Chapter 92: A New Friend and a Problem to accompany it?

"FUUUU-TAAAAA-ROUUUU!"

"Urgh..." It felt like I was jumped by my father all over again. My knees gave in to the considerable pressure on my back as I was flattened on the ground.

"Fuutarou! Fuutarou! Fuutarou! Did you bring the Aceman figurine?"

A female voice screamed as she sat on top of me without a care in the world.

With incredible strength that I needed to use, I pushed myself off the floor, but the girl behind me continued hugging my neck, treating me as a piggyback ride.

"Wow! You've gotten stronger!" the girl exclaimed as she climbed down and reappeared in front of me.

The girl, whom I assumed was Shiro, is a young albino girl. She has snow-white hair, pale skin, and red eyes; even her eyebrows and eyelashes are white. Her hair is very long and reaches down to her knees. She was currently in something of a hospital gown, much like me.

Please don't tell me I'm an experimental test subject as well...

"Hello, Shiro. You're more active than usual, huh?"

Shiro merely tilted her head in confusion, "Nevermind that! Lend me your Aceman figurine!"

She took, no, snatched the Aceman figurine from my hand and started running around, "Come catch me if you want Aceman to save the day!"

What on Earth just happened? I wanted to just sit and train my tail control, but I couldn't do so under the supervision of those adults. Left without any choice, I just chased after Shiro.

And it wasn't easy at all. I have the physiology of a mythic animal, and I almost ran myself out of breath before eventually finding and catching Shiro.

Who on Earth is Shiro? No children would ever have the capacity to do what she just did.

"Ha...ha...ha..." Both of us panted as we laid down on the green grass.

"Fuutarou, you have gotten so much stronger..." Shiro panted as she said, "I've never felt this tired before..."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Of course, it's a good thing. Fuutarou strong means we strong!" Shiro flexed her non-existent muscles as she grinned, "Here. Since you managed to catch me, you can have your Aceman back."

I raised an eyebrow as I took it back, "Even if I didn't manage to catch you, you would still give it back anyway."

"Hehehe..."

I looked at the figurine and thought for a while. It didn't look very sightly. With a red, tattered cape floating behind it, black and red underwear, and a T-pose, it looked...never mind.

Anyway, the previous me might have liked this in the past, but now that "I" am here, it doesn't really interest me anymore. I never really liked figurines that much, anyway.

"Here, I'll give it to you instead." Giving the Aceman figurine back to Shiro, she looked at me like I was some sort of unknown entity.

"Eh?"

"You like it as well, don't you? Why don't you take it?"

"Eh?! You don't want it anymore, Fuutarou? You don't like Aceman anymore?!"

"Relax, Shiro..." Patting her head, I calmed the hyperactive girl down, "You're my friend, aren't you? So I'll give this to you as a present. I still love Aceman (a lie), and I'm really sad to be parting with it( another lie), but if it's you, I don't mind giving it to you. You're my precious friend, after all."

The last part wasn't a lie. During that short hour of playing tag, I could already see Shiro being a really great friend. Children are pure and innocent creatures - a reason why I made a lot of friends during my own childhood.

I had just arrived alone in this world, and Shiro was probably the only one I could trust in this entire facility. It was perhaps this reason that also made me appreciate Shiro more.

Something like obsessive love syndrome, but without the love or the obsessive?

Anyway, the scientists definitely couldn't be trusted.

Another reason why I chose to give Aceman figurine to Shiro was because of the bandages on Shiro's arms, legs, and even neck. It was obviously some injuries, and it only further confirms my suspicion of this place.

It was no orphanage, and anyone who continues to believe it even after seeing this is either stupid or part of the organization running this place.

I felt sympathy for her, so I decided to give her the figurine that she really loved, hoping that she would at least feel stronger to get past those experiments.

"Thank you, Fuutarou!" Shiro grabbed the figurine and hugged me. We were still lying on the grassy ground, so it just ended with her lying on top of me.

"I'm all rested now! Let's continue playing!"

Seriously? Who on Earth is this girl who had more stamina than me?

∞

"Super ultra delicious dynamite kraken gaki special atomic bomber spiral core poisoned drill gravity air spin fire flare vibrating spectacular final yogurt electronic synchro dive jumping beam happy zero heat ice crusher terry itou stone mountain surging dark candle freeze buster light sun ocean remarkable clear clip cutter jab Gazelle Monkey Boar Coleacnth Stardust Poison Papiko Sunder Storm Enlightened over-named but really nothing but an extremely normal PUNCH!"

[A/N: Btw, that is 68 words long.]

We were currently re-enacting Aceman's various shows and fight, and it was unexpectedly fun. Sure, it was very cringing and very embarrassing, but once you get used to being chuuni for a while, you get to experience the fun of just being retarded every once in a while. Many people stop at the first stage and never continue; that was why there were so few chuunibyous in the world.

Of course, we watched a few episodes of Aceman first to get some insight into what Aceman was exactly and so that I wouldn't look suspicious in the scientists' eyes.

As it turns out, Aceman was a superhero.

Wow. What a surprise. What an unexpected development. I would have never thought of that in my life.

Moving on from my sarcasm-filled monologue, we just started acting out some of the memorable scenes of Aceman saving some people from bad guys.

"Help! Help! Save me from that bad guy!" I yelled in mock fear, and Shiro, who had climbed up the tree, jumped down and landed with her hands by her side, "protecting" me from the invisible bad guy.

Landing exactly how Aceman would have landed, Shiro spoke his trademark words with a big smile on her face, "Have no fear! Aceman is here!"

