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The rain pattered against the cement, collecting in the worn down roadways that hadn’t been driven on in a few millennia. A few stragglers were out and about, most of which were hastily making their way through the inclement weather with their clear umbrellas bouncing above their heads. The transparent material sparkled with the drops of rain and reflected the bluish glow of the world above that bustled with music and strange, erotic laughter while filled with hovering vehicles with soundless motors that predictably followed the bottomless grid of the redeveloped city. A long time ago, nearly four centuries to be exact, many wished to be a part of that world, to live in New Tokyo created by the all-powerful Foundation, but hardly anyone could afford the opportunity when it existed, yet alone find a way to enter into the limelight now that the only access to the new world had been severely cut off.
The promise of new life, free from the burden of the sick and poor, to converge natural selection with the governing practices the Foundation held in highest honor awaited all who wanted to live with the dawning of a new age; available to those who did not want to be crushed by it. What little did the citizens of Tokyo know was that it was all a ruse. The Foundation had created the perfect illusion that made people believe they were still in control of their own fate. In the year 4151, those wealthy enough to gain access to the redesigned and reimagined New Tokyo, built above the tallest skyscrapers of Old Tokyo, had already obtained entrance into the new city, and, as a way to purge the useless trash off the Old Tokyo streets, the Foundation decided to cut off all access and resources to Old Tokyo that same day, a mere hour after its grand opening.
That day was forever dubbed Tokyo’s Darkest Day.
The Foundation disconnected all their indispensable resources, designating the original city as good as dead. Without electricity, without running water, without the proper means to run a government, and with not as much as a fraction of legal tender, the Foundation was confident it would be enough to destroy what was left of the citizens below New Tokyo. But, as history once said, life finds a way.
Almost four centuries after Tokyo’s Darkest Day, in the year 4399, all hope of reaching the city had fizzled out, dying with the previous generations. Seeing New Tokyo residing above their heads existed only as a stark reminder of what the purest form of a dictatorship looked like. It carried hate and resentment to undesirable levels, and fear – an unimaginable amount of fear. The only reason anyone wanted to find a way into New Tokyo now was to destroy it. But even then, with all the time that had passed since the great split, no one had been able to reach such a desirable feat. Or so they said.
Nanase Haruka made his way across town, drawing his overcoat tightly against his ears, his hair sopping without the covered protection of a hat or umbrella. His heart was fluttering beneath his ribcage and the rain did little in slowing him down. He was careful to watch his step, mindful of the dilapidated buildings and unfixed potholes of Old Tokyo’s ancient roadways. The last thing he wanted was pants wet to his knees for his date.
Rounding the corner, Haru dipped his head lower, avoiding the watchful eyes of the old street cameras. Though they hadn’t been used since the infamous fracture of Old Tokyo and New Tokyo, Haru was still wary of the very notion they were being watched. Even though he doubted the Foundation cared much about the inhabitants of Old Tokyo, especially after so much time had passed, it was much easier to be cautious than brash and safer to heed the warnings of the older generations. With his life and the lives of those he loved as the gambling chip, it was an easy choice to make.
Hiding in the multitude of shadows, Haru cautiously made his way down the street, hugging the old buildings for security. With the always-lit New Tokyo as the only guiding light source during the night, like the stars once seen from the ground that were always depicted in the history books, it wasn’t long before Haru arrived at the coffee shop – tastefully on time, if he could say so himself. Pushing the door open, Haru stepped inside, alerting the many patrons of his entrance. Only a few eyes wandered up; those of the workers and a peculiar set of maroon irises that belonged to none other than his date, Matsuoka Rin.
Unable to hide the small smile curling the corner of his lips, Haru stepped forward, shaking the few raindrops from his overcoat as he swiftly removed it. The flames from the burning oil pans flickered in Haru’s wake as he passed. He accidentally overheard a few lingering conversations; someone was talking about the most recent trash raid, and another was discussing the opposition of a neighboring faction expanding their territory toward the city’s limits. Nothing unusual for the time of day. Rin was beaming as Haru took a seat immediately to his right.
“I thought for a minute the storm would keep you away,” Rin mused, taking Haru’s hand and drawing him closer. Their lips touched lightly before Rin allowed Haru to adjust himself comfortably into the chair. It squeaked under his weight, worn down and rusted from the years.
“Nothing would keep me away from you,” Haru replied, his tone even. Haru’s smile and barely detectable blush coloring his cheeks a soft mauve, however, was unmistakable.
With a small nod of his head, the only server stepped forward. Having frequented the coffee shop many times now, Haru was quick to select his choice of beverage and waited for the server to bring it to him. Many years ago, before Tokyo’s Darkest Day and back when they had continuously running electricity, robots had been assigned to do the daily tasks of so many workers. Little was known at the time, but it was all part of the Foundation’s first plot to rid the city of the poorest inhabitants. By removing jobs, it removed the first obstacle to rebirth the great Tokyo Metropolis.
