"So honestly, what IS it?"
"It's really hard to explain, it took me quite a while to understand as well. But after you do, you'll realize the strange utility of it."
"It's just a piece of metal and plastic. And it's not even enchanted."
"It's not like that...Just listen."
It was about 5 o'clock in the afternoon that day. The weather was mild, as it was admist spring, Mid-March to be exact. Fujiwara no Mokou stood in the schoolhouse with Keine Kamishirasawa and looked at the strange object that was sitting on one of the school's desks. It was, as far as Mokou could tell, just a group of square pieces of junk. One of the squares had a few buttons and lights on it, and was taller than the rest of the pieces. This piece had some strange cables streaming out the back of it, one leading to the wall, and the others leading to every other piece of junk. The second bit that had caught her eye was not as tall as the first piece, but wider. It also had large section of glass on the front, as if it were a window to the inside, but it was simply dark when Mokou tried to look into it. This piece also had a small light on it, and a few buttons. However, the most intruiging pieces were the smaller ones that lay in front of the two larger ones, for they seemed to be the most useful, and yet were the most perplexing. One was a small piece of plastic that fit easily into the hand, and had two buttons with a small rubber wheel that spun inbetween them. The second was a flat piece of plastic with many buttons on it, all with either letters, numbers, symbols, words, or a comination of sorts printed on them. However, pressing any of the buttons seemed to do nothing, so Mokou was left extremely confused.
"It's called a computer," Keine started, "and people in the outside world use it to do all sorts of things."
"Yeah? Like what? None of these buttons do anything!" Mokou noted as she pressed a few more buttons on the flat piece.
"Mokou, becareful with that!" Keine warned as she noticed how hard her friend was treating her computer. "That's called the keyboard, and you use it to control the computer."
"Then why doesn't anything work?" Mokou asked yet again, becoming increasingly frustrated at this farce. For all she knew, this entire situation was some sort of joke being played on her.
"You have to turn the computer on first," Keine replied. "The computer doesn't work if it's not on."
"What do you mean on? It's like a machine?" Mokou inquired.
"Yes, I guess you could think of it that way. But this isn't a mechanical machine with gears or anything, it works in a different way. But that part is really hard to explain, so I'll just leave it at that." Keine smiled.
Mokou wasn't sure whether or not to feel insulted at that comment - she was sure she could understand it if she worked hard enough. However, just the idea of the strange object before her having such a diverse use that Keine herself would obtain one for her school was hard enough, so she decided to silently agree.
"So...How do you turn it on?" Mokou asked, looking at all of the keys on the keyboard. "None of these look like they'll do it."
"You press this button right here." Keine pointed to a large white button on the tall piece. "This part is the actual computer, and this is where all the work is done."
"Will it be loud? If it does as much as you say, it's gotta be noisy, or bright, or something." The immortal thought about what kinds of things the computer might do if it was turned on, and nothing she could think of sounded extremely pleasant. If something does a lot of work, it must make a lot of noise obviously, especially if it's a machine.
"Actually, it's suprisingly quiet. It makes a small bit of noise constantly, but hoenstly you'll get used to it within minutes, seconds even." Keine explained. "It really is a wonder. Here, take a seat in that chair and turn it on. I'll show you."
Mokou took a seat in Keine's chair at her teacher's desk, and looked at the computer tower. She honestly couldn't fathom what would possibly happen if she pressed the large white button on the front of it. However, being as long lived as she had been, she had seen countless changes in the world, of which includes countless inventions that she has gotten used to over the years. Simply deciding that nothing bad could come out of it, Mokou pressed the large button and waited for the computer to start doing whatever it was supposed to do.
As she pressed the button, a few of the lights on the front of the tower lit up, and some noises started to come from the large object. Suddenly, Mokou could start to see words and lines appear within the glass-covered structure.
"Keine, what's it doing? And what's all this stuff mean? It's appearing and dissapearing too fast, I can't read any of it!" Mokou said, frantically attempted to see what this strange machine was attempting to do.
"None of those words are really important, the computer is starting up." Keine explained.
"Then why is it even doing it? And how does it keep changing like this? What's going on!?" The immortal asked frantically, becoming increasingly confused on how this strange contraption could have had words written on it behind the darkness, and yet how the words could continually fluxuate, move, and change themselves without any type of magic at all.
"Mokou, that's called the monitor. It shows what the computer is doing, and it's made up of lots of little square lights called pixels." Keine started once again. "The computer controls how those lights turn on or off, or change color, and by doing that with many of the lights at the same time, it can create things like words or pictures. Then it can move or change them by simply changing which lights are on. That's about the best way I can explain it..." The teacher added, seeing Mokou's confused look on her face.
"So...Those are all tiny little lights?" Mokou asked in confirmation.
