ACT XV: DAYS OF WRATH (PART 2)

Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you're living?

Bob Marley

April 27th, AD 2306, University of Tokyo (Todai), Department of Biological Sciences (laboratory), Tokyo, Japan, 11:00 AM

-"Okay, I hope you will listen well to the instructions I am going to give you: As I told you yesterday before finishing the class, we are going to do some dissections on several branches of Martian date palms that the university was kind enough to donate to us for this experiment. As you may already imagine, these plants are not exactly cheap, so don't waste a single part of each of the samples that each of you will be working on here in the laboratory."-

-"We're supposed to extract the liquids from the branches of the palm tree for analysis, right, sir?"-

-"That's right, so when extracting liquids, don't forget to put on surgical gloves first to avoid contaminating the samples and-"-

But before the professor could continue with his class, the door to the lab suddenly opened, and a girl entered the place somewhat shyly, her head a little low and notoriously worried...

That girl who had entered the laboratory was Yui Nagamori, who was studying xenobiology at the University of Tokyo and that class was xenobotany, which was part of the degree curriculum. All eyes in the classroom focused on her since she had arrived late for classes, something that for her classmates and even her teacher was something unusual for her, because since they knew Nagamori she had never been late to class.

-"You're late for class, Nagamori."-

-"I'm really sorry, Mr. Ozawa."- The girl replied at the man with a low voice. -"I had a hitch before arriving at the university; I hope you understand that, sir."-

-"Well, you've never been late for school before, Nagamori, so I understand-"-

But before Mr. Ozawa could continue his litany to the young student, he noticed that there was something abnormal on that girl's face, something that that university professor who was teaching knew very well what that meant, and because of what he saw, the man decided to make other decisions about it.

-"We will talk about it later, Nagamori. For now just sit in your place, please."-

-"Yes, sir."-

As Yui Nagamori headed to her lab table to start work, her classmates, like her teacher, noticed something uncanny about her: She had several bruises all over her body, as well as on her face, and many of the people who knew that girl from years ago knew perfectly well the reason for those injuries, except that no one dared to say anything out loud to avoid any conflict with her...

-"Oh, my god."- Mr. Ozawa thought to himself when he saw the bruises that his student had all over her body. -"What kind of father would do this to his own daughter?"-

...with the only exception of one person: Hitomi Shimizu, who was Yui Nagamori's classmate, who sat next to her. Once the latter sat in her place, Shimizu decided to speak to her, albeit in a low voice.

-"Are you OK, Nagamori?"- The girl asked her friend who was on her right, while the latter was beginning to take her work tools out of her briefcase. -"Looks like you had a very bad day."-

The abused girl only managed to respond in a simple way.

-"It's nothing, I'm fine."-

-"I don't think you're completely fine for me..."-

Seeing that Hitomi Shimizu was beginning to pressure her to continue the discussion, the troubled young lady took Hitomi's hand and she began to squeeze it tightly to let her know her discomfort without the need to raise the tone of her voice?

-"What the hell are you're doing, Nagamori?!"- Shimizu replied angrily, but without raising her voice to the aggression suffered at the hands of her friend.

-"We'll talk about it another time, for now leave me alone."-

-"Well, if you will say so, Nagamori."-

And without further ado, Yui Nagamori began to work, once she received in her computer the instructions on the exercise that she and her companions had to perform thanks to the fact that Mr. Ozawa sent the work instructions in each one of the computers of the work tables where her students were dissecting the palm branches of Martian dates. As the students began to work, the teacher began to give an explanation about Martian dates and their historical background:

-"As many of you may know, Martian dates derive from the plant of the same name, and that descends from a variety of date originally planted in what was formerly known as the "Middle East" and is now known as the Special Zone No. 1 after World War III. This plant was brought to Mars by the first immigrants who arrived on that planet after losing their home in the war at the end of the 21st century, who tried as much as possible to replicate the conditions in which they originally lived on earth. Because many of the seeds they brought to the red planet were contaminated with radioactive material and because of the soil conditions of that planet, the Martian dates began to evolve in a divergent way from their terrestrial cousins, to such an extent that these are many larger than those here on earth, not to say that their taste is also very different, and many even consider the taste of these as much better than that of their Earth ancestors."-

But not everyone appreciated that little historical lesson, especially Kyoko Hagimori, a classmate of Yui and Hitomi, who tried to conceal her lack of interest in the words of her teacher...

-"God, so much for Mr. Ozawa and his boring historical explanations."- Hagimori thought to herself, as she tapped her fingers due to the irritation she felt at the table where she worked. -"Can't that idiot get to the point instead of telling us the same old tale over and over again?"-

-"...Due to the size of the fruits, compared to their earth relatives, the branches of the Martian date palm are thicker and larger, which allows the tree to sustain its fruits and their weight; therefore, many of the normal parts of a branch, such as those that transport nutrients from the soil to the rest of the tree, are also larger than usual, and therefore also require a large amount of these so that the tree can continue to grow healthily."-

-"So we assume that part of this activity is to cut the branches in half and extract the nutrients to analyze them, in order to know the differences between dates from Mars and those that grow on Earth, right?"- Asked one of Mr. Ozawa's students to him.

-"That's right."- The mentor confirmed at his student. -"Once we extract the nutrients from the branches, we will analyze the liquid under the microscope, and you must tell me what the biological differences are between the Martian dates and the terrestrial ones you found. You will be surprised at the incredible amount of differences you will find between both plants, in spite of belonging to the same family, due to the divergent evolution that the Martian plant experienced during the last centuries."-

But for Hagimori, that class was the least important thing to her. At that time, what worried her most for that university student was her friend Yui Nagamori, who obviously had suffered physical (and sexual) abuse from her father, something that was known to almost everyone in the class, but only Mr. Ozawa, Hagimori and Shimizu were the only people who could talk about it with her, and even so Nagamori was not always in the mood to talk about the matter.

But unfortunately for both Hagimori and Shimizu, and perhaps for all the other classmates, there was very little they could do for her, except discuss the subject, something that gradually began to infuriate both girls, not only because Nagamori was their friend, but also because they were both women, and they still couldn't believe that there were still people who were able to do something so terrible with their own daughters.

-"If I could lay a finger on Nagamori's father, I would ask that a bomb be thrown on the head of that son of a bitch, or that a rabid dog rape him right in his fucking ass!"- Hagimori thought furiously at the sight of her classmate and the bruises she had suffered as a result of being abused. -"It hurts me so much to see her in such terrible conditions, and still have the courage to come and study with all those beatings in her body and everything."-

April 29th, AD 2306, Saionji Municipal High School (Baseball field), Nerima Ward, Tokyo, Japan, 10:15 AM

-"STRIKE THREE, YOU'RE OUT!"-

An electronic voice was heard on the baseball field, which came from what appeared to be a smart pitching machine, which threw baseballs at the batter at high speed.

And the batter trying to hit those balls was Ryuji Morisawa, who was on the field practicing his batting with the help of that machine.

-"Computer, could you throw the balls a bit slower, please?"- The young man said at the machine. -"I still can't hit balls at that speed."-

-"Understood, sir"-

After receiving the command, the pitching machine fired the balls again, this time at the speed indicated by the human, which allowed Ryuji to hit the balls at a speed that allowed him to hit them and send them off the field, while the machine's computer gave some extra data to the batter out loud.

-"HOME RUN! Pitching speed: 56 km/h. Exit speed: 95.9 km/h."-

The machine shot another ball again, which was hit home by Ryuji, and again the computer gave the result...

-"HOME RUN! Pitching speed: 59 km/h. Exit speed: 100.4 km/h."-

And so the machine continued to throw balls at the batter for several minutes, all of them were hit by Ryuji at home without any problem. This allowed the baseball player to know exactly what his strengths and weaknesses were with respect to batting and thus know which type of balls were easier for him to hit with the bat, and which should be more careful, especially with fast balls. Considering that there was a possibility that he would play baseball professionally once he graduated from high school, Ryuji Morisawa has to be prepared to deal with such balls, since he knew that in professional baseball, there were pitchers capable of throwing balls up to more than 100 km/h, compared to the high school pitchers who played at last year's Koshien.

And while he batted the balls that were thrown one after another, a girl passed near Ryuji, who was still practicing his batting without paying much attention to his surroundings, and she decided to greet him.

-"Hey, Ryuji! Still practicing your batting this holiday?"-

-"WHA-"-

Due to that distraction, Ryuji was hit hard in the stomach by the pitching machine...

-"AGHH!"-

...which left him breathless for a few seconds.

-"Ryuji, are you alright?"-

The girl, Saori Ogura, went to help the unfortunate baseball player, but fortunately, he managed to stand up after the pain subsided, although he wasn't exactly happy with that woman for distracting him in that way.

-"How many times do I have to tell you not to distract me when I'm at my batting practice, Saori?"- The young man yelled at the girl, while putting his hands on his stomach. -"I'm lucky this stupid machine hit me in the stomach and not in my face!"-

-"Ohh, sorry about that, Ryuji."- Saori apologized to the baseball player. -"I just wanted to talk with you about a few things."-

Ryuji looked quite upset, since he felt that Saori had only come to the field to chit-chat, while he was busy practicing his batting.

-"What do you want?"- Replied Ryuji at the kendoka girl. -"Can't you see I'm busy?"-

Obviously, that girl wasn't going to let her best friend talk to her like that just because a baseball hit him in the stomach and he was cranky about it.

-"Hey, Ryuji, don't talk to me like that, you idiot!"- Saori angrily retorted at his friend after seeing his attitude. -"It's not my fault that you get distracted, or that stupid machine didn't stop throwing balls as soon as it heard my voice!"-

Seeing that she was right on the whole distracting issue, Ryuji quickly cut the tone of the discussion, and decided to apologize her...

-"uhnnn... You're quite right, sorry for yelling you, Saori."- The young man then scratched his head as a sign of shame. -"I shouldn't have gotten mad at you like that."-

-"All right, don't worry, but I was pissed that you spoke to me in that tone, although I do understand your pain after you got hit by that baseball."-

Ryuji took his hands to his stomach again, since it still hurt a little, but decided to put that matter aside, and talk to his friend, this time in a better mood.

-"Well, leaving that aside, what did you want to talk to me about, Saori?"-

-"Have you seen Tsutomu and Annika? I haven't seen them in two days, and I thought you'd know something about them."-

-"You didn't know?"- Ryuji asked at Saori. -"They went on vacation to San Escobar yesterday morning, and requested permission from the school to miss before Golden Week began, due to some problems with their visas."-

-"San Escobar?"- The kendoka replied somewhat puzzled at that couple's choice to go on vacation abroad. -"You mean that Caribbean island?"-

-"Right."-

-"Boy, did they pick an exotic vacation spot, to be honest."- Saori said with a smile in her face. -"They usually go on vacation within Japan, or at best, to Hawaii. Why did they choose to go there?"-

-"As I understand it, Tsutomu and Annika wanted to go to a different place this year, and decided to go to San Escobar, taking advantage of some discounts on plane tickets and hotels offered to them by the Net. Also, they wanted to go alone, without their parents, to have some more privacy."-

-"I just hope Hashiba doesn't think to take advantage of her while they're both alone abroad."-

-"Nah, I don't think so, Saori"- Ryuji replied at his friend's worried about the possibility of Tsutomu having sex with Annika in San Escobar. -"Hashiba is not the kind of person who would take advantage of a woman that way. Also, he should worry that Annika doesn't try to take advantage of him first."-

Saori chuckled at the possibility that Annika might try to do something with her boyfriend in San Escobar, as she knew how intimate that Swedish girl's relationship with Tsutomu Hashiba was.

-"Heh, heh heh! You may be right, Ryuji, and knowing how much Annika is in love with Tsutomu, I would not doubt that she would try to push her relationship with him to the limit."-

-"Well, let's just hope none of those lovebirds do anything stupid there."-

-"Heh, you're right on that one."-

-"Well, leaving the two of them aside,"- Ryuji asked his classmate about her own plans. -"when do you plan to go to Palermo for the Kendo World Championship?"-

-"The world championship, you mean?"- Saori replied in a quick fashion. -"If you mean that, I'll be leaving for Italy next month."-

-"And aren't you nervous about having to stand for Japan in such an important world tournament?"-

The young kendoka made a brief pause during the chat, and lowered her head suddenly. Such a question was obviously somewhat off-putting for her to answer, something Ryuji noticed in no time.

-"I must assume you're a little nervous about the whole thing, aren't you?"-

Seeing that Ryuji was right about the root of her problem, the young captain of the school's kendo club decided to give him an honest answer to her concerns.

-"I'm going to be honest with you, Ryuji."- Saori replied, still with her head down. -"It is not so much that I am nervous about participating in the tournament; at the end of the day, who wouldn't be if you were to represent your country in such a prestigious tournament as that? But for me, participating in that competition is more than just winning or losing."

-"I have to assume you're talking about your family precisely."- Ryuji pointed out the elephant in the room for her, something that made her lift her head after hearing that sentence from his mouth. -"Your family descends from a samurai clan dating back from the Sengoku era, and I believe that the name and prestige of your family weighs heavily upon you, do I?"-

Saori didn't say a word for a few seconds, until she finally gave an answer...

