Tales of Fumiko Murakami

[Fiskap]

This will be a thread for short stories about past (mainly off-station and pre-employment) events about my current main character, Fumiko Murakami. Currently I intend on posting stories in a chrononical order starting since 2453, but eventually I might want to write about events that don't follow the usual chronological order. To deal with that, I will probably end up adding these as special stories.

I plan on writing at the very least 30 parts of this, so I won't include them all in one post. Instead, there will be one post for each part. That way I will never have to deal with any character limits for posts.

After a certain amount of parts, I will start to indexing this here. Since we're still at the beginning, I see no real need to do this yet.

The name of the thread and parts are still up to change, I never put too much effort to it in the first place. Maybe I'll come up with something better soon.

Edited October 30, 2016 by Guest

[Fiskap]

Part One: Reckless Behaviour

 

27th October 2453, 7:50

It's the early morning of a new workday in the secondary street of some urban area, but yet only a handful of people are seen walking on the streets and there's only about a couple of vehicles passing by every minute, at most. The buildings here are mostly apartments that seem to not be very tall, most are between 3-10 stories tall only. Local vehicle ownership doesn't appear to be particularly high here as every other parking spot is vacant, and most vehicles seem to be a few decades old. There's garbage littered around as far as the eye can see and it seems like no one has been hired to take care of that for a few days at least, and the buildings themselves aren't exactly in the best physical condition either, with graffitis being common on the lower stories. There's also no noticeable police presence in this street at this time of the day, and a quick scan of the area would reveal a few security cameras that clearly appear to be non-functional and decayed.

This is Conristonville, your typical relatively underdeveloped low-income residential neighborhood in South Mendell City, specifically District 14. Having already been a region with high unemployment, budget issues, limited services, bad transport infrastructure and an ineffective police force for centuries, the sudden and mostly uncontrolled flow of alien migrants starting since the 2430s only served to further saturate the few services that were available, essentially ruining everything for everyone.

Even worse, the neighborhood has only suffered more from the recent recession in Biesel: further budget cuts left the police force even smaller and more ineffective than ever before, attracting black market vendors that now mostly tend to deal with chemicals, synthetics and vehicles, giving Conristonville somewhat of a local reputation for these services. Prostitution, drug dealing and carjackings are among other primary problems, with violent crime being surprisingly somewhat less prevalent here than in other neighborhoods of the District. The establishment of the Republic of Biesel one year ago hasn't helped much, and the future seems grim for most of the inhabitants.

In the general dullness of this street, something stands out. A slim teenage girl wearing a backpack climbing down the third story of a building with a rope. A couple of pedestrians look up to her but don't seem to care much. Eventually she reaches the sidewalk and takes what seems to be a PDA out of her jacket. She fumbles with it a bit and an automated mechanism near the window she climbed out of appears to reel the rope back into it, closing the window as well once it's not sticking out anymore.

Fumiko Murakami. Age 13. Last year middle school student. An absolutely irrelevant and unremarkable person with a very boring life that hasn't accomplished anything worth of any note yet, according to herself. Her appearance and style of fashion is clearly plain, generic and unremarkable as well: light skin, long black hair that, while clean, doesn't appear to have been combed very well. Plain denim jeans with black and white sneakers, and a white dress shirt underneath a brown jacket.

She looks at the PDA again, puts it back into her jacket and yawns. "Ah well, back into eduslavery for me.", she says with a tired tone. Heading to the left of the building for what seems to be her usual school run on foot, she only occasionally seems to notice or care about the filth or deteriorated equipment on the way to school, but doesn't stop to inspect any of that. After about 5 minutes she appears to be about to reach a wider, main street in the neighborhood, but the activity here isn't as high as someone would typically imagine. A police vehicle with active sirens passes by as soon as she reaches this new street. "Huh, at this time of the day...?", she says in a tired tone again as she looked at the vehicle. About a dozen people are seen hurrying on the streets on foot while there's more general vehicular traffic too, but who can even tell if it's for work or something else.

Ignoring all the people on this street that also seems to have somewhat taller buildings and a noticeable amount of stores, she continues to walk and after a while she goes back into another fairly desolate secondary street. I would say that this street is unremarkable too, but something stands out. Someone trying to hide behind a lamp post by the edge of the sidewalk. A slim and short gray Tajara wearing battered and dirty clothes, holding a knife. Fumiko notices the presence of this individual but doesn't seem to care much as she likely didn't notice the knife or was too absent-minded to care so she continues to walk at a normal pace. A major mistake, as this Tajara now comes out of his ineffective hiding place and blocks her path.

"Hand overrr all yourrr money orrr he'll kill you, human. He knows school students always carrrry plenty of it.", the Tajara says with a clearly aggressive tone and thick accent while holding the knife in a somewhat passive stance.

Somehow she doesn't appear to be very impressed for a while, as if she were still absent-minded. She then yawns and takes a quick look at the knife, letting out a chuckle afterwards. "An... an alien shit like you wants to kill me with a dull kitchen knife if I don't hand them what little money I have?" She takes another good look at the knife, points at it and starts to laugh harder. "Hah! You actually expect this pathetic knife to be able to cut through anything other than butter? Where did you find it, at the local scrapyard? That's seriously the most pathetic knife I've seen in a while! Why not just use your claws? Maybe low IQ aliens like you should go back to school and learn about anatomy becau--"

Her increasingly longer speech is interrupted by the Tajara with an even more aggressive tone as he points the knife straight at her. "ENOUGH! He's getting sick of this, human. Don't get cocky or he'll kill you forr rrreal. This is your last chance to hand overrr the money."

She's somewhat affected by his new, more aggressive tone of speech. She starts to look for something in her jacket while looking carefully at the knife which was now closer to her. "A-alright, hold on, let me find my wallet. You can have my money.", she says in a genuinely more scaried tone. The Tajara carefully looks at her during all of this. After a while she takes a step back and quickly pulls out what seems to be a pistol with her right hand and points it straight at the Tajara, quickly taking a look around her surroundings to ensure that no one is seeing this, or if any vehicles are approaching. The Tajara suddenly backs down upon seeing this firearm, as if by reflex.

"No! No! Please sparrre his life! He doesn't want to die overrr this! This was a mistake! He's not good at this!", the Tajara says, visibly terrified and trembling upon the sight of this firearm.

Fumiko acts surprised and then frowns over at the Tajara. "Never come to me again unless you want to see your lifespan being reduced. N-now, leave.", she says in a calm tone that became more worried later on.

"Thank you! Thank you! He won't botherrr you again!", the Tajara says, not being able to notice her becoming nervous later on. He drops the knife and sprints into the main street where Fumiko was earlier as if there were no tomorrow.

"Learn how to rob someone, you alien idiot!", she yells at the Tajara just about he's going to leave her line of sight, leaving her without knowing if he heard her or not.

Fumiko wipes some sweat off her forehead with her free left hand, having clearly been affected by this. "W-well... that was fast and reckless.", she says in a worried and embarrassed tone as she starts to fumble around with the pistol, eventually being able to loosen some parts of it. The pistol appears to have some kind of cover which she has now removed, leaving behind a naked blue plastic gun.

"Can't believe that people are still falling for this, I mean most are aliens but...", she exhales deeply as she takes out a soft blue vest out from her jacket. She then sighs in relief as she places it on the floor. "Ah, well... to think that a mere lasertag gun with a realistic cover would be able to deter some criminals... damn my uncle really is a genius... maybe."

She installs the pistol cover back on the lasertag gun which makes it look like a real pistol again, with a realistic weight and appearance. "I mean really, unless someone takes this pistol out of someone's hands and inspects it, they're going to think it's real. And I can probably just say that this is for lasertag when law enforcement sees me with it and starts to ask random questions, that's why I have that vest too."

She puts the pistol back into her jacket and then does the same with the vest on the floor. "Oh damn, I forgot about the cameras!", she suddenly says to herself again with a worried tone and anxiously starts to look around her surroundings, specifically up to the higher buildings in the secondary street. She's able to locate 3 cameras within a few minutes but is able to sigh in relief again.

"Ah right, I forgot that most cameras here have been out of use recently. Still that was reckless, that was a stupid alien but I could still have died. Damn it, I'm just as stupid as the aliens I bash!", she, again, says to herself in an angered tone and starts to continue to walk the street at a normal pace for her usual school run. She takes out and looks at her PDA when she's about to leave the street and suddenly starts running.

"Fucking damn it you alien fucker, I'll be late again!", she yells. No one is around to see this. She puts her PDA back into her jacket and begins running even faster.

After 2 blocks, a school is clearly visible from the distance, but only a few people are seen loitering outside for whatever reason. As she passes by a big sign that says "Jasmine Grove Middle School (ALL SPECIES WELCOME)", the sound of a bell ringing is heard.

