Vol 1 Chapter 2 (1/2)
Chapter 2
MIXTURE
01
Adagio stringits contours
A man sipped a scotch at the counter
It was a basement bar in a hotel on the East Side of Mardock City The hotel epitomized the postwar
excesses of the city: brash, shi+ny, flourishi+ng
As the night went on customers flocked to the bar Here and there, business was discussed Big deals
—the sort you wouldn’t even hear of in the south or west parts of the city—were discussed as if they
were a new type of drug
The man listened to the noises of the joint, as expressionless as the bartender in front of his eyes
The man’s name was Dimsdale-Boiled
Right noorked for Shell His body was big, but cold-blooded
Before long, Shell-Septinos appeared in the bar and sat down next to Boiled
Shell took his lead-gray Chain Cut a lime in two and drop the
halves in, Shell ordered, and don’t forget the powder
The bartender silently chopped the lime, took a capsule in his hand, and sprinkled its contents on the
flesh of the fruit He squeezed the lilass
The poas froains It had recently started
getting popular with the East Side rich, so in this place it was actually quite pricey Drugs leaking in from
the west could actually go for almost ten times the rate in the east The Social Welfare Department had put
sos on the market, but no one liked them They didn’t have the same effect The Garden
Plaza in Central Park supplied this bar, andthere returned home with
these pills There were those who fed the,
give up drinking But whether fro actually
knehat happiness was
“What’s it like to be reborn?” Boiled asked
“Like I was in a long dream”
Shell smiled a watery smile
“Clapping—memory preservation—that’s what I’ht
eyebrow A small pin was embedded there “I attach a cord here It’s linked to my frontal lobe with
fiberoptics Fromhere I can download my memories and save them This wipes themneatly frommy mind
at the same time I have to do this once in a while, apparently, or my brain wouldn’t be able to cope with
all the inally I had the operation done to cope with the
aftereffects of A-10 surgery, but now I’ it useful in all sorts of other ways”
“Sounds useful”
“Oh, it is”A crackly laugh spilled from Shell’s lips “And when you say you’ll let them fiddle about
with your brain you get a free pass to any hospital you like Gives them invaluable clinical data, you see
You’re treated like royalty”
“And what happens to the data? I mean the stuff downloaded from your brain, not the clinical sort,”
asked Boiled
“Put it like this: are there any dentists ant their patients’ cavities after they extract them?”
“And what’s the chance the data is being copied?”
“I won’t say zero, but the odds are tiny I’d say about the sa all-in in a
poker ga at all in their hand”
“Howthe course of your life?”
“Who knows We’re talking about what happens in my dreams, after all”
Shell grinned A sgested, would be just
as sharp as the glass would be when it smashed “With my most recent memories, I’m now ready to
proceed with the deal Not a deal like the sort that’s always coher up A deal that I’m
proposing myself My memories are the chips And in order to beat any concealed card, I have you as my
ace”
Boiled nodded silently
“And, as payment, the past For most people it’s invaluable In my case it’s just worthless We’re just
talking about a josh, stuff I don’t even want to remember, stuff that leaves a bad taste in my mouth”
A low-pitched laugh leaked out of Shell Boiled said nothing
“I started life as a cheap little bookie—a punter—for OctoberCorp Then I earned my stripes as a star
gambler I had a casino entrusted to ht, and center That led to a
job cleaning money I cooked up schemes to launder their money—and accrue interest at the same time—
that they hadn’t even dreaave rookie politicians—those on their way into federal government—
the chance to enjoy theot them to pool the money from their parents’
businesses in our treasury All sorts of dirty deals”
Shell spoke in a singsong voice He was in a frighteningly good mood Shell was a man as
cli the Mardock—the Stairway to Heaven—out of the sluht to the top
“But do you think I’ to settle for that? If that’s all I achieve then how am I different from a
high-classthe toilets of the rich? Maids clean dirty toilets and take care of the beds I clean
dirty money and take care of the bets No real difference So I’ a deal To make me one of them
I’ away, completely, and become a new person
They should know that—I’ve shown it to them many times over, haven’t I? And then when they
res that I cleaned for them, they started to take me seriously Do you think that I’ve
been pointlessly discardingThey’re safely recorded and
stored in a safe place that only I know That’s ht, isn’t it,
Boiled?”
