No Need for Japan: Part 4, First Day in HELL

(As usual, I have no rights to Pioneers characters, and they have none to
mine.)

Kiyone awoke from her first restless night at aproxomitly 11:46am. She was a
bit panicked, thinking she had to go to one of her many part time jobs, but
soon relaized just where she was. She looked over to Kitty's side of the
room, and saw that she was gone. She couldn't blame her, this place was
WEIRD. She hurriedly got dressed, hoping that Sasami had made some extra
breakfast, or saved some for her. But when she walked into the kitchen, she
found it empty. No sign of food having been cooked, or being cooked.

As she stood there, thinking how this could be she heard a voice from
behind.
"Looking for something?", the voice said. She quickly did a one eighty and
steped back in shock. It was that "Drew kid" from the night before. His hair
gelled down, and his eyes slightly red from lack of sleep, he gave quite a
nightmarish appearence.

"Uhh, yea. Wh-Where's breakfast? Sasami usualy cooks, but...", she managed
to
get out. One thought dominating her mind, get away from this kid. "Oh, and
you thought she'd have it ready?", he said to her, in no way mocking."Well,
she went with Raven and Mihoshi this morning. Raven had to take Mihoshi to
do
some returns, seems she bought 20 of the same outfit. And Sasami wanted to
get some grocerys so he took them both so as to make it in one trip.", he
infomed the green haired girl that stood before him. Kiyone let out a sigh,
first because there was no breakfast hot and ready for her, and secondly
because Mihoshi had just proved herself to be an airhead.

"So, whats there to eat?" she asked. She was hungry enough to eat that pizza
that had been ground into the carpet, or anything this kid could find.
"Well,
we got cereal. I think, been a while since I checked the pantry.", as he
walked over to the door he kept talking about how he usualy ate takeout, or
junkfood. He rooted around and pulled out a box of "Golden Grahms". It
looked
like it hadn't been opened. He put it on the table and walked over to the
cupbord to retreive some bowls and then to the fridge for milk.

Kiyone looked puzzled. She'd never had this "cereal" stuff, but it was food
and thats all that mattered. As Drew slid her the bowl full of the flakes
from the box and milk he threw her a spoon. "Dig in." he said, dully
munching
away at his morming meal. She took her first bite, ready for the worst. When
she actualy tried it, she kinda liked it. Liked it enough to empty half the
box, the other half almost completely devoured by Drew when Ryoko appeared
in
the kitchen. Ryoko complained about their being nothing to eat, Drew
repeated
the process he'd shown Kiyone on how to prepare ceral and soon engaged in a
conversation with Ryoko. This lasted the better part of the day, and gave
Kiyone some time to explore and meet the dwellers of this domicile.

Kiyone took a long walk thru the house that day, and discovered the
following
things about the house which she found particularly note worthy, and did her
best to remember them:

Kiyone began to explore the downstairs, she found a door by the stairs with
the words "Keep out, or die. have a nice day-8:08", she kept her distance
from that area the rest of the day.

Kiyone observed her first sight of the worst type of people, that lived in
the house, after peeling back the stage curtains. She discovered the boys
she'd seen in the kitchen smoking some weird green organic substance, and
watching childrens TV. Their laughter was dull and stupid sounding, and she
figured best to move thru the room and leave them be.

Kiyone saw the floor in the room conected to the TV room had a huge five
foot
diamiter hole in the floor. She could see a young man, dressed in dirty
mechanics coveralls, rummaging around a pile of "Diet Coke" cans. He had a
black "8:08" on his back, she guessed that was the kid who tagged the sign
up. As he worked she noted that he was slightly nervous. She thought he
might
be paranoid and best to be left alone as she turned to leave she heard a
liquid "SPLAT" behind her.

She ran back, and looked down the hole. And saw that he was COVERED in a
thick tranlucent green substance that dripped in long stands from his arms,
legs, and hair. She looked up and discovered the scource, the hole went
through all the floors of the house and their were 2 grinning morons
standing
up there with a bucket. She walked away with a purposeful stride, and a mind
to show those kids a thing or two about respecting others. As she left the
room she heard 8:08 screaming "Wolf, I hate you!!!!! I'm gonna get you one
of
these days!!! You too Goat!!!".

Kiyone finaly found Wolf's room. It had been hard to find, since all the
room
numbers we're out of sequence. But when she found Wolfs room she found no
real number, and just assumed it to be a closet or bathroom.

As she walked down stairs again she caught sight of a young woman, dressed
all in black. She tapped the girl on the shoulder. The girl turned around
and
despite the slightly morbid clothes, Kiyone found her practicly bursting
with
energy, life, and happiness. She was more than happy to lead the way to
Wolf's "lair", on one condition. "What condition would that be?", Kiyone
asked on the way up. "You don't knock on the door till I'm downstairs. Wolf
is a creep...", Kiyone listened to the girl. She thanked her as they reached
that door she thought to be a closet. The girl ran, nearly tripping down the
stairs, and was gone.