“Your coffee,” the older woman said, carefully depositing a mug onto the table. She put a cup and saucer, which was clearly fractured and re-glued in front of Rin before disappearing behind the bar. Haru eyed the dark liquid sloshing just beneath the rim. Steam rose into the air as he breathed in the old fashioned drink his great-great-great grandparents used to worship. Somehow after all this time, even without electricity, they still had coffee.
“I still can’t find myself able to stomach that disgusting shit,” Rin chuckled, sipping his tea. He made a peculiar face that furrowed his eyebrows before setting it down carefully. “Hot.”
Haru shook his head, bringing his own mug to his lips. It was indeed hot, surprisingly so. It must’ve just been taken off the fire. Just the way he liked it. He nursed his bitter drink slowly, heeding Rin’s warning, and when he put his mug back on the table, Rin was staring at him. His gaze drew Haru in without hesitation.
“I heard a passing rumor that a friend of a friend’s sister and her small militia has found their way into New Tokyo.”
It was as if the entire coffee shop fell into a deep silence. Something glass hit the floor in the back, shattering. No one made any move to clean it up. With everyone around them suddenly intently listening, Haru watched Rin lowered his gaze, a small blush trimming his cheeks a soft rose.
One eyebrow minutely ticked toward Haru’s hairline.
“She hasn’t been seen in over a month.” Rin’s words were soft. Quiet. Not usually heard, but with everyone thirsty for hopeful news regarding the dwindling efforts to infiltrate the world above, it was impossible not to find a way to hear every excruciating detail. “But within that rumor, they gave a date and a time, and it’s sometime this week.”
“Like a drop point?” Haru asked, his voice lowering into something barely regarded as a whisper.
Rin shrugged, taking another sip of his tea. “That’s all I know.”
Winding their fingers together, Haru drew in a long breath. They were leaning so close, Haru got a clean whiff of the spiced tea Rin was drinking. It flipped his stomach, making him suddenly nervous. No one had ever gotten close to sneaking into New Tokyo, so to catch word of a small militia making it past the gates? Improbable. What if it was all a lie? What if this was something planned from above to eradicate those who remained on the grid below?
“I don’t know, Rin,” Haru sighed, shaking his head while rotating his mug absentmindedly. “Seems like a hoax.”
“It could be something.”
If there was one thing Haru loved most about Rin was his persistence. If he set his mind on any one thing, Rin was bound and determined to get it done. He would achieve his goal by any means necessary, and Haru adored him for it. Rin had been in constant contact with his friend about what was transpiring in the shadows, and every week, Rin would fill Haru in on the details. A few, nameless citizens began catching on, so Haru decided to change their usual “date” location, and though they were actually dating, they still liked to get out of their separate apartment buildings and find a place more public to discuss things that mattered dearly to the surviving citizens of Old Tokyo. Hearing real-time news on the state of the world above was almost as difficult to come by as working communication devices.
“Rin,” Haru warned, eyeing him just below his raven eyelashes.
“I know,” he sighed, leaning back in his chair, mug carefully hooked around his fingers. “If there was even the smallest chance for change, you know what that would mean for the people living down here.”
“And what if it makes everything worse?” Haru suggested, planting a small seed of doubt so Rin knew the consequences of his actions, or at least bothered to think about them even if it were only for a few seconds. Haru hated putting Rin down, but being slightly more cautious in nature, it begged to be voiced, especially regarding something so dangerous.
“I know you see Tokyo’s Darkest Day as something similar to a blessing in disguise, but, Haru, this could change everything .”
Haru opened his mouth to contradict Rin again when he felt the smallest tremor beneath him. The silence of the coffee shop had somehow worsened as everyone eyed their surroundings with concerned glances. Just as quickly as it began, it stopped.
“What was that?” Rin asked, his voice reverberating over everyone’s heads. Whispers erupted.
As if the sound of Rin’s words was the catalyst, the entire building began to violently quiver. Being so close to the ocean, they had been used to the familiar shaking of earthquakes, but this...this was nothing natural. Haru met Rin’s worried eyes and he immediately knew.
Something was terribly wrong.
“Everyone, outside! Now!” Rin yelled, concern coating his voice. And just when Haru began to doubt Rin’s choice, part of the ceiling collapsed in, taking out a couple towards the back of the shop. Panic in the form of shrill screams filled the air. Haru felt his heart lurch into his throat, pushing himself out of his chair before attempting to find Rin. Already three steps ahead of him, Rin’s fingers gripped around Haru’s wrist as he guided them both toward the door. When they crossed the threshold, things became even more dire.
