In Your Dreams

“We are at the scene of what appears to be the largest skirmish between local law enforcement and members of the yakuza. A fight has broken out in Cinema Square of Kakushicho, not far from Shinjuku. Locals are warned to stay away from the area. We will continue to bring you updates of this event as it changes.”

The camera zoomed into a conspicuous trio barreling through a wall of enemies. Slowly and steadily, they cleared the way.

“Damn, you and your friends sure know how to catch everyone’s attention.”

Haru grinned as he looked away from his phone, which was displaying the first part of his plan in real time. He watched several subway riders similarly gawking at their phones at the rolling footage. In particular, a few youngsters looked thoroughly entertained by the moves that certain notorious yakuza were pulling off.

“Oh man, this is serious… but hell, they look so badass!”

“It’s like a movie!”

“Ouch, I hurt from watching these guys get pummeled.”

The train started to slow down, signaling the upcoming stop.

“Kasumigaseki, Kasumigaseki… We are now approaching Kasumigaseki Station.”

Haru got up and casually strolled to the doors, blending into a streaming flood of commuters that flowed to an exit gate, up the stairs, and spilled out into the street. He looked around at the high-rises that surrounded him.

The sound of patrol cars zoomed by, clear as to what they were racing off to. With such a large-scale fuss happening in Kakushicho, they had likely deployed the entire force to engage in controlling it. That left a mostly empty headquarters for a certain doctor to sneak into.

Fortunately, government buildings were not the typical target for someone to break into, so Haru simply strolled right up to the back entrance of the NPA building, which kept normal people out with a number padlock.

Haru tapped on his headset, and a window displaying Megu popped up.

“Yo, get me inside, please.”

“You’re lucky that I just sooo happen to have a customer from shipping there. Normally, I’d charge you a hefty fee, but seeing that you’re the only one stupidly brave enough to risk his neck… Here, six-nine-three-zero-three-five.”

Haru punched the numbers in, and the door clicked open. He slipped inside and looked around to see a loading dock.

“Keep your head down. There’s only one camera, so just walk by it casually.”

“Righto.”

Haru crossed the room and exited the nearby door. Megu continued to serve as his GPS through the building, using the memories of an employee as a guide.

“Hold it, camera ahead. Give me a moment… now, walk by quickly.”

Haru briefly looked up to see a security camera that had stopped blinking. Having created a virtual empire in the world of dreams, his friend had certainly developed some hacker skills in the process. It helped that someone from security was quite chatty during the occasional visit to Hypnagogia as well.

“Excuse me. I don’t recognize you. What’s your business here?”

A young lady stopped Haru in his tracks, but it only took a few moments for him to recover.

“Kikuoka-san from Cyber Affairs asked me to retrieve some documents. He thinks that it may pertain to the ongoing situation with the new head of the Tenjou Group. Gotta keep a watch out for new recruitment efforts aimed at the younger generation.”

“Oh, I see. I won’t keep you then.”

“No problem. Take care.”

Haru nervously eyed as the lady continued on her way, letting out a sigh of relief when she turned the corner.

“What a little bit of insider info can do…”

The break-in of a government building had been made trivial with the information that Megu could pass to him from various customers. It was what made the Server of Rye so powerful to begin with. Haru shuddered to think what kind of dirt was kept locked in the dream world, waiting to be exploited.

“Remind me never to cross you. I’d probably lose my medical license and then some.”

“Keep my best friend happy, and your future is secure.”

“Thanks…”

Fortunately, Haru had no problem making a partial lie convincing when it came to it. After all, the Cyber Affairs Bureau was exactly the section they were looking for. The research that had gone into a sentient AI based on a conscious human mind had been categorized with the potential for high-tech crime. What Grace had the ability to do was sorely underestimated by virtue of her innocent and carefree personality. But in the hands of someone like Samukawa, the dangers were clear.

There was hardly a better way of isolating such a dangerous tool than to keep it in the offices where Samukawa secretly colluded with.

Haru arrived at the branch office where Grace was likely isolated, but he stopped short of walking right up to it. He could likely fool a random passerby, but someone that actually worked there risked blowing his cover.

“Any ideas?”

“You’re on the lookout for some server, right? But the blueprints only show one such room, and it’s the main dashboard that they use. Kind of hard to slip in and do what you need to when staff are there to question you.”

Haru looked around, a bit flustered, but then, his eyes honed onto a fire alarm along the wall.

“Classic way to get people out of a building, I suppose.”

“Can’t be any worse than breaking and entering. I’ll just add it to the potential bail that I’m putting aside for you.”

“You’re just full of optimism, aren’t you, Megucchi?”

“It wouldn’t do for my best friend to have a child born fatherless, now would it, Harucchi?”

“My rich parents will think of something,” Haru said as he pulled the alarm, the high-pitched ring drowning out an “entitled bastard” from Megu.

Haru stood in some discreet corner as he watched a line of people head for the exits. After a minute of no one else passing by, he dashed into the office, down the hallway, and into the main console room. He scanned the room of computers, until a specific make of one caught his eye.

