The Earth After Rebirth

Kiro was still smiling from meeting Mahindra Khan. He expected for the man to be scarier than what he presented, he didn't want to believe it. So, he chucked it up as a mask he wore in public. He couldn't be that friendly and be a notoriously renowned person in their society.

"Who is he?" One female worker asked another.

"Probably a kid of a rich family. Don't even think about it." The other reprimanded.

"But he's so good looking... He's just my type. Do you think I have a chance?"

"Not in a million years."

Their whispering wasn't enough to mask their conversation. He could hear everything but Kiro ignored it, the walls in front of him suddenly became an interest to him.

Raul let out a soft laughter. He'd have thought Kiro was more experienced by now, but judging by his reaction to their conversation, he could tell he was still very green.

He got closer to him, "sir, are you okay?"

He was startled a little and mistakenly elbowed him in the gut.

"Raul, play it cool." He told his driver.

"Right, I should be the one playing it cool." He said sarcastically.

Kiro stilled his nerves and went up to them. The closer he got the more he heard their stifled giggles. No one else was on this floor, he was surprised nobody was there to receive him. They were however 30 whole minutes early.

"Good day ladies," he started with a smile. "I'm here for the meeting, the name is Kiro Waynworth." He said smoothly.

"Greetings Mr. Waynworth, the president wasn't expecting you until much later, but I'll call him shortly." She said in a very professional voice, that denied she was the one gossiping a moment ago.

'Scary. Girls are scary.' He thought to himself.

"Excuse my colleague's rudeness. I'm Lily and she's Rosia." She introduced themselves, Kiro shook their hands as any gentleman would.

He also introduced Raul to them.

They heard distant running footsteps coming down from the stairs. When the person reached the landing, they quickly stopped. Pushing their hair backwards, evening out their breaths and walking towards the pair.

Kiro could see sweat trickling down their face, which they awkwardly wiped away. Kiro reckoned this was the president, he was wearing a white coat, underneath he had normal brown pants a white shirt and a pullover.

He was as tall as he was. He looked disheveled, with permanent dark lines under his eyes. Despite how tired he looked he was very clean.

"Sir, hello sir, we weren't expecting you so soon sir." He sounded like someone who had been alone for so long that they'd forgotten to speak properly.

He used sanitiser on his hands, twice. He extended his hand for Kiro's.

"Not a problem president Scott. I felt like driving today, I didn't take a jet. The car was very unkind to the road, that's why we're here way before time." Kiro accepted his hand offer as he said.

He once again sanitised his hand after shaking his hand. He noticed they were looking at him weirdly, he may be socially inept, but he could pick up a thing or two.

"Apologies. I'm a germophobe." He smiled awkwardly as he shook Raul's hand too and doing it all over again.

"That's cool, I guess. Say President, why didn't you take the lift?"

"I'm also claustrophobic." He laughed nervously as he lead them up the stairs into the boardroom.

He told the girls to order coffee and biscuits for the guests as they were waiting for the meeting to finally start.

It was a ten-storey building. Instead of sitting in some boardroom Kiro asked for a tour. The president was more than happy to indulge him.

Each floor had its own use and offices. The ground floor was admin. The next one was research, the other was where the president worked on the AI and so on and so forth. He had a whole floor to himself.

He almost never left it. Everything he needed he could order and it would be delivered here, which gave him more time to perfect his project.

When he talked about his dream as a child and building the AI finally to realise it, he was more confident. He didn't stutter once, this was clearly where he was most comfortable at.

He was bad at first impressions, but Kiro was starting to like him more and more. He found that he was more than glad explaining social queues to the president.

'So this is the thing that put me out of work in my previous life? How utterly embarrassing.' He thought to himself.

As he saw different parts being strewn together, trying to make a body for it, or at least a head.

What the president wanted was that, it would be safely in their headquarters, while it could be uploaded online, buyable and usable for various people who chose to use it. But they'd be unable to study or copy it's code, since it was just a virtual footprint. It'd be operating from within their building.

"That's something president Scott, you've really thought of everything!" Kiro complimented.

"Why, of course I have! I'm glad you can understand my way of thinking Mr. Waynworth."

"It's brilliant."

"You're younger than I anticipated." The president blurted out.

"That's because I am, I'm 17." Kiro told him proudly.

"And already with a great sense for business. You're going places Mr. Waynworth."

Kiro laughed and blushed. Raul was following slowly from behind them, he couldn't help but hear the conversation going on. He was amazed at how relaxed the president was around his toys.

Before they knew it, an hour had already passed. They, at the same time checked their watches. Their eyes turned into saucers as they realised they were 30 minutes late, so they started running up the stairs again.

"Being 30 minutes early, only to be 30 minutes late." Kiro commented through heavy breaths.

The president lightly laughed. They finally reached the door to the meeting room. Jon Scott threw the doors open and entered like he was not late at all.

There were people already sitting around the table. They were having a conversation but it was rudely interrupted by the sound of the door opening. Silence filled the room, as Kiro's eyes fell into a familiar face.

"Felix?"