InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Downloaded: an Inuyasha Cyber Fairytale ❯ Chapter One ( Chapter 1 )

Downloaded

An Inuyasha Cyber Fairytale

Chapter One

 

oooooooooooo

 

“Happy birthday!”

 

The combined voices of her mother, brother, and grandfather shouted enthusiastically. Higurashi Kagome was sitting in her living room, pajama clad, warm tea in hand, checking the messages on her answering machine. As of four twenty-eight that morning, she was officially twenty-two years old.

 

The chorus of voices coming from the technology next to her continued on to announce that they would be having a celebratory dinner tomorrow night, and she had better be there or else. The recording ended, and the machine asked her if she wanted to save or delete the message. Kagome pressed `one' for save and stood up.

 

It was a Tuesday and although she would have loved nothing better than to stay home and lounge around, she had work to do. On her way to the bathroom to take a shower Kagome passed through the front hallway of her modest apartment and picked up the mail from the chute.

 

`Nothing but junk and the paper,' she thought, tossing the unwanted items in the waste tunnel. They made the usual sliding hissing noise as they made their way to the trash receptacle thirty-nine floors down. She set the newspaper on her bed so she would remember to grab it on her way out, scanning the headlines as she did so.

 

`Good Morning,' it read. `Paris Hilton Unfrozen - “That's Hot!”, Genetically Engineered Tomatoes Feed Entire Family, Critically Acclaimed Author Dies in Shuttle Accident. September 17, 2164.'

 

Kagome rolled her eyes at some of the words. “Same old useless stuff. No surprise there.”

 

When she was done showering and had donned a sleek but professional outfit, Kagome grabbed her briefcase, paper, and cell phone and left the apartment. She lived on the thirty-eighth floor of an eighty floor complex, so the elevator ride to the bottom was relatively short, and in no more than twenty seconds she was outside, making the short trek down the street and around the corner to the train station. She personally preferred the rail system - which was widely regarded as outdated - to the shuttle since the latter had a higher and steadily growing accident rate. Until they worked out the kinks of the shuttle she had promised to ride the high-speed bullet train whenever she needed to travel long distances. This pledge also served to ease her mother's worries a bit.

 

Three stops from home brought Kagome to the very middle of Tokyo. She walked the final five minute stretch of the trip to her place of the employment: the Institute for Advanced Technologies, Tokyo Sector. It was a monstrous building, taller than the one she lived in, made with shiny reinforced steel, hundreds of woven glass windows, and the name of the company bolted to its front in meticulously made platinum letters. Its construction and design were the very epitome of sophistication and development, and not for the first time Kagome felt slightly out of place staring at the edifice. She was a simple girl raised on a shrine, still getting used to fast-paced city life even though she had been working and living in the area for three years now.

 

Frowning, she shook off her feelings and entered the lobby, smiling at the receptionist - her friend Eri - before heading for the glass elevators to her left. She pressed the down button on elevator three and waited patiently until the doors opened. When they did several moments later, she instantly wished they hadn't.

 

A brown haired and eyed man stood there, his handsome - yet somewhat boyish - features lit up in a smile. Nanake Hojo. “Higurashi-san! Good morning.”

 

Kagome plastered a tight smile on her lips, hoping it would pass as friendly. “Hello, Nanake-kun,” she replied, stepping into the elevator reluctantly. “Are you going down?”

 

“Yes, as a matter of fact. Shizuma-senpai has work for me in the lab today.” The glass doors of the contraption slid closed and the thing began its smooth descent underground. Hojo turned his bright eyes on her. “And you?”

 

“Hai. I'm in basement three.” Inwardly sighing, Kagome wished that the elevator would move a little faster. She knew what was coming next - Hojo would invariably ask her about her plans for the night and attempt to take her out. As the illuminated numbers above their heads indicated that they had just passed sublevel one, exactly what she was dreading came to pass.

 

“That's great… So, Higurashi-san, what are you doing tomorrow night?” His gaze looked hopeful. It always did, no matter how many times she gently shot him down. He was a nice guy and all, but she just wasn't interested. Cute, sweet, chivalrous, even - Nanake Hojo was simply not her type. For some reason Kagome constantly found herself drawn to the more mysterious and dashing fellows, although that particular penchant would undoubtedly cause her trouble one day. So usually she had to fabricate some vague story to put him off, but this time she was happy that she had an actual excuse.

 

“Sorry, Nanake-kun, but I'm busy. My family is throwing me a birthday party.”

 

The elevator emitted a small `ding' and stopped at sublevel two. Hojo frowned, disappointed, but stepped out of the doors as they opened to his destination. “Maybe another time…?” he called, but the gap was already closing again and Kagome thankfully didn't have the time to answer him.

 

Soon she was walking briskly through the dimly lit halls of the third basement - also called the Interior Lab. It was the lowest and most exclusive floor in the whole building, the place where the company's most prized computer facility was held. Kagome was one of only seven employees who had access to the I-Lab's inner room, the technology found inside, and the data that was comprised within. The room, nicknamed the Well because of its dark and secretive depths, was the site where most of the IAT's ground-breaking research took place, and the privilege of being able to enter the room was one Kagome did not take for granted. She had even been named head of one of the current projects taking place in the Well, a position she held with pride. It wasn't very often these days that a woman got so far ahead in the technological front; only two other women had ever been granted her title before, and both of them were dead.

 

Grinning, Kagome slid her key card through the slot on the apparatus next to the Well's door. The machine beeped and a nearly-human sounding, feminine voice asked,

 

“Higurashi Kagome-san?”

 

“Yes,” she affirmed in a clear voice.

 

“Recognized. Password?”

 

She punched the seven character code into the keypad, knowing that the system was scanning her fingerprints as she did so. The IAT's security line was state of the art, upgraded by their own master engineers, and the protection in basement three was tighter than anywhere else in the complex.

 

“Password accepted. Welcome, Higurashi-san.”

 

The silver door slid open soundlessly, revealing the lab on the other side. The atmosphere inside the Well was eerie, at best. Dozens of monitors, hard drives, and other innumerable systems glared stonily at her from all angles. The light they emitted was a dull blue-ish color, and walking into the room was rather similar to entering the underwater glass tunnels found in the aquarium in Osaka, the one Kagome had brought her younger brother to for his thirteenth birthday. Minus all the exotic fish and the heart-stopping moments when a shark or two would float on by.

 

Opposite the door stood one of the biggest, oldest, and most advanced pieces of equipment found in all of Japan - a supercomputer that had been added on to and upgraded for decades known as Goshinboku. Although she wouldn't admit it, Goshinboku was Kagome's undisputed favorite module to work on. She especially enjoyed times like the present, when she could have the lab all to herself for at least a few hours before her coworkers showed up.

 

Sliding happily into the lone chair at Goshinboku's keyboard, Kagome pressed the unique combination of keys that would unlock the computer and alert it to the identity of its user.

 

`Welcome, Higurashi-san,' a bold message flashed on the screen. A list of options followed after. Kagome chose the one that lead to the main screen. Only moments later an alert popped up, glowering red.

 

`Caution! System suspects a virus present. Which action should be taken?'

 

Eyes squinted, Kagome leaned towards the monitor. “0e-buyo4?” she wondered aloud. The name was unfamiliar to her, so she couldn't discern the threat posed, but she was taking no chances. “Seek and destroy,” she commanded, watching intently while Goshinboku proceeded to scan its depths for the danger. In seconds more than half a dozen folders had been opened and perused, tracing the virus back through its path into the system.

 

Suddenly, the scan stopped, and the computer let loose a stream of unusual noises. “What on earth…?” Kagome murmured. Yet another file had opened up, and after reading its name across the top of the window nothing less than a shockwave of disbelief flooded her mind.

 

“It can't be…”

 

“Me-ow!”

 

Kagome released a startled squeal. A tiny cat-shaped icon had popped onto the screen and was currently waving its orange and white paws at her. She could only guess it was the mysterious 0e-buyo4 virus, and immediately selected the feline so she could eliminate it.

 

“Sorry, pal. But you need to be deleted.”

 

And as the words left her mouth and Kagome pressed the corresponding key, the whole world collapsed in white.

 

oooooooooooo

 

AN: I apologize for the lack of length in this chapter. I promise the next one, and probably most of the ones after that, will be longer. Please tell me what you think.

 

Yours,

Bobby

 

Disclaimer: Inuyashais property of Rumiko Takahashi, and I absolutely do not own any of the rights to the series. I do, however, enjoy screwing with the characters, as you might have noticed.