Parasite Eve (35 page)

    They were all moving, oozing
slime, and convulsing, struggling against death. He heard a plop as a small one
fell from the ceiling onto the table.

    Toshiaki sighed.

    These were parts of Kiyomi.

    The remains of Eve 1, which
had turned into Kiyomi.

    These pieces of flesh were
losing life. They showed no indications of gathering, together and propagating.
Instead, their movements were gradually weakening, and they were losing lustre.
As he watched one of them, it constricted feebly, then shriveled up.

    They were dying.

    And Toshiaki felt relieved.

    He finally looked at himself.
His shirt was torn back, his belt undone. He groped around, pulled down his
underwear and checked himself. Her remains were wiggling around all over it. In
disgust, he ripped them off and threw them to the floor. He appeared fine.
Everything had happened too fast to process, but Kiyomi had left him unharmed.

    “Why?” he muttered.

    Why hadn’t she done anything?
Hadn’t her purpose been to subdue and kill him?

    Toshiaki walked over to the
experimentation table and looked at its surface.

    This is where I was attacked.
Kiyomi tore off my clothes, then...

    He cradled his head in
terror.        

    Eve 1...no, the
mitochondria...had they simply wanted to mate with him?

    That was perhaps all they
needed
to do?

    The mitochondria said they
had been waiting for millions of years, and they ravished him. But could that
really have been their goal? That didn’t make any sense. Possessing Asakura,
they said they had been planning this since long ago. Hadn’t they even boasted
of remembering Mitochondrial Eve?

    Mitochondrial Eve.

    “Oh no.”

    A horrible thought came to
his head.

    “Oh no. Oh no...”

    He started to tremble.
Toshiaki looked hesitantly at his underwear.

    Mitochondria were passed
matrilineally. That was why the distant ancestor found through the analysis of
mitochondrial DNA was called Mitochondrial “Eve” and not “Adam.” Mitochondria
were
female
.

    And I had sex with that
female.

    Toshiaki broke down. He
slammed his head on the table, cursing himself for his own foolishness. He had
ejaculated
.

    The mitochondria merely
wanted his sperm.

    Asakura’s words were revived
in his ears: “The prosperity of the World will be in the hands of my
descendants.” The mitochondria had needed only to get his attention and lure
him here. It was all a setup.

    A child would be born of
himself and them.

    Just the thought of it forced
the contents of his stomach out onto the floor. He felt like his body was in
pieces.

    ...They must be stopped.

   
I must prevent Eve 1 from
giving birth
, he thought as he wiped the vomit from his mouth.
Eve 1 and
her child must both be killed, or they really will replace us all.

    But...

    Where had she gone?

    He lifted his head and
surveyed the room. Only remnants scattered all around. These could not be Eve 1
herself. She was undoubtedly in some other place.

    Toshiaki rushed out of the
lab and into the Cultivation Room. He checked the incubator. It was still open,
but empty. He looked across the hallway. There was only a trail of greasy slime
between the Cultivation Room and the lab. She had not escaped through the hallway.
He returned to the lab again, looking frantically for any signs.

    “Where...where did you go?!”

    Time was needed for a
fertilized egg to mature. Her womb had to be functional and receive the correct
hormones. But whether Eve 1 could actually achieve this probably presented a
challenge. Though the being Toshiaki had mated with looked exactly like Kiyomi
in shape, she was not human inside. Eve 1 had certainly evolved, but she had
not been able to mimic a human being flawlessly. There was no way that her womb
was exempt from this. In other words, Eve 1 could not nurture a fertilized egg
by herself.

    But maybe Eve 1 was aware of
this?

    Toshiaki mulled over the
possibility desperately.

    Could she possess another
woman’s body like Asakura’s, but use it to raise a child in her womb? No, even
that would be impossible. A woman’s body could not accommodate Eve 1’s egg. Of
course, if the egg were normal, there would be no problems. But Eve 1 had the
power to divide, propagate, and change her form at will. She was not made up of
simple human cells. People,
Homo sapiens
, were completely different from
her. The possibility of an egg created by Eve 1 gestating in a human woman’s
womb was miniscule. A modified egg, transplanted into a normal woman, would
probably never develop. So, what exactly were her intentions?

    Toshiaki was silent.

    Wait.

    His brain pulses converged on
one point.

    That meant there was only one
possibility.

    There was someone who could
raise her fertilized egg.

    Eve l’s zygote cells were
trying to differentiate themselves from humans. They were on the verge of an
evolutionary miracle. At such a turning point, there had to be some overlap
between the two types. But couldn’t someone who possessed a similar cellular
overlap accept Eve 1’s fertilized egg? In such a biological environment, the
egg would grow into a fetus.

    “She can’t do this!” Toshiaki
moaned, his head in his hands.

    Kiyomi’s death, her kidney
transplant, even his primary culture on her liver cells had all happened as Eve
1 intended. He had unconsciously furthered her plans by obsessing over Eve 1’s
data and inciting her propagation. Beset with violent emotions, Toshiaki was
unable to restrain himself from crying out in fury.

    Just then, a loud gurgling sound
echoed through the room.

    He looked up.

    The sink.

9

    Mariko felt it.

    Something passing through the
darkness.

