- God! Stop moving! – screamed one of the men as he walked, carrying the angry kid through the lab’s corridors.
All the people wearing hospital robes were slowly walking around. They looked at the boy as they walked by with dead eyes, to which he looked directly into, and then continued their path. They finally reached a big metal door that resembled a vault the size of an entire wall, with the letter “C” painted on it. At the bottom there was a device that more or less looked like a digital watch, counting days without stopping. The man finally put the boy down, but held him still from his clothes. Will walked towards the door and put his hand on a scanner as the boy fought to break free. Will lifted his hand up and a black box popped out form the wall. He took out a needle along with a crystal tablet. When the director’s son turned around the boy noticed the needle, huge in his eyes, he was holding. He opened his eyes wide and desperately attempted to break free. He started screaming again when the second man held him still.
- Stay still. – Will ordered. – Unless you want me to ‘accidentally kill you. - The boy started screaming again. – Can someone just shut him up?!
The third man, who was standing behind the boy, rook out a piece of cloth, rolled it and gagged the kid. Will walked closer and inserted the needle in the back of his shoulder. He put the syringe under his arms and put a password on the crystal tablet, followed by a finger print. The moment he did all that the number on the “clock” changed. That’s when the boy realized it wasn’t a clock. That number, bigger than the door itself, was people.
- We’ll tattoo him tomorrow. I’ve had enough of him today. Put him in his cell, we’ll go fetch the other kids.
- Yes sir.
- At least now we only have to pick up three since James was close to the girl’s location. Put them in the same cell for now, we’re running out of rooms.
- As you wish.
One of the men opened the, metal, cell door roughly and threw the boy inside. When he landed on the concrete he let out a “ngh!”. The boy lifted his upper body and removed the piece of cloth as the man slammed the door closed. He raised his head and noticed a little girl’s feet. He looked up and saw a little lady standing in front of him. She wore a torn, but pretty, little pink dress. Her hair was pink, like her dress, and was roughly braided. The eyes, which called his attention the most, were bright green. The little girl smiled, concerned. And even though she wasn’t wearing any shoes, she was a princess to him.
- Are you alright?
- Uh… ye- Yesu!
- Good! What’s your name?
The boy opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.
- Shut it!
‘Miguel’ looked around.
- There’s no way out. – the girl whispered.
The door opened. The boy stood in front of her with his arm to the side, trying to protect her. A man came inside and without the smallest hesitation threw the boy aside.
- Get out of the way. – He screamed as he walked closer to the little princess.
The man grabbed her arm and pulled her violently outside the cell. The boy was trying to stand up slowly, but when he heard the girl scream he jumped on his feet and ran towards them. The metal door closed before he could catch up to them and out of anger he punched it with both his hands. He took two steps back and looked to the side with a worried expression as he heard the girl scream.
- No! Please! Stop! – and so on until her voice disappeared in the distance.
A few hours later the door opened. The boy stood up from the bed expecting the little princess, but instead appeared another man with a black haired boy and a black haired girl who appeared to be his sister. The girl seemed calm, but the buy was on a rampage.
- Konoyaro! Hanaseyo! Baka! Baka!!
- Ah, shaddup! Stupid Chinese kid! I can’t understand shit you’re saying! Just zip it! – The man threw the kid on the floor and let go of the girls hand after she walked inside the cell.
- Hanas---uff!!
The man ‘ removed the dust from his hands’ and left the room. The girl helped her brother up, along with ‘Miguel’.
- Arigatou….- said the black haired boy as he shook the dust off his clothes. After he was done he exptended his hand to Miguel and they shook hands. – “how many are we going to be?”
- “I heard Matsumoto san say he needed five kids… there was another girl here before.
- “So I guess one more.”
The door opened and Will threw in a brown haired boy. His hair was a bit curly and his skin was a darker tone than theirs. However, it wasn’t dark enough to be brown.
- I wouldn’t need to do this if you had stopped fighting back.
Will looked back and moved out of the way. The same man that took the princes way came back carrying her, let go of her slowly, and pushed her inside. She fell to her knees as tears ran down her cheeks.
