A/N: Hehe, I decided to post another story while I finished my next chapter for Darkness Of The Heart...There don't seem to be many Uninhabited Planet Survive (or Planet Survival) stories out here, most of them are in spanish anyways ^^U I hope you enjoy this fanfic as much as I enjoy writing it!
Disclaimer: Mujin Wakusei Survive (Uninhabited Planet Survive! or Planet Survival for short) rightfully belongs to NHK. I only own the original characters which may appear during the story.
°°TT°°TT°°Chapter 1: Fiery Problems°°TT°°TT°°
"Now, press this button so you can see how the gravitational control unit is doing," a tall, raven haired man instructed his daughter in the spaceship's control room; he was white skinned and had big electric blue eyes.
The twelve year old girl did as she was told, the same eyes as the father scanning over the digital keypad, the only difference being that there was a more gentle light in them like the one her mother's used to have, and they held a sadness pretty well hidden. They had been like that since her mother died three years ago by sudden illness.
"Well, it seems to be in good condition," the father stated after inspecting the graphics that had appeared on the huge screen.
However, just as he finished his sentence, the lights turned off and an alarm that could be heard all over the small ship went off, sending red beams of light all over the room. "What the…Brother, what's happening!" the father asked the girl's uncle, who was currently driving the ship. He looked pretty much the same as his brother did, only that he had dark brown hair instead of dark blue.
"The radar is only detecting meteors, but they're too many…" the uncle explained, apparently not understanding the situation they were in.
The girl's pet-robot then decided to look outside of the window, and his mouth fell wide open once he saw the reason of why all those space wastes were congregated in that place.
"A BLACK HOLE!" he had screamed, falling backwards, away from the window. Everyone stayed still, shocked by the news, and in less than a second everyone started to do the emergency protocol.
"Kimiko, move aside!" the father told her daughter in a rush, as she jumped off the chair and positioned herself behind it.
People were running to save as much time as they could, talking through the radios so quickly the girl couldn't understand them, and beads of sweat were rolling down her father's and uncle's concentrated faces. Suddenly, one of the meteors hit the spaceship from behind, making the ship to shake violently and the power to go off.
"Damn it!" the father cursed out loud when the screens and programs turned off, even the alarm was no longer sounding nor flashing red lights.
"Everyone, go to the escape capsules! Quickly!" her uncle suddenly commanded, standing up from his chair.
The crew didn't need to be told twice, and they all both rushed to the back part of the ship blindly.
"What are you doing! We can't have them all scattered around!" the oldest brother yelled, as the ship was moved violently by the gigantic rocks once more.
The girl couldn't hear what both siblings were arguing about, since she was too scared to do anything else than to look around with wide eyes, her loyal dog-robot standing beside her.
Eventually, the younger brother went running out the door, probably to still catch an escape capsule seeing as there were not enough for the whole crew. The father managed to get to his daughter's side and grabbed her hand, dragging her through the once light blue hallways to the place where the capsules were kept, but when they finally arrived, they saw the remaining staff perfectly aligned, saluting the father…the Captain. Seeing this, his eyes softened as he scanned the lines of people, finding his most loyal followers but his own brother. The father led the girl and her dog towards the last capsule, lifted her up, and placed her down on the empty seat.
"Everything is going to be alright, ok? This is just a precaution…I wouldn't want to lose you," the father told her daughter softly, caressing her left cheek.
"No it's not. It's going to be the same as with Mom," the girl said quietly, as her pet-robot jumped to get a seat beside her.
"That's not true. We're going to use the wrap-system to get out of here," the father tried to comfort the blond haired girl, though his voice cracked at the end of the lie.
"You're going to activate it without energy?" the girl asked sarcastically, tears already streaming down her soft cheeks. The father leaned in and hugged her tight, grabbing a handful of her long silky blond hair.
"I want to stay here with you," the girl managed to say in-between sobs, her voice muffled by her father's shoulder.
"Now I want you to listen to me very well, Kimiko. No matter what happens today, I want you to live a happy and plentiful life. Koinu will always be by your side, taking care of you," the father said, holding back his own tears.
"You can count on that. I'll always be your best friend," the pet-robot said, his irregular eyes big and brimmed with tears, but his voice holding nothing but the truth.
"But I don't want to live without you! Please don't leave me!" the girl begged, getting a stronger grip of her dad's uniform.
"No! Promise me you'll live! Promise me you'll survive!" the father said harshly, holding his daughter by her shoulders. The girl nodded sadly, new tears cascading down her face.
That was when another jolt made them remember the situation they were in, and the father quickly pushed the girl inside the capsule, locking it from the outside and launching it.
"Dad! Wait, don't do this to me! Don't be the same as Mom! You can't do this! Dad! DADDY!" the girl screamed, pressing her face and hands on the glass that covered and protected the capsule.
°°TT°°TT°°
"D-Dad!" I cried out, sitting-up panting on my bed. I sighed, tired of dreaming the same memory this whole week, and rested my head on my hands. That was when I noticed that it was covered by dried up tears. I quickly grabbed my bed sheets and rubbed my face against them, cleaning away the tears.
"You had that dream again," a kind voice practically stated from in front of me. I looked up and found Koinu sitting on the lower part of my bed, looking at me with his left blue eye and right green one.
"What time is it?" I asked him, not wanting to talk more about the subject.
"Its 7:10am, you have time to wash yourself while I make breakfast," he said, kind of proud of his good job on waking me early.
"Thanks. I could really use a warm shower right now," I told him with a smile as I stood up. That was when my coughs started attacking me, making me to bend forward slightly.
"Hey Kimiko-chan, you ok?" he asked concerned, jumping off of my bed.
"Daijoubu, daijoubu. I'm going to take a shower now," I said while smiling, waving his worry off, as I went to take off my shirt.
