Adolescent Adam

Volume 7, Prologue

Math is born from humanity’s love of accuracy.

1 and 2 are separated and one of them has twice the value of the other. 1 is 1 and it only becomes 2 when its value doubles. This simple difference is the entire purpose behind math’s existence.

But look at it from a certain angle and nothing traps people’s minds in inaccuracy quite like math.

101 and 102 are clearly different according to match, but finding a difference between them in reality is difficult. Even if you prepared two rulers, you could not be certain there was not a 0.001mm difference between them.

So Miss A had long since stopped seeking accuracy.

Math had been her worst subject in school. During her witch training, a few potions had blown up in her face because she refused to measure the ingredients. She was fine with “about 3” as a definition of pi.

Science always used math when discussing units and it strived to be as accurate as possible.

Miss A stood at the top of that field, but it was not well known how careless she was about accuracy.

“Nn, there.”

Once again, the girl was in the verdant holy ground in the depths of FeTUS headquarters. She sat in a rocking chair that could not keep an accurate center of gravity.

She had a teacup on the white wooden table. A Springloaded modeled after a wild rabbit watched on as she wound a pocket watch decorated with a bear-print ribbon.

That was her favorite watch. It unfortunately needed to be wound quite frequently, but an atomic clock would no longer be accurate after 100,000 years. It was little difference.

“I wonder what time it is now.”

Once she finished winding it, she smiled bitterly toward the rabbit.

She had to set the watch’s hands, but she did not know the current time.

The wild rabbit machine blinked its red eyes as if to say it did not know either.

“Exactly 11, then.”

She set the watch to 11 when she saw a girl walk into the room.

Machina had been ordered to be here at 11:00, so she sat down in the seat across from Miss A at precisely that time. She was not even a second late or any other unit that a human could sense.

And a few seconds later…

“Did I keep you waiting?”

The grassy field displayed in the room switched over to something else.

When the projected image vanished, it revealed empty water tanks covering every surface.

The projector picked up an outside signal and displayed 12 monoliths. The 12 guests were represented by playing cards. Specifically, the jacks, queens, and kings of all four suits.

Twelve people surrounded the table.

“Is it only Miss A and Miss E today?”

“We have little to discuss,” answered Miss A. “I will inform the other witches later.”

“Understood. Now, if you don’t mind getting right to the topic at hand…”

All 12 voices coming from the monoliths were clearly excited.

Miss A set down the watch and reached for her cup instead.

“As I told you in my message, the Holy Grail is complete.”

“Splendid!!”

“Splendid!!”

“Splendid!!”

The monolith voices were brimming with excitement. Some of the voices grew fainter as if they had moved away from the microphone to dance with joy.

“Then when will you be executing the plan? This will be a turning point in human history, so please allow my company to support you in every way possible.”

“No, wait. I would like to provide the two of them with god’s blessings first. I will arrange a visit to my office.”

“A boy doesn’t want all that formal nonsense. What matters is the honeymoon. The best way for two youths to celebrate is to take a relaxing vacation.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We must research the True Ancestor. This is no time to be messing around!”

The excited monoliths argued on and on.

Miss A had predicted this, but it was even more annoying than she had expected. She shrugged and looked to the rabbit sitting on the table.

It blinked its red eyes and the 12 monoliths vanished.

The room was wrapped in silence. Machina was as taciturn as ever, so the only sound was the clink of Miss A placing her cup on its saucer.

After another blink of red eyes, the 12 monoliths reappeared.

“My apologies. We got carried away.”

Miss A had not said a word, but the cards acted like she had yelled at them.

Those men and women ran the world’s most powerful conglomerates and corporations, so the twelve of them together possessed more than a third of the world’s assets. But here, they were no more than Miss A’s sponsors.

“As for our plans…we are only just beginning to investigate the egg cell extracted from the Holy Grail. It appears implantation would be possible, but it is unclear if this would produce a True Ancestor. Thus, I believe we should still wait and see what happens.”

“That again?”

The cards ceased their celebrations and instead sighed in disappointment.

“We can only watch and wait for so long, Miss A. You have been late to act every single time since the discovery of the Serpent’s Eye holder. And as a result, the angels stole the boy, a troublesome demon intervened, and your frontline facility there was nearly destroyed.”

“You need to give it a rest already. Reconstructing the holy ground there cost us enough to bankrupt a few small nations.”

Now they started griping.

The rabbit looked up to ask if she wanted to cut off the transmission again, but Miss A shook her head.

The monoliths must have remembered there was someone else there because they changed who they were speaking to.

“How about you, Miss E? The completion of the Holy Grail is your problem, isn’t it? Shouldn’t you seek the cooperation of the Adam boy right away?”

“You have all the research equipment you need!”

“Hweh hweh hweh. If you want a honeymoon, I can get one set up for you right away.”

“Don’t you think watching and waiting is foolish?”

They talked on and on toward Machina.

