Chapter 1 Tyrannosaurus Rex / Narumi Uchida

Kakushin City. A metropolis by the coast, southeast of Japan, where skyscrapers reached into the skies. The late-night clouds thickened and it began to drizzle over the city.

A van pulled up in an alley, its side door opened and three men got out wearing balaclava ski masks. They sneaked over to the back door of a jewelry boutique. Cracking the lock with a wrench and wedging the door with a crowbar, they broke into the store.

"Quick, grab whatever you can, and cut the power." The first thief said and the others did so, destroying the power box and smashing into glass displays. They took all they could into their bags. Gems, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and other valuables. With security disabled, the store was being stripped clean.

"Alright, I'm going to dump the stuff into the van." The first thief exited the boutique leaving the other two to continue. He quickly returned to the vehicle, opened the door, and dumped his loot. He got to the front of the van and smirked at the driver. "We're hitting big this time."

Suddenly, the ground rumbled, and the thief felt it in his feet.

"What the hell was that? Did you feel that?" he asked the driver.

With a flash of lightning in the sky followed by a clap of thunder, the night sky started pouring a storm. The alleyway was getting inundated by the cloudburst.

The driver waved it off. "Bah, it's just the storm."

There was another rumble in the ground, the same as before. The puddles in the water had a second of ripples before it stopped. This time the criminals were on edge. The thief turned around with a cautious eye checking every corner. "Okay, that was not the rain. What was that?"

"Hey," The remaining two thieves came out of the boutique with their loot, oblivious to their predicament. "we're hitting more than our quota with this." They dumped their stolen goods and boarded the van.

"Wait, something's not right." The first thief cautioned them. There was a third rumble in the ground, followed by another rumble, and another. The consistency made it seem like it was the footsteps of something massive. Peering out of a turn in the alleyway, it finally appeared. An obsidian Tyrannosaurus Rex nearly two stories tall, wearing a navy-blue tight suit leaving the head, arms, legs, and tail exposed. The T-Rex stomped and gave a furious bellow, primal green eyes fixed on the thieves.

"Shit! What is that!" The first thief shrieked and everyone followed suit. The driver stepped on the gas and the van sped off into the district. In the back of the van, the criminals could only watch in terror as the Tyrannosaurus Rex stormed over, catching up to the speeding van. "Must go faster! Faster!"

The driver caught a glimpse of the reflection in the side-view mirror, the Tyrannosaurus Rex bellowed and was too close. He smashed the gas pedal to the floor and everyone in the vehicle panicked as the T-Rex closed in on them. The dinosaur's head swung and struck the van's side with incredible force. Everyone screamed in terror and the driver lost control. The van swerved and pulled to the right till it flipped onto its side. The vehicle was wrecked, glass shards were scattered everywhere and everyone inside was battered and bloodied.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex loomed over the van and bellowed. All they could do was scream. The T-Rex lifted a foot and planted it on the van, pressing down hard. The metal frame of the van creaked, caving downwards and damaging the doors. The Tyrannosaurus Rex stepped away and left the thieves trapped inside the crushed van. The only piece of evidence of a dinosaur's involvement in the perpetrators' apprehension was a giant footprint on the van.

Elsewhere in Kakushin City, the obsidian dinosaur had a moment of respite in another alley. Holy shit! That was crazy! To think that a few days ago, I was just a regular high school girl!

***

One week ago.

A coach cruised down a highway in the late afternoon. The bus was ferrying students from Soru Academy, from first-years to third-years. It was a school trip to remember, in which students from different years were gathered. In the middle row, a second-year student was leaning on the window gazing at the city.

Narumi Uchida. A girl with black hair that reached down to the small of her back, her fringe curtained her forehead with cross bangs at the middle. Narumi had an aggressive look in her eyes and had her school uniform tucked out, giving her a tomboyish vibe. Despite her appearance, she was the model student and garnered a good reputation at Soru Academy. All of her juniors admired her and her classmates adored her.

