It was morning and Sonic was waking up in his room. Life had slowed down for the hedgehog, he was on standby until the development cycle of his next game would start. For now, he had to occasionally come to SEGA, do some paperwork, some promotional jobs, and after a few hours return home. He wasn’t working for a time.
He could hear the calls of Tails to come to the bathroom to fix the malfunctioning toilet once again. While he was fixing the toilet he was listening to Tails’ standard rants about the sewer system.
Sonic’s days were spent with him jogging around the neighborhood and writing ideas for the upcoming game. During his daily jogs, he was reminded of how awful Kowareta Yume was, trash over the streets, dysfunctional roads, and walls of buildings were covered in messy and ugly graffiti. It has and it will always be like this, Sonic thought to himself while jogging.
Despite how slow everything was moving at the moment Sonic enjoyed the break he got after the relatively stressful period of game development. He was excited about the prospects of the next game but now he let himself be at ease over his free time.
Tails started having a good streak at his college. He had passed several tough exams in a row with flying colors. His graduation was not far away from him. He was happy about the idea of getting another chance at video games but he wasn’t holding out too much hope considering it was something totally out of his control. He let himself daydream but with a dose of realism about the situation.
Sonic and Tails sat in the living room and were getting ready to watch ‘Good Morning Tokyo’ with breakfast plates and cups of coffee in front of them. They both had real enthusiastic energy.
Unfortunately, Shadow had the polar opposite attitude. He stayed in his room and was in a very bad mood. These last few days he had been miserable and asocial. Many times Sonic and Tails had attempted to talk to him about why he was feeling this way but ultimately Shadow refused.
Sonic and Tails watched the morning show and once it was over Tails went over to Shadow’s room and knocked on his door.
“Shadow will you come out and talk to us. What’s wrong? What’s been bothering ya?” Tails said.
“I don’t want to talk about it. You guys will laugh at me.”
“We won’t I promise. How bad can it be?”
Shadow reluctantly agreed. Before moving in with these two he was used to living alone and dealing with situations like this on his own. It was a long time before he opened up to others. He joined the other two in the living room and they began to talk. Tails asked him what the problem was.
“Well, you see. I’ve realized something. I will never ever get the see the communist utopia.” Shadow said.
“Get the fuck outta here.” Tails grabbed his head in frustration. “I thought you were actually dealing with something serious.”
“THIS IS SERIOUS!” Shadow lashed out almost like a teenager would when they want to make sure you know that it’s not a faze mom.
“You mean to tell me you didn’t talk with us because of something this stupid.” Tails rolled his eyes.
“Wait wait. I want to hear him out.” Sonic gestured at Tails to tone down. “Let’s hear him out first fully. Okay, so no communist utopia. Go on.”
“Anyways,” Shadow continued. “Every communist country failed. The more I learned about them, the more I realized they were just totalitarian hellholes. They didn’t make the world a better place, nor did they meet any of their utopic goals. They made the lives of their citizens miserable while the Soviet Union was engaged in an imperialistic struggle with the US. They were never about helping people but a project of empire building like the US.
“I realized that things like world hunger, disease, wars, and so on. None of these global problems will ever be solved. The world is doomed to be a fucked up and cruel place forever. There is nothing that I or any person or group can do to change the state of the planet. We are stuck to forever be in a state of chaos, injustice, and cruelty.”
“Man. You really need to get off social media,” Sonic sighed.
“You guys just don’t take me seriously. You think this is all a joke?” Shadow felt offended but it was the reaction he expected of them.
“Listen I got an idea for you, Tails and I have made plans to have lunch with Kiryu. Why don’t you come with us? The way I see you don’t interact with anybody besides the two of us and I hear you don’t get along well with your coworkers at SEGA. I think it will do you good to get out of the house and chill out with us. What do you say?”
“You just don’t understand what I’m going through.” Shadow crossed his arms.
“Maybe we don’t get you,” Tails leaned towards Shadow, “but Kiryu could. He loves giving life advice and helping people who feel lost. Maybe he has some advice for you that would help. In your case, you have only the chains of your room to lose and the world to gain.” Tails winked at Shadow feeling proud of himself for remembering to quote Marx at Shadow.
