At hearing it, Katsuo guessed that Ichiro was just kidding. He thought there was no way his partner had come up with a plan in such a short time. "Wow, really?" asked Katsuo surprised as a joke. Without noticing Katsuo's sarcasm, Ichiro replied with a high level of enthusiasm.
"Look, I got a great idea on mind, a pretty crazy and unusual idea." Katsuo began to suspect that his friend wasn't kidding,being someone who does not usually joke as Ichiro, Katsuo prepared his ears to hear the brilliant idea that his friend had for after leaving the orphanage.
"yeah? what is it?" asked Katsuo excidetly.
"I am thinking about traveling in time." Ichiro started shaking inside with nerves of how his comrade would react. For a second Katsuo did not make a single gesture, it seemed that his body was on pause. But suddenly, his lips curved up and his cheeks puffed up to contain his laughter. Striving to hold the breath, Katsuo couldn't take it anymore and laught at hearing such a fallacy.
"Come on Ichiro, what kind of joke is this?" exclaimed Katsuo while laughting. A more than expected reaction from Katsuo., I mean, how would you react if your best friend propose you to travel in time? Taking a big sigh as if trying to fill his lungs with all the oxygen possible, Katsuo finally stopped laughing and Ichiro patiently gave him a brief explanation of how to carry out his great plan. Thinking his friend was just excited to have found a fantastic and ureal solution, Katsuo tried to lower him down from his cloud.
" listen Ichiro, what you tell me is very interesting ,do not take it the wrong way, but time travel is impossible" said Katsuo.
Ichiro put his book aside and positioned himself in a defiant pose. "you might be wrong" exclaimed Ichiro pointing an index finger at Katsuo.
"Sorry?" asked Katsuo indignantly. Ichiro took his book again and turned it over so that his friend could see the time machines for himself. Katsuo didn't look convinced, for him it was nothing more than fiction. Worried Ichiro gone crazy and dissapointed for not receiving a real propost from him, Katsuo just went out again from their bedroom and left Ichiro planted in solitude. Abandoned by his own roommate, Ichiro don't give a shit about it and kept reading to investigate further the secrets that were kept in the book.
The next day at mid day was the playing time for the children and everyone had to participate, they were about to play to catch the ball. Ichiro took the book from his bedroom and went outside with it. Already in the yard where the game was going to take place, Ichiro met Katsuo who seemed to be out of sight, all his concentration was directed to the book.
"Are you still reading that book?" asked Katsuo.
"yeah, why not? replied Ichiro without paying much attention. Everyone was supposed to participate in the competitive game but Ichiro had more important things to do and sat to the side for read peacefully and not interrumpting the game. This time he was interesting in knowing how does the "line braker" as he baptize the device was build, he turned the page where it mentioned how said device worked.
"Fuck,I did not think this was going to be that difficult." Ichiro realized the model needed more than plastic and attached screws, if he wanted to cause a temporary fissure, this device would require a large source of electricity. Thinking about where to get a great source of energy, an aggressive ball out of nowhere hit Ichiro's head hard, causing him to lie on the ground on his back and seeing little stars. Nani who was close taking care of the children went running to pick him up.
" Ichiro are you ok?" asked Nani worried.
" I think so" replied Ichiro with his head spinning. There were no signs that he was hurt but that blow served as a reminder not to stay in the middle of the playing field. Nani took him by the hands and pulled him so that he could stand up. The children recovered their ball and proceeded to resume their game while Nani stayed by Ichiro's side until he fully recovered from the impact.
"Why weren't you playing with the others, Ichiro?" asked Nani with the same annoying grin between teeth. Ichiro avoided telling her the real reason why he was sitting in the middle of the garden reading.
