Hello there, I'm writing a story named "P.R.I.S.M." Sadly you can read it nowhere else. But I recommend reading it in the pdf format here, I included some logos for better understanding. Synopsis: Dive headfirst into a timeline where the world has finally accepted the virtual as nothing less than the real. From A.I. puppies to zero-fatality warfare, the possibilities have been stretched far and wide all thanks to seamless virtualization. In this seemingly convenient world, our protagonist Kurokawa Ryuu has managed to find him in a rather inconvenient situation. Or maybe the world is not so convenient as it seems. "There's something wrong," we might say. But where and what exactly is this something? Follow our protagonist curse and hack through his fate as he doubts his meaning of life. Genre: School/College, Military, Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Psychological Table of Contents: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 2.5
DIVE-1I was out at the balcony stargazing in the pitch black. Only vesper poked a hole through the overwhelming light pollution. The city lights danced from red to blue as they were the heirs to the twinkling stars. Skyscrapers no longer scraped the skies but pierced it instead. I swapped a glance at my phone, waiting out the ETA of my pizza delivery. Few minutes later the delivery drone came with my pizza. I checked the pizza if it was intact; you could never trust these drones. They often dropped packages from 3 storeys’ height. Confirming the topping was on the pizza and not on the lid of the box, I waved my hand in mid-air and a HUD appeared in front of me. I searched for my wallet there to pay for the pizza. But there were so many things in the panel; from music to coding programmes aside from my wallet that I often used to wish this thing to have a search option already. After a thorough search, I finally found my wallet, only to find it, “Empty…” Talk about irony of fate. I faced the drone and told it to wait for a while. So I stuck my head outside door at the back of my room and called out for, “Kenichi!” “What is it this time?” He asked from the kitchen. “Pizza-money, please,” “Again?” He had a canned coffee in one hand as he barged in. Kenichi was one of my siblings even though we had almost nothing in common. He had jet black hair in contrast to mine being silver white and his sapphire blue eyes against my pacific blue ones. “How many times does it make me paying for your pizzas?” he asked. But I figured the question was better left unanswered. He handed me the can before he slid open a panel similar to mine. He opened his wallet and looked back at me. “How much is the pizza?” he asked. “Seven hundred yen,” I said. After a bit of fidgeting he put his hand through the panel and had glowing semitransparent cash in his hand when he pulled it out. Given how easily he agreed to pay, the part where he clicked his tongue afterwards was seemingly confusing to me. He stopped by the door before leaving my room, “Bring that to the dining table; no way you’re that alone.” “Of course,” I smiled. And so I, too went to join the rest of family to the table. Well the rest of my family didn’t include so many. There was father, who rarely showed up due to his work and there was Aya, my little sister. But Aya was barely my little sister. Not because she bore comparatively more than more resemblance to Kenichi but because of her being just a year apart by birth. She always acted like we were the same age. She was on the couch eating popcorn. A floating panel around her eyes and ears that read, “Call me when dinner’s ready.” Probably watching a film, I guessed. One was practically blind and deaf while doing while watching in-depth films. So Kenichi picked out a shiitake among the pizza toppings and forced it into her mouth before she could put the next batch of popcorn in her mouth. “We’re having pizza for dinner?” She jumped up from the couch in excitement with the holographic panel still around her eyes. And dropped the remaining popcorn in the process. “Yes, because you are useless,” Kenichi pointed at her like he meant guilty instead of useless. Aya closed the HUD and replied, “Listen, daddy never told me I had to learn how to cook. It’s not my fault; I never knew that I had to in the first place.” “Zip it! If you knew cooking, we wouldn’t be eating fast food for the 4th time for dinner this week! And if it wasn’t for Ishikawa-san’s cooking, I’d be dead right now.” Ishikawa-san was the daughter of this apartment complex owner and father’s close-personal friend. They lived next doors, too. She would bring us home cooked dinner from time to time. “So, why don’t you take me in the house?” Ishikawa-san entered the room with a smirk on her face. She had long coffee-brown hair that smoothly flowed over her back. Her eyes glinted sapphire green whenever she caught a hint of the nervousness I felt around her. She was smart and stunning, most possibly the best specimen of woman kind, just how Kenichi envisioned her. But whenever I saw her face even from a decent few metres away, something swelled inside me. My heart rate spiked, My ears started throbbing, the world seemed to go black. I knew what it was; not some light feeling or emotion. It was something mother nature had taught us, something primal; Fear. I hid behind the couch as soon as she entered the room. My breathing was laboured. I tucked my head between my knees to calm down a little. “Gladly,” I could definitely imagine Kenichi kneel down and spread his arms. “Hmm… Is Yū-kun still shy?” No reply? Ouch! That definitely hurt. But I was in no position to feel sorry for Kenichi. I could hear Ishikawa-san’s footsteps loud and clear. She was coming this way to sofa. And not only her, something else was coming to me. I couldn’t keep my eyes closed neither keep them open. Any still picture was warping- brown hair, green eyes… “No no no!” I was losing myself. “Get it together, think of something else, think. Just think.” Just that moment, a fragrance, quite different from the spicy pizza, something sweeter filled the air around me. My breathing was calming down with every breath, thanks to the aroma. I looked up. My vision was blurry from the adrenaline overdose. Around me the lights were dimmed with what seemed like a fine brown curtain. I extended my hand, it was still shaking like crazy but I managed to reach it. My finger went through. But I could hold it- Hair? I looked up when someone asked me “You like it?” from straight above. Ishikawa-san’s eyes took a venom green from the shadows. “That’s it, Ryuu, this is how far as you go. Just give up.” I was hearing myself talking. The adrenaline kicked in again. The tension was shaking my body but I couldn’t even lift a finger. My ears were buzzing, eyes fogging and including touch, all my senses were quickly going numb. Suddenly, everything went mute, even my throbbing heart. For a couple few moments, everything