Pathway to Japanese Literature

1

After reporting the success of his artificial reproduction experiments through various animal trials, Dr. Muraki took out a cage containing two guinea pigs that the janitor had just brought and placed it on the podium.

“This white one is a guinea pig I cultivated in the Muraki Solution.”
“The black-dominated one is a guinea pig born from ordinary parents.”
“Both are three weeks old, but there is no discernible difference in their developmental states.”
“Please pass this around and examine it closely.”

With these words, Dr. Muraki passed the cage of guinea pigs to a man listening in the front row.
The two guinea pigs were huddled in the cage.
The cage was passed around among the audience from one person to the next.
The over three hundred male and female audience members observed the small animals raised in this strange environment with curiosity while marveling at the astonishing miracle of modern science.

Dr. Muraki cast a satisfied glance over the heads of the audience and began to speak calmly.

“Encouraged by the splendid success of these animal experiments, I finally resolved to attempt this on humans.”
“I selected my own spermatozoa.”
“The culture medium I selected is a physiological solution I have tentatically named the second Muraki Solution.”

Among some of the eager audience members, occasional whispers of amazement arose in response to this bold, unprecedented announcement in academia.
In the guest seats, seven or eight members of the East Asian Physiological Society listened with rapt attention, determined not to miss a single word of this groundbreaking experimental report.
Among them was Ms. Fujiko Naito, a female physiologist assisting Dr. Muraki as his laboratory aide, her bobbed hair a lone spot of color amidst the gathering.

Dr. Muraki moistened his mouth with a sip of water from the glass and continued speaking.

“At present, this artificial fetus is developing safely within the specially crafted test tube I created.”
“It is currently at approximately the three-month stage of pregnancy.”
“The greatest difficulty I faced was nutrient supply; however, through the cooperation of Ms. Naito here, I overcame this challenge.”
“We have recently succeeded in synthesizing various proteins as well.”
“...However, I do not believe it is yet the time to present detailed reports on these matters.”
“If my experiment succeeds and I am able to develop this child to the point where it can be safely exposed to sunlight and air, then at that time, I will provide a full report on everything.”
“I believe it will likely be possible to present a report at this society’s Autumn Conference.”

Dr. Muraki descended from the podium amidst applause that fell like sudden hail.

With this, the East Asian Physiological Society’s Showa X Year Spring Public Conference came to an end.

A restless stir rippled through the audience.
They stood up from their benches and began preparing to leave.

At that moment, Abe (Medical Student), who had been sitting next to Ms. Naito in the audience seats, smoothly rose and addressed Dr. Muraki, who was now about to pass in front of him.

“Professor, I have a quick question.”

“A question?” Dr. Muraki stopped and said.
“I will not be answering any questions today.”
“I merely reported the outline of my experiment and hardly touched upon its details.”
“The reason is that my experiment is currently ongoing, and it remains uncertain whether it will ultimately succeed.”
“Therefore, if your questions pertain to the content of the experiment, I cannot provide any answers today.”

Abe (Medical Student) let out a sharp "Hah" as he lowered his head and returned to his seat.

When the secretary announced the closing from his seat, the audience surged toward the door.
The conference came to an end.

The next day’s newspapers reported the contents of Dr. Muraki’s lecture with considerable exaggeration.
Some newspapers displayed sensational headlines like “Discovery of the Artificial Human,” “Humans Born from Test Tubes,” and “A Wailing Birth Cry by Autumn,” while others placed portraits of Dr. Muraki and Ms. Naito side by side with captions such as “These Are the Parents of the Test-Tube Baby!”

Although many biologists questioned by reporters retained some doubts, all scholars were in agreement on the point that "it was not an impossibility." And "We wish to have access to a detailed experimental report as soon as possible" was the common desire shared by all scholars.

A certain feminist hastily asserted, "The woman question will thereby be resolved." If pregnancy and childbirth became unnecessary for women, the physiological distinction between men and women would disappear, and women could fully participate in cultural labor—such was the reasoning. Another eugenicist exclaimed, "Through this, eugenics has been placed on a rational foundation!" Even more outlandish was how a certain legal scholar gave a lengthy explanation to reporters, stating, "The invention of the Artificial Human will fundamentally overturn existing laws."

Both the academic world and the general public were turned upside down in an uproar.
Of course, this news was reported worldwide, and it goes without saying that it caused an extraordinary shock to academic circles in every country.

2

“Hey, Professor!”

