For a visual example of what Dr. Akihiro looks like, please head over to my Twitter, which can be accessed from my profile, to find a picture of someone I think looks the most like him. The date of that tweet is May 17.
Chapter 3
Seeing Red
"This device is used for creating clouds that has a radius of as close as ten kilometers," a staff member of Ota Tech explained to the audience the usage of a rocket-shaped device placed on a table. "Using this, it is possible to create artificial rain and snow clouds! There's another use for it: when there is a widespread epidemic, the cure can be used with this to cover a large amount of area and heal people who are within its radius! Likewise, diseases can be spread using this, but rest assure that we will never allow it to be used in such a way!"
Mamizou was among one of the people watching the presentation. "Science sure has come a long way…" she said. "Lots of new things have popped up since I went to live in Gensokyo…"
"Mamizou!" shouted a voice that was familiar to her. She turned around and saw Nue approaching her with Maribel and Renko.
"Oh, you're all back!" Mamizou said to them. "How was the tour? Did you enjoy it?"
"We only toured three floors," Nue told her. "The first is about biotechnology, the second is about robots, and the third is about high-tech furniture. The flying cushions in the last floor are awesome!"
"So is the table with a built-in television and other media players!" Renko added. "The bookshelf that uses a mechanical arm to bring you the book you want just by calling out its title is even better! I really want that to become available to the public now!"
"But I'm sure it'll be very expensive," Maribel told her.
"Yeah, and I'm sure my parents wouldn't want to spend a large amount of money on that, too…" Renko said in a depressed tone.
For several minutes, Dr. Akihiro studied a glass slide containing a drop of blood using a microscope. His assistant, a spectacled man with neatly-combed hair, told him that when he passed a particular blood-filled test tube through the scanning machine, he discovered that its property was never seen before in any kind of blood types and couldn't determine what specimen it came from.
"Incredible… Its property… I have never seen something like this before!" Dr. Akihiro said with his eyes still looking through the lens of the microscope.
"I was surprised at its property too!" the assistant told him. "I compared it with all the animal specimens we ever brought to our company, but not one of them matched the property of this blood sample!"
"When was the last time the machine for drawing blood was used?" Dr. Akihiro asked the scientist as he took his eyes off the lens.
"This morning, and from a larger-than-usual lab rat," the assistant replied. "However, even that rat's blood property should match normal rats'. They're the same species after all."
Dr. Akihiro turned to look at something at the corner of the ceiling. "Perhaps we can find out something if we look into that security camera."
In the security room, a guard was reclining on his chair, relaxing while looking at each of the screens on the control panel. Suddenly, Dr. Akihiro and his assistant came into the room and said to the guard, "Quick! Replay the security camera of the blood testing room!"
The guard immediately got working on the control panel to replay the screen that was showing the blood testing room. Because it was played back at five times the original speed, it didn't take long for them to come across the sight of Nue "entering" the room, transforming into a trash can, changing back to let the machine "inject" blood into her, and then "leaving" the room. The guard returned the speed back to normal when they saw all those happening so that they could see clearly what was happening.
"Did… Did you see that…?" the assistant asked Dr. Akihiro.
"Yes, I saw it," the scientist said with a nod. "The blood likely came from that girl… Also, that girl… Guard, let the girl onto the screen and then pause." The guard did exactly as he said, and then Dr. Akihiro took a closer look at Nue. "That girl… She's one of the people in the tour and also the one who asked for the location of the bathroom!"
"But can you really be sure that it really came from that girl?" the assistant asked him. "Perhaps it was some sort of magic trick that she used to disguise herself as a trash can, so there's nothing special about her."
"Let's find out, then!" Dr. Akihiro said with a smirk.
When Nue's stomach growled, Renko heard it and asked her, "Hungry, right?" The nue nodded in response. "I think it's the same for us all…" Then she looked at the side and saw a simple food stand. "I think we'll eat here. Maribel and I ate here before, and despite being located at the side of the street, its quality is actually very good!"
"Anything is good for us, as long as we don't get a bad stomach afterwards!" Mamizou said.
