Ok, this is Chapter 3 with explanations of the operationz. Enjoy! (AND SEND IN REVIEWS)
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any original characters produced by Tite Kubo or Studio Perrot.
He couldn't believe it.
His body was going to be used for some experiment for a foreign country... unbelievable. Plus, it was still alive. How? He didn't know. All that he knew was that his former body was now alive and that would mean he probably had some chance to return to the world of the living. The question at the moment was how would he get back into it? Did he just lie down into it like they draw in the manga? Or is there some kind of ritual involved? Was there some kind of process? There must have been something that he could do to get back into it.
Shin was 'sweating'. He wanted to ask so many questions, but was too captivated by the sight before him.
The doctors were in a closed room, setting up tubes and machines here and there, checking the stats and vitals. Then they would quickly change the amount of solution from the IV drip, then inject some strange substance into 'his arm' every now and then... only to go check everything all over again. It was a never ending process of inject and check, inject and check... He was starting to get sick of it. With all this experimentation going on, would he really have a chance to return to his body?
"Yo, Shin," the voice next to him called for his attention.
"Eh?" the young soul turned his head slowly to the voice.
"I want to know," the death god next to him spoke, "When you died..."
"When I died?" Shin nervously repeated in confusion.
"Did it feel like..." Ichigo paused for a moment, " Did it feel like you were forcefully pushed out or gently lifted?"
"W-what does that have to do with anything?"
"Just answer," the Shinigami seemed to be eager to know the answer.
Shin had no idea as to where the question was going, but assumed that if his grandfather asked it, it must have had some significant importance. He thought... hard. When he had died... he had felt an odd sensation of letting go all attachment to his body, as if being 'gently lifted' as his grandfather had suggested...
But at the very end, he was violently forced out, like a torrent of pressure blasting him out from his physical body.
"E-eh... I can't really say. At first... it felt as if I was peacefully leaving the body behind as my soul was being lifted from the ground... but then..."
"But then what?" Ichigo was now looking at him with full attention.
"... t-then I felt like a tornado hit me and my soul got pushed out... kind of painfully." Shin looked for some kind of message or answer within his grandfather's eyes. He didn't find anything.
Ichigo began to come up with various causes as a result of the possibilities within the event of Shin's death. He came up with one plausible answer. It was the moment before his grandson's soul had left the body, it was his involvement that may have caused everything.
"Shin, I'm going to make a Shinigami out of you."
"What?" Shin stared at his grandfather in disbelief. He was receiving the chance to become a Shinigami so soon? Unbelievable. He had thought that there would be some ritual or the something of the like.
"That's right," Ichigo just stared with bored eyes, "I'm going to make sure you turn into a Shinigami. Now lets go." The orange-haired death god turned to leave the room.
"W-wait! What about my body?" Shin cried out. He didn't want to leave his flesh and blood behind in the hands of some crazy experimentalists.
"We'll come back for it when you're done. I need to take you to see someone who can help."
"Who's that?" the teen asked curiously.
"You'll find out," Ichigo smirked as he thought of the tough road ahead.
"Hey, gramps," Shin called for Ichigo's attention.
"Just call me Ichigo, it's getting annoying."
"A-alright. Hey Ichigo," the boy hesitated for a bit, but decided to ask anyway, "why did you have me answer that question?"
Ichigo knew the answer. He was absolutely sure of it the more he thought about it. There was no other explanation. He was there at the time of Shin's death... before actually. He was watching over the boy, watching everything from the beginning of his confession to the bullets. In his panic, just as his grandson was dying, he took out the glove. Yes, the fingerless red glove and with a blue-flamed skull on the back-handed side. The glove that forcefully removed the soul, leaving the physical body in a comatose-like state. At that point, the body would go into a state of suspended animation, putting aside the need for food or oxygen.
However, there had been a snag. A snag as in... a miscalculation. Ichigo had hoped to expel Shin's soul from the body before he died, but the Shinigami had reached it when it was already in the process of 'death'. As a result of the mistake on the death god's part, the soul was cut off from the body completely, lacking a chain, and the energy doubled back into the body, causing that state of suspended animation, but allowing the functions for life to continue with the sustained damages. In theory it was possible, but in reality it was supposed extremely improbable. To think that it actually had happened, Ichigo didn't know what to make of the situation.
