They were shocked at the vicious tactics of Abundant Future, and at the same time filled with doubt over whether Seiji Fujiwara could truly create a "miracle" once again.
After all, destruction is easy, creation is hard.
The last time was "pest extermination," but this time, they were asking for an utterly dead piece of land to be brought back to life.
...
The third group was the delegation sent by Abundant Future.
It was led by that "agricultural consultant." They had come to "watch the joke."
The consultant's face wore an irrepressible smug smile, full of schadenfreude.
He firmly believed that his plan was flawless.
This land had been thoroughly "killed" at the chemical level.
Forget Seiji Fujiwara. Even if a real god descended, there was absolutely no way to bring it back to life.
His purpose in coming today was to witness the shattering of Seiji Fujiwara's "myth" with his own eyes, and then to use the power of the media to drag him completely off his pedestal.
...
Nine in the morning, sharp.
A black Rolls-Royce silently appeared right on time at the edge of the field. An enclosed cargo van escorted it.
Inside that van was certain precision equipment.
The car door opened. Seiji Fujiwara stepped out leisurely. He wore a casual yet refined outfit.
Behind him followed two equally striking young women.
One was his "personal secretary," Fuyumi Irisu. She wore a sharp business suit-skirt, with gold-rimmed glasses, holding a tablet in her hand, ready to record data at any moment. Her expression was cold and professional, as if the life or death of the land before them had nothing to do with her.
And the other made everyone present feel a deep astonishment.
It was Eru Chitanda.
Right now, she had changed into a traditional blue and white Samue, suited for farm work.
Her long black hair was tied at the back with a simple cloth band, exposing her smooth forehead and those clear purple eyes.
There was no expression on her face.
Neither sorrow nor joy. Only a transcendent calm, like a shrine maiden enshrined in a sacred altar.
Chitanda followed quietly behind Seiji Fujiwara. Her saintly aura clashed with the surrounding wasteland, full of the air of death.
"Lord Fujiwara!" Sasaki of the Ministry and Chitanda's father immediately rushed up to greet him. As if they had seen a savior.
"Mr. Fujiwara, you've finally come!"
Masao Takahashi's representative, that "agricultural consultant," also walked over with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
He spoke in a sarcastic, oily tone. "We're all curious. Faced with this land that has already 'passed away in peace,' what kind of 'magic trick' are you preparing to perform for us today?"
Seiji Fujiwara ignored everyone.
He simply walked to the edge of the field, crouched down, and pinched up a bit of the gray-white soil.
"Sodium chlorite, paired with phthalate esters as a stabilizer. The technique is clever, the dosage is generous. Masao Takahashi really is a bit smarter than that fool Kengo Yamamoto."
Seiji Fujiwara stood up, brushed the dust off his hands, and spoke flatly, in the tone of stating a fact.
Hearing him expose the core component of the "trade secret" in a single breath, the consultant's face shifted slightly for an instant.
But he quickly regained his composure. So what if he knew?
This kind of chemical death was irreversible.
Seiji Fujiwara turned his gaze to the consultant and gave a faint smile. "You seem quite confident that this land is dead?"
"Isn't it?" The consultant spread his hands.
His face was full of mockery.
"Mr. Fujiwara, we're all technical people. We should understand that chemical reactions are irreversible. Unless you can change the laws of physics..."
"Laws of physics?" Seiji Fujiwara seemed to have heard a very funny joke.
He paid no further attention to that pitiful creature. He was about to be crushed by reality. He turned around and called out to Eru Chitanda behind him:
"Eru, go. Bring the 'Seed of Life.'"
These words from Seiji Fujiwara fell like a stone dropped into a calm lake.
In an instant, ripples spread through the hearts of everyone present.
Especially the form of address: "Eru."
It carried a tone of intimacy, spoken so naturally from Seiji Fujiwara's lips. Combined with Eru Chitanda's outfit, like a shrine maiden devoted exclusively to him, everyone who saw this scene was led to endless speculation about the relationship between the two.
Chitanda's father shuddered all over when he heard that form of address.
But then, on his face that had been written all over with despair, a hint of fanatical joy actually appeared.
It was the joy of someone overwhelmed by an honor.
He believed this was Seiji Fujiwara's recognition of his daughter, the supreme glory of the entire Chitanda Family.
Sasaki and the other officials exchanged knowing glances.
They knew the Chitanda Family had hitched themselves to Seiji Fujiwara's coattails, and from now on would soar to the heavens.
As for the consultant from Abundant Future, he gave a contemptuous snort through his nose.
"Seed of Life? Hoho, what a charlatan." He sneered in a low voice to his subordinates beside him. "Let's see what kind of tricks he can pull off."
