Last Universal Common Ancestry

  L.U.C.A.

  At the dawn of the world, there was no sound, no light—only the primordial seas, thick with the stench of sulfur and volcanic fumes.

  And amid that eternal graveyard of emptiness, something came into being.

  It was not animal.

  It was not plant.

  It was not what we would call “life” today.

  It was the beginning.

  The zero point of possibility, from which countless millions of years would unfurl.

  Fragile threads of molecules shifted, colliding with the chaos around them. That trembling was the first divide—the line that separated “life” from “matter.”

  But no one has ever found LUCA.

  No one.

  No one knows how LUCA lived.

  No one knows what LUCA looked like.

  The only trace left behind is written in the genetics of every living thing.

  All creatures carry LUCA within them.

  L.U.C.A. was not just an ancient lifeform.

  It was the origin of every question.

  It was the first answer—yet no one has ever heard the full sentence.

  The last universal ancestor… the farthest point back we can trace.

  "The flow of mana within all living things can be recorded into countless patterns. Yet there exists one set of patterns… shared by every creature—fish, bird, Insect,US. That is the pattern of LUCA."

  Before Dan stretched long scrolls laid out in stacks. Each scroll carried the flow of mana recorded from a different lifeform. The device used by Mathema converted mana currents into faint electric signals, which moved a needle attached to a pen, drawing jagged lines across paper.

  It was their world’s version of DNA sequencing.

  "Professor Pi’erre… but how can we be sure? How can patterns alone prove who is related to whom?"

  "A good question. Look here."

  "!?"

  When he compared a frog’s pattern with a toad’s… a perch with a shark… a monkey with a human… the resemblance was undeniable.

  That alone was enough to convince Prince Fury.

  "This is powerful evidence for divergent evolution. And if you keep tracing back, everything converges to a single point—LUCA. Our mission is to find LUCA, and prove that it truly existed."

  Senior Thomasin watched Dan’s gleaming eyes the way a mother might watch her child staring through a toy shop window. She was certain she had done the right thing, bringing him here, letting Professor Pi’erre show him the grandeur of this search. This was the vision he had chosen to fund—the path it would take him down.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  "Professor Pi’erre."

  "Hm?"

  "Do you think it’s possible… that even the Diablo people are descendants of LUCA too?"

  Thomasin froze.

  What kind of question was that from a first-year…?

  But Professor Pi’erre smiled.

  "That is indeed an interesting thought. During the war, Diablo corpses were found on the field. Mathema brought some back for study, as you may have heard."

  But even so—

  "We don’t yet have the right to study Diablo specimens in this department. For now, the priority is analyzing their bodies to replicate their materials. It will be many years before that trickles down to us."

  Dan held the professor’s gaze.

  "Professor… if a Diablo were standing right here, could you record their mana pattern?"

  "? …That could only be done at the main research center."

  He explained,

  "I alternate between here and there every week. Yes, it could be done, with a little waiting. Why, Dan? You seem very interested in the Diablo."

  "I wonder… is it possible they branched off from humans? If we follow Darwin C.’s theory?"

  "Anything is possible."

  Professor Pi’erre nodded.

  "If you can bring a Diablo here."

  It was said jokingly, lightly. But Dan took it with complete seriousness.

  "As the sponsor’s representative now, you should visit our faculty in Mathema, Dan. You need to see how far we’ve come—so you can report back to Mr. Randy, of course."

  "Mathema…"

  In that instant, Prince Fury saw it like a pile of gold glinting before him. He had no idea what his schedule would look like—but he answered without hesitation:

  "I’ll go."

  Dan declared.

  "I’ll go there for sure."

  The camera zoomed close on his crimson eyes… then cut forward.

  Dan was back in class, Tuesday afternoon, in Professor McClaff’s magic lecture.

  Nora Ophilis flipped through Dan’s notebook, where he had made a sketch of a trilobite by laying paper over a fossil and rubbing charcoal across it. Beside it he had scribbled a note:

  “5 million Ophilis dynasties.”

  Nora’s eyes narrowed.

  "You used my family’s dynasty as a unit of time, Mr.Fury?"

  But no answer came. It was like speaking into the void. He wasn’t ignoring her—he simply hadn’t heard her. His eyes were on the board, but his mind was lost in LUCA.

  She could see it clearly: this was what he had been searching for. The truth that had weighed on him for over a decade.

  Nora watched him with quiet concern. Some people were simply too complex to grasp. For someone who had everything, who could have lived in comfort forever—when perfection peaked, he had found only emptiness.

  When weapons of war were laid still in times of peace—what reason was there for him to live?

  But now, the possibility of answering where we came from had rekindled his reason to exist.

  Nora was sure this wasn’t sudden. From what Casca, Zeedee, and Everton had said in passing, she pieced together that Fury had not always been this alive. Something had worn him down for a decade—until now.

  She wanted to ask. But she held back. She could only watch.

  On the last pages of Dan’s notebook, one word was circled again and again in thick strokes:

  LUCA

  Maybe it was just her imagination—or maybe it was her experience, growing up among nobles—but she knew this: people born at the top, who excelled in everything… they never did anything halfheartedly. If they wanted something, they would have it.

  "Mr.Fury…"

  tap tap

  "Hm?"

  "Professor McClaff has moved on to the second board."

  "Ah—damn. Thanks for the warning, Nora."

  He scrambled with his papers, already lost in today’s lecture.

  "Nora, do you have a class schedule?"

  "My maid keeps it for me. Do you want it, Mr.Fury?"

  "That would help. Zeedee threw the laundry in and forgot my copy… I can’t keep track these days. And I have Snowhaven to deal with, too."

  "And your plan to go to Mathema—when exactly will that be?"

  "As the sponsor’s representative, I can go whenever. But I want to go as soon as possible."

  "Impatient child… or is that just your nature, Mr.Fury?"

  "Nora, you don’t need to snipe at me so early in the day."

  "It’s afternoon."

  "…Oh. Right, afternoon."

  "You’re so caught up in this you’ve lost all sense of time. And the academy’s work is only getting heavier. You’re still fighting shadows, and now Mathema on top of that… Aren’t you piling too much onto yourself?"

  "Snowhaven isn’t a problem. I can send my subordinates there. I don’t need to stay long."

  "But you’ll still have to travel back and forth. Even if Mathema’s closer."

  "I want to see it at least once. The place they call a Metropolis."

  "You’re only going to look at some old bones, aren’t you?"

  "And to find something to do for a couple days."

  "Of course, Mr.Fury. It’s not boring there like Snowhaven, is it?"

  "Jealous?"

  "Not at all. Go if you want."

  "You’re not very clear about your feelings, are you?"

  "That country’s your first ally. Obviously it comes first. Just go—go meet the princess of Mathema."

  "Why don’t you come with me, then?"

  "? "

  Nora turned.

  "An invitation?"

  "That depends on how busy you are."

  "If you invite me, Mr.Fury, I’ll make time."

  "Doesn’t sound like you want to."

  "I only want to see what drives you, what passion you actually have."

  "I’m not a complicated man."

  "That’s what complicated people always say."

  "Less complicated than you."

  "Not true."

  "It is"

  "No it is not"