Flesh is for Gods

[Andromeda]

“Mankind has always endeavored to advance themselves in technological achievements, but it has also been the error of advancement that causes the greatest sorrow. Man entered a new age with the creation of the thinking machine. The glory of the thinking machine was as bright as a nova before its impact. Praised were the scientists, but careful they also were. The Law of Robots was the foundation for all thinking computers; laws built into them making them obey and never kill. But as the benefits grew, others sought different applications.

“The introduction of machine terrorism woke the world and rocked it to the core. The fear of a revolt from within the machines had been an ever-present concern, but neglected was the human factor. The world burned in an echo of explosions bringing them almost to their knees.

“War pounded through the people’s hearts and a crusade against machines and their masters began. New laws drafted banned the thinking computer; the development of AI was halted. The fight against the machines continued with great public support. Victory was theirs.

“However, years passed and the war was forgotten, till Tokyo was bombed. It was quickly discovered that it was of machine origin. The crusade against the thinking machine began again, however it was only the machines fighting and not their human master that created them. A new enemy was realized with the machine faction that banded together against their programmed enemy.

“War ended again with the utter annihilation of the machines, but how easy it was to forget. And the public opinion had turned against the war. It had to be finished quickly, messily. Now ten years after the last conflict people have forgotten again, but those that lost family from the terrorist attacks could never forget. The powder key set decades ago has been primed and the world will never be the same again…”

Flesh is for Gods – Episode 01 – The Perfect Day

It was the afternoon already and he was going to be late. In fact, he was already late. The morning was late with no alarm to wake him and the water out, again. The super said it was just a technical problem, but five technical problems in two weeks was hardly a coincidence anymore. It was a bad morning, if that was not apparent already. Now it was made even worse by being late to a meeting, one that he especially despised as well.

He had to meet with the military, his or rather the company’s contractor. The military always gave him a sour taste knowing what they would be using the things that he made. He knew full well what he was making and that they would be tools, instruments of death. However it did pay the bills and having too much of a conscious in this day and age did not pay, literally. A bad taste indeed it was.

Here it was before him now standing tall and proud among the numerous gleaming towers around, the Kamihara Building. It looked innocent shining like a jewel, but it was a cloak to hide the darker secrets. The military had covered its appearances these days, wolf in sheep clothes, perhaps. Nonetheless it was what it was and could not change itself. It was a small branch with most of it being heavily commercialized. Paid the bills.

He walked up the steps feeling the sun beating down on his suit. The tie choked around his neck and the heavily starched shirt did little for his skin. Another sheepskin, he had to play the part, came with the territory being head of the project. He could make the things that he wanted, but he still had to polish the boots of others. It was not the glamour that he had imagined in his naïve younger days. Innocence lost, how long ago had he sold his soul. It felt like it at least. ‘How cynical have I become? Bad taste…’

The inside of the building gave him his first welcome sight, cool air on this hot summer day. It was not enough to cool his head though; there was nothing for that. He did not feel like waiting, but there was a line of people being scanned in anyway. For being so commercial it was still military and everyone had to be checked. It was taking forever though, purposely making him wait and delay his already late meeting. ‘I’m going to be getting a mouthful from him today.’

The guards finally got to him and he sighed in relief. He withheld his annoyance preferring not to make things even worse. “Step through now please,” the security guard said plainly.

He somehow managed to keep himself quiet and calm, even though his hand was shaking. They let him pass and he was free to enter the main hall now. “Finally,” he said under his breath. He made his way to the front desk of the lobby to announce his arrival.

The receptionist at the front desk was busy working at her computer not paying attention him standing near to her. It was obvious that there was someone in front of her, but she did not acknowledge him. He placed his hand on the faux wood counter letting the metal of his watch make quiet noise. It diverted her attention towards him. “May I help you, sir?” the receptionist said acting as though she did not notice him before.

“Yes, I have a meeting with Lieutenant Colonel Takamoto for 1:00.”

“And you are?”

“Kuromura Satoru.” He pulled his hand back having achieved what he wanted from the effect. It was a small release of his frustration, but there were not enough things for him to hit at the moment to relieve it all. Even in the cool air his back was warming up again perspiring as his stress increased.

“Mr. Kuromura, let me check.” The receptionist turned to her monitor screen looking up the appointment. A minute of long waiting later she turned back to Satoru looking directly at him. “Yes, here it is for 1:00. But I’m sorry he has not come back from lunch could you wait in the lobby till he comes?”

‘The lobby! Hasn’t come back yet…from lunch! I come here running all the way late to the meeting…and he…’ There was almost a visible redness in his face that could be seen. There was a vein in his forehead starting to make itself visible as the redness began to calm down. He clinched his fists together trying to ease himself back down. ‘This is not me…its just the day…its just the day…’ Talking himself down was barely possible after the day he already had. He could barely catch himself to slow down from rolling over the cliff.

“Sir?”

“I don’t have much choice in the matter do I? Fine…” Satoru said annoyed, but managing to cut off the rest of his thoughts from being verbalized. It was a natural reaction to being stood up. Satoru kept trying to tell himself it was the day and being late, but it was difficult to calm the tensed muscles in his body. He was poorly keeping his emotions hidden from the receptionist who’s job was to be kind and courteous to everyone regardless of their demeanor.

“I am really sorry, sir.”

Satoru turned and walked away from the desk. Aside from not being able to standing around to wait, he could not continue to look at her. The anger and stress was rising again as his mind rolled over the fact that he was late. ‘The Lt. Colonel is going to yell at me for being late even though he was later than me. Then I’m going to try to defend myself and he’ll just yell at me for being a whiny civilian. He end up on a tirade that I’ll be forced to listen to. And then he won’t be pleased with that I have to present.’ He tried to stop the snowball effect that was happening, but his mind was moving too fast. All of the stress was returning and his body warmed up again. None of the cold air was enough to break his sweating.


Satoru sat down in the lobby that was lightly packed with people waiting on someone as well. He was just another one of them forced to wait on someone else to be ready. From the lobby he could see the elevators and the security area. It was the only place that gave such a view and he would be able to see if the Lt. Colonel arrived. ‘Doesn’t matter how late he ends up being I still have to go through it. I wish I could get out this somehow.’ It was a bad taste.

After an hour of waiting his angry had finally slowed to a calm boil that bubbled up sporadically, but it was no longer the raging mass that had a grip over his body. Satoru was about to approach the receptionist when a man sat himself down next to him. It was a distraction that changed his focus slightly. He was a strange individual with his hand shaking constantly as though there was no control, but pausing at specific intervals. When the man took a breath it all stopped, but resumed after he exhaled. After the momentary diversion it brought Satoru was looking elsewhere again.

‘I wish that he would hurry up.’

“Good Morning, sir,” the strange man said nervously.

“It is Afternoon,” Satoru said quickly pointing over to the clock that was on the wall, “See 2:20. Its 2:20.” It boiled again, no tolerance for ignorance at the moment.

“I am sorry, sir,” the man said taken back. Satoru voice was not loud, but he left a distinct emotion wrapped around the words. It made the man quiet for while thinking what he should say next. “Just a little nervous.” A meager response that would not earn any remorse at the moment.

“Yeah,” Satoru said ignoring him. He looked around trying to keep an eye out for the Lt. Colonel. The time was running long and the seat was quickly becoming uncomfortable. His legs vibrated softly as he hoped against himself that the Lt. Colonel would appear and would not so he could leave.

“This is just my first time here, I hope everything goes well.”

“Yeah…sure,” Satoru said. ‘Whatever…’

“You okay, sir?”

“Yeah…” Satoru said pausing to think about what he was going to do next. ‘Screw this already an hour late…one last chance.’ His patience was up and if he was not going to get anywhere here he could just head to work instead, at least he could calm down there. Satoru stood up leaving the man behind heading to the receptionist to end it.

“Thank you, sir,” the strange man said sighing.

Satoru stood before the receptionist with his leg shaking in anger now rather than stress. “Excuse me…when is the Lt. Colonel coming back?”

“Oh, you were wanting to see Lieutenant Colonel Takamoto, right?”

“Yes, I was…” Satoru said holding back his annoyance that the receptionist was acting like an airhead. The room waited in pause for the response.

“I am sorry, but he called me saying to cancel all his meetings for today. He said that his lunch made him feel a little sick and he was going home.”

“What?!” Satoru said laughing out loud nearly crazed making others stop in confusion. He could not hold it back anymore. After all of his worrying, the stress and tension running through his body. He was not even able to have a breakfast, just some fruit that he ate on the way. Satoru slammed his hands down on the wood counter staring down the receptionist. That vein was appearing again as well as the sweat to warm up his body. “I come all the way down here to meet with him, for not to show?”

“I am sorry, sir.”

