Description: this story is a dystopian novel with fart fetish elements.
Milan, Italy.
Monday. February 3, 2020.
Massimo is a 16 years old student with a particular characteristic: he follows the rules strictly. He never smoked, he never watched porn (both require to be at least 18 years of age), he never downloaded music illegally, he never watched a streaming movie illegally, he excels at school, studies constantly, always approves societal rules and what the government does, he's basically a "well-behaved guy" by parental standards and the fact he strictly follows the rules doesn't please others so much.
It was a very normal day at school, Massimo arrives exactly at the right time (8:15 A.M.) and goes to his classroom. Some people arrived up to 7 minutes late, but the rule was you can't arrive more than 5 minutes late.
"You can't enter our class, you will enter at the second hour!", said Massimo, a bit angry but confident. Everyone giggled, even the teacher, they were used to his strict behaviour.
"Massimo...", said the math teacher, Mrs. Dicci, giggling, "you know nobody follows the rules in our country", and she smiled.
"But teacher, the rule says 5 minutes late is the maximum allowed!", said Massimo, very disappointed.
"It's not a big deal, Massimo", she said, trying to comfort him.
Massimo was feeling sad, but decided to follow the lesson anyway. At a certain point, he noticed many people were using their phones instead of following the lesson. He raised his hand up in the air.
"What's up, Massimo?", asked Mrs. Dicci.
"Half of the classroom is using their mobile phones!", he said.
"Guys, put your phones on my desk", said Mrs. Dicci.
Nobody agreed with her and they kept using their phones.
"Can I go to the toilet?", asked Dominico.
"Sure, you know there's no need to ask", said Mrs. Dicci, smiling.
But he didn't go to the toilet do to his business. He went outside, grabbed his lighter and smoked a cigarette of marijuana with his friends. It's a very common thing in Italy. Everyone except Massimo implicitly knew it... if Massimo witnessed it, would have been the apocalypse. Teachers didn't even care.
"I'm so high!!!", said Dominico, laughing.
"I fucked your sister yesterday!", said Giovanni, his best friend from another class, who was also smoking marijuana.
"Cool!", said Dominico, proud of him.
"Do you know Alice? You have no idea what she did yesterday night!", said Giovanni.
"Tell me every detail", said Dominico, curious.
"Well then, we were at the bar as usual and ordered some beer for us but there was this new waitress who asked us our identity cards, I said 'I forgot it at home but I'm 18 don't worry' and she was like 'That girl is not 18' and pointed at Alice, who is 15 and looks younger than she is but man was Alice angry she started yelling and insulting the waitress then I said 'Calm down Alice' and we went away. You had to see her she was a real beast she was like'HOW YOU DARE SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT I'M 19 BITCH GIVE ME THAT BEER" and we immediately went away from that bar man I was scared that they were gonna call the police after that"
"Alice is a loser, no wonder she has no friends", said Dominico.
"Yeah she's pretty weird", said Giovanni.
Dominico returned to his class after 17 minutes. He strongly smelled of weed and his classmates giggled. Massimo thought that smell was burnt plastic and didn't care. Mrs. Dicci rolled her eyes after smelling that.
Mrs. Dicci was teaching analytic geometry but only few people were following the lesson.
Most students were chatting or using their phones (to chat or play games) and Massimo was getting anxious. He wanted everyone to respect the rules to live in a better society, but nobody cared. He wanted to go outside of the classroom to get calmer but it was against the rules. He asked himself what he could do to make everyone respect the rules. He followed the lesson intensely and understood everything. He was definitely ready for his next exam, as always. Massimo always excels at school but he refuses to make others copy and also refuses to explain the school subject to his classmates, saying that it's the teacher's job, not his.
Massimo's behaviour isn't really appreciated by his classmates, and even most teachers think he's far too strict. The lesson kept being followed by a couple of interested students but most were still using their mobile phones or writing something on their exercise books. Analytic geometry was considered "extremely difficult" by more than half of the class, so they feared following the lesson, but they knew that a text exam was going to be done soon. School made almost everyone anxious, but not Massimo, who always studies very hard to get the highest results. His classmates pointed out that doing that results in him not having fun but Massimo replies that having fun is okay in moderation but life mostly means studying and working with few time for personal leisure and that having fun means you're wasting your time. Almost nobody wanted to be friends with him, due to them finding him "annoying".
At 11:00 A.M. began the lunch break, which was not a real lunch break but simply a 15 minute break when people could eat something. At the beginning of the year some people tried to friendly approach Massimo and he behaved well but soon people would start hating him because he pointed out they were breaking the rules so many times it got annoying, so now everyone tries to stay away from him as much as possible, without even making eye contact with him. Massimo didn't feel alone, he was pretty much a solitary guy and felt like he didn't need friends to be happy. Excelling at school and respecting the rules is what made him happy. He felt superior to other people because of it, but others didn't care about that and felt like having fun was much better than blindly respecting every rule and spending the entire day studying.
The lunch break was over and as usual nobody talked to Massimo. The last two hours were nothing interesting, Mr. Eligi was explaining Dante's Inferno and it was utterly boring and unintelligible for the students. Massimo understood everything and praised Dante's amazing writing abilities while others didn't care the slightest bit, they just found it boring. Someone was even actually sleeping on their desks.
Dante was at the seventh circle of hell in his own story, and Massimo was proud of him writing such a beautiful and metaphoric story, he was really honoured of living in the same peninsula where Dante lived. He thought Italy was the best country in the world with the best cuisine, best architecture and everything was perfect there. He didn't want to go outside Italy and considered other countries foods really disgusting, like pizza with pineapple for example. He hates people who like that kind of pizza and think they have some kind of mental disorder. He thought Italy was the cradle of civilisation, failing to consider Babylon, Mesopotamia and even Egypt, Greece and Crete, but nevermind, Italy was the best for him. He felt really lucky to be born in Italy, because at least they don't eat pasta with ketchup, that he found really disgusting. He was amazed at how good Dante wrote, and he took notes of the 16th chapter of Dante's Inferno. His mind was blown at the perfection of that epic poetry and beauty, while the others didn't really like Dante. It looked like he was the only one who was truly interested in that bunch of random words mixed together with no sense. The official interpretations of that book were already estabilished, so no one could give their own interpretation of that senseless (when read literally) book without getting the equivalent of an F: they had to study all the official interpretations, which were also not very clear in their meanings, as expected from medieval literature, though, they used lots of metaphors and other rethorical figures to make the text not understandable. During the 20th century books became much clearer in their meanings and much easier to read, but those were only studied at the fifth year of high school, until then, students have to study reaaally old boring texts, but that's not what Massimo thought: he thought every old (prior to the 20th century) book that came from the italian peninsula was perfect. He really enjoyed "I Promessi Sposi" while the others were utterly bored and were struggling to even read a page of it.
