Living with Memory of Steel (Part 2)

by Masahiko Kimoto

  The training is on during the day on weekdays.

  After the breakfast, they take ECA capsules and take the basic physical training. The capsules keep them concentrated and make them able to repeat the simple exercise. The only thing they need to be aware of is to take enough water. They constantly take tasteless amino acid drink.

  There are various methods for the basic physical training such as muscle training outside, jogging, and program using the training machine indoors. The training is balanced appropriately, simulative appropriately, and easy to remember appropriately.?It is made in a way that trainees don't have to use their brains at all.?Music is playing in the background. People can move their bodies along with the music to exercise. Listening to the music, the trainees start to say particular words without realizing. These words include "order", "public security", "tranquility", "peace", "the country", "friendship" and other things like that.

  Reji immediately takes a favor on the basic physical training. As he goes through his practice schedule, he feels like he is improving to higher levels.

  After the light lunch, there is a short nap. The wear from the morning exercise makes him fall asleep easily.

  Then, there comes a combat training.

  They take a fight training with stick-shaped weapons, shooting training with guns and small guns, simulation training with a simulator and a sham battle between several groups.

  It seems like there are trainees with various background. In a combat training, those trainees with experience in Kendo are winning an overwhelming victory. However, the advantage backfires soon. Their experience makes them stop after the precise attacking forms. With this, they cannot damage the other party. In the end, those people with karate or boxing experience get an advantage.

  Reji isn't good with combat training. He doesn't have any understanding of the martial art. All he can do is to swing around his weapon at random after getting thrown onto a ring which is only a space marked with a tape on the floor. Still, the more he gets hit and punched, the more he becomes excited. After a game, there is refreshing feeling of tiredness welling up in his body.

  Reji doesn't do well at combat drill with firing fake bullets. To be more precise, he isn't too bad at it, but all the others are more used to using weapons. His skills seem inferior in comparison. However, it doesn't take long to get used to this drill. For starters, weapons for wars have been developed in a way armature worriers can be fighting strength. Current weapons make the best use of censors. Reji soon gets used to these weapons and presents decent results.

  Free time is given after dinner, but everyone spends the time lying around. At the bedtime, finely calculated electronics waves are intertwined with the music, and leading the brain waves to delta waves through alfa waves. After three days, it becomes impossible to go to sleep without this music.

  They repeat this for 6 days before a complete day-off, Sunday.

  On day-offs, they receive special treat. Drugs that releases endorphin and an electronic simulative device become available. With these, they can produce a week worth of accumulated endorphin. This is ultimate euphoria. This euphoria encourages them to work for another week of training.

  One day, his roommate talks to drowsing Reji in the room.

  "This is indeed a weird place."

  Reji has never paid any attention to his roommates nor had any interests in them. He opens his eyes slightly and makes a harsh sound as a reply.

  The guy keeps on talking despite Reji's lack of interests. His name is Nagare Takita.

  He doesn't get drawn in drugs. Normal drugs can't make him intoxicated. His liver and kidney are genetically modified. They screened stem cells to maximize the decomposing skills of drugs and transplanted them into his liver and kidney. The stem cells were multiplied. The completed new organs has been showing excellent discomposing ability. That's what he told while showing the scars on the right side of his stomach and on the back.

  The motto of Takita who owns a very strong liver and a durable kidney is that "you may take drug, but don't let the drug take over." On the other hand, he isn't good with girls. On top of that, he has no luck with them. After graduating from university, he fell in love with a mistress of an executive in an Earthlight cluster. He charged the Riot Police to show how cool he was to the girl, taking the lead. A stray bullet of the threatening flash grenade hits the back of his head, which made him unconscious. He was taken by the Riot Police and sent off to the training school.

  "I'm thankful for the meals. I don't really have any complaint."

  Said Takita.

  "Everyone seems to have become gutless because of the drug, including you."

  Reji replies half-heartedly. He doesn't know why he's talking so hurriedly.

  "You might not be able to act that easygoing any longer. This building has a lot of new members, but it seems like there are more advanced members with experience in other buildings. That means, we might be sent to other buildings. Of course, they may ask us to show what we've learned from the training or something like that."

  So what. He doesn't mind showing the result of the training. All he has to do is to do the same that he normally does. Time would pass like that.

  Reji turns his back on Takita and decides to go to sleep.

  Next morning, Reji is working hard for the basic physical training like usual. In the middle of the ground, he continues sit-ups and push-ups in turn.

  A group is running around him. They are trainees from another building, who Reji rarely sees. It is an advanced groups that Takita was talking about yesterday. It's true that everyone is well-built with a tensed expression on their face. The leading guy has an incredibly muscular body. He keeps on jogging while giving commands loudly.

  "Protect the public safety of the Imperial city!"

  "Protect the public safety of the Imperial city!"

