Ā I am particularly happy with this prompt so I decided to share it here. Also Iāve been wanting to write a Sci-Fi AU for ages, and finally here it is.
Fandom: Yuri on Ice
Type; science fiction AU
Characters; Viktor Nikiforov, Yuuri Katsuki, Yakov Feltsman.
Summery; Yuuri Katsuki had just graduated and moves to Tokyo in order to find a job at a national Robotics company, but after a few setbacks he ends up becoming apprentice to one of the most well-known engineers of the field; Viktor Nikiforov. It all seemed to good to be true until he discovered a secret that will shake the very fabric of his reality and existence.
A traveller come all the way from the small town of the northern regions to the heart of the country; Tokyo. The city was as urban and metropolitan as one can imagine, with its towering edifices and large advertisements screening on a loop. The streets were clean, owing to the low-level robotic machines which were left autonomous to tend to the public service. Hologram screens appear in front of restaurants and shops to mark the opening and closing time.
Another wonderful feature about the city is the people. There was a woman in smart dress as she walked to her car while her servant-robot followed her in tow burdened by her grocery bags. Servant-robots were commonly used for those who could afford them, and they would perform the daily domestic chores. They were the closest to a humanoid shape, however they could not be endowed with artificial intelligence due to the law conventions made by the board of the technological development and science committee. Ā However there was an increase of percentage among the population who had prosthetics and despite of the fact that even these alterations were heavily restricted; the boundaries between robotics and humanity seem to be decreasing at an alarming rate.
Tokyo became one of the leading countries in technological development of Robotics and so a hub of people from all over the world were here trying to take part in the great movement, and Yuuri was one of the many. Yuuri Katsuki was a twenty-four years old and a fresh post graduate who was ready to kick-start his career. The RPC was the leading organisation that specializes in making robotics and it was because the Japanese post-graduate received an invitation of an interview that led him to leave his hometown and travel to the capital. However, he was too nervous and unconfident during the interview and he ended up not being chosen for the job. It was as though life was mocking him for aiming up so high.
Such a great opportunity seemed one that could never come again, so he was quite shocked and surprised when he received a video call from one of the most influential engineers in Robotics, Viktor Nikiforov. Yuuri was sitting on a balcony; smoking a cigarette and thinking whether he should ditch yet another pointless interview, when an autonomous voice interrupted his thoughts. Reluctantly he walked to the living room and pressed on the giant touch screen, when a hologram panel popped up and Viktor appeared on screen. It was hard to imagine the confusion that Yuuri felt by this strange turn of events, especially by the fact that the man who had been an inspiration to him his whole life had just offered him a job as an assistant.
Viktor worked at the RPC Company as he was one of the most important key factors of this technology. The company is a manufacture of robots that can perform mundane, dangerous or undesirable duties; from house-keeping to building constructions and waste management. The Russian scientist worked on researching and developing new technologies as well as improving existing ones, but all that bulkhead of research was reserved only to the company. In fact RPC had strict policies on keeping all of its information from leaking out, so Viktor could not even work these projects outside the companyās complex. However the silver haired man had other personal projects that he wanted to work on, and Yuuri was assigned to assist him in this job.
The Russian scientist was greatly interested in neurology, in fact he had a degree in medicine and continued specializing for a diploma, but somehow he turned the page to engineering. It was a mystery as to why he made such a sudden change, but from this experienced he developed an interest in a chimera of engineering and medicine. He was no longer interested in manufacturing machines that served to replace undesirable jobs, but also to use his talents for other departments that would have bigger impact on peopleās lives. His initial interest was in working on neurological diseases however there was an article about Viktor that questioned his reasons for suspiciously and abruptly leaving St Petersburg and moved to Japan. Yuuri was no med student; he studied biology but his major interest was engineering, so he was initially unsure of how he was able to be any help. Luckily it turned out that he was more straight-forward than he thought; mostly involving in sorting the data of Viktorās research in coherent and systematic way, filing and doing reports. It was a long way from becoming a full-fledged engineer, but it was definitely a good start.
Yuuri was sitting in the small office/laboratory room of his bossās apartment. He was observing a machinery prototype which would be worn by the leg to machinery. The function of this prototype was to help children with cerebral palsy to be able to walk straight. His job was to test it by touching one of the fibres and observe how long it takes to react. The aim of the experiment is to mark the delay between the contact and reaction. At first everything was going smoothly as he tested and marked the timing down on the journal, however without warning, there was a wild electrical spark coming out of the prototype and it exploded, making Yuuri fall off his chair. With the shock, the Japanese apprentice trembled all over feeling the electricity running through him. He tried to call out but he could hardly speak, so with little strength that he had he tried to get up, but he was too weak. In the semi-conscious state he was, he looked at his arms which were blackened, but even more terrifying thing was that he saw bits of metal under his skin and his hands too had skin scraped off and exposing a grey second layer. Before he could process this strange effect, his world became black and he lost his consciousness.
