Living with Memory of Steel (Part 1)

by Masahiko Kimoto

  The wrist of the researcher and the psy-connect attack by Junrock unlock the door. It finally opens.

  --- It's a room for a child.

  There are several patches on a simple wall and big and small stuffed animals on the white bed sheet. One of the small stuffed animals is clearly used for a long time. It looks like it served as a company when the kid went to bed for more than 10 years.

  There are YA novels and science magazines in the book shelf. The study desk without the top half plays an important role at the corner of the room. The small objects such as the lamp and the clock seem somehow old-fashioned in the room that hasn't seem to change for 100 years.

  "...This somehow reminds me of old days."

  Murase murmurs. Reji vaguely feels that their class mates' rooms would look more stylish.

  The group looks around the room and notices the girl sitting at the study desk.

  The girl turns around to the door, spinning the chair.

  That's Akari Nakazato.

  "Welcome to my room. I can't believe you are here."

  After a cheerful tone of laugh, she stares at the visitors as if she was measuring them up. She snorts, looking at Reji, Clare, Junrock, Murase and the researcher in the white gown who have been dragged around."

  Akari is looking up at them from the chair, but her attitude seems looking down on them.

  "Do you want to come in? Huh?"

  She points at the floor.

  Akimichi is the only elite Reji knows. He thought he can comfortably talk to these people, but Akari's attitude makes him realize they live in a different world.

  He sits on the floor as she asked. His eyes become naturally lower than Akari's. The positions have changed, and it makes him feel the sense of inferior more intensely.

  "Hey, would you like to talk?"

  "That's what we want to do. That message must have been from you."

  "Yeah. It's not a lie that I want help."

  "You're being watched and confined."

  "Surveillance and confinement are subjective problems in a sense. I don't think I'm confined or under surveillance."

  The restriction on her behaviors wouldn't be too strict. She left the research center on her own and hoped on Reji's bike.

  "It might be true that I'm being observed, though."

  "If so, you can leave on her own."

  "I'd like some reason, something that would leave me no choice but leave here."

  "It means.."

  Junrock thinks for a moment.

  "Is that to secure the excuse to return?"

  Akari doesn't answer. Her expression can be saying yes and no.

  "I'm sorry to be brash, but are you a test subject for DS?"

  "Oh, I'm surprised you know the word."

  "We're not stupid."

  "I didn't know that. You came here because of one message. I thought you would be quite silly."

  "H, hey....can I ask you a question?"

  "What is it?"

  "What's DS?"

  Akari looks at both Murase and Reji and bursts out laughing.

  "Hahaha. See? You're silly."

  "He's newbie. We haven't taught him everything."

  "Okay. Hey, Reji. Which one of us would you like to hear the explanation?"

  Akari asks with a tone that sounds like she's saying something amazing comes out from the mouth. Her facial expression hasn't changed. It looks like she is testing or looking down on them.

  Reji thinks. Something shocking might come out, but there is a phrase, go the whole hog. Akari is an amazing human being from Reji's level. Let's hear an amazing talk from an amazing person.

  "From you, Akari-san."

  Akari stands up and take two big steps toward Reji. She leans forward with her hands are on the hip. Her face is coming closer to his face.

  Reji looks away from the loose neck line of Akari's clothes. Akari is fairly attractive if he can ignore the fact that she lives in a different world.

  "Sure. I'll tell you, Reji. I'll make it very easy so that you can understand."

  Everything she says bothers me somehow.

  Akari sits up and looks at the window. There are lightproof curtains. This underground room don't have real windows, but Akari's eyes seem to be trying to focus on the scenery outside.

  "They have needed people with the 3rd-G psy-connect ability. In fact, a lot."

  "For what?"

  "In order to operate A-B-A-H-S, the mass-production models, to be more precise. The operators had been already decided, but they needed the people with the 3rd-G ability to operate other models."

  "Sorry. I can't really see where you are heading in this. What does DS mean anyway?"

  "DS is to create children with specific ability by selecting fertilized eggs that have been verified artificially. In this case, this refers to the ability of the third generation."

  "Are you talking about clone human?"

  "Haven't you learned that human cloning is forbidden in the Kuala Lumpur treaty at school?"

  "I'm not smart."

  Akari sighs.

  "Anyway, I was created as one of the operators of A-B-A-H-S. Do you get it?"

  "Yeah, kind of."

  Murase changes his legs and sit cross-legged again. He takes a breath to jump into the main topic.

  "So, why are you asking us to help?"

  "I just wanted to see the outside world. Isn't this the enough reason?"

  "Aren't you happy with your school life?"

  "All the people at school and the research center are basically in the same group of mine. I'm getting bored of it."

  "So, there are chances of you getting bored even if you are going to get out from here."

  "Still, you can get the information that I have. Also, isn't it me who you are after?"

  Murase strokes his chin and think it over for a long time: Are there any merits or risks? Is she a spy? How can we escape from here?

  "You said you are being observed."

