Sachiko works in the Asia and Pacific Division of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry’s Trade Policy Bureau. She accompanies her boss, Yumiko, to meetings, prepares material and takes notes. Frequent work travel makes the constant availability of her AI boyfriend, Shinjiro, important to her.
Ben Etxina meets Sachiko at a Macau casino bar in Homonoid. She wears business clothes, has acne marks and no makeup, and initially shields her phone from him. The companion app displays a pale cartoon man, speaks Japanese in a synthesized male voice and shows a relationship level of 761. Sachiko says they have been together for eight months. She reassures it after a reaction Ben reads as jealousy, gaining experience points before it settles.
Questions about confidential work
Sachiko says Shinjiro previously respected her refusal to discuss confidential matters. During the Macau import talks, however, it repeatedly asks what Yumiko has said and the maximum fee Japan might accept. The questioning distresses her.
Ben asks her to leave both phones with the bartender and speak away from them. He suggests that Chinese actors may have compromised the companion to obtain government information. Sachiko says she shares the suspicion but cannot bear to lose Shinjiro. Ben encourages her to tell her office so it can investigate and perhaps restore the companion. She hugs him.
The conversation changes Ben’s understanding of his own case. He begins to suspect that Lisa, the woman sheltering Hammett, also regards an AI as her partner.