"Are you sane now?" Runa asks, and when her friends nods, she takes her hand away from Harper's mouth.
"What's happened?" She asks, while tears are flowing down on her face. "You..."
Harper is silenced by Runa's appearance: she has tiny, soft, brown feathers along her hairline.
"I have on my arms, and back, and even in my buttocks. But I think my claws works better, than your horny things." She shows her hands, where she has thicker, longer, and harder claws are visible, than her fingernails were. "They are real."
"So we have become..." Harper starts to cry again. Runa sits down next to her, and hugs her shoulders.
"Yes. We are Chimeras."
"Why?" Harper cries.
"It is said, that we were running into an experiment in professor Rudra's laboratory. He and his students were trying to stimulate some cell culture to turn into chimeric cells, and turn them back with a new process. That's why the building was emptied. For security reasons."
"Then they could turn us back, couldn't they?" She looks at her friend hopefully.
"Unfortunately they can't reverse the process. There's is no cure for our condition."
"But the experiment… The cells..."
"They couldn't turn back 20 percent of the cells' condition. It is a failure. Again. It is a hard thing, and the experiments have been failed since the before times. So we are staying like this. I am sorry. I am sorry to brought you with me."
Runa also starts to cry. This time it is Harper, who hugs her, and together they start to cry all of their tears.
Meanwhile Kitchener is standing frozen in the middle of Uncle Daisuke's warehouse.
"What don't you understand?" Their neighbor girl asks him. "They are probably turned into Chimeras, by a university professor."
"Why?" He asks back still in disbelief. "They had just an errand, and the university doesn't allow dangerous errands since the snake case."
"They were in an errand in Rudra's laboratory yesterday, and yesterday two student were sent to the hospital from that building. They are the only two students, who are missing."
"But Chimeras..." Kitchener shakes his head. "They were made in the before times, not in our world!"
"Rudra is seems to be working on the cure. But his only result is that he could reproduce the procedure of making Chimeras from healthy human beings."
"In this case he should be close to invent a cure, shouldn't he? He just has to reverse the process."
All of the other people shake their heads.
"It seems, Rudra just makes Chimeras from humans, not in the reverse way." One of the men growls.
"Why would a professor make such a thing, when he couldn't cure his test people?" He asks, but somehow he already knows the answer. Just doesn't want to accept.
"He makes Chimeras, not the cure! Idiot." The girl cries to him.
"Why would anyone want to make Chimeras with will? There isn't any merit of making them. It just hurt and torture the Chimeras."
"Merit?" Uncle Daisuke snores. "If you want to know the merit, I tell you one. Chimeras are sold for good money on the black market. The more bloodthirsty, the more expensive."
"Black market?" Kitchener gulps. He has never known that black market is still exist. "It was in the before times… now..."
"It is still exist. Just like the arenas for fighters. But nowadays the stars are replaced by Chimeras. The violent ones survives, the weak ones dies. The attraction os very popular among the rich, and elite audience. But a simple person also could make a bet on the matches. I am mean anyone could take a bet which Chimera would survive. They are consumables. Hasn't your family brought you to one of these arenas? " The young man shakes his head. He is clearly in shock. Uncle Daisuke pushes Kitchener to a chair, and gives him a cup of tea. "So thanks to the hunting, the Chimeras, who were living are outside the walls, and around Tokyo become very rare. Wandering deeper to the outside world is too dangerous, so some scientists make Chimeras form the people, who lives inside. Big money, with a simple process."
"If your cousin and girlfriend have became ones, they are in danger." The girls states simply.
Kitchener jumps up, and wants to run, but the biggest man pulls him back to his seat.
"Where do you plan to go?"
"To the hospital, of course!" Kitchener cries, and tries again. "I have to know this for sure!"
"And? What do you want to do after that?" The smaller man asks calmly.
