Clock Tower Records: experiment #987754

Project title: YUKARI

Experimentation goal: Breakdown of the concept "Boundary"

Hypothesis: "By breaking the concept of a boundary within a test subject, said subject may be able to reach akasha by simply believing the boundary between this plane and the plane on which akasha exists to not exist." - Excerpt from the logs of Hina Washizu, Second owner of Numazu 1930-1951.

Experiment start: January 1st, 1631

Experiment end: March 5th, 1951

Status: completed

End result: Unknown (Possible Success)

Total funding lost: None

Main objective: access the root: Unknown

Side objective: Break the concept of a boundary: Success

Further experimentation on this subject is banned by the mages association. Anyone caught attempting to replicate this experiment will be given a sealing designation, stripped of their research and magical crest, and summarily executed.


The following is a partial excerpt from a conversation recorded by a familiar between the head of the department of spatial manipulation Karen Von Schwartz and [redacted] on June 9th, 1952.

[redacted]: -and that's how far I've gotten, but I still can't get it to stabilize…

Karen: I see… perhaps if you (the following has been inked over).

[redacted]: Yeah, that might work….

Karen: Glad I could help. But remember, you owe me for this.

[redacted]: Yeah yeah, contract and geas and all that. I can't go against it.

Karen: Nice to see you still understand. (The following has been inked over). So, what did you really come here today for?

[redacted]: …What are you talking about?

Karen: You suddenly show up today after not seeing me for a month only to give a status update. Now tell me, if that was all, why didn't you just make a familiar and send a letter? I know you have the capacity to do so, so why are you here today?

[redacted]: …Fine, I give. I actually wanted to ask you about that other project you mentioned last year, when we talked about the Deep Dark Project.

Karen: … Refresh my memory. Which one?

[redacted]: It was the YUKARI project. I decided to look into it but I could only find some references to some magus doing something in Japan and that's it…

Karen: …I didn't actually think you would look into that. My bad for not taking your curiosity into account. I'm actually surprised you found anything at all, actually, considering that the project ended not too long ago and the case file for it would be buried in the records room…

[redacted]: The records room? What's that?

Karen: …You're telling me you haven't heard of the records room? How long have you been here? Two, three years? I guess I'll have to enlighten you then. There is a room here in the Clock Tower that has a record of every kind of magecraft you can think of, albeit in a rather heavily edited, bare bones kind of style. It won't tell you any of the details, but it'll give you the gist of anything you're looking for. New magi who enter the Clock Tower tend to accidentally wander in because the entire records room is technically a joke that Zelretch set up, but you can find some interesting stuff in there if you know how to go about looking for things. I occasionally go in and have a look around at the files myself, which is how I came across it in the first place. Spatial manipulation has its perks, you know?

[redacted]: Wandering in…? Wait, you mean that room?! The one that's, like, kilometers long and has a ceiling so high you can barely see it? The one where the bookshelves reach said ceiling? The one with papers just stuffed in them with no reason what so ever?

Karen: Sounds like it.

[redacted]: I was in there for a week!

Karen: A week? Wow, that's a pretty good time. I've known some that have spent months in there trying to find the way out. I spent a solid month in there myself on my first time. I think the fastest anyone new has gotten out is six hours though.

[redacted]: Alright, so if I can't find anything and I absolutely need to find something on a subject, then I should go to the records room. Got it. So, the YUKARI project?

Karen: Right, the YUKARI project… Let's start from the beginning then. Tell me everything you know about it.

[redacted]: Uh… I know that it took place in… Numazu? Yeah, Numazu, I think it was called. It was kept hidden from the mage's association and the outcome was inconclusive. That's about it.

Karen: … That's more than I had hoped, but less than I would have liked. I guess we should start with the city. Tell me, what do you know about Numazu?

[redacted]: Oh, wait, I looked this one up! It's on intersecting leylines, right? That means it's a good place to conduct large scale magecraft.

Karen: That's right. Not as good as Fuyuki, but a good place none the less. Normally, when you have a spiritually enriched area like that, what tends to happen?

[redacted]: I… believe that the Mage's Association gives control of the city to a magus family.

Karen: That's correct. Usually control is handed over to a family because the association can't be bothered to keep track of it considering it's out east, despite its appeal. In your little quest to discover what happened, did you happen to discover who in particular became the second owner of Numazu?

[redacted]: No. I actually couldn't find anything on that, which is weird considering that if you plan to set up a workshop in their city, you're supposed to contact them to let them know and get their permission…

Karen: Eh, Wouldn't have expected you to. Probably already took everything related to that family and shafted it, considering they were Japanese. Anyway, the family that had 'owned' Numazu were the Washizus. Their magecraft mainly dealt with boundaries and thus were experts on bounded fields.