Boiled slowly nodded his head
“I’ an empty shell The contents are still to colory—
that’s what I am”
At this point Shell finally calmed down Such was the madness of Shell Who could understand the
feelings of a man who sold the memories of his own past piece by piece?
“I think that I’ you as my employer”
Boiled spoke softly Then, quietly, he took a newspaper cutting from the inner pocket of his jacket and
placed it on top of the counter
“A Mardock Scramble 09 has been proclaimed”
Shell read the article in silence He ordered a second gin, then looked at the article again Not read—
looked
“Who is she? This girl?”
“Rune-Balot A girl fromyour dreams who should have died”
“Dreams? Ah, so, the raw oing to collect
for us—it’s still alive and kicking, is that it?” Shell murmured in a voice devoid of any emotion and drank
his gin He drank away his possible past along with the lime juice and Heroic Pills Shell’s next move
came quickly
“Since when has the case been under soe?”
“The preliirl gave the Broilerhouse
soes of status fraud and attempted murder,” said Boiled
“The Life Preservation Program’s in effect Proof that Trustees—dirty little PIs—are involved Have
you looked into them?”
“I’ve made inquiries”
Shell floated a laugh and nodded The ht
Boiled was uard Shell had ever hired, and because of his
effectiveness and broad reue than his predecessors’
During the war Boiled had been part of the elite Airborne Division and had participated in the
invasion of the enemy’s land across the sea as part of the Commonwealth’s front line of troops Whereas
Shell had avoided conscription due to his mental disorder and had no experience of war So Shell was
extremely pleased with Boiled’s past as a former soldier Boiled was able to wipe away Shell’s
inferiority co been able to take part in the war and for this reason was seen by Shell as
a uished, talented man
But at this point Boiled’s face revealed a strange expression An expression Shell had not yet seen
You could have even called it a troubled expression Face the same, he spoke the PI’s name:
“Oeufcoque-Penteano”
“An unusual na the war?”
“No, well—it’s likely that the person who gave himhis name did But you couldn’t really say that he’s
from anywhere”
“You know him, do you, this PI?”
“We were on the sao”
Shell’s expression turned to one of astonisho into no further detail
“He can obtain legal clearance for all territories within a day He’s going to be exploiting his authority
as a Trustee to the absolute fullest, gathering information on us He may even have already sniffed out the
details of this deal that you’re working on”
“Or, equally, he irl’s case just so that he could get to ht?”
Shell said
“A distinct possibility I’m worried about the fact that this chatterbox of a mouse is suddenly so
silent”
“Huh, calling your old partner a mouse The partnershi+p must have really ended badly”
Shell seemed somewhat amused Boiled shook his head slowly and said, “No, he’s a very
professional mouse”
His face was serious
Shell shrugged his shoulders “I see”
He ordered a third glass of gin anda sip
“This is aram, you say? Well, if the
progra the PIs will lose their jurisdiction to interfere?”
“Indeed If the person concerned were to die or otherwise disappear, the case would close
unresolved; that would be quickest,” Boiled informed him blandly, and Shell smiled a satisfied smile at
hiin
“I’ on you And it’s fairly certain that the doctors in question aren’t keen on the possibility
that there are people other than ?”
“Sure”
“You’re the ace in my sleeve, Boiled”
Shell smiled a thin smile and rose from his seat He moved with such composure that you would never
know he had a PI on his heels His eyes hid an air of decisiveness as he stared into the air
Then Boiled said to Shell, with emphasis, “I need to hire I need money”
“Can’t you irl who’s been cooked through and is now at
death’s door in an ICU soht?”
Boiled shook his head at a surprised Shell As if he were gently pacifying him
“I need someone disposable Like your past Each time you discard your past you become sharper, like
a razor This is the same I want to be absolutely sure”
Shell esture
“Use one of our nest eggs I’ll give you the key code later I’ll be looking forward to receiving good
news”
And then, out of nowhere…
“It’s strange”
Shell became serious and looked at one of his hands
“When I was looking at the article, one of h I couldn’t
reirl on it A new Blue Diamond And yet…”
He rubbed the ring finger on his left hand,
“Was she really such a special girl that I was planning on wearing her on this finger? So special that I
wanted to turn her into an engage fancy with no particular reason
behind it?” he asked himself in a low voice Boiled couldn’t answer It wasn’t a question that anyone
could answer
“The o It’s always the thing that stresses me out
the most,” Shell said “Women try to destroy ht?”
