"Some of them were virgins, but they all agreed to this."
- Kagami Mikage, Ayashi no Ceres episode 20
"You know, you don't act like a scientist. You're more like a game show host."
- Sigourney Weaver, Ghostbusters
Ayashi no Ceres is sometimes a story about exploring the profound mysteries of mankind. Who we are, where we came from, and what that makes us today. Under the veil of a simple teen romance, love clashes with logic, faith clashes with theory, and magic clashes with science in a mature, brilliantly woven metaphor.
This is a story about exploring Aya.
The two Tennyo descendants ended their fight once they reached the Mikage International compound. Ceres hovered a few inches off the floor with an oval-shaped aura surrounding her body. Miori, still posing in a form nearly identical to Ceres, was propped against a wall covered in debris and small bruises—wounds from a battle lost. On all sides they were surrounded by gunmetal grey. The room had more in common with a fallout shelter than any office in a pharmaceutical building.
Miori's hair shrank to its human length and color as her powers waned. Ceres' glow faded as she landed just in front of Miori.
"Stop this at once. Aya doesn't want to hurt you."
"You crazy bitch!" Miori screamed back. "My whole family is dead because of her! I can't even have a decent life with Touya with her around! Do you think just saying 'She didn't mean to' is going to change all of this?"
"None of this is about her," Ceres replied sadly. "I take responsibility for what happened that day. But if your parents were still here, would they really want you to place all of your hatred on your own cousin? Or would they want you to do the best you can to leave the past behind you and move on to a better life?"
Miori's anger slowly faded as she considered the celestial maiden's advice.
"Maybe you're right…"
She painfully started to get back to her feet. Ceres walked closer to help her.
As soon as she was close enough, Miori sprung her trap.
Her face contorted into an expression of crazed monstrous jealousy. Her hand reached into her pocket and flashed out a hidden syringe. Her eyes turned gold for a few extra seconds, exerting the last of her dwindling Tennyo power and giving her enough strength to stab the metal point through Ceres' invisible natural aura. The needle punctured the back of her blue jumper and sank deep into her left rear flank like a vengeful fang.
"Try this for a better life," Miori sneered.
She hastily squeezed the plunger with her thumb and tossed the syringe away.
The effects of the high-power tranquilizer were instant. Ceres collapsed to her knees before limply flopping backwards. She was awake, but almost completely paralyzed. Her legs remained in an awkward angle that may have implied childbirth.
The entire room let out a metallic scream. Massive shutters lifted up like a curtain to reveal hidden walls covered in video panels. One side of the room was made of large tinted panes of glass covering a spacious observation deck.
The first two figures standing on the other side of the window were Kagami Mikage and his lead researcher, Gladys Smithson. Just behind them, partially obscured by dim lighting, there was a row of official-looking observers glancing over Ceres and jotting down notes. Further behind the live spectators, there were teleconference screens that broadcasted to confidential committee chambers located in every continent in the world.
The previously empty and sterile room overflowed with activity. An army of medical staff charged in with cart after cart of strange tools and apparatii, their faces covered with surgical masks. They took Ceres under her arms and lifted her to her feet. Gently, they walked her toward a large piece of equipment that was half-gurney, half-dentist's chair, and had a headrest that looked like it was lined with some kind of stereo system. Her legs lazily tried to keep pace while she looked back and forth in confusion.
Columns of video screens on every side like ceremonial pillars. Doctors and nurses acting as priests and shrine maidens. An audience of shadowy figures overseeing the proceedings. Ceres was absorbed into an ancient fertility ritual with a modern sci-fi twist.
"Secure the livestock," Kagami ordered stoically over the intercom.
Ceres was guided into the gurney and shackled down at her wrists. As soon as the steel rings locked around her, she could feel her celestial magicks being muted. A nurse swiveled an operating light into place just over Ceres's head and turned on its glaring beams.
"Tell me what's going on, you Mikage bastard!" Ceres shouted toward the glass.
"You've avoided us for far too long, Ceres," Kagami's voice answered on the intercom. "We waited sixteen years for you to appear in Aya's form. Now it's finally time to join your sisters and fulfill your role in the C-Project."
"What are you talking about? I still don't understand what you want from us!" the Tennyo shouted.
"We're going to help you conceive. We're entrusting your offspring to overtake normal humans as the dominant species and save this dying world," Kagami calmly replied. "A C-Genomer doesn't truly deserve reverence until she has produced heirs as powerful as her. Everything we've done has been leading to this moment."
