Hanakawa glanced in the rearview mirror. Mei-ojou-chan was staring absently out the car window as they drove. Her eyes, ringed in black, less watched the scenery and more glazed over. It was a way for her to forget and live in the present. A coping mechanism Hanakawa had been briefed upon.
"We are nearly there, Mei-ojou-chan," Hanakawa called out.
The girl was unresponsive.
"The doctors are very impressed with your recovery," Hanakawa continued. "So much that your Father is adjusting physicians for the next stage. We will be changing your weekly schedule around. Tutoring on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We will visit the specialists on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Sundays are a day of leisure."
"New doctors?" Mei asked quietly.
"Your Father wishes to be certain that you make a full recovery. Your health is important to him."
They pulled into a privately gated entrance. The car would have been passively scanned the moment it turned into the driveway. Nonetheless there were other security features. Window winding down, Hanakawa looked at the retinal scanner built into the guardhouse. A human element was involved too. The guard slid his window across and gestured. Hanakawa handed over the documentation. The guard checked her image against the database and the documentation before scanning the burner ID chip integrated into the paper. Once these measures were passed the simple single-rod gate lifted. Hanakawa drove in and parked in one of the waiting bays just outside the entrance. Passive defences watched them the entire time. Mechs hidden within Quantum pockets waiting silently. A delightfully manicured and presented garden encircled the skyscaper. Small shrubs and Sakura spilling petals onto freshly cut grass. A valet attended to Hanakawa, opening the door and stepping into the vehicle. Hanakawa retrieved her real leather briefcase from the passenger seat before walking around to Mei's side and opening her door.
"Time to go, Mei-ojou-chan."
Mei stepped out. Tall buildings of glass and steel surrounded her. The reflected light left the girl wincing and shielding her eyes. Anticipating this, Hanakawa produced a hat and settled it upon the girl's head. Hanakawa took Mei's small hand in her own. The pair walked down the small path leading up to the main entrance. Tall sakura, some reaching 12 metres, flanked them. Flower gently rained. White with pale yellow centres. Their smell was soft. It tickled the senses but did not overwhelm. Hanakawa liked the scent. A tug at her hand slowed the woman down. Mei was looking up at the almost snowy white trees in wonder. She held out a hand. A single blossom felt into it. Violet eyes took in the fragile beauty. Then they went wide. Mei glanced to one side. Her lips twitched as though whispering something. That same fragile beauty was crushed. Mei let the tattered fragments of the flower fall to the ground.
Hanakawa didn't stop after that. They were quickly indoors and presenting their passes to the plain looking office receptionist. More documents with burner ID chips. Raiden Ryoma-sama understood security. They reached the elevator and waited. Mei's tiny hand clenched Hanakawa's a little tighter. The girl was glancing around as though looking for someone. Hanakawa knew they hadn't been followed. At least not through normal means. A double blink activated the AR interface built into her glasses. Cursor following her gaze, she activated various passive security packages and informed Ryoma-sama of her arrival. The elevator door hissed open. They entered, doors closing and the sensations of ascent pressing down. Hanakawa didn't need to enter the floor number. Only someone from the office side could authorise her to reach the level they now approached.
The doors slid open. Mei refused to budge. Hanakawa knelt before the girl and smiled.
"Mei-ojou-chan, we're here. Your Father is too. This won't take long."
"I don't like needles," Mei said in a quiet voice.
"Then you won't see any needles today."
"Why?"
"Pardon?"
"Why am I here?" Mei's voice dropped to a whisper. "She doesn't like this place."
"We need to perform regular tests. Make sure that you are doing well. You put so much effort into your recovery. Let us make sure that everything is okay."
Mei remained conflicted. Hanakawa didn't press the child. They needed her to show initiative. To show resolve. The composed and collected Mei prior to the incident was needed. Not this weak and insecure child. Ryoma-sama had never explicitly brought this up. Hanakawa was employed to anticipate her superior's needs. What she presented to Ryoma-sama every week was closer to the ideal daughter they needed. If Hanakawa did something wrong, then Ryoma-sama would speak.
