Chaos;Child ~Children's Collapse~ 1

Chaos;Child ～ Children’s Collapse ～ 1



p1: ======================================
--Push comes to shove, what drove me
Were never dreams of fame and adulation
Or fleeting flickers of love and emotion

p2: ======================================
But rather enmity: a desire to kill.
Chapter 1: Mio Kunosato

p3: ======================================
Did you hear the rumors? They say that, after his capture, the culprit behind the New New Generation Madness was whisked away somewhere.
That’s bull.
Nah, I hear he’s in some city hospital.

[bg]: Shibuya News

There certainly have been rumors.
/ Did you read this week’s FR○DAY special report?
I do a radio show. It gets me info – and lets me control it.

p4: ======================================
[sign]: Coffee?

On a similar note,
/ would you happen to be familiar with the disappearance of a single teacher at the culprit’s school following his arrest?
[sign]: Freesia

p5: ======================================
I know that.

And that.

Fake news.

<small: Hm? > You I’ll look at later.

Each of my listeners thinks he’s the only one with any idea what this information is worth,
and slavers over the thought of getting my attention so they can “help” me.

p6: ======================================
I am glad to see you are all so well-informed.
But they have no idea

whom I’m even out to kill!

p7: ======================================
[background]: Kei-san, what were you like as a child?

That I will leave to your imaginations.
/ I will take a short break; in the meantime, please listen to this work by Phantasm.
[sfx]: Click

Good work, Mio.
/ Any leads?
[sfx]: Clink

Not especially.
/ This broadcast is mostly intended to keep them from getting bored.
I haven’t done one in a while.

p8: ======================================
Then wouldn’t it be a good idea to give them an answer?

?

To this.
[screen]: Kei-san, what were you like as a child?

…

I was a normal child.
Cheeky, crafty,
/ a girl who couldn’t stand the world around her and didn’t bother to hide it.

As if everything revolved around you?

…Yes.

p9: ======================================
Have a good night. You’re going to be at the hospital tomorrow?
Yes. I’ll contact you if there’s any progress.

It was a lie.
/ Throughout my childhood…

p10: ======================================
[sfx]: Flash!
!

You bitch!

What’re you tryin’ to pull?!
[sfx]: Grab!

[sfx]: Smirk

I’d never assumed everything revolved around me.

p11: ======================================
What about you? You’re still kids.
You think everything revolves around you?

Huh?

[sfx]: Slide

Hello? This is the Shibuya Police Department.

Shit, man.

p12: ======================================
Hello? Is anyone there?
/ This is the Shibuya Police Dept—
[sfx]: Click
Excuse me?

Th-Thank you, miss.

…

p13: ======================================
[sign]: Elementary school
Third grade was when I first realized I was different from everyone else.

Hey! Hey!
[sfx]: Running

I would bounce between my father in America and my mother in Japan, based on who was less busy with work,
/ which of course everyone else noticed.

Kunosato, you lived overseas, right?
[insert]: Squeeee♪
…Sure, I guess.

[sfx]: Yank

p14: ======================================
I never really knew why. Maybe they wanted to make fun of my awkward pronunciation of Japanese, or maybe they’d latched onto me because I was tall for a girl.
Really? You sure don’t look like an illegal.

Hey, stop it.

No one asked your ugly face.
[sfx]: Shove

Eeek!
[sfx]: Thud

Maybe they were just looking for an excuse.

p15: ======================================
Waaaahhhhhhh!

[sfx]: Pff.

[sfx]: Splat

But it was when I broke the nose of a fifth-grade boy
Ooh…

And bit his arm

p16: ======================================
YEEEOUUUUCCHHH!

Wh… What the heck, girl?
I-I’ll call a teacher!

[sfx]: Whipe

That it was made clear to me I would never make it except by being different.
{Bring it on, you fuckin’ brats.}

p17: ======================================
{Are you OK, Kanako?}
Th-Thank y—

Hic!

Eeeek!

p18: ======================================
I’m home.
[sfx]: Close

Use that money to buy him an apology gift.
[sfx]: Type

p19: ======================================
This, please.
Would you like me to wrap it?
Please.

Thank you for your patronage.

p20: ======================================
…I’m sorry.

For goodness’ sake. What sort of girl bites a boy’s arm?

And where are your parents?

[sfx]: Glare / Hide!

p21: ======================================
{Be a man and fight your own fight, coward.}

?
?

Wh-Why am I wasting my time speaking with a child?
Go run on home now!

At the time, I couldn’t stand the world around me.

p22: ======================================
[sfx]: Open
Q: What sort of person were you as a child?

