"Chii-chan, is that the same robot from the place with the fishy?" Yuuri asked after the robot emerged from behind one of the stone statues.

"Looks exactly like it," Chito spoke with equal excitement. "But how did you get up here?"

This robot had comparable features and even the same vocal modulator as the one they met on their journey in the fish factory, but there was something distinctive about it. Gradually it moved closer to the girls, stopping just a few meters close to them before it started speaking again.

"Chito - Yuuri - I am not the same robot you met at the fish factory - I am just an AI who merely possesses the collective programming of its predecessors fused with the Biodome many years ago - However I can remote control over 1642 functioning robots around the city grid through archaic connection nodes - The robot at the fish factory was malfunctioning and I wasn't able to take control of it - It's core programming was corrupted and it had a single goal of serving the needs of something deemed 'insignificant' that was bred for human consumption - However, I had control over the construction robot that you both destroyed with an explosive device."

Guilt-ridden Chito and Yuuri suddenly stared at each other. "Ummmmm…" they let out an audible confusion. Mieko standing close to them was equally baffled. Turning back to the robot both of them in unison apologized bowing their heads down

"...WE ARE SORRY!!!..."

"What on earth were you girls doing out there blowing construction robots up?" Mieko asked them. "You do realize without those construction robots the city's foundation could collapse?"

"Well… we never knew at the time... we are sorry..." Chito responded "The robot was deconstructing a facility where a fish and a robot lived, and… I guess we thought it was going to hurt the fish..."

"Yeah… I jumped on top of the construction robot, planted the bomb and it went boom!" Yuuri proudly blurted out. "It was amazing and there was fire, sparks, and metal everywhere. And the robot fell to the ground completely annihilated!"

"A fish and a robot?" Mieko asked again still perplexed. "But... Just... Why? What on earth made you do that?"

"Chito - Yuuri - I already commissioned another robot that day to fix the one you destroyed and continue work at that section of the city" the robot spoke "However - I regret to tell you when the repair robot arrived you both were gone and unfortunately the fish was already deceased - The corrupt robot had already ceased to work as well -It's core programming shut down frying its electrical components - There was no point in repairing it but its purpose would be used for scrap further on."

"Ohh…" they both gasped disappointingly. "Yuu, maybe we should have eaten the fish…" Chito spoke.

"Maybe, we should have eaten it Chii-chan, but I hope both of them had a happy life until the very end! I guess back then we would have been satisfied with a fishy, but I am happy that they got to experience life for a short bit."

"But why didn't you say anything if you knew we were there?" Chito asked the robot. "We wouldn't have done that at all and your construction robot seemed like he was about to kill them."

"Construction robots possess no vocal modulators, and at the time I miscalculated that your presence at the factory would be temporary without any interruptions - I tend not to disclose any information about the Biodome to individuals or robots that have malfunctioned or that appear a threat - Even if the construction robot was to possess vocal modulators we wouldn't have had any communication - The task at the factory was to decommission rooms near the water tank and repurpose for structural integrity with no harm done to any living being - The construction robot posses core programming that forbids it from harming any living being - The probability and cause of danger that the structural stability of that sector would collapse were minimal, but even with that kind of uncertainty repairs have to be carried out - By 'annihilating' the construction robot, I realized that your actions might be seen as a threat to our community."

"However your selfless act was to save a living being that was widely considered 'insignificant' as its sole purpose of existence was for consumption - Your act reminds me of something our AI core principles possess - To protect the lives of beings that have no choice regarding their existence - After our encounter, I wanted to communicate with you both but I wasn't able to find you again - For that, I apologize as I think your circumstances to reach the Biodome unharmed would have improved - I have failed you the same way I have failed many humans outside that deserved a better life." The robot spoke without moving an inch from the spot where it stood.

"We humbly apologize for destroying the construction robot..." Chito apologized again. "We didn't know the robot served a purpose and we thought the lives of the robot and the fish were in danger."

