Beria knocked on Shinonome’s coffin.
“What is it…”
“I want to talk for a bit. About what’s next for us.”
At that, Shinonome checked the time. Two hours left before the nanomachine setup — or whatever it was — finished.
“Alright.”
Shinonome climbed out of his coffin and wondered where to talk.
“Common area’s empty right now.”
“Yeah.”
The common area really was empty.
“A barrier to ward people off?”
“Right. Better to take precautions against eavesdropping.”
Impressive barrier work, Shinonome thought. Really and truly, no one came near.
“So — what’s this about what’s next…”
“Whether we keep doing the work.”
“Of course we do. No work means no food, no bed, no ID.”
Jane Doe has our lifeline in her hands, Shinonome said.
“She’s something like me.”
“A Demon King? A corporate operative?”
“A demon. As for the corporate side, she may have some kind of deal with a company.”
Shinonome was mildly surprised that a demon had just gone and gotten BCI surgery like it was nothing.
“You were a hero, you know. Technically. Don’t you have any pangs of conscience?”
“I wasn’t doing the hero thing out of some sense of justice.”
Shinonome talked.
“At first I just got a big head from everyone calling me the Hero, the Hero, and thought, fine, let’s do this — and then it was just fun, the adventuring. I killed demons, but that was because they were trying to kill us, so I killed them.”
And then, Shinonome continued:
“Once the deterioration started getting serious, even the thrill of adventure went flat. I thought if I killed the Demon King things would get better, so I just ran around killing things recklessly — but those demons had families too, probably, right? I was always a selfish person. As long as I was okay, everything else could burn.”
First it was the hunger for glory, then the thrill of adventure, and finally just the will to survive.
Not a fragment of justice anywhere in any of it, Shinonome said.
“So I’m fine accepting how things are now. Threw me off a little at first, but it all comes down to what’s necessary to stay alive. I’m a selfish person living selfishly.”
Shinonome said this and looked at Beria.
“I didn’t feel anything when I killed Hirota. Didn’t feel anything fighting those contractors either. I always want myself to survive. That’s all.”
Beria listened to Shinonome’s monologue and nodded.
“Then there’s no problem. I was worried about what I’d do if you were being eaten up by guilt — but if that’s not the case, all the better.”
Beria said this and smiled.
“Though — to think that the great hope of humanity, the side I spent years opposing, turned out to be a person like you. I doubt they saw that coming.”
“Those people stank. Hirota’s breath was awful too. Reasons like that are more than enough to betray someone or kill them.”
Besides, that e-drug junkie would have been dead soon anyway, Shinonome added.
“You really are a selfish man. I like that. But let me swear this — we won’t betray each other. Either of us. Going forward, the Matrix work is mine. The killing is yours.”
“Yeah. Mutual benefit is what makes it work.”
A deal like this only holds because both sides gain something from it, Shinonome said.
“Leave anything that needs BCI to me. You just swing your sword like you did as a hero.”
But, Beria said, and handed over a paper bag.
“The anemia’s a problem. It’s because of Moonlight, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. That’s why it’s called a magic sword. It drinks blood from its wielder or whoever it cuts. Lately I’ve been using it mostly to deflect bullets, so it’s been drinking more of mine. Deploying all eight takes a lot out of me.”
The reason Shinonome didn’t keep all eight blades deployed all the time was exactly that — the more deployed, the more blood they drank.
He could speed up his blood production with physical enhancement, but with the jobs piling up like this, the toll was accumulating.
“I mentioned to the cat-ears doctor that I’d been feeling anemic, and she prescribed some iron supplements. One tablet after every meal, with water. Should you be taking a break from work for a while?”
“I’m fine. I’ve got physical enhancement keeping the blood flowing. Iron’s probably a good idea though.”
Shinonome said this and washed the supplement down with his carbonated drink.
“You said synthetic food doesn’t give you real nutrition.”
“Natural food’s questionable at this point too. In the end, supplements like this are probably the safest bet. Synthetic food is fine for eating — it’s enough. And we need to watch the money. It’s not like the well-paying jobs are going to keep flowing forever.”
Shinonome looked at the manufacturer on the supplement bottle. Metis Medical.
“We’ll manage, one way or another. Keep working and money won’t be a problem. Save a little at a time and build something for when we’re too old to keep doing this.”
“You really don’t have any pangs of conscience?”
“None. Do I need to? If someone told me to kill innocent women and children I’d be disturbed, but at the end of the day it’s just work. Kill them, done. No relationship beyond that.”
When he was playing the hero everyone had all kinds of expectations of him, but here he was only expected to be a low-tech hitman, Shinonome said.
“Better not.”
Shinonome said.
“Better not to think too hard about this kind of thing.”
“Well, that’s true. I only asked because you used to be a hero.”
“Then you don’t need to worry. Being a hero didn’t give me some sense of justice. I said what I said.”
“So it seems.”
Beria exhaled, visibly relieved.
“You kill, I support. A relationship of mutual reliance. Let’s live in this world on those terms. Surviving is what matters most.”
“Yeah.”
No argument there — Shinonome drained the rest of his carbonated drink.
“The problem is that we have no choice but to rely on Jane Doe. She won’t like it if we go work for someone else, but I’m not comfortable with her holding our lifeline either.”
“Even so, we’d better not go making contact with other operatives carelessly and get her angry. She has demonic abilities too, after all.”
“Getting involved with crime organizations would get complicated fast. Private clients aren’t a realistic option. This isn’t detective work. We can’t hang a sign outside.”
“‘Killings available’ would get us reported even in Sector 13/6.”
“Right.”
Not that Oi Integrated Security would necessarily respond, Shinonome added.
“Anyway. We take it as it comes. First, get comfortable in this city. Figure out where the lines are — what you can’t touch here and what’s okay. Jane Doe told us not to do anything stupid, but we don’t even know what counts as stupid yet.”
We need to know what’s off-limits, Shinonome said.
And that kind of knowledge takes time to build.
“For that we’ll need to dive into the Matrix. I’m counting on you, Beria.”
“Leave it to me. It’s almost time. Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
If they walked from here, the timing would work out perfectly.
Moving through Kaimiya, transformed beyond recognition.
Neon, holograms, advertisements projected into the AR display.
He kept the AR contacts in. No telling when Jane Doe might reach out, and some things were only visible through AR.
AR seemed to offer some internet connectivity too, but that still required BCI. Without wireless BCI, you couldn’t get AR online.
Even so, it was useful enough for things like store reviews and safety ratings. Still, getting properly online meant BCI — that much was clear.
There was a bookstore. The sight of paper books was a relief to Shinonome.
The main sales were e-books, apparently, but old-fashioned paper books were still there.
Which made sense. BCI surgery was something you got done as an adult. It wasn’t as though you could tell kids not to read before that.
Reading on a tablet seemed to be an option too, but Shinonome bought a few volumes of paper manga. Something to look forward to back at the coffin hotel.
“This internet café has good reviews apparently.”
“Oh, really. Let’s try that one then.”
Hygiene, service, price — the café scored high across the board.
Hygiene matters, Shinonome thought.
Given that BCI could let mold into your brain.
……………………