“Oh, I bet you are…” Satoru walked away from the receptionist storming out of the building. He did not wait in leaving the building completely wanting to leave it all behind him. It was the perfect conclusion to his day; there was nothing that could have made it any better. ‘I’d like to see you try to make this day any better!’ Satoru turned around looking up at the building, now outside. It seemed to be mocking him now rather than the proud glare it at before. He exhaled a rough sigh of annoyance and started to turn.

At that moment as his eyes turned away the entire ground floor exploded sending glass and cement debris into the air outward. The ground leapt up through his knees shattering his balance and destroying glass on passing cars. A veil of glass shards ripped across his face and body as the shockwave quickly followed up knocking him off his feet before he had even a moment to react. The force of the explosion sent him to the ground clawing him against the pavement. It saved his life as chunk of metal flew over him impaling a speeding car bringing further disruption to traffic.

The force slammed his head against the cement and his vision immediately blurred. All he could feel was pain everywhere. His mouth wanted to scream, but his mind was losing itself. All of the tension in his body had been blown away in the blast now he did not even have the will to stand. Blood dripped down his face and from the back of his head across the sidewalk. He heard more sounds, but they were distant as though he was drowning. His thoughts disappeared and he could not see any longer.


Satoru’s eyes opened to a bright light, it’s white penetrated from all sides at his eyes forcing them closed again. He dared another peek into the light, this time he was ready for it, slowly opening his eyes till he could open them fully. The light came from the window where the sun was directly pouring in. The white windows continued to further the illumination till it had been almost blinding for a moment. But he was adjusted now.

Satoru looked around further to see that he was in a bed, a hospital bed from the appearance. The tag on his hand and soft beeping of a life monitor confirmed it. He inspected himself to find bandages around his chest, arms and hands. It seemed like he was entirely wrapped up, but he hoped that he was only exaggerating it. If it was as bad as it looked he feared what else might be wounded. He checked his head as he felt a stabbing pain around his head, there too was a bandage wrapped around. His hands were tense and sore, they would barely flex without feeling slight pain. There was dull needles of pain poking through his body telling him that he was alive even if he did not feel like it.

He laid back against the pillow trying to remember what happened, but all he got were fading images. An explosion, not much more than that, simple flashes that he could not piece together. He just wanted to rest. Saturo drifted off to sleep again.


Time faded in and out passing on as he slept. At some point he could hear voices suddenly, but his eyes were too heavy to open. He could barely manage to bring himself out of his sleep. Satoru did not even know if he was awake and was just hallucinating the sounds.

“He is still out…” a woman’s voice said.

“Yes, he took a nasty bump to the head. It might be some time before he wakes,” a man’s voice said.

“That detective keeps asking about him.”

“It is no wonder, it is…”

- - - - -

“I wonder when you’ll wake…” a woman’s voice said. His mind was awake again, the voice trailed around his ears until his consciousness was pulled out of the water finally. “It has been…already…”

Satoru’s eyes opened sharply startling the woman that was looking at him. He almost jumped out of his bed in surprise as well, but he quickly realized that she was a nurse. The nurse had already leaped backwards against the wall in surprise and was slowly walking back towards him. She approached him looked at him cautiously, but reassured for some reason.

“You sure scared me,” the nurse said trying to laugh off her embarrassed fright.

“Yeah,” Satoru laughed along with her. It felt good to laugh, as though it was lifting weighs off his shoulders. Until now there was a pressure over him holding him keeping him tense almost, but it was lifted now suddenly. He did not understand it, but he felt better now. There was still a lot of pain, obviously, but the tension was gone. “Ow, hurts to laugh.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… You took a hard fall, it scraped you up bad.”

Satoru tried to sit up, but pain shot through his chest bring renewed stinging sparks everywhere. He ground his teeth together trying to buy out the time for the pain to ease out, but it persisted. His only release was to fall back into the pillow, it was small but enough to make the pain manageable. It continued even after he was back to his original position marching through him uniformly forcing him to tense his hand to break through.

“Careful there.” The nurse rushed to him to help him up. She helped him up a little so that he was closer to sitting than lying. “Your wounds have not had enough time to heal. You’ll be in some pain for probably another few days. It’s amazing that you survive being so close and with so few injuries.”

“I guess I am lucky to be alive,” Satoru said trying to remember what happened. He looked at his bandaged up arm trying to bring his memories into focus. It was still a blur to him. There was more missing, but he could not bring it forward. He pressed his hand up against his head as though to pull out the memories and ordering them personally. He eased his mind as the pain took him over again forcing him to suppress it.

“Very lucky, not many people survived. The damn traffic…” she said pausing and turning away so that Satoru could not see her. He could only hear her sniffing as though she was crying. She started to handle a few instruments on the table looking like she was trying to change the subject. Her hands slammed the tools to the table. “If they would have gotten…damn traffic.” She ran out suddenly dripping tears from her cheeks as a doctor entered the room.

“Good morning, I am Doctor Kishima, glad to see that you are awake. How are you feeling?” He approached the end of the bed looking down at the monitor with Satoru’s paperwork. After verifying the charts he looked over at the monitor with his vitals at the side of the bed.

“Doctor, is she alright?” Satoru did not want to simply forget her with someone else in the room. She had left without any reason it seemed. It left him confused and the doctor entered so casually like he was trying to change the subject. Satoru knew he was missing something.

“Oh, Karin? She lost he daughter in the explosion. Made it all the way back to the hospital only to die in her arms. I doubt that there could have been anything that we could have done if they had found her sooner, but Karin disagrees. But she is a parent, so you can understand.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.” Satoru looked away from the doctor thinking about the nurse. ‘I don’t even know what happened with the explosion or the building. How many died then?’ There were so many that must have died, but he had lived some how. He did not understand why he had to live only to know that so many had lost loved ones. Their lives were just as important, maybe more so. ‘Her daughter…’

“Of course you wouldn’t,” the doctor said laughing trying to bring the room back to something a little more cheerful atmosphere. “Been asleep for two days.”

“Two days!?” Satoru looked back over at the doctor in surprise. He had been in and out of consciousness so much that he did not know how long he had been out. It was difficult to imagine that he had been asleep for two day. So much must have happened and changed. It did not feel like two days for him. It seemed as though it was still the same day with a hazy fog around his mind making it difficult to remember the morning. That explosion was just a wavy image in his mind that was out of focus.

“Yes, I’m afraid so, seems that concussion that you got was more severe than first thought.” The doctor walked back around the bed checking the charts again as though buying himself time. He was just filling the void needing something to be doing.

“Doctor, what has happened since I have been out?”

“More than I can tell I’m afraid.” The doctor looked out towards the door as though he was searching for something. There was a painful expression on his face like he was about to do something that he had regrets about. It left Satoru with a strange feeling of anticipation and confusion.

“Why?”

“There is a detective waiting outside to see you. He said not to say much to you yet. Do you mind speaking with him?”


“If I can get some answer, then bring him in now.” There was urgency in Satoru voice, but he was afraid to know as well. He was not sure if he wanted to know the full impact of what happened. The hospital already seemed to be full of sorrow that some ignorant bless could be good.

The doctor walked out of view out of the door into the busy hall of the hospital. A minute later the doctor returned with a police officer. He was wearing a gray raincoat, clean-shaven and his hair combed back. There was a serious, matter-of-fact expression on his face. “Morning, I am Detective Maruimura, there are a number of questions I need to ask you.” He pulled out a paper pad and pen from his coat, an arcane tool for such sophisticated days.

“Can you tell me what happened?” Satoru said trying to put the conversation in his court rather than being guided through questions. He needed answers to what was happening outside. If that building had been bombed or something there would be more going on now. There were too many questions that he had to ask.

“In time, now sir, what do you remember of the time when you were near the Kamihara Building?”

He was pulled back unable to rush forward to the end like he wanted. Satoru took a breath trying to think clearly the best he could. He had been trying to remember everything himself still. “It is a little vague, but I was there to meet with someone. I was waiting in the lobby till they arrived. However, they never came and I decided to leave. Then the building exploded.”

“I see what do you remember of the explosion?”

“Like I said, it is a little vague. I don’t remember the explosion too well. There are just images in my mind and the feeling of the impact. I…can’t remember what else.”

“Now, sir you work at Qintech in software development. Do you not?”


“Yes…” Satoru said suspiciously. He did not understand why his work was being called into question for the explosion. There was no connection with either of them. Satoru tried to pull himself up a little on the bed feeling a little uncomfortable. “Why?”

“How are you familiar with artificial intelligence?”

“Not very, it is banned, so we are only allowed the basics. Why?” His questions remained unanswered and the detective seemed to go on further with his own interrogation in mind.

“With what little you know, do you think you could spot an AI?”

“Well naturally it would depend on the complexity of the programming.”

“Do you think you can?”

“I guess if I had time, I might be able to, but AI’s have been advanced to a point before their ban where it could be hard.”

“Think carefully, can you recall if someone in the building or someone you saw could be a machine, a robot with artificial intelligence?”

