The Fate of Shin-Osaka – Chapter 19

According to Yoshi, the way is clear to the floor above the servers. From here up, there are three R&D floors, and who knows what they’ll have there. I can’t leave without finding out for myself.

Worry lines crease Rin’s face as Kazuo sets a small explosive on the door.

“This is not a good idea, Kara,” he says, glancing over his shoulder. “We didn’t budget for an extended stay here. Their fire teams will climb up soon. This was supposed to be in and out. No dawdling.”

“I know,” I assure him. “We’ll try to be fast.”

“Ready,” Kazuo says, joining us. He leads us around the corner of the hallway, out of the blast zone. With all our faces in shadow, it’s hard to tell just how stressed this change in plans has made him, but he trusts me. I have to be careful not to lose that trust.

“Hey, Yoshi,” I text him. “Any chance you’ve researched human instincts and how they work in an android consciousness?”

“That’s a random thought. And no. But it sounds intriguing.”

“Put it on your list.”

We cover our ears, and Kazuo presses the trigger on the explosives. The floor shakes, and smoke drifts towards us. Peeking around the corner, my hopes soar. We’re in!

Another alarm sounds for a moment, and then it’s silenced.

“Took care of that alarm for you,” Yoshi says in my ear. “I classified it as a false positive, but you’ll have to be fast because they always follow up on them. I’ll let you know when teams are on the way. Remember that I don’t have access to surveillance footage on these floors. So be careful. I have no idea what awaits you beyond the doors.”

I relay the info to the guys. “Let’s go hunting.”

We climb over the wreckage at the threshold. The hallway in front of us is deserted and stretches out to a door farther down. A memory surfaces of being in a similar place when I was here last. Akikazé, Narumi’s former henchman, led me to an office when he was looking for my tablet and the data device. He wanted me to give him my password so they could access everything on the device, including the plans for the animal translation chip and the empress’s DNA sequence. I never heard about it again after that attack.

I’m with Rin and Kazuo as we peek into each office along the way. They seem to be administrative spaces for computer repairs and tablet distribution. Nothing fancy.

“Out to the floor,” Kazuo says, jerking his head at the door.

I plow through it. If anyone is here, we’re going to surprise them.

Smaller machines about the size of four bathtubs stacked together fill the floor. I turn on my flashlight and approach the first one. The bright light washes over a head inside the glass door inset on the machine. I gasp and pull back. Rin hustles to my side.

This is not any machine. It’s an android printer.

The head is… Ugh. It’s Gen. With his eyes closed and only half his hair stitched on from the printer, I almost didn’t recognize him. But yeah, that’s him. The articulated arms in the machine are stopped in the process of making hair.

“Shit,” Rin says, pulling back in disgust. “That’s what they look like before they’ve been assembled?”

“There are arms over here,” Kazuo calls out from across the room. “And this machine here has finished a foot.”

This shouldn’t be chilling. This is how they made me, right? Except in a bigger factory facility in Amagasaki. This appears to be a way for them to make androids on demand.

Of course, they would need this if they wanted more Gens and Narumis. Making them at a factory is not an option when you’re busy waging war. They require convenience, and ordering up a new body from some remote town is too much of a hindrance.

“This is not really surprising, Kara,” Rin says, stepping away from the machine. “They’re just making more of themselves, and we knew they’d do that.”

Kazuo jerks his thumb towards the stairs at the far end of the room. “Let’s see what’s up there.”

“Go ahead. We’ll be right there.” Rin turns to me and clasps his hands over my upper arms, making unavoidable eye contact. “You don’t have to find something here to make Aoi Uma even more of an enemy than they already are.”

I look away. His eyes are too intense, and they see a part of me I like to keep hidden. There’s no need for anyone to witness my doubts, fears, and belief that I’ll never be good enough for the people here. I never lived up to their standards when I was in my human body. I was too plain, too mouthy, too alien for them to accept me. Except for Rin. He saw more in me than anyone.

Even as a perfect android, the apple of their eyes, I will never be enough.

“Yes, but —”

He opens his mouth to interrupt my protestation but thinks better of it. “Go on.”

I take a deep breath. “There are memories I have of this place.” I glance around, aware that I’m not on the same floor nor in the same position I was last time. “Narumi bragged to me about what they were going to do with the data they stole from the data device.”

I wince, realizing belatedly that I have just referred to myself in the first person as Yumi. It doesn’t faze Rin.

Narrowing my eyes at him, his face relaxes. Ah, he sees me as Yumi always. Referring to me as Kara is a concession he’s made to me because he knew it was what I wanted.

God, I love him.

“They never got access to the data device.”

I shake my head. “They had the tablet and the data devices in their possession for a while.”

“You need to come up here!” Kazuo calls down to us. Rin turns towards his voice, but I freeze in place, shivers running through me. Now that I have the emotions, I want to turn them off.

