Rewind 5

If they hadn’t seen it for themselves in person they never would have believed it. Tales of the fabled Lost City of Atlantis were hardly scientific or worth consideration. An entire civilization crafted in the mind of Plato purely for the sake of making a point. Dreamers liked to believe the saying that every story comes from a hint of truth. That was probably why so many could believe that the city could be under the Atlantic or locked away in the mountains.

It was all just a fantasy. It should have been. But it was all the truth somehow. And the reality was even stranger than what people imagined. A world of super humans lived in isolation from the rest of the world. Everything sounded more like a light novel than the reality that they lived in.

Seeing indeed was believing as they said.

Isamu dropped down on the couch in Mazawa’s office after the demonstration ended. He never would have believed anything that the man calling himself Atlas said without it. In fact, he probably would have laughed in the face of the man that paid his salary.

“If your power works as you claim it does, why do you even need us?” asked his wife, who seemed to be taking the whole thing far better than him. She already asked the first question that hung in his mind, was it not for him trying to process how it changed everything he knew about the human mind.

“Keenly noted Mrs. Hayashi. While my power does grant me tremendous abilities, one of our greatest taboos is the mind. Because our power lives in our mind, playing around in there has potentially dangerous outcomes. One mistake we might have created a clinically insane person or even leave them in a vegetative state. And you don’t want to see such a person with our powers in that state. As a rule, alteration of anyone’s mind is forbidden.”

“Laws only stop those of sound morals and ethics.”

“Tomiko!” he yelped, recovering enough to try to stop her from insulting their guest.

“No, she’s not wrong. While we arrest those caught in such experiments, as I understand it, our ancestors were not always of sound morals and ethics, as you put it. The knowledge of our power is greatly diminished compared to them, likely because they were willing to do anything to achieve their goals.”

“And what is your goal? The purpose of the project has not been made very clear.”

“Mapping and reproduction of our power to put it simply.”

Chapter 500 – Rewind 5

Isamu looked over to Tomiko as they both took in the answer. Answers started to fill in the blanks that they had from the secrecy of the project. The CEOs bold remarks began to make a lot of sense with the context that they had. “But we haven’t even finished mapping the human mind of someone that doesn’t have these…unique attributes.”

The young CEO only managed a small smirk to his remark, unable to completely hide away his strong urge to gloat. “Is that so?” He strode forward to the secret doorway that Mr. Atlas came from. A hand motioned to them to follow.

The couple stared between each other in silent conversation. While Isamu hadn’t openly agreed to the new assignment, his wife had already for the both of them. A move that he didn’t completely understand and she didn’t want to discuss with him at that moment. She simply made it clear that it was something that they would talk about later.

They agreed to set that to the side as Mazawa invited them deeper into the secret. Plenty more about this project remained unknown to them as the CEO made very clear. Even Isamu started to bear some of the worry that Tomiko displayed the night before. Nothing about what they said should have made him concerned, at least yet, but he had a deep unquantifiable feeling that it wasn’t something that he should follow.

A feeling that he realized only too late that he should have listened to on that day. His wife had been right in her fears, but curiosity was a powerful urge. The suggestion that something so impossible could be achieved gave him the wish to see it. Only a dream in his mind and they were acting as though it was mere prologue.

Following the two, they came to an elevator; one that they didn’t even know existed. It didn’t have much special about it. If someone had found it snooping around, they would have figured it was a private elevator for the CEO, which still would have merited some suspicions for being not marked on the floor plans and hidden, but otherwise nothing for grounds of containing deep world shattering secrets.

He did feel a little like they had entered into a movie with the way things played out beyond the realm of the reality that he was accustomed to living. It felt like science fiction that he had stepped into or perhaps fantasy with the inclusion of Mr. Atlas. Even seeing it with his own eyes, accepting this new reality remained challenging and difficult.

The hiss of the elevator door opening snapped their attention to the front as they entered. Mazawa punched in a code on the elevator that completely altered the display into a digital display. The numbers that previously represented all of the floors in the building that they knew existed disappeared. Replacing the known numbers was a reverse ordering of numbers. While the building complex was massive for the many projects that happened, it was only a ten story building. However, there were even more underground floors than it appeared. Like an iceberg in the ocean, they had only seen the tip of what Mazawa kept within his holdings.

Catching a glancing view, he was able to make out at least thirty floors that went below the ground. There might have even been even more than that and they just didn’t need it. With sub-floor twenty-three set as their destination, the elevator quickly dropped in a controlled descent into the place of rumors and secrets where people disappear to, if it was what the gossip liked to spin.

“This is more than a small little venture of yours.”

Mazawa nodded to her as they still had several seconds before they arrived. “This is not the sort of thing you go at half heartedly. My great-great-grandfather put this all in motion, though I doubt he could have imagined what we have achieved.”

Both Isamu and Tomiko drew in a breath as they held on in shock, finding it difficult to believe him, even if it was being presented simply as facts. The doors opened to the elevator timely for the blast of heavily regulated air to hit them. They had little time to react as they were dragged in deeper.

Forced to follow without a chance to pause, they stepped into the white sterile hall of the twenty-third floor below ground. Plates on the wall directed them to different rooms with little information on them besides the room number. It seemed that they protected their secrets such that you would get nothing from even strolling around.

“Where are we going?” she asked, having recovered some. With how non-descript everything was, she knew that she would never be able to get out if she needed to if something happened. And there was the fact that the elevator probably was locked without the right ID or code.