Kiyone knocked cautiously, and the door swung open. Before her stood a boy
in
a dirty green t-shirt and blue jeans. He wore a wallet chain like Raven, but
on his left. He pushed a pair of glasses up on his face and asked "What do
you want, we're busy...", "Well, I'd like to speak with Wolf." she said with
a tone of anger to her voice. "Oh, realy? Why?", he said, voice full of
contempt and annoyance. "Just get out of my way you little bastard!", she
threw him sideways into a pile of parts and took a look around the room.

The place was a wreck. Their were scematics and blueprints all over the
walls, mostly for weapons and such.
As she looked at the cealing she could see there were scorch marks here and
there, with the occaional peice of metal jammed in like shapnel. The floor
was littered with metal bits. Circut-boards, wire, car parts, bullet
caseings, and "Diet Coke" cans were more than common here. There was also
food. Food so old it must have been here since the begining of time, a whole
pizza so old it had made a nice spread of moss and mold almost made her lose
her footing when she steped in it when she want paying attention. There was
a
large pile of all this type of stuff where Goat was strugling to pull
himself
up from.

As she looked she noticed that the room spread out in other directions a
little ways down. There was a door dead ahead, and a room to either side.
>From one room she could see flashes of white light almost blinding her and
hear violently loud goth-metal. She shielded her eyes as she walked twords
that room, she could make out the shape of a person holding a welding torch.
As she watched, he raised his hands on high and screamed "I HAVE THE POWER
OF
A THOUSAND SUNS!!!!", and laughed manicly. As he turned to look her way, she
screamed.

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Washu got up around noon. She was a little mad at herself for sleeping in,
but she felt refreshed. Even though she was still a little mad at Raven for
putting her with Mihoshi, it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. But
she had been asleep before Mihoshi had come back from getting snacks last
night, so that contributed to it. As she got dressed she wondered what
suprises the day would hold for her, well for the first suprise, the "attari
teenage riot"t-shirt she'd picked up at the mall yesterday was too damn big.
It had been $2, and she liked what she heard of them on the stereo in
Raven's
van so she'd bought it. It reached halfway down her thigh. She found a
remedy
for that though. She simply threw the garment into subspace for an instant
and it came back custom tailored in her favorte cut. She put it on, and
grabed some shorts out of the closet. Before going down stairs she quickly
checked herself in the mirror, no problems there, and bounded down to see
what awaited her in the lower levels of the house.

As she stepped down into the lower level she could hear music comming from
one of the rooms. The music was accompained by a seried of loud thumps, like
a person coliding with a wall. She turned the corner and found the room the
sounds were comming from. She had just raised her hand to knock when a boy
came flying through the door. Not through the door like it was open, but
literaly through the door.

She blinked in suprise as another boy came out of the room laughing. The
first boy, the one who came through the door, had a weird copper red hair
and
was only slightly taller than she was. She other boy had a mess of sandy
blonde hair. He was as tall as she was, and had only his left arm. He was
laughing his head off, "Dude, I told you you gotta brace yourself."

"Man 6, Im rip that smile off stupid face when I get up.", the copper top
grumbled. Washu blinked and just stared at the situation, then busted out
laughing. The boys looked over at her then started laughing at how stupid
everything was. The boys introduced themselves when things calmed down. The
boy that went thru the door was Royal, and one arm was 6 Guage. She thought
they we're funny, and a little odd. The trio entered 6's room to talk about
the up and comming school year amongst other things.

Washu saw the room was a bit dirty, and very dark, being that there was but
a
small window in here. The light was generated from two locations. One, was a
computer running "Quake II", the other was a busted in TV converted to a
fish
tank. The walls were wood pannel, but it was hard to tell with all the band
and movie posters. On the desk was a book that the cover read "No Need for
Japan", but it didn't seem all that interesting.

>From the converation she found that Raven was going to graduate after his
7th
semester at the school because he had all his credits he needed. So thats
why
he brought them in durring the summer. before the year started. She was
about
to ask about the acedemic standards of the school but was inturuped by a
series of screams from the upstairs.

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Ryoko had been having an intersting conversation with Drew since she got up
at 11:55am. The guy was a bit nuts, but he was funny. He kept talking about
goats and, well, other anomilys that she dared not mention.

She hadn't bothered to get dressed, just gone down in what she wore to bed,
which wasn't much. And she could see Drew staring at her with a grin on his
face. She pretended not to notice, but she knew what he was doing. The
conversation started to turn serious about music when she heard the sceams
from upstairs, and they sounded like Kiyone.

