July 29, 2053 – 7:42 p.m.

Jin, despite the uncomfortable environment, is sleeping soundly in his tent, at least until he is violently awakened by Gaho, who shakes the mattress, causing it to slide to the ground.

"What the hell... you ugly monkey again! I don't believe in the joke of non-violence anymore."

"Get up, you have visitors, rookie." 

"Visitors? Rookie?"

While Jin is still lying on the ground with his legs in the air, Keina enters the tent and addresses him in a soft voice. "Someone here was really very tired."

"Oh, you're Keina, right? The leader of these crazy people." 

"Yes, that's me" replies the girl with a laugh.

Keina then turns to Gaho. "Please leave us alone."

"Of course, leader Keina, I'll wait outside" says Gaho, then immediately leaves the room.

"You know, your big monkey always talks about non-violence, yet when I meet him, I always end up upside down. That other one too, what the hell is his name, Mitsuru, Mitsuki..."

"Mitsuo?"

"Exactly! That guy is also a little too violent to be the leader of a group of pacifists."

Keina laughs again. "Mitsuo is my brother, and he can indeed be a little impulsive and instinctive, but he is extremely reliable for our activities, as you will see for yourself. It's also true that we are fundamentally against violence, but in such a hostile world, people like him and Gaho can be useful in defending us."

"Defend yourselves from what? Now that I think about it, yesterday, when you found me, you were talking about someone hunting you down or something like that, right?"

"The Gotha... is the organization that runs the country."

"Leads the country? What are you babbling about? I've never heard anything like it."

Now Jin appears impatient and starts yelling at Keina, who, on the contrary, remains completely calm.

"You have taken me prisoner, I don't know where I am or how I got here. You make me sleep in this filthy tent and now you talk nonsense about organizations that rule the nation! You are just criminals who kidnapped me!"

Jin is exhausted after shouting all those things in one breath, while Keina, with a smile on her face, remains completely unperturbed. "Don't you like the bed?"

"The bed is the least of it! I want to know everything else, who you are and where we are right now. My friends, my mother, my father, and even the police will be looking for me... tell me what you want from me!"

Keina reaches out and strokes Jin's head. "What year is it, dear Jin?"

Jin is confused by the totally irrelevant question he has been asked. "I-in 2025... I told you yesterday."

"Wrong."

"W-what do you mean?" 

"It's the year 2053."

Jin is becoming less and less aware of the situation. "It's impossible... I'm Jin... I go to high school and I'm 17... I was born in 2006." These are the words that Jin keeps repeating with wide eyes as he looks at Keina, who instead maintains a totally serene expression, not at all surprised by Jin's words and, in fact, continues to smile sweetly at him.

"I-it's not possible... none of this makes sense... there's no logical explanation."

"Forget logic, I don't think it will help you in this case. I'd rather rely on facts... you're a 17-year-old boy who lived in Osaka in 2025, and now you're still in Osaka, but in 2053. You said you were in the old factory when you got here, so it was already abandoned in the year you came from, and suddenly, while you were there, you were catapulted into 2053."

"Y-yes, I was trying to go down to the lowest floor of the factory, but I fell. I only remember a bright light and a great force pulling me towards it."

"You may have ended up in a wormhole."

"Do you mean an Einstein-Rosen bridge? In other words, a space-time tunnel?" 

"Yes."

"D-do you believe in space-time travel?" Jin asks.

Keina starts laughing, angering Jin, who feels like she's making fun of him. "Why the hell are you laughing now? You're the one who brought it up first."

"Sorry! Sorry! I was really rude to laugh in your face." Despite her apology, Keina continues to laugh heartily and seems unable to stop. "It's just that question, coming from you... I can't stop... I'm really sorry!"

"She's not right in the head... and to think she seemed like the most normal one in the group." Jin thinks to himself.

After several seconds, Keina recovers. The two are sitting a few feet apart on the floor of the tent, with the girl bowing her head. "My sincerest apologies, but I just couldn't stop myself."

"It's okay, it's okay, but now tell me more about how you think things went."

"Sure... as I was saying, from your story I can assume that you fell into a wormhole, a space- time rift that brought you to this era."

"But is it really possible that something like that happened?"

";If you're here, it is. In fact, even if we were to hypothesize their existence, I never thought that wormholes could allow human beings to pass through. In theory, only the smallest particles, capable of traveling at speeds faster than the speed of light, should be able to pass through them... so yes, logically it seems absurd to me that you are here, but the past is full of illogical things that have happened, and it is precisely these unexpected events that help us better understand certain phenomena."

"Sorry, but apart from this time travel nonsense..."

Keina is about to burst out laughing again, but she holds back. Jin notices and reprimands her. "Hey... don't even try that again!"

Keina shakes her head and urges him to continue. "No, please go on."

"Okay... I wanted to say that it makes more sense to me that you crazy people are holding me prisoner. Maybe you want to ask my family for ransom or something like that. I mean, can you prove to me that we're really in 2053 like you say?"

"Look, you're not our prisoner." 

"Am I not?"

"Of course not."

"So I can leave whenever I want?"

"Of course."

"Well, thanks for everything, but I'm going."

Jin stands up and heads for the tent exit, but Keina says something that stops him. "You can go out there alone, if you dare..."

At this point, Jin wants to refrain from asking what Keina is referring to, but he just can't help himself, so he sits back down in front of her in the same position he was in before.

"All right, tell me why I shouldn't leave. What could be so dangerous about your fantasies about 2053?"

"The Gotha!"

