Chapter 95
I came to Tokyo Magic University to show my face to Professor Ohinata, and by sheer luck got to watch a promising research presentation live.
I dropped heavily into a chair in the lecture preparation room and immersed myself in the research materials and papers I'd asked Hiyori to procure. There was quite a while before the monthly faculty meeting ended, so I made good progress reading them.
Mr. Yamagami's paper had a serious "this guy knows what he's doing" feel to it. I still didn't have a clear grasp of just how advanced modern technology was, but even taking that into account, it seemed strange and revolutionary.
Isn't building a magic calculator insane? Without a regular dodecahedral fractal or a magic ruler? Judging from the calculator's blueprints, the processing technology was painfully crude, but the theoretical framework and design philosophy were in a league of their own.
Once you've learned to calculate 1 + 1, you can learn the four basic arithmetic operations.
Then you can make a calculator.
And if you can make a calculator, you can make a computer.
Magic-based wireless telephones already exist, so mobile phones should be possible too.
Smartphones aren't just a dream.
Of course, there was no way smartphones would suddenly be restored next year.
But humanity had once invented the most primitive electronic computer and spread smartphones within less than ninety years, even gaining a foothold in quantum computing.
Even electronics, advancing through unknown territory by trial and error, had taken only ninety years. If so, magic devices—with a clearly visible evolutionary path laid out by the development of electronic devices—were bound to advance even faster.
Mr. Yamagami's research materials were so painstakingly detailed that they practically declared, "No matter how closely you pick apart the details, I'll be fine!" They were the culmination of eighty years of Geometric-Assembly Gremlin research in my absence, and a revolution that rewrote that culmination.
The theory and designs were interesting, and so were the materials used in the magic calculator.
The materials were ones I knew too. However, several materials whose manufacturing methods had been unknown eighty years ago could now be produced. Existing materials had also improved in quality.
For example, Ghost Gremlins.
One component of the Demon King Gremlin, these were invisible gremlins. The physically immune ghost-type monsters found among monsters of Class Otsu or higher possessed these invisible gremlins, but upon death they became visible and lost their properties as Ghost Gremlins.
This had been solved with exorcism magic.
It had been discovered that when ghost-type monsters were killed with exorcism magic, which was especially effective against ghosts, they left behind their gremlins in an invisible state instead of becoming visible.
Thinking in game terms, it was like getting a rare drop by landing the finishing blow with a specific attack.
In terms of meat, it was like slaughtering livestock without stressing it while it was asleep or relaxed, so the blood didn't flood the meat and it became delicious. Well, I didn't actually know what the principle was.
High-Strength Gremlins had a bit of history behind them. Apparently, in the past, small batches of poor-quality, uneven High-Strength Gremlins had been produced by heat-treating fragments of the Spider Witch's decoy bait for a long time at a temperature just below their melting point.
But the current manufacturing method was different. Using the same method as Abyss Gold, they sank gremlins into the deep sea and compressed them with water pressure, making it possible to mass-produce High-Strength Gremlins of stable quality.
I don't know that method! Even if I did, I couldn't do it myself.
Actually, that's how Abyss Gold is made? Does "abyss" mean the deep sea? So it wasn't just a stylish name.
This was a paper on Gremlin engineering, not magic metals, so it didn't go into that aspect in detail. I'd like to read some papers on magic metals later.
A new manufacturing method had also been established for Melt-Resolidified Gremlins.
It was generally known that Melt-Resolidified Gremlins' performance improved dramatically when their layers were formed by vapor deposition instead of simply melting them and cooling them solid again. (I didn't know that.)
The gremlins were heated to a high temperature and vaporized, then the vaporized gremlins were made to adhere to a cooled mold. By carefully stacking the incredibly thin layers of Melt-Resolidified Gremlins produced this way, they could create Melt-Resolidified Gremlins of excellent quality.
Apparently, Shinagawa Materials held more than ninety percent of the domestic market for this new type of Melt-Resolidified Gremlin. Strong.
On the other hand, it was surprising that Elastic Gremlins were listed as having an "unknown manufacturing method."
