The Fate of Shin-Osaka – Chapter 14

Charge level: 95%.

My eyes flutter open. A white ceiling hovers over me as my system boots up and spills status lines across my field of vision. I’ve learned to ignore them over the last few months, but I pay attention and watch for a few things this time. Waste elimination, overdue. Water reserves, low. Time and date, two days after our mission to Kadoma Ward.

Two days.

I shift my head to the side. The door is closed, and my hand is on the charge spot next to the bed. I lift it, and my status sticks at a ninety-five percent charge. That’s fine for now. I’ll have to charge to full after I get some water.

Sitting up is easy enough. When I was in a human body, I remember how getting up in the mornings was always a chore. My body would be stiff and achy. My brain would be slow to function. A liter of coffee sometimes couldn’t spur me from the funk of waking.

Now, I sit up, and I’m ready to go.

Except for these clothes. And my android body is dirty, too. I look around and see if anything is missing, but the room is undisturbed. My shoes are on the closet floor, and my duffle bag of clothes is on the chest of drawers.

Time for a shower.

I grab a towel from the hooks on the back of the door and step out of the bedroom. The smell of coffee wafts down the hall. The water runs in the kitchen, and glasses clink in the sink. Rin is doing dishes, which he never really did in his old apartment with a dishwasher and sanitizer. We’re not that lucky in Matsubara Ward.

I shut my door loudly, so I don’t startle him as I approach. He shuts off the water, shakes off his hands, and grabs a towel.

“You’re up. That took a lot longer than I thought it would.”

“Good afternoon. Yeah, sorry. I didn’t know it would take that long, either.” When I was Saki, I would charge every night because I had a regular schedule. That’s no longer the case. I’ve become someone running five missions at once and not abiding by human downtime. Usually, that’s okay. I have the energy for it… except when I don’t because my batteries are depleted. “I’m going to get cleaned up, and then we can discuss our next steps.”

Rin sets the towel aside after drying his hands. “A lot’s happened in the last two days. But we made good progress.” He fills up a glass of water and brings it to me. I gulp it all down.

“Great. Progress is what we need.” I hand him the glass and turn to head to the bathroom. “How did you get me back here, by the way?”

Rin smiles, and I’m knocked back by how much I missed that. When I was Saki, he rarely smiled at me or rarely smiled at all, actually. He was so sad and depressed; I thought he might never be happy again. This smile tugs at the scar around his head and cuts a sharp angle through his left cheek. My heart rate increases, and I press my hand to the wall to stay upright. Thank you, Yoshi. I had forgotten just how potent emotions can be.

“When we got to our station, I carried you up the stairs over my shoulder, fireman’s carry. No one blinked. I assume they all thought you were drunk.” He shrugs. “You weren’t as heavy as I thought you’d be.”

I raise an eyebrow at him.

“Well, I’ve picked up other androids before and they were never light. Most were heavier than they looked.”

“Interesting. Maybe that’s something they tried to adjust with later models.” I shrug as I head to the bathroom. I want to stay and discuss this because something is nagging at me, and I’m not sure what.

The shower is hot, and the white noise of the water puts me in a meditative state as I froth soap everywhere. A few things happened during the mission that have me questioning how to move forward. First, my real body. I was stabbed in the stomach, and I have no idea if it caused harm to my ovaries. It probably did. I won’t know until we hear from the people Rin and Kazuo hired to take care of it. I cringe at my use of ‘it’ concerning my body, a body that carried this consciousness for twenty-seven years. Seems a little callous of me now, doesn’t it?

I rinse the shampoo out of my hair and turn around to wash my face.

What happened to Narumi? Why did she malfunction and short out? What does Gen know that he’s not telling anyone else? Also, what’s going on with the Aoi Uma factory? Are they trying to make more androids and running out of raw materials?

If they don’t make androids, they may try to make something else. Gen loved genetic engineering (though he was never as good as Shintaro), and I suspect he’s got another project going on. Those engineered cats that ran after us through the amusement park were only the beginning. What else does he have planned?

I gaze down the length of my body. What am I missing here?

Nothing on this body as far as I can tell. Anyone could look at me and know I’m an android; I’m too perfect. Sigh. Yoshi went above and beyond for sure.

I dress quickly and braid my hair wet. That will do for now.

“Have you considered that Aoi Uma’s plans might be failing?” I ask Rin as I grab a cup of coffee in the kitchen.

