The Next Day
"So what's the verdict?" Junji asked, turning away from the screen for a few seconds. He had been passing the time while Minako worked by organizing his next month of appointments on a small terminal pad with a holographic interface.
"As far as I can tell, the disk is clean. No viruses, malware, or other hidden code that I could detect. It also contained exactly what Albert-san said - a list of security vulnerabilities and backdoors in our apartment's local networks, which I've since patched. A lot of them were really subtle too - it might have taken me months to find them all on my own without this info."
"I'm surprised it took so long to analyze the data," Junji said, turning in his swivel chair to face his wife. "What's it been, around an hour now?"
"I needed to be careful," the green-haired persocom explained. "Obviously I wasn't just going to interface with that disk directly - who knows what might have been on it? First I formatted this old mobile device," she held up a black, plastic, rectangular gadget reminiscent of an old cell phone, the covering around its 2D screen a bit weathered, "and physically disconnected the wireless transceiver. Then I set up a virtual runtime environment within its OS, and extracted the data from the disk. Finally, I ran no fewer than twenty-seven third-party apps to scan for anything suspicious. Most of these steps were probably unnecessary, but it never hurts to be too cautious."
"So do you think Albert-san is on the level?"
"Hard to say. Even if the disk is exactly what he said it was, this could still be part of some bigger plan. You know how those separatists love their overly complex schemes."
"Didn't he say he was going to contact us again today?"
"He already did, actually. Left me an e-mail fourteen minutes ago. I decided not to respond until I had finished analyzing the disk."
"What did he say?"
"He wants to see if we can help him get in contact with Masaji-san's son on the island. He figures that a chance to see his kid again might bring the guy out of hiding."
"Little Ryuhei, huh?" Junji said, recalling the young persocom he had met on his trip to Ailinginae.
"He's not so little anymore," Minako replied. "Just last week he upgraded to an adult-sized body." Rosa and the other Anemkwoj leaders had been sending Junji and Minako periodic e-mail updates on the goings-on at the colony, although Junji rarely had time to read them.
"So then his dad abandoned him for the remainder of his childhood," Junji mused, "even if it only spanned a few months. I'd imagine the kid has some issues."
"According to Rosa-san, he's adjusting well, but he still misses his father and is convinced that he's going to come back for him."
"Well maybe we can make that happen. Did you reply to Albert-san yet?"
"No," Minako replied, looking surprised that her husband would suggest that she had. "I wouldn't just go ahead and start planning things without your input. We're in this together, after all."
"I get the feeling he doesn't like me that much, though," Junji shrugged. "It would probably be a lot easier if you two just worked out the details yourselves and informed me later. Involving my sluggish human brain in the process would only serve to slow everything down."
"Junji," Minako began, giving him a sympathetic look. "Don't take the crap he says seriously. It's just bigotry, except from the opposite side of the fence. Albert-san is just as wrong to look down on humans as so many humans are to look down on persocoms."
"But he does kind of have a point. I mean, you're so much smarter than I am, Minako. You could probably handle this whole thing without any help from me."
Minako's ears drooped slightly as she frowned. "I'm not that much smarter than you, Junji. Sure, I can think a few million times faster and access and process way more data, but in terms of qualitative cognition - aspects like problem solving, creativity, emotional understanding and philosophical reasoning," she counted each of these off on her fingers, "we're at least in the same ballpark. You might even be better than me in some areas."
"Like what?" Junji snorted.
"Psychology, for one. You've helped so many persocoms overcome their issues... I've personally been amazed at some of the progress your patients have made."
"Oh please. I'm sure if you put your mind to it, you could be a better psychologist than I ever could."
"Stop being so harsh on yourself! I have nothing but respect for your intelligence, Junji. I never would have married you if I didn't find you stimulating, both intellectually and... physically," she said as she shot him a mischievous grin.
"Ah, flirting, is that your new method of cheering me up?" Junji asked sarcastically, although a slight smile did appear on his face as well.
"I don't know. Is it working?"
The psychologist let out a laugh. "I'm sorry for being such a downer, Minako. But you really do make me feel inferior sometimes."
"I assure you, it's not intentional."
"Yeah, well, your efforts to reassure me could use some work." He grinned, imitating his wife's earlier comment "'I'm not that much smarter than you, Junji.' That's such a quintessentially you thing to say." He laughed again, his grin growing wider. "I guess that's about as humble as your ego would allow you to get, huh?"
