The Rise of Shiroi Nami – Chapter 15

“Run! Go!”

My voice cracks on the syllables as I push them through my closed throat.

Ryoko takes off, almost passing Rin, who is doing his best to carry the black suitcase and still run at the same time.

Kazuo steps out from a crowd of people, clothed in Kiiroi Yama black with two swords strapped to his back. He tosses one sword to Rin as Rin lobs the suitcase to Kazuo. Saki strides away from the opposite side of the boulevard, her eyes on Ryoko and me… And then the cats.

I don’t want to see them. I don’t want to.

I look behind me anyway.

Oh shit.

They are gorgeous. Whoever designed these beasts did an excellent job. Their fur is lustrous, and their long strides tug at the ground beneath them as they sprint to keep up with us. Three cats, three giant cats that I’ll have to evade or kill.

I don’t want to kill them. They’re too beautiful.

I know I’ll have to.

“Yumi!” Kazuo calls out. He has my knife in his hand. My knife, the one I brought from Orihimé. The only proper weapon I know how to fight with.

I bank to the right without losing speed just as Kazuo tosses my knife into the air.

I almost lose it. The knife tumbles, and my hand fumbles for it, but I pull it to my chest, and I keep going.

Screams erupt from the boulevard behind us, and a blood-curdling growl turns into a high-pitched shriek as I round the bend right after Ryoko.

“Go!” I scream at her. “Park!”

There’s only one place we can go where we can lose these cats, and that’s into the theme park. It’s a bit of a run from here, but we may hold these cats off if we dodge in and out of places.

Because I don’t want to brag or anything, but I’m a shitty runner, and those cats were born to chase. Chase and destroy.

I glance over my shoulder to catch the scene on the boulevard as we turn onto a nearby street.

Saki has already killed one cat! Go Saki! That’s what that scream was. She must have stepped out into its path and taken it down right away.

Two cats left.

We can do this.

A stitch tears through my side, and I nearly puke from the pain.

I can’t do this.

I force my legs forward.

It’s now early afternoon, and the theme park is at full attendance. The sun is out, and it’s a glorious day to ride rollercoasters, drink beer, and eat decadent food. I only wish I could stay and enjoy it.

“Out of the way!” Ryoko calls out to a crowd of people around the entrance. They scatter like the bugs in my Kitakyushu apartment when the lights came on. She runs through the front gate at blinding speed, and a tōsha pops up, taking her credits and admitting her for the day. More people get out of the way as I approach, and their eyes widen when they see what’s on my tail.

A woman screams, and more people run.

“Ryoko! Through the arcade!”

I can hear the cats now. Their nails scrape on the pavement, and their breath heaves in huffs. “Circle back!” Rin’s voice from behind surprises me, but I should have known he’d follow.

Ryoko banks left into the long arcade of fair games, and I follow her. Behind me, the two cats are just ten meters away, and Saki, Rin, and Aimi are behind the cats. I didn’t even see Aimi. She must have been staked out somewhere else.

One cat scrambles to get around a corner and crashes into a small family, two parents and a kid. They all come tumbling to the ground. The kid is bleeding, but it looks like it was an accident. The cats only have eyes for me. One growls, and the other cat in the lead glances back. They vocalize to each other, and the cat farther away nods before breaking off to the left.

Oh shit.

They are going to pen us in somehow.

I can’t keep running. I catch up to Ryoko as the head cat picks up the pace behind us.

“Circle right! Cat on left!”

Shouting is sucking the energy out of me, energy I need to keep going. I rip the headscarf off and toss it aside, freeing my head and bringing sweet cool air to my body. Ryoko does the same.

The lead cat is getting closer. Her own breathing is labored now, though I’m sure she could run for days without stopping. I used to watch nature documentaries of Old Earth —back before the wars, back before the Decline — with my father. There were wide grass fields where animals roamed free and hunted each other.

I’m the hunted one now.

“Bring straight to Rin,” I shout, then we both dodge out of the way of an arcade employee dragging out a can of trash. I grab it at the last moment and dump it over on the ground.

“Hey! Ahhh!” The employee scrambles to the side and falls as the cat leaps over him. She tries to get purchase on the ground again to run after us.

“Yes,” Ryoko breathes out. Her face is beet red, and sweat pours down her neck, but she laughs. Not because any of this is funny. This is insane and totally absurd, and we both know it.

We’re approaching the end of the arcade. What should we do? Left or right?

Before I can make a split-second decision, Rin and Saki run out from the building’s end and pass us. I’m afraid to stop running, but I need to. My body is about to give up.

Rin’s sword is out of its sheath and swinging through the air as the cat screams and jumps right at him.

Saki comes up from below, her fist a missile straight for the cat’s underbelly. In the air, the cat can’t do anything. She flips, back legs flinging over, and Rin’s sword flies true. He cuts her down, and she rolls across the ground several times before coming to a bloody halt.

