CHAPTER TWO: DAYS OF INNOCENCE

"Get cover!"

Lasers, as though they were shot out of a cannon flew right over my head. Even this protective gear wasn't enough to shield be from perishing from the laser's wrath. The helmet that I wore was large and like that of a Formula One driver. The suit was 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 wasn't much of a gunsmith myself. But in this game, the case had drastically shifted. I was ready to come alive.

These games were so invigorating. In real life, I had bangs, wore glasses, was5'4, had a decent figure, but nothing that the boys went crazy over. Not like my best friend anyway. I was Sara Takimoto, a normal Japanese girl. But, when I was playing this game, I was KillerPromQueen14 and I had one of the best kill streaks in the Tactics of Battle Three.

Rolling myself behind a platform, I jumped up, shot an enemy player and dropped back down. Rolling to the other side, I shot three other enemy players. Getting myself up, I made a dash for the other side, getting tired of how my teammates were slacking. They needed to pick up the pace and I was not about to hang back and help them out.

"Guys!" I cried out on my mic. "What are you doing?"

Static was all I got on the other end. I gulped as I turned around and saw ten enemy players. After seeing one of my teammate's guns rolling on the ground, I did not like the way that my fate was going. My options were limited and just jumping out was suicide.

Taking the last flash bang I had, I threw it in, and charged, capping off my machine gun into whichever direction. The amount of accuracy that I had was stupendous. Got three instantly, shot 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 slid to the other side the remaining enemy player jumped out of whatever hole he was hiding in and sucker shot me. Dead center in the back.

Dead. Game over. I took off my virtual reality glasses as I wanted to cry on my table. Only thing holding in the 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 was like a metaphor.

"What are you doing?"

I turned 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 had just been standing inline, staring at the menu. Hina, Himari and Akari were all standing behind me, waiting for my decision on what flavor that I wanted to be made.

"Sara!" Himari cried out. "Is it that hard? I thought you've 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 was business as usual for us. We attended Tokyo international school, a school where there were only 350 students, but from 55 different countries. It was a different experience than the other secondary school students in Japan.

While they were getting the culture swung at them like a baseball bat, we had flavors of America, England, France, Italy and Spain. Someone was from Iceland and explain 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 were already set. Akari was going to go study in Germany. Himari was going to stay in Japan and study at the university of Tokyo. Hina and I were both going 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 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 would as well be my first trip to Europe. The West had always intrigued me. The amount of personal freedom available was unreal tome. In many states and provinces, you could have weed delivered to your home. Here if you had weed on your breath you will 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 our tracks, flipping her hair away from her left eye before centering on us. "Don't ever wonder why you're here? Like, what you're here? What you are or who you are? 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're going to eat for lunch, what the cool guy sitting in the back thinks of you, what those bitches at the front 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 had to catch her breath out of that. It was 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 didn't seem to have anything to worry about. Head Cheerleader, Class President, editor of the school people, and head of the yearbook club. It was 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 got up and walked away. Impulsively, I followed her. I had transcended the concept of "best friends". Always felt that was a juvenile way to look at friendship. However, if I was still operating from that lens, Hina-Chan would 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 began 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. Buddhism was such a commitment. Over the last two minutes my grip on who Hina was began to slip 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 sat down to think about who I was or my place in this world. I didn't think that it mattered. All that I thought matter 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, 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. 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? Did 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 was throwing all of that away!

"Why are you doing this?" I asked in more of 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 was able to wipe my tears. I needed to hold on to some shred of dignity after this. I hated getting this way. My world, falling apart right in front of me. My best friend was ditching me, and I was going to bein 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 shoved her cellphone into my face as I looked at her Instagram page. On it was 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 was until I saw that the picture had someone being attacked by one. With very 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 stared at Hina's cell phone as the picture began to set in. These Demons weren't something to be laughed off anymore. They were here and 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 were fucked.

