Bab 2: DAYS OF INNOCENCE
“Get cover!”
Lasers, as though they were shot out of a cannon, fly right over my head. Even this protective gear is not enough to shield me from perishing from the laser’s wrath. The helmet that I wear is large and like that of a Formula One driver. The suit is sleek and allowed for the blows to not, well, blow. Top that off with the different types of guns available, and you had a world ran by systematic chaos. I’m not much of a gunsmith myself. But in this game, the case had drastically shifted. I’m ready to come alive.
These games were so invigorating. In real life, I have bangs, wear glasses, am 5’4, have a decent figure, but nothing that the boys go crazy over. Not like my best friend anyway. I am Sara Takimoto, a normal Japanese girl. But, when I was playing this game, I am KillerPromQueen14, and I have one of the best kill streaks in the Tactics of Battle Three.
Rolling myself behind a platform, I jump up, shoot an enemy player, and drop back down. Rolling to the other side, I shoot three other enemy players. Getting myself up, I make a dash for the other side, getting tired of how my teammates were slacking. They need to pick up the pace, and I am not about to hang back and help them out.
“Guys!” I cried out on my mic. “What are you doing?”
Static is all I receive on the other end. I gulp as I turn around and see ten enemy players. After seeing one of my teammate’s guns rolling on the ground, I
do not like where my fate is heading. My options are limited and just jumping out looks like suicide.
Taking the last flashbang I have, I throw it in and charge, capping off my machine gun into whichever direction. The amount of accuracy that I have is stupendous. I get three instantly, shoot down two more on the left, mowed down three in a row on the right, and got one idiot right in front of me. As I slide to the other side, the remaining enemy player jumped out of whatever hole he was hiding in, and sucker shoots me. Dead center in the back.
Dead. Game over. I take off my virtual reality glasses as I wanted to cry on my table. Only thing holding in tears was the shame that I would feel about crying about a video game. Ultimately, they’re stupid. You put so much time and effort into these things. You think that you have it made. And then, it doesn’t work out.
It’s like a metaphor.
“What are you doing?”
I turn, and it was Hina-Chan asking me that question. We were in the middle of a boba tea shop in Downtown Tokyo and I didn’t realize it, but I have been standing in line, staring at the menu. Hina, Himari, and Akari are all standing behind me, waiting for my decision on what flavor I want to be made with my boba.
“Sara!” Himari cried out. “Is it that hard? I thought you’d been here before?”
“Sorry,” I said to everyone and the cashier. “Thai Boba, please.”
Gathered outside at the front facing the busy city street, it’s business as usual for us. We attend Tokyo international school, a school where there were only 350 students, but from 55 different countries. It’s a way different experience than the other secondary school students in Japan.
While they were getting the culture swung at them like a baseball bat, we have flavors of America, England, France, Italy, and Spain. Someone is from Iceland and explained how Iceland is not cool at all but has nice beaches. But Greenland? Watch it. You’ll freeze your tits off.
As seniors, our fates have already been set. Akari is going to go study in Germany. Himari is going to stay in Japan and study at the University of Tokyo. Hina and I both have decided to go to U.C.L.A in sunny California. We both visited the campus together last. We were both in awe of how nice the weather was. To be able to experience that only on a daily basis seemed like a dream
come true.
“Himari, still talking to Hiro?” Hina asked.
“That name can no longer be mentioned around me anymore.”
“He broke your heart?”
“Hina, don’t be a bitch.”
“I’m just wondering what happened. My concern for you has been reaching a
peak.”
“Yes, I can feel the fever pitch.”
“It’s okay Himari.” I started. “Hiro was the bitch.”
“Didn’t he only read Dragon Ball?” Akari asked.
“Maybe Naruto,” Himari replied.
“Either way, he was not deserving of you,” I concluded.
“Forget this romance stuff.” Himari blurted out. “Tomorrowland?!?”
