Chapter 1:

Teleportation Incident

Linked Minds


*Clank!* *Buzz~*

A loud noise followed by a low buzzing sound made themselves present as the panels on the ceiling came to life, filling the completely padded room with bright, cold white light. In the corner of the room, two girls slept peacefully. The older one, woken up by the sudden intrusion of light, slowly opened her eye as she incorporated herself. She rubbed her purple left eye as it got used to the new-found amount of light in the room, then re-positioned the black eye patch that covered her right one.

She looked around the room and sighed at the sight of the unfortunately familiar walls. She then turned around to face the younger girl who still slept soundly, seemingly unbothered by all the stimuli around her. She caressed the sleeping girl’s light blue bangs away from her eyes, then stroked her long, black hair.

A sound interrupted the peaceful moment as a slot in the door opened. From there, two trays with food were pushed inside of the room. Then, the slot closed again.

“Yakuina, wake up.” The girl said as she shook the younger one.

Waking up, the girl slowly incorporated herself as she rubbed her eyes and yawned.

“Morning, sis.” Yakuina said to the older one, still waking up.

“Morning. How was your sleep?”

“It was... fine.”

The older girl immediately knew she was lying. She had seen her younger sibling turning and tossing in her sleep throughout the night. The fact that the nightmares had become a usual occurrence pained her heart. Still, it would not be good for her to let the lie slide.

“Yakuina.” She said with an accusatory tone, letting her know she had caught her red-handed.

“Samui! I promise they’re not as bad as before!” Yakuina quickly replied, trying not to worry her older sister.

Samui stared at her younger sister, who was trying to put up a strong front. It really didn’t suit her. Still, she decided to let it slide for now. After a few seconds of silence, she sighed.

“Fine, I’ll trust you with that. Now, we should eat while we still can.”

Samui got up and picked up both of the trays, then brought them back to the corner of the room. Their contents were simple: a plastic glass filled with milk and two pieces of dry bread. Yakuina immediately started eating while Samui sat and watched. Yakuina noticed that her sister was not eating and stopped in her tracks. She turned towards her and inquired about it.

“I’m not that hungry.” Samui said with a smile. “You can have my portion if you’d like.”

Yakuina reluctantly picked up her sister’s bread and started eating. She felt bad about taking the food, but she knew that Samui would not change her mind. After they both finished eating, they sat down against the wall and stared into the empty room.

“Hey Samui.” Yakuina said, breaking the silence. “Do you think we’ll ever make it out of here?”

Samui stared at the ceiling. They had had the same conversation multiple times before. Samui and Yakuina had been stuck there as lab rats for as long as they could remember. The room being their usual living space and experiments being their usual schedule. Of course, this made them wonder if they would ever be able to see the outside. Samui had long since given up on the thought of ever going outside, seeing it as an impossible feat. But Yakuina still clinged to a speck of hope. Samui did not want to crush that.

“Yeah. One day, we’ll make a run for it.” Samui said as she patted Yakuina’s head.

Suddenly, the metal door flung open and a man stepped in. He had short black hair, gray eyes and wore some generic glasses. His white lab coat swayed as he walked and his brown shoes sunk on the padded floor.

“Hello, little rats.” The man said with a grin.

Both girls stayed silent as the man stared down at them.

“Did you girls not know that it is disrespectful to not return a greeting?” He said, a little annoyed.

Still, the girls did not say anything and silence reigned over the room. The man started getting impatient.

“Well, it does not matter.” The man said as he turned towards the door. “You have a long day ahead of you.”

The man then started laughing, that could not mean anything good. He then gestured to the girls to get up and follow him. The three walked outside of the room and started walking down some corridors. Samui stared at the walls. She thought back to her previous conversation with her sister. What did the outside world even look like? Inside this facility, there were no windows, no openings, no surveillance. Just sleek, white walls. Samui had to admit that the thought intrigued her. Anything had to be better than this place.

As Samui kept thinking, they arrived at a small room. Both girls knew this room well. This is where they were usually split up. The room was empty except for three doors. Yakuina was usually taken to the door on the left. Samui, on the other hand, to the one on the right. The door in the middle and its contents remained a mystery for both of them.

The room was guarded, unsurprisingly, but the guards usually slacked off. Two little girls should not be a problem, right?

“Time to split up!” Said the man. “Yakuina, follow me to the left”

“Wait a minute! We had agreed she wouldn’t have any experiments today!” Samui yelled.

“Oh, right. Silly me.” The man’s lips curled into a creepy smile, voice reeking with a playful tone. “But there is this new cellular treatment we need to test out. Could possibly earn us millions if it succeeds.”

He then approached the girls and stared down at them with a creepy face and a wide smile.

“So, we need Yakuina to test it out. Not like you can refuse either way.”

Samui stared at the man’s eyes with pure hatred. To this man, Samui and Yakuina were nothing more than lab rats to use for his experiments. At the sight of Samui glaring at him with anger, the man started laughing uncontrollably.

“I... I don’t want...” Yakuina muttered in fear.

Samui kept getting angrier by the minute. The man grabbed Yakuina’s arm and started dragging her towards the left door.

“Samui!” Yakuina cried out.

Samui grabbed Yakuina’s arm and started pulling. She did not know what to do, but she had to think of something fast before Yakuina was taken away. Her gaze fell upon the door in the middle and she thought of a plan. It was a stupid plan, it could fail very easily. The door could even be closed, for all she knew. But it was still a better alternative than letting go of her sister without a fight.