was pitch black and silent. When colours slowly flowed in, the first thing I saw was my hand. I raised both my hands; they were smaller than I remembered. Suddenly, something fell on my palms. A shoe? I wondered. And at that it was a girl’s, too, not mine. Now that I noticed, there was a 10 year old girl in front of me. She had waist length coffee-brown hair and iconic green eyes. “Eat it,” she said. “Eat what?” I asked, at least tried to. I tried more than twice but she wouldn’t listen. I was looking back and forth in between her and the shoe. She slyly smiled at me. “We agreed on the loser eats the other’s shoe, remember?” as if she were saying the loser braids the other’s hair. But eat a shoe? Who’d agree on that? What kind of sick play did we decide to play? And was even eating a shoe possible? “Like hell,” I attempted to throw the shoe away. But it stayed an attempt. My body wouldn’t move neither would my mouth. I had no control over this body. It wasn’t my body. But whoever this was, was opening his mouth, slowly accepting his gruesome fate to attempt the feat. He closed his eyes and jabbed the shoe in his, currently my mouth. When I thought, “If I can’t do anything with this body, then this body can’t do anything to me either,” I was essentially wrong. When he jabbed that shoe in, I could feel the disgrace, the disgust and disappointment. Not to mention the metallic taste of earth and the feeling of sand in his mouth. We were crying, holding the shoe in our mouth unable to decide whether to chew or not. The answer was certain but beyond our choice. We looked at the girl. She was watching us like she was feeding a cat sardines. Out of unknown fear we swallowed a bit of what was in our mouth. Instantly we knelt down and vomited. We couldn’t take it. The vomit got in our wind-pipe and we were coughing really hard till we could no more. Through his bleary eyes we saw the girls face again. In her eyes there was no compassion. But there was no cruelty either; she was pure in her own inhuman standards. Seeing him unable to carry on, she asked, “Do you give up?” His heart rate spiked. I could hear his ears drumming. Whatever was ripping him from inside out was diffusing into me. I had a bad feeling about the option ‘Giving up’. I don’t want to admit it but something told me to pick up the shoe again. But the choice was not up to me. He got up and spread his arms. With a last look at the girl, he closed his eyes. His eyed shed the last drops of tear. The feeling after I caught the sound of gunshot was beyond description. I was falling on my back. The span of time was beyond logic. The pain was beyond my comprehension. The shock was frying my brain. I couldn’t breath, I coughed up blood but it wouldn’t end; I was drowning in my own blood. My lungs were collapsing. My inners were inflating. The pressure made me vomit. But before it reached my mouth… It was all over. Nothing… Nothing was there, nothing to see, hear or feel. For a few seconds it all stayed the same way. Suddenly, I felt something soft under my head. My face felt wet. I tried to open my eyes and blinked a few times to ward off the blinding light. And the first thing I saw was Ishikawa-san’s face up close to mine. I instantly freaked out, screamed and sat up straight. Before head-butting her in the process, that is. “Ouch…” I rubbed my forehead. I looked around; I was still in our dining room. Everything was back to normal. But “What were you trying to do, Ishikawa-san!?” I asked. “Heh… You could say that after making me wet?” She showed me the wet mark on her skirt. “Stop saying stereotypical words!” I realized my face was wet, my eyes were watery, too; I was crying. “Those are just my tear drops!” I said. She clicked her tongue. “First the ki- CPR and now you wouldn’t let me have fun?” Did she just say “Kiss?” “No, I did not. You might have misheard.” She stood up and straightened her skirt. “I should take my leave now. I have received a fair amount of amusement, I must say.” And she left. Then I made sure I locked the door. Instantly or so, I heard Ishikawa-san’s voice from behind me. “Oh I forgot,” she said. “Ishikawa-san!” I flinched. “Yū-kun, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Kana-chan?” she pouted. “How did you open the door!?” She showed me the card key of our apartment, “Daddy has extras,” she gave a smug smile. Her answer sent shrivels down spine. “Scary,” I protested. “Not the point,” she handed me a letter. “It has my feelings for you in it.” “Huh?” “Just kidding,” she giggled. “Please stop.” I took the letter and closed the door. The letter was addressed to us, the whole Kurokawa family. The envelope had the stamp of JSDF on it. In this age and time, normally nobody would send mails analogue style. You could just send them to their accounts. Well, modern ways had modern problems and such mails could be hacked. I guess sometimes, old ways really are if not the best, are at least safest. I opened the envelope. There were three cards in it, “That’s it?” I asked. “What’s in it?” Kenichi asked. I handed him the cards. He recognized them almost instantly, “They’re from G.C.A.” Apparently, that was exciting enough to have him hopping on his toes. “The academy we applied for?” I asked. Genesis Combat Academy, G.C.A in short was among the leading P.R.I.S.M. based military inspired cadet colleges in the world. For all I cared for is that P.R.I.S.M. is the same thing as the holographic panel that I use to order pizza or play games or watch anime. I remember father once told me that the small metallic node sticking out from the backbone near the back of the neck was why I could see a holographic panda walking around in my room and that was P.R.I.S.M. “Oh. Yuu-nii, I’m impressed that you even remember,” Aya took a small pause from eating her share of pizza. “Oy!” that actually hit a nerve. “I’m not a retard; at least.” “I wish you weren’t,” Kenichi sighed. “Huh?” He showed me a card, mine to be exact. It had my picture on it lined with red. “What of it?” “You got disqualified.” “You passed, right?” I knew Kenichi had high hopes for G.C.A. Aya wanted to go wherever we went since she was a child. So, I wouldn’t say she didn’t have motivation. “Yeah,” I passed. “Me, too,” Aya said with a low voice. Possibly not to hurt my feelings. “So why the long face?” I threw away my card. “Cheer up; not everyone gets into G.C.A., you know?” I hugged them both. I felt both of their grips tighten on my shirt. I could feel their pain. From our childhood till this date we’ve been together no matter where we went. These cards were tantamount to breaching just that. “Make me proud, you two,” I patted them on their back. Aya actually started sniffling. “I’ll miss you, too, Aya.” I let them go, “It’s not like we’re seeing each other off right now. And we’ll be seeing each other often; We’re family.” Aya wiped her face, Kenichi looked like he was trying really hard to hold it in; his face was red