Finally, the lesson was over and everyone except Massimo screamed of joy, finally returning home. Massimo, as soon as the bell rang, got up and waited for his parents to come to him with their car. He stood still, thinking about how he greatly enjoyed the lessons and how he loved school. He thought that being good at school meant he knew many things, when in reality, he was just repeating everything he read like a parrot. He didn't think critically, he just knew things as they were written on his high school books.
His parents came to take him home with their car. During the way home, Massimo looked out of the car's windows and saw the magnificent italian architecture. It didn't take long for them to arrive home, and when they did, Massimo took his mobile phone to listen to Paganini and Vivaldi on his mobile with his earphones. He loved italian classical music, also he didn't want to listen to copyrighted music without buying it: but nevermind, he didn't like modern music anyway.
His family was having lunch with pasta, and his mom asked him:"How was school today?", he replied:"Awesome! We learnt the 16th chapter of Dante's Inferno! It's amazing mom, Dante was truly a divine writer and the beauty of his book is breath-taking!". Massimo was really happy. His younger sister, Bianca, replied:"It was reaaally boring, I started drawing instead of following the lessons". Massimo was angry because of that, and said:"You shouldn't have done that! You'll never get a job with this attitude and you'll fail at everything! You'll never be successful!". Bianca didn't care about that, it was just Massimo speaking. "Please don't say those bad things to your sister, Massimo!", said his dad. "But dad!", he said, feeling frustrated and angry.
Then, Bianca went watching Netflix.
"I'm sorry for what I said earlier, can I watch TV with you?", asked Massimo.
"Sure! Come here!", said Bianca.Massimo sat on the couch and Bianca gave him a lovely hug to make him understand she loved him anyway.
"So, what are we going to watch?", asked Massimo.
"Miyoko's Life", said Bianca.
"Okay", said Massimo, thinking it was going to be an innocent anime for kids.
As soon as Massimo said the age requirements to watch the show (15 years or older) he felt worried and said:"But, Bianca, you're only 13, you can't watch this!".
"Shut up!", said Bianca, slightly annoyed by Massimo's predictable moral policy.
"Okay, I'll keep a blind eye, but only for this show, okay!", said Massimo, feeling very humiliated by the lack of respect towards him.
First episode: "back to school"
Massimo looked at the title and was not very worried about what was going to happen in the show.
The anime begins...
...
It was a rather clear day, when a saiyan girl named Miyoko was awoken by the alarm of her holophone. Her hair was very messy.
"I'm so excited about today!", she said, going in the shower feeling the pleasantly hot water around her. She then used her blow drier to dry her hair so she was ready for school.
She was at the senior year of a high school called Okara High.
Miyoko went downstairs and her mother Haruna and her father Shinji were waiting for her along Kiko (Miyoko's younger sister who was starting her first day of middle school).
"I'm sorry, I'm late", said Kiko.
"It's fine, sweetie", said Shinji while getting up from the couch with Haruna, who hugged both of her daughters saying she was proud of them.
Seeing Haruna crying, Miyoko said:"Come on mom, we aren't going to war!"
Shinji took them to school: the first step was Tokidoki Middle School where Kiko went.
"I can't wait to see my best friend Yuna!", said Kiko, excited.
"Yeah, you two are like sisters!", said Miyoko, laughing.
"I have to go now, but I love you all", said Kiko before walking to school. Yuna was waiting for Kiko at the front door. Kiko then turned around and waved her hand at their family, which did the same in return.
Then they drove Miyoko to her school. They got out of their car and hugged Miyoko so tightly she released a small bassy fart.
PRRRFFFTTT
...
Massimo was shocked at what happened in the anime.
"It's DISGUSTING! How can you watch something like this?", asked Massimo to her sister.
"Calm down it's just a fart", said Bianca, secretly enjoying it.
...
"Hehe excuse me", said Miyoko and everyone was laughing friendly.
Miyoko saw her friends Hukura and Yuki and hugged them both.
"You almost squished us to death!", said Hukura while picking up her backpack.
The three friends walked into the school and they saw it was filled with people, giving them a bit of anxiety.
"GETTING TO OUR CLASSES IS GONNA BE A NIGHTMARE!", shouted Yuki among the loud crowd.
"Hey guys I got an idea!", said Miyoko with a devilish smile on her face.
PRRRFFFBBBRRRTTT
Miyoko released a toxic smelling fart that cleared this large group of people.
...
"It's much more than disgusting, Bianca, this is the nastiest cartoon I've ever seen! Yuck!", said Massimo, heavily annoyed by Miyoko's flatulence.
"You have an old mentality, be more modern, it's just a fart they're not doing anything wrong!", said Bianca, not understanding what was wrong with farts.
"You shouldn't watch this, it's diseducative!", said Massimo.
"Why? I'm old enough to understand it's just an anime, it's fiction, also I fart in private, you know", said Bianca, trying to reassure his brother.
"Are you sure you're not gonna copy them?", asked Massimo.
"Don't worry", said Bianca, smiling.
...
All the people everywhere started coughing like chain smokers and Miyoko and her friends got into their math class.
"Seriously, Miyoko, how do you do that?", asked Hukura, curiously.
"Oh usually whatever's in my kitchen - especially ramen noodles - don't agree with my stomach and let's hope this year will be just as smelly!", said Miyoko, giggling.
...
Massimo was mind-blown: how can an anime like that ever exist?
"It's by far the worst thing I've ever seen! How can such a cute girl take pride about... the stench of her farts? I don't understand what they have smoked to make this anime, seriously!", said Massimo, starting to get angry at the modern world. He wanted to live before the 20th century because he couldn't stand the "freedom" of this disgusting modern world that's now allowing everything. Massimo thought the world needed more rules and a stricter etiquette, because he couldn't stand these disgusting things anymore.
"Come on... I think it's really funny!", said Bianca, laughing.
It was the first time Bianca was watching Miyoko's life but she knew that there was going to be lot of farting in there judging by the trailer and the description.
...
The school lesson was really boring, but Miyoko was a good student and she wanted to get a job so she decided to follow the lesson anyway. While the teacher was explaining analysis Miyoko's stomach was gurgling and everyone who heard it were getting a bit scared about what was going to happen.
The teacher gave everyone some math problems to solve but many students were getting difficulty doing that.
"Sit near Miyoko, she's going to help you as she's the best math student in this class", said the teacher, inviting anyone to sit near her.
A brave boy sat near her but as soon as he heard Miyoko's stomach's noise he was a bit scared for his nose. He didn't know how bad Miyoko's farts could smell so he greatly underestimated the situation he was put in.
