Let's Go
“Wait, what is going on,” said a young high school girl as she walked up the stairs towards an art museum.
She looked around at the crowded museum. To the left, she saw a man having a smoke. As the girl continued walking, brushing through her long pink hair, she noticed the security guard talking to a homeless man just as before.
She walked inside the art museum past the front desk clerk along with the groom’s assistant chatting about their day. It was all the same as the young girl had remembered countless times before. Gazing up towards the second floor, which could be seen by a giant opening in the floor’s layout where a giant clock rested on the wall.
The time was 7:33, and the girl felt a panic scourge through her stomach, twisting her head in disbelief. She found it to be very odd. She had arrived at 7:55 and the groom, now standing at the vending machine with a soda, was assassinated by a sniper at 8:03.
The girl looked around for her assassin earlier until she spotted him at an antique painting. He was a normal looking guy for the party. An older man in a suit with his hair slicked back. The girl looked at the time, realizing it was now 7:37. She made her way to the back of the first floor of the museum where she saw a blackjack dealer arrive.
“Who is he” she wondered, “I don’t think I noticed him before”.
The girl walked to the table brushing her hair back behind her ear while softly saying, “Hey. I have not seen you here before”.
“Odd day isn’t it? Seems like it never ends,” he said.
“What do you mean,” she asked, reaching for a hand of cards.
“What I mean-” said the skinny blackjack dealer with a stretched frown on his face, “Is that typically there is a sense of time with these things. But this game has us reversing it over which makes you lose track. I just got back from fighting a glitch while my buddy had set back the time”.
He winked his right eye stating, “Don’t worry, I’m a player”.
The girl smiled in relief. “So you’re from the group that I was assigned to”?
“Correctemundo” answered the blackjack dealer while snapping his finger and popping a genuine smile.
“What’s your name,” asked the girl.
“Logan,” he answered, “And yours”?
“Vanessa. Can you help me stop that guy over there? He keeps killing me” said Vanessa nodding towards her earlier assailant.
“Unfortunately no,” said Logan. “But you can help me take out the sniper. To prevent the groom from being assassinated”.
Vanessa stared idly lost at Logan asking, “How do we do that”?
Logan rushed his hand to his ear, answering an incoming call. “yo” he said.
A voice spoke through his earpiece.
“Got it” he answered, “But hey, I found the girl who joined us. She was here as a tour guide for the museum running away from some random assassin I guess. I will bring her with me”.
After a further moment, Logan had hung up his phone, demanding Vanessa to come with him to take out the assassin.
The two ran outside down the walkway when Vanessa’s assailant from before appeared at the bottom of the walkway.
Vanessa gasped, “That’s him. That is the guy from before”.
Logan smirked as they drew closer to the man, saying, “Easy”.
The man ran towards the two with a knife, attempted to slice Logan. Logan countered by throwing a sharp card into the man’s neck. Vanessa pulled out a piece of metal, extending it to a pole for her defense.
The man pulled out the card that was in his neck while Logan threw another in the man’s face and called out “explosion”.
The card blew up in the man’s face, causing him to fall in a puddle of his blood. Sirens were soon heard signaling towards the museum.
“Run,” yelled Logan.
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Elsewhere, a short red-haired Puerto Rican girl who appeared to be 12 years old along with a Pakistani boy both approached the bride in the art museum.
“Okay hussy, your show is over,” stated the red-haired girl.
“Excuse me, little janitor,” said the bride, “But the trash is somewhere out the front to the left. Go ask my soon to be husband’s assistant for help”.
The boy pulled out two knives and snarled, “let’s just take her out”.
The wife extended two long blades from the sleeves of her pearly white dress and charged towards the pair. The little girl pulled out a gun and shot the bride repetitively, watching the blood pop out, until she had no more bullets.
“Okay Dani, you didn’t have to empty an entire mag on her,” said the Pakistani boy in shock, “how did you get a gun anyways”?
Dani only closed her eyes, shrugging her shoulders saying, “Claro”.
The Pakistani boy placed his hand by his earpiece to receive a call along with Dani.
“Hakim, did you kill her,” asked a boy on the phone.
“I did,” replied Dani as she stared over at the bride.
The bride rose to her sparkly white heels, wiping her chin. Her dress began to form smoke which faded it to black. Her makeup smeared down her face in black lines on her cheeks with smudges on her eyes. She extended two blades once more.
“Never mind,” said Dani.
The bride ran toward the two slicing away with her blade. Dani jumped back as Hakim parried her attacks with his daggers.
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Logan and Vanessa stormed their way into a parking garage, running 4 flights of stairs until they saw a man playing on his phone on an open parking floor with no cars.
“That’s him,” said Logan.
The man looked over sternly asking, “Hey, What are you two doing here”?
