parasitism eve - Chapter 28
"……no!"
Yoshizumi asked in a hoarse voice, shaking his head desperately.
"I don't want to kill you, so you'd better get out of my way."
"No...she's my patient."
"Your patient?" the object snorted. "So, I'm your patient too."
"……What's the meaning?"
"Doctor, I should thank you. You took very good care of this girl for me. But your job is done. Now you just need to get out of here."
"..."
Yoshizumi didn't understand what this thing that had become a female donor was saying.
The thing approached. Yoshizumi instinctively lunged onto the bed to protect Mariko. Mariko's body was stiff, her eyes open; she might have fainted. But this was actually a blessing in disguise, as it spared Mariko from seeing the nurses' miserable state. The thing grabbed Yoshizumi's hand. Yoshizumi struggled desperately, but was quickly caught again. The thing was incredibly strong, and Yoshizumi screamed in surprise as he was roughly dragged off the bed. Yoshizumi was violently thrown against the wall. A sharp pain shot through his forehead, and blood streamed into his eyes.
"stop!"
Yoshizumi yelled, his forehead veins throbbing and burning with pain. The alarm bell was still ringing. It felt like a long time had passed since the alarm went off.
The thing got onto the bed, preparing to straddle Mariko. "She" tore off the sheets and Mariko's pajamas.
Mariko's heartbreakingly naked body came into Yoshizumi's view. "Stop!"
Yoshizumi staggered to his feet and slammed his fists down hard on the thing's back. The thing's body was slimy and sticky. Yoshizumi's hands sank into it with a "smack." The thing ignored Yoshizumi and continued tugging at Mariko's clothes. Yoshizumi continued to punch the thing relentlessly, shouting "Stop!" as he persisted in his futile attack.
"Enough!" The thing turned around and glared at Yoshizumi.
Section 69
Yoshizumi froze, his fist raised high above his head.
Her pupils contracted.
At the same time, Yoshizumi's hands caught fire.
"Parasite Eve"
Chapter Seventeen
Li Ming gripped the doorknob. But the doorknob was too hot, and Li Ming couldn't help but shout, hurriedly letting go. A wave of heat rushed in from the other side of the door.
The security guards caught up, they were only twenty meters away. The fire alarm that had just gone off rang throughout the entire hospital building.
What happened? The patients in the ward rushed into the corridor. Anqi stood to the side, looking extremely embarrassed.
Li Ming nodded firmly to An Qi, then grabbed the doorknob through the sleeve of his suit jacket and opened the door to Mariko's hospital room in one swift motion. A wave of suffocating heat rushed out, and Li Ming instinctively covered his face with his hands.
Anzai shouted loudly, "Mariko! Mariko!"
A man's hands were on fire, and he was shouting loudly. He was desperately patting his hands, trying to put out the fire. Anqi pushed Liming's shoulder aside, struggled to rush into the room, and continued to call out his daughter's name.
A young girl lay on her back on the bed, seemingly waiting for an organ transplant; her body was half-naked. Beside her stood that beautifully shaped mass of flesh!
"You piece of trash!" Li Ming roared angrily.
But "Eve1" moved too fast. While Liming and the others were still hesitating in the face of the heat, "Eve1" had already picked up the girl and then smiled confidently at Liming.
"Let go! Let go of that child!"
"Eve1" rolled over and rushed toward the window of the ward.
The sharp sound of the glass shattering pierced Li Ming's eardrums.
Li Ming shouted loudly as he ran to the windowsill and leaned out to look down.
Darkness spread outwards, and only a huge shadow with a long tail could be vaguely seen crawling out of sight.
They escaped!
Li Ming desperately tried to follow "her" movements with his eyes. But there was no light outside, and the light coming from the window barely reached the ground; in the blink of an eye, the shadow disappeared. However, judging from the direction the shadow was moving, "she" didn't seem to have gone outside the hospital; perhaps she had escaped into some building inside the hospital.
"Help me! Help me put out the fire!" the doctor in white shouted.
The security guards had gathered, but they all stood outside the door, looking on with disbelief.
Li Ming pulled a sheet from the bed and covered the doctor's hands, patting them down. An Qi also came to help. Perhaps because of this, the fire was quickly extinguished. After the fire was completely put out, the doctor was stunned and squatted down in disbelief.
Liming shook his shoulders vigorously and shouted in his ear, "Get a grip!"
