Chapter 25:

Summit of the Gods

Tokyo5: Prosper’s Law


‘Hey! Officer Furukawa, Prosper Division.’ Rinako marched across the lobby holding up her id.

The glowing figure inclined its head and watched her finger as she pointed. It was like a sculpture made of light. ‘What is it with you guys? You already took our last lead. This one’s ours,’

The figure looked up at her.

‘Uhhh, Rinako...’ Kurama’s voice called out from behind her.

‘No, I’m sick of it.’ she shouted. ‘These guys just come in, think they can pick everything up.’

‘Maybe the other day wasn’t so bad… but we’re the ones who picked up the lead, now you just fly in and—where are your buddies anyway?’ she looked around.

‘Rinako…’

‘—and there’s another thing.’ she poked at the figure’s chest. ‘Ok, he might not look like it but Kurama’s been working his ass off—why can’t you get your own cases?’

‘Rinako.’

She spun around. ‘What is it?!’

Kurama was crouched behind the base of a column that had been broken in two like a tree in a hurricane. He was staring at her, wide eyed, his breaker in his hands.

She then looked around. Everyone else in the hall was staring at her. Chunks of masonry lay strewn about the floor.

‘They… stole…’ she pointed at the figure behind her.

‘Get out of the way.’ Said Kurama.

She looked back. The figure was watching her finger with some fascination, its own glowing hand making the same gesture. It’s neck started to extend and coil, rising up into the air far above her. Thin tendrils sprouted along either side of the neck and from the sides of its body wing-like branches grew, feathery outcroppings covering their surfaces. The head rose up and up until it was half the height of the monolith, the thin luminous body waving like a plant in the breeze beneath it.

Rinako hesitated only a second longer then dove to the side. She heard a familiar whining then there was a flash from behind the column where Kurama crouched and the air bent in an arcing line in front of her. She looked back shielding her eyes.

Where the figure had been there was now a strange distorted pattern in the air, from which white smoke was rising. There was a strong smell of ozone and a hissing sound. As the white smoke dissipated, she saw a small blue disc spinning where it had been.

Kurama holstered his weapon and walked over. The blue token made a blipping sound and disappeared as he walked through it, looking down at the smoke rising from a charred crater of shattered marble in the floor.

Lady Takahara ran over, pigeon-footed, her hands over her face. She stopped beside the wreckage of the jeweled chandelier.

‘That was as an original Sebastien Hjorak!’

***

‘Owwwwww!’

‘Stop being such a baby.’ Kurama dipped the isowool in a bowl of alcohol at his side and shook it off before dabbing at the wound on her cheek again. Rinako tried to bat him away but he glared at her and she let her hand fall to the side. His jacket was wrapped around her shoulders.

‘What were you thinking anyway?’ He was looking at her closely, though his attention rested on the surface of her face rather than anything behind it. They were sitting on the expansive white entrance steps of the house. Across the lawn before them, enforcers were scattered like insects, interviewing guests and patrolling the premises. A extraction-boat sat in the middle of the grass. She could see Lady Takahara in her green dress, speaking to two officers in the distance. Occasionally, she would put a hand to her head or look back to the house.

‘I dont know.’ She said

He kept dabbing at her face then left the isowool in the bowl on the ground.

‘I just… ‘ she thought of everything that had gone through her head before the geist had appeared. ‘I dont know… there was something, I saw something.’

Kurama gaze remained on her for a few seconds, then he looked out over the lawn. ‘Well. One thing’s for sure. We won’t be getting invited back any time soon.’

There was a whirring noise and they looked up to see a pair of spindly black silhouettes above. More transports. The sky was a fresh, peaceful white. It was strange how calm it was now. Insects flew around the few flowers in the grass. The world truly had no memory. Beyond the high perimeter fence they could see the city, the mists having now cleared. It was hard to believe anything had happened. The house had just spilled its contents out onto the law.

Rinako drew her breath suddenly. ‘So do you think it was the geist after all?’

Kurama smiled, still looking out over the lawn. ‘What do you think?’

She looked down at her hand, scratching at a cut on the back of it. ‘No. But why was it here?’

He glanced over at her hand and tutted. ‘You’ll open it up.’

