I Have Always Liked “Emperor”

‘Where is he, anyway?’ Said the General. ‘We were all supposed to be here.’

‘Stop pacing.’ Said Daiko. ‘He’ll be here.’

‘He’d better be.’

D’Argon and Malbrette exchanged a glance.

The doors opened and one of the blue-eyed servants entered.

‘Ah, about time.’ Said the General.

Around the room the other servants stood with their backs to the walls.

‘Where is Elder Toguchi?’ Demanded the Minister.

‘I am sorry.’ The servant’s voice was curiously devoid of feeling. ‘Elder Toguchi will not be able to attend.’

‘What?! Why are we listening to this… thing?’ Spluttered the General.

The servant turned. ‘I am speaking for the group with which he has had contact.’

The General stared incredulously. ‘What rubbish… where is—‘

It turned to the table. ‘The time has come for your decision.’

The Minister stood. ‘If you are indeed the messenger, Tokyo11 is willing to cede one fifth of its interests in exchange for guarantees of—‘

‘—a fifth? Have you gone mad?’ The General waved his arm. ‘This tin can is your new master? We will have none of it.’

‘What choice do we have? The whole city was picked clean.’

‘What proof do we have it was real—‘

‘You misunderstand.’ The servant spoke coldly. ‘This is not a negotiation.’

The servants around the edges of the room all took a step forward. The General looked up, suddenly alert. The Minister seized the edge of his seat. Only the Electress and Daiko seemed calm.

***

She watched waiting. It was time. The reports had been correct. The only worry was d’Argon, if he would move first. She felt a small wave of sorrow. In another life perhaps.

The device was the result of millions of man-hours of scientific work. It would be very precise. Precise enough to exclude a single seat, at a single table, in a single building, in a single city, from its effects.

She looked at the blue-eyed figure addressing them.

‘It’s locked!’ The Minister and the General were pulling at the handle of the door.

Her hand slid to the trigger strapped to her leg. Her body was perfectly still like the head of a predator above water.

She pressed the switch.

The blue-eyed figure stared at her.

She pressed it again.

Her eyes went down to her leg.

‘You will find it has been deactivated.’ Said the servant.

Everyone in the room looked to her.

‘What is this?’ Said the General.

‘Malbrette..?’ This, the man behind her.

‘The Lady brought a photo-frequency detonator with her.’

Malbrette’s doll-like face remained expressionless.

‘Bitch—you made an oath!’ Shouted d’Argon.

The General now swore in several languages. ‘What the hell is this? You two—‘

‘But surely General, you had your own plans?’ Said the servant.

‘Oh dear.’ Daiko laughed.

The Electress wore an entertained smile. ‘It seems the Elder has played us all.’

The General and the Minister resumed pulling at the door.

For a moment Malbrette felt something like fear. The empire she had planned fell apart in her mind before it had even been born. And then peace fell over her. She heard the steps of the servants all around the room, felt the presence behind her as the General fought with one of them. The humming was now very loud. She closed her eyes and a single thought came into her head. D’Argon. If she could have had but one moment with him.

She felt a great warmth. A final image was burned into her retina, the last to fade from her dying mind.

Daiko and the Electress sitting still while all around them shouted and fought. Their eyes on the empty seat across from them. President Kurogari’s seat. Before it disappeared, a smile passed Daiko lips.

***

Gambola had been passed down in the information state for centuries. Like a mix between fencing and chess. Each step would bring you closer to the opponent but also leave you open to their move. The boy looked at the flagstone squares beneath his feet. In the old days it would have been how rivalries were settled. If a player miscalculated one step his game would be over. If he had any honour he would allow his opponent to strike him down. That was what the game revealed. Stories were many who had flinched, broken the lines to save themselves. They had won survival but at the cost of its worth. Elder Toguchi sighed. That world no longer existed.

Kurogari stepped between squares trying not to trip on the robe.

Toguchi watched. ‘Not bad. But—‘ he moved two steps, lowering his blade to the right.

‘What was that?’ The boy frowned.

‘As a move on its own, it has no value. But when used at the right time…’ Toguchi looked at the board. ‘See?’

‘But you are open.’ Said the boy.

