Debt

Ding. The elevator rocked once to signal its arrival and opened its paint-chipped doors. Stepping out with the empty metal canister in her hands, Mei arrived at the lift lobby and scanned her surroundings.

The decrepit sight before her eyes with its punctured concrete walls, exposed metal rods in various stages of rust, broken light fixtures, exposed electrical wires and shattered fragments of glass littering underneath one’s feet, was the same one that she had viewed for the last decade or so of her life.

Of course, the decrepitness wasn’t always this bad, only having grown more ancient in recent years. It was only that, lacking funds and initiative, the housing board had not yet come around to addressing these problems. The residents of the complex weren’t any more enthused either and had learnt to live around these dangerous peculiarities.

Stepping carefully to avoid the exposed, sparking wires and broken glass fragments, Mei quickly made it to the main lobby.

The main lobby, as its name suggested, was the entrance space and common landing for the entire apartment complex. It was around five to six times the size of the sibling’s apartment and shared with the rest of the complex its decrepit features. This vast expanse of space wasn’t as grandiose as its lofty name suggested, nor was it empty.

No, it wasn’t empty at all. Instead, the vast space was littered with thirty to forty dirty mattresses and torn curtains, dividing this room into small, booth-like partitions. These individual divisions were the residences of the complex’s resident freeloaders.

‘Squatters.’ Was the name given to these freeloaders by Mei, and one that had earned both Aether’s amusement and recognition.

These squatters were people who couldn’t afford to rent a proper, ‘safe’ residence within the complex and had resigned themselves to living in the polluted, irradiated world outside, having to wear an air filtration mask at all times. The roof over their heads seemed to be the only thing separating them from the vagabonds that slept outside in the streets.

Currently, this ‘dormitory’ lobby was scarcely populated by people except for the seven or eight who lay scattered in their mattresses. The rest were either still busy in their daily jobs, or had simply gone out to seek entertainment. The ones that were present were either staring at the dilapidated roof with lifeless eyes or inhaling some sort of multi-coloured gas through their air filtration masks.

Ignoring these squatters and taking extra care to stay far away from the ones inhaling that multi-coloured stimulant, Mei quickly exited the complex, arriving at the street outside. The outside world was no better than the decrepit apartment complex as the theme of dilapidation continued.

Cracked concrete blocks, twisted metal pipes, and puddles of fuming, iridescent liquids were strewn around the streets of Whitenoise Avenue. Shuffling about these inconveniences were throngs of mask-wearing people who went about their respective businesses. Streams of visible white air were huffed out in intermittent unison, filling the already overcrowded space with more congestion.

Taking a deep breath to regain her bearings, the sixteen-year-old girl joined the crow with the metal canister in hand.

---

Mei’s destination was not very far from the apartment complex that she and her brother occupied. It was quite close, consisting of only a ten-minute walk to the nearby public square which was also the central location of Whitenoise Avenue.

Getting to the central square was incredibly simple since most of the foot traffic that moved through Whitenoise Avenue headed in that direction. Recognizing one’s arrival at the said public square was even simpler.

At the very centre of the central square was a towering monument built out of rusted metal bars. The monument was 12 metres tall and 20 metres wide and was the local landmark of Whitenoise Avenue. As for what the monument was about; it was a sculpture of the people who founded Whitenoise Avenue and became its first settlers. The monumented depicted the refugees in sombre light and was beautifully crafted.

Arriving in the central square, Mei took a moment to arrive before the exquisitely-crafted monument to pay her respects. As a person who was about to soon undertake her Level 3 Citizenship Promotion Exam, the young girl was well versed in the history surrounding this monument. Recalling that history made her heart weigh heavily.

At the bottom pedestal of the monument, some distance from where Mei stood, was an epitaph inscribed by the sculpture’s builder. The words read as follows…

‘Chased from our paradisiacal home, us vagrants arrived in this wasteland. Far from the violence of mankind, we build our homes.’

