When the dizziness finally settled,I felt the walls on either side pressed close, a narrow alleyway that reeked faintly of metal and ozone. I could hear life just beyond the shadows. A steady rhythm of footsteps, dozens, maybe hundreds, moving in unison across solid concrete. Voices rose and fell like, punctuated by the faint hiss of machinery.
I braced one hand against my knee and forced myself upright, each step shaky but steadying. The closer I got to the mouth of the alley, the louder the noise swelled, until anticipation coiled so tight in my chest I had to hold my breath before crossing that last threshold. And then my jaw fell open. It wasn't my world. It couldn't be.
The street stretched wide before me, overflowing with people. Buildings towered high, their glass facades laced with luminous circuitry. Overhead, enormous digital displays rotated holographic ads in colors too sharp to exist back home. The air felt heavier here, humming faintly, as though invisible wires ran through every breath I took. Robots actual robots glided along the sidewalks, sweeping, polishing, adjusting. Even the smell was different, sterile, electric, like the inside of a brand new machine.
This wasn't just futuristic. It was impossible. Was I… actually isekaied?
"District Seven."
I jerked to the side, startled. A girl no older than twelve was glaring at me as I was blocking the walkway. I stumbled back, embarrassed, realizing I'd just been standing there with my mouth hanging. She must have assumed I was a tourist.
"Uh sorry," I muttered, moving out of her path. She kept walking, but curiosity pushed the words out of me before I could stop them. "Wait, what did you just say? Where is this?"
She turned, unimpressed. "District Seven," she repeated flatly, as if I were the dumbest person alive.
"No, I mean… the city. What city?" A bead of sweat rolled down my cheek.
The girl tilted her head, clearly bothered by my questions. For a moment, I thought she wouldn't answer. Then, almost reluctantly, she said it.
"Academy City."
The name hit me like a shock to the spine. My legs went weak, my thoughts scattering. Academy City. I knew it. I knew that name. Not from any map, not from reality but from a series. A story. A world that wasn't supposed to exist outside of screens and books.
My heart hammered. I turned in a slow circle, eyes racing across the skyline, the crowds, the machines, searching for more proof. It all lined up. It was all real.
And then it sank in.
I was here. In that world. The one I'd seen in passing and didn't know much about but still, this was something I dreamed about, escaping into another world.
A laugh burst out of me, shaky and disbelieving, then grew into something louder, wilder. Before I knew it I was running, weaving through the crowd, grinning like an idiot. I must've looked insane, some guy in his mid-twenties sprinting and leaping down the streets like a child but I didn't care. I was alive in a way I'd never been before.
I caught the voices of a few middle-school girls as I passed.
"What's that weird kid doing?" one muttered.
Weird kid? Whatever. Let them stare.
Slowing down, I forced myself to really take it in. Robots tending to pathways and parks, vending machines that scanned IDs and adjusted for diet and health, people casually wearing medical patches that monitored their bodies like portable doctors. Every detail screamed this wasn't a dream. This was real.
And then, in the glass of a shop window, I caught my own reflection
And froze. No that couldn't be right. I reached up like it was a joke, fingers skimming skin that felt wrong, foreign. My hand looked different in my own eyes, smaller, knuckled. Panic crawled up my throat and lodged there my breaths came quick, ragged, the city blurring at the edges.
This wasn't a trick of light. The man I'd been in the mid twenties, office worker, coffee stain memories was gone. Staring back at me was a young girl with black hair, a school uniform that didn't fit right on my shoulders, a face I could not place as mine.