The day I glitched reality started like any other.

  Alarms.

  Toast.

  Loneliness.

  I was fifteen years old, had zero romantic experience, and hair that made me look like I lost a fight with a silver hedgehog. Not that I minded. It made me stand out.

  Or at least, I thought it did. Until that morning.

  April 9th — 7:14 AM // Sora District

  “Riku! You’re gonna miss roll call again!”

  I barely caught Mom’s voice as I ran out the door, piece of toast (cliché included) clenched between my teeth. My uniform was wrinkled, my shoelaces untied. Classic morning.

  School was five blocks away, give or take an unexpected explosion or null outbreak. You learn to time your routes around them.

  Oh, right.

  Nulls

  The world’s glitch.

  They show up like black static—flickering outlines of what used to be people, emotions, or even entire buildings. They don’t destroy things, they erase them. Quietly. Like they were never there.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Nobody talks about it. Not anymore.

  You just keep your head down, avoid the glitch zones, and hope you’re not the next memory to vanish.

  But for some reason, I always remembered.

  Even when no one else did.

  Even when the world reset.

  7:35 AM — Natsume High School, Class 1-A

  I arrived just in time to slide into my seat—back row, window side. The classic “main character” spot. Not that I was one.

  Yet.

  “Yo, Riku,” said Haru, leaning over with a smirk. “Still crushing on every girl who smiles at you?”

  I sighed. “I’m not that bad.”

  “You wrote ‘Riku + ??? = ?’ on your desk.”

  “Art is subjective.”

  Reina, the class rep, looked back at me with her usual cold stare. “Your homework glitched again, didn’t it?”

  I froze.

  “…Define ‘glitched.’”

  And then it happened.

  The lights flickered.

  The air shimmered.

  And in the hallway just outside—

  a girl appeared.

  But she wasn’t there. She was… fading in and out like bad reception. Like her presence couldn’t sync with reality.

  Her eyes locked with mine.

  “You remember, don’t you?” she whispered.

  And suddenly—

  everything glitched.

  [SYSTEM MESSAGE: YOU HAVE AWAKENED A GLITCHHEART]

  Error. Conflict Detected.

  Rewriting Authority Level: UNKNOWN.

  Emotional Core Unlocked: “Desire to Connect.”

  Initializing Rejection Protocol…

  // Reality Anchor — SHATTERED.

  The classroom collapsed in silence.

  Everyone was frozen mid-motion.

  Except me.

  And her.

  The glitch-girl stepped forward, her eyes glowing with sadness and fire.

  “You’re not supposed to feel this much, Riku.”

  I swallowed. “…But I do.”

  She smiled.

  Then the world exploded into glass.