Chapter 28

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## Chapter Chronology

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Chapter 29

This is chapter 28 in the Heaven's Design Team manga series.

## Plot

It’s another day in the design department. Shimoda makes his way to the office with a basket of sweet bean buns he baked for the team. He double-checks the latest assignment from God for “an animal that ages in reverse.” Despite it being another unreasonable request, Shimoda hopes it won’t affect the designer’s mood.

He opens the door to greet everyone but stops short at the scene that unfolds in front of him. The whole team is standing around a glowing magic circle where a giant goat-like demon stands. Tsuchiya recites a proclamation and prepares to cut his hand with a knife. Scared, Shimoda lunges forward and shoves Tsuchiya away before he could finish.

As they sit back up, Tsuchiya asks Shimoda if there was something wrong with the new design. Confused, Shimoda asks if they were about to ship the demon to Hell. Tsuchiya confirms this and notes that now the creature is stuck halfway through the transfer process. Shimoda apologizes for interfering, which Tsuchiya reassures is no big deal, as Shimoda was concerned for his colleagues.

Upon gazing at the creature, Shimoda asks if it was the familiar that Hell ordered a while back. Tsuchiya answers stating that it is. With some collaboration with the insect department, the team came up with an animal that communicates nonverbally by transmitting pheromone signals through the air. The pheromones are received by the goat's horns, which are actually bug antennae. To send the familiar to Hell, they had to perform a summoning ritual which has now been interrupted.

The team then sits down to figure out how to fix the problem while they chow down on Shimoda’s bean buns. Shimoda then shares the new request from God with the team. He then asks whether it would be hard to free animals from the curse of getting older. Surprised, the team states that aging isn’t a curse at all. In fact, it is a tactic to ensure a continuation of a species. To help Shimoda understand the concept, Tsuchiya has Higuchi bring out one of her gadgets, a time accelerator.

He then sets up two terrariums with the same number of specimens (tiny discs) in them. After turning on the time accelerator, they observe that the aging group is reproducing and adding to the population. As time goes by, the specimens that start to weaken through age become the targets of predators, ensuring the younger generations a chance to survive. Next, the team observes the terrarium with specimens that don’t age. The specimens continue to get bigger, causing the predators to target the smaller weaker ones. After a few seconds, the group goes extinct.

Tsuchiya explains that without new generations, the species becomes less diverse, which prevents them from fighting up pathogens. With a clear understanding that eternal youth may not be a good thing, Shimoda wonders how they can come up with an animal that ages in reverse. Since the time accelerator is out, the team decides to experiment with it to find out.

Tsuchiya first tries it on a miniaturized version of a horse. He turns the time accelerator on in reverse, causing the horse to turn into a cellular division phase. They wait to see if it will turn back into a horse, but instead, the mass looks like a jellyfish, much to Tsuchiya’s dismay. Higuchi states that resetting a complex animal gives no guarantee it will go back to its original form.

The team agrees to go with the concept of a jellyfish. With the jellyfish having a lot of predators and several odd characteristics, the team comes up with the idea of creating a loop so that it can keep regenerating forever. At that moment, God sends divine approval and the immortal jellyfish is born. As the team celebrates, Kimura has an idea of maybe using the time accelerator to help send the demon to Hell. The team gives it a try, but the demon still refuses to budge. Kimura then tries setting the accelerator on high, which causes Higuchi to cry out an alarm. Before she can intervene, the accelerator explodes.

As the smoke clears away, Shimoda (unharmed) checks on the first person he sees. However, he doesn’t recognize the person until he identifies himself as Tsuchiya. Apparently, the accelerator caused everyone except Shimoda to revert to a younger age. After noticing that the others are missing, the two notice the door leading to Trial Island in the Galapagos is open. They both realize that the explosion sent the team out into the wild.

## New Animals

* Immortal jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii)