[ARC 25: MIRRORED IDENTITY]

It may have been surprising that Yuruko preferred her father over her mother, given he was almost never home, but he never denied she was autistic. When she was younger, her mother took her to three different psychiatrists, and stormed out when the third told her that the way Yuruko focused on singular subjects, her trouble socializing, and her lack of motor coordination, was most likely a form of high-functioning autism.

Yuruko was ten at the time, and heard her parents arguing about it the next day. Her father saw nothing wrong in it, because he himself worked in drug development. He seemed almost glad she was interested in something like chemistry and not the humanities, because he believed chemistry was one of the 'purer' sciences, in terms of lives saved, and did not put any stock in any of the social sciences. Knowledge, to him, was only advanced though replicable experiments.

Her mother complained about how Yuruko's chance at a normal social life was shot, and that she had not taken care of her for ten years to be repaid like this. She had sundry reasons why Yuruko might have turned out this way, ranging from her lack of interest in feminine things to his presence's lack. But her father simply retorted that it was wrong for her to view Yuruko as an extension of herself, and to cry over what she had birthed in her mind made no more sense than over a miscarriage - it never existed past an idea.

Though callous, the calm with which her father delivered statements like this ensured that his days with Yuruko sank deeper than her mother's years. Her mother reacted angrily, using some words Yuruko did not understand at the time, but their emotion filtered through Yuruko nonetheless. She, Yuruko thought (and later came to think of many women), was too bound by emotion. In her classes, she was often singled out for her monotone, but later in life, these memories reminded her of the videos some Americans took on their 'first visits' to Japan, and how they often thought the portion sizes were too small.

In middle-school, she was forced to attend speech therapy and eventually learned to 'act normally'. How anyone could see she was not meant among the others who were there, like Calvin, who could not even form a complete sentence, was beyond her. Even as her progress garnered praise from her instructor, she began developing a resentment towards her own sex, because it was often them, in their attempts to treat her kindly, that acted as if she was subhuman.

Her interest in computers & videogames began around this time. It was not much surprise that she resisted her mother's attempts to pursue her in to interests she thought vapid, like fashion & cheerleading. Not that she was ugly, but she simply didn't take care of her appearance, and did not understand why it was important that she did. The internet was already making physicality superfluos, and people would soon only be judged by their interiors. She dyed her hair only because Medicinal made it easy, and she liked looking like Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion.

When her parents saw her newly blue hair for the first time, her mother had shrieked, and her father had chuckled & asked if she got the idea from one of her Asian cartoons. Her mother's persistence to dramatics was her worst trait in Yuruko's eyes.

Nowhere was this more emblematic than in their conversation before she left for Urasaria. She listened to her mother give a spiel about how she could contact Urasaria's president for her, to ensure she wouldn't be bullied in her classes again, and call her professor to let him know that he would have to talk a little slower with an autistic student, or adjust his material for her. She remembered her father's expression, then. What she read online about people with autism lacking empathy always sank off from her. She understood he was stifling a laugh as he simply told her he was sure she would do fine, and would see her for Christmas.

Two years later, when she told Serena she was autistic, after Serena told her she was transgender, Serena joked that she already knew, because there was no such thing as a sane otaku. Yuruko laughed, and that Serena made no big deal of it played in Yuruko's reasoning to later date her. She doubted she would make drama out of anything.

But she sometimes wondered, when Serena later repeated it, where history had become demarcated. There were probably plenty of people with mental disorders in medieval times who were thought of as a little odd, but nothing to be treated. Schizophrenia, yes, but there were many undiagnosed narcissists even now: usually posting on imageboards.

"So far, i-it a-appears…" Yuruko coughed and pointed back to her projected screen. "…that Kaisei's Ring has similar properties to Moscow's. Artificial Volgari proteins denature almost instantly when brought inside of the ring, and unimplanted Revenants become damaged. If you look at this image here, this shows the extent of both external damage to the heart itself, and microscopic damage done at the level of the Viscera exspiravit colony. Lesions and irregular mutations appear approximately every five microns.

Due to the relative ... surprise of its creation, the entire country was not evacuated prior to this as it was in the case of Moscow. This led to an unusual, um, but short-lived um, psychosomatic disorder characterized as a minor f-form of motion sickness, among witnesses. U-Um." Her free hand scrunched as she checked her notes & smiled. "Due to - as you can see, due to the absence of any distinguishing features. A wall was shortly constructed around the ring, and symptoms appear to only be psychological at this time."

"Similar to the paper on Moscow I had you read, then." he said. "It's the same, physically, but most of the lasting effects of that disorder were really psychological. Can you go back to where you were showing the photos from True Sight?"

She clicked back.

"Yes, there. Do you see what's damaged in particular?"

"The FNI fragments near the mitochondria."

"Yes. What do you think would happen to a prospective host if that damaged colony were to be implanted in them? No, let's say it was almost entirely destroyed."

"…it, um. They would age faster than a regular host, because their mitochondria would begin accumulating age-related damage. They would have to rely on free radicals, damaging the… thirteen genes left outside of the nucleus."

