BIOLIFE SECONDARY LABORATORIES
KITAMOTO, SAITAMA PREFECTURE, JAPAN
OCTOBER 16TH
Brandon was in the break room of his lab, the table used for the employees to have lunch was the same one, filled with papers everywhere, pen notes on all of them, results of the tests they had conducted, but the data did not lie, there were problems in the research. The vast majority of the various VFD investigations had stalled, after the great initial push and the achievement of several barely functional models, the last few months had been worrying for Brandon as he saw how the important research that had fallen into his hands was unable to progress, it was one problem after another, everything was working against his team: time, progress, the demands of Senator Yoshida, the enemies, the lack of capable personnel and the fear of being persecuted, several had already been killed for various reasons, even a damned earthquake delayed the project when it almost caused a leak inside the facilities. And yet Brandon stood tall despite the setbacks, persevering against a tide, probably that was why Damien Raven had chosen him to lead such an important project, knowing that his commitment to such a long-term plan was unwavering, even if it took years, he wouldn't leave his work halfway through, and the fact that he hadn't asked for a change of position or resigned outright was his proof.
The researcher sat in the room, eating nothing but instant noodles for lunch as he continued to review his colleagues' documents. Thinking so much about one thing was never good for the mind, but he felt he had to make progress quickly before everyone else realized the project was in very serious trouble, and perhaps the VFD didn't really have the promising future it seemed. In the background, the television was on, broadcasting a new investigative report. "The Legend of the White Dragon of Okinawa" told how just four months ago, during the battle for the island, there had been numerous reports of people claiming to have seen a large white dragon emerge from somewhere on the island and attack the Empire's fleet to save the people. The report included interviews with witnesses, several photographs, and even video of the vague shape of a dragon flying in the distance. However, it was also obvious that there was a budget behind it, with computer recreations of some events, famous Japanese actors portraying scenes, and surprisingly, the testimony of several soldiers of the Empire who confirmed that their ship had been attacked by the mythical creature and that it was the reason their aircraft carrier ended up stranded on the island where they were eventually captured. Even they were grateful that such an act ended the war for them and they could finally return home. It was a very comprehensive report, researched with great care. The main reporter and host, Nozomi Yasuda, had done a pretty good job, even traveling around the world to get some of those interviews with various soldiers, although she mentioned that the Alliance Army had no comment on the matter for security reasons. As if that weren't enough, the report was being aired simultaneously on several channels in Japan today, free of charge.
It was easy to see that it was Damien Raven who had paid for the entire project for personal reasons, once again withdrawing money from his personal account to pay for the two-hour duration of the tape on all those national and regional channels. He really wanted to spread the idea that the White Dragon might have existed.
Though Brandon personally didn't fully believe in the existence of a creature as powerful as a dragon roaming around, the nature of his work and what he created in his lab made it not entirely crazy, just hard to imagine. In fact, something much more impossible happened right after the TV report ended. One of the security guards called to say that Damien Raven's personal helicopter had just arrived and that he was on board. It was highly unusual for someone of the Titan's chivalrous manners and courtesy to arrive without prior notice at least a month in advance of his visit, so Brandon got up from his chair and finished his lunch on his way to greet his boss. But before he could reach the door, it was Damien who opened it and presented himself in the break room.
"Good morning, Mr. Brandon."
"I hope you're doing well today."
"Mr. Damien!"
"I'm sorry, I completely forgot the day of your visit."
"I apologize for the mess; we've had a few new investigations this week, and we're compiling the data."
"Don't worry, Mr. Brandon, I'm aware that my arrival was sudden."
"I apologize for the lack of manners; it's not something I should be doing."
"It is my fault and my mistake, so I formally apologize for my behavior."
"However, the reason for my quick visit is quite important, as I need your expertise in this particular field to investigate something for me immediately."
"May I know what is so important, sir?"
"I'm intrigued by the discovery you're asking me to step away from my research for, if only for a moment."
"Yes, that's right, that's the reason."
"Please let them in," Damien said, pointing to the people on the other side of the door.
Through the door came a security team led by Akane with a small cryogenic capsule. It was extremely well cared for and sealed, no bigger than a baby's stroller. Brandon looked intrigued, trying to figure out what all this could be about. Fortunately, Damien himself answered his curiosity.
"On August 30th, one month and two weeks ago, I managed to talk with Elise Valkyria."
