Chapter Text
The sharp sound of metal on metal grated against Emu's ears as she was thrown back into her cell. The guard closed and locked the door immediately, leaving her alone in a crumpled heap on the cold tile floor. Emu couldn't bring herself to move, the bone-deep ache (except it couldn't have been bone-deep, not anymore) from the tests was too fresh. After some time, she dared to lift her head, slowly picking herself off of the floor. She staggered to the bed sitting in the room's corner, worn out from years of use but still standing. Just like her, in a way. The bedspread was covered in rainbows and bunnies, something that usually lifted her spirits. A small spot of normalcy in her abnormal world. Now they stared back mockingly, a reminder of everything she had lost. Her home, her family, her friends, her arm, her leg, just about everything. Replaced it all with cheap alternatives and pretended like it was alright.
They had done everything possible to disguise the cell as a normal room, put up posters and sheets on the wall to hide the bland beige paint, gifted her toys, books, scripts, art supplies, and anything she asked for as long as they deemed it "safe". There was even a small box full of clothes in the corner of the room, though she never got to wear them. The plain white shift was required for all examinations and tests, which could happen anytime (and they did not like to be kept waiting). Emu pulled her head off of the bed, searching for the one thing that always made her feel better. It was just at the foot of the bed, close enough that she could reach out with her metal arm and grab it. A pink Phenny plush toy, the perfect size to hug tightly to her chest. He was worn down from years of use, small tears visibly patched with surgical sutures by the one researcher who treated her with some kindness (which had meant a lot for the first few years, before she had cut off her leg without any hesitation).
Emu pressed her face into the plush and let herself cry, distantly wondering how long she would even be able to do that much.
The lock on the door clicked open. Emu raised her head just enough to see a familiar teen with split blue hair and two large wings be ushered into the room. Toya waited for the guard to leave his side and lock the door again before settling himself onto her bed. He slid next to her and slung an arm around her shoulder, wrapping a deep blue wing around as well.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" He asked gently.
"Just give me a minute." She whispered back to him, leaning into his side. When her tears had dried enough to raise her head, she added, "They talked about my eyes again."
Toya stiffened. "I'm sorry."
"Not your fault."
They settled into silence, Emu trying her best to breathe through the phantom pains that plagued her. The sight of her limbs didn't help at all, the harsh metal so cold and distant from what they were supposed to look like. Emu pressed her face into Toya's arm, realizing all over again how lucky she was that they decided to allow visitations three years ago. The first four years of near isolation had been unbearable. Having someone else to sit with, commiserate with, and just be with, helped more than she had ever expected. However, it never lasted long enough. Rubbing the last few tears from her eyes, Emu put herself back together.
"What about you?" She asked Toya. "How was today?"
"Not too bad. Mostly endurance tests. They finally got a new treadmill."
"Good. I was scared that thing would fall apart with me still running on it!" She forced a laugh at the not-quite joke and sat up. "Do you want an art lesson?" She asked, inviting a subject change.
"Of course," Toya responded. That got her to smile for real. Drawing always helped to lift her spirits, and doing it with Toya helped even more. Don't get her wrong, Nene and Akito were plenty fun to draw with as well, but Toya was the only one that had really embraced it, playing along as Emu dubbed herself "teacher" and him "protege". Besides, Nene liked to read scripts and reminisce over the theater while Akito preferred to make up different games with the deck of cards. They each brought something wonderfully different with them. But today needed to be a drawing day, and Toya was the perfect partner for that.
It was the same as all the other bad days; drawing out the escape fantasy they had all come up with together. A plan collaborated on over several months and dozens of games of telephone.
"So you'll use your wings to bat the guards away, like WA-BAM!" Emu cheered, adding a dozen more stars around the guards' heads as Toya stood over them, flexing non-existent muscles.
"Then, whoever is closest to Akito frees him from his restraints," Toya added, carefully coloring in their friends' hair.
"All while Nene runs down to their master control room and hacks into their super secret computer while we guard the doors. She'll knock out all the security cameras so that we can find a phone and I can call my sister." Emu grabbed another sheet of paper, and started to draw Nene in the computer room."
"Your sister will send a car for us, which will be waiting for us when we get out of here. Then they'll drive us all back home." Toya finished the plan, moving on to begin coloring his own hair.
Emu giggled and added a large star to the corner of his drawing. "You hear that?" She said, looking up at the security camera in the corner of the room. "We're almost out! All we need is a chance." She taunted their captors, even though they had long since learned that those cameras only recorded video, not sound.
"And to hope that Nene can learn to hack computers," Toya added.