-"I'd be lying if I said no."- Then, the girl gave another explanation about her current problems she was facing in those days. -"But there are two things that bother me, along with the whole family thing."-

-"What are those two things that bother you, Saori?"-

-"The first is that I would like my parents or grandfather to see me participate in the tournament, but that would be very difficult to happen. My parents are still in Brazil, and my grandfather is very busy with his work in the government, and I doubt they can travel to Italy to see me compete in the tournament..."-

-"And what's the second thing you're worried about?"-

The girl kept silent for a few moments, as if there was something troubling her quite a bit, but she knew she had no other way but to explain to her childhood friend about the dilemma she was facing, although she could not want to give an answer that would satisfy him.

-"The second thing that bothers me, Ryuji, is something I cannot tell you, at least not right now."- The girl responded with a worried tone in her voice. -"Maybe someday I can tell you the truth, but for the moment I can't say anything else. I hope you understand that."-

That cryptic answer about her disturbed Ryuji Morisawa somewhat, and he had reason to be: Although he knew Saori since they were both children and he knew her family, including his grandfather, Masayori Ogura, who was a very kind man who also taught his granddaughter the art of Kendo and instilled in her the love of that martial art, there were several things about that girl that he did not know about her at all: Why were there occasions when Saori missed classes, sometimes without very logical or justifiable reasons, at least for him, and why on the occasions when he went to look for her at home, he wasn't allowed to enter the house of the Ogura family under a variety of excuses?

He understood perfectly that her parents and grandfather worked for the government, specifically for Japanese diplomatic service, but since he knew Saori and his family, he could never know exactly how involved his friend's relatives were with the government of their country. Apart from the fact that the parents were diplomats, Saori's grandfather worked as a bodyguard chief, and maybe that's one of the reasons why there was so much security in the Ogura family home, but that didn't explain why Saori had to miss school on certain occasions, as she still didn't work for the government, and that last answer from her began to ask Saori questions about what she and her family had been hiding from him for years.

-"Me understand that, you say?"- The student replied to his friend somewhat inconvenienced by the ambiguity of her words. -"How long are you gonna keep hiding things from me, huh?"-

The girl was surprised by her friend's aggressive attitude, as he had never before questioned anything Saori had asked him to do, including much of what was previously explained by the family of the kendoka girl to him in the past. She didn't expect her friend to start asking uneasy questions about the Ogura family and especially about Saori herself, and she quickly realized that she may have talked too much.

-"Look, Ryuji, I don't want to discuss this anymore, and you better forget everything I told you about the things that bothered me, OK?"-

-"But, Saori..."

-"Please, Ryuji, you are my best friend, and I do not want our friendship to be ruined by talking about personal affairs."- Then Saori took her backpack where she carried her armor (bogu) and her shinai to take them home with her. -"For the moment I must return home for breakfast, as I too need to rest from my Kendo practice. You too should do the same and take a vacation out of town like everybody else, and forget baseball for a while, got it?"-

Ryuji made a brief pause, as he wasn't satisfied with the way his friend wanted to avoid the subject, but he didn't want to pressure her to talk and thus affect their friendship, so he simply decided to put the issue aside for another time.

-"I will consider your opinion, but for now I need to finish my practice before I go home."-

-"Well, I'll see you later, then."- The, the girl walked out from the diamond field and waved good-bye to Ryuji. -"I'll talk to you later before I go to Italy."-

-"OK, see you later!"-

Once Saori Ogura left the baseball field, Ryuji Morisawa began preparing to resume with his batting practice, but before he could do that, he had to settle a small matter first...

-"Would you like me to continue with the practice, sir?"-

In response to the cynicism of that question, Ryuji hit the pitching machine with his bat lightly, but in such a way that the machine understood his displeasure at being hit in the stomach when Saori distracted him, and the machine was not fast enough to stop.

-"I hope next time you know when to stop when I'm distracted by other things. I'm a baseball player, not a damn punching bag. Do you understand, you stupid machine?"-

The pitching machine has no other choice but to respond affirmatively to the request of its human master.

-"Understood, sir."-

April 30th, AD 2306, Japan Airlines plane Flight 341 flying over the Caribbean Sea, 09:30 AM

-"Attention all passengers, our flight is about to land at Leoncio Almeida International Airport in half an hour. We ask you to please fasten your seatbelts before proceeding with the landing. We hope you enjoy our flight, thank you."-

The voice of the stewardess was heard all over the plane warning the passengers to prepare for the landing of the plane at the airport in the capital of San Escobar, Santa Julia, something that all passengers obeyed immediately. Tsutomu Hashiba and his girlfriend, Annika Stefansson, travelled on that plane and decided to travel abroad on holiday taking advantage of Japan's Golden Week.

As the plane descended to the airport, Hashiba began to read some data on the computer that was integrated into his seat in an absorbed way and without paying much attention to what was happening around him. Annika, on the other hand, only saw how the plane was preparing to land on the island, while also watching from the plane the beautiful beaches of that Caribbean nation, something she was very excited about.

-"I never imagined that San Escobar had such beautiful beaches, and everything around the island is so green and lovely too."-

But Hashiba didn't seem to pay attention to his girlfriend's words, since he was distracted reading on his computer, something that made her angry.

-"Are you listening to me, Tsutomu?"-

-"EH, WHAT?!"-

Seeing that Annika was upset with him, Hashiba looked at his girlfriend and apologized to her.

-"Oops! Sorry for not listening to you, Anni, but I was distracted in reading the story of San Escobar."- The young man excused himself to the girl. -"You know, to get to know the country a little better, its people and anything else we might need to know during the holidays. Besides, it's a very interesting story to read."-

-"Really?"-

-"Yes, and I think you'd be interested to hear how San Escobar was born and how it was populated, because it's not something you see every day, given how other countries were born in more difficult conditions than this island."-

-"Umm... That sounds interesting, I'd like to read the history of the island, this time from your own voice if possible, sweety-bun."-

-"Hey, Anni, don't call me like that in front of the rest of the passengers, please!"- Hashiba blushed a bit at hearing that endearment word from Annika.

-"OK, OK, sorry, I'm just teasing you."- The Swedish girl laughed a bit. -"You can proceed with the story lesson, please."-

-"Well, then, let's begin."- Hashiba began telling his girlfriend the story of the island of San Escobar. -"The archipelago of San Escobar was born in 2040, five years after the outbreak of World War III, after a violent underwater volcanic eruption, along with a powerful earthquake of 9.5 on the Richter scale, struck the Caribbean Sea. Due to that event, several islands and countries close to the archipelago, including what was once known as Haiti and the Dominican Republic, were completely destroyed by how powerful those two events were. That combination of those two tragic events was known as "The Tragedy of La Española", due to the name of the island where those two countries were located. The combined death toll between the two countries was more than 10 million people, and countless more were left homeless."-

-"Oh, god, that must have been terrible."-

-"And that's nothing compared to what happened next, especially for Haiti:"- Hashiba explained next. -"That country had a previous earthquake in 2010, which was 7 on the Richter scale, and from which Haiti was barely recovering at all. That new earthquake completely destroyed the capital, Port-au-Prince and all the other cities in that country. Added to the little interest that many countries had in that country due to the world war that was unfolding, a civil war was unleashed in Haiti, which destroyed what little was left in the country after the earthquake. That country never recovered after all those events."-

-"And what happened next?"-

-"The situation in that country began to worsen as the years went by, not only because of the effects of the civil war, but also because of the semi-isolation that the country suffered due to the Third World War, and also because of the climate change that the planet was suffering during almost the entire 21st century. At the end of both the civil war and the world war, Haiti was considered unfit for any kind of life at the end of the century. It was only thanks to the colonization of Mars at the end of the century that the inhabitants of that country began to migrate en masse into space, and by the year 2105, the country ceased to exist as such and was renamed Special Zone No.2, which is under the control of the UN until this day. And as for the Dominican Republic, the country was also semi-destroyed by the tragedy, but at least that nation was able to more or less recover from all of the above, although the civil war that was going on in neighboring Haiti also hurt them for several years, something that continued even after the dissolution of that country. Other countries, such as Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Barbados, and above all the little that remained of what is today Special Zone No. 3, formerly called "Cuba" were also affected, although not in the magnitude that the former Haiti suffered, nowadays Special Zone No. 2."-

-"And what does all this have to do with San Escobar?"- Annika asked at her boyfriend after the lengthy historical explanation she heard from him.

-"This is where the most interesting part comes in:"- The boy replied, while still reading the next batch of data from the computer. -"As I mentioned earlier, San Escobar originated as a result of those volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that affected the Caribbean at that time. Normally, when an island is born due to an eruption or earthquake, it does not usually last long and ends up disappearing later or in the best of cases, they are usually very small islands. But San Escobar is a completely different case, because all those geological phenomena created a very large island archipelago, almost the size of Japan. The most surprising case is that, after all the volcanic activity was reduced to minimum levels, the whole archipelago started to develop plant life, and also some species of birds started to populate the islands over the years. It didn't take long for humans to also start colonizing San Escobar."-

-"And who were the first settlers on that archipelago?"-

-"It was something very interesting, and also something curious: Originally the newly created archipelago was for some years under the control of the United Nations to prevent any country from annexing the place, considering the situation of war that the world was living at that time. Suddenly, and due to the destruction of many Caribbean countries by the Tragedy of La Española, many immigrants from those countries, along with other people from other Latin American countries such as the inhabitants of the Special Zone No. 4, formerly known as "Venezuela", began to migrate en masse to San Escobar in order to settle there and create a new home and a new country that they could consider their own."-

-"And how did they get there?"-

Some arrived by ship or boat, although the first settlers to that island were a group of young South American intellectuals who found San Escobar as the perfect place to create their own independent nation, far from the problems that their places of origin suffered, and one of their most immediate goals was to try to avoid as much as possible making the same mistakes that other countries made in the past, especially after gaining their independence."- Hashiba keep explaining without pausing for a second. -"Among those young people, there was one who would become the father of that new nation."-

-"You mean Leoncio Almeida?"-

-"That's right."- Then, the Japanese young man continued with the story lesson about San Escobar. -"Almeida was born in a very poor neighborhood in ancient Caracas, and whose parents were school teachers trying to make a living so that their son could have a decent education. Because of this, for years he fought against the communist government that ruled his country, which caused him to end up in jail several times, where he was tortured. When World War III began, a violent civil war broke out in Venezuela, and seeing that there was nothing he and his fellow countrymen could do for their country, they decided to leave Venezuela when they heard about what had happened in the Caribbean and they settled in the archipelago."-

"I guess it must have been pretty hard for him and his followers the first few days on that island, right?"- Annika asked with some curiosity regarding the story of the founder of San Escobar.

-"Indeed."- Hashiba replied. -"In the first times that Almeida and his men tried to settle there, they were expelled by the UN soldiers protecting the archipelago, but with the course of the war and the enormous number of homeless victims due to the Tragedy of La Española that began to arrive on the island, and since Mars had not yet been colonized, the UN had no choice but to allow all those refugees to settle in San Escobar. Because of this, San Escobar began at first as a glorified refugee camp, before the island gradually began to be populated with more inhabitants from neighboring countries, along with more young idealists and their families, who like Almeida, shared his dream of turning those deserted islands into a nation they could be proud of."-

-"And what happened after that?"-

-"Almeida and his men knew that they could not afford, as I mentioned before, to make the same mistakes that both his former homeland Venezuela, and other countries that obtained their independence under difficult circumstances, did in the past, so to avoid that, he designed a very complex, but at the same time effective, plan to put on paper how his new nation should be: To begin with, there would be no president, so that the power of a government would not fall into the hands of one man, but all government decisions would fall into the hands of a civic government council. In the same way, all economic and financial matters would be planned in detail, and to enforce this, Almeida assembled the best people and experts that he could find on their respective subjects, so that these experts could help him and his followers in matters that they could not know beforehand."-

-"And what else can you tell me about it?"-

-"As the years went by, and with some difficulties along the way, Almeida and his men achieved their dream of transforming that island into a powerful world power, something that also would not have been achieved without the help of all the people who came from all over the world and who shared the same dream he had. Something that helped Almeida and San Escobar as a whole was to see the potential of the nascent space colonization, so the first thing he did, when Mars began to be colonized, was to build a spaceport, which is still considered one of the best in the world, and to focus much of the country's productive infrastructure on the aerospace industry. Also San Escobar put a lot of emphasis on education, and that is one of the reasons that this country is one of the few where education is free and mandatory from elementary school to university. It is worth mentioning in this aspect that the schools in that country are among the best in the world. Not bad for a country that was born out of nowhere, right?"-

-"Yes, it's very interesting, but for some reason some of the details about the story of San Escobar are very similar to those from Japan, don't you think?"-

-"True, since Japan also had to recover almost from scratch after World War II,"- Hashiba explained at his girlfriend about the differences on those both countries. -"although the main difference is that we Japanese had it a little harder than the Sanescobarians when it came to putting our country back on its feet after the war, while they already knew how their country should be from the beginning. In fact, Almeida was inspired by Japan and the Scandinavian countries to create San Escobar, something he explained later in several interviews on the subject."-

-"But there is something very strange about that country:"- Annika added another question. -"How did Almeida come up with the name San Escobar? I don't know any Christian saint by that name, as far as I know."-

-"That's the funny thing about it, Annika:"- The young man explained. -"Almeida got the name of San Escobar from a meme."-

-"A "meme", you said? What's that?"-

-"I think that's the hard part to explain, since it's something that's no longer used today, so I'll just cut to the chase with that country's name: As I mentioned before, Almeida didn't invent the name of San Escobar on his own, but took it from a funny incident that happened to a Polish foreign minister named Witold Waszczykowski in 2017, when, due to a confusion resulting from exhaustion, he changed the name of the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis with "San Escobar". Perhaps due to how original or stereotypical that name was, many users of the ancient internet that was used at that time decided to use the name of San Escobar to create their own fictional nation, and some even took the trouble to create the cities, the type of landscape and even the names of the beaches, mountains, rivers and provinces that that fictional nation had; Almeida was one of the many who had heard of that famous meme, and since no one within his circle of friends could agree on a better name, they decided to use the name of San Escobar as the name of their new nation, and they even used the names used in the original meme for the cities and geographical locations of the country, with some modifications so that they made more sense in Spanish, of course."-

-"I never imagined that someone would name their country after a funny incident that went on in another country."- Annika said somewhat puzzled after hearing the strange story behind the name of that Caribbean archipelago. -"But I guess the Poles must not have found it very funny that some South American guys named their new country after a joke made at the expense of a local politician."-

-"No, in the slightest."- The Japanese young man explained the inquiry regaring the ties of Poland with San Escobar. -"In fact, many Poles were invited by Almeida to live in San Escobar, perhaps to recognize the Polish participation in the creation of the new nation, even if it was in a somewhat indirect way. As a result, many Polish immigrants settled in San Escobar and contributed significantly to the economy and history of the island, and in fact, one of the official languages of the island, besides Spanish and French, is Polish, not to mention that one of the most important cities on the island is called Nueva Varsovia, translated as New Warsaw, after the capital of Poland."-

Before Hashiba could continue with the little historical explanation about the island, the plane had already landed at the airport without any problems, which meant that it wouldn't take long for both of them to arrange their belongings and leave the aircraft.