Shell laughed as he spoke A self-h
“All it takes is a twenty-grambullet and a person will die,” Boiled whispered in a low voice
Shell nodded and laughed sharply before putting his Chalasses that
changed color with the passing of time were now a deep violet Like the color of Shell’s pain A
forgetfulness that could never be undone That sort of pain
“Sendon you”
Shell finished speaking, then disappeared
Boiled stared silently at the newspaper cutting on the counter
“Looks like we’ll be ain, Oeufcoque,” he muttered in a subdued tone, out of Shell’s earshot
≡
The Doctor had just finished the last of his work on the display when Balot entered the office with
Oeufcoque on her shoulder
“Can we put off Balot’s court appearance, do you think?” Oeufcoque asked in a surprisingly plain tone
of voice
The Doctor, taken aback, replied, “You’re joking, right, Oeufcoque? You knohat I’ve just done?
Yes, of course, I’ve just finished trans the files of her conversation with the public prosecutor—
along with the petition files—to the court secretariat We’ve just had the preliminary courtroom
proceedings over theback into the shell after it’s broken”
“But the egg’s not been fried yet”
The Doctor gave a strangled groan
“Fine So why not get the raw egg, the electronic data that’s just finished dashi+ng full-speed ahead
toward the government offices, and tell it that, oh, actually we haven’t decided how to cook you yet Try
doing that now at this late hour, eh?”
At this point the Doctor stoppedHe stared fixedly at Balot’s face
“Really? Just like that?”
I don’t believe it, his body seemed to say, as he stooped over the display to check the data that he had
just sent not a o The contents of the files were empty Pure white Not even a destination
address Right next to them was a new set of entirely different files He opened them and found the data—
that he was sure he had just sent—copied and preserved exactly It was like ic
“The abilities that your snarc gives you are truly incredible”
The Doctor rose froht at Balot
“There’s no one I’ve knoho’s been able to manipulate electricity at this level Or perhaps I
should say no one has ever existed The velocity of the electricity usually blows one’s mind In your case,
even though alh level, you’re completely unaffected and
it’s working perfectly A Still…”
Balot wouldn’t raise her eyes Her face was downcast, expressionless
“Will you explain to me if there’s any relation between the fact that, on the one hand, it’s less than
three hundred hours since your operation and you’re defying the boundaries of your threshold of
consciousness, and on the other hand you refuse to appear in court? Do you want to shut yourself away in
this hideaway—this shell—forever?”
Balot shook her head sideways In small, repeated movements And that was the extent of her answer
On her shoulder Oeufcoque looked at the Doctor with a troubled face
“She’s like a mascot, isn’t she, Oeufcoque?”
The Doctor spoke in a severe tone of voice Balot raised her eyes with a jolt But in the corner of
Balot’s field of vision Oeufcoque caled his shoulders He stood there as if to say that this was
his job, to look like a char little stuffed animal
The Doctor sighed, tired
“She’s nominated us as Trustees, with responsibility for this case She has to give the courtroom a
satisfactory account—and response—regarding what happened Have you explained this to the girl
properly? Unless we do this, we can’t take a step further, and all there is left to do is sit and wait for the
enemy to send his assassins”
At thatnoise The doorbell-like sound that signaled the arrival of an
inco data packet
The data packet he had et address unknown
The Doctor peered in at the display dubiously And with his other hand he pushed his glasses up in
surprise
–I have nobody, nowhere
The le line of text
This was Balot’s response As if to say that this was the one thing she knew for certain
“You mean that you can’t trust us?”
The Doctor’s voice was , but as if to say that at last he
understood where she was co from
Balot shook her head
Another ping
–I’m afraid
The Doctor was about to say so sound
–I don’t want to be betrayed
The unaddressed es, one by one
“By noto betray you We’ll use all our power to help solve this case That’s right,
isn’t it, Oeufcoque? Whatever dangers we come across…”
But Oeufcoque wouldn’t answer He merely stood there, face deeply troubled
“Hey, say so, will you?”
Another ping
–You were both peeping at es
The Doctor opened his mouth in surprise A further chime
–The two of you brought me back to life, then raped me
The Doctor read this with an astonished expression, then sat back down in the chair, drained of
strength
“Raped?”