"And for them to actually have a super secret master control room." Emu concedes. It was a half-baked plan, she was the first to admit it, but it was all they had to cling to.
Toya continued coloring his picture, swapping out the deep blue crayon for a pale green one. "Do you really think they're still looking for you?" He asked in a whisper. "It's been seven years."
"I know they are." She insisted. "I'd never stop looking for them if they disappeared and they'd do the same for me. It's only a matter of time."
Toya's crayon stilled. "They've probably held my funeral already."
"Then they'll just be that much more excited when you come home!" Emu assured.
"Is it bad if I don't want that?" Toya's eyes widened, surprising himself with the admission. "Not that I don't want to get out, of course I do. I just," He paused. "Maybe it's better if they... Forget it. Forget I said anything." Toya returned to coloring, pressing the crayon down much harder than he needed to.
Emu could count the number of times that Toya had mentioned his family on one hand. She wasn't sure what to say, so she didn't say anything. Instead, she wrapped him in a big hug. Nene and Akito weren't always huggers, but Toya was. He hugged her back just as tightly, resting his chin on her head.
"Have I ever mentioned how much you remind me of someone?"
"You have." The elusive Saki, a part of the Tenma family that Toya talked about at every opportunity. From how he spoke of her, the comparison was the highest compliment she could receive.
Akito had always been angry. It was part of being a Shinonome: they all had the same nose, the same furrow of the brow, the same temper. The tiniest thing could set him off as a kid, the same as his older sister. From their father's harsh words to teachers who graded too harshly, everything. Most often, they turned that anger onto each other. (Their mother always mused that they'd grow out of the spats. Akito wished they could have.)
All of that anger seemed so small now. Perfectly trivial in the face of the overwhelming rage at the people who kept him here.
They had taken him off the street, gagged him, locked him up, and turned him into this- thing . He was dragged from his cell one day kicking and screaming before being knocked out with a shot. When he woke up, he had a tail and extra ears and teeth far too sharp. The pain was beyond words. Sharp and all-encompassing. When one of the scientists pulled his lips back to show off his teeth to another, he bit them. Hard. Blood had flooded his already copper-stained mouth. He held onto the fingers, even as the scientist tried to pull away. The flesh had torn off.
The memory made him sick. Sick at the thought of what he had done to the man. Sick at what they had done to him. Sick at the fact he was capable of that kind of violence. Sick at the thought that they hadn't just made him look like a monster. He really had become one.
Those thoughts cycled through his head almost constantly as he was locked within his sad excuse of a "room". There was precious little else to do. In the early days, the first year or so if he had to guess, he would sing to pass the time. Clinging to the memory of RAD WEEKEND. Surpassing it became more than an ambition, it became a lifeline. Then, after the bite, they forced him into the gag and muzzle. The gag was only supposed to be for when he was around others, but the guards rarely remembered to take it off of him. (At least, that's what they told each other. Akito knew it was purposeful. Whether out of fear or malice, it didn't matter.) Even when they did remove it, the metal muzzle was only just large enough to let him speak. Any move to open his mouth wide enough to sing was met with a sore jaw and skin rubbed raw. It was another constant reminder of this thing they had turned him into. On his better days he could almost ignore the extra ears and tail, or at least pretend that they were just a costume that Ena had shoved him into. But he could never ignore the cage around his mouth. He could never ignore the way the fangs sat just behind his lips.
Akito almost didn't notice when the door swung open, too wrapped up in his thoughts. But the tell-tale sound of soft slippers alerted him. Only three others wore those kinds of shoes here. Sure enough, the girl with long green hair, Nene, was standing in the doorway. Wordlessly, he pointed at his mouth. Her eyes widened slightly in practiced recognition.
"Excuse me," She asked, with the best pronunciation out of all of them. "He can't talk. The gag is still in."
The guard who had escorted her stiffened and glanced at Akito; eyes full of fear even though he was the one who was trained and paid to fight. Akito just happened to be stuck here. Slowly, like Akito had seen exotic animal tamers do, he approached, holding one hand out in a placating gesture. He loosened the muzzle just enough to slip out the gag before locking it back in place. Even backing away was a slow process, the guard warily eyeing Akito up and down. (Just like his father had done once when a rabid dog had crossed their path.) Akito considered flashing him a sharp grin but didn't. There was no reason the jeopardize the few visiting hours they had. When the door finally closed behind the guard, he let himself speak.
"Thanks."