"Eh well, uh... you see," Ichigo tried to avoid telling the answer, "I'll just tell you some other time." He didn't want to confuse Shin now. The boy would have to wait until later.
How would he explain this to Soul Society? He wouldn't. In order to protect his grandson, who was now a new type of soul without a visible chain link, he would have to hide the details from other members of the council.
Nothing too big for someone as an active captain to handle, right?
"We're here," Ichigo told the sixteen year-old.
"Hn," he replied soberly. "What's this?" Shin looked around in front of the small traditional Japanese-style convenience store. "It looks kinda boring."
"Shush," Ichigo tried to keep the boy quiet. "You'll find out soon enough... Urahara-san! Oi! (Oi; hey)"
Shin stared blankly at his grandfather. What the hell was he doing shouting in the middle of the night? Plus, weren't they souls? Who the heck would hear them if they were spiritual beings? Maybe we're like ghosts and people can hear our creepy wails in the night... the adolescent-soul pondered. Naah.
"Who's there?" a gruff, voice called out from the front of the store. A huge, muscular man with a gigantic mustache stood at the door. He barely fit through the top.
"Woah!" Shin jumped back, surprised, "Y-you heard us?... You can see us!?" The boy was actually shocked. A human being, still alive and kicking, could hear and see them. He had no idea what the heck was going on. He wanted answers... badly.
"Of course I can see you!" the large man said in a booming voice. "You're going to wake up the manager! Shh!"
"Sorry..." he lowered his voice, "So who are you... and the manger?"
"Ichigo-dono, who is this Plus?" The large man asked, totally ignoring Shin.
"Huh? What's a 'Plus'?" Shin looked offended; it sounded like name-calling.
"A Plus is a good soul that has not turned into a Hollow," Ichigo scratched his head, smiling, "Good thing you didn't become one of them. I would have had to kill you. Heheh."
"Eh!?" Shin backed away.
"Just kidding. Anyway," the Shingami now turned to the large man who was patiently waiting for an answer, "Tessai-san, this is my grandson, Shin. He kind of um... you know... died protecting his girlfriend.
The teenager blushed at that.
"Please forgive me for treating your grandson in such a manner! I will go wake the manager."
"If you will, please."
Tessai quickly closed the door and ran into the depths of the shop to the manager's room door to wake up the slumbering store-owner.
"So let me get this straight..." Urahara started, trying not to fall asleep or be annoyed by the situation. "You woke me up at one-thirty in the morning to tell me that you want me to help you make your grandson into a Shingami after he died in some freak accident involving a horrible military operation gone haywire before his body was abducted by a United States biological scientific technological department to experiment on his zombie-body to make it into an ultimate weapon in a process called the Kensei-gan Plan and now you want me to accomplish this before something terrible happens to it!? Hooo-- ha... ha... ha..." That was the longest run-on sentence that Urahara Kisuke had ever said in his entire life. He had to stop and take a breather.
"Yeah, pretty much," Ichigo just stared annoyed. He was getting to get a little irked at the man's comical behavior. "I need to have you teach him how to at least get to be a Vizard while I'm checking on his body. How that's gonna happen, I don't know. He doesn't even have a chainlink in the first place."
"Huh? Vizard?" Shin raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar term. "What's that?"
"Don't worry about it," Urahara interjected before more questions could be fired off, "Let's just focus on getting you to be a powerful Shinigami... follow me."
"Eh?" Shin turned to ask his grandfather for advice, but Ichigo was already halfway out the door, and closing it behind him. "Heh?" He turned to the manager who had gone around a corner into a long hallway, followed by his assistant Tessai. Not wanting to be left behind... or alone, Shin quickly rose to his feet and ran after them.
At the third door to the right, Urahara-san stopped and opened the door to get inside the room. Once inside, he precisely walked to the large tile-mat that was in column three, row two. The manager tapped it with his cane, and the floor quickly fell open, revealing a dark area with a ladder leading down to what seemed like an eternity. He then motioned the boy to come closer to the edge to look down with him. Without notice, he appeared to pat the male teen on the back, only to give a slight push.
"Aah.. Aah, I'm gonna fall!" Shin was balancing on the tip of his toes, trying to lean back. Urahara then gave a giggle and pushed with his index finger. "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!" The poor Plus's cries could be heard all the way down.
