As they traveled down roads, Tsukuru watched out the window, as building after building passed by them. Soon, a large structure came into view. It looked like a sprawling industrial complex, covered in numerous labs, although a good portion of them looked like they were halted mid-construction, while others looked as though the construction had just been started recently. Oddly enough, every building, regardless of level of completion, had the same exact floor plan. The car stopped right outside the complex, and Tsukuru stepped out. He looked up at the "mansion".
A large wall surrounded the whole complex, the wall's top having several turrets that would shoot out energy crystals at anyone who got too close. Tsukuru sighed, as he walked towards the gate. When he reached the door, he pressed his hand against it. His watch lit up bright. On its screen, a small animation of an old-fashioned key opening a lock. Normally, a member of the Green Family would use their Ability to unlock the door. However, seeing as Tsukuru wasn't a Green by birth, his surrogate mother had to create a substitute as a work-around. A back-door program was uploaded to his wristwatch that would automatically activate whenever the watch got within a certain range of the gate.
[Welcome, Master Tsukuru]
As he entered, the lights to the whole place started to turn on. Most of the place was covered in a white color. The room was silent. Most people would assume that this place was abandoned. Most people would be wrong. Mr. and Mrs. Green were rarely around, meaning that Tsukuru, as well as the Green Family's biological son, Logan, essentially had the run of the place. However, Logan rarely left his room, unless he wanted a sandwich. Tsukuru walked to a room near the end of the hall on the first floor. As he reached it, he put his arm up towards the door, his watch directly next to it. The same "unlocking" animation appeared again, and the door slid open.
Inside, the room looked like a time capsule. While it still had the same white coloring as the rest of the house and had a modern bed, the rest of the room was filled with technology long since outdated. A blocky, CRT TV with a large screen built into a large cupboard with multiple shelves lined with retro gaming systems and game cases was pressed against the middle of the far wall. To its right was a shelf littered with figurines and replica weapons from a long-since dead form of media called "anime". To the right of the TV was various plastic toys modeled after various robots and mechs. And pressed against the far wall on the right side of the room was a full-sized bed.
On his bed, there was a wooden box with a lock, similar to a jewelry box. Laying on top of it, was a thumb-drive. Tsukuru looked at it, eyebrow quirked in confusion. He pressed his thumb against the top, north-facing side of his watch, and a section flipped downwards, revealing a slot. He inserted the thumbdrive into the slot, and it clicked into place. The "unlocking" animation appeared once more. Static appeared on the face of his watch, as a video booted up, and started playing. It showed a woman sitting at a desk in a computer lab with a white background. The woman had long, brown hair and wore a white labcoat. This woman was Laura Green, or as the rest of the world knew her, "Mrs. Green".
Mrs. Green looked back at Tsukuru through the video, her eyes full of regret. "Tsukuru." Mrs. Green replied in the recording. "If you are seeing this, it means that the time for you to begin your military training has come. For years, you have asked me for an Ability Book, and I have always refused you. This was not out of my own volition." She explained, causing Tsukuru to quirk an eyebrow. He had a feeling this was the case. "Contained with this thumbdrive is…something." She said, looking away. "A few days after you came into my custody, a man who I had thought I would never see again appeared, Richard Eno." Tsukuru's eyes widened.
The name "Richard Eno" was well-known throughout the world. He was the greatest scientist of the current age. He was the one who introduced the technology of Portals and Beast Gear to the world. Without him, humanity would not have survived. But it seemed as quickly as Richard Eno had appeared, he had vanished, as Richard Eno had reportedly disappeared without a trace years ago.
"However, he was not alone." Mrs. Green continued. "He was joined by another. A girl whose hair was a striking shade of blue, and she wore robes that made her look reminiscent of Mona Bree herself. The woman handed me this very box. Richard Eno told me to hold onto it until you were ready, and prohibited me from letting you learn any Ability." Mrs. Green looked away, almost ashamed. "Due to a…prior agreement, I am duty-bound as a Green to comply with any order given by an Eno. So I had no choice but to agree." Mrs. Green in the video cleared her throat. "I have attempted to open that box numerous times, using just about every method and solution possible. Nothing worked." Tsukuru's gaze drifted towards the box.
"Richard Eno told me that you…and ONLY you…could open it. The choice is up to you." The video then faded to black. Tsukuru yanked the thumb drive out from his watch, and crushed it in his hand. He then looked down at the box. He picked it up, and held it in his flat, open hand. In the center, there was a keyhole, as if a key could be inserted to unlock it. Curious, he rubbed his thumb against the hole. As he did so, a spring-loaded needle within the box shot out from the hole at high speeds, puncturing his thumb.
"YEOW!" Tsukuru yelled in pain, dropping the box on reflex. It clattered onto the floor. Tsukuru looked at his thumb. There was a noticeable pin-prick hole on it, dripping blood. However, as a single drop of blood dripped down to the ground, it fell onto the center of the lid of the box. As soon as the blood touched it, strange symbols began to appear all over the box, covering it. The symbols then shattered like glass, and the box began to shake erratically, as if something was trying to escape. The locking mechanism opened itself forcefully, the lid flying back.
Tsukuru looked down at the now-open box. The inside contained luxurious cloth, with something laid in the center of the cloth. Tsukuru kneeled down and picked it up, holding it between his thumb and index finger. It was an almost transparent, diamond-shaped computer chip, covered in intricate gold-colored circuits, with a large slot on the top, going all the way down to the center of the chip.
As Tsukuru held the chip up in the light, the light showed off every circuit on the chip. As he did, a cone of translucent, light-blue light shot out of the center of the chip. The cone of life traveled up and down Tsukuru's body, starting at the tip of his hair, then going down to the soles of his feet, before then going back up to the tip of his hair. The light then abruptly stopped, as if it were a flashlight that had suddenly been turned off. A feminine, computerized voice then emitted from the chip.
[DNA match confirmed.]
The chip then violently ripped itself out of Tsukuru's grip. The chip floated in the air in front of Tsukuru. As Tsukuru stared at it, the chip began to fly around like an insect, shooting off in random directions.Tsukuru reached out his arm, trying to snatch it out of the air. But it was like trying to catch a fly. This repeated itself several more times, with the chip flying out of Tsukuru's grip just before he reached it. Tsukuru grit his teeth as he looked at the chip in frustration. The chip then flew backwards at high speed, colliding with his face, making contact with his forehead.
Tsukuru then felt electricity running through his body, as if the chip was trying to electrocute him. "Gha!" Tsukuru screamed in pain, as the electricity coursed through him, his hairs standing on end. Tsukuru, feeling completely fried, swayed for a moment before crashing into the floor, his glasses slipping off his face when his head hit the floor. As he laid there on the ground, the chip disintegrated into dust, leaving nothing. Right before he passed out, he heard more words in that feminine, computerized voice.
[Congratulations, you have been granted the Video System.]