The white curtains bellowed and flapped with the white breeze. Ā Its sound awakened him to an unfamiliar white room which was sterile and clean. Yuuri found himself bandaged and tended; and felt level of warmth and comfort by the fact that the older man took care of him. However that pleasant thought was interrupted by a memory which came back with a flashing vengeance.
He remembered the metal under his skin, and he felt a terrible thread looming over his body like a death sentence. With a kind of fervent panic, Yuuri started removing the bandages and gauze, exposing the burned and blistering flesh. No matter how much he stretched his skin between his fingers to find that metalled layer, he found none. Viktor nearly shrieked when he walked in and saw Yuuri exposing his injuries like that. He quickly ran to his side and grabbed him the wrist to make him stop.
āAre you crazy? Youāre going to get infected!ā Viktor cried out in panic. In that moment Yuuri had noticed the round and puffy redness around the other maleās eyes and thought; was he crying? Was he crying for me?
Yuuri was confined to the bed for another day until his boss made sure that his injuries were healing well. Slowly and painfully the Japanese assistant was on his recovery, and the blisters were starting to deflate and the pain subsides, eventually he was able to continue work as before. As he was filing his employerās messy cabinet, a kind of shock overtook him. It was as though someone had just grabbed him and shook him really hard. Then a he saw his skin being burnt and revealing a metallic plate underneath, then there was noise in his vision and the image froze and started fragmenting into red yellow and green patterns. Ā It must have happened in a few seconds, but it felt much longer than that, leaving the Japanese man utterly confused.
One might think that such an occurrence was a freak incidence that would happen only once, however he was having the same strange shock sensation along for a few days and frustrated as he was it was time for him to ask Viktor about it. The Russian man was always attentive and friendly with him, but he tended to ignore everyone else. Yuuri found it flattering, but he thought of it as nothing more than a quirky characteristic of his personality. When the quiet assistant asked the Russian engineer about these strange occurrences, he felt quite disappointed that Viktor dismissed it as nothing more than a temporary after effect of the accident that he experienced. It made Yuuri feel somewhat more suspicious, because the silver haired man was dodging the questions and avoiding the topic altogether. Viktor was definitely hiding something and whatever it was, the Japanese assistant was determined to find out.
On a particular uneventful day, Yuuri was working alongside his boss, biding his time until he found the right opportunity. Viktor who was cheerful and completely unaware of these plans, moved around the kitchen to make lunch.
āWe donāt have milkā, the silver haired scientist remarked with a frustrated and slightly annoyed tone. He closed the fridge and smiled at Yuuri āIām going to get some, be right backā and with that he dashed off. Normally he would have sent Kio, his servant robot, but since āsheā had a malfunction, he had to do these chores until he fixed her.Ā
It was the perfect opportunity; Yuuri stood up and watched him through the window to make sure that he left the building, then he sped off to the laboratory, almost falling flat on his face when he stumbled into the IM-26, a machine built for cleaning and for those who cannot afford a servant-robot, but in this case it served as a temporary replacement. Normally, Yuuri would not have access of the office unless Viktor was there, but he had managed to āborrowā the card key when the older man wasnāt looking. Ā He felt a tightening feeling around his chest as he walked to the office. With a slide of the card and a click, he opened the door and started looking for any clues that could help him in his quest. The room looked like an ordinary office; with a bookshelf (because he loved some of the old fashioned things), but he also had a book storage machine lying on the oak desk. It was an eyepiece that was worn like glasses. It managed to project holograms of books and with the help of a nodule on its side; it could turn the page and zooming functions.
The light bulb lit green, which meant that he had been using it, so out of curiosity Yuuri wore the eyes piece and flickered to see what was Viktor was reading. The truth, hit him harder than he ever imagined. It was a newspaper article about a young Japanese apprentice named Yuuri Katsuki, twenty-five from Kyushu, who died in a car accident. Ā The Japanese had been working as an assistant of Viktor Nikiforov for two years. In that moment Yuuri was unable to breathe, he took off the eyepiece and thrown it on the desk, gasping for air. His knees gave way but he held tightly on the desk like a shivering leaf. He had no idea how long he stood there, trying to process the discovery; the mere existence of another Yuuri meant only one possibility that heā¦it could not be true, it was against the rules, but then again what did he really know about Viktor?