Toguchi stood. ‘Here. Let me show you.’ He took up a position in front of Kurogari. ‘You see, and bring him in—‘ he took the boy’s blade hand and moved it toward his exposed throat.

‘And then the turn is changed—’ he turned to one side and in a moment the point of his blade was at the Kurogari’s temple.

The boy watched wide eyed. ‘So the appearance of vulnerability…’ he tried to imitate the Elder’s move.

‘No, here.’ Toguchi repositioned Kurogari’s blade.

‘Like this?’

‘Yes, yes, that’s it.’

Toguchi now took up the position Kurogari had just held. The boy shifted his body and the blade switched to the old man’s temple.

‘Wowwww.’

‘So you see, all you have changed is the context.’ Toguchi said. He was trembling slightly, holding the arched position.

The tip of the blade pressed against his temple.

‘Wait… careful, my boy.’ He laughed. ‘I cannot move.’

He looked up at the boy.

Kurogari’s eyes were no longer wide. They gazed back at him coldly.

‘You’re—‘

‘Thank you for all the lessons, Elder.’

‘What are you—‘

‘You are right. Value is a moment. Now yours has expired.’

Realisation swept through the old man. His eyes darted to the wall where one of the servants held a tray of drinks. ‘What are you waiting for? Kill him!’

The blue-eyes looked back vacantly.

‘You will find they no longer obey you.’

The tip of the blade pierced the skin beside the Elder’s eye.

‘I took you into my home!’ He shouted.

Toguchi sighed. ‘Your empire is built on subterfuge and yet, it was so easy…’ he waved his hand, ‘—you had a son, he died during an attempted coup, since then… in this big old empty house… alllllll on your own.’ He rolled his eyes.

Fury passed through the Elder. ‘You were chosen as Daimyo because you’re harmless. Nothing! You understand?! We just needed a cover. The others in the council will not stand for it—‘

Kurogari looked at the clock on the wall. ‘Oh, they’ll be gone by now.’

Toguchi’s eyes widened. A thin line of blood ran down his cheek slowly.

‘Besides, Daimyo does not interest me.’

‘You wish… to bring back the Shogunate?’

Kurogari laughed. ‘Quaint.’ He looked up thoughtfully. ‘I have always liked “Emperor.”’

The old man looked at him for a moment. ‘I-I have information. You spoke of value—stores of immeasurable size.’

Kurogari paused. ‘There is something you could tell me.’

The old man looked up at him, eagerness in his eyes. ‘What is it?’

‘I have always wondered,’ Kurogari looked down and leant on the blade, ‘what Tokyo27’s neural cores.. look like.. in operation.’ The blade slid forward, through the Elder’s eye socket and out the back of his head.

‘No—‘ Toguchi’s words fragmented into garbled pieces.

Kurogari lifted the blade like a lever, opening Toguchi’s skull. He leant in to examine its contents.

After a few moments, he let the old man’s body slide to the floor, looking dissatisfied. The core always deactivated before he could see it.

He wiped the blade against the body. ‘Get rid of it.’ He said to the servant, before taking the stairs. ‘I have a meeting to get to.’

***

The hall was filled with a single vast hum, a trillion individual voices cancelling each other out. It was the sound of distance. A voice you only heard when its components became vague.

Kurogari sat cross legged on the promontory of a black stage. The power room always stilled his thoughts. A huge blue sun floated behind him. They had captured a God. Not slain it but kept it alive. In chains.

Its hum was so powerful it felt as though walls pressed in on his mind. You either yielded to it, or were crushed beneath it.

His eyes were closed. Yet he could still see it in his head, like a parietal eye seeing itself.

Speak with me.

Speak with me again.

A smile crossed his serene expression.

How foolish he had been at first. Trying to find ways to counter the Geist threat. ARPol, the Alters…always thinking these acts were his own. That his will was his own.

The Geists were not a threat. They were a blueprint.

The many voices of the sun began to whisper in his head, like solar rays dispersing in the void.

They touched the margins of his consciousness.

Their edges were his own.

He is coming.

He is not the invader.

He is the liberator.

From my self.

From the invader.

He felt a thrill of excitement. The hum had vanished.

He was here.

Ah, you have come.

A passage of silence passed in the hall. An age, a moment. 

Yes.

It is done?

More silence.

It is done.

He opened his eyes. They blazed brilliant blue.