Hanakawa stood up and watched the child with a patient expression. Twisting one sandalled foot against the metal elevator floor, Mei again began to glance about and whisper something. Finally she took a deep breath, held it and exhaled slowly. Hanakawa recognised the Raiden breathing exercises, central to the Itto-Ryo they practiced. She was satisfied to see some level of progress being made. Mei smoothed down the cream coloured summer dress she wore and left the elevator. The pair walked down a bare hallway. Hanakawa directed various AR orders to the security systems integrated into the building's structure. Once connected to the secure server Hanakawa began downloading the latest emails and reports. Streams of information scrolled down her vision and were dropped into separate compartments to be reviewed later in the day. For now, Project-MEI took priority.
The offices for Project-MEI looked almost banal. Strip lightning over linoleum floors and bare, unadorned walls. It would have passed for a start-up business orientated around sports equipment. All manner of device and equipment to test and measure human physical endurance and athleticism. Hidden behind this boring veneer the real purpose of Project-MEI took a different shape. Rooms dominated by soulium server banks for AGI's to process extensive datasets. Biological labs designed to handle Level 4 pathogens. A Honkai Faraday Cage for containing possible energy spills. All put together by discreet internal contractors and staffed by staff unswervingly loyal to ME Corp. These people were incorruptible. Exactly the sort Hanakawa needed. Those that had failed the interview and vetting process had been dealt with mercifully and with suitable recompense to assist their oblivious families for the next few decades.
The plain wood-grain door at the end of the short corridor opened. One of the medical nurses in crisp uniform waited for the pair. The woman gave a respectful bow to Mei and a deeper one to Hanakawa. It was a curious gesture. At least to Hanakawa.
"It is a pleasure to meet you," the nurse greeted the two. "I'm Suki. If you could come with me, Ms Raiden."
Mei looked to Hanakawa for guidance. The woman inclined her head.
"Suki will be your attending nurse for our visits. She will look after you, Mei-ojou-sama."
Mei swallowed and nodded. The nurse took her hand and led her off to another room. Now able to focus on more pressing business, Hanakawa steadied herself and walked toward the main project meeting room. She tapped on the closed door twice before entering discreetly. Several specialists were seated at a table in the dimly lit room. A revolving hologram showed a DNA chain with multiple sections highlighted and relevant information attached to orbiting text blocks. Separate from the DNA chain was a graph of Honkai energy waveform patterns. Hanakawa had spent the last six months familiarising herself with all relevant material from every preeminent university that researched the Honkai and Honkai energy. What she was looking at was both familiar and eerie. An impossibility that refused to be solved.
"We have a more complete picture," Ryoma asked from where he was seated at the table head. "Is suppression a possibility?"
One of specialists, her badge indicating she was a geneticist, shook her head.
"This is unlike anything I have seen in my professional career. I tried various permutations utilising samples cultured from your daughter. Actinomycin D had no effect. Transcription continued."
The woman pressed fingers gently into her eyes.
"It's as though she's immune. Which opens up so many further questions."
"Focus," Ryoma ordered in a calm voice.
"Antimetabolites were ineffective. DNA polymerase inhibitors too. Her physiology is both Human and Inhuman in frightening quantities."
The woman looked to her colleague for help. The man ran a hand through his short-cropped hair and sighed.
"I've created a database of all the new or novel proteins within Subject Mei's bloodstream. A whole new category that should be lethal to any human but are not. We are still attempting to determine the purpose and mechanical operation of most of these proteins. Histamines too. But being used in unusual ways."
"How so?"
"The histamine triggers an immune response. This then becomes one of the vectors for the spread of the novel intron expression during cell division."
"Anti-histamine?"
The geneticist pointed back to his female co-worker for her response.
"Immune. Apparently."
"More than one vector," Ryoma acknowledge. "As you said."
"We are seeing novel genetic expression that cannot be modelled with our server banks. I tried excising the active sections just to see the result. The answer was that different areas of Subject Mei's genome began activating. There are redundancies built into this machinery, because it is incredibly well-crafted machinery, that we cannot anticipate. The only common factor is this."
The man pointed at the Honkai energy waveform.
"We do not know what the variables are. But Subject Mei has lined up enough for this machinery to wake up. I've compared intron sections across other samples. We all have these sections. But there are deviations across our species that might mean they are either defective or dormant. I need a larger sample size. My theory is that the epigenetic factors that led to this expression are bottlenecked by flaws in our own genome."
"You are saying that my daughter is an outlier?"
