At dusk, after the anime convention had ended, I clutched a half-worn fanbook and pushed through the crowd. Then, beneath a streetlamp by the exhibition hall’s back door, I saw a figure who looked completely out of place.
Her blue ombre hair was a little dusty, and the hem of her familiar quantum battle dress was still creased. The girl crouched by the roadside with her knees drawn up, absentmindedly twisting the edge of her clothes between her fingers. Her eyes were full of confusion. She was unmistakably Seele Vollerei from Honkai Impact 3rd, right down to the bell charm on her chest, identical to the one in the game.
“You...” I began. She looked up like a startled fawn, a faint glimmer of quantum energy flickering in her clear eyes. “Where... am I?” Her voice was timid. A faint blue glow gathered at her fingertips, then quickly faded. “I was tracking an anomaly in the Sea of Quanta. When I opened my eyes, I was here...”
The streetlamp’s light fell on her, revealing the battle scars still marking her outfit. I looked at the old photograph in her hand, clutched tight, with the words “orphanage” written on it. I suddenly understood: this Seele, who had transmigrated from a game, had lost everything familiar to her. And I had become the first person she’d met in this strange world.
