January 2013
Pressing a small pack of ice onto my left arm, I walked straight through the dark corridor towards one of the corners. Frowning at the bothersome injury on my left arm, I stopped for a second in front of the right corner. If what I had heard was correct, it was supposed to be on this side.
...There.
Gazing at the shadows for some time, I could finally distinguish a small irregularity in the darkest corners of the shadows. A small wavy circle appeared on the floor every few seconds periodically and excluded a barely noticeable cloud of aura. Timing it correctly, I stepped forward just as the wavy circle appeared again so that I was touching it for the bare moment it appeared.
Sucking me inside just as I made contact with it, my vision darkened before a rush of white light assaulted my sensitive retinas. Blinking furiously, I looked around to see familiar white tiles surrounding me in a large room, almost as big as a classroom. Gazing around, I could spot 4 individuals sitting on the floor in the middle of the room.
Going towards them, I carefully sat down on the floor beside the white-haired boy, taking care not to put much strain on my already injured left hand. It was already swollen and purple and I didn't want it getting hurt anymore.
"Sorry for being late. I had stuff to take care of." Sending a pointed glare towards the white-haired boy beside me, he just snickered at my misfortune.
"I didn't tell you to use the bare minimum of nen to protect your arms and parry my punches. You already knew that they were enhanced and stronger than normal ones." Sending back a quick reply, he tried to justify himself.
"But Kiyotaka still won the fight, didn't he, Masaki?" Taking my side, the 2nd of the 5 individuals in the room pointed out an important fact with a smug tone. His grey eyes glinted with amusement as he took my side in the argument.
"That's because I wasn't expecting him to parry my punches stupidly with a less than required amount of aura. Being insanely fast that he is, I am used to trying to predict his movements before every attack. But this time, before I knew it, an opening in my form was visible wide for him to exploit." With a frustrated tone, he explained his side of the fight. Emotions changing quickly as always, he went from smug to frustrated in an instant.
I guess my actions might have confused him. But that was just an experiment of mine, so please don't expect that to happen a lot, Masaki.
"Aren't we here for a limited time? People will start looking for us if we cannot be seen for 15 minutes. We should get to the main topic." Interjecting before this could grow more, Yagami politely reminded them of an important fact.
The White Room authorities might just kill us for what we are planning to do.
"They'd never doubt you, Yagami. You are too much of a goody two shoes for them to ever be suspicious of you." Snickering openly at him, Amasawa Ichika made fun of him ruthlessly. Cheeky as always.
Thankfully, this time the red-haired devil had her sights on her fellow subject instead of bothering me.
Sighing, the brown-haired older boy clapped his hands before they started their own argument. We did have important stuff to discuss. Thank you for that, Satoshi or they would have never stopped.
Seeing that they all had calmed down, Azuma Satoshi spoke up first, a hint of a smile on his lips. "Good. Firstly, 2-01 and 2-02 have successfully escaped a few hours ago. You will most probably hear about it tomorrow. And there were no witnesses either." Hearing the good news, both Ichika and Masaki let out a cheer, while Yagami too let out a smile.
This was at least good news.
"That's good. Other than that, how far are you in convincing 3-66?" Expressing my feelings about the good news, I asked him a more important question right now. After all, getting all the strongest of each generation on our side would be immensely helpful. Be it 1 or 3, the strongest were always the most desirable. For us currently, numbers didn't matter, strength did.
After all, none of us wanted a repeat of what happened to the last 6 from the 1st gen. However many there may be, it didn't matter much if they were weak.
Knowing my thoughts, Satoshi frowned before responding. "I think she's a lost cause. From the way her performance is deteriorating, she's already reached her peak. Knowing the higher-ups, she's going to die in under a month." That makes things difficult. Would Satoshi be able to escape alone?
Actually, if we take his pocket dimension into consideration, it would be too easy for him. He can easily follow the backup plan if things go awry too.
"It's still manageable with your abilities. Other than that, how's the backup plan coming along for you all?" Masaki asked all of us. After all, while the actual plan was more of a teamwork and coordination-based plan, the backup plan was more individualistic.
