the End of Eternity // Bungou Stray Dogs x Reader

Chapter 03; An Unsuitable Profession

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟶

"How do you know anyone else exists?"

"Excuse me?"

"It's a philosophical question," She said as her test subject sat down in the chair in front of her desk. "Surely you're familiar with philosophy, Kunikida-kun."

"Of course, I just don't usually think about great philosophical questions as such often." He said, pushing up his glasses while the scientist in front of him pulled out her stack of origami folding papers.

"Well, perhaps you could humour me and think about it this once." She said, delicately picking up a flower-patterned sheet by its corners. "How do you know for sure that anyone else on this earth exists?"

Kunikida, initially, found the question rather stupid, having thought of an 'obvious' answer right away. "Well, I interact with hundreds of people a week. Other people are capable of complex thought, just as I am, as they stand right in front of me, so of course they must exist."

"Ah, but how do you know that?" She asked, starting to fold the paper with her bandaged fingers. "How do you know that the people you interact with actually think the complex thoughts that you assume they think? How do I know for sure that you, who are sitting right in front of me, are truly thinking these things that you are apparently saying? How do I know that I'm not making your entire existence up with my own mind? And how do you know the reverse?"

"I suppose you want me to say that I don't know for sure."

"It's called solipsism." With great skill and speed, she had already finished an origami animal. She set it on her desk and stood up as she continued to speak. "It's the idea that only one's mind can surely exist— that anything outside of that is unsure." She walked over to the side of the room where a camera on a tripod stood and brought it over to her desk, starting to fiddle with it to position it and set it up for the day's tests. "No matter what you may think of to explain away this idea, it can always be applied."

"But you can't say that something is true just because you can't exactly counter it." Kunikida's brows furrowed a bit as he watched her mess with the camera.

"Of course, of course," She peeked at Kunikida from behind the camera with a smile. "That's why it's philosophy. It cannot be proven definitely correct or incorrect, making it an idea of philosophy, along with things like the omphalos hypothesis or determinism."

"I don't think I've ever heard of the omphalos hypothesis."

"Oh! Well then I'll tell you all about it after we finish up for the day if you have time! But we must get started now." She said, setting the camera to record. "Now, let's start with something simple... how about you make a pencil or something?"

"Has anyone seen [name]?" Kunikida asked as he walked into the office.

"I think she's taking a nap under her desk." Kenji smiled over at Kunikida. "She's been there for almost two hours, now."

"Two hours?" Kunikida rose is brows in surprise. Of course, it wasn't unusual for the Agency's invincible girl to be taking naps whenever and wherever she so pleased, but her naps usually only went for about forty-five minutes (at the longest). Normally, Kunikida wouldn't even think of waking [name] up, but a two hour nap... something was off.