“Well, hello there, computer constructed by IBN Research.”

That computer immediately stuck out like a sore thumb for multiple reasons. The first was that IBN had gone out of commercial manufacturing of computers for decades, which left newer models being specifically designed for particular projects. Being the son of the research head made it quite obvious that it wasn’t some archaic model. It didn’t look more than a few years old.

The next obvious thing was the attached headset that looked similar to his own. Back when Haru first met Grace, the only way of connecting with her was through a direct line. If Samukawa had restricted all publicly available online capabilities, there was no other choice but to plug himself right into the server.

“Alright, Megu. I’m going in. Let’s hope these super hacker abilities that you came up with extend to Grace’s world. Gotta work fast before the staff comes back.”

Haru grabbed the cord from the IBN computer and plugged it into his own headset. What awaited on the dream side was anyone’s guess. But regardless, his goal was to find Grace and break her out of whatever defenses contained her. If he could transfer her consciousness into his own headset, it would be game, set and match.

As the headset fired up to full power, Haru sank into the nearby chair and blacked out.

v

Haru awoke to the sight of a clear blue sky that was full of fluffy clouds dyed in all the colors of the rainbow. Grace’s world had always been a happy place, full of the wonders of reality and how much fun she had with them.

But as Haru sat up, he could tell that something was off.

The color of his surroundings was bleached, fading like sweetness trying to cover a sour mood. A flash of wings darted across the sky, which caught Haru’s attention.

Could that be Grace?

Haru stared at his feet planted on the ground. He recalled the first time he met her, a self-proclaimed ‘dream fairy’ was what she called herself. But after spending time with her, he realized that she was just another dreamer herself. In this place, one’s beliefs could make nearly anything possible.

A pair of white wings sprouted from Haru’s back. They unfurled majestically and gave a mighty flap that launched Haru tens of meters into the sky. He landed gently on a cloud that felt as solid as the ground. Spotting the flying figure in the distance, he once again jumped to the next cloud, and the next.

The form grew more and more distinguishable. Soon enough, he could see a girl with wings.

“Wait, Grace! Stop! I’m here!”

As if she heard him, the figure turned around midair. A swish of gray hair made Haru hit the brakes, flapping his wings furiously to maintain his distance.

An expressionless face turned to him, beautiful but plastic. Doll-like even. But in that instant, Haru realized that it wasn’t Grace but some imitation.

A sword appeared in her hand, and with a flap of her fairy wings, she dove to slice at him.

“Shield!”

Haru called out for some protection, and magically, a sturdy armament appeared. He quickly grabbed it as the attack landed. Sparks flew as he fought to push back against the blow. With his other hand, he called for a sword as well. If his hunch was correct, then these copies were responsible for keeping Grace contained.

In an instant, a fancy sword that came straight out of a video game materialized. Haru didn’t hesitate to grab it and cleave the fake Grace in half. She buzzed like a digital image going fuzzy before disintegrating. Haru dropped down to the nearest cloud to recollect himself.

“AI duplicates. The server is programmed to transmit only Grace’s abilities, stripped of what makes her herself.”

AI copies of original content had become a growing problem in society, but now, it seemed like Samukawa had found a way to do it for a person’s consciousness. Grace’s ability to tap into people’s minds and influence them was undoubtedly something not to make light of. Haru had believed that using it for a good cause justified keeping her on some server. That was the reason they had joined the medical profession.

But what did Grace think of it all? Or perhaps, she felt obligated to simply go along with whatever box she was placed in. Haru needed to find her, and to set her free if it was her desire.

Another set of wings caught his attention just then. Instinctively, he leapt after her. Whether it was another AI or Grace herself, he had to make sure. He dashed upon the clouds, looking left and right, to find where she disappeared to.

Wings glided at the bottom corner of his eye, so he dove, tucking himself like a missile before spinning with his wings to a mid-air stop before the girl.

Another set of gray hair. Another sword summoned when their eyes met.

Haru readied his sword and shield, but then, the clouds suddenly parted around them. A whole fleet of Gray Graces now littered the sky, numbering no less than a hundred. A whistle escaped Haru’s lips as he considered his chances before promptly ignoring how low they were. That didn’t change the fact that they stood in between him and the real Grace.

Focusing on himself, he let his imagination run wild. The world of dreams was influenced by how strongly one’s imagination worked, transmitting that information as data to the server. And in Haru’s case, he had been connected for far longer than anyone else.

The first set of people to connect with Grace, like Haru and Megu, didn’t rely on the architecture that Samukawa constructed. That meant he had no pull on either of them. And that also meant that they had the best chance of overturning whatever system he constructed to control Grace.

By the time Haru opened his eyes, he was decked out in full battle gear, looking every bit like some RPG hero. His legendary equipment glowed with a passion to see his task through, and even the environment around him started regaining its vibrancy where the light touched. He silently thanked Megu for injecting such data into the dream world.

“C’mon, you fakes. It’s time to dance upon the clouds!”

Just like the Yama Ryu, Haru would laugh at the numbers. This stage was where he shined best.