I woke up with a start. I wasn't breathing and that wasn't a good thing. There was a horrible searing sensation in my chest and I gasped for the air that wouldn't enter my lungs. My eyes stayed clamped shut as I reached for my neck instinctively. My body twitched in odd intervals and eventually my eyes started opening, but instead of the usual black ... it was blurry whiteness. I didn't dwell on it much because my thoughts were distracted by the constricting feeling occurring in my throat.

"I can't breathe!" I panicked as I started clawing at my neck desperately. "Shit, shit."

Then suddenly, it felt like switch was clicked and my ability to breath returned. I coughed and gasped, not exactly at the same time, but almost. I took in several deep breaths before my lungs started functioning properly and my mind started to actually think. I realized that the blurry whiteness had turned into plain whiteness. I blinked a few times and ended with the same result. I looked to my right and left and there was just whiteness. It was kind of creepy actually. I would've preferred my regular pitch blackness.

"What the flip just happened?" I thought and heaved a sigh, though it did cause a bit of pain in my chest.

"Are you awake?" Mayuri's voice sounded like an echo with a bit of a static feel to it, almost as if he were talking through an intercom or something

I blinked, "What the hell just happened?" I demanded as I sat up.

"It was a little experiment to test how much oxygen your body can take before you start suffocating." He stated plainly. "Unfortunately, it doesn't seem any different from the average human."

"Why would you even test that? That has nothing to do with anything." I thought with a shake of my head.

"It does, actually. If you can survive with less amount of oxygen than a human, then you can move into higher levels of the atmosphere. If your body can withstand the atmospheric pressure, that is." Mayuri answered my thought. He mumbled something afterwards, but not loud enough for me to understand.

"How-"

"It's a machine installed in the ceiling of the room that amplifies the signals in your brain."

"Now you're just showing off." I muttered. "Hey, how long was I asleep?"

"A few minutes." He replied curtly. "Can you see?"

"… See what?" I asked and looked around. "I can see whiteness… if that's what you mean…"

I heard a snicker, "Great! That means you'll be able to see this!" There was a clicking sound, followed by a louder thump. I looked around in confusion.

"I'm blind… What am- Oh…"

Circular doors in the whiteness opened up to reveal large tubes –four of them - they seemed big enough for me to fit through them, but they were too high for me to reach. I stood up and looked around again. Upon closer inspection I came to realize that I was in a room. I noticed the corners and the small cracks in the floors and walls. I suddenly brightened when I put my hand in my line of vision and I could see it. Why hadn't I noticed this earlier? Probably because I was too focused on breathing.

Another clicking sound occurred and a new noised echoed through the room. I looked towards the tubes, where the noise was originating from, and took a step towards one of them. It kind of sounding like…. WATER?! Gallons and gallons of water were gushing out of the tubes. I took an immediate step back and glanced at the other tubes, hoping that there wasn't gushing out of them, but there was.

"This is our next experiment!" Mayuri's voice echoed through the room. I looked around as if wanting to locate the speakers or Mayuri himself. "Let's see how much pressure you can withstand."

"Wait! Wait! How am I supposed to breath!?" I screeched in panic as the water came to my knees. There was no response. "Mayuri!" I shouted angrily and glared at the ceiling. "You sadistic bastard!" I growled in frustration as the water reached my waist.

It then occurred to me that I could control water. I mentally face palmed and with ease moved the water out the way and made myself a little circle. Then another thought occurred to me. I'm like the flipping avatar and my vision is back.

"I can break myself out of this place!" I thought as I started freezing the water.

"I wouldn't even try." Mayuri said with extreme boredom.

"Will I'm not you, am I?" I shot back and glared at the ceiling, which I had decided would be what I glared whenever I wanted to glare at Mayuri. A sigh filtered through the room and a moment later a bone shattering pain made its way through my body in odd spasms. A distorted yell escaped my lips, tears formed in my eyes, and my legs folded under me. Then it suddenly stopped and I breathed heavily.

"You didn't really think I wouldn't have a way to keep you from escaping, did you?" I could practically see the evil smile plastered on Mayuri's face as he spoke. "Those bands on your wrists, legs, and neck all have several needles attached to them. Each of the bands hold a special type of drug that target the pain receptors through your body~ and they move very fast." He explained.

"You…" I hissed as I managed to sit up.

"Let's try this again."

The ice broke and more water started pouring in, quickly managing to cover up to my waist in my sitting position. I glared once more at the ceiling before settling on pushing myself, which ended with failure. Every single bone in my body ached horribly and I couldn't bring myself move anymore. Fortunately, when the water reached my shoulders I started to float. So I floated on my back and just chilled until my body stopped hurting.

