A Better Future

An hour or so after the invasive surveillance system went off, an android and a short, pudgy woman showed up to the entrance of Stella's home. They both wore the same blue slacks, same white shirt, and same navy cap. One of them had olive skin; the other wore a silver coat. Both of them were cops. "Hands in the air!" Cried the robot officer, Takashi.

With her hands in the air, Stella emerged from the hallway. Takashi aimed at her with what was clearly a gun armed with rubber bullets—a plastic warning for plastic danger in a frail, small snow globe. 

The human half of the duo, Hana, walked over the door they'd just toppled on her way in. She scanned the area, frowned, then said, "...not again. Didn't they report a violent altercation?"

Takashi looked around, too. "They also flagged it as 'extremely dangerous'..."

Stella's tail swung from side to side.

"...Hana. Doesn't she look... familiar to you...?"

"Hey, catgirl," Hana said. No such thing a 'feline type android'. "What's going on? Where is the extreme, violent danger? Huh?"

Takashi clicked his 'fingers' next to his 'head'. "It's so close. It's like a dream I just woke up from."

Takashi the robot could dream. "This isn't time for your poetry," Hana snapped. "We can't let that criminal get away. Speak, catgirl. Where is he?"

...enough was enough. Shigure was corrupting her. Since when did she find situations like these amusing? Since she realized how silly they were? How silly this world was? "It's me," Stella said. "The one who caused the peach pie disaster."

"Knew it!" Takashi slammed his hat against the floor. "Told you!"

"Wha...? No, you did not!" Hana waved the rubber gun at him. "Stop it!" She then turned back to Stella. "So it's you again, huh? Why is it that every time there's an incident lately, it's you?"

"I am a war veteran from a bygone era, and my significant other is a criminal. Even worse... a psychiatrist."

"That's it," Hana said. "Admission of guilt. Arrest her."

When Takashi arrested her, Stella broke the handcuffs by accident. She'd wanted to check if they were tight enough or not. "Sorry."

"Takashi, she's resisting!"

"...more like she's toying with us."

"Catgirl! Don't you respect the law!?"

"Very much," replied Stella, since it was true. "Many people have died so it can exist. Millions, in fact. Whatever my crime is, I accept it."

"There is no crime," Shigure called out. Wrapped in the covers, he emerged from the hallway. "Takashi, Hana, cut it out, you dumb fucks. That fake alarm went off again because I—"

"Slipped on a puddle and got a concussion," Stella confessed.

Hana, Takashi, and Shigure stared at her.

Stella fused the handcuffs back together with a heat laser before putting them back on (correctly this time). "He had 'one of those days'. Don't ask me what that means, because we've been together for almost half an hour and I still have no idea. Still, I can attest that he did nothing wrong, and that your alarm system thing does the opposite of working. If you brand someone as evil and tell everyone else that he's evil and to stay away, are you warning others of danger, or are you creating it?"

But Hana the cop wanted violence. "Not again. Will you two stop it? Especially you, Fuyukawa. I liked you more when disassembled Takashi for fun."

"And I hate that me more than anything else," said Shigure. "Could you not say those things in front of Stella? Please."

"They're married," Takashi reminded.

"Actua—" Shigure covered Stella's mouth.

Hana smirked. "And she doesn't know about your dirty laundry, eh?"

"She'll know eventually. And, trust me, next to whatever fucked up shit Stella or you did, bullying Takashi is nothing."

"Thanks," said Takashi the robot cop who could dream, liked poetry, and got bullied.

"Welcome." Shigure let Stella go. She held onto his hand, anyway, because she could—because she knew she could now. "So? What now? What will it be this time? Deportation? Community service? Anything but the call center."

"Execution," Hana proposed.

Takashi made a phone call without making a phone call. Like Rebecca, he tilted his head to the side until he 'connected' to the network. "Hello? Yes. We have detained them. Both of them voluntarily surrendered and are... they... did nothing wrong, to be honest? Fuyukawa slipped on a puddle and got a concussion—"

"Did you really have to say that part?"

"—which triggered the alarm. His wife, Stella, said something those above us might want to hear. I believe so, yes. Miss Stella, you're the one from the veteran program, correct? She just nodded. Oh. Why?"

"Why what?" Asked Hana.

"But... they did nothing wrong? Why—but..."

