by Satoshi Hase
Kengo, despite the rescue, looked up at Arato like he was seeing a ghost.
“Hey, you’re safe, you should be happy,” Arato joked.
“You, your, head,” Kengo stammered in shock. His reaction finally reminded Arato that he probably looked very strange at the moment. He had taken the helmet off, but the rest of his body was still invisible.
“Well, just don’t let go. If you fall, you’re gonna die,” Arato said.
Wind around the building whipped up into a strong gust that washed over Arato’s body, and the scab-like meta-material coating his burnt jumpsuit was blown away. His invisibility cleared, and he returned to a more familiar form.
Kengo’s face, which had been tense with fear, relaxed. “Endo, what the hell are you doing here?” he asked. “And what are you wearing?”
Before Arato could answer, Kengo’s curious face crumpled, and he sniffled loudly. Seeing his friend break down, Arato felt like crying himself. “Duh, man. I came here to rescue you,” Arato said. He had reached out his hand to save Kengo, and their lives had been connected.
Kengo’s eyes were full of tears. “What the hell, man?! You’re such an idiot!” he shouted.
With the utmost simplicity, two hearts were moved.
Arato was exhausted, and his whole body hurt. He would be glad if he never had to experience anything like that night again. Still, he felt that there had been meaning in what had happened.
“So you really hate hIEs, huh?” Arato asked, looking down on Tokyo below, where everyone was using hIEs to automate their lives. The thought made his heart tremble, so instead, he kept tugging on Kengo’s arm as he looked up at the night sky, where the moon was looking down on the human world.
Kengo’s response, muffled by the wind, was a bit warmer than the cold night view. “Obviously I just like people better,” he said. In the year 2105, this was the automated world they were living in.
***
Kouka and the other hIEs were no longer talking. WIth no humans around, there was no one to hear them speak. Each of them was nothing more than a machine, aiming to fulfill the work they had been given. There was no need for them to communicate with other machines on their way to that goal. Or, at least, that’s how it had always been.
Snowdrop was staring at the hole in the wall Arato had run to. “Mmm, it feels better when the waves can come in,” she said. Normally a place that processed large amounts of data like the Oi Industry Promotion Center would restrict incoming electronic signals from outside, but the huge holes torn in the walls had done away with that protection.
Alarms were ringing. Due to the massive changes to the status of the building, the security system was in full lockdown to prevent information leaks. It was a more thorough response than there had been for an actual terrorist invasion. Every system had switched to emergency mode to protect the information that was the lifeblood of the company, and the sound of shutters slamming down echoed from the hallways.
Snowdrop raised both her hands and stretched. “I’m full, so I’m going home,” she said. By devouring them, she had learned how to manipulate the armed hIEs. Apparently tired from the effort, she gave a big yawn and started walking toward the door of the meeting hall.
Lacia had stopped attacking Snowdrop. As a model, she had a well-known face, so she focused on fixing her invisibility. In the end, she didn’t reveal herself to her Red Box sisters.
Without Lacia’s help, Kouka decided it would be impossible trying to take down Snowdrop. Switching her work priorities, she checked the status of the Antibody Network infiltration team. Her bladed device was keeping track of each of the members through their collar terminals. Aside from Kengo Suguri, all the members of the squad in charge of the infiltration — D squad — were following D2.
As their leader, Kouka spoke to them over a wireless channel. 〈D squad, make your way to the 36th floor. B squad will secure your route down from there. Rendezvous with them and get out of here. B squad’s helicopter has countermeasures in place, so it should be safe. A squad finished their ground preparations and have already withdrawn. C squad has completed their diversionary role and are withdrawing. I’m also going to take off now,〉 she said.
The orders she had gotten from the Antibody Network were to lead the members of the infiltration team and help them complete their task, so she looked around the meeting hall for Mikoto. She found the hIE infested with Snowdrop’s flowers, trying to pull herself up after being thrown down by the explosive blast of Snowdrop’s attack.
