Conspiracy and paranormal activity boards were a fickle thing, and their utility varied greatly depending on the user. To someone like Kyo, who took in vast amounts of data rapidly, there was way too much to process, too many conflicting narratives, not enough expertise separating out the useful information from the detritus.

To Nana, who could appear in her bedroom in an instant whenever she wanted, X Channel was a great resource. She could post a question or topic from her home computer, and come back later to check on it, returning to the school to keep up with her mundane studies. She often used it to find interesting rumors regarding parapsychology, anomalistic phenomena, cryptids, and, increasingly of late, secret military experiments. Plus, it was alright for practicing written English (despite being full of slang).

It seemed like everyone was watching Kyo read a book about cloning, which reminded Nana that she had a thread to check on, so while no one was looking, she quietly disappeared off to her bedroom, opening up her browser soon after blinking into existence by her desk chair.

LeaderAnon 09 Apr (Tue) 06:22:42 No. 127566434
Quoted: >>127566438 >>127566472
Does anyone have any information on secret military cloning experiments? Have they tried to clone an esper? JSDF especially.

Anonymous 09 Apr (Tue) 06:22:59 No. 127566438
>>127566434 (OP)
You’re the leader, you tell us.

Despite the mockery she got for it, Nana liked using the name “LeaderAnon”. No one assumed she was female when she posted using it. No one told her to post revealing photos of her chest, or otherwise leave the board.

Anonymous 09 Apr (Tue) 06:24:12 No. 127566451
Classified info is classified. It wouldn’t be classified if we knew it.

PsiAnon 09 Apr (Tue) 06:25:23 No. 127566472
>>127566434 (OP)
> have they tried human cloning
Not tried. Succeeded. Expect precognitives in strategic military positions and police precrime divisions within two years. Expect politicians with mind control abilities within weeks. Many experiments were conducted at the Japan Life Sciences Agency before it was badly burnt in an unexplained fire. Start looking there if you’re curious.

Anonymous 09 Apr (Tue) 06:26:31 No. 127566475
>>127566472
This poster glows. Avoid the bait at all costs.

PsiAnon was one of X Channel’s more famous posters. Some believed they were actually Professor Edgar J. Brinsfield, posting in secret, as to not hurt his academic career. Some believed they were an intelligence asset, which is why they’d sometimes use a bit of American slang and say they “glowed”, implying they were a federal agent. Nana would have to ask Aimi some time if the psyches of those who worked for the government were particularly luminescent.

Still, she had a name; Japan Life Sciences Agency. A candidate for the ‘redacted’ location of a cloning facility referred to in the files Kyo had decrypted. Why this ‘PsiAnon’ knew about this place was a suspicious topic, but Nana could be quite cautious, and long-distance teleportation was an escape plan John Dillinger could only dream of.

She left one more post before turning off her monitor:

LeaderAnon 09 Apr (Tue) 07:12:13 No. 127567012
>>127566472
Send any other information you have to [email protected]

Whisking herself back through the event horizon, she reappeared inside of the parapsychology club room. It took her a few days to get used to the new location, but she no longer appeared in the school library conference room D. Luckily, the one person there who might have been shocked to see Nana coming and going in this manner, Toshiko, was totally focused on watching or interacting with Kyo.

“Amano-san. Does your new book make mention of the Japan Life Sciences Agency?” Nana asked

Kyo jumped a little as Nana spoke. She was so quiet that, whether she was using her apportation or not, she tended to surprise people. “Ah, I believe so. Publicly, they’re an independent administrative corporation, founded for the purpose of researching various medical treatments, which include using CRISPR sequences to rewrite DNA. However, they’re not publicly known for human cloning or esper research.”

Nana crossed her arms. “And off the record?”

“Documents which are allegedly files leaked from the agency onto the internet show research into using induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs, to create cloned or highly modified human embryos. The veracity of these allegations cannot be established.”

Nana smirked. “And I suppose the fire has something to do with why these claims can never be proven?”

Kyo nodded, “There were a number of files and equipment supposedly destroyed during the fire. This was, as you seem to have guessed, explained as a government coverup by the book, removing all evidence of questionable study.”

Riko, who was mentally working her way through the dialogue, finally joined in. “Induced pluri… potent… stem cells?”

“Skin or blood cells induced into an embryonic state,” Kyo explained. “Successfully used to clone mice. Some believe it could be used to clone humans, or allow two people to produce a child together who otherwise could not, such as a pair of women.”

Riko began to glance towards Aimi, the gears visibly spinning in her head. No one could accuse my club of not being educational, Nana thought with a smile.

Toshiko looked around somewhat puzzled. “You guys get into politics and conspiracy stuff here?”

