Birdcage.

"Minamoto-sama, may I enter ?"

"Of course Danny you are always welcome."

"A notice was sent to me but it is adressed to you. It comes from Ashikaga Hanami-sama."

"Pff. If it was not for her name, I would have asked you to throw it away at once."

"Then allow me to read the content of her mail. "Greetings to our magnificent and merciful emperor, Minamoto Hideyoshi-sama. I contact you on the present day in order for you to hear about a request of my own. The content of the request concerns your wonderful Stella Academy. I would like to discuss with your secretary the terms of a contract in which you agree to sell me this property. I also informed the chairman in charge of the Academy and am on my  way to meet them. As such I would appreciate that you send your most trusted agent to meet me there. Yours truly, Ashikaga Hanami."

"How unfitting of her to speak in such terms, it gives me goose bumps. However I cannot ignore such boldness. Danny prepare to set off, you will be meeting her where she specified."

"Certainly."

I highly doubt the woman would be willing to perform such a bold move with no ulterior motive. I must remain cautious and prepare an escape rope in case push came to shove.

"Hm ? Oh. So the youngest of the Nagamines has decided to aim higher too. What a coincidence, if that were one. Anyway, it seems that my "intuition" has proved right."

The two of them can plan anything they want it won't do them any good. Every single person born in the first district had had a chip implemented in their forehead in order for me and their parents to be able to track their whereabouts at any given time and to hear any conversation they have. As such, I could tell that woman met the young Nagamine and that it was no coincidence. Moreover I heard about her trying to disrupt the order in the first district by sending Makoto-kun there. 

"Do not try to fool me woman, I did not climb to where I am standing thanks to my lineage only."

Knock knock knock

Who would still knock on a door when those are now exclusively made out of metal or gold ?

"Who is it ?"

"Sorry to bother you in your busy schedule, my name is Morine Haruka and I am here to ask for an audience with you."

"Oh if it is not the young chess prodigy ! By all means, come in."

"Thank you very much."

"Come have a seat."

This rooms feels oddly unsettling. The red carpet gives off a strong feeling of passion towards something I can't quite grasp. There are two enormous beds each at one side of the room, a television stands on the middle of the wall at the back of the room. This pretty much feels like an hotel. Right now we are sitting in the middle of the room in an oval section that was dug two feet lower than the rest of the floor, at a small table which feels almost like decoration more than anything.

"So Morine-kun, what brings you here today ?"

"Sorry, I should have started from here."

"This is no big deal really, raise your head. I will always make some time to meet such promising young boys, especially when they come from my own city."

"Thank you very much for your kind words. Then allow me to proceed to the purpose of my visit. If I came here to meet you today, it is to ask you if it could be possible for me to build a house in the first district."

"Oh my. May I ask you what your reasons are ?"

"Sure. I want to be able to meet with the people living over there. To this day I have been living in the third disctrict and the farthest I have ever been to has been the second district. I would like to meet the people who are the closest to you, who brought this city to where it's at right now. My lucky encounter with Chiba Shigeru-sama was honestly a trigger for my curiosity."

"So young and yet so brave. It makes me want to keep you for myself. However I am afraid that I cannot fulfill your request as it sadly is not of my responsibility alone to grand or not your wish. All I can do is give you a stamp of my approval, but then you will have to meet each and every people living over there to ask for their support as well."

"I see...But that is not enough to discourage me. I will gladly take your stamp as my first step and I will try my hardest to earn everyone else's through my utmost efforts and determination."

"What marvelous energy. Show me your wristband for now, I can at least do this much for you."

"Thank you very much, it means a lot."

BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP !!

"What is happening ?!"

"Remain here young man, I should receive informations about this alarm in a second."

"..."

"What is this report ?! Forty men heavily equipped are raiding the tower ?!! What is the meaning of this ?"

clic

"Put your phone down Minamoto Hideyoshi. Right. And now kneel with your hands up and turn in order to face me."

"So I take it that you deceived me."

"Yes and this gun is not for show, so until they arrive you'd better not try anything funny"

"Understood."

Way too docile, this is suspicious. I guess that having a gun pointed at oneself would make even Hanami think twice before trying anything, but the whole infiltration feels way too easy.

"I have a few questions until backup reaches us, will you answer me ?"

"I have nothing to hide, go ahead and ask me anything."

"Then i'll get straight to the point. What is the goal of the human experiments you are doing underground ? And how much people to this day have been sacrificed to operate them ?"

"My original goal was to create a perfect body. I wanted to create a human capable of living for at least two times the lifespan a regular person could expect for themself. To this effect we gathered a total of one thousand and seventy two children from everywhere in Japan, but mostly from this city."

