My future is gone

*Ano-kun. Save me.*

The young boy felt a shiver run through his whole body two times in a row, from head to toe and from toe to head.

A girl’s voice…??!!

He got dressed, and like a bolt of lightning, headed for the garage to take his motorcycle and head for the hostel where he had been last night.

What was that voice in my head?

The sun was about to set behind the great buildings of the metropolis. The night was about to begin. When he arrived at the hostel, all the neon lights were already on. He didn’t know why exactly he headed there, and it wasn't until he got closer that he saw Shin and Bo sitting next to an unconscious Hana.

"HOW LONG HAS SHE BEEN LIKE THIS?" He asked anxiously as he placed one of his hands on Hana's neck and the other hand on her wrist.

"We don't know how to count. She went to sleep when the sun was out." Said one of the children, impassive and unaware of reality.

In this district, the sun sets earlier due to the positioning of the metropolis. It must have been three hours at most since she has been like this. It could be a drug or some disease. If I hurry I will be able to...

At that moment, the young boy stopped thinking as he felt no pulse coming from Hana's cold body.

"TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE SHE FELL ASLEEP!"

One of the children, Shin, started crying because Ano was scaring him. He had never seen Ano like this before. The young inventor emitted a strange aura that even scared the cats prowling the street. Meanwhile, Bo answered him.

"We were inside when we saw a man dressed in blue approach Hana-chan. When we arrived, Hana-chan was drinking a strawberry juice. The man told her that if she drank it all she could marry the boy she likes."

“WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP HER!!??”

“We couldn’t. She drank all the juice by herself.”

The young inventor looked at Hana's body carefully again as the kid continued to tell what had happened.

"Then she started dancing and kept saying she was happy to marry the one she loved."

She was dancing and marrying? What is all of thi…?

Ano’s face turned pale white the moment he saw a smile on Hana's lips. He grabbed his friend's cold body in his arms and ran to the underground clinic located five blocks away. As the young boy ran with his friend in his arms with the intention of saving her life, people looked at him disapprovingly as he passed by. Some laughed and mocked him. Others judged the boy in whispers.

"What's wrong with your girlfriend? She's had too much to drink and can't walk anymore?"

"What have you done to the poor girl scum!".

Such is the world they live in. At some point, Ano stopped thinking to ignore people's comments and just kept running.

As he ran, a phenomenon that happened once every couple of months started to occur. It was starting to rain. Then the young inventor remembered the promise he made to his friend and the words of his teacher.

"When we turn 18, we will get married."

"Hana is coming to class every day. Your friend is very smart, Mi-kun."

The boy started crying on his way to the underground clinic, but his tears were covered by the raindrops.

Please, Hana... Don't die!

****

*BLAM*

The boy arrived and kicked open the door of the clinic. Inside, two people covered in bandages looked at him carrying the young girl while a bright pink neon light illuminated his back from the street. Ano was panting and slowly started moving forward, calling for help, first calmly and then more aggressively.

"HEEEEELP!!! PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!"

"What's all this fuss!?"

The quack who was in the other room appeared due to the big fuss the young boy was making. He was carrying a robe full of blood and a glass full of a brown liquid that gave off an aroma of alcohol.

"Hey, you're a doctor, aren't you? Someone gave a strange pink drug to my friend. Help her please, she must have a cardiac arrest or something!!!"

"And what are you going to give me in exchange for helping you?" Asked the quack doctor coldly and impassively.

At that moment, Ano had no cash and his Net Share account was empty. Nor was it possible to use Asu's card in a place like that. Then, he remembered the gold ring he had kept in his jacket that he hadn't given to Hana yesterday.

"Take this, it's real gold!!!"

That quack doctor turned out to be into all kinds of smuggling. Luckily, he knew how to recognize real gold from fake.

"All right. Get her in there and let me see what I can do."

Once Ano had laid his friend down on a stretcher inside a room, he was ordered to leave and wait outside.

After barely two minutes had passed, the quack came out of the room.

"Well, I've done everything I could. I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?" He said as he sipped his glass of liquor.

"The good news."

"The good news is that your friend is no longer suffering." He said, smiling.

The young boy was reassured. He thought everything had been taken care of. A huge pressure left his shoulders and the knot in his larynx allowed him to take another deep breath again.

"And the bad one?"

"She died three hours ago."

The way the doctor said those words were apathetic. The pressure that left the young boy's shoulders returned, five times stronger. The knot in his larynx also returned, this time to strangle him completely.

