Its eyes look like they light up. They're eyes that have caught an prey.
It walks toward Reji and reaches out its hand to the neck of Reji. Reji gets dragged without being able to resist. The right hand of A-B-A-H-S grabs and picks up Reji's neck.
The left hand takes off Reji's helmet.
A-B-A-H-S holds up Reji's body high up and faces the barricade of the Earthlight party.
It speaks.
No one would have expected it to talk in a female voice.
"Earthlight 3-3-Cell must be here! This guy is Reji Kogure. He used to be one of your members. We'll give him back. So, trade him with the girl you took.
You're here, right? You should come here now. It'd be better for this boy.
Come out here, Akari Nakazato!"
Earthlight members seem to get confused. They don't know what it is talking about.
Time passes like that for a while.
The door of the wagon at the back of the barricade opens, and a girl comes out.
That's Akari.
The perplexed members open a way for Akari who is slowly walking forward.
Atari stands in front of A-B-A-H-S, three meters away from it.
"A-B-A-H-S....no, mum. Are you desperate to get me back?"
"Yeah, Akari. You're Me."
"But, mum. I'm not You any more. I've left your place to know the world. I can't go back to be you anymore."
"But, that place isn't for you."
"....I know. You might be right. I'm not You, but I'm a daughter of Yours. It might be difficult to live with normal people."
Reji morns, getting suffocated. Akari looks at his face.
"Reji, you should go back to your place. That must be where you should belong. I'll return to the place I should be."
A-B-A-H-S throws Reji on the ground. It holds Akari and makes a big jump. It disappears into the dark.
Reji coughs several times and breathes heavily to suck more air. The crowd surrounds him. Clare and Junrock appear jostling through the people.
"Reji, are you alright!?"
Reji picks up his face. His eyes see two of his previous mates.
His head is dizzy. Is he experiencing oxygen deficiency? Or...A-B-A-H-S. What's A-B-A-H-S? That's the one who strangled his neck. Is it an enemy? No, that's not right. A-B-A-H-S is my company to protect the public safety.
.....Don't you hate A-B-A-H-S?
What Sekiba said come up in his head. Hate? Why do I have to hate it? Because....it killed him, that guy, my friend, Akimichi.
....Who am I fighting against?
This is to avenge Akimichi's death. That what I have to do. I need to kill A-B-A-H-S for Akimichi.
....What am I fighting for?
Is that my purpose of living?
No. They've told me my purpose of living... That's to protect, protect myself and the public safety of this country. That's right. I've learned that.
If that's the case, how about A-B-A-H-S? How can I kill it? I have no idea. I don't know but, I should get closer to A-B-A-H-S anyway. I should go closer.
I need to protect myself and the country. Then, I'll go after A-B-A-H-S.... A-B-A-H-S should be near me. The Riot Police with P.E. is where I should go, or rather return!?
"Reji! Hey, Reji!"
Junrock shakes Reji's body hard. Reji bats away the arm and stand up in an unsteady way.
The Riot Police with P.E. slowly creeps on them while keeping the barricade. The fight is over. Earthlight is already ready to retreat.
Reji takes a sneak look at the approaching Riot Police and turns around to see Junrock and Clare.
He doesn't have any doubt anymore.
Dragging his body, Reji walks to the Riot Police.
The place he should go back is right there.
Chapter 6
UniverSoc has opened.
Researchers and engineers have gathered from all over the world. Some have arrived at Narita airport and others have used New Haneda airport. Those who have a strong preference for particular airlines used Kansai airport. Information on the trip becomes the most common topic of the conversation among scientists around the world before the UniverSoc. They talked about things like the cheapest round-around flight ticket, the quality of the service at airport lounges that different airlines provide, and unstable network connection on some air routes due to the positional relation to satellites.
Airline companies offered elaborate service to answer a lot of needs that picky scientists request. Some airline company prepared various kinds of wine from all over the world. Asian airlines added local dishes and asked their cabin attendants to wear shirts which were 2 cm shorter. The most popular service among these came from Japanese airline, which passengers were served by cabin attendants in traditional Japanese clothes. The flight attendants didn't like the outfits that weren't suited for jobs that required some muscle labor. The passengers, on the other hand, were very pleased with this service. An American guy heard this service and boarded their airplane in traditional Japanese clothes, but his sword was confiscated at the customs. There was a cultural difference regarding regulations on weapons.
People from different cultures have been gathering together for UniverSoc.
All the staff members at Agency of Science, Industry and Technology are busy with picking up important officials. It's not too bad if they arrive at the new Haneda airport. The access from the airport to hotels near the bay dome is well maintained. Groups those land at Narita airport require the most hustle. Even though they're significant figures, they are treated in the same way as normal tourists who enter the country with normal visas. It's extremely difficult to get to the bay dome from Narita without getting lost for anyone who has never come to Japan. The staff need to find them and take them to their hotels.
Many staff members from ASIT and part-time workers from universities are wandering around the gate of the airport, holding up signs that have names of their guests.
