Parasite Eve Sephirotto Part 15

.

That was what it had said.

"Kiyomi!" he yelled out.

He was not insane. This was Kiyomi. She had come back to him. He called out to her in desperation.

"Kiyomi! It's me! I can hear you Kiyomi! Can you hear my voice?!"

He heard a sound at the Cultivation Room door. Tos.h.i.+aki looked up quickly to glimpse a shadow in the frosted gla.s.s.

Someone was watching him.

Had his voice been heard?

He sprang to the door and looked into the hallway, but no one was there. Whoever it was had run away.

Asakura? Perhaps, but he didn't go out into the hallway to check.

He returned to the microscope, but now all he could see were the small colonies from before. No matter how much he strained his eyes, he could see nothing even resembling Kiyomi's face. Silence returned. All evidence of what had just transpired was gone.

Tos.h.i.+aki stood there for a long while in amazement.

14.

"Are you okay?" came Tos.h.i.+aki's voice, prompting Kiyomi back to her senses.

She awoke to find herself lying on a couch. There was a blackboard above her and a large bookshelf against the opposite wall lined neatly with hardcover volumes with English tides. It looked like a cla.s.sroom at the university, but when she saw there was no equipment of any kind, figured it was a faculty lounge.

Kiyomi gave an affirmatory nod and stood up. She then remembered what happened and immediately placed a hand on her chest. She remained in this position for a while, checking her heartbeat, and felt its usual, quiet, regular activity. Feeling relieved, she composed herself and sat down on the couch. Soon, a young man stood up next to her and peered worriedly into her face.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, um...I'm fine. I'm so sorry to trouble you," she said, bowing her head lightly.

"Well, I'd still take it easy for a while, just to be safe." He scratched his head a little.

"This is our seminar room. It's Sunday, so no one will bother us here. Can I get you some water or anything?"

"If it's not too much trouble...I'll have a gla.s.s of water."

"Sure, no problem at all. Wait here, I'll be right back."

He smiled gently, to put her at ease, then left.

The room was blanketed in silence. Kiyomi bent down her head, sighed in relief, and fixed her collar.

The young man's face floated in her vision like an afterimage.

It was the face she had noticed behind her in the lecture hall right before the slides began. The face she had seen just before she fainted.

She remembered falling into his arms and the warmth in her cheeks.

Kiyomi thought of the letters on the screen. She searched her memory for what they said. A person's name. She closed her eyes and tried calling them back from memory.

Naga...?Yes, Nagas.h.i.+ma. That was the name, or something like it.

Startled, Kiyomi opened her eyes and looked up. I'm such an idiot, she thought, at last recalling who the young man was.

He came back into the room with a mug in one hand.

"Here you go," he said with a smile and handed it to her. She leaned forward and put it to her lips. Iced oolong tea flowed soothingly down her throat.

"Urn, thank you. Mr. Nagas.h.i.+ma...right? Sorry if I'm mixing you up with someone else."

For a moment, Tos.h.i.+aki made to speak, then stared at her face. She knew he was going to ask how she knew his name.

"We met once, two years ago." She smiled as cheerfully as she could. "At the orientation party. You probably don't remember me. I was just a freshman then. My name is Kiyomi Kataoka."

Tos.h.i.+aki looked to be at a loss before a broad smile came to his face.

"Ahaaa...1 remember now."

They then talked for about half an hour. He apologized for not remembering her. She had thought him to be very calm and collected then, and now, talking with him again after such a long time, this impression grew even stronger. Back then, he'd said he was a first year master's student, so she was not surprised to learn that he had graduated already and was now working on his Ph.D. Kiyomi made no efforts to hide her respect. He's so different from me, she thought. He knows exactly what he wants to do with his life. Tos.h.i.+aki explained with a laugh how obsessed he was with his work. She thought it was wonderful when he smiled like that...

She probably would have talked with him more had Is.h.i.+hara not interrupted them. He had just come back from finis.h.i.+ng his presentation. Upon recognizing Kiyomi, he spoke to her in an almost melodramatic way.

"Are you okay, young lady? You really gave us quite a scare back there."

Kiyomi apologized for the inconvenience and bowed her head. The professor talked to her with a paternal solicitousness, asking if she had ever had such a fit before, and recommended that she have a doctor take a look at her. She answered all of his questions until he was satisfied.

"Nagas.h.i.+ma, take her home, will you? Just so she'll have someone with her in case she has a relapse."

As she got into the pa.s.senger's seat, Kiyomi thanked Tos.h.i.+aki numerous times for the ride.

"Now stop apologizing, I'm running out of rejoinders," he said with an embarra.s.sed smile. Kiyomi apologized. He started to laugh. She laughed as well.

The following Sunday, they went out together for lunch and afterwards for a drive.

They exchanged phone numbers.

Kiyomi called him the next day. The day after that, Tos.h.i.+aki called her late in the evening.

From that moment on, their relations.h.i.+p was sealed.

Tos.h.i.+aki was busy with his experiments for school and, even though they met on Sundays, he wasn't able to spend all day with her. Since he dealt constantly with cells and animals, he could not afford to take an entire day off. Nevertheless, he managed his time to accommodate her as much as possible. When he was working on an experiment and had free time only in the evening, they would rent a video to watch together. Regardless of his hectic schedule, Tos.h.i.+aki could not get her out of his mind, and he came to like her more and more.

