Nullus could feel it again.

That creeping feeling in the back of his mind that he was not himself. He was not this creature they had made him into. He was not Nullus. "Nobody", his name meant. How generous of the scientists to give it to him.

He was somebody, he thought as he rolled on his thin mattress to face the cold, white brick walls of his room. His cell. His cage. He wasn't always in a cage. In this facility where they stabbed and sliced and hurt and tested.

He could see it, if he squeezed his eyes shut tightly enough. He thinks the formless blobs in his maybe-memories are family. Children? Friends? A wife? He didn't know. But he thinks that the man who might be him, maybe isn't him. That guy didn't have weird hair. He didn't have claws, tails, and scars.

He wasn't in a cage. He wasn't a half-failed prototype. Nullus was.

He had another feeling that the scientists would somehow rid him of his maybe-memories of his maybe-family if they knew he was seeing them. Maybe they'd done it before. If they could make him into this kitsune monster thing, he bet they could erase his memories as well.

He didn't want them to take that away, the last thing that proved he really was somebody. Not "nobody", not "Nullus", and not "Subject K1H01".

He was ripped from his thoughts by the sharp sounds of his cell door opening. He hated the sound of the unlocking mechanisms and the scrape of metal as it slid and allowed them inside. Scientists.

Or, at least one. Always the same one.

He rolled back to face the scientist breaking him out of his blissful dissociation. "Don't tell me I'm due for more tests already, doc. I'm still hurtin' from yesterday's. Can't I get a break just this once? I'm a person too, y'know."

He wouldn't dare admit to the doctor that he didn't really believe that. He just needed a way to spare his aching, bruised body from the poking and prodding. He thought he might actually die this time if they tried any more experiments. He hoped this was just another after surgery check-up.