[redacted]: Were they were the ones in charge of the YUKARI project? Or was it some magus under them?

Karen: It was all done by the Washizus, although by that point the family only consisted of one person, Hina Washizu. She was a bit… Crazy, from what I read in the report.

[redacted]: Crazy? How so?

Karen: As in insane even by magus standards. And not you're normal kind of insane either, because by all regards she could be considered a functional human being. It's difficult to explain, just like the entire project is difficult to explain without having an in depth knowledge on exactly what the hell was going on.

[redacted]: How so?

Karen: Hmmm… Alright, do you know what breaking a concept is?

[redacted]: breaking a concept? No…

Karen: pff… This is going to be tough to wrap your head around then. Breaking a concept… It is impossible to explain broken concepts simply because it is impossible for a human to grasp that a concept has been broken. The only way I can explain is through the concept known as a reality marble (for more information, please see CTR: magecraft #8632). You've probably come across them in your research. The reality that stems from the alien sense that demons have. One way to potentially grasp the idea of a reality marble would be to break a concept within you. You do not view a concept differently, although you do, you do not ignore a concept, although you do. It is paradoxical in nature, something so against common sense that simply being in the presence of one who has a broken concept would make you think that person was off. It is simply… broken.

[redacted]: Ah, I think I see where you're going with that. I assume it's similar to a warped concept?

Karen: Kind of. A warped concept is more of metaphorically flipping something on its head and viewing it differently. You can somewhat understand a warped concept, seeing as it is simply warped. A broken one is a step above that, bending something so far it shatters…

[redacted]: So, having one will let you manifest a reality marble?

Karen: Not necessarily. If you look more into reality marbles, which I suggest you don't because doing so will give you a sealing designation, then maybe you'll see why I say that.

[redacted]: … So she tried to break something in someone?

Karen: Yes.

[redacted]: ... How?

Karen: ah, now we get to the thick of it. When I was glancing through the file, I noticed it was pretty bare, so if I happen to glance over something then don't blame me.

[redacted]: There was stuff missing in the file?

Karen: Not missing as much as most of the stuff involving the project was probably left out of the report and kept wherever the hell they keep information they don't want getting out. That, or it was burned, considering that the entire compound that he experiment was taking place in burned to the ground.

[redacted]: ah, okay... So, you were saying?

Karen: Right. So, the project began twenty or so years ago and lasted about that long. Over the course of twenty years, Hina Washizu conducted over 500 experiments on children under the age of five, including her own daughter, in order to break the concept of a boundary. According to her notes, apparently trying to crack a safe by understanding its inner workings wasn't fast enough for her, so she decided to brute force it by simply breaking the boundary between this plane and the plane Akasha resides on.

[redacted]: 500? But that would mean that 500 people…

Karen: Yeah. She kidnapped around 500 children ranging from just being born to 5 experimented on them. There were no survivors.

[redacted]: …

Karen: I know this is difficult to take in. I told you when I took you in that being a magus isn't all that it's cracked up to be, but you went ahead and joined me anyway. Do you regret your decision?

[redacted]: (the following is covered in ink)

Karen: Good. Remember that. Anyway, as I was saying, she experimented on them. The first part of the experiment was to reset the origin of the person in question to a pre-determined one in order to ensure the least amount of variance in her variables.

[redacted]: Changing an origin?! That's... Possible?!

Karen: Yes, it's possible. It's not something that I would recommend looking into, however. The reports don't say how she did so, but I assume she used some kind of Noble Phantasm, which is actually among the easier ways to change an origin.

[redacted]: A Noble Phantasm...

Karen: Yeah. Her success rate was actually pretty high, with about one in three surviving the process, which gives credibility to the idea that she used a noble phantasm since changing an origin is tricky business. About half of the third that survived went insane, though. Not that it really mattered to Hina. In fact, from what I remember from the report, She actually hoped they would go insane, as with insanity it becomes a lot easier to twist around certain concepts within someone.

[redacted]: But you said no one survived?

Karen: Did I say that was the end? That was just the beginning. For the next part, she attempted to give them artificial circuits.

[redacted]: Artificial circuits? But isn't that-

Karen: Dangerous? Normally, yes. However, the way she did it and the previous experiment helped with making the body accept them. You see, she made an artificial circuit by inserting a series of microscopic bounded fields that would perform the same actions as circuits, but at a higher cost and lower output, along with constantly being in what she described as 'indescribable agony'. They wouldn't disappear because they would be connected to the soul as well as to a larger construct that fed them prana through the leylines. Don't ask me how she managed all that since I'm no expert on bounded fields, but that's how she did it. By changing the origin so that it matched every single time, it helped to ensure that her test subjects would survive the operation. Didn't mean they all did though, just most.

