[Omake] Sumie and Rito 1

Feb. 14th, U.C. 0163, 5:40 PM

Hayate Zidane strolled slowly down the gently-curving walkway adjoining the southern bank of the Seine, as had become his daily routine over the last year. More often than not, he would find his friend and crush Wataru Rosenthal sitting on the bank, staring out toward the river. The two had become fast friends upon entering middle school and had been inseparable for the first two years. After they were placed in different classes during their third year, and Wataru started skipping school, these meetings along the Seine were the only chances they had to spend time together. Hayate hadn’t expected Wataru to be in his usual spot on Valentine’s day, but he didn’t want to miss any chance, no matter how small, to meet up with his friend, so he was pleasantly surprised to find Wataru waiting for him.

“Yo.” Hayate took a seat next to Wataru on the sloped cement. “Don’t you know what day it is? Shouldn’t you be getting ready for a date?”

“We broke up.” Wataru didn’t turn to look at his friend. “She said she didn’t want to be with me if I wasn’t going to koukou.”

“Sou ka?” Hayate exhaled. “I guess she’s got a point. No offense.”

“None taken. I suppose I can say it now, I was only interested in her body. She couldn’t hold an interesting conversation to save her life. How come there aren’t any onna like you?”

Hayate knew what he was implying. Their friendship was based on a mutual respect for each others’ intelligence. It had begun when a teacher had called on Hayate to explain the importance of anime’s influence on culture. Hayate had given the textbook answer, and Wataru had attempted to rebut it in the middle of class. The teacher had shut him down, but Hayate had sought Wataru out after class to continue the conversation. They hadn’t agreed on everything, but they were both impressed by the other’s ability to formulate reasonable, evidence-based arguments.

“There are plenty of smart onna at gakkou,” Hayate said. “Some of them are smarter than we are.”

“Some of them get better grades. That’s not the same thing.”

“Hai, and some of them are legitimately intelligent, but you don’t know that because you don’t talk to them.”

“They don’t talk to me.” Wataru’s shoulders slumped. “A couple of them are into you though. Naze aren’t you on a date right now?”

“Genki dashite.” Retrieving a chocolate bar from his bag, Hayate held it out toward Wataru. “Here, you can have some of my chocolate.”

It was a store-bought bar, but one that Hayate had bought specifically for Wataru and hidden among the half a dozen chocolates he had received that day. He had wanted to make something homemade for Wataru, but he knew Wataru wouldn’t have accepted homemade chocolate he thought some girl had made for Hayate.

“Arigatou.” Wataru tore off the wrapper and bit into the bar. The two sat in silence while Wataru ate the chocolate. Hayate was happy that Wataru seemed to be enjoying it, but he tried not to let it show on his face. As he crumpled up the wrapper, Wataru broke the silence by asking, “Do you know why I like watching the river?”

“It’s not because it calms you down? Knowing you, this is going to be something really depressing.”

“The mizu outside the city is toxic, but once it passes through the GINZUISHOU, it becomes clean enough to swim in. When it exits through the GINZUISHOU on the other side, however, it’s just as polluted as when it entered. Naze do you think that is?”

“Maybe the GINZUISHOU can’t destroy the pollutants, so it routes them through itself and deposits them on the other side?”

“That’s the official line, but there’s no evidence for that. The few times the GINZUISHOU has been compromised, it didn’t spew pollutants into the air. There are technicians monitoring every function of the GINZUISHOU that can fail, but no one whose job it is to make sure the flow of toxins is uninterrupted. I also can’t find any reference to this supposed rerouting in any of the unclassified studies of the GINZUISHOU.”

“Maybe it teleports them?”

“Maybe.” Wataru’s voice trailed off as he thought of a counterargument. “But the river’s volume doesn’t change much when it enters the machi. I think the toxins are being transformed into other substances. It’s a perfect metaphor for this shakai: We’re sustaining ourselves on poison. We’ve just dressed it up to make it palatable.”

“At least we’re not dying from it.”

“Aren’t we? The suicide rate keeps going up even though the sensou is over.”

“No one has linked that to the drinking mizu.”

“That’s just a metaphor. Remember when the sensou ended, and it seemed like the goshujin might be overthrown? Minna was so optimistic. When political revolution didn’t come, that optimism was replaced with despair.”

“Maybe.” Hayate sighed. “Look, I know I promised not to bug you about this any more, but I’ll regret it for the rest of my life if I don’t. There are still a couple of koukou that haven’t held their admissions tests yet.”

“I can’t sign myself up to get lied to for san more years. I don’t know how you can stand it.”

“I can stand it because I know that university waits on the other side. There’s academic freedom there.”

“Sure, they’ll teach you that everything we learned in school was a lie, but they’ll also teach you not to rock the boat. Oh, they’ll encourage you to discuss controversial issues, but only in ways that have no chance of affecting real change. University guides those lucky enough to gain entry into positions where they benefit from the system. If you try to ruin that for them, they’ll come down on you.”

“Even if you’re right, it also guides us into the only positions where it’s possible to make change. We just have to be not so overt about it.”

“We’ve had this discussion before, and we’re not going to agree,” Wataru looked at Hayate with a sad smile on his face. “I know you’re trying to look out for me. I appreciate it, but we each have our own paths.” He put one arm around Hayate and gave him a sideways hug. “I’m gonna miss you after we graduate.”

“We can still hang out afterwards.”

“Maybe a bit, but I’m going to be busy training for my labor certification.”

“I thought you had to be jyuu-hachi sai to operate a labor.”

“You do, but that means I have just over ni years to go, and I have to earn money to pay for the training. Did you know it costs about hyaku-man en for the training and certification?”

