Crash Land on Kurai – Chapter 27

“You don’t need to tell me again. I heard you the first time,” Rin says, his voice tired and annoyed.

I creep up to his door, listening in to the conversation he’s having inside. The cracked door gives me just enough room to peek in and eavesdrop, so I press myself to the doorframe and quiet my breathing. I’m never ashamed to eavesdrop. Some of my best stories have come while listening to other people’s conversations. Such is the life of a journalist, on the record, of course.

Rin sits at his desk, his tablet projecting his screen up in front of him. An older woman, her hair perfectly styled and wearing a smart suit, smiles at him through the connection.

“You could have fooled me,” she says, shaking her head and clucking her tongue. “You’re needed back here. You’re my best kenryōshi, and reports are coming in from all over the city about renegade fukusha. The newer models are not any better than the previous ones. We think we’ve been played. I need my best people on these cases.”

Rin sighs and rubs his face. “I have to finish this contract. These people… They’re important. They could be our ticket out of this mess. But most of all, I can’t make an enemy of Tamura and Aka Matsuba. Do you want to make an enemy out of Aka Matsuba?”

Her face falls into a grim line. “Of course not. No one wants that. Just do your job and get back here as quickly as you can.”

The transmission cuts off, presenting Rin with a blank screen.

I steady myself with the woman’s words. What’s this about new models? Of androids? I knock on the door.

“Come in,” Rin calls out, and I push the door open a fraction.

“It’s Yumi. Are you busy?” I wait, not wanting to intrude. I have to stay on this man’s good side because he’s the only thing that’ll keep me alive in the months to come.

Rin pulls the door open, and I focus on the way his scar loops about his head. It’s almost mesmerizing the way the thin line of shiny skin forges a path around his almost bald head.

“Oh good. You’re up and about. That’s an excellent sign you’re getting better.” His voice is softer, less hostile than when he came to get me at the Aoi Uma compound. “I’m not busy. Come in and sit down.” He welcomes me in, gesturing to the desk chair, while he sits on the bed.

I sit and clasp my hands together, squeezing so tight my knuckles turn white. I don’t know how to act around him. First, he nearly drowns me in a river and holds a knife to my throat, then we have a decent conversation in which I thought we made a connection, before he sells me off to a sadistic bunch of assholes. Now I belong to him like a slave. How do we even talk to each other now?

The silence stretches between us for more than a minute before Rin clears his throat and smiles weakly at me. I chuckle and look at the floor. This is beyond awkward.

“Okay. Let me start.” Rin leans back against the wall and draws his legs up onto the bed to sit cross-legged. “Are you feeling any better? Do you need more medicine or painkillers? If you do, please let me know, and I’ll take care of it for you.”

“No, no.” I wave my hand to dismiss him. “I’m feeling much better, and I think my leg is finally healing.” I touch the knot on the back of my head and wince. “Though some things are healing faster than others.”

He leans forward, his eyebrows drawn together in concern. “How big is the bump? Should I ask for you to be scanned?”

I open my mouth to tell him he can feel for himself, but I specifically asked him not to touch me. “I’ll be fine.”

Prickles crawl all over my skin when he doesn’t look away. He’s gauging me like he did for the Doshisha test. I remember that conversation like it was yesterday, how vulnerable and exposed I felt, how cold and distant his voice was. A wave of nausea surfaces and washes over me. I’ve drowned in his eyes.

What did I come here for? I don’t even remember now.

“Anyway…” I stand up to leave, to get away from him and everything that’s gone between us so far. I want to run away again, but he’d only chase me down and find me, just like the last time.

“Yumi, wait,” he says, jumping up from the bed. He slides across the floor, between me and the door, holding his hands up in surrender. “You came here for a reason. Let’s not make this harder than it already is. Please sit back down, and we’ll talk.”

I deflate, suddenly desperate to get away from him. “I don’t think I want to.”

He lowers his hands and frowns. “Am I that scary?”

I blow out a puff of breath. “What do you think? You hold my life in the palm of your hands, and you’ve tried to kill me more than once. How am I supposed to deal with all of this?”

He shrugs. “Like the strong woman I know you are. I’ve seen you fight, seen you stand in the face of grim possibilities. No one goes through what you went through and feels okay with it, but you’re here, aren’t you?”

I stare at him for a long moment, registering his seriousness in the plain way he speaks and the creases at the side of his eyes. He respects me, for the moment.

I turn around and sit back down, setting myself gingerly onto the chair. Twisting in my seat, I feel the spot above my buttocks that stung with pain when I first arrived at the Aoi Uma compound. I rub the skin and look up to find Rin concentrating on my hand.

“Sorry about that,” he says, jerking his chin at me and standing with his arms crossed.

“About what?”

“That. I injected you with a tracker so I could keep tabs on your position while you were with Aoi Uma. They usually disable trackers on people they want to hide, but I had a feeling they wouldn’t try it with you since none of your other people had them.”

I fold up the waistband of my pants and tug my shirt down. “Was that you I saw in the woods? What the hell does two fingers mean?”

He laughs, his smile infectious enough for me to grin. “Two days. I saw you choke Akikazé. That man is an animal. I wish you’d succeeded because he deserves to die for all he’s done.” Rin’s fists clench. “But I knew you’d be in trouble after that. It was my promise I’d get you out in two days. But I underestimated Narumi’s penchant for revenge. No one wrongs her and gets away with it.”

“Right,” I mutter, looking down at my feet. Another mistake I made that almost got me killed or worse.

What kind of situation am I stuck in now?