"Yes. Perhaps it's best to simply take it as it is instead of trying to think about it too hard, the technology of the outside world is quite confusing." Keine told her friend candidly.
"Yeah...What's this mean? Stuff stopped moving. Is it broken?" Mokou asked as she noticed that the computer had stopped flashing assorted words and pictures by, and it was now sitting on a stationary screen. "Keine...Password...You have to tell it a password? Do you just say it?"
"No, that's what the keyboard is for." The were-hakutaku explained once again. "See all of the letters and numbers? When you press one, it writes that letter in the little box right here." Keine pointed to the white box that was asking for the password.
"Ok, I guess that kinda makes sense, although I don't get how so many of these buttons can function through this little cable..." Mokou noted as she poked at the keyboard's cord.
"A computer functions through pulses of electricity, I was told." The teacher began to tell her. "You remember how electricity works, right?"
"Yeah, it's like lightning running through metal, but in smaller amounts, used to power stuff like lightbulbs." Mokou smiled, feeling smart for a change.
"That's right, and a computer can read different micro-pulses of electricity as different signals to it. That's how you talk to the computer to tell it to do things - you press the keys on the keyboard, which then send little tiny bits of electricity through that cord and into the main computer, which then is read by the computer, and the action you requested is performed. For example, if you press the 'a' key right there, the computer will quickly read the electricity that the keyboard sent to it, and it will recognize that you pressed 'a', and then it will write the 'a' in this white box."
Mokou sat and tried to absorb the teacher's words, but things weren't quite clicking with her. She was trying her best to understand this strange contraption known as a computer, but the more she tried to understand, the more she was simply confused, as more questions arose. She gave up for the time being, and decided to just work with the basics - how to operate it.
"Ok Keine, what's the password?" Mokou asked.
Keine thought for a moment, then turned to her friend. "I'm not going to give it to you."
"What!? Come on, why not?" Mokou reacted, shocked at this new development, thinking that Keine was distrusting her.
"Well, it's hard to explain exactly why, but let's say that a computer remembers certain things that you've done with it, and some of the things I've done I'd like if they weren't changed, like the student's grades I have the computer remember." Keine started. "However, we can tell the computer that you're a new person, and you can have your own password that will tell the computer to set itsself up just for you."
"How does that even..." Mokou started, but deemed it was no use once again. She really didn't understand what was going on, as she was getting very lost.
"Here, I'll just set it up for you. If I may have my seat, please." Keine smiled, and Mokou agreed, getting out of the seat.
Keine typed in a password generally quickly and pressed another key, which caused the screen to start changing once again. Mokou was amazed the her friend was able to find all the letters on the keyboard so quickly, because they seemed to be just scattered around randomly. Without explaining anything, Keine took a hold of the smaller device that had two buttons and the wheel on it and began to move it around. She pressed a button on it, which caused more things to appear on the screen, and continued this strange pattern for a bit. Mokou was trying to follow what she was doing, but it was all so new to her, especially since she was born such a long time ago, and her mind was having a tough time trying to wrap around the idea of this strange contraption.
After a small while, Keine pressed a few more buttons and the computer's screen returned to what it looked like before the teacher had taken over. However, there was an extra word on the screen: "Mokou".
"There we are, I have your profile set up." Keine affirmed her friend. "Now all you have to do is type in your password, and it will let you use it."
"So the passwords are so that nobody you don't want to use your computer doesn't use it?" Mokou asked, figuring out the entire process slowly.
"That's right. And, as I will explain better in a moment, you can make computers memorize things, such as my list of students and their grades. Sometimes there's things that you want to keep safe on a computer, and you don't want anybody to tell the computer to change what you had it memorize."
"Wouldn't the computer just know that whoever is trying to tell it things isn't you?" Mokou asked.
"You have to remember, Mokou, the computer is a machine." Keine told her. "It doesn't actually know who you are - all it does is ask you the password when you first turn it on, and if you tell it the correct password, it will let you use it. It can't actually see you, or hear you."
Mokou thought about this for a moment, and it somewhat made sense. "So it's kind of like a key to a house - if somebody steals your key, the lock won't know any different. Right?"
"I never thought of it that way, but yes, it works just like that." Keine smiled. "I'm suprised at how fast you're learning all of this Mokou, it took me quite a while to understand even a small portion of what you know already."
Mokou was somewhat shocked, because she thought that she wasn't understanding much at all. This made computers seem even more cryptic and strange to her - if Keine took longer than her to understand this stuff, and she was having trouble as it is, then computers must be even more complicated than she imagined.
"Where did you even get this thing?" Mokou asked.
"From Kourindou. You know, that shop that deals in all sorts of strange goods, including some things from the outside world." Keine answered.
"I guess that makes sense...Anyway, what is my password to tell the computer who I am?"
