#{ i can't friggin' believe i sank over 1.5K WORDS INTO THIS- }

[windstormwielding]

@ad-melixra​ said via In a universe where everyone is born with numbers on their wrists counting down to when they’ll meet their soulmate, send me 00:00:00 for my muses reaction to their numbers hitting zero when they meet yours (accepting):

00:00:00 (nemu :3)

Kōtarō grew up always believing he had developed an impeccable sense of direction. In early childhood, he became capable of finding his way around the woods surrounding Kusajishi. As a shinigami, he found he could easily navigate around any human town he was assigned to, no matter the size.

Put him in the labyrinthine complex of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute, however, and he’ll find himself stumped. The officer’s steps slowed and his eyes wandered, threatening to bug out of their sockets in exasperation when he wondered if he’d already walked by this exact same door three times already.

Finally, the thirteenth’s new Fourth Seat stopped in his tracks after several fruitless minutes of wandering around. Every time he thought he finally made it near the exit, it almost felt as though the hallways were purposely looping him around. Every attempt to mentally map out his whereabouts left him starting from scratch over and over.

Delivering that report to Captain Kurotsuchi, at his own Captain’s request, was supposed to be a straightforward task. Ukitake had fallen ill again, which meant Kiyone and Sentarō would be preoccupied and tending to his needs—with the Third Seats busy, the task had fallen to him as the Fourth.

Kōta could not walk out of that man’s office faster. The way Mayuri eyed him down, it almost felt as though he was already working out how best to cut him open. He could not recall the last time he felt that uncomfortable...

...but feeling so confined in these halls, devoid of all natural lighting with fluorescents flickering above and wires hanging loose from the ceiling? This was starting to feel like a close second.

It would be another matter if he at least walked by one of the scientists or ran into a lab assistant, but he had not seen another living soul since he met with the Twelfth Division’s Captain. He noticed he haven’t even walked by a lab since his aimless wandering began. Anxiety gripped at the silver-haired’s heart and seized his lungs as he found it harder to breathe now. How was he supposed to get out? Was the air in here always so stale and stuffy?

“Where IS everyone-?!” he hissed to himself, his composure beginning to wear down and give rise to frustration.

His denreishiki broke the silence with an audible beep, pulling his attention to the device ringing in his pocket. Finally, a distraction! Probably one of his superiors looking for him—having lost track of time, Kōta reasoned he should have been back at the barracks by now.

Retrieving the phone from his pocket, he realized the unknown caller ID on his screen suggested otherwise. A wrong number? Maybe a misdial?

Chancing to answer, he brought the denreishiki up to his ear and answered. “Hello?”

“Do you believe in destiny, Kōtarō-san?”

“What the-?”

It was a woman’s voice—unfamiliar and monotonous to his ears, but serene and apologetic all the same. Was she a scientist?

Whoever she is, she knew who she was addressing, so she has his undivided attention. “...what do you mean?”

“I needed to narrow down the variables and ensure there would be as little interference as possible for my hypothesis. Isolating you was a requirement to that end, but I see I have made you uncomfortable in my endeavours. For that, I apologize, but I hope you will understand in due time that needs must.”

She can see him?

Keeping the phone pressed to his ear, Kōta took a moment to look around the hall. There was no one to be seen, and his senses weren’t picking up on another presence nearby—even then, he found his spiritual sense could not extend beyond the walls in his immediate vicinity. Something in this building was interfering with his reikaku, adding to his uneasiness.

He returned his focus to the mystery woman on the phone. Whatever the circumstances, she was the only anchor he had—and his only hope to get out of this building. “What kind of endeavours?”

“How much time remains on your wrist, Kōtarō-san?”

...huh?

The tension in his shoulders almost dissipated, but the inquiry almost got his heart racing. That fabric of romance weaving two souls together, the backbone of unions in this strange world of theirs, the alluded red string of fate—that matchmaking soulmate countdown, is that what this is about?

Wait, when was the last time I even checked-?!

The fourth seat raised his arm high, letting gravity pull the loose sleeve of his uniform down, then brought the numbers to life for the first time in years.

The sight left his body flush with warmth and his nerves on edge. He almost dropped his phone from shock and his stance staggered, bringing him to set a foot back to keep himself standing.

“...three minutes, fourteen seconds,” Kōta murmured breathlessly, just loud enough for the woman on the denreishiki to pick up. He couldn’t believe his eyes. He couldn’t believe it was almost over, just like that.

“...I see. Our countdowns are aligned, as I suspected. One moment.”

Before he could process what she had just said, the wall to his right split open as a hidden passage made itself known.

"...there is such a thing as being too keen, you know,” he couldn’t help but chuckle. Slowly, his claustrophobia became more and more of an afterthought, and his heart was no longer racing out of fear, but racing it still was out of anticipation for what’s to come.

This... oh my god, this is it.

Another glance was spared to the countdown. Two minutes fifty.

“Please, hurry. I can only continue diverting these hallways for so long.”

In that moment, Kōtarō could hear voices coming from around the corner. It was still distant, but they were closing in. Taking that as his cue to leave, he jogged into the opening, then the walls shuttered silently behind him.

...

Under the one minute mark now. His pace was slow and steady down this narrow corridor, careful not to make any noise or trip on any of the bundles of wires. Kōta knew he was not supposed to be in here, lest 12th division shinigami or random researchers on the other side get alerted to his presence, but he had to see this through.

No—as fate allows it, he will.

The mystery woman had hung up on him, leaving Kōta to follow the trail of the dim lights to his destination in relative silence. The only sounds he could hear right now were the soft hum of the electronics in the walls, and his heartbeat pulsing in his ears and throughout his body.

Finally, he reached the corridor’s end—a dead end, at that. Still, he held his head high and waited, sparing one last look to the countdown. Five, four, three, two, one...

00:00:00

Right on cue, the wall before him parted, though the sudden intensity in lighting forced him to shield his eyes behind an arm for a moment. He didn’t count on this room in particular being so bright!

“I hope you will forgive me my curiosity. I had only discovered the countdown for myself four months ago when I had willed the numbers into existence on a whim.”

Kōtarō perked up at the sound of her voice, and he was sure he felt his heart skip a beat right then. It sounded so crystal clear to his ears, especially now that he wasn’t hearing it over the phone. Slowly, he lowered his arm as his vision began to adjust...

“I was... perplexed to find I had such a capability at all—whether I could from the moment of my creation or evolved to bear the countdown remains unknown to me. All the same, I do not believe Master Mayuri intended for such an outcome when he first conceived of the Nemuri Project...”

Wait, creation? Nemuri Project-?

The fourth seat eased his stance and eased up on his squinting, only to find the woman he sought stood before him with little regard to personal space. Taken by surprise at how close her presence was, he could not find it in himself to pull away from her. Emerald met jade as Kōtarō found himself lost in her eyes.

“...but the matter that you and I are ‘soulmates’ still stands. What I believed to be a theory when you, a stranger to these walls, entered our grounds in your Captain’s stead is now empirical fact. My hypothesis was correct.”

As clinical as her approach on the topic was, as passive as her expression remained (and without a visible blemish on her skin, no less)... he couldn’t help but find her endearing, and himself mystified by her.

"W... who are you?” he finally spoke, his heart racing from the hint of a smile he earned from the artificial soul named Nemu—the woman who would be revealed as Mayuri Kurotsuchi’s new lieutenant the next day.

“You haven’t yet answered my first question...

Do you believe in destiny, Kōtarō-san?”