Chapter Text
As golden eyes stare back, the person in the mirror reflects an image of oneself.
Short black hair combed meticulously.
Thick eyebrows arching over concentrated eyes.
Rough tanned skin flushed with acne.
And facial hair growing along a sharp jaw.
Something doesn’t seem quite right, feeling a little uncomfortable under this skin.
Growing pains, was it? Uncomfortable in the way we live in this vessel that acts and grows at its own volition, Unwanted changes.
But, that’s just how it is, The burden of having a body.
And all he can do is shave his growing beard if he doesn't want it.
As the Kujou son stares into the mirror, he glances at the eyebags visible under his eyes and settles that as the culprit of discomfort, and he thinks, “Well, if there really was something making me uncomfortable, I can deal with it another day when I know what it is.”
He finishes washing his face after a quick shave and starts putting on his work clothes. Glancing at the clock he grabs an onigiri he prepared the night before along with a lunchbox for later, The time reads five minutes before eight, he can get to the office early as long as no delays happen in his commute.
Kujou clocks in on time as usual. Sit down, check emails, get on with what work needs to be done and talk to other employees if needed, day in, day out. There’s nothing much to talk about work nor is it interesting really.
Kujou’s father, Takayuki, used to work in the same tech company in a higher position. Kujou was an intern when he got out of college, he was treated well in the company and later on he landed an official position. However, Takayuki had to retire and Kujou was promoted.
Kujou’s current role in the business was the assistant project manager and the boss was Ms. Raiden Ei, she was the project manager and Kujou would do some of the same duties as her, but he ultimately would be under her wing, so she called the shots around here.
The two of them sat in silence in their office. Kujou straightens his back and stretches his wrist around, as he does so, he takes a quick glance at his boss.
Ms. Raiden’s hair was a deep midnight shade of purple that was long, straight, and braided elegantly, its length reaching just past her hips. Her bangs framed her face loosely with one strand hanging in front of her shoulder. The colors of her eyes were an electrifying hue, one that sparked with intensity if you stared too deep. Her face was pale and almost smooth, there were wrinkles on her cheeks and under her eyes, a beauty mark was underneath her right eye. She wore simple business casual clothing as per the company’s dress code.
“Mr. Kujou, do we have updates on how the new service is being implemented?” Ms. Raiden asks as she picks up a stack of documents and her eyes scans the words, not bothering to move her head. Her voice was a little gruff, a little deep and had a commanding tone, but wasn’t aggressive (he hopes so at least, and if it was, he hopes it wasn’t because of him).
Kujou returns to his tab on the laptop where his emails are open and scans the subject lines for anything related, “I believe there was an email from the software development department.” He forwards it to her email.
A small pause, she looks at her laptop before Ms. Raiden asks, “...And from the QA team?” Kujou scans his emails again and shakes his head no.
“I will visit their office if needed.” Kujou offers, ready to stand up, but Ms. Raiden beats him to it.
“No need, I can do it.” She rises stiffly from her seat and briskly walks out of the office.
Kujou sighs and looks around the room, it was a small and mostly empty meeting room. A large table in the middle where they both had their laptops out for work and they sat across from each other, some shelves stacked with papers on each side and behind Ms. Raiden was a window to the outside while behind Kujou was a window to the office hallway, with blinds luckily (he’d be conscious about his work).
Kujou wouldn’t particularly care about the office set up, if it weren’t for the fact that he had a small ‘crush’ on his boss and found it a little distracting because he can get caught up with his admiration for hardworking women… “gross.” he thinks to himself and types on his keyboard with a little more force.
When he looks at her, her eyes have that energy of a simmering fire, a resolve that burns from within her, which is what sparked something in Kujou’s heart from the start. Something under that underlying flame makes Kujou stare a little longer, wonder a little more, if that was something Kujou could partake in.
When she looks at him, her eyes are full of concentration and he assumes it’s not because of interest in the work, but the kind that seems like they’ve been grinding away at this 24/7, as if her sole duty is to grind and toil away. A constant flame powering a machine that serves a purpose, a duty that is much greater than either of them know.
And Kujou knows better than to distract someone from their work, he knows that very well.
Kujou and Ms. Raiden never really talk much anyway and probably won't in the future because the both of them are absorbed in their work and they value productivity, Kujou doesn’t even know what they could talk about outside of their work.
And yet he still thinks, “what would they talk about if it wasn’t work?”, "Would that even be possible?”, “It’s almost like she has work hard-wired in her brain” well the both of them are alike in that last thought, that’s one thing they share in common at the moment.
