“Let me guess, the Chinese are blaming me and Lorraine for this?” To think that my life had gotten weird enough for me to utter such a statement.
“They originally were, but we talked them down by telling them the results of the distance experiment.”
One of the experiments performed at the mansion was a test of me and Lorraine’s range. Two officials of the CDC volunteered their dogs for the experiment, a French bulldog and a cockapoo. They started off ten miles from the mansion and slowly drove towards our position while Lorraine and I focused on turning them. The transformation didn’t occur until around five and a half miles. The problem was that it only measured our intentional abilities, not when it happened on accident. But on the plus side, I heard the doctors were overjoyed living with their transformed pets.
“Once this gets out, we’ll have worldwide panic, especially if it occurs again. People turning into hybrids? It’s like the furry Rapture,” I said.
“If this continues to escalate, it will completely rewrite the future of human culture. We might just get the X-Men world that Lorraine talked about.”
“Perhaps, but there is still the matter of preproduction. Elise is sterile, just like any other hybrid, and it’s likely that this guy is now as well. If that remains true, then this won’t become hereditary.”
“We can only hope. The Chinese are examining him and not giving out any information. However, I have good news. We might have found another test to study you and Lorraine, the only one of its kind.”
“What test?”
“We want to examine you in a neutrino detection facility. Japan has offered to let us use theirs in exchange for the credit if we get any results. I’ve already booked a flight for you and Lorraine. You leave in two days.”
“Wait, wait, wait, you want me to babysit that anime freak in JAPAN?!”
—————————————-
“I’m finally here! I’m finally here! I’m finally here!”
Lorraine was bouncing around me, more excited than Sonja with a new frisbee. We had just landed at Tokyo International Airport and I was burned out. I had been stuck with this lunatic for more than two damn days in one cramped metal tube after another. I hadn’t even gotten to “relieve my stress”. I mean, sure, Lorraine would happily do me if I asked, but I just couldn’t, not after I had to hose all that semen off her. I was just lucky I hadn’t caught any STDs from her. But what really sucked was that we still weren’t done traveling. We had to board yet another plane to the Niigata Airport. This day just keeps on getting better!
I tried to focus on my own excitement, having traveled farther from home than ever in my life. The only other country I had ever been to was Canada, and let’s face it, that barely counts as international travel. I was actually surprised by how normal it looked. With Lorraine’s constant blabbering, I had assumed that the entire country would be one giant anime expo, but the airport seemed culturally sterile for the most part. It did have a neat mall-like design. But man, I had never seen so many Asian people before! It was awesome! Like I said before, in Maine, the average complexion is ‘Starbucks cup’.
“Come on, let’s go explore Tokyo!” Lorraine said.
“No, our next flight is in an hour and we are going to stay here.”
“But we’ve come all this way! Just let me buy one figurine!”
“There’s probably a store around here somewhere that sells that stuff. Tell you what, you have thirty minutes to go look around the airport. Afterwards, if you’re not back, I’ll call Elise and tell her to burn your manga collection.”
She ran off and I gave a sigh of exhaustion. I found the gate for our next flight and picked a quiet spot to lie down on the floor near the window. It felt like it had been a week since I could actually lie flat on my back. Surrounded by other passengers and their luggage, I set an alarm on my phone and took a nap. Soon we would reach the Super-Kamiokande Neutrino Detection Experiment facility, but until then all I wanted was a room and a bed with no one else around. I just continued counting the seconds until I could go into my hotel room at Gida and lock myself up in solitude.
—————————————-
“I’m glad you two could make it,” said Dr. Lawrence.
We were in the office of Dr. Saito Nagisa, head of the facility. He was a middle-aged man, but in better shape and with more hair than Lawrence.
“Glad to meet you,” I said, shaking his hand. Lorraine did the same.
“The honor is mine. I had heard rumors that there were two people who could cause these transformations, but I didn’t think them to be true. Whatever it is that produces these hybrid creatures, be it science beyond our comprehension or simple magic, I’m hoping that my facility may give some answers.”
I sat down in one of the two chairs across from his desk. “I meant to look this up on the flight here, but Lorraine wouldn’t give me any time to myself. What exactly are neutrinos?”
“Neutrinos are subatomic particles, about one millionth the size of an electron. They have a neutral electric charge, and due to their small size, are barely affected by the fundamental forces of the universe and rarely interact with regular matter.”
