ALL NOVEL How?
When I said that, I realized I had stood up and was screaming. I shut up and sat down again, looking at the pod with the orange glass containing... a baby inside.
"Hanako-san, please tell me how this is possible? What you told me must have happened more than 40 years ago, but the state...of the baby barely seems to be 7 months old. Can you tell me what happened after that? Did he know who you were when...you were together?"
I asked Hanako, still unable to believe what she had told me. How could she have had relations with that rabid dog Johnny Silverhand? That man had assaulted our base in Night City several times; for God's sake, he even detonated a nuclear bomb, killing thousands of Arasaka workers. And now I find out that Saburo's favorite daughter had intimate relations with that man and even created a new life.
Affirming, Hanako continued speaking.
"When I heard what the blonde woman said, I wanted to come out from where I was hiding and say that it was a lie. But was it?
I didn't know. I was always good at moving around the net, but I never looked for our family's secrets. When I heard John answer her, saying that he wished he could kill every single member of the Arasaka family himself, it broke my heart. It was the first time in my life I had ever fallen in love with someone. If he knew who I was, would he kill me?
I wanted to shout that we were not that bad, that I had never done anything wrong or hurt anyone.
But remembering my actions... I also remembered where I grew up, in a safe, warm, beautiful place with people at my service and protection taking care of me 24/7, even people going so far as to give their lives for me. I realized that while I had done nothing wrong, I was also complicit in my family's actions.
I remembered your teachings, especially Chugi, or responsibility.
Having lived my life with all those wonderful deeds, it also means that the sins belong to me. After all, the responsibility of having lived my life in the light makes me also responsible for its shadows and its consequences of everything that it derives from, doesn't it, Musashi-san?"
When Hanako told me that, I didn't know what to answer. Partly, I was glad that my conversations with little Hanako had marked her so much, as to remember them in her bad moments. But another part of me wanted to tell her that she didn't have to think like that, that just Saburo, her half-brother Kei who is no longer here, even me—we have done all those bad things so that she doesn't have to feel guilt or responsibility. For us, it seemed good to sacrifice our souls, as long as a part of them, in this case, Hanako herself, was free, without ties, without remorse or guilt. That's why Saburo didn't send for her when she escaped. If Hanako had decided not to return, to relegate the Arasaka surname and be free and happy, then Saburo would have let her go.
Seeing me in my thoughts, Hanako responded to the question I had asked her.
"No, he didn't know my name. He asked me after the attempted robbery, but I stuttered and just said Hana. To answer you about... my baby,"
Hanako said while looking affectionately at what seemed like a sort of portable artificial incubator where the baby was floating.
"When I finished listening to the conversation John had with what I later learned was Altiera Cunningham, I returned to where I had left the AV, crying because of what I had heard. I was lucky it was still there, and I returned to Japan without saying anything to anyone. I don't know if John looked for me, if he suffered because I left, or maybe he was indifferent. I just wanted to remember John for the 7 wonderful days we spent together before learning of his deep hatred towards Arasaka and the darkness of my family.
I apologized to my father. From then on, it's the story you know. Father just nodded his head and nothing more. For me, everything changed when two weeks passed, and I felt weak. Although I slept more, I was vomiting in the mornings, alerting my maids. It took me a short time to realize what all these things meant: I was pregnant by a random man at the time, the one I had a relationship with in my only moment of freedom I have ever had in life.
When I found out, I didn't know what to do. Do I tell anyone? Do I tell my father? I answered all those questions with a no. I knew what would happen if I told them what had occurred. I could put the unborn child in danger, just because of what some people within the corporation itself might think of a bastard, fatherless child of Saburo Arasaka's daughter. So I decided not to tell anyone. Besides, I wanted my son to live on his own terms, free from the interference of others, out of the cold and empty corporate life. Without the shadow of Arasaka tormenting him. As I would have liked to live my life."
Hanako interrupted her story as she closed her eyes, as she did when she decided to tell me all this. But when she opened them, it was different. Now, when she opened them, she looked like another person, as if the face she had before was a mask. It reminded me of the face Saburo made when he acted as the head of the Arasaka family and corporation—cold, with no compassion or empathy, just sharp and icy eyes.
"Also, after I found out I was pregnant, I thought about what to do with my life, what could happen to my child. Then I remembered again your teachings, Musashi-San, or maybe Sensei at this point. So I came up with a plan: I looked for a doctor inside Arasaka who could remove my fertilized embryo from my uterus, put it in a state of stasis, keep it frozen until I could prepare more, so that it could be born safely, so that it could grow happily, also that it could be free, without anyone knowing that it exists. When the doctor finished the whole process, he put my son, who was just a zygote, in a mobile refrigerant device, and... I hacked the doctor. I killed him, so that no one would know about my secrets."
"Hanako-Sama, you... killed an innocent doctor!" I said, surprised while Hanako coldly admitted that she had killed a person.
"Surprised, Musashi-san? Tell me, why are you surprised? You guys have been doing much worse things than killing a supposedly 'innocent doctor.' So tell me, Musashi-san, why are you so surprised?"
Hanako said to me with cold eyes, indifferent to my words of surprise and reproach at her admission of having killed someone. She didn't mind having killed?
"You know, Musashi-san, when I found out I was pregnant, it was also when I looked up a little—just a little—the things that our family had been doing. I was surprised. I understood why so many people hate us. Since I had decided to accept the responsibilities of the two faces that being an Arasaka means, I could also act like one, right? So no, Musashi, responding to your expression, I don't care what you think about me, nor about the plans that my father, my older brother Kei, and you had created, about the future you wanted for me. I decided to live as an Arasaka, with all the implications that means, both good and bad."
When did she change so much? Saburo, old friend, I think we have underestimated your daughter.
"As for the doctor, before I called any doctor, I looked for one who had a record, who was corrupt or a traitor within the corporation. I haven't changed as much as you think, Musashi. I just lost my innocence and ignorance, and now I have something more important than myself to protect. I will do anything to protect him. Even if I have to kill, I will kill. If I have to lie, I will lie. I will do whatever I have to do to make my child live."
When she finished her sentence, she stared into my eyes with a fierce look, almost as if she were threatening me. When I saw that, I only see an ōkami fiercely protecting her pup. I could only smile with pride to see Hanako's fierce and determined look of protecting her baby.