Pandion (Genera #1)

Chapter 17

K agesawa returned from a morning run, had a quick shower and started making breakfast.

It had been Satoru’s suggestion to try to form a daily routine to see if that would improve Kagesawa’s impaired executive functions. The few days he’d tried it so far were promising: Satoru would give him a supportive mental push through the link to get started, but once he was up and running, the momentum was easy enough to maintain. The regular exercise and healthier meals were no miracle cure, but he could tell they were making a difference.

When he had a particularly loathsome task he couldn’t get himself to start, Satoru would help him out. He’d accomplished at least twice as much this week, yet he wasn’t as mentally drained after. He’d even managed to process the rest of his credit chips on his own, not to mention devise a more secure financial plan. It had been a secret dream of his to someday be smarter with his finances, but he’d never had the energy to trudge through the research until now. Humming to himself while filleting the fish and chopping up the vegetables, he was in a splendid mood.

Satoru emerged from his room. He’d woken up to help Kagesawa start his routine but then gone back to bed. He didn’t seem ill, just not in a great mood. Kagesawa wondered if he could do something to cheer him up, maybe share some of his own good mood through the link.

The specifics had probably been mentioned in one class or another, but Kagesawa had yawned through most of the theory. It was a miracle he’d ever managed to wrangle passing grades from that mess. He mused he would have had better success now that he had genuine interest in the subject, but alas, he couldn’t change the past.

Satoru regularly sent all sorts of notions, mental states and encouragement through the link like it was as easy as breathing. Kagesawa hadn’t consciously tried sending anything since Satoru was always picking up things on his own, but transferring feelings couldn’t be all that different from projecting dialogue, right?

“Ah, morning. Did you sleep well?” he opened the conversation. Satoru looked up at him and yawned.

“You look chipper today,” Satoru mumbled. Since it was usually him getting up at the crack of dawn, the contrast was almost alarming.

Here you go. Kagesawa gathered up an ample helping of contented cheerfulness and tried passing it along with his words.

Satoru stopped where he stood. It was as if he’d been hit with a sudden, heavy gust of wind that left him blinking dubiously. There was a brief disjointed frown when he realised he was smiling.

“What was that?” He sat down at the kitchen table. The top half of his face was trying to emote confusion while the bottom was still smiling.

“Something to cheer you up. Not good?” Kagesawa inserted the fish into the grill and checked that he’d selected the right temperature for the vegetables he was steaming. He was really rather impressed with himself that he’d remembered to time the rice cooker so that the rice would be done along with the rest of the breakfast.

“A little less would have been enough, but thanks. I feel like my face is cramping.” He didn’t sound too upset.

“Something the matter?” Kagesawa set the timer for the fish and sat at the table.

“I got an invitation for another review.” Satoru sighed and leaned forward on his elbows. “But that’s not what worries me. I got some news from Takazaki this morning while you were out.”

“Oh?”

“The initial response has been promising, and there haven’t been any reports of catastrophic port removals so far. It’s bound to happen sooner or later, but so far so good. The problem is that it’s been causing a worrying polarisation between the empaths who’ve removed their ports and the ones who won’t. Some pushback’s to be expected. I was hoping all of this would start a long-overdue dialogue, possibly even an investigation into the EA’s dealings, but...” Satoru tossed a data chip onto the table. “The sad side-effect of the unrest within our ranks has caused others to voice their discontent for empaths as a whole. They’re saying it’s an honourless profession and that we’re nothing more than glorified secretaries and vehicle handlers.”

“That’s been going on for decades. It’ll die down once the dust settles.” The news was worrying, but Kagesawa had always preferred to steer clear from any political discourse for the sake of his mental health. “So, what’s this then?” He picked up the chip.

“It’s a collection of other damning evidence the activist groups have been collecting to shut down the EA altogether. It’s still unclear whether this will be enough or if the public opinion is so widespread it’ll influence the upcoming elections, but it could do some significant damage.”

“What was Takazaki’s take on it?” Kagesawa tossed the chip back to Satoru, who took it and flipped it around with his fingers.

“He said he’s working on damage control, but who knows what that will do. I wonder if the job market’s going to go to shit after this. It’ll be hard enough to find freelance jobs now that your licence is suspended and we can’t go through the official channels.”