Fujiko Naito, who had been cleaning test tubes, turned around while wiping her wet hands with a towel and said this.

Dr. Muraki, who had been intently examining chemistry books, removed his glasses, placed them on the pages of the book he had been using, and turned toward the assistant.

"I was truly astonished by your lecture yesterday, Professor."
"I had no idea you were conducting such a world-class experiment."
"And I have not been of any help at all, nor can I be of any use."

“That’s not true at all. Your cleaning the test tubes and organizing the medicine bottles like this has been tremendously helpful to my experiment.”

“But when you introduced someone as clueless as me as a scientist, I truly felt like my face was on fire.”

“You are going to become a scientist.”
“If you study at my lab for six months from now on, I will make you into a splendid scientist.”
“You must have made considerable progress with Dr. Terada’s *Essentials of Chemistry* by now.”
“If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask without hesitation.”
“Now, let’s do a bit of review.”

“Professor.”

When she said this and raised her face, Fujiko’s eyes were slightly teary.

“I don’t want to study such difficult books anymore.”
“I am but a mere woman.”
“Stay by your side forever without leaving, be loved by you like last summer… Professor, please take me somewhere.”
“To somewhere with no one else—to somewhere just you and I can be alone.”

She buried her face in Dr. Muraki’s lap and began to sob.
Dr. Muraki, feeling the soft object squirming through the coarse fabric of his work clothes around his knees, remained entranced for a while; yet even as he openly displayed an expression of troubled dismay above her head, he still spoke in a gentle tone.

“That won’t do—if you keep being such a spoiled child, haven’t I continued loving you all this time since then?”

He kissed her faintly powdered nape.
And he went on speaking.

“But you know I have a wife and four children, don’t you? And you yourself have a fiancé, haven’t you?”

Fujiko raised her face.
Large tear stains had formed on Dr. Muraki’s knee.
The area around her eyes was completely drenched with tears.

“I understand.”
“I made an unreasonable request.”
“But I simply cannot bring myself to leave your side, Professor.”
“It was last summer, wasn’t it?”
“It was August 14th, wasn’t it?”
“It was around four in the afternoon.”
“The sun was still high, and the heat was at its peak.”
“You were there wearing a swimsuit, half-buried in the sand.”
“Like a middle schooler or something—I was such a tomboy then, don’t you think?”
“I passed right by you while singing at the top of my voice.”
“I did that on purpose.”
“I already knew you well by then.”
“It was Busset’s poem I sang that time—do you remember?”

“Beyond the mountains lies a distant sky,

Where people say happiness dwells,

Ah, I journeyed alone,

With tears welling up, I returned.

Beyond the mountains, even farther away,

Where people say happiness dwells,

I sang this song.
“Then the Professor sang along after me, didn’t he?”
“I turned red all the way to the base of my ear.”
“But I didn’t stop singing.”
“And I was truly happy.”
“It made my chest thrill so much.”

Dr. Muraki’s eyes also grew slightly moist.
Reminiscence—no matter how painful the memories being recalled—renders people’s hearts sentimental.
All the more so, such romantic reminiscences cannot help but bring tears to one’s eyes.
Dr. Muraki took up her words and said.

“And then we met quite often in the sea.
“While keeping our lower bodies in the water and avoiding the occasional swell of waves, we talked about various things.”

“And finally I too ended up buried in the sand right beside you, not even a step away.”
“And I listened to all sorts of stories from you.”
“You told me about the Expressionist plays you saw in Germany… and since you invited me to visit, I came to your house in Kamakura.”
“And then…”

“It’s strange, isn’t it—the bonds between people. So then you stopped being an auditor at XX University after that summer and began assisting in my laboratory. And while engaging in cold scientific research, we…”

“We were in love.”
“With a passionate love that burned everything to ashes.”

“We loved each other just like young students, didn’t we?”
“Society thinks we spend all day in this laboratory fiddling with microscopes and test tubes—and my wife believes the same—but in truth, there were times when we spent entire days in this room holding hands, embracing each other, and continuing our amorous play.”
“Our research naturally began to be neglected…”

Their hands moved of their own accord.
A fierce embrace was exchanged.

Fujiko opened her teary eyes and, while fixedly gazing at the doctor who remained as calm as a sculpture, spoke in a slightly trembling voice.