Not long after, Ms. Raiden returns from her impromptu visit, seemingly obtaining what information she needed. His boss returns to her previous position as they both fall back to a steady silence filled with tapping on keyboard keys and clicking mouses.
After hours of sitting, typing away on a keyboard and eyes drilled to the screen, Kujou clocks out and arrives home. Hoping to get some rest he lays down on the couch and closes his eyes, his back straight over the firm cushions and arms over his stomach.
Unfortunately though, a text message disturbs the newfound peace, He slides his hand across the soft fabric in search of his phone, when he does find it he takes a peek at the notification.
It was from Kuki Shinobu, a friend from college. She wasn’t in the same course as Kujou, but Shinobu was part of many different student organizations (God knows how she handled all of that) and since Kujou was in one himself, they just bumped into each other often. Along with another acquaintance that often loves to bother Kujou with mundane things, he has a big personality Kujou would say with tolerance… After all, how could Arataki Itto have been voted president for a student organization?
Usually Itto and Shinobu would be attached to the hip, but there were times that Kujou and Shinobu were able to talk to each other without distractions.
At first they talked about duties and collaborations between student organizations, but over time they would grab food together, something Kujou would usually do alone and when Itto found out, he begged to “go to the best ramen place that convinced Kujou to eat with people!” little does he know it was the other way around, it wasn’t the place but the people he was eating with.
Kujou chuckled at the memory and then focused his eyes on the screen for hopefully the last time that day, thankfully the next day was a saturday so he didn’t need to burn his eyes for hours on end again.
The message simply read,
“Want to grab some ramen? I assume you’re free from work now.”
Kujou sat up as he typed with one hand while the other supported him up,
“Yes, would it be the same place as usual?”
another ding,
“Yeah, the old man probably misses cooking for us”
and so he grabs his wallet and keys and types one more message before leaving the door.
“Alright, I will be on my way. I’ll be there in 5 minutes.”
Shinobu was sitting in front of the counter already, seeing Kujou arrive she waves him over.
The first thing you would notice about Shinobu is her bright green hair, though since the last time Kujou had seen her, the dye faded a bit, and her natural hair color started growing back at the roots, her hair was short and tied up. The lower half of her face is covered by a mask which only highlights her eyes more, a vibrant violet that pierces through her gaze. She wore a cap and for her shirt she wore a crop top with a baggy jacket over it. for her lower half, loose pants and some rubber shoes.
“Hello, haven’t seen you in a while.” Kujou says as he sits down beside her.
“Same here, how’s… life, Kujou?” She asks, moving a little to the side to give more space for Kujou.
“Busy, staring at the screen all day is nothing I can’t do, but after a while… I’d rather walk the entire building. Thrice.” Kujou replies.
Shinobu chuckles, “not five times?” She then turns to the chef, ready to order, but the man smiles as he puts two bowls in front of them, “You two haven’t changed much.” he comments, probably thinking about back in the day when they would go here often in college.
Shinobu smiles back, “you haven’t either sir, your business seems well.” Shinobu starts to dig into her food.
“Thank you, but it ain’t as good as before when you two would be funding my vacation Haha!” He laughs and the pair chuckles. “If you ever get tired of your job, boy, come work here. could use hearing your stories all afternoon again.” He jokes as he wipes the counters.
Kujou blinked as he looked up, then laughs dryly, “I don’t think my father would be happy about me quitting that job..” He says quietly, slurping up some noodles. Shinobu looks back at him.
“Are you having a lot of trouble or do you get bored sometimes?” She eyes his response.
Kujou, thankful for the concern, but doesn’t think it’s that serious, answers, “Yeah, just need to do something else sometimes…” He trails off, half-thinking that he needs to be dedicated entirely to his job and do his best, that’s what his father drilled into his mind anyway, And the other half-thinking what Shinobu could possibly say in response.
“How about playing games?” Shinbou suggested.
Kujou grimaced, “if I have to stare at a screen all day again…” and Shinobu laughed.
She grabs a handful of noodles with her chopsticks and says, “Well, if you’re going to stare at screens every day anyway might as well do it for something that isn’t work, it would count as a change of scenery enough.” then she slurps the noodles up.
Kujou snickered at that, she wasn’t wrong, but he expected her to suggest something more… physical, like hiking.
“Well if you suggest, I haven’t played video games in a while though. What video game should I play?” Kujou asks as he picks some nori up with chopsticks. Shinobu pondered for a moment before it looked like she thought of the perfect idea.