- Alright, who’s next? – Asked a man
- Any but Matsumoto’s kid.
- We’ll take the black haired boy then, since he’s the only on missing.
The brown haired boy helped the princess up and wiped the tears of her face.
- Alright kid! You’re getting tattooed next!
He said as he picked him up and carried him out. He did fight a first, but, when the man slapped him causing his sister to get worried, he calmed himself down and let him carry him away. The little princess put her hand over her shoulder as the tears ran down her cheek.
- It’s still a little red, don’t touch it. – said the brown haired boy.
Miguel got closer to her and noticed a black writing on her skin.
----97----
But the rest was covered by the dress strap and her hair.
- They put one on me too… That’s why my brother was so angry.
- They hurt a lot…. – replied the princess.
- Yeah… I know…
The blond boy was tattooed the next day and two days later injections started. They were really painful. Many of them caused three of the five kids to go out cold. Luckily none of the died, but they were in severe pain for months. Will gave the order to let them rest for at least two days after every session, but even so, each session consisted of ten different injections. Will seemed to be bothered by something as he watched to blond boy struggle under the belts that held him down. He was under the influence of anesthetics, but still screamed of pain while tears ran down his cheeks.
- How are the other kids doing? – he asked calmly.
- They passed out, sir. This here is the only kid that can undergo the injections without fainting.
Will nodded slowly, and left the room. Before closing the door he stopped and, without turning around, turned his head to the doctor who was writing the kid’s results.
- Let him rest for three days from now on. We’ll start mutating him completely after that.
- Yes, sir.
Will walked away calmly.
Four days later the lab took a risk and inserted the first DNA sequence to mutate him with. They put him under anesthetics since getting his boy changed suddenly was going to cause him, and the other kids, severe pain. It wasn’t going to change his bone structure, but it affected his jaw and teed a little. His eyesight was also going to be affected.
Two years later, when the boy was around eleven, he was just sharing rooms with the little princess. One day when he was stressed out, he was just standing in the middle of his cell staring at his hands. The princess put her hand on his shoulder, but he didn’t even look at her. A man suddenly knocked violently on the door. The girl started to back off, but when she noticed the boy trembling she stopped and attempted to calm him down.
- K-seventy nine! – screamed the cell keeper.
The little boy raised his hands, covering his eyes with his palms and, shaking his head slowly, let out sounds of desperation as he walked backwards while facing the door. When he bumped, into the wall, the sounds became louder. The man slammed the door opened and kept knocking impatiently.
- K- seventy nine! – He screamed again.
The boy suddenly quieted down. He lowered his hands, stood up firmly and walked to the door calmly.
- Are you alright? - asked the princess.
Miguel stopped. He turned his head to look at her with cold dead eyes that he never had before. after the girl didn’t say anything else (from shock) he continued his path. The man slammed the door and walked away followed by the kid.
***
- Sit down – instructed the doctor while he pointed at the surface with his hand. The boy did as he was told. – you’re on wild cats…. This will be the last DNA I’ll insert on you. Your body seems to be adapting quite well, remove you shirt please. Very well, stand up for a second and lift your arms forming a cross with your body.
After measuring and checking his weight the doctor put the oxygen mask on him and made him lay down on a capsule. He inserted six needles around his entire body and closed the capsule after tying him up. He punched in some codes along with the kid’s measurements and pressed a green button. A second or two later the boy started to move violently. The doctor shook his head as he wrote down results.
- What’s the matter doc? – Will asked after coming in unnoticed- result’s no good?
- No sir, the results are quite satisfying. We finally made it.
- Then?
- You’re adding too much pressure on a child. You need to be more careful.
- With what? – he replied in laughter
- With is maind.
- Please! We have enough disciplinary methods to deal with that shit.
- No Will, if he has a mental breakdown all of you research will go to waste.
- How exactly will it go to waste?
- Well for starters… instead of becoming a weapon, he could become a threat.
- I can deal with him if that’s the case.
- Sure… if you can, I have no say in the matter.
- How many have you inserted
- Three. This will be the last one.
- Add two more.
