Kazu, a 68 year old, 1.93 meter tall, muscular Japanese man, and a younger skinny 22 year old 1.6 meter tall Japanese man, holding a camera, are strolling through downtown. Kazu continues talking as the city unfolds before them, "This city has changed a lot over the years, more people, more money, more crime. Those things seem to go hand in hand with each other… When I was a child, there were only 3 buildings over 4 stories tall in this area." Kazu told him, waving his hands around indicating he is referring to the whole of downtown. " There were a lot of small businesses, no malls, no 24 screen theaters... we had places like grocers, restaurants, petrol stations, a few taverns… mostly family run businesses."
The young man asks, "Do you think it was better before the corporations moved in?"
Kazu laughs, then responds, "The corporations were not necessarily the thing that changed the city, but I do believe they sped up the changes. Money always causes change, sometimes good, sometimes bad. A lot of the old buildings are still around, but the businesses changed throughout the years. Some closed due to corporate competition, and some closed due to… the owner not being able to run it anymore. See that coffee shop at the corner?" The young man responds with an affirmative nod. Kazu continues, "When I was 12, that was a dojo. I took classes there for about two years, they taught boxing, kenpo, kickboxing and kendo. I learned the other 3 martial arts types that make up my style a few years later, at several different dojos. My son, when he is home, is teaching me krav maga, he learned it while on temporary assignment with the IDF."
The young man responds "Why didn't you ever teach your fighting style? I'm sure there are many that would like to learn it. You are a two time world champion after all."
Kazu smiles, "I only ever wanted to train one person, my son, that was enough for me. To me, martial arts is a personal thing, learn all you can and keep what works for you, make it your own. I use that philosophy in most of the work I have done. I used aerospace design methods when designing fire sprinkler systems. I used quantum physics to help design mili… sorry, I can't tell you that one. I try to learn at least one thing a day. The moral of the story is… never stop learning, when you stop learning your brain starts dying. That's my motto, or it might be if I start having a motto."
The young man while smiling continued talking, "Serenity reference… Shiny…" Clears his throat. "I understand you also taught your son other things you learned over the years, anything else my viewers would find interesting?"
Kazu ponders, "There are plenty of things I taught him over the years, and there is plenty that he and my wife have taught me. Do you want to talk about music, art, mechanics, engineering, anatomy, or physics? If you truly want to, we can discuss politics, though I describe my political views as a Pure Conservative."
The interviewer says, "I am not familiar with Pure Conservatism, could you explain a bit further?"
Kazu answers, "Sure no problem… if it does not directly negatively affect someone else there should be no law against it… Also personal or Religious beliefs should not matter when making laws. Things like murder, assault, neglect… things that affect people other than yourself would be illegal, things that only affect yourself drinking, drugs, even prostitution, as long as it's not forced, would be legal. It also includes no federal handouts, a strong defense, and a stripped down version of government that makes all it needs from import tariffs. It took many years of thought and discussion to clarify what would make for the best government. Our dinner table usually involved discussions on politics and on what everyone learned that day. My lovely wife was also very knowledgeable in many fields… She taught our son as much as I did. She taught both of us about music, art, anatomy and microbiology. We were working on a nanobot project when she passed… that was… 22 years ago… You know you are old when 22 years does not seem that long ago." Kazu laughs, with sadness in his eyes.
The interviewer asks, "Did you ever date after she passed?"
Kazu answers, "After 10 years or so I tried, but she was the love of my life… she was my world, no woman I ever met was like her. We had the same sense of humor, the same drive for knowledge… She was a female reflection of me, or me the male reflection of her… hard to tell. Either way, I know finding another woman like her in this world is an impossible task. I miss her, but her love is always with me…
The young man trying to change the subject asks, "Physics or engineering seems to be of more interest to my channel's subscribers. Anything that can be associated with military tech. How would you..."
While the interviewer starts his question a gunshot rings out followed by people screaming and running. The commotion caused Kazu to immediately stop walking and turn towards the noise.
Kazu, without warning, starts running towards the direction of the gunshot. Reaching the corner he sees a coffee shop employee on the ground, with a masked man standing over her with a gun. The masked man was yelling at her to get up, his tattooed hand pulling on her arm. A second later Kazu slams the thief into the wall. In one swift motion, he grabs the gun and twists it out of the thief's hand.
On pure instinct the thief jumps back from the unknown threat, swings wildly connecting with the side of Kazu's neck, then the thief pulls out a large knife. Kazu, unfazed by the grazing blow, assumes an aggressive stance. As soon as the thief's knife clears the sheath, he lunges and slashes upwards at Kazu. Kazu sidesteps and dodges the knife. Grabbing the thief's hand, Kazu bends his hand back in a direction it was never meant to bend, and twists, breaking the thief's wrist. The sudden pain causes the thief to yell and pull his arm to his chest. The knife falls from the thief's hand onto the pavement. Leaning forward while cradling his wrist, the thief inadvertently opens himself to a swift knee strike to the face. As the thief loses consciousness he quickly joins his knife unmoving, yet still breathing, on the sidewalk.
With one eye on the thief, Kazu checks on the manager. She has a cut on her head from hitting the pavement while trying to scurry away from the thief. Kazu pulls out a handkerchief and gives it to her.
"Apply pressure to stop the blood flow… the police and paramedics should be here shortly. Everything is going to be fine." Kazu said reassuringly. The manager clings to Kazu crying into his shoulder. "Thank you sir… you saved me. Thank you , Thank you, Thank you…" she said, still crying on Kazu's shoulder. Kazu sits on the sidewalk with her, helping her to calm down from the ordeal.
