Chapter 56: Preparation

Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Preparation

Mataguchi’s monologue, POV

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?What a bummer.

?I had just gotten a call from Kahori-san that she wouldn’t be around. She pleaded for a rain check; it must be hard being a major figure.

?She would be out of town for a week or so. At the very least, I didn’t come outside for nothing. I had told her to contact Mrs. Suzanne regarding her absence, which meant I could still get what I needed.

?The afternoon asphalt of the main avenue hummed with the dull, relentless vibration of traffic. A dense current of pedestrians flowed around me, shadows and silhouettes blurring past in a rush of hurried commutes and hollow chatter. Yet, within the roaring tide of the metropolis, the space immediately surrounding me felt hollow, entirely devoid of interference.

?I walked in a measured cadence, my posture straight, my arms hanging with mechanical ease. Beneath my dark bangs, my eyes remained half-lidded and flat, completely unbothered by the chaos of the thoroughfare, capturing details with the dispassionate precision of an optical lens.

?Earlier, I had gotten a call that he would be here soon. Do they have to put in their two cents?

?They called me "The Robot" or simply "AI" behind my back. Still, I knew it wasn’t out of mockery—perhaps out of annoyance, but mostly as a simple recognition of biological impossibility: a human mind operating entirely stripped of static noise, emotional fluctuations, or hesitation.

?Well, that’s all I could gather from every interaction I’ve had for the past few years now.

?A low, matte-black G-Wagon pulled smoothly against the curb, its tinted windows absorbing the amber glare of the setting sun. The rear door clicked open automatically. Without breaking my stride or altering my expression, I slid into the leather interior.

?The door shut, instantly severing the ambient roar of the city outside into a suffocating, sound-dampened quiet.

?In the front passenger seat sat a broad-shouldered man clad in a tailored midnight-black suit. A coiled transparent cord ran from a receiver nestled in his ear, disappearing beneath his stiff collar, while his dark sunglasses reflected the sterile glow of the dashboard displays. He had black hair and a somewhat muscular build.

?Without turning around, the man spoke, his voice low and gravelly. "You’re late by four seconds, AI."

?Seriously, you have sent messages with a lot of AI stickers attached, but now that I’m here you still feel like saying it?

?"Traffic congestion increased by twelve percent near the third intersection," I replied, my voice flat, steady, and completely devoid of inflection.

?The man let out a dry, nasal chuckle, tapping a gloved finger against the steering wheel.

?"Always with the data points, I see. How’s high school treating you? Learning anything useful in history class, or are you just sitting there calculating the structural integrity of the drywall?"

?Structural integrity of a drywall?

?"It is tolerable. The curriculum lacks practical application—well, for now, I guess," I said, my gaze fixed straight ahead on the back of the man’s head.

?A quiet sigh escaped the agent. Despite his intimidating appearance and sharp operational focus, a faint edge of genuine warmth laced his next words. "Just don’t forget to eat something real once in a while. Surviving on nutrient bars isn’t going to cut it, kid."

?I offered no verbal reply, though my gaze shifted subtly. The man whom I mentally categorized under the internal label "Blackhawk"—a private moniker born from a past incident where the agent had botched a tactical extraction—was attempting to foster a casual rapport.

?It was an inefficient use of cognitive bandwidth, yet mathematically understandable. Debt repayment took many forms. I guess that’s another thing I should keep in mind.

?I didn’t feel anything after I had completely neutralized Oota’s investigation for now. I was expecting to feel a bit relieved, but I guess I didn’t even consider being in a tight position.

?As long as I don’t give him any leads, he should be stuck where he is, though I had other plans in mind.

?I thought I could at least enjoy a little game with him, but this is turning out to be... what word should I use? Insufficient... no, more like boring.

?Twenty minutes later, the vehicle glided into the underground subterranean bay of a towering monolithic skyscraper of reinforced glass and brushed titanium. The scientific research facility, a pinnacle of near-future bioengineering, swallowed the vehicle into its sterile bowels.

?The elevator ride to the upper administrative levels was silent, save for the faint hum of magnetic dampeners. When the brushed steel doors finally chimed and slid open, the high-altitude air pressure shifted instantly.

?"Mrs. Suzanne is waiting on the top floor," Blackhawk said, stepping aside to let me exit. "Don’t keep her waiting. She’s been reviewing clearance logs all morning."

?Sounds like a lot of work.

?I’m sure by now she would have already finished, but just in case, I should go help her out.