Or rather, calling it a massacre would be better. Considering that we would have to fight our way out. Although, I doubt that we would need to resort to it, since our modified original plan had an almost zero chance of failure.
Nodding affirmatively, the rest of them gave a similar answer as mine while Masaki met my eyes with a knowing glance.
"I think that's all then. Wow, this didn't even take much time. It's better that we get out now before someone starts looking for us." Ending with an exuberant smile, Masaki clapped his hands before standing up.
Sighing, the rest of us started standing up. Discussions like these always were short, mostly because of how frequent they were and how little time we always had.
And now that the two most socially active subjects were gone, these meetings would get even shorter. I guess if 4-02 and 4-21 were here, things would have been more lively but looking at them currently, they lacked the resolve to help us if we used plan B, i.e., those two would hesitate to kill everyone when necessary.
Those two aside, 4-03 was another matter, whose escape was guaranteed even if he wanted it or not. Although, knowing him, he would jump at the chance of exploring the world, however low it may be.
Looking around for a few seconds, Yagami and Ichika both went towards a door in the corner of the room. Opening it to reveal an empty dark corridor, the two of them went in one by one, each of them closing the door behind their back.
Following them, Masaki sent us a quick farewell before he too exited through the door, closing it behind him. Leaving the two of us in the room, I pressed the ice pack closer to my arm and sent a questioning look toward Satoshi.
Lying down horizontally on the ground, he looked more relaxed than ever. Although the walls around us were identical to the white room, it didn't bother him. Maybe he was like me in that context, finding it easier to think while facing a white wall?
Sighing as I figured that I was most probably overthinking this small behavior of his, I went towards the door. He was most likely just tired after helping out those two in escaping. A bit of peace and quiet was what he needed right now.
"Kiyotaka?" Calling me out, he stopped me just in front of the door, my right hand outstretched towards the doorknob.
"What is it?"
Hesitating for a second, he smiled, then raised a hand and gave me a thumbs-up gesture. "Don't worry about me. 3-66's eventual death is unexpected but it's not going to cause me any problems. I can still escape easily. It won't be like those 1st gens attempt."
Oh, so that's what he was concerned about?
"I always had faith in your abilities, Satoshi." After all, if we consider all of our abilities, you will be the only one to find it extremely easy to get out of here. "Also, try not to get too soft now, 3-14. Remember that we are still part of the White Room." Adding a small reminder of my own, I hoped that he would follow my advice.
A fairly visible smile on his face, he casually responded back. "Yes, yes. The same goes for you too, 4-50. Try not to get carried away by your experiments too much." Although the last line bothered me a bit, I ignored it. I knew he would never report me to the higher ups.
Sighing, I opened the door and walked into the darkness, letting it wrap around me and dropping me in front of a familiar cold corridor. White walls and floor around me, I slowly took a few steps at a time towards my room. A good sleep was what I needed right now and hopefully some even more good news the next day.
"4-50! What are you doing out here?" A loud barking voice breaking me out of my thoughts, I turned to my right to see another one of those accursed instructors standing in front of an open door.
"I was just coming back from a walk after an infirmary visit." Showing my left hand in front of his eyes, his gaze roamed over it and me for a second, most likely searching for any lies. Not finding any, he frowned in disappointment, not finding a valid reason to punish me.
"Where's 3-14, then? You seem to be around him a lot." Showing a pathetic attempt at interrogating me, he glowered down at me, trying to intimidate me into speaking.
Unfortunately for him, it didn't work.
"Who knows? How about checking the library?" Knowing that Satoshi would either turn up at the balcony or the greenhouse, I sent one of the instructors towards the farthest place from either of the two.
"Turn down the attitude, brat." Ignoring the barking of the instructor as he left after the library, I went forward in my initial direction as if nothing had disturbed me. What was I going to do before this?
Oh, yes. I was planning on getting some sleep.
