Parasite Eve Sephirotto Part 32

And then, movement broke through the quietude, turning slowly in Tos.h.i.+aki's direction.

Yes, that's it, he said encouragingly as he spread open welcoming arms.

It touched his waist with a warm and greasy appendage, wrapping around his torso.

Tos.h.i.+aki smiled and spoke gently.

"Come now, share your pain with me. Fuse with my cells. Let us become one. If you do, you will no longer be afraid. You were not at peace, because you knew there was another self separate from you, because the life I gave you was trapped in another. I understand your torment. Become one with me. Come into my body. Be one with your father. There's nothing to be afraid of. Now."

Tos.h.i.+aki felt his body melting.

Eve's cells opened the pores in his skin and flowed inside. Cell rubbed against cell, creating friction and heat. All sense of direction disappeared. Tos.h.i.+aki could hardly feel anything. He knew that Eve's cells were pa.s.sing into him, that their membranes were binding to his cells. Her mitochondria were becoming one with his, as were her mitochondrial DNA.

Eve's power vanished in the blink of an eye.

She moved. The friction and heat increased and Tos.h.i.+aki realized he was on fire. He felt like he was flying. It was such a mysterious sensation, a stimulation beyond anything he had ever imagined. Perhaps it was something no living being on this earth had ever felt. Was this what it felt like to evolve? He was experiencing a completely different dimension. Its joys and sorrows could never be comprehended by organisms that hadn't so evolved, nor would such creatures even know what they did not know. Human beings, too, would perhaps evolve to such a point someday. But would they still be in symbiosis with mitochondria then?

Probably, yes. Evolution occurs in the process of one thing trying to coexist with something other than itself. That other could be another organism, or an environment. It was hard to say whether it would be on earth, another planet, or inside cells, but when human beings managed to build a new symbiosis, a new, evolved world would be theirs.

Eve growled as she integrated herself into him. Tos.h.i.+aki merged with her in silence, their strength fading like a dying star. It ends here, he thought. This is where the nightmare ends.

Kiyomi, you will return to the self you once were.

To the Kiyomi I always loved.

25.

As s.h.i.+genori Anzai opened his eyes, there was a stranger reflected in them.

"He's opened his eyes!" screamed the map excitedly to someone unseen. Anzai heard the patter of approaching footsteps.

"Are you alright? Can you hear me?"

The white-robed man peered into Anzai's face and checked his body for injuries.

...Ah, I'm still alive.

At this thought, Mariko's name revived in his brain. He immediately snapped out of his daze and called out for her.

"Mariko! Where's Mariko?!"

"Please calm down. You shouldn't move."

The doctor tried to restrain him, but Anzai would not hear of it. Mariko was his only concern right now. He stood up, ignoring the intense pain in his back.

Anzai saw that he was in the hallway outside the autopsy room. There was a large crack in the concrete. Both the floor and ceiling were heavily damaged. He also saw a half-open steel door off to the side. Police officers and doctors were bustling about. There were several injured guardsmen on stretchers. Yos.h.i.+zumi was on a stretcher, too. His body was covered completely with blood and his right hand twisted at an unnatural angle, but he did not seem fatally hint.

Yet Mariko was nowhere to be seen.

"Mariko!"

Anzai ran towards the autopsy room as fast as he could, staggering from the pain in his knees.

Just when he reached the door, several paramedics came carrying out a stretcher.

Mariko's naked body was lying on top of it.

"Mariko! Mariko!"

Tears flowed from his eyes. He clung to the stretcher, but she showed no signs of movement. Even when he screamed directly into her ears, there was no response. Anzai drew close to his daughter's cheek and stroked her hand. She could not be dead...

"Mariko will be fine."

Someone patted Anzai on the shoulder. He lifted his head in surprise and looked around at the doctors.

"Really?"

"Yes. She lost consciousness, but she's still alive. We found almost no external injuries." Upon hearing this, Anzai felt a warmth spread in his chest. He was too tired to cry.

"Oh, Mariko..."

Anzai held her again tightly, pressing his face against hers. Her skin was somewhat cold, but when he put a hand to her chest, he felt her heartbeat clearly. There really were hardly any visible wounds. How she had managed to avoid being hit by the crumbling concrete was beyond him.

There were scabrous bloodstains in her groins. When Anzai touched them, tears at last flowed hotly down his cheeks. When it mattered most, he had not been able to protect that which was most sacred to him. A deep feeling of regret seized his heart.

