Silent By Night
By
A.L. Wyatt
***
PUBLISHED BY:
Silent By Night
Copyright © 2012 by A.L. Wyatt
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
***
Introduction:
Japan, Irabara
Year 3000 A.D.
Sora Takinago was almost a normal kid. He had two eyes, two legs and a nose, just like a normal kid; but there were two things that he lacked, these two things being very important to a living creature. The two things are known as: biological parents and arms. In order for me to tell you this story properly, I need to take you back to a small lab in the town of Irabara, the town is known for science and its vast population of robots. These robots roam the yards and streets and homes all alike in the town Irabara. However, these robots are made for merely chores. The small lab was littered with papers of sketches and tools.
“I just need to fix the program code errors and...”
“Authentication processing” the computer said,
“Error application: forming a soul…failed.”
“Ah, I see. I forgot to add an ending mark on a string of code, how silly of me,” the scientist chuckled.
“Access application: forming a soul…complete.”
“Wonderful, I did it! I, Dr. Sasgo Takinago created a robot with a soul.”
“What should I name him; I think I will just instant message my friend Kago and see what he thinks.”
Dr. Takinago glanced over to his creation and the computer said, “Type the name please.”
“Command, ask me later. Command, go to www.imcity.com/Irabara.”
The computer pulled up a site immediately, and the doctor could see that he had several messages. “Open messages.”
The first one was from Kago Kitanogi. He wrote: I really hope you
update me on your project, that’s a bummer that silicone is so
expensive. I think the idea with swords for arms is a wonderful Idea.
I just hope you do not plan on entering him for the fightercon arena;
there have been robots smashed beyond repair.
Dr. Takinago gave a small laugh before putting his two hands to his
keyboard: _No, fightercon is just redundant. I plan on raising him like
a normal boy, I did decide to go with the sword arms, that is because
I can put extenders for metal hands, I have a thousand of those kind
of parts hanging around here.
Dr. Takinago pressed enter then realized his friend was online. Kago typed back quickly: I’ll be there in a second you just wait for me.
Kago arrived almost within the next few minutes. A knock at the door marked his arrival.
Chapter One: Here is your name, welcome to Irabara.
Dr. Takinago reached for the doorknob and twisted it, well aware of who was on the other side. Kago was in a bright suit that was incoherent with his dark appearance.
“Come in, I will have Yuzune cook us some ramen.”
Yuzune was a servant bot, Dr. Takinago created her with silicone arms, she was very well structured she almost looked like a human; the only difference is she had wheels under her legs. Every so often Dr. Takinago could have almost sworn that she had personality traits of a human. Dr. Takinago would tell himself that the idea was ludicrous and that she only had the traits of a servant bot. Yuzune arrived at the door in the long hallway.
“Dr. Takinago, can I get you and Mr. Kago a drink?”
"Yes, I will take a beer Yuzune.” Kago said.
“Wow, really Kago, this early? I will just take a pepsi.”
“Come on we should pop champagne, it is not every day you create a
robot with human DNA.”
“That is a valid statement.” The Doctor said sounding proud.
“Will you two just make up your damn minds, I am not going to go fetch the wine unless I need to!” Yuzune exclaimed.
“I think we can do with a little bit of the tokay.”
Yuzune in full gear rushed for the ramp to the cellars.
“Wow, you weren’t joking, she really does have human traits.”
“I might need to analyze her, I really don’t see too much harm though; and maybe those traits are helpful.”
"I doubt it; those traits reminded me of my wife, keep your manhood stay single, Sasgo.”
On a more serious note the two decided to go to the experiment section. “He needs a name” said Dr.Takinago
“How about Hikaru, It means bright, he will be above average intelligence, with me and you teaching him.”
“No, that is too simple, I can’t imagine me calling him Hikaru, it’s too plain, however Arata means new or fresh that makes since because he is the first of his kind.”
“Are you serious? Well if you do that, kids will call him rat boy.”
"Yes, you do have a point there.”
Yuzune entered the lab clenching two sides of a copper tray in her robotic hands, “I am terribly sorry for my short outburst earlier, here is the tokay you ordered.”
“Thanks, and don’t worry about it, I would be mad all the time; if I had to live with Dr. Takinago.”
“You are an idiot, you know that?”
Kago grabbed the tray, the tray consisted of two shot glasses on the
surface, He poured the tokay into each glass and handed one to Dr.