She levitated off her seat and went thru the cealing twords the screaming.
Upon entering th room she could see a dark figure in welding clothes
laughing
like a loon. "KIYAH!!!!", she screamed as she lobbed a volley of energy
balls
at him, not intending to kill, just to stun. He was hit full in the chest
and
stumbled back and landed on the ground.

Kiyone screamed for a moment longer, then began to calm down and  breathe in
heavy nervous gasps. By this time Washu had made it upstairs. Also Tenchi
and
Patrik had come upstairs, Tenchi looked half asleep and Patrik had paint all
over his hands. It seemed that they had been talking all night and Patrik
had
just chosen to work on a painting instead of sleeping, he did that often.
But
atleast they were becoming friends, that was good, Tenchi needed more guy
friends.

Everyone gathered around Kiyone and began to talk to her trying to make sure
she was ok, when Ayeka burst into the room. Her hair was a mess, and she was
still in her bedclothes. "I demand to know what is going on up here!!!", she
fumed while standing in the doorway."Ayeka, go back to bed it under
control.", Ryoko commented. Ayeka glared at Ryoko, almost ready to tear her
hair out by the roots, but instead stormed down to her room.

It was by this time that Wolf had begun to collect himself from the floor.
Ryoko saw this and pinned his chest to the floor with her foot. "Where do
you
think you're going?" she said with a grin. He threw back his welders mask to
get a look at his asailant. She could tell by the look on the boy's face
that
he was impressed with her looks, and in her mind this kid wasn't bad
himself.
He had these weird blue eyes that seemed to glow from within and they realy
added to his face. She lifted her foot off his chest and helped him to his
feet. Pulled him up a little too hard she guessed, because he seemed to fly
across the room. She giggled as he looked back at her in disbeleif then
started laughing.

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It was around 3pm when Ayeka finaly joined the group. She had her new jeans
and "abercrombe" t-shirt on, and was getting a bit of harrasment from the
other kids. She acted like she didn't care, and just kept on moving thru the
halls.

On her way to the kitchen to get a snack she ran into a young man, taller
than she was, who sort of frightened her in his appearance. His t-shirt was
maroon, and his pants were black and almost comicly oversized, with pockets
that seemed to bulge with their contents. His hair was a bit sloppy, and he
needed to shave. But she figured she would be polite and not stare and just
keep walking.

Much to her suprise, he extened a hand as if expecting a handshake. She,
hesitantly, complied to this non-verbal request. He genlty shook her hand
and
spoke "Hi, I'm Patrik. And you are?", his voice far more genlte than she'd
expected. "I-I'm Ayeka. Princess of Jurai. Pleasure to meet you.", she
hadn't
realy wanted to say that much, but it seemed she couldn't help herself. He
seeme nice enough, despite his appearance.

He walked with her to the kitchen, and opened the fridge. He pulled out a
couple cans of what was known as
"pop"."Sorry, but we haven't been to the store in a while, all we have is
Faygo.", he said as he handed her a can. He walked off then, back out the
door to the kitchen, seconds later his footfalls could be heard on the
stairs. She wondered why it felt weird to see him go, perhaps because he
reminded her of Tenchi in some way, or maybe it was something else.....

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Tenchi sat alone in the room with the stage. He was realy bored with this,
and wanted to get home and back to his garden.  He was concidering asking
Raven if he could start one in the backyard, it would be something to do
other than sit around all day.

As he looked at his surroundings, he couldn't help but miss his home either.
This place was so strange, so alien. Sure Raven and Patrik were nice, but
the
others.....

Well, he wasn't sure how to describe them. They realy didn't seem to fit
anywhere in this world. Drew, for example, seemed to belong in a circus tent
somewhere biting the heads off small animals. And the girls, well, he
couldn't really say how he felt about them. They were all nice, and well he
had to face it, for the most part they were good looking. Even hot in some
cases. But they were of another culture, another way of life than himself.
And he didn't see any way to even begin to know how to talk to them. He had
it hard enough talking to the one's he had lived with before, but
now.....and
these girls.......

As he stretched out and stared at the cealing, he couldn't help but to doze
off. There was just to much on his mind to focus on staying awake.

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The hours passed quickly Kiyone noticed, and by 6pm Sasami, Raven and
Mihoshi
had arived. Mihoshi carried heavy bags of clothes, while Raven lugged in a
stack of thin boxes that reached over the top of his head. "Hey guys, wanna
give us a hand.", he yelled, loud enough to roust Roy, Patrik, and two of
those "smokers" out of their hiding places. Patrik grabbed the boxes from
Raven, while the others ran out to the van to retrieve bags of grocerys,
cases of pop, and a whole 15lb. box from "Burger King". Sasami was standing
in the back of the van, directing the boys as in what needed to be taken in
next.

