The precious and glorious weekend is coming. Today is a day to celebrate its arrival. Today is Friday. A day so loved by everyone. A day that has forever helped human-kind to relax and enjoy. This Friday the sun shone with care and gave out lovely warmth. Not too hot, not too cold. The perfect day to go out with friends, have an ice cream and enjoy the sun.
And this group of friends is spending their time after school in the department of one of the friends doing nothing.
The group of five was sitting down in the apartment of Yui Funami. Some of them were reading, others playing in a nearby console and the rest were watching.
All enveloped in a quiet blanket, learning and watching what is in front of them. Trying to overcome the obstacle that boringness is, each girl brought to their attention the most interesting item they had in front of them.
CASSIE CAGE WINS.
"I win." Kyoko said with no enthusiasm.
"But you're still losing." Chinatsu remarked at the blonde with no energy to make any type of mean comment.
"Four to one." Yui said with even less enthusiasm, if possible.
"You gave her advantage, didn't you?" Chris stated the obvious with a blank face.
"Yes I did." Yui said and placed her controller down.
And once again silence. Kyoko sighed and placed hers down too, leaning to the power button on the console and pressing it. Yui took on her hands the TV remote and switched inputs from the console to the cable.
"-nother explosion in the Kagaku Science and Research Center, caused by the same professor than last time, Nishigaki Nana. Our investigators said that 'it was all part of her experiment' and couldn't get the professor to reveal said experiment. The police cannot act on this because of boundaries and limitations to the Science Center. More news after a commercial break."
Silence and a commercial break came upon the group of friends, whom they all were caught by surprise after the name Nishigaki Nana appeared.
"So she works at the science center..." Akari said, having lifted her sight from her book.
Everyone was surprised by hearing the name after such a long time.
"Let's go visit her!" Kyoko sprung to life, standing up and receiving affirmations from everyone present.
Nana Nishigaki stopped being a teacher after the previous director fired her because of an explosion in the laboratories. After all, that director couldn't handle everything and it was the reason she left.
Anyway, the group of friends took the metro towards the nearest road to the Kagaku Science and Research Center of Takaoka. The entry to the place is free to anyone, having a museum of science researches from said facility and a guided tour every Saturday. But entry to the facility and labs is only for people working there.
"Welcome to the Kagaku Science and Research Center." The lady in the lobby said to the group of friends. "Do you wish to enter the museum?"
"..." None of them said anything. They were too overwhelmed by the mere size of the place. One of them shook off the feeling and walked forwards to the lady.
"We would like to meet a person working here." Yui said with a firm look.
"Who are you looking for?" The lady asked with a little surprise.
"We are looking for a professor working here."
"I'm sorry, but no one is allowed into the facilities unless you work here or have an appointment." The lady said with an apologetic look. "Who where you looking for?"
"We were looking for Nana Nishigaki." Kyoko said, walking to the desk. "She was a teacher in Nanamori School, both middle and high. We were her students."
"Oh, you're from Nanamori?" The lady said with a very surprised look. "Do apologize me." She said and looked for a paper in her desk. The group of friends behind the desk tried to look over at the lady, who rose up from her position and gave each girl a little card that said 'Guest'. "You'll have to go to the building H, the third floor, hall gamma, lab K-2. I'll call her to tell her you're coming."
Everyone was surprised by the sudden reaction of the lady, but nonetheless started walking towards said room.
"Also, first go to the clothing area. You'll be provided with a lab coat."
The group of friends reached the room in question after fifteen, having lost themselves once and having to ask a guard the easiest route to the room. And after some walking through the immense facility, they found the room.
There were six floors for each building. Each floor had four halls. There is one hall for each letter of the Greek alphabet. Each hall had several hallways tagged each by one letter of the Latin alphabet. Each hallway had ten rooms in it, tagged with the letter of its hallway and a number from one to then. Each room was like one whole classroom in length.
And there were two buildings. Building H for Hydrogen and building N for Nitrogen.
*Knock Knock*
Kyoko knocked the door and they waited.
"Motherfucker, this place is huge." Chris cursed in surprise. After her statement, she received a smack.
"We know. You don't have to curse." Yui said with a sigh.
"Shh, someone's coming." Akari said after she heard footsteps coming to the door. Everyone placed their eyes onto the door.
And then the door slid open, revealing a teenager girl wearing a lab coat, silver hair, blue eyes and pale skin.
"Are you the visitors?" The girl asked with a little smile. The girls nodded. "Please, come in." The girls, one by one, walked into the large room. One classroom in length, but at least two in depth. Lots and lots of shelves, tables, islands full of mechanical devices, so much space with so much things.
"Let me introduce myself." The girl said. "My name is Notare Shion. You can call me Shi-san if you wish."
"Are you Nana's assistant?" Asked a curious Chintasu, receiving a nod.
"Let me take you to her." Shion said and started walking through the maze of science.
Having walked a certain distance, the sound of sparks had became present. The closer the group walked to the sound, the clearer their destination became.
Over there, with a welding mask in her face, was a woman working on something. Her pale brown hair wiggled softly be each movement of her head. She stopped on her work and placed her tools beside, reaching to take off her mask and turning around to the arriving group of girls even before they reached her workplace.
"My, my. Aren't you a refreshing view?" The woman said with a little smile.
"Nishigaki-sensei!" Akari said with a big smile and walked to the woman to give her a hug, whom accepted. Chintasu couldn't handle the sensation neither and went to hug the woman too. Soon enough, the whole group of friends jumped to hug her.
"How have you girls been?" Nana said with a wide smile now. "How is Nanamori going?"
"It's now Co-ed." Kyoko said. "But the aura of girl love is still present and dominant."
"Good to know." Nana laughed. "Chris, how are the pink dots doing in your system?"
