Chapter 011
HAZUKI FORGOT WHERE she was for a moment.
The old-fashioned low-rise building. An old-fashioned human figure standing on the roof of it. It was all unreal. Hazuki thought it would actually look more real on her monitor. It would look less deceptive trapped in the frame of her screen with Arabic letters running along the bottom.
There was the sound of some atonal animal voice.
Meow. Meow. Meow.
“Meow cats!” Mio yelled. Mio’s line of vision went straight to the person on the roof.
The girl in the red embroidery looked down, sans expression.
Mio looked intently at Ayumi’s face. Ayumi didn’t move. From where Hazuki stood she could not see what Ayumi was looking at. Hazuki kept her focus on Ayumi and walked up. Mio moved between them and, facing the cat-girl on the roof, took a wide stance and said out loud, “Meow. We have to talk.”
Mio stepped forward a few steps and then looked back at Ayumi. Ayumi was still. Mio was likely not visible in the scene reflected in Ayumi’s eyes. That gaze was fixed directly on the girl on the roof.
Mio yelled out for Mao to come down. But she wouldn’t. Her long straight hair billowed across her face. She didn’t even bother to pull it away from her eyes.
Mio kicked the ground once. “Look over here!” she yelled. She was angry.
Mio was…
Mio wanted this girl to look at her?
Yes.
No matter how loudly Mio spoke, Rey Mao made no indication of listening. She just continued to stare Ayumi down. Hazuki discerned that Mio wanted everyone to look at her.
“Hey!” Mio stepped forward. Rey Mao still refused to look at her.
It was just her dry voice, carried by the wind, that reached as far as Hazuki.
“Sorry, I’m busy.”
“Busy?”
“Yeah, busy,” Rey Mao repeated.
“Stop acting like you’re important. You know full well kids aren’t busy.”
“Kids, huh? I’m not a kid. I don’t have any kid friends.”
“What?” Mio clasped her hands behind her head and made as if to flip backward.
“What the hell are you talking about? You’re my age. We used to play when we were little. Have you forgotten? You can’t be more than fourteen or fifteen. You are a kid. A kid!”
“Out here, a kid is someone who can’t gather their own food.”
It wasn’t a conversation Rey Mao was entertaining so much as it was a sermon she was giving.
Since she wasn’t even looking at the person she was talking to—Mio.
“Food? You’re talking about economic independence. Well then, you ought to know we’re not allowed to work, so we can’t make money. That makes you a minor.”
“And?” Rey Mao lowered her chin and dropped a laser-focused glare onto Mio.
“What do you mean and?” Mio winced.
It doesn’t matter how badly Mio wanted to be looked at, she still cannot handle the effect, Hazuki thought to herself.
“There aren’t any delineations like ‘kids’ or ‘minors’ out here. I don’t know, but it sounds like something your people came up with. I have nothing to do with it. That stuff doesn’t translate out here.”
This girl…she had no nationality. She had no ID card or monitor.
As though she’d had enough, Rey Mao turned her back to the girls.
The small, mewing animals followed close at her feet.
“No offense, but I don’t hang out with children.”
“Really.”
Just then…
Suddenly.
Ayumi spoke.
“Really arrogant. Tsuzuki, your friend’s really arrogant.”
Ayumi’s words ripped through the delicate embroidery at the center of Rey Mao’s back. The cats on the roof reacted instinctively to the voice and stopped dead in their tracks.
Hazuki took a deep breath. Her heart was racing.
Ayumi hadn’t spoken very loudly, but the words were clear. In the midst of this fake-looking situation, her voice was unusually real.
Rey Mao stood there silent.
With her eyes still piercing her back, Ayumi continued.
“I don’t know the difference between children and adults, but you know, I don’t really care.”
Rey Mao’s back quivered at the sound of Ayumi’s voice.
“Besides,” Ayumi continued. “Sure the animal that can forage for its own food is on its own, but you’re not going to tell me you’re not human animals now, are you?”
Rey Mao threw in without turning her back, “I don’t want to hear your pompous theories. Humans are still animals.”
“Sure. Humans are animals. But they are not wild animals.”
“What?”
“What you’re talking about is the logic of wild animals.”
“What do you mean ‘wild’?”
Rey looked over her shoulder again at Ayumi.
Ayumi’s look repelled the cats.
“An animal that lives simply to survive is a wild animal. Stop pretending you don’t live in the same sheltered neighborhood we’re in.”
“Sheltered, you say? This neighborhood?”
“Sure. You are sheltered in this neighborhood. You are by no means totally on your own. And I can prove it. You can’t step one foot out of here, can you?”
