site 36: MMG

“Explain the meaning of this! Do you think you can get away with something so forceful?” Hatoyama stood up so angrily that his chair almost went flying. It was rare for the normally peaceful Hatoyama to get so worked up.

But in a sense, it was to be expected. The Inokashira Lake incident was even more of a surprise to them than the Dr. Hashigami matter. Takasu, standing across from the men, was the only person in the room who was calm. Because—

“Takasu, is it true that you did this all of your own volition?!” Matoba said, with a stern look on his face.

Takasu nodded without changing his expression. “That’s true.”

“Who the hell do you think you are?! You may be the man in charge of this project, but that doesn’t mean you can get away with doing whatever you want!”

“You’re the one who said that we could get away with being a little forceful, Mr. Hatoyama. We had a choice to continue or discard the experiments. And I thought that we’d come to a mutual understanding as to which was our priority. In light of our objective, I decided that this was the appropriate response.” Takasu didn’t get angry, nor did he beg for mercy. It was as if he was saying that there was nothing wrong with what he’d done.

“The plan was supposed to be to move to phase two in stages. You can’t just ignore that and discard the entirety of phase one! That’s insane!” Most of the seated men seemed just as upset as Hatoyama.

Takasu realized this, and sighed. “If you just let your guinea pigs run free, sometimes they might bite,” he began to speak in his usual dramatic voice. No one seemed to know quite what to make of this. “You’re free to call them ‘high-spec,’ if you like, but I see things differently. Our feral guinea pigs are a threat to the entire plan itself. The bugs in the first generation had only been found in a few individuals so far, but that was just an early warning sign. Given time, there was plenty of chance that the number might rise to two digits, or three. Think of a cage filled with guinea pigs, and then a few of them get sick. If you leave them alone, soon the rest will be sick as well. There was a need to deal with things rapidly.”

“And so you destroyed the whole cage, is that it?” Hatoyama’s words were a cross between a question and a moan.

The decision was such an extreme one that there was no easy way for the seated men to tell if it was right or wrong.

“It makes sense, but...” Matoba, a doctor and a scientist, attempted to express his reluctant understanding, but Hatoyama was still unsatisfied.

“Even making allowances for that, so many people, all at once? Even I can’t cover you there. You’ve gone too far on your own.”

“Do we need a moment of silent prayer, perhaps?”

Hatoyama gritted his teeth at Takasu’s provocations. “I’m not here to discuss the value of the guinea pigs’ lives. You know damn well how many people are involved in the cleanup each time something happens.”

“There’s no need for you to trouble yourself with anything. The mind control via the ‘occult’ is still working just fine. Weren’t you the one who said that?”

“...”

“The Japanese put a higher emphasis on ‘fitting in’ than on any other factor, no matter how insane the situation around them may be. Am I wrong?”

No one complained.

Takasu looked at their expressions as if enjoying it, and then said in a loud voice, “The first generation has finished their role. We will move up our original plans and advance to the second phase.”