Chaos;Child ~Children's Collapse~ 2

Chaos;Child ~Children’s Collapse~ 2

p1: =======================================
{The girl’s an acquaintance of mine.}
{Would you kindly overlook this entire episode?}

Makise Kurisu.

p2: =======================================
Chapter 2: Kurisu Makise

p3: =======================================
Miss Makise…
[sfx]: Step

{You know this girl?}
{Yes, she’s a distant relative of mine from Japan.}
/ { I did ask her to wait patiently for my own lecture, which was running long, to end.}

{Your lecture? You lectured?}

{I tried to refuse, but the dean insisted I substitute for a professor currently in the hospital.}
/ {He did promise it would only be for the month, at least.}

p4: =======================================
[sfx]: Clench!

{Strip a Jap of her manners, and she has nothing left.}
[sfx]: Swoosh
{You had better set this girl straight!}

{Pure, unadulterated hatred. Not even a hint of humor.}
{No wonder your lectures are so boring.}

[sfx]: Squeak
{…Excuse me?}

{Maybe we should strip you of your textbook and see if there’s nothing left you can teach.}

p5: =======================================
{Did you even notice how many people were sleeping?}
[sfx]: Snicker

[sfx]: Grab

{Excuse us.}
{Come with me.}

[sfx]: Chatter
{Umm…}

p6: =======================================
{Why did you just—}

Speak Japanese, please.

{Huh?}
Do you see the couple at the table behind me?

p7: =======================================
[sfx]: Slurp / twirl

…Those must be the best flunkies he can get, given his lectures.
[sfx]: Hah

Well, I cannot say I am surprised those lectures bored you,
Kunosato Mio.

…How do you—

p8: =======================================
You access the university’s private server, from time to time.

But how… I know I erased any trace of my entry. Yet she even got my profile?

What were you up to?
You must have known what you did was illegal.

…I wanted to read some papers.

And what brought you here?
Nothing.
/ Just wanted to take a look.

…

p9: =======================================
I took the liberty of perusing your thesis -- though given its format, perhaps I should call it a “mock thesis” instead.
“On Quantum-Consciousness Vision within the Tractatus’s Framework,” was it?
* The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, the representative work of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s early philosophy.

She even got inside my machine?!

Given how you constructed your argument, I must assume you’re yet to read Investigations?
*Philosophical Investigations, the name of Wittgenstein’s posthumously published final work.

…There a problem with that?

…Not as such.
/ I simply thought it would be interesting if you did so, and used that to further your thesis.
Given only the Tractatus—

p10: =======================================
Because anyone who understands the Tractatus will recognize its propositions as senseless,
and she must so to speak throw away the ladder, after she has climbed up on it?

Yes. Proposition 6.54.
/ …You have a quick mind.
*From the Tractatus.

Maybe not as quick as yours,
but at least I’m not one of those idiots who’ll quote Prop 7 and act like they’ve read the whole thing.
*”Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”

…I would love to tell him that.

p11: =======================================
Just to confirm, you accessed the University’s server strictly to perform research?
[sfx]: Nod

[sfx]: Rustle

[sfx]: Write

Here you are.
?

Go to the office and show them this. It will grant you permission to audit classes.
You will also have access, albeit limited, from University computers to our servers and the articles therein.

p12: =======================================
No, I—

I was considering handing you over to the authorities, depending on the exact circumstances,
[sfx]: Stand

but I did find your research stimulating, and you seem too talented to place a black spot on your record.
However, it is in your own best interests to cease illegally accessing the network.

Hey wai—
[sfx]: Stand

p13: =======================================
Does she think I’m just some idiot?!
[sfx]: Crumple

[sfx]: Type

Dammit… I can’t find even a trace of her on my machine.

p14: =======================================
Makise Kurisu, 20 years old.
/ Graduated from Victor Condria University at age 18.
Gained attention at 17 after one of her papers was published in Science, and has been a research scientist at the university since she was 18…

…And you’re calling me too talented to give a rap sheet?

All her published papers,
they were miles ahead of anything I’d done through self-study.

[sfx]: Rustle
Found it.

