"Hey, morning."
A friend from his classroom greets Reji and leaves. He raises his right hand to reply. The left wrist is still on the mend, but it wouldn't take long for a young guy to recover the wound.
Several bikes run past Reji. Some students are walking, chatting with their friends.
It's the same old school life.
"This isn't boring."
Reji looks up at the sky. There were thin layers of clouds moving slowly on the sky. This is such a nice morning.
The mist that was hovering in his head has gone completely. He wonders what he was worried and suffered from. It seems like it was so deep or nothing worth thinking over. He feels that somebody whispers him not to worry, which makes him feel not to bother the nagging feeling.
It's okay to stay like this.
It's okay to live here.
Yeah, that's right.
Two women are looking at Reji walking to school at a cafe outside.
It was a teenage girl and a lady in her twenties. They're both wearing sunglasses. It was Akari and Dr. Akari Nakazato. The soul of Dr. Nakazato is inside A-B-A-H-S. The perfection of the slim robot body and her navigation skills make it look exactly like a human if it's wearing clothes that don't show much of its skin.
"He seems fine."
"I know. This kind of life suits Reji."
"Don't you want to see him?"
"That's okay. I'm walking down on a different path. By the way, how are you going? How's the new body?"
"It's good. I'm getting used to this."
"This is the fruit of dad's love."
"Don't say that. It was one way relationship. I didn't know what to do with it."
"Well... I kind of understand where you're coming from."
"He's already dead. Let's forget about him."
Dr. Nakazato shakes her hand a couple of times and looks at her palm. The exposed parts are covered with human-like skin.
"Shall we go now?"
"Yeah. I shouldn't be walking in a city. I can survive for a while with the property that he has left."
"But, there is no point for us in living away from the society."
"You're right. We should go out to the world to make good use of our power."
"Yes. We should look for the way and place to do that."
They stand up from their seats.
Special power is useless if you don't use it. That's responsibility for those who have such skill.
They believe if that's their duty, they're willing to accomplish it.
Even if their history is sinful.
Even if their memory is steel.
The two disappear in the city to look for the way.
- The End -
About the Author
Masahiko Kimoto has received Ph.D. degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2014 in Internet Technology area.
He works on development of Network Switched, Routers, Middlewares and Applications as software engineer. He especially loves BSD UNIX.
Another his work is writing novels. He has published many SF and YA novels in Japan, and also published text book of UNIX system. He was awarded Famitsu Entame Award in 2006, Kinetic Novel Award in 2013.
Website: http://www.earthlight.jp/
Twitter: @masahiko_kimoto
Living with Memory of Steel (Part 2) Page 9