Fleet

I take cover as eight police boats surround the cruise and two helicopters circle above. I suppose it was naive of me to assume that the cruise security would simply play hide and seek with Restless Spirit for the entirety of the trip instead of calling the actual police when they know they have a stowaway on board with an ability oddly similar to the one that’s just recently escaped the Tokyo Xenoprison. Now I’m stranded in the middle of the ocean with the police closing in on me and about to search the entire cruise with nowhere for me to escape.

Is this it? Is this the end? Am I just sitting here, cornered, waiting for the police to come and get me? I have to find some way to escape, and I have to act fast before the police board the ship. Scanning around, the bright, eye-catching, orange lifeboats soon draw my attention. Could I…? I’d been spending my nights in these lifeboats and sustaining off the rations in them for the past few days while hiding from the cruise security, but could I use them to escape? There’s no way a lifeboat can outrun a police boat…

Could I deploy multiple lifeboats as decoys? There’s no way I could discreetly do that! Could I commandeer the entire cruise? No, that’s ridiculous! What about one of the police boats…? I’ll still be chased by the other police boats… And even if I fight them all off with brute force, what am I going to do with the helicopters circling above? Do I just surrender? Is there really nothing I can do? I nearly enter a state of shock and freeze as the sirens of the police boats blare. A voice emanates from a megaphone from one of the boats. “We have you surrounded! We know you’re on the cruise, Ishiguro Asahi! Surrender and turn yourself in!”

Almost as though I have no other options, I step out into the open deck, my arms raised high in the air for everyone to see. I suppose this is a better outcome than dying somewhere in some futile attempt to escape. “Remain right there and don’t move! We have snipers pointed right at you!”

I wait for the police officers to board the ship and arrive at my location. The snipers keep a close watch on me from the helicopters. The police officers reach the deck and approach, holding a debilitator and transparent handcuffs. I notice the pistols strapped to their belts and peer over to the helicopters once more. With a minute and thirty seconds on the clock, I deatomize my form.

Reaching for the revolver attached to the nearest officer, I phase it out of its holster with one swift motion and immediately turn my attention to the helicopters, still familiarizing my fingers with holding a firearm for the first time. A bullet from a sniper in the helicopter phases through me as I had the quicker draw on the surprise initiative. I try to steady my aim and get a sense of the distance and trajectory as I fire, though the amount of kickback on such a small pistol shocks me.

One!

Two!

Three!

All three shots miss their mark. I try to readjust myself, but a strike to my back disrupts me as I fall to the ground. Disoriented and confused, I turn to see that the police officers around me have drawn a transparent baton, seemingly to be of a similar material to the handcuffs. How!? How did he hit me with that while I’m deatomized!? I immediately roll through the adjacent wall before they can surround me and beat me down into submission. Whatever that’s made of, it can affect me even while I’m deatomized.

It doesn’t matter! It seems like they don’t have ammunition made out of whatever that material is yet, or I would already be dead. I guess this just means that I’m not completely safe within their melee reach. That’s just fine! I didn’t plan on fighting them anyway. I run through the cabin and phase through the other side, readjusting my aim and firing again at one of the helicopters, this time with a better feel for the revolver.

Four!

Five!

Six!

As I hear the fifth shot connect, I toss the pistol aside and turn my attention to the quickly approaching police officers. Gritting my teeth, I charge at them head-on, and I toss myself onto the ground, rolling through their legs as they swing and miss. Standing up and now behind the officers, I snatch and stow as many pistols as I can, swiping and stashing three loaded pistols from their holster before I sidestep back into the cabin.

Despite being scraped in the tail, the first helicopter still hangs in the air as I emerge on the other side of the deck once more. Observing the helicopter as it begins moving around after being fired at again, I try to predict its movements, and with six more shots in hand, I focus down on the already damaged helicopter, my every shot more accurate than the last.

One!

Two!

I watch as the second shot connects once more as the helicopter begins to emit smoke and lose altitude. The crew in the crashing helicopter ditch the vehicle in parachutes as I turn my attention to the other helicopter, slowing my firing rate once more.

Three!

I fire one shot to get a feel for its position in the sky and base the rest of my shots relative to it.

Four!

Five!

Six!

As the fifth bullet hits the propeller, I watch the crew jump out from the helicopter before sinking down into a lower deck, leaving some of the officers on the deck above and suspending Restless Spirit for a moment to catch my breath. Spotting a police boat in the distance, I draw one of the stowed pistols and take the opportunity to fire at its engine, a much easier shot than the helicopter.

One!

Two!

With two bullets piercing the engine, I count seven police boats remaining. I wrap around the lower deck, searching for other police boats with an easy shot, firing more conservatively as I count my ammo.

Three!

Six police boats operating at full function remain.

Four!

Five police boats operating at full function remain.

The police officers on the cruise finally get around to the lower deck, forcing me to deatomize my form once more with around fifty seconds on the clock on Restless Spirit. Phasing through the cabin on this floor and emerging out on the other side, I take a shot at another one of the surrounding police boats.

Five!

Four police boats operating at full function remain.

The police officers on the cruise disperse themselves as half of them chase after me around the deck and the others remain on the other side. At the same time, the officers in the police boats begin to pull away from the cruise once they notice what I’m doing. I quickly fire at one of the ships pulling away as the police close in on me on the deck.

