Island of Chimera

It started strangely enough on January 18th, the year of the snake. It had come as surprise, with out no warning, just like a silent nuclear warhead. Just like a nuclear warhead, it made a lot of high up officials very uncomfortable. It was in fact, not a nuclear bomb, but a prize, declaring most improved school in central England. What had unsettled them even further was the fact that, an outsider company, not native to England, and had no connections to Europe, it was a Japanese company that had awarded the prize.

People were unsettled even further when the prize details came through only a day later. It was a three-week educational trip to a special park in Australia, which as far as anyone could see, there was also no connection between the two companies. The trip was Okayed by the Education Authorities about two weeks later after many talks and meetings. All four thousand six hundred, students and teachers were invited, including people who worked at the school but had nothing to do with the students. Hence, ten planes were hired; each was an Airbus A380 giant plane, the largest plane in the world.

However, what the Heathrow Airport didn't expect, nor the motorway traffic, nor the police, was a convoy of ninety coaches's filling up two lanes of the motorway, one behind the other formation. Though none of the coach's had a driver, they were remotely controlled and hence followed each other with only a metre in between them. Most road users at that time were swerving out of the way to avoid the rampaging coaches as they all travelled like a snake along the roads and around the roundabouts. The coach's had all been shipped over from Japan rather efficiently causing a huge stir in the media, who were instantly dealt a gag order by the courts.

The coaches pulled into the huge Heathrow car park that had been emptied for them and off loaded all of the students. They were then escorted into the building in a block formation so that no one could escape and try to bunk. They were marched into the building and straight towards the counter's pushing past every other man woman and child in there. Thirteen counters were opened suddenly and the students were ushered through them, passports were issued on command so that no one would be left behind. It had all been meticulously planned out and everything was going according to plan.

Apparently the reason why the trip had been Okayed was because it was a trip to a state of the art learning facility in Australia to learn about geography, science, mathematics, several language's and some physical education. Though, it was all supposed to be fun….how that was possible not many people knew.

No one knew who, what, why, when, or even how all of this had been planned or how much this was all costing. Some people were estimating in the region's of hundreds of million's, Billion's even. Plane's were loaded one after the other, and quickly too, by the end of the day every plane was up in the night sky, circling until all of them were in the air and then flying to the destination.

The plane interior was huge, far bigger than expected; you could actually walk about in groups of five and not bump into anyone. Some people were even doing just that, standing around and talking. Even still, this wasn't what Kai was doing as he stood to the back of the plane. He had chosen his seat, simply because it was away from everyone else and he knew that no one would bother him there, away from unwanted attention and prying eyes. Kai then sat cross legged and began to meditate. Why were these Air Buses so big, they seemed to be platinum class, made for only the most privileged officials because of the sheer space inside of them. Kai was just sinking into void when he felt a presence.

"Excuse me," A voice said. This irritated Kai; he opened his eyes in a flash and stared and the young waitress before him. Female, probably five foot three inches, dressed in a light pink Kimono, black hair, brown eyes, a fair complexion…Japanese, "Kenosha-san?" Kai then noted her hair was tied up into a bun and her eyes were faintly shadowed. Kai stretched his legs out and stood up.

"Yes," Kai replied to her, his voice cold. The woman bowed to him low, and he returned the gesture, but not as low, just a simple tilt forward. Usually the young bowed the lowest, but she was, as it seemed a mere waitress, a servant.

"I bring a message," The waitress held out a small scroll. Kai took the scroll and opened it. Kai frowned for a moment. It was written in complex kanji but Kai was good at these things and soon deciphered the message.

Kai,

Follow Diao Chan to me

Kidayato of Kenoshi Industries.

Was this some kind of joke? Kenosha, Kenoshi, was this just a coincidence. Kai merely nodded, wrapped up the scroll and tucked it away into his pocket. What choice did he have, really? He sighed and watched the woman as she turned and walked. Kai followed her. The woman led him along the corridors up the central stair's, which were also quite large; you could almost imagine you were in a flying mansion. The woman stopped in front of a door, with a notice board on it. KENOSHI PERSONELL ONLY. The door slid open and Kai walked in, the woman followed him.

This was a separate room and quite large, yet instead of being bright and modern, buzzing with technology, it had not even the slightest trace of technology. It was a traditional Japanese room, wooden walls with two mats in the centre, tatami Kai presumed. There was a boy in front of him, quite tall, muscular, long black hair wearing a dark grey kimono. The boy gestured to a cup in front of him; Kai knelt down in front of the boy and took the cup in the proper way. It was green tea, Kai took in the aroma. Perfect.

"Komban wa Kenosha-san," The boy said quietly, "Hajimemashite." Kai didn't make a move for a second. How did this boy know he spoke Japanese fluently? A slight irritation occurred inside of him.

"I am please to meet you as well this afternoon," Kai replied. The boy smiled slightly. Kai glared, the boy had was testing him and he had just found out he understood Japanese.

"Ask your question," The boy said quietly.

"Why am I here?" Kai asked.

"Hm, look outside," The boy said. Kai did so, straight out of the window, "You can see the clouds beginning to thicken can't you. You can see how they are coming together to form a storm."

