Chaos in Kadoma Ward – Chapter 32

The cell block is quiet for a long stretch of hours. I let Ryoko have the cot because that’s the right thing to do. She’s been stuck here for weeks, and I’ve seen the outside, the city, lived a whole other life while she’s dealt with Narumi and Aoi Uma. That is entirely unfair, and if I have any say in what she does when she gets out of here, I’m going to suggest a vacation with lots of booze.

I sit with the bird on my lap and my arm through the bars to the next cell, resting my hand on Shintaro’s foot. This way, if I doze off, maybe I’ll feel him move when he wakes up.

I’m not surprised they don’t feed us nor ask us if we want to use the bathroom. The wall screen has been muted since Narumi was handed the sword of Hikari, but we can tell she’s busy rearranging life in Shin-Osaka. My eyes drift closed watching her attend funerals, comforting those in mourning, and pledging to do everything she can to rebuild businesses and homes.

I blink once, almost asleep, when I see her addressing a crowd of people. “We have obtained evidence straight from Aka Matsuba headquarters that it was Aka Matsuba’s engineers who caused our Fukusha Model Six and earlier androids to fail. This is a heinous crime, and one I will do my best to correct. It’s clear Buichi Tamura had been working at least a decade on this initiative to discredit my corporation and drive us into bankruptcy. We vow to discontinue and recall all older android models and replace them with new Model Eights at a reduced price to owners.”

What a load of bullshit.

Everyone either stares forward or nods in agreement. Why aren’t they all objecting? Can’t they see this is a poor excuse for a revolution? They can’t, though. They’re all too exhausted or sad to do anything.

Poor Tamura. He was a hard man, but he loved his corporation. If he had caused this stunt, then I couldn’t really blame him for it. People lost their lives to those crazy androids, but it wasn’t half as evil as the shit Narumi is pulling right now. From everything I’ve heard of Aka Matsuba, they employed the smartest people, and they could have done this. But I doubt it. They focused on animal and agricultural technology, and though both weren’t very sexy or in fashion, they were profitable and respectable.

I watch the news feed, and after three or four stories, I realize something is missing. Where is Kiiroi Yama and its CEO, Yori Okamoto? Where are they?

Why haven’t they spoken up?

I fall asleep, my dreams swirling around Rin, dancing in the club, the beat of the music so loud it shakes the floor.

Wait.

I jerk awake, and the floor shakes again under me. Tamura’s bird is across the room, sleeping perched on the side of her old owner’s deathbed.

Shintaro groans and rolls over, and Ryoko stands up, grasping the bars of our enclosure.

“Hey! What’s going on out there?” she yells at the door. The guard left some time ago, and the wall screen is blank and quiet. I must have fallen asleep longer than I thought I had.

No one answers but the floors vibrate again.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” I say, looking around for anything I can use as a weapon.

“Yumi? What’s going on?” Shintaro finally sits up and sees me. “Are you okay? Where the hell are we?”

“Too many questions. Not enough time.” I turn to Ryoko. “What should we do? Any ideas?”

“Uh, we take apart the cots and fashion up some weapons? Then when they come for us, we fight.” She flips the flimsy mattress off the cot.

“What makes you think they’ll come for us? They could just leave us here.”

“Who is ‘they?’” Shintaro asks, rubbing his face and trying to wake up. “Look, the last thing I remember I was heading out of work and walking back to my apartment. I think someone jumped me along the way. So I have no clue what’s going on here.”

“We’ve been taken prisoner by Aoi Uma. Narumi Ogawa has taken over the city and ousted Aka Matsuba. The androids went crazy, and the whole city is in chaos. We’re in a half-constructed building on the south side of town, and it’s shaking like it’s being bombed. Is that enough for you?”

“Shh!” Shintaro holds a finger to his mouth. A door slams in the distance. We move away from the bars as running footsteps get closer. Whoever this is, they’re in a hurry.

The door bursts open, and Ryoko runs in.

Everyone stops.

“I’ve found them,” she says, her voice wooden and monotone. She blinks her eyes a few times. “I understand.”

“What the hell?” Shintaro says, his face pale.

The real Ryoko hangs her head, butting her forehead against the bars. “Is that really what I look like?”

Fake-Ryoko crosses the room to the desk where the guard usually sits, accesses the tablet, and the doors click open.

“This is all kinds of fucked up.” Shintaro moves slowly from his cell. “Are they making duplicates of us now?”

I shake my head, unable to speak. I would give anything to see Rin right now. My how times change. Rin himself would laugh to hear my total change of heart over him. It wasn’t enough that I slept with him, but I gave him my cold, dead heart and he revived it. That lucky guy. I really hope I see him again.

“What do you want?” I ask Fake-Ryoko, raising my voice.

“The situation has changed in the last two hours,” Fake-Ryoko says, coming to me. “Aka Matsuba loyalists have taken over Kadoma Ward. Someone released a video of Narumi telling her top chiefs which wards to destroy first, and now the entire city is in a state of war. We’re the only ones who can stop it now.”

“We? Who’s we?”

Fake-Ryoko sighs. “Kiiroi Yama. This is Atsumi.”

Well, that explains a lot.

“How did you get ahold of this?” I wave to Fake-Ryoko’s body.

“We’ve been working on hacking the androids for some time. At least, two years. We tried with Kay from K&G Noodles, but she had extra security, probably because they were using her to spy on Rin and then you. Getting to her was hard. But this one? They abandoned her in an alley after she led you on that chase.”

“Abandoned her?” I imagine her deactivated in a dumpster. Not a pretty picture.

Fake-Ryoko plows on. “We got lucky. It’s a good thing Rin had all those drones tailing you. I bet Narumi and her men would’ve come back for this android eventually, but we got to her first.” Her grin is maniacal.

Ryoko groans. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

Fake-Ryoko grabs my shoulders, but in my head, I imagine it’s Atsumi, and I freeze up.

“You need to get out of the building alive. Take whatever’s yours and get ready to go.” She spins away, and the building shakes, the lights flickering.

“Wait! What about Rin?” I look at Ryoko and Shintaro, staring at me, wide-eyed. “How do I know he’s not dead? You don’t exactly like me. Why should I go anywhere with you?”

My eyes fill with tears. I’m on my last thread of sanity, and I just want everything to end, to give me some peace. I’d exchange my right arm for a week on a beach right now.

“Pull yourself together,” Fake-Ryoko commands me. “I don’t exactly like you either. You distracted my highest ranking kenryōshi and caused a shitload of trouble. But Rin is coming to get you. Kazuo is coming too. That data you’ve been hoarding? Everyone wants it, including us. But I want you to take it and sell it to Shiroi Nami in exchange for their support.”

The lights flicker again, and Fake-Ryoko pulls a flashlight from her backpack.

“And why would I do a thing like that?”

Fake-Ryoko pauses while Atsumi thinks on the other end. “Because I know you love Rin and he loves you. So if you want to stay alive, you’ll support Kiiroi Yama’s military coup, or you’ll both be dead.”