the academy. The sun was already starting to set, casting the sky in a gentle orange hue.
Hiro shrugged. “Well, there’s no point complaining.”
Kotaru sighed, before crossing his arms as he grinned at her. “You know, you’re probably giving off an unrefusable aura. You just have something about you, like you just can’t say no.”
She blinked, then frowned at him. “What are you saying?”
Did she really? Then again, she did have a habit of not saying no when asked for favours. It all stemmed from her days of trying to impress her dad. Always agreeing to everything he asked of her, hoping that he’ll pay more attention to her.
It never happened.
Hiro sighed and dropped her head. “Oh… guess I do huh? Going to have to fix that…” She lifted her head to look at Kotaru, and stopped walking when she noticed he wasn’t even paying attention anymore, having stopped himself.
His eyes were focused on the Auditorium, which was closed off by holographic tape that read KEEP OUT. That was the place they found the school girl yesterday, Hiro remembered seeing the police cars parked outside.
Kotaru whistled, then turned to face her. “You know, our school’s already known nationwide because of that incident yesterday.”
“What, already?” She blinked, feeling surprised at that. “How?”
“It’s going viral. Here.” Kotaru pulled out his phone and tapped at the screen, before showing it to her.
On the phone was an image of a girl with long brunette hair that went wavy at the ends. Her back was to the screen, hiding her face as she posed with her hands behind her back.
WANTED!!! LIP-SEWN MAN INFORMATION! Were written vertically across the image of the girl.
Hiro raised an eyebrow and looked up at her friend. “What’s this? Showing off your girlfriend?” She smirked, seeing the startled look on his face, and the tell-tale signs of a blush forming on his cheeks.
He quickly looked at his phone, and blushed even more before tapping away. “Whoops! Of course this isn’t my girlfriend! It’s this girl called Lirurun. Her followers are growing fast, and I’m one too. More importantly, look here!”
He showed her the phone screen again, this time showing the comments below the post that this Lirurun had posted about the incident at their school. Kotaru was right, judging from the sheer numbers and views, the story was going viral.
“You’re right, it’s spreading like crazy.” Hiro said in awe, before pulling out her own phone. “Hold on, I want to subscribe too. This is way too interesting to pass up.”
Normally she didn’t go for things like this, but if this Lirurun girl had a good network on gathering intel about the strange Hologram Ghosts rumours, she wanted in on it.
“Alright!” He cheered, fist pumping the air with delight. “Another fan for the Lirurun clan!” Then he turned and headed right for the holographic police tape, before climbing through as he flashed a grin at Hiro who looked up and frowned.
“Hey, isn't that bad?” She said, quickly looking around to make sure no one had seen what her friend was doing. Thankfully the whole place seemed empty.
Kotaru shrugged, still grinning widely. “Well, Lirurun wants information. We could take a pic if there’s something.” He waved a hand before walking over to the door, then tried to open it before realising it was locked.
After trying again, he turned around and clapped his hands together, beaming brightly. “My saviour, Hiro! Please help me!”
“N-No way!” Hiro gasped, looking gobsmacked. “Are you trying to get us into trouble!?” After a few seconds of looking at that pouting face, she sighed and caved in while shoving her phone back into her pocket.
As she began to walk over, her other hand reached into the other pocket that was inside her red hoodie she had put on after finishing class. “Oh, fine.”
“I knew you’ll agree, because you looooove me~” Kotaru sang.
Hiro snorted as she kneeled down in front of the door, and opened up her small kit that she carried everywhere with her. “Is that what you tell all the girls? Wow… no wonder you have to keep fighting them off.” Her voice was full of sarcasm as she pulled out her lockpicks and got to work.
He laughed. “You’re hilarious, and you’re seriously handy too!”
She shrugged as she focused on lockpicking the door. “Picked it up from Dad, I guess. He loved inventing.” Then she grinned and looked up at him as the door clicked, finally unlocked. “Done.”
Kotaru grinned and rubbed his hands together, waiting for her to stand up before pushing the door open and stepping inside first.
Just like they expected as Hiro followed him in, the auditorium was completely empty and dark. The only light source being from the windows in the ceiling.
“Hello, Mr Sewn-lip Man!” Kotaru called out loudly as he cupped his mouth, walking over until he reached the centre of the room beside the stage. Then he turned around as Hiro closed the door, grinning. “The rumours say the clock goes berserk you know, when he’s nearby.”
She raised an eyebrow as she walked over, before glancing at the clock on the wall. 15:38. “Do you really believe in the Sewn-lip Man? It all feels bogus to me, like a prank someone made up to sca-!”
Suddenly their phones pinged loudly at the same time, making them both yell out in fear before scrambling to grab their phones from their pockets.
Hiro sucked in a breath as her heart hammered in her chest from the scare, her green eyes looking over her phone. Then she relaxed, cursing herself for getting scared like that. It was just a notification, letting her know about an update from Lirurun’s blog.
“Oh man, an update from Lirurun!” Kotaru laughed, as he turned around to face her. “That made me jump so bad. Even you! I swear I saw your feet leave the ground!”
