Extraordinary Minds: Road to Hell

Chapter 17: Calm Before The Storm

"Hmm..I've still got some time to kill. Maybe I can spend some time with someone else today." Akira thought to himself, as he knew exactly who he wanted to talk to. Ayaka.

Heading to her animation lab, he heard her inside working on something. She had what appeared to be a drawing tablet in front of her, as she seemed to be very lost in thought.

Akira knocked.

"Oh! Akira, hello! It's so nice to see you!" Ayaka said cheerfully. "I'm currently finishing up the animation I was working on for Yumico, making edits and all. How can I help you?"

"Oh, well I just..wanted to maybe hang out, and..I don't know, learn a little something about animation?" Akira said, nervously chuckling. "Sorry, I'm kinda bad at most conversations."

"It's no problem, Akira! I'd love to teach you the ways of my art!" Ayaka gleefully said, as she opened her tablet to show some of the animations shes made.

"As you can see, I've done some work much like Aratani has for OSTS of Video Games. Heck, I even did the art for one fully handrawn game a person made! However, I'm mostly known for my Animation regarding.."

Ayaka went silent. Like she didn't wish to talk about it.

"My...Abuse Story. The amount of detail I placed into everything, and..just the subject material in general. Sometimes I wish this wasn't the main thing everyone focused on in the animation industry that I did."

"Well..Since I know you may not want to talk about that, and, I fully respect that. How about you tell me what made you compelled to take up animation?" Akira asked, curious to what inspired Ayaka to keep trying her absolute best.

"Oh! That sounds nice. Well, when I and my other siblings were saved from our horrible home environment. Our Grandmother took us in. We were all adopted by the same family, by the way. No clue who our birth parents are.." Ayaka explained.

"But, once my grandma found out of the abuse, she immediately fought for custody of us. In some way, I wanted to thank her for the generosity she gave us, and one day..I came across a movie she had stashed away, that she told me she used to love watching with my grandfather when he was alive. It was a wonderful movie full of beautiful colors, amongst wonderful techniques of animation and..it got me interested hearing my Grandmas passion for the topic as well! In a way..I want to honor her memory and thank her for all shes done for us, by taking up something we both agree can be a very beautiful thing."

"That's..Thats amazing, Ayaka. Wanting to keep a passion going for someone you respect massively and all?" Akira said.

"Mhm! It may seem silly to ask but..is there someone you took up gaming for?" Ayaka asked.

"I.." Akira went silent. Was there?

"Actually..I guess you could say I mostly got into it when I was a child. As a way to win Junpei and I some money to even afford food after we..went homeless and all and lost our mom." Akira said. "It was more so a desperate times called for desperate measures situation, and it got us by bit by bit. Then I just endulged, and..created an audience of sorts over the years. Though, I wouldn't even consider it anything special compared to the rest of everyone else here."

"But why do you say that Akira?" Ayaka asked.

"I guess..I just don't see what's so special about being a gamer. You know? I feel it just..serves no purpose as a whole to the world." Akira said with a disappointed tone.

"But you have to ask yourself this. Is it for the world? Or..For yourself?" Ayaka asked.

"I..." Akira stuttered. That..was a really good question.