parasitism eve - Chapter 32
"Please... it'll really be over in a minute."
The policeman sighed deeply, called over another young officer, gave him a few words of instructions, and then the young officer ran down the corridor.
A little while later, the stretcher carrying Mariko was brought over again. Mariko had an oxygen mask on her mouth, an IV line in her arm, and was covered with a blanket.
"Please put Mariko here."
Anzi pleaded. The doctors placed the stretcher beside them.
"what are you up to?"
Anzai did not answer the police's questions. Instead, he pulled the blanket off Mariko and then took the hand of the on the verge of collapse, Toshiaki Nagashima.
Anzai placed his hand on Mariko's lower left abdomen, where Nagashima Toshiaki's wife had received her kidney transplant.
Section 79
When Anzai saw Nagashima Toshiaki's hand outstretched with his last ounce of strength, as if reaching for something, Anzai thought he must want to touch his wife. He couldn't think of any other gesture that signified farewell.
Perhaps it was just psychological, but Nagashima Toshiaki's scorched lips seemed to twitch slightly, revealing a satisfied smile.
"Parasite Eve"
end
"Next, we will award graduate diplomas. Pharmacy major, Sachiko Asakura."
"yes!"
Asakura answered loudly and walked forward.
The dean, dressed in a tuxedo, stood on the stage. Asakura lowered his head slightly, then took another step forward.
The dean opened the huge beige certificate and began to read into the microphone:
"Academic Record. Sachiko Asakura, having completed two years of coursework in the Department of Pharmacy, Graduate School of Pharmacy, University of [University Name], is hereby awarded a Master of Pharmacy degree. March 25, [Year], [University Name]. Congratulations."
The dean rotated the certificate 180 degrees and handed it to Asakura.
Asakura bowed his head and extended both hands, accepting the offer respectfully. Suddenly, a camera flash went off somewhere.
Asakura took a few steps back to the left and bowed again. Then he turned to the left and bowed deeply to the professors sitting in a row below the stage.
The host continued reading the next name. The responses echoed throughout the room.
Asakura returned to his seat with the certificate.
The names of the students in the same grade were read out one by one. Graduation certificates were handed out.
This is the main auditorium of the Pharmacy Department. It's usually filled with a dark and damp atmosphere, but today it's packed with graduates dressed in kimonos or suits.
Everyone looked very elegant and dignified; Asakura herself was wearing a kimono that had been passed down from her mother. Asakura rolled up the certificate and put it away. Just then, a refreshing breeze gently brushed past her face.
Asakura couldn't help but feel happy, gazing at the scenery outside the window.
It was a beautiful sunny day; even the cold seemed to have vanished. The warm air felt like it was rising from the earth, and the plum blossoms were budding, ready to bloom. Asakura took a deep breath of the gentle breeze blowing in from the window—it smelled wonderful. Standing there, holding her master's degree certificate, Asakura once again deeply felt her own existence, overwhelmed with emotion.
Because of the severity of my illness, my hospital stay was slightly longer, so I did almost no experiments from autumn to winter. Even so, I still managed to complete my master's thesis on time and publish it.
Although some parts of her body are still marked with unsightly scars from the burns, the scars on her face are almost invisible thanks to autologous transplantation. Overall, she has recovered very well.
Holding his certificate, Asakura gazed at his classmates, reflecting on his university life. Despite experiencing various things, overall, his six years of university were filled with joy, especially the last three, when he truly enjoyed conducting numerous experiments. Experiments were pleasurable.
Asakura nodded. "That's wonderful," she thought, "I've chosen pharmacy."
After the certificate awarding ceremony, everyone went to the student internship room for a party.
"Yes, congratulations to everyone today."
Graduates, current students, and staff alike held glasses of beer, listening attentively to the speech given by the professor who served as the provost of the Department of Organic Chemistry.