Yes, our grand finale. A trip to Belgium to go to Tomorrowland, the mother of all EDM festivals. This will as well be my first trip to Europe. The West has always intrigued me. The amount of personal freedom available seems unreal to me. In many states and provinces, you could have weed delivered to your home. Here if you were caught a trace of weed on your breath, you would be hauled off to the penitentiary.
“Yeah, it’s exciting,” Hina said, nearly deadpan.
“Why so down there?” Akari inquired.
“Haven’t any of you ever thought about the meaningless of all this? We’re getting excited about going to Europe to drink, smoke weed, and trip on shrooms. And we can do the first two here!”
“I’m still scared to do weed here,” I said, believing that I was saying what was on everyone’s mind.
“Shouldn’t we be focusing on more?”
“What?” Akari asked. “Like boys?”
“Above that!” Hina cried out. Dead in her tracks, flipping her hair away from her left eye before centering on us. “Don’t you ever wonder why you’re here? Like, what you’re here for? What are you or who are you? I mean, I guess you just believe that you are who you are. That all this is as good as it gets. What’s atypical day for you, ladies? You wake up, and you worry about your hair, you
worry about what you’re going to wear, you worry about what you’re going to eat for breakfast, being late to school, being late to each class, what you’regoing to eat for lunch, what the cool guy sitting in the back thinks of you, what those bitches at the front would think of you if the club that you joined was worth it all in the end, if going to college is such a good idea after all, and what
the hell is for dinner?!?”
Hina-Chan has a pause to catch her breath. It’s wild seeing her like that. Stressful times were a way to describe what we were all going through right now. But Hina, of all people, doesn’t seem to have anything to worry about. Head Cheerleader, Class President, editor of the school people, and head of the yearbook club. It’s an out of body experience to see her this way.
“You all are just too busy filling yourselves up with your basic everyday bullshit to even stop and care about the fact that you’re even breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide!”
Putting her head down, Hina gets up and walks away. Impulsively, I follow her. I had transcended the concept of “best friends.” Always felt that was a juvenile way to look at friendship. However, if I am still operating from those lenses, Hina-Chan will be the one that I would go to battle with any day.
“Hina-Chan!” I cried out to her as she stopped and turned around.”
“What’s up, Sara?”
“What’s up? What was that all about? Where did all that stuff about breathing
come from?”
“Sara-Chan, I have to come clean. I have become a Buddhist.”
Looks like my mind just went blank. Staring at Hina, I begin to wonder, activating some movement in my brain, why she would do that? Not that I was against it. I liked to consider myself spiritual, not religious, but I am interested in the “other realms.” Buddhism is such a commitment. Over the last two minutes, my grip on who Hina was has begun to melt away.
“Any particular reason why?” I asked, finally regaining full consciousness.
“I’ve been searching. Searching for a long time.”
“Searching for what?”
“For why I’m here!” Hina cried out loudly, making me fear another rant was
coming on. “For who I am…for my place in this world.”
She got me there. I never, ever, have sat down to think about who I am or my place in this world. I didn’t think that it mattered. All that I thought mattered was that I get through school go to a good college, make a lot of money and then go and marry a man who made at least three times as much as me. That’s what my mom made my path out to be, anyway.
“What do you want?” I asked, seeing where this was going.
“That’s the problem, and I don’t know.”
“Is that really such a bad thing?”
“Apparently so! I mean, you’re going into medicine, you’re going to be a
doctor. The next question is diagnostics or surgery.”
‘Diagnostics. Too much blood makes me queasy.”
“There you go. You know what my major is? Liberal fucking arts.”
“Oh, that’s not too bad.”
“It’s like saying you just graduated secondary school but had nothing better to do, so you are going to college. That’s what I’ve become.”
“Hina-Chan, don’t think that way.”
“Maybe I am being a bit too hard on myself.”
“Ya think?”
“But, I don’t know if going to UCLA is my fate.”
