-Sometime in the Past-
Amina really liked anime. Especially the kind where the protagonist had a tragic backstory. Examples being Attack on Titan, Madoka Magica, Death Parade, so on and so forth. Being in 10th grade, at her weeaboo prime, it was her dream to live through such a hero's journey. To be a lone protagonist called to adventure to fight against evil and alongside allies.
But now that Amina stood alone in grief, mourning over her family amongst flames and blood, she realized that having her life match the one of a tragic, yet action packed, anime wasn't exactly what she wanted.
Before jumping into the portal before her, she looked back at what was lost and pressed the button.
Commander Euric stood from a distance, watching the girl with grinded gears. There was nothing more he could do. He failed because of some pimple-faced weeaboo.
"Retreat!" He shouted.
His men stood behind him dumbfoundedly.
"I said, RETREAT!"
Amina laid a hand over her aching head as she propped herself up against the metal wall. Her neck was stiff from lying unconscious on the cold floor for who knows how long.
That vision she just had (or dream) had a portal that looked exactly like the one she had just gone through.
Was that a lost memory of hers?
For one, and only time, figuring out who she was was less important. For now she had to figure out where she was before anything else. Her surroundings didn't tell her much, however. It was just a bland, all metal room. One wall was pure, thick glass that showed the hallway. But there wasn't anything out there, nor was there any door that led out to it.
Maybe she was in a sort of prison or quarantine? If that was the case, it couldn't have hurt them to have at least included a bed.
There was something on the other side of the hallway. It was another room, just like the one she was currently being held in. Sadly, there wasn't anyone in there to accompany her in this sort of hell. A part of Amina wished it was Susie, but it was probably for the best it wasn't. The two of them didn't seem to be getting along that well and Amina feared Susie would blame her for whatever was going on.
She wouldn't be wrong though. That fact scared Amina even more than the thought of Susie's anger.
But Susie apparently did something that made her a target as well, right?
Despite that, Amina wasn't an asshole and hoped Susie at the very least managed to escape from that bunny dude. She didn't know what happened to her after she, herself, caved in at gunpoint and was shoved into the portal before the monster.
Who knew she was such a wimp.
Shaking off those thoughts, Amina took note of the single camera in the corner of the room, pointed directly at her. She didn't stare at it for long, fearing she made awkward eye contact with whoever was definitely watching from the other side.
"Amina. That's your name, right?" A voice spoke out from speakers Amina couldn't see. It was female, but staticy. It seemed out of place for such an advanced looking place to have a low quality speaker.
Oh god. Maybe looking at the camera triggered the lady to speak up.
"Yes." Amina responded, quietly.
"Pardon?"
Amina gulped before raising her voice. "Yes!"
She heard scribbling from the other side. The lady was taking furious notes. "From now on you will be referred to as Subject 572. Understood, 572?"
What? Amina chose not to respond.
"I said, 'Understood, 572'?" The lady's voice rose in aggression.
"I understand."
More notes were taken. "Good. The guards outside your cell will escort you to the courtroom."
The guards outside my-
A part of the glass slid open and 2 guards, 1 from either side of the wall, stepped into her vision. How long have they been standing there just out of her sight?
Their features were unknown. Futuristic armor covering them and all.
Scratch that, Not futuristic. Definitely old timey. Medieval perhaps? But being in such an odd place made them appear futuristic nonetheless. Amina didn't really know how else to describe it to herself. It didn't matter. The only thing that needed to be said was that they weren't human based on their body types. She was once again in an odd one out situation.
She couldn't believe she was thinking this, but she really missed being the odd one out with Watson and Elijah. The situation she was in had gotten so much worse.
She hoped they were doing okay and weren't involved with this either.
The two guards held larger guns. They seemed super advanced as well, unlike a gun she had ever seen. Not even like the gun the bunny monster had.
They weren't pointed at her, but one of the guards made a point to cock it. "Come with us, 572.." He commanded. It was sort of hard to hear him behind the mask, but Amina understood him well enough.
She wasn't idiot enough to argue and followed, ending up being sandwiched between the two of them. One of them leading and the other keeping close eyes on her from behind.
As the long (metal like everything else) hallway stretched on, a window came into view as the three passed by.
