On March 17th 1973, at 2:26 p.m., Suzuki Touichirou was born.

He was born in the maternal wing of Seasoning City hospital to Abigail and Yoshio Suzuki. At birth he weighed four kilograms and was fifty centimeters long. His birth went quickly, approximately four hours of active labor for his mother. He was attended to by a seasoned physician. His mother held him approximately thirteen minutes after he was born, at her insistence, even though she was sitting in a pool of her own blood and other bodily fluids, she held him for another fifteen minutes before her husband, Yoshio, entered the room. His father held him for three minutes and seventeen seconds before he was handed back to his mother.

Or so he had been told.

He had examined, time after time, the story of his birth. He had tried to see what had made him, him, and if there was some way to replicate it. To see if the circumstances of his birth, this set of events completely out of control, had something to do with who he was. Why he could do the things that he could do. If there was some way to replicate it, to replicate him, then maybe…well he'd have his grand plans for the future later. Not now. In several years times he'd have those grand plans, and it would take several decades for them to come to fruition, and several more years for all of his plans to blow up in his face courtesy of his own children….but that was irrelevant now…

Now the grandest plans that Suzuki Touichirou had were to try and make sense of this new world he had been thrust into.

A good smell. Something soft under his body. Something in his mouth. Loud sounds. Something touching his head. Sounds all around him. Something in his mouth…more sounds…moving. Now he's moving. He stopped moving. Something in his mouth again. More sounds. He likes that sound. Something soft. He likes it. Something warm. He likes it.

He can see things. He can feel things. He can like things.

"I think he likes the left better than the right." Said Abigail as she moved her son from one breast to another. He had to eat. That was the first thing that had to happen. She had to put him to her chest and they'd share some skin ship and then he would eat his first meal and they'd look into each other's eyes and bond. That was how this was supposed to go. That was what the book had said. That was what was supposed to be happening.

"Abi, maybe he just isn't hungry. He was just born an hour ago. Come on, let them move you to a recovery room already." Said Yoshio as he checked his watch. His wife could be so much sometimes. If she kept that up then the baby would start crying again. Thankfully all of that had stopped. Now he was just sitting there on his mother's bare chest, she refused to cover up, and he just sort of stared out ahead of himself.

He seemed bored….as much as a baby could be.

"I can't be moved for at least two hours. He has to have his first meal and we need to make eye contact and…just let me handle this. I know what I'm doing." said Abigail. God. He was going to be like this now? She had just finished shoving something the size of a melon out of an opening the size of a lemon and he was getting like this? No. Not today. She didn't know why he got like this sometimes…and usually she could deal with this…but not today…and not in front of the baby. He didn't need this to be his first memory. He was looking up at her…or the wall…or maybe the ceiling…and there was so much knowing in his eyes and his face…a lot for a newborn baby…or at least the ones that she had seen before. Of course her son wasn't anything like any other baby.

She doubted that the world had ever seen a baby like him before.

And not just because of the eyebrows. She had never known a baby to have such bushy eyebrows but there they were. Two of them above two very blue little eyes. He had her hair, too, bright red….and she had no idea how that had happened….but she had been an art student, not a biology student, so what did she know about genetics and inheritance? He didn't look Japanese though….poor baby….but he looked like he was hers and that was what mattered.

He was hers and she knew how to take care of her own son.

"He's not hungry. Just leave him alone and let them move you to the recovery room, alright? I'll see you after work or maybe tomorrow. I have to go now." Said Yoshio as he reached down and checked the time on his watch. Time to get back to work…at least he thought so. This digital watch was so hard to read in this light. No wonder the baby was squinting like that…he was looking over here….of. He liked the sound…or him. Did the baby even know where he was? That he was his father? Did he know anything?

He knew that he wasn't hungry.

Abigail could be so headstrong for a woman. That was what had attracted him to her. Well that and her hair. Red. He'd never seen hair like hers before. He'd seen foreigners before, this was Seasoning City after all, but none like her. None with hair like hers…hair that their son had inherited. Red hair and blue eyes…eyes that were very awake for a baby's and hair that stood up like his it seemed…that was his child. He had a child. He had a child, he had made a human being, and now he was there and…and his son was staring at him and….

And he needed to get back to work if he wanted to be able to feed and clothe the human being that he had made.

"You just got here, Yoshio, and you barely even held him. Just wait for him to eat something and then you can hold him. He has to bond with both of us. Just stay a little longer. I was in labor with him for longer than you've been here." Said Abigail. Touichirou…it felt like he was trying to lift his head…not latch on….and he needed to latch on…but of course he didn't want to eat. His father was leaving. Even at less than a day old he must have known that his father was leaving him….and how he must have felt. She reached down and touched his head….and felt….sort of like a static electricity it felt like….well his hair was certainly standing up like he'd touched a live wire or something….like his father…she ignored the feeling and felt the top of his head.

He was so soft.

"I know. I took a later lunch but now I have to get back. I may see you again tonight if I can get out of work before visiting hours end and if not then I'll come and see you around lunchtime. I'll bring you one of those cheesecake slices you like. Alright? Now I have to go. Goodbye, Abi." Said Yoshio. He checked the time again…and Touichirou was looking at him again. He knew that the baby was looking at him…he was just looking and…and his pupils were so small and…and he had to get back to work. He had to get back to work so he could support the human being that he had made. The baby would be there tomorrow and the next day and the next day. He'd see him later. Or tomorrow. Or the next day.