"You tortured everyone close to Aya… you killed thousands of people with your poisoned water supply… just to make me have a child?" Ceres asked in shock. Miori quietly stepped up to her side, looking much more rejuvenated than she was moments ago.
"Well…" A hint of something terrible and devious twinkled in her eye. "Normally, a child or two is the most you'd have to worry about. But since you killed most of the viable C-Genomers from both of our families at your birthday party, and Kagami doesn't want me getting knocked up as long I'm his special Tennyo field agent, you're going to have to pull some serious maternity overtime for all of us."
Miori leaned forward over the gurney, lowering her voice so only she and Ceres were privy to the girlchat.
"Some of the nasty little skanks here can pop out half a dozen pristine C-Genomer babies in a few years if they're really productive." She raised her palm to cover the side of her mouth as she spoke. "These guys won't settle for less than three dozen from you. Time to kiss your sweet waistline goodbye."
Ceres fought against her restraints and screamed in rage. Miori let a psychotic fit of laughter. A doctor snapped a latex glove over her wrist.
Miori curiously watched the medical staff make their preparations, before looking back down to Ceres with false assurance. She smiled and touched the Tennyo on her forehead, gently brushing back her long blue hair.
"Well, I guess I should get you warmed up," she said cheerfully.
Miori pulled off the straps of the blue jumper Aya happened to dress herself in that morning and rolled the outfit down to her waist. She pulled out the green shirt tucked underneath and pushed it up past Ceres' midriff.
Doctors adjusted equipment and flipped knobs on the boxy structures arranged behind Ceres' head. Miori twirled her fingers in a small motion over Ceres' belly like she was getting a magic trick ready.
A circular Tennyo rune appeared on the skin below Ceres' navel for a few seconds. Miori's fingertips began to glow with a slight pink tint. She never physically touched Ceres, but her fingers hovered less than a centimeter from her skin.
"Gladys shared a lot of her research with me when she was helping me get over mom and dad dying," she said, eyes always fixed on Ceres' lower abdomen. "Tennyo evolved to be the perfect mothers for humanity, so it's only natural that some of us can use our powers to give another Tennyo a little hand in fulfilling her duties."
At the same time, the boxes around Ceres' head began to glow in blue LED light as they emitted a barely audible hum. Along the room's walls, several monitors displayed a basic x-ray of her reproductive system. Just next to those screens, renderings of her brain.
Invisible forces performed a joint attack on both of Ceres' poles. The machine's signals fiddled with her neural clockwork while Miori's mysterious celestial magic tinkered with the maternal clockwork. Hormones stirred into a frenzy. The two dormant bulbs in Ceres' x-ray lit up in bright electric pink to the amazement of all the spectators. At the same time, her portable CT scan was slowly overwhelmed in blue.
Ceres strained in defiance. In retaliation, the pink aura in Miori's hands and the blue glow around Ceres' head grew equally more intense.
Controlled chaos swirled through Ceres' mind. Images representing all manner of good and evil, hope and despair, peace and war flashed through her thoughts like a strobe light. Then she saw the word filling her entire version. Every half millisecond it flashed in a different language; sometimes clear, sometimes incomprehensible. But it held the most meaning to her when she saw it in its Japanese form written with two distinct characters.
"FUTURE."
Then came the children. Delighted infants goo-goo-ing alongside toddlers ga-ga-ing. It was like she was being shown hours upon hours of home movies, compressed into a thousandth of the time.
In the darkness of Aya's and Ceres' shared mind, an uninvited third party was trying to break in. Aya sat at the bottom of the void with her knees up to her chin, eyes closed as if she were sleeping. Ceres hovered in the air over her human host. Her dark blue hair stretched over both of them like a protective canopy.
With a rare look of fright, Ceres turned her gaze upward. A flood of white noise screamed down at them from a hole that had no reason to be there. Ceres used her auras as best she could to protect both of them, but there was nowhere they could escape to. She could only hold her force field for a few moments.
Ceres was overtaken the instant her powers shattered. Drowning in the white noise, she lost her ability to levitate and collapsed into Aya, rudely bringing the girl out of her dream within a dream.
That was the last time Aya and Ceres were separate entities.
The mortal girl drowned along with the goddess. They screamed in agony as they felt both of their minds burning away. The white noise pushed them into each other, through each other, until they were forced to co-exist in the same metaphysical space. The sounds of their misery overlapped into a single voice before fading away.
