The Fate of Shin-Osaka – Chapter 20

I’ve been sitting for ten hours at Rin’s hospital bedside. The room is plain white, with a round bed, two square pillows, and a small lamp. A few machines beep and hiss, charting Rin’s status. I’m alone. The doctors left hours ago. The nurses only come in to check his vitals to ensure he’s not getting any worse. My mouth is dry, and my water reserves are low. I wonder if I could get a drink. But I can’t leave his side right now. I have to stay. Kazuo is already gone. The pulmonary team treated him and sent him home to rest. But Rin’s smoke inhalation was worse. A lot worse.

Whatever bad things I can say about this planet and its society, I can undoubtedly brag about its medical care. It may be expensive, but it’s the best of the best. And I have plenty of credits to throw around now, so I don’t have to worry about Rin. The hospital rushed him into a lung therapy session as soon as we arrived and purged smoke from his lungs. Then they immersed him in a tank that repaired the lung tissue. It all took about two days, just a little longer than it took me to recharge from almost a depleted battery again. I came and went until he was brought to a proper bed. Now I refuse to leave until he opens his eyes.

Turning in the chair, I watch the wallscreen at the nurses’ station, tuned to the Aoi Uma News Network. They have said surprisingly little about the destruction of their own building. Instead, the news is focused on the siege of the Kiiroi Yama building in Kadoma Ward.

“We’re doing what we need to bring these traitors to justice,” Gen says to the faceless reporter. I’d puke if I could. What an asshole.

Narumi is nowhere in sight. I wonder what happened to her. Did we get rid of her for the time being? She was already failing before we torched the Aoi Uma building, and her backup androids were in the lab we blew up. But maybe she’s not gone forever, just delayed.

Ryoko appears in the doorway, snapping my attention from the wallscreen to her. I blink a few times to center myself back in this place. My thoughts had wandered off to the hazy future.

“Hey,” she says, hovering in the doorway. “Can I come in?”

“Of course.” I stand up from my chair as she enters and glances at Rin.

“Has he woken up yet?”

I shake my head. “There’s still sedation in his system. The things they did to him were intense, so he was out for a long time.”

Ryoko is quiet as she sits on the couch next to my chair. Her eyes avoid mine and settle on Rin. Her appearance here at the hospital is unannounced, so something must be happening.

“Is everything okay?” I ask, leaning forward to catch her attention.

She folds her arms over her chest and taps her foot. “I’ve been trying to convince everyone just how big of a deal it is for Gen to make an android copy of our empress.”

I wait while she gathers up her thoughts. She sighs and sits forward, resting her elbows on her knees.

“Like, it’s one thing to manufacture an anonymous android and call it our empress from Orihimé. Right? Based on Yumi’s documentary, only a few people here know what she was like. But the vast majority wouldn’t recognize the difference. Aoi Uma could pull the wool over their eyes with an imposter.”

She’s not wrong. We’ve never released the documentary to the broader public. We could parade anyone through the streets and call her the empress.

“But to actually go to such lengths to produce an android that looks like her, sounds like her, acts like her?” She shudders. “It’s such a gross violation of ethics. It’s morally wrong, and I feel that to my core.” She sits up and presses her hand to her chest. “I had a copy made of me once.”

I nod, unable to get any words through the lump in my throat.

She gestures to Rin. “He had a copy running around too. It’s sickening. It’s like taking away your autonomous rights as an individual human being.” She shakes off her anxiety. “I don’t think people will understand how violating that is until it’s done to them.”

“And that’s exactly what Gen wants to do. He wants to force people into it.”

She runs her fingers through her hair. “There’s no way this will work. If I’m this creeped out by seeing a copy of a person I’ve only ever admired from a distance, how will it be for people to see their husband or wife or child like this?”

“It won’t go over well.”

Ryoko and I turn to find Rin awake and listening to our conversation. He groans as he tries to sit up, but I leap from my chair with my hand out.

“Don’t move. You need to rest.” I come to the bedside and smile down at him. “I’m so glad you’re awake. How do you feel?”

“Like shit.” But he smiles, and a wave of relief washes away the worry I’ve been carrying for days. He takes a moderate breath, and I can hear the wheeze as he lets it out. The oxygen cannula clings to his nose. “But I’m alive, I guess.” The words coming from his mouth are slow and labored. “With lung damage?”

“Lung damage that’s almost healed. They want to give you another immersive treatment, but they can’t do that until you’re stronger. You’re going to rest up, or I won’t be able to order you around again.”

“Sounds like a plan. Where are we?”

“Matsubara North Hospital. As far as we could get from Aoi Uma while still providing you with the help you needed. Hopefully, you’ll be fine here until we need you again.”

“Don’t you always need me?” The cocky grin tells me he’s joking, but there’s a note of concern, too.

“Yes, you fool. So don’t fuck this up.”