“To be born an esper is to be thrust into politics, whether one likes it or not,” Nana said sternly. “We are all game pieces in a cold war between the United States, the European Union, China, Russia, North Korea, Israel, and any other player you might think views espers as a threat or asset to their sovereignty."

Riko looked down, knowing her father may fit that description, or at least, he used to.

Nana continued, “Thus, one of the parapsychology club’s primary missions is to fill the vacancy for a support network left by those professionals. Can we count on the computer science club’s allegiance, Takano-san?”

The room was silent after the sudden monologue, with Toshiko finally glancing over towards Kyo as she considered the closing question. “Y- yes, you have my support. We’re all Noki’s friends there.” This seemed to earn Toshiko a territorial glare from the usually shy Chiyoko.

Looking between the two girls seated next to her, Kyo eventually broke the tense silence by saying, “Oh yes, Riko-chan, you also asked about Dr. Kohaku Sawa. She was mentioned as a staff researcher at the Japan Life Sciences Agency, one of the two that left after the incident with the fire.”

“One of the two?” asked Nana, a curious expression spreading across her face.

Kyo tipped her eyes up in thought. “The other was an oncologist named, ah, Dr. Dacio D'Ascenzo. Claimed to have come from and studied in Italy. After the fire, all trace of him seems to have disappeared from Japan. No record of his identity or academic credentials could be found by the book’s author.”

“A fake doctor, with the skills and contacts to finagle a high profile research job,” mused Nana, “disappearing after a mysterious fire. Dr. Sawa stuck around, leaving D’Ascenzo as a more likely saboteur. How long ago did the fire take place?”

“Four years, seven months, and twelve days,” replied Kyo with surprising speed, earning her approving glances from her little entourage.

“Almost five years ago. How long had D’Ascenzo been working for the agency at that point?”

“Three years, one month, and seven days,” Kyo replied again, just as quickly.

“So he invested three years of his life at that point into his false career, then disappeared overnight. After his disappearance, if the lab was involved in any sort of secret human cloning projects, they up and stopped when he was no longer available. Amano-san, if you were to venture a guess, what would make an oncologist invaluable to such an endeavor?”

Kyo had to think about this one a bit more. “Well, if they were a psychic with the ability to cure cancer, they could treat many of the genetic errors that tend to surface in cloned organisms in published experiments. That of course is only a wild guess, don’t-”

Nana nodded. “My thoughts exactly, an esper who was convincing enough as an oncologist, because they got results. Kaneko-san’s phytokinesis can produce hybrid plant cells and accelerate their growth, it stands to reason that a similar ability could exist for humans.”

“Um-”

Just then, there was a knock at the club room’s door, and a moment later, it opened up, Daisuke making her way inside with a folder of lesson notes. “Sorry I’m late, I hope you had a productive meeting while I was finishing my notes. Ah, a new member?” she asked, looking towards Toshiko.

Toshiko shook her head, standing up to bow. “Toshiko Takano. I’m a guest from the computer science club. Helping to set up the parapsychology club with a loaner laptop for the zine. It has a licensed copy of nDesign preloaded and everything. I can see about, um, getting you a scanner or a manga drawing suite soon.” The last statement seemed to engender a bit more trust in the girl from Chiyoko.

Nana turned to Daisuke. “Good morning Kamei-sensei. Out of curiosity, have you heard of a geneticist Dr. Kohaku Sawa? Her name came up recently in a… research project.”

Daisuke had a look of attempted recollection on her face. “The name sounds familiar?” She turned towards Aimi. who seemed to be looking up curiously at her. “Aoki-san, may I have your help searching my memories?”

This was a new interaction, Nana observed. Ever since Aimi revealed the counselor and Dr. Nomura’s old friendship, Daisuke acted guarded around the telepath. Something must have changed, however, around when Riko convinced her to give Kyo a gift as an apology. Her aura seemed a bit less threatening. It wasn’t just Nana that was noticing it, it seemed.

Consensual use of telepathy had a lot of unrealized potential, such as the treatment of repressed trauma and dissociation, she further mused. With Kamei-sensei’s supervision, perhaps they could expand the club’s activities to psychological treatment. Reports on such could be great filler for the zine too!

“You mentioned her in a post-graduate paper you wrote, on unethical proposals for the medical treatment of psychics. Dr. Sawa was cited for her idea of disabling psychic abilities through horizontal DNA transfer techniques. The abstract of the proposal said it was for treating those suffering from ability-induced neurodegeneration, but your claim was that her associations with the military and the Ministry of Justice made it obvious the treatment would be used to target criminals, or potential criminals.”

