Still Waters Another Turn, Chapter 9
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Look Who Stayed Up The Sun
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"Everything you have based your life around is a lie. Numbers, equations, the various theorems by which mathematics works, all are useless in the end. Life can't be explained by numbers, and no forty page list of proofs will ever suffice to explain the difference between the living and the dead." There was a pause as the voice seemed to run out of steam. "Even the robot you helped to create with the traitor is proof of this! EVERYTHING IS A LIE!"
Hakase blinked at that. As per usual in her dreams, she was standing in a vast laboratory, huge markerboards filled end to end with unreadable equations along one wall, various lab tables and cabinets lined another. The far wall consisted of windows looking out into space, and the wall behind her was covered in cabinets except for the door. Before her on a table lay a partially dissected Chachamaru. It seemed as though she was supposed to be appalled at such a thing, but she had been the robot girl's primary maintenance provider since she first built her, and had seen similar scenes many times before. As for the voice…
"The mathematics you base your life on are NOTHING! You can't even conceive of the number between zero point nine and one! If these concepts you have built your life upon are so limited, they are worthless!"
Obviously, the invisible speaker expected her to fall to the floor, screaming hysterically and pulling her hair. Instead, Hakase calmly considered the information. Indeed, such thoughts had crossed her mind before; the rules, while the foundation of everything in math and science, had always bothered her. They were useful, but…she had always felt rather limited by them, as though she were trying to fix a computer with nothing but a hammer. You Can't Divide By Zero. If X Is Neither A Nor B, It Must Be C.
"Why must it be C at all?" she said aloud. "Couldn't it be Y(12N)?"
The voice didn't respond for a moment…she seemed to have caught it off guard with her question. She found that she often had that effect on people, ever since she was little.
The voice started again, more hesitantly, but Hakase interrupted again. "In fact," she said, "Why must it all be limited to numbers?" A strange thought was percolating in the back of her mind. "In fact, numbers themselves are far too limiting!" she exclaimed as understanding dawned upon her and a whole new method of analyzing the world blossomed into life in her head. It was not unlike that seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey. "If that's not…then…" she thought for a moment before her jaw dropped. There might as well be a steadily growing drum beat in the background. "You're right…it's not necessary!" she shouted. "Oh dear Mother of God!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "I can see it…I understand it, I understand everything! Time, life, love, I understand it all! I know why Chachamaru developed feelings, I know how magic can exist! Everything is revealed, everything is clear! MY MIND IS FREE! I CAN DIVIDE BY ZERO!!" she screeched as she hopped around in joy, leaving the source of the voice dumbfounded.
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Meanwhile, in another part of Japan, Gaze snapped out of his trance and scratched his head in confusion. "What the hell was that?"
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Early the next morning, Donner paced back and forth across the small office in the refitted warehouse-cum-factory, sweat beading on his forehead as he crunched a printout in his hand.
Gaze would be arriving for a tour of the facility later in the day, and Donner had nothing but failure to report to the man. Wheeler had been taken care of, but the computer bearing the all-important Rally program was out of reach somewhere in Mahora, surrounded by literally hundreds, possibly thousands, of trained mages in addition to the various wild cards, such as mercenaries, ninjas, and other fighters of various types, any number of which may prove strong enough to deal with the best of the robots he had designed. Well, technically his team had designed them, but he was in charge, so it was the same as if he had done the work himself as far as anyone that mattered was concerned.
He stalked back to his desk and looked once again at the large satellite map of Mahora that he had ordered. It was fairly recent, showing the roads and plazas as they were after the flooding earlier in the year. Overall, things hadn't changed much since before the flood. Some buildings were piles of rubble and others were gone completely, but the roads were the same and that was all that really mattered to the vague plan forming in his mind.
He fished around in a nearby cabinet for a moment, finally coming out with a sheet of transparent plastic, which he carefully attached via clips over the map. He outlined certain landmarks with a felt-tipped pen as he studied the map carefully, plotting the possible locations of various targets. The main points of interest were the university's labs and the Mahora Middle School dorms. Both were easy to defend and hard to attack if the attacker were trying to limit damage to the occupants, however, so they would need a good strategy. Some of those students would make excellent hostages after all, and others would make good test subjects for various programs currently running in other countries. And whoever was in possession of the Rally program would have to be seized immediately, of course. He glanced again at the list of possible targets Gaze had provided. He would have to have someone learn the layout of the dorms and which room belonged to which student. He turned his attention back to the distraction that would be needed.
