"Mm, now you're finally asking the right question. And wouldn't you know it, my lab happens to be running a project on Filth lately. Even better coincidence, we just finished building a device that can manipulate small amounts of Filth energy."
Twiggy winked at Geno, playful, practically radiating how badly she wanted him to say yes.
The whole picture looked awfully familiar to him, though.
"Oh. I get it. You're hunting for a test subject."
Back when Twiggy needed a test subject, or wanted his help transferring to a different lab, she had worn exactly this face. Son of a, he'd almost walked straight into this woman's trap!
"Tch, why do you have to be clever right now, of all times!"
With her little scheme exposed, Twiggy dropped the act entirely and laid her cards on the table.
"My experiment really has entered a brand new phase. But I'm not going to force this option on you. All I'll say is, if a chance comes up to observe the data, please don't let me miss it!"
Just as she said, Twiggy would never strong-arm Geno into a decision.
And his answer left her thrilled.
"It can work, sure. But when it comes to the Filth side of things, I've got a better option."
The corner of his mouth curled. Then he closed his eyes, and his consciousness sank into the space that belonged to him alone.
No. Not alone. There was one other person in there.
"You heard all that, right? Come give me a hand?"
"Not a chance. It's perfectly nice right here."
Filth Geno lay sprawled on the ground, humoring him with the bare minimum of attention.
The unkempt look, the can't-be-bothered temperament, entire days spent by himself that somehow never turned boring, this was the rare comfort Filth Geno had carved out.
"That's not how it works. Never leaving the house is going to drive you stir-crazy."
Geno kept up his patient coaxing, working on Filth Geno until he agreed to help. He couldn't solve the problem of their symbiosis yet, but finding a way to get him out for some fresh air, that much was within reach.
"And think about it. If this experiment succeeds, you might get to see the outside world through an external mechanical device. Sure beats riding around in my head every single day."
In fairness, Geno almost never blocked Filth Geno's perception of the outside world. Still, staying shut inside his Mind Space forever was isolation of the worst kind.
For the sake of his mental and physical health, Geno wanted him out there, seeing things.
"You. Where did you pick up this nagging-mother routine? I said I don't want to go out! Stop managing my life!"
Filth Geno watched him ramble on with undisguised distaste. The guy honestly seemed to think he was a child.
Shaking with rage here. He was obviously a, well. Fine. Going by date of birth, he was in fact a child. No arguing with that one.
"Be good, listen to your big brother. Call it a favor. Or would you rather I begged?"
Grinning, Geno pressed his palms together at his chest like he was about to bow, without a shred of sincerity in it. Pure humoring-a-toddler theater.
"Tch. You're unbearable. Just this once."
Unable to endure another second of the shameless pest, Filth Geno finally hauled himself up and scratched irritably at his hair, the gesture identical to Geno's own.
"What are you standing there for? Open the door. Sooner we finish, sooner we clock out."
Seeing Filth Geno finally in motion, Geno's smile turned genuine. He stepped aside with theatrical flair and swept out one arm in invitation.
"After you, Young Master Little Geno."
"What the hell is 'Young Master Little Geno'?!"
"I'm Geno. You're my little brother, so you're Little Geno. Checks out."
"…Who's your little brother."
Filth Geno, no, Little Geno now, sounded thoroughly disgusted. But the way his voice kept losing steam proved he liked the name more than he'd admit.
Or rather, it was the second half he liked.
Little brother.
Being the little one stung, a bit. Yet Little Geno could feel it radiating off Geno, real emotion aimed at him, the genuine article, treating him like actual kin.
That perception was an instinct that came with being a Filth Aggregate.
The power of Filth could manipulate memory and soul, but strip it down and it was still an application of Ether energy. In this world, that truth never changed.
Which meant Filth could also govern faint currents of energy such as brainwaves and electromagnetic waves, and through them influence mechanical structures. Much the same as how Ethereals Corrupt intelligent lifeforms, except he happened to be rather better at it.
That was the concrete method behind the solution Twiggy had described.
Even so, Little Geno still couldn't make sense of Geno, a guy whose personality and constitution were both bizarre.
'Strange man. Even with part of his memories fused into me, I can't work out how someone like this exists.'
By his own reckoning, calling the man a hopeless softie was underselling it. He was practically pseudo-saint tier.
After all, he could take in even someone who had once been his enemy, then hand over complete trust on top of it. Little Geno wouldn't have dared imagine doing the same, and in an apocalyptic world like this one, the idea was absurd.
As for why he stopped short of true saint tier, well, Geno did carry his share of selfish attachments.
If Geno ever learned that Little Geno saw him this way, he'd have burst out laughing.
He was no such magnificent figure. He simply had bottomless patience for the people he counted as his own.
Little Geno just happened to fall inside that circle.
As for why Little Geno landed inside it, Geno's reasoning ran like this.
'A guy willing to spend his own life, to throw himself into danger just to help me, how bad could he possibly be?'
From Twiggy's vantage point, Geno had done nothing but close his eyes for a moment. Then a thick, dark red Filth energy welled out of his palm. That was the power Little Geno had set in motion.
"Oh my~ it really does work."
Twiggy knew Little Geno existed. Geno had only mentioned him once, in passing, but she'd committed it to memory.
Geno's opinion of Little Geno, and his wish to free Little Geno from being tethered to him, he had talked all of it over with her.
'Still, at the end of the day, that's only your side of the story, Geno.'
A trace of wariness slid across her face as she watched the Filth energy rise off him.
'If it betrays Geno's trust, then I'll simply have to deal with it myself.'
Behind her back, her hand closed firmly around a very special vial. What did anyone imagine she'd been researching Filth energy for?
That was only the fallback option, though. If this creature of Filth could accomplish the goal and prove to be everything Geno claimed, nothing would please her more.
"Go get them, Little Geno!"
Geno shouted it with enormous flourish, which irritated the Filth-state Little Geno no end.
"Don't order me around!"
For all his griping, his body obediently slipped down into the tablet.
And that would turn out to be a decision he deeply regretted.
____
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