Chapter 4: An Angel Without Equal
I was sitting at my small, oak desk in my bedroom, which was filled with photos of my old friends and families. The walls were painted sky blue and my bed was fluffy and soft, with my favorite teddy bears sitting together on the two pillows. At the moment, I was gazing absent-mindedly at my new toy – an Angel Doll. I didn't open the box yet, and I don't know why. Why wasn't I opening it up yet and reading the instructions? Was it fear, or excitement? The only decent explanation that I could think of was that I probably just wanted to savor the moment of finally getting one of those Angel Dolls I saw on that giant T.V. screen. It must've been hours that I was looking at it, since Aunt Ayami arrived home and knocked on my bedroom door.
"Are you asleep, Yumiko?" she asked casually, not wanting to wake me up in case I was.
"I'm just looking at the doll, Ayami. I'm still awake," I replied reassuringly, and then on a happier tone, "Thanks for buying me one of these! I really appreciate it!"
"Well, it was pretty easy to get, you see, my brother-,"she said in a nervous, yet prideful tone.
"-works at Piffle Princess HQ, and was the creator of Angelic Layer. I know Aunt Ayami, you already told me about it in the letter," I chuckled. She probably felt embarrassed yet happy for me at the same time.
Ayami entered my bedroom and walked to where I sat down, standing behind me. She looked over my shoulder curiously and with great interest. There was a brief moment of silence when...
"Um, aren't you going to open the package and make your angel? I thought you already did the moment you got into the house..."
"Well, um, I guess I was too excited and joyful that I didn't want to ruin the moment?" I answered innocently.
"You should hurry up and open it, Yumiko, unless you want to do it in the morning or next school year."
"What do you mean next school year?" I asked, puzzled.
"Aren't you going to sign up for the National Angelic Layer School League at your new school???" Ayami exclaimed, "Tomorrow is the last day to sign up! You better get a move on! Shoo! Go up to the bathroom and open up the Angel Egg underwater, when it reaches room temperature! Read the instructions to do the rest. Here-"
Aunt Ayami hoisted me up from the chair and carried me, piggy-back style, to the bathroom which was only two rooms away from me on the second floor. She helped me get out of my clothes, and she filled the tub with warm water.
"Like bubble baths?" she asked me pleasantly.
"Of course! I love playing with all the bubbles in the water," I grinned happily. Looks like I was going to happily create my own Angel Doll AND have a relaxing and fun time in the tub.
"If you like bubbles that much, I might as well put a whole whopper of the bubble bath solution," she grinned with a mischievous expression. I looked on with a nervous sweat drop on my head. Aunt Ayami must be really enjoying this.
In mere seconds the entire tub was buried with bubbles galore, and gradually overflowing out of the tub. Aunt Ayami was laughing as the bubbles grew bigger and bigger so it looked as if a giant blob was trying to take a bath.
"Time to put you in Yumiko~" she said joyfully, as she picked me up and placed me over the overflowing tub. I pretended to look at her nervously.
"You wouldn't... Aunt Ayami! I'd be swallowed up by those bubbles, literally!!! Please, don't put me in that tub of massive bubbles," I pleaded gleefully with tear-filled eyes and a puppy-like face, trying to act as pitiful as possible, "Don't put me in there..."
"Too bad, in you go, HA!" she shouted happily, dropping me in the tub. I let out an exaggerated scream as I plunged into the warm, bubbly tub of water. Water was displaced from the tub as I fell in, splashing water all over Aunt Ayami's clothes, who merely shrugged and laughed about it.
"Well, that was rather enjoyable," she smiled, "Time to leave some private for you. Don't forget to open your Angel Egg!!!(She pointed at the package beside the tub)" She left with a small towel ("I better get myself dried up before I cook dinner!") and closed the bathroom door.
