Lifeless

Chapter 13 - Arcanum

(Tw!) This chapter contains descriptions of prisons, cells, torture, and a rotting corpse. If you need one, just ask in the comments here and I'll provide a recap : ) If there's anything I should add here I will, just comment it :p anyway, I love you guys, and I hope you have a good day/night!

Arcanum - (Latin) Secret of

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Shigaraki stood slowly, dreading the small mission his master sent him on. He would much rather stay in his room alone, what was the point in torturing this woman anyway? Isn't that what they had goons for? Shigaraki knew his master probably had plans for it, and that he had no right to doubt his master, but he really couldn't help himself. What was the point in assigning something like this to him? Wasn't he supposed to be focusing on recruiting and planning?

There were too many questions for Shigaraki to really care, after all, his master did promise to take care of him, and he could trust his master!

Shigaraki left the base in no hurry, taking deliberately short and slow steps to stall his departure. He felt much more comfortable at the base, where he knew his friends could keep him safe, where he couldn't mess up on missions.

The streets around him weren't very busy, but still, people passed him frequently. It didn't matter much, as Shigaraki hadn't had an official debut as a villain, his face wasn't recognizable to the average citizen. Paired with the fact that no heroes patrolled around this part of the city, Shigaraki felt comfortable here.

Too soon Shigaraki arrived at the doctor's building. It was a tall structure that doubled as an office building, but underneath was a large basement that contained some of the worst monstrocities that Shigaraki had ever seen, along with an impressive array of torture subjects. It was all normal to the teen by now, he had seen too many crime scenes to think of this as anything but his normal life. This was what his life had come to, he can't escape it, so he simply lives it.

Entering the building, Shigaraki was met with bland decor. It would have been a nice change from the base, had he not been forced to come here. It was a stark contrast from the base mainly in the cleanliness. The base is usually dusty, the corners containing suspicious amounts of mold, but this building was an obnoxious off white. Dust was nonexistent, and not a speck of dirt littered the floors. It may have been an overly boring and normal office building for most, but that was what Shigaraki loved about it.

Walking through the lobby, Shigaraki gained a few stares, but once it was clear he was heading towards the basement, everyone looked away. It was an unspoken fact that something was wrong down there, but upon their hiring, all of them had signed a contract of silence, and a few who resisted had been threatened. Nothing bad had been obvious, aside from the suspicious peoples and contracts at first, so most workers didn't bother wondering anymore. They thought that if something had truly been wrong, someone else would've called the authorities.

Shigaraki walked down the steps to the cells. His footsteps echoed hauntingly around him, bouncing off the narrow walls. It was a long walk to the cells as a safeguard against escapees. The floors there were littered with poorly cleaned blood, though none of it was fresh. That was a relief to Shigaraki, usually there would have been some recent catastrophe that left the halls a bloody mess, something that always bothered him.

He had been informed of the Nomu incident a few days ago, so it was no surprise to find its rotting corpse in the middle of the hallway whilst the rest had been cleaned already. The beast was so massive that they required someone with a strength quirk to move it, as no heavy machinery could fit in the hallways. Doctor Ujiko also made the removal harder by insisting that he needed the corpse to experiment on, though Shigaraki doubted that he could do anything with the monster now that it was so heavily decomposed.

Stepping over one of its arms, Shigaraki continued. He didn't bat an eye at the bloody handprints adjoining the walls, it was commonplace here. The security did not guarantee that the escaped test subjects may return alive or uninjured. Shigaraki knew that first hand.

Reaching the cells, Shigaraki took a deep breath, somewhat anxious, before wrinkling his nose at the smell that greeted him. How could he forget the smell that encompassed this hallway? He should have remembered.

Shigaraki sighed before pushing the door open quickly, there was no use in getting upset about not remembering the smell of a hallway.

Inside the door was a long hallway, but instead of walls were rusty bars that made up the cells. All of which were filled, a few even had more than one person inside. It was cramped, but the league held no respect for their test subjects. Shigaraki couldn't do anything about it, and speaking out would just end him up in more trouble, so there was no point in telling his master that the prisoners probably needed more space than given.

Doctor Ujiko stood outside one of the last cells. He appeared to be fixing information on one of the sheets that hung outside cells to identify the inhabitants. It was something that rubbed Shigaraki the wrong way, it reminded him heavily of dogs in a shelter, and he didn't like it.

The doctor ushered Shigaraki forward, waving with his hand sporadically before focusing back on whatever he was doing. Shigaraki walked forward slowly, looking inside all of the cells as he passed. He didn't feel any pity for these people, they were being used for the greater good, now their lives had purpose.

Shigaraki peered inside the cell that the doctor was standing by, seeing a short woman inside. With green hair and a blood stained cardigan, she wasn't any different than any of the other test subjects, besides her lack of blood or injuries.

Shigaraki glanced up towards Ujiko, hoping to find some sort of answer as to why he was being assigned a harmless citizen to torture, but the man only grinned back at the teen. Shigaraki looked back at the woman, she seemed to not be responding to any outside noise, but that wasn't exactly strange here. Many subjects chose to ignore passing doctors, and many others were unable to respond.

Shigaraki sighed in resignation before fishing out his phone to send a text to Kurogiri. The doctor giggled at the defeated look Shigaraki sported before speaking, "You know, she was quite the curious one. The master wouldn't let us touch her, well, not too much!" The doctor giggled at the end of his sentence, obviously finding his statement hilarious before he took on a more somber attitude. "I suspect she was the mother of one of our 'special' subjects, but I also heard that she was the wife of Master himself! There's been some good rumors floating around because of those two! More than I've heard in years!" Shigaraki nodded at the doctor, knowing that no matter how crazy he sounded, there was truth within everything he spoke.

As Shigaraki opened his mouth to ask a question, a scream sounded from outside the door parallel of the one Shigaraki entered from. Ujiko giggled, strangely happy, even for his usually bubbly attitude. "Well! Speak of the devil! The boy must've woken already! He's had an eventful week, but he's most definitely one of the more interesting people here!" The doctor finished his sentence with another giggle, this one being more maniacal than Shigaraki has heard before.

The doctor left shortly after, leaving Shigaraki to his own devices with the woman. He entered the cell, texting Kurogiri to open a portal, before poking the woman with the toe of his shoe. He was attempting to see if the woman could carry herself to the base, he didn't exactly want the blood on her to stain his clothes.

The woman stirred slightly before peering up at Shigaraki. "Are you the one who is going to kill me?" Shigaraki shrugged, "Something like that."

The portal opened against the wall a few seconds later. The woman struggled to her feet, swaying slightly, but she managed her way through the portal after a few tries. Shigaraki didn't try to help, the woman hadn't asked, and his master probably wouldn't like him showing any mercy to the subjects.

Both entered the cell room at the base, this one being a stark contrast of the doctor's cells. The walls didn't attempt to look white, instead a dark brown, or black, Shigaraki couldn't really tell. There were only two cells here, instead of the doctor's many.

Shigaraki gently pushed the woman into the cell sitting to the right of the door, informing her that he would be back tomorrow before leaving without a last glance.