Chapter One: The Accident
"Thank you for saving me," my friend, Chieri Naito said as we walked away from the futuristic ten-story egg-shaped building we called high school. We walked among a sea of girl and boy students on a fifty-foot wide walkway leading from the doors to the road at least five-hundred feet out. "You know you didn't have to do that for me.
When she said that, I glanced at her perfect long, wavy black hair. Her beady brown eyes batted as she gazed into my sleepy hazel eyes. As her best friend and more-than secret admirer, I smiled at her. The way she wore her white blouse and pink blazer did little to hide her slightly larger chest. And her green plaid skirt was tight around her unusually thick thighs.
"You should talk to people more," I suggested. "All that research has lead to you fangirling nonstop over a vintage anime from centuries ago! Why can't I interest you in holographic anime that jumps at you in your own living room?"
This is the year 2512. 500 years since that manga ended. To someone in the 2020s, manga to us is like morse code to those who live in that time. People would laugh if one of us began looking up old, vintage items. They call it mental junk. Paper is ancient history, and digital drawing is the new trend. 3-dimensional drawing.
Chieri scoffed. "Because that's what everyone is doing!" She quickly walked in front of me and turned around, hands grabbing my shoulders as our faces stayed one foot apart from each other. "Yuki, you have been my friend for so long! Why aren't you trying to support me?"
"I am," I dully replied. "I'm just not into reading manga."
I wanted her to continue to look at me. At my sleepy hazel eyes and straight brown hair. Cut up in a man-bun like the guys at the school. No one cared about hair this day in age. And I wore plaid pants instead of the skirt, which dismayed the faculty and staff even more.
My eyebrows were thin, but they had a lot of fierce emphasis. Just like many of my Japanese relatives. I still had all the features despite being mixed with British blood. An illegitimate child of a Japanese scientist hell-bent on creating a time-machine but with the build of a teenage Briton.
"Chieri," I reassuringly continued, "I support you because I'm here. I've always been here. Before you go, there's something you need to know."
At that point, she broke off, pushing me away with a rather hurt look on her face and tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry Yuki, but I don't think we can hang out at all. I must go."
She ran off. Arms covering her tearful eyes as I ran after her. Her feet kicking back as I fought hard to keep up.
I was the slowest runner in my class. As much as I wanted to run, I could not keep up with her. I fought hard to keep my breath at a steady pace, but I didn't have the athleticism she had. All that running. Made her almost like Usain Bolt from centuries ago.
Within seconds it was too late. Too late for me to stop her. Too late for anyone to adjust themselves with the situation.
THUD!
As she ran across the street, a school bus speeding hit her.
"CHIERI!"
I screamed as I ran, and so did everyone else. We all crowded around her, and I pushed my way through all the shocked onlookers. Our redhead classmate who's from Czechoslovakia whipped out her watch and began dialing the emergency line on a holographic keypad.
However, my eyes did not turn to her. Instead, they were on the lifeless body lying in the street. There was no sign of blood. Nor was there any sign of breath nor natural sleeping movement.
Falling to my knees before Chieri, I reached over and checked the pulse on her neck. At this point I was speechless. Unable to speak and stammering. I could not feel anything.
"No!" I said in a hushed, petrified tone. "She's gone."
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I accompanied the ambulance carrying her body to the hospital. I waited in the lobby for my parents. They showed up in less than an hour. I was already in deep in tears by the time they found me.
Chieri's parents were there too. Her mother cried hysterically as she embraced me, but I couldn't find it in myself to hug her back. My stupidity my best friend and secret crush to run out into the street in the first place. She was trying to get away from me.
Shortly afterward, my family and I left. I spent the next several days off from school. Sat silently in the funeral parlor and tried to shorten all the conversations with everyone who wanted to talk to me. Stayed close by my mother, but I did not tell her what happened when Chieri died.
After that, it was back to reality- but without Chieri in it. I returned to school and focused on my homework and participation in events, but I was dead inside. When Chieri left, so did all my happiness. For months, this went on. Until one day my super busy mother took the day off just to talk to me.
"Enough!" she said, pulling the bedsheets off me. "Yuki, you are the daughter to the world's biggest geniuses! Even better, I have to tell you something. Your father and I have been working on a mind-bending device that will forever change our universe!"
I gave her a look. She looked just like me, but with gray hair and heavy makeup to follow all the wrinkles she developed from her scientist job. Compared to her, I was a mess.
"Yuki dear, do you really want to continue looking like that? Freshen up and join me today."
I then looked at my mirror. My long, brown hair was everywhere. Stringy but messy like that of an evil witch. "Mom, you're right."
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We hopped into her car, and she drove me out from our residential neighborhood and into Akihabara. To a tall, egg-shaped skyscraper that reached all the way up beyond the clouds. The world's tallest building for the past two-hundred years. Four-hundred stories high.
