Fukusha Model Eight – Chapter 27

“We need to talk.”

Saki and Shun stand outside of Rin’s apartment building, their feet tapping and eyes surveying the surrounding businesses. I was worried about leaving the Nomura estate and being kidnapped right outside the door, but Miho Nomura sent guards with us the entire way after speaking quietly with Rin about something. We made it back to our neighborhood in one piece.

“Not now,” Rin growls, sliding past them to open the door. He’s in a terrible mood and rightfully so. Nothing is going as planned.

“Yes, now,” Saki insists.

Rin sighs, one of his deep, from-the-toes sighs, weary and frustrated. I know better than to get on his bad side when I hear that kind of sigh, but Saki does not.

“We have an urgent matter we need to discuss,” Shun butts in. “It can’t wait.”

Rin looks left and right before nodding. “Inside.”

Saki and Shun follow us up the stairs, dodging the strained look of contempt from Rin’s landlord. Chill out, lady. It’s not like we’ll be staying in this place forever.

Inside the door, Ninjin waits with his tail wagging. He’s been a good boy while we were gone except for the blanket he pulled off the couch and made into a little nest on the floor. I should take him out to pee, but it’ll have to wait. Rin drops his bag and sword on the couch.

“We have a problem. You weren’t forthcoming about your contract status, and now you can’t start that corporation of yours,” Saki says, the door closing behind her.

“What are you talking about?” I ask, my body cooling with fear.

Great. What other shit thing is going to happen before the day is done? I look out the window at the sun setting and think, “Well, there’s another hour or two for everything to go wrong.”

Shun walks straight up to me and pokes me in the chest.

“Hey —” I protest as he leans into my personal space, only a centimeter from my face.

“You lied to us.”

“I didn’t lie,” I spit back.

“At the very least, you led us on,” Saki says, getting between Shun and me. “How were you planning on starting a corporation when your contract belongs to another?”

I’m ready to explain everything when Shun pushes past Saki.

“Our mission is over. Done. Now we’re going to have to handle the Fukusha Model Eights all on our own, you selfish bitch.”

Rin grabs Shun’s shirt in two fists and shoves him away from me. “Don’t you dare get in her face like that.”

I scoot back from them, and Ninjin barks as Rin thrusts Shun against the door.

“Hey, stop,” Saki insists, separating the two men. “Stop.” She holds each of them at arm’s length, staring daggers at her brother. “I told you not to come if you couldn’t control your temper.”

Shun does not look regretful at all, and my skin crawls, knowing how powerful he is. He could kill us all in a blink. Androids with thoughts and feelings? They are this world’s biggest mistake.

“Look, you tried to hide it, but it’s no use anymore. I just don’t know what you had hoped to gain from keeping it from us.”

“I didn’t! I didn’t keep it from you.” I hate the whine in my voice, and I swallow once to calm myself. “Fucking Haku bought my contract right out from under my nose. I didn’t even know he could do it.”

Rin backs up next to me. “She’s right. I had assurances from Kiiroi Yama that her contract was locked and only she could control it. We were betrayed.”

Saki’s face is a blank slate, and here’s when I finally doubt everything about her. She’s not going to back me up, even though she was there to see how Haku treated me. She should know that I’m horrified by what happened. If she were human, I’d be able to read her. I would see disappointment that I’m a failure. Or maybe I’d see a smirk that I’m vulnerable.

But I get absolutely nothing from her.

Nothing.

No way to read her and no backup.

“It was one of Rin’s requirements for me to do the damned Kitakyushu mission in the first place. That I would be free, free to make my own decisions, my own future.”

It didn’t turn out that way.

“Yeah, well,” Saki says, folding her own arms over her chest, “you can’t start your own corporation now.”

Rin’s voice is quiet, and his hand covers his forehead. “Only people with independent contracts can start their own corporations.”

“It means you’re fucking useless,” Shun spits out. “All of your promises? Worthless.”

My face heats as his words sink in. “I want the Fukusha Model Eights gone just as badly as you do.”

“It doesn’t matter what you want, Yumi.” Saki throws her arms up. “You can’t do anything. You’re free right now but not for long. Haku and his yakuza have every right to come and snap you up. The banks in Shin-Osaka? They won’t give you the time of day. Everything you have belongs to Haku now. Those assets? They’re his. Not yours.”