“So, how do you detect them then?”
“Below this facility lies a 40-meter-tall steel tank holding 50,000 tons of ultrapure water. Inside the tank are 13,000 photomultiplier tubes that detect light from neutrino reactions. When a neutrino manages to strike a water molecule, an electron or positron is knocked off, moving faster than light, at least, faster than light can move in water. This creates a cone of Cherenkov radiation light, which is the optical equivalent to a sonic boom. The Cherenkov light is recorded by the photomultiplier tube. Using the information recorded by each tube, the direction and “flavor” of the incoming neutrino is determined.”
“So you think neutrinos are causing these transformations?”
“No, not the neutrinos, something else.” A knock came from his door. “Come in!”
A lovely young scientist entered the office, holding a folder. She was around my age, long black hair tied into a ponytail. “I have the results,” she said.
“Perfect timing. This is one of my head researchers, Toka Itami. Please explain to them the results we’ve been getting.”
She nodded and turned to us. “For the past year, we’ve been getting unusual readings from our detection lab. The sensors have been picking up something akin to Cherenkov radiation, but it hasn’t been coming from interactions with the water.”
“Our detection tank is buried underground in order to shield it from ambient radiation,” said Dr. Nagisa. “That way, only neutrinos from solar activity and supernovae are able to enter the detection field. We believe that the neutrinos are interacting with something, another kind of subatomic particle. We’d like to put you in the tank and see if our sensors pick up anything.”
“This is gonna be sweet!” said Lorraine.
Dr. Lawrence cleared his throat. “Though first, there is the matter of sanitation…”
—————————————-
“Oh, yes! Harder!” Lorraine moaned.
No, she wasn’t getting laid. She and I were actually getting scrubbed in a chemical shower underground. No amount of brushing and soaping could wash the filth from her soul. I was doing my best not to react, but the people in the sanitation suits were brushing hard to remove all dirt and dead skin cells. The water in that tank was ultrapure, and they wanted to keep it that way.
—————————————-
Once we were cleaned, we were dressed in full-body sanitization suits, covering us from head to toe with facemasks and safety goggles. Dr. Itami led us down a brightly-lit corridor to a heavy steel door, and after punching in an access code, it swung open into an airlock.
“So, just to be clear, you actually want us to get into the water?” I asked.
“That’s right, but first we want to get readings of you outside of the water. Whenever repairs or renovations have to be done, our technicians move around the tank in boats. There will be a small dock for you to stand on. We won’t be able to talk to you while the detectors are active, but we’ll flash the lights when we want you to get in and out of the water.”
We stepped into the airlock and the door was closed behind us. The door in front of us then opened and we stepped out into a circular chamber, over a hundred feet wide and tall. The walls were fiberglass, and behind them, we could see thousands of sensors. The tank was half-filled with water, with a metal dock in front of the airlock entrance.
“So I guess we just stand here while they get their readings?”
She and I stepped onto the dock and closed the airlock door behind us.
“Did you ever think, in your wildest dreams, that you’d end up in a place like this? We’re in Japan, standing in a neutrino detection tank. That… that is all kinds of messed up.”
“I know, it’s almost like… an anime plot,” she said while elbowing me in the ribs.
I groaned in annoyance.
“Look at that water. I wonder what it tastes like. It’s ultrapure right?”
“I bet it tastes bland. With nothing in it, it wouldn’t have any flavor.”
A few minutes later, the lights flashed.
“Alright, time to get in.”
“I really hope it’s not cold.” We slowly and clumsily climbed into the water. “Fuck, it is cold!” Lorraine shrieked.
It certainly was. Being in the suit was definitely a weird experience. I could feel the water pushing in from all angles, but my skin touched nothing but rubber. We worked to keep our heads above the water so that it wouldn’t get into our suits and we wouldn’t contaminate it.
“After this, I’m dragging you to a hot spring resort. I won’t take no for an answer,” Lorraine said.
“Fine, but you’re paying.”
“I wish we could get all the hybrids here for that. Now THAT would be a great anime episode!”
—————————————-
“These are the readings were typically get. These are the results from the past year. And these are the results we got from you two.”
We were back in Dr. Nagisa’s office, looking over graphs from the sensors. The average neutrino detection levels were practically zero, the results of last year were up about a quarter of the page, and the ten minutes of Lorraine and I in the tank maxed out the sensors.
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