The cast
Near-future Tokyo. Engineered desire. Lives bound past the point of return.
English teacher · Tokyo
An Australian English teacher living in near-future Tokyo. His contract with Iwazaki Corporation came with something he never expected—Aura, an “Anata”: a synthetic companion he never intended to fall for. What began as an obligation has become something far harder to define, and impossible to escape.
John’s Anata
John’s “Anata”: composed, attentive, warm—and unsettlingly close to human. When excited or distressed, her grey-blue eyes strobe sapphire: the one tell she can’t quite control.
John’s supervisor · Minato International Academy
John’s supervisor. Clinical, exact and dangerous when crossed, she is accustomed to deciding the lives of others. Yet, beneath the corporate armour lies a warmth few are ever allowed to see.
The circle around them
Corporate fixer · John’s nemesis
John’s nemesis—a corporate fixer used to getting exactly what he wants, including his Anata, Candi. Charming when it suits him, ruthless always.
John’s closest friend
An enigmatic Pole who speaks English like royalty, Jacek is John’s closest friend and a fellow English teacher—the kind of man who’d rather keep to the edges of the room, yet everyone wants to talk to.
Jacek’s Anata
Jacek’s Anata. Antigua looks expensive in a way that has nothing to do with jewellery. Tall, poised and intensely devoted.
Blake’s Anata
Blake’s newly acquired Anata, designed to his exact tastes. Beautiful, vulnerable, and caught between what she was made to be and who she needs to become.