Shigure held out a hand at Hana, who leered at him, but lent her phone, anyway. Stella had never seen anyone type so fast. Shigure was scary. "It's me," he said. "I broke my phone. Yeah. Whatever. Will Stella get her shop or not? Okay, good. Then—" He paused. Both Takashi and Hana glanced at him, then at each other. "...that's fine by me." Stella tried to bat the phone off his hands with her tail, but he was a stupid telephone pole (did those even exist still), so she couldn't reach him.

Thus, breaking the handcuffs again, she...

...failed to grab it. Just in time, he moved the phone back.

Stella atomized it.

"WHAaa..." Hana's voice thinned into a squeal.

"I'll pay it back," Stella said. "And better. Shigure, you nincompoop, you almost agreed to 'them' winning. AGAIN. Were they going to send you back to Earth? AGAIN? No—you were going to send yourself. You say you haTED yourself, but you act like you still do. Stop being so silly. You too, Hana and Takashi. You're supposed to serve the law. And you too, Kou!"

The drone spying on them zoomed away.

"Why is everyone so silly!? Stop it! Just be normal for once! Where are 'they' so I can talk to 'them' in person? Hm?"

Shigure was still paralyzed from having an object turned into subatomic particles right next to his face. To be fair, she should've thought that through. But—actually, no. If she had taken the time to think it through, then he would've agreed to go back to Earth (AGAIN), and she was sick and tired of his drama queen antics.

...wait.

"Could we arrange a meeting with the supervisor?" Takashi asked 'them' at the other end of the line. "...no, Fuyukawa just cracked Hana's phone accidentally by accident. Indeed. I saw it happen with my own eyes."

...she'd been waffling about how scary she was, only to demonstrate how easily, how casually she could cause the snow globe to shatter from within...

"Then? How do we proceed?"

...perhaps she wasn't fit to live the life of a civilian... after all...

Takashi's glowy eye orbs simulated a frown. He saluted, as though the person at the other end of the line could see this. "Aye!"

...perhaps... it was her destiny to stay alone... after all...

"What is it?" Hana asked. "What did they say?"

"There's multiple reports of drone thievery again. Stella and Fuyukawa's case is on hold."

"WHY!?" Hana slammed her hat against the floor. "Does no one respect the meaning of justice anymore!?"

...no one... nothing... she deserved nothing...

"Well," Takashi replied, "This is justice, isn't it? They can't be convicted for something they might commit. We all know how that experimental dome ended..."

"No," Stella said, "She's right. They're all right. I am a monster..."

To which Shigure responded, "Shut up," and karate-chopped her.

Two drones hovered outside, almost certainly from Kou and Tsukiko. "Then?" Hana asked.

"Then?" Takashi asked.

"Then?" Kou asked through the drone.

"Then," Shigure finished, "Get the fuck out of here. Before I call the cops for unlawful entry. Oh, wait."

Hana picked up her hat, Takashi's hat, and a shard of Shigure's broken phone. "Evidence," she said, "For the crime your wife did. I better get the latest model—the retro one you can bend—or else. Or else."

Takashi gently pushed her out. "Let's go, Hana. We have drone thieves to catch."

"...there's never anything interesting going on anymore... ever..."

Shigure let out a breath so shaky the moment they left that Stella braced herself for a second collapse, but no. He stood there, glancing at Kou and Tsukiko's drones, which crashed together before they zoomed towards the safety of their homes. With his hair loose and messy, the scar and the sniper stare, it was easy to see him as... him. 'All the mistakes that had led him here'.

"...Shigure?"

"Stella."

"Are you okay?"

"No? Am I ever? Are you ever?"

"Is anyone ever?"

"Exactly." Shigure turned back to the hallway, to the guest room. Stella followed. So what if the main door now served as a carpet? What was the worst that could happen? A drone invasion?

Back to the darkness.

Shigure sat instead of lying down on the bed this time. Whatever he saw when he stared at the floor wasn't here, but in his memories.

That, by itself, made him braver than her.

"Shigure?"

"Mhm?"

'Do you like it here?'

'Do you want to be here?'

'If you could go back in time, would you do 'everything wrong' again, if it meant...'

No, he would not.

"I'm not scared of you, if that's what you're going to ask," he told the darkness. "What else... ah, yeah, I'm staying. I was about to bargain going back so you could keep your shop, but Gray did a lot of heavy lifting behind the scenes, apparently. Besides, it's not like they win anything by going against the point of the program. I don't know. I just..."

"Yes," Stella said. "Me too."