Just Lucky, I Guess

ARPol Enforcer Guidance

— Somatic Conversion or ‘Soft-Death’ —

Somatic Conversion therapy, in which the entire subatomic structure is remapped to the s-light medium, created a whole new market. Early attempts were plagued by degradation and compression issues but as time has gone on, the technology has improved in leaps and bounds, with the majority of people in the developed world leasing at least two cycles a year in one of the AR spaces.

The main corridor of Arpol Central Processing was like taking a train ride through the psyche of man. The Prospector and Enforcer divisions shared the same facilities and the further you went inside the more the presentable face of law, the smiling patrons and Working Together holos degraded into the shouts and grunts of those protesting their innocence, last night’s disorderlies being shoved along the corridor, and the distant slamming of holding cell doors. Rinako skipped to one side as an officer slammed a pallid tousle haired male in a leather vest up against the wall. Kurama never seemed to have to change direction, as though his body wove along its own secret path.

‘This shouldn’t take long. I just want to check the leads.’ He said.

From behind them a voice cried out: ‘Everything you see will be forgotten!’

She turned back. The officer was now holding the tousle haired guy against the wall with one hand. ‘Yeah, yeah, save it pal.’ He spoke into a handheld comms unit with the other. ‘Call for holding cell, block 6.’

There was a pause as someone spoke on the other end.

‘—Just another zenith-zero nutjob.’ He replied.

The man he was holding eyed the device. ‘Devil’s fruit! You’re headed straight for hell!’

‘Yeah, whatever you say chief—hey, Merl.’ He shouted after them, shoving his knee into the man’s back so he could cuff him.

Kurama raised a hand. ‘Taiko. Another one, huh?’

‘Yeah, getting like they’re dropping out the sky.’

‘You guys are for it when the zen—‘ the man’s eyes caught Rinako’s. ‘Hey. Hey!’ Though he couldn’t move his arm, his hand jutted out toward her. ‘That—you see it, right?! You can see?’

His eyes blinked wildly.

The main office wasn’t much better. The moment the door opened they were assailed by the cross current of twenty different conversations being conducted across the room. Papers and holos flew everywhere, phones buzzed; Takamoto, a curly haired officer with glasses, held one under his chin as he waved away another that someone was trying to hand to him. A large blue holoscreen rotated slowly in the center of the room. It looked like a trading center during a crash, which wasn’t a bad analogy for the attempt to maintain order in the district.

‘Hey Merl.’ Said a female officer, holding a phone and chewing gum. Her eyelids were animated with cosmetic sunsets.

‘Tama.’ Kurama nodded at her as they passed.

‘Kurama, my oldest friend!‘ A tall skinny man waving a stack of loose chits hurried over to them.

‘Later.’ Kurama said and walked straight past him to the water cooler at the back of the room. He filled one of the disposable cups, gulped it down and turned to the huge white box-like machine beside it. The cup disintegrated into white smoke in his hand.

He waved his hand over a reflective black screen on the surface of the box and after a beep two small cards, one green and one pink, with elongated holes stamped across them, shot out of a slot beside it. He plucked them from the machine, turned and leant back inspecting them.

‘You err, good?’ He was still looking down at the cards. ‘You know, after.. you know.’

She felt herself blushing. She had seen Takeru this morning, first thing. The lab tech was also functionally the med, another benefit of being made of the same stuff as the world. He’d said everything was ok, just some superficial trauma, and given her some tablets. The effects should settle down after a few days. ‘I’m good.’ She said.

He looked up momentarily, then nodded.

He had been acting a little strangely all morning. She couldn’t put her finger on it but it was like he’d just come back from holiday and part of his brain was still on a beach or hotel room somewhere else. She just couldn’t tell where that somewhere else was.

There was a commotion at the entrance to the corridor that led to the chief’s office. A group of men shuffled through the doorway, chattering and laughing among themselves as the loudest among them, an overweight guy with thinning hair and thick eyebrows, gesticulated wildly with his arms so that his coffee kept sloshing over the rim of the cup in his hand, in between pulling at his belt. A woman at the desk beside the door tutted, unnoticed.

