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I awoke in darkness to silence and unsettling stillness. No rain beat its tattoo upon the ceiling and no wind buffeted its side. The wind had died, leaving the dwelling completely motionless—a lack of movement I found very strange, since the slightest breeze was enough to set the egg-shaped home swaying like a cradle. Why weren't we moving?
One glance out the window told me why.
Expecting a bird's eye view of another fuyu-kyu, I found myself staring at dark metal panels in a cavernous space. I knew then that I must be somewhere in the hold of Tetsuo's ship, but why had he moved camp during the night?
I bounded out of bed, washed, threw on my clothes, and with only the safety light strips along the hall floor for a guide, padded into the living area. Though my naginata, goggles and boots were still by the door, which had been left open, without Tetsuo's larger-than-life presence, the darkened room felt strangely cold and empty.
After a short hop to the ground, I made my way through the hold, skirting smaller fuyu-kyu, stacks of canvas-covered crates and supply caches, the sole wanderer in the belly of a beast. Luckily, I didn’t have to wander far until I found a freight elevator.
It rose to a launch bay, although one much larger and suspiciously emptier than the one I'd seen the night before. At the edge of its wide portal, a half-hearted drizzle pattered against a wide, stationary ramp. I stole to the side of the opening and peered out, but was unable to see anything through the thick curtain of mist that pervaded the area like a stubborn ghost. My goggles, which fogged over the moment after I'd put them on, proved even less help. It seemed the only way I was going to be able to see anything through this mist—and then, probably only a few steps ahead of me at a time—was to plunge directly inside of it.
Somewhere though, a fire burned: mist usually didn't smell like burning garbage. Naginata extended, I crept down the ramp.
The ship hovered atop a knoll. Following my nose, I started down the long slope, often forced to use the naginata spike to maintain balance in the slippery wet grass. At the bottom of the slope, the ground finally leveled off. Stirred by the breeze, the mist thinned, allowing glimpses of silent hulking silhouettes in the distance.
Hulks that soon became recognizable as shapes of dilapidated buildings. I crept around splintered piles of rubble, careful to mask my presence. As I rounded the last heap of what might have been a house once, gravel crunched beneath my boots, and I found myself standing at the edge of an unfamiliar street. The wind rose, whisking the mist aside like a curtain. But what I saw standing in that street made my hands tighten around my naginata.
Kufugaki! Dozens of them. A horde of blank-faced men and women in ragged clothes crowded together in the middle of the road. Standing before them, wearing a black balaclava rolled into a hat and the camouflage fatigues of a New Edo Sweeper—
"Jo? What the hell?" I quit my hiding place and stomped towards him.
"Hey there, sleepyhead." He turned to me and smiled. "What do you think, is it a good look for me?" When I didn't answer, he said, "It's okay, you can approach. They won't hurt you."
I surveyed the mute crowd warily. "I should've known you'd pull a stunt like this."
“Well, can't let you have all the fun, can we? Go on, help yourself to some breakfast. We've got last night's fish and some fresh rabbit." He motioned across the street, where unmanned freight shifters sat before a faded yellow outbuilding. Off to one side of it, flames from a stack of suspiciously boxy kindling leapt and licked at the glaucous sky, while near its door, Tetsuo and Kim busily tended spits that had been set up over a smaller firepit. Like Jo, Kim had also donned a New Edo uniform.
While I headed over to them, Jo turned his attention to the Kufugaki, instructing one of them to wait for us in the Solar Fields on the holodome's northwestern edge.
"You really think that Kufugaki, even newly-infected ones, know the difference between east and west?" I asked him.
"He does." Jo pointed to a tall muscular man who'd apparently swapped his uniform for Jo's torn clothing and hooded coat. "Alright, Field Operative Zuki, you know what to do."
The drugged soldier grunted his assent, then signaled for the others to follow. Stunned, I watched as they silently obeyed. Falling in behind him, the group shambled away.
"Impressive! How much NX-7 did it take to do that?"
"Not as much as you'd think," Jo said, watching them depart. "We found enough in the vials on the ship to subdue most of the Sweeper Team. After taking them out, we found a substantial supply here, enough to dust the Kufugaki with a little left over."
Left over for what? I wondered, as we started back to camp. "How are we going to get Umeji through Decon without tipping off Mazawa and his goons?"
"Oh, he's not going through Decon. We decided last night," Jo flashed me an enigmatic grin.
Of course, you did. I wanted to probe him further, but the moment the delicious aroma of fried fish tickled my nose, my stomach refused to entertain any more thought of discussions, strategic or otherwise.
"Renata! I see you finally decided to join us." Tetsuo ambled over with a skewer of fish and steaming mug of tea.
"When did we leave?"
"Before sunup. Took these guys longer to find the Sweeper Team than it did for me to pull stakes. Here, come on inside the barn."
"Well, to be fair, we had to take out the stragglers. The larger crew had already headed back to New Edo," Kim said. After piling the skewers on a plate, he joined the rest of us inside. Although I recognized a few faces from our previous camp, I didn't see any of the injured from the night before. Lee, who'd taken a spot on the stairs above a couple of what I assumed were captured Sweepers, was holding hands and whispering to a no longer quite so dour-faced nursemaid. Kenzo, armed with a shiny, new MBL, stood guard beside a bound and exceptionally sour-faced Umeji. Satoshi and Buster were missing, however.
"Where is everyone?" I asked, taking a seat on one of the many footlockers in the barn. Three of the smaller ones, two of which bore medical insignias, had been stacked near a folding table. A tablet sat idling atop it, its screen a blinding shade of cobalt.
