The Hidden World

The next day, Yuki returned to Junction along with the other students that made the trip to Fenrir. Today was the official start of Yuki’s break and when he went to the Academy, he found that it was quite empty.

‘Everyone seems to have places they can go.’

Yuki went to his dorm room and dropped off his duffel bag beside his bed. Akira appeared beside him as he did this.

“So what’s the plan for today?” she asked him.

“Well, I did say that I was going to be buying somethings yesterday so I’ll probably do that first,” he replied. “We’ll go to the city and buy those ear pieces. Then we’ll come back here and pack up.”

“Pack up? Why?”

“We’re not staying here for the whole break,” Yuki said. “Let’s go.”

Opening the door, he waited for Akira to exit before he left the room. He looked around as they walked and spotted no one. With a quick thought, he removed his disguise and stretched his arms.

“So where are we staying then, Yuki?” Akira asked. “I take it you have a place in mind.”

“You’ve been there already,” he said.

“I have?”

“We’ll be staying at the place Erica rented,” he explained. “Since the other members probably have their own places to live in, we’ll just be using that. We might live there actually. I was never planning to stay at the dorm in the first place. It isn’t private enough.”

“Oh, I see. Well, I’m fine with that,” Akira said.

They went to the city and Yuki led Akira to a tech shop that was close to entrance of the Academy. There, he bought six ear pieces and ignored the odd look the cashier gave him when he paid for it. Next he went to an dessert store and bought himself and Akira two ice cream cones.

“What’s this for?” Akira asked as she took the one Yuki was offering her.

“I wanted a snack,” he replied.

After that, they walked back to the Academy dorm. Yuki called out to Uriel after he closed the door behind him.

“Welcome back,” she answered. “Need help with something?”

“Can you sync with these?” Yuki asked, holding up the box of communicators he had just bought.

“Of course I can,” she said.

“Then please do,” Yuki said. “By the way, we will be moving. I just wanted to let you know so that you wouldn’t be too confused when you find yourself in a new location.”

“Okay. I’ll get right to the syncing.”

Yuki placed the box on the living room counter and went to his room. Akira followed behind him.

“Let’s pack up now. It shouldn’t take too long,” Yuki said.

They went to the closet and took out everything that was inside it. While Akira folded the clothes, Yuki opened some drawers and stored anything he found within his ring. When he was done, he saw Akira putting the clothes away into her own ring.

“Done?” he asked.

“Yup.”

“You should hide now,” Yuki suggested. “I’ll be going out in my disguise in case there is anyone around.”

“Okay,” she said.

She glowed and then disappeared into Yuki’s right arm while he put his disguise back on. As Yuki shut the door to his room, he heard a knock from the entrance of the dorm. He went to it and peeked through peep hole. Yuna was standing outside, looking around. He opened the door.

“Hi,” Yuna greeted.

Yuki looked at her, waiting for her to explain why she was standing in front of his dorm.

“I, um, just wanted to know if you were doing anything for the break,” she said.

“Nothing has been decided yet,” he answered.

“Oh, I see,” she replied. Then she paused for a bit. “I don’t have anything either.”

‘Does she want to do something? She did asked me that when we were going on the train to Fenrir.’

“I do have something I want to do right now,” Yuki said. “If you want, we could exchange contact information. If you want to do something then you can just contact me.”

‘It’s Yuna so she probably won’t be annoying.’

“Really? That would be great,” she brightened. Her eyes looked past Yuki. “Are you moving?”

“Yes.”

“Oh. Well if I have your contact info then that won’t be much of problem.”

Yuki nodded and tapped onto his watch, bringing up his information screen.

“Here,” he said.

Yuna opened her own watch and typed in Yuki’s information. Then she brought out her own and showed to to Yuki who wrote it into his contact list.

“Did you sign out yet?” Yuna asked as Yuki typed.

“Sign out?”

