"Look at him, Isn't he the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?"
"He looks just like you."
"Exactly."
Shinichi heaved open his eyelids. For some reason, when the light trickled into his eyes, he got the feeling that it was the first light he'd seen in a very long time. Glancing around the room; he saw hard white shelves filled with research books and neatly stacked equipment; he saw rows of clean worktops, white cliffs against the sea of convenience food packages littered over the floor; he saw machines, lots of them, and could quite make out their purposes; and he saw the two people that he'd heard talking, one male and one female, both in their late teens.
The female's eyes met his.
"Kaito," she breathed, "I think he's conscious. Did you turn him on?"
The male, or Kaito as he was called, scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, I knew it would take a while for him to power up, so, I turned him on in advance..."
They both stared at Shinichi.
Kaito gestured the woman towards the mashines then turned his attention to Shinichi. He knelt down, creasing his lab coat, and squatted in front of Shinichi.
He made eye contact and spoke clearly. "Can you hear me?"
"Yes."
"Can you see me?"
"Yes"
Kaito prodded Shinichi's arm with his finger. "Can you feel this?"
"Yes."
"Are you feeling ok?"
Shinichi was getting tired of this. "I'm fine, Kaito."
Kaito's eyes widened. He lost his balance, falling the short distance from squatting to the floor with a thud. He put his hands of either side of Shinichi's face and Shinichi felt them tremble, just a little.
He moved his hands down, grasping Shinchi's shoulders. "How do you know my name!"
Shinichi was a little taken aback, he glanced towards the woman. "She called you that..."
Kaito breathed out, deeply. At first Shinichi thought it might be from relief, but the way the teenage scientist's eyes softened made him think disappointment was the cause.
Did he do something wrong?
Clearly not wanting to let this get them off on the wrong foot Kaito introduced himself. "I'm Kuroba Kaito," he gestured to the woman, "And that's Miyano Shiho."
"Nice to meet you," Shinichi replied, and for some reason, he didn't give his name in return.
While Kaito stood up Shinichi opted to watch Miyano tinker with the machines. She turned off switches, read readings on the equipment, before starting to remove the wires. She seemed to be an expert, each dexterous of her hand movement smooth and purposeful, as if she allredy knew exactly what she going to do before she even knew she was going to do it. The long snake-like lengths of wire she was pulling out of the mashines seemed to be the same type protruding out of his arms.
Miyano quickly bundled up the wires, placed them on one of the worktops and walked over to him. "Can you lift up your arms?"
Shinichi rasised both both arms upwards and didn't move while Miyano pulled the wires out of them. The skin immediately closed over where they had been removed.
Letting his arms relax Shinichi glanced around the room. "Where am I?"
He was in a lab of some sort, that was for sure.
"Edoka's robotic research centre," replied Miyano.
"A robotics research centre..."
Miyano stretched out her hand. "Can you stand?"
"Yeah, I can, Miyano-san." Shinichi took her hand, and let her pull him up.
"Call me Shiho." She gave a soft smile. "Is there anything else you want to ask me?"
"Okay." Shinichi looked at what he was wearing: jeans and a t-shirt, pretty standard. "Shiho."
He took a deep breath.
There was. There was something he wanted to ask her. The reason to why he'd woken up in a robotics research lab with two teenagers and wires coming out of his body. The question to which he already knew the answer.
"What exactly am I?"
Before Shiho could answer, Kaito stode over to Shinichi and, just like he had done earlier, clasped his hands on the both sides Shinichi's face. This time his hands weren't shaking, they were still.
"What's your name?"
Shinichi couldn't introduce his full name like they had done, he didn't know his surname, but he did know his given name. A name that he didn't know where it'd come from but a name that he'd been thinking of himself as even if he knew something was missing.
"Shinichi."