"You have to do this, basically", said Miyoko, trying to explain how to calculate the values of that function.
Miyoko knew she couldn't hold her gas anymore so she finally let it out, without giving any warning.
PRRRSSSFFFTTT
It was a very loud and very smelly fart and they had to evacuate the classroom because nobody could endure the rotten vegetable stench that permeated the classroom.
"MIYOKO!!!", said the teacher covering her nose trying not to suffer too much from the annoying irritating fumes that came out of Miyoko's butt.
Everyone panicked at ran away from the room, finally being able to breathe some fresh air.
"Miyoko! You're nasty!", said Hukura, giggling and giving her a high five, proud of her.
They tried to ventilate the classroom but it was useless: the smell was too much for the students to take. Miyoko was proud of herself but there was a group of boys who were laughing at her. She ignored them and everbody went outside to do the math lesson. The sky was clear blue and there were no signs of incoming rain so they relaxed a bit and were happy. Miyoko lied on the grass and looked at the sky, knowing that first day of school was amazing and hoping the entire year will be as smelly as today.
"You know, Hukura... I like maths, it makes me feel smart", said Miyoko smiling.
"I don't know how to feel, Miyoko, should I be happy?", asked Hukura.
Miyoko was confused about why Hukura asked this.
"Sure", said Miyoko.
"Then why do I feel so sad?", asked Hukura.
"What's wrong?", asked Miyoko, hugging her.
"I don't know, I don't like growing up, it's horrible" said Hukura, crying.
...
Massimo was about to cry but didn't want to be seen by Bianca. This scene combined with a melancholic music really hit Massimo deep in his heart. Still, he didn't want to cry watching an anime about farting girls. Bianca was feeling empathy with Hukura but wasn't about to cry.
...
"Don't worry Hukura, it's okay, we'll always play together no matter what, yes, we'll play a lot together", said Miyoko, smiling, and the music became more sentimental.
...
Massimo couldn't hold his tears anymore and went to his bedroom to cry.
"Something's wrong?", asked Bianca.
"I think I have the flu", said Massimo, blowing his nose and letting go his tears.
7 minutes later, he came back and continued watching the anime.
...
The math lesson was over and they started studying literature. Miyoko thought that the book was boring because there was no farting in it, so she refused to keep reading it: because a book without farts is not a book in her opinion. She prefers maths but she still followed (albeit lazily) the lesson about literature. She didn't find it interesting but she still wanted to get a job.
Finally, even the literature lesson was over and Miyoko was drawing a girl. The girl who was drawn was really cute but it needed some time to get coloured and finished. Finally, it was lunch break and Miyoko ordered 5 cheeseburgers and a plate of beans.
"You know these are going to make your butt dangerous for our noses", said Yuki, worried about other people's nasal health.
"Don't worry, they're going to get used to the smell, they want it or not!", said Miyoko, giggling and thinking about the reaction of other people to her farts.
Miyoko, Hukura and Yuki were all eating together but Miyoko was the one who was eating the most, being a saiyan she had increased appetite and was a bit stronger than other girls. Also her farts were ridicolously smelly but not as smelly as her mom's Haruna which were downright rancid. Haruna has cleared out small markets full of people before Miyoko always says that even though her family is used to Haruna's farts, a normal person would probably throw up after smelling a fart from Haruna.
Everything was okay that day but during lunch break, the same group of boys were still laughing at Miyoko, making her feel embarrassed and angry.
"Look who's there! The girl who can't hold in her farts!", said a guy, laughing evilly and mocking her.
Miyoko was getting really irritated by his behaviour but decided to ignore him, until he mocked her again mercilessly and also insulting her. Miyoko's anger exploded but she decided to appear calm anyway.
"Hukura, Yuki, we know what we should do", said Miyoko with a revenge plan in mind.
Hukura and Yuki went near the bullies, who were not fearing a group of cute girls.
"Tsk. You are not worth", said one.
Hukura and Yuki held him down while Miyoko prevented the other two bullies from saving him.
"You nasty...", said the one who was getting held down, before Miyoko sat on his nose.
...
"WHAT? This is sexual! I really don't think you should be watching this, Bianca!", said Massimo, shocked that such a cartoon was even possible to be broadcast.
"I think she's gonna fart", said Bianca, not caring about anything her brother just said.
...
Miyoko sat on the boy's nose and...
PFFFTTT
She let out a noxious smelling fart.
"I WAS JOKING MIYOKO! LET ME GO! IT REALLY SMELLS!", shouted the boy in fear.
"What about no?", said Miyoko, giggling and waiting for another fart to be ready to be unleashed on this boy's face.
...
"This is really diseducative! It teaches girls it's okay to torture people with their farts!", said Massimo, hugely disappointed.
"You can't do that in real life for many reasons: first, farts aren't stinky enough to torture people, second, you can't really fart on command, so it's impossible to do such a thing in real life. Many other cartoons contain fighting and violence but you don't seem to mind. Also, you're taking this anime way more seriously than it was supposed to be", said Bianca, pausing the stream.
"I guess you're right, but it's still disgusting, I mean, farting on other people's face? That's plain wrong!", said Massimo.
"It's just fiction, it's not meant to be done in real life", said Bianca.
"I don't understand why people watch this stupid thing", said Massimo.
"Because it's hilarious!" - "If you say so..."
...
Miyoko kept sitting on the boy's nose and the awful stench of her last fart was still there. She felt a fart incoming and didn't even wait to unleash this annoying stink bomb right on the poor boy's nose.
PSSSFFFTTT
The boy didn't want to breathe anymore, his eyes were watering and the smell was so pungent he could taste it and felt like it went right into his lungs, feeling them burning.
"Okay girls, I think he learned his lesson", said Miyoko, standing up and leaving the boy gagging and squirming on the floor. This chemical bitterness was way smellier than what he could tolerate.
The smell was so nasty, the entire lunch room was filled with irritating gases coming from Miyoko's butt, making them cough as they inhaled the fumes.
Everyone went away, annoyed by the rancid smell and silently cursing Miyoko for turning that large room into a toxic sewer.
"Everyone likes you!", said Yuki, overly optimistic.
"Yeah I think that too", said Miyoko, smiling.
The school was over, and everyone returned home.
Miyoko was waiting for her parents to take her home and she saw their car. She went into the car and his dad Shinji asked her:"How was your first day of school?".
"Smelly", said Miyoko, grinning. Everyone laughed and Kiko said:"Mine was awesome, people are really friendly at Tokidoki Middle School, especially Yuna".
Kiko had an amazed face, if she were an emoji, she would be the face with heart shaped eyes.
At Okara High School people have been mostly friendly but there were some people who used to mock at people, but now not anymore thanks to Miyoko.
