On the next day, Lee wakes up from an odd dream; looking at his alarm clock, he murmurs, “Why couldn't I stay asleep for another five minutes? Well, let’s start this day.”

  He then goes to the toilet and washes his face; as he looks in the mirror, he is taken aback. His eyes seem to be glowing again with inner power, but then, in a blink, the eyes are back to normal.

  Shaking his head, he gets ready and, just as he finishes, he hovers his hand over the alarm; right as the alarm rings, Lee turns it off. With a chuckle, he says to the alarm, “I beat you today.”

  When Sue and Kenji wake up, they go to wake up the children; as Kenji is heading to Lee’s room, the smell of fresh brewed coffee hits him. “Sue, looks like Lee is awake already.”

  Sue, stepping out of their bedroom, says, “Yes, it smells like it. Do you think he did something bad in school yesterday and is trying to soften the punishment?”

  “I don't know; we will see later on today,” says Kenji. “By the way, I was thinking of taking that keychain Lee made for Sakura, to have it examined and evaluated.”

  “You are not going to sell the keychain, are you?” inquires Sue of her husband.

  Kenji shakes his head. “No, of course not,” affirms Kenji. “But depending on the value, it might not be a good idea for them to carry it around like that.”

  “Carry what?” asks Lee, making Sue and Kenji jump startled, not having heard him approach.

  “Lee, how long have you been there?” asks Kenji, looking at Lee.

  Lee shakes his head. “Not long; I just came upstairs because I noticed there was no movement.”

  Sue nods. “That is very thoughtful of your behalf.”

  Then with a bow of his head, Lee says, “Thank you, but what is not a good idea to carry around?”

  Sue looks at Kenji, as the latter says, “The keychain you made for Saki. Because it is a beast crystal, I wanted to take it to have it evaluated.”

  “Okay,” says Lee with a shrug. “But it's a beast stone, not a crystal, and the stone I used on it was the least valuable; the app said it was one hundred fifty yen.”

  “Even so, Lee,” says Kenji, “some people can do anything to get a beast stone, so I will have it appraised.”

  “Okay,” Lee says then turns around to go back downstairs and wait for the rest of the Watsons to be ready.

  After school, Lee is seated at the main office with Sakura, waiting for Sue and Kenji to exit the office where they are in a meeting with six of Lee’s professors.

  “Lee, did you do something?” asks Sakura.

  Lee shakes his head. “I don't think so, but mum and dad said yesterday that the meeting was going to be with only three teachers, and now there were six.”

  Not long after, the door to the office opens and Sue and Kenji step out; Lee looks at their faces trying to understand how the meeting went, but he can't tell due to the lack of emotion.

  Sue, looking at the children, calls out, “Lee, Saki, let’s go.”

  Sakura approaches their parents happily; Lee approaches with his head lowered. As he approaches them, he is immediately pulled into a tight hug by Sue, and Kenji places a comforting hand on his shoulder.

  “Was it good news in the meeting?” Lee asks, his voice muffled due to being held by Sue.

  “No, Lee, it was not good news,” says Sue, tears in her eyes.

  Lee looks at Sue confused; Sakura, too, is confused looking at their parents and at Lee.

  Kenji smiles. “It was great news. The teachers wanted to ask us if you had any vitamins or experimental medication.”

  Lee shakes his head and takes two steps back so he can see his parents' facial expressions. “Why would they ask you that?”

  Sue smiles, tears still at the corner of her eyes, and Lee notices that they are tears of joy. “Because yesterday and today, they noticed that you have had an improvement on your academic record; the final evaluation tests they made left them surprised, so they had a look at last week's work you did and noticed that you have had a significant improvement.”

  “We are very proud of you,” says Kenji with a smile. “Especially when Miss Yan said that you taught basic algebra to your class using the game Xeno-clash.”

  “So big brother is not in trouble?” inquires Sakura in confusion.

  “No Saki, Lee is not in trouble,” says Sue. “So to celebrate, why don't we go to Tokyo to eat out?”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  They head home to get changed, and once there, Kenji finds an old keychain, removes the ring, and attaches it to the keychain Lee did the day before.

  Noticing the keychain in his hands, Sue asks, “Almost forgot about that; did you get it appraised?”

  Kenji nods with a sigh. “Yes; the old man that works at the Beast Gems Shop said that it was a very well-done job, and that the weaving work is extremely old.”

  “But Lee did that yesterday; how can it be old?” asks Sue.

  Kenji shrugs. “It was Lee who made it,” he says, as the phrase started to have more meaning over the past two weeks. Sue nods in understanding, so Kenji continues. “At first, he told me to find an antique shop to have it appraised, but he changed his mind when I told him that the gem inside was a beast stone.”

  “And what was the estimated value?” Sue asks, pushing Kenji for an answer.

  “The stone is indeed worth one hundred and fifty like Lee said,” Kenji starts to inform, then continues. “But as he wove the shoelaces around it, and he did so using an ancient, almost forgotten technique...” Kenji then guides Sue to sit at the edge of their bed. “He contacted his superiors; after debating, they made an offer of three thousand.”

  “Three thousand yen?” inquires Sue in disbelief, interrupting her husband.

