Chapter 20: Change
"Oh, I see," Takanashi said blandly as he jotted something down on his paper. "And what'd you get for number seven?"
A small family of birds took a sudden startling flight, as if in irritation at his words. Takanashi and Kazuto were sitting together at a relatively large cafe table, helping "each other" with their philosophy homework, although the latter wouldn't really classify it was a mutualistic symbiosis. Calling it commensalism would be sugar coating; but had he really expected the shoe-expert to have the motivation to finish all of his homework properly on his own? Despite Kazuto's newfound respect for the man, there were times when he had to wonder how Takanashi had ever become accepted to Tokyo University. The blonde harbored his own unique brand of intellect, but he was never motivated to study and was incredibly lazy about everything except the selling of shoes.
"Plato. And before you ask, I haven't answered number eight yet," Kazuto replied tiredly as he tried his best to become reabsorbed within his own work.
Asuna sighed and shook her head, apparently sharing his concern. She was sitting with them at the table next to Hitomi, who was busy completing her own "impossibly high-level assignment."
"Takanashi, why don't you just pay attention in class?" She asked almost exasperatedly.
The blonde chuckled sheepishly. "It's kind of hard for me."
"No, kidding," Kazuto muttered as he answered the eighth question.
Takanashi perked up when he noticed this and tried to discreetly lean over and peek, but Kazuto pulled another paper between them to prohibit the snooping. The shoe expert pouted at this development but didn't push Kazuto any further.
"You guys are hopeless," Hitomi remarked as she watched the exchange over the edge of her own papers. "How are you going to survive your second and third years if you can't even get through the first yourself?"
Takanashi tched and leaned back in his chair casually. "And what did you get in your philosophy class?"
Hitomi stared at him almost passively before saying, "One hundred eight percent."
"How much of that is imaginary?" Kazuto deadpanned as he answered his ninth question.
The nurse snorted and returned to her own work. "None of it, honey. I'm a smart cookie. Right, Asuna?"
"Mmh," The younger girl murmured around the pencil clenched between her straight teeth, too engrossed within her own math homework, apparently, as she leaned intently over the paper. Kazuto, however, knew better, crossing his arms and asking, "So have you improved your math skills any?"
Sighing, she led her forehead fall and plunk against the surface of the table. "No."
"But I helped you out that one time, didn't I?"
"It didn't turn out to be very productive," Asuna said as she twisted her head to grin up at him, forcing Kazuto to blush when he remembered their brief escapade before his mother had come to visit the house.
"I hope you two don't keep the neighbors awake at night," Hitomi murmured softly without looking up.
The young couple blushed at the nurse's words for what felt like the millionth time. Takanashi snickered and high-fived the older woman.
Maintaining his silence nonetheless, Kazuto leaned back in his chair and stared up at the baby blue sky for a brief moment. He wondered if he and Asuna had ever done something around Hitomi to make her assume that they were such a...physically intimate pairing. While he wouldn't deny or confirm anything, he couldn't recall anything of the sort.
Meanwhile, Asuna groaned and pounded her fist into her math homework.
"Still stuck?" Hitomi asked, glancing over at her friend, who nodded in defeat.
"Why are you so bad at math?" Takanashi asked, leaning over to see if the girl's work was as difficult as she made it out to be.
"It never came very easily to her," Kazuto answered them as he leaned over the table and tapped his partner on the head, asking, "Hello?"
"Mmh."
"You're never going to finish at this rate."
"Mphmh."
"I can't understanding anything you're saying."
Sighing, Asuna picked herself off the table and stood, saying "I'm going to the bathroom," before trudging in a depressed manner towards the toilets.
Kazuto caught the other two's questioning stares and said, "...It drives her crazy."
Takanashi snickered again. "Crazy girls are always fun."
"I'm sure you'll find the perfect yandere one day, Takanashi."
"Not that kind of crazy."
"Crazy in the bed?" Hitomi asked.
"Why does everything you say refer to sex?" Kazuto asked irritably.
"It comes with age."
A semi-satisfied silence engulfed the table then, all three of the them quietly toiling at their own assignments while Asuna did her business in the bathrooms. Kazuto was just beginning to settle into a comfortable groove of answer, read, think, when Takanashi took a brief glance at his phone and blinked, saying, "Hey guys, Valentine's Day is next week."
"Do you have someone to spend it with?" Hitomi asked honestly, though Kazuto could still bet she withheld an ulterior motive.
The blonde laughed and said, "No, I don't have time for those kinds of things. You?"
"No, and for the same reason," The nurse said, setting her pen down for the time being.
It took Kazuto a few seconds for him to realize that they were both staring at him intently. Blinking once he realized the reason, he opened his mouth and started, "Guys, I-"
"She doesn't like flowers," Hitomi interrupted him.