[sfx]: Drop
Well,
/ I still can’t stand the world around me.

p23: ======================================
The bastards who caused all of this
would probably consider being cheeky and being crafty one in the same, anyways.

The child’s the mother of the woman…
[sfx]: Slurp

The Return of the New Generation Madness murders occurred just last year.
The killer’s abnormal methods quickly swept the nation’s attention, a popularity that lasts to this day.

[sfx] Rustle
But they caught the culprit.
Or at least, that’s what the police wanted the world to believe.

p24: ======================================
But I knew better.

…I’m missing information.
But where’s it hiding?
I’d set myself to chasing after the true culprit.

[sfx]: Meow / scratch

…You again? I told you, there’s no food here. Try somewhere else.
[sfx]: Meow

[sfx]: Break
Heh.
!

p25: ======================================
[sfx]: Whoosh

[sfx]: Purrr

And now I’m using a cat to keep warm…
[insert]: *Sigh*
/ Just because I’m the same as I was back then in every other way doesn’t mean I still have to be broke, too.

Oh be quiet.
[sfx]: Meow

Quit grumbling. Pipe down!

p26: ======================================
{M-Mio!}

{Long day of classes, right?}

{Hm?}

{Th-There’s a bunch of us heading over to my place tomorrow to work on our math homework.}
/ {And my mom said she’ll go all out making us lunch.}

{Y-You can come too, if you want?}
[sfx]: Snicker

p27: ======================================
[sfx]: Grab
{Wah!}

{Tim, }
/ {I know I’m poor and all,}
{but if you think one lunch will get you a kiss and a fuck, you’re more pathetic than I thought.}

{I-I didn’t mean it like that!}

{I already finished the homework anyways. But thanks for the drink!}
[sfx]: Phew / Ahaha

p28: ======================================
For middle school, I attended an American boarding school.

The 2009 Shibuya earthquakes caused my mother to move to America,
/ and we began living with my father.

But nobody so much as whispered that it was nice to live together as a family.
My father’s only love was his IT development work, and my mother’s her web editing.

I couldn’t have told you if they had any feelings for each other.
/ They certainly didn’t care about me.
[sfx]: Type

p29: ======================================
{Mio,}
/ {hurry up or you’ll miss or bath time.}

{I’ll go once I’m done with this.}
{You said the same thing yesterday, and then never wound up bathing!}

My parents were working when I told them I wanted to go to a boarding school.
That actually got them to look up from their computers for once.

That sounds wonderful. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
I could see the relief in their faces as they spoke.

I could see how happy they were to have little miss problem child out of their lives.

p30: ======================================
I focused on schoolwork.
[sfx]: Write

[sfx]: Write

My parents automatically sent me an allowance every month. I’d spend it all within a week.

[sfx]: Munch
I’d buy all the books I could, then go out to eat with one of the creepy older guys and get him to show me the latest articles.

I got access to a local university’s network and browsed their servers.

p31: ======================================
I absorbed all the information I could from mathematics, where the answers were always clear,
and from neuroscience.

[sfx]: Flip
{So Mio.}

p32: ======================================
{Do you want to be a researcher?}

{Huh? Why’d you ask?}

{Because you’re super pretty, but you still don’t have a BF,}
/ {you always wear the same clothes, and you never come to hang out.}
[Insert]: {Right?}

{Some of the teachers have been saying they’ll have you skip up to 10th grade so the school will look better.}
/ {They also say you’re obsessed with knowing things.}

{…Is that what they think?}
Incorrect. They didn’t know me at all.

p33: ======================================
Tetsuya, Shuuta,
Donna, Linda,
Takahiro, Jude, Eri:
Every one of them had bullied me in elementary school, and I would never forget their names.

Between them, the teachers who didn’t want to deal with a girl who didn’t fit into their little boxes,
the parents who probably didn’t even know what school I attended,
and the classrooms where I never belonged,

All I wanted to do was to get away from it all.

p34: ======================================
[sfx]: Chirp

Hmm…
[sfx]: Rub

MN?!
[sfx]: Purr

[sfx]: Toss

The short answer is, we’ve got nothing.

p35: ======================================
We’ve dug through all the stores he visited
and every person he interacted with, but nothing came up.
[tl/n: The pronoun used here in Japanese is singular and gender-neutral. I’m assuming they’re talking about Takuru and therefore am using “he,” but I might be wrong.]

…You kept me waiting for that?

I’m the only detective who can work on this.
…And I’m happy to help search for the culprit, but let’s not forget our primary task.

