A Young Inventor's Way Of Life

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The great awakening: a phenomenon unlike anything humanity had ever seen before. It was the night of the blood moon when magic poured forth from a crimson sky, flooding the Earth, and forever changing the nature of its landscape and every creature that lived there.

Children glowed with a strange ethereal light, and adults gazed skyward in speechless awe, heralding the coming of humanity’s evolution, and, perhaps… the greatest threat to their existence since the dawn of time.

Now, in this world of strange magic wielded only by the youngest of human vessels, fighting power—Eidomancy—has become the currency that drives the balance of power in Awakened Earth.

Our story, however, begins long after that in a small coastal village on the Izu Peninsula of New Japan. Not much of note went on there, but then, of course, that isn’t unlike how it was before the awakening. A calm, sleepy, seaside village. That is where we find our hero, a yet unknown fourteen-year-old boy who had no magic of his own, but a desire to make the impossible possible with his own two hands...

. . .​

• YEAR 0015 A.A (AFTER AWAKENING). • HEDA VILLAGE, IZU PENINSULA, NEW JAPAN •​

“Now to put the last few finishing touches, and I can take a break...” A lone boy sat in a cramped workshop, little noise being made save for the monotonous tinkering with his latest masterpiece and the sound of the clock on the wall. “But what do I do about this faulty transmitter? This simply won’t do…”

In one hand between his index finger and thumb, he held a mini-screwdriver, and he adjusted his thick goggles with the other, scratching at where the elastic band met his messy crimson hair.

He had kicked the can down the road so-to-speak on a particular defect with his creation, choosing to focus on what he could readily fix, but he was close to a technological discovery, as evidenced by his obsessive behavior. He could practically taste a breakthrough coming as his breath hastened, his pupils dilating.

Nothing could break his unwavering focus. And then finally, it happened.

“I’ve got it—!” The boy shouted, quickly shooting up out of his swivel chair. As usual, he had found a solution to a problem of his own making. Unfortunately for him, however, his head had also masterfully found the edge of an overhead storage shelf, producing a thud loud enough to wake a hibernating bear.

“Ow ow ow… that stings…”​

The pain was sharp, but dulled quickly in the face of his thrilling discovery. His next worry was a separate matter altogether, though, as he sat there thinking to himself.​

I just hope I didn’t wake my—

“DAX, you lil’ punk! I thought I told ya to keep down that racket!”

He heard a gravely voice that shook the floor.

“—brother…”

While the boy, Dax, hadn’t exactly awoken a sleeping bear, it might as well have been. His brother was nearly as big and equally frightening when his sleep was disturbed. Something stomped up the wooden stairs to his bedroom loft, which was situated above the living room of the small house the two siblings shared.

“Yo!” The privacy curtain swung open with a loud fwoosh. “Hope you’re ready, you damned brat…”

“Rikki-nii!?” A bead of sweat formed on Dax’s brow. “Ready for ‘what’, exactly?”

Though he asked the question, Dax knew exactly what to expect when his brother Rikki got all worked up.​

“My special move!”

Oh no…

“Y-you don’t mean…?”

“The hell I don’t, kiddo. K.C.C!”

兄弟キャメルクラッチ! (KYOUDAI CAMEL CLUTCH!)

“OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW, uncle, UNCLE, I said!” Rikki sat on Dax’s back, pulling his younger brother’s legs back towards him in a pro wrestler-esque move. Once stuck in that position, there was little chance of escape for Dax, to say nothing of someone even stronger.

“I ain’t your ‘uncle’. And it’s aniki, not Rikki-nii, brat.”

“It’s just a figure of speech, you big doofus, it means—“​

“Ah?” Rikki peered at Dax from over his shoulder with an incredulous look.

“OWOWOWOWOW—sorry, sorry, I give! Just get off me… already…”

Rikki removed his knee from his younger brother’s back, just as he started to see Dax’s soul try to escape through his mouth.

“Jeez, who knew I raised such a wimp?” Crossing his arms, Rikki shook his head with a disappointed sigh.

