It was so dark. It was so cold.
She didn't know where she was, but fear gripped her chest as she opened her eyes and was surrounded by darkness, she tried to swim, but she didn't have the space to move, wherever she was, she was trapped in a small space, and that caused her heart to beat even faster. She didn't like small spaces!
How did she get here? The last thing she remembered was going out for some food, and then she was...she was caught in a net!
Oh nonononononno! No! Only humans have nets, she's been captured by humans!
Her breathing grew erratic, what were they going to do with her? Were they going to cut her open? Eat her? Torture her? She let out a scream, but nothing came of it as there seemed to be no reaction outside of the small dark space.
She curled up on the bottom of the space, what else was she to do, she was too weak to try and break the walls down, and her once long claw-like nails were down to the quick so she couldn't claw at the walls, she probably couldn't even land a scratch on those humans.
She was going to die.
She curled up into a smaller ball on the ground. It's not like it matters. No one is going to care if she was dead, her family probably didn't even realize that she was gone, they will probably be glad to be rid of her anyway. Her eyes drifted close as she fell asleep.
Was it hours? Days? How long has she been in here? Her back was starting to ache with how she had to maneuver to find come comfortable position, but the space she was in was just so small. Were they even going to let her out?
Then she felt movement outside of the space, she yelped as she slammed into the walls and was jumped around, she let out a groan only for a bright light to enter the space, but before she could react she felt the water she was in tip forward and she went with it, falling out of the small space she had been held in.
She fell into a larger body of water, much larger than where she just was, she tried to open her eyes only for them to burn at the too-bright light, it was so unnatural, she made a sound of pain as she covered her eyes in pain, after a moment she removed them and looked around, her vision was blurry, but she saw a lot of white.
She looked around and saw a blurry figure in front of her, it was standing on two legs, a human, hissing in fear she swam as far as she could, only to hit a wall. She reached and rubbed her now aching head, she looked at the wall, but there didn't look to be a wall. Hesitantly she reached her hand up and placed it on the invisible wall, what was this?
She then heard some voices, they sounded muddled, she couldn't hear a lot of what was being said, as it was hard to hear words on land when underwater, however, she does know the human language, as she has studied it and would listen near the shore side when she felt brave enough or well when she saw a cute male catch her eye.
She pressed her ear on the invisible wall to listen, "Treatment," "Specimen," "Procedures."
That was all she could make out, what were they talking about, and why was she here?
She pushed herself away from the wall, only to see a human staring at her from the other side of the wall, it looked to be a female with olive-green eyes and short brown hair, a scared screech escaped her as she swam away, only to hit another invisible wall, hitting her head, and losing consciousness.
Today was her first day in the new sector of the Hope's Peak Research Facility, she had been working on the upper levels as a lower level researcher on smaller and easier subjects and specimen, but she was finally promoted to work with the stranger cases that they researched, those that are considered a myth to the public.
She stood in the elevator alone as she was descending onto a lower level, she took a nervous deep breath and looked into her reflection in the mirror on the wall next to her, flattening out any brown stray hairs and adjusting her lab coat and bag only for the elevator to beep, signaling that she had made it to her floor.
She took a deep and said to herself, "You got this Komaru."
The doors opened and she walked out, although there was a slight hesitation in her step, she looked around and saw that all the other scientist were in a buzz, running around and seemingly getting something ready, she looked to her right and saw a massive water tank with some people working around it.
She was so confused and felt so out of place, what was she supposed to do?
She then felt a tap on her shoulder, startling her, she turned and saw a woman with long light pink hair and brown eyes and she seemed to have a rather relaxed demeanor about her. "Hey, you're the newbie right? Komaru Naegi?"
"I uh, yes, I'm Komaru Naegi. And who are you?"
"I'm Hiroko Hagakure, I'm one of the higher-ups here, I'll show you around."
She turned and Komaru followed, "So can I ask, what's up with everyone, was there a discovery?"
"Ah yes, you see it appears they have caught a siren," The older woman replied so nonchalantly.
Komaru stopped, "A-a siren! A-as in a mermaid?"
"Yup, it's being transferred now, so they're preparing for its arrival."
"T-that's incredible!"
"I guess so if you consider locking up a defenseless creature and putting it through hell for testing to be incredible."
"Huh?"
The older woman sighed, "Don't worry about it," she ran a hand through her long hair and continued, "Looks like you won't be doin' much since everything so hectic."
There was then a shout, the two women looked over and saw a forklift driving over to the tank, holding a large, yet also small black box. She watched with interest, not noticing Hiroko's glare.
They watched as the scientists removed the lid and tipped the box over, releasing the siren, and to Komaru, this felt like she was living in a fairy tale, after all despite working at this facility that specialized in these things, it still didn't feel real that creatures like that truly exists in the same world as she.
She stared at the creature, who had long tangled dark purple hair and a tail to match, although the tail looked rather beat up and scarred, they were old wounds from what she could tell, the creature uncovered its eyes, revealing them to be a light grey color. The skin above the tail was pale and they wore a dark purple cloth around their chest, and they looked rather feminine.
She walked forward to have a closer look, she couldn't help but stare, after all, this was more than likely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see such a thing, she was one of the few people to ever see this. Komaru watched as she(?) swam in the tank and swam up to the wall she was by, pressing a webbed ear against the glass, could she hear them, she could overhear some of the words the scientist were saying, and there was a slight twist in her chest, "We can start the tests and treatment tomorrow, and seeing how the specimen fairs we can move on to the DNA extraction, and medical procedures."
She pushed that feeling down, they were just wanting the answers to the unknown, besides they said they were going to give her some treatment, probably for the scars that littered across her tail. They will let her back out once they gather all the information they need, she was sure of it.
She continued to look at the mermaid and took a step closer to the glass, only for it to pull away from the glass, their eyes met for a brief moment before a garbled shriek left it as it swam away, only to hit its head against the other side of the tank.
Komaru gasped as the mermaid sunk to the bottom of the tank, but she could see that it was breathing(?), so she let out a sigh of relief. She glanced around and no one seemed to have noticed, as they seemed distracted by computers or writing on clipboards. She turned back to look at the Siren, wondering how her, yes her, song would sound, and what sort of life she lived.