In an operating room at Tokyo's Kanou General Hospital, Celestia was in a deep coma due to the drugs she'd been given for the surgery.
She was lying on her back, completely naked without even a gown to cover her modesty.
Yet, almost cadaverous, her normally creamy and healthy skin looked pale white.
The only thing that betrayed her continued life was the slow expansion of one of her lungs (the other collapsed due to bone fragments from her broken ribs), along with the faint beat of her heart, both organs exposed to the disinfected air of the operating room.
Three people accompanied her in the sterile operating room, with only the bed where Celestia slept and two containers for company.
These organ containers, one filled with the damaged organs removed during the operation, while the other was empty with their contents inside Celestia's body.
Of the three conscious people in the room, two were women with no visible features thanks to the green surgical scrubs they wore: long-sleeved shirts with surgical gloves, long pants, and masks with thick lenses on their faces and hairnets.
The only way to identify them as women was by the swelling in the chest area of their shirts.
The third person, on the other hand, was an older man in his twenties, wearing the same scrubs, only dark blue, without the thick lenses.
At the time, none of the three people were operating; instead, they were morbidly staring at Celestia's body on the stretcher.
The two nurses working as assistants during the operation watched with revulsion and horror, unlike the doctor, who gazed at Celestia's open body with fascination.
The older man in charge of the operation was CEO Akihiro Kanou. He looked to be about 50 years old, with completely white hair slicked back and wrinkles on his face, made even more evident by a wide smile hidden beneath his mask.
"I was very lucky," the doctor reflected, his voice filled with joy. "Thanks to the fact that no one else wanted to get involved in such a complicated and dangerous organ transplant without the consent of the patient or her family, I had free rein to play with a free test subject."
"Thanks to that, I only had to call two nurses on my personal payroll and I was able to play with my new subject to my heart's content. And better yet, on the same day Rize Kamishiro was captured." The doctor peered inside Celestia's body in amazement, observing its moving interior. "But to think that instead of an ordinary subject, I would find a diamond in the rough. Not only did he manage to fight one-on-one with the *Glutton*, but he almost managed to win. I wonder what would have happened if I had a Quinque of my own?" His fascination only increased as he read the patient's report (heavily edited to avoid unforeseen complications, of course; he didn't want anyone else to realize the girl's potential). But his interest peaked when he reached the end of her fight with *Subject 1*, where he not only stood before her with his injuries, but was still able to strike her in the neck—(A fatal blow would have been a Quinque).
Therefore, the older man didn't hesitate to open Celestia wide, for the convenience of the operation, instead of the traditional, smaller, and much easier-to-close incision (surely this young woman could bear the greater burden of a larger incision, he decided). That's why the incision extended directly from between her large breasts to below her navel, almost reaching the mons pubis, in a gruesome display of blood and torn flesh.
But that wasn't why the three of them stared at Celestia in silence. Instead, they watched intently as Celestia's insides reassembled and her wounds slowly but surely healed.
The two nurses stared at her, somewhere between horrified and fascinated. Neither noticed Dr. Kanou grafting Rize's Kakuhou into the patient's body while removing the mangled organs, and if they did, neither said anything.
It was a gruesome sight that both nurses watched with growing horror, as if they were seeing something secret and forbidden.
Inside the patient's open chest, small chains of glistening flesh, red as blood, slowly joined her insides.
Celestia's organs were brutally shattered by Rize's Rinkaku, and coupled with her broken ribs, her insides looked like they'd been put through a meat grinder like a human's as they began their terrible healing. However, as soon as the shattered organs were removed and replaced with ghoul organs, Celestia's body reacted forcefully, healing from the inside out, using the ghoul's organs as a source. In just under an hour and a half, Celestia's insides regained a relatively intact appearance, free of most of her injuries.
With a small spasm that managed to slightly shake her body—and the stretcher—a new chain was forged from the already healed flesh before being expelled from its origin toward a cluster of broken bone fragments on the other side of her chest, only for that same chain of flesh to retract back to its origin, taking the bone fragments with it.