“With fewer employers going to the EA to offer their jobs, it might work in our favour,” Kagesawa said. It would have been na?ve to leave it at that. “I guess it doesn’t hurt to think of other options. If it all does indeed go to shit, my savings aren’t going to last us forever.” This statement made Satoru look like he’d swallowed a jar of utter bilgewater.

“You’re doing your share.” Kagesawa wanted to say something more to make him feel better but feared it would sound condescending. He had no qualms about sharing everything he had for all the support Satoru was giving and had already given him, but he could tell that emphasising any of that might hurt Satoru’s pride.

“I guess we’d better get this link up to spec so we can find work as soon as possible. Try to save up just in case.” Satoru stood up to leave the table.

“Breakfast is almost ready.”

“I’ll eat later. I need to do some research for my peace of mind.”

“Satoru?”

“Yes?”

“You’ve been helping me out a lot recently. Are you sure it’s not a nuisance?” Kagesawa was in the middle of doing the dishes and abruptly stopped what he was doing.

“It’s easier to help you start with the dishes than doing them myself.”

“I guess, but I feel bad that you have to wake up so early to get me going every morning.” Kagesawa picked up a coffee cup and resumed his task.

Harumine frowned. That statement didn’t quite add up. Yes, he’d been getting up early most mornings as per usual and yes, he’d helped Kagesawa when he’d needed help. However…

“What do you mean every morning?” For the past three days and a few instances before that, Kagesawa had gotten up on his own, a few minutes before Harumine. Kagesawa put the cup down again.

“You know. That thing you do.”

“Have you gotten so used to it that you’re now doing it on your own without realising it?” That would be a welcome improvement to the routine.

“No. It was definitely you this morning. I’m sure of it. It was the exact same thing as yesterday and the day before that.”

“You’ve been getting up before me. Did you think I was doing it in my sleep?” He was a skilled empath but not that skilled. Nobody he knew could do these things without being conscious.

“Who’s doing it then?” Kagesawa took off the dishwashing gloves and smear-dried his hands on the sides of his shirt.

“It’s not me.”

“Shit. Am I losing it? Is that what this is?” Kagesawa started pacing back and forth in the little space he had in front of the sink.

“Calm down. You’re fine. It’s understandable you’d mistake it for me if your dream was similar enough to what I was doing before.”

“I thought it was odd that you told me good morning twice. Who else is in my head? It sounded like you!” He stopped pacing but started tapping the counter with his fingers. Harumine didn’t know what to say. “Project to me,” Kagesawa requested.

What do you want me to say?

“That! That sounds exactly the same!” He abandoned the dishes and rushed out of the kitchen and into his bedroom. Harumine followed, although he failed to see what significance the sound of his projections could have. Why would they sound any different in a dream?

Kagesawa popped his extension in and started the diagnostics. The results were the same as what they’d been a week ago, save for the slight improvement in the connection. The changes had been more drastic at first, but while they’d slowed down somewhat, the link was still improving at an abnormal rate.

“There’s nothing wrong with you. It was probably just a dream.”

“I’m going to leave this running for the night. I need to see if it picks something up in the morning.” Going as far as to sleep with the extension attached, Kagesawa had to be fairly convinced there was something wrong.

“All right. Well, don’t worry about it too much. I’m sure I’d be able to tell if there was something seriously wrong with you.” Harumine didn’t want to belittle Kagesawa’s concern, but he also didn’t want the man to worry over nothing. He had a tendency to overreact to things like this. “You were doing the dishes,” Harumine kindly reminded him when he was about to start doing something else at his desk.

“Oh, right.” Kagesawa seemed reluctant to return to it. Harumine gave him a gentle push. You can tinker with your stuff after. One task at a time.

“I need you to do what you normally do so I can save that for comparison.” Kagesawa was setting everything up before going to sleep.

Harumine didn’t mind helping but wondered what else he could do if the data turned out inconclusive like he feared. Kagesawa had been preoccupied the rest of the day and was not likely to drop it until he could figure out what he was experiencing.

Harumine repeated the morning routine and watched the graphs form on the screen. Though his school had had the newest diagnostic and analysis software available on the market, he’d never seen anything like this before. The readings seemed more detailed, but most of it didn’t make any sense to him.

