July 29, 2053 – 5:00 p.m.

A doctor belonging to the Resistance, wearing a white coat, passes a handheld scanner over every part of Jin's body, who is standing in the middle of a tent with no clothes on. Inside the tent, in addition to Jin and the doctor, there are Gaho and two other boys watching the scene closely.

"How much longer will this take?" Jin asks, complaining about his situation.

"He's a real perfectionist," replies Gaho, referring to the person performing the check.

"To me, you just look like perverts. Look, I'm still a minor!"

"Stop whining... it's over. You can get dressed now." As Gaho utters these words, he throws Jin's clothes at him, and the boy begins to put them back on. Meanwhile, the man who performed the scan informs Gaho of the result. "There's no microchip, the boy is clean."

"Just as the leader said, eh?" adds Gaho, even managing a smile. Meanwhile, the other two boys in the tent make a few comments about the absence of a chip in Jin's body.

"Where does this boy come from?"

"Maybe there are other Resistance groups in the country."

Gaho, who seems to be the strongest and therefore also the most authoritative among those present, calls everyone to order. "Hey, you! Be quiet! Go and inform Keina and Mitsuo of the news."

"Keina and Mitsuo?" Jin repeats.

"They are the young people you met earlier. Although they are very young, they are our leaders."

Jin laughs heartily in Gaho's face, referring to the young age of the two leaders. "A big guy like you getting pushed around by those two kids, too funny."

Gaho appears impatient and grabs Jin by the ear, lifting him up. "Our group is against violence, but I can make an exception for you."

"Ouch! No, stop! Let me go! I'll stop! Really!" Gaho sighs and lets go of Jin, dropping him to the ground. "Of course, for a pacifist, you've already hit me several times."

"You're the one who makes everything so difficult. Come on, follow me, I'll take you to your bed."

Jin gets up and follows Gaho, who leads him to an area where everyone is camped out in tents. The place looks like a kind of refugee camp where everyone lives in poverty, even though the people's faces are certainly not sad. On the contrary, many of them are gathered in small groups, eating, singing, or playing cards cheerfully. After walking for a few seconds, the two arrive in front of one of these tents and stop outside it.

"Here we are, Jin. You can sleep here."

"Oh... okay."

Gaho walks away, while Jin enters the tent and, with an expression of disgust mixed with surprise, lets out a scream. "What kind of joke is this?!"

The bed Gaho was talking about is nothing more than a dirty mattress thrown on the floor in the middle of the tent, with even a few cockroaches on it. Jin hesitantly approaches it and tries to clean it up a bit, hitting it repeatedly with his hand, then, feeling dejected, he lies down on it and, looking up with his arms crossed behind his neck, indulges in one last thought. "How the hell did I end up here?"

Meanwhile, one of the men who had been tasked by Gaho with informing the leaders arrived at their tent, which was larger than the others but still rather poor inside.

"Excuse me for interrupting, Leader Keina and Leader Mitsuo." "Please. You have news of Jin, right?"

"Yes, the body scan was negative. No traces of subcutaneous microchips were detected."

Keina smiles. "Very well, thank you for coming to inform me." The boy stands at attention and then takes his leave. "My pleasure!"

When Keina and Mitsuo are left alone, the boy is the first to speak to the girl, revealing the relationship between the two. "Sister, I know what you're thinking, and you may be right, but remember how it ended last time."

"I know, but we have a completely unexpected second chance, we absolutely have to take advantage of it."

"He's just a kid, about our age. Even if it really is him, he's not the same person you pinned all your hopes on."

Mitsuo heads toward the tent exit, but before he can leave, Keina responds to her brother's last words. "He's not even the person you hated so much."

Mitsuo is completely stunned by Keina's words and, despite being just a few inches from the exit, continues to talk to his sister with his back to her.

"Keina... you know our agreement, I'm the arm, you're the brain... as always, I'll respect your decisions, so how do you plan to proceed?"

"We won't tell them anything and we'll convince everyone that the resemblance is just a coincidence and that the name Jin is a tribute from his parents to that powerful man. We'll also say that he's just a rookie who's decided to join the Resistance. After all, we're their leaders, they'll listen to us." Mitsuo smiles, while Keina continues talking. "We'll train him as we do the other newbies, but he'll participate in our activities right away as support and will be under your wing. You mustn't lose sight of him, Mitsuo. He'll be safe in your hands. It's just as you said... I'm the brains and you're the muscle, but only with him can we achieve our goal."

Mitsuo clenches his fist in anger, but responds calmly. "All right... I'll go along with your wishes. In any case, we don't need him to succeed, we can do it just fine on our own."

"Brother... one last thing, hide that car. Jin mustn't even see it for now." "Hide it? How the hell am I supposed to do that? It's huge."

Send some men to set up a huge tent that can cover it completely and make sure Jin never goes in there.

"All right, I'll send someone right away. If you want to hide it from him, it shows that deep down you also think it was crazy. You'll see... together, you and I will be able to fulfill our father's dream."

Mitsuo leaves the tent, while Keina continues to stare in that direction. When she is alone and certain that her brother cannot hear her, she lets out another comment.

"I'm sorry, Mitsuo, that you have so much faith in me, but unfortunately only Jin can be the hero of this story."