The lower strata was a terrible place. Filled with neglect and surrow. Damaged cityscapes, darkened low-hanging clouds, and desperate people all inhabited the lower strata.
Creak. As Jin carefully tiptoed his way through the window of his home, he swiftly dove right into his room. He closed the window shut before turning on the lights.
His room was a nice and modest place fileld with many of his favourite things: Music band posters, guitars, and books. He scanned around. Cracks stretched up the brick walls like broken glass. He's already grown accustomed to his living conditions.
She should already be asleep now.
"Safe..." he muttered to himself, tossing up the Vassari pen device that flashbanged him earlier. He didn't know why he brought it along with him. He should've just left it with Isis.
"Interesting. Safe from who exactly?"
Jin quickly fwipped his head behind him. There sat a person he knew he couldn't avoid. His mother, Amakusa Nozomi, expression didn't waver as she looked on with disappointment towards her son.
"You're late. Again. Do you even know what time is it right now?"
"Uhhhh..."Jin awkwardly scratched the back of his neck before attempting to glance at the clock. "8:00 PM...?"
Nozomi flicked a finger to the clock—specifically the cracks on the glass. "The clock in your room is broken. It's 12:00 AM. Hear that? AM! That's midnight, Jin! What in gods name are you even doing at such an hour?!"
"It was nothing! Nothing for you to worry about, mum!"
She raised a brow, reaching out to his sleeve which was tattered and ripped, and yanked it up to eye level.
"Then explain this?" she exemplified. "You told me that you were just going to be hanging out with your friends. Does ripped clothing come with the package?"
"That was already there." His tongue clicked as Jin pulled his arm back. When he flopped on his bed, head first, it made an unintentional crunch while his body cushioned in the mattress. "It's nothing at all. Can I go to sleep now? I'm tired."
"DId you steal anything?"
At that, he tensed up.
Oh.... shit...
Seeing his reaction, Nozomi sighed before setting herself next to him. He felt the mattress lowered a little. Rain still persisted to tap on the window. With an ambiguous frown, she rested her hand over his back.
"How many times do I have to tell you that this is not okay? You're 15 now but you're still young and have a bright future ahead of yourself. You wouldn't want to get captured by the enforcers, do you? Who did you even steal from?"
Jin knew those were just fancy words. Bright future my ass, he thought. The lower strata was a crappy place to begin with. Osvain wasn't much better. The best job he could land would just be an enforcer. But he doesn't want to become like that."
"The Vassari. I didn't get caught though and Isis and I plan on selling the stuff tomorrow—"
"You WHAT?!" Nozomi exclaimed in wild shock. "Jin, this isn't a game. You know what the Vassari are capable of. You stole from someone who rules over the entire city. Do you know what that could mean for you—for us—if you got caught?! They could erase our names off the records for less than that!"
"Mum, please... enough."
Nozomi's worries stemmed not only just as a mother, but from a deeper trauma. A memory flashed before her eyes of when her husband—Jin's father—was taken away by enforcers.
That day was now 10 years ago. She didn't want her son to suffer that same fate. She couldn't let it happen.
"I'm just trying to help with our financials, is that so wrong?" asked Jin. "Besides, they won't capture me. How could they? I can do this."
With a snap of his fingers, the area around Jin swirled and distorted. The lights flickered. The rain was silent for a split second before crashing back down onto the windowpane. In an instant, he appeared standing in front of Nozomi.
"You don't see 15 year olds doing that, do you?" he retorted.
Nozomi froze.
"Jin, what did you just—?"
"Just a neat trick I picked up earlier on," he said, feigning confidence. "What do you think?"
Her voice trembled. "Jin, that wasn't a trick. That's..."
She paused. Jin wondered why she was silent for a moment. He struggled to dissect from Nozomi's expression.
A small smile replaced her features suddenly. She stood up from the bed and patted his shoulders.
"Nevermind, just get changed out of these clothes and rest. Tomorrow is a school day."
His eyes widened but then he gave a silent nod.
".....Thank you," he whispered.
Just as Nozomi left his room and went downstairs, a faint low hum interrupted her. At first, she thought it was just the wind scraping against the tin roof again—but this was deeper. Mechanical. Pulsating.
Whum..... whum.... whum...
The sound echoed through the walls.
Nozomi's expression tightened, quickly peeping her eyes out the kitchen window.
Beyond the rain-streaked glass, a blue light cut through the darkness—a searchlight, sweeping across the street. It was a drone.
"Enforcers." Her words came out quietly. "Looks like they're doing the checkup in this district now."
Her mind wandered back to her conversation with her son. Did he know this was happening? The checkup was what the enforcers do on a weekly basis, surveying the city in each district.
There always came the expected paying fee of all families who resided in it.
Money was short right now and Nozomi didn't know if she had enough. It could've been a coincidence but a nagging feeling told her that he knew.
The real question she would ask though is how he managed to know?
It plagued her mind as the night continued on silently.
***
When the next day arrived, the lower strata glistened with a thin layer of grime, light struggling to break through the smog.
Osvain education centre. It was the main school which every teenager in the city attended. Not the best kind, but it did its job in teaching studens.
It was a very tired morning for Jin—yawning much more than his usual days as he laid dead on his desk. His hair was a mess; his uniformw as barely ironed.
"Ugh, so boring...." he muttered his complaint, staring blankly at the clock above the chalkboard.
The second hand ticked louder than usual.
Riiiinnggg!
At the same time, the bell blared through the classroom, and Jin's eyes retained a small spark of light.
Recess. His salvation!
He stretched, groaning, and started shoving his books into his bag. He felt someone poke his spine. His posture straightened.
"Don't slouch. You'll ruin your back."
Jin blinked at the sight of Isis. She pulled a strand of her hair back over her ear.
"You look deader than usual. Couldn't sleep after last night~?"
"Oh shut it." Jin's hand reahed out and clawed at her head with a vice grip. "Half of it is your fault to begin with."
"Ow! Hey! Cool it! I was just teasing! Ouch!" she winced, scrambling her arms over his. "And don't act like you're the only victim. I felt like vomitting coming home after you got us out of there!"
"Keep your voice down when you talk. Do you want the whole city to know?" he riposted.
"Relax. No one cares," she said with a sly grin, pulling away from his grip. "Besides, it's not like anyone's gonna believe two kids managed to steal from a Vassari and sneak past some enforcers, right?"
He didn't answer.
Isis noticed the way he drifted to the windows, catching the sight of a drone which surveyed the area.
"Hey, you good?" she asked.
Jin hesitated but continued. "Last night, after we separated, they surveyed near my block."
Her smile faded. "You think it's because of—"
"Probably."
SIlence hung between them. The classroom buzzed with laughter and chatter, completely and utterly oblivious to the two.
Then Isis forced a grin again. "Well, if they were after us, then we wouldn't be here right now, right? So relax. We're fine."
"Yeah,"jin replied quietly. "Fine."