Age of Ouran

Chapter 1

 Chapter 1

The world was made of ever-changing rules, and all of them had to be followed. Haruhi Fujioka knew that as long as she toed the line, jumped on cue, kept her head down and stayed alert she would be fine. Her father was careful too, but he was the breadwinner for most of the year, and unfortunately his range of abilities fell in the shady side of the many lines of the law. Depending on what the morning tweets relayed to the Fujiokas’ handcells, Haruhi’s daddy would stay home and she would sneak food home from her school rations, risking a black mark on her pristine file, or he would done his make-up and silky skirt and head into the red district.

Haruhi knew that she hadn’t been caught with food in her pockets because of her teacher’s leniency, and for that she was immensely grateful, and tried to help them back in her own way tutoring other students and trying her best to raise the average note of her high school, which would in turn attract more money for teaching resources and, hopefully, less attention from the all-seeking eyes of the Inlaws.

She had barely fallen asleep when they fetched her, a-knocking down her door in the middle of the night and stampeding into their studio flat. A beam of pure white light blinded Haruhi as soon as she opened her eyes, just as it was designed to do, leaving her disconcerted and flailing just as she was supposed to do. She knew that she would not see anything for hours, and that her eyes would sting for weeks to come.

“This is an arrest notice for Ryoji “Ranka” Fujioka,” announced the Inlaw bot with its soothing stereophonic voice. It was designed to bounce against the walls, covering any other sound, impossible to fix in one spot. Haruhi wrapped herself tightly with the sheet, and covered her head with the pillow. She was unable to do anything except try to protect her brain in case the Inlaws “mistook” her for Ranka. “Mr. Fujioka, you have violated decree 84-2001 section P. You will not be harmed. Release all weapons and put your hands up,”

Silence followed, with only Haruhi’s heartbeat in her chest and her breath caught in her throat.

Then her pillow was pulled up and her long hair caught in an iron grip that forced her to stand up.

“Identification Number and name, citizen!” the voice was female, but the strength wasn’t.

“207 23 314, Fujioka, Haruhi!”

“Are you related to Ryoji Fujioka?” asked the Inlaw.

“Of course she is related, piece of crap. The file said that he lived with his daughter,”

“Officer Kosaka, by insulting an Inlaw you are breaking ruling number 65,”

“Deal with it. So, tell me, pretty thing, where is your daddy?”

Haruhi felt the grip relax and she stayed up. She felt the cold wind blowing from the open door into the apartment. “I don’t know. I have not seen him since last night,”

“Interesting,” said officer Kosaka. “If I believed you, I would have to ask you where did he go,”

“I don’t know. To work,”

“And where does he work?”

Haruhi bit her tongue. If they were looking for her father because he had committed an infraction, they already knew his approximate location of the past year. They knew perfectly well where he worked. If she admitted to it, she would be acknowledging that she was conscious of his unorthodox activities and that she had not reported him. If she lied, it would be even worse.

“Out in the Red district,” she said, deciding that half-truth was the best policy in this case. She tried to look earnest, but she didn’t know where to look, so she settled on scared, which wasn’t too far from the truth. “We follow the news every day, we try to avoid breaking the law. I’m sure that whatever he did was an accident, that he didn’t mean it,”