Parasite Eve Sephirotto Part 23

Asakura's lips twisted into a smile.

"Get out of her right now."

"...as you wish."

The moment those words were spoken, Asakura's body went into convulsions. Her mouth opened wide, and her eyes rolled back.

Everyone in the auditorium gasped.

A gurgling sound emerged from Asakura's throat. Saliva dripped from her mouth, stretching into rain-like threads. She clawed at her neck.

No. Toshiaki ran towards the podium. He nearly tripped on the chairs and kicked them out of the way as he called out Asakura's name.

Just then, something came peeking out of her throat.

It was covered in a glittering liquid. Toshiaki could not tell whether it was saliva or bile. The thing was a reddish pink and wriggled and crawled out slowly from Asakura's mouth like some octopus, spreading out tentacles to restrain her scratching hands. It spread over onto her bosom and, changing shape with ease, rippling like a worm, proceeded to cover her entire body, which was spasming sharply. There was a sound like bubbling muck, and it was now completely free: pleats of flesh. Some shiny, amorphous meat-creature. It looked like Asakura's intestines had turned inside out to cover the entire surface of her body.

Toshiaki heard it. Perhaps no one else did, but he was sure he'd heard it. From where her face used to be, there had come a faint wail: "Help..."

In Asakura's own voice.

"Asakura!" he shouted.

Just a moment later, she burst into flames.

4.

The auditorium broke into panic.

A hot wind surged down upon the crowd.

Eve 1 blazed like ignited oil. Flames ranged from red to crimson, then blended into yellow, burning so fiercely they seemed to lick the ceiling. Asakura was trapped in a pillar of fire.

Violent screams broke out everywhere as people rushed towards the exit all at once.

Nearly sixty of them descended upon that single door, overturning chairs and pushing each other without mercy. Someone collapsed near the entrance and was nearly trampled to death.

Toshiaki took off his blazer and ran up to the podium.

As he came near, Eve 1's inferno shot out at him. He stooped over, unable to move another step forward into the heat. Asakura was moving about violently on the stage. Her stockings had caught fire, the flames moving up her legs like so many tongues, and her long hair, spread out like a fan, was burning a pale blue.

Shielding his body with his blazer, Toshiaki somehow made it onto the stage. He spread the blazer open, threw it across Asakura, and wrapped it around her. She lost her balance and Toshiaki fell with her, holding onto her tightly.

The blaze enveloped him. He began to choke. The stinging in his eyes was unbearable.

Flames slipped in under his fingernails. Then, someone pulled him from behind, and he also heard Shinohara's voice.

Toshiaki turned to Shinohara, whom he could not see, and shouted, "Get a fire extinguisher! Hurry!"

He swallowed flames as they shot into his mouth, burning the lining in his throat. In between brutal coughing fits, he heard a bell ringing in the distance. Dizziness overtook him.

Something began to fall upon him.

It poured continuously, covering both of them. Asakura's movements weakened. The flames died down, while the floor grew slippery. Gradually, he felt the heat being drawn away. Toshiaki moaned. His body was drenched, his shirt stuck firmly to his chest. He opened one eye and looked up at the ceiling.

Something was spreading out from a single point and falling upon his face.

He closed his eyes.

Water.

When Toshiaki came to, he was on a stretcher.

His eyes popped open and darted around instinctively. He was in the auditorium.

Droplets of water were still trickling from the sprinklers overhead. Smoke rose faintly from the podium as from a blown-out candle. Toshiaki saw a man in white and shouted the first thing that came to mind.

"Asakura!"

"You awake?"

Shinohara peered at him with a deathly pale face. Toshiaki seized him by the shoulders.

"Asakura? Is she okay?"

"Over there."

Shinohara turned his gaze towards a darkened ma.s.s on a stretcher. A few paramedics were crowded around it. It was a moment before Toshiaki registered what it was.

"Asakura!"

He crawled towards her, but a medic held him back.

Almost half of her skin was burned, and her arms and face were swollen with blisters everywhere. Her hair was crimped and smelled of sulfur. Toshiaki covered his face in desperation. He heard Shinohara call to him.

"Don't worry, she's still alive."

He looked up in disbelief.

Asakura moaned. One of the paramedics put an oxygen mask over her face and called for a transfusion.

She was carried away.

"The fire was coming from that creature, so it didn't touch her body directly. Still, it's good the fire went out quickly. Her injuries aren't as bad as they look," Shinohara said, trying his best to console him.

"...so she'll be okay?"

"She'll be fine. There's a special burn victims unit at the Emergency Center. They'll do some skin grafting and it'll heal up nicely.You'11 hardly be able to tell the difference."

Toshiaki nodded.

"You should be more worried about yourself there. You were almost burned to death.

Just take it easy and let them take you to the hospital."

The paramedics restrained him and tried to pin him down on the stretcher.

"No."

He shook them off.

"What's wrong with you?" said Shinohara, surprised.

But Toshiaki ignored him. He turned and ran towards the door, stumbling to keep his balance.

"Hey, where are you going? Wait!"

