Reiwa Chemist Yōko Takatsukasa Reincarnation: Saving Japan with Plastic Material

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"It seems everyone is carefree, huh..."

"Well, because the battlefield is far away in Europe..."

In the winter of 1914, Yōko Takatsukasa and Fumiko Chisaka were leisurely watching local children playing in the snow on the Tōhoku University campus, as well as university students from regions like Shizuoka where snow doesn't fall.

"Even though this is a collection of research institutes gathering the essence of Japan's chemical technology, why are ordinary citizens freely wandering in?"

"Even if you say that to me... judging from the situation here, it seems the local people only see this place as a park or something."

"Surely when spring comes, everyone will start cherry blossom viewing everywhere... but I don't think that's what 'open door policy' means."

However, because the university Yōko had attended in her previous life was similar, she felt nostalgic inside.

"Well, thanks to that, even though I'm just a maid, I can be here on the university campus with you, Yōko... san, so it's not a bad thing."

Fumiko barely refrained from addressing Yōko with an honorific. At Yōko's request, who found it too ticklish to be addressed with an honorific, Fumiko was striving to address her primarily as "Yōko-san."

"Oh, you managed to endure calling me with honorifics this time. Well done, well done."

"...! Please don't treat me like a child!"

As Yōko patted her head, Fumiko pouted.

"You're still a child, though..."

"If you say that, then I'm returning that line to you, Yōko-sama!"

"Oh, you failed."

"Geez...!"

Yōko was clearly teasing Fumiko. It was one of the precious entertainments during their life in Tōhoku.

"Well, it's okay. Considering how intense these past six months have been like a storm, I'll allow a little bit of fooling around."

Since entering school until today, Yōko has caused or been involved in various disturbances.

Once, during Professor Kōtarou Honda's lecture on steelmaking, she suggested, "Wouldn't it be more efficient to blow in pure oxygen during the converter process?" This led her to witness the converter experiment multiple times. And there was also a time when she engaged in a heated debate with a student who doubted the existence of "polymers" (Yōko always argued that her inventions such as Nylon 66 and polycarbonate had a structure consisting of 'thousands or tens of thousands of repeating units,' but she never provided clear evidence to support this claim. She preferred to develop other engineering plastics rather than spend time proving them).

"I'm not a tasteless person who plays around with others seriously. Doing that kind of thing as a sideline is the best."

Yōko casually said so, but whenever she heard about interesting research going on in school, she would immediately poke her nose into it, and because of her somewhat notorious reputation, the commotion would sometimes unnecessarily escalate, and Fumiko often bore the brunt of it.

"Well, I know that you don't have much ill intent... that's why it's so troublesome..."

Yōko isn't perfect either. On the contrary, she's too sharp-edged, and she's the type of person who tends to have quite a bit of friction with those around her. Born as a "young lady from a good family," she had been considerably corrected from her previous life, but her flaws such as "sounding arrogant" and "being verbose" still remained.

"It doesn't matter about my dignity."

"Well, it's okay. I've come to understand by now, but it seems scholars, big or small, tend to be strong personalities. Compared to them, you're quite easy to deal with, Yōko-san."

At that time, Fumiko's expression was surprisingly mature for a 14-year-old girl.