In the waking world, the battle gradually came to an end. Ceres angrily fought at first, clenching her teeth as she pulled her restraints. Then she weakened in her attempts, giving no more than a stubborn glance in her eyes. Then she became passive toward her dire situation, looking up at the panoramic ceiling and counting the twinkling pink stars in her digital egg baskets as she simply waited for the dual attack to be over. By the end of it, her eyes were half closed and she was gently cooing like a dove.
"That should be enough," Kagami said. "Gladys, if you'd please."
"Welcome to your new home, C-Genomer," a woman's voice now sounded over the intercom. "We'll be glad to accommodate your personal needs once you're through your initial consultation. Could you please tell me your name for the record?"
"My name is…" Ceres paused as she reached for an answer. Her eyes wandered in thought.
Half of the monitors around her were a collage of extensive surveillance photos of Aya from the time she was a baby up until around two days ago. The other half displayed archival data on Ceres' previous incarnations. That brief instant where one image was transitioning to the other, where Aya's face was fading but Ceres hadn't completely appeared and the two ambiguously overlapped, best summarized how her consciousness felt right now.
"…Aya?" the detained C-Genomer said in uncertainty.
"Subject is in active genomorph form but identifies herself as her human host," one of the doctors muffled through his mask. "Should we give her another round of juice?"
"No, we need to keep things on schedule," another said. "Make a note of it for the post-op interview."
"Now that you're with us, Aya," Gladys continued from her viewing station, "Can you tell me what's the first thing you want? Please, don't feel embarrassed."
"I want…"
Aya-Ceres paused again. Her scrambled mind couldn't focus on anything other than the sounds of giggling children. Her jumpstarted loins were begging to have something keep them company. She blinked innocently as she thought hard for the right answer. Then she smiled a peaceful, nurturing smile.
"…to be a mommy."
"We're a-go, people." Kagami instantly announced from the observation window. "Start rolling the cameras. I want all of this documented."
Stirrups rose out of a compartment at base of the gurney, giving the bed an even more convoluted appearance. Part of the team hoisted her legs up while the rest worked on putting her under. Ceres helpfully moved her head so they would have an easier time slipping on her anesthesia mask.
They removed her civilian clothes piece by piece and stacked everything on a cart. One nurse unclasped her bra while another carefully cut her panties off at the hips. Soon she was a lab specimen in the purest form: Legs up, body nude.
"Heh. You won't be needing these anymore." Miori twirled the bra on her finger by its strap before carelessly tossing it away.
In the viewing room, Gladys narrated the proceedings.
"The C-Genomer harvesting process is normally a fairly dull sequence of events. We run a few tests to determine a woman's abilities, then we let her get lots of rest. We send her in for extraction, a very quiet and private matter where only staff personally assigned to her are present. Then she gets more rest. It can take up to a week before we start to discuss the specifics of the impregnation."
"As you can see," she continued as the medical staff busily moved about below her, "we're being much more vigorous with this Ceres specimen. It wouldn't make sense if we let her have the same luxuries as any average C-Genomer. Someone who selfishly holds onto as many priceless reproductive cells as she does doesn't deserve to be handled lightly."
The sincere and business-like tone in her voice clashed with the dubious nature of her explanations, but the audience in the viewing gallery remained fully invested.
"And of course, none of the other girls in our study ever had to go through a grueling C-Genomer battle that destroyed half of a city block just minutes before it was time for her big debut on the operating table. But Aya is our leading lady. She's going to feel very worn out over the next few days, but we're forgiving to our more greedy girls once they've been taken down a few notches. I know she'll pull through."
The room's monitors began showing footage of the battle that had just transpired. Aya and Miori flew through the air, slammed into the ground, and leveled whole buildings as they bitterly fought. Most of the footage was focused on Aya herself in Tennyo form, presenting her as if it were a marketing pitch for the greatest product the world had ever seen. More importantly, a few carefully edited close-ups of jumper-covered breasts and lower back curves subliminally instilled thoughts of what her offspring would be capable of.
Some of the nurses moved a cart carrying two small rectangular cases beside Ceres. Originally there should have only been one case here, but a change in plans had been approved at the very last minute. The nurses opened both boxes, their lids facing Ceres, and looked back and forth between whatever the boxes contained. Nodding in unison, they reached into the second box together.
What was lifted out was little more than a camisole. Made from white silk, it had short sleeves and a loose pleated miniskirt that would hang down only halfway to Ceres' knees. Thin silver threading decorated all of its borders.
