Introduction

Today was going to be an important day for the future of Tokyo. The Yusei had invited the Takanashi to a party to be held at a hotel in Shinjuku tonight to help ease tensions between the two powerhouse families of the city. Although the rivalry had at first led to rapid technological development, it soon devolved into sabotaging each other’s tech. That was not good. People all around Tokyo suffered when games made by companies backed by one family were made to get stuck exactly midway through on a console made by the other family.

And so, Shion’s mother Seiki Takahashi who was the Takanashi executive in charge of relations, spent a lot of time over the last few years trying to get something positive going again with the Yusei. The fact that they were not giving the cold shoulder anymore was huge progress.

Tying his black, shoulder-length hair into a ponytail, Shion looked at himself in the mirror once again to make sure that he looked presentable. “Hey Sui, how do I look?” He asked his ten-year-old little sister who was watching a documentary about sports from the previous era.

“Good,” she replied without taking her eyes off of the screen.

“Pause program,” Shion called out, causing the smart tv to pause whatever it was showing. Something about a king of clay or whatnot.

Sui pouted. “Continue program,” she commanded the tv.

“Pause program.”

“Continue program.”

“Turn off pro-”

“Nooooo!” She yelled out, drowning out Shion’s command. Finally complying, she paused it and walked over to her brother while scrunching up her face.

“The thing on your neck is not straight and your shirt is weird from the back and you smell,” she said while fixing his clothes.

He ignored the last statement. She was probably just annoyed by him and their mom always getting her to fix their appearances, being the only one with an aptitude for it in their household. Despite being only ten, she was a genius skilled in pretty much everything. Well, other than vocabulary for some strange reason.

He patted her head. “Thanks. I’ll get you bubble tea on the way back.”

Her mood instantly brightened and she let out a big smile before skipping over to the sofa and resuming the documentary.

“Sunberry flavor!”

“Yes, yes.” She was addicted to two things: bubble tea and sunberries.

Placing his smartphone in his pocket, Shion exited into the hallway. Looking around, he saw no sign of Ichiro. Knowing him, he probably fell asleep doing some work. His best friend Ichiro Takanashi was, after all, basically the current head. Technically, he was still the heir but his dad, the current head, had dumped all of the work on him for whatever reason.

Turning right at the end of the hallway, Shion headed towards Ichiro’s room. Due to there being over a hundred million people in Tokyo and not enough space, houses were no longer a thing and everyone lived in apartment buildings. The Takanashi, being rich and powerful, owned a humongous building that expanded to cover a lot of area underground, allowing it to house the hundreds of households under the Takanashi. The executive quarters, where the more important people like Shion’s family and Ichiro lived, had rooms comparable to houses from ten years ago.

Arriving at Ichiro’s room, Shion saw a tall woman standing outside the door.

“Hey Nemi, is Ichiro ready?”

The woman, Minemitz Takaishi, looked over at Shion with her crimson eyes. Also known as the strongest human, she was the person in charge of the police at the young age of twenty. She and Ichiro were also engaged.

“Good evening Shion. I believe Ichiro is asleep, as he did not respond to knocks on his door.”

“Not gonna wake him up? We have to leave soon.”

“I…” She fiddled with her black and red hair while looking at the door with a conflicted expression. Ichiro was the only person he knew who she went easy on. As long as there was time to spare at least. In a few minutes, he would have been dragged awake.

“I’ll wake him up if you can’t,” Shion offered, partly to save his friend from friction.

“Thank you,” she accepted while stepping back.

Shion stepped up to the door and placed his wrist in front of the sensor. It scanned the chip in his wrist and found the necessary signature, letting out a short beep and a click sound indicating that the door was now unlocked. Ichiro had given his digital signature to his childhood friends Shion, Nemi, and Nemi’s sister Puyumi so they could come to get him if he fell asleep at the wrong times. Which he did a lot.

Stepping inside, Shion saw a very messy living room with stacks of paper everywhere. Why they still used paper when everything was online, Shion didn’t know. There was also a bunch of random stuff lying around everywhere and a lot of empty coffee cups. At the table sat Ichiro on a cushion writing something down on a piece of paper.

“Hey Ichiro,” Shion called out. No response. Ichiro simply kept writing.

