The Sound Empress: Chapter 5
Brief synopsis: Kari manages to find a unique can, that, when played backwards, plays a recruitment message for the KOF. Nari suggests for Kari to adopt a persona and try to join the force in Yamato.
The collection of data is not an easy task. Okay, it’s easy in principle: just go to a vending machine, then find an item that looks interesting, pay for it, drink the product, take the emptied product back home, prepare it to be played, then play it back.
But in practice it isn’t so simple. The main thing is to get the money needed to purchase said product. Usually, the products in that vending machine go for 1000 yen, at the cheapest. I guess this was a way to promote healthier habits, such as having water, instead of a fizzy drink chock full of calories that you can access quite readily in public. Or, basically force you to go to a restaurant, which requires you to order something in addition to a drink.
All of this proved to put a strain on my already light coffers. While yes the business I own does run well, most of the money I get goes back into the business, either to buy more food for the pets that I am taking care of, or to advertise my business. Relatively little gets put away into my savings. As a result, I have had to carefully consider when I would go get stuff from the sound dispenser machine.
Over this past week, I only got two more products. Now, one of them was a repeat of the last message, which was to take advantage of my elders. Yeah, I liked that drink a lot. The second drink came from a black bottle, which had a bunch of bubbles that looked like whole notes. The drink itself was quite an underwhelming affair, as it had no taste whatsoever. This bottle was quite a bit larger than the other cans I’ve had, so maybe the message was a longer one. I placed the bottle on the phonograph, after doing the usual preparatory steps. When I played it, it was clear something was recorded on. But no human language could be deciphered from it.
“Well, this seems corrupt,” I said.
Normally, corruption only occurs in government and digital data. But to see this on an analog recording? This was quite unprecedented. But then, I got an idea. I recalled that some songs have a hidden meaning when you play a record in the opposite direction. I’ve done this on a number of records, and I have heard satanic messages on some of them. On most of them, however, it’s undecipherable.
“Well, maybe, I can try the same idea on this. I could flip the polarity of the motor inside the phonograph, which will cause the rod to rotate in the opposite direction. Then, I could play the cylinder from bottom to top, and see what the message is.”
I decided to go about switching the polarity. First, I had to switch the power off, and disconnect it from the mains. It would not be nice if I got an electric shock. Next, I flipped the machine upside down, revealing two screws. I looked in one of the drawers which contains a bunch of tools that I use to maintain my equipment, including tape cleaners, screwdrivers, rubber belts, and other knickknacks.
“Looks like the screws are Phillips head screws,” I said as I dug in the drawer. I didn’t really keep the drawers organized. “I really should clean these drawers out at some point.”
Eventually I found the right screwdriver to open up the phonograph. I unscrewed the two screws, which allowed me to take the bottom off. Next, I looked for the motor, which has two wires going into it, supplying it with power. I took great care while looking for the appropriate components, as I wanted to avoid electric shock. After I found the motor, I undid the wires and then switched the terminals that the wires were connected to.
“And that should do it. Now the motor should run in the opposite direction, which will allow me to play the bottle backwards.”
Now, I put the bottom back on, the deed now done. Using the same screwdriver as I used to take the screws off, I put the screws back on.
It was now the moment of truth, to test whether the device would still work, or if the device would explode and catch on fire, which can occur when priority is reversed. I connected the power cable of the phonograph to the mains again, giving the device power again. I then flicked the power switch on the phonograph to the on position. There was a bit of hesitation from the device.
“Please don’t tell me…” I was worried that I just fried the motor.
And then, the mounting rod started to rotate, in the opposite direction.
“Yes!” I exclaimed, jumping up and down as if I was on a trampoline. Now, to try the bottle again. I turned the phonograph off, and then I mounted the bottle onto the rod. I placed the needle on the bottle, and then I waited for the message. There was a bit of hiss on this bottle, which I did not experience from the cans I played. But then a voice could be distinctly heard:
“If you are looking for a new Japan, a Japan that has a much better foundation in history, and a strong leader that can make Japan a world superpower, join the Korean Origin Force! There are plenty of recruitment offices throughout Japan. Join today!”
I began to question myself. If there are many offices that are doing recruitment, why haven’t I seen any of them?
I wrote the message that was recorded on the bottle down on a piece of paper. I guess the next thing I will need to do would be to look for these offices, and maybe become part of the force myself, so that I could join their ranks, and then sabotage them from within.