"Ok, I'll have your medicine ready too," he announced, leaving my room to let me have some privacy.
I turned to my drawer and picked up the picture that showed my father, mother, and me together at the snow covered park. They were both carrying me, and we all held a joyful smile upon our faces.
"Ohayo Otou-san, Okaa-san" I said, looking at the picture with a soft smile on my face.
°°TT°°TT°°
I got down to the first floor of my apartment by using the circular elevator, already cleaned and dressed. "Your breakfast is ready," Koinu informed me from over the kitchen, as I entered the bathroom to do my hair.
"I'll be there in a minute," I replied as I pulled my long blond hair back into a ponytail that reached my mid-back, leaving my elbow-length bangs untied.
I took one last look at myself in the mirror, and I thought I looked ready. I was wearing a black tube top with baggy brown pants. I rushed to the kitchen and sat by the table, looking down at the plate of food that Koinu had prepared. There was bread, sausages, salad, soup, and my four different pills on the middle. Even if they were too many and tasted horrible, they kept my coughing away during school, and they prevented me from getting sick.
I quickly ate my breakfast and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Once that was done, I rushed over to Koinu and petted his head goodbye, slipped on my black sneakers with a golden line running through them, and took the digital key of my apartment door. "Bye Koinu! I'll see you later!" I called over at him, who still stayed at the kitchen making a glass of apple juice.
"Hai! Just be careful out there! Oh! And I almost forgot!" he called back to me right before I closed the door behind me, making me to pop my head inside once again. "I heard we have new neighbors, so I may go pay a welcome visit," he explained, as I just nodded in agreement and closed the door behind me.
I walked out of the green apartments building which was currently my home and started to walk over the electric bands, still having time to reach the school without having a tardy. I looked up towards the sky as the band passed through the rest of the blue, red, and green apartments that were built together to form some sort of community. I still thought that the blue color of some buildings was cooler than the lime green of mine, but I was comfy where I was, so I'm not complaining. I kept on watching my surroundings as I walked, completely amused by the flying cars, the long subway, the upper-class people that just let the moving band take them to their destinations, and the artificial sky above. Life in Colony Roka A-2 sure was different from my past life in Uranus…I have never seen snow in here for example, and I missed making figures with it and wearing my winter clothes.
I was taken out of my thoughts when I realized I was finally walking beside the light green walls that surrounded the Soria campus. Sadly, the architecture was not so pretty. It just looked like a tanned bundle with small windows and purple lines here and there, though it did have a huge garden. I passed through the gates and into the school, taking the hallway that would lead me to where my locker was located. I finally found my lime green locker and pulsed down the password.
"Honestly, does everything around here must be green?" I thought as I placed my books in my beige shoulder backpack.
I raised my head when I heard some tumbling noises on the next hallway, followed by some laughs, and then some insults. I frowned and walked over to check on it, and it didn't surprise me to find Howard alongside his 'friends' picking on someone, and I immediately got pissed off. Howard was quite skinny, with short pale blond hair and pale green eyes, he didn't even had a good fashion taste since he was just wearing a gray outfit with a dark red shirt underneath the jacket. So, why did he feel as he had the power? Because he's the son of the CEO of the most influential company on this colony. Tch, what an arrogant brat.
And who were they bullying? Bell, the most insecure and shy boy in the whole school, and I really don't know why very well since he's the complete opposite from Howard. He was tall, strong, had spiky brown hair, small black eyes, and tanned skin. You usually saw him wearing an orange sweatshirt and green cargo pants and boots. Well, I think he's the way he is because of his gentle heart. Still…he needs to know how to defend himself, but Howard is threatening to fire his father if he doesn't do what he's told…I think those are pretty good reasons for not being able to tolerate Howard, so I might as well save Bell again.
It was just then that I noticed a girl I had not seen before, standing there frowning at Howard. She had very short orange hair, big blue eyes of a darker color than mine, and she was wearing a yellow jacket, a brown miniskirt with white leggings, and orange and pink tennis shoes. Better end this quickly.
I walked towards them with a serious expression on my face, my eyes fixed on Howard. "Oi, what do you think you're doing?" I asked in a severe tone with my hands on my hips, making the small crowd to turn and look at me. The moment Howard saw me, a growl escaped his lips as he twitched in annoyance. "I thought I said you couldn't ask Bell to do your chores anymore," I told him, making his upper lip twitch slightly.
"I don't take orders from you! And he's the one who said he wanted to scrub our shoes!" he exclaimed, leaning over a bit.
Bell only cowered, knowing I couldn't do anything to free him out of this. My stare slowly turned into a glare, and to my surprise, Howard took a step back.
"And you so willingly accepted his offer, how kind of you Howard, you have just made his dream come true," I said sarcastically, totally unaware of the amazed looks I was receiving from the spectators at the moment. "Why don't you do us another favor and stop being as lazy to the point you can't even clean your own shoes for yourself!" I kept attacking, being careful to not insult him directly just in case.
As if on cue, a strange whistling sound was heard all over the hallway, indicating the beginning of class. Howard sent me one last cold glare before turning around and walking towards our classroom. After he was out of sight, I turned my glare towards Bell, who shrunk even more against the wall, looking down in shame.
"I don't know why I still even care," I told him quietly, turning my back to him and also starting to walk to the classroom. As I was walking, I could hear two pair of feet following me, not too far behind.
"Sharla, who is she?" I heard a girl ask, probably the orange-haired one from before.
"Her name is Kuriyama Kimiko. She too is a transfer student, from Uranus. She's actually very kind and fun to be with, but she's dangerous when she's mad," I heard the shy girl, Sharla, answer, apparently not even trying to lower her voice.
Hmm, I hadn't even notice her back there. I know I'm one of Sharla's few friends, maybe even the only one, since people always made fun of her for having such a huge imagination. She had wavy shoulder-length brown hair and she wore glasses over her innocent green eyes. She liked to wear a soft pink and blue sweatshirt, long brown shorts, dark blue knee-high socks, and dark brown shoes.
