A/N: Well everybody, as of the time I am writing this author's note, I have a review, yah! This story might get fun! I find that it feels better to type with a brace on my wrists, so I'll just do that from now on. Anywho, to make the distinction here, Akane and her twin sister, Ayumi (not identical) are from Okinawa, descended from a tennyo it seems. We'll find out more about Akane's powers this chapter.
Heaven's Child
Chapter 2-C Project
By Futatsu no Kodou
My name is Alexander O'Howell. Most people I know call me Alec. I'm twenty years old, born and raised in Great Britain. Yet somehow, I ended up here in Japan under the employ of Mikage International, mainly a trading firm, but I am a member of C-Project. I'm one of the Guardinals, an elite group including myself, Gladys Smithson, Wei Lee, Ryurik Lediev, and Assam Bakti. Yet something always gets me about this.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad for a job, for a living. But I don't approve of everything that goes on in C-Project. For one, I don't believe in the breeding program, artificially impregnating young women descended from tennyo to create some kind of human super-race. As a scientist, I am intrigued, but as a man, I'm disgusted. I also don't believe that brainwashing these women is right. Though my resume specifies me as a weapons developer, I deal with these young women daily. I've seen strong girls, and I've seen weak girls subverted to the program, thought to believe that once we can manufacture a hagoromo they will ascend to Heaven. They are taught to think we're protecting them from common man, and that their children will better the human race. They're wrong.
"Alec?" I sat up abruptly, remembering that I still had my headset on from work earlier. I adjusted the mouthpiece a little and set down the journal I had been writing in.
"Yes, Chief?" I recognized Kagami Mikage's voice on the headset. He was my boss, and the head leader of C-Project behind the front man Aki Mikage.
Aki is another part of C-Project that I regret. The twin brother to Aya, Ceres, and the reincarnated progenitor of the Mikage clan, we pushed him to recover his memories about the hagoromo. We pushed him too hard, and now he's a monster. The fun-loving, gentle kid Aki has been replaced with the man who married a tennyo many years ago.
"Come to the conference room right away, Alec. You're late for the meeting." I had forgotten about that. In a rush, I tucked the journal into my desk and hurried out of my office to the elevator. Right after I pushed the up button the chromium doors slid open to admit me.
Three Mikage agents were already in the spacious elevator, accompanied by two young women. Both the girls were dressed in the white gowns that identified them as members of C-Project, but they obviously had not undergone a cellular transformation yet. The vector Kagami had released into the general water supply released their powers, but sometimes extra doses of the vector had to be administered to achieve the black- haired, golden-eyed perfection of tennyo. I should never have unraveled the mysteries in the DNA of Ceres.
The closest girl to me smiled and nodded politely. She was probably one of the girls who accepted her powers and immediately wanted to know more about them, to discover all there was about them. Those were the girls who didn't need a prod in the 'right direction'. More of the girls were like that than not.
The other young woman was obviously one of those few that weren't. The girls who were afraid, didn't want power, or didn't believe were usually kept sedated and drugged until Gladys got to them. Gladys, a fellow Guardinal, was from America, and the designated educator of the C- Genomes. She was very good at making them believe what she wanted them too.
But, I needed to get back to the subject at hand. I looked at the second girl carefully. Her eyes were half-closed, the pupils and irises small and blank. She was hunched over slightly, with magnetized metal bands on both her wrists, keeping them together in front of her. My office was on the first floor. More labs were on the second floor. The conference room was on the third floor. On the second floor the three agents and two young women got off.
C-Project has a separate building than the main Mikage International high-rise. That way no one asks questions when the new girls are brought in. There were two main buildings in all. One was an arboretum along with private rooms for all of the girls and common rooms they all had access to. The other building held all the labs. It's where we're trying to manufacture the hagoromo and where the girls are doctored. It's also where they undergo cellular transformation. I was going to the third floor of the lab building.
After a pause to collect myself, running a hand through the loose blond hair hanging in my face, I entered the conference room. All of the Guardinals were assembled, along with several other scientists and Kagami. The chief sat at the head of the table with a staid look on his face.
