They had finally arrived at Ryan’s house. Before heading into his room to fire up the game, Ryan offered Mikomi something to drink; however, it had already slipped his mind that Mikomi had down an entire root beer before they headed over. After apologizing for his blunder, Ryan lead him to his where he wasted no time popping the game into his console and flipping the power button.
“Oh yeah… I completely forgot that game consoles in this era just instantly turned on and tossed you into the game. No load bars every five minutes… man, this was the best!”
With the title screen staring at him in the face, Ryan licked his lips and pressed the start button. Mikomi sat back and watched just how elated Ryan looked as he traversed through the first stage then suddenly, he died.
Ryan had reached the first boss and didn’t expect it to be that much of a challenge. Back then, games weren’t known for having checkpoints so Ryan had to start the stage over again which resulted in his death for a second time. Suddenly, a determined look formed on his face as he continued to struggle to get past the first boss. Mikomi sat there with his head resting on his hand as he silently judged Ryan’s skills as a gamer. To Mikomi, who had beaten this game many times in the past, it was pathetic to see Ryan struggle with something so easy!
“Man, this guy is really tough!”
“He’s only the first boss, Ryan… are you sure you know how to play this game?”
“Hey, come on! It’s my first time playing it! Cut me some slack!”
Mikomi laughed a bit and then checked his watch. His eyes widened and he jumped up to his feet.
“CRAP!! It’s almost 4:30. I forgot that I told my mom that I would come home right away after school because my dad is supposed to be coming home tonight! I’m sorry, Ryan, but I’m going to have to hang out with you some other time.”
“It’s fine. It’s been a while since you’ve seen your dad, hasn’t it?”
Mikomi took a moment to reflect that it’s been two years to him since his father had died. This will be the first time he will see him since that day. It’s still hard for him to wrap his mind around the fact that his death is still eight years from now. Mikomi sensed himself drifting away in thought and shook his head to bring himself back to reality.
“Yeah… it seems like years, but I know his job keeps him away. That’s why I need to spend as much time with him as possible.”
“No problem! Maybe we can hang out tomorrow?”
“Sure,” said Mikomi as he gave Ryan a reassuring nod. “Oh, by the way, when the boss leaps into the air, switch to the VX Grenade and drop it on the ground where he’s going to land. It’ll stun him and you can probably kill him in a couple of hits before he recovers.”
Ryan gave Mikomi a strange look. This may have been an older game but Ryan knew that Mikomi hadn’t played this game yet. Mikomi may have played this game a lot as a child but it wasn’t until he saw Ryan play that he bought it for himself. While Mikomi slipped up the first time at Game Lot, he spurted out the strategy on purpose, already prepared for the backlash that came from it. Noticing Ryan’s perplexed look, Mikomi shrugged his shoulders and offered up an explanation.
“Hey, remember... I’m from the future! Either that or I just thought of it while watching you play. Take whichever you think is more believable.”
Ryan closed his eyes and smirked as Mikomi walked out of his room. He just shook his head and went back to playing his game.
“Thanks, I’ll try it,” said Ryan just as Mikomi faded out of view.
Mikomi sprinted back home with a panicked look on his face. As the scenery behind him became a blur, thoughts flowed through his mind.
“Great… as if I didn’t do enough running today. I remember this day, though. This is the day when dad came home and said that he found something that could lead to the same breakthrough that I completed. The development of an advanced artificial intelligence that, while contained, could not just blur the lines between humans and technology but erase it completely. The story intrigued me to the point where I began to take an interest in my father’s company. He came home around dinner time and told us the news. I think he came home around six so I still have some time. Even still, I need to be more careful.”
Mikomi’s thoughts brought him all the way home. He ran up the walkway and entered his house through the front door. His mother was already in the kitchen at the stove preparing a casserole dish to go into the oven. Mikomi’s father was sitting at the dinner table reading a file folder. Mikomi’s eyes widened as seeing his father home already was completely unexpected.
“What’s going on here? Why is dad home already? I distinctly remember him coming home around six. It’s nowhere even near that time and yet, he’s sitting there at the kitchen table? Did I accidentally change something when I forgot my wallet!? This is bad! It hasn’t even been a day and I already screwed something up!!”
“Dad?” asked Mikomi with a bit of a surprised tone in his voice.