- Five? Aren’t you and your father going too far?
- I’m not asking you for your opinion. Just do as I say.
Will left the room, the doctor rolled his eyes. “I’ll wait until he’s fifteen to insert the last one.” It would be safer that way. Safer the boy… safer for everyone around him.
[two years later – Four years after he got taken away]
- Why did you call me here again, Will? – asked Matsumoto as calmly as he could, but his anger was all over the director’s office.
Will was standing, in front of the big desk, with his arms crossed. He had one leg crossed in front of the other and rested his weight on the desk.
- Come on! That was four years ago! Let it go will you?
- It doesn’t matter how long ago it was! That’s my son, damn it!
- So? You took those kids from their families too. Don’t think you’re any different from me. you received your pay *chuckles* now you can affrod his school… too bad, huh? How old is he now? Thirteen? Fourteen? I lost count, but I don’t really care.
- I’m leaving. – Matsumoto turned around.
- Ya can’t. – Will replied and stood up straight, still with his arms crossed and bent forwards, then backwards, and then he stood straight again.
- Watch me.
- Look, I know it stings having to receive orders from a guy ten years younger. I mean… there goes your pride… but you’re on a contract. Twenty years remember? Thirteen more to go.
- What is it that you want?
- Well… it was you who made all this possible, after all. The director wants you to still be part of it.
- What? You’re having problems already?- he replied mockingly
- Nope. Things are actually going well without you. But either way you don’t really have a choice here.
- Yes I do. – Matsumoto walked towards the door.
- Hey Akira… don’t you want to see you boy again?
Matsumoto stopped right before reaching the door knob. Will smiled cynically and bit his lower lip to hold back his laughter.
- Injecting anesthetics. – said the doctor as he pressed a blue botton.
- Are you going to put him to sleep?
- No, last time I did that he almost didn’t wake up. I rather not take that risk, this will only numb him.
Matsumoto got close to the capsule and stared at his son’s face through the glass.
“He’s grown so much”
Akira’s breath trembled as he put his hands on the glass. The boy opened his eyes and looked at his father, without turning his head, whom he had not seen in more than four years. A tear or two ran down his cheeks as he saw his father standing next to him again; and although it was faint, Matsumoto could see the boy smiling through the oxygen mask.
- I’m going to inject the DNA now.
- A-alright…- he said, but his voice trembled.
The doctor stared at Akira for a while, noticing all the pain he felt. It was the first time Matsumoto showed his feelings on his face. The doctor sighed and finally pressed the green button. Matsumoto started writing the outcome marked on the screen without hesitation, until the boy groaned. He stopped writing and started watching him, going from groaning to gasping to struggling to screaming. The kid, who was only fourteen at the time screamed and cried. Matsumoto dropped all he was holding and ran to the boy putting his hands on the glass once more. He turned to the doctor, who kept writing as if nothing had happened.
- You said you put him under anesthetics!
- I did. It doesn’t matter whether I numb him or not. he feels pain.
- What are you talking about?!
- They don’t work on him. Not a single kind. Not one kid with this ability is susceptible to anesthetics. There’s nothing I can do. There’s nothing you can do.
Matsumoto looked back at the boy and backed off slowly. He put his hand over his mouth and closed his eyes shut.
“What did I do?! Why? Why did I use him?”
The doctor looked at Matsumoto and continued writing as he sighed.
When the boy opened his eyes he found himself in his cell. His body hurt and couldn’t move. Then he felt a hand on him, not the same small, warm hand as always, but a big and cold one. He tried to turn his head as much as he could, which in reality wasn’t much, but still couldn’t see who was sitting next to him. It wasn’t until after the man ran his finger through the boy’s hair starting from the forehead, he know exactly who it was. He opened his eyes wide and forced his neck to turn. When he saw his father sitting there after so long, he pushed his upper body up with his arms.
- It… was… really you….
- Yes.-The man sighed
The boy closed his eyes slowly the man pushed him down.
- Rest.
Akira patted the boy’s chest, as ‘Miguel’s’ head fell on the side.
