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The ghost waited until they were seven before showing them how to escape. In the times he was able to make his voice heard, he made it clear that the scientists had enough of them to both turn a profit and amuse themselves–they were seven, and the others were three, and the originals were two.
They were seven, Yamato claimed, because they were defective products, in one way or another. Yamato and Sougo, for example, were the failed two of three attempts at raising an artificial human with its genetic relations, but Yamato had (according to the ghost; Dr. Tsukumo had very thoroughly excised his hippocampus of any recollection of it) ended up getting into a fistfight with his biological so-called father, while Sougo (again according to the ghost, after Dr. Haruki panicked and then entered into a (probably unrelated) feud with Dr. Osaka) ended up nearly revolutionizing the stock trading world before attempting murder.
The ghost often gave them gossipy tidbits like this, usually through Riku, who, due to his often-fragile health, was the best at communicating with him. In exchange, the ghost wanted them to find either the others (the successes three for which they were the failures seven) or the originals, who they actually had met before–the older one, Yuki, had snuck in back when they were just Mitsuki, Nagi, and Yamato, and had aggressively cuddled them all in such a way as to earn Yamato’s eternal wrath and Mitsuki’s eternal loyalty, and the younger one, Momo, had been breaking in and teaching them games for years. The ghost didn’t seem to care about that, though. No, he wanted the seven of them to start breaking out and meeting the others and the originals more often, and he wanted gossip.
At least, Riku said he wanted gossip. Riku was the one who had the easiest time speaking to the ghost. Everyone else saw him maybe once a week, and heard something from him once a month; Riku could always see him, if he was around, and could usually piece together most of what he was saying within a week or two.
The ghost was tall, Riku said. He wore scrubs, and his long blue hair in a ponytail with bangs falling into his face. Sometimes he had on the sorts of shoes the scientists wore, and sometimes he was barefoot. Once he turned up in very pretty pink shoes with a sort of raised back, even. Tamaki and Nagi had seen that, as well, and Nagi had needed to be dissuaded from begging Dr. Sakura for a pair of his own.
Nagi was Dr. Sakura’s favorite. The other six had been extremely jealous for a time, because Dr. Sakura was the one who had come up with the idea for names, even though Yuki had gotten to most of them first. It didn’t really seem to matter that Sougo was Dr. Osaka’s favorite, because Dr. Sakura and Dr. Kujo tore him a new asshole for even the slightest hints of favoritism towards Sougo (immensely unfair, since Dr. Sakura clearly favored Nagi) and then, about a year or two ago, he just stopped showing up entirely. However, the jealousy had all but faded when the ghost, in a stunning show of visibility and what might be misconstrued as power, had managed both to materialize to everyone other than Dr. Sakura and to introduce the seven to the concept of swear words, most of which were horrible and all of which were aimed at Dr. Sakura in specific. The seven typically based their impressions on people off of the ghost’s reactions, because they all adored the ghost unquestioningly and completely.
That took care of the jealousy problem, though Nagi still liked Dr. Sakura. This was marginally less important, though, than the fact that the ghost had just vanished halfway through leading Yamato, Mitsuki, and Nagi through the air vents in search of the others.
“We should go back,” hissed Mitsuki.
“No way,” Yamato murmured back. “One, we don’t know where we are, and two, the ghost was leading us somewhere. He’ll be back soon, if only to put us back on the right track.”
“The right track is our room. ”
“Well, we’re back there, anyway,” said Nagi, pointing down at the air vent underneath them. “Maybe the ghost just wanted to get us adjusted to the air vents! And maybe we can take the younger ones on a little trip, too, so they can learn about the vents!”
“We are not taking the younger ones on a tour of the vents,” said Yamato, even though Nagi technically counted as one of the younger ones in question. “Well, maybe Sou. But that’s it.”
“You’re not our boss,” said Mitsuki.
“Do you really think that Riku or Tamaki would be able to handle getting inside the vents?” Yamato pointed out. “Iori might, maybe. Or maybe he’d completely lose it and tell the scientists everything, and the ghost says that’s a bad idea. If they find out about the ghost, or that Yuki and Momo have been visiting us, we’re all screwed.”
Nagi began a ‘your mom’ joke, thought better of it, and carefully started unscrewing the grate over the air vent.
