Steel Heart

Ch 108 - How to Lie

If Nana's throat was any dryer, it would turn into dust and sprinkle down on her turned stomach. Her eyes were experiencing the same sensation as her throat but that was only because they had not blinked in a long time. She was completely immobilized by the scene before her.

Rows and rows of glass bottles were stacked on top of each other, encircling large contraptions that were placed around Laboratory 66, stretching all the way up to the ceiling. Each bottle was big enough to hold an adult man. In fact, each of them did.

The men were naked and sealed inside the glass bottles with blue liquid filled right up to the top. Each of the men had black glasses on their faces and breathing tubes coming out of their nose and mouth. Each bottle was numbered and each contraption housed the same looking man in the glass bottles. Nana recognized their faces as the same ones she had seen training outside on the castle grounds.

Behind Nana, three identical men stood free of the bottle and shared a cruel, contemptuous smile at the mechanic's back. They had summoned her here when she had just started to settle back into her lab but any annoyance or rage she felt was wiped away once she saw this. Once they told her what all of this was.

"Behold the power of Germa 66!" Yonji cackled, "Our Clone Soldiers are programmed not to fear death and not to turn on their masters. We have made the perfect army with each soldier easily replaceable. When they die, we can just restock."

"Re...restock?" Nana croaked. She finally blinked. Her head was reeling at Niji's statement and she forced her eyes to stay closed for just a moment longer, "...These...these are lives you're talking about. Human lives!"

"Not quite," Niji sneered as he went over to one of the glass bottles and tapped a finger against it, "These soldiers might look 20 years old but it only takes us 5 years to make them. They don't realize this, of course. They identify themselves as full fledged adults."

Nana crouched down to her knees and put her head between her legs.

Whatever she had planned for destroying the fleet, and boy, did she have a plan, flew out the door along with her confidence and resolve. She had studied tirelessly the blueprints and foundation of this makeshift kingdom so she knew exactly where to hit them where it hurts. She had already mentally prepared herself to fight off the majority, if not all, of the Germa 66 but nowhere in her plan, nowhere in her wildest imagination, would she have imagined that she would have to deal with this.

Yes, she could take out an army without killing anyone but...what was going to happen to these men in the bottle if she destroys the lab? Could she pull the plug on them?

Why didn't Reiju tell her about this? Or...or did Reiju not realize that as brash and aggressive Nana could be, there was still a line she couldn't cross?

Nana felt dizzy and nauseous, like she was still recovering from Caesar's stupid drug but she knew that wasn't the cause. However inhumanely the Vinsmokes have treated Sanji, it was nothing compared to the level of cruelty proven by the existence of this lab. The existence of their army.

"...You're all monsters," Nana said, "You make me sick."

She felt a hand move under her face and then it curled under her chin to lift her head up. She stared into the cold eyes of the eldest Vinsmoke brother.

"Sanji had that same reaction as you earlier," Ichiji said, squatting in front of her. The red in his cowlick styled hair matched the cravat tucked underneath the collar of his black shirt and it, along with his words, made the mechanic see red too.

"Don't touch me, you fucking rooster," she snapped and smacked his hand away but she was too shaken to exude much force. His hand fell away but mostly of his own accord. His narrow glasses were still there so she could see her paled face in their reflection. She didn't need the glasses to know how pitiful she looked, though, because the cold smile on Ichiji's lips showed just how much he was revelling in her distraught state.