Ninsoku
Chapter Five: Motto Kodomotachi
xXx
Night closed in on the newly refurbished lab that Ko was working in. She ran a hand through her freshly dyed red hair, it's bright red streaks brightening the white lab coat even in the darkness of the abandoned place. The marble print desk before her sat in the corner of a filled lab, cluttered with failed reports and test results, evidence of the project around the room. Ko, Chikara Ko to be more formal, was currently slumped on her elbow with her chin in hand trying to find the missing link of the project. While all others had finally gone home, she stayed to try and continue her research, desperately searching for the answer. Late nights in the lab where not foreign to her, as of the late happening more and more frequently. And what was she doing?
The current goal was rapid child growth. Finding some way to quicken a child's growth, then manage to slow down the pituitary gland to allow the child to grow normally in an adult state. These days, children were forced to grow up at an early age because of poverty and low population. While the wars of this world were waged, nobody noticed seemed to noticed the dangerous decline of the population. Economy only boomed with weapons to kill. She blinked at the tiresome screen. Only a few more months and she would be able to perfect the thesis. With a completed thesis she would easily be able to submit a grant to begin testing on live subjects rather than plants. The new hormone she would inject into the pituitary gland, with obscene caution, was called the reizuKo. This hormone was to speed up the hormone releasing gland itself, in order to increase the output of the growth hormone.
A breeze filtered through the open window in the other corner across from her. Goosebumbs rose on her flesh.
'What idiot left that open? In a clean room environment!' She brushed her hair out of her eyes, tieing it into a knot behind her. A loud sigh escaped her lips as she prepared to leave the lab for the night, removing the long white coat to reveal her work tousled shirt. She placed her glasses on the desk and turned the light off as she rose to clean up a few papers before going home and doing more studying. The chill in the room raised as the lights went out. She hesitating, then scolded herself for her fear of the dark. She'd gotten over that, hadn't she? Rubbing her arms to help relieve the willies, she went to the window and closed it. Turning her hair suddenly stood on end, her body freezing with an angry fear. Eyes widening, she opened her mouth to scream... and found that something smelling of leather, tasting of leather, blocked the sound from escaping her mouth.
"Good to see you again, Chikara-dono." A smoothe sarcastic voice rumbled. Her fear of the dark screamed around her, rousing with something as simply as her nightmare's voice. He was back.
"I hear you're working on a new project..." there was a pause. "One that I'm rather fascinated with. More as Mother is fascinated with it." She strained against her captor.
"Keep quiet, and I'll release you. Make so much of a whimper of help... I'm sure you'd rather not know what would happen." Ko swallowed heavily and nodded, panting breath smattering against the leather glove. It removed itself slowly, but refused to go any further than a strong grip on her shoulder.
"What do you want?" she whispered, shaking. A deep laugh filtered into her ear.
"Rapid Child Growth is your most current project, isn't it?" he hissed softly. She nodded slowly, sweat beading on her forehead. "Those reports said nothing of a live test subject.. and nothing of a succesful plant subject."
Her brow furrowed, wanting to turn and read her captor's face.
"W... What could you possibly want with my research, Sephiroth?" she asked, her courage beginning to return to her as cyncism found it's voice again. "You have no children."
Another deep rumble sounded. It stopped her cold.
"Quite the contrary, my dear creator." He countered. "Another three months and I'll be a father."
She didn't keep the horrified expression off her face.
"You didn't..."
"Of course, it was only for experimental purposes." he said, no inflection in his voice. "Once you find the formula for your new hormone, it should speed up the pregnancy process as well, ne?"
"You'd test on your own child?" she whispered in disbelief. There was a loud snort.
"But can't until you've perfected your thesis... Then you will be allowed to test on the child to your heart's content. But..." His voice turned, warning growling in it, " should you kill the creature I worked so hard to create, I will be sure you suffer in a way you've never experienced before."
Sephiroth felt the professor stiffen before him. He was sure that she'd be easily swayed. This creator, this monster he knew well. Back when he was a child, he had seen her often. In fact, she was only about 19 when he first saw her at the age of 4. Chikara Ko was the doctor that had cared for him while he was still a meager child, watching his growth. She was one of the many conductors of his experimentation. Young as she was, she was a leader in labrotories conducting live pregnancies and watching them grow, and he was one of them. The woman before him could be considered his mother, but she had no connection to him in any other way. It was just the placement of Mother's power in him that made her even considerable to ask for any kind of assistance. Mother would be proud, and the child-bearing process would be shortened considerably with the discovery of a man-made hormone that would quicken the birthing and growth. Soon, within at least 5 years he could easily have created the ultimate Shi, the ultimate Pride of Mother. These first creatures, these were tests. Nothing more than puppets to use for his own will.. He kept his face stoic, but a wide smile was what he would be expressing, should he have the need or want to.
"You'll be coming with me." She stiffened further.
