VC: virtual companions - Disappearance

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Kader opened his eyes to a new morning. The sunlight from the window made the room look brighter than it should be. His room was disorganized. Clothes were found everywhere on the floor through the closet, and his homework was misplaced. Although he wasn't very different from other middle school students, he was an outcast in his family.

Kader live in Tokyo, Japan. He grew up here and it's the only place he knew well of. His eyes flew towards the alarm clock. "Shoot! It's 7:55! I'm ten minutes late!"

He dove in the closet, a toothbrush in his mouth, and a comb dangling on his head. His hands dug in every single part of the closet until he found the right set of clothing, a navy tee and baggy jeans. "Thish'll hafta do." He mumbled through the toothpaste.

"Honey! Are you still asleep?" His mother called from downstairs. "Your bus just left! What are you doing?"

"Damnit!" He rushed downstairs, "Overslept, no time for breakfast, gotta walk, err - RUN!"

His mother stared at him in disbelief as he swung his backpack over his shoulders and ran towards school. She shook her head and sighed, "That boy will never learn."

Meanwhile, Kader ran past everything he could. The civilians' heads turned as he sped past them. "Sorry!" he breathed. "Gotta - Get -To - School." He was surely out of energy and very well hungry, but this isn't his first time late. He took a glimpse at his watch, "Aw Man, it's already eight!"

His legs kept working until he was in Ichi Middle School campus and then in the main hallway, finally, seated in his homeroom. He breathed out loud, "Present!" The whole class stared at him, including the teacher, Mrs. Tamaguchi. She didn't look that surprise at all. "Mr. Matsu. If you were seated fifteen minutes earlier, you would know that I have called your name for attendance long ago."

Kader looked down, "Err - Sorry? Listen Mrs. Tamaguchi, I've never intended to be late! Honestly. I just overslept, that's all. Just give me another chance. I promise I won't be tardy anymore - from now on." The class giggled.

The teacher raised a brow. "Another chance? You know, I think I've heard the exact same speech from you two days ago." The laughter of the class rose higher. This time, he kept quiet.

A few minutes later, the bell rung for their next period class. The whole class got up and left the classroom. Mrs. Tamaguchi gave Kader a look, "Repeat it, and it's detention." He gulped and then nodded as he walked out the classroom.

"That's it. My new bedtime is now officially eight o-clock." He said to himself, walking to science. "Mom will ground me if she heard the word 'detention'."

"Kader!"

"I mean - I'm not that kind of person. I really want to get straight A's at least, even if it's impossible."

"Kader! Behind ya, man!"

He turned around, "Huh? Oh, hey, Tom." His best friend sped up to walk beside him, "Dude, why were you late again?" But before he could answer, Tom kept going, "Oh, you know what? My Timochi, learned a new attack. I forgot what it's called, but it sounded tight! Man, I'm training ten more levels!"

Kader smiled. What Tom was talking about is a game that's been a hit for quite a while, all around the globe. It is a small device called PD (pocket device), where it has a unique VC (virtual companion) that is different than every other VC in the world. The virtual companion can respond to your every command and you can even train it to earn it some battle levels. The PD can also link to other PDs and that way your VC can duel.

"That's great. At least you got a chance to play with your VC. I'm up all night doing homework." Tom shrugged, "It's not like I'm free."

"I don't know if I could play, even if I have time." Kader told him. "You see, one day, I logged on, my Kido wasn't there. I tried calling it, but it didn't respond. I have no idea what happened. Do you think my PD is broken or something?"

Tom gave him a look. They're in front of the Science room and ready to step in, "Maybe man. I still don't get what you meant when you said that Kido isn't there." He opened the door and walked in. Kader followed after him. "He disappeared. My VC disappeared."

"Alright class," announced the teacher, Mr. Watanabe, now that the whole class was seated, "Today, we will be learning about the human organs system. So get ready and have your textbooks out on your desk.

There was a quiet murmur in between the transitions. Mr. Watanabe sat down and looked through the pages of what he will be teaching. Suddenly, the door opened and a girl walked in, textbooks and everything in her arms. She held up a cute smile.

The class looked up. "Must be a new kid." The teacher gave her a welcoming smile and went up to greet her. "Ah! You must be our foreign exchange student. Well we are more than please for you to come and join our class. Aren't we, class?"

No one said anything. A few were already asleep and some were even passing notes to each other. Only five of them paid attention. The classroom seemed like study hall. Tom sat up and turned to Kader. "She's cute!" he mouthed. Kader shrugged, waiting to get it all over with. His favorite subject was of course algebra.

"Now please tell the class your name," he instructed the new girl, "and where you are from. I'm sure we're interested in that too."

She smiled and looked across the room, meeting almost everybody's eyes. "Okay, well, my name is Ralei Tang. I'm from Manhattan, New York, in the USA. My family moved here because of business and I'm thinking that I'll have a great time here as well. So thank you!"

She then went over to her newly assigned seat and had her books out. Kader could spot a pink PD hanging loose from her back pocket of her backpack. He turned away from her and back into his own book, while Mr. Watanabe went on and on about the respiratory system.

Kader did as much as he could to put some attention into organs, but it didn't seem that much surprising. Instead, he slowly pulled out his notebook and flipped to the back page. There he quietly sketched out Kido, his companion. It is a black dog-like creature, with an iron collar around its neck, and several red marks on the body. He carefully drew the eyes large and round, like a puppy. The thing that makes him unique is that his left hind leg is robotic.

He looked at the picture and smiled, "Kido . . ."

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"Mom, I'm home," he called as he went upstairs to his room. He could hear her walking out of the kitchen. She greeted him from downstairs, "Oh, hello, honey. How was school?" she asked as an everyday routine. "Fine," he would call back. "But we got a new student."

"Really? Did you make friends with him?"

"Um, no, he's actually a 'she'."

"Oh, well, how am I supposed to know? You're the one who went to school."

Inside his room, he threw his backpack down and went over to his desk, where his red PD was. He opened it up and saw the blank screen. He switched the 'command' to 'call', but it ended up with 'Error: VC not found'. He narrowed his eyes, "What do you mean he's not found!" He tried different commands 'feed', 'battle', 'play', but none of it seemed to work.

"It can't be broken because everything else works just fine. I could see the background, and everything. All that's missing is the VC itself. Man! What the heck is going on!!" He turned it off and set it aside.

"Maybe if I wait, then Kido would come back."