The young man directed them towards the end of a hall that came off the left of the one they came from, though beyond that she completely lost the layout. It had to be nearly the size of the layout above ground or maybe even greater.

However, contrary to what Tomiko expected in the room, there were only a few chairs and a monitor on the wall. It wasn’t a lab of any sort. He seemed to have a presentation in mind for them. More details on the project, she guessed.

“Please sit down,” he offered chairs for them in a very inviting voice that almost had a child-like eagerness to it. For being a CEO of a powerful research company, there were sides to him that didn’t seem to match with the typical image of one.

Seated in the center two chairs, Isamu leaned over to her whispering, “He’s quite excited.”

“Not what I imagined.”

“…yes…”

The lights suddenly dimmed, setting the stage for Mazawa. He stood next to the monitor that was embedded into the wall as it began a display showing the Earth. “To give you a little background, everything started in 1884 when my great-great-grandfather Nobu Aburakoji was abroad in Greece as part of a sponsored archeological dig. As you know from your history, Japan was rapidly westernizing and learning about the outside world. He wanted to do something that would help keep Japan as a recognized world player as we entered the stage. Sadly, his dream never came to pass. But he did find something that he viewed as our hope.”

“Hope?” Tomiko asked, finding the choice a little strange for a scientific endeavor.

“He was quite the romantic and deeply loved his home. What he found in 1884 was a strange tome that by all testing would place it within the period of Classical Greece.”

“Are you claiming that he found an unknown book of Plato?”

Mazawa smiled seeing her quickly catch on to things. “Claiming, more than that, Mrs. Hayashi, confirmed proof. At first, it was believed to be the speculated Hermocrates, as he never finished the Critias. But he learned it was nothing like the other works of Plato. In fact, when it was discovered everyone thought it was merely a hoax as it was not written in Ancient Greek or in fact any known language.

“Treated as a joke, he was able to secure it for his personal collection and returned home to Japan. See he believed that there was something special about the book that the others wrote off. He was not an archeologist, but my great-great-grandfather had a head for systems, logic and codes. It appeared fake, because that was its intent. It was deliberately crafted to seem pointless and to be lost to the annuals of history. Plato’s dark secret that he wanted to hide away from the world.”

“Now I really am certain that I’m in a movie,” Isamu declared in jest, completely at the end of his rope for suspension of disbelief. Tales of Plato, Atlantis and super powers all had some degree of interest to them, given that they demonstrated one of them. But it really felt like they were just making things up now.

Despite the remarks to the contrary, it didn’t slow him down in any visible way. “Everything I’m telling you is the truth. Though I will admit saying that it’s Plato’s secret is a bit of a stretch. It was a massive spanning conspiracy by the Greeks, one that I suspect that Plato had his reservations about despite his participation in the cover up.”

“You’re saying that the Greeks covered up the truth about Atlantis and this power?”

“Yes, it is all found within the tome found in 1884. It recounts the true history of Atlantis and their fate. The only thing that it does not contain is where they escaped to after the rebellion.” He looked over to their foreign guest, Mr. Atlas, who remained silent. History said that Atlantis was merely an analogy for Plato when making his points and that it never existed. Myth said that it sank after some natural disaster or was destroyed depending on the tale one wanted to pick.

“So Atlantis is real and its people are hiding somewhere in this world and this book you found is proof that this is all real?”

“That’s correct, Mrs. Hayashi. Plato describes everything about the Atlanteans in detail, including their power. It was not until the 50s that we managed to complete the code that held its secrets locked. And we worked in silence trying to prove it. If humans could do that at one point, it seemed logical that they had the potential.”

“You’re trying to turn humans into Atlanteans?”

“Oh no, not at all! I don’t think the world could handle such a thing. The war between Greece and Atlantis happened for very clear reasons and their current secrecy as well. No, our original purpose had been the same as Nobu Aburokoji. Deciphering the text would do nothing to prove what we had found. If anything, it would only make people even more dubious of the legends. We needed to prove what Plato was saying.”

“And to do that you researched the human brain?”

“You make it sound like we were crazy for doing something like that.”

“I don’t know about crazy, but it seems like a lot of work to just prove he was right.”

“It’s a secret history that’s been completely covered up. Doesn’t the idea of learning something that completely rewrites your understanding excite you? And it’s not as though researching the human brain itself is a pointless exercise.”

“True, but trying to prove we have the ability to change reality goes beyond an exercise.”

“But that is the past, Mrs. Hayashi. Thanks to my partner here, Mr. Atlas, we have a new goal, one of greater value.”

“You’ve been pretty vague about what this is supposed to serve.”

“You see, even though the Atlanteans that escaped Ancient Greece broke their bonds of servitude, they only found new ones in their new home. Their survival as a people forces people to sacrifice their lives. Through the mapping and creation of their power, they will be able to regain a stable life.”

“That sounds very noble of you Mr. Mawaza.”

He nodded to her seeing that she had her suspicions still. “I’ll admit that I’m not being wholly altruist about this. To achieve Mr. Atlas’ goal of saving his people we have to understand the human brain on a level never even considered. When we succeed, the advances we can make and the diseases we can cure will completely change modern medicine. The world may not be ready for powers like out of a fantasy novel, but I think curing types of cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases that affect the brain is more than fair reward. We’re going to change the world!”

Feeling his concerns ease up, Isamu stood up to extend a hand out to Mr. Atlas. “I hope I can be of some small help to your cause.”

“I believe the two of you will.”

“I’m glad to hear you’ll be joining me!” The young CEO stepped forward to welcome them both into the fold. “Welcome to Komatsuzaki!”