Getting a bit claustrophobic in a closed off environment, Amina looked out to get just a second of refreshing daylight. Or maybe even a starry night sky.
Her mouth went dry. She was met with many many stars, indeed. Along with beautiful colors of star dusted clouds. It was breathtaking, but very bad. There was no ground. For all she knew, it looked like they were floating in the midst of space.
"W-where are we?" Her weak voice muttered.
The only response she got was a shove in the back from the gun. She stumbled forward but continued walking. That pain in her chest, the one she felt before she was forced to jump out the window, began to grow. It nipped inside of her. It was dull, but it wasn't going away anytime soon.
The situation was getting more out of control by the second.
"Subject 573, what do you plead?"
"Plead for fucking what?! I didn't do SHIT!"
The jury gasped at the sudden language from Susie. They should get used to it.
Susie, with handcuffs on, stood in front of a judge in the very middle of a courtroom. It looked exactly like the kind you see in shows. The only difference being the jury and judge were very very high up on, as strange as it sounded, levitating tables. But they weren't floating up and down like Susie would have imagined. They were completely still as if held up by an invisible force.
It was also important to mention that the jury, along with the judge, were made up by species of monsters Susie had never seen before. As well as a few robots. The judge himself was a robot for Angel's sake.
Now Susie was aware that robots were created for ghost monsters before, but her gut told her this was a different type of situation. It seemed like some sci-fi type shit.
The bunny man stood alone below the jury. Susie didn't exactly know why he was there. He already completed his mission of fucking her over, hadn't he? Man, she hated him. Almost as much as she hated Amina. It was her fault for getting Susie caught for whatever she did. Amina was the one that drew attention to Susie in the first place. That dude probably would have never shown up to Seameet if it wasn't for that stupid human.
The judge scowled and boomed. "Innocent or guilty?"
"For. What?"
"Your honor, I'd like to plead innocent on behalf of my client." A robot, which Susie believed was female based on her voice, spoke beside her. Susie didn't know who she was, but based on the fact she was defending her meant she very well may be her lawyer. It was odd that Susie hadn't even gotten to speak to her before the trial. It seemed very uncourt like. It's not like any of this made sense to Susie though. She didn't care. This woman was defending her and that's what mattered.
"Yeah! I plead innocent to all of this bullshit!"
His 'honor' landed his fist on the desk, looking back at the robot lawyer. "How can she plead innocent if she doesn't even know what she did?" Rude. Apparently he wasn't even willing to directly talk to Susie herself and instead talk through her lawyer.
Her lawyer frowned, giving Susie the side eye before clearing her throat to prepare herself for whatever defense she was scheming. "Isn't it obvious my client has amnesia? She isn't in the right state of mind to plead at the moment. I will solely be speaking for her based on the evidence collected. Her words should not be taken into consideration for this sentence."
Jotting down notes, the judge looked at the jury, raising a brow. They all seemed to nod.
Susie was no expert but she was pretty sure real courts didn't work that way. Wouldn't there have to be a doctor or something? Whatever. If it was going to get her off the hook, it would get her off the hook for whatever she didn't do. She wasn't sure if her lawyer actually believed she had amnesia or not but either way it worked in Susie's benefit.
"Very well." He hummed. "Why do you claim Subject 573 is innocent?"
The robot's eyes widened. She immediately went to look through the small binder she held. Her frantic look made whatever hope Susie was holding onto vanish. Did she really not know what she was doing? "Because, umm, becauseā¦" She trailed off before stopping at a certain page inside. "The DNA collected at the scene could not be distinguished."
"It was a 60 percent match-"
"Yes. But not 100 percent confirmed. The DNA found was 6 days old. It could have been contaminated enough that the reader was mislead."
"That's only because monster DNA is harder to read due to it dusting. Naturally it mixes with other things in the environment. How could natural products mixing in the environment match Subject 573's DNA by 60% in dimension 62-B? Your argument makes no sense."
The jury began to murmur to one another after the judge finished his rant.
Susie's lawyer stayed silent.
-Well, fuck.
"If you have nothing else to say," The judge raised his gavel "I sentence you, Subject 573, also known as 'Susie', to life in prison for the crime 285, Illegal Dimension Hopping." And with that he brought the gavel down.
-WHAT THE FUCK