The assassin didn’t want to alarm the authorities yet he had to kill Logan and Vanessa quickly so he can do his job. So he pulled out a pair of trench knives and dashed towards his pursuers.
Vanessa swung her extension pole, keeping the assassin at bay. Logan threw a card calling out “Stun”.
The card stunned the man for a moment allowing Vanessa to land a good swing to the man’s head, his liver. When Vanessa swung for the third time, the assassin grabbed her pole from her and kicked her flying into the ground.
“Stay back” commanded Logan as his hands began to glow with light blue, “I can handle him”.
Logan rose his right hand to reveal a hand full of cards. He sprinted towards the left-hand side of the assassin, as the assassin himself sprinted directly at Logan.
Logan threw his hand full of cards out with aggression calling out the command “scatter”.
The cards scattered around the assassin to which Logan called “imprison”. The cards had stabbed into the assassin as miniature spears. But the assassin wasn’t stopped.
He got his distance now standing next to Vanessa’s pole as the assassin ran towards him with his arms sealed to his sides.
“Trap” yelled Logan which activated a card on the ground that trapped the assassin in place. He flipped out a card and sliced the assassin’s throat open. The cards disappeared as the assassin fell dead to the ground.
“Wow, that was pretty cool,” said Vanessa with her eyes wide and hands flat on her legs. A charming smirk was returned until sirens were heard coming in the parking garage.
“Quick! We gotta go!” yelled Logan as he picked up Vanessa’s pole.
She collected her pole and ran with Logan towards one side of the parking garage. Logan waited for the local downtown train to pass by before he and Vanessa jumped onto the top.
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Meanwhile, Hakim was being sliced bit by bit by the bride with a small audience watching. No fatal wounds were taken, but his blood was nonetheless dripping on the black marble flooring.
Dani was firing her gun to which had little effect on the bride due to the powers of her black dress. The bride stabbed Hakim in his chest and tossed him against the wall. She sheathed one blade while charging towards Dani to slice her with the other.
Just as the bride was approaching Dani for a kill, a hammer was thrown at her head. The chauffeur had arrived.
“Time to dance my lady,” announced the chauffeur.
The bride ran towards him, slashing her blade at the chauffeur to which he parried with an axe. Her attack was so strong that his axe was thrown out of hand.
After kicking him to the ground, the bride jumped down stabbing her blade at the chauffeur’s head. The chauffeur swiftly moved his head away and stabbed her arm with a nearby dagger.
She drew her second blade to slice off his head, but Hakim had slammed the axe into the back of her neck. The chauffeur stabbed her in the front of her throat and threw her to the side.
Dani called in announcing, “We killed the bride”.
“Then why isn’t it over,” asked Logan as he rode on top of the train.
Hakim chimed in, “Well, we better figure out something before the cops come”.
“We need to find the glitch and turn back time again,” said the chauffeur as he continued laying on the ground.
Logan said, “All of the windows are upside-down. Wherever the glitch is, it has to do with windows”.
“Really,” asked Hakim as he looked around noticing all of the windows are upside down.
“I’m here outside of the church,” said a husky black boy over the radio, “There are tons of windows for me to investigate”.
The chauffeur was getting back up on his feet as he replied, “Great, get on it”.
“We’ll get to the clock,” said Logan as the train he was on came to a stop at the shopping mall.
The chauffeur was now on his feet when Hakim turned towards him asking, “What do we do now Jeff”?
But Dani intervened and asked, “Why aren’t we being chased by the cops”?
Jeff snapped his fingers pointing up, “That’s a good question. Let’s investigate the groom in the meantime before time is reversed”.
The trio ran out noticing the groom speaking to his assistant. “I didn’t think my fiance was trying to kill me,” he said as the three stood behind him.
Jeff tapped his shoulder and said, “Well whoever is behind it all is manipulating time to their favor. We believe there is somebody along with your fiancée behind it all”.
The groom took a sip of his drink, “I can’t think of anybody else”.
The husky black-boy named Andres walked into a beautiful catholic church where he saw many beautiful windows. Each one was colorful, yet disfigured. There was one on the stage that was different from the rest.
It was on the wall and larger than a billboard indeed. Its colors were dark with the lady’s eyes wide open along with her mouth. Andres walked up to the window on the stage, watching as its eyes followed him. He called in to report his findings to Jeff.
“Wait a second,” said Logan, “Was anybody a Catholic who loved fishing and Samurais. Each glitch is likely giving us a clue to the real culprit”?
Jeff responded, “So you’re saying each glitch has given us a clue towards the mastermind? In which case, it all leads to the father-in-law himself. I drove him here in the beginning and he rambled on about fishing in Japan”.
Dani gasped, with her eyes wide and her nose slightly quenched, “The fat man”.
The groom stared idly as he noticed the room was changing. The room was emitting dark energy from its cracks and crevices in each corner.
“What is going on,” he asked.