  "We are the Riot Police with Powered Exoskeleton!"

  "We are the Riot Police with Powered Exoskeleton!"

  The leading guy is Murase.

  He has a glorified face.

  Reji realizes what his future self would look like.

  *****

  Morihara was demoted because of Akari's kidnap by Earthlight and sent to the training school. It's been already three weeks. This is a very grave situation for him. He believes that any Riot Police member who doesn't fight shouldn't be called by the name and it's meaningless to work as such. To describe in an extreme manner, it's meaningless to live.

  He sits on the chair in the instructor room while making light sounds by tapping the floor with his slippers. Desk work is one of his least favorite work, but it's necessary to organize each member's physical ability of trainees.

  Morihara is given the work to teach reserve trainees. He gathers only new trainees and provides the basic training so that they can go into an actual fight. Those reserve trainees who have achieved a certain level join the real combat group. An instructor from the training school accompanies for the first fight. Depending on the situation, the instructor may give orders to the combat group. Morihara has been waiting for the chance.

  This facility is a weird place.

  Even though this is called a training school, it acts as a boarding-school for the Riot Police. Everyone is always ready for a flight except for reserve trainees.

  Half of those reserve trainees will be gone on the first fight, and a fifth of them will be sent out after the next fight. There is nothing special about this. The same amount of members fills the vacancy.

  Being a member of the Riot Police with P.E. sounds respectable, but this doesn't mean the member is a specialist. If they have the basic strength, supplementary reinforcing armors can help them manage most of the things. Even when they get into the unfortunate situation where those armors are not good enough, they will be other members to fill the vacancies. It isn't cost-effective to put more efforts into the development of the members. Of course, the position of the instructors are low.

  That makes Mori
hara want to leave this place as soon as possible.

  The slipper slips down from his toes. He stretches out his leg to pick it up.

  He considers those members disposable, but the result of their activity affects his carrier. This situation seems contradictory. Still, it's no use in complaining the fact.

  Morihara stands up and leaves the instructor's room.

  The indoor training room is full. The members in the same sky blue tracksuits continue the rhythmical movements. The same movements and the same words.

  "Friendship", "order", "peace", "the country"

  This is amazing. These are great reserve trainees.

  Well done. Let's try out a mimic combat training, which can serve as a practical test.

  The bullets for combat training is fake, but the guns are the blow-back type SIG SAUER for actual fights.

  The guns that Earthlight members use are handmade toys, but these are professionally made. The functionality is outstanding.

  The reserve trainees are standing at the entrance of the forest, which is at the back of the training school. Morihara strolls with his chest pumped out and his hands at the back.

  "Your duty isn't to kill the enemy. It's to takes off their fighting spirit and minimize the damage to their surroundings.

  "Yes, sir!"

  "In order to do that, you need to discourage the enemy and stop their progress. The threatening effect of the first attack is the most important. You should make them pause with the first attack. If you fail, you barge into them. There are tons of replacements for you. Stop the enemy. This helps the public safety of the nation."

  "Yes, sir!"

  "Let's go two separate ways. You need to wait for the signal at the both sides of the mountain. When you get the signal, start walking to the center. You should block the enemy's advance when you see them. Everything you do is monitored. Every movement will be judged. That's it."

  The bush covers the back of the training school. It's around 10 km wide. The trainees have to travel at least 5 km with the supplementary reinforcing armor.

  Morihara asks them to run and get to the spots within 20 minutes.

  Still this is a fairly easy instruction. Thanks to the 2 weeks basic training, there is no one who failed this order.

  Morihara monitors the trainees at the training school. He sees that the two groups with 10 members each have arrived the each end of the mountain. He yells out.

  "Go!"

  The voice reaches all the trainee's ears through their intercoms. Everyone goes into the forest.

  Morihara completely understand where the trainees are, who fires, where it lands or hits, in other words, he knows everything happening. Some of them are heading toward a unbelievable direction. All of them are in the intoxicated state, so this kind of thing can happen. However, there should be a strict rules on the condition of the drugs. There are still people with a crazy sense of direction. These trainees are noted and given a role that doesn't require them to move, for instance, a bulletproof.

  Of course, there are people who have an excellent sense of direction. Their luminous points on the monitor are moving on appropriate routes. These people have either experience with climbing mountains, which is rare for this day and age, or have talent for driving.

  The shooting sign appears. Still, there is no contact with anyone from the other party. The person would have mistaken a branch of a tree as an enemy. This is a troublesome guy. He might shoot his ally in the heat of the moment. However, he can be used as a member of a shock corps.

  The leading group from each side have met. Morihara hears a lot of yelling and screaming through the intercom.

  The luminous lights on the monitor change from green to red one by one. One of the green lights is taking a large roundabout route.

  Is he going to attack the enemy from the side...?