"Then why was she so rude to Bell and Howard!" the girl asked confused, not understanding my actions in the least.
"Kimiko has been defending Bell from Howard since she entered the school 2 months ago. I would be tired too of having to deal with the same situations over and over again," Sharla explained, completely taking my side on this.
Their conversation didn't last long since we reached the door to our classroom, and they both separated, Luna going towards the teacher and Sharla taking her seat. I walked quietly towards my seat, pretending to not have heard anything, and sat down before placing my backpack next to my desk.
I turned to look at the boy who sat to my right, who was spread on his chair apparently asleep. He had messy dark brown hair, light brown eyes, and slightly tanned skin. I saw him wearing a pair of black trousers, a black t-shirt, a pair of black shoes, and a gray vest very often including today. His name was Kaoru, and I had learned it during one of the times the teacher called him just the way I supposed he must know mine, since we had hardly talked to one another. However, that doesn't mean we hate each other, at least we have some tolerance between ourselves.
"Okay class, I want to introduce you to your new classmate, Luna," the teacher called out to us, gaining our attention. Beside him, in front of the class, was standing the girl from the hallway, looking far away from nervous.
"Well, Luna was raised in a colony on Mars and was encouraged with annual funding to become a great addition to our school. She transferred here by winning the Howard Foundation's Institutional Scholarship Award. In our class, after a certain student, who skipped two years because of exceptional grades, named Shingo…" he kept on saying, patting the head of a boy wearing glasses sitting at the front of the class. Apparently he was trying to fix some kind of device, seeing as he was using a screwdriver skillfully.
"…we had the pleasure to receive Kimiko from Uranus," the teacher finally continued, extending the palm of his right hand in my direction as if to point me out. "And now, we are honored to have our third transfer student. Everyone, please welcome her," he finally finished his little speech, feeling proud that almost every transfer student had been placed in his class.
"I'm Luna. I'm pleased to meet you," the girl said with a smile, which quickly disappeared after seeing our bored expressions.
"Sit in that empty seat over there," the teacher told her, motioning towards the available seat beside Sharla.
"I'm so glad I get to sit next to you, Sharla," Luna told her new friend excitedly, flashing a smile in her direction.
"Me as well. Glad to see you," Sharla replied respectfully, before the teacher continued with his class.
"Now, we'll discuss the class field trip that will finally be next week. Because this special field trip is a part of our real-life research studies, our main goal will be to understand and experience the colonization of planets first hand," the teacher explained, climbing up to his desk that was positioned a little bit higher than ours. "Computer, light off. Hologram on," he commanded, the lights turning off and a hologram of a contaminated planet appearing almost immediately.
He then started a slightly boring explanation on how humankind destroyed the ozone layer of the Earth and started to colonize Mars, process in which many people lost their lives. And please, notice that when I say 'slightly boring' I actually mean I wanted to do the same as Kaoru: just close my eyes and do as if I was actually imagining the whole thing, well, at least he was doing so in his dreams. I wonder how Kaoru manages to get those high grades if he always pretends to sleep through the lessons…
After some more periods of torture, time for physical education class finally came. It's not that I'm a super fan of sports, but at least you can do something else than sitting there and listening to boring lessons. We even learned a few defensive techniques once! I entered the girls changing rooms and walked to my locker, not at all surprised to find that my password was not working. I sighed and rolled my eyes once I saw some of Howard's friends snickering evilly at me, and just ignored them. I typed the secret code I once discovered was the locker's original one, the one that could open it no matter what. Once the door was opened, I used the small mirror that was behind it to see the shocked faces of the two girls. I once again ignored them and changed into the blue outfit with yellow lining for gym that also had a white t-shirt underneath.
I was closing and putting a new password on my locker when I heard Sharla's voice on the next row of lockers. "That's strange. This locker was open just a little while ago." I heard her say, probably talking to Luna. "Hey, Luna doesn't have a locker yet. Is there an extra one anywhere?" Sharla asked, leaning over the row of lockers so that she could take a glance to where I was standing behind Howard's friends.
"I don't know. Why don't you look for one yourself?" the girl with short brown hair asked her arrogantly, completely brushing her off.
"Sharla, if you keep hanging around that transfer student, your locker might disappear too," the other girl with short blond hair told her coldly.
"Hey, what the heck does that mean? If you're so brave to go there giving threats to my friends, I would like to see you actually keeping one," I suddenly said, directing the girls' attention to me for second time this day.
However, the bullies just humped and walked outside without answering me. I turned to Luna and Sharla and gave them a smile, my attitude changing completely. "You're having problems to open the empty locker, right? Here, let me help you," I told them in a kind tone, giving them a small smile. I stood in front of the locker that Sharla was trying to open and decided to put the original password of my own locker. Who knows? Maybe it was the same password for every locker…
Wow, perhaps I'm psychic, because the locker did open. "Sugoi! How did you do it?" Luna asked me amazed, though I noticed that Sharla had a troubled expression on her face.
"I just typed the original password of my locker. It seems to be the same for this one too," I replied with a sheepish smile, helping Luna to put all her belongings in her new locker.
"Thanks a lot! I'm Luna by the way, and I suppose you must be Kimiko," she told me, making me to smile at her and nod.
"Yep, that's me! Huh? What's wrong Sharla?" I asked her, seeing as she was not paying attention to our conversation.
"It's Howard. He's trying to ostracize us because of what happened this morning," Sharla told us, her gaze lost somewhere at the end of the hallway.
"I see. So he's only good at planning things like that," Luna quickly caught up, looking at Sharla sympathetically.
