Middel World

Vann Akiyama was currently doing his best to disappear into his seat. Why did they have to move to Japan? Vann knew enough Japanese, so that wasn't really the problem. He had to leave his friends, his home behind. He even had a girlfriend, but they had broken up before he left. She had said that a long distance relationship just wouldn't work, and Vann agreed.

After Mom died in that car accident a few months ago, Dad had become...erratic. One day at breakfast, he, out of the blue, decided that he was moving back to Japan, and that Vann was coming with him.

He had moved to America when he was eighteen, because his Buddhist family had cut him off for his atheistic beliefs. Akiyama Naoki moved to America for a fresh start. It, however, was not the atheist's paradise he had evidently been hoping for.

In a nutshell, it sucked.

There was one bright spot, though. Janice Wilson. Vann still had no idea how the two met, they would never tell him, but he wasn't complaining about being alive.

Vann's eyes fell to the screen of the laptop his father was typing furiously away on. He wasn't even going to try and read the kanji or katakana, or whatever the writing was called. He could speak Japanese, but he sucked at reading it.

Feeling the eyes on him, Naoki glanced at his son.

"You seem...down," he said. Janice always said he had talent for stating the obvious.

"Do I?" Vann snarled. "Oh I wonder why?"

Naoki saved and closed his work. "Don't use that tone of voice with your father," he snapped, "and don't whine. This will be a great experience for you."

"No, it'll be great for you. Anyway, where are we gonna stay? Your family's not gonna have anything to do with us, and neither of us have any money."

"I have money."

"Yeah, how much?"

"¥216,000.00."

"And how much is that in dollars?"

About $1,856.00, enough for this month's utilities and a nice apartment."

Vann was about to remind him of mortgage, taxes, and ect., when the flight attendant spoke over him through the planes P.A. system.

"Attention, passengers," she said in Japanese, "please return to your seats and fasten your seat belts, we are about to land at the Rakuen City Airport."

Vann stared out the window beside his seat, fixated on the city that rested on an island, just beside the one they were about to land on. Calling the sprawling metropolis beautiful just didn't do it justice. The buildings were almost all stark white and glass, and rose almost impossibly high. From his vantage point, Vann could see the spidering streets that seemed to have no cohesive pattern whatsoever.

This was where his father had grown up?

Vann was amazed; it would take him weeks, possibly months, to learn how to find his way around this place.

As the plane began to descend, Vann leaned back into his seat, no longer interested in disappearing into it. He rested his head in his arms.

Things would pick up.

Hopefully.

---------------------------------------------

Vann had lived in smaller apartments before. Overall, the place that his father had purchased was great. They were walking distance from a small collection of stores, and like the rest Rakuen, anything more illegal then jaywalking was all but unheard of.