The Clones: Sawada Tsunayoshi Edition

Chapter One: The Awakening

The first thing I saw was white; white walls, white bars, and white lights shining softly around me. I shifted and felt something warm and soft shift with my movement. I attempted to get up, to at least raise my head, and see what this warmth was, but found that I could not move at all. I tried to curse but, to my surprise, the only sound that came out of my mouth was a plaintive whimper. I tried kicking my feet and waving my arms in protest, the only sound coming from my lips were annoying whimpers and gurgles.

After much struggling, throughout which I kept my mouth firmly shut, I realized why I couldn't move. I was lying on my back and, judging from attempted movements with my arms, tightly wrapped in a blanket. I stopped struggling; the effort of moving side to side and trying to move my weak limbs was too much for me. I gave a small sigh, disgruntled by this weakness, as my brain gently shut down forcing my unwilling sprit to sleep.

The next time I woke I found that the blanket had been removed from my body, or at least not as tightly wound around it. I rolled over, noticing the white pillow and blanket, and gave a cautious look around. I was in a crib, a pure white one of course, and surrounding me were nine other cribs, all white, I blinked and froze as I saw a pair of orange eyes blinking back at me. I gave a small gurgle of surprise and started to crawl toward the eyes. The occupant of the cradle beside me also gurgled and made its way toward me. We stopped at the bars of our cradle, the only barrier between us and freedom, as we took stock of what we saw.

The other occupant had, as I already mentioned, orange eyes that seemed to glow brightly as the other occupant stared at me. It had large fluffy brown hair, with streaks of blond, which seemed to puff up. The other was dressed in a white one piece, after a quick glance down I saw that I was wearing the same thing, and seemed over delighted with me, given that it was gurgling happily as it stared at me. A whimper echoed around the room catching both of our attentions and we looked around, trying to locate the sound. It was coming from across the room. We glanced at each other before making our way to the front of our cradles, look through the bars to see a white blanket quivering in the middle of the cradle directly across from us.

We watched the quivering mass for a few minutes, growing bored as it did nothing but quiver. Just as I was about to turn away from the thing an imperious cry came from the cradle to its left, my right, and we watched another fluffy head shove itself against the bars confining it. This one was, in a word, colorful. It had golden eyes and the pinkest mouth I would ever see in my life time. It was not only the appearance that was colorful but also its actions. Unlike me and the one in the cradle beside me this new colorful being was banging its chubby fists against the bottom of its cradle. The pink lips were pouting at any the colorful one looked at, its eyes slightly narrowed in its attempt to glare.

Suddenly laughter bubbled from my other side, my left, and caught all our attentions. This one was golden, almost blindingly so, the white around us not helping to dull the reflected appearance. Golden hair that fluffed up just as the others' did, golden eyes that danced, and golden tan skin. It was rolling around in the crib as it looked to its left. I shifted my position, crawling to get a better view at what the golden one was laughing at. To my astonishment I saw that the one being laughed at was standing. It looked down at us all, its eyes shifting from orange to brown, and seemed to smirk.

Before I could gurgle angrily at this smirker I saw movement to its left, it obviously caught the same movement for it turned around and promptly fell on its butt. The one in the cradle next to it was struggling to stand as will. A small tongue stick out at the corner of its mouth as two hands gripped the bars of its cradle tightly. It lifted one leg up and tried to put weight on it, before falling. It tried again, and fell again. The smirker crawled toward it and started to push at the hands gripping the bars, gurgling furiously at it. The climber whimpered and let go of the bars scooting to the other side.

A growling sound cut through the smirker's angry gurgling. We all turned to see where it was coming from and saw that it originated from two cradles that were sandwiched between orange eyes and the quivering mass. Two pairs of brown eyes blink down at their stomachs, seemingly from surprise before their eyes started to tear up and they started to scream. The noise was piercing and woke the occupant in the cradle beside the one with pink lips. This one blinked sleepily at the noise makers before it seemed to sigh and curled up even tighter into its blanket.

I was annoyed with the screaming until I felt a sharp ache in my stomach. The ache grew stronger and stronger but I tried to hold in my scream of pain. Orange eyes didn't even try, it started to scream too. The quivering mass quivered harder as soft whimpering started to grow into a wail. Pink lips wailed louder than the screamers, banging its fist against the bottom of its crib. The golden one's face twisted in agony as it started to whimper too. The pain in my stomach grew and grew. It felt like something was clawing at my insides. I couldn't hold it in any longer. I wailed and screamed, feeling tears run down my cheek as I experienced hunger for the first time.

We didn't notice the door that opened nor the ten white robed people until each one of us was picked up, cradled in strong arms, and fed something from a warm bottle. I didn't think as I started to greedily suck at the bottle's lip, only concerned with easing this ache. I felt heavy and warm as I sucked the last drop from the bottle. The two feelings mixing and merging as they caused my eyes to drift close. I struggled to wake but it was too much I fell back asleep.

The next time I woke I was no longer in a white room with cradles. Instead I was in a white room with four other beds in it, all placed directly across from a white and silver door.

"Finally someone's awake!" A soft voice came from my right, "I was getting bored. No one else is awake yet."

I turned my head and noticed the orange eyes. I blinked and opened my mouth; a croak was all that came out. Orange eyes chuckled before handing over a bottle. I rose into a sitting position, noticing that my body had lengthened and my one piece had golden embroidery on it. I took a sip from the bottle and cleared my throat.

"Hi," I said, finding my voice surprisingly feminine.

"Hey," Orange eyes grinned at me, "I am Natsuhiko," he pointed at his golden embroidery that spelled out his name.

I looked at my golden embroidery and mouthed the words to myself. Tsu-na-yo-shi.

"It would appear that I am Tsunayoshi." I murmured and looked back at him. I smiled slightly.