"Ha... Hah! I almost died!" Shin was grabbing his chest with a bewildered look on his face while breathing heavily as if attacked by a ferocious monster. "Y-you trying to kill me!?" The male soul had a very accusing look on now.
"Of course not!" the store-owner said in a sing-song voice, obvious he was pretending to be offended, "What would happen if Ichigo's grandkid suddenly died within my responsibility! I'd be a dead man! Teehee!"
"Auh..." Shin's mouth just dropped, not believing the stupidity of the whole situation.
"Anyway..." the manager put on a serious face, startling the teenager. "Tessai, get Jinta and Ururuu down here. I'm going to need them."
"Who?"
"Forget about it for a while right now, we need to think about your current situation," Urahara's voice was filled with concern and worry. For a man who seemed so lighthearted, this seemed a little drastic.
"My... situation?" Shin had heard everything that his grandfather said, and figured this 'chain link' thing had something to do with it. From what he could put together, he couldn't really become a Shinigami without having one. Well this blows. "So I can't become a Shinigami, huh?"
"Not necessarily. The natural process is, a Plus gets sent to Soul Society by a Shinigami. Then he or she is chosen to be sent to the Academy if they show any promising signs of being able to use spiritual energy. For example," The manager held out his open hand, palm up. His brows furrowed, and he cried out, "Ha!"
Suddenly, the space around his palm became warped and glowed a brilliant shade of blue, almost white.
"This... is reiatsu, the essence of spiritual energy that a death god uses. One with high levels of reiatsu are able to see other spirits, and probably become Shinigami. You, are dead, and have shown no signs of being able to use any spiritual energy whatsoever... and you have no chain link. So this really sucks for you."
"..."
"Don't worry about!" The silly store-owner gave a pat on the sixteen year-old's back. "I'll find a way! Hahahaha!"
Shin didn't find that to be very promising.
"Is the Q-Gen complete?" a familiar old man's voice asked.
"Almost sir. The Beta OS is almost done, and then it needs to be revised for the final version."
"What of the cybernetic optics? Are they done?"
"The synchronization-rate between the CO and the Quantum Generator are off by one percent... a little too slow for advanced performance or any combat for that matter. Like you've stated in the documents, it needs to be perfect or else the system won't work to its maximum capabilities."
"Hmm, well then... go check on the body, make sure it is ready for final operations."
"Yes sir."
He... was Dr. Archibald, a leading scientist of the underground, hired to invent or improve weapons for the military 'under the table'. It had been his dream to create the ultimate biological weapon, whether it be a virus, cyborg, missile, etc. Now, he was working on an opportunity that involved all three of those. His order from the higher-ups was to create cyborg that could make an impact on armed combat as that of a nuclear missile... without the utter killing of innocents. So, the Doctor came up with a brilliant plan.
In acceptance of the assignment, he began to study a way to alter a live human body without too much risk, or creating some kind of insane monster. He did find a way. It was a virus, the so-called, "organisms at the edge of life."
A virus, in every way, is very complicated. There are over hundreds of different types of viruses. Many famous ones include influenza, with over several different strains and over 50 million deaths. Another is the Ebola Virus which has a fatality rate anywhere from 50 to 90, with a Biosafety Level 4 and Category A Bioterrorism classification status. HIV Type 1, is a condition that currently infects people on a global scale, with over 90 million in Africa alone, and ensuring the coming of AIDS, which will kill the infected within a matter of time. Then comes the Smallpox, killing over 300 to 500 million people within the twentieth century alone, considered so dangerous it was wiped off the face of the planet other than the few samples left behind for vaccination purposes.
Even then, there are many bacteria-related illnesses to accompany these other diseases and viruses. How can the human body fend off such terrors?
By learning.
Dr. Archibald struggled to design and write the computer program for detecting and studying the vapid behavior and effects of all known viruses. In his research, he came to a conclusion was that the same way the body learns to fend off a cold or the chickenpox after the first time, the body can learn to combat deadly viruses if it survived. In order to do so, he had to create something just as deadly, and just as formidable as a virus. So what was as effective and adaptable as a dangerous, fatal piece of viral DNA that modified and copied itself over and over to escape the clutches of the immune system?
Another virus.
