Ronin Born

by Percival Constantine

  Erika had the tsuka in position and activated the weapon. The energy blade stabbed right into the creature’s arm and he wailed. His grip loosened enough for Erika to squirm out of his reach. She wondered if she could make it to the door faster than the creature could move.

  Making a break for the exit was a big risk, but Erika reasoned it was less of one than staying in here with that thing. As she expected, he did attempt to lunge for her again, but this time she was prepared. She ducked under his swing, sliding on the ground. Erika held the tsuka up and the blade sliced through the arm, severing it just between the wrist and elbow. It landed on the ground and Erika glanced back at it. There was a mixture of blood and oil seeping from the severed appendage.

  The beast clearly wasn’t happy about it, either, and he came after her. Erika ran through the door and back into the hall. She heard a crash and chanced a look over her shoulder to see that the beast was on her tail. The dimensions of the corridor were just barely enough to contain him and he moved after her in a hunched-over posture. Though for all Erika knew, that could be his natural posture.

  “Kuroki, do you copy?”

  It was Hiro’s voice ringing through her communicator. She’d never been so happy to hear from someone before. “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “I’m just about finished here, but thought I heard some kind of noise. Did you pick up anything on your sweep?”

  “You…might say that.”

  The beast roared again. Erika sprung, turning in mid-air and seeing the creature again. She landed and slid a few inches before coming to a stop. Erika activated the tsuka and readied herself.

  “Do you need a hand or something?”

  “I think I can handle it,” she said. “Or…hope at least.”

  “What? Kuroki, now’s not the time to—”

  “I’ll be with you in a minute.”

  Erika charged forward and leapt, blade first. It went right into the beast’s chest and the two of them both fell back. She deactivated the blade and then turned it on again, this time plunging it into the creatures head.

  “Sorry to cut you off, had to take care of something real quick,” she said, her breathing a bit heavy from the fight.

  Moments later, Hiro had arrived at her location. Erika leaned against the wall and motioned down at the beast. “That was what I found.”

  “Eh…what the hell…” Hiro stood in near shock for a few seconds before finally kneeling down before the beast. “This was down here?”

  “Yeah,” she replied. “Found two guys watching it. They looked like they may have been Kitano’s men.”

  “Did you stop them?”

  “Unfortunately no, they got away while I was dealing with this guy.”

  “This is…unreal…” said Hiro. “I don’t even know what to say about this.”

  “Can you get any readings off it?”

  “Some, but not a whole lot right now. Think we’ll have to take it with us back to HQ, try and get some answers from the lab guys.” Hiro stood and turned away from the creature. He opened a comms channel. “Yoshida. We’ve got an unidentified cybernetic organism at the following coordinates. Bring a cleanup crew. It’s not going to be pretty.”

  Once he ended the call, Erika spoke up. “Have you ever seen anything like this before?”

  Hiro took a deep breath, but wouldn’t look at the creature again. “No,” he finally said after a long pause.

  “Any idea just what Kitano was up to down here?”

  “I’ve got a strong feeling this goes beyond Kitano,” said Hiro. “There’s something a lot worse happening down here, and I intend to find out just what’s happening.”

  “Who would even do something like this to another human being?”

  “If you knew all the horrors that were out there, you probably wouldn’t sleep so well,” said Hiro.

  “And how do you sleep?” asked Erika.

  He scoffed. “Never said I did.” The joke failed to really ease the tension, so instead Hiro chose to change the subject. “What about the two guards? Did you get a good look at them?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Perfect, we can run facial recognition on the footage from your helmet. With any luck, we’ll be able to track them down. Very few places people can hide these days.”

  Hiro took one last, long look at the creature, then started walking away from it.

  “Check in with the others, see if we’re ready to get the hell out of here yet. Assuming everything went off without a hitch, they should get Kitano somewhere and wait for extraction.”