"The white girl who works as a bodyguard for Mrs. Adelis."
"I'm sure you know her, after all she's the one responsible for several of your plans going wrong."
"....."
"I'm sorry, sir, my lack of proper planning has been responsible for such..."
"I'm not here to talk about that, Brandon, please let me finish, it's important."
"The next day, there was another attempt on Mrs. Adelis' life, in Busan, a strange man attacked her right at the entrance of the South Korean naval port."
"That man must have been crazy, that fox girl is a demon, he didn't stand a chance."
"That's what I'm getting at, because that madman actually defeated Elise Valkyria."
"Excuse me?"
"Mr. Gomez worked with me during the Alliance meeting in Busan."
"After the attack on Mrs. Adelis, he immediately started investigating."
"He managed to find several security and bystander videos that show the mystery man defeating the white girl in a hand-to-hand fight."
"A man who, as far as we know, was not connected to anyone, and who then disappeared in an even stranger way.
"Supposedly, he was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but disappeared like a ghost after that."
"Sir, if I didn't see it in this video, I wouldn't believe it.
"Doesn't this indicate that..."
"But that's not all, Mr. Brandon, things are getting even stranger."
"Mrs. Adelis has been seen entering and leaving her office, and as you can see from these photos, Elise Valkyria is still with her, alive."
"It's clear that it's the same girl, it's hard to miss an albino person."
"But when you see her body explode in the same video."
"Is it edited or something?"
"No, it's not."
"It's Mr. Gomez's work we're talking about."
"....."
"The thing is, the video wasn't the only thing he got."
"He said he had to work fast and went to more trouble than usual, but he managed to get something else, which he sent to me in that capsule over there."
A little scared, but quite curious about the story, Brandon didn't wait for his boss's order and opened the capsule himself.
"!!!!!!!"
"What the hell?"
"That's right, these are some of the remains of the girl's body."
"The ones we could find."
"Which indicates that the video is real and that the girl really died in her fight with the unknown man."
"....."
"But at the same time, if that happened, who is the white girl currently with Mrs. Adelis?"
"It's a big mystery that I'm very interested in."
"......"
"Sir, first of all, I would like to point out that I am just as confused as you are right now."
"Right now, with so little information, all I can give you are extremely vague assumptions of the first thing that comes to mind."
"Please continue.
"Perhaps if we find the answer to this question, we can make Rose ...."
"Sir, please, I cannot promise such a thing."
"Even with our current technology, it's impossible, let alone in such a short time."
"A month and two weeks is impossible to have anything remotely similar without entering into science fiction."
"For example, suppose the second Fox Girl was just a clone of the first."
"It would take the nine months it takes a human baby to gestate, and for her to appear to be 16 years old, it would take, to no one's surprise, 16 years."
"To have the knowledge and fighting skills of the first one, it's downright impossible, unless she had the exact same memories, and even then it doesn't guarantee she'd be as effective."
"All of this is a huge assumption, not to mention other limitations such as the budget for such a project, the amount of research or development spent."
"In the unlikely event that the Alliance has the necessary level of technology, not even Lion Saber could be capable of such a thing."
"Not to mention that it was Mr. Gomer himself who stole the girl's remains, so they wouldn't have enough genetic material to even attempt it."
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The tall gentleman next to Brandon stopped any excitement he might have had when he heard the young man speak, as if a faint flame had been extinguished inside of him, but he couldn't blame his employee, he was just being honest and answering the doubts he had as he had been asked, in any case it was his own fault for showing up unannounced and interrupting his work, which, as one could see just by looking at the mess of papers around, was already quite extensive.
"Do you have any idea what might have happened?"
"I'm sorry, but I really don't have any."
"The best thing for now would be to investigate more deeply who this new girl is, if she's the same white fox who died in South Korea."
"....."
"In any case, I can try to do a DNA test and compare them to find out exactly what happened."
"Although we would need a sample from the new girl to know the truth."
"For now, all I can do is ......"
"......"
"......"
"Alright, this is interesting."
"......"
"......"
"!!!!!!!!!"
"Oh damn, this is really interesting!"
"Sir, please excuse me for a moment, would you mind if I go to my lab right now?"
"I have something to compare and it's urgent."
"Please lead the way, I'll accompany you."
