In an apartment subsidized by the Military on Earth, a boy with curly black hair laid on a bed as he listened to the TV. On his face, he wore a pair of nearly-busted glasses. In the background, the sound of the TV could be heard. It was a news report.
"The peace treaty with the Dalki race has lasted for five years now, but officials are saying that tension is rising once again. Now we must prepare for another war…"
The boy tuned out the TV, as he began to think. Thinking about how he was given nothing when his parents died. The government agreed to pay for living expenses while he was in school, but nothing else.
When his parents had died while he was at the age of ten, a military agent had arrived at his doorstep and had handed him a strange book. It was the only thing his parents had possessed when they had died.
"Why is the world so unfair?" He muttered, before getting out of bed.
He walked towards his desk. As he did, he pulled off his glasses, and looked at them. They were slightly broken, with one of the lenses slightly popped out of place, a result from his earlier "altercation" at school with a high-Level Ability User.
He pressed on the lens with his thumb, and tried to push it back into place.
"Come on, just get in!" he shouted, trying to forcibly fix the glasses. Frustration was clear on his face, as he attempted to fix the glasses. Unfortunately for the boy, the lens merely crumbled in his grip, with one of the shards digging deeply into his thumb and leaving a deep gash. He screamed in pain, and kicked the table.
"Why does the world hate me?!" He screamed.
After a few minutes, he calmed down. He began picking up the pieces of broken glass on the floor. As he looked down, he noticed that one of the pieces of glass had landed on a strange, ancient-looking book with a demonic-looking face on the front, the piece landing perfectly in the face's "mouth".
Sighing, he reached down to pick up the glass. As he did, a drop of blood dripped down from his finger and landed right in the center of the book. The book started to glow, and suddenly, the book began to float in the air, level with the boy's face. The boy darted away from the book.
"What the hell is happening?" He asked.
The book began emitting a bright light, and shook uncontrollably. A few seconds later, it finally opened, and page after page began to be rapidly turned. The boy couldn't take his eyes off of the book's pages.
It was as if he was in a deep trance. The book was written in a language the boy couldn't identify. Yet, he felt as if he could understand it. When the book finally reached its last page, it started to disintegrate, turning into dust. At the same time, the boy began to feel weak.
His vision began to fade. But, just before he passed out, a single message could be heard within his head.
[Congratulations. You have been granted the Va…]
The message was cut off before it could finish, as the boy passed out. However, this event would have far-reaching effects. Far away, on the planet of Animus, another boy was affected. Tsukuru and Logan were walking towards the military carrier, when Tsukuru suddenly felt a jolt pulse through him. He stopped in his tracks, and brought his hand up to his head.
Logan looked back at him, confused.
"You alright, Tsukuru?" He asked, eyebrow raised in concern.
"I don't know." Tsukuru muttered. "I felt…something…pulse through me. Not exactly a disturbance, but more like…recognition…"
Suddenly, a System screen popped up in front of him.
[System Model 1.0.0 has been activated. A new System is now online.]
Tsukuru stared at the message, bewildered.
"What?" he gasped. 'There's ANOTHER System user out there?' He thought.
Instantly, the screen vanished, only to be replaced with a new one.
[You have received a new Main Quest:
Make Contact with the New System User
Rewards:
50 XP
1 Stat Point for each Stat]
Tsukuru stared at the new screen in shock. Those were some major rewards. 50 extra XP would mean he would only be 40 XP away from leveling up, as he already had 10 XP from completing the Daily Quest last night. He was broken from his musing by Logan shaking his shoulder. Tsukuru's gaze snapped over to him.
Logan had a look of concern on his face.
"Tsukuru, are you alright?" he repeated.
Tsukuru shook his head. "Y-Yeah." He said, albeit a little shakily. "Yeah, I'm fine."
Tsukuru began to continue walking towards the military vehicle. As the back doors swung open, Tsukuru watched Logan gently toss the backpack inside. Tsukuru glanced over at him, an eyebrow raised.
