4 Childhood Days
Note: Read the Introduction if you want to know more about this novel.
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After their fun adventure to Tisneyland, the Arisugawa family went home satisfied. The person who had the most fun during their trip was little Rena, who is now sleeping inside their family limousine due to exhaustion. She was frolicking about too much inside Tisneyland that she eventually ran out of gas midway through their trip.
On their way home, Rentarou gave a long list of things to his head butler and asked his butlers and maids to purchase all the things listed in it. The butlers and maids had to run all around Tisneyland and the nearby shops to complete the to buy list of their boss.
Watching their children sleep with a smile of contentment, Rentarou and Hanna embraced each other before smiling themselves. They both have been busy with their work that they never really have much time to look after Seiji and Rena. Their business empire is big, yes, but they rarely have time off to look after the ones who they're working hard for all this time. This is why these kind of days is also one of the happiest moments of their life.
"Tomorrow, we'll be off to work once again. *sigh* I should really look for some competent executives one of these days."
"Ara, I also have that idea. Those hyenas in our company should be culled one way or another so we can find better replacements. We've been tolerating those people for a long time now and its about time we remove them from our company. Even our own clan is starting to make problems for us"
Rentarou and Hanna talked about their woes on their way home. Life as a tycoon was not all sunshine and rainbows like everyone thought. Sometimes, it was better not to own such a big business like they do. If the person who owns the business is not cut out for it, they'll just end up becoming overly stressed.
While they were talking, Hanna suddenly remembered something that the head maid told her.
"That's right, husband. I remember that Mia approached me the day before yesterday regarding Seiji-chan."
Rentarou began stroking his mustache using his free hand upon hearing Hanna's words.
"Oh? What is it about? I'm pretty sure it's not about Seiji being disobedient. That child has always been so well behaved. I sometimes think that he's more mature than what his appearance suggest."
Hanna chuckled at her husband's remark before replying, "Ara, I also think so. He's never been hard to raise unlike our Rena who throws a tantrum whenever we are late for our family day."
Both of them laughed for a few minutes before their conversation finally got back on track.
"Anyway, Mia talked to me about Seiji-chan showing interest in the most popular sport these days."
"Oho?" Rentarou stopped stroking his mustache and showed a look of surprise.
"That studious Seiji who you'd never see anywhere other than his personal library or our family's library is interested in something like sports? That's the last thing that would come up in my mind when I think of that child."
"Fufufu, well, you're not entirely wrong. That child just seems to be extremely interested in books for some reason. That's why the news also came as a surprise to me."
If only Seiji knew that the extensive research that he does almost everyday was taken as him being a bookworm, how would he feel about it?
"Jokes aside, do you think we should prepare a surprise for him or something? I think it would be a great present during his seventh birthday. Something like a whole basketball arena or something would probably suffice, right?"
"Umu, I like that idea husband. He could also earn a pretty good sum of money if we let the International Basketball Association(IBA) rent it. You know, for their middle school, high school, or national league finals events."
"Hoho, that's not a bad idea. We could also take that opportunity to enter the sports circle so that we can make our own quality goods that our son can wear! This will also help him in the near future when the clan decides to make trouble for us with regards to him not being a 'real' Arisugawa…"
Rentarou and Hanna's expressions darkened for a moment when Rentarou mentioned about their clan making trouble for them, but it soon returned to normal. Even though they own and manage a large portion of their companies on paper, those old geezers of the clan still holds a lot of power within their clan. These same geezers has always been opposed to Rentarou and Hanna adopting Seiji and has been preparing something behind the scenes.
The two continued to talk excitedly as their topic of conversation once again involved business with the goodness of their child in mind. It even came to a point where Hanna suggested that, since they're giving it as a present for their son's 7th birthday, which will also be the day when they're going to introduce him to their business partners and friends, they might as well make it the best basketball stadium there is.
With two children sleeping and two adults engaged in a heated discussion, the Arisugawa Family ended their family day on a happy note.
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After that day, Seiji spent his every day doing research about the most optimal training schedule a child like him could do in order to prepare him for the future to come. He's going to set a solid foundation for his future.