No, that would be too obvious. If they see me as I am, then they will get quite suspicious of me, and then potentially try to kill me. I will need to adopt some sort of pseudonym, and change my appearance. Then, the group won’t bat an eye, and then I could learn more about the group. But first, I should relay the information to my friend. I went into the living room and picked up my phone to call Nari. I got no response the first time I called her. I tried again, and this time I got a voice:
“Hey Kari. How is the search for information going,” questioned Nari.
“Hi Nari. The search is quite slow, mainly due to the prohibitive cost of the drinks in the vending machine. Luckily I did get a list of locations of the vending machines, and found one that’s closer to my house. I also have a location that is close to your house, in the case that the search would be more conducive when two people are working on the same problem.”
I took a breath, then continued: “This week I got two new products from the dispenser. The first one told me to ‘take full advantage of my elders’, because they won’t be around forever.”
“Uh huh. That seems quite generic.”
“Yes. That’s what I had thought.”
“What did the other product say?”
“The second product was a bit more involved,” I stated, “as the message that it contained did not just come out by playing it in the usual fashion. I had to play it backwards in order to get a coherent message. When I did that I got a piece of propaganda from the Korean Origin Force, stating that they stand for a strong Japan with strong historical roots. There are also plenty of recruitment offices in Japan where one could join the force. But I don’t recall seeing any of these in our travels.”
“You may not have seen one, but I have seen some in my travels as a courier. The closest one to you would be in the nearby town of Yamato.”
There was a disconnect in the call. Nari then called me back a few minutes later.
“Sorry Nari, there was a brief outage in phone service here. Did you get my last message?”
“About the nearest place being in Yamato? Yep, I got that.”
I questioned her about the fact that I had to play the product backwards to hear the intended message, and whether that was a normal thing for the government to do.
“From Nashi, one of the connections that I know of in the government: The government will occasionally use codes in their communications in war times to prevent the message from being intercepted. These codes include, but are not limited to, recording the speech backwards, putting pauses in words, and manipulating the sound to basically make it very difficult for other people to understand, unless they can figure out a transform into a normal voice. As for communicating in peace times, this is unheard of; all communications are done with no codes.”
“So this would tell me two things: one, that the sound dispenser machines can carry other news besides official news from the government, and two, the Korean Origin Force is trying to infiltrate into this as well.”
Nari was silent for a moment.
“Hello?” I said, to see if Nari was still there.
“Yeah, I was just thinking for a moment there. But you’re exactly right. I did some research into the sound dispenser company, and apparently any person can build a drink formulation and have a message recorded onto a bottle, provided they can pay a hefty fee.”
“Cool. I was thinking that my next step would be to go to one of the recruitment offices and try to join it under an alias, so that the organizers of the group wouldn’t get suspicious of my actions. That way, I can learn more about them, and maybe try to figure out where the group is headquartered.”
“That sounds like a good idea, but you will need to come up with a believable name. Something that’s Korean will do nicely.”
“How about the name of the leader of the group, Buson-min Park?”
“No, that would be too obvious. You need a name that a person on the Korean Peninsula would have.”
I pondered for a moment.
“How about Mun?”
“Just Mun? That could potentially work, although most names are at least two syllables.”
“Ok, just to be safe I’ll do Jung Moon.”
“Yes, that could work. Make sure you practice signing under that name, and ensure that your new signature doesn't have any styling that you would personally use for your name. I’d also recommend getting clothes that are more masculine. One observation I was told is that the majority of people who join the force are men.”
“Will do. Thanks!”
I hung up after I thanked Nari for the advice. It would be another couple of days for me to prepare for this. First, I took a sheet of paper and began to write Jung Moon in cursive, similar to how I write my own name when I sign checks and applications. Then I slowly changed it, making it more compact, and then making the loop of the g larger in such a way as to keep the height the same as before. I also made the end of the n curl more. After I wrote this name until I got bored of writing the same thing over and over, I finally got something that I was satisfied with.
Signature, check. Now, I would need to get some clothes and get into Jung’s character. I would have to think: How would Jung behave? What would his likes and dislikes be? And can I stay in character for long enough that people would believe me?
The longevity thing is the key. In acting you are usually in character for a few hours, at most. Here, I would have to be in character for much longer. Potentially, for a very long time, on the order of months or years.
“This should be worthy of an award if I can pull this off,” I said to myself.