Beatless: Volume 1

by Satoshi Hase

  “It is unfair. And cruel. That’s about the one thing we can still work hard at these days,” Shiori said, setting down her teacup.

  Yuka noticed that Shiori had surprisingly drained her entire cup.

  “Why don’t you invite your brother next time we get together, Yuka?” Shiori suggested. Yuka was so surprised by how sweet Shiori suddenly sounded, and thought she might have imagined Shiori’s words.

  “Are you serious, Shiori?” she asked.

  “Oh, it’s fine to have him along now and then. He’s about the only boy I know who tells me I’m beautiful every time he sees me,” Shiori said.

  Their eyes met, and Yuka noticed a little blush on Shiori’s cheeks. Now that she really looked at Shiori, it was clear that she had chosen the cool, sheer dress she had on today with the intent of drawing the eyes of men.

  Within her small bag, Yuka felt her pocket terminal vibrate, but before she could take it out, she saw Arato. He was walking with Lacia from around the moat of Edo Castle, which was nearby.

  “Oh, it’s Arato,” Yuka said. He was wearing a new pair of jeans and a fancy t-shirt, and even a new pair of shoes. Yuka wondered if Lacia had picked them all out for him. It was strange, seeing her usually laid-back brother in such a cool outfit.

  Olga, who had just gotten done saying all sorts of things about Arato, put her hands together apologetically when she saw him.

  “What, you praying to me or something?” he asked, seeing her pose.

  “Well, I would say you have some divine qualities,” Shiori said, looking at Arato with a smile.

  Arato’s cheeks colored a little at the compliment. “Looks like I got myself a reputation,” he commented shyly.

  ***

  After meeting with Yuka and her friends, Arato rented an automatic car and headed to the Fabion office in Ebisu.

  He couldn’t stop thinking about the way the girls had been acting, though. Before he’d brought Kengo home, the two of them had hammered out a story to cover their tracks. When he heard Yuka was meeting with Kengo and Ryo’s little sisters, he figured it would be a good chance to check their reactions and see if the deception was working. But there had been something strange about them. Shiori had always been a nice kid, so her reaction seemed normal. There was something off about how big of a deal Olga had made of it, though, considering that he had just walked her brother home.

  “It was seriously like she was seeing an angel,” Arato murmured.

  “Perhaps it is as you heard; you have some divine qualities,” Lacia said with a gentle smile.

  They pulled up to the offices of Fabion MG — a company that produced numerous human and hIE models — and found a crowd of people waiting for them. These were all staff who were there to help Lacia.

  One of the mobile desks in the office had become Arato’s regular seat. Lacia was working on his behalf, fulfilling a contract he had signed. He bore all the rights and responsibilities for what she did, and it was his signature that sealed any deals involving her.

  To his left sat Lacia, and to his right sat a woman who looked young enough to still be in college. The woman was Asuna Kisaragi, Lacia’s manager at Fabion MG.

  “Come on, let’s see some more excitement,” she was saying. “An installation means megabucks.” An installation was a model show with a set that took place in a chosen location. The entire location was brought to life and made a part of the show to convey a theme to the guests.

  There was a projection of an old room in the center of the office, with shafts of light leaking in through the ceiling. That image was overlaid with an aerial photo of the location, which looked like part of a western-style mansion.

  The “mansion” was actually the old site of a seaside annex of the former Tokyo Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Center. It was in an area that had been destroyed in the Hazard during the 21st century.

  “Isn’t that place off-limits?” Arato asked.

  There were places in the former Tokyo seaside area — which was now the No. 1 Landfill Island— that were blocked off due to instability of the ground. The Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, off to the side of the road near the gulf station, was famously one of the places that had been fenced off.

  “If you fill out forms with the police, they’ll let you film there,” Asuna explained. “Of course, the building is about ready to collapse, so if we really want to get a bunch of guests in there we’ll need to do some repairs first.” The 3D image matched her words; the walls were falling apart, and the ground was visible through the horribly cracked floor. Six chairs were scattered around the room, which was dreary from decades of neglect.