  There was something odd about his behavior, and Erika made a note of it. Hiro said he’d never seen something like this before. But that pause and how his body stiffened when he answered, it told Erika he knew something that he wasn’t telling her. And then the crack about the horrors in the world. It didn’t exactly put her at ease.

  But she decided to file it away for later. They had more important things to focus on at the moment, and Erika wasn’t about to screw that up just because of some doubts. Besides, those doubts were likely unfounded to begin with. She simply had an overactive imagination.

  “Tanaka, Ishiyama, either of you copy?” she asked on the comms channel.

  “Tanaka here,” came Sayuri’s voice. “We’re all set on our end.”

  “The package?”

  “One tattooed piece of shit all giftwrapped and ready for delivery,” was Masao’s gruff reply.

  “Good, Yoshida wants us to head back to HQ. Once you get the package to a secure location, standby and await extraction.”

  “Understood,” said Tanaka. “How’d things go on your end?”

  “That’s…a long story,” said Erika. “We’ll discuss it back at base.”

  “Copy that. See you back at the ranch. Tanaka out.”

  Erika closed the comms channel herself and saw Hiro had already moved pretty far from her. His locator blipped on her AR-HUD and she quickened her pace to catch up with him at the entrance to the basement. The nanites retreated from his body and back into the container, revealing his street clothes.

  “We good?” he asked. There was something about his eyes, a coldness she hadn’t really seen before. Whatever that thing was, it clearly threw Hiro off his game to some extent.

  Erika deactivated her own armor and nodded once the nanites were gone. “They’ll get him secure and then wait for extraction.”

  “Good. You and I are going back on foot. Let’s go.”

  7

  Hiro didn’t say a word on the trip back to headquarters, and Erika didn’t feel comfortable enough pressing him on the matter, so she kept her own concerns to herself. Once they got back, they could dig into the files Hiro had downloaded as well as figure out just what that thing was and how Kitano was involved.

  Back at HQ, Sayuri and Masao were waiting for them. Their extraction had apparently come faster than it took for Hiro and Erika to return on train. Hiro didn’t waste any time on formalities and walked up to the two-way glass that separated them from Junichi Kitano.

  He had a day’s growth of stubble on his face and his graying hair was toussled. He was dressed in blue silk pajamas, and the chair he sat in was anchored to the floor with restraints tying his wrists and ankles to the armrests and legs. He looked groggy and disoriented, but otherwise there weren’t any visible bruises or injuries.

  “How did it go?” asked Hiro.

  “Pretty smooth,” said Masao. “Sayuri took out…the guards quickly and quietly, then I nabbed Kitano right outta bed.”

  “Any problems?”

  “Nah, I drugged him first. Just started to wear off, so he’s still a little out of it. Could smell whiskey on his breath, too, which means chances are high he was hung over to begin with.” Masao looked away from Kitano and down at Hiro. “How’d thing’s go on your end?”

  “Fine,” said Hiro. “I’ve uploaded the data to HQ’s server. Go down to analysis and let me know what they find.”

  “
Can’t they just let you know when they finish?” asked Masao.

  Masao was taller, but the glare Hiro gave his subordinate seemed to make him shrink by at least a foot.

  “Are you questioning me, Ishiyama?”

  “N-no, nothing like that,” said Masao. “I just thought I might be more use to you interrogating Kitano.”

  “No, I can handle him on my own. I want you to wait on the data analysis.”

  “Yeah, sure thing, you’re the boss…”

  Masao turned away and exchanged glances with both Erika and Sayuri that indicated his confusion. He left the three of them behind as Hiro resumed staring at Kitano through the glass. Erika and Sayuri also exchanged looks between each other to confirm they were just as confused as Masao. But Erika certainly didn’t feel comfortable questioning their leader, and she could tell from Sayuri’s own expression that the feeling was mutual.

  “Kuroki and Tanaka, I want you to head to the lab,” said Hiro. “They should be bringing in the remains soon, and I want to know just what the hell that thing was.”

