Akira continued deeper into the park, determined to find the source of the voice. After a few minutes he decided that he was getting nowhere, seemingly going in circles around the park. It didn’t help that he didn’t know the layout of the park at all as he was new to Tokyo. After another minute of fruitless searching, Akira sat down on a park bench. Pulling out his phone and looking at the time, Akira considered heading home. Then he heard the voice again.

“I do--much time. My--eople need help! You m--ave them!”

Akira sprang back up onto his feet. The voice sounded closer this time, and a lot more urgent. Believing now that he knew the direction it was coming from, Akira began to run toward the voice. As he made his way through the trees, he found himself in front of a water fountain. Initially he just saw the few other teenagers gathered around, but then he saw it, some sort of an energy ball. And rising from the ball was many faint images of ones and zeroes.

The strange sight caused Akira to stop running, standing a few feet behind the others. His mind raced as he tried to find a logical explanation for what he was seeing. Maybe it was a prank, and they were all secretly on camera. Or maybe some sort of promotion using holograms. But if it were those things then why would it be in this almost empty park and not someplace with more people. Akira just didn’t get it.

“So, what are we looking at?” Akira asked no one in particular.