The next morning Taku awoke with the sunrise glistening through his window, the broken phones were spread out on the desk in his room, the broken parts all meshed up as he had left them. Getting out of bed he noticed that some parts were actually burnt on the temporary replacement he bought. The processor was burnt to bits and even the conductors were broken as though shattered. The phones were worthless the only salvageable parts were the cards from it. He stored the little components in a casing for his lenses for the time being. After clearing up the room Taku went down to wash up. His Aunt was there making breakfast.
"Your up early?"
Taku explained that he wasn't as tired as before, then asked her about the phone apps used for the locks in the complex.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell ya, The apartment buildings quit high-tech, there are door locks that are sequenced with the mobile ID data, I guess we should register your phone with it too, cause you probably had to use the front entrance every time. You can just give your phone to the manager to scan it and you'll be set."
After breakfast everyone left separately, Takus Aunt finally handed him a set of keys for the apartment, they had a weird keychain that had a rabbit like animals head, though it was a bit tarnished. After leaving for school, Taku saw a few kids talking about the murder in the Shopping district yesterday, apparently the sign broke and broke a woman's leg, yet the cause wasn't clear. The students were just spreading rumors, but they said that there was a strange figure in the crowed where the incident happened. After that little ear sore he reached school where classes passed unevently till launch break. Sai tapped on Takuso's shoulder from behind and asked him to the side for a while. When the two were away from everyone else in class he asked.
"Hey man, listen this might sound weird, but yesterday did we run through the district and get lost in an ally or something? Probably not since its most likely to be a weird dream."
"Nah, I'm pretty sure it happened, my phones as broken as it was in that dream."
Taku answered and it seemed to give Saijiro even more reason to worry. He was strangely paranoid as he pulled out his phone and showed it to Taku. There was a small emblem of a feather at the corner of the screen where the battery and reception symbols were, it was in the same line. It was glowing blue as they watched it, Mira jumped them from behind.
"Watch ya doing?"
"Ehh… nothing theres nothing going on…" Sai tried to explain to her as he pulled his phone back and hid it in his pocket.
"What!? Are you trying to pull something again, I swear if its something weird I'll shoot ya down myself." Mira yelled at him with suspicion. She pulled his hand out of his pocket gripping for the phone. Stealing it from Sai Mira looked through all the files inside and after several minuets gave it back. "For a moment there I thought you had some weird pictures on there or something. With the way your hiding it and all."
"No its just that… well, help me out here." Sai whispered trying to explain something he had no clue about.
"He was just showing his smart phones model, mine broke a few day's ago so I was thinking about getting a new one. So I asked for some suggestions, and whether his was easy to use and how well it performed."
"Yeah, that's right." Sai calmed down a bit, "Its not the best model, but it's quit good and manages to run the basic programs like browsing and all but I don't think it's the best."
"It's a piece of crap." Mira bluntly blurted out "Its functional parameters are low, the battery life is way too short and the iOS system is outdated and not really well supported, issues came up where during updates half the programs can cease functioning and you'd lose all your data. The music files it can run are very limited and the reception quality is low, also the screen can break easily so it might explain the crack at the bottom but I don't think you should buy even the newest model of these." She rambled on.
"What?" Sai asked with an astonished shock on his face.
"My parents run an electronics store, I had to help out some times when I was little so I learnt a lot about these things, besides where do you think I got this head set, its not cheap."
"So what would be a good model?" Taku asked her.
"After school I'll take ya to the store I'll make sure you get a discount on the one you choose. I'm sure we have a few good ones still in stock." Mira offered to help as she handed the phone back to Sai.
"Maybe I can get a replacement too then?" Saijiro naively asked.
"Dream on, why should I work to get you a discount, he doesn't even have a phone, so he needs one in this city, with all the applications for almost everything in town." Mira began to argue with Sai who wanted to get a better phone too. As the clas started the two were separated from eachother till the end of the day.
Upon leaving the three headed down to the shopping district, where they found the electronics store owned by Mira's parents at the South end of the district. As they came in she showed them the section where all the phones were held and explained the differences between each model and maker. While they were talking there was a massive racket at the other side of the store. A guy around their age was looking through the graphic cards and CPU's demanding to show him the special ware's.
"Listen we don't have any special products, what you see is what we have." The clerk explained to him.
"Bullshit, don't screw with me! I know you keep the good stuff in the back. I don't need this cheap trash I need the best you got and I am willing to pay for them!"
"Listen, there are no special wares in the back!" Mira yelled at him as she barged through.
"Like hell there aren't , I know you sneak away the best for yourselves!"
"Like we would do that, this is a fair store we don't cheat the customers and if you don't like it you can leave any time." Mira didn't let down arguing with the customer.