Balot hung her head in sha to forcefully ie—more like
words hidden away in the depths of her heart were suddenly revealed
“When I was accepted onto the government’s research tea
sessions, and I started hts bashed into
with a deep understanding of ethics and morality”
The Doctor spoke as if he ringing out his voice
“Well, I drowned in that ocean of counseling and became completely impotent As a result, I split up
with my wife Even now, I’e of honor There
are even ti—”
“Erm, Doctor—”
Oeufcoque tried to interrupt, but the Doctor was having none of it
“Very well I’ll now give you a full account of what happened to you”
The voice noed a hint of anger, and Balot’s shoulders flinched But the Doctor was polite
through to the end You couldn’t say he was cal to
resort to more than words
“In the first case, we made it our absolute priority to save your life But there was no way of getting
you froency hospital The eneotten wind of your
whereabouts, and if you’d been in a hospital they would have come and finished you off That’s where a
quack like raft wouldn’t have been anywhere near enough
You’d havebefore your condition stabilized And that’s where my craft comes in
On this point I think we’re in agreeht?”
Balot gave a little nod The Doctor was using plain words—not the slang of whores, or the affected
language of posh princesses, but si she needed to
know
And that was good enough for Balot The Doctor didn’t notice that this was one of the reasons that
Balot was sad—it was good enough for the likes of her—he was, after all, the Doctor, and his mind was
on other things
“In the second instance, in order to help you face up to the case that’s now confronting us, we needed
to make sure you had the ability to resist Now, shall we have Oeufcoque give his testimony at this
point?”
He pointed at Oeufcoque as if to say that he wasn’t the only villain in the piece
Oeufcoque raised his hands and with noticeable reluctance carried on with the Doctor’s explanation
“All right, Doc My response We could have handed you over to the care of the public bodies in
charge of protection, but ouldn’t have been able to tell if any assassins had infiltrated them There
are those within the police forces who al as a second job And so we
dee you while you developed your oers of
resistance”
A pinging sound
–Powers of resistance?
“Yeah, well, fighting strength, as it were Learn self-defense skills, how to use a gun, that sort of—”
Another pinging sound
–No way I don’t want to become like a soldier
Oeufcoque gave a little shrug of his shoulders That was the last reply
The display was now buried in Balot’s words
The Doctor turned to the display and nile file
to be saved Balot’s eyes followed the Doctor’s actions with a quick glance She thought her words
would be deleted, but the Doctor just carried on reading them
“While you were unconscious we brushed on the memories in your brain’s outer threshold of
consciousness,” the Doctor said, face still turned to the display
“We’re not talking about tangible memories here, but rather your subconscious—we took all our
technology and planning and threw it all together, and had the coate the mix It’s one of the
protocols used with patients in a vegetative state in order to decide whether or not to euthanize them So
we looked at the results after the prescribed six hours of interrogation, and then while you were asleep
we conducted another six-hour interrogation The results were the same on both occasions” The Doctor
wasn’t shouting now He was infor a poem
“Your current body—and this situation—this is the result that you chose”
There was a short gap in the conversation, but before long there was another ping right before the
Doctor’s eyes
–I know that excuse Youfor it”
That’s what you always say
Balot stared nervously at the Doctor’s profile as she watched him read the sentence Keenly With the
same expression as when she said that she didn’t want to be betrayed Oeufcoque had placed a little paw
on the base of Balot’s neck, as if to praise her for her bravery
“That counseling…like a tsuna As if he were re
anehat he had gained and what he had lost Theof the phrase that he’d said to Balot,
everything turned topsy-turvy
An aled before the Doctor’s eyes
–I also know that you people aren’t lying
The Doctor took this, and her earlier words, and stuck them into the file he had opened As if he were
scooping up her words Then he turned back to Oeufcoque and said, “Now then, I’ll leave this bit up to
your heart, Oeufcoque I’ve been doing the uts all these years, after all We’ll use
its beat as a barometer”
His facial expression was calmbut also a little twisted
“I knohat needs to be done, but I don’t knoe should do In particular when it comes to
rebuilding the body of a fifteen-year-old girl and getting her to stand in front of a court”
A pinging sound, and,
–Rune-Balot
“Hmm That’s your name It’s been a while since we’ve called the person involved in a Scramble 09
case by their proper naive informed consent to
your doctor So, right nohat do you want to do?”
