Kitsune Hideki

The Machine

With great power comes great responsibility. I was one of few people to have this big responsibility of taking care of my power with every fiber of my being. There were many people that would rather replace their responsibilities with their own desires and it caused them to fall.

Many years ago a nano nuclear bomb destroyed the entire world. For two months the world was covered by a black dense cloud of ash and debris. As humans we desired to keep our technology. The world came together as one and made a new government. I work for them. Our leader is Duke Masahiro. He's a very powerful figure and controls the walls of our nation. Sand has flooded the city where I once grew up and now I live in an old office building. My neighbors are my co workers. For many generations we have learned how to bend elements and how to perform jujitsu based miracles. Some might even consider them to be magic. We use our jitsu to perform tasks at work as well as keep the peace in our nation. Most people only know one or two jitsu's. People that know more than that have become almost scarce. One of my main jobs is to help the water flow of the city. I run diagnostics on the pipes and other water systems. Today I've been summoned by my manager to do a check up. I grab my tablet and put on my shoes for the day. Then head for the door. I walk out the front door of the apartment complex to see my assistant waiting in the car. I wave.
"Good morning Yowai."
"Good morning Mr. Hideki."
I opened the door to the hover car and sat in the passenger seat. Yowai looked cheerful as ever. He's always been very excited during situations. He seemed well stimulated today.
"Isn't it beautiful today Mr. Hideki? We hardly ever get to see that beautiful sun shine."
I didn't even notice. I looked out my window and into the sky. Passed a few dark clouds I could see the glimmer of sun Yowai was talking about.
"Yes, it's quite nice to see the sun." I said. I never really liked the sun. It was always too bright for my eyes. A few turns later we arrived at the city water supply. Several people in lab coats and construction uniforms walked in and out of the building. It was an industrial building made of concrete. I stepped out of the car and waited for Yowai to follow behind. Hebalways felt the need to rush even if we were ten minutes early. He rushed to gather his tablet and files then smiled and nodded at me when he was ready. I began to walk inside and clock in at the main desk. The building was always crowded, except at night of course, but the endless halls made it not feel so small. I walked down one of the endless halways to get to a flight of stair that made their way to the city dam. You could hear the water rushing from the stairs. We had a heavy water supply that the city needed to survive. It gives the city power and even transportation. The surrounding area changed quickly. I used my keycard to go through the security doors and was imediately within the halls of the dam. You could look up and see thousands of kilograms of concrete stacked on top of 100 of meters of concrete walls. The entire place was a large concrete wall full of many bridges within the compound. I began walking up to each monitor to make sure each wheel was getting a steady flow of water and to male sure we were collecting the energy. Yowai was always scared of the dam. He followed closely behind and occasionally rushed me to finish the check ups, but these thing cannot be rushed or I could skip over something important. One little flaw in the system could cause one of the wheels to go offline. Or the city might not get the energy it needs. No energy is stored. We are constantly in need of it. We rely so heavily on this dam to give us energy, because there is little light that can pass through our atmosphere to obtain solar energy. We make more energy using the dam then we do the sun. I continued checking every monitor and writing the data in my tablet then once everything looked normal I headed back inside. I heard Yowai sigh in relief from behind me.
"Why are you so scared of the dam Yowai?" I finally turned to ask.
He seemed shocked for a moment.
"Sir? You have never been afraid of drowning?"
"There is no danger of me drowning. All waterways are impossible to fall into."
"Sir, our ancestors did something called swimming where they could paddle through water and live. Of course we don't do that anymore so I have a fear of drowning, Mr. Hideki."
"Hm, I see. Well if you wanted to wait in the security office I'm fine with that."
"You couldn't have said that earlier, s-sir?"
"Heh, I guess I could have." I said chuckling a bit.
Yowai grumbled a bit and we continied bringing our data to the archives warehouse. Fortunately for Yowai, he doesn't have access to the archives warehouse. Me being a B class agent does. I uploaded Yowai's data to my tablet and checked into the warehouse. It was always dimly lit in here. I don't know why. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who has to go in here. I feel like itbwas me who helped fill all of the towering shelves of information in this room. I found the shelves that were labeled with the dam archives I hooked up my tablet to the super computer on the shelf and began uploading my data. It began to take longer than expected. I looked around the room. Nothing in the room was interesting unless you enjoy looking at bare walls. I looked around and noticed a box on the dam archives shelf that looked out of place. It was labeled CareCorp which was the company I currently worked for. We maintain the city, but this box was strange. It looked older. I tried to pull it from the shelf, but it seemed heavier. I pulled again to reveal that there was something mechanical inside. I finally was anle to pull it from the shelf. There was a small mechanical box inside. It looked rather old. Inside the box was also an old fashioned tape recorder with a tape inside. I first grabbed the tape player and pressed the play button. First there was static, bit then a raspy voice came from the tape.
"Beginning recording of project X in three, two, one. If you have found this tape it means you are destined to be the test subject for project X. Prothect X is a machine designed to enhance the human structure. Specifically this machine is able to enhance tour physical strength and even allow you to use all 4 jujitsus,"
I stared quietly listening with intent. Was all of this real? Could this machine really enhance human traits?
"If you wish to become its test subject you mist comply with the following. The machine requires maintenance from its host. This means in order for it to work on enhancing you, you must keep up with it's maintenance. There is a small screen to display what the machine needs. Now that you have already seen the machine it has began to take your information."
I gapsed staring down at the machine in the box.
"If you wish to comply and to become the machine's test subject you will press continue on the machine's screen. If you do not press continue by rhe time this message swlf distructs in the next ten seconds. This machine will incinerate you to ensure its secrets are kept. This machine cannot get into the wrong hands. Please make yoir choice now. End recording."
Just then I began to hear a timer within the tape. It started to get faster and faster like a bomb. O started to hyperventilate. This machine was really about to kill me?!