“As I’m sure you’re all aware, aether is the medium for all sound, light, and particles. The origins of aether theory go all the way back to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, and the theory of four elements. He believed that all things start out as a single matter called the prima materia, and that by applying the qualities hot, cold, wet, and dry you created the four elements of fire, air, water, and earth. Hot and dry together create fire, hot and wet create air, cold and wet create water, and cold and dry create earth. Hot and cold, and dry and wet were incompatible with each other and could not be combined. Additionally, Aristotle proposed a fifth element named aether, one that would control the heavenly bodies, and which he believed to be pure prima materia. Modern physics is based on this idea of the four element theory. What originally exists is just aether, and by applying different qualities to it, we get all types of matter. These days the four qualities Aristotle proposed are understood to be aether frequencies. The frequencies alone apply qualities, and the combination of different frequencies creates the different forces of sounds, lights, and particles that form the world around us.”
“But aether isn’t the only theory,” one of the passengers interrupted. “There’s also the theory of Fields!”
Fields. A pretty old-fashioned concept, but apparently some people still believed in it. Unfortunately, these ideas had fallen out of fashion in modern physics, and Akane was not well versed in them.
Akane thought for a few moments, considering how to respond. Fortunately, a more knowledgeable passenger stepped in, breaking the silence.
“Fields? The idea that there’s a field for everything that describes values for those qualities, and that as long as there is space, there is a field, no medium is required? That’s certainly one way of looking at things, but the calculations required to show how multiple fields interact produced infinities, making it functionally useless to calculate anything.”
Akane accepted this help, cleared her throat, and continued her speech.
“The vibrations caused by the friction between aether and the Earth cause the quality of light to be attached to it, creating the aether luminescence. All life on Earth uses this luminescence as the basis for our energy. Throughout the Milky Way, it’s rare to find anywhere with gravity this stable. All of us here are quite lucky. If gravity weren’t set up exactly the way it is, life would never have started.”
“Um, what happens to aether that falls onto the Earth?” a passenger asked.
Google it, Akane thought, but she gave the textbook response.
“That’s a good question. Apparently, that’s one of the biggest problems in modern physics. We know that aether attracted by gravity must be entering the Earth’s atmosphere, but the quantity of aether in the atmosphere is far lower than anticipated. In other words, there’s a lot of aether unaccounted for. It appears to be contradicting the law of conservation of mass. This vanishing aether is one of the great mysteries of physics. Although there is a theory that says the vanishing aether is being converted into gravitational energy.”
“The three great mysteries of modern physics are the origins of gravity, the vanishing aether, and dark matter, right?”
“Wow, you sure know your stuff!”
It seemed like this passenger couldn’t just hold his tongue, so Akane let a slightly phony note creep into her voice. She’d been doing this a while and could handle a crowd like this in her sleep.
“Not only is the aether disappearing a mystery, the source of gravity is also a big problem. Before the Great Seiyuu Age, there was the theory of universal gravitation, which suggested that all mass was a source of gravity, but these days we know that the gravity frequency is an extremely complicated one, and not one that easily occurs. Sectors where gravity exists do seem to comply with the law of universal gravitation, though. Additionally, there are constructs like the solar system or the Milky Way that form around the gravitational pull of a central celestial object, but simulations run on our solar system show that aether friction should have caused the Earth to fall into the sun after a few hundred thousand years. But physics has proven that at least five trillion years have passed since the Earth was born. To solve this contradiction, physicists have proposed the existence in the solar system of a gravitational source other than the observed celestial bodies — this is what is commonly referred to as dark matter. This hypothesis states that undetectable, unknown dark matter is scattered throughout the solar system, maintaining a gravitational balance that prevents the planets from falling into the sun. However, a major criticism of this hypothesis is that the distribution of this dark matter is not sufficiently arbitrary.”
“Oh, also, isn’t it a big problem that seiyuu can break the law of conservation of energy?”
“That’s correct. Lately some people are including that problem and calling it the four great mysteries. As a seiyuu myself, I’m honored to be included. But maybe just a little embarrassed...”
