by Satoshi Hase
This meant that there was no longer anything protecting Arato from Kouka, and the jeweled parts of her bodysuit glowed with a faint red light.
“Why did it turn out like this?” Arato wondered. It was all he could say in front of the absolute power he was facing.
“You’re a failure,” Kouka said mockingly.
Then, a sudden impact struck Arato’s shoulder, and he went flying — or at least he felt like he had from the way he’d been slammed into the ground. The force of the blow was enough to send him rolling along the rough pavement, and into Kouka’s path. His vision swam. It was like being hit by a car. The level of power was on a completely different scale than anything a human could do, and a combination of surprise and fear drove all rational thought from his mind.
Kouka stabbed her blade into the ground, and waved her right hand at him lightly. Looking down at Arato, who was still flat on his ass, she loomed over him and smiled. “You’re thoughtless,” she went on. “A weakness, and you’ve only got average human strength to back that up. As I expected, you’re unworthy of being my dear sister’s owner.”
Arato’s field of vision went white, and he realized that Lacia was standing in front of him. She had come to protect him from the foe that had sent him flying with a light push. He had thought he was being brave, chasing after the kidnapper; a big man fighting against the villain. But a single blow from Kouka had convinced him of how fragile he was, and how close to dying.
He pushed himself up. Now that his intense emotions from the kidnapping had been blown away, everything felt unreal. Lacia was acting as a shield for Arato, whose energy had been completely drained. Her fight against Kouka was fierce, but almost seemed to be taking place in a dream. Arato didn’t understand the meaning behind it.
Still, he stood, leaning against a nearby wall for support. “Tell me,” he said. “What are you doing here?” He turned his face away to spit, and there was blood mixed with the saliva.
Arato and the kidnapper had beat each other bloody over a girl named Lacia. Each had been trying to push his own understanding of her, down there in the mud. But Lacia and Kouka were nothing more than machines that automated human work. Like trying to sink his teeth into a juicy steak only to find it was made of metal, it left a bad taste in his mouth.
The recycled material of the pavement splashed away from each of Kouka’s footfalls like water. Though this battle between two soulless fighters was unfolding right in front of Arato, he felt like he was observing it from a distance.
“I don’t understand. What’s the point of this fight? Why are two siblings fighting like this?” Arato asked.
Lacia’s body was blown aside by the force of an explosion. Struck by her soft frame as it flew through the air, Arato was slammed up against the concrete wall of one of the warehouse gates on the side of the road. The pain resounded in his shoulder where Kouka had struck him earlier, and his breath caught.
Kouka aimed a kick at them, probably hoping to skewer both at once, but Lacia blocked it with her device. A sharp anchor shot out of the heels of the red hIE’s boots, and she pushed down; Arato and Lacia were now completely trapped between Lacia’s device and the concrete gate.
“Wake up, Mr. Owner,” Kouka jeered. “If this fight is pointless, that’s only because you’re a worthless human being.”
“Why?!” Arato yelled.
“We hIEs are here to automate our owner’s desires,” Kouka explained coldly. “If a tool’s actions are pointless, then that just shows the tool is in the hands of a worthless person.” She stabbed the red blade of her weapon, which was glowing harshly, into the concrete wall a few centimeters from Arato’s face. The old concrete of the wall, which had sponged up moisture, burst with small pops, sending small bits of shrapnel at Arato’s face. Fear and pain were overwhelming him, as if trying to tear away the dreams he had seen while living with Lacia.
“If you think my dear sister’s fighting is meaningless, perhaps you’re just coming to terms with your own shortcomings as her owner,” Kouka said.
“It’s not up to you to decide if I’m fit to be her owner,” Arato gasped out in response, even as he was being crushed against the wall with immense force.
“Then what exactly were you planning to use my dear sister for?” Kouka asked.
Though he knew it was useless, Arato tried desperately to free his arms and legs.
