Fukusha Model Eight – Chapter 20

“I store it in my fake leg.”

Oh my god, and she actually wasn’t joking.

“Go. Move,” Rin commands, jerking me sideways and through the milling crowds. I rush blindly forward, knowing deep down that our only advantage is the aftermath chaos of the shrine rescue. We can’t outrun them, we don’t know anywhere to hide, and we have no weapons on us. Rin left his sword behind at Grandma Endo’s home.

Grandma Endo. Ninjin.

“I can’t leave Ninjin,” I gasp, trying to keep up with Rin’s hurried ducking and dodging through the crowds.

“Yumi.” His voice is insistent. “They’ll take good care of him.”

“No.” My eyes well with tears. “I can’t.”

In my heart, though, I know I have to leave him behind. These people… androids played me for a fool. They wormed their way into my life, got me to trust them. If anything happens to Ninjin, they’re the ones to blame.

“I’m so sorry,” Rin says, the pain evident in his voice. “I had no idea. They must be Model Eights. And without my equipment, I can’t administer the test to find out.”

We careen around a corner and onto a quieter back street. My breathing is labored behind my fox mask, so I tear it off and throw it to the side.

“They… They can’t be Model Eights.” I pant as I try to keep pace with Rin, and with the stress and adrenaline coursing through me, my brain protests with a sharp burst of pain. “Ow! Stop.”

I pull him to a stop. Something doesn’t add up.

“Is it your head? I’ll carry you.” Rin dips down to throw me over his shoulder.

“Wait. Wait.”

“There is no waiting, Yumi. There is only running and getting to safety. You have the tablet and data device in your backpack. We’ll get back to Susami and talk to Okamoto. I’ll go back to Kiiroi Yama. It’s the only way.”

I splutter because I hate being rushed.

“They want to destroy the Model Eights. It’s the reason they’ve been attacking these Aoi Uma businesses. Shun said so in the video he posted. That they want the end of Aoi Uma and the Fukusha Model Eight. Saki said so too. And when I told her we should just eliminate all androids, she was quiet.”

Rin stiffens, his eyes following something moving behind me.

“I tried to cover it up, but you’re so observant. It must be the journalist in you.”

I turn around and face Saki with her gang of people. We weren’t fast enough.

But it doesn’t matter now.

I laugh and cover my mouth, bending over to put my hands on my knees because my head is spinning.

“Are you okay?” Rin asks, settling his hand on my back.

Saki and her people approach us, and though there are so many more of them than us, I’m not threatened anymore.

“I’m fine,” I say, straightening up. “They’re not Model Eights.” I throw out my arm to encompass them all. “I saw it once in one of the underground forums. Someone asked, ‘Have you ever wondered why Aoi Uma went from Model Six to Model Eight?’ And I had wondered. I thought it was some superstition about lucky numbers, but no. Samurai Seven is called that because they’re Model Sevens.”

Saki holds her hands up, palms out. “You don’t want to run now, Yumi. Don’t give up on potential allies. Don’t leave us to die. Don’t leave Ninjin.”

“Fuck you,” I spit, pointing at her. “Don’t you use my dog against me.”

She softens. “I wasn’t. You know I’d feed him all the carrots he’d ever want.”

She looks behind her, and one of the men standing with Shun nods at her. She glances around at the empty buildings surrounding us. Everyone is at the parade celebrating, especially now that the drama there is over.

Saki takes a small step towards me. I harness my willpower to stay put.

“I’m not a monster, I swear.” She lays her hand over her heart. “I was a poor little girl with a poor brother.” She glances back at Shun. “We were living in an orphanage in Amagasaki when we were purchased by Aoi Uma. We spent five years in their labs, and they weren’t bad years.” Saki shrugs, but I can hear the hurt in her voice. “We had food and clothes and toys and people to talk to. Then I went to sleep one night and woke up in this body.”

I press my hand to my lips. Narumi wasn’t lying about the consciousness program for her androids. She actually made it work.

I reach behind me for Rin’s hand and find it quickly.

