Kiyoshi and the bunny girl, Nana, were transported in cages across the sea, drugged so they couldn’t resist and time passed strangely.

At one point during their journey, they were brought out and shown to a man with slicked-back black hair and a pristine white suit. He lit a cigarette but didn’t bring it to his lips as he stared the two of them down. He beckoned and Kiyoshi felt a tug on his hand as Nana stood up and went towards him, pulling Kiyoshi along behind her. The man regarded them closely, then reached out a hand to pet Nana’s hair. He said something Kiyoshi didn’t understand to the men that were transporting them.

Then the man turned his gaze onto Kiyoshi. He dropped his other hand on top of Kiyoshi’s head, ashes from the cigarette in his hand falling and burning Kiyoshi’s scalp. Kiyoshi winced and tried to  pull away but the man tightened a fist around Kiyoshi’s hair before he could get away.

Even with his harsn, painful grip the man’s voice was gentle when he spoke to Kiyoshi. Though Kiyoshi couldn’t understand the language he still implicitly knew the man had said, “look at me.”

With his fingers entangled in Kiyoshi’s shaggy black hair, he forced his head to tilt up. Kiyoshi suddenly came face to face with the man’s intense, pitch-black eyes. Shaking, Kiyoshi averted his eyes. The man in the white suit said something else to the other men that Kiyoshi didn’t understand and suddenly Kiyoshi’s hand was empty as Nana was pulled away from him. He wanted to cry out, to reach for her, but found himself frozen, unable to do anything.

Then the man let go of Kiyoshi’s hair and picked him up in one fluid movement. Due to the sudden motion, Kiyoshi grabbed the lapels of the man’s suit jacket. The man pet Kiyoshi’s hair gently, this time with the hand not holding the cigarette, soothing the pain in Kiyoshi’s scalp that he had caused, as he started to carry Kiyoshi away from Nana and the cage. Kiyoshi looked up at the man but before he could take in the man’s facial expression the man kissed him. Not the affectionate kiss on the forehead or cheek that Kiyoshi’s mother would sometimes give him but a kiss on the mouth, a tongue forced past his lips…

… Two hours later, Kiyoshi was back in the cage with Nana, his body hurting in ways it never had before. A deep burning pain not even the unraveling and restitching of his DNA matched. Nana wrapped her arms around his shoulders as he buried his face in the soft fur of her stomach and sobbed.

Previous

One moment Kiyoshi was sitting in class, his mind wandering and his legs kicking idly back and forth, the next there was dust and smoke and fire and screaming. There were hands on his shoulders, hands covering his mouth and then…

Darkness…

When Kiyoshi woke up, he was in a large, dark room filled with cages. Each cage held a child, most of them familiar faces to Kiyoshi. It was almost all of the 60 students from his rural elementary school…

It was hard for Kiyoshi to keep track of time in the cage. Kids were taken, many of them never coming back, and the ones that did come back no longer looked human. Eventually, after what was at least a week, Kiyoshi was taken. The first few kids had tried to fight back, at least scream and cry, but by the time a man’s hand reached into Kiyoshi’s cage, Kiyoshi was too tired and hungry and broken down to resist.  

He was brought to another big metal room, this one brightly lit, and he screwed his eyes shut. Limbs limp and eyes closed, looking dead to the world, Kiyoshi was placed on a table. Only when he felt the pressure across his chest and arms of a strap to hold him in place did he open his eyes and begin to struggle. But his strength drained quickly and he soon stopped struggling again. A strap went over his thighs to hold his legs down. 

Kiyoshi tried to focus on the men in the room. One of them, the one that had pulled him out of his cage, wore dark clothes and had a gun strapped to his back. The other three were dressed like doctors with surgical masks obscuring their faces. The three spoke in a language that wasn’t Japanese… English maybe? One of them started to raise his voice, ah so they’re arguing.

Finally the one with the gun said something and the three doctors paused to look at him before nodding and scattering. Two of them ran behind Kiyoshi’s head to a place he couldn’t see while the third went to retrieve a large needle. Kiyoshi’s eyes widened and another burst of energy to struggle filled him as he watched the man get closer with the needle.

But there was nothing a tiny 6 year old could do. The needle was injected into his arm and soon pain consumed his senses. Pain like he was falling apart and being stitched back together.

He passed out…

When he woke up he was floating. All he felt was a dull ache and he couldn’t open his eyes. Time passed… or maybe it didn’t… and he passed out again.

When he finally woke up again he was in a puddle of viscous fluid, his body hurting all over but especially his head and his legs. He couldn’t force his eyes to open. His entire body refused to listen to him and move. He could do nothing as his limp body was picked up and carried. He was put back in his cage.

It was hours later that Kiyoshi finally regained the ability to move, but his body was… different. His legs from the knee down looked like they belonged to some sort of animal, his ears were larger and furry, and he had a tail he could just barely control. With his eyes now able to be opened he looked around the dark room filled with cages; he could see it better now. There were a lot less kids now and none of the ones that remained looked fully human anymore…

What felt like a few days passed and two more kids were returned to their cages looking inhuman. That night the remaining were fed a decent meal, not good, just a bit more filling than usual, then chains were slapped on them. They were dragged out of the cages and lined up. A man in a suit and simple black mask over the top half of his face inspected each kid and barked out a few words. The kids were split into three groups. Kiyoshi went with the smallest group; it was just him and a slightly older girl with bunny legs and ears. She grabbed his hand and squeezed. Whether she was trying to comfort herself or him, Kiyoshi wasn’t sure but he squeezed her hand back.

The three groups of kids were dragged in different directions. Still hand in hand with the bunny girl, Kiyoshi was brought to a tiled room with a large tub against the wall under a shower head. Kiyoshi and the girl were pried apart, Kiyoshi’s clothes, which he had been wearing for weeks now, were roughly pulled off him and he was forced into the tub of cold water. At least three pairs of hands pulled and prodded him. With rough washcloths they scrubbed his skin raw and even bleeding in places and they patted and pulled at his new ears, tail, and legs that were still so tender that thinking about them hurt. They picked him up and moved him like an object, cleaning every part of him; forcing his mouth open to brush his teeth and stuck fingers in private places. They dumped water on his head or submerged him with no care as to whether he could breathe.

And then they plucked him out of the water and dropped him naked on the tile floor. Kiyoshi heard splashing as they gave the same treatment to the bunny girl. The man in the mask came towards Kiyoshi with a rod with a burning red “S” on it. Someone pinned his arms to his chest and another person held his legs down. Kiyoshi writhed and struggled but the red hot brand was still pressed to his left hip. The hiss of it touching his damp skin was drowned out by his scream of pain. The person holding his arms slapped him across the face and he stopped screaming as he bit his tongue and the tang of blood filled his mouth.

Kiyoshi and the bunny girl were brought into another room and left there. The girl slipped her hand into Kiyoshi’s once more and weakly squeezed. He leaned against her and eventually the two fell asleep.

Next