Chapter One: An Average Day?
"Tashani? TASHANI! You lazy lump of a boy, get out of that blasted bed, would you?!" The shrill, high-pitched cry carried up from the first floor of an average, every-day, three story home set in the quiet suburbs of Mihako, Japan. As the call made it's way to the third floor of the home, the sound of a shuffling figure could be heard. However, sensing that the movement had only been temporary, the origin of the first cry released another, "GET OUT OF THAT BED THIS INSTANT!" Another sound of rummaging was heard, and the voice sighed. "I swear, if I weren't here that boy'd sleep through a hurricane!"
In the small, third-story room, high above the rest of the house, the new morning's rays of sun had just filtered past the thick glass of the only window, and lit the entire room. The room wasn't very large, and resembled an old attic. It apparently hadn't been used for much in the past, but had been recently refurnished. It was fully decorated with freshly painted cabinets, a long wooden desk that was cluttered with various books, papers, as well as a rather large computer, a small TV was on a shelf that was suspended from the foremost wall, and against the opposite wall was a long, green bed, which was currently occupied.
"Ugh..." a tired groan escaped from underneath the bundled sheets of a disheveled bed. "7:00 AM already," the groan formed an angry voice, "I swear the night's get shorter on purpose!" A small hand reached from under the waves of green to toss the blanket to the side. All that remained on the bare mattress was an average-looking, half-asleep boy. However, his massive bush of auburn hair frayed in various directions, and his sea-green eyes gazed blankly at the sloping ceiling of his attic bedroom. Releasing a deep sigh, he kicked his legs to the side of the bed and managed to gain his feet. Crossing the floor, he made his way to the computer deck and looked past it and out the window. The bright sun warmed his face gently as he gazed over the horizon. With another sigh, he spoke coolly, "Who knows, hopefully something will happen today."
Moving from the window, Tashani grasped onto the metallic handle of his clothing drawer at his left and began to remove a new change of clothes. He began his daily routine of pulling a long black T-Shirt over his head, causing his puffy hair-do to shoot out in a mushroom motion. Then, slipping into a pair of matching parachute pants, he placed his hands from the clothing to the top most drawer and reached around until his fingers hit something. He quickly pulled out a long golden chain with a round, golden emblem attached to it. Carved into the circular emblem, however, was the unusual shape of an upside down crescent moon. The necklace was put around his neck as he swung around to the flight of stairs that lead to the second floor and trampled down them as fast as he could.
Eventually reaching the first floor, Tashani grabbed onto the last rail of the staircase and jumped, causing him to swing around the last turn of the stairs and into the hallway. He landed smoothly on both feet, and took his large, gray book bag off the chair that leaned against the railing. Slinging it casually over his shoulder, he called down the hall, "NO TIME TO EAT, MOM!" he screamed, "I'M GONNA BE LATE!" "What else is new?" asked the shrill voice of his mother from the kitchen. A short, blonde-haired woman with small, misty blue eyes bustled down the hall from the kitchen. She wore baggy white scrubs that gave her a pudgier look around the middle, which curved down into a short pair of thick legs. Attached to the front of her shirt was a small golden nametag that read "Shiro Kawonishi – R.N." and was embroidered with a colorful company logo. She wrapped her thick arms around the boy, almost as if to squeeze the life out of him, until he managed to squirm loose. Gasping, he forced a smile, "I love you, too, Mom..." The woman giggle softly, causing the flesh under her chin to jiggle slightly, and he laughed with her. Catching his breath, Tashani pushed pass the front door and finally managed to make it out of his house. He waved goodbye to his mother, who insisted on standing in the doorway until he was out of site, while he began his walk to school.
The smell of freshly cut grass filled the morning air as Tashani happily followed his usual trail to school. It was apparent that the summer season was around the corner and this year's vacation would soon be here. Tashani smiled at this, looking around at the large groups of younger children walking together. He laughed, seeing a single adult trying to control the mass of smaller kids. He stopped at a busy intersection and watched the rows of cars zip by. It was beginning to look like any other average day, and was becoming very disappointing. As the traffic light flashed from a bright red to a dull green, Tashani sighed and quickly ran across the cross walk to the other end of the busy street.
Scratching the large mass of bustling hair on top of his head, Tashani mumbled as if something were missing. It was then that he reached the corner at which he was supposed to turn, when something caught his eye. It was moving in a small circle, right out front of Gary's Produce Market. He made sure his bag was secure to his back before he began to dash toward the moving form. Past the old-fashioned shoe store, past the new computer shop, quickly he tucked his feet and jumped as high as he could into the air. In a few seconds he landed with a thud in front of whoever had been moving in front of the market. The figure stepped back unevenly, and tripped over it's own feet. Crashing to the ground, the person cried out, "You jerk!"