“But all this time, Professor—even without me knowing a single thing—you’ve been conducting such splendid research.”
“This artificial human reproduction—I’d like you to show me the room next door, even just a glimpse.”
“It’s already been a month, hasn’t it?”
“Ever since you locked that room.”
“But couldn’t you show just a little bit of it to me alone?”
“I must see it—how it’s growing…”

“That alone is out of the question, you see.”
“Moreover, the experiment must be conducted in absolute darkness, so it cannot be observed.”
“And absolute quiet conditions are necessary.”
“Well, please wait until the experiment succeeds.”
“This experiment risks my very life and honor, so if it fails, I will lose everything.”

As the long April day drew near dusk, the two of them left the laboratory and disappeared into the doctor’s residence through the back entrance along a garden strewn with scattered cherry blossoms.

3

“Dad, do you know what sound a dog makes?”

“Dogs go ‘woof woof’.”

“That’s Japanese dogs. Do you know what sound Western dogs make?”

“Western dogs are the same.”

“That’s a lie.”
“You don’t know after all.”
“Western dogs go ‘bow-wow’, you know.”
“It says so in the reader.”
“Look—‘The dog barks bow-wow’!”

“Father, why is ‘hundred-day red’ written but read as ‘monkey slip’?”

“That’s a difficult question—Father doesn’t know.”
“Ask your older brother; he’s quite knowledgeable.”

“I don’t know Japanese or anything—‘hundred’ is ‘monkey,’ ‘day’ is ‘slip,’ and ‘red’ is ‘ri.’”
“In English, ‘hundred-day’ is called ‘Hundred Day,’ you know.”

“It’s ‘Hundred Days.’”
“Because it’s plural.”

“As expected, Dad is amazing.”
“Dad’s photo was in yesterday’s newspaper, right?”
“Along with Ms. Naito’s photo.”
“Ms. Naito must be really impressive too, huh?”

Dr. Muraki was spending time as a playmate with his fourteen-year-old eldest son and twelve-year-old eldest daughter before they left for school, as he always did.

From spring through summer, Dr. Muraki woke at five every morning and spent his days from eight to five in the laboratory set within his home’s grounds, except for Wednesdays when he went once to deliver lectures at the university’s physiology department.
However, during August alone, he lived at his villa in Kamakura, but even there he had allocated one room as a laboratory.
The place where he had become acquainted with Fujiko was this Kamakura villa.
Thus, for three hours each morning, Dr. Muraki was entirely a family man, and during nine daytime hours was wholly devoted to research.
This daily routine had never deviated, like an accurate clock.
Especially since beginning that artificial human experiment about a month prior, he had refused all visitors and strictly prohibited even family members from entering the laboratory—save for his assistant Ms. Naito.

“It’s already seven o’clock.”
“Off to school you go.”

While the father and children were playing, Mrs. Muraki came in saying this.
Though Mrs. Muraki was three or four years past thirty, she maintained a youthfulness that made her appear still in her twenties.

“Dad, I’m off now.”

“Mom, I’m off now.”

The two children left the room as cheerfully as little birds.

“Three more newspaper reporters came again this morning.”
She said while sitting down beside her husband.
“They’re a nuisance. What could newspaper reporters possibly understand?”
Dr. Muraki, still turned away, blew out a puff of cigarette smoke and said.
“But you know, one of them said something like this.
‘If the professor’s experiment succeeds,’ they asked, ‘what will become of that child’s legal status?’”
She looked at her husband’s face askance and said.
Dr. Muraki remained silent like a stone statue.

“Really, I wonder what will become of that.”
“I would like to hear that as well.”

A large vertical wrinkle formed between Dr. Muraki’s eyebrows.
However, it soon vanished, and his usual gentle expression returned.

“Scholars should simply focus on research.”
“What to do with the research results should be left to actual practitioners.”
“Eventually, legal scholars will sort it out.”
“However, since the sperm used in the experiment is mine, I believe I should naturally be considered the father, but—”

“Would that mean the child would have no mother?”

A lonely expression appeared on Mrs. Muraki’s face.
Dr. Muraki noticed this and spoke in an encouraging tone.

“The child would have no mother.”
“However, if science advances just a bit further now, children without fathers will also come to exist.”
“If sperm could be synthesized.”
“However, that will certainly be achievable in the near future.”

“If that were to happen, the parent-child relationship would become such a strange thing, wouldn’t it?”
“Morals and obligations would disappear.”
“But under the current law, someone would have to become the mother, wouldn’t they?”

“If we speak most logically, Ms. Naito—who assists with the experiment—has the right to become the mother, but……”

Dr. Muraki shot a lightning-fast glance at his wife’s face.
Mrs. Muraki’s expression darkened with equal swiftness.