"Yeah ... Even if we thought fishy is tasty we didn't eat it in the end..." Yuuri spoke. "Still, it was kinda fun to blow up the robot!" she whispered

"You said that you don't communicate with corrupted AI." Chito spoke. "We met another AI that worked on an elevator that was disconnected and it felt like there was no purpose in life. The AI looked forward to its death but seems like you have a purpose and significance."

"Chito - Yuuri - AI serves no significance to the grand scale in the universe - Just as you, this planet, and even this conversation have zero point billion to one percent significance in the grand scale of the universe - AI has no soul or life but a predetermined cause - Sadly in this existence life is easily discarded, but for this planet, each one serves significance - You are human beings and I am simply an AI built by human beings and combined from numerous adaptive algorithms that share a common goal - The protection of the information stored in the archives, protecting the Biodome and its carbon-based life forms - My AI was duplicated in many Biodomes over the world and served to help humanity - My concerns and significance is the outcome of the Biodome experiments - It's been 9.467e+7 minutes since I lost communication with Biodomes around the world and unsure of their results - " The AI spoke in its same monotonic voice. "I am sadly left on my own for now."

"There are other places like this in the world?" Chito asked.

"That is correct - The Biodomes were engineered as an experiment and for the protection of the final remaining carbon-based lifeforms on Earth - As the human population rose way above the numbers that the world could sustain the ancestors felt the need to build their cities in self-sustainable layers - While the layers were built, humans overtook nature and their biggest error was that to exist you need coexistence - To exist you needed to coexist with nature and those they deemed 'inessential' nullified from existence - Therefore the decision was made to build Biodomes on top of every city - The Biodomes, in theory, could also provide clean oxygen, filtered hydrogen oxide, and organic-based food for its citizens underneath - This is the only functional Biodome in this city formerly known as 'Japan' as others were failed experiments during the wars - In a way, the Biodome was also an experiment to see if humans can colonize and terraform Mars or other planets - However as we lost contact with other cities we also lost contact with the Mars mission - The success of their mission is currently unbeknownst to us."

"But if the layers were self-sustaining, why did they destroy the layers underneath?" Chito asked him again.

"Humans are an anomalous species Chito" The robot spoke. "Even if they are given the luxury of infinite electricity - constant sustenance - unlimited synthetic fresh air - there is still the human concept known as 'greed' - After the Biodomes were built the humans decided that they could also house settlements for humans within - This meant that the higher class could live in the luxury close to nature while the lower class and military could live in the layers underneath, close to the factories and places of employment - The layered cities began to look like social pyramids - Humans possess the necessity to be on top of other humans instead of equal coexistence - They overtook the Biodomes, therefore, limiting the supplies it could produce for the citizens underneath - Humans that were forced to live in the bottom layers never seen nature or the stars and skies with their own eyes - Life deemed synthetic in their eyes and their existence felt equally unpurposeful - With the growing population even the self-sustaining layers couldn't produce enough food or oxygen, therefore, they revolt - It happened to most cities in the world - The revolt for food, oxygen, fresh hydrogen oxide - Humans took to arms and started killing among themselves and the residents of the Biodomes were dreading the day when the war would reach them - With the constant growth of technology they found so many new ways to destroy each other - Most of the layers underneath saw the damage it could do so the city was at turmoil - Those who were left to exist on the outside are generations that outlived the wars and were left to live in poor conditions - Even within the Biodomes there was turmoil between the humans - After the war many rules were established who would still live inside or exiled - Sadly these rules caused issues for the Biodome as humans who were exiled were renowned scientiests, biologists or engineers who were nescessary for its continuous function - The AI had no word in the decisions of the humans even though the humans disregarded their opinion for decades - Even with an advanced AI or robotics you still needed humans for the survival of the Biodome."

The girls listened to the robot carefully. Chito remembered something that Reo mentioned a few days ago after Yuuri woke up from her coma. "Reo mentioned that you were wary of outsiders and that you wouldn't just let anyone inside here, however, you say you still need humans to survive. But why are you wary of the humans outside if you need humans to help the Biodome?" Chito asked. "Why couldn't you come for us when we were in the village with grandpa and the others?"

