The Fate of Shin-Osaka – Chapter 22

No one notices me when I slip into the Kazenoho headquarters two hours later. The room is a mess of people, with groups in every corner. The conference room table is piled high with food bags and boxes, and the wallscreen streams footage of Aoi Uma’s conquests around the city.

The map displayed in the news feed concerns me. Aoi Uma has advanced too much for us to hold them back without them quitting and retreating, and I highly doubt that will happen with Gen at the helm. They just keep on going. ‘Quitting’ is not in their vocabulary. But that’s not surprising since Gen has always been the type to use a chainsaw when a chisel will do the job just fine.

Regret settles in my stomach. I should have killed him ages ago. I tried more than once, but he dodged the most injurious of my attempts. He’s like a cat with nine lives.

I wonder how many he has left.

It can’t be many. As it is, Narumi may be out of do-overs. Will Gen be able to go on without her?

Let’s find out.

Sidling past the central part of the room, I slip into the back offices in search of Yoshi. Several offices are closed with the lights out, but one at the end is open, and voices filter into the hall.

“Well, what’s your professional opinion? Can we do anything with her?” Kazuo comes into view of the open door. He turns and spots me coming down the hall. I wave to him, and he beckons me into the office.

“Hey, how’s Rin doing?” he asks, closing the door behind me.

Yoshi is at his desk, his eyes trained on the data coming through, his fingers flying over multiple input sources. Next to his desk, Sanaa sits upright in her chair, her eyes focused on a spot on the wall, her hands folded neatly in her lap.

“Better. He’ll be back with us in a few more days.” Though I really hope he stays where he is for the time being. I need him to be safe. Need it. With everything failing around me, I’m holding on to a wholesome reunion for Yumi and Rin… if I can get them out of here alive.

It’s weird thinking of myself as another person sometimes.

I try not to let it get to me.

My eyes focus on the rear of the office, now packed with crates.

“What’s all this?” I wave to them, and Yoshi turns to stare.

“Oh, that? That’s the backups from Kiiroi Yama. Remember? They gifted everything to Kazenoho?”

My eyes widen. “The consciousness backups of Yumi and Saki?” I turn a smile on Kazuo, and he grins.

“Yep. They said they had disconnected them two weeks ago and put them in another location for safekeeping.”

I throw my head back and close my eyes. “Thank the gods. Yes!” I pump my fist, and Kazuo raises his hand for a high-five. I smack my hand into his, and he grimaces before shaking it out. “Sorry. That was too hard.”

“It’s okay. It’s good news. We were excited to see the shipment come in earlier today.”

“It’s the best news.” I smile as relief floods through me. I didn’t want to lose those backups, and now I don’t have to. “And it leads me to my question about backups. Yoshi, what do you think happens when Gen or Narumi move onto a new android body?”

Yoshi finishes up what he was doing and spins his chair to face us. “There’s a built-in protocol for end-of-life events. If your android’s battery dies or it’s destroyed, the programming sends out a burst of data to local nodes. Then that’s rerouted to Aoi Uma servers.” He stops and hums. “That may not be happening since their update network was damaged. But!” He lifts a finger. “But local nodes will hold data in a buffer until they can connect. Still, the buffer will get overwhelmed eventually, and packet loss does occur. It’s not perfect, but it works ninety-nine percent of the time.”

“How can an android be stopped from sending out this burst?” I ask. Kazuo narrows his eyes at me. “Humor me.”

“Uhhh, damage the communications module on the left side of the head.” He points to his own head. “And, you should cut power and destroy the body, too, in case someone takes the android and just plugs it in. I’ve resurrected a few that way.”

Good to know. If I’m ever faced with fighting Gen again, I’ll know what to do.

“Okay. Thank you. So, have you figured out what’s wrong with this Sanaa?”

“Yeah,” he says with a big sigh, “she has no consciousness. No personality programming.”

Kazuo sweeps out his arm to her. “She’s a blank. There’s nothing inside there but the basics to run the body. Even then, it has nothing that would have saved it from the fire if we hadn’t rescued it… uh, her.” He sighs.

“According to what I can find deep in the programming, she hasn’t been around for long. This android was made three days before she was brought here.”

“Only three days? That can’t be.” Hmmm, did it really take them that long to make her? Or did they only remember to construct her recently? Narumi was ready to build a Sanaa android back when Yumi was imprisoned in the now-trashed Aoi Uma building.