“At minimum, should legal scholars seek my opinion, I must insist on that position.”
“In today’s world, this may seem peculiar.”
“I imagine you find it peculiar too.”
“However, when establishing laws concerning this matter, we cannot fixate solely on present society.”
“We must envision a future society where such practices become commonplace.”

As the wife of a scientist who thoroughly understood the nature of her husband’s work, Mrs. Muraki thought Dr. Muraki’s explanation perfectly reasonable.
Yet even as she found it logically sound, the knot in her stomach refused to loosen.

“But Ms. Naito has a fiancé, doesn’t she? He would surely be troubled as well. And the one who is to become that person’s husband as well…”

“That can’t be helped. Sacrifices must be made for the sake of truth. Even if the invention of trains and automobiles has caused rickshaw pullers to lose their jobs—while it’s unfortunate for them—when considering humanity as a whole, it can’t be helped. That’s something Ms. Naito and the person who will become her husband must fully accept.”

Dr. Muraki looked at his watch.
It was five minutes to eight.
Dr. Muraki got ready and headed out to the laboratory.
After a while, the sound of a piano could be heard from within the residence.
It was a Chopin piece.

4

Then, about twenty days later, on a certain day.

Within Dr. Muraki’s estate, the cherry blossoms had long since turned to leaves, and here and there in the shadows of garden stones, red and white azaleas of varied strains were blooming.

The trees on the hill in Zoshigaya, bathed in abundant sunlight, made each green leaf’s gradual formation seem almost visible to the naked eye.
On days like this, anyone would find themselves troubled by a kind of natural oppression.
For young men and women in the bloom of youth burdened with sweet anxieties, the season of May imparted an indescribable restlessness—a feeling that made one unable to sit still or remain at ease.

Fujiko Naito, who—despite having a fiancé—had come to harbor heartfelt feelings for a man with both a wife and children, sat at a desk in Dr. Muraki’s laboratory reading a chemistry book, yet her eyes naturally drifted to the verdant foliage outside the window.
Her mind slipped through the pages of the dry, lifeless book and scattered in unintended directions.

Dr. Muraki had gone to Kamakura two days prior on account of some business and had yet to return.
During his absence, Fujiko shut herself in the laboratory and devoted herself to memorizing chemical formulas.

She had lately come to feel particularly uneasy about her current situation.
It wasn’t that she didn’t love her fiancé.
Her future husband believed in her completely.
He took such pride in her assisting with research while learning proper manners at the renowned doctor’s laboratory that it bordered on being a point of pride for him.
"What would happen if he found out about the relationship between the doctor and me?"

She felt as though the ground beneath her feet was swaying.
Above all, the unbearable terror for her was that some abnormality had occurred in her body starting about three months prior.
Dr. Muraki had diagnosed it as not a pregnancy, but the symptoms that had struck her two or three months prior seemed no different from morning sickness.
Moreover, even now, menstruation still hadn’t come.

It must be true.
Dr. Muraki was lying to keep me from worrying.
And he himself, unwilling to believe this terrifying truth, was striving to deny it…

She recalled Dr. Muraki’s calm demeanor and felt an intense hatred.
At the same time, when she became aware that she was carrying his seed within her body, she found herself unbearably longing for him.

"If that were true, I would be ruined, and Dr. Muraki himself would be ruined as well."
"And besides..."

She had noticed that a persistent glint of jealousy had taken residence in Mrs. Muraki’s eyes as of late.
Mrs. Muraki remained as amiable as ever toward Fujiko, and to an outside observer, there was not the slightest hint of jealousy in her demeanor. Yet for Fujiko herself, the kinder Mrs. Muraki’s attitude grew, the more it made her feel as though she were being pierced by some intense ray of light.
She felt as though her very soul had been laid bare; like a small bird cowering before an eagle, she could not even bring herself to look directly at the other’s face.

All circumstances were unpleasant and terrifying to her. Yet now it seemed nothing could be done about them anymore. Even were she to consult Dr. Muraki, he would simply deny the facts outright—leaving her no foothold for discussion.

"Does Dr. Muraki truly love me? Were he forced to abandon either his wife or myself—what would he choose?"

She possessed no confidence whatsoever regarding these doubts. Of course—Mrs. Muraki had children and years of shared life with him; moreover, with beauty surpassing her own or at least a more refined appearance—she felt utterly outmatched in any contest against her. Her countenance abruptly turned severe.