and he was trying to hide it all. I looked at my card lying in the corner of the room. I thought if I stayed here they’d probably carry it on even more. So I was the first to leave for my room. I knew it’ll probably be hard for me to say goodbye, too. But one thing was for sure; I never wanted to go to that wretched academy. P.R.I.S.M. maybe a public delicacy now but it was not built for that reason. After WWIII, when UN was replaced by ONE, it was decided that chemical weapons were too dangerous and were stripped off of all their glory prior to the war. Nuke heads and major missiles were decommissioned; guns and minor explosives were subject to strict order to use in non a lethal-manner much and harming any human lives were out of question. Since doing such left almost all the nations vulnerable with no means of self defence, a scientists came up with a better solution. He said that if the cervical spinal nerves could be brought under control, the person in experiment, without even touching the body will feel any sensation created virtually by optic simulations, including intense pain. He named it Photo Reality Illuded Sensory Matrix or P.R.I.S.M. To all the countries, it meant only one thing; Virtual Warfare. And that was exactly the motivation behind G.C.A. Still it’s not like I have something against G.C.A. Sure, it’s popular and all among the people at my age. And it wouldn’t be strange to be majority of person’s dreams. I mean cadets even get paid. But hey, they don’t hand you money for nothing; G.C.A. curriculum is top notch, maybe I’m just not the right person for that. Speaking of money… The Pizza! I was really hungry. So I went back to the dining table. Kenichi and Aya were still on the table. At first, I thought it was great that we’d eat together since it’ll be one of our lasts. But no… Looked like they had other plans. Plans like leaving me to starve through the night while they shared my portion of the pizza. Although they apologized to me just afterwards, it couldn’t satisfy my hunger. As an extension of Kenichi’s apology, he bought a pack of 6 cup noodles for me. I took one to my room after bidding them goodnight. I kept the light turned off, went to the balcony where lay a paper plane that I knew for sure was addressed to me. I put the cup down, picked up the plane and sat down to read it. Sorry, It said when I folded it open. It forced me to smile. Ishikawa-san was really a nice person; no wonder Kenichi admired her. I sometimes felt bad for making her feel bad; sometimes. I closed the glass pane behind me and leaned against it staring into the starless night sky. I picked up the warm cup and started to eat. The first mouthful brought me to tears. I could still see that girl and her shoe in my hands when I closed my eyes. No matter how graphic that dream was, it wasn’t real. I have no such sadistic memories either. I just have a bad time facing women. My blood gets cold from the sight of women. The doctor said I had Gynophobia and it was just a fabrication in my head; that my brain created random encounters with women I’ve seen. I sighed. But soon I realized that the noodles in my hand were getting soggy. I started to gulp it down just as fast as I could without choking. I checked the time while I was at that, 0017, barely midnight. “It’s gonna be a long night,” I sighed. I opened up P.R.I.S.M. to watch a film. The panel wrapped around my eyes and ears. The sound of stray wind in my ears started to die away and city lights’ hypnotic mosaic slowly melted into the black of the night before turning into my film.
Meanwhile in GCA, “Mock battle under way,” the letters spun in an orbit at a lazy speed. The stadium was roaring with one sided cheers. The red and blue Phoenix emblem was unmistakably blazing brighter than the Silver Wolves’ on its side. At first look they were the only thing on the stadium grounds. But when looked though the eyes of those who were howling from their seats, everything was on a whole new level. An abandoned city was selected for the mock battle. From the dynamic drone’s eye view, the two sides in combat were prominent. One with blazing red and blue brassards on their arm. And on the far east side, there was the other with silver brassards on. Groups of 6 were led by sergeants through the urban maze. Robot phoenixes flew in the sky like shooting stars and metallic wolves raced down below like sports cars. Phoenix squads-2&3 were pushing Wolves squads-1&3 behind. Phoenix squad-1 had already taken care of Wolves squad-2 and was holding their station. “Supernova!!” one of the Phoenixes shouted and all of them ducked as a phoenix bot dived from the sky before singeing everything in its half a mile radius. There was a huge shock wave from the low pressure followed by a bone crushing implosion. Shattered glass-shards stopped mid-air after the explosion switched courses for the implosion. Some nearby wolves caught fire in their circuits and got half melted. But the other wolves’ AIs were smart enough to take shelter behind buildings. After a moment of silence, the phoenix in the middle of the rubble raised its head after it had burst into flames. But now the phoenix was fuming due to cold rather than heat. As it took flight the very air around it froze into powder snow. But the mythicized immortal bird just suddenly vanished from sight in a silver flash. It was found later in the frost caught jaws of a silver wolf. Bullets simply ricocheted from its hide as it howled in triumph. The arena burst into gunfire. Wolves ran about fetching red hot phoenixes in their flight while some phoenixes melted straight through their entire length. Wolves also rammed into Phoenix squad members and phoenixes often dived from the sky as a ball of fire or a canister of liquid nitrogen. A Wolves sniper set target on a Phoenix sergeant. He readied his finger to pull the trigger. But before he pulled the trigger, someone else did. “Wolves sniper eliminated, over,” she spoke in the radio. “Copy that,” the Phoenix sergeant said. He turned to his squad. “Hold your fire; duck, Subzero!!” And a burning phoenix switched and exploded in subzero temperature freezing everything in its vicinity. Where once were the Wolves members, now there were ice sculptures in various poses. The Phoenix sergeant advanced through the sculptures. An eerie fog and silence hung in the air. The sculptures were mostly grotesque with a few exceptions of soldiers who fired their guns while they froze. Suddenly a gunfire broke the silence. The Phoenix sergeant fell on the ground. His still body slowly dissolving into red cubes. The sculpture beside him was a Wolves soldier with gun in his hand. He was laughing as his frozen skin cracked an leaked blood. “You ******fucking coward!!” a female Phoenix soldier pointed the gun at him. But the Wolves soldier was frozen solid now, making him look like a creepy vampire statue. “He’s dead, leave him be,” her team mate lowered her