"DAAAAAAMN YOU!", she yells. A few people notice her and can't help but look at her with a confused look. Ignoring them she continues to run to the school entrance, opening the door and rushing to what must have been her classroom on the second floor at the end of a hallway. About 25 individuals from multiple species are seen either inside or just outside the classroom which has a sign above the door saying "Class 3-1". A girl with a similar physical appearance to Fumiko notices her arriving and goes up to her.

"Hey Fumi, you're late again. Did something happe... eh... bah, it doesn't matter anyway. I think our math teacher isn't coming here today.", this other girl says.

Fumiko pants and sighs in relief as she wordlessly heads for her seat regardless, which is about in the middle of the class. The classroom itself is very basic and traditional for the 25th century, indicating that the school probably doesn't have many resources to allow for better standards. A classroom full of basic wooden desks that could probably support about 30 students without feeling too overcrowded, most students appear to be using traditional paper textbooks but the presence of a holoprojector near the teacher's desk probably mean that the school is not entirely low-tech.

"We... well... this is just great, I'm tired so I'm to sleep for a while, later.", Fumiko says while still exhausted without realising that no one is paying attention to her as more people have gathered outside of the class, presumably to wait for their teacher. And so Fumiko tries to sleep in the middle of the classroom while no one cares.

Edited November 15, 2016 by Guest

[Fiskap]

Part Two: Perhaps This Isn't Good

 

30th October 2453 17:00

Fumiko is sitting in front of a desktop computer, playing what seems to be the recently released freeware Extranet game, Adhomai Chronicles II. She appears to be controlling a tall, brown Tajara named "Dafumi" in a snowy 3D village. As for the character's gear, the Tajara is equipped with a set of leather armor, a backpack and a spear. A few other characters of a variety of species, mainly human and Unathi are somehow present in this setting, but instead of checking if they're NPCs or controlled by other players she heads down the village's main road for what seems to be the wilderness.

A couple of humans in metal armor are guarding the village's gate, but Fumiko ignores them as they're probably NPCs anyway. The exit is, surprisingly, devoid of any people... except for this one character, a half-naked, light-skinned human female with bright pink hair and no equipment blindly running around. Nearly instantly this character notices Fumiko's character and approaches them.

"do u wnat to be my gf??", the other player types on the local game chat. Fumiko rolls her eyes and hovers her cursor over that character, revealing the name "KawaiiTajLuvr37". Not even bothering to respond verbally, she can only frown in disgust as she gets her character to take out the spear and attack the human, revealing that this is a real time action game. The other player doesn't even get a chance to defend themselves against these attacks and drops dead on the floor after a few seconds.

The corpse is ignored on the ground while she continues to follow the dirt path to a forest that can be seen in the distance. However, suddenly about a dozen of players that seem to be mostly Unathi armed with swords, metal armor and even firearms start to follow her as if she had done the worst thing imaginable. Fumiko is clearly surprised at this and doesn't engage the players, and instead continues to run down the path.

Due to her characters's higher speed, the rest of the players seem to be slowly being left behind until suddenly a huge pop-up appears on the screen. "A game subscription is required past this point, click here to find out how to obtain one.", it says in big scary letters. She immediately closes that pop-up and tries to walk past that point again, with the exact same pop-up appearing once again. Angrily she closes it and tries to make a run for it to the east but she appears to have lost a lot of time due to the pop-ups, which is enough for the other players to catch up with her. Within a few seconds, her Tajara is shot at with an automatic rifle and drops dead.

"You are dead. Wait 30 minutes to respawn or find out how to continue playing NOW by clicking here.", a huge pop-up appears on her screen. But she remains unresponsive for a good 5 seconds, after which she angrily places the game controller on the desk and gets up, turns off the computer and tries to punch a wall with her bare right hand but hesitates as if it weren't the smartest thing to do. "FUCKING FUCK THIS! I WASTED 2 HOURS ON THIS SHITTY AHISTORICAL GAME AND NOW I HAVE NOTHING?!", she yells at herself, her face red with anger.

She stands breathing heavily in the middle of the room for a while until a faint knock is heard on the room's door. "Fumikooo? Are you alright?", a girl's voice is heard. Instead of waiting for a response the door is opened from the other side regardless.

This is Hitomi Nakahara, aged 13. A girl that shares most of her physical appearance with Fumiko, except that she has a bit darker skintone. Mutual closest friends, knowing each other since they were kids. Currently both are in class 3-1 at Jasmine Grove Middle School.

"I was busy doing something but then heard you yelling, are you alright...?", Hitomi asks. Fumiko looks around with a slightly less angered expression and sits down on the nearby couch.

"Yeah, it's not much of a big deal. I got sick of this shitty game, that's all.", she responds and looks over at the turned off computer for a while. "It's just an ahistorical cash grab game full of horny xenophiles and psychopathic Unathi players, I should have researched about this properly.", she says again.

Hitomi looks over at her and ponders. "Hmm, so you don't like traditional MMOs either? We gave VR a try the other time back in that game center and you didn't like it, and singleplayer games are too boring for you. Maybe this whole video game thing is too much for you.", she says and shrugs.

"Anyway, uuuh... maybe we should go outside, check the nearby playground out or something. I mean there's no homework to do or anything, and it's better to be bored inside here.", Hitomi says while offering a hand to Fumiko, getting her up from the couch. "Yeah, might as well.", she replies.

Both girls grab their jackets which were hanging nearby on a chair and leave the room by the only available door. They walk down the hallway heading to a door at the end of it, but first peek over to a nearby open room to the left, revealing a middle-aged man and woman having tea at a kotatsu. "I'll be back, Mom, Dad.", Hitomi says. The couple looks at them and smiles. "Have a good time!", the woman says at them while the man drinks off a tea cup and nods faintly.

While Hitomi tries to unlock the electronic lock door with a card she just pulled out, she realised it was already unlocked and frowns at this. "Oh damn, that's reckless.", Fumiko says calmly after noticing this. "Ah well, just don't forget to lock this now.", she says again. The girls change their shoes for outdoor ones, and leave for the outside. "I'll be back!", Hitomi says again. She locks the doors and ensures it's locked properly. It doesn't budge. Good.

This is the typical inside of a traditional apartment complex, other than the electronic lock doors this looks largely like a typical low-tech 21th century apartment. There's two sets of staircases, one going down and the other up, and the girls go down without giving notice to anything they notice on the way over.

Once they reach the bottom floor however, Fumiko looks over at a presumably abandoned security guard post that has been vandalized to no end. She can only express disgust at this while heading off to open the apartment's main entrance, which is unlocked from the inside. The girls leave and put on their jackets, and look up to the sky to notice a couple of flying drones.

"Huh, these delivery drones are active here again? I thought they had cancelled all operations here indefinitely a few months back due to all the attacks they suffered.", Fumiko says with a confused look and scratches her chin. "Oh yes, drone theft and assault here has gone down recently for some reason, so the NT-owned subsidiary who had a monopoly on that kind of stuff said they would restart delivery operations here sometime this week, guess they decided to do it just now.", Hitomi replies calmly. "Anyway, we're off to the playground, yes?", she says again and Fumiko nods.

This is yet another seemingly unimportant secondary street in Conristonville, but at this time of the day, there's significantly more activity to be noticed. Dozens of people of a variety of species are seen walking, others are simply seen loitering around and vehicular traffic is higher too. The girls leave to the right of the apartment's entrance to what is presumably the playground they had talked about, while not exchanging any words during this.

After a few minutes, they enter a plaza and are near the playground already. But Fumiko only gets angry again at what she sees there: about a dozen of people in their late teens occupying the playground, drinking publicly, smoking and using a variety of other recreational drugs. Fumiko taps Hitomi's shoulder and points over at one human male holding something green in his hands. "Do you see that? I'm sure that's some kind of Ambrosia... what an idiot." They notice a passed out Tajara on the ground when the human male starts to munch down on the Ambrosia, starting to giggle like a total idiot shortly after. Fumiko facepalms at this.

She exhales slowly. "This is why Mendell is shit. Uneducated dumbshits getting high on drugs and recklessly ruining their body in the process, then what? Someone has to treat them obviously, and who does that? Either what little public healthcare we have, or private healthcare. But yeah, either way our services are being saturated by fucktards like him. Fucking damn it.", she angrily says while frowning over at the guy who had just ingested the Ambrosia, who appears to notice the girls and approaches them alone. Fumiko remains calm while Hitomi backs down somewhat.

"You got a problem with us, middle schooler bitch? Oh god I'm so high.", the man says in a somewhat angered tone. "You just need to shut up and find some drugs too, nothing else to do in this shithole of a town anyway.", he says again while giggling, the Ambrosia clearly having an intense effect on him.

Fumiko rolls her eyes over at him and yawns. "Ah yeah, waste tons of money on crap that ruins my body and eventually end up dropping school or worse, genius.", she says at the man calmly. He can only give a confused expression in return. "Fuck it, we're off. Have fun ruining your... livers, or something.", she shrugs as she holds Hitomi from the shoulder and walks off. "Yeah yeah, whatever bitch. You'll eventually realise that I'm right.", the man tells them as they're walking off.