Everyone was having lunch with rice and ramen noodles and they were having great quality time with their family.
Miyoko ate lots of ramen and found it delicious. Her parents were used to her eating that much. Despite Miyoko eating a lot, she is not overweight.
After eating, Miyoko and Kiko went playing outside and talking.
"Let's put some music", said Miyoko, using a couple of headphones for herself and for her sister Kiko and listening to some epic russian power-folk metal.
They started dancing in their garden, not caring about some people who might have seen them.
They were really happy and they hoped they would have a really good time during their years of school.
They were singing the approximate lyrics of the epic song they were listening to.
The riffs were very strong but still retained nice folk melodies and the vocals had a mix between female clean vocals and male growling, the song was so epic it was impossible for them to stop listening to it.
They kept doing a funny dance while thinking about knights defeating dragons and trolls with their shields and swords in the siberian taiga. They were running and jumping a lot with plenty of energy due to the food's caloric intake and the power of that song. In Miyoko's imagination, she was farting on some goblins making them run away in fear. The funny dance was getting more coordinated in their movements and was like an actual dance, with Kiko and Miyoko doing mostly the same things ans giving each other a high five each time the main chorus ended. They were feeling really good and wished this moment would never stop.
After 2 hours of intense dancing, they lied down on the grass and closed their eyes, exhausted and sweating. They were happy.
As soon as they regained their energies, they went back home and took a shower: first Miyoko then Kiko.
"What should we do now?", asked Kiko, worried that nothing could match the epicness of what they've done.
"Nothing, I'm exhausted", said Miyoko.
Kiko hugged Miyoko and stayed like that for more than a minute, then let go.
"Thanks", said Miyoko, smiling, happy that her own sister loved her and was not in a unaffectionate family where hugs are banned and everybody yells constantly. Miyoko was grateful for all the things she had and didn't need anything more than a family who loved her. (A melancholic music started playing but Massimo was not about to cry, he was fine).
"I love being with you", said Miyoko, hugging Kiko.
Kiko caressed Miyoko's head and said:"Everyone in the world should love each other".
Miyoko was very happy because of Kiko's kindness but honestly, Miyoko liked the reactions of people to her farts so she knew she wasn't as kind as Kiko but she was still a good person in her own opinion.
Miyoko was exhausted, she didn't have the force to do anything anymore, so they all watched tv and hoped there was something interesting in there. The shows looked mostly boring and they were not interested in watching any. Miyoko slept on the couch and snored loudly, Kiko was giggling because of it and decided to walk outside.
It was a clear afternoon, and Kiko was walking in her garden alone. Walking alone felt a bit sad to her because she had no one to talk to but she understood that Miyoko was sleeping and there was no need to bother her. Kiko looked at the sky and smiled, knowing how beautiful life was. She sat down and looked at the other houses, wondering what were other people thought about their lives and whether they were happy or not.
It was time for dinner and everyone was eating, especially Miyoko, who drank carbonated beverages and let out a huge burp.
UOOOOOOPPP!!!
Kiko was giggling and complimented to her sister.
"You don't want me to do the other thing, right?", rethorically asked Miyoko, laughing.
"No! We're eating!", said Shinji, laughing as well.
The dinner tasted awesome and Miyoko and Kiko decided to play some videogames.
They played a fighting game and Miyoko was winning almost every match. Only thrice did Kiko win.
They decided to go to sleep, but they were still chatting about school and how awesome their day was.
"Today has been an awesome day and I hope every day will be like this! Miyoko... will you always keep me company during these years? Will you have some free time from your studies? I hope I won't feel alone, sure, there is Yuna, but I can't chat much when I'm at school", said Kiko.
"Sure sister, I'll always be here for you", said Miyoko.
Kiko smiled and thanked her.
Everything was going to be fine, sure, school can be very annoying, but you find a lot of friends in there and they both knew that. Kiko sighed.
"What's wrong?", asked Miyoko.
Kiko blushed and said:"Oh, nothing, I was just thinking" - "About what?" - "We're growing up, Miyoko, are you sure we're going to stay together forever?"
Miyoko's face changed expression, she didn't know if they were going to stay like that "forever".
"S-sure!", said Miyoko, nervously.
Kiko smiled lightly and didn't talk anymore. She was really happy for the moment but she was starting to get worried about her future. Sure, she was grateful to have been blessed by a gift called life, just like Miyoko.
Miyoko already drifted to sleep while Kiko was awake but thinking peacefully about the good things of her life.
Kiko was waiting for sleep to tenderly embrace her, as she slowly felt relaxed with a smile on her face. She calmly slept and waited for another good day to come. (Some nice and melancholic post-rock music started playing and Massimo was feeling weird).
Haruna and Shinji were sleeping together, and the night was calm and clear.
The post-rock music kept playing while the anime was showing the beautiful thoughts Kiko was imagining while asleep. All of her memories were the good and the bad aspects of life that everyone gets through.
It was morning and Miyoko and Kiko were awoken by their alarms. Miyoko punched her alarm and said:"Good morning Kiko", smiling.
Kiko yawned and so did Miyoko. They hugged each other for 32 seconds and then they had to have breakfast with rice, bread, milk and fruit.
"Wow! Such an abundant breakfast! Looks good!", said Miyoko, very happy as always, eating a lot.
Miyoko and Kiko ate their breakfast and they were happy to eat all of that. They spent some time together before they had to go to school.
"I hope today's going to be as good as yesterday", said Kiko, feeling a lot of joy.
"I hope today will be even smellier than yesterday!", said Miyoko, grinning and giggling.
"Why? What happened?", asked Kiko.
"I just farted", said Miyoko, serious and proud of herself.
...
The episode was over, and Netflix suggested to watch the second episode:"The Mysterious New Girl".
"Do you want to watch another one?", asked Bianca.
"Of course not! It's the most disgusting cartoon I've ever seen! I'll go to my room now", said Massimo, going to his room, sighing and feeling sad. Even though this cartoon was really atrocious for him, he couldn't help feeling sad after seeing how the characters were happy in that show. He knew it was fiction but, somehow, he wished life were that good. Instead, he's surrounded by unfriendly people who are also badly behaved. He was a rather solitary boy and didn't need friends to be happy, but seeing how people were happy in that cartoon made him consider changing his mind. He asked himself if he really wanted to stay alone. He really enjoyed studying all day but somehow the thought of having new friends tempted him. It was like a dilemma, a choice he had to do, but eventually understood that if he had friends he wouldn't excel at school anymore so he didn't want to have any friends.
