Hypocrite

At my question, the maid in white reached over my father and twisted a small knob, which turned on a lamp. Once the light struck his face, there was no denying that this man was who he claimed to be.

With his identity open and honest, more confusion rampaged through my mind. A plethora of questions flooded me from within, their sheer volume not allowing any particular one to be spoken.

“I’m sure you are confused about a lot of things,” father started, “But will you hear out what I have to say? I’m even willing to answer questions if you have any.”

Giving us the illusion of choice to listen to him felt like a joke. The lengths he’d gone to to summon us here to this office wasn’t something someone would do just for fun.

“You brought us all this way. Might as well talk,” I said.

“Wait!” Ko uttered, causing everyone to give her the floor. “Before anything, you’ll keep your word, yes?”

Father nodded. “Of course. I’ll have the government turn a blind eye to your activity in the Arakawa factory on whatever night you choose. I'll even clear the place out completly.”

“What!?” I uttered in shock. Did she tell him our plan? “Ko?!”

She preemptively shook her head. “It's not what you think. He already knew the plan somehow. When he offered to do that for us, I couldn’t just say no.” she turned back to father. “Speaking of which, how did you even know about that plan? How did you know we'd be at the auction?”

“It would be easier to name the things I don’t know about this city. I have hands in quite a few pots. And as for how I knew you’d be at the auction…I wasn’t sure if you’d end up on stage, or in the audience, but it was more of a hunch of mine that you’d end up there.”

His hunch had an awful good payoff.

And on the thought of payoff, he certainly had money to spend on a child.

“Why’d you buy her then?” I pointed to the girl.

“Seiko?” Father turned to her. “It was partially for your sake, what with how agitated you were about her being on stage. But how could anyone let a prodigy like this go to waste? It would be like counting you or your sister as a loss when you disappeared. I could never let the culmination of generations of planning fall into the hands of those wealthy poachers. Government money was no object.”

“Generations of planning?” Ko’s brow raised. “Are you talking about the eugenics program?”

“It wasn’t just eugenics that got us to this point. That was just a supplement to ensure that our goal was realized.”

“And your goal was…?” I asked.

He smiled, leaning back in his chair and getting comfortable.

“Our goal is to see the end of all strife. To have all of humanity truly live equally among each other. No social class, no ethnic barriers, not even disease would separate us. In the eyes of the public, the pill was supposed to be the answer…but to the eyes of science, it was never meant to last more than a century at most.”

So the pill really wasn’t meant to be a permanent solution after all.

Ekko was one of the people who became immune. The moment her pill started to fail, she began turning against it. I'm not sure how Ko came to stop using her pills, but I assumed it was something similar.

“That gave us a short amount of time to find a better solution. How do we solve the most intrinsic problems of mankind in under 100 years?”

“I’m sure greater minds than us have asked that question for generations.” I commented.

“Humanitarian minds have, perhaps. But my predecessor came to the conclusion that to change the ways of man, we needed to change mankind itself.”

“If not just eugenics, what else would change mankind?”

Father opened his desk and pulled out a pill, rolling it over to us. I caught it before it fell off the desk.

“The eugenics was to condition your bodies. These pills have a secondary effect. With each generation, it would alter our brain chemistry.” he gestured to Ko and Seiko. “These children are finally seeing the effects fully realized. Logic and emotion have switched places on their priority scale.”

Ko turned away, conflicted, gazing down at the floor while she processed this revelation.

“She has emotions though,” I defended. “I’ve seen them. She’s not just a logic machine.”

“I never said she was. But her generation is what will become the future of mankind. They’ll prioritize what is right by nature for all everyone, pushing aside selfish biases or desires. And after an unavoidable revolution against a tyrannical world order, who do you think will be the last ones standing in the wake of war?”

So that was the plan. Create genetically superior humans, cause a revolution, and watch the strongest survive it all. But there was a glaring hole in his plan…

“What if they fight against your will? What if they fight for the rest of humanity instead of your game here?”

“Logic will dictate what they’ll do next. Ko fights to free mankind of the pill, but have you ever once considered if she truly believes that cause? It's her own sense of logic, concluding that the pill is unnecessary and must be done away with.”

“I said, Ko isn't just a damn machine!” I kicked my chair back. “I've seen her cry, I've seen her love! She's even been afraid. She has just as many emotions as a child should.”

“Kitsune…” Ko uttered, sullen at my words.

“It was to invoke a reaction out of you. She knows exactly how to push your buttons.”

Was he trying to make me doubt my own sister? To what end? He had nothing to gain from turning me against her.

“You're wrong.” Ko stood up. “Even if logic is what persuades me to do what I have, even if every emotion is something I have to force out like some second rate actor, I'll always fight for humanity's soul. Logic and feelings have switched places within me. I won't deny that.” She proudly threw her arm out. “But I will never work with someone who'll stand by and let people die a darwinist death!”

“I don’t want you to,” he replied. “I don’t want either of you to be a part of this anymore!”

“What?” Ko and I both uttered at the same time.

“I told you before…run away. Head for the hills. Live your lives how you want in peace. You can take that woman you’re in love with too. I’ll even cover your tracks.”

All that talk about humanity changing, and he’d let his own two children slip through the cracks.

“You’re a hypocrite,” I accused him.

“I’m also a father. Now let me ask you…knowing all this, what can I do for the two of you to make you leave society?”