Chapter 1- The Awakening
"Is everything ready?"
"Yes. We are fully prepared to begin our plan,"
"And the machine?"
"Prepared for use,"
"Right. Let's get started."
Tohru opened her big, blue eyes. Everything looked so fuzzy. She blinked a few times, and her vision became a little clearer. She had a terrible, aching headache, and her rubbed her temples. She surveyed her surroundings, and noticed that she was in a large, white room. There didn't appear to be any doors or windows, on pure, unnaturally white walls. She sat up and looked at the floor. Next to her, were Yuki and Kyo, both lying asleep- or possibly unconscious. Yuki, she noticed, had a deep gash across his left cheek. "How did I get here?" she thought, "What happened?" And then, her mind was flooded by memories of the night before.
She had been lying in bed, and woke up because she heard a loud crashing noise from downstairs. She heard footsteps, coming up to her room, and her door creaked. She lay there, eyes wide, not knowing what to do. What if it was a stalker? Or a burglar? She wanted to scream, but she felt a hand over her face… and she didn't remember any more after that.
Tohru noticed a large, rectangular object that had not been there before. How did it get there? Or had she just not noticed it before? She glanced over at Yuki and Kyo. Were they asleep? Unconscious? Or maybe… she shuddered, thinking about the last possibility. She placed her hand on Yuki's forehead. It felt slightly cold. Her hand shaking, she touched his wrist to feel for a pulse. When she felt the slight throbbing, she let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God," She thought. She then crawled over to Kyo, and felt for his pulse. It was there also. She looked at Kyo's face. While Yuki looked peacefully asleep, Kyo looked angry, like he was having a bad dream or something. Tohru placed her hands on Kyo's shoulders.
"Kyo," she softly whispered, "please wake up, Kyo." But Kyo stayed motionless. Tohru shook him a little bit. "Kyo… please, you've got to wake up," Tohru said. She was starting to get worried. What if Kyo was in a coma? Or poisoned? Or dying, or something terrible like that? What would she do? "Kyo! You've got to wake up!" She said, about to break into tears. She was about to have a complete mental breakdown, sobbing and crying, when Kyo cracked his eyes open.
"T… Tohru?" He said, his voice groggy and raspy sounding.
"Kyo! I thought you were hurt, or sick, or maybe… oh, Kyo!" She said, and hugged him. But then, she remembered, "Oh no! The curse! I'm not supposed to hug him! Kyo will turn into a… into a… she waited for the familiar "poof" but it didn't come.
"K…Kyo?" she said inquisitively, "why… didn't you…?"
"I have no idea," Kyo replied, dumbfounded, "what the hell is going on?" By now, Tohru had already pulled away from the hug. "Hug me again," said Kyo, "maybe it was a…a fluke, or something like that." He abruptly grabbed Tohru and pulled her into a hug. Again, Kyo did not transform. Tohru and Kyo looked at each other.
"So… does this mean-" Tohru began,
"-That the curse is broken? At least, for me, anyway?" Kyo said, "If it's broken for me, then is it the same for that damn…" Kyo's face changed into almost a sympathetic look as he saw poor Yuki, lying motionless on the ground, with a huge, deep gash on his cheek. "…Yuki…"
"Oh my gosh, Yuki!" Tohru exclaimed, and crawled over to Yuki. She cupped her hands under Yuki's head. "Oh, Yuki… you're bleeding badly…" She ripped a strip of cloth from her pajama shirt and used it to wipe away Yuki's blood. Yuki's eyes slowly opened.
"Miss… Honda?" He said in an ill sounding voice.
"Yuki!" She said, "Thank god you're alright!" She then bent down to hug him.
"Wait… Honda-san…!" Yuki braced himself for the transformation, which did not occur. She held onto him for a while, with a few jealous glances from Kyo, but Yuki still did not transform.
"So… the curse is broken?" Said a bewildered Yuki.
"I… guess so." Said Kyo. Yuki turned his head, and looked at Kyo.
"Um, I'm sorry but I guess I'm kind of confused… what are we all doing here?" Yuki said, looking around.
"I don't… remember, really…" said Tohru, "I just remember a hand, and a funny smell and then…"
"You were knocked out," said Kyo, "I was too. I remember the same thing you do."
"I don't remember any of that," said Yuki. He sat up, and Tohru and Kyo noticed that a small pool of blood had formed on the white, marble floor.
"Yuki!" said Tohru, "you're bleeding!"
"Don't worry, miss Honda," said Yuki, "I'll be fine."
"You damn rat!" said Kyo, slamming his fist on the floor, "you're not fine! You've got amnesia! That's why you can't remember anything, sheesh…" Tohru cracked an almost invisible smile. Kyo was actually a little worried about Yuki.
"What's that?" Yuki said, "over there?" He was pointing to the large, rectangular object on the other side of the room.
"I don't know," said Kyo, "let's go check it out." Kyo stood up and walked, slightly awkwardly over to the object. Tohru and Yuki followed.
Up close, the object looked quite different. It was about eight feet tall, with a giant screen, and a variety of buttons, and an almost flat pad with arrows to stand on.
"Oh, I know what this is!" Said Tohru, "it's a Dance Dance Revolution machine! My friends love this game!" Yuki and Kyo gave each other confused looks.
"Why in the heck would that be there?" said Kyo.
"I honestly don't know," said Yuki.
"Ooh, I wonder if I could work it…" said Tohru, while fiddling with some of the buttons. She soon discovered that the green button was the one that started the game, and giggled ecstatically that she would soon be playing one of her favorite games. Yuki and Kyo looked at each other, wondering how she could be so distracted from what was going on by such a simple thing.
They soon discovered why. As the flashing lights and arrows were displayed across the screen, all the colors of the spectrum, and accompanied by extremely catchy techno music, the boys were mesmerized. They could not believe that a dancing game could distract them so much from real life. All of their worries, all of their problems, they all seemed to disappear into the blinding, flashing lights of the Dance Dance Revolution machine…