  “You don’t need any help here?” asked Erika.

  There was a beat of silence that made Erika question the wisdom of even opening her mouth. And then Hiro spoke, which confirmed she was better off staying silent.

  “Kuroki, I’m not some greenhorn. I was interrogating prisoners back when you were still learning the right way to hold a gun. I know what I’m doing.”

  “Yes, sir, of course. Tanaka and I will head to the lab.” Erika bowed, even though Hiro hadn’t turned away from the glass. Sayuri followed suit and then the two of them left the room together.

  They walked down to the elevator and once they got inside, Erika asked the AI to take them to the research level. The doors closed and that was when Sayuri finally decided to speak.

  “That was harsh,” she said. “Both to you and Masao.”

  “We saw something in that basement,” said Erika.

  “What?”

  “Seems Kitano was involved with some really twisted shit.”

  “What did you find?” asked Sayuri. “Corpses?”

  Erika shook her head. “No. I mean…not exactly. It was…I don’t even know if it was human anymore. You’ll see for yourself when we get to the lab.”

  The elevator came to a stop and the doors parted. The two women walked down the corridor and continued on to one pair of large, metal doors. The scanner mounted above the doorway ran a check on both, and then the doors parted. A middle-aged woman in a lab coat with her hair tied back in a bun approached the pair, looking at them through small, wire-rimmed glasses.

  “Agents Kuroki and Tanaka,” she said, before offering a bow. “My name is Dr. Iwata, I’m in charge of the biological research division here at the Ministry. I was told to expect you.”

  “Told?” asked Sayuri.

  “Yes, Agent Yoshida just informed me you were on your way,” said Iwata.

  “Has the body arrived?” asked Erika.

  “The team brought it in just a few minutes ago,” said Iwata. “Unfortunately, I haven’t yet had the opportunity to perform any examination.”

  “Show it to us anyway.”

  “Are you certain?”

  “Positive.”

  “As you wish. This way, please.”

  Iwata turned and motioned for them to follow. They entered an adjoining room with refrigeration built into the wall and gurneys lined up in front of them. Only one of the gurneys was occupied, with the creature Erika had fought.

  In the brief time Erika had known her, Sayuri Tanaka had always projected an air of absolute calm under pressure. Nothing seemed to rattle the woman. But that all changed the minute she laid eyes on the strange melding of man and machine, and her reaction was a gasp. It wasn’t a massive reaction, but still more than Erika had come to expect of her teammate.

  “What…what is that?” she asked.

  “It’s what we found—I found—in the basement,” said Erika. “There were two guards watching over it, but they escaped.”

  “That still doesn’t answer my question,” said Sayuri.

  “The mission briefing indicates that Kitano was involved in black market cyber-implants,” said Iwata. “There’s a high degree of risk involved in them. And many of the clinics have been trying to improve their methods. That leads to a lot of experimentation. And they don’t exactly have a governing medical board to keep them in line, nor the knowledge of when they’re going too far.”

  “You think this was one of those experiments gone wrong?” asked Erika.

  “Quite possibly. The rumor is that the gangs have been attempting to improve their existing ranks through unorthodox cybernetic enhancements. A way to compensate for the government crackdown that’s thinned their ranks and slowed recruitment.”

  “You said rumored…?” asked Sayuri.

  “That’s right,” said Iwata. “A lot of this stuff is kept quiet from the public, so there’s just a lot of innuendo and suspicions. I personally haven’t seen much evidence to support those rumors myself.”

  “Until now,” said Erika.

  “I haven’t gotten many details about what happened. Were either of you there?” asked Iwata.

  “Kuroki was,” said Sayuri. “She said she found it.”

  “And in what state did you find it?” asked Iwata.

  “Pissed off,” said Erika.

  Iwata blinked a few times, her lips slightly parted. “It-it was conscious?”

  Erika nodded. “And not very happy.”

