“Yep. It might be time to wrap up this experiment.”
Zaricks, Saiha, Kunon, and Satori looked over the report they’d all thrown together. Even the professor herself had contributed.
It was early morning on the eleventh day of their experiment in Keym Village. Just like all the days so far, they performed every test they could think of and shared their conjectures.
The three assistants were amazed by Satori’s deep knowledge, while their teacher was impressed by the flexible thinking of their young minds.
The number of water tanks had grown over the course of the experiment. They’d added one each time they thought of something new they wanted to try. It was common for experiments to branch out in unforeseen directions.
The process had been a lot of fun, but they had nearly finished gathering all the necessary data.
“Really? So soon?” asked Zaricks.
“There are still things I want to try,” Saiha protested, “and I’d like to keep observing several of the tanks.”
They both looked unhappy. They’d become even more engrossed in the experiment than the teacher, despite it being Satori’s idea. There was still so much the water-dancing bugs could show them. It would bug them to leave anything about the insect undiscovered, you could say.
“I want to continue the experiment, too.” Kunon was of the same mind.
Actually, his intentions were a little different. He wanted to test the insects more extensively by exposing them to poisons found in other places. It would also bug him to ignore the insect’s potential.
“I understand how you feel,” said Satori, “but you should be able to predict how the experiment will play out from here. We’ve seen the water-dancing bugs adapt to the environment of each tank. It’s only a matter of time until they neutralize the poison. The only question that remains is how long that will take. There’s no need to purify this toxic swamp anyway.”
The toxic swamp near the village was a precious environment where many magical resources grew, and the people of Keym Village had chosen to coexist with the poison.
Satori and her assistants had used the swamp and the surrounding area to perform a limited experiment. It was successful, and they had obtained sufficient data. But the purpose of their experiment was not to eliminate the toxic swamp. It was simply to explore the potential of the water-dancing bug. At least, that had been the intention.
“We either need a new location or a new poison,” said the teacher. “I think it’s time to take the water-dancing bug experiment to its next phase.”
Though she wouldn’t say it out loud, Satori had one more reason for wanting to wrap up the experiment: She wasn’t young anymore.
Her assistants might still be spring chickens, but she didn’t have time to waste on an experiment she could already predict the results of. She lacked the stamina for it, too. She was already quite fatigued.
“…Okay. If you insist, Professor Satori…” Zaricks looked disappointed. But as Satori’s assistants, they had no choice but to obey.
“What do you mean by ‘next phase’? What will you do after this, Professor?” Saiha seemed interested in the teacher’s upcoming experiment. She might have cared more about the insects than the experiment itself; the way she’d stealthily named her favorite water-dancing bug was proof of that.
“I want to study the organs and mechanisms the insects use to neutralize poison. At the same time, I want to see if they can counteract poisons for which there is still no antidote. That will be the purpose of my next experiment.”
Following this experiment, Professor Satori would begin her real research. Her efforts until this point had all been to determine the extent of the water-dancing bug’s adaptability. Before, she’d tested the insects with a variety of well-known venoms. This time, she’d tried an environmental poison. Gaining a sufficient understanding of the water-dancing bug’s adaptability had finally placed Professor Satori at the starting line of her research.
“On that note, we’ll be leaving tomorrow or the day after,” she announced. “Disassemble and clean the tanks we’re done with.”