A Song to the Future (Mirai e no Uta)

Chapter 1: The Stranger

The Stranger opened his eyes, probably for the first time. He didn't feel much; didn't know what was going on either. There was movement around, that he understood. After a couple seconds he realized he was being transported on what seemed to be a portable bed. There were also lights and a long hallway, some voices too. Those were probably people. The Stranger felt very dizzy you see; poor man could barely distinguish shapes or colors. Hell, he didn't even know his own name. "I don't care that much anyways" he thought.

Often there's some stretches of time one just doesn't belong to. This was most likely one of those, and so he went back to sleep.

Dr. Rosmärin's Entry

Readings seem to indicate that the subject is indeed human. However, these amounts of radiation are completely unheard of and way beyond what we deemed 'possible' till now (not bringing into account that one exception).

Quarantine has been established and we are 'closely' monitoring the subject. There's way more people than needed here but I guess there's not much else to do today. It is news, I must admit.

Subject has been unconscious for about 3.5 hours at this point and oh, speak of the devil.

Cargo Hold

"Good morning sleepyhead! You had us worried there."

There was a middle-aged woman talking loudly in the middle of the room. She wore a lab coat and looked devilishly happy. I still felt a bit dizzy, but I assumed this was finally my moment.

"Hello Mr. Subject? Do you understand me? The glass is pretty thick, but you should be able to hear me."

Now that she mentioned it, where was this place? I was indeed being held inside some sort of glass cell. The walls did look sturdy. Outside of this tiny prison there was a proper room, but it had no windows. It did have a monitor on the wall opposite to mine.

There were two other people besides the woman: right next to her, a timid-looking girl around twenty years of age was sitting on a small bench; she had somewhat of a wavy hair. At the bottom of the room a boy with glasses rested his back on the wall, wearing a serious expression. He didn't seem to me much older than the girl.

The woman took a small notebook from her lab coat and began writing while thinking aloud.

"Subject's mind looks completely blank. This will probably be more difficult than expected." She put the notebook away. "Ara my dear, would you mind taking care of him while I..."

"My mind is not blank" I finally managed to say. "I do understand you. I'm sorry, where is this...?"

"Guess having a Babel Tower can come in handy sometimes" said Glasses at the bottom of the room, arms crossed.

"Good, good!" Seems this was enough to reignite the woman's enthusiasm. She opened the notebook again, ready to do some science.

"I'm sorry Mr. Subject but for now I am not authorized to answer any question you may have. That might change if you are cooperative enough, though."

She smirked.

"Let's start with the basics: do you have a name."

"Do I?" I genuinely didn't have any idea of who I was. It's not like I forgot about it either, it just felt like there was nothing before this room. "But that can't be true." I wondered if this eccentric doctor might be able to help. I didn't have a reason to be hostile towards these people either.