Viridian: The Green Guide

Chapter 67: Legacy

Ogawa could feel other people inside his head and it was the weirdest sensation he'd ever felt. He saw them sometimes, in the long hours where he slept between sessions with the doctor, dark shadowy figures with glowing eyes that didn't know how to react to him, just like he didn't know how to react to them. As weird as it was, though, at least it made the whole experience less lonely. Kumo seemed to think the same thing, considering he wouldn't' stop asking questions about them.

He heard Kumo roll over and take a breath and just knew that he was going to ask something else ridiculous, "Have you tried talking to them?"

"They don't talk." Ogawa rolled his eyes. "They're just there. I don't know how to explain it and, honestly, I think I'm getting better at ignoring them. I can hardly feel them at all if I'm not thinking about them."

"Do you think they're getting weaker or are you just getting used to it?" Kumo sat up. "Or do you think that they're integrating into you?"

Ogawa couldn't help laughing, "What? You think that they're becoming me or something?"

"More like you're becoming them." Kumo's eyes shone with excitement and curiosity. "Because your quirk changed when they showed up, right? What if that's a part of them?"

"Um..." Ogawa paused. Something about that felt right somehow, but he couldn't put his finger on why exactly. "You think that my quirk somehow mixed with theirs or something and that's why I can feel them?"

Kumo shrugged, "I mean, maybe. And if your quirks combined, your personalities might blend together too."

"Because that's not creepy at all." Ogawa swallowed nervously. If Kumo was right, was he even him anymore? If not, then who was he? He didn't know anything about the people that these monsters had forced into his head! What if one of them was pure evil or something and all that work he'd done in the redemption group was all for nothing. What if one of them liked to hurt people and he got out of here only to try and hurt his friends. "I...I don't think I'd like that."

Kumo shrugged, "Well, until then I guess you've got live-in friends. I'll try not to be jealous."

Ogawa laughed, "Jealous that I have other friends or jealous that they live in my head?"

"Why not both?" Kumo grinned and laid back down. "Who knows, maybe I'll get some live-in friends of my own."

Ogawa frowned. From what Kumo had told him, he'd mostly just been there while other prisoners came and went from the cell next door, but shortly after Ogawa had woken up with the other people in his head, the doctor had started dragging Kumo away to have sessions of his own. The first time had been terrifying because Ogawa thought that their captors had somehow just gotten bored of his cellmate and they were going to get rid of him and he'd never see him again, but he'd come back, unconscious and in pain just like Ogawa had from his first session.

Ogawa had thought his own sessions would stop after that, since apparently whatever they'd tried to do was successful, but instead the torture had simply changed gears. Before, the pain had come from whatever drugs they gave him, but now the pain seemed more like a punishment. It was almost like they were training him just like someone would train a new puppy, except for the fact that they used torture instead of a spray bottle. Ogawa didn't know why, exactly, but he knew that the doctor wanted them to be obedient.

He laid down onto his back and stared at the ceiling of his cell. Between the training and the other people in his head, it was only a matter of time before he lost himself completely. He needed to get out of here before he wasn't him anymore.