Having perfected the basic theory of magical science, humanity wasted little time applying the theory to other research applications. Various nations, in a scramble to secure their share of the benefits for their own interests, raced to invest massive sums into research and recruited top scientists one by one. These scientists, too, thrived in the rich environment as they developed new technologies. At the forefront of the applications of magical research was a semi-governmental research institution in America—there, three brilliant young minds were gathered.
"Seriously?! He’s smoking in the lab again!"
With files tucked under her arm, the lone female researcher of the group, Aria, who was recognizeable by her shoulder-length red hair, lightly slid through the doors into the lab. She was an undeniably talented young woman who earned a doctorate in computer science in her teens. Her mature demeanor made her seem more composed than her actual age, but the occasional gesture or expression still revealed traces of the innocent young girl.
"Zip it. This ain’t a cigarette…"
A man sitting by a window, looking listless, responded. Tall and lean, Frederick looked more like an athelete than a researcher. Two years older than Aria, he held a degree in particle physics and was also a leading authority in the recently established field of magical energy physics.
"…Ah! You knew I was here, then?"
"…Not really… Anyone would’ve noticed you."
"Ugh! Normal people say stuff like, ‘You look good today, man,’ or whatever. Ah, typical, nevermind. It gives me chills imagining you saying something sensible…"
With a sniff, Frederick turned away.
"Hah, you really don’t hold back, huh…"
A slender man who was the senior head of the lab’s research approached quietly, holding cups of cheap, steaming, coffee in both hands. He, too, was a prodigal young scientist who had mastered life sciences early on and played a key role in completing the foundational theories of magical science. Since then, he had shifted his major to bioinformatics—that is, an interdisciplinary field of science dedicated to understanding vast quantities of biological data sets—and, now, as head of the lab, leads the charge in applied magical science mechanics.
"Ah, good morning! The days are getting warmer, and the long hours are getting in the way of my work…"
"Mm, you’re looking quite cheerful today."
"Wow! Do you think so?"
"Hmph. Looks like you’re finally shaking off that college kid mentality," Frederick said, bitterly.
"Haha… Here, Frederick. Be careful, it’s hot."
He handed him the cup of freshly brewed coffee. Frederick took the cup silently and sipped it, drinking it black without added sugar or cream.
"…So, you two pull another all-nighter?"
"Yeah, but, I must admit, we didn’t get much work done; we got caught up in a little bit of a conversation…"
"You call five hours ‘a little’…?" Frederick said, disinterested, and a bit venomously. "Ugh, five hours. I don’t know how you two don’t get bored… Well, what’d you talk about?"
"We were talking about events that still remain controversial in our time."
"What a disappointment. That’s practically the same as talking about work…"
Aria sighed. Frederick, ignoring her, continued, "Neither us or science are omnipotent. There are things we can't understand or solve."
"I don't deny that, of course. What I am saying is that there is a difference between ‘phenomena we can't explain due to insufficient understanding’ and ‘phenomena we cannot perceive in the first place.’"
"What do you mean by ‘phenomena we can’t perceive’?"
"For example... Yes, the existence of God. Let's put aside religious belief for the moment; we can understand the concept of God. But we have not scientifically proven the actual existence of God."
"God is God, and that’s it. Apparently whoever believes in Him will be saved."
"I used a bad example. Let's talk about something more relatable. Our physical bodies are composed of about 60 trillion cells, whose roles are determined by DNA. It wasn’t until the the 20th century when we finally figured out how this worked."
"You're the one with the expertise..."
Frederick nodded, loudly sipping his coffee.
"But we still don’t know ‘who built this mechanism or why’ of it."
"Who said that..? It was the result of trial and error woven by nature, wasn't it? If you fail, you start over. If you succeed, you move on to the next step. Of course, there must have been mutations."
"Aria... Do you think that all of this, including the mutations, is just a random accident of nature?"
"…What else could it be?"
"That's far too statistically improbable. Though, probability theory is your area of expertise."
"Probabilistically, you're right. But what else is there?" Frederick, losing patience, urged him on.
"Sorry, Frederick. Let's jump to a conclusion. What kind of being has the power to direct the course of events in a single direction? A being that meticulously defines in detail the course an outcome of every event in the world."