“Okay. If you guys insist I will come along. Oh and for the record, I am no longer a communist. I see now that it doesn’t work”
“Can’t wait for your anarcho-syndicalist faze or whatever cocky politics you plan to attach yourself to.” Tails said sarcastically while Sonic had no idea what he had just said. All this talk of politics was making him bored.
***
At Kamurocho the three of them were in the restaurant Kanrai eating lunch with Kiryu. Sonic and Tails were talking and laughing with Kiryu while Shadow stayed mostly silent. Shadow was still moping and didn’t attempt to join their conversation. His mind was elsewhere thinking about the state of the world and how impossible is to fix it.
Sonic, Tails, and Kiryu were having a lot of fun and they were talking about various topics. Sonic started to feel bad because Shadow was so depressed. He remembered Tails’ joking remark about Kiryu giving Shadow advice and he thought to himself, maybe Kiryu could help as he helped me.
Sonic gestured at Kiryu to stand up and he walked with him away from the table leaving Tails and Shadow alone. He wanted to talk to Kiryu privately.
“Listen Kiryu could you do something for me? Shadow over there has been really out of it these past few days. I told you about him remember? A good guy at heart but poisoned by online politics. Think maybe you could help him?”
“I can try,” Kiryu said.
“Good. I will say to Tails that we have to take care of some business and we will leave you two to talk it out. We will be back of course but we will leave you two for some time. Is that okay?”
Kiryu nodded and with that, the plan was in motion. Sonic and Tails left Kanrai and went to the SEGA arcade nearby to give these two some space. Shadow listlessly looked into his empty plate.
“I notice somethings bothering you Shadow. I know we are not close but you can tell me if you want to?” Kiryu said.
Stolen novel; please report.
“They said you like listening and giving advice so here I go.”
Shadow proceeded to tell Kiryu about his current thoughts and his political journey from Nazi to communist and now finally doomer.
“I used to think,” Shadow said, “that if get rid of the Jews the world would be great. Then I thought if we overthrow global capitalism things will be fixed. Now I see that achieving something so big is impossible and even if we did manage to do it the world would still probably be fucked in all sorts of ways. Global problem solving is much more complicated than removing one thing and things magically getting better you see?”
“I agree with what you’ve been saying. Things like solving world hunger or any other macro problems are impossible to do as an individual and even if you were in a position of power, you probably wouldn’t be able to fix something so big of an issue. Because of that, it's pointless to stress and think about things that are so out of your control.”
Shadow flailed his arms, “That’s the problem I don’t want to resign myself to the way the world is! I don’t want to be someone like Sonic that doesn’t care about anything that doesn’t directly affect him at the moment and who refuses to engage in politics.”
Kiryu raised his palms to calm down Shadow. “Hold on, I wasn’t finished. I am not saying that you should resign yourself. There are ways you can make the world a better place that doesn’t involve some global earth-shattering change. You can start by changing things that you have control over.”
“Oh my god, you are gonna give me the clichéd ‘clean your room’,” Shadow said still sounding frustrated and angry.
“For starters yes. You have control over the place you live. Firstly, you get your immediate surroundings in order. However, you don’t stop there, you look at the building you live in, are there any problems that need fixing or ways to improve it. Then you move on to your neighborhood, see if there are problems, you can fix them, and so on and so on. You start from the little things that you can change and then you move on to the bigger things. If you constantly focus on those problems that are out of your reach you will just end up cynical and miserable.”
“But are those smaller problems even worth fixing? They amount to nothing in the world or in the course of history.”
“Nothing we do amounts to changes in the world or history. Very few individuals end up changing the course of history and the world. They were at the right place at the right time and were lucky. However if all of us try in the ways we can fix our little corners of the world that will amount to something.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“How much do you know about my life?” Kiryu said and ordered his second cup of coffee.
“I’ve played all of the ‘Yakuza games’ you were in.”
“If you have then you must remember the substories. Most of that did really happen, except for the really goofy ones of course. The point is I truly believe that the small things you do to improve your part of the world do matter. I try to help every person I can and that does amount to something. It amounts to little but it is an impact. If I didn’t believe in that I wouldn’t be talking to you right now. By doing these small gestures you create ripples and these ripples spill to other places and slowly you are changing the world in ways you can.”
