Cat's Paw

"The first machines were made of metal and plastic. They were given the form of man, but it was a rough approximation imitating that of their creator. Due to it only being an imitation it was necessary to improve the process. For people fear that which is different and machines appeared like walking corpses in the shape of man. This need to bring machines closer to man brought about many changes.”

Herbert Stein, Machine Historian -

Satoru's eyes widened in disbelief that he was actually looking at the man that ran the entire company. "W-wha-wha-what?!" He nearly fell back in his chair, but it held firm against his shaken body. Words were barely able to form for Satoru as he looked at the man. "Y-y-y-your…"

"Wow, that's a much better reaction than I could have expected," Yuu said with a wide playful grin across his face. He let out a small laugh enjoying how much of an impact his reveal had on Satoru.

"Y-y-y-you can't be," Satoru said, still not wanting to believe that this was the one that had made all of those decisions. He was having difficulty keeping his composure so that he could get to matters that were more important. It had been his wish to actually speak to Yuu Hongawa face-to-face so that he could get answers from the man. Yet now that he looked at him all he saw was a man that was getting his amusement from surprising him.

Yuu leaned back in his chair scratching his head as though he was thinking, but the simple expression that belied his face spoke against any serious consideration. "Is it that difficult to believe?" He knew that he was somewhat of a recluse, but it never seemed to have gotten so bad. Maybe, he wasn’t thinking from the right perspective though. Yuu tilted his head to the right with his eyes wandering around with empty thoughts swirling around.

Satoru finally regained himself and stood up looking down across the desk at Yuu. "No one in the entire company has seen your face ever. You've never left your office in the ten years since you've taken over the company. Most don't even think you're real and the rest think you're dead." In spite of what Satoru said sounding like an exaggeration, it was the unfortunate truth. No one knew anything about the President, most just figured that the company was being run by the board of directors and they just made up the President.

The room remained quiet for a moment after Satoru finished his indirect tirade. Satoru awkwardly sat back down in his chair seeing the curious stare from Yuu piercing him. It made him feel weird as though he had actually offended the man. "Is it really that bad, Natsuko?" Yuu turned around in his chair looking back at Natsuko who had suddenly appeared in the doorway oblivious to everyone but Yuu. If he had been offended by Satoru's words he didn’t show it as the child-like expression surfaced again.

Natsuko had been silently standing in the doorway of the room not wanting to interrupt the two men and was suddenly given the spotlight. She didn’t know what to say without openly agreeing with Satoru. It was the truth as much as she would have liked to deny it. "Well…I…uh…"

"Natsuko?!" Satoru said standing up again. He just remembered that he had seen her before he blacked out. Now she was here with the President and they seemed to know each other. Satoru was at a loss for words again feeling like he was still so in the dark after everything that had happened.

"Has it really been ten years?" he said, still looking at Natsuko. After he saw that she was confirming what Satoru said even through her silence he turned back towards Satoru. "Huh, could have sworn it has only been nine years. Hmm…I guess I should have gotten out more." Yuu walked over to Satoru, extending his arm around behind him pointed at the door. "How about a walk, Satoru?"

"Wha?!" Satoru said, looking with a tilted head at Yuu. He wasn’t sure if he was being serious or just playing with him still. The man made him uncertain about anything that he thought he knew about the supposed person that ran Qintech. All of the preconceived ideas were being shattered piece by piece. Satoru didn’t know what to think anymore about the man.

Natsuko stepped up quickly, getting between Satoru and Yuu. "Sir! You can't leave the safety of the facility!" The over-protective stare of Natsuko coursed over Yuu. Yuu backed away a step only letting out a small grin and a laugh.

Satoru moved to put himself between the two, wanting some answers. "Natsuko? What's going on, Natsuko? Why are you here and how do you know him?" He was almost jealous for some unknown reason that Natsuko was suddenly defending and protecting Yuu now. It didn’t make sense. 'Things could not have changed this much in the time that I've been away, could it?'

"It's complicated," Natsuko said, not giving a clear answer to Satoru. She looked away from him as wrinkles pushed together over her forehead. Natsuko knew that there were many things that Satoru needed to know eventually, but she didn’t know when was the right time. She didn’t want to overwhelm him. He was already dealing with so many difficult and sensitive problems.

