Back to War

“Hey, come on, kid, what gives? Just say yes so we can get to the next phase of the plan.” I jump up from my seat and turn on him, unable to believe what I just heard. We finally got everyone to agree to this little scheme, and now he gets cold feet?

Though I expect him to shrink away at my outburst, he stands firm. “What do you think will happen if Mr. Fujisaki creates an army of Xyrite yous? Assuming you win against the Americans, then what? Turn you on our allies in Europe? He’ll just pump out more and more robots until he has a monopoly on force across the entire world, and then what? Who controls that army, you, or a different you? Will you fight among yourselves, or will you decide to gang up and oppress the rest of us?”

“Mr. Hosokawa,” Fujisaki says, “I can assure you that won’t happen.”

“Because you’ll do something to the robots to ensure their loyalty?” the kid snaps. “So then you’ll be in control of a slave army that can be used to control the rest of us?”

Fujisaki smiles at the kid, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. I can tell he’s annoyed, but also, he doesn’t take the kid seriously. “Should that happen, of course I would of course control the robots in accordance with the emperor’s instructions.”

“Maybe you will,” the kid says. “But for how long? Will your son obey the emperor? Will your grandson? It would only take a single Fujisaki descendant to decide he’d make a better ruler and overthrow the emperor. You’re not saving the Empire: You’re destroying it!”

Fujisaki looks genuinely shocked. Had he really not considered that possibility, or is he just acting to fool the kid? Probably the latter. Men like him, who shout patriotic slogans from the rooftops while never setting foot on the battlefield themselves, are only interested in power. Maybe he wouldn’t ever usurp the emperor, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t control what the emperor said. After all, the army and navy have been doing it for nearly a century.

“I can assure you,” Fujisaki finally says, “that we’ll take precautions to make sure that never happens. The robots won’t be ‘slaves,’ as you put it, but they will be… conditioned to revere the emperor. It’s not too difficult. Our experiments show that by stimulating certain predispositions in the Xyrite brain, we can amplify them until they become the dominant force driving the robot’s personality. You may have noticed the Chiyo you took acts more… lascivious than you remember, Mr. Tsuruta.”

Relief washes over me. So all the Chiyos aren’t like that? So when I trade this one in for the original, she’ll be the sweet, innocent sister I remember? That’s great.

That’s great, but… what about all the others? It’s OK for Fujisaki and his lab goons to twist my sister’s personality every which way, so long as they don’t lay a finger on the original?

Increase her natural curiosity and intelligence, and you could replace an entire R&D department with hundreds of Chiyos. Foster her caring nature, and with a bit of medical training, you could ship thousands out as field nurses. But what would they hope to gain by increasing her libido except to make her into some kind of robot prostitute?

Sickos, the lot of them. I’m not going to stand by and let this happen, but I can’t do anything about it unless I can get closer to Fujisaki and learn his plans. And to do that, I need the kid’s cooperation, so I pull him into a huddle and touch my implant to his. That way, we can talk over minute crystal vibrations that can’t be overheard.

“I don’t like this any more than you do, but we need his cooperation. Just tell him we’re on board, and we’ll think of a way to blow up his plan from the inside.”

“I… can’t. I just can’t lie the way you can.”

“Fine, then let’s make it a little more real for you.” I grab him by the collar, lift him off the ground, and push him against the wall. “Listen here, you little pipsqueak, I don’t want to hear it. If Mr. Fujisaki can ensure that they’re loyal to the emperor, that’s good enough for me. It should be good enough for any decent, red-blooded Japanese citizen, but you, you’re going to inherit a fortune on top of it. So stop complaining or get in line, soldier, before I make you get in line.”

“But—”

I slap him across the face, hard enough to make him feel it, but not hard enough to leave a mark. From the shocked expression on his face, it looks like even his father never hit him before. Tears well up in the corners of his eyes, and he chokes back a sniffle.

“What, are you going to cry now?” I sneer. “Do you think it’s acceptable to cry in front of another man, especially on such a happy occasion? Are you really going to show weakness to Mr. Fujisaki? There are other Hosokawas we could throw in with, you know. Either toughen up and show us you have what it takes to serve the Emperor or get out of the way.”

“OK, I’ll—” The kid hiccups. “I’ll cooperate. Please, help me become the next head of The Hosokawa Group.”

I put him down and dust off his suit jacket. “There, see? That wasn’t so hard.”

“A bit overdramatic, if you ask me,” Fujisaki says.

I rub the back of my head with one hand. “Yeah, well, I can’t take any credit for that speech. I learned it all from my drill instructor.”

A genuine smile appears on Fujisaki’s face. “I’m glad to see you’re still on the right side, Mr. Tsuruta. I’ll have a letter of recommendation sent to the Hosokawa board, and then I hope you’ll come see me once that business is all taken care of, so we can begin our truly important work.

“Roger.” I salute and walk the kid out of the building. When we’re far enough away, near the edge of the spacious courtyard in front of the building, I relax my shoulders. “Sorry I had to do that, but I had to get closer to Fujisaki. For what it’s worth, I feel worse about this whole thing than you do.”

Truthfully, I don’t know how I feel about things. I should be happy that Chiyo is alive, and hell, that there are more of her now. The world can always use a bit more sunshine. And I’m relieved that the original doesn’t go off on long diatribes about how much she wants to get boned by rich old guys, but that just means I’m a crappy older brother who only wants his sister to behave as he remembers her six years ago.

In the back of my mind, I’m thinking that maybe I could have Fujisaki tinker with her a bit, make her better than she used to be. I know it’s horrific to just change someone like that, but after all my years of suffering, you can’t blame me for wanting to live an easy, ideal life.

I wouldn’t care if she was the original. Deep down, that’s the kind of lousy, selfish brother I want to be. If I lose myself to a moment of weakness, it’s the kind of brother I will become.

“You mean you don’t really want to take over the world with an army of your clones?” the kid asks.

“Nah. One of me’s enough for this world, don’t you agree?”

“Oh, I think one of you is plenty,” a voice comes from behind us. “In fact, it’s one too many if you ask me.”

We spin around to find ourselves being held at crystalpoint by Mr. Hosokawa, the kid’s father.