Once the scientists got to the bay dome, the first thing they had to do was registration.
They were supposed to save their certification that they received in their pre-registration to their wrist tag. This was what they need to inquire at the reception. The registration completed when a certification was confirmed.
Around one in every 20 people forgot to save their certificates to their tags. In that case, the staff had to make inquiries to their country's Certification Authorities to confirm their identity based on their ID.
Around one in 100 didn't have any certificates in their wrist tags or proper identification. They all said the same thing.
"Please let me in. I'll pay double the fee"
The receptionists had some trouble, which was that they needed to explain to them that money didn't make them worthy if they weren't scientists. If the guests didn't give up, the receptionists had to hand them to security guards. Most people backed off before things got that far. These people were normally those who were likely to get deported immediately once they were identified with the police network.
Receptions at hotels were in the similar situation. The receptionist didn't ask them to prove that they were scientists, but they didn't want to let any guests who they couldn't confirm their identities regardless of the money they were willing to pay. There were also endless phone calls that overwhelmed the capacity of the employees. These calls were from guests those who couldn't get their psy-connect adapters to work or stand the smell of the lingering smell of weeds. Also a guy who was 2 meters high complained that the bed was too small. There was also an inquiry if they could get hot spring water from the tap.
It wasn't strange that this kind of chaos happened since such amount of people got together at the same time.
Sekiba entered the venue early. His significant position at ASIT gave him opportunities to communicate with researchers from overseas. The daily practical communication could be done through the network. Talking face to face wasn't the same. Sekiba normally got everything down using psy-co
nnect, but when the person is his friend, it's a different story.
They were building their friendship with their old friends who they hadn't seen for a long time.
The interaction was made between Japanese leading MoSE and international researchers. Their conversation was gracious, intelligent and polite.
"Hey, Eric. How are you doing?"
"Oh, Sekiba. Yeah, I'm doing great."
"How's Fred doing? Aren't you with him?"
"Oh, him. We came on the same flight. Everything went well until we took our luggage early before people from the couch, but he got caught at the customs. His pigeon-toed walk got him into trouble. They suspected that that nervous walk might be due to the fact that he had a test tube inside his butt hole to smuggle hard drug."
"That's hilarious. You could have given me a call. It would have been so easy for me to talk to them and get him released."
"Hmm? Why was that the case? Do you have any secret spell?"
"Yeah, sort of. MoSE and officials have particular codes, which can easily silence people like workers at the customs. Hold on a sec."
Sekiba took out a device for a vocal contact and talked for around 5 minutes.
"Everything is good now. Fred seemed to be making a scene, calling out "No, No" while holding his pink underpants. This can make a fantastic rumor."
"Indeed. Haha."
By the time Fred made it to the reception, the rumor had elaborated three times more than the original story.
"Have you heard the news? An officer put his hand inside the Fred's underpants and felt him out. Then, he yelled that "I've found it! This is a tiny thin test tube!"
It went like this.
Seeing friends was mostly nice and smooth, but it sometimes got a little tense.
"Hello, Dr. Sekiba."
"Oh, hello. Dr. Manning. I heard that you've moved to Caltech... You seem like you haven't changed much."
"My job hasn't changed even a bit. By the way, people are saying there will be a significantly strong secret weapon introduced at this event. It's going to be tad smaller than a human, but has 10 times as much physical ability."
"Weapon? No way. A-B-A-H-S is for the space research development. Of course, any tool can be a weapon when you use it in a wrong way. It wouldn't be strange if some people try to use A-B-A-H-S as a weapon. I'd like you to talk to the Japanese government and explain this to them, Dr. Manning."
"Indeed. We should keep our eyes open as scientists."
Getting more allies is necessary. Lobbying is a part of Sekiba's job.
Earthlight was getting ready for their gathering. They'd already announced their statement.
The UniverSoc was a gathering for people who monopolize science technology. Abolishing this benefited the society. The purpose was to destroy it completely.
The cyber battle line had been deployed. False and agitating messages flew in between sneak network attacks and thorough defense.
Earthlight 3-3-Cell had been already disbanded.
Junrock received an order from the top management to instruct a group. Clare was told to work with 3-4-Cell. Since 3-4-Cell had enough people, she ended up taking orders by the group leader and working on her own. Reji's bike was sitting next to the wagon that used to belong to 3-3-Cell. While fixing up the motorbike, Clare decided to use it for next fight.
The face of Reji who left the group was always on her mind. He was mumbling things like "with who" and "for what". His blurry eyes were somehow showing some possessed will. There was no better word to describe the look than "madness".
Reji promised Clare to find purpose of living together, but he disappeared. He might have found some kind of purpose of living, which wasn't exactly the same as the one for Clare. It wasn't even the opposite of Clare's purpose. It was completely different. Everything about it seemed alien to her.
But, Clare had to do things that she was supposed to do. The organization was where she belonged. The mission she had to carry out was about to begin.
