Sign of the Dragon (Tatsu Yamada Book 1), Niall Teasdale [books for 20 year olds .txt] 📗

I could do than what I was. There were people who treated us as things rather than people. But there were others who refused to see us as machines. After the war, things got worse, even in the GSDF. One of the reasons I live and work in Chiba is that I didn’t feel like I fitted into Tokyo society.’

‘O-oh.’

‘But, not everyone is the same. I met someone recently who doesn’t care what I am. She’s far from the only one. It’s a hurdle to get over. Once they start talking to you, they’ll see the mind behind the metal shell. It can be lonely and discouraging, but you have an advantage I didn’t.’

‘I do?’

‘Yeah, your brother. He’s not going to see you differently.’

‘I won’t,’ Nakano said.

‘You’ll just be the sister he’s had to look after, able to stand on her own two feet once again. You have real support.’

‘That’s… true,’ Mika said. She took another sip of tea. ‘I don’t think the neighbours will be a problem. They know about my condition and they know what the only solution is. Mrs Okomura will probably still make me tubs of stew for the freezer, even after she finds out I can’t eat them.’

‘Well, you can,’ Tatsu replied, ‘but you’re better off avoiding normal food. The processing systems will get what they can out of it, but they’re not designed to handle sticking to a human menu. You can get cyborg food that actually looks and tastes like human food if there’s something you feel you can’t miss out on. There are websites.’

‘And if Nii-san accidentally ate some of that?’

‘It’s safe. Human stomachs can’t extract much of the nutritional content from cyborg food, but it’ll go in and come out normally enough.’

‘Right. So I still have to go to the toilet and normal stuff like that.’

‘Oh yeah. Less often. Typically, due to recycling processes and such, you can get by perfectly well on one meal a week. Or smaller meals spread out through the week. Still, eventually you have to get rid of waste products. It’s engineered to work the same way as usual, but you won’t need to go as often. And don’t be embarrassed, you’d be amazed at how many people want to know whether cyborgs go to the toilet.’

Mika’s blush just got deeper. ‘Uh, since I’m embarrassing myself… What about sex?’

‘Skin sensitivity is typically equal to or better than a human. That’s all over your body. Psychologically, the inability to engage in sexual activity following the procedure would be damaging. It proved to be psychologically damaging in early cyborgs. They put effort in because it was necessary. Plus, uh, the early development of humanoid robots was heavily driven by the market for, um, animated sex toys. The necessary organs had synthetic analogues long before the technology to make cyborgs was available. So you’ll be able to have sex just like a human. That’s assuming that your brother doesn’t scare any and all potential lovers away, of course. Older brothers can be so protective.’

‘I would never do that,’ Nakano said. Well, he sort of mumbled it.

‘I’d hope not,’ Mika replied.

‘After some suitable vetting, I’m sure I’d have no trouble letting you go on dates.’

‘Vetting?’

‘Chaperoned, obviously.’

‘Chaperoned?!’

‘I think he’s joking,’ Tatsu said.

‘I should hope so,’ Mika replied.

‘Mostly. He’s mostly joking.’

~~~

‘She’ll go for it,’ Tatsu said as she pulled on her boots. ‘She’ll think about it some more, but she’ll go for the living option eventually.’

‘I hope so,’ Nakano said.

‘Humans have a desire to stave off death as long as possible. She’ll choose life.’ Getting to her feet, she opened the front door. The sound of heavy rain washed over them.

‘It’s raining,’ Nakano pointed out unnecessarily.

‘Yeah, well, rainy season.’

‘Are you going to be okay in just that dress?’

‘I’ll turn off my sense of touch. I won’t even notice it.’ She paused, staring at the streams of water falling from the sky. ‘We haven’t had that much rain so far this year. I guess it’s about time for it.’

‘It’ll pass. It always does.’

‘Yeah. The storms always pass. I just hope this isn’t a sign of worse to come.’

Part Two: Health

Chiba Refugee Zone, Japan, 18th July 2099.

It was Saturday night and The Hole was busy. People were staying put once they got there thanks to the rain, so the normal cycling of patrons was not happening. Maybe there were fewer tourists about since you could almost swim through the atmosphere outside, but there were still some. The music was loud. The dancers, in and out of the cages, were sweaty and seemed a little frantic. People were drinking, maybe a little bit more enthusiastically than usual. The forecast saw no end to the constant heavy rain and that was depressing.

Tatsu walked through the throng, heading in the general direction of up. There had been no breaks in the Zima or Nikolaev cases. If anyone knew anything, they were not talking about it. That was also a little depressing. On the plus side, there had been no more than the usual infighting among the gangs. Based on all that, Tatsu was aiming for another marathon fucking session with Kobayashi. Maybe she should start thinking of the dancer as Sachiko. Maybe two weekends of non-stop sex was insufficient to call it. If it went to three…

She was on the third floor when a message window appeared in her sensorium just as she started hearing screams from above her.

Alert! Potential biohazard incident in progress. Fourth floor, your location. Immediate attendance required! Alert!

Sending an acknowledgement, she took the remaining steps two at a time and dashed onto the floor. A biohazard incident? How had that happened in the middle of a Chiba nightclub? Whatever the problem might be, where it was became obvious by the