"I wonder why anyone can't just get along. Right?" I asked the both of them cheerfully, trying to improve the mood of our conversation. I couldn't help but remember my relationship with Kaoru, never talking but tolerating each other, that way people could stop fighting for a long period of time.
"What should we do? We're going to be ignored by everyone starting from today," Sharla said in anguish, biting down on her thumb nail worriedly.
"It'll be alright! We're here with you, alright?" Luna told her while placing her right fist over her heart, as if making a promise.
I frowned when I saw that tears were already starting to form in her eyes, and my voice suddenly got a little bit lower.
"Is this really the power other people have over you? Do you really care this much about what people say about you, even if they don't really even know you?" I asked her, kind of disappointed by her attitude, but she just lowered her gaze to the ground refusing to look at me.
°°TT°°TT°°
"Alright! All students not in the game, practice passing," the tall teacher of gym class instructed, and immediately people started to toss each other an orange basketball. "Now, Teams A and B, go into the first court! Menori, I'll leave that game to you," the coach told the blue haired girl beside him.
She had long wavy blue hair, was tall, and very strict, never wanting to break the rules, and her small purple eyes would stare accusingly at you if you ever did something wrong. She's the Student Council President and the chairman of the disciplinary section at our school, and I bet you can guess why. Even so, I like her, and she seems to like me because I have never gotten myself into trouble, not even when I'm fighting off bullies. Perhaps she doesn't agree with my form of dressing since it's so 'revealing', but since there's no written rule about it, she never says anything.
I watched longingly how both teams headed towards the court, as I received the ball from my classmate standing in front of me. I watched the team members line up in front of one another, preparing to start the match of air-ball. Howard, one of the girl from the lockers, and another brown haired boy formed one of the teams, and Luna, Sharla, and Kaoru formed the other one.
"Aw, I so wanted to play," I thought sadly as I kept passing the ball to the boy in front of me.
After some minutes of this same boring sequence of events, the whistle Menori was carrying around her neck suddenly sounded. I quickly turned my head in time to see Luna running towards Sharla, who was lying on the floor behind Howard. My hand then shot up, catching the ball that was flying directly towards my head. I turned to see the boy's shocked expression from seeing me catching the ball without even looking at it, and threw the ball back at him before sprinting over to my two friends. I picked up Sharla's glasses on my way, and sighed once I saw they were intact.
"Thank goodness, your glasses didn't break," I told Sharla once I knelt down in front of her and handed her the glasses.
"Thank you. Sorry, Luna. Can I sit this one out?" Sharla thanked me before turning to look at the red haired girl.
"Are you hurt somewhere?" Luna asked worried, inspecting her with her gaze.
"No, but if I keep playing more horrible things…" Sharla trailed off, shaking her head repeatedly.
"I know those guys are doing it on purpose," Luna said, following my gaze to look at Howard and the brown haired girl from the lockers, who were laughing together. "That makes me not want to quit even more. I don't want to lose no matter what," Luna explained confidently, raising her right fist unconsciously.
"If you quit now, you'll be doing just what they want you to," I told her softly, making their attention to fall on me now. However, we all turned around when Menori walked up to us, looking down at Sharla emotionlessly.
"Can you go on?" she asked her, waiting for a reply that didn't come.
"I should have known…Sharla is not ready yet," I thought, quickly making a decision. I nodded once to myself and stood up, turning to face Menori.
"Menori, Sharla's ankle is twisted a little bit, she can't keep playing for now. Please, let me play in her place," I begged her, bowing slightly and placing my hands out in front of me as if I was praying. My both friends stared at me in shock, but there was gratitude painted all over Sharla's eyes.
"Okay, Sharla can sit on those benches. Continuing the match!" Menori instructed, raising her whistle and blowing on it, while I turned my anti-gravity boots on.
Luna had the ball since the beginning and she quickly passed it to me. I caught it and started to run towards the big floating goal, but it was not long after that the girl from the lockers came and tried to intercept me. I evaded her skillfully, and passed the ball back to Luna. She kept running towards the goal but at the same moment that she jumped to make the first point, Howard, Kaoru, and I jumped after her at the same time.
"Like I'd let you!" Howard shouted, reaching out to grab Luna's ankle in order to pull her down.
After that moment, it all happened as if I someone had pushed a slow-motion button. Luna turned around and tossed the ball back at me once more while in the air; Sharla called over to Menori, gaining her attention for a few seconds; Kaoru took advantage of this and did a roundhouse kick at Howard's left foot making him lose his balance; and I took this opportunity to place the ball inside the hole of the floating goal, scoring us the point and causing the alarm to beep.
"Goal!" Menori shouted after blowing on her whistle, having missed Kaoru's trick because of Sharla, who obviously did it on purpose.
We then all landed at the same time, Kaoru, Luna and me gracefully, and Howard crashing against the cushions of the wall. The moment Luna's feet touched the ground, she sprinted towards Sharla with opened arms, calling her name. They both hugged and started to jump on the same place, cheering happily. I watched this from the middle of the court, smiling slightly to myself, but I then turned to my left when I heard Howard complaining.
"Kaoru! You did that on purpose!" he exclaimed from the floor, raising a fist towards the boy's direction. Kaoru stopped walking beside me and looked off at the other side, hooking his thumbs on the band of his blue shorts.
"It's ok if the referee doesn't see, right?" he retorted, probably quoting Howard just a few minutes ago, and without another word, he started to walk back to the men changing rooms.
"You better remember this," I heard Howard say under his breath, as he growled lowly in anger. I sent him a warning glare, and went to join Luna and Sharla, who were still jumping around happily.
"Kimiko-chan! We did it! We did it!" Luna exclaimed, now rushing over and almost tackling me in a hug. I chuckled and returned the hug, Sharla joining us not long after, but neither of us noticed how Bell watched us from far away, completely impressed on how we placed Howard where he belonged.
