The Sweeper Resolves

It was pure darkness.

But he felt a damp, icky cloth on his back, and what felt to be a warm blanket draped over his body. His surroundings were cold yet humid, and the air made him sweat. He could hear the faint, gentle cracking of burning wood, with the smell of fried food slathered with oil coming from a greater distance.

Kuroiwa opened his eyes only to find a drably colored tent surrounding him. It was dark, with only a few dim light bulbs and some burn barrels illuminating the darkness outside the tent. His hand no longer felt pain—nay, it felt nothing at all, and could barely move his fingers. He sat up from the futon he was in and surveyed his surroundings. There was nothing else inside his tent but some wasted gauze and a first-aid kit the size of his torso, with both familiar and unfamiliar tools from within.

“So, you’re finally awake, my boy.”, called out a familiar, deep manly voice just outside the tent’s entrance.

Is that…?

A bulldog standing on its hind legs pushed aside the tent curtains and walked in with his arms behind his back. Kuroiwa couldn’t make out exactly what expression he had, since he’s unfamiliar with exact dog facial expressions.

“Mr. Shinada? What’re you doing here?” asked Kuroiwa.

“I should be asking you the same thing,” said Shinada the dog. “How did you end up in enough trouble to land you here?”

“Why? What is this place?”

Shinada shrugged with his tiny doggy arms. “I’ll explain later. Someone out here’s clearly more worried for you than I am,” he said. He then strutted out the tent and called the attention of another outside. “Your man’s awake. Go see him.”, he called in a loud voice.

Chigusa rushed into the tent and knelt in front of Kuroiwa. She grabbed his non-injured hand and held it up firmly. She gritted her teeth and her eyes faltered holding back tears.

“I’m really sorry, Mister Kuroiwa!”

Kuroiwa could barely comprehend the situation. He was certain that Chigusa had tazed him earlier, and Sei and Murai were there to effectively dispose of him. And yet he was not only alive, but witnessing who he thought double-crossed him on the brink of tears.

“Chigusa? What’s going on? Why’re you here, and where are we?”

Chigusa, inadvertently choosing to not respond, continues with her emotional spiel.

“I really didn’t mean to taze you back there… but I had no choice!” she said while yanking Kuroiwa’s hand. “I had to pretend I was cooperating! It was the only way to save you, and then, and then…”

Kuroiwa laid his injured, bandaged right hand on hers. “Hey, chill out,” he said, placating Chigusa. “I get it. You did it to save me. I understand… and thank you.”

“It didn’t hurt?”

“It kinda did.”

Chigusa whimpered at his response. Kuroiwa chuckled and tried to reassure her that he was fine with it. “But I’ve endured worse. The taser was a mosquito bite compared to, well, this.” he said, looking at his bandaged-up arm.

Her breath steadied. Chigusa let go of Kuroiwa’s arm and calmed herself with some deep breathing.

Kuroiwa glanced over her shoulder and focused on the burn barrel outside. “Are you feeling better now?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“That’s good. So, from the top?”

Chigusa nodded with a less panicked, more serious demeanor.

“To be honest, I really don’t know where we are. Shiyuri uploaded location data to me and told me to go here. Miss Sei was kind enough to let me take you somewhere safe, away from the Lawyer.”

“Shit… those two,” Kuroiwa muttered. And shook his head and refocused his question. “And Shiyuri? And the lead to Colony Tau?”

Chigusa also shook her head as a frown crossed her face. “Miss Shiyuri is… hiding. Somewhere in the apartment. She has a safe room and she’s hoping nobody finds her. As for Colony Tau, uhm, I don’t know.”

Shinada then appeared from outside the tent and spoke with both arms crossed, exuding an authoritative aura.

“Colony Tau? Is this what this is about?” he said.

“Boss? You know something?”

“Of course I do,” Shinada nodded with his plump bulldog head. “I should know. I’m from there too.”

Kuroiwa and Chigusa recoiled. “Eh?!”

The sweeper scratched his head and stared at him with much confusion. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Because you never asked, boy.”

“What.”

Shinada took a seat beside Chigusa and faced Kuroiwa with a straight face. “What do you mean ‘what’? It couldn’t just hand out top secret info like that just because you’re you,” he said, whining. “I’m also exiled, much like the girl that tipped you off to this place.” He then continued. “But aside from that. You got your hand messed up and put yourself on a watchlist because someone told you of Colony Tau’s existence? Why?”

Kuroiwa stamped his leg with his healthy arm. “I’ve literally murdered people before, but this is what it took to put me on the wanted list? I don’t get it.”

