Kaoru's story isn't that unusual. His father knocked up his mother in a one-night stand and were wed out wedlock though by the time he was five years old, Kauro's mother walked out on them. His father was an abusive alcoholic with no prospects of getting a proper job and essentially made his son's life a living hell. Kauro's only solace were the books he'd be able to get from the library and the late-night movies when his father was passed out from a drunken stupor. Being a dumb kid he got it into his head that if he acted a certain way like those characters he saw in the moves or books then maybe his dad would love him more. After all, if his own father didn't like him then it was his fault, right?

In some ways it worked, at least he saw correlation rather than causation. There were times when his father would berate him less and wouldn't break his belongings though there were times when he would fly into a rage. There were times when Kauro would hide in his room during those bouts and he would escape further into the character that he made for himself, too young to realize that his efforts to make his father to love him were now causing him to separate from himself.

This went on until he was thirteen, when it all came to a head. One night his father became exceptionally drunk after losing his janitorial job and grew violent. He blamed his son for everything, that he was the starting point where things went wrong. Kauro locked himself in his room as his father kept pounding his door and screamed at him to "open the fuck up," eventually breaking the door down where things escalated even more. The boy felt his father's hands around his neck and felt the life being squeezed out of him as he was being suffocated. In a twist of fate, his father's pancreas burst from preexisting conditions worsened by excessive alcohol consumption and stress. His father did not survive and Kauro was taken in by his aunt's family and transferred to a different school.

For what its worth, his life did improve after that. His aunt had long tried to get custody over Kauro, but the courts ruled in his father's favor and his father did not want to let him go due to the welfare checks he was getting that were meant to be used for his son. So, in her custody he had actually had a healthy life for the first time ever, but the damage was done. Kauro acted like he was fine, putting on an act that made him popular with others around him, but in reality, it was a coping mechanism and an unhealthy one at that. It was easier to be a character; to be liked and popular, to live out someone else's life, and tell their story without having to form complicated ties and relationships. In other words, an unsatisfying hollow existence.

The only thing that he was truly passionate about were the books he read and eventually began to write his own stories at the encouragement of his aunt and post them online under the pseudonym Ligeia. However, the character that Kauro played wasn't a dedicated writer that locked himself in his room for hours or a lover of stories and literature. He was the trendy social butterfly that liked what you liked even in reality he hated it or hated you.

Life was joyless, but what was one to expect when you don't live your own life? Well, there was something strange that happened; an app with a black crown appeared on his phone and it couldn't be deleted. Out of curiosity, he opened it and was asked an interesting question. Rather than put off by this strange app he found it fascinating, like a story come to life.

Osamu was born as the third of five children, with his father working in tech and his mother being a stay-at-home mom. While most of his family got along well and had great relationships with one another, Osamu fell through the cracks. It started with accidents, things like needing to wait extra time at places or being walked home by people who knew him because his family got mixed up in something and forgot to pick him up. Then it was things that were minor to some, but not to a developing child, such as forgetting a birthday, or forgetting a promise that was made.

After a while, Osamu decided that if his parents and siblings weren’t going to acknowledge him, he was going to do whatever he could to earn their attention. Between the ages of eight and thirteen, he spent a lot of time and effort in learning another language online, learning to read above his grade level, and excelling in school and extracurricular activities. Despite this, he still ended up forgotten, as the neglect grew worse and his siblings were increasingly favored, he had to learn how to cook because there would be days where his parents took the family out to eat and forgot him at the house.

At some point around entering middle school, Osamu snapped. He decided that if his own family wasn’t going to acknowledge him for doing well, then he would see if acting out got him any form of attention. So, he beat up a bully, got sent home, and received an earful from his mother about getting into fights. But being scolded was better than being outright ignored in the young Osamu’s mind. Which is where things started to take a turn.

Osamu started doing things to get attention and to piss off his parents, which started with hanging out with delinquents and getting into fights. The people he chose to surround himself with only encouraged Osamu to keep going down this path, and towards the end of middle school, Osamu had his first experience with being arrested. He was dragged home by a disappointed police officer for skipping curfew, minor theft, and evidence of underage drinking. Needless to say, his family weren’t thrilled.

During his first year of high school, Osamu got arrested another six times for various offences, including; assault, possession of an illegal substance, underage drinking, skipping curfew and attempted theft. But despite all of that, he never once resisted arrest, and due to his age and the low severity of his crimes, never spent more than a night in jail. The officers started to get to know him and have tried steering him down a different path, but so far, it isn’t working. One thing they have managed to convince him of, however, is that they know who he is, and if they catch him doing something, he was better off just coming quietly instead of trying to run.

At the tail end of his first year of high school, Osamu realized his life was just going downhill from here unless something changed. With a desperate desire in his heart, he left the school and checked his phone to find a strange app had appeared on it, asking him a question. “What Is Your Desire?” He thought it was strange, but being a dumb kid and having nothing to lose in his mind, he answered honestly.