?"Understood," I said.

?Stepping out into the grand mezzanine, the environment shifted from industrial coldness to sleek, minimalist corporate luxury. Holographic data streams floated softly above curved glass workstations, while personnel in pristine white coats moved briskly between laboratories.

?As I walked down the primary corridor, a pair of female senior researchers stepped out of a lateral lab. Upon spotting me, their professional expressions instantly melted.

?"Oh, look who it is," the lead researcher, Dr. Arisawa, said, stepping directly into my path with an affectionate, slightly overly familiar smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She sort of stood out from the rest to me; her long red hair and red lipstick were one thing, but her yellowish eyes sometimes reminded me of a cat.

?She reached out and lightly tapped the bridge of my nose with a finger. "Growing taller every time you visit, aren’t you? Are they feeding you properly at that academy?"

?She paused for a second, her eyes shifting to my full figure and then to my face. "Or do we need to requisition a proper diet plan for our favorite little brother?"

?Her colleague leaned in closer, her gaze sweeping over me with an intense, calculated scrutiny masked as playful fondness. "He doesn’t need food, Arisawa-san."

?"He runs entirely on cold logic and suppressed trauma. Don’t you, Mataguchi?"

?Am I to answer that?

?Mrs. Arisawa’s colleague was even more calm and beautiful for her age—a striking Japanese beauty with a black hime cut, black-lipped makeup, and sharp, piercing, black-lidded eyes.

?What drugs are they on?

?"Come by lab four later. I have a new neural feedback puzzle I want you to look at. Just you and me," she added.

?In a world where direct falsehoods were mathematically neutralized by ambient verification protocols, verbal deception was a crude tool of the past. Instead, people wrapped omissions in affection, buried true intent beneath layers of playful tone, and masked surveillance as maternal care.

?These people are pros, right?

?"My schedule for the day is currently committed," I responded evenly, my voice dropping into its characteristic monotone.

?I turned to Mrs. Arisawa-san.

?"And my biological growth rate has stabilized within normal human parameters. Thank you for your concern, Dr. Arisawa."

?I stepped past them without a flicker of hesitation.

?However, as I continued down the corridor toward the central executive wing, I noticed the inconsistencies I had sensed earlier very clearly now.

?The facility’s response protocols were entirely anomalous. Given my high-security classification and the sensitive nature of Suzanne’s projects, my arrival should have triggered automated status adjustments across the sector’s terminal boards. Yet, the main diagnostic screens displayed baseline operational loops. The environment was deliberately quiet. Too quiet.

?I’m sure that if Blackhawk knew about my arrival, then Dr. Arisawa and her colleagues would know as well. So they would try to stop me on the spot.

?Unless they were merely buying time for something—neither to help me out nor to lead me in.

?My lifeless eyes flicked subtly to the reflection in the polished glass partition to my left.

?Two technicians in maintenance overalls were rounding a corner fifty meters behind me. Their strides were too coordinated, their posture too rigid for ordinary workers. They were moving with calculated subtlety, adjusting their pacing precisely to match my rhythm, utilizing structural pillars and holographic display boards to break line-of-sight whenever my head turned. They were attempting to tail me without triggering my immediate defensive awareness.

?Instead of accelerating or changing my route to a secure zone, I abruptly halted. I turned on my heel, facing directly toward the alcove where the two figures had just ducked.

?"The executive offices are in the opposite direction," I stated clearly into the empty air of the corridor.

?A moment of absolute silence hung in the air before the two figures stepped out from behind a holographic pillar. Their expressions flickered with a brief micro-expression of surprise, quickly smoothed over by practiced, professional compliance.

?"Ah, Mataguchi-kun," one of them said, offering a tight, polite smile while keeping his hands deliberately visible near his beltline. "We were just checking the environmental filtration nodes for this sector. Mrs. Suzanne’s office is just down the hall, correct? You should hurry; she mentioned something about an urgent synchronization test."

?Synchronization test? Didn’t Blackhawk mention earlier that she was doing clearance logs?

?She must have mentioned it once but didn’t actually do it, or maybe she was already done with the clearance logs.

?"The filtration nodes for sector nine were serviced yesterday at 0400 hours," I replied, my eyes resting flatly on the man’s face. "Your toolkit is empty, and your badge clearance level grants access only to sub-level two. Explain the discrepancy."

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"A win by an unsound combination, however showy, fills me with artistic horror." ⅇ𝒃𝚗ℴ

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