Hmm...sounds strangely familiar with a certain anime about heroes as well.

"You bad guy will not get away from me after daring to hurt the people!"

"Take my move! Super ultra delicious dynamite kraken gaki special atomic bomber spiral core poisoned drill gravity air spin fire flare vibrating spectacular final yogurt electronic synchro dive jumping beam happy zero heat ice crusher terry itou stone mountain surging dark candle freeze buster light sun ocean remarkable clear clip cutter jab Gazelle Monkey Boar Coleacnth Stardust Poison Papiko Sunder Storm Enlightened over-named but really nothing but an extremely normal PUNCH!"

I counted that thing, and the name of the super move came up to 68 words, mixed with various nouns, verbs, and adjectives. I wonder which brain-damaged scriptwriter wrote this thing and how he's doing in life right now. Shiro managed to memorize every word without fail.

And so, with that utterly normal punch that made a hole in a leaf, Shiro crossed her hand and helped me off the ground with her smile still hanging off her face.

"Hehehe! I have saved you, Fuutarou!"

Seeing her innocent and bright smile similar to Shouko's and Kaori's, my heart warmed as well.

"Yes, indeed you have."

∞ 3rd POV ∞

The naughty little woodpecker ♪

Knocked holes, crumbling the forest.

The angry wood god turned his beak into poison! ♪

The poor little woodpecker, his nest was poisoned, his supper too.

He touched his friends, and they all died. ♪

The sad little woodpecker ♪

His little poison tears twinkle and shine... ♪

The sound of slow clapping resonated in the room as the woman who played the song looked up.

"Fabulous playing as always. Though, I always wonder why you would only choose to play children's songs."

The woman merely let out a soft smile, though the tears that rolled out of her eyes readily revealed her current emotions, "Children are beautiful creatures."

The man smirked as his glasses shined a little in the darkness, "A scientist who performs human experimentation on children loves children. What an irony, don't you think?"

"What did you come here for, Hagire?" The woman wiped her tears away as she asked, her tone sharp and ungentle, unlike before.

Hagire had long black, messy hair that was kept in a ponytail. He has a short goatee and wears glasses. He wore a white lab coat over a black-and-white striped t-shirt and black trousers and had a necklace with four scalpels. In addition, he has dark circles under his eyes, most likely due to sleep deprivation.

"Sorae...relax." Hagire smiled, "I am just curious about Shiro. Can I have her instead?"

Sorae has long black hair that is kept in a braid over her right shoulder. She wore regular clothes; a green sweater and light pants, and a white lab coat over her regular clothes.

"No."

"Why not? Isn't it the entire reason why you 'adopted' her, no? To replace her with Maruta so that your son wouldn't suffer at all."

Sorae stood up abruptly and pulled Hagire's shirt towards her, his face now right in front of hers, "I've already given you permission to do all sorts of things to her, but giving her to you is another matter. She belongs to all of us, understand?"

"Tch...fine. But anytime you want to dispose of her, feel free to give her to me."

"And that's never going to happen. Now, leave."

"Relax...I still have another issue. The other child you brought back in...Fuutarou."

"What about him?"

"Why don't we try on him too?"

Sorae looked at him like he was trash, "Why don't you try on yourself first?"

"Fiesty, but you already did on one, so another shouldn't matter. We all need the results anyway."

"No."

"Then I'll just tell the board that we need one more subject, and you would be forced to pick either your son or Fuutarou."

"Is that a threat, Hagire?"

"No, no, no." Hagire hurriedly raised his hands in a defensive position, "I never threaten others. We indeed need another experimental subject. After all, since we're trying to gain insight into how to heighten a person's immune system, rather than some random child on the streets, why not pick one with an already strong immune system and test on him?"

"Fuutarou?" Sorae's face revealed a confused look, "Strong immune system? Fuutarou had always been a weak child."

"Not after he suddenly collapsed out of nowhere. At first, we thought it was some of the side effects on the past experiment, but..."

"But what?"

"We don't know. Only with further experiment with your consent would we be able to further our...studies."

Sorae remained silent for a while, and Hagire waited patiently by the side, his fingers twiddling with some fancy gadget.

"Is it a must?"

"Of course," Hagire said, though he himself didn't really think so. Shiro was already a perfect specimen, but his innate curiosity just made him want to have Fuutarou as his experimental subject.

Why did Fuutarou suddenly faint one day? What happened to him? What changed? Did his entire physiology change? How could he suddenly be as fit as Shiro, who was experimented on for quite some time right after waking up from a two-day coma?

So many questions did Hagire have, but so few answers. Fuutarou wasn't needed for their experiment, but Fuutarou was necessary for his personal one.

"Fine. If I find out that you're lying to me in any way, I'll make sure you never step foot into any science lab ever again."

Having gotten what he wanted, Hagire didn't say anything more and left the room, a smile hanging on his face.

"Soon..."

*****************

A/N: Since the title I originally planned to put was a spoiler, I changed it. But after everything becomes clearer and you guys know what world we are in, I'll put in a better title.

Btw, my holidays have come to an end. I need to actually start on all my homework that I have conveniently procrastinated for writing. So, it's going back to the usual Sunday uploads only. Maybe I'll post an extra chapter for the new year, but no promises.

If this fanfic lasts until next year, I'll write both a Christmas and New Year special since I'll be graduating (hopefully).

If you want to support me or/and want chapters in advance, link:

https://www.patréon.com/spirits_everywhere. We are currently 8 chapters ahead~