Ion 417: Raiju (26 page)

I found it amazing that reluctance vanished when I opened the bag. Several of the forms they had claimed were required, vanished off the desk when the currency was placed there. I retained a fraction of the stack on the chance that it might be needed soon.

They carefully counted each of the stacks, and filled in numbers on the form. When it was all done they had replaced all of the paper money with a little plastic card that I could use anywhere as easily as cash.

When the bank manager had stepped away for a moment I asked Sakura, "How many more steps before I am like regular Human?"

"Shh.. This will do it. I had to help Tsukune do all of this before I sent him off to Tokyo."

With the final task on her mental list complete, Sakura suggested that we surprise Mr. Masema by attending the new robot demonstration. There was still about a half hour before they planned the big show. Of course I eagerly agreed; a new robot sounded very interesting. The two that Lafiel used could do all sorts of work within the ship, but they mostly relied on her for the decisions that had to be made.

We walked further down the street toward the harbor. The buildings seemed to merge into each other with little space between them, though somehow they still managed to have trees and flowers wherever possible. I had been so busy trying to watch all of it, and all the people, that I lost track of just how far we went.

When we had flown over the city I had thought there might be several thousand people in this city, but we had already passed thousands on our way to the building. There were at least a thousand in the crowd before us.

Looking over their heads, I could see the building reaching for the sky. Where the prefecture office had boasted an image of stateliness, this building was sleek glass and steel that rose high above most of the neighboring structures. If this was their building, then it was even more exciting to think of what shape robot Saikou Industries might create.

At the edge of the crowd was a man selling rice balls and pot stickers. The aroma coming from his cart tickled my tummy into reminding me that I needed to eat.

So, grabbing a few rice balls, and a little bag of skewered meat, we began inching our way through the crowd toward the front. Most of the people nudged back, but a few stepped aside to let us pass.

It was when one guy nearly hit me with a sign for Sakari Jinteki, that I took notice. Not all the people seemed happy. Someone advertising for Humans to be at their best ought to be smiling, however I don't think a sore belly was the cause of his scowl.

"Sakura, what is going on with them?"

"Don't stare at them. Akita worried they might show up, but his men will handle it."

"I don't understand. Are they health people?"

Sakura frowned, "They are afraid of robots. The things they think are too many to tell you now, but this is not good. Sakari Jinteki, The Prime Humanity, wants to get rid of all robots. That would set Japan back hundreds of years."

"But robots are useful, aren't they?"

"There are a lot of them that claim robots will take over jobs, and make it hard for them to feed their families. Others don't like that some robots are looking a little Human."

I had to laugh at both notions. Nobody would make robots unless there was a desire for them in the first place. Robots ended up with the jobs that nobody else wanted; mostly the jobs that resulted in cessation of life function if something went wrong. Wouldn't that in essence be promoting safe jobs for Humans?

And just what did they want the robots to look like if not Humans? Perhaps they could make them look like bears, but that would just scare people even more. In a Human world it seemed only reasonable that the robots would be Human shaped.

We finally managed to squeeze our way to near the front, right behind a group with imager equipment. Looking along the front revealed there were several such groups set to record the event.

Within just a few moments Sakura was pointing toward where her husband Akita was coming through a door with several other men. Akita took up a position next to the podium while the others spread out along the back of the improvised stage.

A tall man dressed in the nicest suit I had yet seen, walked out followed by two robots that took up station slightly behind him with a banner bearing the company name stretched between the pair.

These looked like roughly shaped humans on rolling platforms. Their heads were oval with slight indents where optic pickups took the place of eyes, and a small lump where the nose would have been. The oval mouth grill made them appear to constantly be yawning.

Since they were mounted on a rolling platform the legs were rigid with just an indented line to simulate the gap between their legs. The arms looked fully articulated.

All in all, these were more advanced than what I had expected to see based upon the other technology I had encountered. How could anyone be upset by these? They looked too clumsy to be a threat.

A raised hand from the man in the suit brought a lull to the murmur running through the crowd.

"Gentlemen, and the few ladies that have come to grace this event, I bid you with thanks. I, Atagi Atsuura, President of Saikou Industries, present the automatons for which this company has become known. And without delay, I also present the one that will demonstrate our newest model."

Out of the building walked another man, no wait... That was a robot! It looked like a Human, except for the head. The head was Human-like, but slightly squared off. There were also very mechanical looking lenses for eyes and small grill where the mouth should be. Its walking was the most impressive part. That spoke of integration and very sophisticated gyroscopic balancers.

The noise from the crowd at our backs rose to a deafening roar, and some of them started shoving forward. I couldn't hear what Mr. Atsuura was saying anymore, and Sakura nearly fell on one of the news reporters when the shoving intensified.

The next part happened quickly. The crowd lunged forward knocking Sakura and a few of the reporters off their feet. One person actually stepped on Sakura as he charged forward waving a weapon! From the corner of my eye I saw something flash by that exploded, removing the head of the walking robot. They were using missiles? Now that was just too much. The anger was building inside me, like it had when Panzo was shot.

Another lunge of the crowd just about knocked me off my feet as I was stumbling into where Sakura lay. They were going to charge the platform, trampling us in their frenzy. One of the guys waving a sign shoved past me, kicking Sakura to move out of his way. The anger and concern battled with my desire to stay hidden. This crowd was going to hurt somebody.

Just as I reached to help Sakura back to her feet there were several loud pops throughout the crowd. One of them behind me was also accompanied by a streak of pain in my side. I knew the feeling of something tearing open my side, though it didn't feel like more than a simple gash.