“Pretty much all the time,” he says from the couch, “but I hadn’t considered it was an actual possibility until we saw what happened the other day. Both in their apartment and at the hospital.”

Grabbing my glass from the counter, I fill it with water. I need to make sure I keep my liquid stores high along with my battery charge. I don’t want to be stuck in that situation ever again. Taking my drinks into the living room, I sit opposite Rin in the armchair.

I sip my coffee. “Yeah, me neither. I hoped for failure, but Gen was… is so confident. I figured their complete takeover and new android lives for the populace were a forgone conclusion. Hmmm.” I set the mug down on the table.

The world outside the window, past Rin, is trying to move on. People walk the streets, heading to and from the neighborhood. A man across the way hangs laundry out to dry on his balcony. Vehicles fly through the open spaces between buildings. Moments like these make me feel small and insignificant. How can I help this world as just one person?

By taking those down at the top.

Hmmm. I wonder… Sorting through my inbox, I speed read messages about all the smaller corporations Shintaro has purchased and the new features Aimi posted on the forums. Then I find a message from Ryoko, sent yesterday while I was charging. It reads, “Chiéko has checked in. Narumi was attacked this morning when she visited the hospital again and hasn’t been seen since. Before the assault, she had trouble walking, and her speech was slurred like she was drunk. She walked straight into a crowd of protestors, and they mobbed her. When Aoi Uma security pulled her out, her head was smashed and her legs were broken. Chiéko is now watching the Aoi Uma building to see if anything else happens.”

Shit. That’s brutal. But oh! Oh, yeah. Wait. I pop up from the chair and head to the bedroom. All my belongings are in the duffle bag, including Isao’s journal, which he gave me right before we fled Kurai. That feels like ages ago.

“Maybe this will help.” I shake the journal in the air as I cruise back to my chair.

Rin sits forward. “I forgot about that.”

“So did I, but there may be something here that could help us. Just give me a minute.”

I set the journal on my knees and lean over to see each page clearly as I flip through. Averaging about three page flips per second, I make it through the journal in just over a minute. Setting the journal to the side, I close my eyes and let the image processor work to digest the notes into a text database I can search.

Okay, did Isao ever deal with consciousness degradation? Or maybe memory loss? Or…

My search hits on a journal entry. My eyes open, and Rin is waiting eagerly.

“Okay, so Isao said this body he’s in now will probably be his last. He’s been in several bodies, and they’ve all gone well enough. Still, he has documented the degradation of the consciousness signal from organic to inorganic and back again. His data shows a maximum of four transfers before things get dicey.”

“How so?”

I speed through the data in my head until I find the answer. “Huh. Well, there are psychological issues like body dysmorphia, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. There’s also a decrease in the three branches of the autonomous nervous system and proprioception.”

“What’s that?”

“Proprioception?” He nods, and I sip some water and hold up the glass. “You know how you know where your hands and feet and limbs are at all times? That you don’t need to look at them to know where they are in space? That’s proprioception. It gives you the ability to move without thinking about it.” I point to him. “You have a very keen sense of proprioception as someone adept with the sword. The sword has become an extension of your body almost, right? So imagine not being able to reach for a cup without thinking about every move your muscles make.”

He nods. “Debilitating.”

“Yeah, and if you add on autonomous nervous system degradation, then you’ll also have problems with heart rate, breathing, digestion… The list is extensive.” I can’t imagine having those kinds of problems and being able to function. Even as an android, those things are regulated by programming I can’t see or touch. I can hold my breath, but not forever, like most humans. If all of that broke down, there would be severe problems. “How many bodies do you think Gen and Narumi have been through so far?”

He shrugs. “A dozen? Far more than four. I bet they tested the system several times before we saw them as androids.”

“I think this is where things are going wrong for them and why Narumi shut down at the hospital. Gen must know there are significant problems with consciousness transfer to androids.” I sit back in the chair. “Do you think he’s working on anything else? A backup plan, maybe?”

“Nope.” Rin shakes his head and picks up his tablet. “We have new intelligence from our spies in Kitakyushu and Amagasaki. Gen has been working at all hours every day to fix whatever issues they’re having.” His eyes meet mine. “He’s a prime candidate for android failure, especially since he didn’t get the Three Laws.”

