Chapter Text
Rui is an inventor who lived in the slums, so the last thing he expected to repair was an Idol Bot.
It started when Rui was going back to his flat in the Lower city, where the low-level class of Neo-Tokyo live. The Lower city was where Mid city and High city dumped everything they didn’t need, which made the Lower city a wasteland at first glance. But, the people who live in the Lower city have been able to make their lives work, and they take advantage of some of the stuff thrown down in their city, like furniture and such.
The path back to Rui’s flat was easy enough–to him at least. He took a few paths down back alleys, through a few streets, climbed up onto a rooftop and walked across some boards that was made as a makeshift bridge, until finally he saw the window of his apartment up ahead, a few clusters of wires coming out and connecting to the small radio tower he had forged onto the top of the building. Rui jumped from rooftop to rooftop, and climbed up the small ladder off the side of the window railing. Once on the small little balcony out the window, he pushed open the screen and stepped inside the flat.
Inside, as you’d expect from an inventor, was messy. The living room looked like it wasn’t touched in weeks, the kitchen was a whole other problem, and boxes upon boxes of wires, metals, trinkets, and electrical pieces littered the corners and tables. However, despite the chaos of it all, Rui called it home.
“Ah, welcome back!”
And so did Mizuki, Rui’s friend and roommate. Mizuki was a kind person, and she originally came from up in Mid city, but insisted on living with Rui as soon as she got the chance.
Rui shut the window, and took off his lab coat, (which he found at the local clothing vendor and patched a few tears on it), and laid it over the not-so busted couch. He nodded to Mizuki as he did so, seeing that she was sitting on the counter and her phone in hand.
“How’s the business today? Did anyone buy your inventions?” Mizuki asked, setting her phone down.
Rui shrugged as he took out a few yen bills, putting them onto the counter. “Not many did sell. Most of the people down here liked them, but they just didn’t have enough money–or couldn’t spare any.”
Mizuki sighed. “Aw. Your little robots are cool though, so I’m glad some people liked them.” She said, trying to reassure Rui. “How much did you make?”
“3,917 yen.” He said, “Not much, but enough to get us some food for the week.”
Mizuki nodded. “Speaking of which,” She started, hopping down from the counter and going over to the cabinet that was used as a pantry. “What do you wanna eat for dinner?”
Rui looked over to the cabinet. “What do we have?”
“Well,” Mizuki started, looking through the small amount of food they had. “We have chips, one ramen cup, a bag of uncooked rice, and…just more chips.”
Rui raised a brow. “That’s it? I thought we bought more last week.”
Mizuki gave a shrug, opening the fridge. “Guess we ran out.” She said, then smirked at Rui. “Or we could have this bag of frozen vegetables I know you like so much.”
Rui chuckled dryly at that. Vegetables were definitely the type of food he does not feel in the mood for and it was, unsurprisingly, his least favorite food. “Ah, yes. I like vegetables very much, Mizuki.”
Mizuki laughed slightly, and shut the door of the fridge. “I’m just messing with you, Rui. I know you hate vegetables.” She said, which earned a roll of the eyes from Rui.
“I don’t hate them,” Rui stated, “I just think they taste like grass.”
That made Mizuki laugh louder, and she patted Rui’s shoulder playfully. “Right, right.”
Rui sighed, but a small smile crept up on his lips. He enjoyed the playful banter he and Mizuki had. It was refreshing after a somewhat long day of being out in the dank and “unhappy” areas of the Low-class.
He went over to the couch and sat down. He attempted to try and redo his small ponytail, but his hair was quite tangled so it was kind of a hassle to fix it. Rui sighed, and just kept his hair down for now. He heard the clatter of pans behind him, and he guessed Mizuki decided to make the bag of rice they had.
Then as quiet calm started to settle down in the flat, a loud CRASH was heard overhead, slamming down on the roof of the building. However, neither Rui nor Mizuki reacted to it, since they were used to that sound.
“I guess the trash has came in.” Mizuki said, stirring the rice in the pot. Rui nodded and stood up from the couch.
This was pretty normal for them, since they lived in the flats. The trash from Mid-class and High-class would get dumped down to Low-class, as if the place was just a dump and there were totally no people living down here. But, alas, that was just the social “norm” for Neo-Tokyo’s districts. However, a plus to having the Mid-class and High-class’s unwanted items dumped into the low city was that Rui could find bits and parts for his inventions.
Rui grabbed his coat and put it back on, and Mizuki snickered slightly. “Going down already?” She teased.
Rui nodded. “Mhm. I can’t let anything go to waste.”
Mizuki grinned a bit, “Ah, of course, of course.” She said, then went to the front door of the apartment. “Well, I’m not letting you go alone this time.”
Rui raised a brow. “Really? You know there’s going to be a lot of trash in the alley.” He said, noting how Mizuki’s clothes were quite clean. Mizuki only shook her head, giving a small wink before opening the door.
“I’ll be fine.” She reassured, and Rui gave a nod. They both left the apartment, the door closing behind them as they made their way down the stairwell and to the back alley.
The back alley wasn’t anything special, just a normal corner between two buildings and trash bags cluttered everywhere. Some of them were open, displaying the contents that were inside. Sure, it kind of smelled, but the Low-class in general wasn’t that pleasant smelling, so Rui and Mizuki didn’t mind it that much.
“Wow,” Mizuki remarked as she took in the many bags around. “This looks like a raccoon’s dream.”
Rui chuckled at Mizuki’s statement, eyeing the alley as well. “Then there’ll definitely be useful things in here.” He then began to shuffle through the bags. Thankfully, there wasn’t any old food thrown in any of them, so he didn’t have to worry about that.
While searching through the junk, Rui found a few trinkets here and there that he could make use of, and he put them in his coat pockets. Mizuki also had started peeking in a few of the bags, kicking them a bit to open and reveal what’s inside. After searching for a bit, Rui was satisfied with what he found.
He stood up, brushing himself off. “Alright, I think that’ll do–”
He was cut of by Mizuki shrieking.
Rui quickly turned around to face her. “What is it?” He asked, and Mizuki pointed to the bag she had just been looking through. Rui looked down to the bag, and saw that an…Android arm was there.
He crouched down to the arm, inspecting it. “It’s just an arm, Mizuki, nothing to be–”
Rui was promptly proven wrong.
Because, when he pulled the arm out more to take a better look, it wasn’t just an arm. It was a full Android body–and not just any Android. No, this one had blonde hair that faded to peach at the ends, though it was messy and tangled from being in the bag, a stunning outfit, now torn and tattered from something, and its body was dented and broken in places.
Rui was shocked. Not only from the amount of damage this Android had gone through, but from who it was.
73NM4.
An Idol Bot.