“You were out late.”
YF flinched as he closed the door, surprised that Erika was still awake. He could feel the indignation rising from within, preparing in his head what he would say to her about Hiroyuki and their secret meetings. But when he made eye contact he noticed that her eyes were swollen from crying, knocking his thoughts off balance. “Uh…”
“So why didn’t you return my calls?”
“I had to...work.”
“You didn’t tell me anything was coming up. And you didn’t tell me you’d be back late,” Erika repeated.
YF spent a few seconds gathering his thoughts. “Uh...right. Remember how there was no auxiliary footage on the murder?”
Erika nodded slowly.
“Uraga demanded a full system audit to get more evidence, check that our cameras were working, and probably as a plus, to fuck with me.”
Erika seemed skeptical. “Well you could’ve said so sooner. I waited for you at least two hours.”
“I was going to tell you. Till we ran into your ex-boyfriend and his thugs,” he thought.
“Here?” he asked instead.
“At the station,” said Erika.
“I’m sorry.”
“So what, you couldn’t answer because you were inspecting the cameras?” she asked.
“I was teaching someone how to pilot a drone.”
“For what?”
YF sat down in a chair at the dining table. “They sent one of their main auditors, a tough obasan named Honda, as well as the girl from the thing. The ward meeting thing.”
“What ward meeting thing?” Erika’s eyes narrowed, then widened. “The chocolate girl?”
“Yeah. I have no idea why she’s here. She doesn’t even work at the Ward Office.”
“So you trained her how to pilot the drone,” she said.
“I had to.”
“And what were you two talking about so much that you couldn’t reply?”
YF heard a hint of jealousy in her voice that he had never heard before, not even when they had the heated exchange over Reina. “While we did the drone training, really nothing. She was just bad at moving objects so we had to repeat the exercise over and over again.”
“But the two of you did talk, about something.”
“She…look...there’s nothing—” YF started.
“I know,” Erika interrupted. “Just say what it was.”
“She said something about being here to make amends. She thinks she’s the reason I couldn’t get in the academy. Made a big deal out of it. Actually she saved me from baking in the sun cause I tried to get out in a hurry and she activated my sun shield.”
Erika frowned deeply. “Savior complex can be a very scary thing.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re going to stay away from her.”
Erika had never reacted like this before, throwing him completely off guard and causing him to forget whatever emotions he originally had walking through the door. “I don’t get it though. I’m not attracted to her, and I think you can tell,” he said.
“It’s not you I’m worried about. It’s her.”
YF continued to look confused.
“Women do this and that,” said Erika with a smirk that was almost angry. “But a lot of times it’s just a game, some fun, quick exchange. We don’t commit easily to people, particularly when we’ve been hurt, and almost every one of us who made it to be this old have been.”
“So...you’re saying that Fujii has decided I’m supposed to be saved and latched onto it?”
“I don’t think she knows what she wants from you — yet. But she wants something for you as a means to get something for herself. Trouble is you won’t be able to get it, and that will only intensify her efforts.”
“What?”
“Just stay away from her.”
YF held his forehead in his hand. “Look I appreciate the warning but she’s stuck with us till the audit finishes. That might be months. In any case it seems like I’m supposed to go into the field with Honda most of the time. Fujii will just be piloting the drone back in the office.”
“Good, keep it that way as much as possible.”
“Now…” YF pointed toward Erika’s face. “What happened to you?”.
“I…” her voice choked, but no fresh tears came out of her eyes. “I told my contact in the sect I wouldn’t be contributing anymore.”
YF frowned. If Erika had waited at the station for hours and then met with Hiroyuki after, that meant that her contact would have been him. But Hiroyuki hated sectarians even more than YF did. It was possible that she met somebody else in that short amount of time, but YF felt like Eiji would’ve said something if he found her talking with a bunch of dark cloaked men.
“W-why would you do that?” asked YF.
“Because you weren’t happy,” said Erika. “I know it might be hard to believe, but I do actually care about how you feel.”
YF made as if to say something two or three times, but nothing came out..
“What’s wrong? Shouldn’t you be happy?” asked Erika.
