1934 Alice in Jails: Streets/Regarding Christopher

Synopsis
A Certain Man Explains, Unprompted An unnamed man decides to expound on Christopher Shaldred—one of Huey Laforet's failed homunculi—to an unknown individual, foregoing his own introduction.

He first contrasts Christopher's perception of himself as something purely unnatural against his reverence for Nature, speculating that Christopher is able to view Nature 'objectively' and with more poignancy than humans out of a belief that his absurdity is "proof of his disharmony with nature." He further suggests that Christopher is afraid of becoming any closer to Nature than he already is, insecure that it would expose his core and fearful of becoming one of the humans he idolizes.

With rapturous delight, the man finds it 'hilarious' how Chris is simultaneously strong yet adorably weak and fragile; he wonders how Huey managed to produce such a 'deviant', and muses that Christopher may have been modeled on Elmer C. Albatross, 'Zankurou', or Denkurō Tōgō.

Abruptly uninterested in continuing further, the man demands his victim's wallet as compensation for the information. When the victim proves too slow to comply, he stabs them and remarks that Christopher may be the closest to human out of all the Lamia, despite being the most afraid of any "burgeoning humanity."

He laughingly urges his dying victim to cling to life just a bit longer, so as to live up to Christopher's expectations of humankind.

Trivia

 * The "brothers Zankurou and Denkurou" the unnamed man mentions are Zank Rowan and Denkurō Tōgō respectively, though Zank's character was not yet fully realized at the time. "Zankurou" as a name first appears in a color insert for 1934 Alice in Jails: Prison, an apparent typo that Narita brought back for this insert. He would later decide to turn the name "Zankurou" into Zank Rowan, a friend but not brother to Denkurō.

Characters in Order of Appearance

 * Unnamed Man (speaker; likely Fermet)
 * Krieck and two other incomplete immortal Russo Family members (illustrated only)
 * Christopher Shaldred (illustrated only)
 * Ricardo Russo (illustrated only)

Quotes

 * "I'm convinced he's both Huey's ultimate masterpiece and his worst failure. He's so terribly unnatural, and yet he has the deepest possible reverence and respect for nature itself." —The unnamed man, on Christopher