Mikomi’s father looked up at him. He was Ryunosuke Saigo, the current CEO of Onyx Technology Ventures. He wore a light grey business suit with a pale blue undershirt, much like the suit that Mikomi wore during his time as CEO of the company. Ryunosuke had that stern father look to him but he wasn’t strict in any way, shape, or form. He had the face of a corporate businessman, but the heart of a true father.
“Mikomi! How was school?”
“Eh, It was school. Nothing all that special. Sorry, I’m late… Ryan wanted me to tag along with him to the mall so he could pick up a game he had been looking for. He brought me over to his house so he could show it to me and I kind of lost track of the time.”
“It’s good to know that you’re spending time with your friends, Mikomi.” said his father with a smile on his face. “I know I can’t be here all the time so it’s wonderful that you’ve found people you enjoy being around.”
“I still can’t help but wonder how is he home this early, though. I have to find out, but I need to ask in a way where it doesn’t raise suspicion. Who knew this whole time travel thing could be so sensitive?”
“Mom said you would be coming home today but I thought you would get home a little later. Was it an early day at the office?”
Ryunosuke put down the paperwork he was looking into and folded his hands, letting out a bit of a sigh.
“Well… I was asked to stay behind at the office today because I needed to finalize some things but at the last moment, my secretary quit for an unknown reason so I had to start looking over applications to find a replacement. Usually, I like peace and quiet when selecting a new employee so I told them that I would take the applications home with me so I could look them over undisturbed.”
“Wait… Alice quit!? No... wait… this is ten years in the past… she would only be eighteen at this point in time. She’s probably graduating from high school later this year. Think! Think! When did Alice join the company? She joined when she was twenty so that’s two years from now. That means she was my father’s secretary for six years before becoming mine but she replaced Janice, but Janice just quit!? I need to find out more information… maybe I could fix this.”
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“So you don’t know why Janice quit?”
Ryunosuke looked at Mikomi with a puzzled look. It was almost as if he hadn’t heard that name before. His father’s reaction also confused Mikomi as well. It also began to frighten him because that meant something big had changed within the world.
“Janice? No Sherri. You should know her. She picked you up from school before when you came to the office to visit me. Although there is a Janice here among the applications.”
“Sherri? I don’t remember a Sherri at all. How in the world did that change? Janice has always been my father’s secretary up until she decided to retire, causing my father to search for a replacement. I remember him talking about her long service to the company and that it was a shame she was leaving. More importantly, I need to cover this up quickly.”
Mikomi glanced down at the pile of applications and noticed one of the ones on top had Janice’s name on it. He felt that this was a little too convenient but he did find his escape from this mess by way of a miracle. Regardless of how it happened, he was given a gift and he wasn’t about to reject it.
“I just happened to glance at the file folders and saw her name. It must have been fresh in my head and I just blurted it out. I would never forget Sherri.”
“Don’t worry… it happens to the best of us,” said Ryunosuke with a bit of laughter. “Say, since you were eyeing the applications, want to help me pick out my next secretary?”
“S-Sure!” said Mikomi with a nervous tone, trying to pass off the fact that this was a big responsibility for a fourteen-year-old.
“This is perfect! All I have to do is pretend to look them over and pick Janice and that should put things back in order but Janice is supposed to retire in two years. What if she doesn’t retire and that ends up getting messed up? What do I do about it then? I guess there’s no use thinking about it now. I’ll just have to go with it and see how it all plays out.”
Mikomi pulled up a chair and sat next to his father as Karoline set down two cups of tea, one for each of them knowing that this could be a long process.
“I’ll just leave you two be. It’s good to see a father-son moment!”
Karoline smiled and then excused herself from the room as Mikomi’s father passed him a stack of applications that equaled about half of them.
“Take that stack and look them over and then when we’re both done, we’ll switch and go through them then give our opinions on each one. Whichever one we have the most agreeable opinion on, that’ll be my new secretary. Sound like a plan?”
“Wait.. most agreeable opinion!? What if dad doesn’t pick Janice!? What do I do about it then? How can I convince him to pick her? I’ll agree with this for now, but I’m going to need a really convincing argument here.”
“Sounds like a plan!”
Mikomi looked down at the first application. His eyes widened in complete and utter shock. A huge monkey wrench was just thrown into Mikomi’s plans.
“What the hell!? ALICE!?”
