Octavo again, here with the second chapter of The Odaiba Project.
In order to encourage reviewing, I shall personally respond to every signed review that I received, at least until the volume becomes too large to deal with.
JyouraKoumi: Glad you liked it, I think... as much as I can tell from a one-word review.
Rangertamer: Yeah, I was afraid my title would have been taken. But it wasn't, and I shall run with it as far as it goes.
Miss Anonymous hp: Longest review for Chapter 1, and first as well. I like reviews that take the time to say what they came to say! Or somesuch.
And without further ado,
The Odaiba Project Chapter 1: Morning Madness with Ken
---/---/---
Okay. I woke up, and there was a giant bug thing on my bed. And Osamu was gone.
I'm sure that I, Ken Ichijouji, can come up with a more rational explanation than "Oh my god! Osamu's been eaten!" Of course he hasn't. This bug isn't big enough to fit him inside. Besides, there's no way it could have gotten in.
Then again, it is in.
Wait. Did it just call me "Ken"?
Oh my god! Osamu's turned into a big green bug!
---/---/---
Last night, Osamu had been on his way back upstairs. He had plenty of time to be back and get some sleep. Ken would never know he'd been gone.
Then it had occurred to him that he could have saved a lot of speed with a do-while loop. Oh well, it would be no problem to go back and fix it. Wouldn't want to leave a bad job; he had a reputation to think of, and that reputation had him pegged firmly at "perfect."
Drat. He'd left the basement door open. Good thing he'd thought to come back down; they'd really have had his head.
Hold on a second. That sounded like a sandwich. With lettuce. At his computer.
He ran down the basement steps, and found...
Jun Motomiya.
Playing some computer game. No harm done, he supposed. But he'd better get her back upstairs before anyone found out he'd left the door open.
---/---/---
"Okay. Don't worry, Osamu. We'll figure out what happened."
Osamu-bug: "Osamu? Who's Osamu?"
"Oh no! You've lost your memory, too!"
---/---/---
Hold on a second, thought Osamu-in-the-basement-a-couple-hours-ago. I don't recognize that computer game. And I'm sure I've seen Ken playing every one ever devised.
He did another double-take. He knew some of those object names.
The fool girl had launched The Program!
This was not happening. They'd have his head for this...
---/---/---
I needed help with this. I went to go find Jyou and Koush, figuring they'd know what to do.
But when I burst into the upstairs hall, carrying my bug-creature, I discovered something even more surprising.
Koush was tackled by a bug-creature, too! His is red and beetleish. I figure it's Tai. The antennas are all askew, just like his hair.
---/---/---
Okay. I think we've got it sorted out now.
All of us are here except Jun and Osamu. And it looks like everyone has a creature, too.
That means that the creatures aren't our friends, after all. So where's Osamu - and who's this bug?
---/---/---
"Okay, everyone. Listen!" called Tai.
The second-floor common room remained loud.
"Listen to me!"
No answer.
"QUIET DOWN AND LISTEN TO ME!" Still no response.
"Everybody?" inquired Sora.
The place quieted down instantly.
"Listen to what Tai is saying!"
"Thank you, Sora. What I'm trying to say is that I for one am hungry, and we need to get some breakfast."
Tai's dinosaur creature and Dai's blue... thing... creature jumped to his side.
"And some of you may have forgotten that there is a fully-functional kitchen downstairs."
Jyou's seal thing and my own bug creature took off to join them.
Tai went on speaking; I guess nobody was about to interrupt him. Pretty soon all the creatures were grouped up behind him.
"And just one more thing," added Tai. "Where are the stairs, again?"
"Oh, forget it." Yamato took off for the door at the end of the hallway, dragging his horn-wolf-creature down to breakfast. Everyone charged after him, the spell broken.
---/---/---
The kitchen has probably never seen a breakfast raid quite like this. We went through eight boxes of cereal and several gallons of milk in half an hour. Fortunately, it's stocked for several weeks, or I'd worry about having anything to eat tomorrow!
"Everybody!" Tai got up on his chair. "It's time to do something!"
Everyone looked up at Tai.
"So what do we do?"
Yamato's head hit the table. It looks like a couple other people agree with him, too. I, for one, think it's a fine question, since it gives me a chance to ask this:
"I think we should figure out what happened to Jun and Osamu."
"Okay," answered Tai, "what do we know?"
Kari responded with, "Jun went out around midnight for a snack. I let her go - either I'd get her for waking me up when she came back, or I'd get her for not taking me with her. Or she'd bring me back a sandwich. It was win-win... until she didn't come back!"
"Okay. What else do we know?"
Daisuke spoke up. "I figured something out. If she was in the kitchen... we'd have seen her!"
Which caused Takeru to pull his hat down over his eyes.
The boy has a point, though; I can't see where she could have gotten to. We've been through the common rooms, and the basement door is - yep - still locked. Tight. That leaves outside - strictly verboten. And completely inexplicable.
I voice my theory. Tai says, "Okay - this is a tricky one. We need more thinking power. Koush, can you launch your computer?"
"Sure - what do you want me to do with it?" he inquires, as the PowerBook boots up.
"Well, I was thinking we'd start a file, and then write, 'What Do We Know?'"
Matt fell over again. His spoon went flying and hit Jyou in the shoulder.
Any prospect of a food fight, however, was abruptly halted, to an exclamation of "Prodigious!"
"What?" I inquired.
"I have network – and you'll never guess what I see!"
---/---/---
And that's a chapter! Review!
Yeah, it's short. But I can do more of them when I put them in small pieces, and believe you me, I have a lot of them planned.