Kiryu’s coffee arrived. He took a sip and continued to talk:
“If we can't do the little things, how can we expect to be able to do the big things. I’m not saying fixing big things is not possible or that you give up on it forever. Who knows maybe someday on your journey you will end up prime minister of Japan and you have control over truly gargantuan things. But until then, focus on the stuff you have control over right now. And one final thing, you won't be able to do anything if you waste away hours of your life in front of a computer or phone typing angry comments, watching poorly made video essays, and reading posts by other terminally online people.”
“So if understood, start with small problems, fix things I have control over, and on that journey, I can maybe move on to bigger problems?”
Kiryu nodded.
Shadow’s doomer mindset had begun to disappear. He already had ideas on what could be done and what he was going to do next. A wave of enthusiasm went through his body and he couldn’t wait to get back home and start.
By the time Sonic and Tails came back, they saw Kiryu and Shadow actively talking about video games and Shadow had a smile on his face. Sonic and Tails joined them and they all talked with each other laughing and having fun.
“Hey, Kiryu can I ask you something?” Tails said.
“What is it?”
“In the video games, you can beat up like over a hundred guys, you never lose in a fight and you seem indestructible. Are you really that strong?”
Kiryu raised an eyebrow not sure where this line of questioning is going. “Obviously in the video games, it’s a little played up because you need levels and enemies to fight but I am very strong. I have taken out rooms full of yakuza in fist fights.”
“So you are probably the strongest person I’ve ever met. Tell me, let's say hypothetically if you fought Lupin the 3rd, who would win?”
“Lupin the 3rd no contest. He is way too powerful,” Kiryu firmly replied.
“Everyone thinks he is the most powerful I don’t get it?”
Sonic chimed in, “I’ve been telling you all this time and you don’t believe me. No one can beat Lupin the 3rd.”
***
Later that day Sonic, Tails, and Shadow were back home in their apartment. Shadow had cleaned the entire apartment spotless and had asked Sonic and Tails to meet in the living room. He had an idea he wanted to pitch to them, and they reluctantly agreed being unsure whether it was going to be a good idea or something insane.
“Here’s the deal,” Shadow said and pressed his palms together, “our building is in a terrible state. It’s covered in graffiti, the paint is falling apart and it’s just overall really ugly. I propose we go from door to door, we ask people for a donation and we get a permit to renovate the exterior paint and to paint over the graffiti.”
“Is it possible to even do that?” Tails asked.
“We can easily get the permit if we have the money to do it. We just need to get it from our neighbors to cover the paint and to pay a company that does these kinds of jobs.”
“Aha, I see. That’s not a bad idea at all. Let’s do it!”
“I am kinda bothered too by how ugly the building is too. I’m in.” Sonic said.
The three of them went from door to door to present their idea for this project. What they got was mostly rejection. Nobody wanted to participate. As soon as someone hears of having to give some kind of money, they immediately closed the door. Most of the neighbors rejected it. Only 5% of the people gave money and some said that they will pay for it after the project is completed.
Shadow was devastated by his failure. All of his enthusiasm disappeared, and he fell to the ground at the first step he took. He felt completely demoralized and was ready to give up on the whole thing and return to his former doomerism.
To everyone’s surprise, Sonic had offered to cover the entire expense. With ‘Sonic: Revelations’ great financial success he was currently the richest of the three. Sonic said:
“The thing is, ever since I started earning a lot of money I have never spent it on anything meaningful. It was only on expensive shit I never truly needed. I think this is something worth forking over the cash. It’s the place where we live after all.”
“Are you sure, you will be covering most of the expenses?” Shadow asked concerned.
Sonic gave a firm yes and they could proceed. Next was convincing the government’s renovation building offices to green light their project. After a lot of standing in lines, filling in paperwork, and meetings with government Bureaucrats later they were able to get their project greenlit.
A little while later and their apartment building looked brand new. It looked like it didn’t belong in the area or the whole of Kowareta Yume for that matter.
After the renovation project, they moved on to the next objective. The street where their apartment building was situated was filled with trash everywhere. The street looked like a landfill. Once again they went and knocked on the doors of their neighbors, their pitch was that the three of them and whoever wants to volunteer would clean up the streets.
