Vampirzahn

Kapitel 27

The middle-aged man in the suit looked astonished.

Section 66

"Parasite Eve"

Chapter Fourteen

Mariko couldn't take her eyes off the water droplets.

She couldn't see anything else; her entire gaze was fixed on the bottom of the faucet. The faucet was only as thin as a person's index finger. Under Mariko's gaze, another drop of water swelled up, growing larger and larger until it was completely unrecognizable, then suddenly took the shape of a teardrop and fell with a "plop." This sound reminded Mariko of the footsteps.

It was the sound from her dream. Someone wearing thin plastic slippers was walking down the corridor, dragging their feet with unnaturally slow steps. Mariko finally understood; the dream had foreshadowed it. The footsteps were actually the sound of dripping water. "Plop."

Another drop fell. The instant it dripped, another drop appeared from the tap, beginning the exact same process: gradually growing larger, its surface trembling, then falling with a "plop" like a bead. Then, another drop emerged from the tap. The water dripped faster and faster, eventually forming a thin thread. "Plop plop plop..."

Suddenly, accompanied by an explosion, something sprayed out of the drain.

Mariko screamed, but she couldn't close her eyes; her eyelids were taut, and she couldn't blink. Her vision froze. In that instant, Mariko didn't understand what was happening; she only felt something moving at an alarming speed before her eyes. The sound of dripping water was the sound of footsteps. The thing was accelerating, faster and faster, faster and faster, coming this way, coming, coming, almost into the room, emerging from the faucet. Mariko thought this. It came out! But not from the faucet, but from below, from the drain of the sink. Reddish-brown sewage gushed out, shooting straight up to the ceiling, forming a huge jet of water, within which the thing danced. Mariko tried to see its whole form, but her gaze was fixed on the faucet, unable to look away. Mariko gritted her teeth and forced her pupils wide open.

A sharp, piercing scream, like a steam whistle, suddenly rang out. The drain spouted water like an intermittent fountain. At that moment, something cold splashed onto Mariko's body, and her kidneys seemed to rejoice. "Thump thump thump..."

The kidneys made a sound like they were beating a large drum.

The sound immediately spread throughout Mariko's entire body.

"Parasite Eve"

Chapter Fifteen

"Who are you? How do you know about Mariko?"

Anqi asked the man. He mentioned a fourteen-year-old girl who received a kidney transplant in July, meaning Mariko was the only one in the hospital. The man knew all this, and not only that, he even knew Mariko was facing some kind of danger. Although the man was dressed in rags, his eyes were very serious; he didn't seem to be joking. His face shone with intelligence, and Anqi concluded that he was definitely not a vagrant spouting nonsense.

Anqi snatched the man from the security guard and stood in front of him.

The man asked, "Who exactly are you...?"

“I am Mariko’s father. The father of the patient you mentioned.”

"He had a kidney transplant..."

"Yes, weren't you just talking about Mariko? What exactly happened? Please tell me."

The man's expression became even more astonished.

Section 67

"...That's great. You must know where your child is right now, right?"

"certainly."

"Please take me there! It's terrible! Your child has become prey and is about to be attacked."

"Wait a minute, who are you? How do you know about Mariko?"

"Your child's transplanted kidney was donated by my wife."

"What?"

Anqi stared at the man's face, speechless, as he gazed at the husband of the kidney transplant donor.

Anzai had never met the donor, nor even heard of her name. All he knew from Yoshizumi was that she was a twenty-five-year-old woman who had died in a car accident. Furthermore, Anzai himself hadn't intended to find out more; he had never seriously considered the issue of the donor. Now, suddenly, a man claiming to be the donor's husband appeared, and Anzai felt this couldn't be real. But Anzai decided to believe him. He couldn't ignore the man who said Mariko was in danger.

The man, who identified himself as Toshiaki Nagashima, eagerly told Anzai, "Because of my mistake, this has led to a disaster. Anyway, there's no time to chatter with you here now. Please, take me to the ward, okay?"

"What happened?"

"We'll talk about that later, hurry up!" The man grabbed Anqi's sleeve.

The security guard, looking displeased, tried to pull the two apart.

"Wait, what are you all talking about? Anyway, here..."

Li Ming rammed the security guard hard with his body.

Caught off guard by the sudden bump, the burly security guard stumbled. Taking advantage of the moment, Li Ming forcefully pulled An Qi's hand.

Where are the hospital wards?

"right."

"Anqi replied. Liming started running. Anqi quickly ran ahead of Liming to lead the way."

"Wait, you two!" The security guard's angry roar came from behind, but Anqi and Liming continued running down the corridor.

As Anzai ran, he asked Rimei, "What happened? What's wrong with Mariko?"

