An Hour Into the Depths

“Come on. Just a little longer.”

The only path that lay before them was down.

Tucked away in the same neighborhood as the shelter from where Kuroiwa and Chigusa hid out last night was a rocky cavern hidden beneath a well-covered hole in a derelict skyscraper. The passage itself, while mostly made of craggy rock, was lined with remains of chunks of broken concrete and metal; most likely the vestige of what was once a sewage or flood facility’s man-made halls. Only a few light bulbs lit the way, making missteps a very real threat to any who wanted to pass.

Shiyuri led Kuroiwa and Chigusa down its cragged, hard-to-traverse tunnels. Half a day passed since they had contacted Colony Tau through Shiyuri’s desktop PC. Not even an hour later, they had sent an email that contained nothing more than a single line. It said:

Come, but do not forget to bring the human.

Kuroiwa and Shiyuri walked just a few meters ahead, while Chigusa stayed at the back. It would be easier to protect you just in case, Kuroiwa told her just a few minutes ago. Despite Chigusa’s protests and the fact Kuroiwa was still injured, she eventually gave way to his request knowing how stubborn the man was.

Minutes passed, then a quarter of an hour more. The path flattened out, and their footsteps clicked as they finally started stepping on firm, cemented steps.

In front of the three lay a door. It was but a simple, steel-framed door with a single numpad lock securing it.

“We’re here.”, said Shiyuri, bending to fiddle with the electronic lock.

“Do humans really have to live in the center of the earth? This thing’s deep.” Kuroiwa glanced around the indistinct ruins of what he assumed to be an old world facility. “This almost seems post-apocalyptic.”

Chigusa pushed her finger to her chin. “Indeed. Don’t humans need sunlight and rain to survive? Surely—”

“Why don’t you save your questions for later? You’ll get your answers in a sec.”

The lock clicked. The metal door creaked slightly as it swung open. Shiyuri gently opened the door…

Beyond the door radiated light from more burn barrels. Sounds of light bustling emanated from within, and the smell of food boiling and roasting over an open fire. But at the same time, the room past the door had an aura of quietness to it; it was as if people inside were more on the reserved, and possibly sad side of the emotion spectrum.

Kuroiwa stood by, wordless. There was nothing else to be said by anyone. Nothing else to be done except to take their first step. The Sweeper stepped in, followed by the two girls.

What lay before Kuroiwa shook him.

For there was nothing special inside.

Nothing but more tents, more makeshift cooking pots, more burn barrels, and more men and women dressed in tattered clothes and tablecloths. It was exactly like the camp where he had taken shelter the day prior.

“What… what is this?” asked Kuroiwa pensively.

Shiyuri stood beside him and put a hand to her waist, giving him a neutral, unfazed expression.

“It’s Colony Tau.”

“This is Colony Tau?!”

Chigusa examined the overview of this encampment to see if there was anything they couldn’t make out at first glance. She ran a scan on each individual person in sight. To her surprise, each one who wandered this camp produced an ID and info in her visual display, unlike Kuroiwa who, when scanned, would not turn up anything in her database.

“They… they are all androids.”

“What?” Kuroiwa exclaimed.

Kuroiwa would give in to his urge to get on his knees, but he suppressed every urge to have a mental collapse in front of the girls. But it was tough—his knees were close to buckling, and his head heated like a kettle. All this work, he thought. So much work for what might’ve been either a lie or error on Shiyuri’s part.

A set of footsteps began closing in. The three looked in its direction, seeing two armed men dressed in light Kevlar over military camos, and pilot helmets with gas masks, wielding what looked to be modern Neo Shibuyan automatic rifles.

Kuroiwa readied his gun, but Shiyuri signaled him to ease up. “Easy. They’re friendly.”

One of them spoke with an authoritative but calm voice.

“Mitsuo Kuroiwa, was it? The boss has been waiting for you.” He then stepped aside and signaled for him to follow, with a surprisingly casual and friendly demeanor, instead of one that suggested any sort of strictness that befits an armed man.