Clare checked the torque at the back tire and adjusted to suit acceleration.
Riot Police with P.E. has gathered all their troops to fight back against Earthlight. Except for those groups who defense their bases, all the other groups were at the bay area. The sixth troop works as the leader.
The members of the sixth troop surround the bay dome. The first troop was deployed on the Kawasaki side, and the third troop was positioned on the Maihama side. The second troop defended around New Haneda airport. The fourth and fifth troops were on guard around and inside the bay dome.
Reji was in the first group of the second troop in the fourth Riot Police. His troop leader was Morihara, and Murase was also in the same group. Reji tried to talk to Murase several times during the preparation, but decided against it to see Murase's content look on the face. It was as if he didn't remember anything about Reji.
Reji decided to focus on his mission, hoping that he would have some time to think about it. Plus if that was such a big mission, there might be chances to approach A-B-A-H-S. It seemed the best to focus on his duty, protection of the building.
The security of the building seemed perfect without any of the Reji's efforts. All the people entering the bay dome and the participants were under surveillance. Tugs at their wrists were being scanned at every gate, and sensors were installed every several meters of exhaust ports and pipes for electric wires. Any heat source that goes through these were instantly detected. They even knew every motion of mice there.
All systems were monitored by the information team of the Riot Police and specialists from ASIT at the central control room. There were thirteen people with the 2nd-G psy-connect ability.
A part of ASIT facilities have been transferred to the bay dome, including A-B-A-H-S and maintenance tools for the machine. 8 mass production form A-B-A-H-S were also there.
Some of the members of ASIT including Sekiba brought a bunch of devices from their office to continue their work during the UniverSoc.
The opening ceremony for the event opened at 6 pm.
*****
The entire room underground has been reformed for the maintenance of A-B-A-H-S.
Sekiba went down complete quite stairs and entered a dark room.
There were simple decks placed in line. One was for the first model A-B-A-H-S which was more than 2 meters tall. The other eight decks were for the human male sized mass production model. Except for the one at the very end, all of the decks seemed empty. The last one was covered with a cloth as if it would be presented as a special device.
There were a bed and a medical monitor at the corner of the room. An easy health checkup was available for DS subjects.
Sekiba looked into the bed, and a girl, Akari opened her eyes.
"Hey. The checkup is finished."
Akari blinked several times. She lifted her arm gently and tried opening and closing her hands.
"Haven't you received the "MEMORY OF STEEL" from Nakazato?"
Akari kept silent.
"To tell you the truth, I'm relieved. Nakazato can make herself happy without sacrificing other people. It should be the way to go. You don't want to be the victim of her mission, right?"
Akari started talking without answering Sekiba's questions.
"Since I was awaken, I've had a lot of experience and met various people.
Reji is looking for his dream. He said he had been searching for something he can throw himself into and destined to do. Perhaps, I don't think I fully understand the thing called, dream, but I envied him for his carefree future.
I've met a taxi driver who doesn't know how to use a navigation system. He didn't try to use the device, saying that he wouldn't understand how to use it. I thought it was a shame. It was strange that he didn't seem disappointed in any way. He was smiling all the time.
Junrock...he might be our kind, but something is different. I got the sense that something has changed him into someone different from us.
An old guy I saw at city
didn't want to wear an artificial leg. I didn't get why he refused to appreciate the benefits of technology. It's sad that great technology has been invented, but got rejected by its users.
I also went to a graveyard. The graveyard was for data. Why are people obsessed with leaving something after their death? If they would like to have their legend, they should have produced it while they were alive. What would they expect if they couldn't do it or didn't have any ability to do it?"
"Ha! You seemed to have experienced various things. It must have contributed a lot to your personality formation."
Akari looks at Sekiba for the first time.
"Indeed. I've seen the world outside the research center and gained some experience that doesn't belong to anyone else but me. So, I'm not my mum, Dr Akari Nakazato, any more. I'm someone else."
Akari moves her body to sit up, and Sekiba helps her with supporting her back.
"This is great!"
"That's your thought, dad. I don't know if mum would understand it."
"I have two things that I'd like to tell you. One is about your dad."
"My dad?"
"Your dad isn't me. The reproductive cells that made you belonged to Sannomiya. Nakazato would know what I meant."
"....He was in the MEMORY OF STEEL... Why are you telling me that now?"
"Because that's the truth. Also, there is one more."
Sekiba turned his back. He proceeded to the darker end of the room and put his hand on the device that was under cover at the end of those mass production models. A curvy special machine came out under the cover.
"I'd like to give this to you. If possible, I'd like it to convey my true feelings."
Akari gazes blankly at the soft and smart silhouette of the body.
"....No. I don't like guys who can't say what they think."
"Unfortunately, I have to go to stop A-B-A-H-S now. As a researcher who made that thing, this is going to be my last duty. Well, the person I'm going to have to convince would be very difficult!"
Living with Memory of Steel (Part 2) Page 6