I’m Akani Kizuato... eighteen and a twenty-seventy-eight high school graduate. Typical start for an introduction but I honestly don’t know what else to say. Maybe the fact that my life is in a total shit hole and I’m already having a midlife crisis…

Yeah. There’s nothing more.

Let’s start from where I am right now...

I got rejected by every university in the nation, and It somehow became the main talk of the school for the rest of the year: a guy like me that couldn’t get any acceptance to a college.

My friends talked about it to me, and anybody who could manage to get a word in tried to ask what happened. It was aggravating to the point I nearly punched a kid in the face that was simply asking a question that was not even relevant to the topic.

Actually that kid was annoying, I really wanted to punch him in the face, but you don’t need to know him, he’s not important at all.

Fast forward to graduation day, I was one of the top-ranked students in the class. Everyone cheered for me when I got up, but I knew that it was simply to hide the reality I’m facing. Holding that diploma and shaking the superintendent’s hand was nothing but bittersweet… That fake smile of his and the pitiful look that his eyes gave, it completely annoyed me.

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“Hey make sure we keep in touch! I’ll see you someday!”

“Alright you take care!” Almost everyone left the school immediately once the final bells rang, leaving the halls empty and quiet. I could have joined in the flock that was progressing through the main yard but, with so much that was going on in my life, I needed a breather. Just some alone time to think to myself.

I went to the maintenance room that led up to the rooftop. It was always unlocked, but no one comes here that often so I ended up using it to my advantage throughout the years. I got up on the roof, sat down, and let my mind drift off… merely thinking about my life up to this point. Now finished with high school, virtually having nowhere to go, and no future planned out, this is a dead-end.

“So... four years to get a piece of paper huh… what a fucking waste.” I rolled it up back into its tube and threw it back in my bag, taking out my uneaten lunch. A soggy sandwich and damp rice was all I had. I walked to the edge of the roof, and sat down, dangling my feet on the side of the wall. I could just see the crowd of students entering their cars or walking home to their families.

The feeling of frustration, uncomfortably sitting in my gut just started to weigh in my appetite. Looking at those people, having someone to wait for them…

“AGHHHH, FUCK!” I stood up furiously and threw my lunch off the building, landing near the pavement. I got on my knees and threw an unforgiving punch to the innocent gravel. My knuckles started to bleed and the pain added to my misery.

“Why did my life have to be like this?” I breathed deeply and regained consciousness. I sat down and looked up towards the sky, trying to gather up my mind and relax.

“Just calm down, calm down…” I later laid down and meditated over what had happened. I guess I did let my emotions get to me this time. It has been a while since I have felt… almost incomplete. With the circumstances I had dealt with, it was all too much for me.

My pocket promptly vibrated after I calmed down, I took out my phone to see the screen with the picture of my mother and me. Why is she now calling me out of the blue?

“Hello?”I was immediately blasted with tons of background commotion, from people talking and shouting. I had to pull my phone away from my ear. “Hello? You there mom?”

“Ah, Aki! There you are! Sorry, I just got a five-minute break for my job. I just wanted to say congratulations on graduating!” My mother works as the prime minister of the United Federations of Falsea and Earth after the wars. It would’ve helped if I had mentioned that earlier.

“Oh. Um, thank you?” I just wasn’t feeling it today. I was not mentally there to say Thank you so much, I love you and all that crap. “Is there something that you need from me?”

“Oh yeah… how’s the college situation going on? Did you manage to figure something out?” She was already in the know about my helpless situation… She didn’t feel resentful or disappointed in me, just very hopeful but in a way that she doesn't expect results from this mess… If that would make any sense.

“Well… um…” I couldn’t piece my words together. My emotions just keep tripping them over and over and over. I let out my breath. “It’s no hope.” Her voice sounded dispirited, but it only made sense.

“I am still trying to do everything, I can make it work somehow.” She sighed.

“You know Akani, if anything doesn’t work out, you can always just… you know.” Here she goes again.

“Mom, please don’t start this...” Every time my mother had a chance to talk to me, she would always bring up me going into the military, and every time, I would reject the offer.

“Akani, you know it is not always in the front lines, you can just be a mechanic or a logistics manager or-“ I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Mom, just please, for once... let me choose what I want. You know how I am about it… with dad and Ellie.” I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh. I was about to blow up on my mom, but this is the only time I would get to talk to her, with her being as busy as she always is. I never get to talk to her, let alone meet her. She sighed. I felt so guilty.

There’s no hope.

“Just… be wise about your decision. You can never know what you are capable of until the last minute.” The background got saturated with noise and I could tell there was a lot of movement from the phone.

“Listen, I have to go now. I’ll send you a loan for your expenses and other things if anything does happen. Just text me or call if you need anything else. You know I love you, Aki.”

“I know... I love you too.” I hung up the phone. Why did everything have to be this way? Everyone is having the time of their lives while I’m… abandoned. Left to fend for myself, not even the school could’ve helped me. I guess there’s nothing I can do.

