I Accidentally Got Isekai'd To Teyvat!

My name is Allen.

Back when life held some shape, some rhythm. When the days still made sense, even if they were hard. When I still believed that if I tried hard enough, I could move forward—before the weight of everything dulled that hope into silence.

I'm an orphan, raised by a system that forgot I existed the moment I turned eighteen. No family. No support. Just a tiny apartment that smelled like old ramen and sadness, and a dream I was trying so damn hard to hold on to.

College wasn't some rite of passage for me—it was survival. I juggled two part-time jobs, classes from dawn till night, and a constant cloud of hopelessness hovering just behind my eyes. People talked about dreams like they were flowers. For me, they were thorns.

And right now? I was getting screamed at by my boss.

"Late again, Allen?! Do you think the store runs itself?! Get your act together or get out!"

I bowed deeply, not even lifting my head. "I'm sorry, sir. My classes ran late, and the bus was—"

"Excuses!" he spat. "I don't need lazy kids with sob stories. You're fired!"

My mouth opened, then closed. There was nothing I could say. I just nodded.

I walked out into the cold air, uniform still clinging to me like a reminder of my failure. My phone buzzed.

Scholarship application: Rejected.

Reason: No legal guardian. Missing required documents.

My breath caught. Rent was due in five days. I had twenty-eight bucks to my name.

I looked up at the sky. It was still blue. Still distant. But in that moment, it felt completely disconnected from me. Like even the sky didn't care.

I chuckled.

It started as a chuckle. One of those dry, bitter ones that slip out when life kicks you hard enough. Then came another. And another. My shoulders shook. My vision blurred.

Then I was sobbing. Right there on the street, surrounded by the buzz of traffic and life going on as if the universe hadn't just spat in my face.

But there was one thing I still had. One person.

Her.

I wiped my eyes, heart pounding. I fumbled for my phone. She always said I could lean on her. Always.

I dialed.

And I heard her voice.

Not from the phone.

Nearby.

"He's such a loser, seriously. Like... still chasing dreams and all that crap. It's pathetic."

I turned.

She was laughing. With another guy. Her arm around his.

She saw me.

She blinked.

Then smirked.

"Well, guess you heard me. Good. Now you know."

I didn't scream. I didn't cry. I just... bowed.

And walked away.

I didn't know where I was going. My legs moved on their own. My soul had already checked out. Just an empty shell walking toward nowhere.

I walked and walked, the voices in my head growing louder with each step.

You're useless. You're nothing. You never had a chance.

Everything you did was pointless.

No one needs you.

I didn't realize I had wandered toward the bridge until I was halfway across.

It was quiet here.

A perfect place to end a story.

I stared over the edge. The water below shimmered like glass. Cold. Final.

Would it hurt?

Would it be fast?

Maybe...

Maybe if there's a next life... I hope it won't be like this.

I placed my hand on the railing. Fingers curled around the cold metal. My heart was oddly calm, almost too calm. Like the body already accepted the end even if the mind hadn't.

I took a step toward the edge.

And bumped into someone.

"W-Woah!"

She stumbled. Nearly tripped. I instinctively grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

She looked up at me.

Red wig. Flowing costume. A cosplay? Her eyes sparkled.

"You saved me!" she said, smiling.

My breath caught in my throat.

"You almost fell off the bridge," I murmured.

"Yeah, but you caught me. That means you're my hero now."

I looked at her, uncertain. Something about her felt like she didn't quite belong to this world—or maybe, she didn't belong in this exact moment either. But her voice—it didn't mock. It didn't judge. It didn't sting.

She looked up at the sky. "Wow... it's so pretty today, isn't it?"

I followed her gaze, then shrugged lightly. "I... I don't know."

She turned to me, giggling softly. "You're silly."

Then she smiled, not like the others. Not like the world. Just simply, kindly.

"I'm Yana."

I hesitated, then said quietly, "Allen."

Her smile lingered. "Nice to meet you, Allen."

We stood there, the city humming behind us, the breeze brushing past as if pausing to listen. There was a moment of stillness—like the world forgot to keep turning, just long enough to let us breathe.

She shifted her bag onto her shoulder and looked ahead. "You seem... tired. Not just physically. Deep down tired."

