Thursday. July 2, 2054. 5:30 am.
Kiyro woke up and felt something heavy on top of his body making it very difficult for him to breathe.
"Baby brother. Time to wakey wakey," said a soft female voice that whispered in his ears. Kiyro bolted up, and his sister fell backwards off his bed.
"Owww," she cried out in pain from hitting the floor.
Kiyro looked at his sister and shook his head. An overpowering smell of lavender filled the room.
"Anna? Did you use my shampoo again?" asked Kiryo, still a little groggy and definitely not pleased. "Why are you always wearing my clothes?" This was not his usual routine he normally woke up to.
"Tee hee," she giggled as she guilty smiled up at him. His large, light-brown T-shirt looked too big on her, her wet hair was plastered on her back, and her black-and-white plaid skirt showed off her skinny legs.
"Better yet, how did you get in this apartment? I don't remember giving you my keys." He sighed and rubbed sleep from his eyes. "You picked the locks again, didn't you."
The slightly-guilty-but-also-pleased look on her face said everything he needed to hear.
"You need to stop doing that or you're going to be reported to the police. It's breaking and entering!" said Kiyro as he pulled the bed covers back and placed his feet on the cold wooden floor.
"Nuuuuuuuuuuuu," said Anna with her cute voice as she plastered herself to her brother. "Don't do that, brother. Please have mercy. My boyfriend and I just broke up," she sobbed into his t-shirt.
"You're always like this when you break up with your boyfriend. Hurry up and get back together. You're annoying me," said Kiyro as he tried to peel her off. Anna had always been way more touchy-feely than he was. Their dad was the same way.
Kiyro peeled her fingers off his t-shirt one by one.
"I can't. We are officially over. I found him cheating with another girl in my bed. I haven't even gotten that far with him!" she sobbed hysterically. "He said I'm slow witted." Her tears were making a wet spot on his shirt. He stopped resisting; her words hit him like a tornado. Hatred, anger, and a will to punch his sister's ex-boyfriend swarmed in his mind. His hands balled up into a fist. Breathing in slowly, he tried to calm his anger. The morning sunlight hit her soft dark brown hair and her baby skin cheeks. Kiyro patted her head.
"Calm down and breathe," said Kiyro as he hugged her closely. He completely forgot about trying to push her away and instead tried to calm his own out-of-control emotions. Kiyro breathed in unison with her. Already his mind was racing with things that he would do to her ex-boyfriend. He breathed once more and pushed back his diabolical thoughts.
"He's just jealous, sis. Slow-witted? You are a genius in business and you were named the youngest rising star in Women Entrepreneur magazine. You built up your own business from scratch and didn't even get a single dime from Mom or Dad," said Kiyro softly to his sister.
Plus you're stingy with money and you won't lend a single dime to anyone. Even your family he thought as he grimaced. There were a couple of times that he had thought about asking her for a loan, but his pride stopped him. He knew that she would not lend him any money and instead chastised him to chase his dreams. Anna looked up at him with large tears rolling down her face.
"You shouldn't act like this. You're older than me. Act like an adult. What is one man going to do to you anyways? Nothing. You're going to find a better man out there and be even happier. So stop crying and let's go have some breakfast," said Kiyro as he smiled at his sister. She wiped off her tears with the backs of her hands.
"You always know what to say," said Anna as she brightened up quickly. Kiyro always had a knack to calming his sister down in seconds. He led her towards the kitchen.
"Um…Kiyro. I'm going to stay with you," said Anna as she carefully followed ten steps behind Kiyro.
"What?" said Kiyro, stupefied. He turned around and glowered at her. "What about your apartment?"
"My contract's been terminated and I moved everything into storage," said Anna as she twiddled her thumbs with shamed face.
Kiyro groaned. Right now he felt like he was going to have a major migraine.
"You need to ask me first before you just up and decide to move into someone's apartment. You're rich and you don't need to live here," he calmly stated.
"Come on, pleeeeeeeeease!" begged Anna as she glomped onto his right arm and looked up towards his sullen face. "I'm trying to cut back on my expenses. How about this: I'll pay half of rent and teach you the ways of business," said Anna as she clenched him tighter. She gave him the puppy dog eyes that Kiyro couldn't resist. It was one of those looks that he could never say no to when it came to his sister.
Kiyro stopped to think about it for a moment. Who would miss this sweet chance to have someone cover half his bills and save money? For a poor college student, this was ideal, and to top it all off he would learn business from his sister.
"Deal," said Kiyro with a straight face.
"Yay!" Anna jumped up and down in excitement. "I'll make you breakfast," she said as she headed towards the kitchen.
"No!" He stopped her in her tracks. "You go turn on the TV and sit down. I'll make breakfast. You somehow tend to burn even water. I don't know how that's even possible," said Kiyro with a chuckle.
