The Rise of Shiroi Nami – Chapter 27

The rush through my system is blinding. My vision bursts with white light, and my limbs shake. I close my eyes and let the meds wash through me. Roaring in my ears reminds me of the tsunami on the butsu, and I inhale sharply, sure I’m back there, the water towering over me.

If I live long enough to have more dreams, I’m sure drowning will play a heavy hand in my nightmares. As if my first drowning here didn’t already cause me to steer clear of the water. I only survived that time because Shintaro did CPR on me. Who will be around to save me now?

My eyes flutter open as my heart picks up its lazy ambling pace to a steady jog. I grab Saki’s hand.

“You’ll take care of Ninjin when I’m gone?” I haven’t worried much about my dog on this trip. I have assumed that he’s been chasing balls and fighting with cats on this moon base, wherever it is.

“What about Rin?” Saki asks.

“I don’t even know if he’s still alive. He loves Ninjin, but…” How do I explain Rin’s lifelong distaste for animals because of Aka Matsuba? I get it. I’m not sure others would.

“I understand. Of course, I’ll watch after him. Ready to stand?”

She takes my hand to hoist me to my feet. My legs are wobbly after all the running we did, and my clothes are still wet. I’d love to change into something warm and dry, but it’s raining outside still, a spotty rain that comes and goes with bursts of sunlight. I need to just deal and move on. Hopefully, the cool, wet clothes will keep my fever down.

A few deep breaths, and I’m ready to go. “Okay. I think I can walk and function.”

“Have you had a migraine recently?” Saki asks as Aimi opens the door to our comm booth and looks both ways.

“No. They disappeared once I was infected with the virus.”

“Hmmm,” she says, encircling my upper arm with a hand and checking my pulse. “They could be tied to blood pressure. We could…” Her eyes search mine for a moment. “Never mind. We can discuss it later.”

The kinds of things she can do as an android amaze me. I’m not supposed to admire the androids, but there are moments when I do. Moments like these.

“Let’s go.” Aimi jerks her head towards the exit to the shopping arcade. Out in the open, a crowd of people chant, raising their fists, and pumping signs into the air. “The plaza outside looks ready for some mayhem. Let’s see if Hidéki and Wataru can deliver what we need.”

I admire Aimi, and my chest rises with pride to be walking alongside her. Her face is a picture of determination, pressing forward, sure of herself. I’ve never been that confident. And if I were in a different place and time, I would be focusing on her for our documentary about Shiroi Nami and what they can bring to the people of Hikari.

But I think we’re about to show everyone what they can do.

We thread our way through the crowd, chanting along with them.

“Remove Aoi Uma!” “Destroy the androids!” “Human life or no life!”

I raise my fist and shout with them until I’m doubled over coughing. I’m sure I inhaled water during my unintended swim in the tsunami, and my lungs are paying for it. Straightening up is painful. My stomach feels like it has an ice pick wedged in it.

“You okay?” A random person next to me dumps her bag on the ground and crouches down. I look up in time to see Saki remove the woman’s tablet from her purse and scoot away. So, now we’re pickpockets too?

I would laugh, but I have to save my energy.

“I’ll be all right, thanks,” I say, pulling myself up to my full height again.

I follow Saki and Aimi to the other end of the plaza, and Saki is bent over the tablet.

“How are you going to…?” I’m not able to finish asking my question about how she’ll hack the woman’s tablet when she does it right in front of me. “Okay then. I have the perfect friends. Where is everyone?”

“Let me get into Kiiroi Yama’s system first.”

Aimi and I shift in front of Saki, allowing her to work without being interrupted. We raise our fists and chant along with the crowd. A booming voice rises above all the others, and a man close to us yells into a microphone.

“Our imprisonment must end!”

His voice echoes off the buildings. I search for the speakers, and they are installed into the plaza. This is probably a place for concerts and plays, and today they have commandeered it for a protest.

“Kiiroi Yama drones show Wataru and Hidéki picking up Narumi and Gen! Rin is there!”

I shuffle backwards to look at the footage and gasp. Rin and other kenryōshi from Kiiroi Yama are cutting down hordes of androids around a flurry of wings. The footage changes angles, and a Kiiroi Yama car flies in overhead with a man on a mounted gun mowing down another flank of androids. I cover my mouth as I watch, sick with worry and fear. This is destruction on a massive level. Kiiroi Yama doesn’t use the big guns unless it’s serious. With a blink, Hidéki is in the sky, carrying Narumi. Wataru clocks Gen, but Gen fights back.

“Come on,” I whisper, trying to send them as much of my positivity as I can. “Grab him.”

Wataru tries again, and this time he’s successful. Gen looks injured, and his eyes are on Narumi, far off in the sky.

“They’re on their way here. If we’re going to do something, we have to do it now.”

The crowd is getting agitated, climbing up on street lamps and setting off smoke flares. The rain has stopped, and it’s empowered everyone to ratchet the agitation up a level.

“I… I don’t know,” I say, grabbing Aimi’s arm. “Maybe we should leave? I know how to get back to the safe house from here.” I clutch at my stomach, trying in vain to stop the stabbing pain there. “There’s too much at stake to wing this… literally.”

