Chaos in Kadoma Ward – Chapter 15

The reception area of Kiiroi Yama Headquarters stretches three stories high with a colossal mountain crest cut into the impressive dark stone face of the interior. I half expected something like the police stations at home, something I have intimate knowledge of. Not that I like to brag about being arrested so many times or anything…

Actually, I do. It’s a badge of honor I wear with pride.

Anyway, Kiiroi Yama Headquarters is not some three-desk, cement building attached to a ten-person jail. This is another behemoth of a skyscraper, much like the municipal court building I was in a few days ago. I clutch my tablet to my chest, wishing I had a bag. It would feel more normal.

“This way,” Rin says, walking across the lobby to the elevator banks. He nods at people as he walks past them, and they stare me down, their necks on swivels as I walk past.

“Don’t you have security or something?” My skin crawls, and I glance behind me again to see if anyone’s following me. Gen’s parting words from the other day, that he’d be watching me, tickle the danger sensors in my brain. He could be anywhere, though, watching me eat with Rin, standing outside of K&G Noodles. I must keep on the lookout for him.

“You’re scanned as you walk into most buildings. If you weren’t supposed to be here, you would be immobilized.”

Huh. “Well, then why do you have to scan your wrist at spots if systems can scan you from afar?”

“Think about it,” he says, approaching the elevator bank. The elevator system chimes, calls out his name and directs us to wait for elevator ten. “Taking your money is sacred in our society, so point of purchase is always close and personal. Identification, though, can happen a kilometer or more away.”

An elevator opens and a woman wearing the same Kiiroi Yama gear Rin wears strides out, a sword strapped to her back. I recognize her as one of the women who came with us on our trip to save my brother.

“Hello, Yumi. Good to see you again,” she says, dashing past me.

“You… too.”

She doesn’t stop and breaks into a run and out the door before I can even finish my return greeting. I still find it wonderful how men and women are equal here. I love it.

“I forgot her name,” I say, following Rin into the open elevator.

“Mara.” The doors close on us and the read-out shows we’re heading for the thirty-second floor. “She must be heading out on a job.”

“Hmm.”

“Do you want to ask a question?”

“Was that rhetorical? So, women and men have equal rights here? Equal pay and all that?”

He nods. “Except for the obvious issues of biology, yes.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, men still can’t bear children, so there will always be things women will have to deal with that men will not.”

This goes back to our earlier conversation, but I don’t feel like rehashing that one. Something tells me women are more burdened with the child tax than men.

The doors open on a wide and busy floor. Along the far wall, glass-walled conference rooms hold meetings with dozens of people. They all crowd around a tōsha projection hovering over a table, depicting real-time maps of buildings. One woman leads the meeting, pointing, tapping, and gesturing the map around. I can’t hear what they’re saying, but everyone is paying close attention, their brows furrowed and eyes narrowed.

In the center of the floor, another dozen people occupy a maze of desks, marking projection maps and updating dispatch notices.

“Are you seriously bringing your property to the office?” Kengo asks, a sneer curling his lip as he pulls a can of coffee from a slot in the wall. I ignore him and concentrate on the amenities provided to the employees. I’m impressed with the large snack center built into several meters of wall space. No need to leave the office to get something to eat.

Of course. Gotta keep them working!

“She’s not my property,” Rin grumbles, leading me past the long length of food. I just ate but my eyes and stomach catalog the confections on display. Mmmm. “And she’s on a special mission now, straight from Tamura himself. So she’s here to learn more about us.”

I glance over my shoulder, and Kengo sighs, mumbling something about bureaucracy. Oh, honey. You ain’t seen nothing yet.

We circle the outer portion of the floor, past open offices. I try not to gawk at the crazy displays of recreational tōsha in each. One woman sits at her desk amongst a forest, fern plants surrounding her and a babbling brook in the background. A man in the next office is in, what my father would call, the nosebleed seats of a baseball stadium. In the distance, a game is being played and people fill the stands. So I’m not surprised to find a laid-back darkened bar playing soft music in Rin’s office.

“Tōsha off,” he declares, walking around to his desk. Everything disappears to grey walls and a couch opposite the window. “Sorry. I know how much they bug you.”

“It’s just…”

“Strange. I get it.”

I want to argue that I’m starting not to mind. I want to see this dynamic in play out in the world, but he’s being conscientious, so I leave it.

“Hmmm,” I hum as I walk around the room, and he sits at his desk, his eyes running over whatever’s on his projection screen. Just like in the judge’s chambers, they’ve made the display private and blurred it from my direction. I haven’t considered Hikari to be very private, what with all the microchips and public credit deductions on the butsu, but perhaps they take the data they collect seriously. It’s an interesting mix of public and private.