  A short robot, whose arms were just a little longer than her legs, was standing in front of the nearest wooden chair. Her semi-long black hair matched her childish face perfectly, and her round head rested on a body like a black and silver toy. Her skin was rough. It was made of resin, and not intended to weather the march of the years. Her eyes were white and cloudy, possibly because of the light reflecting off of them.

  The director of the show, a kind-looking middle-aged man, pointed at the robot, which was labeled ‘HRP-4C Mimu.’ “Mimu was created to work alongside humans a hundred years ago at the Tokyo Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, our stage. Her motors were weak, and they made her arms too thin, so she couldn’t carry anything heavy. But she could walk around and do simple things, so they had her work as a model,” he explained.

  Further back, there was another chair with a similar design but different materials, sitting at a slightly off-kilter angle. A white plastic robot without a nose or eyes was resting on it. This one was Nadia, the world’s very first robot created for use in the average household. Thanks to her metallic, artificial musculature, she was capable of lifting objects up to 80 kg. At the time, the abilities of a home-use robot were governed by the amount of working power it could wield with any of its various parts. The focus of the time was to see how much power a company could fit into a robot for the home. Under the old behavior systems, which relied on each task being input so the robot could follow a set trajectory, there was danger of humans being injured when they got in the way of the robot’s movements. The simple ability to freely sit down in chairs was listed as one of Nadia’s special traits.

  “We can guide the guests starting from Mimu, and have them experience the history of humanoid robots,” the director said, his voice full of confidence.

  Beyond Nadia, the very first hIE, Marie, was seated in an apron dress. Her caption stated that hIEs had marked a return to the concept of controlling machines using satellite signals. In the earlier age of robots that focused on work power and direct programming, machines working in the same area were often forced into choices that put major strain on their processing capabilities. As a result, when it became the norm for robots and humans to work in the same areas, there were many incidents of robots crashing into each other or interrupting each other’s work.

  Mankind had to wait until the latter half of the 21st century before this fatal flaw was resolved. By creating a dynamic orbital system that could adapt the movements of multiple units at the same time, humans were able to create hIEs — robots that could more perfectly mimic human actions to efficiently carry out any needed household work.

  The hIE sitting on the four-legged chair had a face that was no different from a human’s.

  “In 2068, America and Japan got together to change the laws about hIE appearance,” Asuna quietly explained to Arato. “Before that, each model had to share the same face. But, after they changed the law, a dealer could swap out the faces of the machines they sold as long as they registered it all with the government. They got rid of all the markings hIEs used to have on their faces, too, so they finally ended up looking exactly like us.”

  Asuna didn’t look like much of a scholar, but she had actually studied hIEs in college and was quite the expert on them.

  “Beyond her, we hav
e Humanize-W, which was when hIEs shifted to total cloud control,” the director continued. “At that time, hIEs started to use both their onboard AI as well as an external network to control their actions. This was where hIEs really took off, and reliance on wireless communication with the cloud became an everyday thing. It happened in 2083, the same year MemeFrame’s Higgins AI became the 31st to surpass the capabilities of human intelligence.”

  Finally, at the furthest point of the room on a chair with a long backrest like a throne, sat Lacia. The scene was arranged as if to indicate Lacia as the epitome of the hundred-year history and evolution of humanoid robots and their integration with human society. In the image, Lacia arose and walked toward the camera. As she passed by each of the other robots, it seemed to Arato as though she were walking back through history itself.

  Lacia reached a door on the side of the image closest to Arato and opened it. On the other side was a normal apartment. Arato had heard it said that the home environment was an important aspect of the fashion industry; here, the viewer was presented with a room full of light, with brightly colored interior decoration. Along with Lacia’s gentle smile, the room seemed to promise a dream-like daily life. It was close to what Arato already experienced at home, but at the same time it was obviously fake. The juxtaposition of the two feelings made him uneasy.

