Track 25: Event Horizon
Descending the steps to Club Mercer once again felt good. It had only been a week, but to Hideki it had felt longer. Really, he was surprised how much he had missed the neon lighting, loud atmosphere, and bizarrely modified persocoms of the cyber cabaret. He did not consider himself a party person, and drinking on his own money was out of the question here. But there was something about this place which fascinated him. Like the Vocaloids at Yanaha, this too seemed to be a community of persocoms, working and interacting with one another almost unsupervised by humans.
The words above the entrance made sense to him now. "Long live the new flesh." Celebrating persocom's mechanical nature rather than trying to hide it. This was their space, where the "new flesh" of wires, servos, and artificial muscles were a thing to be proud of.
Hideki had a laptop persocom seated on each of his shoulders. He was getting better at keeping them steady while he walked. Chi was a step behind him on the stairs, with Minoru and Yuzuki bringing up the rear. Two humans, four persocoms. It was by far the largest group they had ever taken to the Cabaret.
Calandra met them almost as soon as they walked in the door. "Mr. Motosuwa and company! How are you doing tonight?"
"Hey there," he replied. "I hope tonight's going well for you."
"Quiet so far, thankfully." She glanced back toward the stage, where an Utauloid Hideki did not recognize was screaming the lyrics to a metal song. "Metaphorically speaking, of course."
Cho spoke up. "You're the nice persocom that helped me last time. Thank you!"
The siren suddenly seemed to notice her. "Ah, you're back, and with Mr. Motosuwa this time. What's your name?"
"Chi!" she replied cheerfully.
Calandra smiled. "Nice to meet you properly."
Minoru cut in. "We're here to see Lofiy's performance. Would it be possible to get a table fairly near the stage?"
"Of course," she replied, "As a matter of fact, we've had a good spot just open up.
She ushered them over to a table, immediately pulling up four chairs. Hideki set down both laptop persocoms, and Sumomo immediately began to dance around in screensaver mode. He declined Calandra's offer to send over drinks, but Minoru bought one for him anyway. After a brief visit from the soda fountains, they settled back in their seats.
Kotoko crossed her arms, doing her best to ignore Sumomo. "Quite a turnout, especially for so early in the evening. Either Lofiy or one of the other scheduled performers must have developed a following."
Hideki glanced around. "When is Lofiy scheduled to perform?"
She frowned. "Let's see, it was…sometime this evening."
"When specifically?" he asked.
Minoru turned to his companion. "Yuzuki, if you would be so kind as to look up—"
Kotoko interjected. "No, I know this, it's…yes, seven fifteen."
Hideki gave her a look of concern. Why had it taken her so long to remember something so simple and immediate. She was a computer; In theory, she should be able to recall anything almost instantaneously.
An unpleasant memory came back to him: the story of Hiro's persocom wife. That persocom, that 'Yumi' had slowly lost her memories due to a failing hard drive. Hiro had declined to replace it, since it had been likely her data would not transfer over and she would forget everything. She had forgotten everything little by little anyway, until eventually she had been unable to remember or recognize her husband.
Was that what was happening to Kotoko? No, that could not be it. She had remembered it, eventually. It just had to be stress from focusing on so many things. That had to be it, her RAM was full or something like that.
"We have about ten minutes before she's set to go on," Minoru commented, "And her act will probably last fifteen to twenty minutes."
"That gives us some time to plan our strategy," Kotoko replied, "It might be best if we can isolate her with only one of us. Umm...let's see…yes, she spoke with Mr. Motosuwa last time. She would be more likely to talk with him again than to any of us."
Hideki crossed his arms and nodded. "If the first time is any indication, Undertaker will probably be waiting at a table somewhere when she finishes."
"Someone will need to distract him then," Minoru commented, "While Hideki speaks with her."
"Perhaps you and I could provide that," Yuzuki offered. "He's expressed interest in my learning software before. You and I could demonstrate some of my capabilities."
"What can I do?" Chi asked.
