“Oh god, I can feel it.”

“What?” said Ruri, she’d woken up ten or so minutes ago.

I ignored her, spellbound by the incoming climax. Air hit me in the face as my window came down, styling my hair like Moses parting the red sea.

I can see it! My saviour!

My mouth held agape, salivating, as my eyelids fluttered and my breathing became hysterical.

“The fu-” muttered Ruri.

“Who taught you to speak that way?” said our mother.

Ruri let some gibberish slip through her lips as she sunk into her seat.

My mum took the next exit on the highway, and my pupils locked onto the white walls of the megalopolis which devoured more of my vision with every revolution of our piddling hatchback’s wheels.

“Are these walls really necessary?” said my mother.

“Yeah, how else would they segregate themselves from the plebs outside.” I said.

“Ryu that’s rude.”

“No it’s the truth and nothing is more refined than that.”

A minute passed in silence and I smirked.

Fucking destroyed.

We were travelling slower now since one must obey the speed limit lest they be rewarded with the full might of the law. It wouldn’t be long now though. My freedom was within walking distance if it came to it.

“So, how are you guys feeling about starting?”

“All good.” I said.

“Ruri?”

“I’m… a little nervous.”

Mum placed a hand on Ruri’s shoulder and squeezed it affirmingly.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be fine darling.”

I rolled my eyes, this is too cliche.

“There’s no need to be nervous you know, in fact you should be excited like I am.”

Ruri looked back, encouraging me to continue.

“Okay think of it like this, you being scared means that something significant is about to happen, in this case something in your life is changing, and that’s good because that means you’re moving forward in life. Even if at first what’s about to happen seems bad, it’s okay, because you’re still moving forward in life.”

“That… kinda helps, thanks.” said Ruri.

“What you should really fear is not moving forward in life, that would suck.”

Ooh we’re passing through the walls!

I vaguely heard someone thanking me again in the background.

The wall covered us with a blanket of darkness as we passed through and came to a stop infront of a security checkpoint within the wall.

A young male security guard dressed tidily in uniform knocked on my mothers window, and she opened it to allow him to speak.

“Hey, thanks for stopping, we’re gonna need to see your license and invitation, and you’re gonna need to turn your car off as well.”

Well he’s straight forward.

“I got the papers right here… and” - My mother held up her right hand with the keyring holding her car keys looped around her index finger - “car’s off.”

Mother smiled, and I imagined someone patting her head as it bobed up and down slightly in satisfaction.

The security guards eyes focused on my mothers smiling face for a moment as he matched it with the one on the license.

“Alright I just need to go check these papers with the system so I’ll be back in a couple minutes.”

The guard waited for a moment, incase we had any questions I’d assume and then left.

“He’s rather young to be a guard isn’t he?” said my mother, always voicing her concerns.

My mother then hit me with what she was really thinking.

“You should get a job too Ryu, it’d be good.”

“Yeah I will.”

“Oh?”

“What do you mean ‘oh’?”

Ruri finally decided to speak.

“She means you’re normally lazy.”

“That’s not my fault.”

I could hear both woman sigh, but they said nothing. The guard from earlier showed up holding my mothers license and keys.

“Here you are, everything looks good so you can go through. It’s a drop-off only area up ahead so try to be quick. You can leave your belongings with one of the desks there and they’ll be delivered to your residence.”

The officer looked to his left where cars were beginning to build up before returning his attention to my mother.

“Have a nice day and,” the officer looked at Ruri and I, “good luck!”

“Thank you,” we all said in unison, like a happy family.

The guard gave us one last smile before moving back as we drove through the checkpoint.

“I really need a stretch,” said Ruri, yawning.

I nodded my head.

“Same.”

“At least you two can agree on something.”

Upon seeing the drop off area come into view my first thought was how organized it was. It was true what people said about this city, at least for what we’d seen so far. Everything was built from the ground up so nothing felt out of place.

The drop off area started with a roundabout, one road in and one road out; I suppose the choice to make it a roundabout rather than one curved road was so people who were about to leave but forgot something could rotate around again.

Cars would stop on the outer rim of the roundabout to drop their passengers and luggage off. We were quite early so the place wasn’t busy, but it was starting to fill up. I wonder if it could handle the sheer magnitude of people trying to enter at this time of year.

Our car came to a stop and I immediately jumped out and stretched my back, and Ruri did the same; albeit, with much less haste.

