The worst type of scientists were the ones who kindly smiled down at you even when they plotted cruel experiments behind your back. Kinuhata Saiai was sure that she'd seen every type there was, so she was sure that she hated those the most, even compared to the socially awkward ones and the emotionally detached ones.

Of course, as far as she was concerned, all scientists were smelly old sexually repressed men who wore white coats in an ironic juxtaposition to their true black souls. But that fact was separate from her actual feelings toward them. She didn't hate them for what they did. She hated them for how them did it.

And to whom.

"Go ahead, Minami. It's okay."

Kinuhata prodded gently in a low voice, trying to hide her exhaustion. There was no telling how well she did at this, since she knew she was panting slightly, but she kept up her brave front for her own sake.

The girl standing a couple meters away from Kinuhata responded to Kinuhata's reassuring words by shaking her head violently. She looked as if she were on the verge of tears, her entire body trembling as she struggled to keep her knees from buckling underneath her. She had her hands raised, palms facing each other with a single metal sphere no bigger than golf ball hovering in the air between them. Kinuhata's hands were empty and she wore nothing but an oversized shirt that extended down past her knees. The two girls had smudged of dirt and a few scratches all over their body that they got from the many hours they'd spent standing in these spots, falling semi-regularly.

Kinuhata cast a furtive glance behind Minami, gauging the expressions of the scientists sitting behind a glass wall, watching the two girls with pitiless expressions. From what she could see, they were getting impatient. Minami wouldn't be able to stall for much longer.

"You only have to do it one more time. Just do it and get it over with."

"B-But if I do that, Saiai, you'll—"

"Don't worry about me. I'll get back up just like all the other times. Or are you doubting whether my ability is stronger than yours?"

"N-No! But I still—"

"Just do it, damn it!"

Minami was surprised when Kinuhata suddenly snapped at her. She made a pained expression as she finally brought her palms together, as if clapping once. The ball that had been hovering between her hands vanished so quickly, one might mistake it for teleportation.

"Shi—!"

Kinuhata swallowed another accidental curse word as she realized that she was too focused on the ball's position and not the timing. She instinctively hopped back to try and buy herself more time while mentally willing her 'shield' to activate.

She felt a blunt strike connect with her small stomach and knock the wind out of her. Since she was in the air at the moment of collision, she sailed back a few feet before landing on her back, continuing to slide a few more inches before coming to a stop. Kinuhata's teeth ground together as she tried to endure the pain in her gut, but her mouth still opened to let out another expletive.

"Damn!"

After a few more seconds of regulating her breathing and waiting for the pain to subside, she rolled onto her side and pushed herself off of the ground. Looking over to Minami, she saw her friend sitting on the ground, bawling her eyes out as if she were the one in pain instead.

"S-Saiai cursed at me again! She said she'd stop, but she did it again! I knew she'd hate me after hurting her so much!"

Kinuhata frowned as she felt some guilt grip at her chest. She hadn't meant to yell at Minami, even if it would get her to hurry. After they spent so long staring across at each other with empty stomachs, Kinuhata had just found it difficult to stay calm.

But Kinuhata didn't have time to worry about that.

"Minami, don't sit like that! Bring your knees up! You have to put you head—"

"Saiai-chan, would you please not approach her just yet?"

Kinuhata froze in midstep as a calm, yet firm voice echoed through the empty room. Her eyes immediately found the scientist sitting at a desk speaking to an intercom. His eyes were on Minami, reflecting expectant curiosity. Kinuhata bit down on her lip as she struggled with herself, forced to choose between two different priorities.

In the end, she choose to stay where she was, fists tightly clenched as she busily hated herself fiercely.

"Uuuuhhhh…..UUUUUUHHHHHH!"

Minami's sobs abruptly stopped short and turned into methodical heaving. Her eyes widened and her entire body stiffened, almost as if she were going into shock. Kinuhata averted her eyes, but she could still hear the painful sound of Minami heaving, keeling over as she gripped her head with her hands tightly.