I stretched out my hands and let loose a fan of lightning. I kept the charge small enough to hopefully not injure anyone seriously , but still it took a lot to spread it as I did. Lightning danced along my fingers and jumped outward. In the blink of an eye it jumped person to person to person, and out through all of them.

The crowd stopped moving, and fell -- every one of them, including Akita's men that had been trying to hold back the stampede.

There was no time to worry for their sake. I reached down to shake Sakura awake, but there was no response. Her head lolled back with a little gurgle coming from her half-open mouth.

Yellowish-green is my natural color, so it took a moment for the significance of seeing my green hand shaking her shoulder to sink into my addled thoughts. Tan flakes were still falling from my arms where the sprayed disguise had been ruined.

There wasn't time to worry about the why, though I had a good idea. Sakura was hurt! That one thought permeated my total attention. I reached under both arms to lift her, and nearly ended up throwing her over my head. She was light! I easily could have lifted her to my back and run, so I did.

A dozen breaths later I had her leaning against the side of the building, out of sight of the fallen crowd. With time to look a little closer I could see that she wasn't seriously injured.

A gash over her eye showed where her head had hit the ground when she fell, and her arm hung a bit funny. I didn't think it would take more than ten minutes for her to be back to normal, and the moan that drifted out of her lips was the sign that she was already regaining consciousness. I felt the relief flood through me. She would be fine.

Her eyelids fluttered and then opened, only to narrow as she squinted at me in puzzlement, "You are peeling the tan off your face! We'll have to put more on it. What did you do to your hair?"

I laughed and showed her my hands that were completely bare. I hadn't even thought about the wig, and how it was sitting sort of sideways now. Part of the length was covering one of my eyes. Hair was only a minor concern, so I twisted it back into close approximation of how it should be.

"You cannot be seen like that here! Akita will lose face! Atsuura will send him away with nothing if he finds out."

"You fell when the crowd pushed. I had to get you out of there."

"But they will have seen you with me. I am known as Akita's wife. It will fall on him when people tell him."

"I stopped them, they won't hurt anyone else. They nearly trampled you. A bit of the spray should hide my hands again."

"How could you? They were pushing and shoving and I got kicked a couple times. So many getting hurt."

"I stopped them. I don't think they saw me."

I don't know how much of that she actually heard, because her next thought was of Akita being trampled by that crowd. His job was to protect Mr. Atsuura, and he would do that even with a crowd charging.

I held up one of my hands and let a tiny charge jump back and forth between my fingertips. Sakura stared at the jumping spark for a moment with fear flashing in her eyes, to be replaced by a short nod and relief evident before she spoke.

"We have to get you out of sight. Your hair is floating everywhere."

Now that she mentioned it, I could feel the charged field surrounding my head. The very long hair of the wig was floating out like a black halo longer than my arms. I had to think for a moment on how to fix that. I'd only managed once before to reverse the charge I created, and it took intentional concentration to squeeze just right. A little flash signaled the falling of the hair back to where it should have been hanging, only a little messier now. I guess I got it right from her pained smile.

She pulled out her phone and tapped in a number. It was nearly a minute of anxious waiting before she reached Akita. I could hear the pain in her voice as she told him to meet us here. At first he was reluctant because of his duty to protect, but she insisted that it was far more urgent than dealing with the crowd. That was something his men could handle. The stress in her voice must have gotten her message across to him because he finally agreed.

With the call completed, she slid the phone back into her purse, and demanded that I help her stand. The more she moved, the more she winced.  The swelling in her face was getting worse instead of better, and she winced when I helped her up.

"If Akita saw me like this he would be too worried. I will need his help, but he has a duty to Atsuura."

It was worrying me already. Something was wrong with at least one rib. The pain should be easing, but it looked to be getting worse. That's when Akita walked around the corner and found us. As soon as she saw him, Sakura shoved my hand away to stand on her own.

"What are you doing out here like that? Someone will see you! Your green is showing! You should have been gone on your way already."

Sakura fairly growled at him, "Akita! Just get us inside, my husband. Hurry before we are seen."

I wrapped my hands in the folds of the dress to hide them as his attention shifted to Sakura. That was when he noticed she was trying to keep her face turned so that he wouldn't see it.

Anger flashed over his face before he dropped the stern mask in place once more. Taking one of us under each arm he helped us through a side door into the building. It opened when he slid a plastic card through a slot; just like the Selstlak's disks that had gotten me free of the orbital lab.

The corridor we found ourselves in was deserted, though voices echoed down the hall from the front of the building. Akita hurried us the other direction, and into an office that greatly resembled the police substation where Panzo had been held. The only thing missing was the blue uniformed officers.

Akita helped her sit in a chair while snapping orders to me, "Get me that first aid kit over there. No, not that. The box on the wall. The one with the big red cross on it. You're acting like you've never seen one before."

The box came free from the wall with a strong tug that left two holes where the mounting screws had been, "I haven't."

"Here, squish this and hold it over her eye. It will cool enough to stop the swelling till I get her to the hospital. What happened to your side?"

I looked down to where the side of my dress was ripped and bloody, "It's nothing much. The bleeding has stopped already."

He was still preoccupied with wrapping a cloth around her neck to hold her arm up as he snapped another directive to me, "Well, get that dress off so we can get a look at it."

It was Sakura's turn to snap at him, "Akita! Turn around and I'll look at it for you."

I had been so busy helping Sakura to safety that the small wound from a pellet pistol had seemed insignificant. The bullet had passed clean through my side missing everything vital. In the time I had been helping her to stand, the wound was already beginning to close over.

When the dress came up high enough she could see for herself that the spot was just lighter colored new skin that itched a bit. Her gasp caused me to look in concern, fearing that something was wrong with the way it looked. It was fine, and I knew that in a few hours it would look just like the rest of me.