Chaos in Kadoma Ward – Chapter 5

We take three subway trains to get to Rin’s ward, Kadoma. According to the map on the train that I stared at for a good thirty minutes, Kadoma Ward is located on the northwest side of Shin-Osaka. It’s the third largest ward in the city, but it’s not locked by other wards on all sides. Rin takes out his tablet on the journey and shows me how the buildings and apartments on the outskirts of the city are actually the most desirable pieces of real estate. If there’s one thing rich people love, it’s their views.

“From a penthouse in one of these buildings, you can see all the way to the ocean.” Rin swipes along the map, his finger tracing a train line that leaves his ward and travels about a hundred kilometers out to a small seaside town.

I wonder what the ocean is like here. On Orihimé, we fish the seas and eat what we catch from there. Here, animals are precious. Is this sea dead? Is the water salty or fresh? Do people swim in it? What about boats? Is there a boating culture here?

I glance around at the people surrounding us on the subway train and keep my questions to myself for now. I have a million of them, but it’ll look strange if I interrogate Rin in public.

Exiting the subway, we’re drawn forward with the crowds, up an interesting magical flat stairway that pulls us along, and onto a small side street. I want to run away and start exploring! Peering down the adjacent street, I’m able to see people zipping along on an elevated walkway.

“Oooh! What’s that?” I point and stare, and people startle as they walk past me and my obvious ignorance. I guess they don’t get many tourists here.

Rin grabs my hand and pulls it down, a wry smile crossing his lips before mock seriousness takes over.

“That’s the butsu, but I thought we’d conquer that tomorrow.”

“Butsu? What’s a butsu?”

A little kid points and giggles at me. “Hear that, Mommy. She doesn’t know what a butsu is.”

“Can it, kid.” I stick my tongue out at him, and he pales before running back to his mom.

“Are you always this charming?” Rin turns me from the direction of this butsu-thing and towards a side street leading away from it. “I’ll explain the butsu later. I’m too hungry for lengthy explanations.”

“Explain while we walk, please. Is this butsu your normal form of conveyance? If not, do you use the subway all the time? What about cars or land vehicles like the one that picked us up at the airport?”

Rin’s jaw grinds and his eyes lose their usual brightness. He angles to the side and stops me around a corner. “Yumi, are you always going to pepper me with questions like this?”

“I’ve annoyed you, haven’t I?”

He stays silent. The last few weeks I’ve noticed that if he doesn’t have something nice to say, he says nothing at all. He would rather stare me down into silence than be unkind. An admirable trait most of the time, but this was not what I anticipated. He had always been gracious about my questions in the past.

“Okay.” I raise my hands in surrender. “No more questions.”

I don’t want to provoke him into getting rid of me, which he could do. I try to imagine myself owned and cared for by any of these other people swarming around us, and I cringe. Rin is my only chance here.

I can’t blow it.

As we walk, people wearing many colorful clothes stream past us, even some kimonos and more traditional dresses amongst the modern white, black, and gray clothing. Bright flashing signs project from every building, and small, personal flying vessels traverse byways in the sky above.

“Wow,” I breathe out. “This place is like a city from Earth. Before the wars.”

“It was modeled after Osaka in Old Japan, hence the name. But we way surpassed the city size and modern amenities after only a hundred years on the ground.”

We pass a storefront that brings me to a halt. Over the wide expanse of glass, a sign reads, ‘We Fix It. All-Day Android Repair.’ I stop and gawk, aware this has been my state since we came out of the subway. Inside, at least a few dozen rows of chairs are sparsely occupied by people, sitting and waiting. They either stare into space or read on their tablets. Some pace the front lobby or stand in one spot, their eyes closed.

I look at them all, my scalp crawling. I can’t tell the humans apart from the androids. Are they all humans? They can’t be. My gaze falls to rest on a pale woman with red hair, and my brain stutters to a stop.

“Wait.” I turn around and watch the people who pass us in the street as Rin eyes me, taking a step back. “Wait. She’s…” I jut my finger out at the red-haired woman in the shop and then play back our entire trip from the spaceport to the train to the subway.

“Not Japanese,” Rin fills in. “Yeah. Is that a surprise?”

I saw plenty of non-Japanese on the trip, and it didn’t occur to me that this was odd because I’d grown up around Terrans. But…

“Yeah, it’s a surprise. The ship that colonized Orihimé was one-hundred percent Japanese.” I turn back to the window and stare at the woman again, her copper-colored hair glowing under the shop lights. “They took it upon themselves to go back in time and revert to Heian era ways which meant isolationism and nothing even remotely foreign.”