Mei’s eyes lingered over the epitaph. Her heart stirred with unknown emotions and threatened to burst out. In the end, what came out of her mouth was a complex sigh. Shaking her head, she turned away from the monument and trudged towards the area where the Freight Container Airship was floating in the air. It wasn’t too far from the monument and it took the young girl a few minutes to arrive.

Underneath the airship, which was floating in the air, was an orderly crowd of mask-wearing people who carried metal containers similar to the one in Mei’s hand. These people formed a neat, straight queue and patiently waited for them to collect their rationed supply of water.

Finding a relatively lesser queue, Mei joined the crowd. A dozen or so minutes of waiting later, her turn finally arrived.

Arriving inside the marked circular area, Mei recognised the metal hose that hung down from the airship up above and the holographic floating screen that served as the terminal.

[Please display your ID.] A robotic voice resounded from the terminal.

With a practised hand, Mei recovered the button-like device from her pocket. Presenting it before the terminal, she waited for the computer to finish its scanning.

[ID detected. Accessing Database…] The terminal searched while Mei waited patiently.

[ID confirmed. Level 0 Citizenship confirmed. Allocated Quantity: 10L of purified drinking water. Please attach your collection tank to the end of the hose.]

At the computer’s prompt, Mei smoothly completed its instruction. The end of the metal hose was smoothly attached to the top of the metal canister, and the sound of water falling filled her ears. A few seconds later, the terminal chimed once again.

[Please remove your collection tank.]

Wasting not a single second, Mei recovered her metal canister and left the queue. The canister in her hand weighed heavier than before but did not prove to be too much trouble for the youthful, teenage girl. Having accomplished her task, she turned around to return home.

---

The return home turned out to be as unexciting as ever. Just as Mei was about to enter the apartment complex housing her home, she froze at the entrance. The canister in her grasp almost dropped from her hands as she let out an audible yelp of shock.

Standing at the entrance of the apartment complex and looking around in confusion was someone whom Mei recognized. It was her teacher from school!

Just as feelings of shock, confusion, and unknown fear appeared and took hold of the teenage girl’s body, her eyes suddenly met with that of her teachers. The latter immediately identified her.

‘It’s over!’ Mei instinctively thought to herself as her nimble mind put together the reason for her teacher’s arrival at her home. An intense urge to throw the canister and run away appeared within her heart.

Unfortunately, before she could weigh the benefits of such an action, her teacher walked over and arrived before her.

“Mei?” A mature, stern-sounding voice exited the snow-white mask worn by the neatly dressed lady. Her outfit, consisting of long pants and a layered formal jacket accentuated and added to her teacherly demeanour. “Is that you?”

“Mrs… Mrs Vilma!” Mei yelped with a panicked voice. She then noticed her peculiarity and hurriedly tried to calm herself. “What– What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to your home today to discuss certain matters regarding your tuition with your guardians. I recall asking you to invite them to the school, but,” she paused in recollection, “you said that they couldn’t make time at present, correct?”

“Ye–yes!” Mei nodded in panic.

“Well, I concluded that it would do well for all of us if I made the trip instead.” Teacher Vilma then pointed to the apartment complex before them and asked with a doubtful voice, “You live here?”

“Ye–yes,” Mei replied, her voice losing strength.

“Are your guardians home?”

“N-no–well… yes,” Mei muttered in defeat. There was no point in lying to her teacher as her lies were bound to unravel sooner or later. Hanging her head in shame, Mei powerlessly mumbled, “...follow me, Mrs Vilma. I’ll lead you to my house.”

---

Upon stepping inside the decrepit apartment complex, Mrs Vilma’s expression noticeably soured. A trace of disgust, doubt, and discomfort appeared on her face as she scanned around the scarcely populated lobby.

Unable to hold back her doubts, she voiced to her student, whom she had a very favourable impression of, her doubts, “Is this where you live?”