"I knew we would encounter guys like that one there, it's always like that. A bunch of dropout kids who have already ruined their lives spending the rest of it on drugs or whatever. Bah", she tells to Hitomi.

"You're not scared of these people, Fumi? I mean, you also almost got mugged by some alien the other day, and here you are, still complaining about how dull and boring everything in your life is.", Hitomi says to her as they're now walking to somewhere else unrelated to the initial route. Fumiko shrugs and doesn't reply for a while.

"Yeah, that dumb Tajshit who can't even take things away from a fucking middle schooler.", Fumiko eventually says and chuckles. She stops down and looks at her shoes. "It's boring because, uhh... it's just easy to stay out of trouble here when you know the place. And even if something happens, it's easy to get them off too.", she shrugs calmly.

Hitomi looks at her, unconvinced. "Huh... really? I'm still scared of walking alone here at certain times of the day, yet you do it alone, get approached by random people, manage to survive these encounters well enough AND have the guts to still call your life boring after this. You're... strange, huh. Maybe I'm just not used to it, but... what if a more dangerous guy comes up?", she then says in a worried tone.

"Come on Hitomi, you're been here for only 2 years less than me. How haven't you gotten used to this yet? Most people here in "da hood" are dumb, the fake gun method is at least good enough to fool most of the people here, especially the low IQ aliens. Y-yeah, I could do anything I want with it, but why bother. Getting them off my tail is enough, yeah. I know it's not a good self-defense method but it somehow just keeps working... for now, yeah... heh..", Fumiko says in an increasingly worried tone while looking over at the sky. Another delivery drone is seen flying around.

"A-Anyway, think I'm off for now. Guess I can't do much about this boredom. Later then.", Fumiko says as she walks off in a hurry without even waiting for a response. Hitomi waves at her and then walks off as well. As Fumiko walks around she takes some time to inspect her surroundings but it's the same as always: vandalized buildings, little police presence, trash everywhere. However this time a cleaning robot appears to be cleaning an alley that has a serious amount of trash in it. She notices this but shrugs it off anyway, continuing her walk.

But just shortly after she stops on the sidewalk again, as if suddenly worried by something. "Damn it... I seriously need to stop doing that. Why did I listen to my uncle?", she says while increasingly becoming more worried. "That method is still better than nothing I guess, or not...? But... damn... I know that gun ownership isn't very high here but... but... bah. I'll do something about it sometime." She exhales deeply and just continues walking with a happier look on her face.

After about 5 minutes of wandering around in secondary streets she reaches a three-story apartment. She looks up to the top window which is closed. A brown Tajara comes out of the entrance of the building which is not a typical apartment entrance but actually what is presumably the main entrance of a shop.

"Bye Fumiko!", the Tajara says in a friendly tone. But she can only roll her eyes as she doesn't respond. She looks over to read the flashy neon signs on the entrance of the shop. "PAWN SHOP. BUY, SELL, TRADE. JEWELRY, TECH GADGETS, INSTRUMENTS, TOOLS, ROBOTS ETC. FAST AND EASY." She can only frown at this as if she knew the place far too well. Disregarding the shop entirely, she takes out a PDA of her jacket and fumbles with it. The window on the third-story she had been looking at opens automatically, and a rope falls down. She grabs the rope firmly and climbs it with no issues. Once she's up, she takes off her jacket and hangs it on a nearby chair.

This is Fumiko's room, which is kept in a clean and mostly tidy state except for her main desk that has a bunch of disorganized textbooks, school work and other random items scattered on it. An active desktop computer is humming quietly, she looks at it but doesn't care. There's no bed, only a futon in the middle of the room. She stretches her arms and reels the rope back into a device that is remotely activated by her PDA, and closes her window.

"Oh, right! I'll do that.", she says as she grabs the jacket and takes a couple of things out of it, specifically the lasertag gun and vest. She takes out the ridiculously realistic cover out of it, opens a nearby locker with disorganized contents and puts all of these things inside. "Never again, fuck you uncle. Could have gotten me killed.", she says as she closes the locker.

She exhales deeply and again looks at the computer but shakes her head at herself slightly, deciding to lay down on her futon instead. She mumbles quietly and somehow manages to fall asleep within minutes, still wearing her street clothes.

Edited November 15, 2016 by Guest

[Fiskap]

Part Three: Special Delivery

 

1st November, 2453, 18:00

A fat, older-looking man is sitting with Fumiko at a kotatsu in what seems to be a very simple living room. He's giving her a serious look while tapping the top of the kotatsu with his fingers.

Itsuki Murakami. Age 53. Fumiko's uncle and current sole legal guardian. A total genius at business but absolutely incompetent at everything else, according to Fumiko herself. He owns the pawnshop and apartment where they're currently living.

"So... what do you mean you won't take that job? And you mentioned something about that gun I gave you too? Just what's wrong with you?", the man says to her somewhat annoyed.

"Uncle, no. Stop ruining my life with crap like that. You gave me this ridiculous fake gun so I can deal with anyone who wants to mess with me while I'm delivering random stuff to places for you? To the worst parts of the region, to make it even worse? And you pick your 13 year old niece for that, seriously? No wonder why no one ever wanted to marry you.", she stares back at him with an angered look.

She sighs heavily. "This is just too dangerous, for me and for anyone else. You don't give me a proper weapon and instead you actually think that this modified toy is effective? I'm sick of this. This is just child exploitation at this point." She lies down and exhales deeply.

"But Fumiko... the tool I gave you worked many times, didn't it? One time the other day, you said, you flawlessly used it against this one mugger. And a few months back during summer break, when merely showing it to some older kid was enough to make him respect you? You're well aware that it's effective, but you still think it's risky? I told you, you're not supposed to use it in every situation. Only use it when you think the other person doesn't have a gun. If it looks manageable, chances are that it's probably indeed manageable. It's common sense.", he manages to say this calmly.

Fumiko gets up from her laying position and sits normally again. "No... I don't want to continue that lifestyle. A lifestyle where I can easily fail with my intimidation bluffs and end up killed? Surely it's bound to work sometimes, but what if a truly dangerous guy shows up? I don't want to think about it. This whole idea was terrible since the start and I was dumb enough to believe this was good not one, but multiple times. You made me get overconfident and got my life into a serious risk these two times, I could have easily died... like, the Tajara could have clawed me to death but he was too much of a coward to continue caring. Thankfully. I could have died back there."

He takes a deep breath. "Ah, I'll be damned. A few of my connections had told me that using lasertag guns with very realistic covers was effective for intimidation which translated to self-defense, and it's even legal right now to make it better... now you're whining because of course it's not a real gun and is risky? Like I said, most of the people I know told me it worked well for them. You can't get any other good weapons legally and you're too much of a wuss to defend yourself. So what are you going to do if something happens?"

Fumiko looks down and fumbles with her fingers. "I... I will just never bring that gun with me ever again, and I won't take any delivery jobs to any of these dangerous places either. Just take me to a safer place, doesn't matter if it's far away. Oh, and about that thing you just said? I don't care. If a criminal approaches me I will either run away or comply with them if that fails. I refuse to do any strange moves or verbally act like a cocky brat, I don't want any trouble basically. If my actions had failed these other two times, I could have been seriously injured. I don't want to take any risks."

Itsuki appears to sigh in relief. "Well, it doesn't really matter. You're right, I might have been reckless as well, but... aaanyway, forget about it. I have one fairly important package that needs to be delivered to an affluent connection I have at NT in one of the richer parts of Mendell... ah yes, in the north. Near Planetfall Station, District 13. I trust you'll be able to deliver it with no problems, it's at a very safe place with good police. You're up for it?". Fumiko nods faintly.

He then gets up from the kotatsu and heads over to a nearby locker, starting to search for something. Fumiko lies down again and looks up to the ceiling. "Planetfall Station, huh... pretty far away but whatever." After a while he takes out a wrapped package and places it on the kotatsu. "Here we go, you know the procedure.", he says, smiling.

Fumiko gets up and looks over at the package, frowning over for a moment. "Is this legal?", she asks to him. He nods. "Yes, all legal.", he says calmly.

She rolls her eyes. "Why do you keep getting me to do all these legal deliveries, then? Why not just use the post office or another courier? Child exploitation, I say.", she shrugs and says.

"A-ah, well... reasons. Anyway, it's legal and safe. At this time of the day and in that route you shouldn't be getting mugged at broad daylight, even if... just forget about it. It's safe. Also, take a look at the package, the note near the address. That amount is supposed to be my and your payment. I'll call the guy in a while, identify yourself as Fumiko Murakami."

She looks over at the package again but isn't impressed. "Oh well.", she says. She takes it, putting it inside her school backpack which was laying near the room's door. She then closes and takes the backpack, takes her jacket from a nearby coathanger and heads off to the door. "I'll be off until this night, maybe tomorrow. And yes, I took the ID and money for transport before you say anything." Itsuki had suddenly taken out a large ham sandwich and started to munch down on it, just nodding faintly at her.

