Chapter 52 - 50 – Baby fever to Baby boom
The second attempt began with silence.
Shinobu stood in the lab, robe drawn tight, hair pinned back, her fingers trembling as she rested them against the chamber glass. Ten new egg cells, once again harvested, once again rewritten with Lunarian fire. She whispered to each of them without sound, her lips shaping prayers that no kami of Wano had ever heard before.
Vegapunk moved around her with his usual mechanical rhythm. His assistants wheeled in cables, replaced nutrient lines, polished the reinforced alloy inlays of the chamber. He did not look at Shinobu except to check her vital signs before each procedure. She did not care.
What mattered was inside the glass.
Two days of stabilization again — long days where each second dragged. This time she did not hover like before. She stayed only during the checks, then walked the empty halls of Egghead with a resolve burning behind her eyes. She would not collapse if it failed again. She would not let herself.
On the morning of the third day, Vegapunk straightened from his console, his old joints cracking faintly. "Stabilization achieved. No deviations detected."
Shinobu’s throat tightened. She pressed her hand to the glass until her knuckles blanched.
The fertilization went smoothly. King’s preserved cells met hers in the controlled fluid, and soon ten zygotes pulsed with the faintest spark of life. Shinobu stared until the light blurred her eyes.
Then her turn came.
Her hands shook as she summoned the power of the Juku Juku no Mi. The fruit’s energy ran through her palms in a shimmer that only she could feel, like pouring the weight of years into her fingertips.
The first surge — one week’s growth in a breath.
Vegapunk’s lenses clicked down as he peered through the chamber. His notes were crisp, clinical: Growth symmetrical. No genetic collapse. Cellular rhythm stable.