“Something unexpected has taken up life in my wife’s cells.”

"Parasitism? Is it bacteria? Did Mariko get infected with something?"

“That’s the problem. But it’s not just that; things are getting even more terrifying now. I have my wife’s cells, and they possess a power.”

What was Liming saying? Anqi couldn't understand the meaning. However, Anqi unconditionally believed that Mariko's kidney was different from ordinary kidneys. He recalled that when Mariko had her attack yesterday, the area where the kidney transplant had been performed suddenly bounced up like a shrimp.

"That thing has a special ability; it can start a fire, and it can change its shape at will. That thing should be at the hospital by now."

"You're here?"

"From the sewer pipes."

“It’s it!” Anzi exclaimed.

You know?

“I heard a terrible sound at the door five minutes ago.”

"And then what happened? Where did that voice go?"

"They disappeared from this hospital."

"...Damn it."

Anqi turned down the corridor, ran up the stairs, then rushed back into the corridor and ran toward the ward.

Liming fell silent, a silence that signified the gravity of the situation. Although he didn't know exactly what it was, the thought of something enormous and terrifying approaching Mariko, and the threat of attack, sent a sharp, agonizing tension through Anzai's body. Driven by this feeling, Anzai sprinted at full speed, breathless.

It seemed the security guards had brought reinforcements; from a distance behind, the sound of several people running together could be heard.

"Parasite Eve"

Section 68

Chapter Sixteen

Yoshizumi could no longer make a sound.

Something gushed from the sink drain. It wriggled softly, and as soon as it touched the wall, it slid off in a sticky mess onto the floor like pink mud. Another piece, left in the sink, began to slowly slide down the edge. The two pieces mingled on the floor, then, with an unpleasant squeak, swelled up. Two nurses huddled together, sitting on the floor, wailing and crying. Mariko's eyes were wide open, motionless, without even a scream. But her upper body trembled and swayed back and forth, perhaps from sheer shock; she was completely frozen. The thing continued to flow like gel as it rose. Yoshizumi involuntarily stepped back, her knees shaking uncontrollably, almost collapsing. The thing continued to extend upwards, like a waterfall flowing backwards. Foul-smelling, dirty water gushed from the drain with a hissing sound. The thing, bathed in dirty water, reflected the light, revealing its enormous shape. Yoshizumi's calf bumped into something. He lost his balance, instinctively bracing himself against Mariko's bed. Yoshizumi landed hard on the edge of the bed, his fingertips touching Mariko's feet. The thing stood tall like a pillar, growing higher and taller, gradually transforming into a complex shape. Its top rounded, from which many tiny things began to grow with a "rustling" sound. The center of the pillar thinned, and tentacle-like things began to separate from the sides. Yoshizumi watched all this in disbelief. What was forming before him was a person, the entire body of a woman. The tentacles quickly split into five fingers, and then the opening below the shoulders gradually widened, and arms appeared. Where the pillar thinned, a small navel appeared in the center. Above it, an abdomen, as if carved out with a small shovel, formed. Further up, breasts appeared. Then, the area below the navel began to solidify, a crack appearing in the middle, covered with intricate folds and hundreds of tiny tentacles. The area above the shoulders narrowed sharply, and an Adam's apple appeared. The round mass at the top of the head, while churning like a gooey wave, sculpted a nose, mouth, ears, cheeks, jaw, and forehead; finally, two eyes were also carved. Yoshizumi shook his head frantically. The woman's body and face appearing before him were strangely familiar. No, not just familiar, he clearly remembered her—it was the donor. "She" was the donor of Mariko's transplanted kidney. Yoshizumi had personally removed the kidney from her body, cutting open her flesh with a scalpel and reaching inside. This donor couldn't possibly be alive; she couldn't possibly be here. Yoshizumi continued shaking his head, unwilling to accept this reality. The thing had now completely transformed into a woman's body, and the eyes that had been closed snapped open, looking down at Yoshizumi and Mariko.

"Get out of the way!" the thing shouted.

Yoshizumi was paralyzed, completely engulfed by "her" gaze. It was a pair of eyes aiming at its prey, and the prey was Mariko. Yoshizumi thought to himself.

It spoke again: "Get out of my way!"

Suddenly, a nurse crouching in the corner let out a strange scream and stood up. Yoshizumi's stiff body relaxed temporarily. He turned to the nurse and saw that her face was covered in tears and saliva, barely recognizable. Suddenly, she waved her hands frantically and ran towards the door. The thing glared angrily at her every move.

Yoshizumi exclaimed "Ah!"

The nurse's body suddenly caught fire.

