Research and Development (Takashi Agera)

Research and Development (Takashi Agera)
Date of Cutscene:	11 January 2026
Location:	Obsidian Tower
Synopsis:	Takashi and Yuyami have another little discussion.
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Yuyami Kagayaki

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Yuyami stood outside of Takashi's office. Riventon's office. She wasn't intending to eavesdrop, really. She was just waiting for him to finish up. It's just... Takashi was... rather loud, right now.

"... The magical world does not render the world of science irrelevant! It did not change our fundamental understanding of mathematics, physics, chemistry, or any other scientific disciplines! This design of yours is poorly implemented from top to bottom, and the answer cannot simply be "pour more stolen energy into it"." Takashi was saying to some poor researcher.

She couldn't hear the researcher's mumbled response.

"With just a few simple calculations I can extrapolate the energy needs of your design will eventually outpace what can reasonably be provided at scale even if we were to drain a quarter of Tokyo. This isn't reasonable. Some of your fundamental ideas have merit, but that's where you should take your work back to - the fundamentals. And next time - do the calculations yourself." he says.

A few moments later the door opened and a very chastised looking Senior Researcher, someone at least a few decades Takashi's elder, half-scampered out of the office. Some of the other researchers in a huddle seemed to be exchanging whispers and words about what just happened.

Yuyami slowly poked her head in around the doorframe. Takashi looked annoyed, and she almost snuck back, but he caught sight of her, and his expression lightened.

"Oh, come in, Kagayaki-san. I wanted to speak to you anyways." he says, smiling. The girl slowly crept in, closing the door, before standing awkwardly next to the chair on the opposite side of the desk from Takashi.

"You can sit, you know..." Takashi said, and then Yuyami did, promptly. "...something's on your mind. Wanna share?"

"Ummm... first what was... that about?" She asked, curious.

"Ah, I think that guy let one of the Youma 'help' with his design for a system, and it had a clear error that would have been catastrophic." Takashi explains, shaking his head. "Using the youma for menial tasks is one thing, but when you start asking them to do high end thinking, they tend to... hallucinate." he says, gesturing vividly with his hands. "They don't really think, they just approximate the output, the result, based on piecing together what the Dusk Zone picked up from scattered thoughts and emotions that left imprints on the energy, on the objects, on something that formed the resulting creature, mixed up in such a way as to sound plausible. Or at least, that's mostly the case, barring very rare situations where they're created in very different ways - like created out of something capable of thought to begin with. Those are more pseduo-youma anyways, really. Just normal individuals pushed to a monstrous form."

Yuyami nodded softly. "Oh, yeah. I remember you explained that to me when we first made them. About how they're imitations." She says.

"But that's not what you came to talk to me about, so... what's up." Takashi asks, folding his hands into a steeple and leaning forward on the desk.

"Well... I was wondering... one of the people who came to stop us from setting up the Focus Point... they asked why you hadn't given me a henshin yet?" she says, tapping her fingers together and looking down. "And they said you'd given one to everyone else who worked for you in the past..."

"Well, there's your problem. Don't listen to your enemies. After all, you've told them things that aren't true, right? Because Deception is part of warfare?" he asks. "So, anything that say you should consider suspect by default. In this case... that's just flat out not true. I didn't make La Crima. I didn't give Fate her device. The people I did give tools to - well, that was just a way of focusing... or in one case, controlling and mitigating... energy they already had."

"Now, when it comes to you? You do have some sort of latent energy already, and it interacts in an interesting way with Dark Energy..." Takashi explains, using his Device to generate holographic screens so he can show her resonance form and mathematical data. "It's unique, among everything in my database."

Yuyami looked at her digital magical resonance signatures with wide eyes. "...Oh, I've never seen my own magical data before..." she says.

"Yeah, yours is unique and special. It stood out to me. I thought you might have developed your own henshin if I left it alone."

Yuyami paused and then looked at him. "Did you assign me field work to try to make that happen?" For a moment, she was very concerned - felt a bit like being used as a live experiment.

"What?! No, no, no." Takashi lied. "I needed you in the field to handle the data and be a reliable hand. What, you think I was gonna assign mister Youma Is My Brain's Copilot to do it?" He asks. "I've also always made sure you had support." Takashi points out. "But... it does bring up a point, that if it was going to develop naturally, you'd think it would have by now. Which might mean it's been damaged by the attempt to suppress your magic, your initial connection to Dark Energy." he pretends to muse. "So... we should probably just amp up your Dark Energy connection now." Then he pauses, and thinks about a thrown brother and a lot of fallout.... "Actually, we should find some way to... do that in a controllable way. Unfortunately I don't have access to any more parts for a new Device, like what Firefly had... but... maybe we can come up with something if we put our heads together... and raid a storeroom or two. At least, until we find more parts... maybe on the next Arthrafall."