"I am," I admitted.

She didn't ask why. She didn't pry.

She just nodded. "Want to come with me?"

I frowned. "Where to?"

Yana didn't answer. She just held out her hand, her smile unwavering.

Something about it made me hesitate. Not out of fear, but disbelief. Like the world offered me a pause. An intermission.

I looked at her hand, then at her eyes.

I didn't understand what she meant. I didn't know who she was. But I knew that for the first time in what felt like forever, someone didn't look at me like I was broken.

A tear slipped down my cheek.

And I took her hand.

Maybe... just maybe... it wasn't the end.

Not yet.

***

They say when someone saves you, you owe them your life.

But that day... when I caught her hand, pulled her back from the edge—I didn't know that the life I'd end up owing wasn't mine to give anymore. Because without warning, she gave me hers instead.

Yana.

After I helped her up, she looked at me like I was the idiot.

"You could've died, you know," I told her. She's still pulling me, holding my hands like I'm some kind of toddler.

"So could you," she grinned. "So I guess that makes us even! Now come on, I owe you something huge!"

"You don't have to—"

"You do like anime, right?"

That's how I ended up standing in front of a blinding, roaring convention center plastered with banners I couldn't understand, surrounded by people in costumes too detailed to be real.

Hoyofair.

Some kind of mega-event for Hoyoverse games and anime fans. It was noisy. Flashy. Wild.

Chaotic.

But in a weird, impossible-to-hate kind of way.

She dragged me through the crowd with this dumb, infectious grin on her face like she owned the entire place. She waved at everyone. Spoke to everyone. Knew everyone. Or acted like she did.

I stood stiffly by her side, backpack still on, feeling like a fish in a desert.

And then...

I laughed.

I don't even know why. Maybe it was just the absurdity of it all. The brightness. The color.

Or maybe I was just... happy?

I didn't know what happiness was supposed to feel like. I hadn't felt it in years. But in that moment—something flickered inside me. A spark. A breath I didn't know I'd been holding.

Yana was loud. Ridiculous. She'd mispronounce character names and argue with random people in line about whose waifu had more lore. But her energy was magnetic. She moved like nothing in the world could bring her down.

And I started to follow.

That was the beginning.

She found me again the next day.

And the day after that.

And the day after.

"Yo! I found another con! Let's go!"

"Wait, you're free? Good. We're volunteering today. Dress cute."

"Hey, you ever consider cosplaying? You'd make a killer Ayato."

At first I resisted. I told her I wasn't built for that kind of thing. I was quiet. Reserved. A guy with baggage and bills and a future so fogged I couldn't even see tomorrow.

But Yana didn't care.

She threw me into that world like I belonged there. Like I wasn't broken.

She found people who needed models. Introduced me like I wasn't a nobody. Got me into cosplay contests just to get prize money.

She even helped me learn how to style wigs. I still suck at it. She doesn't care.

And the best part?

She gave me a reason to smile again.

Together, we played Genshin Impact. Every night. It became our world.

"Shit. I lost the 50/50 again," she'd whine.

"Serves you right for skipping your dailies."

She loved Ayato. I did too. Not because I liked him at first—but because she loved him so much that I started to.

She was Nilou that day we met. I guess it was inevitable that I fell in love with Nilou too.

Not romantically. I mean... yeah, she's beautiful, but this thing we had—it wasn't about romance. It was something else.

We weren't dating.

But she was closer to me than anyone had ever been.

She became my family.

When I graduated from college—she screamed louder than my name being called.

When I landed my first decent-paying gig—she bought me ice cream and said it was a victory treat.

When I crashed from stress—she showed up with a dumb meme and a hug.

She never asked me to be anyone else. Never asked me to explain my pain. She didn't try to fix me.

She just stayed.

And for an orphan like me, that was everything.

That chaotic light in my life—Yana—made the darkness bearable.

For the first time ever, I stopped walking toward an edge.

I started walking toward something new.

I never thought I'd find a place to belong.

But with her, even Earth felt... kinder.

I remember one evening, late after a convention, we sat on the edge of a sidewalk curb watching the cars pass by. I asked her, half-joking, half-serious:

"Why me? Why do you keep showing up?"

She just smiled, swinging her legs lazily. "Because you look like someone who deserves to be saved."

