Something is off about it.

If it isn’t for that day, we could have lived a much better life; is what we get to hear every now and then. Everyone knows everything but no one has the power to speak up in front of a huge crowd. Whom can we blame for it? Is it us who are accepting it and living our life, or is it ‘them’ who are forcing it on us?’

‘The answer to this question is not so important. What’s important now is to solve the bigger issue in our hand. The things we did in past can’t be undone, so for our greater future ‘it’ must be done. In order to bring our old days back. The days which were filled with pure emotions and love. The days which seemed longer to us and were filled with nostalgic memories. The time, when we didn’t know what fear actually was? At any cost we will gain victory’

‘It’s 27th March, 2089. The sun was bidding adieu to the day. There is no presence of birds, it’s just a dull evening. A normal evening which was actually normal till a few moments ago. Now I am on the run with a girl who is hardly ten years old, in a dark alley. I am running out of my own will because ‘they’ are chasing me. I can feel that I am running short of breath now. The muscles of my legs are almost giving in, and my speed is getting hindered. The girl aside me is almost getting dragged by me and now she is barely keeping up with my speed’

‘I think I should ask her’

“Hey, you girl, are you okay?”

“Yes, brother”.

‘She is telling me that she is okay, but she actually isn’t. I don’t have the time to ask her now why ‘they’ are chasing her. But I can feel the current situation. If I had not step up, another crime in the disguise of justice would have been committed. We are not different from a criminal. Accepting it and watching it for days and days and days; I am sick of it’

2 hours earlier.

It’s 3:30 p.m.

“This work is so hectic, I hate it. Only, if I were an owner of a big company or son of any leader, I would have lived a luxurious life in the main city”, said the man with a depressed face, in is in his twenties.

“Don’t let it get to you too much, Minori.”

‘Oh, if you are wondering, my name is Hikaru Minori. I am twenty -one years old, who is - 6ft, and like to watch football. I am doing this shitty job because I dropped out of college in second year. I am from a normal Middle-class family, neither poor nor rich. I have no aspirations now. My future in short is bleak. I am just living to meet my family’s needs. My mother and father are both older now. So, it’s obviously my responsibility now to return the favor to them. I know that ‘returning the favor’ sounds wrong towards their harsh sacrifices for me. But I don’t know what I actually want now.’

“Sometimes I question myself, is it really the love that is binding me or I am coward who gave up on his dreams”.

“Huh, did you hit your head somewhere?”, the coworker said.

“Does it sound funny to you, by any chance, Aoi?”

‘Aoi, my co worker in this company whom I know from my high school. He was an excellent student back then, but due to his financial issues, he had to step up for work, to help his family. He is also my only friend now whom I can trust with anything’

“Okay, okay, chill down. Let’s go for some drinks after work, Aoi said”.

1 hour passed.

‘We completed our work and are now standing in front of a huge restaurant.’

“Wow, this restaurant is so big, its my first time here”.

“Well, you are paying so its okay to be here”, Aoi said with an evil smile.

“Wait, hold up, who said I am paying?”

“That was a joke, don’t worry”, Aoi said.

‘We went to the reception counter and they scanned our badges on our left side of the chest.’

‘After that they told us our table number and we went and sat with an unsatisfied and gloomy face’.

“Why the hell are they always scanning our badges everywhere we go?” Aoi asked with frustration.

“Well, we can do nothing about it, we are in the reign of a tyrant now, so everyone cares about their life more”, I replied.

“This is bullshit”.

“Yaa, can’t agree more”.

‘As we were drinking and having a not-so-important conversation, I saw a girl standing just a few centimeters outside the restaurant, with astonishment and glittering expression. Her eyes were so much shining with excitement, that it can make the stars blind.’

She took her first step inside the restaurant, and the red colored light bulb outside the door was turned on. All the restaurant staffs and even their owner came running down asap. When they saw that it was because of a little girl, they couldn’t let it hook. A slight amount of sympathy didn’t spark a light in their hearts. It was as if, they didn’t even have one from the beginning. The owner of the shop kicked right at her face and closed the door after that.

“Who let the door open? Speak out now, otherwise your life will be in danger now”, the owner of the restaurant shouted at his workers with a raged face.

‘Though the sight of it made me unfazed, it was if my heart and brain didn’t know how to react.’

‘But this time, something was different. I lose my composure and did the worst of the worst thing ever’.

‘I got up from my sit and punched right into the face of the owner.’

‘Everyone there were stunned along with my friend.’

The owner fell down on the floor and was shocked.

“Bwahahahahaa”

“Seriously, are you in your right mind?”, the owner asked.

“I seriously am”.

“You really want a death wish I think”.

“That’s not the issue here. The main problem is the way you behaved towards that little girl.”

“This is my own restaurant and I can do whatever I want. Are you trying picking up a fight with the main city guys?”

“I don’t want that”.

“Then why are you acting so cocky you asshole”.

“Shut the hell up.”

“Oh, I see, that girl is someone to you, right. Then I will also kick you out from here as a token of gift. Guards, kick this asshole out of here too”.

“You, shitty owner”, ‘as the guards were coming to catch me, I kicked the owner right into the stomach, and punched him three to four times after he fell on the ground’.

‘As, the two guards were trying to capture me, I dodged his hand and hold his right hand. His hand was pretty strong and rough. I punched his stomach in a matter of seconds, with my left hand and he fell on the other guard behind him.’

This gave him much time to run away from that place.

As he was trying to get out from the restaurant, the owner shouted, “Everyone get a hold of those two, they must be executed”.

‘I ran out of the restaurant and it was raining heavily. The girl was sitting on the ground with a saddened face, looking at the restaurant, while she is getting drenched because of the rain’.

“She is still here. How can she be so fixated even after that humiliation.” The words of that owner echoed in my mind now.

“Whatever, I need to run now”.

“Hey girl, come with me fast”.

“They are there, hurry up”, one guard shouted.

“Where are you taking me?” the girl asked in fear.

“Just run, no explanations now”.

“You can’t run now”, the officer on our front said that while blocking our path.

‘As I was trying to run fast enough to make them lose our sight. The officer was standing right in front us, as if he knew our location from the first’

“I know what you are thinking right now”, the officer gave an eerie smile while saying that.

‘It was at this moment , I came to know something was off. My feelings of confusion were right, it seems.’