Chapter 70:

Don't let someone else cage you.

"You really aren't affected by the sight of blood are you?" Verde comments, looking down at the child next to him. Considering that they were surrounded by the stuff, that fact was a good thing.

"No, I'm not. Reborn says that's a good thing though." Tsunayoshi replies, looking up at Verde before smiling. He takes a curious look at what Verde was doing before returning his attention back to the object in his hands.

Reborn would say that was a good thing, what hitman was sickened by the sight of blood? But when Verde thought more about his statement, he realised that he already had more than sufficent evidence to prove his statement correct. Chronologically there were many times when Tsunayoshi had come into contact with blood and not been affected. Firstly was the time when Reborn found Tsunayoshi- according to his statement, the baby had been using it like face paint. From then on would be the sight of blood from whenever one of the Arcobaleno returned home after certain missions. The next major event would be when Verde had protected Tsunayoshi from a rampant robot and injured his shoulder in the process. After that would be times when Bermuda and Reborn first introduced Tsunayoshi to their daily lives, including the killings Tsunayoshi had witnessed. Most recently would be blood from the recent fights against the Spanish Arco Iris.

Tsunayoshi hadn't reacted negatively to any of it; his reactions were skewed towards worry over possible injuries. Verde supposed that early desensitisation could only be a good thing. He looks back at the microscope and at the blood culture he was observing. Hmm, these results were good, but they needed to be better. He removes the slide from under the microscope, places it in a container and labels it correctly. He then turns to the rest of his cure before picking up a new bottle. Maybe using some more of this would increase it's effects?

"~Hickory Dickory Dock. The mouse ran up the clock~"

Verde ignores Tsunayoshi, letting the child's mindless singing become nothing more than background noise. He looks at a different culture he had set up earlier. Just like he though, there was no reaction with this one. At least he could cross another useless component off his list.

"~The clock struck One, the mouse ran down.~"

"HEEII! Noo! Mr Mousy don't run away. Hey come back here!"

"Tsunayoshi please be quiet, I'm trying to concentrate." Verde mutters, looking at his list of biological components and deciding which one would be best to incorporate next.

"See Mr Mouse, you're stopping Verde from his work. Bad mouse." Tsunayoshi says, chasing the mouse around on the floor. It was just so fast and really really hard to catch.

Verde keeps a small amount of attention on the boy, but the majority of it was on this experiment instead. There was nothing too dangerous around at the moment that the clumsy boy could harm himself on. So instead he circles a few items on his list to try later before moving onto his third culture. Oh, this one looked promising. He removes a sample and places it under the microscope. Yes, these were good results. And it looked like all of the repeat test samples he had done to make sure his work was reliable all showed the same results. This particular solution was ready to be sampled.

Verde walks across the lab to where his test subjects were caged. Don't worry, they weren't human, instead they were mice. Verde was currently working on a cure for a certain disease. No one had attempted to create a cure for it yet, which was why it had attracted Verde's attention. It was a challenge and a puzzle he wanted to solve. That was why there was a lot of blood around the lab at the moment, in bottles or in petri dishes, most of it refrigerated to keep the blood fresh.

Of course Verde had taken the needed precautions. So both himself and Tsunayoshi were fully dressed in biohazard suits, with the correct breathing apparatus, rubber gloves and any other equipment that would keep them safe. Luce had insisted upon it- any protection that was available, they had to wear it. Of course Tsunayoshi followed Verde's every example in the lab, so he wouldn't wear all of the equipment if Verde himself wasn't. So Verde had to wear all of this stuff too, even if the disease wasn't all that bad.

Verde pulls some of the mice out of their confinement and splits them into two groups, one would be the control group, given a placebo drug instead and the others would be taking his latest test cure. If these tests went well, then he could move onto the next stage. It shouldn't be too long before he was ready to try the new cure out on human experiments instead.

CRASH!