“What’s happening?!” someone screamed, their voice mingling with the terrified yells filling the air around them. The loud voice hit Haru’s ears painfully.
“Look up there!” came another voice as a finger was thrust toward the sky.
At once, everyone turned their gazes to the world above. Haru squinted towards the strange sight of New Tokyo, attempting to shield his eyes from the weather. With the panic, he hadn’t noticed the abnormality, but now that someone had pointed out the obvious, it was clear something was undeniably wrong. A few stray raindrops pummeled Haru’s face, stinging his bare skin as he processed the unnatural darkness to the world above. The commonplace music and movement that existed throughout the entirety of Haru’s life had all but gone from the once-constantly lit streets of New Tokyo, replaced by the low, but steady sound of distant screaming.
“What the hell?” Rin voiced, his hand squeezing Haru’s fingers tightly.
“Where’s the lights?!” someone screamed.
“We should go,” Haru warned, the sickening feeling twisting his stomach into unrelenting knots. Whatever this was, it didn’t bode well. Just as he began pulling Rin away from the gathering crowd, he heard a solitary, horrified voice rise above the rest.
“RUN! IT’S COLLAPSING!”
With a horrified shared glance, everyone was thrown into panic. Not much of a thought crossed Haru’s mind other than the innate need to escape. Rin, on the other hand, pulled Haru to a jarring stop.
“Mom and Gou!”
“Rin, if we don’t go, we’ll be crushed–”
But he was already dragging Haru toward his family’s apartment. “They won’t know!” he yelled, cutting his way through the panicked crowd, painfully forcing his way through as their fight-or-flight reflexes kicked in. Everything in Haru’s body screamed at him to run the other direction. It was much faster to reach the outskirts of the old grid by going east towards the coast, though the point was probably open to question. If there was any way to scale the walls built in 4007 that were said to serve as a natural barrier for the sake of Old Tokyo’s preservation (and later discovered as a means of totalitarianism), they could potentially escape the aftereffects of the collapsing city.
If.
Haru’s shoulder rammed into a stranger, swiftly knocking the person, umbrella and all, to the ground. Neither Rin nor Haru stopped to help them. There just wasn’t time. They had to go, get out of here and fast. With the rain pummeling their soaked bodies, it was that much more difficult to sprint to their destination.
Thankfully, Rin’s apartment wasn’t far from the coffee shop. Haru wanted to find a place equally situated between them so neither of them had too far to travel. Everything was by foot these days. Gasoline became nonexistent back in 2852, and the fully electric, non-mechanical car was introduced a few years before. However, they couldn’t run on anything less than the magnetic tracks designed to be underlaid below the streets. Though the rails existed, without a current, the entire premise behind traveling by car was rendered useless. There wasn’t much else but the hard to come by, rusted bicycles that neither Haru or Rin owned, and they weren’t going to designate a single second more on finding one that wasn’t already being used.
They took the steps to Rin’s apartment three at a time, but they didn’t need to travel more than halfway up the stairs when Rin’s mother and sister’s faces appeared just out their door. Steve, the family cat, scurried out the door, disappearing into the chaos. Haru pulled Rin to a stop, allowing another terrified person to sprint past them.
“New Tokyo is collapsing,” Rin blurted as Miyako and Gou reached them. “We have to go!”
“Go where?” Gou asked, taking Miyako’s hand as they all stepped down to the streets. Now that they had a moment to rest, the unbelievably loud, crashing and crumbling cry of New Tokyo making her final fall berated their ears, and it was deafening.
“To the ocean,” Haru suggested. There was less of New Tokyo’s grid above the once soft sands that had slowly eroded into a small cliff face over the years. Truthfully, it might be their best bet with nowhere else to go.
“We’ll never be able to make it over the wall,” Rin immediately replied, panic filling his voice.
“If there’s a wall left,” Haru reminded him. Though, that wouldn’t help them find something floatable to get them far away from this disaster. Haru kept that thought to himself, not wanting to cause even more panic.
“What about the old subway system?” Miyako asked with utter calmness. It was jarring to say the least.
Haru turned toward Rin, meeting his stern gaze. Their decision wasn’t voiced, but it was their best bet and they both understood that. The old subway tunnels were dangerous, partially collapsed in places, but there were detailed maps everywhere – if they knew where to look, of course – all to aid in the efforts of escaping the walls of Old Tokyo over the years.
Rin took the lead. Haru kept his eyes to the world above, desperation freezing his veins and turning them to ice. Everything looked like it was happening in slow motion, but Haru knew better than that. New Tokyo was situated extremely high above Old Tokyo, but it would be seconds before they began to see the beginning pieces hitting the ground, and, eventually, the entire city would be upon them. Death came at the end of this road; there was no escaping it. Still, Haru continued onward with the lives of Rin and his family on the line. If it meant forcing his legs to carry him the remaining distance to a false sense of safety, then he was going to make it. They had to make it.