°°TT°°TT°°
"So you're living alone, Luna?" Sharla asked our new friend as we all let the electric bands take us through the city towards our homes, earning a nod from her. It was almost sunset, and I bet Koinu must be already making dinner by now. "What about your parents?" she kept on asking, wanting to know more about Luna.
"My father died in an accident when I was 8. My mother two years earlier from sickness," Luna answered quietly, but still smiling slightly, not at all bothered with the question.
"Sorry. I asked you a weird question," Sharla said looking down in shame, a bit of pink crossing the bridge of her nose.
"No! It's ok. They'll both always be in my heart. I'm not lonely at all! What about you, Kimiko?" Luna then asked me, flashing a smile at my direction.
"Exact same story as you. Though my mother died when I was nine, and my father when I was twelve," I told her, also with a smile on my face, though my eyes were telling otherwise.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess it's strange we have so much in common," she told me, still smiling cheerfully. I chuckled and nodded, completely agreeing.
"You're both so strong. Even if I was told to live on my own it would be impossible," Sharla told us in awe, not understanding how we could be so fine without having a family.
"It's nothing if you get used to it," I told her calmly, shifting my weight to my right leg and putting my hand on my hip.
"Oh! Now that I think about it, I'm not alone at all! I have this obnoxious pet-robot named Chako," Luna exclaimed, placing her index finger on her chin, remembering.
"I see. An obnoxious pet-robot? Sounds rare," Sharla commented, sharing a look with me who totally agreed. I mean, I would never thought of Koinu as 'obnoxious'.
"Isn't it though? Because of it, my life is so much harder," Luna told us nodding, making me sweat drop.
"I'm completely opposite from you now. My pet-robot is actually my best friend and he always takes care of me. I don't know where I would be now if he was not there with me the whole time," I told her, joining my hands behind me and leaning over a bit so that I could see her beside Sharla, who was walking between the both of us.
"Ahhh! Outta the way! Outta the way!" we then heard someone screaming behind us.
We all turned around in time to see the small genius from our class, Shingo, going at full speed towards us in his air-scooter. He squeezed in-between Luna and Sharla, the last one jumping back and bumping into me, sending me crashing to the floor.
"It's that kid again!" Luna shouted, pointing at the retreating form of the orange-haired boy, completely unaware that I was sitting on the ground.
I watched how Shingo then took a wrong turn, and crashed against a security fence that was preventing people from entering the basement of a building to our left, that looked more like a parking lot. I gasped and quickly stood up, running towards him with Luna and Sharla at my heels. Shingo was sitting on the ground, holding his pounding head under his blue helmet, wincing slightly.
"Are you ok?" I asked him worriedly as I knelt down beside him.
"Yeah, somehow," he replied truthfully, looking up at me with a grateful smile.
"I see, then it's all right," I told him, sending him a closed-eye smile.
"That's an interesting vehicle there," Luna suddenly told him, inspecting the crushed scooter closely.
"Oh this? This is my invention. This thing actually uses gasoline," Shingo told us proudly, standing up and removing his helmet.
"What! Fossil fuels? Doesn't that have to be regulated by the colony? And there's also the problem with air pollution," Luna asked outraged, turning to look at Shingo with shocked eyes.
"I wish you wouldn't put down personal hobbies. My actions alone won't cause a large effect on anything," Shingo told her while he fixed his glasses, refusing to look at her since she had hurt his pride.
"But-" Luna started to say, before she was interrupted by a louder voice coming from somewhere near.
"What? Try saying that again!" the male voice shouted from under the basement of the parking lot, right across the metallic wall.
"That sounded like Howard," I suddenly said, making my friends to turn around and peer over the wall.
I mirrored their actions and was surprised that I was actually correct. Howard with two of his friends, one of them having short brown hair and the other one short orange hair, along with Bell standing on the sidelines had blocked Kaoru's way down there.
"You guys are really worthless," Kaoru repeated himself, not even caring to look at the gang standing in front of him.
"You! Do you think that nothing will happen after going against us in school?" the boy with short brown hair asked, glaring at Kaoru.
"If Howard's dad feels like it, he can not only make you leave school, but the colony, too!" the one with orange hair now said, raising his fists at his direction.
"Pointless. Makes me wanna throw up," Kaoru stated emotionlessly, moving to walk past the bullies, but at one of Howard's commands, the brown haired boy launched at Kaoru, moving his right fist to strike him.
That's when Kaoru took action, grabbing the boy's hand and twirling it so that it was immobilized at the boy's back. "I don't have time to deal with scum like you. Get out of my way!" Kaoru demanded, tossing the whining boy towards Howard, who just tossed him away too.
"Everyone get him!" Howard cried desperately, glaring at Kaoru.
It was just then that Luna came running to the scene, standing in-between Kaoru and Howard. I looked at her confused, since I had thought she was still up here with me, and when I turned to look at my friends, I discovered they had all moved a little bit closer to the fight.
"Stop this! Fighting isn't good!" Luna tried to reason with them, stretching her arms out trying to keep some distance between the aggressors and Kaoru.
"You're in the way! Move!" Howard hollered at her, motioning with his left arm.
"I won't move! And it's cowardly to have this many against one!" Luna said, standing her ground.
"Shut up! I can just ask my dad to take away your scholarship!" Howard threatened her with the same lame thing he had used against me when I first got here, while pointing at her mockingly.
"If you want to do that you can go ahead! I won't lose to something like that!" Luna said, emphasizing with a movement of her left hand, still standing in front of Kaoru.
"Baka! Everybody knows you can't just walk in like that in a fight! If everything goes wrong, then Kaoru would be more occupied trying to protect you instead of fighting back! What can I do?" I thought, still watching from above intently.
That's when I noticed another boy, this one with short black hair, sneaking up from behind Kaoru and Luna, holding a barrel above his head.
