Yo! Hikou no Kokoro is back and better than ever! Well, not necessarily the latter, but you get what I mean. I'm finally back into writing and this is what I somehow ended up concocting. To Create Perfection is finally here, and it'll be my first chaptered Hetalia fic after my weird hiatus, and hopefully my first completed fic. I've already written the first few chapters, so I'll post them up when I feel like it (most likely about a week and a half away from now). Unfortunately, Kit-chan hasn't edited this yet, but hopefully this thing won't be too bad without her.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy! And, please note, this will not be a first-person fic.
Disclaimer: I don't own Axis Powers: Hetalia, which is owned by Himayura Hidekaz. I simply own this AU plot.
To Create Perfection
"The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be."
—Paul Valery
"Theory 1: Prologue"
What was the happiest moment in your life? Was it when you kissed your spouse on your wedding day? Was it when you made your first friend? Was it when you were reunited with your long-lost family, friend, special someone? Was it when you realised that there's somebody by your side to help you up when you fall? Was it when you were saved? Was it when you had a hand to hold when crossing the street? Or, was it when that one person who caused your eternal suffering had died, was executed, or was killed by your hand?
Whatever it was, keep it close. That's what I did. I don't know if that was what shaped me into what I am now—blind, immobile, stupid, forgotten—but I do know that I don't regret it. I carry it with me every second I'm living through. Why wouldn't I? It was the happiest day of my life. And it was also my saddest.
I remember seeing a boy on a stage. He was smiling, holding a plaque and a letter. The whole audience was clapping and standing. Even the people behind him were cheering. Everyone congratulated him. But, all the praises did not highlight why this moment was his happiest.
You see, he had been dreaming to go to the World Domain. I mean, why wouldn't he? Located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it was an artificial island made of trash. Trash, of all things! Scum had become the foundation of the very symbol of science, innovation, and reason. Or, to be more accurate, the symbol had turned garbage into greatness. And everyone wanted a taste of this advancement. But that wasn't the only part of the World Domain that made it famous. What made it truly amazing were its purpose and the things it did, namely the creation of the Buchen Centre of Scientific Experimentation in the World Domain, or BCWD for short.
Sometime, about 170 years ago, a few countries—e.g. America, Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia—had decided to create a reserved island, or a nation, specialised in scientific advancements. Now, why would this idea pass, you may ask? Well, before science had been limited by people and their emotions. Angry protesters would scream out, claiming an experiment as immoral. With these vicious objections, scientists would hesitate, becoming afraid and stunting the rate of discoveries and advancements. That was no good. So the United States proposed an idea: What if science was completely separated from humanity? That way, beliefs and politics wouldn't go messing around with potentially ground-breaking research. Although some countries deeply rooted in religion spoke out against such audacious ideas, the majority agreed and created the World Domain. Standing upon land converted from trash, the World Domain strove only for science and reason. It had a government run by logic, not people. There were no imaginary borders, for they were useless anyway. People could do whatever they wanted, but only within reason. Justice was based on reason, rather than emotion or morality. The World Domain was a black-and-white environment. Things were made simple. And everything made sense.
The World Domain also stood at the very pinnacle of scientific development. Nobody was there to make it controversial. As long as something had a purpose, no research would be stopped. And that made advancements so much easier, and miraculous discoveries like Romulus Vargas' cure for cancer and Alan Bielschmidt's cure for Alzheimer's had been found at rates history had never seen before. Thus, many have not regretted the separation of science from humanity; so many lives have been saved due to all the lab work previously stunted and controversial.
So scientists around the world hoped to work in one of the World Domain's prestigious labs. However, predictably, only the most capable were allowed access. Although money had a role in sponsorships, the wealth of candidates was completely disregarded until the population was whittled down into only the competent of all social classes. But, what did competence mean in the World Domain? Minimalist requirements? Passing by the skin of teeth? No. Competence meant genius. And genius meant perfection. And perfection was above and beyond.
By these standards, only one out of thousands was able to get into the World Domain's prestigious labs. And only one out of hundreds of thousands was able to work in the centre of the island's network of labs, BCWD. As a result, joining BCWD's staff was a lofty dream, even for those who have lived in the World Domain's high standards for all their lives.
However, many still held this lofty dream. And one of them was the boy on the stage.
Now, let me tell you a bit about the boy on the stage. He was a dreamer. Always was, like the rest of his family. He wanted to live in a happy, beautiful world, just like the ones in his beloved fairy tales and fantasies. Unfortunately, that would never happen. He knew that. So he decided to at least help make the world better. As a result, he resolved to save lives. At least, then, the world would become just a bit happier, even with all the strife and tragedies. And what else would be the best way to save lives? Science of course. And where was the best place to go for science? BCWD. This was his dream.
But there was a slight problem. His parents specialised in folklore and theology, both dying fields. They had little hands in science or even mathematics. His father could barely do arithmetic, and his mother knew only the minimum of algebra. So familial-wise, he didn't stand a chance to anyone who grew up with scientists or mathematicians. Additionally, he lived outside of the World Domain. That caused some problems. He didn't live under the near impossible standards necessary in the World Domain, so he wasn't used to the toil experienced by students of the island. And finance became a problem. The World Domain may disregard monetary wealth, but the rest of the world didn't. The boy's parents made little, for professions in folklore and theology required a lot of money, specifically for travel, and gave little to none. As a result, the whole family barely went by necessity-wise, and the children themselves had to pay for any extra education, especially the eldest brother, who was able to get a job first so had to fund for his younger siblings. But, how much could a child of no profession provide for income? Not much compared to the costs of advanced education anyway.
Despite these factors, the boy kept dreaming. He did small chores before getting a real job. And then he used his salary solely for schooling, textbooks, and maybe a few novels, for they were his sole luxury he allowed. As for homework, he had a habit of going above and beyond. He would look for extra work to refine his knowledge and extra research for any information that he may find interesting. Although the humanities classes were by far his favourite due to his natural genius for them, he continued to focus on science, taking additional classes to possibly learn even more. But, most of all, he continued hoping that, one day, an opportunity would send him to at least one of the smaller labs of the World Domain.
Eventually one did. He was recognised to be a candidate for perfect genius. His teachers, let them be in his public high school or his paid advanced classes, immediately sent letters of recommendations, raving about his genius and brilliant work ethic. By the end of his high school years, scholarships were flying at him, imploring him to accept. But only one caught his eye. He had received it upon the stage during his high school graduation. And he would never trade it with anything else in the world. It promised the fulfilment of his childhood dreams: An all-tuition-paid five to six years in the esteemed BCWD University, the school that almost guaranteed the entry to BCWD.
In one moment, one boy's impossible dream became within reach.
Now who was this boy? This genius of both science and humanities? Arthur Kirkland, of course.
What, you thought it was me? Don't be stupid. I may have been a dreamer, but I have accomplished nothing in my life. I was, and still am, simply an observer, whose point of view is from a soldier living as far as the sky. A spectator with wrathful benevolence as his sole virtue, and a gun his only kindness. That's who I am. It's nothing much, really. Nothing important.
What's important is Arthur Kirkland. The boy who became a famous scientist and a world's hero. He's the centre of it all. And he's the end of BCWD's notorious history, starting with this moment on stage with scholarship in hand. He was the beginning of a war. With battles between science and humanity. Where even God was a soldier.
Let me tell you my story.