Author's Note: first of all, I apologize for this delay in updating the story. What happened is that I did get impatient at some point when writing this story and, since Valentine's Day was pretty close, I decided to start uploading the chapters before finishing to write this entire fanfic to the end as I originally planned on doing. Long story short, I ended up behind schedule and eventually I exhausted all my pre-written chapters by the time chapter 7 became published so now I have no more pre-written content to offer. For now, I'm sorry to say, I'll be uploading new chapters a lot slower since I have no more pre-written content to upload in the meantime. The upload schedule will be slowed down to once every two or three weeks to make it feasible for me to actually produce them and maintain a sense of quality as well as reserving time for personal life.
Aside from that, this chapter as well as the ones following this will be a slight discontinuation from the current story and will focus on the past events of Enju's and Rentarō's lives. This is meant to give the readers further insight on how they came to know as well as trust each other before the events in the anime. Please note that this is not official cannon, but is added by me to serve a purpose, mainly that of reminding Rentarō of why he became so determined to protect Enju. Starting from a couple of chapters in the future, the events will be portrayed from Rentaro's point of view and is in fact him from the present point in the story, remembering how he met his Initiator for the first time. This current chapter and probably the next one as well are merely to give further context to the reader and is told from Enju's point of view.
A glimpse into the past, part 1: this part of this fanfiction details events that had happened before the time series covered by the anime. Basically, this is a prequel, happening before the anime and before the non-"A glimpse into the past" chapters of this fanfiction as well.
~Tokyo, Initiator training nr. 4, four years before current events~
It was cold. So very cold inside that mess hall.
And not just cold, but gray. Everything had a metallic feel to it, the dead monotonous gray that had been on display since day one in that place. Even the plastic utensils and walls were painted gray, just different hues of it, for some sadistic reason. And yet nobody complained about it at all.
All the young girls there were used to that environment, seeing how almost all of them had grown up and lived their entire lives in that sterile surrounding. They had been in there for so long that, if it were not for their varying natural colors in various body parts, like their skin, eyes and hair, their brains would surely have forgotten that other colors even existed.
They were all enjoying their meals, quietly eating immersed in the silence they were bathed in. An occasional conversation would pop up every so often among them, but it would quickly die out and they would simply resume consuming food. After all, for a bunch of children who didn't have much to do all day long except eat, shower and sleep, there weren't many topics to discuss.
The only real entertainment that they had in their lives were from the audio books that they had at their disposal to play before bedtime. And even those weren't very listened to, as they were all simple short fairy tales. The list of such stories was also not a big one, with the total collection of playback time amounting to under twenty hours. While that might seem impressive at first glance, it really wasn't given how this list was rarely updated with new stories and almost all of the girls living there had exhausted it in less than a year.
Such stories had been monumental for some of them, though, as they were the first depictions of the outside world they have ever witnessed. Concepts which were foreign to the inhabitants of that building, such as the sky, the sun, grass, even rivers and forests seemed magical to them. After all, more than 95% of them hadn't even been outside at all and that one location was all they knew. To them, those simple fairy tales were the most amazing things in their lives, not just for their narratives, but also for the presentation and depictions of such new other-worldly elements.
And that was pretty much all that their existences amounted to: isolation.
And in that monotone, dull and mentally numbing place, were all their lives concentrated.
Currently, many different girls of many different ages were randomly scattered around, each group eating at their own tables. The food wasn't all that great, but it was all they ever knew and had for consumption.
Then, one day, out of the blue, a new sound interrupted their docile serenity, with the booming voice of a grown man catching their focus.
Speaker: "Attention: specimen 328 is asked to present herself to the director's office immediately. I repeat: specimen 328 is asked to present herself to the director's office immediately!" came the sudden eerie and annoying order that spread throughout that facility.
All the girls looked around, with worried faces at each other, trying to determine who was the unlucky one that got called out. And among all of them, a redheaded girl was the one who realized that she was the one.
Enju, when hearing that, dropped her fork onto the table, her face white as a sheet of paper.
She was scared. After all, that was the first time in her entire life when she had been called to the director's office. To her, this was frightening, since she immediately assumed that this meant that she had probably done something unforgivable in the recent past that probably earned her a very severe punishment that she would now receive.
Needless to say that she felt very anxious now.
With many pairs of eyes on her, as everyone else realized that she was the one who had gotten called, she slowly hopped off her chair and left her meal unfinished while beginning to walk slowly towards the exit of the mess hall, all while trying to avoid the stares of the girls on her. She felt very concerned to say the least.
~Director's office~
Naoto: "It's nice to finally see you arrive here, 328" the one officially in charge of that facility suddenly greeted her disinterestedly as soon as she opened the door to the office. Timidly and slowly, she then proceeded to close the door shut behind her, before making her way towards the chair in front of his desk.
Enju: "You called me, sir?" with a shaky and low voice, almost in tears, she asked.
Naoto: "Yes, I did. Did you not hear my order via the speakers?" the man, less than impressed by her scared pathetic persona, continued. Enju, feeling very stressed when seeing him confirm it, didn't know what to do now. Considering how she had never been in this position before, she was understandably confused and scared.
Enju: "I'm….sorry" almost like a self-defense mechanism that just kicked in reflexively, she began to say something completely unexpected, trying to lessen whatever punishment she had envisioned was in store for her. "I didn't mean it! Please, forgive me!" she begged desperately, even though she didn't even know what she was apologizing for, ironically enough.
Naoto simply raised his eyebrow in confusion, not really sure how to respond to that. Why was this girl suddenly apologizing to him?
Naoto: "Why are you apologizing? Did you do something bad?" he inquired, still with an unreadable face. The girl, already panicking and clearly distressed, continued.
Enju: "I….don't know" she admitted in front of him. The man was not only even more dumbfounded now, he was even disturbed a little. Was his persona so intimidating to children that he had unknowingly created an oppressive image of himself in front of the Cursed Children under his care? That would be counterproductive with respect to his facility's purpose.