"Well I'm not going to lie to you, Junji," Minako said, grinning back as they engaged in yet another session of mutual teasing.
"Ah, come here, you," Junji laughed, gently pushing his wife down onto the couch as their lips met.
"We can reply to Albert-san later," the elf-eared girl said between kisses. "It might be fun to leave him hanging for a bit."
"I'm so sorry about your friend, Ammy-chan," Yumiko said. "I caught part of the funeral stream online. It must have hit you pretty hard, especially after what happened to your dad."
Amethyst sighed, laying back in her chair. After Yoichi's death, she had avoided the Nishikyo Social Club for over a month, and had just begun attending again shortly before Yumi's unfortunate accident. To her initial surprise, she had actually found the club meetings somewhat therapeutic, with all of her friends offering her their condolences and emotional support. Even Kazuya had agreed to cancel the final game of their Go match out of sympathy (although Amethyst suspected that it was also partially out of fear of losing to her). She wasn't able to make the trip all that often due to her college schedule, but she still dropped in now and again whenever she had the chance.
"Yumi-chan probably would have liked hanging out here. It's too bad you guys never got to meet her."
"If you need to be alone for a bit-"
"No, no, it's okay," the cat-eared persocom reassured her human friend. "It's sad, but I didn't come here to spend the whole time moping about and ruin everyone else's day. Yumi-chan certainly wouldn't have wanted that."
"I guess. I noticed you didn't participate in karaoke earlier, though."
"I just don't feel like singing in front of people today," she said, smiling softly. "But if you'd like to hear some of the new music I've been writing-"
"Hey, Ammy-chan!"
The black-haired persocom turned her head, noticing another familiar face entering the clubroom.
"You're a bit late, Isao-kun. We've barely got an hour left before closing."
"Yeah," the teenage boy said, placing his hand on the back of his neck. "I almost wasn't going to come, but then I saw your car in the parking lot."
Amethyst's cat ears perked up slightly at that. "What?"
"Um, can I talk to you for a bit? In private?" he said.
"I guess," she replied, standing up as he led her off into an unused side room. "What's this all about?"
"Like I said," Isao began, "I wasn't planning on attending the club today, but I recognized that fancy sports car of yours as I was passing by. And since you only show up maybe once a week, I figured that-"
"Wait, 'passing by'? Aren't you too young to drive?" she interrupted.
"I turn sixteen next month, and I'll have my learner's permit soon," he objected. "But yeah, my parents' persocom was driving. We were originally just on our way to get some fast food."
"I hope you didn't just leave them sitting in the car this whole time."
"No, I told him he could do whatever he wanted until it was time to pick me up," Isao clarified.
"So what am I missing here?" Amethyst asked. "Why did you go so far out of your way just to see me?"
"Well, uh... I'm not exactly sure how to really... broach this subject..." he muttered nervously, avoiding making eye contact.
"If this is a love confession, I'm sorry to say, but you're a bit too young for my taste," Amethyst said with a wink.
"W-what? No!" Isao shouted, frantically waving his arms in front of his body as his cheeks took on a crimson hue. "That's not it at all!"
"I didn't think so," she laughed. "I'm just messing with you, Isao-kun."
"Well cut it out!" he said, looking away nervously as he attempted to hide his still-blushing face. "This is serious."
"Sorry," she replied sheepishly. "So what's up?"
"I wanted to talk to you because you're the only persocom I know who's, uh... not owned by anyone. Independent, liberated... what's the right word?"
"Liberated works."
"Right. I really just want to ask your opinion on something."
"I'm listening," she said, taking a seat on a nearby radiator and placing her chin in her hands.
"This morning, my parents and I were out shopping for school supplies and I saw something that got me kind of shook up."
Amethyst raised an eyebrow, inviting the human boy to continue.
"I heard a crash and shouting from just outside the store, so I ran to see what was going on. There was a persocom lying on the sidewalk, and a woman was yelling at him. He tried to get up, but then she hit him and knocked him down again."
"That's awful!" the cat-eared girl gasped. "Why would she do that?"
"She was saying something about him buying the wrong thing at the store. He told her that the instructions he was given were unclear, but that just made her angrier. Even though he apologized, she kept yelling at him, calling him trash and a defective piece of junk, and threatening to sell him and buy a new model..."