"Chito - Yuuri - It was the humans that caused the death of this planet and its species, not the AI they still distrust - Your planet was already on the brink of extinction even in the twenty-second century but humans never listened, and saw the clear signs as they went on their path to self-destruction - My core principles are to protect the 'last' living species and information in the Biodome and so my distrust of humans is justified - However the settlement where you resided, their citizens and elders also had their own set of rules and reasonable distrust of others as they had no concept of the Biodomes - You can't force unwilling individuals to listen - It was extremely difficult to find and trade for humans and the settlement where you resided was our only chance - After the bridges collapsed our decisions to trade for humans on the outside halted as we had no safe route of transport - The alternate route you presumably took was treacherous and you beat every odds for survival - Perhaps in the future we might be able to find more outsiders who would be deemed safe to be granted asylum within the Biodome."

"It was a fun adventure though," Yuuri spoke with a smile. "We met other humans and if I remember their names it was Kanazawa and Ishi. We also met a Nuko and these strange flying things that looked like the statues behind you."

Another thing that Chito and Yuuri noticed earlier where the familiar statues behind the robot. They had seen them on the outside many times before and had no idea what they were of.

"Those statues, we saw them outside too!" Chito spoke. "We even hit one of them with our 'Kettenkrad'."

"Chii-chan… it was you who drove into it!" Yuuri let out a chuckle.

Mieko placed her hand to her face as it was completely unbelievable to her that these two girls were complete delinquents. "You planted a bomb at the wall outside and detonated it, you destroyed a construction robot, you drove over an Eringi statue - Gee, I wonder if it even was you two that fired that missile from the 'MK982 - War Mecha' last year. We felt that up here and it set up every possible alarm!"

"Actually-mmpmhhpp" Yuuri tried to confess, but Chito abruptly with a guilty grin placed her hand to her mouth to keep her quiet.

"Nooo… that wasn't us…" she lied. "We don't even know what an MK War thing is..."

"Well, the statue you hit with your vehicle as I recall the humans on the outside built them to worship those flying species that use radio waves to communicate," Mieko spoke. "My worries are about those war machines that are still functional."

"Hey - Chii-chan, Nuko's family," Yuuri recalled. "Didn't they communicate through that thing called radio waves?"

"Yes we could hear them on the radio, and they were also able to eat ammo, metals, and even fuel." Chito recalled. "Do you know what those things are?"

"Chito - Yuuri - You met the species that the humans called 'Eringi'." The robot spoke. "They were given the name 'Eringi' due to their similarities with the fungi of the identical appellation - This speicies was discovered living underground numerous human years ago and was almost hunted to extinction for their invaluable blood - just like the species the humans named 'Horsehoe crab' the blood from 'Eringi' possessess unique substance extremely beneficial to humans - The 'Eringi' could easily process dangerous and unstable materials through their digestive system so they served invaluable to humans - It was discovered that the 'Eringi' could communicate through special radio waves and that they possessed tremendous intelligence almost surpassing the primates - Their songs first thought to be a mysterious transmission were songs of beacon and hope that would let other 'Eringi' know of their actuality - However before the wars the 'Eringi' would not forgive the humans for hunting them for their blood - After the humans learned how to communicate with the 'Eringi' they begged for their forgiveness - Humans desired to learn about this species and to accept them - Eventually the ancestral humans would come to a deal with the 'Eringi' - They would offer them metallic and radioactive materials and waste as food for just a drop of their invaluable blood to study - Soon after the humans would worship the 'Eringi' as gods - They would offer the ancestral humans long life and health after their former deities failed to do so - The humans built them statutes and temples in their honor and after the 'Eringi' left they awated their 'second coming' - The ancestral humans considered them beings that light up the world after death."

"Being that light up the world after death…" Chito repeated the words to herself, she recollected that she has seen these words in one of the structures on the layers beneath.

"Yuu, do you remember back at that structure after we left Kanazawa, I saw those words etched on the stone there."

"Oh yeah, it's the place where you disappeared in the dark and I got scared." Yuuri frowned before Chito gently patted her on the head.