[redacted]: She… tortured children… And felt nothing?

Karen: The reports were extremely clinical in nature, so I would assume that she didn't feel anything for them. Like I have stated before, (this word has been inked out), this is the dark side of magi. Just don't cross that line and you'll do fine.

[redacted]: It's just hard to swallow, knowing that stuff like that actually happens…

Karen: yeah…

[redacted]: …What did she change their origin to?

Karen: what?

[redacted] I said what did she change the origin to?

Karen: Ah, I forgot to mention that didn't I? Well, she changed them to be 'boundary'.

[redacted]: … But, wasn't she trying to break that concept? Wouldn't it be impossible to break something that is so ingrained in your soul?

Karen: You see the issue then. Yes. In essence, the entire experiment was about them 'breaking' the concept of a boundary, and thus having them break themselves in the process.

[redacted]: Going against your origin… she really was insane, wasn't she?

Karen: That she was. Anyway, as I was saying the very first thing she did was erasing their memories and then started teaching them certain subjects. Of course, there were the basics, but where it really differed was her teachings on boundaries. For some, she taught what boundaries were and that they separated two different ideas, for others, she taught boundaries as a hypothetical subject, citing that they didn't exist. And for some others, she completely left out the idea of boundaries.

[redacted]: That's… strange. Why would she do that?

Karen: You'll see. Continuing on, every single one of her captives were kept in very small rooms, each about the size of this desk in front of us. After keeping them in there so long and teaching them, she would then attempt to convince them that the walls around them wouldn't impede them, or act as a boundary. She would walk into the room through a wall using some illusions and question why they could not. She would constantly ask them the same questions over and over. She would say they were failures and that she would get rid of them if they did not accept the truth.

[redacted]: She psychologically tortured them…

Karen: Yes. Physically as well, mind you, because of the extreme pain the artificial circuits cause. The results… Well, some killed themselves by bashing their skulls into the walls, some died from overuse of their circuits, but eventually some succeeded in actually escaping confinement. Only to walk into another room where they would be placed within a bounded field that impeded movement and asked why they could not escape.

[redacted]: wait wait wait, hold on. I'm confused. Multiple people made it through right? But according to the principles of magecraft, wouldn't each have had to make their own mystery to escape? Isn't that counterproductive in the long run considering if one of them dies, the mystery would disappear and seeing that each mystery was different, how would she know that it held the properties she was looking for? Like, as in, oh, 'ignoring boundaries' rather than 'walk through walls?'

Karen: Ah, yeah, I guess I forgot to mention that. Despite Hina's insanity, she could be considered a genius in her field of manipulating boundaries and bounded fields. She made a bounded field over the entire complex with the idea of analyzing any mystery within down to its components. It wouldn't tell you how it was realized, but it would tell you the basis behind a mystery. She used that to find out what the basis of any mystery the children came up with to escape was about. Then, when she found one with the concept that she was looking for, she simply took the false circuits and manipulated the rest to match that one.

[redacted]:… huh?

Karen: You know how when a bullet travels down the barrel of a gun, the gun leaves a mark on the bullet? Hina managed to make it so that the miniature bounded fields would 'remember' the mysteries performed, although according to the notes the process wasn't perfect, and a mystery had to be performed over and over to get it to mold properly. It follows the same concept of magic crests, really. Except instead of taking centuries, she compressed it into a few years.

[redacted]: She what?!

Karen: Yeah, I know. Although you have to understand that this wouldn't work under normal circumstances, seeing as she had to put in a lot of work just to make the circuit compatible in the first place. And don't ask me how she managed to adjust the circuits while they were still active. Since you have a magic crest, I know you know how much of a taboo it is to alter them, both because of the possible danger and because of the history related to them. She was insane, but an insane genius.

[redacted]: ever since I came to Clock Tower, magi just seem to love having new ways to surprise me, don't they?

Karen: Try to get used to it. The amount of insane magecraft in this world already boggles even my mind and I still see new ones that just make my head hurt every year, despite the previous experience I have with them.

[redacted]: right… as you were saying?

Karen: right, so she put them through a series of test to attempt to break down the concept of a boundary. She started with physical ones, like walls and bounded fields, but as time wore on she went onto more abstract concepts. You have to understand that anything on this planet that has any sort of differentiation between them has a boundary, so really anything can be considered a boundary should you think about it hard enough. Life and death. Happiness and sadenss. Sanity and insanity. She forced them to break those ideas down.

