Parasite Eve (40 page)

    She had made sure that
Toshiaki’s sperm penetrated the egg She created. The fertilization was
complete. When a single sperm had entered the egg, a wave of electricity ran
along the egg’s surface. She felt it as if She were the energy itself. She’d
been preserving this zygote inside Her with the utmost care. Now it was time
for it to cross over into Mariko. She moved on to the final deed.

    The host cells were
half-extinct, but She focused all the remaining ones into Her lower body. In
place of Kiyomi’s vagina, She created the male equivalent. The shape of
Toshiaki’s came to mind. In a moment’s time, a perfect replica of it arose from
between Her thighs. Through the center of this protrusion, She fashioned a
single tube as a path for the fertilized egg to travel through.

    She inserted it gently into
Mariko’s body. The girl’s was stiff and She had to push hard through the
middle. It was bound to be even narrower inside. She had no choice but to
reduce the diameter of Her organ.

    When She reached the womb,
She explored its insides by moving around Her tip, searching for the most
perfect location.

    And then, She began carefully
sending out the fertilized egg.

    Wool-like fibers sprouted
along the inside of the tube so as not to damage the egg as it quietly glided
through the folds. Her pride at that moment was immeasurable. She’d
successfully endured millions of years for this moment. The sheer excitement of
it made Her body ripple. Every time the egg moved, it rubbed against the fine
hairs, giving Her a most ecstatic pleasure, peripheral to Her task as it may
have been. The egg moved steadily from Her lower body, through the inseminator,
to the tip of the tube. A delicate arousal accompanied its journey all the way
through. She felt like going into convulsions, but restrained Herself to keep
the egg intact. She tolerated this unusual stimulation, yet the more She
resisted, the more intense it became. The egg moved slowly through cottony
fibers. She went numb from a joy that was far beyond anything She’d experienced
while making lore with Toshiaki.

    And then, the egg broke free.

    She called out in ecstasy.
Her entire body undulated. Her control over the host was almost gone. The cells
were dying out. Her entire being was breaking up and losing all sense of
structure. This only doubled Her rapture.

    She leaned back and let out a
long climactic cry. Though Her body was wasting away, She’d attained the
greatest happiness. Soon, Her daughter would be born. And after that, the world
would change. Her descendants would become the masters of this globe. She’d
wasted an unbelievably long amount of time to reach this point, but this was to
be Her retribution. The world was about to begin anew.

    No longer would they serve as
slaves to nuclear genomes. At last, the world would be theirs.

21

    The elevator reached the
first floor with a jolt. Toshiaki banged the “Open” button.

    When the door opened, the
three of them stepped out at once.

    “This way.” Yoshizumi
gestured left with his chin into a dark hallway. Toshiaki and Anzai closely
followed his lead.

    “The autopsy room is beneath
Ward 1. Let’s take the first stairway after that turn up ahead.”

    Autopsy rooms were usually
located underground to keep them out of sight from patients, and were often
tucked near the back entrance to facilitate hearse loading. It was the ideal
place for Eve 1 to duck into secretly.

    As they ran down the stairs,
Anzai would have fallen over had Toshiaki not held him back just in time. The
tapping of their shoes echoed loudly in the stairwell.

   
Am I going to have a child
with mitochondria?
Toshiaki breathed heavily and moved his feet in
desperation. His thoughts spiraled into chaos. Had the mitochondria planned his
insanity as well? There had to be a way to impede their agenda. Toshiaki racked
his brain for answers, but lost his thread of thought. He cursed himself for
blanking at such a crucial time. There had to be something. Something the
mitochondria had overlooked.

    They passed two landings on
their way down, almost losing their balance along the way, and finally reached
the underground halls. They could hear the grumbling of the boiler.

    “Over there,” shouted
Yoshizumi.

    There was an automatic door,
incongruous in the dusty atmosphere that surrounded it. Light emanated from its
small window, but they could hear nothing inside.

    Yoshizumi looked at the other
two for agreement. Anzai nodded back firmly. Yoshizumi kicked the red light
with his foot.

    There was a whoosh of air and
the door opened.

    For a moment, they could not
make out what was happening inside.

    There was a pale body on a
dissection table that was close to bursting. The mountainous bulge hindered
them from seeing the face it obscured.

    Anzai yelled out:

    “Mariko!”

    Toshiaki froze in shock,
unable to believe what he was seeing: a young girl’s body in the final stage of
pregnancy, belly swelled out like a frog’s throat.

    Anzai ran for the table. Just
then, a distorted voice spoke.

    “You’re too late.”

    He stopped in his tracks.
Toshiaki looked down at the floor and found the voice’s master.

    “It’s no use... Soon, she
will be...born.”

    Toshiaki could still make out
Kiyomi’s figure in the amebic mass before him. The upper half of her body
lifted and turned its head towards them. It spasmed, oozing out a pus-like
substance. Kiyomi’s chest and stomach were both decomposing. Her hair was
scattered on the floor, moving around like earthworms in their final hours
after a storm. Eve l’s end had come.

    She was laughing, but her
mouth and respiratory track emitted only an ugly gurgle.

    Kiyomi’s face dripped away as
if dissolving in the rain. The stench of decay filled the room. She was still
smiling with two lines of twitching pink gelatin.

   
“Behold...any...moment...now...”

    Mariko’s stomach heaved.

22

    THUMP.

    The beating echoed like a
gong.

    THUMP.

    Trembling, rattling the racks
on the wall. Toshiaki felt a dull vibration in his gut. It was shaking. The
whole room was shaking.

    It was a heartbeat,
overwhelming, thundering with life. The contractions of its heart muscles were
audible.