"Yes. Normally they… yes. But there are Revenants that cannot harm people. True Sight is one of them - it can't destroy anything, even if he gives them a really good stink eye. What process does his colony use?"

'There's only five fucking cases of that and one left with Saya two years ago.' thought Yuruko, relevantly, and frowned. "…I don't know."

"You should - it'll be on your midterm in two weeks."

From what she recalled, he had spent ten seconds going over it in class, but no matter - she would review it anyway. "Okay."

"…otherwise, as for the rest of your presentation, I'll need to look over your information. My first thoughts are that, stylistically… I don't really like the font you used. Helvetica is - it's too stylized for a serious paper."

"It's what Nature uses."

"Really? I thought they used… well. Maybe I'm getting old. You know, it's interesting how theoretically, hosts could probably live to be 150 or even 200 years old naturally -"

" - but they all die before then."

"That's right."

Yuruko frowned as she saw him write down 'poor font choice'.

"…other than that, it's still…" He frowned. "I understand this is normally a three-person project, but I wish you would have told me before deciding not to do one of the citations. Out in the real world, you're never going to have useful co-workers anyway, so you need to learn how to do an entire project by yourself."

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"I'm the only researcher who'll be working at Timepact."

"Exactly."

She started to feel a little anxious and her hands scrunched.

"Can you go back to slide thirteen? Or - no, you know what - just send it to me."

"Um, I did this morning."

"Ah, I must not have seen it. If you already did, then… you can go. Thank you, Genesis."

"Thanks."

She formed her laptop's reinforced case and carefully set it inside. Her work was backed up on three flashdrives, two separate accounts, one she never let her browser save the password for in case it was stolen. As she walked out, she thought about Serena.

They had drifted apart a little recently. the Royal Four taking away Serena's time & Yuruko's classwork her's, but there was a sense of warmth still in the mornings where she was typing on her laptop and Serena was reading manga at her desk, sometimes turning back to smile at her to ask if she was finished working. She spent three hours a morning studying, an hour on lunch with Serena, then two hours learning new concepts in the afternoon with another three hours of review in the evening. She was often forced to decline hunting, and even when she didn't she was liable to spend the way back worrying about exams - yet she never felt comfortable declining contracts with President Swarm.

Nearly at Mia's mansion, she remembered they had moved out again last month and turned around. The first-year building was up the street with a pipe on the side, spewing smoke out of where whoever was blacksmith now was working. Come to think of it, Gamage had been about the last person she got along well with before Serena. She felt most people only saw her head through a wall of glass and sometimes believed she'd be better off with her girlfriend as her only friend - after all, Serena was skilled in most of the arts she needed.

For this reason and others, she tended to decline every social opportunity she could - yet this kept her self-reliant. There were few problems she shared with Serena, and it made no difference to her that she couldn't study in a group after everyone had dropped out of her degree. She had never taken Urasaria as somewhere primarily to make friends, and she doubted she would start now.

Serena opened the door for her at their mansion and smiled. "How did it go?"

"Um, it went okay."

Midterms came to her head and she felt a little anxious as she sat down. Serena brought her a bowl of Blackburn ice cream.

"I… got some stuff wrong, but I just need to study more."

"Okay." Serena kissed her cheek. "Um, I bought you some regular ice cream and made you some regular food too."

"Thanks." She knew she'd be dipping in to the storebought later - Blackburn's was fat-free. "…ugh. Sorry, I'm just -"

- their tablets both vibrated & Yuruko sighed.

"Um, I'll let her know you can't come." said Serena.

Yuruko nodded. "Yeah. I'm just gonna take a nap."

The two kissed.

"Love you."

"I love you too."

Serena left, and Yuruko smiled as she went back to bed in laid down. After closing her eyes for a few minutes, she got back up, needing to organize a schedule before sleep.

◆◆◆

When they laid in bed later that night, Yuruko turned over to her side and felt a familiar tentacle trace down her coatless back. She usually found its texture pleasing.

"…it's thirsty." whispered Serena.

She laughed, turned on to her back and to Serena's lips. After she was warmed up, Serena sank between her legs. Her head leaned back as fog filled her.

Tomorrow, she needed to study for her midterm in December and make sure her extended registration was finished before January 1st. It seemed to her she spent more time with Urasaria's sole professor in her degree than with anyone else. If her presentation was a seventy, she would need a combined 140 on her midterm & next essay for one of her classes - she currently took five.

The texture of Serena's tentacle was vaguely irritating tonight. She wasn't about to relax it away thinking about studying, so she thought about the videogame Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Tachi.

It was an arcade game where you fought against hordes of enemies, constantly scrolling up towards the next boss, but the gunship you controlled never really mattered - only the center of it was vulnerable, so you learned to abstract the sprite away in to that area. Yuruko knew the spot and had picked up off of a forum that it was about four pixels. As the levels went on, the screen filled with bullet patterns only that four pixel center could dodge. Throwing out a bomb cleared the screen until the next volley came.

Usually, you would die in a field of blue & red, and a bomb here meant no way to save yourself during a later pattern, so caring little during the early stages meant you had to play more carefully later. Using a bomb, too, wouldn't lead you to the game's true ending, but Yuruko never cared much for that either - she felt content only being good yet not great at it. There were more important ways to spend her time than memorizing what path she would take to not die on the first route, and she doubted she would still be playing it after another year anyway.