Brandon hurried through the entire complex with Mr. Brandon and Akane following closely behind, the researcher barely having time to walk and check the tablet with the new data. Even though they came across the storage room where the monsters had been locked up, Damien Raven saw a little of what he had indirectly caused, but he continued on without stopping, just like his resolution for his wife Rose. Even Brandon, who walked ahead, couldn't help but notice what was happening, so he was forced to talk a little and explain the situation better.
"As you can see, Mr. Damien, these are our latest tests."
"These are the dosage tests of the VFD from RFA-40257 to EVA-8774."
"EVA-8774 is our latest formula."
"It currently has the highest compatibility rate and is capable of developing more than one mutation ability without immediately killing the host.
"However, it still has the same lifespan problem as all the other formulas."
"The person given EVA-8774 will have a lifespan of approximately one month after the dose is administered."
"As you can understand, this is not ideal.
"With such a high cost of raw materials for the VFD, how is the acquisition of test subjects going?"
"Are there any problems in this area?"
"Not at the moment."
"Thanks to the cooperation of the Toyashi clan and other smaller yakuza gangs, we have been able to map the distribution of homeless people in the areas very well."
"We are currently focusing our efforts on acquiring more homeless people from the most remote areas to avoid arousing suspicion."
"Since these people are generally not in the best of health, we let them stay in a shelter for some time so they can eat well and cure any health problems before they are sent here."
"What about the instability regarding the VFD?"
"......"
"The problem remains the same as always, even though we foresaw it before we even started."
"The only pure samples of VFD are very few and very damaged.
"Despite our best efforts, there is simply not much we can do with such an incomplete sequence.
"Most of the formulas are nothing more than conjectures created by trial and error.
"Simply supplying VFD is in itself a terrible death sentence due to DNA decomposition, not much different from dying from high radiation."
"Although in the last few days the EVA-8774 formula has shown a slight improvement which we are trying to extend to future formulas."
"And what was the discovery of the EVA-8774 formula?"
"Simply put, willpower."
"One of the test subjects we received was a new kid."
"Tetsuo Keisuke, student, 16 years old."
"He ran away from home after allegedly attacking and attempting to murder a classmate.
"He is being pursued by the police for the same reason.
"Akane found him bleeding on the street and brought him here.
"Since he was relatively healthy, there wasn't much to do to use him as another test subject."
"He was given the formula EVA-8774."
"The abilities assigned to him included super strength and armor.
"However, his health progress was within the expected range of the others, until we had a rather curious little accident."
"One day, I was reviewing the same case about Elise Valkyria, so I walked around here with the tablet and passed a few pictures."
"I passed Tetsuo Keisuke's cage and he managed to see the picture, which apparently made him quite angry, he started banging on the door and tried to escape."
"Heavy tranquilizers had to be used, and he was transferred to a high security cage."
Curious about what had happened, I thought I had found a subject with whom to test mental stimuli, to which he responded in the same way we showed him the picture of the white girl.
"And what happened?"
"Unlike the other test subjects, who suffered serious health deterioration shortly after the VFD was applied, Tetsuo Keisuke showed extremely slow aging compared to the others."
"Not nullified, but a very noticeable improvement."
"Thinking that I had found a step toward progress, I didn't take long to conduct further tests with the EVA-8774 formula."
"However, the other test subjects showed the same health development as all the others."
"The only notable difference between them is that Tetsuo Keisuke was subjected to stimulus tests and his most constant state of anger was induced by the images of the white girl."
"While examining other abnormal subjects, I came across the case of Jirou Iwasaki."
"A vagabond who was also given one of the first RFA-4365 formulas and who escaped from us shortly thereafter.
"He somehow wandered around Tokyo and apparently killed his ex-girlfriend, Akane managed to catch him, but unfortunately we had to destroy the body to avoid being discovered by Inspector Yamoto's police investigation."
"Like Tetsuo Keisuke, Mr. Jirou Iwasaki showed a strong determination in response to an external stimulus, in this case his ex-girlfriend."
"Enough to outlive his lifespan and still retain some mental capacity."
"So we are beginning to theorize that VFD may show greater variations depending on the mental state of the individual to whom it is administered."
"....."
"The problem with this theory is that it is very difficult to implement due to the lack of detailed background on the test subjects."
"Since they are virtually random people, their mental states are varied and difficult to control."
"The only two cases we have had were nothing more than a product of chance."
"Further research into this theory may require subjects with greater emotional stability and demonstrable fixed motivations."
"We need something like soldiers with high military training and a passion to defeat a representable enemy."