Naoto: "(sigh) I didn't ask you to come here because I wanted to punish you, 328" he tried to clarify, a bit annoyed at the child in front of him. Hearing that, Enju's heart decreased in its excessive beatings, as the girl suddenly felt a gush of release when realizing how stupid it had been of her to simply just assume the worst case scenario for no reason. Then again, considering how she had never been summoned in such a way before, it only felt natural for her to jump to such uninvited conclusions.
Enju: "Ah…..you didn't?" feeling a bit stupid now, she then continued to climb the unusually high seat in front of the man's desk.
Naoto: "No. Rather, I asked you to come here so that I can give you this!" he then handed her a small photo. The girl, once having received it, stared at the image painted on that piece of plastic in wonderment. The image printed on it was the full color frontal capture of a seemingly young woman, in her mid twenties, wearing a soft artificial smile on her face, very much like what one would wear when taking the photo for his driver's license.
In fact, that entire picture had all the resemblance of an ID photo, because it was actually downloaded from the government's basic resident registry network database actually. It was also a very small photo, easy to hold in one hand. It was barely bigger than a postage stamp. Even so, it was very clear and concise and, despite lacking any artistic perspective and being very bland and lifeless, conjured a very odd sensation from the young girl holding it.
Something about that photo attracted Enju's attention in an odd way. The girl couldn't quite understand why.
The woman on it had long crimson hair, brown eyes and a slightly big forehead. Her skin felt a bit tanned compared to the average Japanese and she displayed an exquisite sense of calmness and beauty.
Naoto: "That's your mother!" the man exclaimed coldly, with very little emotion in his voice. The girl, still perplexed, didn't even know where to begin asking questions.
Enju: "My…..mother?" that was another new thing to her that day. Honestly, she lacked even the proper concept of a 'mother'. After all, as a girl who had grown in isolation from the rest of society in that facility, very much like in a prison, and being separated from any family, she had never even known what it probably meant to have a mother. The only thing she understood about that was from the aforementioned audio book fairy tales that she had once listened to before she usually went to sleep. In those stories, the concept of a mother was that of a gentle woman who would caress the protagonist of the story gently and tend to his wounds when he was injured, making him happy. The news that she herself had a mother made her cheerful because it invited the prospect of having such a caring person in her life.
Enju: "I have a mother?" all the previous fear she had held before arriving there had instantly vanished now as energy began to permeate her small and now reinvigorated body.
The older man sighed in displeasure, realizing that now he also had to undergo the exact same routine that he had gone through in the past with all the other girls in that facility that had went through the same thing.
Naoto: "Yes, Enju. You have a mother. Her name is Sakura Aihara and that was the picture she took when renewing her resident registration card. It's a bit old since that photo should be ten years old by now, but it's the most recent one we've got. I'm afraid you'll have to make do with it" normally, this would have been a giveaway for anyone intelligent enough to realize that her mother was passed away by that point. However, being a very young child, this fact didn't get registered by Enju.
Enju: "Sakura….Aihara" she repeated to herself slowly, almost like trying to memorize the name so that she will remember it in the future. It felt very strange to hear and learn of such a thing all of a sudden without any previous warning. She had never even been told up until that point that she even had parents. After all, no one ever came to visit her, call her or try to get in contact with her. So this felt very new to her.
Enju: "Is it fine if I….keep this?" the girl asked shyly, still very reserved and trying not to anger the authority figure in front of her.
Naoto: "Yes, you may keep it. After all, as I said already, this is a gift to you! That means that this photo is now yours!" and yet again the girl raised her eyebrows completely taken aback. Gift? She had never received any gifts in the past so this was even more confusing to her.
Enju: "This is a gift? For me? Why?" as someone who wasn't used to any of these things, this felt overwhelming to her. The man couldn't really blame her.
Naoto: "Basically, me and some other important people decided some time ago to give to all you girls living here under our care photos of your mothers when you would become old enough to be able to hold onto them. We didn't really have a good reason for this, you can just think of this as us acknowledging that you grew up and are now responsible enough to take care of these photos by yourselves…..probably. Since today you became seven years of age, this is the best moment to give you this gift. Do you understand now?" despite this explanation, the girl still felt very uncomfortable, mainly because this was all new to her and she had never dealt with either a birthday, gifts, or knowledge of a possible parent before. All of these things felt so foreign to her.
Enju: "I'm seven now?" this didn't carry much weight to her. For someone who didn't even know how to count yet, this was just another random thing that had more meaning to the adults around her than it did to her.
Naoto: "Yes, Enju, you are seven now! And today's your birthday!" even more meaningless info, as she had never celebrated her birthday. Frankly, even receiving a gift at all felt like a miracle to her. The girl stared longingly at the photo in her hand for a bit, almost like being bedazzled by insurmountable amounts of beauty hidden within its plastic, before thanking Naoto for his kindness and retreating back to her cell.
~Enju's cell~
She remained on her soft bed, on top of the covers, simply lying down on her abdomen while gazing at the same object that had enraptured her for the past hours. She didn't really have an idea of why she was so unnaturally happy just for looking at it, she simply just felt like doing it, trying to memorize every single detail printed on it.
After all, this was very relevant for her. Ever since she could remember, nobody had ever told her anything about any of her parents. And now this bomb was dropped onto her. She didn't even know how to feel about this entire situation, as conflicting emotions were swirling inside of her, raging in intensity.
The woman in the pic felt like an idol, a human representation of perfection to her. She felt like the most amazing human of all time, even though she had never personally met her before. She wondered: how would this woman be in real life as a person?
Nozomi: "So, they gave you a picture too…." came a sudden unexpected statement from a new person entering the room. Enju almost jumped out of bed in surprise at that, feeling her heart skip a beat at that rather explosive entrance.
