"Neru Akita." the blue light scanned my pale face, making me flinch ever so slightly. A pause followed before the light above the metal door turned green.
"Subject 0DEN2, Neru Akita. Commencing field simulation." The doors swung open and I balanced on the balls of my feet, taking in the immense view of the field before me. Though the sim never changed, I couldn't help but take in its beauty. Dandelions and clovers swayed softly in patches against the softest, greenest grass the sim has ever produced. A few yards away, a small crystal blue pond rippled as cherry blossom petals twirled and danced in the wind. Watercolor pastels of purple, gold, pink, and orange dabbled on the slow moving gray clouds in the sky.
I sat contently on the hill, the soft wind kissing my cheeks and playing with my hair. More than anything, she wished her supervisor, Miss Miku, would come. She would always tie my wild golden hair up with the most beautiful satin blue ribbon, one of my only self possessions. My cheek rested against my knee and I drifted off into a momentary sleep as I always did.
"Caretaker of Subject 0DEN2; Hatsune Miku." the mechanical voice droned, opening the door. The sudden noise alerted my senses, but quickly put me back to sleep as I recognized my teal-haired friend's name. I felt the warmth of a body burrow into the grass next to me and a comfortable sigh.
"The simulator never fails to put a stupid season like spring to its justice. I swear, the spring I know and hate is usually throwing bugs in my face and flooding my basement." she laughed, a tinkling bell sound that arose a smile to my face.
"Is it even worse than the dreaded 'summer' you hate with a dying passion?" I asked, my golden eyes peeking sleepily at her smirk.
"Oh, yes. Well, somewhat. Summer isn't that bad; it's full of icecream and pool parties and friends. I recently went to one, and it was great. The worst thing, though, is the heat. God, it's like hell on Earth out there! The sun beats down on you with a merciless force, and even the short, airy stuff is like wearing wet bubble wrap!" she shivered, gesturing toward her sleeveless white tank top and Capri's. "Now spring, it's super annoying. It's not really hot until the last couple of weeks or so, if you're lucky. One year, it snowed all through March, April, and May and for the first three weeks of summer I ended up with a basement pool. Of course, my stupid friends all loved it until SOMEONE, that someone being Len, punched a hole in the wall! Fortunately, he had a blast cleaning it out. Plus, spring's when I have to go back to school and my teachers are the absolute worse, let me tell you..."
Miku continued to ramble on, waving her hands in the air and adding her tinkling laugh ever so often. She loved to talk about her problems with me, most likely because I was the only one who could keep up with her fast, excited speech, wild hand gestures, and still gives her the nods of approval, shakes of disagreement, and join in on her laughter. Not that I didn't love to hear her stories; Miku always had a new story to tell or a new opinion on a subject. She taught me things about the outside world like farms and restaurants and theme parks; she told me about her silly and incompetent friends like Len and Gumi; she even brought her textbooks from college so I could help her with her English term papers. She was my only friend, though I couldn't bring myself to entirely trust her. She worked with my mortal enemies (or so I like to call them), the scientists. I hated the way they looked at me like a foreign object, how they poked and prodded me like an animal, how they whispered behind my back and how they wrote on theirs clipboards with disapproving glances.
"...and then he just glared daggers at me and said in his stupid old man voice, 'Detention is at 6:30, Miss Hatsune. Don't be late for that class.' Isn't that just the stupidest thing ever?! But then, Len assisted me and put super-glue in old man Kiyoteru's chair! How funny is that? I laughed my butt off, but the next day we both got detention. It was still a win on our side. Detention for all and all for detention!" she punched her fist into the air, laughing hard. I smiled and burrowed my face deeper into my knees.
"It must be nice, having lots of friends and going to school. I'd like to go one day. Will you take me?" my finger glided over the lime green grass at my feet. She jumped at the question, and quickly looked away. Though I couldn't see, her aura quickly shifted to sadness, almost pity.
" You'd be in high school, a freshman. But with your smarts you could easily skip right up to junior. My junior year was crazy, let me tell you! That was when I met Gumi, now my best friend. She was somewhat of a loner and..."
My smile dissolved from my face. Did she think I wouldn't catch that? She completely evaded my question, not even giving it a minor thought. Would I really never be able to step into the outside world? Never go to college or high school? Would I always be here... alone? Miku stopped her tongue, glancing at my face with a tortured pity. I really wish she would stop doing that. It made me feel helpless; like my clumsy, evasive, childlike mentor could handle herself better than I could.
"W-well, why don't we start with your tests now?" she shot up from the grass and practically ran into the door.
"Caretaker of Subject 0DEN2; Hatsune Miku."