During lunch, the blond boy wasn’t eating. He did take food in a tray form him to eat, he just couldn’t. He was sitting on the table, with the food in front of him, when, suddenly, a red liquid started to flow all over the tray. It lowered and flowed covering the food until he pushed the tray away and rested his head on his hand.
Black haired boy: come on Blondie! You gotta eat! You didn’t touch your food yesterday either!
Khouta: no… I … I can’t…
Khouta looked at the brown haired boy as he drank water. After a few seconds that transparent , thin , liquid became red and thick. He separated his lip from the bottle and accidently dropped water all over himself.
- A crap! – He exclaimed and shook the “blood” off with his hand.
Yan shook his head twice after making a grimace, and turned to the other side. He could hear the twins arguing with each other.
- You’re eating dessert before lunch? What’s wrong with you?
- Ah! Leave me alone, woman! I want pudding!!
It wasn’t a relevant conversation so he ignored the rest of it and put his head on the table. The princess ran her fingers through Khouta’s hair. The boy purred. When he realized he raised his head quickly and put his hand on his throat.
Black haired boy: what the hell was that?!
Khouta: I ….. I don’t know…
Black haired boy: I'm NOT going to start barking am I ?!
Brown haired boy: oh yeah! You’re on wolves aren’t you? I'm on bears.
Princess: I'm on types of foxes.
Khouta turned around and looked at the only girl who hadn’t mentioned her type of experimentation.
Khouta: What about you?
Black haired girl: N-nothing!
The girl blushed and stood up from the table.
Khouta: What’s with her?
Black haired boy: Don’t interfere with my sister’s business!
Brown haired boy: Yeah, I mean, if she didn’t say it it’s because she didn’t want us to know.
Matsumoto passed by, but when he realized his son wasn’t eating, he stopped. Akira turned his eyes to Khouta and pointed a finger at the food tray.
Matsumoto: make sure you finish all that.
Miguel: but… I don’t want to!
Matsumoto: I’m not asking you. Finish it.
Miguel: Tsk!
Matsumoto continued his path.
Princess: that’s odd. The staff doesn’t usually care whether we eat or not.
Black haired boy: yeah! What is he? – he asked as he brabbed his bottle of water.- your dad? – he mocked and finally raised the bottle to start drinking.
Yan: yeah…
He confirmed causing the guy to choke on his drink.
Black haired boy: f-for real?? Your dad works here??
Yan: yeah.
Black haired boy: Holy shit! You don’t even look alike! I would have never guessed!
Yan: I’m---- - Yan moved back and, while resting his back on the back of the chair, he looked to the side and sighed.
Princess: Look what you did! You got him all upset!
Black haired boy: s-sorry…
Yan: no it’s…. – Yan sighed- I’m actually… I …. I look like my mom! -After saying that he bit his lower lip and stood up from the table. – I'm going back to my cell… I'm kinda tired. Oh and there’s something I want to talk to you about tomorrow.
Brown haired boy: we’ll eat your tray for you!!
***
A few hours later all the kids were called to the injection room. They went through them as usual, but Matsumoto was finally able to act cold. The doctor shook his head in disapproval.
- What’s the matter?- Asked Akira.
- The other kids aren’t mutating. Only this one and the Japanese boy are responding as expected. The other ones just developed some traits. Your son is the only one that developed more than three while the others just developed one or two.
- What about the Japanese one?
- Three exact. His sister two, but the second one is well formed.
They discussed as Yan laid in the capsule until the machine read his weight. The doctor seemed alarmed and went through the previous registers.
- He’s losing weight. – He concluded.
- How fast? Asked Akira as calm as possible, but he seemed alarmed.
- Extremely. You said he didn’t eat yesterday?
- And today. But you have got to admit, the other kids put up a good act pretending that he did.
- Tsk tsk. Didn’t they go as far as to eat his tray?-Matsumoto snorted.
- Yeah… how much weight did he lose?
- Well, for two days… pretty alarming.
- …
- Around five kilos.
- What?!
- We’d better keep an eye on him. I’ll start injecting the DNA strand.
- But… he’s lost nutrients.