Enju: "Oh, you startled me, Nozomi-chan" the poor scared girl let out weakly, a bit annoyed at how her roommate had basically brutally invaded her privacy without even so much as knocking. Then again, Nozomi would usually do that to her despite the constant complaining she had done to her in the past for that exact same reason repeatedly. "What do you mean by that? Did you get a photo of your mother, too?" came the natural evolution of this discussion.
Nozomi: "Yeah, I did. I'm a bit older than you and I had my seventh birthday a couple of months ago. They gave this to me" after that she pulled out her own small photo from one of her pajamas' pockets and revealed it to Enju. The girl stared in awe again, noticing this other grown woman's face plastered on that small piece.
Enju: "That's so cool! Why didn't you tell me about this? You told me that roommates shouldn't keep any secrets from each other, right?" she felt a bit hurt by that but that question was asked more out of curiosity than anything else. Nozomi simply smiled a bitter smile at that.
Nozomi: "Well…..various reasons let's say. Although I was going to explain all of this to you when you got yours too. I wasn't entirely sure just yet that literally everyone who reached our age would receive the same treatment. Guess this is just more evidence to confirm it again" the other redheaded child said nonchalantly before climbing on her own bed which layed on top of Enju's.
Enju was still very curious though and so she climbed those same stairs to her bed, after her cohabitation partner.
Enju: "I can't believe we're so lucky! I didn't even know I had a mommy! Did you know? My mother's name is Sakura Aihara! What's your mother's name?" she asked full of optimistic energy. For someone living in such a bland environment, obviously even this small ripple in her day to day life was enough to make a child as young as her explode with energy and vigor.
However, her enthusiasm wasn't really shared.
Nozomi: "I don't know it. I forgot…." suddenly there was a shift in mood, a very strong one. Enju felt a shiver run down her spine when hearing that.
Nozomi's change in tone felt very unnatural which scared her a bit.
Enju: "You….forgot?" the girl asked a bit perturbed, not really sure how to take that. How can one forget their own parent's name?
Nozomi: "It's only natural, isn't it?" suddenly the girl replied sharply with powerful anger rushing out of her voice out of the blue. "They only told me her name once….and I never heard it from anyone ever since. I don't hear it in conversations! I don't hear it in audio books either! The only way for me to remember it is if I keep chanting it to myself before I go to sleep!" for whatever reason the girl felt very pissed. Well, not really angry at anyone in particular, more like very frustrated with the situation she was in.
Enju only stared worriedly at her, not really sure how to address this unpleasant change of atmosphere.
Enju: "Is that what you kept whispering to yourself a couple of months ago when you went to bed, Nozomi-chan?" she recalled then how that had used to be the case a while back when Nozomi would very lowly whisper something before going to sleep at night. As her roommate, Enju could tell that she was whispering something, but it was so low that she couldn't really make what it was.
Nozomi: "It's painful….to know about someone who is important to you but forget about them….it feels very unfair for them to do this to us!" she mentioned the people working at that facility who had given them those photos. "I really wanted to remember her. So I did my best to not forget about it. But eventually you forget everything that you don't really use. Eventually there came a time when I just couldn't remember her name anymore….and despite my best efforts, I just couldn't recall it!" for whatever reason, this conversation felt like it was only going downhill from there. Enju only stared pitifully at her friend, not sure how to help.
Enju: "You know, you can just go to the director's office and ask for her name again. I'm sure he would help you out!" she tried to offer whatever meager advice she could come up with on the spot. Sadly that did not satisfy her friend's needs though.
Nozomi: "SO WHAT? Just so I can forget about it later again?!" she rebutted, again, with more venom than was really appropriate. This point felt very meaningful for her, way more than Enju could have ever imagined.
Seeing how quickly Enju had backed away from her when she had blown up like that, Nozomi put a palm over her face and tried to calm herself down.
Nozomi: "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell. It's just that….it doesn't feel fair for them to just tell us about our mothers like this. Only knowing about them isn't making things any better for some of us, especially me. If anything I would rather see her in person, rather than this excuse of kindness!" this was unexpected. Enju could not remember Nozomi ever having acted in such a way before. Seeing her this worked up and emotional about anything was also new to her, although this time a bit scary too. "Say….Enju. Do you want to meet her?" then another shift in mood arrived. Enju simply stared back at her with no idea what to say again.
Enju: "Meet who?" she advanced.
Nozomi: "Your mother. Do you want to meet her?" a rather interesting proposition, to say the least.
Enju, not knowing where she was going, stood there wondering for just a second what she should say. However, there wasn't much to ponder. The answer to that question was fairly straightforward.
Enju: "Yes, I do!" she had confidence and determination in her eyes, without even a glimpse of hesitation. Nozomi liked that. It didn't feel like a fake conviction, it felt natural.
Nozomi: "Then….what if I told you that you had a chance to do it? What if there was a way for you to get to meet her by yourself?" clearly something was off, even Enju could tell that. However, she would lie if she said that the prospect didn't interest her.
Yes, it was very unlikely for this to be possible, she was well aware of that. But maybe Nozomi knew about something that she didn't.
Enju: "I…..would want to meet her" she simply said in response to that. Nozomi smiled a small smile when hearing that response.
Nozomi: "How much would you be willing to risk for such a thing to happen?" this felt bad, very bad. But the girl didn't want to stop so she persisted.
Enju: "What do you mean by that?"
Nozomi: "There's a good reason why I never told you anything about this before, Enju. You see, I'm not the oldest one in this facility, nor am I the first one of us to receive a photo. Many more girls did before you and some even before me. In fact, a sizable portion of this facility's Cursed Children have already received their photos, those that are from the oldest generation, like us" Enju listened very intently this discussion, trying to parse every single thing she was hearing. "And many of them are becoming more and more restless with each day. Many want to actually meet their mothers now that they learned about them and aren't satisfied with this. Some of the girls are even planning to break out!" now was the point when Enju learned exactly where this was going. Needless to say she wasn't particularly happy discussing this topic, especially since it was such a dangerous thing to talk about. If any of the guards patrolling those halls were to hear them, they would get punished for their attempt at a rebellion, for sure.
