Steam and Heat

Chapter 1- Downtown Crime

Kirishima left his keys on the counter and stepped in the garage, tonight the town had been clouded by a fog from the recent rains, his skin felt damp and his hair was slightly falling down from the humidity; but who cares? He's gonna be home soon and take a good shower before bed. He took off his jacket and left it over a table in the garage.

"Denki, this place is a mess..." he called as he looked at the numerous tools scattered around the floor, there were even some shoe stains around the place, wet as the ground outside the place, "Were you planning on leaving everything like this for tomorrow?" he sighed as he crouched down to grab a plier from the ground.

But as he picked it up, he saw a pipe stained with something dark, but it was on the other side of a car that they were working on in the garage, so he could barely see it. He stood up, placed the plier in the toolbox and rounded the car to take a closer look at the pipe. Besides it were many little dark droplets, it could be oil, he couldn't tell because of the dim blue light that was behind him; the only light turned on in the whole place.

"Denki?" he called out, wondering why there was split oil over the pipe, the floor he could understand but...

It was when he looked up a little, that he found from where the dark stains were coming from.

Just a little further from the pipe was a big pool of darkness, and it all came from his friend. The blond was slumped against the brick wall, his skin pale as paper and his sight lost in the ceiling, he had a big bruise across his forehead that had caved in a little in his skull; his mouth was slightly open with a little dried up drool around it.

Kirishima's feet went ice cold, his ears pitched an annoying and hurting sound, his heart tightened around his throat and his knees almost gave out before the sight.

Kaminari Denki was dead.

...

The year was 2270, machines were all over the world; in every corner and in every store you would find machines, but maybe not the way people envisioned them hundreds of years before. Instead of taking a more simplistic and professional look, machines these days looked messy, worked heavy on oil and gasoline, the word steampunk would give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Climate change due to all the dioxide was a big problem, but thankfully we came up with machines that could purify the air almost as good as forests, which sadly are a sad old legend these days.

It is common to see people with machine limbs, heck, some even had full bodies made of machinery. You could even make some special changes to these, for example: turn your arm into a fire thrower! Of course, you'd need a special permission for this kind of dangerous thing, but it's possible!

Kirishima Eijiro was one of the few people that know how to handle modern machinery: cars, robots, machines, body adaptations- everything! In fact, he could even call himself an expert; but he would never give himself such a high term. People all over the district came to him because of his reputation, his career really took a high step when he built the new body for the popular brawler Crimson Riot.

He really couldn't be happier with his life, so that's why...

That must be why it went downhill all of a sudden...

He was barely able to sleep that night, every time he closed his eyes, memories came flooding back in. He had called 911 and soon the police and the paramedics came to the place. He felt empty, cold... His fingers hovered over his phone, the bright light of the screen was the only light in his room at the moment.

"Engineer Kaminari Denki found dead at local workshop 'Red Engines' , he was found in the early night by the boss of the place."