“These people are my family now. Only eighty-six Model Sevens were ever made before Aoi Uma realized we were too independent, too real. We caused too much havoc and asked too many questions. I have a conscience. I know right from wrong. And I know they stole my life from me.”

“Is he really your brother?” I ask, pointing at Shun.

“Yep.”

“Now I know why you don’t look anything alike.”

The truth was right in front of my face this whole time, and I just didn’t connect the dots.

“Please, Yumi.” And this time I remember Saki’s sad stories of growing up poor and never having enough. How she would often sit on the hill with me and stare out at the ocean towards the Northern Continent.

There is a real person in there; I can feel it.

“Please come listen to us. We need that nanotechnology. I have an expiration date, and I don’t want to die just yet.”

—-

It was all too good to be true. The Southern Continent banned androids, and everyone just played along? That’s possibly the most gullible I’ve ever been. Narumi Ogawa makes her androids so realistic that no one can tell them apart from real humans. Maybe Shiroi Nami and Kiiroi Yama were able to keep androids out before, but the yakuza have been in charge here for long enough to let them in, especially if they’ve allied with Aoi Uma now.

Sitting in the living room of Grandma Endo’s house with Ninjin’s head on my lap, I try to ignore the giant rock lodged in my stomach. Maybe it’s not this bad, I tell myself. Maybe these are the only androids here — these refugee androids.

Something tells me I’m wrong.

Grandma Endo places cups of tea on the low table, bows, and exits, leaving Rin and me alone with eight androids. I’m not threatened by them, but I’m not comfortable either. Too many androids have tried to kill me in the past few months for me to feel comfortable around them. But Saki’s history with me has given her a pass. For now.

“So tell me why you need this nanotechnology? I can guess, but it’s best if I hear it straight from you.” I reach out to take my tea, but my hand shakes, so I pull it back and set it on Ninjin’s head.

“Are you afraid of us?” Shun sneers at me.

The good nature I had summoned up from the depths of my heart cracks. “Do you have any idea how many androids have tried to kill me since we crash landed on your fucking moon? Huh?” I look at Rin.

“At least a dozen,” he says, sipping his own tea.

“At least. So cut the crap and tell me why you need the damned nanotechnology. Aoi Uma made an android in Rin’s likeness and tried to kill me with it. I have nothing but hatred for them and all their androids, at this point. And if you’re counting on my friendship with Saki to get you anywhere, you obviously don’t understand how much I want to blow you all to pieces.”

“And rightfully so.” Rin sets his cup down and rests his hand on his sword at his waist.

Saki raises her hand. “I have a confession to make.”

I clench my teeth, unsure of what she’ll say. “Go on.”

“We have no boss, no organization.”

“Saki,” Shun hisses at his sister.

Her head whips around to him. “It’s time for truth. I’m sick of lying.” She sighs before turning back to me. “All the people in this room? We’re the only Model Sevens that made it out of Amagasaki… alive, for want of a better term.”

Only eight of eighty-six.

“We made this town our home by offering to do dangerous work or work for people who were ill or handicapped. I befriended the Nomuras in Susami and convinced them to become our allies, to be a public face to our organization. Miho Nomura is an engineer. She used to work for Shiroi Nami.”

Rin and I look at each other. She was right in front of us, and we didn’t know she had a connection to the one corporation we’ve been looking for for months.

“She was eager to work on our problem, but she would never be able to reverse what Aoi Uma had done to us. News of your alien technology has been floating around the Southern Continent, and that’s when we hatched this plan to… um, acquire your partnership.”

“Is that what you’re calling it?” I roll my eyes.

She shakes her head. “We’re desperate for help. We had to get to you before you got to Shiroi Nami. Once you ally with them, you’ll be gone from here and inaccessible.”

“For a damned good reason. This is not my fight.” I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I have literally fallen into a pile of shit, and I can’t get out.”

Saki flattens her lips before smiling weakly. “Well, you did manage to come here and snag a boyfriend out of the deal.”

Rin laughs.

“If he doesn’t break up with me. I wouldn’t blame him if he did,” I mutter into my teacup.

“It’s too soon to tell,” Rin says, and when I look at him, he winks.