"Awww, you were cute though" Chito let out a giggle. "And then you somehow broke those stone flowers and posed with them for a picture saying you are a God!"

"Great! Add demolishing sacred sites to the list." Mieko spoke with annoyance. "I hope you two are not gonna be trouble!"

"Besides this one eating all the food here, we promise to behave!" Chito promised her before she turned to the robot. "But what do those words we saw with Yuu mean?" she asked.

"The 'beings that light up the world after death.' - The ancient humans believed the 'Eringi' to be the species that were left behind to clean up the world and start a new - The new generations of 'Eringi' are probably the only species outside that can clean the world from dangerous material - The old belief is that there will always be light after death - That temple you visited is a 'sacred site' for the humans where they would bury the death Erengi - The humans utilized their blood for research and helped them develop exceeding what they knew was probable - Consequently the humans saw them as gods of substance and research - This was the research of new medicine, technology, endless electricity, space travel, cloning and even what you humans would call alchemy or the ability to synthesize any kind of organic compound or technological device through the process of reclamation and recycle - The humans possessed an invaluable source of material - The ancient 'Eringi' disappeared but their blood caused enough damage to the natural course of planet Earth."

"The 'Eringi' we met, they told us that we were probably the last living people in the world, but they told me they never have seen what's on the last layers," Chito spoke. "How didn't they know about the Biodome and that there are people still alive?" She clearly remembered the day she met Nuko's family and the discussion they had with the Eringi. "Didn't they ever meet anyone else on the outside if there are still people living out there?"

"The 'Eringi' are not a clairvoyant species - Unless we purposefully make contact with them, they will never know about the Biodomes in the sky -
For communication the 'Eringi' use different types of modular frequencies that work on short waves unless they are calling out to other groups - To communicate with one, you have to be in their vicinity - Their language from the distance sounds like songs to us but to them, we sound like static interference - The 'Eringi' you met are generations that have probably never met humans and in that world outside its easy to comprehend that existence of all life forms has ceased - Citizens of the Biodome haven't reported sightings in decades" The robot spoke.

"While we can receive their signal it's only one way - the 'Eringi' refuse to communicate with other frequencies unless it serves them a purpose - Therefore the plausibility that the 'Eringi' you met avoided settlements or contact with other species is high - They had no notion if there were other humans alive or were determined to overlook it - The structure of the city beneath is so vast that aimlessly running into another human being or an 'Eringi' would be considered like the old human term 'finding a needle in a haystack'."

"The first Eringi we met was a small baby that we called Nuko." Chito spoke. "We heard their songs on the radio and wet met them at a nuclear submarine where Nuko went back to them. It seemed like they were determined to clean the world."

"That is wonderful to hear Chito." The robot spoke, "We still have a long way to fix what our ancestors left - One of our principles is to return nature to the world outside but it will take a long time in human years - But first I need to understand the world outside - My tasks every day is to control the robots outside to fix the layers and formulate a map of all the damages that can be restored - So far the map I generated is minuscule - To have a stable link with other beings and AI is a trivial task - Adaptive AI can become corrupt just like humans - I am gradually acquiring a connection with the city again, but the communication node that connected to the outside and continents is positioned beneath the city and severely damaged - It will be many human years before we can establish a connection with the outside world.."

"Chito - Yuuri - Our planet may appear dead but just like wounds in humans it is on its way to healing - I intend to give it a spark with my processed understanding and the species of nature that I protect but it will take a long time in human years - The Eringi that are alive outside have every right to call this planet their home, as well as all the humans and species of animals they almost brought to extinction - My goal is to bring nature back to its original state and to the world outside where it used to belong - But with the work inside here we can help bring the spark of life on this planet in due time - Every human has a duty to perform and even all kinds of menial tasks have a purpose - We must keep existence alive."

Chito, Yuuri, and Mieko all listened carefully to the AI as it spoke of its plans, demise, and life. Both Chito and Yuuri were left flabbergasted by its words. They would never imagine that life would still be able to continue even after everything humanity and this planet has endured.

Yuuri suddenly got up from her wheelchair and took the walking cane that Chito was carrying for her. She slowly walked towards the robot and placed her hand on its head.