Aimi took a moment to catch her breath. She never blathered like that unless she was given the chance to read the words in someone else’s head, Nana had noticed. She also looked a bit emotional at the end of her reading, as though she hit upon a hidden memory of her own.

“Horizontal DNA transfer?” asked Riko, right on cue.

“When a cell receives DNA through means other than mitosis…” Kyo looked into Riko’s big eyes, “that is, splitting.”

Riko’s curiosity only grew. “So how would they use that to make espers into… not espers?”

“Artificially stimulate the hippocampus to ramp up the production of neurons, while simultaneously splicing in the DNA of someone with… genes that trend against the development of psychic abilities, resulting in hybrid neurons with nullified psychic activity.”

Kyo was staring at Riko suddenly. Nana and Aimi quickly joined in, and then Daisuke, who understood the bio-technobabble well enough to connect the dots to Riko’s psychic anti-potential. Chiyoko and Toshiko then decided to look at Riko too, as to not be left out.

Riko was lost again. “Do I have something on my face?”

Aimi, who could read mental pictures as well as internal monologue, explained it a bit better. “Kyo and Nana suspect someone grew someone using your genes, intending to then harvest more genes like yours and put them into espers the state wants to neuter.”

Aimi looked down again, as if she was once more visited by an unpleasant memory she normally didn't reflect upon.

“What the heck are you kids talking about?” asked Daisuke. She had not been privy to the theory that Riko had been cloned until now, or the stolen military data that led to that theory. Nana looked at Kyo, wondering what to say.

Luckily, Riko was quick on the uptake, at least when it came to misdirection and social improvisation. She grabbed the book on cloning, which Kyo had set down, holding it up. “Aoki-san bought Kyo this cool book on cloning, and we were talking about how it might be useful to clone people with beneficial psychic abilities.”

Riko then looked towards Nana. “And then Ishihara-san called me Control Sample-chan, which made me think, you’d want people like me if you wanted to learn more about espers, right? Double blind studies or whatnot. If you happened to go around copying people, that might be something you’d set aside some cloning juice for.”

“Cloning… juice?” Kyo asked, tilting her head.

“Figure of speech. Like, your research budget, and the time of the really smart people who use their big brains to do cloning stuff. See, when I think of science, I think of like, big canisters of green glowing goo that lets you do amazing things. And sometimes, when I’m hanging out with delinquents, they’ll ask what you’d like to drink, and you might ‘juice’ if you’re not feeling picky and will take whatever they bring you.”

“I see. Very… evocative, once put into context,” Kyo replied.

Between Riko’s antics and Kyo’s unintentional straight-woman routine, they seem to have deflected Daisuke’s attention from the parapsychology club’s more conspiratorial antics. Nana politely sat down as Daisuke forgot all about it and began her morning discussion with the club.

---

It was lunch period, and Nana had some free time to kill. She decided to use some of it to check her computer to see if any messages had arrived on the email she posted to X Channel. It seemed like she had gotten one, but not from the infamous PsiAnon.

    From: [email protected]
         To: [email protected]
Subject: Hello Esper

You can use all of the throwaway email accounts you like, and route yourself through countless VPNs while accessing them, but it’ll do you no good if you use free email services and bulletin boards riddled with backdoors. Doesn't help that you can be profiled easily enough through your mail and post history to boot.

So far, I’ve managed to guess with 99.9~% certainty that you’re female, and that you attend school in the Roppongi area of Tokyo, Japan.

Furthermore, I am 97.5% certain that you attend Tokyo Joshi Kagaku-Gijutsu Koko, which features a high esper population, one of Japan’s first legitimate high school parapsychology clubs, and has among its student body two individuals the Japanese government is very interested in, the telepath Aimi Aoki, and Deputy Minister Dr. Yori Nomura’s daughter, Riko Nomura.

You plan your time around places connected to Tokyo Station, although none of the locations I predict you live pass through there to get to Roppongi station. This leads me to believe you either have the ability to apport yourself to Tokyo Station, or can use astral projection to monitor locations you’re familiar with.

Maybe I’m wrong. If so, feel free to ignore me, or correct me.

I’m not your enemy, I’m just giving you some honest advice. You should be more careful.

 - Mister Slate

P.S.
Say hello to Miss Aoki if you see her. I'd like to think we're old friends, though I doubt she sees it that way.

It seemed they were being watched. Terrorists? Government? Too sinister to peg so easily.

Appearing in the parapsychology club room, Nana found that neither Riko nor Aimi were there. She also wanted to talk to Kyo or Toshiko about a secure, private email server, but she could do that later.

For now, she went up towards the school roof to see if they were eating there.