For several minutes I relaxed in the nice, warm water, before I reached for the package on the ground. I tore open the box and took out the instruction booklet and the Angel Egg and put the box on the side carefully, for there was that tube-like gadget thing in the box still. I read the instructions:
HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN ANGEL Part 1: Releasing the Angel Doll from the Angel Egg
Steps: 1. Take out the Angel Egg from the Piffle Princess package.
2. Bring the Angel Egg with you into the bathtub when you're taking a bath.
3. Wait until the water is as warm as the room temperature.
4. Open the Angel Egg under the water. Do not take out until all the liquid solution has been
removed.
5. After the liquid solution is no longer in the Angel Egg, take it out of the water and get out of the water. PROCEED TO PART 2 OF INSTRUCTIONS
After reading the first part of the instructions, I put the Angel Egg into the water, as it was probably room temperature after several minutes already, and opened it. Steam came out of the Angel Egg, along with some silvery, gooey liquid substance that felt like shampoo. I waited until all the silvery liquid was out of the Angel Egg, and then I took it out of the water. Inside the egg was a clean, pale yellow and featureless mannequin- like doll. It looked as if it was made out of some strange metal materials, and it had two antennas attached to its back. Excited that I've finished the first part of the instructions to making my very own angel, I quickly called for Aunt Ayami to help me out of the tub. If only my paralyzed legs didn't slow me down from following the next instructions! Aunt Ayami came into the bathroom in no time, apologizing that she forgot to put my wheelchair in the bathroom for my own convenience.
Eventually, I was back in my bedroom preparing for the next set of instructions:
HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN ANGEL Part 2: Adding attributes, features, and activation
Steps: 1. Take out your Angel Doll from the Angel Egg.
2. Plug in the plug for the Angelic Tube into an electrical outlet and turn on.
3. When turned on, put your Angel Doll into the Angelic Tube.
4. Place Angelic Layer Activation software CD into your computer. Run the setup.
I did as I was told, turning on the Angelic Tube, placing my Angel Doll into it, and running the software on the laptop I borrowed from Aunt Ayami. I waited for the software to load patiently, and in a couple of seconds, an ANGELIC LAYER: Angel Doll Setup screen popped up. I clicked on the CONTINUE button and another screen popped up, showing a bunch of numbers, bars, etc. It said: PLEASE SELECT YOUR ANGEL DOLL's ATTRIBUTES. There were four meters shown: Speed, Vitality, Power, and Stamina. Each one had a meter that ranged from 1 to 250, and in P.S. it said: ALL STATS WILL EACH EVENTUALLY BE ABLE TO REACH UP TO 250 POINTS! TRAINING IS NECESSARY IN ORDER TO DO SO. At the top right corner, there was a box showing 40 pts., which were AVAILABLE.
I thought carefully about what I wanted to boost. First of all, I wanted it to be as fast as that red Angel Doll I saw, so I increased the Speed by 12 pts. Next, I wanted it to be pretty strong, but not too much that it would hinder my doll's speed, so in the Power meter, I added 7 pts., which I thought was a decent amount. She needed to be pretty strong against those really strong Angel Dolls, I thought to myself, so I added in the Vitality meter, 8 pts. Lastly, I wanted my Angel Doll to be able to stand on her own ground if the battle turns out to be long and almost evenly matched; therefore I placed the remaining 13 pts. into the Stamina meter. There we go! This was my ideal Angel Doll's attributes, and I was very pleased about it. I then proceeded to the next step.
The next step wanted me to select my Angel Doll's physical features, such as the size, eye color, hair, etc. It took me several minutes of pondering and debating, before I could come up with the perfect looks. I wanted my Angel Doll to have: blue hair that went down to the waist, light blue eyes, a short height, slender body, a shiny, grey, and tight costume that looked like a temple priestess (think Rei in Sailormoon, Inuyasha, etc. and you'll have relatively good image of what she wears. If you've ever played Xenosaga I and you've seen KOS-MOS, think of what her head and hair looks like. Then, make it have a gentle expression and you've got the image of what the Angel Doll looks like). After adding some finishing touches and details, I clicked the OK button to proceed to the last and final step: GIVING MY ANGEL DOLL A NAME.