Meaning?

p36: ======================================
The police and the hospital gave you access to this room so you could do research.
/ You’ve already managed to get on the nurses’ bad side.
I’ve been getting them the results they’re looking for.

No, they think you’re scary.

The Return of the New Generation Madness murders are deeply connected with the Chaos Child Syndrome mental sickness.
That was the only reason a mere researcher like myself was being allowed to assist in the investigation.

p37: ======================================
Where’d you get that mark?

[sfx]: Shift

Oh, that must’ve been her nails last night.

*Her* nails…?
Shinjou…

I’m sure that hyperactive imagination of yours is wonderfully useful as a detective,
but “she” is a cat!

I-It’s not like I said anything.

--Oh.
/ That’s right. Did you call the station yesterday?

Huh?
…Yeah.

p38: ======================================
One of the younger guys took the call.
He told me about it, saying he recognized the number…
Did something happen?

…What sort of kid were you?
…What?
Your childhood. What kind of brat were you?

…I mean, I was normal.
I lived for soccer; I was a full-fledged jock.

Of course you were. What else would you have been?
[sfx]: Heh.

…What’s that mean? What were you like?
Who knows.

p39: ======================================
[sfx]: Open
If you do find the culprit, what will you do then?

Do you even have to ask?

They’ll tell me everything they know, and then they die.

…And that’s why the nurses are afraid of you.

[sfx]: Close

p40: ======================================
One year after skipping from 8th grade to 10th…
{So Mio,}
/ {why do you want to pursue neuroscience?}

It was a simple, run-of-the-mill question, but I didn’t have an answer.

Gun to my head, I’d tell you there was no good reason I’d studied neuroscience and not something else. It just turned out that way.

{Yo, little miss genius! Did you really go backing the math teacher into a corner again?}

{Sure, BJ, but you’re the one he has to make pass his class if he doesn’t want to get a pay cut.}

p41: ======================================
Why did students talk about such stupid things?
How could parents not love their daughter?
What drove brats to bully anyone who was different?

I wanted to know what made their brains tick,
what drove them to those decisions.

[sfx]: Creek

p42: ======================================
If I really sat and thought about it, I knew that question fell under the field of psychology.

But I couldn’t see psychology as anything more than a cult whose practitioners believed whatever theory happened to be the most convenient.

Look at me. I can’t even put my dreams to words if nothing’s fighting to keep me down.

[sfx]: Open

{Huh.}
/ {I can’t remember the last time you weren’t banging away at your keyboard.}
{…}

p43: ======================================
{So? What’s wrong?}
{I’m on my period.}

{That’s never held you back before.}

{Tim came by again, asking if you’d come to another party.}
{Tell him no.}

{I already did.}
/ {…Sheesh, you Japanese girls really do care about nothing but studying.}
{Huh?}

[sfx]: Flap
Pah!

p44: ======================================
{Kurisu Makise.}
{She’s published another paper.}

--I’d heard her name before.
She was Japanese, same as me, and did research at Victor Chondria University.

She’s a neuroscientist.

{You ever met?}
{You think all Japanese know each other?}

p45: ======================================
{No, I think you’d want to meet someone in the field you want to go into.}
/ {Especially since her school’s so close by.}

{…I mean.}
{ I don’t really want to go into it, or anything.}

{Huh?}

p46: ======================================
I didn’t have a clear goal in mind.
/ I just sort of wanted to know more about this Japanese woman only five years older than me,
to know where she worked and what sort of life she lived.

The neuroscience department’s… this way.

…

p47: ======================================
This is better than high school,
/ but this is all you’ve got for an intro course?

The students don’t seem much different.
[sfx]: Whisper

The textbooks are worse than I’d imagined.
I mean, the independent study I’m doing at 15 make this look like child’s play.

p48: ======================================
{All right, that’ll be all for today’s lecture.}
{Please prepare beginning from page 95 for next time.}

{So that’s it.}
/ {Well, I can’t hope to find actual research-level stuff in an intro course.}

{You there.}
/ {Can I talk to you for a moment?}

{You were in my class earlier, weren’t you? I haven’t seen you before.}
{Are you a student here?}

{…Do you have permission to audit classes?}

p49: ======================================
…

[sfx]: Dash!

{Stop!}
[sfx]: Grab!

{Please wait.}

--And that
[sfx]: Click

p50: ======================================
Was when I met the woman who dragged me down this path,

{She’s an acquaintance of mine.}
Makise Kurisu.

{Would you kindly overlook this entire episode?}