“Knowing you, you would love the grind..” Shinobu starts out and Kujou only raises a brow, letting her continue speaking. “Have you heard of Warframe?” she had an expression that wasn’t quite grinning…Maybe it was excited?
Kujou shook his head no, “What’s that?” curiosity filling his mind upon hearing the name.
“Oh, you play as a space ninja and do missions. It’s a third person looter shooter and sci-fi if that’s your thing.” Shinobu finishes up her noodles.
Kujou pondered for a moment, “Oh, so like halo? borderlands?” He asks and Shinobu only shrugs and nods.
“Kind of, there’s also lore if you want story. The story gets really intriguing after a certain quest” She adds.
Kujou picks up a piece of chashu pork, taking a bite out of it and chewing, “So what do you mean about the grinding part?” he asks after his mouth is empty.
“Oh, there are certain things you have to farm for and some take a while, depending if you have people helping you out or what it is you’re after.” Shinobu sips the soup out of a spoon.
Kujou tilts his head, pondering “Interesting… It’s a multiplayer?”
“You can play solo if you like. You have the option to, but if you ever need people’s help, the community is very nice.” Shinobu emphasized ‘very’ and that only raised a brow from Kujou.
Kujou thinks about it, the game sounds interesting, but he wasn’t much of a gamer especially with recent releases so he doesn’t know what expectations to have. The only games he’s played were the total war series and world of warcraft. Well, he thinks to himself that he can stop playing the game if he doesn’t like it, but first he'd have to try it out to know.
Imagine his surprise when he finds out the game is completely free, aside from some bundles, but he’s heard that you can grind for the premium currency anyway and so the only paid items were essentially ‘tennogens’.
It takes a while to download the game and make an account with the username ‘Ravengeneral714’ but it works, it surprisingly works on his crappy-definitely-not-gamer laptop, sure it lags a little, but he’ll just change the graphics settings to low.
He watches the opening cutscene in awe , the first word spoken from the game was “Wake up Tenno” and that drew Kujou into the story. He does the tutorial where he commented that the movement felt very parkour-y yet smooth.
Then, he picks out his starter warframe, Volt.
Volt isn’t a ‘flashy’ character (That’s what Kujou’s first impression of it was), the game’s poster boy would be Excalibur. From the abilities descriptions he decided to use a character that seemed more like a support, not wanting to draw attention to himself if he ever played with other people. The abilities were pretty simple, the first zapped enemies with electricity and it chains, the second increases you and your allies speed, the third was a shield you can put down and the fourth was like a stronger version of the first.
Kujou did a few missions solo, wanting to familiarize himself with the game and do the starting quests, but as he explored the game more, he started getting confused, “How do I get an archwing?”, “Where do I get a new warframe since there’s others?”,”How do I make myself stronger?”, “What are mods???”. He had quite a few questions and maybe felt a little overwhelmed since he saw snippets of other branches of the game, it seemed like this game was endless in its systems.
He picked his phone up and texted Shinobu,
“Hello, if you are free, can I ask for help in Warframe? Thank you.”
A few minutes passed by, he checked the time and the clock read past eight so it wasn’t too late for some people, but some were early birds which included himself.
The phone dinged,
“Hey, sorry can’t at the moment, I’m studying for my law exam.”
Shinobu texted back, and she continued with another text,
“I’ll be free to play with you in a few months maybe? But for now you can ask the qna chat, it’s the one with the question mark in the chat tab or you can read the wikis, and make sure to use the one from Warframe and not fandom wiki.”
Kujou sighed and thanked her, returning to his laptop screen.
He looked at the chatbox again and clicked it open. The chat was mostly people talking casually with one another while some people would come in the middle of the conversation and ask various things which then someone would answer. It was a bit strange to see, “was there no world chat?” he asked himself, but he knows that he has better things to ask.
After a while of observing the chat, feeling a bit intimidated by how things work here, he steeled himself to ask his first question.
Ravengeneral714: Hello, Can I ask how do I mod? I’m new to this video game, Thank you.
Some people replied immediately, some commented on the question instead.
HocusPocusLotus: warframe’s greatest mystery
xXChrisTmasXx: we don’t know either lol, just slap on whatever you need
AlmightyShogun: @ Raveneneral714 what are you modding for? warframe or weapon?
Peacebearer_Hunter: guys no spoilers now it’s a baby tenno
Tenno76: lol spoiler alert you’re stuck in the grind for hours, welcome to warfarm
Captain0Melancholy: when baro
Primepaladintyrux: depends on what are you modding
Kujou sighed, getting answers was a bit difficult. So he followed up on the one reply that seemed like he could get a lead with.