Any scientist who could smile down at a child and tell them everything will be fine, then do this to them wasn't immoral or cruel. They were psychotic.

The Dark May Project was one of Academy City's many attempts to 'advance toward the future'. Specifically, it was a long term experiment to create multiple level 5 espers identical to #1 by giving children the cognitive powers of the strongest esper and seeing what happened. The reason why such a project was long running was because the results varied too much. The test subjects/victims all had various personalities and circumstances that made it hard to believe they'd all gone through the same process, though the same could be said for all espers in general.

In order to understand these variants, each child was carefully supervised and put through several trials. There were several different cases among the children, such as one who suffered from a perpetual migraine, and so was locked away in a dark room all day and night. Another was delusional, believing himself to be some kind of hero. There was even one in particular who was a delinquent/villain hybrid with a downright horrible personality. Even Kinuhata herself showed some signs of being affected by side-effects, though she felt that she was nowhere near as bad as those examples.

If the #1 level 5 was the parent function, all the children in the Dark May Project were effectively transformations of that. So whatever mental issues the original had were likely to reappear in these young test subjects, albeit warped.

"Saiai, are you mad at me?"

"Idiot. Do I look mad?"

Minami simply responded with a half-hearted smile. She was leaning against Kinuhata for support as they walked through a hallway, following a path they'd pretty much memorized. Minami still had her hands pressed to her head, as if she were keeping it in place that way.

"Whenever I cry, you usually follow by getting mad. So I've started expecting it."

"Wouldn't it make more freaking sense if I was mad at whatever made you cry? Idiot."

"You cursed again. Didn't you promise to stop?"

Kinuhata had no response to that. While 'freaking' may not have counted as a curse word to most people, it still functioned as an expletive. In the end, the debate about what counted as a curse word was irrelevant, since all contenders still functioned in the same way. If she tried arguing with Minami about it, she was guaranteed to lose.

"Are you feeling good enough to take a bath?"

Kinuhata asked this question as they entered the bathroom. There were quite a few of them scattered throughout the facility so the children could use them when they had the opportunity, though this was fairly representative of how screwed up the system was. The children were expected to be independent enough to take care of themselves with minimal aid, which was only true most of the time. People like Minami would have to rely on others to help them get through the day or else be forced to figure it out on their own.

Some were lucky. Some weren't.

Minami shifted nervously as she glanced down at the running water as Kinuhata turned the knob to fill up the tub.

"Can we go together?"

"You want to sit together in each other's filth?"

"You're not that dirty! Besides, I'd feel better if you're nearby. I might have another…attack."

That crestfallen look wasn't playing fair.

Kinuhata sighed heavily as she swiftly pulled over her oversized shirt, tossing it aside. After checking the water's temperature, she motioned for Minami to get in. Minami smile gratefully as she obliged, slipping into the tub so she was submerged up to her chin. Kinuhata followed after her, splashing water up thanks to her careless movement. After settling at the other end of the tub, Kinuhata stared right a Minami with appraising eyes.

Her color was horrible. Her skin tone was off, so anyone would get the impression that she was sick. As far as build went, she was thinner than the average girl at her age. It looked as if she was suffering from some disease, so Minami would garner kindness and pity from anyone she met. Her slightly ditzy personality certainly didn't help that fact, which was why Kinuhata was reluctant to leave the girl alone. And after that last 'attack' she'd had…

"What's wrong, Saiai? You have a really serious look on your face. Are you really okay? Don't tell me it's from all my attacks earlier?! I knew I hurt you!"

Kinuhata didn't respond to that. Her eyes focused on the hands that were still gripping Minami's head, keeping it in place. The headache was long gone, but the girl insisted on the eccentric pose when she wasn't using her ability. This was the reason why Kinuhata had bullied Minami for the first weak that they'd met. What she was afraid of was anyone's guest. Her neck wasn't weaker than any normal person's, so it was probably just for comfort or a nervous habit, like biting your nails or spinning a pencil between your fingers.