As of now, weighing the answers were impossible. Should she choose not to, she would be tortured and probed until her knowledge was found out, and even trying to hide it now would result in endless suffering. While saying yes meant that she would problably help in the destruction of the world, saying no would just be holding it off for a little while longer. She opened her mouth and let out an earpiercing shriek. And just as she thought, a sharp pain nicked her neck and she lost conciousness.
xXx
The moment Chikara Ko came to again, she was in a darkened room on a futon. The futon was lit only by a dark blue light inspired by the tube that she was sleeping beside. She blinked a bit, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes before looking around. She was in a two-bit lab, something that had just been thrown together without care of where things should go. Testing tubes filled one corner in boxes, where they had just been placed before opening them. The counter were at least clean, as well as the floors and other consoles, and the only thing inside the room that was in use was the humming was the console to her left and the tubing to her right. It was only after really looking up did she notice the bare female inside. She floated listlessly in the glowing tube, hair messily tangling around tubes to help her breath as well as feed her and the apparent child she harbored.
Ko was a bit stunned. Sephiroth wasn't known for practical jokes, and when he said he would do something, he would do it. But this was nearly beyond her list of cruelties. She got up, muscles cramping from the floor, and ran her fingers along the glass tubing. Sorrow for this poor girl's fate swept through her. Her eyes met the bulging belly, knowing that after hours of the carrier's work, she would be polluting it with her ideas, her notions. Somehow, she felt guilty for robbing the child of a wonderful childhood, a beginning of innocence. Rationalization conquered with the countering thought that this was no inocent child. It would be born of a monster's seed. It would be taught to kill, quickly and efficiently, and bring the destruction of an already rotting world. Hopelessness filled her.
xXx
Jesna's sleep was interrupted by a faint tap on the glass. She opened her hazy eyes to find the blurry image of a bright red head, resting itself on the pane. It didn't filter the guilt and condemnation that seemed to pour from the soul standing in front of her. The firey head looked up to reveal a woman's face. She was studying her, not with interest, but with eyes clouded with emotions that couldn't be sorted. Jesna felt exactly what she felt. Hoplessness. Nothing, could be a describing word in her scenario, and the woman standing before her knew it. Jesna willed the woman to look at her as her eyes fell on a silver-haired nightmare, wishing to scream for her to run.
xXx
The heart rate of the creature escalated, drawing Ko's attention to the girl's eyes. They were wide with horror and warning at some unseen object behind her. The stiffening of her back and every muscle in her body knew it could only be one particular person, and by now, she had no fear of him. She turned around and spat at Sephiroth's feet in disgust.
"You kidnapped a woman, raped her to get her pregnant with a child you don't even know will be healthy after childbirth for me to experiment on, and for what?!" She spat venomously, knowing her actions would be causing her quite a bit of pain. The man before her was unaffected as he stared at the woman's stretching abdomen.
"Have you ever felt new life kicking at it's carrier's doors?" He asked, completely off topic.
"Answer me!"
"It's wonderful. It even serves as punishment to the carrier for rejecting me the first time." he continued. Ko eyed him suspiciously.
"The first time...?" she was almost hesitant to assume it but did so anyways. "She had a miscarriage during your first experiment..."
"And now the Ninsoku is going to bear Mother's Shi, without falter. Shi will be strong this time." His hand ran over the portion of glass around her stomach.
"So you brought her here... to watch the pregnancy.. so she couldn't miscarry again.." By this time, Ko had squeezed her eyes shut to the woman and had her hand on her forehead, frantically trying to rub the dizziness away. Sephiroth turned to her, expressionless as ever.
"This time, you will see to it that the Shi is as strong as I was." He began to circle behind the red-headed genuis, noting the shiver running down her spine with malicious delight. "Otherwise, it will be you in there." he said softly. Chikara Ko's body stiffened, her eyes widened as she slowly turned to set a horrified pair of eyes on her captor. The captor who was no longer there. Her choice was inevitable, and as much as she wanted to help the young woman behind the crystal casing, she also had her own guilty desires. Those of saving herself, knowing that the only thing she could do, was to aid in the complete annihilation of the world. A sob worked it's way out of her throat as she slumped into a crumbling ball of humanity, hating her position and hating where she'd been put in Sephiroth's plot. She was the tool. Nothing more, than a tool, like the girl, the Ninsoku behind the glass resting in lost innocences. Letting her emotions run wild for one last night didn't seem so bad. She would regret it in the morning, when she didn't have time. When she couldn't think about it. She sank down beside the girl, wrapping her arms around herself and continued sobbing in anguish.
A/N: Whooo hoooo! I actually did another chapter! I should just do a happy dance!... Oh wait, thats right, I can't because I have virtually NO REVIEWS! Hello! As an author, how do I manage to continue writing without negative/positive preferably positive reviewing?! REVIEW, CURSE YOU!! REVIEW LIKE THE WIND!
Godsspiker!