Tashani laughed uncontrollably, putting a hand down to offer help. The person lying angrily on the ground only slapped it away, which only caused Tashani to fall into a larger fit of laughter. The person on the floor pushed himself up and dusted the dirt of his pants, glaring coldly at the hysteric boy. "Oh, come on Keitaru, take a joke!" he crowed. Keitaru stepped behind Tashani slowly, and stood back to back. He was slightly taller than his partner, and had shorter, straighter strands of raven colored hair. He had a pair of navy blue eyes, which almost seemed as if they had the ability to kill if caught in a glare. He wore a long blue shirt that buttoned up from his knees to his neck, and depicted pictures of various dragons that appeared to be crawling across his body. A pair of faded blue jeans lead down to a set of black sneakers that were old and worn, but were kept for "comfort value".
Keitaru reached back and gently placed his hand on Tashani's shoulder, "You know, you're my best friend and you have been for three years." Tashani paused and tilted his head back, looking to him quizzically. "And ever since then, there has been something I wanted you to know..." He stepped closer to his confused counterpart, and looked deeply into his eyes. Both boys stared at each other quietly, neither making a move, until Keitaru snapped his fist across the back of his friend's head, "You're a moron!" Tashani grabbed the back of his head with both hands and rubbed soothingly, trying to ease the pain of the blow. Taking his turn to laugh, Keitaru picked his school bag off the sidewalk and began to rummage through it for something. He eventually pulled out a pair of large, black goggles with red-tinted lenses and pulled the bag over his shoulders. When Tashani finally decided to join him, he tossed the head-gear at his face and scoffed, "You left these at my house last night." Catching them, he pulled the elastic band over his head and adjusted them onto his forehead. The tight band caused his large mass of unruly hair to pull back and spike out in every different direction. Keitaru could only shake his head and chuckle as he turned and headed toward the school, hoping there would be some way they'd get there on time.
A few minutes later, they both crossed the long, busy street that lead to their destination. They crossed into a large courtyard lined with tall cherry trees that had been in bloom, giving the ground below a pink blanket of blossoms. Ahead of them was the gigantic Mihako High School, the largest building in the small city. The sun caused an equally gigantic shadow to cast across half of the school's courtyard, which remained relatively empty. However, the lit areas of the field were filled with hundreds of children that had broken themselves up into smaller groups, chattering on about countless topics. Tashani and Keitaru struggled, pushing there way past a huddle of football players, and squeezed through a group of students that were lording over some new card game to find the large double-doors at the top of a wide set of stone stairs.
They sat down next to each other on the top step, and Tashani sighed, "Do you ever wonder what it is they could all be talking about?" Keitaru leaned back and took his book bag off. He placed it behind his head and relaxed on it, using it in place of a pillow, "To be truly honest, I really don't care sometimes." He nodded and fixed his goggles, which kept sliding off his forehead, "I guess you're right. We're too different from them for some reason... I just wonder why." At that, a loud ringing echoed from high above the main entrance, causing the entire student body to turn toward the large double doors. As they began to rush frantically toward the stairway, Tashani gulped loudly. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed his friend by the collar of his shirt, snapping him to attention. "Wha-what are you doing?!" he cried, almost falling down the stairs. Seeing Tashani swing the doors open and dash down the hall, he turned to look down the courtyard. "I-I-I... WAIT FOR ME!" Keitaru grabbed his bag and crawled to his feet, following his friend as fast as he could.
Down the long, clambering halls of the school, it was in Room 116, Class B that Tashani and Keitaru had there first period class. It was a rather large, old, dusty room that hadn't been remodeled in the many years the school had been standing. The white paint was chipping piece by piece from the walls showing the bare red bricks. Each wall of the large room was lined with a set of computers that seemed out of place in the musty classroom, and in the middle of the rectangular structure was a long wooden desk, also occupied by a computer. Tashani slinked past the door into the room quickly, heaving for breath. Clasping his chest with his left hand, he used his other to toss the heavy backpack under one of the many desks. It landed with a loud thud, causing the chair sitting in front of the desk to fall back before he could sit down. Catching it, a soft voice came from his left, "Well Mr. Careless, feel like making anymore earthquakes today?" Cocking a single eyebrow, he sat down and turned to see who he was in the company of. Sitting at the computer desk next to him, poised and typing, was Neyami. Sitting down it was hard to tell, but she stood almost the exact same height as Tashani. However, her shoulder length raven tresses reached down to the shoulders of her tiny frame, and perfectly complemented the set of emerald oculars that reflected the glow of the monitor. Without taking her eyes off the screen, she reached over and ruffled his hair playfully. Her soft, gentle hands were ghostly pale compared to his, but the smile that curved from ear to ear warmed the boy into smiling back.
