Parasite Eve Sephirotto Part 30

The place had the feel of an operating room, but differed slightly from where Kiyomi or Mariko had been operated on. The s.p.a.ce was narrow and a total mess. The floor was heavily discolored. Three stainless steel operating tables were lined up in a row. A naked man was laid out on the central one. There were two men in green coats, one on either side of the table, gazing at Her with shock in their eyes.

"He-hey, we're in the middle of an au...topsy..."said one of them, from behind his mask. She couldn't set them on fire. If the alarm went off again, it would alert everyone to Her whereabouts. She scowled at the man, then made his heart stop like She did to the last one. This was almost too easy.

The other doctor blinked his eyes and backed up. His mask was moving, as if he was trying to say something, but no words issued. Dragging Mariko alongside Her, She advanced slowly into the room. She looked at the man on the operating table. He couldn't have been more dead. His abdomen was spread open down the middle, revealing milk-white fat and gnarled entrails. She grabbed one of the corpse's arms to pull him onto the floor.

But Her hand suddenly became deformed. She looked at it in surprise, sending signals to make the hand reform. The cells did not respond.

Necrosis had at last begun to take over Her host cells. Kiyomi's form began to drip down like jam. Her life as Eve 1 was drawing to a close. She didn't have much time.

Using both arms, She pushed the dead body off the table. It rolled over and fell to the floor with a dull thud. Her shoulders distorted; Her arms began to break away from Her torso.

The remaining doctor was flat against the wall, his mouth moving in wordless wonder. The man was already becoming an eyesore, so She disposed < p="">

She managed to shoulder Mariko up onto the table and lay her out flat. She tore off the remaining clothing from Mariko's body and gazed upon it.

Such a small body. The chest was still undeveloped and the pubic hair faint, revealing a tight crevice beneath. But the body was female. The womb had to be handled with the utmost discretion, for it would perhaps become the birthplace of many Eves to come. It would need to serve its role as incubator. It was good then to have obtained such a young girl.

A smile came to Her melting face as She crawled on top of Mariko.

At that moment, one of Her arms Jell off, hitting the floor with a splat. The severed flesh writhed around, seeming to yearn for the body from which it Jell, but She ignored it.

Her only purpose now was to implant the egg.

She opened Mariko's legs and lifted her waist to get a better view of her reproductive organs, then pressed the lower half of Her body onto them.

She had made sure that Tos.h.i.+aki's sperm penetrated the egg She created. The fertilization was complete. When a single sperm 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 v.a.g.i.n.a, She created the male equivalent. The shape < p="">

Through the center of this protrusion, She fas.h.i.+oned 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 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 love with Tos.h.i.+aki.

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. Tos.h.i.+aki banged the "Open" b.u.t.ton.

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

"This way."Yos.h.i.+zumi gestured left with his chin into a dark hallway. Tos.h.i.+aki 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 hea.r.s.e 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 Tos.h.i.+aki 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? Tos.h.i.+aki 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. Tos.h.i.+aki 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 pa.s.sed 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 Yos.h.i.+zumi.

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.

Yos.h.i.+zumi looked at the other two for agreement. Anzai nodded back firmly.

Yos.h.i.+zumi 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!"

Tos.h.i.+aki 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. Tos.h.i.+aki looked down at the floor and found the voice's master.

"It's no use... Soon, she will be...born."

Tos.h.i.+aki could still make out Kiyomi's figure in the amebic ma.s.s 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 1'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. Tos.h.i.+aki 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.

Tos.h.i.+aki could not breathe.

A moment later, blood poured out from Mariko's v.a.g.i.n.a, 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 ma.s.s that was Eve 1. Anzai gulped. Tos.h.i.+aki 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. Yos.h.i.+zumi gasped in horror. Something was peeking out from between her legs. It was glittering with blood, pus.h.i.+ng 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 pet.i.te body had been transformed into a mere child-rearing vessel. Every time the fetus twisted, Mariko's organ was stretched to its extremes. 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.

Tos.h.i.+aki 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. Tos.h.i.+aki covered his ears, but the sound shook his body all the more. He screamed and let his hands drop.

As the fetus squirmed around, Tos.h.i.+aki 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 gla.s.s. Tos.h.i.+aki 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.

Tos.h.i.+aki 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 Tos.h.i.+aki. 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 b.r.e.a.s.t.s 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 Tos.h.i.+aki could hear the ringing in his ears. His body refused to stop shaking. Yos.h.i.+zumi stood wide-eyed and with mouth agape. Anzai was still in Tos.h.i.+aki's grip, eyes closed as tightly as possible.

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

It stood up.

Tos.h.i.+aki 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 surpa.s.sed human women. It surpa.s.sed 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, Tos.h.i.+aki knew awe. It was too beautiful, and yet grotesque. At the same time that he felt an intense s.e.xual 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 Tos.h.i.+aki's arms. Tos.h.i.+aki 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 Tos.h.i.+aki could react.