Jeff noticed the dark energy surrounding them. Reaching out like octopus tentacles, the dark energy dragged in each guest by crushing them like empty soda cans.
“Don’t worry sir,” said Jeff, “We will save you by turning back time”.
The groom trembled as the trio ran outside in pursuit of the bride’s father.
Andres unsheathed his sword from his back and punched the mirror with his left hand. The glass shattered with the fragmented shards forming a giant screaming woman from the window who slashed her arm out at him. Andres flew back through the chairs, landing on his back. Rising to his feet, he brushed away the glass shards and sprinted back towards the stationary window to attack the mirror glitch.
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Meanwhile, Logan and Vanessa had realized that their train had been stuck for a while too long now.
“Be careful” said Logan as he stared vigilantly around with cards held in his hand, “We are about to be attacked”.
Vanessa held her extension pole ready to face her upcoming threat. She realized that she had been looking in the same direction as Logan.
So she turned around to cover his back when instantly a black hooded samurai, covered in a dark mist-like aura, slashed his sword at Vanessa. She was able to stop a fatal blow using her pole but was thrown down knocking Logan as well.
The dark samurai rushed for a fatal attack, but the two had quickly jumped apart to their feet. Vanessa launched her way swinging her pole towards the dark samurai to which it only dodged and swung its blade.
Despite Logan’s arm bleeding from falling on his cards, he threw more cards at the dark samurai’s feet. The dark samurai fell to a quick nudge allowing Vanessa to hit him. The dark samurai took this as an opening to stab Vanessa in her stomach.
Just as the dark samurai had impaled Vanessa through her stomach, Logan threw a card shouting, “Steal”.
As the card had hit the dark samurai his sword fell out of Vanessa’s stomach. Vanessa threw the blade towards Logan who had grabbed it and pointed the sword at the dark samurai. The dark samurai had squared up to Logan as Vanessa was on the ground healing herself.
“Get back” yelled Logan.
As he slashed the blade towards the dark samurai an odd symbol appeared that pushed the samurai back just a little.
Logan had slashed his sword again yelling “clone” to which several swords had appeared around his opponent. The dark samurai caught Logan’s blade right when Vanessa stabbed the dark samurai in his lung with a sword clone.
The dark samurai held on tightly to Logan’s blade. But Logan had pulled out a card and threw it calling out, “Card widened prison”.
Giant cards were spiraling around the dark samurai to which he knew his end had come.
Logan yelled “ex-spell,” causing each giant card to shine so brightly that the light pierced through the dark samurai. The dark samurai had fallen to the floor exhausting all of his darkness until he was just a laying corpse.
The pair was about to jump on top of the train until they realized it didn’t have power and darkness was racing towards them.
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Jeff, Dani, and Hakim were running around downtown to avoid the darkness from consuming them in hopes that Andres, Logan, and the new girl Vanessa can turn back time. Hakim had tripped and felled down, watching as Dani jumped over him, refusing to let him slow her down.
She called in reporting, “The loser is dead” just as the darkness consumed Hakim.
Jeff called to check on Andres. Unfortunately, he was taking a beat down from the window lady as she had consistently swung at him in pairs with her gigantic fist.
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Logan and Vanessa had been outrunning the darkness on the tracks heading toward the clock tower. Nothing was heard since Dani’s report. But he had no other option but to attempt to turn back time to save everybody.
The two had reached the clock tower and began running up the stairs with the darkness catching up.
“Run, I will hold it off. Just hit the back of the clock’s hand base to turn back time,” yelled Logan facing the darkness
“Okay,” said Vanessa as she began hurling up the stairs.
Vanessa finally reached the top and began swinging her pole at the base of the giant clock’s hands as Logan said. But nothing happened. She swung and swung until after a while, the darkness had made it to the room.
She grew cold as the darkness came at her from every direction into a fatal crash to her skinny body.
“Game over. You lose” said the Isekai Gaming System.
Vanessa pouted stating “That sucks”.
Her goggles loosened as she began seeing everything for what it really was. She saw that she was in a big dark room with nothing in it all by herself.
“Logan!” called out Vanessa.
She looked towards the exit she thought she came through, but couldn’t tell due to being disoriented by the darkness. She left down a stairway to which she eventually realized was the wrong exit. Nonetheless, she continued out and took her leave.
Vanessa returned all of the burrowed equipment at the front desk of the Isekai Gaming Studio and headed out without being able to meet any fellow players.
She sat on the public bus, which was nearly empty, staring at her player profile on her phone. Her power score was 523 while she only had 27 player points. Vanessa was new to Miami. Having finished moving the prior week from Italy. She was excited to have moved next to an Isekai Gaming Studio. She had a lot to think of from her passion for anime, to her new home, her senior year in high school, and of course, will she ever be able to become a Pro Isekai Game Player.