I grabbed everything that I brought with me and headed to the stairwell until the door burst open in front of me. The loud thud of the door startled me and took my attention by surprise.

“Hey! What are you doing up here!?” An angry voice pierced through the calm surroundings, throwing my whole routine out the window. “You can’t be up here!” Promptly, I looked towards the entrance to see a guard staring straight back at me. Slowly, I walked backward, not turning away from him.

“Hey! Stay where you are!” There’s one thing that many people don’t know about me. I may be one of the top people ranked in this school, but I may have done things that might get me in trouble with the school... probably with the law as well. With that, I managed to learn some things that… well… give me a better advantage if you know what I mean.

I rushed into the other direction, which the guard started to sprint after me. The rooftop is quite high, but every section was built in a way that it was easy to maneuver around, plus there are no fences up here. The majority of the rooftop also has a bed of gravel on top so it is quite easy to land but hard to run on. I made my way down to the back of the school only to be stopped by a steep drop to the ground. The guard behind me was slowly gaining on me.

I could still hear him yelling me to stop, but his voice started to give away. I looked around to see a path for me to get down. All the walls had windows, and the bricks were very smooth, so I couldn’t simply slow my fall by climbing down. I looked a little more and found a rain pipe near the back entrance. It was a suitable distance for me to grab on to, but it was also far enough to where if I messed up, I would be sitting in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. I took a deep breath― as my surroundings slowed down.

My mind kept running about thinking to myself that either... “I’m going to make it…” to “don’t fuck up, don’t fuck up…”. To be honest, this hasn’t been the craziest thing I’ve done in my life compared to some other things that I’ve got myself into.

I exhaled, letting all the air out of my lungs, and immediately booked it to the pipe. Leaping off the edge felt like forever. My entire body felt weightless, my clothes flapping in the surrounding air.

Okay let's pause here for a second...

From here, you could expect that pipe that is several years old to hold on to a hundred and forty-pound kid running at full speed and manage not to break with all that momentum. Well, you would be dumb to think that… this is not some action anime we’re in.

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“Oh FUCK!”

I grab hold of the metal pipe, alarmed to hear a snap at the top. As the pipe sped up downwards and realizing how I got myself into this position, I freaked out with horror and looked frantically to find something to hold on to, only then to realize that it frankly was hopeless.

I yelled on the way down to the ground.

I felt a quick jerk and my body stopped suddenly. I still had my eyes closed, scared of the outcome I might have faced. But when I opened them up, I looked only to see that I was just a few feet above the ground. The top of the pipe hit the corner side of the wall and managed to stay in shape. I sighed in relief and slowly made my way down to the ground. Dusting myself off, I looked back at the guard who was now stuck on the roof.

“Sorry about that! Won’t happen again!” He was visually pissed, yelling out a lot of F-bombs that I could faintly hear him off in the distance... I wonder how he will get down from there. I ran to one of the gates and made my way back to the main road.

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Looking back at my past, I’ve come to realize that my life has been utter shit. The only years that I could count as “normal” years would only be from the day I was born until I reached five… Actually the things that I could remember were only when I was five. So essentially one year out of my life. I could’ve had a normal life. My parents are doing normal parent things and my sister being my sister. All of that was gone with the war… the fourth fucking war that this world had to have. Our home got invaded, bombed down before our eyes. Mom, Dad, and Sis had to go off and defend the island of Hawaii while I was evacuated back to the mainland US with my aunt.

After the war, all I got was news from overhearing my aunt talking with a military person at the front door. She cried as the man left, only with the letter in my aunt’s hand. Both my sister and dad were gone, never to come back. Seeing my mother at the funeral was difficult. The two crosses beside each other that represented the two family members I had now among hundreds of thousands more. It felt hopeless. That pain I felt, it was carried through the rest of my life.

All I had left was my mother… But even then, she was never there for the rest of my life. She was assigned as the Prime Minister and Director of the United Federations of Falsean and Earth, practically known as UFFE.

My dad’s dog tag was just the remnant of everything that I had lost.

BATAKE KIZUATO

CS: KIMONO-ZERO

A-POS

1ST RECKER BATTALION

Even to this day, I always proudly wear it around my neck. I don’t see myself as a materialistic person or like having accessories on me, but it means more than a piece of metal. There were a few scuffs and scratches and a little bit of rust on the tag but it wasn’t too bad, it was holding up well with age.

I lived nearby a minor city where there were sizable buildings but nothing like skyscrapers, and a lot of apartments and stores with small alleyways and such. I usually go through a small shortcut that goes straight to my house, which includes these small alleyways. It reeks of piss and shit, and sometimes there’s many people who to the normal eyes of society would call “suspicious”. Either way, I’ve always gone through this path and nothing has happened to me since… well, except for some small encounters of people offering me stuff and useless scams, but I wouldn’t say anything too bad.