Might as well had been twenty daggers to the heart. How could she? Does she not care about all those times that we spent talking about going to UCLA? Talking about learning how to surf in between classes? Getting fake I.Ds and meeting older men in Hollywood clubs? She’s throwing all of that away!
“Why are you doing this?” I asked in a begging tone. “Why?”
“Because I can’t live a lie forever Sara-Chan.” Hina let out. “I don’t want to walk around and be secretly in pain.”
“What about all those times we talked about this?”
“You talked about it a lot.”
“Don’t do that! I barked, grounding a firm stance with Hina. “You did too! Don’t lie!”
“You’re right.”
“Damn straight, I’m right!”
“You’re right; I’m sorry.”
“This is so stupid! This is so fucking stupid!”
“Look, we still have all of this time now.”
“And then it’s gone Hina-Chan! It will be gone!”
Turning my head away, I am able to wipe my tears away. I need to hold on to some shred of dignity after this. I hate getting this way. My world, falling apart right in front of me. My best friend is ditching me, and I am going to be in Los Angeles, California, all alone. Merely pondering, this brought chills that began at the root of my spine and wouldn’t stop until they got to the tippy top of my
skull.
“Sara.”
“Stop!”
“No, Sara! Look!”
Hina shoves her cellphone into my face as I looked at her Instagram page. On it is a picture from the NHK showing a headline about a new parasite called Demons. Only hearing about Demons in passing, I wrote them off as something that we shouldn’t even take seriously. That’s until I saw that the picture had someone being attacked by one. With truly little known about these Demons,
apparently, he couldn’t be saved and was that Demon’s dessert.
“…This.” I started, needing to have my ankles cease shaking. “This is awful.
We stare at Hina’s cell phone as the picture began to set in. These Demons aren’t something to be laughed off anymore. They have arrived and are more than capable of attacking any innocent Japanese man or woman. Any man or woman in general really. The first report of a Demon was in Seoul Korea. Geographically, we’re fucked.
Back at my condo, I walk in looking for my mother. What I find is someone who looks like my mother but is crazy. Well, crazier than what’s expected. My mother is sitting down in her normal spot on the couch. Her normal black her that reached to her shoulders is in place. He body, as petit as ever. Only she’s wearing goggles and a heavy-duty rubber face mask. At first glance, I thought
that she was ready for zombie nuclear warfare.
“Mother?” I asked, just making sure it was her.
” Sara!” My mom said. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
“Hina, do you mind if we go to the store? Got to get supplies after all this, and I am in no state to drive.”
“No problem.” Hina complied.
“Sara, would you be a dear and go get my purse?”
“Of course.”
“Sara…” Hina said, pulling me aside.
“What’s wrong?”
“Your mom…I don’t know how I feel.”
“Just relax. This will all be over in no time.”
Yeah, my mom is annoying. I feel for Hina. But at least I have some time to myself. Getting her purse, I just thought to myself how high maintenance she really is. It was no wonder that none of the guys that she dated ever stuck around. She’s always in the middle of something and made you join her madness.
After fetching her damn purse, I come back and saw Hina and my mom in the living room, sitting across from each other in silence. Hina looks so awkward, and my mom looks so crazy that I would like to laugh out loud. Holding myself together, I give my mom the purse, and we were off. As we were walking out the door, Tachi Sakamoto, the boy next door, comes out. He is a soccer player and a big guy. But with a sweetness to him. Like my mom, he’s wearing a face mask, though nowhere near as over the top. Guess a lot of things are spreading.
“Hey! Ummm, where are you all going?” Tachi asked, doing a good job to hold in how much my mom was freaking him out.
“Tachi!” My mom replied. “Look at this young man, prepped!”
“I’ve been doing my own research on these Demons; they possess normal human bodies. There is a one in eight chance that you could be talking to a Demon at any given time!”
“Is it really that bad?”