"…hey, um." mumbled Yuruko and Serena pulled her tentacle out. "...I'm not really in the mood right now."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Just wanna get some sleep."

Serena pulled worriedly up beside her. "Um, can we cuddle?"

"…sensory stuff is acting up a bit right now. Sorry."

"Okay. I love you."

"I love you too."

Her eyes folded over themselves, drawing dots of formula & reaction mechanisms, papers & projects in the sky of her vision. For someone with autism, she felt unusual for being able to hold a special interest for so long. To her, autism was likely one of the few positive mental conditions - she imagined anyone with schizophrenia, anxiety, depression would take a cure, and there were drugs for other four letter acronyms - but she was never prescribed anything, even diagnosed late. The most trouble she ever had with it was from her mother & speech therapists.

Given she had enough friends, learning normality seemed about as useful to her future career as no-deathing Stage 5.

◆◆◆

The next morning, Mia received a call on her tablet, curious at the ID.

"I thought they banned me." she muttered, taking it. "Yes?"

"Hello." replied a Japanese voice on the other end. "This is Ms. Swarm, Urasaria Academy's student president?"

"…yes..." she said, tapping the other three's names. "I'm… with… my squadron... What... is this regarding?"

"My name is Hamada Matsumoto, with the Japanese government, and I need to discuss something with you urgently, please. It's regarding Ms. Rain-On-A-Wedding and Ms. Frostbite's recent infection."

"Infection? Ms. Frostbite?"

"Yes. Matoi Kujo and Rin Higashikata? The,recent infection?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"…er." he said. "It… may be best to speak with them first, then."

◆◆◆

Her three didn't know any more than she did, and Aimee arranged for her to meet with someone at Timepact that night.

"Why didn't you tell me?" sighed Mia, relevantly, and Matoi laughed. She was as stubborn an employee as she'd been a president.

"It only showed up a week ago - I thought we would have dealt with it by now."

"You know, there's some things people do that just sum themselves up completely." said Samuel, relevantly.

"As if you have room to talk."

"What makes it an infection?" sighed Mia.

Matoi knew she wouldn't be able to leave anything out with both of them gathered here. Samuel only, she might've been able to pull a bit of her old mentorship. From what she'd seen of Mia lately, she'd grown almost too well in to her Revenant. "It's gradually sapping Wedding's strength - Hirogane mentioned the bacteria is deactivating."

"Deactivating?" said Samuel.

"Uh, did he say anything about the Hao Complex?" said Yuruko and Matoi shrugged. "Yeah. That's what actually gives the Revenant its ability - everything else is just for making sure its mitochondria is working. They're seriously like - ridiculously efficient generating energy though. They don't even need free radicals or accumulate any age-related damage, they just kill shit off using like, microscopic versions of their ability or… uh, something like Flashbulb's colony repairs itself."

"…I thought bacteria don't have mitochondria." muttered Mia, relevantly, and Serena & Yuruko spoke unified.

"Revenants are weird."

"…regardless." said Matoi. "It appears to act like a compass." She held her scarred, softly glowing hand up. "We were testing it the other week - Rin is with Aimee and the others."

"I'm guessing Hirogane doesn't heal it." said Samuel and she nodded.

"Or Hagakure - Ueno's medic." She glanced at Serena & Yuruko. "Japan's academy."

Serena nodded, thinking it must've been exactly like anime. As Yuruko was the smarter one in their relationship, she knew it was likely only 50% anime.

"Do you have any lead who could have caused it?" said Mia.

Matoi nodded. "Rin and I never fought the same Revenant together before last March. During that time, we were investigating a host who murdered his sister - Sharp. It's either a post-mortem Revenant from one of the men we fought, or Sharp's Revenant infected us while we were questioning him."

"…er. I thought you caught him?"

"…I gave it over to another student. Rin had … asked me to."

"Ah."

"Regardless, Rin discovered it first - it began glowing one week, then gradually dimmed over the next. Mine activated shortly after. She was searching with the others around Japan to see if he's hiding somewhere there - and they've temporarily lifted your ban if needed."

Mia sighed. She had been banned from Japan after she became president, nationalist groups having waged a long struggle to ensure someone who only spoke English could never visit again. Unbeknownst to her, she was only eight countries from breaking Ryumi's record.

"Wait, we're going to Japan?" said Serena and Matoi's head shook.

"There's a far better lead - they'll be flying to Europe tomorrow, regardless. When we spoke with Sharp, he mentioned running a charity that operated in Africa - the Bright Foundation. Our best lead will be to travel across Africa and see how my scar reacts."

"…lot to cover." winced Yuruko.

"Unfortunately. I still have most of Wedding's strength - I doubt we'll run in to much trouble with random Revenants."

"Do you already have a route planned out, then?" said Mia.

Matoi nodded. "We'll be starting in Mali and seeing what direction it reacts towards. We'll be meeting up with a few others when we arrive, as well."

Yuruko tried not to frown, wondering how the hell she was going to backup her work in Africa.