Philosophical Investigations.

p15: =======================================
[sfx]: Open

{Oh, Mio?}
/ {How’d it go?}
{How’d what go?}

{Didn’t you go to the university? To meet Kurisu Makise?}
/ {What was she like?}
{…That wasn’t why I… She was just some creep. }

{Really?}
{Then why are you so driven?}
[sfx]: Write

p16: =======================================
{Now then.}
/ {We will begin today’s lecture with a review of—}

[sfx]: Open

[sfx]: Whispering

[sfx]: Plop

p17: =======================================
[sfx]: Stare

{You there, the person next to her.}
/ {Please allow her to share your textbook.}

[sfx]: Slide

{Now, we’ll start by reviewing the solution to the previous homework…}

p18: =======================================
{That will be all for today.}

{This class is way too hard.}
{Things were way easier back before she started subbing.}
[sfx]: Murmur

[sfx]: Squeak

{Don’t you give any lectures closer to your specialty?}

{…I usually spend all of my time in the lab; I don’t have much to do with the teaching side of things.}
/ {I’m only teaching this class because I was asked to… And I wish I weren’t.}

[sfx]: Flash

p19: =======================================
[sfx]: Running
{…What do you suppose they hope to do with that? Create a flyer with my picture on it, slandering me?}

{…They’re idiots.}
{I read that professor’s papers yesterday, and they’re garbage next to yours.}

Well thank you oh so very much.
{Huh?}

[insert]: Ah!

{N-Never mind. Thank you.}
[sfx]: Spin
{…?}

p20: =======================================
{They really do seem to know each other.}

p21: =======================================
{They’ve been together a lot lately. Though I think she’s just a high schooler who’s skipped a few years.}
{She’s been granted permission to audit classes.}
/ {That’s going to make it tough to go after her for sneaking someone onto the campus.}

[sfx]: Crumple

Professor?
[sfx]: Type

{Maybe we should strip you of your textbook and see if there’s nothing left you can teach.}

{FUCK YOU!}

p22: =======================================
Her lab is well-equipped, but there’s nothing making it leagues better than any other place.

Which means the only explanation left for her success is that she’s just that good,
/ that damned monster.
[sfx]: Open

{Uh, Mio, you should take a look at this.}

{Someone just posted it on the middle school student community message board.}

{…Are you kidding me?}

p23: =======================================
[sfx]: Ah!

[sfx]: Dive!

[sfx]: Type

Does the grade-skipping girl wonder
Go drinking at frat parties?

Reports say the frat is filled with drug addicts.
…There’s stuff on the high school board, too?!

p24: =======================================
[sfx]: Beep

“Kurisu”? It couldn’t be…

[sfx]: Click
[sfx]: Slide

Kunosato-san?

p25: =======================================
So you dug through all the accounts to find mine, did you?
We can worry about that later. First—

These fucking images?

…You’ve already seen them, then. I’m sorry. This is my fault.
And how’s that?

[sfx]: Beep
[bad English] You’ve received a file.

!

p26: =======================================
Are they birds of a feather?

…It’s that damn professor. He’s making me out to be a drunken, drugged-out thug.
And he’s doing it just to make you look worse through association?

Probably so… Sheesh, these games are a waste of time.
If he doesn’t like me, he is perfectly welcome to say so to my face.

The weaker they are, the weaker the prey they try to find.
/ You’ve given me all I need. I’ll figure something out.
Allow me to help you.

I’m good. This isn’t the first time.
[sfx]: Slide

…
/ You never thought they might be real?

p27: =======================================
Huh?
The images. Why’d you know they were fake?

Because you’re not that kind of girl?

…You think you know me?!

Heavens no. However, that dress and that party looked quite expensive. If you had that sort of money…
I cannot imagine you spending it on anything other than books.

Hello? Did something happen?
[sfx]: Grab

…No. I simply thought that, if you’d said something preachy, it would’ve taken the wind out of my sails.

p28: =======================================
Okay…
[sfx]: Crack

{Maybe I started this whole mess with that first putdown, sure…}

{But I’m sorry to say you messed with the one Japanese girl who don’t give a shit about manners.}
[insert]: {No…}
[sfx]: TYPE!

Zero security on your computer? Really?
So you go to dating clubs… And you’ve plagiarized.
Ooh, and what’s this? You’ve padded the results from your experiments? But the numbers tell all.

p29: =======================================
[sfx]: Type

{So Mio,}
/ {could you stop looking like you’re having the time of your life when you’re getting payback?}

p30: =======================================
…For goodness’ sake.
/ I did tell her not to hack her way onto the University intranet.

