Chaos in Kadoma Ward – Chapter 33

This won’t be easy. Akikazé is out there somewhere, and there’s no way security would’ve abandoned this building. People will be fighting here till the end.

Stepping out of the holding cell area, the guard who was watching us lies dead on the floor. His open eyes stare up at the ceiling, his neck twisted at an acute angle. I pat the lump under my shirt, Tamura’s bird, who I’ll have to name at some point soon. Her claws scratch at my belly, and she grasps my bra with her beak. It takes a lot of self-control not to giggle or gasp or reach in and remove her, but I’m not going to leave her. I’m not a monster like Narumi.

While crossing the empty floor with Ryoko and Shintaro, I put together the last pieces of this puzzle. Looks like both Aoi Uma and Kiiroi Yama have been jockeying positions to take over Aka Matsuba, and now they’re going to fight it out. They’re the biggest corporations left. Who else has the resources to run this world?

“Wait,” I whisper, looking left and right and proceeding to Narumi’s desk. “Where is it?” I open and close the top drawers, but my tablet and data device are not anywhere in sight.

The bird squawks and tries to free herself, so I pull her out of my shirt and set her on the desk.

“Yumi, we don’t have time for this,” Shintaro hisses at me.

“She has my tablet and my data device. I can’t lose them again.”

Fake-Ryoko crosses around to the same side of the desk as me. “Are these the devices that hold your proprietary information?”

“Yeah. The same. They have the files you want me to sell to Shiroi Nami. The data device is password protected, so they haven’t gotten anything for themselves yet. If I can’t find my tablet and the data device, then your brilliant idea is toast.”

Fake-Ryoko rifles through the drawers as well and doesn’t find it. She pauses for a moment.

“There’s no video evidence Narumi has the devices on her. They’re probably in the offices on the twentieth floor. Research and development.”

“Is that where they took you to be scanned, Ryoko?”

“Yeah. Twentieth floor. But it’s protected. They used their wrists to open the doors.”

The floor shakes again as the building rocks with another explosion. “What the hell are your people doing here?” I ask Fake-Ryoko.

She… It smiles, and I’m chilled with how familiar it is. “Floors eight through nineteen are Aoi Uma security and administrative offices. We have four teams currently flushing them out, down and into the streets.”

Shintaro moves to the window and presses his face against it, trying to look down. “I can’t see anything. We’re up too high.” He shakes his head as he crosses to the desk. “We have to do something.”

I bark out a laugh. “You could say that.”

“We need to get out of this building before we’re found.” Shintaro is the voice of reason.

I’ve never been good at being reasonable.

“I need my tablet and the data device. I can’t lose them again.”

“Yumi, you can’t be serious. Your life is not worth this.”

But it is. Chiéko told me that this data would save my life, and she was right. I can’t go to Shiroi Nami empty-handed, especially if it takes years for rescue to show up. This is my only way out, the only play I have left.

I glance at Fake-Ryoko and then sigh. “What do we do?”

She shakes her head. “I’m not sure we can do both. We’re running out of time.”

Have I ever gotten anything in life by not being stubborn? No. And this seems like a good time to be firm.

I fold my arms across my chest. “I’m not going anywhere or doing anything unless you help get these two out.”

“Fine,” she says, capitulating easily. “Just how do you suggest we get them out of here?”

“The same way I got in.”

—-

“I’m calling up an elevator for us that’ll bring us to the twenty-fourth floor, then we have to transfer to a different elevator bank to get down to the basement and the UPN drop.”

Fake-Ryoko strides to the elevators, and we all scramble to keep up. Since the bird doesn’t want to be in my shirt anymore, I let her ride on my shoulder and hope for the best. Shintaro is right at my elbow.

“How did this happen?” he asks, waving at the Ryoko doppelgänger out ahead of us.

I shake my head, tired of communicating every last little thing about this nightmare. If I had the time, we’d sit down and discuss Narumi stealing consciousness from people and inserting it into androids, probably the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.