"There's no way that's ALL the stuff that you're taking." He replied.
"It's just the bare essentials." Logan replied, turning to face him. "I'll have the rest of my research transferred to the base. Arrangements have been made to ensure I receive a VIP room at the base." Tsukuru scoffed.
"Whatever, man." He muttered, as he walked towards the bus door. "I'm perfectly fine boarding up in a group of three, just like everybody else."
The backdoor slammed shut as Logan walked away, and a low creak was heard, as the bus doors opened. As the two boarded the bus and looked around, they noticed that neither one of them recognized any of the would-be students, despite the fact that Animus had a limited number of schools.
It seemed that the rumor that the bases split up schools so the students didn't know each other was true. Tsukuru opted for a seat in the third row, while Logan took the first seat in range upon entering. Sergeant Krow stood in the front of the bus like a frozen statue, overlooking each and every student on board.
"Alright, it's time for us to head off to the military academy!" He announced, motioning to the driver.
The bus jerked to life, and began to move. Tsukuru was unaware of how much time had passed, but at one point, he looked up and noticed that the boy across from him was fast asleep. Looking around, he noticed that half the students were passed out, while the other half were nodding off.
'What the hell?' Tsukuru thought. 'What's going on?' As if to answer his question, a System screen appeared in front of him.
[A foreign substance is in the air. It seems to have no effect on your body.]
''No effect'?' Tsukuru thought. 'Why would it have no-oh…' Tsukuru stopped his question mid-sentence as realization came over him, as if the question itself was the answer. A traumatic memory flashed in his head like an open wound.
In the memory, Tsukuru was bound to a chair, his arms forced behind the chair with his wrists chained, preventing movement, or escape. Behind him, Shizuka stood with a sadistic smile. In her hand, she held a syringe filled with a green liquid with an odorous, almost chemical stench.
"Don't worry, little Tsu-tsu." Shizuka cooed with a cheshire cat grin in a sing-song tone that made Tsukuru's skin crawl and his head scream "Danger!" like a blaring, emergency siren. "This'll all be over soon…"
She gently stuck the needle in his neck, and pushed in the plunger. Tsukuru screamed, as the substance entered his body. Immediately, his whole body felt sick. It was as if he was experiencing the WORST fever of his entire life. It was part of Shizuka's "Special Conditioning Training", as she had put it. In the chair, Tsukuru began to thrash uncontrollably, and his mouth foamed.
"I'm injecting you with a minor dose of every harmful compound the military has access to." She explained, reaching for a new needle from a case full of syringes, each a different color. "One-by-one. It'll get your body used to them so it'll produce antibodies for each compound." She continued, as she stuck a new syringe, this time containing a deep-purple liquid, into the spot the previous syringe had occupied.
"It's like getting your inoculation shots. Just an entire lifetime's worth…all at once." Tsukuru's screams echoed in the room as the memory faded. Tsukuru looked down at the floor of the bus, the memory still giving him trauma. Despite the draconian methods, Shizuka's plan HAD worked.
After that week of pure and utter hell, he had NEVER gotten sick again. Not even something as simple as a common cold. Tsukuru heard footsteps approaching towards him. He looked up, and saw Sergeant Krow standing over him. Sergeant Krow looked down at him with a conflicted, somewhat annoyed, expression.
"Of courseyou are unaffected by the gas." He muttered. "Shizuka's doing, no doubt." He thought for a second. "Normally, we'd just bag up any student who resisted the gas." He explained, before glancing away.
"But…I'm not going to be the one who threw Hikiko Shizuka's brother in a bag." He shuddered. "That's the kind of thing that gets one 'invited' to be her 'voluntary' test subject for her new 'interrogation' techniques." Sergeant Krow began to walk away.
"Just close your eyes and go to sleep." He muttered, tipping his hat. "It'll be easier for both of us." Tsukuru took the man's advice and took the opportunity to take a nap. Given the fact that the System had rudely awoken him at 4 in the morning, he was rather tired. He closed his eyes, and let darkness take him.