gun. “Oh, I’m gonna get him after the match,” she said. A soldier spoke in the radio, “Charlie-3 to Alpha, sergeant out cold, over.” “Rendezvous with Charlie-2 two blocks south of you.” “Copy that, Alpha.” The squad followed the sound of the gunfire. Suddenly they heard barking. The squad paused in their tracks and took formation pointing guns at all directions. Unluckily for them, a shard of glass shattered under on of their feet. A wolf appeared from a lane, then barked and snarled at them before howling for the hunt. One of the soldiers loaded a hydrogen grenade and fired at the wolf. The wolf froze instantly after the grenade exploded at its feet. But just when they thought that was over, a howl replied back to the now frozen wolf. The barking and snarling now grew on a quadratic scale. Even their pawsteps were now clearly audible from a distant. The squad turned on their back and ran for it. Behind them now a wolf pack was running for the hunt. A squad member tripped on her laces and fell flat on the ground but none of the squad had the time or courage to look back. Both she and her cry got buried under the wolves. The wolves now split out into three directions while one pack continued the chase. The others picked a lane to the right and left. These two packs shifted gears and started running even faster. While the squad was running with their lives on the line, suddenly a wolf pack emerged from their left. The squad went almost on all fours to veer right. Without noticing they broke into an abandoned shop and ran straight through. They were running out of breath but the wolves were still on their tail. For the next not so few moments, the wolves played a game of cat and mice with the squad. Left, right, left, left, straight and right. Just when the team were about to give up, the wolves weren’t there any more. All the members were winded, struggling to keep standing. If the wolves attacked them from all sides, it would be really bad. They dropped most of their ammo while running. They took the same formation as before with the remaining ammo they had. The silence was almost fishy. A few blocks away, a Wolves soldier dropped a mortar shell in the barrel and turned covering his ears. The mortar kicked off the ground with a solid BOOM! “Shit…” a Phoenix soldier of the squad looked up in disappointment as he realized the distinct cross-shaped mark he was standing on. The mortar hit the mark and exploded with a huge bang leaving nothing but a crater full of holographic red cubes. The wolves later joined the Wolves squad-1 against the Phoenix squad-2. This side of the battle was completely dominated by the Wolves. To avoid the freezing shower of phoenixes, the Wolves took cover in the buildings. The Phoenix’s heat vision couldn’t reach them in the buildings. And if they send in the phoenixes, exploding a building would bring it down on them instead. The Phoenixes were still stationed down below, their phoenixes hovered over their head in a wide circle. They readied hydrogen shells and francium shells. Though the Wolves could be seen momentarily through the windows as they darted around, getting a shot on them wasn’t that easy. So they stayed put. Suddenly a phoenix dropped dead from the sky. It took two more phoenixes before they realized that they were being sniped. “Charlie-2 to Alpha, we’re cornered by Wolves, low on ammo and being sniped. Requesting backup, over,” a Phoenix sergeant screamed into his radio. But there was no reply. “On three,” the Wolves sergeant said in the radio. “Three!” They dropped and triggered smoke grenades from all the buildings around the Phoenixes. They Phoenixes were now engulfed in smoke. “Smoke won’t blind us,” or so they thought. Even when they equipped heat vision, they could see nothing but smoke. Those smoke grenades were not regular. They were nanofiber infrared obscurant shells. “Go! Go! Go!” the Wolves sergeant shouted into his radio. The wolves leaped from 4 storeys and at the same time and by jaws or paws, caught the phoenixes from their flight. Then the Wolves came out and shot down a few Phoenixes. “How are they shooting us? IRs (Infrared goggles) are dea-” the Phoenix soldier dropped dead instantly. “Possibly listening to us,” the sergeant whispered. It was true. The Wolves had their eyes closed. They wore a headset that looked similar to a wolf’s head. It gave them hearing and smelling equal to that of a wolf. Their wolf ears moved and twitched to the smallest sound. “Fuck!” the last Phoenix soldier cursed. Instantly, bullets pierced his head from 3 directions at the same time. The sergeant was the last person standing. He threw away his radio into the smoke. The wolves barked where the radio touched the tarmac. Suddenly the radio buzzed, “Charlie-2, thermal access granted.” Instantly, gunfire muted the radio. The sergeant got what he needed the most. His HUD panel opened up and a small lock in the corner was now unlocked. He could feel the buzz in his spine, his body slowly loosing the feeling of temperature. From now on temperature was just a mere number. His eyes glowed blue at first. With a snap of his finger, the temperature around him dropped to subzero. The smoke fell on the ground like powder snow. A wolf was frozen in its track while lunging at the sergeant. The Wolves’ feet were now stuck to the ground. They pointed their rifles at the sergeant. But the sergeant was unfazed. The aura around his body slowly changed colours from blue to orange. The ice started to melt and he started to shimmer from the intense heat in the eyes of the Wolves. The frozen wolf fell on the ground and whimpered away. The Wolves, too started moving away.The hydrogen shells falling on the ground from the fallen Phoenixes started to leak from the pressure. “Stop that! You’re gonna be the first thing to explode, you idiot!” the Wolves sergeant shouted. The Phoenix sergeant showed the sergeant his middle finger. Fuck you, he mouthed with a sly smile. “Run!!” The Wolves screamed and ran. But the hydrogen reached its limit. The air around the blazing sergeant had reached near 500°C. The air sparked around him and exploded. Paired with the radioactive francium, the explosion reached the level of a small nuke shaped into a 150 metres long glowing mushroom of pure madness. Way back in the Phoenix’s Tactical Quarters, a person whistled at the magnificent explosion from where she stood. She opened the window to have some nice air. Her golden hair flowed in the shock wave that made for a nice breeze in the dead city. The glow from the explosion sported the stars on her each shoulder, Captain Leonhart Laura. “Ma’am, only the Wolves Captain is left,” a Phoenix lieutenant stood behind her with a HUD panel open for various statistics. “I suggest you end the battle here, Captain Leonhart.” She looked out the window at the sky, filled with stars. “Come here, lieutenant,” she said. The sergeant stood next to her. “Count the stars. Go on.” she