Jinrui

Saikyou on Jun'ai –

Nisioisin

p. 28-30

I

did know Doctor Kitsuregawa. He’s something of a celebrity, but at

the same time, he’s remained anonymous and unacknowledged. That’s

because, as a researcher, he could be described as a world-weary

hermit who prefers to avoid people, and also as a mad scientist whom

people prefer to avoid—when both sides are avoiding each other,

there’s no way for them to communicate. If you remember dear old

Doctor Kyouichirou Shadou,(1) he probably makes a similar impression;

however, compared to that Mad Demon, Doctor Kitsuregawa’s research is

a bit on the shadier side. I mean, his research is utterly

mystifying, and in that sense, he’s seriously deviated from normal society—at

the very least, his accomplishments could never win him a n.o.bel

Prize. To give some examples, he’s done stuff like cramming multiple

people’s consciousnesses into a single body, or conversely, making

one consciousness control multiple bodies; trying to give a person

three hearts, swapping people’s minds, and making gla.s.ses that turn

the world upside down; his research isn’t so much useless

as it is liable to cause trouble. If there’s an ideology he’s

consistently followed, it’s like he’s constantly questioning, “How

can I best agitate the world?” It pains me to say so, but compared

to Doctor Kitsuregawa’s ideas, both the ER3 System and the M that my

fathers made would be categorized as decent.

Naturally, a guy like that is an outcast in the scientific world, but

in extremely rare cases, his inventions match up with a demand from

society. Just like planets sometimes align, cases like that do

happen—Izumu Niounomiya, the Man-Eater, is a good example. The

Niounomiya siblings; one as two, two as one. He’d probably be known

as the strongest if it

weren’t for me; that’s the quality of personnel Doctor Kitsuregawa is

able to create, if he feels so inclined. Even I’ve shared in the

fruits of his research—I could probably say I was harmed by it, but

after all, I landed and walked on the moon in his “Closet”

s.p.a.cesuit. The s.p.a.cesuit was durable and easy to move in, and it was

promptly adopted for use by s.p.a.ce agencies around the world, but its

original purpose was to be able to fight aliens, which was pretty

crazy. A researcher who devotes his life to bring useless and

pointless fantasies into reality—that’s Doctor Kitsuregawa.

“To

tell you the truth, I’m one of Doctor Kitsuregawa’s products—though

you might say I’m more like an experiment.”

s.h.i.+megiwa

didn’t have to tell me; that’s what I a.s.sumed. Whether his arm could

turn into a fire or a psycho-gun,(2) as soon as he said it was the

result of that doctor’s research, I understood perfectly. As

mysterious as the trick up s.h.i.+megiwa’s sleeve had been, all sense of

mystery immediately disappeared. It’d be more mysterious if that

wasn’t the case.

Doctor Kitsuregawa’s latest work, Matsuri s.h.i.+megiwa—“Campfires”,

huh. Dear me. The client is Doctor Kitsuregawa… what’s more, he’s

not acting through any agency, but commissioning me directly.

“I’ve

been instructed to guide you. Of course, I’ll wait for you to be done

with your next job or whatever…”

Oh,

no need to wait.

“……”

I

didn’t really mean “no need to wait” as in “I’m turning you

down”. Don’t give me that look. I meant that you don’t have to wait

for me to be done with my next job because I’ll be canceling it,

just like you predicted; so, let’s get going right now.

“W-what?

Is that alright? Being so irresponsible with your work…”

I

don’t need a spiky-haired youngster teaching me how to do my job.

It’s fine; that’s my style. Didn’t you know? My job completion rate

is super low.

“…This

is the first time I’ve met someone who got excited hearing Doctor

Kitsuregawa’s name.”

I’m

not excited, I’m feeling reluctant. It’s just, I would

like to meet and talk with at least once. How to put it; in this flow

of events, it wouldn’t be right to not meet him. But only if we

dispense with any nasty stuff right away—though I can’t deny I’m

looking forward to it, since everything I know about him is from

rumors.

“……”

Well,

if the job is to serve as his guinea pig, then I’ll have to beg off.

Something on the level of testing a s.p.a.cesuit might be alright, but

I’d rather not have my arm turned into gas or anything like that.

“That’s

not what this is about. Please, hear the rest from the doctor… I

can’t explain it very well. I’m not sure what Doctor Kitsuregawa’s

intentions are.”

I

doubt anyone is sure of that.

Footnotes:

(1)

Kyouichirou Shadou, also known as the Mad Demon, was the leader of

the research facility that served as the setting of Psychological,

the third Zaregoto book.

(2) The “psycho-gun” is a cybernetic

arm-laser gun that appears in the manga Cobra.