The Doctor figured he would spend his time studying viruses, and create a virus to fight a virus... ironic.
But this virus would be a bit different. Instead of killing off the original strands of genetic material inside of the already existing cell, the virus that the Doctor planned to create would modify the original itself, thus making it just as effective and immune to other viruses. Of course, this was proven to be nearly fatal in the past, but bioengineering nowadays had proven that one could 'cut and paste' genes within the nucleus of plants and various types of fish.
The genius doctor was already in the process of adding to a base-virus. His plan was to guarantee immunity to any biological weapon available... or created in the future.
The soldier needed to have endurance, speed, strength, agility. The strategist needed a sharp and fast-thinking mind. A bioweapon needed to be immune to other biological threats and poisons around. A product of bioengineering needed to last enough to be used to its full potential. A cyborg... needed to be all those things.
As such, this virus would increase the chances for all those things. And Dr. Archibald had all plans ready to go.
The last thing remaining was after the virus had been implanted and taken effect, was the synchronization between man and machine.
Dr. Archibald and his team of scientists had worked to create a quantum-generator, called Q-Gen for short, a brain-sized computer with capabilities like the world has never seen. It had used revolutionary memory technology based on the brain, with more processing power than the actual brain itself. It was created to operate at normal body temperature, so that nothing would be out of the ordinary. The plan was to replace the brain with the Q-Gen, and implement an Operating System to accompany the hardware. The most catchy feature was the wireless capabilities built in to connect to the Internet or phone lines.
Then came the Kenseigan. The doc found interesting points in his work to name it, the Analysis Eye. The Eye that would supply a visual HUD for the user, and constantly analyze or record events into memory for the OS to learn. The problem was the AE and QG weren't synchronizing perfectly.
He needed a hundred percent or he would feel uncomfortable risking a mistake in the process. However, if he didn't produce a cyborg soldier by the deadline as promised... well... he just needed to hurry.
The OS would be preprogrammed with over a hundred different biological languages, with several dialects; several different types of code language; and several methods to creating Internet hacking viruses, and methods to defend against hackers trying to get into the quantum generator. Of course, that wasn't happening.
The system would also be preloaded with all documented forms of martial arts, skills, military maneuvers, strategies, and almost everything needed for anything. And the OS would allow itself to continue learning.
This soldier, would be the most flexible soldier suited for any assignment or any mission.
And the Doctor would have the credit for producing such a WMD (Weapon of Mass Destruction).
The needle was in.
"Injecting," A man in a yellow bio-suit held a needle, pressing down on it to make sure the solution went into the subjects arm. He watched carefully as the clear fluid was drained from the syringe, all the way into the veins of the body of Kurosaki Shin.
"Ok, Dr. Borvinski, please step away from the subject," a radio in his ear told him.
"Alright..." he was very eager to see the results. He waited patiently.
Nothing happened.
"Um, Dr. Archibald, nothing is happening..." He was confused. The solution was to take affect within five minutes, yet nothing was happening. The vitals had not changed at all.
Forty-eight hours ago, the team of doctors had successfully 'installed' the Q-Gen and the Kenseigan loaded with the KS-OS into the subject's body. Of course, the eyes and shaved head were covered in bandages, but the most vital piece was the virus that Dr. Borvinski had just injected into the 'living corpse'. Despite their efforts, nothing changed... other than the slight smoky vapor that was arising from the subjects head... or the odd change in muscle mass... or the fact that the body's heart rate had increased.
"Oh shit. Doctor! I think something is happening!" He quickly took a hold of the situation as orders were shouted into his ear from the radio.
Then just as fast as the changes occurred, the changes had stopped. It was complete.
"Uh, Doctor..."
"Remove the bandages," Archibald's voice came in.
Immediately, Borvinski carefully grabbed the edges of the bandages and began to peel them off. He gasped.
All the stitches had fallen off, and any evidence of wounds or open flesh had disappeared. It was as if the operation had never taken place... only the baldness. The doctor within the room laughed.
"It was a success! Ha ha ha!"
Then a lightning-fast hand came up and grabbed his arm with such a force that it shattered his entire limb... he screamed.
A/N: How was that? Betcha that one had you guys thinking. Send reviews! I need them!
Anyway, more about the actual features of the Kenseigan will be revealed in the next and/or following chapters to come.