"Sorry, I felt tired to play and I preferred to sit here" argued Ichiro after improvising an excuse. Nani said nothing and he was uncomfortable by the silence that had been made. He was just waiting for the perfect moment for Nani to get distracted to detach from her without her noticing. A child was climbing the fence that surrounded the orphanage what what caught Nani's attention and she told him to get off immediately. Ichiro took the opportunity and quickly turned around and subtly left. He went to find a less inhabited place to continue reading. The sky was detached, the sun was scorching the surface, he needed a shady place. In a corner there was a tree abundant with branches that cast a shadow on the ground. After seeing the place Ichiro went to take sit and continue with his investigation. It seemed like the perfect place until he noticed that the place was already occupied by someone else. A red-haired girl who looks the same age as Ichiro was lying under the tree. He saw her but didn't know how to open a conversation. Between the two there was no exchange of words until she decided to break the ice.
"May I help you?" asked friendly Lei trying to be nice with him.
"I just wanted to sit here, I didn't think there was already someone" replied Ichiro with a bit of pity. The space under the tree gave capacity for one more person, she just leaned in a little so Ichiro could sit down. He did not care if there was someone else, anything was better than being with Nani. He accompanied her and immersed himself in his reading.
"What are you reading?" asked Lei.
" Oh, it is just a boring comic about a cat who is a superhero" replied Ichiro smiling a little to look friendly.
"Can I read it?" she asked. Ichiro quickly invented made up and excuse to prevent her from reading the book.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
"Believe me, you don't want to read it, it's very bad" explained Ichiro. Fortunately for him, she only limited herself to asking once and did not demand that he lend her the book. Instead she became interested in who he was.
"I think we don't know each other, what is your name?" asked Lei
"Ichiro, and yours?" he returned the question.
"Lei, I've lived here since I was 4, and you?"
"Since I can remember, I have never been outside this place" expressed Ichiro.
"Wow, you sounded so dark" exclaimed Lei. Ichiro resumed his reading to further investigate the subject of the power the line breaker required. It wasn't going to be as easy as connecting a mobile with its charger. according to the book it needed to be enough energy to feed a hole building. A sound of a machine working started to be heard. Ichiro turned his gaze to see what it was about. It seemed to be the orphanage's genral electricity unit been manipulated by an electrical technician.
"But of course, how did I not think about it before?" The spotlight went on inside Ichiro's head. He thinked about connecting the line breaker into it. He had covered one of two important parts to carrying out his plan, he only needed to build the machine itself.
The minutes passed, the ball game was over for the children, Nani was calling them to go inside to drink some water and they all lined up to enter. Ichiro had to look for Katsuo to tell him what he had just discovered.
" I have to go, nice to meet you" said Ichiro to said goodbye to his new friend.
"Yeah sure, same" replied Lei.
Ichiro went to the front door looking for Katsuo. Both heading to their room, Ichiro quickened his pace to reach him.
"Hold on Katsuo, I got something to speak with you"
" is about your time machine?" replied Katsuo.
" yeah, why?" asked Ichiro. When the two enter their room Katsuo took a seat on his bed. Being his best friend and not to be rude, he gave Ichiro time to explain himself, even if it wasn't worth talking about an unreal topic like the one Ichiro raised for him
" Katsuo please, listen to me, I have discovered something interesting a while ago" exclaimed Ichiro.
Katsuo closed his eyes to have enough strength to listen to his friend's madness and opened them again. "Ok, I will listen to you" said Katsuo patiently. Ichiro took his time, he had to make Katsuo come to his senses and support him in his decision. talking coherently, Ichiro's persuasive voice when talking made Katsuo change his mind and start showing interest.
"How are you going to build the line breaker?" asked Katsuo. The anatomy of the line breaker kept many similarities to those of a cell phone. Ichiro just needed to get a mobile to use the it's pieces and build his own machine.
" You have a cell phone stored in your bureau, right?" asked Ichiro with an idea in hand.
" yeah, I haven't used it for a long time" said Katsuo.
" Bring it, we are going to need it" exclaimed Ichiro. Katsuo opened the drawer of his furniture and among a pile of accumulated garbage, he managed to find his cell phone and then gave it to Ichiro. It was unusual for a orphanaga kid to have access to technology like this, only Katsuo who had that cell phone for a while and he didn't use it frequently. It looked useful and without a single piece missing, seeing it in relatively good condition, Ichiro decided to use its pieces to assemble the line breaker.
