Kita Ward, Akemitani, Sakurakoku
10:11
"Whoa! What the..." Suzuki exclaimed as the computer terminal suddenly flickered out in the middle of his typing. Actually, it wasn't just his computer - the whole office had just gone dark. "Ryu, did you touch something?" he directed towards the circle of light on the far side of the room.
"I haven't even started yet," the electrician replied with a hint of annoyance and perplexity. Indeed, the fuse box hadn't even been opened, and a quick swing of the flashlight revealed Ryu's toolbox was still closed and latched.
"So, what, it's an actual blackout?"
Ryu opened the fuse box and tried a few of the switches to no avail. "It seems so."
Thank goodness for the auto-save feature. Suzuki let out a sigh. "All right, I'm going to see how the rest of the floor's doing. Not like I can get any work done now, anyway."
"All right, I'll see if I can get the power back on." Suzuki nodded as he passed by through the door to the hallway. The emergency floodlights had come on, at least. There was a stream of his co-workers drifting to the conference room next door, which naturally he followed. Some were in bewilderment. Others were rather upset about their sudden inability to conduct their work. Still others took the opportunity to goof off a bit. Not one of them, it seemed, had looked out the windows of their 14th-story office and out at the city of Akemitani like Suzuki. Almost certainly not one of them had noticed what he had noticed.
"Hey, everyone? Since when could we see the ocean from here?"
Akemitani. A newly-bustling city nestled in a small river valley, surrounded by hills in the middle of Sakurakoku. Where the nearest beach was an hour's drive away if it was a Wednesday and you were ditching work.
That certainly got everyone's attention.
Village of Rinkagawa
14 kilometers outside of Akemitani
10:12
Kenji Makamura wasn't liking this.
Well, this needs some clarification. The power outage was a major annoyance, yes - it's rather hard to run a modern electric train without electricity. But it wasn't like this had never happened before - standard emergency procedure was to apply the emergency brakes...except that the emergency brakes weren't working either. Which they should, even in the absence of power from the overhead lines - every train came equipped with a backup battery to allow them to come to a safe stop in case outside power was lost.
It was perhaps fortunate, then, that the train hadn't reached full speed when the power outage struck, because that was when he looked out in front of him. About a kilometer or so ahead, the track was...well, the only phrase that could describe it is "cut out". The rails were sliced clean through, as well as the gravel track bed, the overhead wires, even the wooden rail tie at the edge abruptly ceased without so much as a loose splinter.
And beyond...was yellow sand and clear water. A beach. With a sharp dividing line between the more familiar grass and dirt on the near side, like someone had just cut out the whole town - soil, grass, houses, everything - from its surroundings and decided to make it a seaside resort on a whim.
No power meant the intercom wasn't working, so all Kenji could do was stare and hang on for dear life as the train slid off the rails head-first onto the sand, the friction slowing down the front of the train and causing the front car to twist towards the water. It was a small blessing in this rapidly-strange day that the train remained upright as it slid to a stop. It took Kenji a moment to remember his training and entered through the door into the first passenger car. The riders certainly looked worse for the wear given the unscheduled stop, but through the flood of frenzied questions asking if anyone needed medical attention, there was one question he knew would be coming: "What is going on?"
All Kenji could do was remove his cap and scratch his head. "I wish I knew."
Route 80 surveillence post, southbound
Just over 16 kilometers outside of Akemitani
10:10
The life of a security camera is boring. 99.999% of the time, no one's ever going to give a second look to what you've seen. But a camera can't ever slack, for when that 0.001% comes up, everyone and their cousin's going to want a look. And on this particular morning, at this particular post, looking towards that particular onramp, this particular camera captured what was to be a most...memorable event in Sakuran history.
It wasn't much, but for the first minute or so everything's fine and dandy. Cars and trucks coming in and out of the picture like any other weekday morning. Then a blinding wall appears out of nowhere, and for a split second the only thing the camera can see is white and the time stamp in the corner. The flash leaves as quickly as it came, and the cars on the highway suddenly come to a stop. Some of those vehicles are fortunate enough to come to a stop while going in a straight line - most of those started at the bottom of the screen. The less fortunate ones come to a stop in a rather more abrupt manner - other cars mostly, but there are those who run right off the road going straight, rolling onto a dirt mound that the previous instant hadn't been there. For the highway has now suddenly ceased to be where the wall of light originated. Where there had been flat asphalt, there was now rolling hills of grass. Where there had been a series of streetlights, there were now a scattered array of trees.
Satellite imagery from later showed that centered around Akemitani, a 15 kilometer or so radius of human civilization had mysterious disappeared, and in its place was now untamed and utterly unfamiliar nature and a saltwater lake. It was a mystery for its inexplicable origins. It was a tragedy for those that were at the borders when it happened that caused horrendous car accidents from unprepared motorists. It was a political nightmare for the Sakuran government when rumors spread that a hitherto-top-secret research facility was responsible for the disappearance of some 9 million people from the face of the earth.
But none of this was known at all for the people caught inside the circle. For them, it was the start of a new saga. The legend of the Impromptu Colony.