Kouka re-arranged the tasks on her work list. She decided it would be possible to conduct two different jobs at the same time, and continued her voice message to her squad members. 〈If you are arrested, go ahead and tell them whatever you know about the Network. No speculation, though. Make sure it’s stuff you actually know. If you understand, tap the tag of your collar terminal,〉 she ordered. Almost instantaneously, a confirmation came back from most of the terminals. Starting that day, the fight of the Antibody Network would be brought into a political light. Their destruction of hIEs would no longer be confined to busting up hIEs caught walking alone at night.
Mikoto caught sight of Kouka and smiled at her. Kouka pulled the trigger of her gun. Shot through the head, Mikoto completely stopped functioning. To those humans who still clung to the all-human world of yesteryear, she was the enemy. In order to show the world what an embarrassing heap of scrap this Mikoto was, Kouka emptied her entire clip into the hIE’s body.
Her work done, Kouka whispered a gentle message to humans who were slaves to their emotions. 〈You’ve all done a great job. Today, you protected humanity.〉 Beyond the massive holes in the wall, the nightscape of Oi spread out before her. She saw that Arato had managed to pull Kengo Suguri up onto the 22nd floor. Both boys looked exhausted, laying on their backs and wheezing for breath.
Kouka decided she had checked all the boxes on her task list, and spoke to Lacia, who she still couldn’t see. “I’ll leave those two to you, dear sister.” Then, she ran with light footsteps toward the night.
The boys didn’t even notice her passing by. “Morons,” she murmured, as she passed them by. Springing off the building, Kouka dove into the night sky. She fell.
Kouka and her sisters had each been given separate missions to fulfill that matched their unique abilities. It was amazing how different from each other they had all become in the twenty or so days since they had been released into the world. In order to adapt to the wide, wide world, Lacia-class hIE Type-001, Kouka, fell.
Though it was an unnecessary action, this machine that should have been subject to the will of others introduced herself of her own accord. “I am a tool you all need. I am the tool that ensures the victory for humanity.”
Snowdrop leapt down the elevator shaft. Type-002, Snowdrop, eroded the environment humanity had created, spreading her artificial flowers wherever she went. “I am the tool you outsourced evolution to,” she said.
In the MemeFrame building where it had all began, an orange-haired hIE that appeared to be resting on a chair opened her eyes. Type-004 confirmed her owner, and that she was in the optimal location.
“I am the tool that expands humanity,” she said.
To the naked eye, it appeared that the rubble-strewn meeting hall was empty. Type-005, Lacia, was separated from her owner, bending light to hide herself.
She said nothing, as silent as the empty room around her.
Phase5「Boy Meets Pornography」
It had been one week since the night of the explosion at the MemeFrame Tokyo Research Labs.
In a mansion in the Mizonokuchi residential district, near the prefectural border of Kanagawa prefecture, several machines wearing human figures were being destroyed. Heavy thumps echoed as heads and limbs fell to the floor, contrasting with the decadent richness of the glass walls and ceiling, as well as the gorgeously ornate furnishings of the sitting room. The house was a piece of history; made during the economic bubble of the 20th century, it was ov
er one hundred years old now.
Erika Burroughs, the daughter of the Burroughs family who owned the mansion, had often heard people in the area call it ‘the doll house.’ This was because, as the current owner of the house, Erika had all of her needs seen to by a team of hIEs and did not allow any other humans to approach the place.
Even the folks who lived in houses nearby had no idea what was going on in the Burroughs’ mansion. Erika was thorough; even when ordering deliveries, she made sure to request that only hIEs bring the packages to her home. That said, she was not the kind of slightly touched person who would destroy machines that wore human faces.
Stepping into the sitting room, Erika sighed. The sitting room where the dismemberment was occuring was used by her hIEs as a waiting area. “Apparently this is why my tea is late,” she observed.
Torn limbs and chopped off heads were scattered here and there around the room. However, there was no smell of blood or any sign of distress on the severed heads, which were lying on the high pile carpet. Though they looked like they belonged to humans, these were merely the remains of hIEs.
