Technological Era

Welcome to Today's Future

     It was the year 2719. Daily life had turned to a complete dependence onto everything technological; from smartphones to intelligentphones, from calls to holograms, walking from one place to another in seconds with the help of teleporting facilities, everything you could ever imagine with the simple technology that existed in the past. It was 20 times more advanced than in the year 2016. Having to do labor work is nonexistent in this time thanks to the idea of making AI (Artificial Intelligence) do all of that for us. What kind of work exists these days then? Well, workplaces mostly consists of engineers, they're on very high demand as nowadays it can sometimes be fatal when systems fail, break, or stop functioning.

     Now we turn to one of the best engineers/inventors in the world, who is Japan, or Honda Kiku as everyone calls him. He spent most of his time fixing and creating technology since very back in the day, which lead to him become the lead in robotics and such. It was normal for him to stay all day in his home (or lab), secluded from civilization, to concentrate on his first hobby (the other hobby being watching anime and reading manga). In each world meeting he had a new invention to present to the world. Most would find themselves dumbfounded, others were glad and would congratulate him, one of them being China, or Wang Yao.

     Yao was happy for Kiku when he made something new, but it only meant another factory for him. The pollution that he's been dealing with for centuries has skyrocketed, leading him to have wishes to conserve the natural beauty of his land. That included the massive bamboo forest that surrounded his house at one point, but it's merely a couple meters long now. Ironically, he was also an engineer, but he wanted to work on a project that would benefit him into fighting pollution and save what's left of his dear bamboo paradise. However, in order to create such machine, he will need the help of a person with the most skill in the art, or more like, the life of technology.

     On the dusk of a day in early Spring, Kiku was organizing items inside his very own lab near his house. He was about to close for the day when a fellow visitor teleported to the entrance of the building. That made him approach the late visit. "Forgive me, but I am about to close for-" he paused upon recognizing the face of the stranger, who was actually Yao.

"You were about to close your lab aru? Maybe I should have stopped by at another time..." he bit his lip, not really liking to be late for places.

"Please forget what I said there, is there something you needed?"

"Well, yes actually, but I want to talk to you first. I haven't seen you since the last meeting aru."

     Kiku stared at the Chinese male, not in a bad way, to figure out if he showed any signs of bad intentions. Sadly, one thing that hasn't improved was crime, instead, it rose. "Talk? That'd actually...be nice. I haven't really spent time with anyone in a while." he replied,  Yao never showed any mischief, nevertheless trouble.

"I sometimes can't understand you, Kiku!" He teased lightheartedly. "After you take off your lab cost, I'll take you somewhere aru."

     Kiku chuckled softly as he removed his white coat and set it on a convenient closet. Underneath he wore his old kimono, it was still comfortable to wear to this date. "What is this 'somewhere' you are referring to?"

"You'll see now aru."

     After a quick teleport through a teleporting station, Yao ended up taking his companion to the outskirts of his bamboo "forest", even though it wasn't really a forest anymore. Kiku blinked twice, he hasn't seen so much plantation in a long time. Even though there wasn't much left of it here.

"You still try to preserve this?" He asked, actually quite amazed.

"Yep! I've recently planted a few more roots aru."

"....This area is important to you, isn't it?"

     Yao sighed and slowly looked down at the ground, which was of grass and dirt. Of course it was important! That's where he found Kiku, and after more exploring, most of the far east asian countries. "Yeah, it is...Actually, that is kinda what I wanted to talk to you about aru."

"Oh? Please explain further then."

"Pollution is really taking over, it's making me get sick often, and I grow worried even more each day about what's left of natural and organic plantation.....and.....fauna aru."

"Ah....Yao-san, I'm sorry that your beloved pandas became extinct about 159 years ago....But also, I don't know if I'm useful in this situation."

"You are aru! I need your help on a system to fix contamination, and help restore the paradise we had back then aru." He said, he often feels nostalgia about the past when people didn't have to depend so much on technology.

Kiku then frowned lightly at Yao's farfetched request, even though it wasn't completely impossible. He took a few steps around the remaining bamboo, observing the green leaves above and the brown soil below, he took in a deep breath, then exhaled. Getting ready to tell Yao his most honest response.

"Forgive me, Yao-san, but....I can't help you."

"W-what?! Why not aru?!"

"Because I.....N-never mind, I'm sorry."

[You've just reached the end of the first part. Thank you for reading this~! I'm actually still excited about this new fanfic, so I might have inspiration to write Part 2 pretty soon. Also, hope you have a nice day! ]