Chigusa eagerly nodded in agreement. “Indeed! Is mass murder less of an infraction in the eyes of Neo Shibuya higher ups than knowledge of a human colony?”

“Don’t call it mass murder…”

“Well, now. A good question,” said Shinada. “But let me ask you this first, my boy. Why do you want to see a human colony so bad, you’d even have your former workmates turn on you?”

“It’s simple,” said Kuroiwa tersely. “Because I want to live among other humans.”

Shinada chortled at his answer. “Is that really it?”

“Yeah.”

“My boy…” he said in a fatherly tone. “Are you truly that desperate to find your supposed kindred? Can’t you bear to live among the folk of Neo Shibuya?”

“I mean, boss...” he answered in a regrettable tone. “I’m not like you. I don’t belong here.”

“Do you really mean that?” Shinada looked at Chigusa from the side of his eye, a sadness filling him from the Sweeper’s words.

“Well, yeah. Just look at me and you. And then me against the rest of the city.”

“What? They’re not human like you are?”

“I…”

Kuroiwa clammed up. He shot a glance at Chigusa, and stopped himself from saying any more because of it. His thoughts swirled in a maelstrom as he recalled the conversations he’s had with people like Sei, Chigusa, and Shiyuri. He couldn’t take the silence of his thoughts, and so he stood up from the futon looking for an excuse to leave.

“Where are you going?” Shinada asked.

“...I’m thirsty. I need my coffee.”

Chigusa shot him a look of worry, noticing his still weak footing. “Mister Kuroiwa, I think you need more time to recover.”

“I’ll recover while having my coffee.”

Shinada took a deep breath and told Kuroiwa, “There’s a vendo in an alley just outside the shelter. Don’t worry about paying, it’s hacked.”

“Thanks, boss.”

Kuroiwa walked past both Chigusa and Shinada and exited the tent, and went out into what seemed to be an enclosed, hidden indoor shelter, populated with at least fifteen other people and seven tents. A huge metal plate served as the place’s makeshift ceiling, water dripping from gaps in it despite not hearing rain overhead. Chigusa looked out the tent and saw the man leaving through a narrow grate several meters away.

“Quite a handful, isn’t he?” asked Shinada to Chigusa.

Chigusa dissuaded the thought and laughed. “No, no! I’m in great debt to him.”

“That’s beyond the point,” said Shinada. “You should go talk to him. He needs company.”

“But he sees me as just a robot…”

“I think he’s being disingenuous,” nodded Shinada with an earnest, optimistic voice. “He’ll come around. I think he just needs someone to talk to. Someone like you.”

Chigusa’s eyes widened, shocked by his statement. “But why me, though? I’m just…”

Shinada stood on his hind legs and patted the girl on the shoulder.

“Trust me. I’ve known the guy for a few months.”

*****

Just across the street from an abandoned subway station that served as the makeshift shelter, Kuroiwa leaned on an alley wall right beside a half-full vending machine that solely sells canned coffee. Its blue light cast on the Sweeper and the alley itself like a night light glowing in the evening’s celestial black sky. On his left hand was a can of coffee, cooled and freshly opened.

Chigusa crossed the street and approached Kuroiwa. Her steps were light, and a little shy—ashamed of approaching a man who had just stormed out of the shelter.

“Are you… feeling better?” said Chigusa with her gaze planted on Kuroiwa’s feet. “Not dizzy? No aching muscles? Headache? Nausea?”

Kuroiwa sipped his coffee and answered with a light chuckle.

“I’m okay. Really. Aside from my right hand, nothing’s wrong with me,” Kuroiwa said while brandishing his injured hand. “I may not be an android, but I’m still made of sturdier stuff than your average guy, you know?”

Kuroiwa continued to drink away at his coffee while Chigusa remained unmoving, gaze still focused on his feet. A few seconds became ten, and eventually a minute. He hoped she would go away in time. However, the awkwardness became too unbearable even for him.

“You don’t have to watch me,” he said in a comforting tone. “I’m not going anywhere yet. I’ll be back in the shelter in a bit.”

With a stutter and a shiver, Chigusa steeled herself and went on to ask Kuroiwa what she’d been wanting to ask in the first place.

“Do you… really see me as nothing more than a machine?”

Kuroiwa gave himself pause. He felt his heart sink, seeing her meek demeanor paired with her piercing words. “Ah… I’m sorry. You didn’t need to hear that from someone like me.”

“Please, Mister Kuroiwa,” she pleaded. “Please, tell me what you feel in full honesty. I promise I won’t get mad.”