Takinago, the two friends toasted to a new future. If this robot was
successful, Dr.Takinago could buy silicone and could even buy a new
lab to live in. Dr. Takinago is much too busy for a family, which is
why he created a son.
Kago joked “yeah, next you need to make yourself a wife.”
Dr. Takinago mumbled about something then pointed up a very rude finger.
“Enough with the playing around we need to give this a creation a name.”
The two men walked up to the computer, “I know what I am going to name
him. I am going to name him Sora Takinago.”
“Now that is a cool name, it means sky in Japanese.”
“Yes I know that you dim wit.”
“Chill out, just because you went to school longer and went into debt,
does not make you smarter than me.”
“Well in a way it kind of does.”
“Ok, maybe does, but still that’s not important right now, we are
going to have to be fully committed to working together to make this
project work.”
The computer’s screen popped up with the name prompt. “Enter name”
“The first name: Sora. The last name: Takinago”
The computer was working, a grind of gears could be heard throughout
the lab, the grinding was implanting his name onto the back of Sora’s
head. The grinding sound came to a halt.
“The robot is complete!”shouted Dr. Takinago. Sora opened his eyes, looked around and saw two
creatures coming towards him, of course they weren’t creatures they
were Dr. Takinago and Kago. Naturally, Sora jumped up from his current
sitting position and started running around the lab.
“Oh great, he’s sonic fast, is it really necessary to give him super
abilities?” Kago asked.
Sora Tripped over a wire and laid there unsure what to do.
“Thank God, I mean, are you ok?”
The two rushed over to him.
“He can understand English; because that
is the international language
of science.” Dr. Takinago informed Kago.
“We need to teach him Japanese, if he is going to mix and mingle with
other school kids.”
“Good idea.”
“My name is Sasgo Takinago, I created you.”
“Well that’s not boastful at all.”
“Ohayougozaimasu. Genkidesuka? That means hello how are you? Can you
say that to me?”
Sora looked up at Sasgo then to Kago.
“What is his name?”
“My name is Kago, I am your uncle.”
“What is an uncle?” Sora asked
“Well, me and your creator over here; he is really your father. I am
almost his brother not by blood but by friendship.”
“What is friendship?”
“You didn’t program life necessities, did you?” exclaimed Kago.
“Well, we can teach him. I did program the ability to learn and the
ability to love.” Sasgo insisted.
"Well, let’s see if you enjoy talking to someone; then you do talk on
a regular basis you are considered friends, only if you do not talk in
negative ways.”
"So what If I do talk to another in negative ways.”
"Well then generally, they are called an enemy.”
“The word I want you to use for enemy is: teki, the word for friend
is: tomodachi”
"Ohayougozaimasu. Genkidesuka tomodachi Kago?”
“Good job”
“That is enough Japanese language for today;I need to show you the
place where you will be living.”
Chapter Two: The Black cat, the rain, and a dream.
Translation: Kuroi neko, ame, to yume.
“Damn, there goes our chance of showing you the town.” Said, Kago
glancing through the window curtains.
“The rain will soon die, until then we can show you around the lab.”
The three walked towards the long hallway leading to the kitchen from
the front door.
“You know what? I need to go home; Karin gets cranky if I don’t get
home in time for supper.”
“Well, good luck.”
“We are not all as lucky as you” said Kago looking somewhat jealous.
Kago twisted the doorknob and disappeared into the rain.
“I want to learn some more Japanese”
“Ok, but first I must show you around, while I show you around I will
count the rooms.”
The two, walked into the kitchen, Yuma was cooking ramen.
"Yuma this is Sora.”
Yuma rolled over to the two; she examined the boy, her robot eyes
locked in on him as if he was a target.
“Sasgo, may I have a word with you.” Said Yuma
“Sora, go back to the hallway, the long room where we just arrived
from. Oh and this is room ichi. You can call the hall room ni.”
As soon as Sora was out of earshot Yuma started in.
“Dr. Takinago, why did you install the dream software, you already
cursed me with the burden of the DreamWorld.”
“I thought they could use him.”
“Do you think he could be the one?”
“The soul binder?”
A loud screech came from the hallway; and then the sound of glass
breaking arose. Dr. Takinago and Yuma traveled down the hallway with
full speed. The two came into the middle of the hallway to discover
that it was a vase that was shattered and a sword mark ran across the
wall above it. Dr. Takinago looked over at Yuma and laughed, “Can you
fix this”
Yuma looked down at the vase that she had all ways hated.