Just take it all away.

“What’s the matter?” Rin asks, dropping his hands from my arms and turning to take the stairs two at a time.

I lag behind. Deep down, I know what I’ll find at the top of the stairs, and I just don’t want to see it. Don’t want to see her.

But there’s no stopping this train now that it’s left the station. I set this chain of events in motion, knowing full well what might meet me on the other side.

I’m halfway up the stairs when Kazuo comes rushing to the top.

“Yumi. You’ll never believe —”

I hold up my hand to stop him. “Kara,” I correct him. “And I already know.”

He races back, and I lift my heavy feet to climb the stairs, one after the other, until I hit the landing.

Sitting up straight on a chair at the far corner of the room is a woman with a familiar face, a face I’ve known since my birth.

Kazuo is on his knees in front of her, his hand on her knee as she stares into space. Thank all the gods. She’s not been cloned; she’s an android.

“Sanaa,” Kazuo says, his voice heavy with emotion. He shakes her knee. “Sanaa, wake up.”

Rin turns his pained eyes from Kazuo to me. “Do you know her?”

I nod, my head unable to stop once it starts. I press my fingers to my lips to hold it still.

Approaching Kazuo carefully, I kneel next to him and place my hand on his shoulder as I look at her. She’s wearing a plain white shirt and dark pants with little black flats on her dainty feet. Her hands are clasped in her lap, and her spine is upright and straight. She looks ready to sink to her knees and sit seiza for an imperial meeting if only she had the right clothes.

I let out a beleaguered breath. Well, Narumi wasn’t joking when she said she would make an android likeness of our empress if she couldn’t clone her. One thing’s for certain, Narumi always keeps her word. Despite Gen’s best efforts to move out of androids into animals and then humans, Aoi Uma never got over the hurdle to organic beings for their archived consciousnesses. They may have stolen trade secrets from Shiroi Nami, but they couldn’t implement them.

“It’s not really her,” I assure Kazuo. “Right?” I squeeze his shoulder until his eyes meet mine. His gaze is vacant, ghostly. “This is her when she was like…”

“About twenty-six,” he fills in. He pulls a shuddering breath. “I… Why would they do this?”

“You know why.”

My eyes turn to Sanaa and take in her likeness. It’s pretty exact. Her long straight hair, rounder eyes, and freckles are perfect. It looks like they got her height correct, too. She is not a tall woman. I smile as I remember even I was taller than her. I shift past Kazuo to Sanaa’s back and gently pull her shirt down to reveal her shoulders and back. No tattoos. Maybe Gen would know about them, maybe not. Many people know she has them, but the details of where and how much are kept private.

Kazuo looks as well, and he nods. “It’s not her.”

Rin breaks into the conversation. “Who?”

“Our empress from home. Between the data on the data device, my documentary, photos, and videos of her, they constructed an android version.”

“Shit. That means…”

“Yeah. That means they cracked the encryption on the data device, and Aoi Uma has everything.”

Rin swears under his breath. “Look, we’re running out of time. What do you want to do?”

Glancing around the room, I focus on the other androids standing in storage here. Each cabinet has a window with an information display panel. The building lost power, though, so everything is dark.

“Let’s quickly check these,” I say, waving to them. Rin and I peek in each of the ten cabinets along the wall. There are two more Narumis and three more Gens, but the rest are empty. No more Sanaas. “She’s the only one. Hopefully.”

We all stand over her as she continues to stare into space. With her eyes open and lips parted, she looks ready to jump into a speech.

“Why isn’t she responding?” Kazuo asks.

“I don’t know. She appears to be off, or maybe in sleep or repair mode. I’m surprised they left her here.”

“They didn’t have time to grab anything before leaving,” Rin says, his voice growing tighter by the second. “And we don’t have time either. Make a decision.”

I point to Sanaa. “We take her with us. All the rest can burn.”

—-

Rin swoops in to pick up the Sanaa android, but Kazuo holds out a hand.

“I’ve got her,” he insists. Rin shoots me a look, but I shake my head. Don’t press Kazuo. He’s reeling from this discovery.

Kazuo gently takes Sanaa’s hand, leans down, and hefts her over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. “Oof. She’s a lot heavier than she looks.” He smirks at me. Complainer. I’m sure she’s not so heavy for someone so small in demeanor. I weigh twice as much as a human of my size, but I’m also twice as strong, probably more. “Let’s go.”

He leads the way out, conversing low on his mic with Yoshi on the other end.

Rin touches my elbow and leans in. “What’s up with him and this woman?”

“They were sort-of ‘involved,’ the two of them, in their twenties. Though not really romantic, like you’re thinking.” We turn a corner out towards the central elevator banks. “It’s a long story, full of things Kazuo regrets, so let’s not get into it until he’s had at least a liter of saké, okay?”