{ExH}
Waking up early as always, I once again started the monotonous morning routine with the remaining 15 or so of the initial 100 subjects of the 4th generation. And out of the remaining, 80 percent of them were almost dead and there was no saving them, that is, if the White Room even allowed us to.
Regardless of that, Masaki joined me cheerfully towards the main hall where we had to report every morning. Both him and 4-02 made me wonder if having high potential equals to being weird. Even I was tired during the morning, having to leave the warm bed of mine to do the same old and boring tasks everyday.
Their cheerfulness was enviable. I failed to understand how they could even laugh in this insipid facility.
Standing in a line, the two of us waited silently while facing the rather irate instructor. If things were going to go as we had expected, then the reason for her anger was clear.
"I can see all of you bastards are here. Good." Her words matched her furious expression. "There was an escape attempt from two of the second generation, which has been taken care of. Just know that you won't be seeing 2-01 and 2-02 ever again." With a callous smile on her face, she twisted the facts and presented a grim picture to the subjects.
Huh. So this was how the WR was going to deal with this.
But the instructor still wasn't finished." And to prevent such future attempts, the higher-ups have decided to increase the curriculum for all the generations as a punishment." Although I couldn't see any of the other's faces, there were most likely many pale faces. After all, most were still finding the current curriculum very difficult.
So, they were just aiming to kill any and all rebellions by overworking us?
Well, it isn't that problematic for me. And I am sure that the others can also cope with it. Because if they didn't, they would just be disposed of like defective products. There was no going against the higher-ups. Here, the stronger ones survived while the weaker ones perished.
In the end, this was how the White Room operated.
{ExH}
February 2014
"It seems like my warning did not reach you all clearly." It was the same instructor from a year before and she seemed even more furious this time. "Another one of you tried to foolishly escape. And before any one of you asks, he was also taken care of." No, he wasn't. If he was, you would have shown a body to intimidate us.
This was just a paltry attempt at hiding the truth from those who might try to escape like them.
"Your curriculum is also increasing, rather harshly this time." With a sadistic expression on her face, she gazed at the rest of the survivors of the first 5 generations.
Not many of us were left, with about 5 in our generation. The 3rd had almost been wiped out, with about 2 or 3 left. Most of the remaining survivors were from the 2nd and 1st generations. And this new increased curriculum would most likely be even more hellish than before.
But none of that mattered much to me. After all, It's not like I was going to stay here for long.
{ExH}
May 2014
Crouching downwards such that both of my palms were touching the ground, I sent a look of confirmation towards Masaki. Standing guard in the corridor, his job was to monitor the situation to see if anyone was coming. And to take care of them if they did.
Sending me a thumbs up, he nodded in confirmation.
Ok, everything was perfect.
Taking a few deep breaths, I calmed down my heart rate. Shifting my knees to a better position, I quickly started gathering a large amount of my nen into both of my palms using a technique called Gyo.
...3...
...2...
...1...
Perfect. Large amounts of nen has been gathered. Next was the transmutation part.
...5...
...4...
...3...
...2...
...1...
'Zzzzz-zzzz~'. Sparks flew around the room all around me as I took a final glance towards Masaki. Seeing him nod again, I took a quick intake of breath and then released it towards the floor. The place and aim were perfect and the results should be visible right about... Now.
Pang!
Hearing the noise from the large shockwave, the two of us looked back at our artwork. Although it was mostly mine, Masaki had been a lot helpful too. Without him, I wouldn't have been able to do 'this' so easily.
Basically, we had just caused a power shutdown in one half of this massive facility.
The entire plan was Masaki standing guard on the second-floor corridor, and for me to transmute extremely large amounts of nen to electricity. An ability in making of mine, I basically transmuted my nen to electricity, in the form of positive and negative charges. It was a rather complex Hatsu to explain.
Although electricity was a powerful element I could transmute my nen to, it was also the one that required me to charge myself a lot. While the ability was something that I had acquired purely by my wishful thinking, its prior preparations were not a pleasant task in itself. Anyways, that's a story to think about for later.
