Loups-Garous (21 page)

Mio narrowed her gaze.

“You
do
have her.”

“What if I did?”

“Damn. This bitch is slow or something,” Mio shook off Ayumi's hand and stepped forward again, turning her face up high.

“I have to talk to her, so just let me see her!”

“She's being hunted.”

“So? You saying I'm one of the hunters? Is that what you're saying?”

Rey Mao didn't say anything.

“Say something, bitch! You saying I can't be trusted? I just want to return her piercing.”

“Calm down.” Rey Mao spoke firmly, then finally looked Mio in the eyes. “Her opinion matters too, so I won't say anything to disparage you. And I won't brag about gathering food. But you guys and I still live in different worlds. Mio, you've long become a member of that other world.”

“There's no
this world, that world
,” Mio said, annoyed. “I don't live in this world because I like it. Neither do you. It's unrelated. You've been raised here the same way that little cat has.”

“It's still different.” Rey Mao turned her face away.

“What did you say?” Mio raised both arms and made as if to run at Rey Mao.

Ayumi grabbed her, and Mio screamed, her face twisted, “Fine! Then answer this,
bitch
! Yuko Yabe is also from a different world than yours. Why are you hiding her?”

“I'm not hiding her. She's here of her own will.”

“Her own will?”

“She followed me here. Sure, she was scared. The man who attacked her was a pathological killer with no sense of logic. She told me he'd probably killed many people already.”

“And so? You saying you're protecting her? Stop fronting. You think you're some kind of superhero do-gooder? Leaving her in this dump is more dangerous than anything else.”

“I know that, but she can't move right now. She has a fever.”

“That's why you extended your hand out to her?” Ayumi said, still restraining Mio.

“Ridiculous!” Mio shouted.

“You'd prefer I just kick her out? I told her to go home, but she won't. She said she doesn't have any guardians and that something was destroyed. It didn't make sense. You guys really can't function without that machinery, can you?”

Her monitor.

Right.

Hazuki thought about it.

They were monitors.

Society, the world…she wasn't sure what to call it, but say there was a large strict system in the middle, and they were all connected to it. That gave them security. They protected that safety. The monitor was proof of that safety. An existence based on accepting things that were predetermined to be harmonious, or ought to have been, was in one sense totally irresponsible, but generally considered a good way to live. The things you needed to survive were all prepared somewhere, and as long as the monitor had access to them it would distribute them to you.

The monitor was a tool to receive the entire world and a sort of passport. If you lost it…

It would be unimaginably horrific.

“We don't have things like that here,” Rey Mao said. “There's nothing you can do. That's why I left her alone for a while. It's raining.”

“I see. That's why you told her where Tsuzuki lives,” Ayumi said, as Mio opened her eyes wide and turned her head backward.

“Me?”

Rey Mao turned to her side and whispered something. “You're the one who told her where I live?”

“Only because I didn't know anyone else with a normal house. But she didn't go. Maybe you two don't…get along?”

“We're fine. I've never talked to her. Right?”

Mio looked for assent from Hazuki.

What would Hazuki do?

She'd probably look for Mio too.

Probably.

Probably wouldn't go.

“Is that so?” Rey Mao said. “In any case she can't move. That's all.”

“If she stays out in this rain she'll catch cold. At least take her to a doctor,” Ayumi said.

“You probably can't,” Mio let out.

“You guys are an inconvenience.”

“Any way you look at this it's up to you. But until her fever goes down she really has to keep sleeping. I came here to tell you that. As long as she's here she lives by our rules.”

There would be no medical intervention, to say nothing of police intervention.

“Not because she didn't have a monitor. People like me aren't allowed to have access to public institutions. In spite of doctors it's still dangerous. As far as I'm concerned, you are dangerous too,” Rey Mao continued.

Maybe. Hazuki, Ayumi, Mio…they all had monitors. They were all connected.

“It's nothing fatal. If you want to see her, do it when she leaves here.”

“How long do you think that'll be?” Ayumi spoke in Mio's place.

“Two, three days. Though I couldn't say that with any confidence.”

“Why not?”

“I'm sure you already know. Someone has died.”

“And?”

“You'll be arrested.”

“That's got nothing to do with it. I didn't kill anyone.”

“
That
has nothing to do with it. According to Tsuzuki, the person who last met with the boy who died visited Yuko's house a couple nights ago. Her disappearance has long been noted, so it's just a matter of time. Whether you're associated with this or not, you will be tied to the murder. And that means the area patrols or prefectural police will be here in no time.”

“Wha—?” Mio raised her voice.

“Am I right?”

Mio hadn't thought that far ahead. She looked all the way around her and said, “They're coming.”

“They are. They'll go through this area with a fine-tooth comb. If Yabe is being protected here you guys are the ones in trouble. You'll get arrested. It won't matter if you're not the culprit. It won't matter if you can fight. But if you're arrested, everyone like you in this area will be interrogated. For the police, it's a golden opportunity.”

“I see…”

Rey Mao crossed her arms and looked up.

The cats at her feet were suddenly gone.

“You should return Yabe,” Mio said. “In a worst-case scenario this whole town will be razed. The old red-light district will be trashed. These guys are pathologically clean, so they'll clean up all the trash. They'll use any excuse.”

“But you see, the girl can't move right now. Are you suggesting she walk home on crutches? Just leave. I'm plenty satisfied with this area the way it is.”

Rey Mao went silent. She looked lost in thought.

“I don't think you could call that a good move,” Ayumi said as if to intercept the thought. “Right now, there are probably police all over Yabe's home. They would be extremely harsh. If you brought her home right now, it's like you'd be asking them to arrest you. Of course, if you were arrested there, it might not be a direct nuisance on the people who live here. But as soon as they found out about your situation it wouldn't make a difference.