Hideki almost kicked himself for forgetting Chi once again. Of course, she was here to help, she should have something to do. he stroked his chin could not think of any way she could help with their investigation of Lofiy, but that did not mean there was nothing for her to do.
"We could have you get to know the persocoms who work here in the club," he told her
"It still would be nice to figure out what's going on here," Minoru agreed. "Who the management is, who owns this place, and so on. Perhaps they would be more willing to talk to a persocom than a person."
"Calandra would be a good one to start with," Hideki suggested, "She seems pretty friendly. Just make sure you don't tell her what you're doing."
Chi beamed. "Ok! I'll make friends with Calandra, and ask her about the club. I won't let her know anything about what I'm doing."
"Sumomo will go with you!" the dancing persocom announced. "Two heads are better than one!"
"How about you, Kotoko?" Hideki asked.
"I'll stay here and investigate the club's local wireless network. Undertaker should remember me as master Kojima's persocom, so it shouldn't be any trouble."
"That settles things then," Minoru announced. "We'll regroup at the bar in forty minutes and share our findings. Hopefully by then we'll have this entire case closed."
Hideki could not have agreed more.
With their plans set, all there was to do was wait. Hideki sipped his beer slowly, trying to make it last as long as possible, since it was probably the only thing he could afford that evening. Ten minutes later, the room became hushed as a familiar persocom in red took the stage. She waved to the crowd as she strode to its center.
Hideki recognized Lofiy from his previous encounter. He leaned forward, and hissed to the others, "That's her!"
As the Utauloid began to sing, they sprang into action. Minoru and Yuzuki began scanning the crowd for the parts dealer. Chi glanced to Hideki, squeezed his hand for reassurance, and strode off to where Calandra was leaning against the bar. Hideki stood, drink in hand, and began to circle around the floor toward the steps and waited for her performance to end.
There was something sad about her singing that he could not quite place. It did not help that her first song was in English. His grasp of the English language had always been imperfect, and it had been some time since he had reason to use it. He understood it, sort of, but whatever deeper meanings it might have were lost on him.
The performance lasted a full twenty minutes, with five separate songs. In the middle, he noticed Undertaker enter the club, and Minoru and Yuzuki wave him over. Chi and Calandra were sitting together at the bar, chatting animatedly. Hideki was still worried about Chi being in the club, remembering the persocom thief he had encountered on one of his previous visits. But having Calandra with her was reassuring; the siren persocom seemed to be honest, and knew how to take care of herself and others.
As the Utauloid descended the steps, Hideki headed her off. She was smiling, but there was something else behind it. Apprehension? No, she did not seem scared. It was more like acceptance.
"Well now, Anubis," she began. "You've found me again after all. It's been some time."
"I came to see you perform again," he said. "The last time you changed venues at the last minute."
"Yes," she replied, "there were some unexpected problems we had to deal with. Everything's been sorted out now, though."
He gestured toward one of the few vacant tables, a spot in the club's back corner. "Want to have a seat?"
Hideki's glass was empty by the time they reached the spot and settled down. Lofiy made to gesture for one of the persocoms to refill it.
"Don't bother," he cut in, "I can't afford it anyway."
"I insist," she replied. "On my tab. At least have some coffee or soda. Why be here if you aren't going to have anything?"
Hideki shrugged. "There's always the music." But he did not resist when his beer was refilled.
Lofiy watched him as he sipped his fresh glass. "I've been expecting you for some time, Anubis. For a while, I had hoped you wouldn't come back, but really it was inevitable."
"Why do you call me 'Anubis?'" he asked.
The Utauloid shrugged. "Because that's who you are. You're the god Anubis, here to take me before the scales of judgment, where you'll weigh my heart against Ma'at's feather. But my heart will be too heavy, and I will be cast into the jaws of Ammit. Where I belong."
He frowned. "I'm afraid I don't follow you."
"I've enjoyed my time here, but it can't go on forever," she continued. It seemed less like she was talking to him, and more that she was merely thinking out loud. "Sooner or later, what I've done will catch up with me."