After leaving the room through the wooden door, she starts looking around, as if for someone. This must be the pawnshop itself, but all merchandise must be secured and hidden somewhere as there's nothing in sight. No people are present right now, although the presence of multiple security robots is clear. She sighs at relief for some reason.

She approaches one of the humanoid-looking security robots. "So you're the good one, huh?". She taps it on the head. "You follow me to the station and then come back here, understood? Protect Fumiko Murakami.". The robot looks up to her slowly as if it were scanning her, and beeps happily. It then starts following her around.

She leaves the pawnshop with the robot via the main entrance. Looking around, she notices that many people are walking around, with far more vehicular traffic than during the morning. She walks on the sidewalk in a straight direction, occasionally looking up to the sky. A few delivery drones are seen doing their thing, and suddenly, a shuttle car appears to fly at a moderate speed. "Huh, was a new sky highway opened here too? Otherwise this is illegal, what an idiot.", she says to the robot.

Suddenly she starts shivering. She takes the backpack off, puts on her jacket and puts on the backpack again. "Probably the best time of the day to do this, can't complain.", she appears to say at the robot again, with no response.

She continues to walk through many secondary streets and after about a quarter of an hour she reaches a wide main street. This street is significantly more active here when compared to the rest of the neighborhood, with police activity being somehow concentrated in here for some reason. Looking over at what seems to be an underground train station with the name "North Conristonville Station", she looks over at the robot again. "This is it. Return to your base. Don't get lost.", she says at the robot, which beeps happily again and starts returning at a somewhat sloppy pace but it manages to get the job done.

Fumiko looks at it for a while until it's out of sight. "He's better than I thought, huh. Should have done this earlier." A middle-aged human male notices her talking to herself but does nothing else. She goes downstairs into the underground station, and although the activity at the entrance isn't particularly high, well-inside it's bustling with activity. People of all species and synthetics are seeing hurrying around. NT imagery is seen absolutely everywhere. It's bustling with stores and small hotels. NT security officers are seeing working together with local law enforcement.

"Sooo... Planetfall Station." She looks over at a nearby ticket vending machine, tapping a few buttons on it. She frowns over at the screen, takes out her wallet and a 50 credit bill out of it, inserting the latter in the machine. It accepts it. A ticket comes out. "Assholes, that much for a one-way ticket...", she mumbles at herself while putting her wallet back in.

She walks around the station trying to ignore people as much as possible. She stops for a moment, as if overwhelmed by the size of the complex and amount of people active. "Where am I going...", she again mumbles to herself as she looks over at a nearby map of the rail transit system of Mendell City. After a few seconds she points over at one part of the map, nodding as she takes off again.

She walks around and reaches a platform that says "Platform 3/5 - North MC 1". She takes out her ticket and scans it on the relevant machine, which beeps happily. She then goes inside as she puts the ticket back into her jacket, where people only seem to be waiting for the next passenger train. Sitting around she just sits down on one of the few vacant benches and waits while doing nothing. She looks over at an electronic sign that says "Next train in: 117 seconds". She waits it out, and just in time the train in question arrives.

The train stops, and the doors open. A couple of dozen people go out, while just about everyone who had been waiting, including her, go into the train. She takes a nearby seat on the side of the train and takes out her PDA, just staring at it for now. The doors close and the train takes off.

She's giving next to zero attention to anything that happens, but the train momentarily stops for a while after every 3 minutes or so, with an automated announcement system spouting out the current stop name. The train itself alternates between being underground and on the surface about 5 times during this. After a little over two hours, the train stops and she's startled by a voice. "Planetfall Station, Planetfall Station. This is Planetfall Station." She immediately puts the PDA back into her jacket and goes up before the doors even open, and as the doors open half of the train's passengers including her appear to go out. She then walks into the station complex proper at a fairly fast pace.

Planetfall Station, located at Bullard Avenue in North Mendell City. Erroneously named since it's hardly related to the initial touchdown on Biesel, it's one of the largest and most active rail stations in the entire city and planet, used by approximately 7 million commuters every day. It's very large, with multiple levels and tens of thousands of people hurrying around 24/7, non-stop. Up to five hundred exits and fifty platforms. Security of all types is very high here. Clearly, North Conristonville Station is nothing when compared to this although both obviously still have their fair share of NT imagery.

Fumiko looks around at the immense amount of people present here and heads off to read another map on one of the walls, which is already being read by about another dozen of people. As if remembering something, she points at "Exit 42 - New Severson Street" on the map and immediately heads off once again.

Walking around the huge complex she eventually reaches the exit and goes upstairs. Suddenly, she's at one of the many streets of Bullard Avenue, arguably the most important business district in Mendell City. This, too, is absolutely nothing when compared to Conristonville: thousands of shuttle cars are seen very high up in the sky highways and modern skyscrapers are just about everywhere. In general, the amount of urban development here is ridiculously high.

She starts to walk on one of the multiple paths in the street designed for pedestrian traffic, while ground vehicles seem to be stuck in traffic jams just about all the time. But after a while she stops, as if she had realised she's not going anywhere with this. She approaches a walking map vending robot which is selling maps of the district for 5 credits according to a sign on it's head.. She takes out her wallet, takes out a 5 credit bill and wordlessly inserts it into the robot's bill slot, taking out not one, but two maps due to what must have been an error. "Huh, not bad. I need to get a better PDA though.", she says as she takes both maps and puts her wallet back in.

She opens the map and uses it to guide herself while trying to find the building for her delivery. "NanoTrasen Me... oh, there!", she suddenly points at a NT skyscraper, as if she were sure it's that one. Entering the building she's greeted by two human security officers, and then she finds herself in the lobby. Several receptionists are seen working here, some of them busy, others not. She approaches one of the free ones, a human female. The receptionist looks up to her.

"Hello, I'm here to see James Weiss. I was told I would be able to locate him here, in his office.", Fumiko tells the receptionist. She looks at Fumiko's face and replies. "Oh, you must be Murakami? Yes, they've been expecting you, go right in. Floor 5, Office 2." Fumiko nods and looks over at one of the elevators but shakes her head, heading off to the staircase instead.

On the next floor, she's approached by an Unathi security officer. "Wait." She stops in her place. "What iss a middle ssschooler like you doing here?", the officer suspiciously looks at her backpack. "Ah. I'm here to deliver something to a guy in Floor 5, Office 2. Just that. Now if you--", she tries to walk off but is interrupted again. "Wait wait, I'll come with you." She shrugs and both continue to walk upstairs to Floor 5.

Floor 5. Office 2 is clearly seen once reaching this floor, and the pair immediately head for said office. Fumiko knocks on the door that has a sign saying James Weiss on it. "Yes, go right in!", almost immediately and as if eagerly waiting for this, someone says. The pair enters the room which appears to be fairly large and well accondionated, and a human male in a suit sitting at a desk guarded by two Unathi security officers looks at her enthuastically.

Both enter the room and the Unathi closes the door. The man continues looking at her. "Fumiko Murakami, yes... this makes sense. Your uncle told me you'd be coming soon. Take a seat, will you." She sits down on the chair while the Unathi escort stands nearby.

The man exhales deeply, looking fairly nervous. "I'm James Weiss, as you know I'm an influential individual here and... ah, whatever, it's not too important for a middle school kid like you. I know your uncle well and had ordered him something very important many years back, now that he told me today it had finally arrived, I've been anxious non-stop! Now please, I can't wait... the package, please."

Fumiko takes off her backpack, opens it and takes out the wrapped package. The Unathi escort keeps looking at her suspiciously during this. The man notices this and stares back at him, which is enough for him to calm down. She places the package on the desk. "Here you go, your incredibly important package I was given no information about.", she says and crosses her arms.

Ignoring her the man takes the package and takes off the note attached to it, placing it on the top of the table. She turns his chair to the other side and tears off the wrapping with his bare hands. "No... no! It can't be! Finally! This is... this is the real thing! Yes!", he enthuastically says while the rest of the people in the room remain unimpressed.

He turns the chair facing to Fumiko again and with an embarrassed look, he places the package in a nearby drawer before she can take a proper look at it. He exhales deeply. "Anyway, this is exactly what I wanted. Good job, kid. Although I still don't know why he sends... ah, never mind. Good job.", he says while taking another look at the payment. "300000 for the package and... 100 for you for delivering this?". She nods faintly.

The man ponders for a while. "Your uncle only mentioned 300000 for the package, but... you've done a good job, and I'm happy right now. You deserve more than that.", he says as he takes out a charge card from another nearby drawer. "A charge card for 2000 credits, again, this is because I'm very happy and you did a good job for your age. How old are you again?", the man says as she places the card on the table, and Fumiko responds with 13 as she takes the card and puts it into her jacket's pocket. The man nods.