“Huh? Ah, yes! Well, not ‘here’ here, but here as in this apartment complex,” came the reply. For some reason beyond her understanding, Mrs Vilma found her bright, quick-on-the-uptake student to be quite dull today.

Ignoring her student’s strangeness, Mrs Vilma carefully surveyed her surroundings. The more she looked, the more pronounced the expression of disgust and discomfort became on her face.

As a Level 3 citizen herself, Mrs Vilma was far from those called ‘the rich’. However, she lived a life that she considered to be quite decent. A life that looked like heaven compared to this place that surrounded her.

Turning to look at her student’s face, Mrs Vilma tried to find any traces of discomfort or unwillingness on her face. To her surprise, Mei looked completely at home in this type of place. This evidence only served to confuse Mrs Vilma further.

That being said, the older lady’s movements and gaze turned quicker and sharper unconsciously. If possible, she wanted to get away from this ‘slum’ as soon as possible.

Just as the duo were about to enter the elevator waiting lobby, Mrs Vilma unconsciously backed away in caution when she saw a ‘dirty hooligan’ approach the female pair. Just as she was intending to pull Mei behind her back to protect her, she heard the stranger greet her student.

“Hiya, Mei! Is Aether back home yet?”

“Uh? Ah, yes. Big brother arrived around twenty minutes back,” replied her student.

“Oh, I see,” the vagrant voiced his reply and turned to face her. Seeing the stranger’s eyes landing on her body, Mrs Vilma reflexively lowered her hands into the purse that she carried. Within was a self-defence tool that she had purchased for herself.

However, before she could pull it out, she heard the stranger say, “Good day to you.” He then passed the duo and went to the lobby outside.

Mrs Vilma felt relaxed considerably. It was only now that she noticed her racing heart. That being said, this coincidental meeting did not serve to dissolve the cautiousness and aversion in her heart. On the contrary, this meeting only served to strengthen her repugnance.

The rest of the journey saw no meetings or conversations. Mei did not seem very enthused about introducing her home to her and Mrs Vilma wasn’t curious to find out more about it either. The older lady, however, continued to quietly survey her surroundings, discreetly shaking her head at times and clicking her tongue at others.

Her standards made her dislike this place and her strong sense of duty made her want to bring up this topic to Mei’s guardians. After all, according to her, no decent person should live in such a dubious, unsafe area.

After a tense trip, the duo arrived in front of Mei’s apartment.

Clicking on the buzzer, Mei spoke, “Big brother, I’m back. My teacher from school is here with me to meet you.” She then moved out of the way and gestured to the older lady to the camera.

A second later, a calm, lackadaisical voice replied, “Oh? Please come in.”

The buzzer buzzed and the pressure-sealed metal door opened.

---

[Big brother, I’m back. My teacher from school is here with me to meet you.]

The very instant Aether heard his younger sibling greet him with proper honorifics, he understood that something was wrong. The message that followed allowed him to grasp the situation.

After asking them to come in and pressing the button that would allow entry to their home, Aether quickly moved around to tidy the living room. It was mostly clear aside from the stack of study material strewn across the table in the centre. After arranging them into a neat pile and setting them aside, Aether got up and walked to the entrance foyer to meet the unexpected guest.

Swoosh! Following the sound of air escaping, the doors to the decontamination unit opened and entered a nervous-looking Mei and her stern, mature teacher.

Shooting a quick glance towards Mei, Aether sought an explanation from her through his eyes. Seeing the guilty and powerless look in her eyes, he more or less understood the situation.

Something that warranted his presence, as he was her guardian, had taken place in her school and this silly teenage girl had not mentioned it to him due to some unknown reason. However, her play at deception seemed to have been foiled by the unexpected house visit of her teacher.

Thinking this, Aether could not help but feel a little amused within his heart. She knew that his younger sibling, Mei, had a high sense of individuality and an even higher sense of pride. She hated asking others for help and even more so for admitting defeat. For her to not inform him about the ongoings at school meant that it was something difficult to talk about.