In an instant, the nurse was engulfed in flames. Her body was gradually charred. Her hair, tied up on her head, crackled and burned, shrinking shorter and shorter. But the flames did not go out. On the contrary, the fire burned even more fiercely. A suffocating hot wind blew up, and the flames shot straight up to the ceiling. Yoshizumi covered his face with his hands, but he could not close his eyes.

The nurse's heart-wrenching screams echoed in the room, her enamel-colored teeth protruding from her severely deformed and gaping mouth. She stumbled along, waving her arms desperately trying to extinguish the flames, but all in vain. The flames were incredibly powerful, roaring like a rocket launcher. Her white coat was tattered and torn, falling to the floor. The fragments curled up and vanished within seconds. The flesh was charred, and a pungent odor assaulted Yoshizumi's nose. The nurse was burned beyond recognition, gradually melting in the horrific inferno. Her flesh gradually turned to a gelatinous state, peeling away from her bones. Then, the bones themselves began to shrink, crumble, and turn to ash.

The bell above my head started ringing loudly; the fire alarm had activated.

Amidst a cacophony of sharp ringing bells, the nurse's entire body gradually dissolved into a sticky mess.

Amidst the frantic ringing of the bell and the oppressive heat, Yoshizumi was dumbfounded.

The nurse's body vanished, and the flames quickly contracted and disappeared. The roar of the flames also ceased, leaving only the piercing ringing of the bell. Where the flames had engulfed the nurse, there wasn't a trace of scorching on the floor or walls, nor any sign of deformation due to heat. Yoshizumi stared at this, speechless. As if leaving some evidence that the nurse had once been there, a damp, gelatinous substance, along with one of the nurse's right feet, lay carelessly on the floor. The area below the knee was perfectly preserved; the skin was smooth, the stocking was still on, and even the shoe was still on.

Yoshizumi stared at them, utterly perplexed. "..."

Another nurse, drooling, scratched her face until it bled. Her gaze was vacant and unfocused, her eyes sticky. Some liquid oozed from the nurse's inner thigh, staining the floor. It was urinary incontinence. The object that had transformed into the donor slowly turned its head towards the other nurse, a contemptuous smile playing on its lips.

"stop."

Yoshizumi cried out, but his voice was hoarse, as if he too was about to face a tragic situation. His voice faded into the wailing of the alarm, and he didn't even hear it himself.

"Please stop, I beg you."

That thing ignored Yoshizumi.

She glared at the nurse. In an instant, the fire broke out again.

"ah--"

Yoshizumi looked away.

The exact same thing happened. An unusually hot wind was blowing relentlessly, the room was scorching hot, and everything looked like it was about to freeze.

"Eek—" The nurse's voice was almost as loud as the alarm, making Yoshizumi tremble uncontrollably. Yoshizumi closed his eyes and plugged his ears with his hands. But the sound of the raging flames, the urgent wail of the alarm, and the nurse's moans, which sounded like they were being squeezed out from between her teeth, relentlessly pierced Yoshizumi's eardrums. But these sounds quickly disappeared. Yoshizumi cautiously looked in the direction of the nurse, and the moment his eyes met that thing, he let out a desperate groan.

Where the nurse had squatted, there was another sticky substance lying around, and next to it, this time, was an arm. The forearm below the elbow was intact, light pink nail polish was still on the nails, and the skin was as beautiful as white porcelain.

Yoshizumi couldn't help but recall a strange report he'd read long ago. When he was an intern, he'd read an article in a forensic journal about spontaneous combustion. In these cases, neighbors usually discovered the scene. They'd smell smoke and rush over, finding the doorknob incredibly hot, untouchable, the room filled with heat, and an unpleasant odor emanating from the scene. Then, they'd find a sticky, gelatinous substance and a part of the deceased's body, usually a foot. However, there were almost no signs of burning on the clothes the deceased was wearing or the sofa they were sitting on. There were also no traces of anything suggesting an attempt at self-immolation, such as a heater ember, match remnants, or gasoline. There was only one possibility: the deceased had been suddenly melted by the flames in a furnace. But, it's said that to liquefy human cells, a temperature of at least 1600 degrees Celsius is required. How could such a high temperature be generated? And how could one selectively ignite only a person? There are countless examples of spontaneous human combustion, but the causes remain a mystery. Was what just happened one of these cases? Yoshizumi wondered. Was this considered spontaneous combustion? Did that thing that had transformed into a woman possess the ability to cause spontaneous combustion?

"Get out of the way!"

Upon hearing what that thing said, Yoshizumi raised his head in surprise.

That thing, with a bewitching smile, walked towards Yoshizumi. No, that's not it, "she" was approaching Mariko.

"Get out of the way!" the thing said again.