Chapter Text
That night, no one slept good. The six kids were huddled together in the eldest bed, waiting for the Professor. They took turns to be on the lookout once the clock passed the 10. Since Yamaguchi had been there, the Professor had never missed their nightly meals and cuddle sessions. Even when he was neck deep in work or had just been hurt by some guards, he still managed to pop his head in and eat a quick bite and cuddle for a few minutes before he rushed out. So to say that they were scared was an understatement. Yamaguchi didn’t have to stay up for him but he was quick to pick up on the routine. He would stay up with whoever was awake when he woke from his sleep, which was mainly the other younger one.
“ Freak shows! ” a deep voice yelled from the doorway, “ Come to the cafeteria for breakfast and good news,”
Everyone followed the guards words, shuffling around the room, taking turns in the bathroom. One of his brothers helped get ready this time, dressing him in the same plain attire, and those ugly bulky brown slides that squeezed his feet. He remembered purring and hissing to his guard about the shoes but she couldn’t do anything except give a sympathetic smile and a few head pats.
“ I wonder if Professors okay, he’s never done that before,” his sister whispered, picking up a still sleepy Yamaguchi. The others agreed as they made their way out the room. The first thing that hit the child was the smell of enjoyment, the sweet playful smell he’d never had the experience of feeling. This made him purr erratically, clutching the girls arm. She gave him a broken smile and made her way down the hall.
His siblings and guards talked amongst themselves as he day dreamed about that smell. It made his head light and the smile refused to leave his face. The others seemed to notice but didn’t say anything, just gave the same smile his sister gave him. The second youngest seemed to feel the same as him, humming and smiling around. Yamaguchi reached for the boy but was scolded by a guard for trying to talk (which he wasn’t) and received a slight zap from his collar, making him cry out in surprise and pain.
Immediately his mood shot down and the tears began to flow. He couldn’t hold back the sobs that wracked through him, which caused his siblings and guards to go into a frenzy, doing their best to calm him down.
“ He’s so fucking annoying, why did he have to live-”
“Don’t cross the fucking line guard,” an odd voice broke through his sentence, being replaced with putrid smell of stress and fear. “ What do I have to tell you about treating the subjects,”
He remembered her, the lady with the powerful aura that everyone was scared of. His ears twitched and folded, a sign of interest from the younger. His tears stopped and his cries turned into sniffles as he peered at the woman. She gave him a smile, well if you could call it that. It was more of a wince mixed with a mouthful of teeth. He shuddered at the sight and looked away.
“ Quickly to the cafeteria, you need to eat a big breakfast for the next step,” the lady gave that weird smile again, before turning on her heels, walking away from the group. They followed cautiously, scared of the random lady who had the power to make the guards fear her.
“ Kuroko you know who that is?” his sister muttered, nudging the eldest shoulder. He gave a shake of his head and a shrug, making the other kids frown in disappointment. If the oldest didn’t know then they’d never know unless the lady herself said something. The group continued in silence to the cafeteria. They could smell the food- wait food ? Their stomachs began to growl loudly, their tails swayed in anticipation, and their ears twitching with interest. They’d never smelt anything like it before, usually they got that hard dry food that made their incisors hurt, or that wet food that was disgusting and slimy and made them cry for the Gods.
“ Wow look at that!”
Everyone ran to the energetic sibling, staring at the large buffet looking space. They gasped and jumped for joy, running to a table waiting for instructions from the guards. Instead they were met with the crackle and a tapping noise echoing through the cafeteria catching them all off guard. Yamaguchi’s ear bent all the way back, a whimper leaving his throat at the weird sound.
“ Eat to your heart's content because this week will be hell for you my little subjects ,” The table seemed to tense up at what the woman announced. Going to be hell? What were they putting them through. The ones that understood solemnly stood and went for the food, the younger two excitedly followed, not noticing the sour mood from everyone around them.
Yamaguchi ate till he couldn’t lift his hand, which was a simple two plates. Which were piled with bacon, sausage, ramen, fish, a few fruits he wasn’t familiar with, and some salad his brothers forced him to eat. They didn’t know what was put in the food, but the eldest two had suspicions when they noticed that only the cat hybrid guards were eating the food laying out.
“ Don’t forget your medicine and drinks,” Yamaguchi stared down the guard who came in with a tray of small plastic cups and a pitcher of water. He placed the contents down on the table and filled their empty or near empty cups with the water. The man gave an odd grin before sliding different colored pills to each of them. Yamaguchi’s was a neon pink with three blue pills and a suspicious white pill. The other seemed to either be purple, orange, or green with the same three blue and one white inside.
“ Take the pills or they’ll force us to,” one of the siblings muttered, before swallowing the pills and water in one go. The other four followed suit, then turned and helped their other younger siblings with the pills. They tasted rancid, and the white pill gave off an odor that reminded them of the lab they had been placed in once. To describe how they all felt, would be uncomfortable and confused.
