I was never the 'rich kid' in this life. I never had the privilege of being born into an already rich family as a child. In fact I never really had a proper family. Growing up I was placed in the foster system and bounced from place to place, family to family, and learned never to to get too attached. It was a hard way of life but that didn't matter to me. I'm grateful for it in a weird way. Because, if I was born with a golden spoon in my mouth then I never would have learned to appreciate the things that wealth can bring you; both big and small.

I've always been a bright child. Even when I was younger I was always just so observant of everything around me, I was so smart in fact that I was allowed to attend an elite boarding school without needing to pay and even then I was the smartest in my class. Of course several rich brats were jealous and tried to deem themselves as superior over something as trivial as their families wealth. You learn to ignore their words eventually. In the real world you need to grow thick skin, you need to learn to ignore the critics of others and just focus on how you can be better. That's a lesson that I took to heart.

Because, that's how I became the person I am now.

The trick to success in a business is never to have a finger in just one pie. Be it property, investments or coin I never shyed away from making those risks and taking those steps to move forward. I made some mistakes, had some failures and lost some money but I never gave up and I'm where I am today because of it. Life is good to me because I tried. And I will never stop trying.

Not even in this new body

My eyes flooded open and I instantly noticed that something was off. This isn't my room.

Sitting up from the bed I was currently trapped in I scanned the room, made sure to measure every single inch of this place I'd found myself in and it's contents. After a moment I realised that this was... a normal bedroom? Well about as normal as a bedroom can get anyway. Asides from the bed there was clothes littered all over the floor, an old looking monitor and... is that a GameCube? Talk about old-school, the last time I played on one of those I was positively puny.

That was the most important stuff really. Asides from that there were a few loose books stacked on top of each other and a wardrobe.

Whoever was trying to prank me was doing a really terrible job of it that's for sure. The only thing that's noteworthy about this room is how untidy it is.

I got up to try and figure out what was going on... and then noticed how short I was. Okay now I'm a little scared.

My body has always been pretty athletic and has broad shoulders so the fact I was missing the whole top foot of my body is more than a little concerning. It's like my puberty was reversed or I'd been de-aged or something. Weird shit.

"Shoya! Come down or you'll be late for school!"

Hearing the sound of a Japanese voice I was startled. I knew Japanese very well, I actually learned it from one of my foster mother's, but I still wasn't a fluent speaker. Yet those supposedly foreign words sounded much too familiar to me. Like it was English in fact.

Okay this is getting creepy.

But as bizarre as this whole situation was it felt natural at the same time so I did what I always did when I was in way over my head. I followed my gut.

And my gut was telling me to put on kids clothes.

After doing what I needed to do and changing out of those kids clothes I did my best to feel comfortable despite the fact I chose a school uniform to wear- or at least that's what I'm guessing this is since that wardrobe seemed to have multiple copies of the same clothes and I can't think of another reason to explain that, except maybe the fact it looked so formal- but it felt weird and I was contemplating if this was the right decision-

"Shoya there you are! What are you thinking school starts in five minutes! I get that it's your first day but that's all the more reason to be there on time!"

My attention was suddenly grabbed by the collar as a blonde woman with dark roots spoke with a very stern tone that was so convincing that I was sure she was convinced that I was her son. This is weird.

In the split second that she spoke to me I noted a few things. That A: she was speaking Japanese. B: she was cooking Japanese style breakfast and C: she called me Shoya. From that I can deduce a few things, that this woman is either an incredible actress or she genuinely sees herself as my mother, it was apparently my first day of school and I was likely in Japan- assuming that I'm not being fucked with- so assuming that she isn't joking then maybe it would be best to play along.

In all my years of being a business man I learned a multitude of skills and gained experience with socialising with others, how they work, how to act, how to spin a deal. I learned it all. So now it's time to call upon a power I've been honing since childhood.

The power of bullshit.

I faked rubbing the back of my head sheepishly and spoke in an apologetic tone despite an awkward smile being plastered on my face." Sorry mum but I was so nervous to start school today that I didn't get to sleep until a little later. Thank you for cooling and I'll try and be quick."

my 'mother' seemed to gobble up what I'd just served her like a hungry piranha since she just sighed a little at that." Fine. But you better be fast. If you're not out of that door in five minutes then you'll be late."

Okay alright that worked. Phase one complete. Time to initiate phase two: eating breakfast really really fast.

After scoffing down my breakfast with gusto which seemed to horrify my mother I quickly ran up to my room very quickly in order to assess exactly what was going to happen to me in... a minute? I was going to school apparently, no idea why, I hated the place even if I was good at it. I was just being held back by those rich snobby elitists and now I was going again?! This is bullshit!

My eyes quickly captured a bag that was lazily layed on a wall in my room. After examining it I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was already packed with school supplies and what looked like an organiser for my lessons. I stared at the front cover and- okay seriously what the hell is going on? I can speak Japanese but I can't read it yet the symbols on the front page were something I could understand like it was English. This can't be coincidence.

At first I thought that this was all a big joke, however I just should not be able to read what was in front of me. Something weird is going on. I need to get answers to my questions,

"Shoya! You need to go now!"

Questions that I can answer later. I should probably get going, if only to soothe my 'mother's' worries. She does look pretty tired afterall.

As soon as I left this Japanese style house and entered a Japanese style suburban area I made the logical conclusion that I was indeed in Japan. That was the strangest thing since I've never actually been to Japan before, I've been to the United States, France, Germany, China and even South Korea but never Japan. That place has always been on my bucket list though, I just never ticked it off.

Until now I guess.

Still though I started running. I had no idea where 'Aldavera Middle School' is and given that I didn't seem to have a mobile phone for me to rely on that must mean that I'll need to ask around, gather a little information if you will.

The streets were quiet and peaceful in the early morning, this was a fact that I appreciated. I could never really focus in a chaotic atmosphere and I had a lot to think about, if I really was in Japan then I needed to adapt, this isn't my home and the customs here are different so I have to learn really fast if I don't want people to question my behaviour, to learn simply by watching others and imitate them perfectly. I can do that, learning and adapting has always been a skill of mine.

What could go wrong?