Intervention! [khr]

[01]: Everything Changes

On Sawada Tsunayoshi's twelfth birthday, he woke up to a glowing orange screen hovering over his bed.

Naturally, he screeched and fell out of bed, flailing. Ah, Tsuna.

When he finally pulled himself together, heart going a mile a minute, he realized this looked... oddly familiar. The "screen" was still over his bed, but it had swiveled to face him. Tsuna squinted. Was that writing? Yes, yes it was.

You have slept in your bed! HP full | FP full

A little creeped out, Tsuna reached out and tentatively prodded the screen. His fingers went through, but there was resistance, like poking a jelly dessert. He tried to look at the side, but it rotated. When he attempted to reach behind it, it moved back so he touched the front again. Frustrated, the boy stood up and moved closer, but he tripped and fell onto his bed again. He flailed, and must've hit that little [X] in the corner, because the screen abruptly closed as he face-planted in the sheets.

With a grumble, he pushed himself up, falling over again when a new orange window popped into existence right in front of his face holy—

QUEST! Make The Bed
Mama always asks you to make your bed in the morning. You don't usually do it, but it makes her very happy to see you put in the effort.
Reward: Darling-Tsuna made his bed! Mama is so happy! +5 MP, +25 EXP
Failure: Ah, Dame-Tsuna is at it again. More work for Mama. Well, it's nothing new. -1 MP
[Accept] / [Decline]

That... that stung. Tsuna cringed. Even this... this... game mechanic thought he was dame? That wasn't fair. He wasn't dame, he wasn't! Was he? He didn't used to be dame. Back in preschool he was one of the popular kids. Actually, he used to be pretty good at football too. He was one of the more coordinated toddlers, almost alarmingly so. And he spoke pretty well and could even write.

...And then it all changed one day. Out of the blue, he started tripping over his feet, couldn't answer a question if you held a gun to his head, forgot all that advanced vocabulary.

Someone should have noticed that kind of change. Why had no one noticed? Why didn't his teachers realize? More importantly, why didn't his mom?

Tsuna considered it, pressing [Accept] and starting to make his bed because no glowing orange square got to casually call him dame like that. Oh, that's right, the change happened when his dad was at home, that time he brought his boss with him. Mama was probably too excited to notice, and by the time his dad left she had either worked herself into depression or had subconsciously accepted it. Which was an odd coincidence, if you really thought about it, and pretty sad. What kind of terrible family were they?

Ooh, deep analytical thinking! You don't do that often. Maybe you aren't so dame after all. +2 WIS!

What the—?!

Oh hell no. It just insulted him. Again.

When he found the cheat codes to this stupid game that was his life, he was going to abuse the hell out of them. (And there would be cheat codes, or Tsuna was going to trip and someone was going to be "accidentally" pushed off a roof.)

Tucking the last fold of his comforter in, Tsuna called upon all his knowledge of game mechanics. What was that screen players pulled up? The one with all their attributes in numerical format? If stuff this weird was happening, it was totally a viable theory. Of course, normally he'd be freaking out much more than he was... Food for thought.