"A trip around the world?"
"That's right" Clara replied immediately, even more excited than Yuuji himself. "What do you think? Haven't you always wanted to visit other places and do strange things?"
"Wait, I wouldn't call it strange" Yuuji defended himself as he watched the conversation suddenly take a strange turn.
"Really? When you were eleven, you said you wanted to build a treehouse in the Amazon and decorate it as if it had been abandoned for centuries, with strange messages everywhere just to prank whoever found it" his mother said, rolling her eyes.
Yuuji fell silent for a second before laughing.
"Haha, but imagine if someone found it and actually believed it. Wouldn't that be hilarious?" Yuuji said with an amused smile instead of defending himself. "Besides, it was right after watching Jumanji."
"Son, there's a difference between wanting to do things and thinking as strangely as you do" Clara sighed. "But it's fine, my son is perfect just the way he is. So, what do you think? Do you want to travel around the world with your parents?"
Yuuji smiled before answering immediately.
"Of course I do."
...
"What did you think?"
"It was amazing, bullets were flying everywhere and people were dropping like flies" Yuuji said excitedly like a little kid.
"Paint, paintballs" Eicchi clarified with an awkward smile after noticing some people around them looking at them strangely.
...
"Is it really as deep as they say?" Yuuji murmured while looking at the completely dark surroundings.
Even the submarine's lights barely illuminated more than two meters before becoming useless.
"It is. The Mariana Trench is the deepest accessible place on Earth.
Unfortunately, going any deeper would be dangerous, so we should head back now" Eicchi explained.
"Already? There really wasn't much to see" Yuuji said, a little disappointed.
"Maybe if we go deeper we'll find something. Maybe a sea monster?" Clara asked jokingly.
"Should we?" Yuuji nodded.
"You two, even this submarine is already close to its limit. Going deeper would be extremely dangerous" Eicchi scolded them seriously before noticing the smiles on both of their faces.
"You two..." Eicchi sighed.
"Haha, dear, you shouldn't take everything so seriously" Clara laughed.
"Yeah, Dad, we're not dumb enough to put ourselves in danger" Yuuji added.
...
"Aaaaahhhhhhhh!"
"Hahaha, who's laughing now?" Eicchi laughed with an almost sadistic grin as he watched his son fall several hundred meters during one of the highest bungee jumps in the world.
"Eicchi, I thought the bungee jump was supposed to be later on the list?" Clara said, narrowing her eyes at her husband.
"I have no idea what you're talking about" Eicchi shrugged, pretending to be innocent.
"Sometimes you're more immature than our fifteen year old son, you know?" Clara finally sighed.
"Look who's talking."
...
"Wait, dear. If we really start doing this, our whole trip will turn into an endless fight between the two of us. That wouldn't be good for Yuuji, right?"
Aboard a plane several kilometers above the ground, Eicchi stared at the open door with a bit of fear.
"Oh? You didn't seem to care about his well being when you pushed him from hundreds of meters up" Clara replied sarcastically, not taking his words seriously.
Eicchi looked at his wife, and seeing that she clearly had no intention of backing down, he could only sigh before looking her straight in the eyes.
"Fine, do it. But know that I'll get my revenge for this" he challenged her.
Clara simply smiled, completely unconcerned by the threat, and reached out to push him. Before she could, however, she found herself falling alongside her husband.
Both of them had been pushed at the same time.
"Now we're even" Yuuji said as he fell beside them.
"But I didn't push anyone" Clara murmured, her voice drowned out by the wind.
'It doesn't matter' she decided after seeing her son's smile.
Taking the opportunity to show off in front of him, she began performing several aerial tricks she had practiced specifically for this moment, astonishing Yuuji, who applauded her with amusement.
Finally, around five hundred meters above the ground, Eicchi deployed all three parachutes, much to the disappointment of both Yuuji and Clara, who wanted to wait a little longer.
...
After that they went to countless places, from worldwide events such as the Olympics and various world sports championships taking place that year, to regional festivals like Oktoberfest and Chinese New Year.
They also visited countless locations, including a total of fifty eight different countries, some to witness specific regional events or natural wonders, others simply because the countries themselves were interesting.
They even experienced every activity Yuuji had ever heard about since he was born, and even more, leaving out a few obvious exceptions.
Time passed quickly as the three of them enjoyed themselves all around the world.
However, although the first six months were incredibly fun for Yuuji, after that his enjoyment slowly began to fade.
The number of things that surprised or interested him kept decreasing. Landscapes looked the same as before, only with slight variations. Activities felt the same too, just repetitions of previous ones with slightly different rules.
Today we jump from here, tomorrow we jump from there. Today we chase this, tomorrow we chase that. Today we see a big black cat, tomorrow a big striped cat. Today we see a snowy mountain, tomorrow another snowy mountain because if it's tall enough it will have snow too.
But one day, Yuuji said something that genuinely worried his parents.
"Can't we move around some other way?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" his mother asked, confused.
"I mean... walking is always the same, you know? One step, then another. I really don't feel like doing it."
Although Yuuji said it half jokingly, he also meant it half seriously. Instead of laughing, Clara and Eicchi ended the trip months ahead of schedule, returned home, and immediately contacted a doctor.