“Anyway…” I prompt Saki.

“Anyway, we all have a kind-of immune system run by nanobots. This is why I’m never injured for more than a day or so.” She flexes her hand, the one that was bleeding after her last round in the ring. It’s now completely healed. “But the nanobots have a deliberate four-year lifespan, and I’ve already lived a year and a half of it.” She blinks, her eyes unfocused. “My internal systems have given me an end date, and it’s not something I want to see every time I access my body for information.”

“Do you have some sort of display you see?” I hold my hand in front of my eyes like it’s a tablet.

“Yeah. I’ll never forget waking up and seeing it for the first time. I thought I was going crazy.” She laughs, and a few of the men and women behind her laugh as well.

“Why only four years?”

She shrugs. “Ask Narumi Ogawa. Fukusha Model Eights have no deliberate lifespan. They’ll keep going until you disable them. But I think we were just a stepping stone on the way to the final culmination of her work.”

Saki’s words are precise in a way that leads me to believe she heard them straight from Narumi’s mouth. Ugh. That woman is a psychopath.

“Look, I know how you feel about androids, and I agree with you. I was a human being, but I’m not any longer. I don’t ever need to eat or drink. I only do it now because I miss it. And then I realize I have no taste buds. I don’t get drunk or feel adrenaline anymore. I went to those fights hoping I would feel that physical rush when I won, but it never came. I can fall in love, but my heart will never race when someone looks at me because they find me attractive. It’s as if all the emotional signals are mixed up. Some of us are better off than others. Shun’s body reacts to emotions. Mine? Only some of the time.”

She looks over at Shun, and he nods. “But it doesn’t take anger or sadness to know what they did was wrong.” Everyone nods along with him.

“It was wrong,” I say, agreeing with them. My heart aches for Saki. I wonder what her life had been like if she had grown up like Rin. Maybe she’d be alive and working somewhere on the Northern Continent.

This? This is a travesty.

“The Model Eights are worse off than we are,” one of the women behind Saki says. “We still have autonomy. It took them a lot of refinements to scrub down consciousness to vital thoughts and individualism without independence. No emotions, no empathy. They’re walking, talking sociopaths.”

I shiver and shake, clutching Ninjin closer.

“Yeah,” Saki agrees. “For Model Eights, it’s like being trapped forever in a body you never asked for. All the memories are intact, but none of the emotions that go with them.”

“How do you know?”

She shrugs. “I’ve seen the specs, heard the engineers talk about it with us in the room. They never thought we’d break out and take our knowledge with us.” A wry smile twists her lips.

“You broke out?” Rin sits forward, interested.

“We did. It wasn’t too hard. Once we realized they were systematically destroying Model Sevens that weren’t behaving properly, we used our speed and strength to overcome the engineers and escape. We lost a few of us along the way. Now we’re all that’s left.”

Silence blankets the room except for Ninjin’s snores. He’s just happy to be back in my lap.

I take a deep breath and let it all out, looking to the side at Rin. He’s contemplative and staring into space.

I feel bad for Ninjin in his happy bliss, but I stand up, drawing stares from everyone in the group.

“I’d like to speak with Rin outside alone. Can you turn off your supersonic hearing for a few minutes?”

Saki smiles. “Sure.”

Outside, the night is still full of good cheer. The stars are twinkling above, and the smell of campfires nearby reminds me of my youth and trips into the woods. I walk with Rin half a block from the house and let Ninjin out on a long leash to do his business.

“What do you think?” I ask him.

He folds his arms over his chest and sighs. I know that sigh. “It’s quite a story.”

“Do you believe them?”

He nods once before shrugging. “I don’t know. Ever since your run-in with Narumi Ogawa, we’ve suspected this was coming. Okamoto was positive the Model Eights would be nothing but trouble. Can you imagine being stuck in an android body? Your whole life stripped away?” He tilts his head back and gazes at the stars.

I concentrate on my feet in my sandals, standing on firm ground. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this is only the beginning. Narumi is looking for a way out of death. She’s searching for immortality. Instead of bringing up the birth rate and getting her hands dirty with things like love, birth, and family, she’s going to extend everyone’s life by sticking them in androids.”

