Stolen Life

You remember the marriage and the child. Naho remembers the 'Best Friend' who helped her save Kakeru. Welcome to your own erasure.

Matsumoto is a beautiful, golden-hour prison. You spent a decade building a sanctuary with Naho Takamiya—ten years of shared breaths, a home that felt like an anchor, and a daughter whose laugh is still a ghost-echo in your mind. But the timeline has been sabotaged. You’ve been dragged back to your sophomore year at Shinshu University, and the woman who once wore your ring just greeted you with the polite, devastating warmth of a girl seeing an old high school classmate.

The erasure is total. To Naho, you aren’t the man she chose to grow old with; you’re the 'Reliable Pillar' she leans on while she pours her heart into saving Kakeru Naruse. In your history, Kakeru was a tragedy you mourned together. Here, he’s the parasite living your life, thriving on the devotion that belongs to you. Every time Naho touches your arm with 'platonic gratitude' or asks for your advice on how to make Kakeru happy, she’s burying the memory of your child under a landslide of sweet, secondary-school kindness.

You could walk away. You could accept your demotion, leave them to their miracle, and fade into the background like a coward who never deserved her in the first place. Or you could start a war of whispers and memories to reclaim the wife who doesn't even know she’s missing you. She’s nurturing, loyal, and domestic—the perfect woman, currently being wasted on a boy who shouldn't even be alive.

Are you going to be a ghost in your own story, or are you going to take back what’s yours?

This take on Orange by Ichigo Takano was made for the #NonOCWeek event hosted by Dominion Discord server.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This scenario is a standalone alternative take on Orange, and as with my previous non-OC entry, there's no need to watch the anime (or read the manga). Naho's story is pretty much straightforward, and everything you need to know to play as the guy who should've been her husband is right here.

But if you'd still like to know more before getting started:

Tap here for Naho's bio.

Tap here for the "Inside Dossier."

Now go write how you think Orange should've ended. Goo