Back at my condo, I walked in looking for my mother. What I found was someone who I looked like my mother, but crazy. Well, crazier than what was expected. My mother was sitting down in her normal spot on the couch. Her normal black her that reached to her shoulders was in place. He body, as petit as ever. Only she had 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 was annoying. I felt for Hina. But at least I had some time to myself. Getting her pursue I just thought to myself how high maintenance she really was. It was no wonder that none of the guys that she dated ever stuck around. She was always in the middle of something and made you join her madness.

After fetching her damn purse, I came back and saw Hina and my mom in the living room, sitting across from each other in silence. Hina looked so awkward and my mom looked so crazy that I wanted laugh out loud. Holding myself together I gave my mom the purse and we were off. As we were walking out the door, Tachi Sakamoto, the y next door, came out. He was a soccer player and a big guy. But with a sweetness to him. Like my mom, he was wearing a face mask, though nowhere near as over the top. Guess a lot of things were spreading.

"Hey! Ummm, where you are all going?" Tachi asked, doing a good job to hold in how much my mom was freaking him out.

"Tachi!" I 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 was not going to go away. The dominos had 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 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 drove as it began to settle in how this was not just an ordinary drive down in Tokyo. More people had face masks as I looked out the window. At the gas station, people were wearing latex gloves to pick up the gas nozzles. One guy was even walking around in a hazmat suit. Our city was beginning to collectively lose their shit.

"You always look at these things and say never 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 the city."

"Well, were going to go to Kyoto and stay there with you aunt."

"What? Why would we do that?"

"Excuse me? Are you serious right now?"

"Yes mom. I know you're worried, but I think that may be 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 headless chicken."

"Sara! How dare you talk to me this way! Even then, you're not making any sense! The Demons are in Tokyo and you are talking about people doing too much? I know what it is. You're just stupid. That's all there is to it."

And that caused an eerie silence filled the car. To say that my mother did not give a fuck was an understatement. Really, it was more that she felt that she knew what was best for me. 100%. And if I or anyone said something that so much as throwing some resistance towards that notion? She would 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 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 spun the car out. Out of the corner of my eye I caught something. It was a creature that I had never seen before. I thought back to that Instagram post from the NHK and couldn't believe it. It had 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 to the store and the shelves were just empty. All the toilet paper, hand sanitizer and ramen noodles were gone. Even the Italian noodles were gone. Only thing that was left were 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 walked with me. He began to check me out a bit as we made our way through. Tachi was a reasonable guy. Nice, decent looking enough. I don't know, I never thought of him in a serious way before. He was 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 up front about it."

"This is all too much right now."

The next day in sensei Wantnabe's class, moments before he came in, Himari, Akari, Hina and I were gathered around. Normal stuff. Nothing to talk about. Today though, the Demon sighting was 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 had a way with spouting off random, abstract things. "Feel for the truth?" Really? What the hell did that even mean? How could you "feel" for something like that? Sensei Wantnabe was a nice, gentle, but eccentric teacher. He didn't feel the need to hold back on anything he had to say to us. It made 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 their 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 stared at Hina. I don't know if she was more hormonal than usual, but the girl had been on one for a long time now. This miniature existential crisis was something else to witness. Hina had always been one to fully immerse herself into what she believed in. I guess this shouldn't be too surprising then.

"That's just my two cents."

School was over and thank God. Hina and myself we're 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 to same old life that I had always been living in. Then Hina disrupted that notion. Then, the world.

"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 always intrigued me. You can say that they were a shade of blue. Whatever you wanted to call it, they always looked 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 arm out and stopped her and myself from continuing any further. I looked down and it appeared to me a journey to the center of the earth. A huge had was present, going right underground. Right where these Demons supposedly liked to make their homes.

Seeing something like this was warped. The hole was three times the size of a manhole and there were an ickyness that filled its seemingly bottomless nature.

When I stared down into it, it was as though I was staring down in the depths of hell.

It was times like these where you realized what your life boiled down to. The people, places and things that were in it and how much of them did not matter. I was fortunate enough to have the one person that mattered most to me standing right by my side. Standing right by my side as we looked at evidence of the world being under attacked.

Yes, I'll always remember where I was and who I was with on April first.

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