They dropped back down into the rooms without issue, but for whatever reason, they didn’t see the other four waiting for them. Presumably, the ghost would have made Riku aware that they were returning, so at least he and Iori should have been there, but…
“Oh!” Nagi said happily, twisting around behind them, “there you ar–Riku, why are you pink ?”
“Did you say Riku?” an unfamiliar voice said as the other two turned.
The boy standing there did look like Riku, if Riku’s hair was a pale pink rather than bright orange, and looked permanently as though he had a massive (as the ghost said) stick up his ass. He folded his arms and stared the three of them down.
“Who are you ?” asked Yamato. “And how did you get in here?”
“...Through the door,” said the Riku clone. “How did you get into the vents ?”
“The ghost showed us,” Mitsuki told him. “Who are you? And why are you in our room?”
“This is our room, and I’ve literally never seen any of you before in my life,” said the Riku clone, sounding incredibly offended.
“Who’s…’our’?” asked Nagi.
The Riku clone folded his arms. “The TR1GG3R experimental group. I’m TR1GG3R-T, and I live here with TR1GG3R-R and TR1GG3R-G. Who. Are. You.”
“1D0L15H-7-Y, 1D0L15H-7-M, and 1D0L15H-7-N,” Yamato said, gesturing to each of them in turn. “I think we took a wrong turn in the vents. I suppose you’re the others the ghost mentioned, then.”
“You’ve seen the ghost, too?” asked TR1GG3R-T. “R3V4L3-Y and M say that ghosts aren’t real, but the three of us see him hanging around pretty often.”
“We can even talk to him sometimes,” Mitsuki boasted. “There are seven of us, and 1D0L15H-7-R can see him all the time and can even understand some of what he says!”
TR1GG3R-T looked suitably impressed by this. “Did the ghost send you here?” he asked.
“Yes!” said Nagi cheerfully. “He led us through the vents and then vanished when we were just above you. Isn’t he splendid?”
“He’s never interacted with us that much,” said TR1GG3R-T jealously. “What do R3V4L3-Y and M say about how much you guys see the ghost?”
“We don’t actually see them that often,” said Mitsuki. “And we haven’t mentioned the ghost to them, because he wants gossip about them, and we don’t want them to know that.”
“ R3V4L3-M visits me all the time,” said TR1GG3R-T smugly. “He takes me to baths.”
“What’s a bath?” asked Mitsuki.
“It’s something to clean people, I think,” said Yamato.
TR1GG3R-T nodded. “It is a hole in the ground filled with hot water, and sometimes soap,” he said. “It’s really very nice. Sometimes he takes TR1GG3R-R or TR1GG3R-G, too, but he takes me most often.”
“R3V4L3-Y harasses me nonstop,” said Yamato. “In case you thought you had the monopoly on the original’s company. And R3V4L3-Y is the first artificial human, which means he’s the oldest with the most experience.”
“TR1GG3R-G actually lived out in the real world for a time! Even though they wiped his hippocampus, he still has that experience.”
“He’s part of your batch, that doesn’t count,” Mitsuki said immediately. “Also, 1D0L15H-7 is the failure batch, and we have two members who were attempts at living in the outside world. The ghost said that they both failed because they committed crimes. Has TR1GG3R-G committed any crimes?”
“Crimes are bad ,” said TR1GG3R-T.
“The ghost thinks crimes are cool ,” said Nagi.
TR1GG3R-T did not have a response for that for a few minutes, before he said, triumphantly, “I managed to convince the researchers to set one of us free in the real world, forever.”
None of the three of the seven could top that. Quite honestly, they didn’t think that they wanted to. For one of them –an artificial human– to live in the real world– it was like a dream. And TR1GG3R-T had had a hand in one of them accomplishing that.
“...Holy shit,” said Yamato, succinctly summarizing all of their feelings.
“What’s shit?” asked TR1GG3R-T.
“It’s a bad word. The ghost taught it to us, but he won’t say what it means. He uses it usually to describe Dr. Sakura and Dr. Kujo,” Yamato explained. “Apparently it’s something that you eat, if you’re an evil person.”
“None of the scientists are evil people! Especially not Dr. Kujo!” said TR1GG3R-T, horrified.
“The ghost says they are,” said Mitsuki. “Though it’s probably better than being bad, because when you’re bad the sessions are worse and you’re left alone after, and the scientists never have to do sessions at all.”
“Well, obviously, but the scientists are good ,” said TR1GG3R-T.
“They never get petted,” Yamato pointed out.
