Polynya

Why she always has to push buttons he didn’t know he has is beyond him. It’s like she’s testing me, he thinks. She wants me to go off the handle, like Ryuk. But why?

Well, at least his brother will have some shit to deal with soon enough that will stop him from getting any closer to the truth.

He smiles.

At least that’s how the woman behind the golden door put it. She told Kodai what she’d give him if they were able to pull it off and he’s not one to turn down unlimited power, as she said.

“That’s the first smile you’ve had since we left your apartment,” Tesla says, the humandroid’s features outlined by the bright winter sun. Kodai reaches into his jacket pocket and places a pair of Tom Browne sunglasses on.

“What are your thoughts on Hajime?” he asks as the self-driving Uberyota slows, waits for an opening in a higher airlane, and ramps up its speed almost immediately. The vehicle curves around an oddly shaped SoftBank building, under a sky pass filled with pedestrians.

From there it hugs a Nomura building, and as it passes, Kodai briefly sees the employees inside, sitting at their desks and working obediently.

The sedentary life.

“Hajime is powerful,” she says, “but he is an older model.”

“And you could overpower him, yes?”

“He was designed by Richard Hewman.”

“Who?”

“The creator of all humandroids.”

“Is he still alive?”

Tesla shrugs. “No one has seen him since his disappearance.”

“That’s right, Lorem Ipsum told me Hajime was a one-of-a-kind,” he says, thinking back to his rooftop breakfast with the head of MercSecure. “But you are newer, better, faster, stronger, are you not?”

“We have the same capacity for combat. He may know more about it, even with all the protocols I’ve uploaded along with the training and experiences I’ve had.”

“But you can match him?” Kodai asks as the aeros picks up speed. He feels the effects of gravity in his chest; the feeling subsides almost instantly. The smell of flowers meets his nostrils as a fresh floral fragrance is pumped into the air of the vehicle.

“I believe I can.”

“Good. Then you will crush him.” He grinds his fist into his free hand. And at that statement, the thought comes to him that he will thwart in his mother’s plan to use Hajime as a carrot on a stick for Ryuk.

Good, fuck her.

He remains silent, his thoughts on the future, as his vehicle nears the skyrise condo he calls home. Once they land, Kodai hardly pays attention to the pair of thugs in the lobby or the single bonsai tree on display as he follows Tesla to the elevator. As soon as they reach the top and they’re in his home, he slips into his house shoes and announces, “I need a nap.”

“Do you want a massage?”

Taken by surprise, Kodai turns to Tesla.

“You give massages?”

She tilts her head and offers him a soft smile. “I do, any type you’d like.”

Kodai gulps and slowly finds himself nodding his head. It’s been years since he had a massage, mostly because he doesn’t like people touching him, especially people he doesn’t trust.

And why do you trust her? he asks himself in his head.

With no answer, Kodai simply waves her into his bedroom.

After removing her boots, Tesla follows close behind him as he walks down a long hall to his bedroom at the very end.

The defining feature of Kodai’s bedroom is an eight by eight Rorschach ink blot above his bed. The black stain matches his sheets, also black and freshly pressed, which he has changed daily. The only other thing in his room is a sleek, gunmetal dresser across from his bed with an obligatory holoscreen above it.

“Take off your shirt,” Tesla tells him, “and lie down on your belly.”

Kodai removes his jacket, his thin black tie, and slowly unbuttons his dress shirt. He moves to the closet to hang everything, and once it is hung, he reenters the room in a white tank top. “Pants too?” he asks.

“Up to you.”

He returns from his closet moments later in a pair of boxers.

“Lie down on the bed.”

Kodai does as instructed, not sure why he’s following the humandroid’s commands but also not opposed to it. Once he’s good and comfortable with his head turned to the side, Tesla tells him to relax his arms and open them slightly.

He does so, and she quickly climbs onto his back, her thighs straddling his thighs.

Kodai feels an erection coming on and tries to will it away.

As Tesla kneads the muscles on his back, he focuses on her hands instead, noticing how much they feel like a human’s hands. Warm to the touch, soft, yet massaging his muscles firmly, Tesla keeps up her pace as a host of sensations wash over Kodai’s body.

“This is … great,” he mumbles, completely overcome by the experience. She seems to know every muscle to hit and the pressure necessary to stimulate it. Tesla moves down his spine, massaging around each bone and scratching her fingers down his back.

“You carry a lot of stress here,” she says, refocusing on his neck muscles.

“You’re right.”