Enju: "And….you're part of that group?"
Nozomi: "Yes, I am" she proudly declared to her roommate, feeling very confident as well now. That both impressed but also scared Enju a lot. "I didn't want to involve you in this since I wasn't really sure if you would really help us or not. But seeing how much you want to meet your mother, I think it's safe to include you into our group as well? After all, we're only missing one member to start with our escape plan!" now things were going way too fast, so Enju immediately tried to pull this conversation back a bit.
Enju: "Wait, are you sure about this? Isn't it very risky, though? You know that many of the girls that tried this before all ended up in The Room, right?" she remembered about all the previous attempts of escaping that facility from various other girls before them. And all of them had ended up fairly badly, especially since every one of them ended up having to endure the most severe punishment that that establishment had to offer. The infamous Room, which was discussed here, was what was known to scar children there, and almost all of the girls who had gone into it had come out….different than how they had been before they went in.
Nozomi: "I know. But….still. I want to meet mama! I want to see her face at least! Maybe she's still alive somewhere out there! And I want to find her!" this felt very dangerous. Enju felt bad about this and wasn't entirely convinced. So she tried to see if she could wiggle her way out of that and politely turn down the offer.
Enju: "I don't know….I don't really feel comfortable with this. How are you guys even planning to escape?" that was a very valid concern, one that was a very important one, after all.
Nozomi: "That's not really a problem! The code for the thingy next to all doors is 8830. That's how you open them! And the password for the computers to shut down some of the security cameras is r-e-d-l-i-g-h-t-6-4-9!" that was surprising. Enju could only stare amazed at these new pieces of information that she before had thought were un-acquirable.
Enju: "How…..do you know all of that?!" she was pretty easy to impress, something which Nozomi found quite cute.
Nozomi: "Some of the girls went on spying duty and peaked around when they saw personnel here use those codes. We weren't just doing nothing while waiting around for a new member to pop up, after all" this was pretty impressive, to say the least. Enju hadn't really expected for all of these preparations to be done, so this took her by surprise, to say the least. If nothing else, it was really convincing to her.
Enju: "That's...pretty amazing" she said the only thing she could say at that point. Naturally, Nozomi smiled at that.
Nozomi: "Convinced you? Then, are you willing to join us?" regardless of how impressed she was, Enju still knew that this was a huge risk for them to take. Normally, she wouldn't ever think about doing this, especially since she had been a model child there. She had very rarely been naughty, very rarely doing anything that went against common rules, not even staying up past the lock-down hour as some other girls would do.
To her, disobedience always felt unwarranted and just senseless, especially since the punishments that many of the girls there would receive for disregarding regulations were usually quite severe, commonly amounting to a lot of physical abuse.
IISO did a lot of things in order to ensure that their personnel would never go astray in their hatred towards the Cursed Children under their care and so they all had rules in place to prevent the soldiers patrolling through their facilities from abusing their authority and hurting them. Consequently, many of those same soldiers who had deep hatred towards the virus harboring specimens would jump immediately at the occasion of being allowed to punish the girls there and would take advantage of it at even the smallest opportunity. This meant that even slight signs of rebelliousness would lead to a lot of pain for the children involved.
Being frail, Enju had always tried her best to avoid any such confrontations so as to not give the guards there reason to abuse her.
But now, the situation was different as she now stood to gain something which was important to her. Indeed, the idea scared her, but she now had the chance of maybe even meeting her mother, a chance that she had never even conceptualized up until that day.
Nozomi: "This is for your mother, Enju! And not just yours but all of our mothers! We all want to meet them! We all want to be there with them! We all want to be happy with them!" she tried to push, going out of her way to make Enju agree and accept her invitation. She saw how she was in deep thought, which meant that she was on the right track in trying to convince her. "Please….Enju. Help us see our mothers! Help us help you meet with Sakura!" she made one final step towards her goal. The younger girl, after thinking it over thoroughly, simply let out a deep sigh before giving her her answer.
Enju: "I'm in!"
~2 days later, control room~
Two computer operators were idly standing by, quietly analyzing the data output on their terminals. It was a boring task simply watching over the data displayed on the screens and keeping track of the readings since it very rarely happened for anything out of the ordinary to occur. Still, it was their jobs to ensure that they would spot any anomalies when they would happen in real time and alert the proper units about the disturbances in a controlled and orderly fashion. They were pretty much the response team in case anything was to go awry.
Normally, this almost never happened because of the extreme discipline enforcement in that building, so outside of the regular technical malfunction of some devices there which occurred every once in a while, there was almost never anything to report, which rendered their jobs pretty lifeless and boring.
Operator 1: "Still thinking about that thing? You should really stop, it's very unhealthy!" one of them asked the other in continuing with the conversation that they were having all by themselves in that room while also paying some attention to the displays that were showing various footage of security cameras variously scattered across the facility.
Operator 2: "Yeah, I know it is. But I still can't believe my daughter did such a thing at her school. I told her a million times never to disobey her teacher, especially in the middle of class! Now, she's facing expulsion! And for what? Just because she didn't want to lose an argument with her classmate? I grounded her for five months for that and she won't be seeing any pocket money from me from now on!" the man nonchalantly replied with clear anger in his voice and with an exasperated expression on his face. He seemed to be very pissed.
Operator 1: "Children are becoming more and more of a problem nowadays. For whatever reason the only thing that matters to them now is how right or wrong they are. They never seem to believe in context or bowing their heads properly towards those who have more experience than them. This is probably because of the western influence and how the liberal ideas are planted into their minds about rights and freedoms. They lose sight of honor and respecting those that make society a better place!" he commented randomly even though he was talking about his colleague's daughter in a not very positive way. His companion didn't disagree though and was even reinforcing his ideas.