"Oh, right. Here, click on your name." Keine started.
"Do what now?" Mokou asked, confused.
"Oh, right. Here, take that into your hand. It's called the mouse." Keine explained, pointing to the small plastic object she had used before.
Mokou picked it up and looked at it. "What do I do now?"
"No, don't lift it. You put your hand on it, but keep it on the table." Keine explained, laughing a bit at Mokou's attempts at understanding the computer.
"Then what do you do with it?" The immortal asked back.
"You see that little arrow on the screen?" Keine pointed to it. "This is called the cursor. You move it using the mouse. Slide the mouse across the table for yourself, see what happens."
Mokou did just that, and was astonished at how the cursor moved. She moved it up and down, left and right, and in a small circle.
"Wow...But what do you do with it?"
"See those two buttons on the mouse?" Keine pointed. "The left one is the most important one, and the right one is the secondary one. You move the cursor over to what you want the computer to pay attention to, or do next, then you press the left mouse button. That's called clicking something, because of the sound that the mouse makes when you press the button."
"Okay...I guess..." Mokou confusedly said, moving the mouse around a bit more, and pressing the left click a few times. "Nothing's happening."
"That's because you're not clicking on anything. Here, move the cursor to your name, and click on it."
Mokou did just that, and the white box underneath Keine's name dissapeared, with a box underneath Mokou's name appearing.
"Now do I tell it the password?" Mokou asked.
"Yes, you do. I set your password as 'hello' for right now, but you can change it later. Just type the world 'hello' using the keyboard, then press the key that says enter right there." Keine pointed to the enter key.
Mokou searched around the keyboard for the H, and it was beginning to annoy her about how many letters and symbols were on the thing. She quickly figured out that all of the letters were grouped, but this still didn't help matters on trying to find the exact letter she wanted. Finally, she found it, and pressed it. A small black dot appeared in the white box on the screen, much to Mokou's suprise, who was expecting an H.
"What happened? This is just some dot, did I do something wrong?"
"No, the computer does that on purpose." Keine explained. "That way if somebody is looking at the computer screen while you're trying to type in your password, they can't simply read it. The computer knows it was an H you pressed, so please continue." Keine smiled, motioning toward the computer.
Turing her attention back to the keyboard, Mokou searched around for an E. Finding it, she repeated the process with the L, of which she pressed twice, and the O. Looking a bit more, she found the enter key, and pressed it, then looked up at the screen and waited.
"Hey...It says "Welcome Mokou". I did it right?"
"Yes, you did." Keine smiled. "Now you can use the computer."
"Wow, all of that just to get the thing turned on. Are you sure these things are really all that useful?" Mokou asked.
"Yes, you just need to get used to using them. Once you do, you'll be able to tell it your password quickly and get straight to doing what you wish to do on the computer."
"Which is...?" The immortal looked up at the teacher, not exactly sure what to do next.
The two sat in the schoolroom for several hours more, with Keine enjoying watching Mokou learn about the computer. Keine explained a lot of words and terms that Mokou would need to know, such as a file, logging in and out, an icon, and a program. A program specifially intruiged Mokou - she could somewhat understand a file, the computer would somehow memorize a set of words (the type of file Keine showed her was a simple word processing document), and tell you later when you wanted to read it again. However, the concept of a program was most perplexing to her.
As Keine explained it, a program was a set of instructions written in a special code that a computer would remember, and if you told the computer to run the set of instructions, it would do different things. There were all different types of programs that a computer could perform, and it was then that the utility of a computer was beginning to dawn upon the immortal girl. Keine explained that in the outside world, people can get paid to create complex instructions for computers to perform complex tasks, such as the program that tells a computer how to save and load the word processing files that Keine had shown her. Mokou began to understand a computer as a type of mechanical, servant intelligence at that point - it was stupid at first, but if you told it different programs, or gave it lots of files, it would memorize things and never forget them unless you told it to.
After Mokou had (mostly) mastered the ideas and terms of doing simple things like making text files and changing her password, Keine had one more thing to show her.
"The internet?" Mokou asked inquisitively, becoming confused again.
"Yes, the internet." Keine affirmed her. "It's a type of virtual network that lets thousands of computers talk to eachother at once."
"How does that work? And what is it?" Mokou asked, not having the slightest clue of what it could be.
"Well, let's put it this way. Somewhere in the outside world, there are giant computers who's job is to do nothing but remember and process things for other computers to access. These are called servers, and they have hundreds and thousands of cords that run to computers all over the world, like a giant net, and if you plug one of those cords into your computer, your computer can talk to these giant computers."
"So you connect your computer to these giant computers in the outside world, and then they...talk?" Mokou asked. "I thought they couldn't talk because they're machines."