Rin’s jaw hardens, and he stares forward.

“Yoshi, how are things looking for our way out?”

Silence.

“Yoshi?” I try again via text. No response. “Yoshi?” I ask out loud.

Rin looks sideways at me, and Kazuo slows down. He turns around.

“Yoshi’s not responding,” Kazuo says, and my stomach sinks. “That means our way out is compromised, and we have no idea what awaits us around every corner.”

“Hold on,” I say, stopping in my tracks and accessing the outside world through my head. I locate the nearest data node outside of the Aoi Uma building and log in. If Yoshi or anyone were trying to get ahold of me, they would leave a message someplace, and our favorite forums would be just the spot. I access the areas Ryoko and Aimi update regularly, sort by newest activity, and identify a thread that was updated less than a minute ago.

A user named ‘WatchingYou83672’ left the comment, “Elevators out. Service stairwell north side to basement.” I like the comment, so he knows we’ve seen it.

Yes.

I don’t know what will happen when we get to the basement, but we’ll have to see.

I reach out and usher them to the left towards the north side of the building. “We have to take the service stairs to the basement. Can you carry her down twenty flights?” I ask Kazuo.

“No. Ten at most.” Stress lines crease at the corners of his eyes, and the vein in his temple throbs with his rapid heartbeat. We’re all tired from the constant battle.

“Then we’ll take turns.”

He considers me from my head to my toes, and I laugh. “I’m stronger than I look. And I don’t skip leg day.”

The service stairwell is on the other side of a set of doors, and it’s as bad as I thought it would be. The main stairwells are all wide and well-lit, even by emergency lights. The service stairwell is cramped, dark, dirty, and smoky. The building is still burning. Making each turn as we descend is difficult, especially for Kazuo, with the extra width of Sanaa settled over his shoulders.

“Let me go ahead.” I squeeze past Kazuo and note that he’s already breathing hard. Checking my battery level, I’m at fifty-two percent. Hmmm. I was topped up before we started this. Still, I know from experience that south of fifty percent, the number will drop exponentially. Maybe I’ll be able to get us out of here. Maybe not.

I descend one floor in front of Kazuo, and Rin brings up the rear. I turn my hearing all the way up, and so far, so good. All the noises reverberate like they’re behind closed doors.

After five more flights, I stop Kazuo with a hand on his chest. “I’ll take her now.” He nods, sweat dripping from his nose and staining his shirt. Rin helps him lower Sanaa until her feet touch the floor, and I slip in underneath her. Once she’s on my shoulders, I bounce my knees. The added weight shows up on my sensors, and my musculoskeletal system adjusts to add more power to my legs and core.

“Yeah, no problem.”

I keep my hearing tuned ahead and take the stairwell as if I’m floating along.

“Show off,” Kazuo says between pants as he tries to catch his breath.

“I should have had her the entire time, but I didn’t want to insult your manliness.”

He huffs a laugh, his breathing already back to normal. He’s in great shape. “See, you try to pretend you’re Kara, but I know Yumi when I hear her.”

I roll my eyes when I’m sure he can’t see me. “Let’s keep our eyes on the prize.”

When we hit the sixth floor, things become dicey. The smoke is thicker, and I hear shouts from below. Rin coughs, and I detect a slight wheeze from Kazuo. I’m fine. I don’t require air to function. My lungs inhale out of pure programming. If I want both men to survive, and I do, then I need to get us out of this building to safety as quickly as possible.

As we hit the fifth-floor landing, I press my hand to the door, and it’s hot.

“Let’s move faster.”

Kazuo and Rin are sweating, and their skin is flushed. My sensors tell me this stairwell is about to get really uncomfortable, really fast. The heat will only climb as we pass by the ground floors. I change my view to see the temperature and smoke particulate concentration. We can’t be caught off guard now.

My legs move swiftly down two more floors when the door to the second floor bursts open, and a fire team tumbles into the landing. They are all dressed for fighting a fire, complete with respirators. Kazuo, Rin, and I halt on the stairs above them. They’re both coughing hard now.

“Get out!” the man in the lead screams to his team. “Get out now. Fire suppression from the street.”

We haven’t even blown the floors above us yet, and this building is ready to come down.

Without looking our way, the fire team scrambles down the stairs.

“Take off your shirts and breathe through them,” I call to Kazuo and Rin before picking up my pace. My body’s temperature climbs, so I increase sweating to combat overheating. It’s a good thing I made sure my water stores were full this morning. Accessing emergency mode, I turn the level to ‘extreme,’ and my body stiffens as it becomes twice as strong. This will drain my battery faster, but I don’t care. I need to get us out of here.

Two more flights and I hear someone stumble behind me.

No! Rin falls to my feet at the landing, his eyes closed.

“Rin!” I shout at him. He doesn’t move. Fuck.

