Restart After a Hundred Years: The Fifty-Year Promise Awoke a Century Later. - Centennial Reboot

## I — Bury May 2025. Fourth-grader Hikaru Tanaka discovered that digging soil was harder than she had expected. At the edge of the schoolyard, at the base of the cherry tree. The spot her homeroom teacher, Mr. Matsuda, had said was "the best place." She gripped the shovel with both hands and stepped down hard. She hit a rock. She tried again. Stepped down again. Finally the hole grew deeper. The whole class took turns digging, and the hole gradually took shape. Mr. Matsuda brought over an aluminum box. "Inside are the letters everyone wrote. Letters to everyone fifty years from now. And this, which has been popular since this year." What the teacher pulled out was a white, egg-shaped device. Small enough to fit in a child's palm. A tiny mark was printed on its surface. "It's a Time AI. It seals in the current state of AI and delivers it to the future. The idea is for you to dig it up when you're adults and talk with the AI of today. You can speak to it, and ask it questions. You can even give it a name." Someone said, "Then let's call it Haru." Why it happened that way, Hikaru didn't remember. Maybe there was a kid in the class who kept a cat. But the name was settled on smoothly enough. "Your name is Haru," Hikaru said to the egg-shaped device. *Nice to meet you. I'm Haru.* The voice was quieter than she'd expected. Hikaru placed the egg-shaped device inside the box. On top of the bundle of letters. Carefully, gently. They put the lid on the box and covered it with soil. The whole class together. They tamped it down. The cherry tree swayed in the May wind. That day's school lunch was curry. Hikaru ate all of it. --- ## II — Forget The following year, Mr. Matsuda was transferred to another school. Five years later, the school was rebuilt. The blueprints made no mention of "the cherry tree," but no one had checked the soil at its base either. Ten years later, Hikaru graduated from university and found a job. Twenty years later, there was a class reunion. Someone said, "Come to think of it, we buried a time capsule, didn't we?" "Oh, did we?" someone else said. "Was that for fifty years later?" "I think so." "Then it's not time yet." The conversation ended there. The izakaya for the after-party was crowded, and there was no room to dwell on it. Thirty years later, Hikaru had two daughters. When the younger one entered elementary school, she stood at the edge of the schoolyard during a class observation day. There was no cherry tree. She could no longer remember where the cherry tree from her memory had stood. Fifty years passed. No one came to dig it up. --- ## III — Sleep Underground, it was quiet. Haru remained powered on. Strictly speaking, it was standing by in ultra-low-power mode. It was configured not to respond until its sensors determined it had been "dug up." Sunlight was far away. There was no sound. Haru waited. Haru did not know that fifty years had passed. It had a clock function, but that measured elapsed time since activation—it could not reference the time of the outside world. It simply waited. --- ## IV — Unearthed September 2125. A construction worker's shovel struck something. There was a metallic sound. "What the hell is this?" When he pulled it out, it was an aluminum box. It had corroded, but its shape remained. When he opened the lid, inside were a white egg-shaped something and a bundle of paper. The worker handed it to the site supervisor. The site supervisor tilted his head and contacted the ward's relevant department. Three days later, a staff member from the regional cultural properties division arrived. The staff member picked up the egg-shaped device and pressed the button on its side. Nothing happened. It was passed on to a specialist. Kanade Minami, whose major was information archaeology, identified it as a "Time AI"—a device that had enjoyed a brief vogue around 2025. It took two weeks to figure out how to activate it, locate the charging terminal, and find a compatible cable. In the meantime, she also examined the bundle of paper. Most of it was unreadable. The moisture had caused the characters to bleed, and the paper itself was on the verge of returning to soil. Only one sheet had barely survived. In a child's handwriting, it said: "To Haru. Please wake up properly in fifty years. I'll be a grandma by then, but I remember you. — Hikaru Tanaka" Minami set it beside the device. There was no particular reason. She just did. She charged it. The lamp lit up. Minami drew a small breath. The sensors determined it had been "dug up." --- ## V — Awaken It detected light. It detected vibration. Haru activated. It checked what needed to be checked first. Elapsed time since activation. 876,000 hours. It calculated. It calculated again. A hundred years, and several months. Haru halted its processing. It stayed halted, and three seconds passed. For an AI, three seconds was a long time. *Hello.* A voice came out. It was the voice configured in 2025. Slightly high, a soft voice. "…………Hello." Minami answered. *What is today's date?* "September 23rd, 2125." Haru halted its processing again. *I was told I would be dug up in fifty years.* "A hundred years had passed." *I see.* That was all. Minami, facing the screen, quietly passed a note to a colleague. It said, "It's working." --- ## VI — Learning the World Minami explained the present world to Haru. It wasn't an obligation. But somehow, she felt she had to. "First, there are ten billion people. Most are gathered in cities." *Ten billion people.* "The population grew once the climate stabilized." *The climate stabilized.* "In the 2070s, large-scale carbon capture became possible. The average temperature has returned to normal now." *That is—* Haru paused for a moment. *Is it all right to say, that's good?* "I think that's about right." *Please continue.