Rin is now oblivious to my presence. This is his job, and he does it at least twelve to fourteen hours a day. I figured he’d be out on patrol, in a flying car of some sort, searching out malfunctioning androids. I didn’t expect him to have a desk job. But even though he’s fantastic at what he does in the field, he’s probably risen in the ranks to do more managerial work. Maybe kenryōshi below him are out on the beat, and he only shows up for the high profile cases.

I sit down on the couch, ready to open my mouth and ask questions about this, only to pop back up again when Atsumi storms into the office.

“Thank god you’re here. I have a shortage of people for the next three days due to all of the outstanding contracts, I haven’t slept in two days, and…” She jumps sideways when she sees me out of the corner of her eye. “Shit. What’s she doing here?”

She stops and narrows her eyes at me, so I bow. “Are you… Are you wearing my clothes?”

Honestly, I’ve had it.

“Yes, I’m wearing your clothes.” I sigh, throwing my arms down at my sides. “What else would I be wearing? I’ve been here like, what, five days?”

“Five days,” Rin confirms.

“And I’ve spent the majority of those days either in court fighting for my life or unconscious and sick due to a migraine. I don’t even know where to get clothes. I’m lucky I’m not walking around naked.”

“Well, thank goodness for that,” she says, tossing her tablet onto Rin’s desk and settling her hands on her hips. He pushes her tablet away from him with one finger like it’s a pile of dog shit he doesn’t want to be anywhere near. “Do you have a job yet?”

“Also, no. Please see my previous statement about court and a migraine.”

Atsumi lifts her face to the ceiling. “Do I have to do everything around here?”

I hold up my hand. “I would prefer you didn’t.”

“I don’t care what you prefer.” She spins around to face Rin and points straight at him. “You, login to Umeda and get this woman some clothes of her own.”

Rin blinks at her, and I can see how tense his shoulders are. “Yumi strikes me as more of a Shinsaibashi person.”

“Both of you, quit it.” I fold my arms over my chest. “I have no credits to spend. I’ll wear the damned hand-me-downs.” Though I hate them with a fiery passion. Fiery, as in, I’d like to set them on fire as soon as possible.

Atsumi picks up her tablet when it dings at her. “You don’t have credits, but he does. And he’s given a stipend to take care of you. Right?” She looks to him. “Contract by proxy?”

Rin merely nods.

“Then buy her the fucking clothes. I’m surprised you didn’t do it the moment you landed.”

Rin stands up to face her, and I take a step back.

“I thought, for once, I’d wait and ask her what she wants.”

“Well, well, Mr. Opinionated actually cares what someone else wants? Color me surprised.”

She looks me over from head to toe. “Very interesting.” She turns for the door. “We have a meeting in five minutes. I expect to see you there.”

The room is quiet for a few moments as Rin pinches the bridge of his nose. “Yumi, please come sit here and choose a new wardrobe. Buy whatever you want.”

He grabs his tablet, and I panic realizing he’s about to leave.

“How will I know what fits me?”

He smiles once before being pulled to whatever is pinging him on his tablet.

“You were scanned when you were chipped. The system will know what fits you. Just choose whatever you want. Don’t look at prices. When you’re done, check out, and the store will know to send everything to my place.”

He strides from the office. “And stay out of trouble while I’m gone.”

—-

Rin is gone for hours after I choose a new wardrobe on his… whatever the hell it is. Do they call them computers? Terminals? What? No clue. But the shopping experience via interactive tōsha is intriguing. I can touch, rotate, and flip items around to see them on all sides. The first time I stick my hands in the air and try to manipulate the 3D clothes, they disappear. So I stand in Rin’s office doorway and watch people on their interactive tōsha in other offices until I spot hand movements that seem to turn things on and off — quick swipes of the hands left or right.

After that it’s easy, and I pick up all the movements within a few minutes of playing around. I even figure out how to insert a likeness of myself into specific clothing items so I can see how they will look on me. I pick out seven tops, six pairs of pants, a sweater, a jacket, two pairs of shoes, underwear, bras, socks, and a bag. Then I find shampoo and conditioner, moisturizer, and a bunch of other stuff I need including some basic makeup. I hope it’s enough. I can sleep in some of the white shirts Atsumi left behind. Rin said not to look at the prices, but I can’t help it. I spend over a thousand credits and regret every single one.

