CHAPTER 1

When that deadline came she definitely felt that familiar pit in her stomach, a heavy weight laying at the base of her abdomen. It didn't matter how cocky she acted, it was still the same every single time. The walk from the classroom to the principal's office was a nerve-wracking one.

Sitting stiffly on the other side of his desk, Miria took in the sight of her principal with hooded eyes, barely able to look at him. Those frighteningly pasty lips let out a heavy sigh, and his hand ran through his equally pale hair.

“I'll admit I am...beginning to lose track at this stage.” he tutted, bringing up a hologram with her less than flattering ID photo on it, and swiping through several hovering pages of disciplinary notes and observations, “

“I'm sorry sir, it won't happen again-”

“It won't? But I can hear it right now. How can you promise that when it's happening at this very moment?”

“Sir I can't help-”

“You say that, but have you tried to solve this problem?”

Miria watched him clasp his hands and let out a heavy sigh. She felt like sighing too. To try and explain her situation to any of them never worked out. They simply didn't believe that she had so little control over her own thoughts.

“It's like a nightmare, really. Even when I'm trying to talk with you now, you're consistently backchatting me.” the principal said, pressing his finger under his elvish ear again so he could keep listening, “I don't care if it's intentional or not, it doesn't change the fact that it's happening and I don't like it.” he leaned back a little in his swivelling seat and studied her judgementally as he lowered his hand again. “It makes it very hard for me to have a proper conversation with you, surely you can understand that?”

She could have tried to explain it to him. Tried to explain that it wasn't her that was talking back.

The girl tucked some hair behind her ear and nodded. “I understand.”

“Your teacher also mentioned to me that you vandalized your paper. So clearly at least some of this is deliberate?”

“I...”

It was just a simple line. But how could she argue? No point even saying it when he was already hearing the shouting for himself whenever he 'tuned in' to her head. And just as these meetings usually progressed, she was made to feel like an ant in her seat. His relieved look was all too telling whenever he stopped listening to the buzz, as he rubbed his temples and leaned back again.

He could have just chosen not to listen at all, granted. But he was a man who preferred the dramatic approach, as if he were living some sort of TV show. Perhaps he studied those kinds of things before coming here. A better understanding, right?

Clearly, he wanted to emphasize just how monstrous a mind she had.

“If this keeps up I'm afraid we may have to take certain measures.”

“What measures?” she jolted.

The principal looked at her again, resting his long-fingered hands on the leather armrests. “There are camps and programs out there that are...designed for people like you. People who aren't so willing to cooperate. If you refuse to work well in school then it may be necessary for us to-”

“I swear I will! I'll find help for it, just please...please don't send me anywhere.”

Her eyes were wide and honest. For once she was easy to trust.

---

“Wow...he really went that far this time?

“Yeah, it was definitely a threat.”

Miria sipped her milk bitterly and stared out across the glassy courtyard, observing the decidedly fake trees they had planted there in the blue ground. Beside her was Mikael, the closest friend she had, and one of the only ones this year too. Most of the others drifted away due to the burden of association. She would love to blame them but she almost understood it.

“If it's any comfort, I'd fight tooth and nail to stop that from happening. They're not taking you anywhere.”

Smirking slightly, she glanced over at him. With a purely monochrome body and almost doll like features, he was just what you'd expect from a Tetranai, yet somehow he managed to avoid being a complete asshole. That was a plus.

“I appreciate it Mikael. If only the rest of them were like you.” she shrugged and sipped again, though found herself cringing at the taste. A bit like whipped cream, it kind of tasted like nothing at all. She may as well have been drinking water, and no doubt there was plenty of it in the carton.

“Well I certainly don't agree with the program they introduced. Seems a little like slavery to me.”

“Maybe if you worked for the government we'd all be saved.” Miria scoffed, and coughed, and ended up spluttering up some of her milk. Mikael urged her to be careful and pet her back a few times until she wiped her mouth and thanked him. “M-my bad...hah...Typical human, huh?”

“I'd say you're rather atypical actually.” Mikael leaned back. His boyish charm showed in that smirk, dimples digging hollows in those paper white cheeks. In the bright sunlight they always looked rather ghostly, but Miria could hardly talk when her hair was sharing the same hue.

Greyish white skin. Equally colorless eyes and hair. Features that anyone would boast about, and figures that were taller and more slender than average. The Tetranai race were basically what you'd get if you took actors straight from the film reel of a 1940s movie and had them colonize some distant planet, before returning home with the results.

Maybe that was what had happened. Maybe that was why in 2043 they first showed up. Area 51 eh? They picked a cliched place, but really those initial arrivals were damn lucky they hadn't been shot. Looking close enough to human and standing beyond the line was a fast ticket to a bullet in the shin. Somehow they pulled it off, and now here they were. In congress, in advertisements, on TV, in the schools, modelling in magazines, hell you might even run into one at your local convenience store chucking canned coffee on shelves at 2AM.