“Evidently!”
“Tachi, come with us!”
“Mom, where are we even going?”
“To the store to stock up.”
“Is that it?”
“Just imagine how many people have heard the news. Everyone is going to be going nuts. They know the worst is yet to come.”
This isn’t going to go away. The dominos have begun to fall upon society, and the most likely to fall prey to hysteria were eating all of this up. I’ve always found the news boring, so I wasn’t too vulnerable to these types of storms, but for all the people who were glued to their T. Vs. and cellphones? Those were becoming mind control devices.
Hina drives as it begins to settle in how this isn’t simply an ordinary drive down in Tokyo. More people have face masks as I looked out the window. At the gas station, people are wearing latex gloves to pick up the gas nozzles. One guy is even walking around in a hazmat suit. Our city is beginning to collectively lose their shit.
“You always look at these things and never say me until it is actually you.” My mother started. “What a life. Sara, how do you feel about the country?”
“It’s a lot more boring than in the city.”
“Well, we were going to go to Kyoto and stay there with your aunt.”
“What? Why would we do that?”
“Excuse me? Are you serious right now?”
“Yes, mother. I know you’re worried, but I think that maybe a bit of an overreaction.”
“A bit of an overreaction…what are you even saying? Do you not see what is all around you? What is going on in the world?”
“Yeah, I see a lot of people running around like a headless chicken.”
“Sara! How dare you talk to me this way! Even then, you are not making any sense! The Demons are in Tokyo, and you are talking about people doing too much? I know what it is. You are just stupid. That’s all there is to it.”
And that causes an eerie to fill up the car. To say that my mother did not give a fuck is an understatement. Really, it was more that she felt that she knows what’s best for me. 1000%. And if I or anyone says something that so much as throwing some resistance towards that notion? She will bite your head off.
“No.” I started. “It’s more that I don’t see the need to act with a rash kind of haste when we don’t even know what this enemy truly is.”
“Who are you calling rash?” Mother barked back.
“I’m not calling you a rash. Humanity’s behavior is rash. It’s just history repeating
itself.”
“Well, quit being a faux philosopher and join us in reality.”
The tires began to screech as Hina spins the car out. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch something. It is a creature that I had never seen before. I think back to that Instagram post from the NHK and can’t believe it. It has to have been a Demon.
“Hina!” Mother cried out.
“Sorry, ma’am. There was something there. Not sure if it was a cat or what.”
I guess Hina was too caught up in not killing us to not take in it what it was. Although it could have been a cat. It could have been a cat, and all of this could be meaningless mind chatter that was going on in my head. I must do those breathing practices that I saw on YouTube, and I will be fine.
We made it to the store, and the shelves are empty. All the toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and ramen noodles were gone. Even the Italian noodles were gone. Only thing that was left is organic Korean buck wheat noodles. Fifty yen.
“How?” Hina asked as she and I stared at the empty aisle.
“Rash,” I uttered.
Scouting the aisle, Tachi walks with me. He began to check me out a bit as we make our way through. Tachi is a reasonable guy. Nice, decent looking enough. I don’t know, and I never seriously thought of him before. He has always just the boy next door. “Hina-San,” Tachi said.
‘Tachi-Kun?” I replied.
“Be careful okay? Don’t trust the government. Don’t take any vaccines. But
don’t be scared. Everything is going to be okay. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said, not being able to help but smile at his kindness.
“One day, I want to marry you and would hate to see you infected or Demon bait.”
“Excuse me?”
“I figured since things are how they are that I might as well be upfront about it.”
“This is all too much right now.”
The next day in Sensei Wantnabe’s class, moments before he usually comes in, Himari, Akari, Hina, and I have gathered around. Normal stuff. Nothing to talk about. Today though, the Demon sighting is all the rage. Everyone had their two cents about it. Ranging from full panic to “eh, it’s not even worth looking at.”
