Author's note :
Hello dear potato!
Here's the first chapter of Girls und Portals. Saki keeps solving tests, that's all. But she may discover something, who knows...?
Anyway, I have to warn you that the next chapter might take time. School is very tiring and sometimes I don't have time for writing. I barely have time to draw some days, so it might take more time, but soon, I'll be in holidays.
I keep being like "stunned" by the shortness of my chapters compared to The Cats... but it's normal, I don't have much things to write and I prefer to do 3 or 4 test chambers per chapter so I keep the suspense on.~
Enjoy the chapter.~
CHAPTER 1 : Test Chambers 01-04
Saki walked and inspected at length where she had arrived.
There was a window in front of her, and behind it, a door. Another little room behind a glass wall was housing a cube. And on her left, behind another window, there was an identical one with a button like the one she encountered in the first test chamber.
She jumped down; an orange portal was leading to the small room with the cube.
But no sooner she was going to enter in, the blue portal changed walls; it was now leading to the room with the button.
"But...what happens, what's wrong here?" she thought, not understanding.
The robotic voice spoke again:
"Please place the Weighted Storage Cube on the Fifteen Hundred Megawatt Ooarai Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Button."
"What a name", Saki muttered.
How was she going to do to solve this puzzle?
She focused on the orange portal and took a good quarter of an hour to figure out how to proceed.
Whenever the blue disappeared elsewhere, it was leading in a specific order to the cube first, then the button and the door. The orange didn't disappear.
So she had to wait to get her cube.
"Ah, good, I got it. It isn't as hard as it seems..."
When the blue portal was again connected to the room with the object, Saki came in and took it. She came back right after, finding herself again before the opposite portal.
Then the direction changed; Now it led to the button. Saki entered with the cube and put it on before going out again.
"Perfect. Please move quickly to the chamberlock, as the effects of prolonged exposure to the Button are not part of this test."
She continued to ponder about who was speaking. Yes, it was someone she had known, but she still didn't manage to put a face on it!
Maybe she was hallucinating? She didn't know. She went back through the orange portal to reach the door.
She stepped into the elevator and went up. She spent her time thinking. Even during these strange tests; she kept wondering what she was doing there, why she had probably been chosen, why she heard someone she had known talking to her, why she had to do that, if she would one day get out of here...
When she came out and walked down the hall, the voice spoke again:
"You're doing well, little one."
Saki found herself facing a closed door. To her left, there was a window that overlooked the testing room.
"Please be advised that a noticeable taste of blood is not part of any test protocol but is an unintended side effect of the Ooarai Science Material Emancipation Grill, which may, in semi-rare cases, emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth."
After the AI had finished her speech, the door opened onto a staircase.
Saki went down. She was behind a wall with a small window. A blue portal was glowing on the wall to her right. She walked in and was transported to the glass wall. She was now able to observe accurately the room where she was.
Something white, long and broad in some places was shooting portals through some kind of black clip. It was supported by a post that made it rotate.
The girl jumped below and approached.
"Well... if it can be useful, I'm taking it," she whispered, seizing the white item and putting it on her right arm.
She had a start when the voice talked again :
"Very good! You are now in possession of the Ooarai Science Handheld Portal Device. With it, you can create your own portals. These interdimensional gates have proven to be safe."
While Saki was aiming at the wall in front of her and pulled the trigger before coming out on top and going to the chamberlock, the robot spoke.
"The Device, however, has not."
She went into the Emancipation Gril and went into the elevator. It began to rise.
"Do not touch the operational end of The Device. Do not look directly at the operational end of The Device. Do not submerge The Device in liquid, even partially. Most importantly, under no circumstances should you-"
A big buzz followed by grinding and a few computer sounds was heard loudly. The AI which was talking seemed to have serious glitches.
The elevator doors opened again; Saki walked out of it and to the test area.
"Please proceed to the chamberlock. Mind the gap."
She looked at carefully. Before her, there was a pit. And further, an orange portal.
"This one looks simple. It mustn't be that complicated, in fact," she thought, trying to organize her ideas.
She pointed the generator on the wall to her right and created a blue portal; she passed through it and got transported on the other side.
There was a staircase in front of her; however, there wasn't any other that led to the next platform. She summoned another portal on the wall opposite to the chamberlock, behind her. She went there by the orange one, passed the blue, then went in the emancipation gril before finding herself in another elevator.
"Well done! Remember: The Ooarai Science Pick a Student for Showing her a Work Day is the perfect time to have her tested."
Saki wondered if that was why she was there. She didn't remember anything from the day before she was here to the minute she woke up. But otherwise, she clearly remembered her past in Ooarai, her childhood in the town of the same name as the school, her friends, their senpai, Miho Nishizumi, her classmate Akebi who practiced volleyball, she remembered many things.
She waited until she was up before continuing her way.
She went into the test chamber.
"Welcome to test chamber four. You're doing as well as Takeda Shingen at the Suwa campaign."
When she returned, there was another red button, a little further, this glass tank she had seen earlier with a cube inside.
Saki enabled the button to check if it opened the door . This was the case; she walked over to where the Vital Apparatus Vent, as it was called, was supposed to drop the cube.
Underneath, there was a pit, the object fell from the lead and went down. A little radio, similar to the one she had in the Relaxation Vault, accompanying the cube, was broadcasting a pleasant music.
She remembered that there was an orange portal some meters away from the button. She created a blue portal under the cube in order to retrieve it.
She moved up to it and carried it on the button, opening the door.
"Once again, excellent work !" the AI congratulated. "As part of a required test protocol, we will not monitor the next test chamber. You will be entirely on your own. Good luck, little one."
Saki noticed that the robot was talking in a rather friendly voice this time.
"Can I really trust her ?" she kept asking herself.
She went, once again, in an elevator. She pondered about why she wouldn't be monitored. She hadn't paid attention to the cameras around her. She simply kept solving tests. It wasn't bothering her to be observed; what mattered to her was to do what she was told so she could go away from here.
When the elevator stopped, she prepared herself for the test chamber that followed.