...
"Your son is perfectly healthy. There's nothing to worry about."
"That's impossible. When he started getting bored of exotic activities we didn't take it too seriously. Even when he started getting tired of ordinary activities we thought he was just exhausted. But walking? How can someone find something like that boring and repetitive?
Doctor, there's clearly something wrong with our son, and... and I'm sure it's our fault" Clara tried to hold back her tears as she blamed herself by the end of the sentence.
"Clara, it's not your fault" Eicchi tried to reassure her.
"Actually, it is" the doctor interrupted.
"I knew it!"
Eicchi hugged his wife, who had already burst into tears, while looking at the doctor with every intention of killing him if he didn't immediately take back those words.
Gulp.
The doctor swallowed nervously, feeling an incomprehensible fear before explaining.
"Ahem. While it is your fault, as I said before, your son doesn't have anything serious." The doctor began explaining. "Have you ever heard the saying, too much of anything is bad? That phrase summarizes what is happening to him.
What your son is experiencing isn't that he has lost the ability to enjoy things, but rather a phenomenon we observe quite frequently in the normal functioning of the brain. More precisely, the combination of three different brain mechanisms makes the situation appear more serious than it really is.
The first of these is known as hedonic adaptation. Simply put, the brain becomes accustomed to whatever brings it pleasure. When a person spends a long time enjoying highly rewarding or stimulating experiences, those experiences stop producing the same emotional impact they had at first. The brain begins treating them as normal, causing them to generate less and less satisfaction over time.
The second mechanism involves the brain's reward system, particularly a well known neurotransmitter called dopamine. Dopamine does not create pleasure by itself, instead it motivates the brain to seek rewards and respond to novelty. When this system receives intense and frequent stimulation over a long period of time, its sensitivity can adaptively decrease. As a result, activities that were once entertaining or exciting begin to feel uninteresting, and the person feels they need increasingly intense or novel stimuli to experience the same level of motivation.
Finally, the third mechanism is habituation. This is a completely normal process in which the brain reduces its response to repeated stimuli. It happens because the nervous system learns not to devote as many resources to things it already knows. In practice, this means that even activities someone used to enjoy greatly can stop capturing their attention simply because they have become familiar.
The combination of these three processes can make a person become bored very easily or feel that almost nothing is as interesting as it used to be. In many cases this is simply an adaptive response of the brain and does not necessarily indicate the presence of any illness."
"If it's normal... then it can be cured, right?" Eicchi asked.
"Of course. Although this is a rather severe case, since it seems the amount of stimulation was so great that now even something as ordinary as walking fails to interest him, this will gradually disappear over time, though given the severity it could take several months."
"I see. That's good." Clara sighed in relief.
"Of course. Even so, once he returns to normal I strongly recommend not exposing your son to such an overwhelming amount of stimulation for such a prolonged period," the doctor explained.
"We definitely won't do that again. Ever."
"Haha, there's no need to take it that seriously" the doctor laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "It's not because he could get hurt or anything like that. Simply put, as I said before, too much of anything is bad.
I know the Yuuji family can afford it, but even so, having too much of something always makes it lose its value. A special occasion is almost always better than a promised 'unlimited fun.'"
"...Maybe you're right. I just wanted to give my son everything he ever wanted, but I never stopped to think whether that would actually be good for him. In my mind, as long as he was happy, that was enough" Clara murmured with a smile filled with obvious regret over her decisions. "So all we can do is wait, huh?"
"Actually, there is another option, but... it isn't something that can be forced, so I wouldn't recommend getting your hopes up."
"What is it?!" As if she had forgotten everything they had just discussed, Clara immediately became interested in the new method.
"There are two methods. The first is finding something capable of providing him with even greater stimulation. Simply put, if the brain has become accustomed to a certain level of stimulation, then exceeding that level will allow the person to enjoy it again. However, considering the list of activities you gave me, that would be extremely difficult. Besides, it wouldn't make him enjoy ordinary things again, it would simply give him new activities to enjoy.
The second method is even more difficult. It involves finding a way for the brain to enjoy an activity even if that activity itself is no longer satisfying. This can be achieved by turning that activity into something secondary. The brain must become completely focused on a primary element that brings it satisfaction, while the other activity fades into the background. Under the influence of the satisfaction generated by the primary element, the secondary activity can also become enjoyable even if it isn't particularly satisfying on its own."
"That... that's possible? It doesn't sound very scientific" Eicchi scratched his chin in confusion. He had never heard of anything like that.
"Haha, of course. That's because it's something science still can't fully explain.
You need the primary element that the brain focuses on to be another person."
"Wait, Doctor, my son is only fifteen years old, and the people closest to him are the two of us" Clara protested immediately after realizing what he meant.
"Don't worry, that's why I said both of these methods are very difficult to achieve. In any case, they aren't necessary.
Simply let your son rest, and he'll be fine" the doctor smiled.
This discussion took place on the exact same day Yuuji finished his trip around the world.
After all, after that day it would no longer have been possible, because Yuuji found himself in a most unusual situation.
______________________________________
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