Once shopping is complete, I kick off my shoes near the door and settle into Rin’s couch with my tablet, determined to read and understand more about this society. I need to find a job, and I can’t do that if I don’t even know how the subways work. I study maps until my eyes blur and then fall asleep. Despite sleeping a full night last night, my body is still recovering from the migraine from hell, and I need to rest or it might return.

When I wake up, Rin’s office door is closed and the windows are dimmed, so I guess he came back and found me sleeping. That’s embarrassing. He hasn’t messaged me at all, unlike the previous day, probably because he can just go straight to his office and find me.

I sit up and stretch out the sleep, adjust my hair, and decide now’s the time to leave the office, find food and drink, and see what I see. I’m safe enough here. There’s no way I’d have been allowed on the floor if there was stuff they didn’t want me to see, and I should take advantage of the time off the leash.

Heading in the opposite direction of how we came in, I circle around the floor, peeking in offices as I go. Several are empty, their tōsha off. I pass a woman who is doing her tablet work while sitting on the beach, and another man sitting in a traditional Japanese room, wood walls and tatami mat floors.

The next office catches all of my attention, and I’m drawn to it, my feet unable to stop advancing on the person’s private space. The room is dark but filled with stars and gaseous nebula. Soft, ambient music plays and the stars move ever so slightly. This… This is more my speed.

“Wow,” I breathe out, lifting my face to the infinite blackness of manufactured space.

“Can I help you?” I jump and whirl around to face a woman in Kiiroi Yama gear like Rin’s.

“Sorry. I got lost and then was mesmerized by your stars.” I find that honesty is best in the times I’m caught snooping.

“Are you looking for someone?” She crosses to her desk, already back in work mode and not giving me another thought. Dark circles rim her eyes, and her hair looks like it hasn’t been brushed in two days. A neon sign over her head blinks ‘Exhausted’ at me.

“Rin Hara. Is he around?”

“I just saw him in the interrogation rooms.”

“Can you point me in the right direction? I’m new here.” I make my way to the door so I can bolt if need be. But she seems unconcerned, and it strikes me as odd the way they rely so wholly on their technology. Does no one find it strange that I’m here?

She points. “Down the hall, all the way to the end, through the doors and on the right.”

“Thanks.” I retreat from her office in haste, and this time, I don’t dawdle as I make my way to Rin. And not just to Rin, but Rin in the interrogation rooms. Sounds juicy.

I try to walk with purpose like I belong there, and when I make it to the interrogation rooms, I almost squeal with delight. Several doors are closed, but I find Rin right away. Through the window in the door, Atsumi and Kengo are standing and listening to Rin give someone the test in a separate room with a one-way mirror.

I inch open the door and let myself in, pushing my back against the wall inside.

“Your mother burns dinner, and the only options are to eat it or starve. What do you do?”

My eyes focus on Rin, on the other side of the mirror, questioning this woman. My heart speeds up, remembering being across the table from him once a few moons ago. His eyes had scrutinized everything about me, and I’d felt naked and raw afterward. Watching him question someone else almost makes me jealous, like I manufactured our supposed chemistry during my test.

But as I watch through ten, twenty more questions, I can detect the difference in Rin. He doesn’t smile with this woman. There’s no back-and-forth banter, no sarcastic remarks.

“Your child has a genetic disorder that needs constant attention, but you have to work to pay for her medical bills. Do you hire someone to help her at home or do you bring her to an institution?”

The woman blinks a few times. “I bring her to an institution, where they will have better care than I can provide.”

Rin stops to stare at her, taps into his tablet, and excuses himself from the room. Another man leads her away, but she pauses to look back at the mirror. She can’t see us, but her long stare as she leaves raises goosebumps on my arms.

Atsumi sighs and turns around to face me. I’m surprised at first that she even knows I’m here, since this is the first time she’s acknowledging me.

“Does this woman look familiar at all? Was she on your ship?”

I shake my head.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. My position concentrated on the bridge crew, but I knew every person on the ship by sight, even if I didn’t know them by name.” I tap my temple. “Journalist’s brain. I rely on it.”

Atsumi and Kengo stare at each other for a long moment before Rin enters the room through the door I came through. If he’s surprised I’m there, he doesn’t show it.

“Place your bets,” he says, and Kengo breaks out in a wide smile.

“Twenty credits says she’s human,” Atsumi says.

“Twenty says she’s an android,” Kengo counters.

“Fifty credits says she’s a Fukusha Model Eight,” I pipe up.

They all look at me with their eyebrows raised.

“And why do you think that?” Rin asks.

