Nostalgia

We were discreetly escorted out of the complex and onto the streets. To blend in a bit better, we  took on our school uniforms. From there we were led across the city to a place that had our temporary housing until the party.

I’d almost forgotten how hyper specific people were when taking paths. Walking so casually down these streets caused me to bump into people left and right. One of them looked at us bit suspiciously, prompting us to hustle out of their to avoid being reported.

Once we were at the apartment building, our escort hastily lead us to our room, then set up a radio inside a rather large closet to keep communications with other guardians in the area. This network would keep us informed on everything going on around us so we’d stay informed.

“Well, we made it.” Ekko said, beginning to unpack her luggage on the bed. "This room feels so fancy."

I unpacked as well, helping Ko do the same. As nice a room as it was, we didn’t want to get too comfortable here.

“You know,” Ekko turned to me, “they said a lot of VIP’s stay at this building when in town. I passed by it a few times when I had to visit the diet building on student council duty. Never thought special people were calling it home.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask something. How did it feel to be on the student council?”

She took the question in stride and laid back on her bed.

“At the time, it felt normal. I’d always been gunning for a seat on it even when I was on the pill. I wanted a high position in the school, but it wasn’t until I got off my pill that I figured out how to get all the way to the top.”

“So, you were a pretty high ranked member, I take it?”

She made a scoffing sound that put that idea into question.

“There really wasn’t any ‘rank’ so to speak. We all had equal power, I just wasn’t afraid to use mine to make things happen. It was a balancing act to not stand out too much.”

“What exactly did members do, anyways?” I asked.

Given the nature of our society, I couldn’t really see the student council members getting many privileges over any of the other students, so their existence seemed a little redundant.

“We had a hand in planning the curriculum of classes. It was mainly to prepare us for governmental positions.”

“Clearly that gave you some leverage to put your plan in motion.”

She smiled, wryly.

“You could say I made a pretty convincing argument to get Romeo and Juliet into our class.”

Books like that often got banned, but for some reason, that one never did find itself crossed out by either the government or the school. It sat in somewhat of a gray zone, usually only brought up as a rare example to show the tragedy of the old ways of life.

The girls were going to be sharing a bed, so Ko sat down next to her.

“Do you miss anything about your old life before you stopped taking the pill?” Ko asked.

“No,” Ekko shook her head.

Ko asked me next, but I gave the same response.

Ko folded her legs close to her chest, wrapping her arms tightly around them.

“If you can believe it, I miss something.”

I really couldn’t believe it. Who would want to go back to being a mindless drone?

“Things were so simple back then,” she said. “I wasn’t worried about anything because I knew the government was going to protect me, as long as I stayed in line. I’d never go hungry, never worry about war, not even crime.”

“Well, when you put it like that…” Ekko hummed. “It was pretty simple. Go to school, come home, study, bed. That was life. Nothing much to complicate it.”

There was a bit of nostalgia when I considered the way things were then. But looking back on it, especially knowing what I know now, we weren’t much different from cattle.

“Let’s not forget that we ran away from that life for a reason,” I reminded them.

Ekko let out a laugh.

“Believe me, nobody knows that better then us.”

It got quiet for a second.

“We’re really doing this, huh?” Ekko asked.

“As long as we keep our cool, we’ll be fine,” I assured. The party wasn’t going to be that bad, especially since we trained for it. “Just remember our training.”

Ekko slouched with a worried look.

"I know with you guy's, we'll be fine, but still. This whole thing is making me nervous."

She had every right to worry, we all did. The future of Japan rested on this mission.

There was a secondary objective going to this party though. We’d be trying to get more info on what the higher up class of people were doing. That meant mingling around a little, if at all possible.

Somehow that part made me more stressed out.

We could even start that now if we wanted. There were a lot of social activities at this apartment building that had special minds ripe for the picking. We learned games like poker, tennis and its table variant, and plenty of other things.

In essence, this would put our training to the test before we actually got to the party. That came with some risk, but we decided to set out and see if our social skills could survive this new climate.