Project Uprising

[Nikkola]

BACKGROUND


coming soon...


CHARACTERS


Yuki Kiragana


Natsumi Nakagawa


INTRO


Yuki looked down at her wrist when she realized it was dark out. Dammit, mom's gonna kill me if she notices I've been gone this whole time. There was something different about tonight, though. A certain feeling swept through the breeze, ruffling her hair as she thought about what might be the quickest way home.


"I have lingered here too long..." she mutters under her breath, realizing that her errand has taken approximately triple as long as it should have. "This way." she follows the direction the breeze is blowing, quietly leaping to each rooftop.


Yuki is a courier. The type that is illegal in the X-12 district. Information is a forbidden commodity this far out of the city's core, and all the couriers knew it. Yuki's mother disapproved of her chosen profession, scolding her by saying things like "Why can't you have a respectable job? Help me run the cafe, that will keep you out of harm's way." Yuki is far from the type to have such a mundane existence. Not a day goes by that she can go without at least one adrenaline rush.


"There it is!" Yuki spots the train that would speed her home in a flash. She jumps for it and lands on the back platform of the train with cat-like grace. She spots some civilians on the train, staring out the back window at her as the train begins to depart the station. Yuki braces herself between the railing and the rear door of the train with her feet as the train picks up speed, upwards of 500 km/h.


In less than 5 minutes the train makes it's first stop, which happens to be about a 2 minute walk from Yuki's apartment, where she live with her mom. She dashes home and tries her best to sneak in the window of her bedroom, hoping her mother didn't know of her absence.


"You're out late!" a stern voice bellows from behind her as she closes the window.


"I had some things to take care of…" Yuki's face red with the embarrassment of being caught in the act.


"Did you lose your keys or something?" an unimpressed smirk crossed her mom’s face. "... Or do you always prefer to come and go through the window?" Yuki's mom folds her arms, expecting an answer.


"I uh…" Yuki stammered, "I forgot my watch and I thought it was later than it really was." she paused a moment, "... and I didn't want to wake you." she sighs, hoping that her excuse is more than adequate.


Yuki's mom gives her a stern look. It's quite obvious that she wasn't buying into what Yuki had tried to use as an excuse. She closed the door rather harshly as she left the room. "Don't forget you have to be up early tomorrow!" Yuki's mom bellowed up the stairs on her way down them.


Yuki took off her shirt and collapsed backwards on the bed, the cold softness feeling really good on her bare skin. Her ceiling fan was turning very slightly, likely from the window being open as she clambered through it. Thoughts about her next job raced through her head. Why was her next delivery so secretive? Why did she have to make 100% certain she was unseen when she went to pick it up? What was she going to do if her mom's plans went well into the evening? Climbing up into her bed, Yuki kicked off her socks, shoes and pants and slid under the blankets. It didn't take very much staring at the ceiling before she fell into a deep sleep.

 

[Nikkola]

Yuki stretched and yawned as she woke up. When she noticed what time it was, she realized she was going to be late for her appointment with her mother. They had to deal with some issues between the two of them regarding Yuki's choice of work. After getting dressed in a baggy pair of pants and a tanktop, she grabbed her hooded sweater and dashed out the door.


Yuki realized she would have to make extremely good time if she was going to get there before her appointment. She managed to board a train that was going exactly where she needed to be. It was full of strange people that looked like they were not from anywhere near here. They were speaking a foreign language she didn't understand, so she just sat at the back and waited for the train to get where it was going, not saying a word.


When Yuki arrived to her appointment it was to her dismay that her mother had not actually made it to the appointment. Yuki panicked. Her mother was NEVER late for anything. There had to be some explanation. She gave the receptionist her name and contact info before dashing out the door.


I wonder if Natsumi has any ideas? Yuki rushed off to Natsumi's house to see if she was home. It was a bit of a jaunt so she decided to take a taxi. "I need to get to the W-12 district, pronto!" Yuki flashed the cab driver a very hefty tip. The cab lifted up and above the general flow of traffic, and began to speed towards the destination. It was only about 5 minutes later that the taxi had stopped and Yuki was handing the driver some money along with the promised tip.


