Going back in time, on Earth.
My name is Takahashi Tetsuo, 24 years old. I'm of mixed decent, being half european and half japanese. My biological mother died when I was 5 years old after having a 2 year battle with cancer. My father, heartbroken and tired of fighting, locked himself in his job as the CEO of a designer brand, and became unsympathetic and distant, not even acknowledging my presence in the same house.
Because of these circumstances, I became very depressed and isolated as well, standing out until my depression eventually turned into rage and I became a delinquent until middle school. Although I didn't take advantage of others, I did get into many fights and broke many rules at school and on the street, earning me a bad reputation among my classmates and further marginalizing myself.
However, it is impossible to live like that in a normal society without becoming a social waste, and it is not a life that can bring you any happiness or benefit. So, once I started high school, I decided I was tired of letting my family problems dictate my life, and after leaving home and my melancholic father behind, I started a new stage of life to change my ways and study hard to live like a normal person instead of following the criminal path.
As a high school student, the adaptation process was not easy. Even though I had some money that I had taken from the thugs I used to fight with in middle school, it wasn't enough for a teenager to live on his own, so I had to works part-time at a local supermarket, in order to make some money to pay for clothing, groceries, and rent an apartment to live in.
In addition to that, I also had a lot of difficulty letting go of my old behavior habits and adopting a more pleasant and approachable attitude toward socializing with people.
However, by staying true to my desire to change for the better, over time my classmates began to warm up to me, engaging in small talk, caring about our well-being, and working hard at our studies. Despite having had a questionable school career previously, I wasn't stupid and had always been good at my grades, so this was a big factor in my favor when it came to making friends.
It was during this time, thanks to the involvement of those who would become my future friends, that I became entangled in the world of manga, anime and video games, and also how I discovered my favorite anime story of all the times: One Piece.
I'd seen other great manga/anime series like Bleach, MHA, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Hunter x Hunter, and so on. And while they were all quality works, One Piece stood out above all others for me. I don't know if it was the plethora of fantasy things the author imagined for the series, the intense fights based on punches, or the theme of having bad parents, but One Piece was always my favorite.
Furthermore, this change in my behavior not only allowed me to make friends, but also made me chased by girls. This was something that surprised me, since girls had previously avoided me. I guess without a delinquent attitude to deter them, my face and complexion must have been attractive.
Nevertheless, in spite of my unexpected popularity, I didn't have what you'd call a formal girlfriend. It's not that I wasn't interested in girls, but between my studies, job, and hanging out with friends, I didn't have the time or disposition to start a serious relationship. I did hook up with a few girls in casual encounters, but I never pursued anything serious.
Maintaining a relationship would only take up time and effort, and I needed to invest both into building my future. And honestly, I found anime girls way more attractive and sensual than real-life ones. Just look at Robin and Nami. I don't think I'm the only one who's made a little work with the girls of that series.
Besides, I had heard beforehand the pernicious comments the girls in my class made about my friends' tastes, and I didn't want one of those girls to get so involved in my life. She would surely try to convince me to give up these hobbies, and I refused to stop watching anime, reading manga, or playing video games; those things had helped to connect with people and made me feel very happy, so now they were very much essential to keep me from falling into deep depression.
Following this line of thinking, I continued my four years of high school until I graduated. It hadn't been an easy road, and I'd encountered some troubling obstacles along the way, but I collected my diploma with my head held high and people around me.
With high school finished, I quit my part-time job and landed a position as an operator at a logistics and transportation company. This was even more difficult than creating a new identity for myself in high school, as I couldn't hang out with my friends as often as before, and I couldn't go over to their houses and watch a dozen episodes of One Piece together, forcing me to resort to my mobile phone for both of these things, much to my chagrin.
I also had to manage a heavy workload in an office cubicle and endure the ruling chiefly of my superiors in my department, who constantly tried to diminish my value and coerce me into doing more work.
