Back in the Day...

In many respects, your family is as normal as they come. You've lived in a far outlying suburb of the Kanto region all your life. Drive an hour away from the city and you'd be in farmland. Drive an hour towards it, and you'd be staring at the towering spires and flashing electronic billboards of Tokyo.

You're only a few months from 19 years old now. A senior at Takahashi High and the head of the student council. You're a little absent minded, and you struggle with academics at times, but you've made your way to the top with the power of determination. Guttsu! The people at school really admire you. You have a sterling reputation. By comparison, your twin younger siblings, both having recently turned 18, and are losers. Total losers. Hiki's involved in electronics club now, but he's been kicked out of almost every "nerdy" club in the school for missing key events or sleeping through meetings. Kiko's bright, and she certainly does better for herself then Hiki, but she's also distinctly in the lower strata of popularity in the school. She may be in junior year still, but because she advanced a full grade back in Jr. High she's set to go to University of Tokyo on a scholarship.

This wasn't the way it was supposed to go. As kids, it was Hiki who shined with the most potential. He'd get some crazy in his head and take you and Kiko on some crazy adventure that would always get you in trouble. Like the time he'd talked you both into sneaking into Disneyland. He always knew how to manipulate mom and dad, he always knew how to manipulate you. You and Kiko both had always looked up to him. Despite how far he'd fallen, she still looked up to him the same way she always did? Hadn't she noticed that he was on a path to becoming nothing but a hikimori? A shut-in?

Though of course, you'd been pretty blind to it for a long time yourself. Only last year, whenever someone had shit talked Hiki, you'd always tuned them out. He was your brother. Didn't they know that you were the dumb one? It was only a strange path of events that had awoken you to what Hiki had become...

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