"Flip, flip, flip, flip, I'm stuck with a motha truckin mad scientist." I thought as the water sloshed around in my ears. "He won't kill me (hopefully)… all he wants to do is test my body to its extremes and if I try anything, I'll be in for a world of pain… literally." I assessed my situation as I slowly started floating closer and closer to the ceiling. "Man, I'm really screwed this time…. No one can save me…." I was a bit sadden by the thought and almost started sinking. Something in the back of my head started nagging at me, like I was forgetting something. I furrowed my eyebrows slightly as I tried to figure out what it was.

"Didn't someone die trying to save me….?" I wondered as the ceiling came within five feet of me. "… Who was it…?" I closed my eyes and prepared myself for my last breath before I was submerged into the water. "Who tried to save me?"

I took in my last breath and started sinking towards the bottom of the room. I opened my eyes and looked around. It was pitch black, but I couldn't tell if it was because of the water or because my vision decided to disappear again. I decided not to dwell on it too much and waited. I started becoming anxious when my lungs started asking for air and that pain in my chest from earlier returned. I clenched my jaw and let out a tiny little stream of air, giving me just a few moments relief before it started again. I paced myself to let out a breath for every ten seconds I counted. Though… it probably only extended my time to maybe two and half minutes… three at best.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit." I cursed as I reached my last little stream of bubbles. I clamped my eyes shut as I tried to think of something I could do. I could create an air bubble, but I might be injected with that drug again. I could freeze the surrounding water, but the drug. I could do a lot of things, but the fear of having all my pain receptors was scaring more than drowning.

I lied.

Just before I took in a breath, I let out whatever little air could out of my lungs and used those air bubbles. I expanded them just enough so that I could wear it like a bubble. Once my head was out of the water, I took in a breath and the bubble decreased in size. I paused for a moment, breathing and all.

"… I didn't this through at all…." I mentally facepalmed. Sure my head was out of the water, but since I used a bubble that held carbon dioxide I wasn't any better off. There are oxygen particles in the water, but I couldn't even start to imagine how I would go about separating it from the water, if I even could in the first place. I wasn't a fish.

My panicking started again and my eyes darted around the water, straining to find some sort of way out. I thought about the tubes from which the water had come out, but I had a feeling that if I tried that, I would be injected with that drug again. Then, just when I thought I was going to give in, there was a faint sound that reminded me like the sound of large metal doors opened, but it sounded muffled.

Next thing I know, the water is started to suck me down like vacuum. In a panic my arms thrust forward and my legs kicked fervently against the opposing waters. Sadly, my attempts were in vain and I was sucked down with the water. It was how it all happened. I was thrusted down and even felt contact with solid ground, and just as quickly I was pushed upwards and broke the surface of the water.

I was grateful for the air that flooded into my lungs, confused, but still grateful. I splashed around in the water a bit before I wiped my eyes and started swimming properly. I looked around and it didn't seem like the amount of water had changed, if anything, more water was flooding in from the tubes.

"Wait, where did the tubes go?" The thought crossed my mind and it occurred to me that I should look up, and I did. The tubes, as well as the ceiling, were now several feet above me and water continued to pour in at incredibly fast pace. "Is he trying to drown me?" I honestly wouldn't doubt it.

"How was that?~" Mayuri's voice rebounded off the walls, though a bit dampened by the sound of the rushing water. I glared at the ceiling like I had previously and said nothing. "That was just the start. Although, I can't go as far as the deeper levels of the ocean, but we'll push you down to at least 500 km."

"Are you crazy?! I'll die before you even get to 5!" I protested.

"Well, that'll be unfortunate, then."

I shouted in frustration and angrily hit the water, creating a minor splash, and then began cursing to my heart's content. There was no other response by Mayuri. When I was finally done ranting the water had moved up about a quarter away from reaching the ceiling. Either I had a very long rant or the water was moving incredibly fast.

I let out a sigh and started prepping myself so that I wouldn't almost drown again. So when I was only about five yards away, I took in the deepest breath I could manage and dipped under the water. It only took a few moments until the water reached the top and I noticed the darkness again. I hated the dark so much. It makes me feel when something is going to reach out of me and drag me to the depths of the abyss.

So when something did actually grab my wrist, there was no surprise that I screamed. Of course, it wasn't heard and it just ended up as a stream of bubbles as I was dragged down by whatever was holding my leg, but I screamed until I realized I was choking. My body's first reaction was to cough and that didn't help out at all. My precious deep breath had been wasted in the first five seconds.

Though, that only registered in my subconscious mind. What I was really focused on was the thing that was currently dragging me to the bottom. I curled up and felt around my ankle. I was more than relieved when I concluded it wasn't a hand or something like that, though I probably shouldn't have since it was still dragging me to the depths of the water filled room with my limited amount of air.

It was something metallic holding onto my wrist, and I could only guess that it was probably Mayuri's doing. When it finally got me to the bottom I could feel a slight pain in my ears. It was similar to the one when I go too far down into a pool and my ears start popping, except just a tad bit more painful. I tried to plug my ears with my fingers to see if that would help, but it didn't.