“Can you go get me a cart please?” said Ruri.

I didn’t argue. The reality is that neither of us disliked the other enough to needlessly start arguments whenever possible, especially in public.

I went and grabbed two carts which were shaped like tiny flatbeds, but the edges had all been curved and the surface covered in rubber to keep its contents from slipping off.

I returned to our car and we loaded our stuff onto our carts, my stuff being three average sized boxes and Ruri’s being nine of various shapes and sizes.

From there we said our good byes, checked our stuff in at one of the many desks in the area and stepped through for examination.

“Good luck!” Is what the staff member said to us as we entered. I’m starting to think that the security guard saying the same thing wasn’t just a coincidence.

Our mother didn’t come along.

All information relating to this examination was under strict control, so I had no idea what I needed to study; thus, I studied nothing. Ruri was more dedicated than me and studied almost everyday of the summer break.

Current level of regret: Zero.

There was no one to guide us not that one was really needed. Due to the design of the building, I could only go forward, so I did. Ruri followed along.

The first thing we encountered was several doors and a couple signs saying, “Enter for Identification. One person per scanner.” Naturally we listened and picked doors beside eachother.

“See you on the other side,” I said.

“You to,” said Ruri.

Behind the door was a tiny room large enough to hold one person. The left wall was made of a heavily tinted glass and displayed on it was “Place your hands flat against the wall and look straight ahead.” To the right was what looked like a door with a small red light on it, indicating it was locked.

I followed the instructions and the previous words changed to say “Scanning is in progress. Stay still and do not remove your hands from the wall.”

From the top of the glass a wave of glowing particles flowed downward until they reached the level my hands were at. From there, they entered my body, passing through my arms into my chest and then spreading through the rest of the pathways in my body.

Each time the particles pulsed through me I felt warm and awake, like it was charging me up. Not with electricty though; I could only imagine how high a voltage would be required to force such a visible movement of charges in an insulator like glass. A shocking amount would be my guess.

“Ha.”

Yes, I laughed at my own joke.

The pulses of glowing particles stopped after 5 or 6 waves, and the display updated to say “Collect your ID card” with an arrow pointing down at a space in the glass which I hadn’t noticed before.

I grabbed the card and smiled.

On it was my face, which isn’t much of a surprise, but the photo had been taken during the scan. I didn’t care how my ID photo looked, but others… namely Ruri, would be mad she wasn’t told about it.

The display updated with my next instructions, “Place your hand on the exit door to leave and proceed to initial screening. All following doors will be opened this way.”

I did as told and felt the same sensation as before, however, to a much lesser degree. I suspect whatever system had been used to identify me was being used to unlock the doors as well; however, this one was much more discreet. Did it require a less power now that it had identified me once?

Well there’s a time and a place for me to figure that out, this is neither.

I opened the door revealing a long hallway with the same highly tinted glass on both sides. It wasn’t a long hallway, about ten meters long at most, and still only wide enough for one person to walk through. Whoever designed this place definetely has a fetish for tight spaces.

At the end of the hallway I could spot that familiar red light indicating a locked door.

The voice of a female announcer surprised me as the door behind me closed and I took a step forward.

“Get out.”

The room turned pitch black.

Well, excluding the red light.

I took my time taking my next step forward in anticipation of whatever was meant to stop me getting out.

I doubt the darkness is the true obstacle here.

My right foot left the ground.

No response.

It moved forward and hovered over the ground.

Zilch.

It touched down.

Nada.

Well shit. Something’s definetely meant to happen but whoever designed this clearly couldn’t think of an actual obstacle but they’d already built this hallway and needed to use it somehow.

I casually walked to the exit door and sighed, as I unlocked it and stepped through, shaking my head left to right with my lips pressed together.

The following room was a massive two story auditorium. Counting the seats, it could probably seat at least two thousand people. I walked around the room while I decided where to sit.

“Hmpf, even the people managing this city are incompetent,” said a girl from somewhere around me.

My eyes found the source of the sound fairly quickly. It was a group of three girls seated in the center front row of the second story of seats.

“Hime-sama you shouldn’t…” said another girl.

“Akina! I asked you earlier to just call me Saya,” said the same voice that started the conversation.

I decided I’d take a seat beside them, seeing as my other options were to take a seat by myself or find Ruri which was not going to happen. I made my approach.