The bus pulled over by the roundabout of a corporate tower owned by GenaTech, the prominent company in biotechnology for the ages, and Soru Academy was fortunate enough to get an excursion for their students. The teacher in charge of this excursion was Yukari Tachibana, Narumi's homeroom teacher and school guidance counselor.

"Alright, everyone. We're here, let's go." Yukari announced and the students were soon exiting the bus. Narumi got off and set her eyes on the towering building before her, rising high into the sky. A fountain in the middle of the roundabout. Flag poles in a row at the front with banners of various countries. The building's facade had a bronze tint. The students assembled in the lobby and the tour guide was ready to receive them.

"Good afternoon, everyone." The tour guide greeted and the students returned the greeting. "Welcome to GenaTech. My name is Furuta Rumi, I'm your guide today."

Narumi stood in the crowd of students with arms crossed, Rumi's introduction had been drowned out by her lack of attention. Seeing the students around her, she grumbled. For a moment, she wondered why she got selected to participate in this excursion with students of all three years, especially since it was after school hours.

She let out a sigh. No use whining about it now, might as well get it over and done with.

"Now then everyone," Yukari Tachibana said, "I'm going to call out your names for your groups." Narumi kept her ears tuned, all the while hoping she would not be grouped with the wrong crowd.

"Group four. Morita Etsudo of Class Two-A, Kurosawa Daichi of Class Three-C, Itou Matabei of Class Two-A, Taiyo Kohaku of Class One-B," Yukari paused to catch her breath, "and Uchida Narumi of Class Two-A."

Narumi found herself bunched with her group, three boys and a girl. Her eyes flicked to the right. The other girl was Narumi's classmate, dark brown hair reaching the base of her neck with her fringe at her brows and frameless glasses which practically gave the girl a scholarly look. This was Etsudo Morita; heiress to Morita Industries which was the forefront competitor in the bioengineering industry.

Matabei Itou, a classmate of Narumi just like Etsudo. His blond hair was parted in the center reaching below his ears. In addition to the school uniform, he was wearing a navy-blue sports jacket. He was the class athlete and a member of the soccer club to boot. Narumi nodded at Etsudo and Matabei and they reciprocated.

The other two guys, however, Narumi did not know them. The third-year student, Daichi Kurosawa, was the tallest in the group at five foot eleven. His light brown hair was spiked up and a bit of stubble was on his chin, making him appear like a delinquent.

The last person in the group was the freshman, Kohaku Taiyo. He was about her height, naturally tanned, and his black hair was a medium length with his fringe shading his eyebrows. With his disinterested eyes, and his aloof demeanor, Narumi just could not get a read on the guy.

"Now that you're in your groups," Yukari said, "we can continue."

"Once again, welcome to GenaTech. Let us begin." The guide added and the tour began, with no one aware of the trouble that was brewing on the upper levels.

In a laboratory on the fifth level, a repeated experiment yielded no results. A head scientist of GenaTech, Doctor Benedict Song, clenched his fists. Beside him was fellow head bioengineer, Doctor Beverly Rossiter.

Doctor Song fixed his eyes on his failed experiment, a sealed container with three dead lab mice with a gas tube attached to the container and a fume hood. The gas tube had been channeling a dull yellow aerosol into the container from a pressurized glass cylinder the size of a test tube.

His experiments were attempts at introducing laboratory mice to a separate species' genetic code. Through the work of nanotechnology in the aerosol, the mice would experience a severe chemical change, and bear the foreign species' phenotype. Essentially, the mice would turn into an entirely different animal.

However, all of Song's efforts have been for naught thus far, none of the subjects were responding to the aerosol positively. The lab mice kept choking in their container until finally, they laid on their backs, lifeless.

"Goddammit." Benedict groaned. "Alright get rid of it."

"We're close, Song." Beverly said.

"We're not there dammit!" Benedict raised his voice and turned away from his experiment. "Dispose it, the used aerosol, the mice, all of it!"

"Perhaps if you could test it on larger subjects instead of mice, like I told you before?" Beverly asked while eyeballing him.