Samui kicked the man in the leg, causing him to momentarily loosen his grip on Yakuina. She then pulled Yakuina and they ran towards the door in the middle. Her hand wrapped around the doorknob and she turned it. A click was heard and the door opened. She pushed the door completely open and then continued running down corridor after corridor. This area of the facility was completely foreign to her. Still, the rush of adrenaline kept her legs going as she ran with her sister, with the man and multiple guards on their tail. Samui started trying to open multiple doors, but most were locked. She frantically kept trying until one door clicked open.

Samui and Yakuina quickly stepped inside a large room. The room was extremely wide and the ceiling stood high above. The walls were made out of solid metal plates. On the ceiling stood a gigantic claw-like device. On each wall, there were pillars which connected to the device on the ceiling. The panel annexed to one of the pillars was loose enough to be pulled out. Samui pulled the panel off, exposing a small crevice just big enough for them to crawl inside.

“Samui~!” The man said playfully, his voice filled with malice as he approached the room. “Where are you?”

Samui and Yakuina quickly entered the crevice and slid the metal panel cover on as they covered their mouths, trying not to make a sound.

“You know, I think I will take your other eye as well. Or one of Yakuina’s! It would be fantastic to make her feel that same pain. You did not give me enough entertainment after all.” The voice of the man sounded closer.

Samui touched her eye patch, remembering the pain she had gone through. There was no way she would let Yakuina go through something like that. After a while, the voices left the room and everything was silent. Both girls stepped outside of the crevice as Samui let out a sight.

“Samui!” Yakuina yelled. “What did you do!? They’re going to hurt us even more!”

Samui looked at her younger sister who had teary eyes. She hugged her.

“I’m sorry. I just couldn’t let them hurt you.”

Yakuina started crying as she reciprocated the hug tightly.

“Thank you.”

After a while, the girls let go of each other and looked around the room.

“Where are we? I’d never seen this place before.” Yakuina asked.

Suddenly, the lights went on with an audible click. Then, the claw-like device started spinning. The girls quickly ran towards the door, but it would not open. A small glowing ball of light stood at the center of the claw and kept getting bigger and bigger as the device increased its rotation speed. Then, with no warning, a bolt of lightning shot out of the glowing ball and hit the ground. Samui hugged and covered Yakuina as the room filled with bright light, making it impossible to see anything.

Then, there was darkness.

###

Samui slowly opened her eyes. Instead of being greeted with the familiar white walls she knew, a blue sky was in its place. She stared at the foreign sight when a thought coursed through her mind.

Yakuina.

She quickly incorporated herself and looked around searching for her sister. She then calmed down as she saw the girl sleeping next to her. She shook her to wake her up.

“Hmm... What happened?” Yakuina said groggily. “Wait...”

She opened her eyes and saw the sky.

“W-What’s that!?” Yakuina screamed.

She immediately stood up but tripped on some pieces of trash that were laying around and fell back down immediately.

“Careful!” Samui said, scolding Yakuina. “Now, where are we?”

Samui started thinking. They had been engulfed by the light, passed out, then woke up in this place. She took a look around. It seems they were in some sort of alleyway, not that she would know that. She stood up and pulled Yakuina up.

“Samui... What do we do?” Yakuina asked. She was visibly curious but at the same time scared at the new, unknown environment. Samui was too, but for the sake of her sister, she had to stay confident.

“Don’t worry.” Samui said as she patted Yakuina’s head. “I’ll figure something out.”

All of a sudden, some loud noises were heard, startling the girls. Yakuina hid behind Samui as they backed down to the end of the alleyway. A figure ran inside the alleyway. She had long, white messy hair and gray eyes. She was wearing a black top with white vertical stripes, a skirt and a black jacket with white fur along the edges. Her most noticeable feature were two lion ears on top of her head. She was carrying a small pistol in her hand. Samui noticed Yakuina was shaking in fear at the sight of the woman.

Behind the woman, there were four men chasing her. The girls and the woman were all cornered at the back of the alleyway.

“You bitch! You will pay!” One man screamed while holding a bat. He then started running towards the woman.

The woman then aimed with her pistol towards the man’s head and fired. A bullet shot out and pierced through the man’s skull. The man collapsed on the floor, surrounded by a growing pool of his own blood.

The other three men started running towards the woman. She pulled the trigger again, but nothing happened. So, she threw the gun towards one of her assailants. She then took out a knife and she sliced the man who was closer to her’s throat. The man stumbled back as blood flooded out from the new wound on his throat. The woman took the opportunity to kick the man and send him flying towards the other two men.

The men were knocked back by the flying body. The woman ran towards them and stabbed one multiple times in the chest, then slit his throat. The last man tried escaping, but the woman threw the knife and stabbed him in the back. The man fell down on his knees due to the pain. The woman then kicked him on the back of the head, making him fall on his chest. She then stepped on the knife to push it down further.

All the men were now dead. She took her knife and put it away. She then turned around and finally noticed Samui and Yakuina, who were visibly disturbed at the sight of what they had seen. The woman started approaching them. The girls tried moving back but they were cornered against the end of the alleyway with no way of escaping.

“Hey, it’s ok. ” The woman said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“But... But... You killed them...” Samui let out.

“These men... They were bad people.” The woman said as she finally approached them. She then placed her hand above Samui and Yakuina’s heads. “I promise I won’t hurt you.”

Yakuina moved her head up to stare at the woman’s face.

“Who... Who are you?” Yakuina finally let out.

“My name is Shishiro Botan.”