Specimen T-04

Part 31~Recovery

Itona didn't know where he was. The last thing he remembered was being in class and losing to Koro-sensei. He didn't know why, but he felt calmer.

He shot up as he heard shuffling. A small head popped up next to the bed, a 13-year-old girl with an excited glimmer in her eyes. She had a series of strange hand moments that someone who had a life outside a lab would be able to guess was a type of sign language, but Itona was not one of those people, and he had no clue what she was doing.

"What's going on? Where am I?"

Erika continued to make her strange hand moments before Itona gave up. He stood up, instantly getting dizzy and falling to the ground. Erika let out a distressed sound, rushing to his side and trying to help him stand up.

She held out a finger before she rushed off, charging out of the room and down the stairs. Itona did not get her message of 'wait here while I get help' and forced himself to stand.

He felt weird, really weird. He stumbled as he made his way to the wall and used it as a support, wandering down the corridor. There were a number of other rooms, mostly bare, with only a mattress on the floor and a few bags.

He could see the stairs and forced himself to go down them slowly to avoid any further injury. Downstairs, he could hear voices.

"Thank you, Ari. You did good," came the female voice of Esumi as she ruffled the girl's hair.

Before Itona could see her, a familiar blue-headed kid appeared before him. "You shouldn't be moving." Nagisa crossed his arms, giving Itona a look as he frowned.

"You... You were in that class."

A snort came from behind Nagisa as Koko suppressed her laugh. "You're an observant one, aren't ya?"

"I'm Nagisa. That's Keiji, Koko, Esumi, Erika and Jin. You're recovering. You should rest."

"I would listen to him," Keiji announced with a chuckle. "He gets violent if you ignore him."

In a flash, the tentacle grew and jabbed Keiji in the abdomen.

"You have tentacles!" Itona stared as it clicked. He realised why he felt different. The tentacles were gone. He raised his hand, flittering his fingers through the strands of hair, searching for the tendrils. "What did you do?"

Nagisa sighed. "They were killing you. When you attacked Koro-sensei after losing the fight, I saw it. I had seen it before. Not everyone can accept the experiments. If you had kept them, you would have died."

"No. Shiro would have helped me."

Koko laughed bitterly. "Like he helped us. Our friends, our family, are dead because of that man. He doesn't help anyone but himself."

Esumi placed a hand on Koko's shoulder, forcing her to take a breath. "We understand this is a lot to take in. You should rest and get your thoughts together. Once you're up to strength, you can leave and go anywhere you want. We won't force you to do anything... except rest."

Itona was not coping. Neither Esumi nor Keiji had to peer into his mind to see that.

"Or you could join us for breakfast. We're having oatmeal." Jin motioned to the pot on the stove as Keiji's jaw fell open.

He looked at Nagisa, whispering into his mouth. "He can talk?!"

Nagisa shook his head, taking a seat at the table and pouring a number of blueberries into his meal.

"Did you know he could talk?" Keiji was not moving on from this as he sat next to Nagisa. Esumi took a seat opposite Jin, sitting between Nagisa and Koko as Erika bounced up next to Jin.