Walking up to him, Shion noticed that Ichiro’s eyes were closed and he was breathing gently as if asleep. It wasn’t the first time he saw him sleepwork. It wasn’t any less surreal this time around. And it wasn’t the right time for it either.

He leaned in and whispered into Ichiro’s ear, “I’ll make spinach for dinner.”

Ichiro startled awake, looking around frantically before his eyes set on Shion and slowly gained focus.

“Please no spinach,” he pleaded.

Shion ignored him. “It’s almost time to go and you look terrible right now.”

Quickly looking at his phone with tired-looking eyes, Ichiro got up and rushed to get ready. As long as he was awake, they were not going to be late. He was so used to rushing around everywhere that he developed a skill for getting ready at record speeds, one of the many strange skills in his repertoire that included sleepworking. Sure enough, he was already out of the shower and dressed before Shion could even make it out to the hallway.

“Sorry for making you two wait. I must have fallen asleep. Strange…” Ichiro said while rubbing his snow-white hair as he exited the room, the door auto-locking behind him.

“It would be more surprising to see you awake for once,” Nemi said amusedly. “No matter, we will still make it in time. You can sleep for a few more minutes on the way. And please cover up those eyebags, our representative should look as respectable as possible,” she said while handing him some makeup. She seemed to always have it ready to cover his immortal eyebags.

The three headed towards the elevator. “I’m already getting nervous,” Shion said as he took some breaths to calm his nerves as they waited for the elevator.

“Yeah, me too,” a voice responded from behind as he felt a hand on his shoulder. “But I’m kinda excited, let's go!” The same voice exclaimed enthusiastically.

“Where do you think you are going, young lady?” Nemi asked with her arms crossed.

“To the party?” Replied said young lady. Nemi raised an eyebrow.

“Fine. I’m bored and I don’t wanna stay back by myself while you all go party!”

“It is only a party in name. In truth, it is an important meeting. Your etiquette would prove to be a disaster on such an occasion. Besides, Puyumi, are you done studying for the police exam?” Nemi asked her younger sister.

“Ehehe…” Puyumi averted her gaze.

“...”

“Okay, okay, I get it! You three better bring me something!”

Nemi sighed. “We will get something. Now go and study.”

“Yes ma’am,” Puyumi mock saluted before turning around and leaving.

Nemi shook her head, clearly exasperated by her sister’s antics. It was a pretty common occurrence. While Nemi was usually prim and proper, Puyumi was always hyper. It caused the elder sibling a lot of headaches. Shion knew though that she still loved her sister more than anything else.

“Well, I’m not nervous anymore,” Shion noticed. That was her goal, he realized. Probably. You never know with her.

They took the elevator to the ground floor and left the building. Their ride, Ichiro’s personal magnetic car, was waiting for them at the entrance. Most rides were public in the current era, but being rich meant being able to keep a private ride.

During the technological revolution, one of the first things that was focused on was transportation. Due to the rapid increase in population, there were too many vehicles on the road and nobody could get anywhere. The Takanashi and the Yusei, still partners back then, came up with the magnet system. Roads were fitted with magnets and connected to a supercomputer in Ichigaya. Magnetic cars were also connected to the system. To go somewhere, all someone had to do was use the ‘call transportation’ function in the chip embedded in their wrists. With all cars and streets being controlled by the supercomputer, travel times decreased exponentially and traffic accidents dropped to zero.

Of course, not everyone was pleased. There was a group of protestors that had advocated for the right to drive, with a lot of them being those who lost jobs such as truckers and bus drivers. They didn’t manage to accomplish anything in the face of the overwhelming majority.

Getting into the car, Nemi sat at the front, inputting their destination. The other two sat at the back. Shion looked outside as the car started to move, gazing at the bright skyscrapers everywhere. It was only a few years ago that they had started building upwards. It felt suffocating now.

“Reminiscing?” Asked Ichiro, now also looking outside.

“Yeah. Remember when we went to the countryside? I miss those days now. When climate change was the urgent problem to solve. Now I just feel like a trapped rat.”

“We don’t have a choice for now. Who knows, maybe reforging the alliance could allow us to deal with the current situation.” Ichiro was right. The only way to go back was by taking massive leaps forward. Otherwise, humanity was going to collapse.