She woke up with a gasp in her throat and her heart beat at a million miles an hour. What a strange, strange dream.
"You're finally awake. Was starting to think you actually died."
Who was that?
"What? Too good to respond to me now?"
Rubbing her blurry eyes, she faintly makes out a figure of a man standing by her bed. "Who…?" It was hard to make out his features, but she could see that he was wearing a surgical mask. His outfit was a lot more distinct—a dark green jacket with a fuzzy purple fur collar. It looked strangely familiar.
He scoffed. "You know who I am. Don't play dumb with me. Come on, up. We still need to runs some tests today. I just reset you, so you should be able to take it."
"R-reset? Tests?"
He yanked her out of the bed in response, practically tossing her to the ground.
"Hey! That hurt!" she yelped, stumbling to regain her balance.
"Shut up. You're way too mouthy today. Better stop that before you ruin my good mood."
"Rude!" she yelled. "Who the hell are you?" Now that she was on the ground, she noticed somewhat belatedly that the man was a lot taller than her. Even when she standing up straight, she barely reached his knees. She was never the tallest person, but she knew she wasn't this short.
"Huh?" His eyebrows furrowed and he glared down at her. "Eri. Last chance.
"I-" Wait. What did he just call her?
"You're lucky I don't have time to discipline you today," he said, roughly grabbing her hand. "Let's go."
Eri…She'd heard that name before, but that couldn't be.
He started pulling her along, making her almost stumble and fall on the rough concrete.
"Wait. Let me go! You're hurting me," she cried.
"One more word, Eri, and I'll make the tests we're about to run even more terrible than usual," he said, voice low and filled with menace.
She gulped, shivering as a pang of terror flooded through her, and she shut up. This was not good. She struggled to remember what she was doing before this. It was the middle of a cold winter, which meant she was probably sleeping or doing nothing, so how did she get in this mess?
This must be a dream. That was the only explanation.
The hallway they were walking through looked and felt quite realistic, however, nothing like the hellscape that was her usual dreams. She could see the different shades of gray in the concrete so clearly. Too clearly. The man's hold on her arm was tight enough to cause pain.
Where were they going anyway? He had mentioned some kind of test, which didn't seem all that bad to her.
Before she knew it, they had arrived. It was a large room lit only by a single fluorescent bulb hanging on the ceiling. A single metal chair stood in the middle of the room, and when they got closer, she could see that it was eerily reminiscent of those torture chairs she'd seen in movies. All that was missing was blood spatters on the walls, but it could've just been cleaned up.
Without a word, he lifted her up and placed her on the terrifying chair.
Wake up. Wake up! Why wasn't she waking up?
He wheeled a metal cart towards them. On it were medical equipment that didn't bode well for her. "Let's start."
No! She looked around frantically, searching blindly for something, anything that could help her.
Something white caught her eye. She looked down.
Oh no. Her hair…it was white. She pulled it at just to make sure it wasn't just cotton candy that had stuck on her for whatever reason, and sure enough, it hurt. Both her arms were also covered in bandages, making the rest of her doubts vanish. How did she not notice this earlier?
"Nonono," she whispered. This was starting to be too specific and realistic to be a dream. The man's weird costume. Him calling her Eri. And now this? Now that she thought about it? What language were they speaking? She could understand him perfectly earlier and had no trouble speaking, but it wasn't English.
Could it be?
Reaching out a trembling hand, she poked at her forehead, praying that it wasn't there.
Nope. It definitely was. She let out a loud groan and tugged at the horn as hard as she could.
Nothing happened.
"What the hell are you doing?" the man, no, Chisaki asked.
"NO!" she screamed. "This can't be happening!"
His forehead creased, and his eyes narrowed to slits. Before she could react, he pulled his gloved hand back and…
Smack.
"O-ouch," she whimpered, clutching her stinging cheek. "You hit m-me." She'd never been hurt before. Especially not by scary looking fictional villains.
It wasn't a good feeling.
"I warned you," he growled, picking up a syringe from the cart. "Did the reset break your brain? I thought you grew out of screaming years ago."
Tears welled up in her eyes. Why wasn't she waking up? This shouldn't be real. Eri wasn't real. Neither was Chisaki.
"What? Gonna cry?" He sighed and pinned her arm down, undoing the bandages on it. "Please spare me."
"W-what are you doing?" she asked, unable to hold back tears.
He let out an aggravated sigh. "Running tests. I need your blood."
She eyed the syringe in his hand anxiously. The needle point was awfully thick.
Without giving her a chance to react, he jabbed it into her arm."Ouch!" she cried out, tugging at his firm hold. The sight of her blood going into the syringe made her want to throw up.
"Stop struggling," he said, tightening his grip. "You're just going to make it harder for yourself."
