CHAPTER 1- The Hero
Daichi was deeply sleeping… that is till a loud knocking on the front door of his apartment woke him.
"Mmmrrg." He groaned lifting his head from the pillow with great difficulty as though it weighed more than it should. He was so disorientated that for a moment he couldn't discern what had dragged him awake. He glared at his alarm clock. Or rather, glared at the place where his alarm clock should have been. He shifted lazily so that he could see the floor and saw the remains of what had been a very reliable noisy alarm clock.
He mentally shrugged, too hung over to even to that much in his physical body and buried his head under his pillow to block out the early noon light flooding the room even through his thick curtains. Sound from the street below his window drifted to his ear, in a symphony of car horns, loud foreign voices and tires screeching.
"Go 'way." He garbled to the light, his muddy colored eyes drifting closed again. He was almost in that state were one is partially asleep and partially awake when the knocking jolted him out of bed. He rolled over to sit up and fell out of bed with a 'whump'. He didn't move for a minute, just stared back at the fear paralyzed dust bunnies that had up until that moment been hard at work. He breathed one in by accident and coughed, scattering the rest to the far most regions of his bedpost.
"Lousy drunken god of excess," One grumbled tugging one of his companions to his furry feet. "Just when we had begun to make some progress too." He surveyed the damage then yelled, "Alright everyone, back to work!" Groans echoed. "Can I have Fred's lunch?" One yelled from the opposite corner.
Daichi clambered wobbly to his feet and shoved his shaggy brown hair out of his eyes and mossied over to the front door. He swung it open and met the gaze of a heavily eye-browed man who he didn't know. His hand was clenched into a fist and poised to knock again.
"Wha' do joo want?" He muttered staring blearily at the man.
"Daichi Sakabuchi?" He man asked, his deep voice careful and well- enunciated. There was a strain to his tone that suggested he deeply hoped he had made a grave error in writing down the right apartment number and had stumbled upon a different young man who looked exactly like the one he wanted to find.
"Yeah?" He said, scratching an itch on his stomach.
The man sighed, "I'm here on behalf of your father, who-."
Daichi slammed the door. He stomped back into his room and slammed that door as well. He sat on his bed and fumed. "Lousy dead beat father. If he thinks he can come back after all this time and "make up" he's crazy. He didn't even bother coming himself! Just sent in some goon who I don't even know. I don't want anything to do with him or his stupid farm." He growled. He stripped down angrily and showered washing off the grime from the night before.
While lathering his hair he thought about how screwed his life was. The previous night his girlfriend of four months had broken off their relationship with nothing more than, "You just don't have any goals, Daichi. I need to be with someone with drive, who knows where they're going with their life. You're 25, for Christ's sake!"
He didn't see what the big deal was. There really wasn't anything wrong with living your life one day at a time. It was how he functioned. What difference would it make to think five, ten, or twenty year ahead? What could that possibly accomplish. He was happy with his job… relatively, anyway. He worked in a restaurant in the downtown section of the city as a part waiter, part dishwasher. It paid good consistent money and he wasn't overly stressed. His hours were good. Daichi had enough to pay his rent and get food, with enough left over for fun.
His father had been the same way. He was always talking about his future as if it were a business transaction. He had wanted him to take over the farm for him, make it great. He had even talked about how he would pass down to his kids when he got married. Married! Who honestly thought about getting married and having kids that early nowadays?
He shook his head and turned off the water then got dressed. He called his boss to let him know he would be coming in to work soon.
There was a long pause from the other side of the line.
"Boss?" Daichi asked, a sinking feeling in his gut making him nervous.
"I'm sorry, Daichi… but I have to let you go." His manager said, gently.
"What!" He yelled, his eyes going wide. "Why?" He said, gesturing wildly.
He heard his boss sigh, "Part of it is that we have more workers than what we need, and part of it is… well, you're not reliable, Daichi. You miss work without calling more times than is acceptable and when you do come you're… to be brutal, lazy. I am sorry." He finished lamely. "Good luck, kid."
His boss hung up and Daichi held the phone to his ear just listening to the dial tone for a full minute. Slowly, he carefully replaced the receiver. After another pause, he cursed fluently and went back to bed.
------- (A/N- Confused? So am I. I like Harvest Moon, so I thought "What teh heck?" and started writing. This monstrosity is what appeared an hour or so later. Direct all blame to the muses.)