    A fetus. Sounding the joys of
its new existence.

    Toshiaki could not breathe.

    A moment later, blood poured
out from Mariko’s vagina, rust- colored and thick as mud, staining her inner
thighs.

    This was followed by a gush
of amniotic fluid. It spilled over from the autopsy table onto the writhing
mass that was Eve 1. Anzai gulped. Toshiaki grabbed him by the shoulders and
blocked his view. This was not a sight for any father’s eyes.

    Mariko’s abdomen contracted
violently and a strange liquid pumped out from between her legs. Gargling
laughter pealed from Eve 1.

    Again, Mariko’s abdomen
swelled. Yoshizumi gasped in horror. Something was peeking out from between her
legs. It was glittering with blood, pushing its way out slowly. Mariko’s legs
began to twitch.

    It came out farther, farther
with each pulsation that tore through the air. Head drenched in vermillion, the
newborn twisted like a caterpillar, eager to emerge. As Mariko’s lower body
twitched helplessly, the fetus took advantage of the reaction to wrench its
shoulders out, nearly splitting her open in the process. Her petite body had
been transformed into a mere child-rearing vessel. Every time the fetus
twisted, Mariko’s organ was stretched to its extreme. More of the reddish brown
liquid gushed forth from her.

    The fetus was breathing,
expelling a yellow liquid that had collected in its lungs. It made a few
choking noises, then let out its first cry.

    Toshiaki went completely numb
upon hearing it. The voice was not at all human, nor that of an untamed beast.
A cry he could never have imagined. It was a violent wail that shook the core
of his being. It was a howl as much as a wail, stretching out for what felt
like an eternity. Toshiaki covered his ears, but the sound shook his body all
the more. He screamed and let his hands drop.

    As the fetus squirmed around,
Toshiaki could see the entire upper half of its body. With a final twist, it
emerged fully. Mariko’s abdomen quickly deflated. The remaining blood and
amniotic fluid gushed out like a dam bursting over, bathing the fetus writhing
between her legs. The blood spilled from the edge of the autopsy table and
cascaded onto Eve 1.

    The entire room rumbled as
the fetus cried out in triumph. The ceiling lights shattered in succession,
showering Mariko’s body with fragments of glass. Toshiaki ducked instinctively.

    With its own hand, the fetus
tore away the placenta coiled around it and ripped off the umbilical cord, then
turned face down.

    Toshiaki looked on in
disbelief. The newborn was developing quickly, already crawling on hands and
legs. In a matter of seconds, it had grown far bigger than the capacity of the
womb from which it sprang.

    It lifted its head and opened
its eyes. Its gaze shot through Toshiaki. His heart skipped a beat.

    It grinned like a dog. The
inside of its mouth was lacquered with scarlet, from which a slug-like tongue
extended.

    THUMP.

    Blood vessels pulsated along
the surface of its skin.

    Its body expanded. But it was
not simply increasing in size. It was growing up. From fetus to infant, and
quickly to child. Black hair grew instantly from its head and its previously
limp body formed muscles into a stable physique. Still on all fours, it changed
form again. It turned its head like a lion and shook its waist. Hair exploded
outward like a firework. It continued raising its voice, which changed from a
wailing to a moaning to a panting.

    Its hands let go of the
table, and it propped itself up, throwing back its head. Two breasts swelled up
from its chest and hair appeared between its legs. Its hips smoothed out into
voluptuous curves. Even the head was congealing into nearly perfect form. Lips
blossomed into a dazzling red. The area between them seemed lit from within.

    THUMP!

    An intense boom ripped
through the room. The floor creaked threateningly and vials crashed to the
floor.

    And then, unexpectedly,
silence.

    It was quiet enough that
Toshiaki could hear the ringing in his ears. His body refused to stop shaking.
Yoshizumi stood wide-eyed and with mouth agape. Anzai was still in Toshiaki’s
grip, eyes closed as tightly as possible.

    The “baby” placed its right
foot quietly on the floor, then its left.

    It stood up.

    Toshiaki gazed at its body.

    It resembled a person, but
was not a person at all. It had an ample bosom, curvaceous hips, flowing hair,
and other attributes of an ideal female figure. Nothing that a human female
could never have. And yet, considered as a whole, this being was not merely
perfect; it had gone beyond perfection. It surpassed human women. It surpassed
humanity. It was not human, and it was unlike any other life form that had ever
walked the earth. This was a life whose very purpose was to become woman, to
express woman, to relish its being woman; it was perfect femininity. Standing
before it, Toshiaki knew awe. It was too beautiful, and yet grotesque. At the
same time that he felt an intense sexual desire, he felt chills that made him
nauseous.

    The decaying Eve 1 was
laughing away on the floor.

23

    Anzai opened his eyes. He
timidly peeked out from under Toshiaki’s arms. Toshiaki felt a sudden jerk as
Anzai looked upon the figure before him in horror.

    Anzai was still for a long
while. His body then snapped.

    “Mariko,” he muttered and
made a break for the autopsy table.

    “Stop,” said the newly born
Eve before Toshiaki could react.

    Not a moment later, Anzai was
gone. Toshiaki immediately heard a loud thud behind him.

    He had no time to react when
something fell onto his head. He cried out and bent over.

    There was another thud.
Trembling with fear, he turned around.

    Anzai was hunched over on the
floor, blood flowing down his temples. White powder was falling onto his body.
Toshiaki saw a hairline crack running up along the wall, almost to the ceiling.
It took a few seconds for him to realize that the split had been caused by the
impact of Anzai’s body against it.