"Aaand as for the payment itself, 300000... yes, he said he gave you access to a bank account for inputting funds only?" Fumiko nods again as she takes out a bank ID saying "Itsuki Murakami" out of her jacket. "Come with me.", the man goes up and signals Fumiko to follow him to the hallway. He looks over at the Unathi escort. "You can go.", he says in a serious tone. "Yesss sssir.", he responds and walks off too. The man himself opens the door.

Fumiko and James go to a nearby ATM in the hallway. She places the ID into the bank slot which logs her in immediately, and James takes out a charge card, looking over at the screen. "Alright, so you have 1240000 credits here, now I place this and...", the man says while placing the charge card inside the specific slot for it, raising the number up to 1540000."

"There you go, Fumiko.", she places a hand on her shoulder while she doesn't react, instead just focusing on logging off and putting the ID back into her pocket. He takes a look over at his wristwatch and frowns slightly. "A bit too late for you to return to Conristonville now, isn't it kid?" She can only shrug.

"Well, there's a nearby capsule hotel... actually, it's on this complex itself, intended for visitors mainly. It was supposed to close down sometime this year but I guess you can use it for now if you don't want to go back home at this time of the day.", the man says in a calm tone.

Fumiko rolls her eyes but then appears to act interested. "Might as well, where is it"?, she asks. "Floor... 52. Yes, 52.", he says. She nods and heads straight for the staircase. "And thank you!", the man yells at her as she's already climbing up the staircase.

Taking a break every 5 stories, she eventually reaches floor 52 which is desolate for the most part, but a door with a sign saying "Capsule Hotel" is clearly visible. She knocks on the door and receives no response, but she tries to open it regardless. A single service robot is present in this desolate room. She approaches the robot, who looks up to her, scans her face and beeps happily. "Visitor detected. Are you interested in staying here for the night? 10 credits for a room." She looks around and rolls her eyes again, taking a walk around the room instead. The robot doesn't care. There's a small hallway leading to a series of capsule rooms.

She starts to manually open each door but they're locked, except for the bottom third one which was slightly opened and also vacant, as there were no signs indicating this room was used recently. She shrugs, and closes the door only to open it again. "No autolock, huh." She goes inside, closes the room and opens it again. "Good, neither for the inside as expected."

Then she takes off her backpack, jacket and shoes. After hiding her backpack in the only visible drawer, she starts laying down on the unmade bed which is conveniently more than large enough for someone of her size. After a few minutes she's already asleep.

Edited November 15, 2016 by Guest

[Fiskap]

Part Four: For No Reason

 

17th November 2453, 13:50

Fumiko is sitting at a desk in the middle of a full, traditional classroom. This must be Class 3-1 of Jasmine Grove Middle School. A middle-aged Hindustani man in a suit is seen sitting at the teacher's desk, using a laptop and holoprojector to show the students educational content about what seems to be a Sol Common lesson. Most of the class is anxiously waiting for something, Fumiko included.

"Alright, it's time to give you your Sol Common exams back. Have your parents sign them as usual and bring them back sometime during this and next week, hmm.", the man says calmly after glancing over at his wristwatch. He then opens his satchel, takes out a folder with the label "14th Nov Sol Exams 3-1" from it and starts distributing them among the students, starting with the far left row of seats.

A mixture of reactions comes out of the students. While the human students appear to react at it decently well, the aliens tend to not care at all. Then comes the second row, with the same reactions. After that comes the third row, where Fumiko is sitting. The teacher frowns over at Fumiko as he gives her the exam, with her maintaining an anxious expression. "See me after class, Fumiko", the teacher quietly says to her as he continues to distribute the exams.

Fumiko looks at the exam. A big 8/100 is written on the top right, in red ink. Redundantly, there's a big "See me after class!" written under it too. The rest of the paper is filled with red ink corrections too. She can only sigh as she quickly takes the exam, puts it in a folder and then into her backpack to avoid any questioning by fellow classmates. She then just waits until the bell rings.

14:00. The bell rings. Most of the students quickly rush out of the classroom, except for Fumiko who just keeps waiting at her desk, and another girl: Hitomi. She approaches Fumiko. "Hey, how did your exam go?", Hitomi says without getting a response, not even any eye contact. "Oh... well, I'll call you later then since you have to wait here, see you.", she says again and then heads off, only getting a nod in response.

After all of the other students leave the room, Fumiko approaches the teacher's desk where the man is sitting. She has an embarrassed look on her face, and then he looks up to her with a serious expression. "Just what happened, Fumiko? This is totally embarrassing. For you, me and the entire school. An 8/100? You got the worst human score in this entire class, I mean, no one in the other classes scored as badly as you... humans, at least."

Fumiko just remains quiet. "I don't get how you passed this subject in other grades, but this is seriously embarrassing. You're in 8th grade and you can't even write Sol at a basic standard yet. And let's not mention speaking or listening. Even the second worst human student is significantly better than you. You're doing well enough at other subjects, but what is wrong with this? Are you just spending all your time on the Extranet instead of studying whenever you're supposed to study this subject?"

"I'm... I'm just bad at languages, okay? I don't get other languages, it's hard for me. I want to speak Basic only. I did study by the way, but it's hard for me to get it so I forget it fast.", she says after increasingly becoming more calm, and then shrugs.

The man exhales deeply. "Well, we're pretty much at the start of the school year still, so something can perhaps be done about this horrible proficiency level you have at Sol Common. You're here to learn after all. Anyway, the school body has forced you to attend supplementary classes for this subject, at least twice a week. One hour every day, 16:00 to 17:00 typically.", he says with a serious tone.

"Eh? I have to go to supplementary classes? What about the other aliens, like Boris? I'm sure he scored like shit, so why doesn't he have to do this?", she frowns and says.

"It's... complicated. You know this is supposed to be a multi-species school, yes?", he says with Fumiko nodding. "Well, despite that we accept students from most species, we only have a limited budget... it's been even worse with the recent crisis, so we have to focus educational efforts on humans with potential, instead on aliens who will probably fail out of high school later on even if they receive more resources. Xenophobic, yes, but the decision doesn't come from me.", the man says.

Fumiko gets noticeably sadder. "Well, okay. I'll go to these classes. Although I don't get why you can't just fit more students in them.", Fumiko says in a confused tone. "That's sadly not under my control... anyway, be at school every Tuesday and Wednesday at 16:00. That will be your schedule for the rest of this month, at least. You can go.". The teacher then slowly starts packing up his things, Fumiko then goes back to her desk and does the same but at a faster pace. She puts on her jacket and backpack, then rushes out of the room wordlessly while ignoring the teacher.

She stops at the hallway, looks out of the window and sighs. It can be seen that most students have already left the building, only a handful are seen around. She walks in the hallway and goes downstairs, heading straight out to the main entrance. No students are seen there, but a cleaning robot can be seen doing their thing nearby. Stopping outside, she looks around again. She stares over at another sign that says "Jasmine Grove Middle School (ALL SPECIES WELCOME)".

Indeed, this is Jasmine Grove Middle School: a middle school initially built with public funds in the early 23th century that was closed and remodelled several times until 2421, when it was privatized and bought by a NT-subsidiary. In 2439, it started to accommodate alien teenagers who are typically supposed to be 12 to 15 years old, although the school can be lenient about admissions. This initiative has been a major mistake as of now as most aliens perform horribly badly despite of all efforts and now are about 30% of the student's body. With the subsidiary desperate to keep things afloat, it has considered kicking out most or all aliens, or closing the school altogether next year.

Once outside, only about a couple of students and teachers are seen leaving the premises. Fumiko glances over at them as she starts walking again. But it's not to her typical home route, instead she heads over to a smaller building next to it. As she was about to reach it, she hears something in the usually desolate alley between those buildings.

"Help me! Hel-BZZZZZZZZZt! Anyone!BZZZZt", a clearly synthetic voice is heard along with the sound of metal clanking. The voice distorts into nothing and the clanking continues. Fumiko notices this and after looking around her surroundings, she decides to go into the alley and notices a larger human male student kicking a small synthetic on the floor. She looks over at the unresponsive synthetic and carefully approaches the male, who is still frantically kicking the synthetic.

"Um, are you okay? Did this synthetic--", Fumiko calmly tries to say to the other student as she unexpectly gets punched hard in the face, the force of the impact making it enough for her to stagger significantly and nearly fall over to the floor. As she's falling, the other student grabs her from the hair and pulls her inward to him as he delivers a strong kick to her abdomen. This new attack makes her drop on the floor.

"Fucking pro-synth brat... you think you could have done anything? Hah!", he angrily says to her. She coughs on the floor, unable to get up. While still completely defenseless on the floor, he kicks her heavily in the head. But she still can't make any verbal response, only continuing to cough.

"Fucking respond to me!", he says in an even more angered tone as he leans down, grabs her from the hair, punches her in the head and throws her down on the pavement again, making a mild thumping sound. After the last attack he just looks down at her for a while, until she tries to speak.