As Natsuko tried to walk away Yuu stepped up to confront Satoru. "Oh come on, Natsuko, you can tell him. No?" Yuu looked to get approval from Natsuko, but only found her back. He let out a soft sigh and faced Satoru to give him an answer. "Alright, she's my sister," Yuu said proudly, grabbing Natsuko a little roughly in a familial manner looking with a strange sort of brotherly love glowing in his eyes.

"Sir!" Natsuko protested Yuu's declaration. She was helplessly taken off guard that Yuu would go and so casually say that to Satoru.

Satoru stepped backward, finding his expression of disbelief returning to his face as he stared at the two. "Sis….sis-wait a minute. You don't even have the same last name!" It took Satoru a moment for the state of shock to wear off for him to think rationally and put things together correctly. He had to remember that Yuu wasn’t the man that he thought he was. Satoru would have thought that the President of the company would have been a little more serious, especially given the nature of what was happening.

"Adopted?" Yuu said, trying to recover realizing that he had made a rather obvious mistake.

"Huh?" The lengths that Yuu was going to left Satoru unbalanced. As he struggled to get his footing back Natsuko was fighting off Yuu to bring order back.

"Sir, please stop joking around!" she said, sounding like she was scolding a child.

Yuu backed off from Natsuko straightening out his shirt a little. "Ugh! You're no fun, Natsuko." He walked back to his chair sitting down leaning back completely looking very pleased with himself. "Well at least his reaction was priceless. That's payment enough for me."

Now that the room had settled down once more, Satoru felt like he could think for once. There had been questions that he wanted answered, but it seemed that every moment he was close to it the man misdirected him. 'Who is this man? He can't really be the president of the company. He isn't even being serious.' The way that Yuu was looking now seemed like he was ready for Satoru to begin getting to the heart of the matter. There was no longer a smile on the man's face replaced with a dark contrast to what he had seen before. "What's going on here? Someone tell me what I'm doing here?"

It was the question that he had been waiting for, but ignoring until now. Yuu leaned into his desk placing his hands against his face with the elbows resting on the desk's top. His eyes pierced through Satoru with a narrow expression. "I need you, Satoru. You're necessary for my plans." The way that Yuu sounded almost sinister as though the joking was just a ploy for Satoru to soften him up before the strike.

Satoru looked down at the chair he was sitting in trying not to allow the rage burn through him completely. "Necessary? So you plan on using me too? Is that all I'm good for? I'm just someone's tool to further your own egomaniacal ends." The shaking in his legs and arms became too much for him to contain, forcing him to stand up looking straight at Yuu nearly yelling. "Well if that's the case I'm not going to help you. I'm no one's pawn."

An almost indignant look washed over Yuu's face as he looked at Satoru. He blinked once, still not saying anything back to him waiting for Satoru to breathe for a moment. "Damn…someone can't take a joke." The irksome smile of Yuu's had returned to his face destroying the seriousness that he had managed to maintain for Satoru.

Unbalanced in his knees again, Satoru's emotions cracked and flowed out of him as he stared puzzled at Yuu. "Huh?" All of the anger he had just evaporated on him mysteriously. He was beginning to feel like he was a yo-yo in Yuu's hands.

Yuu leaned back in his chair once again looking over his kicked up feet at Satoru. "You're too stiff. You need to loosen up. I'm barely older than you and you're already looking like an old man with all that depression. You need to learn to live your life and not trudge through it."

"Who are you to lecture me about how to live my life?" Satoru threw his arm in an arch at Yuu as he stepped forward. He wasn’t about to have some stranger tell him how to live his own life. This man might be a joker and not take anything seriously, but that did not give him the right to pretend to know what Satoru had to deal with. "Do you have any idea of the things that I've had to deal with? You couldn't possibly know what my life's been like for me. It's my life not yours."

"Well it's good to see you've got more of a backbone now. At least that's improved."

"How dare you!" Satoru slammed both hands on Yuu's desk leaning in towards him. He was moments away from leaping over the desk to punch him to the ground. "What right do you have!?"

