"COPY BOY" My Clone is an Elementary Schooler 16 [Tell Me the Reason!]

<Summer, Episode 16>

I end up being harsh toward the "little me."

The kid doesn't understand what it's about. But he senses something unusual, moves away from me, and clings to Grandma. Grandma soothes him with a "there, there." Her gaze is filled with the same affection she directs at me.
Does this mean that for Grandma, even if I die, this guy is still here?

Am I going to die? Really?

Even though I will disappear and be gone, the kid can keep living forever. As the "new me." An indescribable feeling of jealousy sprouted. Did God choose him instead of me?

Today is the monthly check-up day.
Once again, I made the heavy-hearted journey deep into Tama to the Institute for Genetic Engineering Clinical Experiments.

"It will sting a little."
Even though I'm having my blood drawn by Neko-chan, it's a bit awkward. The reason I can't look directly at her and turn away isn't just because I'm afraid of needles. Since this is the first time we've met since that day, I don't know what to talk about, and we've become distant.

"The other day..."
The words came out on their own.
"Huh?"
Neko-chan pulls out the needle, looking slightly surprised.
What should I say? I have to find the words to follow up. I have to say something...
"Something... um, I'm sorry."
"Oh, no... you're welcome."
With an awkward reply, she applies a round adhesive bandage.

Today, I couldn't even concentrate on the Zener card test.

I visualize marks like circles, squares, stars, crosses, and waves in my head and transmit them to the kid in the next room. It's that test the kid hated and ran away from on the first day.

Recently, he had been showing quite a bit of improvement. Last month, things were going well, and in three out of five times, the kid was able to guess the shapes I was imagining. Results were gradually starting to appear. Which is scary in its own way.

However, today he didn't get any right. Professor Goat-Beard and the others seemed to be expecting further growth and are disappointed.
I know. But, you know, I don't feel like honestly participating in your experiments.

During a break, I approached Inumaki, who was typing at a desk on the office floor, and said, "Do you have a moment?"

Even if I question Inumaki, it probably won't solve anything regarding my life.
I know that. But there are too many things I don't know. I want to know at least a little bit.

The rhythmic, crisp typing sound stopped. She peered at me over the frames of the reading glasses perched on her nose.
"It seems you aren't concentrating on the tests. I recall the numbers were better last month."
She said it smoothly, as if she had expected me to talk to her. As usual, she took the high ground and drew me into her pace.

"It's because I heard that thing."
"Are you saying you don't want to cooperate anymore?" she asked, setting down her glasses.
"There are too many secrets."
"It's not that I won't tell you. I will let you know the appropriate truth at the appropriate time. It's according to the designed schedule."
A friendly smile, to the end.
"Please tell me. Anything is fine."
"I'm not sure if I can answer everything, but..."

I took the plunge and hit the core.
"How much longer can I live?"
"Unfortunately, it seems there isn't much time left."
She says it so casually.
Even though I asked myself, I don't want to accept the answer. But, driven by the fear of missing out, I ask even more things I don't want to know.

"Was the kid born as a backup for me?"
"I don't know. That was something your father did on his own. Honestly, I'm perplexed. We wanted to create a clone with more excellent genes, not yours."
How rude. There's a way to say things. Especially to someone who was just told they are going to die.

"Then why?"
"The government struggled at first with who to select as the subject for Japan's first human clone experiment. It's also a human rights issue.
If this were a movie, the standard trope is to use a nameless death row inmate for human experimentation. You can't just add another heinous criminal, right?
While we were debating that, there was the accident involving your father, Professor Shiozuma..."
"And I became the test subject."
"It was Professor Shiozuma's arbitrary decision.
Why did he suddenly decide on his own son? That is the only reason he never told us until the end. However, considering that the kid was born right after the accident, it's natural to think of him as a replacement for your... well, excuse me, for you. Perhaps your father wanted to keep you alive in any form, even as a clone."

She closed her thin laptop with a snap, tucked it under her arm, said "Heave-ho," and walked away.

I want to believe in my father.
But no facts emerge that I can believe in. Anxiety about death. I want to cling to something.
I want to know. I want material.

Wanting to dig deeper into the circumstances, I asked,
"Ms. Inumaki,"
I called out to her plump, round back as she stepped into the silver elevator.
"Why do you people want to create clones?"
"Any more than this, some other time."
With those cold words, the door slowly closed.
So I blurted out,
"Then I won't cooperate anymore. A person who is going to die has nothing to fear."

Clack, there was a metallic sound as she grabbed the door with her bare, manicured hands.

Inumaki's full-faced smile appeared.
"Now, now, let's be calm."
She was forcibly pulling up the corners of her heavily lipsticked mouth.
"Why do you create clones?"
"You really leave me no choice."
She sighed and went to the glass window.

I could see the floor below, where the examination rooms were lined up. I could look down at Professor Goat-Beard and the assistants in white coats moving about to make preparations. In the kids' area set up for the kid, the kid and Neko-chan were playing happily.

"It is for the future of the nation."
"Huh? The future? Isn't cloning just going to make people unhappy?"
"How you think about that depends on your perspective, doesn't it?
This country is already short on people. If things continue like this, economic activity will collapse. We need a way to overcome the serious problem of the declining birthrate.
That is where the government arrived at... cloning."

Inumaki took me to another floor.

Large glass water tank tubes containing liquid were lined up. Nearby, several small puppies were playing in a cage. They all looked the same.

According to her, ONEONE Insurance is just a venture insurance company on the surface. In reality, it is an experimental joint venture created by government-affiliated financial institutions and the University of Tokyo to introduce human clones into society.

Pet insurance is just a cover. It's about creating the soil for creating human clones. The plan is to first get public opinion used to animal clones, and then smoothly transition to humans.

When it's finally time to introduce it to humans, it will start with, for example, couples who have lost their children in tragic accidents. Once public sympathy for their unfortunate circumstances rises in the news, they will officially embark on human clone creation as a humanitarian special measure. Social significance. It seems they want to gradually get public opinion used to it like that.

"Is it okay to do something like this?"
"Actually, Japan is on the later side."
"In other countries too?"
"Yes. Well... I can't really say much."

Feeling helpless, I reached out to a puppy, and it licked my hand.
What have they done? I can't believe clone experiments have progressed this far.
"Of course they have. Technically, it was possible a long time ago. Dolly the cloned sheep was back in 1996, after all. That's already the previous century," she laughed. "Human clones can increase national power without relying on immigrants. It will be a global big business."
"That much..."
"But, you know, there are ethical issues, aren't there?"
"That's why the kid is a secret, and he's being raised as a normal child."
"Something like that."

Nothing is known yet about the influence that the original human and the clone human have on each other. Something terribly bad might happen...
But the cautious government finally started moving nine years after the kid's birth. They explained that they have reached the phase where they need to confirm what happens by having the two live together.
Yes, because I might be gone soon.

Even so, why me?
Was it necessary to create a clone of me?
"Whether your father wanted to experiment on you or wanted a replacement for you, no one knows the real reason anymore."

Even when I asked Inumaki,
I couldn't get a satisfactory answer.

(To be continued)

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