"You start with mice trials first, if it doesn't show anything why would anything else get a better result?" Benedict shook his head, stopping by the laboratory table and snatching the remaining sealed vials of aerosol. "All the potential in these vials and we can't even tap into it. Might as well be useless."

Later, Soru Academy's tour of the company came to an end. Narumi Uchida had returned to the lobby along with the rest.

"Alright everyone," Yukari said, taking out a stack of papers from a folder in her handbag. "I want you all to take a reflection form and fill up your experience here in GenaTech."

In the crowd of students, Narumi watched as a student from each designated group took a form and a pen from her homeroom teacher. Soon the rest of the student body split up, leaving Narumi with her own team.

"Uh, everyone?" Narumi took the initiative, noting those who were with her. Etsudo Morita, Matabei Itou, and the freshman, Kohaku Taiyo. Their eyes were all trained on her. Narumi's attention returned to the form in one hand and clicked the pen in the other. "Alright, the first question is, what is your impression of the company before arriving?"

Etsudo, Matabei, and Kohaku shared quick glances at each other until Kohaku stepped forward and said, "We're missing someone."

Matabei's eyes widened making the connection, "Oh yeah, Kurosawa-senpai." Matabei chuckled, amused by the situation. "Where is he?"

Narumi's eyes perked, scanning the rest of the students, but no sign of a spiky-haired boy with a chin stubble. "Where the hell is he?"

Kohaku gazed at the door to the fire escape stairwell exit, he had an idea where Daichi was, considering the door was ajar.

"Yo," Matabei said and nudged Kohaku, "where are you looking at?"

Kohaku pointed his head in the direction of the fire escape. Narumi took notice too and her eyes squinted in suspicion. They got to the fire escape exit, Etsudo looked over her shoulder with trepidation at the rest of the students and Yukari was on the phone, oblivious to her surroundings.

"Excuse me, shouldn't we tell Tachibana-sensei?" Etsudo said to them so softly that none of them could make out what she said.

"Huh?" Narumi said to her with a hand by her ear while stepping into the stairwell with Kohaku and Matabei. Upon entering, tobacco smoke filled her nose and she scrunched her face. There he was; Daichi Kurosawa sat at the bottom of the stairs with a lit cigarette in his mouth.

"Seriously?" Narumi deadpanned at Daichi with the others behind her. "You're smoking in here? Now?"

"What? Are you going to squeal on me?" Daichi spat and took a drag from his cigarette.

"No, but we need you in this discussion as well," Narumi handed him the form, "and we need you to put in your name."

"Badass, smoking on the side." Matabei sneered leaning on the wall with arms crossed. Daichi gave him a look before taking the paper from Narumi, reading the reflection form.

"Excuse me?" Etsudo Morita said timidly, "We shouldn't be here."

"Relax, Morita. We won't be here for long. Just fill this up quick and we're done." Narumi sighed.

Daichi read the first question in the form, "What is my impression of the company before arriving? Here's my impression, this place reeks." he exhaled a puff of smoke and everyone had a whiff.

"I wonder why." Kohaku added. The sarcasm did not go unnoticed.

"You say something junior?" Daichi glared at him.

"Can we just put an answer down already?" Narumi urged them.

Meanwhile, at the higher levels in the stairwell, Benedict Song was having a smoke as well. Benedict leaned over the parapet, taking a puff while gazing at the nanite vials in his hand. He scowled, "Goddamn headache."

The door behind him opened, and Beverly stepped in as well. She said, "We cannot give up."

"Every goddamn trial ends with failure." Benedict took another drag.

"I told you already that it probably won't work on the mice." Beverly suggested. "We should test it on another form of subject. Let us not forget-"

"What I cannot forget-" Song cut in, "is the trouble and investment I had to go through just to get to this point and now I can't even see it through because of this goddamn roadblock."

"Then get rid of the roadblock," Beverly said. "We have to go another way."

"What other test subjects am I even going to use huh? Chimpanzees? Dogs? If the press catches wind of that shit-"

"Human trials." Beverly said it straight. A tense silence ensued while Benedict fathomed what she had just suggested.