When the bone fragments reached their original location—one of Celestia's right ribs—the chain dissolved into a red liquid that melted and penetrated the rib's crevices, gluing the fragments to their original location. At the same time, the nurses paled at the grotesque spectacle.
It was at that moment that the compulsions began; Celestia's breasts shrank as autophagy devoured them to use the fat they contained and continue their healing.
Shortly after, the muscles in her arms and legs followed suit, pushing through the fat in her buttocks. Before long, as her wounds healed incredibly quickly, her once-beautiful figure became increasingly skeletal.
Dr. Kanou, meanwhile, was not only fascinated by the spectacle, but was already thinking of various ways to recreate it once more, if only it would benefit his research.
Unlike her nurses, she felt neither disgust nor horror at Celestia's grotesque healing; instead, she felt only a sickly happiness, a gaze bordering on perverted obsession, and a deeply disturbed emotion.
But the Doctor didn't observe her for her nakedness. It wasn't her alabaster skin or her self-healing organs that captured his fascination. What captured his attention lay hidden beneath a collapsed lung that was slowly re-expanding, and fragments of broken ribs that were returning to their original places via threads or chains of crimson flesh inside Celestia.
What he watched with a sickly fascination was the Kakuhou he had implanted in Celestia. It moved on its own, as if it had a life of its own, with a slow but steady movement, out of sight of the two nurses.
One moment it was rock-solid, the next it transformed into a shimmering, non-Newtonian liquid substance, living up to its name as liquid muscle, as it moved toward the center of Celestia's chest.
The Doctor had implanted it himself in the small of her back, near her tailbone, as befitted its place as a Kakuhou of a typical Rinkaku. But an unknown force caused it to move across her chest until it reached his patient's heart, almost completely covering the throbbing muscle before separating and settling on her right side, taking the form of a second, glowing heart only a quarter the size of its twin.
"You'll be perfect," he commented with a grin from ear to ear as he watched the Kakuhou begin to beat, not quite in sync with Celestia's original heart.
But in an instant, the new heart was filled with new RC cells made from its host's own flesh. "Her body is adapting rapidly to the Kakuhou, or rather, the Kakuhou is adapting her body to the force." His words sounded a little disgruntled, as if disappointed at not being able to go further, but contrary to his words, his smile grew wider and wider, along with the madness in his eyes.
Celestia's body convulsed on the stretcher as the RC cells in Kakuhou's heart were insufficient to fully regenerate her body. Autophagy accelerated, making all her bones visible. First, her newly healed ribs became evident at her sides, leaving no trace of her once-large breasts. Then, the skin on her head stretched, revealing the shape of her skull with sunken eyes.
Finally, her limbs began to look increasingly thinner, with no trace of muscle, but with the veins clearly visible in her pale skin.
Dr. Kanou quickly inserted a catheter and connected a bag filled with a supplemental solution, specially crafted from blood and flesh he had grown specifically for his experiments with a high concentration of neutral RC cells.
As the solution flowed through her body, Kakuhou's heart began to beat faster and faster as the bag of solution was sucked tightly into her body.
It was then that Celestia's body transformed, starting from her new Ghoul heart, glowing vein-like tubes grew that quickly spread and began to form a network along her torso and then her limbs, clearly visible even beneath her skin.
Those same veins moved like tentacles, tightly closing Celestia's wounds. Not only did they stop her body's autophagy, but they also stabilized her to the point that she regained some flesh in her muscles.
Although the seizures didn't completely stop.
It wasn't until the doctor placed a second bag of supplements on her other arm that the seizures stopped completely.
But the doctor was pleased; his experiment not only worked, but exceeded his expectations. "Subject 01's Kakuhou mutated to adapt to the 'Prototype Astrea.'"
Now we just have to see how far he can go with this new and unique type of Kakuhou, he thought euphorically as he tried to cut Celestia's flesh with a scalpel, but the tool broke when he applied force.