A shrill wail escaped her and she tried using her free arm to pry his hand off. It didn't even budge an inch. "I wanna go home…"
"What are you talking about? This is your home," he said. The syringe was filled now, and he finally removed it. "You better not talk more nonsense tomorrow, unless you'd like to redo your…compliance lessons.
Compliance lessons? She slowly pulled her now hurting arm and clutched it close to her chest, her body shaking with fear. What did that even mean? What the hell did Eri go through behind the scenes? She wasn't sure if she wanted to know. It was easier when she thought she was fictional.
"That's what I thought." He started tidying up.
She stared longingly at the open door. The impulsive part of her screamed at her to run, to get out of here while she had the chance. But the logical part of her held her back. Even if she could make it out without being immediately caught by Chisaki, then what? She didn't know the layout of this place. She didn't know who she was going to encounter on the way out. Powerful as Eri's quirk was, she had no idea how to use it or if she even could.
She'd have to wait for another chance.
"Okay. We're done here," he said, pulling her out of her musings. "Let's go."
Without waiting for her response, he grabbed her by the waist and planted her on the ground.
An unknown man was waiting for them outside. He looked normal to her relief, and even flashed her a small smile.
"Haru. Take her to her room and make sure she doesn't try anything funny," Chisaki said, handing her over to the unknown man. "Remember, if anything happens, it's on you."
The man nodded and lifted her into his arms. "You got it, boss."
"Hey," she protested. How dare he? Even if she was small, that didn't mean they could manhandle her like this. It was just so rude!
Chisaki sent a a chilling glare, and she felt all the protests die in her throat. "I'll see you tomorrow, Eri. Be good."
She watched tearfully as he walked away, his footsteps loud and heavy on the concrete floors.
"Are you alright?" the man carrying her, or Haru, asked in a surprisingly gentle voice.
"No, does it look like I am?"
"Ah. I'm sorry to hear that."
"Let me down, please."
"Sorry, Eri, I can't. Boss's orders," he said. "Let's get back to your room. I'm sure you're tired."
She let out a guttural groan filled with frustration.
"What's wrong? You're acting weird," he said as started walking.
"Nothing. Just…" How did the real Eri normally act? Were her reactions too much? It was hard to imagine a real child being able to withstand something like this without complaint. It just…wasn't right.
"It's going to be okay. You get to rest now. Isn't that great?"
"I guess…"
Haru didn't say anything else, and neither did she.
The room, Eri's room, was exactly as she remembered from the show-dark and foreboding. There were no windows, and the only furniture were a bed and a small desk.
"Here, let me wrap your arm up for you," he said, grabbing a medkit from the top of a shelf
"I'm fine," she said, looking at her arm. There was a bloody spot where the syringe had gone in, but she was otherwise untouched. Tiny white scars littered the pale skin, however—were they from past "tests"?
"Sorry, Eri. Just let me do this real quick and I'll get out of your hair."
She sighed. "Fine." As long as it'd get him out, she could endure.
"Thanks."
She watched as he expertly bound new bandages all over her arm, even in places where she wasn't hurt. "You got reset by the boss today, didn't you?"
"Reset?"
His eyebrows quirked up. "His quirk," he explained. "I see your wounds from yesterday aren't here anymore."
"Oh…" Her head spun. Was that how she woke up as Eri? Because the original died from being disassembled? The thought of her made her sick, and she had to fight to keep the bile down. "Ugh."
"I know, I know," he said, patting her on the head. "Anyway, I'm all done. Get some rest. I'll see you in the morning."
As soon as he was gone, she cried. She sobbed. She wailed.
Then she wiped her tears and climbed on the over-sized bed, curling up into the warm blankets.
This was fine. There was no reason to panic. She knew what was going to happen in the future, and could thus save herself. Easy. All she had to do was survive Chisaki's "tests" and wait for the heroes to come save her.
How hard could it be? In fact, she was glad that she took over Eri's body. What happened to her was way too much for a real child to handle. She just hoped that wherever the original Eri went, it was better than here.
As for her, her mental maturity and knowledge of the future was sure to help her get through this with ease.
Right?
Right.
She clutched her still aching arm and she held back more tears. There was a lot she had to plan for if she wanted to get out out of here alive, but…that could wait until tomorrow. She didn't feel so well, and her bed was oddly soft.
A cute stuffed bunny laid by her pillow. She smiled weakly and picked it up, admiring the worn out fabric. It was clearly well loved by its original owner.
It didn't feel quite right to be playing with a stuffed bunny at her age, but she couldn't deny the comfort that she felt when she held it to her chest. Maybe there was still a little bit of Eri in her, after all.
Been wanting to write an Eri Sioc for like two years now. Finally got around to it.