“I know that you… Own me,” I say with a growl. “But —”

“Let’s start there,” Rin says, returning to his seat on the bed. “In the records and to everyone else, I own you, and that’s a shame.” He closes his eyes, turning his face from me. “I’ve never wanted to own anyone in my entire life. I couldn’t even bring myself to own a cat or an android. I find the whole situation detestable.”

I hold my breath, listening for my out.

“My colleagues, coworkers, and people I’ve known my whole life own other people or animals or androids. They all think I’m an anomaly, an outsider, because I don’t do either. You have no idea how the situation has changed my life for the worse.”

My chest expands with hope. “Then just let me go. I promise to go away and never mention this to anyone else.” An easy solution to the problem. We could part ways now, and no one would be the wiser.

He leans forward, cradling his face in his hands. It’s such a huge contrast from the calm, quiet, and confident Rin I’ve seen so far. “Yumi, you don’t understand how this society works. I spent my life savings on you, and Aka Matsuba is well aware of your status. There’s no getting that back. I’ll — no, we’ll — need your income in order to survive. I have a job and an apartment, and I’ll be able to maintain those, but without you, neither of us will get by on our own.”

The swelling of hope recedes but replaces itself with tears, tears I swallow down and try to keep to myself.

“Then why did you do it? If I’m going to be that horrible for you?”

He pauses, glancing at me then his tablet on the desk. “I got intelligence the day you tried to escape here, that your brother was being held by Aoi Uma. I was so sure you’d find him there, and that we’d buy you all out, and this would be over.”

His sadness is fathoms deep. He wanted that for me, wanted me to be happy. I blink the knowledge into my brain, try to force it to my heart. He thought he was helping me.

“It didn’t work out that way. My brother wasn’t there.”

“Yeah. It looks like it may have been purposely misleading. But this was your ultimate goal, to get your brother back. Is it still?”

I nod, wondering where Shintaro is if I didn’t see him there.

“I knew Tamura wouldn’t allow you to rescue him on your own, so I sent you in there, believing you’d gather intelligence that would help us get everyone out.” He sighs and rubs his face. “I didn’t realize how poorly Narumi would treat you, how bitter she is. Her corporation has been sinking like a stone these past couple of years. She’s desperate for a leg-up. It’s possible she thought she’d get free labor and technology out of all of you.” He gestures to his tablet and jerks his lips in a lopsided smile. “You heard what my boss said, right?”

I swallow, wishing for a glass of water. “I guess I’m a horrible eavesdropper.”

“You’re pretty good. Next time, wait longer to knock. Aoi Uma’s androids are failing, and her newest model is so good, they’re indistinguishable from real people. Hundreds of variations in skin color, size, hair… The best, until they knife a bunch of people in a market or suffocate a child in their crib.” His voice is distant, his eyes unfocused. I know those who work in law enforcement, and they’ve seen things that change them, wreck them. Rin is no different.

“I thought Aka Matsuba was in power now?”

“They are,” he says, shrugging. “But that doesn’t mean he’s the only business in town. Aoi Uma has a purpose. So does Aka Matsuba. It just so happens people trust Tamura with their welfare more than they trust Narumi Ogawa. Right now, they prefer animals over androids, at least until Aoi Uma produces something of greater value. Then we’ll see things change.”

Hmmm, this is an interesting and perplexing way to run a country. Maybe the next big thing won’t come from Aoi Uma or Aka Matsuba. Maybe it falls out of the sky and saves them all from a declining population and a political system that’s trying to kill them.

“You’re awfully quiet.” Rin keeps his hands in his lap and his eyes on me. “I didn’t expect that.”

“I’m thinking, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together. At home, we have a constitutional monarchy, which feels normal. I’m struggling to understand how this all works.” I guess I won’t understand until I see it in action. “But that doesn’t answer why you bought me if I would be such a burden. Just because you sent me in there doesn’t mean you owed me anything.”

He stands up from the bed and makes his way to me. The hair on the back of my neck bristles and Kazuo’s words echo in my head, “You could’ve done a lot worse.” I belong to this man. The very thought disgusts and excites me all at once. With someone powerful like him at my side, I could do a lot. But he’s a part of this society. He may not want to tear it down like I do.

“I had an obligation the moment I fought you in the river,” he says, bending down to whisper in my ear. “I don’t send people to their deaths. I save them.”

I close my eyes and tremble as his breath flows across my ear and my heart beats at twice its resting pace. No one should be this powerful with just a whisper. I could reach up and run my fingers along his jaw. I could invite him to touch me again.

But I’m too much of a coward to do either. All of this would be so much easier if we were lovers, but love is not something that’s in the cards for me. I’ve been rejected enough times to heed caution, and this is not a simple situation, by any definition.

A rush of air and the creaking of wooden floorboards opens my eyes. He’s crossed the room to his dresser and opened a drawer.

“I’m sorry I had to touch this to save it. I hope you don’t mind.”

He places my knife in my open hand, and I wrap my fingers around it. Thank god, I still have something left of home. I press it to my chest and close my eyes.

“Thank you,” I whisper.

“You’re welcome,” he replies softly, stepping back to give me some space. “So I know you didn’t find your brother with Aoi Uma, but I think you found something else you were looking for, no? Kazuo told me as much.”

“Yes. I may have something of value for Tamura. I was wondering if you could evaluate it and give me your opinion on how much it may be worth.”

I pull away the neckline of my shirt and exchange the knife for the tablet I stowed away in my bra strap. Rin’s head shifts to the side as he watches my shirt close up again, the scar he gave me a red, shiny line against my skin.

He holds out his hand. “Let me see what you’ve got, and when we’re done, we’ll make an appointment with Tamura.”