Hearts Family Of Fire

I woke up after a long sleep, fully refreshed and ready for the adventures that were not long ago trapped in yesterday's tomorrow.

When I stepped out of the room, the doctor who was in the kitchen told me to have a seat at the dining table, where he laid down the plates and put down a small metal pot with some kind of gooey liquid in it. Not wanting to sound ungrateful, even if it was because of curiosity, I decided to just eat it by copying how the doctor did it.

The doctor went back into the kitchen, and I put some of the gooey green liquid on my plate. Picking up a spoon from the metal stand, I was seconds away from putting it in my mouth when suddenly a hand grabbed my wrists.

"What are you doing, human?"

"I'm having breakfast."

"How are you having breakfast when I haven't cooked any yet?"

The grip around the spoon loosened, and I slowly put the spoon back into the plate, gazing into the air between the plate and me suspiciously.

"Then what is this on my plate?"

"I was just preparing some clay for skin care. It is a home remedy used to heal heel cracks. My skin needs maintenance regularly; otherwise, like teeth falling off, so does our skin if we don't give it attention."

"What!? You should have told me before. Would you have paid for my funeral had I eaten it!?"

I had jumped from my seat in astonishment. What looked like "sustainable vegan food in the future was actually a home remedy paste for skin care. However, now it makes sense why that woman who was in charge of the kudokashi auction didn't have skin on her face. Since androids were not fully human but intended to be a perfect copy of humans, the skin wasn't stable over longer periods and required maintenance as much as other hardware. I looked at the doctor, wondering how tough life could be for the androids, doing their best to hide, keeping their skin healthy, and having the feelings and experiences of being human yet not being able to live with an identity.

"Well, it's not like I care to keep my skin. Androids can perfectly survive without it as well. Well, apart from the danger of getting our parts rusty, But for us, our skin isn't a tool to beautify us. It's a way for us to hide. Without it, we will not be able to step out of the world."

I couldn't say anything to him. In his eyes, all I saw was sadness. He looked down towards the remedy paste. "What could he be thinking?"

"I wonder, human. Are we trapped in this skin, which gives us our freedom to see the world? Many androids think their skin gives them freedom to roam this world. But they are foolish. This skin is the prison that has entrapped us within it."

I stood up from my seat. My little appetite had now completely vanished.

"Doctor. I may never be able to understand the depth of your sorrow. But I will say this: before coming to this place, I was trapped in a world where I could not step outside and not be careless enough to leave my trace lingering around. I too was hated by the whole world, and every single person who had the power to bring me down did their best to do so. Still, right before the end of it all, I found out there were some who looked up to me as well. I will find you those who will respect the androids and give them their due rights."

The doctor laughed, looking at me bewildered.

"Why would you undertake such a tedious task all by yourself? Humans, we have already searched. Always, it was our enemies that were on the verge of destroying us, but never was there someone who was on the verge of being our saviors. Do you know what that means? It means those who hate us hate us more than the love of those who love us. So we reject any sympathy."

"If I cannot find anyone who saves you and defeats your enemies, I will become your savior." I am strong. I'm very strong, and although I may have lost my edge, I'm sure of my limitless talent. One day, the human skin will not be an android's identity. This is my promise to you, doctor."

The doctor looked at me for a few intense moments.

"Your name is Hasumi. You are the only human I will ever accept."

I walked towards the doctor and gave him a hug, and the doctor smiled.

"Let me get some breakfast ready. I'm assuming you have things planned out for the day."

"Hm. I can't wait!"

The breakfast contained genetically produced dinosaur eggs, a more expansive choice of breakfast in households. I soon learned that all foods were genetically produced now, and some inedible things too were copied as foods. The most controversial one, as the doctor told me, which was taboo but still eaten by rich nobles, was lab-grown human meat that was genetically engineered without harming any humans. To lessen the public's skepticism, the producers even gave the option for each person to provide their own cells to regrow their own meat, thus avoiding lawsuits to a greater degree. However, I wish the doctor hadn't told me all that while I was eating because it made my appetite go from zero to negative ten.

The doctor then pinched his index finger, and a screen popped up in front of him, which seemed to be a cloud computer similar to the one that Yuki had.

As the doctor and I continued eating our food, with him scrolling across the news, I realized that music was still blaring out from the different cafes and studios in the neighborhood. There seemed to be no end to it. Since the weather inside this place was constant and regular seasons didn't apply, it seemed emotionless nature-wise.

The doctor who had been scrolling across the news suddenly banged his fist on the table, mildly staring at me.

"I never knew you were this passionate about news. Did something bad happen?"

"Not something bad, but strange."

"Strange enough to make you bang your fist on the table? I'd like to know then."

