73 What are you Searching For?

Seeing an image of herself as she once was, Anna Kakuzawa, now transformed into a gigantic, hideous, living computer organism, says that, for all the power her brain now wields, she still loves her father, and wants to tell him something.

When the Unknown Man questions what Anna could know, Chief Kakuzawa states that her current form overcomes the limits of human reproductive biology, which effectively prevents the brain from getting any bigger, forcing one to create a larger brain from an existing Human being. He declares that Anna is now a God, with a mind so powerful it can very nearly predict the future, in particular on a massive scale, her only effective limit being a need to live in the waters of the grotto, so the water can support her brain the way her skull no longer can. Asked by her father if his plan to replace humanity can work, Anna gives a vague but positive answer, which delights Kakuzawa.

As Anna descends back into the water, Arakawa questions why she is there. With the virus production quota met, Kakuzawa charges her and the Unknown Man with finding Lucy, with Arakawa going back to the university to try and locate the student who was searching for Lucy. Overjoyed at her ticket away from the island, Arakawa is cut off by Unknown Man, who speaks of a new technology that should let him track down Lucy with no problem. The two enter into a wager: Should the Unknown Man find Lucy first, Arakawa must become his pleasure slave, while an Arakawa enraged by both the wager and the questioning of her skills demands that if she finds Lucy first, he must cut off his manhood.

At the Maple House, Kouta impatiently awaits Yuka, whose lateness for school is suddenly magnified by Nyu groping her breasts, which Nyu finds she cannot control. The three leave (Nyu sporting a bandage on her head) and Nana, alone and bored in the house, feeds Nyu's baby bird and resolves to find Kurama.

On the Kamakura beachfront, inside the wood-pile shelter she once called home, Mayu brings food to Bando, who is still staking it out in hopes of finding Lucy, which Mayu knows won't happen since she makes an effort to keep Nyu away from it. Between teasing Bando, answering his questions and each trying to ease the other off of their paths, Mayu also checks in on Kurama, who did not end up killing himself but is in sad mental shape. Mayu does not know that Kurama is Nana's beloved 'papa.' Bando rids himself of his ardent visitor by reminding her of school.

Ch73p18

Much like a puppy, Nyuu's misbehaving gets a bop on the head.

At the University, Arakawa luxuriates in being away from the Institute and turns her mind to finding Kouta, while among the hidden files of the late Professor Kakuzawa, she finds something that may just give her an edge over Chief Kakuzawa in reordering humanity on a Biblical scale.

As Kouta, Yuka and Nyu head for class, they pass a closed-down department store where police cornered and captured a mass murderer, that has never reopened. Nyu stares at it in seeming recognition, while on an upper floor of the same building that now houses the network of secret labs used by the Kakuzawas in their agenda, Arakawa sits and despairs of ever finding Kouta, wishing she'd made her recent discovery before the sick bet she made on the island.

The college students' third period is still clear, many months after the disappearance of Professor Kakuzawa, about which only Kouta knows the truth. He worries still about keeping Nyu and Nana away from Arakawa, who he has not seen since that day, or anyone associated with her, for fear of their lives and well-being, remembering Arakawa's grim words about the fate of horned people in captivity. Warned by Yuka of his distracted mindset, Kouta begins to relax as the day is done, realizing that things have been calm. It is at that moment the three pass Arakawa in the hallway, and the shocked expressions on her and Kouta's face make it clear that each remembers the other.

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