Now, Nero understood that Choko was not bragging before; she was actually very good at giving massages. Nero felt so comfortable that she almost fell asleep.

“You’re getting sleepy. Do you want to stop?” Choko asked softly.

“No, I’m fine. Continue if possible,” Nero replied.

“Of course it’s possible. Just tell me when you want me to stop,” Choko said softly with a smile.

Before Nero knew it, she had fallen asleep. Choko, upon seeing she was asleep, carefully dressed Nero and placed her under the duvet.

While she slept, Nero dreamed of Nera once again.

In the dream another year had passed. During that time, Nera had spent most of her time in the underground cave because she was agitated before and was not looking to be cooperative. She only left the cell when she had experiments done on her.

Nera also managed to reflect during that last year, and she vowed to take revenge. But for that, she knew she needed strength. Alas, to accomplish this she needed to leave the cell and go back to the room they had her in before. There she would have more freedom and be able to think of a plan to get stronger and be like her older sister.

Thinking of her older sister Elsa and her parents, Nera couldn’t help but cry. After crying for more than 3 hours in a row, she managed to swallow her tears. She was still very young; it was inevitable that she would miss her family.

While she was sitting on a bed in the corner of the cell, she thought, ‘I remember that my sister Elsa was often sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed.’

Nera started to think about this. She figured her sister had a purpose for doing something like that. She idolized her older sister, so she figured she wouldn’t have done it without a purpose.

Nera tied her long black hair in a ponytail with a piece of sheet that she tore off, then she breathed long, steady sighs several times as she sat in a lotus position on the mattress. Even though she mimicked her sister’s actions, she felt nothing strange or different happen. But she did not give up; she continued to persevere.

Without Nera’s knowledge, she had continued all afternoon.

“Number 0!”

Hearing someone calling her, Nera stopped meditating. Opening her eyes, a different glow shined beautifully in them.

“What is it, Demon?” She looked towards the man with horns on his head while asking.

The man with horns on his head looked at Nera strangely, but said nothing in response. He just placed down a plate of food and a glass of water, and then left.

Nera raised her eyebrows, since she didn’t expect it was time for them to deliver her food. She had been locked in this place for four years. Even without a clock she knew instinctually what time they brought the food, but this time she didn’t notice the time go by.

“Does this have to do with what I was doing just now?” She wondered. After all, she wasn’t sure if it was because of this, but she decided to test it out later.

Nera came over and picked up the tray of soup and glass of water. Bringing it to the bed, she sat down, then she placed the tray on her lap and started to eat the soup that consisted of some vegetables and small pieces of meat.

Even if the soup had no seasoning, at least it wasn’t bad. Very quickly, Nera ate everything and drank the water. She always remembered her mother when she finished eating, since her mother always warned her to brush her teeth once she finished.

But here, she didn’t have the luxury of brushing her teeth. Nera was not without decent food, as the scientists wanted to preserve her life – especially since if dead, she would not be of much use to their running experiments in that damn place, but they didn’t much care about whether or not Nera had good oral hygiene. Because of that, she scraped the dirt off her teeth with her nails, and rubbed her teeth with her fingers.

The experiments were done on average once a week; most of the time it was just them taking a blood sample after making her drink some unknown drugs. Although she didn’t have any extraordinary changes in her body, it was not as if nothing had happened. Her vision got better and her hearing became sharper. She was also slow to tire, along with acquiring a regenerative ability.

But her captors didn’t know that she had such an ability. She managed to hide it thanks to a suggestion by her good friend Yui, because when Yui learned that Nera had this ability, she told Nera to hurt herself and not allow herself to heal so quickly whenever she got hurt. Nera would undergo even more experiments if they found out she had something like what she had. Yui, although young, had lived on the streets alone so she was more aware than Nera about how dangerous it would be the moment they found out about her new peculiarity.

Nera sat cross-legged again after she finished eating. Although she felt nothing different other than that time passed faster, she still wanted to continue.

It was unknown to her how much time had passed. Calmly, Nera blew out a long, heavy breath and opened her eyes. Feeling tired, she lay on the bed and then slept.

That night was different from the others. This time, Nera had no nightmares; she even dreamed of the days she spent with her family. Unintentionally, her eyes became wet with tears during her sleep.

“Mom! Daddy! Eldest sister!” she murmured, still sleeping.

–

“Number 0, wake up!” The next morning, Nera woke up to one of the guards calling out to her.

Even though she had already told them to call her Nera, she didn’t understand why they insisted on calling her Number 0.

The same old man with horns was in front of her. He held a tray and it had on it a blood-red pill and a glass of water.

In truth, this man was surprised that Nera was still alive. Many other test guinea pigs had died after she had already come here, but this girl was the first to live for so long.

“Swallow this medicine.” Seeing that she woke up, he spoke.

Nera rubbed her eyes, and then she took the medicine and swallowed it. Then she drank the water.

The man did not leave immediately. He stayed for 10 minutes. After this he asked her to open her mouth and show if there was anything inside. Seeing that she had truly swallowed, he left.

“Sigh~” Nera closed her eyes in pain. She felt a burn all over her body because of this “medicine”.

Nera knew she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. She stretched then went back to sitting on the bed in the lotus position.

-20 days later-

Nera was sitting on the bed in the lotus position as usual. Whenever she did this, she felt at peace. She even forgot all her problems; it became a kind of comfort to her mind. But this time it was different from the other times…

–

“Ahh…!” Nero woke up very scared the next morning.

Sitting on the bed, taking the cover off her, Nero started to shake while sweating profusely. Fear gripped her, as Nero was terrified that she was still in that macabre place forgotten by God that she had witnessed in her dreams.

_ _

– Drop some power stone, please <3

{Edited by: Azurtha}