Translator: Flowingcloud Editor: Arocks141
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A Hawk Gives Birth to a Phoenix
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Tweezers were inserted into the glass vial. The glass vial was filled with a liquid that mysteriously divided into two layers. The tweezers grabbed something at the boundary of the two layers and pulled out what looked like a white thread.
“What on earth…”
The one sighing was Duke Takatsukasa Hiromichi of the Imperial Japanese family as he stared at the experiment being performed by his youngest daughter who had just turned four this year. As the head of one of the Fujiwara clans—the Takatsukasa clan, he was an intellectual that studied abroad at the age of 17 in Germany.
“Youko, you’ve done a great job… discovering this thread spun from chemicals. As long as we have this, Japan—no, the entire world’s light industry will change from the ground up.”
“Well, you don’t need to grow cotton or raise silkworms to obtain thread. If you patent this, this will surely make a lot of money, Father,” Takatsukasa Youko carelessly replied to her excited father as she winded up the white thread around a pole.
What she created was Nylon 66, a plastic that is still used in various products today. In history, it was not until 1935 that Carothers from DuPont de Nemours, Inc. succeeded in synthesizing it, however, she had done it in 1901. Moreover, the ‘interfacial polymerization method’ that Youko used this time was also a method discovered in the 1950s.
And most importantly, there is no such person as ‘Takatsukasa Youko’ in history.
Going a bit back into the past, it was January 11, 1898. Youko woke up as usual. However, she herself was terribly disturbed by this.
(Where am I? I don’t live in a luxurious house like this!
For the time being, Youko sat up and looked around. Obviously, this was not one of the rooms in a Reiwa apartment. Moreover, her line of sight was clearly lower than usual. When she looked down with suspicion, she saw that her body had shrunk all the way to an infant’s body—in fact, she was a one-year-old toddler right now.
(You’re kidding me, right? No way… certainly I am aware that I neglected my health too much recently, but to think I would die and reincarnate from it.)
As Youko sat up and was overcome with surprise, a man came into her room after knocking.
It was Takatsukasa Hiromichi.
“Ohh, Youko, you’re up. Good morning.”
Hiromichi smiled at her. However, Youko, who had just become old enough to understand what was going on around her, was not familiar with him. When Youko tried to nod her head, Hiromichi looked troubled.
“It’s your father, Hiromichi. I hope you’ll recognize me soon.”
“Father…”
“That’s right, father. Well done, good job, Youko.”
Hiromichi patted Youko on her head. The fact that he could speak Japanese, and that her father’s love could be felt in this life, calmed Youko somewhat and allowed for her to regain herself.
“Today is Youko’s one-year-old birthday.”
“One-year-old.”
“That’s right, you’re one-year-old. It means it’s been one year since you’ve been born. Father and Mother are both really happy.”
(I see, I’m one-year-old right now… and I’m a little girl.)
In contrast to Hiromichi’s happy words of congratulations, Youko’s mind was there physically, but not in spirit. The gears in her mind were trying to grasp the current situation with her child brain at full rotation. Even though she had the soul of a grown man in her, her body was still a one-year-old girl’s. Her brain was also underdeveloped and her processing capacity was limited.
“Well then, Youko, let’s celebrate this day with your mother.”
Hiromichi led Youko out of the room, who still had a troubled look on her face.
This is the story of a macromolecular scientist who was reincarnated into an era where the term ‘macromolecule’ didn’t exist who strives to change history. 1
Author Note: There are not many imaginative military war stories dealing with modern history on Syosetu and I have never seen one that focuses on resin materials, thus I decided to write one. I’m sure there are a lot of various things that will be left out, but I will be in your care.
- Flowingcloud: The term ‘macromolecule’ was coined in the 1920s by Nobel laureate Hermann Staudinger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macromolecule