Chapter 198: Total Recall 『 Part One 』
「 March 7th and Stelle arrived together at the Divination Commission.
Seeing Fu Xuan from afar, March 7th greeted her enthusiastically: "Master Diviner, morning! Is work going smoothly today?"
Fu Xuan discerned their ulterior motives at a glance and cut straight to the chase regarding their intentions.
Such bluntness actually caught March 7th off guard, leaving her slightly flustered. Fu Xuan, however, remained the picture of nonchalance. "I never act based on the moods of others. By rule, before I rise to attend to official business each day, I perform a dozen divinations regarding daily affairs in one breath. The results are invariably accurate."
"Today's divinations threw up some unexpected complications — the hexagrammatic position was vacillating between the water and heaven trigrams. The Matrix of Prescience gave the following interpretation: 'You will have three uninvited guests. Treat them with courtesy.'"
"Treat them with courtesy… My oh my, for the Matrix of Prescience to be this considerate, it seems like we really were destined to meet today, then." 」
「 .....」
〜A Certain Magical Index World〜
On a park bench in Academy City, Misaka Mikoto and Kamijou Touma sat side by side. Watching Fu Xuan on the light screen speak of 'deducing the future' so casually—and with such precision regarding the number of visitors—left both of them dumbfounded.
"I knew the Matrix of Prescience was powerful, but I still have to say… this is just too broken! It's practically cheating!"
Kamijou Touma couldn't help but crush the beverage can in his hand.
"Just how high is the Matrix of Prescience's computational capacity?"
Even having witnessed the Matrix in operation, Misaka Mikoto found it hard to believe.
"The concept behind the Matrix is to use massive amounts of existing data to continuously deduce and calculate every complex possibility of the future… This is clearly a manifestation of a quantum probability cloud, but the processing power required for this…"
Even if one were to aggregate the computing power of every computer on Earth, it likely wouldn't be enough to exhaustively calculate every possibility of a single person's future.
"No, no, no. I feel like this has already left the scope of science and entered the realm of magic."
Kamijou Touma scratched his head, pointing at the light screen.
"Three uninvited guests… even if it's deducing the future, how could it go to that extent? It's like predicting 'in three seconds, bird droppings will land on Touma's head.' Just thinking about it is absurd, right?"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a bird's cry rang out from above. Touma suddenly felt something sticky land on his hair. He wiped it, only to find his fingers covered in white excrement.
Misaka Mikoto took a step back with a look of pure revulsion.
"Pfft… could your luck get any worse?"
—
「 After they explained the circumstances of March 7th's lost memories, Fu Xuan rested her chin in her hand, deep in thought.
"I see. You wish to use the Matrix to reconstruct the past and awaken your memories? While theoretically sound, I fear the Matrix of Prescience may not necessarily be capable of such a feat."
"Even the omnipotent Master Diviner can't handle it?" Stelle immediately deployed a goading tactic.
"Who—who said that?" Fu Xuan was, as expected, easily played by Stelle. She coughed lightly, her face flushing red. "Ahem, I never said it couldn't be done. There is a gap of a million light-years between 'impossible' and 'not necessarily'."
Next, Fu Xuan briefly explained the principles of the Matrix of Prescience. Simply put, the Great Matrix is a ruthless deduction machine, utilizing existing intelligence to extrapolate what happened in the 'past' and what will happen in the 'future'.
Since Little March had lost her memories, this first step of gathering intelligence was awkwardly stalled. However, according to Fu Xuan's understanding, amnesia falls into two categories: first, memories dormant deep within the Sea of Consciousness; second, memories directly erased by some method.
Which category March 7th fell into would require a test run with the Matrix of Prescience.
But before that, they needed to collect objects related to March 7th's memories. This wasn't difficult; March soon returned with a pile of items for Fu Xuan, including Astral Express tickets, Belobog Geomarrow, and even a cup of Immortal's Delight…
However, none of these would suffice. Fu Xuan required materials related to her life before the memory loss, and this posed a difficult problem for March 7th.
"Sorry about that, Master Diviner. Himeko said that when they found me, I was sealed stark naked inside a block of ice—just like a newborn baby, with absolutely nothing else beside me."
"Your next question will surely be, 'Is that block of ice still around?' But regrettably, not long after I was salvaged, that ice melted away without a trace." 」
「 .....」
〜Jujutsu Kaisen World, Future Timeline〜
"Sealed inside a block of ice… Hmm, regarding that method of sealing, I actually have a hypothesis…"
Yuta Okkotsu rested his chin on his hand, looking thoughtful.
"Is it possible that March 7th is the child of Fuli, the Star God of 『 Remembrance 』?"
"Hah? Yuta, isn't that guess a bit too far-fetched?"
Atsuya Kusakabe frowned slightly.
"Information about on Fuli is currently very scarce, appearing only within the Simulated Universe. Do you have any basis for this?"
"'Remembrance' and 'Ice'—aren't those two points enough?"
Yuta Okkotsu held up two fingers.
"I'm also referencing Kafka's account of Stelle's origins. If March 7th's amnesia is the first type… It's difficult to explain why she was sealed in ice. If it's the second type, then the person capable of doing that is, in all probability, related to the faction of the Remembrance."
"If an entity at the level of a Star God or an Emanator actively stripped away her memories, then I'm more inclined to believe March 7th is some kind of 'vessel' or 'experimental subject'."
"Experimental subject… who would have the heart to use such a lively and cute girl for experiments?"
Shoko couldn't help but interject.
"Heh, who knows?"
—
「 If there was anything March 7th possessed before her memory loss, it was likely only her ability to conjure Six-Phased Ice at will.
With matters as they were, Fu Xuan had no other recourse. After ordering the items to be delivered to the matrix base, she had March 7th stand at the heart of the Matrix of Prescience.
Before the deduction began, Fu Xuan briefed March 7th on the necessary precautions. Although Stelle could not accompany her for this deduction, Fu Xuan would maintain constant communication to ensure the retrospection process proceeded smoothly.
After ensuring March 7th was ready, Fu Xuan activated the Great Matrix of Prescience. In an instant, March 7th felt everything before her eyes disintegrate like a shattered mirror surface. Countless memory fragments floated, rotated, and reassembled within the void.
When March opened her eyes again, she had arrived at the Alchemy Commission, where the scent of medicinal herbs permeated the air.
In the Healer's Market, familiar faces were everywhere she looked—not just Fu Xuan, but even Jing Yuan, Stelle, and the now-vanished Tingyun were present.
Fu Xuan surmised this was the moment they stormed the Alchemy Commission. Yet, looking at the figures before her, she felt a profound sense of confusion. "This is a deduction by the Matrix of Prescience. While distortion is possible… how could the deviation be this severe? This is illogical."
Just as she spoke, March 7th began to make contact with the other Fu Xuan standing beside her. 」
「 .....」