July 29, 2053 – 3:14 p.m.

"In a crowd, the individual is no longer aware of his own actions. Certain faculties are dormant in him, while others can be driven to an extreme degree of exaltation."

Jin is lying on the ground with his eyes closed, regaining consciousness. Although he is very weak, he can vaguely hear voices around him.

"Gaho, are you here already? What was that light?"

"I don't know, but when I arrived, there was this kid on the ground." 

"A kid? What if he's one of Gotha's henchmen?"

"Even if he's just an ordinary citizen, he must have come from somewhere, which means this place isn't as inaccessible as we thought."

"Maybe he's bait sent by Gotha to find out our location."

"Or worse, he could be some fugitive on the run."

"Where are the leaders in all this?"

"But don't you think we've seen this before?" 

"Yeah... he does look familiar now that you mention it." 

Jin slowly begins to open his eyes. 

"Hey! Hey! He's waking up."

"Quick! Go get Keina and Mitsuo!" Orders the man named Gaho, an imposing figure in his thirties.

Jin lifts his head slightly and looks around. Only then does he realize that he is surrounded by dozens of people in a rather large but closed and gloomy place.

"I took quite a fall... but where am I?"

The men and women surrounding Jin are all quite young, and none of them answer his question; in fact, they all seem to look at him with suspicion.

"Hey, I'm talking to you! Who are you and what is this place? Also, what is that thing?" Jin is referring to a large machine not far from him, but no one deigns to answer his questions, so Jin tries to stand up. At that moment, Gaho, the most muscular of the men surrounding him, places a hand on his shoulder and addresses him, holding him down on the ground, all without any particular effort given the immense difference in size between the two.

"Our leaders are coming. They will answer your questions, and they will have just as many to ask you."

"Leaders? What the hell are you talking about? I'm leaving!"

Gaho begins to crush his shoulder with one hand, causing Jin to scream in pain. "Ahhhhhhhh!"

"Listen, kid... you're not going anywhere."

Suddenly, the voice of a girl not much older than Jin, with long brown hair and blue eyes, interrupts this little confrontation. "Gaho! That's enough!"

"Yes, leader Keina." The man immediately removes his hand from Jin's shoulder and moves away from him.

The girl, who appears to be one of the leaders, is followed by an equally young boy who, like her, has blue eyes and brown hair, but in his case, it is kept much shorter. The two, who look very similar, calmly advance until they reach Jin, ordering all the other men to move away from there. Make room! We need to talk to him.

"What do they want now?" Jin asks questioningly.

The girl begins to bombard Jin with questions, who is still on the ground after his previous altercation with Gaho. "So, kid... how did you end up here? Are you one of Gotha's men? Or a civilian who decided to join the Resistance?"

Jin looks confused and doesn't understand much of what the girl is saying. "Gotha? Resistance? What are you talking about?"

Now the young man behind the girl speaks up. "Don't play dumb, this place is inaccessible and unknown to the population. Tell us who you are or you'll pay the consequences."

"I don't know what to tell you! I was just exploring the old factory with my friends when I fell into a chasm and woke up here."

The boy now looks frightened. "Did you say the old factory? How did you find out about our secret base?"

"My friends and I just came to take a look around. It seemed like a better idea than going home to do homework, study, and all that boring stuff."

The boy, now panicking, turns to the girl. "They found our hiding place, some stupid high school kids managed to get into our fortress! What do we do now? If they managed to find us, it won't be long before the Gotha find us too."

"That's not possible," she replies calmly. The girl is extremely calm and is thinking silently with her eyes downcast.

"Say something! We have to get out of here or we'll all be captured," insists the boy, growing increasingly tense. At that point, the female leader, in a deeply calm voice, expresses her thoughts. 

"That's not possible."

"What?"

"This boy couldn't have gotten in here undisturbed." The male leader doesn't know what to say, so the girl continues her explanation. "I've thought of every single scenario, and in none of them would he have been able to get in without being noticed. First of all, the only way to reach the basement is through the trapdoor, which cannot be opened from the outside. Furthermore, none of our men guarding the entrances to the base reported any suspicious movements, yet this guy was here on the ground, unconscious... he really seems to have appeared out of nowhere."

"He couldn't have done it though... he must have gotten in somehow," retorts the male leader.

"Many of us saw a bright light coming from this direction for a few moments. That's why we rushed here and found this boy on the ground," says one of the people who found Jin.

"I see... maybe that light is related to how this boy got here," replies the male leader.

"He'll tell us, even if he seems confused. Let's keep him with us until he recovers, he doesn't seem dangerous. Give him a body scan to find the microchip and remove it." Says the girl, addressing her men. Then she speaks directly to Jin. "You're a real mystery... can you at least tell us your name?"

"J-Jin."

The girl's eyes widen and she instinctively takes a few steps back, as if she had been struck by a blow. "N-no, it can't be..."

A buzz of voices rises around Jin, with everyone around him beginning to whisper among themselves. It seems that the revelation of his name has caused a bit of chaos in the group.

"He said his name is Jin." 

"He looks just like him."

"That's why he looked familiar."

"But they're a little different. This one is younger and has no scars on his face."

"So what? Is he his son?"

"He didn't have any children, he wasn't even married..."

Jin begins to look around. It seems that just saying that name has reversed the roles, and now everyone else is looking at him with fear. Suddenly, however, his head is grabbed and slammed to the ground. The male leader is the one who does this. "Don't you dare say that name here! Do you think you can scare us?"

"I don't know what you're talking about! It's just my name!"

The boy seems unwilling to let go, despite the pain on Jin's face becoming increasingly evident, so once again it is the girl who puts an end to it all with a few simple, calm but firm words. "Let him go."

"But everyone is terrified because he said his name is Jin. This guy is messing with us, and anyway, I wouldn't be afraid of the real Jin either. In fact, if I had him here in my hands, I would treat him even worse."

"I remind you that we do not believe in violence, and you are speaking ill of someone who was once our precious ally."

"Ally, you say? We wouldn't be hiding here if it weren't for him. After what he did to us... I... I... I have to get revenge... but unfortunately, I can't do it anymore..." He says with his fists clenched in anger.

Now the girl also loses her temper and yells at the other leader. "He helped us, in fact he was our only hope of salvation, why don't you understand!"

The boy lets go of Jin and stands up. Then, after brushing off the dust that has accumulated from kneeling on the ground, he moves towards the girl and lets out one last comment.

"What that person did cannot be forgotten..." He finishes the sentence as he walks past her, so that the last part reaches only her ears. "Perhaps growing up hidden in this place like sewer rats, you have forgotten where human beings should live."

The boy moves away from Jin, while the girl, after taking in the male leader's words, approaches him. "I have one last question for you, Jin... can you tell me what year it is?"

"2025" Jin replies with extreme confidence.

The male leader, despite walking away, hears Jin's answer and gasps, while the girl smiles, satisfied with what she has heard. Finally, she also turns around and repeats the order she gave her subordinates a moment earlier. "Check that he doesn't have a microchip, even though I'm already sure he doesn't. Once you've done that, give him something to eat and show him a bed where he can rest."

"Yes, Leader Keina!" Everyone present replies in unison.

"And one last thing... this boy is definitely not the Jin you think he is. Anyone who discriminates against him or mentions it to him will be expelled from the Resistance."

"Yes, leader."

At this point, Jin is helped to his feet and accompanied to another area of the base by some of the men present.