Hafu
Pronunciation
'ha – foo
Etymology
Adopted Japanese romaji slang for “half”, originally used to describe biracial people.
Definition
Hybrid beings with a human brain implanted into a robotic shell through Brainplanting.
Hafu can either be off the shelf shells, customized standard, or fully bespoke shells. The most preferred options are customized standard shells.
The shell is biomechanical. It blends organic and mechanical biomimicry parts.
There are practical reasons to switch to Hafu, including a general invulnerability to natural pathogens, avoidance of most diseases, the ability to endure harsher environments, vastly higher strength, and the ability to live a lot longer, restricting the shortening of telomeres and the elimination of inflammation/cytokine response in the brain. It is suggested that a Hafu may live as long as 160 years, though the technology is too young to determine the actual lifespan of a Hafu.
Hafu conversion is not cheap. For the average LoCo Worker, it's roughly equal to 20 years' wages. For the average MoCo Worker, it's equal to 10 years' wages. For Els, it's just 3 years' wages. The total cost is divided equally in half, of which one half is for Brainplanting and the other half for the manufactured shell.
Types of Hafu
- Replica – Copies of a human form, sometimes with embellishments of certain physical features.
- Kawaii – Nominally chibi character height, between 2 and 4 feet tall, with most common size at 4 feet.
- Custom – Fully customized shells, often takes a full year to construct.
- Mecha – 8 foot tall forms, designed primarily for combat and security, restricted access to official governments, although obtainable on the black market.
All of the crew of the Black Flea are Kawaii-Hafu.
— The Warubozu Usagi