Operator 2: "Precisely! That's why I asked the internet company to end our contract with them! I don't need that kind of attitude in my house! I work hard to keep a food on her table just to see her do well in school and make a name for herself! And this is what I get in return? If she doesn't know how to respect others older than her then I'll teach her discipline even if it's the last thing I….." but suddenly he stopped in his tracks when he noticed a warning sign suddenly appear on his screen in bright red. "….huh?" he instantly lost his train of thought, stunned by this. Truthfully, this was the very first time in his entire career working in that building when he had seen that warning message pop up, which threw him completely off course in confusion.
Operator 1: "What is it? Found something interesting?" seeing his friend's freeze in action, the man approached him by dragging his office chair closer to him, staring a bit worriedly at him.
Operator 2: "Something's wrong…." he began to speak nervously, a bit scared. "There's no power being supplied in sector C. The cameras went off and it's saying that they aren't sending any signals back to us. The entire area must have become cut off from the grid!" he began typing random commands on his keyboard trying to find more about this new evolution.
Operator 1: "Maybe it's a technical malfunction on one of them?" he tried to supply a logical reason for this. His friend disagreed though.
Operator 2: "Yeah but it's happening on all the cameras in that sector at the same time. It's not a single failure on one of them! The only way this could have happened is if the power got cut off on all of them!" that made sense.
Operator 1: "Huh….maybe a short circuit forced the circuit breakers to switch then?" another plausible theory, although this too was shot down almost immediately.
Operator 2: "No….the instruments didn't seem to have recorded any energy spikes in the grid. All circuit breakers report being switched on as well" he continued the report with growing worry in his voice.
As someone who had never encountered any real emergency in the past in that building, at least not of that scope, he was becoming a bit panicky. Granted, they had protocols in place that clearly stated what they should do in such circumstances so it wasn't like they didn't have any recourse to respond by, it was simply that they were a bit perturbed by this unexpected turn of events.
Operator 1: "OK, I'm sounding the alarm then!"
~Random hallway~
Suddenly the alarm began ringing across the entire building, alerting everyone of the state of emergency initiation. Throughout the facility, the reverberating sounds of it sent shivers down everyone's spines, mainly because it had so very rarely been used before.
Speakers: "Attention everyone: due to various technical difficulties that we are experiencing, we are beginning an emergency lock down in sector C. All specimens are kindly asked to quietly and peacefully leave that area until the lock down is ended. In the meantime, military units on patrol duty are ordered to present themselves in the affected area to investigate any possible breaches. That is all!" came the loud voice booming out of the speakers, informing everyone of their duties.
When hearing such a thing, two soldiers nearby who were walking around in their usual manner immediately began running in a completely different direction than before, clearly following the orders that they have received. Immediately after they disappeared in the distance in the hallways, a group of girls emerged from one of the rooms.
Nozomi: "(smiling devilishly) Good, now the coast will be clear for a good while until they find the problem. Nami-chan, you really did a good job with the cables there!" she complemented her fellow specimen while patting the other girl on the head lightly, much to the latter's enjoyment.
Nami: "It wasn't that hard, honestly. After all, all I had to do was play around with some exposed cables in that place until the lights went off. Then, I just hid the broken cables out of sight. They won't find them for a good while" she proudly spoke, filled with confidence after her actions.
Nozomi: "Now that all the soldiers are busy and not around us, we can do this a bit more easily. And the timing is exactly how we had planned, since the computer in the next room should be shut down and unsupervised now, as it usually is this day of the week" she commented before motioning everyone else in that group of young children to follow her. They all nodded their heads and proceeded to do as instructed.
They came to the door to the room which was locked, input the code to open the door and then entered it and ensured they were out of view. Since that was more of an emergency room that was seldom used, it didn't have an activated camera inside so nobody could watch over them.
They quickly shut the door behind them, turned on the lights and powered up the dusty computer. They then logged in with the stolen credentials and began exploring the interface.
Nozomi: "Do you think you can turn the cameras off with this thing?" came an anxious request.
Nami: "I don't really know. I haven't used computers at all up until now" that shouldn't really be any surprise to anyone there, considering that outside of the headset equipment they had used to listen to audio books at night, none of them had ever been exposed to technology in any way before, especially nothing as complex as a computer. All they knew was that using the right password gave them access to what's behind the lock screen, and they learned that by observation of the personnel working there. Anything beyond that was outside their understanding.
Nozomi: "Well, you're the only one of us who can read, so all of our hopes are in you now!" that was an easy thing to declare for her although it obviously didn't help the girl at all. And Japanese is complicated, especially for a seven year old. She just barely knew a bit of Katakana and some Kanji. Still, she was not about to let everybody down.
She began using the mouse and then clicking on various menu items on the application open in the foreground on the main screen, trying to click on every button that seemed to even remotely suggest an option to turn video cameras off.
After a lot of trial and error and meddling around, she eventually opened another window that took the focus that displayed a huge list of items in a big menu, with big green circles right next to each entry in that list. Without being able to read and understand what those entries actually said, the girl just moved the cursor over one of the big green circles and clicked on it, turning the circle from green to red.
Nami: "Maybe this is it?" she wondered to herself, before clicking on it again and seeing it turn from red back to green again. That felt about right.
She then clicked on it again and made it red a second time, before beginning to click on all the other green circles in the list, toggling all of them.
~Control room~
Operator 2: "To think that we're so unlucky as to actually catch a lock down on our shift. I come to work here once every three days and I still end up as the one who goes through this crap. Why am I the unlucky one?!" he complained very loudly, much to his partner's dislike.
Operator 1: "There's nothing we can do about that. Either way, it's probably just something in the power grid. Hopefully it will end soon enough when the tech guys get here" he tried to improve the spirits of his friend.