Neyami paused for a moment, stared at the flashing screen with a look of anger and then shook her head, "Ugh, anyway... Where's Keitaru?" She looked to the seat on the other side of Tashani, noticing it was empty, "Don't you two normally run from screaming mobs together?" He smirked, turning to his computer. Yet, when he leaned down to turn on the computer, the door to the room swung open and collided with the wall behind it, causing a loud "CRACK" to echo through the room. Both children whipped there heads around to where the noise had come from to se the rest of the class begin to pour in through the door like water from a faucet. Among the chattering mass, Keitaru struggled to get to his desk on Tashani's right side. As he did, the other two chuckled under there breath noticing he was apparently out of breath. Muttering, Keitaru watched his monitor flicker on and the rest of the class took their seats.
Following the last couple of kids running into the room was a large, white-haired man. His small gray eyes looked around the room through a pair of thick eyeglasses that that sat in front of his face. He focused on the few students that he had followed in and waited for them to sit down. As they did, he turned to the rest of the class and called, "Alright! That's enough!" As the round man's deep voice bellowed through the entire room, a sudden hush befell the crowd. The eyes of every student left the glowing screen and followed the teacher as he moved to the larger desk. Without sitting, he opened one of the drawers of his desk and pulled something out. His fat fingers were clasped around what seemed to be some sort of mechanical device as he raised it into the air. It was longer than it was wide, and had a small antenna on the top. On the front face of the device were a square screen, currently blank, and three buttons, two small and one larger. "Children," he spoke again, "This is an experimental piece of hardware that our school board has decided to try out to improve computer-work efficiency. It's called the Digital Advancement Reference Unit, or D.A.R.U., and it's primary function is to assist you in your computer learning." Tashani and Keitaru turned to each other, both faces seemed to ask the other if his were a joke. However, behind the mouse pad of each computer sat a similar device. Each child soon found there own D.A.R.U. and began to examine it closely.
"Now, seeing as you will all be receiving your own D.A.R.U., I suggest you run through the Set-Up function so you can register your name and identity for safety purposes." Hearing this, Tashani reached past his mouse and picked up his miniature computer. First, he turned it over in each direction, looking over the thing as a child would a new toy. When he was done examining the machine, he pressed the larger button and the small screen turned on. The words "Please confirm identity" appeared on the screen, and he blinked. "Identity?" In the corner of his eye, Tashani saw Neyami programming her D.A.R.U. with ease. Looking back to the screen, he sighed, "Ok, Identity! T-A-S-H-A-N-I..." Typing in each letter as he read them aloud, he then hit the large button again. The machine beeped in recognition and the words "Hello, TASHANI. How may I help you?" replaced the former question.
The teacher gazed across the room quietly, waiting for everyone to finish programming their device. When this was so, he raised the D.A.R.U. he had been holding and called, "After you have finished registering your name, flip the D.A.R.U. to the back and you will find a retractable cord that is made to fit your ISB port." He followed by demonstrating how to remove to long cord from the small compartment in the back and hooking it into the proper place. "This will be used to transfer information from computer to D.A.R.U. and vice versa. It will work much like an old-fashion floppy disk, but with many more features. You will notice that your D.A.R.U. has the ability to track time, spelling, art, a search engine, and communications. From now on, " he slammed his fist onto his desk, commanding attention from the class that had decided to ignore the lesson, "you will be required to bring this back to class everyday. Starting today, a part of your class will be dedicated to learning how to work your D.A.R.U. to optimum efficiency." Tashani had lost interest in the self-proclaimed class dictator's ramblings and had decided to review each of the programs by himself. While he was looking through one of the files, Keitaru reached over and tugged on his shirtsleeve. "What's up with this," he whispered, "You don't think this is for real, do you?" Tashani turned his eyes from the apparatus to look over his shoulder, seeing each student playing with their new "toy". It seemed farfetched, he thought, but way to extravagant for a simple joke. "Who knows? It's not that big of a deal, is it?" he questioned, looking back to Keitaru. He shrugged and sighed, "I guess not..."
Hour after hour passed, and after each class period Tashani took his D.A.R.U. out of the recesses of his pants pocket and studied it. The sentence "How may I help you?" was still on the screen. Tashani had come to the conclusion, earlier during math class, that there was no way to turn the machine off. The bell for the last period of the day had just finished ringing and, taking his attention to the halls, he tried to find his friends among the waves of children. Releasing a disgruntled sigh, Tashani was about to give up on the D.A.R.U. and search for Keitaru and Neyami. Yet, before he could, it emitted a shrill beeping noise. Fearing he had done something, Tashani took his eyes off the hallway and took his D.A.R.U. out. A look of lesser understanding melted onto his face as a large arrow flickered on the tiny monitor. The arrow, when held parallel to the floor, pointed back down the main hall. "So," Tashani thought, "You want me to go that way, huh?" He reached up, grabbed the goggles which rested on his forehead, and pulled them over his eyes. The red tinted lenses made the entire hallway appear rose colored, and Tashani smiled. Holding onto his make-shift compass, Tashani dashed down the corridor, "Yeah!'