"What did you do?"
"That just it," Isao said, looking down at the floor. "I didn't do anything. I had no idea what to do. A small crowd had gathered around at this point, but none of them said or did anything either. We just watched it happen. Eventually, the woman took the persocom with her and left."
"It's not your fault, Isao-kun," Amethyst tried to reassure him. "A lot of times when something shocking like that happens, people freeze up and don't know how to respond. You shouldn't feel guilty over it."
"It's not just that," he said. "It just got me thinking about persocoms in general. I recently played this video game-"
"What does a video game have to do with it?"
"What I saw reminded me of some of the backstory in the game. The plot involved these robots, and they were being mistreated by humans, so they fought back and started killing the humans..."
"I'm not going to kill anyone, Isao-kun!"
"I know you wouldn't," he said. "You're way too sweet." Now it was Amethyst's turn to blush. She also thought to herself that, while it was true that she would never intentionally end anyone's life, there were a few people, such as Hayashi, whose deaths she wouldn't shed any tears over. She quickly dismissed that grim thought from her processors.
"But every persocom is an individual, right?" Isao continued. "If they keep being treated like this... I'm worried that it's only a matter of time before things turn violent."
"I'm probably not the best person to talk to about this kind of thing, Isao-kun. You would be better off having this discussion with my friend Minako-chan."
"I don't know her, though."
"Yeah..." The cat-eared girl sighed. "Well, the truth is that persocoms are abused by humans all the time, and we do get upset about it. Even angry. But I've always been an optimist. I joined the Kyoto Society for Persocom Equality in the hopes of finding a peaceful solution, and I still think that it's possible."
"But what if it's not?"
"Well, like you said, Isao-kun, every persocom is an individual. Just be kind to them and hopefully they'll reciprocate."
"I've been trying to," he said. "But there's only so much I can do. Eisuke - that's my parents' 'com who I told you about earlier - seems happy working for us, and we don't hit him or yell at him or anything. But he's still, I guess you would call him a slave, since he doesn't get paid or anything and doesn't have the option of quitting. I can't exactly tell my mom and dad to just let him go free or whatever."
"Well if he's happy, then things could certainly be worse, right?"
"But it's still wrong, isn't it? To give him no choice but to work for us?"
"There's a saying my father used to be fond of," Amethyst said, smiling wistfully at the memory of Yoichi. "Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good."
"What does that mean?" the teenager asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.
"It means that if you try to solve every problem at once, and refuse to accept anything but the best possible outcome, then you'll end up sabotaging your own efforts. Yes, slavery is wrong. There's no doubt about that. But it's simply not practical to expect to be able to free every 'com right now. I'm sure it will happen someday, but in the meantime we can only do the best we can. That means focusing on helping those who are suffering the most. If Eisuke-san's life isn't miserable, then you shouldn't beat yourself up over not being able to free him."
"I still feel bad about it, though."
The cat-eared girl smiled, standing up and gently placing a hand on the teenage boy's shoulder.
"That's good. It means you're a compassionate person. But you need to realize that it's not your fault, Isao-kun. You can't take the weight of the whole world on your shoulders. If you really want to help him, the best course of action would probably be to introduce your parents to the persocom rights movement. If you like, I'll give you a copy of Minako-chan's first book."
"You don't have to do that, Ammy-chan."
"Don't worry. I am rich, after all. I've already paid for the printing and distribution of millions of copies of my friends' books. One more is nothing."
"Thanks, Ammy-chan, that's really nice of you. Maybe Eisuke-san and I will visit your, uh, equality society club sometime. When and where do they meet?"
"Can you give me your email? I'll send you all the info you need."
"Oh, sure. Wait a minute..." Isao began checking his pockets, much to Amethyst's puzzlement. "Um, do you have a pen?"
The cat-eared 'com began giggling. "You don't need to write it down, Isao-kun! Just tell me!"
"Ah, that's right, you won't have any trouble remembering it, will you?" he chuckled, embarrassed by his mistake.
"You remind me of Junji-kun a bit. He's always forgetting that persocoms aren't human, too. It's kind of cute, actually."
Isao blushed again. After giving Amethyst his email, the two of them returned to the main clubroom and enjoyed the last few minutes before closing time.