Operator 2: "Yeah bu-…." but he stopped in his tracks when he noticed how one of the screens he was staring at suddenly turned from displaying a video feed to a black screen with white text on top of it reading 'Sensor device is switched off'. That was apparently an even worse concern for him now. He couldn't even believe his own eyes at first, thinking that he was just imagining stuff, until another screen also on the panel blacked out as well….and then another…..and another….."What….the hell?!"
~Random room~
Nami: "I'm done! I locked the cameras into off-mode! I don't think they'll be able to do anything from this point on!" she clarified, informing everyone from the group behind her and bringing all of their hopes up. The most difficult part of the mission was now over, thankfully. And it was a tremendous success for them.
Nozomi: "Are you sure about that? We need to be very careful before we move forward, otherwise they'll catch us!" she inquired, still a bit worried but also a whole lot more hopeful than before.
But before the other girl could speak up, another alarm began resounding within that building before the speakers activated again:
Speakers: "Attention everyone: due to unforeseen complications, we are going to enter the whole building under lock down. All specimens are asked to immediately return to their cells and await further instructions there. Anyone found outside their cells in the hallways after the next ten minutes will be severely punished. I repeat: anyone found outside their cells in the next ten minutes will be punished!" that was the confirmation that she so desperately needed. This was the proof that their scheme had worked. Clearly the supervisors had no idea what was going on and were only following protocol, assuming the worst case scenario and issuing a building-wide lock down to ensure that no breaches happen at that point. Still, that won't be that helpful for them as the majority of the soldiers have already been moved into sector C and the hallways were now clear and, due to the shut down cameras, un-monitored as well.
This was all that Nozomi could have ever asked for.
The girl turned to everyone with a bright shining smile plastered on her face.
Nozomi: "Everyone, it's time to get out of this facility!"
~Control room~
Both operators were scrambling around very worried, not really sure what to do. They had followed the protocols by the book, doing everything to try to ensure that nothing was overlooked.
Still, they were almost panicking because they had never encountered anything like this ever before and they knew that if anything bad happened while they were on duty, they would be the first ones to be investigated afterwards by a disaster team.
But their worries didn't help them much when the door to their room suddenly opened and their boss made his way through it with clear anger on his face.
Naoto: "What is the meaning of this?! What the hell is going on here that warranted an emergency lock down of the entire building?!" he almost yelled at his subordinates, with so much vitriol in his voice that they both almost had a heart attack.
Operator 1: "We're not exactly sure, sir! We think it is a technical malfunction in our systems right now. After all, we had a power failure in sector C before we issued the big lock down procedure!", panicking, the older man blurted out hurriedly trying to see if he could calm his superior down and regain control of the situation.
Naoto: "'Technical malfunction' you say? Tell me: what technical malfunction are you talking about that's so catastrophic that you had to disrupt the activities throughout the entire fucking building?!" he was very angry, that much was plainly obvious. And the two didn't know what to do or say to calm him down. Either way, their jobs were at risk at that point so they tried to act as professional and straightforward as they could as there was nothing else they could do to save face.
Operator 1: "Well, all cameras throughout the building switched off almost instantly without any warning. And when we tried to reactivate them, the system wouldn't allow us. Apparently the devices are locked by user 'C7911' and we can't get unlock them from here for some weird reason" he reported everything he knew in an attempt to appease his overlord, although to no avail.
Naoto: "You idiot! C7911 is the emergency user! That user has more privileged access than many others, including your own! Someone must have logged into that user from an emergency room and issued the shutdown command!" he clarified, making both operators go wide-eyed at that revelation.
Operator 2: "Or maybe we got hacked by someone outside the system and now they're trying to sabotage us?" he shyly proposed although his theory was dismissed very quickly by Naoto.
Naoto: "No….all computers have remote log in disabled and security is very tightly enforced across all of them. It's far likelier that someone just physically accessed the computers from somewhere on our premises" he stated calmly and calculatedly before trying to run various theories through his head, contemplating silently. "Could it be that some of the specimens did that? But….no….the user is password protected and all emergency rooms are locked with the electric lock. Not only that but the kids here don't even know how to count, much less be able to use a computer…..then again…." he had a gut feeling. A feeling that told him to not completely rule out this possibility.
Having been at some point a soldier, he had been trained to use his instincts and listen to them whenever things weren't going as normal and when protocols wouldn't do much help. And his instincts were telling him that something fishy was going on and that this was most likely not just some ugly software bug as his operators were naively claiming.
Naoto: "Are all the soldiers still in sector C?" he asked out of nowhere, surprising the other two men there.
Operators 1: "Y-yes. We gave them that order after noticing the power outage there!" that was already a sign that something suspicious was happening.
Naoto: "First a power outage and now this? This is far too much of a coincidence! Order them to immediately start patrolling the halls again! But keep the lock down active and the Cursed Children in their cells! Also, don't issue this order via the speakers but via the walkie-talkies that the soldiers have, so that the specimens won't hear this. Have the soldiers do a quick sweep through all of the facility as fast as possible!" he coldly ordered, surprising both of them.
Operators 2: "But….sir, according to the protocol book, we shou-..." but he was quickly cut off by his superior.
Naoto: "I don't give a shit about any protocols! I'm giving you a direct order! Now execute it!"
~Hallways~
The small group of children were running around, slowly moving from one section of the building to the next. At this point, they were very confused as they were in a restricted access zone, outside of the usual areas where they had been allowed to roam around in the past.
One of them suddenly came running from one of the side hallways reuniting with the group, a bit exhausted from the sprint she had taken.
Nozomi: "Well? Did you find anything?" she asked impatiently the other girl who was barely managing to catch her breath again after running so much.
Girl: "No, I checked all the possible paths in that place like you told me to! No signs of any easy exits. They all seem to lead back to the mess hall!" she reported very depressed, almost apologetically.
Nozomi simply frowned at this information, realizing what was going on.