"They don't actually talk, Mokou." Keine smiled once again. "They send electrical pulses extremely quickly through the cords, and those pulses are in patterns that comptuters are built to understand. A computer then takes the messages that all of these pulses creates, and does something with it. These messages could be in the form of more programs, or files, or just about anything really."
Mokou tried to wrap her mind around this idea, but as with everything else that had to do with these strange devices, it was coming slow to her. However, her longevity had taught her to accept things as they were, so she once again decided not to try to think about it too hard.
"So...what do you do with the internet?"
"You can do many, many things. The servers that manage the internet hold plenty of things - encyclopedia's worth of information, pictures of just about everything you can think of, anything. The beauty of the internet is that anybody can give the servers information to remember, and therefore you can find people's own personal thoughts and opinions on things, and you can even place your own thoughts or questions on the internet and have somebody somewhere completely different in the world read them, then place their responses. That way, it's like you'd be talking to that person, even though you're still here in Gensokyo, and they're still where they were."
Mokou stopped and digested this information for quite some time, attempting to work out what it meant. She was boggling over the idea that computers were so complex and worldwide, and that she had not only never heard of them, but that this sort of thing could have even been created in the fist place.
"So what you're saying is that this computer is connected with the world. And I can talk with anybody in the world who also has a computer? Wouldn't that get annoying?" Mokou asked.
"Well, there's certain limitations, and it's not like that really. You see..."
Keine's lesson on the wonders of the internet lasted clear until 11 o'clock at night. The two had gained substantial progress in making Mokou learn about computers in that day, and yet it was all still a new blur to her. After much trial and error, Mokou learned that the best way to go about learning the ways of the internet would to be simply begin to use it and see what happens. Keine had Mokou pull up a browser, which opened up to a search engine.
"What's this thing?" The immortal asked.
"That's called a search engine, and it's the fastest way to look around the internet." Keine told her. "You simply type what you want to look for in that box right there, and then press search. Then a bunch of links to different things on the internet will come up, all based on what you typed in. What's something you'd like to look for?"
"Something I'd like to look for...Well, up until now, computers have been a lot of work and stress for me. How about something fun?" Mokou noted, seeing how all she had been exposed to thus far was from a teacher's perspective, who had gotten the computer exclusively for work purposes.
"Mm, yes. I guess you could look for some games or something...Try typing that. Games." Keine told her, seeing how it was far after the school day anyway, and a bit of play would not hurt anyone.
Mokou typed in the word slowly into the search bar, and clicked search. A large list of website links flew across the screen, and Mokou was a bit intimidated at the internet's speed at first, but then began to read what had come up.
"Free online games....Flash games....What's all this stuff mean?"
"A flash game is a small program that has the purpose of entertaining you. You play it by pressing certain buttons on the keyboard, or by using your mouse, at certain times to make things happen. For example, if the game included a character that was supposed to jump over things, you would press one button to jump, and perhaps another to walk. Then it would be your job as the player to make the character jump over things on the screen." Keine explained once again, being the teacher that she is.
"That sounds...boring. Wouldn't such a game be kinda pointless?" Mokou asked. "I mean, it's like playing with dolls. Yeah it's fun if you're a little kid, or if you have nothing better to do, but it gets old really fast."
Mokou continued to look through the links, and then one caught her eye.
"Bliss online...Enter the fantastic world of Bliss online. Includes over 15 activity skills, over 50 combat skills, and 6 classes to choose from. Join our community and sign up today...I wonder what this is?"
"Oh, that's really complex looking..." Keine started. "I don't know if you should play that one."
"Are you calling me stupid?" Mokou lashed out a bit.
"No, of course not!" Keine was taken aback. "It's just that it's one of -those- games."
"What do you mean?" Mokou asked with slightly baited breath.
"Well, those kinds of games you play with hundreds of other people at once, and they're very complex and difficult to learn. Also, it's not a game like Chess that you'd set up every time you play it - it saves your progress every time you stop playing, so you need to think long term if you wish to play that sort of game."
"Well, you know me, I got all the time in the world." Mokou half-joked. Keine laughed slightly with her, but the laughter coming from both of them was bitter. "I'm going to try it."
Keine looked at Mokou for a second in disbelief, but then decided that she should let her. For the first time since she had known the girl, Mokou took an actual interest in something new to her. Usually she was always somewhat stuck in her old ways, but something about computers seemed to spark a curiousity that, as a teacher, Keine was not about to squander.
"Alright...I guess you can play on my computer for a while. I'm going to go home, make sure you lock all of the doors when you leave here, and log out of the computer and turn it off for me. Ok?" Keiene told her, yawning a bit.
"Ok Keine." Mokou said, beginning to read through the web page that she had been brought to. "Good night."
"Good night, Mokou." Keine smiled before turning and leaving the schoolhouse, and leaving Mokou alone with her computer.