"Dunno." Chris said. "Haven't seen them in a while."
"Well, maybe later you can come over so I can check them." Nana said and patted the girl's head. "Why did you come?"
"We heard about you in the news." Yui said.
"Memories struck us and we decided to come and visit!" Kyoko said. "And maybe you could show us your work!"
"Kyoko!" Yui said and took the blonde by the cheek. "Don't be so selfish! What is she can't?"
"Ouchie!" Kyoko whined, making Nana giggle.
"It's okay, Yui." Nana said and stood up from her seat. "Let me show you the highlights of my work." She signaled Shion to come closer. "First of all, Shion."
"Hi." Shion said and waved at the girls.
"What about her?" Chinatsu asked.
"Shion here is a gynoid." Nana said with pride. "I made her."
"Whaaaaat?" The girls said in unison.
"Show them." Nana said. Shion gave her a nod and walked the the group, rolling her sleeves up and showing her arms. Slowly, a sound started to emanate from her, and the skin in her arms started to separate by sections, raising in several directions and showing the inner mechanism of her arms, with several tools of several shapes in parts of them, or just her structure, cables and metal rods of some sort.
"You're an AI!?" Chris, Kyoko and Yui said in unison. Chinatsu and Akari were too weirded out by Shion.
"I am." Shion said and closed her arms.
"Nishigaki-sensei, you do realize the moral dilemma that a self-conscious AI brings with it?" Chris said with concern.
"Yeah. And I don't care." Nana said nonchalantly, having taken a can of Dr. Pepper from somewhere.
"Miss, I cannot explain how it feels to be an AI." Shion said to Chris. "But I can assure you that I'm as human as you are."
"..." Chris was left speechless.
"Anyway..." Yui said. "What else have you done?"
"Glad you asked." Nana said. "Follow me, girls."
Nana showed them her successful inventions. One of them was a chemical that allowed for eyes to change color temporally. Nana said that it was intended for use in graying hair, but the problem is that the chemical didn't made everything the same color, giving each individual strand of hair a different color for 48 hours.
Another of her inventions was self-repairing mechanical prostheses. The tech used in this prostheses were already commercial, but not used widely in medicine but more in mechanical works. Shion had this type of technology in her body. Nana's next step was to mimic this but in humans, allowing medicine for faster regeneration of wounds and such.
"The next thing I'm gonna show you..." Nana warned. "Might be morally incorrect." She said and alarmed the whole group, making them anxious. Nana guided them to a fridge of some sort, with large gas canisters of nitrogen cooler connected to it. She took some gloves from nearby and opened the fridge, taking from it a glass box, filled with frozen test tubes.
"These... Are frozen ovum cells." Nana said and took another similar box, closing the fridge afterwards. "And these are frozen sperm cells."
"That's not morally incorrect." Akari said.
"To some religions, it is." Chinatsu said.
"Oh, but these have a catch." Nana said and placed them in a table, sitting down besides it. "We tried to use biological engineering to empty them of any DNA sample. But we couldn't empty them completely. So we used reverse engineering and build our own."
The group of friends were left speechless after the explanation. Not naturally produced reproductive cells? What for?
"Their use is simple. They are targeted to couples that, due to complications like sterility, can't have children naturally. We take a blood sample of the infertile one, take some DNA we need and fill the necessary cell. Then an In Vitro fertilization comes afterwards." Nana explained.
"Another use might be for homosexual couples who want children." Shion said. "The process for this is already being tested."
"So..." Yui said in shock. "There is..."
"A homo couple already waiting for a kid." Nana said. "We asked for volunteers and they came to us." Nana said with slight pride on her work. "They're waiting for a girl."
"That's amazing..." Kyoko said, also in shock. The whole group was in shock.
"Anyway... That's my work." Nana said. "If in a couple years you have a wife and you two want a kid, come to us."
This brought hope to some of the girls in the group. The hope of having a child with their loved one, ignoring sexual limitations like their sex.
"Do you plan on using this thing on yourself?" Akari asked with cute curiosity.
What she didn't realized is that she just hit a nerve.
Nana's excited look suddenly evaporated and replaced with a gloom look.
"Well... I kinda do..." Nana said with sadness. "But I don't think it will happen."
Nana looked down with melancholy. The thought of her stupid plan, a plan that has made this project a reality, brought to her sad memories. Memories of a certain girl that had stolen her heart long ago.
She missed her.
She completely and utterly missed her.
Rise Matsumoto left to the United States to study there by decision of her parents right after leaving middle-school. And although she is sometimes the most unnoticeable girl in existence, suddenly leaving school made a huge difference in the atmosphere of the Student Council. But this was before Nana was fired from the school. Not only did the Student Council suffered.
They despised her. Rise's parents hated Nana's guts to the point of making their daughter abandon the country, far away as possible from Nana. They found out about their relationship. Their 7-year-gap relationship. And the day they found out, they sent Rise away. No previous notice, no preparation, no nothing. In an instant, Rise disappeared from their lives. They had familiars in the U.S.A., so sending her to a safe place wasn't a problem. The only problem they had was making her leave without Nana noticing.
The sudden memory of Rise's teary face as her parents forcefully drove her away hid Nana hard enough to bring tears to Nana's eyes. She quickly pressed her coat on her eyes, drying them in an awkward fashion, and then trying to at least look decent for the worried girls in front of them.
"T-Thank you for visiting me."
Soon afterwards, the group left the building, leaving the mad scientist alone with her creations and her memories. Shion had a lot of work to do, trying to calm down the sobbing scientist for another night.
I dunno why, but after re-watching the first season of Yuruyuri, I figured out that I haven't used Nana and Rise's relationship many times. I wanted to write this for their relationship sake.