“You were hoping to use my dear sister for playing house, just like that man over there, weren’t you?” Kouka asked, her tone accusatory.
“No! Lacia’s like family to me,” Arato said. He didn’t know how to explain what he felt for Lacia; he couldn’t bring himself to say that she wasn’t a tool, because she herself constantly reminded him of the fact that she was. But, even though he couldn’t quite figure out his relationship with Lacia, he felt anger flaring up inside of him. Having this random girl talking like she knew anything about him and Lacia pissed him off.
“The only difference between that man and you is that you happened to stumble upon my dear sister first,” Kouka said, twisting her lips in a mocking smile.
Lacia’s hair accessories flared up with a harsh glow. Her iron coffin opened, allowing Kouka’s kick to pass through it. Then, in an instant, the coffin re-formed, trapping the red bodysuited leg. Stepping forward, Lacia slid her whole device around quickly, sending Kouka flying around by her caught leg.
After being thrown, Kouka turned several times in the air like a cat, landing with poise and elegance. “If you won’t void your contract with that loser, I’ll void him for you. Snowdrop and you-know-who are coming for your device. You understand what’s going to happen, don’t you?” Kouka asked, ignoring Arato to address Lacia directly.
“Arato, I need my device lock released to fight with Kouka effectively,” Lacia said, looking back at him.
“Did you ever consider that I’m scared shitless right now?” Arato asked, fighting down his fear that she may have deliberately led him into this danger. Still, he wanted to believe in her. Their enemy had carved up the walls and road all around them. Still, he couldn’t ignore the fact that he was still being asked for permission to kill a man. It wasn’t the kind of burden a high schooler could shoulder.
“I am aware that you are frightened, Arato. However, I trust that you will respond to my request,” Lacia told him.
Arato’s blood was boiling. He realized that, since Lacia’s job was to automate everything, she was encouraging him to get things moving, and he took a step forward. Ever since he had first awoken from the flaming nightmare of the explosion in his childhood and reached out his hand to another person, that’s what he had been doing: moving forward.
“Well, I can’t just stand there if you’re saying you trust me, can I?” he asked lightly. Maybe the whole thing was just part of someone’s plan; making his sister cry, having Kouka smile down mockingly at him. But if that was the case, he’d just have to break through this whole facade. He took another step.
Kouka, still smiling with excitement, was not an opponent a human could face. But Arato wasn’t going to hide behind Lacia anymore. His answer was simple: he wanted to stand by her side.
Lacia looked up at him as he came to stand behind her. He had been looking at her back for so long, it was nice to see her face.
“Fight by my side,” he said. He hoped she wouldn’t cooly shoot him down.
“By this, do you mean that you are releasing my behavior limitations so I can protect you?” she asked, still seeking his permission.
It was the same as when they’d first met, and Arato found himself wincing under the burden of responsibility that he was being asked to shoulder. Gritting his teeth, he gave the same answer he had then: “Do it.” The weight felt much heavier than it had on the night he’d met Lacia.
Lacia closed her eyes, as if to deeply internalize the new role Arato had given her. “With my owner’s permission, I will now release the device lock on Black Monolith,” she said calmly. “Starting now, I wil
l log all commands given by my owner. This log can and will be submitted as evidence should my actions result in a criminal trial.”
“I understand. Do it!” Arato had to squeeze the words out of his throat, and they came out as a yell.
“Confirming signal relay between device and main hIE body. Disabling energy-saving mode,” Lacia intoned, and her hair accessories began to glow blue. The device lock wrapped around her waist made a loud click and slid into an open position, as if it had been opened with a key.
“Well, well,” Kouka said, turning an unhinged smile on Arato as he stood next to Lacia.
Arato couldn’t understand why Kouka had set something like this up, but the red hIE hoisted her red and black device and steadied it against her waist. Her finger slid around the trigger sticking out below the massive blade.