Again Balot’s head was bowed, eyes downcast
The Doctor showed no particular sign of getting impatient but sat back in his chair and looked at
Oeufcoque
“The clothes Balot just ordered online have arrived”
Oeufcoque answered in her place, meekly
The Doctor raised both hands as if to say so? Balot hesitantly tugged at the hem of the hospital robe
that she’d been wearing since she eed fromthe insulator
“And she wants to try them on and head outside For lunch And at the same time file a petition to have
her manipulated ID canceled”
The Doctor’s mouth twisted
“So you weren’t particularly hiding away, then? Why didn’t you say so?”
Balot cowered, but the Doctor was just looking to Oeufcoque for confirmation
“And I suppose you’re going with her, right? In an I’m your bulletproof armor kind of way? But take
care, though The preliood chance the enemy
will try so”
“Well, it’d be good to have an opponent she could try out her neers on In any case, she’s yet to
experiencewith Scramble 09 cases”
The Doctor shrugged his shoulders and stood up He took out a card carrier fromhis back pocket
He chose a cash card and handed it to Balot
Balot had no idea what to do
She stared at the Doctor’s face before al it fromhis hand
“The application to the Broilerhouse for your social security coone in, but it
takes a bit of tih So, in the meantime, this is your property Ask
Oeufcoque for the PIN, I don’t know it”
No iven her money in this way before Balot stared at the Doctor’s face with
trepidation The Doctor suddenly turned serious
“Indeed So Looks like this is going to be the first test of your abilities It’s certainly worth doing
before we go to the courtroo that you’ll be able to use Oeufcoque ithout
abusing him”
Balot didn’t understand the Doctor’s words She just looked at Oeufcoque, still perched on her
shoulder This mouse had listened to her heart in a way no one ever had before And with a precision that
no counselor could ever hope to s she wanted to talk about and
countless things she wanted himto understand
Right now, that was everything to Balot
Balot returned to the rooue—and opened up the packages one
by one, laying their contents out on the bed She lifted up black leather and placed it against her skin It
was a rather snug little outfit No skirt, but shorts
Oeufcoque stared at the outfit, nonplussed
“Ah…” he exclaimed, rather unenthusiastically
Balot shrugged her shoulders and showed him the next outfit This time they were normal pants, the
blouse sleeveless, and Balot indicated by gesturing that she would add arm-warmers to it
“Um, yeah… You knohat, Balot, I’ll wait in the Doctor’s rooet me when you’re
finished”
After speaking Oeufcoque jumped off the desk and walked to the door on his two feet
When he was directly below the doorknob he leapt up—quite a jump for a mouse—and turned the
knob, opening the door He landed and was about to walk out of the room when Balot pinched the
suspenders holding up his pants and hoisted himinto the air
“I’m not really one to ask for advice on fe
called a Peeping Toain…” Oeufcoque said somewhat miserably
Balot pursed her lips and closed the door, putting Oeufcoque onto the bed
She then took some clothes and ran into the bathroomwith them After a while Oeufcoque stood up and
got off the bed, and just then the bathrooestured at Oeufcoque
to stay put Her face showed unease rather than anger Like when she said she was afraid at the display on
the Doctor’s desk
“Fine, fine I’ll wait—no, stand guard—here Don’t you worry”
Balot still looked a little anxious, but she carried on and closed the bathroomdoor anyway
“You’d be able to sense as happening on this side of the door, you know You’re still very
insecure because you’re uncomfortable with your neers, I suppose Or no, maybe that’s why you’re
so anxious—it’s your neers that bring home the fact that no one is there,” Oeufcoque muttered,
gru for a while, and then Balot was staring
down at him
Balot earing a black outfit Her neckline—and just beloere exposed, and her hair hung
straight down Her hair was newly grown—regenerated by the Doctor fromthe remnants of her old hair—
so she didn’t tie her hair up or else a lot of it would have fallen out The sleeves extended to her
fingertips, covering the backs of her hands with triangular pieces of cloth, her
through holes in the fabric Underneath the shorts the stockings covered her legs perfectly, and she
staggered unsteadily in her knee-high boots toward an abruptly rising Oeufcoque, twisting her body from