Tetsuo “Billy” Fukumitsu (哲夫 福光)

This story is part of the Hummingbirds gameplay experience.

You should read it from the main website.

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Tetsuo “Billy” Fukumitsu (哲夫 福光)
General Manager – Fukumitsu Software Solutions

While still relatively unknown to western audiences, the Fukumitsu keiretsu’s influence rapidly grew within the Land of the Rising Sun, notably because of its prominent role in the recent standoffs against the People's Liberation Army. While populist Chinese generals counted upon a superior number of troops and firepower to overwhelm the JSDF during the skirmishes, it turned out to be all for naught; once again, Japanese creativity came to the rescue of its people.

Indeed, rapid advances in the field of nanometallurgy, coupled with the emergence of artificial intelligence, enabled the creation of a new type of military units, nicknamed Mechas. The first sentient robots, designed under the guidance of the keiretsu’s president Soichiro Fukumitsu, were initially laughed out by the PLA’s hierarchy as useless anime toys – the last hope of a desperate culture overtly influenced by science-fiction.

Nevertheless, many members of the Chinese Politburo had to bite their tongue when the new Mechas, which combined the weaponry of an automated land platform with the mobility of a superconductor-powered unit, made short work of Chinese conventional forces during the Senkaku Islands disputes. Fukumitsu’s machines, equipped with high energy lasers, easily disabled enemy projectiles while delivering ruthless suppressive fire.

The demonstration was so brutal that it caused the complete shutdown of explicit Chinese military ambitions toward Asia-Pacific; overly aggressive leaders having been washed out in shame from its top hierarchy. Soichiro Fukumitsu himself was later awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun for his indirect role during the conflict, in which he became known as a strange peacemaker.

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While research in the sector of AI development now abound – both for military and civilian uses, no one has ever been able to match the Japanese creations at this moment. Mechas, unlike conventional weapons, should indeed be compared to artisanal endeavors; each physical part of the robot must be perfectly crafted and integrated with the AI during the machine learning and behavioral training phases.

Still, few people were ever aware of the important role played by Tetsuo Fukumitsu during the initial project, despite his significant contributions to the control algorithms of the first Mechas. To this day, he remains largely unknown, referenced only as Mr. Fukumitsu, Soichiro’s son, and… Junior.

His father, a rigorous executive even by Japanese standards, didn’t help him. The severe man never spoiled an opportunity to remind the mistakes of his child, and particularly during the public board meetings of the company. This eventually led Tetsuo to become a resentful and bitter person, whose primary goal in life would be to surpass his father’s immense fame. Thus, the young man left for America under the guise of his desire to attend graduate school in Stanford, but secretly to find in the United States an emerging technology he could develop as his own.

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Tetsuo’s love for the Rockabilly genre earned him his nickname at the university. The values of nonconformity and freedom symbolized by this culture have always been somehow attractive to him. Thus, the young rebel will usually appear as a calm and controlled person, though a deep anger burns his soul; he will quickly inflame under stress.