“ Good job, now follow your little guards to your testing rooms, we’ll start from there,” the high pitched crackle came back causing the six to cover their ears and curl into themselves. After a short moment, they reluctantly stood and followed her instructions, with Yamaguchi’s guard coaxing him into her arms so she could carry him to the testing room. He was on edge right now, the pills were weird and he was starting to feel fluffy and he’d only felt like that when he had that check up. So he wasn’t getting the best feeling right now.
The farther he walked, the weirder he felt. He couldn’t talk since his throat felt tight and his vision was going in and out. He wanted to cry but he felt the harsh glares from the guards around him so he held it back. The air seemed to get colder, and his thin layer of clothes weren’t going to protect him from it. Yamaguchi was already shivering and with the medicine he felt like he was dying. A headache began to form as he forced himself to stay up. His eye lids were getting heavy, and the footsteps started getting farther and farther away, a purr echoed on his ears, like a warning but also it was telling him to go to sleep. And that is what he did, he let his eyes close and the heavy feeling take over his body.
“ Did we fo… good new… surgery...”
Yamaguchi awoke in an unknown room, strapped to a cold steel table and that disgusting sterilizing smell. He wanted to leave- no he wanted his siblings with him. He couldn’t be trapped in this small confined space and people he’d never smelt or scene before.
“He’s finally awake ma’am, we don’t know the results just yet,” a deep monotones voice spoke from behind him, nearly scaring the shit out of the poor child.
“His eyes are yellow, why’s that?” Her voice echoed in his head. It put his body on guard, even if he couldn’t move, his body acted on its own. His claws grew and his throat let out a low growl. He’d never done that before, what happened to him.
“ His body has been like that, like he’s on autopilot everytime he hears your voice,” Mr. Monotone explained, before his body came into view. His dead black eyes stared down at the child. “ I’m not sure if the eye surgery did well, they aren’t changing back,”
The man raised a light and brought it to Yamaguchi’s eye. His head jerked back, banging against the steel. A blossoming pain filled his body and ringing filled his ears. What did they do to him?
“ Wh-why is he moving? Shouldn’t he be frozen, atracurium dose for someone twice his age and thrice his size-” the lady was panicking, yet the sickly sweet smell of excitement filled his nose, alongside the familiar scent of fear trickled in and mixed with the excitement.
“ The others acted like this as well, we can note that he is the only one with yellow eyes so far,” He tattled on, flipping through his notebook.Sayoko was staring down the child with interest. When she reached to grab his head, he snapped at her, baring his teeth. The green haired kid gave a hiss and twisted his wrist around, attempting to free himself so he could attack the lady.
“ Well only three in Gamma are awake and two in Zeta so we can’t say much,” another monotone voice spoke, but this one was far lighter. They soon came into view and inserted a needle before Yamaguchi could snap. “ This should knock him out for a few hours, we still have the hand and nerve surgery along with the mutation drug you wanted try out,”
“ Okay I’ll be next door in Tendou’s room, I heard his eyes were as red as his hair,” she gushed, running out the room, her clicking heels causing pulsating waves of pain in his head. He needed to leave, he didn’t know what these people had planned.
“ He’s still awake, I think we need more anesthesia and that relaxant that calmed him down last time,” clanking and crashing soon became white noise as he fought the creeping sensation of sleep. Maybe he should sleep, then that raging headache will finally leave him alone.
The next time he woke up, he didn’t smell the pungent smell of sterilizers or blood. Instead he smelt a sweet- something kind of food like. Yamaguchi wasn’t tied to a table this time, but a chair. His head felt fluffy, and his tongue was nothing but dead weight in his mouth. In all honesty, he felt kind of dumb. His mind couldn’t connect smells, and his ears weren’t working at all. Yamaguchi couldn’t find it in himself to freak out, he liked this feeling. Hearing nothing, smelling that addicting sweet smell, and how bright and colorful the room looked right now. Though his body was still stiff and unable to move, he could move his neck around just a bit.
The guards looked on in horror. This 8 year old was awake? After all of this surgery and drugs, he was alive- breathing, moving, and mumbling?
“ Asaki I think I’m gonna be sick,” a male guard gagged, turning his head away from the sight. Asaki couldn’t agree more, seeing the state the child was in was making him regret ever taking this job.
“ He-he’s awake ma’am, but he doesn’t- his body is- can I be excused?” another voice came from behind the medical table. It was wavering, and the gasping breath wasn’t helping his case either.
