The concoction glimmered in the light; light being reflected off the blue liquid and the glass vial. Another attempt, but hopefully one that would bear more fruit. She was getting used to the failures by now. A displeasing concept, admittedly, since it was steadily proving that clown-faced maniac of a scientist that developing new medicine should be a primary concern of the 11th division; not hers.
“Captain Unohana, are we ready for testing?” Isane asked curiously, eyeing the substance with a small amount of doubt.
Not that she could blame her vice-captain. After all, this wasn’t their first attempt, and by the Soul King she hoped it would be their last. All these letdowns were starting to irritate her.
“I suppose we can perform our test.” Unohana declared after a full minute of mulling over the decision. Any past faults that they’d found were corrected, and there wasn’t much else to adjust, “Hanataro, please make sure to document our findings like usual. I know I have said it multiple times, but keeping written documentation is important for our tests.”
The lower-ranked seat nodded in understanding, the dutiful and helpful person that he was, “Of course, captain!”
Secretly she gushed over how adorable the young man looked, standing at attention with a clipboard in hand and that look of concentration on his face. Add his short height, his all around puppy-like behavior and Unohana almost wanted to pull him close and play mommy–
Ahem. Of course, they were working on the project.
It was only the three of them that were occupying one of the 4th division’s small laboratories. These facilities were nothing like those of the science division, lacking the highly technological equipment or grandeur, but they got the job done good enough for her. Not that they even needed all the strange tools that the 12th possessed; Mayuri simply loved standing out. Not to mention weird everyone out. The scientific experiments that the bleached man performed inside those laboratories… and people thought she was scary?
Well, she was, but not in a creepy way.
Unohana walked over to the vial and picked it up, using the needle in her other hand to extract the serum. A standard dosage by medical standards. Next up would be a procedure that she’d done many times before in her line of work, and these last few weeks too.
“Do you think the refined serum will work this time around? I mean, we did solve all of the previous problems, and we even had Akon-san take a look at it.” Hanataro’s question was voiced so innocently that she ignored the mention of the scientist.
She didn’t have anything against the man – on the contrary! Akon was polite, considerate and a competent leader, as well as brilliant. Unfortunately he was not the captain of his division unlike that ignorant Mayuri. A real shame. Almost anyone would be a bitter pick than that unhinged madman. But she digressed; Unohana was simply annoyed that they had to seek help from that bastard’s division, and she knew he would gloat about it to her face the next time they met.
Unohana responded diplomatically, “We can only hope, Hanataro. If not, we’ll simply consider it another learning experience. But the enhancement serum should be close to completion.”
Oh, it had started around a month or two ago, after one of the weekly captain meetings with the captain-commander himself. There were concerns that the Shinigami weren’t performing as good as they should, which was made evidently clear by the conflict with the Arrancar; one that most people dubbed the Winter War. Regular Shinigami just didn’t meet the power levels of most standard Arrancar foot soldiers, and past conflicts with other enemies such as the Bounts showed that they were indeed lacking.
Normal Hollows weren’t that much of a problem, however. The captains were confident in their troops and didn’t have any reasons to think otherwise, but it was too much to ask them to fight vice-captain level foes. This prompted the question of the captain-commander whether or not they could use new means of strengthening the ranks.
The result? A proposal made by captain Kurotsuchi, who had recently discovered one of Urahara’s previous projects, but had never been completed; a serum to increase one’s physical abilities and spiritual energy. Needless to say, the majority of votes was in favor of developing the serum. Unohana was in favor too, knowing that they needed to adapt to the ever increasing threats to the Soul Society.
The problem? Kurotsuchi was stuck. Oh, Unohana had savored that look of pure frustration and anger on the man’s face after he was forced to admit it. As it turned out, the serum was almost complete, but it required the expert touch of a master healer. The captain-commander believed it was a good idea to place the responsibility of completing the project on her shoulders, which was only now beginning to be the cause of Unohana’s frustrations.
Previous tests had been… well they were contributing. Each attempt at completing the serum brought them closer to perfecting it, and they were so close. Hanataro and Isane were of great importance for this process too. Aside from knowing their medical science, they were good aides. Unohana knew they wanted this to work, even if they had failed more than once already.
But maybe this time they would succeed.
“Isane?”
The silver-haired medic sighed, but rolled up her sleeve and placed her bare arm on the table, “I’m ready, captain.”
Wasting little time, the captain injected the serum by inserting the needle into Isane’s artery, watching the blue liquid slowly flow ebb away. Now came the important part of seeing if the desired effects would take place. Urahara’s notes mentioned that there could be visible physical effects, like the muscles standing out a bit more, but she would keep track of Isane’s reiatsu levels with a special device.
There was no large risk either, so they could test the serum on her subordinate. All the simulations went well, and this wasn’t the first time they’d done it; Isane was safe. Besides, the tall vice-captain had her and Hanataro nearby, with both of them being excellent healers.
Seconds ticked by and nothing happened. It looked as if this would be another failure, though that was simply her treacherous mind speaking, since the test would take time.
“Captain, I feel weird…”
But looks could be deceiving.
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