- Yeah, don’t worry. It won’t be a problem.
Matsumoto stopped writing and put the form on the table.
- How many have you inserted?
- This will be the last one.
- Alright … I’ll be going now. Take care of him
- Yes, thank you for your help.
Matsumoto left the room. The doctor inserted the needles in his body and pressed the green button. It went as usual, except that, this time, something had gone wrong; however, there was no way the doctor would have known.
[Two days later]
- Geez! The combat training today was horrible.
- You say that because it was harsh and tiresome, - Yan said as he sat down on the lunch table.- or because your sister beat you up?- everyone at the table laughed
- Shaddup!
- It’s not like anyone can beat her. –exclaimed the brown haired boy, who was the last person to sit down.
- Yeah!- exclaimed the princess.- there’s not a single person who has ever won a free fight against her! She almost wins against Mr. Matsumoto the other day.
- Yeah, cuz my sister is like ninja.
- You guys; please stop, you’re embarrassing me.
- There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. – said Yan as he ripped a napkin. – I mean… you’re small in size, but very flexible and fast. That, without forgetting that you are also pretty strong, is not something everyone can accomplish, yanno?
- T-thanks… - the girl blushed after he said that, but idiot Yan didn’t notice that.
- By the way. – said the princes as she turned to the ‘blondie’ – you said you needed to talk to us about something, but you never did. Is something wrong?
- Oh, um…
- It’s fine blondie! Just say it! – Yan looked at the black haired boy, addressing him, as he peeled the cover of the pudding open. His sister just stared at him and shook his head. Dessert before lunch again.
- When was the last time someone called you by your name? – No one at the table answered and most of them looked down.
Four years. Even my father doesn’t address me by name anymore. The cell keepers, the director, Will… they all call us by our numbers. They took away our families and now we don’t even have names. We don’t even call each other by name.
Black haired boy: Duh! That’s because we don’t know each other’s names, you dumb blondie.
Brown haired boy: That’s because we never really had the need to tell to each other what our names were.
Princess: So should we? – asked the princess.
Yan: No. I say we name each other. Our past is gone. Wer’re not even who we were so even our names are useless now.
Black haired girl: So what should our names be?
Yan: Well, I was thinking… when we were at the gym I saw your tattoo – He said addressing the brown haired boy.
Brown haired boy: What about it? It’s just my number.
Yan: Yeah, but I-950 looks like it spells “iaso”
Black haired girl: So what you’re saying is…
Yan: That we can make up our names from the tattoos we’re wearing.
Brown haired boy: But… Iaso isn’t even a name.
Yan: True. How about Jason?
Brown haired boy: Hell, no. … how about… Iason?
Princess: Yeah! That’s a nice name! It even suits you!- exclaimed the princess.
Yan: Ok, ‘Chinese kid’ your tattoo is D-973… spells like… date… so how about Dante?
Dante: This is stupid! – He replied after hearing his new name.
Yan: Yeah? – asked Yan in and angry and annoyed way. – Well, maybe you would prefer to be called Chinese for the rest of your life?
Dante: …
Yan: I thought so.
Dante: So I’m Dante now?
Yan: Yup
Dante: Fine… Ok blondie! But what about my sister?
Yan: What’s your number?
Black haired girl: S-029
Yan: Pfft
Black haired girl: What?!
Yan: It spells Sora…
Black haired girl: Like hell!!
Yan: C-calm down! I won’t call you that!
Princess: What’s wrong?
Dante: Sora is a Japanese name… for boys…
Princess: oh…
Iason: How about Sarah?
Princess: I like it too!
Yan: nah! I think Shura is cooler. And it suits you better
Iason: sounds pretty cool.
Shura: approve.
Dante: you’re K-079 right?
Yan: yeah.
Dante: it’s our turn to pick a name for you! How about------
Man: alright! Lunch is over! Be at your assigned cells in five!
Dante: crap! We forgot to eat!!
Everyone started eating as fast as they could, except for Yan. He just stared at the food tray and pushed it away.
- Come on! You can’t keep up like this, blondie! – exclaimed Dante.