It was a severe blow to my pride as a former juvenile delinquent to endure their prepotency, but I still endured this bitter experience and gathered evidence to present them to the human resources department. Just as I was finally about to take down those jerks, for the first time in years I got a call from my father asking if we could meet up.
Although I didn't like the idea of associating with him again after how things ended, I agreed to meet him at a city park after work, and when we met for the first time in 6 years, I was stunned by what I saw. My father arrived with a gentle and relaxed expression as he sat across from me next to a woman I didn't recognize.
Apparently, my father had remarried a few years after my leave with a Japanese woman, just like him, and he also had moved on from our house and was now living with his 2nd wife in an apartment in Tokyo. It seems my father had also been trying to get his life back on track after being left alone, and his new wife, Akari, had been the guiding light who helped him.
According to him, now that he had managed to overcome his chronic depression and get his life back on track, he wanted to be a part of my life once again, along with my new stepmother, and support me in whatever I needed help with.
Seeing my father's healthy and balanced state compared to how I remembered him the last time I saw him, warm and happy memories of my childhood with my parents began to cross my mind, and a feeling of longing began to press against my chest.
Since my mother had passed, I had been left without a family, and deep down in my heart, I had always longed to return to the time when I was surrounded by my loved ones in a healthy and happy family environment. So, with tears forming on my eyelids, I nodded and told my father that I, too, wanted us to be a part of each other's lives again.
Yeah, of course! And we also hugged at the end! This is what really happened!
*Bam!*
"Are you kidding me?! You just show up out of nowhere with a stranger woman at your side, and you want us to pretend the past never happened and play happy family?! Who the hell do you think you are?!" I yelled at him very angrily, getting up from the chair and hitting the table.
From my perspective, I hadn't abandoned my father; he had abandoned me as his son the day Mom died, and I had simply worked to the bone to move on with my life. Obviously, I wasn't going to simply accept my father's shameless and insensitive proposal now.
"I know we've had our disagreements in the past, Tetsuo. But that's all water under the bridge. You're my son and I'm your father, and that's why I want to start over and make things right for both of us." My father answered me, trying to maintain his composure but looking somewhat irked by my outburst of rage.
"And don't you think it's too late for that? You should have tried to do things right when I was a kid and needed you, but you completely ignored me, and I had to become independent at 15 so you wouldn't drag me down with you in your misery!" I replied.
"And you think it was easy for me?!" My father asked, standing up and finally losing his temper. "You were just a child and you'll barely remember the 5 years you had her with you, but I had been with her for 9 years and I remembered every single moment we shared together! I couldn't bear the thought of living my life without her!"
"Yes, I was a child! A sad, scared child who had lost his mother! A child who needed someone to hold him and reassure him that everything would be okay! And you know what?! I didn't have anyone to do that, you asshole!" I yelled again.
We continued this heated exchange of protests and blames for several minutes, attracting the attention of several passersby. After such a vicious argument that escalated further and further, it would have been natural if we had finally severed ties altogether.
However, my father's new wife intervened in a timely manner to calm things down, and although she didn't work the miracle of completely reconciling us, she did manage to get us to face the fact that we were the only family we had left, which meant that it was best if we tried to overcome our resentments and work on making the most of our relationship.
From the way she dealt with such a tense and out-of-control situation, I understood why my father had managed to move on, and giving in to his repeated insistence on supporting me with whatever I needed, I decided to follow her premise and try to take advantage of it.
I began to tell them how unhappy I was with my job and wanted to try to reach a higher position in life. Since I didn't have many options and Akari had a substantial financial fund, I asked them if they could finance me so I could pursue a part-time Master's in Business Administration. That way, I could quit my job and look forward to a job and life with better benefits.
Yes, I know the image I give off. I'd been struggling for years to live independently away from my father, and now it seemed like I was relying on him again. But what if that's true? The reason I'd moved away from him was so I could live a happy and fulfilling life, and if I could achieve my goals by letting him be involved in my life, then that's fine by me.