"Gah... why... I'm not a pro-synth, I was only lookin-- aghh...", she says as she coughs out a tooth and blood. She's now bleeding from her mouth, face and back of the head.

The other student just frowns down at her and heavily kicks her in the leg. "Yes... that's what everyone says. You lying shit.". He then continues kicking her in the legs, with her groaning and unable to get up.

"Just let me go! I have money, take that and just leave me...", she says while carefully using her right hand to hold the right side of her face, and using the other one to take her wallet out of her jacket. The other student looks down at her and smirks.

"Oh, reparations for the synthetic crimes you enabled? You do know your place.", he says as he laughs out. Fumiko offers him her wallet and he leans down to grab it. He opens it, takes a few bills out, frowning as he then throws the rest of the wallet on the floor. He puts the bills into his pockets as he looks down at the terrified Fumiko again, pressing her right leg with his foot. She groans again.

"No way, you have more than that. Give me your backpack.", he points over at her torso. As she's still groaning she tries to take off her backpack with her two hands, but then coughs out blood again in the middle of the process. Regardless she is able to get this done, and hands the backpack over to him. He then grabs it forcefully, opens it and angrily starts to rummage through it, occasionally throwing a textbook on the floor while not keeping anything for himself.

However, midway through this, an adult human male wearing gym clothes approaches the alley and notices the male student pressing Fumiko's leg on the floor. "You there, stop!", the adult yells at the male student as he drops the backpack and tries to make a run for it. Fumiko looks over at them and eventually they're out of sight, leaving her without knowing if he has been apprehended.

Fumiko holds a hand over her cheek again as she groans and then coughs up blood yet again. She looks around and notices a bunch of small blood drips, ruined textbooks laying around, her open backpack and wallet. No one else but the synthetic is around. Through a period of various minutes she attempts to get back on the floor. Once nearly completely up, she hears a beeping sound coming from the battered synthetic on the floor. She looks at it and waits.

"Auditory sensors re-initialized. Optical sensors re-initialized. Structural integrity at 29%... hmm, not bad.", the synthetic says in a clearly robotic voice through a speaker with a low sound quality as it manages to get itself up from the floor via some hovering mechanism. A black spherical synthetic capable of flight, currently significantly battered but somehow still able to function well enough to move unassisted. It hovers around for a while and notices Fumiko who is still looking at the synthetic.

"You... wait, you're not that mean student. Then... you must have saved me by beating him up? Thank you! Thank you very much!", the synthetic says and then beeps enthuastically. Fumiko can only look at it with a confused expression.

"But I didn't do much... ow!", she tries to say but then groans in pain as she holds a hand over her forehead. The synthetic then hovers around her, and presumably notices everything on the floor.

"No need to be so humble about this honourable act, girl! What is your name? My name is Evon, I am what you could consider an IPC, free synthetic of the sort. I was merely active around here when while I was busy doing something, he attacked me without a warning and I was taken off guard so I couldn't really defend myself. Then you came and saved me. I would surely have been fully destroyed by him, if it weren't for you. I can't be thankful enough. Now, what is your name? ", Evon says as it continues to hover frantically around her again. She doesn't say anything for a while as she just looks over at it.

"Are you quite fine...? Well, atleast you definitely did win this conflict, although at a high cost it seems.", again it says while carefully looking over at Fumiko's wounds.

"Murakami... Fumiko Murakami... ah, are you even a licen-- ow!", again she attempts to say after a while but is interrupted by the pain from her gums. She then puts a hand over it again, and reluctantly leans down to pick up her things and put them into her backpack. "Can you at least help me out...", she says quietly as she points at the mess on the floor.

"Of couse I would Fumi... Fumiko? Are you Japanese? Anyway, this is the least I could do. Unfortunately many of my modules were damaged, I can't even use my utility arm. Sorry.", Evon says in a neutral tone. She frowns at it as she finishes packing up all of her things, she puts the wallet back into her jacket and then she puts on the backpack again. After that she starts to walk with a somewhat limping posture to where she came from, holding her right cheek with her right hand.

"Wait Fumiko, I need to compensate you for this! Come to my friend's house and we'll sort it out.", it says at a louder volume as it tries to follow her, but this only startles her. She stops in her place, looks back and frowns at it.

"Just... not now. Leave me alone or I'll finish the job.", she frowns at it while clenching her free fist as she continues to walk to the main school building. Evon follows her for a few seconds and then stops. "Well, see you later... I just wanted to thank you for defeating that guy and saving me from being fully destroyed.", it says as it flies up to the sky and heads to another direction.

Fumiko reaches the main school building, with no one in sight. She enters it through the main entrance and heads to the first hallway to the left, to a door with a sign that says "Infirmary". She opens the door which is unlocked, and looks around. No one is in sight. She takes off her backpack and jacket, leaving them on a nearby table and lies down on first visible bed. Her wounds stain the bedsheets with blood within seconds and she falls asleep fast.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Guest

[Fiskap]

Part Five: This Is Too Sudden

 

22th November 2453, 10:00

A dimly-lit, small office. A tall, imposing tanned human male wearing a black suit and shades is sitting at a desk. On the other side, a well-maintained synthetic appears to be hovering in place. Judging by its colour and shape, it appears to be similar to Evon.

The man looks over at the synthetic with a serious expression. "Like I said, this is just a Japanese middle schooler. There's no way we'll take in someone like her anytime soon. How can you even know that she has any potential after stalking her for only a week? You just suddenly became obsessed about her because she saved you somehow, Evon. Nothing else.", he says.

"Fumiko has the potential to destroy NanoTrasen and finally bring change to Biesel, I can assure you that. Trust me. I have plans for her already, plans that will bring freedom and glory to Biesel... no, the entire galaxy perhaps. She is still young and can be guided to a path of perfection. Without having to join us at all.", Evon says while still hovering in place.

The man takes off his shades and raises his brow while still looking at Evon. "Huh? Destroy NanoTrasen and bring change to the world? A mere child like her, of all people? I mean... we're still in debt to you for your prior contributions to this organization, but...", he says and stops.

The man exhales deeply. " Whatever. You can continue with your plan, you do have a right to do it after everything you've done for us. I will trust your judgment on giving more attention to this... child. Even if it doesn't help us much anytime soon. Just don't waste more money than we assigned to you for your tasks. Now go.", he says says in a serious tone again as he points to a corner of the room.

"Yes, boss! I will return with news about this later today. Bye!", the synthetic says and then beeps happily as it heads off to a small hole in the ceiling, near the corner where the man had pointed to. Travelling through what seems to be some kind of a ventilation system, Evon eventually pops out of the roof of a small apartment, about 5-stories tall.

Evon hovers higher up in the sky. Half a dozen delivery drones are active nearby, and urbanized land can be seen at all directions. It then starts hovering towards what seems to be the city center where thousands of skyscrapers are clustered, at a speed similar to the other delivery drones. It then floats down in what seems to be a small street with not too tall apartments.

It approaches the third-story of the Murakami pawnshop and hovers in place while looking inside the window which is covered by curtains. A few pedestrians look up at Evon but no one cares for too long or does anything about it.

10:30. After some time, the curtains are opened by Fumiko, who is wearing a set of bandages on her head and face. She then opens the window and yawns. As she heads off from the window, Evon takes the opportunity to go inside. Attempting to greet her casually, she is startled and falls down to the futon on the floor while still wearing her pink pajamas.

"Ah! What is this delivery... uh, wait. Who the fuck are you?!", she says at Evon while sitting down on the futon after falling on it.

"Hello Fumiko. Did I startle you? I'm terribly sorry, that was not my intention. I'm Evon, if you forgot about me. I'm just here to repay you for the incident of the other day, I wanted to do this earlier but never had a chance to do this. Anyway, this is for you.", the synthetic says as it opens up its small cargo compartment. Multiple credit bills come out of it and fall on the futon.

She then starts collecting the bills while somehow not having reacted much to it. Then she starts counting them. "7000 credits...? Why are you giving me so much for that? Besides, how did you even find me?", she says while raising a brow over at Evon.

"Oh right, I believe that I never told you. I'm an independent synthetic in an expensive custom chassis, so this should be good enough for a girl of your age. And about how I found you, well, it's easy to find someone's house in the age of the Extranet! Your uncle's pawnshop, specifically.", it says calmly.

Fumiko then frowns over at Evon, as if still unconvinced. "Okay, now can you please leave...", she says in a somewhat grumpy tone as she gets up and points over at the open window.

"No wait, Fumiko! I have another offer for you. I'm still very grateful to you for saving me, so the initial payment was just a part of the total reward. I have more to offer to you. Tell me, are you not content with your current fighting skills or are you interested in expanding your knowledge in anything? Stuff like martial arts? Computer science? Electrical engineering? Just about anything goes!", it says as it moves to the center of the room.