"Perhaps I will, who needs this place. There's a ton of better stores out there." The man stormed off as he walked away knocking down the stand outside.
"What a jerk." The girl complained as she watched him leave. Taku and Sai walked up closer to her and asked.
"What the hell's wrong with that guy? Do you get those kinda people often?" Saijiro asked.
"No, but in the past few day's there were a lot of people like him, showing up and screaming, demanding for the special stuff in the back. But we don't have anything like that here. The only things behind the store are the shipments of reserved and special orders by others and usual customers." The clerk explained as he began cleaning up after the enraged buyers ranting, there were several prices knocked down.
Mira explained what was happening and took the two of them out back, behind the store. Where she showed them the warehouse stocked with all the products. There were barely any stuff there that wasn't showed in the store. Most of the different stuff was piled on shelf's with name tags and dates attached to them, a few even had phone numbers written on the box's. As they looked around Mira picked up a few phone casings and laid them out in front of Taku.
"Basically these are the ones I'd suggest. The first ones an older model of the regional brand of the developer, but they seem to have done an amazing job with it. The other ones are brand new models but their from companies that are not based in the country. So its your pick regional or one of the new trendy models."
"Is there a difference witch one he should pick and all?" Sai asked as he stared at them.
"Of course there's a difference. The regional is best suited for all the programs we use in the city, maps, buss, lock systems. Their basicly built for this phone. While the others hold their strength in separate fields, One has a longer battery life, it can last up to a month if your not calling or anything, otherwise it will at least last a week. And the third one has the most universal iOS, it can adapt to most programs in our city and even use many of the app's built for other devices, android or windows they can all pretty much run on it, yet not all programs in the city work for it. I heard some complain that the lock systems don't function with this one, so I don't really know much about the ones that don't work."
Taku looked through the boxes and decided to take the regional brand. Since if he would stay here for over a year, there wouldn't be any sense complaining about computability issues.
"Are you serious man? I would have taken the battery one, with all the games I could download on it I'd have a better time then recharging it daily." Saijiro complained about the choice.
"Okey then, I'll just check the price and you'll be set. Now where's that scanner." Mira asked as a hand extended from the side handing her the barcode scanner.
"And what are we doing here?" A rusty dry voice asked. The group turned to see a big man with a hat that said Manager.
"Hey dad," Mira responded with a slight smile on her face. "I was just helping out."
"And how would that be?" He questioned her intentions.
"Well he needed a new phone so I offered him one for a discount since almost everything in the city is now run through the wireless server."
"I see, well then I guess I should applaud you for one, The phone you bought was actually the last one we had, they were out of stock for a long time. These were some of the best ever made in that brand, yet now their going under bit by bit. It's like a pillar of pride that we had left here. To be honest I didn't even know we had one left."
"Yeah I found it yesterday while cleaning up." Mira added as she scanned the box.
The total was over 66,000 Yen but after the promised discount was added the sum fell to 52,000 Yen. Luckily that sum was in Takus budget and so he could pay for it, but now he was low on cash and was contemplating getting a job to cover the expenses. After buying they left the store as Takuso placed the cards inside and power up the phone. Once active there was a slightly different symbol near his battery and connection bars. It was a card that seemed to be tilted.
Once back in the fresh air the group walked around the district chatting a bit before heading back, While walking they explained all the different app's used through the city to Taku, there were apps that searched for specific stores or some that mapped the entire city showing every single store and a description about it. Some apps allowed to see the menus and even order before entering, some allowed to get news about missing people or pets, even apps for rumors. Named Gossip Bird it was a small application that was like a chat, and you would catch each rumor as you passed by people.
"That's probably how the stupid rumor about the special goods spread." Sai said as he looked over Takus shoulder.
On their way back there was a scream from the electronics store, it seems that some boxes fell and hit Miras father over the head. The medical team quickly arrived to get him to the hospital, believing that he suffered a severe blunt force trauma. The kids were told to go home and as they were about to leave a message popped on Takus phone. It said, "Game in progress".
"What the? Did you download some game?" Sai asked as he noticed it but soon his phone rang as well, it rang with the same message. He was shocked to see it, but as they searched where the message came from the origin was from the application Gossip Bird, it was also connected to the strange new symbols on the phones the ones that were not supposed to be there. As they opened the application there was a message, "Do you wish to enter the round". Confused the two of them looked at each other and nodded.
"What are you doing?" Mira asked as she grabbed Takus phone when he pressed the screen. They were instantly surrounded by a strange darkness that turned the entire district dark and light the sky with a phone screen holding the strange disfigured animal as before. "What is this?" She asked as Mira stepped away from them.