With his intelligence and understanding, Aether already had a faint idea of what this house visit was about. Still, he showed not a trace of peculiarity on his face as he played the part of a proper host.

“Please come in, Teacher,” he invited and gestured towards the living room. Wearing a smile that made others feel at ease around him, he joked, “Welcome Mei and my humble abode.”

“Please call me Vilma, mister…” Mei’s teacher, who had now removed her snow-white mask, smiled in the introduction. The look in her eyes became more approving upon meeting this handsome young man.

“Aether,” replied Aether. “You can call me Aether, Mrs Vilma. I am Mei’s older brother and guardian.”

Mrs Vilma’s face, which still retained a majority of her youthful features despite already entering middle age, frowned slightly as she asked, “Aren’t your parents or any older guardians present?” The mood in the air suddenly soured.

The instant she noticed the atmosphere within the room souring, Mrs Vilma knew that she had spoken wrong. The disapproving sights that she had seen on her way here had affected her mental state causing her to commit this faux pas.

Just as she was about to voice her apology, she heard the young man before her speak, “Our parents passed away in an accident more than a decade ago. Ever since then, it’s only been me and Mei. We do not have any other family.” As he spoke, Aether’s calm smile never left his face nor did it change.

“But fret not. If Mei has done something wrong, I’ll be sure to deliver her punishment in place of our parents. A few smacks to the bottom should do it, I reckon!” He finished in a humorous tone alongside a teasing smile.

The tense atmosphere melted away almost instantaneously and Aether earned himself a glare from his younger sister. He paid no attention to it, however, and continued to play host.

“Please come in and take a seat. We can continue our conversation in the living room.”

“Of course,” Mrs Vilma replied carefully with a smile. Having committed a blunder already, she inwardly swore to pay careful attention to her words and conduct.

While her own actions left her disappointed in herself, her impression of the smart and handsome young man in front of her climbed up more than a few levels. In her mind, Aether’s conduct and etiquette were the picture-perfect representation of what she thought a gentleman should act like.

Seating the older woman at the living room table and receiving the metal canister from Mei, he then placed the metal canister on the kitchen countertop. Turning around, he said to Mei, “Mrs Ruby had called for you when you had gone outside. Something about helping with her broken humidifier. Why don’t you run out and help while I speak to your teacher?”

Hearing her brother’s words, Mei immediately realised that he was speaking in code. A long time ago, the siblings had decided upon a few phrases and words that they could publicly use to convey some hidden meaning. The words that he has spoken right now were one of them.

After being translated, it meant, ‘My, my, my, seems like you’ve brought home quite the troublesome situation, haven’t you, Mei? Go on. Get out of here and hide somewhere, and wait for me to deal with this. I’ll deal with you later.’

Of course, this wasn’t the exact translation. More accurately, it was a paraphrasing from Aether based upon his understanding of the translation.

Receiving the message, Mei shot her brother a troubled look to which he quietly mouthed ‘Don’t worry. I got this’. Unable to completely rid her heart of her worries and unable to continue staying either, Mei begrudgingly left the apartment.

“I hope you didn’t find your trip here to be difficult?” Aether opened, now that he was left alone with Mei’s teacher.

“Not at all. It was quite pleasant. It’s just that…” Mrs Vilma intended to voice her distaste for the area of residence but then recalled her faux pas from earlier. Not wanting to present a shameful appearance to her host, she quickly changed her statement. “...I had some difficulty finding the exact location of your residence from the address. Fortunately, I met Mei outside the apartment complex.”

Wearing a beaming smile, Aether replied, “How fortunate! I agree. It does get a little confusing around here with the branching streets and all. Thankfully, we are planning to move soon.” Aether spoke a white lie.

As a person of much worldly experience, how could he not notice the look of discomfort on Mei’s teacher’s face!

