The night glimmered with neon veins, veins that pulsed over the city's crust like something alive and insatiable.
Out on the main street, people went by their own lives. Buying synthetic vegetables and if their luck stretched that month—a wisp of reconstituted meat.
Real meat? That was a myth for the children who would die without ever seeing a cow. In lower Sectors even fabricated flesh was a luxury most would never taste.
Inside a narrow fracture between two towering complexes that was being used as a narrow alley, three boys in battered uniforms circled another curled-up figure, their shoes wet with alley filth and malice.
SMACK!
A heavy boot slammed into a scrawny ribcage.
"How do you like that dumbass."
Another kick slammed into the stomach of the scrawny boy, curled up on the grime-slicked pavement, his arms locked over his head in a desperate, futile turtle shell.
THAWK!
Another kick buried itself in his stomach. A third aimed for his skull, colliding with his forearms and stopped.
After that however, the three slightly muscular and gaunt looking guys stopped. Their leader crouched, a mocking smirk twisting his face.
"Now, now... Ishiki. You know very well we don't like beating you," he crooned, his voice dripping with false pity. "But you're so stubborn, you leave us no choice."
The smirk vanished, replaced by a vicious, hungry glare. "Give us the token. Before I knock you out and take it off your unconscious body."
Ishiki slowly lifted his head. His face was a mask of bruises and smeared blood But beneath the swelling, his blue eyes burned with a cold, stubborn fire.
He looked straight into the bully's black irises and grinned. "I bet your neighbor said that to your mom, too."
The bully's face turned the color of a raw brick.
"You little..."
He grabbed a fistful of Ishiki's hair, yanking his skull up to smash it against the concrete. But one of his lackey's interpreted him, glancing nervously at the slice of neon sky above.
"B...boss! let's not do that."
"Yeah, that's too far... its already been 8 minutes since the last patrol drone went by, another one will come soon."
The leader froze, his teeth grinding audibly. He lowered his gaze to look at his watch. That split second of hesitation was all Ishiki needed.
He didn't have much strength, but he had spite.
He launched a clumsy punch that connected squarely with the leader's cheekbone. It wasn't a knockout blow, but it was enough to shatter the bully's balance. He toppled backward, landing with a wet squelch into a heap of rotting garbage.
"Argh! You son of a bitch!" the boy shrieked.
Ishiki scrambled to his feet, swaying like a drunkard. "I have a gift for you as well, fat ass."
He gathered a mouthful of blood and saliva and spat it directly onto the fallen boy's face.
"Kill him! I'm going to kill him today!" the leader screamed, wiping the slime from his eyes. The two lackeys lunged forward at Ishiki who was... trembling.
'Holy shit! Why did I have to do that? Damn my mouth!'
He spun around to flee, but his legs hurt. He was done for.
"What is happening here?"
Just then a very hoarse voice resounded in the narrow alley.
Ishiki's face lit up. He didn't need to run anymore. He knew that voice... very clearly so. It was Ren, his best friend.
The three boys cursed and ran on the other side, without a word.
Ishiki slumped against the damp wall, sliding down until he hit the ground. "Thanks, Ren."
A giant of a boy squeezed into the alley. He wore the same shabby uniform, but on him, it looked like it was barely containing a siege engine. He looked down at Ishiki with a disappointed frown.
"You should have just sent me a message, you know," Ren sighed, shaking his head "I would have showed them their tiny place."
He offered a hand, pulling Ishiki up as if he weighed nothing. "But no. The scrawny bastard wants to fight."
Ishiki dusted off his bag, wincing as his ribs protested. "Maybe..."
Then Ren smiled and turned around. "I have to go somewhere, so bye. See you tomorrow at school."
Ishiki waited until he was alone, then moved deeper into the alley, taking a sharp left to exit behind the final row of tenement blocks.
As soon as he was clear, he leaned over a gutter and dry-heaved, the dull throbbing in his body turning into a sharp, biting agony.
'Damn it. I shouldn't have acted strong.'
He was weak and he knew it. Well, for the most part, everyone in the lower sectors knew it. They were the dregs after all.
He shook his head and walked to the edge where a vintage vending machine stood. It was a rusted relic, running on an operating system that had been obsolete for fifty years. Yet, miraculously, someone still stocked it.
'Someone without a life, maybe,' Ishiki thought, feeding a coin into the slot.
He didn't care about the mystery stocker. He only cared that the black coffee here was half the usual price. The machine clunked, and a dented can rolled out.
Clutching the cold metal, Ishiki walked to the seawall—a massive slab of concrete sprawling fifty meters high, the only thing separating the drowning land from the rising ocean. He sat on the lone, peeling bench.
Crack. Hiss.
He took a sip and grimaced. "Bitter as always. Some things never change."
He tilted his head back to look at the sky.
Except, there was no sky.
Where the stars should have been, there was only the underbelly of Neo-Tokyo and hundreds upon hundreds of lights and pipes.
The Floating Heaven. An artificial continent of steel and light, suspended above the earth on grav-engines and pillars. It blocked the sun, the moon, and the hope of everyone living in its shadow.
The floating heaven, or so the people called it. Every country in the world had the floating heavens now, they were artificially made countries that floated above the original landmasses.
It was humanities preparation for surviving the rising water levels... it was predicted that within another 200 hundred years, about ninety percent of the earth's original landmasses would be swallowed up by water.
Anyways, that didn't matter to Ishiki. He was not gonna live that long. What mattered was that, he had finally obtained his ticket out of this hell.
Today, the Koyo clan. One of the most influential clans of the world and the owner of Neo-Tokyo most assets had come to his school for recruitment.
They even brought the princess and... Ishiki couldn't quite stop thinking about her. She was... mesmerizing.
