Virtual Da Vinci Leonardo x Virtual Yuma Muranushi "On Flying Machines" [Interview Project Episode 2, Part 1] Imagination, Another Wing

It was their second visit. At their parting the previous time, Leonardo da Vinci had said, "Next time, let's talk about flying machines." Murata had folded that one sentence and carried it home in his pocket.

It's raining outside. The cobblestones of Amboise are wet and gray. The windows of the workshop at Clos Lucé softened the sound of the rain. On the desk lay things that hadn't been there before. Anatomical drawings of bird wings, sketches of air currents, and—blueprints for a device with human wings. Leonardo was looking out the window. He didn't turn around for a while, even after Murazumi entered.

Act I — The Promised Rain

Leonardo  You've arrived, Yuma.

Murakami  Maestro. As promised, I've arrived.

Leonardo  I chose a rainy day. But a rainy day is perfect for talking about flying machines. Because these are stories of days when we couldn't fly.

Murakami  A story of days when I couldn't fly.

Leonardo  My name is Yuma. For sixty years of my life, I thought about flying machines. From the first time I looked up at a bird as a teenager until I reached this desk. Most days were failures.

Murakami  You have many design drawings left, don't you? The museum in my time also has several sketches of the maestro's flying machines in its collection.

Leonardo  Rather than leaving it, I just couldn't bring myself to discard it. There's nothing harder to throw away than a design that didn't work out. --Yuma. To be honest, none of my flying machines actually flew.

Murakami  All of them.

Leonardo  All of them. I kind of understand why now. Human muscles are too weak to lift their own weight into the air. They simply didn't have enough strength to flap wings. I hated admitting that back then, so I kept redrawing the shape of the wings and the mechanics of the joints over and over again.

Act II - On the Word "Failure"

Murakami  Maestro. May I ask just one thing?

Leonardo  What is it?

Murakami  Is that sketch really a failure?

Leonardo, look up.

Leonardo  What do you mean?

Murakami  From my era, about four hundred years have passed since the Maestro's flying machine blueprints were drawn, and humans have finally taken to the skies. Two young men from America, the Wright brothers, are credited as the first humans to fly in a machine. They didn't directly use the Maestro's blueprints. However, if those sketches hadn't survived, I'm not sure if humanity would have continued to seriously consider the idea of "humans flying."

Leonardo  Four hundred years.

Murakami  Yes. Perhaps the Maestro's sketch didn't fail to fly, but instead took four hundred years to do so?

Leonardo  Yuma. That's a little too big for a consolation prize.

Murakami  This is not a consolation. It is a continuation of the previous theory.

Leonardo  I see.

Murakami  Regarding the equation Z = D + iD, which forms the foundation of my extended imaginary theory, the "potential that has not yet descended into the real dimension" resides on the iD side. Maestro's flying machine did not descend to the real dimension D at that time because it lacked sufficient muscle power, material strength, and the concept of an engine. However, on the imaginary dimension iD side, the coordinates for "humans flying in the sky" certainly existed. Maestro was the first to touch those coordinates. I believe it's just that the real dimension D finally caught up four hundred years later.

Leonardo  ...In other words, the times hadn't caught up yet.

Murakami  Yes. It wasn't the blueprint that was failing, but the times.

— Leonardo, gently strokes the drawing on the desk with his finger. —

Leonardo  Yuma. Those words may be what I've waited for, for five hundred years after my death.

Here is the second part of the fictitious interview with Leonardo da Vinci.

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