[Author's Note: Welcome back again to... You know the drill. Well, this series is going to be a little bit longer than I expected. This is because a few new things have come up that this story can explore! Yatta! Well todays episode's translation: New Life. I hope you are all enjoying this. (It might be a few days before the next chapters will be up. I'm working on my book.) Enjoy the 2nd section of the series Rei no Kigen To...]
Chapter 9: Atarashii Kurashi
Ryu, Nina, and the two young children: Tora and Janice, walked towards Momo and Rei's house. The sun was shining and the surroundings were a lush green color.
"So, what has your mother been teaching you two?" Ryu asked as they walked.
"Let's see, basic mechanics, biology, physics, the new field of electronics, Janice what else?" Tora asked.
"Um," Janice counted her fingers to keep track, "Oh! That new subject, called 'Genetics.'"
"Genetics... Rei mentioned that sometime.." Ryu noted.
"What is it?" Nina asked.
"Well, it relates to how characteristics of organisms are passed on to their offspring," Janice said.
"That's right, and all living things have chromosomes. Males have XY and females have XX. So males sometimes are the only ones who get traits in their bloodline. A mother gives an X, no matter what, to the offspring. The father can give either an X or a Y. If the father gives a Y, the offspring is male. It is pretty random and," Tora explained.
"Tora, don't confuse them!" Janice said.
"Thanks, Janice," Ryu said as he scratched the side of his head.
"Okay, I understand," Nina said. "So Tora got his characteristics from the Y chromosome!" Nina thought to herself, "But.."
"Aunt Nina, what's wrong?" Janice asked.
"Oh, nothing... I was just thinking of something," Nina said.
"We should be getting close to the house now, right?" Ryu asked.
"Supposedly... But there is nothing to worry about, much," Tora said.
"Much?" Nina asked.
"Well, there has been a large monster around here lately, father showed us when he was insturucting us. There was a large patch of trees that were broken down.." Janice explained.
"You're not worried?" Nina asked.
"Not really, Mother and Father will be able to protect us. They're expert at fighting," Tora said.
"Haven't your mother and father taught you how to fight?" Ryu asked.
"They have, but we're not THAT experienced. That is a huge monster, we're not ready for anything like that," Janice said.
"Don't worry, your mom and dad will protect you," Ryu said.
"And you two should be just fine, you are the children of Rei and Momo," Nina assured them.
They continued to walk to their friends' house.
Meanwhile in Wyndia Rei was tending his shop.
Rei adjusted his tie as he checked around his shop in a quiet dignity. His life was finally in order, he only had few troubles in his life. "It has been a busy day... I wonder how everyone is doing? Especially with that new monster on the lose," Rei said to himself.
Suddenly a messenger from the palace arrived at the store.
"Everyone here! Um... Okay then! Rei, I have been sent to tell people that the monster has been sighted around the woods, anyone who doesn't live in Wydia should leave right now, or stay here for the night. The gates will be locked in an hour."
"I guess I'll close early then... Damnit... it's only 2 o'clock..." Rei muttered as he locked the back door.
"You don't have to leave..." Said the messenger.
"I know, Ron. But I can't leave everyone there unprotected, and Ryu and Nina are still there, I have to be with them at least. Besides someone has to give them the message. They'll stay at our house, then. Tell the King, please. I'm closing shop for today," Rei said as he shut down the shop.
"Good luck, Rei," said Ron, the messenger.
Rei grabbed a bag of various foods and started to walk out of the city.
Back at the house, Momo waited outside as the four familiar people appeared through the widely-spaced trees.
"You're here! It's nice to see you," Momo said as she greeted her guests when she led them into the house.
Ryu, Nina, and Momo sat down at the kitchen table. "Tora, Janice, you two should go upstairs and work on your project," Momo instructed her children.
"Father gave us candies. Mother, would you take care of them until after dinner?" Janice asked as she handed the bag to her mother.
"Sure, they'll make a nice desert," Momo said.
Tora and Janice ran up the stairs into their room.
"So, how are things at the palace?" Momo asked.
"Fine, it's kind of boring, though.." Ryu said.
"I guess you can't always be entertained," Momo said with a small laugh.
"We actually spend time in your husband's shop," Nina said.
"So THAT'S why your scores have changed..." Momo said.
"Yeah, Rei's score has gotten past the 20,000 mark," Ryu said.
"Oh, shut up!" Nina said.
Meanwhile in their room, Tora and Janice were hard at work on their project. They were building two small pieces of electronics, similar to modern-day laptops. They were almost completely assembled, the motherboards were missing the essential jumpers and circuits.
"What do we do next?" Janice asked.
"I think we need to get the sautering iron and some sauter to attach the jumpers to the circuitboard," Tora responded.
"Do you have it with you?"
