SplaTOON: The Bonus Content!

Woman With a Crown

[WARNING: If bodily stuff makes you feel squeamish, I suggest you skip this story. I for one felt very uncomfortable writing this.]

Mytremia.

A buildup of mucus in the uterus that prevents a fertilized egg from implanting. The only way to remove it is to go inside and scrape it off.

That was all Honoka Bitani remembered of her and her husband, Tasho's, trip to the fertility clinic. The two had wanted a child ever since they got married, but it had been seven years, and they were still childless.

Honoka exited the doors of the fertility clinic with her arms wrapped around her stomach and her face downcast, those details circling around in her head. Tasho walked beside her with his arm around her waist.

"Don't worry so much, Honoka," Tasho said. "We can't give up just yet. If you don't want to go through with the surgery, we have options. We could always adopt, or we could...we could..."

"Go childless for the rest of our lives," Honoka mumbled.

"I wouldn't say that. The sun hasn't set on us just yet."

Honoka sighed. "I feel like it set on us today. Unless, of course, a miracle happens to stop us on the way to our car."

What they saw next wasn't a miracle but a man. An Octarian man, to be exact, taller than they were and lanky, too, with dark skin wearing a dress shirt, tie, and suspenders. However, what drew the couple's attention was his tentacles or perhaps his lack thereof. Instead, he had some sort of dark blue sphere on top of his head. It gave off the same sheen as tentacles, but neither were willing to ask what it was. They were both more confused by how he was able to get in front of them so quickly.

Tasho was first to speak. "Are you a miracle?"

The man said, "That depends. I take it from the fact that you're walking out of a fertility clinic with sad looks that you are unable to have a child or are otherwise impaired in the reproductive system."

Both were appalled. "You don't need to know that!" Honoka snapped.

"Have you been spying on us or something?" Tasho asked.

"No, but I have been hanging around fertility clinics for the past week ever since my lab assistant quit because I was 'too crazy.'"

"Lab assistant..." Honoka repeated. "You're a scientist, aren't you?"

The man nodded and presented the two a business card. "The name's Dr. Sona Etsu. I'm a professor at Tewaji University. I used to work with the Octarian army in production of their Octoling soldiers. I helped design their Generation H. I quit after two years, though. Lower Octarians are no fun, but I have been dedicating my work on the surface to replicating their cloning systems but with children. Not spliced DNA. Actual fertilized eggs--"

Tasho put up a hand. "We don't need your backstory. Why did you stop us?"

"Well, if you're willing to hear me out, I might just have a way to help you have a child."

The couple looked at each other, then the mad scientist.

Tasho and Honoka entered one of the research labs at Tewaji University led by their new "friend," whom they decided to call Dr. Etsu. As they gazed upon the rows of lab equipment, Dr. Etsu rambled, "I tried using glass capsules like the lower Octarians use, but the zygotes wouldn't implant. I tried a softer material. Little plastic baggies, perhaps. Still wouldn't implant. That left me with one conclusion: eggs will only implant on organic matter. Well, that's just great. Where am I supposed to find organic matter just lying around? Then it hit me. My tentacles. What are tentacles good for? Nothing. Absolutely nothing!" He turned around. "That's where this little beauty comes in."