There comes a time when women physiologically experience sudden emotional reversals—somersaulting from passive depths into unparalleled resolve. This was precisely her present state.

"That’s right—I must compete to the bitter end.
I must completely make Dr. Muraki mine and have done with it.
He must abandon not only his honor and home but his wife and children as well—even his research, second only to life itself—and throw himself into my embrace…"

"Professor once said… ‘This experiment stakes my life and honor. If I fail, I will face utter ruin…’"

With bloodshot eyes, she glanced at the door leading to the adjacent room.
She stood up like a beast that had caught the scent of blood.
Opening the desk drawer, she searched with mad desperation for something.
In her hand was clutched a bundle of keys.
Overcome by such violent agitation that she had lost all reason, she resolved to wreck Dr. Muraki’s precious experiment—to make him unable to face society—and flee with him to some remote corner of the earth where they could live solely for their love. “For love, even the world—” Cleopatra’s words reverberated in her mind like a divine oracle.

Surprisingly, the first key she tried slid smoothly into the keyhole.
The door opened with startling, almost anticlimactic ease.
In truth, given how she might have smashed down the door in her fervor, this outcome struck her as unexpectedly underwhelming.
But what surprised her even more was that inside the room stood only a familiar desk and single chair; upon the desk lay an open German book and before it, a large sheet of Western-style grid paper bearing some German writing—nothing else could be found.
At this utter lack of discovery, her excitement cooled all at once, leaving her utterly disappointed.
Just when she had anticipated uncovering some elaborate mechanism, what she found was merely an ordinary desk, a chair, and a single book.

She staggered like a wraith, looking up at the ceiling, pressing on the floor and walls, stepping and knocking to see. However, in the end, she was unable to discover anything. She had become as limp as cotton. And then she returned to the original room and, leaning against the desk, fell into a dead sleep.

When she felt a soft, warm touch on the nape of her neck and awoke, her eyes found Dr. Muraki standing behind her, kissing her.

“Oh! When did you get here…?”
She hurriedly adjusted her posture and brushed back her disheveled hair.

“I just returned this very moment.”
“Actually, I’ve decided to relocate the laboratory to Kamakura this time.”
“I tidied up the adjacent room on the night before departure, after everyone had fallen asleep.”
“It was a secret from both you and my family.”
“Because I thought it would be troublesome if newspaper reporters caught wind of it.”
“Oh, it was no trouble at all—the luggage fit neatly into a single trunk.”
“If we don’t act now, it’ll grow too large to transport easily.”
“To prevent the solution from shaking, I went through considerable trouble, and even then I was concerned about the long journey—but fortunately I managed to move it safely to the laboratory there.”
“So I’ve decided you’ll assist at that laboratory starting tomorrow.”
“I need only go once a week to check the developmental state.”
“I will leave one nursemaid there.”
“I will assign your tasks as needed each time, but you absolutely must not enter that laboratory—please bear this in mind.”
“Well then, let’s head home for a bit...” Dr. Muraki continued talking to himself, and before she could utter a word, he planted alternating kisses on each of her eyes and briskly exited the laboratory.

5

For approximately six months thereafter, Dr. Muraki made precisely one weekly trip to the laboratory in Kamakura.
What kind of research he was conducting inside the laboratory could not be discerned from the outside.
However, it was certain that the experiment was proceeding satisfactorily.

When Fujiko finally realized she was pregnant, Dr. Muraki resolved not to let her assist with the experiment in any way or even discuss it, deciding instead to have her focus solely on convalescence.

However, Dr. Muraki remained unchanged as a devoted father and husband at home.
With the same hands that had embraced Fujiko, he caressed his children.
With the same mouth that had whispered love to Fujiko, he engaged in cheerful conversation with Mrs. Muraki.
And to society and the academic world, Dr. Muraki was a model gentleman.
We could observe Dr. Muraki leading a complete double life.

On a certain evening at the end of October, had someone with keen hearing stood near Dr. Muraki’s villa and listened intently, they might have faintly detected the cry of a newborn from within the residence.
Of course, Fujiko had given birth.
Yet this remained unknown to all.

A few days later, at Dr. Muraki’s main residence in Zoshigaya: “You—I hear the Physiological Society’s Autumn Conference is the day after tomorrow?”

Mrs. Muraki said worriedly to Dr. Muraki.

“That’s right—it’s the day after tomorrow.”