That look of disgust and discomfort was something Aether had seen many times in the eyes of the residents of the inner-city when they gazed at the slums and its residents. And although technically speaking, Whitenoise Avenue wasn’t within the Slums of District 4, it wasn’t that far away from it either. That being said, it was undoubtedly the safest place that he could rent within his budget and wasn’t that bad. Sure, the buildings were a little decrepit, but the people were nice. Most people, at least.

Hearing that piece of a white lie from Aether’s mouth, Mrs Vilma visibly relaxed. She felt that she had accomplished her duty as a teacher to Mei and felt her heart unburden greatly.

Watching her relax, the smile on Aether’s face became more natural and pronounced. Of course, he had no intentions of moving away any time soon, but this nice lady didn’t have to know that.

“I agree. Good people like you and Mei must seek better accommodations,” she voiced her advice. Then, she moved to the core of the matter concerning her arrival.

“Mr Aether, I’ve visited you at your home today to inform you that the deadline to settle your dues with the school has shortened once again. You will have to pay 40,000 credits to settle your dues to the school by the end of this week.”

For the first time today, Aether felt the calmness within his heart crack.

“There was a seminar announcing this change a month back. I heard from Mei that you were unable to attend it in person due to being preoccupied with your work,” she said, looking at Aether for a response.

“Ah… yes… work… I was busy… doing… stuff,” Aether answered with unnatural pauses, his mind still recoiling from the unexpected announcement. Fortunately, the shock brought to him by the announcement froze his facial muscles causing the smile on his face to last.

While Mrs Vilma felt strange hearing Aether’s reply she paid it no special mind, chalking it up to the fact that his job had something to do with a non-disclosable matter. While she was slightly curious about it, she was not the type to unnecessarily prod.

“If possible, I would ask you to come to the school tomorrow morning and settle it at the earliest. It would be a pity if you were to be caught up with further engagements and miss the payment window, causing unknown troubles for Mei’s promotion exam.”

“Of course, of course. I wouldn’t want it to affect Mei’s studies in any manner.” Having regained a semblance of his calmness, Aether replied earnestly.

In regards to Mei’s education and future, Aether took everything with utmost seriousness.

Hearing his reply, a smile appeared on Mrs Vilma’s face, “I can rest easy then. There should be nothing to worry about.”

The two of them then engaged in some casual exchange. After a few minutes, Aether casually voiced a question to the teacher.

“On the topic of Mei’s education, let us say, hypothetically, she was to try for Level 4 Citizenship qualification? What would you say her chances are in succeeding?” An unprecedented look of focus appeared within Aether’s eyes.

“Level 4?” Mrs Vilma repeated in slight shock.

“Hypothetically, of course,” Aether waved his hand, a smile appearing on his face.

“Well,” Mrs Vilma lowered her face in serious pondering. After a few minutes of intense silence, she replied, “If it’s Mei, with her character and conviction, she would be able to do it.” Looking at the young man before her, she continued, “If she were to continue pursuing Level 4 qualification in our school, I can say with at least 80% certainty that she would be able to succeed.”

“Of course, there’s the matter of tuition,” Mrs Vilma’s tone turned slightly bitter. The reason she stopped at Level 3 qualification even though she had the ability to rise higher was because of this. “The academic course for Level 4 Citizenship qualification costs 340,000 credits. Of course, this amount is subject to change depending on factors such as scholarships, tuition increases, extra classes, etc.”

“I see,” Aether replied curtly. A heavy exhale sneakily exited his mouth. Quickly recovering from his daze, he continued his conversation with the teacher for a few more minutes before she offered to leave.

Saying his greeting and sending her out, Aether walked into the living room, slumped against the wall, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

He sat in a daze for a few minutes before absentmindedly saying, “340,000 credits, huh?”

Bringing out the button-like device from his pocket, he stared at the number displayed on the holographic screen.

[Account Balance: 112,374 credits]

In a slightly bitter tone, Aether mumbled, “12 years of toiling daily, and it still isn’t enough.”

Bzzzt! Just then, he heard the buzzer buzz.