AN- Sorry that this took so long to get out, first I had a horrible case of writters block ( which wAki helped me get rid of, she also helped me finish this one so please she her some love ), then my dad was rushed to the ER again, real life is so much fun. Now we go back to Natsuki and the cast gets a little bigger, enjoy.
Disclaimer- I dont own any of the Mai series or Prototype.
I am dedicating this chapter to wAki, without her it wouldnt have made it out this soon and she has to deal with me and everything I think up. :)
Chapter Three: Before the Storm
Natsuki sighed while petting Duran, who was currently enjoying his rub down while laying on her lap. The young wolf pup had been brought in with a whole host of other animals, all of them were to be used to see the effects of the virus on living beings, but the pup had a degenerative disease, deeming it useless in the eyes of Sears for it had only weeks to live at best.
So in the truest sense of squeezing a dollar out of a dime they decided to give it to the "subject" as her meal. After all they had fed her animals before, usually cows and other larger creatures. No one expected her to fall in love with the animal the moment she laid eyes on it.
Natsuki looked up from the bed she was laying on, as the door opened to her cell. She checked the clock positive that lunch was early when she saw the first guard that entered had a small bundle of fur in his hands.
The guard was shocked as he was nearly tackled by an excited Natsuki, she quickly picked up the pup and began examining it, and the startled animal let out a yelp but was quite otherwise.
"Here is your lunch early," was all he said while watching the subject examine the pup, she's never examined her food before.
Emeralds snapped to him, now Natsuki had a confused look on her face. "Where is it?"
"Where is what?" Now the guard was confused.
"My meal."
"You're holding it." As he said it he was becoming increasingly nervous, she has never bonded to anyone or anything before.
Now she looked pissed, "No this is Duran, where is my meal?"
WHAT. She has already named it. Great. Now he was thinking of how he was going to get out of the room, he could feel his buddies slowly backing to the door.
"If you give me a moment I can go get you an appropriate… um meal, it will just be a mo-"
The other guards bolted for the door.
He never got to finish his sentence.
"He should have brought me my meal at the same time as he brought in you right, Duran?" She had a smile on her face as she pet her little pup.
The wolf pup let out a contented sigh then eyed his master, even though he was a pup and had only met Natsuki about three weeks before Shizuru met her, he could sense that his master was troubled.
Standing on her lap now, he leaned forward and began licking her face, Natsuki let out a little laugh and pushed him back down.
"Easy boy, I might miss Shizuru but she will be back and everything can go back to normal. Maybe she will even fulfill her promise and let us go on a walk in the city…" She whispered as she remembered Shizuru's promise.
"Natsuki if you can behave and show everyone that you aren't a danger maybe the General will let me take you out into the city for a little bit, what do you say, I'll even see if we can bring Duran. But you have to behave for a bit. That means no throwing people or eating them, and please stop telling them that you will eat them, it is not helping you. So what do you say?"
Natsuki had been listening and Shizuru had sounded so honest when talking to her, unlike everyone else who had made promises to her, even her mother. But Shizuru had a smile on her face, a true one, one she saved only for Natsuki. Natsuki had begun to notice these types of things about Shizuru over the two short weeks they knew each other, why do you always act so different towards me no one else does, and you wear a mask when you are with other humans, but still not me, why?
"Fine, you have a deal… Shizuru."
"Ara, thank you Natsuki!" Natsuki was stunned for the genuine happiness that she heard in her voice and for the first time blushed in front of her.
"Idiot, I was just agreeing to your deal. That's it, no reason to get so excited." Shizuru noticed the blush and thought it was the most adorable thing Natsuki had done yet.
"That's not why I'm excited, my Natsuki. You called me Shizuru, not Fujino or Doctor."
"What I didn't erm…"
It had gone downhill after that, Shizuru started to tease her daily.
But Natsuki couldn't help but look forward to her coming every day after that promise.
"One of these days the three of us are going to go on that walk Duran you'll see…" She mumbled as she began to daydream about it, it was probably her favorite past time.
Natsuki was walking down the sidewalk with Shizuru beside her and Duran running circles around them.
As Natsuki looked around she could see tall walls of glass, every building looked the same since she had never been outside before. She had tried to live through the memories of those she had consumed but she was never able to mentally piece together the city, people didn't tend to pay much attention to the world around them as they walked to and from places.
Even if everything looked the same, Natsuki was pleased with it, she had Duran and Shizuru, what more did she need. She and Shizuru began a pleasant conversation, with Shizuru doing most of the talking since even in her mind Natsuki couldn't find a way to say anything about her confusing feelings, yep you're definitely a terrifying monster Natsuki.
