The Rise of Shiroi Nami – Chapter 25

“Hello again, Yumi Minamoto,” Narumi calls out, her smile insipid. “You are proving much harder to get rid of than we thought.”

I drag my feet as the androids tug Kazuo, Rin, and me forward to meet Narumi, Gen, and their android backups. I’ve been dreading this for months, wishing to every god I could think of that Narumi or Gen would just die, and I’d never have to deal with them again.

I know that’s horrible, but I’m a horrible person deep down sometimes. I just don’t let it out often.

The wind whips down the butsu and under the bridge, bringing with it frigid, stinging rain. I shiver and come within a micrometer of crying. Please, I want this to be over with.

“So…” Narumi claps her hands and brings them together to her chest. “Tell me all about this Kazenoho Corporation you’ve been granted four billion credits for.”

Gen laughs. “It’s just like you to suck up to the empress. Still looking for forgiveness for that documentary you made?”

My jaw hardens. It’s like they can see right into my life.

“You have a lot of nerve kidnapping us like this,” Rin says, pointing a finger at them. I straighten my shoulders and lift my chin. It’s so rare that he gets loud or angry. He’s usually the quiet and deadly type. “I’m not sure you realize how dead set against you the populace is nowadays.”

Narumi looks at Rin as if she’s noticing him for the very first time, like he’s a ghost that appeared out of the mist.

“Dead set against me? I’m the one that brought them their salvation.”

“You sold them a lie, and they know it. You sold them androids with no safeguards. You sold them a life without the messiness of love, marriage, childbirth, and death, and they realize how sterile that is. You won’t be able to go back. They know… We know,” he stresses. He points at me. “Yumi is going to bring them back to reality, and we’re going to fix what you’ve broken.”

Gen’s face reddens with anger. Then he closes his eyes, shakes his head, and blows out a long breath.

“It doesn’t matter what you think. We’ll tell them all you were lying. Yumi won’t be around in another day or two to make a difference. How are you feeling, huh?” His eyes stare right through me, into my aching, heated body. “Pretty shitty, right? I didn’t engineer that virus to kill just anybody. It’ll only infect Orihimé citizens. You all will be gone before you can do anything about it.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Kazuo asks, his voice filled with disbelief.

I open and close my mouth twice before I’m able to say anything. “Do you hate your own world, your own people, that much?”

Gen shrugs. “I told you once before. This way of life is superior to what we have at home. And you … You wanting to change it is utterly reprehensible. People here have power, status, and a grasp of what we need for the future. Don’t you dare bring in your buddies from home and try to make it into something it’s not. Narumi is the future. Aoi Uma is the future. Hell, I am the future.” He lifts his arms up like he’s some kind of messiah. Sickness rolls through my belly. “We’ll rid this world of Orihimé people, fix what you’re trying to break, and then when the missions show up from home, there will be no one here for them to rescue. Easy as that.”

“You’ll be here,” I point out.

“I’m not the person I was. And they didn’t want me to begin with.”

On the butsu, behind Narumi, Gen, and their android watchers, a lone person is running towards us. Probably more reinforcements for them.

“So, are you ready to end it, Yumi?” Gen asks. “I see no point in holding on now. You’re as good as dead on your feet, anyway.”

Rin pushes me behind him as my legs shake under the effort to hold my body still. We have no weapons and no reinforcements. I’m tired, I’m sick, and I’m just barely this side of alive. Maybe I should give up. I should move on. My backup plan is as secure as it’ll ever be. It’s not like they’ll scan me again in a day or two and get better results. I’m either dead, or I’ll come back in a new body with plenty of my memories missing.

My eyes fill with tears, knowing that my last moments will be like this, locked in battle with Rin. As sappy and silly as it sounds, I was hoping to die in his arms. I never thought I deserved love. And once I had it, I didn’t want to be without it. I wish I could change things right now.

Kazuo places his hand on my arm, and I turn my eyes to him. At least, he’ll be with me too.

But he trains his eyes on the space behind our enemies. The person I saw running a moment ago is even closer now, and is that… No.

Yes. It’s Saki.

She waves her hand at us and shouts, “Get down!”

I see her toss something before Kazuo pulls Rin and me to the ground. A pop and bang sends us to our sides, and we roll across the butsu. Thankfully it’s still soft, even when it’s not turned on. A crack of thunder and the sounds of a fight follow as we get to our knees.

Saki has a sword, and she’s cutting down androids at a furious pace.

“Get to the car,” she shouts. “Call for more backup!”

I glance over my shoulder at the car we came from, still sitting there, open, empty, and waiting for us. The lights are on inside, and the car idles, unlocked and available for anyone to take it. Is this how it was stolen in the first place? Or maybe it was hacked?

One of our android guards runs to help Narumi and Gen, but the last guard stands above us. Kazuo lunges for her legs, and they both tumble away. Rin dives after them.

This is my chance. I have just enough energy left to get away.

I scramble to my feet and force my legs into a sprint. My arms are leaden, and swinging them requires more effort than I had hoped for.

Run faster, Yumi.

I trip over the threshold on my way into the car. We landed just inside the bridge’s overhang, and the softening rain coats the car in a mist of fine drops. I can’t really see outside.

Tapping on every available panel, a command console comes alive. My eyes skim over the readouts, and I see why no one came for us in the first place.

Location beacon, off. Turn on?

Yes. Fuck yes. It should be on all the time! Why do they even allow it to be off?