"You say "original plan" and talk in the past tense, why is it ?"

"I found an even greater objective. I still want to create a superior body, but I also want to clone it and put an artificial brain in all of those. This way I should be able to create-"

"An army ?"

"No, nothing of the sort. I want to build a society whose leader and representatives are flawless humans, acting only in a way that would make the civilians set them as models of values and behavior. Which is how I tend to reach harmony."

"And are you willing to offer your own body in order to reach your goal ?"

"Of course not. I need to see it for myself. Moreover, if there is none to punish those who will refuse this society, it won't come true. Someone has to dirty their hands. And I, as the one who came up with this plan, have the duty to see things through."

"So not only are you not planning on stopping those sacrifices, you tell me that you plan on making more while murdering anyone who disagrees with you, am I wrong ?"

"Such cruel words. I simply wish for a better place for everyone to be in. And if some people cannot reach the same conclusion, it is only normal for them to disappear. None in their right mind would refuse to live in sync with one another if that was realisticly achievable."

I won't be able to refrain from pulling that trigger If I keep on hearing this bullshit. Hanami needs to hurry and replace me. 

"Let's move on to another topic. What exactly are those wristbands everyone in this city is given right from the moment they put a foot in here ?"

"It is but a simple gadget used to display the information about your identity when needed. Well, you also have the possibility to communicate with a restricted amount of people through it. And lastly, if you ever tried to leave the city or tried to enter a zone you are not allowed to visit, it sends a sedative to your veins which puts you asleep as long as someone from my personal guard doesn't provide you with its countermeasure."

"Asshole ! So how do we remove it ?! "

"I fear that might prove difficult. Once you have spent exactly three hunded and sixty-five days wearing it, it permanently sticks to your wrist and waits for you to be asleep to plant its roots into your arm to become something akin to a new organ. So if you were to remove it by force, you would most likely die. Since your body came to aknowledge this new organ as one that is vital for your system."

"Wha-"

"Whoa creepy... Yikes !"

"Hanami-san !"

"What's wrong, did we jump back one year in the past ?"

"Sorry, I just could not endure it any longer, I'm so glad you came in time."

"Wow chill Haruka we'll talk about that later, mind the time and place for such things I beg you."

"I will pull the trigger."

"Hahaha ok, ok sorry. But thanks to your call we won't waste anymore time hearing his story so let's get into business right away."

"Yes please."

I said that even Hanami would shiver if she were to face a gun barehanded, but the more I think about it, the more I feel like she's just unshakable. Although probably thanks to all the time I have spent with her in the last few years, I can now feel just how pissed off she is right now even with that confident smile. Which is oddly reassuring.

"Alright as i said I'll get straight to the point. Leave this city and never come back, or die here  and now."

"How wild of a woman you are as always. As I said earlier, I don't plan on dying quite yet so-"

"I don't care about your crap, if you want to live you call your men right here and now and you get the fuck out of this city. Ah but you can be sure I'll keep an eye on you anyway."

"If it avoids any sort of bloodbath I cannot refuse, however allow me to ask you something. 
You are against my plans and treat me as the evil doer, but from what standpoint do you plan on explaining to the civilians how you are acting for justice by banning me ?"

"Oh don't worry about such nonsense. I never said I was here to bring justice. Nor did I say you were evil and I was good. The only thing I said is that to me you are an eyesore of a human being. As such it comes naturally for me to use all the means at my disposal to in fact, dispose of you."

"..."

"And if there are people who think I am wrong and that I shouldn't be taking over your role at the top of this city's hierarchy, I'll hear them out and I am ready to make some adjustments and to compromise about certain things. But If it's not enough, they can still try to overthrow me, just like we are doing to you right now."

"Understood, then give me five minutes and I will be gone without a trace just like you asked."

"Hold on a minute. One last thing. Release us from these disgusting wristbands right now."

"Oh no I can't just do that."

"You can't ? So what if If I burst open your head right away then ?"

"It won't matter. I already sent my most trusted partner out of this city and soon enough he will already be out of your reach too."

"And how does that change anything ?"

"He is the one I entrusted with the "key" to desactivate those devices."

"You son of a-"

"Brrrr..  such coldness. By the way, you might not know it but the scientists who created this technology are about to die too and unfortunately you won't be able to do anything about it."

"What do you mean ?"

"They are outside of this city. Oh ! I knew I forgot something important ! Haruka-kun, do you want to learn something interesting before we part ways ?"

"Cut it out, one more word and I kill you."

"Come on, don't be like that. I am certain you will be delighted to hear what I have to say."

"..."

