Chapter 1 - Endgame
Akio Hukitaske sat hunched over his cluttered desk, the dim gray light of Enshin Games Inc. casting long shadows across coffee-stained papers and forgotten dreams. His fingers moved automatically, typing code that blinked back at him in red error messages, but his eyes were empty—hollowed out by years of unpaid overtime, weekend crunches, and corporate deadlines that left no room for life.
Once, he'd loved video games. Loved them so much he dedicated his life to making them. But now, at thirty-two, Akio was just another ghost in a cubicle, aging faster than time could measure, watching his passion rot in the glow of fluorescent lights.
The office buzzed around him—the hum of overworked printers, the clatter of desperate keystrokes, the occasional muffled sigh. Coworkers whispered their complaints during cigarette breaks, wept quietly in stairwells, and laughed a little too loud in moments of madness.
Then came the envelope.
Unceremoniously dropped on his desk by a person in a black tie who wouldn't meet his eyes. The paper was crisp, the words cold:
Termination.
Budget cuts. Restructuring. No severance. No warning.
Akio just stared.
The next thing he knew, he was wandering the rainy streets of Tokyo, the letter crumpled in one fist, a half-empty bottle of whiskey in the other. He collapsed in an alley behind a ramen shop, soaked in neon reflections and the bitter taste of regret.
"All of this..." he muttered, eyes rimmed with tears, voice hoarse. "For nothing."
Then came the footsteps.
A shadow stretched across the slick pavement, stopping just in front of him. Akio squinted upward and saw a figure—young, sharply dressed in a pristine bow tie and tailored suit. Too clean. Too composed.
"You look like someone who's done with life," the stranger said with an eerie smile. "I know the feeling."
Akio grunted. "Piss off."
But the stranger crouched beside him and pulled something from his coat pocket—a syringe filled with a shimmering fluid.
"You've been selected, Akio Hukitaske. For something... special."
Before Akio could react, the needle jabbed into his neck. Pain flared. His muscles seized, then went limp. As his vision blurred, the stranger's face twisted—no longer serene, but wild with glee, eyes gleaming like a mad scientist from a nightmare.
"It works! It works!" the person shouted, laughing into the rain as he disappeared into the shadows.
Akio fell backward, the city fading. And then, darkness took him.
Scene 2: Fourteen Again
The sunlight stabbed through his eyelids.
Akio groaned and sat up, heart racing. He wasn't in an alley. He was in a small bedroom—a cozy looking building, dusty, filled with posters for decoration and the faded smell of perfume. A battered desk. A worn-out toy chemistry set. A blinking digital clock.
The calendar on the wall read was a day later from him being in the alley.
Akio blinked. What...?
He scrambled to the mirror and froze. The reflection staring back had smooth skin, bright eyes, and a mop of sahggy red hair. His jaw dropped as he touched his face.
"I'm... fourteen?"
Memories flooded back—high school halls, his first chemistry class, late-night study sessions and early dreams of becoming a pharmacist. A dream he had abandoned long ago, buried under years of compromise.
He sat down, stunned.
"That stranger... that drug... I wasn't even paying attention," he whispered. "And now I'm here!".
But underneath the confusion, something stirred.
Hope.
Maybe this wasn't a curse. Maybe it wasn't punishment. Maybe it was a second chance.
Akio stood slowly, gripping the strap of some random empty abandoned school bag he found. his mind still sharp with the memories of an adult. This time, he wouldn't waste it again.
"Alright," he murmured with a smirk. "Let's do it right."
He stepped out into the morning light—older in mind, younger in form—ready to face school with the heart of a kid and the soul of a worker who had nothing left to lose in his relife.
[To be continued in Chapter 2: Back to School, Back to Dreams]