Off Script

Part 2: Injection

He looked at the time he didn't pay attention to. 24 hours was for each chapter. He should have expected it, they really did go all out this time. Since ratings on season 52 were so bad. He personally didn't mind how that season went. They just used the same motives from season 13 and one trail went the same way it did from season 49. Ideas were running out, people were fired, and a new season would be crafted.

With better, new improved technology. Advanced drugs to knock them out longer. And maybe, a possibility of death becoming real. That's what he thinks anyway. Since their senses will connect, maybe they might die in the process.

He lay back against the pillows. His body felt too heavy to be kept in an upright position. Akamatsu seemed to be feeling it too. "Saihara...?" She said after a while. "Mmm?" He hummed back. She seemed off. Like her voice picked up some sort of fear. Which seemed, at least for her, unnatural. "...I think, they lied to us..."

That made him question her, but not vocally. She continued. "...like, I don't think this is preparing for anything... I think they're changing our personalities, right now."

It could be a possibility. Or it could be the drugs making her dizzy. "...maybe, but is that a bad thing?" More silence. He heard her shift in her bed. Maybe to face him but he didn't look to see. "...I don't know Saihara. But, if we do, and everything does change the way it should. I want you to know I hate you."

That line made him chuckle. "...hate me? That in itself has already been made clear."

She sighed. Annoyed with him. "No, I mean I hope you carry that with you over into our new way of thinking. I hate you, because of the way you think in this world. No matter the person you become. Deep down, you're still a jerk who gets off on violence. Don't think your conscious has been cleared because nothing is ever that easy." With that, she turned back over. Laying silence for the rest of the time until he slipped into the haziness of the dream world.

Upon waking up, was new. New as in he's never felt the way he did before. With doctors standing at his bedside, stinking an IV into his arm and silently staring at him. The first thing he felt was fear. Yet, fear was something he hadn't felt in a long time.

He could feel the warmth leaking into his arm. Once his eyes were open they took notice. The doctor with the clipboard sat in a chair. Looking straight at him. "What is your name?" The question seemed to have an obvious answer.

"...Saihara Shuichi." His voice seemed more quiet, and less harsh. He didn't like how innocent it seemed. "What is your talent?"

Talent. No one told him yet. "I don't know." That's when hot liquid shot into his arm and it made him flinch. "What is your talent." They asked again.

Oh. They were going to ingrain his facts into him by using painful methods. He would have laughed, but his lips never formed a smile. He must have taken too long to answer, because the hot injection surged up into his arm again, and this time it burned more. "...U-Ultimate Detective." He said plainly.

The knowledge came from nowhere. As if the desperation to get the burning sensation to stop became a top priority. His stuttering was unlike him too. An increased feeling of danger crept up into his chest. And he stared at them, wondering what else did he have to tell them.

"How did you get that talent." Their voice was cold. Emotionless. His red flags were going off and he finally realized they put restraints on him. "...Solving cases?" He guessed. Nearly yelping when another dose burned into his veins. "What kind of cases. Be specific."

He swallowed hard. The feeling of confusion bouncing off the walls in his head. "..Murder cases." The right answer was followed by a cold relaxant. He sighed. But it only lasted so long. "Describe the case you solved, leading to your Ultimate title."

He froze. Almost as if the room dipped and he was powerless to stop it. "Ah...I don't-" this time he did gasp when the punishment came to scorch his arm. "I-I didn't mean to, the case, I-I solved it by mistake...!" They nodded but the pain in his arm didn't go away. "What are you afraid of now?"

Them. But he knows their talking about the case. "A-Ah," He doesn't know, he really doesn't know. The next dose hurt. Like the rest did, but they pushed a second needle into his other arm. It was a thick needle and it broke his skin forcefully. It was like they didn't care if he reacted to the pain. Maybe they didn't.

"What are you afraid of now." They repeated. Saihara's eyebrows pushed together in deep confusion. He can't remember how he got here anymore. He just wanted the stinging to stop. Times up. Both veins in his arms seemed to burst because the fire ignited there had him hitting his lip to keep from crying out.

"What are you afraid of now."

Another three more times of this on repeat, and he finally cried out the right answer. "...E-Eyes, I-I can't look people...in the eyes..." sweating from the pain they finally stopped. Injecting him one last time with a knock out drug that had him out within seconds. The last thing he heard was the doctors exchanging words.

"Same thing when he wakes up?"

"Yeah."