I open my mouth a few times before I clamp it shut. I had wished my boss, Chiéko Mori, had never given me the data, but I certainly didn’t want Haku to have it.

“A technicality. Surely, it’s not that bad…” My voice trails off as I gauge the room.

Nope. Everyone here knows it’s bad but me.

I should’ve killed Atsumi today. She deserves it.

“You owe us now,” Shun says. I didn’t think his eyes could carry emotion, but they’re hard as stone and cold with fury as he approaches me. “You’re coming with us to Shin-Osaka. You will stand up to Narumi Ogawa, in public, and we will use you as a distraction to assassinate her.”

I see this going down as anyone would expect. I’d be dead within a few minutes.

“Fuck you. I’ll do no such thing.” I plant my feet, worried he’ll grab me.

“You owe us,” Saki says, and I nearly burst into laughter.

“In what fucking universe do I owe you anything? You kidnapped Rin, forced me to cross this continent, and give up precious data in order to free him. If anything, you owe me!”

Saki’s jaw grinds, and it’s the first real physical tell I’ve seen from her that she’s annoyed.

“We brought you to our town. Showed you our plan. We don’t do that for people who are going to walk away from us. You pledged your help to eliminate the Model Eights! We expect that help!”

“Help? Help?” I press my fist to my mouth for a moment and try to control my emotions. “I don’t want to help you. I want to go home.” I walk straight up to Saki and stand within a hair’s breadth of her. “Today, I was offered a way out by Shiroi Nami. They want to ally with me and take me home. I was going to turn them down though, for you. Because I believe Aoi Uma can’t be allowed to continue the Fukusha Model Eights. They can’t be allowed to destroy your society.”

There’s recognition in Saki’s eyes. She knows I’m a powerful friend and ally, whether or not I’m owned by someone.

I step back from her.

“But you know what? I don’t bow down to you or anyone else. You can’t just walk in here and demand things of me. It doesn’t work that way. You’re on your own. Good luck getting rid of the Model Eights.”

It’s cold and unfeeling, and I fucking don’t give a damn. Everyone here wants something from me, and I’m tired of it.

Everyone except for Rin. I step back farther from Saki and reach for Rin’s hand. His calloused and warm fingers close over mine and squeeze. I saw the fury on his face today. “You cannot own her contract.” Even he has wanted me to be free from the very beginning. He only owned me to save me.

Shun steps forward, and this time Rin reaches for his sword that he set on the couch when we walked in.

“You will come with us. There is no other option.” His voice brooks no objection, but I’m too stubborn.

“No. Get out.”

When Saki doesn’t stand up for me, I know this has all been a setup. I should have listened to my instincts from the start. Once I found out she wasn’t who she said she was, this relationship was over. They only wanted to use me. They saw someone with a popular face they could prop up and make a martyr.

Not going to happen.

Time freezes in a moment when I believe Shun will lunge for me and try to take me, anyway. Even Ninjin is still.

Then an evil grin crosses Shun’s face, and he steps back.

“No big deal,” he says, opening the door and grabbing Saki’s arm. “We already got the nanotechnology from you. We don’t need anything else.” He pushes Saki out the door. “Have a nice life.” He gives a cocky salute as the door closes on him.

Dear god, did that just happen? Did they really threaten to take me before Narumi Ogawa?

They did.

And I don’t think they’re done with me.

Rin tugs on my hand and I turn into him, wrapping my arms around his chest and burying my face in his shirt. His arms cinch me up to him.

“What am I going to do?” I ask, lifting my teary eyes up.

He sighs before leaning in to kiss me on the forehead. “I don’t know.”

Thoughts and excuses swirl through my head. I should’ve held my tongue. I should’ve done something about this Haku problem right from the beginning. I should’ve killed Atsumi when I had the chance.

Should’ve — it’s one of the most dangerous words I know.

With a deep breath, I pull myself away from Rin and amble to the window. The sun is setting, and it’s a metaphor for everything going wrong right now. Time is running out; the light is fading. I need to make a real decision, so we don’t get stuck in limbo.

I rub my face with both palms before turning to Rin’s couch. I sweep the blanket off the floor and plop myself down on the cushions, letting out all of my air in one big whump. Ninjin jumps up, lies down, and presents his head on my lap for scratching. Rin sits down on his other side, and Ninjin lifts his leg, asking for a belly rub. It brings out one of Rin’s rare smiles.

