And so, I was left standing there, speechless.

Was what that Lisa infant had said true? Was I a member of the Loud family? Was I a 12 year old American? Had all those 16 years worth of memories from my life in Japan been just a dream?

My sweet mother, Midori. My loveable sister, Suguha. My true love, Asuna. My sexual mentor and trustworthy besty, Leafa. All the other girls I had had such good times with. Had all the above never existed? Had they been just creations of my imagination in an overnight dream?

My eyes became wet.

WHAT AM I THINKING?

My memories are all too real to have been a dream. I'm Kirito Sama, a 16 year old Japanese. And I'll prove it!

I searched in a drawer, hoping to find something, anything that would help.

I found a diary. I opened it. I read the first page.

Hello, I'm Kirito. Kirito Loud. And this is my diary.

I could recognize my handwriting! This was my handwriting, beyond doubt! And yet, I could not recall writing that diary!

With terror in my heart, I started reading. I stood there, reading, for hours.

According to what I read, I was a 12 year old boy who lived in Royal Woods, a small town somewhere in the United States of America. I was a member of a really large family. In fact, I had 9 sisters! Lori (aged 17), Leni (aged 16), Luna (aged 15), Luan (aged 14), Lynn (aged 13), Lucy (aged 8), the Lana and Lola twins (aged 6 each) and Lisa (aged 4).

My best friend was my classmate, Clyde, a black boy adopted by a gay couple. Also, he has a crush on my sister, Lori. Awkward!

I used to have a female friend too, Ronnie Anne, the sister of Lori's boyfriend, Bobby, but she had moved to a bigger city recently. For some reason, the other version of myself (the one who wrote that diary) felt the need to stress, with capital, bold letters, that Ronnie Anne was not his girlfriend.

I kept reading, learning much more stuff about that other me, whom I had become.

I closed the diary forcefully. I fumed.

No, I still refused to believe that my old life had never existed.

My eyes fell on a laptop. That was probably my laptop, I mean the laptop of my other self.

I turned it on and accessed the Internet. I was going to google Leafa's youtube videos. If her videos were still there, that meant that Leafa existed!

And yes, Leafa's youtube channel was there! I started scrolling down her videos, to make sure they were the same videos I remembered. Yes, they seemed to be the sa... WAIT A MINUTE!

I froze when I saw the thumbnail of the underwear haul video she had made one year ago, the one I was there when she recorded and masturbated to (see Chapter 7).

That was not the thumbnail I remembered! In this thumbnail, she was wearing her red underwear, the one I had taken from her and given to Asuna before she made that video (see Chapter 5).

Showered with cold sweat, I clicked on the video. Largely, it was about the same video that I remembered, but there were some details that were different. Also, one of the underwear sets she presented in the haul was the red one I had given to Asuna. Why did she still have it? That didn't make any sense.

Suddenly, I had an idea. I could call Leafa! After all, if she existed, her phone number was logically the same, so, even if I was one ocean away, I could still call her.

I exited the room, crossed a corridor, went down some stairs and reached a living room. Finally, I found a phone.

I dialed Leafa's number. 'Hello?' I heard her voice. Judging from her tone, I had just awakened her.

'Leafa, you won't believe what is happening to me,' I started whispering, fast and with horror. 'But first tell me, did you edit your underwear haul video?'

'The one I made last year?' Leafa asked. 'No, I didn't. Who is it?'

'It's me, Kirito.'

'I don't know anyone by that name.'

'Leafa, please, stop kidding. I'm freaking out here!'

'Listen, kiddo,' Leafa sighed. 'I don't know where you found my number, but, if your classmates have told you it is a good idea to pester famous youtubers, they were wrong. You're free to jack off to my videos to your heart's content, but, if you call me again, I'll call the police.'

And, with those words, she hung up.

I had started realizing what was going on. Somehow, I had been transported to an alternate reality. One where I was born in a different place, under different circumstances. The people I used to know still existed, but I had never met them in that reality.

I sobbed. I could try calling Asuna, Suguha or mom, but what was the point? They wouldn't recognize me either.

I looked at a photo on a table. It showed me smiling next to a bald man (from the stuff I had read in the diary, I could tell he was my father, Lynn Sr. Loud). We were dressed in jackets and we were holding fishing rods and freshly caught fish. We looked so happy.

Such a happy memory, yet I couldn't remember a thing. Because it was a memory I had never lived. A life I had never lived. A life someone else had lived.

What was I supposed to do? I had violently been transported to another world before, Halkeginia, but, at least, that time, I was still the same person. Now, I was essentially someone else.

With a family of strangers, people I had never met, let alone bonded with. With seemingly no hope of seeing my true loved ones ever again. What would you do in my place, guys?

I burst into tears.