As they walked the conversation turned to food and they decided to go to a restaurant that just appeared where one of the endless sky scrapers used to be, it was a restaurant that Natsuki recognized from several memories that she had assimilated.
It had tables outside and inside, they chose to sit outside. A faceless waiter quickly got their orders and then the food appeared instantly. They simply enjoyed the company while they ate and once they finished Shizuru stood and said "Ara, my Natsuki, I hope you enjoyed this, where would you like to go next. Or would you prefer to go back now?"
This is where her daydream would normally end, but since it was a day dream she figured now was the perfect time to practice.
"Actually Shizuru, there is something I wanted to talk to you about…"
"Really, and what would that be, Natsuki?" Natsuki had looked away when she spoke and looked back now to see that they were in a park, it looked like a large circle of grass with trees here and there, and the rest of it was blackened out, as if they were under a spotlight.
"Well, y-you s-se-e I wanted to um, talk to …" Her voice failed her, even in a daydream she couldn't tell Shizuru, what if she's afraid of me, what if she laughs and says it was just a joke. But her greatest fear was what locked her mouth shut. What if she leaves and doesn't come back…
Shizuru had stepped right in front of Natsuki while she was thinking and leaned forward, "Yes, Natsuki. What is it you wish to tell me?" Her voice sent shivers down Natsuki's spine. Now or never…
"Shizuru, I wanted to tell you…" Natsuki stopped as her dream self felt warm breath on her lips, Shizuru was right in front of her, their lips separated by only a few inches now.
"If Natsuki isn't going to use her lips, I think I will…"
Shizuru leaned forward and right as they were about to kiss-
Natsuki was jolted to her senses by Duran's small growls. She looked to find him at the glass wall, glaring at a redhead with lime colored eyes who was just smiling back at her, "My, by that shade on your face I say someone had a 'good' dream. How was she, eh mutt?"
Great just who I wanted to see... Natsuki quickly looked to her mirror to see she was indeed red-faced. Even in a dream she makes me blush, infuriating woman.
"Now, you know spider I really don't want to do this right now, so Nao would you go away now." Natsuki smirked as she finished knowing it would piss of her 'friend'. The redhead hated it when Natsuki did that, used the word 'now' as much as possible with her name.
And it had the desired effect Nao was not happy, her smirk replaced with a scowl. Right before she uttered her retort, it looked like a light bulb went on above her head and her smirk returned.
"So where is the mutt's leash at anyway, last I heard she visited you every day." At this Natsuki's blush returned thinking of her daydream, but Nao's next comment had shocked Natsuki still.
"Maybe you finally scared her off for good or maybe not, hmm. Either way, maybe I should go find her, we could go for a walk around the city, could even take your little pup there, what's his name again… Duran with us and get him some exercise for you. And then later we could go back to my place and well, you know do this and that, what do you think mutt?"
Nao's smirk grew as she watched Natsuki just standing there stock still, staring at the floor, her hair covering her face. She almost began laughing when she saw Natsuki begin to shake, but any sadistic joy she was having at Natsuki's expense vanished when said girl raised her face back up to look at Nao.
Natsuki was glaring at her now, but her eyes had changed, the whites were now black, and her forest green irises had swallowed her pupils and were glowing now.
How dare you…
Nao…
Pure rage and hatred were etched on Natsuki's face as she slowly walked toward Nao, but with each step she took she her slowly started to smirk.
So safe on the other side of that blast glass Nao? We'll see…
Now Natsuki was standing in front of Nao, with only a foot of glass between them. It was taking everything that Nao had in her to not take a step back.
"Did you know Nao, that this reinforced blast glass can stand up to two thousand pounds, one ton, of force per square inch? That's what the general has assured me of, many times before. Keeping the public safe and all that." As she spoke Natsuki placed her right hand on the glass palm facing away from her.
Nao relaxed, all the tension leaving her body, not even you can get through that mutt, her smirk returned.
That's what I was waiting for spider.
Nao could see from Natsuki's posture that she was pushing on the glass and she laughed, even some of the guards in the hallway gave a light chuckle at her attempts. As Natsuki continued, Nao continued to laugh at her till…
CRACK
And there it is.
Silence.
No one moved or breathed as a large crack spread out from where Natsuki was pushing, and then she gave one last push and half of the wall spider-webbed with cracks in it.
Nao took a shaky step back then ran down the hall while all the guards readied their weapons and told Natsuki to back away from the wall.
"Fine." She smirked.
Got my point across anyway.
Before she went back to her bed as guards rushed in, some toke Duran away, the rest just had their weapons trained on her, trying their best not to show any fear.
She walked up to the closest guard, who took several steps back. "Tell the general, two days."
"W-what about t-two d-d-days?"