He couldn't walk. It wasn't like he could go anywhere.

"Forgetting someone?" asked Abigail as her husband checked that stupid watch he was always wearing. That watch cost more than this entire delivery…and this delivery would be costly. Not that money was a worry that they had. No, not at all…and it wouldn't ever be a worry if her husband went back to work…..but really his son had just been born today….but she supposed that this was just the way that things were in this country.

He had to go, that was fine, but he could say goodbye to their son at least.

"Right. Goodbye Touichirou. Be good to your mother." Said Yoshio. He reached over and touched his son on the head…and for some reason there was some kind of static cling to him…and he didn't know what that could have been from. He was completely naked resting on his wife's chest…and he really needed some clothes….but he didn't know about babies or static electricity. He had people who's job it was to know things for him.

Like how to take care of this baby.

Abigail knew what she was doing…well she would if she would just do what the doctors had told her…but that was just foreigners. He'd get used to it. They'd been together for almost a year now. Maybe by next year he would get used to her…her-ness. Or maybe the year after that. It wasn't as though he had any other choice. They were married, now, and they had a son. They had a son who looked just like her and looked at him like…like he knew him…

But that was insane. He was just a baby.

He could swear, though, that the baby's eyes were following him as he grabbed his briefcase and left the room. That was insane, of course, because he had just been born. He shouldn't have been able to see clearly more than a few centimeters in front of his nose. He knew that the baby must not have been able to see him let alone focus on him or know who he was but…well he got the feeling that he was being watched…

But of course that was insane.

"Say bye-bye to daddy…well no, obviously, because you were just born….you're a newborn? Did you know that? You're a newborn. Your name is Touichirou Suzuki, no, Suzuki Touichirou….sorry, I'm still getting used to the name order here….and today is your birthday. Today is March 17th 1973 and it's your birthday. So do you know what you have to do? You have to eat. Can you do that for mommy? Can you eat? Please Touichirou, can you eat?" asked Abigail. She felt him there on her chest….and it felt like he was trying to turn over. She knew that she had to get out of this room, this was for labor, but she wasn't going to get up and leave until her son ate something.

She was his mother and she knew what she was doing.

She knew that this place had it's own way of doing things but she also had her own way of doing things and she wasn't just going to get up and leave because someone told her to. She was going to take the time she needed to bond with her son. She was going to feed him his first meal…and she was going to breastfeed too even if formula less…well like this…but she knew what she was doing. She stood by the choices she made. She would never make a choice without standing by it.

There was no point in making choices if you couldn't stand by it.

She turned Touichirou over. Now he had to latch on…and that was what he did. Finally. She was his mother and she knew when he was and was not hungry…and he was hungry now. He was hungry and now he was eating. Good. She knew how to take care of her own son. She knew how to take care of her own son and he knew how to take care of herself. She knew what she was doing.

What she was doing was feeding her son.

"That's my boy. You're such a good boy. Such a smart boy. You're the smartest, best, boy to ever live…yes you are. Yes you are. I love you the most out of everyone else in the world. You're my son and I love you…and you're such a good boy and you're such a good eater….and I love you." Said Abigail. She rubbed his head as he ate. He closed his eyes…but at least he was eating. There. Finally. This was…she had no idea what to even call this. She had given birth to this person and now she was feeding him from her body and…and she was alone. She was alone and cold and…and this bed really needed to be burnt after this and…and the whole thing was just...she focused on the feeling of her son laying on her chest and eating. That was all. She had to just let the world fall away like how the book had said. The whole world would fall away and it would just be her and him and she would be filled with a sense of love and caring like she had never felt before.

Wells she did love him.

She loved him so much…and this was…this was what she had wanted. She had wanted this baby. She had wanted to come to this country and she had wanted to settle here and she had wanted to marry the man she married and she had wanted this child and now she had this child and…and she was feeding him and…and touching him was painful for some reason but….well she loved him. She loved him and she wanted him and he was just….her son. Her baby. This was her baby.

And she loved him so much.

"Ok, ok, this is mommy shutting up now. You just eat…you eat but can you look at mommy while you eat? That's who I am. I'm your mommy." Said Abigail. She got the feeling, she didn't know where the feeling had come from but she got it, that her son was just a bit annoyed with her. Maybe it was how his little face scrunched up…or how he stopped suckling when she spoke to him….or just…there was something there that just gave her the feeling the he didn't want her to speak to him…while he ate at least….but that was crazy.

He was just a baby.

"Wow…you so are smart….just like your dad. You look just like your dad, you know. You have his hair…oh yes that's your father's hair…my color but that's his hair…and you have his eyebrows it looks like…and I am so sorry for that…and you have my eyes…well we'll see if they turn brown…oh I'm just so glad to meet you! I am, I am, I am…." Said Abigail. He was smart enough to eat when she told him to…well she knew that he was just a baby but she also knew that this was her child and her husband's child and he was smart. He was the smartest little baby who had ever lived. She knew that every mother thought that about her child but for her this was the truth. He opened his eyes and he was looking at her again…and he had really tiny pupils….and he looked like he knew her…and that was just because he was such a smart little baby boy.

"You're going to do great things someday, Touichirou, you will….mommy just knows it." Said Abigail as she rubbed the top of his head. He looked up at her and kept on eating. He was so small…so small and so perfect…and she just knew that he would go on and do great things. He had to. This was her son and he had to go on to do great things…but right now he just had to focus on eating.

So that was what he did. That was how he spent his birthday.

March 17th 1973.