Author's Note: Hey everyone, I hope you enjoy this fanfic, please let me know what you think, thanks! And no, of course I don't own Inuyasha. Enjoy!
Part 1: TinierMe
When does love begin and when does it end, if it ever ends? What does heartbreak feel like? What about the pain of longing for someone? When does a person realize that they are in love?
These are all questions that I used to wonder; the me who so ignorant of love back then.. The me who never believed in love, yet preached it because of what I'd seen in fairy tales, novels, etc. It all began when I met him. Him. Him, who could twist me around and around his finger. Something I thought wouldn't ever be possible, became possible. Falling in love, feeling the longing, feeling the pain; believing in this endless false hope and traveling alongside it. Perhaps it was love, perhaps it was loneliness that made the two of us cling to each other so? Perhaps it was the three years he waited for me, the years that he wanted me to feel?
It all started when I found out about the site, the site that made avatars possible. You could create your own version of yourself. Dress yourself up really cute, have any username you wanted, and go anywhere (digitally) that you wanted without reality biting your butt. In essence, you could create a new you; be someone without labels slapped on you and interact with people from all over the world. Yes, I'm talking about the iconic, famous, gaming world of Tinierme, before it shut down.
On my bed I sat, probably 15 or 16 years old at the time. Picking out my newbie outfit with my name "Priestess" picked out. As the days passed. I started learning more and more about the site, things like: where to shop, which places were the best for fishing, what Gatcha coins were and how they worked, which places were the best for hanging out.. I had these things memorized like the back of my hand. I met many, many friends. Some came from the United States, Korea, Japan, Philippines, etc. You name it, they were there, at all hours of the day and night, just enjoying themselves.. Something we've seem to forgotten how to do.
I had joined a group, where as members, for a joke, we named the founder of the group "father". His friend, the co-founder was our "mother", despite being a male. We as members would meet up in the ChibiPet Area, beyond the gate. Set up as a starry room, with two benches on the lower left and right sides, avatars, also called "selfies" could pick a seat and sit, talking in the Selfy Town (virtual world) for hours on end. Some actually left their selfies in Selfy Town all day, sitting or standing idly all over the Selfy Town. The ChibiPet Area, in my opinion was the most beautiful room, filled with color and stars virtually twinkling as your ChibiPets followed your selfies. ChibiPets were pets that you could equip to your selfie, feeding them, washing them, etc. Besides the ChibiPet Area, there were other rooms like the Chat Room, the central point of the Selfy Town. Or you could go fishing in rooms like the Gourd Pond, Shallow Beach, Rickety Rope Bridge, etc. Or in special events, you could go to the Ring Gate where the selfies would raise up their rings to "ring" each other. Such was the world of Tinierme, abbreviated to "TM" for the long-time members. Going back to the story.. I remember sitting on one of the benches inside ChibiPet Area, waiting for the other members of "Anime, and All Things Cosplay Group" to show up.
"Priestess!"
Looking to the entrance, I smiled as a familiar face popped into the room. "Mother!"
"How has my little Priestess been?"
"Well. How have you been mother?" He came over to the opposite side, sitting down. Looking at his outfit today, he had decided to dress his selfy up in a black and white hakama, a black sword dangling on his back, accompanied with tabi shoes. His hair, which was green in color, reached below his waist, tied by a white ribbon in the back.
"I have been well too. It's too bad about this group.."
"Why? What has happened?"
"The numbers are decreasing daily.. Looks like people have just started losing interest or something in TM. The numbers for our group and the numbers of people actually playing online here have been dropping like flies.."
"Could it be.. Due to the Gatcha prices going up? As the price goes up, more people want those fancy outfits but don't have real-life spending money.. It would be easy to imagine why people would start envying those with money and flashy outfits.."
"That's the point. Pretty soon.. Rumors say they'll even shut down this site."
"That can't be.. Why? We've been here for a good two years now since it started.. What will happen to us? The selfies? The money we spent? The friends and memories we made?"
"... It'll disappear. If this site shuts down, its inevitable that everything will disappear. Gone, in an instant.."
My head spinning, I stopped typing into the private chatbox to think about what Mother just revealed. Gone? My selfie? My wardrobe of priestess costumes and paper talismans? Everything I had built here, the group I considered my family.. Just gone?
"Oh! Priestess! Mother!"
Looking toward the entrance, "Sango" came bounding into the room, running her selfy behind my place on the bench, eventually sitting herself down next to me.
"Oops! Haha! I meant to hug you but ended up sitting here."
Smiling to myself, I remembered how Sango was like a sister to me. Here in the group since day one with Mother, Father, me, Kirara, Shippo, and Miroku. Seven people who all put so much effort into making the group, just to watch it possibly shut down.
"If only I could really hug you, I would.." I replied, staring at the green apron around her white kimono. The sleeves hiding the black fingerless gloves she often wore with her large surfing board over her back.
"So.. That means.. Possibility is high, huh?"
"Yes.. Much so." Mother replied, letting the silence hang in the air.
"Where's Father? Everyone else?" Desperately wanting to change the subject, I inquired about something else, anything to change the feeling of my heart slowly sinking.
"Father has.. Disappeared. Among the many others, he's one that has vanished."
"Mother, you mean to say, he's abandoned us? TM? But he's the one who started this group!" Sango yelled, echoing my thoughts.
"I know.. But perhaps.. He like the others.. Just got tired of it all. The endless jealousy, the fight over nicer costumes due to the jealousy.. He's left us." Just like that, silence hung in the air once more. A selfy we hadn't noticed, wearing a cat costume to hide their entire body, walked over, stopping just short of Mother. We watched as it started to use the selfy's cry button, large blue drops cascading left and right of the costume, its head bowing down. It was only then that the username that had been hidden by the costume came into view. Kirara.
"Kirara. Crying won't help. If it's this site's destiny to shut down; we have nothing we can do."
"But Mother!"
"No Kirara. Stop crying. Your sisters haven't done that.." Mother stood up, walking to Kirara, patting her head.
"Should we just call this meeting over early?" Miroku appeared in the entrance, wearing his purple priest outfit as normal.
"Why be sad? The time we have left.. Should be spent in happiness, right? If they are to be our last memories of each other.. Shouldn't we make the best out of them?" My red leg-length skirt brushed the grass as I stood up, standing by the left of Kirara.
"Priestess is correct." Sango said, quickly getting up and standing behind me.
"Raise your ringing hands if you all agree, then." Miroku said, raising his right hand in the air. In less than a minute, we had all thrown up our hands, determined to make the best of it.
Later that night, after I had signed off for the night, I looked up at my ceiling. Wow.. It's been two years. I'm now 18 years old.. Saying good-bye to a community that I finally belong to.. I don't know if I can.
"Kagome! Are you still up? Go to bed!"
"Ah, yes! I will Mom!" I called back, careful not to wake up Sota, my younger brother as he slept in the other room. Putting my computer away, I made a handwritten list of who I planned to say good-bye to. Then realizing it, I realized that I could also ask them for their contact information so that we could keep in contact even if the site did shut down. Hitting myself on the forehead, I realized how stupid I was.
"Of course! Duh! Yup, I'm an idiot. This family, won't just break up like that. Not if I can help it." Smiling inwardly, I continued making my list, before reaching up to turn off my overhead light, falling asleep quickly.
End of chapter one. Thank you for reading! Please tell me what you think and if you'd like to see this continue~! Thank you!