Chapter 5: Questions

Chelise walks down the corridor in search for her room.

School... That's what Jake said. The little memory I have left tells me it's a place for learning. Did I attend school before I was put in a coma?

Her thoughts wander off until she reaches the door to her room. I guess I have to use this keycard to get in.

She picks up the keycard and uses it the same way she saw Haru do it. The door opens and she walks in, it looks just like it did before she left. She lays down on the bed and looks up into the ceiling. I wish I could remember...

Chelise wakes up to the sound of someone knocking on her door. I must have fallen asleep. She sits up and looks at the door. For how long was I asleep? She stands up and walks towards the door, grabs the handle and opens it.

"Good evening Chel."

Haru is standing outside, smiling at her.

"Good evening Haru."

"I'm sorry it took so long, did you find anything to spend time on?"

Chelise yawns and nods.

"I fell asleep."

"It seems four hundred years weren't enough for you." Haru laughs while saying it.

"I wish it would have been."

Chelise smiles at her joke. I thought Haru was a serious person.

"Are you hungry? It's actually a little bit late for it since my work kept me occupied a while longer than I had planned."

Chelise isn't hungry but a feeling is telling her that she should eat when food is offered.

"I think there's room for some."

"Great, we'll eat in my quarters."

"Why not in the dining room?"

"I need to talk to you in private so I'll have them send us dinner."

"Is it about school?"

"Oh, you've already heard? Did Jake tell you about it?"

"He only mentioned it. Said you'd tell me soon."

"That's correct. Come, I'll show you the way to my room."

Chelise nods at her and she exits the room, following Haru once again through the corridor but this time they walk towards the staircase where people moved up and down like they were floating. She looks at it and sees moving stairs.

So that's how it works. That seems pretty amazing.

Haru notices her amazement and smiles at her.

"This is called an escalator. It functions as a staircase. I'm sure you can see that it comes in handy."

"How does it work?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that. I have no idea myself, it's a machine made by regular humans."

"Not magicians?"
"Exactly, they've invented alot of useful things over the years."

"I'm amazed. I don't think this existed when I grew up."

"Most of the amazing inventions you see around this facility were actually made in recent years. We have evolved our technology alot since you were in coma."

"I can't wait to see more of it."

Chelise smiles and looks at the escalator. Haru takes her hand and steps into the moving stairs and they both move upwards towards the second floor. This is amazing, you move upwards without doing anything at all. Couldn't they make these things along all those long corridors?

They reach the second floor and Chelise looks around, it's almost exactly the same as below. Everything is in white and it also stretches out into eight corridors. They walk towards the corridor furthest to the left and enter a room that has Haru's name on it. The room looks alot like Chelise's, the same walls, floor and even some of the furniture.

Is this the standard here?

"Take a seat, I'll order up some dinner."

Chelise sits down on one of the two chairs by the table. She sees how Haru picks up one of those communication devices and presses a few times on it. After a few seconds she starts talking in Japanese for a few seconds, then presses it once again and looks at Chelise.

"Since the kitchen is closed off for the moment there isn't much to choose from. I hope you will find that it suits your tastes."

"I'm sure it will."

Haru takes a seat on the second chair and puts the device on the table. I wonder how that works.

"Want to have a look at it?"

Chelise looks up at Haru who smiles at her.

"What is it? Some sort of communication device?"

"It's a cell phone. You can contact anyone you want with it."

Chelise is stunned. Anyone?

"How is that possible?"

"A technical wonder." Haru says and hands over the cell phone.

Chelise takes it and looks at it. She doesn't know what it's made of completely, but the front looks like glass. Haru pushes a button on the right side of it and the glass starts to shine. Woah, what did she do? There seems to be a few numbers and a few symbols in it.

"This is the screen, you interact with it by using your fingers. It uses the Japanese kanji so you probably can't read it."

"I only know of these numbers."

"That's the time right now."

"09:13 pm."
"Exactly, it's pretty late for dinner but you shouldn't skip meals."

Chelise nods and looks at the screen closely. It shows the time and you can contact anyone with it. Seems to good to be true. She puts it down on the table when the screen goes black again, right before someone knocks on the door. Haru opens it and is given two packages. Must be our dinner. She puts both packages on the table and start unpacking them, handing over the contents of one to Chelise.

"Here you go Chelise, It's not a anything fancy but it should taste good."

They both start eating and it does taste really good. It's hard to place what kind of meat it is since it's flavoured.

