Chapter Text
They walked through the building, following the lab attendant as he led them further into the building. Fukuzawa took in his surroundings as they walked past a half-closed door. When he glanced inside the room he saw assorted medical equipment and-- Fukuzawa froze. Is that a person? He walked towards the room ignoring the lab attendant's protests and shoved open the door. Inside, a small boy was sitting on a hospital bed in the corner trembling. What is he doing here? "Who is he?" Fukuzawa turned back towards the lab attendant who glanced at the boy before looking away.
"Oh, that? It's a pretty big experiment we've been working on for almost two decades."
Two decades? Fukuzawa clenched his fists. He hadn't been this angry in a while. Kunikida stood frozen behind him, eyes wide. "What do you mean an experiment?” Fukazawa yelled. “That is a human being!"
"It may look like a person but it certainly isn't. It can't talk or do anything for itself. It was only created as a vessel for an artificial ability."
Fukuzawa’s hand gripped the hilt of his sword. The nonchalant tone of the lab worker was making him even angrier. "That is a person. Has anyone even tried to talk to him or let him think for himself?"
"Why would we? It never did anything to show that it doesn't want to be tested on. It's hardly even sentient."
Fukazawa snapped, shoving the lab attendant out of the way to get to the man on the hospital bed. He looks 15. Why is he so small? Despite his rage, when Fukazawa grabbed the man's hand he was very gentle. "He's coming with us." The man’s eyes widened in fear as Fukazawa helped him off of the bed.
Fukazawa began to lead him out of the room, but the lab worker grabbed the man by the throat, roughly yanking him away from Fukazawa and tossing him to the ground like a piece of trash. "You can't just take our property like that. It's taken years to make as much progress as we have, and we won't just give it up just because you assume it's a real person!"
Fukuzawa whipped out his sword and aimed it at the lab worker’s neck before he could even blink. The man curled up on the ground, making himself look even smaller. “He’s not property. Now I’m taking him with me whether you want me to or not.”
The lab attendant glared. “We won’t let you.” Is he going to fight me?
Kunikida finally snapped out of the daze he was in, darting over to stand between the lab worker and Fukuzawa. Fukuzawa focused on the man, putting away his sword, and gently started talking to him. “I don’t know what they’ve done to you, but you're a human being. You don’t have to listen to them. I want to help you.” He looked confused at Fukuzawa’s words, but despite that, he relaxed slightly, reaching for Fukazawa’s outstretched hand.
It didn’t last long. As soon as the attendant noticed a change in the man he pushed passed Kunikida, pulling the man out of Fukuzawa’s grip and shoving him back into the wall. The man collapsed to the ground once again. “You will not take the experiment we have worked this hard on! It belongs to us. Leave now.”
Fukuzawa gripped his sword, then felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see the scientist that had asked them there, N, glaring at the attendant. “Why does our guest look like he’s about to bring down our organization?”
“I am going to take him,” Fukuzawa gestured at the man, “with me.”
“I assure you, A5158 is perfectly satisfied staying here in the lab.” When N looked at the man, Fukuzawa saw his entire body freeze as he started to tremble from fear. “Aren’t you?” The man nodded very quickly. Why is he so afraid of N? What have they been doing here?
“Clearly you have abused and dehumanized him to a point where he doesn’t even realize he’s human. He’s not satisfied, he’s terrified, and I refuse to leave without him.”
Fukuzawa was completely ignored as N turned back to the lab worker. “Isn’t it time for it to be fed? Why don’t you take it back to the pod while I handle things here?”
'Pod?' Fukuzawa was not going to let that happen. He made eye contact with Kunikida, who moved to stand between the man and the attendant, before turning back to N. “I will not let you have him.” He prepared himself for a fight.
“Why are you desperate to keep it anyway? We did make it to be a powerful weapon, but you don’t seem to be the type to employ a creature such as this one. Do keep in mind that I’m the one that decides what happens to it, so if you give me an answer I like, I just might let you borrow it. For the right price.”
“I intend to free a human being from the people who have been abusing and dehumanizing him. I don’t need a reason beyond that! I will not pay you for him because I refuse to buy into you convincing him he’s not human. He is a person and he deserves to be treated as such!”
N finally seemed afraid when he noticed the rage in Fukuzawa’s eyes. “What makes you so confident that it’s human? It’s clearly not, have you seen the way it acts? It’s just an empty husk that we created. Just 2,383 lines of code meant to hold an experimental ability. That’s all.” N seemed to hesitate for a moment. “Actually, why don’t we show you its purpose? This is the perfect opportunity to test it out, after all.” Neither Fukuzawa nor Kunikida had time to move before the lab attendant forced the man to his feet and shoved him at Kunikida, ordering him to attack. It was like a switch was flipped in his head. All of the fear left his face, and a red glow surrounded him as he lunged awkwardly towards Kunikida, his body starting to shake from the effort. While Fukuzawa was distracted watching Kunikida dodge the man’s attacks, he noticed N trying to get away. Fukuzawa grabbed him and punched him hard in the nose. N immediately crumpled to the ground and the lab attendant ran away after seeing the look on Fukuzawa’s face. Fukazawa barely managed to reach the man before his legs gave out. Despite him being too weak and exhausted to even move, the man kept trying to fight his way out of Fukuzawa’s arms, not noticing his gentle whispering to try and calm him down, until he finally passed out. Fukuzawa picked him up, having to pause briefly to calm himself down after realizing how light the man was, and walked back the way they had come to exit the lab. Kunikida followed behind him, not bothering to step around where N lay knocked out on the ground.