Aimi’s smirk makes me laugh, and that hurts even more.

“No. We’ll do this because we need to. We have no other choice.”

A high-pitched scream rents the air from the other side of the plaza. The crowd parts like a boat racing through deep water.

“The cavalry is here,” Aimi says, pointing to the kumojin corralling the protestors.

The giant spider creatures herd people into clusters around a central opening in the plaza. A man screams and faints when one of them touches him. The kumojin grabs his shirt and pulls him to the side. I almost laugh at the absurdity of it. I’ve seen pastures back home with trained sheepdogs moving sheep into pens, which is very much the same.

The crowd has gone eerily silent. People abandon protest signs and several run for the adjacent streets. But many stay behind, whispering to each other.

“I saw this on the underground news,” a nearby woman says to the man next to her. “From a town south of here.”

Aimi strides forward and corners the man with the microphone. His mouth is open in astonishment, and he holds the microphone in his hand, limp at his side.

“Excuse me. Give me that, please.” Aimi holds out her hand, and her stare doesn’t leave him any room to say no. He places it in her hand.

“Showtime,” she says, and her eyes twinkle with glee.

Oh shit. What have I gotten myself into with this one? She’s as destructive as Shintaro. I watch as she climbs up on a nearby light post. Yeah, she’s just like Shintaro. It turns out I love my brother enough to surround myself with people just like him.

“Get ready,” Saki whispers to me. “They’re coming. Everyone is coming.”

A tingle of dread runs through me. I have a fuzzy memory of sitting across from Saki and her now-deceased brother back at that hidden town beside the sea. Saki’s passion for revenge and her need to be free were like a burning light coming out of the darkness. The Fukusha Model Sevens, the ones who had survived, wanted an end to Aoi Uma, an end at any cost. They were willing to sacrifice me for the greater good.

I lick my parched lips and shudder as the drugs run through my system. I trust these women, and I trust Shiroi Nami. And hell, I’m going to die anyway, and soon, so I should go with the flow, right?

Yet, something about this doesn’t feel right. I wanted to do this in a benevolent manner. I wanted to show the citizens of Hikari that they didn’t need some power-hungry despot to take over. Executing my competition for the ‘greater good’ is a bad idea all around.

With an area cleared in the crowd, Aimi takes control of the microphone. Heads swivel to the sound of her voice.

“Listen up, Shin-Osaka! You want peace, yeah?”

A small chorus of affirmation rises up to her words.

“You want freedom?”

“Yeah!” the crowd responds. Tingles wash down my back.

“You want the end of androids? You want families and lives worth living?” Aimi shouts, bringing her free arm holding the microphone up in a fist.

The crowd cheers, and she pumps her fist up and down. Her devotion to the Shiroi Nami way is both inspiring and terrifying.

Maybe this is a mistake. This could be wrong.

Or maybe it’s the best thing that will ever happen to Hikari.

I don’t know.

I need to know.

Dammit. I can’t leave this all now.

Fighting with the tears in my eyes, I keep my attention on Aimi. She wraps her microphone arm around the pole so she can point to me.

“People! My friends! Don’t be afraid of the creatures around you. Remember how you loved your Aka Matsuba way of life before Aoi Uma created androids? You had children, and animals, and families… and the androids replaced them. We can bring you back to that way of life! Shiroi Nami and the corporation, Kazenoho, want you to be in charge. No more contracts. No more castes.”

A murmur runs through the crowd, and several people point up to the sky.

“No more being owned by someone else! Independent and free to choose. Free to vote for your leaders. How does that sound?”

I look out at the crowd, and I’m not surprised to see confusion cloud their faces.

I don’t think they know what they want. They only know they don’t want this.

The crowd shifts even more as a Kiiroi Yama car flies overhead and lands in the street beyond the plaza. With a rush of air and a rustle of feet on pavement, people move aside, and Wataru touches down in the open space with Gen in his arms. Gen tumbles to the ground. Hidéki is next to land with Narumi, and she stumbles and falls to her knees. A giant, synchronized gasp quiets the plaza.

Narumi points at Hidéki, towering over her. “I will have your head for this, you freak.”

Gen gets to his feet and turns slowly, his eyes scanning the crowd. He hasn’t seen me yet, so I have the opportunity to watch his reaction to the protest signs, the angry faces, the upraised fists. For the first time, genuine fear blankets his face. Everything here — the energy for change and the anger at the past — is the antithesis of what he’s been calling for. Did he assume Aoi Uma had the will of the people? Or did he think he could force that will on them whether they wanted it or not?

It’s nice to feel like he’s at a disadvantage.

But I know Aoi Uma. They have too many resources, too many androids at their beck and call to lie down and give up.

Gen’s eyes fall on me, and his fear turns to anger.

“Yumi Minamoto! Come out here and face me, citizen to citizen.”

He pounds on his chest, and Narumi’s frown turns to a wry smile.

“Don’t,” Saki says, grabbing my arm. “They don’t own you.”

“No one owns me,” I remind her. “And he can’t hurt me anymore.”