What do you think it means to be truly wise?

By continuing to make these dolls, I had hoped I would come to comprehend the heart. I did—or rather, I should say I understood the things that I would never be able to comprehend about hearts. Moreover, I continued to contemplate what it means to be wise. One cannot consider intelligence a separate matter from the heart. For example, say you implanted a brain of advanced intellect in a wild animal. After its intelligence increased, would that animal feel the same things that it felt before? Or would those feelings differ, as one might expect? If intelligence does indeed change the way one feels about the world, then would it not follow that the heart and mind are intimately related? Increasingly, these are the conclusions I arrive at.

We were able to put hearts in our replicas. If we wanted to, we could also elevate their intellectual faculties by any amount. However, my presumption is that being wise is something different entirely. Or rather, I should say that is something I only came to understand once I saw the Keyblade Hero for myself. Or maybe this is still just another attempt of mine to understand it.

Sometimes, the Keyblade Hero takes seemingly foolish actions. But is that foolishness truly at odds with wisdom? I did not think it likely. In terms of sheer results, those foolish actions may in fact have led to the most ideal outcome. If that is the case, then I have started to think that perhaps being wise is a deceitful concept, and it is the fools who are truly the wise among us.

When it comes down to it, I cannot understand wiseness for the same reasons that I cannot understand hearts. It may be something that cannot be reduced to numbers and charts. This is the conclusion I have derived as a scientist.

Setting that aside, of the original 13, I have chosen to be the most foolish of all. In practice, I suppose I was not the one who made that choice, but I agreed to it, so there is no functional difference. I arrived at my conclusion, that the most foolish person of all is actually the wisest, thanks to the Keyblade Hero. If I told the person himself my hypothesis, I’m sure he and his friends would be angry, but it would be the simple truth.

Unfortunately, I was wrong all along. The wisdom I thought I had cultivated was, at best, idiocy. I thought I was trying to be wise so I could be useful to someone, but I lost sight of that goal somewhere along the way. Before I knew it, all I had chased after was intelligence—my scientific findings were all I cared about. I can only say that I was clearly just foolish. Thus, given my theory, I could be considered the most foolish of all. But no, the most foolish of people wrap all the way around to become the wisest—and I could only dream of being so wise.

And now, thanks to the one who appears to be little more than a dunce, the wise man’s plans will fall to ruin.

For that purpose, I, right now, live on.

That is my atonement.

Men like us—in the pursuit of science, we sometimes make terrible mistakes. Lose sight of our mission to help people. But now I can help someone with my research. Now, I can atone.

“Yes! Demyx time!” the fool exclaimed.

There is no one more important than him. This is perfectly suited for him, after all.

Yes, that is the marker of a wise person. Be honest about yourself and don’t lose sight of who you are. I cannot afford to dwell on the past.

Even now, I don’t mind warming the bench. As long as my will is there, all his clever plans will be no match for the fool in front of me. I’m sure of it.

I pray that our plan to outwit the wise man actually works.

It’s all for forgiveness.