Nozomi: "I see…..good job anyway! You did well!" she tried to reassure the almost panicking partner, before thinking a bit to herself. "Great….all hallways seem to go in different directions although they almost always end up converging at some point to a common room at the end! Who the hell designed this place?!" it was very annoying to admit this but they were all lost. Not that anyone could blame them since they were so young and were trying to find the exit to what seemed like a true labyrinth.
And calling it a labyrinth wouldn't be an exaggeration since that entire place had been intentionally crafted in such a distinct and unpleasant way. That entire facility had been architecturally structured so that anyone who didn't carefully read the blueprints of the place and, especially those who were rushing through it, would very easily get lost.
Hallways that split in multiple points into branching paths, that would eventually intermix with others and then randomly join again with new ones unexpectedly, diverging and converging in seemingly meaningless and confusing ways across multiple points; rooms that pretty much looked the same all the time; monotone walls that gave almost no clear indications of having been visited or not in the past as well as literally no signs to point them in any direction.
For a bunch of very young children, that entire building was a true nightmare.
Nozomi: "Great…..what now? We can't give up now…..we're so close to finding a way out! We'll have to-…." but her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by another one of them beginning to speak uninvited.
Mimi: "Someone's coming!" she let out all of a sudden, surprising everyone there. She then turned around and pointed to a long hallway that they were at the junction of, suggesting that the person she had said was approaching was coming from that way to the others. Mimi was a Model Bat and had very good acoustic hearing, which allowed her to detect people approaching very easily, especially in those hallways that had very good sound transmission.
Nozomi: "What?! Already?! But….all the soldiers were supposed to be in sector C! How come they're still around here?!" she complained audibly.
Mimi: "Well, I'm pretty sure they're soldiers. The boots they're walking with are heavy, too heavy for the other adults working here. And they seem to be in a hurry so we should get moving!" she insisted.
Nozomi: "This is just perfect! This is exactly what we needed now!" she gritted her teeth, realizing that they were now running out of time. For whatever reason, things didn't seem to go as planned anymore. It seemed that someone must have tipped off the soldiers that an escape was probably undergoing there. Either that or they figured it out by themselves.
Annoyed and fed up with all of this, Nozomi was clearly agitated, not knowing which path to direct the girls through. Because all the hallways were so messed up, it would only be detrimental for them, at that point, to make a wrong turn and end up deeper into the facility again, where they came from.
Nozomi: "We….have no choice! Let's run this way!" she pointed to the hallway that seemed to be leading in the same direction that they had originally been traveling towards, with the consideration that if they were to go in a direction, they might as well stick to it at all times since it should eventually lead to somewhere at some point, which is always better than running in circles.
The girls looked at each other, realizing that their leader probably didn't know the proper path either but then all nodding to each other and agreeing to follow her, since neither of them had any better ideas at that moment. They began to run away fast down the aforementioned path, trying their best to distance themselves from the unexpected and undesired guests before they would get caught.
All of them were sprinting at full speeds trying their best to think up a strategy in case worst comes to worst and they ended up face to face with a group of soldiers. They were children, after all, and if they got unlucky enough, they would have to confront very well trained and well equipped soldiers. That, in itself, was a very scary thought for many of them.
They were running like mad attempting to the best of their abilities to prevent such a scenario. At one point they took a left turn. Then they went into a new sideways hallway to the right yet again. In this way they were trying to keep running in the same directions by canceling left turns with right turns. Without any signs to guide them, they could only hope that maintaining the same direction at all times would pay off eventually.
Nozomi: "It's alright. As long as the cameras remain off, it's gonna be hard for them to catch us! All we have to do is keep on going until we find the-…." but she was quickly cut off again by her friend.
Mimi: "Wait….I sense them! There's more of them approaching from ahead!" she bluntly announced to everyone from the group. Almost instantly all the girls stopped in their tracks, all horrified at this.
Nozomi: "Wait…..are you serious? Even more of them?!" she couldn't believe their luck.
Mimi: "Yes, and they are approaching fast. We'll probably have to backtrack!" that was very bad news, all of them knew that. It was especially disappointing since they had put all their faith in that hallway and now they had to abandon it just to not get caught by the approaching soldiers.
Nozomi: "Tsk…..fine. Let's go back!" she tried to order the girls, although this time with less success. Some of the girls felt very reluctant when hearing this new order, almost like they were having second thoughts now.
Riko: "I don't know if I like this….what if the other soldiers from before are still behind us? If we backtrack now, they might catch us!" she argued, to which others nodded in unison. Nozomi didn't like this. She didn't like it when others challenged her orders, especially when things weren't going that well. She didn't have the time to try to convince them then.
Nozomi: "If we stand here then we'll get caught anyways by the ones coming from the other direction! So it's either them or the ones behind us! And I'm taking my chances with the ones behind!" she tried to be as direct and honest as possible, trying to see if this would work.
After presenting things in that way, the other girls, still a bit worried, eventually agreed and went back with her.
The biggest issue for them was that they had no map of that place, which made navigating through there incredibly difficult.
Mimi: "Wait!" again, everyone stopped immediately, almost mechanically at that command.
Nozomi: "What?" naturally their leader was worried.
Mimi: "Riko was right….the guards from behind us are also approaching! We're trapped in-between!" came the incredibly unfortunate news. This was very bad.
Since they were so ahead into the prohibited area and especially after the beginning of the lock down when they had been specifically instructed to stay in their rooms, they knew they would get punished very badly for this insubordination. So badly that they didn't even want to begin to think of the consequences.
Nozomi: "Come on….don't let us get captured! There's gotta be a way around this!" she mainly thought to herself, ferociously going through every single possible plans she could muster on the spot. None of them felt very good though.
But before she could find any solution to this dilemma, a deep male shout was heard from the distance.
Soldier: "HEY! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU GIRLS NOT IN YOUR CELLS?!" they have been found. Shivers went down their spines and all the children made a dash for it in the opposite direction.
All of them knew what awaited them and none of them had the desire to go through their punishments.
