The metallic floor reflected the faint light of the lab. Lights flickered as a man walked, his steps echoing across the room. A loud engine roar echoed in the distance. The man adjusted his lab coat and checked his watch, his expression turning sour.
Arriving at a garage door, he watched as it slowly opened, making more noise he would've wanted.
'Always late. I should start setting their arrival times earlier. Maybe then they'll be on time,' he thought. Adjusting his glasses he caught a glimpse of the car arriving.
It screeched as it braked just in time to avoid hitting the man. His gaze turned serious as he saw the men going out of the vehicle. Some had ton clothes, making it obvious an altercation had taken place.
"Do you have what I asked for?" he spoke slowly, eyeing the men.
They retrieve something from the back, placing it over a shoulder, and a man moves forward. "Dr. Tsubasa. Mission completed, with minor latency" the man spoke, his expression firm.
"She resisted?" He tilted his head, intrigued. "Good. That means her instincts are intact. Let's see what else she's capable of."
The man moved forward and placed the girl on the floor, undoing some restraints to make sure Dr. Tsubasa could see her clearly. Taking a step back with the others they waited patiently for their next orders.
"So you're Kochiya Seicho" he grabbed the chin of the girl inspecting her face before checking her arms "is it truly a mutant or just a side effect of her quirk I wonder" his fingers grazed a bony patch of skin.
Feeling his phone vibrate he quickly took it out, he frowned and sighed as he turned to leave. "Just start her 'training' or whatever, I have other things to do" his leaving figure was followed by the men and as he disappeared they turned their gazes to Seicho.
Going to pick her up again a man quickly called for the others "let's start, prepare the hole and desensitization chamber, we must check her quirk first" giving clear orders the men put to work.
Taking Seicho to an elevator the group descended, the room turned murkier and darker, the walls were crude, and the floor was rough. The men walked in different directions as the man holding Seicho took her to the testing chamber. He took out a metallic collar and placed it carefully around Seicho's neck. Locking the door and leaving Seicho alone, he went to another room overlooking hers.
He pressed a button on the controller in his hand. Below, the girl jolted awake with a sharp cry of pain. Her quirk acted on instinct as it started to cover her skin with bony patches.
'Fascinating' the man above started to take notes immediately, Dr. Tsubasa probably would let him leave until he found out everything about her quirk. 'I'll have to be ready in case the collar breaks' he thought, also taking note of it.
Seicho's eyes darted around her new environment, dark cold and rough was all she could see. Stony like surface eyes struggled to get used to the darkness. Feeling something around her neck she moved to touch it, cold, metallic, restraining. A collar she quickly realized, feeling around it, she felt something wet, looking at her fingers they dripped with blood. Her eyes widened her breathing as uncoordinated shallow breaths were everything she could do.
"Test number one, innate reaction" a muffled speaker took Seicho's attention.
Glancing at where she heard the sound, she found nothing, but from the corner of her eye something moved, before she could totally register it her quirk acted on its own. A thick bony patch covered her shoulder where a knife still inserted itself.
A scream tore from her throat as the blade hit. Seicho collapsed, clutching her shoulder, warmth soaking through her fingers. Her vision blurred with tears, breath coming in short, ragged gasps. She crawled backwards blindly, dragging herself across the cold floor until she hit the wall. Curled into the corner, she whimpered through clenched teeth, trembling as her quirk wrapped bone around the knifes, barely sealing it… too late, too painful.
Her lip trembled as warm blood pooled in her hand. Each breath made the knife shift inside her, a jagged, burning reminder that she was defenseless. Tears streamed down her face, her body frozen with fear every sob twisting the blade deeper.
"Partial fail, starting test two. Multiple attackers" the voice sounded again. And with it Seicho's body shook.
Her tear blurred eyes darted around the room. shadows bled into each other… she couldn't tell where the walls began, or where the danger would come from next. Her body shook as she pressed herself against the floor, waiting for the pain.
Seicho instinctively activated her quirk, bony patches rose all around her skin trying to act as an impermeable barrier. Knives flew again, the sound of the cutting the air filled Seicho's ears, she covered her head with her arms and curled up.
The floor struggled to maintain the blood dripping from Seicho, some knives painted the floor, but the majority clung to her body. She wanted to scream. to ask why. To beg for it to stop. But all that escaped her was a choking breath, and the quiet click of another knife falling. She suffered in silence trying not to move, the knife wounds slowly got covered with bone leaving the knife's even more stuck than before.
"Partial fail. Again. Next test: blunt objects" the speaker resounded again, taking Seicho's attention.
She tried to steel herself for what's to come, manipulating her quirk, knives fell on the floor, as bone sprouts pushed them out, she winced, clenching her jaw, tears never ending. She opened her eyes as much as she could to try to catch what would be thrown at her. Click. Thump. Her eyes locked onto the metal ball hurling to her stretching her hand bones sprouted from her fingertips. The bones cracked and churned as they reached towards it.
The ball doesn't need effort to continue forward, the bones weak as they were broken and bent out of the way. Trying to control the spread, Seicho focused on making her bones more concentrated. The ball came to a halt and dropped to the floor. Seicho allowed herself a small, tiered smile. A moment of relief.
Snap. She didn't see it. Didn't hear it. But she felt it. With all her focus on stopping just one ball she doesn't catch the other being shot at her. Her arm failed her, bones shattered. Her lip quivered as the bones she sprouted broke off and fell on the ground. Her arm hung beside her, she glanced slightly at it saying, her breathing was hitched. Short, shallow. She didn't cry out anymore. She just shook.