All the buildings in the district were now large and reached beyond one-hundred stories.
We walked into that egg-shaped building. Into the lobby, and up a black elevator. It was solo across from a set of five silver ones. We shot straight up to the top. All the way up to the three-hundred-and-twenty-seventh floor. Into what appeared to be a laboratory for electronics.
Thankfully, I freshened up enough to look like the me back at school before the day of the accident. However, I wore a black business pantsuit. It's been the style for centuries. Except our blazers flapped over one side. Mine flapped over the left and was buttoned. A quarter circle opening at the neck revealed the button shirt and necktie in which I wore.
My mother was the same, except her blazer went over the right, indicating that she is a female. As soon as we were alone in a large, warehouse-sized room, she closed the iron doors and spoke. "Yuki, your father won't be too pleased about this, but I have a way to bring Chieri back."
My jaw dropped as she pointed to a white, sphere-shaped vehicle. It sat perfectly without the need of a support. There was a door facing us. With a circular window of a two-foot diameter. "What in the world is this? A spaceship?"
While I asked that, my mother quickly rushed to a nearby table. She picked up an oval-shaped remote device and smiled at me. "Even better! A time machine! Here! Catch!"
She tossed it at me, and I caught it with one hand. I then studied it. "A one-button device?"
"Psychological sensory remote. The ship will listen to your thoughts and correspond to them."
I gave her a look. "What?"
"Press it. Think about the door opening."
Doing what she told, I pressed the button, thinking about the door opening. Almost instantly, the door lowered to the ground. Slowly for about five seconds. Gently landing on the ground and revealing a set of stairs. Two small ones at the sides of the window.
"Multi-alien technology," my mother continued to explain. "Modified to where it may have broken the time barrier."
"You imported it from the other planets?"
She nodded. "Now go on! Hop in!"
I walked up to the ship, up the stairs and studying the interior. Simply a mere seat and a seatbelt. A silvery helmet meant to cover my entire head on that seat. Shaped like an ancient motorcycle helmet. Back when gas was still fuel on Earth.
As for the walls, they were all padded. Maybe to lessen impact and keep me protected. Buttons and a light shining at the ceiling part, which was flat.
Stepping inside, I picked up the helmet, turned around, and sat back down. Remote still in the other hand, I looked at my mother. "You're not going to brief me on the use of this?"
She shook her head. "I think you can figure it out. Just like you could figure everyone out in your high school. Press the remote and close the door. Then think of a safe point in time where you can prevent Chieri from sealing her fate. You can start by closing the door."
Rolling my eyes, I put the helmet on and strapped myself in. With the press of the remote, I had the ship close again. A lime green digital message displayed on my mask.
Welcome to Kubo Tech. Please tap your mask for more information.
Tap.
Welcome Yuki. Where in time would you like to go?
Thinking about the time, I thought of January 17th, the night I chose not to meet Chieri because I was too lazy. I wanted to go back there. A little after 6 o'clock in the evening. She was so excited for me to visit her. To watch Negima! in her family's living room.
Mind to the door, I pressed the button. It slowly closed back, and I quickly thought back of that time. I've seen all the Negima! episodes and read all the mangas. I even remembered that episode that played.
Satome was working on a time machine. Right after Asuna died. I wanted to arrive there and at that spot. If I could.
Therefore, I closed my eyes.
All of a sudden, the sphere began to spin violently to the right. So fast that I quickly became sick from the G-Force. I was no longer in the warehouse but in the middle of a vortex. The light above flashed on and off, and I could hear beeping sounds. They increased to the point where it was as though they were being remixed to sound like the background of a high pitch and speed song.
"What the fuck is this shit!?" I said, now nauseated.
Thirty seconds later, the spinning went up and down. Diagonally spinning to the right up and down for thirty more seconds. At this point, I gripped my seatbelt ever so tightly. Someone please make it stop.
THUD!
I was out. For who knows how long. However, I remember the blurry image of arriving in what appeared to be a hill. By a very large tree. It was big and wide, and I was at the top of a hill. Ship sitting slanted to the left.
A tall, robotic female with light green hair who looked just like Chachamaru from the series was tapping into the glass of the window. Behind her was a young teenage girl with blonde hair, and she looked just like the vampire Evangeline. And another young lady with pigtails that went out to the sides in a diagonal manner. She must be Satomi.
"Excellent work!" the vampire Evangeline called out. "They do not look like a threat, so I will leave the greetings to you."
"Milady," the robot said, "someone is inside, but I cannot tell if they are human or alien at this time."
The lady who looked like Satomi was elated. "This is amazing! A discovery!" She then ran up to the glass and began tapping into it. "Hello! We come in peace!"
With the last press of a button, I thought of the door opening. However, it was hard to think.
"What the fuck just happened?" I said in disbelief.
My vision blurred, and I quickly passed out.