    She pressed an ear to her
pillow and listened closely. It was coming from underneath. She could hear it
inside her like a ringing in the ears. Not someone on the floor below, but
further down, underground. Maybe it was moving through soil. Something with the
speed of a subway train.

    She was afraid.

    Visiting hours ended at seven
o’clock and her father had just left. He had been at her side since noon. It
was the first time they were together for so long. He hardly said anything, but
it put her at ease nonetheless.

    Her ear still pressed to the
pillow, Mariko looked across the room.

    No one here now.

    Her father was gone, as were
the nurses, and the sickroom suddenly felt endless. This was too big a place
for her to be alone. No one could ever reach her even if she were in danger.

    She heard no voices, no
sounds in the hallway, and wondered what happened to everyone. She normally
could hear nurses running between wards and patients clearing their phlegm in
other rooms. Without these, the blowing wind, passing bikes, and ventilation
jarred in her ears. But in her growing fear, they too faded.

    And among that stasis, she
heard only that one sound echoing from the soil.

    It called to her from afar,
growing with every moment.

    Thump.

    Her kidney moved.

    Mariko looked down to her
abdomen with an all too familiar terror.

    She gazed around frantically.
The wall clock showed 7:30. She put a hand to her face.

    She was wide awake. This was
no dream. But still, her kidney moved as it did in the...

    Thump.

    Mariko began to panic. She
touched her abdomen, but recoiled from the heat. Once again, she put an ear to
her pillow. She gasped. The sound was getting louder.

    “No...”

    She buried herself in the
sheets from head to toe. Her body began to tremble.

    The donor had come at last.
Come to take her kidney back. She had risen from the grave and would be at the
hospital at any moment. First there’d be the
flap
,
flap
of her
footsteps. Then, she would open the door and come into the room, her only goal
to dig into Mariko’s body to reclaim what was once hers.

    The kidney let out another thump.

10

    “So that’s why I need to see
the young woman who received my wife’s kidney. As soon as possible.”

    Toshiaki had decided to call
the CCH from his lab. Eve 1 would surely make an appearance at the recipient’s
hospital. He had to get to her before Eve 1 did.

    “I realize that, sir, but
there’s no way we can grant your request. I’m sorry. It’s against legal
policy.”

    Unfortunately, the
receptionist was insistent on this point. Toshiaki raised his voice.

    “This is a dire situation. If
that patient is not evacuated to a safe place immediately, something terrible
will happen to her. To hell with the rules.”

    “Excuse me, sir, but what are
you talking about?” The receptionist suddenly changed tone.

    “That patient is in great danger!
What don’t you understand?” He was outraged.

    “If this is a prank call, I
want you to stop this right now.”

    “Don’t be stupid. I just told
you. I am the donor’s husband, my name is...”

    “I don’t know what you’re
trying to pull here, but I won’t have you terrorizing any patients at this
hospital. I take my job seriously and I’m not about to jeopardize it. If you
keep this up, I’ll report you to the police.”

    “Damn you!”

    Toshiaki threw down the
receiver.

    He was at a loss for words, but
refused to let it end there.

    Stuffing his open shirt into
his pants, he exited the room and rushed down the hallway. Thankfully, the
elevator was already at the fifth floor. He opened the doors, went inside, and
beat the first floor button with his fist. The elevator began its sluggish
descent. He swore at the delay.

    All he was concerned about
was how far Eve 1 had managed to get. When Toshiaki had heard the gurgling in
the sink, he went over it to see Eve 1’s stains around the mouth of the drain.
Sticking a finger inside, he felt slime, and knew she had escaped through the
pipe.

    Eve 1 could change shape at
will, so it was nothing for her to travel underground. He was certain she was
storing a fertilized egg.

    It was impossible to look up every
pipe that ran through the city. The only thing he knew for certain was that she
would emerge at a hospital. This was all he had to go on to cut her off.

    The elevator stopped with a
clank. Toshiaki leapt out as the doors opened. He went through the dark lobby
and made a dash for his car parked just outside. The key was still in the
ignition. He got inside, stepped on the gas pedal as he started the engine, and
broke into full speed.

    The City Central Hospital was
fifteen minutes away. He was not confident he would make it in time, but there
was no choice. He had to do everything in his power to defend the recipient of
Kiyomi’s organ.

    But even though she was in a
hospital, how was he supposed to look for her? The CCH was the major kidney
transplant hospital in this region. There would be many transplant patients
there alone. How was he supposed to find the right one among them? Asking any
staff was clearly out of the question, and no one would ever believe him if he
told them the truth. Should he track down Odagiri, the transplant coordinator?
Or talk to the doctor who performed the transplant itself? He thought hard.
Both seemed to be dead ends. The hospital was doing its best to maintain its
prized confidentiality.

    He was convinced there was
nothing he could do. But there had to be something. He didn’t want there to be
a single more victim.

    Toshiaki gained speed, nearly
skidding off the road as he curved downhill.

11

     Shigenori Anzai was alone,
sitting on a sofa in the lifeless hospital lobby.

    The fights were out. The
window, normally overrun with patients, was covered by a beige curtain as if to
reject him. A big clock on the wall tapped a rhythm as it ticked away the
seconds. At noontime, this place was racked with so much noise that no one
could hear a thing, certainly not the hand of a clock. Now, the ticking annoyed
him.