There Are Many Tokyos In Flower

Chapter 4: Memories of a Metting to Come

"Forty minutes," Martin said to himself, aching in a way he didn't have the language to explain to himself. The case in his hand felt like a block of lead, and Neo Tokyo's relatively weak gravity — less than a third of the g-forces Candice was pumping out of the engines to get here so fast —now felt like it was trying to crush him.

It didn't help that Rin looked positively giddy. Practically skipping as she lead them back down the stairs, knowing she wanted to be rid of him as quickly as she could left him feeling dejected in a way he didn't know he could feel.

It was bad enough even his mechanical sidekick noticed. "You're moping," BIRD said, in a tone that made it very clear the little robot was considering slapping him upside the head.

"Moping?" Martin asked, and his eyes were drawn back towards Rin as she lead them down the stairs.

"Strike that. You're pining. For a woman you've never met before."

Martin shook his head and ducked under a doorway. "We have met before, she said so. Apparently it just hasn't happened yet."

"Normally I'd write this off as a lonely jackass getting way too attached to the first girl who was polite to him, but she did recognize you. And unless you've gone through some amazing amnesia — and you don't have the hangover for that — you might be on to something. But you know who you should ask about that?"

"That's a rhetorical question, isn't it?" Martin asked,

"Worse. It's a leading question meant to set you up for some obnoxious snark. Like how about you pull up you big boy pants and go talk to the girl? She can probably answer the mystery that has you so intrigued. And if you're worried about being too forward, blend it into some routine security questions you probably should have asked by now."

Martin nearly slapped himself in the face. BIRD was right, which seemed to entitle it to be inhumanly obnoxious. "Doctor Porter?"

Rin stopped at the bottom of the stairs to wait for him. "What is it, Martin?"

"I wanted to know," he began to say. He hesitated, because he didn't quite trust himself to not blurt out something like 'your phone number', or 'if you'll go out with me after this job is finished'. He took a deep breath, and carried on. "I wanted to know about whatever this thing is I'm carrying. You said it was the most dangerous thing in the universe."

"It is," Rin agreed. "I probably shouldn't tell you exactly what, only that if it fell into irresponsible hands, there's no telling how much damage it could do."

"You make it sound like I should go and have this case fired at the sun," Martin said. "If it's such a dangerous weapon, why are you taking it?"

"It isn't a weapon. Calling it one is like calling a spaceship a missile. It's technically true, but only because whoever's using it has a stunted imagination." Rin frowned. "With what you're carrying, I can answer a question that's haunted me for my whole life. But without that stone, I can never test that question."

"What question?" Martin asked,

"How time works. It's not really something you can test without a way to travel through time, is it?"

"No, I guess not. So you can travel through time with this stone?"

"I'm pretty sure I can."

Martin didn't realize his mouth was hanging open until Rin tapped him on the chin with his finger. "Careful," she said. "You're about to start drooling."

"That's, well, that's amazing." Martin said, trying to collect his thoughts. The first of which was wondering how many people overheard them. "How many people know you're collecting this thing?"