What was the initial spark that set off “Violation of the TrueNet Security Act” for you?

When I found my fingers remembered the old password of my web server. I started to imagine that an ordinary computer engineer runs his program after decades.

Is it your process to write shorter work from beginning to end? Was there anything odd or unexpected about how this story evolved?

Even with short stories, I design the plot as carefully as a standard-length novel. “Violation of the TrueNet Security Act” shares a background with my novel Gene Mapper, so I only set up the drama for this short story. I enjoyed thinking the way Minami talks.

There are several worlds that Minami negotiates: TrueNet, the Internet that has grown wild, and the spaces his physical body moves through. What do you think pulls us back to reading and telling stories about negotiating these Other spaces?

Why I designed this layered world is to show how we are living in a layered world already, and some worlds have sunk. I had an account on a Japanese domestic SNS service, but that service was taken over by Twitter. My old persona was gone at that moment.

Opening the story, there was talk about zombies, and throughout the work there’s the feeling that Minami feels old and obsolete, but it ends on a brilliant renewal for Minami himself, as well as the society that he lives in. Where do you think we land with our own engagement with technology? Were you tempted to write something grittier?

Anywhere, anytime, we are living with technology. I wish to show how we ourselves stand resolutely in a technology-flooded world.

As a storyteller, I added a gritty flavor, and at the same time I was Minami. I cheered for the coming world to be genuinely exciting.

What’s next for you?

Writing a story about a designed-but-born human, and preparing the sequel to Gene Mapper.