West Nerima (formerly Tomobiki), Tampopo's Rāmen and Beefbowl Bar (located beyond the main gate of the Toratotaka Nerima complex), Sunday August 7th 2033, 8:20 AM...
"So no rest for the wicked, huh?"
Hearing that comment from the former Bu-C208I infiltration unit that had been converted to a third generation 33-S in the wake of the Second Night of Fire, the twenty-something second generation 33-S in relaxed clothing blushed. "Sadly not-t-t, K-k-Kaoru-san," the former Tsubame Minami stuttered as she gave Kaoru Tanamachi a knowing look. "Much that-t-t Semp-p-pai's p-p-peop-p-ple are g-g-glad-d-d that-t-t the d-d-dust-t-t is finally set-t-tling from what-t-t hap-p-pened in Ap-p-pril, there are st-t-till issues concerning all those p-p-peop-p-ple Larg-g-go might-t-t have cont-t-tacted since his act-t-tivat-t-tion last-t-t fall. Keep-p-ping t-t-track of them is hard-d-d even for us..."
Grimacing, the new manager of Tower security for Genom's world headquarters in Shinjuku nodded in understanding. Even if her own boss Kate Madigan had been called off by Miŭn Kataki from pursuing those who had contacted the mad omniboomer that had slaughtered thousands months ago — such was necessary as the other major megacorps were now circling like hungry jackals around the world's largest company, scenting fresh blood — the many questions concerning the events of the night of April 16th/17th were up in the air. Being what she was now — in effect, a soul-copy of a retired military policewoman from Kitakyūshū whose memories were downloaded into the mind of a purpose-built infiltration boomer with insatiable curiosity — Kaoru felt it was simply her own duty to Kate to learn as much as possible.
Keeping informal working ties to old co-workers now employed by Toratotaka helped her do just that.
The raven-haired, brown-eyed woman before her had been one such co-worker...
...until she had been "killed" by one Marcelle Camberlain in late April in France.
And then was drawn into the incredible world of Janus.
Inwardly chuckling at that process which effectively gave Kaoru her humanity "back" thanks to Kate's plea to her old kōhai Yoshio Saotome after she recovered from her own grievous wounds thanks to Largo, Kaoru sipped her tea. "So how was the honeymoon?" she then coyly wondered, her own gray eyes sparkling. "Is Ken-kun the one you were built to be a companion to?"
An angelic smile answered her. Even if she suffered from grand mal epilepsy thanks to her very soul's addiction to the move-by-wire system that had made all second generation sexaroids so fast in the field, the-now Tsubame Iname wasn't confined to a hospital bed; for that, she had to thank the genius and ceaseless hard work of her "Yoshio-papa" for that. "Oh, yes..." the adopted native of Samukana near the southern reach of Megatōkyō breathed out, her cheeks flushing as she remembered all the times she and her template's old next door neighbor Ken Iname had been intimate since their wedding on Lughnasadh the previous Monday. "Believe it-t-t or not-t-t, K-k-kaoru, you were missed at-t-t the wed-d-ding..."
That earned her a flushed look from the emotionally more mature woman. "Sorry about that..." Kaoru apologized. "Given how fast Kate promoted me after I crossed over, some of the eager beavers in Security are giving me thousand meter stares." She then pointed to the side of her head. "Keeps the combat programming on par, thank the Kami, but it does preclude something of a normal life for me..."
"So no sp-p-pecial p-p-person for you?"
"Nah..."
"Ohayō, Kaoru-onēsan! Tsubame-sensei!"
Hearing that greeting, both women flustered. "Anri, for Kami-sama's sake! Stop calling me 'Onē-san'!" Kaoru moaned as a woman appearing to be about seventeen or so came up to join them; fortunately, the two sexaroids were in a private corner of old Tomobiki's most famous eatery and the Sunday morning crowd was quite small, mostly concentrated by the main counter near the door.
"And-d-d I'm not-t-t a t-t-teacher! That-t-t was the other me!" Tsubame protested.
An amused giggle answered them from the newest effective shrine miko of the Megatōkyō Spiral, Anri Senrei. Built as a first generation 33-S and initially woken on the tenth of June in 2027 in the old Genom Building north of the Tower, the adopted daughter of one of the multinational's B-class investors hadn't enjoyed much of a life before the recall of all her model over a year later, they being either returned to storage or banished into space to serve the Space Public Development Corporation in satellites such as Genaros. One of the people directly involved in the Second Night of Fire, Anri had sacrificed herself to save the life of one Priss Asagiri when the blue Knight Sabre had confronted Maximilian Largo in Quincy's very office atop the Tower while things went insane within the building.