Standing up in the darkness, I tapped my feet in Morse code, following a certain pattern that meant, 'Task completed'. If he understood it clearly, then he would most likely be on his way towards the sleeping quarters.
Getting out of the room that still had leftovers of my transmuted nen in the form of stray sparks, I once again admired our luck. Exactly above the electricity room, this was a storage room hence making it one of the least visited rooms of the facility.
We had planned to release a large amount of electricity, about 60% of the electricity I had gathered from all sorts of appliances over the last 2 years and to release it all at once in the direction of the electricity room. Even if the large current hadn't burned away all the wires, the resultant shockwave would destroy the room.
No type of nen defense or Artefact would be able to protect it from the physical shockwave.
Breaking out of my thoughts, I opened the door and silently stepped inside the room of mine. Quietly creeping towards my bed, I laid down quickly in it and covered myself with blankets. Loud sirens could be heard out in the corridors, accompanied by the shuffling of footsteps.
By now, almost all of the remaining survivors of the 4th generation that were in this room had woken up. Although there were just 5 of us, counting me and Masaki, we still knew each other's code.
"What happened, 4-01? 4-50? Do either of you know anything?" A girl spoke up, confused about the commotion. Addressing my code with just a bitter tone, this was 4-02, the third rank of our generation. Although her dislike for me was mostly due to me replacing her position in the rankings, she still tried to be friendly with me at times.
I suppose her Hatsu's conditions were influencing her decision a bit but I couldn't bring myself to care about it.
"I don't know, 4-02. Just leave it to the staff, or they might blame us at the slightest bit of evidence." getting back to the conversation, Masaki responded back instead of me. His tone had a curious tone, once again reminding me how scarily good he was at controlling the emotions he showed, either on his face or voice.
"4-01 is right. We shouldn't poke your nose where we are told not to." 4-03, the most sensible of the rest of us survivors spoke up. Firmly supporting Masaki's idea, I could imagine a smirk on his face as he advised 4-02 from asking more questions.
Almost everyone knew how curious 4-02 could get at times.
"Hmph, no fair. You two always team up against me." I could imagine her pouting as she turning her head to the other side, indicated by the sound of a bed sheet rustling for a second.
Not hearing a reply, I guessed that they had finally let the topic rest. The last of the survivors, 4-21, had just slept through the conversation. It was good for her, as she would receive extremely good news the next morning. All of us would.
After all, if my calculations were correct, I had destroyed a quarter of the facility. There's no way the White Room could still work like that. All that worked right now were the emergency sirens, which echoed around the entire corridor outside the room I was in. And before I knew it, the aura exhaustion and the constant periodic sound lulled me to sleep.
{ExH}
"The White Room is going to be temporarily closed." Voice laced with anger, a familiar instructor repeated what was written on a sheet of paper, holding it with shaking hands. "Most of you are going to be assigned to temporary guardians or other safe houses. Except for these 11 subjects."
Turning the page with her pale hands, I was able to catch a glimpse of her face which was contorted with rage.
"2-03, 2-27, 3-66,
4-01, 4-02,
4-03, 4-21 and 4-50.
All of you will follow me." Phrasing it in a way that sounded like we were in trouble, she most likely tried to see if any of us had a suspicious expression on our faces. Knowing her, anything ranging from happiness to smugness would have been valid enough to put the blame on us.
Unfortunately for her, all of us were either confused, able to manipulate the feelings on their face, or just emotionless in my case.
That aside, we followed her towards the main corridor, where she gestured us inside to separate rooms. Glaring at us each as we entered our respective rooms, we all ignored her.
I wonder how the higher-ups would handle this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{ExH}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Word count/Characters = 3539/19676
A.N. = Well, just like before, this chapter introduced two of the OCs and mentioned two more of them from the 2nd gen. And I am sure you know Yagami and Ichika. Also, don't judge Yagami too fast. I aim for some character development for him. He's a wasted character.
Is there anything else?
Oh and go check out OriginDistortion's stuff on Wattpad if you you haven't yet somehow. He's a great writer.
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