The traffic jam extended for like a dragon’s tail for miles to no end. Cars aligned bumper to bumper in the crowded highway. The horns blared loudly as the drivers shouted in impatience and restlessness. Mishima Haruka didn’t notice any of this. Her sight kept lingering over the orange dome that now covered the city she had called home up until this cold Christmas morning. Her house, her school, her life, everything she knew ended in the blink of an eye.

Unable to stare at the orb at the horizon any longer, Haruka sunk over her seat. Out of her trance, she finally became aware of her mother’s barely restrained hysterics, struggling between the exhausted state of her very pregnant body and the fact that the whereabouts of her husband were still unknown. Her aunt’s voice sounded serene but her eyes betrayed her worry.

A colorful vehicle aligned at their right side. Haruka immediately recognized it as the clown mobile from the visiting circus. Her eyes began to moisten. Two weeks ago on a school trip, her class had gone to the circus and she had been sitting
beside Kamina sharing the same bag of popcorn and even drinking from his soda from the same straw. It had been pure bliss, but now he was gone.

“Kamina…will I ever see you again?”

Haruka wept in silence, watching how the barrier over Tokyo shrunk in the distance as the car slowly moved forward while her heart slowly kept breaking apart.