Akane concluded her lecture, and the junior class seiyuu began handed out drinks to the passengers. This was their daily routine.
“Ugh... I’m exhausted...”
They’d been to the moon and back, and Akane was home again. Chugging a Strong Zero to banish the fatigue of work, she lay back on her bed. She was not in the mood for anything active, so she turned the TV on and let it play whatever. An announcer was speaking.
“Five years ago, the theft of the unique small spacecraft The Black Swan made headlines, yet even today the location of it has yet to be discovered. Today, the Space Security Board announced they are increasing the reward offered for any information.”
On screen was an image of an acute isosceles triangle in flight. Akane vaguely remembered it being stolen from a military base and creating a bit of a stir five years ago. It looked pretty powerful, so she briefly imagined herself flying around in it. If it was still missing, maybe it had been taken outside the solar system?
The screen changed. Now it was showing a group of gorillas being slaughtered. Gnarly-looking soldiers in gas masks were attacking the gorillas with flame throwers.
“The gorilla seiyuu rebellion that started in Nigeria last week appears to have been successfully put down by the combined forces of the military and the private security firm, the Rise Detective Agency.”
The uprising of gorilla seiyuu at the Nigerian laryngeal sac factory had been a major focus of the media the last few days. Anthropoid ape farms were still big business. In Africa they used gorillas and chimps, in Indonesia they used orangutans, but they were all raised in vast quantities to be turned into transistor parts.
Even if you introduced the seiyuu genes into anthropoid apes, they had a very low chance of developing a laryngeal sac. Most were deformed and died before birth. In recent years, selective breeding had resulted in gorillas that had a higher chance of growing laryngeal sacs, but as a side effect, they were more intelligent, and had used their seiyuu abilities to start a revolt. Akane had been secretly cheering them on, but they were just gorillas, and had been no match for modern weaponry.
I’ve just got to become the ultimate seiyuu myself, she thought, taking another long pull on her Strong Zero.
The TV screen switched to an image of a building belching smoke.
“More news on that terrorist attack yesterday morning on the Tokyo University Seiyuu Genetics Laboratory. A statement purportedly from the individual responsible has been released on the aethernet. According to it, the motive for the attack was, “There are too many seiyuu.” The note also says, “Seiyuu, listen to the voice,” but the meaning is unclear. The culprit identifies themselves only as the Dark Seiyuu. Security cameras at the scene have captured someone believed to be responsible, and the police are asking for any information...”
Akane had stopped listening to the announcer’s voice. Her eyes were glued to the TV screen. The security footage showed a woman, not very tall. She had a black hood on, so her face was hidden from view, but the laryngeal sac showed she was definitely a seiyuu.
Akane had seen a lot of different seiyuu, so she knew. This was a very well-shaped sac.
The color and size were flawless. This seiyuu was very strong. Top class strength.
If she could get her hands on that laryngeal sac, what more could she ask for? Akane imagined transplanting that to her body, and knew she’d finally be the ultimate seiyuu.
But how could she get in touch with this Dark Seiyuu? She had no idea. Did she have to give up on ever obtaining that sac? She sighed and turned her attention back to the news.
“What do you make of this, ‘Seiyuu, listen to the voice?’”
“We believe it to be some sort of coded message. They’re most likely trying to contact someone through the media.”
Seiyuu, listen to the voice... Akane had heard a voice before. She had no idea what it was, and couldn’t make it out, but that voice definitely made emotions boil up within her.
Was this the voice the Dark Seiyuu meant? Probably not. The delusion that everything happening in the world connected to her was something best abandoned in adolescence.
But that evening the Dark Seiyuu’s laryngeal sac was spinning around inside Akane’s head, and she couldn’t fall asleep. Eventually she gave up and spent all night writing things on social media, not really thinking about it. Before long she found herself talking about the voice she’d heard, ever since she was born. The voice that sounded like it came through several different walls, too muffled to make out, but if she listened closely she’d feel a tightness in her chest.