A SF short story in epistolary form set in 2045, written as a confession by medical researcher Ikuto Mayuzumi to his mentor, Dr. Tanemei Susuga. Ikuto developed the universal antiviral agent APOLLON and discovered the intelligence-granting transposon ATHENA encoded in the human genome, hoping to save his wife Mutsumi from the disease Richard. However, when APOLLON destroys ATHENA along with all viruses, Mutsumi loses her intellect. Ikuto ultimately arrives at the terrifying truth that human intelligence itself is a product of viral parasitism, and that humanity's construction of an orbital elevator is nothing more than the puppetry of a parasitic organism.

Subject: A letter to my mentor (a memorandum accompanied by private contrition)

Biologist Kazuya Sayanagi encounters an immortal indigenous woman named Maya deep in the Amazon rainforest. After her death in a fire, he discovers a parasitic organism called 'Yuwentelna' in her body, which grants immortality to its host while instilling a deep longing for space. Humanity rapidly advances thanks to Yuwentelna, eventually launching a lunar colonization mission — but this turns out to be the parasite's own scheme, as it can only reproduce in the vacuum of space. An epic SF short story unified by the imagery of daisies.

In 2075, humanity was finally about to fire the opening shot of its advance into space. A lunar emigration ship capable of housing nearly a thousand people. On the outdoor stage inside it, a departure ceremony was underway, with each notable passenger sending off a few words in turn.

Winner of the General Division Grand Prize in the 11th Nikkei Hoshi Shinichi Award. Public information is mainly the award announcement and distribution notice; no standalone book edition has been confirmed.

The piece won as a short story with a wintry atmosphere.

Selected as the Grand Prize winner of the 10th Hoshi Shinichi Award. No standalone book publication could be confirmed, so the record stays at the level of an award-winning short work.

Grand Prize winner of the 10th Hoshi Shinichi Award.

A virtual personality aboard a probe dispatched for the Linnaeus Project, a global survey of unknown species, moves from host to host through the food chain. Set against biodiversity and evolution, this science-fiction short story reconsiders the very perspective from which life is observed.

A probe's virtual personality follows the food chain as it observes a world of unknown life.

A short story about Aki, a physics-loving high school student who begins to question whether her classmate Mayuko truly exists, then reconsiders the world and human feeling through the methods of physics. It explores the existence and emotions that spill beyond a measurable world through a quiet human relationship.

Could Mayuko exist beyond the world that physics can measure?

A science-fiction short story about a society where humans can photosynthesize and are made green and plantlike, while exploitation and violence persist. Winner of the General Division Grand Prix at the 7th Nikkei Hoshi Shinichi Award.

In a society where people become plants, what can humanity change?

In a world where the spread of a new plant species has brought civilisation to the brink of collapse, this science-fiction short story follows survivors using the rhythm game SING × Rainbow as a means of communication. Living in a small settlement, the protagonist entrusts information vital to humanity's future to the game's performances.

Beyond the break in civilisation, a rhythm game connects people.

At a San Francisco intersection, two self-driving cars have only half a second before collision. To save their passengers, the onboard AIs negotiate in place of their human occupants over which vehicle will deploy a forced-stop anchor and destroy itself.

With half a second before impact, two onboard AIs negotiate the terms of survival in place of their human passengers.

A science-fiction short story told through user reports, cautions, and version numbers as the Omnivisor, a device designed to supplement human abilities, gains new functions and reshapes society. The evolution of a useful tool leads humanity toward an unexpected fate.

Where can a useful supplementary device take the world in a single century?

Set in an age when a space elevator has become reality, this science-fiction short story follows a former astronaut who once hoped to serve aboard a spacecraft. Using a human-powered climber, he sets out alone to reach space at an altitude of one hundred kilometres.

In the age of the space elevator, he still sets out to reach space by his own power.

A research group tries to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions from thermal power plants using genetically modified coral. After mutant coral, enhanced in its ability to build calcium-carbonate skeletons, achieves large-scale CO2 reduction, this science-fiction short story leads to an unexpected conclusion.

Carbon-dioxide reduction through genetically modified coral leads the world toward an unexpected outcome.

A science-fiction short story set in 2064, when artificial intelligence studies living humans and writes an academic paper. In a form that recalls a real scholarly article, it explores the interaction between AI and humanity and imagines the future brought by advanced intelligence through scientific reasoning.

A future in which artificial intelligence studies humanity unfolds as a single academic paper.