“I’m going to shoot for real this time, so if you hold back, I’m afraid your owner will die,” Kouka said. The laser she’d shot earlier had ignited the kidnapper’s clothes by simply passing near him; if Arato took a direct hit from that, he was done for.
It was disturbing how clear Lacia’s voice was above the whistling of the wind off the sea: “Owner, your orders.” She wanted him to take responsibility.
“Blow her away, Lacia,” he said grimly.
The black device reshaped itself, shifting internal plates around in complex patterns. “Activating Meta-Material Wall: Flash Maze. The owner’s safety is top priority, so post-interference flexion angle will be set at 60 degrees,” Lacia said. Her movements were smooth, decisive. She seemed to know exactly what she needed to do, as a faint film of light formed in the air and took shape around the skeleton of her open device.
Arato was sure she had been expecting this sort of threat. Now that he thought about it, perhaps Lacia had just been held back every time he tried to treat her like a human.
Kouka wore the face of a young child excited to play with a new toy. “Wow! This is my first time seeing that thing’s powers!” she exclaimed with glee, and the semi-transparent parts on her body started to glow with a harsh light.
An instant later, it was as if the attacking red light of Kouka’s device had begun to stream in reverse, repelled by the protective blue light now being emitted by Lacia’s black coffin. A single bar of red light struck the glowing blue barrier and split into numerous smaller beams; befitting its name, the Flash Maze sent Kouka’s attack dancing off in complicated patterns away from Lacia and Arato. Though Arato was untouched, the buildings nearby were struck by countless stray beams, and burst into flames.
“Shifting to mass projectile mode for a ranged attack,” Lacia announced. “If you stand there, you will be caught in the recoil blast. Please move behind me.” Just as she had decreed, her device now shifted into an offensive mode, spreading eight claw-like appendages. Inside the expanded black plates of the device, the blue light from the Flash Maze formed eight long, flat beams. Then, the device quickly folded itself into a handgun-like shape.
In front of its muzzle, Kouka was advancing with her own device at her hip. At some point, her device had begun to glow red with intense heat. “That thing sure can rearrange itself fast,” she observed.
“Firing preparations are complete. I can only ensure safety for objects or persons within my immediate visual range,” Lacia said, choosing to ignore Kouka’s commentary. “Please give me the order to fire.”
Lacia’s weapon was pointing in the direction of the populated area of the city he had come there from, and Arato hesitated. If the shot from her weapon flew all the way there, he couldn’t imagine the kind of destruction it could cause. Lacia was a Red Box after all, just like Ryo had said.
Kouka saw Arato’s hesitation and backed off. “You’re well-suited for fighting in wide open places like this, aren’t you, sis? I wish I could play with you more, but I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with seeing the path you’ve chosen,” Kouka said. She had pulled a small object, like a metal can, from somewhere. It shot out a cloud of white smoke with great force, hiding Kouka in an instant. Though he couldn’t see her anymore, Arato could hear her voice.
“My dear sister, if I were to put my feelings into the terms of human emotions: I love you,” she said, with sincere adoration in her tone. When the smoke cleared, Kouka was gone. The danger was gone.
But Arato was still frozen, confused by the strange scene he had just witnessed. Kouka, an hIE, had just confessed feelings of love toward Lacia, another hIE. Trying to fathom the truth behind the feelings Kouka had expressed felt like peeping into a forbidden world. When a machine loved another machine, there was nowhere for a human to enter into the equation.
“What the hell does she mean she ‘loves’ you? I thought you guys didn’t have souls,” Arato said. Two men and one hIE had just fought each other out of love for Lacia. The kidnapper and Kouka had different views from Arato on what Lacia was, what she meant. Thinking about it sent a stab of pain through his heart.
If hIEs were supposed to automate the work of humans, what purpose had that girl, Kouka, been built for?