I tap the screen and bring it back online. I suppose a police operation like Kiiroi Yama has to be stealthy sometimes, but this is dumb. It would make it easy to steal. Ugh, turn off your brain, Yumi. Who cares?

The screen blinks, and an incoming communication pops up. Atsumi’s face fills the screen, and I groan.

“What’s going on?” she demands, leaning into the camera. God, I hate her, but I have to trust her. There’s no one else to help me.

“Kidnapped by Aoi Uma. We’re on the butsu, just past, uh,” I stammer as I search around, “exit A9.”

I hear more commotion, and when I glance over my shoulder, an android is running in my direction.

Fuck.

“I’m about to have company. What should I do?”

“Hold tight. We have cars on the way. ETA, two minutes.”

“Atsumi, I won’t last two minutes.” Out the front window, I see the rain, the end of the thunderstorm, and conclude that we need a distraction. A big distraction. “Turn on the butsu.”

“What?” she squeaks.

“Turn. It. On. Now.”

“I can’t!” Her face is a picture of horror. “It needs to be emptied first.”

“No, now!”

“Do you know what happens to the butsu in the rain?” Her voice reaches the pitch of a small girl.

“I don’t care! Do it!”

“Okay, fine. It’s your funeral.” Her face disappears.

Uh oh. She seems way too pleased by that decision.

I climb over the seat to exit on the opposite side, away from the incoming android. He hits the side of the vehicle, not letting it stop him from getting to me. I roll out the other side and start running, away from the bridge’s protection and into the last of the thunderstorm.

The butsu is soaked, and now so am I. I pass several giant puddles before I hear the splash of feet behind me.

Don’t look back. Don’t stop. Keep going.

My lungs burn, and my head is ready to pop. Whatever Kazuo gave me, it won’t last with this much adrenaline flowing through my system. Pushing left, I weave in and out of puddles in an attempt to keep the android from following me in a straight line.

The butsu shifts below me, and a force yanks me to the ground. I bounce once, twice, and roll. A hand darts out, grabs my ankle, and pulls me along.

“Get off!” I shoot my foot out and connect with the hand of the android dragging me along. He’s resolved, his face set in stone, a macabre determination to follow orders from his master. I knew we wouldn’t reach all the androids when we sent our updates out to the fleet of Aoi Uma residential units. Narumi’s not dumb; she was smart enough to keep her killers off of the update network.

Despite connecting with the android’s hand over and over, he doesn’t let go. “Target One, acquired,” he says aloud. “Awaiting further orders.”

“Help!” I scream, but a rushing, churning roar swallows up my voice.

We’ve picked up speed on the butsu now, yellow light flying past me. We’re in the center lane and not walking, so I’m not going as fast as I could be. But my eyes widen as I watch a slow, almost frozen in place, wave overcome the android. It’s as if the water is alive as an amorphous blob. It covers him slowly, centimeter by centimeter, as it gains more water along our path.

Icy cold wetness creeps over my back.

Shit.

He doesn’t need to breathe to hold on to me, but I do. And unless I grow gills right now, I’m about to be smothered in water, drowned. I flail my arms around and fling some water off of me. Drops fly off, but more water joins the blob creeping over me from the sky. I cough as it creeps over my neck and face.

Panic drives my response into high gear. Wait! I have my knife. I can still defend myself. Reaching into my bra, I roll into the butsu’s pull, lift my upper body, and stab down into the android’s arm. His fingers short and let go. I jerk forward and push him hard towards the green lane, and he speeds off without me.

Whipping my upper body around, I fling more water off of me, as much as I can.

But now that I’m free of the android, my brain finally recognizes the roar that’s building… and getting closer. I turn to look behind me, and… No. Oh, fuck.

Why didn’t I ask Atsumi what happens to the butsu in the rain? I should have asked.

Towering up and out of the butsu, a tsunami is heading straight for me. It has to be at least fifteen meters high and growing with every millisecond. The edges froth with foam, and water rushes to it, collecting as if being drawn in by a giant inhale. I suddenly have a flash of intuition, a vision of this happening for the first time on Hikari many years ago, and the engineers blanching over what they had created. A gut-wrenching oops and a vow to never turn the butsu on in a downpour ever again.

Until I came along.

“Run!” The voice comes off to my left, from the slow purple lane. Aimi is trying to keep pace with the wave, water collecting around her legs but only a few centimeters deep. Yes, the wave is disproportionately smaller there, the force of the butsu less in the slower lanes. To my right, in the green lane, it’s even higher and faster than in front of me.

What felt like an age taking in this looming disaster was but a breath, a moment, and then my legs are moving, running, sprinting. I angle for the purple lane. It’s amazing how the will to live is stronger than just about anything else I could summon up right now. Fear is banished. Joy is a distant memory. But my eagerness to survive is driving me faster and faster to apparent safety.

The butsu tsunami picks up speed as I do. The wave grows as I look over my shoulder. It blots out the buildings on either side, and lightning cleaves the sky in two above it, an ominous sign if ever I saw one. My strides are becoming shorter, and my legs are heavier as more water collects around me. It’s up to my knees now, and the wave is only a few dozen meters away.

My whole body jerks as I enter the purple lane. Shit. I want to go faster, not slower! The tsunami is still way too close here. Aimi is only a few meters away, her legs pumping as fast as she can go. She’s in better shape than me and not suffering a full-body meltdown, but even she can’t keep this pace up for much longer.

“Hold your breath,” she screams at me as she jumps and grabs me around the waist. I suck in a deep breath, and the water takes us under.