Loups-Garous by Natsuhiko Kyôgoku

pain. Remember five or six years ago the phrase ‘give it your all’ was banned?”
    â€œI was reprimanded for using the phrase myself, actually,” Kunugi said. “I wasn’t deliberately saying anything mean or anything.”
    â€œThat’s what communication is. It’s lopsided. Reciprocal comprehension is a delusion. Communication is the ability to overcome this onesided way of thought by embracing the possibility of misunderstanding each other in any situation. These days, fewer people know how to misconceive things. That’s all.”
    Kunugi held his chin again.
    â€œIn any case, contrary to expectation, this analysis of the information hasn’t produced any one result. Pre-modern disciplines oriented toward understanding human behavior, such as psychology, have totally collapsed. In that sense, religion is a much more useful tool. Surveys, statistics—they’re all useless. We’ve realized too late that humans cannot be understood. That’s why there are still people who sustain primitive beliefs in the effects of trauma on character or personality.”
    â€œLike the police.”
    â€œI’m sure. That’s the impression I got from the way your superior sounded off at the conference. This data is supposed to be used by the police to ascertain extreme characters—to pick up dangerous persons. The police are the ones determining what makes someone unusual, so I’m assuming they’ll look at home environments, proclivities, medical records…”
    Shizue wondered how dangerous any of these things were, or why they would have gone unnoticed.
    Legislating this data mining is well within our vision, Ishida had made clear. Wasn’t he just saying they’d be applying this ridiculous criteria to organize and analyze every citizen?
    Race, provenance, profession, class, gender—because these distinctions had lost importance, the police decided to discriminate by educational environments and habits.
    Shizue got a little emotional as she explained this, and as expected, Kunugi just said that sounded like an exaggeration.
    â€œThis investigation has been a really hard ride.”
    â€œIt always is. But arrest rates have gone down, right? Plus, I hear that there’s a program in development that will sequester people who are genetically prone to act against society.”
    â€œI’ve heard the same.”
    â€œThis data becomes material for programs like that. Society didn’t come before humanity. Deviants definitely need to be arrested in order to support the framework, but is it right to preemptively weed out what might be deviant behavior? Isn’t that a kind of eugenics?”
    â€œI understand what you’re saying.” The policeman straightened himself. “Truth be told, I’m not comfortable with it either. But I’m not as knowledgeable about this as you, so I don’t know what exactly is wrong about it. That’s why I’m asking so many questions.”
    Then, “Hey!” Kunugi pointed over Shizue’s shoulder.
    She turned around exactly as the download completed. The drive made a short sound to signify that the job was finished and popped out a disc.
    Shizue put the disc in a hard case and put a protective cover on it. They’d been working since morning and only gotten a third of the way through. Shizue brought out another disc to continue working, but Kunugi stopped her.
    â€œThis is good for today.”
    â€œWe’ve got a lot of work left. If we have until five o’clock I can probably manage another two or three discs.”
    â€œIt’s not that. I have to deliver this disc to police headquarters by five. In that ugly government-issued solar car you see out there, driving from here to there will take exactly thirty-eight minutes. Add to that all the paperwork, and I have to leave here in twenty minutes. That’s not enough time to do another