Chigusa scanned the man for an ID as well, but something about him was strange. When she would attempt it, her sight would turn to static for a split second and produce no data. It was as if looking at him jammed her signals. She turned wary yet still curious about him.

With skepticism, the three followed the men in pilot helmets and headed for a more elaborate tent in a corner of the encampment; it had tall metal pillars serving as its scaffolding instead of looking destitute like the rest of the tents. Inside the tent a cozy-looking office that resembled an army officer’s, but with a helping of homeliness thanks to the various hobbyist decorations like snowboards, board games, and other personal effects.

Sitting at the heart of the room behind a table was none other than the dog man himself, Mister Shinada.

“Mister Shinada?!” Kuroiwa yelled in shock. “What’re you doing here?”

Chigusa affixed her gaze, and soon the surprise got to her, too. “You’re the pug from the homeless camp!”

Shiyuri sighed and stayed silent, letting the little pug do the talking.

“I am sure you’re in shock right now.”

“You damn rig—I mean, yes, boss. I’m speechless. What’s going on here, and what is this place? Is this Colony Tau?”

The dog jumped to the table and sat on its edge closer to the three visitors. He crossed his puny legs and stretched its doggy neck around. He looked at the two armed men beside Kuroiwa, Chigusa, and Shiyuri, and waved his hand at them. “Shiyuri, Amano. Leave us,” he said, waving his paw at them. “Daisuke, you stay. Let’s enlighten our guests.”

Shiyuri turned and huffed. “Whatever you say, pops.” Both she and one of the armed men stepped out the tent and closed the curtain before them.

Pops?, Kuroiwa wondered.

The other armed man went beside Shinada and removed his helmet and mask, revealing a young man in his mid 20s, sporting a well-groomed, neat haircut and a chiseled chin. He had a pleasing smile to him, contrasting his grimy, soiled military camo. He bowed politely and set his gun down by the table.

“This is Daisuke Kujo,” pointed Shinada the dog. “And this is someone you, boy, would call a human.”

Daisuke saluted. “It’s nice to meet you, sir Kuroiwa.”

Kuroiwa’s jaw dropped. He couldn’t believe his eyes. The first human he’s seen since his awakening wasn’t his reflection in the mirror. In the flesh. The reality of it bit him hard, and yet…

He couldn’t help but feel underwhelmed.

He didn’t know what he expected, or how expected to feel, but all he could tell himself was:

Wow, okay.

It was the same for Chigusa. She had expected this grand entrance into Colony Tau, and to see real humans living in a completely different way from Neo Shibuya. Instead what she saw was nothing more than your average Neo Shibuyan living a lowly life off the grid. Even Daisuke himself looked typical. Her expectations were sky high, but like Kuroiwa, she didn't know what to expect either.

“You two don’t look so ecstatic,” said Shinada, tapping his foot. “Let me guess. Not quite what you were expecting?”

Kuroiwa shifted his gaze, not knowing what to say.

“I don’t know. I should be happy to see a fellow human, but…”

Daisuke nodded. “It’s okay, sir Kuroiwa. It’s not kicking in hard. I understand.”

“No, it’s just, this place. Why do you live like this?”

Shinada chuckled, strangely amused at Kuroiwa. “Did you expect us to live with crystal spires and togas, boy? That we would be living much more prosperous lives, away from the decadence of Neo Shibuya?”

Chigusa stammered and tried to make a point. “B-but… the people outside. They’re not humans, either. Only Mister Daisuke and maybe that other guard is, but the rest… W-why?”

“Correct, lass. They are androids. You see, this isn’t the Colony Tau. Rather, we are a sub-colony of it. A colony of exiles, if you will.”

“Wait up,” interrupted Kuroiwa. “Then what was all that about Shiyuri being exiled and worrying about contacting this place? Would you really have shot us up on sight if we hadn’t contacted you? And then she called you ‘pops’...”