When Satoru pressed in there was a sudden change in Yuu reminiscent of the look that he had previously. The center monitor behind the desk went black in an instant removing the majority of the light that filled the room. A second later a picture of Satoru appeared on screen with a list of information both business and personal. The light from the monitor cast a heavy light on Yuu as he stood up to face Satoru. "Satoru Kuromura. Last day you reported for work was June 23th. You were born in Osaka, Japan. During the second machine war your father was injured in the Tokyo riots and was unable to work due to the injuries. Your mother works six days a week to make enough to keep their house. The money you make goes back to your family with just enough for you to live on.

"You graduated from Tokyo Technical School of Computers with high honors at the age of 22. Six months later you joined Qintech as an assistant. You got your high school friend Kiyoshi Nakahoshi a job at Qintech one month after. You were promoted to project lead at the age of 25 on the Sakura Project. June 5th you were outside the Kamihara Building when it was destroyed, saved by Asami Ichihana before the debris could kill you.

"You left this company when it decided to change the direction of the company on June 23th. On July 9th you were attacked by five assailants mistaking you for being a machine. Asami Ichihana rescued and you learned her true identity. And today you were betrayed by your best friend Kiyoshi Nakahoshi."

Satoru stared at the images that flashed before him as Yuu ran down a long list. He saw personal family photos mixed in as well as videos captured from several different times. There was even video of the explosion at the Kamihara Building. All of the memories that Yuu brought back for Satoru only made him angrier. This time the man was being serious; there was no joking. Satoru marched towards him ready to lay him out with his fists. "Why you…"

Yuu could see that he hit a nerve with Satoru. It was to be expected, but he had to get through all of the layers quickly if he was going to have any chance in getting through to him. "I know your personal life very well. I know all the pain and suffering you've had to deal with in your life. Betrayal after betrayal, death and love. However, it's time for you to make a decision."

"Decision?" Satoru held himself back for a second. The change in direction left him lost at where Yuu was going with him now. He was quickly moving topics and not providing him the information. "What are you talking about?"

"Will you live and change fate or die and crawl up in a shell? Your answer will mean life or death for this world." Yuu spoke clearly and directly, but it remained ever vague without a meaning. However, Yuu stood there expecting an answer from Satoru.

Now Satoru was completely confused with Yuu suddenly placing the entire world on his shoulders. There had to be a mistake. Satoru knew that he was not so important as to be able to affect the world. "Me? The world?"

"Just kidding!" Yuu said, roughly slapping Satoru's shoulder.

Natsuko jumped up to try to reel Yuu back in so that he didn’t end up doing something that they all would regret. "Sir!"

"I couldn't help it."

"Damn you!" Satoru was tired of being yanked around by this fool of man. He grabbed Yuu by his shirt and pulled him in ready to punch him. "I'm going to kill you!" His fist tightened behind him pressing against the urge to resist. Any self-control that he might have had was evaporating with this man. He took nothing seriously, only playing with others' lives.

Natsuko ran up behind Satoru holding his arm so that he couldn’t move it. Yuu released himself from Satoru's grip, putting distance between them. He dusted off his shirt pushing out the wrinkles. "No sense of humor. We'll have to work on that. But in all seriousness."

Satoru glared at the man not believing that he was actually going to be serious for longer than a second. He struggled with Natsuko for a moment, finding her to be stronger than he thought. Resigned to being forced to listen to the man, Satoru loosened up his body. 'Now you're going to be serious? How many times has he pretended to be serious only to change his tune? I can't tell when this man is actually serious and joking.'

Yuu walked around his desk, placing it between the two of them. "I was partially correct when I said that I needed you. I do need you, but it's not for some evil purpose. Will you follow me?" He stood in the doorway now where Natsuko had been when this had started. His arms were out welcoming Satoru to leave the confinement that he was currently in.

There seemed to be no ulterior motive, but Satoru was suspicious of anything that the man did at this point. He stared at Yuu with an obvious expression that he didn’t believe a word from Yuu's mouth. 'What's this man's angle this time?'

"What don't trust me?" Yuu pretended to look wounded. However, he wasn’t surprised. This actually pleased him more than anything else.

Natsuko stepped in front of Satoru looking at him. "Satoru, please. You can trust him." She knew if there were anyone that could convince Satoru at this point it would be her. Though she feared that there was too much damage done for her to repair quickly enough.

"That remains to be seen," Satoru said quietly, still deciding what he was going to do. There weren’t many options available to him being at the mercy of the President and whatever plans he actually did have that he wasn’t revealing yet.

"Then come with me and see with your own eyes."