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His sister. Which made Mazawa and Kei...
Jo's revelation, the equivalent of a verbal sucker punch, would've knocked the wind out of most people.
For me it was the spark that finally set the blaze alight.
I launched myself at Satoshi, a blur of flying fists and feet. "All this time, you knew! You knew Mazawa was our uncle, you knew our father was alive, and you kept it a secret! You should have told me! You son of a bitch!"
"I did it to protect you! I thought changing our surname would be enough—and for years, it was, allowing us to live with the Hakodate, then hide in plain sight, right under his—hey! Not below the belt!" Staggering back, he attempted to deflect the blows by shielding his groin with the journal. While a few titters rippled through the group, mingling with the rumbling of distant thunder, no one stepped in to stop me. Not Jo. Not even Tetsuo.
"Oh? And never telling me anything about the communique you decrypted, what was that supposed to protect me from?"
"Mazawa, always Mazawa," he panted. "After the two of you met, I knew you'd try to contact me. When you didn't—"
Before I could get my next lick in, Satoshi whirled me around and trapped me in a bear hug, a move that brought me face to face with Jo. Though still wearing the same bloodstained clothes he'd died in, no wounds marred his chest or his neck. His now, surprisingly unbroken neck. Even though I'd had a preview of the Idoron's powers in the bath, this—seeing Jo unscathed, as if he’d never been stabbed and bled to death—was just too much. "I killed you," I said feebly.
Jo cocked his head and smiled. "You truly didn't know?"
"A weapon, a cure for time, that's all I was told," I murmured dumbly. One which should never fall into Mazawa's hands, certainly, but it still didn’t explain—
My head shot up. "If you're really Yomichi, then who's the guy in the deep freeze?"
"A man infected with nokuru. He followed me back to the hostel a few months ago. I couldn't leave him where he'd fallen, so I brought him inside. I talk to him while I work, sometimes. I call him Han. He's good company."
"Okay, that's downright weird, but where's this Idoron that Mazawa wants so badly?" Tucker asked. "Satoshi here says it's part of some rare tree and he says you stole it—" he waved over at Jo "—but all I've seen so far is some old notebook. Not worth riskin' your life over that, if you ask me."
Sheet lightning blanched the sky, rendering foliage on the other side of the lake in fleeting silhouette, as the campers considered this amongst themselves. A knowing look passed between Jo and Satoshi, who then raised the phial for all to see."
"This is the Idoron," Satoshi said. "It doesn't look like much, but it's a potent medication, a super serum that—"
"Smart serum," Jo corrected. "One capable of accelerating the body's healing mechanisms and rendering the human immune system impervious to any form of disease."
"Like nokuru?"
When Jo affirmed this, Lee interjected. "If that's true, then why couldn't you heal that Kufugaki who followed you?"
"He fell and broke his neck before we reached the hostel," Jo said. "The Idoron can do many things but it can't raise those who are already dead."
"But you were," I stammered, "and now you're..."
"I have become something else," Jo said quietly. "My body's rapid healing ability and halting of my aging process are cumulative results from decades of developing and self-testing the serum." He shrugged. "Unexpected side effects."
"Stop you from aging?" Having overheard him, a woman elbowed her way through the crowd. "You mean, you'll never die?" When Jo didn't readily respond, she turned to Lee. "If you believe that, you're as crazy as he is!"
"It's true," Jo said, opening his shirt. "Renata stabbed me repeatedly only hours ago and now—"
"Yeah? Well, if I'm going to war over this, I'm going to need more than her word and a torn shirt. I say, a demonstration's in order!"
Others soon chimed in, demanding to see proof of Jo's invention.
"There's no time!" I gestured frantically at the crowd. "Please, we have to act quickly! Mazawa knows I have the Idoron!"
"You keep saying that, but what evidence do you have?" a man shouted.
"Before I came outside, he remotely detonated my Seed, the implant in my neck."
Frissons of fear and disbelief rippled through the group. Jo turned to me. "What implant?"
I told him about Mazawa's plan to annihilate the clans, beginning with New Edo's forced decontamination procedure. "Everyone who visits New Edo gets Seeded, unknowingly and against their will. I think it's just the one holodome now, but Mazawa plans to broaden his operation. Kei told me that the Seedings were just initial phases of Mazawa's scheme for ultimate dominance. To manifest his plan outside of Japan, he needs the Idoron."
Satoshi, who'd also seen one of those Sweeper operations firsthand, filled him in on the poisoned rations, the Kufugaki pits, and how the dead became food for the newly-infected. Since his new friends had also witnessed this, their added testimony helped allay the others' skepticism. When they finished, I added how Mazawa was able to track the movements of his enemies with the implants, even after they'd been infected. "Mazawa detonated my implant less than an hour ago. Luckily, I wasn't infected—it worked its way out of my neck and stuck to a dressing—but he knows I have the Idoron and he's going to attack. That's all the evidence I need."
Apparently, the Shinu's other allies still needed something more concrete. Whispers and murmurs soon turned to audible discussions amongst the campers.
Jo, whose expression had been growing progressively darker with concern, now motioned the crowd silent. "How many of you have been to New Edo recently?"
A woman in the back of the crowd screamed. Clutching her neck, she crumpled to the ground, while blood spurted through her fingers. A man standing near Tucker followed, the side of his neck bulging horrifically before it popped with a dull, splat! More victims followed, crawling from tents and lean-tos, all with bloodied injured necks—innocent people, turned living tiles in a lethal game of dominoes.
While I stood, horrified, Jo sprang into action. "Tetsuo, is there a medical bay on one of your ships?"
"The warship. I'm on it." He pushed a button on his wristlet and barked commands into it. "We can set her down in the lake and move the injured over to her on freight shifters. Satoshi, you and your friends help round them up."
"But they've got—"
"Not full-blown, Tucker! Not yet! Just don't get any blood in your eyes or mouth and you'll be fine!" Then, to the others, he said, "Anyone who's not injured, grab a hovercraft and head up to one of the larger ships. All those who're earthbound, keep your eyes on the sky. If Mazawa wants a fight, we're going to give him one!"
Jo grabbed my sleeve. "The other phials, do you still have them?"
"They're at Tetsuo's."
"Go! Get them! Meet me in the warship."
I raced to the fuyu-kyu. Tearing across the living area, I dove through the curtained alcove, making a beeline for the bathing area. I'd taken a handful of them at Jo's, counting out half-a dozen when I'd placed them on the shelf by the tub.
A now empty shelf, whose surface bleared up at me like an indictment in the room's soft light.
No, no! This was not happening! Not now! Heart pounding, I hurried over to the shelf. I'd taken care with those phials, arranging them so they wouldn't roll. There was no way they could've fallen—
Glass crunched beneath my boot.
I looked down. One lay shattered on the floor. Unless it flew to that spot, there was no way it could've landed there all by itself.
The last thing we needed was a traitor among us!
Silently pleading, I scrabbled around the tub on hands and knees. My search turned up only two more phials, both thankfully intact, which I found in the tub. Two!
On shaking legs, I rose and staggered out. These and the one Jo had made three, but the number of victims outside was twice, maybe three times that—maybe even more!