Taro: The class project

Taro was now on his golden and black hover-bike as he zoomed off to school. Buildings and other vehicles rushed by as he sped past, their shapes fading into distortions as he continued twisting back the right handlebar of his bike, building up speed as he raced through the streets at near quantum speeds.

He couldn’t afford to be late.

After he had woken up and discovered he only had 5 minutes to get to campus before classes began, he immediately sprang into action.

He jumped out of his seat and hopped into the bathroom. He simultaneously brushed his teeth while he showered, and when he got out, he quickly got changed and grabbed his backpack before heading out to the garage.

Once there, he immediately jumped on his bike and gave Babble-on voice commands to open up the garage door. And as soon as the AI complied, Taro locked on his helmet and turbo sped out of there in an instant.

That was four minutes ago, and Taro now had one more minute to get to campus before classes began.

He continued boosting through the city streets, seamlessly weaving between hover-cars and buses as he raced against time to reach his intended destination. An incoming caller notification from his sister suddenly appeared within the corner of his visor’s screen, and he allowed it to go directly to voicemail since he was still driving.

“Hey Taro, what’s up?” she said, with her voice being filtered through the speakers in Taro’s helmet.

“Your presentation thing is later today, right? I just remembered and I wanted to wish you good luck before I forgot. So, good luck. Knock-em dead. I know you’ll do great.”

Inside of his helmet Taro smiled at his sister’s remark. He really appreciated her words of encouragement, but he knew he was already going to bomb the interview no matter what.

Despite the fact his invention wasn’t ready yet, there was no way it was ever going to be approved or funded for further research and development. Neural link technology and BCI advancements were generally considered unsafe and problematic, and the government had strict laws and regulations regarding these types of science.

The utopian society Taro lived in was heavily built on the core values of human interaction, human connection, and natural experiences. Any scientific discovery that might aim to alter or transform any of these three core values even in the slightest is immediately dissolved or discontinued.

That’s why the artificial intelligence existing in Taro’s world are barely smarter than the ones they had back in the 21st century. AI advancements have been heavily neutered to oblivion, in order to preserve the interest and jobs of the people.

But trying to undo all of that wasn’t Taro’s concern. He wasn’t planning on going rogue or going against the government or any of its laws. He just wanted to help shine light on something he thinks the government and the people might intentionally be overlooking.

He just wanted to help.

As soon as the voicemail was finished recording, Taro refocused his attention on getting to school. He gripped the handlebar of his hover-bike even tighter and twisted it back, feeding it more speed and shooting ahead. And when he finally got to school forty seconds later, he practically rushed upstairs with the twenty remaining seconds and ended up stumbling into the doorway of his classroom out of breath.

He had made it just in time.

Most of the students already seated inside suddenly stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at him with an expression that said, ‘Where is the madman chasing you?’ But ignoring all of them, Taro straightened up and went to take his seat.

***

Taro didn’t know how he managed to pull it off but he was somehow able to go through the entire 2-hour lecture without nodding off once. As they neared the end of the class however, the teacher suddenly spoke up for everybody to hear.

“Alright students, about the upcoming end of year exam, the school has decided to make this a joint project between the art students and science students.”

Murmurs began to well up amongst Taro’s class mates about the nature of the assignment they were being given. Normally, end of term exams were usually unique to classes and their chosen fields of study. But it seemed like this year the school was going for something different.

“Your assignment is to combine both disciplines to create or express a unique aspect of humanity, life, or creativity. You are to partner up with at least one student from the other disciplines in order to carry out this task, and you have until the end of the school term to present this project. That is all.”

As soon as the teacher was through with her explanation, Taro and his mates all exited the classroom. Immediately, almost all of Taro’s classmates began pairing up with students from the art disciplines while he remained standing in the corner.

He wasn’t really popular with most of his peers. Some might go as far as to say Taro Yamato wasn’t really popular at all. He mostly kept to himself. He didn’t really have a friend, let alone a close friend or a best friend. And he didn’t necessarily hate it.

He enjoyed coding on his computer in complete solitude, and he enjoyed building robots in his garage all alone. But there were times when he wished things were a little different and he had at least one person to talk to.

***

After waiting around and having nobody approach him from the crowd, Taro decided to leave and almost stumbled into a girl in a wheelchair behind him.

She had striking blond hair, and deep blue eyes.

Those were the first things he noticed about her.

Her hair.

There was so much of it.

It was pretty.

However, that’s when Taro realized he hadn’t executed a perfect stumble and was actually still falling.

Just in slow motion.