"This girl!" he said aloud, before hurling the barrel towards both kids, who turned around taken by surprise.
"That's cheating!" I shouted as I used my hands for impulse on the wall and swung my legs over it, aiming for the barrel.
Luckily, I reached it in time and kicked it away from my two friends still in the air, before landing skillfully beside them as they looked at me in awe, and that's when the real fight broke off.
Kaoru pushed Luna aside as he started to fight with the brown haired boy and Howard, as I handled the orange and the black haired ones. However, as Kaoru pulled one of his opponents to trip him, his foot slipped with the substance that had spilled out of the small barrel, sending him tumbling to the floor.
When I saw this, I pushed the orange haired boy away and stood in front of Kaoru in a defensive position, covering his back while he recovered from the fall. I realized a little too late that we had both sent our opponents crashing into a table full of tools, from where the boy I was fighting with took a big red toolbox and threw it at us after cleaning his bloody nose with the back of his hand. Kaoru quickly crouched and flipped backwards evading the toolbox, while at the same time I jumped to my right, landing on my hands and flipping forward in order to land on my feet.
Thanks to that, we all discovered that the liquid coming out of the barrel was actually gasoline, since it caught on fire when the metal from the toolbox emitted a spark once it collided with the ground. We all stared in shock how the fire started to spread over to where Luna, Sharla, and Shingo were standing, near the steps of a staircase.
"Luna, Sharla! Run!" I yelled over to them, and almost immediately the fire separated Luna and Sharla from Shingo, who ran to the opposite way leaving both girls trapped in the staircase.
"I had nothing to do with this!" Howard said cowardly, as he started to run away, quickly followed by his friends.
As I called over the two girls worriedly, I noticed that under the staircase were stowed four more containers of either gas or more gasoline, and my friends were standing right on top of them.
"Luna, Sharla! Run to the very top!" I instructed them, receiving a quick nod from their part.
I hurried them as I saw that Sharla could not run very well, and Luna had to drag her by her hand. I directed my gaze worriedly from the containers to the two girls, over and over again. It was just until they had reached the top that the gas containers finally blew up with the fire surrounding them, causing a huge explosion to form a few feet away from me. I tried to shield my face with my arms from the pieces of wood and metal that came flying over at me from the stairs, which were now destroyed, though I still ended up with deep scratches on my cheeks and arms, even on my exposed stomach.
"Sharla! Luna!" I called over to them, surprisingly not feeling the cuts on my skin.
I sighed relieved once I saw Sharla standing up and starting to press a red button to open the door that the stairs led to as Luna looked around them trying to see what she could do. I looked down to my feet and found a bent piece of metal that she could use as a lever to pry the door open. I bent down and picked it up, Shingo quickly running over to my side.
"What are you doing?" he asked me as if I had gone nuts.
"You go and call the fire department," I told him, right before I sprinted over to where my friends were trapped, getting as close as the fire would let me.
"It's dangerous! You can't do anything!" he called after me, reaching out to try and stop me even though I was already there.
I didn't notice Kaoru listening to our conversation, and he quickly started to look around for the fire alarm. He finally found it and rushed towards it, breaking its glass with a hard punch from his fist.
"Luna! You can use this to open the door!" I called over to her just as the alarm started to sound all over the place.
Luna nodded and grabbed the metal piece I had thrown at her, stabbing it in the indent of the door and putting pressure to it. However, just as she was doing it, the lower part of what was left of the staircase gave away, sending Luna and Sharla sliding down to the fire. Luna managed to grab the metallic railing and Sharla's hand, making both of them to hang on for dear life. I took a step forward, deciding to rush into the fire if they fell and get them out of there before they were incinerated, even if I ended up with a ruined skin.
"It's no use, we won't be saved!" Sharla said hopelessly, her feet dangling dangerously close to the fire below.
"Don't give up!" Luna said in-between groans of effort for trying to hold Sharla away from the fire as much as she could. "Shingo! Can you use a grazer!" Luna suddenly shouted over at the young boy, who was standing behind me, watching the scene in shock.
"What? I'll try!" he replied, rushing over the big machine standing on a corner of the basement.
I yelped in fear once the stair lowered itself even more, making Sharla to completely hang on the air, Luna almost falling off the stairs as well.
"Sharla, don't let go!" I begged, holding my hands in front of my chest as I looked at them with concerned eyes.
A sudden crashing noise caught my attention, making me to turn and see the grazer Shingo was riding buried under a small pile of boxes. Once I saw Shingo was not hurt, I turned to see my two friends back on the top of the stairs, apparently safe.
Well, I spoke too soon. The part of the stairs attached to the wall started to give out too, making the staircase to bend downwards dangerously. Luna and Sharla held on to the railing, the only thing that kept them from plummeting down towards certain death.
"Over here!" Shingo then shouted, turning our attention towards him.
My face lighted up in amazement once I realized he had managed to make the machine work, and he rode it closer to the fire to try to rescue the girls.
"Bring it closer! Hurry!" Luna said, reaching out in a desperate attempt to grab the platform sticking out of it, though it was still far away.
"I can't get any closer!" Shingo cried over desperately, and as I looked down, I found the wheels of the machine being stopped by one of the working bands attached to the ground. A gasp of surprise coming from Luna made me look up again, in time to see a big hook heading to their direction.
"Sharla, hold on to me tightly!" Luna told her hurriedly, making sure she was safely clinging to her back, but just as Luna reached out to grab the hook, she realized it was too far up, and it soon swung back over to the platform Kaoru was standing on.
I bit my lower lip worriedly as I turned my back to a very shocked Luna and ran over to the closer stairs in order to reach Kaoru. I rushed over to him and stopped by his side, panting a bit.
"Bring the hook back to us, quickly!" I told him, quickly looking at him before turning to check on Luna and Sharla.