Dr. Muraki answered with the calmness of a scientist.

“Will the experiment be ready in time?”
“Today, that newspaper reporter from before came by, you see.”
“He made sure to emphasize that matter.”

“It’ll be ready in time.”

“This time, I hear that a great number of professors at the university are fired up, saying they will subject you to pointed questioning.”
“But I trust you have made thorough preparations?”

“A hundred reports are no match for a single real specimen as proof.”
“I intend to present the actual specimen that day.”

“Oh, then has the experiment already succeeded?”

Mrs. Muraki asked with irrepressible joy.

“It has not yet succeeded.”
“But there are still two days left.”
“It should be fully completed by then.”

＊ ＊ ＊

Early the next morning, Dr. Muraki left for Kamakura and shut himself in the laboratory all day.
From the adjacent room, between the intermittent sounds of Dr. Muraki’s busily pacing footsteps, the faint gush of water from a faucet, and the clinking of glassware could be heard—while a sensitive nose might even detect the faint odor of chemicals.

＊ ＊ ＊

The following day was finally the day of the conference.
Breaking with tradition, the venue—having been changed to the XX Newspaper’s auditorium—was packed to capacity with an eager audience even before the scheduled time.
Dignitaries from academic circles spanning both government and private sectors, along with newspaper reporters, stood arrayed on either side of the podium.
As today’s conference had been scheduled to feature Dr. Muraki’s presentation exclusively, when the chairperson concluded their opening remarks, Dr. Muraki ascended the podium amid thunderous applause.
The gazes of over a thousand audience members converged simultaneously upon Dr. Muraki.

Dr. Muraki reported the experiment's progress in a calm tone with unexpected brevity, then said, "I will now present the infant for all of you to see," while directing his gaze toward the rear.

An old woman brought a glass dish filled with pale red liquid.
Inside, a healthy-looking newborn infant was submerged, supported by an intricate apparatus.

“This child has grown to its current state in eight months.”
“By regulating the temperature and nutrient composition of the solution, I have succeeded in shortening the developmental period by approximately two months compared to uterine gestation. However, I anticipate this timeframe could be reduced to around six months.”
“This child is male, but the sex can be altered through surgery during the fetal period.”
“At present, I bathe it several times a day in the second Muraki solution—a precaution taken due to concerns about the effects of sudden environmental changes.”
“In another month or so, I intend to raise it in the same manner as an ordinary child.”

When Dr. Muraki finished his report, he assisted the old woman in carrying the glass dish to the rear.
The sound of applause continued unabated for some time.

At the Kamakura villa, Fujiko Naito drank the milk brought by the old woman that morning and dozed off while letting the infant suckle at her breast before falling sound asleep without realizing it.

When she awoke from a deep yet somehow eerie slumber, darkness had already fallen.
The baby still slept peacefully.
As if overwhelmed by its innocence, she kissed the infant’s forehead.
She faintly detected what seemed like a wine-like odor but paid it no mind.

“Oh, you’re awake? Since you were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t serve you lunch.”

As she said this, the old woman brought dinner.

“Well, well—sleeping soundly, isn’t he?” Dr. Muraki said as he too entered after her and peered at the baby’s face.
And Dr. Muraki alternately kissed the foreheads of the mother and child.

＊ ＊ ＊

At that exact same time in the university’s physiology laboratory, Abe (Medical Student)—who had been fervently fiddling with test tubes—let out a shrill cry all by himself.

“What the hell—calling this the ‘second Muraki solution’ with such a grandiose name when it’s just water colored with a splash of wine!”

The next morning, Dr. Muraki was found dead in his Kamakura laboratory—a morphine suicide.

"I simply could not bring myself to part from you.
At the same time, I could not part from my wife and children either.
I devised a means to continue my love with you forever while maintaining my dignity as a respectable gentleman in society and fulfilling my duties as a husband and father.
That was life in that Zoshigaya laboratory.
However, when I learned that you had become pregnant, I had to resort to an even bolder second step to prevent its exposure.
The Artificial Human experiment was that very thing.
Yesterday, I used an anesthetic on you and had an old woman take our beloved child to the lecture hall.
I managed to deceive them at the venue, but I could never deceive my own conscience.
For a villain who deceived society, deceived his family, desecrated academia, and ultimately was forced to deceive even his own lover—death alone remained as the path left to take.
Please take care of our child."

Fujiko clung to the doctor’s suicide note and collapsed in tears upon her childbed, weeping endlessly without cease.