Chapter 11:
Gotha - a journey through time between 2025 and 2053
A few hours later, Jin is curled up on the cot in the cell and is finally asleep. However, his sleep is interrupted by the guard banging his keys on the bars, making a loud noise and shouting at the boy.
"Hey, you! Wake up... you have visitors!"
Jin, still a little sleepy, gets up, rubbing his eyes, and walks towards the bars. On the other side, with the guard, is a woman in her forties with red hair and brown eyes, who looks quite young and well-groomed.
"H-hello" says Jin.
The woman smiles. "I have no doubt, it's you, Jin."
"Of course it's me, but who the hell are you?"
Hearing these somewhat over-the-top words, the guard gets angry with Jin. "Hey! You can't talk like that to Miura, Member of Logic!"
However, the woman herself intervenes to calm things down. "Please, don't get angry. I'm sure we'll all be on the same side soon." Then, she turns to the guard. "Open the cell."
"W-what did you say?"
"I'm telling you I want to go in."
"I-I can't. The rules say not to let the prisoner out for any reason and..." The guard is interrupted by the woman, who makes clear her power within this society. "Ignoring a request from a member of the Gotha seems to me a great way to spend the rest of your life guarding empty prisons. How long has it been since there was someone here to guard?
"Years."
"Indeed... you should know that a prestigious position has just become available in the police force that guards the Gotha palace, and I would be happy to recommend you."
The guard's eyes fill with joy at these words and he bows.
"Thank you so much."
"Furthermore, the rules say that it is forbidden to let a prisoner out, but I am asking you to enter the cell. Logically, none of us is breaking the law."
"R-right."
"So now hurry up and open this door."
"Certainly."
The guard opens the cell, but Jin is keen to make his hostility clear. "Madam, I am a member of the Resistance! I cannot guarantee your safety if you come in here. I understand that you are part of the Gotha, people like you are just scum, you killed Ren and..."
The woman is not intimidated by these words and calmly enters the cell, interrupting the boy's warnings. "So, dear Jin, how old are you now?"
"17, but I was talking about..."
The woman interrupts him again. "It's strange to see you as a young boy, yet your nature doesn't seem to have changed... you always fight battles for some seemingly unattainable ideal." The woman says, laughing.
"You seem to speak as if you take it for granted that I really come from the past."
"I admit that to really believe it, I had to meet you in person" Miura says as she begins to place her hands on Jin's face, caressing him gently and maintaining intense eye contact with him. "But as soon as I saw you, I had no more doubts. When it comes to time travel, only a human being could succeed."
"I don't understand what you mean... it was an accident, I probably just fell into a space-time tunnel."
"Accident, you say? Allow me to doubt that. Since I've known you, chance has never ruled you; if anything, it's been the other way around." The woman removed her hands from Jin's face, which was slightly reddened with embarrassment at being touched by a woman who, although much older than him, still retained a certain charm. She turns her back and heads towards the outside of the cell, continuing to talk.
"Don't worry, what happened to your Resistance comrade today won't happen to you. Tomorrow you'll be a free man, and little by little we can go back to being who we used to be."
"Excuse me... you seem to know a lot about me, but I don't even know your name."
"Oh, right... when you were 17, I was 15, and we didn't know each other yet. My name is Junna Miura, and I am the member of logic for the Gotha ."
"Of logic?" Jin repeats, as if he doesn't fully understand.
"It's strange to introduce yourself to someone you've known for so long... anyway, I'm not going to throw away this second chance, but stop talking to me as if I were some old stranger. Even though I'm older than you in the present year of 2051, we've known each other for a long time. Now I'll say goodbye... bye Jin!"
The guard closes the cell and Jessica has one last thought for that person before leaving.
"Tell me your name, and I'll make sure you get that job I was telling you about."
The guard, his eyes filled with joy and gratitude, shouts his name "Kaito Fujimoto!"
"All right, Kaito... I'll remember that."
"Thank you so much, Member of Logic Miura."
Junna walks away for good and Jin remains standing, staring into space. After a few moments, he drops to his knees and screams at the top of his lungs. "And now who the hell is this?!"
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