The burly young man was built like a house compared to his comparably scrawny brother, who finally managed to peel himself off the ground. He wore a black tank top that barely contained his toned pectorals and a magic crystal pendant around his neck. His biceps were on full display, and his long black hair was unkept. He was like a wild beast.​

“Or maybe you’re just ridiculously strong, Rikki-nii...” Dax sighed in relief now that he had been freed, rubbing his sore rotator cuff. “Are you in a hurry to become an only child or something?”​

“You think I’d feed that smart mouth of yours if I was?”

“Fair point…”

It was an especially good point; if one considered Dax’s appetite, he had to concede, but that was another matter.

“I’m just worried for you, is all.” Rikki came out and said something unexpectedly earnest in the eyes of his little brother. “You’ve been cooped up in here every day tinkering with that weird ass… thing instead of training up your muscles. You already can’t use Eidomancy, how do you expect to become a paper boy, let alone an Imperial Defender with noodle arms like those? Those mage brats’ll eat you alive in the capital.”

I know that… But not to worry.

“I haven’t given up on getting stronger, but until that time comes, that’s what my inventions are meant for!” Dax declared, maintaining at least a half-convincing tone. Indeed, his lack of strength could be supplemented by his intellect that exceeded his lived experience. In theory, that is. “In fact, I think I’ve finally perfected my latest one…”

“You can’t shortcut strength, kid.” Unconvinced, Rikki sighed deeply once again as Dax reached behind him to grab the item in question off his desk. “And what the hell kinda contraption have you cooked up this time? This thing better not blow up like the last couple.”

“As if I would build something that dangerous… more than once,” Dax muttered the last part. “No, this is completely safe and sure to make your work a cinch. No more backaches and handling splintery wood by hand. This is the future of the Oshita family business!”

“Oho?”

The aforementioned family business was a delivery service that shipped everything from crates of food and supplies to furniture, and even building materials around the village with a large box truck Rikki leased from a nearby village to the south.​

Without asking first, Dax slapped a metal device into his brother’s hand. It was round and flat with a glowing cyan circle in the center on both the bottom and top faces. For being small enough to fit in Rikki’s palm, it was actually quite heavy.

“What you have there is an oblate spheroid I like to call the ‘anti-matter dolly’, mark three.” Dax beamed, subconsciously paying his respects to the ruined versions one and two. “Once I figured out how to back-end the power supply without the excess energy collapsing in on itself or overheating the base unit, I achieved optimal functionality for everyday use.”​

“‘Kay, that’s fine and all, but what the hell does it do?” Rikki asked, his eyes glazing over. “In regular people’s Japanese, if you would.”

“Of course, Rikki-nii.” Dax smiled a bit too smugly.​

Dax pressed the glowing cyan button in the center of the device as it whirred to a start. He briefly surveyed his loft for something he could use to aid in his experiment until his eyes settled onto his cot.

“This’ll do…” He slapped the device onto the bottom of the bed, where it stuck without the help of any adhesive. He proceeded to grab a remote control with a joystick off his desk, humming as he did. “Observe.”​

At the press of a button, the rickety metal bed began to hover off the ground, much to his brother’s surprise.

“Well, I’ll be.” Rikki whistled, still crossing his arms.

He was genuinely impressed. However, considering how many of Dax’s experiments had turned out in the past, he couldn’t quite relax or begin to shower his brother with praise just yet. Even if it were in character for him to do so.

“It wasn’t easy, but I’ve cracked gravitational propulsion without the use of thrust,” Dax explained, toggling the joystick on the remote control. It successfully moved the bed left, right, forward, and backward. “I figure this will help us here in the village in the meantime, and then I can either patent my ideas or sell them so we don’t have to live on cabbage soup anymore. That was the idea, anyway.”

“Oye, what’s wrong with my cabbage soup, ah?”

“Nothing, I’m just saying.” Dax waved his arms. “So, what do you think?”​

“Eh? What do I think? Does that really matter all that much?” Rikki scratched at his chin stubble. “I mean, assuming it doesn’t set the house on fire in the next three minutes or so, that’ll have to be some kind of record for you. You oughta be proud of that, at least.”

