New Encounters

"Fear was wielded and used as a cry to shake the masses. They would agree to anything if it were to keep them safe from the bombings and deaths of their loved ones. The law grew larger, removing machines that pretended, imitated life, but had no awareness or capacity to learn. It was in a few short years that robots disappeared from the streets, factories, and homes. Everywhere that they were working from a program and not under human control they were removed.”

Herbert Stein, Machine Historian - 

A long night later the sun rose to announce morning's return finally. Satoru had managed to get to sleep soundly, not interrupted anymore in the night by his nightmares. When he awoke he was oddly ready to get up in spite of the rough night. The alarm was waiting for him to go back to sleep only to be disappointed with him turning it off. He went through his morning routine ready to leave for the meeting, but suddenly realized that there was something missing. Satoru remembered that he didn’t get the address for their meeting. "I can't believe I didn't ask her. Call Kiyoshi's office."

"Dialing Kiyoshi's office…"

A moment passed by as the computer worked to establish a connection. When an image came up on the screen it was the assistant of Kiyoshi looking at him answering him instinctually. "Nakahoshi's office, he's not here right now-"

Satoru had cut her off quickly, dispensing with pleasantries. "Hey! I'm glad I caught you. Do you know where the meeting is?"

"Oh, Mr. Kuromura…one minute please." She didn’t seem to be fazed by his rudeness and went to answer his question. After a moment of her turning away from the screen she faced him again with the address. "Here it is, it's the Benihoshi Tower."

"Thanks, I know where that is." Satoru didn’t waste anymore time cutting the line and finishing what he had to do before leaving his apartment. He didn’t have any time to go to work this time with the meeting so early. It meant that he had to take a different train to get to where he needed to go. And two trains later he had arrived at the building in a short walk.

Satoru entered the building meeting with security at the entrance. It was familiar ground almost like a week ago if it wasn’t for that fact that he was in a better mood. There was still an ill stomach, but he couldn’t avoid that with all of the preparation possible. He didn’t like meeting with the military; it always ended up negative.

He reached the guard with the line moving quickly. "Pass on through," the guard said to him, letting him into the lobby.

The distance to the receptionist at the desk was short. He felt like everything was moving too well, something had to be wrong. "I've a meeting with Lt. Colonel Takamoto at 10am."

The receptionist turned to face him immediately, responding with a pleasant smile to greet him. She only took a moment to find the necessary information to pass on to him. "Oh, yes. You can go right up. It's room 4803."

"Thank you." Satoru walked past the desk towards the elevator moving closer to the stress's source. 'Going a lot smoother than the last time. Feels a little strange, not quite like déjà vu, but close.' He stepped into the elevator riding it up to the forty-eighth floor. Stress was increasing in his chest with the ding of each floor passing by. His foot tapped the floor trying to exorcise a small amount of the tension quickly building through him.

The elevator quickly opened its doors dropping him out into the hall leaving him to find his own feet to stand. Satoru looked around the hall to get his bearings while he straightened his clothes once more. 'Let's see room 4803…there it is.' Room 4803 came upon him shortly, not giving him a chance to back out. He opened the door into the office announcing himself to the receptionist as he entered. "I'm Satoru Kuromura to see Lt. Colonel Takamoto."

The woman looked over at him from her desk, greeting him with a warm smile. "Mr. Kuromura, he is still in a meeting with someone. He'll be finished shortly."

It was the smile that took him back for a moment, but Satoru was quick to realize that he was mistaken. There was something else that had him nearly falling backwards in shock. If his eyes were playing tricks on him he didn’t want to believe it. 'I don't believe it! It's her…it's her…it really is…in front of me now. What luck is this for me to run into her again?' He couldn’t stop staring at her his mouth hung open agape. His brain couldn’t even process the concept for him to have the manners to turn away.

"Mr. Kuromura?" the woman said looking at him a little confused by his reaction to her. She started to become uneasy by his frozen unresponsive state until he finally spoke.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'll just sit down." Satoru's face turned as red as his tie once he caught up to his actions. He backed up trying to put some distance between them towards the chair, but stumbled over the table. If he hadn’t caught himself quickly he would have fallen on his back through the table painfully. The woman nearly jumped up as though to catch him in his spectacle. 'I look like a complete fool. I couldn't even say what I wanted to…but my chest it's pounding so hard. I need to calm down.'

Satoru found himself in the chair, finally reaching a point that he could attempt to calm down. His heart was racing and his body was sweating. Whether it was because he acted the fool or another reason that lie without words he couldn’t get comfortable. It felt like there was someone watching him leaving him warm and nervous. His legs were shaking, but it was no longer the stress of meeting the Lt. Colonel. It was only a few minutes later that his body remembered what stress felt like as the door opened.

The Lt. Colonel let a man in a business suit out of his office giving a parting word whispered quietly before allowing him to leave. The man didn’t waste any time in motioning Satoru into his office with angered urgency. Satoru entered the small office that consisted of only a desk and two chairs with a shelf behind the desk. It was still very empty. The Lt. Colonel sat down behind his desk starting the meeting immediately. "So Mr. Kuromura, I expect you have good things to say to me."

