CHAPTER 5
Author's Note: hi omniXenderman here, this is the first chapter ive written for malpractice, but i was also responsible for telling salt the more intricate scientific bits along with the title of this story, along with the memory problems. though usually we bounce most of the plot details off of each other, not a sentence goes by in the story than we both didn't have our hands in...anyway be sure to check out my stuff if you like this chapter, and ftr, i'll be writing most of the depraved twisted sections of the story from here on
Ozaki took a long hit from his cigarette as he paced around the basement room. His shoes made an obnoxious clicking sound on the tile floor that Tohru had since learned to associate with pain. He shuddered as the doctors shadow loomed in the door frame.
"Great…I wonder if he plans to cut into me again? These experiments seem redundant, what eventual goal could he possibly have…honestly….then there is the matter of….her" Tohru felt a cold chill pass up his spine as he looked down at Megumi sleeping on his lap. "its bad enough that Megumi is my responsibility, but for Ritsu to be here too? She definitely deserves better….then there is Masao…..he's still his old self…and that certainly is not a good thing…" Tohru sighed with boredom. "I wish that he would at least give us something to read…" the group of vampires flinched as Ozaki flipped the circuit breaker and light flooded the room.
"Good evening everyone, I hope you've been well." he said casually as he passed them all a blood pack. Megumi looked up innocently at the doctor.
"Why don't I ever need to eat food? No one has had any since we got here." Ozaki laughed as she pouted.
"Relax Megumi, this medicine is filled with nutrients so you should be able to sustain yourself indefinitely…" he gave the other three shiki a derisive look that Megumi failed to notice.
"So what do you want from us tonight?" Tohru asked in a hushed whisper, dreading the moment when Ozaki selected one for research. Megumi's tests were benign enough, but his own were filled with pain, and no amount of anesthetic would help him. Then again he might just want to run more benign tests…or worse, Ritsuko was next in line for "invasive" testing.
"I need Masao this time." Masao looked up tepidly at the doctor. Ozaki met him with a friendly smile. His eyes were cold as ice, but the smile itself was warm enough for Masao to let his guard down. "stay calm, I'll try to keep my research with you brief."Masao breathed a sigh of relief.
"If you say so…what will we be doing?" Ozaki turned his head away and bit his lower lip.
"Just some routine tests…we'll talk about it once your in the room with me." Suddenly Ritsuko's voice echoed across the room.
"Doctor, if I may, would it be alright for me to assist you this time? I want to try and repay you for keeping us safe and fed these last few days." Ozaki pondered for a moment…
"This is probably something you'll want to opt out of, you'll just get in the way." He said flatly.
"Please doctor! I want to help you! I want to help all of us!" Ozaki shot her that same cold laugh.
"Fine, fine. You can watch and learn and if I need assistance you can help me fetch tools." Masao shuddered when he heard the doctor mention tools. "Anyway, come along you two. We've got a lot of work to do.
"The date is November 17 1995"
"The time is 10:17 pm"
"I'm beginning my experiments on subject e. murasako Masao. The subject was found with Megumi shimizu in the Kanemasa ruins. A stake driven clean into the left side of his body. Upon further research into his medical records it was revealed that Masao suffers from dextrocardia. His heart is on the opposite side, ergo the stake missed any fatal organs. I'm planning to recreate my original experiments with kyoko and with Tohru for redundancy's sake, along with several other specific procedures."
"But doctor, you already have those results, why do them to Masao too?" Ritsuko objected. She motioned to the gaunt shiki restrained on the operating table
"its all for good science, you can hardly call two research subjects a sample size." He said coldly.
"Wait what are you planning to do to me?!" Masao said as he thrashed in the bindings.
"Don't worry Masao, you shiki heal so no matter what I do you will ultimately be fine." Ritsuko was utterly unnerved by the empty stare that haunted the doctor's eyes.
"Experiment one, religious artifact tests"
Ozaki drew a wide variety of symbols on scratchpaper and pulled out a few small statues of various figures. He held a poorly drawn crucifix up to Masao's face.
"Get that thing away…its creeping me out" Masao said uneasily. Ozaki showed him the other symbols and all had a similar reaction.
"Subject seems only somewhat unnerved when drawn symbols are placed in his field of vision. Interesting note is that symbols from religions such as Christianity and Buddhism seem to have the most noticeable effects. Though symbols from Greek mythology also seem to instill some level of unnerve. Perhaps the most interesting find was that even a pentagram caused a measure of discomfort, though paper symbols overall seem to have diluted effects when compared to solid objects."
Ozaki started pulling out figures of various sizes. One by one he held them up to Masao's face. First, a small crucifix.
"gah…get it away, seriously this isn't funny!" me noticed Masao jerk his hands and scrape the table. Next a large Zeus figure. Masao still scratched and clawed trying to jerk away from it. His fingernails were starting to grow bloody and the operating table jerked back and fourth. His reaction was more subdued when Ozaki held up a figure of Lucifer, but Ritsuko could still see the look of blind horror in his eyes.
Here is the last one…." Ozaki held up an ornate crucifix with a representation of jesus nailed to its frame. It was golden and ornate, lined with a silver trim. He held it several feet away from Masao, but his reaction was the most violent it had been.
