Chapter Two: TUTORIAL
Matsukiyo stopped screaming in terror moments after his feet touched solid ground, the memory of the inky void he fell through already of less priority once he took a glance around from his position on the hard ground.
The first thing he noticed was how dark out it was; a look up to the skies revealed no stars in the sky, but instead a freakishly large moon bathing the surroundings in pale light.
Said surroundings consisted of what was clearly a small village, seeing as from his vantage point -which appeared to be a broken up slab of dark, glossy stone overgrown with grassy shoots on top of a hill overlooking the place- there were only around 10 or so buildings, with them varying from simple wooden huts that looked like they had grown into their shapes, to a bunch of small apartment buildings.
As Matsukiyo picked himself up, checking himself over for injuries of any kind, the sheer excitement of actually making it to the Denjū world filled his body until he threw his arms in the air in jubilation and a happy cry, nearly missing the ground beneath his boots grow somewhat warm. He surely didn't miss felt a thrum run through said ground beneath his feet and up his body, led by an instinct to look skyward, where his acquaintance just blinkedintoexistenceabovehim-!
"Owowow..." The shorter boy groaned on the floor he found himself on again, in unison with Shigeki, who had collided with him from the fall and landed beside him.
Within a few seconds, the other boy rolled sideways into a crouch, frantically looking around for his bat, which he quickly found lying nearby and grabbed with a sigh of relief.
"My mom woulda killed me if I had lost this, y'know." Shigeki huffed, walking over to Matsukiyo.
After fixing his askew glasses, the excitement took a hold of him again and he grabbed a hold of Shigeki's shoulders with a grin;
"We made it, Shigeki! We're in the Denjū world!" He exclaimed.
"Wait, for real?!" Shigeki asked, his head swiveling around in all directions to take in his surroundings as well.
"Yeah! Take a look at your D-Shot; it should have four bars instead of three! All D-Shots apparently have a special antennae that can receive and send the signals present in the Denjū world. They even allow someone to travel here!"
Taking a look at his phone, which was apparently a D-Shot, Shigeki did indeed see four bars instead of the three that were normal. He tried to look up his menu to see if anything else was different, but was met with nothing new.
[System Update in Progress]: {D-Shot}
"Hey, Shigeki."
Looking up from his phone, he saw a frown on the other boy's face.
"Generally, D-Shots are difficult to get; how did you get a hold of one?"
"Uh, I kiiinda 'found' it in a junkyard?" Shigeki answered sheepishly.
"Eh? How?!"
"H-Hey! Don't sh-shake me like that, man!"
Their spat made it hard to notice someone creeping up besides them,
"Hello, humans."
... That is, until that someone spoke up, that is.
Matsukiyo let go of Shigeki's t-shirt, and Shigeki dropped him back down from where he held him up, just for both of them to look to the side and spot a 6-foot tall green dragon turtle with a bladed tail step up to them surprisingly silently for it's size.
Seeing this, and the way both children were completely speechless at the sight of him, the deep, wizened old voice of the dragon turtle Denjū rasped out a chuckle.
"Ah, such lively children. We haven't had actual newcomers for a long while, and not the way you came, in any case. Does that mean you may Chosen?" He thought out loud before shaking his head with a smile.
"Ah, nevermind that. Come, you've come all this way already, why not take a rest in my house? I am the Leader of Tronco Village, the place that you've found yourselves in. I assure you, I mean no harm, children."
Shigeki blinked at the offer, before turning himself and Matsukiyo around to back the Denjū and thus have some privacy.
"So... Whaddya think? You're the smarty-pants that wanted to come here in the first place; do we follow him?" He whispered.
"Yeah, he doesn't seem to be a bad person, and I've already heard about the Leader of one of the Villages being some sort of turtle, so I'm pretty sure he checks out. Let's follow him; we could learn something." Matsukiyo assured, before turning around.
"Er, Mr. Denjū? Yeah, we're okay with that."