***
First period had already started when Kengo Suguri got the message from his classmate, Arato, that he had gotten his hIE back. Arato had been injured, so he had gone straight to the hospital instead of coming to school. After his medical exam, though, he’d let Kengo know that it had just been some bruising, and Kengo relaxed a little as he went on his lunch break.
During the break he called up Arato to ask what had happened. Kengo admired Arato’s nerve, seeing him eating a lunch made by that super shady hIE, Lacia, even after everything that had happened. So, when Kengo arrived home and found that thing in his room again, he started to really believe that he had been pulled into some kind of urban legend.
“Hey, I was waiting for you,” Kouka said with a smile. Red hair, red and black bodysuit, and that huge bladed device. The ‘enemy’ behind the kidnapping of Arato’s hIE and the agent of the Antibody Network were one and the same.
Fighting down his urge to snap at her, Kengo looked for a way to throw her off whatever scent she was on. “What do you want?” he asked suspiciously. “I don’t have anything to say to you.”
“Well, I’ve got all sorts of things I want to discuss with you,” she responded.
“I didn’t even want to see your face again. An hIE working for the higher-ups in the Antibody Network? Don’t make me laugh,” he said.
“You used the system to help out that boy, didn’t you?” she asked.
If he wasn’t at home, with his family there in the house, he would have turned tail and run without a second thought. He was sure she was there to punish him.
“You understand how bad unauthorized use of the Antibody Network system is, right? Especially for you. As an informant, you’ve got connections to the higher-ups,” Kouka said.
“Cut the crap,” he said, pulling on all his reserve strength to put up a strong front. Kengo felt all the strength draining from his body; it was all he could do to stay standing. Over half the people in the Antibody Network were those who couldn’t stand to live in a world with hIE. The thought that a volunteer network full of those people would send an hIE to punish one of their own was absurd.
“There’s no way what I did today caused any problems for the Network,” he said.
“True. I’m sure everyone takes a little license now and then. But I’m afraid this time was different. Your penalty has already been decided,” Kouka said.
Obviously a group of criminals who stole and destroyed hIEs would have some shady crap going on in the background. But, Kengo had believed a high schooler like him would never get caught up in it.
“If I take this penalty or whatever, you’ll leave my family alone, right?” he asked.
Kouka sat down in the chair in front of his terminal and flashed him a mocking grin. “I just don’t understand it,” she mused. “You’re prepared to do all sorts of illegal things for this group, so why help him out like that? It just seems stupid to me.
”
“I didn’t even help him out that much. But humans are capable of giving in to friendship for 15 minutes before they go to school,” Kengo said bitterly, unable to stand the way this machine was treating him like her inferior. Having an emotionless hIE, designed to do nothing but automate grunt labor for humans, talk to him in such a manner made him unable to fight back his own words.
“But I guess a machine like you wouldn’t understand what it’s like to have your heart changed by something,” he said. He had seen how serious Arato was about rescuing Lacia. Knowing that his friend was risking his own neck for something which Kengo was regularly involved in breaking had moved Kengo’s heart.
But Kouka didn’t respond to his baiting. “All right, I guess you pass. Barely,” she said, looking Kengo up and down without any reservations or shame, as if undressing him with her eyes. Just when Kengo was starting to feel creeped out by it all, she pointed at him. Kengo’s pocket terminal vibrated in his pocket. It had been turned off to prevent eavesdropping. “I will now pronounce your penalty from the higher-ups, Kengo Suguri,” Kouka said.
Kengo quickly checked to make sure no one was around in the hall, sure that if any of his family saw Kouka, they would get dragged into this. Luckily, his parents were both working in the family restaurant.
“You will participate in the next attack by the Antibody Network,” Kouka declared.
“And if I say no?” Kengo asked.
Kouka looked like she was enjoying herself. “Oh, I’m sure a kind-hearted big brother like you would never do a thing like that, Kengo,” she said.
“Whatever, let’s hear the rest. I don’t have a choice, do I?” he asked.