It was their best, and only, option.
To no surprise, it was Rin who made it to the nearest subway opening first. A large piece of undefined something had landed a few meters away from the opening, thankfully on a patch of road that had some semblance of a support system in place. Smaller pieces of rubble were starting to hit the pavement, and Haru was fairly certain he saw a few people taken out by another large piece of unclassified debris that shattered on impact. But what was more concerning was the violent shaking. It had increased from their time in the coffee shop, which felt like ages ago, but was now making it hard to navigate. Somewhere, not far away, the first part of New Tokyo had reached the ground.
Haru felt Rin’s soft touch urging him forward. They rushed down the steps into the dark tunnel and, for a brief moment, collected themselves before a small light flickered to life. Miyako had a torch in her hand. It was ancient looking, but it was working and that’s what mattered. “This way,” she said, taking vanguard with Gou still clinging to her arm. Finding the comfort of Rin’s hand, Haru followed quietly, his fear mounting.
“Do you think we’ll make it?” Gou asked, her voice echoing around the empty chamber.
Miyako gave her a warm smile but no one replied.
Underneath the old grid, the tremors were much worse, but the devastating noise was almost entirely diminished. Haru took extra caution to stay on his feet, maneuvering around pieces of rubble that had collapsed while trying to keep up with Rin’s family. He used to take Rin into the tunnels so they could make out without the all-seeing eyes of the Foundation – or nosey neighbors as Rin liked to put it. Haru knew the subway system well enough, desperate to find some happiness inside a body of water somewhere, but with the towering walls surrounding Old Tokyo and resources already stretched thin, it was difficult to find anything. So, when Miyako faltered in her navigation, Haru could easily pick up the trail again, urging them to get as close to the ocean as quickly as possible.
A thunderous boom rattled earth like an ominous forewarning. Miyako pulled Gou closer, eyeing Rin and Haru with apologetic eyes. With Haru’s stomach residing in his throat, he pulled Rin forward without a word. They were closing in on the exit. They had to make it. He didn’t want to think of what happened if they didn’t.
“Haru,” he heard Rin whisper but chose to ignore him. If he started mumbling sappy apologies and what ifs at a time like this, it would certainly be their end.
But the shaking wasn’t stopping, only growing worse, and there was a moment where Haru thought maybe they should give up. Inevitably, they would die like rats in the ruins of New Tokyo who was finally destined to meet her untimely end. Haru thought it was a fitting conclusion for the Foundation. It wasn’t even a question of whether they would rise from the ashes; Haru would be dead, uncaring, and finally free of their omnipresent control.
Part of the ceiling collapsed behind the group of four, tearing into Haru’s consciousness like a knife to the chest. Sucking in a breath of dusty air, he yelled at everyone to keep running forward as fast as they possibly could. Fear that drove them forward. Miyako pulled Gou into a dead sprint and Haru was practically being dragged by Rin.
The air quickly became thick and difficult to breathe. If a section of the subway was already collapsing, then they had seconds, maybe minutes if they were lucky. They would be buried alive. Gone forever from this world. There was so much Haru wished he would’ve done, but with Rin at his side now, it all felt moot. Turning to him to begin their final goodbyes, Haru’s breath was sucked from his lungs. With the bouncing beam of light clenched into Miyako’s hand, Haru hadn’t noticed before but Rin had started crying. There were streaks cutting through the dirt coating his face.
“I love you,” Haru said breathlessly, squeezing Rin’s palm. “Thank you.”
“You idiot,” Rin blurted back as the sickening, crumbling noise of something collapsing filled the tunnel. “I love you too.”
Haru wasn’t sure if Rin’s words ever reached his ears. The deafening blow of the world around them filled the static air. A last minute decision, or reflex – Haru wasn’t sure – caused Haru to pull Rin closer. For all he knew, this was their end. Haru’s shoulder hit the tunnel wall. He pushed Rin against it and used his own body to shield him as best as he could as the debris rained over them.
He would miss so much, kissing Rin, their coffee shop “dates,” their actual dates, even the strange, lifelessness of Old Tokyo and his life. There wasn’t much there, but at the end of the day, Haru could say he learned to love it. He certainly fell for Rin, hard . What Haru would regret was not spending more time with him. Though, he figured he should be thankful for having Rin in his life. Without it, he would’ve been nothing. This entire experience would’ve gone much differently.
So, as the tunnel filled with pieces of the world above, Haru squeezed Rin tight, hoping that their next life would be just as happy and even better than this one, just as long as they were together always.