"No problem." Nene shrugged, simple and to the point. She brushed a few stray hairs from her face and grabbed the book she was reading out of the pile. The two had only just realized that their book supplies were different and now spent most visits just reading the others' books. Desperately soaking up the stories and knowledge hidden within. Akito had read his own books a hundred times over and no doubt Nene had done the same. The change was intoxicating.
Akito picked up a random book and flipped to the middle, trying to skim the pages and let himself relax into one of two beige bean bag chairs. His room was the most barren of the four, filled with "calming" neutrals and "inoffensive" decor so much so that it felt stiff and almost threatening (in the same way that doctors' offices had been). Yet, when one of the other three were at his side there was still some comfort to be found.
Sparing a glance back at Nene, he marveled at just how normal she looked. Far more normal than the rest of them with their metal limbs and animal features. If it weren't for the white shift dress and bandages, she would look no different than any other teen off the street. Sure, there was the silvery shimmer of hidden gills on her neck, but you had to look for them to see. Akito would have called her the lucky one if he hadn't witnessed her recovery step by brutal step. It wasn't like whatever they had done to Akito and Toya, where they added something on. Her throat had been almost entirely reconstructed, and who knows what they had done to her lungs. None of them truly knew the extent to which they had been changed. When the visitations began, almost four years ago, Nene hadn't been able to speak. When she began to hesitantly string syllables together a few weeks later, the scientists may as well have thrown a parade with how excited they were. They completely missed that it was all thanks to Emu who realized that a reconstructed throat meant a whole new instrument. It wasn't quite an issue of learning how to talk, but how to make the sounds. Helping Nene find her voice again was what brought them together in the first place, lifting them from passive companions to allies in arms. A year later, she had begun to sing again.
Nene looked at him over the top of her book, raising an eyebrow in concern. Do you need something? Akito shook his head and returned back to his book, smiling slightly. Nothing. All good.
The comfortable silence lasts a while longer before it's broken by a soft sob. Nene has a hand over her mouth as she stares at the page, tears brimming in her eyes.
"Do you need-" Akito can't even finish the offer before Nene lets the book fall to the floor and curls into his side, face buried in his shirt.
Akito stiffens, caught off guard by the sudden contact and emotions. He's never been good at comforting others, always far too awkward to be of any real help. "Did a dog die?" He asked lamely.
"The main character found his best friend again. After- after so long ..." She tries to remain composed, hating the vulnerability just as much as Akito, but can't help it. "I miss him. I miss all of them."
They never talked much about the people they had left behind, not details at least. (Emu was the exception, finding comfort in the stories instead of pain.) But Akito had learned enough about the other two over the years. Nene had a best friend as a child, her only friend really. In all the ways that mattered.
If Akito had been Toya he would have calmed her down with gentle words If he had been Emu he would have reminded her of the hope still waiting for them. As himself, all he could do was rub her back and hold her as she cried, fighting back a few stray tears of his own as he remembered everyone that he had left behind.
He finally settles on something to say.
"They miss you too."
Seven years' worth of assorted notes cover the map of Tokyo. It's so large that it takes up a whole table at WEEKEND CAFE, in a special booth all of its own. The notes are in dozens of different colors from all kinds of pens, three styles of handwriting popping up more than any others. The notes are a reminder, a visual representation of the time passed since Kohane had nearly been kidnapped. Seven years since she had been saved by a man bursting onto the scene, asking curtly if the woman leading her away from the playground was her mother. Making a scene until Kohane's father hung up his phone call and rushed to her side. Seven years since her father had invited Ken Shirashi and his daughter, a bubbly girl who protected Kohane with the same ferocity, over to their place for dinner as thanks. (It was the least they could do, after all.) Seven years since the news reported on four other children going missing. The realization had been instant. Kohane was supposed to be part of that group. Too many things lined up for her not to.
It had been national news, especially considering the backgrounds. One was the son of a world-class classical musician, another the son of a prominent painter. Still, another was the youngest heir to the Ootori Corporation. International coverage came once the Ootori family set a reward for the safe return of their youngest. (Then that reward doubled and included the other children as well. It still grew every year, the number so high now that it made Kohane's head spin.) Still, it had been seven years. Money only kept the public's interest for so long. The four children had been pronounced legally dead and funerals were held, funded by the Ootori family.
Yet Kohane still sat and stared at this map. An still hung close to her side, tracing the edge of her laptop stickers. They hadn't given up hope. They couldn't afford to. Her eyes were drawn to the news headline they had printed out and glued to the edges of their map all those years ago; four frozen faces staring back at her. Kohane was supposed to have disappeared just like the others, it had been pure luck that An had convinced her dad to go to the park that day. The guilt, unwarranted as it was, still hung heavy in her heart to this day. It was her responsibility to bring them home. To help them in whatever way she could.