This was a particularly hard thing to decide, because there were too many options and possibilities: should I name it Hikaru for Light? Sora for the Sky? Or maybe Takara for being a precious object? How about Nozomi for Hope? I kept popping up various names in my mind until it hit me: Kimi, meaning "she who is without equal". I soon became very fond of this name thinking, this will definitely fit my Angel Doll! I wanted her to be unique in style, action, etc. than any other Angel Doll in all of Japan! I didn't want to make her the same as anyone else's AT ALL. Why? Because she's my one and only precious Angel, I thought. I excitedly typed in the name for my Angel, and clicked FINISH.
The Angelic Tube glowed bright, golden yellow, as it processed the data into the Angel Doll at a high speed. The eyes of my Angel Doll slowly appeared on the face, beautiful blue hair was flowing out of the back of her head slowly, but surely. All of the clothes were slowly forming together, swirling around the naked figurine. After about 30 seconds, the bright yellow light dimmed, and the image of my ideal Angel was fulfilled. It far surpassed my expectations! It looked like a surreal fairy rather than a small human being. It was absolutely magnificent. Opening her eyes, my Angel gazed at me. I took a deep breath and smiled...
"Nice to meet you, Kimi, my name's Yumiko, and I'll be taking very good care of you from now on," I smiled, staring right back at her, not daring to turn it off until Aunt Ayami called me from downstairs for dinner. I turned off the Angelic Tube, and took out Kimi, whose eyes were closed and had a peaceful, sleepy expression on her face. Finally, I thought to myself, I have my very own Angel, and her name is Kimi, Ariwara Kimi...
-=End of Chapter 4=-
Please R and R!!! ^_^ This chapter took me quite a while to type, but, for the sake of all my readers, I typed it as fast as possible since the release of chapter 3! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Another chapter will be posted before March Break, and then, during March Break, expect to see at least 2 new chapters!!! Arigatou, MINA!!!!!!!!!!!
I was sitting at my small, oak desk in my bedroom, which was filled with photos of my old friends and families. The walls were painted sky blue and my bed was fluffy and soft, with my favorite teddy bears sitting together on the two pillows. At the moment, I was gazing absent-mindedly at my new toy – an Angel Doll. I didn't open the box yet, and I don't know why. Why wasn't I opening it up yet and reading the instructions? Was it fear, or excitement? The only decent explanation that I could think of was that I probably just wanted to savor the moment of finally getting one of those Angel Dolls I saw on that giant T.V. screen. It must've been hours that I was looking at it, since Aunt Ayami arrived home and knocked on my bedroom door.
"Are you asleep, Yumiko?" she asked casually, not wanting to wake me up in case I was.
"I'm just looking at the doll, Ayami. I'm still awake," I replied reassuringly, and then on a happier tone, "Thanks for buying me one of these! I really appreciate it!"
"Well, it was pretty easy to get, you see, my brother-,"she said in a nervous, yet prideful tone.
"-works at Piffle Princess HQ, and was the creator of Angelic Layer. I know Aunt Ayami, you already told me about it in the letter," I chuckled. She probably felt embarrassed yet happy for me at the same time.
Ayami entered my bedroom and walked to where I sat down, standing behind me. She looked over my shoulder curiously and with great interest. There was a brief moment of silence when...
"Um, aren't you going to open the package and make your angel? I thought you already did the moment you got into the house..."
"Well, um, I guess I was too excited and joyful that I didn't want to ruin the moment?" I answered innocently.
"You should hurry up and open it, Yumiko, unless you want to do it in the morning or next school year."
"What do you mean next school year?" I asked, puzzled.
"Aren't you going to sign up for the National Angelic Layer School League at your new school???" Ayami exclaimed, "Tomorrow is the last day to sign up! You better get a move on! Shoo! Go up to the bathroom and open up the Angel Egg underwater, when it reaches room temperature! Read the instructions to do the rest. Here-"
Aunt Ayami hoisted me up from the chair and carried me, piggy-back style, to the bathroom which was only two rooms away from me on the second floor. She helped me get out of my clothes, and she filled the tub with warm water.
