Welcome to Gaia! ::

OPUS DEI
Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End

The city lights of downtown Tokyo were a quite a sight if you were looking at them from a high rise building or from above, or perhaps driving along the outskirts of the city looking at the skyline as it flies by one’s driver side window. Such was the case even in the winter time, were the city lights burned brightly through the foggy mist of snow that happened to fall every night. Such was the case of this fateful night, when a freight train crossed the snowy tracks, clocking in at close to 80 miles per hour.

From a distance in the snow, black figures crawled on the top of one of the cars, intent on their mission. Upon reaching the 17th car, they dropped their position via an iron latter on the right side. A boy, close to 22 or 23, came in contact with the iron bars that locked the 17th and 18th cars to each other. With a gloved hand, he pulled a device from his coat, and lodged it into the gears. The device lit up, a clock counting down from 5:00 in red. It blinked three times before it began it’s countdown, and he withdrew quickly, stealthily with his comrades. After he ascended up the ladder of the 18th car and proceeded with his comrades to the 22nd, and drew himself inside of the freighter. From his coat pocket, he withdrew his cell phone and put it up to his ear.

“Madison – you there? Madison!”

On the other end, a boy with a rather dark appearance covered by dark locks answered through his cell phone, fingerless gloves wrapping around the device. The front of his bangs were highlighted in a bright red, a bright contrast against his dark appearance. A lip ring to the left of his mouth shined as he opened his mouth to respond.

“Yeah,” came his low tenor.

“Everything’s in place! Brace yourself! It’ll blow in 5!”

“Roger that.”

The boy – Madison – closed his cell phone and put it into his back pocket. With that, the boy made his way past the boxes of cargo with ULEA logos, progressing his light jog into a sprint. He jumped over cargo boxes, getting as far away from the explosion as possible, until he was four cars ahead, at the same place where his comrade had called him. When five minutes had passed, there was a large explosion that rocked the cars next to it. The 17th and 18th car separated, and the cars behind the 18th came to a slow. Madison pulled out what looked like a detonator.

“Coordinates 15A and 10B, approaching,” he spoke into his cell phone.

After, he and his comrades leaped from the train, and Madison pressed his thumb on the detonator. As they fell through the snow, the train exploded into a fury of red and orange, shooting pieces of wood and steel into the air in a fiery fury.

-

“The resistance group NOIR has sabotaged a train this morning in the form of several explosives, ULEA authorities tell us. The incident happened at 5:15 this morning, when ULEA authorities discovered the second half of an ULEA ammo freighter charred from an earlier explosion. The first half, reports tells us, have now slammed into the ammo warehouse, just now, and is causing further damage. Firefighters have just arrived and have been fighting the blaze, but as explosions keep erupting, firefighters are finding it hard to put out the fire without a new one erupting. We’ll inform the public as soon as more developments arise. Sarah Yu, ULEA-8 news, Tokyo.”

Yep, here we go. Any minute now.

From Shinji’s office window, the 60th floor of the 181st ULEA building erupted into a flurry of chaos. The employees were scrambling with paper work, in a last attempt to find order numbers belonging to the now destroyed freighter. Shinji could only watch with twisted amusement; if only she had a dime for every time this happened, every time NOIR blew up a freighter, the would send the staff into a chaotic frenzy. She shook her head at the employees running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Rolling her eyes, she stayed in her office, praying no one would come in to find her and ask her an impossible favor. She took a sip of her coffee and turned her attention to the computer, ramblings on the television fading into the back of her mind like the chaos of the cubicles outside her office. Shinji tucked a strand of stark blonde hair behind her ear and set the coffee cup down, composing an email to send to her father. Typing furiously, she sent the email with a simple click, and then turned her attention to her TV, waiting for a response.

No more than five minutes passed when her computer made a several loud ‘ding’ noises. Shinji groaned and turned towards her computer. The computer was showing her an invite for a video chat from her father. She rolled her eyes as she clicked the accept button. A window opened and her father’s head appeared.

“Shinji!” he called. “What the hell happened?”

“You should see it. Everyone’s going crazy again,” she informed him. “It’s about the freighter explosion this morning. Everyone’s scrambling because the phone calls are piling in with divisions filing claims on their supplies. Do you want what happened exactly?”

The man sighed and put a hand to his face.

“If only I knew in detail, sweetheart. They won’t even give me status updates, for Christ’s sake. I could find out more about this crap on the news. Unbelievable. I thought we had impenetrable checkpoints. This is ridiculous. We aren’t even a fourth into 3984, and already NOIR is pulling this bullshit. Second time this December. Ridiculous,” he muttered, “just ridiculous. The first quarter of 3985 had better start decent, or else I’m going to resign and appoint another CEO.”

“Yeah,” Shinji agreed. “Tell me about it. I’m so glad I don’t work over in that division.”

“Anyway, sorry for the rant,” he groaned, “how’s work?”

“Well…it was calm,” she sighed, “but now I’m just waiting for the giant stack of papers to hit my desk. I’ve probably got to create an entire new filing space for all of these claims. Maybe we should just create an entirely new division?”

“Nah, NOIR will eventually stop or lighten up…whichever comes first.”

“That’s what you said the last two times this has happened.”

Her father smiled.

“Alright smart-a**,” he said, “back to work. When are you coming to see me?”

Shinji shrugged.

“I don’t know. Whenever I can catch a break. This weekend should be good.”

Shinji turned her head. An employee with a large stack of papers was headed for her office.

“Uh,” Shinji started, “we’ll finalize plans later, Dad. I’ve gotta go – I’m about to get hit in the face with a bunch of papers. See you later,” Shinji finished.

