Ruby (Now Completed!)

[Chapter 1]

It's a cool, breezy autumn day. Kasane Teto strolls out the front doors of her high school, glad to be done with her day. She bids good-bye to her best friends, Sukone Tei, Akita Neru, Yowane Haku, and Namine Ritsu, then turns away and walks in the direction of her house.

Teto fits in among her peers at school, but she's no ordinary teenage girl. Sure, naturally ruby-colored, loosely curled pigtails and bright red eyes aren't common, but Teto's got a secret to hide.

Teto's entire family belongs to an extremely rare species called the Chimera species. This means she was born with wings that resemble those of a bats, and she has a naturally short temper. She's learned to cope with her temper though, and she has special medication to conceal her wings with her at all times.

After walking two blocks on the outskirts of the city, she turns down a long, shady alleyway. She used to walk down the alleyway with her older brother every day. Until he disappeared, that is. Her mom thinks he's dead, but Teto still has hope that he's alive somewhere and he'll come home soon.

The alley used to scare Teto, but it's a good shortcut to her apartment building and she's walked it so many times and nothing bad has happened.

Teto's phone buzzes against her leg in her pocket. Just a text from her mom making sure she was getting home okay. She types a short reply and just after she hits send, someone jumps onto her, knocking her to the ground.

Her phone flies out of her shaking hand and lands a few feet away. Teto's vision swims, and her head begins to throb. The person holding her down has their head wrapped in a large black scarf, and she can see someone else reaching down for her phone out of the corner of her eye.

Before Teto can scream for help, the person with her phone walks up beside her head, crouches down, and after a signal from the other, swings their fist hard into the side of her head. Even through blurry vision, Teto sees them throw a bag over her head just before passing out.

----

He throws his dirty rag into the small bucket in the sink and then scrubs it clean with his hands. When he thinks it's clean enough, he wrings it out and polishes the next test tube. He does this over and over for what seems like hours.

Kagamine Len works for the Project. A project where subjects from the real world that are suspected of having supernatural tendencies are researched, tortured for information, then disposed of.

Len didn't ask for his job. He and his twin sister Kagamine Rin need the money to send to their family so they can sustain themselves. Len knows he should find a better job, but Rin enjoys her job, and there was no way Len was going to separate from her. Plus, he knew what the Head would do to quitters.

Len had just finished with the last of the test tubes that needed polished when suddenly the door to the laboratory flew open. In came his sister with her partner Hatsune Miku, followed by a few lab scientists and carrying a black bag between them. Len sighed. They caught someone else.

Miku and Rin take off the scarves covering their identities and throw the bag, rather unceremoniously, onto the examination table in the middle of the room.

"Well, that was easy, wasn't it?" Rin said, holding up her hand for a high-five from Miku.

Miku accepts the high-five.

"Easy as pie. The Head is going to be so proud of us!"

Rin nods in agreement.

Len sighs. How could Rin just be okay with taking people from their families like this? He would never understand it.

He goes to the corner of the room where the lab coats are hanging and pulls one on, then grabs a clipboard and turns to a clean piece of paper. He was only an apprentice so far, so his job was simply to take notes on the subject and listen to the procedures and such.

"The Head should be here any minute," one of the scientists says, checking his watch. All of the scientists wash their hands and put on masks and gloves. Soon after they're done with this, the Head comes in.

Nobody knows his real name, so everyone calls him the Head. He supervises their particular branch of the project and makes sure nobody steps out of line. Rin and Miku are always trying their very hardest to please him because he is so attractive, with his dark blue eyes and short blue hair.

Everyone moves out of his way and he moves around the table to the right side of the bag. He nods at Rin and Miku, and they take the bag by the ends and quickly pull it off the subject.

Normally Len doesn't think twice about the subjects he writes notes for, but this particular one catches his attention. She looked younger than most other subjects they received, usually the Project researched adults. She looked to be about his age, but he was also struck by her delicate complexion. She had skin fair as snow and hair that perfectly matched her ruby-colored lips. The only disruption in her light skin was the large bruise starting to form where she was hit in the head.

Immediately Len felt a surge of anger toward his sister and Miku. How dare they do this to such a delicate young lady without thinking twice about it?

Len didn't have much time with his thoughts before the examination started. The girl was poked and prodded everywhere possible by the Head and other scientists. They checked her eyes, throat, nose, skin condition, and other things Len didn't think were very important. He scribbled down all that they said onto his clipboard.

The Head stared at her, bewildered at the conclusion of the examination. He then glared at Miku and Rin.

"How dare you two bring a perfectly normal young lady into my lab? Don't you know it's against the code to kidnap anyone without supernatural tendencies? Now we have to kill her for effectively no reason!"

Their eyes went wide, and Rin looked like she was about to cry.

"B-but, sir, we've gotten t-tendency readings every t-time she p-passed by while w-we were watching h-her-"

"Silence!" The Head cuts her off with his hand. "Speak no more. If what you say is true, we will watch her closely for a few days and see if anything changes. But if nothing does, I'm afraid punishment will be arranged for you ladies."

Rin and Miku nod frantically and quickly leave the room. Len felt a little bit bad for her, but he still felt angry that this girl had to be put through all this.

The girl who turns out to be Teto is wheeled on a stretcher to a holding room and placed on a similar table to the examination table, but this one is cushioned slightly so it's more comfortable. 

Len watches as the scientists attach heart rate monitors to her and insert an iv to keep giving her fluids. Just before they leave, one of the scientists gives Len his orders.

"We need you to stay here and watch over her while she's asleep. Monitor her heart rate and breathing, and notify someone if anything changes or if she wakes up."

Len nodded, and the scientists leave. He draws up a chair and sits down beside her. He could be doing something productive, like cleaning up the room a bit or checking the accuracy of his notes, but it seemed like all he could do was observe her, notice every detail there was about her. He noticed her long, featherlike eyelashes, the small crack in her lips, even the pale freckles under her eyes. He wondered if it was creepy of him to be staring at her like this, but he supposed it was his job to make observations.

He held out his arm so the back of his hand was under her nostrils, but he was careful not to touch her in case he disturbed her sleep. He counted the seconds between each time he felt the gentle rush of air against his hand, making sure it was relatively consistent each time. After jotting down a couple notes, he returned to his silent vigil over her, the slow beep of the heart rate monitor the only sound.

The more Len stared, the more interested he became in this girl. She looked so peaceful, even though the circumstances weren't. She didn't deserve this. This nonsensical experiment. This nonsensical excuse for manslaughter. It made him want to cry, but he knew he couldn't.

Instead, he made a silent promise.

I'm going to escape this experiment unharmed, he told himself.

...and so is she.