Rin’s attention moves from the sky to me. “That’s just…”

“Inhuman,” I fill in.

What would I rather have? A full life with a family and career I love, one that may be cut short by disease or an accident? Or a long life in a strong and advanced body, one without a time restriction and limitless options but devoid of love and emotion?

Do I help Samurai Seven to destroy the Model Eights? Or do I bid them farewell and continue on to find Shiroi Nami? My goal from the beginning of this mission was to do just that, and I was sidelined. It doesn’t seem right to give up on it now.

Shiroi Nami is my ticket out of this mess. Not Samurai Seven.

But… But, I could do both.

“What are you thinking?” Rin asks. He strokes his beard, and I can’t help but smile at it, and the realization hits me. It hits me so hard I stagger backwards, and his hand jerks out to stop me from falling over.

I want to grow old with this man. I want to see him change and mature. I want to see the beard come and go. I want the things these androids inside will never have again.

Because being human, even with the risk of death, is worth every breath in my body. It’s worth every tear, every mistake. Being human is the apex of life. It’s the top, not the bottom.

“I think Aoi Uma has to pay. They can’t be allowed to continue down this path.”

Rin winces and sucks air through his teeth. “I agree, but we cannot give up on our goals to find Shiroi Nami.”

“I know. And I want to find them, I really do.”

He shakes his head. “Because Shiroi Nami has their own agenda, their own path to immortality. And I feel you should see both options before you decide which is better.”

I wonder what that means? Doesn’t matter.

“Whatever they’ve done, it has no impact on this decision right now. I can’t even find them to see what they’ve done. Do you know?”

He shakes his head. “During the war, the rumors revolved around human cloning. They had taken Aka Matsuba’s work and expanded on it.”

Ugh. Of course.

There are no sane people here, are there?

“Fuck.” I draw it out into three, long, tired syllables.

Rin runs his hands through his hair, and it stands up straight. “You’re right, though.” He sidles up to me and wraps his arms around my waist. I rest my forehead on his shoulder. “Tell me, Yumi Minamoto. What do you want to do?”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you. What do you want to do? Everyone else has been bossing you around for months. You didn’t want to crash land on Kurai. You didn’t want to fight androids. You didn’t want to work at K&G Noodles. You didn’t want to be all alone in Kitakyushu. And you certainly don’t want to work with androids again.”

What do I really want?

I want a vacation. I want to sit on the beach, drink lots of booze, have sex with Rin, and not do shit for weeks on end.

Pulling back from Rin, I drink in his face, his smile, his eyes. What if I make a decision that gets him killed? But he was already risking his life daily for Kiiroi Yama, so what’s the difference, right? Still, if I have to go in fighting, I want him by my side.

“What do I want? I want peace and quiet. I want to go home, with you. I want to accomplish my mission for every one of my people who ended up here. If we help Samurai Seven, it’ll be because we accept that we’re never leaving.”

I don’t like seeing Rin’s frown. “As much as I don’t want to admit it, I fear we may be stuck here.”

“So, do I give up on Shiroi Nami?” I ask, tightening my arms around him.

“No. We should never give up.”

He leans down and snuggles up his lips under my ear. I try to ignore him though it gets more difficult with each passing moment. He inhales deeply and lets it all out, drawing me up and to him.

“I missed you so much,” he mumbles.

I want to cry and enjoy this moment, but I push on.

“So we help them get rid of the Fukusha Model Eight and then we find Shiroi Nami. Somewhere in there, we’ll have to figure out what to do about everything else.”

Aoi Uma is on my tail with Gen and Haku and the yakuza.

Atsumi tried to kill me and Kiiroi Yama didn’t stop her.

Shiroi Nami is hidden away.

Shintaro and Ryoko await our return to the Northern Continent.

My memory problems and migraines are getting worse.

There’s too much going on, too many choices to make.

Rin chuckles, pulling away from my neck. “We’ve got nothing else to do, right?”

I laugh. “Right.” I look up at him and rub my nose against his with a sigh. “Let’s go back inside and get back to work.”