  "There are remote vital monitors in this room, but they wouldn't find this abnormal to detect more people in the room. There are cases when other people come into this room. If they can't detect anyone here at this time, they will alert."

  "How did you escape the last time?"

  "I did the same thing as you are doing now."

  She points at the back of Reji with her head.

  "I used one of the researchers."

  Murase stands up.

  "I'll sneak out with her. Junrock, can you please do something to replace her with the sleeping guy over there? Reji, don't let go of her hand."

  This way, a person with a complete different height and weight has been rolled onto the bed in the room only to provide the pulse and the blood pressure.

  When they leave the room, Murase asks Akari without much thinking.

  "Why is this room made in an old-fashioned way?"

  "That's because I'm a woman who lives 15 years ago."

  With that, Akari starts running with holding Reji's hand.

  After her, the four of them run straight through the ground floor to the back street. They continue to head for the bay area.

  It takes 20 minutes for an inspector to notice that the blood pressure of the replaced researchers who loves alcohol is higher than normal and visit the room only to find out that the person in the room is completely different.

  The five people go out of the building and head for the wagon. It's the same car as the one that they used when they helped Reji.

  Junrock sits on the back seat and helps the girl who got pushed on the back by Reji. Murase sits on the passenger's seat. Clare is on the driver's seat. These are their usual seat arrangement.

  "You should hop on, Reji."

  "I've left the motorbike there. I'll go get it."

  "You might get killed by the Riot Police if you take any silly move."

  "I'll be fine. Please go first."

  Reji starts running.

  His motorbike is parked under the shad
ow of branches of a tree which is 50 meters away. He digs up the bike that is half buried on a side road.

  He hops on his motorbike and starts the motor.

  It's when he's about to jump out to the road.

  Intense beam attacks the back of Reji. There is an explosion of anger yelling at him.

  That's the Riot Police with Powered Exoskeleton.

  The sound of motor is still quite far away, but it's a matter of time to get caught.

  He wonders whether he should run away or stop. Even if he gets caught, he can make any kind of excuse. He doesn't have any criminal record. He isn't recognized as someone related to the party. It'd be easy to come up with some excuse.

  When he is about to get caught, he hears footsteps and a yell, "lie down!".

  At around the same time, there is an explosive sound and strong light from the back. Horizontal attack of flash bullets, is awful.

  "Run!"

  It's Murase.

  "How about you, Murase-san?"

  "I'm fine. I'll escape from a different path after stopping them for a while. You should meet up with Clare on the wagon. Please go straight here."

  Murase sits on his knees and gets his small bazooka ready.

  "Don't worry about me. You should go! I'll do something about this. It'll be okay."

  Reji starts the motor at full strength and go straight.

  Reji hears several sounds of gunfire of a bazooka and the explosion of bullets landing on the ground.

  *****

  A-B-A-H-S returns to the base.

  There are many reports coming in to Sekiba. These include the damage rate of the A-B-A-H-S, the learning rate of SANA, and the evacuation progress report of the Riot Police.

  The Riot Police requested assistance to A-B-A-H-S, but it couldn't contribute much. Nakazato wasn't willing to help in the first place, so the result seemed reasonable.

  Nakazato separates her mind from A-B-A-H-S and tries to contact Sekiba. Sekiba responds immediately.

  "Ha! Nice work, Nakazato."

  "Thanks. Earthlight would have run away without much of my help."

  "Which would you like to hear first, a good news or a bad news?"

  "Good news, please."

  "That's a shame. I don't have any good news."

  "Please stop joking around. What's the bad news?"

  "Akari got kidnapped. Earthlight did it."

  "Enough with the joke."

  "I'm serious. I dig up the record of this building and fixed it. It's THEM."

  "What are you going to do?"

  Sekiba is unflappable. His voice is calming but unemotional as if to help her regain her reason.

  "The chairman called me up for that. I'll come up with some ways."

  "Please help Akari."

  "I know. Of course, you worry about your daughter."

  "SHE is ME."

  Sekiba gives a grim smile to know why. Nakazato isn't concerned about Akari but her body.

  "Anyway, everything is up to the discussion with the chairman. I'll go now."

  Sekiba hangs up the connection.

  The chairman is more frustrated than usual. He looks at the monitor with his fingers tapping the crossed arm restlessly.

  Sekiba takes a sneak look at the chairman, trying to see what he's thinking while looking down at the floor. He's being careful not to let him see his grin.

  "The Riot Police requested our help."

  "Is that going to be a corroborated work? Is it a new project? Our work is becoming a military industry? I look forward to seeing the stock market tomorrow."

  "Stop making this into a joke. We have requested them to defend thoroughly. Now they are asking us to cooperate."

  "Are they asking us to do our own stuff by ourselves?"

  "Otherwise, they would have ditched their pride. In return, I asked them strictly to give a punishment to the person in charge."

  "That's tough. It's always the people at the bottom who get accused."

  The chairman sits at the chair. He changes the position of his legs several times, but cannot find the comfortable spot and gives up eventually.

  "I'm thinking about giving them another order, which is to send someone from ASIT to the headquarter of the Riot Police. "

  "A person who doesn't know anything? They wouldn't like that."

