Prologue #1

The Forgotten Man

    Ryan James Ryoko only knew his name with any real certainty.  As an orphan dropped in front of a church some twenty years before, the only two things that accompanied him was a swaddle blanket and a plain white card with his name on it.  There was no birth date listed, and no other information.

    In fact even his name may have been wrong, in order to hide his real identity.  Or rather, to keep from incriminating his parents.

    But JR actually liked his name.  It matched well with his asian-descent features, even if he never really knew of which country his forefathers had come from.  Even his nickname at least sounded cool while he was in school.

    The only downside was that JR was literally like a ghost, having almost exactly zero presence regardless of where he was.  Growing up in the orphanage, the nuns from the attached church as well as the volunteers that came to help take care of all of them barely remembered he was there.

    His name would be skipped during roll call, and he’d miss being called up to get his plate of food at dinner.  Even when praying, no one would notice that he was more interested in hiding under the pews than praying with the rest of the children.  Even the other children barely recognized his existence alongside them.

    It got even worse as he grew up and started attending school.  The teachers would forget about him, and even though he did his homework and did very well on all of his tests, most of the time he’d get them back not even graded.  Unless he pointedly interjected himself where others could see him, it was like he wasn’t even there.

    And there is nothing to say about JR having friends or even a girlfriend.  It just didn’t happen at all.  Even if he introduced himself to someone, they’d likely forget his face or his name as soon as their attention turned to something else.

    Only the animals really paid Ryan any attention, as even as a young boy they’d often surround him while he was sitting alone.  It didn’t matter if it were stray cats, mice, or birds and dogs.  Going to the park was even worse, as they’d swarm him as if trying to get as close to his body as possible if he were sitting still at any place for more than a few minutes.

    Growing up in this way was very disconcerting and mysterious, and bugged Ryan quite a lot.  But acting out didn’t achieve anything, and although he had to put in quite a bit of effort into it, he did manage to get through his school years with top grades in his class.  Slamming his hand on his desk in order to not to be skipped over became a daily occurrence in each of his classes.

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    JR managed to get a full scholarship to the university of his choice, as his mysteriously thin presence didn’t affect electronic systems.  Once his grades and test results were in the system, he got all of the attention he’d rightly deserved.  At least until he was standing right in front of the professors and his attendance counselor.

    But at least he got to move out of the orphanage at the (supposed) age of 18 and into the private dorm of the university.  It was liberating, in all honesty.  He’d had so many brothers and sisters at the orphanage that even he struggled to keep them all straight in his head.  Or at least he’d considered them such, as most of them couldn’t remember him once his presence faded.

    Ryan’s life as a university student didn’t go all that much different from his school life before though.  He’d go to his classes, take notes during the lectures, slam his hand on his desk when he needed to ask a question or to make sure he got a copy of whatever papers were handed out, then leave and be forgotten all over again.  Thankfully a lot of the classes had switched over to online testing and homework assignments, so he was never late or forgotten when it came to getting graded.

    He had to keep up his academics in order to keep his scholarship, after all.

    However, the stipend he received from his full scholarship didn’t support more than just the basics of living.  Ryan wasn’t interested in taking out any student loans though, so he resorted to trying to find a part-time job.

    That, however, went about as well as one could expect.  Which is to say it didn’t.  While his online presence was just fine, when it came time to actually meet others face-to-face it all ended in a farce.  Even trained recruiters from Temp Agencies’ would forget about his appointments or forget to follow through with submitting his application once he was gone.

    It got to the point where even Ryan realized that the people of the world just wouldn’t remember him at all.

    Then it happened.  He’d been walking back to the dorm after running to the nearby convenience store to pick up something to snack on.  It was raining quite heavily and visibility was poor, but JR needed the surgery pick-me-up to finish the report that was due the next day for his biology class.

    Which is when he was literally run over by a delivery truck.  JR, as fastidious with his reading as he was with his studying, would have been ‘Oh damn, not this trope…’ if he’d even been aware of it while crossing the street.

    But the truck in question hadn’t even slowed down when it came across the red light, and definitely took no notice of Ryan having the right-of-way to cross the street.  The heavy rain and poor visibility had served to make his presence even that much smaller, reflective raincoat be damned.  Thus Ryan was sent on his way without even being aware of the fact.

    At least it didn’t involve any pain on JR’s side.

    For the driver of the truck though, it involved quite a bit (of pain).  Both physically and emotionally, as at first the airbag of the steerwheel blew out and broke his nose, causing him to crash into a nearby storefront.  Broken bones followed that major crash.

    Then came the investigation, as the whole world suddenly knew Ryan James Ryoko’s name.  It was as if as soon as his soul had departed, everyone who had known or met Ryan suddenly remembered his existence all at the same time.  They would also learn somewhat supernaturally swiftly that he’d been killed in an automobile accident.

    That put the somewhat battered truck driver right in the spotlight, along with the company he worked for.  Criminal charges were quick in coming, along with fines, being fired, and being lumped with all of his own medical expenses.  Even the delivery company went into bankruptcy from it all, as the sudden backlash was harsh.

    Ryan though didn’t know any of that however.

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