Unraveling the Unseen

I tried to make sense of why Yuna was in that video, silently watching Hideo’s father beating his son. The setting appeared to be a private office, and given this was a classified video, Bluefort had clearly been made to pretend it didn’t exist. It was unbelievable that Bluefort allowed such violence to occur in front of it without taking action. What had happened to its judgment? Wasn’t it programmed to uphold justice and enforce the rules it was designed to follow?

Then I remembered Daichi. No—Bluefort was unreliable. It had been corrupted, its sense of justice warped. Someone had tampered with its system, distorting its perspective. It had turned a blind eye to the violence in the barracks.

The AI used before Bluefort had been a huge disaster because it had mistakenly launched biohazard nuclear bombs at several countries, causing the whole stupid war. Instead of relying more on human intelligence, they had created Bluefort and claimed it was better because it had learned human behavior by watching their every move. But it was all a load of bullshit. Bluefort still had a flaw; it learned from a human with corrupt behavior. And worse, it had the highest authority to do anything it saw fit.

To end it all, Bluefort had to be destroyed—or at least rebooted with different authority levels. At its current setting, it had the power to overrule humans' decisions. That certainly wouldn’t bode well.

“You’re surely taking your sweet time in the middle of a crisis,” Shiba quipped, snapping me out of my chain of thought.

I was so shaken by the new information about Yuna that I didn’t realize we had been lingering in an empty hospital room. The fire alarm was still ringing, but there were no voices outside. Everyone must have already evacuated because of the alarm I had triggered. Sooner or later, someone would realize it was a false alarm and come in to check. I had to get out of here. Quickly.

Before I could decide on my next move, Hideo barged into the room, looking terribly pissed off. “What the hell are you doing here? Where’s Haru?” His gaze then landed on the holographic screens that Shiba had projected—I had completely forgotten about those. His expression shifted instantly. Fear replaced his rage. “H-how did you get this footage?”

Shiba hurriedly turned off his projection, but it was in vain. The damage had been done.

This wasn’t part of my plan. I never thought Hideo would find out I was snooping on his privacy. What should I say to get myself out of this situation?

However, my stupid self decided that asking about Yuna took priority over everything else. “Hideo, do you know that girl? The redhead in the background?”

Hideo collected himself faster than I had expected. In an instant, he sprinted across the room and stood before me. Grabbing the collar of my shirt, he shoved me against the wall. “Answer me! Where did you get this footage?”

I could barely breathe with his weight pressing down on me, but I managed to squeeze out a few words. “Answer my question, and I’ll answer yours.”

“She’s my father’s new secretary! Why are you so obsessed with her, anyway? That lady is so shady. I know she’s hiding something.” His eyes widened in realization. “Wait. Are you working with her too? I knew it! That’s why you got that footage! She must have given it to you!”

I pushed Hideo away with all my might, staggering him backward a few steps. “No! I’m not working with anyone. I asked my robot dog to dig up your footage because it’s labeled ‘classified’. Why is your footage classified, Hideo? Care to explain? Is that because of your highly ranked father? Do you need to keep his records clean?”

I didn’t see the fist coming until it was too late. It landed hard on my cheek, and I stumbled, falling onto my butt. My head throbbed. I could taste blood in my mouth. Mentioning his father must have been a trigger. Then again, with his short fuse, almost anything could set him off.

“Don’t you dare say a word about my father in front of me!” Hideo spat, delivering a sharp kick to my gut.

I groaned in pain. Everything hurt. Screw this. “So it’s true, then? Your father has the authority to make Bluefort label your footage ‘classified’.”

Hideo kicked me once again. “Shut up!”

I coughed, enduring the pain. He didn’t hold back even though I wasn’t the real enemy. He didn’t deny my words, so everything must be true. Despite his father’s abuse, he was still trying to protect him. I almost felt bad for him. I couldn’t even bring myself to be angry at him for hitting me.

But I didn’t have time for this. Failing to capture Haru meant no reward day off like last time. I needed to get to Juri and find out what was on that memory card. With Yuna now inside the base and so close to the higher-ups, she had to be planning something serious. Even Hideo could sense her ill intentions. I had to figure it out before she made her move.

Now was my only chance, since I was outside the base.

Right on time, Enma rushed into the room along with Shiba. He must have asked Enma to come from the parking lot when Hideo arrived.

Nice move, Shiba.

While Hideo was distracted by Enma’s presence, I forced myself to stand despite the pain and ran out of the door, shouting, “Enma, stall for as long as possible. There’s something I need to do.”

“Don’t get yourself into too much trouble!” I heard Enma yell behind me. She probably guessed what I was doing—something to do with investigating Bluefort’s corruption. After all, she had entrusted Shiba to me and bet on me to do the right thing. I wasn’t sure it had been a wise decision on her part. I was already getting myself into trouble.

Shiba followed closely behind me as I sprinted down the corridor and out of the hospital. The front yard was crowded with people due to the false alarm, but they made way for Shiba and me. Everyone recognized the large-sized dog as a Bluehound K-9, efficiently identifying me as an active soldier. That really helped me get through without too much questioning.

When we were on the sidewalk, looking for a taxi, I finally caught my breath and asked Shiba, “Can you turn off any connection with the base? Can they track or control you remotely?”

Shiba retorted, “Do you think I’m an idiot? The moment you asked me to break the rules, I disconnected myself from the main system. But this will only buy us time. They’ll come to get us, you know. A Bluehound K-9 and a soldier out of reach isn’t a good look.”

For the first time since I met Shiba, I petted him. “I know. Thank you for doing this for me. I promise, I’m doing this to make the murderer of your creator pay for their crimes.”

Shiba moved away from my hand. “I’m not doing this for you. I’m making my own decision.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Once I was inside the taxi, heading straight to Juri’s apartment, it finally dawned on me how serious the situation was.

I had officially deserted the military. I was a Drifter.