𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐃𝐆𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐎𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖 || 𝐉𝐔𝐉𝐔𝐓𝐒𝐔 𝐊𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐍

Chapter 14: PYRA

The last thing Gojou remembered was touching the rope of light before he felt a pulling sensation as he was sucked into the blinding light.

When his vision returned, he found himself inside a small cramped room, not unlike that of a prison cell, but this room had no light source except for dim led lights from hundreds of meters above him.

As he looked upwards, he heard a small sob from next to him. He looked on the ground where he previously hadn't noticed a small child crouched in the corner. She appeared to be crying silently. He felt a pang of sympathy as he crouched down next to her.

"Excuse me, are you okay?" he asked kindly, but the child didn't respond. He furrowed his eyebrows as he went to gently touch her shoulder, but he found his hand passed right through as if she was just an illusion.

Just then the wall behind him moved. He turned and realised the wall was in fact a door. The girl stopped crying and looked up fearfully, allowing Gojou to have a good look at her for the first time, his eyes widening as he stared at the terrified gunmetal grey eyes.

This was undoubtedly Mina as a child. But where is this?

"Move her to the lab and get started on the process, the Magister will be watching this time so we cannot afford to mess this up," came a cold voice from the door. Gojou turned and saw two men dressed in lab coats stride towards him – or rather, through him, grabbing the girl by both arms. She started kicking and screaming, but they injected her with some sort of sedative which made her go limp.

They carefully carried her down corridors and into a large laboratory, with Gojou following behind them. A dozen or so people were in there, looking through strange-looking instruments he couldn't recognise. Everything looked strange and nothing like what he knew. The room fell silent when the girl was brought in.

They carried her into a room with reinforced glass allowing them to see what was in the room. They strapped her into a chair, securing her firmly much to Gojou's consternation as he watched, not knowing what was going to happen to her. The grey looking man in the lab coat walked over to her unconscious form, looking down on her as if she wasn't even human, and carefully injected a faintly glowing blue substance into her system.

There appeared to be no sign of a reaction, causing the grey man to look down in confusion at her unresponsive form.

"Well, is it working?" came a deep voice from behind him. Gojou looked up to an observation room which he hadn't noticed and saw a man watching over the proceedings. Upon noticing his presence, everyone around him bowed deeply.

"I'm not sure sir, it's too early to tell whether it is a success." The strange man nodded thoughtfully.

"In that case, I think it's about time we bring it out and let her fuse with it." The Grey man paled at his words.

"Magister, with all due respect, it's not safe yet for us to progress to that stage, there are so many variables to consider, and we're not sure if the host is strong enough to fuse with it as it might kill her entirely. She still needs more work so-" the man raised a hand, causing the man to choke on his words, his face growing red as he struggled to speak.

"You're one of my best scientists, but I didn't ask for your opinion on this. I alone know what she is capable of, so bring it out and leave it in there." The invisible force choking the scientist released, causing him to drop to the floor, coughing and gasping for breath.

"Yes sir," he croaked as two other scientists came to help him out of the room.

The man called 'the Magister' smiled strangely, his cold violet eyes shining in a sinister fashion as he stared at Mina's now waking form within the room.