I grabbed his hand as I sped up, noticing the sign for the rapid train and turning down a spacious, clean corridor lit with cool blue lights. The train’s timetable was displayed on a large screen, only in Japanese. “I don’t need the toilet. Can you buy us tickets for the Skyliner? It’s the fastest way to get to the city and the next one leaves in six minutes.”
“You speak Japanese.”
It wasn’t a question but a statement. I nodded anyway.
“Why isn’t that information available in any of your online profiles?” he asked, calm and unhurried even as I puffed, trying to go faster.
I gritted my teeth.
“I started learning when I was twelve. It was just a hobby.”
“Wasn’t that before your vendetta against Zenkyoza began?” he asked in that deep, rumbly voice. “You must have had another reason to learn back then.”
My chest tightened, and I let go of his hand. “I don’t want to talk about it. Tell me about that collar. What does it do?”
“Once I disable it, nothing.Initiating override…”
Clanker stopped, and I turned reluctantly. There was a soft ping, and the lights on his collar turned red before going off completely. A loud alarm blared from a speaker hidden somewhere in the wall next to us. The few passengers walking down the corridor threw me outraged looks and sped away.
“What just happened?” I asked, feeling faint with fear.
“A small oopsie. If they ask, you told me to make you laugh,” Clanker said.
“What?” That made no sense at all, and what followed made even less.
The alarm sound cut off, replaced by a groovy electronic tune that filled the entire corridor with an echoing bass line. Clanker’s hand shot straight up, then he trailed it down the side of his head and chest, his hips moving rhythmically to the song. I gaped, blinking repeatedly.
Was this a dream? Was I tripping? I pinched myself. Not a dream. Just a stupid rogue machine trying to get me arrested.
His hips gyrated, and he stepped from side to side in a perfect rhythm, his arms shaping the air in a complicated choreography. I shook my head, my lips parted from confusion. He wasgoodat this, his movements sinuous and attractive. But why was he…
“Soko made da. Kabe ni te o tsukete,”a command came from the far end of the corridor, where two large security bots now stood, aiming at us from very real-looking, very large guns.
Don’t move. Hands on the wall.
It seemed I was going to get shot at again, only this time, it was my stupid cyborg’s fault. Why couldn’t I get a break?
“D-do as they say,” I asked Clanker, my voice breaking. He executed a graceful leap, then rolled to a halt by the wall, standing up smoothly and placing both hands on the surface ashe rocked his hips in a suggestive manner, basically humping the wall. He did it all to the rhythm of the music that still played loudly in the corridor. As soon as he stopped moving, it stopped, too.
Deadly silence filled the space. My ears rang from stress.
I stood next to him, facing the wall and praying to the angels for mercy. I didn’t believe in God, but right now, I could do with a kindly spiritual guardian.
“Stay as you are!” a female human voice barked in Japanese. “What do we have here?”
I risked a glance over my shoulder. Two security guards joined the bots, one human, the other some sort of furry anthropomorphic creature that faintly resembled a racoon. I had no idea what this race was called, but their muzzle seemed kind. I gave them a pleading look.
Please, let me go.
A small crowd of onlookers gathered nearby, held back by another security bot, the third one on the scene. If I wasn’t the cause of it, I would be impressed by the quick security reaction.
“Let me handle this,” the furry guard said, and the human woman shrugged and nodded.
“Turn around, madam,” they said, sounding much gentler than she did. “Did you attempt to break your robot’s controlling device?”
The human guard tapped my shoulder and I turned slowly, frantically thinking how to get out of this.
“I promise I didn’t,” I said, my Japanese only slightly accented. “I don’t know what…”