The Heian era in Japan was ages ago on Earth, pre-industrialized, pre-modern, pre-anything-convenient. I never understood how such a modern society could go so far backwards, and it was a constant case to study as a journalist. But the people from Earth were modern and came to Orihimé and brought our society into the future.

The people here on Hikari never went backwards. They only went forwards. And it looks like they weren’t homogenous like Orihimé was.

“Wow.” Rin blows out a long breath, his eyes wide. “Yeah. The dominant culture here is Japanese, obviously, as our ship originally came from Osaka on Earth.” Rin grasps my arm and pulls me away from the window, but I turn to look at it again. Was she even human? “But Japan wasn’t homogenous when the ships left to colonize space. Japan’s population at that time was six percent foreigners. The ship’s demographics reflected that number.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t see it before,” I whisper, amazed my own eyes were blind to this. I should’ve been looking for this from the moment we landed.

But I guess I had other things to worry about, like being shot out of the sky, escaping near death, and running from killer androids. Narumi’s face swims in my memory, and I remember how she was different, rounder eyes and softer curls in her hair.

I’m actually relieved to hear this. It makes these people feel more real, more understanding.

“I think maybe you’re just tired and hungry like I am.” Rin directs me around a corner, and the sweet smell of fried noodles hits me upside the head. On the opposite side of the street, a ten-person counter noodle shop is busy with patrons, the pungent aroma of soy sauce, fried onions, cabbage, and limes rolls out of the kitchen on the breeze of a fan inside. A projected sign over the front reads “K&G Noodles.”

“Rin!” A man from behind the counter calls out. He breaks into a huge smile as we approach the restaurant.

“Kotashi, we need two seats if you can spare them.” Rin turns to me, lowering his voice. “Best noodles in the ward. I like them with extra hot sauce.”

Kotashi moves along the line of people eating at his counter, apologizing and shifting people down two seats to make room for Rin and me. A young woman, her hair in a bun and an apron around her waist, emerges from the back of the restaurant to wipe down our spots and set two glasses of water on the counter.

“Beer? Saké?” She asks, wiping her hands on her apron.

“Beer,” Rin says, glancing at me. I nod as I slide into the counter seat. “Beer for her as well.”

The woman turns and leaves, pushing through the double doors into the kitchen. Over the counter, I watch her slide past an older woman flipping noodles in a scorching hot wok.

“Hey, Gina!” Rin leans over the counter, waving at the woman frying up noodles. Her face brightens, and she hurries as she flips the noodles onto a plate, turns off the wok, and leaves the kitchen, barreling towards us.

“Rin! There you are!” The woman, about the same size as Rin and I put together, encircles him in a crushing hug. “It’s not like you to be gone for over six weeks. Where have you been?” She pulls back to arm’s length and looks him over. I try not to get in the way. No one has even given me so much as a glance yet.

“Busy with work.”

I raise my eyebrows at him from behind Gina, but he shrugs, unable to bring me into the conversation. Fine.

“You know, about a week ago,” Gina continues, “I ran into Atsumi at the herbalist, and I asked after you, but she said you were off-world, and she couldn’t talk about it.” She worries her apron between her fingers. “Why didn’t you return my messages?”

“She was awfully worried about you,” Kotashi says as he places our beers on the counter before moving off to check on his other customers.

Since I might as well be a chair or other inanimate object in this conversation, I take the time to survey the restaurant. Men and women eat fried noodles loaded with vegetables and some kind of fake meat along the counter. Either everyone is reading on their tablets or talking to the person next to them. The place feels familiar, like any eating establishment back home, relaxing me with its cracked wood counter and faded plastic chairs.

On the opposite wall, Kotashi has opted for old-fashioned paper posters instead of the wall of screens or projections I’ve seen everywhere else. An image of a Japanese woman, her hair in upswept curls and wearing a kimono holds a glass bottle of some dark-colored drink, and written in English along the bottom is a name I’ve never seen before. What is Coca-Cola?

“You know I’ll always be fine. You shouldn’t worry too much.” Rin taps me on the shoulder. I tear my eyes from the vintage posters. “I want to introduce you to my…” Rin’s eyes blank with panic as he grasps for a word, any word to describe me. “Friend?”

Gina’s demeanor changes as she turns her back on Rin and realizes I was sitting next to him on purpose. He mouths at me, “Help.” We never talked about how I’ll be presented to other people. Is it customary to call out someone’s dependent status?

Gina covers her heart with her hand. Uh oh. She took ‘friend’ the wrong way. “Rin, you’ve met someone new. I’m… I’m so pleased.”