As Tsubame waved the green-haired, blue-eyed woman to one of the free chairs at their table, Kaoru asked, "So how are things with Chikage-sama anyway?"
The adopted native of what was once the city of Yamato in northern Kanagawa — such now was a part of Megatōkyō itself — shrugged as one of the waitresses came over with a cup of tea. "Oh, Chikage-san's alright," Anri answered. "She just had to retire two dietmen who wanted to blare out what the Heavenly Sovereign declared her to be after the whole thing with Largo. It got messy."
Snorts escaped the other two sexaroids...
Nearby...
Seated at the main counter, a certain lavender-haired woman appearing to be the same age as the young Spiral magi perked, her very acute hearing having picked up the conversation from over ten meters away as clearly as if she herself had been seated with the Genom security executive and the Toratotaka intelligence officer.
Given the uniqueness of the words uttered by Kaoru Tanamachi and Tsubame Iname, Carry found herself focusing her considerable analysis programs on those statements to better understand who — and especially WHAT — those two women were. A quick glance out of the corner of her eye using a special thermal form of sight soon confirmed that Anri Senrei was the same type of person...
Or WERE they...?
Sipping her tea, the gynoid tried not to frown as her internal processors ran through what she had overheard, certain factoids that had been acquired by her people over a thousand millennia ago concerning the third world of Sol being factored in to draw up a very interesting set of observations...
Fact: Catty's people discovered a world that had formed around what was believed to be the legendary Forge of the universe's first known race of sentient beings, the Seekers. Said forge had created an incredible transuranic element that was VERY conducive to the promotion of life; that material had actually been used in the reforming of Chaos into a living, breathing world.
Fact: Said transuranic element, called "mesonium" on Terra, was present in massive quantities in the atmosphere and the soil, especially in areas where the most ancient rocks could be accessed from the surface, such as many regions of Canada and Russia.
Fact: Since she had been allowed to go out on her own from the Caldwich-Archangel Tower, Catty had noticed that many people — mostly women but a good smattering of men also — living Megatōkyō had small samples of mesonium crystals strategically located on various places of their bodies, especially the upper arms and legs as well as the face.
Fact: The three women seated off in one corner — one high-level Genom executive, one intelligence officer from C-A's allies in Toratotaka based out of the complex across the street, and the teenager in the raven-black hooded cape — were all blessed that same way.
Fact: Said women also spoke as if they were artificial intelligences of some sort...
...yet save for the mesonium crystals, they were as human as Catty's beloved friends!
What was going on...?
Illusions: Full Metal Tokyo Panic
Chapter 10
August 8th 2033AD. Maison no Blossom. West Nerima. Catty's room.
Catty frowned as she considered her observations from the day before. Her thermal imagery didn't detect any form of artificial power source in the three women she observed. Nor did it detect any sort of metallic skeletal
system. So they WEREN'T androids. Not like herself anyway.
A thought occurred to her.
Were they organic androids? There was some discussions among the higher ups within the Star Front Navy to create organic androids to help with the war effort. But, due to the costliness of the research and the use of
the planet and system destroyers, that was scrapped in favor of creating cyborgs instead.
She tapped her chin and started to do some research on her computer.
A quick search on the internet revealed little.
Perhaps she should ask Mai, Haruka or even Dustine about this.
Just then there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." Catty blinked.
The door opened and Sally slipped in. "Hi Catty. Got a moment?"
"Of course." Catty nodded then asked her. "Can I help you with anything."
"Well I've been thinking about the boomer problem here." Sally mused then wondered. "Could this planet use some other form of AI robots to help them. Like helproids or even repair droids."
"Helproid like robots?" Catty blinked at Sally. Sally nodded silently with a small smile on her face. She thought a bit then mused. She turned to the computer and started a search. "Let's see if theres any robotics other than boomers."
She typed in the words industrial robots and blinked when images of waldo armed assembly line robots came up. "Well, that's not what we want. Hm. How about service robots."
She typed in a search again and it came up with little. Some for hospital use but nothing much else. "Hmm. There's nothing like the helproids that we had in our service. Why do you ask?"
"I was thinking we could start making a few for the people in the city." Sally said with a gentle smile.