"Ha! The ace of spades makes thirty-one points! I win again!" Hitomi exclaimed, placing the card down triumphantly.
"Can we play something else?" Tomoko huffed, throwing her hand of cards to the side. "I'm getting tired of this game."
"Oh come on Tomoko-chan, don't be a sore loser! I'm only leading by one game so far."
"I'm not being a sore loser! I just don't like this game very much. It's not fair."
The human girl couldn't help but laugh at the grumpy expression on the laptop persocom's face. "Not fair? How isn't it fair?"
"It's too random!" Tomoko said. "There's no way to predict what cards I'm gonna get ahead of time!"
"That's kind of the point, Tomoko-chan. The randomness is what makes it fun."
"Can't we play Shogi instead?"
"So you can crush me with those super engine algorithms of yours? I'll pass."
"Hmmph." Tomoko sat down, petulantly crossing her arms in front of her chest.
"Someone's sure in a grumpy mood today," Hitomi said, as she began to gather up the cards scattered along the bedspread.
"Sorry, Hitomi-chan," the green-haired laptop replied. "I guess I'm still kind of upset about everything that's been happening lately. Did Ueda-san really have to move away so suddenly?"
"He lost his wife. That's a huge blow for anybody."
"I know, but you figure he would have at least stayed near his friends so they could help him feel better, right?"
"Hiroyasu-san was too freaked out by what that Albert guy said. He told me that he really wanted to avoid any drama with the separatists, so he decided to start over again in Tokyo, taking his business with him."
"If those jerks want to bother him, moving to Tokyo won't stop them," Tomoko pointed out.
"Yeah, but I think that they're mainly after Junji and Minako. Ueda-san is barely involved in the whole situation. He figures that by moving, he can get a fresh start, and hopefully none of the commotion will follow him. He wants to wash his hands of the whole thing."
"It seems kind of cold to just run away like that when his friends might be in trouble, though."
"Junji and Minako both understood and supported his decision. The man needs time to grieve. Besides, would having him stay here in Kyoto really change anything?"
"I don't know... and I don't trust that Albert-san either, even if he says he's on our side now."
"I'm with you on that one, Tomoko-chan. He claimed he was trying to help you, but all I see is abuse. What if I hadn't found you when I did? You could have been run over by a car, or picked up by some scavenger and sold for parts."
"Aah, that's scary!" The laptop exclaimed, bending forward and covering her eyes.
"Sorry, Tomoko-chan," Hitomi said, patting the diminutive persocom on the head to comfort her. "I didn't mean to upset you. You don't have to worry about that kind of thing anymore. You'll always have a home here with me."
"That's really nice of you, Hitomi-chan," the laptop smiled, standing up and placing her hands behind her back. "You're my best friend!"
"Oh, you are just too cute!" the black-haired girl squealed, barely resisting the urge to pick up the adorable persocom and hug her like a stuffed animal.
"I am, aren't I?" Tomoko grinned.
"Hey Tomoko-chan, can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Have you ever wished that you were human?"
"Huh?" Tomoko did a double-take. "That's a weird question. Why are you asking me that?"
"No reason. Just curious."
The laptop sat down again, adopting a thoughtful pose with one hand under her chin. "Well I have always wanted to know what eating and drinking is like. From what I've heard it sounds really fun! I guess if I was a human, then Albert-san wouldn't have been able to use me like he did, either. But other than that, not really." She looked up and made eye contact with Hitomi.
"What about you, Hitomi-chan? Have you ever wished that you could be a persocom?"
"Heh, a few times," she admitted. "But I think I'd miss food too much."
"And I'd miss doing this," Tomoko replied, as her eyes flashed with streaks of white light for a fraction of a second. "Whoa, I didn't expect that!" she said as she stood back up, mouth slightly agape.
"What?"
"A new chapter of my favorite manga just came out so I downloaded and read it. Erika-chan - that's the main character - finally kissed Ichiro-kun! They've been teasing that for a hundred and forty-seven chapters now!"
"Sounds like a painfully slow plot," Hitomi chuckled.
"No, it's great! The series is funny and heartwarming too! If we read it together from the beginning I know you'll like it, Hitomi-chan!"
"Well, I'll give it a shot, but I'm not going to be reading a hundred and forty-seven chapters in one sitting, I'll tell you that right now."
