Stars on the Floor
Prologue
"Nothing can go wrong"
DJS_
Bloody zombies. You know, when the United Nations decides to nuke the arse off of Britain to get rid of those Horzine freaks, you'd think they would've gotten them all. As I came to find out starting on December 22, 2012, they didn't. Or rather, they didn't get all the scientists. Oh, they turned every last one of those "zeds" into ash, but they didn't get every scientist. Ol Arisoto escaped the country before the shit hit the fan. What everyone DIDN'T know, however, was that he took a sample of the virus and put it in a tiny vial and lodged it in his stomach. When he left Britain, he made his way back to his homeland of Japan, where he retired to a quiet life at the shrine his family owned. This would've been fine and dandy, if not for the fact that the bastard got ran over at midnight the 22nd. The vial smashed, releasing the Horzine virus back into the world.
But where are my manners? You're probably wondering just who I am. If you're lucky, you might even remember me from the last go round. It's me, Scully. DJ Scully. You know, gas mask. Music bag full of goodies. 'Course, all that got confiscated after I made it out and took a Skidoo across the English Channel. Scared the bloody hell out of the Danes, that's for sure. I got vaccinated, and then got a one way ticket to Tokyo. I had some friends who ran a club in Saitama, and we set up shop and had a grand old time. After SHTF again, I'm alone again. And this time, I don't even have my gun. See, the gun control laws in Japan actually, ya know, control the guns. There's basically NOTHING to salvage into a projectile weapon around here. I'm holed up in a 3rd floor apartment waiting for the coast to be clear. I managed to find a tire iron in a closet of this fine lady's house, but she won't be needing it now. She's got four too many limbs and one too many knife wounds, to put it nicely.
KH_
One of the hardest things to do is to get the three biggest airheads you know to study, especially when mid-terms are coming up soon. I coaxed Konata, Tsukasa, and Misao into coming over my house to have a study session, with the condition that they could have some of the cookies Ayano-san made for me. After that it was just a matter of herding them into my room and locking the door. It's easier said than done. Now I'm just helping them all on quadratic equations, because it seems I'm the only person who pays attention in school.
"Kagami, is it –c radical 2c – 4 ab over 2a or –a radical 2a – 4 bc over 2a?"
Huge mental facepalm. But I AM the one who cajoled them into this. Maybe I shouldn't have done it so close to Christmas. Today is the 20th after all. Suppressing a grimace, I recited the correct formula.
"It's neither. The correct formula is –b +- radical b^2 -4ac over 2a."
All I got for my efforts there were three slack jawed idiots and a meow from a cell phone. Misao meatball-dived for it, hitting herself in the face with it as she answered it.
"Hey! Yeah, I'll be home soon. No, I was studying at Hiiragi's place. No, studying, not goofing off. Fine, I'll be home soon." Click goes the cell phone.
Misao turned to face us, only slightly red in the face.
"Well, looks like it's my time to depart."
She said the 2nd syllable of depart in such a way that Konata burst out laughing. Misao glared at her appropriately. "Got something to say, squirt? Maybe how you'll never be tall enough to ride on rollercoasters?" Ouch. Misao had a point there. "No, just the way your fang makes words slur", Konata replied with a grin on her face.
Five minutes of terrible puns later, Misao left and Tsukasa had fallen asleep, leaving just myself and Konata, and she had no intention on going back to her homework. She asked me as we were walking back to my room,
"Doesn't it feel like nothing can go wrong?" I stopped. "What do you mean?" She just looked back at me with a thoughtful face. "You know, like life is just one big happy place and nothing bad can happen and how everything will work out in the end?" Okay, now she's just talking weird. Time to put a stop to that. Cynical existential mode activates!
"No, Konata, it doesn't. People die every day. Accidents happen. Disease exists. Domestic abuse exists. Rape happens. And don't even SAY that's it. Remember five years ago, when the UN voted on the destruction of Great Britain? And how it was approved? Konata, that whole country was quarantined and its populace systematically killed. THEN they bombed the entire island into an unrecognizable nuclear wasteland of ash and storm clouds. You're going to tell me that the death of over a million people can occur and you still say that it's one big happy world? The world will eat you up and spit out a corpse if you don't watch yourself Konata. Anyways, shouldn't you be getting home now?"
Konata shook herself from the dumbfounded trance she had while she listened to me lecture her about how many flaws her ideal had. As she left, she called out to me, "Kagami, you're right. On the big scale of things, the world is messed up. But on the small scale, here in Japan, things are alright. Nothing can go wrong immediately that will change the status quo. Anyways, I'm leaving. Tell Tsukasa I said good-bye!"
Woah. I'm surprised she even knew what status quo meant. I thought about it some more before I fell asleep later that night. She had a point though. Even though the world economy was, in general, in the shitter, Japan and even most of Asia was doing okay. Teen pregnancy rates were down, crime rates were down, the yen was rising in value again, and life expectancy was higher than ever. I don't know, but there was just something subconsciously telling me not to get too comfortable, almost like something is about to happen. But that's just silly. I mean, nothing serious will go wrong, right?
_
A/N: And BAM! The prologue for Stars on the Floor is done! I'm redoing it in its entirely, thanks to my own self telling me this was terrible, and DoubleBoxEven pointing out the glaringly obvious flaws in it. It's a little short, at just 1,081 words, but it gets the two main characters out there. I really enjoy the Kagami POV, because I always felt she's secretly a sadist who just throws on a disguise for her own sake. Scully is going to be pretty integral for this, for he is the MacGyver for the gang's "shit shit shit what the hell do we do" mentality. Scully's bit actually occurs a couple of days after Kagami's piece, but I needed to set the tone. Anyways, hope you enjoyed, I'm going to get the next part out as asap! Next chappy still won't be SHTF time though.