Alchemists do not need self-cultivation

"Come in."

"Sorry to bother you."

Ayana walked in from outside and saw Isaac wearing a white coat and several tables full of parts.

"This is?"

“I’ve taken apart the thing I broke before and am now studying it,” Isaac said with a smile. “If you’re not in a hurry, sit here for a bit. I’ll finish writing the last bit of stuff and then we’ll leave together.”

"it is good."

Ayana found a chair and sat down quietly, watching Isaac continue his research with various instruments.

'Rentaro when he's serious is quite charming...'

Time passed by, and although it was supposed to be time for club activities after school, some club activities had already ended, but Isaac was still tinkering with the equipment.

Such high-tech products cannot be developed in a day or two; even reverse engineering is not an easy task.

Isaac and Ayana seemed to have forgotten about time, and he only stopped working when the sun outside the window gradually set.

"Huh? It's already so late?"

Isaac glanced at the sky and realized it was at least dinnertime.

"Sorry, Ayana, I didn't notice the time."

"No, that's not true. I already told Mom I'd be playing with my classmates late tonight," Ayana smiled. "Any progress on Rentaro's research?"

"Not yet. Although we have obtained some useful data, the most crucial thing has not yet been figured out."

As Isaac spoke, he picked up the power reactor that was placed in the container. He couldn't disassemble it for research yet; he had to take it to the headquarters' special experimental base for disassembly.

"That thing..."

The moment Ayana saw the power source, she felt her head being affected again, just like before on the playground, as if some kind of electromagnetic wave was constantly feeding something into her brain.

"What's wrong, Ayana? Are you feeling unwell?"

"Palladium reactor..."

"What?"

“A cold nuclear reactor using elemental palladium as a container…and hydrogen isotopes as fuel…” Ayana muttered something she herself didn’t even recognize, “Forcibly squeezing two deuterium (a variant of hydrogen) nuclei into a tiny space that can’t hold two nuclei, these two deuterium nuclei may fuse. The molecular structure of palladium provides the small space suitable for this requirement…”

As Isaac listened to Ayana's endless explanations of these theories, he knew that this was a manifestation of her ability as a 'listener'.

"Speaking of this kind of machine... I seem to remember something."

"Ok?"

Ayana rubbed her head, recalling the past.

"It must have been during summer vacation two years ago. I had just recovered from a serious illness and was chatting online with an anonymous user on my computer... At that time, I was also in the situation I am in today. We discussed some technical issues about 'modularization and miniaturization of medical robots.' For some reason, I was able to talk to someone for so long about things that I didn't know..."

"..."

An anonymous user is discussing technology... Could this be directly related to the fact that people from 'Amalgam' would find Ayana to be a 'listener'?

Ayana continued, "When I saw this AS on the playground before, I also recalled that I had talked to others about the theory of 'miniaturizing vector nozzles' back then."

"...Do you remember the website you used to chat on back then?"

That website has been shut down for a long time.

“…There are more and more mysteries.” Isaac took off the white coat he was wearing, picked up his backpack, and said, “Let’s go back first, or we’ll be late for dinner.”

"it is good."

……

The two walked out of the school gate together. The school was very quiet at this time, and most people had already left.

Just then, Isaac's phone rang.

He smiled apologetically and walked aside to answer the phone.

"Hello? What's up?"

"Boss, the DNA test results for Yuya Yamase are in." It was Isaac's employee on the phone. "He is indeed Soichiro Fujisawa's son, which means he is related to Ayana Fujisawa by blood..."

"...Okay, I understand."

After hanging up the phone, Isaac sighed.

The entertainment industry is truly chaotic.

"what happened?"

"Ayana, may I ask you something?"

"what?"

Chapter 653: Someone's causing trouble

"What do you want to ask?"

Seeing the subtle expression on Isaac's face, Ayana was somewhat puzzled.

"Um... about that guy in our class named Yamase Yuya, I don't know if you're familiar with him?"

“Yuya Seo…” Ayana said in a reminiscing manner, “He was usually the other class representative besides Yuko Takishima, but he was usually not very noticeable. He had excellent grades and often got first place in the grade.”

"I see... Have we had any contact before?"

"No, that's not true. When my classmates bully me, he just pretends not to see it, let alone have any conversation with me."

In class, Ayana Fujisawa was isolated and bullied by the group, and there was no one in the class who could talk to her.

"I see……"

Why are you suddenly asking about him?

“I suspect there’s something wrong with this guy,” Isaac said. “Have you ever considered that you and that Yuya Yamase are actually… well, related by blood or something?”

“How could that be?” Ayana immediately denied.

This is just too absurd.

“Well, I had someone investigate this guy named Yamase Yuya before, and found that his DNA data matches that of your father, Fujisawa Soichiro. I don’t know if this is a coincidence.” Isaac still revealed the results.

"Huh?"

Ayana was startled at first, and an expression of disbelief appeared on her face.

"Could this... be a misreading..."

“These things don’t make mistakes… but you don’t need to worry about it. It’s just having another brother, it’s not a big deal,” Isaac comforted him.

Thinking back to how my dad was when he was young, I guess he'd be perfectly fine with having another brother or sister someday.

However, these words caused a huge stir in Ayana's heart.

As the two walked home together, she felt extremely unsettled.

If most people said that, she would just take it as a joke, but she trusted Isaac completely. Her father had another child besides her, who was also her classmate...

Following the original route, Isaac first took Ayana back to her own home, and then returned to his own residence.

But this time, Ayana's home seems to have changed a little.

People around her house either looked on with curiosity or stopped to watch.

"Ok?"

"What happened?"

Isaac and Ayana realized something was wrong and quickly ran over.

When Ayana arrived at the Fujisawa family's door, the scene before her eyes made her eyes widen in surprise.

The words "murderer" were painted in large characters on the front gate of my own house.

"This……"

Ayana covered her mouth, her body involuntarily retreating backward…

Isaac pressed down on Ayana's shoulder, his brow furrowing slightly.

Who did this? And for what purpose?

"Alright, all of you get out of here and go do what you're supposed to do." He shooed away the crowd around him and said to Ayana, who was trembling beside him, "Stand here and don't move. I'll ask about the situation."

"Um……"

Ayana, caught off guard by the unexpected turn of events, found herself with nothing to rely on but Isaac.

Isaac picked up the phone and dialed.

"Hello? Boss, what happened?"

"There's graffiti on the Fujisawa family's door. Do you know what happened?"

"I don't know. We've been keeping an eye on the students you mentioned. They all went home after school and didn't move in the direction of the Fujisawa family."

"Okay, this was my own mistake. I didn't expect the enemy to shift their target. I was careless."

After hanging up the phone, Isaac clenched his fist inwardly.

Damn it, if I find out who did this, I'll grind you to dust.

"Rentaro, at home..."

"I don't know your family situation right now, so hide behind me for a moment."

"Um……"

Isaac quietly approached the door of the scripture room, sensing the atmosphere inside.

'It seems someone is home; judging from the aura, it should be Mrs. Fujisawa… There are no other auras, but it might be that small AS I encountered this morning.'

Having experienced the attack by that small AS, Isaac also knew that he couldn't completely trust his ability to sense Qi.

Ding Dong!Ding Dong!

He rang the doorbell first, but no one came to open the door.

"What's going on? Mrs. Fujisawa should be inside, could she have been threatened?"