In the meanwhile, Bianca was binge-watching Miyoko's Life and eventually watched all 13 episodes of the first season. She greatly enjoyed the show, but because the show was over, she was feeling a bit empty within her soul. She was feeling the typical emotion of when people finish watching all the episodes of something or beating a videogame: there's a slightly unpleasant feeling of emptiness that burns inside. She needed to watch something else but couldn't find anything interesting to watch. She kept calm and started drawing on her computer. She decided the emotion she was feeling wasn't right and kept drawing. She then decided to draw Miyoko, so she put an image of her on the Internet and copied her on a piece of paper. She was starting to feel better but she really wanted to see the second season which was still in early production. She smiled and felt better. Miyoko's Life is, in her opinion, the best cartoon ever.
In the meanwhile, Massimo was studying maths: he was learning the cartesian space and the relationship between functions and geometry. He found it really interesting and gave him a better understanding of reality. Everything can be explained through maths and physics, and loneliness is a mere arranging of molecules in the human brain, and so are sadness and love. We are nothing but a result of supernova explosions, which produced carbon, and so life. We are only considered living beings because we are born, reproduce and then die. We only suffer when given dangerous stimuli because we are programmed to stay alive and maintain our species, but for what purpose? What is our final goal? Life doesn't make sense but yet, we seek pleasure constantly. Does that mean one should enjoy life? If that's the case, why are people unneccesarily mean? Isn't life made for us to enjoy and help others enjoy it? Pleasure is only the result of serotonin and dopamine being released in our brain, which is just atoms being arranged differently, yet it feels good enough to keep living.
Massimo decided that the rules are there for a reason, otherwise people would kill each other, but he also decided to give his classmates a chance: after two years of high school, he decides he'll talk with them and make them happy, starting from tomorrow. It was hilarious for him to think that a cartoon about farts made him change his personality so drastically, but it was the truth. Nothing made sense anymore, so why not making other people happy? There was nothing to be lost.
He kept studying maths and kept thinking about life. He was feeling in harmony with the universe.
Bianca was feeling calm and serene: she had watched her favourite anime ever but she still wanted more. She decided she'd wait calmly until the second season came. She drew Miyoko and Kiko on her exercise book and decided she'll always take them with her at school. The thought of having Miyoko and Kiko with her made her feel much better.
It was already dinner time, and they were eating soup with meat and vegetables. Bianca looked sad but she just wanted to see the second season of Miyoko's Life as soon as possible.
"Is there something wrong?", asked Massimo to her sister.
"No, nothing", said Bianca. Massimo believed her.
There was an awkward silence in the family so their mom started talking friendly.
"So, I was thinking, do you two want to go to the cinema?", she asked.
"I only want to see Miyoko's Life now", said Bianca.
"Is that a movie?", asked her mom.
"It's a japanese cartoon, I've watched all the episodes but now I feel empty", said Bianca, with a disappointed expression.
"It happens to me when I finish reading a very long and very good book", said her mom.
"How can I feel better?", asked Bianca.
"Watch something else" - "But Miyoko's Life is unique! There's nothing else that can match its epicness!" - "Browse Netflix catalog" - "Already did, I would end up depressed if I watched something else"
Massimo didn't talk. He wasn't the type to watch TV, he preferred reading medieval literature, he found it pure and interesting, unlike modern TV shows. Bianca was the opposite: she hated old books and loved watching cartoons, but now that she watched Miyoko's Life she didn't want to watch anything else. She didn't know what to do but still decided she'd wait.
"Watch it again, or else, there should be something else you would like", suggested her mom.
"I'll watch it again, even though I'll be sad", said Bianca.
"Why?" - "Because I've already watched it" - "Don't you listen to the same songs over and over again?" - "Yes, but that's different"
Bianca tried to smile because she was told she would feel happy, but then she understood that was a logical fallacy, because if A causes B, B doesn't necessarily causes A.
So smiling doesn't cause happiness, that makes no sense. Bianca went to sleep early: 8 P.M. because she wasn't feeling happy and this day didn't feel worth of being continued. She wondered how she would be able to tolerate such an emotion. Granted, it happened to her before, but the last times she watched something else. This time she didn't want to watch anything else because she felt like nothing else could have been as good as Miyoko's Life.
"Maybe I need a friend", she thought. As expected, she had no real friends, and that, unlike her brother, made her feel lonely, although she was pretty much used to it.
She hugged her pillow imagining it was a cute boy and slept.
Even Massimo went to sleep because tomorrow will be tuesday and there will be two hours of philosophy, which Massimo really loved. Massimo loved knowing everything the school wanted him to know, he felt very wise and literate, but unfortunately he only knew the things he has learned at school and nothing else. Bianca, on the other hand, knew a lot in fact of modern entertainment between videogames, music and cartoons. She didn't care about school at all, in fact she got plenty of failing tests, but still she never repeated a year because she studies some days before the test.
It was a tuesday morning, and Massimo and Bianca went to school. Massimo was feeling hopeful, because he could finally test his own abilities about making friends. He watched outside the car's windows and saw everything as wonderful. He arrived at school at 8:15 P.M. and didn't say anything about people arriving 8 minutes late. He greeted everyone warmly waving his hands and saying hi but the responses were underwhelming.
He wanted to make new friends but others didn't agree. He sat on his chair near before his desk and waited for the philosophy lesson to begin. They were studying Socrates, and Massimo thought it was really interesting, while nobody else cared about Socrates if not for getting a sufficient test result. Massimo was probably the only one in the class who loved every scholastic subject. He loved everything, from philosophy to physics and even gym. He simply loved going to school and everyday was an adventure to him.
Everyone was getting bored at the philosophy lesson but not Massimo, who was gladly taking notes about it. He thought that most people loved studying at least one subject, and that everyone had something he could talk about with them: he just had to find the right topic. He was so excited at the thought of making new friends that he almost forgot to take some notes. Luckily, he was alert enough not to forget anything. He was feeling really good and hopeful.
The first hour of philosophy was over and everyone except Massimo was exhausted and silently begging for mercy, but Massimo didn't get it and kept listening to the teacher, who was satisfied in knowing there was one person who was interested in the lesson. Preparing a lesson to be taught is far from an easy task. Massimo was feeling an energy that nobody else in the classroom was feeling. His classmates' energies were all deplenished and only physical education could make them feeling energic again, which luckily was at the last two hours of school after the 15 minute break along with thursday.
But now philosophy never seemed to end, it was like 20 minutes before it would end but it felt already like an eternity. Massimo wasn't sad that the hour was about to end because whenever he's at school, he's happy. He doesn't care what they do at school, as long as there was lesson he was happy. Whenever a teacher wasn't at school he was sad while every other felt like being in a party. Massimo was waiting for the bell to ring so that he could make some new friends and be even happier at last: school is also there for making new friends and Massimo knew it even though he ignored this fact until now.