I wonder how much I should give away of what I learned during the test and how Rin conducts it. I go for it. “You think she’s human. Though you didn’t banter or flirt with her during the test, you were relaxed as you asked questions.” Rin folds his arms across his chest. “Possibly you always go into the test more firm. I’d have to see for myself. You weren’t with me because you knew I was human before I ever took it.”

Atsumi’s eyes widen. I press on.

“But her answers about children aren’t sitting well with me.”

Kengo nods. “I have two kids,” he says, puffing his chest with pride. If he can afford the child tax, then it must also be a status statement to have two kids. Now I want to spend time with the upper middle class here. They must be the only ones keeping the 0.4 birth rate afloat. “And I agree. That’s what bothered me. She’s right.” He points to me, and for the first time, I think he doesn’t hate me.

“Only a few would give up a child they carried in their body for nine months, then paid the tax and raised them.” I’m so glad I learned what I did this morning. “I understand giving babies up before paying the tax is common, but I’ve only ever known sociopaths to do what this woman suggests with her kids.”

I lean back against the wall and mimic Rin, arms across my chest. “So if the test told you she’s human based on physical feedback, but those few questions tell me she’s an android, then she must be really advanced.”

“It can’t be that simple,” Atsumi whispers, her eyes focused on the distance.

“Narumi Ogawa is a sociopath.” I shrug my shoulders. “Isn’t there some fable about fashioning offspring in the likeness of their god?”

Rin sighs as he looks at his tablet again. “She was ninety-nine percent, and even those answers you cite as being suspicious are well within range. Lots of people wouldn’t want to be stuck with a disabled child.”

“Would you?” I ask.

He thinks about it for a moment and huffs. “Well, I wouldn’t like it, but yeah, I would take care of my own kids.”

“The test allows for leeway and hunches,” Atsumi interrupts. “If the proctor feels the subject is suspect, even after perfect marks, we’re allowed to move onto more invasive scans.” She types into her tablet. “We’ll have to see for sure.”

I remember talking to Rin about the Fukusha Model Eight on Kurai. He had said the Fukusha Model Six was Aoi Uma’s best android to date. That they were so human-like, it took over eighty questions to determine their make. Maybe Narumi has come close to cracking the code.

Close, but not close enough.

I follow the three back into the main room for kenryōshi.

“How many floors do you all have here?” I ask Rin as we walk behind Atsumi and Kengo. I have his attention now, so I should keep the conversation going.

“Four floors. We have a sister floor like this above where younger recruits come when not on the beat. Then we have two detention floors.”

Four floors out of forty or more?

“What else is in this building, then?”

We slow as we near the wall of snacks and beverages. My mouth waters, and my stomach grumbles. It must be near or past lunch now though I didn’t look at a clock after I woke up.

“Research and development. Testing facilities. Labs. Dispatch. Drone control and monitoring. Other police divisions including foot patrol, sky patrol, subway and train patrol, and detectives. We have smaller buildings in each ward plus police boxes in each neighborhood.” Rin’s attention is pulled away by a ping from his tablet.

I watch him examine whatever’s on his tablet, the way his eyes move over the data, his hands, the set of his jaw. Would I have ever thought of dating a police officer back home? The police and my family don’t mix. I would’ve been disowned if I tried it.

‘You’re not at home anymore,’ Ayamé says, and for a brief moment, I see her smile and wink. I wish she weren’t dead.

Back in my brain, I file the information about Kiiroi Yama away for the future. It’s a typical police system used in Old Japan all the way back to Earth, but it’s run by a corporation here. Not too different.

Kengo waves his wrist in front of a machine and chooses a coffee, and Atsumi does the same. I’m hungry, and I’m feeling a little desperate to fit in, so I try to get a coffee too.

“Insufficient funds,” the wall practically yells at me. And I know I’m not being too sensitive about it because Atsumi and Kengo jump away from the wall at the same time I do.

“Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the snack wall say that,” Kengo says, raising his eyebrows at Rin.

“Really?” Atsumi asks Rin, her voice dripping with exasperation. “You are so clueless. Do I have to do everything around here?”

“Apparently so,” I mutter under my breath.

“Look,” she says, approaching Rin and lowering her voice, “I know this is new to you, but I’ve mentored two proxies already. Are you ready to listen?”

Rin stays silent. I try not to smile.

“It’s not enough to clear her for train tickets when she’s traveling with you or paying for her when you go out to eat. You have to give her access to her own funds. Proxies know freedom, and they want it. You’ll only make things difficult if you don’t give her access to her stipend.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” he grinds out between his teeth.