“Maybe they pet each other when we don’t see,” said Nagi reasonably.
This made sense to all four of them, and so they nodded seriously at each other like they’d seen the scientists do, and then the door opened.
They all jumped. Luckily, though, it was not a scientist at the door. It was instead Yuki, R3V4L3-Y, the only person any of them had ever met who hated Kujo more than the ghost did, though his opinion of Dr. Sakura was far higher than that of the ghost’s.
“Yamato!” he said. “Mitsuki, Nagi, why are you in here? It’s dangerous.”
“...We got lost,” said Mitsuki.
“Why are you here?” asked Yamato.
“Gaku and Ryuu are having an overnight session. They said Tenn might be lonely.” Yuki paused, closing the door and leaning against it. “You three shouldn’t be here. It’s dangerous.”
“What’s so dangerous about it?” asked Mitsuki. “We’ve had a nice conversation.”
Yuki folded his arms. “If the scientists found you, you would die horribly,” he said. “Or one of the others would and you’d be forced to watch. That’s what happens when you’re bad.”
Everyone was quiet for a moment as they contemplated this.
“No way,” said TR1GG3R-T, who was probably named Tenn, but who hadn’t introduced himself as such, so they weren’t going to call him that quite yet. “I’m a twin, which the scientists said was bad, but I’m less bad than my brother, so they gave me a pudding to bring him to a room and leave him there, and they let him go in the real world.”
“...They killed him,” said Yuki. He sounded like he was trying very hard not to seem upset. “They would never have let your twin go. They killed him because you two were being bad.”
“We weren’t being bad,” hissed TR1GG3R-T. “The fact that we were twins was what was bad.”
“So they killed him, and now you aren’t twins anymore,” said Yuki. “That’s how they solved the problem. So you know that they’ll do the same if they see this.”
“Then why do you and Momo get to go wherever?” TR1GG3R-T demanded. His voice was shaking, and his eyes were wide and wild, lessening his resemblance to Riku.
Yuki folded his arms. “Because we do as we’re told,” he said.
“So do we!” protested Mitsuki.
“How did you get in here if you do as you’re told?” Yuki asked.
Nagi raised his chin. “The ghost told us how to get in here,” he said.
Yuki’s face tightened, and behind him, the ghost suddenly appeared, toying with his long, silver hair, checking to make sure that it was the exact same length as his own blue locks. “There’s no such thing as ghosts,” said Yuki, even though the ghost looked at him, face both sad and resigned, before taking two strands of his hair and beginning twisting them around together.
TR1GG3R-T looked at the other three as if to say, are you seeing this? and Yamato rolled his eyes in exasperation as Mitsuki and Nagi smirked.
The ghost vanished again, though his hair continued twisting together, which meant the ghost was definitely still there.
“Ghosts are real and we have one,” said Nagi stubbornly. “He’s our ghost, even if he decided to do your hair for whatever reason.”
“Do my…?” Yuki ran his fingers through his hair, undoing the twist without seeming to notice it was ever there. “No he didn’t, because ghosts aren’t real, and even if they were, none would be here if they could be literally anywhere else, and if you’re dead, and if you’re a ghost, then you can go where you please.”
“He stays because he loves us,” said Yamato, folding his arms and looking away, as though the conversation bored him. “That’s what he says.”
“It didn’t say anything, because ghosts aren’t real ,” said Yuki. “Yamato, you’re five, you’re old enough to know better.”
Yamato, who was indeed five and finished with puberty, was unimpressed. “I’ve seen him,” he said. “He led us here. But, whatever, you don’t have to believe in him. What do you mean, TR1GG3R-T got his twin killed?”
“He left him
alone
in a
room
after they’d been bad and never saw him again,” said Yuki blankly. “That’s when they kill them. It isn’t Tenn’s fault. It’s just how things are.”
TR1GG3R-T turned away and stomped over to the other end of the room, near the bed and the shower and the toilet. “You should all leave,” he said, voice shaking. “Now, please.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” said Mitsuki gently.
TR1GG3R-T’s back tensed. “He isn’t dead, ” he said. “I wouldn’t do that to him.”
Yuki looked at him as though he understood and was deeply sad about it, and then started shepherding the other three out of the room.
Though none of them saw it, the ghost looked sadly over at Yuki, shaking his head, and went over to TR1GG3R-T, arms moving around him as though to give him a comforting hug, if only the ghost had substance.