Every single one of Erika’s hIE maids and servants, each in their own special work uniforms that she had designed for them, had been broken. A dirty, solitary figure stood near an overturned glass baccarat table, in the middle of over ten hIEs worth of body parts. The figure was female, and large for a woman of her apparent age. She had ash brown hair, and her body was wrapped in nothing more than a dirty, burnt rag.
“I don’t recall placing an order for an hIE like you,” Erika said. Still, she was the owner of the mansion, so she straightened the collar of her nightwear and went to stand in front of the unknown machine.
This hIE looked as if she had been raised by wolves, and her unwashed hair swung chaotically as she turned to look at Erika. hIEs are tools that simply react to things humans do, but this unit seemed strangely hesitant, taking no action as she watched Erika.
This machine that had broken all of Erika’s dolls simply stood with her mouth half open, as if waiting expectantly for her to speak. For Erika, who had inherited the massive legacy that was the Burroughs fund, it was rare for anyone to upset her like this. She was shocked and more than a little angry at this tool that had not acted as she wished.
“What is it you’re here for? You’re an hIE, aren’t you?” she snapped. “Well then, go ahead and kneel to me, or attack me, or whatever it is you were ordered to do.” The sorry scene in the sitting room had shaken her. All the dolls she had to help ease the burden of executing the financial estate which she had inherited had been destroyed. Erika couldn’t stand the thought that her beautiful doll house had been completely ruined by this ugly thing.
“Will you at least state your name?” she asked when the hIE remained silent. “I’ve never seen such a horrendous model.”
“Lacia-class hIE, Type-003 — Saturnus,” the creature with the wild ashen hair said.
“What an ugly name,” Erika commented acerbically. At that time, that night, she didn’t yet know the significance of the term ‘Lacia-class hIE.’
Saturnus pulled a long device from beneath her tattered clothes. It looked like a hand-operated sewing machine, about a meter long. “You are someone special, are you not?” the hIE said. “I desire an owner like you.”
As Saturnus had said, Erika Burroughs was considered a special person in the 22nd century. Having inherited the massive financial resources of her family, she was a well-known player in the financial market. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason she was famous, but having someone come to her just because she was famous was one of her most hated pet peeves.
“I refuse,” Erika said flatly. “Why on Earth would I want to keep a filthy thing like you around?”
“I am far more capable than any of the hIEs that previously served you,” Saturnus pointed out, drawing nearer to Erika with that unknown tool in her hands. “Besides, not a single member of your hIE staff remains. Are you really in a position to turn me away simply because of my looks?”
Erika recalled a painting she had seen of the god Saturn, devouring his own child for fear of ruin. Considering that, she thought the name ‘Saturnus’ was fitting for this ghastly machine. She felt herself being forced into a relationship with this thing that had come in and massacred all of her dolls just to make a place for itself.
“Obviously,” Erika said, intending to turn Saturnus away again. “People interpret the purpose of a thing by looking at its appearance. Some may say that appearance isn’t everything, but it is deeply tied to our expectations.” Erika understood that hIEs were just machines. Some people believed that hIEs had personalities, but she knew it was all just humans projecting human qualities onto the things that wore human faces. Human in shape only, without a heart beating in their chests, every hIE was just the futuristic form of a picture, drawn on a page.
Pictures had been around for hundreds of years. Then, people had made them move as animations, or respond to input in games. Later, in response to the human desire to be even closer to their ideal pictures, the images had been given life-sized forms and made to be able to do the work the humans wanted them to. To Erika, all hIEs, regardless of how high-spec they may be, boiled down to that basic concept.
“If you want me to be your owner, you’ll need to change your appearance to something far more attractive,” she said. Honestly, she hadn’t asked for this, so her words were chilly.