After hearing the instruction, Eru Chitanda bowed to Seiji Fujiwara.
Then, she turned around and walked with steady, graceful steps to the back of the enclosed cargo van.
The van doors opened.
Two staff members in sterile protective suits brought down a metal briefcase. The case was silver-white, full of futuristic technology.
Eru Chitanda extended both hands and accepted the briefcase.
The case seemed to be heavy. But her steps remained steady.
Holding the case, she walked one step at a time, back to Seiji Fujiwara.
Then, she quietly knelt down and respectfully presented the case to him. As if presenting to a sovereign a treasure box containing the imperial seal.
The whole process was filled with an indescribable, sacred ritual quality.
"Open it," Seiji Fujiwara said.
Eru Chitanda extended her slender fingers and entered a complex passcode on the dial atop the case.
With a soft click, the case slowly, automatically, opened.
There was no flash of golden light, no swirling celestial mist.
Inside the case was only a metal bottle. It looked utterly ordinary, about 500 milliliters in capacity, filled with some kind of transparent liquid.
The bottle had no label, no text.
There was only a pattern engraved by laser, simple and mysteriously beautiful.
"What's this? A bottle of mineral water?"
The consultant could no longer hold himself back, and laughed loudly in mockery.
"Mr. Fujiwara, you're not trying to tell us that with just this bottle of water, you can bring this completely chemically dead land back to life, are you? This is a hundred times more ridiculous than that 'lab mouse magic trick' you put on in Tokyo!"
His words drew a roar of laughter from the Abundant Future team behind him.
Seiji Fujiwara still ignored him, only continuing:
"Go, Eru. Use your hands to spread this 'grace' upon your land."
Eru Chitanda bowed once again.
Then, holding the metal bottle, she stepped down from the field ridge and walked into that deathly silent, gray-white wasteland.
Under everyone's watchful gaze, Chitanda unscrewed the cap of the metal bottle.
She tilted the bottle and slowly poured the transparent liquid, which looked no different from clear water, drop by drop, into the dried-up channel.
After doing all this, she set the empty bottle aside.
Then, Chitanda quietly knelt down on the field ridge. She lowered her eyelids, pressed her hands together, as if performing the most devout prayer.
The consultant watched this scene that resembled a religious ceremony, laughing until he was nearly in tears.
"That's it? I thought there'd be some earth-shattering technique!"
He clapped exaggeratedly. "Mr. Fujiwara, I have to admire your imagination. A bottle of water to solve the problem? Are you trying to take all of us for fools?"
The expressions on Sasaki's and Chitanda's father's faces also turned indescribably awkward and disappointed.
The last sliver of hope in their hearts seemed to have evaporated entirely along with that bottle of "clear water" being poured out.
The whole scene was full of absurdity and despair.
And Seiji Fujiwara simply stood there quietly with his hands in his pockets.
Just as the consultant from Abundant Future was about to spew more mocking words.
A change occurred.
"Look... look over there!"
In the crowd, a young official trembled as he pointed at the dried-up irrigation channel.
He cried out as if he had seen a ghost.
Everyone's gaze instantly converged on that spot.
The dried channel bottom that had just been moistened by the transparent liquid, those gray-white, hardened clumps of earth, were beginning to grow moist and soft at a speed visible to the naked eye.
A streak of healthy, life-filled deep brown spread like a living tide, starting from the channel and rapidly extending across the entire desolate field.
"This... what's going on?! Water can't possibly diffuse this fast!" The smile on the consultant's face froze in an instant.
He rubbed his eyes, unable to comprehend the scene before him.
But this was only the beginning.
When that deep brown completely covered the entire gray-white land.
An even more astonishing miracle occurred.
Faint sounds came rumbling up from deep in the earth. Those sounds were like a heartbeat, full of vitality.
Then, before everyone's wide-open eyes.
Like a film reel sped up by hundreds of millions of times...
One sprout!
Ten sprouts!
A hundred sprouts!
Thousands and tens of thousands of sprouts!
Countless tender green, vibrant young shoots, as if having received the command of a creator god, surged up from the land that moments ago had been deathly silent, racing each other to break through the soil.
At a speed visible to the naked eye, they grew upward and unfurled their leaves.
Within just one minute, the vast wasteland before them, which had looked like a post-apocalyptic ruin, had completely transformed into an ocean of green.
Full of vitality and hope!
A fresh, incredibly rich aura of life rushed at them. That aura, mixed with the fragrance of soil and the clean scent of plants. Everyone present took a deep breath, as if even their souls had been cleansed.