"Oh, right... the people who would rule this era, right?"

"Exactly, but they're more like a dystopian organization. They are a small group of individuals who have total power over the entire population. They can easily decide on people's lives and sentence innocent people to death. All this is facilitated by controlling people through subcutaneous microchips and control satellites."

Now it is Jin who laughs, and Keina, who had maintained an extremely serious tone throughout his explanation of the nation's new governmental order, appears surprised and a little confused by this attitude. In fact, Jin loses his composure, rolling on the ground and exaggerating how funny he finds it all. 

"An authoritarian government in a despotic future... I've ended up in some kind of cyberpunk fairy tale. There are so many clichés in your story that I can't resist... it's too funny!"

Keina blurts out, but Jin continues to laugh. "What fairy tale... this is reality! Fighting and defeating the Gotha is our only goal!"

"Sure, sure... very funny. Anyway, I haven't been home in over a day, so I'd better go now, my parents will be worried enough as it is."

"B-but you can't leave now."

"Why not? You said I'm not your prisoner."

"Of course you're not, but I thought that when you heard the story of Gotha, you would be frightened and ask for our protection, joining us."

"Oh, is that why? You should have come up with a more believable story. I must say, the part about time travel impressed me, but then you started with the story about the few evil rulers who control people by forcing them to walk around with a chip in their flesh... it's all stuff we've seen before. Do you know how many comics with this plot I've already read?"

"I already told you it's not a made-up story!"

"Okay, okay... whatever you say. Anyway, I'm going home, bye Keina."

Jin calmly exits the tent, passing by Gaho and greeting him playfully. "Bye, big monkey! To be honest, I won't miss you much."

Immediately afterwards, Keina also comes out of the tent and appears very agitated, aware that she is letting Jin get away.

"Excuse my impertinence, Leader Keina, but where is that unbearable kid going?" Gaho asks her. 

"I-I think he wants to leave our base."

"Alone? And without a microchip? He could come to a bad end if he gets caught. They'll surely think he's a Resistance subversive."

I know, but I don't know what to do. He didn't believe a word I said." 

Mitsuo, who happened to be passing by, also approaches Gaho and Keina.

"Hey guys, what's going on? You look worried."

"The leader, Keina, is letting the kid go out alone," Gaho points out.

"What?! Sister, have you gone crazy? And to think I considered you the smart one among us." 

"I-I don't know what to do. I tried to explain the situation to him, but he thinks I made it all up." 

"Fine... I'll go fix your mistakes."

"Wait, Mitsuo, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to stop him from being captured by Gotha."

"And how do you plan to do that? Don't hurt him, remember we don't attack innocent people."

"He's not innocent... but I'll control myself."

Mitsuo starts moving towards Jin, who is at the top of the stairs trying to get out of the trapdoor without understanding how to open it. "How the hell do you get out of here? This trapdoor looked impossible to open even from above. Come to think of it, the hole I climbed down through is gone too."

"Look, there's a password to enter." Mitsuo interrupts him.

"Oh... you're Mitsunori, right? Could you tell me the password?" 

"My name is Mitsuo, and I'm not telling you any password!"

"But then I can't get out."

"Actually, I don't want you to leave here."

"Your sister said I can leave whenever I want."

"She also told me that you think this is all a joke. You wouldn't last an hour out there without being caught by the Gotha."

"You too with this story, eh?"

"Come on, follow me... if you really want to get out of here today, you'll come with me, and you'll see for yourself if we're telling you lies."

Jin seems a little resigned, but he realizes that without the password, the trapdoor will never open, so he gives in to Mitsuo's proposal. "All right... I don't think I have any other choice."

Jin follows Mitsuo into a room where some guys are making flyers with an old printer. "What are these guys doing?" Jin asks.

"They're preparing materials for tonight's mission," Mitsuo replies promptly. 

"Mission?" asks Jin doubtfully.

At this point, Mitsuo takes a chair and climbs on top of it, drawing the attention of everyone present, who momentarily interrupt their activities to listen to him. "Brave comrades! Today, another great mission awaits us as we pursue our goal of overthrowing the totalitarian order that has reigned in our country for too long, depriving us of our freedom as human beings and reducing us to a population enslaved to their will. Together, we will take yet another step towards bringing down the Gotha!"

Everyone present shouts and stirs up the excitement with shouts and gestures. Leader Mitsuo's rousing speech has clearly had the desired effect, creating enthusiasm for today's mission. Before stepping down from his chair, Mitsuo is keen to give one last instruction.

"Now finish preparing the equipment, we'll be leaving in a few hours."

Jin approaches the leader as he is putting the chair away and asks him what is going on. "So... what are you going to do?"

"Today we'll attack Gotha, as always!"

"Ah... that organization that you and that other crazy girl Keina think you have to take down..." Jin says smugly, which infuriates Mitsuo. "You idiot! How can you not believe us? Can't you see how enthusiastically our comrades are working?"

Jin looks around and sees that everyone present is indeed running around with big smiles on their faces, preparing papers and exchanging them.

"But what exactly are they doing?"

"They're preparing for the mission, you'll see later. We'll go out under cover of darkness, so that it's more difficult for Gotha to stop us."

"Okay..." Jin replies unconvinced, then adds a thought he has in his mind. "Favor of darkness... you can see that he's just a stupid kid with middle school syndrome, it seems like Kenji is saying." 

At this point, Jin seems a little saddened and, staring into space, expresses another thought to himself. "Kenji... Misaki... I have no idea what's going on here, but wherever I am, I hope at least you guys are okay."