The loud cop looked up and stopped his gesticulations as he noticed Kurama. ‘Hey Kurama! I heard you took second place to the alts again.’ His voice had no soft accents to it at all.

Kurama didn’t even glance up. He carried on examining the cards.

The cop came over. ‘What’s that now, the last three? You know they say once is bad luck but anymore than that and you gotta be asking yourself questions!’ He looked back at the men behind him.

The man’s face was covered in a thin film of sweat and his cheeks were permanently reddened. Rinako could hear his heavy breathing. His face took on a serious expression and he pulled up his belt. ‘Let’s see now, what is it… ’

In the center of the room the blue holoscreen came to life. The officer looked up and closed his eyes as though savouring the smell from the kitchen of a gourmet restaurant. There was a string of chings, like a low-fidelity recording of coins falling. Kurama looked up and the screen flickered as a number of spinning blue tokens appeared, and the names listed on it switched places. At the top was now a beaming photo of the officer talking to them. Beside it was the name Hashimoto. Groans issued from around the room. Somewhere near the bottom, Rinako saw Kurama’s name.

‘Hear that?’ He said. ‘That’s the sound of talent.’ Hashimoto bowed around the room before turning back to them.

Kurama looked back to the cards. ‘Congratulations, Abe.’

As they spoke a huge grey skinned figure in a brown trench-coat passed across the doorway. His shark-like angular face was just visible beneath the lintel of the doorframe.

Hashimoto turned round, slurping at his coffee. ‘Hey Calibrai! What’re your numbers this week?’

The huge figure stopped. His skin looked more dull metal than flesh, the eyes permanently narrowed. ‘Numbers do not exist.’ His voice scraped and resonated as though within a great chamber.

‘Right, right.’ Said Hashimoto. ‘I forgot he was nuts.’

Rinako watched him disappear into the corridor. ‘Who was that?’ She asked.

‘Hmmm?’ Kurama looked up from the cards. ‘Oh, department Alter. Every one has to have one. Comes through once a week. Not fully altered yet.’ He looked back at the cards. ‘They give him shit but he’s taken out more bugs than most of them put together.’

She looked back at the doorway that had been occupied a moment ago by the huge frame.

This city…

‘Seriously though. Just let me know if you need any tips.’ Hashimoto slapped Kurama’s shoulder.

‘I’ll bear that in mind.’

‘Hey Merl.’ A female officer had appeared next to them and handed Kurama a couple of datasheets from a stack in her hand.

He smiled at her.

‘Oh, and Chief wants to see you.’ She called back as she continued around the office handing out the papers. ‘Didn’t sound too happy, you might want to take that case.’

‘Does he ever?’

‘Merl…’ whispered Rinako. His callsign had taken on an almost mystical significance for her since she’d arrived.

Kurama remained silent.

Hachimoto looked up at him, then back at Rinako. ‘What, he didn't tell you?’ He turned back to Kurama. ‘Oooh, see back in the day, Kurama here was a real hotshot. Bringing in the bad guys left and right - way I hear it, half of Onogoroshima was down to you.’

The dimensional prison. She knew of it, of course, but little about the ar confinement complex was known outside of the provisional government.

Kurama remained silent, leaning back on the machine and reading his papers.

Hashimoto continued. ‘Anyway, one time, apparently he took down a Bright9 all on his own. Not just that a whole squad of some freaks protecting it. You know how?’ He looked to Rinako, who was staring wide eyed.

‘Magic.’ He whispered, his hands outstretched. ‘Yeah, he was firing light this way and that… ‘

The men he had come in with by the door were looking over.

Rinako looked up at Kurama.

‘’Course, they also say you shit gold if you drink out the Cassini.’

The men behind him started to laugh.

‘So people got to calling him Merlin.’ He looked back to them for a moment. ‘You know, Prince Arthur and all that.’

Rinako frowned. ‘Isn’t it King Arthur?’

At this a tiny hint of a smile appeared on Kurama’s lips as he looked down at his papers.

The tint of Hashimoto’s red face deepened. ‘Yeah, well, whatever.’

He looked to Kurama. ‘So what happened since then? How’d you end up here slumming with me, Merl?’

‘Just lucky I guess.’ He said, and pushed himself off the machine. ‘Come on. There’s something we have to do.’