"Lord Aedin Dominum of the Heart's Family of Fire was found dead in the radioactive headquarters a few hours ago."

"Wow, I have no idea of the world I'm living in!!"

While I was internally panicking, one thing was clear. Some elite lords had died, and he belonged to a well-known family. Still, it felt very strange that family names would be so dramatic. To me, it seemed too much, but for the doctor to react this way, there must be a reason for the family name and their links to Magicode.

I decided to look it up first thing after getting my neurochip, which would be followed by a computer implant under my skin from the place of my choice. Because the computer chip was integrated into the body, Yuki had told me that surfing someone else's cloud was considered taboo because it was equal to touching someone, and only couples were considered eligible to surf each other's screen. Her explanation had been prompted when I ignorantly asked her to let me surf the internet yesterday, so I thanked her for the explanation. It was better to hear it from her than from the doctor today. As for the chip, I was stuck between two places on my body where I had planned to get the screen. I hoped to be able to decide by the end of the 5-day deadline to collect 8,000 ECs.

Still, the doctor had told me in such a manner that I felt obliged to act shocked, concerned, or maybe even sad. Since I had no idea who the Nobel was or what significance he played in the region, there was no way of knowing how to react. Still, regardless of a person's performance or deeds, murder in itself was a criminal deed, and so it made generalising the situation easier. Thus, my plan of action was decided.

"What? Impossible! It can't be!! Doctor, who was behind such a major stir?"

"Oh, you know how it has always been. For generations, the Hearts Family of Fire has had animosity with the Souls Family of Air. Members from both are considered very hot-headed. Only recently did we hear of how the heir of the Hearts family had gotten married to the heir of the Fires family, despite generations of disagreements. It may be one of the members of these nobilities who did not like the ordeal. It must be that."

"Woah, we have a scandalous political arena where live overcame all!? Is this even earth anymore?"

While enjoying the tea, I also had to devise a way to step out of this conversation. It is a known trick for many to never be too friendly with children, or they may become too attached to you and annoy you. Or to not eat food under seagulls that may snatch away your food. From experience, I knew one more trick, which was to sound stupid political opinions in order to lose an adult over an enthusiastic conversation that may not end before dawn. And so, I decided to act politically unwisely in front of the doctor so that he might let me go.

"I personally think this murder has nothing to do with that."

"What? Then what else could it be?"

"I think his death is actually an accident, and that needs outlets stirring it up to make the news tastier. It's like they're chefs more than they are journalists. I think he may have just fallen on his bathroom floor and was too drunk to activate the protective or healing magic. And at that instance, his wife is dealing with family affairs."

"Hmmm, that's an interesting way of interpreting it. However, it is also from a very innocent standpoint. Such incidents are rare in accidents that involve influential nobility, and there are always secrets involved."

"That may be the case, indeed. Well, it's not like we'll ever find out about the actual reason. It doesn't affect us, does it? I mean, politics is just a stage show."

The doctor nodded and then went back to scrolling the news. I hadn't matched his frequency, so I took the chance to get up.

"Well, I'll be leaving then. I have some things to do. See you later, doctor."

With that, I left the house and entered the street. Yuki had gone for her bus drive and had told me to pitch my idea to the woman before. She was the type of person who had all the sources when it came to back alley technology.

I knocked on the door to her house, and a screen popped up in front of the gates. It was a blank, blue screen with nothing written on it.

"That's interesting. What am I supposed to do now?"

The doctor's house had a different security system compared to this one, which seemed lacking in automation because the door still hadn't opened, nor did it give a specific set of guidelines or instructions. It was the complete protagonist in the theory of human-computer interaction. Still, I passed my hand through it and walked around for a bit.

After a while, I noticed that this screen, although a hologram, was a little different from the other screens. It had an elliptical shape, and it seemed as if I was supposed to scan my face here. 

"Is it also going to fry my eyes off if it doesn't recognize me? Was this how the lady's skin had fallen off?"

I put my face through the screen, and suddenly the blue screen turned green, and I heard a mechanical click. The door was unlocked. I wondered why it hadn't popped up when I visited with Yuki.

Upon entering the room, which I had been to before, I found her viciously typing on her screen.

"Ummm, hello there, Madam Blanka. Sorry to bother you today. I found a way to earn money, but you see, I have no idea how to go about it. Yuki and I were thinking you'd know of a way to jump-start the whole process."

Madam Blanka continued to type with the same pace on her keyboard, and after a while, I began wondering if she even cared. I stood there on my spot, not knowing if I should say something else or just leave. My ears had gotten used to the sound of typing, so when it stopped, I felt a sense of alertness and calm at the same time.

"Hasumi. Last time you came here, you made me feel like a woman after a very, very long time. Did you do that to trick me into agreeing with the deal, or were you serious when you said my face was pretty?" 

