To Live Again, For the First Time!

If what S3 said was true, then things wouldn't be looking all too good for them, as for the accuracy of her information, it wasn't a reliable source, no matter how you looked at it.

Though there were a lot of suspicious and mysterious things about the serum, which was also why it was not to be used on humans, the information from within should still have been from their data bass.

There was no way, or so he thought, that information could simply pop out of nowhere.

He was even more confused as to why this little girl was so confident about knowing something they didn't.

Yes, he had been listening in the whole time, and this was also why he had let F8 take the children, for an opportunity like this.

People naturally let their guards down around people like them.

If you were kidnapped and someone else was kidnapped with you, you are much more likely to open up to them in a short amount of time.

And this was exactly what happened here.

This was why he was all the more confused.

The professor could tell from S3's initial shock that she had not expected him to have been there eavesdropping, but then why did she say such words?

Did she think they were true? Or did she take F8 into account, thinking that even if he weren't here to listen in, F8 would end up telling him either way?

But then it wouldn't make sense for S3 to try to persuade F8 earlier about the watching as others were tortured.

Then, there was the other option.

The serum had a number of unknown side effects, and it may have very well been that hallucination was one of them, despite there being no hallucinogens. Don't do drugs kids.

It could also be that everything that S3 had said was just bullshit, that she was just messing with them, and so the professor had already made up his mind to extract the information from her using the most effective way he knew.

If worse came to worse, S3 was either telling the truth or she thought that she was. 

Then, they would always have to have their guards up, because he couldn't run the other risk. 

He couldn't run the risk of losing what could possibly be the only specimen as magnificent as S3 as he would find in his lifetime.

This wasn't something that could be done without careful consideration.

And the professor had thought it all through. Even if he died here today, he would at least have to torture S3 first.

He could simply imagine the look on her childish face, now that was something he was willing to die for.

There was no point dilly-dallying in this matter,  with that time, the professor could already go to work, which was exactly what he did.

High pitched grunts, that of a young child's, echoed in the room and throughout.

On the other side of the table, S3 was strapped up on there was a monitor. 

One that displayed the percentage of sync with the information injected and another with the brain activity of the subject at hand as well as the condition of every part of her body in both macro and microscopic levels.

Though the torture was painful, it didn't leave any physical marks, and though the level could be controlled, the monitors wouldn't let it get past a point at which the specimen would die from pain, heart attack, seizures, etc.

Monitoring all this through straps stuck throughout the patient's body.

These were high-tech devices that had been invented and constructed just in this laboratory, having yet to be released to the outside, even in this timeline.

If they were to be compared with what was available outside, they should be at least 3 to 4 generations ahead of their times.

As for comparing this to Emilin's timeline... even the best laboratories in Hé Continent wouldn't be able to touch upon this technology.

It would be likely that without Emilin's interference, they wouldn't be able to make prototypes in another 7 to 8 generations.

In other words, nothing could go wrong, right?

Well, that's what they had believed before the monitor started blinking in a red light that the professor was all too familiar with, yet that familiarity was also what scared the crap out of him.

That was the light he would only see once for every subject he worked with, the one that he would normally be looking at on the sidelines.

He was all too familiar with this light, so much so that he had thought that it wouldn't be able to squeeze another ounce of emotions from him.

Be it anger, pity, or even joy.

Yet here he was, now panicking because of the gleaming hue of the screen of the monitor.

"What is going on!"

"You can't die on me, I won't allow it!"

F8, who was on the sidelines watching the professor scream like a madman was also baffled.

He hadn't been able to leave since the professor hadn't told him to, and though he was slightly uncomfortable watching, he had no choice.

Still, he couldn't do anything he wasn't ordered to, he also didn't want to get into trouble for something he had nothing to do with.

And so, he just continued being the bystander that he had always been, the one that had been scolded by a young girl half his age, the one he was watching die right now.

F8 clenched his fists tightly.

How pathetically powerless he was, and yet he still dared to care about someone else when he himself was just barely getting by.

"Come on now!"

The professor had been frantically pulling cords while changing the plug of others. At the same time, he didn't turn his eyes away from the monitor that had been glaring at him this whole time, like a ticking timebomb.

The time went by, seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours, for everyone except S3 herself, who was already expelling cold sweat, some of which was dripping down the table.

1 hour later.

The professor was on the soaked floor, his ass unable to move from that very spot. 

The pool of sweat was not only the one that the professor had accumulated under his feet but also the one that had been dripping down from the table.

At that time, the F8 who had yet to do a thing since the professor came, not communicating, not moving, finally came to give the professor a hand, but not before giving S3 a second glance.

Nothing.

Her breathing was normal and so was her complexion, just slightly paler than usual.

So why did she almost die just there?

"There was no cardiac arrest, seizure, or any other problem with her physically, which means that it could have only been mental."

"And since our devices couldn't have done it, it has to be someone else..."

The professor had a tendency to talk out loud when he had to think things through.

It was speaking to himself as if there were another him there so that he would be able to bounce ideas around with himself, or more accurately speaking, to himself.

It was then that S3 suddenly slowly sat up.

The little girl was just as calm as she was before she had come inside the room, just as calm as when she had first confirmed that she would be tortured out of her mind here.

'Did it raise her percentage point?' F8 thought to himself, looking back at the monitor that had stopped blinking.

Looking at the score that had changed, F8 was completely stunned.

'What is this trash?' he thought, but he didn't say a word, realizing that the professor had yet to notice.

Instead, the professor's eyes were locked on S3, squinting as if assessing the situation.

"You knew, didn't you? You knew this was going to happen all along!"

The professor said incredulously.

S3 scoffed at the old man in front of her and his delusions.

Though she had looked exactly as she had before the torture used to stimulate her data assimilation, the moment she opened her mouth, both F8 and the professor knew that that was no longer the case.

"Do I look like a prophet to you? I hate to break that little thing in your head you call a brain with complicated words like these, but I'll tell you now."

"I. AM. NO. PROPHET."

"Did you get that?" S3 spoke as if she were talking to a 3-year-old.

'I knew that digesting more of this data may change your personality as a side effect... but isn't this a little too much? The old man was just skinned and roasted for being a moron...'

'I never thought I would think this, but I don't even feel like it's too out of place if S3's the one to say it either.'

F8 shook his head, that was not the point here.

The professor's face visibly darkened hearing S3's mocking words and just as he was going to retort, S3 beat him to it once again.

"I guess you would be too dumb to understand anyways. Humph!"

"I didn't predict anything, I'm the one that made my brain cells attack each other do you understand what that means?"

No... in fact, he really didn't understand what that meant, was he supposed to know what that meant?

Why did he suddenly feel this wave of inferiority... was he really just too young to get it?

'Am I really a moron as she said?'

He questioned himself while speaking to this young girl, whose age had yet to exceed the 2 digit mark...

***

Author's note: This is really getting longer than I had anticipated, I just can't help it since ideas keep flooding out, and I think if I leave you hanging on where the connections are, things may get more confusing than I would like them to be. So I guess just sit tight and enjoy. It won't be too long <3