"Are you sure it will work?" asked Katsuo.
"We won't know until we try, but I trust it will." said Ichiro. To the lack of alternatives and with the little time they had, Katsuo fully put all his trust in his friend. Ichiro asked Katsuo to cover for him while he was in charge of building the line breaker. With a big and confident smile in his mouth, Katsuo accepted.
The days and nights passed, the building process of the line breaker advanced, Ichiro did not leave his room for several days. Nina could not see him anywhere so she resorted to questioning Katsuo to find out Ichiro's whereabouts, but he managed to make up excuses like "he felt sick" or "he hurt his leg" or any reason like that.
One day, exhausted but satisfied with the hard work of several days, Ichiro finally finished building the line breaker. It had a rectangular shape unlike the prototype shown in Ichiro's book, but putting the aesthetic aside it was exactly the same inside, different shape, same function. Ichiro had programmed it to indicate the date he wanted to arrive. If that was no enough, another function it had was to indicate the number of the universe in which they were, this is because they would not be traveling on the same timeline, Ichiro took that aspect into account.
That same night both went to the electricity unit of the place and connect it to the line breaker. The huge amount of electricity entering the device caused an overload wich ended in a blackout in the orphanage and across the street. It wasn't until the breaker was turned off that the lights in the buildings came back. ichiro and Katsuo ran away before someone discovered them as the culprits of the blackout. They walked on tiptoe until they reached their room, when entering and closing the door, a glow was sticking out from the sides of the device and the two teens noticed it easily. Not being able to believe what their eyes saw they both slowly smiled. Knocks began to be heard at the door. The person who was behind the door would be looking for them, they both kept fillingtheir heads with the worst escenarios possible.
" This can not be happening, Has someone seen us opening the electricity unit?" said Katsuo stuttering with fear.
"Calm down, I'll see who it is" said Ichiro. He hid the line breaker in his pants pocket and calmly went to open the door.
"Hi, you are Ichiro, right? will you have a pen that you lend me? mine ran out of ink" exclaimed Lei. The breath returned to Ichiro, his skin regained its color, it was only Lei.
"Oh, Hey Lei! let me check if I have pens in any of my notebooks" replied Ichiro nerviously smiling. He left the door half open looking for a pen to lend to Lei.
"Everything is alright? Who is it?" asked Katsuo uncertain.
"Don't worry, It's just someone I met some days ago, she just wants us to lend her a pen." said Ichiro. The pressure accumulated in Katsuo's throat vanished when he knew that it was not something related to the blackout. Ichiro managed to find the pen that had been requested and went to take it to Lei at the door.
"There you go, a pen with ink" Ichiro exclaimed friendly.
" Thank youuuu whaaaaat is that!!" asked Lei amazed. Inopportunely, the glitter of the line breaker penetrated Ichiro's pocket, making it not discreet at all. Ichiro had no choice and took the device from its hiding place and showed her
" It's just a game console, you see?" said Ichiro trying to control the situation. Unfortunately that didn't work.
"Are you seriously? that thing could blind someone" said Lei covering her face with both hands.
"I have to tell Nani about this" exclaimed Lei. Before she took a single step, Ichiro instinctively stopped her.
"Please don't go with Nani, I'll show you what it is but don't tell anyone" Ichiro beg. He invited her to enter his room to give her all the explanation about the device in combination to his plan. After tweenty minutes Unlike Katsuo, Lei found it true the first time she heard it. In part it was because she had already seen the line breaker which looked very fanciful
" I got it...... so this is your time machine?" asked Lei
" yes, something like that, I call it Line breaker" replied Ichiro.
"I see...... and who is he? asked Lei turning to see Katsuo.
" He is my best friend Katsuo, he is going to help me with the trip" answered Ichiro. He laid the device on his bed waiting if it had a reaction. Nothing happened, it just kept shining.
"so, what do we do next Ichiro?" asked Katsuo. Ichiro looked closely at the line breaker, tbey were ready.
"We have to travel sixteen years back, before I came to this place"