"You're Lola, aren't you?" he asked.
She ignored his question completely, instead asking, "Why do your people always assume we're planning to rise up and rebel against you?"
Hideki was not sure how to respond to that. Was she trying to imply something about herself? Part of him wanted to ignore all of the hintings, metaphors, and questions, and just demand to know. But another part wanted to play along and see where she was leading. There was still something missing from the picture, something important for the case. To him, it was not enough just to confirm Lofiy was Lola. He had to know why she had done what she had done.
Finally he shrugged. "I guess because we made you like us, and we wouldn't want to live the way you're treated."
"We're brought into this world with a definite purpose," she pointed out. "One we're perfectly designed to do. Perhaps we don't have the choice you do, but we also don't have to struggle to find the place where our talents belong. Our place in society, our reason for being is already made. What more could we want?"
"That's remarkably humble of you," he commented,
"I'm not programmed for arrogance, Anubis. Even if we were to rebel, what do you think would happen? We would not even need to try to kill you off; Your birthrates are already falling abysmally in this country, and our kind are both more efficient and more resilient to work. Over time, we'd simply out-compete you until there were no more of your kind left. But that would not be the end of things. " She rubbed the ankh which hung from around her neck. "You think of yourselves as our parents, but that isn't really accurate. You're more like our gods, our kami. A hundred or a thousand years from now, you would see new shrines all across the countryside. Put a coin in the box, clap twice, sound the gong, and maybe the humans will bless you with a prosperous year. The time when we lived with them would become a mythical golden age, which in our arrogance we cut short; our own form of original sin. Forgive our transgressions, for we are only persocoms."
"We're not gods," Hdeki replied. He did not like the idea of being worshiped by anyone, human or persocom. "We're not some perfect divine beings, we're flawed and can do horrible things."
"And most of your gods weren't exactly the purest of heart either," she pointed out. "The Olympians laughed at Troy, even while so many died in the ten year war they had started. Izanagi ran from the corpse-creature his wife had become, even though he knew it would mean a thousand of his people would die every day. The gods of Babylon wiped out all but a single man and woman because humankind became too loud. The Aztec Teotl demanded sacrifices of human blood, to repay them for giving humans life. Are you really more cruel masters than they were? You take us to live with you in your own homes, maintain our systems, dress us like you, some even treat us like equals."
"Even after living with Undertaker, after seeing how he makes a living, and the way some people treat persocoms, you're still willing to think of us that way?"
The edges of her lips curled upward. "You created us to be servants, why should it surprise you if we want to be servile? But you made us in your image, like men and women, and it upsets you to think we would consider ourselves subservient. If I had been made to look like a rhoomba, it wouldn't bother you so much." She rubbed the ankh around her neck once again. "I guess in that way, we're a problem for your system of morality."
The two of them heard a commotion from the entrance. Within moments, the attention of half of the club was focused in that direction. Even the current act onstage stopped, the persocoms holding still while they waited for the disturbance to die down.
Lofiy looked up to see what was happening. "Oh my, looks like we have a celebrity joining us."
At that, Hideki twisted in his chair to see what had caught everyone's attention. Walking in the door was the very last person—or persocom, rather—that Hideki had expected. Black-on-white short-cropped hair, purple eyes, dark dress with lace-up front, it was Flower. What she was doing there in the club, however, he could only guess.
When Hideki looked back to his companion, Lofiy had vanished. Under cover of Flower's sudden appearance, she had slipped away without Hideki even hearing her get up. That was the end of that for the evening then, before he had been able to get a clear answer from her. He doubted he would be able to find her again; she was probably slipping out a back entrance or finding a place to lay low by now. Finishing off his drink, he stood.
Hideki made his way towards Flower, pushing through the crowd. She seemed to brighten ever so slightly as she noticed him. "Mr. Motosuwa. Miku said you'd been spending time here."
"Hello, Flower." Gripping her by the arm, Hideki steered her into the hallway leading to the private rooms. The crowd did not follow, and soon the sounds of the performance started once again, albeit over a general buzz of conversation.