Kuroiwa scratched his head. The man’s troubles were building up, and he didn’t need Chigusa’s admittedly justified question, to be weighing him down. But if he didn’t give her an honest answer, he felt as if he’d be doing his life’s savior a disservice.

“I kinda do, and I kinda don’t.”

“Eh?” Chigusa tilted her head up and cocked it, confused.

“I mean, I clearly hurt you with what I said, whether I meant to or not. But at the same time… I don’t feel like we’re the same. That’s why it’s so confusing for me. That’s my honest answer.”

“Ah…”

Chigusa clasped her hands together. She brought her head down, then back up again, shooting a short glance at Kuroiwa’s face. Just as quickly, she bowed her head again and turned her body away slightly.

“I’m sorry, too.”

“Huh?” grunted Kuroiwa in confusion. “What for?”

“I’m sorry for treating you and the rest of normal humans as ‘curious’ little things.”

“Huh? Wait, no,” said Kuroiwa, dissuading her. “Don’t apologize for that. I never minded it at all. Isn’t it natural for someone to take interest in things they don’t understand?”

“Natural, huh…” muttered Chigusa under her breath.

“Did you say something?”

“You said it was natural, right? Would you then say that, perhaps, it’s… human?” said the girl with a giggle.

Kuroiwa stared at the girl. Her cheeks curled and her brows raised. Chigusa was being quite cheeky, he thought.

“Oh, what the hell. Was that what you were building up to?” he said, chuckling.

“I don’t know, it just came to me all of a sudden.”

“I hope that’s not Shiyuri rubbing off on you. Bad example.”

Chigusa held a hand to her mouth and continued to snicker in a friendly, jesting way. “The way you talk to me is a little strange. You almost sound like a ‘big bro’.”

“You know what an older brother is?”

“Huh, that was weird,” Chigusa looked up, thinking. “Somehow, I know what a ‘big bro’ is, and my memory banks can somehow recall the feeling of treating someone as such. I wonder if it’s a quirk my original maker had put in me.”

Somehow, it feels familiar to me, too.

“Well, anyway, I didn’t intend to come off that way. But if you think that way, who am I to judge?”

“So do you want me to start calling you ‘big bro’?”

“Nah, no thank you, it seems a little off, really,” said Kuroiwa, shaking his head. “And you don’t have to keep calling me ‘Mister’, either. I’m really not used to it. Now that I think about it, I never did learn why Shiyuri kept calling me a ‘Sensei’, either.”

“Maybe it’s because you are significantly older than both of us? Both your age and wisdom are really telling.”

Kuroiwa bowed his head in defeat. “I don’t know what to feel about that sentence…”

“Are you worried about Shiyuri?” asked Chigusa.

“Well, I wouldn’t use ‘worried’ as the operative word. More like we still have something to settle… so I am ‘worried’ in that sense. But not specifically for her.”

“I tried asking Mister Shinada about it too. He wouldn’t budge about anything, and he doesn’t know how to contact his home colony, either.”

“Boss is the type to never say anything.”

Kuroiwa downed the last of his coffee, then tossed it into a distant trashcan like a baseball pitch. Like his shots, he didn’t miss this one, as usual.

“To be honest, I think I’m a little more worried about the time,” chortled Kuroiwa. “I’m way beyond my shift now. Yui’s gonna kill me. Man… and I finally had another job that gave me at least a month’s tenure, and now I’m gonna mess it up.”

Chigusa reassured him with a smile. “I have faith that you’ll do just fine!”

“I really do hate job hunting, though.”

Kuroiwa gazed at Chigusa’s eyes popping from above the black half face mask she wore. Her eyes of emerald green made the contrast between it and the darkness below stand out even more. Even with the mask he could make out her reassuring smile. But he did wonder…

“If you don’t mind me asking, Chigusa. Why wear the mask? You guys don’t catch colds or diseases, right? And if I recall, you can filter polluted air just fine. Not that the city’s that polluted, of course.”

“Oh, this…” said Chigusa, prodding her mask. “It’s just so I don’t have to talk much.”

“But why?”

“I was… friends with someone who went against the grain of Neo Shibuya. A rebel. After he was punished, I was accused of being a rebel too, and anything I said was colored in a bad light afterwards,” Chigusa gripped the ends of her mask. “That’s why, I thought it would be better if I shut up. I even had myself demoted among even the Code Readers.”

Kuroiwa crossed his arms. “That’s awful.”

“I’ve come to accept it. Don’t worry about it, Big Br—I mean, Kuroiwa.”

“You should take it off.”

“Eh?”

Kuroiwa turned to her and patted her head with his uninjured hand. He ruffled her hair like a brother easing their little sister’s anxiety.