"From this moment forward, you will all be embarking on various career paths. Whether it's a pharmaceutical company or a research institution, I believe you have all acquired a wealth of pharmaceutical knowledge, which will ensure you don't embarrass yourselves wherever you go. I hope that even after you enter the workforce, you will fully utilize the knowledge you gained in the pharmacy department and achieve even greater success. These are my expectations." Several graduates wore shy smiles.
"Now, fourth-year students," the professor raised his voice, "the national pharmacist exam is fast approaching, starting in a week. You can all enjoy yourselves today, but starting tomorrow, you must all go all out for the final sprint to pass the exam. I hope you can all find a way to pass it."
Laughter rippled through the room. Asakura and his friend sitting next to him exchanged bewildered glances and chuckled. The professor said the same thing year after year, leaving the fourth-year students both amused and exasperated.
"Cheers!" The professor raised his glass.
"Cheers!" Asakura and the others raised their glasses as well.
In the blink of an eye, the practice room was bustling with activity and laughter. Flashbulbs were going off everywhere as everyone started taking photos, their faces beaming with joy. Beer was refilled after being finished, and snacks were devoured completely.
Asakura wandered around, greeting his friends and exchanging pleasantries with the staff who often looked after him. His classmates were about to go their separate ways, and a touch of melancholy was inevitable. Nevertheless, everyone enjoyed themselves to the fullest. Asakura also had a great time, feeling lightheaded and slightly tipsy.
Section 80
When the party was halfway over, Asakura quietly left the venue and headed towards the physiological pharmacology lecture on the fifth floor.
The lecture hall was empty; everyone had gone to the party. Asakura opened the door to the second research lab where he had spent three years.
She looked around the room.
Several devices were still working; it seemed someone had turned on the gene amplifier. The instrument was making a "whirring" sound as it adjusted the temperature.
Asakura stood in front of her lab bench, her fingers lightly touching it. The bench was completely empty. Only now did Asakura realize how large her lab bench actually was, and she couldn't help but sigh. Asakura noticed the bookshelf next to the bench, which held this year's issue of *Nature*. The magazine had been purchased for a lecture and used to be in the discussion room; she didn't know why it had been moved here. Perhaps the discussion room was being rearranged or renovated, so the magazine had been temporarily placed on Asakura's now-empty bookshelf. Asakura gazed at the spines of the rows of *Nature* magazines, then took one out.
She flipped through the pages one by one until she reached the section where the paper was published.
The title of the paper was written in English, and below it were the names of Toshiaki Nagashima, Sachiko Asakura, and Professor Rikuo Ishihara. It was a paper written by Toshiaki.
Asakura stared at one of the pages, where the data he had provided was displayed as charts. At that moment, these charts, complete with long English footnotes, seemed to leap out of his hands, radiating smugness. Asakura felt a little embarrassed. It was a paper only two and a half pages long, yet it was a medal awarded to this lecture.
It was also awarded to Asakura.
My name will never appear in journals like *Nature* again. If it weren't for conducting experiments under Toshiaki's guidance, my name wouldn't have appeared in *Nature* so easily; it's all Toshiaki's doing. If only Mr. Nagashima were still alive, Asakura thought.
She clutched the magazine tightly to her chest.
Riki's voice and smile flashed before Asakura's eyes. Just then, tears suddenly welled up in Asakura's eyes. She hurriedly wiped the tears from her face, but they continued to stream down uncontrollably. Her makeup was washed off. Why was this happening? Even when she broke up with her boyfriend in high school, she hadn't cried, had she? So why were tears streaming down her face now? Asakura felt ridiculous. She laughed sheepishly, but only broken sounds came from her throat. Her nose was hot; it must have turned red. Asakura sniffled, inwardly laughing at her own unsightly appearance.
After her initial surge of emotions subsided, Asakura began flipping through a magazine. When she turned to the page in the upper right corner labeled "News and Diews," her gaze fell upon a short article. She suddenly recalled many things she had heard during her hospitalization related to Toshiaki's death.
This was an article about mitochondrial genetics. Asakura read it after the journal was published. But to be honest, before the last incident, he had completely forgotten about it.