They may have first landed in the States, but Tokyo ended up being their HQ of choice. It made sense to pick the most populated city in the world, after all.

That was life now, and it was the only life that she in her wise 17 years had ever known. Co-existence with literal aliens, what a treat!

These damn aliens are like an infestation we just can't get rid of.

I'm glad Mikael can't hear you right now...

“So how am I atypical then, sorry?”

“Well, it seems like a lot of people just cave and give in to it. But even with what you go through you still try not to let them tread all over you, right?”

“...Right. Preferably...”

She got up and stretched her arms. Staring at the sky, she tried to swallow down the heavy weight lingering in the back of her throat. Sometimes when she looked up at that grand azure expanse she wished that there was some way she could fly into it and escape. Just...live among the clouds for a while.

Their readings wouldn't reach her there. She'd actually be free.

Sadly the best she could manage would be a plane ticket, and that would hardly help give her any separation. Running a hand through her pale hair, she brushed her palm against her forehead briefly and felt a little bit of sweat there. Admittedly it was pretty hot today.

The familiar chime of the school bell sounded, and that weight dropped down inside her like a ton of bricks, leaving her reeling before she turned around.

“Better get back to it then.”

She didn't want to. She never wanted to. If she could have life her way then she would live out the rest of her days in the company of her good friends Kazumi and Mikael, and none of them would have to conform to another minute of this trash heap society.

Yet some dreams were a little too far off to reach...

---

“You got called in again? Damn.”

As soon as she stepped into Kazumi Mizuhara's apartment, the late teens schoolgirl had been pulled into a world of candy smelling smoke and neon vibes. Gone were the pristine blue glassed and grassed aesthetics of her high school grounds and dorms, replaced instead with grimy stairwells and rusted hinges, and one woman who frankly didn't give a damn.

Kazumi was only in her early twenties, yet she had already managed to rip herself free of the societal womb so many were trapped in these days, and had bought herself this tight little apartment on the 30th floor of 'The Bleached Tower' (so called because of the faded and uneven concrete it was crafted from, as if only the top half had been dipped in paint and the rest had been left to take the tears). Though it was cramped living, she did it up nicely.

In fact, her place was something to envy here in the Outer Ring, the surrounding suburbs of refuse and rejects that had collected on the outside of the perfectly moderated Tokyo city. It was a place for crooks, for Gougers and Stragglers, the so-called 'scum' of the local populace who had decided it was better to live a life as an outlaw than suffer under the alien regime.

Gouger. The name was coined by the government of course, and labeled on anyone who decided to dig out that mandatory chip from their neck. It was an incredibly risky process, and nobody had been known to succeed in it so far. Anyone who had tried had always been reported brain-dead at the site.

Kazumi didn't take that risk either. Rather, she just hid out, taking her chances. For now, it was the best kind of freedom she could claim.

By the big window overlooking the rest of the her haphazard neighborhood, she would sit at her wide desk and draw on her tablet, accompanied by a cat on her shoulder (Moustachio) and a holo-cigarette in her mouth. She'd occasionally pull the half tangible stick from her violet painted lips and puff out the same smell that permeated her entire apartment, like she was living in some ancient action flick.

She was the kind of person who had a framed VHS above her bed, 2001 specifically. While the rest of the world moved on with brain implants and sleek white structures, she remained drifting in this neo-noir dream state, acting like she was trying to impress someone, yet not really living for anyone but herself.

Miria loved it.

They would often sit together like this after her classes for the day were finished and she had time to come and visit. Moustachio would mill about, sometimes brushing their jaw-lines with his tail now and then, as they'd eat surprisingly chic pastel macarons from the bottom floor store and chat with each other.

“I know. They're so unreasonable, but I can't tell them what's really going on or I'm sure they'll lock me up somewhere...” Miria sighed, crushing the fragile sweet between her fingers and watching the jam ooze out.

“Nor should you tell them. It's none of their business-” the black pony-tailed woman looked up with the tablet pen in her mouth, chewing on it and wiggling it around between her braced up teeth, “-they already try to get enough out of you. Damn, if I could pull that implant out of your head right now...”

State enforced, Kazumi had only managed to escape it because she holed herself away like this. Society ignored her, so that wretched technology did too. Unfortunately if you wanted an education or to live any kind of 'normal' or 'successful' life, you had no choice but to take the device. It was a legal requirement.

Those that did run away from the regime were subject to being hunted down by any troops that were sent into the Outer Ring. However, the lawlessness of this place was at least off-putting enough for those extraterrestrials that they hadn't mounted a full scale assault. Not yet at least.

“Pretty sure that might kill me but to be honest, escaping life would be a blessing sometimes.” Miria sighed and looked out of the window as rain started to fall in sheets against the night lights.