Her mind was blank, overwhelmed by the pain as she dissociated the rest of the room. The man above observed carefully trying to test his theory 'will she fix her bone or not' he thought quietly, his fingers holding his notes tightly in anticipation.
He was right to say the least, even if Seicho didn't know it, her quirk began to work, mending the broken bone together at high speeds. her arms snapped back to life as if it was never broken. The man smiled to himself as her arm straightened suddenly, as if nothing had happened
"A real success finally, let's take it to the next level"
Metal balls flew all around the room, taking no breaks whatsoever. Seicho ducked in instinct as she heard the wind whistling, without even noticing her fixed arm, she curled into a ball again.
What followed was the sound of balls flying and bones being broken over and over again, while all Seicho could do was grit her teeth and protect her head. Fingers, hands, arms, legs, shoulders. The sound of their cracking was the only thing Seicho could hear, feeling her body being torn apart and rebuilt over and over again.
The sound of impact drowned out her thoughts. All she could do was curl tighter, bones splintering beneath each strike. Her quirk kept trying. She wished it would stop. She couldn't tell what hurt more. The bones snapping or growing back. Her body wouldn't stop healing. It just wouldn't stop.
'Please…' A snap filled her ears. 'Stop.' Her arms fell, flailing, just to come right back. 'It hurts…' Her fingers twisted and tangled before snapping straight again. 'P-Please…' her mind faded in and out of consciousness.
Watching attentively from above, the man stopped the barrage as he noticed the regeneration of her bones slowing down. What was left was a broken mess, bloodied clothes, shattered walls and floor. Metal balls littered the ground making it impossible to walk safely across them.
Seicho laid still, a shell filled with broken things. No more strength to move. No voice to scream. The only thing working was her quirk, trying its best with little energy to patch up the broken body of Seicho. The fixes were turning crude, just setting the bone, just making sure she stayed in one piece. It didn't matter if the pieces fit anymore. Her quirk only cared that she didn't fall apart. Covered almost completely in bony patches, Seicho looked more like a statue than anything else. Frozen, silent, and barely alive.
The man stared silently at Seicho. His notes lay scattered around the observation room. 'I still need more data' he thought. 'But she is too weak right now.' Suddenly, he smiled. He slapped the table, sending a few pages flying, nearly bouncing in his seat with excitement.
"Actually… this is perfect" he muttered, turning to a computer with a different test he needed to check.
"Let's see if survival overrides morality," he muttered.
He scrolled through the test entries until he reached one that made him grin. 'Bunny.' It was the only word in the file, but it was enough. He smiled again, slower this time.
Several minutes passed as the test was prepared. The grin never left the man's face. Below him, Seicho lay silent. Her quirk worked slowly, patching her up. Any place that had been struck bore a thick crust of bone. Her arms, hands, legs, feet, shoulders. Almost complete white, with rough bone protecting them, each second the patches grew thicker and denser.
"Initiating emotional test. Subject shows extreme fatigue. Begin." The speaker's voice reached Seicho's ears, distant and muffled
Seicho barely heard the grinding of a small door being opened. Light footsteps scattered across the floor. Something was in the room with her. Something small. It took all her strength to raise her head to see around her. Aside from the metal balls decorating the floor and the dried blood crusted on her body and the ground, there was something else. Fluffy. Small. Radiating warmth. A painful contrast to the coldness that drenched the room.
It blinked up at her. It's nose twitching. It didn't know what hell it just entered. 'B-Bunny?' Seicho's mind struggled to make sense of what her eyes were seeing. She tried to stretch her hand, but her arm twitched strangely which also filled her with pain. Like her bones were being pulled from the inside, tugged through broken muscle.
The man noticed the weird movement from the girl, he stared puzzled until it clicked. "Just because she healed her bones doesn't mean she healed the muscles, tendons, and nerves," he muttered. He raced to write it down, grinning from the realization.
Seicho's fatigue was apparent, her eyes blinking slowly not being able to maintain their focus. Something was there. Something alive. Something warm. Something strange. Before she could think straight her quirk moved in instinct, slowly cracking and jittery bones sprouted from her arms, the bones were fragile, crack ridden. They inched forward the rabbit like bone white vines reaching for sunlight.
Hearing the bunny chirp as it watched the bones inching closer her eyes popped open watching as her bones completely surrounded the bunny. She clenches her fist, trying to swat her own arm away. Her body, wracked with pain, screamed at her to stop. Her arm swipes enough for the bones to bake off falling on the ground.
She shivers, clenching jaw as she tries to bear with the pain. Her arm broke again from the force. Her raw, unhealed muscles pulled too hard on bones that barely hold together. Her arm swung freely as her quirk tried to heal her.
(Image :P)
The bunny looked curiously at Seicho, its small paws and nose gracing her skin. Its little paws puttering across the rough floor. Seicho closed her eyes as she leaned to the corner, curled up, without energy.
The last thing she felt was a warm nose against her ribs… and the quiet sound of paws stepping away.
Above, the man sighed, clearly unsatisfied with the result. He scribbled on his notes: Redo test in 12 hours. Placing them down, he left the observation room without another word.
[A/N I hope you liked his chapter, I'm going to try not to extend too much these part of the story, but I still need to flesh it out as it's important to the development of the characters, anyway tell me what you think, and sorry for only drawing one scene, but I still hope you like it.]