Yu Yu Hakusho: The After Years

Episode 58: A Brave New World

Gadget had been underneath the stadium the whole time. She could sense it beneath the flickering glow of the florescent lights. She could hear the booms and cracks of fighting above as small particles of dust sifted through the air before settling at her feet.

Her cell was made of simple wood and a padlock. Nothing electronic. She wished she were someone stronger. Rieka could have burst through these bars. But physical strength was not her strong suit. Only machines. She felt like she might as well have been a dog locked in a crate under here.

There were test tubes of things suspended in blue fluid. She couldn't quite make sense of what they were. They might have been seamonkeys for all she knew. They seemed to be organized by some sort of progression. Smaller sea monkeys to bigger seamonkeys. A woman with long brown hair and a white lab coat was delicately packing them into an insulated container. For safekeeping, Gadget guessed. They must have been precious to her because she handled them with the utmost care.

Gadget found herself unable to focus too much on the brown-haired woman. At the center of a room sat a boy with blue hair, meditating. Though he looked to be in deep concentration, the facial expression he wore was peaceful, serene. Above him, a large black hole gaped, and out of it, Gadget saw the shining eyes of monsters--yokai.

That was somewhat distracting.

Having packed away the last test tube in an insulated metal box, the brown-haired woman closed the case and gave a gentle, almost loving pat before flipping the lock shut. She then turned and walked over to Gadget's cage, her heels clacking against the ground as she moved. She bent at the waist to look at Gadget in the eye. Her yellow eyes glinted behind her glasses as she smiled at Gadget like a kindergarten teacher.

If locking her in a cage hadn't made her dislike this woman, the whole waist-bending trick did. Gadget hated when grown ups talked down to her.

"Hi there," the woman crooned, "I'm Dr. Braun. I've been very excited to meet you."

Gadget met her eyes with a blank stare. Dr. Braun scanned her face and her eyes settled on the scar on Gadget's throat.

"Yes," she said, pursing her lips, "I've heard of your little 'problem.' It was cruel of Dr. White to do that to you. Cruel and unnecessary. I can't repair the scar, but maybe I can give you a little peace offering."

She slid a black rectangular box about the size of a domino across the floor of Gadget's cell. Gadget snapped it up, sensing it was technological. After giving it a brief once-over, she frowned. There was nothing useful about this piece. At least not so far as letting her out of her cell.

Dr. Braun tapped her own throat, "Use your ability to absorb it into your throat, where your vocal cords are. I can't promise it will mimic your natural voice. But it will allow you to speak."

Gadget eyed her suspiciously. Why would her kidnapper give her such a thing? She would have been able to sense if there was anything off about it. There was no explosive, no weird wires that might control or shock her somehow. And no one yet had figured out a machine she couldn't override. Why else put her in a wooden box? She looked Dr. Braun hard in the eye as she brought the device up to her throat. As if she could sense any deceit in those smiling yellow eyes.

Her skin naturally wrapped around the device over her voice box, and she felt as if something had been dislodged. Like clearing your voice after a particularly bad cold. She tested it out.

"Aaah..." The first noise that came to her head. And to her surprise, she actually heard herself with her own ears. Not herself exactly, but a voice that sounded part-human and part-machine. In a way, maybe more like herself than her natural voice. She allowed herself a small smile.