"Robot-chan. What happened to our planet is really sad - but I know something. Nuko and his family will help outside and we will do our best to help you inside! If it wasn't for your information to save my brain, Chii-chan would have lost me forever." She turned to Chito and smiled.

Chito stared at her with tears in her eyes and smiled back. These were the first steps that Yuuri took by herself since the day she woke up from her coma. She was proud of what her partner was able to accomplish after all they have been through.

"Chii-chan's smile is what got me through the journey on the outside, and nothing in this world makes me happy than seeing Chii-chan smile!" she replied and closed her eyes, a single tear running down her cheek. "I am glad I woke up for Chii-chan!"

Chito carefully moved closer to her and embraced her from behind. She was so happy to still be alive.

"Robot-san." Chito spoke. "We saw how ruined the world is outside and what the humans in the past did. This place looks beautiful! You, Reo, and Mieko gave us life and you gave Yuuri back to me. For that, I am endlessly grateful and we will do all that we can to help! But I am afraid to go out there again! I know that we did damage, and our actions induced consequences but - I hope you will find it in your heart to not exile us for the damage we did to the robot."

"Hey!" Mieko interrupted them "No one said anything about exile." she assuredly spoke. "You are our family, and you are not going anywhere!"

"Chito - Yuuri - You are more than welcome to stay here with us - You are home" The robot spoke again. "My purpose for prolonged time is to maintain stability and safety in the Biodome - At times it was impossible until the humans resolved their conflicts - I hope that one day Earth will be once again home of harmony and existence - Our planet is the only home we know."

So many things are left unsaid about the history of the cities. To some deemed a utopia, to others a painful existence. Humans that were given the luxury of food, health, and entertainment still found ways to destroy. The Biodome was just a diminutive location in the city that the ancient humans created in order to protect what little was left of the world before the layers.

But humans absolutely needed nature.

° ° °

"Hey Chii-chan, why did Mieko throw us out of the hospital?" Yuuri asked while carrying a backpack with clothes and her walking cane. She carefully walked hand in hand with Chito as she was still getting used to walking with the cane. "She was like 'Get outta here you delinquents! Go back to your home! Run, be freeeee'."

"Hahaha she was joking Yuu" Chito laughed "And besides we can't live in the hospital anymore. They were kind to give us our own house, If I can find it somehow..."

Chito kept scanning through the lines of houses to find theirs. It was supposed to be the house with the number 26, just close to where Mieko and her fiance lived in that sector. The houses in this part were all similar Japanese-style prefabs that could be built at any given time and then easily fixed, rebuilt, or even demolished by robots. They were all rectangle-shaped blocks with windows, sliding doors, and even a small garden.

"There..." Chito pointed to one of the houses that had the number 26 written on top of it. As they moved closer, Yuuri noticed some words written on the door.

"Hey Chii-chan, wha's that written on the door?" She asked as Chito carefully read the words on top of the door.

"Oh, it says 'Chito and Yuuri's House'." She smiled as they moved closer to the entrance "I am sooo excited Yuu. This is our new home!"

"Umm.. how does the door open Chii-chan?" Yuuri carefully walked towards the door and pressed one of the buttons on the side that had arrows pointing in each direction. With a single swoosh, the door opened sliding on both sides startling her.

"EEEEPP..." Yuuri blurted and stumbled backward. If it wasn't for Chito she would have found herself down on the ground.

"Yuu!... be careful, you are still getting... used to... the walking...cane... you are heavy...hhhhnnnnnn"

"Mmm Chii-chan… I can't wait to have my robotic leg… you will finally worship me for the 'Robotic God' that I will be" Yuuri smirked as Chito kept struggling to hold her steady.

After trial and error, she finally helped her back up on her foot.

"So, Yuu... do you want to see our new home or should we just keep stumbling around?"

"Yay! New Home with Chii-chan!" Yuuri exclaimed as both of them walked inside. The door with another swoosh closed behind them.

(Continued in Chapter 9)
(Latest revision 8th December 2022)