Kyousuke--- The Boy Genius
UpturnedWhen he decides to change his brain…
Into something dull…
Uh oh… This means trouble!
For how can you save the world?
From a meteor?!
Kyousuke Jin was the smartest boy in school. He already knew Algebra, Trigonometry, and even Calculus in his very young age of seven! Even though he already knew those things, he decided to stay in Grade One. He was very popular in his school because of his inventions, from Crush Gears to highly advanced rockets!
He was good in everything except in one thing; he was not good the eyes of other people.
Kyousuke was the favorite of the class --- to be picked on, that is. Nobody liked him except two unusual people, Jirou Oriza and Kouya Marino. Both Jirou and Kouya were dense kids, so dense that they could not tell the difference between a cat and a dog!
Jirou was a seven-year-old boy who loved to go to Retro Land, which was an amusing park that offered so many kinds of fun rides and game centers. He really liked looking at and playing with action figures, especially those of Ultra Lord.
Kouya, on the other hand, was also a seven-year-old boy who loved lamas! Even though he was one of the dullest members of their class, Kyousuke and Jirou thought he was the kindest among them all.
It was the judgment day of their Science Project, and almost everyone in class was worried about how the presentation would turn out --- except two people. Kyousuke, as always, was calm, not breaking a sweat at all as he knew he would get, as always, an excellent grade. The other one was Kuroudo Marume, the smartest lad next to Kyousuke, who refused to accept that there was someone more intelligent than him, even though it was already very obvious.
Ms. Lilika Tobita, their teacher in Science, entered their classroom and smiled at the horde of nervous children. She clapped her hands together excitedly. "Okay class, we will now start with the presentation of your inventions. Let's start with Kyousuke."
"Thank you, Ms. Lilika. Classmates, I present to you --- my floating tray plate. As you can see, the tray plate is floating. But since it is due to things you won't understand, I won't explain it to you anymore," Kyousuke said in a arrogant manner, proudly puffing his chest as he beamed at their teacher.
"Oh! What a nice work you got there, Kyousuke! Don't you think class?"
Everyone sighed.
"Not again! Kyousuke got the best work again! We would never have a chance! Why is this happening to us?"
"Yeah, you're right! I wish he wasn't here!"
"Wait, guys!" Kuroudo exclaimed, standing up from his seat to present his invention. He had not lost hope despite how amazing the genius' work was. "I still think that this project of mine is better than Kyousuke's! See, this is a model of the Mount Fuji, and with the press of the button, chocolate fudge comes out and it will wash away the people living near by!" he continued in a voice with so much hope and anticipation, expecting to hear their teacher praise him.
"Oh… What a nice project you got there, Kyousuke!" Ms. Lilika exclaimed.
She was obviously not listening to Kuroudo.
"Never mind!" Kuroudo grumbled, more to himself than to the teacher, as the buzzer rang, indicating their dismissal. Everybody then went out, snubbing Kyousuke as they past by him.
"You had a nice project Kuroudo…"
"Hep! Talk to the Skull!"
Kyousuke became depressed at that, and he sank into his chair to sulk in his misery. 'Why was I born so intelligent? Is there a way that everybody would like me?' he asked himself, ignoring Kouya and Jirou who stood by him, waiting for him to flinch. Then an idea struck him, making a light bulb appear on top of his head. 'I know! I'll make myself unintelligent!'.
"Kouya, Jirou! Come with me! We have work to do!" He dragged them both towards his laboratory and started inventing a new gadget as they looked on with blank expressions on their faces. They still didn't know what was going on. Finally, the genius' creation was finished, and he stepped aside for them to look at it at its crowning glory.
"Guys, this is what I call the Brain Drainer! I'll just move this lever from Einstein to Normal, and then I would be able to change my brain status! I won't be that smart anymore!"
"Cool! I didn't understand anything that you said! Just pull the lever!" Jirou exclaimed.
"Here goes!"
Kyousuke pulled the lever from Einstein to Normal --- but he accidentally moved his hand a little more, pulling the lever even further down to dull… which meant trouble. Big trouble. After a blinding light from the device's headgear that he put on himself, they saw him standing in front of them, his mind flying off to who knew where.
"Oooo… what happened? Kyousuke?" Jirou asked excitedly.
But Kouya was distressed. "Oh no! Maybe Kyousuke's dead! We're doomed!"
"Would you just shut up? Or maybe he's…"
"Um… Hewwo? Hehehe!"
"Are you the new Kyousuke? You're so cool!"
The two friends rejoiced.
"This is what I call the Woopie Dance! Woopie, Woopie…" Kyousuke danced in front of Kouya and Jirou, and they soon followed. And from that day on, the former boy genius became so cool in the eyes of his classmates, because he practically became one of them… in fact, even worse! And it was his friends who had a great time. One day, they played Frisbee. Kouya threw it into the air and Kyousuke ran after it, but even though the Frisbee already fell to the ground, Kyousuke continued to run around in circles for hours!
