Re-Imagine

Chapter 3

It was the first time Hayo had stepped foot into the heart of Oasis. His new apartment was near the center of the Capital, the Imperial Army near the edges. On the ground floor, people were already streaming in and out of the building, and Hayo moved with them. 10 million people living in the Capital, and he was one of them, just another face in the early morning commute.

The city scape was a jumble of shapes, as if a child had cast blocks down randomly, and then swept them together so close they touched. There were rectangles, domes and triangles, jotting out high in the sky, as if trying to frame the sun. It all intertwined together in a magnificent mess of dreams. As Hayo justled through the crowd, he could only help but notice how unapologetically urban it all was. 

Monoliths of concrete soaring out of the sidewalk in a exact grid pattern, and there were roads so narrow that they were frequently blocked by trucks brining in wares. Hayo could only feel how insignificant he had finally become in this bustling supercity. Sunlight seeped between the buildings, and there was a lovely contrast between the invulnerable concrete and steel creations, and the beautiful blue-tinted glass sculptures. At night, the lights dotted around the grid of grey evoked a majestic, vast feel, but in the day, Hayo relied on the sky to remind him that this was not just a monochromatic world: just one where the people had no time for art.

He edged his way through a narrow pathway, so thin that only two skinny people could pass through at the same time, and looked around at the maze of looming architecture. As he moved further away from the business and work side of the city, the number of citizens began to die down and for one dazzling moment, Hayo imagined himself at the end of a precipice. Calming. He could finally breathe. Hayo missed the feeling of a city. For years, he had been kept in solitude. Looked after in a village with a population of none less than 60. A precipice. The end of one world. And the start of another, a new beginning for Hayo. A new beginning to make things right, to finally enjoy the rest of his life in the capital. He wanted to stay in the moment of bliss for a long time, but was interrupted with the alarm of his watch.

***

Hayo turned to face the sun, savoring the specks of summer light that escaped from the tiny gaps between buildings. He pressed his watch, and a hologram map of Oasis shone before him. He had to cut right into a small alleyway and pass through the small wasteland of V-county.

V-county wasn't a ghost town, in fact it was very lively. It was only called a wasteland because it was affected most during the war against the angels, and because of this, where the monsters usually attacked. It was teeming with guards and army members to keep the citizens in the county safe. Most of the buildings were scorched, and the roads were covered in rubble and decaying matter. Hayo thought he saw the top of a skyscraper a few yards ahead, that looked like a whole chunk of it had been bitten off, and the smoke that was still emanating from it. V-county still looked like a ravaged corpse, but it was rebuilding. Hayo made his way down cracked sidewalks, buildings with boarded windows and peeling paint and houses with the tangle of moss and fungi spreading over the roof, like butter on bread.

At the end of the of V-county, he blended back in with the bustling crowd, who decided that it would be safer to take the longer route around V-county than travel through it. Walking straight, and then turning to another right, Hayo reached his destination. The Japanese Imperial Army headquarters lay ahead. But everywhere he looked, there were no high ranked Army officers or Imperial Army guards. Just teenagers. Boys and girls walking through the gates, or sitting in the grass. These were the new graduates like him. And they were all here, waiting to be finally enlisted into a new team to help serve the Capital. 

Hayo scanned the horizon and searched for any people that looked good enough for his team, but that thought seemed to be in the back of everyone's mind. It seemed like nobody actually cared who they were going to be put with in the same group, the people that Hayo would have to be stuck with for the rest of his life as an army officer.

They were all too busy chatting, bumping elbows or relaxing in the blazing sun. Broad grins, joyful laughter and the latest gossip was what Hayo heard as he stepped past the gate and as he tread along the short-cut grass. Hayo squeezed past the jutting legs and lying bodies, until he broke apart, and lay on the last space available on the lush, sweet grass. He watched as the wispy clouds danced before him and Hayo was soon lost in the vast blue of the sky.

Before a shadow obstructed his gaze.

"What you looking at? A baby unicorn?" A couple of people snickered behind him. Hayo hadn't encountered many people before, but even he knew that this wasn't a friendly gesture, but a hostile one. Immediately Hayo picked himself up and stared at the boy.

The boy's face was asymmetrical, a cause probably because he had scrunched up his face countless times in front of the people he had bullied. He had square, black eyes and a sharp, jotting nose that was plastered to his tiny face, with the bridge situated on the same level as his eyes that were already too close together. He carried a black tattoo on his right cheek, maybe a tribal symbol, but it looked more like an upside down A.

A for ass.

"Lost for words?" he mocked again.

"What's your problem?" Hayo answered.

He felt himself being lifted up by the scruff of his Army uniform, and rammed against a nearby wall. Hayo stared at the boy's ugly face, wanting to punch the boy in the face, but swallowed back his temptation, deciding that it was more important to make a good first impression in front of the Army.

"Trying to look all fancy with your new clothes, sitting on the grass when only the upper years like us are allowed!"

"You newbies are all too big for your boots! I'll show you all what happens when you think that you can stand up to us!"

The boy yanked Hayo down to the ground with the force of a buffalo, making his legs shake as he hit the floor, and brought his fist back, smiling, smug as a snake.

But before he could hit him, another boy grabbed his wrist.

"That's enough Touma. Just leave him alone. You've already scared him enough."

Touma's gang snorted. Touma, his smile so wide it looked like someone had cut him in half, stepped back, looking victorious.

"Oh well Riku, you can look after this punk if you adore him that much." And the group walked away, snickering.

Even though Riku helped prevent Hayo from fighting back, he couldn't help but wonder if he was truly good. He seemed to be associated with the group, and he had also made fun of him.

"Already made friends?" Riku laughed. But as he looked into Hayo's eyes, he read his mind.

"Sorry about that, I didn't mean to make fun of you, but it was the only way to make them go away." said Riku with a smile.

Hayo forced a smile back, brushed off the remaining grit and dirt off his uniform, and walked off.