They did get some motivated people to show up and they were successfully able to clean up the place. Their actions were not unnoticed. Shadow had made a new social media account called ‘LET'S GET MOVING’ where he posted their accomplishments and before and after photos. Him being terminally online for so long made him quite media savvy and he was able to get followers and engagement on his account.
Soon people in the area heard about their exploits, they saw how nice their building and street looked liked and they started getting more and more volunteers. The three of them along with their volunteers went from building to building and street to street and they were transforming their area of Kowareta Yume.
The news stations started talking about them and since they were all video game characters people knew they started getting financial support from their fans. Over the course of a few months what started as the three of them on a passion project turned into a full-blown organization. Shadow along with Tails and Sonic founded an organization called ‘Not all of me, all of us’ and they were organizing these actions all over Kowareta Yume.
Not just clean-ups and renovations but petitions, local protests, and other social actions. It was a huge surprise how many motivated people started showing up to work for their organization. Kowareta Yume was known for its apolitical and demotivated population, something Tails witness attending protests where a dozen people would show up. Things were different now. Our three heroes had managed to change the landscape.
Within the organization, Shadow was seen as its face. He was the person who was to show up on television interviews on behalf of the organization, he was the one who was making the speeches and generally, he was seen by everyone as the leader. He had a natural talent for public speaking and was able to bring out enthusiasm and optimism in people when he spoke.
Tails was the brains of the organization. Shadow never was a sophisticated thinker, he would look for guidance and advice from Tails. Before he would argue with Tails about everything but he came to accept that Tails was smarter than him and knew more about these things than he did. Tails was in charge of planning events and managing the budget.
On the flip side Tails was a terrible public speaker, which is why as passionate about politics as he was he could never be the one to lead people. Even though all of his life he had media appearances since he was a video game character he could never get over the anxiety of speaking in front of large crowds or in front of cameras.
Sonic had a very passive role in their organization. He always did what Shadow and Tails would tell him to do. While he wasn’t used to being the one taking orders he knew that this was out of his lane and that it be best to do what he is told. His expertise was directing video games, not local social actions. He did enjoy this work though, it made him feel really good about himself. He felt like the work he did had meaning.
***
Sometime later.
Early morning and Sonic, Tails, and Shadow are at home getting ready to watch ‘Good Morning Tokyo’.
The show starts and the reporter on TV says:
“Good Morning Tokyo, today joining us is Mr. Kenji Tanaka, the undefeated mayor of Kowareta Yume”
“Go back to the trash can you crawled out of you old fossil!” Tails yelled at the TV.
“Mr. Tanaka,” said the reporter, “Today marks 31 years since you’ve been mayor of your ward, Kowareta Yume. Soon local elections will be held there. Do you plan to run again?”
“I tell ya here that I plan to run as long as I live. Someone has to keep this part of town afloat and prevent the socialist to turn it into a hell hole of crime and foreigners.”
“Does this guy have anything worthwhile to say that isn’t populist platitudes!” Tails yelled at the TV again.
The reporter continues, “If you were to win this upcoming local election you would be the mayor of that ward for 35 years. Yet it seems that it is still the worst place to live. None of the issues have ever been addressed. The sewer system is a primary concern-“
“Let me tell you something,” the mayor cuts him off, “you Chinese-funded communist traitor you listen to me, I know you people, all of you hate Japan. You hate Japan more than anything in the world. That’s your problem. But let me tell ya, all of you just hate yourselves.”
“Sir, you’re not answering my question.”
The interview continued into nothingness, the mayor continued insulting the reporter and not answering a single question.
“Kenji Tanaka, huh. I always keep forgetting what’s his name. It’s so forgettable. In my head, he has always been MEXICO CITY.” Sonic said.
“One good thing about him is he hadn’t teared down my home the three of us would have never been friends,” Shadow said.
Just as Shadow had spoken those words an idea popped into Sonic’s mind. Like in cartoons when a light bulb turns on over someone’s head. Sonic screamed out: “GUYS LISTEN TO THIS, I HAVE AN IDEA!” Shadow and Tails froze waiting for him to reveal. “Shadow you should run for mayor of Kowareta Yume in the upcoming election!”