“As I recall, I was in a rush, I did not pay close attention to things. My focus was elsewhere. Besides why would I be needing to look for a machine, they’re gone…” The line of questions was slowly starting to bring Satoru to a realization. It was a thought that he did not like and it scared him. If what he was thinking were true it would mean that things were repeating themselves, again. “…wait a minute…no it can’t be.”

“I’m afraid that it is true. Reports from the explosion say that it was of machine origin. The metal and chemicals were too pure. They are almost identical to what was used ten years ago.”

“It can’t be…” Satoru said letting the shock set into his mind. It was the confirmation that he needed and the seriousness of the situation became apparent to him. He knew why everyone was in such pain now. It made sense to him. His muscles tightened up suddenly as he could feel his heart tense. The monitor started beeping as his blood pressure increased. The doctor rushed over to Satoru’s side letting him lay back again.

“I think you have asked enough questions for today detective,” the doctor said. “I’ll let you know if he says anything more.”

“Fine…” the detective said grimly. “You inform me of anything.”

“Yes, I will,” the doctor said looked back at Satoru once more. After he was reassured he escorted the detective out of the room leaving Satoru to his thoughts.

Satoru turned his head to look out the window letting his thoughts wash over him. There were too many things coming to him that it made it difficult for him to keep them all straight. ‘I can’t believe it. They’ve come again…will this ever end? What are we going to do this time? The machines…the machines…one of the lucky ones? I’m scared to think how lucky I am. Its all happening again…and there is still nothing I can do…’ He clinched his fist in anger as his thoughts were interrupted by a news cast on the television in his room. He could not see the TV, but hearing it was enough.

“No clue about how many could still be trapped under the rumble, but firemen and work crews have not given up hope for survivors. The death toll stands at over 14,000 from the current count with about 1,000 unaccounted for still.

“It has been two days since the bombing, but the flames continue to burn preventing workers from reaching the center of the building’s grounds. Where many believe there are still more bodies.

“Scientists and firemen say that the fire has remained alive because a new chemical that seems to be fighting against all their efforts to put it out. It is unlike anything the machines have tried in the past. But considering that it has been ten years since they were thought to be destroyed it is apparent that they have continued to advance their tactics in terrorism.

“Again, I am standing at ground zero almost, the wreckage that was the Kamihara Building stands behind me remains in flames. Machine terrorism has returned with a fury unlike anything seen before. Earliest reports…”

‘Machine terrorism…machine terrorism…machine terrorism…’ The words of the reporter echoed repeatedly through his mind. Satoru could not get it out of his head as images of the explosion came back to him. The shock burst through his head causing him to shake violently. He could feel his body getting warm and sweaty from the stress. It was overwhelming him he could hardly breathe anymore. He could feel the heat from the fires engulfing him and screams of people needing help. The building crumbled around him crushing his chest. ‘Machine terrorism…machine terrorism-’


“You should get some rest you look tired,” the doctor said snapping him out of his delusion and bringing him to rest in his bed.

“Huh? Oh, yeah you’re probably right.” He was in his room again, the hospital lying down. Satoru looked around to reaffirm it for himself. He was safe now the voice had disappeared. It left him shaken though. The doctor helped him to lie back in his bed. Satoru gazed at the ceiling hoping to find some peace as he closed his eyes. ‘Machine terrorism…its has returned. Why? Why now? What you are going to do?’

- - - - -

The hospital that Satoru was in was a tall building considering it is was only a hospital and nothing more. Rising up to the sky for roughly fifty stories, it branched out across four city blocks each as a wing of the main building that actually stood over the intersection of the street. Only two stories off the ground, the main building rose in unison with the other four wings. Each wing was a quarter of a pyramid that climbed together towards the main structure. It was one of the most unique structures in the city.

Satoru walked out from the east wing of the hospital looking back as he slowly departed to find a ride. He had finally been released from the hospital after a week and was now free to go home. Though he still had some of the bandages on him, he was feeling better than he looked. They were overly cautious about him for some reason. But it could have just been that fact they were doctors caring about a patient. He did not know, nor care at this point. He was just glad to be out and able to walk. If the walk home was not so far, he might have walked home.

Satoru raised his arm signaling the taxi that was coming down the street. The taxi stopped right in front of him perfectly, it’s door opened for him inviting him in. ‘An automated taxi, wonder if they’ll ban these in time? They don’t even come close to awareness…’ Satoru paused his thoughts to give the taxi orders. “Hirayoshi Apartments.” The taxi pulled out into the street immediately upon receiving the orders. He resumed uninterrupted by his command. ‘Not that the government really cares. They will just ban whatever they like in the belief that it makes the people safe. No thought at all, not that the public has much sense either. AI’s have their awareness because of us and are only as smart as their programming. The stupid public.’

Time drifted away with his thoughts as the miles passed by and he finally reached his apartment building. He inserted his bankcard into the slot to pay the taxi. Satoru stepped out of the taxi, looking up at his apartment building. It was a good sight to see from the plain walls of the hospital. Pulling out his keycard for his building, he let himself in. The elevator was at the bottom floor ready for him, it was a good sign. A better day for him than when he left last.

He had been in his apartment just a week ago; it was in a slight mess from the morning rush. Clothes were strung about the floor and breakfast that he had decided against eating still sat on his table from when he was watching the morning news. The TV was still on too, he pushed the button on the wall by the light that closed the panel over the TV. It was one of the TVs with almost no back and mounted inside the wall. During use it would come out flush with the wall as though it was just part of it. It was an expensive piece of technology, but it was adjustable to any size of screen, so it eliminated the need for a large unwieldy monitor.

Satoru proceeded to his bedroom to find it in about the same state as the living room. Sheets unmade and the closet wide open with clothes shuffled around. He had forgotten how much of a mess he left the place in the morning. His head was not in the right frame of thought then. There was little that he cared about, just a bad day that was going to get worse. Now he had to clean it up. “I was in such a rush, what a mess…”

There was little he was going to be able to do until he got something to eat. Something to eat that was more than hospital food. At least the kitchen would not be a mess as breakfast was not too messy. Satoru walked in grabbing an apple out of the refrigerator. He gave it a check and squeezed it lightly. “Hmm…still good…I’m going to have to buy some new food to replace this. More things to do, great...” As he bit into the apple he looked over to the answering machine to see over twenty messages left. “Mom, no doubt.”

He pushed the button to begin listening to the messages cycling through them quickly knowing what they were about as they were all from a concerned mother. “Better call her before she gets anymore worried.” Satoru pushed the button on the answering machine that opened the TV panel again. This time it displayed a listing of phone numbers that were stored. “Call mom,” Satoru said in a commanding voice.

“Dialing mom…one moment please,” a woman’s voice said. It only took a moment for the call to go through. On the other end was an aging woman with more wrinkles on her face from endless worry. The sudden jump from her made Satoru choke on his apple forcing him to cough to clear his throat.

“Satoru! Satoru! Are you okay?”

“Yes, mom, I’m fine.” He was better now that he had the piece of apple free. He had felt better a moment ago. Satoru pulled up a weak smile for reassurance to his mother. “Out of the hospital finally.”

“You’re so lucky, dear, are you in any pain? Maybe you should sit down.”

“Mom, I’m fine, the pain is gone and the bandages are just a precautionary measure. The doctors I think are a little overly protective. Seems like they didn’t want to lose another patient to the attack.”

“So you were in danger of dying?”

“No, no, I was just joking. They said that I had a concussion, but nothing too serious. Just a lot of scraps and bruises, but they are all healed over now for the most part.” Satoru decided to sit down, though he waited until it was his choice. He did not know how long it was going to take to comfort her. It was understandable to be worried; he knew what it was like. She needed her time to calm down and release everything. He slowly ate through his apple more cautious this time.

“We were so worried about you, without so much as a word from the hospital. We didn’t know what to think. I remember that you said you had a meeting there that day. It wasn’t until recently that they said you were alive.”

“I’m little surprised that they waited that long. That is a little strange. But that explains why you weren’t at the hospital.” Satoru finished his apple and threw it away. It had him a little concerned that his parents were not visiting him. The emptiness left him with unanswered questions. He only thought was that they must have thought he was dead. It was impossible for him to even call out from the hospital; they were so tight lipped about everything.

“Well I’m glad you’re alive, it was frightening enough to live through this once, but twice.”

“Yeah, I know…just like with dad all those years ago.”

“We were lucky twice, I don’t know what I would have done without the two of you.”

“You would have managed…” He looked around his apartment again realizing the mess that it was in. There would be plenty of time for him to speak longer to her. She knew that he was alive now and that was what was important at the moment. “Mom I need to be going…”

“Oh, of course, you must have just gotten back home. Thank you for calling, Satoru.”