The interviewer had followed Kazu, and ended up recording the altercation. Impressed with the efficiency and accuracy that Kazu used to take down the thief. Mumbling to himself, "This video is going to go viral. What should I title it? Can this 68 year old man save the barista? Or... Will experience best youth? Maybe something that makes the answer no, I hear those go viral now. I'll figure out the title later."
In just a few minutes the Police show up and take witness statements. The interviewer offers a copy of his video for evidence. Once the thief is secured by ankle cuffs and his good hand is cuffed to his belt, the paramedics get to work on both the manager and the thief.
After the Police finish with Kazu's incident statement, he goes to check on the manager. As soon as she sees him walking up she begins to smile, "There's my hero." she proclaimed.
"Alway happy to protect a sweet young maiden from a vicious rapscallion." Kazu said with a grin. "You didn't lose anything back there did you?" Kazu inquired.
"No", she replied, "I was taking out some trash and he chased me out of the alleyway. I have no clue who he is or why he was chasing me. I'm just glad my hero was around."
Kazu replied, "I'm glad you are okay, I'd enjoy talking to you more but the paramedic is indicating that they are ready to take you to the hospital. I'm also in the middle of an interview with that young man over there… In the future there's no need to call me your hero, just call me Kazu."
The girl responded smiling, "Come by the shop anytime, Hero Kazu, I'm Minmei."
After finishing his conversation, he returned to the interviewer. "I recognized that tattoo on his hand, he is in a gang. It was something like "Hellions", apparently from the news they mostly sell drugs and young women… They must be trying to move into the area since I have never seen or heard of them here. I'll need to look into this situation, I can't have girls in my city falling prey to them. For now let's get back to the interview… Come on young man, let me show you something. It may not be as exciting as what just happened, but it should still be fairly interesting… It's a physics project I have been working on, and I got some interesting results."
They walk several blocks to a cafe. "I bought this building 35 years ago, it has 14 shops on the first floor, with 23 apartments on the second and 3rd floors. I have an apartment on the second floor, and it's connected to my workshop on the 3rd floor. In my workshop, I try to find ways to improve existing things, test new ideas, pretty much whatever grabs my attention at the time… Let's head upstairs to the workshop."
Taking the stairs up to the second floor, they then go through Kazu's apartment to another set of stairs. Going up the second set of stairs, they arrive at Kazu's workshop. Quoting Willy Wonka "'Greetings, welcome to the factory! I shake you warmly by the hand. For now, I invite you to my factory.' Kazu says with a smirk and sweeping motion of his arm.
After entering the room, the interviewer is met by the sight of dozens of devices, mechanical equipment, and shelves full of tools and testing equipment. The interviewer smiles as he sees some sci-fi staples, such as plasma globes, tesla coils, even a dual axis generator sitting on a workbench. Seeing something else that catches his attention, he asks, "What is this thing here?"
Kazu turns to him, "What's, what? Oh... that... That's something my son and I are working on, but it's in conjunction with the U.S. and Japanese Military, so as much as it would fit with your channel, I'm sorry, but that one, no matter how amazing it is, I can not show you."
"Now this one over here... I have recently been putting a lot of my Physics knowledge to the test, and wanted to show something intriguing to you. It's not really military related, but it's still exciting. Maybe you should do this part as a separate video... go viral twice."
The interviewer shyly laughs, "Heard that did you?"
"You mumble loudly." Kazu quips. Kazu flips a switch, an electric hum emanates from the device, and a shimmering image appears in the air above the device. "Have a look here. Tell me what you see." Kazu says. The interviewer looks into it and sees himself looking back. He starts to describe what he sees in the projection. "I see myself, I see the room with your equipment, and I see you standing behind me to my left."
The interviewer asks, "Is it a holographic computer monitor?"
Kazu replies "Nope, nice try, but guess again. Look at yourself carefully, what stands out?"
"What stands out?" the interviewer thinks.
Looking at the display in front of himself, it took a moment to realize that the camera was a different model, and in the wrong hand. "That's my other camera, It had less charge, so I opted for this one" The interviewer thought. It was at that point he realized it was actually not a mirror image. To drive the point home, the other "him" turned around to talk to his Kazu. Without conscious thought he tried to touch the "screen". He tried to say something to Kazu but no words were heard.
Kazu brought the interviewer a chair, and told him to sit down before he faints.
"Let me turn the viewer off and then I'll tell you about it," Kazu said while handing him a drink. "I was originally inspired by a Superhero movie my son showed me, and decided to try to make a time machine of sorts. I did not want to travel to the past, just view the past. What I ended up with is a bit different, yet similar. So... what you were viewing was..."
Kazu reaches for the power switch he flipped before, but before he could touch it the room is filled with a blinding light.
The interviewer thinks the room just exploded, but as he blinks the world back into existence, he was surprised by the sight before him, the room is empty. Kazu, the furniture, the tools, the machines, and all the other equipment have all disappeared. All that remains in the large empty room is the office chair he's sitting on and the camera in his hand, still recording everything that has happened. Moving out of the room he goes downstairs into the apartment. Everything is missing from the apartment too. Afraid he got sucked into the alternate dimension, he runs out of the apartment and down the stairs into the street. Once he exits the building the noise of the city hits him, everything looks the same. He runs down the street to the crime scene from earlier. Several police officers are still on scene, packing up and getting ready to leave. He runs up to them out of breath, and blurting out, "Officer, I need to report a missing person." One thought now runs through his head, "Even with this video, no one is going to believe any of this."