Crash Land on Kurai – Chapter 21

“Who did you say she is?”

My eyes are glued shut, a thick film of crust and sleep keeping them from opening. I moan involuntarily, unable to disconnect from my painful body. Wherever I am, I’m on a freezing floor, lying on my side.

“She says she’s Yumi Minamoto — one of the survivors from the alien spaceship. You have other people from her ship, right? Why don’t you ask them?”

That’s Rin. He can’t be more than a meter away from me.

“We were told to bring the survivors. You paid the highest bounty, so this is what you get. This is no time to be picky.” I don’t recognize this voice at first, and then I realize this is Rin’s colleague, Kengo. At least, I think it is. I only heard him speak once. “Remember, if you don’t want her, we’ll take her back to Tamura. He’s already shown interest in her, no matter what her name is.”

“Now now. Let’s not be hasty,” the woman says, her voice calm and easy. “I paid the bounty, and now I get to see what I bought.”

My body cools, shivers racing up my spine. If I had doubts about the way this society worked, I don’t anymore. Self-worth is measured in credits, and I’m running at a deficit.

Hands grab me and pull me up. I keep my eyes closed and my body loose, not wanting to give away I’ve heard anything.

“Yumi Minamoto. Is that your name?” The woman asks me. I lift my hands to rub the sleep from my eyes, and even this hurts. I wince as I peel them open.

The woman leans across a table, her eyes drilling down into me. Her hair is loose around her shoulders, and she wears a traditional kimono, the first I’ve seen on this world. The expensive silk fabric is awash in blues, the family crest of a galloping horse on her left breast. Her fingers drum on the table, short, plain fingernails pumping up and down.

I’m not sure what to say, so I keep quiet.

“What have you done to her? She’s damaged.” She waves to my face, and I lift my fingers to touch my swollen temple. They come away red with blood. Great. Add this injury to the list. “I’m going to have to dock you for that.” Her glare shifts to Rin. He nods once, aware of his misdeeds.

All of my hopes for connecting to Rin and making him an ally wither and die in my chest. I should have tried to seduce him like Kazuo suggested. Maybe I would have gotten farther.

My eyes jerk around as I catalog the room. What the hell is going on here? Bounty? And didn’t Rin say something about Aoi Uma being out of control? Who’s side is he on?

“I understand. She ran and was difficult to capture. But it’s no excuse.” He bows, and it takes all my willpower not to knee him in the face.

“Maybe if you hadn’t swiped my feet out from underneath me, I wouldn’t be bleeding right now.”

He closes his eyes. “That’s entirely possible,” he grumbles.

“I asked you a question.” The woman turns her attention back to me. “Are you really a Minamoto?”

“Yes, it’s my name, but I don’t know if it means more than that. No one has spoken to me about my name.” This is my opportunity to learn more, even though I’m in rough shape. My voice is weary and scratchy, and I swallow to keep it steady. I wish Kazuo was here. I wonder what happened to him.

“Minamoto is a forbidden name here. I’m surprised you’re still alive. Tamura does not take treason lightly.” I raise my eyebrows at this. This is the first I’m hearing of it. How forbidden and how treasonous is Minamoto and how did it get that way? “But I’m sure you’ll be useful as a Minamoto. Shiroi Nami is exiled, and there’s nothing stopping them from becoming our allies.”

Shiroi Nami, White Wave. Red Pinecone, Blue Horse, Yellow Mountain, and White Wave. The people in exile belong to another corporation!

“I’ll just need to negotiate your contract, but I don’t want any trouble.” She turns to Rin. “She’ll have to behave, or I’m coming back to Kiiroi Yama for an exchange of assets.”

Kengo bristles. “Kiiroi Yama does not exchange assets. All contracts are final.”

She lifts an eyebrow at him. “We’ll see about that.”

My heart beats up in my throat, making it hard to swallow. “You’re going to buy out my contract?”

She picks up a tablet from the table, accesses something, and turns it to face me. On the screen, a picture of me floats next to a series of stats. I recognize the picture as the one Rin took of me before the test, me tired and weary. I can’t make out any of the smaller statistics on me, but the two entries at the top stick out. The first line reads “Contracted by Aka Matsuba – Locked – Debt Owed” and the second line reads “5,030 credits.” Every credit he gave me was debt owed? Wow. Thanks for that.

“Normally, I’d pass you up, since Aka Matsuba already owns you. But I have this nifty little piece of hackerware that my brilliant programmers whipped up for me.” She taps on her tablet, and my entry switches from “Contracted by Aka Matsuba” to “Contracted by Aoi Uma.” My debt owed is to them now.

“Looks like your status has changed.”