-"Well, I think we've arrived to San Escobar, so you should better save that story for another day, and get our papers ready before we head to the customs area."-

-"OK."-

April 30th, AD 2306, Leoncio Almeida International Airport (customs area), Santa Julia, San Escobar, 10:15 AM

-"OK, let's see:"- The immigration officer read the passports and visas of both young tourists from Japan. -"Tsutomu Hashiba from Tokyo, Japan, and Annika Stefansson, born in Stockholm, Sweden, but living in Japan as a legal resident, right?"-

-"Yes, that's right, sir."-

-"According to the computer, you have no previous visits to our country, so I must assume this is your first time here, right?"-

-"Yes, sir."-

The officer took a look at those young foreigners, and noticed how young they were. Normally, young people like them are accompanied by their parents or families, but these two students were traveling alone, which caused him some surprise, and as such, he did some extra questions, just in case.

-"Do you have your parents' or guardians' permission to travel abroad?"-

-"Of course we do, sir, and in fact you can check it out with this dongle I'm handing you next."-

-"Let me check that, kid."-

The dongle that Hashiba gave to the immigration officer was a kind of pendrive that contains special data, such as immigration permits and other types of information, and is used in case minors travel abroad to confirm that the parents or legal guardians authorized the trip without any problem. Seeing that the dongle had the required information and had not been tampered with, the officer offered no more buts and he finally authorized the entry of those two young people into the country.

-"Welcome to the Independent Republic of San Escobar, kids! And enjoy your stay here."- The officer said with an smile in his face. -"Don't forget to visit the beaches, especially El Esperal beach, which is the largest in the country."-

-"Thank you, sir."- Both Hashiba and Annika replied at the man, and without any delay, they took their stuff and went straight to outside the building trying to find a taxi to their hotel.

April 30th, AD 2306, Downtown Santa Julia, San Escobar, 12:30 PM

After leaving their belongings at the hotal, Hashiba and Annika decided to go for a walk in the heart of the country's capital, so they could better appreciate what that city had to offer.

Both youngsters noticed that Santa Julia, despite not having such an ancient history as other Latin American cities, still had several notable buildings, some of them built in a neo-colonial style that reflected the Latin roots of the first inhabitants of the archipelago, and one of those buildings was the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary, which was located, like many Latin American churches, in the central area of that city. Hashiba was surprised at how huge that church was, since he had only seen smaller churches in his native Japan, and how beautiful it was, with an architectural style that was very similar, in some aspects, to that of the famous Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. The only difference is that the history behind that temple, something that the tourist guide commented on right away.

-"I think some of you may have noticed that this church looks very much like the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, even if it is somewhat different in style and is much larger than the one in Spain."- The tourist guide, who speak English with a notable Polish accent, said to the travelers who were near the church, including Hashiba and Annika, who were at the doors of that place. -"The architect behind the construction of the church, Artur Oriol, was a native from Barcelona, and worked during the last years of the construction of the same church as an assistant, and after graduating from university, he traveled to San Escobar, and one of his first projects was to build a new catholic church for the new capital of the country. Oriol thought it would be a good idea to build a church that would be similar to the famous Sagrada Familia in his home country, but without making the same mistakes that this place suffered that slowed down its construction for more than a century. With this in mind and with the help of the best architects in the world, in less than seven years Oriol achieved his dream of building his church the way he wanted it, and this church is considered to be one of the largest in the world to date."-

-"Wow, that was really interesting, although it's a pity that not many people come to church like they used to, isn't it?"- Annika asked the guide when she noticed that there were more tourists inside the place taking pictures and self-portraits than believers praying inside the church, most of whom were elderly people.

-"Yeah, that's true."- The man said with a sadder tone. -"I have heard rumors that there are plans to close the church and turn it into a museum, as happened with the Sistine Chapel in Rome, but that will depend on many factors, as the Catholic Church here in San Escobar still has many followers, compared to the rest of the world, and I doubt that they would want the church to become another place where tourists come and take pictures, and become a memory of a bygone era."-

-"I think that's understandable, for sure."- Hashiba replied at the guide, then he checked his watch to see how much time they had on hand. -"The best thing would be not to disturb the people who are praying inside the church, since we can come another day."-

-"You're right, Tsutomu, the church is near the hotel and we can come when there's no one in there, so we don't have to disturb any people. Besides, I feel a little sorry for all those old people there praying in peace in a sacred place like this, and I think it's best not to be like the other tourists and see this place as another shabby place to take pictures."-

-"Right, Anni."- Then, Hashiba waved goodbye at the Sanescobarian guide. -"Thank you for telling us the history of the church, sir!"-

-"No problem, kids."- The middle-aged man replied at the couple. -"May you enjoy your stay in the city."-

Once they both left the church, Tsutomu Hashiba and Annika Stefansson headed west, while trying to read a map of the city on their data pads to find out where they were going next.

-"Where would you like us to go now, Anni?"-

As soon as he said that, both kids' stomachs started growling, which meant it was time to eat something.

-"Ughhh... Why don't we go eat something first, Tsutomu?"-

-"You're right about that, my gut's asking for food right now too."-

April 30th, AD 2306, "Los Olmos" Traditional Restaurant, Punta Almeja, Santa Julia, San Escobar, 02:10 PM

-"According to the Net, this is one of the best known restaurants in the city, and has the advantage that it is close to Punta Almeja, near the sea, so we can see the beaches of the city from the top floor of the restaurant."-

-"Ehhh, I don't know, Tsutomu, but this place looks kind of expensive, judging by how fancy it looks."-

Certainly, Annika had a reason to worry about the prices of the place, because the restaurant was not only big, but also very luxurious, and therefore, a place where the prices could be very high for two teenage tourists who only want to eat something before continuing with the tour of Santa Julia.

-"You don't have to worry about prices, I'm going to pay for everything, so you just gotta pick out something delicious to eat, and leave the money matters to me."-

-"Okay, but don't try to buy something expensive to eat. We're on vacations, and I wouldn't want us to be broke in a foreign country by eating in classy places."-

-"Don't worry about that, I'm not that dumb about spending money that way."-

Once they decided to go in and eat at that place, Hashiba and Annika entered the restaurant without further ado. They both noticed that the place had a very rustic atmosphere, which looked more like an old restaurant from the mid or end of the 20th century, but where families could eat there with their children without worrying about any inconvenience that could arise.

One of the most interesting things about the restaurant was that it had a bar where the guests could eat as if it were an old pub from that distant time, but apart from selling alcohol, they also sold non-alcoholic drinks and food. Hashiba and his Swedish girlfriend decided to sit at that bar, while a waitress came over to take their order.

-"Welcome to "Los Olmos", our traditional restaurant."- The girl presented herself in English, through with a notable Spanish accent. -"What would you like to order for your meal?"-

-"What is the typical food of this country, miss?"-

-"That's a good question. Our traditional dish is Pan con Tomate."-

-"Pan con Tomate you said, miss?"- Both youngsters replied somewhat puzzled, since neither of them understood Spanish.

-"Yeah, Pan con Tomate, or translated to "Tomato Bread"."- The Sanescobarian waitress said at the two foreigners. -"I know that, judging by your faces, you must be thinking right now about what kind of food is that."-

-"We'd be lying if we said no."- Annika replied at the woman with an uneasy smile in her face.

-"In that case, I'll explain the story behind the Pan con Tomate, if you'll allow me."-

-"Sure, no problem."- Hashiba and Annika replied in unison.

-"Well then, this is the story behind our typical dish:"- The woman began to tale the story. "As you know, San Escobar was born after several months of violent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that destroyed the island of La Española in the middle of the 21st century, and as you also know, the first colonizers were Leoncio Almeida and his group of several young people from various Latin American countries, along with refugees from neighboring countries that were destroyed by those events that created the archipelago."-

-"Yeah, we already know that,"- Hashiba replied at the waitress. -"in fact, we read the story of Almeida and how he and his men founded San Escobar in the plane."-

-"Good thing you know that, kids."- The woman continued with her tale. -"The first years on the island were very difficult, since there was not much edible vegetation in San Escobar at first, and the only things that grew on the island at first were wild tomatoes, and wheat that was brought from Mexico by some of Almeida's friends who were originally from that country. While they were looking for ways to plant other types of food, in addition to getting meat, Almeida and his followers had to settle for loaves of bread mixed with chopped tomatoes."-

-"Ugh!"- The Swedish girl replied in disgust. -"To eat bread with only tomatoes almost every day must have been a nightmare for them in those conditions."-

-"It certainly was, and even some of Almeida's followers left the island, thinking that he and his people had gone mad. But he didn't give up easily and with the help of all the inhabitants that lived on the island, they overcame those deficiencies in a few years, but for some reason, that food that was originally a simple dish created by not finding anything better to eat became part of our nation's cuisine over the years, and many other cooks made their own versions of the original recipe, without deviating from the original ingredients that are tomatoes and bread."-

-"Well, now that we know the history of the Pan con Tomate,"- The Japanese boy said at the waitress. -"I'd like to order one, if you would, ma'am."-

-"Me too!"-

-"Happy to take your order, youngsters. Our specialty of the house is the Pan con Tomate with Spices and Red Snapper Fillet."- The woman recommended to the young foreigners the best known dish of her restaurant. -"Would you like something to drink?"-

-"Do you have any non-alcoholic beverages?"- Annika asked about the drinks available in the place. -"You know, we're still underage, ma'am."-

-"Yeah, sure, we got sodas, fruit juices and piña coladas."-

-"In that case I would like a piña colada on the rocks."-

-"I want one too."- Hashiba asked for one as well.

-"OK, let me confirm your order:"- The woman then double-checked the order. -"Two Pan con Tomates and two piña coladas to drink. Is that all?"-

-"Yes, ma'am."-

-"Very well, then your order will be ready in half an hour at least. Enjoy your stay at the restaurant, kids."-

-"Thanks!"-

Once the waitress took the order from Hashiba and Annika, the woman left the place, leaving both of them waiting for their food at the bar of the restaurant, along with the other customers who were also eating or waiting for their respective edibles at the place.

-"Well, while the food comes, I'm gonna go to the bathroom and wash my hands."- Then the young Japanese student left his chair as quickly as he could. -"Are you going with me, Anni?"-

-"No, thanks."- The girl declined the offer. -"I'm going to stay and wait for the food to come, in case it arrives early."-

-"I guess you're right about that, so I'll be right back."-

-"Don't take too long, Tsutomu!"-

And so, Tsutomu Hashiba went to wash his hands, while Annika Stefansson waited at the bar for their food. Five minutes later, the waitress came to the bar, bringing the piña coladas they both ordered with her.

-"Here are your piña coladas."- The waitress said as she put both drinks on the bar. -"By the way, where's your boyfriend?"-

-"Oh, he went to the bathroom to wash his hands; I just stayed here to wait for the food."-

-"I see. Tell him that the food will be ready in a few minutes."-

-"Thank you, ma'am"-

Once the piña coladas were served, the waitress left again, leaving the Swedish girl waiting for her Japanese boyfriend, who was still in the bathroom, who was not yet out of the bathroom, something that started to annoy her a little, because Hashiba was not used to take long in that kind of matters.

-"Dear God, why is that idiot Tsutomu taking so long in the bathroom, if he just went to wash his hands?"-

But before she could continue with the topic, another important event that was taking place in the bar caught the attention of the Swedish girl and for several reasons that are explained below. And judging by the voices that were heard in various parts of the restaurant, that was certainly worth her attention.

-"What the hell...?"-

-"Hey, kid! The comic book convention's uptown, or maybe you're drunk or something?"-

-"I didn't know they did rodeos in San Escobar, or that they filmed cowboy movies around here."-

Inside that elegant restaurant, a young man of approximately 21 years old, with dark blond hair, blue eyes, and many freckles on his face, entered the place. But the physical appearance of this young man was not what attracted the attention of the clients of the dining site, but the clothes he was wearing: The young blond man was wearing a cowboy hat, leather boots with metal spurs, a leather vest, a checkered shirt, and above all, he was carrying two Colt .45 revolvers on both sides of his waist.

At first, both Annika and the other people at the restaurant thought that the boy was a person who was dressing up as a cowboy for some party, and important event, or that he was some movie actor who had come into the restaurant to eat with the props he might be wearing in the filming of whatever he was doing in town. But she realized right away that the weapons he was carrying were not toys or props, but real weapons, or at least pretty good replicas of the originals.

Besides, the young man seemed to ignore what people were saying behind his back, and without thinking twice, the young man went over to the bar of the restaurant, and sat down on a chair that was to Annika's right, which frightened her to no end, because she was not going to trust a guy dressed like Billy the Kid in any way.

-"What the hell is wrong with this asshole?"- Annika thought to herself as she tried to stay calm. -"Why did this guy think to sit next to me like that?"-

Then, he opened his mouth...

-"I would like a Budweiser, please"-

But before the weird-looking boy will get his drink, the bartender who attended the bar on the restaurant, who was in charge of serving the alcoholic beverages in that place, was not very happy to see that young man, and that was due to two reasons that the man made known to him right away.

-"Before you sit your ass down in this place, let me tell you two things:"- The bartender warned the young man dressed like a cowboy -"The first one is that we don't serve alcoholic beverages to minors, and the second one is that you are not allowed to enter this place with firearms, so if you don't comply with either rule you better leave this place, weirdo, before I call the police."-

The cowboy-wannabe pulled a metal card from his vest pocket, which he gave to the bartender for him to see, something the man did immediately.

-"Here's my business card, in case there's a problem regarding me, sir."-

When the bartender looked closely at the card, that man opened his eyes as wide as he could, for that young man dressed as a cowboy out of a cheap Western movie turned out to be something more than he looked like.

-"A bounty hunter?"-

-"Yeah, that's right,"- The boy confirmed his job. -"I'm one of them. That also means I'm old enough to drink alcohol."-

-"And what the hell is a bounty hunter doing here on Earth?"- The bartender questioned further at that man. -"I understand you guys only work in space, and you're not allowed to work here in this planet."-

-"We are just passing through here in San Escobar to refuel and restock before heading back into the space to work."-

-"Oh, I see. Sorry for being rude to you, but I've had bad experiences with young people playing hardball and trying to buy alcohol illegally. Besides, rules are rules, too."-

-"Yeah, I understand that."-

-"Another thing:"- The man asked the young man once again. -"Judging by your accent, you seem to be British, right?"-

-"Righty-oh, sir!"- The young British boy confirmed his nationality at the Sanescobarian bartender. -"I'm from Manchester, to be exact."-

-"And why are you dressed like John Wayne?"- The man asked for the boy's weird cowboy outfit -"Did you go out to a party or what?"-

-"Nope. I just really love cowboy movies, and this is my work clothes. I think you'll understand why, won't you?"-

-"Yeah, right"- The old man smiled at that remark. -"A Space Cowboy..."-

-"Indeed."- The British boy said while sipping his beer in his mouth. -"In fact, the company I work for is named exactly like that, only in plural."-

-"Space Cowboys, you said?"- The man said somewhat puzzled, due to the implications of the name and the outfit that young man was using. -"Don't tell me all your fellow co-workers are dressed like that too, are they?"-

-"Of course not, sir!"- The cowboy laughed a bit at that question. -"I'm the only one who dresses like a cowboy, my other friends wear regular clothes or military ones."-

-"Then, who came up with that silly name?"-

-"Me."-

The bartender laughed a little at that response, for only someone like that young British man dressed as a wild west movie reject would come up with such a ridiculous name, at least in the opinion of that old man.

-"Heh, I figured an answer like that."-

While this was happening at the bar, Tsutomu Hashiba returned from the bathroom after washing his hands, and quickly noticed the presence of the British cowboy, which caught the attention of the young man from Japan, because of how unnatural that boy looked compared with the other guests there.

-"Did I miss anything, I guess?"-

In the face of her boyfriend's sarcasm, Annika could not help but make a scathing comment about the guest she had at her side, because of how uncomfortable she felt about his presence.

-"Nothing, except that the clowns came all the way from England, and now they come dressed as cowboys."-

Obviously, that insult did not go unnoticed by the young Englishman and he decided to confront the Swedish girl, but without stopping smiling, for some strange reason.

-"Hey, it's not polite to badmouth someone behind their back, is it?"-

-"Well, what do you expect? To congratulate you for walking around here dressed like a cheap western film reject, with guns and stuff?"-

-"My clothes are part of my identity as a person, and I don't think there's anything wrong with being dressed like that."-

-"And you have to come in here armed just like that?"-

-"I don't think it would be so different if I was a cop or a soldier doing the same thing."- The young Englishman retorted the words of that girl. -"Ultimately, my job is to uphold the law just like them, even if I'm just passing through here on Earth."-

-"Still, I don't think it's in good taste for everyone for you to go around here dressed like Billy the Kid, and have the audacity to do it with all your guns. That makes everybody here nervous, including me."- Annika replied at the explanation of the bounty hunter. -"What if one of your targets comes here to settle a score with you and a shooting happens? What if an innocent person gets hurt or even killed? Would you be responsible for that?"-

-"I don't think so. All my work is in space, and as I mentioned before, we can't work here on Earth, and I doubt that any small-time criminal living outside this planet would go to the trouble of following me here in this country just to kill me, let alone in a public place."-

Annika took a sip of her piña colada in an uncomfortable manner before continuing the conversation.

-"Still, that makes me uncomfortable for me."-

Hashiba, who had so far avoided meddling in the chat, chose to also talk with the bounty hunter.

-"I'm sorry if I'm intruding, but I'd like to know who you are. If you're a bounty hunter, you should have a proper ID, or at least tell us your name."-

-"I guess you're this girl's boyfriend, huh?"-

-"That's right."- The Japanese student said at the cowboy-looking Englishman. -"and I agree with everything she said about you, in case you ask."-

The cowboy paused while he drank his beer from the can, and then continued with the talk, this time addressing the Japanese young man.

-"From your accent, I'm guessing you're from Asia, right?"-

-"Yeah, I'm from Japan, from Tokyo to be exact."-

-"And judging by your girlfriend's accent, she's from some Scandinavian country, or am I wrong?"-

-"I am from Stockholm, Sweden, but I currently live in Japan, since I study there."- Annika replied at the hunter. -"Do you have a damn problem with that?"-

-"Of course not!"- The Englishman said somewhat offended at the implication of Annika's words. -"I'm not a racist, or anything like that! I just wanted to know where you two were from."-

The Swedish girl caught on immediately that she possibly overreacted by insinuating that space bounty hunter was a racist or xenophobe. In an attempt to keep the situation from becoming more tense, she offered an apology.

-"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you were a racist, I just found it annoying that you asked where we were coming from, as if that was so important."-

-"Nah, don't worry about that!"- The cowboy tried not to make a big deal out of the matter, and he laughed slightly. -"I think it was also my fault for being so blunt with such topic."-

-"Well, I think that settles it,"- Hashiba tried to participate in the discussion by doing an important question to the Manchester-born cowboy. -"but you still haven't told us your name."-

-"Oh, crap, I forgot that!"- The European boy facepalmed. -"Well, my name is..."-

Before he could finish saying anything else, the Net cut off the conversation in an abrupt manner.

-"Sorry to interrupt, but you have an urgent call."-

-"Oh, really?"- The cowboy said at the AI. -"Who's the call from? Isn't that a classified call?"-

-"No."- The computer replied at its human master. -"Do you want to answer the call?"-

-"Yes, please."- The young man then apologized to those two young folks he was talking to on the spot for the unexpected interruption. -"Excuse me for cutting the talk, lads, but I think I have a work-related call."-

-"No problem with that."- Hashiba replied at the Englishman. -"We know that must be important to you."-

-"Then, excuse me for a moment, please."-

The cowboy then got up from his chair and went to another, less noisy part of the restaurant so that he could talk quietly with his caller...

...Except that his caller was anything but quiet.

-"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU GOTTEN YOURSELF INTO, YOU STUPID BRAT?"- A voice that was that of an adult man over 50 years old was heard on the data pad of the cowboy was heard loudly on the device. -"CAN'T YOU SEE WE'RE BUSY, WHILE YOU'RE OUT WALKING AROUND TOWN?"-

-"Hey! Take it easy, pops,"- The young bounty hunter tried to calm that voice out from his device. -"you're gonna break the data pad's speaker with all your screaming."-

-"DON'T CALL ME POPS, YOU COWBOY-WANNABE!"- The man furiously yelled at the young hunter. -"NOW GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE, BECAUSE WE NEED YOUR HELP GETTING ALL THIS SHIT ON THE SHIP!"-

-"OK, I get it, you don't need to yell like a madman."- The young man replied with some unease. -"But, do I have to go back to the ship right away, pops?"-

-"You know very well that we don't have a very large crew, and each person in the ship counts, so you can't ignore your responsibilities, young man."-

-"sigh, OK, OK! I'll get back to the ship immediately."-

-"All right, don't dawdle with anything else unless you want the boss or me to give you an ear-pull, boy."-

-"Understood, pops."-

-"And don't call me pops! Did you hear me?"-

-"You don't have to scream your head off. See ya."-

The cowboy cut off communication with the person who was apparently his immediate superior, and immediately afterwards went to say goodbye to Hashiba and Annika, for obvious reasons.

-"I have to leave immediately, or my bosses are going to rip a new one on me."- The British bounty hunter apologized for having to cut their chat in a sudden manner. -"See you later, folks."-

-"Oh, man, I forgot that! My name is Kevin, and I hope we'll see each other again soon."- Then he waved goodbye to his new friends while leaving the restaurant. -"¡Adios, amigos!"-

-"See you soon, Kevin!"- Annika also waved goodbye to the Englishman.

-"Good-bye, Kevin!"- The same goes for Hashiba.

April 30th, AD 2306, Punta Almeja's South Piers, Santa Julia, San Escobar, 03:30 PM

After finishing lunch, Tsutomu Hashiba and his girlfriend Annika decided to go for a walk around the docks of Punta Almeja, where ships from around the world were berthed. Among those ships were fishing boats, military ships, yachts, frigates and even cruise ships, some of which were boarding passengers, while that couple enjoyed all that show as much as they could.

Suddenly, Annika decided to suggest an idea to her beloved when she saw those enormous cruises before their eyes.

-"Hey, Tsutomu, it would be great if one of these days we should go in a cruise and went on vacations on the Caribbean Sea just you and me."-

The young Japanese man did not seem to like the idea of traveling by ship at all, to put it mildly.

-"No thanks, Anni."- Hashiba politely declined such suggestion. -"I always end up getting seasick when I get on boats."-

-"You're so dull, Tsutomu, it would have been fun to go on a cruise, especially in the near future."-

-"What do you meant by in the near future, huh?"-

-"Oh, come on, Tsutomu, you know very well what I mean!"- The girl questioned her beloved one on his plans for the future for both of them. -"We're not going to be boyfriend and girlfriend forever, are we?"-

-"Of course not!"- The boyfriend retorted. -"It's just that I think you're getting a little too ahead with our future plans. Besides, I think it would be better if we graduate from university first before we think about these things."-

-"Well, at least you're right, I wouldn't want my future husband to be a loser without a university degree."-

Hashiba responded to such a comment with the disbelief worthy of someone who could not believe that his girlfriend took it for granted that they would both get married after finishing their studies. Even if that young Japanese man had known Annika for years, and had been engaged to her for only two, the idea of marriage still did not enter his head in those days.

-"Your future HUSBAND?"-

-"Right."- The Swedish girl replied with a big smile on her face. -"Or do you plan to play major league baseball like your friend Ryuji when both of you graduate from high school?"-

That question was too uncomfortable for Hashiba to answer honestly: Like Ryuji Morisawa, his plans to continue playing baseball were even less clear than his friend's, and he wasn't completely sure if he wanted to play the sport professionally or just retire and do something more productive, because Hashiba felt in those days that he didn't have the charisma, or the same innate talent for baseball that Morisawa had, so Annika's question made a lot of sense to him, but he didn't feel he had the courage to give her a concrete answer.

-"Can we talk about this another day, Anni? It's not something I want to bring up when we're both on holiday here abroad."-

-"Fine, have it your way,"- Annika replied somewhat reluctantly to her boyfriend's refusal to discuss the issue. -"I just wanted to get an answer from you."-

Moments later, Annika looked at what appeared to be a large ship that was docked at one of the piers reserved for ships of the same size. The size of that vehicle and how different it was from other vessels nearby caught her attention in a remarkable way.

-"Hey, Tsutomu, look at the size of that ship, it looks very different from the other vessels that are nearby."-

-"You mean that weird-looking one?"-

-"Yeah, that one."-

-"Now that you mention it, it does look pretty weird."- Hashiba began to look closely at that strange ship. - "Doesn't look like any commercial ship I know, at least not with those traits."-

-"Why don't we go take a closer look?"-

-"Well, I don't think that's a bad idea."-

Thus, the young couple decided to walk up to the strange vessel in front of them to take a closer look. Once in front of that deep gray-colored vehicle, they realized that "ship" was not only very different, but it was also very big, it had several rocket thrusters, something that bigger ships, even the military, did not have, and besides that, it had wings, which only meant one thing...

-"This definitely doesn't look like a sea ship,"- Hashiba said after watching the weird-looking "ship" in front of him. -"but it looks more like a spaceship for me."-

-"That's because it is a spaceship."-

Hashiba and Annika heard a voice coming from that ship, a voice that was most familiar to both of them...

-"Hey, that voice sounds very familiar!"- The Swedish girl said surprised after hearing that voice, -"Is that...?"-

The door of the ship opened suddenly, and a person came out of it quickly. To the surprise of both of them, that person was none other than Kevin, who at that moment was no longer wearing his cowboy clothes, but normal civilian ones, besides wearing dark gloves that are normally used to carry heavy things more easily. Obviously, the young duo was very surprised to see him again.

-"KEVIN?!"-

-"Hiya, guys!"- The Englishman greeted his friends he met at the restaurant an hour and a half ago effusively. -"How you doing? What are you guys doing around here?"-

Kevin made it sound like it was no big deal that the ship he was on was the one he served on, which made his friends ask more questions about the matter.

-"More like the question we should be asking is what the hell are you doing on that ship?"- Annika asked the young man from England.

-"This is the ship I work on, along with the rest of my partners. It's really big, isn't it?"-

-"Well, it really looks big, Kevin."- The Japanese young man replied after taking another look at the spaceship. -"But this doesn't look like a civilian spaceship. I understand bounty hunters use smaller ships for work, you know, to pursue your targets more easily."-

-"There is a reason for that, although I cannot give many details of the ship because it is classified information, but I can tell you that the reason it is big is because the crew is relatively large and we need a ship of this size to handle all the crew and the cargo it may need."-

-"Oh, I see."- Annika also said, and she added another question to the young man. -"And why aren't you wearing your cowboy outfit anymore?"-

-"Well, right now I'm busy helping the rest of the crew get all the supplies onto the ship before we leave the ground, and that's why I'm wearing lighter clothes; it's not exactly practical to walk around dressed like a cowboy while doing heavy lifting."-

-"I think that's understandable, buddy."- Hashiba said at the British boy.

And when the conversation was just getting interesting for those three people, an adult voice was heard inside the ship, yelling loudly at Kevin and calling his attention.

-"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, KEVIN? GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW AND HELP ME PUT ALL THIS STUFF IN THE SHIP'S CARGO HOLD!"-

-"I'm coming, pops, you don't need to yell me like that, okay?"- The boy replied to the voice coming from within the ship. -"I'm busy right now with some people who got close to the ship."-

-"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO CALL ME POPS, KEVIN? AND WHO THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING TO?"-

Suddenly and without warning, a man, approximately 50 years old, with black, short hair, and with a ponytail, besides having a very unfriendly face, which had some scars, in addition to looking like a person of Asian origin, appeared at Kevin's side, staring at those two unexpected guests who were known to the young British man.

-"Who are those two kids, Kevin?"- The hard-looking man angrily asked to his junior - "You know very well the chief's rules about bringing unauthorized guests onto the ship."-

-"Hey, pops, stop jumping to such conclusions!"- Kevin replied at the old man at his side -"They have no intention of boarding the ship at any time, they just happened to walk near the ship, and I went to greet them, that's all."-

-"First of all, don't call me pops, unless you want a knuckle sandwich in your face next time you call me that."- Then, the man stared at the Japanese and the Swedish girl again. -"And secondly, where did you meet these two kids?"-

-"I met them at the restaurant when I went for a walk in the capital. We talked for a while between the three of us, and the talk could have lasted longer if I hadn't been interrupted by your yelling over the data pad."-

While Kevin and the Asian-looking man argued sourly and exchanging mutual insults, Annika made a whispered remark to Hashiba about the latter's physical appearance, because his physique clearly impressed the girl, something she wanted to let her boyfriend know right away.

-"This guy is very big, and on top of that he is very muscular; he doesn't seem to be a very friendly person, judging by the way he is looking at us."-

-"If you ask me for my opinion, Annika, he looks more like a character out of those old manga or anime, one of those who never smiles at all, who has a very cold and calculating looks, and with a face that would like to kill you and anyone else at any time if they wanted to. Considering that he is also a bounty hunter, I think he must have seen or done many things that would horrify any other human being. The only thing this guy lacks is a M-16 to blow both our brains out."-

-"I'm sorry, Tsutomu, but I didn't understand what you meant by your comment that this guy is short of a M-16 to kill us both."-

-"Oh, just forget about that!"- The Japanese boy said at Annika's ear. -"It's just a bad joke I thought up right now after seeing this guy."-

Okay, you two, what the hell are you guys arguing about?"- A female voice was heard behind the backs of Hashiba and his girlfriend, which caused Kevin and his superior to stop arguing immediately.-"I'm only gone for a few hours and you two seem to want to kill each other."-

The short-haired man stared at the woman whose voice was pointing at him, and he began to stutter in her presence...

-"BO-BOSS?!"-

The young couple also turned their backs to see who was the person talking a few seconds ago, and whose voice caused Kevin and the other man to stop arguing between themselves.

-"Why do you and Kevin always end up fighting over whatever nonsense?"-

That woman, who was not only the boss of both characters, but also the captain of the ship, had a peculiar appearance: She was a dark-skinned woman, most likely of Afro-Caribbean origin, dark brown hair, brown eyes, dressed in military-style clothes, and like that adult man, she was also a somewhat muscular woman, through she also seemed to have a few extra pounds, although that didn't prevent her from having an aura of authority that was very evident on those two people.

-"I'm very sorry you have to see us both fight, boss,"- The man said at the woman who was in front of him. -"but I was scolding Kevin for bringing two of his guests onto the ship without your authorization."-

-"Hey, pops, they weren't planning on going into the ship at any time!"- Kevin complained once again against that man. -"They just happened to be passing by the dock."-

Obviously, neither Hashiba nor Annika intended to remain silent in the face of such a misunderstanding of which they were the protagonists.

-"It's true, ma'am!"- Annika talked with the woman, who was still behind them. -"We met Kevin at a restaurant near here, and we were just walking around the docks, since we're tourists. We don't feel like getting on your ship, or causing any trouble among the three of you."-

The woman started scratching her head in puzzlement, as she did not understand fully what was going on, and what had caused that man, Kevin's superior, to act aggressively towards him, Hashiba and Annika.

-"I'm gonna need you guys to give me an explanation of all this, especially you, Kevin."-

-"Yes, sir."-

Kevin explained to the woman, in broad strokes, how he had met Tsutomu Hashiba and Annika Stefansson at the restaurant "Los Olmos", how it was that man had asked him to return to the ship, and how it was that the young Japanese student and his Swedish girlfriend found the bounty hunter's ship that was anchored in the dock, and how Kevin decided to greet them, causing the whole incident.

-"I see."- The dark-skinned woman said at the couple. -"You two just happened to pass by the dock and Kevin went to say hello, while Leo went to scold him."-

-"That's right."- Hashiba replied. -"We didn't mean to cause any trouble, and if we did, we're very sorry, ma'am, I hope you're not upset about it."-

The man, whose name turned out to be Leo, was the first to say something, and what he said was something that surprised everyone, including his own associates, alike.

-"No, I'm the one who should be apologizing to you guys. I have a bad habit of being very overprotective with this ship, and, as you may have noticed, I have military experience, which makes me pretty paranoid when it comes to strangers coming near the ship for any reason."

-"Besides,"- The female boss added some words to Leo's ones. -"we are bounty hunters, and we have several enemies who would like to see us dead, and considering that we are on Earth, we are more vulnerable, since the local laws forbid us to act even in self-defense."-

-"Oh, I see."- Annika said. -"And to echo what my boyfriend said, we're very sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused."-

-"No problem with that."- Kevin said, through with some somber tone. -"It's good to know that there are still people who don't judge us for who we are. You know, there are a lot of people who think that we bounty hunters work on the fringes of the law, and that we cause trouble wherever we go."-

-"To be honest, this is the first time we've met bounty hunters in person."- Hashiba said at Kevin. -"I've never traveled outside the Earth in my life to begin with."-

-"Really?"-

-"That's right."- The Japanese boy replied about his lack of space travel. -"I don't have much need to travel outside my planet at the moment, so I don't know much about how things work in space, outside the basics, although I have heard some stories about bounty hunters, some positive ones and some negative as well."-

-"Well, without going any further into this subject, I can only tell you that there is some truth in some of those bounty hunter stories."- The woman also added some extra remarks on their conversation. -"For every one hundred heroic hunters, there are at least five others who will always see this job as an avenue to commit crimes with impunity, but I think that's also true for any organization that should be enforcing the law, and we are no exception."-

-"You're right on that one, ma'am."-

-"Then, I think this misunderstanding has cleared up, do you have anything else to say about our work?"-

-"I think we have nothing more to say, ma'am."- Hashiba then waved goodbye at the hunters. -"So, we're leaving now."-

-"See you later, Kevin!"- Annika also did the same. -"I hope you can come back to Earth one day and talk about your adventures with us! The same goes for you, ma'am, and you too, Mr. Leo."-

-"See ya, guys!"- Kevin waved goodbye to his new friends.

-"We see you another day, kids."- Both Leo and the woman did the same.

Once leaving the dock where the bounty hunters' ship was docked, Hashiba and Annika headed to the hotel where they were staying, while the crew of that ship had been left alone in that place, this time talking to each other.

-"I find it strange that you apologize that way, Leo, as you're not normally the kind of person who would offer an apology for a mistake."- The boss said at the man named Leo.

-"I also know my shortcomings, boss, and I think I overreacted when I thought Kevin was going to let those two kids on the ship, so I'm really sorry you had to see all this."-

-"No problem about that, Leo, but leaving all this aside,"- The woman said at both Leo and Kevin -"we must recognize that there are still people who really know the value of our job and they do not fall for the urban legends surrounding it."-

-"Although I'd like to be honest about one thing, boss:"- Kevin also admitted his own flaws at his senior. -"When they first met me at the restaurant, they thought I was a clown or a movie actor."-

-"Anyone who saw you dressed like that would think you were either an actor or a cosplay artist, Kevin,"- Leo snarked at the Englishman in his face. -"so don't be surprised if someone tells you, kiddo."-

-"Well, at least I don't look like an assassin out of a cheap 20th-century manga, pops."-

Leo replied in a firm and aggressive manner to such a comment that the young British man did in a mocking way about him.

-"OK, you little brat, let's be clear about two things: The first is that I don't like being compared with a cold, calculating professional assassin because I like to use sniper rifles, and the second is that I don't like being called pops!"-

The woman face-palmed when she saw that Kevin and Leo were arguing again.

-"Oh, shit, here we go again..."-

April 30th, AD 2306, Hotel Fiesta, Santa Julia, San Escobar, 05:00 PM

After a long day of walking around the city, not to mention the incidents they both had on the way, Tsutomu Hashiba and Annika Stefansson returned to the hotel where they were staying in the capital of San Escobar.

Once inside the hotel, both kids entered their room where they both slept in separate beds, which, by the way, was a relatively luxurious room. This was because Annika's family paid for half of the lodging expenses of the trip and therefore both could afford to stay in an elegant place. Without thinking twice, both students headed for their respective beds, but not before sharing their opinions about everything they saw that day, along other things.

-"Wow, that was a really interesting day we had today!"-

-"And it sure was, Anni!"- The Japanese boy said while sitting in his bed -"I didn't expect this town to be so peculiar, after all we've seen here: The food, the architecture, and even the kind of people who visit this country."-

-"Well, at least I didn't expect to see cowboys hanging out here; you usually see those in the U.S., not in a Caribbean country."-

Both boys laughed as they recalled their experience with the bounty hunter dressed as a cowboy named Kevin, and his co-workers, since they had never seen people like this on Earth before.

And this had a reason to be for that couple who had never left their planet in their lives: After the beginning of the colonization of space in the early 22nd century and as humanity began to settle in new worlds and habitable colonies, one of the most remarkable traits of humankind, which was crime, was also brought along with the first colonizers to the new worlds, and this posed a new challenge for the traditional law enforcement agencies.

Because of the size and depth of those new territories that were now the jurisdiction of the respective governments on Earth, and because the traditional agencies could not and did not have sufficient and qualified personnel to enforce the law in territories as large as planets like Mars or New Haiti, to name a few, space colonies, or simply in territories as inhospitable or dangerous as the depths of outer space, the UN made an incredibly radical change in the law enforcement system: It decided to return to the bounty system used in the American Wild West of the late 19th century, albeit with some modifications to avoid abuses of authority, making it possible for anyone with the right qualifications to engage in the lucrative business of tracking down fugitives and bringing them alive before the law, and thus receive the proper reward.

Even if this system allowed anyone to chase criminals and bring them to justice, it also has its limits, which were known to everyone:

To be a bounty hunter, you need to be over 21 years old, something that some governments like the U.S. evidently pushed before the U.N. to impose this rule for reasons that are more than obvious.

Any person wishing to engage in that trade must have previous experience in the use of weapons, legal procedures for law enforcement and have the appropriate physical and mental conditions to work. Because of this, the authorities usually give preference to retired policemen or soldiers for granting bounty-hunting licenses. Other people without such a background could also become involved in the business, but they must first undergo a specialized training, which is the same as that which an active police officer or soldier receives under the same conditions, and not all people can complete such training.

Any aspiring bounty hunter must not have a criminal record in their home country, or in their place of origin if they live in a space colony outside the Earth.

Bounty hunters must bring their prey to justice alive. This is for two reasons: The first is so that the hunter can receive the money, and the second is to avoid extra-judicial killings, as well as abuses.

Any bounty hunter found to have abused their prey in any way is grounds for the bounty to be voided, and the hunter to face legal action. This goes doubly so if the hunter is found to have had aggravating factors such as racism or xenophobia.

No bounty hunter can work on the Earth under any circumstances, this also means that they cannot use their weapons on the planet even in self-defense, and in case they need help they must contact the appropriate authorities of the country where they are.

Because of all this, the experience of meeting real bounty hunters was something completely out of the ordinary for that young couple, and perhaps something they may never see again in their lives.

-"But what caught my attention was that guy named Leo; he looked like someone out of an action movie, and with an unfriendly face."- Annika said her opinion about Kevin's senior, Leo, who acted very hostile to them. -"When he started arguing with Kevin, I thought at the time that he wanted to come at us too."-

-"Well, as I said before there, he looked more like a character out of an action manga."-

-"Heh, I think I understood exactly what you meant with that, Tsutomu, and I can't honestly blame you."-

But the conversation took a different course when the aforementioned young Japanese man decided to keep silent for a few seconds, as if he wanted to think of something else to discuss at that moment.

-"Is something wrong, Tsutomu?"- Annika said at her boyfriend, who was still in his bed. -"You've suddenly gone quiet. Is there something bothering you about the issue of those bounty hunters?"-

-"No, it's not about that, that's a separate topic."- Hashiba said, while watching the ceiling of the hotel room with a worried expression. -"It's about something else, and we haven't discussed it for a long time, and I'd like to discuss it with you now that we're alone, and far from Japan."-

-"What do you mean by that?"-

-"You know well what I mean;"- The young student made his girlfriend remember what happened by mentioning some key events so that the whole episode flashed into that girl's head. -"I refer precisely to what happened in September last year in Hiroshima, where you forced me to discuss the subject in a gender-neutral bathroom, and suffer some embarrassment in front of a woman."-

Upon mentioning everything that happened on that particular day in Japan, Annika quickly recalled that incident, and why she had not instantly remembered it as opposed to her boyfriend.

-"Oh! you mean that incident with those creepy racist guys insulting the mayor of New Baghdad in that cafeteria near the Hiroshima Peace Memorial."-

-"Yes, I was referring to that very event."- Then, Hashiba scolded the girl for not remembering such issue. -"How could you forget that when you were there, watching the whole thing?"-

Annika immediately explained the reasons why she did not immediately remember the incident with the mayor of New Baghdad, which was very understandable given the sensitivity of the whole affair.

-"To be honest, I wanted to forget all that stuff from my head, since I was terrified of what would happen to me, you and our families if we opened our mouths to the police."- The Swedish girl explained her reasons for not doing anything, this time in a depressed tone and with her head down. -"This isn't like in the action movies, where the heroic informants give the top secret information to the good guys and they save the day at the end of the film; this is the real life, and if they find out that we know something... we might not live to tell a shit to anyone."-

-"So, that means we're going to leave these things like that, huh?"-

After hearing that answer, Annika became angry with her boyfriend when she saw that he didn't seem to be aware of the risk involved in talking to the authorities about what they saw that day, considering that those men in black were not simply small-time thugs or gangsters, but apparently they had connections with some foreign government. That meant that if they spoke anything of what that girl saw in Hiroshima, Annika and Hashiba would be lucky if those men in black would limit themselves only to wipe those two teens from the face of the earth.

-"Are you out of your mind or what?"- Annika argued loudly at the boy. -"There's nothing we, two high school students like you and me, can do about it to help that man and his people! And to top it all off, it's weird for me to hear this kind of crap from you, who was the one who wasn't interested in saying anything to the police in the first place!"-

-"Well, I can change my mind at any time, can't I?"- Hashiba explained why he changed his mind about revealing to the police what his girlfriend had heard on that day. -"I just thought it would be good if we said something after all this time after what happened in Hiroshima."-

Seeing the dilemma in which both teenagers were involved and seeing that they both fell to the same painful conclusion, both Annika and her Japanese boyfriend began to try to think of a way to do something about what the Swedish girl saw in Hiroshima months ago so that their own consciences could rest in peace, and not simply stand idly by in the face of such outrage.

But as Hashiba had mentioned a few moments earlier, what could two teenagers do in the face of what seemed to be something completely so cruel? They knew very well that, although World War III had ended two centuries ago and there had been no more wars in the world since the beginning of the 22nd century, they had both realized that the world they lived in was not quite fair as they had thought, at least according to what everyone, starting with their own parents, their teachers and what they heard daily in their day-to-day lives, had told them since they were born.

During all that time between what happened in Japan and their vacation in San Escobar, they realized that the descendants of the losers of World War III were not living as well as they had thought, and there was something not right about the world order in which they both lived, and that order was sustained by the suffering of the people who lived outside the Earth and being unable to protest the wrongs they suffered at the hands of the winners.

And how did these two teens find out about all this? After what happened in Hiroshima, both Hashiba and Annika began to investigate what was happening on Mars, especially in the Martian colonies inhabited by the descendants of the first colonizers of that planet, who were mostly Arabs from the ancient Middle East who traveled to that planet after the destruction of their home in the Arabian Peninsula, along with other countries like Afghanistan, after the end of the last world war.

They also investigated some details about the culture of the inhabitants of that colony, the reasons why their ancestors traveled to Mars, and above all and most importantly, why there were hardly any people from those colonies inhabited by Arabs on Earth? Considering that thanks to the Jump Drive technology, travelling from Earth to Mars and vice versa was now faster than in the past, when the trip lasted months and was more dangerous than at present.

According to the official version that many people learned in school, most of the residents of these Arab colonies are too poor to travel back to Earth, but even so that would not explain why there were hardly any inhabitants of that region of Mars on Earth even as business travelers.

Knowing that they would not find the answers they needed in Japan, much less on Earth, the most logical thing would be to try to travel to Mars and visit those colonies on their own and talk to their inhabitants, and thus know the truth. But the young couple from Tokyo found an insurmountable hurdle to travel to those colonies: Unlike the other human colonies on Mars, whose access was only limited by the visas of the countries that owned those human settlements, travel to the Arab colonies required a special permit issued by the UN, or specifically, by the UNMCS (United Nations Martian Colonial Service), which was the official representation of the aforementioned organization in that planet.

Getting that permit required paying about $100,000, explaining a good reason to travel to those colonies, and being over 21. Furthermore, as long as they were in those colonies, they will be accompanied by an official chaperone of the UNMCS. Normally, the only people who could visit these colonies were government investigators, authorized members of the UN or the UNMCS, among other select and exclusive groups of people who could travel there. Obviously, two high school students like Tsutomu Hashiba and Annika Stefansson could never expect to visit those places in their lives.

The thought that they could never go to Mars, much less to those colonies to find the truth was something that frustrated both teenagers in a way they had never felt in their short lives.

But there was something else they had to consider: Why were both students so obsessed with the whole Mars issue and the Arab settlers living there since the end of World War III? Are they doing that after what Annika saw in Hiroshima with the incident dealing the mayor of New Baghdad, or simply because that scene was proof that something was not right with the world they both lived in? Or perhaps they were doing that because a sense of social justice was beginning to creep into the minds of those two young people?

That was the question that young couple from Japan were asking themselves in that hotel room on that distant Caribbean island.

-"DAMN!"- Hashiba cursed loudly, as he put his hands to his head in frustration. -"I've got so much on my mind about this damn thing that I can't think of anything else to get out of the freakin' mess we're in!"-

Annika, on the other hand, thought it would be best to leave those things for another time, instead of wasting their vacations in continuing to think about all that dangerous issue.

-"I think it would be better if we forget about it for the time being until we go back to Japan, and think later at home about a way to know the truth of what is really happening on Mars."- The girl said with a forced smile, while trying to cheer her boyfriend in some way. -"For the time being, I think it would be nice if we enjoy our vacations instead of mortifying ourselves with the whole Mars thing, since we are supposed to come here to have fun first and forget about all those things for a while, don't you think so, Tsutomu?"-

Tsutomu Hashiba was silent for a few moments, until he finally gave his fiancée an answer.

-"Hmm... I think you're right, there's no point thinking about the whole damn thing here. We'd better think about where we're going to go around the city tomorrow, and it would also be good to think about what other places on this island we could visit."-

-"Nice idea, sweetie."- -"They say Nueva Varsovia is very beautiful too and it's only two hours from the capital."-

-"Then we could go there as soon as we finish seeing what's in the capital."-

-"So let's plan what we're going to do tomorrow. I think that'll help us forget this whole thing for a while, don't you?"-

-"Well, at least I think that's the idea, Anni."-

May 2nd, AD 2306, Kaohsiung ROC Air Force Base, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 11:00 AM

-"I am very sorry that we have to make an emergency stop at your base, General Kuang, but our aircraft had a failure on its hydraulic system and it was very risky for us to continue flying in those conditions, so we hope that our presence at your base will not interfere with your normal operations."-

-"Well, don't worry about it, Captain Katagiri, we also understand that an aircraft like yours is somewhat more complex than an ordinary passenger or cargo plane, so I think it's only natural that situations like this should occur from time to time."-

-"Yes, I understand that perfectly as well the downsides of operating this type of stuff, since I am the captain of that plane after all, but that doesn't stop me from feeling a bit embarrassed that our presence here is causing a big problem for you, even if our country and yours are allies."-

On the airstrip of Kaohsiung Air Base, near the control tower, there were two people, a man and a woman, speaking rather animatedly, and who were members of their respective armed forces: The first person, and the highest ranking officer in charge of the base, was a middle-aged, dark-brown-haired, and rhetorically tall man named Kuang Ya-Hui, who held the rank of General of the Republic of China Air Force, who just happened to be in that city when the foreign aircraft landed at that air base.

The other person, a 25-year-old woman with long black hair, dark brown eyes, and medium height, was known as Ayako Katagiri, who held the rank of Captain and was a member of the Japanese Self-Defense Air Force, and besides that, she was the captain of the aforementioned aircraft that was passing through Kaohsiung due to a mechanical problem that forced her to land at a foreign air base.

And one of the reasons why Captain Katagiri was so sorry that her aircraft was causing trouble at that air base in Taiwan was because of a major problem, which is absolutely not an exaggeration: She was the captain of an air fortress, one of the largest military aircraft in existence, and the largest type of aircraft that exists in the world.

And that aircraft was stranded in the middle of the runway, very close to the buildings of the air base, but that, due to the size of that giant military aircraft, it was impossible for the ship to park in an ordinary place for regular jets, but it had to do it in the largest area of the runway that was available at that time, which prevented the normal operations of the other local aircraft that were on the base.

But for General Kuang, that didn't seem to be a very important concern for him, for reasons he would explain below.

-"You don't have to be sorry about that, captain. At this moment there are not many air operations that require this base in the following days, and any flight that required to land here can be diverted to other nearby bases, or in due time, to Taipei if necessary."-

-"Well, that's good to know that, General Kuang."-

-"I am going to repeat what I said previously,"- The Taiwanese military officer assured to his Japanese guest. -"you don't have to worry about things that may happen sooner or later, Captain."-

-"Thank you, sir."-

-"You're very welcome, Captain Katagiri."- The man smiled, something that Katagiri found it a bit strange, considering the situation she was in. -"Now to put aside this whole issue with the air fortress, I just want to know one thing: I forgot to ask at the base about the name of your aircraft, so I would like to know the name of your ship, if you would, captain."-

The woman was surprised to hear that the man wanted to know the name of the air fortress of which she was the captain.

-"The name of the ship you mean, general?"-

-"Yeah."-

That question seemed a little awkward for that woman, for reasons the Taiwanese soldier could not guess on his own...

-"Uhhh... well..."- Katagiri tried to find a way to avoid answering such question, without success. -"I just hope you won't make fun of me if I tell you the name of this air fortress."-

-"And why should I?"- The Taiwanese man was puzzled with the answer of that Japanese woman. -"Did they call it with a funny, ridiculous name, or what?"-

-"Ehhh..."- The captain of the aforementioned fortress replied with extreme unease to her host. -"Something like that."-

-"And so, what is the name of your ship, Captain Katagiri?"-

After a rather uncomfortable pause made by her, the young Japanese woman uttered in a very low voice the name of the air fortress she commanded.

-"Ayako."-

That soldier looked at his counterpart with utter disbelief when he heard that powerful aircraft, whose primary function was to rain down tons of lead and destruction upon its enemies, not only had an incredibly simple and feminine name like Ayako, but that ship shared the same name with the captain who commanded it.

-"Forgive my incredulity about this, Captain Katagiri, but did you say the name of your airship is Ayako?"-

-"That's right."- Ayako Katagiri responded with embarrassment about the name of the air fortress under her command. -"I know it sounds hard for you to believe, but that's the name they gave to this thing in my country, and they thought it would be a good idea if a ship called Ayako was captained by a woman of the same name. I want to emphasize that the JSDAF had already decided on the name of the fortress before I was assigned to it, so I have nothing to do with this aircraft having the same name as mine. You could say that this was a very bad joke from my superiors who did on my expense, to my personal misfortune."-

The Taiwanese soldier could only scratch his head when he learned why the Japanese government would give such a war machine a very feminine name.

-"But still, I can't believe they named that aircraft after you, captain. At least I was hoping they'd use some classic name from the past, like Yamato, Musashi, or at least a nice, harmless name like Shimakaze."-

-"I thought the same thing as you, general, and I let them know the moment I received the ship's captaincy."- The woman confirmed what the general thought about the name of the air fortress. -"But they thought those kinds of names were already too old-fashioned, at least for an aircraft, and they decided on more common and modern names. To be honest, in countries like the U.S. they use common names for planes, although that's no consolation for me at all."-

-"Well, I guess I sympathize with you, captain."-

-"Tell me about it, sir."- Katagiri rolled her eyes. -"If you knew all the ridicule I've received for this..."

Seeing that the subject was becoming very uncomfortable for that woman, the military officer decided to change the focus of the conversation.

-"And what are you and your crew are going to do now that you're here in Taiwan?"-

-"I think the most logical thing would be to stay here at the base and see that the repairs on the Ayako are properly done, that's the least I can do, being the captain of the aircraft after all."- Captain Katagiri then addressed General Kuang directly. -"I only ask you to speak with your government to avoid some political problem that may affect you or us, and that we hope to return to Japan as soon as the aircraft is ready to fly."-

-"Don't worry about political matters, Captain, I will deal with those personally on my side, although I think the government will be reasonable enough to understand that the reasons why your aircraft is stranded here in Kaohsiung are of the technical type."-

-"Thank you very much, general."- The Japanese military woman said.

May 2nd, AD 2306, Shōrinjiryū Kenkōkan Karate Dojo, Tomimura City, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, 12:15 PM

-"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH"-

The violent crackling of very thick wooden planks was heard all over the dojo, while a boy of about 6 years old was in front of them, being the one who had smashed them with a powerful sharp blow towards them.

Behind the child's back was a middle-aged man, who was apparently the boy's mentor, and who applauded vigorously for the feat the boy had accomplished, something that even some adults who were also in the dojo soon noticed.

-"Well done, Keita."- The man said at the boy. -"Breaking all those boards in one single strike is something that not everyone can do, even adults stronger than you. Even I took some time to do the same thing until I was 10 years old, and you made it by only being six."-

The boy, Keita Tachibana, was quick to thank his mentor for the compliment.

-"Thank you very much, Sato-sensei."- The boy replied at the adult. -"But I wouldn't have done this without your help."-

-"Heh, heh! As always, you're very modest, Keita."- The mentor couldn't help but laugh a little when he saw that boy's humility regarding the fact that he had broken several wooden planks with one blow.

-"I'm not as modest as you think, sensei. I'm simply polite."-

-"Well, you're right on that one."-

-"By the way, sensei, where's my sister?"-

-"You mean Yumi?"- Sato-sensei said at the kid. -"She's in the other room of the dojo, meditating alone, so you better not bother her, little champ."-

-"I wouldn't do something like that."-

-"I know, but I'm just warning you."-

-"OK."-

Indeed, and with respect to that girl, Yumi Tachibana, Keita's twin sister, was in a separate room of the dojo, meditating alone in that place. The reason why she was doing those meditation exercises was to give her more peace of mind before practicing her katas, without having to worry about other things that might cross through her mind.

The little girl had been meditating for about an hour, while her brother had already done the same, but it only took him half an hour on doing the same, while she had not left that room since they both arrived at Sato-sensei's dojo.

-"I wonder why that girl hasn't left the meditation room yet, since she's been in there for an hour."-

That question crossed the mind of Takafumi Sato, the martial arts mentor of the Shōrinjiryū Kenkōkan Karate Dojo, when he saw that that elementary school girl was still in her meditation without leaving it under any circumstances. Under normal conditions, a person who is meditating for so long would not be so strange, but being Yumi a 6 year old girl who had only been going to elementary school for a short time since she and her brother Keita left kindergarten, for that girl to continue meditating deeply at such a young age was something that man, as the mentor and legal guardian of those children, had to take into account.

-"Maybe it wouldn't hurt to check out what that little girl is doing."-

What that man didn't know was that something was going on inside that little girl's head that was disturbing her in a way that no one could understand...

?

-"Where am I?"-

Yumi Tachibana asked herself, as she stood in what appeared to be a completely dark place, where there was absolutely nothing but the ground she was standing on, and even that was also black. To say that there was nothing would be an exaggeration for her, since there was neither light, nor solid floor, nor the sun, or the clouds, or even the blue color of the sky. It was an absolute darkness, a darkness that girl had never experienced in her life, and when she saw that there was no one near her except herself, she began to ask for help.

-"Sensei?, Keita? Where is everyone?!"-

She repeated those words several times, but her voice did not even reflect any kind of echo, causing her voice to reflect in her head, causing her to gradually begin to panic at the sight of no one coming for her help.

-"I'm so scared. Where am I? I want to get out of here."-

And when everything seemed lost for that child, and before the panic began to dominate her body and she entered into tears, a flash of light suddenly appeared, and as if it were the blaze of an exploding star, it covered her entire body, surprising that girl who was looking for a way out of that bizarre place.

-"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!"-

Yumi covered her eyes with both arms as the blaze of light covered her body, believing that something bad would happen to her, and when the light enveloped her completely, she screamed loudly, thinking that it would be the end of her...

...but when she opened her eyes, the Japanese girl realized that the place where she was now was completely different from the one she was in a few minutes ago.

-"Where am I now?"-

Unlike the dark place where she was originally, that place was an open field, where there was light, solid ground, sky and sun. Normally, knowing that she was now in an ordinary place would be a reason for her to be happy, if not for a small problem...

...And that little problem was that she was in what appeared to be a completely destroyed city.

-"What is going on here?!"- The girl screamed in terror. -"Where is the dojo, Sato-sensei, my big brother and everybody else?"-

All that little girl from Okinawa saw around her were destroyed buildings, cars shattered everywhere, streets filled with holes, and among other unpleasant things that Yumi saw as she walked through the city. But in spite of everything she's seeing at the time, the girl noticed something unusually strange about everything she was watching in that city, and the first thing she noticed is that there wasn't a single person around in that whole city, nor she even had ever seen, despite the level of destruction that city had suffered, any single corpse on the ground, or anywhere else for that matter.

All this made Yumi ask the following question: Had something happened in Tomimura, and she and all the people around her, including her brother, had died? And if that was the case, did that mean she was in the netherworld? Even if she and her brother were not particularly religious, with the exception of her grandfather Ichiro, who was a Shintoist, the knowledge that she might be dead and that she was possibly somewhere in the afterlife, probably waiting to receive her final judgment, was something that began to haunt that unfortunate girl.

But she began to carefully analyze things, judging by what she was seeing around her at the time:

-"This doesn't look like Tomimura at all, it looks like I'm in another city."-

Certainly, Yumi, who had lived in that city for as long as she could remember, quickly realized that the destroyed city she was in at the time was nothing like Tomimura, or any Japanese city, as far as she was aware.

-"Am I in a foreign country?"-

The possibility that Yumi could be outside of Japan was quite evident, since the architecture of the buildings seemed to be very Western, very different from the architecture that she knew in her native Japan, in addition to the signs that she saw around her were in another language, and the streets were bigger than the Japanese streets she knew.

But there was something else that worried that girl even more when she tried to read the text on the signs of the buildings around her: The text written on them was in a language that she could not understand, because it was not written in either Japanese or English, nor did it seem to be a text that she could recognize as an earthly language.

Seeing all that, and considering the strange architecture, signs, street design and language she saw around her, Yumi Tachibana drew only one conclusion:

-"Oh, god, did I get to be on another planet?"-

There was no other logical explanation for all that she was watching at before her eyes. The fact that she could be in another world far away from hers was a very real possibility, because after all, if she had been dead and that was the afterlife, where were all the other people, whether it was her acquaintances and family like her brother Keita and her grandfather, and why was she in what seemed to be a destroyed city? Unless this was hell, there was no other explanation why she was the only person who was in that strange and scary city.

And the only thing she could do was the most logical thing anyone would do in those circumstances:

-"HELLO? IS ANYONE HERE?"-

The only thing she heard was the sound of her voice echoing through the place where Yumi was.

-"HELLOOOOOOOO? IS ANYONE HERE? I NEED HELP, PLEASE!"-

Despite her attempts to call for help, no one seemed to respond to the girl's cries, although it was only logical that someone would respond, even if someone was out there, whether it was survivors or any member of the law enforcement or relief services that were out there helping the victims of the tragedy that struck that alien city.

But as much as she walked, she could not find anyone at all, and when we mean anyone, it is precisely that she had not found a single soul, not even dead bodies or any wounded ones that might still be there.

-"Why isn't anyone around? Where did everyone go in this town?"-

Seeing that no one was responding to her calls for help, a terrible possibility began to cross Yumi's mind and she began to consider it right away: That city might have been abandoned for years, and all its residents either escaped from it or died.

And seeing that she was the only person in that unknown, destroyed alien city and very likely outside her own planet, Yumi sat down on the hard floor and began to cry...

-"sob sob Keita... Sato-sensei... Grandpa Ichiro... sob Ms. Tanimura... sob sob please... help me... I want to return home... sob"-

But at that moment, when the girl was crying for her family in that desolate place unknown to her, Yumi heard what seemed to be several voices coming from the south of where that Japanese girl was...

-"Where are those voices coming from?"-

Yumi couldn't recognize what those voices were saying, because of the number of them, but she quickly deduced that they weren't coming from very far away from where she was, so she decided to stop crying, and find help if she could find someone who could tell her where she was.

Due to the nervousness caused by finding herself in that unknown place, Yumi did not realize until moments later that there were some strange things about that place that seemed to be located in another world unknown to her: The first and most important thing was that, even though she was barefoot and still wearing her karate-gi, she did not feel any discomfort in her feet, even though she was walking on rough ground, and in some cases, she was walking on rubble, garbage, and even glass or sharp materials, which could have hurt her at any time, but she did not feel anything that could cause her any pain, as if she was walking on foam or some soft material. Furthermore, despite having few clothes on her, as mentioned above, she felt neither cold nor hot, as if the temperature of that place was the same as when she was in the dojo before all that happened.

But in those moments, none of that mattered to her, and what mattered most was finding help to find a way out of that nightmare-inducing city.

And after walking for a few minutes down south, she saw what appeared to be a very large tent in the middle of the city, and where a large number of people were gathered around it, as if these people were there for some reason.

Were these people survivors of whatever might have happened in that city and were they also seeking help, just like Yumi?

-"I'm going to ask for help at that place, maybe someone will know where I am now."-

With no more time to lose, the girl from Okinawa arrived at the tent, where all those people were gathered, and went to ask for help from someone who could hear her.

-"Excuse me, I don't know where I am, can someone tell me where..."-

But before she could finish saying anything, Yumi noticed something incredibly unusual about the people in that place, and it was something that began to terrify her even more than the poor girl already was.

-"WHO ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE?"-

The first thing she noticed about those people was that none of them had a face or any personal detail that could immediately identify them; they were just like some kind of dark silhouettes that didn't allow her to know exactly what kind of people they were.

The second thing that Yumi also noticed was that these people spoke a language that she did not understand at all. It wasn't Japanese, nor was it English, much less the Okinawan language, although its tone had a certain resemblance to Japanese, but it was nothing she could comprehend in the slightest. And it couldn't be Korean, Tagalog or much less Chinese or Cantonese either, that was for sure.

And the third and most frightening thing of all was that none of those people seemed human, and rather these persons had the appearance of humanoid-shaped animals.

After seeing all that before her eyes, Yumi backed away terrified after what she saw, and she ran from that place as quickly as she could.

-"SOMEBODY HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I DON'T WANT TO BE IN THIS PLACE!"-

But before she ran, she seemed to have hit something or someone on her way out, which caused her to fall to the ground.

-"OUCH!"-

-"Oops! Sorry!"- The voice, which seemed to be that of a young person, apologized to the girl, though from his tone of deference, it was evident that he was trying to talk to an adult person, and not to her directly. -"I didn't notice where you were walking, ma'am, I didn't mean to bump into you."-

Far from trying to apologize or reply to anything said by that person, Yumi was surprised to see that person in that strange place and most likely out of her world could speak Japanese perfectly.

-"Excuse me, but can you speak Japanese?"-

That strange silhouette, which was that of a child about the same age as Yumi, although a little taller, seemed to ignore that girl from Earth, and instead it seemed that the child was going to speak to someone else, whose voice she also heard.

-"What happened? You looked like you were talking to someone else."-

The voice, which seemed to be that of an old man or a senior citizen, and like that child, also spoke in Japanese, asked that young man about what had happened, something that also surprised Yumi. The boy replied to the man in the same language, although with a somewhat puzzled tone.

-"I don't know, Grandfather. I thought I walked into someone, but I didn't see anyone else in front of me."-

-"Aren't you imagining things?"-

-"No, I'm sure I bump into something or someone, but I don't see anyone or anything else."-

There were two things that intrigued her about those two people, and which were too familiar to that Japanese girl, perhaps too well-known for her own good: The first was that those two silhouettes, that of a child and that of the old man, were the same ones she had seen when Yumi and her twin brother Keita were playing last year near her house in the Tomimura hills, and where she felt a sense of terror that she had never felt in her life regarding those two people.