“Basically she got an unknown drug that fried her brain. Not literally, but it’s like she used her brain so much that it shutted down afterwards.”

Ano was shocked and remained silent, hearing the quack. He was still assimilating the cruel reality.

"For one more ring like this, I'll dispose of the corpse, no questions asked." The quack continued.

"SHUT UP!!! GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!" Said Ano angrily.

Ano shoved the doctor away. He entered the room where he had left his friend with the intention of picking her up and taking her away. As he entered, he froze for a few seconds due to the shock of seeing his friend on a stretcher. Lifeless.

Hana… chan.

These last few weeks had made Ano forget the world he lived in. Poverty, famine, murder, corruption, drugs... A lawless city for those who had been forgotten. Dreaming and falling in love were forbidden for people of his social stratum.

The boy grabbed Hana in his arms gently and ran out of the clinic the same way he came in.

"Be careful, kiddo! Don't let this mistake ruin your life! This is a daily occurrence!" Said the alcoholic quack.

The young boy ran back to where his Z-910 was. Short of breath, choking and trembling, he lifted Hana's body onto his motorcycle, positioned himself behind her, and started the engine. Without moving from the spot, Ano stopped for a moment to think what his next move should be.

What should I do? Why is this happening to me? Why did this happen to Hana!!!

“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!”

After a few seconds of meditation, he decided to head for his favorite hill.

****

The young boy reached the hill and took his late friend in his arms again. Carefully, he leaned his body against one of the two trees that saw them grow and sat down while still carrying Hana in his arms.

"Hana-chan... why did you drink that? You were smart... Weren't you happy?" No, that's not it. I must be missing something. Think, stupid. Think.

"I don't need you to defend me anymore."

"Is it because of what I told you?” Damn it. The young boy hit the ground angrily.

From the deepest of his heart, a moan so intense that it could be heard by the gods themselves was muted by the storm that was on top of him.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAA… AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”

As he cried on that hill while the rain kept falling, several thoughts crossed his mind. He had to find out who did this, but first he had to take care of his dead friend. If he took her back to the hostel, she would be buried in a mass grave or cremated and her ashes buried in a designated burial site. It would be best to bury Hana in her favorite place in that rotten world. This way, she could gaze at the scenery she loved every night for the rest of eternity.

Ano got up, laid Hana against the tree and headed for his motorcycle. He took a detachable plate from his Z-910 and began to dig a hole in the soft, wet ground. In a short time, he managed to dig a deep enough hole where he carefully inserted his friend's body. With his new PDA, he deactivated the tracking function of Hana's Net Share so that they could not find her body and relocate it. When he finally got ready to pour dirt to plug the hole, images of his childhood with Hana from 5 years ago came to his mind.

"Very good!!! The group of The Northern Stars is officially born!!! This is your leader, the brave Hana, speaking. Next to me is the deputy subcommander, Mi! His base is across the street!!!"

"Hear me, my faithful soldiers!!!! This star in my hair is the symbol that all crooks fear!!! If anything ever happens to me, the next leader will have to take it and wear it proudly!!!! That's you Mi!!!

"Eeeeh... Can I go now? I have to write something urgently.

"Not yet!!! It's time for the daily patrol!!! LET'S GO!!!"

The young boy bent down towards the hole. He lifted Hana's head and slowly removed the scrunchie with the star she always carried with her. He put it on his wrist and began to bury his precious friend. He picked up a small stone that was nearby to improvise a sad and melancholic tombstone.

Ano was furious, confused, sad, angry, impotent... All these feelings came together into a single desire. Revenge. From that moment on, Ano's smile, together with the characteristic gleam in his eyes, disappeared from his face. From now on, the young boy's expression would become that of someone cold, taciturn, and aggressive. A new Ano was born.

*BROOM!!!* 

*FLASH*

A bolt of lightning struck behind him, illuminating the dark night that was becoming darker and darker due to the advance of the storm clouds. Behind the young boy, illuminated by that lightning, a demonic figure stood menacingly. With a gaze so intense that it would be capable of frightening death itself, Ano proclaimed.

"Hana. I will avenge you!"

The young boy stopped crying and raised his head and looked up at the sky. That sky he gazed at days before with his friend looked exactly the same. The storm had not yet completely covered the sky of Neo Shibuya. However, the stars he gazed at that night from that hill where he fell in love did not seem as beautiful as they always were.