"But such a thing would quickly arouse the suspicions of the Alliance."
"Adelis could easily notice the lack of key personnel, such as British S.A.S. members missing without cause."
"Alright, I understand better the problems and the lack of progress."
"Although I understand that it was Mr. Dilan who discovered the VFD before abandoning the research, and the lack of his notes makes it difficult to complete the project."
"You still have my support, Mr. Brandon."
"Something like the VFD is an essential component in realizing the idea that Rose has always wanted."
"The success of this project represents my wife's success as a researcher and inventor."
"Respect for her legacy depends on this project."
"Of course I understand, Mr. Damien."
"That's why I'm pleased to announce that it was you who just made a discovery essential to the continuation of the VFD project."
"By quickly comparing the DNA from Elise Valkyria's body that you brought today with the pure samples of the VFD that we had, I found a high similarity in their compositions."
Brandon opened the door to his lab, which was filled with even more papers and books than the dining room, with computers on all the time and thousands of samples from the various test subjects that had passed through the lab. The researcher plugged his tablet into the computer and began analyzing the newly found data, under the watchful eye of the Titan, who never took his eyes off the monitor.
GIeDXmh.jpg [https://i.imgur.com/GIeDXmh.jpg]
"This is incredible, the match is almost perfect."
"The polymer sequences we have documented match the DNA samples from the white girl quite well."
"It's not an exact match, but it's close."
"....."
"No, wait, I don't understand."
"....."
"Well, that's obvious, but maybe ....."
"....."
"No, no, well maybe yes?"
"Oh probably not."
"Excuse me, Mr. Brandon, for my marked lack of manners, unbecoming of a gentleman who lacks the knowledge of the subject as a professional as you have."
"But would you be able to give me some more specific information?"
"Ah, yes of course, it's just that I'm seeing it live, so I'm still processing it."
"....."
"Ah, to try and put it in simple words, the DNA samples from Elise Valkyria, the white girl, have quite significant similarities to the original VFD samples brought by Dilan."
"It's not one to one, but it's pretty close."
"There are differences, of course, but that's beside the point for now."
"If the known VFD sequences are so identical to those of this girl's body,"
"And that they are much more complete than the ones we have from VFD, we could immediately use them as a basis to greatly improve the formula."
"It's like trying to pass a 100 question exam with a perfect score."
"We had about 45 questions answered.
"But with the remains of the fox girl's body, it's as if you wrote the answers to about 94 questions on the blackboard at once."
"And the 45 we had are related to the ones you wrote on the board."
"But normally the probability of answering a question correctly on an exam is 1 out of 4."
"With DNA, it's like the probability of getting the right answer is 1 in 2 million possible answers."
"The simple fact that you have 45 answers that confirm that they are correct means that it's easy to assume that what you've brought back is a pretty significant discovery."
"....."
"With something like this, we could finally stop extreme health deterioration."
"It could probably also help prevent grotesque transformations into monsters, maybe not quite like the fox girl, but at least our test subjects don't seem to be turning into werewolf-dinosaur hybrids."
"Hopefully, it could also help prevent mental deterioration."
"No, more than that, with this level of evidence, maybe I could create a serum to even reverse some of the effects of the test subjects we already have."
"....."
"Mr. Damien, you've just accelerated this project by at least 10 years."
What the enthusiastic researcher said was nothing but joyous news to the great knight, who felt that he had personally made a significant contribution to his late wife's research by proxy. Although excited by the news, he remained somewhat skeptical until more complete evidence was obtained, but the excitement remained.
"If all this came from the remains in South Korea," he said.
"What could happen if we get samples from the girl who is currently with Adelis?"
"The other Elise?"
"I'm sorry, Mr. Damien, but I have no idea."
"Anything could happen, given the secrecy of Adelis' security team."
"It could just be another girl pretending to be the first one to scare us."
"Or it could be the one that gives us the final answers we need to fully understand this VFD mystery."
"All right, I'll see what I can do."
"In the meantime, you can continue with your work, taking advantage of this joyful discovery that has been made."
"Keep me informed of your progress; I'll try to speak to Senator Yoshida personally and give him the good news when we have something concrete."
Damien quickly left the lab to return to his helicopter and head home. He thought about returning to work in the Rose Garden to celebrate the small but significant progress in his project and to get a little closer to his goal of finally having the world accept Rose Raven as the great inventor and scientist that she truly was.