Rey Mao turned around without any change in her expression.
“You’re an undocumented resident, right? It’s nothing to beat yourself up about, but I wouldn’t brag about it either. It doesn’t make a difference to anyone. But you can’t live anywhere besides this Section C, correct?”
“Are you making something of it?”
“I’m right, aren’t I? This shit environment is the only one you can get your food in. One step out of here and your kind is powerless.”
Ayumi quietly menaced Rey Mao.
“You’re right that we live off the graces of guardians. We couldn’t feed ourselves on our own.”
“I bet you can’t.”
“We have it brought to us, as they say.”
“Have it brought? You mean you are fed by someone else.”
“That’s not necessarily true. Without obtaining the food ourselves, we have the food obtained for us. We’re not just a bunch of idiots with mouths open waiting for food to be poured in. Baby chicks have an insight on life that’s only theirs.”
“Insight?”
“Insight. There are no more guarantees that a parent bird is going to bring food. It’s not that kind of world anymore. You can’t just laze there waiting for something to come to you.”
“Let me guess…and there isn’t enough love or nurture. Spare me the sob story.”
“Oh no. Animals don’t care for their children out of love.”
Ayumi rebounded off Rey Mao’s interjection.
“It’s instinct. Because animals don’t experience things like love,”
Ayumi asserted.
“I don’t know the specifics, but living beings are all programmed to behave the way they do. Rather, that’s the essence of life. Children aren’t raised because they are cute. They are raised to protect the seeds of the future. Love is a convenient word humans devised to differentiate themselves from animals.”
Hazuki’s eyes widened.
What is she saying?
Ayumi appeared to her like someone from another planet.
Hazuki had never seriously thought about the meaning of the word love. The existence of love wasn’t something she debated.
But.
Ayumi stared into the eyes of Rey as she slowly continued her story.
She was outside Hazuki’s permissible scope.
“And what about it?” Rey Mao’s voice.
“And so humans are the same. If humans can’t care for children today, it’s not the fault of bad homes or bad people. It’s arrested development. It’s an illness. They say approximately 30 percent of the world’s population suffers from it. It has nothing to do with economic circumstances or living environments. Of course the situation is worse for poor people because their circumstances give them no other recourse. We’ve caught a stray blow from the thoughtless idiots of the twentieth century. As a result, we kids of the twenty-first century can’t just go to sleep without a care. Because once you’re born, you have to live.”
“Then go get your own food.”
“We’re not allowed to,” Ayumi responded. “Tsuzuki said it herself. We have to use our heads and survive in this cage of a boring society. Those who can’t, die. You don’t have to be in a fatal environment to die of malaise.
“Of course we have to live by this rule,” Ayumi continued. “We’re risking our lives by accepting food in our cage. There’s no point in telling kids like you playing pretend ‘great outdoors’ in the completely sheltered preservation areas that you’re outside the cage because you’re not.”
“Playing pretend great outdoors?”
“Isn’t that all it is? If it’s not, let me ask you this. Why do you feed cats? You think you’re protecting the weak?” Ayumi said, louder now.
“I-it’s none of your business what I do.”
“It isn’t. But don’t get all cocky about it. Aren’t you always feeding the cats? You’ve decided for yourself that they are weak and have enforced your protection of them, for yourself. That doesn’t give you the right to lord it over us. Real animals of the wild live only to survive because to do anything other than what was required would lead to death. They’re not in a position to be starting charities.”
“Charities—” Rey Mao began.
“Sure. Those cats are in a unique position—they have you to feed them. If you sent those cats out to the wildlife preserve now they’d die. You would too.”
Rey Mao looked as if the weight in her back had let out. She dropped what was in her hand. Several little animals gathered at the point where it landed.
“Do you remember me?” Ayumi looked up.
“It’s you.”
“I knew it. This is the girl who saved Yabe, right? Hey, Kono…”
Mio looked over at Ayumi. Ayumi didn’t answer Mio, but lowered her face.
“You’re not supposed to have seen my face.”
“No.”
“I know.” Rey Mao adjusted her stance.
“It’s you.”
“Who do you think you are?”
“You want to go? I’ll come down.”
“I don’t want to fight you. If you plan on fighting, I’m just going to leave while you come down.”
“Why? You could win.”
Win?
Ayumi would win?
Hazuki didn’t understand what that could mean.
“I wouldn’t,” Ayumi responded. “Children raised in cages don’t know how to fight.”
“Oh really. You didn’t even flinch that day. I was—”
“You were engaging in fisticuffs. You couldn’t have seen my face. Right?”