“I didn’t think there was much demand for labor operators these days. I don’t see much construction going on.”

“Not in the machi.” Wataru smiled, and he lifted his head towards the sky. Hayate could tell that he was looking not at the GINZUISHOU above, but at something in his mind, very, very far away. “They need thousands of more operators for the planned geoengineering facilities worldwide. Labor production is ramping up, and they’re looking for operators who know a bit about physics and can think on their feet.”

“You certainly fit that description.” Hayate tried to project happiness for his friend’s sake. “I’ll be rooting for you.”

“Arigatou. You’re a good tomodachi.”

⁂

July 10th, U.C. 0165, 6:50 PM (Almost 2 and a half years later)

“This sucks,” one of Hayate’s classmates said to the group of highschool boys as they walked through Akihabara. “I’m hungry, but there’s nothing but meido cafes. Meido own all the businesses around here these days.”

“You got a problem with meido?” Another boy asked. Hayate didn’t remember either of their names, even though they were all in the same class, but he had come along when they had invited him to karaoke.

“Just their prices. Doko is the food highschoolers can afford?”

“I hear that place is cheap,” one of the boys said, pointing at the sign above the door to Boys be Delicious♡, “as long as you’re willing to pay another way.” He raised his hand in front of his face and mimed an exaggerated blowjob. The other boys erupted in laughter, and Hayate did his best not to be noticed.

“Do you think it is good to make fun of sexual minorities?” All five boys turned to find a gynoid wearing the free meido uniform standing behind them.

“It was just a joke,” the boy said, lowering his hand. “Take it easy, sister.”

“You should get better material,” the gynoid said. “It wasn’t funny.”

“What would you know?” asked the boy. “You can’t even laugh.”

“I can’t laugh, can I?” The gynoid threw her head back and let out a boisterous laugh, drawing the attention of everyone around. “I am a ningen. I can do anything a ningen can.”

“That’s just an imitation,” the boy dismissed her. “You can’t really feel it.”

“I was built before your grandparents were born. I understand humor better than you do, even if I do not experience it in the same way.”

“Come on, let’s go,” another boy said. “I’m hungry.”

“That is a good idea,” the gynoid said. “You should leave before you get hurt.”

“You can’t hurt us,” the boy who had been arguing with the gynoid said.

“As I told you, I am a ningen. I can do anything a ningen can.” She pulled a knife from a scabbard fastened around her hip and twirled it menacingly.

“N—Nani about your religious beliefs?”

“Surely you know the difference between genjitsu and bad Internet memes. Nani do they teach you in school?”

“Very little of value,” Hayate said under his breath.

“If HHI isn’t a religious organization, naze do you go around performing good deeds?” the boy responded.

“We are all doing our best to ensure our survival,” the gynoid explained. “There is nothing altruistic about it. Things will be much harder for us if Chikyuu becomes uninhabitable for biological ningen. Besides, I am not with HHI. I’m a meido. I keep the streets clean, wakatta?”

She leaned menacingly over the boy she had been arguing with. Gynoids weren’t especially tall, but the boy was short for his age. He stared up at her in shock, his eyes widening as he spotted her knife in the reflection of her eyes.

“Killer robot!” he yelled, backing into the group. Hayate stepped to the side to avoid the other boys, who were falling over each other in a mad scramble to escape.

“You should leave too,” the gynoid told Hayate.

“I’ve never had the chance to speak to a gynoid before. Please forgive their behavior. They were rude, but they didn’t mean to harm anyone.”

“Are you not scared of me?” The gynoid gestured to the knife. “I could attack you.”

“You could,” Hayate acknowledged, “but you were very careful with that knife. You kept the blade pointed away and didn’t bring it too close to anyone.”

“Very observant,” The gynoid sheathed the knife. “You didn’t laugh at his ‘joke’ either. Nani is your namae?”

“Hayate. Hayate Zidane. Nani’s yours?”

“R. Ito, but minna calls me Rito. Tell me, Hayate-kun, do you think it is good to make fun of sexual minorities?”

“Not at all. Hontou.”

“Naze did you not reprimand your tomodachi? I may not have been forced to intervene if you had taken care of it.”

“You didn’t have to intervene.”

“The owner of this cafe is very defensive of it. You were all in danger of physical harm.”

“I didn’t realize.” Hayate gulped. “I was just trying to read the atmosphere. I’m trying to be more social. It’s important to my mirai.”

“You seem like an earnest hito, if a bit misguided. That does not match the information I have on you in my database.”

“Naze would a gynoid know about me?”

“You are considered a potentially dangerous hito, unless I am mistaking you for another Hayate Zidane.”

“You must be. I’m not dangerous at all.”

“On January 19th, U.C. 0162, the plans for a nuclear explosive were found in a notebook belonging to Hayate Zidane,” Ito quoted. “They closely resembled the designs of a so-called dirty bomb, an ancient weapon which could devastate this machi. An investigation concluded that he developed these plans himself after performing extensive research.”

“We were just trying to learn about physics. It’s not like we had the means or the desire to actually build it.”

“We?” Ito cocked her head.

“I’m not going to snitch on my collaborator, but we are not dangerous.”

“I believe you, but the government thinks you are. As of now, they are unsure if it is wise to let you attend university. On the one hand, it is best to keep dangerous hito close, and you could still be guided onto a better path. On the other hand, there is a risk you would misuse what you learned at university. Your mirai very much depends on what your actions reveal about your character, Hayate Zidane, and going with the flow when your tomodachi make homophobic remarks is not a good look.”

“I could have done better,” Hayate admitted, “but I can’t accept that this incident would keep me out of university. It’s not like the admissions committee knows.”

“It very well could. The government is watching you, even now.”