'No lecture? Well I guess even he can be human…at times.' Satoru adjusted himself in the chair preparing for the long haul of a status update. "Yes, the project is moving along according to the timetable. We are hopeful for it to be ready a week ahead in fact."

"This is a surprise. Normally, you number crunchers are delaying and eating up the military budget on all of your projects. Always worried about one thing or another, testing too much. Maybe it was the right decision to hire your company after all."

"Yes…thank you," Satoru said, clearing his throat softly. The sudden berating forced him into a new position in his chair. 'Not human enough, I guess.'

"And when will we have a demonstration of what this thing can do?"

"We should be ready for trials by the end of the month."

"Good. Most of the parts have already been finished. I can always rely on the factory to produce quickly. They will be delivered to you for assembly."

"Yes, sir." Sakura didn’t have a body yet or rather, the final body that was intended for her. It was simply a temporary vessel for trials during the development process. Satoru didn’t enjoy the idea of her actually receiving the real body, as it was just another sign of what she really was meant to do. He couldn’t object though and sat in the chair going back and forth with the Lt. Colonel over numbers and reports. The meeting dragged on slowly, eventually wrapping up with Satoru standing about to leave the office.

"Good day, sir." The Lt. Colonel walked him out of the office speaking to his receptionist for a moment. Satoru stepped over to the chair where he rearranged things in his bag. He falsely shuffled things around drawing out the time until the two were finished.

The Lt. Colonel looked up from the desk towards Satoru, glaring at him. "What are you still doing here, get going now!"

Satoru slapped the bag closed on his hand, being thankful that it was merely leather. He turned around facing the man to address him. "Yes, sir…" The Lt. Colonel disappeared into his office appearing as though Satoru had interrupted something. The door closed loudly, shaking Satoru. Satoru approached the woman cautiously with his bag up trying to recover his pounding heart. "I-I…"

"I'm sorry for his rudeness," she said to him with that pleasant smile again. It was enough to loosen his shoulders and relieve the stress that was building in him. Unfortunately, his heart was still pounding quickly for a different reason.

"N-no, it's alright. I'm used to it by now."

"This is my first day, so he's always like that?"

"Ah, well I think the military is always like that. They come to us for intelligence and play it off as their own."

She laughed lightly at his joke as Satoru brushed through his hair with his fingers trying to feel at ease. "Well, have a good day." The woman turned away looking back at her computer screen, leaving Satoru to walk towards the door.

Satoru didn’t know what more he could say taking the door as the polite invitation that it was. His hand gripped the knob starting to turn it when an uncontrollable reaction occurred causing him to turn back. "I…I…"

"You forget something?" she said looking up from her desk for a moment.

'Doesn't she remember? Or is it something else?' Satoru moved away from the door, hesitating in his step fighting his uncertainty. 'Courage…' He barely made it to the desk feeling his chest scattering under the aching."I-I…I'd like to thank you."

The woman turned completely, giving him her full attention while painting a confused twisting expression over her face. She looked at him as though she was piercing him with her gaze trying to find what he was thanking her for. "Huh? But I didn't do anything."

"N-no, no. Not this, I mean before. A week ago, at the Kamihara Building."

She paused in thought visibly going through her memories to recall what he was referring to. It only took a moment for her to respond with surprise that caused her to stand up. "You! It's you isn't it? I-I…." She raised her hands up to her face, taken back by the fact that the person she had saved was now standing before her. There was a sign of relief in her body to know that he was alive.

Satoru dared to step closer to her bringing them together, making her perfume present in his nose. He tried not to let it distract him as he looked at her. "Yeah, it was me who saved you from being killed in that explosion."

"I-I can't believe it. I'm so sorry that I didn't recognize you."

"It's alright."

"I'm glad to see that you're alive. I wasn't sure with all of the blood that was covering you. I'd hope that you didn't die. So many did that day." She turned away with thoughts caught around her head.

Satoru could see the sorrowful expression on her face clearly and wanted to try to take that away. He didn’t know how, but he stepped forward again now in arms reach of her. "I wanted to thank you for saving me." She looked up at him, the smile that she had faded away. "I'd like to do something to show my gratitude."

"K-knowing that you're alive is enough for me."

"Please, what about lunch?"

"I shouldn't," she said, her cheeks becoming flush suddenly. She could feel her palms warming up suddenly making them antsy at her chest.

Satoru wanted to run away, having feelings that he hadn’t felt in so long. It was as though a rusty door to the outside was being opened for the first time and he was seeing its bathing light. He wanted to welcome it in his arms. "I insist, just a thank you," he said, trying to hold back his reddish emotion as well.

"A…a-alright."

"1 o'clock at the Ocean's View. You know where it is?"

"Yes."

"Thank you." Satoru promptly disappeared from the room feeling as though he was going to burst if he stayed any longer.