"Since the people in the medical bay are now healed, thanks to Jo, I sent them ahead to New Edo to pose as refugees. We'll need a good team on the ground." After taking a gulp of tea, Tetsuo continued. "Those not assigned to fighter pods or hovercraft will man stations in the battle cruisers, including the old clunker that Satoshi and Buster are piloting."
Kim nudged me with his knee. "So, what do you think of the new plan, Renata?"
"What plan?"
"She hasn't been—" A shrill from Tetsuo's wristlet interrupted him. "Ah, here's Satoshi now! He went to rally the Hakodate. Go ahead," he said. But as the tinny voice piped amidst bursts of static, his face grew ashen. "When? How many?” His gaze flicked to me.
"What's wrong?"
He motioned me silent, then turned away. When he slowly lowered his wristlet, Jo hurried to my side and wrapped an arm about my shoulders.
"Tetsuo?"
He muttered something and shook his head, but when he turned back to us, his eyes were bright. Before he could explain what was wrong, another signal, this one from the tablet, screamed through the morning air. I immediately recognized the intrusive sound as an incoming communique from Mazawa.
"It'll wait," Tetsuo said. "You, Sweeper guys, you're up!" He motioned for them to come to the table.
"Stay out of sight and whatever happens, don't say a word," Jo whispered. After pulling his balaclava over his face, he joined the Sweepers, taking a spot in the shadows behind them. On Jo's signal, one of the Sweepers pressed a button on the tablet. Light flared, bathing their faces in its pallid hue.
The man who'd accepted the communique bowed deferentially at the screen. "Doctor Mazawa."
Hearing the low hum that issued from the screen, I imagined the humidifier, oxygen mask, and the dim-lit room, in which Mazawa's hideous face floated like a bloated balloon.
"Operative Eki, why have you not returned to New Edo?" Mazawa croaked. "You know the penalty for disobedience."
"I beg your pardon, Doctor Mazawa. We were in route last night when we discovered them—another clan. I—we—thought you would want them turned."
"Another? Gods, these clans are like ants! The sooner they're extinct, the better," he spat. "How many were there in this one?"
"About two dozen, Doctor."
"Excellent! When will they be ready to march?"
"Soon, Doctor. Operative Mukuro has already noted some movement within the pit."
"Then your work there is finished. I will expect you back in New Edo within the hour, where you will prepare to join your fellow operatives in Seikan prefecture. I understand their surprise visit to the Hakodate Clan was most successful," he laughed hollowly.
The Hakodate! That must have been why Satoshi called Tetsuo! I started forward, hands clenched into fists, intent to put one of them through that screen, when a hand clamped over my mouth and pulled me back.
"No, Renata," Tetsuo whispered. "Don't give us away."
"As you wish, Doctor." Eki bowed again, then the screen winked out.
Squirming free, I rounded on Tetsuo. "What happened?"
"Come on, everyone, you heard Mazawa, we're leaving soon. Kenzo, take Umeji back to the brig. Lee, you and your friend can follow them. Grab those boxes of weapons, while you're at it. Eki, you and Kentaro can wait by the freight-shifters with Kim," Tetsuo said. Once they left, he turned to Jo. "That was a risky move on your part."
"It's been a long time since our last meeting." Jo removed his face mask. "I wanted to see the face of my enemy. Clearly, time hasn't been kind to old Yoshizo."
"Never mind that! What did Satoshi say? None of my clansmen would've fallen for Mazawa's 'emergency rations' scheme!"
"Mazawa sent Sweepers armed with Seismi-Shells," Tetsuo said heavily. "Sometime during the night, they placed them along fault lines inland."
Fault lines. My stomach knotted. Seismi-Shells were powerful explosives and when used in tandem, capable of producing a focused mini-earthquake. My voice sounded very far away when I asked, "H-how many?"
"Satoshi and his crew have been searching for survivors, but it doesn't look good." He shook his head. "What the quake didn't bury, the sea claimed. I'm sorry, Renata."
I stared at him, slack jawed, feeling much the same as I had when I'd set foot in Aokigahara for the first time. Because what he said was equally as enormous and incomprehensible, beyond anything—because, all of them—no, it couldn't be right, it couldn't be true. "No, they all can't be...I don't believe it! Why didn't they follow Satoshi to Sawagi? He knew Mazawa would attack! Juno overheard him making those plans! She told me that he'd convinced them to leave! Why didn't they leave?"
"Always eavesdropping, that girl," Tetsuo grunted. "Maybe she misunderstood. Maybe they changed their minds and thought his wild claim about Mazawa was just another one of his conspiracy theories. It's a terrible loss, a tragic loss of innocent lives, any way you look at it." Placing his hands on my shoulders, he said, "You will always have a home with the Shinu, Renata, I want you to know that."
"And with me," Jo added.
But I couldn't think about home, past or future. Nor could I allow myself to grieve the friends, the neighbors, the adoptive family, I would never see again. But what I did on this day, I would do for them. Looking up at him, I said, "Just promise you'll let me be the one to kill the son of a bitch."
"You're going to need these." Tetsuo strode over to the stairs. He returned with an MBL, along with a one-piece camouflage field suit and rain poncho, both easily twice my size.
This was their great plan? "You want me to be one of Mazawa's soldiers? Oh, hell no!"
"Hell yeah! Better hurry too, if we're going to beat those Kufugaki to New Edo."