The New Frontier Development Zone is an industrial special zone established in a certain prefecture.
Its purpose includes the protection of New Frontier-related technologies, and entering the development zone requires inspection — presenting identification and the like.
— or so she’d been told.
“……that was surprisingly easy”
Chihaya is caught off guard — she got into the New Frontier Development Zone just by showing her driver’s license, smooth as can be. Submitting her application documents in advance must have helped.
Past the checkpoint, which looks like a highway toll booth, the road continues through forest. Chihaya boards the dedicated bus for getting around inside the zone and opens up her pamphlet.
The New Frontier Development Zone has an area comparable to the twenty-three wards of Tokyo. Scattered throughout the zone are branch offices of various companies, Actanoid factories and research districts, and residential areas for Actors — the technicians who operate the Actanoids.
Where Chihaya is headed is the administrative ward known as Ward One, the gateway to the development zone. It houses government buildings including the New Frontier Resource Agency, and also manages things like resident registration for New Frontier Development Zone inhabitants.
She’s moving here, so she has to transfer her residency. Resident management is kept thorough out of vigilance against industrial spies.
Through the forest, a visibly brand-new town of newly built buildings comes into view. The rows of plain, utilitarian concrete buildings with their vaguely bureaucratic look — this is Ward One.
Actanoids operated by security staff are docked on both sides of each building’s entrance, lending the place a somewhat tense atmosphere.
Chihaya gets off the bus at the stop and, half-listening to frogs croaking, makes her way into city hall.
She’s looking around when a woman in what looks like a staff uniform — blue — speaks to her.
“Can I help you find something?”
“u-uh…… I’m fine, thanks”
Reflexively pulling back, Chihaya points with a trembling finger at the directory board. Then she flees toward the municipal services window, which handles resident registration.
Pressing a hand over her hammering heart, Chihaya gathers the documents she’d printed out and brings them to the window, and tugs her cap down lower over her face.
“u-um, please”
“Of course, just a moment”
The window staff handles everything with crisp efficiency and Chihaya relaxes slightly. She sneaks a glance sideways at the directory board.
Once resident registration is done, next is the orientation.
What Chihaya applied for — and was accepted into — is Actanoid operation duty, meaning the Actor position.
It’s a field job developing the New Frontier, and it’s an independent position rather than being employed by a company.
Because of that, the New Frontier Resource Agency runs its own orientations and operation training sessions, which Chihaya is also scheduled to attend.
“――Sorry for the wait. This is your identification for the New Frontier Development Zone. You’ll be asked to show it frequently, so please keep it on you at all times.”
“oh, yes, thank you, um”
She takes the ID with a trembling, stuttering hand, and as if to say business concluded makes a quick escape from the window.
Steadying her breathing, Chihaya makes her way to the orientation venue.
She takes a seat at the far end of the very back row and quietly slides her chair sideways to put more distance between herself and the next person.
She scans the room from under her lashes, ready to look away at any moment. About thirty men and women in their twenties — presumably fellow Actor candidates like herself — are seated with space between them. Some are already in clusters, apparently having formed groups, but most are reading the orientation booklets handed out at the entrance.
Chihaya follows their lead and opens hers.
Lofty explanatory text about the legal status of the New Frontiers and so on — but the content is no different from what she’d already looked up. Skimming through it, she flips to the Actanoid section and pauses.
Apparently Actanoids are classified into five categories based on use and characteristics.
The Rounder series, capable of handling a variety of environments. The Sprinter series, specialized for speed. The Rannoid series, which boosts communications signal strength to enhance coordination with surrounding Actanoids. The Medicaroid series, which performs Actanoid repairs in the New Frontier. And the Order series — essentially custom-built, purpose-specific machines.
The one the government will be lending out is apparently an Allrounder, which falls under the Rounder series.
The orientation itself just briefly covered the key points from the booklet and that was it. No particular questions, no issues.
The issue starts now.
“We’ll now move to individual operation training with your instructors. When your name is called, please exit the venue, meet your instructor, and proceed to the Actor Room.”
The moment she hears individual, Chihaya starts fidgeting anxiously.
It’s not like she can just run away. She shrinks into herself like a rabbit cornered by a predator.
“Usabuki Chihaya, please proceed.”
“y-yes”
She stands and shuffles out of the venue with a hunched back.
In the corridor stood a man who looked like roughly ninety percent of his body weight was muscle.
“Hey there, I’m Iwasuki Takeru, your instructor. Come on, follow me.”
His voice isn’t loud but it carries clear and bright through the corridor.
