[INT. TOKYO CLASSROOM – DAY]
A ticking clock.
Raindrops tap softly against the window. The low hum of students chatting fills the air.
AKI TANAKA, a quiet boy with messy black hair, stares blankly at his notebook. He's sketching—again. A strange armored figure with wings and a blade made of ink.
TEACHER (O.S., stern)
Tanaka-san. You're drawing again.
AKI
(snapping out of it, murmurs)
Sorry...
The bell rings.
Chairs scrape. Students shuffle out. Aki lingers, slowly packing his things.
---
[EXT. STREETS OF TOKYO – EVENING]
Aki walks alone through neon-lit streets, hoodie up, earbuds in. Lo-fi beats pulse faintly.
Rain falls harder. Puddles shimmer with reflected signs. He sighs and adjusts the weight of his bag.
---
[INT. SMALL APARTMENT – NIGHT]
The door opens. Aki steps in.
Dim lighting. Silence. Shoes off.
AKI
(sighs)
Mom's working late again.
He notices a package on the floor. Plain. No label. No address.
AKI
(confused)
Huh? I didn't order anything.
He crouches, hesitant, then opens it. Inside: a sleek black VR headset, glowing with a faint blue pulse.
AKI
(nervous chuckle)
Great. A headset. Totally not cursed.
He picks it up. The glow intensifies—
FLASH—
[INT. UNKNOWN REALM – TIMELESS]
Darkness.
Then: a bloom of surreal light.
Aki now stands on a floating platform in an impossible sky. A red moon looms above. Glowing orbs drift like fireflies. Floating islands slowly orbit in silence.
AKI
(whispers, heartbeat audible)
What... is this place?
A disembodied female voice echoes from the sky.
VOICE (V.O.)
Welcome, Seeker. To enter the Realm, you must pay the price. That price... is your memories. Do you accept?
AKI
(panicked)
Wh-who's there?! This is a game, right? Just some kind of demo?!
Suddenly
ROAR!
A colossal dragon bursts through the clouds. Its obsidian scales shimmer with glowing red veins. The world trembles with its arrival.
Aki stumbles backward, falls to his knees, shaking.
A glowing text flickers in the air:
> [WEAPON CLASS: SKETCHBLADE UNLOCKED]
In a flash, a weapon forms in his hand—half-ink, half-light. Unstable. Alive.
AKI
(stunned)
This… This came from my drawing!
The dragon dives, jaws wide.
Aki screams—and swings instinctively.
BOOM—
FLASH TO WHITE.
[INT. CLASSROOM – MORNING]
Aki jolts awake at his desk. Breathing heavy. Sweat glistens on his brow. He looks around—back in school.
Classmates glance at him.
YUMI
(whispers)
Aki Tanaka… are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost.
AKI
(dazed, quietly)
No… A dragon.
He opens his notebook slowly—and freezes.
The exact dragon he saw, the one he fought—it's drawn perfectly on the page. Every scale. Every scar. Every detail.
But he didn't draw it.
AKI
(thinking, horrified)
What the hell just happened to me…?
The bell rings.
But Aki doesn't move.