Slowly he walked out of the office and went back home not being able to face the older man. He felt so devastated that as he walked through the streets, he found himself no longer captivated by the beauty and the charm of the city. Instead he felt it was a gloomy and oppressive, because he admired the avant-garde technology that this century had brought forward, only to discover that there was always a consequence to such advancement. Yuuri felt sickened at the mere concept that he was not what he thought he was. He could not acknowledge this new information because if he did, then he would have to face the reality of his existence. If he really wasnāt a human and he was a copy of someone else then what about his memories, where they his own? Or did Viktor add the previous Yuuriās memories into his own? And if all of this was true, then what was his existence? Was he merely living as a substitute? Was there anything about him that is individual to him, or was he just an empty shell? Does he only live to serve for the purpose of the one who created him? He felt furious about Viktor because he felt like he was created as nothing more than a play toy. No matter how important that human Yuuri was to him, he should have never attempted to play God. The Russian engineer had completely neglected of Yuuriās own feelings and his own consideration in the matter. After all, he might be a machine, but he was also a living, sentient being and as such he should have had some reclaim and saying on his own life. He should have known the truth right from the start.Ā
There was a ping sound and Yuuri picked up his cell phone and when he pressed the button, an autonomous voice started detailing him of the missed calls that he received from Viktor, but the deluded android dismissed them and continued walking. It did not matter where he ended up just as long as his legs kept walking on and on and on until he felt too tired to keep going. The sun was already making its descent and the skies darkened above his head. A few heavy droplets of rain started falling, until gradually it increased to a downpour. He did not know why or how, but he found himself in the street where Dr Feltsman lived. Ā The middle-aged Russian professor mentored Viktor when the younger scientist was studying in University. Dr Feltsman had been retired for many years and so he currently lived as a hermit in order to dedicate himself solely to his research. The old professor was never a peopleās person so it came to no surprise that he preferred to live the rest of his days alone in company only to his projects.
Yuuri quickly ran up the stairs to the apartment block and pressed the buzzer, but there was no response. It took several buzzing before there was a grouchy response from the other end,
The android felt a bit timid as he cleared his throat āItās me Yuuriā, or a copy of Yuuri, he thought silently to himself.
There was a click and the door was let open for the apprentice to enter and walk to the second landing. He knocked on the door but he found it open so he slightly pushed it gently
āCome inā came the response from within the living room.
Yuuri walked in and smiled softly, realizing that this was the first time that he had been in the professorās house.
āWhat reason do I owe the pleasure of your visit?ā Yakov said emerged with a cup of coffee in his hand, his tone sounded too polite, almost sardonic.
āI haveā¦something to ask you aboutā, Yuuri responded, realizing that he had come here without plan to talk about what had come to pass.
āSit, Iāll make coffeeā, the professor stated as he put down his coffee mug and went back to the kitchen. There was complete silence except for the ticking of the clock. It had been a long time since he saw an old fashioned wall clock and he couldnāt help but being curious, because a man who was so dedicated in technology, he had very little of such in his apartment.
Dr Yakov remerged with another cup and placed it into the apprenticeās hands āSitā the older man ordered as he himself sat down on the couch. Yuuri did as requested and found a place on an armchair. There was a silence between them that seemed to stretch to no end. The android Yuuri had no idea where to begin or what to say to the older man. It was most likely that he was going to reveal Viktorās secret, but he needed someone to talk to about it.
ā Iā¦Iāve heardā¦well readā¦about an articleā¦an article of someone named Yuuri Katsukiā¦ā speaking softly, those words Ā were incredibly surreal to him as he said them.
āAhā¦I seeā Dr Yakov responded, contrary to expectation, there was neither shock nor sudden revelation on his face, it left Yuuri feeling very puzzled.
āY-you you knew?! The deluded android uttered in a startled manner.
The professor groaned and then he raised and then slumped his shoulders in a relaxed pose, or was it defeat? āI did not approve it, but that damn fool does what he wants anyway!ā he growled and angrily rubbed the back of his neck.
ā-Did youā¦did you try to stop him?ā Yuuri staggered, feeling utterly confused about this whole situation. Considering that if the other Yuuri had lived or Viktor would have been stopped, then he would have never existed.
āI argued with him for weeks to stop to this madnessā¦but as you can seeā The old professor explained. There was no need for him to specify, Yuuriās own existence was proof enough of what had come from that decision.
The android could not help wonder if he should feel disdain or anger towards the professor for trying to stop him. As he thought about it, he realized that he wasnāt in fact angry with him, in the end he felt agreeing with him. Even though this was about his own existence, it was not right.Ā
āBut know this kid, Viktor was a reckless and selfish idiot, but he had passion. The two biggest passions in his life merged into one. His apprentice and lover Yuuri Katsuki and his work, and you are both of these things into one. I am not saying that what he did was right, he did break the law and playing a foolās game. I am sure youāre wondering about your own life right now, but I thought you should know what you mean to him. You mean everything to himā
Yuuri felt devastated at those words, because at that moment he felt too angry with Viktor to sympathize with him.
āI donāt know what to doā Yuuri pressed his hands against his face, feeling despair building inside of him.
āHave you talked to him?ā The professor asked.
The android shook his head and replied, āI canāt see him at the momentā
There was a long pause, which then was interrupted by the older man suddenly standing up and walking away, but a few minutes later he came back with a pillow and a cover.
āHereā he said, conveying in only few words, Yuuri understood that the professor was offering him to sleep here for now and he appreciated it. He stared emptily at the pillow, but he knew that he will not be able to sleep. It was strange to him how he realized that he really did not need these basic needs, he was just programmed to. That thought created a gnawing feeling inside of him since everything that he believed, felt and experience wasnāt genuinely his own, then what was his reality? Was he going to be simply a clone? Or could he be a man of his own? Ā
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