If I had any idea this kind of thing could happen, I would’ve convinced Kazuo to stay put. Ugh. This is what we get for being impulsive.

“You’re actually a pretty good bargain. I’ve paid more for a dog.” She smiles as she swipes her finger over the screen. “I’m not sure what I’ll get for five thousand credits, but I’ve been assured you show promise. Plus, I’m sure you’ll make a great bargaining chip. One way or another.” She straightens, coming to her full height and smoothing out her kimono. Glaring down her nose, she reminds me of a strict teacher or disapproving mother. This does not bode well for me.

I look over my shoulder at Rin and then at Kengo. They both seem pleased to be done with this chore.

I take a deep breath and try to quiet my mounting fears. I have no idea if this woman is better or worse than Tamura, but now I have no choice. I can only take things one step at a time because I can’t see any further ahead. Who knows what she’ll ask me to do, tell me to do. I’ll have to play along until I find my people and know what’s going on. She has other survivors from Orihimé. Maybe it’s someone I know?

“I’ll take her belongings, and you will bring her back to the cells.” The woman holds out her hand awaiting my bag, the tablet, my knife.

“Is Aoi Uma your corporation?” I ask, waiting for Rin to move me forward.

The woman slips her tablet into the obi of her kimono. I’m pleased she doesn’t yell at me for speaking out of turn. “It is. It was my father’s, and his father’s, and his mother’s and so on. You may call me Miss Narumi.”

“I’ll wait for you here,” Kengo says, rolling his eyes at Rin.

Rin pushes me forward, past Narumi’s desk, through a door, and down the hall to a series of jail cells. At this point, I’m certain we’re underground by how cold and dark this place is. The stone walls sweat moisture, and air moves through the halls via ducts in the ceilings. Being underground makes sense, especially when the outdoor environment is so harsh.

The hallway is eerily quiet. We pass several guards, and it’s not until the third person that I realize they all look the same and stand with an immobile precision that can’t be human. When I turn my head to look at the third guard, he turns his head and looks at me. His blinking is measured and precise, each movement calculated.

So the androids here aren’t all dead.

I shy away from them at the door to a closed cell, backing into Rin. Then I hate myself for trusting him. He’s the reason I’m bought and paid for.

He leans forward, his lips at my ear. “I know you’re worth more than what she paid. You’re now my eyes here.”

“What?” I breathe, as the nearest android opens a cell door.

“You returned to the life pod to find something valuable. Look for it here. I’ll be back.”

I freeze like I’ve been doused with cold water. What does he know?

I glance over my shoulder at him, and he nods in response. Narumi held my shipmates hostage, and this is my only way of getting in to see them. Aoi Uma is out of control, and I’m the only one who can worm my way inside.

Rin gave me what I wanted.

“In you go,” he says, gesturing to the open door. “I’m sure you want to see who’s inside.”

—-

“Yumi!” Ryoko leaps forward and hugs me, and I yelp as she squeezes my injuries. “Oh no, I’m so sorry.” She lets go and pats my arms, but I hug her back.

“It’s okay,” I say, peeling myself away from her. “It’s good to see you too. I’m just a little worse for wear.”

Across the room, two people I recognize from the ship, but I don’t know their names, lie on mats, injuries plainly displayed. One man has a broken arm and is as white as a sheet. The other woman bleeds from her head and her leg. I’m not surprised Gen is here, and he doesn’t look happy to see me. I am surprised by the inside of the ‘cell’ as it’s more like a small bedroom with an attached bathroom than a jail. There’s not much room for this many people, but they’re making it work.

I keep my eyes on Gen as I step over his outstretched legs to kneel in the center of the room. He looks tired and disheveled but no more injured than the last time I saw him.

“What happened to you?” he asks, his voice filled with annoyance.

“Kazuo and I made it back to the life pod, but I didn’t find the data device Chieko gave me.”

He diverts his eyes to the other side of the room. “Did you find Shien?”

“Yeah, but we weren’t able to bury him. We were taken by members of a different corporation and held in a secure temple far from here.”

“Corporation? What do you mean?” Ryoko asks, leaning forward.

I have more information than they do. Should I use it to my advantage or give it freely?

I look at them both and relent. These are Orihimé people. I should give them whatever they need to get by.

“We believe this society is run by corporations.”

Gen perks up. “A corporatocracy?”

“Yeah. They’re not a democracy or even a monarchy. People, animals, and everyday goods are worth money, and you don’t get anywhere in this society without credits. There’s even a death penalty should you default.” I shiver. “It could be we’re all in trouble of that happening.”

Ryoko groans. “That explains a lot.” She waves to the injured people. “We’ve been asking for medical assistance, but we’ve been told several times we don’t have the credits for it.”

