Chapter 3:
Alice Foyle and Jaunt
ALICE FOYLE was a genius.
She wasn’t just smart, though she was pretty brilliant. When Alice got up to the podium, her long blonde hair flowing down to her hips behind her, everyone must have been thinking, What’s an elementary school kid doing here? And as luck would have it, she actually was a kid. Eleven years old, and yet she’d already graduated from college—an Ivy League college, concurrently.
That said, what was really amazing about Alice Foyle wasn’t simple smarts. Her true talent lay in her viewpoint towards math. She said that equations looked like pictures to her. Unfortunately, it was in a form that made no sense to other people, though she was able to represent everything from simple addition to difficult stuff like the wave equation in pictures and calculate results intuitively. (If you don’t know what this means, please rest assured that I don’t either. Even famous physicists probably wouldn’t get it. Just think of it like this: Alice can figure out equations by drawing pictures.)
Apparently this ability of hers would show its true value in something called quantum computing. She advised, “If we can just develop a quantum computer, I’ll be able to solve the P versus NP problem for you!” (As usual, I had no idea what she meant, but the confident way she said it made it sound pretty amazing.)
Alice furthermore was being counted on to make progress toward a theory of everything from an utterly novel approach. A theory of everything, otherwise known as a Grand Unified Theory (or GUT), makes it possible to represent all the forces of the natural world in a consistent system. It is a dream and an ambition of scientists hoping to explain the strange behavior of quanta and to solve the mysteries of the birth of the universe. So given that people thought she might play a role in this, you can see what a genius she was.
Alice was not (currently) a scientist. In fact, she wasn’t even studying physics. Simply put, the way she saw the world meant she could manage equations intuitively. She didn’t calculate. She inferred. She literally drew pictures to find the right answer or to derive a formula. That was completely outside the range of possibility for normal people and had the potential to create a paradigm shift in the world of math and change the world. That was what made her a genius.
And it reminded me of a certain someone.
The teacher called on Alice, and she walked before the podium. She spoke smoothly, with a sparkling smile. “Greetings, Japan. I am Alice Foyle. I might not be here very long, but it is a pleasure to meet you all. Especially you, Marii Yukari-san. I have been rather eager to meet you.”
Alice Foyle’s purpose in coming to Japan was to scout Yukari for the organization she belonged to—Jaunt.
Alice was adorable from a distance, in the same way that the sharp thorns of a rose won’t prick you if you don’t get too close. Maybe I’m saying this because she was a different ethnicity, but looking at her made me think a terrifying beauty was about to emerge from within. This little kid was always standing up straight like someone was going to bite her. That was simultaneously cute and actually kind of imposing. However, she relaxed only around Yukari.
When Alice was talking to Yukari, she showed the innocence of her age, and it was so charming I’d catch myself staring. Alice spent as much time as she could stuck to Yukari. The sight of the two of them huddled together, as if arm in arm, was immensely relaxing to everyone. Seeing from behind Alice’s long blonde hair strewn across her back and Yukari’s neat, long hair next to it, anyone would feel as if they were looking at some fluffy animals—anyone including Nanami and me, who knew Alice’s true nature—and sigh in rapture. There was no way around it. Yukari loved hugs, so she didn’t seem to mind. The two of them, with their light and dark hair swaying this way and that, formed a much better symbol of world peace than freaking doves (and the way you couldn’t tell what was inside from the external appearance was another factor).
In front of our other classmates, Alice would always play the part of the model student from a foreign country, of a little kid doing her best in an unfamiliar land. In front of Yukari—and in front of Nanami and me, who were always with her (and in front of Kasoku Tomonori, a boy who Nanami often picked fights with, but he’s not important, so we won’t get into that)—she showed her true colors.
As soon as no one else was around, Alice first said to me, “For your information, I do not intend to play at being friends with nobodies like you. They say if you mix with red, you too will become red in turn. The one with whom I want to be friends is Yukari, my fellow genius.”
“Yukari’s…a genius?”
“Yes. Yukari is a genius. Yukari is the true genius. I suppose that nobodies such as you, who cannot accept those who are different from themselves, would not understand. For that reason, Yukari, you should have confidence. You are the one who is worthy. The stupid people who cannot accept you are the ones who should be ashamed to be alive.”
Alice said she always spoke so formally because Japanese was hard (though she made the occasional grammar mistake). Actually, I think she was deliberately looking down upon us. It got hella harsh when our classmates weren’t around.