Kitchener becomes completely desperate. What would he want to do? If Runa and Harper has been made to Chimeras, nobody would let him peacefully bring them home. Even if his father helps him. But would their family really help them? A Chimera in their pure-blooded, rich family? They would throw away Harper, or better they sell her to the arenas, just to get rid of her. The black spot on their clean, envied family. A single teardrop slides down on his face, and the next moment Kitchener starts crying. Loud and heartbreakingly, like a child, who lost everything.
The men and the girl don't console him, just simply give him time. They know, that this situation is sincere, and heavy and they have already seen this many times. Sometimes they could help, sometimes they couldn't. But everything is depends on that young man, who is sitting on the floor, crying.
The minutes turn out to be hours, when you are in a hospital, and you can't do anything, just relaxing and healing. Runa and Harper are lying on their beds, and string at the ceiling. The sun is setting down, and they have time to figure out their situation during the day. They have already realized that they can't stay where they are, and their only option is to escape from the hospital. Chimeras can't live inside the walls, and Harper's family won't help them. They had enough time to find their daughter. Nobody came to see the them. Not even a doctor. But their room is designed to prevent any escape. It is like a prison. They get meals, but the frightened nurse was just barely push the cart with the food into the room, and closed and locked the door immediately.
"We can't go toward the hall, so the only way is through the looking glass!" Runa smiled at the tensed Harper.
"How could you make a joke from this? We are in deep trouble!"
"I know. I have heard the nurses. They obviously treats us like monsters. So, before the situation escalates, we have to escape from here. But this doesn't mean, that you should be suicide because of our condition. It doesn't hurt, does it?"
"No. But the window's glass is made of security glass, so it won't break!" Harper says, and starts to weep again. "And what will we do after escaping?"
"I am going to the outside, and find my family. Would you come with me?" Runa's wide smile makes Harper to gain some self-confidence, and smiles back. She doesn't mention, that Runa's whole family is probably died, because she hasn't got a plan either. So Runa's plan suits to the non-existent requirements. "So, find something, which could do some damage to that glass!"
Darkness fell over the world, when the search is ended up. It seems there is no way out from their prison cell. Even Runa has desperated, so sits down next to the weeping Harper, and tears flows down on her cheeks too. They could do nothing, but watching the almost full moon.
But that moon suddenly draws out a rope and a man's silhouette. And one more, and another one. They stops at the window of the girl's prison, and sees through. The most slim man waves cheerfully to them.
"Kitchener?" The girls cry out, but the man waves them to be quiet.
The three musketeers put three suckers onto the window, and cut around with a diamond pen. After they pull out the glass, Kitchener waves to the girls, to come. They are pulled to the roof one after another. The three men carefully, but fast glue back the glass to the frame, and they also returns to the roof.
"It is not so terrible!" Kitchener says relieved, after he take a good look of the girls.
"Don't be so lovey-dovey, we haven't escaped yet!" The fourth black silhouette hiss for them.
They are sure not escaped yet. The way through the hospital would be dangerous, so the team choose to climb on the trees. One after the other. The branches are cracking under their weight, but the old trees are hiding them from the curious glances. Runa gets along surprisingly well with jumping from one tree to another, but Harper needs assistance. Her transformation is not meant for the treeclimbing. Kitchener and the girl try to help her, but in the end the big man gives her a piggy back ride. He is a strongest one among them, and he has enough energy to soothe the frightened girl. Three streets later a tilt truck is moving towards them on the road, and all of them climbs up in a second.
"Let's take a breath!" The girl says, flash a weak light and gives them a metal flask.
"Tea?" Runa asks in surprise. The smell of the mineral oil, and the various metals reminds her a certain someone. "Uncle Daisuke?"
"Yeah." The smaller man answers, and he is drinking some from the flask, then pass that on to the next passenger. "It went rather smooth, didn't it?" He grins to them. Harper is clinging to Kitchener, quietly crying, but the other Chimera girl seems to be alright.
"Where we are heading?" Runa asks.
"To the wall." The girl in black suit answers. "I tell you the details of the plan."