This was bad, the stairs wouldn't last longer, and both girls were already sweating because of the heat. I carefully managed to stand on the thin railing protecting the platform Kaoru and me were currently in, readying to catch the big hook while keeping my balance.
"What are you doing!" I heard Kaoru ask behind me, clearly thinking I had lost my marbles. Maybe I had, considering what I was about to do.
I didn't care to answer him though, as I saw the hook coming nearer, and quickly jumped forward fortunately taking a good grip on the hook. I threw my legs over it and let the upper part of my body hang loose once I had secured my legs on it. I then started to balance the huge thing with my arms and stomach, each time getting closer to where Luna stood looking at me completely shocked. I finally managed to be close enough to reach my arms out in her direction, a couple of feet separating us now. Luna jumped forwards towards my outstretched hands at the exact same moment that the stairs finally fell down and I luckily managed to grab her wrists. We probably looked like those circus people on the trapeze right now.
My left eye then closed in pain as I winced when the burning stings I felt on my stretched stomach reminded me of the cuts I had, not to mention the pain I was starting to feel under my knees. Luna saw this and her expression changed into horror, realizing I was not going to resist any longer. But I wasn't that stupid, and I only let go once I saw that we were right above the circular platform from the grazer, making us all land safely but painfully on it. I could only kneel there, holding my stomach with my right hand and supporting me up with my left hand, trying to catch my breath.
"Sharla, are you injured?" I heard Luna ask the shy girl, and I think Sharla just shook her head, since she was too shocked to say a thing.
"Thanks, Shingo!" she called over to the short boy sitting by the controls.
"Heh, it's no biggie," he replied, rubbing underneath his nose with his finger in a modest way.
I looked up and found myself staring at Kaoru, who was leaning on the railing with a relieved smile gracing his lips.
"And thank you Kimiko, we would have been torched if it wasn't for you," Luna then thanked me, turning so that she was facing me, though she had to look down at me. "Kimiko! You're bleeding!" she suddenly gasped, lifting her right hand to cover her mouth.
"Don't worry, they're just scratches," I told her with a small smile, making a single drop of blood to slid down my cheek from the cut I had on my cheekbone.
°°TT°°TT°°
The loud sirens of the ambulances and firefighters that were nearing from the streets could be heard over the basement of the building we were currently in. Curious people had already started to watch the scene from over the security fence, and I got surprised once I realized that they were A LOT. As the firefighters extinguished the fire that had consumed the whole staircase, the medics had carried me over to a stretcher where they were already treating my cuts.
"This is all thanks to you calling them, Shingo!" I heard Luna thanking the small kid as she sized him from his shoulders, bending down to look at him eye to eye.
Just at the same time a firefighter wrapped Sharla with a blanket, walking her over to where I was sitting still being surrounded by freaked out doctors.
"Huh? I was too busy to do that," Shingo explained, making Luna to let go of him and straighten-up to her normal height.
"What? Then who?" She asked completely shocked and confused, tilting her head to the side.
"It could have been Howard…" Shingo speculated, scratching his left cheek in thought.
"Or, it could have been-" I started to say, but my voice got stuck in my throat once I saw our savior walking away from the scene, heading towards the street.
Luna looked around, trying to find the source of my sudden quietness, and surely enough she too saw Kaoru walking up the ramp leading towards the basement. She then turned to see me, completely spacing out and not paying attention to the doctors while my eyes were still fixed on the place Kaoru had been walking just a couple of minutes ago.
"Miss, you are ready to go," I barely heard the doctor next to me say while my mind was still replaying that tiny glance I had shared with the lonely boy.
He had been smiling…slightly, but he still had…now the question was, why? Was he proud of himself? Or is it that he really felt relieved that we were all safe? Or maybe Luna had caught his eye, being the new girl in school?
"That would be funny," I said under my breath with a small smile, finally jumping off the stretcher and heading towards my friends, shaking all this thoughts away.
As I sent a last look outside, I finally noticed that the sun had set just a few hours ago, the artificial sky already having a lame imitation of the brilliant stars that were dreaming outside the dome. It was just then that I realized the gravity of the situation.
"Eh! Is it already this late! Ah, Koinu is so going to kill me!" I exclaimed during my panic state, making my friends to look at me strangely.
"Koinu? Who's that?" Sharla asked me, looking utterly confused.
"Oh, he's my pet-robot. Didn't I say anything about him?" I explained, rubbing the back of my neck sheepishly.
"Then it would be better for me to go as well, my parents must be worried," Sharla decided, handing back the blanket she had been wearing over her shoulders.
"Yeah, I must be going too," Shingo added, fixing his glasses on the bridge of his nose.
"Let's start heading out then!" Luna suggested happily turning around and starting to walk in front of us.
We followed her silently, each one of us deep in thought. Once we stepped outside the building, the cool night breeze greeted us straight on the face. We kept on walking under the street lights that were illuminating the electric bands, and after a while both Shingo and Sharla had to turn to go to their respective houses, leaving both Luna and me alone. We walked silently for some time, wondering who of us was going to take a turn first.
"How are you feeling, Kimiko-chan?" Luna suddenly asked, making me to send her a confused stare. "I mean those cuts you had. They seemed to be very painful," she explained herself, motioning to my stomach to emphasize.
"Oh, I can no longer feel them actually," I answered, poking my flat stomach to prove my point.
"How did you heal so quickly?" she wondered, inspecting my bandages and seeing that there was no blood painting them.
"They weren't really deep," I told her with a smile, rubbing my head ashamed. To be honest, not even I knew that. I had always been like a magnet for sicknesses, hence all those pills I had to take.
"I see…and where did you learn all those cool moves?" Luna kept on asking, apparently feeling better now that the depressing silence was gone.
"I took some martial art classes a few years ago; it was a piece of cake!" I decided to brag a little bit, to add some humor to our conversation.
