parasitism eve

Prologue to Parasite Eve

The scenery in front of me has all disappeared.

Nagashima Kisomi had no idea what had happened. Everything had vanished.

Just a moment ago, through the car's windshield, the street scene looked no different from usual, and she could see the same road she had crossed hundreds of times. It was a gentle slope that turned slightly to the right, and as all this happened, Shengmei saw the traffic light at the bend turn yellow.

Saint-Mi blinked, but still couldn't look away. She closed her eyes tightly, then opened them again, but still couldn't see anything. The white car that had been driving ahead, the taillights of the bus stopped at the bus stop, the group of high school girls hurrying along—everything had vanished without a trace.

Saint-Mei frantically looked away, trying to check the steering wheel in her hands. But she immediately froze; the steering wheel was gone, and even her hands were nowhere to be found. Her upper body, which should have been secured by the seatbelt, and her right foot, which should have been on the accelerator, were no longer where they should have been.

All she could see was darkness, an endless darkness stretching to who-knows-where! Saint-Mei felt as if waves were gently rising and falling around her, and she was floating naked in this warm, viscous liquid. Her clothes had vanished without her noticing.

It was that dream! Saint-Mei suddenly realized this.

Every Christmas Eve, she has the same dream. It has no beginning and no end; in the darkness, she can only feel herself wriggling. This strange dream has continued uninterrupted until now, and Shengmei suddenly understands. She has entered that dream. But what puzzles her is why this dream is happening here and now.

This dream appears with a regularity, like the movement of celestial bodies, and it never happens outside of Christmas Eve. Moreover, so far, she has never had a dream intruded while she was awake.

Saint-Mei discovered that her body had undergone a tremendous change. Her hands and feet were numb, or more accurately, they no longer existed; her head, chest, and waist were gone too; in their place was a thin, elongated body, like a worm. Saint-Mei trembled violently as she slowly moved forward in this sticky, dark world.

Where exactly was she? Shengmei pondered this question repeatedly. Her body seemed to recognize this place, but she couldn't remember it at all. Before, in some faraway place, Shengmei had indeed had a similar experience: in the darkness, knowing nothing, only her body drifting with the current. When was that? Was it yesterday, or many years ago? Or perhaps even further back in time? Shengmei couldn't remember. In this darkness, Shengmei couldn't even be sure if time had passed.

Suddenly, Shengmei felt her body begin to change again: something tiny seemed to be slowly splitting into two parts inside her body, and at the same time, the middle of her body began to gradually thin, and the two ends of her body slowly flowed in opposite directions.

Saint-Mei understood that she was now divided.

She felt time flowing forward calmly and very slowly.

Section 2

Where am I? What time is it? And who am I? Saint Mei no longer wanted to think about these trivial questions; she just wanted to let herself float in this dark world.

The splitting of the body continued, slowly tearing it in two, without pain. Everything was calm, without any agitation. The body split naturally. It was quiet, everything was quiet. Saint Mei relaxed all her nerves, comfortably letting her body drift along.

Just as everything before my eyes had inexplicably vanished, it has now inexplicably reappeared.

She saw the two hands gripping the steering wheel again. Shengmei blinked and shifted her gaze forward. There was a thick telephone pole in front of her.

Part 1, Chapter 1

Before that phone call, it was an ordinary morning for Toshiaki Nagashima, no different from any other.

Liming arrived at the Pharmacy Department at 8:20 AM. After parking in the parking lot, which still had 60% of its spaces empty, he got out of the car with his bag, locked it, and casually glanced at the Pharmacy Department building. The six-story building looked gray and gloomy under the overcast sky. Liming took slippers from a shoe rack in the lobby, quickly changed out of his leather shoes, and took the elevator to the fifth floor. The elevator doors were located in the middle of the corridor. At the far right of the elevator doors, a lecture on physiological pharmacology from Liming's research lab was scheduled. But it seemed that the students and staff hadn't arrived yet; the corridor was quiet. Of course, this was no different from usual. The lecture wasn't starting too early. Lectures in other departments of the Organic Chemistry Department required all participants to arrive promptly at 8:00 AM for the discussion, but Liming's lecture didn't have strict arrival requirements. For Liming, as long as the students could conduct experiments and collect data properly, that was enough. However, since Li Ming is currently only an assistant, he must be at work before 8:30 a.m. – this is also a requirement he sets for himself.

Li Ming opened the door to his second research lab, turned on the light, went inside, took off his trench coat and put it in the wardrobe, and placed his backpack on a corner of the bookshelf. On his desk were two reagent requisition forms, presumably filled out by students the previous night, concerning the restriction enzymes EcoRI and BamHI. Li Ming put these two requisition forms into a folder and hung it on the folder hook on the side of his desk. After double-checking the experimental plan he had written in his notebook the night before, Li Ming began preparing for the experiment.