But no time.

“Yumi,” he insists, grabbing my elbow, “are there others?”

“Probably.” I sigh, the enormity of the situation rolling over me. “Tamura, definitely. I don’t know who else.”

“Rin?”

I trip over my own feet. “Dear god, I hope not.”

He exaggerates a puff of breath and wipes his brow. “Phew. I know I’m an asshole, but there’s no way I’d want you sleeping with an android.”

“Who says I’ve been sleeping with Rin?” A stupid smile ruins my poker face.

“That does. The same smile I saw when you called me after our dinner.” He takes a deep breath and lets it out. “Good. Let’s get out of this alive, so we can all return to happier times.” He glances at the bird, his head cocked to the same side as her. Her plumage stands up, a little show of bravado for the handsome man. Shintaro laughs. He was good with birds back home. “What are you going to call her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Hōseki-chan?” It means ‘jewel,’ and I figure the name’s appropriate for such a flashy bird.

“I like it.” He strokes her breast while we wait, and she coos at him. I laugh despite the situation. All the girls (and most of the guys) fall for Shintaro.

An elevator door opens, and we all move straight for it except for Fake-Ryoko. She pauses, listening to Atsumi talking in her head.

“I need to get something. Wait here.” She walks off towards the jail we were just in. I crane my neck to watch her go, but she disappears behind a wall.

“She gives me the creeps.” Ryoko shudders. “What could she possibly need? If she’s not back soon, maybe we should continue on?”

“You’ve never stepped outside this building, and she has a direct link to everything that’s going on in the floors below us. We’re not going anywhere without her.”

“Right, right,” she mutters, her leg bouncing. I can’t blame her for wanting to bolt. I would too if I were in her situation.

Doubt crawls up the back of my spine as we wait for Fake-Ryoko to come back. What’s she doing and why did we have to wait here? I hold up a finger and creep away in the direction she went in, hoping no one will follow me.

Proceeding around the corner back to the jail cells, I stop short, watching a puddle of blood leak from the guard Fake-Ryoko killed. She reaches into a bloody, open hole in the man’s right wrist and extracts the microchip there, holding it up between two bright red fingers. It’s tiny, smaller than a grain of rice. Atsumi knew just where to grab it from.

I turn away and head back, wishing I would listen less to my journalist’s gut when it thinks there’s a story to document. Really. I could’ve spared myself that picture.

Fake-Ryoko returns to us moments later, wiping her fingers on her pants.

“Don’t those things stop working once the body itself is dead?” I ask, not explaining myself. We all step into the open elevator together.

“No. We used to have chips that took medical diagnostics as well, but they failed often or threw off too many false readings. Now, the chips only carry identification signatures and GPS signals. Plus, they’re smaller and less obtrusive. It also makes them harder to dig out, unfortunately.” She grimaces, a human expression I’m not used to seeing from this android.

I remember when I wanted to remove my own, and Rin wouldn’t let me. My heart aches for him, my whole body wanting to see him again.

Change the subject.

“Why do we have to take two elevators down to the UPN drop?”

“Kiiroi Yama has access cut off in this bank from the twenty-fourth floor down. They’re forcing people out through the stairwells.”

I try to map out the building in my head. The UPN drop is on the ground floor. Floors eight through nineteen are for security and administration. Floors twenty through twenty-four are for research and development, I guess? The rest must be apartments, labs, or offices for the higher-ups.

The elevator door opens on the twenty-fourth floor, smoke wafting along the corridor. The door to the stairwell is barred closed, but we can still hear shouts coming from there, echoing up the cavernous stairs. I’m tempted to go to the window and look down, but I stick close to Fake-Ryoko, keeping Ryoko and my brother in front of me and bringing up the rear. Hōseki-chan clutches my ponytail with her beak, trying to stay on. I wish I had a weapon, but these floors seem to be completed, and no one left their tools around for me to pick up.