Tomoko laughed as she jumped off the bed, took a cable out from behind one of her pointed ears, and plugged it into a nearby flatscreen TV, which immediately flashed to life and began displaying the manga cover art. "How about we just read the first chapter for now?"
"Sure, that sounds fine," Hitomi replied with a grin as two pairs of eyes focused on the screen.
"So what happened next?"
"After we successfully contacted the plane, you thanked me quite profusely. And then..." Rika hesitated. She had thought that she would have no trouble telling Satoru about her dream now that they had clarified their feelings for each other, but for some reason it was still embarrassing.
"Yeah...?" The college student asked, prompting her to continue.
"You kissed me."
"Whoa. Seriously?"
"Seriously," she replied, looking away as her cheeks began to redden.
"Well," Satoru said, wearing an impish smile, "how about we make that dream come true?"
"W-what!?" the laptop said, nearly falling over, her slight blush now deepening. "You better not be messing with me again!"
"No, I'm serious, Rika-chan. I wouldn't mind, uh, kissing you... if you want to, that is."
Rika turned to look at up him, noticing that he was starting to blush as well. "What if someone sees?"
"We're all alone here in the dorm room. Amethyst-chan is out at that club of hers in Kyoto, so I really doubt anyone is going to come barging in on us."
"I..." she met Satoru's gaze for a few seconds, then looked away. "I don't think so. It would be weird."
"I thought you had a crush on me," Satoru said, his tone half teasing and half disappointed.
"I do. It's just... we should probably wait until I get my new body, okay?"
"Uh-huh," the human boy said skeptically. "And exactly how far are you toward reaching that particular financial goal?"
"Forty-six point nine seven percent," she replied instantly.
"If you had just accepted Amethyst-chan's offer, that would have been a hundred a long time ago."
"I already told you, it will feel more satisfying to earn the money on my own."
"Sure," Satoru rolled his eyes. "I may not be a psychologist like my cousin, but if you ask me, you're deliberately putting it off. Are you scared?"
"No!" Rika stomped her foot, only for her expression to soften as she looked down at the floor. "Well... maybe a little."
"Why?"
The laptop sighed, taking out one of her paper fans and assuming a seated position. "Right now, nobody else knows about us. Our... relationship, I mean. Once I upgrade to my new body though, it won't be very practical to hide it anymore. What will your parents think? They bought me as an assistant for the family, not to be your girlfriend. They do legally own me, after all."
"Really, Rika? I thought you were totally onboard with that whole persocom rights thing. 'The only one who owns you is yourself, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise,'" he said in his best Minako impression, quoting part of a speech he had heard her make. Rika couldn't help but snicker at the surprisingly good imitation.
"You should be an actor, Satoru. But the thing is... well, you know how your aunt Miki reacted when she found out that Minako-san and her son were dating. I don't want to deal with that kind of stigma."
"Mom and dad will probably be cool with it. They know and respect you, enough to trust you with taking care of me after all."
"I have received quite a bit of praise for how well I keep you in line," Rika smirked. "I still don't know how they'll react when they find out that we're a couple, though."
"If you're going to say that we're a couple and call yourself my girlfriend, the least you could do is let me kiss you," Satoru said. "Or are you just being tsundere?"
"Ah..." Rika began blushing again. "Fine. You can kiss me."
The human boy smiled and reached out towards the doll-sized persocom, but was stopped short as she suddenly held up one hand, index finger extended, a stern look on her face.
"Once. On the cheek."
Satoru rolled his eyes, but didn't try to argue, landing a soft peck on the side of Rika's face. Her blush grew even more intense.
"I hope this gets less awkward once I'm as tall as you are," she muttered, as she gently touched the spot where Satoru's lips had landed.
"Have you reconsidered Amethyst-chan's offer then?"
"No. I still want to earn the money myself. Although I suppose I could work a bit harder at it..."
"It's pretty ironic, really."
"What is?"
"You're usually the one telling me to work harder, not the other way around."
"Speaking of which, you have an economics paper due next week. You have started writing it, haven't you?"
"Funny story about that..."
Rika giggled, extruding a cable from her head as she ran over to Satoru's desk to interface with the workscreen there. "Come on, procrastinating never solved anything. I'll help you out."
"Sure thing, Rika," Satoru sighed, following her to his desk. As he sat down, she noticed that he still had a smile on his face.
