Chapter Text
We get it. You love anime and manga. That’s why you’re here: browsing the manga section at your local Barnes and Noble. The famous retail store has just launched and was celebrating a brand new “manga month,” meaning the store was dedicating about double the usual shelves to the Japanese art style of storytelling. You reached out to one of your favorites, (title) by (author/artist), your fingers grazing the spine as you recalled a conversation that happened two nights prior.
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You were stargazing out in the middle of an empty parking lot with nothing but a broken streetlamp and a stray dog as your company. A familiar ache filled your chest as you stared out into the open expanse of clear sky, the stray animal your only source of warmth and comfort. You hated feeling this way. Lonely. Pitifully sad. Even though life wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t something to write home over, either. Usually surrounded by people, you still felt inside like something was missing. Like you were better off out here, without a soul in sight, than in a room full of people that made you feel invisible.
Engrossed in your thoughts you failed to notice the approach of another figure. Her raspy voice startled you, nearly jumping out of your skin. “Surely life can’t be all that bad, missy?”
It took you a few moments before gaining your voice back, your heart still pounding in your ears. “What do you mean?”
“Oh, simply that nobody understands you. That you feel more at home in empty space than amongst others.” She waited a moment. When she received no answer she asked “Am I wrong?”
Leary of this stranger, you clutched onto the dog hoping that, if she would try to kill you, maybe the leftover hamburger you gave it would be enough to convince it to protect you. “You’re not wrong but… who are you?”
“Just someone with many memories from many adventures.”
You scoffed. The lady seemed nice enough, her eyes directed up at the same galaxy you had been observing. But you could not properly see her face aside from a slim smile forming on her lips. “The only adventures I’ve ever had were of the literary nature.”
“Stories are just glimpsing into alternate realities, after all. So while you believe you haven’t been on any adventures, really the characters couldn’t have done it without you behind the cover, helping them turn the pages.”
You shook your head, not understanding a word she was saying. “I don’t think that’s how it works, but thanks.”
“It’s true!” The lady met eyes with you for the first time. “What if I told you that I’ve been on a million different adventures, each of them real and each of them literary at the same time.”
You held her gaze, raising an eyebrow. “Sure…” Your voice dragged out the word, sarcasm flooding within the syllable.
“Riddle me this, missy. Is not the definition of adventure the exploration of something new and unknown, the best of which resulting in fundamental changes to your very being?”
“Well, I suppose. In books, the adventure the protagonist goes on is meant to put them face to face with a weakness so that they are forced to face that fear and improve from it.”
The lady smiled widely. “Then how do books not accomplish the same thing in the reader as it has to its characters?”
“The problems happening in the stories aren’t actually happening to me. I can put down what I’m reading and forget what was going on.” Your mind drifted to a romance novel you read the other day, your heart sinking. “Life doesn’t work the same way as it does in the books.”
The old lady extended a hand. You hesitated but took it anyway, a fierce shock running through your palm and up your arm as your hands touched. You reeled back. “Ow! What was that for?!”
“The next time you pick up a book… you won’t be able to leave until you’ve made a difference in their story.”
You watched as the old lady walked away. She whistled with her fingers and the dog followed, tail wagging happily behind it. “Traitor…”
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You had been unable to put the thought out of your mind ever since that encounter with the lady. She seemed kinda witchy… you scoffed as you imagined you were probably lucky to walk away from her alive. Yet as your eyes glanced at the mangas, you couldn’t help but ponder the thought. What if you were really the main character, just helping the others along by turning the page and cheering them on from another universe?
Shaking your head, you laughed under your breath at yourself. “That’s absolute nonsense. I’m not interesting enough to be a main character.” Your mind went to dark places as you added. “My favorite characters probably wouldn’t even like me.”
You grabbed a classic, “Naruto: Shippuden”. Whether you actually like Naruto or not was besides the point, for when you opened the book your surroundings suddenly changed and you found yourself smack dab in the middle of Konoha… the leaf village. Everyone who has even heard the word “anime” probably knows what it looks like. Giant carved faces on a mountain looming over the town. A big red building kinda sorta in the center. And people walking around everywhere with headbands on.
Your heart skipped a beat as you tried to rationalize what was happening. Do you usually have vivid daydream episodes? Were you dissociating? Has you passed out and were actually dreaming? While your feet were glued to their spot in the dirt road someone crashed into your shoulder, shoving you out of the way and nearly tipped you over. A young man in an iconic orange and black sweater vest with spiky yellow hair outlined by a black headband with a leaf symbol turned back as he ran, waving at you. “Sorry! I don’t know who you are but I’ll find you and apologize properly sometime, ya’ know!”
Your mouth hung open as you watched the main character, Naruto himself, continue to sprint away. You heard thundering footsteps behind you and saw a pink haired lady with an incredibly scary face chasing after him. “I’M GOING TO KILL YOU NARUTO!”
