Prologue: The Dreamer

Prologue: The Dreamer

Yume Aki Ryuuzaki sat by the window in her small room, watching the steady fall of rain against the glass. Outside, the world seemed distant, wrapped in a soft mist of grey, while inside her space, everything was as it had always been. The walls were lined with anime posters, the shelves filled with collectible figurines, and the desk cluttered with sketchbooks filled with black-and-white drawings. To anyone else, it might have seemed like a room stuck in the past, but to Yume, it was the place where she could escape.

At 20 years old, Yume had long since accepted her place in the world. She was small, standing only 5'2", and often felt invisible. People didn’t notice her much, and she didn’t mind. Her world was quieter, her dreams more vivid. She spent hours immersed in anime, where she could escape into fantastical worlds filled with action, emotions, and heroes who were everything she wasn’t. The characters became her friends, her role models, the escape from a world she often didn’t understand.

For as long as she could remember, Yume had been drawn to the world of cosplay. It had started in 2020 when she first donned the Lowbadjet costume. Her first cosplay was as Tobio Kageyama from Haikyuu!—a character so different from herself. He was confident, loud, and passionate. She was quiet, shy, and unsure of her place in the world. But in that costume, in that moment, Yume could be someone else. Someone stronger, someone who could step out of her shell and into a world where she wasn’t afraid to be seen.

Her love for cosplay, along with her obsession with anime, grew over the years. The characters she dressed as weren’t just imaginary figures—they were a way for her to express parts of herself she couldn’t always find words for. They became a part of her, and with each new costume, each new drawing, Yume felt like she was coming closer to finding the person she truly was. Still, there was one dream she could never shake—Japan.

The country she had only ever seen on TV, in anime, and through the characters she admired. Japan had always felt like the destination of her heart. It was the place where everything she loved came to life, where her favorite anime creators and characters walked the streets, where the culture she adored was alive in every corner. She had spent hours looking up photos of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, dreaming of what it would be like to live there one day.

But it had always seemed like an impossible dream. She wasn’t rich, she didn’t have connections, and she had no idea how to make it happen. Still, there was something inside her, a quiet voice that kept whispering, one day.

Today was different, though. As Yume sat at her desk, scrolling through her phone, she felt an unfamiliar sense of determination. It wasn’t just a dream anymore—it was something she could make real. She had saved money for months, cutting back on little things here and there, doing whatever she could to make the dream a reality. Maybe it wasn’t as impossible as it seemed. Maybe it was just the first step she needed to take.

With a deep breath, Yume opened the flight booking app on her phone. She hesitated, then quickly pressed the button to book a flight to Japan. The dream was no longer just something in her mind. It was happening.

The rain continued to fall outside, but inside, Yume felt like she was stepping into a new chapter of her life. The first chapter of her dream.

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