"Well, that would be God, right?"
"It is close to that concept. So, let's call it ‘God’ for now. And what if ‘God’ is something we fundamentally cannot perceive..."
"Even if it did exist, what’s there to be worried about..?"
"Are you familiar with ‘missing links’? It’s a term used to describe a significant gap when discontinuity is observed in a sequence where continuity is expected. To use a simple bionlogy analogy, it’s a situation in which the existence of Species B, which should have occurred during the evolutionary process from Species A to Species C is completely missing. So, how does a missing link occur? I believe that this phenomenon is a control error by ‘God.’ In other words, ‘God’s’ definition of events doesn’t always function perfectly. So… Why, then, does a control error event occur? Is there a flaw in the mechanism iself… or was mutation prompted by a third party…? I believe it’s the latter. That is to say, a ‘third party’ intervenes in the evolution from Species A to B—which ‘God’ determined as a natural course of events—suggesting evolution to Species C… Or eliminates the possibility of evolution to Species B entirely. In any case, the natural path of evolution was to evolve Species C via Species B, but the ‘third party’ rewrites the program to evolve directly to Species C. I call this third party ‘Divine Revelation.’"
"W-wait a minute! That’s not easy to understand at all…"
Aria playfully pouted. Frederick saw this and folding his arms before following the line of thought.
"It means it isn’t necessary to increase the length of a giraffe with a one meter long neck to ten meters by progressing through stages from two meters, three meters, and four meters. Just make it ten meters all at once. Rewrite its DNA. However, this guy’s saying that this DNA rewrite wasn’t done by ‘God’—it was the work of some kind of ‘revelation.’"
"I get the logic, but it’s a bit too far-fetched. Besides, if it’s an entity encouraging successful evolution, then shouldn’t that be fine?"
"No, that’s not always the case. Among species with confirmed missing links, there are quite a few extinct ones. The ultimate goal of biological evolution is the ensured perpetuation of a species. Therefore, extinct species cannot be considered successful examples of evolution. This is true for us humans as well. If ‘Divine Revelation’ intervenes and forces us down an unintended path while we’re trying to evolve naturally, we would be doomed to the road of extinction."
His tone deliberately grew more serious. The color drained from Aria’s face.
"…Aria. It’s all bullshit. Don’t take it seriously."
"Haha, calling it nonsense is harsh, Frederick. Call it a hypothesis."
"So, what do you think, Fred?"
"You decide your own path the best. I couldn’t stand the idea of it being changed by someone else’s hand... That’s all."
"Good. You feel the same as me, then…"
Beep. Be-beep. Beep. Be-beep. Beep. Be-beep.
In a dimly lit room, an electronic warning alarm echoed.
"Oh my. The overflow limit has been exceeded again…"
A tall man dressed entirely in black clicked his tongue bitterly. He slammed the console to halt the device’s operation. With solemn steps, as if ascending towards a holy altar, he approached the end of the terminal—a massive, coffin-like, structure.
With the press of a switch, the lid of the device silently slid off. After a moment, a pale, slender, boy rose from inside the device. The structure’s inner chamber was filled with a colorless liquid, shielding it from interference from the outside world. This viscous liquid clung to the boy’s starkly naked body.
Hundreds of ultra-fine metallic threads were connected to the boy’s brain. The procedure involved re-anchoring memory data to the brain’s hippocampus. More specifically, the process involved receiving back-ups of memories stored on the HPC server and performing the process of restoring lost memories.
The procedure to rejuvenate the body carried the fatal flaw of almost always causing memory clouding and loss as a side effect. For that reason, the boy had preemptively stored his memories temporarily, in advance preparation for their permanent erasure.
"How are you feeling?"
"My senses feel refreshed and sharply refined. The restoration completed without issue."
"Though, the rejection of the juvenile hormones is troublesome..."
"Even so, it’s not a naturally occuring biologically active substance. For now, we will continue backing up the memory data beforehand.
"...Hm"
Flipping his cloak with calligraphy of the Japanese kanji for "raven" brushed on it, the man in black bowed respectfully.
"By the way, is something concerning you? Your brainways seemed to have had a subtle disturbance during the session…"
"…Ah, I was reminded of an old memory from long ago. Perhaps my emotions got the better of me."
