Chapter 8 Orbo Lesson
Dojima was just about to go home for the night when Karasuma caught her.
"Dojima, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Of course. What is it?"
Karasuma fell into step beside her. "How much do you know about Orbo?" She asked in a confidential tone.
"Well, with the Factory's records, we know a lot more than we did before. Why? What do you want to know?"
"I know it was harvested from the DNA of the Witches kept at the Factory. How was it harvested?"
"It's a segment of DNA common to all Witches. Actually, it's a repeating sequence. All Witches have at least one copy of it. The scientists at the Factory weren't able to replicate it, so they manufactured it from the blood of live Witches."
"How did it work?"
"It's kind of complicated to explain," Dojima said, wondering why Karasuma was suddenly so interested. Something seemed to be bothering her.
"Try."
They walked through the front door into golden evening light.
"Okay. Like I said, all Witches have this DNA sequence. It absorbs the raw power a Witch produces and turns it into power they can utilize. How and even whether their power manifests is partly genetic and partly environmentally determined. But anyway, by cutting out the rest of the genome and purifying the DNA sequence that absorbs power...when a Witch is injected with a serum containing just those strands of DNA, it overwhelms the raw power the Witch is producing, absorbing the power faster than they can produce it."
"I can't believe I used to think you were an airhead."
"I worked hard to make you think that," Dojima replied, not sounding at all offended.
"Did the Orbo survive once it was injected into a Witch? We were warned to call in the Factory as soon as possible after incapacitating a Witch in case the Orbo wore off. Did it really wear off?"
"It depends on the Witch. The more powerful the Witch, the more energy they produce. At some point the Orbo reaches its limit and becomes denatured. Basically, it falls apart. But for weak Witches, the Orbo could survive long enough to circulate in their bloodstream, where, if the DNA was compatible, it could be absorbed by the Witch's own cells like a virus, which served to put their powers back to sleep, so to speak, turning an awakened Witch back into just a Seed."
"What effect did Orbo have on humans? Why did it cause side effects when regular humans used it? And why were Hunters able to use it?"
"So you know it weakened Hunters' powers. That's because even outside a body, it absorbed their energy, though at a much lower rate. For regular humans who don't produce that energy... This is actually just speculation; the Factory scientists developed some hypotheses based on the symptoms, but they didn't know for sure because Zaizen decided testing Orbo on humans in a laboratory setting would be unethical."
"Huh!" Karasuma scoffed at that. "So what was their theory?"
"Emotions. Even with Witches, the magical energy they produce is so connected to emotional energy, the DNA sequence uses both. That's why a heightened emotional state can make a Witch's powers go haywire. When a regular human is exposed to Orbo, with no magical energy to feed on, the Orbo goes after emotional energy exclusively. It's way more aggressive than just absorbing emotional energy; the Orbo can basically pry open a human's psyche to go after the energy it wants to absorb, causing instant terror, paranoia, despair. Of the humans who fell victim to the side effects, some killed themselves, some attacked their companions, some are still alive in hospitals, in comas or suffering from mental breakdowns. Some do recover, though. Not many."
"Zaizen said the Orbo he tried to shoot Robin with was the purest Orbo they had made. What would make it a pure sample?"
"I would guess that it would have the highest concentration of the DNA sequence that absorbs energy with the least amount of extraneous DNA they could get. It would make it more effective at absorbing energy, and because it would be less likely for a Witch's body to reject it, it would be more likely to be absorbed into the Witch's cells and permanently disable their powers."
"What would happen to a Hunter injected with Orbo?"
"I don't know," Dojima answered. "It might depend on how much power they produce whether they react like regular humans or Witches. They might be somewhere between the two. It might even depend on how much power they're producing or what their reserves are at the moment, or even their emotional state." She bit her lip, then asked, "Does this have anything to do with Amon?"
"No," Karasuma replied, but the lie was so clear in her voice it might as well have been a yes. "I'm just curious."