"I wonder when the bell will ring", thought Massimo, not wanting to check his phone because checking his phone would have been against the rules. The philosophy lesson was over and the teacher gave the students 5 minutes of pause. Everyone was chatting loudly and Massimo thought he could join someone, then the bell rang and Massimo had 15 minutes to make at least one new friend.
The break has begun, and Massimo went near two girls who were talking with each other.
"Did you know that Fabrizio likes smelling girls' feet? He told me not to tell anyone", said Giorgia.
Letizia laughed to make fun of him.
"He likes sweaty and smelly feet", said Giorgia.
"Gross! He's not normal at all! Let's ignore him, he doesn't deserve our company!", said Letizia with a disgusted face.
"That's right we'll leave him alone he'll have no friends!", said Giorgia, proud of herself.
Massimo heard the conversation and wanted to join.
"Can I join your conversation?", asked Massimo.
"Sorry, we have to go buy snacks", said Giorgia, starting to walk away.
"Can I come with you?", asked Massimo.
"I'm sorry Massimo, I have to talk to a teacher after I buy snacks", said Giorgia.
Two girls were already not Massimo's friends, but he decided to try with other people. After all, only 86 seconds have passed since the bell rang.
"Does someone want to talk with me?", said Massimo in a loud but calm voice.
Everyone looked at him, weirded out, and then kept looking at their mobiles again. There was no empathy in that class, people were just using their mobile phones watching photos of other people and chatting with people who were not there instead of talking with people who were near, effectively reducing real life communication.
Massimo didn't understand the need of using mobile phones while there were plenty of people to talk with nearby.
"Hello", said Massimo to a classmate.
"Sorry, I'm busy now", he said, while clearly chatting with someone else on his mobile phone.
Massimo tried talking to plenty of classmates but everyone was a failure. Time was over, and another lesson began. He wondered why it was so difficult to make friends. He thought it would have been much easier than this, but perhaps friendship is like gardening, you have to wait and take a lot of care to have a friend.
It was english class. Mrs. Tibelli entered the classroom and everyone ignored her. She hoped Massimo would make the lesson less boring, but today Massimo is sad. The lesson began, it was about the roman conquest of the British Isles.
Today, Massimo is feeling very different than usual: he's not interested in the lesson, as he kept thinking about how hard it is to get some friends. He formerly though he didn't need friends but after seeing Miyoko's Life and how Miyoko and Kiko were happy with their own friends, he reconsidered his loneliness and wanted to feel that joy himself. Studying didn't make him feel pleasure anymore: he needed friends. Unfortunately, Massimo's living in a reality where kindness and empathy are not the normality, so getting new friends will be extremely difficult and he knew it very well. He wanted to live inside Miyoko's Life reality, but they haven't made a VR about it yet.
"Are you feeling unwell, Massimo?", asked Mrs. Tibelli.
"N-no, I'm okay", said Massimo, visibly feeling sad about something.
He still ignored the lesson, which was a very strange thing for him to do. He thought about resting a little bit to calm down before following the lesson again. Unfortunately, he didn't feel good anymore.
"Am I getting depressed?", he thought, trying to follow the lesson, but it was useless, the thought of him having no friends pervaded his reality. He used to ignore it when they told him he had no friends and that nobody wanted him, but now he can't ignore that anymore. He wanted to have a friend but everyone in his class was unfriendly, so he thought about making friends with other people in other classrooms, but how?
He thought it was inappropriate to go to the hallway and talking to random people, so he was thinking about giving up and letting the negativity devour him. He thought that, now that he metaphorically opened his eyes, he can't be happy. He has heard that smartest people are the saddest ones, but that emotion felt sickening. He thought it would be just a phase so he thought just to wait for sadness to go away. Maybe that was the best solution, but he didn't know how long would it have lasted.
At the end of the lesson, Mrs. Tibelli went near Massimo.
"Are you sure there's nothing wrong? You look sad but perhaps I'm wrong", she said.
"I'm okay, thank you", said Massimo, not very convincing.
He didn't want to tell anyone how he was feeling: he would have been judged and made fun of, making him even sadder.
He thought. "I just want a friend, why is it so difficult? Am I asking too much?"
He felt lonely and his soul empty. Mrs. Tibelli said goodbye and then there was physical education.
They warmed up and then did sports. Massimo was moving very slowly. He's usually good at physical education but not today, he's feeling sick.
"Today I can't do it, I'm sorry", said Massimo.
"It's okay, it's obvious you are too tired to do anything, go rest", said the teacher. Massimo's face expressed sadness, but few people pretended to care, and nobody actually cared.
He looked at the other people doing sports. He was bored and wanted to use his mobile phone, but sadly it was against the (often unenforced) rules, so he didn't want to do that. He thought he was really changing his personality but he didn't like it nor he wanted it to happen. He still wanted to be a respecting and well-behaved boy who never broke any rule, but he really wanted to read something about friendship on the Internet. He decided to wait: only 38 minutes left until the end of the lesson and he can finally return home.
Today is a really bad day for him and he just wanted to go home and sleep. Time was passing very slowly and there were still 35 minutes to wait. He started walking in the school's backyard and looked up at the sky like Kiko did. He saw the blue sky, but he thought that was just a normal sight and he didn't feel happy at all. He then understood, that looking at the sky is totally useless if you're sad. He looked at the green grass: the flowers were not in bloom as it was still winter but the cool outside air was making him feel physically good but mentally desolated. There were few people in the backyard and they didn't seem to be interested in being friends with him.
He was alone for all the time, until the bell rang and then he saw everyone happy that school was over for that day. He wished he could feel that happiness, too, but all he felt was a waterfall made of tears that was about to leak from his eyes.
He returned home and his sister Bianca asked him if there was something that made him feel unhappy. Massimo told her it was nothing to worry about and pretended to be okay, forcing a smile. Bianca was watching something on Netflix, because she understood that Miyoko's Life wasn't the only epic show that was available, even though it was definitely the most epic in her opinion. She put the show and asked her brother if he wanted to see the cartoon with her, then he refused.
"It looks like you need a hug", said Bianca, smiling.
"Okay", said Massimo, letting her hug him but not hugging her back. He was feeling better but still far from ideal.
The hug lasted 14 seconds, then Massimo told her:"It's enough", while feeling a bit embarrassed. He likes being hugged but it's still embarrassing for him. Bianca let him go, smiled and asked if he was feeling better. He told her he didn't feel bad in the first place and that he was fine, then he went in his bedroom searching things about friendship on the Internet.
He looked at a very recent article posted on February 1, 2020.