"We could," Catty nodded then pointed out to her. "But you need to finish up learning the Japanese language or you'd be relying on me all the time."
"True." Sally nodded.
"There is the boomer issue I'm still worried about," Catty noted then sighed. "Dustine says they're working on it but I have a feeling something will pop up next and try to take their control system by force."
"Don't boomers need to be repaired?" Sally asked. "Maybe thats an issue too."
"Genom also handles repairs. Reading between the lines they make a LOT on parts and labor," Catty noted
"Hmm..." Sally tapped her chin then mused to Catty. "Do you think they like competition?" she mused
"We'd PROBABLY get unexpected Boomer visits. Catty sighed. "And not the we need the repairs kind."
"True." Sally noted.
"We could make simpler humanoid robots that could help with repairs and such but then we'd run into the same problem." Catty frowned.
"Indeed." Catty nodded.
Lufy, who was listening in, ducked away and went over to Rabby's room. She knocked on the door and asked her. "Hey you decent?"
"Sure. Come in." Rabby answered.
Lufy smiled walked in and saw Rabby snuggling into Eluza's arms. "Ack. Should I go?"
"No. Stay." Rabby said and shifted away from Eluza but sat next to her. "Whats up?"
"I just overheard Catty and Sally talking about solutions to those boomer things again." Lufy noted.
Oh?" Rabby asked.
"Yeah they're doing research about new bots and things but one common question is...how will the other companies react." Lufy informed them
"It's a bit early, considering they don't even have a plan yet." Rabby pointed out reasonably
"Yeah its just that they were worried about boomers attacking whatvever little op they were thinking of creating." Lufy noted.
"If anyone attacks any of us, we'll act," Eluza said firmly. "But...remind them we really don't want to start something."
"I'll do that." Lufy nodded.
"So anything new with you?" Rabby asked.
"I wanna ride a bike soon!" Lufy grumbled.
"You need a license for that..." Eluza noted.
"...and a job." Rabby teased.
"Fortunately you have an ID." Eluza noted. "So that's one thing going for you."
"...and you said you were going to apply for security work here." Rabby nodded.
"Yep." Lufy nodded.
"Well that'll help you out there." Rabby nodded then looked at her seriously. "Just don't get fired here okay? THis isn't the military any more."
"Yeah yeah," Lufy grumbled good naturedly.
August 9th Caldwich-Archangel Tower. Sub basement 2 Training facility.
"All right today we're doing a training exercise." Dustine glanced at Rabby, Lufy, Patty, Shildy, Spea, Catty and Amy as she briefed them in a small room within the tower. They were all in drab brown fatigues and
had paintball guns in their hands. "We'll be going against Natsuki, Haruka and a team of Haruka's choosing. We have some of the best that the world has to offer so be ready."
"I love a challenge," Rabby noted
"Good." Dustine nodded then smiled. 'So here's the rules of this exercis and gestured to the map that was on the table "We're going to be doing a bit of capture the flag. You go to the other teams base and you
bring it back to your base."
"While the other team shoots at you." Dustine nodded. "If you get hit by a paint round or two you're out."
"Right." Lufy nodded.
"There is cover, so it won't be TOO hard..." Dustine nodded and gestured to the far corner of the map where a medium sized room was. Her finger moved all the way back to where their base was. "Also, they'll be trying to take your flag. So, someone will have to guard it while we try to advance and take the flag."
"Okay. So, someone should stay behind here, right?" Rabby said as she pointed to their room.
"Right." Dustine nodded.
"I'll stay." Patty held up a hand.
"I'll stay." Catty said at the same time.
"They'll probably have at least one person guarding the flag on the other side." Dustine noted.
"But two could guard either entrance here and here." Catty pointed out.
Dustine hummed then decided. "Patty you stay and use cover to guard the flag. Catty you're with me."
"Right." Patty nodded.
"Right." Catty sighed.
Dustine frowned, wondered why Catty wanted to stay behind. She recalled that for the last two day's she's been lost in thought. But she wondered what it was about.
"Okay. Two people will have to at least cover the entrance while the rest of us tries to assualt their base and take the flag." Dustine gestured to two points on the map.
"I'll take defensive point." Spea nodded.
"Same." Amy nodded.
"Good." Dustine nodded. "That just leaves Me, Rabby, Lufy, Shildy, and Catty."
"All right." Rabby nodded then asked her. "Um. Dustine. Question."
"Yes?" Dustine
"Why isn't Eluza with us?" Rabby asked. Patty also looked concerned.