You jumped off to the side before you could get trampled. “There’s no way this is real, right?” You chuckled, trying to brush the whole experience off as some kind of lucid dream. Turning around you saw you were at the front of the famous Ichiraku ramen place. “Well, as long as I’m here…”
You sat down and had a lovely meal at the expense of the shop owner, who recognized you were new. The entire experience seemed too vivid to be just a dream. Even for a lucid dream, it was too real. You couldn’t even remember falling asleep. Weren’t you just in the bookstore?!
Just as you were getting ready to try and wake yourself up, Naruto came bursting through the drapes with his sides heaving. “I think I finally lost her…” He saw you and his eyes perked up. “Oy! You’re the one I ran into earlier! I’m sorry about that, Sakura-chan is scary…”
You nodded, unsure of how to react to an astral projection of an anime/manga character. “You know,” Naruto started. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around. Are you still hungry? I’ll treat you to ramen!”
Taking a deep breath, you agreed to another portion of ramen. It was incredibly delicious, and there was no point in waking up earlier than you needed to.
You chatted with Naruto a good hour or two before a long-haired woman came in behind them, her face stained with tears. Naruto turned and his eyes went wide. “Hinata!”
“You… you forgot about our date.” She cast a quick glance at you before looking down at the ground. “And then, then I find you with, with another girl…” Hinata runs off, Naruto apologizing and running off after her. Your eyebrows furrowed with confusion as you blinked and found yourself holding the manga in your hands. Heart racing from the change of scenery yet again, you were now standing in Barnes and Noble. You quick glanced at your phone. Not even a minute has passed…it’s like time stood still.
The lady’s words echoed in your mind. “The next time you pick up a book… you won’t be able to leave until you’ve made a difference in their story.”
Glancing down at the volume of Naruto:Shippuden you picked up, you realized this was supposed to be a time when Hinata and Naruto sealed their relationship. You had caused a rift in their relationship, potentially changing the entire storyline! Could it be… I was actually in the manga?
The story didn’t look like it changed at all, but you felt yourself getting philosophical. “Maybe the books don’t change, because they are accounting the events of just one dimension of the universe. Some scientists believe there are multiple universes and alternate dimensions for each, repeating infinitely with minor changes in each, kind of like a repeating mirror.” You felt butterflies in the pit of your stomach as your heart palpitated from anxiety and excitement.
“So that means…” You glanced around you at all the manga. “There really is an alternate dimension to these universes… in which I exist?”
It sounded ridiculous. Absolutely impossible, really. Yet you could not deny the flavor of that ramen and the pain in your shoulder from being rammed into by Naruto. It wasn’t just a dream. It couldn’t have been.
You get to live out a life within any anime or manga you choose… and you can’t leave until you’ve made an impact on the universe. Will you finally find your purpose in this life by fixing other’s stories? Helping your favorite characters get what they deserve? Or by giving them love and being loved in a way you have come to believe is impossible in this all too-real dimension we live in?
There’s only one way to find out!
Your hand reached out for a volume of (Chosen Anime/Manga). You didn’t even pause to take a breath, or even consider what might happen to you emotionally if you got stuck in an anime world for longer than your half hour visit to Naruto in that prologue that you definitely should have just read before making up your mind to jump into your favorite series. As your surroundings changed, so did you. Your appearance changed to your own original character design and useful memories and connections filled your mind. Your body flooded with the feeling of power, whether your chosen manga had actually given you any or not. In your mind, you were leaving your life behind. You would be more than happy just to live in an interesting world. Anywhere but here. Even if for a moment, it was worth anything to you.
So off you went.
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Terms and Conditions: Once entering a story you cannot leave until you have made an impact that would change the outcome of the story on a grand level. This is harder than you would imagine it to be: fate doesn’t like to be toyed with. Your removal from the story, upon completion of your task, is unfortunately mandatory. Yet upon entering each story this fact is instantly forgotten until you return. You will be given clothes, memories, and powers suitable for the story you are entering. Imagine a background character, hiding in the shadows the entire time, just waiting to emerge and change the plot. This is you. Will you choose to battle fate and make a name for yourself in another dimension? Will you decide to leave your old life behind and stay a minor character, happy to watch on the sidelines and interact with characters you had always dreamed of meeting? Or are you satisfied just being an everyday reader?
I mean, *laughs*
As if you have a choice.
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Hey! Author here! Thank you so much for sharing an interest in this story idea I came up with. In case you are wondering, this is basically just a fun entrance into a bunch of reader-insert short stories (too long to be one-shots) with various characters from various anime and manga! This prologue serves as the beginning for each character's story. There are two ways to read this collection. Route One: you pick a character, read their story, and consider it complete, accepting your happy ending and moving on. From there, you can go back to the beginning and read another story if you wish, each one being separate but with the same premise. Or, Route Two: Deny your happy endings, jumping from series to series, breaking your heart over and over again, holding on for one big grand finale with the chance of gathering the largest anime harem you have ever seen. Which one will you choose?
Well, what are you waiting for? Go pick one and have an adventure!