I sighed and looked around. The science fair was over and Rosa and I had walked away without a ribbon. The judges had thought our idea was 'preposterous', 'something out of a fantasy novel', and 'a waste of their time'. They didn't believe that our machine could transport you into animated and cartoon TV shows.

I lightly kicked a locker as I passed it. We knew it worked and we were ready to do a demonstration but they cut us short. Our science teacher had come over after they had left and offered us a trolley so we could take our invention out back to the dumpster. Instead Rosa had dragged the contraption back to the science room and asked me to meet her there in a couple minutes.

I turned the corner and spotted Adelina and Sarah in front of me. They were talking in hushed, excited voices and I quickly walked up behind them. "Hey." They looked over their shoulders and burst into smiles. "Hi Robert," Sarah cheered. "We were just on our way to see yours and Rosa's invention." My eyes widened a little behind my glasses. "Yeah, yeah," Adelina agreed, nodding.

"You're coming to see- Are you part of our demonstration?" I asked. Sarah nodded. "Yeah, Rosa asked and we're more than happy to help," she replied. We reached the science room and entered. Rosa was fiddling with our machine while some of our friends sat around the room. A steady murmur of excited chatter slithered through the room and I walked up to Rosa. "Are all these people here to see our project?" I whispered. Rosa beamed and nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah," she replied. I shoved my hands in my pockets and looked around. Miranda and Maria were here, Elliott, Kaelan, Delta, and Hunter as well. Sarah and Adelina had come in front of me so of course they were there too. A movement by the door distracted me and I looked over to see the door opening. Ivan walked in, his guitar case in hand. I smiled. "Hey Ivan!" I called. He walked over and set his guitar against a desk. He rested his arm on my shoulder as he stared at Rosa and my contraption. "Nice," he commented with a laugh.

"Thank you," Rosa replied, looking up from where she was kneeling on the floor. Ivan nodded as Rosa stood up. She clapped her hands together and grinned at me. "Alright Robert, let's do this."

A couple minutes later we were all crowded together in a group in front of our machine. Rosa held the remote and was currently going about the process of turning our invention on. "So let me get this straight," Hunter said suddenly. "We can go into TV shows with this thing?" Rosa nodded, still busy with the remote. "That's the idea," she replied. "But I still need a couple minutes to turn it on…"

"Ok, so I'll be back. I need to get a drink," Hunter said. He ran to the door and paused. "Don't leave without me!" Then he ran out. Rosa sighed. "Well then, I think I almost-" She was cut off by a series of pings and flashing lights. We all looked up and I stared in wonder and amazement at the flashing contraption. "It works!" I exclaimed. "It works!" Rosa hugged me and then we shared a high five. Ivan hugged me from behind. "Great job!" he congratulations. I let out a laugh when suddenly the world went silent…

And we were all thrown forward. We seemed to be tossed down a black tube and I felt like I had just been pushed out of a plane. I could vaguely see others around me but everything was going too fast for me to get a solid look. Everything was black and I could hear voices surrounding us. I probably would have been freaked out except that the voices were light and happy and in… a… different… language?

A flash of red.

What language are they speaking?
A streak of green.

It sounded like…

A solid wall of white coming straight at me.

Japanese?

Thud! My back hit something solid and a tingle of pain raced around my body. I groaned, putting a hand to my head as I pushed myself into a sitting position. I looked around to see that everything was slightly blurry. I ran a hand over the ground until I found my glasses. Sliding them over my eyes my jaw dropped. Around me, no, around us, was a circle of Japanese people. They walked around us like we had fallen from the sky which, I guess, we had.

"What the hell?" "Where did they come from?" "What are they doing here?" "Crazy kids." "Mommy, who are those people?" I shook my head as I slowly got to my feet. How could I understand them? Weren't they speaking Japanese? I took a step towards a guy about my age. "Excuse me, where is this?" I asked. He looked me over. "You're outside of Tokyo City Hall, white boy," he replied before turning his back on me.

I blinked in surprise and turned around to see the rest of the group getting to their feet. Rosa stared at me, her eyes wide. "Robert!" she whispered. "We're in Japan!" I nodded and she whipped her head around. "But-But what anime are me in?" she asked.

"Anime?" I asked. Rosa nodded, still looking around. "Yeah, I set it the anime setting-"

"OH MY FUCKING GOD!" Rosa and I spun around to see Ivan clutching a black notebook in his hands. His eyes were as wide as they could go, his mouth hanging open, and his face pale. "OH MY MOTHER FUCKING JESUS GOD!" He looked over at me before pointing across the street. I looked to where he was pointing and then back to him. "Ivan-"

"WHAT THE HELL ISTHAT-THAT THING!" I took a step towards him. "Ivan, what are you talking about?"

"THAT FUCKING MONSTER OVER THERE!"

"What monster? Ivan, there's nothing-"

"YES! YES THERE IS!" I nodded slowly. "Alright Ivan. Mhmm. Sure there is." Ivan's eyes went wider, if that was possible, as he looked back across the street. "IT'S RIGHT MOTHER FUCKING THERE! AND – OH MY GOD IT'S STARING STRAIGHT AT ME! IT-IT JUST SMILED AT ME!" Ok, now I was getting worried. I heard someone step up beside me and I looked over. It was Miranda and Maria. "Where are we and what's wrong with Ivan?" Miranda asked. I shrugged. "I have no idea," I replied. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ivan move, dart across to the other side of the street.

"Ivan!" I screamed. I took a step, moving to run after him, but Maria was faster, breaking into a sprint mere seconds after he moved. Miranda put a hand on my shoulder. "We'll get him. You stay here and figure out where we are," she said before running after Maria. I watching the three of them run off until they disappeared down another street.

I sighed and closed my eyes, pinching the bridge of my nose. When I reopened my eyes Rosa was talking to Sarah and Adelina, and Kaelan and Delta were both looking at the spot where Ivan had been pointing. As I watched, Adelina shrieked and waved her arms around before breaking off from the group and sprinting away. I heard Sarah groan and then she too ran off. I moved to stand next to Rosa. "Rosa, we just lost over half our group in a city, in a TV show, that we don't know," I pointed out worriedly. Rosa smiled. "I know where we are," she replied. I blinked. "You do?" She nodded. "We're in Tokyo, Japan in the world of Death Note."