"Friendship is something that is quite difficult to obtain, especially in modern society where many seem to have thousands of followers on social media, posting photos of them having a good time, making others feel insecure and depressed. Even in real life, teenagers might ignore someone in favor of their mobiles, and this is an increasingly common phenomenon. Friendships might be ruined because of this and physical touch (which is healthy) is getting almost non-existent between friends. Not only this, teenagers are ever more often staying in the digital reality and, if the trend continues, they won't meet each other anymore. Loneliness is on the rise and depression has become the number one cause of disability in the western world.
Getting a friend is difficult but not impossible, and going to school, joining clubs and doing sport are good ways to have some chances."
...
Massimo thought about joining a club, but he wasn't interested about anything in particular. The only thing he was interested in was excelling at school, and nothing else mattered to him. After thinking for 11 minutes, he thought he would see a list of clubs in Milan on the Internet, and found a writing club that might interest him. During his 16 years of what he considers a mostly good life, he never wrote a story: only read what what teachers gave the class to read at school. School (at least in Italy) doesn't teach you to be creative, so Massimo wanted to write something but he had a very wrong attitude about that, because he thought that it was useless since nobody would study him at school and nobody would know his writings. He decided he'll join the club just to have some friends. He will say that to his mom very soon.
...
"Loneliness is as harmful as smoking, say experts, who are now sure humans need comfort and support to have a healthy mind", said the article.
Massimo felt sick on his heart, he's spent so much time alone but wanted to be out of this hell. He'll join the writing club next week!
"Bianca, I have to tell you something", said Massimo.
"Okay", said Bianca, smiling.
"I'm thinking about joining a writing club next week, but I have to ask mom" - "Can I join, too? And mom surely will agree with us going there!" - "Sure, you can come, shall we ask mom now?" - "Of course, let's go!"
"Mom!", shouted Massimo and Bianca together. They were both excited for the writing club.
"What's up?", she said, smiling gently.
"Me and Bianca want to join a club!", said Massimo.
"That's good. What is this club about?", she asked.
"Oh, it's about the members writing stories", said Massimo.
"That's good. I'll sign you in next monday", she said.
Bianca screamed from the joy while Massimo was much more passive. He felt more hopeful than happy. He didn't want sadness to catch him off guard again. He was excited about the club but he didn't want to hype too much and decided to stidy like this never happened. He spent the entire next part of the day studying as always, feeling much better because he thought he was going to get new friends.
They were all eating dinner in family and Massimo felt bittersweet: he managed to study like he always did, but he didn't know he would feel at school tomorrow, it was unknown to him but he felt better than this morning now. Having his rude classmates as friends didn't interest him anymore: he wanted kind friends.
After eating, Massimo studied some more, thought about what happened today and then went to sleep. He thought many things would happen tomorrow. He slept peacefully and woke up at 5:15 A.M. but decided to stay in bed until 6:00 A.M. and then he would have breakfast eating a toast. While he was in bed, he knew he had not to be excited for the club today, as it would sway his attention away from the lesson. He still wanted to excel at school so things like what he did yesterday should not be repeated no matter what. He decided to give up considering his classmates as potential friends and wait until the club. But then he thought about something to ask his sister when she'll get up: he thought about asking her if she knew any person who likes Miyoko's Life and if she's friends with them. This way, he speculated that if two people have an interest in common, it will be easier for them to be friends. He thought it was relatively simple but reality was so different from his imagination and he didn't know that.
It was 6:00 A.M. and Massimo got up while Bianca was still sleeping in her bedroom. He cooked a toast, ate it and enjoyed the temporary darkness that matched his emotions. Even though it's dark now, the sun will rise and he'll be happy.
His parents got up and greeted him. Massimo decided not to let his emotions affect him again and to be emotionally cold and distant like always. He thought not expressing his emotions was the best thing he could do, because emotions can be really damaging sometimes in his opinion.
He greeted his parents coldly like every morning except yesterday. Everything was back to normal, or at least that's what he was hoping for. He listened to classical music and felt nothing. "Perfect", he thought, coldly. At 7:00 A.M. bianca came to the kitchen and greeted everyone with a warm hello, smiling.
"Bianca, do you know anyone who likes the anime Miyoko's Life?", asked Massimo.
"No", she answered.
"Nevermind", he replied.
There was an awkward silence in the kitchen, Massimo was really back to normal, yesterday was just a moment to weakness that may happen to anyone, but now he's an emotional shield again. He was impassible as always, no emotion could break him again!
They started going to school and before entering their car Bianca hugged Massimo but he felt no joy, and not feeling joy or any other emotion was what he wanted.
"Now I'm safe", he thought, mantaining a neutral expression. He wasn't sad anymore.
He entered class at 8:15 A.M. and the latest person who entered was only 4 minutes late today, but Massimo didn't care about this improvement.
"Are you happy, Massimo?", asked that person who arrived 4 minutes late, knowing no one else will come in as the class was strangely complete (it's extremely uncommon to have all students in a class at a certain day).
"I don't feel anything", he said, coldly.
The person was slighy weirded out by his answer but still sat down.
The math teacher, Mrs. Dicci, entered the classroom, and many people were still using their smartphones, but Massimo just thought it was wrong, he didn't even feel anger anymore. He was totally safe from negative emotions.
The teacher gave them a math problem to solve and while every other didn't even know where to begin, Massimo solved the problem in just 86 seconds and gave it to the teacher, who was totally mind-blown.
"It's... correct...", she said.
Massimo kept a neutral expression, he felt no happiness, he just thought excelling at school was his duty.
His classmates felt angry and envious, how was such a thing even possible?
Mrs. Dicci asked Massimo if he wanted another math problem to solve and he said yes.
This one was extremely difficult but Massimo still managed to solve it in under two minutes. It was correct.
"How is this possible?", said the teacher, shocked and looking emptily at her desk.
"I don't let anxiety ruin my skills like others do", said Massimo, slowly walking to his chair and sitting down doodling.
It was lunch break, and he passed all that time alone like always. He felt nothing, thought about nothing, and did nothing. It was exactly what he wanted, but isn't this like being dead? He decided to do a compromise: not feeling emotions but being productive and thinking a lot, so he started writing a short story of about 200 words long for the club. He thought it was horrible but didn't care as long as he had some material for the club to read. He didn't care for it to be like Dante or Machiavelli, it would have been impossible to reach their levels so he kept a low, colloquial and simple style not even considering an in-between. The story was ready and the lesson was there again.
It was the Dante's Inferno lesson (yes, there is a school subject only for this in Italy even in real life), and he thought it was awesome, but he knew he could never reach those levels, but decided to write anyway, without feeling embarrassed because he knew it was normal not to have writing skills, especially if you've never written before.