“Nobodies is a pretty rude word to use,” I argued. “You’re the one who’s closing us off, aren’t you? Maybe you’re a genius or whatever, but we’ve been getting along just fine as friends. I mean, it’s not just us. Everyone in this class—”
“Are you certain about that, Hatou? Perhaps you are the only one who believes that. So, Hatou may argue that point, but what do you think, Tenjou?”
“Me? I—don’t lump me in with Hatou! Like, how dare you even suggest I could be friends with her? Even Mari’s my enemy! With those crazy eyes of hers…”
“Look, just shut up, Tenjou,” I said.
Yukari groaned. “Ngh, Ten-chan…”
Leaving aside that stubborn Nanami… Alice called people without talents—ordinary people like us—nobodies, despised them, and didn’t hide her contempt at all. It would be fair to say she flat-out hated us. This made Alice really a stereotypical stuck-up genius. She brilliantly embodied the stereotype of a kid genius, a child who’s far surpassed adults and sticks out like a sore thumb as a result, and was even subject to persecution as a foreign object.
Alice never tried to tell us about it, but her attitude made it painfully easy to imagine that she had been through some hard stuff. After all, she was still young enough to be in elementary school. The more she demonstrated her disdain for ordinary people, the more it struck home that she was still just a child.
This might be too cynical of me, but I think that’s why Jaunt sent her—because she was a child. Her purpose was to inspire the imagination of Yukari, who was the same type of genius, and make her see a certain future for herself that was convenient for Jaunt.
Alice, in any case, saw Jaunt as her true guardian.
“Yukari. Jaunt is an organization created to protect and nurture special children such as you and me. It has a school, although there are not many people in it. Do you understand, Yukari? I am about to tell you something important. There are other children like us. Children like you who are not known, who are hidden from view. You and I are the lucky ones. We are even more lucky to have met. Most who are like us, almost all of them, just disappear with no opportunity. They have no choice. They must have existed before also. They were only not known. Children who had amazing talent to change the world, unrecognized by others, envied, resented, cut down before they could bear fruit. Jaunt is an organization that was made to protect and nurture such children. It is not public because certain issues are sensitive…but it is a real organization that receives support from the government, do you understand?”
Apparently Jaunt wasn’t the organization’s official name, just a nickname, related to a power that appeared in a sci-fi novel. It got used for convenience and stuck.
“The jaunte appears in a novel by Alfred Bester as a special phenomenon. Do you know the word…teleportation? In Japanese…shunkan idou, right? Of course, this is not a thing proven by science. In this story, this is a fictional power to move a human being by force of will regardless of walls and distance. The people of the future discover it as a new mode of transportation to replace vehicles. But that is not all. It is also portrayed as a mode of rebirth responsible for changing the world.”
Alice spoke with her eyes shining brightly.
“Jaunting is a dynamic symbol of a fierce drive for power. By jaunting, people can break through stagnation and reach new heights. It is the innovation to be pursued. It is a new adaptation. It is the signpost to an open future. That is the jaunte.”
She went on about the organization she belonged to. “Originally, Jaunt was an acronym created from the initials of the founders of the organization, but now that principle is itself the name of the organization. An organization that seeks out, protects, and supports rare talents so that they are not buried by the world. To find a better future. That is the name of our organization—Jaunt. In other words, it is not as if I have forgotten the official name. Jaunt has essentially become the official name.”
She bragged that her surname, Foyle, had been given to her by the current chair. She’d thrown away her genetic family name when she joined.
Later, I learned even more about Alice. Her first name hadn’t been given to her by her parents, either. She chose it herself the day she was taken in by Jaunt. Her environment changed so drastically that she renamed herself. I bet it was after Alice in Wonderland. She probably wanted to be like the blonde girl in that old animated movie.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but that wasn’t her natural hair color. Her hair was black, but she bleached it blonde.
“Before I was discovered by Jaunt,” Alice went on, “I did not understand my talents. I only lived by inertia. It is because of Jaunt that I am happy today.”
“Sounds fishy,” Nanami said. “Like someone selling good luck charms or a proselytizing cult.”
“Oh, dear, Tenjou, are you knowledgeable about such subjects? If not, then politely shut up. You nobodies just simplify things that are beyond your level of comprehension. How awful! Oh, well, I am used to groundless persecution.”
“You think it’s groundless? Think a liiittle harder about that with that genius brain of yours, you little—you little genius girl…”
“Look, knock it off, Tenjou,” I said.
Yukari moaned a regretful “Ohhh, Ten-chan…”