The Rise of Shiroi Nami – Chapter 28

I can’t even begin to describe how fucking tiresome this is. Gen loves a good showdown, and I would rather be behind the camera.

“We’ve already done this once today, Gen. I’m not coming anywhere near you,” I shout back.

People in the crowd watch us like they’re spectating a sports game, and it takes a moment, but Gen eventually turns to acknowledge them all, his arms wide. As he rounds to face me, his smile builds, feeding off the energy of those surrounding him.

“Come on, Yumi. You wanted to address the crowd earlier, didn’t you? Now’s your chance.”

Yes, I wanted to talk to the crowd earlier, you dickhead. But someone kidnapped me and tried to kill me instead. I shouldn’t let him rile me up, but the meds have kicked in this one last time, and I’m tired of being at his mercy.

The crowd nearest me rustles as I step forward to meet Gen face to face. Someone yelps, and there’s a chorus of obscenities, as Rin pushes through and runs straight for me. He’s in Kiiroi Yama black from the waist up, and with his sword strapped to his back, he’s like the first time I ever saw him — a formidable kenryōshi. I have just enough time to register that it’s him before he sweeps in and lifts me off my feet.

“A kenryōshi,” a woman near me says, clutching another woman next to her.

Rin’s arms tighten around me, and we turn in a circle, ignoring the surrounding people. Murmurs rise, and a collective gasp accompanies his lips crashing into mine.

I hate public displays of affection, but I will take any love I can get right about now. I lean in and let this kiss last. My fingers trace the top of his head, down his neck. When he brings his hands to my face, someone in the plaza whistles and several people giggle.

He pulls away and looks me in the eye, and it’s in this moment that I know, really know, that he sees me. He sees all of my complications, all of my faults and desires, and he does not give a shit. Not one. Because I’m his, and he’s mine, and that’s all that matters.

“I thought I lost you more than once today. You will not stand alone against them now,” he whispers.

I gather Rin’s hand in mine and turn to face everyone. The crowd looms larger than before. People press in and jostle each other to get closer to the kumojin and glimpse Wataru and Hidéki. Something flies out of the throng and hits Narumi in the shoulder.

“Go! We don’t want you here anymore!” another person shouts.

The crowd stirs, and I get nervous. This could spiral out of control at any moment. I thrust my arm into the air, and Rin lifts our hands and joins me. We circle around and make eye contact with every person we can see. The murmuring dies down.

“Hear that, Narumi,” I say, turning to face her. “They don’t want you here anymore.”

“They don’t know what they want,” she says, lifting her chin and standing up straight. She raises her voice. “Have your lives not prospered under Aoi Uma? Aka Matsuba never cared about your longevity. Tamura only ever cared about profits!”

“And you don’t?” Rin asks. He points his finger at her. “Think of the money people spent on defective androids. Androids I had to cut down to save others. And you could have stopped that before it ever started. Don’t deny it. You could have programmed codes of conduct into them, to save lives, and you chose not to.”

“You know nothing of business,” Gen counters.

“And you know nothing of saving lives.” Rin’s voice is rock hard, cold.

A man in the crowd raises his hand and shouts, “An android killed my wife. Pushed her from our balcony!”

“An android smothered my neighbor in her sleep!” Another calls out.

“I broke my arm when an android pushed me to the ground!”

More and more voices rise up, and Narumi loses her cool. Cracks in her facade widen and spread. Her left eye twitches as she reaches out for Gen. He doesn’t notice until she’s gripping his upper arm, and the worry on his face is just… ah, it’s a joy.

I have done everything I can to set things right on this world, but I hadn’t been making any actual progress.

Until this moment.

I want to gloat. I want to rub it in his face that even his idol, his lover, is having second thoughts. She’s having doubts.

I don’t do anything. Yet.

Except to watch everything play out. Narumi never thought the populace would call her to task for her crimes. She assumed she was untouchable.

She’s definitely not.

I look over my shoulder to Saki, and she makes eye contact with me.

“Let the crowd do its work,” I mouth to her, subvocalizing because I know her android ears will hear.

Squeezing Rin’s hand, I take a deliberate step back. The kumojin squeeze in and step in front of us, protecting us and leaving a space open for the crowd to approach Narumi and Gen.

Narumi sees the opening and her lips pale. Gen steps in front of her, but she still wants to confront me.

She tips back her head and laughs. “I don’t know why I kept telling Gen to just ignore you. That you would go away, or this planet would eat you alive. I should have finished you off when I had the chance.”

She could have, in that stripped-down building where she threatened to imprison me forever.

“My father has a saying he loves that applies here,” I say with a shrug. “‘Come at the queen, you best not miss.’”

An angry man charges into Narumi’s personal space. He shouts her down for the way her corporation stripped his family of all their savings. Another woman rushes in, and then it’s five more people. Ten more people. Twenty, thirty.

Rin and I back away, and anxiety squeezes my chest. Mob justice has come to end Aoi Uma from the top down.

“We should get out of here,” Rin says, but a scream from the scrum of people stops us in our tracks.

I turn around in time to see someone push Narumi, and she fights back. Really fights back.

“What?” Rin whispers, and his jaw drops.