Massimo understood every metaphor, even the most obscure one, and was ready for a written exam, speaking of which, there will be one tomorrow about medieval history and everyone was anxious but Massimo wasn't. Without feeling any emotion, his brain was double as efficient as the ones who were constantly subjugated by their emotions. He liked it, but didn't feel happy of course. He was totally focused on the lesson without even thinking about something else: he only had the lesson in his mind.
Then, they all returned home, and Massimo kept a neutral face as always.
"It looks like you don't feel sad anymore", said Bianca while in the kitchen.
"I don't feel any emotion anymore", said Massimo.
"I don't like it", said Bianca, a bit worried about him.
"I don't care", he replied.
"Are you sure you don't even feel happiness?", said Bianca, hugging him.
"I feel nothing, but that is a good thing, without my emotions I can focus more about school. I'm not suffering the slightest inconvenience from it", said Massimo.
"I know what will make you feel something!", said Bianca.
PRRRFFFTTT
She let out a huge fart that was supposed to make him laugh, but he didn't even move a muscle.
"Ohh come on, that was hilarious!", she said, before a strong smell of rotten carbohydrates spread around the room.
"Wow it stinks!!!", she said, with a disgusted face and fanning the air around her, but Massimo's expression was always the same.
"Are you okay?", she asked, worried.
"I feel neither happy nor sad. I don't feel fear, anxiety, joy, curiosity, relaxation or anything se. Deal with it", he said, while slowly walking to his bedroom to test his new studying skills.
He noticed he was now studying twice as fast, and he liked it, but he wasn't feeling happy. He wanted to feel some joy, but that meant he couldn't be as efficient anymore. It was a difficult dilemma, he had to choose between emotions and efficiency, but he then decided that emotions can be good or bad, while efficiency is only good, so he chose efficiency and said goodbye to his emotions.
He studied twice as much as usual since he studies for the entire day, anyway. It was time for dinner.
He kept silent and his family's attempts to talk to him were mostly useless.
"So, Massimo, how has your day been?", asked his mom.
"Normal", he replied, coldly.
His mom smiled and then talked to Bianca.
"What about yours?", she asked.
"It was boring, but I'm so happy I'll join the writing club in 5 days and I'm sure Massimo is happy, too!", said Bianca, trying to tease him to make him feel something again.
Massimo didn't react to Bianca's provocation: he knew he won't feel anything anymore and that was fine. It had many benefits on his mental capacities and he didn't want to feel emotions anymore. Sadness is horrible and happiness is over-rated. He didn't understand why people seeked happiness all the time when it made them less productive and less useful for the society. Massimo was ambitious and tried to excel as much as possible.
He didn't care about the writing club anymore but still decided to go there because why not? After studying all day he went into bed and fell asleep very quickly without all the emotions previously haunting him.
It was a dreamless deep sleep and he woke up feeling nothing. He wasn't surprised as he remember what happened the day before: he decided not to feel any emotion again and he got better at everything which required mental skills.
He got up at 4:55 A.M. and cooked a toast. He didn't feel excessive hunger anymore, he tried to ate exactly 2000 kcal a day by calculating everything. He didn't eat snacks anymore and balanced carbohydrates, fats and proteins the right way to have a healthy diet. He strived for perfection and he was getting it.
It was a very long morning, but Massimo wasn't feeling lonely anymore, as he didn't need company anymore. It was a neutral thing for him that he returned back to normality plus a bonus. He just didn't care, he accepted things the way they were.
It was a very empty morning, it was like Massimo's brainwaves didn't exist anymore other than keeping the heart beating and surviving.
After three long hours, Bianca got up, hugged him and whispered in his ears:"I don't like your new personality, please, return back to normal before it's too late".
But Massimo felt no empathy, so he didn't care.
"I have to be the best at school, Bianca, so I'm not sorry and I won't be back to normal anymore", said Massimo.
Bianca went back to her room and cried.
"I'm ready", said Massimo, going to their car and then going to school.
The exam about medieval history will be at the second hour, after physical education.
Massimo noticed he could now run much faster and jump much higher than before. His lack of emotions made him physically stronger, too! He scored high at soccer to the point people were thinking he was taking doping medication. They checked his blood but no sign of doping was revealed.
Second hour: exam of medieval history. After 22 minutes, he completed the test and gave it to the teacher, going to the school backyard looking at the plants. He still felt nothing.
After school, all of Massimo's teachers talked with each other and discussed about Massimo's increased capabities.
"This is something unbelievable, Massimo was already known for being a genius, but now it's simply super-human!", said the math teacher.
"He's gotten very skilled at a physical level, too!", said the p.e. teacher.
Massimo returned home and Bianca hugged him, crying.
"You're wetting my shirt", said Massimo.
"DOES THIS ANNOY YOU?", shouted Bianca, still crying.
Massimo felt a knot in his throat. Was he feeling an emotion? He tried to repress it but it was useless. His eyes were getting wet and started lacrimating.
"I'm really sorry", said Massimo, bursting into tears. He felt angry, sad, happy and hopeful at the time. Angry at his sister, because she made him lose his new abilities, sad because he was crying, happy he could feel emotions again and hopeful to get new friends at that writing club.
Bianca and Massimo started smiling and their faces were still red with tears. They kept hugging for 3 minutes and 45 seconds, then they felt much better, relaxed and pleased.
"I'm glad your emotions are back", said Bianca.
"I'm not glad. Now I can't study that much anymore, and sadness will haunt me again", said Massimo.
"Don't worry brother, sadness is just a part of life, everyone experiences it, and whenever you're sad, just tell me and I'll try to make you feel better", said Bianca, smiling and hugging him again.
It was a heart-warming moment for both, Massimo felt loved and it was an awesome feeling. He didn't fear sadness anymore, and didn't care about having double mental skills, he excels at school anyway so what's the problem? One can't have infinite efficiency, so the limit has been set and it's good enough for him.
The next days he returned to his normal abilities at school and was happy of it. His teachers were slightly disappointed but seeing him happy made them happy, too.
He didn't solve math problems at an unbelievable speed anymore but he was still the best of his class, and he was happy of that.
He returned home and hugged Bianca.
"Let's watch all episodes of Miyoko's Life!", said Massimo. Bianca was so happy and she agreed. Then Massimo remembered how flatulence was common in that anime, but now, instead of getting angry and disgusted, he bursted to laughs everytime a girl farted on someone's face.
"I'm happy to be with you, bro", said Bianca, putting her arm around Massimo's neck.
Even though Massimo had no friends yet and everyone in his class ignored him, he didn't care anymore.
Disclaimer: most of the characters depicted in the fictional show "Miyoko's Life" belong to KaijuMaster107. Go read his stories if you want, they're awesome!