Ichigo was sitting in the cafeteria with Goro, Ikuno, and the other children for their evening meal. Most were eating quietly, except for her.
She picked through her food and sighed.
"Ichigo? What's wrong?" Goro asked, concerned.
She glanced up at him through the bangs of her blue hair.
"I'm worried about Hiro." She admitted, setting her fork down. "He's never been gone this long before. It's almost been two days."
Goro smiled at her.
"You're overthinking it." He said reassuringly. "They are probably just keeping him for some extra tests or something. You know he's a special research subject for a reason."
She knew that he was right, that she was worrying for nothing. Hiro always came back, after all.
But she couldn't help but be uneasy.
Maybe it was because of all the other children who had vanished lately, and how badly Hiro had taken it. He'd been questioning the adults even more often than usual, and he seemed to become more and more frustrated every time they refused to answer.
She wished he'd understand that it wasn't his place to doubt Papa and the others, and she was scared that one day his attitude would get him into trouble. The caretakers were never happy when he asked questions, but he never seemed to learn.
She frowned.
Beside her, Ikuno shook her head.
"You need to eat, Ichigo. You know Hiro wouldn't want you to worry like this."
"Yeah.." The girl mumbled.
"Cheer up." Goro told her. "How about we wait at the entrance for him afterwards? He'll probably be back before it's time for bed. Now come on, eat."
Ichigo looked up and nodded, glancing at her plate with anxious green eyes.
She never touched her food.
The two of them had waited at the entrance of the Nursery for nearly 2 hours, watching the snow fall through the windows as they looked for Hiro before they finally returned to the dormitories.
He never came back.
Ichigo bit her lip, and cast a sidelong glance at Goro as they walked. Even he looked worried now, though he was trying hard to hide it. She could see it in his eyes and the tension in his shoulders.
Where are you?
She didn't understand. What sort of tests could they be doing that would keep him away for this long? He'd only ever been gone for a couple hours at a time before, and her mind kept jumping from one terrible explanation to the next.
"Ichigo! Goro!"
She looked up, startled, when Naomi called her name. The brown haired girl was running toward them and there were tears in her eyes. Ichigo's stomach churned.
"What's wrong Naomi?" Goro asked in confusion as she skidded to a halt in front of him.
"It's...It's Hiro!" She gasped. "He's gone!"
Ichigo paled. Her heart felt like it had stopped.
Hiro was gone?
"What?" She asked numbly. She barely recognized her own voice. It was a tiny, brittle sound.
"They...They took his things. All his books and clothes. Everything." Naomi said, her words quivering. "I asked them what happened to him...and...and they wouldn't say anything!"
This couldn't be happening.
"He's gone! Just like all the others!"
This could not be happening.
The girl began to sob, but Ichigo didn't hear her. She couldn't hear anything but those three horrible words, digging into her like knives, over and over again.
Hiro was gone.
The boy who had given her a name, made her more than just a number, who helped her realize that it was okay to be different, was gone.
He was gone, and her world shattered.
Goro stared at Naomi in disbelief. She had to be wrong.
There was no way.
"Naomi.." Goro said hoarsely, shaking his head. "You can't be serious."
This was Hiro.
The girl didn't reply, and instead only cried harder, her sobs echoing down the hallway.
His gut twisted.
"I knew something was wrong…" Ichigo whispered beside him, and he looked at her. She was pale and shaking, and there was something in her eyes that scared him. It was something dark, hopeless, broken.
This wasn't right. She shouldn't look like that. None of this was right.
"Ichigo…" He said, trying to reassure her despite his own turmoil. "It's Hiro. They wouldn't do this. It has to be some kind of misunderstanding."
He hesitated but grabbed her hand, which hung limply at her side, and pulled her forward.
"Let's go back, we can find one of the caretakers and sort all this out, okay?"
She didn't respond, but followed him wordlessly, as did Naomi.
Goro's mind raced as they walked.
This didn't make sense.
The children who disappeared were always washouts. He didn't like it, but he understood it. But Hiro? He was the best of them all. He'd always had the highest aptitude scores, and the adults had even made him a special research subject because of how skilled he was.
So why?
Why would they do this?
It had to be a mistake.
They found one of the caretakers waiting for them outside the dorms. The woman, who wore the same ceramic mask and grey uniform as the rest of the Garden's staff, was herding the other children away for the night. She turned to them.
"Code 056, 015, and 703. It is time for curfew." She told them, her voice blank.
Goro stopped.
He had never questioned the adults before, had never seen a reason to. That had always been Hiro. He'd always been the one who wanted answers, not him.
But now…
The memory of Hiro's kind smile flashed through his mind, and he glanced at Ichigo. Her shattered gaze stared back.
He swallowed and stepped forward.