"What's with the wardrobe cutbacks?" asked an indistinct face on one of the teleconference screens in the back of the observation deck. "The proposal you showed us at last month's conference didn't look much different from the standard C-Genomer uniform."
A spinning virtual model appeared in the corner of the monitor. It depicted a full ankle-length gown with a layered skirt and strings weaving up the sides, dressed on a faceless 3D mannequin with Ceres's estimated proportions.
(In order words, it was her special snowflake medical gown from the manga and anime.)
Gladys was more than happy to explain the revisions.
"To be truthful, this all came together very suddenly for us. We were expecting it would take several more months for us to track the subject, predict her daily routine, and find an suitable opportunity for capture. But then Miss Sahara signed on to the project and helped speed things right along."
Her eyes looked down from the viewing gallery and met Miori's for a moment. Miori winked back at her.
"After thinking things over more carefully, we decided this one needed something with more flair, so she could be seen as an idol of sorts to our other girls in the C-Project."
The nurses helped Ceres don her new ceremonial garb on the operating floor below. Gladys turned to face the rest of the observers in the viewing room.
"We still don't know what makes this line of Tennyo descendants so much more special than the rest, but we have reason to believe if we employ her as a wet nurse to the children of some of our less gifted C-Genomers, she may naturally transfer part of her power through the same Tennyo proteins she'll be feeding her own children. If my theories are correct, the average power ratings for all of the children born in our program will see a moderate increase, and the rest of the mothers in the program will have some extra relaxation time. We plan on helping Ceres reach her absolute fullest potential; not as a simple research subject or a weapon of war, but as the lead vessel in the fleet that will carry mankind's evolution."
The nurses stepped away from the gurney once Ceres was dressed. The skirt did little to cover her thighs in their elevated position, but her lower regions were relatively hidden. A silver-trimmed layer of her gown that started on the left side of the collar, extended halfway down her ribs, and ended at the right corner of her bare breasts was kept open for access.
"We no longer regard this particular Ceres specimen as a Type-A or Type-B," said Gladys. "The tentative name we've reserved for her classification is 'Godmother Type.'"
"Godmother?" one of the figures retorted skeptically. "Why not just call her Mother Goose or Queen Bee?"
"We're still working on more official terminology," Gladys apologized. "Our geneticists don't get out very much."
A mechanism on the bottom of the gurney raised Ceres into more of a seated position, while levers around her wrist bindings raised her hands to the pillows above her head. One of the nurses carefully prodded her underarm and brushed an oil swab over her Spence's tail, causing her to react with slight ticklishness. The nurse injected half a syringe of clear solution into the tissue before changing positions and repeating the same process on her other side.
Another nurse came up from behind Ceres and reached around her to massage her chest. Supple glands were tweaked and primed by gentle fingers expertly trained for the task. The results were scientifically tantalizing.
Ceres closed her eyes and let off a small warm sigh that added a veil of moisture to her breathing mask. Multiple screens displayed a close-up of nipples rising in stimulation—a telltale sign the injection had completed its initial pass through her bloodstream.
Gladys described the drug being administered by its complex chemical name and offered some facts about its primary compounds. Then she added,
"It's a special enhancer we've been synthesizing with Ceres in mind. It won't completely bond until the second trimester, but once it's absorbed into her system, she'll benefit from roughly three times the amount of milk production compared to the average C-Genomer mother. As long as we keep her in a constant state of pregnancy and optimize its effects, of course."
"And how do you plan on accomplishing that?" a female observer asked.
"Our maternity ward is directly adjacent to our fertility lab. Once she's given birth to her latest successor, we can just open the curtain and wheel her over for her next conception in a matter of minutes. Her eggs will be stored externally, so we'll never have to worry about waiting for her to naturally ovulate. From this day forward, our best staff are 100% in control of her personal fertility cycle."
Everyone in attendance found this last point to be especially appealing.
The nurse closed the window on Ceres' gown and snapped a few buttons near her underarm together. Her chest itched slightly against the light fabric, but the sensation calmed down as her body adjusted. The levers placed her arms back at her sides. The gurney lowered back down until she was almost lying flat.
Slowly, the world around her grew silent. All she heard was the sound of her own relaxed breathing and occasional hollow voices saying something about blood pressure, heartrates, or follicle activity.
Looking down, all she could was the gentle round hills of her chest rising and falling, her pale Tennyo thighs perpetually raised in a "V" shape, and, beyond that, a nebulous darkness where countless doctors, nurses, and technicians were busily at work just for her sake. It should have made her terrified, but instead it made her feel important.
