Mixed Motives

"The war officially began when the machines declared war on the entire human race, but that was not where it all began. There had been a build up with a small border dispute in Eastern Europe that began it all. The dispute grew into all out war after a double assassination killed both of the political leaders in their respective countries leaving an overly aggressive military in charge.

"The collapse of the two governments dropped the region into anarchy quickly and as history had seen before it quickly drew in the surrounding countries. The two rival nations were armed with weapons supplied by a foreign corporation out of Western Europe specializing in mechanical soldiers. The war was left in a stalemate with both sides having equal forces and power. But the nations' military were not satisfied seeing that they could take over more surrounding territory with their superior strength.”

Herbert Stein, Machine Historian -

The day finally moved on with everyone settling down into their seats and starting work. It moved along uneasily as though time itself was cautious of them to start something up again. However, nothing happened and the day came to an end. Satoru was able to leave with little more than a headache that developed slowly over the day from the silent stress. His mind was constantly thinking about the war that was beginning and what had happened to him. The explosions and memories weren’t far behind him.

The next two weeks passed carefully for everyone. The government pushed its war campaign on the public. They were quickly behind it in strong support. Many of the men and women were going off to war either enlisting on their own or being called up from reserves. It was being herald as a courageous and momentous time in history when the machines would finally be destroyed. The approval ratings were shooting through the roof for them and some of the even more greedy members were making speeches about getting the Anti-AI Act increased even more. It made Satoru ill seeing that everything was spiraling out of control, as he knew it would.

During the time he wasn’t free from the thoughts about Asami as much as he hoped that it would fade away into the background. Even with everything that was happening around him it was the only thing that gave him a little hope that there could be something good to look forward to in the future. But every time he thought about her it consumed him making him not want to think about her more knowing the distraction that it caused.

However, now that it was two weeks later another progress report was required of them and Kiyoshi entered the office on Monday morning. Satoru had a pretty good idea that was the reason for his appearance, but even still he had hoped that there was another reason, whatever that could possibly be. "It's that time again, I need someone to make the progress report to the military. I know how much you hate doing Satoru, so if you want to send someone else."

Satoru's shoulders fell a little in the confirmation that it was in fact that time again as Kiyoshi said. It was a little surprising to him that he was giving him an out for it though. He had had lunch with him a couple times talking about the last meeting, but even still Kiyoshi shouldn’t have been letting their friendship get in the way of what should be done. Unfortunately, Asami suddenly came to his mind immediately closing down any thought he had of accepting the open invitation not to go to the meeting. "No, that's fine," he said with reluctance though it was hard to determine if he was faking it or not. There was an eagerness in his heart that was making him feel strangely again. "I'll take care of it."

"Alright then, it's tomorrow at 10am," Kiyoshi said, shrugging a little not completely sure why Satoru had turned down the offer. However, he wasn’t going to draw it out into an argument over a simple matter. If Satoru was willing to take the abuse then that was his call.

"Alright." Satoru nodded with a small grin suddenly appearing across his mouth as Kiyoshi left the office. He was feeling warm and excited for no reason even though he knew that it was another meeting with the Lt. Colonel and he should be dreading it, not looking forward to it. The confusion was transparent to him knowing that he was going to be able to see Asami again. The simple thought of her name conjured up images of her, this time their last meeting, a more pleasant memory.

Satoru turned around trying to clear himself up only to find that several of his co-workers had gathered around him, again. This time they were looking at him confused. One of them opened the floor with the question that was on all of their minds. "You were complaining about it for a week the last time, boss. Why you doing it willingly now?"

There was the same question going through him, but he knew that he couldn’t tell them what the real reason was for him. "No reason to put you through the trouble. It's part of my duties, just something I've got to learn to live with." It was hardly the truth, but it was as close as he was willing to get to around them. If they knew what it really was they would torment him endlessly as they did in the past. He was not going to willingly walk into that accident.

"You're being surprisingly understanding about it," Chiyoko said, pushing him for a better answer than the one that he gave. Her usual kind and supportive manner wasn’t present, but in a strange way it was still there. The fact that she didn’t seem to buy the reason made Satoru start to sweat a little. These were all smart people that he was with; it wouldn’t take much for them to piece together, even something closer to the truth.

That moment was sooner than Satoru hoped with Kazuhiko popping up between Chiyoko and Natsuko. "Yeah, he's probably running off to see his assistant again." The bluntness of his words was enough to make the two women divide in disgust. However, it wasn’t enough to be the end for Satoru. Now that Kazuhiko's more hormonal thinking was let loose in the room there was no stopping it now as everyone else came to the equally more rational conclusion.

Even if they were headed down the correct path Satoru wasn’t about to give up the fight just yet to them. "Its nothing like that." He was always playing denial with them as though it was a mirror of the turmoil inside him about what he was doing. They saw pleasure in his troubles it seemed and he was going to continue to deny as long as he could. "It's something that I have to do. It's part of my duties."

"I can see it in your eyes," Kazuhiko said with a wide grin on his face. "You can't hide it." His expression showed that he believed he knew that he was right. There was no doubt in his mind and he was going to play it out as much as he could. Kazuhiko patted Satoru on the back, knocking him around a little, showing his pride in his boss for going after the woman.

"Satoru? Is that why you're going?" Natsuko said, stepping up cautiously to him. She had the look of uncertainty, still not sure if Kazuhiko was telling the truth. There was the part of her that didn’t want to believe that he was right given his perverted thoughts that came out so often. Natsuko moved closer to Satoru holding her hands together hoping that was not the reason Satoru was taking the meeting.

Seeing the worried and confused face of Natsuko made him feel guilty about what he was doing. He was using the meeting as an excuse to see Asami again because he didn't have the courage to do it on his own time. Also, he never asked her for her number the last time so he couldn’t call her. Though it would have felt a little odd for him to be asking for her number after a first date that wasn’t really a date at all. "No, of course not. It's business, nothing more." He shook his head trying to emphasize that Kazuhiko was mistaken.

Kazuhiko continued to hold Satoru close to him, speaking not so loudly, but clear enough that Satoru would not be the only one to hear. "But you haven't seen her in two weeks, I bet you're getting lonely in your bed." There was a disturbing grin across his face as he looked at Satoru.

Chiyoko pulled Kazuhiko out of Satoru's proximity and pushed him away. She pressed against him with a stare and her finger in his face. It was unclear if she was going to hit him or just instill fear. "That's disgusting, Kazuhiko."

"Hey, just saying what he's thinking." Kazuhiko tried to back away and push off his words as being Satoru. There was no one that believed it though and most of the stares were not even disappointment, but typical expectations that were unsurprised though bothered.

Satoru tried to defend himself from Kazuhiko as well as the uncertain looks that he was getting. They were pretty sure that he had honorable intentions, but there was the small part that knew he was a man like Kazuhiko. "I am not!" He turned away from them and sat down in his chair staring away at the air that filled the space between him and his desk. Once he began to space out the group quickly lost interest in Satoru and returned to work. He didn’t even notice that they had disappeared. 'I wish Kazuhiko wasn't always so right…I mean he isn't, but he is…agh! What am I going to do?'