Chapter Text
Haruka opened his eyes slowly.
It took a few seconds before his eyes could adjust to the dim lightning. He could only see forward, feeling too sluggish and tired to turn his head. He was in a room emptied of furniture with painted white walls and a single door barely discernable in its whiteness.
He felt weight on his shoulder and forced his neck to twist. His eyes widened when he saw the brown mess of hair. Makoto was leaning on his shoulder, his breathing slow in his sleep. He was wearing a white shirt and white pants; as plain as can be. Haruka looked down at himself to see that he was wearing the same clothes.
That was when he saw something yellow from his peripheral vison. Nagisa was lying down on the floor, his head resting on Rei’s chest. They were both unconscious and wearing the same white clothes.
What’s going on?
After a good minute, Haruka detached himself from the wall, careful not to let Makoto fall, and looked around. Behind Makoto was another white door. There was no difference between the two doors in the room. Haruka had no idea which was the exit or where they led. He got up unsteadily and went to the door he first saw when he woke up.
It was no surprise to him that it was locked. He looked up at the ceiling. There was a little sphere on the corner that reflected the white light from the fluorescent tubes lining the ceiling. Haruka immediately knew it was a camera. He swallowed and hurried over to Makoto.
He shook his sleeping friend’s shoulder. “Makoto, wake up.”
Makoto’s eyes moved under his eyelids before he opened them slowly, a distant look in them. He blinked and his eyes focused on his friend’s face.
“Haru?” he mumbled.
Haru let out a quiet sigh of relief.
“Something is going on,” he murmured.
He stood up to wake the others up as Makoto looked around him.
“What…?” Makoto let out.
He turned around upon hearing someone yawn. Nagisa was rubbing his eyes while Rei gently wiped his own, his glasses in his hand. Nagisa’s eyes narrowed when he saw Haruka.
“Huh, Haru-chan? What are you doing here..?”
His voice trailed off when he noticed his surroundings.
“Where are we?” Rei asked no one in particular.
“You guys are in Toe Laboratories.”
They all jumped at the sudden voice. They looked around for speakers but all they saw was white.
“Welcome to Toe labs, where new, important discoveries are found every year. We have brought you here as test subjects for the AMR project.”
Rei pushed his glasses up to rest on the bridge of his nose once more.
“Test subjects?” Rei repeated, frowning.
“Right, we will be monitoring you from now on.”
The four exchanged loaded looks.
“Shouldn’t we have to sign a contract to give our consent to participate in this project of yours?” Rei asked, his eyes narrowed.
“Since you guys are underage, we had your parents sign it for a large sum of money.”
Nagisa inhaled sharply but quietly.
“You bribed our parents?” he exclaimed, his eyes wide.
“Excuse my choice of words earlier. It’s more like we rewarded them for signing the contract.”
Makoto shook his head multiple times. “They would never…”
“Oh, but they did. They wanted to help us. It was a good choice. They won’t see you in months but you will certainly be reunited.”
Makoto's gaze falls to the floor, his eyes wide with disbelief. Haruka looked at his best friend with concern. He wanted to comfort him but he had nothing helpful to say.
“Let me present myself. I am Paul Harvey but you can just call me Paul. I am the person in charge of you all so let’s become good friends.”
These words sounded ridiculous to them.
“A few more will come tomorrow. I’m sure you can guess who. You guys are always together even if you belong to different schools.”
The last words sealed it.
“You brought Rin-chan and the others into this?” Nagisa yelled, his voice higher than last time.
Nagisa didn’t know what “this” was but he felt nothing good would come of it.
“We need diversity in our test subjects. Otherwise, the results won’t be accurate.”
Haruka bit his lip.
“Stop calling us test subjects,” he said in a low voice.
The three glanced at him, surprised to finally hear him talk.
“Oh, I apologize Haruka-san. I will remember to call you by your names from now on.”
Haruk didn’t look the least happy about that.
“Now then, we will come and pick you up one by one to test for any problems you may have with your health. The first one will be Haruka-san.”
Not even a second passed before the white door opened and two large men in black uniforms walked in. Both had stun guns and batons at their belt.
“I am warning you. If you try to fight them you will be hurt.”
They took hold of Haruka’s arms and he yanked them away before walking to the door by himself. The door closed behind one of the men without a sound. The three looked at the door with worried eyes.
“Don’t worry, it’s a simple medical checkup. Now, wait patiently for you turn. Goodbye.”
With that, silence settled in the room.
Rei ran a nervous hand through his blue hair. “What a mess we’re in.”
Nagisa pouted.
“I already don’t like that guy.”
Makoto sat back down and wrapped his arms around his knees. His eyes were unmoving, staring at the white floor. Nagisa noticed his dejected state and went to sit beside him. He brought a hand to his shoulder and squeezed with his small fingers.
“Don’t worry Mako-chan, I’m sure he’s lying. Our parents would never do something like that. He must have threatened them or something,” Nagisa said, trying to comfort his friend.
Green eyes moved to look up at him before falling back down to absolute whiteness.
“How are Ren and Ran going to feel?” he let out quietly.
Nagisa looked up at Rei for help and the latter walked over to them.
“Makoto-senpai.”
Green eyes met red frames.
“They won’t have time to worry because we’re going to get out of here,” he said firmly.
Both Nagisa and Makoto looked at him without much faith.
“Did you see those big guys, Rei-chan? They’re twice my height and they’re armed. How are we supposed to get out?”
He looked at both of them with determined eyes.
“Rin-senpai and the others are coming, aren’t they? We’ll find some kind of way.”
They just stared at him. He sighed and brought his hands to his hips.
“Come on, you have to have hope and believe right? Don’t you guys watch any movies?”
Nagisa smiled and tapped Makoto’s back.
“That’s right! We have to be optimistic. Whatever we’ll be doing might be fun, who knows! We don’t know what AMR means after all. It could stand for Awesome Machine Rabbit or something.”
“Why rabbit?” Rei asked with a smile.
“I couldn’t think of an awesome R word,” Nagisa said, his arms in the air.
Makoto forced himself to smile at them. “You’re right,” he agreed. “Besides, I’m sure they’re safe. They’re too young for them to be taken like us.”
Rei walked over to the white door across from the one where Haru and the men left.
“How did they even capture us?” Rei wondered as he opened the door. “I don’t remember a thing.”
The other two got up to see what was inside. There was a toilet, a sink, and a set of towels.
“No shower huh?” Makoto commented.
The three looked at each other.
“We’ll be fine,” Nagisa said to the two.
They both nodded and they all sat down on the hard white floor, waiting for luck to shine down on them.