"We're still concerned about her heart. Cardiac specialists should look at it soon and give us an answer." Dustine replied.
"I see." Rabby nodded.
"Now focus all right?" Dustine ordered.
"Right!" The girls nodded and left the briefing room. Catty was the last to leave before Dustine stopped her. "Catty?"
"Yes?" Catty looked at her.
"You've been extra quiet lately. Something on your mind?" Dustine asked.
"Something is yes." Catty nodded.
"Can you put whatever is bothering you in the back of your mind and focus on the mission at hand?" Dustine asked.
"Of course." Catty nodded.
"Then let's go." Dustine nodded.
"Right." Catty nodded and followed after her.
The next day...
A copper-skinned woman entered the rāmen shop and trotted over to a corner table. Sitting at the corner table was a short lavender haired girl that was waiting for her. Catty looked up as she approached and pouted a little.
"Hey, Catty," Dustine smiled.
"You're late," Catty noted, frowning.
"Sorry! Sorry! Traffic held me up!" Dustine smiled contritely.
"Fair enough," Catty nodded on seeing her host's apologetic smile.
"Hey! Can I have my usual?" Dustine then held up a hand to a waiter as she sat beside the gynoid.
"Hai, coming right up, Ageni-buchō!"
"Thanks." Dustine nodded.
Karou Tanamachi walked into the restaurant a few seconds later and recognized Dustine. "Well, well! If it isn't Ageni-buchō!"
Dustine tried not to audibly urk on hearing that voice with its Hichiku-Kyūshū accent before she looked over at the entrance, focusing on a woman with gray eyes and wavy raven hair gazing in amusement at them. An embarrassed chuckle then escaped her. "Tanamachi-kachō..." she greeted the native of Kitakyūshū as she gave her a knowing look. "Or is it jichō now...?"
"Feh! Titles! Titles!" Kaoru Tanamachi breathed out, making a dismissive wave of her hand. "Things get confusing enough at the Tower these days to worry about that sort of silly stuff..."
"Care to join us, Jichō-san?"
That was Catty, who was giving the raven-haired woman a piercing look.
"Catty?" Dustine said as she felt her heart drop; much that she knew that Kaoru was one of the "good" senior managers in the world's largest company, her loyalty to one Kate Madigan was said to be as solid as Abotex. And given the latter's meteoric rise to one of the top positions in Genom's world headquarters in the wake of the Second Night of Fire...!
"Please?" Catty looked back at her.
"Alright. Dozo," Dustine bade waving to the empty seats at the table, which were enough for the gynoid and the C-A general manager to relax themselves with the recently-promoted Genom security deputy general manager.
As soon as all three women were together at the table, Catty then tensed on sensing something wash over her, something clearly mesonium-powered. "Relax," Kaoru stated. "NOYDB field generator. Personal gift of the Seima Taishōgun herself, in fact."
Hearing the current government executive title granted to Chikage Hirosaki by the Heavenly Sovereign herself a week after the incident with USSD's satellites in mid-April, Dustine relaxed herself.
"A-type?" She blinked then asked. "What were you, Kaoru-san? The person I knew was a normal-born human up to..."
"Late December last year, when a certain maniac in Africa decided my other-self and dozens of other women..." - the derision that escaped Kaoru on saying that one word made her current eating companions visibly wince -
"...simply had to go just because they weren't men."
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"Kabbah..." Dustine hissed, her face twisting in disgust.
"Yeah," Kaoru affirmed.
By then, the orders for the reborn 33-S's current companions came up. Once the attendant had withdrawn from their table to look upon other customers, Dustine shook her head. "You were created using the same thing Katsuhito Stingray himself used on Yoshio Saotome, right? What provoked him to launch his 'back to organic' thing before Second Kantō that got all his friends from Kirameki High involved, right?"
"Same general concept," the clearly adopted native of Kitakyushu affirmed.
"You're not a boomer. You're as organic as Dustine is. Save for those mesonium crystals buried under your skin and in your rib cage." Catty noted.
Gazing on Catty, Kaoru chuckled."You're a clear Class G, alright," she admitted, reaching over to gently stroke the gynoid's lavender hair in a manner that made Catty shudder as she felt an increased cloud of pheromones escape the Genom executive. "Where did you find this girl, Dustine? She's no model I recognize."
The dusky-skinned woman sighed. Dustine flushed slightly when the pheremones hit her nose too "I can't tell you that, Kaoru. You know that!"
