𝙱𝚊𝚍 𝙸𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚜 - 𝙺. 𝙱𝚘𝚔𝚞𝚝𝚘 𝚡 𝙾𝙲

Chapter One

𝐀/𝐍: 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐭.

Well, this is it!

When her stop was called out overhead by an electronic voice, Ichigo Idoki took a deep breath as she collected her two large sunshine yellow duffle bags off of the seat beside her along with her trusty Idoki Farms canvas tote bag and arranged the heavy straps over her shoulders. Opting to carry the tote bag simply by the handles since there was no way she was going to be able to balance it over her shoulder without one of her other bags knocking it off, she waddled towards the train's door and stepped off onto the platform.

Taking her time to carefully read the signage in the train station as she made her way to the correct street exit, the redhead meandered through the bustling area, flashing her friendly smile to anyone she made eye contact with as she did so. The sounds of traffic and muted chatter of the busy streets overwhelmed her ears as she passed through the doors with a beaming grin - this was nothing like home.

I did it, mom, I'm finally here. Osaka...

Idoki looked up at the tall skyscrapers with incredulity, feeling tiny in comparison to the six-hundred-foot steel giants surrounding her. It was bittersweet that her mom was no longer alive to see her late-bloomer daughter finally begin to live out her dreams at the age of twenty-eight, but Idoki liked to believe that somehow, somewhere in the ether her mother knew.

Wow... it's just as amazing as we thought!

While digging through the tote that she'd only brought to house a few things she might want on her hours-long train ride to find the brand new digital camera her brothers had pitched in to buy her as a celebratory gift for her new job and big move, someone bumped into Idoki and glared as they passed.

"Hey, watch where you're going!"

Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the businessman storming past her and she tilted her head to the side as she mumbled to herself. "I was just standing here, you bumped into me..."

Oh well, he must be having a bad day or something, she shrugged and poked past her favourite novel and some journaling supplies to pick out her camera.

Idoki's lips perked back up into a smile as she pressed the power button on the device and watched the display screen light up, capturing the busy scene in front of her. She took a few pictures of the street a few feet away before tilting her head up and grinning at the towering buildings above, truly understanding why they were called skyscrapers as it looked as if they could touch the sun.

Feeling herself being jostled once again, Idoki sighed and brought her hands down, only to have her tote bag yanked out of her left hand by a teenager in ripped jeans and a black hoodie. Blinking in shock for a second, the woman shook her head and began to run after them. "Hey! That's my bag!"

Watching as the teen skipped across the street, skillfully dodging a few cars in the process, Idoki felt her chest deflate, knowing those possessions were now gone forever. Rubbing her temple with her free hand, she closed her eyes for a split second to try and collect her thoughts while she waited for a light to change.

Of course, as her luck would have it a small child bumped against the hand by her side, causing her to lose her slightly sweaty grip on her new camera which promptly fell to the ground. Idoki's eyes began to water as she crouched down to examine the damage, the extending lens now missing a large chunk of its plastic casing.