Outline: Mira and Rion arrive in a glitched otome world where the heroine, Lillian, has lost all of her romantic routes. Once the beloved center of a five-boy harem, now she lives in a world where every love interest has been downgraded or removed, leaving her stuck in an endless "friendship route" with no climax. Mira tries to help—but realizes this glitch might be intentional.
---
It was pastel.
Too pastel.
Mira blinked as the sky glowed baby pink and the clouds formed suspiciously perfect heart shapes.
They'd landed in a town square paved with sparkles.
Rion groaned. "Otome zone. Great."
A banner floated lazily above the fountain.
> 🌸 Welcome to *Saint Lovia Academy* ~ Pursue Your Destiny! 🌸
"It's empty," Mira said.
"Dead game," Rion replied. "Last major update was four years ago. Then the author rewrote all the boys into side characters for a comedy spinoff."
They walked down the main path. Butterflies spawned and despawned. A mailbox exploded into confetti. Nothing made sense.
Then they saw her.
A girl in a perfectly frilled uniform stood in front of the old dormitory, staring at a vending machine.
She hadn't moved in minutes.
Mira approached.
"Excuse me—"
The girl turned.
Big eyes. Pale skin. Long curls. The default heroine.
> **Lillian D'Arc – Main Protagonist (Stagnant)**
"I can't get the juice," she whispered.
"…What?"
She pressed the button again.
The machine buzzed. Nothing came out.
"I used to get juice here every morning," she said. "While the tsundere prince pretended not to notice."
Mira glanced at the machine.
> ITEM UNAVAILABLE – SUPPORT CHARACTER DEACTIVATED
"…Oh no."
Lillian turned to her. "Are you new? A rival? A hidden route? I haven't unlocked anyone new in months."
"I'm not part of your story," Mira said gently. "We're… travelers."
Rion snorted.
Lillian nodded. "Good. I think the story forgot me."
She walked away from the machine, dress barely brushing the glittery ground.
"I used to have five love interests," she said. "They had names. Backgrounds. Routines."
"Where are they now?" Mira asked.
Lillian pointed.
"One runs the bread shop. He says the same three lines every day."
She pointed again.
"Another guards the school gate. He forgot my name last Tuesday."
She smiled.
"And the rest? Gone. Reassigned. One might be a horse now."
Mira stared in horror.
Rion muttered, "Yup. Classic romantic collapse. The system stripped her routes."
"Why?" Mira asked.
"Low engagement. High maintenance. The new author hates balanced cast design."
Mira turned to Lillian. "What about your route?"
Lillian pulled out a glowing menu screen.
It had a single option:
> Continue "Friendship Ending" → (Chapter ???)
"I've been stuck in the middle of this scene for 437 in-game days," Lillian said, her voice small. "Nobody finishes the friendship ending."
Mira sat beside her on a bench that squeaked melodramatically.
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault."
"I'm being rewritten too," Mira admitted. "As a villainess. Against my will."
Lillian looked at her for a long time. "Do you still have choices?"
"I… think so."
"Then use them."
A long silence.
Then Rion stood. "There's a path under the gymnasium. Debug tunnel."
"How do you know that?"
"Every otome world hides broken mechanics under sports facilities."
He wasn't joking.
---
They snuck into the gym, passed broken basketballs and shattered spotlights.
Behind a fake locker, a stairwell led down into a black hallway lined with strings of code.
At the center: a locked door pulsing with pink light.
> SYSTEM NODE: LOVE ROUTE DIRECTORY (DEPRECATED)
Mira touched it.
Hundreds of names flashed—love interests erased, merged, discarded.
One folder glitched open:
> HEROINE: LILLIAN
> STATUS: Soft Deleted
> CURRENT LOOP: Non-climaxable
"She's stuck," Mira whispered. "The system removed her climax flags."
Rion frowned. "If we pull her out, we might collapse the whole zone."
Mira clenched her fists. "Then collapse it."
She pulled the core tag labeled:
> Lock_ClimaxFlag_Lillian
The hallway screamed.
Light pulsed.
Above, in the pastel world, Lillian stood still.
Then a voice boomed:
> "ROUTE RESTORED – INITIATING FORCED CONCLUSION"
The world began to crack.
NPCs froze.
Background music turned into static.
Mira and Rion ran.
Behind them, hearts shattered mid-air like glass.
They emerged from the debug tunnel to find Lillian standing in a now-dim campus.
"What did you do?" she asked.
"I gave you your ending," Mira said.
Lillian nodded slowly.
Then smiled.
The wind blew.
She faded—like a scene finally allowed to finish.
Just before disappearing, she looked at Mira and whispered:
> "Don't let them delete you."
---
The world collapsed into white.
Mira landed on grass, coughing.
Rion sat beside her, bruised but alive.
"Well," he said, "one glitch world down."
Mira didn't reply.
She was staring at her character sheet.
A new tag had appeared.
> **Influence:** Narrative Disruptor (Level 1)
She was no longer just reacting.
She was changing things.