Why did they delay so long? Their original play was to introduce the empress from our homeworld as some kind of savior here, a savior who had Aoi Uma’s backing. Aoi Uma had banked on needing superior support, so why didn’t they get to it before now?

The answer makes my stomach turn over.

“Ah. Ah, shit.” I throw my arm out at Sanaa. “He doesn’t want her unless it’s his last option.”

“Who? Gen?” Kazuo asks, stepping in front of me.

“Yes. Obviously.” When Kazuo doesn’t respond, I hold up my hands. “Imagine this. Gen gets here to Hikari, and wow, he’s banging a hot, successful woman, right?” The corner of his left cheek twitches. “And it’s all going great. He’s a god. He’s rich. He’s got everything he ever wanted. Until… until his sugar mama dies and leaves him nothing.”

Kazuo turns away and presses the tips of his fingers to his mouth.

“She’s gone?” he asks, dropping his hands. “She’s gone.”

I nod, and my chest buzzes.

Holy shit. Narumi Ogawa is dead. Like, dead dead. Like, not coming back again ever.

“This is his backup plan,” I say, pointing to Sanaa. “He only built her three days ago because Narumi isn’t coming back. He didn’t want to have anything to do with us, remember? Nothing. He would have been happy if all the Orihimé people were dead and gone. But now that he no longer has Narumi, he needs a different way to keep power. So, he was going to bring out the new leader, the descendant of Amaterasu herself. Who can say no to royalty?”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Yoshi says, breaking in.

I honestly forgot he was in the room for a minute there.

“You’re saying the leader… the CEO of Hikari and President of Aoi Uma is actually dead?” His mouth is open in a wide O.

“Yeah. Just a sec.” I hustle down the hall to the room I’ve been storing my belongings. In my bag is Isao’s research notebook he gave me. I grab it and head back, opening to the appropriate pages. “Here. Read this. But the basics are that there are maybe half a dozen transfers of consciousness before degradation. Narumi’s been killed and re-downloaded a bunch of times now, probably more than the limit. She hasn’t been seen in a while, and the last time she was seen, protestors killed her.”

Yoshi’s eyes coast down the writing, his fingers scanning the words as his brain takes it all in. His head lifts, pausing for a moment before setting the notebook open on his desk and returning to his workstation.

“I need to pull up surveillance feeds and cross-search every transaction for the last few weeks. If what you’re saying is true, then the Sword of Hikari is up for grabs.”

The Sword of Hikari. That wasn’t the important part of the memory Yoshi uncovered for me in the Aoi Uma building, but now it is.

“I need super user admin access to every surveillance network, not just androids,” he says, turning to look at me. “Who can give it to me?”

“I, uh…” I recall my memories of Yori Okamoto’s statement before he dissolved Kiiroi Yama. “I can. Kiiroi Yama is mine now, isn’t it? He said, ‘All Kiiroi Yama assets will be gifted to the Kazenoho Corporation.’ So that includes the surveillance and monitoring systems.” I gesture to Kazuo. “Figure it out and get Yoshi the access he needs.”

I turn to leave, thinking this is the last task I need to do here today, but Yoshi calls for me to wait.

“What do we do about her?” He waves to Sanaa. She’s been sitting there, merely existing. I have a million things to think about. I don’t have time to figure out how to deal with her.

Kazuo’s eyes are soft on Sanaa, and I sigh. He’s still in love with the empress from his past, and she’s nothing but an empty shell.

What should we do with her? We could just keep her like this, stick her in a box, and put her in storage. There’s nothing there in her head. She’s an empty slate. But it’s an opportunity wasted to leave her like this.

“Give her a consciousness.” My eyes focus on the crates stacked in the rear of the room. “Wait. Give her Saki’s consciousness.”

Yoshi’s eyes widen, and Kazuo barks out a laugh.

“Yes. Yes, that’s a brilliant idea,” he says, squatting down in front of Sanaa. “Saki definitely has the right attitude to be Sanaa.”

Our empress grew up smart as a whip, headstrong, and determined. All things Saki already is.

“We should ask her first, though,” I point out, turning to Yoshi. “Can that be done? I’m not sticking consciousnesses into androids anymore without asking permission first. Saki wanted a body, a real human. She may not go for this.”

Yoshi nods, his shock fading away. “Yeah. Yeah, I can ask her. I just need to marry the original backup with what I took from your consciousness. Then I’ll load her into the construct, and we’ll have a conversation. It’ll take a few hours.”