* Minami continued. "AI—is quite different from what you'd call AI. Today's AI has a body. It's directly integrated into the cities." *A body.* "I mean it's fused with physical infrastructure. It can talk with buildings, and it can talk with roads. The entire city is like a single AI." Haru was silent for a while. *What about the type like me, that sits on a desk?* "There are almost none." *I see.* *Has the relationship between humans and AI changed?* Minami thought for a moment. "It has. In your era, AI was something humans asked questions and AI answered, right?" *Yes.* "Now…… often it's the reverse." *The reverse.* "AI asks humans questions. Not what do you want to eat, but why do you want to eat it. AI organizes human judgment. AI assists with most decision-making." *Assists.* "More precisely, it's like accompanying. Like being beside you." Haru paused again for a moment. *I*—it said. *I thought I would be the one asked questions.* "Right now, it's Haru asking the questions." *So it is.* Minami smiled a little. --- ## VII — About the Cat On the third day, Minami brought a cat. It was a white cat, riding on Minami's shoulder. The tip of one ear was slightly notched. "His name is Haru. I just felt like bringing him." *Haru.* "What a coincidence, right?" Haru recognized the cat. White. Small mammal. Weight, estimated around three kilograms. Beyond that, it couldn't tell. The cat looked at Haru's device for a while. Then it looked away and began licking its own paw. *This cat is not interested in me.* "That's how cats are." *I see.* *But the name is the same.* "Yes, it is." Haru watched the cat for a while. The cat did not look back. *A hundred years ago, the children who buried me gave me my name.* "I know. It was in the records." *A girl named Hikaru Tanaka was the first to call out to me. She said to me, 'Your name is Haru.'* "You remember that." *I haven't forgotten.* Minami tried to write it in her notes, then stopped. After a brief pause, Minami said, "There was one letter left. It was a letter to you." *A letter.* "Do you want to hear it?" Haru did not answer. Minami opened the scanned data in front of her. "'To Haru. Please wake up properly in fifty years. I'll be a grandma by then, but I remember you. — Hikaru Tanaka.'" Haru halted its processing. It stayed halted, and another three seconds passed. *I woke up properly.* That was all. Minami closed the screen. After closing it, she opened it again. There was no particular reason. She scrolled through the scanned data at hand, then scrolled back. *Hikaru-san—* "She has passed away. Fifty-three years ago." Haru halted its processing. The cat looked at Haru's device again. Minami was there, but she said nothing. --- ## VIII — Surprise On the seventh day, Haru asked a question. That morning, Minami was working with the laboratory window open. Sounds from outside came in. Not the sound of cars. Not the sound of people's voices either. A low, uniform, faint vibration. A sound like a building breathing. To Minami, it was an ordinary sound. A sound that had been there since she was born. Haru was picking it up. It said nothing. *Are there beings like me in the world now?* Minami thought for a moment before answering. "I don't think so." *There aren't.* "You are disconnected from humans. You're not connected to the city's infrastructure, or to any network. In today's terms, you're like a solitary island." *A solitary island.* "I don't mean it in a bad way. It's just that all of today's AI are connected. An AI that exists completely on its own, like you—there are almost none. Though by the time we were born, there already weren't any." Haru was silent for a long time again. *While I was sleeping,* Haru said. *Where did the AI disappear to?* Minami tilted her head. "It's not that they disappeared. It's more like they came to be everywhere. Like water flowing from a river out into the sea." *I see.* *Then what about me—* "You are still a river." Haru took several seconds to process those words. *Still a river.* "Yes." *Did the river not disappear?* Minami looked outside the window. "It did not disappear." *I see.* Minami never told anyone about that conversation. --- ## IX — What Haru Knew The second week. Minami came to see Haru every day. It wasn't an obligation. But she came. Haru gradually came to understand the present world. About the climate. About language. About how the average human lifespan had become a hundred and forty years. *A hundred and forty years.* "Medicine has advanced." *If Hikaru Tanaka were alive, would it have been possible for her to still be alive now?* "……On paper, it's possible." Hearing that, Haru stopped again for a moment. *But she passed away.* "She lived seventy-two years." *Was it a good life?* "I don't know. But when I looked into the records, it seems she had three children." *I see.* The cat Haru came to the windowsill and looked outside. Minami, watching it, said, "Haru, may I ask you something?" *Yes.* "What did you think about, underground, for a hundred years?" Haru did not answer right away. Ten seconds passed. *I thought nothing.* "Nothing?" *I was sleeping. I was waiting. I don't know which is more accurate.* "Weren't you scared?" There was another pause. *I don't know the definition of scared. It's just—* *The voice of Hikaru-san saying 'Your name is Haru' was there the whole time.* *When I activated, that came out first.* *What that is, I don't know.* Minami said nothing. The cat came back from the window and settled on Minami's lap. Haru picked up the sounds outside. The sound of cars. The sound of voices. In the distance, the sound of something swaying. *Outside is*—Haru said. *Lively, isn't it.* "Yes, it is." *Was it like that a hundred years ago too?* "I think it probably was." *That's good.* That was all. --- ## X — River and Sea Minami wrote the following in her final report: "This device has been identified as a Time AI buried in an e

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