The street Natsumi lived on was realtively weathered. She lived in one of the older districts that wasn't impoverished. None of the houses were modern and there was a distinct difference in just the overall state of things compared to her own district. The whole city was plotted out on a grid. The letters went north to south and the numbers west to east. Yuki walked down the street to Natsumi's door and knocked hoping someone would answer.

 

[No More Pretending]

After a minute, Natsumi opened the door. "Oh, hello Yuki! I wasn't expecting you!" Her face lit up in one of her bright smiles, before she realized where Yuki was supposed to be, and the panicking look. Yuki was calm and collected. She didn't have that look very often.


"Wait, aren't you supposed to be seeing your mother? Did something happen to her?!" She stepped aside to let her in, shutting her mouth immediately when she noticed that she was babbling.

 

[Nikkola]

Yuki reached in to hug Natsumi tightly as the door closed behind her. Not normally an affectionate person, it was obvious something had Yuki quite distressed. "My mother is missing. I needed a familiar face to calm me down." Yuki's distraught gaze focused on her best friend.


Natsumi, like Yuki's mom, didn't exactly approve of her illegal courier job. In fact, Natsumi had asked her on multiple occasions to pick something else to do with her life.


Yuki had a very firm belief of what she felt people should be allowed. She failed to see how banned things like chocolate should be illegal. "Nat, I have no idea what to do. Mom didn't even answer her phone when I called her." Tears began to well up in Yuki's eyes.

 

[No More Pretending]

Natsumi hugged her friend tightly to try and calm her. "Sit down and take a few deep breaths, Yu-chan..." She murmured, leading her to a tidy couch in the middle of the room. "I'll get you some tea and we'll figure this out together once your head is clear, okay?"

 

[Nikkola]

Despite being in an older district, Natsumi's house was much more cozy than Yuki's. Yuki's house was so modern and clean all the time, it didn't feel like anyone even lived there. But there was a certain comfort that she got when she sat down on Natsumi's sofa. Yuki curled her knees to her chest, quite pensive and looked towards the kitchen where Nat had gone, waiting for her to come back.


Yuki decided to make one last effort to contact her mom, and tried her mom's mobile one more time. "Dammit!" Yuki exclaimed, a bit louder than she had intended, "It went to voicemail!" She ended the call and tossed her phone on the couch beside her. It was horribly unlike her mother not to answer her phone. Something really had to be wrong for this to happen. Yuki's mind raced through all of the possible scenarios of what could have happened.

 

[No More Pretending]

Natsumi rushed back with some tea and set it on the coffee table in front of her. "We will get to the bottom of this," she assured.

 

[Nikkola]

Yuki shifted on the couch, sitting on her feet, she reached out for the tea and took a sip. Her shoulders began to relax as she felt a warm, calming sensation work it's way down her spine. After taking another sip, Yuki let out a bit of a sigh as she sets the cup down on the table in front of her. She leaned back a bit, still sitting on her feet, and looked up at the ceiling. Even the lights in Natsumi's house lended themselves to the feeling of being at home.


"I don't know what to do," Yuki was thinking out loud, still looking up, "Where do I even start?" She had hoped Nat would say something reassuring or have some solid advice like she always did. Yuki was still pretty tense, her fists clenched and pressing into the seat of the couch, tears were still pooling in her eyes.

 

[No More Pretending]

Natsumi sat beside her, arm wrapping loosely around her shoulders. She placed a scarred hand on the forearm that was closest to her. Her fingers tapped lightly against the skin in a gentle, rhythmic pattern; a nervous habit as if it were a tick or muscle spasm.


"We need to start by calming down. You can't think straight when you're panicky. We both know that, okay?" She asked.

 

[Nikkola]

"You're probably right." Yuki knew full well that she would never come up with a plan being as troubled as she was. She grabbed Nat's hand that was on her arm, and squeezed it tightly in hopes it would calm her down at least a little. As her head tilted over onto Natsumi's shoulder, a tear rolled off Yuki's cheek and onto Nat's leg. "I just..." she started, "I need you right now, more than you could know."


Ambient sounds in the room were enough to keep Yuki from doing anything crazy, given her current state of mind. The gentle whirring of the fan was rhythmic and almost hypnotic. Yuki continued to clutch Natsumi, as if she was worried of losing her too. Her hair fell down to cover her face, as she continued to tremble. Yuki had certainly never felt like this before. Perhaps that was why it hit her so hard. Tears kept rolling down Yuki's cheek, leaving wet spots all over Natsumi's clothes. She sniffled to try and suppress the full on crying, and then leaned into Natsumi a little more.

