Part 25 (1/2)

8.

FLAP.

What was that?

thought Tos.h.i.+aki.

Something had brushed his cheek.

Something like pebbles. It hurt. He slowly raised a hand.

He touched his cheek with a finger.

It was warm, slimy.

What was that? FLAP.

Tos.h.i.+aki woke up with a start. He shook his head, blinked his eyes. His vision was blurry. It was dark. He wiped his face with both hands. The lack of feeling in his fingers frightened him and he cried out.

He looked at his palms.

Something was stuck to his fingertips like soft calluses.

He tried to stand up and stretch his legs, but slipped in his daze, floated in the air for a second, and came down hard.

He pressed his head and looked around. He'd suffered a mild concussion. The scene looked unstable.

He was in a room. He could see the silhouette of what looked like a desk. He remembered now.

The lab.

Tos.h.i.+aki stretched his back and went over to the wall switch. He turned on the light. He heard a flicker, then a steady buzz. He s.h.i.+elded his eyes from the intense brightness.

When his eyes grew used to the light, he was treated to a strange sight.

Pieces of flesh were splattered all over the room. Some were beige, some red, and others black. They ranged from the size of a fingertip to that of a fist. Asakura's table was covered with what looked like ground pork. There were even some slender pieces dangling from the ceiling. Strangely, there was not a single drop of blood.

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.

Tos.h.i.+aki 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 l.u.s.tre. As he watched one of them, it constricted feebly, then shriveled up.

They were dying.

And Tos.h.i.+aki felt relieved.

He finally looked at himself. His s.h.i.+rt 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?

Tos.h.i.+aki 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. Tos.h.i.+aki looked hesitantly at his underwear.

Mitochondria were pa.s.sed matrilineally. That was why the distant ancestor found through the a.n.a.lysis of mitochondrial DNA was called Mitochondrial ”Eve” and not ”Adam.”

Mitochondria were female.

And I had s.e.x with that female.

Tos.h.i.+aki broke down. He slammed his head on the table, cursing himself for his own foolishness. He had e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.

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.