  "That's you, Sekiba."

  Sekiba freezes for a moment and gives a large sigh.

  ".....It's always the people at the bottom."

  "This is an order. You want to save the DS kid, right? If that's the case, you should get her back with your hand. You can use A-B-A-H-S if you'd like."

  He tries to think of something to oppose the idea, but nothing comes out. He turns around to leave the room. The chairman talks to his back.

  "By the way, you seemed to have caught one of the guys from Earthlight."

  "I'm not interested in the brainless person at the bottom."

  He leaves the room with that.

  Akari is taken away and Nakazato is showing her desire. In addition, there is extra work on my to do list. Earthlight has been acting up around me.

  Still he doesn't feel any frustration for some strange reason. There is more unsettling feeling mixed with interests and anticipation toward this changing situation.

  "Ha! What the heck is going on!"

  He kicks the door of the elevator as he spits out. His face is smiling wryly.

  *****

  Junrock, Clare and Reji surrounds Akari Nakazato, who is lying on the bed.

  Junrock attaches a medical scanner to her arm and forehead.

  "I'll do a quick checkup. This is a medical device, but for home use. If she has any disease that isn't detectable, that's it."

  "Isn't 'Medical Care for Dummies, Home Edition' almighty?"

  Junrock grins to Reji's question.

  "I used the one for men on you. Women's bodies are too mysterious to understand them all."

  Clare shuts him off.

  "Stop fooling around. Are there any signs for infectious disease?"

  "I don't know. As far as I can tell from the data, I don't think there would be any sterilized facility."

  "This isn't going to be easy. What's wrong, Reji?"

  ".... She's pretty."

  Reji kneels down next to the bed, admiring Akari's face. The other two look at him with their mouths open.

  Akari's right eye flinches. It opens after blinking several times.

  "Do I still have to stay asleep?"

  "Akari, you look prettier when you are asleep quietly."

  "That sounds rude."

  "Junrock takes off the simple medical monitor quickly."

  "There isn't any abnormal signs. It seems like she doesn't have any week parts. Well, she's made that way. It makes sense."

  "That's rude."

  Akari sits up on the bed. She takes another good look at the room she got brought into.

  "This room is also fairly old-fashioned."

  "This room is actually old. The building itself is more than 30 years old. This isn't because of artificial old effects."

  "What are you showing that off for, Junrock? Well, girl, can you please tell more about yourself if you don't mind?"

  Clare sits next to the bed and puts her hand on Akari's shoulder.

  Akari's eyes are darting around in the air. It seems like she's thinking about something or getting confused in organizing her thoughts. She sometimes tries to tell something and then decides against it. This goes on for around three minutes. The three of them sit still without saying anything.

  ".....Well."

  Akari starts talking little by little.

  Her name is Akari Nakazato, 18 years old. Both of my parents are researchers of ASIT.

  She had an older brother, but he passes away. She went to a normal primary school and junior high school. At my high school, she take a MoSE course.

  "Also you're a DS subject. ....I see. There is not much difference in your story and what we found out about
you. Sorry, but do you mind us leaving for a bit?"

  Clare signals Junrock and Reji with her head and stands up. The three of them leave behind Akari in the room.

  Clare crosses her arms and looks down.

  "For the moment... Junrock, can you please report the situation to the top management? Murase is gone. We should wait for their instructions."

  "Okay."

  "Excuse me... how about me?"

  Reji asks tentatively. Junrock grabs his neck and pushes him against the wall. There is anger added to the usual blunt manner.

  "Don't do anything. Nothing good comes out when you put your nose into our plan. You're the reason why Murase-san has got caught."

  "W, we don't know yet, right? Murase-san told me to take a different path. There is a chance that he comes back."

  "If that's the case, he would have contacted us already. If there is no contact from him or any report of his death, that means he has got caught. This is all because of you!"

  "Cut it off, Junrock."

  Clare grabs his wrist and pries his off from Reji.

  "There is no time to argue about it. It's the fact that Murase-san is missing. You should be in charge of communicating with the head office."

  "I'll tell them everything about what you did, Reji. You will have to follow their punishment."

  Junrock spits it out and leaves.

  There are four rooms on the third floor with one empty room. When Reji and Akari moved in, he told that he didn't mind using the same room as Akari, but Clare turned down his request. Akari ended up staying in the Clare's room. It's silent consent that Murase's room should be left empty.

  Reji is knocking on the door of Clare's room. The original resident is doing her work at the office downstairs. The reply comes back from Akari.

  Reji moves a chair next to the bed.

  "Well, I was just wondering if I can do anything."

  "Hum? I don't think so."

  "You can tell me anything. For instance, do you have anything you would like to eat or drink?"

  "I'm fine. By the way. do I have to stay here tonight?"

  Her attitude is amicable, but somehow standoffish.

  "I'm not so sure. Junrock is asking the big guys about it."

  "Okay. Hey, can you please tell me a fun story?"

  "S, story? No way. I don't think I can."