“Bye.” Satoru pushed the button again closing off the TV. . “Now what...” He started to scan the room examining the typhoon that had come through his room to destroy its peace. Even that morning was a blur to him now that he could not remember the events that lead to the heap of destruction now present. “What am I going to do about this…”

Morning’s light crept into Satoru’s bedroom waking him up with his alarm. After a quick shower and breakfast, he left the apartment dressed for work. This time he was in better spirits and a clear head, plus his apartment was clean and orderly again. He had promised himself never to do that again to his place. Though he figured that would only last until the next time, but it got him out the door.

The morning train was on time and as normal it was crowded with the morning commuters. As the train pushed forward the city grew in size, the skyline began to divide into separate building. The train hovered at the third story level of the buildings, leaving the people below to walk peacefully away from the train. The train stations that were built were the only markers for where the trains would come in, as a hover train did not require tracks to follow. It made the view clearer as well as opening up the streets.

The train stopped at his work, it had always been convenient for him. It made for less travel, especially on a day like today. There was the ever present images of the explosion in his mind still that made him think of what happened. He did not want to have another reminder by walking outside. It had been difficult to sleep with the images constantly appearing in his head without warning. The unsettling presence of the city left him off balance thinking that there was something nearby waiting to happen, another explosion perhaps. He just hoped that it was his paranoia from the incident and nothing more.

Satoru entered the offices of Qintech that required about half of the building’s space for its research labs, development and computer labs. He walked up to the receptionist at the desk greeting her politely as he did every morning. “Good Morning, Mr. Korumura,” she said as he slowly approached. There was another man at the desk signing in that Satoru had pulled her away from. He did not stop, but simply slowed down his pace a little to allow a short conversation.

“Good Morning, how are you today?”

“I’m good, thank you, you feeling okay?” She had a genuine concerned expression undoubtedly knowing what had happened to him. More than likely most of the company knew, at the very least his team did.

“Much better,” Satoru said smiling to reassure her. He continued down the hall to his room where the Sakura Project was held. It was his project, though being the head did not mean that he still did not have someone that he had to report to. Being the head just left him with the unsavory task of meeting with the top brass, like his meeting a week ago. However, someone had to do it he realized, but being the head gave him the control to make things the way he envisioned. It was the only consolation that he had at the moment.

He opened the door to a flurry of voices. The room held ten computer stations in the lab, but almost twenty people filled the room currently. Most of them were grouped together talking around and over each other. There were too many voices to know what they were talking about as he approached them. However, they all became silent when Satoru walked in. It was not because he was boss and commanded such respect, but the atmosphere that he brought. He was a reminder of what was happening in the world and the attack. Satoru was a survivor and they were glad, but it left them unable to speak. “Good Morning, everyone!” he said trying to rekindle the talkative mood.

“Morning, Satoru,” they said quietly with distant voices.

“You guys all sound like you’re at a funeral.” A poor attempt, but he did not want them feeling strangely with him around. He preferred that they moved on passed it and focused on the project. It was difficult enough for him to concentrate with what happened, he did not need his entire team distracted. “So how is Sakura doing?” Maybe a new subject would improve the mood.

“Still a few bugs, but we have been working them out since you have been away.”

“Great, I would like to see what I have missed.”

People started to leave the room, as work began to resume. Satoru’s boss came into the room, Kiyoshi Nakahoshi, though he was one of Satoru’s best friends as well. He was a thin man, just a little taller than Satoru, short orderly hair and clean-shaven. His suit showed him to be serious looking the part of management, but a pink striped tie with little bears across it set his lighter, more humorous nature. “Satoru, glad to see you back at work. How are you doing?”

“Hey, Kiyoshi, yeah I’m glad too. I couldn’t stand the hospital for one more day. Nice tie.”

“Yeah, my daughter picked it out for me.” Kiyoshi lifted his tie up looking at it a little embarrassed by it. He let his hand rub the back of his head trying to brush it off. He played it off like he was not fond of it, but Satoru could tell that he enjoyed it.

“How’s the family?”

“Good.”

“Good, good…so…seeing as I have been gone for a week, what I have missed.”

“They tell me Sakura is coming along quite well. She’ll be ready for trials a week early they think. I think that they are being a little premature, but one can only hope.”

It was a thought that he was not pleased by. He knew that it was their contract to make this thing for the military, but he still did not enjoy it. The name was even disarming, such a seemingly innocent name for something you think that everyone put their heart and soul into cherishing each discovery. That was not the case at all; there were few of them actually wanted to do this work. However, they all knew too well that it was a necessary evil. There were few jobs left in the world for software programmers with a specialty in artificial intelligence. Though one could hardly call it intelligence at this point. They were nothing like the masterpieces of thirty years ago. “So the logic protocols have been corrected?” Satoru said trying to get himself back into his role.


“Yeah, they found the problem a few days ago.” Kiyoshi looked down at his watch realizing he had somewhere else he needed to be. He cut off their conversation quickly after that. “Well it is good to see you, I have a couple meetings I need to get to before lunch. Say, how about dinner, we can discuss Sakura in more detail then.”

“Yeah, that would be great, The Blue Rain?”

“Six.”

“Sounds good.”

“I’ll have my assistant make the arrangements. See you then. Bye.” Kiyoshi walked out of the labs leaving Satoru to his work. Satoru sat down at his desk against the wall; each computer station was like that going around the room in a wide uneven circle. Everyone else was already working hard listening to the TV in the background with it turned to the news. It seemed that everyone was watching the news these days.

Satoru went to work, looking over the progress of Sakura. But he was having trouble concentrating, images of the explosion kept appearing in his mind. The sight of the missing building echoed. He could feel the vibrations through muscles and the scrapping across his skin. His screensaver would snap him out of his daze frequently. Hours passed slowly as he fought through his mind to concentrate.

“That is right, reports of the sixth attack this week have been confirmed by authorities…”

Satoru was snapped out of his delusions by the news broadcast. “Sixth attack?!”

“Yeah, those damn machines are resuming their terrorist ways like ten years ago,” Tadashi said from his computer terminal. He turned around to address Satoru directly clearly unable to focus on his work.

“…with the attacks in Tokyo, New York City, Washington, London, Moscow and now Los Angelus, there seems to be no specific target. Interpol and national security organizations still refuses to report beyond what we already know. No one knows where the next attack will be, but the world is on highest alert. Governments are warning people to be cautious of public landmarks and buildings with large number of people as it seems the more deaths that are possible have been the prime tactic…”

“I can’t believe this…” Satoru said in disbelief. The images of the destruction on the news laid over his memories. It left him barely able to move his body realizing that it was no longer just a single strike. The machines were returning suddenly to strike against the world.

“Yeah, the damn machines, they just waited out long enough for us to drop our guard.”

“But you can’t blame them for all of this…” Chiyoko said not trying to be the opposition, but more a voice of a reason. However, her attempt failed with Tadashi refusing to listen to what she had to say.

“I sure as hell can.”

“But it is as much the people who programmed them fault. It’s those people that you should be angry at.” Satoru had thought about joining the debate or silencing it so that they would get back to work, but he was distracted by it as well.

“Don’t give me that crap, AI’s…”

The voices faded out from Satoru’s mind as the images of the bombing haunted him again. They continued to persist until he could not stand being in the room any longer. ‘I need some air.’ Satoru walked out of the office unable to shake his mind free. He walked down the hall and took the elevator out of the building. The suffocating building disappeared as he walked down the street, people passing him by without much of a clue. Everyone seemed to be continuing to go about their business even with the announcement that the machines had made against humankind. The images of the explosion flashed in his mind, they would not leave him alone.

‘Will I ever be free of this…’ Satoru clasped his hands around his head hoping to shake free his mind. However, it was no help either, his mind only twisted further. His body began to empathize with his memories again causing him to relive the moment over again. It was a cycle that he could not break. Satoru was afraid that it would never end; he would never be rid of these haunting visions left to torment him for the rest of his life. He was allowed to live, but he did not feel like he wanted to be alive if he was going to be in this state forever.

Before he knew it he was at the site of the Kamihara Building, the ruins that was the building. Now just burnt metal and cement debris everywhere. The fires had finally been put out and now the place was taped off by the police. He looked up to the sky, where the building had stood. He could imagine the building where it was, and then collapsing from the inside as the supports were destroyed one by one. It was an instant regret in his heart as he could witness the horror replaying in full effect. For him to be in front now where it stood only went to amplify the delusions he was already receiving. His body began to lose balance as the illusion over took him.

Satoru could see the flames bursting from the ground floor, glass shattered across the ground. ‘I don’t want to remember this…’ Then the building collapsed, but how, he was unconscious then. ‘…wait I was out…then I came to again...’ It had been several minutes later; the building began to collapse as the internal supports broke. ‘Why don’t I remember?’ It fell in upon itself; metal was sent flying outward from the base and along the building. Then a woman came and dragged him from the place he laid. “A woman? She saved me…that’s why I survived.”

