Chapter 1

2021/9/25: In conjunction with the revision of the second episode, I rewrote the first episode comprehensively.

1901. In the residence of a certain noble family.

A young girl is staring intently at five small bottles lined up on a table.

Behind her, her father watches her with a mix of anticipation and anxiety, wondering what she intends to do.

"Alright... First, dissolve a suitable amount of caustic soda in distilled water..."

Eventually, the girl seems to have made up her mind. She opens one of the small bottles and carefully pours its contents into a glass of distilled water, stirring it with a glass rod.

"Add hexamethylenediamine to this sodium hydroxide solution... Once it dissolves, dissolve adipoyl chloride in benzene..."

One by one, she proceeds with the experimental operations, confirming each step aloud.

"...Gently pour this benzene onto the NaOH solution..."

As she pours the benzene, in which "adipoyl chloride" had been dissolved, onto the distilled water containing "sodium hydroxide" and "hexamethylenediamine," the liquid in the glass separates into two layers, like water and oil.

"!"

Recognizing some change in the glass, the girl pinches the boundary between the two layers with chopsticks and slowly pulls it up. A white, thread-like substance stretches out from the glass.

"It worked, Father...!"

The girl, barely containing her excitement, shows the white thread to her father, who has been watching from behind.

"Is this... artificial silk?"

"No, Father, this is called polyamide...! It is different from artificial silk in terms of manufacturing method, properties, and chemical structure...!"

What the girl was doing is, from the perspective of a modern person, a simple experiment to synthesize polyamide, or nylon. By dissolving the monomers adipic acid (in this case, adipoyl chloride, or adipic acid dichloride, to increase reactivity) and hexamethylenediamine in two immiscible solvents and allowing them to react at the interface, high-quality plastic can be synthesized under mild conditions.

"I see... But it's still an artificially created thread, isn't it? That's impressive, Akiko. Our country can't even make artificial silk yet."

"Not just our country, but no one in the world has synthesized this substance...! It's a world first, a world first...!"

As Akiko, the girl, excitedly answered while winding the nylon, the historical invention of nylon was on February 28, 1935, and the interfacial polymerization method she used in this experiment was not publicly disclosed until July 3, 1958. Clearly, the timeline doesn't match.

"A world first... a world first, huh?"

"You don't seem to fully grasp it, Father. This thread will change Japan, and the world."

"Hmm, I'm not a chemist, so I can't really say anything until I see how it can be used specifically..."

Akiko's father, Duke Takasu Kiyomichi, seems to not fully understand what his daughter has accomplished. However, after a sigh, he turns to her and says what she hopes to hear.

"But, it's a parent's duty to believe in their child. I'll take this thread to the Imperial University and have them verify it as a new material, right?"

"I would be very grateful if you could do that. I want to patent it, so please don't make it public yet."

"Understood. I'll try to find a way to get it recognized. I'll think about how to get them to take it seriously, and in the meantime, Akiko, please wind as much of this thread as you can and give it to me."

"Understood. I'll do my best!"

Akiko enthusiastically responds to her father's words and increases the speed at which she winds the nylon.

Four years since Akiko was born, Kiyomichi often reflects on how she has continually surprised him.

Her first glimpse of talent appeared when she was one year old. Just when he thought she had started speaking in simple sentences, she was already speaking in complex sentences.

Generally, children start speaking in complex sentences around the age of 3 to 4, so her language skills were growing at more than three times the rate of a typical child.

(At that time, I boasted to the neighbors that an extraordinary prodigy had been born.)

Kiyomichi, a military man who graduated from the Military Academy and had studied in Germany, was also doting on his children. He often bought taxidermied birds for his eldest son, Shinsuke, who was eight years older than Akiko. The reagents Akiko used in her experiment were purchased from the German chemical company BASF through connections he made during his studies in Germany. Although it was a significant expense, it was worth it to recognize his daughter's extraordinary talent.

(Shinsuke, who had a scholarly disposition, was particularly fond of Akiko. It was a heartwarming sight to see him reading to her whenever he was reading something.)

By the time Akiko was two, she could read books on her own, especially those related to science and technology. Initially, he thought she was just imitating her brother, but when he asked her about the content, she seemed to understand it to some extent.

(I was truly surprised that she could understand books that even a child of the same age couldn't read a single paragraph of. It was around this time that I began to think that providing only ordinary education to this child, just because she is a girl, would be a loss for our country.)

One day, Kiyomichi, curious, asked Akiko why she could read such difficult books. She looked around to make sure no one else was there and, somewhat embarrassed, said:

"...I have memories from my past life. I lived in a much future Japan."

"Our country will keep making mistakes and eventually be on the brink of destruction. Since I was born in this era, I want to become great as soon as possible and make Japan a place where everyone can be happy."

(Children sometimes lie to make themselves seem special. Since Akiko's mind was growing so quickly, I thought it might be one of those cases and dismissed it lightly.)

On her fourth birthday, when asked what she wanted as a gift, Akiko said:

"I want adipoyl chloride, hexamethylenediamine, benzene, caustic soda, and distilled water. And a few glass cups and a glass rod would be nice too."

Kiyomichi, not a chemist, didn't understand what these reagents were, but after talking to Akiko and people he knew from his time in Germany, he managed to gather the requested items in small quantities. The result of this, as seen earlier, was quite remarkable.

(I need to talk to the professors at the Imperial University, but Akiko's experiment seems to be unprecedented. If that's the case, her claim of having memories from a future Japan might be true.)

It sounds like a fantasy novel, but all the circumstantial evidence lends credibility to this unlikely hypothesis.

(...I need to ask Akiko in detail about her 'future Japan'.)

I wrote this because there are few virtual war stories dealing with modern history on Narou, and I haven't seen any focusing on resin materials. I hope you enjoy it, despite the many parts that may seem far-fetched.