"I told you that we will teach you Japanese right?"

Chelise nods since she has her mouth full.

"When you've learnt it we will put you in a class with other students, normal humans."

"Not magicians?"

"There's a reason for it. We took a great risk in setting you free from The Guardians. We will have to hide you from them for quite a while. That's why we're making you attend a regular school in Tokyo. We don't want them to find you and take you back."

"So what exactly is a regular school?"

"It's a place for learning. Education to help you make something out of your life."

"So it's some sort of preparation?"

"You can call it that. Every young person attends school in Japan. They study basic things and if they want to learn more there are universities they can continue their studies in. It helps people get a job and earn money for living."

"I think I know the idea behind it. I have a feeling I've been in some sort of school."

"It wouldn't surprise me if you were. Since The Guardians as an organization started operating around five hundred years ago."

"You think I was a student of theirs?"

"You might have been. We don't know for sure. Either way it seems like you'll have to learn it again. That's where I come in."

"You're going to teach me?"

"Yes, I know you don't have much to say in this but I hope you find life here acceptable."

"I.. I think so, you've all been kind to me since I woke up."

"We don't want you to be a hero of humanity. We just want you to be ready to defend the ones you love when the time comes. Keeping you in a coma for experiments isn't how magicians should act. We set you free because we think you can make more of a change awake. That's why we will educate you and keep you hidden from The Guardians. You should be the one in charge of your own life, not them."

Chelise looks at Haru. She's really honest right now. I can see it in her eyes, she wants me no harm. I should be able to trust her.

"I still can't believe I was asleep for that long... It all feels so unreal to me. Everything I see is new to me."

"It's no surprise. I will be by your side through all this. We will have you attend school as a transfer student."

"Transfer student?"

"It's basically a person from another country attending school elsewhere. We will give you a new identity and change the colour of you hair."

"Change my haircolour? By using magic?"

Haru smiles at Chelise and shakes her head.

"We don't use magic for trivial matters. It's called dyeing your hair. What colour do you want?"

"I can choose anything?"

"Well, basic colours are preferred. I think you'd look good in brown hair."

"Brown..."

"Wait a second."

Haru picks up her cell phone and points it at Chelise, a small click is heard and she presses the screen for a little while. When she's done she shows Chelise the screen. There seems to be a painting of her with brown hair. What in the world? Is that me?

"This is a photo of you with brown hair, I made it quickly so it's not perfect."

"How did you do that?"

"I took a picture of you and edited it."

"That is amazing!"

Haru smiles and shows Chelise how to take a picture with the cell phone. Soon enough Chelise takes a few pictures of Haru from different angles. This is wonderful! Humans are amazing! She looks through the pictures she took and smiles like a child.

"Do you think brown hair will do it?"

Chelise looks up at her and nods. This is unbelievable. There are so many things to discover. Haru walks to a shelf and takes out a few books.

"These are for you, they're basic books for learning Japanese."

She puts them on the table and Chelise looks at them. Japanese for beginners, Japanese 1, Japanese 2 and Japanese 3.

"You can read them whenever you want. We will give you lessons starting tomorrow. Since we don't have much time before The Guardians might track us down we won't be staying here for more than a few days."

"We?"

"Rei has appointed me as your supervisor. I will move to an apartment in Tokyo with you where I will act as your guardian."

"Wait, we will move out soon? Together?"

Haru nods and looks at the time on her cell phone.

"It's time to go to bed. I'll take you back to your room. I'm sorry for all this sudden information but we really have to be quick about it. If The Guardians find out we're the ones who set you free they will..."

Haru sighs and stands up.

"What will they do?"

There is a hint of horror in Haru's eyes but she does her best to hide it. I guess they did take a huge risk in saving me... But this is all happening so fast. I can hardly keep up. Waiting until tomorrow for a more indepth description of what is happening... I have so many questions but I probably won't get answers today.

Haru takes Chelise back to her room without adressing the subject she most wants to know about. She leaves her with a smile.

"I'll see you tomorrow Chel."

Author's Note

This chapter is not perfect in it's sentences :). I want to know what you think of the story so far and how it's progressing. Is the pacing too slow or too fast? Is there anything you want me to describe more?

Reviews

[Oran]

I've been waiting for this for a long time. The pacing is pretty nice if you're aiming for more than 20 chapters or so. I'm hoping to read more of this soon.

[Arotica]

There will be more! :). I'm really happy you want to read more ^^