Ichigo Kurosaki silently sat at his desk in his office, just waiting for something to happen. He had an exciting week, testing new and improved technologies, or forcing other people to test them if he thought he'd die. He was right most the time. But now it was Sunday, and nobody was there. Everyone was at home, spending time with their friends and families while he had sit and wait, just in case another experiment required extra research or testing.
Maybe he could go talk to Rukia, one of the guards at the International Research Center. The two had been best friends since sixth grade. Back then, she actually called him "The most hansome nerd she ever met." which was something she still called him to this day.
Ichigo finally started to doze off. His eyes slowly closed and face-planted into his desk. Someone burst into his office and shouted, "ICHIGO!"
"What the fuck?! Holy shit!" Ichigo yelled after being disturbed away from hsi peaceful sleep. He saw Unohana standing in the doorway with an excited look on her face. Ichigo let out a long sigh, "What? What do you want? Can't you see I'm sleeping?" he asked annoyedly.
Unohana had a smile that stretched ear to ear, "This is way more important than sleep, this is my greatest experiment EVER!" she said almost jumping with joy.
Ichigo kept a blank face, "That's what you said about the last thirteen experiments, I mean seriously, you were excited over the solar powered curtains." he said recalling metal curtains that opened and closed with the push of a button. It ended up heating the testing room to oven tempatures, and killed the two people inside.
"Oh but this really is my experiment ever! Come on, come on!" she said grabbing his hand and trying to pull him out the door with her.
"Alright." he said lazily, finally deciding to get up and follow her. She let go to let him follow her at will. He grabbed his flashlight, just in case there was a power outage. In case you were wondering, Retsu Unohana was the co-head of the Research and Development section of the International Research Center. The other head was Mayuri Kurotsuchi, but Ichigo knew Unohana better, since she always came to him for experimentation.
The Experimentation room wasn't to far from his office, since he was there half of the time he was a the Center. They saw Rukia standing in front of the door to the Experimentation room. She stepped to the side to let them through. "Unohana, Ichigo." she said with a smile and gave a salute to Ichigo. Each guard had an all black uniform with bullet proof under casings that he invented, and were armed with m-16's and had night vision goggles at their disposal. The arms on their uniforms had stikes to show their rank. Rukia was ranked Sargeant.
Rukia stopped Ichigo before letting him in, "I had to help get that thing in there, prepare yourself for a mind blowing." she said with smile before letting go in. He moved the double doors aside and saw a strange, large cylindrical tank filled with a strange clear turquoise liquid. As he walked closer he could make out a person in the tank.
The person had a mask with tubes that led to the top of the tank. "Agh, what the hell, Unohana!" Ichigo shouted when he realized that the person in the tank was a woman, and she had no clothes on. He covered his eyes and blindly walked next to Retsu. "Why doesn't she have any clothes on?" he asked angrily.
"She's been growing in that tank for months now!" Unohana said in excitment.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me?" he asked confusedly, since he was always the first person she told about new experiments.
"It was a secret, but I've come to a problem that I can't solve myself." she answered with an upset look on her face.
She finally got his attention, "Well, what is it?" he asked.
Unohana smiled, happy she caught his interest, "Masamai here has been bred to be a perfect soldier. She is currently being filled with every bit of knowledge we can find so that she will be as intelligent as me and possibly you. When she is given all of that knowledge, she will be ready for her release from the tank. The problem with her is that she won't comprehend why humans do some of the things we do, she'll only veiw the world logically and won't have emotions, unless you teach her about the world."
Ichigo just looked at her with an almost dumbstruck face. "So basically I have to teach somone about wh we do stuff how she's supposed to feel about certain things?" he asked sarcastically.
Unohana nodded her head, "Yes."
Ichigo gave a long sigh and took a peek at Masamai. She had pale white skin and light, greenish-blue hair. He returned his attention to Retsu. "So you can simaltaneously grow and educate an artificial human, but you couldn't find a way to put any clothes on her?."
"I was to excited to think about it." she answered. Ichigo just rolled his eyes. "You can check on the temperature of the chemicals there." she said pointing at a machine just below the tank. A thermometer on it showed the chemicals to be 98.6 degrees farenheit. "If it rises above or drops below 98 degrees, sound the alarm, the handle below the thermometer."
Ichigo looked at the handle in question. It was blue and had a glass casing around it. "So I just break the glass if I need to pull it?" he asked. Retsu nodded. "What, no mini-hammer?" he said sarcastically. Unohana giggled at his joke.
"She'll be in there for a few more days, but when she's ready to come out, the time meter at the top will go off." Unohana pointed at a blue meter at the top of the tank. The blue light almost stretched to the end of the meter.
Ichigo looked up at the meter. "So when the light reaches the end, she'll come out, right?"
Unohana nodded. "Judging by the current progress of the meter, we have three days before it opens."
Ichigo looked at Masamai and quickly looked away. "So I get to spend time in this room, alone, with a naked woman? My dream has come true." he said with a perverted smirk.
Unohana rolled her eyes and headed for the door. "Be sure to check the chemical temperature once every four hours, you can do whatever you want during your spare time, or you could just... sit... in here... with Masamai... you perve."
