Yuuji was currently in a run-down house on the outskirts of the city. The house was built entirely out of corrugated metal and had several leaks.
It had no real rooms, only three areas in total. His parents' room, his room, and the rest, where a few curtains divided each section to create makeshift rooms.
While there were a few old pieces of furniture with some belongings, most things were actually stored in boxes. Especially the clothes, which were kept inside boxes wrapped in old fabric to try to separate them from the walls and prevent moisture, something that had obviously failed.
"Mom, where's Dad?" the little Yuuji asked while sitting at the table across from his mother. At that moment they were eating hot soup that barely distracted them from the cold that seeped in from every direction during the middle of winter, a cold they had already gotten used to.
"Dad is going to be a little late today" Clara replied kindly before smiling. "But he said he might bring a surprise."
"A surprise? What surprise?!"
"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise, would it?" Clara replied with a wink.
"True" Yuuji nodded under his mother's amused gaze, who already knew what was coming. "I still want to know!"
"Oh, what should I do? Should I tell my curious son the surprise or leave him wondering? Hmm, what a difficult choice."
"Teeell me, please" little Yuuji begged.
"Well, since you're asking so nicely, I'll tell you. The surprise is... drumroll, please."
"Mom!"
"Hahaha, alright, the surprise is..."
"I'm back!" Before Clara could answer, Eicchi entered, announcing both his presence and the object he was carrying in his arms.
"A television?! You brought a television?!"
"Hehe, surprised?" Eicchi smiled proudly. "One of my coworkers said it was already old and he was going to replace it, so he gave it to us.
Wait! Is that all? Not even a greeting? You just focus on the TV instead of your tired father who just got back from work?"
"Ah, welcome home" Yuuji said as he realized.
"Haha, I was joking. Let's see if we can get this old thing working" Eicchi said as he placed the old CRT television on top of a box full of Christmas decorations they didn't need at the moment and improvised a temporary antenna with a few wires until they could get a real one.
Because of that, only a few channels came in and the static was heavy, but for the curious eight-year-old who had never seen one before, it was enough to keep him captivated for hours.
Far from worrying about it, his parents were happy, thinking that they would love for their son to have a quality of life where they could worry about him spending all day in front of a television like their coworkers usually complained about.
"I wish we could have gotten him one sooner."
"I know, but you know how things are. With their search networks, any record is basically exposing ourselves. It's only because this was a gift and the television is old enough that its purchase record no longer matters that we can afford to have it."
"I just want to be happy with my husband and my son, why does it have to be so difficult?" Clara sighed with a sad expression, not for herself but for her loved ones.
"One day, darling, one day we'll get rid of these annoying tails somehow and we'll be able to give our son everything he deserves."
They continued chatting while watching their son, but after a while they both noticed him frowning worriedly at the television.
"What's wrong, Rito?" his mother asked as she sat beside him.
"N-nothing" Yuuji replied, pretending ignorance.
His mother looked at the television and quickly thought she understood what was happening.
An old documentary about animals from different places and their feeding habits was playing, and at that moment it was showing a lion.
"Do you like lions? Hmm, it might be difficult to get you one in the future but... that's not it?" she said, stopping midway through the sentence when she noticed that her son's expression hadn't changed at all.
"W-what? No! That's it. I want a lion!" Yuuji reacted immediately, only making himself even more suspicious in his mother's eyes.
'Normally in this situation he'd pretend he doesn't want a lion so we won't promise him something expensive, but he chose to say he wants a lion? Does that mean he wants something even harder to get?'
While she was thinking that, the television changed footage, now showing penguins in Antarctica.
Clara could clearly see her son's eyes begin to sparkle with excitement.
"I see, so you don't want animals" Clara realized.
"E-eh? I want a penguin!" Yuuji said in panic.
"Do you know how expensive a penguin is? Besides, it's illegal. It's probably easier to go to Antarctica than to bring you something from there."
"A-ah, um, then..."
"Pffft, it's alright, I know what you want, Yuuji. How could I not realize what my son wants?
I promise..."
"Don't say it!" Yuuji interrupted her.
"I promise..."
"Lalalalala!"
"Ha, you think you can stop me?" Clara said with an amused expression as she caught Yuuji and covered his mouth. "I, Yuuji Clara, wife of Yuuji Eicchi and mother of Yuuji Rito, promise that I'll make sure my son not only gets everything he wants, but can also go anywhere he wants."
"No!" Yuuji said as he escaped his mother's grip. "I don't want that. The promise that you'd give me everything I want is already too much, now going anywhere too is..."
"Rito" his mother interrupted before he could finish. "Anyone would think you don't have faith in your parents."
"That's not it, it's just..."
"No 'just', i already promised and I'm going to do it" his mother interrupted again. "Now get ready, it's time for bed and you have to wake up early tomorrow."
"Already?"
"That's right, you've been watching television for hours. Although if you don't want to go to school tomorrow..."
"I do want to go! School is the most fun thing that exists!" Yuuji interrupted as he hurried to the bathroom.
"Ugh, that boy" Clara sighed as she sat back down beside Eicchi. "He should stop worrying about adult things and just enjoy his childhood like any other kid his age."
"Yeah" Eicchi agreed. After a few seconds, he sat up straight and looked Clara in the eyes. "About that promise, do you really intend to keep it?"
"You mean...?" Clara narrowed her eyes seriously.
"Yeah, Ruri has been contacting you lately because your sister is a disaster at managing the family, and recently Roy, my family's butler, also contacted me.
Apparently my brother is almost as much of a disaster as your sister, except instead of using all the family's resources on personal desires like your sister, mine is trying to 'declare his superiority' or something like that, making more and more enemies. That kid always had an inferiority complex, though I can't really blame him after the way our father raised him."
"I don't care. Ever since they tried to kill the child I was carrying, none of them are my family anymore. As far as I'm concerned, they can destroy themselves whenever they want."
"I know. But with Julia and Shin acting basically like children, the real power lies with each family's elders, and they're the reason we're being hunted in the first place.
More importantly, I don't just want my son to have a normal life once we get rid of those chasing us, I want him to have everything. From the most luxurious apartment in Tokyo to Antarctica itself if he wants it. I'll give him everything he deserves and more."
"...Haha, Antarctica? Not even our family has that much influence" Clara laughed. "But I've heard teenagers like independence. What do you think about giving him the most luxurious apartment in Tokyo for his fifteenth birthday?"
"Then..."
"Let's do it. Let's take control of our families not just in name, but for real" Clara said with a confident smile.
"Yeah, for Yuuji" Eicchi said with a smile just as confident as his wife's.
...
Eight years passed in the blink of an eye for everyone, but for Yuuji, who watched his parents suddenly become busier, and for those same parents who barely slept because they worked so hard on what they called "investments" time felt like an eternity.
Finally, when Yuuji turned fifteen, his parents welcomed him home from school with a special gift.
It was an apartment, not just any apartment but one in the most luxurious building in Tokyo, and even its penthouse suite.
And while the gift itself was already incredible, what truly mattered were the implications behind it.
Money. A lot of it. Too much. Enough to burn through a million dollars every single day for the rest of his life and still not run out before dying of old age.
According to his parents, it was the result of successful investments that had finally paid off. They claimed that they had won the lottery a long time ago but had decided to invest the money instead of spending it in order to earn even more.
If they had failed, it would have been absolute stupidity and a complete waste of money. Who the hell wins millions and basically goes all in the moment they receive it?
But since they had succeeded, Yuuji could only be happy for them and congratulate them.
And only a few days later, the situation improved even further, or at least that was what he believed at the time.
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