That couldn't be right, I thought, and read the research materials from beginning to end. Yet they said, "The only ones in existence are disassembled components from the Demon King Gremlin. Production impossible."
Hmm.
"Hey, Hiyori. Humanity still hasn't made it into space since civilization collapsed?"
"What brought that on? As far as I know, we haven't. I've never heard of magic capable of doing that, and I haven't even heard of plans to launch rockets."
"Then that's the reason. If we'd made it there, we'd know by now..."
"What are you talking about? Space travel is still a distant-future concern, surely."
"Well, I found out while researching with Iruma that Elastic Gremlins can be made in theory. Gremlins raised in a zero-gravity environment become Elastic Gremlins. In theory, anyway. We won't know until we try."
"........"
Hiyori fell silent, speechless.
Was that really such a difficult subject? Come on, reboot already!
"...Have we already unraveled every mystery of the Demon King Gremlin?"
"No, no, no, no! Of course not! We don't understand anything about the differences between the patterns of its tensegrity structures. We haven't even found a starting point. We don't even know the purpose of the three-leaf knot. It seems like nothing but an unnecessary part that would be better off absent, but according to Iruma, it absolutely has a purpose."
I understood why Hiyori, a Gremlin engineering amateur, would have such a flippant opinion, but she really shouldn't say things like that.
My research with Iruma had advanced my understanding of magic from elementary-school "arithmetic" to middle-school "mathematics" in a single night, but the Demon King Gremlin was on the level of Fermat's Last Theorem. It was a completely different order of difficulty. You couldn't expect a middle-schooler to solve the greatest problem in mathematics!
"Well, if nobody knows how to make Elastic Gremlins, have Hiyori tell some suitable person. Call it the Iruma Method or something."
"No, that name won't do. Call it the Dairi Method or the 0933 Method."
"Huh? But Iruma was the one who thought of it...?"
"Just hearing Iruma's name is enough to make long-lived people like me resentful. Put it under Dairi's name."
I was chided and left feeling unsettled.
When she put it that way, she had a point. I could understand that some people might be allergic to seeing Iruma's name alone. If someone told me, "This was devised by Iruma," I'd feel uneasy and wonder, "Is that really safe?"
"I understand what you're saying. But Iruma was the one who thought of it, so putting my name on it feels like stealing his credit."
"What are you talking about? That night, Iruma controlled Dairi and stole Dairi's power. It was all Dairi's achievement."
"Oh. Wow."
Her forceful tone made me draw back a little. I could really feel how much she hated Iruma...!
The angel in my head whispered, "Even so, Iruma really was incredibly intelligent. The credit belongs to Iruma." As it whispered, that angel was grabbing Iruma by the collar and repeatedly punching him in the face.
Well, fine then. It can be my achievement. Iruma's smart, but he's got a lousy personality. Tough luck, Iruma.
While chatting with Hiyori from time to time, I read the papers and absorbed the latest research knowledge and technology. Eventually, I heard the sound of people noisily filing out of the meeting room next door. The monthly meeting seemed to be over.
Once the people had cleared out, I sent Hiyori to scout ahead and confirm that no one was in the hallway, then left the preparation room and entered the meeting room.
Only Professor Ohinata remained in the meeting room.
The professor, who had been gazing blankly at the city at dusk by the window, had aged over the course of eighty years.
She hadn't become a grandmother, though. I'd heard that her body had become abnormal due to a transformation-magic bug, apparently slowing her aging, and the effects had become clearly visible in her appearance over the eighty years.
Professor Ohinata was no longer a middle-schooler with stoat ears.
She had become an adult woman in her early twenties, still with stoat ears.
Hmm. Her aging rate was probably around one-sixth to one-eighth? She didn't seem to be an eternally beautiful girl like Hiyori.
When I entered, the professor's eyes widened and she hurried over to me.
"Dairi-san...! Welcome back! I, I...!"
"Oh, could you turn into a stoat?"
"You could at least show some consideration at a time like this."
The professor was about to throw herself at me with tears in her eyes, so I stopped her.
Hiyori reproached me, but I ignored her. No matter the occasion, I disliked what I disliked, and I was bad with what I was bad with.
Sorry, Professor. This part of me didn't change even after I died.