said. The lieutenant took a second look at her, “Come again, ma’am.” “You heard me right; count the stars.” “But ma’am, that’s going to take an awful lot of time,” she said. “That’s right. My grand mother used to say, when she couldn’t sleep at night, she’d count the stars and she’d fall asleep after sometime.” the Captain said to her lieutenant. “I’d always wanted to do that. But you know? I’d never fall asleep from counting the stars.” “Don’t tell me you let the battle drag on with our men just `cause you wanted to see the stars a bit more.” For some reason the Captain looked more like a demon to the lieutenant. The Captain tucked her hair behind her left ear; which she often did when she lied about something. “Now what could have given you that idea?” “You tucked your hair behind your left ear, didn’t you?” the lieutenant said. The Captain flinched. “You know, I believe life is not a struggle, It’s a blessing. So might as well enjoy it.” “Oh, I just wish you wouldn’t make our lives a struggle.” The lieutenant sighed. Speaking of struggle, the Phoenix squad-1 were about to face just or more than that. They were stationed near the Wolves’ hide out where their Captain was supposed to be. The squad had not received any further order after they defeated the Wolves squad-2. They’ve requested for further orders a few times. But Alpha said only to stay put. Everything was calm. The air stood still, not so humid. But it was still discomforting. A soldier from Charlie-1 was pretending to smoke by spewing cold vapour from his mouth. Two female soldiers were braiding their hair with frozen wild flowers. But as the clock was nearing 0300 in the sergeant’s wrist, so was something they neither knew nor could do about. The first howl gave the sergeant goosebumps. The second had everyone on their feet. Then there was the third and the fourth. In a matter of seconds the howls exceeded their digits. The tarmac beneath their feet was swirling and their senses were wiggly for a moment. It sent a feeling of nausea down their guts. The sergeant wiped his mouth and stood in awe the moment he looked around. The tarmac was now soil and grass. The buildings were now thick woods of cedar and cypress. Clouds shrouded the sky and the moon was better off new. They were not in the dead city any more; somebody had created his own domain, somebody who had enough mettle to create 4sq.miles of forest inside his head. It was undoubtedly a Captain. And if domains really were the true nature of a person’s mind, then no one was near as enough wild as the Captain of the Wolves. Suddenly the Phoenixes pointed their guns at their own sergeant. Only after a few moments did he realize that he had someone’s arm around his shoulder. He looked at his side. There was the Captain of the wolves, surely. The radioactive silver eyes of the captain were unmistakable and not to be confused with anything else. “At ease, men,” he laughed. But noticing the guns still pointed at him, he switched to a more serious mode and softly held my neck. “You know that I could snap his neck if I wanted to, right?” He walked behind the sergeant. As soon as the sergeant felt the grip on him loosen, he slashed at his six with a combat knife. But there was no one there behind. “Was that for me?” The Captain’s voice echoed through out the forest and rested behind a tree. He stepped out from behind the tree, walked behind the next, came out from another and continued with his illusion like movements. “Come with me,” he whispered into a soldier’s ears and dragged him behind a tree. “Excuse me,” he tapped on the shoulder of a female soldier and vanished with her behind one of her own comrades. All the remaining soldiers were gone one by one in a few moments; until the sergeant was the only one remaining. He was on high alert with his knife and revolver. “There-” The nervous sergeant reacted to the trick. The Wolves’ captain held his eyes and the next moment, he was in a clearing in the forest. From a higher view, all the Phoenixes, like their sergeant were singled out in various locations. From a high cliff the captain drew lines in the air joining them like dots. “Looks like you are having fun, Kurada-san.” The captain, Kurada Takeo, had a mad grin on his face. “Very nice of you to come, Leonhart-san.” He turned around. “I suppose they should go a bit earlier today.” He snapped his fingers and all the markings on his uniform started to glow. Then his eyes blazed even more as a light shower of bombs fell from the clouds behind him resembling a meteor shower with their LED indicators. The Phoenix squad member screamed in terror before the night lit up in a super-bright white after the bombs touched ground. Laura blocked her ears before the shock hit her almost blowing her away and deafened her. She looked at Takeo in fear as he stood with the mad grin on his face, still unfazed. “You just bombed your terrain and set it on fire, a thermal condition.” He either was stupid or extra confident to set the domain to his opponent’s favour, she thought. “And your sensitive hearing… Aren’t you deaf from the shock wave?” “Huh?” he shouted. “What’d you say? Can’t hear you, I’m deaf now,” he pointed at his ears and crossed his fingers, “D-E-A-F, Deaf…” Laura face palmed in disappointment. “Let’s get this over with quickly,” she grabbed for something in the air and a red and blue bow appeared in her hand. Upon touching the bowstring, a long glowing red feather wove itself from thin air. She took aim at Takeo and held her breath. But before she could release the arrow, Takeo jumped from the cliff. And as he fell, metal gathered around and on his body, rapidly taking shape. Laura ran to the cliff then looked down, only to find a decent sized crater in the forest on fire. A deep howl shook the pebbles by her feet. The crowd went crazy on the other side. The letters that spelt ‘Mock battle under way’ before, now spelt ‘Captain/Captain’; eventually, the Phoenix lieutenant got out of the battle herself. It was a mess outside like always. Simulation or real, death can’t be taken normally by any sane person. Wolves and Phoenixes alike, some were sitting in a corner muttering to their own selves, some of the Phoenixes caught and gutted alive by wolves were vomiting their guts out and the Wolves who were frozen alive were chained away from heaters as they often wanted to make a fire with their clothes and jump on them while some on the stronger side of the brain started to argue or fight out the stress of death. An ailing female soldier put her hand on the lieutenant’s shoulder. She had blood struck eyes. “That’s our lieutenant; still standing after the death lag-” she shuddered, then gave the lieutenant a thumbs up with a smile that was instantly followed by a “Uor#rlgh%!” The lieutenant looked away covering her face. Death lag is so scary! I can’t tell my comrades that I never got killed and bailed out instead, she thought. She straightened up