Kinuhata reached out for Minami's hands, as if to pry them off. Minami recoiled immediately, twisting her body in a protective manner. Kinuhata ignored this and pinched Minami's cheeks, pulling them apart to transform the girl's face into something ugly. Minami was stunned by this, unable to resist since her hands with both occupied.

"Waaat aaaw oooo oooiiing?"

"You must feel real confident if you're going to try and tell me your shit weak ability managed to break through my defense. Do I have to remind you that you're the weak one who needs to be protected by me?"

"Ooooowwww, my guuuuummmssss!"

Kinuhata reluctantly released Minami's face, letting her try to massage her cheeks with the inside of her arms. She looked stupid doing it, but Kinuhata chose not to comment.

"You cursed again." Minami whined with a hurt look on her face. "You keep breaking my promise."

"I can't just stop, okay? It's part of my speech pattern. You might want me to stop, but it'll take more than a pointless promise to force me to change."

"It's just that habits are hard to break. They're easier to break if someone helps you through it. I'm your friend, so just ask me to help you out, okay?"

Kinuhata paused for a moment while looking at Minami with a straight face.

Then she looked away with a depressed look.

"I must be really pathetic if you are offering to help me."

"Saiai's being mean again…sniff sniff."

After recovering from another insult, Minami tilted her head to the side so it rested on one hand as she reached out her other hand to grasp one of Kinuhata's, pulling it out of the water.

"How about this? We'll replace the expletive with something less harsh. Every time you want to say a bad word, you'll get in the habit of using a different word."

"…That won't solve the problem."

"It's a start! If you say something like 'pretty' in the place of any curse word, you'll sound a lot nicer, don't you think?"

"'Nicer' is not the image I'm going for. The other kids will stop fearing me properly if I start saying 'you're such a pretty idiot' or 'stop prettying up'. I can't have them losing respect for me—they'll get cocky."

"Eeeeehhhhh~ But it's cute, like you."

"Pretty isn't cute. It's freaking feminine."

Minami just pouted, apparently so set on her suggestion that she was unwilling to think of a new word for Kinuhata to use. Kinuhata thought for a moment before shrugging indifferently.

"How about why just use your given name?"

"'Chou'*? Oh, so that works, but not 'pretty'? I think we're going to have to stop seeing each other based on creative differences."

"Really? That's super fine by me. You can super bathe alone."

"Ah, no! I was just joking! Saiai, waaaiiiit!"

Kinuhata ignored Minami's pleading as she hopped out of the bath while soaking wetting, deriving some pleasure in Minami's panic. She was still moving to pick up a towel when she heard voices just outside the door, quickly approaching. Kinuhata hesitated for a moment while glancing back at the flustered Minami and made her decision quickly, moving as fast as lightning.

The door opened to let two boys inside. They were chatting casually, but they cut off abruptly as they realized what they had walked in.

Kinuhata stood before them with her arms folded tightly across her chest. As far as they could see, the bath tub behind her was still warm and a towel had been draped over it.

Panic filled both of the boys' eyes.

"Oh no. The tomboy."

"RUN IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!"

These over the top reactions annoyed Kinuhata far more than being seen naked. She pulled the towel rack off of the nearby wall and chucked it at the door mercilessly, missing only because the two boys were already running as if the devil was hot on their trail.

"YOU ARE SO SUPER DEAD, MAKI! YOU AND YOUR SUPER FATASS NEED TO LEARN TO KNOCK!"

"Why are you just blaming me?! And what's with all the 'super's?!"

"Geez, Saiai! You still used a bad word!"

The day finally came for Minami to be treated for her horrible mental spasms. Kinuhata could finally breathe knowing this. The researchers had let the problem escalate for a while out of sheer curiosity, but even a kid like her knew that Minami would die if she wasn't treated soon. As far as Kinuhata could tell, Minami was probably rejecting the brain patterns that had been forced onto her. Much like how the human body would reject an organ it doesn't recognize, Minami simply wasn't compatible with the #1's brain patterns.