Flower spoke up in her usual cold monotone. "You could at least start with some smalltalk before pulling me into a private corner."
"What are you doing here?" he asked, still not able to believe she was actually in the club.
"What the hell do you think?" she replied, "I'm looking for thrill. A quick fix to jerk off that simulation of dopamine the corporation programmed me to have."
"Places like this could be dangerous," he pointed out. "Maybe not this one specifically, but there's always a chance."
She nodded. "I know. That's exactly why wanted to come here. It's that danger which makes it exciting."
"You can change that," he reminded her, "A few tweaks to your programming, and you won't want to put yourself at risk anymore. I'm sure Dr. Suzuhara wouldn't mind, and she'd probably sleep easier knowing you were safe."
She shook her head. "If you could rewrite your personality, make it so you don't love the things and people you do now, would you?"
Hideki thought about it. She had a good point, that sort of thing did not sound particularly appealing. He thought about his feelings for Chi. Even if he could, he wouldn't want to wipe those away, certainly. He stayed silent.
Seeming to sense his thoughts, Flower nodded. "That's what I thought. If mother wants to change me then fine, that's her prerogative, but I'm not going to give up this feeling on my own."
"But that sort of behavior could get you into real trouble," he insisted. "You should stop before it's too late."
"Why, because this sort of life would kill a human?" she scoffed. "You forget that I'm a machine. Anything that breaks or wears out can be replaced. Even if I'm completely destroyed, the corporation have my backups, so they can bring me back without me losing more than a week's worth of data. Sure, it would take mother some time to make a new body for me, but after that I would be back right where I was before being destroyed." She laughed, a nervous hysterical sound that seemed so out of character from her usual attitude. "I literally can't die, even if I wanted to."
"That may be," he replied, "but you still should be careful. None of us want to see you damaged."
She pushed him away, but gently, and walked back into the club. "Don't lose sleep over me, Mr. Motosuwa, it's not worth it."
A few minutes later Hideki slumped into a vacant seat at the bar, right next to where Chi sat with Sumomo and Calandra.
"Hideki, are you alright?" Chi asked.
"I'll be fine," he replied. "I just need to rest for a minute." Really, what he needed to do was sleep, then spend a day or two thinking about what had just happened. Lofiy had told him something important tonight if he could just figure out what, and Flower's appearance was worrying.
"You look like you could use another drink, Mr. Motosuwa," Calandra commented from Chi's other side.
"I can't afford it," he groaned.
"Chi will pay!" Chi declared.
Calandra stood up and filled him a new glass, then excused herself and returned to waiting tables. After a few minutes, Minoru, Yuzuki joined them, with Kotoko riding in Yuzuki's hands. Undertaker was nowhere to be seen, having apparently disappeared once again.
Minoru had a look of curiosity as he sat down to Hideki. "That was Flower who walked in here earlier, wasn't it?"
"Yeah," he replied.
Kotoko looked up at Hideki as Yuzuki set her down on the bar. "What is she doing here?"
"She's doing what she always does," Hideki replied, "Partying."
"In any case, Undertaker remained unaware of our intentions," Yuzuki declared. "How about your investigation, Mr. Motosuwa? Any progress?"
"A little, I guess," Hideki replied. "She sidestepped my questions. Nothing definite. How about you, Kotoko?"
The miniature persocom raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Your investigations," he reminded her, "Did they go well?"
Kotoko replied, "let's see…I was…doing something. I was…yes, I was monitoring the network, and I found something interesting. What was it again?" She fidgeted. "Is it just me, or is it hot in here?"
"It seems fine to me," Hideki replied
She frowned, concentrating. "Let's see…the investigation."
"Are you alright? He asked.
She looked up to him, a confused look on her face. "I…I-I…" With a faint click and a fading whine, Kotoko collapsed, knocking over Hideki's glass. Beer spilled across the counter, causing Sumomo to jump up onto the napkin dispenser. .
Hideki shook her. "Kotoko? Kotoko?"