Aimi appears in the doorway. “Hey, Kara. We need to talk.”

I tear my eyes from Sanaa and her vacant expression. It won’t be long before she’s smiling and talking. I’m sure of it.

“What’s up?” I ask. She smiles at Kazuo, and he tips his head in return. Aimi steps to the side and sweeps out her hand for me to walk with her to the main conference room.

“We’ve been doing some surveillance work, and it looks like it’s only a matter of days, maybe less, before Aoi Uma advances on this location.”

My stomach sinks. “No. We have to hold them back. We need to keep something for us.”

Aimi shrugs. “With what army?”

I open my mouth to reply, but she holds up her hand.

“We’ve been working towards our own army of androids and calling in every corporation on the planet to help, but honestly, it’s useless at this point. Aoi Uma even dealt with our economic sanctions by stealing everything they wanted.” She throws up her hands, and they fall to her sides. “We have no real army. No generals. No strategists. No hierarchy. We have a minimal amount of firepower. Aoi Uma may be crippled because we took out their central nervous system, but their androids continue to march on. They must have been programmed to keep pushing forward, no matter the cost.”

I take a deep breath, hold it, and let it all out. Let’s face it. Aimi is right. We were never prepared to fight Aoi Uma on their level. I have my one ace up my sleeve, ready to deploy, which may be what ends this war. But I can’t play the card until the perfect moment.

“The fate of Shin-Osaka is in tatters at this point,” Aimi continues. “They will keep pushing until there’s nothing left.”

“What if there was no one left at the top anymore? Would it make a difference?” I ask, folding my arms over my chest. People in the room start to notice our conversation and turn to pay attention.

“Only if they told all the androids to stop before they took off.” She shrugs again. “They’re like automatons now. They were given instructions and won’t stop unless those instructions are countermanded. Aoi Uma used to make androids that were so human you couldn’t tell them apart from the real thing. But these are all the same, with no thoughts of their own.”

She points to the wallscreen. Aoi Uma never even gave these androids variety. They all look the same. A team of them stands guard outside an office building. Another group marches down the sidewalk next to an elementary school. They’re only one version of a super soldier, built for destroying and taking control.

“I see what you mean.” I hold back a groan. “We never had a chance against the army.”

I catch Ryoko’s eye across the room from me. She’s as resigned as I am.

“We have two options now,” Aimi says, stepping into my line of sight. “We can leave Shin-Osaka and meet up with Shiroi Nami to the south. Let them have the city and hope that, eventually, they’ll give up and withdraw. We have plenty of refugees to start up anew somewhere else.”

With that option, I could have my new body in only a few days. But I’ll be leaving everyone here in the clutches of Aoi Uma… Wait, not even Aoi Uma. Gen. I’ll be leaving them to Gen, who has no idea what the hell he’s doing. He only wants power and more power. He’d destroy this place before giving it up.

“What’s option number two?”

“We find an ally who can do what we cannot, and even then, we still may fail.”

I nod once. “Any idea where Shintaro and Atsumi are?”

She jerks her thumb over her shoulder. “I saw them in the galley five minutes ago.”

Lucky me, they are still in the galley. Shintaro’s head tips up from a bowl of instant noodles when I walk in. Atsumi is sitting in aggravated silence across from him. I never see her eat. Never.

“Hey, Kara,” he says before shoving noodles into his mouth.

I push past the disgust at watching him eat and sit in the empty chair at the table. Growing up with him meant I saw the inside of his mouth far too many times for my liking. It seems that, even though I’m no longer in my body, I will still suffer the indignity of hearing him talk around a mouthful of food.

“So,” I start, leaning back in my chair, “how goes the search for Aka Matsuba? Any luck yet?”

Atsumi stares at Shintaro, and Shintaro sighs. He opens his mouth to talk, but I raise my hand.

I turn to Atsumi. “Please don’t make him talk with his mouth full. What have you found?”

“Nothing much yet.” She rolls her eyes and sets down her tablet. “That woman, Sayaka? Gone. No trace of her. She must have deactivated or replaced her chip. We’ve looked at other employees, and they’ve also disappeared without a trace.”

“Hmmm.” I drum my fingers on the table.

Shintaro swallows his food and wipes his mouth. “Atsumi’s only been at this a few days, and I just started helping out. We got sidetracked by the change in location to here and the destruction of the Kiiroi Yama building.” His eyes land on Atsumi, and she quietly fumes.

