Installation

Down in his secret underground lab, Ryouta had decided that the time was ripe for a drastic change in his life. More specifically, it was time for a mechanical change. For some time now, he and Stein had been contemplating mechanizing parts of their shared body to maximize efficacy and efficiency. Well now, since he was no longer welcome in Soul Society – it was time to make these changes. Ryouta stepped over to his computer panels and got to work. Ryouta called up two separate screens on the one large screen in front of him. One depicted the blueprint for a mechanical arm, and the other displayed the blueprint for a mechanical eye. Ryouta decided that he would first prepare the mechanical eye.

For material, Ryouta decided upon a molybdenum steel alloy. It was a great material, resistant to a wide variety of forces. After retrieving the material, he brought it to an operating table like structure. The first thing Ryouta did was shape the block of metal into a sphere the same size as his eyeball, using a laser cutter to cut away the corners and make it roughly the size and shape necessary, and then meticulously using a blowtorch to make the metal spherical. Next, Ryouta separated the sphere into sections. Then, he used a combination of the blowtorch and a power sander-esque tool to hollow and smooth the sections.

Now he needed to make the complex machinery itself. “Carnot efficiency required,” muttered Ryouta under his breath. He used the bits of heated metal he had taken off the original cube of alloy to construct the device itself. Of course, this required fine tools to do, but that was no problem, Ryouta was quite proficient doing this kind of thing. Basically, he needed two things to fit into this eye – a device that allowed advanced sight, and a device that could store energy and release it. First he constructed the device for sight, using a pair of high-tech lenses, a lot of wiring, and connecting all of these things to a series of nodes he attached to sections of the sphere. Those nodes would connect to Ryouta’s optic nerve and transmit their impulses to Ryouta’s brain. Next, he constructed the device that would store energy. The tricky part was making it small, and also, to fit it into the eyeball along with the sight device so they would work without hindering each other. He created a sort of energy reservoir first, something that could store energy and release it at a thought. However, he also installed a cap – he did not want the reservoir to try to overstore energy. He also created two focal points to attach to this reservoir, so that energy could be released at two points, connected via two extremely durable conduits. Then he began to arrange the contents of the eyeball. He placed the sight device in front, with the wires connected to the nodes going around the energy storing device to the back of the eyeball. The conduits from the energy storing reservoir would go around those wires to encircle the two “pupils” Ryouta carved into the metal sphere. Finally, Ryouta sealed up the whole eyeball with a blowtorch, making it seamless.

His next piece of work was to be the arm. Again, Ryouta selected the molybdenum steel alloy for his work. He started again by using a laser cutter to take off larger chunks of the metal so as to create the forearm section of the device he was constructing. The forearm section was basically a hollow cylinder. Within it, Ryouta installed a similar reservoir type device that he used in the eyeball; only, this one was more potent, and larger. This reservoir was also shaped like a tube. He had to construct the mechanism with which it could store energy with a cap as well, similar to the eye mechanism. The difference, however, was that this energy reservoir would be capable of storing much more energy, and in fact, able to add energy to it extremely quickly as it was released. At one end of the forearm, Ryouta placed a ball, and out of another piece of metal fashioned a socket for the ball to go into. That was the basic joint; to this Ryouta added several electrical nodes to pick up on electrical impulses (so he could move the arm at will when it was connected) and several mechanical muscles, as it were – little bits and pieces that would act like ligaments and tendons and muscle, so that the arm could move. At the other end, Ryouta attached a more rotary-esque joint; that is, it could move in 360 degrees of movement from a vertical point of view, as well as having the same bending capabilities as a normal wrist. Finally, Ryouta added a mechanical hand; it resembled a human hand in every way except it was mechanical, and it had a hole in the palm.

There. Now both devices were complete. The final step was to install them into his body. That was going to be difficult as well. Luckily, he had previously had every single one of his physical measurements taken by his computer. Ryouta strapped himself to a shiny operating table where he stared up into a austere, sterile blue light only he would find comforting. “Computer?” he said aloud.

“Yes Captain?”

“Please engage procedure alpha,” he said.

“Affirmative. Initiating phase 1 of procedure alpha. Administering anesthesia. Standby,” the computerized voice said. A needle descended from the ceiling and pushed into Ryouta’s right arm. Ryouta felt his consciousness begin to slip away almost instantly. The world turned to black…

“Phase 1 of procedure alpha, complete. Bodily functions of subject, Captain Ayame Ryouta have been retarded. Blood flow reduced to a minimum. Now beginning phase 2 of procedure alpha. Removal of left eye.” A robotic arm descended from the ceiling and placed rubber-tipped fingers on Ryouta’s face, holding open his left eyelid as it did so. A mechanized scalpel descended shortly after and immediately began the process of removing the left eyeball. It did so in a way that would keep the eye intact, optic nerve and all, but doing so required cutting around the eye itself a lot. The upper left quadrant of Ryouta’s face would be scarred for the rest of his life. Once the eye was removed, it was placed in a jar full of liquid and sealed. “Phase 2 of procedure alpha complete.”

“Beginning phase 3 of procedure alpha. Installation of mechanical eye.” The robotic arm picked up the mechanical eye from the adjacent table and lifted it above Ryouta’s empty left eye socket. It gingerly set the mechanical eye in place, which beeped in affirmation of success, as the nodes in the back of the eyeball formed connections with the remains of the optic nerve. “Phase 3 complete.”

“Beginning phase 4 of procedure alpha. Removal of left forearm and hand.” A third arm descended from the ceiling, this one with a buzz saw on the end of it. It methodically sliced through Ryouta’s left elbow, severing the forearm and hand from the rest of the arm. The robotic arm with fingers lifted the forearm and hand and dumped them into another, larger jar, filled with the same liquid the eye had been dumped into. “Phase 4 complete.”

“Beginning phase 5 of procedure alpha. Installation of mechanical arm.” A fourth arm descended from the ceiling, this one with a round metal ball at the end. The ball began to spin with high velocity; it was a specialized sander of some kind. It formed a ball-shaped hole at the end of the bone, and then the other robotic arm picked up Ryouta’s mechanical arm and affixed it to the end of the bone. It too gave a beep indicating success. “Phase 5 complete.”

“Beginning phase 6 of procedure alpha. Bandaging and overall cleanup.” A final robotic arm descended, and with the help of the other arm, washed and bandaged the slightly bloodied left side of Ryouta’s face. They also cleaned up the blood that had dripped onto the table. “Phase 6 complete. Procedure alpha, complete.”

Ryouta would wake with a fully functioning mechanical eye and arm that would work exactly to his specifications. He would be very much pleased with himself. But also, with vastly changed appearance, obviously.

Mechanical Arm app
Mechanical Eye App