Satoru looked out at the rubble of the building. He felt some relief to know what happened to him. However, who was the woman, who was she to risk her life like that? He wanted to thank her, meet her. But that would be impossible; he did not know her name or barely what she looked like. Satoru continued to walk around the building, letting the images come to him. His heart was still pounding from the experience, but he had become calm again. Though something still seemed to leave him unsettled, but he could not place his finger on it.

‘I spent enough time daydreaming, I should get back to work they are probably…oh my… its her. It can’t be.’ Satoru’s vision had turned just at the moment he saw her as though it was set up just perfectly for him. He stared for a minute at her; she was standing at the site where people had built a small memorial for the fallen. The woman was placing something down with the numerous other flowers and pictures that were gathered. Satoru could not move, his heart recovered from its pause at the surprising coincidence before him.


‘She’s beautiful…’

To be continued…

[Andromeda]

“During the first machine crusade, or war as it was, the government took actions to calm the minds of public. There was great fear of a massive uprising of all machines that existed everywhere in the world. No longer did they feel protected by the Laws of Robots to keep machines from going wild. They did not understand what was truly happening, but the truth did not matter so long as the public would be calmed.

“It was in this urgency that the Anti-Artificial Intelligence Act was created. One could consider it as much of a lie and fine tasting poison as the Laws of Robots. It was a law and people were not forcibly bound to obey it if they did not wish it. However, it did ease the public. And so it was considered a great success in the effort to prevent the machines from rising up against their creators. The truth was lost and buried for it was far less random; it was designed and made as much as the machines were.

“The Anti-AI law made it illegal and punishable by imprisonment to be creating thinking machines, a machine with a will of its own. The law was vague and simple in the beginning, as many things usually are. It tried to cover everything leaving the courts to decide what was legal and not. But as the war continued to its final conclusion the public wanted more safety. And politicians desired more power from the fear that was created.

“That fear was wielded and used as a cry to shake the masses. They would agree to anything if it were to keep them safe from the bombings and deaths of the loved ones. The law grew larger removing machines that pretended, imitated life, but had no awareness or capacity to learn. It was in a few short years that robots disappeared from the streets, factories, and homes. Everywhere that they were working from a program and not under human control they were removed.

“The law went so far as to ban the human appearance of robots. They were no longer allowed to be created with a form of two legs and two arms or even a face like that of man. The machines were denied life, without even understanding it. Thousands of jobs were lost in the creation of the act, but millions opened creating a massive vacuum where machines had once filled the more undesirable tasks. It was spun as a benefit to man for the unemployment had been increasing greatly over the last twenty years. The government was safe in its position as were the public in the belief that this would never happen again.

“But they all forget that behind each machine is a man that creates them…”

Flesh is for Gods – Episode 02 – The Elixir of New Passion

‘She’s beautiful…’ Satoru paused in his thoughts. He continued to stare at the woman without conscious regard to what he was doing anymore. It was impossible for his eyes to be pried away from the vision before him. It had been years since he had felt this way; he never thought that he would again. However, the peacefulness that was brought to him through his eyes was snapped back into reality. His conscious took over waking him to what he was doing, gawking at a woman a very beautiful one at that. ‘What am I saying…I shouldn’t…but it’s her. It really is her. I can’t believe that I found her.’ His mind began to try to form up thoughts for them. There needed to be a reason, no matter how small, for him to approach her. He could not appear like some strange pervert that had no concern or tact. ‘I should thank her, let her know that I’m alive.’ That was all he needed, it was simple and sincere (even if it did have an ulterior motive behind it).

As his foot began its first cautious step, but before his eager body moved he was knocked off balance suddenly. It was only by luck that his leg was extended out that stopped him from falling over to the concrete sidewalk under him. Satoru turned immediately to see who bumped into him. It was a man in suit with business to take care of. “Oh, I’m terribly sorry, sir. I wasn’t looking where I was going. Are you alright?” The man pulled Satoru up from his angled position, still not recovered, and dusted him off a little. Although, Satoru’s clothes were as clean as they could be.

Satoru turned himself to face the man trying to be polite, even though he was a little bothered by being distracted from what he was trying to do. The sudden quickness of the man made him a little uneasy. It seemed like the man wanted to be going, but was staying around of courtesy. “Huh? Oh, yeah no harm done. I didn’t mean…” An image of the woman appeared in his mind as though to remind him of what he was wanting to do. It cut him off immediately making him turn around to look down the sidewalk once more. However, when he returned to his gaze at the memorial the woman was gone. ‘She’s gone. That fast…my only chance. Can’t believe I missed her.’

“Sir? Are you alright?” The man moved around in front of Satoru trying to grab back his distracted eyes. He waved his arm around to get Satoru’s attention, which was eventually successful.

Satoru was snapped out of his disappointed stare down the sidewalk and brought back to the man. He was a little surprised that he was still around with the urgent manner that he had a moment before. “Oh, yes, I’m sorry for being in your way.”

“No, its alright-“ The man did not get a chance to finish his sentence as Satoru walked away from him. It was not his intention to be so rude, but he was having difficulty not thinking about the woman that he had seen just a moment before. The man did not follow after Satoru seemingly satisfied to know that there was no damage done. After the momentary pause he continued off in the direction that he was going suddenly remembering that he had to be somewhere bringing him to a run.

Satoru walked down to the memorial where the woman had been until a minute ago. There was no sign of her in the area anymore. ‘She was just here…what was she doing here? Did she lose someone to the bombing?’ He knelt down looking at the numerous images that were laid out. There were candles and offerings set down on the ground in honor of those that had died. The bombing had taken so many lives from people it was hard to believe that they were all gone now. This memorial was the only sign that gave him a concept of how many had truly departed. “So many and here I am still. Why?” He stood up from the memorial seeing the destroyed building before him. ‘I must find her. I have to thank her, I’m still alive because of her.’

There was determination in him now. He had other motives as well, but it was because of what she did to save him that he knew he had to find her. If he did anything she needed to be thanked properly. Unfortunately, he did not know how he was going to do that and what would be worthy of a life debt. Though more of an issue now was trying to locate her, it was a large city. It was only happenchance that she was in front of him before. He only hoped that his luck would be as fortunate the next time.

Satoru gave the streets one last look around for his piece of mind. “Nowhere…not going to be easy. I probably should be getting back to work.” He had to focus his thoughts to bring himself back to reality. There was somewhere he had to be, namely doing his job. His extended absence would not be helped by his sudden disappearance on his first day back.

The city was beginning to warm itself up again as the evening was approaching and the sun was beginning to fall. There were only a couple hours left in the day before people would be leaving work. Satoru’s thoughts continued to drift back to the image of the woman as he walked back to the building. If it did anything for him it made him forget the trip back. He was back in the office before he realized that he had left the rubble of the Kamihara Building.

The lights of the office along with the sudden distracting voice of Tadashi snapped him out of his thoughts once again. “So what do you think?” He was not even sure if he had been standing in the office for a while the way that Tadashi acted.

It took him a moment trying to think through what might have happened. However, he came to the conclusion that he could not remember, even if he happened be in the office. “I’ve been gone for an hour, some context would be helpful.”

“The machines, the bombing, everything,” Tadashi said in a matter of fact voice. It was a topic that did not seem to end no matter how long it was discussed. Even when there was no bombing it came up often. He had been asked his opinion during the interview for his job as well. There was no simple answer he had for it. He hated speaking about it, no matter how relevant it might be.

“You already know Satoru’s view on it,” Natsuko said stepping in the middle of the two of them. She had a worried expression on her face. As usual, she worried about Satoru. She always did try to look out for him, even though he was her boss. Though it had not always been that way. They had been simple co-workers and friends on previous projects. He had been made head of the project this time, but it still did not detour Natsuko from being there for him.

Tadashi pushed Natsuko out of the way with his arm trying to keep it just a debate between the two of them. “It must be different now with what happened to him.” He did not want interruptions, even though that was what he was causing right now. It had everyone in the room distracted. Tadashi never had much tact with anything and continued to be vocal whenever he was passionate about something. For him, it was not even a matter of him being wrong. He just seemed to believe that if he was determined and knew himself to be right that was enough. It gave him an arrogance that was difficult to deal with at times.

Satoru had not even made move from his position remaining staring at Tadashi. No one knew what he was going to do. It was difficult for them to know if he was angry with Tadashi for being up the subject with him or if he just did not seem to care. Satoru face almost seemed to be one of disinterest, but it could have been simply a poker face. “Just let it go, Tadashi,” Chiyoko said stepping up to Satoru defense now.

Tadashi pushed Chiyoko back as well turning to face her. It was impossible for him to be alone with the scene that he was making. “This is a serious question.”

“But he’s been through so much already,” Natsuko said return to the other side of Tadashi starting to corner him. The two women tried to place distance between Tadashi hoping it might calm things down. Though it was obvious that even if this moment could be adverted it would only rise again eventually. With world events as they were now there was no way to avoid such talk.