I sigh as I look at Ryoko. Her smile is bittersweet. “I’ll wait outside for you since visiting hours are almost over.” She turns to Rin with her hand on the door. “I hope you feel better soon.”

“Thanks,” he whispers, and she shuts the door on us. “What happened?”

I shrug my shoulders. “What do you want to know?”

Does he want to know the absolute terror that ripped through me when I thought he was dead? Does he want to know how I gave him mouth-to-mouth and carried him from the building, which is more physical contact than we’ve had in months?

He moves his legs to one side of the bed and pats the open space.

“Everything, but mostly if we accomplished our mission or not.”

I slide my hip onto the bed and caution my face to stay neutral.

“I got you, Kazuo, and Sanaa out of the building. And when we needed a distraction, I blew the explosives. I stole a car and drove you to the ambulance, which then brought us here. Kazuo underwent a similar treatment, but he was much better off. He made a point of breathing shallowly and covered his mouth and nose earlier than you did. He’s already back at the apartments. Aimi volunteered to watch him.”

“And you?”

“Me?” I touch my chest. “I’m fine. I caught some glass in my back when I protected you from the building blast, but it’s no problem. Yoshi pulled them out and bandaged me up. I went through two charging sessions, and now I’m here.”

He watches me for a moment before he turns his face away.

“You saved my life.”

The statement feels revolutionary. Throughout our love affair, he saved me a million times, but I never had the chance to return the favor. My heart swells with the satisfaction of being able to do this for him. I was there when he needed me most.

“Thank you, Kara.”

Kara. I’m still Kara.

Wait. Don’t show your disappointment, Yumi. This is what I wanted from the beginning, a separation between Yumi-then and Kara-now. These memories might change once I’m in my new body, but maybe they won’t. It’s hard to say.

“You’re welcome.” I slip my butt from the bed. “We accomplished our mission. Aoi Uma’s update node has been down ever since. No one has seen Narumi Ogawa in days. Gen is practically frothing at the mouth every time he does an interview on the news…”

I stop, tuning my hearing into what’s happening out in the nurses’ station.

Wait. Something important is happening.

Touching the wallscreen controls to the right of Rin’s bed, I tune in to the same news they’re watching. Instead of street views of the siege of the Kiiroi Yama building, Yori Okamoto’s face fills the screen.

“… Kiiroi Yama will cease operations on Hikari as of today. We have terminated our license to do business and will be moving our employees to independent contractor status. All Kiiroi Yama assets are hereby gifted to the Kazenoho Corporation.”

I gasp and cover my mouth. What?

“That includes this building and everything that Aoi Uma wishes to destroy. They have infiltrated my company, your cities, and destroyed private, corporate property in the name of greed and —”

They cut the feed off and switch back to the news street side. The text across the bottom of the screen declares, “SIEGE ENDED.” Most of the building is on fire from the third floor up.

I glance over at Rin, and he’s paler than he was a few moments ago.

“That building had Yumi’s last backup,” he whispers, not taking his eyes from the screen. He chuckles, and it turns into a coughing fit. I grab an extra pillow from the closet and use it to prop him up more. His coughing slows as he takes a few short breaths. “Funny that Okamoto gifts you a building that’s burning to the ground. It’s not exactly the best gift in the world.”

I nod as I watch the footage. “I’m sure the insurance will cover it.”

Oh yeah. My deductible will be sky-high now.

I bark a short laugh before I cover my mouth with my hand, but the giggles won’t stop. You have got to be kidding me! This world is beyond fucked up and just gets more fucked up every damned day. I wish I could go back in time to the cafeteria on the Murasaki and punch Gen so hard that I killed him. They would have sent me home as a murderer, but none of this would have happened.

We came here to get to know these people, but we’ve done nothing but cause pain and misery. Yes, they were not in the best of situations when we got here. The corporations ruled over caste systems, and people went into life-altering debt regularly. The birth rate was almost zero, and there were mad androids everywhere. But they weren’t at war.

They are at war now because of us. Because of Gen.

I reach down into my subsystems and tamp down on my own emotions, something I rarely do now. The giggles are turning into rage, and rage is not helpful. I need to concentrate.

The door opens, and Ryoko looks in.

“You’re seeing this?”

I blow out a breath and pull myself together. “Yeah. I’m seeing it.” I cross the room and grab my bag. “We should go. We have a lot to figure out.”

Rin pulls the covers off his legs. “Not without me, you’re not.”

I point my finger at him. “Do not even think about getting out of this bed. Yumi has already lost so much. Don’t make her lose anything more.” He freezes. “You’re not allowed to leave until after you recover from your next lung treatment.” He raises his eyebrows at me. “I mean it. Don’t force me to tell the nurses to restrain you.”

“Fine.” He falls back into his bed. “What are you going to do next?”

I glance at Ryoko. “It’s time to find Aka Matsuba and get the hell out of this city before Aoi Uma burns it all to the ground.”