Verde stops what he was going to do and looks around to find out what had been the cause of that crash. Although there really was only one possible cause: Tsunayoshi. And indeed, there Tsunayoshi was, rubbing his head from where he'd head-butted a table whilst still chasing the errant mouse. Said mouse was one Verde kept especially for Tsunayoshi to play with when the boy had shown an interest in them- they had squeaked when Verde had brought them home and by some rather strange laws of Physics that Verde hadn't figured out yet, Tsunayoshi was immediately there, wanting to know what was going on, what had made the squeak, what they were called, did they all have names, could he pet one and ultimately (finally) why had Verde brought them home? As such, this mouse was kept away from all the others so it didn't become contaminated, even if Tsunayoshi was as protected as scientifically possible.

Verde sighs when a pile of papers and folders falls from the desk Tsunayoshi had just impacted with and onto the floor. Tsunayoshi looks between the mess of papers and the mouse in distress, clearly not knowing which to go after. However, eventually he decides that the mouse is more important and goes off chasing it once again.

"Bad mouse! Stop making Verde's lab dirty!" He tells off, voice distorted due to the mask.

Verde walks across and picks up the papers, taking the time to sort them out and put them back in the correct order. Ah, these were the files on the four Estraneo experiments that Tsunayoshi had taken a liking to. The Estraneo were a rather strange Family. They were known for their strange weapons and rather confrontational manner. They were determined to become larger and better than even the Vongola. It was a tall order, but it was possible. Verde was freelance and worked on what projects interested him, so he had worked on a few of their projects as well. The most recent ones were disturbing to say the least. Especially since the Family had resorted to using their own children as guinea pigs.

Verde had worked on the children in scientific interest, but it wasn't until he'd been there a few times that he started to hate the place. Even someone as apathetic as he knew that live experimental subjects needed to be well looked after or else it could be detrimental to the project. However the Estraneo never seemed to take notice of this, which was most likely why most of their experiments had failed- what a waste of life.

If the Estraneo had wanted any hope of success, then the children should have been treated far better than they were. They should be fed more, given proper exercise and better living conditions. More than anything it was basic human rights. Verde had never really cared for such ethical things, but there were still limits and lines that one should not pass, even he knew that. Or even not considering that, looking after the children properly meant higher success rates. Healthy bodies were more likely to accept the changes and adapt to them than a malnourished one was. If the Estraneo kept on going like they were, they wouldn't have any soldiers to fight for them left at all.

When Verde had gone in to work on the experimental children, he had expected to have a hard time with them due to his rough manner and cold personality. Children didn't like him, he didn't like children, and that was perfectly acceptable to him. But instead, he had somehow become the children's favourite doctor. It had taken him a few visits and a lot of observations of the other doctors to realise this was because he actually took care of them. Verde had thought it was common sense to knock the children out with anaesthetic before conducting the experiments, but the Estraneo never did. He would have thought that overcoming problems from the last experiment before conducting the next was just normal practice, but the Estraneo just kept on progressing with their plans.

To be honest, the ways of the Estraneo disgusted him. If it wasn't for these friends Tsunayoshi had, he doubted that he would have remained there any longer. He hated the ideas that the Estraneo had come up with, hating the reasons behind such misguided creations even more. If the Estraneo had wanted to create a human living on illusions alone for the reason of medical science then he would approve, but not to use said person as an undead soldier. Creating Human-Animal hybrids was an even sillier idea, totally ignoring the theories on evolution. If humans had needed those skills, we would have kept them or evolved to create them.

He couldn't even stand to call the Estraneo Scientists. It was the highest form of insult to be in the same profession as them.

Verde may go to far lengths to complete his experiments and to gather data and research, he may seem like a man without ethics and rules to those of normal society, but he was a Scientist and breaking boundaries was what science did. After all, where would medical science be if those first scientists hadn't broken a taboo and exhumed dead bodies for study? But despite being a scientist, despite being a cold apathetic man who prefers isolation to human contact, he still had limits.

Amazingly Verde, it seemed, had a heart after all.

Especially if you were comparing him to the heartless Estraneo.

He straightens the files on the four Estraneo experiments and places them back down on the table with a resounding thump. Before the mouse that had just ran past could squeak, he had captured it in one fell swoop and placed it back into Tsunayoshi's hands. He would do what the Estraneo couldn't and finish those experiments. He'd show the Estraneo that he was better than them. He'd show them that they were wrong.

And that's was all there was to it.

Phantom Hitman 1412

First Published 13 January 2013