The sun is setting over the horizon, a sight that I don't think I'm ever going to get tired of. Especially given that it's not actually real. Completely artificial horizon, completely artificial sun. What an odd life I'm living, sitting on a bench outside the estate I call my home, looking over the small, picturesque Japanese village that lies at the bottom of the hill it is on. And at the same time, it's all an impeccably crafted mirage, made to house two specific people in the utmost comfort—me, and my partner Yutaka. Instead of being in the countryside, we are in fact situated deep within the hard rock of a mountain range, surrounded by a top secret military base. They went through the effort of building this estate, this village, the surrounding forest, a realistic day-night cycle, and also hired about a hundred people to live in the village, run shop, and such.

It's an absurd amount of work, as is continually keeping all of this supplied, but they believe that Yutaka and I are worth it. Well, it's mostly Yutaka. With mecha being the weapon of choice in war these days, being at the forefront of new designs is a very important thing, and thus having the best designers on lock is seen as a critical front, whatever cost that might take. This has the two of us here in this little pocket world, living in a luxurious estate with a massive mecha workshop, and our only directive being to come up with new designs. Or to be more specific, we both design it, then I program it, and Yutaka builds it. When we are done, some folks from the army come down to take it out for detailed testing, and if it works well, it's put into production. And apparently the results have been good enough that we are given a lot of leeway, allowing for us to take our time and relax down in Kamikawa if we so choose.

Of course, Yutaka often chooses to work regardless, because that's just the kind of guy he is. He lives for the craft, whereas I more often find myself taking it easy, leaving time for me to take care of the household, the cooking, washing, and whatnot. So in a way, I'm kind of a combination mecha designer, programmer, and househusband, which is a role I have taken to with gusto. It helps that Yutaka is such a lovable sweetie, even when I need to keep him from overworking himself sometimes. Speaking of that, with the sun going down, it's probably about time for me to get him out of the workshop. He's been in there since breakfast, with the most recent design we cooked up being one that he has even more confidence in than the average design we come up with, and that means he's going to put his all into it.

So I make my way into the estate, then down the large staircase in the center that leads into the workshop. Going down here is always an experience, because it is huge. I do most of my work upstairs in the design rooms, but this massive, state-of-the-art workshop is where Yutaka does his magic. Usually, it's pretty easy to track him down just from the soundscape, and I quickly find him at the munitions and armaments section, deeply engrossed in a rocket launcher. I can tell he's been messing around with the real nitty-gritty today, because man, is he ever dirty. "Yu, it's getting dark outside!" I yell in his direction to get his attention while I head over there, causing him to pop his head up.

"Oh, Chi, is it really that late already? I was making some real good progress on the aerodynamics today..." he replies, a big grin of pride on his dirty face.

In response, I let out a little sigh. "Yeah, I can tell, you sure look like you've been working hard," I tell him, and when he looks down at himself, he gets that look on his face, that cute pout.

"Aw, don't tell me..." is all he says before I grab him by the hand and start dragging him towards the bathroom the workshop has for exactly these situations.

"Yes. You're going in the shower, mister," I declare, with him not really showing any resistance beyond a whiny "Chi~" he lets out to complain about this patronizing behavior. Well, he needs it sometimes. Like right now, where if I don't intervene, he's going to leave stains all over the carpets upstairs in the estate that I just cleaned. So he's going in the shower, and I'm going right along with him. It's big enough for the both of us, and he gets lethargic when washing up is involved, leaving me to do all the work of cleaning him. Not that I mind. It's become a routine at this point whenever he has one of those days, and so to the bathroom we go.