"Like bubble baths?" she asked me pleasantly.
"Of course! I love playing with all the bubbles in the water," I grinned happily. Looks like I was going to happily create my own Angel Doll AND have a relaxing and fun time in the tub.
"If you like bubbles that much, I might as well put a whole whopper of the bubble bath solution," she grinned with a mischievous expression. I looked on with a nervous sweat drop on my head. Aunt Ayami must be really enjoying this.
In mere seconds the entire tub was buried with bubbles galore, and gradually overflowing out of the tub. Aunt Ayami was laughing as the bubbles grew bigger and bigger so it looked as if a giant blob was trying to take a bath.
"Time to put you in Yumiko~" she said joyfully, as she picked me up and placed me over the overflowing tub. I pretended to look at her nervously.
"You wouldn't... Aunt Ayami! I'd be swallowed up by those bubbles, literally!!! Please, don't put me in that tub of massive bubbles," I pleaded gleefully with tear-filled eyes and a puppy-like face, trying to act as pitiful as possible, "Don't put me in there..."
"Too bad, in you go, HA!" she shouted happily, dropping me in the tub. I let out an exaggerated scream as I plunged into the warm, bubbly tub of water. Water was displaced from the tub as I fell in, splashing water all over Aunt Ayami's clothes, who merely shrugged and laughed about it.
"Well, that was rather enjoyable," she smiled, "Time to leave some private for you. Don't forget to open your Angel Egg!!!(She pointed at the package beside the tub)" She left with a small towel ("I better get myself dried up before I cook dinner!") and closed the bathroom door.
For several minutes I relaxed in the nice, warm water, before I reached for the package on the ground. I tore open the box and took out the instruction booklet and the Angel Egg and put the box on the side carefully, for there was that tube-like gadget thing in the box still. I read the instructions:
HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN ANGEL Part 1: Releasing the Angel Doll from the Angel Egg
Steps: 1. Take out the Angel Egg from the Piffle Princess package.
2. Bring the Angel Egg with you into the bathtub when you're taking a bath.
3. Wait until the water is as warm as the room temperature.
4. Open the Angel Egg under the water. Do not take out until all the liquid solution has been
removed.
5. After the liquid solution is no longer in the Angel Egg, take it out of the water and get out of the water. PROCEED TO PART 2 OF INSTRUCTIONS
After reading the first part of the instructions, I put the Angel Egg into the water, as it was probably room temperature after several minutes already, and opened it. Steam came out of the Angel Egg, along with some silvery, gooey liquid substance that felt like shampoo. I waited until all the silvery liquid was out of the Angel Egg, and then I took it out of the water. Inside the egg was a clean, pale yellow and featureless mannequin- like doll. It looked as if it was made out of some strange metal materials, and it had two antennas attached to its back. Excited that I've finished the first part of the instructions to making my very own angel, I quickly called for Aunt Ayami to help me out of the tub. If only my paralyzed legs didn't slow me down from following the next instructions! Aunt Ayami came into the bathroom in no time, apologizing that she forgot to put my wheelchair in the bathroom for my own convenience.
Eventually, I was back in my bedroom preparing for the next set of instructions:
HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN ANGEL Part 2: Adding attributes, features, and activation
Steps: 1. Take out your Angel Doll from the Angel Egg.
