#reorg

CHAPTER 1

A young child and his mother are walking at the park, hand in hand as a gentle breeze pushes on the child lightly. Tall green pine trees swayed along the child hopping from side to side, landing on the brick pavement with a thump.

The young child stops in his tracks and lifts his head, raising his arm straight up to the sky with his pointer finger to something that appears to be floating.

"Mommy! Look, a bubble!" The child exclaims to his mother.

But the mother grabs his wrist, gently yanking it to face her instead. "Vic! You shouldn't ever point with your finger, okay? Do this instead."

The mother extends her arm with her palm open to the bubble's direction. "See the glowing ball in the center of the bubble? It means it's someone's soul."

The child named Vic looks at her, his head tilting to the right "Soul? Why is it floating?"

His mother crouches down to his level, a gentle smile on her face "Because that soul is going somewhere very far away. You'll also go there one day, mommy too."

Vic's mouth stretches into a smile, "Will me and mommy go together?"

His mother's smile faded slightly, "Not together, but we will see each other when the time comes."

The child's head lowers "Why can't mommy go with me?" His hand was tugging at the hem of her shirt.

His mother stands up, still holding onto his hand. "Mommy will tell you later at home after your nap, okay? Come on, it will be dark soon."

"Awh... Okay.."

The mother and son walk together, going in the direction of their home while discussing what they should eat for dinner when they get back.

A man around his early-twenties sits down at a grey couch, his weight making the soft cushions on the couch dip slightly even with his slender frame. Another man sits on an arm-chair across from him, holding a folder with papers, with only a glass table separating them. There were no windows but curtains were draped on the beige walls for an aesthetic appeal, a wooden desk located on the back of the room and a black office chair paired with it.

"EN[1]: 1649, Victor, is it?" The man seated on the arm-chair says.

"Yes, that is me." Says the man on the grey couch, fixing his glasses.

"Great. Nice to meet you. I am Levis, the supervisor for this research team. Today, I will be telling you the goals of this organization and your role for this team."

Levis places down the folder of papers on the glass table in front of them.

"As you probably already know, our goal is to find a way to resurrect the dead. We have yet to achieve that but we discovered that maybe, if we are fast enough and arrive before it pops, we can capture the soul and return it back inside the body."

Victor raises his eyebrow. "But what if the person's body is beyond repair?"

"Then we will let the soul pass peacefully. We do not intend to use this method on everyone, especially if the subject's body has been greatly affected by aging and no longer able to contribute to our society."

Victor just nods at the answer, but a lingering thought remains at the back of his head. What a strange way to call the elderly.....

"To continue what I was saying, once we find a way to resurrect the 'dead', rest assured that it will only be used on the young who have much to live for. You will learn more things along the way the more years you stay."

"I see... so only for the wellbeing of the youth..." Victor mumbles to himself.

"What was that?"

"No, nothing. Excited to start working with you." He puts on his professional smile.

"Hm. Alright. Your first job is to assist Team leader Reylee, EN: 0271. They are located at the laboratory on the 23rd floor, that is your current working station. Welcome to the Return Research Organization."

Victor stands up, nodding his head once. His finger lifting his glasses. "Thank you, have a nice day."

As Victor was about to step out of the room, he hears a voice call out to him.

"Wait."

He twists his upper body to look back at Levis.

"Yes?"

"Have you ever considered getting contact lenses rather than using those glasses?"

Victor removes his glasses and looks down at it. His vision was rather blurry, making him only be able to see the overall shape of the object, but not the entirety of its details.

He wonders why he kept the same glasses for the past 4 years and hasn't gone out even once to get his eye grade checked again.

He puts his eyeglasses back on, turning his body to fully face the man.

"Well, I have considered getting eye contacts before, but I have no intention of using them. I find using glasses more convenient."

"Please reach out to me if you do decide to change your mind, I specialize in tools created for the eyes. Here is my business card."

Levis stands up and walks to Victor, reaching his hand into his pocket and taking out a white card with letters colored in gold. Victor takes it from him, taking a look at it before putting it into his back pocket.

"Thank you, I'll contact you if I do change my mind. I'll be going now, thank you once again."

Victor walks out of the room, the door automatically shutting behind him with a click.

"Now.. 23rd floor, huh.."

Shhff... the sound of an automatic door opening is heard.

"Victor, TS[2]-206." an ambiguous voice says.

Victor flinched at the sight of the very ambiguous person standing behind him, he was looking through the blood test results on a large hologram monitor right before that.

"Rey, at least make some noise before you speak.."

Rey rolled their eyes. Slamming a small pile of papers onto the counter.

"Information about the test subject is written there."

Victor picks up the papers and scans through the information.

"Hm..."

Victor chuckles upon noticing the name of the scientist assigned to the test subject.

"You didn't even change it to my name. Look, it still says in the assigned scientist 'EN: 0271, Reylee.'"

Rey snatches the paper from Victor's hand, taking a pen and then crossing out their name and replacing it with Victor's name.

"Done, fixed it."

They shove it into Victor's chest and storm off, going into their office which is already overflowing with papers and files.

Victor lets out a sigh, They should ask for help more often...

He looks at the paper once again with the name of the test subject. "Location: B12"

Basement 12, I wonder how many TS's I had were held there... He brings his stethoscope, which was already considered outdated and "inaccurate" but he still chooses to use it rather than the current upgraded version called stethoski. He also brings syringes for drawing blood, along with the document about the TS.

Victor stands in the middle of an elevator, watching as the floor number changes.

The elevator stops at floor 9, perhaps to pick up another researcher. The elevator doors open, revealing a woman with 2 long black braids and brown skin.

"Good morning." She says with a smile as she steps inside the elevator.

"Good morning." Victor replies, his eyes moved down to look at her name tag attached to her labcoat. The metal door closes and the elevator continues to go down.

"Beatrix..."

The woman jumped slightly, "Y-yes?"

"Oh... Nothing, I just never seen or heard your name before. Are you a new recruit?"

"Oh um... I've only joined last year and I work at the 9th floor so that's why you probably never heard of me."

Victor raises an eyebrow, 9th floor... What was that for again?

"Psychology department?"

"Yes, that's right! Though there are only a few members, we are in charge of monitoring the mental state of the TS 24/7."

"24/7? How do you do that?"

"Well, we implant a chip into the test subject's brain and then it connects to our database which measures the subject's brain waves." She says in a chippy voice.

Victor internally shudders at her explanation.

"I see..." He says while trying to keep his voice steady. How can she act so chippy while talking about cutting into somebody's brain and putting a foreign object into it....

The elevator stops once again, but it seems to be someone's destination rather than a pick up.

"Oh! This is my floor, have a nice day!" Beatrix nods her head once and leaves, the door closing behind her.

Victor crosses his arms, sighing. Such a short interaction, but we may never see each other again so It doesn't really matter....

He continues to watch the numbers change on the elevator screen until it reached his desired floor.

"B12, doors are now opening." A robotic woman's voice plays through the speakers.

The large steel door opens, revealing a long white corridor.

At the end of the corridor, there is a room with one-way mirrors. The inside is visible from the outside but the outside isn't visible from the inside.

With the bundle keys he always carries with him everywhere, he inserts the correct key in the keyhole, turning it to unlock the door.

He pushes the door open, his gaze immediately meeting the person inside. A man with unnatural white hair and blond highlights.

His eyes remained locked onto his emerald green eyes.

"Set a reminder in two weeks." Victor speaks into his smart watch.

NOTES:

[1] - EN stands for "Employee Number"