That silence after… I never knew how to respond. I still don't.

Even if I never said it out loud—

Even if I acted like I was too cool to care—

Yana...

You saved me, more than I ever saved you.

And I still don't know how to repay that.

But I want to try.

Because I finally have something I want to protect.

Someone I want to stay for.

For once in my life, I want to fight to hold onto what I've found, not just survive losing it.

This time…

I want to cherish everything.

The chaotic convention crowds where we screamed over fictional lore, the endless gacha pulls that led to heartbreak and inside jokes, the cheap ramen we shared under flickering city lights, and the quiet moments between where laughter became our language of healing—these are the fragments of joy that stitched my broken pieces together.

One night while playing, somewhere in between endless grinding and frustrated rerolls, she paused mid-dungeon and asked, "Hey, why's your username 'Shigeru'?"

I blinked, then glanced over. "I like the name. It means 'wish.'"

She stared at me for a second—then burst into laughter.

"Wow. You're really that serious, huh?" she teased, wiping a tear from her eye, still chuckling.

I rolled my eyes, but her grin—bright and dumb and completely Yana—made me chuckle too. Something about her joy… it was always contagious.

I didn't tell her the rest.

That it was the first name I ever chose for myself.

That it was the only thing I had control over in a life that never gave me a choice.

That every time I see it on-screen, it reminds me I'm still here.

And now, when I hear it… I think of her.

So even if the world threatens to take it all away, I'll hold onto it with everything I have. Because for once—I know what it means to truly live.

***

They say memories are all we have in the end. But some memories... they carve themselves into you. So deep, so clear, that even if you wanted to forget, you can't.

Because those memories are you.

And this one—this chapter of my life—is etched into my very core.

It was one of the usual cons. I was cosplaying Alhaitham—wig, cloak, cold indifference and all. Yana had insisted. Said I had the "resting smartass face" to pull it off. She, naturally, was Nilou again.

We made a good team. A fun cosplay duo. The con floor was packed. Cameras flashed, strangers smiled. We posed, joked, laughed.

God, she was laughing so much that day. That contagious, reckless kind of laughter that made everything else disappear. I caught myself smiling more than usual, chuckling as she tried to drag me toward a booth giving out free Mora-themed keychains.

She was full of life. But then, in an instant, everything shattered.

She froze mid-step, her face drained of color.

"Yana?"

She clutched her chest, staggered.

And then, she vomited.

Blood.

Panic devoured me whole. My heart crashed into my ribs, and I caught her before she hit the ground. My voice cracked as I screamed for help, my legs already moving, carrying her in my arms.

Everything became a blur. Flashing lights. Distant sirens. The buzz of fluorescent hospital lights.

I waited.

Pacing like a man on the edge of the world.

When the door to the emergency room opened, I all but lunged forward, grabbing the doctor's sleeve with trembling hands.

"How is she?!"

"She's stable," he replied, but his eyes held a weight that shattered me further. "But... there's something we need to discuss."

I didn't hesitate. "She's my family. Tell me."

We sat in his office. The walls felt like they were closing in.

Terminal illness.

Incurable.

Little time left.

I didn't respond. I couldn't. I just... stared.

My chest felt hollow.

I left the hospital in a daze and wandered. My legs moved on their own. The city was a blur of lights I couldn't see. And somehow, I found myself standing before a chapel.

I stepped in.

It was quiet. Still.

I sat down at the back and the silence pressed against me like a weight I couldn't shake.

And then I broke.

I didn't just cry. I sobbed. Like a child. Like I had nothing left.

"Why...?" I whispered. My voice barely echoed.

"What did she do to deserve this...? Why are you so cruel to her? To us? Wasn't it enough already? Haven't we both suffered enough? She brought so much light into this world—and you just... you just take it away. Why?!"

I stared at the crucifix on the altar and lowered my head, burying my face in my hands.

"If someone has to suffer... it should've been me. She didn't do anything wrong. She gave people light... she gave me light."

I knelt.

"If you're really up there... I don't ask for miracles. Just give us more time. That's all I'm asking. Take whatever you want from me—just let her stay a little longer. Please."

I stayed there. Praying. Bargaining. Pleading with everything I had left in me.