Although they imposed certain conditions on me, they eventually agreed to send me the money I needed, and when I received the transfer a few days later, I went to the human resources department to hand over evidence of the harassment my asshole superiors had me and other employees under, and then I quit the job to pursue my ambitions.
Since then, things have improved dramatically. With the insurance I received from my father and Akari, I was able to start my MBA's degree and return to a more comfortable work environment. Plus, with the money problem solved and more free time than before, I was able to spend time with my hobbies again, buying a personal laptop and signing up for streaming services to watch my favorite anime, including One Piece, in better conditions and with greater accessibility.
I also could invest more time in rekindling my relationship with my friends. Unfortunately, I had to depart from best friends shortly after finishing school, since one of them had to go to Canada to take care of his Aunt who was sick, another had received a scholarship to study at a university in Alabama, and the last one had a new job in Osaka and was very busy most of the time.
Because of these reasons, things had cooled off quite a bit between us, but now that I was more available, I could catch up and enjoy discussing anime and playing video games with them again. We do in fact log on to Apex Legends once in a while, and I have the best of times as they mess around and get utterly destroyed by me.
So right now, as eventful and difficult as my life may have been, I'm undoubtedly at the most comfortable and enjoyable moment of my life.
3 months ago.
*Click*
"
"This has to be a mistake."
Confused by this unexpected message, I call my stepmother to check if she has forgotten to deposit the money into my account, but she confirms that she had, even though I insist that it didn't appear on my laptop.
"Sigh, what a pain. Neither of them believes they're wrong. Alright, it seems I'll need to go to the bank in person to talk to my bank manager or whoever who is in charge about what's going on."
"If I find out where the mistake is and quickly return to the residence, I'll still have time to browse through Crunchyroll and watch some anime before going to bed. I'll probably go for One Piece, or maybe I'll scroll down the Shonen section. Whatever, I can do both. It's my day off, so I won't have to worry about the time."
But if anybody'd ever told me that some random lowlifes in a van would try to kidnap me during the journey and that we would suffer a horrible accident because I struggled, I'd laugh into the person's face and call them a crazy individual for coming with something so absurd.
*Crash!*
Well, look at me now: My body on the ground after being thrown from the van due to the accident? Check. My bones broken and my bleeding wounds decorating the pavement crimson? Check. Bystanders in literal meters by my side not doing anything to help me? Check. What a shitty day, in truth!
'Aaaargghhhh. Fuck. It hurts. It hurts like hell.' I think, grunting as I am lying motionless on the pavement.
'What the hell happened? I was struggling to get away from those guys, and suddenly I'm here lying on the ground with my body all messed up.'
Still severely bruised, I try to look around to understand the situation. Apparently, my fight had also distracted the driver, and a truck had hit us. The crash had left the van in a scrap, and everyone in it had been shot out of it, including myself.
Also, feeling the heat and pain, I see that I have a large piece of metal piercing my stomach, and even though I press the wound with my hand, the blood does not stop flowing.
"This is bad! It won't stop! Someone, come here and help me! Please, I need help! I'm here, and I'm severely hurt! It hurts so much, and the bleeding won't stop, please! Help!"
Badly injured and scared, I try to scream for help, but the surrounding noise and my lungs, damaged by the accident, prevent my voice from reaching anyone. As tears gush from my eyes and my presence is ignored, I kind of get the gist of my situation:
I'm dying, and the policemen literally meters next to the scene aren't helping. Heck, nobody is. Why? Why would this happen? What the hell did I do to be ignored in such a crucial moment in my life? Why don't they notice that I need help? I don't know, man.
'Death? Now? Is this as far as I've come? Who the heck are you kidding?'
'I don't want to die. I'm not going to die here today. I still have a lot of things to do in my life.'
'I want become a successful businessman and lead a cozy life. I want to go to more gaming and anime events with my friends and enjoy more experiences together.'
As these thoughts keep running through my mind during my last moments, my vision becomes more and more blurred until the light disappears and I fade to black.
'I want to... finish One Piece.'