Jinrui Saikyou no Jun'ai –

Nisioisin

p. 33-37

Of

course, this isn’t to say that the true ident.i.ty of the infamous

Doctor Kitsuregawa, the researcher of humans who doesn’t give a flute

about anyone, is a five-year-old girl; that would be stupid. No

matter how you slice it, the timeline wouldn’t make sense. When I

first heard his name, that mad scientist was already over seventy

years old. And the full name I heard wasn’t even “Hotsure

Kitsuregawa” to begin with, but rather “Motsure Kitsuregawa”.

Hotsure and Motsure. I wouldn’t go so far as to say those two names

are completely unrelated to each other, but there’s still no way I’d

believe something so idiotic as Doctor Kitsuregawa being a little

baby girl.

“Give

me a break, Jun Aikawa. We’re not trying to pull your leg here—let

me explain the situation. Let’s go inside and have a nice talk over

some coffee.”

As

s.h.i.+megiwa urged, I entered the Kitsuregawas’ house. Part of me

expected that a bizarre sight would await me inside, but I was wrong

again; it was no different from an ordinary home. There was even a

wood-carved bear on top of the shoe shelf. Is this one of those

semi-affluent European-style houses? Hey, s.h.i.+megiwa-kun, I’d just

like to ask; is Doctor Kitsuregawa trying to disguise the fact he’s

doing research by using this normal-looking house?

“No,

there’s no point in disguising anything. No one can copy Doctor

Kitsuregawa’s research anyway, and no one can interfere with it

either.”

I

see. …Come to think of it, he called Doctor Kitsuregawa

“Hotsure-sama” earlier, didn’t he. Hmm? I get that he’d want to

pay respect to the man who developed him (though, to be honest, if it

were me whose arm got remade into flames, there would be h.e.l.l to pay,

not respect)(1), but I have a hard time understanding why he’d use

“sama” to refer to one of Doctor Kitsuregawa’s relatives

(grandchildren?), especially a little girl. It’s not like she’s a

child of a n.o.ble family or something… Could this kid really be

Doctor Kitsuregawa? No, there’s no way… While I was thinking, I was

shown to the dining room. Needless to say, it was an ordinary dining

room. If you lead a life like mine, it’s actually more unusual to be

inside a normal home, so this run-of-the-mill stuff was quite fresh

for me. But, where does the research happen?

“The

second floor, generally. I hope to show it to you later—that is, if

you accept my job.”

The

little girl—Hotsure-chan—spoke falteringly, and sat down in one

of the dining room chairs. s.h.i.+megiwa headed to the kitchen; it seemed

he was really going to make me coffee. Maybe he’ll turn his arm into

flames and boil the water in an instant. Imagining that, I sat down

across from Hotsure-chan. So? Where’s Grandpa? Or Daddy or Mommy.

“Where

should I begin…”

Hotsure-chan

looked up at the ceiling, with a troubled expression most unbecoming

of a little girl.

“I

never had a daddy or a mommy. And just recently, Grandpa—”

She

pointed at the ceiling.

“—Went

up into the sky.”

Oh?

The news itself was of little surprise, and I was able to accept it.

I wouldn’t want to spout something pretentious like “life and death

are just two sides of the same coin”. Those words would be as empty

as the sky.(2) Even I’m not so immature as to tell a child something

cynical like “I’m sure Doctor Kitsuregawa didn’t go up into the

sky, he went deep under the ground”. So, how’d he die? He doesn’t

seem like the type to die of old age. Hotsure-chan turned her gaze,

her piercing gaze, toward me.

“A

successful experiment.”

Now,

that was an answer I had trouble processing. A successful experiment?

Not a failed experiment?

“Yes,

a success—Grandpa didn’t fail.”

What

a thing to say. Makes him sound like an inventor like Edison. What

was it, again; I have not failed, I have succeeded in finding a way

in which it doesn’t work—right? Now that I think about it, Edison

seems like a pretty eccentric man… I wonder what kind of person

Doctor Kitsuregawa was.

“Sorry

for the wait… black is fine, right?”

s.h.i.+megiwa

placed a cup of coffee in front of me, then sat down next to

Hotsure-chan. Even for a young seventeen-year-old, his demeanor

seemed almost parental. It’s true that I can’t read interpersonal

relations.h.i.+ps very well with my mind-reading technique, but I wonder.

Judging from his work in the kitchen and how familiar he seemed with

things, s.h.i.+megiwa must live here… But a teenage boy and a little

girl in the single digits living alone in a house in a residential

area makes me feel a bit uneasy. Maybe it’s a sense of

incongruity—pondering that, I chugged the cup of coffee I’d been

given. Yeah, that was good.

“We

ought to give you a detailed explanation to start things off, right?

Of course, what we say here is strictly confidential. Doctor

Kitsuregawa’s honor is at stake.”

Honor?

Honor, huh. I wouldn’t think a peerless mad scientist would possess

anything so splendid as honor… Well, if you say so, I won’t tell

anyone. Doctor Kitsuregawa’s death is a secret, right?

“Death…

He’s dead in the physical sense. However, mentally, he’s still

alive.”

As

he was talking, s.h.i.+megiwa moved his gaze toward

Hotsure-chan—Hotsure-chan looked fixedly at me.

“Hotsure-sama

has taken over as Doctor Kitsuregawa.”

As

his successor, you mean? Like, she’s taken over Doctor Kitsuregawa’s

research? …No, there’s no way a five-year-old child could do

something like that. Even I couldn’t have done that when I was

five… When I was five, I’d already turned into a good-for-nothing

kid, now that you mention it. In light of that, I guess I can’t

categorically deny anything.

“I

haven’t taken over in the way you’re thinking, Jun Aikawa. I said

earlier that Grandpa went up into the sky, but to be precise, his

spirit did not go into

the sky.”

Hotsure-chan

pointed at the ceiling once again. Obviously, she didn’t seem to mean

that Doctor Kitsuregawa had gone to h.e.l.l—next, Hotsure-chan turned

her finger toward her head. It was the pose you make when shooting

yourself with a pistol.

“He’s

inside my head.”

Even

then, I still didn’t get it, so I have no choice but to admit that I

was being dull. Inside her head. In a broad sense, that could still

be a metaphor for taking over his research… However, the nuance

seemed  rather different—Hotsure-chan’s way of speaking, as well as

the dignity I could feel from her presence; I could even say it felt

uncanny. I looked at s.h.i.+megiwa. You explain.

“It’s

not that hard to understand. Well, in a way it is, but what happened

is simple—you know that Doctor Kitsuregawa did research that

involved tampering with the human mind as a physical object, right?”

I

know. I nodded—I won’t make the reference out loud, but I don’t

suppose s.h.i.+megiwa knows about the Niounomiya siblings. …Hm? So,

what you’re saying is… Really, is that what you’re saying?

“That’s

right. On the brink of death, Doctor Kitsuregawa inserted his mind

into Hotsure-sama’s head—technically speaking, it was a transfer of

memories and knowledge.”

Footnotes:

(1)

In the j.a.panese there’s a play on words with 敬意を払う(to

pay respect) and 薙ぎ払う(to

mow down), since both incorporate the verb 払う

(harau),

to pay.

(2) In the j.a.panese she uses a word for

“false/hypocritical” (空々しい)

that comes from the character for “sky” (空).