“In other words, you're saying this: if I'm arrested and I tell the cops everything, it'll be a problem for everyone, including you.
I'm sorry
,” Ayumi said and shrugged.

“It's already a major nuisance. I'll pretend I don't know. There's no evidence anyway.”

“I'll tell. Yuko will tell too.”

“I'll tell them it's mistaken identity,” Rey Mao said.

“What?”

A gust picked up the air around them.

The slack in Hazuki's clothing became pregnant with the wind, then as quickly settled down. The cloth kept flapping in the wind.

The scene was practically unreal but for the sensation on the skin, and Hazuki was stuck confused between the two. There was no sign anywhere of anything the others said being a lie or the truth.

Rey Mao's hair was flying. Mio's worker's clothing was rustling. Ayumi had no excess fabric to rustle in the wind.

“Shut up!” Mio screamed. “It's decided. We're going to my house.”

“Tsuzuki's house is in Section C too. If we can hide out there, when Yabe eventually goes back home and explains the circumstances it'll have the same result. Unless the case gets solved in the interim.”

Ayumi remained totally silent.

“You're right. If the killer is caught first then we have nothing to worry about.” Mio's voice was elided by the sound of the wind.

Mio stood on some scaffolding and repeated herself out loud.

“That's right. If the killer is caught first, then…”

No one responded.

Everyone was sure the killer would never be caught.
That was what Hazuki thought, and of course Mio knew that much. This case would never be solved. There was too little evidence, and it would take time to find him. The investigation would last years. They couldn't keep Yuko Yabe locked up that whole time.

“What do you suggest we do, then?” Mio said to Ayumi.

“This won't work, that won't work. Nothing will work!”

“Yes, but, Tsuzuki. All you wanted to do was give her back her piercing. Just give it to Rey Mao to give to her and we're done.”

“You think that's all there is to this now?” Mio said and put her head in her hands.

“It'd be better if we could move her to Section A.”

“There's nowhere in Section A to hide something this problematic. Unlike Section C, it's strictly controlled. It's visually monitored. You bring that into the cage and all foreign substances will immediately be flushed.”

Ayumi was right. It wasn't possible. If they were just going to hide, Section C would be the best place.

“That's not true. A strictly controlled society still has holes. A world made of numbers is easy to co-opt. There's magic to be performed everywhere. Isn't that right, Makino?”

Mio looked at Hazuki and grinned.

Magic
.

Mio had in fact used a sort of magic.

Mio had broken into Hazuki's residence and eaten her food, and Hazuki was even there to see it all take place, but it was no longer a fact, because no one would know about it. There was no record of it. It was as if it had never happened. It was made to not have ever happened.

Even now Hazuki couldn't help questioning her own memory.

“What's monitored isn't the truth, but information.” Mio sat on the scaffolding and rested her elbows on her lap, resting her head on her hand. “Information can be rewritten. People who depend on a world made of numbers can't fathom deceptive numbers. Just like long ago when people believed their silly little brains saw ghosts, today's adult will think up ghosts because a mistake in numbers is unforgivable. So long as it's consistent no one will raise any doubts. Basically if it's not a bothersome type of human, it's all right. For example…”

Hazuki felt enveloped by Mio's large eyes.

“We can't go to Hazuki's. There's no one in her house, but there's AI everywhere.”

Mio stared at Ayumi's back.

She's got a great little hiding place
.

CHAPTER
012

THE PHANTOM OF
her mother dissipated as soon as Shizue stepped outside.

But that feeling, the nostalgia, heartbreak, the extreme version of a small feeling—the sickly sentimental bathos clung to her. It was a feeling she'd never felt toward her actual mother, which made her all the more uneasy.

She was probably just turned around. Or else that smoky scent of incense had intoxicated her.

She drew in a deep breath of air outside. It was odorless but textured.

What am I doing?

Spores in the air traveled through her nostrils to the depths of her body, invading it. It was an awful image. It was wholly unclean. She had a mountain of work to get through, but Shizue was not doing anything one could call constructive. The reason for her indifference toward paperwork would not come to her. She decided for herself that she was mildly depressed.

It couldn't be anything else.

Her actions were useless.

The request to investigate Yuko Yabe had already been accepted. Furthermore, the police had started investigating, probably. Yuji Nakamura's physical protection, same thing. There was no need for Shizue to go out now. She just couldn't fight the urge.

You could say.

That didn't mean she would find anything out from meeting with Hinako Sakura, nor did it clarify matters for Shizue. It wasn't as though Hinako had anything to do with the disappearance of Yuko, and this wasn't necessarily a murder case. Hinako hadn't even had
real contact
with Yuko. She'd just gone to Yuko's residence to check on her after Yuko was absent from lab, making it no different from what Shizue herself had done the next day. In actuality, the police had not come to Hinako. They'd apparently determined from reading Kunugi's report that the visit was unrelated.

But.

That was beyond consent to begin with. Actually, Shizue was confused by the mere fact of having met Hinako. It wasn't so much that it had been spurred by a desire to make something happen—the “fieldwork” was just the reflection of Shizue's inner consciousness telling her she didn't want to get involved with any run-of-the-mill office work. She'd been looking for a means to justify escape from reality by doing something out of the ordinary.

Shizue was disgusted.

There was such a thing as being disgusted with such self-analysis, but it was more likely the influence of having lost the excuse to escape from reality.

There was an insect flying.

Shizue watched the bug's path. Few things in the city actually moved.

Beyond it.

A solar car.

“Kunugi.”

Standing next to the solar car looking bored was Officer Kunugi. He waved a limp arm once and mouthed, without uttering, the word
yo
.

“What are you doing here…at the Sakura residence?”