Dr. Akihiro entered a room and came upon the machine he was looking for. It was about the size of a car, had a medium-sized screen on it, and a small satellite dish at the top. The scientist approached the machine and put the glass slide containing the drop of Nue's blood into a compartment on the right side of the control panel.
The red-haired woman also came into the room shortly after him. "So let me get this straight… You're going to use this DNA Owner Locator to find out where the owner of the blood sample you have is, right?" she asked him. "Why?"
"I didn't tell you why I'm doing this, did I?" Dr. Akihiro said while pressing the buttons on the control panel. "This blood sample contains a property that is never seen before in any kind of life form! I have seen with my own eyes through the security footage this girl doing something quite amazing! One could pass it off as a magic trick, though… However, the unique property in her blood is more than enough to convince me that there is something not normal about her, and I'm going to get to the bottom of this!"
"Well, if you say so…" the red-haired woman said with shrug. "Maybe she is simply one of those people with a very, very rare kind of blood type… Admittedly, even someone like that is worth investigating…"
When Dr. Akihiro was done entering the commands into the machine, the screen on the latter became a radar image that started searching for Nue's location. "Good! It's starting!" Dr. Akihiro said in delight.
While Dr. Akihiro was looking at the screen, the woman said to him, "You know… We could've used it to look for your nephew, Akemi, when she went missing, but the machine wasn't completed that time yet… When it was finally completed, we forgot about using it to look for her… She went missing for a year, and the police eventually gave up searching for her… Then news of her body was discovered a day ago… in a horrible state…"
"Yes, it's a pity that we never thought of using this to look for her after this was complete, but it's too late to think of that now," said Dr. Akihiro, who didn't seem to show hints of sadness in what he said. "Aha! The radar found something!"
The woman approached the screen and saw that it was showing a map with a blinking spot on it, and the spot was also moving. "Looks like she already left this place… She's not very far from here, however," she said. "So what do you plan to do?"
Dr. Akihiro took out a palmtop and then reached for a USB cable that was connected to the machine. He connected the palmtop to it and said, "Track her down and interrogate her, obviously."
Nue, Mamizou, Maribel, and Renko left the food stand together, and Renko said to the former two, "We've got our own things to do, so let's part ways here."
"Okay," Mamizou said with a nod. "Hope we meet again!"
"Same thing!" Maribel said with a nod. "Good-bye!"
After waving good-bye to each other, the two groups walked away in opposite directions. "So… what do we do now?" Nue asked Mamizou.
"Let's just walk around and see if there is anything to do or if I can think of something to do," Mamizou replied. "If there's nothing else to do or see in Tokyo, we can go to Sado Island. I'll be glad to pay my homeland a visit!"
"Sounds good!" Nue said.
The duo continued down the sidewalk, and unknown to them, Dr. Akihiro, dressed in a business suit, was following them from behind. He looked at his palmtop to see if he was on the right track. "Yep! Finally found her!"
The scientist quickly caught up to them and then cleared his throat before calling out to them. "Excuse me, girls…"
Nue and Mamizou turned around to look at him. "May we help you, sir?" Mamizou asked him.
Nue recognized him immediately. "I know you! You're that guy from Ota Tech!"
"So you remember who I am! I'm glad that I finally found you!" Dr. Akihiro said to her.
"You're looking for me?" Nue curiously asked.
The scientist nodded. "Yes, I've been looking for you, and thanks to the technology we possess in our company, looking for you is very easy! Actually, it was thanks to you leaving behind a sample of your blood that I was able to find you!"
"A sample of my blood?" asked a confused Nue, and Mamizou was equally confused when she heard this. Suddenly, the former realized what the scientist was saying. "Wait a minute… You don't mean…?"
"You somehow entered the blood testing room and got a bit of your blood drawn by the machine used for doing such a thing, and when my assistant scanned your blood sample, he found that it contains a never-seen-before property! As a biologist, this intrigues me greatly!"
Mamizou stared at Nue, and the former's facial expression seemed to be asking her what she had done. Trembling nervously, Nue said to the scientist, "Um… Are you sure you're looking at my blood sample? I'm sure that my blood is as normal as every human being… You must've gotten things wrong… I can't be anything special, can I?"