“S-Shut up.” She huffed, feeling her cheeks go red. “It’s just so quiet in here, the noise startled me, that’s all.”
“Uh huh…” he smirked. “Sure, it’s not because you believe the Sewn-Lip man is real?”
Hiro scoffed. “Of course not, it’s just a rumour.”
“Then what about the police?” Kotaru asked, still smirking as he watched her in amusement.
“I don’t know.” She sighed. “I’m sure there was some sort of incident, but-!”
She was cut off once again as both her phone and Kotaru began to ring out with alarm after alarm, the noise loud against the silence of the auditorium.
Ding ding ding diiiiing!
Ding ding ding diiiing!
A sense of dread and icy cold fear overcame her as Hiro looked down at her phone with wide eyes, her mouth going dry when she saw the time display going crazy.
“H-Hiro… the clock.” Kotaru said, his voice trembling.
She looked at the fear on his face, which matched her own, before she glanced at the clock. The hands were spinning around so fast, they were almost a blur. This wasn’t normal.
None of this was normal. It was just like the rumours.
“What time is it now?”
Hiro jumped in fright at the creepy voice that spoke, as if someone had said it right by her ear.
“Was that… you?” Kotaru asked, going pale.
She gulped and shook her head slowly, hands shaking now. “N-No…”
Then to her utter shock and disbelief, her friend seemed to suddenly grow energetic, a wild crazy glint forming in his eyes. “Whoa, the Sewn-lip Man’s really here! For real? Wow!” He began turning around and taking pictures on his phone, laughing. Not normal laughing, but the kind of laughter you did when utterly terrified and you were trying to hide it.
“Kotaru!” She hissed, feeling like she was going to be sick from the fear. “We need to get out of here, now!”
“What time is it now?”
Hiro screamed in fright as the form of a creature appeared right next to her, lips sewn with his body attached to a giant clock with mechanical legs and arms. In his real hands, he held a mallet, his form see-through.
With a flash he disappeared, now floating high above them with an evil glint in his non-human eyes.
The Sewn-lip man… he was real. He was actually real!
Hiro trembled, utterly terrified as her legs trembled, threatening to give out as this… monster stared down at them.
“Both of your time…”
Suddenly he disappeared and reappeared in front of Kotaru who had continued taking pictures, is phone repeatedly flashing. The Sewn-lip Man raised his mallet high over his head, before slamming it down on the teen’s head.
“Is mine!”
Kotaru dropped his phone as strange almost digital like symbols appeared around his body, then something began to flow out of him, and right into the monster as he began to scream in pain.
“KOTARU!” Hiro screamed, watching in horror as her friend began to rapidly age before her very eyes. His skin began wrinkly and ashen grey, his brown eyes, growing pale and milky white. Hair turned white and dead, growing uncontrollably, as his fingernails grew long and jagged.
The worse, the screams of pain turning into gasping moans, and the nauseating cracks as his body twisted with age.
Finally, it stopped, and Kotaru collapsed on the ground, weakly gasping like a dying man.
Hiro took a step back and fell, her legs giving way as they shook violently, tears streaming down her face in a mixture of shock, terror and disbelief.
The Sewn-lip man was real… and it had stolen the time from the only friend she ever had, from the only person who actually treated her like she actually mattered. From the one person who actually saw her.
“Kotaru… no… no!” She sobbed, before gasping as the Sewn-lip Man turned his attention to her, grinning wickedly.
Then in a flash, he was right in front of her, raising his mallet high into the air as she cried out in terror. This can’t be happening. It can’t be!
“What time is it now?”
Hiro covered her face, shaking. She was about to end up just like Kotaru, her time stolen.
Just before he could swing the mallet down, the lights suddenly came on. “Hey! Is someone in here?!”
She snapped her head up, seeing that the monster was now gone. Her P.E teacher was walking in from the entrance that lay further up between the rows of seats, as another teacher followed him.
“How did you get in?!” Her P.E teacher demanded, looking furious.
Hiro stared at him, then slowly looked towards her friend. Kotaru was still alive, his breathing laboured as he laid on the floor. No longer the energetic crazy boy she knew, but a frail old man who could barely move.
Grief hit hard, and she began sob hysterically, her hands shaking as she went into shock. “KOTARU!”
Police car sirens could be heard, as Hiro was led away from the Auditorium by the teacher who had found them, who had volunteered to walk her back to her dorm room after she had been interviewed by the police.
Not to mention checked over by a medic who gave her the all clear, but suggested to her teacher that she took time off for the shock.
The police had given up after nearly an hour, clearly frustrated by her account of the events with the Sewn-lip man. They didn’t believe her, and she didn’t blame them.
Hiro felt empty inside, face raw and red from the tears that had ended a while ago, her throat sore and scratchy.
The moment she was back in her room at the girl’s dormitory, she simply stood there for a moment, then shuffled to her bed before simply falling onto it without even getting undressed.
Then the tears came once more, and Hiro sobbed into her pillow, crying herself to sleep.