~*Disclaimer: Now, if I owned Inuyasha, do you think I'd be writing FANfiction? I didn't think so.
"…" - speech
'…' - thoughts
~*~*~ - change in scenery or time.
Arising UneaseFeb.21.299 NA
New Tokyo, Human Division, Sector 118The early rays of the sun entered through a small window into a settlement, and landed upon a lump in the middle of a blanket. The lump irritably attempted to brush away the interference, but to no avail. So it tried to pull the covers tighter over its head.
Endeavor successful, the human sized lump stilled once again, trying to catch some more shuteye.
Just then, an alarm clock started ringing, and a teenage girl emerged, defeated, from the lump. Her long black hair flew in different directions and her ocean blue eyes were half lidded in morning grogginess. She started to drag herself out of the stiff bed. Having misjudged the distance to the edge of the bed, Kagome found herself sitting in mid air, and fell to the floor with a thump and a yelp.
Cursing the early rising of the sun and the Government designed alarm clocks, the droopy-eyed teenager rose from the floor. Walking over to a small sliding door to the right of the area leading the bathroom, she sighed and pulled off her nightclothes. Opening her small closet, the girl stared dully at the selection. A sea of grey greeted her sea-blue eyes.
"Let's see. Will it be this grey suit with the blue armband or that one?" Kagome remarked nebulously.
Sighing yet again, Kagome picked any random suit out of the closet- they were all the same, anyway. She slowly pulled on each article of clothing.
Not for the first time, the teenager wished that she could wear something other than grey. It was the same thing every single day. Everybody she ever saw wore the same clothes every day! Nobody else she knew had any problems with dressing up in the same thing constantly. They were all content to wear what they were given, and to do what they were told. But maybe the reason for that, was the fact that the grey articles of clothing were the only things that the humans had ever seen, apart from those of the androids.
They didn't have the dreams that Kagome had.
They hadn't seen the vision of another world that she saw weekly.
And even though she knew that her dreams went against everything the New World stood for, the girl couldn't help but wish that she could be a part of them.
Finally finishing dressing, she stretched. Heading toward the door that separated her from her housemates. Kagome opened it and was greeted by an unusually empty hallway.
How exciting.
Checking her wristwatch, the schoolgirl yelped in surprise and quickly scrambled down the hallway, all signs of weariness gone. She had spent more time than usual in her room, dressing and daydreaming at the same time for fifteen minutes. That left only ten for her to pop down an instant breakfast, and run to school. Luckily, the facility wasn't too far from her house, thanks to the planning done by the Government to ensure that each school was surrounded by the settlements. That, and the fact that she used the public transportation provided by the bureaucracy.
Up until the age of thirteen, children were brought up in their family units, which always consisted of two parents and two children. Once they turned thirteen, the children were taken away from the homes and brought to the student settlements. There, they would spend the next six years of their life, with others of the same age. The dormitories were co-ed, and the people you lived with were also your classmates in school.
Kagome herself had been raised with a little nine-year-old brother. Their father had died when she was only eight, and so her mother had been assigned another counterpart to complete the family unit. In all probability, Kagome would probably never see her little brother or mother again, since New Tokyo was a large city. There was also the fact that the Government had designed for the process to be so that the children would eventually become dependent of their families, and could advance to the adult stage.
In many aspects, their lives were pre-decided for them by the administration.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It was third period.
Japanese literature.
She had arrived at school just in time for the first period- the science of anatomy.
The school day was divided up into eight periods and one lunch hour. It started at 7:00 am sharp, and the periods were fifty minutes long. After 3 hours and 20 straight minutes of learning, there was a one hour break for lunch, and then it was back to the books. The only advantage, if one could call it that, was that school let out at 2:40 pm, giving them time to get in some recreational activities, and to finish their homework assignments.
The raven-haired girl stared listlessly at the teacher as she went on about the different types of literature that were written by the Superiors, and how lucky New Tokyo was that the books had been translated into Japanese for the public to read.
Japanese literature class was the same every day.
Their literature teacher was a blue android that repeated the same lecture everyday, just to hammer the information into the students' heads. There was never any mention of the books that had existed before the Neo Age, and nobody ever dared to question the education system.
"10031! Pay attention to class!"
Kagome started as she heard her permanent code being called, and nodded quickly.
"Yes! Of Course!"
She had gotten to school at the ring of the first bell, which was a relief. Everyday, the students would slide their personal identification card through the attendance when they entered school. This would keep track of the attendance record, and how the person would benefit the community once they were older. Depending on the students' performance in school, the Government would choose what career would best fit them. There were jobs that were unable to be performed by the androids, such as doctoring and nursing others.
If the person proved to be unbeneficial to the society, they were disposed of.
Permanently.
Nobody knew exactly what happened to those unfortunate people.
It was just public knowledge that they were never seen again.
There were rumours that they were pushed into the demon side, and that they had been devoured.
Nobody wished for that to happen to themselves.
So they tried as hard as they could to excel in school.