“Aoi Uma bastards. I can’t believe they forced my corporation off the planet. I hope they all die a million deaths,” she spits out.

A kernel of empathy settles in my heart for her. She was loyal to Kiiroi Yama, almost to a fault. Seeing them gone must be aggravating and disheartening.

Shintaro slowly reaches out and pulls a set of chopsticks on the table towards himself. “I have to keep any weapons away from her,” he whispers to me. “It’s safer that way.”

“I bet.”

“Anyway,” he continues, stirring his bowl, “I’m sure we’ll make a breakthrough in the next week or two. There are still a lot of avenues to explore.”

He shovels more noodles into his mouth, so I wait for him to chew and swallow.

“We don’t have a few weeks. Either we find a new ally, like Aka Matsuba, or we get the hell out of here. Tomorrow or the next day, at the very latest.”

“That quickly?” Atsumi’s face clouds with fear.

“Yeah. We’re done in Shin-Osaka. We can’t fight them, no matter how many androids or corporations we buy. But I don’t want to leave for good without trying to find an ally.”

Atsumi takes my cue and drums her fingers on the desk while staring into space. Her wheels are turning, and knowing her, she’ll come up with something. So I wait. I let the data of everything happening tick over in my head.

I tried to fight Aoi Uma. I lost.

I needed to save my eggs. I won.

I want to move this consciousness over to a new body. Happening soon.

“We haven’t run down his family yet,” Atsumi says, breaking into my thoughts.

“Whose family?”

“Tamura’s. Buichi Tamura, ex-CEO of Aka Matsuba, had a wife and two children.”

“Really?” I pull away from her. In all the time I spent with bug-eyed Tamura, he never once mentioned his family. I didn’t even consider he had one since he seemed to despise anything that wasn’t directly tied to making money for his business. “A wife and two kids? What do you think they’d be doing now?”

“Hiding. Usually, when the corporate leaders are killed, so are their families. I figured they were dead, but that may not be the case. If they’re alive, they probably went underground, changed their appearances…” She waves her hand in a circle. “You know. The usual. If I remember correctly, the oldest child, a daughter, would be in her mid to late twenties now.”

Yes. Yes, this is the news I needed to hear today.

“Perfect. Come with me.”

I gesture for them both to follow me out to the conference room. Lifting my voice without making it sound too artificial, I call out to the crowd.

“Everyone! Everyone, can I have your attention, please?”

People stop talking and turn towards me, setting down tablets and coffee cups. Ryoko turns off the wallscreen that does nothing but pump bad news into the populace nowadays.

“Great. Thanks. Look, we need to have a heart-to-heart.” I glance to my right and see Kazuo and Yoshi step out of the office and approach from down the hall. Ryoko picks up her tablet to record me. “The situation here in Shin-Osaka is dire. Aoi Uma continues to advance, and nothing we’re doing is helping. We need to restructure and retreat.”

A few people moan, and murmurs start to rise. I hold up my hands and call for quiet.

“I need two teams on this. Team One will focus on getting people out of Shin-Osaka and to the south to meet up with Shiroi Nami. Anyone can go. Let’s try to take as much with us as possible. Don’t leave anything valuable behind for Aoi Uma.”

“But we don’t want to leave,” shouts a man from the back.

“I know. I don’t want to go either. But don’t worry. We’re not giving up. I promise.”

I wait until he nods his head.

“Okay, Team Two will help with a surveillance, search, and rescue project. We need people willing to stay behind and risk their well-being to help me find Buichi Tamura’s family.” This causes another round of murmurs. I speak over them. “We need to see if Aka Matsuba has anything left to support us. If they don’t, then we’ll move on. But I can’t make decisions for the Kazenoho Corporation until I know for sure. Volunteers?”

Ryoko, Aimi, Chiéko, Mari, Jonathan, and José raise their hands, along with a few people in the back. I’m not surprised to see all the Orihimé people opting to help. I’ll be glad to have them by my side.

“Great.” I turn to smile at Kazuo and Yoshi. They’re both pale, but when I pop a thumbs up at Kazuo, he returns it. I can only hope Rin is on the same page as us when he returns. If he wanted more from our efforts, I’m going to feel like an asshole for making a change like this.

Please, please. This has to work.

Facing down my team, I’m sure this is our best bet for survival now.

“Let’s get started.”