  “Are you saying you actually fought that thing?” asked Sayuri.

  “He was one tough bastard,” said Erika. “To be honest, I didn’t think I was going to get out of there alive.”

  “Please, tell me everything,” said Iwata, stepping closer to Erika. Her eyes were practically lighting up, and she could barely contain her excitement. It was a reaction that unnerved Erika.

  “Well…he—it was strong. But it didn’t seem to really know how to use that strength.” Erika’s brows tightened as she recounted her experience. “In fact, didn’t seem like it had any sort of strategy at all. It behaved almost like a cornered animal.”

  “Interesting…” said Iwata.

  “It also…it sounded like it was in pain,” said Erika. “It kept making this kind of screeching sound. Like nothing I’d ever heard before. I’m starting to think it wasn’t really trying to attack me, but more like it was just panicking.”

  “Well, perhaps a DNA scan will provide some clues,” said Iwata.

  She pulled a tray of instruments over, one of which was a device with a needle on the end. She inserted it into the monster’s flesh and after a few moments, it beeped. Iwata looked at the display, then turned it to show it to the two agents. The display read “NO MATCH.”

  “What does that mean?” asked Sayuri.

  “It means there’s no genetic match in the government databases,” said Iwata.

  “But that’s not possible,” said Sayuri. “Everyone’s genetic information is catalogued. Anyone who hasn’t been catalogued—”

  “Is a non-entity in the eyes of the government,” said Erika. “An illegal immigrant.”

  “Seems likely this organization was trying to perfect its procedures by testing it on illegals,” said Iwata. “It makes sense, actually.”

  A pit formed in Erika’s stomach in reaction to Iwata’s cool response. “Why do you say that?”

  “If the government has no record of their genetic information, then there’s no way of determining the identity. They can easily be disposed of once the tests are complete and authorities have no way of tracing it back to the perpetrators. And there’s no one to miss the victims, so the police don’t receive any pressure from next of kin.”

  “She’s right,” said Sayuri.

  “They’re still people,” said Erika.

  “Well…yes, of course. But…” Iwata didn’t elaborate any further. Erika didn’t need her to, either. She knew just what the doctor
meant. That was the second time Iwata made Erika feel uncomfortable.

  “Is there anything you can find out from an examination?” asked Erika.

  Iwata sighed and looked over the creature. “In terms of establishing an identity? Not much. I can determine their genetic background, which might narrow down where they may have come from. But you probably won’t find that leads to anything helpful.”

  “Perform the autopsy anyway,” said Erika. “Your department and cybernetics should work together on this. We need to find out what Kitano was trying to do.”

  “Of course. I’m quite interested to see just what modifications have been made to this poor devil,” said Iwata. “I’ll contact you as soon as I’ve got the results.”

  “Thank you, Doctor.” Erika bowed and left the morgue, with Sayuri following suit.

  Erika just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. She left the research lab and went into the corridor towards the elevator. Sayuri caught up with her while she was waiting for the elevator to arrive.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah.” Erika paused, then sighed. “No. I don’t like that woman.”

  “Don’t take it the wrong way. She’s probably just…off. When you have a job like that, you probably see everyone as a potential science experiment instead of an actual human being. I’ve known people like that before. They don’t mean to be off-putting, something about them just doesn’t work the way it does in normal people.”

  “Maybe you’re right. Still…something about her…”

  “Look, let’s just head back to Yoshida. Maybe he’s gotten something out of Kitano by now. Something we can use.”

  “Yeah, let’s do that,” said Erika. “I’ve seen enough horror for one day.”

  The elevator doors opened and they both stepped inside. As it started moving, Sayuri asked the question that Erika assumed had been on her mind ever since she saw the creature.

  “What was it like? Fighting that thing?”

  “It was absolutely terrifying,” said Erika.

  “I wonder…”

  “Wonder what?”

  “Nothing, just curious what it would have been like. To be able to cut loose with your armor against something like that.”