  Kenji shakes his head. “Three thousand Galactic Credits.” At this announcement, Sue goes pale. “I know; I had the same reaction and so did the old man; we even had the higher-ups send it by message thinking it was an error of communication.” Kenji sits next to his wife. “Right now at the market, one Galactic credit is around three galactic yens, and one Galactic yen is two and a half yens.” Sue's mouth hangs open; she then reaches for her phone. Thinking in advance, Kenji says, “I already did the maths; three thousand Galactic Credits is equivalent to around twenty-two point five thousand yen.”

  The colour drains from Sue’s face, her mouth so wide open that an egg could be stuffed inside. “You have to be joking with me,” Sue says once she finds her voice again.

  “That was only because it was a lower tier stone,” says Kenji, shaking his head. “They told me, if Lee makes something like this with a level two beast crystal, they will add at least three zeros at the end.”

  “Three zeros?” says Sue, her mind running a quick mental montage of the numbers. “That would be three million,” Sue says with a shout; Kenji nods with a smile.

  After getting ready, Kenji drives to Tokyo, and as it's only half-five when they get there, they go sightseeing. As they pass a shop, Lee gets drawn to it and ends up stopping.

  “What’s this shop?” Lee asks, looking up at Sue.

  Sue looks at the shop and says with a smile, “This is a very old kind of shop; it sells cosplay items. Some are already made, while others are raw material so people can create their own cosplay.”

  Kenji gives off a chuckle, making Sakura, that is seated on his shoulders, jump a bit. “Shops like this have been around since the twenty-first century; in Japan, we had them very earlier, but only around the year two thousand did they spread to Europe due to an event called Comic-Con.”

  “Can we go in?” Lee asks after getting fragmented memories of said events and the creations people made.

  Sue and Kenji nod and they go in; once inside, Lee is fascinated with the different materials on display. As he is exploring, almost like a call of fate, an employee drops a box in front of Lee and the content scatters out of the floor; Lee picks up one of the plastic bags with plastic strings.

  “They are nice, aren’t they?” asks the employee. “Sorry if I hit you with the box, are you okay?”

  Lee looks up and smiles, noticing that she has cat ears and a tail. “Are those real?” Lee asks, indicating the ears and tail.

  “No, see.” The employee removes the hair band then shows the belt that holds the tail. “They have these sensors that detect movement and mood shifts, and they move like the real ones.”

  “They are nice,” Lee says, and picks another bag with strings from under the shelf. “What do you use these for?” he says lifting the bags.

  “They are used in cosplays to make hair; you attach them to the mould then paint, or you can buy bags with only one colour,” she says taking a bag with only silver strings and showing it to Lee.

  “They are nice,” Lee says and on closer inspection, he gets quick fragments of memory, then with a smile he asks, “How much does each bag cost?”

  “These ones are really old; I don't even know why we still have them,” the employee says. “We have better ones right here,” she says and shows Lee the better ones.

  After examining them, Lee shakes his head. “I like these ones; how much?”

  “Okay, but I guess if you are only starting with cosplay, it is good to start with cheap materials,” she says walking towards the counter; once there, she addresses another woman. “Boss, this child is asking the price of these old strings for cosplay hair.”

  The woman takes one of the bags and scans it. “This price needs updating,” the woman says, and Lee sees that each bag costs five yen. After pressing a few keys, the price changes to one and a half yen. “They will cost one and a half yen, but if you buy five, I will make a discount and you will only pay five yen,” she says looking at Lee.

  “There you are,” says Sue approaching Lee. “We lost you for a moment.”

  “Sorry mum, I was only asking the price of these strings,” Lee says showing the strings to Sue. “The nice lady said that if I buy five, she will sell them for five yen instead of the seven and a half yen.”

  Sue looks at Lee, then with a smile she says, “Is there anything else you need?”

  “Maybe; I need to look around,” says Lee, then as he is looking up at his mother, he sees some old boxes on the top shelves, so turning around he asks the employee, “Sorry, what is that?”

  The woman looks to where Lee is pointing and says, “Those are very old tools; they are only wasting space.” As she speaks, she signals for the employee to remove the box.

  As the employee grabs the box, it is so old that the box falls apart and the content falls all over the floor. Lee’s eyes shine with delight.

  Turning around, he asks, “Is all that rubbish?” The woman nods. “Do you mind if I take something from there?”

  The woman looks at the content that came from the box and shakes her head. “No, I don't; in fact, if you take the whole content, I will only ask for five yen.”

  Hearing this, Lee turns to Sue with pleading eyes and a massive smile.

  With a shake of her head, Sue says, “You can take it, but you will have to carry it.”

  “Okay.” Lee looks around the fallen objects and finds an off-brand black backpack; he then starts to separate the box content into groups before placing them in the bag. He then reaches under the shelf, approaches the counter, and places a ten-yen note on the counter. “This note was under the shelf; someone must have lost it.”

  The three women are taken aback by his honesty and purity.

  The woman behind the counter looks at Sue and smiles. “Well done; you are doing a fine job with this young one.” She then looks at Lee and says, “Most people would just take the money for themselves, but you didn’t.”

  Lee shakes his head. “I would have if I had found it in the street, but I found it in the shop, so it is not good to take it for myself.”