“Why didn’t you tell me about Shiroi Nami?” he asks, and for once, he’s not looking at me, trying to read me better than I can read myself.

“They only want me… or actually, they only want my data. They specifically said that only I could come to them.” I shrug my shoulders. “I don’t want to give you up.”

“But Shiroi Nami has been your goal, for months, Yumi. Everything you went through in Kitakyushu to find them…” He clutches my upper arm. “I’m not worth it.”

Anger flashes through my chest, red hot. “Yes, you are. You are worth ten times… one hundred times whatever they could offer me. They’re just as cruel and unfeeling as every other corporation on this damned planet. They’ll take my data and discard me, like everyone else. I am nothing to them.”

At home, I was worth something to my family, to my friends, to my employer. I had status and a good life ahead of me. Here, only death awaits me.

“If I’m going to sacrifice everything, I want it to be worth something. That’s why —”

My voice cracks and my heart flutters in my chest.

“That’s why I was fine with changing my goal to bring an end to the Fukusha Model Eights. If I couldn’t find Shiroi Nami, then at least I could accomplish something, right? Nothing would make me happier than seeing the end of Narumi Ogawa and Aoi Uma. But it’s not going to work.” I grab my hair, wishing I could restart my brain. “And I can’t figure out how to make a difference. I thought it was pairing up with Samurai Seven, despite not wanting to ally myself with androids. Then I thought it was starting my own corporation.”

“I still like that idea. But this contract thing is a real problem.”

“Now, I’m stuck.”

It shouldn’t be this hard to make things work on this world. Why do there have to be so many rules? Why can’t I just be my own person? No contracts, no ownership. My head aches with the warnings of a stress migraine.

“This is such bullshit.” I wipe the tears from my face and huff.

“It is, and I have no answers for you. We can’t go to Okamoto. I felt I could trust him today, but once he left with Atsumi and Masato Atago showed up, I realized he has no idea what his own corporation is doing. We can’t ask the remnants of Aka Matsuba for help. They’re powerless. The only corporation that can help us is Shiroi Nami, and it appears they’re asking for more than you want to give.”

I close my eyes, and instead of this hell I’m stuck in, I picture the house Rin and I lived in after leaving Shin-Osaka. The bedroom and its creaky window, the back steps, and the path down to town — they all are still there in my memories.

“We should go back to Awa…” I snap my fingers and Rin smiles.

“Awashikawa.”

“Yes! Awashikawa. Let’s grab Kazuo and go back there. Let’s dig in, hide out, and regroup. Come up with a different plan. Let’s get far away from this continent and the yakuza and Shiroi Nami and Atsumi.” I reach over snoozing Ninjin to take Rin’s hand, but his expression doesn’t inspire confidence. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t think leaving will be easy. We’ll have to sneak out past the yakuza and Aoi Uma to find a boat back to the Northern Continent. And everything back home is based on the chip.” He raises his wrist. “We would have to get you rechipped and hack your contract, too.” He shakes his head and my stomach sinks. “I’m sure I could hire someone to do it, but it would be difficult. It won’t be the easy life you want. Plus, Atsumi knows about our house in Awashikawa. She would figure out we went there, eventually.”

But in my head, I feel it’s my best opportunity for survival.

“My brother and Ryoko are there. Even if we grab them and flee, we have to go,” I insist.

Rin looks past me out the window, and I follow his eyes to the horizon where a storm is building. Clouds billow and darken and spark with lightning. The hair on my neck raises, and the migraine I felt coming on sits up and announces itself. Maybe it wasn’t just stress.

“Okay. I have favors I can call in, people I still trust, and they’re here doing work on the Southern Continent. I’ll make it happen.”

I close my eyes and revel in the relief this brings. Rin is on top of it.

“How were you supposed to contact Shiroi Nami? Are they going to come after us too if we leave?” Rin stands up from the couch and looks out the window.

“No. They told me to contact the waitress at the café I ate at this morning if I was interested in working with them. Gave me a day. If we leave, they’ll assume the deal is off.”

Rin sighs and nods, resting his hand on the window. “I hate leaving when we’ve accomplished nothing. But we have no choice.” He folds his arms over his chest, and his voice hardens. “We’ll leave just before dawn.”