2. Plug in the plug for the Angelic Tube into an electrical outlet and turn on.
3. When turned on, put your Angel Doll into the Angelic Tube.
4. Place Angelic Layer Activation software CD into your computer. Run the setup.
I did as I was told, turning on the Angelic Tube, placing my Angel Doll into it, and running the software on the laptop I borrowed from Aunt Ayami. I waited for the software to load patiently, and in a couple of seconds, an ANGELIC LAYER: Angel Doll Setup screen popped up. I clicked on the CONTINUE button and another screen popped up, showing a bunch of numbers, bars, etc. It said: PLEASE SELECT YOUR ANGEL DOLL's ATTRIBUTES. There were four meters shown: Speed, Vitality, Power, and Stamina. Each one had a meter that ranged from 1 to 250, and in P.S. it said: ALL STATS WILL EACH EVENTUALLY BE ABLE TO REACH UP TO 250 POINTS! TRAINING IS NECESSARY IN ORDER TO DO SO. At the top right corner, there was a box showing 40 pts., which were AVAILABLE.
I thought carefully about what I wanted to boost. First of all, I wanted it to be as fast as that red Angel Doll I saw, so I increased the Speed by 12 pts. Next, I wanted it to be pretty strong, but not too much that it would hinder my doll's speed, so in the Power meter, I added 7 pts., which I thought was a decent amount. She needed to be pretty strong against those really strong Angel Dolls, I thought to myself, so I added in the Vitality meter, 8 pts. Lastly, I wanted my Angel Doll to be able to stand on her own ground if the battle turns out to be long and almost evenly matched; therefore I placed the remaining 13 pts. into the Stamina meter. There we go! This was my ideal Angel Doll's attributes, and I was very pleased about it. I then proceeded to the next step.
The next step wanted me to select my Angel Doll's physical features, such as the size, eye color, hair, etc. It took me several minutes of pondering and debating, before I could come up with the perfect looks. I wanted my Angel Doll to have: blue hair that went down to the waist, light blue eyes, a short height, slender body, a shiny, grey, and tight costume that looked like a temple priestess (think Rei in Sailormoon, Inuyasha, etc. and you'll have relatively good image of what she wears. If you've ever played Xenosaga I and you've seen KOS-MOS, think of what her head and hair looks like. Then, make it have a gentle expression and you've got the image of what the Angel Doll looks like). After adding some finishing touches and details, I clicked the OK button to proceed to the last and final step: GIVING MY ANGEL DOLL A NAME.
This was a particularly hard thing to decide, because there were too many options and possibilities: should I name it Hikaru for Light? Sora for the Sky? Or maybe Takara for being a precious object? How about Nozomi for Hope? I kept popping up various names in my mind until it hit me: Kimi, meaning "she who is without equal". I soon became very fond of this name thinking, this will definitely fit my Angel Doll! I wanted her to be unique in style, action, etc. than any other Angel Doll in all of Japan! I didn't want to make her the same as anyone else's AT ALL. Why? Because she's my one and only precious Angel, I thought. I excitedly typed in the name for my Angel, and clicked FINISH.
The Angelic Tube glowed bright, golden yellow, as it processed the data into the Angel Doll at a high speed. The eyes of my Angel Doll slowly appeared on the face, beautiful blue hair was flowing out of the back of her head slowly, but surely. All of the clothes were slowly forming together, swirling around the naked figurine. After about 30 seconds, the bright yellow light dimmed, and the image of my ideal Angel was fulfilled. It far surpassed my expectations! It looked like a surreal fairy rather than a small human being. It was absolutely magnificent. Opening her eyes, my Angel gazed at me. I took a deep breath and smiled...
"Nice to meet you, Kimi, my name's Yumiko, and I'll be taking very good care of you from now on," I smiled, staring right back at her, not daring to turn it off until Aunt Ayami called me from downstairs for dinner. I turned off the Angelic Tube, and took out Kimi, whose eyes were closed and had a peaceful, sleepy expression on her face. Finally, I thought to myself, I have my very own Angel, and her name is Kimi, Ariwara Kimi...
-=End of Chapter 4=-
Please R and R!!! ^_^ This chapter took me quite a while to type, but, for the sake of all my readers, I typed it as fast as possible since the release of chapter 3! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Another chapter will be posted before March Break, and then, during March Break, expect to see at least 2 new chapters!!! Arigatou, MINA!!!!!!!!!!!