 

[No More Pretending]

Natsumi did her best to comfort the woman that sat beside her. All too soon, the silence was interrupted by the shrill beep of the oven in the kitchen.


"Ugh... Looks like the other cake is done. Mind coming with me. I'd rather not leave you by yourself, but I took my work home with me so the bakery could catch up on the huge amount of orders we got yesterday."

 

[Nikkola]

Yuki followed Natsumi to the kitchen. The smell of the baking comforted her quite a bit, to her surprise. She sat down in one of the kitchen chairs, her knees trembling.


She sat and watched Natsumi work in the kitchen for almost 10 minutes without saying anything. She kept trying to make herself calm down by thinking of things on her head that she could do to find her mother. She knew fully that worrying wouldn't help anyone, but she just sat there silently.

 

[No More Pretending]

Natsumi cursed as she burned her hand on the cake pan, adding to her collection of marks. She set it on the rack to cool and poured the remaining batter into the now-empty pan before putting it in the oven and setting the timer. "There we go!" She exclaimed, looking over at Yuki to see how shaken up she still seemed.

 

[Nikkola]

"Nat, I appreciate that you are concerned about me, but I really need to go start looking for my mother now." the tone in Yuki's voice was much more collected now than she seemed before. She started to get up and rushed over to hug Natsumi. "I can respect if you want to come with me, but I don't have very long before something terrible might happen to her."

 

[No More Pretending]

Natsumi smiled softly and hugged her gently. "Of course I'm going to come with you, dummy!" She said, taking the batter out of the oven and putting it in the fridge instead so the cake didn't burn and her house didn't get set ablaze. She took off the simple black apron she was hardly seen without when home and hung it up, grabbing a jacket. "Let's go, yu-yu!"

 

[Nikkola]

Yuki kissed Natsumi on the cheek, "Thanks, Nati-chan." She managed to smile for the first time since she arrived at Nat's place. The air was much cooler than it was earlier. Something was telling Yuki to take Nat to her headquarters. The place where all the couriers report in. But she worried about what might happen. Outsiders were strictly forbidden.

 

[No More Pretending]

Natsumi nodded and walked alongside her, pulling her jacket more tightly to her body and sighing softly. "My pleasure, Yu-chan!"

 

[Nikkola]

Yuki took Natsumi by the hand and led her down the street to an abandoned factory. She looked around curiously and cautiously before leading Nat up a fire escape. They climbed it for a good 10 minutes before reaching the top. Yuki sat down on the roof and began pulling some equipment from her bag.

 

[No More Pretending]

Natsumi stood still and watched her silently. "What are you planning to do?" She asked after a long span of silence.

 

[Nikkola]

"Well," Yuki began, "See that cable? That's how we to the HQ of my organization." It became a little more obvious as she strapped the harness onto Natsumi and herself, that it was a zip line. "It'll be fun!" Yuki grinned at Nat.

 

[No More Pretending]

Natsumi gulped at the looked at the ground from that height. She never was good with high up places; especially if she were only suspended by a cable.

 

[Nikkola]

Seeing the terror in Natsumi's face, Yuki reassured her. "We're going together. You can grip onto me as tight as you need to." She pulled Nat close to her side and kissed her cheek, "It will be over in a minute or two. I promise." Yuki tried her best to comfort her friend.

 

[No More Pretending]

Natsumi gave a small nod and clung loosely onto her. "O-okay.." She whispered shakily.

 

[Nikkola]

Yuki attached her zip line system to the cable and she attached the two of them together, facing each other so it would be the least uncomfortable. "Hold on!" Yuki said. She kicked off the roof and they began to rush down the street, the air rushing intensely by them. The buildings and everything around them were a blur as they picked up speed and Yuki's heart began to pump up with adrenaline. When they passed an orange marker that was clearly visible on one of the buildings, Yuki started to apply the brakes. They sped into what looked like a parking garage and with a bit of a jolt they stopped. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" Yuki exclaimed, her adrenaline still going.

 

[No More Pretending]

Natsumi's knuckles were white because of how tight her grip was on her harness. She cracked one of her eyes open. "I-is it over..?"