Riku, nerd, otaku, call it whatever you want he runs a video game store and it hasn’t been going smoothly for him. The business is slow ever since the pandemic came and now, he’s in the middle of firing his co-workers to reduce the labor cost and to at least keep the business alive for the next few months.

  Couple of heated exchanges are being thrown here and there with Riku finally settling with having compensation pay for the both of them to just make them leave the store and with Riku’s winning; the two men with their backs against Riku walked their way out of the store, Riku sees them part ways, in a very anti climatic almost nonchalant way.

  He sighs but didn’t really think too much about it, Riku likes to think positively he keeps up to date with the latest trends and memes and even stock latest AAA games despite having little to no customer coming into his store nowadays.

  “Brainrot? What the skibidi… I need to do more research on that.” Riku stares at his phone as if taking notes in his head, making sure that when the moment comes.

  Riku notices something on the shelf, it’s an old Otome game that he once played, a really old one it’s covered in dust and it hasn’t left the shelf for a very long time.

  A bittersweet wave hits him, as he brushes himself from the once gone by past. He continues trying to put himself to work as if to ignore it.

  The old otome game radiates something more than just “a game” as if Riku there standing being enveloped by the past that he regretted so much it stings the ever more each time he looks at it.

  —DING DING!

  A sound from his computer is heard, a notification for an order.

  Riku comes to check gleefully then brows narrowed, mouth dropped and his face cringes when he looks at the screen, handling orders for him is a usual thing for his business the more so since the pandemic. But this one, cringes him. It’s the same otome game that Riku’s been shifting his gaze away from.

  Now slowly creeping in his head of a certain trauma he wants to hide he walks by over to that shelf in a slump not wanting to even touch it like equivalent of wrapping a bag of garbage on a fine Saturday morning, but needing to get by it so he can run his business he forces himself to package the game and prep to ship it. Despite his whole body telling him otherwise.

  As he comes over to pick the game up, he notices something, maybe there’s light reflecting from it but no, it’s like the entire game itself is beaming in this bright white light. Hesitating for a moment Riku decides to go and reach for it, and once he reaches for it, he notices something strange, his whole world suddenly becomes warped in a soggy like state, slowly it melts and filling the room he’s in a bright white light.

  Riku then finds himself. Somewhere, not sure where he is. But then he hears voices. A lot of voices, disembodied voices as if they were calling out for him.

  But then he realizes something, these are his memories from the past.

  In a dreamlike state Riku is relieving his memories from the past, his body aches to move but he is unable to even raise a finger, his entire world flashing before him further pulling him deeper into his most traumatic past.

  But then—

  Riku groans. He felt like he had just hit a brick wall. “Ohh…,” Riku murmurs, he slowly pries his eyes open, when the world suddenly slapped him on the face. He is not in his office, not in his store, not even… in Japan? But somewhere else.

  Instead, a beautiful blue-sky peer into the streets where he’s in, it shines into these medieval looking buildings.

  He gets up to check on himself, his pants covered in dirt and rubbles from the cobblestones where people are walking on, then it hits him. The people, they’re walking on two legs, about the same size as a human person but their heads are… furries.

  Riku seems to have gone somewhere, completely unaware of the place that he’s in. He reassures himself that he’s still in Japan— perfectly fine and alive.

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  —The watch… works, my phone… works, calculator… and then… my lighter. Riku says as he searches his entire pockets making sure that everything’s in place. He is nothing more than a guy with his suit and tie.

  Everything seems to be in order except for himself he thought. He notices these furry people are starring into him, some tries not to notice and decide to go about their day, others see him and points him out.

  —Is it the way I dress? Well, I’d admit I’m not exactly a furry but isn’t that just a bit rude.

  Riku thought, but despite how he’s being stared at it’s the least of his concern as he continues walking down the street.

  He catches a scenario like no other, a bazaar of some sort with people who are selling goods and shop owners shouting to gather attention of the people. Upon closer inspection he notices that the things that they’re selling is more than just typical vegetables, at least in his eyes it’s more than that. Some of them look familiar and yet somehow, it’s very distinct from his world.