Kazumi was shaking her head in refusal again. “Mm mm. Suicide doesn't give you freedom, it just causes devastation. And people who drink to get away from it all just don't know any better. Trust me, I've considered the first and tried the second on numerous occasions-” she pulled the pen off her tongue just so she could lay a piece of broken macaron there and chew on it, “-but the balance between the pay off and the payback isn't even 50/50.”

“...There's always virtual reality...” Miria curled her fingers around the tip of her chin and Kazumi laughed with dry amusement.

“Heh. You always say that. You've been saying that since we first started having discussions like this. But virtual reality is just that, isn't it? Virtual.”

Miria looked back at the young innovator and rested in her high seat, picking at her side of the wooden table. “So...what other options are there? I mean you'd have to rely on technology in some way, wouldn't you?”

“Well of course. Everything does these days...” Kazumi looked at her straight this time, with eyes only a little paler than those iconic lips. “But it's all depending on what you want to harness. And I'm not talking about data or even emotions. I'm talking about getting right in here-”

She jabbed her equally purple nail against her left temple,

“-because it's here where everything stems from.”

Perception. Kazumi had told her about this before, but it was a little hard to...well...wrap her head around. Supposedly, according to the oracle of a twenty-something holo-smoking before her, life was entirely composed of perception. Take away perception, and what did you have? Nothing.

In that sense, the mind could be placed in any scenario and led to believe that it was living out a certain life in a certain time, state, etc., whatever. It was some real Matrix-esque, brain in a jar thinking, but it really wasn't so far fetched. After all, everyone had a consciousness, didn't they?

“If we take your consciousness and keep it safe, let it live out whatever it wants the most, then isn't that what you'd call true happiness? It would feel every bit as real as what we call 'reality'- which is nothing but a constant struggle for happiness anyway.”

A morbid way to look at it, undoubtedly. Sadly it held a lot of truth though.

“...Okay, my head is really buzzing now. Mind if I put the TV on briefly?” Miria clutched her left temple and asked, some strain lacing her voice. Kazumi's nod allowed it, albeit reluctantly, and the younger girl picked up a small square device, circling the top of it with her fingertip and urging a clear projection to jet out against the half-open window pane.

On the 'screen', another typical report could be seen playing, with a typical alien spokesperson trying to justify their actions on yet another podium:

“...not our intention to cause trials or difficulty for humanity, nor do we take any interest in private and personal data for any reasons besides relations. Your data will not be sold nor shared with anyone else, it is privy only to those involved in individual and specific situations. Regarding those among humanity who have not adopted the MD as of yet, we suggest you amend this swiftly as we are seeking to enforce it more firmly-”

“...Geez. I don't even know why I have that thing.” Kazumi sighed heavily, picking up her pen again and tapping it against the side of her skull. “If we're just living to die then we shouldn't be wasting our time with shit like that- excuse my French.”

“That's decidedly morbid of you.” Miria commented, and the woman just let out another heavy exhale.

“Well even in this day and age there's no such thing as infinity. So I don't squander my most valuable asset on pointless crap like that, and I'm not going to let those beasts take control of what I have. They're not gonna worm their way inside my head...”

She then shut the window completely and took the cube from Miria, switching it off and tossing it casually somewhere deep within the confines of that stuffy room. No doubt it was already buried under ten mounds of macaron wrappers and underwear.

“...Well...that's that then...” Miria shifted stiffly in her seat, while Kazumi finally set her preferred tech aside and looked at her straight.

“Sorry, but while we're on the subject I might as well ask. I know you got in trouble for it today, which is nothing unusual-”

Miria rolled her eyes. Damn right.

“-But how have things been for you back there? I mean really, are you coping with it?”

“...Coping?” Miria swallowed and tucked a pale strand of hair behind her ear, shoulders rising and falling in a gentle wave. “I uh...I don't know. Sometimes it feels like I am. Sometimes it feels like I'm really not at all.”

Her eyes narrowed a little.

“They don't like me talking about it. They're trying hard to drown me out right now but I'm not giving them the time of day, and that's just making them angrier. But can they blame me?” she shook her head and lowered it, staring down at a handful of pastel crumbs by her belly. “It's not like I want to keep getting in trouble for it every day. I hate school, and I hate the system and these damn aliens, but I'd rather they just ignored me completely.”

I don't want to cause trouble...

Liar!

Of course you do. Trouble is fun.

...And you've been causing trouble for a long time now, just admit it...

“...If I could find some way of fixing it for you, I would. That's what I want as well, besides keeping them out of our brains. I want to find some way of fixing the invasions that some of us already have.” Kazumi stood up suddenly, showing a rare moment of orderliness as she picked up and discarded the sweets wrappers in the tiny room's trash can.

“That's why I'm doing all this. It's for everyone...everyone who still wants to be free.” Kazumi explained as she walked back and placed her palms flush with the edge of the table, leaning over and looking down at Miria seriously. She cracked a smile, a sparkle finally lighting in her eyes. Even when she was acting pensive it was always lingering there.

A hope.

A scrap of it.