Chapter 1: Beginning to a new life
The usually soft light of two computer monitors - now almost like a room light itself in the darkness of the room - caused the occupant to wince slightly. Having just woken up a few minutes ago, staying in the darkness of his room, He wasn't used to having a light shone directly on his face, no matter how dim it may seem. He often found themselves cursing his stupidity, using an electronic device so soon after waking up.
After giving his hazel eyes another rub and a few more seconds to adjust to the light, the occupant slid the mouse over his mouse pad with quick, precise movements that came from years of practice. A few clicks here and there, and the monitor displayed a stream and a stream chat next to it. In the box that showed what the webcam was seeing, was the face of the streamer, which happened to be the sole occupant of the room.
He was in his teenage years, male, and couldn't have been older than 16. The teen had pitch-black hair, almost blending into the dark background of the room, and contrasting white bangs framing his face. His eyes, a soft hazel that was usually filled with life, mischief, and humour, were almost half-lidded with exhaustion. His nationality happened to be mostly Japanese on his father's side, but his mother's Caucasian side had more of an influence on his skin pigment, making him look more tanned than creamy white. This teen's name was Toyo Inazuma Kamizaki.
Toyo let out a yawn, trying to stifle it to no avail. "Sorry, chat," he apologized, wiping his eyes of any tears that came up. "just woke up a little bit ago. Ignore my half-dead appearance please, haha." A few seconds of silence from the young streamer, so as to check if his 600 and rapidly rising viewers would give his half-hearted apology a response. Seeing none, only meme spams and some casual conversations, Toyo quickly set up his Nintendo switch so that he would have one monitor displaying the gameplay, while the second would have up his stream info and chat. With another yawn, Toyo glanced at the time on his digital clock on his nightstand. The time flashed 4:30 am.
If you're wondering why the boy decided to wake up this early to stream, it's because even though he may be in Japan, his audience was mostly American. Japan is 14 hours ahead of America, so 6:30 pm for him is 4:30 am for them over there. How he had a mostly American audience, he will never seem to figure out. But he did, and he wasn't going to complain. Though, if he wanted to earn enough money from all of the views and subs that he gets from streaming, Toyo has to wake up at a very early time.
However, even though he has to wake up early, he thoroughly enjoys what he does. Toyo streams a variety of games, like Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Rocket League, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty Black Ops 4, and Fortnite being some of the big ones. Due to his skill in gaming, the teen made the choice to start streaming at the age of 14. His gaming prowess managed to earn him sponsors, and allow him to participate in small tournaments since Toyo was not yet 16 at the time. Now that he was 16, having been of age since September, he was able to go out and participate in big tournaments with the big-time gamers. The young prodigy was still limited though, as he did not have his driver's license quite yet, so he still stuck to small tournaments for now.
"Oh! Before I begin, I forgot to mention that the new VRMMORPG, Sword Art Online, is coming out today, so I won't be on for as long as I usually am." Toyo turned and grunted somewhat as he lifted up a grey, bulky helmet with a visor up to the webcam so that his viewers can see. "I managed to save up enough money that I could get a Nerve Gear and the proper wiring and set up for it. Not only that, I managed to get a copy of Sword Art Online with the help of few sponsors.
Toyo put down the helmet, staring at the rapidly passing messages of the chat. Even though he could barely make out what the messages were saying, he was able to pick out a couple that were short enough to be read. "Do I live alone? Uh, I mean yeah, I do. I've been living alone for around 3 months now." He picked up his Nintendo pro controller and started up Smash Bros. "How I manage school? Haha, actually that's pretty funny. I don't go to school. I was homeschooled for most of my life, and only took a year of actual schooling. I decided I didn't like it, so I kinda just stopped going, and my parents didn't mind." As an afterthought, he quickly added, "I do have friends though! I'm not a loner like most would assume."
The Q and A session between Toyo and his viewers went on like this for the better part of 2 hours, while the teen was quickly raising his global smash power in order to finally play elite smash. Sometimes, while Too was not using his main, Sheik, he would ask the chat what character he should be. In short, it was really entertaining for both him and his viewers. He didn't win all of his matches - the viewers made sure of that - but at the end of the 2-hour long session, Toyo had reached elite smash status.
"Finally! Oh lordy, that took way longer than I thought." He sighed in relief and reclined in his padded chair. "I don't think I would have lasted another half hour of Smash. Too much of one thing gets me really uninterested after a while. Unless it's like, not repetitive and an open world type of game, y' know?" He placed his controller down and looked at his clock, absentmindedly wiping his somewhat sweaty hands on his sweatpants as he did so. "Only 8:45? Oh man, I really thought it would be a little closer to 9. I'm starting to get hungry."
