Sometimes, the idea of nothing implicates more than anything else possibly could.
* Anonymous, 2024
***
The next few minutes are a mind wrenchingly repetitive series of ladders as I descend a few levels, hoping I wasn’t followed the entire way. Since I have to take every other step more carefully, my progress is rather sluggish, which is honestly a bit of a relief. I was already exhausted, and I knew I probably wasn’t even close to being done today. While I’m about halfway down one, Anyvi chimes up.
Perhaps you should take a short break on this next floor. It’s private property, but as a Vanguard you’ve gained the right to enter.
“H-How does that work exactly?”
The entire level was given to the Family as a gift from the founder of New Houston, and it once served as their southmost headquarters. It was converted into a memorial for the fallen after the Gulf Offensive twenty-two years ago, though it’s closed to the general public.
“I-I’m surprised I’ve never heard about this… I-I wanna check it out.”
From what I understand, the people that participated in the operation don’t like to talk about it and looking at the events from the outside, I am not exactly surprised. I imagine it is much worse for them having lived it.
As I reach the bottom of the ladder and step off of it onto the ladder’s metal grate, I stumble a few feet onto the floor’s concrete balcony. With a groan, I fall to my butt against a safety rail, then pull my socked foot up and grimace at the dirt and blood that seem to have collected on its bottom.
“W-When can I remove this? I-It sort of seems unsanitary.”
It should be fine to remove it in around ten minutes, but you don’t have to worry about the blood and dirt, they’re isolated separately from your wounds by the gel.
I open my mouth to speak, but before I can, a gull sticks its face right next to me from the railing behind me. My heart leaps out of my chest, and with a little yelp and desperate shuffle later, I am holding my hand to my heart, back against the concrete wall standing opposite of where I was.
“H-holy… A-Anyvi, I think I was caught up in the moment earlier so it didn’t occur to me, but it was pretty foolish of me to go through that whole escape without my ear implants on, huh?”
It was not an issue. The lack of noise kept you focused, and I would have alerted you if something nearby made noise and required your attention.
“H-How exactly does that work, since my implants were off?”
The manufacturer of your implants included a rather devious method to gather information in their code, and I simply took control of their backdoor. Listening through your implants alone is against their own company promises, let alone while they’re supposed to be off. You could likely rake their entire corporation over the coals for it if you were on the mainland, but it seems to be legal gray water since you live in New Houston. I could personally send them a message of grievance, if you would like.
As Anyvi’s words sink in, I can’t help but start to ruefully laugh, covering my eyes with my hands. So, so much about the last few years of my life was beginning to click into place just with that short explanation. Releasing my face, I feel the cold breeze against my skin and marvel slightly at the sight of the ocean in front of me. I really needed a therapist that wasn’t fifteen hundred miles away. Goals for after I survive.
“Y-You know, Anyvi, you might be the best thing to ever happen to me.”
Thank you for the compliment. I expect I will be the first of many.
As much as I want to fight it, a grin slowly grows as I calm my heart a bit. With a huff, I rise to my feet and turn my implants on after a moment of trepidation. A wave of noise resonates through my ears, and I find that despite my misgivings, the only sounds that greet me are the waves and the lightly creaking skeleton of my home. I had expected to be able to hear the night market on this low floor, but it seems that I was far enough away that the noise couldn’t carry.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Noticing a door a few feet away, I saunter my way over, flinching as the door opens with a swish. Hesitantly, I enter inside, and am sort of shocked to see that the entire building seemed to be entirely open, sort of like an empty warehouse. I had expected something with a bit more fanfare, some kind of bombastically fancy and flamboyant marker of the heroics performed. Instead, the building was almost empty, and all the noise I could hear outside vanishes when the door closes behind me, an utter silence enveloping me.
Beneath a lonely, warm light three concrete monoliths sit still and resolute. The largest stretches to touch the floor's roof, with the others flanking its left and right, seemingly only reaching to its halfway point in height. Glowing text lined the gray slabs and while there seemed to be various names carved on the two smaller monoliths, a poem was scrawled onto the one that touched the ceiling.
