TOKYO, JAPAN

AUGUST 21ST, 2180

Dominic's underworld was in a state of mayhem on a global scale.

Temporarily of course as Dominic returned as a swimming brain in a lab's isolation tank.

He needs more biological or cybernetic body parts to parse through the whimsical mafia gossip that brought her so much joy. He at least needed ears! Eyes!

O the agony of just existing must be so very troublesome! Or at least that was what Ember thought.

She wore her densest jet black fur coat as she rested a palm against the tank's glass. It was real of course; 3D printed coats were for liberals.

Why do the talking animals get so offended at being murdered anyway? Gratitude was mandatory when losing an artery to a synthetic nail belonging to the one and only Ember Comsa. They should thank her and smile if she ever decided to decapitate them. She could be nice and let their heads land closer to the ground instead of making them kiss the vacuum of outer space.

How dare they play the victim? It was poor Ember that was the victim for dirtying her delicate murderous hands.

Talking animals should learn to stop cussing, use their indoor voice to defend their lives, and follow the law that allowed them to die. Darn, no one can commit murder these days in peace. It was Ember's amendment right to go on both murder sprees and shopping sprees.

Oh, and please stop seeing race in everything. It offends Ember's sensibilities, but one must rephrase that to her to not offend her twice over.

"Greetings old friend," Ember whispered to Dominic's brain.

She waited for the nanowires to wrap around Dominic's brain in the shadowed lab's tank. To her, it was all another exhibit to prove that she was the pinnacle of all of humanity. She never visited or paid the premise in Ember Tree City that invented the components that would later be used for virtualtops, but one must take all the credit they can get. Plastic reputation is still a currency too.

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"Looks like I have you now," Ember bragged as Dominic's hearing connected to the earthplexus. Ember was close to the first newly constructed earthplexus tower in Japan.

"How? What? What's happening to me?"

"Well, you already know I don't explain my influx abilities," Ember gloated, spinning on her chair. "I might be in Japan, but that doesn't mean I will just randomly explain how my powers work. I am not racist or anything. What I said was a joke."

"I wasn't thinking about race," Dominic said. "I just thought it was an overdone anime joke. Why do you see race in everything Ember?"

Her eyes widened. The fucking gall! She did not have one cybernetic prosthetic that was racist. It's... it's people LIKE him that are obsessed with race! He has to be a perpetual victim that finds racism everywhere, that's how he climbed his way to be the Earth's Don! One must learn the ways of the victim to be a criminal mastermind. She did not have anything to substantiate the previous sentences; the socratic method was for ugly people.

She glanced out the window briefly at the other skyscrapers, making sure her chin stayed high. She could barely look at the street below, as it showed that Japan was no longer homogeneous. Even though she could eat while staring at a talking brain that could swim and talk, she was not going to let the people below her make her lose her lunch, no thank you.

Stop seeing race in everything, seriously. Their smell just bothered Ember.

Smell, a possible indicator of the cuisine an organism ate often.

"Why can't I smell anything?" Dominic asked.

"I do want to take credit for 'killing' you, but it wasn't me," Ember explained. "Whoever killed you sent your mind to a bioengineered brain here."

"Clarify that. Was it you or the killer that put my mind in it?" Dominic asked. "I haven't been inside anything biological in a very long time."

"I can't answer that question," Ember answered. "Don't get angry. If you start being annoying I'll just end your life."

"I am perfectly calm," Dominic said. Indeed, he had to wait for the nanowire to finish syncing to change his indoor voice as the earthplexus kept generating a monotone version of his voice.

"Stop getting angry!" Ember screamed, using her outdoor voice.

"What do you want Ms. Comsa?" Dominic asked right at the edge of her last syllable. He was not putting up with Ember's insipid chilladera today.

Ember's irritation vanished and she beamed.

"The circumstances of your 'death' are quite troublesome... We may need to join forces to find out who could kill our consciousness directly," Ember proposed with a giggle. "Kyusen?"

Dominic took a pause. Ember could almost sense an emotion or a vibe being emitted from the swimming brain if she had any humanity left.

"Why are you speaking to me in Japanese in Japan?" Dominic asked. "Let me ask you again Ms. Comsa. Why do you see race in everything?"