  Morihara puts the topographical map on the monitor. The light is moving upward to the area with dense contour lines. The person is going to take a sneak attack from the cliff.

  The green light shoots from the cliff and hits three people. The light sprints down the cliff and lands the ground before shooting again. Two people get shot. He runs to the direction where enemy comes from, using trees as a defense. He would keep on running away from the enemy for the reminding time. This is a smart decision in a way. This kind of sense seems instinctive.

  Morihara selects the luminous light and displays the data of the trainee. Then, he marks the trainee's name --- Reji Kogure.

  *****

  The next day becomes the first day for Reji of taking the field.

  A car takes Reji from the training school to the Riot Police station. There are two set of armors ready at the place. They are nicely washed, but he can see the wears and some lingering smell. These are human made in order not to create any rumor that soldiers get killed before wearing out their supplementary reinforcing armors. However, everyone knows such deception.

  Reji wears the supplementary reinforcing armer, Powered Exoskeleton, on top of the protective clothing. He can put on the helmet after they get to the site. He checks the gun and the rifle before attaching the extra magazine to his waist.

  After calling the roll in line, everyone hops on the armed vehicle. Takita sits next to Reji.

  "This is terrible."

  Reji ignores, but Takita continues talking without caring much about it.

  "I don't know where they are going to take us. This is a countermeasure for Earthlight. The place is going to be similar to the one where we were at. We are doomed."

  Reji thinks he is so chatty. He doesn't know what's going on in his head when he talks, or he might be talking out loud everything that comes up in the head. It doesn't matter where they are going to take them. All they have to do is to carry out the mission just like the training. That's his purpose of living. His duty is to protect the public safety.

  "Well, when I was working at Earthlight, I was acting up a lot. It was like a game of attacking and revenging. There were some people who got caught by the Riot Police like me, but I've never heard there is a considerable damage to their side. They can just shoot off Earthlight, and that's it."?

  Reji takes a glance.

  Takita keeps on talking until they arrive at the site.

  The armed car stops at a downtown high-rise area. The silver walls become black at night, reflecting the town lights and the moon light. Depending on the angle, the shapes of these walls look different.

  The group receives an order to patrol around the area. The instruction includes walking with a rifle in front of their chests and report straight away before doing anything if they find any unusual event.

  Reji pairs up with Takita. Two of them start walking next to each other with their supplementary reinforcing armed helmets on.

  While walking through buildings, they realize these are government buildings. The silver signboards show familiar names of ministries. The place is Kasumigaseki, the center of the Japanese government, which has never had anything to do with Reji.

  "Hey, hold on."?

  Takita grabs Reji by the arm and points at the side walk on the other side of the road.

  "That's a supplementary reinforcing armed helmet, isn't it?"

  Reji has no interest in that. His duty is to patrol the area. It's not to pick up a helmets that belongs to no one.

  "Someone from another unit must have forgotten it. Maybe we should bring it back.

  Reji tries to shake off Takita's hand and go ahead, but Takita crosses the road.

  "This is surely our helmet. I wonder why it's here."

  Takita picks up the helmet.

  As soon as a sharp flash lights up, there is massive sound of the explosion. Reji falls down in a reflex manner. Immediately after that, a blast blows above Reji's head. The impact sounds of fine ricochets bounce back against the building wall behind Reji.

  His first thought is to hide. With his head staying low, he checks his surroundings and crawls forward. When Reji gets t
o under the shade of the stairs of the subway, he hears Morihara's voice from the intercom.

  "What's wrong? What happened?"?

  "There was an explosion. My teammate picks up the helmet on the ground."?

  "Crap. It was a basic trap. I'll send some people over. Tell me where you are."

  "I'm at B8 exit of the subway. The enemies are shooting from the other side of the street."?

  "Okay. Don't run away. You'll lose if you show any sign of weakness."

  Reji doesn't know how to response and bits his lips.

  Straight after the connection cuts off, the shooting stops.

  Reji takes out the grenade for dazzling the other party. As soon as he takes off the pin, he grabs his gun and fires twice from the side of the wall. Then, his upper body leans out and throws a grenade.

  The grenade falls in the middle of the road and explodes with an intense flash and smoke. It's impossible to see anything.

  He hears several gun shooting sounds in the distance. That's an allied force. Reji fires over the wall.

  Two Riot Police members run toward him while shooting their rifles. Morihara's instruction comes in.

  "While the other party is attacking, don't stop the counter attack. You need to take off their ability to fight or moral."?

  One of the two new members gives a signal with a hand. The rest of them lean out from the wall and fires their rifles in succession. They lie low after three seconds of shooting.

  "The enemy is in an open formation. They have the advantage."

  "But, the situation gets worse if we go in separate ways."

  Then, there is sound of an armed vehicle approaching. Morihara yells out.