"Hi there, can I help you?" A lady behind the counter asked, her words rather loud and slow.
Ken thought it was a rather odd way of speaking, but he moved to the counter and spoke up, "Hey, today is my first day of school, I was told to come here first. The name is Ken Takagi." He replied.
"Ah…" The woman looked a bit shocked for a moment before her demeanor changed.
She began accessing the computer and typing a few times before grabbing something from under the desk. The woman placed a few items on the counter which included a class schedule and a locker number.
"Mr. Jameson will be your homeroom teacher, he should be here at any moment." She said, her earlier loud and slow accent seemingly disappearing.
Before Ken could guess why, a man walked in the door sporting a salt and pepper beard that reached his chest. It was well kept, a sign that he cared for it deeply.
His hair was thinning on the top, though it was not easily seen. Only because Ken was a head taller than the man could he tell.
"Mr. Jameson, could you please escort this new student to your homeroom?" The lady asked politely.
The man took one glance at him and let out a small sigh. "Another foreign exchange student?" He asked, as if he had plenty of experience with them before.
Ken frowned, "I'm actually a citizen Mr. Jameson" he replied, not hiding the annoyance in his tone.
Mr. Jameson almost jumped in fright. He could have sworn the guy was Japanese or Chinese, just from his mannerisms.
It seemed that Ken's polite stance had given him away as someone foreign. Since Japanese people were taught to defer to those older than them, it had sunk into his everyday demeanor without realizing.
"Ah, my bad." He said, running his fingers through his beard. "Let's go, I'll take you to your locker and introduce you to the class."
With that, he quickly changed the subject, hoping to move past it.
Ken didn't make it difficult for him, following him into the halls. Like on many movies he'd seen, he was eventually greeted by a large hallway with lockers on either end, seemingly never ending.
Eventually he was able to locate his locker and got it opened. Thankfully it was empty, so he put a few things in like his helmet and other belongings.
But just before he was about to close the locker, he heard a noise go off in his head.
*DING*
Ken froze, his body not moving an inch. Suddenly, a window appeared in front of him with text appearing as if it was just being typed.
POPULATING USER INTERFACE...
UPDATING USER STATS...
UPDATING MISSIONS...
MAJOR LEAGUE SYSTEM UI BOOTED
SYSTEM HAS SUCCESSFULLY UPGRADED TO LEVEL 5
A rising sense of excitement paired with relief filled his body, as his wide eyes read the information in front of him.
'No way… Wasn't it meant to be tomorrow?' He thought, but he quickly disregarded it.
If he had time to think, Ken would have realized that Japan is a day ahead of Austin, which meant that the 18 month time frame had already elapsed.
"Ken? What's wrong?" Mr. Jameson's concerned voice came from the other side of the open locker door, questioning him.
"Ah… Sorry, I thought I forgot something." Ken replied hastily.
As much as his burning curiosity willed for it, he had no time to look at the newly upgraded system. However, just the fact that it had returned eased a lot of his worries.
It had been so long that he wasn't even sure if the system would ever return. Part of him was worried that it no longer existed, which all seemed ridiculous now.
He let out a smile before closing the locker and turning to his homeroom teacher. "Sorry, ready to go now." Ken stated.
However, Mr. Jameson was looking at him as if he was a freak. He rubbed his eyes a couple of times, just to make sure that he wasn't seeing things.
"Is everything okay?" Ken asked, feeling a little odd.
"Erm… Sure. Let's go." He said finally, turning around and leading Ken to the class.
RING
A god awful ringing sound entered Ken's ears, causing him to turn up his face. He tracked it to a bell sitting on the wall.
At the sound of the bell, everyone quickly scattered, making their way to their classrooms like frantic bees.
They arrived at a room near the end of the hall a few moments later.
"Wait here." He said, opening the door into the classroom. Ken blinked a few times, his nervousness only now starting to kick in.
Now that he thought about it, he didn't know anyone here. Would people like him? Or would they just see him as a foreigner and disregard him.
While there was bullying in Japan, it always seemed tame in comparison to some of the western movies he'd watched.
Ken heard the teacher speaking to the class, telling them to sit down.
"We have a transfer student joining our class today, I expect you all to be kind and considerate. Ken, come in please."
Hearing his name, Ken took a deep breath and entered. What greeted him were almost 30 pairs of eyes staring at him, their curious gazes judging him.
He walked over to Mr. Jameson and faced the class, feeling rather awkward.
"Introduce yourself." The teacher said.
Ken nodded, remembering what his mother had said. He needed to make a good first impression.
"I'm Ken Takagi. I moved here with my family from Japan last month… I love playing baseball and going for runs. I hope we can work well together." He said, bowing slightly towards the class.
His introduction was met with stark silence, causing his nerves to teeter on the edge. He looked up, only to see everyone's gaze transfixed on him.
'W—What the hell is happening?' He cried inwardly.