Six!

I scowl as it misses, but seeing the last remaining officer on the boarding police boat directly adjacent to the cruise begins to pull away, I turn my attention to more immediate matters. I shuffle into the cabin of this deck again to avoid the immediate threat of the batons, though the officers leave me surrounded all around this time as some of them enter the cabin. Unwilling to miss my ride, I attempt a maneuver I’ve never done before, drawing my last revolver. I jump into the cabin’s wall and use the inner atomic structure of the wall as footing to double jump onto the guard rails of the deck, hopping over the officers and gaining additional air for a leaping dive into the boat.

The boat rocks violently as I land on it prone, surprising and throwing the piloting officer off balance. While still prone, I take my pistol and point it directly at the officer while he turns around to see what caused the rocking. Pushing myself off the floor, I keep the barrel of the revolver pointed directly at him. “Drop your gun and fuck off!”

The officer slowly reaches for his gun with his other hand up in the air.

“Hurry up!” I order the cautious officer as my Restless Spirit time ticks.

Flinching at the command, he tosses the gun onto the floor and dives into the water, and I quickly take to the helm of the boat and start racing away. The other three remaining police boats give chase and fire at the engines of my boat. Directing the boat towards an open direction, I turn to the stern and return fire, estimating only twenty-five seconds remaining on Restless Spirit.

Since the engine’s on the stern of the boat, the police officers have an easier time disabling my vehicle. One of my engines gives out as they start to catch up to me. I fire for their bilge, hoping to cause a leak in their boat.

One!

Two!

Three!

No good! They all miss as the swaying of the boat from the lack of a pilot throws my aim off. While it looks like I’ll be able to shake off the damaged boats that are still assisting the officers back on the cruise and the helicopter crew, the remaining three functional boats will eventually catch up to me.

While they focus on shooting my engines, I suspend Restless Spirit to recharge as much as possible. I take the helm and make a sharp left, turning my boat perpendicular to theirs and letting them gain distance on me as I get a better shot at their engines. With one hand on the wheel still making the turn, I aim with the other hand and fire away at their vanguard boat.

Four!

Five!

Six!

The third shot pierces one of the engines as I deatmoize my form again with about twenty seconds left on Restless Spirit. Now that my engine’s been damaged and I’ve made myself an easier target, they’ve begun to turn their fire on me again. With the vanguard boat somewhat crippled, I turn my attention to the rear boat next, tossing the emptied pistol aside and picking up the one left by the earlier officer

One!

Two!

Three!

As the second bullet connects and only three, I stop the boat and let the three pursuing boats catch up to me. I empty my last three bullets into and through the port side floor of the boat before sinking through the boat and diving into the cold water. I press my back against the bottom of the boat and wait for the ships to near my now empty boat, quickly collecting water from holes all on one side.

Eleven seconds remaining on Restless Spirit.

As the officers board to check my empty boat and notice that it is off-kilter and quickly sinking, I swim to the port side of the boat and grab the weighted ledge, pushing down as hard as I can and putting my entire weight on it. After a couple of seconds of applying weight and quickening the accumulation of water, the officers realize my trap a bit too late as the boat capsizes, leaving all of them soaked and disoriented as I swim over and under the boat without any damage to it yet.

Three seconds remaining on Restless Spirit.

Quickly emerging behind the two remaining officers on the boat and catching them by surprise, I tackle them one after another and shove them off the boat as Restless Spirit gives. Taking to the helm, I kick the engine into full throttle, and I pull away from the scrambling officers. They pull each other back onto the boat and try to give chase, though my undamaged engine quickly gains distance on them until they’re no more than a dot on the horizon.

With the fuel tank about half full, I reference the compass and steer the boat north, praying I’ll land on the coast of Japan before the fuel runs out. After a few hours of cruising, I see a few sailboats off in the distance. I stand up and look out to the beach that welcomes me, though the people on the beach give me strange looks as I approach on a police boat. I slow down as I pull in closer to the shore until I come to a stop on the beach. These rocks in the water… This black sand… I turn and stare at Mt. Fuji in the distance as I realize where I’ve landed: Shizuoka.

Ditching the police boat, I make haste deeper into the city. In an entirely new city, I feel a sense of security knowing that authorities aren’t aware of my presence here, but now knowing how infamous my face is at this point, I practice discretion, sneaking around until I can find a convenience store. I keep my head down and rub my eyes in a way that covers as much of my face as possible as I enter and make an immediate turn to make sure the cashier couldn’t catch my face. Then, picking up the usual items, I phase out of the convenience store into the back alley dumpster, using one of the item racks as a cover to make sure the cashier doesn’t see Restless Spirit.

Putting on the mask and makeup, I head out into the city feeling reasonably confident about my identity being concealed. Now, I just need to not get overconfident and mess everything up by overusing Restless Spirit. To be as discreet as possible, I opt to take a bus for the rest of my travels and only use Restless Spirit when absolutely necessary. After I check the schedules of the highway busses in the coming week for any busses headed from Shizuoka to Osaka and find one in five days that passes through Nagoya, I decide that it would be best to hide in Shizuoka for a while until then, sleeping on park benches and stealing money from ATMs. When the bus arrives, I pay for the fare with cash and wait to arrive back in Osaka.