Love Hina - Nijuuhachi Hi Ato

Prologue

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~ First Day ~

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Tokyo University

5:32AM

Fall

"This is the lab." One hushed voice spoke out.

"Okay." A rustling of keys and a keyboard being typed was heard in the moonlit basement corridor. "We have access."

"Roger." The first spoke into a radio transmitter on his chest. "Unit-02, any sign of the guards?"

A female reply came back swiftly, but whispering, "Guard One has fallen asleep in the observation booth thanks to doping. Guard Two is around the other side of campus."

"Meet us at basement level C, room 13. We are entering." The man ordered.

"Roger." Came the reply, again quietly.

Clicking off the radio the man turned to his partner, "Open it."

A small hiss followed by a smooth metallic scraping was heard as the door slid open. It took the men a few moments to adjust to the light in the room, it being focused on several objects there. Walking towards the far end of the room, they saw several glass cases, the cold only let condensation be seen, hiding the moving objects behind them. The shuffling came louder as the men walked by the containers. Finally reaching it, they arrived at a small room. Walking in the only door visible they approached something resembling an operating table and gazed upon what the creature was viewing.

Blood. Death. Wars. Shooting. Nuclear blasts. Bombs.

Turning to one another they were bemused by what the images were about. They followed heart monitors and their cables down towards the yellow skinned, green shelled turtle that sat there, latched to the table being forced to watch these viewscreens.

"What the…" Said another person.

The men turned to the door to see a white coat against the bleak surroundings running to a wall where a phone was hanging. They ran to him.

"Security, we have a breach in Sector C-13 request backup and immediate containment team…" The phone was hung up by one of the men.

The scientist swallowed hard, "I know who you are."

"The Japanese Animal Liberation Movement." The second man confirmed.

"Well, I know your intentions, but you cannot free these animals!" He shouted, trying in vain to get the attention of a guard.

"Why not?" Asked the first man, "Why is that turtle watching such horrid images?"

The scientist was continuing to mumble on, "… so in order to find a cure, you need suitable subjects to test…"

The first man shook him hard, slamming him against the wall, "Look, I asked you a question. What is wrong with these animals?!"

The white-coated man paled slightly, "They're infected."

"Infected?" Said a woman, one of the two from Unit-02, "Infected with what?"

The scientist swallowed again, "Rage. Pure unadulterated rage. From the moment they hear a voice, they will do all in their power to kill that person. They think of nothing else…"

"Nonsense!" The second man said, "I've never heard anything so insane in my life!"

"Your guys hold him while I release them." The woman said, walking to the nearest cage around the corner.

"No! You don't understand, they'll kill us all!" The men held him back, but he was desperate to stop her.

Removing a chain cutter from her backpack, she sliced through the locks holding the door shut, and swung it wide open. She smiled seeing the cute little turtle looking at her.

"Hi there." She said.

The change was immediate; the black eyes now turned blood red, its mouth opening to reveal decaying fangs, as if it had been eating raw flesh constantly. It flew straight at the woman, shocking her backwards a little, but too late to stop it from biting into her neck.

"YAAAAH!" Her scream pierced the walls of the room.

"Etsuko?! What's wrong?!" Cried the man in her unit, running to her side only to see her throwing down a dead turtle, its neck snapped. She was having some sort of fit, going through convulsions constantly.

He held her, "Calm down, it's okay now." He smiled, only to recoil in disgust as she vomited blood into his face. "AAAAAH! You got blood on me!"

"What's going on over there?!" The leader shouted, releasing the grip on the scientist, now moving with urgency to a nearby table. "Where are you going?" The leader shouted.

"They're changing! It spreads by blood!" He shouted, rounding the corner, the chair raised above his head, "We have to kill them now or…"

A pair of red eyes focused on him and the woman formerly known as Etsuko made a high pitched scream and launched at him, with deadly accuracy, ripping into his chest. As she began biting him, her team-mate was also convulsing behind her, opening his eyes to stare at the leader who gazed at the scene in utter horror, knowing that he had just unleashed something evil before his vision became red with blood.