My name is Mi A… WHAT!!??

“WAKE UP! It’s time to go to school!”

The sun sets again in Neo Shibuya. While all the neon signs start to light up, It can be spotted how the sun sets behind the metropolis skyscrapers from the window of this small apartment, located in the suburbs of the crowded apartment sector C-24. This is where a 15-year-old teen, who wants to be a renowned gadget inventor, lives alone with his gadgets. His day starts here, while his homemade automaton alarm clock shouts.

“WAKE UP! It is 06:00 pm! You will be late for school!”

From the bed sheets, a disheveled black haired head arises.

“Okay… Okay, I get it PM-O-Mo… stop, I'm awake.”

In an instant, a boy jumps from the bed with energy.

“Let’s do it one more time!”

His name is Mi Ano. He wears a black swimsuit with white stripes and a white tank top filled with small holes. He rushed through the little messy bedroom, avoiding the hundreds of papers, notebooks, and card boxes in order to get on his way to what he calls school. Before leaving his room, the young boy measures himself against the door frame.

“170 cm!! I have grown 2 micrometers!! Today is going to be a good day!!”

A robot, with a worried expression, was waiting outside the boy's room.

“Good morning, master. I’m afraid we have no food, so it was impossible to make your breakfast.”

The boy smiled while he put his sandals on. “Don’t worry M.O.M I’ll eat something outside, as usual.”

I thought I had deactivated that subroutine from his microchip. I’ll look at it again later.

“Take ca…” The door closes with a slam, and the boy is gone. “...re”.

The boy crossed the hallway of the brothel where he lived in an instant. The customers had not yet arrived, so it was just the staff getting ready to open for business as night fell.

As the boy ran down the hallway to get out into the street, the brothel manager greeted him.

"Ano! As energetic as ever. Don't forget not to disturb the customers when you return and keep the noise to a minimum. Yesterday, one of the customers complained that his Net Share was acting strangely."

The young boy replied without stopping his running. "Sorry Mrs. Sato."

It must have been my wave disruptor. I must have set it to too high a frequency.

Wave disruptors are round devices of different sizes. The larger they get, the more powerful they become. They are used to block or intercept electromagnetic waves emitted by technological and cybernetic objects. They have many uses, although the most popular is to avoid being spied on.

****

The boy came out of the brothel and started to run down the street. You can't take a step without seeing dozens of neon lights in this suburban metropolis. It doesn't matter if it's on the wall or in the windows.

Businesses also have customized holograms at the entrances to attract customers; holograms that not only communicate what the business offers but also have an AI that is able to converse and answer customers' questions.

*Hello cutie! Wanna have a good time?*

*Taste our new cocktail made out of pure alcohol!*

Years ago, this type of technology was a symbol of status and power. Today, such technologies are reserved for the poorer strata of the metropolis, where drug use, robbery, and murder are everyday occurrences.

“I love the temperature in Neo Shibuya; it makes me feel alive!” Said the running boy.

Throughout the year, due to the climatic consequences caused by [The War of Division], year-round temperatures ranged from 20ºC at night to 28ºC at midday. Water was scarce, as it rarely rained. However, thanks to scientific advances in resource extraction, this was not a problem. At least not for the rich ones.

As the sun set, as Ano made his way towards his master's workshop, the neon lights began to light up one after another; it almost seemed as if Ano was giving them electricity by running past them.

Ano would run for 5 minutes to get to his master's workshop. The place was not far away. It was a workshop but also his master's house. On the way, he would cross paths with people returning home after a day's work. Humble and decent people lived there and entered their homes before the sun went down, because at night, modified beasts with cybernetic prostheses lurked in Neo Shibuya. People from all districts came here at night to party. Drugs, robberies, murders... District C was a criminal's playground, perfect for crime. That's the kind of place it was.

****

The little boy arrived at his master's workshop and knocked loudly on the door.

"MASTER! I'm home!"

The teacher opened the door. "Mi-kun, you look very happy today. You seem to be taller too!”

The boy's teacher was a 55-year-old man. He had graying black hair, stood 187 centimeters tall, and wore prosthetics in one of his arms and one leg, which he had lost in combat as a teenager.

"That's right master, I've grown 2 micrometers! I’ll soon surpass you!" Said the smiley boy.

They both laughed, and the master stirred the boy's disheveled hair even more.

“Mi-kun, you missed morning classes again.”

The master was his school teacher. He was wearing his usual black leather jacket and smoking his usual mint cigarette.

”You should come sometime. You could learn something useful for your gadgets from other teachers, you know?”

“I don’t need them, I just need you, master Akira.” Master Akira’s soo cool… “I need to use your Cyber Hut really fast, master.”

The boy entered the workshop like a flash. He ran to his master's Cyber Hut, put on the gloves and the augmented reality helmet. The Cyber Hut used by the suburbanites was something similar to the 2020 technology used by humans to play video games. However, in this era, it was a working tool for developing software, communicating and organizing tasks; there were even people who used it to transfer their consciousness to the network to socialize in augmented reality.