Satoru stepped forward bringing himself a little closer to Tadashi to the surprise of everyone. It had been unclear until that point if he was going to do anything other than just stand pretending to look like he was going to do something. However, Satoru was not going to allow them to stand up for him. It was something that had to be settled himself, eventually. “You’re wondering what I think about machines, Tadashi?” Satoru said finally speaking bringing the room quiet. No one knew what was going to happen next, but with Satoru addressing him they feared for the worst.

Now that he had been answered Tadashi seemed pleased. He had been ignored up until now. Tadashi pushed through the women to face Satoru directly looking at him face to face. Only a foot or more lay between them now. “Yeah, I have to know what side you’re on.” He made it clear that he was not leaving without an answer this time.


“Side? Since when was this about sides?” Satoru said pausing thinking about what he wanted to say next. It was a painful area that he was getting into now with this argument. He hated it deeply, but there were always sides. He knew that there was no way out of it. There was always someone to pick the opposition, someone that viewed things just a little bit differently that they became an enemy. “This shouldn’t be about sides. We got attacked by machines, yes, but you remember that it’s the men behind them that hate us. Its not the machines.”

“I can’t believe you’re still siding with those AI lovers,” Tadashi said incredulously once Satoru had finished. He was already becoming angry just listening to Satoru speaking. He looked like he wanted interrupt him just to stop him from speaking. “After you nearly died from that bombing. They are aware, they aren’t listening to their programmers anymore.”

Satoru was not sure if Tadashi was actually concerned about him or just using it as another reason. He had little time to react feeling his own urge to defend his position quickly rising. There was little pause from Tadashi last words. “You don’t know that. They were programmed to hate. Its ingrained into them, even being aware.”

“You don’t think they can evolve then?” Tadashi’s reply was quick and cut him down just as fast. Everyone in the room froze with uncertainty, their eyes on Satoru. Chiyoko and Natsuko looking at him concerned once again.

The words cut him deeply; it was a response that he had no defense against. It was simple and to point that, one that he could not refute for as long as he was a programmer himself. ‘Of course they could evolve, its in their programming. Its part of their awareness to change and adapt.’ He knew that he had to concede the point as much as he did not believe it to be the case. But he could not even sum words to speak towards Tadashi. He simply hung his head down looking at the floor.

“Tch, can’t defend what you don’t believe yourself.” Tadashi whipped around once he was finished satisfied with victory. He walked away from Satoru leaving him alone while the others were still confused.

“Tadashi!” Natsuko said trying to come to Satoru defense even if it was unwanted.

Satoru bit his lip trying to find anything that he could reply back with to Tadashi. There was nothing that he could find to scale the wall placed before him. He knew it too well knowing that it was not one that would come down. It almost seemed to be a callous copout. He resolved himself to say something, but it was all he could muster. “Get back to work, this is distracting us enough. We won’t make the deadline.”

Tadashi started to laugh from his turned back in the corner. “I see how it is. Very well.” He sat down agreeing with Satoru having known that he won what he wanted. The others slowly began to disperse back to their seats with the excitement calming down.

Once everyone had found their seats Satoru turned away walking to his own. He sat down heavily feeling the ache of his body suddenly. He did not know what to say, but he had to say something to Tadashi. ‘Maybe I…maybe I am wrong about it…but still…I want to…I want to believe that if they can change, that they could stop being killers.’ If was difficult for him to avoid the subject. As the time passed along it was the only thing in his thoughts. He had his fingers resting on the keyboard staring blankly at the screen as though he was doing something. However, his mind was empty with only a single thought leaving his body unmoved.

Time disappeared for him until Kiyoshi’s assistant broke him out of his statue position in the chair. She had been standing next to him for a few minutes hoping that he would notice her and turn to face her. But he could barely see out his eyes then. When she decided that enough time had passed she spoke to him clearly, “Mr. Kuromura, Lt. Colonel Takamoto called and wants to meet with you.”

“Him again…” Satoru said with an unmistakable sound of dread in his voice.

“Yes, he said that you didn’t make the last meeting.”

“More like he didn’t make it. Not that I would have wanted to anyway. I wouldn’t be speaking to you now if we had that meeting.” He could not believe that the man would go so far to blame their not meeting on him given the situation. Satoru’s hands tightened into a fist as he could feel the stress in his body returning. That man always managed to get him angry without even trying. ‘Here I go again, more unpleasantness for me. I’ll have to get it over with sometime. The longer I wait the more angry he will become anyway.’ Satoru tried to bring his focus back to the assistant. His body was still tensing from the thoughts that there continually going through him. “So when it is scheduled for then?”

“Tomorrow at 10am.”

‘Before lunch, should be in then.’ This time he would not be missing the meeting. He had bad luck the first time, an understatement, but everything would go through now. Though there was a little hesitation in him with that thought. For him, knowing that it was going to happen assuredly would only increase his stress. “You can confirm it then. I’ll be there.”

Kiyoshi’s assistant nodded her head to Satoru acknowledging him and writing down something on her electronic pad. After that she walked out of the office to leave Satoru to himself again. It was enough to break up his day, but he had stress filling in that empty void. All he could think of was dread now and not wanting to go to the meeting tomorrow.

Satoru tried to begin typing on this computer. He tried to get himself back to his work hoping for it to relieve him of his worries. There was no easy way in his mind. He looked for something else that could wrestle his thoughts free so that he could finish the day. Unfortunately, as days went there was little in it that he wanted to think about now. The debate that he had had plagued for a while now stress twisted his stomach. A gentle thought was required to ease him, but one that did not overwhelm him. There was nothing though, everything was too overpowering for him. He was not in control anymore.

The woman that he had seen came to him again. Her image in his mind was a distraction that he did not want, but his stress was gone now. It pleased him even though he wanted to only relieve himself of his stress so that he could work. The antidote for his stress proved to be more potent than he could handle. The thoughts the woman consumed him, as had his others before. He was returned back to where he had been with the same problem only in a more pleasing form.

She haunted his thoughts endlessly as he struggled to focus on his work. The brief moments that he had with her when he was rescued from death replayed through his mind. He felt calm and anxiety together creating new confusion. It forced him to his only other memory of her standing at that memorial. Either way, neither helped him to find focus, but more distraction. ‘She won’t go away. I can’t stop thinking about her.’

‘I wonder how I’ll find her. The city is so big and she could be anywhere. I don’t even know where to begin to search.’ He tried to bring the thought to something at least partially productive for him. It was a matter of gratitude for him, even if he was deluding himself. The search for her would be difficult without any clues to go by. She could be anywhere in the city too far away for him to find. ‘She was beautiful…I got to stop thinking about her. Work…work…the binary protocol…the protocol…she really was…no-no…no…need to focus.’

He remained unsuccessful in achieving anything productive in his day aside from wasting more time. It was his first day back so he allowed himself the time to slide a little and get back into his work. However, this could not continue for him. He could not allow it to control him, but he did not know how he was going to remedy his situation. Most of the issues that came up today for him would pass by quickly enough. It was the matter of the woman that he knew would linger until he found some resolution, internally or externally.

Satoru left the office glad to have the endless day over finally. He had left the train in the morning ready to start the day and yet he was walking towards it dreading what had it become. When he arrived the train was waiting for him wanting to take him home to rest. As he stepped on the car his thoughts about the debate in the office came back to him. ‘These trains have people now controlling them…’

‘You don’t think they can evolve then?’ Tadashi voice echoed through him.

‘There was nothing wrong with the program running the train it couldn’t evolve. It was simple, basic.’ The train before had a primitive program controlling it, primitive by the standards of what thinking machines had become. It was all logic and precision. There was no objective decision making done. If it sense a person in the door it would remain open a moment longer, there was no choosing. ‘But now it’s a human controlling it. There was no need to blindly destroy all machines that did man’s job.’

‘I have to know what side you’re on.’

‘Sides, there’s always sides. I can’t escape it. Tadashi…you’re so intelligent, but acting the same like the rest of the public…I just don’t know. I wish this would just all end.’ He did not believe that machines were destroying mankind’s way of life. They were meant to enhance and aid them. It was only because of men that the purity was lost. ‘No one is right anymore.’

Satoru walked into his apartment attempting to leave his troubles at the door with his jacket that was dropped precariously from distraction. The problems however were not gone from him. As he took a sip from his glass that he filled his mind continued to turn. There was no end in sight for him with his evening ruined. It eventually brought him to the end of his disjointed night at the comforting surround of his bed.

He laid back closing his eyes letting hopeful serenity wash over him in the empty darkness of his bedroom. It seemed to be working as nothing was coming to him. Time poured out as he drifted to sleep deeper until images began to replay to him once more. ‘Its so clear now…I can see her pulling me to safety…the building crumbling and the flames…’ The dream had become a nightmare with the heat of the flames burning at him throwing up him from his sheets in a cold sweat.

