1

See Hatsuka reach the corner of her street. Her rucksack is a highly stylised velveteen head of Pimiko the Shaman Queen and there is a lot of cat hair on her coat. Over her shoulder we see Max approaching the road from the other side. Max’s face lights up like a pinball table on a multiball bonus when he sees her and they race each other home. It is recycling day and the truck has already made its rounds. Green, blue and red plastic cubes are scattered up and down the street as if a giant box of Lego has been emptied over town. They weave in and out of them. Max leaps a green box to draw level with Hatsuka who, with the last of her sugar rush from the candied Wizard hats she won in the debate[1], out-sprints him to the sliding door of their apartment block. Today is an exciting day as the one billionth Holophin has been sold, making the Takin International School the most profitable business in the world. And businesses are everything now. Countries, with their languages and customs, are retained for sentimental reasons only, and paying any more than lip service to them is considered weak-minded. The door is activated by their necklaces – little obsidian cat faces – and the house mother, who knows that encouragement is the best way to pacify, says, ‘You win again, Hatsuka!’ Hatsuka punches Max on the shoulder. ‘Maybe you could use a couple of hours in the gym.’ Max pouts as they reach their apartment door. ‘Maybe you could use a couple of hours in the Shutupinator,’ he says.

[1] (This House Believes That Stress is a Fabrication of the Left [Hatsuka had successfully proven that it was in fact a fabrication of the Right])