Ryoko and I are both bent over, sucking air. My legs shake, and my eyes sting from the sweat pouring down my forehead. Holy shit. That was close.

“Wait,” Ryoko says, trying to calm her breath. She swallows and spits on the ground. “There was another one.”

We both turn around. I don’t see the last one. It peeled off and went in the opposite direction.

“The roof!” Aimi is barreling towards us from the direction that Ryoko and I just came from.

The roof?

I glance up, and fear grabs my heart and yanks it. The last cat crouches on the roof of the arcade, ready to pounce.

“Go!” Rin yells.

Ryoko and I take off, and my body is ten times more upset with me for running again. Whatever we do now, it has to be over soon.

If the cat sees Rin, Aimi, and Saki, it doesn’t care. Gen told them all to not let me get away, and now that’s all they are aiming for.

Me.

“Help!” I scream, hoping someone else will step in this time and bring this cat to a standstill. “Help!”

Saki joins us on the run this time. She’s faster than either of us, so she’s out front, pushing people out of the way, keeping the path clear.

I look behind me again to gauge how close the cat is, and something new is happening that I hadn’t expected.

People are turning to watch. No, wait. They’re androids. Androids are stopping and tuning into the scene, the scene of a human in trouble, a human calling for help.

I pass another android who turns with a vacant expression on her face. She steps between the cat and me, putting herself in harm’s way. The cat growls as its feet skitter. The android throws herself onto the cat, but the cat is too slick. It finds us again in its sights and keeps going.

Ahead, Saki has cleared the crowd all the way up a long ramp to the rollercoaster. This is simultaneously the best and worst idea all at once. My logic tells me to get on the rollercoaster and get the hell out of here. This cat can’t chase a rollercoaster, right?

Everything at this park is automated, and people have already climbed aboard a coaster, ready to leave the station.

“Out of the way!” Ryoko calls.

People scream and dive to the sides. Ryoko vaults over a turnstile and sprints to the front car.

“Prepare to leave the station,” an announcement over the loudspeaker blares down at us.

I pass Saki standing to the side. She yells, “Go!” at me, and I keep running straight for an open car. I can’t leap the turnstile, so I roll over it in the most awkward way possible and land in the car with a thump.

My hands shake as I struggle to bring the harness down over me and allow the car to strap me in. People in front and behind me turn to stare at me with wide eyes. All I can do is huff and attempt to breathe.

More screaming from the entrance makes everyone left on the platform run for the exit. Saki and another person, another android maybe, are wrestling with the cat. The cat swipes out and tears off most of Saki’s shirt. The other android kicks at the cat, and my dismay grows as the rollercoaster inches forward. These androids have received the new programming to keep humans safe. Still, they’re not the trained fighters that Narumi Ogawa used to send after me on Kurai.

The cat growls and leaps past Saki and the other android. Shit.

I watch over my shoulder as the cat lengthens its strides down the platform, leaps, and connects with the last car on the coaster.

The people sitting there scream as she stalks over them. But the coaster is in motion now, and we’re strapped in, and the cat is not.

I know cats well. My mom has this thing with cats, and back home, she has about a dozen of them she talks to. With our animal translation chip technology, she was paired with cats at a young age, so they’ve always been around. I’ve seen house cats do things that defy gravity. There is a reason they have nine lives.

Gen engineered this cat to chase. He engineered it to listen, understand, take orders, and still make its own decisions based on risk analysis. This cat is intelligent in the ways house cats are not.

Fucking Gen. I knew he would put his skills to use someday, but I didn’t think he would go this far.

The coaster slows down as it comes to a hill. I can’t believe my first time on a rollercoaster is like this. I look behind, and the cat is stalking forward, winding a path over the tops of each car. Not stopping, she steps on screaming people trying to shrink out of the way. I doubt there are any androids here who can help me. I can only help myself.

I shake the rigid steel harness holding me in. It doesn’t budge. Fuck. I can’t get out. I’m a sitting duck. Tears fill my eyes. This cat is going to kill me, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

But then we reach the top of the climb, and the only thing I see in front of us is the coaster cars disappearing over the top. I glance behind me again, and the cat is three cars back.

Maybe…

My bodyweight pulls forward as the acceleration hits maximum speed, and the whole coaster races down the hill in front of us. Holy shit! The world disappears in front of me, and we speed up into a dive so hard that it pins my head against the back of the car. My cheeks and teeth shake in my head as we hit the bottom of the hill and take off again faster up another hill, tilt to the right and come around a fast bend.

I try to catch my breath and assess the situation behind me. I expect to find nothing but people, but no. The cat has held on for dear life. Its arms and legs are wrapped around two harnesses, and the people in those harnesses are pressed as far away from the cat’s claws as possible. From this angle, I see the cat is a female. She’s probably pretty young too, and this has to be her first time on a rollercoaster, like me. I almost laugh. Almost.

The coaster swings around, down and up, down and up. My eyes widen as I see what’s next, a loop. I grab my harness with all my might and hold on tight as the coaster swings into a giant loop, and I’m upside down, looking at the ground below us.