He walked out of the lab, opened the door to the cell culture room diagonally opposite, and the entire room was bathed in a bluish-white light from the sterilization lamps. Liming adjusted the lights to ordinary fluorescent lights, went inside, took two plastic culture flasks from the incubator, and placed them under the microscope. Through the optical lens, Liming carefully observed the cells.

After confirming that they were in good condition, he carefully placed them back into the incubator. Then, he took the experimental equipment out of the autoclave and placed it on the aseptic workbench.

After finishing all this, Liming returned to the research lab. Just as he was about to take the reagents out of the freezer, his second-year graduate student, Asakura Sachiko, arrived at the school.

"Good morning!"

Asakura greeted him, her voice clear and crisp. Toshiaki responded with a sound of his own.

Asakura stuffed her coat into her closet, revealing a summer knit sweater and jeans, her long hair tied back. She took off the sweater and changed into her white work clothes.

As a woman, Asakura was already quite tall, about 1.75 meters, only slightly shorter than Rimei. She merely smiled as she passed by Rimei. Wearing her white lab coat, her height became even more striking. When conducting experiments, she was always energetic and cheerful, a sight that soothed the soul.

Li Ming told her to come to the culture room if she needed anything. After saying that, he left the research room.

After completing the preparations at the aseptic workbench, Li Ming took out the two culture flasks again and began his work.

The flasks contained the well-known NIH3T3 cells. One flask contained cells injected with the vitamin A receptor gene, while the other did not. Two days ago, Liming placed these two types of cells into separate flasks and allowed them to multiply. Then, yesterday, he added a β-oxidase inducer to the culture medium. Today's plan was to recover mitochondria from these two types of cells; Liming anticipated that the cells injected with the receptor gene should have the highest β-oxidase levels.

Just as Li Ming began operating the system, the phone rang.

He could hear the phone ringing from the lab. But he didn't stop working. Since Asakura was still in the lab, he figured she'd answer it. After about three rings, Asakura seemed to answer, followed by silence. Then, suddenly, there was a "pat-pat" of footsteps. While trying to figure out what was going on, he continued collecting the solution with his pipette. Suddenly, for some reason, he glanced at the clock on the wall. Nine o'clock sharp.

With a loud bang, the door to the incubation room opened.

"Mr. Nagashima, it's your phone."

Liming looked up and saw Asakura peeking out from the crack in the open door. He noticed her lips were trembling.

"It's a call from the hospital. They said your wife was in a car accident..."

"What?!"

Li Ming jumped up.

"Parasite Eve"

Section 3

Chapter Two

The roads around the university hospital were extremely congested; cars from patients trying to get into the hospital had lined up in the public transport lanes, causing a traffic jam. Li Ming was frantic and kept honking his horn.

The caller was an emergency room worker who said that when Shengmei was driving down a slope and making a bend, she for some reason didn't turn and instead crashed straight into a utility pole. Because she didn't brake, the car was severely damaged, and Shengmei suffered a severe electric shock to the head.

Li Ming inquired about the location of the accident, which turned out to be the main road he often traveled on. It was indeed easy to accelerate on that road, but because the visibility was excellent, it didn't seem particularly dangerous.

Li Ming couldn't understand why Sheng Mei had an accident there.

"hateful!"

Cursing, Li Ming swerved the steering wheel, squeezing into the middle lane and making a U-turn. Immediately, horns blared in protest, but Li Ming ignored them. He circled around to the hospital's back entrance, parked in the staff parking area, and entered through the equipment entrance. He encountered a passing nurse and asked her for directions to the emergency room. Li Ming ran into the hospital's central lobby. The lobby was enormous, seemingly endless. The friction of his leather shoes against the linoleum floor created a jarring sound. As he ran, Li Ming unconsciously repeated Sheng Mei's name. Just as he rounded a corner to the right, an old woman suddenly appeared from the side, about to knock him to the ground. Li Ming jerked around, his body contorting as if twisting—yet he didn't stop, continuing to run forward. It was unbelievable; something must have gone wrong. This morning, he saw Shengmei with her usual beautiful smile. He remembered that breakfast was fried eggs, grilled salmon, and miso soup with tofu and wakame seaweed—a very ordinary breakfast! Shengmei must want to continue living the same life as today tomorrow, the day after, and for all the days to come, which is why she made this breakfast. That must be it. Liming thought to himself.

It all happened so suddenly; Liming couldn't accept it. This morning, he still left home with Shengmei. Shengmei drove her little car to the post office. It was a secondhand car they'd bought six months ago to make it easier for Shengmei to buy things; the car was red, perfectly matching Shengmei's love for cute little decorations.

"Excuse me, are you a relative of Miss Shengmei?" When they arrived at the emergency room, Liming was already out of breath. A middle-aged nurse ran over and asked, looking at the panting Liming.

Li Ming swallowed hard and replied, "Yes."

“Miss Shengmei is in critical condition,” the nurse said. “She suffered a severe head injury in a traffic accident, and

……