He quickly took a small silver audio recorder from his pocket and began to speak.
"The grafted Kakuhou adapted perfectly to patient Celestia Astrea, without her body rejecting it.
In any case, the Kakuhou adapted to the foreign body and evolved into a new form, almost like a kind of symbiotic relationship." The Kakuhou not only transformed the body of the now-named *Prototype Astrea*, but also adapted phenomenally to the RC cells. From what can be seen, the patient's body is no longer vulnerable to injury from common weapons, as evidenced by the inability to cut with the medical scalpel."
He took a deep breath to calm himself and continued speaking.
"This is unprecedented in scientific or medical terms, neither in the entire world nor in all of human history. Subject Celestia Astrea appropriated the Kakuhou, causing it to evolve into a new type of Kakuhou, unique in some kind of heart, and undoubtedly into a completely unique kagune; the possibilities seem almost endless."
"I've only heard of anything as unique as this," he remarked aloud, his gaze fixed on the rapidly healing wounds and ignoring the violent convulsions that began as soon as the second biomass bag emptied of its contents, forcing the nurses to react forcefully in an attempt to restrain the patient to the bed. "It was an extremely rare ghoul mutation that allows the generation of all four known RC cell types, which in turn grants all four types of kagunes. However, unlike the equally rare but more common chimera ghouls, this anomaly was only capable of generating one type of kagune and cannot generate a second type simultaneously; there is only one recorded case, unfortunately beyond my reach, locked away in the Cochlea ghoul detention center."
Still focused on the patient, he stopped the recording and put the audio recorder in his pocket.
The nurses, for their part, tried to stop the compulsions by firmly securing the limbs to the table with restraint straps.
"I trust, ladies, that this will stay between us," Kanou said, ignoring his patient's movements without his usual smile. "Now, why don't you help me close the incision and extract some blood and flesh?"
"Oh, and add a fresh bag of flesh supplements so it can heal." With one last glance at Celestia's convulsing body, Dr. Kanou held the container with the harvested organs before leaving the operating room, container in hand.
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For the next two days, while Celestia remained in a deep coma, Dr. Kanou analyzed the assimilation and evolution of his unique Kakuhou, recording all the information he could discover about his beloved *Astrea prototype* (and with the two nurses relocated to a private facility he owned).
The first thing he noticed was that, unlike a normal ghoul, this new Kakuhou would allow her to eat even human food, or at least consume it without rejecting it.
This discovery was accidental: a nurse inserted a catheter containing a human supplement solution.
Of course, Dr. Kanou was furious, but he quickly calmed down when he noticed that Celestia's body didn't reject the supplements, but rather enthusiastically accepted them.
An interesting discovery, but a bit pointless in the end.
Dr. Kanou expected something like this; after all, small, unforeseen changes in the initial hybridization were to be expected, and even more so during the first attempt.
But the truly useful thing came just twelve hours after the surgery: her body no longer bore any visible scars, which piqued Dr. Kanou's interest.
After all, a normal ghoul would take weeks to heal from something similar, and even *Subject 01*, Rize Kamishiro, was still in the healing process, far behind *Prototype Astrea*. Almost all the scars from the wounds sustained during her battle with *Subject 01* quickly disappeared from her body in the last two hours, while the first ten hours were spent healing all her internal injuries.
After twelve hours, the only scar remaining on *Prototype Astrea* was the large incision scar from the surgery that successfully transformed her into the world's first artificial half-ghoul. However, even that scar quickly disappeared.
The original opening was closed with stainless steel wires and then nitinol staples to ensure complete closure of the incision.
After all, Dr. Kanou hoped for his patient's speedy recovery so he could document the complete changes in his beloved *Prototype*.
But even that concern was unnecessary on his part, as now, just twelve hours later, the incision had almost completely disappeared, and both the nitinol staples and the stainless steel wire were violently expelled from her body by the same chains of glistening flesh that had healed her—which apparently served as pseudoveins carrying neutral RC cells instead of blood.
A sight that not only terrified a nursing intern but also caused her to faint.