"Wonderful. Follow me."
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It turned out that the Leader's house was a bigger version of the huts that seemed to have been grown into their shapes. Inside was a large open space with a large red carpet covering the wooden floor, a few potted plants in the corners, a place sectioned off -probably a bedroom- and numerous shelves of books.
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There was also another Denjū there, leaning on one of said shelves, watching them.
The Denjū looked like a bipedal armadillo. About as tall as Matsukiyo, it was covered in yellow fur, and its ears were long rods poking out from the sides of its head; the same could be said about it's tail. It had a somewhat tapered snout, with blue eyes and a small mouth. The exceptions to its colours were its brown armoured three-clawed feet, its four-clawed arms and its entire back, which was covered in overlapping brown, spiky plates that ended on its forehead. It also had a smooth red orb in its middle and green armour over what seemed to be two ribs on each side as well as pads over the shoulders.
Its eyes seemed to roam over the two kids, until it spotted Shigeki's D-Shot, and went utterly still.
The two didn't really notice that last part, because they were seated on big pillows in front of the other Denjū, listening attentively.
"Now that we've established that I'm not going to eat you two... Are you both familiar with the Denjū world?" The dragon turtle Denjū asked.
"Nope!" The two chorused.
With a nod, the turtle got more comfortable on his own large mat, ready to explain.
"Alright then, let me give you two a bit of history;
The Human and Denjū worlds have always been separated by what those that have traveled through it call a Curtain of Darkness. Over the last of your decades, human scientists through trying to boost the signals of their telecommunications mistakenly hit upon the right frequencies to pierce through to our world.
Thankfully, the Curtain wasn't actually torn, because the connection was quite shoddy due to you humans not knowing how to properly transmit the signals of the Denjū world. This meant that we Denjū that were aware of the breach, had to respond. I was one of the Leaders back then given he responsibility to do so.
That slab on the hill overlooking this village was specially made to receive signals from beyond the Curtain and reconstitute them in that very location.
The Denjū world is harsh for you humans to live in, however. We Denjū are more made out of energy and signals than matter, we are more suited to our environment, unlike humans. This is why the humans began to befriend us Denjū.
As a sign of the friendship between us, several Leaders and Holders came together with your world's scientists to finally reliably transmit the signals of the Denjū world. This is the origin of your D-Shots, and they were primarily produced so that we could always contact one another."
The Denjū then used his tail to point at Shigeki, or more specifically, his D-Shot.
"That is the kind of device you possess.
Phones with programs that allow us to contact allies and friends at any time are a great convenience to us as well. Because of this, it has become customary to exchange our {I.D.}s, our "Phone Numbers", with any friends that we meet."
With a soft huff, the Denjū stood up to his full height, and began pacing.
"However, among us Denjū there are many who believe that strength is key, and refuse to see those weaker than them as their friends or equals. In these cases, one must battle if they truly wish to befriend the other.
These fights between Denjū are known as "Telefang", and the human who befriends Denjū and competes in Telefang battles with them is known as a "T-Fanger"."
With his exposition mostly completed, the Denjū stopped in front of the two boys, who hadn't said a word all this while for various reasons; Matsukiyo was furiously writing down most of this on a well-used notepad he pulled out from his pocket, while Shigeki was just focused on how cool this all sounded.
"So? Do you two understand now?" The Denjū asked.
"Yeah, I think I get it all, now." Shigeki answered, seeing as Matsukiyo was still preoccupied with his writing.
"Then we shall discuss the reason that you were called here."
"Wait a second, you're the reason that the Antenna Tree back home brought us here?" The shorter boy blurted, writing forgotten.
"Yes, I am. Although you would have at some point made your way here eventually, if your D-Shot was put into enough contact with an Antenna Tree. I am a Code Key Holder, with special permissions that allow me to interact with the Antenna Trees. It's my job as a Leader that helps a lot with that." The Denjū acknowledged with a nod.