Kinuhata was somewhat curious as to why this case wasn't more frequent—one would think that there would be more failures than successes—but she chose not the dwell on it. As long as Minami recovered, she didn't really care about what else happened.

This happy thought sent Kinuhata skipping down the corridor so giddy, she might have hummed if it was within her character to. This made it easy for anyone passing by to see the maximum amount of her legs thanks to her decision to wear another oversized shirt again, but since the only person unlucky enough to cross her path (poor Maki) had received a heel to the temple before he could even see anything, everything worked out.

"Hm? What's up, 'honor's student'? Why so damn chipper?"

Kinuhata came to a stop as a coarse voiced called out to her and she turned to see that she had just been passing by the infamous detention room. The term 'room' should be used loosely, since it was more like a really small closet with a clear door. It was meant to be uncomfortable, so the only thing within its high walls was a single metal chair. The room was so cramped, an average size adult would suffer from claustrophobia just from standing, so the chair really just served to subtract more space from the already limited area.

The occupant of this room had such a thin frame, the fact that the room was meant to be cramped didn't even register with them. They could casually sit in the chair and tip it back so it stood only on its back legs, propping their feet up against the clear door in a relaxed position. It made it incredibly easy to see the ugly sneer from this short distance, making Kinuhata shudder.

"I don't think super strangers should be asking personal questions."

"Hey, hey, Kinuhata-chan. Don't be that way. We're all friends here, aren't we?"

"First of all, don't super use words you don't understand. Second of all, who gave you the super right to add 'chan' to my name?"

"'What's with the 'super', Kinuhata-chan? Normally you just use some shitty curses to try and get up in my face. Have you gone soft?"

"You really like to super ask personal things the super wrong way…"

"Is it a new phase? Picking up new habits? Oh, are you starting on the chuunibyou phase early? And here I thought you would be the sporty type."

Ignoring whatever the other party said and moving the conversion at your own pace, as usual…

"Stop asking super stupid questions. Are you trying to make conversation because you're super lonely all by yourself in there?"

"Exactly, I'm lonely Kinuhata-chan. So how about you break a rule or two and get sent in here with me? I can do your nails, if you want."

As if to make a point, she showed Kinuhata her nails.

By 'show', that was to say that she waved her middle finger in provocative manner, leaning back a bit to make sure Kinuhata could see her sticking her tongue out with a miserable expression.

Kinuhata flexed one hand, making a fist as she considered smashing through the door and throttling the girl. Kuroyoru Umidori didn't get along with anyone, so it was doubtful that anyone would miss her if she happened to die in a freak accident.

While she felt inclined to, Kinuhata decided against it. Violence was exactly what Kuroyoru wanted her to resort to. So she let her fist relax and turned her back to the detention room.

"Hope you super die of boredom."

"Sure thing~ Though that pet of yours will probably die before me. Want me to say hi to her in hell for you?"

SLAM.

If Kinuhata didn't pull her fist back at the last moment, she likely would have punched right through the door. As it was, she pressed her knuckles against the cool Plexiglas as she leaned forward, glaring right into Kuroyoru's eyes. Kuroyoru smirked as she dropped her feet, letting her chair slam onto its front legs as she moved her face to be just a few inches from Kinuhata through the door.

"So now I have your attention? I guess Minami Chou really is the only fucking thing you let yourself care about, huh?"

"What do you super know about her?"

"I don't know shit. I've never had the chance to talk with her."

"You're super right you haven't. You're the one person I never want her to meet."

"Yeah, thanks for that. Bright, cheery brats like that make me hurl. She's the type who would be picked off by natural selection on day one. She wouldn't be able to survive in the real world at all. Do you think that's why she clung to you? Hm? Kinuhata-chan? Out of pure survival instinct, the weak herbivore latches onto the scary king of the jungle in order to prolong its pathetic life. And you tolerate it. This shit's hilarious, you know?"