These devices have a similar function to the primitive computers of decades ago, but with endlessly more mechanics. Unfortunately, the most complete models were exclusive to the inhabitants of the metropolis and not to those who lived in the suburban areas.

The teacher watched the boy rummage through files of old inventions in the government's public database. That was where Ano got most of his education. There was almost no need to explain anything to him. A single reading was enough for the young boy to understand how what he was reading worked.

After 10 minutes, Ano left the Cyber Hut and started looking for the plans and notebooks he had been working on for the past week.

His master asked while he watched the kid lurking for his notes. “So how was your yesterday date with that girl? I remember you used my Cyber Hut to make an appointment with her in the real world. What was her name? Ma… How?”

“B.U.T.H.O… B.U.T…”

While mumbling something, Ano was still looking for his notebooks among the papers on his desk.

“Beauty? What a strange name for a girl.”

“Master, where are my B.U.T.H.O notes I wrote last week?”

The boy ignored the question completely, even though he clearly heard what his master asked.

“Oh your suit? Yeah, it should be here somewhere.” Akira stood up and started looking among a pile of papers. After a while, he grabbed a stack of 247 pages. “Here they are; take them.”

The little boy took the pile of papers out of the hands of his master and almost fell to the ground. He managed to sit down at his desk and started taking more notes.

“Don’t you get tired of having to say all those letters one by one every time you want to talk about your suit, Mi-kun?”

The boy shook his head. "As beautiful as I remembered, my adored Biotic Untelligent Totally Heroic Totally Heroic O-cool!! Patent pending." The boy's eyes sparkled with excitement.

"I told you it's not untelligent, it's intelligent. If you went to school you would know that."

"Shut up!!! I know it's intelligent, but with a U it sounds better. B.I.T.H.O sounds so lame!! Just look at it… It’s so beautiful!! I missed you my dear!!" The boy’s eyes kept sparkling.

"You’ve been working on it every day for the last 8 years now. It's only been 2 days since you last worked on it. You say the same thing every week."

The teacher had to hear the same words every Monday from the mouth of his passionate pupil.

"Dad, you are an inventor like me. You should know that our inventions are like children to us."

"Yeah yeah, but I am not your father. Remember, you can only call me that when we are alone. We are not blood relatives and I never adopted you. Those corrupt from the government better not know I take care of you or else they'll tax me to the hilt; that's why our Net Shares aren't connected. I would have to sell the workshop to make ends meet."

"Don't worry, master; I'm no longer a child, and I don't make mistakes." I myself modified my Net Share so that they don't track me as much as they do the others.

The boy lost his parents when he was just a baby. According to the story his teacher told him, he found him near the wall that divides humanity, in the arms of his deceased parents. He told little Ano that his parents were fleeing the Stay territory and were killed before crossing the wall. Fortunately, he was a guard patrolling at the time. While checking the stability of the wall, he found a small light coming out of a hole. There lay baby Ano, covered by the inert arms of his deceased parents. The master, moved by the determination of the humans on the other side, decided to pick up and send the son they had protected so much to Neo Shibuya. He thought that this was the last wish of the little boy's parents.

****

The day went on as usual. The young boy helped his master with his work, and the master taught him everything the boy asked for.

"Really Mi-kun, I don't understand how you can read these scribbles."

Since Ano never went to school, his handwriting was lousy and his spelling mistakes were terrible.

"If you don't learn to write better, it will be hard for others to help you with your inventions."

"I don't need anyone to help me! If I understand what I write, that's enough!" After all, I am a genius. No one can understand me. It's not worth it. "I just need Master Akira to help me."

"You know, it would be a great help if I knew how to read what you write. Even if I understand you when you explain it to me, we would go faster if I knew how to read your notes."

The master wanted his apprentice's dreams to come true soon. He had confidence that this little genius who was his disciple would someday fulfill his goals and dreams.

The young boy took the sheet with the final sketch of his cyber suit; current version 45.8.15. He climbed into the chair, lifted the sheet with both hands, and began to give one of his many rehearsed speeches.

“With this, I’ll become the most famous inventor in the world. I will become a hero who helps our planet unite as one and forget our differences!! Then, no one will have to suffer from hunger or die without a reason.”

The kid was thrilled, filled with passion and determination to fulfill his dreams.

“You will see my name everywhere!! The greatest inventor in history, Mi…”

While the TV broadcast a special news, the same words Mi Ano was saying sounded on the TV.

*The greatest inventor in history is born! The young 17 year-old Yu Asu, son of Yoshikage Asu, is developing his latest invention, the B.U.T.H.O; the Battle Uniform Technologically Hero Oriented, a battle suit designed to bring stability to our country while facing crime and invasions. This will bring our world into a new era of peace where no one will suffer again.*

The kid, with a face of disbelief, shocked, looked at the TV and slowly said.

“Wha…?”