"...dad," came a small voice in his ear.

He bolted upright.

Mariko opened her eyes wearily.

"Mariko..."

"Dad...I..."

She moved her fingers slightly. Anzai wrapped her hand in his and brought it to his cheek, crying and nodding. Her lips trembled in an attempt to say something. "I...I..."

And then...

THUMP.

Mariko's lower abdomen jumped.

Anzai cried out. The surrounding doctors gave a suspicious look. Anzai's vision grew dark, thinking that the monster was still alive, trying to eat its way out of her. He screamed for it to stop.

But Mariko pulled him close, then caressed his back gently.

"It's okay," she said. "I'm fine. My kidney...won't do that ever again... Because...it's mine now...mine."

Anzai looked at her.

She smiled back. Her eyelids fluttered sleepily and closed softly, like a b.u.t.terfly coming to rest.

He touched her abdomen cautiously, but there was nothing wrong with it. Just transplant scars and wet skin.

The kidney was now fully a.s.similated into her body.

He held her once again with all his affection. Considering her recent behavior, she would probably never have allowed such closeness save at a moment like this. But Anzai would try his best to reconcile their problems. He would spend more time with her and share his thoughts until she opened up to him. Their real life together was about to begin.

"Come along now, we're going to get your daughter out of here." So saying, one of the doctors gave him a pat on the back.

He could have held Mariko forever, but he put his faith in them as they carried her out.

As soon as they were out of sight, Anzai remembered Tos.h.i.+aki.

"What happened to that man?" he asked the officer next to him. "Nagas.h.i.+ma...the donor's husband."

The police officer's face became grave, and Anzai had the chills.

"What's wrong? What happened to him? Tell me, please."

"...over there "The officer nodded towards the area behind him.

Anzai turned around and gasped. There was a white sheet spread out, with the center bulging up. It was clearly covering something, but it looked nothing like a human shape.

He ran over to it. He heard the officer's warning but paid no attention and lifted the sheet.

"...my G.o.d."

He looked away.

Nothing but a half-dissolved pile of flesh. He could only tell it was face up from an ambiguous human chest. One hand was stretched out to the side, trying to grasp something.

The skin's surface on the arms had liquified. Though an expression was slightly discernible upon the face, it was charred and shriveled up beyond recognition. A jelly-like substance oozed out from the chest and spread out on the floor. The odor of cooked meat penetrated Anzai's nostrils.

"Wait, bring Mariko back here!" he shouted.

Thinking something had happened, everyone else turned around at once.

"What's wrong?" An officer came running up. "Come sit down, please, you're badly hurt. You need medical..."

"Please, I'm begging you. If you just do this one thing, I'll do whatever you say. Bring Mariko back here one more time. It won't take long. Please, I promise it'll only take a second."

The officer frowned.

"Please."

"...okay, but make it quick."

He sighed audibly and called one of the younger cops over. With a few words and a pointing of the fingers, the cop was off into the hallway.

A short while pa.s.sed before Mariko's stretcher was carried back in. There was an oxygen mask over her mouth and an IV tube in her arm. Her body was now covered with a blanket.

"Please put her down over here," Anzai requested. The medics set the stretcher down next to him.

"What's going on?"

But he did not answer and removed Mariko's blanket. Then, he took Tos.h.i.+aki's dilapidated hand.

Anzai placed the hand on the left side of Mariko's lower abdomen, where the kidney of Tos.h.i.+aki Nagas.h.i.+ma's wife had been transplanted.

It seemed to Anzai that Tos.h.i.+aki's hand had been trying to touch Mariko in his last moments of strength, and thought it only appropriate that he should be granted his final wish.

It was the least Anzai could do for the man.

Maybe Anzai's emotions were getting the best of him, but he could have sworn that Tos.h.i.+aki's blackened mouth widened just barely into the slightest of smiles.

EPILOGUE.

"Moving on now to the awarding of master's degrees for Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Sachiko Asakura," the chair called out.

"Yes!" Asakura hopped up enthusiastically and moved to the front of the line.

She bowed gently, then took another step forward as the chair unfurled a large beige-colored scroll.

He leaned into the microphone and began to read.

"This award hereby confirms that Sachiko Asakura has completed the two year Ph.D.

preparatory program and all courses therein to earn her master's degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Congratulations."

He turned around the diploma 180 degrees and handed it to her. Asakura bowed and put out both hands, accepting it reverently amidst camera flashes.