He had to know what was going on. He had to fix this somehow.
"What happened to Code 016?" Goro asked finally, looking up at the woman, and his glasses glinted harshly in the artificial light of the hallway.
The caretaker regarded him from behind her mask, her lips thin.
"That's none of your concern." She said flatly, and turned away. "Now, return to your rooms."
Goro faltered at her dismissal, and he remembered all the times Hiro had tried to find out about the others, only to be rebuffed and ignored. Was this what his friend had always felt?
He had never understood Hiro. He had just accepted that this was the way things were. He had never cared enough to go against the adults, not for the other children he had barely known and always resented, not when Papa and the others had made them and took care of them.
Yet Hiro had.
He had always cared. He had given them all names even when the adults had tried to stop him, and told them about all the things he learned in his books. He told them about stars and places they had never even heard of, and taught them sayings from people long dead. He had always been there for everyone, no matter what.
His eyes hardened.
He grabbed her sleeve before she could take more than a few steps.
"Where is Code 016? Why did you take his things?" He asked again.
"As I said, it's not your concern."
"But it doesn't make sense! Code 016 was-"
"That is enough, Code 056." She reprimanded him sharply, cutting him off, and he narrowed his eyes.
"But-"
"Enough." She said with finality. "Return to your room. You have 5 minutes."
Goro gritted his teeth. No!
"This has to be a mistake, Hiro wouldn't-"
"Command expected they might be a problem." A new voice said grimly behind him, and he jumped, spinning around.
The man, who he recognized as the one who had taken Hiro away two days before, loomed over him. The caretaker stared him down silently, but Goro glared back, his brown eyes fierce.
"Where is Hiro?!"
"That's none of your business."
Why wouldn't they give him an answer!? He needed to know! He had to!
"Stop saying that!" Goro spat. "None of this makes sense! Hiro is-Ow! "
The man grabbed his arm harshly, and he yelped as the adult's fingers dug into his skin. Goro tried to pull away, but his grip was like iron.
"You forget your place, Code 056." He told the boy coldly, who looked up at him with wide eyes. He turned to the woman. "I'll take him back, you handle Code 015 and 703."
She nodded.
"Wait!" Goro protested as the man pulled him along roughly. "Please! I need to know what happened to him! Where is he?!"
Silence was his answer, and behind him, he heard Ichigo begin to cry.
"You have to bring him back!"
Ikuno sat on her bed, and watched Ichigo from across the room sadly. The blue-haired girl was curled up with her face buried in her knees, and she could hear her sobbing lightly even from here. She hadn't stopped since the caretakers had brought her and Naomi back to the dorm almost an hour ago.
She bit her lip.
Ikuno had never been as close to Hiro as the others. Ichigo had given her a name herself and only introduced her to the boy later on. He had been kind to her and treated her like all of his other friends. She knew why everyone loved him.
But...
She had always been jealous of him.
She hated how Ichigo always seemed to forget everyone else around her when she was with Hiro, and how she would talk endlessly about the things he had shown her even when they were apart. She saw the way Ichigo looked at him, her green eyes heavy with admiration and affection, and it burned.
Ikuno wanted that.
She wanted Ichigo to light up when she saw her, to just be happy she was around. But she knew it would never happen, not while she had Hiro, and so she had resented him even as she did her best to not let it show. She had known she was being petty after all, that Hiro didn't deserve it, but she couldn't help the way she'd felt.
And now, part of her was glad that he was gone, and she was disgusted.
Ichigo was broken and suffering and a boy who had only ever tried to be her friend was gone, and she was happy?
What was wrong with her?
You're a monster, her mind whispered, and she looked away.
Ikuno wanted to do something, to comfort Ichigo somehow. Yet every time she thought of getting up and going to her, she remembered the bitter elation she'd felt when she learned that Hiro was gone, and it made her want to vomit.
She didn't deserve it, didn't deserve Ichigo's friendship, her name, any of it.
Ikuno heard Ichigo whimper in the dark then, a pitiful, painful sound, and tears burned at her eyes.
Your name's "Ikuno" now. Like it?
She was a terrible person.
Monster
Monster
Monst-
No!
She didn't deserve it, Ikuno knew she didn't, but maybe she could earn it.
She couldn't sit here and listen to her crying anymore, doing nothing, feeling sorry for herself.
Ichigo needed her.
So Ikuno stood.
She moved soundlessly across the room. Most of the other children were already asleep, but she didn't want to wake anyone and alert the caretakers. They wouldn't be happy that she was up.
She came to a stop beside Ichigo, but the girl didn't notice, too wrapped up in her own misery, her body shaking with her sobs. The sight left her hesitant, indecisive, ashamed but finally she sat down beside her and touched her shoulder, shaking her slightly.