and forced a smile at the soldier, patted on her back and got her seated in a chair nearby. Then a huge boom made the crowd go hyper. The stadium shook on this side from the shock, too. Now the captains were really on their edge. On that side, the captains were really looking the part. The Wolves’ captain was dressed in a were wolf armour with ridiculous strength, speed and stamina pursuing the captain of the Phoenixes. She was nothing short of a phoenix. She was wearing a helmet and an armour of ice decorated to resemble feathers, her blazing golden wings and tail feathers gave her the image of an angel of war with her bow made of ice and fire. With each feather an arrow, she sent a shower of flaming arrows on Takeo. But he jabbed into the ground and picked up a storey size boulder to shield himself from the arrows witch bore into it melting it’s upper part into lava. He threw the boulder at Laura. She shot three more arrows at the boulder and it went ‘POP!’ in a lava bubble. But Takeo was no longer there. While she turned a full circle in his search, something came snarling at her from below her. But before she could take a notice, Takeo jumped 40 metres from the ground and grabbed her left arm in a grappling hold. And before she could even fell the pain, he grabbed her leg, spun mid-air and threw her at the ground with all his and his suit’s might. She dropped harder than a stone on the ground with an astronomical force of nearly 20 million newtons, blowing out all the nearby fire with a decent shock wave. “Ooh…” went the crowd. That really hurt if not anything else. Takeo walked to the freshly created crater. Takeo turned around. “The angel has fallen, people!” he shouted in triumph. Behind him however, Laura rose from the crater. She encapsulated herself in a chunk of ice filled with snow before hitting the ground. But her left arm and leg joints were dislocated or broken or both. So she froze them solid to reduce the pain. “But I rise again,” she said. But Takeo was still bathing in the afterglow of his false victory. “Hey,” Laura called out to him. “Oy,” she shouted. But when he didn’t respond even after that, she froze the ground with his feet. That got his attention. He turned smiling like a baby. “I knew you were alive,” he shouted. “Yeah, right.” She rolled her eyes. As the bow was not an option now, she figured ending the battle quickly was the right option. But the moment she snapped out of her thought, Takeo was no longer there. She somersaulted mid-air the moment she noticed a faint whistling. Her intuition turned out to be correct. Takeo only grazed her tail feathers with his kick. But anyone could tell that if it hit her, that would snap her, no doubt. Laura was dodging Takeo completely and that was all she could do. But Takeo had plans otherwise. “You’re getting boring, Leonhart,” he shouted. “But I’m not gonna allow it.” He sped up but just when Laura thought she was doing just fine, he wasn’t actually just speeding up. He started kicking and throwing boulder side rubble high up in the air. But Laura was fast and elegant enough to dodge those, too. But when the rubble got just high enough to feel nostalgic and come back, things were about to get interesting. The rubble aligned with the same altitude with Laura. Takeo jumped from where he perched, waiting for this very moment. He got past Laura, then kicked off from a rubble in mid-air and punched a hole right through one of her wings. If time was slowed down for the next second, even then counting all the times Takeo hit Laura would be too much to ask for from a person. The crowd went wild for that epic second. But then there was a second round of applause when Laura was still airborne. Her armour was… it wasn’t even there, one of her wings were busted. Her uniform was no better and not to mention her face. But she was still on the battle. “This battle was fun, Leonhart. But time to end this.” Takeo kicked off the ground with all his remaining steam readying a last blow. The entire crowd went mute for a second, trying to shake off the recent shock. Takeo, who was on the offensive, was now hanging in the air with an arrow feather protruding from his back. “Really… fun…” Takeo struggled with those words. As Laura shouted her lungs out, Takeo started to catch frostbites. His breath was now foggy from the cold. It started to snow out of nowhere. She was absorbing all heat. The wild fire just got brighter and bigger for a moment and it died out almost instantly after it burned up a day’s fuel in a mere moment. The snow stopped after air lost all of its humidity. After absorbing that huge amount of heat, Laura started to glow pure white. And then she radiated all that heat at once, in the shape of a dozen radioactive bombs in one. All of the drones in the air got fried from the radiation. Almost all of the spectators were left temporarily blinded from the brightness. After a few seconds, when they recovered from the blindness, the first thing they saw were the words, “THE PHOENIXES RISE AGAIN!” The crowd burst into cheers. Those who put their bets on the Phoenixes went mad from winning. The Phoenixes’ captain, Leonhart Laura dropped unconscious from standing. The lieutenant and a sergeant held her up. But she screamed when they touched her left hand and left leg. “Just leave me be for a minute. I will be okay… It’s not even death lag,” she said. The lieutenant let her lie down slowly. She was sleepy. She looked at her wrist watch, it was 2 O’clock in the night. The lieutenant was calculating “Total earnings were-” “I do not want to know, lieutenant. Pay the signals their due and I’ll leave the rest to you. Just get me to a nice and comfy bed.” “OK, captain. Let’s get a taxi to the dorms.” The lieutenant pulled her up. “I can walk. The pain is gone.” She took a taxi to the dorm with her lieutenant. “Oh captain, I forgot.” The lieutenant was searching for something in her P.R.I.S.M. HUD. “Admin sent a message for you. Oh here it is!” “Read it for me, Yuzu, please.” Yuzu flinched hearing her own name. “Are you sure? Here?” she whispered. “Do not worry.” Laura was talking with her eyes shut and yawning from time to time. “So the message says, As a captain, we suppose Capt. Leonhart is already aware of the date of joining of the newest intake G.C.A. which is scheduled to be on Sunday, 23rd March, 2110. For your outstanding results in both academic and co-curricular sides, you have been selected as the representative of your class and the leading guide of the intake. Your early presence is highly expected at the aforementioned date. -Adjutant, G.C.A.” “WHAT?!” Laura shouted in the taxi. “Keep it down, Laura.” Yuzu hushed her. “But that is this Sunday. Why Sunday of all days? I feel pathetic,” she sighed. “ Life is not a struggle, It’s a blessing. So might as well enjoy it, right?” Yuzu had a sly smile on her face. “Did you just-” “I’m sure it’s just your imagination,” Yuzu said. “Oh look! The dorms, we’ve arrived.”
