I closely followed Isamu as he made his way through the dome. As we walked, I noticed that the air had a very distinct aroma of lavender, but even that couldn't mask the pungent smell of soil that followed wherever we walked.
"We're almost there, just a few more minutes." I heard Isamu say as we turned into another hallway; a wing dedicated to Programming. The hallway was full of small cubicles on my left and right filled with neatly dressed employee's who furiously typed away at their keyboards. While neatly dressed, their clothes were covered in creases and empty coffee cups were pilled onto the table.
"If you think they're overworked, you should look at our Internal Affairs department," Isamu commented.
"Respectfully uncle," I muttered. "You should really think about finding more employee's if these people are this overworked."
He chuckled, "Oh, if only you knew how little programmers there are nowadays."
"Programmer? What augment do they wield?" I asked curiously.
Isamu had a puzzled look on his face. He opened his mouth to say something but he stopped and closed his mouth; his gaze shifting towards the ceiling.
"Well actually, they don't wield any augment." he answered with a chuckle.
"But then, what do they even do..." my voice trailed off mid question as I remembered what I saw earlier: the empty cups lazily stacked on top of their stained desk; their bloodshot eyes haphazardly looking up and down as their hands mindlessly type away. From my uncles reaction to my question and from what I saw inside the cubicles, the answer was very much clear to me.
Because the job lacked an augment, I had originally thought that it must either be the easiest or the hardest job in the world; however, the dichotomy between the two answers caused me to assume the latter was true. There was no "easy" job in today's society.
"Rei?" I heard my uncles voice ask.
"Sorry, I lost my train of thought,"
"If you were thinking about the people you saw in the programming department, I can assure you that while they work long hours they enjoy their job. Most of the people working here without an augment are citizens of New Ragna that just wanna help anyway they can. We're really grateful for that."
We stopped walking as we reached a crossroad. I looked down the gray-colored hallway on the right, and then looked down the sleek white-colored hall way on the left.
"Which way now uncle?"
I glanced towards him to see if he had an answer, but his eyes were stuck staring at the cubicles behind us.
"Ok, if you're not going to lead the way I will." I turned to walk towards the right side of the crossroad, but before I could even make a step Isamu grabbed my hand.
"This way kiddo." he motioned towards the right side. He gripped my hand firmly and led me down the hallway, an act that left me a tad bit surprised.
Our fingers were tightly interlocked as we walked, and while I knew it was just for the purpose of leading me, I held onto him tightly. His hands were callous and rough, but they were warm.
A warmth so visceral that I could feel it to my very core.
***
As we went further inside the dome, we slowly started to see more signs of life. While the main entrance was barren, slowly but surely I began to see more people. But more importantly, I realized that this dome was a lot larger than I had originally anticipated. The deeper we went, the more intricate the architecture became. The floor which was just plain concrete a couple minutes ago turned into a sleek marble floorboard that was so polished that I could see my reflection as clear as day. We also passed by a multitude of office spaces dedicated to different facets of the governing world. From the Marketing Department to First Responders, there was an office dedicated to almost everything.
But how did this place have so much room? Was it a spatial distortion? An augmented illusion of some sort? There was no way that this entire dome could fit so much in the small 1st ring building.
I massaged my chin. Isamu did say that the "entrance" was created by illusory augmenter, so that could be a hint in itself, but at the end of the day illusions are simply illusions; while they can trick your brain into thinking there's more space, it cannot actually create more space.
Was it teleportation? Matter Enlargement? An illusion that makes the people that walk through the doorway 10 inches shorter? I felt that I was close to finding the answer I sought but also vastly far away at the same time.
"Are you thinking about something? Your face looks a bit scary." Isamu waved his free hand in front of my face, interrupting my train of thought.
"Oh, uh." I stammered and turned towards Isamu. "I was just thinking about-" As I was about to ask the question, a voice echoed out inside my head.
'What are you doing? That isn't why you're here.'
Suddenly my surroundings crumbled into nothingness as a faraway daydream eclipsed the view in front of my eyes until it was all I could see, blanking out the rest of the world entirely. I stared at the older Japanese woman smiling down at me with the most beautiful auburn eyes I'd ever seen. Her white dress flowed freely in the soft breeze as she grasped my hand tenderly, caressing my fingers with utmost care.
"Oh Rei, my beautiful little girl."
I latched onto her hand tightly, as hard as my hands could muster. She continued to smile, but in the blink of an eye her body began to disintegrate into dust. As her body decayed before my eyes, I reached towards what still remained to try and save her, but my hands were too slow to do anything. My mother, whose radiant smile which was so thoroughly etched in my mind, was now nothing but ashes cast into the wind.
And it was all my fault.
"Rei?" Isamu asked.
'Focus, Rei.' an ethereal voice whispered inside my head.
My gaze shifted away from Isamu as I let go of his hand.
"....I was just thinking about how far away your office seems to be, Uncle." I responded with a hollow laugh.
"Don't worry, we're almost there." he pointed towards the end of the hallway where a black doorway was located.
I glanced down towards the reflective floor tiles and stared at my reflection. The edges of my lips that were curled upwards not too long ago were now no flatter than a sheet of paper. My emotions were a maelstrom of delirium and ecstasy, because no matter how well I smothered my emotions deep down I knew that being here was a dream come true.
But, was I allowed to be happy right now?
My mother is gone, missing without a trace and I don't even know if she's even still alive. Before the accident I would've thought today was going to be one of the best days of my life, but now I'm left wondering if I'm even allowed to seek small pleasures like a simple conversation about architecture.
However, before I could resolve my ongoing dilemma we stopped in front of a black doorway.
My inner conflict was going to have to wait.