The Day the World
Ended
By Princess Serenity
Chapter One: Strange Happenings
Rowen
Hashiba sat up straight in his bed, his blue eyes seeming to search the
room.
"Something's
not right. I can feel it," he said,
pulling the covers off himself and getting to his feet. He glanced in the mirror on his dresser and
ran a hand through his messy electric blue hair before heading downstairs in
his pajamas. He looked at the digital
clock on the VCR. 11:50pm. "PM?" Rowen asked himself. "Now I know something isn't right,"
he said as he looked out the window.
The sun was just beginning to peek over the Eastern horizon, behind a
greenish cloud. In front of the cloud
was an orange full moon. "The moon
doesn't rise in the morning!" he gasped.
"I'd better tell the others!"
Rowen picked up his dark blue telephone. No dial tone. He dropped
it back on the hook. He looked back at
the VCR clock with a scared expression on his face. 11:49pm. "It's running
backwards… what does this mean?"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Come on,
you stupid piece of junk!" Mia Koji shouted at her computer. The screen showed nothing but gray
snow. "I knew I should've gotten one of
those new Pentium IV things! This
computer belongs in a museum!" She
slammed her fist down on the desk, and the computer went blank, a thin trail of
smoke floating off the top of it. Mia
glared at it with her green eyes and sighed.
"What is with this?" She looked
at her wall clock. The hands were
running counter-clockwise at a very high speed. "Uhhh…" Mia blinked at it
and shrugged. "Weirder things have
happened… I suppose…" She shuddered. "No, this is definitely the weirdest. I'm going to have to get all of the guys back together." Mia looked at the cotton-candy pink phone on
her desk and shook her head. "That'll
never work, not with the clock and the computer being the way they
are." She glanced at her reflection in
the mirror. Her brown hair could've
been neater, but it would have to do.
She jammed a baseball cap on her head before grabbing her keys and
heading out the door.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Dangit,
where'd all of my food go?!" Kento Rei Fuan exclaimed, going through all of his
cupboards. The refrigerator stood open,
bare, as did the freezer and the pantry.
"It's all vanished…" Kento panted, running a hand through his
bluish-black hair. He closed his deep
blue eyes and thought for a moment.
"Hmmm… What does this
mean?" His eyes snapped open. "I've gotta find Ryo and the guys! And Mia…
Yeah! She'd know what to
do!" He looked around and found his shoes. "Uh…"
Looking down at himself, he realized that he was wearing bright yellow
sweats. "Oh well. I don't have time to fuss over that right
now, I have work to do!" He jammed his
sneakers on his feet and checked the clock.
"Aw, screw it, it's running backwards.
That'll never do!" Kento
snatched up his keys from the dining room table. "Thank God these are still here…" He bolted out the door and climbed into his old orange Bug
convertible. He pushed the key into the
ignition and turned it. The Beetle
coughed a bit, then died. "Come on,
start!" Kento shouted to the car, turning the key again. This time the engine did nothing. "Wha..?"
He turned the key one more time.
Still nothing. "Oh, man. This is just getting creepier by the
minute. Guess I'll just have to
run." He got out of the car and
sprinted down the street.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Cye Mouri
walked along the edge of the sea, his light brown hair blowing in the cool
breeze. He looked out at the sunrise on
the other side of the lake with his gentle, sea-blue eyes.
"The sky
looks odd today, doesn't it, Suiki?" he asked the orca whale that had swam up
to greet him from the edge of the shores.
Suiki squeaked an agreement. "It
almost looks dangerous," he continued, a worried expression clear upon his face.
"Eeeeee!!!"
Cye turned
sharply at the sound of his older sister's screams. "Sayoko!" He turned and
bolted for the house.
Suiki
spouted water and clicked worriedly.
She swam back away from the shore and looked at the horizon, where
frighteningly large black clouds were quickly beginning to grow.
"Sayoko! What's wrong?" Cye asked, hurrying to his
sister. She was sitting on the floor,
breathing hard.
"All of the
food's gone…" she panted. "The clocks
are running backward, and… The
fish…" Sayoko looked up at him, tears
welling up in her sea-blue eyes. "The
fish are… They're gone…"
Cye's eyes
widened. "What do you mean, 'They're
gone'?!"
She ran her
hands through her light auburn hair in fear.
"I don't know! They just aren't
there, Cye!"
Cye looked around
with his eyes for a moment, as if trying to find a solution to their problems
lying about on the floor somewhere.
"How can fish just disappear?"
He rose to his feet and wandered to the living room, where he gazed into
the large aquarium that was built into the wall. Water floated inside, along with a few stray flakes of fish food,
but no fish were present. "No… This can't be possible…" Cye whispered,
touching a finger to the glass weakly.
"I've got to get them back…" His
eyes widened suddenly in horror.
"Suiki!" He ran back outside and
down to the banks of the sea. "Suiki,
are you still here?"
Suiki's
head came out of the water and she sprayed water on him.
"Thank
goodness," Cye breathed. "At least I
know you're still alive. Listen. I have to leave now. Something really bad is going on here, I can
feel it. Make sure nothing happens to
Sayoko while I'm gone. Please?"
Suiki
squeaked an answer.
"Thank you,
Suiki," Cye said, bending down, kissing the orca's forehead. She clicked to him once more before going
back under the water.
Cye hurried
back to the house. "Sayoko, do you
think you can manage without me for a while?" he asked, grabbing his sneakers
from the shoe rack by the front door.
"…I
suppose…" Sayoko replied. "Where are
you going?"
"I need to
go back to Toyama. Something bad is
going to happen, maybe even to the entire Earth, if we don't stop it," Cye
replied, pushing his foot into one of his shoes.
