Murasakino

Waking up

   I opened my eyes quickly and suddenly, but had to shield them from the glaring lights. Wherever I am, I thought, surely there doesn't need to be this much light? I felt a tingling sensation at the back of my eyes, and rubbed them hard with my hands. There was a glass screen in front of me, and it seemed to be the front of a small capsule I could only just fit inside with my arms stretched in front of me. Outside it was a corridor with not much in it but a line of pipes and cables along the cornice of the ceiling. The wall was coated in white tiles, the floor in a blue tiled pattern. I looked around my capsule and it contained nothing more than a tiny red circle at the back. I wasn't sure what it was, and tried to look at it more closely. Suddenly, a surreal thought occurred to me; I knew what my eyes and hands were, I knew what a corridor and tiles and the colour blue were and I knew what a glass screen was, but I had never seen any of them before. I had never opened my eyes or moved at all before, let alone learned what everything was, so how did I know what they were?

   I gently tapped the circle with my fingertip, just to see if it reacted in any way. At first it did nothing, but then made a bleeping sound, which I realised was also the first sound I had ever listened to. It flashed four times, and the glass screen slowly slid upwards into the top of the capsule. I could now get out of it, but since I didn't know where I was I started by just sticking my head out. I became aware that I was inhaling and exhaling, and when I touched my wrist I felt blood moving through the veins and arteries. I noticed my long, black hair trailing down my purple shirt until it reached my chest. The air in here was cool, and smelled clean and fresh. Looking to my left I saw the full length of the corridor, and that it looked the same until it came to an end around ten metres away with a single door. It looked similar to the one on my capsule, but translucent so I couldn't see through it too well. The wires and pipes continued through the wall to a different place, but I turned my head before I tried to imagine where or what that place might have been.

   Glancing to my right, I saw four capsules that were identical to mine. They were all closed, but occupied; each one had a black haired girl inside it. They all looked exactly the same, but their shirts were different colours. They were stood still, eyes closed, slowly breathing in and out. Then I heard a voice from my left, and turned to see the man it had come from.
   "Good morning, Murasakino!" he said, a jolly smile on his face. His white coat made me think of a doctor's outfit, and I wondered how I knew what a doctor was. More interestingly, even though I had never seen him, I knew that this smiling man was Dr Takeda, and that he owned a section of a large laboratory in the city centre. Many scientists owned parts of it, and I had just woken up inside the part owned by Dr Takeda.
   "Good morning, sir," I replied, surprising myself by being able to speak English. "So, is my name Murasakino?"
   "Yes," he answered, "and these are Aka, Ao, Honōiro and Midori." He pointed to the girls in the other capsules as he said their names.
   "Did you make our shirts?" I asked him. "They look very nice."
   "My friend Cathy made them. Each shirt's colour matches each girl's name; Aka is red, Ao is blue, Honōiro is orange, Midori is green and Murasakino is..."

   "Purple!" I smiled, but then I said something whithout even meaning to, the words just coming out of my mouth; "Sorry. I am not permitted to interrupt." I covered my mouth in surprise. "What was that?"
   "You will automatically apologise if you interrupt, swear or insult someone. I can turn it off if you like."
  "I would like... turn it off? What do you mean?"
   "I mean I can deactivate it, stop it from happening."
   "But how?" He walked slowly over to me.
"I made you and your sisters in my lab, which means you are robots. You are not real humans, but you have all the senses a human has. Is that okay?"
   "Well, if it is what I am, then it is okay," I replied. Being a robot was the obvious reason for being in the capsules, and I was fine with whatever I was. "Does that mean I look the same as them?"
   "Take a look in the mirror! There's one in that room." I walked over to the door, knowing immediately how to walk without tripping or falling. As I was looking for a button or handle, I looked up at a red circle similar to the one in my capsule, and as I did the door slid upwards to reveal the next room. It looked similar to the corridor, but with a work table, presumably Dr Takeda's, and a sink with a mirror.

   I walked over to the mirror only to see what could easily have been one of the other girls looking at me. I reached up to touch my cheek, and ran my fingers down my hair. My eyes were purple, like my shirt and name, and I realised that I looked similar to Dr Takeda himself. In fact, if he had had a daughter, my appearance was probably what she would have looked like. I turned the handle on the tap and felt the water on my hand, but suddenly turned it off again, slighlty worried.
   "Does water do any damage to me?" I asked Dr Takeda, who had just entered the room.
   "It does not," he replied. "I must tell you that your sisters are waking up now, and it would be lovely for you to greet them."