"...She doesn't?"
The nurse shrugged. "Thinks they're cheesy."
"Write her poem," Takanashi suggested dramatically.
"I can't write poetry."
"Make her something nice," Hitomi broke in, glaring at the shoe-expert for his idea. "She doesn't put much value in monetary things."
Kazuto frowned. "I know that, but my skillset doesn't go very far past computers..."
"My, you are useless, aren't you?"
"Oh, well I'm sorry," He snorted.
Hitomi nodded. "Apology accepted."
"I was being sarcastic."
Takanashi cleared his throat and said, "By the way, what'd you get for number eight?"
The metal encasing the computer's shell was cool to the touch and smelled strangely of sea salt, though Kazuto could attribute this to the morning air seeping slowly through an open window of the warehouse. Hideki hadn't been exaggerating when he'd said their basis of operations would be right by the ocean; the warehouse itself sat nestled on a road running parallel to a sandy shore. If one stood outside, they could see the brief outline of Chiba in the distance.
Nobody was present at the moment aside from himself, Hideki and Asuna, as the older man had suggested their visit the warehouse in order to get a general feel for the area, as well as provide an opportunity for him to explain the rest of the specifics of their plan. While Kazuto could be grateful for the lack of other people in the warehouse, he still held a desire to meet the people Hideki had chosen to rely on. He trusted the older man's sense of judgement, but there was always that deep-rooted fear of betrayal, as well as an apprehension towards placing weight in others.
"These units are for calculating Yui's creation," Hideki explained as he gestured at the row of computers sitting side by side along the wall. "All the fine tuning and precise decision making will be done using these."
"But how are we going to...grow her?" Kazuto asked uncertainly. "Will it be through the conventional route, beginning with a single cell, then multiplying it? Because that could take an awfully long time."
Hideki took a seat and gestured for the other two to do the same. Kazuto complied, but Asuna preferred standing. "Your guess is somewhat correct. We will begin with a fertilized zygote, yes, but the technology my project has produced allows for us to accelerate the process. However, there was also the concern of making the biocapsules look as close to the actual person as possible. That's where cellular manipulation came in. I could spent a week sitting here and explaining every last detail about that sort of science, but the general idea is that was can decide how the capsule's features will develop. And since you've given me the visual reference I needed, I can make her look exactly the same."
Asuna shook her head in disbelief. "I didn't even know we had tech of that caliber. It's been a while since the turn of the century, sure, but...I thought accelerated cloning and mind grafting was something you'd only find in science fiction."
Hideki smiled at his sister. "The present is going to eventually catch up with science fiction, and this might be the first step. But getting back on topic, it is very important that we keep Yui in a very secure setting while we work on her. She'll be suspended inside a growth chamber for the duration of the growth process; it's basically a reinforced glass tube filled with a fluid to maintain her homeostasis, once she gains the ability the have such a thing, that is."
Kazuto frowned as his mind churned, trying to get all of his concerns and questions in a straight line. "If...when this succeeds, will she...assume life as an ordinary human? Is there anything that would set her apart from everybody else?"
The older man turned and played his fingers across the smooth surface of the computer table, thinking his next words over carefully. "There are things we know, and things we don't. I can tell you what we do. Since her cells will be grown using acceleration techniques, they will be...ah, 'spoiled' once the process in complete, so she may hit her growth spurts rather early. And since the eyes will have never been exposed to sunlight, they will need time to adjust. She will be able to see as well as anybody eventually, but assimilation is necessary. But broadly speaking, she will be fine. She'll grow, mature, hit puberty, reach adulthood, and inevitably die, as we all do."
Hideki saw the looks of relief passing over the couple's faces and smiled, but let this drop once he realized he had better move on to the second part of his explanation. Clearing his throat again, he drew their attention and made sure he had eye contact before recommencing.
"However," He started, "There is a complication, which I say with regret."
Asuna narrowed her eyes. "And what is that?"
"I ran a check with a colleague on the size of Yui's data. Due to her presence within the game's server, she is able to retain massive amounts of data, and her ability as a computer also helps. Unfortunately, the human brain, as remarkable as it is, cannot house all of this information safely."
Kazuto crossed his arms. "But the brain can store literally a million gigabytes of memory. How is there not enough room?"
