Skye – Friday, 2:56pm.

Just like that, Skye's life had returned to the same ordinary routine that preceded the loan sharks and man-eating beast, as if nothing abnormal had happened. Despite multiple days passing since the insanity, his head still spun whenever the incidents sprung back into his head.

His job at Velvet Crumble had returned to its regular night shift schedule – at least for a few days. His boss didn't seem too impressed by the short notice, but they were still understanding because of Skye's recent hospital admittance. He'd even been given a tiny baggie of assorted pastries as a parting gift on Thursday, which he happily shared with Cassandra.

With some of the money he'd been intending to pay the collectors with, Skye purchased the cheapest burner phone he could find. 2,999 srakna was a decent price; for all Lower Miyatama's endless faults, selling affordable prepaid mobile devices was one of the city's few mercies. That, or the local phone providers just knew their underground clientele a little too well. Either way, it would make do until he got settled into Era.

He'd been using it to keep in contact with everyone, even his father, which was slowly becoming less forced with each conversation they had about the new apartment. Reo had offered to pay the first month's rent, which Skye happily accepted, given his tight finances.

The landlord didn't seem to care very much about the short notice, giving a lot of one word answers to Skye's dialogue. All he seemed to want was the keys mailed to him by the end of next week.

Skye had also asked both Wrench and Ray if they'd be able to help him pack his stuff, but they were both busy with work. Don't blame them; I'd probably say the same thing, he'd thought, chuckling to himself.

One of the toughest calls he'd made was to Kaori just yesterday. Before calling her, he'd brought Cassandra to his room and ensured there were tissues handy – a good decision, given how emotional the conversation was. After the greetings and small talk, Skye told Kaori that they were taking her advice and moving out of Miyatama. It was a bittersweet moment for everyone, especially Cassandra, who made good use of the tissues.

“You're one of the only good parts of this city. Thank you for everything,” Skye told Kaori before handing the phone to his sister. He wrapped an arm around the sobbing Cassandra and rested his head on top of hers, hearing lots of “love you,” “miss you,” and “for the best” from the phone.

With lots of reassurances from Skye, including, “we'll keep in touch with her,” and, “you'll meet other wonderful people like her,” Cassandra was able to keep her spirits up for moving day – that Friday.

The month of rent Reo agreed to cover gave Skye the opportunity to rent a robot moving service with a portion of his savings. Since the trip between Miyatama and Era wasn't too far, he was given the generous price of 13,799 srakna for the move. The purchase came with a small crew of slender blue-cyan robots to both assist with loading boxes into their truck, and drive said truck to Era.

Cassandra was particularly enamoured by the robots. Although they hardly stopped for any breaks, one of them briefly indulged her by showing some of the cute expressions it could make on its screen-like face.

“C'mon now,” Skye reminded her, involuntarily smiling at the robot's charming display. “We've only got these helpers until the evening.”

“Okaaay.” Cassandra reluctantly continued packing up her belongings, and Skye returned to his room to do the same. Most of the movers were working in the living room and kitchen, but Skye made sure his sister had a bot to accompany her, just to be sure they'd finish on time.

Uprooting his and his sister's life on such short notice, especially without knowing exactly where they were going, was naturally quite jarring. Skye trusted his dad enough to not send him to another dump, but even the smallest reminders of Lower Miyatama's squalor was enough to reassure him.

Anything's better than this place.

Everything felt like it was happening so fast, but his eagerness for some peace and relaxation in Era far outweighed his worries. Just keep this up for another day and you'll have time to recover, he reminded himself.

Packing everything up was much quicker than he'd originally expected, especially since the suite was furnished when he first moved in years ago. Evidently, he'd underestimated the efficiency of robots dedicated to their jobs, and everything had been packed up within an hour and a half, which included the siblings' snack break halfway through. Loading the truck took hardly 20 minutes, giving them ample time to make the trip to Era.

After everything was moved out of their suite, Skye looked around the street. The lack of his friends present in that moment threatened to make him emotional again, but a swift reminder that they'd all be hanging out virtually within days kept his outlook positive.

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Probably a good thing there's no ceremony to see us off, anyways.

The spacious truck had three rows of seats: two for the robots in the front and middle, and the back row for Skye and Cass. The seats were a tad stiff, and the interior smelled vaguely of automotive grease, but Skye was just glad he didn't have to do any driving.

“Destination address?” the driver chirped with its mechanical voice.

“Aurora Complex on Nimbus Boulevard, apartment 402,” Skye replied.

Thus, the vehicle whirred to life, and they left their Miyatama home for good.

About half an hour of twisting streets passed before they began seeing a rocky, jagged landscape peek out from beyond the run-down buildings bordering Lower Miyatama. Not long from then, they finally escaped the confines of the city, passing beneath an array of on-ramps leading to and fro the upper city.