Kinuhata's teeth ground together as Kuroyoru insulted her friend to her face, but Kuroyoru didn't seem to care. The dark haired girl continued spitting out horrible things with sneering indifferently.

"You know, Kinuhata-chan, I hate you. I mean, really hate you. But you still get my respect, or else I wouldn't waste my time and energy hating you. Which is why I really don't understand why you hang out with that weak ass little shit. Is she there to hold you back? Do you want someone normal to keep you in line? Are you actually afraid of becoming me or something?"

"You're super right about that. Becoming you would be hell on earth. I'd commit suicide if someone ever called me by your name by super mistake."

"Ouch."

"Minami is my super friend. If you know something about her, I won't hesitate to super smash through this door and force the information out of you. So answer me, you super gothic freak. What's going to happen to her?"

"A totally natural thing, Kinuhata-chan. She's going to die~"

Everything was going to hell.

That was what Kinuhata thought as she faced the crowd of men in protective suits, each one carrying a two pronged pole that extended for about two meters. They were literally an armed guard meant to force Kinuhata into submission if she went ballistic. They stood between her and the door that Minami had been taken through earlier in the day. The plaque on the door said, in clear capital letters; "PRODUCE".

Both of Kinuhata's fists clenched together as she glared at the man standing among the armed soldier, wearing a lab coat and looking completely at ease.

"Sugane…"

"You should be calling me 'Dr.' Sugane, but since you're my favorite, I'll let it slide just for you, Saiai-chan."

The fact that this man who stood as the second highest authority of the Dark May Project referred to her in the same manner that Kuroyoru did was enough to cement Kinuhata's hatred toward him.

On the other side of that door, unspeakably horrible things were being done to innocent children. Kinuhata hated herself for her stupidity. Of course there were failures in the Dark May Project. She just didn't get the chance to meet any of them because they were cleared out before they could ever get the chance to intermingle with the 'successes'.

Any city would look clean if the garbage was disposed of and recycled properly.

Kinuhata didn't care about the other pieces of garbage. All she cared about was her treasure that had been thrown out by accident.

But there didn't seem to be any way to get to it. The hopeless situation made Kinuhata think back to Kuroyoru's words through a haze of red.

"If you're going to do something stupid, how about you let me out of here? I can kill all those fuckers no problem. Otherwise, even if you do somehow save your pet, they'll just take her away again next chance they get."

Of course, Kinuhata refused. There was no way she was going to strike a deal with that dark pit of despair. She'd sooner count on the devil. In fact, Kinuhata was about ready to make a contract with a demon—it was better than letting her friend be ravished by a bunch of musky old men.

"I don't mind if you take her back."

Kinuhata's thoughts stopped.

As soon as she was able to process the sentence properly and get its meaning, she gave Sugane a disbelieving look. Sugane's casual demeanor didn't change as he continued.

"I don't mind if you take her back, but only if you can offer me an alternative."

"…Alternative?"

"You're smart for your age, so you should understand. Minami Chou is going to die. I don't mean that as a definite 'we will kill her', but rather, 'she'll die either way'. It's a natural rejection by her brain in response to the incompatible foreign brain patterns we implanted with her. There is no 'cure', per se, as it's a natural phenomenon. Using her esper power will just gradually make it worse. We can't take out the brain patterns we added, either. They've mixed together, you see, so it's basically a homogeneous solution. However, if you can offer a way to save her life, you're more than welcome to share it—no, I insist that you do. It would be quite the scientific feat."

Of course she had no alternative to offer. Even if she was smart for her age, she wasn't even in middle school yet. There was no way she could have intimate understanding of neuroscience, to the point where she could brainstorm a way to save her friend's life.

Sugane's meaning was clear. Minami was going to die. In one case, she would die and that would be that. In the other case, she would still die, but her sacrifice would be calculated and carefully observed, so it would benefit science for the future. It was obvious which the preferable case was.