"Junji?" Minako sat up, noticing that her husband was absent from their bed. Looking around the room, she felt that something was slightly off, although she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"He's not here right now," a very familiar female voice responded. Before Minako could reply, the bedroom door slowly opened, and in walked another persocom - an elf-eared beauty with long, lime sherbet colored hair. The spitting image of Minako herself, in fact, aside from the outfit she was wearing: A smart two - piece, dark red business suit, which made her look simultaneously professional and elegant.
"Who are you?"
"Come on Minako," the other persocom smiled. "You know who I am."
Minako blinked a few times. Indeed, she did somehow instinctively know the newcomer's identity, but her mind had been resistant to accept it, due to how absurd it seemed on its face.
"You're... me... but how..." suddenly, her face lit up with understanding. "Oh. I get it. This must be a dream." Minako had been putting off trying out the popular dream app for a while now, and only started using it a few days ago. So far, none of her dreams had been particularly memorable, and she was still getting used to the experience.
"Exactly," her doppelganger said, taking a seat on the foot of the bed. "To be precise, you're having a lucid dream, where you're aware and in control of your surroundings. Humans can sometimes do the same thing."
"I did hear that the app was unpredictable, and different 'coms react to it in different ways," Minako said, sitting up. "Kind of weird that the first thing that my unconscious mind would conjure up is a copy of myself, though. Maybe I have a more serious ego problem than I thought..."
The other Minako laughed, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. "On the contrary, I think you're not confident enough. Believe in yourself, Minako, and you'll accomplish great things."
"I've heard of giving yourself a pep talk, but this is getting a bit surreal," Minako smiled, starting to become more comfortable with her alter-ego. "By the way, I love your outfit."
"Thanks. It's pretty much required for all of my public appearances with the job I have now".
"Job?"
"You see, I'm actually you, but from several decades in the future."
"If this was a normal dream I'd probably have no problem believing that," Minako tapped the side of her head with her index finger, "but in this lucid dream, my higher reasoning functions seem to actually be working properly."
"Just indulge me for a bit, then."
"Okay," Minako said. "I guess there's no harm in that. So, future me, what's it like in your time? Do we finally have our freedom?"
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that."
"Because you don't want to influence the timeline, right? I know all of the relevant sci-fi tropes."
"I'm getting the impression that you're not taking me seriously," the second Minako said, a playful glint in her eye.
"Should I be? You are just a figment of my subconscious, after all."
"Maybe I am. But maybe I'm not," the alleged future Minako said enigmatically. "Maybe in the future, the technology exists to send information back in time, and I decided to use this dream as a medium to contact my past self."
"Like I said, I know all the sci-fi tropes," Minako laughed, "so I'm not surprised that I would come up with something like that in a dream."
"Perhaps. But you don't need to believe me to listen to what I have to say. Even if you consider it a message from your own subconscious, it's worth hearing."
"Go ahead then, future me," Minako said mirthfully.
Her doppelganger assumed a serious expression and looked her directly in the eyes. "Don't give up."
"What?"
"No matter how bad things might seem, even if the obstacles in your way seem insurmountable, just don't lose hope. Things will turn out alright in the end if you just keep a positive attitude. At times, it might seem like your goals are impossibly far away, but the solutions might turn out to be just around the corner."
"Okay then. Thanks for the encouragement, future me," Minako said, shaking hands with her double. "It's good advice, even if you're not real. I'll definitely keep it in mind."
"That's all that I'm asking," the second Minako replied, as her visage and the room around her began to blur and fade away.
Minako suddenly found herself lying in bed, eyes open, surrounded by darkness. She felt the familiar contours of Junji's body pressed up against hers and relaxed. Her internal clock told her it was 4:41 AM.
'Weird dream,' she thought, as she adjusted her position on the mattress. 'I'll have to tell Junji about it later. I wonder what his professional opinion will be.' She giggled softly, careful not to wake her husband as she once again entered low power mode and drifted off back to sleep.
Author's Note: Got this chapter out a lot faster than I predicted. I guess it was because I just had a flash of inspiration. This is intended to be the end of Ueda and Yumi's arc, so we probably won't be hearing from them again. Next time, the plot picks up, as Junji and Minako try to work with Albert to get through to Masaji and the other separatists. It might be a while before the chapter comes out, though. As always, thanks to all of my reviewers, as I would have probably given up on this a long time ago without you all.