The Rise of Shiroi Nami – Chapter 24

“What do we do?” I turn to Kazuo. His eyes are narrowed at the wallscreen.

He glances at the watch that was given to us. “I’m… I’m not sure. Rin?”

Rin shakes his head. “I’ll have to see if we can get picked up.” He walks to the window and uses the watch to communicate to someone, I’m not sure who.

“Where’s Shintaro?”

Panic rises from my belly to my chest, and my internal temperature goes right up with it.

Bank employees run past us, heading for the same exit the board of directors used. They’ll escape via their flying transport on the roof. Us? We have to figure out where our people are.

“We’ll figure it out.” Kazuo strides to the chairs where we left our things. He picks up his bag, opens it, and takes out a hypo-syringe. “Come here. This was my backup plan. You’re going to need a lot of meds to get through whatever we think will happen next.”

I already feel like crap, crap that’s been stepped on, wrung out, and left out to dry for a hundred days. This is going to make it worse.

“Come on,” Kazuo insists. “I had Dr. Jimmy cook this one up especially for you.” The twinkle in his eye shows just how devious he can be. Once again, I question my own father’s sanity for letting this man be my caretaker. “Steroids, pain relievers, and fever reducers. All in one little shot.”

“That doesn’t look little to me,” I say, rolling up my sleeve.

“Don’t be a crybaby.” He jams the syringe into my arm, and the plunger does the work automatically. “There. You’ll be as good as new in about five minutes. Drink some water.”

I sit in the chair and drink water, realizing that I haven’t used the bathroom in forever. That can’t be good. Where is all the water going? Straight out of my pores. I’m still sweating all the damned time.

Rin joins us, shaking his head. “I called for a car, but it’ll be a bit before it arrives. Everything is in chaos outside right now.”

Kazuo accesses his tablet and finds the map. “I made sure everyone’s chips and watches were locked in before we left this morning.” He turns the map on its side. “Looks like Shintaro is downstairs.” He looks up at the window. “Right out in the courtyard.”

We both go to the window and press our faces to the glass. Yes, that could be him down there. It’s hard to tell with everyone streaming into this area from every direction.

The news on the wallscreen documents several areas of Shin-Osaka that have broken into protests. The back of my head tingles, and I rub it with my hand to make it go away. This reminds me too much of the last time I had to escape the city.

But the more I scrutinize the videos, the more I’m sure this time is different. Much different. People are calling for change. People, not androids. Androids stand on the sidelines, watching the people and obeying the new laws we’ve given them. One darts forward and stops a person from trampling another person unknowingly. They apologize, bow to each other, and slow down. Kiiroi Yama officers walk with the protesters or wait along the side, watching for issues, but they also keep their distance. In every regard, this looks peaceful, but a crowd can turn deadly at any moment. Aoi Uma could show up and start causing an issue.

“Rampant capitalism is a serious problem in our society,” a woman says in the newsfeed. “Our lives are not commodities to be bought and sold. The contract system is a prison of our own making. I shouldn’t have to owe my entire life to a corporation that has no idea I even exist.”

Yes, yes, yes! I bring my hand into a fist and close my eyes.

Yes. People are waking up. They are beginning to see change. It’s coming. Now, we just need to push.

“We need to go down there. Now,” I urge Rin.

His jaw tightens as he looks between me and the wallscreen.

“If we can get their attention, I can announce my intentions and show them we will change things.” I throw my arm out at the window and the people below. “This is my chance.”

“Yumi…,” he pleads. “This is a situation that’s bound to get out of control, fast.”

“I agree with Rin,” Kazuo says, staring at the wallscreen. “Your safety comes first.”

With a shudder and the flickering of lights, an alarm blares through the building, and an automated voice comes over the loudspeakers. “Please evacuate the building. Use elevators and stairwells to descend to level 1-B and exit out through the rear lobby.”

It repeats twice while Kazuo gathers our belongings and tries to contact our friends below. Finally, Shintaro answers a call from Kazuo’s tablet.

“Where are you?” he shouts. I look over Kazuo’s shoulder, and Shintaro is still standing in the courtyard below. “Protestors have stormed the building. They’re demanding the bank stop financing corporations. This is, uh… This is not going to plan.”

I swallow, seeing his apprehension.

“Sorry, Yumi. You told me to help bring Aoi Uma and Gen out of the shadows, and so I called upon all the underground movements to protest in force today. I didn’t think… I didn’t think they’d call for the dismantlement of their entire society.”

“Of course, you didn’t. Is that Saki behind you? Put her on,” I tell him. He grimaces as he hands the tablet to Saki. “We’ve called Kiiroi Yama for a pickup. I can’t climb down thirty flights of stairs.”

“You want me to follow?”

“Yeah. Keep an eye on us. Okay?”

“I’m on it.” The call ends, and I hand the tablet back to Kazuo.

Kazuo puts the tablet away and pulls my knife in its sheathe from the bag. “Here. Stash it somewhere.”

I slip it into my bra. “Good thinking.”

He stashes his own knife in the back of his pants. “Sorry, Rin. I have nothing for you.”

