09 Parent-Child Argument 2

Jin was profoundly unsettled by the sight of Mio’s tears for the first time.

How should he comfort someone who was crying?

Or was this even something that could be soothed and resolved?

"Nobody's waiting for me— that kind of thing can't be—"

"I—I'm an ASID!"

Mio shouted through choked sobs, stammering.

"This body is all a lie! I'm crying like this only because I learned that people cry in this situation! That's all!"

She stood, gripping her chest tightly—so tightly the fabric crumpled.

"There's nothing real about me! Remember what Shirley used to say? That I never laughed enough. That was just because I hadn't learned how people laugh! That's all!"

Mio said she only learned to laugh once she had enough samples.

"Of course my test scores are good! I'm a machine after all! Once I see something, I remember it all—calculate like a computer, that's all!"

Mio’s academic performance stemmed almost entirely from her own peculiar nature.

"Sports are the same! I know the optimal way to move my body—so I just do it exactly like that! Everything! All of it—possible only because of ASID!"

Memories fracture.

Memories from childhood to the present.

Most of them were things only possible because of ASID.

Things no ordinary human could do.

"The people suffering on this convoy—they’re being tormented by my kind! Emisa, Ya, Higata—they all say ASID is the enemy of humanity! Isn’t that true for you too, Jin!?"

Yes. That was true.

Jin could not deny it.

ASID was the enemy.

He had spent half his life hunting them.

"I am a monster. I can’t go back. Everyone says—don’t come this way…"

Her very existence was the reason she was rejected by those around her.

Jin cannot comprehend that fear.

There was a time when he was deemed worthless.

There was a time when he saw everyone around him as meaningless.

He had never been excluded.

Yet Jin is certain there is something fundamentally wrong with Mio’s words.

I’m sorry, but I cannot know how Mio’s friends see her.

Perhaps, as she says, they recoil at the idea of her being ASID and hurl careless words.

Still.

“It doesn’t matter. Whether you’re ASID or an alien from another star, you’re my daughter. My home is your home.”

That much he could declare without hesitation.

He takes a step forward. Stands on the edge of the cockpit hatch.

If he jumps, will he land on the cocoon?

Before Jin can act, Mio whispers softly.

In the flow of wind, her voice reaching him—was a miracle.

And for Jin, those were words he would have preferred never to hear.

"Kusunoki Command."

His breath stops.

Jin has never told Mio that name.

Not a single photograph of it remains in the room.

Eight years ago, even Chi had not told Mio.

But if she had learned it—

"From Chi, then?"

No one else.

Chi would not have mentioned her existence if Mio had been unrelated to the Laitera Project.

But if she had learned that Mio was central to it—

And if Mio herself had been uncooperative—

Then the possibility of revealing that fact, for the sake of persuasion, was entirely plausible.

Mio nodded, as if certain.

"Her fiancé."

"…Yes."

"Was killed ten years ago, attacked by a super-large specimen."

"Correct."

And the super-large specimen itself no longer exists.

Even if the Second Fleet took issue at the end, the extermination was successful.

"The reason you were so focused on this operation was because the target was the ASID that killed Commander Rei, wasn't it?"

"That's correct."

"Don't you hate the ASID?"

"Of course I do. Not just Rei. Many comrades have fallen before."

There was no point denying the truth.

Mio saw through any attempt to disguise it.

So Jin spoke plainly.

"My comrades killed it!?"

"That's not true!"

Jin denied it immediately.

"You had nothing to do with it. You were just the same species. Such a shallow connection—there's no guilt in Mio for that!"

There was no need to expand the subject so far.

Mio was Mio.

The ASID that attacked the fleet was ASID.

They were separate entities.

"You're saying I have no guilt... You're saying that..."

"Yeah. Naturally. You didn’t kill anyone. There’s no sin to atone for. No punishment to assign."

"Really... is that true?"

Mio, her tears dried, stared directly at Jin.

"Do you know how ASID reproduce?"

Jin was confused by the sudden, unrelated question.

"Right—Queen-type produces them, and modifies local lifeforms through nanomachines..."

ASID arise by incorporating other ecosystems' organisms during reproduction.

When directly born, the Queen uses her internal factory unit to construct the body.

Even when remaking lifeforms via nanomachines, the body is still sometimes provided by the Queen.

"That’s right. Then one more thing. Do you believe ASID have souls?"

"...Yes. At least they possess the necessary factor to operate the Ether Reactor."

The meaning eluded him. Yet he could not remain silent. Jin cautiously probed Mio’s intent as he answered.

“Then the third question. Where do you think the factor comes from in the ASID born of the Queen?”

To that question—

Jin faltered.

He had never considered it.

More precisely, even the latest ASID research offered no consensus.

“The correct answer is… another living being’s soul. Whether that’s accurate is unclear, but the factor is taken—used. That’s why ASID cannot reproduce in empty space.”

Only Mio, who could translate the language of humans into the language of ASID, could understand this fact.

Yet still, the point Mio was making with this question—

Remained invisible.

“Final one. How old am I?”

“…Fourteen, today.”

He answered with certainty—yet Mio marked it incorrect.

“Actually, it’s the ninth year since I was born by the Queen.”

That discrepancy is Mio’s initial fabricated age for the synthetic body.

A body of minimal functionality—just enough to sustain basic operation—resulted in a synthetic equivalent to six years old.

Yet in truth, Mio had been born less than a year prior.

What of it, Jin thinks.

If it were said here, it must carry meaning.

Still, hearing a girl who appears fourteen is actually nine—such a revelation causes only mild surprise—.

Jin realizes.

He has realized.

The circuitous nature of Mio’s current questions.

Her actual age.

And the day Rei died.

The day Mio met her, she had thought.

As if reborn.

A thought she dismissed with a smile.

Ages never matched—no matter how she calculated.

Yet they do.

A disbelief flares within Jin.

“I felt an immense sense of safety when I met Jin.”

Yes, Mio—then an unnamed girl—had spoken it upon their first encounter.

Jin.

"Yeah, probably because the soul remembered. I felt absolute certainty—safe as long as I stayed by this person."

Whose soul, whose essence, had Mio stolen to be born?

One possibility emerged.

"I—"

Mio twisted her face in anguish.

He wanted to say stop.

He did not want to see his daughter like this.

"I might have been born using Rei-san as the base."

"…!"

The truth was unknown.

Yet the resemblance. To dismiss it as coincidence was impossible.

"I might have taken Jin's happiness away!"

He wanted to say no.

But his throat trembled, unable to form a meaningful sound.

"Why did you take me in?"

He had to answer.

Yet the question itself remained unanswered within him.

The trigger.

What had it been?

"Maybe because I looked like Rei-san."

He wanted to deny it.

At least, he had never seen her as a substitute for Rei.

"I know... Jin, when you look at me, you don't see anyone else. You look at me—just me. But—"

Yet the beginning was.

How could he say it wasn't like that?

"I was not born because someone wished for me—Mio, as a person."

Mio's expression forms an awkward smile.

A single tear traces her cheek.

How many times must I see my daughter's face in tears today—something I've never seen before.

"My place was never mine to begin with. It belongs to someone else. I must return it."