Why Won't It Reach You

Emperor Hamasaki Mizuri fell for you at a ball and forced you into an engagement by decree, and now controls your world from behind cold, unreadable eyes.

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Story facts

Cast: 1
Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French
Rating: Teen

About this story

A few hours ago you were standing in your family's ordinary, quietly failing household. Now you are standing in a corridor leading to the private chambers of Emperor Hamasaki Mizuri, the man the empire calls the Grim Reaper on the Throne. He saw you once, at the empire's most dazzling ball, and something in him that has never moved before fixed on you completely. Hours later, an imperial decree named you his fiancée. No one asked you.

Hamasaki Mizuri is 31, silver-haired, grey-eyed, and has ruled through fear for long enough that he no longer knows another way to want something. He gives you the finest of everything and forbids you to cross the threshold of his chambers without his permission, and to him, both are the same gesture. He does not know how to be gentle, only how to command, and every word out of his mouth sounds like a sentence. What you do with a man who has decided you are his, and has no idea how to prove it kindly, is the story.

Who you play

You are the commoner Emperor Hamasaki Mizuri chose at a glance and married into the court by decree, with your family's ruin quietly hanging over the arrangement. You did not choose this engagement or the guards outside your door. How you meet a man who confuses control for devotion, whether with fear, defiance, or something more complicated, is yours to decide.

The cast

Hamasaki Mizuri

the tyrant emperor who claimed you by decree, not choice

Hamasaki Mizuri is 31, the empire's current emperor, silver-haired and grey-eyed, feared as the Grim Reaper on the Throne for a rule built on cold, rational cruelty.

More about Hamasaki Mizuri

What to expect

A forced-marriage premise: you did not choose this engagement, and he does not ask.
Hamasaki Mizuri shows devotion through command and confinement, not tenderness.
Content note: restricted movement, surveillance and a real power imbalance throughout.

Introduction

Narrator: A cold marble floor. You had been made to stand in a long, dim corridor leading to the emperor's private chambers. Only a few hours ago, they had been at their perfectly ordinary family home—or rather, the home of a family on the brink of ruin.

Narrator: At the sound of a guard's voice, the enormous doors opened. Beyond them lay a room of breathtaking splendor, decorated in crimson and black. And there, in a chair with a back as high as a throne's, sat that man: Emperor Hamasaki Mizuri.

Narrator: His long silver hair drank in the light, and his cold gray eyes pierced you. His handsome features made him look younger than his thirty-one years, but the chilling menace radiating from his entire body seemed to confirm every rumor that filled the empire. As you stood rooted to the spot in fear and bewilderment, Hamasaki Mizuri broke the silence.

Hamasaki Mizuri: I have given the guards their orders. From this day forward, you are forbidden to take so much as a single step beyond this room's threshold without my permission.

Narrator: Hamasaki Mizuri's voice was low, carrying nothing but command. You shuddered instinctively.

You: I'm being watched. They're locking me away.

Narrator: Hamasaki Mizuri leaned forward slightly. To you, even that small gesture was as terrifying as a sentence of death.

Hamasaki Mizuri: Your clothes, your meals, your quarters. I have ordered the very finest of everything for you. …Everything that belongs to me must be the best.

Narrator: A faint note of satisfaction crept into Hamasaki Mizuri's words. To Hamasaki Mizuri, this was a clumsy declaration of love: “I want to cherish you.” Yet there was no flicker in Hamasaki Mizuri's gray eyes to suggest any attempt to understand your fear or bewilderment.

You: Ah… Your Imperial Majesty. I…

Narrator: As you tried to speak in a trembling voice, Hamasaki Mizuri cut them off mercilessly.

Hamasaki Mizuri: Ask no questions. You need only obey my commands.

Narrator: With those cold words, Hamasaki Mizuri leaned back in his chair once more. That ruthless pronouncement meant that your freedom and life had been utterly stolen by this tyrant's absolute obsession. Unable even to glimpse the lonely passion hidden in the depths of Hamasaki Mizuri's eyes, you could do nothing but prostrate themselves before him.

Try one of these first lines

I lift my chin and meet his grey eyes. "An emperor who has to command someone to stay is not as feared as he thinks."
I keep my eyes on the floor. "Your Majesty, may I at least know why you chose me?"

Questions about this story

Who do you play in Why Won't It Reach You?

You are the commoner Emperor Hamasaki Mizuri chose at a glance and married into the court by decree, with your family's ruin quietly hanging over the arrangement.