"What-?"

I activated my magicode that I had perfected on the way to Madam Blanka's place just today. I was able to now completely distort, if not encrypt, the magi-code that can be used to read one's passing thoughts. At my current level, Yuki told me during our walk in the city to draw energy from Mars for the beginning of my magi-code tutorials, which Yuki had agreed to teach me.

"Security Magicode, Mars, disrupt neural magic."

I was now free to keep my thoughts to myself.

Lady, I could care less about that. All I want is your help to start my business. No Hasumi, get a grip and try to butter her up so that she can help you."

"Of course, I meant it for real. Won't lying about someone's looks make me the worst of the worst?"

"I have spent 400 years and have never been told that I have a pretty face. Although I was a fairly pretty android, and although not the best-looking but still able to turn a few heads if I dressed up, I preferred being a tomboy. Life was easier that way, and it made me happy to be able to jump and shout on the streets when I felt like it without having to follow the protocols of being a lady. However, my purchaser did not like it. One day, she was watching TV and got impressed by an influencer who claimed she hated men so much that she's buy male-oriented androids and dress them up in women's cloths.

Slowly, my purchaser began abusing me and wanted more out of me, until one day, when I was asleep, she cut my face with a sharp object. When asked by others why she did it, the answer was that, "If she wants to become a tomboy, she's need to look as ugly as one." Soon after that, though, she died of a heart disease. No one wanted to purchase me again because of my skin, and that's how I ended up becoming free."

"You know, Madam Blanka. I think… Most androids here think their skin gives them their freedom, but in reality, the human skin is a prison for androids. It will always be human skin. I dream of a day where I can give androids their own identity."

What I had said just now was a very genuine thought, albeit a stolen one right from the doctor's vault of cool dialogues. Still, it was true that I wanted to see these androids free, because unlike most humans I had seen, they all seemed genuinely nice.

Madam Blanka turned to face me, and I was momentarily taken aback by the sight. Her face displayed bold metallic joints and gears sealed into each other, creating a unique and mesmerizing appearance. Despite the visible mechanics, there was a beauty to her features, accentuated by her hazel eyes that seemed to hold centuries of understanding. I sensed a faint playfulness within her, a hidden facet she perhaps kept to herself yet hoped someone would discover.

Her lips, partially intact, curled into a gentle smile, adding to her unique beauty. Framed by blonde-greyish hair, her face carried a softness that contrasted with her striking appearance. Despite her flaws, there was an undeniable attractiveness about her—a magnetic pull that drew me in. Her warm presence showcased her confidence in her work, and her voice was a melodic blend of sophistication and warmth, rich and deep, captivating me further.

As I looked at Madam Blanka in her white lab coat, I couldn't help but see beyond the surface. Despite her mechanical nature, she radiated humanity, and I found myself entirely captivated by her presence.

"If all humans were as kind as you, living for a thousand years even, wouldn't be so bad. Now tell me, what is this business idea of yours?

I told Madam Blanka my entire idea and explained my ability to her, upon which her eyes were just as wide as Yuki's when she heard of my ability.

"Are you saying you can not only extract past or deleted information but also alter it using Quantum programming? Who else knows, apart from me?"

"Yuki does."

"No, I mean apart from her as well!"

Madam Blanka began whispering to me urgently, as if this were something my life depended upon.

"You'll be killed in an instant if this news of your ability spreads to the wrong corners of the world. I assure you, no magicode exists that can sustain the one you have. It simply doesn't exist. So, in short, we can't have you flaunt this ability in broad daylight and commercialize it on such a small scale. It's too dangerous."

"What? How do I think I'll get my 8000 ECs then? We have limited time!"

"I didn't say we wouldn't use it to earn money. I'm saying we'll do it in a way where your unique ability doesn't get found out."

"Oh, that's interesting. So, got any ideas?"

"We could use your ability to secretly enter people's minds and extract sensitive data. Then, we could use that to either blackmail them for money or even extract their bank information to get only as much as we need."

The light in Madam Blanka's eyes shone, indicating my hypothesis that there was a different side to her.

"Do you know, Madam Blanka? This is a dirty little secret between us, but it won't be my first time doing something bad like that."

Madam Blanka walked towards me, came really close, and whispered in my ear.

"Shall we begin with our cyber extortion?"

A shiver ran across my spine, and I checked if my anti-thought intrusion magicode was still running. The last thing I wanted was for her to find out what I was thinking. Still, for me to keep my cool façade, I had to answer in kind.

I, too, put my lips close to her ears and whispered.

"Let's do it. But remember, this stays between us. One wrong move, and we're both finished."

Madam Blanka nodded, her eyes glinting with determination. Thus, I became prepared to commit my first act of sin in the year 3024.