While hospitalized, Asakura inquired about many details from her friends at the lecture and from the police. She learned that the mitochondria in "Eve1" had "rebelled," causing the girl who received the transplant to give birth to a child. That child would sometimes become a man and sometimes a woman, and finally merge with Riming and burn up, and so on.
When Asakura first heard these things, she didn't understand why the mitochondrial cells would die. Now, after reading this article again, she can finally come up with a hypothesis.
Previously, it was believed that mitochondrial DNA was entirely inherited from the mother. Even if sperm mitochondria entered the egg, they wouldn't increase in number, so the mitochondria in a newborn individual were almost entirely inherited from the mother. Therefore, geneticists analyzed mitochondrial DNA according to the rule of maternal inheritance, which was helpful in estimating the rate of evolution. However, in 1991, a research group published groundbreaking results. This group mated two species of mouse rats and found a small but definite amount of paternally inherited mitochondrial DNA in the offspring. This paper, which overturned previous common sense, received considerable attention. Since then, researchers have racked their brains trying to determine whether mitochondrial DNA is truly inherited only by one sex. Recently, this question has finally been resolved. In short, the result is as follows: During mating between members of the same species, the father's mitochondrial DNA enters the egg along with the sperm, but disappears after a period of time, likely digested by the polysomes within the egg cell. In short, the offspring do not inherit the father's mitochondrial DNA. However, when interspecies mate, the father's mitochondrial DNA is not lost, and the newborn individual contains approximately 56% of the father's mitochondrial DNA.
Asakura believes that "Eve1" likely mated with Rimin only to steal Rimin's cell nucleus and then create a new species together with its own nucleus and mitochondrial DNA. However, during its cultivation in the laboratory, "Eve1" gradually differentiated into a species different from humans. In other words, the mating of "Eve1's" egg cell and Rimin's sperm became interspecies mating. Rimin's mitochondrial DNA was not only not rejected in the egg cell, but actually gradually increased.
What happened next? Asakura quickly skimmed through the article in *Nature* magazine. After being discharged from the hospital, Asakura read the article several times. Now, without needing to read the English version, the content of the article was already clear in her mind.
This is an overview discussing the inheritance pattern of mitochondrial DNA in an organism called the mussel. Male mussels pass on their mitochondrial DNA to their offspring, but the inheritance pattern is very unique. Unlike mice and humans, male mussels possess male mitochondrial DNA, and female mussels possess female mitochondrial DNA. When male and female mussels mate, the following occurs: the sperm contains male mitochondrial DNA, and the egg contains female mitochondrial DNA. If the offspring is female, it contains almost exclusively female mitochondrial DNA; conversely, if the offspring is male, it contains mitochondrial DNA from both parents. Furthermore, as the male offspring grows, the amount of male mitochondrial DNA increases, eventually becoming dominant. In short, unlike mice, mussels exhibit uniparental genetic inheritance; the female's mitochondrial DNA is inherited only by the female, and the male's mitochondrial DNA is inherited only by the male. Why does this remarkable phenomenon occur? This is said to be an effective defense mechanism against the spread of selfish mitochondrial DNA. Suppose that a female mitochondrial DNA mutates and replicates faster than normal DNA, it will proliferate rapidly within the female, eventually driving out all the normal female mitochondrial DNA. If the mitochondrial DNA is passed down from both parents to their sons and daughters, the mutated DNA will quickly spread to offspring. However, if the female's mitochondrial DNA is only inherited by the female's offspring, at least the mutated DNA will only be passed on to the mitochondrial's maternal lineage. This prevents the spread of the mutated DNA. This phenomenon is interesting when considered in light of Richard Dawkins' concept of the "selfish gene." Simply put, a "selfish gene" is a gene that only considers leaving as many offspring as possible for itself. In this case, the mitochondrial DNA—the nuclear chromosome set, the male's mitochondrial DNA, and the female's mitochondrial DNA—are all intertwined. The mutated mitochondrial DNA of females, wanting to reproduce as much as possible, replicates repeatedly and aims to pass its DNA on to offspring. However, since the male mitochondrial DNA is destined to be expelled, it naturally tries to prevent the spread of the mutated DNA from the female. The male oyster's nuclear chromosome set certainly doesn't want its symbiotic mitochondria to undergo useless mutations. Having painstakingly maintained a healthy relationship, a sudden mutation in the mitochondria could jeopardize its survival. The male mitochondrial DNA and nuclear chromosome set adopt this selfish attitude to counter the selfish strategy of the female mitochondrial DNA. Thus, a mechanism to prevent the genetic spread of female mitochondrial DNA is formed.
