Day 90

[from Cyborg Team Alpha]

TWO DAYS EARLIER

Ichiko stretched and yawned as she headed out of the main building of her high school, and out into the grounds. It had been another long and tiring day, and she was eager to get home and relax. She and her friend Hinata had stayed behind as part of their Chess Club activities, but now it was getting late, and the clubs had had to pack up their activities and send their members on their way.

"-I still like Alice Chess the most," said Hinata. "Having to manage two boards at once, while your pieces are constantly jumping between then, is really quite challenging, but also adds far more complexity and strategy to the game. You have to be a real master of strategy to be good at that game."

"Yeah, I've only played it once and it gave me a headache," said Ichiko. "But I dare say I have the "strategy mastery" to get the hang of it fairly quickly." This boast was not unwarranted: Ichiko, despite being only sixteen, was a well-known prodigy of both mathematics and chess. She had finished her entrance exams in half the time of anyone else, scoring almost-perfect marks, and spent the rest of the time doodling chess problems on the back of her test paper. A false rumour had once spread that the examiner who marked Ichiko's test had attempted the problems, and been so frustrated by them that he offered Ichiko perfect marks in exchange for the correct solutions. He had, in fact, attempted the problems and been unable to crack them, but had simply given up on them.

"I'm sure you can, with enough practice," said Hinata. "We can play a few games together tomorrow, if you like."

"Yeah, that'd be interesting," said Ichiko. "Probably more interesting than what we were playing today."

The pair made their way to the hoverboard racks at the side of the school. There were a few bicycle racks remaining, but with hoverboards all the rage, their use was declining. Ichiko did not have a hoverboard - she preferred the exercise of walking - but Hinata did. She was already wearing her helmet, elbow and knee pads, and special high-friction shoes, having retrieved them from her locker, and now bent down to unlock the hoverboard from its rack. "Yeah, it's really not that hard once you get used to the "looking-glass" mechanics," she said. "Once you've gotten the hang of those, you can master it just like you would ordinary chess."

"I'm sure I can," said Ichiko. "Is there a world championship for it?"

"Woah, there, Ichiko," said Hinata, grinning as she retrieved her board. "I think you might be getting a bit ahead of yourself there."

"I was just asking," said Ichiko, as Hinata switched her hoverboard on. High-pressure air jets vented from the numerous slots in the bottom of the board, pushing it a few inches off the ground with enough force to support a grown male. Other jets embedded around the board's circumference would propel her forwards, backwards, or allow her to turn, depending on which direction she was leaning, just like an old-fashioned skateboard.

Hinata stepped onto the board, balancing herself upon it with practices ease. The extremely grippy, high-friction coating of her riding shoes made it impossible for her to slip or slide while standing on the board's surface, but meant she could easily step off of it once she had arrived at her destination. The boards were advanced, but not perfect, and were still fairly expensive, not that Hinata particularly minded.

"Alright, I'll be off then," said Hinata. "See you tomorrow, Ichiko!"

"See you!" said Ichiko, waving as her friend set off on her hoverboard. It wasn't especially fast - only ten miles an hour - but it certainly looked cool and futuristic, especially with its sleek design and blue-and-white colour scheme. Ichiko, however, was perfectly content to make her way home on foot, and so she too headed off on her way. Before long, Hinata was away and out of sight.

Ichiko made her way through the Tokyo streets, the late afternoon sun behind her as it began to set. To her right, the city's fleet of driverless cars rushed back and forth across the road, ferrying their passengers autonomously to their destinations, or else circling the city in search of their next passenger, all the while drawing power from the network of high-friction solar panels built into the road's surface. Even into the 2050s, Tokyo's reputation for being ahead of the curve when it came to technology rang truer than ever. The panels also provided a significant amount of Tokyo's energy, drastically reducing its carbon emissions in an age where preserving what little remained of the ice caps was a pressing global issue. For Ichiko, it was an exciting time to be alive.

As she continued innocently on her way, she heard a strange noise coming from an alleyway to her left. Ichiko stopped, her attention drawn to the sound. After a moment, she heard it again. It sounded like a dog barking. Looking into the alleyway, she saw a cardboard box sitting in the middle of the alley. Written on the side was "PLEASE TAKE TO A GOOD HOME". Ichiko could then make out a quiet, high-pitched whine, and now there could be no mistaking it: there was an abandoned dog inside that box.

Ichiko's compassion and curiosity compelled her to enter the alleyway, approaching the closed box. Even if she couldn't adopt the puppy herself - her parents would probably forbid it - she could at least take it to an animal shelter, where it could be properly cared for until it found a new owner. She knelt down before it and opened up the box.

There was no dog inside. Or rather, there was, but it was not a real dog. It was a toy robot dog, looking sadly up at Ichiko with blinking LED eyes. Ichiko paused, confused as to why someone would abandon a robotic dog in such a manner. Then, at the very last moment, it occurred to her that it might be a trap.

Then the robotic dog detonated with immense force. Ichiko's body was torn apart, her shattered, bloody limbs flying in all directions as her charred torso was thrown back by the force of the explosion. She was dead before she knew what had happened to her. A small trickle of blood ran from her half-open mouth, one eye frozen open in shock and the other destroyed by shrapnel from the exploding machine. And there she lay, bloodied, broken, and categorically dead, as the smoke and flames began to rise up into the afternoon sky above.