“I didn’t need to see your face to know it was you.”
“Impressive.”
Ayumi wasn’t cowering.
“You recognize my smell. In that case you’re definitely an animal. You passed out after that.”
“I did.”
Mio stepped in front of Ayumi. “The hell? Aren’t you the one who saved Yuko Yabe, Rey Mao? Am I wrong? Kono, didn’t you say she went at the attacker? What do you mean she passed out? What happened? What…”
“She was indeed the one who saved Yabe. You’re right that she’s strong. But no matter how strong you are, anyone punched that hard would lose consciousness.”
“Punched?”
“This one round-housed the guy. At the same time there was another guy trying to swipe at her with a metal pole. That’s when I came along.
And Yabe went running and bumped into me. I took her to the other side of the street and sat her down. That’s it.”
“If that’s it, then…”
“I didn’t see what happened afterward. I just assumed she’d passed out.”
“What do you mean you didn’t see, Kono? You just left?” Mio asked.
“It was none of my business,” Ayumi said.
“You are one cold bitch,” Mio said and walked back a step. “You should have at least called someone. You got a monitor on you after all.”
“Even if I’d called the cops, by the time they arrived the showdown would have been over. I couldn’t help, and I wasn’t going to stop the violence by dragging the police into it. And if I did, there’d be retaliation against me later.”
“Okay, fine. But at least call for someone’s help if you can’t do it yourself.”
“Who? There was no one there. If I screamed for help they would notice me. If they noticed me they’d kill me.”
“I wonder,” said Rey Mao. “I just don’t think you’d be taken down so easily.”
“I told you already. I don’t know how to fight. I’ve never thrown or received a punch in my life. I don’t know how to make allowances for fighting moves like you do.”
“Kono. This isn’t about knowing how to fight. Geez.”
Mio raised her arms wide. “Y-you don’t plan combat! Jesus. I don’t know about fighting, but in that situation you just go at it with your all. I’ve seen it before, but this one will move like a beast.” Mio pointed at Rey Mao and looked back and forth between her and Ayumi. They’d both certainly witnessed fighting at least once. Hazuki couldn’t fathom it.
“I don’t know about giving it one’s all, but you certainly have to plan your actions.”
“I didn’t plan any of that,” Rey Mao yelled.
“That’s not possible. That gongfu you busted out is a thoughtfully exquisite fighting style. That’s what it looked like, at least. You probably aren’t allowed to kill anyone with it right? Yet if you struck anyone hard enough with your skills, they’d die,” Ayumi said.
“If they died it wouldn’t be a fight, would it? It’s because people just grapple that it’s called ‘fighting.’ People who are fighting aren’t trying to kill each other. It’s a savage form of human communication. Fighting isn’t something that can be settled in one moment. Animals won’t do anything that pointless. Eat or be eaten. Their fight for life ends in one move.
Fewer losses the better. A fight only occurs when your attacker is weak and you can counterattack. When humans fight it’s like a monkey fight for position.”
“I don’t give a damn about animals,” Mio yelled.
“Monkeys, shmonkeys, I don’t know anything about it. Makino might, but—”
“I…” Hazuki was just confused.
Ayumi peered at Hazuki from the side, then quickly returned her gaze to Rey Mao.
“When monkeys fight they have rules. Humans do too. You can’t fight unless you know the rules, and you can’t fight anyone who doesn’t understand them. You fought with someone who didn’t know the rules. That’s why you lost.” Rey Mao swept away her long straight hair.
“I see…”
“I get it,” said the girl standing on the roof.
Hazuki didn’t know anything. Not one thing.
“It’s as you said. I take back what I said earlier.”
“That would be wise.”
Ayumi turned to one side. That familiar profile was once again in Hazuki’s line of vision.
“Since we’re being wise, I wanted to ask. Do you care for anything besides cats?”
“What do you mean?”
“It looks like you’re fond of caring for the weak. Besides these cats at your feet, say that night for example, did you rescue a little pink kitten? If you did in fact take in that poor little kitty, Tsuzuki here would like to have access to her.”
Ayumi placed a hand on Mio’s shoulder. “This Tsuzuki is one strange cat, so to speak. She’s really put us all out, you know.”
“What do you want with her?” Rey Mao asked.
Mio narrowed her gaze.
“You do have her.”
“What if I did?”
“Damn. This bitch is slow or something,” Mio shook off Ayumi’s hand and stepped forward again, turning her face up high.
“I have to talk to her, so just let me see her!”
“She’s being hunted.”