Kiiroi Yama police cars are racing across the land between the coaster tracks. Are they here for me? Is that Rin or Kazuo?

When the rollercoaster straightens out, I realize a lot has been going on in the minute since I got on the coaster. Other black flying cars are also approaching, but they don’t appear to be Kiiroi Yama. Fuck, it’s Aoi Uma. Fighting androids hang out the sides, and I lick my lips, wondering if they will get the new programming we sent out. This would all be useless if they didn’t change as well.

The rollercoaster’s wheels squeal, and the train slows down, but we’re far from the station. Glancing back, the cat is unfolding from its secure position wrapped around all the harnesses.

“Yumi!”

I turn to the front, and Ryoko is climbing over the other cars to get to me. “Emergency release! Over the side on your left!”

Really? Over the left side, yes, there’s a lever. Pulling on it hard, the harness releases and floats up. I stand up, pull out my knife, and get ready.

The cars are slowing, and we’re coming to the halfway point of the ride. But I’m not going on from here. I’m going to defend myself against this cat.

The cat growls and leaps. Her trajectory is straight and true. At the last possible moment, I jerk to the side, and she crashes into the lifted harness. I stab her in the side of her chest with my knife, and I hate myself. I love animals, and this is the most brutal thing I have ever done. I’d rather kill some awful person than do this. She was born and engineered to be this way. It’s not her fault.

Her shriek of pain freaks me out. I climb to the side of the car and peer over the edge. My side is over a flimsy guardrail and empty air. The cat’s side is where I need to be, next to a thin platform and a maintenance tower.

I stand up on the seat and gauge how far I’m going to have to leap to get over her. She turns and growls, swiping out with her claws and ripping my shirt to shreds.

Hot pain slices through my chest, and blood pours down from my torso over my pants.

She swipes again and just misses my neck and face. Instead, she slices down my arm.

The bloodied knife is still in my hand. With a burst of angry energy, I punch out and clock her across the head with the handle, wind back, and stab her in the shoulder.

She screams and pulls away, ready to pounce, and my body numbs. I can’t escape her. There’s no place for me to go.

“Yumi! Jump left!”

I recognize the voice before my legs leap. My body flies left and over the side of the rollercoaster car while Aimi springs from the guardrail with her sword swinging.

She cuts down the cat in one swift motion, just as I’m flying over the guardrail, watching my own death unfold. My knife slips from my hand and falls faster than me, down down down, a glint of shining metal twisting in the ether. I am several hundred meters in the air, and there’s nothing below but open space.

My shirt tightens, and my body jerks to a stop, fabric ripping in sharp bursts.

“Gotcha,” Saki says.

I open my mouth and scream. “Oh my God, help!”

“I’ve got you,” she reassures me. “Stop flailing. I’m going to bring you to the side of the rollercoaster.”

I seem to hover in the air as she brings me over to the steel supports, and I wrap my arms around them, gripping on for dear life.

Glancing up, Saki is only one support above me.

“I climbed all the way up. Took a while, but I made it.”

I bark out an incredulous laugh and switch my grip on the steel supports because I’m bleeding enough for my hands to be slippery.

A high-pitched whine approaches from below, and a small dot grows bigger until it’s Rin on a sorabō, one of those flying sticks that I hardly see anymore. He has my knife in his hand.

“Don’t want to lose this, now.” He smiles as he stuffs it in his waistband.

“Wow. Did you see that?” Someone from above asks. When I look up, several heads are peeking over the sides of their cars, getting footage on their tablets and cameras.

Well, if I wasn’t famous before, I am now.

Rin’s face is a grave mask. “Are they all dead?”

I nod, pulling my lips into my mouth briefly. “The cats are all dead. Everyone else is okay.”

When another flying car approaches, it opens its door on the other side, and Aimi and Ryoko climb in.

“Hold tight. It’ll be around for you next.”

“Rin,” I plead, wanting to dissolve into tears and break down.

“No, Yumi. Not yet.” His words are harsh, but his tone is sincere and caring. “Aoi Uma is on the way, and —”

A giant explosion not too far away almost knocks me off the supports. Screams erupt from the coaster passengers, and we all close our eyes against the brightness of the fireball in the distance.

It’s the Aoi Uma factory. It just blew up. Holy shit.

A small smile curls Rin’s lips. “Ah, there we go. I was wondering when that would happen.”

An approaching Aoi Uma car turns and circles back, heading straight for the explosion.

“How…?” I ask, then I remember the stop we made on our way out to the utility room where Rin turned off all the cooling to the server floor. “Never mind. The servers.”

He pulls away on the sorabō. The Kiiroi Yama vehicle rounds the coaster, Kazuo, Aimi, and Ryoko in the doorway. Saki climbs down next to me.

“Come on, friend. Let’s get you to safety.”

It doesn’t escape my notice that she calls me ‘friend.’