The group was in a twisted representation of the electronics store, the walls were endless shelf's filled to the brim with merchandise and there stood pillars wrapped in posters and notices about a discount offers. The halls seemed to extend farther in like a giant labyrinth, the halls were enter winding, as it seemed that the building extended farther above. The two guys found a few broken pipes and a flagpole with a sales announcement flag on it. Sai took the pole while Taku armed himself with a pipe. Heading deeper into the hallway they could hear something moving through the halls. As they stepped around the corner there were a few dark blobs similar to the ones they were attacked last day, but these were much smaller and they seemed to be vulnerable to strikes as the guys broke the masks with little effort, after the shattered faces the dark masses seemed to disappear as though called back to the shadows they faded.
"Its just like last time, but these guys seem weaker then the other ones." Sai said as he picked up a shared of the broken mask examining it.
Taku took a look at his phone and there was a new message about victory, the text read, "Dropped 100 yen and chance card". It seemed as though this was almost like a normal game, yet there was a sense of dread in the air around them.
"Perhaps if we don't encounter the bigger ones we'll be fine." Taku said as he pushed the message aside, there was a choice of two facedown cards presented for him.
"What are you doing there?" Sai asked, Mira was following them from behind she was still in shock and didn't want to fall behind.
"It seems they drop loot, like in a game." Takuso explained to him as Saijiro pulled out his phone.
"Your right, weird though, we didn't have anything like this happen last time. But its more like just money. Wonder if it will be transferred as we get out of here?"
"Could be, but theres some chance card here too."
"What card? I aint got anything like that. Is it maybe different for everyone?" Sai said as he tossed the broken mask aside.
"Maybe…"
"What are you guy's talking about where are we anyway!?" Mira began yelling at them, astonished that they weren't shocked by all of this.
"Hell if we know, we ended up in a similar place yesterday when we chased that hooded guy, but then we were attacked by something similar to these. It seems to be connected somehow." Saijiro explained as they continued on. Before walking off Taku chose one of the cards and they flipped revealing a small frail looking figure with wings, there was a name for it, Pixy. There was a second message, the other card vanished showing a picture of a gold pile. The other message read "Pixy was added to the summoning book", Taku didn't know what to make of it at this time.
The group continued through the labyrinth ascending floor by floor. They avoided as many fights as they could, climbing up they found a few boxes witch contained a bow, a spear and a leather armor. Since there were three of them they shared the things equally amongst each other. Saijiro took the spear instead of the pole he was using while Taku put the armor on himself, Mira held on to the bow. After reaching the top floor there was a strong sensation in the air, like electricity it crawled through the giant hall before the door.
"This looks like the top, are you sure u want to do this?"
"What other choice have we? Crawl back down and hope there's a door leading out of here and back into the street with all those things out there?"
"Good point." Sai agreed as he placed his hand on the door and pushed it open.
Inside was a giant storage room in that room was a guy rummaging through the merchandise, he tossed it left and right searching for something.
"Trash, trash, trash, all of it is worthless. Wheres the good stuff wheres the stuff they hide from the consumers and where did you put that card."
He rambled on as he searched on, as he heard the door creaking to a halt, he turned to see the group behind him.
"You again!"
The man yelled as he truned around, there seemed to be something different about him, like he was attached to strings he moved almost like a puppet. Controlled from above, he stepped forth, his eyes glanced bright with a strong red glow, he was different. It was the same guy that was at the store but something was wrong. He wasn't acting normal, as though driven mad.
"What the hell are you doing here!?" Mira screamed at him as he stopped at the sound of her voice.
"Me, I should ask the same. How did you get in here, this place is supposed to be mine alone, I can do here whatever I want, I was promised this. I was chosen for this." The man rambled on about some power given to him.
The man laughed as he pointed to the roof of the room, there was a large light, to it strapped was a man who was surrounded by the strong light. The figure seemed familiar to them, till Mira finally realized.
"Dad!"
"What the hell? Is this even possible?" Sai asked as he looked to Taku.
"This is my power, locking him away in this realm I will sever his soul from the body and feed him to the great one, once his soul is ours he will die and I'll have my payback." The man screamed as he laughed.
"Hell man that's messed up, there are boundaries, who do you think you are!?" Saijiro screamed at the insane man before them.
"Who? I'm god here and once I pay the price I'll be all powerful, I'll drag in whoever I want and no one will be able to do anything!"
"Let him go now!" Mira screamed as she drew the arrow into her bow aiming for his head.
"In your dreams, I'm alive here, I'm god and you are just ants. You think a little bow is gonna stop me?" He grabbed his own face pulling the skin tighter as he ripped it away. The figure of a man began to change it spread wings taking form of a bird with a mans face, the wings were stitched back to the body as he looked at the two boys before him. "You managed to scar us before but now, not even you can touch us now!" The monster screamed as it called out to the beasts within the labyrinth.