When running away from those soldiers, they were pleased to see that the other ones that had been previously detected by Mimi had actually turned around at some point so the hallway from the other direction was clear now for them to run through. They managed to run farther down the hallway thankfully before coming across the end and seeing the entrance to a room. Knowing that the soldier that had shouted after them was still on his way to that exact location as well chasing after them, they immediately input the code on the lock to open the door and dashed inside.
By the time the soldiers reached that room, they were already hiding in another adjacent room that was connected to the first. All the girls were carefully and quietly listening through the door to see what they would do.
Soldier 1: "You won't get away with this! It's over! Whatever you were trying to do is impossible to achieve now since we re-enabled the cameras across the facility! There's no way any of you are getting out of here!" he spoke confidently while checking the area out brazenly along with his partner.
This revelation scared the girls. They were trapped. That side-room had no other exits and it was just a matter of time until the soldiers would check that chamber too and find them there. And even if they got out now, if what he had said earlier was true, then it would be pointless for them to advance anyways even if they got lucky and ended up running in the right direction since, with the cameras activated, there was no real chance of any of them getting out of there at all. Obviously the soldier could have been bluffing and simply trying to demoralize them but still, without any proper plan or way out of this, was taking the risk really worth it?
Nozomi: "No….I want to meet my mommy! I won't allow them to stop me! I won't allow anyone to stop me!" she didn't want to give up, no matter what. She wanted to proceed regardless of how infirm their chances of success were.
She quickly and carefully scanned the room they were in with her eyes, trying to identify any possible solution to their problems before they would run out of time.
Looking around, she eventually found what could be their only salvation: an air vent in the ceiling.
Nozomi: "There! We can get out by climbing through that vent up there!" she pointed her finger at what was their seemingly last heavenly token that could lead them to freedom. All the girls looked at the possible exit, initially filled with hope in their eyes. However, after taking a good look at this prospect, some of them lost a lot of it quite quickly.
Riko: "I'm…..scared, Nozomi-chan!" one of them cried out, finally beginning to crack under the pressure. "I don't like this! I don't think I can do that!" she cried weakly to her leader, which displeased her greatly.
Nozomi: "Like it?! Who said you have to like it?! I don't like it either! But we have to go through with it if we ever want to have even a chance of meeting our mothers!" she responded very angry, which scared Riko and made her shut up.
Riko's sudden stroke of cowardice was not without reason, though. She was among the chubbier of the girls there, not due to her eating excessively in any way, it was merely a consequence of her constitution and poor metabolism. Even as a small child, she would still probably end up having a considerable difficulty trying to fit in that air vent, especially since the entrance to it was on the ceiling. Most likely she wouldn't be able to make it, and all the other girls knew that. Still, Nozomi didn't care about that and simply just didn't address that issue as if it didn't exist.
Nozomi: "We need to get out of here!" she brushed off Riko's problem entirely before ordering the other girls to quickly but quietly try to assemble an improvised staircase for them to use to climb to the vent. The soldiers could get to them very quickly though.
Riko began trembling, realizing what Nozomi was planning on doing. If she wasn't able to crawl through that space, then it was very likely that their leader would simply leave her behind, since she would become a liability for the group at that point. She needed to get past her physiological condition and try to overcome that obstacle for her own sake.
As the girls kept building their exit as quickly as they could, Riko, realizing the reality of the matter and knowing that it would be a futile endeavor for her to even bother, crunched down on the floor and began sobbing quietly to herself. This alerted Enju.
Enju: "Come on, Nozomi-chan! We all know you can do it!" she tried to reassure her in a friendly manner.
Riko: "No….I can't! I know I can't!" that was the truth, regardless of how hard they both would try to deny it. They both knew it. "But it's OK….I don't mind! As long as you girls get to make it, it's gonna be fine! I'll make it out some other way…." this was depressing to say the least.
If the soldiers captured just her, and the others escaped, the punishment would be all the more painful for her. And yet she tried to put up such a brave face and try to not ruin it for the other girls.
Soldier 1: "Come out already! If you surrender now we'll make things easier for you!" one of the men said once again. All the girls looked at each other at that uninvited offer, with concern in their eyes.
Nozomi: "Don't listen to them! We're gonna make it to freedom!" she continued to persist no matter what.
Enju: "Nozomi-chan….." came a sudden unexpected call from the redhead. "What are we going to do with Riko-chan! She won't be able to fit through there!" Enju finally addressed what was the elephant in the room. She wanted to hear an answer from her leader. Despite this and the gravity of that question, her former roommate simply ignored her and didn't reply.
Riko: "It's fine, Enju! I said that I'll be OK! Don't worry about me!" she tried to insist with salty tears in her eyes. "Even if I'll be caught, still, thank you, for being a good friend and trying to help me find mama!" the poor girl said to Enju. The girl still wasn't gonna give up on her though.
Enju: "Answer me please, Nozomi-chan!" the girl insisted, this time with what seemed to be anger in her voice. This was what prompted Nozomi to simply sigh since she didn't want to say this with the others listening. But apparently Enju really wanted to hear it so she had no other choice.
Nozomi: "We're gonna leave her behind!" came the all too expected but previously silent remark that, still, sent shivers down both Riko's and Enju's spines. "There's nothing we can do to help her!" finally the girls managed to finish a simple staircase. Almost immediately Mimi began climbing it with a screwdriver in hand and began unscrewing the screws holding the gate at the entrance in place. They were so close.
Nozomi: "Finally, we'll get to escape out of thi-…." but suddenly she then realized that Enju wasn't there anymore right next to the girls. Feeling a sudden bad feeling in her gut, Nozomi began looking around for her, worried, before she caught sight of her.
All of a sudden, Enju was dangerously close to the entrance of the room.
Nozomi: "Wait! ENJU, DON'T-…." but her plea was far too late as the redhead forced the door open and bringing the attention of the soldiers from the other side onto her.
Enju: "We're here! We surrender!"