บท 43: The Ideal Human Project - Part 1

A/N: I was originally thinking about making an entire volume 0 for this backstory, but I've decided to weave it into this volume instead. So enjoy, I guess.

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"Ayato, this will be your home for the time being."

An old man smiled at me as he showed me the entrance of a large laboratory-like facility. I looked around to see a large number of scientists walking around.

At least I'm not with them anymore.

Although I did miss my sister a little.

He held my hand, and the two of us walked further into the facility. I was shown to a room which looked somewhat like a classroom, but for some reason, there wasn't any stationary or books or anything else you'd expect in a classroom.

"Just wait in here. The rest of the Outcomes will be here soon."

Outcomes?

Suddenly, a young girl ran over and grabbed onto the old man's leg.

"Papa, who's that boy?" she asked.

"That's Ayato. He'll be staying in this facility for the time being."

"Ayato? Is he part of the experiment?"

"Emi, this isn't an experiment. It's a safe space for abandoned children."

I guess this was like an orphanage.

I didn't really care.

There were a few seats and tables strewn around the room. I decided to make my way over and take a seat on one of them.

"Ayato, just wait here, okay?"

"Okay."

The old man and his daughter left the room. I was all alone, with only the sound of silence to listen to. However, I didn't mind that much, and I had already heard too much noise.

A few minutes later, the old man brought a few more children into the room.

From the looks of their faces, they all either appeared to be extremely distressed or extremely unhappy. I wasn't really sure what was going on; I guess they were orphans like me?

As the old man brought the other children in, they were frozen still, like statues. Once they entered the room, they didn't move an inch, only staring down at the floor.

I continued to sit on the chair, swinging my legs as I waited for them to eventually give me something to do.

Slowly, more and more children were brought into the room, and eventually, the old man entered again and closed the door behind him.

"Hello, everyone, I'm Tachibana Kohei. You can call me Tachibana-sensei," his voice was deep and mellow, a soothing tone.

There was no response.

"Aha, alright, this will be your home for the time being. Why don't we play a game to get to know each other?"

Still, no one responded.

I looked around at the group of children; there was a common theme—melancholy.

Unfazed, Tachibana-sensei continued to speak.

"Ah, maybe we don't want to play a game?"

"I want to play a game," the high-pitched voice of a young girl violently broke the silence.

"Ah, Mio, you can play with me if you want~" Tachibana-sensei offered.

"Okay!"

He walked over and lifted up his two pointer fingers.

"Let's play 'chopsticks', do you know how to play?"

"Yes!"

She also raised her two pointer fingers in response.

The two of them played for a little while until, finally, Mio won.

"Ah, you're good, Mio!"

"Ehehe~"

She smiled as Tachibana-sensei celebrated her victory.

"Does anyone else want to play?" he asked.

He looked around to no avail. All of the other children were depressed, either sobbing or silent.

I decided to make my way over.

"I'll play."

"Ayato! You can play against Mio."

"Ah, okay."

Mio turned around and lifted her two pointer fingers. I lifted mine in response. From watching her play against Tachibana-sensei, I was able to deduce the relatively simple rules of the game.

She tapped on my fingers, and the two of us played the game.

Eventually, she won again.

"Yay!"

Well, I guess I lost.

Although, I could already tell that whoever went first was guaranteed to win if they knew the strategy.

A few minutes later, some scientists walked inside the room.

"Tachibana, how are the children?" they asked.

"They're a bit quiet at the moment, but Mio and Ayato played the game with me."

"Alright, so we'll put down Hasegawa Mio and Mizuhara Ayato for the extended program?"

"Yes, please do that."

After scribbling some things down on the clipboard, the scientists left the room again.

Extended program?

"Alright, everyone! Who's hungry?"

As expected, there was no response.

"Come on, guys! Follow me. We'll go to the cafeteria," he continued.

Eventually, he just opened the door and waited for the children to follow him. Hasegawa and I walked over, and some others joined us as well, but most of the children were still frozen in place.

"Come on, guys, aren't you hungry?"

Slowly but surely, the rest of the children also followed behind.

Our group walked through a very long hallway. There were lots of different rooms, which all looked like different types of labs.

We all sat down in the cafeteria as we waited for the food to be given to us.

A few moments later, a scientist approached Tachibana-sensei again.

"Um, so what's the derived quotient of Mizuhara Ayato?"

"It's 99."

"Ah, is he the one related to subject 0?"

"Yes."

The scientist wrote some more stuff down before leaving once again.

(Continued)

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