“Everyone deserves a voice. Doesn’t matter what people think; just speak your mind.”

“But…”

“Besides, you’re helping me out already. A wanted criminal,” said Kuroiwa, laughing. “You’re already going against the grain yourself. I say, go the extra mile and show ‘em up by taking the mask off and saying whatever the hell you want.”

Chigusa stepped back and gently took his arm off her head. She pouted (even through her mask) at Kuroiwa. She growled at him in the same way an aggrieved dog would.

“Grr… now I’ll have to keep my mask on if you’re gonna say such embarrassing things.”

“Heh. Sorry, sorry. I was never really good at this.”

Kuroiwa stretched his body and cracked his bones. He moaned as he cracked and warmed-up his tired body and looked right back at Chigusa. He beamed at her with a warm, thankful expression.

“Anyway, I should really be getting back. The boss might be getting worried about both of us.”

“Are you okay now?”

“Yeah, never been better. Except for the arm part and the fact I’m missing my gun, I’m feeling great. Talking with you made me feel better.”

“Is that so...? Then, here.”

Chigusa held his injured arm, and tiny spider-like robots emerging from under her sleeve began to envelop it. Kuroiwa freaked out at first, but eventually their skittering started to feel ticklish—comforting, even. A few seconds passed, and a silver metal sheet wrapped his arm, made out of the small spider bots.

“What did you do?”

“Try moving your hand.”

Kuroiwa flexed his fingers. They moved as limber as they were when his hand wasn’t injured, and followed his every thought. If he wanted the index finger to move, it would move. Same for the ring finger. Then the middle. Then the thumb.

Albeit it did take a little less than a quarter of a second for it to move.

“This is amazing, Chigusa. What is this?”

“Think of them as a makeshift prosthetic. The bots connected to your nerves and will push your hand along exactly as you instruct them to. But there is some latency, being a temporary measure and all.. I just thought it might help you.”

“Huh, cool,” said Kuroiwa, inspecting his hand. “But why?”

“It’ll only be until your hand gets better,” said Chigusa, who then looked him dead in the eye as if he knew his intent at the moment. “You’re going back, right? To save Miss Shiyuri. To see Colony Tau.”

Kuroiwa laughed. “Damn straight.”

*****

“Crazy fool,” said Shinada, sitting in front of both Chigusa and Kuroiwa back in the shelter’s tent. “You damn well know you’re clearly outmatched there, boy. Just let it go.”

“Sorry, boss. But you can’t stop me.”

Chigusa added. “Yeah. And I’m coming, too.”

Shinada puffed his little doggy cheeks. He let out a big, exaggerated sigh, letting both of them know just how disapproving he was of their decision.

“Suicidal, the lot of you. Especially you,” he said, pointing at Kuroiwa. “If you die, you’re done for unlike us, you know.”

“I know that.”

“And you’re still going? That girl could very well be lying and your trip would’ve been for nothing.”

“Cool. I’ll find out when I get there.”

“Boy, aren’t you giving up your supposed sweeper life, already? Just live out day-to-day in the job you like. I know you have one.”

Kuroiwa laughed heartily. “Heh, yeah. I know. But if Colony Tau has better work for me, then I’ll take my job application there. At least my skillset should be relevant there.”

Shinada tapped his foot repeatedly. His words just gave him pause, and entered a state of deep thought. Kuroiwa couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but he’d seen that face many, many times since he woke up. Shinada looked exactly like the interviewers he’d faced time and time again, judging Kuroiwa and sizing him up. It was like he was being interviewed right now.

“Fine. Take this.”

Shinada handed him Kuroiwa’s very own and trusted, M206 38 six-chambered revolver. Along with it a letter hastily written on a scrap of paper ripped from what was likely a notebook.

“Wait… boss, where did you get this?”

“When you came in, that girl, Sei, came in with Chigusa. She wanted me to give you these before she left,” he said with a stoic tone. “It's a good thing a rat she is not.”

Kuroiwa read the letter, and it said, simply:

“Ser Kuroiwa, please take your gun. I know how important it is to you. Please go back to Nirvana and pretend none of this happened. I will make sure it goes well for everyone.

But if you decide to come back, know that you will face us again.”

“Of course,” said Kuroiwa with a cocky grin. “I think she knows.”

“A man who only has one chance at life throws his away faster than those who have unlimited tries at it. You’re really an odd one, boy.”

“It’s what makes me human.”

Shinada sighed one more time, exasperated. Kuroiwa flexed his metal-coated right hand and curled it into a fist. He then turned to Shinada, putting on an arrogant half-smile.

“By the way, know anywhere I can get more guns?”