Ravengeneral714: My warframe.
And shortly a few people already replied to it.
Cephalon_Atheone: what warframe are you using?
xXChrisTmasXx: slap some strength mods on it ig
AlmightyShogun: you can look at your abilities and see what you need, usually strength,duration, efficiency, range. but it depends on what you’re trying to do
Primepaladintyrux: link your frame with your mods so we can look what need to be improved
Drezura: hey guys how does my fashion look [Look: Zephyr Prime]
ADearFriend: whisper me if you need help getting mods
Captain0Melancholy: look at overframe wiki
Cephalon_Atheone: are you trying to go for a strength build? What purpose are you giving it?
Quite overwhelming, if Kujou had to be honest. He eyed the usernames that were in the chat and fixated on one, AlmightyShogun, they were helping other people in the chat before Kujou so he clicks on their name and presses the ‘talk’ option.
Ravengeneral714: Hello, is it alright to message you for help?
AlmightyShogun: yeah no worries, so what do you need help with exactly? like what are you trying to do with your warframe? making the abilities hit harder on enemies?
Ravengeneral714: To make it stronger? I keep dying in some missions.
AlmightyShogun: okay, do you have these mods [Vitality] [Steel Fiber]? these are the most basic survivability mods
Ravengeneral714: Yes, I have them, but they’re not doing a lot.
AlmightyShogun: oh have you upgraded them yet?
Ravengeneral714: It’s expensive, I don’t have a lot of credits and endo.
AlmightyShogun: okay hold on
Kujou stared at the screen for a bit, but that same feeling of exhaustion returns to his eyes, he checks the time and sees that he’s been playing for way too long now, it was nearly eleven in the evening. A sound effect returns his attention to the screen and a popup that says ‘AlmightyShogun is inviting you to a game’ in the bottom. Confused, he asks them what’s going on.
AlmightyShogun: im giving you some mods and other useful stuff when you’re still starting out
Ravengeneral714: Oh, thank you, is that really okay? You could tell me how to get them and I can obtain them myself.
AlmightyShogun: hey, it’s no problem, all of us vets are happy to help baby tennos. You can add friend me too and message me anytime for help when I’m online.
That’s… kind. Shinobu wasn't joking when she said the community was very nice, just strangely so. You would think that this is the game where all the sweaty, gatekeeping, toxic people were considering the grind everyone in the reviews mentions when talking about this game that Kujou read in his research, but it seems like the grind is what made them kind in the first place, paying it forward, they would describe.
Kujou accepts the invite request and AlmightyShogun brought them into a ‘dojo’ which they explain was the equivalent of a clan base and shortly after, a popup in the middle of the screen asked if they want to trade with AlmightyShogun.
Ravengeneral714: I don’t have anything to trade with.
AlmightyShogun: oh it’s fine just put anything in, even a fish is okay
“Fish? There are fishes in the video game or was that a joke?” Kujou thought, but didn’t want to ask more than he already had tonight, if he had asked every question about the game and AlmightyShogun answered every one, then they’d be there for months and he wants to sleep well tonight at the very least.
Kujou put in a random mod that he had duplicates of and AlmightyShogun had put in half a dozen mods that he didn’t recognize yet and the trade concluded… or not, because they asked to trade again.
AlmightyShogun: gotta do this a couple of times because warframe only lets you trade 6 at a time.
Ravengeneral714: A couple of times? I think what you gave me is plenty enough already, thank you, I don’t even know if I’ll play this video game for long.
He waits for a response and it comes after a minute or two.
AlmightyShogun: alright well, just keep those that I gave you for now, if you decide to keep playing then you can ask me for the rest? or if you really do want to grind them I can tag along to help.
Ravengeneral714: Alright, thank you very much.
Ravengeneral714: I’ll have to leave for now, I need to go to bed. Thank you for your help.
AlmightyShogun: no problem, happy to help. may you have sweet dreams.
Ravengeneral714: Thank you.
Kujou sent a friend request and logged off for the night, shutting down his laptop too, no more screens now thankfully.
He gets ready for bed and looks at the mirror as he brushes his teeth. Eyes stare back, weary with eyebags underneath.
Hair uncombed and messy from the busyness of the day.
Eyebrows furrowed from thinking about the day tomorrow.
Skin moist from splashing water on his face for a quick wash.
And the droplets running down his smooth chin.
Kujou would rather not stare too much about his unsightly appearance so he sets his thoughts and problems aside for another day, and he goes to sleep on his firm mattress, surrounded by his heavy blanket.