  The image suddenly stopped, and the show’s director turned to Arato. “So, Mr. Owner, are you okay with this for tomorrow’s show?” he asked.

  “Sure, it looks fine,” Arato said, and then cursed himself for agreeing so easily. He had spoken before thinking, thanks to the relaxed atmosphere in the room.

  Arato and Lacia had been called there that day to discuss the new show Fabion MG was putting on. The problem was that Arato couldn’t bring himself to agree to what they were proposing.

  “Oh, come on, Arato. You still have a problem with it?” Asuna sighed, lightly grabbing his shoulder. Fabion MG was looking to make Lacia one of their biggest stars.

  “I’m just worried about this whole ‘boy meets girl’ concept you’re using for the promotion,” Arato said. He himself didn’t really have a problem with it, but he felt there was something off about the idea of using human and hIE romance as a selling point. If you were a young guy and you bought a female hIE, most of your neighbors would think you weren’t having any luck with meeting real girls. Ryo was a good example of that kind of thinking; he always wanted to keep a clear divide between hIEs and humans.

  But as the producer of the plan, Asuna was dead set on the idea. “Lacia doesn’t just appeal to a certain audience,” she argued. “She has almost universal support. With clothing models, you want to aim for support from the folks who’ll be buying the clothes she’s selling. Using Lacia for that sort of thing would be a waste.”

  “Okay,” Arato said. “But doing a ‘boy meets girl’ scenario with an hIE is going to piss off a lot of people.”

  “We’re trying to sell a lifestyle here,” Asuna said. “Don’t you think the whole ‘boys shouldn’t be buying girl hIEs’ thing is old-fashioned in this day and age? If the world hasn’t quite caught up with technology yet, this is our big chance to aim for that gap and fill it. We’ll light a fire under the womens’ magazines and use that as a springboard to really take off.”

  “Yeah, but we’re going to be the targets of all the backlash,” Arato complained. He would be leaving Lacia vulnerable to the slings and arrows of media outcry from the TV networks and the internet. Of course, as her owner, he’d be catching some of that, too. Society was starting to overflow with pressure to reject a future automated by hIEs; Kengo and his friends taking up arms for the Antibody Network weren’t an aberration. They were a sign of the times.

  “I mean, Lacia just got kidnapped,” Arato added. She had been hit by a car and grabbed right in front of their apartment. If Lacia really did this show, they might have the Antibody Network kicking in their door next.

  “I promise you, we won’t let anything like that happen again,” Asuna said, showing her mature side.

  “Everyone wants something they can dream of,” she went on, a serious light in her eyes as she spoke warmly of her own dreams. “I want people to get used to Lacia as a character, so then we can start to sell products connected to her. I want to sell people the Lacia lifestyle.”

  As she spoke, the 3D display started showing a catalog. “We’ve already got sponsors lining up to make stuff like this,” she told him. The catalog displayed makeup and bath chemicals that they were going to have Lacia use, and then sell to her human fans.

  Lacia herself added to Asuna’s pitch. “This is a strategy to entice single hIE users to purchase high-class consumables for two. To open the way for this sales push, we will first aim at media normally consumed by women, to lower their resistance to the concept. By creating a more relaxed view on men owning female hIEs in the female community, it will allow men to feel more comfortable enjoying this lifestyle,” she said.

  Arato still wasn’t buying it. “Okay, so you’ve got a good pitch, but what does that have to do with ‘boy meets girl’?” he asked.

  “We need to spread awareness of this kind of lifestyle to our customers,” Asuna said. “We humans still don’t have much experience in living with hIEs. We need to make this as normal as a guy obsessing over his car. You see that all the time, right? Older guys, pouring time and money into their beloved ride? Don’t you think it’d be wonderful if folks put that kind of love into their hIEs? We’ve already talked with Stylus about putting our all into making Lacia a star for the next ten years.”