His body stung all over, Toshiaki kept running. He cursed himself over and over for having let this happen to Asakura. Someone was chasing after him, but he shook off the hands of his pursuer and made for the parking lot.

5.

Toshiaki jumped into his car and started the engine.

He shifted into Drive and floored the accelerator. The car jumped forward as he released the hand brake. He broke through the parking gate and was free. He flew down the street, then veered right, executing a 90 degree turn into a traffic lane. The back wheels jilted and squealed as he ran a red light.

The digital clock on the dashboard read 6:24. Everything darkened as a cloud formation covered the sun. Fortunately, there was not much traffic. He continued along, swerving left and right, pa.s.sing every car he saw in front of him.

Eve 1 had to be destroyed as soon as possible. He could not afford to waste even a single second.

Unfortunately, this was no hallucination. Eve 1 had definitely called out to him that night in the lab. Its shape had changed at the other end of the microscope, formed into Kiyomi's face, and projected his name into his brain. These events were real.

Eve 1 said the day had come for mitochondria to be free. She was Mitochondrial Eve and had been lying dormant ever since animals were single- celled organisms. If she was telling the truth, then in fact it had not been Eve 1 proclaiming its new vision.

It was the mitochondria themselves.

The mitochondria multiplying in Eve 1, curling around one another like roundworms.

Mitochondria, in which he had invested nearly all of his a.n.a.lytical time since being a.s.signed to his current post as a research a.s.sociate in Biofunctional Pharmaceuticals. The very same mitochondria had been manipulating Eve 1, their host.

It explained Kiyomi's behavior in June at the lecture when she confronted Professor Ishihara with her bizarre question. Toshiaki had been in charge of the slide projector and had just stood there in shock when she raised her hand, a completely different woman from the one he married.

After the lecture, Toshiaki had pressed her for an explanation. Had she learned about mitochondria from somewhere? How had she ever come up with such a bold hypothesis? But to the end, she provided no answers. Now, however, it was quite clear where her ideas had come from. Mitochondria claimed to have enslaved nuclei and that was precisely what they had accomplished.

Toshiaki remembered an article he once read about a game called "The Prisoner's Dilemma." Each player had two types of cards, "Cooperation" and "Betrayal". Both players chose an action and laid out their cards simultaneously. If both played the Cooperation card, each received three points. If your opponent put out the Cooperation card, but you put out the Betrayal card, the opponent received zero points, while you received five. If both had picked the Betrayal card, one point was given to each. As the players moved through rounds, trying to figure out each other's strategies, they were really negotiating. It was a perfect a.n.a.logy to the natural world, where different life forms stretched any advantage to its fullest potential while maintaining symbiotic relationships.

The most effective strategy was to begin with Cooperation, then copy the opponent's move from the previous round. In other words, you started out as Mr. Nice and retaliated as necessary. This was called a "t.i.t for Tat" stance. Though rudimentary, simulations indicated that, in the end, such a strategy optimized one's chance of surviving in nature.

The symbiotic relationship between mitochondria and their hosts was no exception.

Nuclear genomes and mitochondria had been living alongside each other since long ago.

Everyone believed that their game would simply go on for good. At least, the nuclear genomes thought so.

What if the game wasn't meant to go on forever?

If the next round was announced to be the last?

In that case, there was a sure hand to play. You followed the "t.i.t for Tat" rule up until the last round; for the last round, whatever your opponent had played in the previous round, you had to play Betrayal. Simple as that.

Mitochondria were ready to end the game; they had already decided to break from their symbiosis. And so they had laid out their Betrayal card.

Now, their opponent could only lose.

"No way."

Toshiaki bit his hp. No way this could be.

The Pharmaceutical Sciences building came into view. He pumped the accelerator to beat out a traffic light.

Just then, the light changed to yellow.

The compact in front of him suddenly put on its breaks. Toshiaki hardly saw it coming.

He swore and jerked the wheel, only to see a sedan in the opposing lane rushing towards him.

He turned back again and barely squeezed between the two of them. The sedan veered off to the right into a row of trees. Toshiaki turned again, almost tipping his car over. A horn blared behind him. He changed gears and accelerated. He came out onto a T cross-street. Skid marks from his back tires reflected in the rear view mirror. He shifted gears and raced towards his goal.

Just how far could Eve 1's mitochondria take their host? Mitochondria were the birthplace of energy, and the movement of all life was dependent on the expenditure of that energy. As long as oxygen and sustenance were present, mitochondria could produce an endless amount of it.

Toshiaki flew around the curve at SO mph. Luckily, there were almost no cars coming in the other direction. The Pharmaceutical Sciences building showed its face from beyond the trees. Almost there.

He could see the bus stop in front of the building. He made a sharp right turn. The car bounced and fell back with a thud. He'd heard something sc.r.a.ping below but pressed on without a moment's hesitation.

The white building towered in front of his eyes. The six-story edifice looked unusually immense. The surroundings were almost dark. There were very few cars in the parking lot.

Toshiaki drove directly up to the entrance and slammed on the brakes, screeching to a halt. As the car settled, he opened the door and ran into the building.