"Alec, correct me if I've said this before, but if you weren't a genius with an IQ of 206... I'd fire you." I smiled. The Chief was always saying that. I suppose it's because the otaku in me gets a little carried away, like when Toya tried to liberate Aki. I was cheering him on. But it didn't work unfortunately.
"You're corrected, Chief." Kagami only motioned for me to sit. I did. The next person to stand up was Gladys, who stood in front of a huge computer monitor in which several pictures began to form. The first was the faces of two girls, one with an oval-shaped, slim face and long, straight dark brown hair, and the other a short, heart-shaped face with curly brown hair. Under each picture was a name. Akane Shizuka and Ayumi Shizuka. We always held meeting when new girls appeared.
I blinked. Those were the two girls I had seen in the elevator. The girl with the slim face, expressive eyes, and straight hair had been the drugged one. So her name was Akane... it was funny, but she looked almost like Shiori, from this game Tokimeki Memorial... but that's off the subject. Gladys was talking.
"These are the two newest girls for C-Project: Akane and Ayumi Shizuka. They're fraternal twins and they're family has been dwelling in Okinawa for many generations. We believe, as with the case of Kei Tsukasa, that they are descended from Okinawan tennyo." Gladys pressed a button to change the pictures on the screen. The Ayumi girl was standing in a sloping hold in the floor, one side of an apartment blown away, and a glow surrounding her.
"So she manifests destructive power?" Ryurik said. The man was from Russia, a top biologic scientist. Gladys nodded and spoke.
"Now, out of all the girls, over two-thirds of them manifest purely destructive powers. Although, through a study just recently completed, we are able to trace the actual bloodlines of different tennyo. From the Kansai region we see telekinesis, the ability to levitate objects and move them with the mind." A map came up on the screen and I leaned forward slightly, listening intently.
"In the Hokkaido region we see a strange power over animals, controlling and calling them." There were several small pictures of C- Genome women with animals and levitating objects. Small prefectures and regions were lighting up on the map as Gladys spoke and ran through several tennyo legends, in Saitama, in Tochigi, in Aoyama, and finally she made it to the region I was interested: Okinawa.
A picture formed on the screen of the popular pop duo, GeSang. I know who they are because they did the opening song to one of my favorite anime. But anyway, Gladys was talking again.
"In the legend concerning tennyo in Okinawa, the celestial maiden had seven children. It was said that the tennyo could entrance men with her voice, and affect the things around her with just the power of song. This is paticuraly evident with Kei Tsukasa, a C-Genome we thought was compatible with the vector, but the vector ended up rejecting him." There was a picture of GeSang's concert hall, hundreds dead.
"Kei Tsukasa literally brought down the house when his powers manifested, crashing a chandelier. His cousin Shuro is believed, though not confirmed, to be a C-Genome as well. The agents sent to capture Kei were found with internal ruptures around the heart... which brings us to the C-Genome Akane Shizuka." I leaned forward again, propping my glasses on the bridge of my nose.
"Akane Shizuka's family has traced their ancestry to the Okinawan tennyo through birth records and other such means. Now, Akane and Ayumi have been in our facility for little over a week now, and we have had to keep Akane sedated. The reports from our agents say that whenever she cries, or screams, all mechanical things cease to function and celestial powers are repressed." More pictures flashed by the screen of Akane crying, half blurred and fuzzy.
"All of out monitoring equipment, cameras, security systems, electricity, everything simply shuts down whenever she cries or expresses sadness or fear. We have been experimenting with the suppression of celestial power, and when she screams she can cut off other C-Genomes' power. We tried this procedure with Takina, one of out lesser girls first. We had her try to lift a fan while Akane was crying in the other room. She couldn't do it." I was almost stunned. They were making that girl cry just to test things?
"Then we tried it with Yoko, one of our stronger C-Genomes. She could not destroy a wooden crate while Akane was screaming. This almost proves the girl's power. While her twin has only a lesser destructive power, Akane has the powers of the Okinawan tennyo. At this moment she is undergoing the cellular transformation. She should be kept sedated but if- " Suddenly the lights went out, the computer shut down, and all was black. There was a faintly heard keening wail coming from the second floor.
A/N: Okay everyone. That's it! Akane's power has been detailed, and I'll post this. It'll be from Akane's point of view next chapter. Bye Bye for now!