Satoru wiped his face with his moist palm and chest pounding heavily from the reality that it had brought him. He thought that he was back there again when it had happened, reliving it over again. Her images was becoming painfully linked to his dance with death. Once his breathing had returned to normal he laid back closing his eyes once more. ‘I need to sleep…I can’t keep thinking about her…’

A long night later the sun rose to announce morning’s return finally. Satoru had managed to get to sleep soundly not interrupted anymore in the night by his nightmares. When he awoke he was oddly ready to get up in spite of the rough night. The alarm was waiting for him to go back to sleep only to be disappointed with him turning it off. He went through his morning routine ready to leave to the meeting, but suddenly realized that there was something missing. Satoru remembered that he did not get the address for their meeting. “I can’t believe I didn’t ask her. Call Kiyoshi’s office.”

“Dialing Kiyoshi’s office…”

A moment passed by as the computer worked to establish a connection. When an image came up on the screen it was the assistant of Kiyoshi looking at him answering him instinctually. “Nakahoshi’s office, he’s not here right now-“

Satoru had cut her off quickly dispensing with pleasantries. “Hey! I’m glad I caught you. Do you know where the meeting is?”

“Oh, Mr. Kuromura…one minute please.” She did not seem to be fazed by his rudeness and went to answer his question. After a moment of her turned away from the screen she faced him again with the address. “Here it is it’s the Benihoshi Tower.”

“Thanks, I know where that is.” Satoru did not waste anymore time cutting the line and finishing what he had to do before leaving his apartment. He did not have anytime to go to work this time with the meeting so early. It meant that he had to take a different train to get to where he needed. And two trains later he had arrived at the building in a short walk.

Satoru entered the building meeting the security at the entrance. It was familiar ground almost like a week ago if it was not for that fact that he was in a better mood. There was still an ill stomach, but he could not avoid that with all of the preparation possible. He did not like meeting with the military it always ended up negative.

He reached the guard with the line moving quickly. “Pass on through,” the guard said to him letting him into the lobby.

The distance to the receptionist at the desk was short. He felt like everything was moving top well, something had to be wrong. “I’ve a meeting with Lt. Colonel Takamoto at 10am.”

The receptionist turned to face him immediately responding with a pleasant smile to greet him. She only took a moment to find the necessary information to pass on to him. “Oh, yes. You can go right up. Its room 4803.”

“Thank you.” Satoru walked passed the desk towards the elevator moving closer to the stress’s source. ‘Going a lot smoother than the last time. Feels a little strange, not quite like déjà vu, but close.’ He stepped into the elevator riding it up to the forty-eighth floor. Stress was increasing in his chest with the ding of each floor passing by. His foot tapped the floor trying to exorcise a small amount of the tension quickly building through him.

The elevator quickly opened its doors dropping him out into the hall leaving him to find his own feet to stand. Satoru looked around the hall to get his bearings while he straightened his clothes once more. ‘Let’s see room 4803…there it is.’ Room 4803 came upon him shortly not giving him a chance to back out. He opened the door into the office announcing himself to the receptionist as he entered. “I’m Satoru Kuromura to see Lt. Colonel Takamoto.”

The woman looked over at him from her desk greeting him with a warm smile. “Mr. Kuromura, he is still in a meeting with someone. He’ll be finished shortly.”

It was the smile that took him back for a moment, but Satoru was quick to realize that he was mistaken. There was something else that had him nearly falling backwards in shock. If his eyes were playing tricks on him he did not want to believe it. ‘I don’t believe it! Its her…its her…it really is…in front of me now. What luck is this for me to run into her again?’ He could not stop staring at her his mouth hung open agape. His brain could not even process the concept for him to have the manners to turn away.

“Mr. Kuromura?” the woman said looking at him a little confused by his reaction to her. She started to become uneasy by his frozen unresponsive state until he finally spoke.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll just sit down.” Satoru face turned as red as his tie once he caught up to his actions. He backed up trying to put some distance between them towards the chair, but stumbled over the table. If he had not caught himself quickly he would have fallen on his back through the table painfully. The woman nearly jumped up as though to catch him in his spectacle. ‘I look like a complete fool. I couldn’t even say what I wanted to…but my chest it’s pounding so hard. I need to calm down.’

Satoru found himself in the chair finally reaching a point that he could attempt to calm down. His heart was racing and his body was sweating. Whether it was because he acted the fool or another reason that lie without words he could not get comfortable. It felt like there was someone was watching him leaving him warm and nervous. His legs were shaking, but it was no longer the stress of meeting the Lt. Colonel. It was only a few minutes later that his body remembered what stress felt like as the door opened.

The Lt. Colonel let a man in a business suit out of his office giving a parting word whispered quietly before allowing him to leave. The man did not waste any time in motioning Satoru into his office with angered urgency. Satoru entered the small office that consisted of only a desk and two chairs with a shelf behind the desk. It was still very empty. The Lt. Colonel sat down behind his desk starting the meeting immediately. “So Mr. Kuromura, I expect you have good things to say to me.”

‘No lecture? Well I guess even he can be human…at times.’ Satoru adjusted himself in the chair preparing for the long haul of a status update. “Yes, the project is moving along according to the timetable. We are hopeful for it to be ready a week ahead in fact.”

“This is a surprise. Normally, you number crunchers are delaying and eating up the military budget on all of your projects. Always worried about one thing or another, testing too much. Maybe it was the right decision to hire your company after all.”

“Yes…thank you,” Satoru said clearing his throat softly. The sudden berating forced him into a new position in his chair. ‘Not human enough, I guess.’

“And when will we have a demonstration of what this thing can do?”

“We should be ready for trials by the end of the month.”

“Good. Most of the parts have already been finished. I can always rely on the factory to produce quickly. They will be delivered to you for assembly.”

“Yes, sir.” Sakura did not have a body yet or rather, the final body that was intend for her. It was simply a temporary vessel for trials during the development process. Satoru did not enjoy the idea of her actually receiving the real body, as it was just another sign of what she really was meant to do. He could not object though and sat in the chair going back and forth with the Lt. Colonel over numbers and reports. The meeting dragged on slowly eventually wrapping up with Satoru standing about to leave the office.

“Good day, sir.” The Lt. Colonel walked him out of the office speaking to his receptionist for a moment. Satoru stepped over to the chair where he rearranged things in his bag. He falsely shuffled things around drawing out the time until the two were finished.

The Lt. Colonel looked up from the desk towards Satoru glaring at him. “What are you still doing here, get going now!”

Satoru slapped the bag closed on his hand being thankful that it was merely leather. He turned around facing the man to address him. “Yes, sir…” The Lt. Colonel disappeared into his office appearing as though Satoru had interrupted something. The door closed loudly shaking Satoru. Satoru approached the woman cautiously with his bag up trying recover is pounding heart. “I-I…”

“I’m sorry for his rudeness,” she said to him with that pleasant smile again. It was enough to loosen his shoulders and relieve the stress that was building in him. Unfortunately, his heart was still pounding quickly for a different reason.

“N-no, it’s alright. I’m used to it by now.”

“This is my first day, so he’s always like that?”

“Ah, well I think the military is always like that. They come to us for intelligence and play it off as their own.”

She laughed lightly at his joke as Satoru brushed through his hair with his fingers trying to feel at ease. “Well have a good day.” The woman turned away looking back at her computer screen leaving Satoru to walk towards the door.

Satoru did not know what more he could say taking the door as the polite invitation that it was. His hand gripped the knob starting to turn it when an uncontrollable reaction occurred causing him to turn back. “I…I…”

“You forget something?” she said looking up from her desk for a moment.

‘Doesn’t she remember? Or is it something else?’ Satoru moved away from the door hesitation in his step fighting his uncertainty. ‘Courage…’ He barely made it to the desk feeling his chest scattering under the aching.“I-I…I’d like to thank you.”

The woman turned completely giving him her full attention while painting a confused twisting expression over her face. She looked at him as though she was piercing him with her gazing trying to find what he was thanking her for. “Huh? But I didn’t do anything.”

“N-no, no. Not this, I mean before. A week ago, at the Kamihara Building.”

She paused in thought visibly going through her memories to recall what he was referring. It only took a moment for her to respond with surprise that caused her to stand up. “You! Its you isn’t it? I-I….” She raised her hands up to her face taken back by the fact that the person she had saved was now standing before her. There was a sign of relief in her body to know that he was alive.

Satoru dared to step closer to her bringing them together making her perfume present in his nose. He tried not to let it distract him as he looked at her. “Yes, it was me you saved from being killed in that explosion.”

“I-I can’t believe it. I’m so sorry that I didn’t recognize you.”

“Its alright.”


“I’m glad to see that you’re alive. I wasn’t sure with all of the blood that was covering you. I’d hope that you didn’t die. So many did that day.” She turned away with thoughts caught around her head.

Satoru could see the sorrowful expression on her face clearly and wanted to try to take that away. He did not know how, but he stepped forward again now in arms reach of her. “I wanted to thank you for saving me.” She looked up at him the smile that she had faded away. “I’d like to do something to show my gratitude.”

