When Hayate got into work that morning, the first thing she noticed was the DNA test results sitting on her office desk. She noted that it had only been 24 hours since a sample had been submitted by that woman the day before when she visited the base to give her account of events on Vaizen so that the case for her son could be reopened.
None of the other paperwork seemed as important as she reviewed the DNA results many times on that morning. If there had been any doubts about that woman being an imposter, they were blown away with the fact that her genetic code matched Vivio’s for the most part with the odds of error being less than 0.001 percent.
As she exited her office to go for lunch a few hours later, her mind drifted to the last question that needed answering. She had been aware that it was being looked into by Yuuno.
“Hayate-san!” And speaking of Yuuno, there he was now just coming down the corridor to meet her.
“Good day, Yuuno-kun. How are you doing?”
He stopped when he caught up to her. “I’m fine. I was wondering about your family though since with all that happened…”
“They’re doing well. Vita-chan’s still miffed about what happened the day before yesterday while Signum and Shamal are just going about as normal. I can’t tell what Zafira thinks about all this but it’s hard for me to imagine him getting bothered by anything that doesn’t concern my safety. I guess as long as Olivie’s willing to let things stay settled as they are now, he won’t have any issues.”
Yuuno nodded. “I see.”
“You’re looking a little stressed there. You okay?” asked the young lady out of concern.
“No… yes? Maybe…” He rubbed his forehead. “Well, it’s related to what you asked me to look into regarding…”
“Ah, right.” Hayate gave a small smile. “In that case, how about we talk about it over lunch?”
By the time they grabbed their food and an empty table, Yuuno seemed to have gathered his thoughts together. “So regarding the question you wanted me to investigate… when I thought about it some more, I determined that the best source of information on cloning would be the architect behind Project Fate so I paid a visit to Jail Scaglietti.”
“I would imagine he wasn’t very co-operative,” replied the young woman before taking a sip from her noodle soup.
“Well, I approached him under the guise of wanting to ensure that the records regarding Project Fate were fully complete and thorough. After appealing to his pride as a scientist, he gave me a few answers. Specifically, the names of other members in the scientific community who took a strong interest in the Project. From there, I had Verossa look into those who had enough knowledge about the project to create perfect clones and once we narrowed that list down, the last thing to check was whether those scientists could have had access a blood sample from the Kaiser.”
“But I thought only the Shroud of the Saint King had blood samples.”
“It’s the only KNOWN source of blood samples,” pointed out the Librarian. “There was a possibility of another source so we had to look into that. But we didn’t find any such samples among those who were on our list. Honestly, this is bringing to mind that phrase used by that Sherlock Holmes character.”
“Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable it may seem, must be the truth?” supplied Hayate.
“That’s it. We’ve essentially eliminated the possibility of Olivie being a clone. She’s the real thing… and therefore…” He trailed off as his right hand twitched in excitement.
She figured out where he was heading fairly quickly. “Are you saying…?”
“Time. Travel. EXISTS! The Kaiser is living proof of the concept! Do you understand what this means?” asked Yuuno in an excited tone.
“Um… it means that I’ll be having bigger headaches trying to deal with time paradoxes? Or perhaps I’ll be arguing with my future self on the type of woman that you need?”
He blinked once upon hearing that last part. “Uh… what?”
Hayate laughed nervously. “Ah, forget about it! Anyways, you were saying?”
Yuuno’s confused expression vanished quickly as his mind went back to the idea. “This opens up a brand new field of science and exploration! With time travel, we can go back to the times of Ancient Belka and Al-Hazard! Get answers to unsolved mysteries such as how a world like Galea became lost. And an extra bonus to all this is how I can go up to Chrono and tell him that he was wrong about time travel being impossible! But…”
“But…?”
“At the same time, the world of time travel brings a great amount of danger. If someone travelled back in time, any change in events that occur in the past could have a catastrophic event in the future. The worst part is that if someone did successfully change the past, nobody in the future would be aware of it. A whole new field of law enforcement dedicated to protecting the timeline would have to be created to prevent anyone else from going back in time to manipulate the past for their own gain. They would probably have to be isolated from the ongoing timeline in order to retain their memories and do their jobs properly.”
“You’re thinking about it too much, Yuuno-kun!” Honestly, Hayate could easily see why he was so flustered with what he just discovered.
“With time travel, historians and archaeologists have a valuable tool to verify events of the past and uncover answers regarding historic mysteries and Lost Logia but at the same time, it is a tool that could affect the present and the future in many uncertain ways.” He sighed once as he picked his food. “Is the very thing we yearn for the one thing we should never obtain?”
“Just because there’s a proof of concept doesn’t mean we’ll crack open the mechanics of time travel right away.”
“At the very least, we should set up something like a Temporal Investigation department,” said Yuuno.
“Are you expecting a huge influx of time travellers now?” teased the young woman.
He let out a small chuckle before taking a bite out of his meal. “I guess not…”
“Be sure to carve these words into your heart, young man! I’m only going to say this once!”
“… Okay?” Sheesh, this female Student Council President really was passionate about things here. Then again, Touma should have figured that out earlier considering how her braided red hair whirled about furiously with each gesture she made.
“Hard work and raw courage are the keys to success at St. Hilde! They are the ingredients to create miracles in tough times!”
“You’ll have to forgive my older sister. She’s really passionate about the idea of hard work and effort being able to achieve anything,” said the other occupant in the room, a young lady with long pink hair and a little flower clip attached to her white and red headband.
“It’s not an idea! It’s a truth! With enough hard work and a pure focus, one can reach any goal they set. From making it to the school or job of your dreams…” She paused for dramatic emphasis. “… To toppling God herself.”
Before he could wonder about that last bit, the other girl got his attention. “In any case, I reviewed your test results, Touma-kun. I have an idea on which areas we’ll be focusing on in the next few weeks to help you get caught up to the school curriculum.”
The boy smiled a bit. “In that case, I look forward to your tutelage, Kyrie-sempai! Amitie-sempai!”
“Don’t you worry, Touma-kun,” purred the pink haired girl as she patted him on the head. “We’ll take good care of you.”
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(Posted Mon, 07 Nov 2011 02:11)
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