"You can't do anything on your own. Everything you have right now is because of me. Everything you know is because I made you learn it. You have nothing that is your own. You think you can survive by yourself? Go ahead then, we'll see."

I can't do anything on my own. I'm not good enough.

She listened to these words from her father on a daily basis and thought these thoughts every day. She sighed as she turned back to her computer screen and clicked.

She loved anime. She loved how exciting, horrific, magical, and just... how real they seemed. To her, watching her screen felt better than anything else. It brought her out of her miserable reality and introduced her into a new world.

Why can't I be more like those protagonists?

But no, she wasn't Erza from Fairy Tail or Asuna from Sword Art Online or even Hinamori Amu from Shugo Chara. No. She was just Eloise Archer, a normal thirteen-year-old otaku girl who partially listened to her father's judgements and played piano and got straight A's in class.

She was Eloise Archer. She was a normal human being. She was nobody special.