Kiyone laughed as she saw this, a little eleven year old directing 17 year
olds in how to work. At the same time Raven had taken to showing the boys
what went where. Some was taken to the TV room, the rest was taken to the
kitchen. Kiyone walked back into the TV room, it was dark when she had first
looked in, but now it was well lit and she could see what was going on.

She could see a series of tables sitting in the back, and Patrik was busy
setting out  the boxes on the tables, while Roy stocked a fridge in the
corner. She was currious as to what was in the boxes, as she aproached
Patrik
she saw him draw a knife from his pocket. She stepped back in suprise, but
calmed down as she saw him slicing the tops off the boxes. What was inside,
was like nothing she'd seen before. Thin bread like slabs , covered with
tomato sauce and cheese. Some had different types of meat and vegetables on
them. She asked Patrik about them, and he laughed as he told her they were
known as pizza. She didn't realy care, they looked and smelled good.

The stuff in the "Burger King" box she recognised. It was like the fast food
she had served at her part time job. Hamburgers, fries and other stuff. She
couldn't realy decide on what to eat, but she was hungry. She knew that
much.

She walked back out to Raven and asked what was going on with all the pizza
and burgers. "Oh, Kiyo I forgot to tell you. It's out monthly food and movie
binge. All night, we're gonna sit around watching videos and stuffing
ourselves stupid. It's great.", he said grinning the whole time. She laughed
when she heard that, and claped him on the shoulder. "Cool idea, I can't
wait
till we start.","Well once Mihoshi gets her goods put away, and Sasami
stocks
the kitchen we'll begin. Hope you like movies, I picked up some good ones at
the mall....",he said with a grin.

Within 15 minutes everyone was down and around the TV watching "Mallrats",
one of the few comedies they had picked out for the nights festivites.
Kiyone
did a head count as she muched a slice of peperoni pizza, there were close
to
20 kids piled around the room. Roy and 6 Gauge sat on the floor, with the
smokers sitting close by. On the couch next to her chair she saw Mike
sitting
with Ryoko, and on Ryoko's other side sat Tenchi. Ayeka didn't seem to mind
Tenchi and Ryoko being so close, as she had her own armchair and Patrik
sitting on the floor leaning up against it. Goat, was sitting on a beanbag
chair, behind 8:08 and threw little bits of bread at his head. 8:08 looked a
little peeved, and she guessed he had a good excuse to be so.

Kitty was sitting next to 8:08, giving Goat the evil eye when one of the
peices hit her by "mistake".Drew was also sitting next to 8:08, with a crazy
grin on his face. Beside Drew, Washu stretched out on her stomach, head
propped on her hand and using the other to grab fries out of their cardbord
container.
Kim and Cass were sitting against the couch occuiped by Ryoko and the two
boys. Occasionaly bursting into mad fits of laughter at the oddest times.
Melissa had taken to leaning against the side of Kiyone's chair, and from
her
lack of movement Kiyo guessed her to either be concentrating on the the
film,
or sleeping.

Sasami sat on the floor next to Kris giggling as Kris whispered something in
her ear. And then saw Sasami's neck crane and look over to the other side of
the room. Kiyone looked in this direction and saw Mihoshi and Raven curled
up
together on a couch. They were leaning back into the chair, and Mihoshi was
nestled right up next to Raven. Now Kiyone couldn't realy tell since the
only
light now was generated by the TV, but she swore Raven had his arm around
the
bubblehead, holding her close.

She was about to say something but the group began to laugh, drawing her
attention back to the film. She forgot about Raven and Mihoshi for the rest
of the night....

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It was around 2am when Kiyone staggered down the hall to her room. She was
so
full she could burst. She'd single handedly eaten three fourths of a pizza,
plus three burgers and 4 packs of fries. Not to mention all the pop she
sucked down, wheich she guessed to be somewhere around seven cans.

She could barely get changed for bed. But as she did, she thought of the
threat 8:08 had made that morning, and what he'd done as everyone drifted
out
of the TV room. As they'd filed out into the hall, 8:08 had pushed eveyone
aside and knocked Goat and Wolf over. He'd then precieded to storm upstairs,
and they heard a door slam and a loud string of obscenitys and violent
threats. These were so loud you could hear every sylable, Ayeka had covered
Sasami's ears so as she wouldn't hear it.

Now, ordinarily, Kioyne wouldn't worry. But with this kid, it was hard to
tell if he was crazy enough to do it. As she drifted into sleep she began to
dream, and what she dreamed scared her more than anything ever had
before......

(Comming soon, No Need For Japan:Part 5, The Dreamer Wakes)