“Yes, you need to do that if you are leaving the dorm,” Yuna explained. “It’s really simple to do though. Just go to the school website and the rest should be self explanatory.”

Yuki nodded and opened the school site on his watch. He clicked on lodging in the menu and saw a section titled check out. He clicked on it and filled out the short form that popped up. When he submitted it, he got a reply back within a few seconds telling him that his sign out was successful.

“That was quick,” he said.

“It should be,” Yuna replied. “If it wasn’t, then I don’t know what the school is doing.”

“Alright,” Yuki nodded. He closed his screen. “I’ll be going now. Maybe I’ll see over the break sometime.”

“I hope so,” Yuna said with a small smile. “See you later?”

“See you,” he said.

He walked out of his door and shut it quietly behind himself. When he turned around, he saw Yuna walking back to the elevator in the middle of the floor. Yuki went to it as well and rode it down to the first floor.

[Where are we going now, Yuki?] Akira asked.

‘We’re going to do something I’ve wanted to test for a while now,’ he replied as he walked toward the center of Junction.

[What’s that?]

‘We’ll be using a transporter.’

When Yuki was doing some random research about Ethros, he had discovered that there were transporters in every major city. In a world where technology was more advanced than earth’s, Yuki had expected more advanced forms of transportation. This was given to him by transporters. They were essential a form of teleportation. From what Yuki read, it worked by magically disassembling you into particles, using magic to transport those particles, and then reforming those particles into you.

[I still don’t trust those things,] Akira said. [It seems way to dangerous.]

‘If they were dangerous, then no one would use them,’ Yuki said. ‘But since they’re the most common type of transportation around, I think it’s safe to assume that they are fairly safe.’

[Just don’t die then.]

A few minutes later, Yuki arrived to the transporter station. It was a large building made of glass and steel with a multitude of people streaming in and out if it. Walking into the station, Yuki saw that it was large because it contained more than just transportation. There was a food court inside as well as a few stores. The transporters were located in the back half of the building.

When he entered the side with the transporters, Yuki was met with a moderately long but very fast line. Looking around, he found a number of what seemed to be operators that sat behind monitors. They were constantly communicating into a microphone.

“You’re up next, young lady,” an elf said to Yuki. She was wearing a uniform. “May I see your ticket?”

Yuki brought out his Academy ID and showed it to her.

“Oh, an Academy student. Alright, come right this way,” she said.

She led Yuki into a glass tube of sorts that was tinted so that people couldn’t see inside. She told Yuki to walk in and Yuki did so. Then the door was shut and all outside noise was muted.

“Is the user ready for transportation?” a voice asked from the inside of the tube.

“Yes.”

“Transportation commencing in ten seconds,” the voice announced.

A timer appeared before Yuki and started to countdown from ten. When it hit zero, Yuki saw a bright flash of light and felt a rush of mana. The light disappeared and Yuki found himself in a tube that looked exactly the same as the one he had just entered.

“Welcome to Fenrir,” a different voice greeted him.

The tube slid open and Yuki stepped to find himself in a completely different building than the one he was just in. This one was made of brick and tile, the trademark look of Fenrir.

‘That was fast. But I guess that was to be expected.’

Yuki walked out of the station and began to head toward the house that Erica had rented.

[That was easy,] Akira remarked.

‘And safe.’

[Yes, it was,] she admitted. [I just hope that you don’t have to do that often. They record your movement and if it fails then you’ll die.]

‘I know,’ Yuki said. ‘But I’m going to have to use it until I find a viable alternative. As of now, this is the fastest way to move around.’

A few minutes past and Yuki stopped in front of the one story house. He looked around to see if there was anyone and removed his disguise. Then he grabbed the handle of the door and a sensor scanned him, verifying his identity. Once it did, it unlocked and Yuki walked in. Then he stopped.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were here,” he said.

“I didn’t know you were coming,” Erica replied, dressed in a t-shirt and shorts.