Though I'd rejected her, the professor didn't droop sadly. On the contrary, she smiled happily.
Wait, had she discovered her masochistic side while we were apart?
"Wow, it's really Dairi-san! That's exactly how Dairi-san talks! Sorry about the appearance; I'll transform now. Cross the back; if you spit out Cai, even a little mouse becomes a white beast."
The professor had chosen a strange way to verify my identity. With a sound like a balloon popping, she transformed into a stoat amid white smoke. The stoat that wriggled out from the clothes dropped on the floor looked up at me with round, shining eyes, and I couldn't help grinning.
Yaaaaay! It's a stoat! Insanely cute! Nothing's changed here! Stay that way forever!
"Good girl, good girl. Professor, want to sit on my lap? I brought a comb and scissors, so I'll brush out your winter coat, thin it a little, and give you a good brushing."
"Um... In that case, I'll take you up on your kind offer!"
The stoat professor glanced at Hiyori's expression, and after confirming her nod, scampered over and climbed onto my lap as I sat in the chair.
The moment I began trimming her, the professor went all limp and opened her mouth halfway in bliss. Hiyori gave an exasperated smile at her undignified state.
"Mrrr... Dairi-san."
"Hm?"
"I get lonely when Dairi-san isn't here. Please don't go away again, okay?"
"That's too much to ask. People die."
"Dairi...!"
Hiyori reproached me again, but what could I do? If I said, "I won't ever go away again," I'd be lying.
There was resurrection magic, and my lifespan had been vaguely extended, so our final farewell had been pushed farther away. But that day would come eventually. Denying the facts wouldn't make them disappear.
"It's a strange way to put it, but as long as I'm alive, I won't disappear. Settle for us being best friends forever."
"Dairi...!"
Hiyori repeated the same words, this time in an impressed tone.
"You're insensitive, but you're all the more genuinely honest for it."
"Really...?"
I mean, if there aren't any cars around, I have no problem running a red light.
I also leave wallets I've found lying in a conspicuous spot on a wall somewhere instead of taking them to the police box.
I used to put unofficial, unauthorized homemade anime fan goods up for auction online, too.
If I'm considered sincere, then probably ninety percent of the world is sincere. The other ten percent are scum.
As I carefully groomed the stoat, I heard about what had happened while I was dead. Apparently, the professor had also worked hard to bring me back while carrying on with her own work.
Specifically, she had searched for resurrection magic from the field of magical linguistics.
Chanting magic activates as long as the pronunciation is accurate and a nearby activation medium is present, even if you don't know what effect it has. That's how I discovered the shooting spell's core incantation, "Fire," on my own.
So, in theory, if you tried every possible combination of sounds, you would eventually find resurrection magic.
Of course, she hadn't simply tried them all at random. She had used the vocabulary and narrative flow of the Nameless Epic to predict, "Perhaps the incantation for resurrection magic is something like this?" Then she narrowed down the pronunciations she tested. Even so, it was a long and painstaking undertaking.
Looking at the results alone, Hiyori had discovered resurrection magic first.
But if Hiyori's journey in search of resurrection magic had dragged on, the professor would have discovered it eventually.
I had been brought back through a thorough, two-layered safety net.
Thank goodness, thank goodness.
While we talked, the professor began to nod off, and by the time I finished trimming her, she had fallen asleep with a peaceful, satisfied look on her face.
I didn't have the heart to wake her, so I laid her on a lap blanket in the corner of the meeting room, draped a handkerchief over her as a cover, and quietly took my leave.
Even after eighty years, a stoat was still a stoat. That was one of the top three happiest pieces of news I'd received since coming back to life.
It grew dark, and as the two of us walked through the university grounds, where only the lights of a few laboratories occupied by all-nighters could be seen here and there, Hiyori spoke up after pondering something.
"Dairi. You're insensitive, but that doesn't mean you lack consideration. You've gotten better than you used to be. So there's something I want to tell you... Avoid talking about marriage in front of Kei-chan."
"Huh? Why? Did she miss her chance to get married?"
"I'm not telling you. Forget it."
"No, sorry, sorry. That was bad wording, right? Probably."