"No... impossible... this is absolutely impossible!"
The Abundant Future consultant's face went completely bloodless.
Like a madman, he howled incoherently.
"Hallucination! This must be a mass hallucination! It's hypnotic gas! It's a holographic projection!"
He shouted nonsense.
"Hallucination?"
Seiji Fujiwara's voice, calm yet carrying a thunderous force, sounded in everyone's ears.
"Then, please explain why this 'hallucination' has such a real tactile sensation."
The moment he finished speaking, a gust of wind blew through.
The ocean of green let out a pleasant rustling sound.
A few rice leaves that had just unfurled were blown up by the wind, carrying glistening dewdrops, and gently drifted onto the consultant's face.
That cool, moist tactile sensation, full of the texture of life, was like the loudest slap, striking him hard across the face.
"No... no..."
He collapsed to the ground, hands wildly clutching at his hair.
"This isn't real... my poison was perfect... irreversible... this violates the laws of chemistry! This violates everything!"
"Laws?" Seiji Fujiwara slowly walked up to him.
He looked down at him from above, like a god looking down at an ant wriggling on the ground. "Who told you I needed to abide by your 'laws'?"
He stretched out his hand and pointed at the green field.
"What I used was not technology to 'revive' the land. Because as far as my technology is concerned, this land has never been 'dead.'"
"I merely deployed an initial core of the Self-Circulating Microbiome Matrix into the soil. Within a mere thirty seconds, this core devoured and broke down all the toxins you deployed, and converted them into the highest-quality nutrients."
"Then, it reconstructed the entire microbial ecosystem of this land. And those rice seedlings whose roots had been destroyed by the toxins, on the verge of death, were thoroughly repaired and optimized at the genetic level."
Seiji Fujiwara paused, the corner of his mouth curling into a smile.
"In other words, these rice seedlings you see before you weren't conjured up out of thin air. They are the very ones you 'poisoned to death' with your own hands. It's just that now they are healthier, more perfect than before. They've even gained absolute immunity to any potential pests and diseases that might emerge in the future."
"You, Masao Takahashi, and your Abundant Future, with all the schemes you racked your brains for, sparing no expense, everything you did, in the end, was just to provide me with a free, highly effective round of 'fertilization.'"
"I should even thank you."
These words, every single character, were like a red-hot branding iron searing deep into the soul of that consultant.
"Aaah!"
He let out a scream filled with terror and despair.
His eyes rolled back, foam came out of his mouth, and he convulsed and fainted dead away on the spot.
The Abundant Future representatives behind him also turned ashen, their legs going weak. They looked at Seiji Fujiwara with eyes full of utmost terror, as if gazing up at the god of death.
They knew it was all over.
...
When the Abundant Future consultant was dragged away like a heap of mud, the dead silence at the scene was finally broken.
"A miracle! A true miracle!"
Sasaki of the Ministry of Agriculture, this bureaucrat who had once held doubts about Seiji Fujiwara, could no longer support his own body.
With a thud, he dropped to his knees.
It wasn't out of fear, but reverence and worship.
The young officials behind him also flushed red in the face, their eyes fanatical, and without hesitation knelt down after him.
"Lord Fujiwara!"
Sasaki shouted in an impassioned tone, "Please accept our highest respect! From this day forward, the agricultural development of the entire Kamiyama Region, no, the entire Kansai Region, will follow your will as the supreme guiding principle!"
As for Chitanda's father, this stubborn old man, his reaction was even more fervent.
He didn't even dare to look directly at Seiji Fujiwara.
In the most standard, most humble Dogeza posture, he pressed his forehead deeply, repeatedly, against the moist earth, with a steady thudding sound.
"This old fool is guilty!"
Tears streamed down his aged face, but his voice was full of joy and release. "Thank you for saving the soul of the Chitanda Family's land! From this day forward, we, the Chitanda Family, will follow your instructions!"
Seiji Fujiwara looked at this group of people kneeling before him, the same flat expression still on his face.
He enjoyed this kind of worship, but would not indulge in it.
He simply felt that the mud beneath his feet had soiled his expensive custom-made leather shoes a little.
He frowned slightly. His gaze fell on Eru Chitanda, who was kneeling on the field ridge in prayer.
He didn't say a word, only gave her a look.
Eru Chitanda, as if their hearts were linked, immediately stopped her "prayer." She opened those clear purple eyes, saw the spots of mud on Seiji Fujiwara's shoes, and didn't hesitate for an instant.
Under everyone's watching gaze, this prestigious daughter of an agricultural noble family of the Kamiyama Region, revered like a fairy, slowly crawled over.
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