The man stands before the artificial womb. The only light comes from a bulb shining through the clear wall of the tank and onto a developing fetus that floats in a clear fluid. A hollow tube attached to the belly of the fetus serves as an umbilical cord, providing nourishment to the unborn baby. The fetus moves its mouth in facial gestures, testing growing muscles out, its chubby hands grabbing at nothing in the fluid. A bubble passes to the top of the faux womb with a mummer, the harsh light below lighting its belly silver. At five months old the female fetus has a shock of dark hair on her head that waves like seaweed in the nourishing water surrounding her. The fetus's lungs are beginning to develop and the man knows it will not be long before she starts to become aware of the world around her.

The man is stoutly built but not very large, only weighing about 120 pounds. His face is painted with the similar markings as an Alpine goat. Black with a white skull painted upon him, his hands are painted chalk white and his finger nails are a royal purple. The mans eyes a metallic gold, his ears replaced by gold cones, and a hat with both ends pointed to his right sits on his head. His name is Mayuri Kurotsuchi. Mad scientist, Captain of the 12th Division, 2nd President of the Shinigami Research Institute, and now for the first time he was going to be a father.

It had all started one day when he decided as good as his underlings maybe, they could be improved upon. Thus began is project to make the best second in command he could. One that could combine the best traits of his underlings thus far, as well as its own traits, and some of his own. It took months of research on how babies were made and how their genetics controlled certain aspects of them before he was finally ready to begin. He had known off the bat no sane woman would allow him to use her womb for his science project, so he created his own womb. In someways better then a natural one, but in other ways lacking. Where all other babies developed to the sound of their mothers heartbeat, his grew in a cold silence. But unlike a human mother he could monitor the embryo as it grew each day, from the size of a coin till now and 22 weeks and about a pound in weight.

There is a knock at the door, before it is slid back to reveal Akon holding a tray of instruments.

"I have the new tools you requested, sir."

Mayuri does not turn to face the subordinate man but gestures at the table behind him.

"Leave them on the table, Akon." The subordinate obeys then leaves, the door whispering shut and lack of light leaves the scientist in darkness. The fetus and him, together.

Two months later.

Once again Mayuri finds himself staring at the baby, how fast she grows! It was truly marvelous how this creature seemed to form from almost nothing at all! The fetus is 11 inches long and almost two pounds, and is starting to feel pain. The other day he had taken a blood sample from her and could have sworn it had cried when the needle when in its arm. Such a tiny, fragile creature it is almost hard to believe she will before the killing machine needed to assist him in his duties. As he watches the sleeping fetus the baby makes a face, pealing back tiny lips and moving its mouth as is drawing in a breath. Her little leg kicks out reflexively in the fluid.

He steps back, jotting down notes in his record, then moves about fiddling with vials and tubes. He adjusts the settings on the womb-tank to match the needs of the growing baby inside it.

Nine months passed by to quickly. Mayuri is not surprised to find the day the fetus was ready to be removed from the fake womb was a few days past her ninth month. Now she could survive without the aid of the cord, and the fluids, and the warmth of the machine tank she had lived in thus far. At six pounds and 19 inches long she was smaller then usual babies. Standing alone in the womb room staring at the floating fetus the scientist grips the handle on the machine, hesitant for only a second before plunging it down, starting the draining to the womb.

He watches as the baby floats down with the level of the water then settles on the bottom as the last bits of water drain out, leaving the baby stranded on the bottom of the tank. Mayuri opens the tanks door and stares at the newborn, his golden eyes glinting. The baby coughs fluid from her lungs, the takes a deep breath for the first time in her life. Slowly he reaches out, an awe like feeling washing over the man as he unhooks the baby from the tube, then gently picks her up. For a moment they are at each other, her blue eyes looking into his metallic gold ones with newborn ignorance. She was so tiny, so fragile, so beautiful laying cradled in his strong arms. Then one tiny hand grasps his finger in a vice-like hold and he is no longer a captain, scientist, or a researcher. He is only an awestruck father, holding his daughter.

"Nemu..."

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"Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express. ~Joseph Addison"