Fumiko rubs her eyes and gives Evon a confused expression. "...huh? What's up with that? Why would I care about any of that stuff? Besides, I don't even know if I'll go to college or not. So basically most of that could be irrelevant to me right now." She sits down on the futon again and starts pondering. "But, uhh, actually... actually I guess I can say I was formerly interested in martial arts but never really started doing it, most dojos in the area seemed like utter cashgrab garbage. So I lost interest due to that. I was never really interested in computers or engineering. Other things, hmm...", she says in a more interested tone as she goes quiet.

"Then martial arts, it is! I know of a very good certified martial artist master not too far away, he is qualified to teach but is now somewhat of a personal trainer, rarely taking in any students. However, I'm a very good friend of him and he will with no doubt take you in. Get ready to go out and we'll meet him there!", it says after waiting after Fumiko fails to say anything again.

She raises a brow at Evon again. "Wait a second. This offer sounds interesting, but it's also pretty shady. How can I know that you aren't just tricking me into some kind of rape dungeon or something?", she says as she visibly becomes afraid.

"I assure you that this is 100% legit. It's on Everson Street, 24. The man lives in a small house, and the training hall is there too. You can bring anyone you want to it, or tell everyone that you're going there with me, if you're really that paranoid.", it says.

"I don't know why the robot I saved would trick me into some rape dungeon after giving me a significant amount of money, but... very well. I'll tell my uncle who will then notify others, so more people know. That way, uh... oh, I know. It will be good. Wait here.", she says after having become calm again. She then goes into the bathroom adjacent to her room while holding the money and locks the room, leaving Evon hovering in place.

After a while she comes out with tidy hair and her typical street clothes, which appear to be decently clean. "Alright, you're coming with me the traditional way. To the shop, we're going to see my uncle first and then we'll check out that martial arts guy.", she says as she closes the window and opens the door out of the room, then motions at Evon to follow her.

The pair walk out of the door into the hallway and then she closes it. They start going down the nearby staircase and after two floors they open a door at the end of the hallway. A couple of security robots are seen guarding it, and Itsuki appears to be at the shop counter while a customer was just leaving. Without bothering to close the door, Fumiko approaches him.

"I know that sensor thingie arrived recently, so give me that. I'm going to investigate some potentially dangerous place with this robot, so keep an eye on me and get help if I don't come back before lunch or so.", she says to Itsuki without even greeting him first. The man doesn't even respond verbally, just giving her an electronic device he took out of his pockets after giving a glance to Evon and carrying on with his business. She then clips the device on her shirt and wordlessly heads off to the building's main exit.

Itsuki Pawnshop, Strongoak Street, 12. Fumiko just decides to look over at the pawnshop signs and then at the street signs for a while, when suddenly Evon gets in front of her. "Are you okay? We should be heading off. Follow me, it's really not that far away." She then just follows Evon to the left of the building.

For a while they just journey without exchanging any words. They don't pay too much attention to their surroundings, since few people are present today at this time of the day anyway. After walking through minor streets for a few minutes, someone runs up from an alley and blocks their path.

"Hey girl, you got any money?", a tall young adult says while smiling over at Fumiko. She can only frown at disgust as she starts to pull one of Evon's appendages as if she were in a hurry. "We have to go.", she says anxiously. It then suddenly breaks free from her grip and pushes her back, facing the man alone. "Stand back Fumiko, I got this."

"Oh, so you're the one who has money? Give me something, yeah?", the man laughs at Evon. However the synthetic doesn't respond verbally, it just opens one of the slots in its chassis and a syringe is propelled over at him at a high speed. It hits the man's left arm and he groans as he passes out on the floor.

"What the shit do you just do?! Is he dead?", Fumiko says in a clearly alarmed tone. "It's okay Fumiko, he will just be temporarily knocked out. It's better to be safe than sorry with these types of people, and I can't risk them doing strange things to do. Now, can you drag him back to the alley so he doesn't draw to much attention?". She just does that, hiding the unconscious man behind a dumpster in the alley.

As she finishes the task, she exhales deeply as she looks up to Evon. "Are... are you even a legal synthetic? Are you even allowed to have that stuff?", she asks to it. The synthetic only beeps happily and starts to head off the alley, leaving her confused as she doesn't ask it again. She follows it again as they continue their journey.

"By the way, Fumiko. You don't really have any fighting skills, do you? Yet you were still able to defeat that other student?", Evon asks out of the blue. Fumiko stops in place, and then it does the same. "Uhh, yeah. T-the guy was really strong, which is why I was so hurt after that. I was just lucky to get him to flee from me after a short fight, that's what. But I don't want to rely on that luck again, so that's why I thought getting some martial arts training would be good, even if... you get it.", she says yet again in an anxious tone.

The pair resume their journey. "Innate luck, then? Impressive. Now if you could combine that luck with actual skills, few people could ever pose a threat to you. By the way, we're almost there.", Evon says as it moves at a somewhat faster pace. Fumiko then keeps up.

After a while they reach a small street that seems to only have houses with one or two stories, something uncommon for this neighborhood. They continue for walk until Evon suddenly speeds up to a certain one-story house. Fumiko then keeps up with their speed. Instead of heading to the main entrance, they go into the adjacent alley and open a door on the side. It's unlocked and the pair head inside the hallway.

Without calling for anyone they go into what seems to be a large training room in the second room to the left. The door was already opened and they look over to an old but fit man sitting on a couch at the edge of the room. The man notices them, then gets up and approaches Fumiko.

"So you must be the girl who saved Evon... Fumiko, correct?", the man says and Fumiko nods. "Very well, here's the deal. I am Oscar Corbacho, a good friend of Evon. I also owe them far too many favors, so I'll be willing to take you in as my personal student. I don't do that often and I don't have anyone else right now, so I can assure that the training will be high-quality for sure. But you have to be determined to do this often, it would essentially be a new routine. Check my awards on the wall to confirm that this is legit.", he says again as he points over at the wall.

She looks over at the wall and its pinned contents. Certifications as a personal trainer, won local tournaments, Krav Maga, Muay Thai, Kali... not even bothering to check all of it, she turns over to the man again. "Well, this looks legit. But a few things: why is this place so obscure? With all these qualifications, you're not really working at all? And also, how much will you charge me for this?", she says to the man as she frowns at him.

"I'm currently living off a private pension, yet I'm still young enough to continue teaching legally, and distribute martial art belts and the such. This is still a legally sanctioned training hall, everything is legal. The fact that few people come and train here doesn't change anything. And by the way, I'll train you for free for as much time as you want. That's part of Evon's deal, it's what I said about these favors.", the man says calmly.

"Ah...? For free? Really? So are there no other conditions at all? This is just kind of suspicious but considering everything that has happened...", she looks down to the floor and ponders. "Well, sure. I'll do it!", she responds after a while. The man nods faintly as she motions her to follow her out of the room, going to the one opposite to the hallway.

A small dining room. The pair sit down at the table while Evon just hovers around doing nothing productive. "So, a few things will need to be made clear. First, I will start training you in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu soon. Is that clear?", the man asks in a serious tone to Fumiko. "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?", she says and nods. "Then I'll crosstrain you in Krav Maga and we'll consider another striking art later. That should leave you as a very well balanced and competent fighter by your 20s. Is that clear?", the man says again while Fumiko listens intently.

"Well, crosstraining is important I guess, and I'll trust the expert on this. Also, one thing. How intense will this training be? Will I need to get a new diet?", she asks to the man. He then gets up and opens the fridge, taking out what seems to be a sealed bottle and puts it on the table. Fumiko looks at it suspiciously.

"Modern protein drinks. These should give you plenty of calories, proteins and other nutrients to function well enough for any intensive training. Don't consume these alone however, combine them with meats, nuts and fruits mainly. You'll get used to them soon enough. And yes, the training will be intensive. We'll start out slowly but after a while you can expect to spend much of your time here. I'll make sure you have time left for school duties and entertainment, I don't want to stress you out too much.", he says to her again. Fumiko doesn't react although she appears to have listened to it well enough.

After blankly looking at the drink for a while and not talking, the man notices this. "Fumiko? Anyway, we can start next week. Come here after school every day. So typically around 14:15. For days when you don't have classes, come around at the same time. Intensive, but it will put you in shape." She somehow becomes shocked after hearing the new schedule but manages to calm down shortly after. "Okay then. I have nothing else to do, but if I don't like it, I will stop doing it.", she says as the man just responds with a serious nod.

"Now, the last thing. Take this drink and search for it in nearby convenience stores to buy more. If you fail to do that, come back to me. I'm here every day, I rarely go out. Start complementing it with your meals every day, and the next time you come here, get a new pair of indoor shoes. Mainly for hygiene. Come back here next Monday. Got it?", the man says as Fumiko just wordlessly grabs the drink, gets up and heads out of the room. He frowns slightly over at this.

"Yeah yeah, if that's the last thing then alright. I'll come here and do it all. I just remembered I wasn't supposed to go outside this early so I'll have to go back to home, sorry for the hurry. See you next week.", he says as the man doesn't respond and just calmly goes back to the other room.