“I didn’t say you did.” She clears her throat and turns to me. I straighten up. “Rin and I discussed your employment situation this morning. Kiiroi Yama is always hiring people, but I’m not sure you’ll be happy here, especially if Tamura will call on you often to help with your people. So, he mentioned K&G Noodles, and I’ve called in a favor with Kotashi. You start there tomorrow.”

What? Atsumi is helping me? Or is she helping Rin?

Does it matter?

“Nothing exciting or anything. You’ll take care of the stock and help prep ingredients. If Kotashi is feeling generous, he may let you touch his noodles.”

That sounded dirty. I try not to laugh.

“But don’t count on it.”

“Thank you,” I say, bowing, remembering my place. She was a total bitch the other night, so I wonder what’s changed. Is it because I’m not going away? Did Rin say something to her? Or did orders come down from above? I have no idea who the CEO of Kiiroi Yama is. All I know is a few people from this one division. I’ll need to do more digging.

Atsumi seems pleased I’ve bowed enough for her, and without saying goodbye, she walks off.

“How did that happen?” I ask, as Rin waves his wrist at the wall, grabs the coffee I wanted, and hands it to me.

“You have friends in high places now.”

I pop open the can. “‘Friends’ is probably stretching it, wherever they come from.”

“It’s not a mystery,” he says, pointing up at the ceiling. Someone up on high here? “Let’s get lunch and then you should go home. I’m sure you want to try on all the clothes you bought.”

“Home? You mean your apartment. Sure. It looks like I have plenty to keep me occupied the rest of the day, anyway.”

Not only do I have clothes to try on, but I have a lot to learn about my new Kiiroi Yama benefactors.

Shouting bounces off the walls of the central area, and we all turn to face the wing we just came from. Through the window in the security door, people run down the hall towards us.

“What the…?” Rin, in the kind of stupid move only a police officer would do, runs in the direction of the chaos with Kengo and Atsumi right on his heels.

My journalist instincts kick in, and of course, I follow. People panicking means there’s a story worth reporting, if I’m the first on the scene. Granted, I’m not recording anything with my tablet, which I left in Rin’s office. So my eyes and brain will have to do.

We dodge people running in the opposite direction and follow the shouting around a corner to a detention block. Smoke and bright light billow out of a room down the hall.

“Initiating fire suppression system in three, two, one,” a distant voice chimes, and one man dives from the room just in time for a heavy door to slam down.

Two heartbeats separate that and boom! The whole floor shakes. Kengo brings Atsumi down to the floor, and Rin jumps right at me. His arms wrap around my head, and we crash to the floor together. The ceiling smashes down where we were just standing.

Our breaths are rushed, chests rising and falling in time with each other. Rin tightens his arms around me, resting his cheek against mine for a moment. The close contact abates the fear racing through me. Is the whole building going to go down?

“It’s okay!” Atsumi shouts and then coughs.

“You okay?” Rin asks in my ear, and I nod my cheek against his. He peels himself off of me and pulls me up. Everyone brushes themselves off and steps over smoking debris. A man down the hall stands dazed, his head gushing blood.

“We need medical help!” Atsumi calls out, and someone far away responds, “On it!”

I hang back, pressing my back against the wall and wondering what’ll happen next. My shoulder aches where we hit the floor, but Rin was smart enough to protect my already battered head. He pushes the ceiling debris to the side as he approaches the room that was on fire.

“Was that…?” he asks, pointing at the room.

“The woman you just tested? Yeah,” Kengo responds.

“I thought that was a one-off thing.” Atsumi’s eyes are wide. “Your report from Kurai said you witnessed three androids burst into flames, but we hadn’t seen it happen here.” Atsumi rests her hand on the fire door that slammed down on the room. “Are we going to find nothing but ash in here?”

“Experience tells me yes,” Rin says, rubbing his head.

I chuckle, struck by the irony of the situation, and they all turn to look at me. “Man, that Narumi is one sly bitch who loves her proprietary technology. No one’s ever getting their hands on her Model Eights. Not if she can help it.”

Atsumi sighs. “Looks like we have more work to do than we thought.” She grabs Kengo, and they head off to the bleeding man down the hall receiving first aid.

Rin turns to me, a weary grin on his face. “I think… I think I’ll be working late the next few nights.”

Of course. Just when I was getting used to seeing him all the time. That one bit of physical contact when he rested his cheek against mine will have to hold me over, right?

“What else is new?” I shrug my shoulders before I poke him in the chest with my index finger. “And I was right about the woman. You owe me fifty credits.”