The Fate of Shin-Osaka – Chapter 12

Rin’s eyes keep darting to the stacks of cryo-freeze coffins while we take care of the intake. With his help, the routine goes much faster, even though I’m checking the documentation at every step. This perfect android memory is untrustworthy, but only because I’m not used to it. In my old brain, I would have to write down every step and then repeat them. Cold foam, hook up the IV and pumps, secure the body… The list is only ten steps long, but I am thorough about every single one.

The coffin door closes with a hiss. After a brief stream of environmental and medical data across the coffin’s screen, the unit darkens and slides into its spot in the racks.

“Okay, that’s done.” I sigh with relief. I was worried we’d screw it up, and it would force someone to come here and review the logs.

Rin hands me a bottle of water. Good idea. I haven’t replenished my stores all day. While I chug down half the bottle, I recheck my power meter. Thirty-eight percent. I might make it to the end of the day, assuming nothing else goes wrong.

“So, we haven’t talked about the fact that we missed Yumi’s UPN slot by an hour, and they closed down the UPN,” Rin says, stretching out his neck. “How are we going to get Yumi’s body out?”

I cross the room and sit in a chair against the wall. I’m not tired, but I am tired of standing. Closing my eyes, I rest my head back. Time to think.

If not this UPN, maybe a different one? Or we take the body in a container straight out the front door?

The maps of the hospital open across my vision, and I scan through the lower levels, looking for help. The west wing is now in disarray from the bomb. They have a large UPN drop there too, but it’s probably inactive and under rubble.

I open my eyes and sit up. “I don’t know. Let’s brainstorm. Who can help us?”

Rin leans against a desk. “Kazuo and Ryoko are on the line. They’re available if we need them.”

“Okay. The hospital UPNs are out. What about nearby businesses? Are there any with large drops that could accommodate us?”

He tilts his head to gaze at the ceiling. “None that I can think of. The hospital takes up the space of four city blocks. All the surrounding businesses are restaurants, cleaners, and apartment buildings.”

I point at him. “An apartment building would have a large UPN, right? For furniture delivery.”

“Perhaps.” He shrugs. “Most furniture is flat-packed and assembled on site. But… yeah.” He looks at the stacks of cryo-freeze coffins. “These are not that big in comparison.”

“Well? Think that’s doable? It’s not like we can walk this thing ten or fifteen blocks…” My voice tapers off.

The Kiiroi Yama building is not far, maybe fifteen blocks.

“No,” Rin says, his tone definitive. “No, we cannot walk a body in a coffin fifteen blocks. I know where you’re going with this. An apartment building is a better alternative.” He pulls a mini-tablet from his pocket. “But before we go that far, let me see if I can use my access to turn the UPN back on here.”

He steps away from me to sit in the chair against the wall, so I turn to the stacks. It’s time to take care of our actual mission.

Approaching my body in its coffin along the far wall, I brace for Rin to see it. This will not be easy for him, and my gut aches, realizing this will hurt him. Hurting him is the last thing I want to do. The panel on the coffin lights up with a menu of options. According to the manuals I read, I should choose ‘prepare for transport’ as this will steady everything internally in case of a disruption en route. It’ll deplete the battery faster, but keeping the body intact is worth it. I’m a little worried about the battery life, but it’ll last longer than I will at this rate.

I lean forward and peer through the window. My lungs pull in a sharp breath. I don’t know what I thought I would see, but through the wrap, it’s me, for sure. I look… different. But I hardly ever saw myself unless it was in a mirror. I was rarely on camera at home, and my video diaries from here on Hikari are things other people watch, not me. Is this really what I look like?

My hands stay steady as I tap the screen to open the coffin. Maybe I shouldn’t open it and let the cold out, but I can’t help it. I need to see. Need to. What happened to me?

The coffin hisses open. Even through the wrap, I can see my naked body and the knife wound to the gut. They stitched me back up, but who knows what kind of damage was done when Gen plunged the knife, my knife, into my stomach.

Suddenly, Rin is by my side, his eyes locked on Yumi in the coffin. This is his love. I am his love. And my enemy ripped me from this world. Anger rises through my chest, rage burning bright. Fucking Gen. He thinks he’s won. All he ever wanted was to be the best, the top of the top, and I stood in his way. This is what happens when we stand in the way, right? Death, destruction, chaos. Just look at the hospital now. Aoi Uma stood in the way of that man having a prosperous life. Now, so many are paying the price.

I’m unsure what to feel here, and I know Rin is also struggling. The lines around his eyes deepen and his lips settle into a straight line. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I reach over and slide my fingers under his. He takes the initiative and laces his fingers with mine, squeezing tight. If I were human, I might wince, but I can take it. I can absorb Rin’s pain. It’s the least I can do.

“She was so fragile near the end,” he whispers. “And that was harder to see than anything else.” He takes in a long shaky breath. “I fell in love with her strength, her brashness, her confidence, and then she showed me her vulnerable side. Her softer side. I… I didn’t know one person could be so complex.”

Does he know I’m in here, listening? My heart breaks.

He touches the panel that closes the coffin. “She deserves a second chance.”

—-

Rin can’t turn the UPN back on, and it’s a twenty-minute wait for the elevators to resume service again. It’s past noon now. I was supposed to be done an hour ago and on my way back to Matsubara Ward. No such luck. Until it’s time to move, I watch my battery charge tick down, moment by moment. It’s like waiting for a bomb to explode.

