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This… was hard to comment on.
Akio couldn't help thinking that Umbrella Corporation and Blackwatch would probably get along just fine.
After all, both of them seemed to share the same favorite problem-solving method: nuclear bombs.
Nukes — everyone who's tried one says they're great.
Anyway, Elizabeth, the one who'd been taken away, didn't stay a person for long. She quickly became nothing more than a test subject — a "natural virus reservoir." Her body just kept churning out mutant viral strains like a bottomless factory.
Time skipped forward to 1980. A man named Raymond McMullen founded GENTEK, set up as a subordinate research branch under Blackwatch.
But McMullen thought Blackwatch was too shortsighted to see the true potential of the Redlight Virus.
So, after convincing them, the Blacklight Project was launched under Blackwatch's supervision. Elizabeth was transferred to GENTEK's labs, where researchers worked relentlessly to extract and refine a new virus from her body, one derived from the Redlight strain.
They named it the Blacklight Virus.
That was its supposed origin.
But in this stitched-together, chaotic crossover of worlds… things went off the rails.
Here, the Blacklight Virus didn't come from Elizabeth at all. Instead, it was some grotesque mutation born from mixing vampire virus strains with the progenitor virus.
That was… insane.
Akio honestly couldn't tell if Umbrella's Blacklight Virus and Blackwatch's Blacklight Virus were the same thing anymore.
Maybe the names were similar, but their effects? Not quite.
Still, the fact was undeniable — Umbrella had created something they also called the Blacklight Virus.
And the researchers there didn't consider it a failure at all.
Because while it was hideously unstable, its effects were terrifyingly powerful.
It could create an army of the undead — soldiers that never slept, never tired, never felt fear. Even worse, infected hosts gained monstrous regenerative ability.
Unless you destroyed the brain, they simply wouldn't stop moving.
That was horrifying.
Basically, an artificial "immortal legion."
Deploy that kind of army on the battlefield, and you could crush whole forces with ease.
Umbrella immediately threw themselves into deeper research. The goal? To suppress the virus's side effects, and push it toward a more "beneficial" mutation.
Thousands of lab mice were sacrificed in endless experiments.
And then, after tens of thousands of trials, something unexpected happened.
One mouse infected with the virus didn't become a zombie at all. Instead, it perfectly inherited the best traits of the Blacklight strain.
Extended lifespan. Unbelievable combat power. A regenerative ability that was downright monstrous.
It was still just a mouse, but in terms of fighting strength, it could have outperformed a fully armed mercenary.
That — that was the real Blacklight Virus.
Umbrella's scientists were ecstatic. They thought they'd finally cracked it.
But further research crushed their hopes. That "perfect mutant mouse" was a complete anomaly. They couldn't replicate it no matter what they tried.
Despair spread through the labs.
Until one day, someone suggested something utterly deranged.
A man named Emiya Norikata spoke up:
"Why not release the Blacklight Virus into a bustling city? Infect a massive population. Out of all those people, a few will surely emerge as perfect hosts — just like that mouse."
"Then, we capture them. Study them. And from there, we'll have the foundation for a perfected Blacklight Virus."
"As for the city… Tokyo seems like a fine choice."
Akio, peering through John Smith's memories, sucked in a sharp breath.
This world really was a patchwork mess.
They even stitched in the Nasuverse.Interesting. Way too interesting.
And Akio knew exactly who Emiya Norikata was.
A magus. A textbook example.
And magi, in the Nasuverse, weren't really human in the normal sense. Their logic ran on an entirely different track. To them, morality was something to trample if it got in the way of reaching their goal.
Norikata was no exception.
In the original Fate timeline, he was one of those magi who had been "designated for sealing" by the Mage's Association.
That meant he had to be captured and locked away "for protection," either because he'd committed taboo research, or because he possessed a unique ability so rare the Association refused to let it run free.
The taboo part was at least understandable.
But rare talents? That was just cruel.
See, in the Nasuverse, some magics were tied to bloodlines and couldn't be learned by outsiders. They were passed down genetically, so to speak.
And the Association's answer to that was to "preserve" those magi. Which often meant dissecting them, bottling them, even turning them into formalin specimens.
All under the banner of "we're doing this for your own good."
For the magus in question, though, it was a death sentence. Most refused and ran, fleeing the Association's grasp.
Norikata was one of those escapees.
His family's magic specialized in time.
And any magecraft tied to time was top-tier by default.
The Emiya line could manipulate time within bounded fields — accelerating or freezing its flow. Norikata pushed this further, seeking to create a micro-field where time sped up infinitely, so he could literally observe the end of the universe and thus reach the Root.
In theory, it was possible. In practice, it would take centuries. So to solve the problem of his own lifespan, Norikata began experimenting with ways to become a Dead Apostle — essentially, a vampire.
His methods were so horrific that eventually, his own son, Emiya Kiritsugu, put him down.
But in this world?
Norikata hadn't died. Instead, he'd slipped into Umbrella and become one of their researchers.
No one knew how the hell he managed it.
A magus, abandoning magecraft for science? And nearly succeeding?
It was insane.
Akio was pretty sure the only reason Norikata had made that monstrous suggestion — infect Tokyo to find "perfect hosts" — was because he wanted to refine the Blacklight Virus for himself.
To gain an endless lifespan.
To finally complete his research.
And as for the countless deaths that would pile up along the way? Norikata wouldn't care in the slightest.
Because that's how magi were. Cold. Detached. Utterly ruthless.
If you told them, "By slaughtering an entire nation, you can reach the Root," they wouldn't hesitate.
That was their nature.
"..."
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