If he placed an advance guard of robots at the eastern entrance, they would draw the town's defenders. At least, until they were destroyed. There was only so much the robots were capable of without the Rally program, but they should be able to perform the mission he was planning. The cost would be enormous, but he should be able to absorb it.
So the best choice seemed to be to create a diversion via the mass produced robots and then…a grin oddly full of teeth slithered across his face. Yes, this could work. He had to get Gaze's permission, of course, but…it would work.
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At the same time Donner was pacing in his office, Negi was calling role in his classroom. The students seemed a little better today, and Hakase-san was positively beaming. In fact, she was happier than the child teacher had ever seen her. Sakurako-san was drooping even more today however. "Sakurako-san, are you feeling all right? Are you getting enough sleep?"
She dragged her face across her desktop until she faced Negi. "Ahm allright," she slurred with her face on the drool-covered desk, finally slapping a hand to the surface and trying to push herself erect to a proper sitting position. The result was…oddly disturbing and quite amusing.
"Sakurako is like a slug!" someone shouted, and some of the students grinned. Hakase snorted and then burst into wild laughter, and slowly, hesitantly, others followed suit while Sakurako flapped around, trying to get them to stop. The overall effect was truly ridiculous, and the class' spirit rose as more students joined in.
Negi smiled along with his class as Sakurako-san drooped, looking more like a slug every second. Asuna-san's smirk, Konoka-san's half-hearted grin, Setsuna-san's small smile…things were slowly getting back to normal. It looked like everyone's efforts to guard the student's dreams were working. If only they had a way to protect everyone rather than only a few…
"I'm glad you're all having fun," Sakurako grumbled as she pouted and wiped drool off her cheek.
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Asuna and Konoka caught up with Akira as she left the school building that afternoon.
"Hey, Akira-san!" the red head called out. Akira stopped walking and turned to see who had called her.
"Yes, Asuna-san?" she asked, still embarrassed about her behavior the other day.
"Hey, I've got a question," Asuna said as she dug around in her bag for a moment. "Ah, here it is. Look at this," she said, pulling out a pactio card with Akira's picture on it. Akira blushed instantly when she looked at it. It was a picture of herself, floating naked with her arms out to the sides, her modesty barely preserved by two long black and orange ribbons floating loosely around her body.
"W-where did you get something like this?!" she asked in horror.
Asuna scratched her head in confusion. "I found it the other day, when you pactioed Max-sensei and Jennifer-san. It had been blown around by the wind, and was stuck in a bush."
"I found one too," Konoka broke in, producing another that also featured Akira. Luckily, she was clothed in this one, though it was only a short yukata-looking thing. There were also nine different-colored spheres arranged symmetrically around her.
"But where did they come from…?" Akira asked, scrunching her forehead in thought.
Asuna and Konoka looked at each other. "That's what we wanted to ask you. Negi never got one when we pactioed with him, so why did you?"
"…I don't know. Maybe we should keep this a secret…" Akira said worriedly as she took the cards. She had heard many stories of how the mage world treated those who sidestepped the rules and messed around with magic in ways it was never meant to be used, and she was quite sure that this was most unusual.
"You should ask Negi-kun about it," Konoka suggested. "If something's wrong, I know he'll be able to help."
"You're probably right," the water girl replied, carefully pocketing the cards and determining not to speak to anyone about them any time soon.
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"Iincho, I've got something to ask about the assignment the other day," Chisame said as she entered the dorm room the class rep shared with Chizuru, Natsumi, and Kotarou.
"Hmm? Oh, sure," Ayaka said distractedly from her place on the couch. She had been watching Natsumi and Kotarou, who were playing Scrabble on the table. It was quite relaxing after a day of school spent pondering magic, after all. Incidentally, Natsumi was ahead by an amazing amount.
"What are you doing?!" Chisame shouted suddenly, rushing to the table and snatching up Kotarou's drink.