She pulled the sleeve of his jacket over her hand. ‘Well, they’re home and dry now.’ Whatever case they’d had had vaporised along with the geist. ‘They’ll put everything on it.’

‘Expect so.’ He didn’t seem too bothered

Rinako suddenly remembered something. ‘Did you see the power board when the guards came in? They were hitting maximum.’

He was staring intently at the guests and nowhere in particular.

Again with the silent treatment…

From across the lawn Lady Takahara walked toward them, pulling a tight red shawl around her shoulders. As she clipped up the steps she noticed them and stopped.

‘Of all things,’ she said. ‘A geist, in the house’. She shook her head, then looked around, as though scanning a new foreign sky.

‘You seem surprised.’ said Kurama.

‘Hmm?’ Something flashed across her eyes. ‘Oh. Well, yes. It’s just seeing it, I suppose. It must be the one that did for poor Natsuki.’

‘Must be.’ Said Kurama

She looked down at them. ‘I err suppose I should thank you.’

He smiled and climbed wearily to his feet. ‘No need.’

She paused and looked down at her feet. ‘Would you like to come in? Rest for a bit at least.’

He looked at her. ‘Sorry. There’s something we have to do.’

Lady Takahara’s green eyes looked up at him. ‘Of course.’

There was a note of sadness in her voice.

***

‘Really? This is what we have to do?’

They were sitting in the car in a dark alley overlooking the Nagasaki Municipal Records hall. Both had a MOW Burgers bag in their hands.

‘Hey, don’t complain. Not many jobs you get paid to go on a picnic.’

She peered at the sloppy contents of the bag.

‘I wouldn’t exactly call this a picnic.’

Kurama chewed on his.

They’d been parked up there half an hour just staring out the front window. People crossed to and fro in the large esplanade in front of the Nagasaki building, some of them tailing off to join a crowd at the back, like stray satellites caught in the gravity of a larger mass.

‘Why don’t people like us?’ she asked, having given in to the burger.

‘Huh?’

‘After you broke the geist. Everyone just kind of avoided us. Stuck to their own little groups. Lady Takahara was the only one who spoke to us.’ She thought. ‘It was like after they were saved, they didn’t want anything to do with us.’

‘We’re a reminder.’ He said.

Rinako looked at him. ‘... of what?’

‘The truth.’ He continued to stare out of the windscreen. ‘That there are bugs. That the world’s not perfect, all symmetrical smiles and polite little kids.’ he said. ‘When they see us, they see part of themselves they don’t want to see.’ There was something firm behind his words. He took another bite from teh burger, sauce dropping onto his lap. ‘Don’t let it get you down.’

‘So we just let the Takahara’s get away with it.’ She leant her head against her fist. ‘If we had something, just one piece of evidence that tied them in—‘

Kurama’s eyes suddely widened. Rinako waited as he hurried to swallow his food, then took a breath. ‘This burger is incredible.’ He waved the bag. ‘Ten Skies really knows how to make a good burger.’

That’s great. Case closed. She leant back in her seat and exhaled.

There was a crackling from the holo-vid.

‘Turn it up.’ he said, waving his hand and sipping from a bottle of some fizzy clear drink.

She turned the dial and a voice rose from the dash, the presenter’s squarish face appearing almost opaque in front of them.

‘—the so called ‘summit of the gods’ represents the first meeting between the cities of The Stack for over one hundred and fifty years and their official secession from the global community. It coincides with the inauguration of Tokyo5’s ambassador and president of VisAge corporation, Kurogari Mitsuo, to the council of the so called Heavenly 7 - now surely a Heavenly 8. The Nagasaki building, chosen as the venue for the historic event, becomes the first genuine inter-city structure—’

Rinako looked up and realised the background to the newscaster was the view from their window. There crowd had grown substantially larger since they’d been there and she saw now that a small rostrum had been erected toward the back of the esplanade. Kurama swiped several times on the windscreen and the view zoomed in to the little stage. She could now see two figures seated upon it.

The holo-broadcast had cut to a female interviewer. ‘Mr President. I’m sure you’ve been asked this many times—‘

‘Hey, isn’t this—‘ Rinako looked to her side but Kurama was already stepping out the door.