On a spring morning in 1993, in a quiet residential house in Tokyo, a light had been shining in the attic for hours.
There, a man sat hunched over a desk lamp, patiently assembling an electronic device. Scattered around him were circuit components and empty takoyaki boxes piled up at random.
In a dark corner of the room, a young woman slept deeply with her hands under her head. The dark circles beneath her eyes revealed she had been staying up late for many nights.
The man kept working without pause, soldering strange pieces onto a circuit board. The soldering iron, still warm, hissed softly each time he added a new component.
When the clock struck six, he let out a long sigh.
—"Finally, it's done!" he exclaimed with excitement.
The shout startled the girl awake. She rubbed her eyes and looked at him in surprise.
—"Sora-san… is it really finished?"
Yukihira Sora turned toward her, trembling with emotion, and raised the crude circuit board in his hand.
—"That's right! The world's first home gaming console has been born!"
[...]
For four weeks, Sawazawa Airi had worked alongside Yukihira Sora on this strange device. Often, she listened to him describe its potential:
—"This console can bring something completely new and fascinating to the world. It will become an indispensable form of entertainment for everyone, regardless of age or gender."
She didn't fully understand, but his words sparked a bit of anticipation.
At last, Sora closed his eyes as if performing a solemn ritual. A red light flickered on the board, and the television screen lit up.
The music began to play:
Ding ding ding ~ ding ding ~ dong!
On the screen appeared a familiar title in English: Super Mario Bros.
Airi stared in amazement.
—"Oh… I remember this. It's something you made on the computer, isn't it?"
Yukihira Sora picked up what he called a controller, and on the television a stout plumber with a large nose leapt across the screen.
Airi blinked. Was this really all? A device that moved characters on a TV screen? She couldn't imagine what was fun about it.
But for Yukihira Sora, it meant much more. He did not belong to this time. He was a man from the year 2020 who had transmigrated to Tokyo in the 1990s. In his original world, video games had long been one of the most important forms of entertainment.
Before arriving here, he had spent a sweltering summer desperately searching for work, finding solace only in video games. Until one day, he collapsed unconscious in the street… and awoke as Yukihira Sora, a wealthy but idle young man in Tokyo, 1993.