"The merchandise is still moving," someone in the observation deck pointed down toward Aya as they spoke. "Aren't you concerned about that?"
"Not at all," Gladys responded assuredly. "This is all exactly as we intended. By this time, Ceres is fully anesthetized and will only feel the mildest of sensations, but we're going to keep her mind in a nice, calming place where she's just enough aware of what we're doing to her. Ceres shouldn't be gradually eased into her responsibilities like the other girls. She'll be shown her place in the project by experiencing the most comprehensive and exhaustive treatments we have to offer. We want her to be comfortable, but we also want her to understand her role from this point going forward. It's going to be a learning experience for all of us."
One of the doctors took his position between Aya's legs and reviewed the final checklist.
"Mental filter is prepped. Godmother-Type lactational protocol is prepped. Fertility stimulus is prepped. Commencing procedure."
He knelt in front of the gurney, disappearing under Aya's skirt with latex gloves and a flashlight.
"Virginal specimen. 16 years, 5 months. No physical flaws detected," the doctor said as if he were Ben Stein checking the undercarriage of a car. "We obviously don't have the 48-hour preliminary timeframe to use estrogen supplements on her, but with the temporary U-Field in place I say we can get around 10 good ova out of her for the first harvest."
The doctor stood up and rolled Ceres' skirt back a few inches. He reached to a nearby tray for the tools necessary for a simple routine dry extraction. A metallic container lined with several small and empty glass vials waited nearby.
"Hey, wait a minute," Miori interrupted. "You're being way too easy on Aya-kins. The boss said he wants… you know."
Midori made a small motion that resembled scissors snipping open and closed with her middle and index fingers.
The doctor narrowed his eyes in doubt. Putting his hand to his ear, he switched on a tiny microphone underneath his surgical cap.
"Chairman, your Type-B is saying you're ordering the works for this one. Is that really necessary?"
"That's correct," Kagami answered in his earbud. "Total liquidation. I know it may seem a little extreme for an initial conception, but obtaining the viable contents of this woman's ovaries has been priority number one for the past two decades. Gladys recommends we preserve everything as soon as we have the chance and see how she performs for her first gestation. We'll sort out the order we use the other eggs when the time comes."
The workers swiftly changed positions. A pair of nurses now unfastened a seam in Aya's short gown that started a few inches below her breasts and extended all the way to the end of her skirt, revealing all the skin underneath when the flap was peeled open. The holder with the tiny vials was exchanged for a large glass jar. Dull forceps and needles were replaced with razor-sharp surgical tools.
More nurses gathered between her splayed legs. If Aya had never been treated to a bikini wax before, she was in store for one now. Miori made mischievous wincing expressions as she watched.
Once everything was ready, the cutting began. Cold scalpels dug through warm, numb flesh. Scissors separated organ tissue and opened up hidden tunnels. Pumps and hoses carefully excavated the relics within.
Nervous doctors wiped their brows. Attentive nurses kept things running smoothly and whispered encouraging things to the half-dreaming patient. The audience in the viewing deck scratched their chins and nodded their heads in intrigue. Intense video close-ups of her own dissection reflected in Ceres's sleepy golden eyes.
Every now and then, the drugs would overtake her and her eyelids would drop as she drifted to sleep. But Miori was always there to snap her fingers in front of her face and stir her back to awareness. Every time there was a fresh round of chop-chop or snip-snip, Aya saw every second of it in high definition display. Miori thought of this as another brutal way to get revenge against Aya. Gladys saw it as an important part of Aya's initiation rites. Kagami was perpetually indifferent about the matter.
Aya's viewpoint was the most positive. They weren't scouring her of her most personal possessions. They were simply moving her precious hibernating babies to a place that would be much safer than inside her fragile mortal form until it was the time was right. Disoriented as she was, she was happy Miori was there to keep her on the edge of consciousness. She knew she had to be humbled, and everything she was seeing was just a natural part of the sacrifices, hardships, and joys of becoming a mother. They would never let any of the children quicken in her womb if she failed to learn her lesson and wasn't a good little Tennyo.
When the ordeal was over, she was meticulously sealed back up with everything carefully tucked back where it belonged, minus around half a million gametes. The part of her gown that covered her belly and groin was closed and buttoned together, restoring the small amount of modesty she was allowed and covering her small scars.
