The child is forced to walk with the scientist under the trees of Ishikawa's forest.
Not riding a car or a bike, just walking, and yet with no chains, as if the scientist knows he wouldn't run.
The sky is dark, with the shiny, glowing moon centering the night. The child is walking as if he lost the ability to think about where he is going. He's just following the scientist, with no knowledge of where he is or where he is about to be. The scientist's face is blurry and dark. The child can't even see who's dragging him into this cursed life, and he doesn't know that this is just the beginning...
His body is fully exposed to the outside world, with no clothes except a pair of pants covering his lower body.
Too... cold... it hurts my... lungs... why...
The child breathes in a very short pace with a cracked voice. And finally, a laboratory appears in the middle of the forest surrounded by large and tall trees everywhere.
The sound of the forest whistles through the way. The soft snow falls slowly over the woods; the start of the month in December is very quiet. Heavy with the falling snowflakes.
The scientist invites him inside as if the child had the choice to leave anyway; his mind is gone entirely, else to even think of any other option.
And the sharp scent of the laboratory hits his nose like a blow. The first thing he sees is an experiment room filled with knives and weird-looking tools. The scientist enters the next room, leaving the child in the main hallway, just staring through the glass where the experiment room is.
"Are you okay?"
A voice suddenly emerged out of nowhere, making the child jump at the sudden question. He turned around to see who it was and found a girl standing right beside him, wondering why he hadn't entered the next room yet.
"Hi! Oh uh... did I scare you? Didn't mean to do that... you just looked a bit lost, so I came here to help you... You know. help?"
The girl muttered with a slight warmth in her voice. On the other hand, the child was shocked by how she looked. A girl, standing right in front of him, looked very beautiful to him. And the child was just shocked to see the first female he had ever seen in his life. His isolation never meant to meet a girl like this. The only faces he'd known were meant to be pain, but she looked different.
"Heyy, why are you so shocked like that? And don't be so quiet; did the monster eat your vocal cords?"
She chuckled and leaned in to take a closer look at the unnamed child, making sure that everything between them was fine for a first meeting, sizing him up, satisfied he wasn't a threat.
"Soo, I'm Liora, and for you~ you can call me Liona if you want~ I'm a lion after all (rawr)."
She teases the child who's barely standing on both of his feet, and she takes a closer step.
"What's your name?"
She purred, waiting for his answer on her toes filled with visible excitement, when the child wasn't even aware of what was going on.
"Uhhh... I don't... Have a... Name..."
He choked, his eyes darting between her face and her voice, trying to understand if any of this was real or just another trap waiting to spring.
The girl chuckled again at his confused answer as she took a step back just to give him a little bit of space to think.
"Well, that's a trouble. How could I call you then? Is it fine if I give you a name instead?"
She gave a suggestion so casually he jumped back a step, trying to process her words properly. The weight of this question made him trip on his own bare dirty feet and fall on the ground, not hard enough to hurt but enough to wake him up for a moment.
"Well... I... I don't know... if you... want to... I guess...?"
He swallowed too hard as he tried to stand up by himself until she gave him a hand, a hand that felt like an angel handing over her blessing on a cursed child.
"Zeka... I'll name you Zeka from now on..."
And for the first time, the child's eyes went wide open, as if lightning just struck him mid-conversation. He hesitated to accept her help, watching her tilt her head, waiting for him to accept the hand and the name.
And he finally let it happen; he accepted her hand and stood up in one smooth motion.
Zeka. He repeated it in his head, afraid that saying it out loud might make it disappear.
And Liora seemed happy about it; she made a new friend and also gave him a nice name, probably a random name she picked- that looked cool on him, so why not?
"Okay, Zeka! We should reach the main room now before the scientist gives us some weird punishments. He said he'll tell us a story too!"
Liora added with a playful tone as she grabbed him to the next room where the scientist went through. And Zeka just followed her, not prepared for the next speech.
As Zeka and Liora entered the room, another four children were sitting on the floor waiting patiently for Liora and for the new child. And the scientist was there. His face still looked blurry and dark to Zeka; he wasn't sure if he was the only one who saw the scientist this way.
All eyes land on both of them once they enter the room, giving Zeka a shiver down his spine; it was the very first time he'd seen other children his age in the same room. And once both finally sit down, the scientist starts his 'story'.