My knees shake as I watch Narumi and Gen fight an impossible battle to hold off dozens of people. Their fists are like anvils, and each person who tries to overpower them gets smashed. The mob descends to kicking and punching at random, but Gen throws off four people at once.

Saki grabs my arm. “We should go. Now.”

Rin and I try to leave, and the movement catches Gen’s eye. He tosses two people aside and climbs over another one to leap through the air in our direction. The woman he jumped over catches his leg, and he tumbles along the plaza pavement, taking out a kumojin.

A siren screams in from overhead as a Kiiroi Yama car flies and hovers over the crowd.

“Please disperse! Leave this plaza at once!”

Seeing the distraction, Gen pops to his feet and heads straight for me. And I am not sticking around to find out how he became such a good fighter in so little time. My brain says one thing, and my gut says another. I don’t want to listen to either of them.

Pain rips through my belly, and I double over and stumble. Rin catches my arm and tries to keep me upright, but it’s no use. Everything is about to give out, all at once.

My health. My luck. Everything.

Saki and Aimi jump in to help. I look up from the ground in time to see Aimi collide with Gen’s midsection. She barrels him over like an uncontrolled car slamming into a wall. They tumble far enough away to give me space to get to my feet.

With a high-pitched scream, Narumi appears from the crowd and attacks Rin. He ducks as her fist flies at him with a deadly left hook. She’s so fast — punch, kick, jab, punch, kick. Rin can only deflect half of them, and there’s no time to draw his sword.

Saki joins the fray, fending off Gen long enough for me to limp away.

But I will not run.

I’ve run enough. Now, it’s time to stay and fight with whatever I have left.

That whole ‘live to fight another day’ crap was meant for someone else.

I decide to help Rin first. I lunge for Narumi’s legs and only catch one, but I knock her sideways and give Rin time to pull his sword. She kicks me, and I roll away, crashing into a kumojin. Its legs buckle, and it jabs me with some kind of stinger, no doubt engineered by Shiroi Nami to allow it some way to defend itself. My whole side erupts in flames. A scream rips from my throat, and the kumojin scurries off, squeaking and hissing. I doubt it was intentional, seeing as I attacked it accidentally, but it doesn’t make this hurt any less. The heat from the sting creeps across my skin, and my breathing becomes shallow.

I gasp and try to crawl forward. A few meters away, Saki lies on the ground, conscious, maybe? Unconscious? I’m unsure. Her head is turned towards me, and her eyes are open, but I don’t know if she’s awake. I get close enough to touch her face.

“Saki!” My breath rattles in my chest. “Help.” But it’s only a whisper, and she does nothing but blink. She must be damaged. I need to find Rin. I roll over on my uninjured side and search for him, but I can’t see anything but running feet scattering in all directions.

My body is jerked to the side as someone grabs the back of my shirt and throws me down on the pavement. Stars pepper my vision, and I wheeze, trying to catch my breath. I roll over, and Gen is hovering above me. He is the picture of anger — nose flared, skin flushed, eyebrows drawn together, chest heaving. In his right hand, he holds my knife.

My knife. The one I plunged into the android and was washed away by the tsunami. It was recovered and put in the hands of my enemy.

He kneels down over me, and I’m paralyzed, too injured and tired to fight back. With his left hand on my shoulder, pinning me down, he leans over to my ear.

“You miss home. I get it. But you’ve fought hard for a dream that will never be realized. Never be fulfilled.” He drops his voice, and the brush of breath at my ear fills me with dread. “They’re never coming for you. The beacon never made it to its first jump. And here’s the secret I’ve kept from you, from everyone. That possibility of a rescue mission within a year was a lie.”

I shake my head, tears flying to each side. No. That’s not true. They said they would come.

They’re going to come.

They’re not?

“Believe it. I got to see the second ship before we left. They asked me to help with the lab specs. It was at least five years out from completion. At least.”

I never believed Gen before. But for some reason, I do now.

He pulls away so he can see my face.

“So, go to your grave Yumi and rest. Because you were never going home to begin with.”

My gut erupts in pain as he drives the knife straight into my stomach. White lights cloud my vision, and my hearing rings. Heat leaks from my arms, my legs, and I shudder.

“Fuck you… Gen…”

He smiles — my blood on my knife, on his hands.

A blur from behind him rushes up, and the flash of glinting metal catches my eye.

Rin’s sword cuts Gen from his right shoulder and down across his chest. I blink, forcing myself to live to see him die, too, only to have my last moments sink into despair.

Gen falls to the side, and his exposed insides spark and pop. No, no, no. I moan at the injustice of it all. That fight… He fought hard and fast, not because he had trained and gotten better, but because he’s done what he plans to do for everyone on this planet.

He has made himself immortal. And now, he can never be killed. He’ll just download to a new body and keep on with his plans.

My vision swims, the clouds overhead bend and shift, and the sky buzzes with drones that look like morphing flies.

“Yumi!” I can’t feel Rin’s hands on my face. I can barely see him. “Yumi, Yumi. Oh shit. I was too slow.” Tears pour from his eyes. I have never seen Rin this sad. It must be my end.

And even if I come back, which is a faint possibility at this point, I won’t remember this.

“Gen… Secret…” I force out. Blood bubbles up and into my throat, choking me, asphyxiating my last breaths away. My final moments with Rin, gone.

Everything turns black.