The girl had been silently observing the conversation, but now she raised her head.

“This is only my personal opinion, but…”

She calmly glanced at Miss A who jerked her chin, telling her to speak.

“I agree we should seek Fujita-kun’s assistance. And I think we should hurry toward the birth of the True Ancestor.”

“See!?”

“But I will obey Miss A.”

“Kh…”

Just as the monoliths thought they had the perfect ally, they were silenced.

She was personally opposed to watching and waiting, but she would go along with it if Miss A said so.

Miss A must have known Machina would say that because she did not hesitate to take a sip of tea.

She understood why the monoliths and Machina felt the way they did.

From a pure efficiency standpoint, they should immediately call in the Adam boy, Fujita Mutsuki. They should tell him everything and get his help with their research.

His help was the only path left for humankind.

But…

“…”

The tea had gone cold. She had apparently spent too long winding her watch.

A clock that would be off by a single second in 100,000 years and a pocket watch that needed to be wound once every few days were the same in the sense that neither kept the time with perfect accuracy.

The girl who understood science better than anyone simply could not trust in “efficiency”.

“That is all I have to say. You are dismissed.”

She set down the cup.

They must have known that there was no use arguing with her calmly-given order. After some sighs and grinding teeth, the monoliths vanished.

The grassy plain returned.

Miss A breathed a quiet sigh and pulled a single hard candy and a small bell from her pocket. When she tossed the candy in her mouth and rang the bell, a large maid entered and prepared two new cups of tea.

“…Miss A.”

Machina spoke quietly to the girl who rolled the candy around in her mouth.

“I agree with them,” added the maid. “We have passed the time for watching and waiting.”

The girl nodded to say she understood what Miss E and D were saying.

She looked down at the pocket watch she had picked up once more. The ticking hands moved with what appeared to be a flawless tempo.

Were those hands accurate or not?

It was impossible for human eyes to be certain of the current second.

“I will leave the rest with you, Miss E.”

“Eh…?”

She tossed the watch aside.

“Do what you think is right. No one knows that boy better than you, so that would probably be best.”

“Probably? Miss A, this is too much.”

The maid frowned at this extremely careless decision. However…

“That’s an order. Miss E, this is in your hands.”

“Um…”

“The feelings of those involved are of the utmost importance in such things. That means the Adam boy’s and yours.”

With that, she picked up her teacup to say the discussion was over.

Machina remained expressionless, but she was confused and started to open her mouth to speak.

But at that very moment…

“I see you haven’t changed, Miss Alice.”

A brief disturbance ran through the room’s projected image and the King of Hearts monolith appeared.

The grassy plain remained and the monolith formed a human silhouette.

It was a horribly emaciated old man in a wheelchair. This signal was not sent through the previous secret line, so the holographic image displayed his true form.

The old man saw no need to hide who he was and the wheelchair’s wheels squeaked as he approached the table.

“What do you want, Dr. Strangelove? It is rude to interrupt teatime.”

“Ho ho. There is no need to worry about that given how well we know each other. Maid, give me some tea as well.”

He smiled in a way that made it look like he had just eaten someone.

The maid hesitated but finally prepared the requested tea.

The old man was only a hologram and thus could not pick it up, so it remained on the table.

“I created Miss C and you created Miss E. But it seems it was your Miss E who was chosen for the Holy Grail. This is a cause for celebration, but that one point is a tad disappointing.”

“Do not say we ‘created’ them. They are both my daughters.”

“Heh heh. Now about Miss C…about Elisabeth.”

“…”

Miss A’s eyebrows twitched.

“You don’t need her anymore, do you? Then perhaps I’ll retrieve her.”

The girl had been calmly listening to the old man, but now a crunching sound came from her mouth. She had apparently bitten through her hard candy.

“Fine, fine. I’ll leave her with you,” said the man. “You can use her however you like.”

Silent anger filled the 600-year-old girl’s eyes and the old man responded with a thin smile.

“But as I’ve said countless times before, Elisabeth has quite a few flaws introduced by that creation plan. It would be fairly dangerous to trust her outside of battle.”

“Silence.”

“You must understand. All people are god’s children. Attempting this using human knowledge was absurd. The basic theory used was old. The researchers were under a lot of pressure to achieve immediate results. She was raised in an inferior environment. And…”

He pushed on the wheelchair’s tires to roll it back.

“The Schwarze Lab was run by the Kurosaki family.”

“…”

He returned to his original position.

“Heh heh heh. Miss Alice, didn’t you say you were good friends with Miss Elisa, the genetic base used for Miss C?”

“Silence!”

By the time the girl’s voice rang out, the old man had vanished without a trace.

She had carelessly grown emotional, so she sighed and leaned back in the rocking chair. She shook her head to tell the shocked maid not to worry about it.

And she faced Machina once more.

“I will simply…watch and wait for a while…Miss E,” she said quietly. “I leave this with you.”

“…Positive.”