We’re one flight away from accessing the door to the outside. Kazuo is hanging on by a thread. He clutches the handrail as his legs turn to rubber underneath him.

My android brain goes into overdrive, calculating the stairs, the weight I’m carrying, and the time it will take to get everyone to safety. I vault from my spot on the stairs to the landing below, skipping five stairs at once. My momentum sends me into the wall, but my arm snaps out and cushions the force. I use it to push off and skip down the next set of stairs three at a time.

The door is right before me, so I push it open and run straight ahead. There’s no time to stop and look left or right for my enemy. No time. I race up from a sunken driveway, locate a copse of bushes and dump Sanaa, carefully, into them. I can’t have anyone find her and think she’s a human who needs medical treatment. If they do, she’ll be gone from me forever.

I sprint right back into the building. Two flights up, Kazuo is trying to drag Rin down the stairs. I scan them both, and my systems say I can carry them together. I throw Rin over my shoulder and grab Kazuo like he’s an infant on my hip. It’s not dignified, but it’ll do the job. This time, I take the stairs two at a time and watch my momentum as I descend to the ground floor.

Through the door, I run both men up to where I left Sanaa in the bushes. Thankfully, I wasn’t gone long, and she’s exactly where I left her. I set both Kazuo and Rin down on the sidewalk in the fresh air and reach through the bushes to close Sanaa’s eyes. She needs to look asleep, not dead.

Kazuo is hacking up a lung, but Rin is passed out. I lunge for him and take his vitals. His heart is still beating, and his breathing is short and shallow. I don’t have supplemental oxygen, but I can force more fresh air into his lungs since my own breathing doesn’t turn oxygen into carbon dioxide.

“Don’t do this, Rin! Don’t leave me now.” I hold his face in my hands and assess him.

I can’t let him die.

Okay, CPR it is.

Leaning over Rin, I lift his chin, open his mouth, and put my mouth over his until I make a good seal. Then I use my powerful lungs to force air into him. In my nose, out my mouth, over and over. I try not to think about where we go from here, just that I need to save Rin’s life until he can be hospitalized and get proper treatment for smoke inhalation. I’ll have Shiroi Nami grow him new lungs if I have to. I don’t care. He can’t die.

Don’t die, Rin.

Please don’t die.

There’s no reason for me to continue with this plan if you’re not in my life.

Fuck this. I can’t do this and worry at the same time.

I continue to push air into Rin’s lungs as I access the forums from earlier. User ‘WatchingYou83672’ is still signed into the forum, so I text, “We’re out. Northside. Need ambulance for smoke inhalation. Can’t be caught by Aoi Uma.”

I wait for a moment until his reply pops up. “Private ambulance dispatched to a location six blocks north. You will need a distraction to get past troops across the street.”

Rin is still out, but he stirs when I pull away from him. That’s a step in the right direction. I peek over the bushes behind us and see a contingent of Aoi Uma soldiers across the street. They’re not doing much except watching the fire teams around the front of the building, which faces south, the opposite direction.

You want a distraction? I’ll give you a distraction.

“Kazuo,” I hiss at him, “blow the building.”

“What?” he asks, his eyes crossing.

He’s barely with it, suffering from hypoxia at this point.

I lunge forward and pull his tablet from his front waist, where he had secured it. I power it on, find the menus for the detonators, briefly pray that it all works, and hit the ‘fire’ button.

I feel the bombs go off before I hear them. The floors erupt, and glass flies out into the streets. I throw myself over Rin and Kazuo and hope that nothing falls on Sanaa. Shards of glass rain down on us, and fiery debris hits stores across the street. A flaming desk crashes into the sidewalk five meters away. But we’re okay. Mostly. My view screen fills with damage reports, all less than a few centimeters long across my back. Whatever it was ripped through my armor. It’s nothing Yoshi can’t fix.

But I need to get to Yoshi first.

The Aoi Uma teams across the street are dumbstruck for a few moments before they grab their guns, leave their vehicles, and run towards the front of the building.

Fantastic.

“Come on,” I say, jerking Kazuo to his feet. “You have to walk. I can’t carry three.”

I get Sanaa out of the bushes, have Kazuo hold her upright, then pile on both Rin and Sanaa. “Follow me.” I grunt as my body slows down with the weight, and I draw more power resources to move us all forward. My battery is getting low now. Only nineteen percent. There’s no way I’ll make it six blocks.

No worries. There are vehicles right here.

I lead Kazuo to an empty Aoi Uma armored car, slide both Sanaa and Rin into the backseat and climb in behind the wheel. Accessing various hacked profiles for my identity chip, I find an Aoi Uma employee with low-level military-grade access. I chip in, start the car, and drive off.

“Eyes on the prize,” I say, lifting my fist. We blast past people in the street, running towards the Aoi Uma building to see what’s happening. No one notices us.

Don’t look back, Yumi.