“I coded this tool for my port experiments. You’re right, it’s a bunch of gibberish, but I had a specific need to track certain types of feedback for interference to know what to amplify and what not. The data is useless, but the signature should be unique enough to compare.” Kagesawa paused and looked off for a moment. “Um, Satoru?”

“Yeah?” Harumine yawned. He was hoping to have this over with soon so he could go to bed.

“Mind sending me some of those sleepy vibes?”

“Hmm?” Harumine yawned again. When he recovered from his yawn, he realised why Kagesawa was asking. The morning wake up routine was surprisingly effective. He looked ready to go for a run. Harumine in turn, having mustered all of his energy to execute said routine, yawned for the third and fourth time trying to stay awake.

“All right,” he mumbled. “I’m going now. Good night.” He patted Kagesawa’s shoulder, started moseying toward his own room and let all the exhaustion he was feeling gush through the link like a hefty blanket. He could hear Kagesawa yawn behind him.

Kagesawa was up before Harumine again. He was about to head out the door when Harumine entered the living room.

“It’s the same.” Kagesawa called out before disappearing into the corridor.

“Oh?” Harumine got himself a cup of coffee. Exact match? He sat at the kitchen table and waited for Kagesawa to exit the building and head to the park where there were fewer distractions.

Almost exact. You probably wouldn’t be able to match it as well if you tried, Kagesawa projected back. His projections were getting clearer, and the range had expanded considerably. While the link was not overall the same as before, this aspect of it was much better, possibly due to Kagesawa’s improved skills.

So , what do we suppose that means? If it’s not a dream, is it some sort of link malfunction? The fact that it’s not perfectly identical makes me think it’s not a repeat or an echo of the same transfer. Where does it come from? Harumine checked the fridge for breakfast supplies and started on an omelette.

I have a few theories, but— Kagesawa’s sentence was cut off by him crossing a road. Or guesses, more like. I’d need to understand the organism better to know what it’s capable of, and I’m not a scientist, but— He dodged a woman walking a dog. From the looks of it, it’s got something to do with the other organism. The problem I have with this is that this morning when I ran normal diagnostics from the organism, it was giving me a list of errors longer than the last time. The health status is still excellent. Comparing the data from before, I noticed that some of the processes it was detecting from the first one before were now moved over to the second, and the second one was far more active. It looks like one might be eating up the other.

Kagesawa’s mental state seemed stable despite this admittedly rather disturbing information. Harumine halved some oranges, squeezed fresh juice into two glasses and chopped the vegetables.

Supposedly the EA had studied the organism extensively, but most of their findings were filtered into simplified public records and rest kept secret with the reasoning that they were too complicated for the layman to understand, and misunderstandings could be detrimental or even outright dangerous. That stuff was only available for the few who were selected to study the field to become doctors or researchers.

Under normal circumstances in case of a medical emergency, one was supposed to go get a health check from a professional EA doctor, but since that was not an option, they needed another way to get their hands on the right data. Considering Kagesawa’s skills in data-mining and analysis, he would have mentioned if he’d already obtained something useful.

‘Eating up’ sounds unsettling. Let’s not make assumptions. They may be merging, Harumine suggested. If it’s utilising the first one’s tendrils, it’s no wonder your side of the link has improved so rapidly. Harumine had noticed differences and improvements after removing the port but at a much more moderate rate than Kagesawa.

I wish I knew what was happening in there. I feel completely fine, but it’s unnerving. Will it keep feeding me things on its own? How long has it been doing that without me noticing? Is it misfiring, or is it doing it on purpose?

Harumine cut his finger. It wasn’t very deep, but it did sting and startle him almost as much as Kagesawa’s words.

Did you hurt yourself? Finger? You cut yourself?

Harumine grabbed a piece of tissue paper and used that to press the cut. It’s fine. What do you mean ‘on purpose’?

The organism was complex, but nothing Harumine had been taught suggested it was capable of independent thought. It was intelligent in the same sense as plants or fungi, but it didn’t choose to do things outside its genetic instructions.

I don’t know. It’s just a feeling I get. Like it’s trying to help me. On purpose. Kagesawa seemed serious.

Harumine treated his finger and resumed preparing the breakfast. He was too dumbfounded to comment.