"Then kindly tell me this: Why the hell did ONĒ-SAMA of all the sentient beings on Earth advise my sisters and I in the Tower to NOT interfere when it comes to this cutie and her friends?!"
Dustine blinked. "The Crystal Palace...?!"
"You got it." Here, Kaoru sat back in her chair. "If you're worried about Kate, don't be. She can keep things quiet with Quincy. Despite his willingness to let things go like he did in the Tower, he's all for reopening contact with our many galactic friends. And Yoshio-kun can use the Legendary Tree on Kate to keep her silent. Never mind what Miŭn-ŏnni could do to make her see the light."
Dustine frowned then realized what she was. "Your a 33-S."
Catty blinked then nodded in understanding.
"My central processors were placed in a third gen body by the Little Genius herself."
Dustine stared at her, then she laughed. "Chiyo Mihama?!" she exclaimed as she sat back in her own chair, visibly relaxing to Catty's eyes. "Okay, then! What?! You call her 'Chiyo-mama' in private?!"
"Of course I would!"
"I've heard of Chiyo," Catty cut in. "Said to be a child prodigy, having advanced from basic scholastic training to advanced levels, skipping five years of school just before the Second Kantō Earthquake. Even though she's long since graduated and can advance to post-advanced studies, she actually works at Genom Tower as part of the Market Analysis division ultimately under Vice President Miŭn Kataki." She then focused on Kaoru. "Whom you just addressed with the Korean term for elder sister as an honorific." Sipping her tea, she then gazed at Dustine. "And you just addressed Kaoru here as a 33-S, which is the model code for an effectively outlawed type of boomer meant for personal companionship. However, I cannot perceive anything artificial within Kaoru's body save for the crystals in her skin and rib cage."
"That is thanks to a final gift the Creator himself gave Stingray AIs like me," Kaoru explained before she focused on her fellow executive. "You know everything about this?" she asked, making the American sign language letter "J" with her left pinky.
A nod answered her, Dustine's eyes widening slightly as the sheer scale of what that simple gesture her fellow executive just made really meant. "The true miracle of the modern world."
"Explain, please," Catty bade.
"Did your people learn that mesonium can be used to shift a living being's very essence into a new type of media?" Kaoru asked.
"Affirmative."
"Well, when I was deemed worthy..." - here, a cloud of shame appeared on the Genom executive's face - "...my living essence was shifted from my old body into a fully organic one specially created for me."
"You're an organic android, then."
As Dustine's jaw dropped in surprise, Kaoru's eyes sparkled. "Same idea, but we use the term 'biological android' here. 'Bioroid' for short." She shuddered as her eidetic memory drew up images and feelings of what the woman now registered with Toratotaka under the bioroid registry code AA309TK experienced when she awoke in her new organic shell the very morning after the Second Night of Fire at Chiyo Mihama's private laboratory in Itabashi. "Buddha, that was quite the change!"
"Your friends from Tampopo's Rāmen and Beefbowl Bar yesterday? Anri Senrei and Tsubame Iname?"
Kaoru nodded. "Same situation."
"Why does such a process exist?" Catty then wondered.
"Professor Stingray always envisioned boomers to be equal 'partners' with humanity as we recovered from some horrible disasters that rocked the early years of the Third Millennium," Dustine explained. "Humanity wasn't ready to deal with a sentient race of AIs being equals to us, so the professor devised this process as a way to allow the essences of sentient boomers to live on. Before he was killed, he turned to Megumi's friend Yoshio Saotome, knowing his connections to Toratotaka would see the whole concept work out. The whole system was effectively on-line six years ago." She then focused on Kaoru. "So what were you before you were turned into a 33-S before crossing over?"
Kaoru's scowl turned ugly.
"Something that should NEVER have been designed in the first place, Dustine..." she then announced in a voice of ashes...
To be continued...
Tsubame Minami comes from Memories Off 2nd, published by KID
Kaoru Tanamachi comes from Amagami, published by Enterbrain
Chiyo Mihama comes from Azumanga Daioh, created by Kiyohiko Azuma
Notes and terms...
Buchō - Corporate vice president/general manager/head of department
Jichō - Corporate deputy general manager
Kachō - Corporate manager/section head
NOYDB - Literally "none of your damned business"
Seima Taishōgun - Literally "supreme general who destroys monsters", the term actually inferring the technological monsters such as what Largo represented