"Yui isn't just Yui, to put it bluntly," Hideki explained. "Her consciousness is also interconnected with a vast majority of the NPCs and monsters still within Aincrad, due to her connection to the Cardinal System. Bringing all the data contained within the floating castle would require several brains, maybe more. This means we will have to stave off unnecessary 'memories'. This would include unneeded information on the stats and abilities of the enemy ecosystem within the game, as well as any storage data from the Cardinal System that she is linked to. Any data required to summon weapons or know the terrain of all one hundred floors would also be thrown out. Of course, this is assuming you can confirm that these things are unnecessary. We would like to keep as much of Yui's memories as possible, but one human brain could only contain about twenty percent of 'all of her'"
There was a brief silence as the young couple absorbed the sheer massiveness of the science they were dabbling with. Despite the research and breakthroughs that had been made, it was still a relatively untested science, with only similar experiments of the past to draw experiences from. Yui could become a pioneer of sorts, which was the last thing either of them wanted, because the notion of diving into something unprepared had been thoroughly burned from their minds after surviving SAO.
Finally, Kazuto sighed heavily and asked, "But I thought people could only fully utilize a small portion of the brains. How will she use all of hers?"
"It's less an impossibility and more of an inability," Hideki replied. "The main reason for that is, nobody really experiences enough in their lives to fill the entire mind, but everyone is quite capable of using all of their storage space. To go back on what I said earlier, I suppose that will be the only thing separating your daughter from other humans," He smiled slightly. "She'll have a full brain. Of course, she will forget things and make new memories; she will remember what she needs to, and lose what she doesn't."
After taking a moment to allow this all the sink in, the older man said, "Come here, I'll show you something," Before turning in his chair and tapping the computer in front of him to life, punching in a quick password before sorting through the machine's contents. Kazuto and Asuna stood behind his chair, leaning in to see what was going on. Hideki opened a few documents before pulling up what appeared to be a diagram; an animated image of a human skeleton flashed to life on one side of the screen, rotating slowly to display every last point and detail, and many functions listed beside it told Kazuto that you could also zoom in on certain areas to view bone density, marrow production, and capability of platelets.
To the other side of the screen was the spoiler; it displayed Yui's parameters, utilizing every last bit of information the young couple had been able to provide about her, right down to her affinity for Asuna's sandwiches.
"This is what we are doing to prepare for the growth process," Hideki said as he clicked around a bit. "This needs to be as precise as possible, since growing a biocapsule takes time and we lack the resources to grow more than one at once. We'll be designing and structuring her from the bottom up; from one cell to a fetus, then acceleration until her final form. I expect your help as well, Kazuto, and Asuna, if she finds herself capable."
The girl shook her head. "I don't know anything about these kinds of things."
"You will contribute in your own ways, then. Remember that we are literally creating a person starting from the basic building blocks of life. We can't afford any mistakes, or it could cripple Yui for life."
"Speaking of mistakes," Kazuto said suddenly, "Wouldn't it be feasible to make copies of Yui's data once we have it? Then we could have more than one attempt."
Hideki shook his head. "Once the data tries to assimilate with the mind, it's do or don't. Failure will result in the destruction of the capsule's brain as well, meaning we'd have to grown another one, and I seriously doubt our ability to remain hidden from Fuzen's eye for that long. Besides, growing multiple clones of your daughter and tossing the failures away seems a bit...inhumane, doesn't it?"
Kazuto felt shame wash over him. He was right. It would be wrong to do such a thing.
"Meaning we have only one shot at this," Asuna concluded.
Hideki nodded in agreement. "We'll begin building Yui in a month. I'll call you over once it begins. By my prediction, this whole thing should be over by September of this year."
"It's February..." Kazuto murmured.
Asuna pursed her lips in deep thought.
Hideki nodded in general consensus, then paused as if something had just occurred to him. Gesturing somewhere towards the opposite side of the warehouse, he asked his sister, "By the way, could you go over to that table, way over there, and bring back the big thick book?"
"Sure," Asuna said, walking towards the designated location. "What does it look like?"
"You can't miss it," Hideki called back. "It's the only book there."
"Okay."
About a minute passed in silence then, as Kazuto absentmindedly watched his partner search for the book her brother had mentioned. She seemed to be having some trouble finding it; he had to smirk at her unintentional clumsiness, sometimes.
"There is no book," The older man beside him suddenly divulged.
"What?"
"I wanted some time to speak with you privately," Hideki said with a sly smile that didn't quite match his expression. "Though I will admit it's for a more frivolous reason than you might think. My question is: what do you plan to do on the fourteenth of this month?"
Kazuto stared at the tiled floor and rubbed his shoe across the smooth surface. "To be honest, I don't really know. I've always been horrible at gifts, and women can be awfully confusing sometimes."
The older man nodded and clapped his charge on the shoulder. "Well phrased. I won't claim to know what you should do, but I was just curious to find out. You should probably tell Asuna that there is no book, now; she's stubborn enough to search till tomorrow if you don't."
