"I have been drowning for so, so, long."
The young man, who had been staring up at the bright surface of this ocean for days now, thought to himself, there was nothing more to do, to accomplish or to learn, he was not able to even move his body. His restless mind continued,
"for the first few moment, I thought that maybe I was merely asleep, that this was just a nightmare, or a vivid dream, now i am not so sure"
His dull dark eyes stare at the surface, all they witnessed was the surface, the unmoving bed, his eyes twitched as he wondered,
"who was laying in it? And why must they get such a rest?"
surrounding the pristine bed there were a pile of corpses, and yet the blood didn't pollute the strange ocean, or was it a sea? He couldn't have known.
Surrounding his body, there were strings that had been constantly vibrating, some very violently and others not so much, there were numbers and equations running along all the strings that were blurred out to the human eye.
his eye grew heavy, his body wieghing tons, the string that were vibrating felt like they were biting into him like sharks and all sorts of wierd animals, and yet he was unable to move a single muscle, with a pained expression, he mused to himself,
"I have lost count...how many time have i fainted?...who am I?"
It was a snowy time, In a lab in the middle of mountains, under a pristine white snow, far from the reach of the average person, another interrogator was entering the same cell for the 4th time, the female interrogator pushed up her glass, her dark green hair flowing like grain in a field, her sharp yellow piercing through the facade of the subject.
''Subject:Kokushi Nretya, male, age 17, honestly, there is nothing strange about you, but, what you kids did? you'll explain later, I'm Kori Koroshiya, the head scientist in the department of frequentual reconstruction department"
Kokushi, lowered his head a bit, he stared at this newer interrogator in front of him with morbid curiosity, he noticed she was a bit different, there was a strange presence to her that he wished to avoid, the way her clothes tightened around her human frame was disturbing to him.
'what sort of monster has that much coiled strength?'
"Staring at me won't change a thing...answer me, how did you survive that workshop?"
There was a sharper tone to the woman's voice, the room's temperature dropped, breaking the boy from his assessment of her physicality, the cold he was feeling wasn't just from the change in tone or mood, the temperature of the room had actually dropped.
Noting that her voice held a sense of agitation, he wondered if she is short tempered, of course he understood, this was not her first time interrogating someone, and yet there was a long built frustration.
"I didn't do anything, I've said the same 3 other times already"
Kokushi raised his head slightly, he was confused, too confused while the incident kept resurfacing in his head, flashes and images of dead bodies, the dam of questions he had built just flooded out, his scholar friend had suggested against questioning back to all his peers, and yet he still did,
"What's with this workshop? why are the surviving 9 students here, in this lab? why is Enishi in a coma and an isolation cell? and why the hell is surviving that one incident so important to you?!"
The women looked at him with skepticism and stared at the lines of stress, sleep and anger across his face, but still her eyes held the same disbelief like the others before her, speaking in a lowered and cautious tone,
"Because, you and 8 others survived a False-Cloning Myraid, which can destroy an entire settlement with relative ease, and that one kid, Enishi, underwent a forced breakthrough during the awakening phase, and you, took down that said kid"
Kokushi was still confused, sleep-deprived but had regained his sense of reasoning and decided to keep quiet, as the women walked closer, speaking in a low hushed tone as she approached him,
"are you trying to avoid the speaker and cameras, that we'd use this stuff to kill you all off? Just because we're interrogating you?"
Kokushi looked very startled at her question, his eyes wided as if a deer caught in headlights, looking at her with a cautious stare,
"what if i am?"
"we can speak in isolation if it takes you to tell me everything that went down there, but most importantly, i need a lot of details about this Myraid, and your field trip teacher"
The woman looked towards a corner and nodded, as if some powerful god, the restraints on Kokushi were removed, the pure white lights dimmed and the strange smell subsided and the strange locket he was forced to wear also fell off.
He could feel the blood rushing in his arms and fingers again, the chair restraining him was indeed harsh, with a great deal of effort he slowly stood up, the moment he put his feet down, he felt a pain run through his legs, as if ants were running and biting along them, as his only method of standing failed him very miserably, he stumbled and started to fall disgracefully.
He closed his eyes in anticipation of the fall, but the pain, it never came, opening his eyes, he looked down to see the ground merely inches from his face.
"let the numbness subside first"
The woman was holding his by the back of his shirt, Kokushi looked at her as he sat down again, the numbness in his leg was subsiding painfully slowly, his mind was restless and his heart almost fell out of his chest as he thought,
'What the hell? Where did her strength come from? I thought she was strange, but all that strength from that body? She slimmer than I am-"
Before he could finish that that thought, almost immediately as he thinking of her physical appearance, he was slapped across the face,
"Stop staring, you pervert of a child"
Kokushi and his sorry excuse for explanations went unheard, the woman just started leaving with a gesture to him that only meant to stay shut up and follow.
He quickly stopped talking, realizing it did more harm than good, he decided to look away from her and followed her out the room, the floor under his feet was so cold, he felt as if it was biting into his entire leg, while following he paused in front of an open door, looking inside with a side glance and then staring with a look of horror.
Time seemed to slow down as he started to count, 1..2...3..., almost 10 camera for each student and 27 separate researchers in this room were observing all 9 students including him, he stared around his eyes moving from screen to screen,she stopped to look back at him with a dismissive look and yet she stayed quiet because of the look of terror on his face.
Staring at a particular screen, he saw him, Enishi Gladius, the one who was the reason these 9 out of 178 students survived, his only friend, maybe even best friend, laid in a bed, there was a numbness to his face due to the coma, Kokushi felt like his legs had gone numb again, every second that the click ticked he felt closer to collapsing.
"Will he be alright?"
He asked more to himself than anyone else present, this dread gripped him like the noose of a rope tighting around his neck, not expecting an answer he lowered his gaze to the floor, staring at the absurdity of the reality in front of him, until the woman spoke,
"His frequencies are really unstable, and his soul got ruptured due to a forced breakthrough, he will fully recover when his soul will return to it's shape and then his frequencies will stablize"
Without more of a word, the woman continued walking down the hall, only shooting him a glare to follow, having heard that, the dread that had gripped his whole body and soul slowly subsided, with a shuddering breath he looked down and followed her, walking to a large area that looked like it was meant for teaching, he rubbed his eyes as he walked in.
"Report everything that happened in the last month, with details"
The woman spoke to him while looking at him with a side glance, he walked over to a chair and sat down, meanwhile, the woman took the seat at the desk while picking up a notepad to write down,
"It began ever since the final exams were over"