Sure enough, there was Alice’s application. Mikomi was right in estimating that she was eighteen years old at this time. Her photo was attached to the application and she looked a lot younger than he remembered her. It was only natural since it was ten years in the past but Mikomi was captivated by how cute her eighteen-year-old self looked. Mikomi quickly put those thoughts out of his head as he had bigger questions on his mind.
“But how!? She’s supposed to be in high school!? What is she doing applying to my father’s company this early!? This is bad! I need to find a way to figure out what the hell is going on.”
“I’ll start in a second. Between school, the mall, and Ryan’s house, I haven’t had a chance to use the bathroom. I’m going to go and I’ll be right back.”
Ryunosuke gave a nod as Mikomi excused himself from the kitchen table. He made the trip to the bathroom briskly where he closed the door. His mother was down the hall in the living room so decided to keep his tone down to a barely audible whisper.
“Sebastian, I need you!”
Sebastian then materialized and sat on the edge of the tub still wearing the same white suit with a golden cane. Sebastian, who had been keeping an eye on Mikomi, realized the situation he was in and also spoke back to him at the level of a whisper, almost as if he were mocking him since Sebastian couldn’t be seen nor heard by anyone else.
“Well here we are back at square one, aren’t we? What can I assist you with, my dear Mikomi?”
“What’s going on? I mean, I know I almost messed things up at the mall by forgetting my wallet but my dad is home early, a secretary I’ve never heard of quit, and now Alice’s application is in the pile with the rest of them when she didn’t apply until two years from now. I need some answers as to just what the hell is going on!”
Sebastian let out a sigh as he feared this conversation was inevitable. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he prepared to explain it to Mikomi.
“I guess it can’t be helped. I will now tell you the truth about this world.”
“The truth?” asked Mikomi with a confused tone.
“The world in and of itself exists countless times. I believe modern science has referred to these instances as timelines or dimensions. This world exists equally across all lines but there are small differences in each one. When you were selected for a second chance, you were placed in a neighboring timeline in which everything is similar to you but around you, there may be some differences. We felt that this would be an ideal situation that would give you the best chance at changing your future.”
Mikomi stood there and tried to absorb this. He appeared deep in thought as he went over what Sebastian said in his head. He came to a sudden conclusion and wanted to confirm it.
“So, if some things are different, does this mean I don’t have to be so cautious about following the same path? I can deviate without creating too much of a ripple?”
“You, indeed, are very sharp Mikomi,” said Sebastian with a smile on his face. “That is precisely why we placed you in an alternate timeline. Sorry to say that you are, indeed, deceased in your original timeline but here, you are alive and well with the chance to alter your future. With these differences, you are virtually free to do as you wish but that doesn’t suggest that you should change everything. Mind you that you’ve already experienced events that were familiar to you. There are as many, if not more, similarities between this timeline and your original. You could still alter the futures of those who hadn’t experienced change. Be mindful of that.”
“So this freedom is limited,” said Mikomi as he rubbed his chin, trying to understand what was just said. “I have to separate what has changed from what hasn’t and decide whether or not to act.”
“You can still act as you wish. This world is yours to shape. The changes you make can be dramatic or subtle. That is what I leave to you but keep in mind what I said about compensation for the sake of balance. Make too great of a change and there will need to be some sort of equivocal exchange. Otherwise, things could spiral out of control and that would none too pleasant.”
Mikomi narrowed his eyes in suspicion as he seemed a bit bothered by this explanation.
“Why didn’t you tell me this in the beginning?”
“I know it seems that I have deceived you but I assure you Mikomi, that was not my intention. Typically if you tell someone, especially a mortal, that they have the power to reshape the world, there is no telling what that person may do. Think of it as a precautionary method. Part of my being here was to play the role of the observer. I told you I was here to watch over you… that is partially true. I am also here to judge you on your actions to determine if you could prove yourself worthy of learning this information. It is in my judgments that I have deemed you worthy. Just don’t prove me wrong by developing a God complex.”
“While it is a relief to know that I can be freer in my choices, I still feel a bit reserved when thinking about it. I have one last question for you. Are you hiding anything else from me?”
Sebastian let out a sigh as he feared that this question would come up. Sebastian cleared his throat and looked Mikomi dead in the eyes, answering him as definitively as possible.
“Yes.”
The statement by Sebastian was quick and absolute. Mikomi was taken back a bit by its sharpness as a simple word seemed to send a jolt through his body. Mikomi stood there for a moment, a bit shocked that there was more than Sebastian was hiding.