Saturnus obviously hadn’t expected to be rejected, and she clung to the carpet listlessly, her face scrunched up like a child who had just been disowned by her parents. “Things that are not unique or special will someday be replaced. My sisters told me that I am neither special nor unique, and you have told me that you will not take me in unless I am more attractive,” she said.
Her words were pathetic, but Erika saw through them. Saturnus was an hIE; a heartless machine. The whining was aimed to analog hack her, so that Saturnus could fulfill whatever her purpose might be. Still, she found herself giving it some more thought. Even if Saturnus’s sorrow was just an act, it was a fact that preparing her own tea would be troublesome.
“If you want to be special, change your appearance. That’s the way all girls alter their place in the world. Should you take on a more attractive appearance, I will take you in,” she said.
The unknown hIE looked up at Erika worshipfully. “I will do anything you ask. I will become whatever you want me to be!” she exclaimed.
To Erika, Saturnus was an extremely suspicious machine. However, Erika hadn’t particularly loved or trusted her now-destroyed hIEs, either. “Tell me your ID number,” she ordered. “I’ll connect you to my company’s cloud.” With a sigh, she got Saturnus hooked up to her network. She figured the hIE could at least make her some tea. Plus, it was obvious to Erika that with some changes to her fashion sense, manner of speaking, and habit of dismembering other hIEs, Saturnus could be much better than she appeared at the moment.
“Saturnus—” Erika started, then stopped. “Actually, no, let’s start by getting rid of that horrible name. I’ll give you a new one.” Her eyes fell on a can of tea on the shelf of the sitting room. As it happened, the label of the tea — ‘Mariage Frères,’ a brand that had survived for hundreds of years — was the same color as the hIE’s hair. “How about Mariage?” she finally said. At the time, Erika had no idea how much her life was about to change.
***
The screen showed a city nightscape, with white smoke pouring out of a building that was particularly tall and wide. It was the Oi Industry Promotion Center — a large, government-owned building, set up over what used to be the old Japan Rail Vehicle Center.
The building had been invaded by terrorists from an organization known as the Antibody Network. Inside the center, the terrorists had achieved their goal of destroying the government polling hIE that was being tested there by the Next-Generation Social Research Center. During the attack, a news helicopter had crashed into the building, result
ing in a fire.
It was big news.
The date was the 29th of April, the same day as the birthday of an ancient emperor of Japan, which had been revised four times before being dropped from the calendar of national holidays.
Starting with May Day, on May 1st, Japan had entered its “Golden Week,” which was a block of consecutive holidays. In some countries, May Day was known as “Labor Day” or “International Workers’ Day.” On this day celebrating the hard work of humans, the Antibody Network conducted anti-hIE protests.
Arato had been right there when the incident in the news had occurred, but only now did he really grasp how big it had been. Lacia had assured him that the incident wouldn’t have any impact on his daily life, but he couldn’t help feeling uneasy about it.
“Arato, how come you keep watching the news?” Yuka asked. “It won’t make you any smarter.” Sitting her butt down on the sofa, she opened up a game in a sub-screen of the display, angled so that only she could see it. Something good must have happened in the game she was always playing with her friends, since she squeezed her eyes shut and kicked her legs joyfully. Arato thought it must’ve been fun, living as carefree as Yuka did.
“Hey Arato, guess what? I’m super popular in this game,” she said.
“And I’m the dumb one here?” Arato scoffed.
A girl with light purple hair walked out of the kitchen, a plate of donuts in her hand. When she wasn’t directly needed, Lacia spent most of her time in the kitchen, making meals or handmade snacks.
Yuka immediately nabbed one of the still-hot donuts. “Lacia, you should try putting some chocolate on the donuts, too,” she suggested.
“Ms. Yuka, may I just point out that, since entering this school break, you have consumed 9,500 kilo-calories,” Lacia observed.
Without a word, Yuka passed the donut to Arato. The flavor of the oil and sugar on his tongue gave him a very American pleasure.
“Oh good,” Yuka said. “You were just hangry. Looks like you’re back to normal.”