Yamata painted that picture vividly, and even I couldn't help letting out a quiet chuckle afterward. Really—what a thing to say.
On the other hand, I understood her. At least as Nathan and Alex. Both of them had relatives left somewhere. And if there was a chance that Alex simply didn't have any family in this world, then what about the German whose origins had also contributed to my own existence as a person? Part of his feelings had become mine. And I simply didn't know what to do about it.
Or whether I should do anything at all.
How long had Nathan been lying in cryogenic suspension among the volunteers? He had witnessed the dawn of the corporation—back when it wasn't yet such a massive company. And now we were already seeing the beginning of Umbrella's sunset.
The conclusions might be… unpleasant.
But… something inside me still wanted to know the answer to that question. I wanted to learn about my relatives, and if I did find someone, to help them. Financially, most likely—and through intermediaries, without drawing attention to myself. Nathan's mother, for instance, deserved help. Of the two mothers that existed for me in this world, she was the very model of what a mother should be—especially compared to Vector's alcoholic one.
That was one family line I definitely didn't want to investigate.
And that, too, was a desire inherited from one of my origins—stemming directly from Vector-Jacob himself.
"What are you thinking about?"
"The same thing you are. How long it's been since I've seen my family. If I compare the dates… it comes out to somewhere around fifteen or twenty years. So what am I supposed to do now? Hello, I'm a bit of a mutant, but I'm still your son? And besides, as you remember, my consciousness changed quite a bit while I was evolving in that cursed city. So it's not really a son anymore—it's more like a nephew. That's about how I feel." I rubbed my temples tiredly.
An absolutely pointless gesture—there was no ache in my temples, and I couldn't even feel the pressure of the massage. But habits are a terrible thing.
"We'll think about that later. Right now we've got enough problems as it is," the girl said in an artificially cheerful tone.
***
And, as the saying goes, my partner's prediction proved spot-on. The only difference was that the problems weren't mine—they were hers and Ada's.
Why?
Because all the tasks fell to them. With my outstanding physical features and size—not to mention my uncontrollable ability to draw in blood—I had to remove myself from all those matters, with the silent agreement of the girls.
What else could be done?
A single tiny needle prick on any person—not even right next to me, but within about twenty meters—would immediately expose me. And it would've been foolish for the girls to show up among their various acquaintances "from slippery lines of work" with someone who looked like me. Constantly wrapping myself in coats and sometimes even covering my face with bandages wasn't a solution either. It would look suspicious even to people like them.
Or perhaps especially to them?
After all, considering their activities—things like unofficial documents and similar services—they would naturally want to see the people they were dealing with, their clients. I simply couldn't provide that. On top of that, while my proportions were still technically human, they were far too striking. If I showed up wrapped in something, most of Ada's acquaintances (and Four Eyes's as well) would instinctively reach for their guns.
Because of that, I settled in and outfitted the basement of a mansion we purchased in America, not far from Los Angeles, according to my(Vector) tastes.
Of course, it wasn't nearly as impressive in size as the mansion in the Arklay Mountains. But drawing any more attention to ourselves would've been a bad idea. So a compact two-story mansion in the "City of Angels", or rather, not far from it, so as not to worry about observant neighbors. It was entirely at our disposal, Yamata's and mine.
Yamata immediately claimed two rooms on the first floor for a laboratory. A perfectly ordinary one, containing nothing overly secret.
Well… not so secret that it would raise eyebrows.
And one of the four basement rooms was turned into a fully equipped laboratory by Yamata herself—with my help. Where she and Ada managed to obtain the equipment she needed (equipment my partner still complained about—well, yes, it wasn't Umbrella-grade) would remain a mystery to me.
The main and largest basement room—where the corridor branched right into the new laboratory and left toward my personal quarters—we jointly turned into something like a gym and training area, where we could stretch our limbs and test techniques suited to our new capabilities.
Beyond that was another room I intended to equip with everything I might need in the future to identify and develop my abilities—both physical and psionic. Especially the latter.
The final room I made into something like a bedroom, even though I still had no need for sleep. Still, I had to spend my free time somewhere. Reading smart books, perhaps, or searching for information on specialized websites. Thanks to an excellent hacker at our side, we received news from the company almost earlier than the various Umbrella groups themselves.
And the question of the relatives belonging to one of my "origins" continued to bother me.
Why, despite having a large mansion, did I choose to hole up in the basement?
Let's just say that my paranoia had flared up. If someone seriously decided to investigate my appearance, the best way to prevent that would be to bury myself as deep as possible.
So the upper floors were left to Four Eyes, to any future guests we might have, and for the distant future—when I might finally manage to regain a human appearance.
I only hope that day comes.
At the very least, the T-Veronica virus and Wesker's prototype virus give me hope.
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
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