  Arato’s head spun at the sheer size of Asuna’s plans. She was already making deals with high-end American hIE makers. “What did Stylus say when you talked to them?” he asked.

  “They said ‘okay,’” she said, giving him a thumbs-up. “Just like with the makers of classic automobiles, hIE makers who believe in their craft are all too happy to connect with their fans for centuries. And once we’ve created the image of hIEs being life-long partners, folks won’t hesitate to buy high-end consumable goods for them.”

  It seemed that Asuna had thought of everything. Arato was impressed with how much better an adult was at getting everything arranged, from the tiniest details to the biggest agreements.

  “And, starting with our ‘boy meets girl’ concept, where male customers can dream of meeting a female hIE just the way you and Lacia met, we’ll move on to doing the same with male hIEs. If we can drum up interest for male hIEs among female users, that could make it a lot easier for us to make this whole lifestyle a thing. Think about it: ladies don’t want to come home from work to an empty house any more than guys do,” she said.

  Forget being impressed: Arato was in awe of her passion as a saleswoman.

  Blueprints for pitching Lacia to the world were laid out in front of them. The whole plan was a challenge to the world, showing everyone exactly how valuable hIEs could be. The vision for this project went beyond what people might think about what was right or wrong; it aimed to paralyze those who saw it by its sheer sense of scale. What Arato felt while he looked at the plan was history. It was the history of human and robot relations, flowing out from the Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, where the show would be held.

  “Well, setting aside all that grand talk, we can at least say you’re okay with the show itself, right?” Asuna asked. “In the world of hIE modeling, the early bird gets the worm. I probably freaked you out a bit with all these big plans, but I just want you to know how serious Fabion is about this.” She spoke from experience. Having graduated with a major in Pseudo-Human Engineering, she knew what she was talking about.

  “Listen, the fact that you’re worried about Lacia shows how much you care for her,” Asuna continued. “But if we give the world a model of this lifestyle that they can accept, it’ll give courage to other guys out there just like you, who have hIEs they care about.”

  “May I add something, owner?” Lacia asked. Arat
o didn’t miss the significance of her switching back to calling him ‘owner’ rather than by name. She was obviously placing a lot of importance on what she was about to say. “You appear to be worried that I will be ‘the target of backlash,’ as you put it. However, this worry is meaningless. I am your tool, to use however you see fit,” she said.

  What she was saying was correct, but that was no help for Arato, whose heart she had moved. He felt his emotions boiling up deep inside. What was he supposed to do?

  As though she had heard the voice screaming in his heart, she smiled gently at him. “I have no heart, owner. You should do with me whatever you wish,” she said.

  There was a knock at the door.

  Arato found that odd. In this day and age, there were a number of other ways to call someone’s attention. Whoever it was could have sent a message to Asuna’s terminal, or called over the office intercom system, or sent a message to display on the 3D projection in the room.

  But Asuna seemed to understand the meaning behind the knock, as she paled and hurried to stand. She wasn’t alone; the Fabion members and the director of the show all jumped to their feet as well.

  Even though the door could obviously be opened automatically, Asuna ran over to open it herself. In this age where almost nothing was done by hand, Arato felt like he had suddenly been pulled one hundred years back in time.

  When Asuna opened the door, a girl walked in, as if the whole thing was perfectly normal. Arato couldn’t even get a good look at her face or body before his eyes were drawn to the black lace flowing out of her dress. She was wearing a classic dress that Arato had only ever seen in old period dramas or movies.

  The girl tilted her head slightly, ruffling the one spot of white lace at the dress’s throat. She looked at Arato from beneath locks of hair so platinum blonde that they almost seemed white. Her eyes were a beautiful green, and her skin was the golden brown of milky caramel.

  “Do I really look so odd?” she asked him. “Even in the 21st century, there were still those who wore clothes such as these.” She appeared to be close in age to Arato, but she looked like a high-quality doll as she greeted him.