We’re attracting attention now, people turning and acknowledging Rin, and he’s becoming uncomfortable. His shoulders are up around his ears, and he stammers, “Well… uh…”

If I were a person who was easily embarrassed, I’d get up and walk straight out of the restaurant. And though I feel bad for Rin, he should’ve thought ahead to this awkward moment. Did he really think he was just going to introduce me around town, and no one would suspect anything?

“Hello, Gina. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Yumi, and we’re not dating.” I bow to her, being sure to smile and reassure her, even though her cheeks flush with embarrassment.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to assume —”

“It’s all right,” I interrupt her. I drop my voice and gesture for her to come closer. “I’m, um, a new member of Rin’s household.” I jerk my lips in a fake smile and shrug my shoulders at both of them. Unfortunately, this does not seem to alleviate Gina’s embarrassment.

‘I’ve never owned anything, not even an animal.’ Rin finds ownership of living things to be shameful, and these people, Kotashi and Gina, both seem to know him well. Gina’s face morphs from pleased to unhappy, no doubt wondering how I’ve managed to change Rin after he’s been missing from their lives for a short time. I’m afraid my very existence will cause problems.

“We’ll have two of your specials, extra hot sauce on mine,” Rin says, changing the subject and clearing his throat. “Dumplings too?”

I nod in agreement, trying to smile again at Gina who looks like someone just ran over her dog. Did she want us to be dating? Or no?

Or is that even a thing here? I have no idea.

“Sure. Coming right up. We’ll talk later, Rin,” Gina says, narrowing her eyes at him.

As she heads to the kitchen, we return to our seats and sip our beers.

“I’m in a lot of trouble,” Rin mumbles, watching Kotashi and Gina whisper to each other as she cooks up our meals.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. It’ll just take some getting used to.” I reach over to pat his hand, but he jerks away from me. I broke my own rule. I thought showing some empathy would smooth things over, but it appears not.

Kotashi returns to our spots at the counter, setting a plate of dumplings between Rin and me.

“So how’s business been?” Rin asks, trying to save the conversation.

“Steady and climbing since the android repair shop switched to all-day service, but I’ve been getting up earlier and earlier every day to make the noodles.” Kotashi stretches his arms and winces. “This body isn’t getting any younger.”

Rin stuffs a dumpling in his mouth, chews for a moment and swallows with a mouthful of beer. “But you had an android taking care of the noodles.” Rin leans forward and looks back at the kitchen, past Gina to the woman slicing vegetables.

Kotashi scoffs and waves his hand. “I got rid of that one. Sold it about four weeks ago. People complained that the noodles were not the same. Turns out, noodles need a human touch, unlike chopped vegetables.” He jerks his head towards the back of the restaurant.

Wait. She’s an android? I look at the woman again, the one who wiped down our spot and brought us waters, and curse modern technology. She looks like any other person I passed today.

“It’s a shame my master noodle maker grew up and became a policeman.” Kotashi reaches across the counter to bump fists with Rin. “You know,” he says to me, “Rin was the best employee I ever had.”

Rin nods as he works his way through another dumpling and wipes his mouth. In a flash, six of the eight dumplings are gone. I grab the plate and move it to the other side of my plate, so he doesn’t eat them all.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, watching the dumplings go. “I’m really hungry.” He clears his throat and gulps his beer again. “It’s true. Kotashi and Gina helped keep me off the streets as a kid. If it hadn’t been for them, I might have ended up working for a crime syndicate or knee-deep in drugs or… Whatever else lies in the gutters here. Closest thing to family I have.”

I picture a young and cocky Rin, living in rags, commuting from his orphanage to this restaurant early every morning to make hand-pulled noodles. I smile at him, unable to hide the fact that learning more about him makes him more appealing and attractive, less nebulous. He avoids eye contact with me, nodding down at his plate. Maybe he’s ashamed of his past, but I don’t care. He’s becoming more and more human, soft and complex, with every bit of information I gather. And with each passing minute, I want to know more.

“Well, then it’s nice to meet you, Kotashi. I look forward to learning more about Rin in the future.” I nod to him, and his returning smile is full of sarcasm and mirth.

“I’m sure we’ll have plenty to talk about,” Kotashi says with a chuckle. He winks at me as he moves on to help people further down the counter.

Rin sighs, closing his eyes.

“We didn’t think it was going to be easy, did we?” I whisper at him.

“Are you going to eat those dumplings, or what?” Rin tries to snag one with his chopsticks, but I jerk the plate farther away from him.

“Don’t even try it.”