In this world you're either a bounty hunter or an exlo. Either way you're a criminal but one gets praised more than the other. I'm laying in bed rephrasing those words, like they mean anything to me. Looking out at the city, the polluted city. "People take so much for granted" I thought to myself. People hate this city, I mean they hate the pollution of the city. Which is fair enough, but this city holds wonders and not many see that. I hear mostly everyday business owners, shop keepers, assistants, complain about this city. It's beautiful at night, but what can I say I even hate this city at times.
Loud banging enters my ears causing the hair on my arms to stand up and dance. I huff in exhaustion, already knowing who is on the other side of the door. "What do you want, Palto?" I ask while opening the door seeing Palto's cheeky grin on his face. Palto has looked after me ever since my parents decided to do a dumb trade and sell me for meat. "Hi sweets, I need help downstairs please!" He says while leaning against the aluminium door of my apartment. I look down at my feet while thinking whether or not I will argue with someone today. I look up and give him the satisfactory look he wants. His mouth curled into a smirk knowing if I don't say yes he will cut my pay check for this month. "You're aware you shouldn't be getting customers at 4AM" I say with an obvious look on my face. "I know, I know, so are you helping or not?" "You know I can't say no, so I have to say yes" I reply rolling my eyes back and folding my arms. "Atta girl" He pats my shoulder, while rumbling on about some dumb conspiracy theory he found out on his Slip. Palto is a nice guy...he just has a bad reputation with customers.
"I want to sell this Slip for...eighty Rhinas" This woman with a big attitude said to me. I took the Slip and inspected it. I looked at her like she's dumb. "What?" She spits through her teeth causing a spray machine to come out of her mouth. "You do know this Slip is First Generation!" I say waving it about. She looked clueless and said "Yeah and what?" furrowing her eyebrows. "And what? We are on Slip Generation Fifteen! This generation came out Sixteen years ago" I say with my eyes widening. "What's your point here pretty little lady?" This women is starting to get on my last nerves. Even worse when she decided to put her arms on the glass table in front of both of us. "My point is this is worth nothing. Not even one Rhina is worth Slip 1" "What do you mean? Can't you just give me something else?" She says while looking at her nails. "I can't" "Okay I don't understand what's so hard about your job little lady. But saying "you can't" doesn't help me much. So take the Slip and give me my goddamn eighty Rhinas or I'm calling up the Alliance" She says with a convincing tone. "They wouldn't do anything" I say while crossing my arms over my chest. "First Generation Slips are useless, they even made a report on it a year ago saying if you want to sell it for Rhinas or anything. You won't be getting anything in return" The woman started screaming and throwing a tantrum. I stood there in delight while a shallow giggle left my mouth causing me to turn around and not watch the scene unravel into chaos.
"Hello dear" an elderly women said causing me to jump. "Sorry dear, I didn't mean to make you jump" She says while her hand is on her heart and her face in a tight smile. "No it's okay, don't you worry. What can I help you with today?" I smile. "Well, me and my husband found this in our attic a couple of nights ago. And we were both wondering if it was worth anything?" While saying that she pulls out a Katana. "Woah, did you say you found this in your attic?" "Yes my dear. When we found it, it was all dusty and rusty. But lucky you my husband use to be a blacksmith so he made it all presentable" Her sweet smile lit up room. "May I?" She nods in pleasure. A Katana is a weapon of an exlo. They're especially made for each individual exlo. This Katana had a black blade with a black and white handle. This symbolises the person who held it before me was a master or was to be. "It's astonishing. Palto! Come here!" I say with amazement. Palto lifts his glasses up and sees that I'm calling him over. He takes some wobbly strides to get to me but he makes it. "Oh wow, this is magnificent" "Well, bye-bye now" The old dear waves while leaving the shop. Not even asking for a price for this amazing weapon that is in my hands. She was our last customer for the day. "Suri, do you know who's blade this is?". Palto says with excitement. Suri was Palto's older sister. She has a tender heart. Her previous job, she was an archaeologist. But not an ordinary one, she use to study exlo history. So she was pretty good at inspecting who's blade goes to what master. Her and Palto have raised me ever since I was five and ever since then my life has been alright, except from Palto being a pain in the ass. "Let me see" Suri swings round on her chair and adjusts her glasses. "I'm not quite sure, there is cryptic writing on here." "Well, how am I gonna find out what it says?" Palto says impatiently and grabbing it out of Suri's hands. "You're probably going to have to see Salmo" Suri says while rolling her eyes back and going back to her work. "SALMO! You mean that filthy twat across the street that keeps trying to steal my goddam Rhinas?" Palto says with anger within him while glaring outside the shop window. "No, it's not him" Suri rolls her eyes "It's his twin, they look nothing alike. They just have the same name because their parents never knew which one they were talking to when they were younger. Salmo, the one who knows about billion languages, lives up there" She says pointing to a derelict building on the outskirts.
The stars glisten in the sky. All different shades of blue sparkle on one another. My eyes glisten at the lights all over the city. The Alliance scout all over the city all day and night. The Alliance looks after the city, I've heard people call them the police? But in my opinion that name is a bit...I don't know lousy. People prioritise over them. The Alliance is just desperate for attention. But I get it, most of the people in the Alliance have had a bad home life. Most, not all of them. Some are rich. Some are not. The Alliance just hire people who they think are worthy there time or not. Which is reasonable, like every other job. How do I know all of this you may ask? Well it's obvious. Most of the time the Alliance are up there own ass (not literally). And I am against them. They watched my parents trade me for meat. I mean, maybe the new Alliance members are different?