A Farewell to All Futures

A Changing Tune

Warning: Human experimentation, paralysis, brain death

***

Kokoro's day was peaceful so far. The only excitements in her day were Emma's constant buzzing around her and showering her with affection. But then again, that was an everyday occurrence, so did that really count?

To her surprise, her handbook lit up with a notification. She never saw the point of setting a notification sound because she always carried the handbook with her and had it open most of the time. She looked at the notification and her eyes widened.

Yasuke: we have a subject, we kinda need you to show up so we can test run the program

Kokoro quickly stood up from her bed and ran to the dorm's door. She quickly put her coat and boots on, calling out to the boys' dorm "I'm heading out." as she zipped her coat up. She then opened the door and quickly headed outside.

Normally, the walk from residence to the school building would be ten minutes, but Kokoro managed to half that amount of time considering the urgency of the situation. She ran into the main building and quickly found the elevator that leads to below the campus, entering it and tapping the button leading to the floor with their experiment. As the doors closed, she pulled out her handbook and sent a quick message to Yasuke, telling him that she was almost there.

Once she finally arrived at the secret facilities, she quickly found the room to swap out her winter coat and boots for a lab coat and sneakers, as much as she loathed the latter. She then left the changing room and went to the room where the Neo World Program was being built and tested, Room #12.

She entered the room and three people turned towards her. "So, you're here." Miaya smiled, handing Kokoro a clipboard.

"You're late." Yasuke remarked. He turned towards a control panel and began inspecting it again.

Chihiro walked down from the observation platform and to the machine below, walking over to the pod-like device where a subject lay inside. "We finally have a tester for the program. She's currently in a state of medical unconsciousness." The programmer explained.

"I see." Kokoro nodded. "By the way, Chihiro, have you told your classmates yet?" She asked.

Chihiro nodded enthusiastically. "It was just as you said. They...didn't hate me for hiding my secret. Even when I told them I'd prefer wearing a skirt instead of a normal uniform, they were accepting of me!" He enthusiastically proclaimed.

"Can we get back to the project?" Yasuke impatiently stated.

"Right." Kokoro turned towards him. "Could I have the background on the subject?"

Miaya flipped to a page attached to the clipboard and began to read aloud from it:

'The subject had previously been in an accident in her grade school years and her spine had snapped in several places. She was diagnosed with permanent paralysis and was put into long-term hospice care with her family working to pay for her medication. When the costs were getting too high for her parents, her sister, Shibuki Yoruno, currently working under the alias 'Suzume', had taken multiple jobs at a high school age to support her paralyzed sister, including at an ice cream parlour and a bar called the Grand Cabaret, sending her money to their parents to pay for costs. Due to the subject's sister's previous connection to one of our current Ultimate students, Yoruko Kabuya, the facility had taken notice of her and considered her for a test subject regarding brain experimentations. With the consent of her parents, the subject was given to Hope's Peak Academy and the parents received approximately $50000 in compensation.'