Their lives and livelihoods depended on it.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Kagome breathed a sigh of relief as the period bell rang, and she hurriedly picked up her items. Moving to join her friends, the girl waved to several of her classmates. Yuka, Ayumi, and Eri were waiting for her in the doorway. Over the past four years, these three girls had become like sisters to Kagome, and although they proved to be a little nosy at times, they had always been there for her, and her for them. When she caught up to them, the trio immediately started asking questions.
"So, Kagome-chan, where were you this morning?"
"Yeah, we couldn't find you during the breakfast call- did you oversleep again?"
"I can't believe it! You were almost late for school! The perfect student!"
"I'll bet Houjo-kun wants to talk to you again." Remarked Eri.
This shut the other two up for a moment before they grinned and turned on Kagome.
"Yeah, Kagome! Houjo-kun was looking for you!"
"So, do you think he'll be your assigned counterpart?"
"Oh! I'd be SO jealous if he was!"
"I know! He's cutest boy in the entire school!"
"He's SO handsome!"
"And athletic!"
"And smart!"
"Don't forget he's so… dreamy!"
Her friends were good people, but at times like this, they could a little… nosy.
Especially if it concerned her relationships with the male population of the school.
But it was one of the reasons why she loved them so much.
Houjo was a student at the learning facility who was in one of the more advanced classes. It was a well-known fact that he had a crush on Kagome. He was smart, athletic, handsome, and he was the perfect gentleman. It had always been a mystery to the girl how one as popular as Houjo could like her. Kagome would have been attracted to him if he weren't so unbearably… dull.
And dense.
Her life was boring enough as it was. She didn't need another factor increasing that.
Her mind on the topic, the girl ambiguously wondered about who would be assigned to be her partner.
The Government based the counterpart assignment on a person's statistics.
Those who were most likely to move into one career field was paired with another who had the same interests as their assigned partner. Not only the compatibility of the personalities of the people were analysed. The DNA strands of the pair were compared with each other to ensure that the match would produce the best offspring possible.
For the most part, a person was assigned a pairing at the age of seventeen or eighteen. The two would meet, and then spend free time together for the Government to monitor the progress. If the couple proved to be compatible, they were moved into a more private settlement with the objective of mating and ultimately producing offspring. Once the twosome completed school, they were given their jobs, and whisked off to a permanent living quarter to be with their counterpart.
Some remained undecided until they were much older.
Others were never given partners due to some psycological or physical condition that would prove a match to be unsuccessful. Those people were shoved into community settlements that were much like the student ones.
Most of the time, the matches had never met before, but there was the very slight possibility that they went to the same school, or lived in the same area.
Humans were matched with humans and demons with demons.
That was an unspoken rule.
On the way through the hallways, Kagome pretended to listen to her friends' blabbering and nodded at a few choice intervals. Finally reaching the history classroom, the girls split up and headed for their allotted seats. After waiting for the class to settle down, the history teacher stood up.
The history teacher was one of the rare human teachers in New Tokyo. Perhaps one would have thought that she was better than the monotone androids, but that was not particularly true. Urasue, which was the teacher's name, was as expressionless as the Government made androids, and had large, bulging eyes. She never seemed to blink, and whenever a student became the victim of her penetrating gaze, they would become nervous and edgy. Her figure was large, and she had not been assigned a counterpart.
Some say that was because of her almost psychotic nature.
Despite the teacher's disposition, the history of Earth was one of the few subjects that Kagome was interested in. She loved to learn about how things came to be, even if some of the lessons seemed to be a little too far-fetched to be real. Today's lesson would be a review of the beginning of the Neo Age, explaining how the Superiors had found Earth to be a waste land, and brought it to prosperity.
This was one of the points that confused Kagome.
If the world had truly been found as a wasteland, then why had the Superiors bothered trying to help the people? Why didn't they leave when that their work was done, and let the humans to their own devices? Perhaps the girl questioned her origins because even though science class had taught her that earth was billions of years old, the Neo Age only extended to 299 years before the present.
What had the world been like before the New World had been formed?
"Any questions?"
The cracked voice of Urasue broke into Kaogme's thoughts, and the girl realised that she had missed the entire lesson. It didn't really matter though- she knew all of it by heart. She was, after all, one of the top students, and the most likely to be granted a good career by the Government.
The teacher was about to continue with assigning the homework when a hand did shoot into the air. She raised her saclike eyes to the student. She met the teacher's gaze unflinchingly.
"Yes… 12884?"
A girl with hair held in place at the back of her head by a ribbon stood up. Kagome recognised her to be Nazuna, someone who had been orphaned at birth.
How her parents had died, though, had been a mystery.
"It's Nazuna, and, I was just wondering, what was the world like before the Neo Age?"
Kagome blinked in surprise at the girl. She had voiced the very same questions that had been swirling around her own head. Not one student had ever questioned Urasue about the history of the earth since all of her resources were from the Government, and nobody ever challenged the government.
Urasue looked expressionlessly at the girl.
"What do you mean, 12884? Perhaps you wish to learn about the history of the Superiors? Perhaps you would like a private tutor android to be sent to your room after school is dismissed?" She was obviously trying to avoid answering the question.
Nazuna stood firm.