"'We'?"
Sayoko asked.
"The Ronin
Warriors, Sayoko. I have a job to do
right now. I'll explain later." He pecked her on the cheek. "Love you, Sis," he said as he hurried out
the front door.
"Cye…?" Sayoko stood in the doorway
bleary-eyed. "I love you too, Cye."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sage Date
stood in front of his bathroom mirror, a bottle of mousse in his hand. He combed his long, blond bangs over his
right eye and squirted some mousse on his left hand, rubbing it on to shape
them into a sort of wave.
"I wonder
what I should do today?" he wondered aloud, shaping the hair on the back of his
head into a wave also.
The
fluorescent light overhead flickered briefly.
Sage patted his hair into place and looked up at the light.
"I just put
that light in, it can't go out already!" he exclaimed. The room went dark as the words left his
lips. "Ho boy." Sage squinted his ice blue eyes and felt
around for the doorknob. Upon finding
it, he turned it, and let himself out of the bathroom. "Well, that's just screwy," he muttered,
walking down the stairs. Walking
through the living room, he checked the clock to find that it had stopped
working completely, the second hand frozen.
"Hmmm… Must need a new
battery…" He looked at the digital VCR
clock now. It was blank. "The power must be out or something," Sage
said, shaking off the worry and fear that was prodding at him. "Wish I had a watch…" He walked to the front door, hoping that
maybe the sky could tell him the time by where the sun was at.
Black clouds
were rapidly growing larger by the second in the east. The sun tried the poke its head through them
a few times, but the violent-looking clouds refused to let it, pushing it away. The full moon still hovered on the eastern
horizon, glowing a golden shade of orange.
"Well, this
just doesn't look good," Sage said, looking at the odd display with wide
eyes. "There's going to be a pretty bad
storm later." His stomach growled. "Oh!" he chuckled. "Guess I'd better eat then."
Sage headed
for the kitchen and pulled the refrigerator door open.
"The
heck?!" he shouted, staring bewilderedly at the shelves of the refrigerator,
which were completely bare. He opened
the freezer door. Also empty. "What's going on here?!" he cried after
finding that his pantry was foodless as well.
He paused for a moment and closed his eyes in thought. The loss of power, the strange clouds, the
missing food… "Something really bad is
going to happen very soon. I'd better
head for Toyama. It's the only thing I
can do right now."
He walked
back to the front door, opened it, and went out into the cool morning.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Hey, White
Blaze! Time to go for a jog!" Ryo
Sanada exclaimed, running down the stairs in his red sweater and blue
jeans.
The white
tiger that had been laying by the door stood now and stretched, yawning, his
brown eyes squeezed shut.
Ryo sat
down and pushed his foot into one of his running shoes. That morning, he had decided to do something
a little different with his jet black hair, and had tied it back into a loose
ponytail. White Blaze nudged his
shoulder with his nose while he was tying his shoe laces.
"Hey!" Ryo
laughed. "Cut it out, boy! Are you in a hurry or something?"
White Blaze
made a noise that sounded like a cross between a meow and a roar.
"Okay,
okay, just chill out, will ya?" Ryo
stood up after getting his other shoe on and opened the front door. "Woah, looks like it's gonna storm really
bad today," he said, gazing up at the black clouds that were rolling in with
his blue eyes as the two walked outside.
White Blaze
growled as he watched the clouds.
"What's
wrong, Blaze? We'll be okay; a little
rain never hurt anyone, right?" Ryo patted
the tiger reassuringly on the back.
"C'mon, buddy, let's go!" He
took off running down the street.
White Blaze
let out another short growl towards the dark sky before turning and running
after his human friend.
"Woah…! OW!"
The voice of a young child echoed from nearby.
"Hey, that
sounded like Yulie!" Ryo ran towards
the voice. He turned the corner to find
a young boy of about nine years old sitting on the ground next to an overturned
skateboard, rubbing a skinned knee.
The boy
looked up at him. "Ryo!!" He threw himself at the teenager, hugging
him tightly. "I've missed you!"
"Hey,
Yulie! Where've you been these last six
months?" Ryo asked the child, ruffling his short brown hair. "I've been wondering about you!"
"I didn't
know where to find you guys," Yulie replied, looking up at him with his blue
eyes. "Mia said that you guys all went
back home, but that she didn't know where exactly you all lived."
"Oh,
yeah. Well, I know Cye really did go
back home; he's back in Yamaguchi with his sister. But I think most of us stayed in Toyama. Sage might be living in Tokyo right now,
though. I haven't really talked to the
guys in a while."
White Blaze
walked around Ryo's legs and nuzzled Yulie with his nose.
"Yay! White Blaze!" Yulie exclaimed, hugging the
his beloved tiger friend. White Blaze
purred softly for a moment, but was interrupted when a thunderclap as loud as a
sonic boom shook the air.
Yulie looked around, shaking and
wide-eyed, as the black clouds grew larger and larger, beginning to fill the
entire sky. White Blaze watched the
clouds, a low growl rumbling deep in his throat. Ryo stared at the sky, fear and worry clear in his eyes. An icy breeze blew down the street, which
was empty except for a few cars parked along the curb, some stray papers, and
the three of them.
"W-Where'd that cold wind come
from?" Ryo wondered aloud, shivering.
"I'm
scared," Yulie said, holding onto White Blaze.
*I am too,
but I can't tell him that,* Ryo thought to himself. Aloud, he said, "We should probably go and
at least try to find the others. Come
on."
Yulie
nodded. "Okay."
The three
walked on down the street, abandoning Yulie's skateboard on the sidewalk.
