"Don't worry, you did what you could." Tami lovingly pets Eeb's pale white face. The dessert spirit whimpers pathetically, trying to curry pity in its master.
"Sh sh sh... It's okay, it's okay. Mama's not mad. I know spirits can't cross realms alone. It's not your fault." Tami reaches into her pocket and takes out a few chunks of parmesan cheese. She lifts them to the dessert spirit's nose, letting it savor the smell before tossing the treats into the air. Eeb snatches them up hungrily. Its teeth are still blood-stained from the night prior.
"So, what now?" Isaka leans against a nearby wall.
"Now…" Tami's face becomes dead serious as she turns from Eeb to Isaka. "You fix what you screwed up. Go find Miss Ryusei and send her to hell. Same with The Batter and whoever else they brought with them."
"Man… sounds like a pain."
"Take Ryukko with you. Think of it as a date of some sort."
"You sure have some strange ideas for dates, boss." Isaka taps her finger against her temple. "Though hmmm… a date in the spirit realm, huh? Sounds… not bad, actually."
"Just make sure not to get too sidetracked."
"You got it boss."
"I'll be counting on you and the others."
Isaka shoots Tami a thumbs-up. "You can leave it to me, boss!"
"Don't disappoint me again."
That's the incubator?" Oe stares at the gigantic vat-like structure. It's so big it takes up both the first, second and third floor of the building. Various pipes come slithering out from the walls and attach themselves to the glass cylinder.
"It's an incubator." Amaru adjusts her sunglasses.
"There are more of these?"
"N-not ones this big… I think." Amanda rocks back and forth on her heels. "N-no wait, there are others that are this big, but only a couple."
"Why?"
"Ever since the process of First-Stage Incubation was discovered by the Lady of Tokyo about thirty years ago, it was mandated for all Inspector-Commissioners to undergo the process and become I-C's." Amaru points at the bathtub filled with blood in the corner. It looks almost pitiful compared to the humongous one in the center of the room. "It's only an improvised incubator but it should work just as well as a real one."
"Who's The Lady of Tokyo?"
"She's the reason why the ICMG doesn't have a research and development department anymore. They've been rendered entirely obsolete by the Tokyo Department."
"Huh." Oe's eyes wander away, disinterested. "Why do I get the dinky tiny incubator and Tami gets the big one?"
"This is Tami's second incubation. The second-stage incubation process requires a larger amount of blood, hence the large chamber. On the other hand, you'll only be undergoing first-stage incubation so the amount of blood needed is much smaller."
"What will it do to me?"
"It will strip you of flesh and replace it with the metal and ceramic needed to house your new soul."
"Yikes."
"It's pleasant. Imagine never being tired, never having to sleep, never going hungry, shrugging off blows that would kill a normal magical girl, wielding power normal magical girls could only dream of. The burden on an I-C's shoulders is a hefty one. This process will provide you with the strength to carry that burden."
"A whole new level of magical girl, huh?" Oe pinches her chin. "Sounds… sexy…"
"In a sense." Amaru leads Oe to the bathtub.
"Will this hurt?"
"No. It's quite nice, actually."
"Really?"
"No." Amaru's face is humorless. "Take off your clothes."
"Fair enough." Oe undresses and steps into the blood bath. "Is this going to hurt a little or a lot–"
She never does get to finish. Amaru grabs her by the mouth and stabs a tube that ends in a thick, hypodermic needle into her back. It pierces through a gap in her ribs, stabbing directly into her heart. Oe's scream is muffled by Amaru's hand.
"C-c-calm down, Miss Oe. It only hurts at first." Amanda's words offer no comfort.
"Focus on the sound of my voice." Amaru's voice is a low whisper in Oe's ears. "Imagine yourself diving into a deep, blue, ocean."
The screaming in Oe's head starts to calm down, however little.
"You feel the cool water envelop your body. Starting from the very top of your head, down to your neck, then onto your tense shoulders, slipping down your arms, creeping down over your chest, into your belly, then sliding down your legs all the way to the soles of your feet."
Oe's heart goes into overdrive as it's flooded with foreign blood. It's scary. It's painful. But she ignores what every single fiber in her body is screaming at her and forces herself to drown in Amaru's words. Just ignore the pain, let the incubation process take its course.
"Let yourself sink deeper and deeper into the endless blue, the water around you getting darker and darker."
Amaru, sensing Oe's calmed down, peels her hand away from her mouth and lets Oe's body fall forwards into the literal blood bath.
"Let the coldness wrap itself around you."
Amaru and Amanda continue the ritual. They attach a dozen more tubes to Oe's body, some to purge the old blood out of her body, others to introduce special oils into her system, and others yet to simply make sure she doesn't die during the process. The blood in the bathtub slowly begins to turn a pure, translucent red as Oe falls asleep.
"Let the embrace of the machine welcome you."
Amaru and Amanda commence the surgery. They begin with the arms, peeling away the skin, severing the tendons and fascia to remove the muscles. Scraping away the ligaments to remove the bones. In their place they install pistons, gears, and porcelain skin inscribed with arcane runes. They continue throughout the body, removing the weakness of the flesh and replacing it with the certainty of metal. Within the hour, Oe's body becomes devoid of organ, muscle, tendon, ligament, and even bone.
"And be reborn."
Amaru makes a sign with her hands. "「Inverse Taijutsu - Machina Anti-Anima」"
Taijutsu, the art of enhancing the flesh. Inverse Taijutsu, the art of replacing it. The blood in the tub begins to swirl. Little by little, it all concentrates and coalesces into a small circular red gem. Amanda gently takes the gem in her hands and slots it into a chamber deep within the machinery, right where Oe's heart would be. The thing that used to be Oe jolts awake. As awake as something that no longer requires sleep can be, anyway. Its eyes flicker on and off, as if blinking.
"What happened to me?" Its voice doesn't come out of its mouth. Instead, it seems to come from the area where its neck becomes one with its head. It looks at itself, beholding its new porcelain skin and the machinery that peeks out from between its seams. Oe tries to take a deep breath but realizes that it no longer has a mouth nor does it need to breathe. It didn't realize how annoying blinking, breathing, or having a heartbeat was until it shed all three.
"Y-your soul has been incubated. You've… hatched. So to speak. Your old body couldn't contain your reborn soul so we had to give you a new one." Amanda hides behind Amaru. "You're not mad, are you?"
Oe flexes its new body. "I feel fantastic!"
"The life of an I-C is one fraught with danger. This form should help you be faster, stronger, hardier, better than magical girls who haven't hatched. Your relationship with normal jutsu has also changed."
"In what way?"
"They're beneath you now. They no longer consume your blood, and you'll never have to call their name to use them. Simply will and they obey."
"I see…" Oe looks up at the huge vat. "So Tami's going to transcend even this form?"
"Supposedly."
"Sexy sweet!" Oe's eyes take on a frenzied gleefulness as it beholds its new form, its new allies, and its new masters. "GYAHAHAHAHAHA–! This is gonna be good!"
"What the hell did they do to Oe?" Daisuko mutters under her breath.
"Give me that." Oka grabs the binoculars from Daisuko and peers at the building through a window. "That's not Oe, that's… something else."
"No, I'm telling you, that thing is Oe–"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's get out of here before they see us–"
Right as they say that, the mechanical… 'thing' suddenly twists its head to look at them.
"We should go." Daisuko flinches.
"Yeah."
"Like, right now."
"Yeah."