Chapter Text
Suguru laid on the cold, metal table. She stared at the dark ceiling as a cool metal blade entered and slid down her stomach. The feeling pinched, but otherwise it was numb. She looked at the figure. It was a woman with pale skin, black bob, and she was absolutely beautiful. She had a scar across her forehead. Just like Suguru did, and so did the people in the neon green liquid filled chambers. The woman pulled the blade away from Suguru's skin. She watched as the wound quickly regenerated and healed itself.
"Perfect," she whispered. "Ms. Geto, you are truly my most wonderful patient yet." She looked at the people in the chambers. Suguru slowly rose up, her shirt falling over her stomach. Her head suddenly had a pounding pain, her hand flew to her head and she groaned.
"Hm," the woman considered. "You're not perfect though, you still have remaining symptoms from your previous conditions." The woman swiftly walked to Suguru and gently rubbed her thumb over Suguru's scar.
"You being premature may be to blame for that." She froze her thumb over a pulsating bump within the scar. "Or, perhaps the device chip?" She stayed still before shrugging and walking over to the people in the chambers. They're all positioned like fetuses.
"Doctor Kenjaku?" Suguru managed, her throat was all scratchy.
"Hm?" She was in front of the chamber with a man, his hair impressively stayed in the shape of spiky pigtails. Suguru always wondered what the liquid was.
"What do I do now?" Kenjaku turned towards Suguru and smiled.
"You'll be my assistant, your modifications will prove useful." Suguru looked at her hands and sighed. She tried to ignore that there was a malicious conscience in her mind, the fact her eyes felt weird, and that she feels things slightly poking from underneath her skin, yet sees nothing.
Suguru shot up and almost fell off the couch. She was in a cold sweat and felt around her body. No more things in her skin, no more cold metal, no more problems with her eyes. The only thing remaining from the dream was the headache. She looks around, right. She's in Satoru Gojo's apartment sleeping on the couch. She'd been living with her for five months. Memories started coming back to her slowly. Over the next couple hours in the dead of night she remembered donating her body to science due to having a brain tumor that would kill her in less than a month. She remembered her old apartment, her old life. She remembered working for Doctor Kenjaku while slowly losing any sense of self. She all of a sudden shot up and put on her shoes. She quietly walked to the front door and grabbed Satoru's keys.
"I remember how to drive Satoru, don't worry," She sarcastically stated. It didn't take her long to get to the car.
The apartment had no image within Suguru's head. When she got to the address she remembered, she had no idea what to expect. As she walked to the apartment building, she remembered a multi-seasonal reef on her door that had an extra key hidden within it. Walking into the apartment, she took a deep breath. The smell was so familiar, yet so foggy. The walls were covered in band and local artists posters and prints. There were plants spread through the apartment on multiple windows and plant stands. There were a couple of clothes and shoes strewn about the apartment. There was nothing inherently special about it. She decided to start looking. Looking for a wallet, keys, documents, pictures, anything that could tell her of the little nuances in her life. She then realized, who the hell was paying for her apartment all this time? They would've sold the place by now if no one was paying for it. Whatever. Suguru went looking.
Satoru slowly stirred awake. Her eyes slowly got used to the sun coming in from the window, she got up and closed the curtains to make the process easier. She stretched out her arms, rolled her shoulders, twisted the top of her torso left and right, and did a couple lunges to stretch. She let out a sigh as she walked out of her room. The floor was cold on her feet, and the apartment was weirdly cold. She sort of regretted not switching her thin pajama shirt and shorts for actual clothes. She walked to the kitchen slowly and did her morning routine of pouring cereal. As she grabbed a spoon, she looked at the empty couch in the other room.
"Suguru?" She called out. No answer. She walked towards the bathroom that's in the hall to the bedroom. Maybe she missed the closed door? It was wide open. She noticed that Suguru's shoes that Suguru had taken off in front of the couch were gone. She went to the front door and checked the key dish.
"Damn it!"
She was inspecting her bike when she got the call. She was admiring the sleek black bike as if it were a piece of art. When she felt her phone vibrate in the pocket of her pajama sweats, she answered before looking at who called.
"Suguru Geto here." She sighed. She did not at all expect to hear a woman yelling on the other side of the phone.
"You better not have totaled my car!" Suguru pulled the phone away from her ear and groaned.
"Your car is fine!" She yelled over Satoru's annoying complaining. There was a silence between the two of them. Suguru huffed.
"Sorry for taking the car and not telling you, it was an emergency." At the same time though, Suguru was bored of waiting for Satoru to go places.
"Did you remember something, Suguru?" Suguru got a shiver and her breath hitched at the way Satoru basically purred her name. Admittedly, Suguru did the same thing to Satoru, but Satoru hadn't done it back. After months of living together Satoru had yet to do it back.
"Uhm, yeah, I did." Suguru itched the nape of her neck. "I'll have to show you, I'll come back, and if you want you can drive." Satoru didn't answer for what felt like a minute, but was actually only ten seconds.
"Sure, see you then." And the call ended.
"Poor baby," Suguru stroked her bike seat. "I'll be back." She sighed before going to the car that was in the guest area, outside the garage.
When Suguru got back to their shared apartment, Satoru hugged her.
"I'm glad you're safe," Suguru smiled, glad that Satoru wasn't too upset. Then Satoru slapped her across the face.
"Now give me my keys." Suguru begrudgingly dropped the keys into Satoru's hand before lightly rubbing the side of her face. Satoru almost walked out the door, before realizing that Suguru had a tight leather jacket on, one that she didn't buy. Suguru noticed Satoru's staring.
"I'll tell you when we get to the place, I'll give directions." Satoru nodded.