YF tried to come up with a question that wasn’t about Hiroyuki. “But these issues were important to you for a long time. You can just drop it like that?”
“I don’t know whether or not I should be offended that you don’t think I would.”
“It’s just a question.”
“It’s not really about wanting or not wanting, just priorities.”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
YF stood up, taking a few steps toward her. “Thanks. I appreciate it. I really do.”
Erika remained frozen in place, her head moving slowly upward as he came closer. YF spread his arms, but Erika rolled her shoulders toward him to block him. She broke eye contact. “Not...not right now.”
YF backed away. The two of them stood a few shaku apart for seconds that passed like hours. “Are you going to sleep?” asked YF.
“Can’t sleep,” she replied.
YF inhaled deeply. “So now what? Have to get up in five hours, going to be sleepy.”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you mind going on a trip?” asked YF, tilting his head.
Erika raised her eyes to him, then the ground, then back to him. She shook her head.
YF turned toward the door. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“Just get your sun shield and let’s go.”
Inside the garage, the rays from outside were blocked by the tinted barrier that could only be activated by residents. But every time someone entered, an alarm would sound and multiple guide lights snaked through the floor to indicate where to stand to avoid the rays. YF and Erika hurried over to the car after the door closed the second time, with YF climbing into the driver’s seat. He then steered them out of the garage manually, accelerating out through the opening and heading west toward the Sentinel Station. A little past noon, there were hardly any cars out on the road, and every building was blacked out except the few isolated windows where either the room was abandoned or a daywalker businessman probably lived. YF exited at the Sentinel Station exit and parked at a small opening in the road still multiple levels above ground level.
He activated his sunshield and stepped onto the plate. “It’s just up ahead,” he said, gesturing for Erika to get out.
There was one dirt path leading from the plate into a dense wooded area that had been built on top of the metal platform, extending far beyond where they could see. The two of them stepped onto the trail and walked the relatively flat path out toward the edge of the plate. About five minutes in, YF pressed the button to disengage his sunshield and turned to Erika. “You can turn it off now.”
Erika followed suit, breathing in the air and wiping the sweat from her brow. About twenty minutes in they reached the edge of the plate, where below at ground level, a river flowed through a dense forest toward the south. YF and Erika sat down below a tree a few rows from the edge, safely in the shadows.
“Let’s get out of here,” said Erika.
“Itsugo? Were we not going to?”
“We were. But I had my doubts and hesitations.”
“Not anymore?”
Erika shook her head. “This is no place to raise a child.”
“Why not?”
“Akeha and everything around it is just a big machine sucking in anything and anyone to feed itself. We used to think the machine was used to serve the elites and the rich, but I think the machine has a life of its own. The elites and the rich are serving the machine.”
“There’s no machine in Ikusayama?”
Erika smiled genuinely for the first time that day. “The machine of putting fresh pork blood on your table and breathing in actual air, maybe.”
“I’m not convinced you won’t miss this place in a month’s time,” said YF.
“I missed it yesterday. Not anymore.”
“Missing a place while you’re still there, huh.”
Erika reached behind her head and pushed her hair back a few times with her hands before grabbing the end with her left and tying it in a high ponytail. “You never want to go home while you’re home?”
YF felt a sharp pain in his chest. “You mean...when it’s hard to deal with me?”
Erika shook her head. “No it’s not that. Sometimes you just need peace. Resting doesn’t mean you’re at peace.”
“Or maybe it’s just that a lot of people think they’re resting when they’re not.”
YF inched a little closer to Erika. For the first time in years, he felt the anxiety that he felt the first few weeks they had dated. Would she reject his advances? Was he moving too fast? It seemed ridiculous to have to be so calculating on his own wife, and yet he found the nervousness an almost welcome feeling. When Erika did not move away, he could feel the joy he imagined a gambler would feel upon winning a round where the odds were not in his favor. He breathed slowly, inhaling the scent of Erika’s hair which reminded him of rain mixed with pine trees.