Didn't the same thing happen in the life forms born from "Eve1"? Asakura thought to himself.
The fertilized egg inherits "evolved mitochondrial DNA" from "Eve1". On the other hand, a small amount of "ordinary mitochondrial DNA" was also passed down from Liming's sperm. Both types of genetic material are present in the newborn organism. The mitochondria in "Eve1" certainly believed that their evolution could be completed solely through their own efforts, but in reality, it was precisely because their offspring contained a mixture of the father's mitochondrial DNA that mitochondrial DNA was able to evolve.
Of course, the mitochondria of the female "Eve1" couldn't possibly be aware of this. "Eve1" hadn't anticipated that the "ordinary mitochondrial DNA" from Liming would be inherited by her "daughter." Wouldn't the "ordinary mitochondrial DNA" inherited into a newborn organism fear being wiped out by the "evolved mitochondrial DNA"?
The self possessing "ordinary mitochondrial DNA" and the self possessing "evolved mitochondrial DNA" confront each other, engaging in a thrilling life-or-death battle within the organism's body, destroying each other in the end. Both are ultimately severely damaged.
However, this is just speculation, and no one knows the truth. Humans know very little about mitochondria, and research on mitochondria is still in its infancy.
Asakura closed the Nature magazine.
Why must the mitochondrial child fuse with Riming before ultimately perishing? This remains a great mystery. However, Asakura felt he could understand why this ending occurred; after all, Riming and that child were father and son…
"Hey! Asakura, what are you doing here?"
Suddenly someone called out from behind. Asakura was slightly surprised and turned around.
A male student from a lower grade stood there. He also belonged to this second research lab and, like Asakura, was under Toshiaki's guidance, so Asakura saw him almost every day.
The younger student took a small plastic test tube from the gene amplification instrument.
He figured the reaction was over, so he slipped out of the party.
"Everyone's been saying, 'Where's Asakura? They're looking for you.'"
Asakura put the Nature magazine back on the shelf, and to avoid letting the other person know that she had just been crying, she smiled and replied, "I'm sorry. I wanted to look at this room."
The younger students put the test tubes in the refrigerator. Just as they were about to close the door, one of them suddenly remembered something and said to Asakura, "By the way, Asakura, Mr. Nagashima's cultured cells were found in the deep freezer, but I don't know what to do with them. Could you take a look?"
Is it cancer cells?
"No, I'm not entirely sure what it is."
Asakura followed the younger students toward the machine room. The younger students opened the door to the huge deep-freeze chamber, and a rush of cold, white air hit Asakura in the face.
"It's this one."
The younger students showed Asakura several serum tubes.
There was frost on the label. Asakura wiped it off with his fingertips.
It was Liming's handwriting. In an instant, Asakura couldn't help but gasp.
It says the date is from last August, along with the words "Eve1".
Asakura's heart throbbed.
"...Asakura?"
A lower-grade student shouted. Asakura was startled and forced a smile.
Section 81
"Asakura, what's wrong? You look scary."
"Nothing else? Is there anything else? Is this all we found? Is this all?"
"There are also some that signify other codes."
As the younger students spoke, they showed Asakura dozens of serum tubes in a bag. Some of them were labeled "Eve," while others were labeled "Eve2," "Eve3," or other codes.
These are cells preserved during the initial culture process. Although they are currently frozen, these cells will begin to multiply again once they are brought back to a suitable temperature.
Asakura felt a chill run down his spine.
"...What should we do? If they're useful, we should save them."