Negotiation

“Ekko, what are you talking about?” I turned to her, questioning why she wouldn't want to help these people. “This is our chance to make the world better. Don’t you want to join in?”

She didn’t seem too happy with my statement, opting to give me a nasty look.

“I’m all for fighting against the government. But you and I just came out of a life or death situation, and now he wants to throw us into another one without telling us what it is?” She turned back to Miyazaki-sama. “We aren’t obedient little workers. We’re humans who want to know our leader isn't going to abuse us.”

Ekko seemed a bit more shaken up than me. She’d had the worst job of us all, not only making herself a public enemy, but also pushing herself, all alone, trying to set up all the dominos to fall just right.

Now after she’d seen how terrifying staring death in the face was, this man could be asking her to do it all over again.

“I refuse to join on a whim,” she said. “I already did that once and it wore me down. If you want me to come with you, tell us what your plan is. Personally, I think my actions up to this point have more than proven I’m no friend of the government.”

Miyazaki-sama had a grin, clearly mildly annoyed, but also pleased in a way.

“Half your point is perfect,” He said. “The part about how you’re already an ally, perfect. I trust you completely. But let’s say you learn it and decide the plan is too much for you and run off back to the wilds of Tokyo, getting yourself captured.”

I hadn’t thought of it like that. Knowing the government, they’d probably have some pretty brutal ways of extracting info from someone.

“All these months of planning go down the drain. At least if you stick with me, you have my protection if something goes south, like in that gymnasium.”

“I considered that, but understand that we’ve spent enough time taking pills and trusting that someone has the best intention for us,” Ekko replied. “I need to know we're not cogs in your machine. Otherwise, I’ll grind it to a halt.”

Miyazaki-sama locked eyes with Ekko. A lion and a tiger both held their grounds, waiting to see who would blink first.

Finally, the leader of the Guardians of the Soul submitted with a beam.

“I knew Ko picked a good one,” he said.

The tension in the room eased significantly after that. Both the guards were ordered out of the room. Ko made sure to lock the door behind them while also inspecting the room for anything suspicious.

“To be honest, I fully expect both of you to join my cause without question. But seeing Hannyako’s skeptical nature made me realize how I want people like her to lead the free world one day. If you want the plan, I’ll tell you.”

“Miyazaki-sama,” Ko started, “is it okay that I’m here listening too?”

“You’re already a big part of it,” he nodded. “Just keep that camera of yours off.”

I looked over at her and noticed she was fiddling with some sort of small device under her robes. If Miyazaki-sama’s words were any indication, that had to be a camera.

“Just so I’m clear,” Ekko started “We can still back out of the plan, even after you’ve told us what it is?”

“It pains me to say it, but yes. Although, if that’s the case, I’ll have to keep you somewhere safe until the plan actually finishes. Deal?”

“Fair enough,” Ekko nodded.

Even though I can almost guarantee that we would both be joining no matter what, Ekko really did us a solid by negotiating those terms. I was a bit too eager to jump into this without considering where I could end up.

“Alright.” Miyazaki-sama turned to Ko again, who gave him a nod that the room was all clear. “Hannyako’s plan showed us a glaring fault in this society. Replace their pills, and they don’t even notice.”

“Like I said, my plan won’t work twice,” Ekko reiterated.

“The way you tried it, no. But I said we want to think bigger. Imagine what happened at your school, but on a nation-wide scale. We won’t be hitting up medicine cabinets, we’ll be going straight to the factories themselves and sabotaging the ingredients.”

That seemed like too big of an evolution of the original plan. Almost too big to even consider how it could be done.

“You’re saying you want us to break into the pill factory and swap ingredients?” I asked. “We’re not ninja.”

“Don’t sell yourselves so short…”

He took up a pen, stood to his feet and then threw it at Ekko like a dart.

Ekko instinctively dodged, but even if she hadn’t, I caught the pen midair.

“Hey?!” Ekko shouted. “What’s going on here?”

His eyes were deathly serious, but he didn’t look cold or crazy at all.

“You kids are the product of intense and specific eugenic programs, meaning your bodies are far more capable of incredible feats when under stress.” He sat back down in his seat. “You won’t be ninja, but with some training, you’ll find you’re more capable than you think.”

Thinking about how our school emphasized keeping all of us at peak physical performance, it sometimes felt like we were being trained for combat. Not that we ever got to throw a punch.

“So, we have the endgame…but how do we get there?” I asked.

“In about two weeks, there’ll be a party for elite members of the government. Politicians, scientists, and the wealthy families who support them. We need a team of two to crash the party and get a copy of one of the scientist’s key cards for the factory in the Arakawa district.”

“Wealthy families?”

That raised my brow. Money was something long since abandoned by society, since we all were provided our needs equally across the board.

“I’ve never met a rich person, but I can tell you they exist.” Ekko said.

Miyazaki-sama spoke up next. “You’re referring to the dumpster that the higher up families dispose of their garbage in, correct?”

“How did you know about that?”

Miyazaki-sama let out a chortle. “You don’t think I have eyes and ears everywhere? You and your homeless friend were so loud that I’m surprised someone didn’t report it.”

“Kitsune and I walked past there every day,” Ko added. “That’s how I found you.”

What were they talking about? I never heard anything like that.

“I…I guess you did leave that letter…” Ekko said to Ko. “Never mind this. Go on,” she rolled her hand to continue the conversation.

Miyazaki-sama figured that we’d been told enough about the plan so far, giving us a chance to either opt in or step away.

We both knew the right thing to do here.

“We're in,” we both said together.

“Excellent.” He clapped his hands, causing Ko to open the door behind us. “For now, get some rest. In the morning, the two of you are going to start your training.”