Benedict gathered the vials in his hand holding the cigarette, he squeezed his brows together with his free hand. "Are you out of your tree? Human trials?" Benedict scowled, "Who the hell is going to volunteer? And what do we tell them?"

"That it's an inhaler drug for all they know." Beverly pressed the matter. "I think death row inmates is a start."

"My work is not-"

"Your work Benedict?" Beverly's voice went colder. "If it weren't for my nanites, you'd be at nowhere with your paleogenetic materials. Be careful of your place Song." Beverly took a step closer and held out her hand. "I think you should hand me the vials."

"What are you going to do with them?" Benedict stepped back.

"Just give them to me." Beverly's eyes narrowed.

"You're not going to do human trials."

"Quit the bullshit! Give them to me!" Beverly lashed out, grabbing his wrist.

"Hey! Goddammit!" Benedict tried to pull from her grip, unaware of the burning cigarette between his fingers. Once the embers touched his skin, the involuntary action took hold.

"Ahh! Shit!" His hand burst wide open and they fell. Five nanite vials, clinking through the stair parapet.

"No!" Beverly screeched, reaching down for them, but it was too late. They fell over the edge, plummeting down. As luck would have it, the vials fell right to where the students were.

"And…we're done." Narumi said, she had just finished putting her own answer on the final question. At that, the sound of glass shattering by their feet caught them by surprise. Clouds of gas erupted from the ground, encapsulating all five of them in it. Shocked shrieks and yelps came out of the cloud followed by unending coughs.

"What is this?!" Kohaku wheezed out, looking over their heads to see where the vials came from. All he could see were two silhouettes peering their heads over the parapet from above.

"Out! Out! Let's get out of here!" Narumi choked. The five scampered out of the fire escape, coughing their lungs out.

Benedict watched from above, his whole body froze seeing the disaster below. "Oh my god…those…kids…"

Beverly froze too. What really caught her attention, however, was that the students were not dead. The gas dissipated and the students escaped, this was her opportunity.

"We have our human trial."

"What in the hell was that?! That stinks!" Matabei exclaimed as he shut the door and he let out a cough. "Man, that shit's nasty! Smells like rotten eggs and durian in a sewage cocktail!"

"Oh god, oh god." Etsudo had shivers in her spine, feeling fouled up by whatever had happened in the stairwell.

"I uh, I saw someone upstairs." Kohaku said with his eyebrows furrowed.

"You saw someone?" Narumi turned her head to him, "Someone threw that shit at us? What, to prank us?"

"Oi, you guys." Her teacher called from afar, "What are you all doing over here?"

Oh shit. Narumi clenched her teeth.

"A-Ah Tachibana-sensei." Narumi tried to come up with something. "We uh-"

"We were discussing that reflection form." Daichi quickly came in, standing in between them. "We uh wanted to be somewhere quieter to fill up the form properly. We were in there for a while, but then someone upstairs," Daichi glanced at Kohaku, "Uh…chased us out. Even threw cigarettes and cigarette packs at us too."

Etsudo tried to intervene. "Hah? But-"

"Yeah that's what happened sensei. Crazy I know but yeah." Daichi quickly added, before eyeballing Etsudo with a glare, silently telling her to shut up.

"Someone threw cigarettes at you?" Yukari Tachibana gawked.

"Yeah…" Daichi scratched his stubble, "I guess someone is having a bad day upstairs. Well, no big deal." Daichi took the form from Narumi and handed it to Yukari.

Before anyone could say anything, the sound of an engine revving up to the tower's drop-off point, the couch bus had returned. Yukari saw the rest of the students gathering at the exit. Yukari sighed and turned her attention to the five again.

"You guys are okay, right? You are okay?" She asked them.

"Yeah, yeah we're okay." Daichi answered for the group.

"Okay, come on let's go back already." Yukari went to join the other students.

Narumi grabbed Daichi's shoulder turning him around, "Seriously?" She hissed.