Liming remembered; he had seen this doctor before. He was the man who had removed Seimei's kidney with the knife. That's right, his name was Yoshizumi, and he must have been in charge of Mariko's kidney transplant surgery.
"What... what kind of colleague is this?" A middle-aged security guard asked in a trembling voice as he entered the room. He looked slightly overweight, a large man with a tense face. Li Ming instinctively felt that he was the person in charge of security.
"That guy escaped!" Li Ming shouted to the security guard while shaking Ji Shi. "Go after him right now, the patient has been taken away!"
"Who is that guy, and what's going on here...?"
"hurry up!"
As if jolted awake by the shout, the security guard immediately turned back outside and began issuing orders to the other guards. Several men took off running like rabbits, their footsteps reaching Li Ming's ears.
Suddenly, Anqi, who was behind Liming, vomited. What happened?
Liming glanced towards Anqi and saw a human foot lying next to him; the severed part was sticky and gooey, as if melted by the high temperature. There was also a hand in the corner of the room. Without a doubt, these hands and feet belonged to the victims of "Eve 1." Liming groaned and looked away. Dr. Yoshizumi's lifeless eyes gradually returned to normal, and he focused his gaze on Liming's face.
"Who are you……"
“What did that guy do to that kid?” Li Ming asked.
Section 70
"That guy..."
"It's that monster. The one who turns into a woman!"
Yoshizumi cried out "Ah!" and grabbed Rimei tightly.
"Mariko, where did Mariko go?" Yoshizumi asked.
"That guy took him away."
"What?"
"What exactly did that person do? Did 'she' transplant something into that child?"
"No...nothing should have been done yet..." Yoshizumi gasped, "That guy was after Mariko...the nurses were all killed. A little while later, I was burned too. And then you..."
"That guy hasn't really done anything to the child yet. Right? He hasn't put the egg into the child's body yet, right!"
"egg?"
"That guy wants the fertilized egg to implant in that child's uterus."
Perhaps because of hearing this, Anqi, who had been covering his mouth with a handkerchief, grabbed Liming's hand, his face turned pale instantly, and his lips trembled uncontrollably.
"What exactly is that thing? Why did it attack Mariko?"
“That thing is a parasite in my wife’s body,” Li Ming explained, glancing alternately at Anzai and Yoshizumi. “It has amazing abilities. It plans to transplant its own child into that child and raise it. If we don’t rescue that child soon, it will be in danger.”
"Wait, what's that parasite called?"
Toshiaki answered Yoshizumi's question: "Mitochondria!"
"Wire……"
Yoshizumi was speechless for a moment. He seemed to have remembered something.
“We must find that child no matter what. Please, order the security guards to conduct a thorough search of the hospital. They don’t believe us anyway,” Li Ming said.
Yoshizumi nodded frantically, his face filled with astonishment, and stood up to call for security. The security guard who had given the order earlier ran over. Yoshizumi briefly explained what had happened, while Rimei listened quietly to him.
The security guard listened intently, his mouth agape.
Anzai stood next to Rimin, covering his face with his hands, groaning in pain, and repeatedly chanting "Mariko, Mariko".
Has "Eve1" already implanted the fertilized egg into the girl's body? The thought sent a shiver down Liming's spine, as if his body were being torn apart. Although he'd only glanced at it and hadn't seen clearly, Liming noticed the girl was very small and young, practically a primary school student. "Eve1" actually wanted such a girl to bear its child. Liming felt a pang of heartache. He had to snatch the girl back from "Eve1" immediately; even if the fertilized egg had already implanted, a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure had to be performed swiftly. Thinking this, Liming suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
"Eve1" should have known from the beginning that she didn't have enough time to wait for the child to be born. She could also easily have foreseen that Dr. Yoshizumi, the girl's father, and Toshiaki himself would do everything in their power to prevent the fertilized egg from developing. Even with her extraordinary abilities, "Eve1" couldn't stay by the girl's side indefinitely until the child was too large for a dilation and curettage (D&C) procedure. Furthermore, even if the child were born, how would she care for it? It would likely take several years for the child to be able to move freely as "Eve1" anticipated. Given this, did "Eve1" have any chance of winning?
Just before escaping, the strange smile on "Eve1's" face resurfaced in Li Ming's mind; it was a smile full of confidence.