And then I returned.

Yana was already in her room, smiling like always. Like the sun had never dimmed.

"As healthy as a horse," she said, flashing that grin that didn't reach her tired eyes.

"Yeah," I whispered, wiping my face. "You sure are."

From that day on, I never left her side.

Day in and day out, we were together.

When she couldn't sleep from the pain, I sat beside her bed and held her close. I let her rest in my arms, humming old anime theme songs quietly as her breathing slowed and her body trembled in exhaustion.

When her body shook in pain, I gripped her hand tightly, never letting go. Even when she cried silently, I stayed strong—because if I broke, who would be there for her?

"Once I get better," she said, her voice soft and fragile, "let's go to another con. Just us. And I'll drag you around again, just like always."

"Yeah," I whispered. "You better keep that promise."

She chuckled faintly.

We watched our favorite anime series on loop, laughed softly at old photos from past cons, shared gacha rolls and cursed the RNG gods together. Her laughter was weaker, but it was still hers. And it gave me strength.

One afternoon, her voice called out weakly.

"Hey... Allen... can you bring my Nilou cosplay?"

My heart clenched.

But I nodded.

I returned with it and helped her sit up slowly. She brushed the fabric with trembling fingers.

"Will you help me dress up? Just once more?"

"Of course," I said. My voice barely held together.

Piece by piece, I dressed her carefully. Like it was something sacred.

She leaned against me, resting her head on my shoulder.

"Thank you," she murmured. "For everything. For saving me... for staying... for being you."

"No," I replied, voice tight. "You saved me, Yana. You gave me a reason to live. To dream. To smile."

She trembled softly.

"I'm not scared of dying," she whispered, her voice cracking slightly. "What scares me... is the thought of you being alone again. Of you falling back into that darkness you once lived in—where no one reached for you, and you never reached back. I can't bear the idea of you closing yourself off again... of you forgetting how to smile just because I'm gone. You've come so far, Allen. Please... don't go back to being that lonely boy who looked at the world like it had already ended."

I held her closer.

"You don't have to worry about me. I promise. I'll live. I'll keep living. I'll find joy again. Just like you taught me. I'll carry you with me. Always."

She smiled. A tired, tearful smile.

"That's... a relief."

Her grip loosened.

Her breathing faded.

And then... silence.

Just the sound of my quiet, broken sobs.

SLAP!

"Ow—! What the—?!"

I jolted awake, heart pounding.

Lumine loomed over me, arms crossed, clearly annoyed. "You've been sleeping forever."

I blinked, still hazy. My head... was on Nilou's lap.

She smiled gently. "You looked like you were having a really long dream."

I looked up at the sky.

For a moment... it almost felt real.

"I must be in heaven," I whispered.

"Idiot," Lumine said, rolling her eyes. "We're still in Sumeru."

"Then why am I seeing an angel!?" I said dramatically, pointing at Nilou.

"You're just hallucinating," Lumine sighed.

Nilou chuckled softly. Greg was judging me from Lumine's shoulder. Paimon was eating again.

I stretched, groaning a little.

"Alright, gang... time to cause some chaos again."

Lumine rolled her eyes. "That's all you know how to do."

"Yep!" Paimon chimed in between bites. "That's his only talent."

I gasped. "Hey! I do more than that—though, granted, I do it with style. Chaotic with flair, thank you very much."

Right then, Greg flicked his tongue out and slapped my cheek with it.

I turned to him, betrayal written all over my face. "Et tu, Greg?! I trusted you!"

Nilou giggled, trying to cover her smile with her hand.

Yeah. This was my life now.

And I was going to cherish every second of it.

I paused.

Looked up.

Yana...

I'm living a fun and fulfilled life... just like I promised. I'll take my time here... but I know we'll meet again. Maybe soon...

I smirked.

"Man, this sky is so fake."

The others blinked.

"What?"

"Nothing," I grinned. "Just me being silly."

But deep down...

That promise still echoes.

I'll live.

For her.

For me.

For everything we shared.

And when we meet again...

I'll have a thousand stories to tell her.

Because I knew better.

Because that dream… was a memory.

And memories like that—they never really leave.

They stay with you.

And if you let them, they become your strength.

____________________________

End of Chapter 100