"I promise I'm going to flipping kill him when I get out of here." I thought and glared upwards again.

A cough formed in the back of my throat and I covered my mouth as it pushed past my lips. I clamped my mouth shut halfway through the process and started pulling desperately at the metal around my ankle. It wouldn't change the fact that I could breathe, but it would get rid of the pain in my ears. At least one problem would be solved then.

Regrettably, my efforts were in vain and the only thing I accomplish was the remaining strength and air I had left. And so I started drowning again. A few seconds into my drowning I felt the water started to moved downwards; but because of the restraint around my ankle, I stayed in place until the water finally went far down enough for me to break the surface.

I gasped, coughed, and even sneezed when air finally entered my system. My chest and throat ached with pain. I wanted nothing more than to just fall asleep and go home. Sadly, I knew that wasn't going to happen. I rubbed the water out of my eyes and looked up, the ceiling had risen, or rather I had fallen. At that moment, I felt a stinging pain in my ankle. My first thought that it had been those bands and I waited whatever horrible pain that would come, but it never came. I looked down and saw a few wisps of red in the water.

"Blood? That's my blood, oh." I tried to figure out what the purpose of that was. "Maybe he wants me to die of blood loss? But he can't kill me, can he? Maybe a blood sample? But... how would that even work...?"

I sighed and decided not to fret about it since it would help nor damage me. So once again I floated in the water for countless minute. The chain around my ankle thankfully didn't drown me at some random point in time and instead it let me stay a float with the water. And when the water finally reached above my head, I was pulled back down. I thought I was ready this time since I wouldn't waste my air in the first few seconds.

I was wrong.

When I reached at the bottom, I had a horrible headache and my ears were ringing. My eyes felt that they were going to pop out of my skull and it was hard to not just gasp in pain whenever my ears popped or the headache intensified. Then my will to hold my breath slowly started to dissipate. And much like the other times, I was at the point of almost drowning when the water finally dropped down and I was able to reach the surface. Once I had finally gotten enough air there was that stinging pain in my ankle again, and a bit of blood floated in the water.

The process repeated two more times before my ears started to bleed. And once more before I couldn't take it anymore and blacked out. When I came to it found myself in a different room with no water, thankfully. The room was considerably smaller and more of a grey than it was white. There was a silent hiss I heard from behind me and I looked back to see Nemu coming with glass of that same liquid from earlier. My stomach churned at the sight and my nose scrunched up.

Nemu kneeled down beside me and held out the cup. I wanted to turn away from the cup, but the fear of being punched made me reach out for the cup. I looked at the yellow drink in distaste and then looked up at Nemu as if asking if I really had to drink it. She stared blankly and waited patiently in response. I swallowed thickly and braced myself before raising up the cup and chugging it down. I dropped the cup once I was done and slapped both hands over my mouth while trying to keep the drink down. I didn't even realize Nemu was gone until Mayuri voice came in through intercom.

"Interesting drink, right?"

I glared up in the general direction from where his voice was coming from and wiped off the spit that escaped my mouth with the back of my hand.

"Interesting? It's flipping revolting! What the hell is it?" I demanded.

"Something similar to a steroid. It speeds up cell regeneration." He explained simply. "Any minor injuries will be healed in two minutes, but major injuries may take up to thirty minutes."

"So you're healing... so that you can injure me again?" I muttered in annoyance. Then there was a clicking sound that reached my ears and I looked around. On the wall to my right a small projector screen appeared.

"Do you recognize this?" Mayuri asked as an image flashed onto it.

I studied the image, but I couldn't recognize what it was. It was an image of something made of wood and shaped kind of like an apple that was bitten on both sides, but not quite. Starting from the top, there was something similar to a scroll shaped thing and then a little box with four rounded objects sticking out of it. From there there was a long black stick with four strings running across it and then it attached to the apple looking thing. There were two holes on each side of the strings that kind of reminded me of a cursive 'f'. There was another small piece of lighter wood where all the strings came over it and then connected to a small black thing with four little screws to it. On the bottom left of it there was another round black piece of wood connected to the thing with the four little screws on it.

"Nope." I replied with a shake of my head.

"What about this?" Another image flashed. This time it was of a long silver stick thing with several buttons on it. I shook my head again. "And this?" An image of a black circle with a stick connected it showed up.

"Am I supposed to know what these pictures are?" I asked.

"Not at all." Mayuri replied as the projector disappeared.

"So then why are you showing them to me?" I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"That's of no matter to you." He stated casually. "Now then, are you ready for the next test?"

I felt dread and a hint of fear settle in my stomach at the word 'test'. If it was anything like the last one, then I'd rather past. I shook my head unconsciously and Mayuri responded with a loud laughter. Suddenly, the ground started shaking and the walls collapsed, luckily the ceiling didn't, but I was still scared it would. I stumbled to my feet as the ground started splitting and rose to a towering height.

"How do you feel about mazes?"