“Yes, and yes. Shiyuri is an exile of an already exile colony. We still tend to keep to ourselves even if we’re not formally part of the main colony anymore. Haven’t been for at least a decade or two. It’s what happens when Colony Tau is a heavily pure human colony, and a part of your populace goes and installs cybernetics anyway.”

“So why are you here, boss?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m the boss here, boy.”

…

A hot moment passed.

Silence.

And then a pin dropped.

“What?!” shouted Kuroiwa and Chigusa together. As if their jaws couldn’t drop any further, drop they did, with a healthy serving of spinning visions and churning stomachs.

“Then why didn’t you tell me, boss?”, asked Kuroiwa in a fervor.

“Because you never asked, boy.”

“Ugh, boss. Why’re you like this?” Kuroiwa’s expression soured, and he wasn’t sure whether to be livid at his former employer or to just be sent into a deep depression over everything that happened.

“It wasn’t as if I could just invite you to the Colony, boy. Think of the consequences of inviting every Tom, Dick, and Harry into this place without intense monitoring of their character. It would be mayhem.”

Kuroiwa fell to the ground on his knees, cursing his fate.

“So all this time… all this effort, has just been one big shaggy dog story for me?”

Chigusa knelt down and rubbed his back to comfort him, but at this point she struggled to do even that. She was disappointed, but Kuroiwa was inconsolable.

Daisuke strained a smile and looked at Shinada. “Boss, I think it’s time.”, he whispered. Shinada nodded in agreement, and then jumped down the table, and walked up to Kuroiwa with his stubby arms behind him.

“You can find meaning at the end of it.”

“Huh?”

“You’ve almost passed the interview, my boy Kuroiwa.”

Kuroiwa lifted his head. “What interview?”

“You wanted a stable job with good pay, didn’t you? Then consider everything you’ve been through since meeting me as an interview—a test, if you will, for the job I’m about to offer you. Surely you two have heard of the Neo Shibuya Consultation Agency.”

Chigusa’s eyes lit up. “No way. So you’re…”

“Don’t get me wrong, though. I'm in a managerial position at best. But I’m close to making a vouch of confidence for you, boy. And you too, young lass, if you’re up to it.”

“But I’m a Code Reader…”

“Yes, but that means you make a living by simply existing. Don’t you want to do more?”

The thought enticed Chigusa somehow. She was what someone would call ‘unemployed’, lacking a standard nine-to-five job, but her mere presence in domestic disputes and discussions on law and ordinance did mean her existence had a meaning. However, it was more of a passive one—living as a tool and as an asset, but by no means giving a meaning to her actions.

Code Readers lived simply reading lines of text and resolving errors in android code.

“I did participate in a commercial on it before. Is that why you’re even considering me?”

“Correct. And also, you helped my boy Kuroiwa over here. Give it some thought.”

Kuroiwa got back on his knees and dusted his pants. He fixed his coat and wiped the look of despair off his face, replacing it with a visceral disdain instead. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at his old employer.

“If it’s about becoming a megacorp or government dog, count me out. They’ve screwed me over more times than I can count already.”

Shinada laughed it off. “That’s where you’re wrong, in a sense.”

Kuroiwa tilted his head, curious about Shinada's words. He let the pupper continue, but eyed him with suspicion.

“Yes, the Consultation Agency is a megacorp. But that’s where our similarities with the rest of the city’s ilk ends. You see, the Neo Shibuya Consultation Agency is a cover for Colony Tau’s rebellion against the city.”

Kuroiwa and Chigusa took a step back.

“Eh…?”

Shinada began to pace around.

“You’ve seen the city. It’s a place of constant violence, uncurbed decadence, and heavy handed oversight on both government and corporate levels. Colony Tau, being an undesirable in the eyes of the powers-that-be who wants to force everyone under their watchful eye, has been in constant conflict for decades on end by now, forcing us to hide out deep underground. Knowing sheer strength will never be enough, we built up the Consultation Agency—an entity that will someday become big enough to enact gradual change through good ideas and reforms; to put us in a position to make them a reality.”

Chigusa nodded. “And now you’re big enough to be considered a megacorp yourself.”