Sunday, 23rd March, 2110 The time of dawn was one of the handful few things that I genuinely loved in life. It was slow, it was calm and if not for a few drones and robots here and there, the city looked like it was asleep. The air had a subtle haze that gave the neon lamps a lazy bloom. But the best part was when the sun showed up. The over abundance of glass and steel added a bit more glitter and glare to the sunrise. I often, like today, sat on the sunshade directly below my window with a glass of classic lemonade, watching the surface of the city slowly wake up. The scenery was great; if only there were some Sakura trees up here. But a matter more pressing was waiting for me inside. It was the day Kenichi and Aya got into G.C.A. They spent the last day entirely in packing. Both of them went to bed quite late. So I expected them to wake up later in the morning. But I thought I heard Kenichi’s voice. So I took a few quick sips from the glass in my hand and got in through the window. As I thought, Kenichi was up already. “Up so early?” I asked. But there was no answer. So I figured he was still half asleep. He could barely open his eyes and was rubbing them as he walked around the room clearly clueless. It was clear that he didn’t get enough sleep, but if he put that much of an effort in waking up this early, I figured I should help him out a little. I stopped him and forced a sip from my glass into his throat. With a jolt he pushed me back, his eyes were open wide now. “So sour… What is that?” he had some trouble mouthing the words as a 2nd shot of jolt went down his spine. “Lemonade,” I said. “Well, put some sugar in it!” he shouted at me. “Doesn’t matter as long as it works,” I said. “Right,” he mellowed down. “Thanks.” “Are you gonna be okay with this much sleep?” I asked. “Uh, yeah,” he said. “I need to do some checks, in case I missed anything.” “And sleep? Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” He had a point. But “I’m gonna sleep the whole day,” I said. “Yeah. Aw~kay, do that,” he yawned and went into the restroom. Seeing him made me yawn, too. But before he shut the door, I put my foot in the way. “Let me get my brush,” I said. “Here,” he handed me the brush with some toothpaste on. I took the brush. I found a nice corner and sat there brushing my teeth. The cozy feeling of slowly brushing my teeth was hypnotic, I felt my lack of sleep kicking in. My eyelids wanted to hug each other as I was forcing them apart. I realized I have gone sleepless for too long. ‘Hope the day stays quiet,” I thought. The next think I know, I gulped down something minty; the TOOTHPASTE! “Yuck!!” I saw Aya holding my chin up. “It was about to spill out,” she said. I hurried to the restroom to spit the lather out and wash my face. By the time I got out, I noticed that Kenichi and Aya were both up and ready to get going. Their luggages were in front of the door. An obvious sense of melancholy passed over my head. I’ve done everything in my reach in the past few days, we even had a party. But it seemed the more fun we had the more my heart had to carry around. But I learned something more a few days earlier. That it was not up to me to decide their future, what I decided in that exam was mine only. I put a smile on. I have come to accept the reality. I pulled out a chair and sat on the table. They were already putting on their socks. Even the dinner table was all cleaned up. It seemed I had missed breakfast. But I couldn’t blame them and wouldn’t want to make them wait. Then again, just to be sure, “You guys put my breakfast in the fridge, right?” The question froze them in their tracks. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Don’t tell me-” but it was obvious. None of us knew how to cook. I had no option but to cover my face. There was a better option, but I, particularly wasn’t wholly in favour of this. “I have two cup noodles in my closet, under the blue bed sheet. You can have those.” Kenichi was more shocked than the first time he saw a mechanized Chinese dragon during out visit to China. To be honest, it offended me a little. “Are you sure?” He asked. “Don’t make me rethink that,” I said. Aya was quick to pick up. She was already out of my room with the cup noodles. She quickly prepared the cup noodles and put them on the table. “I’ll share with Ryuu,” Kenichi said. “Just help yourself, Kenichi. It’s a big day for you. You’ll need a full tummy more than anything.” “And I’ll be sleeping the day off,” I said. Then again as much as I didn’t want to admit the truth was, “I- Ishikawa-san-” I took a pause to not imagine her face, “won’t let me starve anyway.” I couldn’t but sigh. Kenichi couldn’t hold back his laughter. I could see Aya trying not to laugh. She was even looking the other way. “What?” I asked. “Nothing,” Kenichi bottled up the laughter and started to eat the noodles. I watched both of them eat probably for the last time in a couple months. The next few minutes were silent with my occasional yawns. Kenichi took a peek at the clock widget at the corner of his P.R.I.S.M. panel and quickly finished his cup. “Hurry up, Aya. The mag-rail leaves in 15 minutes,” he said. Aya hurriedly gulped down the remaining broth in her cup. I picked up the cups and dumped them down the chute. Meanwhile they put on their shoes and were waiting for me at the door. It was getting harder to keep holding that smile. “A hug?” I asked. But there was no time for an answer. Both of them hugged me together. I bit my lips in an attempt to keep it together. My eyes were filled to the brim. “See you soon,” Kenichi said. “Yeah, real soon, Yuu-nii,” Aya said. This time they let go first and then we said our goodbyes. I kept staring at the elevator for minutes, even after the display said, ‘G’. I didn’t even realize when tears came rolling down my face. A sudden feeling of being watched broke my trance. For some obvious reasons, my eyes drifted towards next doors. But there was no one there. I couldn’t just shake off the feeling that the day wouldn’t be so quiet as I hoped it to be. I closed the door. Looking at the dinner table made me nostalgic rather early. ‘Who knows how many days it’ll take for us to have breakfast together again,’ I thought. Thinking of breakfast made me rethink my decision on not letting Kenichi share with me. I noticed my glass of lemonade was still sitting there. I emptied the cup and went into my room. I sighed at the lifeless air of the room. ‘At least I could get some high quality sleep,’ I thought and then crashed face first into the bed. Then I rolled over. On both of my sides. Minutes went by, but nothing. Strangely sleep was proving hard to get. Maybe it was the light. So I got up and pulled the curtains. Then a subtle noise caught me by surprise. I turned around only to find nothing. ‘Must’ve been my imagination,’ I thought. But suddenly, my ears started ringing and there was a splitting headache. I was