The creatures began to gather in the shape of small birds as the group prepared to defend themselves. The small birds flew at them swiping through between them separating the group.
"What the hell, how can we fight this thing?" Sai complained as he tried to his one of the birds. It flew away avoiding the attack, Saijiro gripped his phone and looked at the screen, there was an application running. In hopes he pressed on to it, the phone began to burn away the misty shadows as the room light up the figure from before stepped forth from the light it was ready to fight and with his new found courage Saijiro charged forth, slicing through the small birds protecting the large monster. With them downed with severed wings he tried to charge at the beast that quickly knocked him back. Falling to the ground the shape that was called forth from the phone vanished. Taku willingly gripped the device that he held in his pocket, activating the strange program on his phone there was a light summoning a small being with wings. It healed everyone in the room upon arrival and joined Takuso's side. The little pixy sparked lightning as Taku charged forth at the bird. The beast jumped back avoiding the attack and knocked Taku aside forcing the small fairy to disappear.
"So it doesn't like lightning?" Sai said as he got back up to his feet. "Mira cover me, I'll light it up."
"How are you gonna do that you idiot, theres no way we can do anything against that!"
"If we don't try, your dad will be dead so do you wanna just stand by and watch!?" Takuso yelled at the shocked girl.
Mira could only watch as the two guys were running at the large bird getting smacked around like pests. They couldn't do a thing. Sai slammed into a wall when the beast knocked him back after pinning Taku down with its claw. The pressure upon his chest forced him to cough up blood as he tried to get loss. The young girl could only clench her fists and hide trembling, till there was a loud scream from above, her father was in pain chained to the ceiling as she saw this something began to stir in her. A Fire rushing like a cold sweat it began to overtake her as Mira picked up the bow and aimed at the giant bird.
"Let them go!" As the arrow flew her headphones illuminated as the light traveled along the wire to the pocket with the phone, it covered the room as the light revealed a figure frail and strong at the same time spark like lines traveling upon its curves the body appearing as though a females it held a bow with no string or arrow. As the figure aimed at the monster before it there was a strange sense of electricity sparking through the air. The light guardian drew its fingers along the hand holding the bow before plucking them aside, with a loud blast there was a light shooting from the bow, it flew at the beast with a great speed, like lightning it pierced it leaving no trace. Placing the pinky on the bow again it repeated once more with all four fingers at t5he same time before releasing them and shooting off a rapid barrage of the light arrows at the giant bird pushing it back to the giant pile of items behind it as it fell. The light figure placed its hand on its hip and a giant chain of lightning erupted from the arrow wounds. Shattered from the attack the beast began to break away into a smoke fading to the shadows. Soon there was only the human form of the person left as he crawled up from the ground screaming.
"How, How could this happen!? Who are you people!?"
The chains broken the father fell from above as he began to vanish from the world they were in. Once it was over the group left the tower and rushed to the hospital hopping that everything was ok. Upon arrival Mira ran off to the doctor.
"You think everything's normal?" Sai asked as he watched her run off.
"With all that's happen, you think anything would ever be normal?" Taku asked him.
"Guess not, but at least we managed to get those things out again, but I thought yours was a bit different not a fairy?"
"Your one to talk, What about her, you think everything's alright?"
Soon after Mira returned with a calm expression on her face.
"The doctor say's he's gonna be fine, though he'll need to stay here over night."
"Well thank god he's alive, we could have ended up dead back there too if it wasn't for you." Saijiro complemented her as he scratched the back of his head, there were still some broken wall pieces in his hair.
"Yeah, it seems if you die there its for good, but what was that place?" She asked.
"Hell if we know, but yesterday we were almost killed as well and the woman that died recently. I think that's the one we saved from that bird before. At least its gone now, right?" Saijiro explained with a concerned look on his face.
"I don't think its over, we don't even know what's causing it, and what's killing all those people, for all we know those strange death's could be connected with that place." Takuso explained.
After a lengthy conversation the group left on their separate way's Mira returned home, and Sai left Taku at the park again. On his way through the park, he noticed a shadow to his side. As he turned, Takuso saw the small hooded figure, it was watching him from the middle of the road. After a few short moments it ran off, to the street through the woods. Taku gave chase, but as he jumped out into the street, he couldn't see the figure it had disappeared. Gone without a trace, the stalker was gone again.
Takuso returned home where he was greeted by his Aunt, who was a little concerned that he was out for so long. After a few words he explained that he was with a friend and then went to get a new phone since the first one broke in the airport before he arrived. She understood so there was no fuss, though his cousin Rika remained somewhat distant and did not wish to speak to him at all.