Chapter 81

SUB.29 Even Enshuu Kihara’s own family had said she wasn’t “Kihara” enough. Her upbringing stood out prominently, even among the other extremely unique Kiharas. Sensible, on the side of justice—a person such as that had taken away Enshuu at a young age. They didn’t do anything to her in particular, just locked her in a dark room with no exit. That was the whole purpose behind them taking her. Kiharas became more Kihara by learning about Kiharas. So perhaps if Enshuu were removed from them during that period of her life when her brain was taking in basic information like language and customs, she wouldn’t turn out like a Kihara—that was their thinking. In actuality, it was no more than a cheap revenge plot orchestrated by someone envious of the Kihara clan for producing so many bona fide geniuses—albeit twisted ones—and justifying their actions by claiming it was for the greater good. They weren’t trying to kill her. Or to hurt her. They just left her in a room and had her spend the months and years without engaging in any learning at all—in essence, they were trying to make a Kihara stupider than they were. They just wanted to sate their twisted desires. In fact, Enshuu didn’t know her multiplication tables, and she couldn’t even write katakana, much less kanji. It was only natural—she hadn’t gone to school, so it didn’t matter how inherently smart or dull she was. That was how things were supposed to have turned out. However. Their infantile revenge plot had been overturned so, so easily. One day, when someone was bringing Enshuu’s regular meal to her dark room, they’d found drawings on the walls and floor. They were far beyond multiplication tables and katakana. They were strange symbols that she’d created herself, describing rows upon rows of incredibly complex equations. Her kidnapper was only smart enough to raise their own position by dragging someone else down; they didn’t find out that the equations were actually the proof for a fundamental theory behind a cryosleep device until later on. If the person hadn’t been dumb, they might have also realized a few other things. The three crayons scattered about the floor had been depicting beauty transcending a perfect golden ratio, the wrinkles in the crumpled-up pieces of paper were a diagram for a parallel processing chip, and the shadows cast by the light of the lamp functioned as a new type of test to bring the depths of a viewer’s psychology to the surface. A Kihara didn’t need any post-birth information input to be a Kihara. A Kihara was blessed by science just by being a Kihara. And to begin with, science was not something that existed only in textbooks and reference manuals. Science made up everything regular and normal in the world. So Enshuu had had many ways to learn. So many reference materials lay in this very room. The dust in the air, the texture of the plastic cups—they’d given her all the knowledge she needed. There was no way to rob a Kihara of science aside from destroying the entire world and leaving no trace of it behind. The ignorant revenge seeker had never realized any of this. The all-too-talented Enshuu didn’t need anyone to teach her. She’d kept playing with science—for as long as she liked. In fact, it was a very pure form of learning—the worst kind. She had nobody to teach her where the line between right and wrong was. I have an idea. And that was why. Enshuu turned to the person who brought her meal and gave them a carefree smile. She understood what would happen to them if she put her idea into motion, and she didn’t hesitate one bit. Nevertheless. She… …felt no dissatisfaction whatsoever at having been locked up in a dark room (and to begin with, as someone who had made many new scientific discoveries from just a drop of water, she didn’t need other information sources from the outside world, like school, or friends, or TV, or the internet). She… …sensed none of the hatred or disgust of the person orchestrating this juvenile revenge plot (she had enough toys to play with in that dark room for a lifetime, so she had no reason to hate them). She… …wore an expression implying she just wanted to show off the inspiration right before her eyes (but nobody had taught her how to repay those who had done her good, and she had no concept of owing someone anything to begin with). She… …cared not at all about the staggering disadvantage she was in, her ankles bound by metal clasps and chains as they were (and these again were not bindings to Enshuu but just one of her toys). I thought of a wonderful way to break out of this prison. She carried out her idea, pure and simple. It was a perfect success. The chains, which she should have never been able to rip off with her hands, fell apart, almost as if melting. The person had no idea what the girl actually used. However, by the time their corpse was discovered, every part of their body had transformed into a waxy substance, save for their head. And their face was twisted in an expression of incredible regret. As if to say that the person who had held her back so much had ascended to the position they’d always wanted, all too easily. Enshuu Kihara wasn’t Kihara enough. By supplementing what she lacked using other sources, she clung to her family’s identity—barely. However, the graphs analyzing other people’s thought patterns weren’t her only sources of information. Her true abilities lay elsewhere. Because despite all her immaturity and idling, Enshuu was still a Kihara.