“Let’s go,” Rin says, opening the door. We push the covered gurney into the elevator, and he chooses the ground floor. “I’ve identified an apartment building across the street for us to try. They’re full-service and provide furnished apartments for rent, so my guess is they have a large UPN drop.” He pockets his mini-tablet, adjusts the sheet over the coffin, and looks at me. “Keep your head up and stay confident,” he whispers, just for my ears.

Yeah, no problem. I’m not nervous.

Be brave, Yumi.

The doors open, and I blink away the assault on my senses. I was unprepared for the level of sheer pandemonium happening in the hospital. Being many levels underground was a godsend. Sirens still blast outside, and colored lights flash in all the windows. The emergency room is lit up with bright floodlights. Doctors, nurses, orderlies… hell, anyone with at least one available hand and a brain have been put to work, running every which way, shouting orders, wheeling people left and right. Patients are piled into every available space, moaning or wailing in pain, bleeding, burned, arms or legs or shoulders broken. It’s a massacre.

I leap forward and close the elevator doors before anyone can notice us.

“Kara,” Rin warns, but I shake my head.

“We can’t get out through that. Someone will enlist us to help, and we can’t say no.” I look at the map of the hospital again. There. “Okay, we take this up to the second floor, cross over to the central elevator bank, and take that down. It’s far from the emergency room.” I jam my finger on the panel to select the second floor.

Rin glances sideways at me.

“Look,” I snap, “I’ve never been good with blood or gore. Looking at…” My train of thought fades off. I was going to tell him how looking at my own injuries made me sick to my stomach, the ones I got on Kurai, but that just harkens back to Yumi, not Kara. “Looking at that, I can’t do it. Sorry.”

The doors open on the second floor, and things are a little better here, though not by much. This is supposed to be a surgical floor, but the staff has set up triage in every available room. No one notices us. Good. We navigate out the elevator doors and down the hall, away from the madness and towards the central elevator bank. I keep waiting for someone to jump out and stop us, but we must blend into the mayhem. It’s the only explanation.

We make it to the elevator, the doors close, and we both blow out relieved breaths.

“Fuck me,” I growl under my breath. “This was supposed to be easy. In and out. No one hurt.”

I make eye contact with Rin, and if he wants to say, ‘I told you so,’ then he’s being kind by only staring at me. We stay silent.

The elevator doors open again, and this time, we’re stuck. Oh, no. My stomach clenches into a tiny rock.

A press conference is being held in the lobby, and Narumi Ogawa and Gen Miyazawa are giving a prepared statement only a few meters from us. I duck my head and push the gurney forward. Rin turns his back to the cameras and takes the lead. We fall into step with other hospital employees ushering gurneys and patients in wheelchairs from the building. The lobby wallscreens are lit up with the live feed on the primary display and footage of the rescue in the upper left corner.

“It is an unfortunate and grave situation we have found ourselves in today,” Narumi says, lifting her voice over all the chatter. “This depraved and mentally ill man took his anger out on this hospital and the Aoi Uma employees stationed here in the east wing. Of course, we will investigate this and prosecute everyone who aided him. If he has a family, they will also pay the price. Aoi Uma will cover medical bills for everyone injured in the blast one hundred percent.”

Keeping the pair in my peripheral vision, we stay with the line of people moving towards the building’s exit. The lights brighten as the only reporter allowed in the atrium raises her hand to ask a question. But Gen ignores her and pushes in front of Narumi. His eyes are wild, and his neck reddens with anger.

“Let me make one thing abundantly clear. We will not stand for this kind of terrorism, now or in the future. Aoi Uma is the ruling corporation here, and everyone needs to get used to it.” He pokes out at the camera. The reporter keeps as still as a statue. “Fighting us is only going hurt or kill you. Don’t waste your energy. Aoi Uma is your only chance for a future here on Hikari.”

We’re almost to the door when Gen turns to Narumi, hoping for her backup. His face blanks, and his mouth falls open. I turn at the entrance to witness Narumi locked up and standing still before tipping over like a fallen log. Gen scrambles to pick her up, and the cameras zoom in.

“Go,” I hiss at Rin.

He angles past the people in front of us, and we speed walk along the side of the group until we hit the sidewalk.

“Did you see that?” I ask him as we slow down around the corner. There are so many people outside being triaged and taken care of that we don’t look out of place, even with the covered gurney.

“Yeah, I saw it.”

Rin’s footsteps grind to a halt, and I slam into the gurney.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

It only takes me a moment to comprehend Rin’s hesitation. The apartment building will not work. It’s crawling with Aoi Uma soldiers and androids. They’ve set up a base camp in the lobby and are using it to direct troops that show up in armored cars.

We won’t get past them, even with Rin’s credentials. They’ll ask too many questions, and then it’ll be over.

“Okay. Plan C, then.”

“Kara, we’re not walking this thing up fifteen blocks to the Kiiroi Yama building,” he insists, keeping his voice low. “There are troops all over the place.”

I consult the local map, my thoughts skipping over restaurants, convenience stores, cafés, and office buildings.

There has to be something…

A musical instrument store jumps out at me on the map. Yeah. Yeah, that will do. But only if we call in a big favor. The coffin is a problem, but in the right hands, we could switch to a large container that will fit this body. My body was never very big or tall. By the time Gen killed me, I was skinny and undernourished.

Yes, this will do nicely.

“Rin, we need to call Rikki.”