Apparently, the truth could hurt people sometimes.
If someone told me, "So Iruma ambushed you in your sleep and controlled you? Weak, haha," I'd get annoyed too. The fact that something is true doesn't mean you can say whatever you want.
As for deciding what you can and can't say... I had far too little experience with communication to really understand it, but I wanted to be careful within the limits of what I did understand.
When I showed that I regretted it, Hiyori explained the circumstances, though she still looked suspicious.
Apparently, when Professor Ohinata was in her actual twenties, she once had a marriage proposal come up with an American researcher. She grew close to a researcher who had come from America to study in Tokyo, and they became lovers.
But the moment that researcher returned home, he cheated on her.
The scumbag who abandoned an adorable stoat girl to chase after another woman had his infidelity exposed to Professor Ohinata by an American magical linguist who knew her, and the relationship collapsed and ended.
Her second bout of romance came thirty years after that first breakup, when her apparent age had reached roughly that of a high school student.
Her second boyfriend was a sorcerer from a prestigious family in Sendai. He got along well with Professor Ohinata and seemed like an honest man.
The people around them began to think, "With a man like him..." and for a while they even made it as far as an engagement.
But her second boyfriend was duped by a wicked woman and fell for her completely.
The wicked woman, who had approached him for the sake of his family's fortune, won him over with her passionate advances. He broke off his engagement to Professor Ohinata, and the professor cried.
The unilateral broken engagement caused relations between Sendai and Tokyo to deteriorate terribly for several years. The sorcerer's once-prestigious family quickly fell into ruin, the wicked woman vanished from his life after his own family disowned him, and everything collapsed.
And so Professor Ohinata's second relationship ended as well.
The professor was deeply hurt by her two heartbreaks and had not taken another lover since.
She seemed fine on the surface and remained cheerful whenever the subject came up, but she stopped bringing up marriage herself entirely.
The story was so unbelievably sordid that I was speechless for a while.
You're kidding. Cheating was a real concept? I thought it was a fictional idea that existed only in anime, dramas, and manga.
If you're dating a woman because she's the one you like best, secretly dating another woman was completely incomprehensible.
People are human, so their feelings can change, and the woman they like best can change too. I understood that.
But in that case, you should say, "I'm sorry. The person I like best has changed, so I want to break up with you," properly end the relationship, and then start dating the new lover.
Having two lovers at once shouldn't be theoretically possible, yet it actually happened. I couldn't understand it. What was wrong with the world?
And breaking off an engagement made no sense either.
To go so far as deciding, "I have no choice but to marry this person!" and then throw it all away showed an utter lack of consistency. They hadn't been replaced by a different person halfway through, had they?
Maybe they had multiple personalities? That would make sense, but if they'd gotten as far as an engagement, there was no way they wouldn't have known about it...
Professor Ohinata's romantic history was far too bizarre and complicated for me to understand.
A paranormal phenomenon was unfolding. It was plainly beyond human comprehension. Terrifying!
"H-Hey, Hiyori. If you find a man you like more than me, tell me properly, okay? That's too scary."
"Relax. That's impossible."
"Oh, okay. Good. Also, um... Was it okay to tell me all this? I listened, but honestly, I didn't understand any of the logic behind it."
"...If only there were another man besides you who was so single-minded about love that he couldn't understand a thing we just discussed. Though I do think being unable to understand it at all is a problem too.
I told you this on my own initiative, but many people know what happened back then. And it would be better than you making an insensitive remark without knowing anything and reopening Kei-chan's old wounds, wouldn't it?"
I was reminded once again not to talk about marriage in front of Professor Kei Ohinata, and nodded solemnly.
Apparently, Professor Ohinata had suffered through two bizarre ordeals.
Thank goodness my girlfriend was Hiyori. Apparently, it was impossible for her to find a man she liked more than me, so I could date her without a single worry.
Come to think of it, I forgot to ask the professor today, "What is a lover?"
Marriage talk seemed to be off-limits, but even within the same Department of Love Studies, the Lover Studies course and the Marriage Studies course were different, so this should be okay. The terms were different, after all.
I'd ask her the next time we met.