Kiyomi wanted to know everything about him. For the most part ignorant about the details of his research, she usually asked about it whenever there was a break in the conversation. Tos.h.i.+aki's face practically lit up as he told her about his work in his eager, accessible way. His eyes were so lively when discussing his research. Kiyomi was in love with his pa.s.sion. It was amazing being with a man so devoted to his pursuits.

"Because I provided that data to Professor Is.h.i.+hara."

Kiyomi had asked Tos.h.i.+aki why she'd seen his name on the slides that open- house day.

"I got some useful data when I was still a master's student, and the prof told me I should write an article. I knew I'd be going on to get my Ph.D., so I suppose that drove me too. It was hard since I had to write it all in English, but it ended up being included in a pretty good publication, The Journal of Biological Chemistry."

"Is it famous?"

"It's first-rate, actually. It contains biochemistry-related articles and it's read worldwide.

The slides you saw were included in my article. You might know this already, but scientific journals are divided into two types: those with articles and those with commentaries and more general information. You've probably seen magazines like Newton, right?"

"Sure."

"Those are the more general ones, but they aren't usually considered quote-unquote science. They're just designed to enlighten the general reader. The other more technical ones devote their pages to reporting new discoveries made by working scientists. Researchers from all backgrounds read these journals and contribute articles on their own findings.

Usually they have to write them in English. These journals also have panels of respected professors. The committees read our submissions and decide what is fit to be published. If it's not up to par, they send it back and tell us to rewrite it."

"How did yours turn out?"

"Well, I did this one experiment that wasn't as complete as it could've been. I was told that if I fleshed out my results, then everything would be fine. So I reworked it. They published it verbatim. I actually have a copy right here."

Tos.h.i.+aki handed her a pamphlet, every page of which was filled with finely printed English, accompanied by various diagrams. From what she saw flipping through the pages, it looked like very dense reading, unsuitable for skimming over. Kiyomi expressed a heartfelt admiration towards Tos.h.i.+aki for having accomplished this much.

"You have to write more articles, right?"

"Well, to complete my Ph.D., I need to do three articles in English. My seminar prof included my name in one of his recent articles, so all I need is one more."

"Will it be put out in this journal again?"

"No, you can't get published in a journal of this stature too many times. I want my work printed in an even higher-ranking one."

"Higher?"

"Scientific publications have different standards and some are more influential than others. I think about the level of my research and decide where best to contribute it. Each journal also has its own theme. Some deal with a broad overview of science, others specialize in unorthodox areas. Some have nothing to do with my own research. The ones with the most prestige are Nature, published in the UK, and the American Science. It's almost impossible to get published in those two. The next ones down the list, for the field of biochemistry at least, would have to be Cell and The Journal of biological Chemistry."

"Then this article must really be something!"

"I should hope so. But it's not like I did it all on my own. I couldn't have done it without my professor's help. Also, an acquaintance of his is on the review panel, and I think that helped too..."

Good-natured Tos.h.i.+aki could never boast without qualifying his own achievements.

Kiyomi liked the way he smiled bashfully as he did so.

The third or fourth time they kissed, Tos.h.i.+aki's tongue slid into her mouth. It felt so good she felt feverish. She could tell her heartbeat had quickened, too. Tos.h.i.+aki's hand softly alighted on her bosom over her blouse. She was afraid he'd learn how aroused she was.

Nevertheless, she responded by meeting his tongue with hers. She'd never felt such joy. He's the one, she thought. He's the one I've been WAITING FOR.>.

Kiyomi pulled herself away.

"What's wrong?" asked Tos.h.i.+aki suspiciously.

"...1 thought I heard a voice."

"A voice?"

.

"There it is again!" she screamed.

Tos.h.i.+aki held and calmed her, telling her there was no voice.

She listened closely as she s.h.i.+vered in Tos.h.i.+aki's arms, but could hear nothing anymore.

"You're just imagining things," said Tos.h.i.+aki while stroking her hair, but she was sure she'd heard it. It was the same voice she'd heard just before fainting in the lecture hall. It was high-pitched, but neither male nor female, and seemed to come from nowhere.

Tos.h.i.+aki a.s.sured her everything was okay and placed a gentle kiss upon her cheek. Her heart had settled, but she was still trembling.

"Something bothering you?"

At the sound of Tos.h.i.+aki's voice, Kiyomi came to her senses. He was sitting opposite her for breakfast.

"Nothing," she said with a smile.

It was the first time she stayed with him until morning. She'd been very tense from the beginning, but Tos.h.i.+aki had treated her with utmost gentleness. Her body had been on fire, so shy she'd felt; her chest had hardly been able to contain the wild beating of her heart. But he'd whispered in her ear that she was beautiful, and that had made her happy.

15.

After receiving word from the nurse that Mariko's urinary output was decreasing, Yos.h.i.+zumi went to check on her.

She had gained some weight, and, according to the examination results, her blood creatinine and BUN levels were on the rise. Yos.h.i.+zumi prayed that things would work out this time.

He came into the room to find the young girl lying on her bed. Her face was warm from a slight fever. Yos.h.i.+zumi raised her a hand in greeting, but the gesture was ignored. He flashed a pained smile to the nurse and sat down at Mariko's side.

"So you're having trouble going to the bathroom? Is there anything else bothering you?"

. ....dunno," she answered, facing the other way.