The kind of presence that commands a room — the product of energy, cheerfulness, and pure drive, all three at once.
Blasted by Iwasuki’s aura, Chihaya staggers.
“You okay!?”
She thrusts both arms out to refuse the hand Iwasuki hastily reaches out to steady her, and answers with a half-smile.
“heh, I’m fine, ‘s fine”
“You sure? If men make you uncomfortable, I can switch you to a female instructor?”
He’s probably a good person. Iwasuki glances back down the corridor and Chihaya, carried along by that, sneaks a sideways look at the other instructors.
They all radiate solar energy regardless of gender. The brightness in this hallway alone feels about three times higher than everywhere else.
“What do you want to do?”
“I’m fine”
Not that it’s very convincing coming from Chihaya while her knees are shaking, but she said it herself so Iwasuki, looking somewhat concerned, starts leading her toward the Actor Room.
“An Actor — that is, an Actanoid operation technician — controls their Actanoid using motion capture. Since the Actor’s own movements are reflected directly onto the Actanoid, it can be operated intuitively, but on the flip side, you’re limited by your own physical capabilities. For instance, I can do a backflip — can you?”
“I can’t”
“Then the Actanoid you’re operating won’t be able to reproduce a backflip regardless of its specs. That’s exactly why an Actor’s body is their greatest asset. You’re better off training properly. There’s a women’s membership gym in the New Frontier Development Zone, so try using it.”
“heh”
Chihaya’s forced smile is frankly unsettling, but Iwasuki doesn’t bat an eye — he stops in front of a door.
“Alright, we’re going in. There are cameras installed, so you can relax on that front.”
Iwasuki opens the door and gestures for Chihaya to enter.
A spacious room. Surrounded by soundproofed walls with multiple monitors mounted on them. Equipment like gloves is hung on wall-mounted racks.
Just inside the entrance, a model Allrounder is stationed.
Iwasuki points at it.
“The Allrounder is what we’ll be using in training. It was the first Actanoid ever developed — software-wise it’s not particularly robust, but it has the advantage of being able to operate even in poor communications conditions. For a Rounder-series unit it’s relatively lightweight with thinner armor, so it gets called a Light Rounder type.”
Is there a Heavy Rounder type too? — the question crossed her mind, but Chihaya decided to look it up later.
She’s just bad at asking questions, plain and simple.
“Alright, let’s start with getting your equipment on. For the legs you can also use that pressure-sensitive mat over there to simulate running and the like, but for today we’ll go fully manual. Put on those specialized shoes.”
She follows Iwasuki’s instructions and gets the equipment on. Telling herself it’ll be over faster if she just does what she’s told, she finishes putting everything on quickly, and Iwasuki claps.
“Did you do some research beforehand? Really helps when you don’t need much hand-holding. Now, let’s try moving it!”
Iwasuki turns on the monitors.
“Since the Actanoid is in the New Frontier there will inevitably be some time lag. Try bringing your hand up in front of your face.”
She does as told, and a mechanical hand appears on the center monitor.
She opens and closes her hand experimentally, and the mechanical hand on the other side of the monitor opens and closes in kind.
There’s a slight sense of wrongness. A time lag — less than a second, but it’s there.
“You’re probably thinking you’d get used to something this small, right? But if the Actanoid gets attacked by a New Frontier animal, a lag like that can cause fatally delayed reactions.”
Unlike the Actanoid being operated from Japan, animals in the New Frontier are getting information in real time and acting on it right there on the ground.
It was a genuinely disadvantageous condition.
“That’s why it’s crucial for Actors to always be anticipating danger. An animal might spring out from behind cover. A cliff might suddenly crumble. The Actanoid might lose its footing. Always predict what’s coming and be prepared. Understood?”
“y-yes sir”
“Excellent grasp of it. Very good!”
Iwasuki beams at Chihaya and points to the side of the center monitor.
“Let’s check which monitor shows which view, and what the field of vision looks like. Slowly move your hand to the side.”
She moves her hand as instructed and it enters frame on the monitors. The center main monitor shows the forward view from the Actanoid’s head camera; the left and right sub-monitors show the sides via sub-cameras mounted on the Actanoid’s shoulders; and the monitor below the main one appears to reflect the view from a back camera mounted at the base of the neck on the rear.
“Some Actanoids come equipped with infrared cameras and the like, so when you’re operating a new unit make sure to check the manual. Prices vary quite a bit by model, but even an Allrounder runs about the price of a small car — so try not to break them.”
Iwasuki’s explanations were clear and practical, and finished right on schedule as promised — in twenty minutes.