“Ha ha, very funny. But that’s not what I mean.”​

Dax had his own reasons, but there was something he absolutely had to do, and he needed his brother’s final approval to take that leap. He looked at Rikki pleadingly as if to make his position clear.​

“I get it, I suppose. No sense in playing dumb.” Rikki sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “But we’ve been through this. You’re just not ready to go off by yourself.”​

“You wouldn’t know that!” Dax furrowed his brow, growing a little desperate.​

“I would. You’re a smart brat, Dax, but you get swept up in the moment too easily. You’ve got no street smarts. The capital, Eido City, ain’t the place for a bright-eyed dreamer like yourself.”​

“No, you spent your whole life here, so you couldn’t possibly understand, but there’s something I need to do… And I can’t do that unless I become an Imperial Defender in Eido City. So Rikki-nii, I’m begging, you have to let me go!”

There was a bit of silence between the brothers until Rikki spoke up once again.​

“Not that you’d remember, since you were still soiling yourself in diapers, but when my magic awakened, there was a brief time when I left home in the village to go find myself in Eido City,” Rikki admitted as Dax’s eyes widened. “Our parents were none too thrilled, either.”

“Wait, seriously!?”​

Rikki nodded.​

“Though it was only for a year, and being the impulsive little shit I was, I attended one of the training camps they held to join the Imperial Defenders.” He explained. “Wanted to lend my Eidomancy in the service of the Emperor. I was sixteen, so I had less than two years to use it before I lost my ability for good. Clock was ticking, you know, and I had a pretty rare one too.”​

The ability to thwart any and all projectiles, if Dax remembered correctly. By focusing his aura, Rikki could change the trajectory of even high-level spells if fired within range of his body. It made him impervious to many long-range weapons and attacks.​

Rikki plopped down on Dax’s bed, bringing it back down to the floor.​

“So… what happened?”​

It was obvious to Dax that his brother hadn’t ultimately joined the army, of course. Once someone turned eighteen, they lost their magic powers. Eidomancy was everything in this country, the entire world even. Adults were as good as useless in a battle in this era due to the fact.​

Rikki’s presence throughout Dax’s childhood was proof enough that he returned in short order. However, what Dax still didn't know was why things hadn’t panned out for his brother after leaving the family behind.​

“Well, truth be told, I was green as grass back then, and not the muscle-bound fool you see before you today,” Rikki explained. “I was a little too trusting of some of my peers, and the training wasn’t producing the results I wanted. I cut corners, and then fell in with a bad element there.”​

“What do you mean?”

“I turned my back on my goal, and wasted a whole damn year chasing after something that wasn’t even real, doing the bidding of some crackpot. Though that’s all I can say.” Rikki shrugged. “Point is, your gizmos are pretty unique, but you’ll need more than that to make it there.”

“I see…” Dax nodded, reaching a point of understanding after his rare heart-to-heart with his brother.

“Besides, you might not have magic, but it ain’t like you’ve got a time limit either,” Rikki said. “By the time you’re an old fart like me, you’ll have long-surpassed yours truly. Though I’m only thirty-one, mind you.”​

“I wish it were that simple…” Dax sported a troubled look, causing Rikki to raise an eyebrow. “In any case, maybe you’re right, aniki. You think you can train me one of these days on how to get stronger physically? I’ve been meaning to get some fresh air, anyhow...”

“Hah! That’s the spirit, brat. And you’re finally addressing me with some respect. For that alone, I’ll give you some pointers on how to be a real man. Something those gizmos can’t teach ya. Won’t be easy though.”

“Of course, aniki. You’re my favorite imperial dropout, after all.”​

And after mom and dad… You were the one…​

“Right, so we can start bright and early tomorrow—wait, what was that, you little shit!?”​

“Hahaha!” Dax laughed a bit at his brother’s expense before sniffing the air all of a sudden. “Do you… smell something burning?”​

“Burning, what do you—YOUCH!” Right at that moment, Rikki shot up out of Dax’s bed, rubbing his backside. “—!?”

The two brothers broke into a coughing fit as smoke enveloped the room, coming from the underside of Dax’s bed. A realization hit him. Once his brother sat down on the cot, the device was working in overdrive to propel them both off the ground, causing it to overheat in the process.

The sprinklers hit Dax, Rikki, and his smoldering mattress, drenching them in cold water.​

“Guess it had a few bugs, after all, heheheh…”​

“DAAAAAAAAAAX!”