Nightfall came, and he was still running.
See how effective the Brain Drainer is?
"What is the square root of 144?"
Kyousuke raised his hand and answered, "Um… seven?"
"I know Ms. Lilika!" Kuroudo intervened excitedly, practically jumping up from his seat and running in front of the class to answer the question. "It's twelve! Ha! For the first time, I was smarter than Kyousuke Jin!"
"Ooo…" everyone chorused.
Their teacher interrupted their joyous moment, however, as she looked out of their classroom's window with a pale face. "Um… class? Do you know what that ball of light is over there? It is round and hot… It's a…"
"Ball!" Kouya yelled.
"No! It's a Fireball!" argued Jirou.
"Woopie…"
"It's a meteor!" shrieked Ms. Lilika, and everyone began to panic except for Kyousuke --- who wasn't aware of the situation at all! He simply sat on his seat, staring at the blackboard with a dumb, dazed expression on his face while fidgeting involuntarily with his pencil. He had to be dragged out of the room and into the school's grounds by Kouya and Jirou, where they looked at the falling star with fear-laden eyes.
"Kyousuke, do something!" shouted Ms. Lilika.
He only stared at her in return, then shifted his gaze towards his classmates. Afterwards, he grinned goofily and clapped his hands together while prancing around in a silly manner. "Hehe… Monkey clap! Monkey clap!" he chanted as he danced around in an uncaring fashion that it looked as if he was happy that the world was coming to an end.
All eyes then turned to Kuroudo.
"Me?! No, no, no! I don't know anything about that! Ask Kyousuke!"
But the class continued to stare at him, making him feel uncomfortable. Knowing that they had to do something to revert Kyousuke to his normal, genius self, he dragged Jirou and Kouya towards his laboratory, in turn dragging the still monkey-clapping Kyousuke with them.
"So where is it?"
"Where? Did he say where Kouya? Should we tell him?"
"Stop playing!" Kuroudo snapped angrily, before he continued to look around Kyousuke's laboratory and all his inventions. He then saw one that he had not remembered seeing before. Turning to the genius' two cronies, he asked, "Is this it?"
Kouya and Jirou nodded.
"So I'll just have to adjust this lever? Okay, here goes."
There was a flashing light, once again from the headgear they had placed on Kyousuke, and afterwards, they saw Kyousuke standing in front of them with a regal stance, like he knew everything.
"Are you back now, Kyousuke?" his rival asked with a snap.
"Of course! What would be a genius be worth if he is not present to aid the frantic demands of an ailing society?"
But Kuroudo wanted to be sure. "Well, then, suppose one painter can paint an entire house in twelve hours, and the second painter takes eight hours, how long would it take the two painters to paint the house together?"
He didn't even stop to think. "If the first painter can do the entire job in twelve hours and the second painter can do it in eight hours, then the first guy can do 1/12 of the job per hour, and the second guy can do 1/8 per hour. How much then can they do per hour if they work together? To find out how much they can do together per hour, I add together what they can do individually per hour: 1/12 + 1/8 = 5/24. They can do 5/24 of the job per hour. Now I'll let "t" stand for how long they take to do the job together. Then they can do 1/t per hour, so 5/24 = 1/t. Flip the equation, and you get that t = 24/5 = 4.8 hours."
He went to his whiteboard and started writing the solution to the problem. "So it takes the first painter 12 hours to complete the job, the second painter 8 hours, and together, t hours. And per hour, the first painter completes 1/12, the second painter completes 1/8 and together, 1/t. Adding their labor, we have 1/12 + 1/8 = 1/t then 5/24 = 1/t and finally 24/5 = t. So they can complete the job together in just under five hours!
"I didn't understand anything! He's really back!" Jirou jumped and shouted in happiness, as they were finally going to be saved from impending doom. Kouya joined him soon after, jumping and shouting as well.
"All right, let's go to work!"
"Ready to launch in three… two… one… blast off!"
Kyousuke was on his way to save the world.
"Okay… Activating the Magnet Effect and…"
The meteor was then beginning to be pushed backward little by little by the magnetic force exerted by the genius' rocket, like how two magnets with similar poles push each other when they come face to face. And then, the meteor was tossed out of the atmosphere and into the depths of space, to the joy of the people that waited below with pounding hearts. The world was safe again.
As soon as Kyousuke got off the rocket, he was met by a sea of strangers and familiar faces, who all rejoiced at his accomplishment. Even Kuroudo, his greatest rival, managed a smile.
"You know Kyousuke, you were so cool when you were still out of your mind."
"Yeah, Kyousuke… you were so cool!"
"You're right," Jirou said, grinning crookedly at his companions including Kyousuke who was looking at him expectantly. "You were like this… Woopie, Woopie, Woopie…" He demonstrated through a dance, but stopped after a few seconds. "Now, this is not funny!"
And they all laughed.
THE END