“No, but I can put this where it belongs; that is the trash bin.” Dr.
Takinago Knew that Yuma hated that vase, but he kept it up just to see
if she would get angry.
Dr. Takinago looked over to Sora, he was in the corner his head was
bent down and he was looking at his two sword arms. “Taihen moushiwake
gozaimasen.” Sora said, shifting his body uncomfortably, being careful
not to touch Dr. Takinago with a sword.
“Don’t apologize, just tell me how you came across that Japanese phrase.”
“It just came to me, words just started to fill my head, I wanted to
know more about them; it seems as if the harder I try the more words
come to me.”
Dr. Takinago looked over to Yuma and nodded his head; the two right
then and there knew that he was the one.
“We need to get you some connectors, Yuma if you would be so nice as
to go get me a pair that would be great.”
“Can you go with me; I need your help I can’t seem to open the door
for the storage room.”
“Stay here please, we will be back in a few seconds.”
When the two got into the kitchen Yuma analyzed the hallway then, she
took out a small tube that looked like the handle for a flashlight.
“What is that?” Dr. Takinago looked puzzled.
Yuma placed the tube softly on Dr. Takinago’s ear “It’s so Sora don’t hear us.”
“Did you create this?” Dr. Takinago said, looking impressed.
"Yes, I did and I knew that I would have to use it.”
"Well, what is it that you got to tell me? I know I do not have to
open a door; you have twice the strength of me!”
Dr. Takinago imagined Yuma rolling her eyes, if only she was capable
of this action, he thought to himself.
“We cannot tell Kago that Sora is the Soul Binder.”
“What are you talking about? Kago is my friend, he would never use my
creation for a weapon against me."
“We cannot take any chances, he cannot go to school, he runs too big of
a chance of being tracked, we got to teach him his skills in the
DreamWorld.”
“Well, what if the Black Cat catches us?”
"I guess that is just a risk we will have to take.”
"The Black cat has demons that will rip us to shreds!”
“I think I know a place in the DreamWorld where we can train him at.”
“What is the location called?”
“Before he goes to bed I need you to tell him a story, tell him a
story about a evil Black Cat that took over The DreamWorld with her power to
produce demon spirits. In the story tell him of a place called the
whispering forest the Black Cat cannot touch us there nor can her
demonds. In order for him to be there in his dreams you must make sure
it gets into his processing department. Just in case, when he lays his
head down you can go log into the process files and edit his dream
location, only do this if he is not in the Whispering Forest.”
“Understood, when should we enter DreamWorld?”
“I believe now would be a good time.”
“We better go get those extenders, I mean of course he can’t use them
in DreamWorld, but we can’t have him cutting his self up in his sleep.”
“You go ahead and check on him I will get the extenders, you can’t open
the door.”Yuma said, as she stored the tube back into her storage
unit.
“Are you hanging in here buddy?” Dr. Takinago’s voice rang from the
long hallway.
"ni, ju san, jyu yon, jyu go, jyu roku, jyu nana, jyu hachi, jyu kyu,
ni jyu”
“Well I guess we can skip the japanese numbers one through twenty, good job.”
“I am learning fast aren’t I? Father”
Just then Yume rolled behind Dr.Takinago with metal attachments in her hands.
“Ookini”
“You are welcome sir.”
Dr.Takinago grabed the two extenders and crouched down on the floor where,
Sora was sitting. The swords went into the metal connector like a
sheath. “I think it is about that time that I teach you about sleep.”
“Is this sleep a fun activity?”
“Well let’s just say fun things can happen while we are sleeping.”
Chapter Three: The Forest part 1
The rain was not giving in. Kago was walking down an alleyway to his
house; the brick walls that formed the alleyway, had mold stuck in
between where cement should be. A smell circulated around Kago. Was
this the smell of trash? No, this smell was much more intense; he had never
smelled anything quite this extreme. Kago stopped and shadows could be
seen around him. A small figure made its way out from behind a
dumpster.
“Did you see him?” The small man approached Kago, in the man’s hand
was a lit cigarette.
“Yes I did.”
“So, you really think that the chip you implanted had the program in it?”
“Oh, I know it did; and I can even control his dreams,” Kago said;
while letting out a small laugh.
“The Black Cat will be proud of you.”
“Yes, I am aware of that. I will finally be promoted to an officer.”
“Woah, now that is up to the Black Cat herself along with the the board of trusties.”