We snake through hallways, and I cringe every time an explosion detonates and shakes the building. We’re closer to the fighting. The booms vibrate up through my legs, and my ears ring with the changes in pressure. They must be blowing out windows. Hōseki-chan cries out and flaps her wings.

“Hush. Or I’ll put you back in my shirt,” I whisper to her.

“Through here,” Fake-Ryoko directs, and now that we’re on the other side of the building, a new elevator bank hidden behind maintenance access doors awaits us.

I wonder why no one has come to stop us, and then the whole building shakes with another explosion and pieces of the ceiling rain down on us. Ryoko screams, throwing her arms over her head and diving into the open elevator. Shintaro jumps in after her. A metal joist in the ceiling swings down and clobbers Fake-Ryoko upside the head. She flies past me as I crouch down and try to save the bird and me from the same fate.

“No!” I let Hōseki-chan fly off into the elevator and grab for Fake-Ryoko, her body sprawled out amongst the debris. Now I know why no one has come to stop us. If we’re having this many issues several floors above all the mayhem, I can only imagine what it’s like in the thick of things downstairs.

“Shit. Come on. You can’t be dead,” I insist, tugging on her hand. Her eyes stare at the ceiling, but she’s not deactivated. Her legs and arms twitch, her inner workings probably trying to repair themselves. I crouch over her face and stare down into her eyes.

“Atsumi, this Ryoko android is damaged. Can you fix her? I don’t think I can take everyone else down to the UPN drop on my own.”

I blink away the fear that this is the real Ryoko I promised I’d help escape this place. Tipping her on her side, I run my fingers along the indentation on the side of her head, impressed that she’s bleeding. They certainly make them as real as possible.

“Is it dead, Yumi?” Ryoko asks. Her voice shakes, and I can only imagine what she’s feeling right now.

I wait for a long moment, hoping, praying Atsumi can fix Fake-Ryoko from wherever she is. But after twenty seconds, I lose hope. I sit back away from her and let the dread and fear wash over me.

How can I help my friends, my brother, out of this building without this android’s help? I’m not a fighter. I’m a journalist for fuck’s sake. I don’t know this building. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t have a tablet nor any other way of contacting Atsumi or Kiiroi Yama. I just want to get out of this alive.

I close my eyes and remember those last few moments on Kurai before I almost drowned to death. An android tried to kill me, and then Rin swam out of the dark depths and saved me. I wish he were here right now instead of this hunk of junk. My throat tightens as I consider trying to make it alone through this. At least I had this conduit to Atsumi. But it would appear the Fukusha Model Eight is not everything it’s cracked up to be.

Fake-Ryoko blinks five times and sits up. I scream and jump away from it, my heart beating so swiftly I’m afraid it will break out of my chest and run away.

“Diagnostics complete. Core motor functions are at acceptable levels. Right side exterior functions are cut off. I can move, but I will be hampered.” Fake-Ryoko tries to stand up using her right arm for leverage, but it doesn’t budge. She switches to the left side and swings herself up to standing position. She hobbles past me and into the elevator, and I burst into a sob.

I just want this day to be over.

I follow her into the elevator, and my sob turns to a laugh as I spot Hōseki-chan perched on the top of Shintaro’s head. Sanity has become some faraway and elusive concept, never to be seen again.

Or, you know, maybe it’s something I get back after a hot bath and a stiff drink.

Either one.

The elevator descends, and as we approach the floors under fire, the explosions grow louder and then softer again as we travel past them. I breathe a massive sigh of relief when the doors open on the basement depot. We’re not anywhere near the UPN drop, which should be on the other side of the building, so we have to advance slowly through the hallways of storage rooms and laundries, being careful not to call attention to ourselves. Footsteps pass our location several times, but we freeze and press ourselves against the walls, out of sight. After a few moments, the basement is silent again.

“The way is clear to the UPN drop,” Fake-Ryoko whispers and then waves us down the hallway, past the other bank of elevators, and into the UPN drop area.