“ Not just yet, did he ingest it all?” Sayoko asked, a grin etched into her face as she santured in. The three guards nodded solemnly, showcasing the empty pill container on the counter beside them. She gave a delighted hum and grabbed a pair of gloves from the shelf. “ I’ll be doing the brain surgery just like last time,”
“Yes ma’am, here's the list of instructions for the-”
“Leave, all three of you,” her voice became harsh and strict, she spun around, her empty stare directed at the guards. They gulped loudly and scurried from the room, leaving the eager president alone with the drugged out child. “ Now that I have you all to myself, let us begin the hell procedure,”
Yamaguchi felt like he’d been picked apart and put together at least 3 times. His head had a splitting headache that had him wailing and crying out for Professor. His hand was numb and the bleeding bandages over them were dripping onto the chair and floor. His back and stomach felt as if they’d been cut into and probed with the biggest knife known to man.
“ And he lives! Crying for a man who hasn’t been out of the cage for weeks,” that irritating high pitched squeal from the woman he’s come to hate and fear. Wait did she just say weeks- did he understand what she said?!
“Can you understand me pretty kitty? Are you confused? Lost? Wanna see that poor excuse of a man?” She rambled on and on. Bashing the Professors existence, his siblings poor conditions, and how he was not the perfect subject like the others. Yamaguchi wanted to launch himself at the woman, but he now understood his situation. Tied to a chair, bleeding out, ringing ears, and that splitting headache. He was also way too small to fight her, he was practically asking for his ass to be handed to him.
“ It seems you’re the last one to awaken, I’m surprised that you’re alive,” she paced around in front of him, the slow fast movements making his head spin. “ You and the others had one hell of a month,”
She gave a heavy sigh, rubbing her temple. She began to ramble to herself, laughing and grinning like a madman. She looked crazy to him- no, she looked like the big bad villains in the stories he had been told over and over again by his siblings. That struck fear into his fragile little body.
“President! Th- there’s police raiding the place,” a rushed voice came, breaking her off mid rant. She paused for a second, that now sweet smell that he was so happy to have smelt on her. That rich smell of fear, panic, that putrid smell of stress that leaked from her.
“ No, no, no, no, no! It’s too soon. My babies are gonna be taken away from me! This happened too soon! What can I do, what will ha-”
Everything happened in a blur. Professor ran in with a pained expression and a tear-streaked face. His siblings? He couldn’t quite see them but he could smell that warm scent of his older brothers and sisters. Crashing, smashing, glass breaking, yelling, fear. He was feeling too much, smelling, seeing. He needed to go back under.
“ Yamaguchi! Follow us, they’re here to help us!” Professor’s words brought him from his frozen state. People came to help? Them? The freckled child wanted to move, but he couldn’t. Everything was sluggish and his body was refusing to move on it’s own.
“ We got him, follow the police to the entrance, we’ll deal with everything from here,” a deep, nurturing tone came from his left. Big, strong arms gently picked him up from his chair. The leather straps slipped from his body as he was pulled away. He could hear the crazy lady screaming and crying in the background as he was taken away from the nightmarish room.
“ I’m not sure if you understand me but you’re safe with us now,” Yamaguchi gave a purr and let the darkness take over his eyes and brain. The calm scent that radiated around him, along with the feeling of comfort in his chest- it was the best feeling he’d ever felt.
Ichii looked at the kids in the van, piled on top of eachother. He couldn’t fight back the smile and giddiness in his body. His plan worked, him and the kids were free. Away from the grasp of that evil woman, free to live the lives a kid should actually live.
“ Sir, we need to question you and the ones who are able to speak about the things they experienced in the labs,” an officer began to speak, forcing his gaze to focus on him. Ichii gave a sigh, running a hand through hair, wincing as his finger grazed a scrape on his head.
“ What are they going to do with us? Are they splitting us up- scattering us around Japan?”
“From what I’ve heard and the information they’ve received, they're going to house them in homes with other humans for a chance to experience what it’s like outside the lab,” the driver spoke, voice low and annoyed. Ichii flinched at that but nodded nonetheless. He’d prefer if he was close with them, able to watch and comfort them like back at the lab- but he understood their point.
“ O-Oh, we’ll be away from each other? But we just- you’re kidding right?”
“Yeah Professor, they’re just pulling our tails, we’ll live together! Right?”
Kuroko sat up, a passed out Yamaguchi lay limp like a doll in his lap. He couldn’t be away from his siblings, after he just got them back. They’d be able to live with each other and do everything that they planned to do.
“ They’ll explain everything back at the station after you’ve finished questioning,” the driver spat, letting out a groan of annoyance at all the questions and whimpering. Curse whoever sent the anonymous tips, he could be at home, not dealing with crying adults and children.
“ Ignore him, we’ll do what we can to make sure you can stay as close as possible,” with that empty promise, the car fell silent. The kids were still just as scared and Ichii was having a panic attack at the thought of being separated from the family he’d created and protected. He won’t allow for the separation to happen, he’d fight for them like he was supposed to.