"Well, it looks good on you."
The drive was a little more awkward then usual, but it was fine. There were little specks of conversation here and there after Suguru gave her directions. When they pulled up to the apartment building, Satoru gasped.
"You remembered where you lived?" Satoru looked over to Suguru in the passenger seat, she nodded. Satoru quickly unfastened her seatbelt and gave Suguru a big smooch on her cheek.
"This is amazing progress! I'm so proud of you!" She then jumped out of the car and to the entrance, waiting for Suguru. She swallowed the lump in her throat before going after Satoru.
They go into the apartment's garage, since Suguru has the key now. Suguru immediately runs back to her bike before going to the apartment.
"Is this yours?" Satoru kicked the tire with her foot before Suguru stared daggers at her. Satoru made sure to take a big step back from the bike.
"Yes, I love her so much." Satoru watched as Suguru basically coddled her bike for way too long. When she finally got up and headed towards the actual apartments, Satoru was more than relieved. Suguru lived on the third floor near the end of the hall. When Suguru took the key and entered the room, Satoru was amazed by how much natural light flooded in. The place was decorated with so many things, and displayed Suguru's personality and interests perfectly. Her mouth was agape. Suguru turned to a dresser right by the door, that's where she put everything she had found.
"I found my wallet, polaroids, documents, all that stuff when I was here this morning." Satoru immediately grabbed at the shoebox of polaroid photos. She loved looking at photos, they were always so interesting. Suguru didn't look thrilled to be left with the documents.
"Did you look through any of this yet?"
Satoru made her way to the couch on the right of the open room.
"Not yet." Suguru followed Satoru to the couch as well. They both sat down and looked through the information. Suguru went through more legal, medical, and factual documents while Satoru got to look at the cute photos Suguru had taken. Suguru mostly took cute photos of animals, cool things on the street, and herself. One thing that was constant was whenever Suguru had a massive change, she took a picture of herself or the thing she got. She had a picture with her motorcycle when she first got it, her apartment with all the boxes packed, and her piercings. However, one thing Satoru noticed was there was a photo of a topless Suguru with nipple piercings. She quickly hid her flushed face before showing Suguru.
"What happened to your peircings?" Suguru turned her head and studied the photo. She took it in her hands.
"huh, I don't know, but I've noticed their still open." Satoru nodded as she continued to look through the photos. More stray cats, flowers, graffiti on walls. She barely noticed when Suguru had gotten up and went towards the hallway on the opposite side of the apartment. Satoru stumbled across a photo of Suguru in a hospital gown with a sad face and a thumbs up. She had tear stains and red puffy eyes. When Suguru sat back down, Satoru jumped.
"I found the peircings!" Satoru put the photo back in the pile mindlessly.
"Oh, cool!"
When they got to the lab, Suguru said she had a surprise for Satoru. Satoru stood by the working shower as Suguru grabbed the trolley with the scalpels and blades. Suguru stood two inches away from Satoru and stared into her eyes. She took the blade and took it to her face. Satoru's eyes bulged as she watched Suguru slash open her own face. The shock stunned Satoru. She tried to swat Suguru's hand away from her own face but she kept slicing. Satoru then realized that where Suguru started, at her temple, was smooth and clean. As if nothing happened. When Suguru lowered her hand, almost the whole cut was gone. Satoru grabbed both sides of Suguru's face and turned it rapidly left and right as she continuously said, "Huh?!"
"Shhh.." Suguru coos, she lifts a finger to Satoru's lips. She has remained in eye contact this whole time. When she speaks, it's in a hushed whisper.
"I am able to regenerate to a degree, I donated my body to science, and this," She lowers her hand and gestures to her body. is the result." Satoru's heart rate is racing uncomfortably as she stares at Suguru's lips. She slyly smiles as she slowly backs away from Satoru, staring with her beautiful golden and purple eyes. Satoru clears her throat and turns away. She needs to look at the organ donor sample again. She needs to get Suguru standing close to her and Suguru's hair tickling Satoru's face and neck out of her head.
While expecting the body sample, which was just the body's preserved head, who was identified as Toji Fushiguro, Satoru noticed Suguru uncomfortably fidgeting with her uniform.
"Damn, this costume doesn't fit me right!" She whined.
"Oh yeah?" Satoru inspected the incision she made, it was subtle but it healed very, very slowly.
"Yeah, ever since I've been gaining muscle again, it doesn't fit my chest area or my arms anymore! It digs into my armpits!" That's when Satoru realized Suguru was obsessively tugging at her short sleeves. Satoru hums.
"I can get you a bigger size, no worries." There was a long silence as Satoru inspected the head, looking for any spots to where the regeneration didn't work. She noticed a subtle bump in the man's forehead that wasn't there before. Suguru sighed.
"Thank you." Satoru looked up, Suguru had a big smile on her face, one that closed her eyes in the process. Satoru's chest felt as though it was going to burst at the sight. Satoru cut a safe distance away from the bump and carved a large square on his forehead. She grabbed tweezers and pulled up the layers of skin, along with them came a metal chip or device.
"It's some kind of computer chip." Satoru heard Suguru's pen scratching against the paper. She didn't see Suguru rubbing her scar.
"Do you know anything about this?" Satoru asked. Over the past few months they've figured out that Suguru and this man, Mr. Fushiguro, were connected somehow. From the striking similarities to Suguru's hazy dreams and memories.
"I think so, it modifies you in some way." Satoru looked over to Suguru.
"You mean regeneration?" Satoru watched as Suguru hesitated before shaking her head.
"No, no, something else." Satoru went back to staring at the chip. Something else, she thought. There was more than regeneration? Hell, Satoru would stop there and release her findings immediately.