"Ikuno?" Ichigo mumbled, looking up at her with teary green eyes.
Her heart clenched and self-disgust welled in her chest, but she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around the girl tightly, desperately, resting her head on her shoulder. She felt Ichigo shudder and the girl clung to her like a lifeline.
"I'm sorry…" She apologized shakily, whispering into her ear. She was sorry that Hiro was gone, sorry that she was so terrible, sorry that she hadn't come sooner.
"I'm so, so sorry."
Mitsuru burned.
The Elixir Injection had hurt worse than anything he'd ever felt. It was like they had poured liquid fire into his veins, and the pain had been unbearable. He'd screamed his throat raw until he passed out, only to wake hours later and go through it all again. It had been torture. Even now, three days later, every inch of his body still ached.
But it didn't matter. None of it did.
He was alive.
He had survived.
Mitsuru had proven, finally, that he wasn't weak, wasn't useless. Where so many others who'd taken the injection had died, he'd endured.
He might be a triple digit, but he was special now, just like Hiro.
The boy smiled tiredly at the thought.
The adults would let him stay in the Garden, he wouldn't disappear. He could become a Parasite, and pilot with Hiro just like they'd promised.
If I come back alive, will you pilot with me?
Of course!
It was all worth it.
"Code 326."
The clinical voice of one of the doctors roused him from his thoughts, and he looked up with deep green eyes, squinting against the light. He tried to move his arm to cover them, but even the attempt set his nerves alight and he groaned.
It was worth it, but he really, really wished it would just be over already.
"The pain is still intense?" The man asked absently as he stood over the bed, and Mitsuru nodded, wincing. He made a note of his reaction on the tablet he carried and scrolled to another page.
"Your Yellow Blood Cell count has finally stabilized," he informed him. "And you've shown no signs of complications. As such, we can now administer an analgesic until you recover fully if you wish."
"Analgesic?" Mitsuru asked raspily. His throat burned.
What was that?
The doctor tilted his head.
"A pain reliever. "
His eyes widened and he nodded jerkily.
Finally!
"Very well." The man said and pressed a button on the screen.
He felt the medication flood his veins instantly through the IV attached to his arm, cooling and soothing everything it touched. The sensation rushed from his arm through his chest, and then from his head to his toes, leaving only blessed numbness.
The boy slumped in relief.
"That will put you out until tomorrow morning. Afterwards, you should be clear to return the Nursery."
Mitsuru didn't hear him.
He was already out.
When he woke the next day after the Injection had ran its course, Mitsuru thought it was odd that he didn't feel all that different. He had expected to feel stronger, faster, better somehow, especially after all the pain.
Instead, nothing had changed.
If the doctors in the Lab hadn't confirmed that it was a success, he might've worried that the treatment had failed, that he was still going to be thrown away, but even the brief assessment they'd given him that morning had already shown a significant increase in his aptitude scores.
He still smiled when he remembered his results, and the adults had told him that his scores would increase in time as his body adapted to the changes. He still didn't know exactly what the Elixir did to him, but he didn't care, not really. All that mattered was that for the first time in months, he didn't have to worry about washing out.
It was all over.
"You've been cleared to return to your training." His escort told him and he looked up. The woman, one of the caretakers, had retrieved him from the Lab and brought him back to the Nursery. She'd been silent until now. "The other children should be still in the dormitory getting ready for breakfast. Go."
Mitsuru grinned at the dismissal and took off in a sprint.
He had to find Hiro!
As soon as Mitsuru entered the dorm, he knew something was wrong. No one greeted him, and all of the children were quiet. A few even looked like they had been crying.
What happened? Had the adults taken someone away again?
He bit his lip, and the happiness he'd had since he woke up faded, replaced by dread.
Who had it been this time? Samii? Junna?
Mitsuru shook his head. Wondering wouldn't do him any good.
He really needed to find Hiro.
"Mitsuru?"
A familiar voice said behind him, and he sighed in relief. He'd know what was going on.
"Goro!" Mitsuru exclaimed, and he spun around to face him. However, when he saw his friend, he froze. "Goro?"
The blond boy looked terrible. His face was grim and his eyes were dark and bloodshot. He looked like he hadn't slept at all, and there was an ugly purple bruise wrapped around his right arm.
"What happened?" He asked worriedly. The boy didn't answer him and instead looked away.
His stomach dropped. This was really bad.
Had they taken Ichigo? No, that didn't make sense. She was a teen digit like Hiro. Maybe Ikuno or Naomi?
"Goro? Who was it?"
Goro gritted his teeth and met his eyes. They were haunted.
For a moment the boy was silent as if trying to find the right words, before he said something that would haunt his dreams for years to come.
"It's Hiro. He's gone."