Saikyou Series Volume 2 s1Chapter 10

Jinrui Saikyou no Netsuai - Chapter 10 From Jinrui Saikyou no Jun'ai by Nisio Isin

I’d expected the workshop on the second floor to actually be built like a lab for research and experimentation instead of a private residence, which was technically right, but I couldn’t help but be disappointed by the facility—it was compact; if I had to say, the so-called lab looked more like an elementary school cooking classroom. I was downright awestruck that such a small-scale “workshop” had produced so vast an amount of earth-shattering, worldview-shattering research… but even so, I desperately wanted to tell them to get a real facility. What on Earth was that old man thinking? Regardless of what Hotsure-chan said before, I really have no clue what went through first-generation Doctor Kitsuregawa’s head. I doubt we’d have much to talk about.

“Here we are.”

Hotsure-chan pointed to a flask atop a tripod on one of the larger tables. A small flame was burning inside it… Oh? I hadn’t done any science experiments in a while, so I couldn’t say for sure, but I felt like the fire in an alcohol lamp or whatnot heats the flask from underneath, not from the inside, right? This flask was sealed with a rubber stopper, but oxygen seemed to be flowing in through several inserted tubes… Hotsure-chan, is this flame what you called the “Lamp of the Destitute”?

“Indeed. However, ‘Lamp of the Destitute’ simply refers to the name of the project. Here, I’ll introduce you.”

Hotsure-chan spoke as if she were about to introduce a friend—or even a little sister.

“This is a gas-based lifeform—its name is Flare.”(1)

I was taken aback, of course, by the softness of the name and the insanity of the statement. If I hadn’t previously promised not to be alarmed, who knows what kind of histrionics I’d have pulled. A “gas-based lifeform”? I looked at Shimegiwa, who was standing in the doorway as if to prevent me from turning tail and running—I looked at his right arm. The boy who could transform his arm into gas and then turn it back to normal, Matsuri Shimegiwa. Then I turned to Hotsure-chan. The homunculus; a child from a test tube. A girl born in a flask—so…?

“Say hello, Flare.”

Without waiting for my reaction, Hotsure-chan faced the flask and began talking to it, speaking to the bright red, blazing fire as though it were a fellow human.

“■

■

□

■

□

□ .”

Sure enough, a faltering “voice” like computerized musical tones sounded out from inside the flask—I took it to mean “Ni

ce

to

me

et

you”. So with no ruse or pretense, I simply told it “Nice to meet you, too”.

“Your common sense has been turned inside out, has it not? Well, this is part of our common sense. This is the purpose of the final research of the first-generation Doctor Kitsuregawa.” Resignation filled Hotsure-chan’s tone of voice. “He strove to create a new lifeform, one superior to humankind. To that end, Grandpa gave life to a flame.”

Matsuri and I were stepping-stones for that end purpose. Hearing that, it finally made sense why she’d sounded so self-deprecating earlier. This felt like the first time since entering this house that something made sense to me. Hotsure-chan: a homunculus produced to find a method to make a human without reproduction, a method to make something out of nothing. Shimegiwa’s arm represented the vaporization of living material. If so, then combining those seemingly disparate methods to take them to the next level would naturally lead to the creation of a non-human lifeform. The creation of a lifeform entirely divorced from the evolutionary tree—it could only seem like he was half-jokingly toying with life.

“Half-jokingly? No, it was all a joke to Doctor Kitsuregawa.” Shimegiwa laughed boldly—boldly but also brashly, with a cheerful smile. “I liked that about him.”

Did you, now. But in another view, if you didn’t like that about him, you wouldn’t be able to put up with him and his personality at all. In that case, maybe Doctor Kitsuregawa’s real motives in abandoning his personality in old age were more complicated than I had thought. No matter what Shimegiwa may think, Doctor Kitsuregawa likely determined that his personality was “unfit” and opted to refresh it in the inheritance—well, no matter how much you hate it, no matter how much you don’t want to, any ordinary person could tell you that you’ve got to live with your personality for your whole life.

“Don’t ponder too much, Jun Aikawa; at the moment, it isn’t as fully realized as you may think. If we divide the progress on the 'Lamp of the Destitute’ into ten steps, this is only step three or four. Flare is like a newborn baby… or rather, an embryo.”

So the flask would be the womb, then. It’s certainly a homunculus… If you think of it as a test-tube baby, it does sound like part of the natural progression of modern chemistry; however, to me, it seemed utterly distinct—Doctor Kitsuregawa probably felt the same way.

“It is extraordinarily fragile, after all. Liable to be extinguished in a gust of air; quite literally a candle in the wind… I apologize for making you run about, but might we return to the dining room once more? We will talk more in detail there—that is, if you still have enough energy to listen.”

What more do you want me to hear? I put as much sarcasm into my answer as I could, but regardless, there was no turning back. As humanity’s strongest, but also as a member of the human race, I had no choice but to listen to what she had to say, and I had no choice but to take the job.

Footnotes:(1) Its name in Japanese is “Fureai”, which is a pun on “flare”. “Fureai” is a nebulous but important concept in Japanese society that refers to the formation of emotional connections between different people.