Both were the fault of these men. No matter what reasoning you used, the buck would stop at these adults. They chose to implant the innocent girl with another person's thought patterns, so of course they were to blame for Minami's pointless death. If there was divine retribution, it would come for them. If Minami returned to haunt anyone, it would be them. If karma was being sent out in the world with this inhumane treatment, it would go around and fly right into the face of these adults.

But Kinuhata didn't care.

Blaming the people who were clearly at fault wasn't going to save her friend's life.

The feeling of utter helplessness was almost mind-numbing. Kinuhata felt her body relax for what must have been the hundredth time that day as she gave up. If she did something stupid here, she'd only make Minami's death pointless and ruin her own future. Kinuhata would never forgive herself for such a stupid mistake.

"That's why you're my favorite, Saiai-chan."

Sugane motioned for the armed men to stand down. He took a few steps forward and kneeled down in front of Kinuhata with a kind smile on her face. Kinuhata averted her gaze, trying to smother the hatred burning in the pit of her soul. Sugane cupped her chin between his fingers and gently forced her to look in his direction.

"You're logical, despite your age. That's why you show great promise. I am positive that you'll be the greatest success in the Dark May Project."

Yes, of course.

At the expense of 'failures' like Minami Chou.

"Couldn't do it, eh?"

Kinuhata came to a stop as she ambled through a familiar corridor, only now realizing where she was. She turned slowly to look toward the detention room whose inhabitant had called out to her.

There was an unnaturally strong contrast between the empty, detached lack of expression on Kinuhata's face and mocking amusement on Kuroyoru's face.

Kuroyoru leaned forward in her chair as she adopted very boyish posture, looking positively giddy.

"I knew you wouldn't. You probably thought something like 'it would make her death meaningless', or some other bullshit. And I bet that bastard Sugane told you that it was the logical thing to do."

Kuroyoru leaned even further forward, pressing her forehead against the clear door as if to push right through it. Kinuhata continued to gaze emptily at the dark girl, unable to care about anything she said.

"It's not logical. Do you really think a normal person would have made that conclusion? Do you think a normal person would have come to a conclusion at all in that incomprehensible situation? Especially you, who knew full well that this sort of thing was happening, but chose not to care until now because it only affected you this time alone. You have this weird bubble around you, Kinuhata-chan—anything outside of it can burn to hell for all you care, but everything inside gets a 'must be protected status'. And as soon as you realize you can't protect that something on the inside without endangering yourself, you use twisted excuses like 'it's for their sake' to push that one thing to the outside, all to maintain your weird stability."

Kuroyoru shook her head back and forth, snorting incredulously.

"And now you'll live out the remainder of whatever life you have, pretending that the girl's soul lives on in you. That's really some hilarious—"

"Shut up. You're super annoying."

Kinuhata's tone was cold enough to freeze over hell. Even Kuroyoru fell silent, stunned by the lack of emotion in Kinuhata's voice.

Kinuhata continued while staring at Kuroyoru with an empty gaze.

"Bubble? Stability? Soul? I don't care if you want to super make things up, but don't expect me to go along with them. I'm all that's super important. I cared about super Minami because I felt like it. That's all there is to it. I don't need a lecture from a super delinquent from you. Minami is dead. If you want to super put some importance in her name despite that, go ahead. It's not like you super have anything else to do in that detention room."

"Oh, scary, scary~ I might get frostbite. You act tough, but you—"

Kuroyoru never got the chance to finish her sentence. Kinuhata turned on her heel and walked away indifferently, leaving Kuroyoru behind. Kuroyoru's smirk remained frozen in place, but the hellfire that burned in her eyes made her feelings clear.

Just one more grudge to add to her list.

...

Well met, fellow Raildex fans. As you can tell, this is a story centered around the Dark May Project-basically Kinuhata and Kuroyoru's past. I have a few ideas in mind, but I haven't decided whether to make this continuous just yet. So for now, thanks for reading what I've managed to put together thus far.