AI Matsura, the Mayor of Akashi City 's 8,640,000,000 Soliloquies

episode8 Shopping with a personal SkyArk (personal drone).

Suddenly, the power went out. Maybe the GSI (Insect-type Spy Camera) infiltrated the nearby substation and caused mischief again. These kinds of things happen all the time.

Now we can't go shopping. Even though drone taxis have built-in energy fillers, only licensed individuals can operate them when the air traffic control system is down.

Besides, if there's a power outage, we can't use digital currency either.

Dad has all the licenses, but he's asleep now.

"Oh well." I wanted to have bread for the first time in a while.

"We have a wood-burning stove, so how about making stew?"

Mom improvised a stew using whatever was in the refrigerator. "It was delicious." I have no idea.

"But I still want something sweet. Shall we go buy it?"

"But both taxis (automated passenger drones) and cars (self-driving cars) are stopped due to the power outage, and we can't use digital currency."

"Ta-da!"

Mom brought out paper bills. A ten thousand yen bill with Eiichi Shibusawa's design [real currency].

It's the last paper money issued in Japan. After that, they switched to digital yen.

Recently, there have been more power outages in Akashi due to incidents caused by GSI, so the city office issued a notice to keep some cash on hand.

"But how do we get to the shop? And even if we do, the shops use facial recognition for payments, so we won't be able to buy anything if there's a power outage."

"Well, you know that stubborn old lady who still deals in cash in front of Akashi Station, right? We can buy things there, although it might be a bit expensive."

"But how do we get to the station? Are we supposed to walk?"

"No, not like that. Dad has a SkyArk with a hydrogen engine, right? We'll go there."

"Huh? Mom, do you have a driver's license too?"

"You didn't know? I met your dad at the Akashi Driver's License Examination Center. Akashi is the town of driver's license testing centers, and I have a full license too."

"What?!" "I had no idea."

"Well then, let's go!"

It's a SkyArk, a two-seater personal drone with three Kawasaki 1000cc bike engines that run on hydrogen fuel [real model]. "I've been on it with Dad before, and it makes a tremendous noise."

This is a primitive SkyArk that relies only on signals from geostationary satellites [real satellites] for positioning, so it's difficult to get a license for it.

All the other SkyArk taxis are suspended, so the airspace is empty and easy to fly.

We quickly arrived at Akashi Station.

We parked at the SkyPort by the station and headed to the old lady's shop. Dorayaki and a "Gozako" (a traditional Japanese snack) ... It was a tough decision, but I ended up buying two dorayaki.

It cost 4,800 yen for two.

I received change in a Tsuda Umeko bill [real currency] and two 100 yen coins. It was my first time seeing a Tsuda Umeko bill.

Probably because of the power outage, there were quite a few people walking to the old lady's shop to buy things.

"Mom, I bought them."

"Then let's go back." "Shall we take a little detour along the coastline?"

"Sure."

"It seems only the coastal areas here are affected by the power outage since Awaji Island is normally lit."

We took a slightly longer route and returned home.

When we arrived, Dad was standing tall. Well, we did make a lot of noise, so he woke up.

We reheated the stew on the wood-burning stove, and I gave Dad half of the dorayaki.

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Dorayaki, as long as we don't upset the hidden influencer, the next big collapse will happen.