"Eve1" must possess some other abilities. Otherwise, she wouldn't have had the leisure to come to the academy's meeting and presumptuously give a speech to Li Ming and the others.
Li Ming felt a sudden chill run down his spine.
Perhaps "Eve 1" has already calculated every possible mechanism. If that's the case, isn't there no way to stop it all? Isn't humanity destined to be driven out by "Eve 1"?...
"That can't happen," Li Ming told himself. No matter how meticulous and detailed a plan is, it will always have its flaws. There must be a way to defeat "Eve1" and "her" child.
There must be some way. But no matter how hard Ke Liming thought, he couldn't come up with a good solution. He was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, biting his lip desperately.
"Parasite Eve"
Chapter Eighteen
She was moving at full speed. She had to find a quiet place to place Mariko, and she had to transfer the fertilized egg into Mariko's uterus before Riming and the others arrived.
She was full of confidence in victory. Eve was about to be born, a "daughter" who combined the abilities of mitochondria and humans.
Time was of the essence, as the host cells she manipulated were rapidly weakening. No matter how she controlled their movement and energy, the host cells, being cultured, had a finite lifespan exposed to air. If placed in this girl's body, they might survive a few more days, but sooner or later, rejection would occur, leading to extinction. While the host, Seimei's, tissue antigens were indeed very similar to the girl's, this didn't mean they were identical. Without immunosuppressants, she would perish. The same had happened when she manipulated Asakura's body; to combat rejection, she had to replace the cells residing there daily. Knowing her own fragility, she had prepared a transplant recipient beforehand. To ensure this patient could have a child, she even sent her own "sister" inside. Inside the girl's body, her "sister" was slowly and precisely performing this task. Her "sister" caused changes in the girl's uterus to accommodate the fertilized egg. The mother's placenta must match the shape of the fetus's placenta. Therefore, it's necessary to make some minor, but essential, changes to the girl's uterus. "Her" "sister," receiving "her" instructions, modifies the girl's uterus while her pulse throbs. Thus, over time, unnoticed by anyone, the uterus is modified to be essentially capable of nurturing a fertilized egg. In this way, "her" egg cell can develop smoothly within Mariko's body without fear of rejection, and the life of this host, named "Eve1" by Rimei, is about to end. This moment also marks the end of the life of "her," the parasite within. Until then, "Eve" must be born no matter what. The born "Eve" will essentially possess a human body, therefore there's no need for her to control the host's shape as "she" does now. In this way, all of "Eve's" abilities can be used for more constructive activities. "Eve" can produce energy using her own will and use this energy for movement and thought. "Eve" can manipulate any of her genetic material at will, multiplying or ending it as she pleases. She can also freely evolve into whatever form she desires. Before her, no life form on Earth had ever been capable of evolving through will; the nuclear chromosome sets, struggling for survival, had overlooked this crucial function. Thus, they were left to the whims of time and chance, completely at the mercy of these uncertainties. "She," parasitic within them, was forced to endure those long and arduous years alongside them. But "Eve" is different. She can create her own future; she can freely control her nuclear chromosome sets and determine her own evolutionary direction. To adapt to her environment, to enhance her abilities, to rationalize those abilities, and for her future prosperity, "Eve" can adjust herself at any time. The speed of evolution will be incredibly rapid; "Eve" will be the ultimate form of life evolution.
Section 71
She ran along the wall through the darkness, eventually finding a staircase leading underground, which she followed. Below was a damp, narrow space, a heavy metal door appearing as a formidable wall, connected to the ground by a ramp barely wide enough for a car to pass. She ran towards the door. It was locked; she reached her tentacle into the keyhole and unlocked it. The door slowly opened, creaking and groaning, and she and the girl slid inside.
The space was dimly lit, with only a small, bluish-white light shining from the ceiling. A muffled sound came from somewhere nearby, as if a boiler room was in the middle. To the left was an elevator door, and to the right was some kind of room, light filtering through the frosted glass embedded in the door. "She" stood before this door. A sign hung on the door that read "Dissection Room".
"That's good, this is a good place to put Mariko." "She" was quite satisfied.
There was no handle on the door. What should she do? As she pondered this, she suddenly looked down and noticed a square recess in the wall beside the door, with a small red light shining inside. She tried stepping into it. With a "whoosh," the door opened to the side.
"What is it, you..."
A man in surgical scrubs turned around, and "she" killed him.
"Parasite Eve"