As I entered the small corridor, the sound of cars and commotion of the streets were suppressed from the small alleyway. The sheer smell of the ground hit me like a hammer. I never got used to the smell throughout these years. The white paint of the graffiti on the walls and the damp ground of water surrounded me. Insignificant pieces of litter were scattered on the ground, from burger wrappers to several cigarette butts. It was a perfect place for any illegal activity.

As I was halfway through the alley, the sound of footsteps startled me. I looked back slightly to see two men just walking side by side. It didn’t look like they were talking to each other, but something about it just didn’t feel… right. I kept walking on, hoping that it was merely two men walking down the alleyway, minding their business as I minded mine. Once I entered the busy streets again, my next move was to head to the next corridor, unfortunately finding the two same men were still shadowing me, around fifteen feet behind.

I picked up my pace and quickly headed to the next alleyway, hoping that they would go away. Yet they still were behind me. I walked a bit faster; they did as well.

“Fuck this, I’m out…” As I left the alleyway, I immediately booked it down the street. Both of the men started to follow me at the same speed, probably knowing that I knew they were me. The distance from them to me began to decrease, slowly but surely catching up to me. I ran through the busy traffic, nearly hitting several cars and hopping over barriers. A lot of bystanders stood startled, the scene playing out before them one straight from an action movie.

I was nearly out of breath, almost to the point that I started to slow down. I tried to find a way to lose them, and I looked at a small ladder that led up to a rooftop of a small building. I thought surely this would deter them.

I grabbed onto the ladder and struggled up to the roof. I was winded, I couldn’t run anymore… my muscles are giving out, and got a few scrapes from earlier today… fucking hell… “Could my life get any worse!?”

“Hey, kid!” A voice from the other side of the building caught my attention.

“Nice try to run away but… you forgot to account for your escape plan.” The same two men reached the roof and were standing at a distance from me. Both were tired as well but still had strength in them. I decided to just give up and follow what they wanted. I don’t even have anything good for them either way.

“What do you two want from me? I don’t have the money nor do I have-“ One of them interrupted me.

“We need you to come with us.” I was very conflicted with the words he had just said.

“Wait, what?”

“Don’t ask questions, just come with us.” This was getting weirder by the minute. He started to get a little aggravated and with his voice having a small English and Russian accent to it, it was sort of apparent.

“Kid, don’t make this harder than it is right now…” I walked back towards the ledge. I thought I could just jump to the other building, but the height and distance were just way too impossible. The only way out was just to run through them and head down the ladder. But even that was just insane. I dropped my bags and rolled up my sleeves. A few punches and shoves wouldn’t be bad right?

“Hey what are you doing? We’re asking nicely, just come with us.” They pulled out guns from their jackets and lowered their hoods to reveal their faces, only with the mouth and nose covered by a mask. My plan was now off the roof. I am practically being threatened by two random people who I just met.

I mean… What would they want me for? I have nothing special unless they are trying to get my organs? No, no, no… why would they chase me for that? They could’ve just taken anyone off the streets… I just stopped thinking and just let out a huge breath and put my hands up in surrender.

“Hey Athos, I’ll take care of it…” The guy on the right lowered his weapon and pulled out a zip tie to arrest me. He had it slung around his chest, almost carelessly. his was a Heckler and Koch MP7, no wonder he could hide it under his jacket. As he was walking towards me, I had an idea.

“See kid, just letting us do the work is so much easier-“ As soon as he got close to me, I grabbed and pulled his gun from him hard enough, that I broke the sling and kicked him away. The now unarmed man landed on the ground hard. He groaned and squirmed in pain. With his gun, I immediately pointed it towards the other guy.

“Who are you and what do you want?” The person, Athos, didn’t back down and kept his gun on me. He had the same weapon as I was holding.

“Drop the gun, and We’ll explain...” I meandered towards him, thinking I could deter him. He still has his sights on me.

“Why should I trust you? I don’t have anything on me.” Both of us had the same weapons with the same finger on the trigger, and stood there, waiting for the other to shoot. The only difference? I had minimal experience with a firearm and the gun rattled as I was shaking in fear, tensed up with what would happen next. He pulled out a small radio, while he still had the gun at me.

“Jasp, I’m just going to do the same thing as last time. Just bring medical up here...” As he put his radio down, he racked the charging handle and hurried his gun, preparing to fire. I backed up and tried to fire the gun, but the trigger wouldn’t move. I looked at the gun, only to see it was still set to safe. I immediately fumbled around for the lever. It was too late.

“Wait wait wait! Stop!” As he aimed directly to my lower torso, a female like voice was at the ladder, almost out of breath… and the same age as me?

“Athos! What in the fuck are you doing?” Both myself and the toughened soldier turned at the voice, the woman standing before us staring resolutely back, her long dark highlighted crimson hair flowing through the small town wind.