I lay my left hand on my thigh over my healing injury, suddenly grateful for Rin and Tamura. They gave me medicine and painkillers and stitched me back up. That’s more than these people have received.

“I’ll see what I can do. I don’t think I can do much, but this corporation has bought my contract. That’s got to be worth something.”

Gen’s head snaps back to me. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“They bought my contract… Or they hacked it. I’m not sure…” My voice trails off. “I have no idea why.” Minamoto and Shiroi Nami are connected somehow. I should be dealing with the people in exile, not Aoi Uma.

But Narumi saw some value in me, a bargaining chip. What can I do with that?

“This is bullshit, Yumi, and you know it. If you’re going to use your influence, you’re going to do it to get us out of here. I never cared much for your family or the way they ran our town. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to just let you get out of this alive and leave us hanging.”

I pull back and stand up. I keep wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt, but no. He’s the same asshole he’s always been.

“Is that a threat?” I yell at him, and he stands up to face me, nose to nose. “What the hell do you want me to do? She owns me now. Owns. She said she owns dogs that are more expensive than me. I have no say in anything. Forget about my family. Hell, forget about Orihimé. This is where we live now. This is the society we’re forced to reckon with. Make yourself worth something.”

“I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.” Gen’s lips are so close to mine, his spit is flying off them into my face. “If you don’t broker our release, I’m going to start doing things you’ll regret.”

“Me? I think you mean you, dickhead. Haven’t you ever wondered why these fights start around you?” His face is bright red and swollen. If I had a pin, I could pop it like a balloon. “It’s because you are the problem.”

“Gen, why don’t you back off? Yumi’s trying to help us.” Ryoko pushes him, but he turns around and punches her in the face.

The room erupts in shouting as Ryoko falls to the floor. I pull on Gen, and he rounds at me, swinging at my face. I duck and knee him in the stomach. He falls to the floor, gasping for air.

“That’s enough!”

Ryoko whimpers, clutching her face, and the two other injured people barely move. At least I can fight other civilians if I can’t fight trained killers.

“I don’t care how desperate you are to get out of here,” I fume, my whole body on fire, “but if you touch any of them ever again, I’ll kill you myself.”

The psycho has come out of Gen, and it’s not a pretty sight.

Haven’t I dealt with enough already? I was hoping to find more allies, not enemies. I no longer feel bad for hitting him in the mess hall all those days ago.

I place my knee on his chest. “Have you seen anyone else since you’ve been here?”

He winces and breathes hard, his hands twitching.

“Don’t even think about it,” I say, pointing to his hands. He relaxes them back to the floor.

“There were men, dressed in black with a yellow mountain stitched into their clothes, who came to see us the day after we were captured,” Ryoko says, through lips wet with tears. “They had something they put in their eye, and then they questioned us, one at a time, for hours.” She wipes the tears from her cheeks. “They were the strangest questions about animals and our behaviors. I didn’t know what to make of it.”

Sounds familiar. I wonder who came to question them for the test. Maybe it was Rin. Maybe that’s why he knew to bring me here. So I guess the test applies to everyone whether you’re with Aka Matsuba or Aoi Uma.

“What about other people from Orihimé? My brother or Ayamé?”

This time Gen shakes his head. “We haven’t seen anyone but us. Get off of me already.”

I hesitate for a moment and then release him. He jumps to his feet, and Ryoko shies away from him. She stalks off to another corner of the room and sits with her back to the wall. Smart move. I’m never turning my back on him again either.

“What happened after you left us?” I ask him, pushing him away from Ryoko.

“Why should I tell you anything?” He sits with his back to the wall and sneers up at me.

“You want my help to get out of here? You better start talking.”

So, Gen and Ryoko hiked in the opposite direction of us for a few hours until light returned to Kurai. Gen turned on his tablet when he reached a part of the mountain that would give him a better vantage point to the valley below. They pinpointed a life pod about five kilometers away and hiked in its direction. Once they reached the life pod, they realized things were getting tough. They had both developed sunburns, like Kazuo and me, and were feeling sick. The two injured people were the only ones alive from their life pod. Gen and Ryoko carried them away from the life pod, and anything else they could scavenge, until they were ambushed by Aoi Uma forces. They didn’t get very far, and they didn’t have enough energy to fight back.

“What else were you able to bring here with you?”

Gen shrugs his shoulders. “Some more tablets, a signal booster, medkits, not much else.”

I sigh and sit against the wall. “I’m still looking for that data device Chieko gave me. I wonder what happened to it.”

“Yeah. I wonder.” He closes his eyes and rests his head against the wall, falling to sleep easily without another glance at us.