ALL NOVEL Chapter 182: The Will of a true Scientist! (II)
Kai wasn't worried about someone recognizing Rintaro Okabe.
It was nigh impossible to recognize a less-known main storyline character, especially when the idea of such Characters walking in the Primordial Tower was itself absurd. Giving wind to caution, he had forbidden Okabe to tell his name to others, though.
Suddenly, a tiny drop of water fell on his nose, making Kai look up.
More drops followed the last and soon the pitter-patter of a drizzle took over all sounds.
"There!" Okabe cried, pointing in a direction, and ran off.
Kai cursed under his breath. If the scientist ran out of the 200 ft Activity Radius, then he would disappear, catching all the attention of the Contestants. Okabe stopped under the shade of a street-side stall, an old vendor preparing to wrap it all up for the day.
"It smells so good, Mr. Vendor!" Okabe exclaimed, peeking into the glassed sections of the stall.
The old man eyed the two of them in return. He was clean-shaven, bald, and thin, but did not look weak, and his eyes were blue. "Are you hungry as well, young man?" he asked, looking at Kai.
Am I? Kai asked himself and realized that the pit in his stomach that he had been feeling for so long could've been because of hunger too. Yes. I am. I am starving.
He nodded.
"Well, I think, I can do something about it," the old man said, gently unwrapping the containers. "Let's see, we have some oysters, whelks, and cockles left to us. Some boiled and seasoned hot eels. What do you think? A serving for both of you?"
The light breeze had gained a chill and a few raindrops left their path, showering on Kai's face. He stepped closer to the stall, pulled Okabe back, who was trying to look into the rest of the containers, and nodded again. "How much?" he asked, knowing well that all things needed MCs within the Primordial Tower.
The old man laughed. "No need," he told them. "I did some good business today. And it would've gone to waste, anyway." Steam was still rising off the cooked eels as the old man served them with a dash of vinegar.
"You are a good man," Okabe said, taking his plate. "But you must be careful of the organization."
Kai smiled. He blew on the eel and took a bite, his hunger making it many times more delicious.
"So, you are a doctor?" the old man asked Okabe.
"Muahaha… Cough! Cough!" Okabe laughed and choked on the morsel, took a deep breath, paused, and only then continued as the old man looked at him oddly. "I am a mad scientist."
"Oh!" the old man laughingly exclaimed. "We are of the same kind then."
"How so?" Okabe asked, chewing on the eel.
"Well, it took me years to perfect the seasoning on the eels," the old man said, pointing at a jar. "But I am still practicing, young man. Whenever I think I have got the right one, I feel I can do it better. Many times I just scrapped the formula of my seasoning and started over. See, we are both scientists."
"Haha!" Okabe burst out in a fit of laughter. "You are right. Let me give you my lab coat. Wait."
"No, no." The old man firmly rejected, seeing Okabe taking off his long white coat.
For a few moments, they kept pushing the coat against each other, the drizzle still alive, but forgotten.
A tear trickled down Kai's cheek in silence.
The casual words of the old vendor rang in his mind repeatedly. It seemed he had walled himself and his thoughts, becoming overconfident and foolish unknowingly.
Those walls broke down now, one by one.
"From childhood, I was made to devour knowledge," he mumbled, jolting the other two out of their ensuing struggle. "Never did I care what my parents were doing in their labs, and what their lab coats meant. I saw my mother mulling over something day and night, smiling over a newly found idea, but then sulking over another. Never did I think that just knowledge wasn't enough to cover that gap."
Kai walked out onto the deserted street, letting the rain lick at his hair as much as it could.
The tiny drops wetted his face, washing away his imagined ideals and superfluous thoughts. Behind him, Okabe and the old man listened, surprised but equally interested.
"I had mistakenly equated the knowledge that I have hoarded to me being a scientist," Kai told himself, a flame of an unknown, mysterious Will burning inside his heart. "No. A scientist isn't a scientist because he has knowledge or he could do feats that normal people could never think of attempting.
"A scientist is a scientist because of his Spirit."
He closed his eyes, remembering all the moments spent with his mother, seeing her rushing to note down an idea, or scratching away another. He remembered her addressing her team members, sharing her thoughts, and then spending weeks working with new formulas. And he remembered her failures as well, looking lost, but then teaching him with the same zeal, and returning to her lab, to her team with a new day and new smile.
At last, he remembered the old vendor's words.
"A Spirit that can be summed up in two words - Start Over." Kai opened his eyes, the drizzle becoming heavier. "A Spirit that can be summed up in words - Make it anew. A Spirit that means one sentence —
"Failures are acceptable as long as one doesn't give up…"
Okabe laughed and the old man smiled along with him.
"So what if no true wand existing in the Random Worlds will ever choose me," Kai said, his hazel, reptilian eyes burning with a Will. "I will make my own. Wasn't there a time when the first person invented them? There is a start to all this, isn't there? Then I can do it as well."
Kai threw his hands out and now laughed, his voice even more maniacal than that of Okabe.
"I will make a wand that this Multiverse has never seen. From mortals to gods, everyone will tremble at the sight of it. And if this path leads to failure…" Kai looked down, his eyes narrowing, his lips arching up in a demonic grin, "… then I will just start over."
Okabe nodded and threw his lab coat towards him.
Kai caught in the air and donned over his shoulders. When his insight became a Comprehension, he didn't know. But at this moment, he knew that if he were to use D-Mail, it would work. Yet, Kai didn't want to anymore. This moment was too precious.
Kai was drenched and happy, his stomach growling.
And hot, cooked eels were waiting for him.