  But it wasn’t the goods that made Riku rub his eyes in disbelief, it’s the people.

  He sees furries, then humans and some kind of lizard creatures all existing in this one giant marketplace that he’s in.

  “What the, I stepped on something…?”He looks down and notices that it’s everywhere, it’s posted all over the place like it’s begging for everyone’s attention. He fixes his gaze on the one he just stepped on, bens down to look closer but to no avail. “This isn’t Japanese.” Riku realizes, the words are jumbled messy like some old runes from a fantasy world.

  Amused by how crunched up her face is. He inspects closer to the one on the wall, it’s a drawing of a woman. “Let’s see what we’re dealing with here...” Riku murmurs to himself, seeing this face he thought his ex-girlfriend wouldn’t stand a chance against her.

  “She’s pretty.”

  It’s no exaggeration when he said that. I mean I get how being surrounded by nothing more than 2 guys and pixelated characters for the last few years can make one’s perception of beauty to be so awry and twisted but it’s no exaggeration that in a while he actually finds her to be pretty.

  But something feels off, it feels like more than just the dazzling beauty of the figure in the poster there’s something about her face that feels very nostalgic.

  But, no good in dilly dallying around he thinks. “I should go back to the store, now that I’ve fired 2 of my co-workers there’s no telling what-

  That’s when it hits him.

  “Oh crap! The otome game order! I gotta get back quickly”

  Riku didn’t notice it himself, there was a huge crowd gathering. He slithers his way through the crowd stepping all kinds of shoes and people all over the place, pushing them aside trying to find the exit door to this mysterious wonderland.

  —How elaborated is this furry convention?! he says to himself, digging deep into the bazaar still thinking that he’s in some kind of a huge carnival.

  Whilst jostling about Riku bumps into someone, “Oh so sorry!” Riku says, that person was a hooded figure but you can clearly tell it’s a girl based on how she dresses and even more so her attire was more feminine than the usual street like attire you’d wear if you were in a market.

  The figure lying on the ground from falling butt first lies in wait; looking far into the crowd as if trying to see something from a distance, “Quick!” without a moment notice the figure quickly pulls Riku down and her face close to his, Riku and the figure were lying still there for about a few minutes and then in the distance guards with their uniforms, going around the crowd.

  One of them, notices us sitting on the ground like some kind of beggars, their gaze stare into ours but then quickly look straight ahead somewhere into the crowd. Ordering certain people with hoods and masks to stop and reveal their faces, revealing each of their faces to them like some sort of gated security checkpoint. Once satisfied they dismiss them. But after a while, their search continues further down the main street and their silhouettes slowly blend in with the masses, their voices loud and bold picking out certain group of people out in a distance as if they were on the lookout for someone suspicious.

  “Ughh, guards…”

  For a second the light shines on the hooded figure and Riku seems a glimpse of her face and notices something about it.

  “You’re the…” Riku voice leaks out

  The figure stares back at Riku with daggers, almost annoyed and in disarray. She reaches for her pocket and quickly pats Riku’s hand asking to show it to her.

  “10 gold coins, take it and don’t tell the guards I was here.”

  “No uh. I mean.”

  “15 gold coins then.”

  “Aren’t you the…?”

  “20, 30? Fuck it. Take it all. Here.” The figure, completely annoyed by now quickly picks herself back up and skadoodle away into the alley disappearing into the dark narrow space but without a doubt-

  —That face, I know her… It can’t be…

  Riku thinking to himself continues to reject the very same thought he had before, the encounter with that hooded figure was more than just an accident.

  The figure, their face, shadowed by their hood with only a glim of light on their face.

  Like having a sudden episode of PTSD, the very memory he kept so much hidden to himself suddenly bursts out of him with a whiplash of emotions. He cringes but the more so shocked that the face he had just seen, what he felt and saw felt unreal but it wasn’t a delusion, he tries pinching himself and stomp the ground to see if he can wake up from this dream, but he felt the pain and the ground is a solid rock, and that face.

  The very same face that the main villainess from the old Otome game he was traumatized by!