"I'm just curious- how was life before the Superiors came to earth? Was it better than how it is now? Were humans and demons allowed to live together? Because I've been doing some research on the history of our planet, and some of the points just don't connect."
Whispers broke out through the room, as the peers exchanged their opinions about the bold girl.
Urasue's face tightened and she glared at the calm faced girl.
"Sit down." Her retort was sharp. "There is no life better than the one we have now. This world is perfect, thanks to the Superiors and our own Government. Had they not come and rescued this planet, none of us would have been here today. Now be quiet."
She then turned her back to the class and resumed writing on the blackboard.
However, the students looked at each other questioningly. Nazuna's question and Urasue's abrupt answer had raised a few brows. A few whispers flew around the room, while the history teacher pretended to ignore them. Her stiff frame, however, was enough evidence that she had been angered by the inquiry.
Nobody noticed as, when she sat down, the pop-eyed teacher wrote a few notes down on a piece of paper. Urasue glared menacingly in Nazuna's general direction, and sealed the note with her teacher's seal. She then placed the message in a slot that was connected directly to the main office.
Trouble was definitely headed her way.
Kagome took no notice of this, nor did any of her classmates as she frowned thoughtfully at Ayumi, who had looked at her with a raised brow, and returned to her history textbook. She flipped to the next page and read on, not expecting to find anything that would answer her unvoiced questions.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
At lunch hour, Kagome and her group of friends wandered into the cafeteria. It was a circular room with tables spread out around it. The serving station was at the top end of the cafeteria, directly across from the entrance. The room was spacious enough to accommodate half of the school's 1000 student population at any one time.
Quickly walking to the serving station, they checked their allotted lunches and quickly grabbed them, using their personal identification cards to confirm their identities. The meals were specifically designed for each individual to make up for any lack of nutrition, and to best supply the body with energy, but that didn't mean they tasted any good. Many considered their lunches to be horribly unpalatable.
After they picked up their chow, the girls found an empty table, sitting down, one on each side of the dining table. They began to converse about the history lesson, much like many of the other students who had been in the same class.
"Urasue's answer was a little sketchy… wasn't it?" Ayumi questioned her friends.
Yuka quickly agreed. "Yeah. I just wonder why they won't tell us already."
Eri glanced around the table and leaned inwards. She motioned for the others to lean in closer and they complied.
"You know, maybe they're keeping something from us. Maybe they're lying about something."
Ayumi, quick to defend the Government, retorted quickly.
"Well, guys, maybe they'll tell us in the future. We do live a pretty good life, you know. Everybody's equal, and as the Government says, the world is perfect as it is right now. There's no need for change." She smiled, somewhat unconvincingly, and continued. "After all, what really, do we need right now? Nothing!"
Kagome spoke up for the first time in the conversation.
"But is perfection such a good thing?" Her voice was quiet and considering.
"… What do you mean, Kagome-chan?"
She looked up from her meal of noodles.
"I mean, is life really good as it is? Sure, the Government designed the world to be perfect, but we aren't exactly free, you know what I mean? I'm just wondering how the world would be like if the Superiors just took their artificial androids and got off of Earth." Kagome's voice had grown harsher near the end of her remark.
The three friends gasped and Eri dropped her chopsticks, clapping a hand over a momentarily stunned Kagome's mouth.
"Don't speak like that!" She hissed, "Don't you remember the last time someone doubted the Government's plans? They were never heard from again! They disappeared! They were probably lead to the demon side to be devoured!"
Kagome tore her face away from the covering appendage and whispered angrily, "See what I mean? Do you really consider this to be freedom? We don't even have the privilage of free speech! We don't even know how the demons really are! All we have is the information the Government gives us! Can you really be certain that they're as bad as they seem?"
Yuka pursed her lips and looked worriedly at her friends. Eri was frowning, a rare expression on the normally happy girl's face, and Ayumi was biting her lip. There was a silence and the babble of the other students only made it more perceptible.
Yuka was the first to break it.
"You may be right, Kagome-chan, but there really isn't anything we can do about that, right?" Her voice was almost pleading. "The Government controls the entire world. We're just a small group of students. What difference could we make? If we tried anything out of line, we'd be shot down! So, please, Kagome-chan, be a little more careful in what you say. We don't want to lose one of the group!"
Kagome settled back down to her meal and remained silent. Her friends exchanged worried expressions but remained quiet for once.
She picked listlessly at her noodles. She was right-Yuka was right. There really was nothing that a small group of students could do to defy a ruling power that had weapons of mass destruction at their disposal.
There was nothing they could do to change the world they were in now.
Not in their current state.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In response to:
geckogirl33:
You were wondering if this was going to be Sess/Rin in this story?
Well, if it goes according to plan, then yes.
It'll actually be a pretty important factor… but that's going far ahead of myself. ~_^
[Chappie 2!
In case you were wondering, Urasue has nothing to do with anything at the moment. I just needed a name for a history teacher, searched through the Inuyasha characters, and came up with Urasue.
She might make another appearance…
Kaede will serve another role…
Ugh. Can you just imagine that amount of straight studying, 4 subjects after another? *shudder*
Third chapter typing… It might not get done in while since I have a few things to do…]