- Yeah, I mean … today you make three whole days with no food. At least drink your milk. – said Iason pointing at him with a plastic fork.
- Fine…. I’ll drink the milk…
After a while they all went back to their cells… excluding for Yan. He went to Shura’s cell before her brother could get there.
- Shura?
- Yeah?
The little lady was sitting on her bed and she seemed a little surprised.
- What are you doing here? You’ll get in trouble! Again!
- I don’t really care. – Shura rolled her eyes.
- I just… wanted to apologize.- he said as he sat down next to her.
- About what?
- About… the other day… I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.
- You didn’t! It’s… just… I don’t like it, that’s all.
- I'm sorry…
Shura bent towards him and whispered in his ear. Yan hugged her.
- Wow! That’s so cool!
- No, it’s not!
- … um, how many types?
- Four.
- So awesome!
- Stop that!
- Does your brother know?
- No… just you…
- Then you don’t have to worry about it. I won’t tell anyone.
- Hey! What are you doing?! Get back to your cell! – screamed the cell keeper.
Yan stood up and ran out of the cell “I’ll see you later!” he said and just ran back to his own room. The man just shook his head with his fists on his hips and closed the door.
****YAN’S POINT OF VIEW****
The last thing I remember was going back to my cell after talking to Shura. I felt a little thirsty, but I just went right to sleep. In the middle of the night I could just hear my princess screaming… screaming my name…. she was the only one who knew it… so when she said it the only thing I thought was: “what’s going on? Why is does she sound so scared?” When I opened my eyes all I could see were her eyes. They were wide opened and reflected nothing but fear. They stared at me questioning ‘why’ and all I could see was fear. She was afraid of me and I couldn't understand why. I smelt blood and then I realized it was all over both of us. She coughed spitting more on my face then grabbed me and said my name again. I looked down and saw my arm covered by her blood. Then I saw her blood was coming from her stomach. My arm had gone right through her. I could just feel my eyes watering and… tears ran down. I could move I was scared. She tightened her grip as much as she could and smiled at me after putting her hand on my cheek. She just… smiled at me and fell down…dead… I took three steps back without knowing what to do and started screaming… I screamed none stopped until I went blank again.
******
- - What do you mean you don’t know what went wrong?! – screamed Matsumoto.
Khouta had been carefully placed in a capsule while Matsumoto screamed at the doctor trying to find something that could fix him.
- I keep telling you the procedures went on as usual! Nothing happened when I injected him for the last time!- Matsumoto swung his arms as he turned around and put his hands on his hips shaking his head in contempt. After some seconds he suddenly opened his eyes wide and violently grabbed the doctor by his lab coat and pulled him closer to him. Both their faces were only inches away.
- How many did you mutate him with?!
- W-what?
- HOW MANY?!
- F-five!
Akira opened his eyes wide and took a deep breath of anger.
- I specified in my report that more than four would interfere with his own DNA!
- W- what did you expect me to do?! I was just following orders!
- Do you have any idea what you did to him?! his own blood is consuming itself! This wouldn’t have happened if you had just----
Matsumoto let go of the doctor, who fell on the floor and stood up as fast as he could while backing off. Akira calmed down as much as he could and started to punch codes into the machine.
- Get A+ plus blood samples…. We’re going to have to feed him blood from now on.
- What?!
- He’s consuming his blood… that’s the only nutrient his body is going to accept now.
- Matsumoto… there’s something else you need to know…
- …
- He…- The doctor took a deep breath. –Your son developed a second personality from the stress and pain the injections caused him.
- So which personality killed the girl?
- I don’t know… I’m guessing the one who calls himself Yan.
Three days later.
- Hey there! – said Dante as he sat down at the lunch table next to Yan along with his sister.
- What are you guys doing?
- What does it look like we’re doing, dumb blondie? We’re sitting next to you.
- Why? You saw what I did.
Dante and Shura stared at him for a second. Dante was next to him while Shura was in front.
- Hey, sis can you pass the salt?
- Sure.
- You guys are so weird….
- Hey, blondie that reminds me, we never came up with a name for you.
