Ryu pressed his face closer to the shop window, breath fogging up the glass. Behind the cracked display case sat it - a superhero costume that looked like it had been pulled straight from the pages of his favorite comic book. It wasn't anything like the fake Halloween costume he was wearing now. The suit glittered in his eyes.

Red chest plate. Green pants. Gold utility belt. A sleek domino mask.

It wasn’t just any suit. It was Robin’s. Robins suit - the hero he aspired to be like.

The only thing was as he looked closer the stitching did look a little rough, and the symbol slightly faded on the front. Yet still something about that outfit made his heart pound like a drum. The drum of a Robin's theme song before a massive fight scene.

"Hmm.." he thought outloud, "Maybe it's just one of the older ones. I'm sure I could fix it up somehow." He remembered all of Robin's outfits, and read all of the stories. There wasn't one he didn't own or know of. Yet somehow this costume just felt like it was one of Robin's costumes come to real life. Which of course he knew shouldn't be possible. Yet every bone in his body was screaming it was.

He had to have it. So he stepped back, glancing around the empty street. The store sign above read: "Gotham Secondhand & Curiosities." And the open sign flickered in the evening light. It was as if it was calling him in.

He quickly wrapped his hands around his backpack and pulled it to the front of him. He had all the money he had been saving for new comic books, but he might just have enough for that costume. "It’s probably a fake. Just a replica," he said aloud under his breath. But something about the faint emblem - a scratched R glinting under the window light - made his pulse quicken. "But maybe it's not.." he whispered to himself.

Part of him was hoping that somewhere out there some magic had brought his favorite characters costume to reality. Even if it was probably a .001 chance.

He took a small breath and pushed the door open. A bell chimed above him, the sound echoing through the dusty air. The shop smelled faintly of old paper, metal, and something a little like smoke. Shelves crowded the space, packed with things that didn’t seem to belong together — antique radios, broken clocks, and even a few cracked helmets.

"Hello...?" he called out. No one answered his call and instead he was just greeted with a hum of a flickering light nearby. Listening to the hum he couldn't help but follow the noise. The noise in turn led him to the costume of his dreams up close and personal.

His sneakers squeaked quietly against the wooden floor as he stepped closer to the window display from the inside this time. The Robin suit looked even better up close. The red armor gleamed faintly beneath the dust. The yellow belt looked scuffed, like it had been used.

Ryu’s heart raced. No way.

“Is someone here?” he tried again.

A curtain near the back rustled, and a low voice answered, “Over here.”

An older man stepped out from behind the counter, wiping his hands on a rag. He wore thick glasses, and his gray hair stuck out from beneath a cap. He gave Ryu a curious look, his gaze lingering on the boy’s Halloween outfit.

“You’re the first person in a while to stop for that thing,” the man said, nodding toward the suit. “Thought kids your age only wanted game consoles these days.”

Ryu shook his head quickly his excitement ozzing out of him. SInce when it came to Robin he knew it all. “No way. Robin’s my favorite hero. I know all about him - the different suits, the partners, everything. That one-” he pointed toward the display, “-it looks real. Like, not a costume-real, but real-real.”

The man’s lips curled into a faint smirk. “Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t.”

After hearing that Ryu's eyes lit up like the fourth of July and he knew he had to have the suit one way or another.

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