One of the doctors walked away into the distant blur and hunched over a microscope on a table. A screen near Ceres that had been previously showcasing FALLOPIAN VIEW 4 [PROBE CAM 7189] switched to VITRO CULTURE C [MICROSCOPE 201]. An army of tiny hyperactive swimmers were circling like sharks around a collection of things that were big and round.
Gladys' voice faded in and out of Aya's ears as her mind drifted listlessly on the Anesthesia Sea. She heard fragments of a scholarly lecture on Tennyo and human evolution, swan maidens and Darwin's theory, selkies and survival of the fittest.
The nearby wall changed from a magnificently impersonal close-up of her most lady-like parts to something that looked like a giant ID card. Then she heard Gladys say
"…paternal donor we've matched with this C-Genomer is a man named…"
Aya-Ceres saw the portrait of something tall, dark, and red-haired in the foggy corner of her eye.
The doctor with the microscope paused at what she was doing and glanced toward the tinted viewing window. Kagami sealed Aya's fate by casually signaling "2" with his fingers.
"Aww, it's gonna be twins," Miori snickered. She added a faint "Little slut" under her breath.
VITRO CULTURE C showed something shaped like the mighty finger of God nudging one shark each into two of the round things. Inside the viewing chamber, the row of shadows behind Gladys and Kagami leaned closer in anticipation. All of the commotion on the operating floor funneled toward the bottom of Ceres' gurney.
The raised silver-lined hem of her skirt blocked her view of her own body, but the surgeons could see more than enough from their angle. She felt a tiny pinch somewhere far, far below, followed by the pressure of life being bestowed upon her.
Nearly every video column in the room switched to something that began with M. AYA – CERES G - UTERINE VIEW. The cameras obsessively followed the round things as they floated about, moving like two bewildered residents who had been harshly yanked out of their small, comfy home and then dumped back in just as quickly. Their weightless flight path vaguely resembled Aya's and Miori's battle through the city, only on a much more intimate scale.
Soon they gathered their bearings and rested themselves against a structure that was flat, soft, and pink. A series of rapid zoom-ins showed cells rapidly splitting and enzymes hard at work. Finally, the tissue wall accepted the bond.
Ceres heard a loud rush of clapping coming from everyone in the observation deck. The stars flickering in her heavily drugged vision created the illusion of confetti being tossed over her.
"Congrats, Aya!" Miori clasped her hands together and shouted in sarcastic delight.
Now the medical team stopped treating her as a prisoner and started treating her more like a distinguished guest. A pair of hands delicately took away her breathing mask while others pushed the operating lights out of her eyes. Her arms were released from the latches on her gurney, but the metal bracelets remained locked around her wrists to suppress her Tennyo powers. The nurses helped her weakened ankles down from the stirrups, lifted her skirt to her hips, and helped her slip into a pair of standard issue panties. Then they adorned her neck with a golden nametag necklace and dressed her feet in short-heeled pearl white slippers.
The operating room screens switched to something considerably less intrusive, showing pictures of Mikage International's scenic underwater C-Genomer colony as if it were a tourist destination. In the corner of one screen, there was a plain profile image of Ceres with an estimated delivery date counting down.
Kagami and Gladys left the observation deck and came down a flight of stairs into the operating room. They joined the doctors and nurses gathered at Ceres' sides so they could closely monitor her recovery.
The only one who didn't stick around was Miori. As soon as Aya was finished in surgery, her cousin simply pulled her phone out of her pocket, loaded her Pokemon Go app, and merrily strolled out of the room searching for Geodudes.
"Hope the morning sickness doesn't suck too much," she snorted as she left.
Ceres looked up at the figures surrounding her with squinting gold eyes. One of her hands scratched the side of her head trying to fight the cobwebs away. The other stayed protectively over her pregnant and healing lower belly, never moving except for the occasional tiny stroking motion.
"Am I really going to have twins?" she asked in a half groggy, half wishful tone.
"Yes, a boy and a girl," Kagami answered. "We decided it would be the most genetically sound option to start you out."
"Do you have any names in mind, Aya?" Gladys asked thoughtfully.
"I'm not sure about the boy. I'll have to think about him for a while."
"What about the girl?"
It didn't take long for her to come up with an answer. Her mental conditioning stirred in the back of her head, subtly drawing her creativity toward the two Japanese characters she had seen flashing in her vision.
"Mmm… I think I'll name her Miku."
Author's note: Did I ever tell you guys how much more screwed up the Viper brain surgery scene was in the original script?