"Look, it's probably just some asshole scientists who hate kids, throwing some kind of stink bomb at us." Daichi defended.

"Harmless?" Kohaku deadpanned.

"Look are you choking now?" Daichi pointed at him and then at everyone. "Are you coughing out your lungs? Do you feel like you're dying now? Any of you? Are any of you actually hurting?"

None of them could answer.

"Then it's nothing!" Daishi spat, "Seriously don't be such a wuss, what's the matter with you all? I just want to get the hell out of here! And I swear to God if any of you spill about my sticks, you will get it." And with that, Daichi parted from them.

Narumi, Kohaku, Etsudo, Daichi, and Matabei had gotten away scot-free. The Sun was already setting when the coach bus was ready to leave. Narumi's mind was only on what had happened at the stairwell.

What the hell was that gas? It smelled so bad. Who the hell threw it at us? Is some idiot pranking us? Well, I-I don't feel anything wrong, I feel fine. I feel okay. Narumi thought, slouching on her seat.

She had not spoken to anyone about escaping that gas and had spilled it to no one. She could only hope that the rest who were involved did the same. All the while, as the bus brought them back to school, the nanites in the aerosol in their systems were already doing their work.

The sun had almost disappeared from the horizon by the time the students had been dropped off at the school and went their separate ways. Narumi was on her own, strolling down the pathway back home with no one else around.

The night sky had reddish-grey clouds dotting the sky, with the only sources of light being the street lamps. To her left and right were dense forests spanning further than the naked eye could see. Narumi began to entertain her concerns in her head.

Some shitty excursion this turned out to be, my god. What the hell was that disgusting gas? I hope it's not some poison or anything like that, I mean I feel fine…right? Dammit, hang on…who threw that at us-

All thoughts ceased in her mind, a new overwhelming sensation flowed through her body and she immediately arched over.

She was forced to drop to her knees and clutched her abdomen. She started to shiver, clenching her eyes shut she gritted her teeth hard. Hyperventilation escaped from her mouth, her whole body was shivering like a terrible cold fever.

Her eyes burst open and gone were any resemblance of a human in her eyes. In replacement of her white sclera and onyx iris, were a primal shade of black with her irises green.

Her body shook and trembled, her back felt like it was stretching beyond any possible human limits. It stretched to the side, upwards, and back, every limb was starting to extend as well. The sound of bones cracking all over her body drove her into a hysterical panic.

Narumi felt every single part of her body was stretching and expanding, the sensation was horrifying. She kept crying out in fright, it was all that she could do.

Her skin grew, and her muscles bulked up in mass. Her skin started to change in color. Narumi felt her skin starting to become tougher and sturdier like it was stronger than any human skin could possibly be.

Her fingers started to twist out of shape, three of her fingers in each hand regressed into her palms leaving only her thumbs and index fingers. Adding more to the nightmare, her thumbs stretched out, reaching to the length of her index fingers.

Her nails grew larger and hardened with a change of color to black. From human nails, they became razor-sharp claws. Her feet expanded, stretching out and her little toes grew back into both feet. The remaining toe grew out, while her big toes stretched back to her ankles. Her human feet had turned into feet of three-toed massive claws.

At her rear, an appendage protruded out, right at her tailbone. It kept growing and growing, she was having a tail, and it kept getting longer and longer.

Her face snapped in a frightening motion, stretched, and grew outwards. Her mouth stretched out a snout. The shape of her nose flattened out into a curve. Her skull began to expand out and reshape. Her teeth enlarged, forming into a set of razor-sharp and serrated teeth.

As she screamed her lungs out, her voice cracked and deepened into growls and snarls. Narumi's screams dissipated into a primal trumpeting roar. "AHH! AHHRAAHH! RAAHRGH! GRAAHHR! GRROOAARRAHH! ROOOAAAWWWRRR!"

Her body kept changing and growing, any resemblance to a human was completely gone. Instead, there stood a creature in obsidian scaly skin, standing on two massive clawed feet, a tail high above the ground, and two arms with two clawed fingers. And a massive head with a battery of serrated sharp teeth.