"Now, back to business. A Denjū named Netaro lives at this village's water source.
He is always dozing off.
Ha... Such a troublesome fellow...
You see, Netaro has the important job of making sure that the Wells are working so that the Village has water, but for several days now, we've been unable to contact him.
Now, we still have some water remaining, but personally, I'm getting worried about Netaro himself as well an eventual lack of water troubling the villagers. That is why we want you humans to go look for him."
At this point, Shigeki flew to his feet, with a hand on his bat and a wild grin on his face.
"An adventure?! Sign me right up, mister!"
Matsukiyo shared a glance with both Denjū who looked at him, and simply shrugged as an explanation for the other boy's enthusiasm.
Meanwhile, the dragon turtle Denjū had a smile on his face at said enthusiasm, although he quickly schooled his expression as he walked a bit closer.
"While I appreciate your enthusiasm, you still haven't gotten the full story. You see, there is just one problem, and that is Netaro's younger brother, Nejiro.
He's another troublemaker, and from the short correspondence I had with him before he blocked me off, he's surely misunderstood whatever situation is on ground, and may try to hurt you."
With this, he motioned for the other Denjū to step up, and the armadillo Denjū quickly rushed over, a serious look on its face.
"For that reason, I'm having you take this Denjū along with you. Think of him as your first friend in the Denjū world."
"Hello human. My name's Crypto! Nice to meet ya. Here's my {I.D.}" The Denjū greeted, just as Shigeki's D-Shot let out a chime.
[System Update Complete]:{D-Shot}
[Unpacking Data...]:{D-Shot}
[Generating CONTACTS.APK]:{D-Shot}
[Generating FIELD_GUIDE.APK]:{D-Shot}
[2 of 2 Processes Completed]:{D-Shot}
#Incoming Signal FROM Client: User I.D: 05#-2*B2-#7154. Client Designation"Crypto":{D-Shot}
=#Connection Successful:{D-Shot}
[Archiving Data]:{D-Shot}
Looking at it, he saw a new app that had appeared on his screen that displayed the following information;
Number Received
(05#-2*B2-#7154)
Designation: Crypto
Level: 5
Stage: Natural
"Woohoo! I have a Denjū pal!" Shigeki exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air and nearly hitting Matsukiyo with his bat by accident.
While the bigger boy was celebrating by hugging with his new friend, who was wide-eyed as he nearly felt his self compress with how hard the hug was, the dragon turtle Denjū's eyes flashed as he spoke.
"Take this as well; it is a Map of this world. It is very much general, but places you have been to will update with new information and better clarity. I believe it will be of use to you."
#Incoming Signal FROM Client: User I.D: N/A. Client Designation"Code Key Holder":{D-Shot}
=#Connection Successful:{D-Shot}
[Received Data]:{D-Shot}
[Unpacking Data]:{D-Shot}
[Generating MAP.APK]:{D-Shot}
[Process Completed]:{D-Shot}
Another chime from his D-Shot had Shigeki free his new partner from the soul-crushing hug as he took a look at the stylized map for the village.
With that settled and no other words or gifts forthcoming, Shigeki nearly dashed out the door while grabbing both Matsukiyo's and Crypto's hands, but the bespectacled boy slipped out of his grip and took a few steps back towards the Leader.
"Shigeki. I really want to look around this village and ask the Leader here some more questions, so I'm waiting here. Besides, I don't even jave my own partner nor a D-Shot of my own! I'll just get in your way.
Just make sure you don't have too much fun without me, okay?"
Crypto, who was already at the door huffed,
"Hurry up! Let's go wake that lazybones Netaro up!"
This lead the Leader to laugh heartily,
"Hohoho! Best of luck to you two then! I'll show you something interesting when you return, so look forward to it!"
And with that, Shigeki set out on his adventure, a bat in one hand, his D-Shot in another, and his new partner Crypto by his side.