"No, I'll get it from mother's tool cabinet," Tora said as he opened the door to the hallay, "Why don't you put in the circuits and jumpers in the slots so we don't have to later."
"Okay."
Tora walked down the hallway on the second floor of the house and started to go down the stairs. While walking down the wooden steps he could hear the conversation below.
"It is amazing that Rei built this place himself," the voice of Nina said.
"And that it was two stories high. How did he make it so fast?" Ryu said.
"It was very easy for him to move and lift the wood when he transformed," Tora could hear his mother say. He stopped in his tracks and listened for more. He walked down to the edge of the stairs as so not to be seen by the people downstairs.
"You shouldn't say anything about Rei's trasformation in this house, what if Tora finds out, or even Janice?" Said Nina trying to hush the conversation.
"I realize that it would be traumatazing, but maybe Tora won't be able to transform," Momo explained.
"I just hope that if it does happen, Tora will understand," Ryu said.
"Well, we can't all be as good about power as you, Ryu," Nina said.
Tora heard everything, "I knew that Ryu transformed into a dragon, but I didn't know father could. Can I? ...I'll wait a minute, then I'll go get the tools. They don't want me to know, so I will make them think I don't. It's the only way, otherwise, I might upset them," Tora thought to himself. About a minute later, Tora walked off the stairwell and to the tool chest.
"Tora, what are you looking for?" Momo asked.
"I... I... I'm, um... looking for the sautering iron and... the sauter."
"Are you on the circuit boards already?!" Momo exclaimed.
"Y, yes. We are, I just need the sauter kit..." Tora stuttered as his tail whipped behind him nervously.
"I'll get them.." Momo said as she made her way to the cabinet near the television. "Do you know how to use them?"
"We'll be... fine."
"Are you okay, Tora? You don't seem normal today," Nina asked.
"I'm fine, just a little tired."
"Don't push yourself," Ryu added.
"I won't."
"Here, be careful," Momo advised as she handed the tools to Tora.
Tora dashed upstairs and into the room. "I shouldn't tell Janice, it might scare her," Tora thought to himself.
"Tora, what took you so long?" Janice asked in an irritated tone.
Tora set up the tools and responded, "Mother had some trouble finding the tools..."
Janice and Tora continued to work on their projects, crituiqing each others circuitry.
"Your periferal slots are not going to be as efficient as mine, the connections aren't going across them as much," Janice said.
"Well, I didn't want to sacrifice processing power for periferals, I want to make a direct connection from the CPU to the RAM and then the Processor. It's the most efficient way," Tora explained.
"I wanted to be able to attach tools to it with greater speed."
"So they're really will be customized computers, then."
After finishing putting together the circuitboards, they attached them to the motherboards.
"We should be able to use them by tomorrow!" Janice exclaimed with delight.
"Why don't we install them into the computer cases now?"
"I'll do it. You should go put the tools away."
"Okay, be careful with them," Tora said as he gathered the tools.
"I will."
Tora walked down the starcase and placed them back into the tool cabinet. Momo, Ryu, and Nina were still talking to each other. It was starting to become dark. Suddenly, Rei opened the door and entered the house.
"Rei! You're home early!" Momo exclaimed when she saw her husband enter.
"The large monster was sighted, and I had to come home, or I would be stuck in Wyndia for the night. Oh, Nina, Ryu, you're going to have to stay with us tonight. All the roads are closed now and they won't let anyone into Wyndia. We have the guest room, and you're staying for dinner anyways," Rei explained.
"Speaking of dinner, why don't you and your sister go out to the well and get some water for it before it is too dark outside," Momo said to Tora.
"I, I will."
Tora ran upstairs to get his sister. The computers were put together and all the pieces were in place. Each "laptop" was on the seperate beds, both corresponding to their owners.
"Janice, Mother wants us to get water before it is too dark outside. And great job on the computers!" Tora said with his thoughts coming out of his mouth.
"Oh, right." Janice got up off her bed.
"Father is home early tonight, the monster was sighted. So Nina and Ryu are staying with us tonight," Tora said as they walked out of the room.
"Why don't you ever say 'mom' or 'dad?'" Janice asked.
"I don't know, it just doesn't seem right.."
"You take after Mom, don't you?"
"Personality, but I have Father's traits."
"Well, I take after Mom too, but I do have some of Dad's personality traits. I wonder if genetics does that..."
They walked down the stairs and towards the back door. They pushed the door open and walked out into the partly-dark outside. They shut the door behind them, and walked over to the well. Janice dropped the bucket into the well and they started to pull the rope to bring the bucket back up. The darkened and thick forest surrounded them, suddenly, they heard a rustle in the forest.
To Be Continued...
Next Episode
Chapter 10: Tora no Tora-Jin no Henshin!
Tora's Tiger-Human Transformation!