“”O sweet illusions of song
That tempt me everywhere,
In the lonely fields, and the throng
Of the crowded thoroughfare!
I approach and ye vanish away,
I grasp you, and ye are gone;
But ever by night and by day,
The melody soundeth on.
As the weary traveler sees
In desert or prairie vast,
Blue lakes, overhung with trees
That a pleasant shadow cast;
Fair towns with turrets high,
And shining roofs of gold,
That vanish as he draws nigh,
Like mists together rolled—
So I wander and wander along,
And forever before me gleams
The shining city of song,
In the beautiful land of dreams.
But when I would enter the gate
Of that golden atmosphere,
It is gone, and I wonder and wait
For the vision to reappear.”
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Fata Morgana (1873)”
As I stand in the total quiet, reading the poem the artist had left behind, my heart stirs. I had lived here all my life, hell, I knew my grandfather had participated in this event, and I never knew something so… profound sat just a few floors below the house where I had spent my childhood. Maybe if I had seen this sooner…
I shake my head; Thinking like that got me nowhere fast, so I should move past it. Something catches my eyes, and I look down to realize why the Family had blocked access to this place. Graffiti.
I don’t know how I didn’t notice it, but it seemed like everywhere I looked a new color of paint made itself known, a unique message and set of feelings within each. One celebrated a samurai’s name I had seen on the list, while another mourned a lost loved one. A particularly striking piece even decried the Vanguard as a whole, and reading it sends a shiver down my spine.
What kind of intense desire or lingering regret could possibly impact such a large group of people to leave as many messages as this?
I don’t know why, but I desperately want- No, I desperately need to know what occurred during those few days twenty two years ago. I have a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with the state of my family, or why my grandfather is such a control freak.
With a breath of exaltation, I sit down and cross my legs, taking a good long look to memorize all the names I could. There seemed to be a mix of samurai and regular humans that were listed upon the slabs, and with each one, I silently ponder what kind of person they were, what life they lived, how they died. I might never know, but something deep inside me told me that I should do my best to find out.
“A-Anyvi, can you mark these names down for me? I-I want to look into this. A-All of this.
I have taken a picture and saved it for later use.
“T-Thanks.”
I realize at this point that I could have Anyvi search for information of everyone listed, but something about that feels wrong. This was something I personally needed to do after all, and having my AI do all the work for me just sat wrong.
I knew some people considered their AI’s as tools, but from my personal experience with both Jysli and Anyvi, they were more complicated than that, and to be honest, the idea made me feel kind of sick. Jysli is incredibly efficient at what they do, but tends to be rather blunt and apathetic towards me. I may not have known Anyvi for very long, but she had some quirks herself, getting jealous at me taking things from my room and her poorly hidden disdain at the developers of my implants as the foremost examples in my head.
I spend the next few minutes just sitting there, taking in the serenity, before Anyvi quietly speaks.
You may remove the sock now, if you wish. The shards have been successfully removed and the wounds closed, though the bottom of your foot might be a tad raw.
With zero hesitation I rip the sock off and proceed to nearly puke when I see the amount of blood and dirt that had collected within the gel. Grimacing at the sight, I reluctantly stuff it into the box it had come in. There was no way I was leaving something like this here, but I really didn’t want it in my bag either. Resolving myself to throw it away as soon as possible, I stand up and can’t help but marvel at the fact that my foot didn’t hurt anymore.
Just so you know, there is no exit on the opposite side as you entered, since they closed it off. You’re going to have to keep descending the way you came in.
I turn with a groan, not looking forward to the trek before me. It wouldn’t be as bad with the sock off, but I still had a feeling I was going to hate ladders for a while to come. When I enter close proximity to the door, it opens, the crashing of waves once again entering my ears. I take one quick look back, then step through into the breeze with newly found purpose.