"I quit."

 

 

 

After careful contemplation and reflection on the stories shared by his sister, Toshi arrived at a disheartening realization. He saw himself as a self-centered narcissist, and he believed that the root of his problems began when he became a pop idol. In light of this, he decided it was necessary to confront his manager face-to-face and express his intentions. He requested that she be allowed to visit him, with his parents insisting on being present during the meeting.

 

The manager was a woman in her mid-thirties with slicked-back hair and a smile dripping with greed. She appeared shocked by Toshi's decision. "Baby! The King of J-pop! You can't just quit!" she exclaimed, her voice filled with disbelief. "The internet is a-buzz! Everyone is worried about you! You should capitalize on the momentum! Strike while the iron is hot!"

 

Toshi, lying in his hospital bed, marveled at the apparent callousness of the woman before him, "Look, I was dead, which led to memory loss. I was pumped full of Rohypnol, which also causes memory loss. I got raped, which... you guessed it! Can result in memory loss." He sighed. "I'm pretty certain that not only do I have no recollection of the job, but those memories won't be returning anytime soon."

 

The manager thought for a second, "So basically you are saying you want to take a few weeks off. It'll be tough, but if you promise to work more weekends, I'm sure we can move some dates around."

 

Toshi's mother spoke quietly, "I'm going to kill her." Then leaped for the manager's throat.

 

Hirofumi held her back, "Asuka! Don't!" Eventually, she stopped and just glared at the manager. Hirofumi let out a sigh when she finally relaxed.

 

"Because I'm going to kill her first."

 

Toshi's Father spun around and clocked the manager in the face. Toshi was surprised for two reasons. One, that his father was cold cocking a woman. Two, the punch was super lame. The manager just staggered back a few feet, "Hold it!" She rubbed her jaw and kept her hands up to block any further blows, "Let's just calm down for a second and think about this logically."

 

Hirofumi was on the verge of launching himself at the manager when Toshi sprang out of bed to stand between them. Facing his father, he urged, "Dad, just let it go!" Glancing back at the manager, he declared, "No time off, no breaks, nothing. I quit. I don't care about the contract. I woke up and didn't remember my NAME. There is NO WAY I-"

 

Toshi abruptly stopped when he noticed the manager checking out his exposed backside. His hospital gown had come undone, and her expression made it clear she wouldn't mind if it revealed a bit more. Toshi was so bewildered by this unexpected turn of events that he was temporarily silenced. Toshi's mom also noticed, but she was not stunned. One might say she was displeased. Unhappy. A bit miffed, even.

 

Perhaps one might say she was filled with the white-hot rage of a thousand exploding suns and an urge for homicide to give Vlad The Impaler a run for his money.

 

Yes. Let's go with that one.

 

"DIE!"  Was the only word to fly from her mouth, along with some spittle as she lunged for a throat she so desperately wished to tear out.

 

The manager snapped her gaze up towards Asuka, "Oh shit!" Then ran away as fast as she could.

 

It took both Toshi and his father to hold her back, and even then she managed to drag both of them to the door. Toshi yelled at his mom, "STOP!"  several times before he succeeded in getting through to her.

 

Asuka finally stopped, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, "I'm calm." Before she turned to glare at Toshi and give him an 'I told you so' look.

 

Toshi let go of her arm and took a step back, "Okay! Fine! You were right!" He gestured about aimlessly, "It was a bad idea inviting that woman here. I'm still glad I said it to her face." He slapped his hands together as if dusting them off, "I'm done."

 

Hinako looked embarrassed as she averted her eyes, "Can you tie your gown, PLEASE?"

 

Toshi looked behind himself, "Ah." He proceeded to do as requested, "Sorry."

 

His sister stepped closer and put a hand on Toshi's shoulder while keeping her eyes looking above the waist at all times, "You sure about this? You used to tell me being up on stage was the only time you felt alive."

 

Toshi looked back at his sister, "Then I was a goddamn fool. If I can't feel alive around my family, then I had to be the worst brother imaginable." His parents looked shocked at his words as if they never, in a million years, expected to hear such a thing.

 

Hinako cleared her throat and then lightly punched Toshi in the shoulder, "Stop making me feel things. I can only take so much."

 

Toshi squinted at his sister, "Uh... okay?" He shrugged, "By the way, when do I get out of here?"

 

His parents looked at each other. Asuka answered, "Tomorrow. It's been four days and... we talked. We're all moving in with me. We already hired movers, so we'll need to do a bit of unpacking over the weekend."

 

Toshi frowned and looked at his sister, "Wait. Are you getting yanked from your school? What about your friends?"

 

Hinako smiled softly and squeezed Toshi's shoulder, "I already live with Mom. You live with Dad. So I'm not moving to a new school, you are."

 

Toshi's father chimed in, "We both think you need a fresh start. You didn't-" He cut himself, "You know what? Never mind. Let's not get bogged down in useless details."

 

Toshi noticed something was left unsaid, but let the subject go with a nod of his head, "Ah. Okay then. I look forward to..." He struggled with how to phrase things, "My... new home?"

 

Asuka nodded, "New to you home."

 

Toshi smiled softly as he echoed his mother, "New to me."

 

---

 

Toshi kept up the conversation for a while. When visiting hours came to an end, he spent another ten minutes persuading them to go home and get some sleep. When he was alone he reached for the controls to turn off the lights.

 

Reclining in the bed, left alone with his thoughts, Toshi gazed at the dim ceiling. The past few days had been grueling, marked by extensive testing where every nook and cranny of his body underwent examination, from poking and prodding to various perforations. Throughout, he had hoped they would unearth something useful. The only thing they discovered was that there was nothing to be discovered. This was by far the most baffling of developments to the doctors.

They had scans of his brain before he woke up, revealing clear damage and a substantial portion of his grey matter as totally inert. Now, there was no trace of such issues—a complete recovery. Unfortunately, this made the doctors more suspicious about his memory loss. The prevailing theory was that while the brain had rebounded, it was akin to a hard drive with wiped information. An alternative hypothesis suggested that the index file might have been destroyed, leaving his memories intact but inaccessible.

 

Nobody suggested the possibility that he was a transmigrator placed in the body of a dead child by a flakey god.

 

Toshi rose from the bed and made his way to the window like he had several times over the past couple of days. He reached up to part the slats, allowing a view through the blinds. Doing this had become a bit of an obsession of his, as of late.

 

He stared out across the divide to the billboard on the building across the street. On the billboard, a nearly naked, muscular man adorned only with stars over his nipples and a pair of bulging speedos was the center of Toshi's attention. The model held a long-neck bottle of beer at crotch height that had foam practically exploding from it. Above and below the figure, the following words were prominently displayed:

 

Swallow The Flavor!

Sperma Dry Original Craft Beer

 

Toshi kept staring as he slowly knocked his head against the wall over and over, "God? I think you and I need to discuss the meaning of the phrase..."

 

"'Seems basically the same.'"