The days seemed to slip by like frantic fish, then. Kazuto would take several moments out of the following days to think about what he would do for the upcoming Valentine's Day, but he never came up with anything concretely reasonable. Did he really know Asuna as well as he thought he did. Though of course, his inability to decide on such a thing didn't suggest a weakness in their relationship. She hadn't mentioned the upcoming holiday herself either, but he knew better to take this as reason to assume that she had forgotten, having learned long ago that women were very capable of biding their time.
Regardless of how hard Kazuto wracked his brains for an idea, however, in the end it was destined to be a fruitless endeavor. One cause was his lack of experience will such matters and his stubbornness to ask anyone else for help.
Not to mention that Asuna caught the flu.
"I'm-cough-sorry, Kazu-kun," The girl rasped through a dry throat as he tightened to blanket a bit tighter around her, as if this would guarantee something. Shaking his head at the foolishness of his actions, he stood up to relieve the strain on his thighs.
"You don't have to apologize," Kazuto said. "It isn't your fault you got sick."
Asuna let another wave of coughs wrack her body before replying, "But...it's Valentine's Day. You were supposed to sweep me off my feet and give me the confession of a lifetime."
Kazuto smiled and pushed a few sweaty strands of loose hair out of her forehead. "Does it have to be a holiday for me to say that I love you? Seems a bit reserved to me."
He couldn't tell if the girl's flush came from the sickness or embarrassment, but nevertheless she saw fit to turn her head away from him. "S-Stupid. Why do you always make it so hard to be sarcastic?"
"I'm too honest for my own good."
He let her fall asleep after that, taking a seat at the coffee table so that he could watch over his lover from a safe distance. Preparing a cursory cup of tea (he had recently mastered the craft himself), he sat down and quietly sipped as he observed Asuna's slumbering face, trying his best not to worry about the small beads of sweat sliding down her skin. It wasn't an overly serious case of the influenza; just strong enough to knock a person out of sync for a day or two.
Perfect timing, though. I really had no idea what to do.
Of course he had had his ideas. A good dinner and a night out on the town had almost immediately come to mind, but had been thrown out just a quickly, due to his apprehension to resorting to anything so...standard. Whether it was for better or worse, Kazuto knew that the two of them were not an "ordinary" couple. Everything about them, from their meeting to their eventual bonding and even the moment they had declared their love for each other, had been under extraordinary circumstances. The name eluded him, but someone had once said that people united best during conflict. In any case, he had held the notion that doing something ordinary would not hold much meaning for them. But then there had been the idea that perhaps Asuna would like that, doing something mundane. It certainly wasn't something they had plenty of experience with.
Partially, he was glad he hadn't had to make a decision. He'd made too many already. Enough was enough.
Kazuto's gaze slipped to the side, coincidentally focusing on the small calendar sitting on the kitchen's island. In around two hundred days, their lives could change forever. He couldn't say what would happen if the entire plan failed; best case scenario, they would return to their previous lifestyles and hopefully take another stab at it someday. And if it succeeded...
They would be parents. Not just in concept, but legally. It suddenly occurred to him that they had no way to explain Yui's sudden appearance to the legal side of society. He and Asuna were sure their family and friends would understand, given time, but how to ensure that the state recognized Yui as theirs? Would she be presented as a lost child they had stumbled across? She wouldn't have a birth certificate; the government would not have a file on her human form because, well, she had not existed previously.
Kazuto downed the rest of his cup's contents and set it down gently, as to not wake his partner. Well, it was too late to turn back and smooth out all of the wrinkles now. In any case, nothing else would matter as long as he could hold his child in his arms again. All other bridges could be burned when they had to be crossed.
Exhaling heavily from his nose, Kazuto raised his head and stared around at the walls of the house, his mind surprisingly blank of things to think about. It seemed almost absurd, with everything going on in his life at the moment, but he could still enjoy the moment of monotony. Still, as if by protocol, his gaze eventually fell on Asuna.
I care for her so much it's almost ridiculous, Kazuto thought with a touch of irony as he raised his cup to his lips again, despite the fact that it was empty. Before, he would have cringed at the idea of becoming so dependent on another person; now he couldn't imagine living without her. Some would see it as a weakness, to have invested so much of oneself within another. Even he himself would have, at one time. But this forced Kazuto to think back to what Takashi had told him: one may only fight when there is something to be fought for.
I'm not fighting for myself anymore. It's for everyone else.
And this was a burden he would gladly bear.
Though he still couldn't wait for the day that none of them would have to fight, and they could all exist together in peace...
Picking up his cup, Kazuto left it in the sink so he could clean it later and strode over to his lover's sleeping form, bending at the waste so he could get a good look at her ever-beautiful features, even while in the grips of sickness.
Unable to keep a smile from his face, he leaned down and kissed her forehead, murmuring, "I love you," Before leaving the room.
Nobody saw the blissful smile carving its way across Asuna's lips.
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