“That’s exactly right, Code Reader,” said Shinada. “The Agency built itself up through the efforts of pure humans and the cybernetically augmented. Our vision is for the city to find new meaning in their lives, and for a world where violence like what we see in the streets will become a relic of the past.”

“Ohhh…”

Kuroiwa tapped his foot and crossed his arms.

“Awfully idealistic of a corporation. Sounds like a whole lot of sales talk.”

“Yes, you could consider it a sales talk. I am a manager, after all. The only question is if you’re in.”

“Well, what’s your offer?”

Shinada grinned as he went up to Kuroiwa’s ear, carried to head level by Daisuke. And there he whispered a devious price for Kuroiwa’s service. The sweeper’s thoughts cleared all once he heard how much the monthly salary was.

“That’s all you had to say!”

Chigusa held a hand to her chest, taking a deep breath. Even without hearing the payout, she had already resolved herself.

“If I join, will I see the rest of Colony Tau?”

“Those are parts of the terms, yes. Eventually, once my team does well enough, they’ll let even exiles like us back into the fray. Call it a rite of passage, or rather, one of re-entry.”

“...Then count me in, as well.” Chigusa beamed at Shinada.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Shinada waved his finger at them. “But I said, the interview’s not done just yet. There’s still one more thing I want before I hire either of you.”

Kuroiwa scoffed. “Oh, come on. Isn’t this the part where you say, ‘oh, you’ve already passed the interview because everything to this point has been test’? What more do you want?”

“Now, now. You shouldn’t be talking to your future boss like that.”

“R-right,” stammered Kuroiwa. “Sorry.”

Shinada walked up to a framed photo turned face down on the table and picked it up. He looked at it, his expression turning forlorn, as if struck with a long, unresolved melancholy. The photo depicted Shiyuri in her teenage years beside a woman around her mid to late thirties who looked like a splitting image of her, just older.

“As you already know, Shiyuri is Nekolain. But we never made her that way. It wasn’t our intention for her to turn out that way. She wouldn’t even be an android now if it weren’t for, well, a certain time of her life.”

“So her being a terrorist isn’t part of your Agency’s MO?”

“We’re firmly against it, but she’s acting up on her own.” Shinada shook his head. He showed the picture to Kuroiwa and Chigusa, who then became shocked at the striking resemblance between the two people in the picture.

“Is this her mom?”

“Yes. My daughter.”

“Your daughter?! But you’re a dog!”

Shinada was aggrieved. “You fool, I wasn’t a dog before. I was a healthy man just like you. Eventually I did decide to be a dog because dogs are cute. You could say that put a little rift in our family.”

“Right. What a stellar reason.”

Shinada handed them the photograph and paced around the room again.

“They used to live together in that hovel of an apartment she brought you into. I told them to not live outside the Tau’s walls, but they insisted. They wanted to see the real sun instead of the artificial sunlight inside, they said.”

“What happened then?” Chigusa asked.

“Her mother died of a disease. No doctor in the city could help her at all. In a society immune to disease, what use was there for human doctors? No one knew what she died of; she could have died of a simple flu, for all we know, but with no medicine to quell her symptoms, she would eventually die. And the rest is history.”

“That sounds so… sad. Dying for no reason at all.” Chigusa wept imagining the scene.

“That’s the nature of human life. But that wasn’t the worst part. Shiyuri and her mother had a spat right before that, and so you can imagine how she felt about the entire ordeal up to now.”

Kuroiwa scratched his head. “I don’t get it though. How does any of that correlate to Shiyuri becoming an android, and her turning into the city’s most wanted?”

Shinada turned to Kuroiwa with a serious gaze.

“I can’t impart such sensitive information on a whim like that.”

“Alright. So what do you want me to do then?”

“I’ll tell you everything. Everything you need to know, want to know about her. Consider my request to you to be the final test—the final part of your interview. You only need to promise to do what I ask.”

“Fine. Name it.”

“Please, help my granddaughter. Stop her from being Nekolain once and for all.”