"But I used your blood sample to track down your location," Dr. Akihiro told them. "The machine we used for tracking you cannot be wrong. Don't worry; I just want you to come back with me to Ota Tech first."
Nue was nervous and wondered what she should do, and then Mamizou got in front of her and said, "I'm sorry, but my friend has the freedom to turn down being used as a test subject. Please, you are scaring her, and I do not believe that this is an ethical thing to do. My friend, as far as I am concerned, simply has a rarer kind of blood type. I'm sure you can look up on more info regarding her blood type from elsewhere. We do not wish to have anything to do with this, so please look for other ways to satisfy your curiosity. Thank you."
With that, Mamizou grabbed Nue's hand and then led her down the sidewalk as fast as she could by walking. Dr. Akihiro stood in his spot and said to himself, "Okay, so you won't come with me, eh? We'll see!"
That night, Nue and Mamizou were back in their inn rooms, watching TV.
Thanks to the tracking system that he transferred from the DNA Owner Locater to his palmtop, Dr. Akihiro had no problem finding the inn they were in. After finding out which room the nue was in using the tracking system, Dr. Akihiro went into the alleyway next to the inn and made his way to the back of the latter. After looking around for while, he found the building's air vent.
He opened the grating of the vent, took out a handful of pink balls, and threw them into the air vent.
Inside the inn, the people suddenly smelled a fragrance that made them sleepy when they smelled it. The smell grew stronger, which made them sleepier. Eventually, everyone fell asleep wherever he or she was.
Dr. Akihiro then put on a gas mask and entered the inn through the backdoor. Using his palmtop, he was able to determine the room Nue and Mamizou were in, so he went to the front desk to get the correct key before heading over to the correct floor.
After unlocking the door to Nue and Mamizou's room, the scientist went inside and saw the nue and the tanuki asleep with the television still turned on. The scientist went over to the nue, lifted her up over his shoulder, and then quickly ran out of the inn as fast as he could.
Once out of the inn, he ran to his car, which was parked in an area found behind the inn that was devoid of people. He put Nue into the trunk and then quickly drove away before someone saw him doing this.
Nue slowly opened her eyes, but her vision was blurry when she did so. When she tried to rub her eyes with her hand, she found that both of the latter were restrained to the chair she was sitting on via belts. "Where… Where am I…?" the nue asked while looking around the place. Slowly, her vision became clearer and clearer.
"Ah, so you're awake!" said a voice, and then Nue looked at the front to see Dr. Akihiro standing there with a syringe containing red liquid in his hand. "You are back in Ota Tech, in the same room you sneaked into this morning."
"You!" Nue angrily said. "What do you want with me?! And why am I here?!"
"I used a fragrance pill that causes drowsiness developed by our company to put everyone in the inn you're staying at to sleep, and then I brought you here," Dr. Akihiro replied, and then he showed her the syringe. "While you were asleep, I drew some blood from you and compared it to the one you left behind when you sneaked in here, and they are indeed the same! Don't worry; I didn't take a lot, so you should still be in a good condition. Taking time to recover is still a good idea, however."
"How dare you take my blood without my permission?!" Nue angrily said to him. "It's enough that your machine took a bit already! What exactly do you want from me?!"
"As I told you in our meeting out there, your blood contains a never-seen-before property," Dr. Akihiro told her. "Furthermore, you have those strange red and blue appendages sticking out of your back, and I have never seen a person with those before! As a biologist, this interests me greatly. If you do not want me to dissect you to get the answer, then you better tell me at once what exactly you are!"
"It's a secret! Plus, you're probably not going to believe anything I tell you either!" Nue told him. "You better let me go at once! You're going to regret it if you get on my bad side!"
"You can't possibly do anything to me like that!" the scientist told her. "The belts are too tough to be torn apart using brute force, so unless you have something sharp to cut them, you're not going to get off that chair!"
Hearing this, a mischievous-looking smile appeared on Nue's face. "Sharp things?" Then she moved her wings and found that they were still movable. "Oopsie… I think you made the mistake of not restraining my wings… Bad move on your part…"
"What are you talking about?" Dr. Akihiro asked while raising an eyebrow.