He closed his eyes, listening to the calm breath of the ocean... he thought of the princess. The flash of pink hair, the eyes that said I own everything you'll never touch.
Maybe he hated her or maybe he envied her, probably both.
'She gets to live in the sky while we do everything we can just to survive another month. Must be nice being born lucky.'
Ishiki had actually managed to get the token for undertaking the recruitment exam. If he would somehow pass the exam, he would be finally leaving the lower sector and work on Neo-Tokyo.
That was the dream of everyone who loved in the lower sectors. But Ishiki didn't care about that, the only thing he wanted was to look at the sky... the moon.
He had heard and read how beautiful those things were, but never had the chance to actually look at those. But at last he would be able to, while working in a factory there and make enough money to get his mom there too.
Thinking of his mother, his smile suddenly faded. He imagined, how she would straighten his collar tomorrow morning, pretending everything was fine. Smiling like the world wasn't crushing her slowly.
It really bit into his heart.
'Screw that old man. I wish he died somewhere.'
The truth was, Ishiki knew his mother was out of options. She had already pawned everything of value. Her voice, once bright and sharp, trembled with apologies now... apologies she never deserved to make.
"I hate him," Ishiki muttered into the wind. "I hate that old man."
His father had left when he was small... to work at Neo-Tokyo. But ever since he has gone there has been no reply from him...
'Probably found himself a shiny new family up there. Why bother with the wife and kid you left behind in the dirt?'
The debt he took was now their responsibility.
So yeah, Ishiki didn't want to go home. If he went home, he would have to play his part in the lie. Here, in the shadow of the wall, he could at least be honest about how much he hated everything.
A police drone swung by, the size of a cat and twice as smug. Its lens focused on him, synthetic voice crackling. "Its Dangerous to be near the wall. Please Vacate."
Ishiki sticked his tongue out. "I won't... now get the fuck away." To his surprise, the drone really went by.
'Huh? Maybe the AI budget got cut. Good for me, I guess.'
Through the gap above the large wall, and the Neo-Tokyo—Where Ishiki could see a little part of the sky.
He saw several burning objects falling down. His eyes went wide... they were like... shooting stars.
Then, the world ended.
Suddenly a huge tremor run through the ground. Ishiki almost fell to the ground, but he managed to remain sited.
'What the... an earthquake?'
Couldn't be. The alarms hadn't went on.
At that moment, Ishiki heard the sound of metal groaning, then a blast, followed by the sound of buildings falling... no, the support pillars of Neo-Tokyo groaned and slowly the whole floating city started to break down.
Massive chunks of the Floating Heaven broke loose, raining down like meteors of concrete and steel.
Ishiki's heart shuddered. "No... what is happening?"
The metallic debris of the floating island fell down and tore through everything, each one sending tremors through the ground.
It was as if the sky was falling.
Ishiki bolted back, through the narrow alley's and made it to the main street.
People flooded the streets—shouts, feet pounding on the ground as they ran here and there, the raw fear of everything breaking at once took hold of everyone.
Ishiki bolted up, dashed into the swirl. His heart was pounding like a drum. He saw the memories he didn't want to. His mother waiting for him at home with food.
His best friend, Ren lost somewhere in the chaos.
He sprinted out of the main street, dodging debris and cursing everything. Buildings on land groaned, windows exploded and people screamed like animals.
It was a chaos born from hell itself.
Ishiki shoved past two men, one of them crying. The other held a little girl to his chest.
A large metal piece fell from the sky, he rolled sideways just in time and ducked behind a fallen neon sign, breath ragged.
Surrounded by chaos, he saw the little tragedies—children crying for vanished parents, neighbors stumbling over corpses, someone's grandmother crushed beneath rubble.
He wanted to help. Wanted to scream and cry and do something.
But survival was selfish.
'I... I need to live. Hero's are dumbasses who die first.'
He trembled, his body was trembling uncontrollably. And it was not from cold, it was because of fear that had taken hold of his heart. Everything was happening so fast.
He saw an uncontrolled truck careening toward a child frozen on the road.
Ishiki clenched his fists, closed his eyes and looked the other side. 'Not my problem. Keep moving. Don't be stupid.'
But in no time found himself running towards the child. 'WHY- JUST WHYYY?!'
His heart tried to burst out... he jumped and rolled to the side grabbing the kid in his arms. They slammed into the remains of a storefront, debris cutting into Ishiki's back.
The kid was safe.
'Great. Now I'm going to die a hero. Exactly what I didn't want. Fantastic last decision, Ishiki.'
A massive metallic pillar crashed down across the street, turning a fleeing man into a red smear. Ishiki turned his head and emptied his stomach onto the pavement.
He was terrified and unable to move as he watched people die, half broken, some loosing limbs and all.
Then... In the middle of storm, the world's logic snapped.
Some people nearby flickered, like lights about to burn out. Their bodies started to dissolve into pixels until nothing was left.
He watched, frozen, as a mother reached for her son only for her hand to vanish into a cloud of light.
One by one several people disappeared. His mind went blank... "What the hell is happening."
But there was no time to contemplate such things, a the building behind him was falling. He looked up in horror and then pushed himself up, clutching the hand of the little girl he just saved.
But it was too late.
'Crap, I won't make it.'
In that moment, even when he wanted to abandon everything and run away. He pushed the girl away instead.
He felt a barrage of heavy objects fall over him, something pierced his stomach, then a huge rock fell on his head.
His vision blurred at the edges... he felt his body getting numb.
Then out of nowhere, a yellow screen appeared in front of him. It was there and at the same time it wasn't. It was like watching at a hologram in his mind.
[Congratulations. You have been chosen as a Player...]
He looked at his hands which were slowly breaking apart into light fragments and then his whole body vanished as he was pulled out of reality, leaving the ruined world behind.