Tyrannosaurus Rex. That was what Narumi had turned into. An animal long extinct sixty-five million years ago, a creature now thrown back into the world through a seventeen-year old girl.

Narumi cried out in panic, but all that came out of her mouth were loud roars and growls. The second she heard what she sounded like, she clammed up. Her eyes darted around, realizing her vision was so high off the ground.

Oh my god! Oh my god! She panicked in her mind. What?! What is this?!

She felt everything in her, everything was a whole lot bigger. Tilting her head and peering her eyes down, she noticed her feet and hands looked nothing like they used to be, all belonging to a Tyrannosaur. She tried to scream, and again a roar sounded off from her. I can't speak! I can't! What!? What is going on?!

She kept looking around at every inch of her body, noticing the tail at her rear end she spun around never taking her eyes off her new tail.

She was in so much panic until she realized, she was not hurting really. She was not in any form of pain at all. Her breathing slowed down and her pulse reduced.

Calming down, Narumi tried to process just what happened to her. The small two-clawed hands and three-toed feet, the tail, the bulky head, and the noise she was making. She came to one conclusion despite how insane it appeared to her.

I'm a…a d-dinosaur?! I'm a dinosaur?! She gasped in her mind. What?! Just w-what?!

Another notion hit her, she outgrew her clothes as evidenced by the ripped-up garments on the ground. Embarrassed, she squatted down and tried to cover herself with her arms, which did not do much considering how small they were compared to the rest of her body.

Still feeling embarrassed she kept herself as low as possible. Looking around, however, there was no one around. Nervously she rose back up to her full height. She needed to get out of the streets to keep out of sight.

With her bag on the pavement, she tried to reach for it with her new dinosaur arms, but it was futile with those kinds of arms flinging around trying to grab her bag. Her groan of frustration turned out to be an aggressive growl.

She leaned forward so that her mouth could reach her bag instead. As she opened her menacing jaws, she felt the new sensation of how wide her mouth could open, feeling a breeze through her teeth.

She took extra care to be careful, gently and slowly clamping her teeth on her bag and lifting it up. She kicked off into a sprint away from the streets, into the forest. Every footstep gave a small rumble in her frantic escape.

Running with her bag in her mouth, she turned her head around seeing she was away from the streets and the coast was clear. Now it occurred to her, just how well she could see in the dark. Everything was so crisp and clear, such clarity in the pitch-black darkness was impossible for any human.

What am I going to do?!

Opening her mouth she dropped her bag. Her mind went into a frantic. She freaked out, Narumi had a million thoughts flooding her head. How did she end up like this? What caused this nightmare? How was she going to get out of this disaster?

The questions and fear were brought to an abrupt halt when her body felt another impacting sensation. Everything was pulsing through her like she was convulsing again. Her body trembled and the Tyrannosaurus Rex was starting to shrink. Like the dinosaur was disappearing, returning to its previous shape, back to human.

Her face cracked back into shape, her snout started to shrink back and flatten. Her teeth changed back, from serrated razor fangs to human teeth once more and her human nose started to appear again.

Her claws were turning back into nails, and the fingers that were gone started to grow back. Her body shrank, her bulk and size reducing. Her toe-clawed feet were disappearing as well, her human feet and toes were coming back. Her tail was regressing into her rear. Everything resembling a dinosaur was gone, and the girl had returned. Narumi Uchida was back to normal.

Narumi kept on gasping with her heart pounding in her chest. Her trembling eyes scanned for every part of her body. She was completely human again.

"W-What? What the hell?" She wheezed out, raising her hands up to assess them. Her ten fingers were back in place, no scales on her hands and no dislocated bones, but that did not calm her down at all.

"What the hell just happened to me?! What's going on?!" She shrieked. She dropped to her knees as she was still unclothed. She scampered for her bag, taking out her P.E. attire. Now she was dressed she slung her bag over her shoulder and ran for her life, straight back to her home.