Tuned In
"There are hundreds of different radio waves being broadcast all around you from distant stations. At any given instant, your office or car or living room is full of these radio waves. However if you turn on a radio, you can listen to only one frequency at a time; these other frequencies are not in phase with each other. Each station has a different frequency, a different energy. As a result, your radio can only be turned to one broadcast at a time. Likewise, in our universe we are tuned into the frequency that corresponds to physical reality. But there are an infinite number of parallel realities coexisting with us in the same room, although we cannot tune into them."
Professor Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize in Physics (1979)
"However, what if we could tune into a parallel reality? What if?"
Silverwing013, author on fanfiction (2011)
"Kimbie, Kimbie!"
Kazushi sighed and took off after his runaway daughter, the small uniformed girl dashing around older junior high students. Although the different shade and kind of uniforms made her easy to see, Megumi had fast feet and more maneuvering room. As much as he loved his daughter, Kazushi could only handle so much of her, his wife usually handling her after classes. However, his wife had a doctor's appointment this afternoon, leaving him to pick up Megumi.
"Megumi! Get back here! We're meeting her at the front gate!"
"Aw, she's so cute," a junior high school girl commented. Her and her group of friends giggled to themselves. Another whispered, "And what about him?" The others shrieked into a fit of laughter at him. "Glasses guy is cute too!"
He continued his hurried steps to the school building, muttering to himself as he entered. "I have a daughter and am twice your age. Perhaps in a time machine… No, exploring new places excites me more… Megumi! Excuse me," he addressed an older gentleman. "Can you tell me if you saw my seven year old girl running around here?"
"Actually," the man replied with a smile. "I just pointed her down the hallway to the library and she took off that way. Ms. Powell has a temporary space in the corner. I take it you are her guardian while she is living here?"
"Of a sort," Kazushi admitted. It had been through his mistake at some point, the young girl had come to be here. But this, he did not wish to admit out loud. "And you are?"
"Mister Takanaka, a teacher at Sarayashiki Junior High," the man replied. He continued walking beside Kazushi. "I put her name and the idea forward to the current principle. Ms. Powell does a fairly decent job of explaining things to the students here. Her age helps her seem more approachable, but from what she first did with Natsuko, has real potential."
Kazushi hummed. "Yes, she enjoys even teaching my daughter new things. Current principle?"
"Yes, Mister Shueisha. Matters of health in his older age have finally gotten to him. He'll be missed, seeing how he cared enough to remain here past retirement age." The teacher paused, opening up the library doors for Kazushi. "There you are. Although, if she still wishes it, Ms. Powell and her place here will not be affected by this change. I will be running principle shortly."
"Congratulations." Nodding at the brown haired man, Kazushi sped up and searched the lengths of the bookcases. He did not see his daughter in the corner, but did spot a couple of junior high students arguing. The one was definitely a young punk kid, but was being completely lectured over by a pretty young girl in pigtails.
"Yusuke Urameshi! Trying it once is better than laying up on the roof ignoring what learning should be going on inside! You are going to give her—"
"Some foreign gi—"
The young teenager poked her index finger into his chest. "Don't you be giving me your excuses! Tancho is really good at making it all hands on for Natsuko, Noriyuki, and Yukiyoshi. It's like when we played games or made crafts in elementary school, you liked that!"
"I'm not a little kid anymore Kieko! Quit treating me like one! School just ain't my thing and it's not like I have to go to high school in life anyway," the boy argued.
"Um Kazushi?" The man turned his attention away from the couple and saw a light face looking at him, slightly pink in the round cheeks. "Megumi leapt onto me. She's here. Shall we go?"
"Go, go," Megumi sang out. The small girl blew up at her long dark bangs, not willing to use her hands and let go of her piggy back rider. "Weeee came to see and Kimbie let me be! IIIIII'm perched way up top away from pop! Caaaaaaause Kimbie is who I want to ride! Boo! Cause boo rhymes with who! That I kneeeeeew!"
His daughter giggled like mad and the older girl sighed. "So much for hiding…"
"There you are Ms. Powell," called out the junior high girl brightly. She waved merrily and then jerked her arm back to catch the boy sneaking away by his sleeve. "This is Yusuke, my childhood friend I was telling you about last week."
Megumi paused in playing with long dirty blonde hair and looked over at the new people. The small girl bellowed. "Hi Yusuke! Hey, do you want to hear a song? I know lots!" Without waiting for a reply, Megumi burst into the song. "Fight to believe in the future! Because that is why we're alive! Juuuump into believing—"
Muffled, she still tried to keep singing, but Kazushi kept his palm over her mouth. "We talked about volume remember Megumi?"
He felt her mouth pout under his hand before she nodded.
"Actually Keiko, I was just leaving for the day. Is there anything specific you need help with Yusuke?"
"Nope, not at all," he replied and then automatically winced before the screaming began.
Megumi beamed and went right back into her song as Keiko chewed out Yusuke. Kazushi just shrugged, glad at least his daughter was not belting out lyrics from his shoulders.
"Keiko? Keiko! Megumi, you too." The foreign girl took in a breath. "Yusuke, you have a real good friend looking out for you. Don't just throw her ideas out the window right away, consider them. Keiko, you can suggest for Yusuke, but he is not going to learn too much if he forced into doing something. Let him come to me on his own some other day. I do have to get going since these two came to pick me up, so why don't you two think that over before tomorrow."
Kazushi eyed the girl as they left the school, Megumi humming to herself on top her shoulders. "Kimberly. Why were you hiding from those two? They have something to do with the story of our world you were reading, don't they?"
She cast her eyes downward. "Yes. It makes it odd for me and I worry that I may show more knowledge about them than I should know."
He took the information in for a moment. "Yusuke was the main character, the upcoming Spirit World Detective, isn't he?"
Kimberly nodded and Megumi started singing Yusuke's name, playing around with how she could sing it.
"I wouldn't worry. Keiko is far too focused on him, she'll bring him up naturally and they will both assume she told you at some point. Besides, he has a lack of motivation in learning from the teachers at that school. He is probably more of a doer which would be why Spirit World would like someone like him. Oh yes," he said. "It seems your trial run helping out at Sarayashiki Junior High will be made more permanent. Mister Takanaka informed me so when he said he'll be the next running principal. Congratulations."
She groaned. "He doesn't take no for an answer. I still do not see how much good I can do when I just graduated high school. Not as though I have any ID to allow me more education on teaching."
"Kimbie is the best! Oh, yes she is! Better than the rest! Oh, yes she is! If you need to learn, Kimbie is like a light! She'll lead your way out of the dark night!"
Kazushi smiled. "Well sang Megumi. Kimberly is good at teaching you things, isn't she?"
Megumi nodded fiercely, almost knocking her chin on top of Kimberly's head. "Kimbie is the best! Oh, yes she is!"
"Okay! I get it Megumi," she laughed out. "You think I am the best at teaching!"
"You are the best Kimbie! I bet you can even teach naughty Yusuke, treating you like horrible vegetables! Blagh! Learning is like a…billion out of ten! Vegetables are like a two!"
Thanks to KuramaEnzanBlues and OhhTaylorJade.