"Get it away! Get it away! Move it now! Please!" Masao began to thrash as violently as his weak body would let him, pe pulled at his restraints, it bruised his wrists as he jerked and jolted around. He began to break into hysterical sobs as Ritsuko looked on in horror. Ritsuko caught a glimpse of the objects and felt a tight pain in her own chest. After a few more moments of thrashing around doctor Ozaki noticed a stain appearing on the vampires pants. Masao had soiled himself. Ritsuko scratched her nose when the smell of stale urine filled the room, but doctor Ozaki only motioned to his notebook like usual.
"As I had assumed. Physical objects produce a much more violent reaction. I have a theory, perhaps the more popular and feared the religion is, the more effect it has over shiki. This seems to be the case as objects from more popular religions seem to be the most powerful….however even images of the devil seem to frighten shiki. One final note is that the more ornate the object, the greater the fearful effect….perhaps it's a psychosomatic effect…..i'll have to research this phenomenon at a later date."
Ozaki brought out another assortment of instruments. This time, it was an assortment of lights and laser pointers. Everything from a small nightlight to an industrial spotlight. Masao eyed the instruments hesitantly while Ritsuko gently wiped tears away from his face. She looked at the doctor with reserved terror, knowing what was coming next.
"experiment two, light sensitivity."
Ozaki pulled out the small nightlight and shined it in Masao's face.
"Does that bother you Masao?" he stuttered when he spoke back to the doctor, still very much shaken by the previous test. He looked at the lights dim glow and turned back to see the face of the doctor.
"Not really. You're shining it in my eyes, and it's a bit annoying…but no it doesn't bother me." Ozaki nodded and went to a standard room light. Again Masao had no reaction. Ozaki then brought out a spotlight and focused the beam on Masao's open chest.
"agh…. That's hot!" Masao said.
"How hot?" Ozaki retorted.
"It's like I'm in a bath that was too warm, or maybe I took a sip of fresh coffee." Ozaki nodded.
"Subject seems to be discomforted by indoor light, but it fails to cause the same burning reaction." Ritsuko was growing concerned by how methodically Ozaki was handling Masao's pain.
Ozaki grabbed one of the small laser pointers and flicked it on. He heard a small gasp from Ritsuko and noticed the beam strike her left hand.
"What's wrong?" he walked up to her and noticed a small healing red mark on the back of her wrist.
"That light burned me a little." The doctor's eyes instantly turned to Masao. The teen gulped.
"You saw what it did to her, so there is no need to try it on me right?" he pleaded.
"Sorry, I still have to test it on different parts of your body, and to see prolonged exposure…them's the brakes kid." Ritsuko saw the slight smirk creep up on Ozaki's face….she shuddered for what was in store for Masao, even if the boy filled her with unease.
Ozaki flicked the beam back on and held it to Masao's cheek. The boy tried to squirm away, but that only made the beam trace in fresh skin, adding to his pain.
"Ow ow ow! Its like getting burnt with a cigarette butt!" Ozaki nodded silently and started flickering the beam on Masao's chest, each little prick of pain caused him to jerk in another direction. Ozaki chuckled lightly as he traced a smiley face with the beam, revealing itself as a red bruise on Masao's skin.
"Doctor! Stop playing games." She said indignantly. He shot a beam on her cheek and laughed as she rubbed her face.
"Alright….here" Ozaki grabbed a scalpel. Masao's eyes went white with fear when he saw the blade glitter in the dim light of the operating room.
"What are you planning to do with that?" Masao could barely whisper.
"Right now? I just want to see how the light reacts in deep muscle tissue." He cut a small slit in the palm of Masao's hand. Masao screamed when he felt the burning sensation from the blade slice through a piece of cartilage. He flexed his wrist involuntarily as the wound started to close, but then screamed again as the doctor jammed a splint in the wound, keeping it open. All he could do was watch in horror as Ozaki lowered the beam onto the muscle in his palm.
"AAAAAGGGHHH!" Masao wailed at the top of his lungs. The burning sensation was amplified a thousand fold as the light seared his tender flesh. He started to sob again and Ritsuko noticed the smell of rotting meat burning in the room.
"Doctor! I think you've seen enough with that!" she yelled. Ozaki relaxed his grip on the pointer and removed the splint from Masao's palm, allowing the wound to slowly close.
"Objects like laser pointers that emit a small intense beam of light seem to burn shiki the same amount as natural sunlight. Since it is in one small point however it is hardly a fatal blow. The light seems to burn skin rapidly causing a small amount of pain for the shiki involved. But when light is exposed to muscle and bone it starts a slow burning process, one filled with intense pain…only one more light to test."
Ozaki brought out a small black light.
"This is just a simple uv light you might see at a rock concert. It doesn't emit a very bright light at all, so this should be relatively pain free, Masao." Masao didn't respond, he was still slightly in shock from the pain of the previous test. Ritsuko wiped away the tears and excrement Masao voided in the process of that test again.