“That’s fine. I’ll steal a weapon from someone else along the way.” Rin’s watch pings. “A Kiiroi Yama car will be here in three minutes. We need to find the landing pad.”

“I think I know where it is. What’s the plan? What if I go down there and try to speak to the crowd? Would I even be heard?”

“Uh…” He stammers as he thinks, looking left and right. “Yes, okay. You want to talk to the crowd? You can do that. Kiiroi Yama cars have loudspeaker systems.”

“Great! Let’s do it,” I say, smiling at him.

We grab our things and follow the path of the executives who just came through here with security. They were on their way to the landing pad, so that’s where we’ll go too.

“Have I mentioned lately just how proud I am of you?” Kazuo throws open the conference room door and ushers me through. Maybe I should be more grateful that he loves me, but I’m just too cynical of a bitch.

“Don’t get sappy on me now, Kazuo. I’m not dead yet.”

Rin brings up the rear as we push through several doors until we find a stairwell. A landing pad must be on the roof, so up we go.

When we exit to the outside, a gust of wind almost knocks me to my feet. The air is charged with electricity, and the sky roils with angry storm clouds. A shock of lightning crosses the horizon in the distance about ten kilometers away, and the answering thunder shakes my knees.

“I see the car,” Rin says, pointing to the distance and wrapping his other arm around my waist. An approaching Kiiroi Yama car glides between the buildings and comes to a standstill above us before lowering to the landing pad.

The door lifts open, and we rush inside.

I let out a huge breath of relief. “Thank God you guys could come so quickly. That storm is going to be on top of us at any moment.”

I smile at the two men in the front seat and the man and the woman sitting in the back with us. I don’t recognize any of them, but Kiiroi Yama is a giant corporation. They are my best bet at handling this world. Thank goodness Okamoto turned out to be a friend.

Kazuo leans forward to the driver. “Swing around and put us down in the courtyard. Yumi is going to address the crowd from there.”

The driver nods once, and the car lifts from the pad. As we hover and circle, I get another good look at the oncoming storm. It’s a massive front, one that would threaten to put me in the hospital with an all-consuming migraine if this were any other day. I bet my brain is already unhappy, and I can’t feel it because I’m hopped up on pain killers and steroids.

Forget the storm, Yumi.

Rin’s hand finds mine, and I close my eyes and picture what I’ll say to this crowd below. How am I going to appeal to a mass mob? They are so loud I can hear them from inside the car. They’re frantic and scared, and one wrong word could set them off in a disastrous direction. This is not something I’m good at, but fuck it. I’m going to try. I will give it my best. It’s the least I can do for these people.

I’m deep into the visualization of my speech when I feel Rin’s hand tighten. He must be worried about the crowd too.

Only, I open my eyes, and we’re not descending.

We’re moving away.

“Hey, uh… The courtyard is back that way.” Kazuo jerks his thumb at the First Bank of Hikari’s building, drifting away from us.

The Kiiroi Yama officer in front of us turns around and pulls out a deadly-looking knife. His smile is devoid of emotion, his cold eyes trained on us. We turn around to find the woman behind us with a stun gun.

“You will be quiet and not cause trouble,” she says, and something about her rubs me the wrong way. It’s an itch that I get in the back of my brain, possibly the damaged part of my brain, but still…

“Androids,” Rin says to Kazuo.

His shoulders lose some of their height. “Not Kiiroi Yama, then.”

“Probably a stolen car.” Rin jerks a millimeter forward, but the android is too fast. She flicks the stun gun on.

“Not so fast.”

I swallow as I glance past the driver and out the front window. I’m not sure where we’re going, but we’re circling Kadoma Ward. A wash of rain patters the windshield, and then the downpour comes, a harsh deluge so sharp it makes me wince.

“Where are you taking us?” I raise my voice over the cacophony of rain, wind, and thunder.

“Not far,” the female android says. “The storm will roll through quickly, and Ms. Ogawa would still like to deliver you back to the crowd, so they can take care of you.”

I pull my bottom lip into my mouth and think of Shintaro and Saki in the courtyard, waiting for us, wondering what’s happened to the car. Was Saki able to track us? Or did a real Kiiroi Yama car show up only moments later to an empty landing pad?

I raise my eyebrows at Kazuo. Should we try to escape? I have the knife in my bra, and I could pull it quickly.

He shakes his head. No. We should wait.

The car descends, and I try to lean forward to see where we are.

“No.” The man with the knife jabs it in my direction. “Sit tight.”

I fold my arms over my chest and sit back. Fine.

But I know where we are. I’ve been here enough times to picture this spot in my sleep.

In the rain, the butsu shuts down. This leaves the perfect place for a flying car to land, and the bridges provide shelter from the onslaught of rain. We touch down near to where Gen Miyazawa last beat me, where he ran after me on the butsu, tackled me, and tried to drag me to my death.

My heart beats wildly, the fever and meds causing it to run erratic, as I look out the window and see the people waiting for our arrival.

There will be no escaping this.

It’s time to meet my enemies, face to face.