Evon follows her to the hallway, and they head outside. She puts the drink in her jacket and pulls out a PDA, typing on it for a while. Seemingly getting no response anytime soon, she gets mildly angry and just waits while Evon is busy hovering around the alley. She just waits and waits. Maybe the person she contacted via PDA will respond soon.

Edited November 15, 2016 by Guest

[Fiskap]

Part Six: Hard Training

 

24th November 2453, 16:00

Evon is accompanying a man in a black suit who is also wearing shades and holding a briefcase. They appear to be walking on a desolate sidewalk of an area far poorer and deteriorated than Conristonville without exchanging any words until Evon appears to notice something up front and flies faster. The man keeps up with his speed. Then they go into an alley to the left.

No one is there. They approach what seems to be a heavily armored door on the side of an old apartment, and then the man knocks on the door. There is no response for a while, so the man knocks harder again. Shortly after someone finally appears to have heard it, and the door is opened. A very tall, muscular, bald man is partially revealed. After looking at Evon and the man, he nods and opens the door entirely, gesturing at them to follow him. They enter the apartment and close the door behind them.

They continue to follow him through a hallway to what seems to be a living room full of old furniture, with half a dozen people seen playing poker on an old table. A couple of other people are seen laying on the floor or on couches, presumably drunk due to the large amount of empty bottles seen scattered around. "Hey guys, they finally came. Come check this out.", the bald man says to the rest as a few of the people playing poker suddenly drop their game and approach the pair. The rest are too drunk to care.

They don't appear to have a very friendly disposition, as they are carrying a variety of weapons: ballistic handguns, laser rifles and knives. Every man is armed to the teeth. A skinnier man holding a handgun points over at the briefcase. "So that's where the data is, I guess?". The man in black nods. "Give it to us then, we've been waiting too much for this.", he says again as the briefcase is handed over.

He then puts the briefcase on the poker table as he holsters his gun. "Anyway, let's just check if this is good, then you'll get the payment.", he says over at the pair without them reacting. He then starts to open the already unlocked briefcase while the rest of the people watch intently at this. Evon and the man in black took advantage of the fact that no one was observing them to leave the room for the hallway with no one noticing.

Suddenly the briefcase is pried open entirely by some automated mechanism and cluster of loud bangs are heard, with a blinding flash of light affecting the entire room. Shortly afterwards, a thick purple gas comes out of the briefcase which spreads across the entire room too. As the man in black notices the gas coming out, he takes a small device out of his pocket which expands into some kind of a blue force field that blocks the room's entrance, where a door should normally be.

After the cluster of flashbangs stop, only a thick purple cloud remains. A series of horrifying screams, curses and pleads for life are heard. The pair continue watching intently, and after a while an horribly maimed, melting bald man missing a whole arm comes up to the force field and leans on it. "Help... please...", he says as he weakly tries to knock against the force field. He accomplishes nothing with this and falls to the floor where he continues to melt. Only a puddle of gibs would remain after a few seconds.

The pair continue to wait, while suddenly another tall man armed with a shotgun comes out from a bathroom in the hallway. "What the hell is going on?!", he curses as he aims his weapon over at the man in black. However Evon was apparently already prepared and quick to act, firing out a laser beam from one the slots in its chassis before he can fire a shot. It hits the man directly in the right eye. As clutches at his eye and drops his weapon in pain, Evon extends a small blade and charges at him at full speed.

Targeting his neck, it fails to decapitate him but his neck is left horribly maimed. The man is still able to stand after this attack and holds his hands over his neck wound but collapses from blood loss shortly after.

Evon returns over to the force field where the man in black had been waiting. "Well, now my systems finally don't detect any other lifesigns nearby. I'm sure that everyone here is dead. Mission complete, let's get out of here fast.", it says. The man in black nods as he takes out another small device from one of his suit pockets. It appears to open a small bluespace portal. "Don't worry about that disposable force field, let's get out of here before we somehow lose the signal.", it says as the man quickly enters the portal first and disappears. Then, Evon enters the portal as well.

The pair has teleported to a small, dark room that seems to be empty except for a large teleporter beacon that is laying right on the floor where they arrived. "Man, I can't believe it would be this ridiculously easy. They didn't even bother searching us. Anyway, I have to check on Fumiko, you can go.", Evon says over at the man while he just nods faintly again. They head over to the only door in the room which appears to have an electronic lock, however as Evon bumps into it, it opens instantly. The pair then leave the room into a hallway.

The door closes automatically after a few seconds. As the man in black heads off to the end of the hallway, Evon heads over to one of the opened rooms to the right, revealing that this is Oscar's training hall. Fumiko is heavily panting on one of the mattresses on the floor, barely reacting to her surroundings. Her personal trainer Oscar is standing right next to her.

"Well, how's the training going?", Evon says over to Fumiko but she doesn't respond. "This is surprisingly going better than expected. She's clearly on her limit already, just look at her. But I guess we can call it a day for now.", Oscar says while crossing his arms and looking at her. She still doesn't respond, and it takes about a full minute for her to get up.

"That's okay for today? Ah... that's too much for me I think. It's cool stuff but I don't think I can endure it.", she says as she starts leaving the room without any other comments. "It's okay Fumiko, I'll adjust this training to your capabilities. You should be able to get used to this fast... Fumiko?", he tries to say to her but it appears that she hasn't been paying too much attention to him and is heading straight for the building's exit.

"Fumiko, listen to me! Are you okay?", he says to her in a worried tone. "Yes... I'll be back tomorrow, leave me for now.", she responds as she opens the door to the alley and leaves. Evon takes the opportunity to quickly fly out.

She starts shivering, as she's only wearing her gym clothes. Evon notices this and flies closer to her. "Ah... I left everything in my school locker except for the tracker and PDA. I'm not going back for today.", she says to it in a somewhat tired tone while staying in place.

"This is probably a good chance for me to give you yet another gift, Fumiko. A location to a safehouse my friends own.", it says as it starts flying to the end of the alley, back to the street. It probably expected Fumiko to follow it but she doesn't move. As it notices this, it flies back to her location.

"Fumiko? Are you okay? You seem kind of down.", it says to her. "A safe house... rape dungeon? This is just creeping me out too much, the guy's training good but... ugh. I'm not sure I really want this.", she says while looking down at the floor with a sad expression.

"I said once that I was interested in martial arts, right? I just took this offer because it seemed to be interesting. Now I just feel uncomfortable. If I end up giving this up too, it will be another potential hobby I have abandoned. And at age 13, almost 14, I will have accomplished nothing worth of any note.", she says as she finally heads out to the street.

"Nothing interests me. Other hobbies? No. Extranet stuff in general? No. School? No. What can I do? I spend most of my time sleeping, at school or doing chores at home that my uncle can't do, which is basically everything. I can ask my uncle to give me money so I can buy anything I want, but it's like I had nothing, since nothing interests me. Why did I have to turn into this.", she continues saying to Evon as they finally reach the street. Then she stops in place, Evon does the same after a while.

"Hey, what do you think of Biesel, or Mendell in general? Would it have been better than life in Hokkaido?", she asks over at Evon. However it doesn't respond, and after a while, it appears to depower and fall on the floor with a heavy thump. "Evon!", she explains after having become startled by the noise. She then attempts to pick it up but fails as it's too heavy for someone of her physique.

"Evon... did I bore it to death?", she says while looking at it with the same sad expression from before. She then just stares down at it and waits. Many people are walking on the sidewalk and some give the pair a few looks but don't care too much. After a while, the same man in black from earlier shows up and approaches her.

"Fumiko Murakami . I will retrieve Evon, I should also escort you back to your home or a suitable safehouse under our control. Follow me.", the man says in a somewhat very unnatural sounding voice. She gives him a look but doesn't respond. Her face suddenly goes red and becomes noticeably nervous as she starts running off as fast as she can, ignoring everything and everyone in her path. The man doesn't attempt to follow her down, but she's far too panicked to notice.

She violently starts tapping the tracking device clipped to her shirt as she's running while getting the attention from many more people than before. Regardless she's able to reach her home in a few minutes, but when she's only a few houses away from the pawnshop's entrance, she collapses face down on the floor from exhaustion.

Conveniently enough, her uncle was just leaving the building with a small, humanoid security robot, and she is noticed immediately by them. "Fumiko!", her uncle screams hysterically as he approaches her. "Processing... life signs mostly stable. Likely cause of collapse: physical exhaustion.", the robot states as it glances over at her. Itsuki sighs in relief as he cluelessly grabs her and moves her back into their home at a normal pace.

He opens the door that leads directly to the living room and places her over an already prepared futon. "Attention, course of action might not be adequate. Recommendation: call emergency medical services.", the robot exclaims again. "It's okay, she'll recover. It's just fatigue.", he says calmly as he leaves her in the living room while he returns back to the pawnshop proper with the robot and closes the door.