"What's wrong with you, four eyes?"
"What's wrong with me? WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?! You're using that incredibly high end mini laptop as a drink coaster, that's what's wrong with me! That model isn't even available to the public yet, and here you are ruining it you brat!"
"Well excuse me," the boy replied and snatched his drink back as the glasses girl fumed and picked up the small computer.
She flipped the computer open and wasn't surprised to find the battery was dead. 'What is wrong with these people? Using this as a drink coaster of all things, and now letting the battery run all the way down?' She didn't have a charger that would fit the nonstandard, odd looking plug; and, looking around, she was quite sure this group wouldn't know a battery charger from an mp3 player.
"Iincho, do you mind if I take this with me?" Chisame finally asked.
"Ok. Be careful with it, it belonged to Wheeler-san," she said distantly. Chisame didn't know who 'Wheeler-san' was, but was through the door with her prize in a heartbeat, her earlier request completely forgotten.
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Night fell, and Madoka returned to Chisame's dorm room, promptly crawled into bed, and pulled the cover up over her head. Chisame had grown used to this daily ritual, and didn't even bother to look at the other girl. Instead, all her attention was focused on the small computer on her desk.
She hadn't had a charger in her room that would fit the mini laptop, so she had hunted down Chachamaru and had the robot girl charge the battery for her earlier, only to be stopped by a password screen when she tried to start the computer. Her curiosity piqued, she had set herself to her task with a will, finally using various methods to work out the password and create a new, total access account for herself. And, with that done, she had just started exploring the depths of the hard drive when Madoka came in a moment ago.
'Hmm…Rally. Looks like some kind of OS…this looks interesting,' she thought to herself as she glanced through the long list of programs that seemed to go along with it and ran one that seemed promising. Several errors popped up on the screen. "Hardware errors, memory errors…what is this?" she said aloud.
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Misa awoke to the sound of a strained groan. She pulled her long hair back out of her eyes and looked at the bed containing the room's other occupant. Sakurako made another noise as she watched, so she slipped out of bed and approached the other girl.
"Sakurako?" she said softly as she placed a hand on the girl's forehead; she pulled it away with a hiss. The other girl had a very high fever and was soaked with sweat. Misa ran as quietly as possible to the bathroom and returned with a bucket of cold water and a wet rag, which she placed on the other girl's forehead. She wasn't quite sure what she was doing, but her mother had always done this for her when she had been sick as a child. She didn't remember much about it except that it had always felt nice.
Apparently Sakurako agreed, as she soon stopped groaning and moving around and fell into a deeper sleep, much to Misa's relief.
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Donner was awoken from a fitful sleep some time past eleven o'clock that night by a phone call.
He fumbled for the cell phone in the darkness of the room, finally turning on a lamp.
"Donner speaking," he said.
'Yeah boss, I just thought you should know. Someone's using the computer, it's in the Mahora dorms. If our floor plans are correct, the signal is originating from the room of a student, Hasegawa Chisame, I think.' There was the sound of rustling papers. "Yeah, Hasegawa Chisame. Anyway, we have the room number. I've sent the important details via email. That's all, boss.'
"You have done well; you have my thanks, Genji," Donner said and ended the call, his mind racing over how to isolate the target student. If he could just get his hands on that program…
Now that he actually knew the location of the target, he was full of adrenalin. He had to prove his worth to Master Gaze this time, or he might be removed the same way he had removed Wheeler. He had the robots, and he had access to some of the Yukihiro Group's resources. He could do much with this, given proper planning. Now wide awake, Donner quickly made some estimates.
Getting the transportation arranged was the most daunting prospect. He already knew the locations of important resources, but flying in the privately run PMC that was currently in Hokkaido would take some time. He looked over the notes he had written and did some quick calculations. Getting everything arranged and the participants on location without exposing his plan would take two days at most barring plane crash or Mt Fuji erupting. Two days. He chafed under the need for patience, but in the long run two days was nothing. And once the subjects were in transit to wherever he chose to hide them, little could go wrong.
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Author's Note: Hakase is now the only person in the world who can successfully divide by zero and not cause The End Of The World As We Know It. I thought the whole scene was a bit silly, but…eh.