Ichigo laughed and followed her. When Ichigo came out the door, he was met by Rukia, "So what do you think, is it weird or what?"
"I'm just pretty damn impressed she made an artificial human. I mean who did she get the DNA from to make her?" he asked.
"She told me that she got it from a randomly selected citizen, she took a blood sample from a woman in the southern districts of Tokyo, and then used the DNA in it as a replacement for sperm." Rukia answered.
"She made a person out of blood?" he thought to himself. Suddenly there was the sound of metal hitting tile.
Rukia's eyes widened and she grabbed Ichigo's shoulders and forced him and herself to the floor before yelling, "Get down!" as her gun hit the floor.
Rukia covered her head with her hands and Ichigo terrifiedly asked, "What?! What's going on?!"
"Grenade!" Rukia shouted in horror.
Ichigo made a confused face and looked at the floor where they were standing. A flashlight was laying on the ground. Ichigo tapped her shoulder to get her attention, "Rukia, it's okay, it's just my flashlight." he said. Rukia looked at the flashlight and gave sigh of relief. "It must of fell out of my pocket." he finished as the two stood up.
"S-sorry." she said nervously.
"Damn," he said picking up his now broken flashlight, "that war really did a number on you, didn't it?"
"Yeah." she responded. He could see she was shaking slightly. Rukia joined the army after high school because her parents couldn't afford college. During with the entire war with China, she had bullets, and missiles fly by her, and not one of them put a scratch on her. Her luck changed during a raid on an enemy base. She and her squad had made it into the main building when an enemy grenade landed at her and her friends' feet. Before they could react in time, the grenade went off. It left some nasty scars on her right leg and shoulders and a smaller one just over her left eye, but worst of all, it killed the rest of her squad. The trauma of the experience left her always on the lookout for anything that looked or even sounded like a grenade. Luckily for herm she was moved to the more comfortable position of International Research Center guard.
"Soo... how many chinese soldiers did you kill?" he asked trying to change the subject.
Rukia picked up her gun and pulled up her sleeve to show fourteen cuts on her arm. "I killed fourteen of the poor bastards, and I cut myself for every one I killed."
Ichigo looked confused. "Why would you cut yourself for killing the enemy?" he asked.
Rukia put her sleeve back down, "They may be the enemy, but they're just like me. They had no choice but to join the army, and they were unlucky enough for my bullets to hit them. Every day I killed , I cried and prayed for their souls."
Ichigo put a hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eye, "Don't beat yourself up over what you had to do. It isn't your fault a nice girl like you had to end up in such a cruel war." he said reassuringly.
Rukia smiled and the two hugged. When they parted, she had a light blush on her cheeks. "Thanks Ichigo."
Ichigo smiled, "I'm the one who brought up the subject. I gotta go do what I can before I have to come back and check on Masamai." he said before walking down the hall and waving.
When he made the turn to the next hallway, a certain someone started walking next to him. "That was a touching moment, Kurosaki."
"Hey, Soifon." Ichigo said plainly to the captain of the guards.
Soifon tapped his arm with her elbow and asked, "Why'd you have to bring up such a sensitive subject with the poor girl? You know how many friends she lost in that explosion? Six, SIX! That's a record."
"Sorry, my flashlight fell and she freaked out." he said to the petite killer. She achieved her captain rank by showing her military combat skill. She helped in the raid of the same military base as Rukia. She had to carry Rukia to a medic.
"Well you could of taken the conversation in a different direction, you know." Soifon criticized.
Ichigo laughed, "If your so goood with words, why don't you become a politician?" he asked sarcastically.
She rolled her eyes, "As if. And besides, I'm not into the kind of nerdy shit your into... you nerd." she snorted.
"Hey, don't forget that it was this nerd's invention that kept the sniper bullet from putting a hole in your chest." he said, reminding her another raid she went on. The new bullet proof underside armor was issued just before the raid. Any other armor would have left her bleeding out.
"Yeah, but it didn't keep the force of it from shattering my chest plate. I was in the ICU for weeks, and then I had to let it heal for eight months before I had to come here." she yelled.
"You aren't exactly a 'glass half full' person are you?" he asked with a smirk.
Soifon laughed and said, "No, I'm also the person who killed the guy that gave me my half empty glass of water. So what's up with, uh... Mekamai?"
"Masamai." Ichigo corrected, "She's supposed to be a "perfect soldier", believe it or not."
"They better not replace me with one of those." Soifon said, thinking of an army of those souless things.
Ichigo rolled his eyes, "I'm sure they cost to much to make an army." he said reassuringly.
"Good." she said under her breath.
Ichigo gave an annoyed sigh, "And I get to check on her in... three hours and fifty minutes, and then every four hours for the next three days." he said before walking into his office and shutting the door.
Soifon stared at the door for a moment. "What, no goodbye?" she said to herself before continuing down the hallway.
Ichigo sat in his chair, thinking to himself, "So she based on the DNA of some random woman in town? That'll be a wierd day when I meet her." imagining Masamai and the woman meeting face to face. "And I get the long road of teaching someone about life. Great, more work for me!"
He set his wrist alarm to go off in three hours and fifty-nine minutes before quietly laying his head on his desk and falling asleep. You can't blame him for sleeping on the job. After all, it was past midnight.