“How are we getting out of here again?” Shintaro asks, watching me grab the biggest UPN bins from the far wall and bring them over to the access point. I use the wall screen to open the UPN door and check to make sure nothing needs to be emptied from the drop before we use it.

“You’re going to get in this box, and the UPN will send you back to K&G Noodles, where you’ll meet up with someone from Kiiroi Yama, right?” I ask Fake-Ryoko.

“Yes. K&G Noodles has been secured. Their android has been deactivated, and Kotashi and Gina have both been escorted home.”

“I’m not going without you,” Shintaro says, grasping my arm. “We shouldn’t be separated again.”

I throw my arms around him and squeeze him tight. “I need you to take Hōseki-chan, find Kazuo, and go ahead as the representative of our family to the Southern Continent. That’s where Shiroi Nami is. I need to go back and get my tablet and the data device. If I don’t show up, if I don’t make it, you need to secure the help of Shiroi Nami with whatever you can think of that our family can provide.”

“You know that’s not much,” he says, deflating.

“Here’s the thing, though.” I pull myself in close to him, so the others can’t hear. Ryoko has already stepped into a bin and rolled into a ball. She’s done and ready to go. “They want the empress’s DNA.”

“Who does?” His eyes are wide.

“Pretty much all of them do, so it’s a foregone conclusion that someone will get it eventually if I recover my tablet and data device. We have to think about who we want to control that. If they can clone animals, they can clone people. They’re already making android copies. But they want to move onto something different. They want to go back to the old ways because everything here has stagnated.”

“And cloning the empress will give them that? That’s insane.”

I shake my head. “It’s not my idea. But you know she’s special. She can talk to any animal. Any. I’ve seen it myself. Who knows what other talents are hidden there?”

“This is madness,” Shintaro breathes out.

“I have an even madder Plan B. If they don’t get the royal DNA, we’re going to step up.”

“No.” His face is the epitome of surprise as the building shakes around us.

“Yes. Our family has done it before, and we’ll do it again. You go ahead and be our ambassador. We’ll make this work somehow with a marriage or DNA donation or something.”

“Yumi,” he pleads, as I direct him to the box. “I am as gay as a unicorn. If anyone should go ahead, you should.”

“Nice try. No time for arguing. It’s a shitty plan, but it’s all I’ve got.” I push him down next to Hōseki-chan and shut the top. “Be nice to my bird!”

“Let’s do this,” I mumble at Fake-Ryoko, and we both push the crates one by one into the drop, her limping along next to me.

“I better come out whole on the other side!” Shintaro yells from inside his crate as the door closes on them. I watch Fake-Ryoko program in the destination and breathe a sigh of relief as the crates deploy.

Well, at least one thing went right!

“To the twentieth floor?” I ask her, and she nods.

I try to stick by her side as we make our way back to the elevator bank, but she’s slow and twitchy, her insides a total mess.

“You’re not looking so good,” I say to her as we round the corner.

Flashing out of my peripheral vision, a sword comes down on Fake-Ryoko, slicing across her neck and sending her head flying down the hall.

I duck and roll. Shit. I have nothing to defend myself with!

“You’re not going anywhere, sweetheart,” Akikazé says, running up behind me and grabbing my pants waistband. “Where are your friends? Your brother?”

He jerks me around and pins me up against the wall, pushing so hard on my chest I can’t breathe.

“Gone,” I gasp, my vision blackening. “Just me left. Can’t breathe.”

He lets go, and I crash to my feet, sucking air in quickly.

Akikazé sighs. “I came back for you and the tablet and the data device, only to find you all gone. I’m tired of running after you.”

He brings his sword up to my shoulder, positioning it so the blade is not far from my neck. I swallow and try not to move.

“You’re coming with me upstairs, and you’re going to give me the password, or you’re done. No more deals. No more fooling around.”

I break into a sweat, letting my lonely and pathetic (yet accomplished) life play out at ten times speed in my head, while Akikazé leans down.

“I’m going to end you, and I’ll enjoy it. Move.”