"Especially since Kaoru was helping you out," Luna managed to say in-between laughs, making me to immediately stop my giggling once it transformed into coughs.
"Now that you mention it…I never knew he knew how to fight too," I said deep in thought once my coughing stopped, making Luna to also stop laughing and look at me with a know-it-all face.
"So, Kimiko-chan, do you like him?" she asked me out of the blue, a sly smirk on her face, and her eyes sparkling evilly.
"What? N-No! Don't be ridiculous, I hardly even know him! We haven't talked at all!" I stuttered out of pure surprise, shaking my hands in front of me as if to dismiss such an idea.
"Aw, you two would look cute as a couple," she said now dreamily, small hearts dancing around her head, making me sweat drop as I mushroom sighed hopelessly.
"It's nothing like that. I just feel curious, since he hasn't talked to anyone I know of," I explained, playing with one of my long bangs.
"Yeah, now that I think about it-Huh? We're here already?" she interrupted herself, looking up at the apartment buildings surrounding us.
"You live here too?" I asked her, stopping my walking and letting the electric band take me towards my building.
"Un, in the third lime-colored building," she nodded at me, pointing towards my building.
"That's where my apartment is too!" I said excitedly, wondering how much more in common we actually had.
"Really? Then why didn't I see you in the morning?" she asked me, walking towards the band that led us right to the door of our building.
"I got up early, and didn't have to jump the doors just before they were closing," I told her, eyeing her from the corner of my eyes.
"Eh! How did you know?" she asked surprised, her eyes wide in shock.
"I arrived late on my first day of school as well. I guess its tradition already…" I told her with a shrug while we headed towards one of the elevators, finding the building already quiet, filled with people sleeping or eating supper. The elevator doors were already closing when I remembered what Koinu had told me in the morning.
"Now that I think about it…you must be the new neighbors Koinu was talking about," I mentioned as I pushed the button with our floor number printed on it.
Luna saw the number and smiled expectantly, nodding in agreement. The elevator eventually stopped and the doors opened, letting us step outside. We barely took 7 steps on the carpeted floor when two doors suddenly flew open in front of us, one door to the right, and the other one to the left.
"Where were you! You had me worrying to death!" a knee-high white dog with black ears and a black spot on his left big blue eye, wearing a blue jumpsuit and standing on his hind legs, yelled over at me with his left fist raised in my direction.
"Do you have any idea of what time is it!" now yelled a pink cat with big dark pink eyes and yellow snout, wearing a magenta jumpsuit and also standing on her hind legs, reaching the same height and standing on the same position as the small dog and pointing her fist towards Luna. We both sweat dropped, looking over at our overprotective guardians.
"Chako! It's not that late!" Luna quickly argued back, a tick mark appearing on both her head and the cat's.
I was starting to chuckle when the itching at my throat caused me to cough again, quickly raising my hand to cover my mouth.
"If you had arrived earlier, this wouldn't be happening," Koinu scolded me, green and blue eyes closing in frustration.
I smiled apologetically at him and turned to look at the still bickering friends, waiting for a quiet moment in order to say my goodbyes.
"Um, I have to go now. See you tomorrow Luna," I said loud enough to make them stop their fight for a bit, both of them turning to look at me as if they had forgotten I was there.
"Oh, yeah! It's nice to know we are living in front of each other, that way it won't be so lonely anymore!" Luna replied, starting to push the still bickering Chako into her apartment.
"Goodnight! See you tomorrow!" Koinu waved at them, as I too pushed him inside of our own apartment.
I closed the door with a sigh and returned the digital key to its place as I slipped off my shoes, walking towards the kitchen feeling as tired as I could. I let myself fall limply on one of the wooded chairs, eyeing the food Koinu had already placed on the table, my pills already there as well.
"You know I would give you some dog snacks if you didn't eat just sugars," I told my bicolor friend, starting to munch boringly at my food while eyeing the robot that had another fruit juice already in its possession.
"Nah, don't worry about it. I know you love me!" he chirped happily, smiling widely at me. I kept on eating while Koinu watched the news on the TV that was resting on one of the counters.
"Tell me, Kimiko-chan, what exactly happened today?" Koinu finally asked me after a long silence.
I looked up from my almost gone dinner and found myself staring at the building I had just been in, the reporters still trying to guess why the basement had caught on fire.
"Um, well, Kaoru and I got into a brawl with Howard," I quickly summarized what happened, deciding that the beginning was the most important.
"A fight, huh? You know I don't like you to be involved in those kinds of things. Why was it this time?" Koinu kept on interrogating me, not at all surprised by the news.
"You know Howard, always wanting to get revenge and all. The fight was actually with Luna and Kaoru at first, but I butted in to make it fair," I explained, shrugging it all off while I stood up to put my empty plate in the sink.
"When will you learn?" Koinu breathed out as he too put his empty glass in the sink, deciding to wash the dishes in the morning.
"Don't worry; I just got some tiny scratches. I'm not going to bleed to death," I reassured him with a small chuckle, stepping on the elevator that took me to my room alongside my pet-robot.
I took my pajamas and went behind my yellow folding screen with purple flowers to change, hanging my clothes on top of it. I then stopped short in the middle of my room once I realized I had forgotten to brush my teeth, letting out an aggravated sigh since I had to step again on the elevator and go down. I then quickly brushed my hair and teeth, finally being ready to go to bed.
When I was back in my room, I found Koinu reading a magazine comfortably lying on my bed. I slipped under the covers and just sat there watching him until he stood up and placed the magazine on my drawer, beside the picture I had with my parents. I turned off the lights and curled under my bed sheets, Koinu doing the same by my stomach. I bent over and placed a kiss on top of his head, scratching gently behind his ears, before lying back again.
"Oyasumi," I whispered sweetly at him, finally closing my eyes and falling into a deep, pleasant dream.