Obfuscation

~~~💾~~~

October 5, 2043, 11:35 AM.

35.0285° N, 135.7750° E, Anima Tower, 14th Floor, Yamashina Crater, Kyoto, Japan.

The exact date, time, and location where an exciting story was beginning. Two elements were coming together to create a thrilling combination. Right there, I, Kaori Kikushi, was about to start my dream job.

“This is so booooring!”

Lies.

The back of the airy chair tilted slightly as I threw my weight back, my gaze exhausted and my mind buzzing. For years, I had dreamed of working at Anima Tech, the biggest, most valuable, and advanced company in the world. I wanted to help develop the Anima, to make them safe and trustworthy so humanity could move forward in harmony. But only two hours had passed since I’d first set foot in Anima Tech, and my fantasies were crumbling to pieces.

“Is this really my new life?” I took advantage of the empty workspace and shouted at the air. “This?! I’m Kaori Kikushi, damn it. Employee of the Year at Tomohiro Fishing Radars, Cybersecurity Specialist from Kyoto Polytechnic, Cloud Exploiting champion at P4wn1ng. They can’t make me read…” I squinted, trying to read one of the key points in the document. “Guidelines for Key Conservation? Seriously?!”

I quickly lowered my voice as I spotted a service Anima—a humanoid male in an assistant’s suit—walking down the hall to my left. Though he didn’t seem to notice my complaints, I decided to tone it down.

“Okay, calm down. Kaori, get back to Earth,_” I murmured, rubbing my forehead with my fingertips to steady myself. “_You made it into Anima, you’re living your dream. You just need to finish reading the rest of the pages. Let’s see, page… seven.”

Just as I realized that, in those two and a half hours, I’d only made it through six pages, a notification popped up in the chat:

Kariya, Aguri: I hope everything’s going well. Once you finish that document, I have others I’d like you to review.

...

“Aaaaaahhhh.”

My head slowly dropped until my forehead hit the keyboard. I closed my eyes heavily, though the darkness did nothing to help me escape reality.

“You don’t seem to be enjoying your first ‘big day,’ Miss.”

I raised my head and looked back. I was back at home, strangely in the same hopeless position than before in front of my own computer. My laptop had been replaced by my hacking station; the office, by my bedroom; and the time, by evening. There was still an Anima, though, but it was the idiot Hakase, watching me with a grin after his attempt at a joke. The moment he caught my eye, he quickly suppressed it.

“My apologies,” he said kindly.

Under any other circumstances, I would have pulled a taser from a drawer and stunned him to my heart’s content. But I couldn’t be mad at Hakase. To be fair, tasers didn’t work on the Anima anyway. Why would we even need to paralyze them?

“How long have you been there?” I asked, frowning and raising an eyebrow.

“About thirty minutes.”

“Huh? Don’t you have anything better to do?” I shot back, letting a bit of my frustration out on him.

“Your father’s been asleep since before you arrived. You know how he is. And dinner’s ready; actually, that’s what I came to tell you.”

I wasn’t hungry, nor in the mood to eat. I just wanted the darkness to swallow me up, along with my dreams of working at Anima.

“I’ll be there soon. You can wait for me.”

“You’ve been through similar situations in past jobs, Miss. Don’t get discouraged now that you’ve made it to where you wanted to be.”

I stopped mid-movement, once again comforted by the Anima who knew me better than most humans. In those blue eyes, I found a source of calm.

“I know. But I can’t help it. I’m a hacker, not an administrative assistant.”

“You’ve just joined the biggest company in the world.” I saw him recalibrate his tone. “The best of the best is there. Someone has to review the documentation. It’s only logical that the new recruit would do it. Or do you think anyone gets assigned the same level of work as everyone else right off the bat? Remember that idiot at Tomohiro Fishing Radars who was handling the tasks they assigned to you? What was his name?”

The laughter came easily. Just remembering his odd hairstyle and habit of eating senbei before even touching the code brought a mix of laughter and nostalgia.

“Aoyama.”

Hakase smiled, seeing my mood shift.

“Come on, Miss Kikushi!” he said, with an almost offensively enthusiastic tone. “You worked so hard to get here, you’re not going to let this bring you down! You’re the star hacker of the family. Didn’t your father always say that good engineers learn even from obstacles?”

I couldn’t help but laugh, recalling how my father, a great engineer, always said that a good engineer learns from everything on the journey, even the tedious beginnings.

“Exactly! You’re a whirlwind of talent!” Hakase added, leaning forward with a smile. “The queen of networks and the terror of firewalls! Nothing can stop you, not even an army of bureaucratic documents!”

“Alright, enough!” I laughed, covering my face with one hand. “If you keep this up, I’ll end up believing some of those things.”

Clearly, I wasn’t the queen of anything—yet. But once again, I felt that familiar spark light up in my eyes, a rush of determination to face the challenge, even if it started with horrid tasks.

“Thanks, Hakase. You’re right. Dad’s right.”

I turned to the screen of my computer, filled with lines of code.

“All right. They want a cybersecurity analyst?”

Before I realized it, my fists pounded the desk with a resounding thud.

“I’ll give them the best cybersecurity analyst!”

~~~👩🏻‍💻~~~

My eyes scanned the pages of documentation like a quantum scanner, swift and precise. My fingers hit the keyboard hard as I logged each detail.

“Done!”

Tuesday passed.

“Done!”

Wednesday became history.

“Done!”

Thursday faded into yesterday.

“I can do it! I can do it! I can do it!”

And by Friday, the end of my first week at Anima Tech…

“I CAN’T DO IT!”

This time, my chair’s back barely held me. My office mates glanced over briefly before returning to their own tasks. I tried to keep it down, but I couldn’t help myself.

“I’ve read five documents with over 50 pages each,” I complained into the air. “And I still have… SEVEN more! But there were six just a while ago!”

Ping. Now there were eight. My eyes lost any spark of life.

“This can’t be! Shouldn’t an Anima be doing this tedious work? I want my 2060 Law! Waaaah!”

You’ve worked so hard to get here, you’re not going to let this bring you down!

I sighed, feeling the exhaustion weighing heavily on my shoulders. Though Hakase was right, giving up wasn’t an option.

“Hah. I think I need some fresh air.”

I simply stood up and walked toward the hallway, determined to take a break. I’d seen a place to relax before wrapping up the week. The only good thing, I thought, was that surely nothing worse could happen.