“So? You saying I’m one of the hunters? Is that what you’re saying?”
Rey Mao didn’t say anything.
“Say something, bitch! You saying I can’t be trusted? I just want to return her piercing.”
“Calm down.” Rey Mao spoke firmly, then finally looked Mio in the eyes. “Her opinion matters too, so I won’t say anything to disparage you. And I won’t brag about gathering food. But you guys and I still live in different worlds. Mio, you’ve long become a member of that other world.”
“There’s no this world, that world,” Mio said, annoyed. “I don’t live in this world because I like it. Neither do you. It’s unrelated. You’ve been raised here the same way that little cat has.”
“It’s still different.” Rey Mao turned her face away.
“What did you say?” Mio raised both arms and made as if to run at Rey Mao.
Ayumi grabbed her, and Mio screamed, her face twisted, “Fine! Then answer this, bitch! Yuko Yabe is also from a different world than yours. Why are you hiding her?”
“I’m not hiding her. She’s here of her own will.”
“Her own will?”
“She followed me here. Sure, she was scared. The man who attacked her was a pathological killer with no sense of logic. She told me he’d probably killed many people already.”
“And so? You saying you’re protecting her? Stop fronting. You think you’re some kind of superhero do-gooder? Leaving her in this dump is more dangerous than anything else.”
“I know that, but she can’t move right now. She has a fever.”
“That’s why you extended your hand out to her?” Ayumi said, still restraining Mio.
“Ridiculous!” Mio shouted.
“You’d prefer I just kick her out? I told her to go home, but she won’t. She said she doesn’t have any guardians and that something was destroyed. It didn’t make sense. You guys really can’t function without that machinery, can you?”
Her monitor.
Right.
Hazuki thought about it.
They were monitors.
Society, the world…she wasn’t sure what to call it, but say there was a large strict system in the middle, and they were all connected to it. That gave them security. They protected that safety. The monitor was proof of that safety. An existence based on accepting things that were predetermined to be harmonious, or ought to have been, was in one sense totally irresponsible, but generally considered a good way to live. The things you needed to survive were all prepared somewhere, and as long as the monitor had access to them it would distribute them to you.
The monitor was a tool to receive the entire world and a sort of passport. If you lost it…
It would be unimaginably horrific.
“We don’t have things like that here,” Rey Mao said. “There’s nothing you can do. That’s why I left her alone for a while. It’s raining.”
“I see. That’s why you told her where Tsuzuki lives,” Ayumi said, as Mio opened her eyes wide and turned her head backward.
“Me?”
Rey Mao turned to her side and whispered something. “You’re the one who told her where I live?”
“Only because I didn’t know anyone else with a normal house. But she didn’t go. Maybe you two don’t…get along?”
“We’re fine. I’ve never talked to her. Right?”
Mio looked for assent from Hazuki.
What would Hazuki do?
She’d probably look for Mio too.
Probably.
Probably wouldn’t go.
“Is that so?” Rey Mao said. “In any case she can’t move. That’s all.”
“If she stays out in this rain she’ll catch cold. At least take her to a doctor,” Ayumi said.
“You probably can’t,” Mio let out.
“You guys are an inconvenience.”
“Any way you look at this it’s up to you. But until her fever goes down she really has to keep sleeping. I came here to tell you that. As long as she’s here she lives by our rules.”
There would be no medical intervention, to say nothing of police intervention.
“Not because she didn’t have a monitor. People like me aren’t allowed to have access to public institutions. In spite of doctors it’s still dangerous. As far as I’m concerned, you are dangerous too,” Rey Mao continued.
Maybe. Hazuki, Ayumi, Mio…they all had monitors. They were all connected.
“It’s nothing fatal. If you want to see her, do it when she leaves here.”
“How long do you think that’ll be?” Ayumi spoke in Mio’s place.
“Two, three days. Though I couldn’t say that with any confidence.”
“Why not?”
“I’m sure you already know. Someone has died.”
“And?”
“You’ll be arrested.”
“That’s got nothing to do with it. I didn’t kill anyone.”
“That has nothing to do with it. According to Tsuzuki, the person who last met with the boy who died visited Yuko’s house a couple nights ago. Her disappearance has long been noted, so it’s just a matter of time. Whether you’re associated with this or not, you will be tied to the murder. And that means the area patrols or prefectural police will be here in no time.”
“Wha—?” Mio raised her voice.
“Am I right?”
Mio hadn’t thought that far ahead. She looked all the way around her and said, “They’re coming.”
