Welcome to Part 4 of Azure Striker Gunvolt: Fleeting Memories! If you missed any of parts 1 through 3, make sure you read those first.
Part 4
“…But enough about that,” Kamizono said.
“We’re still a long way away from fully understanding all of this. I tried to verify the laws and rules by which these kinds of powers work, but when I put all the data together, I wasn’t able to come up with a final conclusion. Look, everyone knows the saying “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” right? Of course that’s just a bunch of drivel but, this kind of research we are doing…it feels like we are trying to find the answer to a similar type of question. Just what kind of principle is at work here? Despite the fact that we don’t have an answer to that question, our work continues on. I’d love to just quit doing this, but the top brass will have none of that.”
Kamizono let out a deep sigh.
“If I could, I’d up and quit doing this kind of research.”
His eyes shifted over to the boy in restraints.
The boy was a product of “Takefutsu”, Sumeragi’s human experimentation project. Kamizono and his colleagues were once part of a different research team that artificially created adepts – the results of which were a massive failure. Originally, this was performed on children born into bad situations. Many of them were homeless or orphans.
“Takefutsu” was also a code name used to refer to the Sumeragi Group, although it wasn’t a name given to it by Sumeragi’s founders.
After someone was captured by Sumeragi, artificial Septimal elements were forcibly transplanted into their body, however the test subjects were unable to control these powers, and because of this failure, Kamizono and his team were labeled with a very harsh stigma from the top brass of Sumeragi. After being passed around from team to team, Kamizono found himself once again assigned the duty of researching Sumeragi’s human guinea pigs like the boy who laid restrained before his eyes.
Now, thanks to the use of a special stone that has the ability to suppress Septimal powers, Sumeragi can now forcibly control these powers.
“This is all just…so horrible. My chest hurts…” the assistant lamented.
“Turning these people into monsters…it just sickens me!” Kamizono scowled.
“This monster just might bare his fangs at us too…”
“…monsters…?” the assistant had a worrisome look on his face.
The assistant was feeling quite uncomfortable with the conversation he was partaking in. He shifted his eyes toward Kamizono.
At first, the assistant thought Kamizono had a rather meek expression on his face…no, it was much more than that…it was downright chilling. The assistant could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
The assistant initially thought that Kamizono detested this kind of inhumane research just as he did, but for the first time, he realized he was mistaken.
Kamizono saw those who were products of the “Takefutsu” program as monsters. It wasn’t the idea of inhumane experimentation that Kamizono hated…it was adepts. Even the poor boy before them, as an adept, artificial or not, he was hated and detested by Kamizono.
Surely, there is a lot of prejudice towards adepts in today’s society. In fact, there are even cases where entire countries have been turned into nothing but scorched earth because of a growing number of rampaging adepts. It was hard to say that calling these people a monster was a mere metaphor.
However, the kind and gentle Kamizono he always knew and the man who stood before him at this moment; the one who called adepts “monsters” with a bloodcurdling look on his face, seemed like two very different sides of the same coin.