Now Natsuki had the most disturbing smile on her face as her eyes returned to normal. Then she continued, "The day after tomorrow, if Shizuru doesn't come back by then, I'm going to go find her."
As she went back to her bed to lie down his response made her let out a small laugh, "You know we can't allow that."
As she laid down she gave a short reply that chilled the blood of all the guards as they left the room, "You can try to stop me, if you like."
Now that she was alone again, Natsuki's thoughts traveled back to Shizuru, but now there were twisted and warped. She kept imagining that Shizuru was just playing with her the whole time and that she didn't care for Natsuki at all, or worse that she liked Nao and it was all just a sick game they played with her. See who could break her first.
In two days I will have my answer…
Do you care Shizuru?
Nao ran down the hallway, news had already spread that there needed to be improved containment measures placed around the subject, not that that will matter, she just pushed and the glass gave way, why is she still even in that cage if she can just knock over the walls.
As Nao continued her panicked musings she reached the one room she knew would not only be empty in the Sears building, but might hold an answer or two for her.
Shizuru's office, I need to find you just in case mutt does decide to get out, you will be my bargaining chip Fujino.
She quickly picked the lock on Shizuru's office door with a nail file and entered while closing the door behind her, then locking it.
Nao quickly looked around the office to find it was rather barren aside from the very expensive looking computers at her desk, why would anyone need more than one at work.
She sat down in front of the main screen and went through the desk, only finding work related documents and a photo of Natsuki sleeping, wow the mutt doesn't look murderous at all in her sleep, almost cute… Why does Fujino have this?
Not finding anything useful, Nao turned her attention to the screen in front of her, noticing a second photo of Natsuki, this one had her glaring at whoever was taking the photo, right beside it, OMG someone has a thing for the thing, this is to good.
Nao turned on the computer and cursed, glaring at the password screen. Now if I were a Fujino what would my password be…?
Nao looked back at the photo of Natsuki, oh please Shizuru, be that predictable.
Nao typed in Natsuki and cursed when it didn't work. She grabbed the photo and was going to ripe it in half when she noticed writing on the back from the screens light.
Turning it over Nao saw the name "Kuga" on the back, "Didn't know you had a last name mutt."
Ok one more time…
Nao typed in Natsuki Kuga and nearly fell out of the chair when it actually worked, seriously Fujino.
She spent that next half hour checking everything she could find on Shizuru's computers but couldn't find anything telling her where she could find the woman, she was going to give up after checking this last hidden file on the computer but when she opened it she paled.
It had two data packets in it, one labeled Project Aries, and the other named Project Kyoto. They both had dates next to them, Aries happened 18 years ago and Kyoto happened 8 years ago. But what had caused her to pale was what came after the dates, Clearance Kanzaki, and Shizuru had not been able to open them. Meaning that you're not supposed to have these Fujino or else he'd have given you access. Maybe District One did do something to you…
She nearly jumped out of her skin when her cell went off, effectively finishing her detective work.
Quickly answering it her heart dropped even more at the voice coming through the phone. "You're expected in the lab in ten minutes, Valkyrie Seven."
"Got it, Colonel." Nao put as much venom in her voice as she could.
"See you there Seven."
"Prick…" She muttered after he hung up.
Yuuichi you bastard, when the mutt does break out I only hope you and your sick friends are higher up on her list than me… Maybe you could be if I let her know you guys might've hurt her precious Fujino…
Nao arrived at the normal lab with a minute or two to spare, as usual, to stare at the medical bed in the room with a covered female figure hooked up to several machines.
One of these days, I will find out what caused the accident…
Just as she was going over what her vengeance would be like, Colonel Yuuichi entered the lab with Doctor Kurauchi, carrying his suitcase, in tow.
Doctor Kurauchi walked up to the desk beside Nao and placed the metal suitcase he had on it. After he opened it he prepped Nao's arm for the injection.
He turned on a recording device then began filling a syringe with a black fluid, and then turned to Nao who looked away as he said, "Valkyrie Seven, injection number 734, Hime virus at fifteen percent potency now, increased from twelve."
He watched as the injection site showed no reaction, "No visible reaction to injection for the third time in a row, and how do you feel? Any of the normal side effects?"
Nao shook her head, "No adverse side effects present in Valkyrie Seven for the first time, follow up in twenty-four hours."
With that he cleaned up and left, the colonel stayed a moment to eye her before he left as well.
"…bastard…"
Nao barely even noticed as her phone went off, she checked the message, Juliet lets meet in a half hour at Fuuka Park.
Nao sent her response, then gave the unconscious woman on the bed a small smile before leaving while muttering, "Sorry, off to meet another undesirable but this one I'm getting paid for, got to go."
Ok and now we take a quick-ish break, hope you enjoyed it.
