Moriko

My name is Moriko, I'm fifteen years old and I live in the heart of Shinjuku with my twin brother Taiki and our parents. My mum is a photographer and takes pride in her work that she does whereas my dad, he designs computer games all day- I barely see him. I'm your not-so-typical girl that loves to blog, surf the internet and write to my penpal in another part of town, called Eiji. We write to each other about everything, about school, home, our friends, just about everything.

Whenever my dad created some new software, he would get me and Taiki to test it. There was this one time where we were testing a new game. We played it for hours. Until the screen froze.

"Moriko, what did you do?" my twin shouted at me.

"Me! What did you do?"

Taiki started panicking and sank to the floor mumbling inaudibly to himself.

"Cool it Taiki, I'll just reboot the computer." I held the power button and the computer started up again but when I did a voice spoke to us.

"Moriko Satzumi and Taiki Satzumi, you are about to embark on a journey that will test your limits, are you willing to accept?" The voice was a man's voice, similar to my dad's voice, but it was not his voice, it was different.

"What do we do, Taiki?" I asked, scanning the computer screen which was blank.

"We say no."

"We can't say no." I fumbled on the keyboard typing "Moriko accepts" and the voice replied,

"Taiki Satzumi, you will be asked again, will you accept?" Taiki put his head between his leg and rocked himself gently.

"Taiki," I whispered, "We can do this together."

Taiki nodded, rolling his head back a little. "Yes, I'll do it." Taiki typed onto the keyboard "Taiki accepts"

"Now, you must find two others to accompany you to the digital world. We want to see if you will pick the right people," the male voice added.

I knew exactly what to do, I ran out of the house and towards Yoyogi train station. The streets were busy and heaving with people. I sprinted out across the diagonally striped crossing on the road and into the station building which looked like a raised metal box surround by a fence.

"Moriko, where are you going?" I heard Taiki call out as he chased after me, struggling to keep up. I ran right up to the thankfully queue less ticket office.

"One ticket, for one stop- and I need a return," I said, impatiently tapping out a rhythm on the metal counter of the ticket office as my ticket was printed.

"There you are, have a safe journey," the lady replied, smiling at me. Her skin was pale and she had dark curls that hung on her shoulders.

"I'll have what she had," Taiki demanded, sometimes he can be so impolite. I dashed up the stairs and onto the platform just as the train had just pulled up to the station.

"Come on Taiki!" I called out standing half on, half off the train, much to the annoyance of the man blowing his whistle at me.

Taiki came running onto the stairs but he tripped, flying through the air.

"Taiki!" I screeched over the blaring whistle.

I rushed forwards to pull him off the floor and heaved him backwards, almost falling onto the train as the doors closed.

Part of me wondered whether Taiki tripping was meant to be fate's way of saying we weren't meant to find two other people so easily. "You have to be more careful, Taiki!" I shouted at him causing the whole carriage of people trying to get home to turn and look at us. "Alright, look away people, nothing to see here!" I glared at everyone until they looked away, focusing their attention on their phones, or the obviously unengaging newspaper articles.

The train chugged along until it reached the next station. I got off and scanned the station, a boy wearing a baseball cap, zipped sweater and ripped jeans sat on a wooden bench by the platform sketching out the view on a notepad.

"Eiji," I whispered, cautiously approaching the boy. Everything seemed to be falling into place so easily. "Sometimes. I believe that there's a reason we wrote to each other." I started. The boy looked up and we stared at each other.

"Moriko?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's me," I replied. Another girl, with blond hair that was tied up in two bunches that hung down either side of her face walked up to us. She had bright blue eyes and a beautiful smile. She hugged Eiji, holding him closely and watching me with those blue orbs, almost trying to warn me off. "Who are you?" I asked politely.

"Me, why I'm Kira! Nice to meet you Moriko." She held out her hand and I shook it gently, her hand tightly clasped mine. Almost squeezing it a little too tightly.

I pulled my hand back and rubbed it as her blue eyes narrowed. I could tell that, right now, she didn't like me.

"Moriko, why are we here?" Taiki asked tapping my shoulder.

"These are our companions Taiki, don't you see it? This is what the computer was talking about." I shook his shoulders. "Me, you, Eiji and Kira are the people that are going on an adventure. These are the two we were meant to find."

"We're going on an adventure!" Kira exclaimed a little quizzically under the enthusiasm. As if she found the whole thing peculiar. I guess it's not every day that you and your friend are asked to go on an adventure with two strangers.

"I'd love too," Eiji murmured, interlocking his hands behind his head. "I need to get away from my family."

After Eiji finished his sentence, Kira instantly agreed to go. Most likely, she had a crush on him.

"Are you guys sure? This could be for an incredibly long time, you know. We don't know how long we will be gone," Taiki asked.

The two nodded.

Inside, I felt a tightness in my chest. It was like my body was making me feel guilty for practically forcing the other two to leave their families behind. It was too easy in a way. Part of me could tell that this was going to be a life changing experience, but I couldn't tell them that. I felt that, if I did, they would never have agreed to come with us. We don't even know where we are going. I was worried but I felt like the male voice that spoke to us needed us for a reason and I wanted to know what that reason was for.

Taiki was going to follow me wherever I went, it was how it had always been, but when we returned to our house, it felt like someone had been and gone.

I walked along the hall slowly and pushed open the door to the computer room. The computer screen was now a pale blue which illuminated the room, and four eggs.

Four eggs. Large eggs. Four large eggs lay on the floor. The first one was yellow with orange flecks around an orange circle. The second one was turquoise with red slashes on it. The third was red with purpled curly stripes on it and the last one was blue with a grey circle on it.

"Welcome back, her are your digi eggs. They are your possession now. Taiki and Moriko, you have passed the first challenge of finding two companions. Now you will come with me."

Taiki, Eiji, Kira and I were sucked into the computer along with the four digi eggs, our screams echoing through the empty apartment.

I remembered falling down a huge tube that was a huge spiral of colour. I closed my eyes tightly, hoping that it would all come to an end soon. All the more, my brain was racing ahead of me.

I just couldn't believe I left Mum and Dad without saying goodbye. Not to mention that Eiji and Kira came so willingly. Everything all seemed to fall into place so unbelievably easily, too easily.

Thoughts from AspiringWriterGirl = So this chapter has undergone a rewrite, hopefully it's improved, let me know what you think. I hope you like the new characters.