CURRENT DAY...
8 A.M. ...
A teenage Kazuya Toriyama lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling as if getting entranced by the slowly spinning blades of the ceiling fan right above his bed.
He was in high school, but he hated it, and thankfully, it was Saturday, so he could sleep as much as he needed to. But for some reason, he had found himself waking up at the same time he would on a school day and could not get himself back to sleep. He wasn't sure why, but he was feeling mysteriously excited about something he seemed to be unaware of.
He swore over and over again in his head, as he wanted more sleep but couldn't get it, hating the situation he was in, though it was not an important one. The room was dark, as all the curtains and windows were covered, and the only source of light was a dim bulb at the edge of the room, but yet he couldn't sleep.
The room was in the perfect shape for him to sleep in without a struggle, yet he couldn't sleep, and his younger sister's continuous banging on the door wasn't helping either.
"Big brother! Get up!" She continued banging on the door relentlessly, and though her hands were so small that they couldn't bring down the door no matter how hard she tried, it was an earsore.
"Big brother!" she kept yelling from behind the door. Her persistence was commendable.
The annoying fact was that she was likely just banging on the door to see him awake and not because there was anything important for him. This continued for over five minutes until Kazuya couldn't take it anymore.
"Will you cut that out already?" ...", he yelled out, "...I'm trying to sleep - go watch an anime or something!"
Then suddenly, the banging stopped, and Kazuya knew he had blown it. He swore as he got up from bed and ran towards the door, opening it to see his little sister, Kanako, with her eyes moistening with tears. She was trying to hold it in but was failing miserably.
Kazuya sighed, feeling bad for making his little sister cry. So he kneeled before her, placing a hand on her head and messing her hair in a petty way. "Big girls don't cry, don't you know that?" he said to her, though she was barely six years old.
"I'm not crying!" she denied, with tears falling from her eyes and boogers drooling from her nostrils.
Kazuya sighed as he reached into his back pocket and brought forth a handkerchief and handed it to her. "Clean yourself up," he said to her as he walked past the little girl towards the kitchen to greet his mother.
That was everyone in his family, as he had barely seen his father since the divorce. Before he even stepped into the kitchen, his mother called out to him: "You made Kanako cry again, didn't you?"
"No, I didn't," he told his mother as Kanako came from behind him into the kitchen.
"He's right, I'm not crying," she said, with residual tears on her plump cheeks.
His mother sighed as she looked back to see them. "Sure," she replied sceptically before calling her son, "Kazuya?"
He came into view, with one hand scratching through his hair as he looked away, not wanting to look at her directly. As always, his mother took note of this and chuckled slightly, causing her son to redden almost instantly.
Her son's ways of trying to convince her that he was all grown up now and didn't care about stuff like he used to felt hilarious to watch; she couldn't help laughing.
"What is it?" "Why are you laughing?" he asked rudely, trying to put an end to the embarrassing moment.
"Will you be going out today?" she asked, wiping a laughing tear from her eye.
Kazuya widened his eyes as he remembered something. "Today is TechCon!" he said out loud, unknowingly.
"What is that?" she asked, causing Kazuya to realize himself.
"I'm going out today," he replied.
"Alright then, make sure you clean your room, clean yourself up, tidy your room, have breakfast, and notify me before you leave, okay?" she said to him.
"Can I come with Big Brother?" Kanako asked Kazuya, who replied with a blatant "No" without hesitation.
The little girl pouted her lips angrily, and her big brother placed his hand on her head again, messing with it playfully.
Their mother laughed, "My, my,... Kanako adores you, Kazuya," she said, "Alright, Kanako, your brother needs to leave." But she refused to let go of him, holding on to his trousers stubbornly.
Kazuya sighed in defeat as he knelt before her again and said, "Tell you what, I will be back by this evening, and we will do whatever you want then." "What do you say?" he asked.
"Really?" she asked with sudden excitement.
"Yes, anything you want to do," he said to her, and she laughed gleefully.
"You've got her all hyped up now," his mother said, "and you better keep your word."
Kanako ran off, feeling happy and excited. "Don't run in the house, Kanako!" her mother yelled out, while Kazuya got back to his room, not believing he had almost forgotten that today was TechCon.
Now that he thought about it, it was no wonder he wasn't able to sleep as much as he wanted to; it could have been that he was so excited about the event, even in his ignorance.
He reached into his wardrobe and brought out the clothes he would wear right before heading to the bathroom. About fifteen minutes later, he was fully dressed; all that was left for him to wear were his clothes, which were at the entrance of the house.
He briefly looked at the mirror in his room as he combed his dark, blonde hair. Then he grabbed his little bag, strapping it on his shoulder, before leaving.
He quickly put his room in order before heading to the dining room, where he found his breakfast covered in transparent nylon with the utensils placed neatly on each side.
In less than ten minutes, he had finished eating, and he dabbed his lips with serviettes before gulping down his glass of milk.
Then he got a phone call from his friend, and he answered it immediately. "Hey Neji, am I late?" he asked.
"Not yet, but I'm at the front of your home right now. "So do I need to physically drag you out?" he said from the phone.
"No need for that; I'll be out in a minute," Kazuya responded before ending the call and heading back to the kitchen with his empty plate.
His mother washed the dishes as he placed his plates inside the sink. "I'll be leaving now, mom," he said before turning to leave.
"Kazuya?" she called out to him, and he turned back to her. Forgetting what she wanted to tell him, she just smiled and bid him farewell instead, "Take care."
"You too, mom," he replied with a slight smile, right before leaving.
Kazuya went to the veranda right at the entrance of the house and took his bicycle with him. He made it out to the gate even though the distance was just about ten steps from the house's entrance. At the gate of his home was where he met his friend, Neji, who had called him about a minute ago.
He was the same age as Kazuya, 17 years old. They were both in high school at that time, looking forward to entering college in less than a year. His hair was dark blue, sometimes so dark that it was mistaken for black.
He too was on a bike, ready to leave as well.
"Finally, for a second, I thought I had to come in and physically drag you out." "What took you so long?" Neji asked.
"Trust me; you won't believe why," Kazuya told him.
"Don't tell me you almost forgot today was TechCon," Neji said to him in disbelief as he got on his bike, ready to take off.
"You got that right, Neji," Kazuya replied as he rode off, with his friend riding right behind him.
"You are kidding, right?" "What happened?" asked Neji.
"Nothing, honestly. But I'm glad I remembered—I wouldn't want to miss this event for the world!" Kazuya said to him as they rode down the streets.
"Yes, but not that it would have made a difference anyway." "If you were still in bed, I would have dragged you off yourself," he said to Kazuya.
"It seems you've become obsessed with physically "dragging" people all of a sudden, what happened?" asked Kazuya, causing them to laugh hysterically.
"What new gaming system do you think Crimson Industries has in store for us this year?" asked Neji.
"I'm not sure. "The best speculation I could find online is that it is going to be a virtual reality game, but with way advanced technologies yet to be disclosed to the public," Kazuya replied, "...nothing much." But I can't help getting excited about it."
"Alright then, but let us try to keep our excitement in check to avoid sudden disappointment, okay?" ..." Neji said to him, "The last thing I want is for any of us to get all hyped up for something that might never exist."
"Yeah, I agree..." Kazuya replied in concurrence, "It's best if we don't get too excited about this."