Anna pouted and headed over to the small old TV that he was luckily given by a nice next door neighbor that was getting rid of their old TV for their new one. It was not the standard up-to-date TV, but it worked perfectly fine.
"How's business been going for you? I haven't heard from you for a very long time." He stopped and realized that it had actually been five years since they had seen each other. He realized that they had rarely even spoken to one another. The only time he had seen her was that one time on the women's magazine and he barely read entrepreneur magazines
"Actually really good. Diva Technology has gotten the contract with Yami Hikari."
"What? Really?" said Zero in an awed voice. The last thing he heard from her was that she was with a group of people creating some kind of high-security technology.
"Yep. It's not something that everyone knows and hears about."
"So does that mean that you were part of the creation of the game?"
"Yep."
"How much?"
"Can't tell you. It's private matters."
"Come on Anna. I'm your brother."
"Sorry. It's still out of question."
Kiyro sighed. It was worth a try. He knew she would not talk about business matters in personal life as much as possible. She almost religiously kept the two separate. Anna turned the TV on with a remote.
"Good Morning America. This is the daily Channel 77 Atlanta News station," said John the anchorman. "We have a wonderful weather today. It's in the high 90s, with a light breeze, and no clouds in sight."
"Yes, it's such a wonderful day. A great time to go out and spend it with your family," said Simon, the second anchorman who was sitting right next to the other.
"In other news, the new Embryo gaming consoles have been sweeping the world like a storm. Embryo has already sold seven hundred and fifty million of its products worldwide and made a hundred billion in revenue. That's quite amazing, don't you think, Simon?" said the anchorman.
"Yes, it is. Not only that, their new Alive gear update has piqued the world's curiosity. These supposed quests have been popping up like wildfire around the world. You should definitely try out their new high tech. It is one of a kind," said Simon happily.
"Would you like sunny side up or scrambled?" Kiyro asked from across the kitchen.
"Scrambled, please," said Anna as she watched the news intently.
"I got one for my cousin to play the game called Growth. I'm not sure what the big deal is with these supposed 'Realistic' Quests," said the anchorman.
"That's the thing, John. The supposed goal of the real-life quests is to help people go out and interact more with the world through gaming. According to our latest survey, it seems that a very high percentage of Americans today don't even know who their neighbors are anymore."
John looked at Simon in shock. A graph popped up, showing a decrease in human interaction between neighbors.
"That is quite surprising." John's eyes became bug-eyed.
"Reports are coming in that the average Americans are more socially enclosed, doing things alone, wanting to be left alone, and having a tendency not to make groups. The Realistic Quests in Growth give the people the opportunity to know each other more."
"When did this update go into place?"
"The update began at 12 am last night and has gone into full effect this morning."
Kiyro brought breakfast over to the small dining table. Huh. They implemented a new update. I should check that out.
"Now we just got news that a car exploded near a children's park. Supposedly an old lady was walking across the street and the women didn't see her because she was texting on her phone," said the John.
"She was texting on her phone? Is she nuts? Was everything alright?" gasped Simon.
"Yes. There is a report that a young lady with blueish silver hair came in and rescued the driver before the car exploded. No name was given and she left before the news crew arrived. Witnesses also say that she was wearing Alive gear when this was happening. Isn't that strange?" said the John.
"PFFFFFT!" Kiyro spat out his food in a spray. He stared at the TV in disbelief.
No way. That can't be her. There are thousands of girls with bluish silver hair, he thought as he wiped the pieces of egg off his cheeks and mouth.
"Aw, gross. Did you really have to do that?" Anna looked at him in disgust. She pulled her plate away from him.
"Perhaps she got a quest?" said Simon with a straight face.
"A quest?" asked John with wide eyes.
"A supposed real-life quest that people were talking about could have happened. She could have gotten something for saving that lady."
"I don't believe such an extreme quest like that could exist." John waved his hands in front of him in disbelief.
"Well, we won't know until Yami Hikari releases their reports."
Kiyro turned off the TV. Just the thought of Agnis made him not want to listen to it any more.
"Hey, I was watching that," said Anna. She frowned at Kiyro, but he ignored her. He got up and went to the kitchen.
"Kiyro, have you been playing Growth too? I can't imagine who wouldn't want to, \Anna called out to him from the dining room.
He turned on the faucet and began washing his dishes.
"Yeah, why?" said Kiyro, stacking his dishes on the drying rack.
"Can I see your Alive gear?"
"Sure."
Kiyro heard Anna's loud footsteps heading toward his room. After a couple of minutes he finished up washing the dishes clean, wiped his hands off on a dry towel, and went back towards the dining room. Anna just then walked back out of the room and came toward him. She handed him his Alive gear.
"Try it on. I just had a dummy prototype I had laying around at work and installed a new up-to-date memory chip in it," said Anna excitedly. "We've been tinkering with a couple new things in the Alive Gear. It's nothing major. "
Kiyro put on the Alive gear.