The moment they escaped the permanent shade of High Miyatama's enormous platform was a sudden moment of clarity for Skye. Simply feeling the warmth of the sun on his skin was something he didn't know he missed until that moment.

“Yo...” he murmured. “You feel that sunlight, Cass?”

“Yeah! It's been so long!” She was glued to the window, pressing her cheek against the glass.

No sunlight, always dark, claustrophobic layout... let alone everything else, there's no way in hell that was good for me. Even less so for Cass, Skye thought, considering how his sister could barely ever leave home without putting herself in immediate danger. He couldn't help but do a little happy wiggle at the thought of getting away from those miserable conditions.

The van's windows didn't give him a ton of space to look back at the double-decker city, but beyond the rugged landscape surrounding them, he was still able to catch a glimpse of both levels of Miyatama at once. The contrast between the city's halves was ridiculously stark: Lower Miyatama was dark and decrepit even at a glance, while High Miyatama's tall, futuristic structures shimmered in the amber sunlight. Skye was even able to spot a personal spacecraft launching from the city's better half.

“Good grief,” he thought aloud.

“Hm?” Cassandra looked over to Skye.

“Ah, nothing. Just thinking about Miyatama. I'm glad to get away from it all.”

She hummed in response. “I'm a little scared about moving, but a little excited too.”

“Yeah?” Skye pondered her words for a moment. “Me too, I think. But we'll make it work, just you watch. We made it this far, right?”

“Mhm!”

Looking around some more, he caught a good look at the enormous arch crossing over the sky – Ban Vatnia, one of the pinnacles of human innovation. An entire ring world encircling the planet, housing the cutting edge of space tech research and development. Just like the sky and the sun, it was something he hadn't seen in years, and the sight was just as awe-inspiring as the first time he'd set his gaze upon it.

Man... I gotta take Cass there one day. What an experience that would be! It was far too easy to get ahead of himself now that he was free from the shackles of stress and despair, but for the remainder of the trip to Era, he quietly indulged his wanderlust, passing the time with exciting thoughts of spaceships, robots, and aliens.

And then, a tree passed by. The craggy landscape slowly gave way to lush greenery and dense, towering trees. Mere minutes after passing through the trees, buildings began replacing the trees on both side of the road.

“Welcome to Era,” the driver chirped as the truck passed by a sign reading the same thing.

“We're really here,” Skye murmured. “Look at this place, Cass!”

The architecture and signs on display were similar to Lower Miyatama's layout, but it was far less dilapidated, and the early evening sun shining down on the city gave the tall, sleek buildings a gorgeous spark of life.

Even if this place wasn't as pretty, the sunlight would still do wonders for its beauty.

Bright electronic billboards and neon signs were also present along the storefronts and roofs of buildings, though there were considerably fewer than in Miyatama. It made Skye eager to explore the city without it being too overwhelming.

Among the pedestrians going about their business, he couldn't help but notice several adorable robots of the same model walking about. As the truck stopped at an intersection, he managed to get a good look at one: it had a hooded, pure white humanoid body with black joints, a slender build not unlike the movers, and legs that converged into tiny points at the bottom. It sported green lights on several parts of its body, including its eyes, hood, and knees, and its featureless face – save for its bright pill-shaped eyes – radiated happiness.

“What are those robots? The white and green ones, like that one on the street there,” Skye asked, discreetly pointing out the window with his thumb.

“Those are VESKY model robots, designed and developed by Veirr Heavy Industries,” one of the movers answered. “They are peacekeeping and surveillance robots, designed to be sociable and friendly to citizens who interact with them.”

Skye smiled, despite his mixed feelings about its nature as a surveillance machine. No wonder they get away with constantly monitoring us when the bots are so cute. “Are they like... police?” he continued.

“Some work in tandem with local police forces, but they are made to independently handle immediate threats of violence or aggression. VESKYs are armed with extensive laser weaponry and shielding; their lighting changes to yellow or red depending on the threat level they have currently assessed. Be sure to avoid contact with them if they are glowing yellow or red.”

“But you can meet them and, like, talk to them if they're green?”

“Most certainly. While glowing green, they are always happy to talk.”

“They're so cuuute!” Cassandra cheered, looking out her window at a different VESKY on her side of the street.

“Right?!” Skye exclaimed. Well, if authorities are going to be watching our every move, at least they gave us the courtesy of making the cameras endearing. At least I don't have anything to hide anymore. Convincing himself that losing his illicit passion project was a good thing was extremely tough, but reminding himself that this was an opportunity for a fresh start slowly helped ease him into a better mindset. I don't really want to know what a VESKY would do if it caught me with something illegal like that.

About ten more minutes of driving through curved, calm streets brought them to a delightful boulevard with corner stores on the left, a grassy field on the right, and a huge brown and white apartment building just beyond the field.

“Is that it?” Skye asked.

“Aurora Complex is just ahead to our right,” the driver responded.