losing balance. And there were doubles, or maybe triples of everything in my room. I reached for the nearest wall to lean on. But the wall moved away making me fall in a weird angle. I hit my head at first on the wall and if that wasn’t painful enough, I hit my head again on the floor. I felt the pain but couldn’t react. ‘Ugh! I didn’t know what it is. But it just had to pick the worst timing of all,’ I thought. My fingertips were heavy as lead and just as stiff. My mind was awfully blank, my eyes lazy and my ears deaf. I could barely make out the silhouette standing next to the door. “I-shi-ka-wa-san?” But the words never left my mouth. I fell into the calmest sleep I had probably in years. About an hour ago, I woke up early even though it was Sunday. I washed my face, got fresh and sneaked past Mama’s room to get to the kitchen. I opened the fridge and fished out the pomegranates and strawberries from the vegetable drawer where I safely hid those. They were still fresh as I only bought them last night. I put them in a sieve and left it on the sink with the tap on for a quick rinse while I put mama’s apron on. I had to be careful while fetching the flour and sugar jars, then realized I should have gotten a couple eggs and the butter from the fridge all at once. Then I got the rest of the ingredients; baking powder cocoa powder, a few cups of milk and some red food colour. Making the rose-red batter was easy enough. Then I plugged in the waffle iron and greased it with vegetable oil. Just a moment before I put the batter in the iron, it seemed something was missing; chocolate chips! “Erm.. I forgot to buy chocolate chips” I bit my lip. What to do.. what to do..? Well I did have a chocolate stash at my room. But when I rushed to the secret stash in my room, there was only one chocolate bar left. I loved my chocolates. Naturally it was tempting to take a bite from the bar. I thought a bite won’t make much of a difference; two won’t make much either. But I stopped myself before the third bite. Coming back to the kitchen, I broke the bar into small pieces and put it in the batter. Then I poured the batter in the iron and set it to low for a smoother texture. Now for the juice, I broke the pomegranate to bring out the seeds and put it in a blender. I readied a jug and a filter strainer. When the pomegranate was blended, I poured it through the strainer into the jug. The iron beeped, signalling that the waffles were done. I opened it, took out the waffles and set them aside to cool down. I poured the clear pomegranate juice in a wine glass. I almost dropped the glass from my hand when I heard mom’s voice. “Honey, what’re you doing so early in the morning?” She said. “Nothing,” I said. I dressed the waffles with strawberries on a plate. “Are those red velvet waffles? Hmm.. and pomegranate juice.” She had a smug smile on. “The over abundance of red doesn’t look like nothing to me.” “I told you, it’s nothing.” I wiped the plate and the glass with a paper napkin. Then I put them on a tray. “Is that so? Then I suppose, you won’t mind if I take a bite,” she reached for the waffles. But I quickly took the tray away. “No,” I said. “I was just joking. I mean as your mother, I know who it’s for anyway,” she had a soft smile as she looked at me. Her gaze seemed to always pierce though my mind, I knew locking eyes with her would bring my true feelings to the surface. That is why I looked away quickly before I started blushing. “It’s for me,” I said. “Kana-chan,” she came in front of me and lifted my face by the chin. “Do you really think that you could lie to me?” That’s it, I was busted. I blushed right in her face. Then she broke into a laughter holding her sides together. “I’ll never get tired from teasing you,” she said. “It’s okay, I know that it’s for Ryuu-kun from next doors. Why do you even have to keep it a secret though? Invite him to a dinner sometimes. It’s lonely without your father at the table.” “He can’t, he’s afraid of me,” the fact always made me gloomy. Mom started laughing again. “Your first crush is afraid of you? At least he doesn’t hate you,” she said. “He’s afraid of all girls, not just me,” I said sulkily. I opened the main door, Aya and her brother were just taking their leave with a last hug. Seeing the other person made my heart race. His expressions were so calm under his snow white hair, his pacific green eyes pacified his character even more. Just looking at him seemed to stop my time. He was staring at the elevator for minutes after those two left. Lastly a drop of tear came rolling down his cheek like a pearl from the pacific. I took a high definition image with a wink of an eye. God bless this feature. I quickly closed the door so that I don’t get noticed. “Didn’t make that for him? Why did you close the door?” Mom asked. “Now is not the best time,” I said. I flipped the transparency of the door and it turned into one way glass. “Honey that’s used for seeing who’s at the door,” mom said. “I’m doing just that,” I said that. But she gave me a ‘really?’ look. So I corrected myself. “-just on the other door,” I said. Mom face palmed in reply. But it didn’t matter to me. I opened the door the moment Ryuu shut his. But mom stopped me and took some time to fix the wrinkles in my dress. She moved the hair out of my eyes and moved it behind my ears. “I know you put a lot of effort, but you have to look the part, too, honey.” she turned me around and gave me a little pat on the back. I walked to the Kurokawas’ door. I slid the card key and the door unlocked with subtle click. I opened the door as silent as possible. I sighed in relief seeing that Ryuu was not in the dining room. I sneaked through the dining room and stopped in front of his room. I checked the other rooms just in case and came back in front of the room. I checked the tray one last time, Pomegranate juice, check; Strawberry topped red velvet waffles with chocolate chips, from the chocobar I took a couple bites from.. Weird thought flooded into my brain. Like, ‘Will it be an indirect kiss?’ and ‘It probably won’t be, cuz it was cooked after,’ also like, ‘Or did I just miss my first chance?’ and ‘What if he doesn’t like it?’ My face was hot from ear to ear. “Now’s not the best time for this,” I told myself and took a big breath to clear my mind of those thoughts. I gently twisted the door knob and called out his name, “Yuu-kun…” But I stood dumbfound by the sight in front of me. My grip failed and I dropped everything from my hand before my mind went on high panic. The whole apartment was empty. No one was there, Ryuu wasn’t there. That doesn’t make any sense. I saw him enter the room. I swear, I saw him. My knees started to wobble. Mom rushed into the room after noticing the spike in my heart rate, “Kana! What’s wrong?!” she held me before I lost the strength to stand up. “Tell me, honey. What happened?” She said. “R- Yuu-kun’s gone,” I only managed to mouth those words in my state.