“They are. They’ll go through this area with a fine-tooth comb. If Yabe is being protected here you guys are the ones in trouble. You’ll get arrested. It won’t matter if you’re not the culprit. It won’t matter if you can fight. But if you’re arrested, everyone like you in this area will be interrogated. For the police, it’s a golden opportunity.”
“I see…”
Rey Mao crossed her arms and looked up.
The cats at her feet were suddenly gone.
“You should return Yabe,” Mio said. “In a worst-case scenario this whole town will be razed. The old red-light district will be trashed. These guys are pathologically clean, so they’ll clean up all the trash. They’ll use any excuse.”
“But you see, the girl can’t move right now. Are you suggesting she walk home on crutches? Just leave. I’m plenty satisfied with this area the way it is.”
Rey Mao went silent. She looked lost in thought.
“I don’t think you could call that a good move,” Ayumi said as if to intercept the thought. “Right now, there are probably police all over Yabe’s home. They would be extremely harsh. If you brought her home right now, it’s like you’d be asking them to arrest you. Of course, if you were arrested there, it might not be a direct nuisance on the people who live here. But as soon as they found out about your situation it wouldn’t make a difference.
“In other words, you’re saying this: if I’m arrested and I tell the cops everything, it’ll be a problem for everyone, including you. I’m sorry,” Ayumi said and shrugged.
“It’s already a major nuisance. I’ll pretend I don’t know. There’s no evidence anyway.”
“I’ll tell. Yuko will tell too.”
“I’ll tell them it’s mistaken identity,” Rey Mao said.
“What?”
A gust picked up the air around them.
The slack in Hazuki’s clothing became pregnant with the wind, then as quickly settled down. The cloth kept flapping in the wind.
The scene was practically unreal but for the sensation on the skin, and Hazuki was stuck confused between the two. There was no sign anywhere of anything the others said being a lie or the truth.
Rey Mao’s hair was flying. Mio’s worker’s clothing was rustling. Ayumi had no excess fabric to rustle in the wind.
“Shut up!” Mio screamed. “It’s decided. We’re going to my house.”
“Tsuzuki’s house is in Section C too. If we can hide out there, when Yabe eventually goes back home and explains the circumstances it’ll have the same result. Unless the case gets solved in the interim.”
Ayumi remained totally silent.
“You’re right. If the killer is caught first then we have nothing to worry about.” Mio’s voice was elided by the sound of the wind.
Mio stood on some scaffolding and repeated herself out loud.
“That’s right. If the killer is caught first, then…”
No one responded.
Everyone was sure the killer would never be caught. That was what Hazuki thought, and of course Mio knew that much. This case would never be solved. There was too little evidence, and it would take time to find him. The investigation would last years. They couldn’t keep Yuko Yabe locked up that whole time.
“What do you suggest we do, then?” Mio said to Ayumi.
“This won’t work, that won’t work. Nothing will work!”
“Yes, but, Tsuzuki. All you wanted to do was give her back her piercing. Just give it to Rey Mao to give to her and we’re done.”
“You think that’s all there is to this now?” Mio said and put her head in her hands.
“It’d be better if we could move her to Section A.”
“There’s nowhere in Section A to hide something this problematic. Unlike Section C, it’s strictly controlled. It’s visually monitored. You bring that into the cage and all foreign substances will immediately be flushed.”
Ayumi was right. It wasn’t possible. If they were just going to hide, Section C would be the best place.
“That’s not true. A strictly controlled society still has holes. A world made of numbers is easy to co-opt. There’s magic to be performed everywhere. Isn’t that right, Makino?”
Mio looked at Hazuki and grinned.
Magic.
Mio had in fact used a sort of magic.
Mio had broken into Hazuki’s residence and eaten her food, and Hazuki was even there to see it all take place, but it was no longer a fact, because no one would know about it. There was no record of it. It was as if it had never happened. It was made to not have ever happened.
Even now Hazuki couldn’t help questioning her own memory.
“What’s monitored isn’t the truth, but information.” Mio sat on the scaffolding and rested her elbows on her lap, resting her head on her hand. “Information can be rewritten. People who depend on a world made of numbers can’t fathom deceptive numbers. Just like long ago when people believed their silly little brains saw ghosts, today’s adult will think up ghosts because a mistake in numbers is unforgivable. So long as it’s consistent no one will raise any doubts. Basically if it’s not a bothersome type of human, it’s all right. For example…”
Hazuki felt enveloped by Mio’s large eyes.
“We can’t go to Hazuki’s. There’s no one in her house, but there’s AI everywhere.”
Mio stared at Ayumi’s back.
She’s got a great little hiding place.