YF turned in response to an odd heat on the back of his head. In the distance, a bright light from the north end of the forest suddenly burst into the sky, followed by an ear piercing blasting sound. YF quickly faced Erika and wrapped his arms around her, pushing her to the ground just as a pressure wave rattled the leaves and exposed the back of the neck to the sun’s rays. He grunted as he felt the burn, raising one hand to activate his sun shield. He then pressed on the button on Erika’s neck.
“What’s going on?” he could hear Erika shout through her mask.
“It’s the station!”
YF grabbed Erika’s arm and pulled her down the trail as fast as they could until they reached the car. He activated the doors at the trailhead and the two of them got in, YF driving off at full speed toward the Sentinel Station. High in the sky, multiple behemoth fire brigade vehicles were flying deep into the no fly zone to reach the scene. YF stepped hard on the accelerator.
“Slow down, you’re going to get us killed!” Erika yelled.
YF swerved to avoid hitting one of the cars on the road and continued on, pulling quickly to the side of the Station. He reactivated his sun shield and tossed Erika his receiver. “Lookup the cards for Honda and Fujii and ask them where they are.”
He then jumped out of the driver’s seat and rushed toward the burning building. “Is anybody there!” He shouted over the raging inferno that was quickly consuming the building and all its contents.
“They’re at their apartment!” YF could hear Erika call from behind.
“Maintenance comes on Moon Day.”
“Audio on,” said YF.
“On,” the inside of his mask repeated.
“Activate filtration unit.”
“Filtration unit activated.”
“Yasu! What are you doing?”
“Stay back!”
He could hear her screams of protest as he rushed through the flames surrounding the entrance. As the smoke and the fire from all directions filled his view, YF’s first thought was that he would be dead in seconds. But somehow he felt his skin cool on its own as he pushed ahead past the rows of desks and toward the back hall to the electrical maintenance room. The bomb must have exploded in the east wing as a significant amount of their equipment had not been blown to pieces. At the maintenance room, the metal door was partly crushed from the top and jammed in the frame. YF kicked on the door with a wound-up front kick, forcing the bottom half inward. He wound up and kicked a few more times until he could feel the strain in his hip. When the door swung into the room, YF could see the figure of Kaneshiro, the maintenance man, laying on the ground.
YF grunted and squatted, grabbing Kaneshiro under the armpits and hoisting him up like a limp doll. He then grabbed his right arm and wrapped it around his own neck, securing Kaneshiro’s right leg and right wrist with his right arm and hand as he pushed up with all his leg strength to lift the man onto his back. When he turned to face the hallway, the door to the offices had just collapsed, filling the area in darkness. YF charged forward while gripping Kaneshiro’s leg and wrist with all his might, using his left hand to feel for the path ahead. When he reached what he thought was near the entrance to the offices, YF felt around until he came to an opening in the rubble. He made a quick circle with his arm to check before climbing over the beam on the ground and into the offices.
On the other side, enough light came through the west wing entrance to illuminate the path. YF could see Erika gesturing for him to come out and faintly hear her yelling something through her own mask. The sound of multiple hovering vehicles hummed overhead only to be drowned out seconds later by the flood of water being sprayed at what remained of the west wing. YF moved more carefully toward Erika now that he had Kaneshiro on his back, brushing aside multiple chairs and broken desks as he made his way across. He then saw two men pulling Erika away from the entrance before entering themselves, heading toward him through the thick smoke. YF reached out with his left hand and grabbed onto one of their wrists. The man guided him through to the entrance, where the other man removed Kaneshiro from his back while the one who had been leading him brought him to safety.
YF sat down heavily on the floor.
“Sir,” he could hear faintly through the ringing in his ears.
“Yasu!”
“Erika…”
“Sir.”
“Yes?”
“That was ill advised. Please remain here while we check for survivors and extinguish the flames.”
YF could feel all the energy leaking from his body with each second, causing his breathing to grow heavier, and his vision blurrier. “I...maintenance...comes on Moon Day…”
“Sir?”
“Kaneshiro…”
YF’s vision continued to fade until the sounds of the man, Erika, the flames, and the humming of the vehicles became silent.