“Love you,” they both said.

When Shinji clicked out of the window, the door opened.

“…Could that pile be any bigger?” Shinji asked. The employee sat the large stack down in the middle of her desk.

“Get busy,” he sternly said, “we’ve got a ton of work to do.”

He slammed the door behind him.

“Wonderful,” Shinji sighed, “I’m going to be here all damn night.”

-

When Shinji filed her last claim, the digital clock on her desk blinked 1:00. Taking a sip from her seventh cup of coffee, Shinji turned to look out of her office window. The office was completely desolate. The lights were turned off, and the night sky was clear. Shinji turned off her computer and stood up, casually picking up her purse that was swung on the corner of her chair and putting her long, black peacoat on. Shinji turned the handle to her office and let herself out, locking the door behind her, and walked across the deserted cubicles to the elevator.

When the elevator opened, she let herself in and hit the lobby button nonchalantly. She leaned against the elevator walls and closed her eyes. With a ‘ding’, the doors opened and Shinji walked out into a significantly lighter area, boots clicking against the marble floors. The security guard nodded at her as she exited through the building doors and into the outside. The freshly fallen snow from the night before was now a trampled cluster of footprints in dull grey slush. A lone car passed Shinji. She looked behind her, furrowing her eyebrows slightly.

Proceeding forward, she walked down the street and turned a few times before she finally let herself into her apartment’s lobby. When she climbed the stairs, she stopped outside of her apartment, fumbling with her keys slightly and letting herself in. She hung her coat up and took off her boots and went straight into her room, turning on the lights and immediately peeling off her clothes. Her tiny frame emerged later in her bra and underwear, checking the thermostat. She smacked it with her hand.

Ugh, is this thing broke again? It’s freezing in here.

She smacked a few more times before giving up and opening her fridge, taking out a cup of yogurt. When she turned, however, something caught her eye.

A rectangular, white box sat on her couch in the TV room. She put the yogurt down and furrowed her eyebrows. Frowning, she approached her coach and narrowed her eyes on the suspicious-looking box. She examined it carefully and cocked her head, lifting the white box and shaking it once or twice before finally deciding to open it. Hesitantly, she reached forward to lifted the box off with both hands. She looked around and turned on the TV room light. There, in the box, was a mass pile of fuchsia fabric. She blinked a few times.

What…the…?

She lifted the fabric out of the box. It unfurled into a dupioni silk dress with an intricately beaded strapless bodice. Pearls and rhinestones adorned the rouged, voluminous skirt. The lights from above created an iridescent shine to the dress. A smile spread across Shinji face as she examined the dress further, running her hands across it’s luxurious finish and it’s crisp craftsmanship. When she lifted it up higher, a white envelope fell from the dress and to her feet. Shinji looked down at the letter and set the dress down.

She bent over to pick it up and opened it immediately. Inside, a single ticket to an opera was the only paper the envelope contained. Shinji lifted the letter to the light and then looked inside, taking out the ticket. She looked back in the letter and shook it. When nothing else fell out, she frowned and looked back at the ticket. The opera ticket held a spot for a box seat for an opera on Saturday night. She smiled knowingly.

Oh, Dad.

She draped the dress across her couch and put the ticket back in the envelope, placing it on the table as she retreated back into her room, plopping on her bed.

-

When Shinji awoke the next day, it was snowing again. She lifted her head to look at the window and groaned, hitting her head on the pillow. She closed her eyes to gain the last bit of sleep she could and finally willed herself out of bed. Her phone, which was sitting on her bedside, vibrated suddenly. She grabbed it and flipped it open.

“Hello?” she groggily grumbled.

“Shinji,” came the other voice on the end.

“Dad,” she greeted. She turned to climb out of bed and walk to her kitchen.

“What’s going on?” he inquired. Shinji pursed her lips, “I was at work until one this morning.”

“You off today?”

“Yeah,” she answered, opening her fridge and pulling out the milk, “for now. Hopefully they won’t need me, but chances are…” she trailed off.

“Hah, yeah,” her dad smiled. “Did you ever figure out what you’re doing this weekend?”

“Well, apparently,” she said with a grin, pouring herself a glass of milk, “a little elf came by and invited me to the opera. Seriously, dad, if you wanted to invite me, you didn’t have to go out and buy me something nice to wear. I’ve got things to wear, you know—“

“What are you talking about?” he asked. Shinji paused.

“What do you mean? I’m talking about the dress and the opera ticket you dropped off here last night. You should have told me you were coming over, I would have pushed to get off earlier,” she grinned. Her dad said nothing.

“Dad?” Shinji asked.

“What are you talking about?” her dad repeated.

“C’mon, stop playing dumb,” she laughed. “That dress you bought me and the ticket. You really didn’t have to do all of that!”

“Shinji, I didn’t drop anything off at your apartment.”

“…You didn’t?”

“No. I haven’t been in Tokyo for two weeks.”

--


Super rough beginning of the first chapter. I worked on trying to show versus tell and tried to simplify things, but I probably got a little lengthy in the middle with her walking home. The initial train-blowing-up scene was written a while ago and I didn't really bother to edit it, so if there's some passive verb usage and some run-ons amongst other crap, that's why. Like I said, I don't ever intend on publishing this - it's just a fun thing for me to practice writing. <3

Hahaha!! Just one in this one.

SORRY FOR ANY DISAPPOINTMENT.

Just one in the entire story. XD

Remind me that this is on my list to read plz. =3

crying I HAVE LOTS OF WORK THIS WEEK
But I promise on Wednesday I'll pick up the reading, okay? I'm working my way through in a certain order. 8U heart