"You have nothing to lose Haruka, hear him out."

"Ok enlighten me."

"Wonderful ! So I talked about the scientists who came up with the idea for this magnificent wristband right ? "

"Hurry up and spit it out."

"They are none other than your parents. Morine Ryuuji and Morine Sumire were proud scientists of the early days of this city's construction and also old friends of mine. It's thanks to them that the underground labs were created. Well, they had to flee from the city at some point because some jealousy grew between them and their colleagues who ended up trying to kill them, but thanks to that they were able to settle down quietly in the country side and give birth to the wonderful young man you are. Isn't it marvelous ?"

"..."

"Oi Haruka don't listen to him, he might be spitting nonsense. You can pull the trigger anytime, Ill allow you."

"No no no, you should not say such things. Would you mind to look at those holographic displays for a moment ?"

"What the fuck is going on ..."

"AKEMI ! MOM, DAD ! "

"See ? Right now If you shoot me or even try to harm me before I live the city, both Morine-kun's parents and Hochizora Akemi will be killed instantly."

"How did you manage to capture Akemi ?! Answer me asshole !"

"Ashikaga-san, you should stop blowing a fuse like that, you will grow wrinkles quicker."

"Fuck off, answer my question."

"So impatient.. This is nothing complicated, Hochizora-san's parents are from my personnal guard, that is all."

"No way...."

"Now now, if you simply let me leave this city peacefully no harm will be done to any of them."

"..."

"Oh looks like they are ready to pick me up. So what do you say ? Three lives for my head or no more blood ?"

"Get lost."

"I take that as a ceasefire then. Now if you'll excuse me."

"..."

Shut !

"To all the squads at ground floor, lead this piece of shit to the airport and make sure not to harm him, he has hostages."

".."

"Get up Haruka, let's head home for now."

                                                                               ______

April 25, 2061. Fukuoka's 3rd district - 11am.

clic

"I'm not in the mood to play with guns right now Hikari, put that away from my forehead please."

"Rich coming from you after you left me in charge of thirty-four mercenaries heavily armed."

"..."

"Hey don't go back to sleep ! What's with this attitude ?"

"Hikari."

"What now ?"

"Leave me alone."

"..."

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU TODAY ?! WHY ARE YOU SO-"

"HIKARI !"

"Hanami-san ?"

"Come with me for a moment."

"O-ok.."


I don't know anymore.
We managed to make this plan an overall success with no casualities to top it off, but it simply feels wrong. In the end we are still trapped in this city and I learnt that both my and Akemi's parents might be our enemies. Which doesn't sound so unrealistic in my case considering how distant they were with me plus all the training they made me go through before they sent me to this city.
They at least knew what was going on.
But they did not try to change anything.
Or maybe they expected me to do that.
I don't know.
I don't even know if I care that much right now.

"Haruka."

"Hana... What can I do now ?"

"Right now our top priority should be to find a way to remove those wristbands, but we have a lifetime to do that, so for now let's just rest."

"Right..."

"Can you come with me to the living room for a moment ?"

"Sure."

"..."

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!!!"

"Huh.. oh.. hah ?"

"Sorry Haruka, originally I wanted to put our plan into action way before yesterday so that in the worst case scenario were we lost but still were left alive, we could at least celebrate your brithday after we had recovered a little but... Even though we technically won, you were left with more than one or two wounds. And I cannot even say that you are the only one having a tough time so we can all cheer you up either.. But at the very least I wanted you to be sure that even if what we heard was true, you have us now. It probably doesn't mean much to you right now but I hope that it will be the case in the futu-"

"..."

"Whoah, don't jump at me like that ! What happened to you ? I'm not so easy that I would give away myself to you because you are feeling down."

"So when I feel better this means that I still have a chance ?"

"Wha- !"

"Pfff.. HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA !"

"Yo what is wrong with you right now ? When did you learn to laugh like that ?!"

"It's just...pffff..hahahaha"

"Come on breath ! "

"No I mean, you are just so cute hahaha."

"What the fuck ?!"


With that awkward birthday celebration clumsily orchestrated by the sweetest person I know, I was able to move on from these painful thoughts and look forward to what was next. 

I still don't know exactly what to think of my parents but I feel like that even if I had known earlier or even, let's say, from the beginning, It was the right choice to come to this city anyway if it meant that I would be able to meet someone like Hanami-san. 

Right now I want to learn more about the rest of our squad too, and hopefully be able to see them as my real family someday.
To make that happen, our first step should be to re-build this tiny society to make sure we will then have no regrets while we prepare our departure.
All I can do now is to give it my all to make sure that someday, we will get to enjoy true freedom.