Chapter Eighteen – How Will You Wipe Tomorrow?

Chapter Eighteen – How Will You Wipe Tomorrow?

“The Civic Response & Instability Surveillance and Intervention System (C.R.I.S.I.S) system was first conceived of in the late 90s by the CIA to measure the level of civil unrest in a population. The purpose being to better manipulate public perceptions and measure if and when to shift media attention so as to calm the general populace.

In later years, this same system was used by the more city-state aligned nations of North America to warn political entities to keep people calm in the face of the Antithesis threat, scarcity, and civil outcry.”

–The CRISIS and You pamphlet, 2039

***

Eric seemed to know where he was going, so I continued to follow him. The all-white corridor we were in shifted as he took a turn into a large room with walls lined with floor-to-ceiling posters in glass-fronted frames. Posters of different Samurai, most of them in cool, heroic poses. This was obviously some sort of central hub space, with a dozen corridors meeting in this one room. There was seating room in the middle and not one person sitting there. Instead, the people here were moving around with some speed, though a few stopped to gawk at me.

“The Family really is busy,” I said. There had to be a hundred people slipping through this room. Corpo sorts that looked like they wanted nothing more than to be behind a desk. There were enough credits spent on suits here to fund a small war in a third-world country.

“We are,” he said. “But don’t worry, your projects are still flagged as top-priority, even with everything else happening. In fact, they’re more important now.”

I wanted to believe him, because that would be convenient and nice, but I didn’t grow up with convenient, nice things happening to me most of the time. “Why’s that?” I asked.

Eric looked to me, then glanced around the room. “Might I ask you a favour?” he asked.

“Sure,” I said.

“There’s passive listening throughout the building. For security, obviously, but there’s a certain amount of… listening-in that happens as well. Would it be possible for you to… grant us some privacy? Nothing I have to say reflects poorly on the Family, of course, but, you know.”

“I think I can manage something like that. Or Myalis can, at any rate.”

I can. Though to avoid suspicion, I’ll merely muddle any currently active recordings. Consider yourself somewhat private.

I gestured to Eric. “Go on,” I said.

The man stared with slightly widened eyes, then nodded. “Thank you. And share my appreciation with your AI as well. Um… yes, well, onto the meat of things, right?”

“Uh-huh,” I said.

“So, the Family have poured ressources into the repair, refurbishment, and replacement of the city’s sewer system, as well as its overall maintenance. We basically strong-armed a government contract to take care of the work in exchange for a fair reimbursement later. Honestly, we’re losing a bit of money on the surface, but I think the good PR and any technology we gain from it will make this worthwhile in the long run. And it’s leading to amicable communications with several corporations throughout the city. A short and long-term gain project like this is just good business.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. But the way you’re being all cagey tells me that it’s not all good news.”

Eric rubbed at his chin. “You’re right. The Family… is kind of afraid of you.”

“What?” I asked, surprised. I mean, on one level, I got it. I had nukes on demand and didn’t shy away from shooting politicians on live TV. That left a mark, I bet. But on the other, the Family dealt with a lot of samurai. Probably hundreds of them across North America alone. Some of those were big names.

“You’ve become exceptionally popular, at least locally, and your appearances have encouraged… a certain rise in the amount of vigilantism in the area.”

I was… just me. Sure, I’d probably made waves, but nothing that big, right?

Blinking, I opened a browser on my Augs, then shifted through the massive collection of tabs I had open. Past memes, past lewds, past cute videos I was saving to send to Lucy the next time she was cranky… and finally to the Official Unofficial Samurai Ranking Site. It was a long-ass list of samurai names that you could scroll down for a while, listed by order of current popularity with green and red numbers to the side showing how far up and down someone had moved on the rankings in the last week.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The site, as far as I could tell, worked by collating polls and checking for the number of times a Samurai’s name showed up on various media sites. There was more to it, of course. Weekly popularity contests, merch sale figures, appearances on the news.

I bet that there were ways to game the list, but I also bet that most samurai didn’t give a solitary shit.

Some… yeah, I also bet that Emoscythe Mordeath Noir had this list fed directly into her brain with by-the-second updates. She seemed the sort.

Speaking of which, as I scrolled down, I saw her in the top three hundred or so.