“My dad thinks that this is warfare from South Korea.” Himari trumpeted.
“Really?” Hina asked, staring at Himari dreamingly.
“Think about it. We’ve been at odds for how long? It was only a matter of time until they found some indirect to get at us. And they have with this. Plain and simple.”
“I don’t know.” Akari started. “This seems out of this world to me.”
“Don’t believe the news!” Himari cried out. “They’re just telling you all a bunch
of lies!”
“What source did your dad get his information Himari?” Sensei Wantnabe asked as he walked through the door.”
“An off-market website!” Himari proudly stated.
“Well, there are a lot of theories going on right now. The best thing to do is to stay grounded and feel for yourself what the truth is.”
Sensei has a way of spouting off random, abstract things. “Feel for the truth?” Really? What the hell does that even mean? How could you “feel” for something like that? Sensei Wannabe is a nice, gentle, but eccentric teacher. He doesn’t feel the need to hold back on anything he had to say to us. It makes him both alluding and extremely refreshing.
“Since we’re on this, thoughts?”
“I think it’s propaganda!” I yelled out as everyone stared at me. Sensei, taken aback turned on a smile.
“There has certainly been that accusation that has been in the air. It’s hard for a lot of us to trust our government.”
“And why should we?”
“Good question. Class?”
“I believe that at the end of the day, these public officials have been elected for a reason,” Himari stated. So, we should put our complete faith in them.
“What if they corrupt?” Akari asked.
“We have to give them a shot first before we judge them.”
“At the expense of the Japanese people?” Sato, one of our classmates, asked.
“Do you not care about what these elected officials' intentions are?” Kana, another classmate of ours asked.
“Has anything that bad happen with our government?” Himari started.
“It’s not a matter of them doing anything.” Hina interrupted. It’s more about the overall constrain that they have on us. The fear that they breed into all of us from inception. We’re all programmed to think in a way that suits them. And if we don’t, we’re looked at as crazy and outcasted. Even though that way of thinking could be what saves us.”
Like everyone else, I stare at Hina. I don’t know if she is more hormonal than usual, but the girl has been on one for a long time now. This miniature existential crisis was something else to witness. Hina has always been one to fully immerse herself in what she believes in. I guess this shouldn’t be too surprising then.
“That’s just my two cents.”
School is over, and thank God. Hina and I are walking back to our condos to rid ourselves of the overall stench of annoyance that the last two days had beheld unto us. Just two days ago, I woke up in the morning, believing that I was going to live in the same old life that I had always been living in. Then Hina disrupted that notion. Then, the world made it even worse.
“Hina, are you still going to ditch going to college?”
“I mean, yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know. I was hoping that maybe all this craziness had made you think
another way.”
“If anything, it’s made me want to do it more.”
“Oh, I didn’t expect to hear that.”
“You have to look at it this way; it’s an opportunity for you to really discover who you are.”
“What if I need you to help me to discover who I am?”
The eyes of Hina have always intrigued me. You can say that they are a shade of blue. Whatever you want to call it, they always look like silver to me. A silver that sparkled whenever she said anything with sincerity. At this very moment, those eyes might as well be pearls.
Before having enough time to wallow in self-pity, Hina put her right arm out and stopped her and me from continuing any further. I look down, and it appears to be a journey to the center of the earth. A huge hole is present, going right underground. Right where these Demons supposedly like to make their homes.
Seeing something like this feels warped. The hole is three times the size of a manhole, and there’s an ickyness that filled its seemingly bottomless nature. When I stare down into it, it was as though I am staring down in the depths of hell.
It’s times like these where you realize what your life boils down to. The people, places, and things that were in it and how much of them did not matter. I am fortunate enough to have the one person that matters most to me standing right by my side. Standing right by my side as our eyes are glued to the evidence of the world being under attacked.
Yes, I’ll always remember where I was and who I was with on April first, 2020.
Hadiah
-- Hadiah diterima Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone