How High is the Sky?

- Prologue -

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Shuichi's P.O.V

An hour or two before dawn, they came into my house. Not a friend nor my parents, they had an expressionless look drawn on their face and were using a warm grey one-piece. I immediately knew; they were part of the government, and they came to do what I feared during the last 17 years of my life, take me to the selection.

...
For the last fiftieth year, humankind have been dealing with issues of overpopulation and malnutrition. There isn't enough fresh water to drink, fishes to fish, or bread to eat.

In the past, we had all of those preciousnesses in our bare hands, I wish I could have lived inside that past. While reading a forbidden old book once, I saw an image, baby blue skies and purely white clouds; a painting, it looked like the skies of heaven, I was enchanted. It appeared that this so-called skies of heaven were only the skies that the population appreciated during daytime.

Everything is dull and unsaturated nowadays, dark grey colours here and there. Nothing beautiful to see or breath taking to appreciate. My father, the ultimate Historian, was passionated by it all, he had access to copies of forbidden literature that had been originally burnt a long time ago. He handed me a copy of a book from the romance genre, most of these, the great majority had been burnt. The book showed love in a indescribably genuine way, the emotional part of it. Not just the marrying-because-it's-the-right-thing-to-do way, I felt truly awoken after it's last page, and wondering why it had been forbidden.

The world had been like that ever since the Beginning Global War. It was a war that lasted over twelve years but it wasn't only a war or something reversible. Just as the name suggests, it was a global war, the entire planet was involved. Before, according to my father, territories were separated by frontiers and they were called nations. It's hard to think that Astraea was divided in such a way. It caused revolts against nationalists groups and as they feared assimilation and acculturation, terrorist acts became more and more frequent. But it was all in vain, none of it mattered, nothing changed because the one country I live in, where peace remain alive, is Astraea.

Luckily, I've had the opportunity to appreciate the world beyond its appearance, which is a privilege that is accorded to an awfully small proportion of the population. They work at what they're destined to do for the rest of their lives, marry to have two kids or none and create a cycle out of it until their heart stops. Some don't even wait for a cycle to end, in fact a modest proportion takes their lives away.

...

The selection is a ritual that happens normally every four years. Once you're fourteen, they can come any day inside your home, it can be days after your anniversary, but also years past it.

My father went through the process when he was fifteen year old, he demonstrated an utterly knowledge for human history, only having the help of a few information or two he could build a entire scenario. Of course he was immediately accepted.
This is why he got the name of Ultimate Historian

My mother at her turn, got accepted when fourteen. She has a unique vision about the world, and the sentimental part of it. My mother is a visual artist and sort of a dreamer. She was awfully young when she got into the selection, but still managed to impress the judges by showing a part of what was inside her head on a canvas. My mother is known as the Ultimate Traditional Visual Artist

Shortly saying, they take the children and through a process called " the selection", they verify if you have a talent or anything that makes you different, special in a way, if you're approved positive things will happen to you, otherwise remains unknown, I think they're taken somewhere to learn like some sort of full-time classes. It's the process, every child had been training since their first day on earth, failing it would be worse than a living inside a nightmare.

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I just want to warn you that some changes were made about Shuichi's family and the whole scenario of the game and that I'm entirely aware of it. Plus, you may spot a mistake or two  since English isn't my first language, and if you do, I apologize.

Thanks for reading the prologue see you in the first ( actual ) chapter! :D