“K-knowing that you’re alive is enough for me.”

“Please, what about lunch?”

“I shouldn’t,” she said her cheeks become flush suddenly. She could feel her palms warming up suddenly making them antsy at her chest.

Satoru wanted to run away having feelings that he had not felt in so long. It was as though a rusty door to the outside was being opened for the first time and he was seeing its bathing light. He wanted to welcome it in his arms. “I insist, just a thank you,” he said trying to hold back his reddish emotion as well.

“A…a-alright.”

“1 o’clock at the Ocean’s View. You know where it is?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.” Satoru promptly disappeared from the room feeling as though he was going to burst if he stayed any longer. A strange warmth was surrounding him while he left the building that he did not understand. He felt as though he should be grinning for some reason even though he was fleeing from it all. It sensation followed him back to work with thoughts of the woman dancing around in his mind unable to disappear.

“Good morning!” the receptionist said as he walked by looking distractedly charmed.

“Good…morning…”

“That’s weird. I wonder if he’s feeling alright.”

Satoru continued through the halls not even remembering that he spoke to the receptionist. His feet were instinctually taking him to his room while he was left confused by his feelings. When he entered the room it alerted the others in the room to him. They looked at him with confusion at his disembodied state.

“Hey, Satoru.”

“So how did the meeting go?”

“Not cutting the budget are they?”

“Hey…its ok…” He sat down in his chair the squeaking it made was louder than his voice. He was debated with himself over what happened in the Lt. Colonel’s room with his receptionist. ‘Lunch, I can’t believe I said that. What am I thinking? What she must think of me. Its just lunch…just lunch.’

“Satoru? You okay?” Chiyoko said approaching him cautiously trying to wake him up from his dazed appearance.

“He’s not sounding too good.”

“Y-yeah…fine…” The sounds of their voices were not even being acknowledged consciously by him. His mouth was just sending out automated replies to them. Too much had him focused on what he was going to do about the situation that he placed himself in. ‘Lunch…what am I going to do? I’m just over thinking it. Its nothing…nothing. I’m just saying thank you. That’s all. But why do I feel this way then.’ All the reassuring was not helping calm down.

The others in the office stood up approaching him out of concern. None of them knew what was wrong with him. They had never seen him act this way before. “Satoru? Are you saying something?”

“He’s not relapsing is he?”

Natsuko placed her hand on his shoulder giving him physical contact that jumped his mental words into his mouth. “Its just lunch…” He did not even realize that he had spoken believing that he was still thinking to himself.

“Lunch, you eat something?” Kazuhiko said hoping for answers as much as anyone.

“Huh, lunch? I-I…uh…” Satoru said looking up at everyone that had him surrounded. He was finally in reality again hearing their worried voices and concerned expressions. However, his confusion did not last long before he retraced his words coming to a frightening conclusion. ‘Oh great, I was talking out loud. Now what I am going to do. I don’t want to explain it to them.’

“Lunch…its not lunch time yet, you got plans?”

“What…plans? No, of course not,” Satoru said rushing his words with unmistakable emptiness. “What makes you think that?”

“You’re lying.”

“You got a hot date?” Tadashi said piping up to mock him.


“N-no, no…no.” His face filled completely over in red with embarrassment, as he could not hide from the wild throw. There was no avoiding it, but he was going to try anyway. “Its not a date!”

“What?! It IS!” everyone said in surprised to hear that their boss and colleague had found someone.

“Satoru got a date!” Tadashi said finding pleasure in Satoru embarrassing pain.

“Smooth talker, who you taking to lunch?” Kazuhiko said pushing against him with his elbow.

“I just said its not!” Satoru said trying to object and deny the quickly spawning rumors. It was not as though they were actually rumors, but he was not about to confirm them willingly. He tilted his head down to the floor sighing under his breath. ‘Where’s that shovel…’

“Who’s the lucky lady?”

“Its not what you think.” They were all pulling on him for details and he tried to wave them off with his hands, but they were persistent. It seemed that they were all eager for something new to talk about and were taking great pleasure in this.

“Sure whatever, who is it?”

“Lt. Colonel Takamoto’s new assistant…” he said resigning himself to defeat.

“She’s in the military? I didn’t think you’d go for someone like that. Guess you never know about someone.”

“I don’t think she’s part of the military.”


“You don’t know? You didn’t ask?”


“Well, it didn’t…wait its not like that. She saved my life. I’m taking her to lunch to thank her.” Satoru hoped that it was enough to recover himself from losing himself in the spiral hole that he was disappearing into quickly.

“Huh?” The eagerness was fading away with confusion in its stead once more. They all remained quiet waiting for an answer to the mysterious response Satoru gave to them.

“Saved your life?” Chiyoko said taking the initiative to inquire further.


“She pulled me out from the building before I was crushed from the debris.”

“Oh, that is a little disappointing.” A few of them shrugged their shoulders in disillusionment starting to move away from the crowded desk of Satoru. Though most of them still seemed unsatisfied by the answer looking at him. Satoru tried to back away from them waving his arms that he was sincere.

“See, its nothing.”

Natsuko grabbed up Satoru hands looking at him with reassurance waving through her eyes. “But it’s so romantic, love at first sight-“ she said suddenly breaking the air of sadness that hung.

“And the woman saved you. You can get some mileage out of it for a while,” Kazuhiko said nudging him again breaking up Natsuko’s grip.

“But its not…” Satoru said trying to get Kazuhiko off him. His brief moment of hopeful conclusion peacefully ended as the rest began to chime in as well. ‘They don’t understand. Even they think it’s a date. It is, isn’t it?’

“Of course it’s a date, you going out to lunch with a woman. It’s a date,” Kazuhiko said plainly as though he knew what he was talking about to be infallible. He continued to press his opinion on Satoru and give him a man’s congratulation slap on the back.

“Is she beautiful?” Tadashi asked brazeningly having been caught by the curiosity now too.

“That’s personal, you shouldn’t be asking him that,” Chiyoko said snapping back at the two men that were pounding Satoru for information. Though that was not to say the women were being any less pushy about getting the gossip.

“Its important.”

“Yeah…she really is beautiful…” Satoru said softly letting out a sigh not realizing that his thoughts were public still. It did not take him long to catch himself as well as the surprised stares of his co-workers. He dropped his head again feeling his face becoming warm with embarrassment. ‘I can’t believe I just said that out loud. What’s wrong with me!?’ He raised his head realizing that he needed to stop them quickly before letting it go to their heads. “W-wait, I didn’t…”

“Knew it, it’s a date,” Kazuhiko said giving Satoru a big hug with one arm around the neck to express his pride in his boss. “You’re going to lunch with a beautiful woman, no way around it. It’s a date. Our boss got a date!”

‘This isn’t going to end well for me…’

“Now you remember what to do on a date, right?” Kazuhiko said flipping through a book that he mysteriously had on his person. Satoru shied away from him only to run into the two women. “How long has it been?”

“I think I can handle it…” He looked around at everyone hoping to end it at some point; the teasing was going to be the death of him before he even had his lunch.

“Right, it’s like riding a bike. You never forget.”

“Besides, I doubt he wants to hear your pervert thoughts on how to date a woman,” Natsuko said pushing Kazuhiko out of the way to Satoru relief. It quickly devolved from that point with the interest turned towards Kazuhiko rather than Satoru.

“Hey, watch it!”

Satoru sat back down in his chair feeling the heavy weight of burden on him from the ordeal. He remained in his, sort of, quiet state trying to understand what he had gotten himself into by suggesting lunch. ‘A date…what am I going to do?’ It had been too long for him since he had done anything like this. He had just been so busy that a social life did not seem to enter into his mind. The last time he could remember going out with a woman was in college.

He contemplated what he was going to be doing and if he was doing the right thing. It was in mixed spirits as his heart was telling him one thing and his mind was saying another. Then it was all feebly rationalized by being a thank you, which had ulterior motives attached. No resolution was to be reached though, especially in the short period of time that he had before the lunch. It was already upon him and he was being shuffled out the door by his co-workers all with their guilty self-serving smiles.

“Good luck!” Chiyoko said pushing him down the hallway to the elevator.


“Hope you don’t come back,” Kazuhiko said with a smirk from behind her.

“Pervert!”

“Hey, just wishing him luck!”

“Y-yeah, thanks…I’ll be going now,” Satoru said at the elevator with everyone around him still. The door of the elevator opened quickly and he stepped in backwards feeling as though he was fleeing. He left the building walking awkwardly towards the restaurant not sure if he was doing the right thing now. However, while he battled over the morality of what he was doing with himself time passed. He was now in front of the restaurant with the woman sitting outside at a table waiting for him to show. Satoru threw everything out and rushed over to the table trying to ignore his pounding heart.

“Sorry, I’m late.”

“Its alright, I’m just early.”


‘Just lunch, not a date…a date…’

To be continued…