"I mean this!" Nue suddenly extended and used two of her wings to cut off all the belts restraining her and then stood up, much to the surprise of the scientist. The nue stood up and daunted the frightened scientist with her wings, which were waving around in an erratic manner. "Surprised, eh? You thought these appendages, which are actually my wings, are only for looks? You're not going to believe how sharp these things are, I tell you!"
"What… What are you?!" the scientist asked.
"Have you ever heard of a nue?" Nue asked him.
"Nue? You mean the mythical creature that looks like an amalgam of several animals?" Dr. Akihiro said.
"Yep! That's what I am!" Nue replied. "But as you can see, I look different. Not all nues look the same, but I'm sure that we all share the same dangerous nature when provoked. Heheheh!"
Dr. Akihiro raised his hands in front of his chest and said, "Wait! We can settle this peacefully! I didn't realize that you're… you're… not human! Now that I know you're not human, I finally understand why your blood has a never-seen-before property, not to mention your… wings! Now that my curiosity has been satisfied, you can feel free to leave now!"
"Why thank you!" Nue said. "However… I'm not exactly the kind of person who can get over being mistreated… I won't be able to sleep peacefully tonight if I don't get back at the person who mistreated me in some way first… So…"
Dr. Akihiro took a few steps back in fear, and at the same time, he reached his hand towards a nearby table to see if he could find anything to use as a form of defense. Suddenly, Nue dashed into him really fast and went past him, causing him to spin once and then fall forward. When he fell, he unintentionally stabbed his hand with the syringe containing Nue's blood and even pressed the plunger.
The nue rushed for the exit and opened the door. "Luckily for you, I don't really feel like doing anything more brutal," she said while standing at the doorway. "Make sure that you don't let me see you again!" Then she left and slammed the door shut.
Dr. Akihiro stood back up and grunted in pain as he took the syringe off his hand. Angry at the nue, the scientist quickly ran to an alarm on the wall, pressed it, and shouted into its speaker, "There's a girl on the loose here! Get her!"
Nue ran in the direction of the elevator, but a guard standing there ran towards her. "You must be the one!" he said.
Nue pointed her wings at him and fired energy beams that knocked him down, and then she ran for the staircase, thinking that it would be faster to get to the bottom this way. However, she saw some guards running up it, so she quickly returned the previous floor and headed for the elevator, only to see some more guards coming out of it, so she decided to head to the upper floor instead.
The nue ran up several floors as fast as she could, and the guards chased her nonstop while shouting for her to stop. She stopped going up at the eleventh floor to try to find a window for her to fly out. She ran down the hallway, turned around a corner, and went into the first room she came across. Once in there, she locked the door and then pressed herself against the part of the wall next to it to see if she could hear the guards out there. She heard them running down the hallway, but they went past the door and continued on their way.
The nue sighed with relief and then looked at the front and saw a glass box containing the iPhone-sized device. Curious at what it was, she approached the glass box and noticed that it wasn't closed properly, so she opened it and then took out the device. "What's this?" she wondered while looking at all sides of it.
"There she is!" shouted a voice. Nue turned around to see that a guard was looking at her through the door's window.
"Looks like I have no choice but to give them a good scaring… Why didn't I think of this earlier?" she wondered.
Because one of the guards had the key to this room, he was able to open the door. When they went inside, they saw a large monster that had the head of a monkey, the body of a raccoon dog, the legs of a tiger, and a snake for the tail. The guards were so terrified at the monster that when it charged at them, they ran without bothering to shoot it with their guns.
The guards ran down the hallway while screaming, and the monster gave chase a little bit before coming to a stop. "Heheh! They fell for it!" Nue said while hiding behind her illusion. "Now to get out of here!" She looked around and saw a window at the end of the hallway. "Great! An exit!" So she ran to the window, opened it, and jumped out it to soar into the air.
She looked back at Ota Tech's office building and said, "Haha! Out of there at last! Let's see you people trying to catch up with me like this!" Then she turned her head to the front. "Better get back to the inn… Mamizou must be worried about me!" Then she realized that there was something in her hand. It was the device she picked up in the room earlier. "Oops… Unintentionally took this with me… Oh well, a reward for myself for escaping that place, then…"
TO BE CONTINUED