Kohane took another sip of her drink and turned back to the list of people on her phone. Their motley task force had shrunk over the years, as more and more people gave up hope, but they were still a mighty group, even if most of their members were online sleuths. Several other kidnapping cases had been solved accidentally, which was absolutely a good thing. It just stung all the more when another month passed without those four back home.
An placed her hand over Kohane's. "You getting in your head again? We can take a break."
"It just feels like we haven't made any progress." She sighed.
An grinned. "Then you'll love the email I just got." She lifted up the laptop and set it down in front of her girlfriend. An cleared her throat. "This one is from Pomme. You remember how OYSTER Medical has always been drowning in fraud and malpractice cases, and that last year they finally had enough to start taking the CEO to trial?"
"Yeah, why?" Kohane had heard more about OYSTER medical in the past year than she had most anything else. Saki Tenma, one of her friends from school, had a grudge against the company. They were always on the cutting edge of medical advancements, especially with mobility support and prosthetics, but had driven the prices up astronomically.
"Apparently, there have been tons of documents coming out, especially in regards to how their medical data. None of it has been released to the public yet, but," An smiled. The law had long since stopped being their main concern. "Pomme got a hold of some of the reports. One from seven years ago mentions receiving an 'incorrect number of test subjects' and 'restructuring the program to account for four instead of five'."
Kohane's heart stopped. "Are you suggesting..."
"The dates line up, and they've had nasty rumors about human experimentation for years."
"Yeah, rumors . You can't seriously be suggesting that they've been experimenting on these kids."
An shrugged. "It's worth looking into if nothing else. Besides, maybe we can find some other dirt on them and leak it. Help speed up the trials. You know Saki would love that."
"She would," Kohane admitted.
"Girls," Ken called from the doorway. His face was dark, more serious than Kohane had seen in seven years. "There's someone asking for you."
Outside of the cafe was a woman with long black hair. Her doe eyes and pouty lips were framed with wrinkles, but Kohane recognized her in an instant. She had described those features to sketch artists so many times they were burned into her mind. She had the nerve to smile as the girls approached.
"You must be Kohane." Her voice was still dripping with honey, the same way it had been when she asked Kohane to follow her. ( Could you help me reach my ring? I dropped it under a vending machine and my arm is too big to reach. It's just over this way. I'm sure your parents won't mind .)
"What do you want?" It took every ounce of self-control she had to keep her tone civil and gaze polite. An, on the other hand, was outright scowling at the woman.
"I want to make things right." She shifted, and it was only then that Kohane noticed the baby on her hip.
"And why should we listen?" An growled, stepping in front of her girlfriend. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't call the cops right now."
"Because I know where the other kids are." The woman said.
Reluctantly she was let into the cafe. Ken sent An to fix them coffee and led the woman to a chair, gesturing for Kohane to sit next to him. He was the first to speak.
"How the hell do we know this isn't a trap."
"Because I'm sorry." The woman cradled the baby in her lap, letting them chew on her finger. The kid couldn't have been older than a year. "Becoming a mother changed so many things. Above all it changed- I only ever did it for the money. I never actually wanted to hurt anyone." Her voice shook. "When I think about it being my kid- I can't imagine how that would feel."
"You had seven years ," Kohane spoke slowly, carefully. "Why wait? Why not take this to the cops?"
"I'm scared. If my old employers find out that I was the one sharing this information, they wouldn't just go after me." She looked down at her child again. "They're powerful people. I had to be sure that my husband and son would be safe. I have family in Canada who'll help me disappear. We're leaving tonight."
"Then hurry this up." Ken nearly snapped. "Where are they?"
"In an office building in Marunouchi. Get me something to write with and I'll give you the address."
Half an hour later, plans were being drawn up. Emails had been sent out to online associates to start digging into anything they could find on the building and any locals willing to help were invited to the cafe. They needed concert evidence before the police would investigate the building; something suspicious. Kohane and An slipped out before the meeting proper was called to order. An already had a plan. One that she insisted Kohane could learn on the way to Saki Tenma's house.
"Pomme already found the building schematics. Several basement floors aren't listed on any official maps published. They could be down there."
"What does this have to do with Saki?"
"I have a classmate, one who's friends with her brother." She said as they raced through the streets. "They're the ones who are always pulling crazy stunts and bringing robots onto campus. Remember, I told you about that drone the other week?"
Puzzle pieces clicked. "If we attached a camera-"
"We could get it into the building and get evidence. Enough to launch an investigation at least." An grinned. "All we have to do is convince him.