"Subject 0DEN2; Neru Akita." We made our way into the large white room and I took my usual seat on the bed, knowing the drill. My stretchy long-sleeved white shirt made it's way over my head, leaving an airy yellow tank-top in its place. Miku grabbed a metal cart from the corner, containing my daily injections and whatnot. She picked up a needle filled with yellow fluid, wiped my arm down and stuck it into my shoulder. I barely flinched at the impact but let out a small hiss as the cold fluid filled my arm with a numbing sensation. As she retrieved another needle filled with a light purple substance, she asked her usual questions.
"Has your eyesight become blurry or paled in the last 24 hours?"
"Have you been hearing anything strange or mysterious lately?"
"Are you losing your appetite frequently?"
"Has anything been bothering you lately?"
"How does your head feel?"
"Do you have trouble breathing at night?"
"How many vitamins did you take today and when?"
"Do you remember anything from your past?"
I let out another hiss as she injected a larger needle into my back. Taking a deep breath so she could check my heart rate, I gave her my usual answers.
"No."
"No."
"No."
"No."
"Fine."
"No."
"Eight. Four this morning, four at exactly 4:00 this evening."
"Not one thing."
Miku nodded in approval and picked up a rather large needle, this one filled with a clear gooey mesh. She took a disinfectant wipe to my neck and slipped her hand in mine.
"Are you ready?" her eyes found mine, graciously preparing me for the most painful injection. I took a short breath and nodded as the needle slid into my neck.
The blinding fire that coursed through my neck threatened to release the pained scream from my lips. Instead, a whimper gave out as my hands clung to my mentor, probably crushing her hand with my force. Gasping out in short breaths, I struggled to keep my eyes open and focus on the blurry blue figure that danced in front of me. The fire spread evenly to the rest of my body and I could only hear a thump as my body lifelessly fell onto the bed. Miku pulled the cover over me as I slipped from consciousness.
My eyes flickered open, bringing a soft yawn from my lips. The clock on the wall read 3:00 AM. I was out for a little more than ten hours? With a soft gasp, I held the bandage over my still burning neck. The dosage must've really taken it out of me yesterday. I rolled my shoulders and swung my feet over the edge, shivering as the cold floor gave me my first greeting of the morning. My eyes found the simulation opening and I contemplated going in at such an hour. After a while of staring, I decided against it and pulled out a book Miku gave me.
She called it a romance novel, but I found the romance dry and quite... weird. Who would kill themselves for someone else? What was the need of that? It just didn't make any sense to me, maybe because I wasn't one for love or partnerships. The only people I'd ever known were Miku and the scientists, and they couldn't be trusted.
Just then, a clattering from the hall outside of my room rang out, followed by shouting and momentary grunts of pain. It seemed to be inching closer, and I could make out a teenage, husky voice yelling "Let me go!" followed by two older voices telling him with sharp voices to stop struggling and lower his voice. Suddenly, the metal door turned green and the voice droned,
"Caretaker of Subject 0KAI1; Kaito Shion."
"Resource scientist, Kamui Gakupo."
"Caretaker of Subject 0DEN2, Hatsune Miku."
"Subject 0KAI1, Akaito Shion."
Miku's teal pigtails came in first, her face frowning in deep disapproval and her arms crossed against her chest. A young man with blue hair held tightly onto an arm supposedly belonging to 0KAI1. An older one with long violet hair walked in behind, jotting something down on a clipboard.
"Apparently, you have a new roommate." her head jerked toward the struggling subject whom was out of my sight. The blue-haired man shot her a sharp glance and wiped his bloodied cheek. She stuck her tongue out at him.
"I'll be back in a few hours. You..." she glanced at the struggling blue man. "you be careful. Don't let him get to you and hide your valuables." she nodded to me and quickly sashayed out of the room, muttering something unintelligent under her breath. The violet-haired man took a syringe from his pocket and injected the boy. I could hear his heartbeat slowing down, his breathing slowing down even as he fought. The blue-haired man let him go.
"God, that brat's a fighter," he wiped a trail of blood from his mouth and made his way for the door. The boy lunged at the pair, but only hitting metal wall. He banged his fist on the door weakly.
I didn't want to tell him it was no use; these doors were shut solid with almost 76% titanium. He lifted his head to the light, still sitting at the door.
And then I really saw him. His hair was a bright crimson, shining in the light of the room. The delicate curves of his tan face send chills down my spine. Even slipping from consciousness, his beautiful face was plastered in a frown, his perfect red eyebrows furrowed. But my heart faltered a beat as his eyes slowly met with mine, revealing the most precious thing about him. The bright, blood red orbs widened as they met with mine, a gold on crimson gaze.
"H-hello," we uttered in harmonious unison.