- What does it matter?
- Your k-079 so Kota works.
- ?
- Hey, why don’t you write is as “Khouta”. – suggested Shura. Yan just sighed
- We never came up with a nickname for the princess either. – said Dante as he opened his pudding.
- Yeah. But I don’t know her number
- You serious?! Dude, you lived with her! How can you not know something so trivial?
- Let’s name her… even if we don’t know her number – suggested Shura. – she deserves a name after all.
- She’s got pink hair… let’s name her Sakura. Pink hair is just a Sakura thing! – said Dante.
- Where’s Iason? – the siblings were quiet for a moment.
- Yester day he… - Dante answered. – well same thing happened to him, but he attacked the director. They took him away … they told us he died of a heart attack or something.
- Bullshit.
- No shit, Sherlock. Stupid blondie. Of course it’s a lie! Nothing can kill that guy! I stabbed him in the neck during combat training, by accident once with a military knife, and that didn’t kill him! You think his tiny hear is?!
- Um…
- Wrong! Nothing can kill this guy!
- Alright, Akira. I’m going to inject him some blood now.
- Like you have a choice.
- …
After the blood was inserted Matsumoto opened the capsule and sat next to the boy. He put his hand on his shoulder and rubbed his forehead. A few hours later the kid woke up rubbing his eyes and sat up. He didn’t say anything he just looked at Matsumoto with eyes that were completely different and smiled.
- Are you Yan?- the boy shook his head
- Khouta… desu…
- Khouta?
- Mh!
- Well, will you look at that! – exclaimed Will after he came into the room. – your kid is back to the way he was!
- What?
- Well after I mutated him he became more serious… More focused. I just thought that he was back to the way he was… when I first took him from you. You know, when he couldn’t speak?
- Why is the dumb blondie acting like a kitty? – said Dante as he watched him play in the gym. A huge guy pointed at him and mocked his behaviour.
- Where is the deadly devil that murdered his roommate? Instead we got a stupid kitten.
- Hey! Shaddup bastard! He could take you out with his eyes closed! – screamed Dante jerking a finger at him.
- Yeah?
- Yeah!!
- Nii, what are you doing? He’s in no position to fight! – Shura whispered.
- It’s fine! He’s almost at my level! He’ll be fine!
- Like hell I'm fighting him! He can’t even stand up! – the man walked away
- Pfft. Coward. Come on kitty cat. Let’s get you back to your cell.
The next day Khouta woke up as Yan. Matsumoto walked into the cell with some blood samples and put them on the bed.
- Khouta here’s your----
- Yan.
- …
- My name is Yan. – he wasn’t looking at Matsumoto. Instead, his back was facing him – and I don’t want the blood. Take it away.
- I can’t do that. You need it.
- I don’t care. It’s what got her killed.
- If you don’t take it. You’ll get another person killed. – Yan’s breath trembled and shut his eyes closed.
- …
- Yan… you need to take it.
The boy didn’t answer. He just clenched his fists as tears ran down his cheeks. If the princess was here she would be able to soothe him, but she wasn’t. Not anymore, and it was all his fault.
[one year later] (Yanà 16 years old)
- What did you want to talk about?
- Matsumoto, you need to get your son out of here.
- What’s going on?
- The director wants me to insert another DNA to him.
- What?!
- You need to get him out. And you need to do it now or else I don’t know what could happen to his brain.
“My dad was able to get me out two months later… but since he got my body out when Khouta was awake I don’t remember how it went. I just woke up in a small rundown apartment. He said that it would be safer that way while he pretended that he didn’t know what happened. Matsumoto-san is pretty smart so he got them all fooled. One year later the director’s men found me and I had to run out of the house. That’s when your mother ran over me and she agreed to take care of me until I was safe… I guess she just felt guilty. But I really appreciate all your mother’s done for me.”
- Y-Yan…
- Maru… it’s fine… it’s over now.
- W-what happened to Shura and her brother?
- I don’t know… I haven’t seen them since I left the lab.
- Yan I...
- Your mom’s going to be here soon. I’ll go get dinner ready, she’s probably tired.