Rin swipes a data package to me, and I accept it. As the information crawls across my field of vision, my chest constricts. Multiple videos reveal Gen cracking under pressure, destroying desks and lab equipment in fits of rage, yelling at employees, and staring into space at public events. If he were human, I’d say he doesn’t look well.

The android assembly facilities have been closed for the last week. Production has halted, and nothing is coming in or going out. A protest has broken out around the Amagasaki facility, with people waving signs and chanting night and day.

This is not what people here want. They don’t want to be worked to the bone by a tyrant of a leader. What did Aimi say about what individuals in Shin-Osaka want?

Families. Children, animals, pets. Time off. They want a life outside of work.

We can encourage families and children with tax and leave breaks. But…

Animals and pets.

Animals and pets. Holy shit. Ryoko said we brought our perspective from Orihimé, and we did. We have the data device with all of our technology on it.

Including the animal translation chip. The one thing Aka Matsuba was interested in, and I sold them the information to buy freedom for my people.

I stare out the window. “It’s been right here the whole time,” I whisper.

“What?” Rin asks, sitting forward.

I search through Isao’s journal again, trying to find evidence that he’s also done this kind of experimentation on animals. I mean, look at him. He’s half-man, half-bat. He’s imprinted those murasakijin and kumojin with intelligence. This has been done before. Gen did it, too, reverse engineering what Aoi Uma stole from Shiroi Nami all those years ago.

But any evidence in this journal of uplifting animals using human consciousness is absent. The information may be somewhere, just not here. I need to talk to Isao.

I need to talk to the last remaining employees of Aka Matsuba.

Rin is still sitting and waiting for my reply.

“Remember Sayaka, Buichi Tamura’s assistant?”

His eyebrows climb. “Of course. She came to us when Yumi was thinking about allying with a native corporation. And she helped us find a few more Orihimé natives.”

“Then?”

He shakes his head. “She’s gone. We’ve been trying to find her for the last few weeks. No luck.”

Sorting through my memories, I come to the meeting we had with Sayaka. She said, “Those left from Aka Matsuba wish to have their livelihoods restored. If your corporation can bring back the cloning of recreational animals and the work we’ve done with seeding the oceans with fish, then I can promise an enforcement team of three hundred men and women.”

I press my fingers to my lips. Is this the break I’ve been looking for? Did they disappear to do their work in secret?

I bounce my knee as I sip my coffee and water. “We need to find her. Who can we put on the case? Someone who won’t give up.”

“Maybe Atsumi?”

Oh yes. Great idea. She’s come around since meeting the people from Shiroi Nami, but not enough to let her off the hook of working. After all, that woman just never gives up. She’ll find Sayaka and Aka Matsuba, and there won’t be a thing they can do to keep hiding from us.

My smile is just this side of evil. “Yes. I’m sure she can figure it out. Put her in charge.”

“And what will we do when we find Sayaka?” The apartment door chimes. He glances at his tablet and clears his throat. “Ah, Kazuo is here to discuss what happened to Yumi’s body.”

“We’ll have something to offer to the citizens of Hikari, that’s what,” I reply.

He avoids my eyes as he passes my chair and heads for the door. That’s not good.

“Hey,” Kazuo says, striding into the apartment and living room. He sits in Rin’s spot and stares at me a moment before blinking. “I’m still not used to this.”

He means me as Kara. “Seems to be working out for me so far. So, give me the bad news because I’m sure that’s why you’re here, and Rin is avoiding eye contact.”

He presses his lips together and blows a breath through his nose. “The damage to Yumi’s abdomen was extensive.” He glances at Rin. “I think we knew this when she was in the hospital, but we were too distracted then to comprehend the stakes. The blade destroyed Yumi’s intestines, stomach, and uterus. And yes, one of her ovaries as well. The other was partially damaged. They were able to extract only three viable eggs.” He shakes his head. “The margin for error with so few is slim. I’m sorry.”

Three eggs. That’s it.

I lift my chin.

“Three eggs are three more chances for Yumi and Rin. It’ll just have to be enough.”

Kazuo considers my reaction for a moment before nodding. If I were Yumi, I’d be raging, angry as hell, and losing my mind. It’s hard to say what’s Yumi and what’s Kara in me now, but one thing’s for sure, my reactions are more tempered and calm than Yumi’s ever were.

I’m not sure I like it.

But maybe I do.

Don’t fade away, Yumi.