Heart-Less

Chapter 19

Nic carefully descended from the galley, trying her best not to shake. She had spent the whole trip avoiding the salty sea spray, and she wasn't going to trip and ruin her equipment now. Finally, she felt her feet land on the soft sand, and immediately, someone rushed forward and hugged her.

"Nic, I can't believe you're finally here," Ada squealed, then took a step back and tilted her head. "What's that on your head?"

Nic reached up and adjusted the strap. "That is the latest camera," she told Ada proudly. "A company sent it to me, and since it's supposed to be able to take 360 degree video, I thought I'd give it a try. I just know my viewers will love to see Sakoku from different directions."

"My viewers would have loved it too," Stace muttered as she walked up from behind. Nic stifled a sigh. That has-been had been complaining for the whole boat ride. Truth be told, every single participant had complained, but Stace had complained the loudest. It was to be expected, Nic reminded herself, Stace was considered a fairly recent predecessor of hers, having been viral only two people ago.

Ada pretended not to hear Stace's remark. Instead, she moved forward and greeted all ten youth representatives, gushing over the content that had propelled them to virality. Nic saw them slowly relaxing. She didn't know Ada was that good — that girl used to wear her heart on a sleeve. Sakoku's exercises must really have helped her to control her emotions.

"Again, thank you so much for coming," Ada clapped her hands in excitement. "I guess you can tell from my accent and because I'm such a big fan of all of you, I'm Ada and I'm the Kaiguo exchange student. On behalf of the Inaugural Trilateral Youth Meeting Council, I'd like to welcome all of you to Sakoku. The Magi students, that's the third country, arrived earlier this morning, and they're already waiting at the Academy. The official introductions will come later, but for now, I hope you enjoy yourselves and find lots of content to share back home. Now, if you'll please follow me, I'll show you to the train." Ada bowed and turned. Like little ducklings, the Kaiguo students followed her to a nearby building, where a train waited.

On the train, the Sakoku students — council members? — handed out small seashell-like devices. Ada motioned towards her ear, and Nic automatically slipped it in and gasped. The words of the Sakoku students were suddenly intelligible.

"Hello." One of the students, a really good looking boy with dark hair and eyes stepped forward. "I am Hiroto, the president of the Inaugural Trilateral Youth Meeting Council." So this was the famous Hiroto, Nic thought. "This thing currently in your ear is an instantaneous translator, and was specially created by our tech wizards to facilitate communication about us. It was faster than cloning Ada, or so I was told." He waited, and realising that the Sakoku student made a joke Nic laughed. The others joined in hesitantly. Hiroto smiled in appreciation. "Please enjoy the rest of the journey."

As soon as Hiroto finished speaking, Nic took out her device and snapped a picture of it. She immediately uploaded it to her Network page, and added a comment:

The meeting hasn't even started and the Sakoku tech wizards have already outdone themselves. This is an instantaneous translating device — bye bye, all your human translators! And no more secret conversations (;

P.s. Stay tuned for my 360 degree video of Sakoku, coming tonight! In the meantime, expect a lot more updates; I'm going to make sure all of you feel as though you're here with me.

Around her, Nic could hear her fellow participants uploading content to their Network pages. But, the phone that buzzed the most with notifications was hers. She could almost feel the arrows shooting from her eyes. Nic caught Ada's eye and winked, causing her friend to stifle a laugh.