[redacted]: but… wouldn't that result in some kind of internalized version of what the Stalfelts are trying to do?

Karen: Good catch. Yes, it's basically the same thing, but you have to remember that their origin would be 'boundary'. They would attempt, in their minds, to try to remove it, but their very nature would prevent them from doing so. It's a nature versus nurture scenario, really. It would bend them, warp them, but breaking them… well, at that stage, they hadn't quite reached that stage.

[redacted]: so what you're saying is that once a person breaks the concept of a boundary, they can remove ignore their nature while retaining their nature?

Karen: I did say that breaking a concept caused one to live a paradoxical existence. After all, the results of trying to do so… some separated their soul from their body and were rejected out of existence by Gaia. Some fell apart because they broke the boundary between the idea of the individual and the whole. Some fused themselves together into one massive lump of flesh. Some went into a coma and died from lack of hydration. The list goes on and on. And soon enough, every single one of them died.

[redacted]: So the experiment was a failure then.

Karen: Not quite. I mentioned she experimented on her own daughter, correct? Apparently she had been born naturally carrying the concept of a boundary, and so she took all the research and applied them to her, with her being the very last test subject.

[redacted]: and where everyone else failed… she succeeded?

Karen: I… I do not know.

[redacted]: You don't? But then why bring it up?

Karen: because in one of the last pages she had written 'I have succeeded. She has broken.'

[redacted]: But that clearly states that she succeeded. What in the world are you talking about when you say that you don't know?

Karen: Because while breaking the idea of a boundary might have been the main goal, the objective was to break the boundary between Akasha and this plane of existence.

[redacted]: And there is no evidence as to that?

Karen: No. As I said, the overall result was inconclusive, mainly due to the fire that broke out and burned everything to the ground.

[redacted]: but there is more, isn't there? You said that that had been one of the last pages, meaning there had been more.

Karen: …I guess you caught me there. There is a certain page that had caught my attention near the end. In it, Hina describe her daughter as being able to simultaneously be able to create and remove boundaries to metaphorical concepts, having done something, it wasn't described what exactly it was, by 'blocking every path to the future except the one she wanted to travel to.' That wasn't all though. According to the very last report that Hina Washizu wrote, she claimed that her daughter had been able to break and reconstruct the concept of a boundary at will.

[redacted]: … What?!

Karen: Yeah, as if breaking a concept wasn't improbably hard to understand. Hina hypothesized it was due to a child's view on the world. Have you ever heard a child attempt to describe something he or she could not understand? They use words like 'it was, then it wasn't' and to them, that it all the explanation needed. She had talked to her daughter, and her daughter had explained it as 'it breaks, but then I want to fix it, and then I have to break it again'. To that child, it was simply as simple as that. A child's logic at work.

[redacted]: So, hypothetically, what your saying is that this girl could have made a boundary that protected her against every outcome except the one she wanted, break herself, and then use that broken concept to enter Akasha?

Karen: I knew I took you in for a reason. Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Although, as I've said, the results were inconclusive, mainly because while there is no evidence she did so, there is no evidence against it either, seeing as while everybody that could have been accounted for was found within the burning wreckage, no sign was found of the girl. None at all. As in, it was like she had never even existed in the first place.

[redacted]: There was no trace of her?

Karen; The only record of her was in the notes, nothing else.

[redacted]: do you know why?

Karen: no clue.

[redacted]: ah… So that's it then? That's the Yukari project?

Karen: Yeah. That's all I know unless you want to scour the records room for the file.

[redacted]: alright. I guess I should take my leave then.

Karen: See you later then. Don't keep me waiting so long next time.

[redacted]: Oh, right. I had wanted to ask. Why was the project called that? Project deep dark was called that because of what they had created, but I can't seem to find any reason why it would be called the Yukari project.

Karen: Oh, that. That's because that would be the her name.

[redacted]: her?

Karen: the daughter's. Yukari Washizu.

[redacted]: Oh. Well, thanks for that. See you then.

Karen: Don't be a stranger now. Bye.

Excerpt End


The rest of this file has been removed and/or deleted due to the following reasons:

New information

Editing of information

Removal of unreliable information

The above has remained as a summary of experiment #987754.

If the above states that information is to be deleted, then we are sorry for the inconvenience as the information will not return.

If the above states that information is to be edited, then please return to this file in at least one month and the information should be updated.

This notice was posted on December 2nd, 1998.


Yeah, so this is basically Part 1. Part 2 will come at a later date. I want to keep these things short, so occasionally i'll cut them in half. Next i plan on exploring the second for a bit. It'll be an excerpt instead of a partial one because record updates because the second has a huge record file.