"More like a complete genetic fluke. I'm a Honkai energy engineer with a biology major. Not a pure geneticist. But with the genetic modelling via Subject Mei I now know where to look. When I expose her cells to high doses of Honkai energy they react in defensive ways and survive. When I expose a sample of say, my cells, to the same dose, they die horribly or mutate within observed Honkai infection parameters. I've tested several thousand samples and watched for the same genetic sequence expression.
Nothing.
Subject Mei is truly something special. As I said, there are variations within the intron sequences of the genetic sample database I am calling upon. If early numbers are to be believed, then less than 0.1% of the population might have a similar epigenetic expression. Everyone else when exposed to such variables and doses of Honkai energy will die."
The rest of the people at the table looked equally awed and perplexed. Ryoma used an AR gesture to raise the lightning to normal levels.
"My daughter has arrived. Project-MEI exists to explore the underlying principles and possibilities of what she represents. Always keep that in mind. You have all submitted your testing regimes and been appropriately timetabled. Focus on each of your fields of exploration and submit your next summation of results in one months' time. Dismissed."
Everyone sat up and shuffled out. Hanakawa put a hand on the shoulder of one researcher. He looked to Ryoma. The chairman gave the barest bob of his head. The man waited with Hanakawa until everyone else had left. Closing the door, Hanakawa digitally locked it and activated S-tier security systems built into the building's structure. Obfuscating electronics created a wall of figurative white noise that would block all manner of digital, physical, quantum and even Honkai sensor reading. The room was effectively cut off from the planet.
"Sir?" the scientist asked.
The man was much younger than everyone else present. To Hanakawa's eyes he wasn't even shaving regularly. No formal qualifications. Merely the outlier genius that the truly wise would cultivate when given the opportunity.
"Mr Elijah Orr. You did not speak up once during the meeting."
"Wasn't much I could contribute."
"I find that doubtful."
Elijah shrugged.
"If you wanted chatty you should have hired my sister."
"Shicksal approached her first."
"You're stuck with the defective twin then."
Hanakawa placed her leather briefcase upon the table and removed several manilla folders. She neatly arranged them before Ryoma. Her hand lingered over the bottom one. To Ryoma that was enough. The chairman of ME Corp pulled out the folder and glanced through the documents.
Read them carefully.
Agonised over each word.
Ryoma put the papers down. He was pale. Hanakawa had known her superior for many years now. Only once had she seen him lose his composure. The death of Sachiko had hit him hard. The man turned the documents around and slid them toward Dr Orr.
"Sir!"
Ryoma had known Hanakawa for many years now. Only once had she been insubordinate. Not immediately rescuing Mei had hurt her.
"He is the most qualified," Ryoma pointed out.
Elijah looked through the documents. Long minutes ticked by. Eventually the young man put the documents down.
"You need to burn this," he said. "Burn it all. It cannot leave the room."
"It seems we share certain predilections."
Elijah pressed fingertips against temples and swore. Swore in several languages fluently. Continued to swear until Hanakawa was blanching.
"Your Russian is quite good," Ryoma complimented.
"Who the hell are they? How the hell are they…. No I don't want that answer. Are you certain?"
"As I have told others before, my source is always reliable."
"There must be a mole in Project-MEI. How else would they know and have started?"
"No. Not within this building. Of that I am certain. I agreed to an information sharing arrangement with another Executor. Her Sovereign Resurrection data along with the Core of Domination. In return I hand over research information regarding my daughter as access to Massive Electric's resources. Cocolia has a mole or is willingly passing information on for an undisclosed reason"
"Cocolia?"
"An Anti-Entropy Executor. You can stop feigning ignorance, Mr Orr. I am aware of your background and intelligence. That is why I have shown you this information."
Elijah gave a nervous smile. He picked up the documents and looked over them again.
"If this Duat does what it looks like it does…. It's inhuman."
"Perhaps because we do not understand the underpinning concepts of Previous Era technology we are unable to grasp what the application of this technology will be."
"I'd love it if someone would kindly explain to me how this mask doesn't go and…"
Elijah bit off his words and swore again.
"I've seen what Schicksal does to it's lab rats. And people that have outlived their usefulness. If these masks work the way I'm interpreting them then it's a new tier of atrocity."
The disturbed man tapped the table nervously.
"So why are you showing me, Ryoma?"
Hanakawa slid another manilla folder across. Elijah opened it up and quickly perused the contents. He didn't reread it. Instead the man took out a lighter and began torching all the documents he had been given.
"When do I start?"