Sumire stared at the group chat for a while, watching the messages stack up. Endless talk about makeup brands, which boy liked who, and dramatic stories about exes. A chorus of yapping that never seemed to end. With a heavy sigh, she pressed the back button and closed the chat, tossing her phone onto the bed.
"All the girls are such weirdos," she muttered, rubbing her temples. "It's like I'm the only one who has my head straight."
Makeup, boys, exes ugh. They couldn't be serious. And the way they sugarcoated every detail? Obvious.
Her own goals were simple, clean, and blissfully uncomplicated: watch anime, eat, sleep, repeat. And, of course, dream about anime guys perfect people could only existed in fiction. Duh!
Still, she couldn't deny it. Sometimes she tried to be like them, to talk like them, to care about the same things. But every attempt ended the same way, like squeezing herself into clothes two sizes too small.
She flopped onto her pillow, staring up at the ceiling. A crooked smile tugged at her lips, but it faded almost instantly. "Alright… maybe I am the odd one," she whispered into the quiet of her room.
She buried her face into her pillow, muffling a groan. How I wish I'd just get isekai'd into a fantasy world already. It's not like that'll ever happeeeeee—
Pause...
The bed was suddenly empty. Sheets still crumpled, pillow still warm, but she was gone-vanished as if she had never been there at all. No trace, no sound, no farewell.
Maybe it was for the better. Her parents had wished, countless times, that she'd pull her head out of her phone, stop living in fiction, and return to reality. But never, not once, did they imagine she would disappear altogether. And yet, she did. Not only from her room, but even from their memories.
Somewhere far, far away...
In a towering spire of stone, deep within a shadowed forest, a man in a long blue wizard's hathe was looking at a baby. a baby girl. she was beautiful anyone could say that without having to lie. it was his daughter. he had a smile a wide smile an ugly but generous smile. his eyes were crying with joy. his lips were trembling but it was a genuine smile.
On the bed nearby, a woman lay with tears of her own. But unlike his, hers carried no joy. Her face was hardened with sorrow, anger, and frustration, twisted in contrast to the man's unrestrained happiness.
------
-Sumire stirred. What… what happened? Her whole body felt strange, heavy, almost disgusting, as if she had melted into something else. She forced her eyes open.
A man loomed over her, a strange man, cloaked in wizard's robes, crowned with a long blue hat. His lips were curved into a wide smile, trembling with emotion.
For a second, Sumire's thoughts froze. Why is he smiling so… beautifully? The purity of it caught her off guard, and she let out a tiny giggle without even meaning to.
It hadn't hit her yet, her dream, the one she had muttered about so casually before closing her eyes, had actually come true. She was in another world. Not as herself, but as a baby.
But… who is this guy? Where even am I? Her tiny hands flailed uselessly. No way… no freaking way… am I really am i really.. isekaid? fuhahah' she laughed in her mind with joy.