"Alright, I'm turning on the light in one…two…three.." instantly the room was flooded with screaming from both shiki. Masao could feel the liquid in his eyes rupture as he gazed at the backlight, he lost sight for a moment but in the void of blindness he could feel his exposed flesh start to sizzle. It was burning so fast that none of the nerve endings had time to fire before they were destroyed. Ritsuko on the other hand was not as fortunate. She was a bit farther from the light and each nerve ending on her exposed flesh was in utter agony. He could hear her screams very audibly, though he could not see the position she was slumped over in. Ozaki quickly turned the light off.
"It seems ultraviolet light causes the most intense reaction. Even a dim black light was enough to incapacitate both shiki. It burned them more intensely than what I have observed natural light to do. Another interesting note is that the fluid in both of their eyes seemed to boil and burst leaving them completely blind for a moment. I would imagine things like x-rays and gamma radiation would incinerate a shki extremely quickly, though I have no access to either of those technologies at present."
Ozaki put the lights away, for this final experiment he only brought out two tools. Medical forceps and a small scalpel.
"Experiment three. Healing factor"
Masao was utterly terrified when he saw these tools.
"No! No cutting! Don't do any of that stuff to me! I don't want to be here any more! Let me go! Let me go!" Ozaki sat silently watching him, unable to muster moer than a slight smirk.
"I'm sorry Masao, but this is for the good of everyone." Masao began to sob again.
"Please! At least give me anesthetic! Do something!" Ritsuko could feel tears dripping down her own cheeks watching Masao squirm and beg like that.
"Sorry Masao, anesthetic doesn't work on shiki." He said with a slight chuckle.
"Please at least try it! At least try! Maybe it will work on me! You said its for science right! So you need to test it! Please!" he squealed.
"It simply wont work I'm afraid. I promise that ill make this as quick as I can.
"I'm planning on testing the healing factor of shiki once again, in my experiments on kyoko and Tohru they were able to heal cuts and gashes quickly, I plan to test the limits with Masao here."
"Ritsuko, put that gag in his mouth. I don't want him biting his own tongue…and I don't want the others to hear his screams." She stammered for a moment.
"Doctor…can't we call it a night? Masao has been through a lot." She pleaded with the doctor.
"NOW!" he shouted. Like a frightened child she grabbed the towel and told Masao to bite down on it, he obeyed the beautiful nurse's command and tepidly bit down on the rag.
"First lets try the basic cuts." He took his time deliberately slicing Masao's flesh in various places. Those were painful cuts but Masao merely grunted when they were finished, after all, they didn't take long to heal. Then Ozaki cut deeper, jamming the entire length of the scalpel blade into his abdomen. He gave it a long rip and separated a four inch gash in Masao's side. All Masao could do was squeal pathetically under the rag, his tears started to stain the rag, along with a bit of blood that had pooled in his throat.
"Cuts heal in mere moments as per usual. Based on results from the light experiment burns also heal quite fast…..but can shiki regrow lost digits? If you recall, Tohru's tonsils had been removed at an early age, yet the other night, I discovered they had grown back, fully in tact." Masao braced himself for what was coming next.
Ozaki grabbed one of Masao's wrists, with the scalpel in hand he plunged it into the joint of Masao's middle finger. A new pain, a nagging pain swelled in Masao's hand, it made him nauseous. Then in an instant, he felt nothing but a stinging sensation in his joint. Though when he saw the detached finger he dry heaved into the rag.. Ozaki waited for several minutes but the joint never grew back. Suddenly he got an idea. He placed the finger back and pressed it to the joint, sure enough, the two reattached.
"It seems that the digits wont regrow on their own, but if placed back at the joint they will foster a new connection."
"Masao, how does that finger feel?" Masao replied with defeated gurgling sounds. Ritsuko was nearly in hysterics at this point. "can't answer?" Ozaki immediately took the scalpel and sliced into the finger. He noticed Masao flinch.
"Moreover the subject has regained feeling and function."
"Let's see if any joint will reattach." Without hesitation he immediately sliced off two of Masao's fingers and switched their places. Sure enough they grew into the joints they were set next to.
"I've only seen this type of regenerative capability in axolotl. They will set themselves into any joint they are attached to."
Ozaki sliced the two fingers off again and set them in their proper places. He then got a more sinister idea.
"Will they attach to any open flesh?"
Ozaki cut another gash in Masao's flesh and held it open with a splint. He then proceeded to slice off Masao's thumb. Masao seemed to be struggling less, almost as if he was accepting the finality of his situation. Ozaki placed the severed thumb into the open wound, and sure enough the two fused together. He sliced into the thumb sticking out from the side of Masao's body and noticed how it twitched. He noticed how the entire area seemed to tense up reacting to the pain.
"Amazing! Not only does the flesh re link but it even integrates itself as part of the nervous system and muscle function! Perhaps this isn't a simple healing factor! Imagine what we could learn from this if we studied it closely! If only I had an entire research team working on this!"
Ozaki sliced the thumb away and re-opened the wound on his had where it had been. He attached it again and finally lifted the restraints from Masao. Masao stayed silent and Ozaki noticed how his eyes seemed to glaze over.
"I guess he passed out from the shock….ritsuko, help me carry him back to his room…but change his pants first."
hope you enjoyed!