"Do I have to repeat myself?" Kai said getting agitated. The boy looked at him, a confused expression on his face. He was clearly gathering information.

"This plane will not make its destination," The boy sighed, "There is a seventy-five percent chance that this plane will be struck by lightning within the next three hours, it will go down." Kai knew how to respond to this, classic text book manner.

"Shouldn't you warn the pilot?" Kai said. It wasn't really a question.

"Karma, balance amongst things, even if I told the pilot this plane would be struck down, or one of the planes will be struck down should I say," The boy was still evading his question and Kai knew this and didn't reply, "Only nine planes will make it back." Kai was about the stand up in pure frustration, "You were not the only person to be called Kenosha-san. Three others have gone before you. Each said I was crazy. The point as you want to know, the reason why you are here, is because I want to see who survives." This gave Kai an immediate question.

"You had this planned from the beginning didn't you?" Kai said rhetorically, "The prize, which was going to be on what plane, which plane was going to crash…there was no point in asking me to come here really, just to satisfy you curiosity of the human nature, the instinct of survival." Kai took a sip of his green tea.

"Hmm," The boy said, "You have some insight I see. Though I do not know everything, because I cannot control everything." The boy took a sip of his drink and Kai quickly drunk the rest of his. The plane suddenly jolted, Kai looked outside, and the storm had fully manifested now, "It begins." The boy said. Kai stood up, and headed for the door, walking out of the room. The woman followed Kai out and then led him to a room. There were various indents of where items used to be, and had obviously been taken. The only remaining items was a twin bladed staff, and a pouch with various things inside, some of which Kai recognized as items he was familiar with under different circumstances. There was also another belt with two more pouches hanging off it, Kai equipped them all.

"Nothing else?" Kai asked quickly. He knew what equipment he needed, and he could make the rest of it but he asked just in case as the plane shuddered again, this time more violently. The woman shook her head and disappeared. Kai looked at the twin bladed staff and separated the two ends to form to long swords. Kai equipped the final section to his belt, two holes, or at least that is what they seemed like. Kai then sheathed the two blades and walked out. Kai walked out of the room to see three other's clad in more or less the same, but with different weapons. Kai didn't much care but he looked at them anyway.

First there Masumai Eiko, otherwise known as Mina, five foot six inches, built like a gymnast. Her long waist length purple hair had been tied up into high pony tail, Mina was more of a botanist than anything else, excellent at math's but she excelled at plants and naming them. She also knew more about biology and medical science than anyone he knew. Her weapon was none other than a set of darts or needles. Then there was Nathaniel, the largest of the three, well built and tall Nathaniel's parents were in the SAS, his father even though promoted twice insisted on going out in the field. His mother usually in the field spends most of her time on assassination missions. All of this contributed to his upbringing and his discipline. Survival was his game and he probably had the most stamina too. He had brown eyes and short cropped brown hair. Finally, there was John an SAS wanabee, always hanging around Nathaniel picking up tips here and there, he was also good, but he was stealthier and his head was usually in a book. Nathaniel's weapon was fitting, it was a broadsword. John's weapon was slightly an odd choice a simple katana. John was medium height, probably the best comparison to Kai himself…in build at least. He was fairly well built, probably needed to do a lot of training to put him in shape, he was fairly intelligent and an all rounded kid mainly, with his long blonde hair down to his waist behind him.

Mina was flitting about from group to group now; searching for some information that might be useful, Nathaniel was searching for a decent escape route and area's of advantage that he did naturally why John pulled out a book and began to read.

"So you were chosen as well?" Mina said when she finally caught sight of Kai. Kai nodded once. Nathaniel didn't move and John was still reading his book…which didn't seem to be anything interesting. There was another jolt.

"These jolts are getting more frequent," Nathaniel commented folding his arms over his chest. Suddenly the speaker phone buzzed on at that point.

"Please could you take a seat and buckle yourself in, we are experiencing technical difficulties at the moment and we would like reassure everyone that this is routine," The speaker said.

"That mean's its time to prepare," John said, "Everyone ready?" Everyone nodded except Kai; he really didn't want to be part of this group. Suddenly there was a flash of light on one side of the plane, followed by a huge explosion.

"One," Kai said and the plane shook. People began to scream, no one seemed to be doing anything about that except for trying to comfort each other. However, they all began to scream when the first engine on the other side blew up, "Two." The screaming was beginning to burst Kai's ear drum. Kai stopped for a moment and focused himself.

"SILENCE," Kai roared and the whole plane became silent. Kai stood there for a moment as another engine blew, "three." One engine left. Kai walked down the hallway to his small section pulled out a small case of clothes and prepared himself with other items he might have to use. The final engine blew, now the plane was just gliding through the night sky. Kai then ran all the way to the cock pit and kicked the door open.

"Where are we headed," Kai called out.

"There's a small island three mile's west of our position," One pilot said, "We're heading there."

"Damn the radio's are out and the tracking system has been destroyed, we have no chance in hell now," The other pilot said. Kai then ran the other way as the plane rocked from a series of violent shudders. Running to back to his seat, Kai buckled himself in.