The second and most important thing was that these two silhouettes were in the shape of humanoid cats, the same ones she saw that time in those hills.

-"Are you two...?"-

And while she was trying to talk to the silhouettes, a concert of voices was suddenly heard throughout the city without any warning, interrupting her attempt to communicate with the alien family, and even though those voices had different tones, they all said the same thing:

Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...Yumi...

And at the moment of hearing those voices, everything or that surrounded her at that moment dissolved as if it were an oil paint wet with water, and then everything returned to a state where there was nothing, and seconds later, a flash of light came back to surround the girl once again...

May 2nd, AD 2306, Shōrinjiryū Kenkōkan Karate Dojo (Infirmary), Tomimura City, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, 01:45 PM

When Yumi Tachibana managed to open her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that she was no longer in the dojo's meditation room, but in the infirmary of the same place, while she had a bag of serum hanging over her head that supplied the liquid by intravenous injection in her arm.

-"Where am I now? Why am I in the infirmary?"-

That was the first thing that girl said as soon as she woke up from that dream she had, but what Yumi did not expect was to end up in the infirmary's bed.

-"What happened to me? Why am I here?"-

Suddenly, a female voice was heard in that place, calling the attention of that bed-ridden girl...

-"Doctor, the patient is awake, she seems to be fully conscious."-

-"Let me check, please."-

That doctor was Dr. Shozo Imagawa, who was the head doctor of the dojo, who was in charge of treating the injuries that the students suffered during the martial arts training exercises done in that place. Since the dojo was quite large, the school could afford to have its own infirmary inside the building, which allowed it to deal with any emergencies that occurred there.

-"Are you OK, Yumi?"- The doctor said at the child. -"You were unconscious for quite a while."-

The girl was still trying to figure out why she was in the infirmary when she was somewhere else before, especially after she had that nightmare.

-"What happened to me, and why am I in bed?"-

-"It seems you had some serious problem in the dojo's meditation room,"- Dr. Imagawa said at the girl. -"and your sensei brought you here to the infirmary, along with your brother."-

As for Sato-sensei and Keita, the latter two entered the infirmary to see how the former's student and the latter's twin sister were coping with the whole thing. Obviously, both were incredibly worried about Yumi after what happened and they wanted to talk to her as soon as possible.

-"Yumi, thank god you're OK,"- The martial arts mentor said at the child, very happy to see his student was fine. -"I almost thought you were going to die any minute."-

Keita, on the other hand, took her twin sister's hand, and smiled to see that she was now conscious again.

-"Big bro, please tell me what happened me..."-

-"It's all over now, Yumi,"- The boy tried to cheer his sister up, while she wondered what exactly had happened to her to warrant ending up in a hospital bed. -"Grandpa Ichiro will come to the dojo right away, you just rest and try not to move too much, okay?"-

-"I guess I have no choice but to do that."- Then, the girl asked again the same questions she did previously. -"But what happened, Keita? Why is no one telling me a thing?"-

-"As soon as Grandpa comes we'll tell you what happened, so try to rest for a while."-

Obviously, that evasion from her own brother only caused the girl to become considerably upset, as she did not understand the reason why she was in the infirmary and why everyone was so worried about her.

Did it have anything to do with the nightmare she had had? As she tried to remember something that had happened inside her head, the only thing she could feel was a terrible headache no matter how hard she tried to remember all the details of that nightmare.

Half an hour after Yumi regained consciousness, Ichiro Tachibana, the twins' grandfather, rushed to the dojo from a taxi, trying to find out what had happened to his granddaughter.

-"What the hell happened to my granddaughter Yumi?!"- The old man yelled at the doctor, who welcomed him into the dojo lobby, trying to demand an explanation of the girl's condition. -"I only know that Sato-sensei told me that she had had an epileptic seizure, and that she was unconscious."

-"Please calm down, Mr. Tachibana. Your granddaughter is fine and she's out of danger."- Dr. Imagawa said at the old man Ichiro, who was still scared like never before about what could happened to Yumi. -"It seems she only lost consciousness for a few minutes, and nothing else. We haven't detected anything out of the ordinary other than that."-

-"Then how did she lose consciousness, heh?"- The man kept asking questions about the event that caused Yumi to lose consciousness for a while. -"Was she knocked out in one of the classes?"-

-"To be completely honest, sir, this is the first time in my entire career as a doctor that I've met someone who ended up in the hospital for meditating for a few minutes"-

-"Meditating, you say?!"-

-"Yes, that's right, believe it or not."- The doctor said at the man, who was still incredulous. -"I know this may sound very bizarre, even to me, but I'm also surprised by what happened to your granddaughter as well, Mr. Tachibana."-

-"In fact,"- Sato-sensei also added his own explication to the elder Tachibana. -"I was the one who brought Yumi to the infirmary as soon as I saw that she started seizing."-

The old man, incredulous to hear that his granddaughter Yumi could have lost consciousness for no apparent reason, took Takafumi Sato from the neck of his karate-gi, and brought Sato-sensei's face close to his furiously.

-"DO YOU THINK I'M GOING TO BELIEVE SUCH BULLSHIT, YOU SICK BASTARD?!"- Ichiro Tachibana screamed at the mentor's face with all his might. -"Couldn't it be that you tried to abuse that girl?"-

-"WHAT?!"-

Sato-sensei was in shock to know that this old man was implying that he had tried to abuse Yumi in some way and that was why she ended up unconscious. Obviously, that man tried to deny such groundless accusations.

-"For god's sake, Mr. Tachibana, please calm down!"-

Keita, Ichiro's grandson, also tried to defend his mentor from the wrath of his grandfather, who was willing to beat him to a pulp at any time.

-"Please, Grandpa, stop this nonsense!" Sato-sensei did absolutely nothing to Yumi at any time, and in fact I saw what happened to her in the dojo too!"-

-"It's true, sir, and if you don't believe me, all my students came with me to help me bring the girl to the infirmary as soon as she started having a seizure! In addition, Dr. Imagawa and the entire medical staff at the infirmary are witnesses and have proof that I did nothing wrong to your granddaughter. And if you want further proof, talk to the Net to back up my words!"-

As the old man saw all the students of the dojo who were close to their sensei and who had also accompanied that man to bring Yumi to the infirmary, and after hearing his grandson Keita confirm the words of his mentor, Ichiro Tachibana let the karateka off and stepped back a few feet, visibly ashamed of what he had done a few moments ago.

-"Oh, no, no, no, no..."- The old man said in shame. -"I'm so... I'm so sorry for all this... I'm really sorry, goddammit..."-

Sato-sensei tried not to make a big deal out of it and also tried to calm that old man, who was still scared by what happened to his granddaughter, and who had every reason to be...

-"That's okay, don't worry, I'm not angry with you, Mr. Tachibana, I know better than anyone how valuable your grandchildren are to you, and that's why I tried to help Yumi when I saw she was in trouble."-

There was a brief pause after the karate master decided not to take things any further, and then the elderly Tachibana also replied.

-"You know very well that Keita and Yumi are my only family left after their parents died in a space accident, and I don't want to lose anyone else. That's why I was angry about it, and I'm very sorry that you have to suffer the consequences, Sato-sensei."-

-"Yes, I understand perfectly, and I think if I were in your shoes I would act the same way, I think."-

Dr. Imagawa decided to interrupt the conversation between the two men in order to discuss Yumi Tachibana's condition.

-"Ehem... Well, now that you two have made up, I'm going to continue the discussion regarding your granddaughter, Mr. Tachibana."- Then, the doctor explained what he saw about the girl. -"As Sato-sensei mentioned earlier, he brought your granddaughter in unconscious state after suffering what appeared to be an epileptic seizure during a meditation exercise, something that is completely unusual in the annals of modern medicine. According to the check I performed with the help of the computers in the infirmary and with the sensors, as well with the Net's help, I found absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in Yumi, which includes past or present head injuries or internal damage. It should be noted that your granddaughter has rarely stepped foot in this infirmary for anything more serious than a few cuts or bruises, and that she has not required anything more elaborate than a little alcohol, bandages or muscle-pain creams."-

-"I'd also like to add one thing, Dr. Imagawa: Both Keita and Yumi did their meditation exercises at the same time, but your grandson finished his early without any problems, while Yumi was a little late, and while he was practicing, I went to see what was going on with your granddaughter in the meditation room, and that's when I saw that she was convulsing. Immediately afterwards, I, your grandson and my students went to take the girl to the infirmary, and here we are in this whole mess, Mr. Tachibana."-

-"And what have you been able to find out about the cause of Yumi's seizure, doctor?"-

-"I'll be honest with you, Mr. Tachibana:"- Dr. Imagawa said at the old man in rather straightforward fashion. -"This clinic normally treats injuries related to the practice of martial arts, and that includes blows to the head and any injuries that may occur to that part of the body. Considering that your granddaughter had a seizure even though she had never received any head injuries that could have caused any kind of brain trauma, the only reason I can think of that child suffered such an event would be that she could have been born with some kind of brain disorder that causes those seizures, or in the worst case, that she has some kind of brain tumor. Unfortunately, we don't have the right equipment to treat such problems at that level, so I recommend that you go to your hospital and have a neurologist see her."-

The thought that Yumi might suffer from epilepsy for genetic reasons or even because of a tumor was enough to scare that girl's grandfather, for he did not want to believe that her problem could be more serious than it seemed.

-"I can't believe or even conceive that my little girl has a horrible tumor in her head, or that she has a genetic problem, doctor!"- Ichiro Tachibana retorted loudly at the doctor about such grim possibility. -"As far as I know about my own family and my late son's in-laws, they have never had any genetic problems of any consideration, and that includes epilepsy and cancer. In fact, my son and his wife had genetic tests done before they had children precisely to avoid a situation like this."-

-"That's right, but you must remember that those genetic tests always have a chance that they may not always detect any type of genetic defect, no matter how advanced they are. There is a possibility that some defective gene that causes epilepsy from some distant ancestor of both your grandchildren's families may have seeped into your granddaughter's genetic material during pregnancy."-

-"That's absurd!"- The old man questioned such idea, due to a very visible reason. -"Then why doesn't Keita have and never have had the same problem as his sister, huh? Remember, they're both twins, in case you haven't noticed that."-

-"I know that, sir, but remember that both children are twins of different sexes, and each has its own genetic code, which means that while Keita may have been born without genetic issues, that does not mean that your granddaughter Yumi does not have them as well."

The old man remained silent in the face of the doctor's explanations about Yumi, and did not know what else to say to deny any problem she might be suffering from at that time.

-"I strongly recommend that you should take your daughter to a neurologist, that's the least I can recommend to you, Mr. Tachibana."- The doctor warned the twins' grandfather in order to settle the matter for good. -"I think they can give you a better diagnosis than I can give you here."-

-"Damn..."- Ichiro Tachibana cursed his luck. -"I guess it can't be helped, right?"-

-"For the moment, I think it would be best if you leave your granddaughter here for a few hours so that she can be observed in case we notice anything else that we haven't accounted for."-

-"I understand, doctor."- The old man responded resignedly to the medicine, while he considered the possibility that Yumi might have some kind of condition that no one in the family had ever had before. -"Do what you have to do."

-"I'm glad you understood that, sir."- Dr. Imagawa said at the old man. -"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to leave so I can see your granddaughter and see how she's doing. If you wish, you can stay here with Keita to accompany her and take her home as soon as she is discharged."-

After the discussion was over, Dr. Imagawa went straight to the bed where Yumi was and looked at her current condition. Meanwhile, Ichiro Tachibana and his grandson Keita decided to stay in the dojo lobby to wait for Yumi to be discharged and take her home; at that moment, the old man put his hands on his face, completely disheartened to learn that his granddaughter might have some kind of brain trauma that had caused that epileptic seizure. On the other hand, Keita tried to ask his grandfather some questions about his sister Yumi and what would happen to her next, and how that would change things for the whole family.

-"What's going to happen to Yumi, Grandpa?"-

-"I don't know a damn thing, Keita..."- The old fisherman responded to his grandson frankly and straightforwardly, seeing how the family situation had changed overnight, and how he didn't know what would happen if Yumi really had a serious and potentially life-threatening medical condition. -"...and right now I wish this was just a really big, nasty nightmare I wanted to wake up from."-

His grandfather's harsh words made the boy understand that his sister's situation was more serious than everyone thought, which caused him to feel sad and shed some tears knowing that his sister might be in danger.

-"sniff... Yumi's going to die, right, Grandpa?"-

-"I don't know, Keita, I really don't know yet. All we can do is trust god and the doctors that this is just a scare and nothing more. And it would be best for us not to tell your sister any of this until we are sure of what she really has in her head, because we would only scare her more than she is likely to be right now."-

-"I guess you're right, Grandpa."-

And the last thing Keita did at that moment was to hug his grandfather as hard as he could, while he was crying his eyes out in the lap of that man, who was also crying for his granddaughter and what could be happening to her at that moment, thinking that another tragedy could be happening within the Tachibana family, especially after having suffered the death of his son Masato and his daughter-in-law Kyoko in that space accident years ago when both children were still babies.

-"Everything will be fine, Keita, and I will see to it that none of this ever happens again as long as I live, you can be sure of that, my dear boy."

What that man and his grandson did not know was that the reality was more complicated than both had ever suspected in their lives.

END OF ACT XV