The doctor found her unconscious in the room, still next to the staples and the steel wire.
Luckily, the intern hadn't slept in almost two days, so Dr. Kanou managed to convince her that she was just hallucinating from lack of sleep.
But it was at that moment that the doctor noticed the experiment's second advantage: the pseudoveins originating in the ghoul's heart functioned as a defense, and their only weakness or unforeseen problem seemed to be that they consumed a large number of RC cells.
He quickly developed the theory that these veins not only mobilized Celestia's RC cells, but also maintained them as neutral cells. Thanks to this, her healing was not only optimized, but perhaps even allowed her to generate a kagune from anywhere in her body—or perhaps her kagune only manifested within her body as a kind of passive defense.
The defense of these pseudoveins seemed to be the new type of kagune developed by the patient, or at least a consequence of possessing it, much like Koukaku users are much more resilient than ghouls of other types, or how Rinkaku have superior regeneration than other types.
And perhaps for that very reason, her beloved *Prototype* possesses such exceptional regeneration, as her Kakuhou originally comes from a Rinkaku, and a powerful one at that.
The Doctor spared no expense in Celestia's recovery and even developed a new and improved supplemental solution based on blood and flesh, specifically created with an even greater number of RC cells.
This formula greatly benefited Celestia's body, which not only quickly returned her skin color to its normal state, but even transformed her complexion from skeletal to semi-normal.
Just 24 hours after the surgery, Dr. Kanou ordered the withdrawal of the medications that were keeping Celestia in a coma, but she didn't wake up even 48 hours later.
Dr. Kanou deduced that her body was exhausted from the massive healing and autophagy required to heal all the injuries she had been subjected to, so he waited patiently for Celestia to wake up.
After all, as the father of his race, he should be the first to speak to his new daughter, right?
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On the night of Wednesday, October 15th, 72 hours after surgery, Celestia's right eye suddenly opened, abnormally dilated.
In just a few moments, the sclera turned an unusual black, while the veins converging in the pupil turned bright red. But it was her pupil that caught the most attention, as it managed to maintain its blue color for a long time before turning carmine red.
In the empty room around her, the roaring of two hearts could be heard loud and clear, bouncing off the walls.
Minutes passed before Celestia's gaze fixed on the ceiling and her right eye returned to its normal color, only for Celestia to seem to regain full consciousness.
Why, in that instant, before she woke up, the information from the last star was downloaded into her mind.
[Bond] was a simple name for something that wasn't, but they said complicated things come in small labels, after all.
The reason she kept moving toward that star in the void was the intense sense of possession it generated in her.
And that powerful emotion was generated by the power it granted, and it was simple but dangerous, both for her and for the others.
Just thinking about it made her heart race, but that wasn't what she was focused on; otherwise, she would have noticed the second beat.
With her full attention, she could feel a kind of thread connecting her to somewhere outside the room, and in her eyes it was a beautiful purple.
Her last star granted her the ability to bond with others and share memories, powers, or abilities, while also including them in a kind of hive mind that, while not granting them telepathy, allowed her to see all the knowledge or memories of the other members in an imaginary library.
The only real problem was that the [Bond] star had completely dissolved into her body, into her RC cells, as she could sense with her "intuitive attitude," and had modified them in some unknown way.
But the most important thing was undoubtedly the half-formed bond, and it didn't take a genius to figure out who she had mistakenly bonded with.
"Things didn't go as they should have," she knew it was entirely her fault, and yet, "why did I decide to fight her in the first place?"
"I could have followed the canon perfectly; there was no way I could have been wrong." She closed her eyes, but she could only see Rize smiling in her mind. "I'm a lost cause. This definitely changes things."
"But I'll accept it all. After all, I decided to travel to be free, so I'll accept it all. I'll never regret it," she murmured in her sleep, and once again the darkness in the room increased. "I'll just have to kick the canon's corpse." He didn't realize it, but the veins on his body glowed a disturbing red, like tribal tattoos.