Because this world is basically revolving around basketball, Seiji didn't encounter any problem whatsoever when searching for a few articles, scientific researches, theories, and etc. There were many that can be found all over the internet and if you add it to the books that he asked his parents to buy for him, he pretty much had all the information he needed to build a solid blueprint of what he wanted to do by the time he finished reading all this.
Perhaps, some might be puzzled as to why Seiji, a boy who have superhuman physiology, would want to study so extensively just to know the best route he could take when training his body. He already have superhuman capabilities according to the description of that entity so why bother?
Firstly, even though Seiji have superhuman capabilities on paper, he is still essentially a child. A child who is much stronger than a normal one but that's besides the point. According to what he saw so far, his 'abilities' are yet to awaken due to the simple fact that it needs time to grow and awaken, just like the bearer.
In his past life, Seiji firmly believes that success in any field is 99% hardwork and 1% talent. There's some who might say that it's the other way around but Seiji is not one of them. That's why he still work hard even though he have such a great future ahead of him.
Secondly, Seiji wants to learn more about himself. More precisely, Seiji wants to know more about how he could utilize his gift more effectively. Although he could also go around it blindly, Seiji knows that knowledge is power. He can't go wrong with learning more about the human anatomy more and studying some proven research papers.
And lastly, Seiji didn't want to be a cocky bastard and be complacent. Despite being a child, Seiji received the experience of his past life. 'He' already experienced how it felt like to be in the lowest of the low and it certainly was a humbling experience.
While Seiji is busy learning new things, all the while exploiting his enhanced learning speed, he also didn't forget to look after his beloved little sister. She is already quite sad that her mother and father is often away for business so Seiji accompanied her as much as he can, not letting her feel sad.
Aside from that, Seiji also took it upon himself to teach her some basic manners. He took her around for a stroll at times, along with some sneaky ninja butlers and maids looking out for them from a distance. The only one who is always near them was the head maid, Mia.
One day, when he was just around 5 years old or so, Seiji brought Rena to a basketball court nearby a street. It was one of those days when Seiji would take Rena to play around in the residential streets of Japan incognito. Seiji even told Mia to wear something casual so that they wouldn't stand out as much during their trips.
With a new ball on hand and Rena's hand on the other, Seiji entered the street basketball court. Of course, Mia is also with them. When they entered inside the court, they were greeted by the sight of a little boy and girl around Seiji's age having a conversation with a man wearing a black suit and black necktie, completing the whole outfit with a black sunglasses. The man was talking calmly while the little girl and boy seems to be a little agitated.
When they saw this scene, Mia, the head maid, was the first one to react. It seems like she knew who it was. She even directed an intense glare towards the man, which the man felt almost immediately. When he saw Mia, Seiji, and Rena, the man seemed surprised.
After Mia had a brief conversation with the man in black, she told him to leave before returning to Seiji's side and explaining to him the circumstances. Turns out that the man was one of their newest employees.
All of the butlers who accompanies Seiji knew that he strictly warned them not to pull their weight when they're traveling incognito, something that the new guy doesn't know. As a result, the new guy ended up pulling his weight, telling the little boy and girl who occupied the court first to leave.
While Seiji and Mia is talking, an angry shout suddenly interrupted them.
"You! Why did you order that uncle to do something like that!?"
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To be continued…
[A/N¹: Uh, oh… Well, in my opinion, large clans like the Arisugawas usually value something called 'bloodline'. That's why I depicted those old fogies as such.]
[A/N²: This will be explained at a later chapter but basically, Seiji is still not mature enough to fully access his gifts. Similar to the miracles, he have to meet a certain threshold in order to 'awaken' his talent. Some might say, "But he has the Advanced Growth Rate ability! Why can't he awaken earlier!?". Well, the answer to that is, even though he could mature faster than people around or maybe even beyond his age group, Seiji's talents needs more time to awaken than the miracles(GoM). However, due to his first talent, 'Advanced Growth Rate', this process will more or less be finished after a few more years.]