[sfx]: Heh

She’s a strong one.

p31: =======================================
I’ve got a decent amount of data, but if he plays dumb it’s all over.

Leak all I want, who’re people gonna believe: a male professor, or some high school girl?

I don’t like it, but I’m gonna have to use rumor and gossip, same as him.
/ But if he finds a trace of me, it’ll all be summed up as a personal grudge. That’d ruin everything.
So what do I…

WoWoooW

{What the…?}

{Is this real?}

p32: =======================================
{Shit! How did they—}
[sfx]: Clattering

{I have to destroy it!}
{All of it‼}
[sfx]: SMASH!

p33: =======================================
[sfx]: Ring

[sfx]: Ring

It’s… The dean?
[sfx]: Ring

[sfx]: Ring x3

p34: =======================================
{I hear that professor got kicked out.}
[sfx]: Chatter
{Oh, him?}

Huh?!
What makes you think you deserve a reward? This was none of your business!

That’s enough out of you. I don’t see why I should care about your plans!
Look, just tell him hello for me!

[sfx]: Phew / swipe

[sfx]: Bang

p35: =======================================
How.

…How what?

Getting my data is one thing,
but you got everything, even proof he trumped up his experimental numbers, then plastered that on every monitor on campus and on every student and professor’s personal terminal. At the same time.

[sfx]: *Sigh*

…Would you like to sit down?

p36: =======================================
I know someone, a self-styled “Super Hacka.”

…”Hacka”?
[sfx]: Ah!

I meant “Hacker”!
/ He is the one who noticed you were infiltrating the school’s server,
and he handled everything this time as well.

[sfx]: Clench

…Nobody asked him to.
I wanted to pay off my debt to you.

Because I covered for you when you attended classes without permission?

p37: =======================================
That couldn’t possibly make up for the false images and all of those awful rumors.
Besides, I didn’t save you out of any feeling of goodwill.
/ It was to ask you why you had illegally accessed the server.

[sfx]: Ah

[sfx]: Stand!

Kunosato?!
[sfx]: Walking

p38: =======================================
[sfx]: Grab
{Wha—}

{Will McLachlan.}

{Keep prowling around Makise Kurisu,}
{and that girl next to you’s gonna see you and the professor getting your kicks with that big-assed woman.}

{Hic!}

[sfx]: Waaaaahhhh!
{Will?!}

p39: =======================================
[sfx]: Step

[sfx]: Sit

Thank you.
For what?

p39: =======================================
“The world is everything that is the case.”

…Prop 1?
*From the Tractatus

I consider those the most resolute words in the entire Tractatus.
/ With that opening declaration, he proceeded to, if nothing else, brave the dogfight of reasoning to introduce the concepts it posited to the world at large.

Though he was a philosopher, I’ve always felt his style ultimately resembled a scientist’s ambition.
We must use logic and reason as our tools to question the riddle that is the universe.

I believe you have both the fervor to tackle that question, and the ability to answer it.
Your research is impressive, of course, but you even played the hacker in your pursuit of the truth.

…That doesn’t sound like a compliment, coming from you.

p40: =======================================
?

Let’s go with a more American style, shall we?
/ Makise Kurisu. Kurisu is fine; there’s no need to be formal.
I would love to work along someone as talented as you.

Kunosato Mio. Mio’s fine.

Also, I never said nothing about becoming a scientist.

*Giggle*.

p41: =======================================
{So I heard this college professor got hung out to dry.}
{Did you do that?}
[sfx]: Type

…

{Whoa… Isn’t that kind of overkill?}
[sfx]: Type
[insert]: {My god.}

{He fucked with me, so I fucked with him.}
/ {…And I owed someone a debt.}

{Wow, that’s new.}
{Huh?}

p42: =======================================
{You owed somebody something?}
{And you decided to pay them back?}

{…Whatever. It happens all the time.}
{I don’t want to hear that from y—}
[sfx]: Pfft

[sfx]: Smack
{Ow!}

[sfx]: Boooooo

What a creep…

p43: =======================================
[sfx]: Type

[sfx]: Beep

So Mio-tan’s rummaging through the college database to look at the department-only papers.

As long as she stays away from the research server, let her do what she wants. After all, I believe our relationship is going to last a while.
…There she goes again.
[sfx]: Type

And send.