—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
I stood firm, holding Camilla back. If I let myself get dragged away like this, I felt like I’d get swept up in Cassandra’s pace.
“Hey. Cassandra. There’s something I’ve wanted to say for a while, will you listen?”
Cassandra seemed a little annoyed, but she stopped and waited for me to speak.
“Make it quick.”
“We’re living together now. Right?”
Nod.
“I don’t mean we should show each other our private lives without hiding anything. But health-related issues, I mean, things about the virus, aren’t private matters. Because it’s a story that affects all of us, beyond the personal realm.”
Another nod.
“So I’d like you to tell me the reason first. To both me and Camilla. Your way of speaking, well, I’m used to it now, but I refuse to be dragged around here and there without even knowing why. Please tell me that part publicly.”
Cassandra looked at me and Camilla alternately with somewhat ambiguous eyes, then stuck out her large chest and put her hands on her hips. She seemed displeased about something.
“You know. There’s something I learned while working as a doctor. It was better to just give orders to patients. They wouldn’t listen otherwise. Cassandra thinks you two aren’t much different. Even though you should be doing it for the sake of medicine and science, you’re wasting time like this.”
“We decided to call that ‘politeness.’ I know you’re smart. I admit it. But that doesn’t mean we have to move exactly as you say. Johan and I are not your lab rats.”
Camilla, having finished her sandwich, cut in. Only then did Cassandra seem to understand.
“Ah, I see. I just need to speak softly, like a request, right? Not ‘do this,’ but ‘could you please do this?’ like that.”
“…Um. Well. Let’s start from there.”
Cassandra let go of my arm. Instead, she strode over to Camilla.
She had only moved closer, but it somehow felt like their chests were touching. Camilla flinched reflexively and tried to cover her chest, but then, as if angered by her own cowering, she stuck it out defiantly. Camilla wasn’t on the small side either.
“Camilla. Could you do Cassandra just one favor?”
“Fine. What is it?”
“That mouth of yours, please open it a bit. Wide.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
A short while later. Cassandra closed the lab door and came out. She looked very pleased. She seemed to have already forgotten the argument where Camilla had said, ‘If you had just said, “I need to collect cells and saliva from inside your mouth with a cotton swab, so could you please open your mouth,” I wouldn’t have misunderstood!’
“The results are out.”
Cassandra didn’t even glance at Camilla. For some reason, I felt a grudge was gradually building between the two women. I decided to patch things up with Camilla later and to first satisfy my curiosity.
“Is the analysis usually this fast?”
“Ah, Cassandra copied the entire backup of the Disease Crisis Management’s database. It contains information on all the subspecies and variants of the Cro-virus discovered and analyzed so far.
By comparing against that, I can get clues as to exactly which type of virus you’re infected with. In conclusion, there was no 100% matching virus.”
In the end, Camilla, unable to contain her curiosity, waved her hand.
“So, am I going to become a zombie now?”
“It depends on the definition of a zombie, but if you call the situation where the Cro-virus has completely taken root in the body and become chronic a ‘zombie,’ then over 95% of Elza’s population are already zombies.”
To say such a scary thing so cheerfully.
“The virus in both of your bodies is most similar to the one discovered most recently. The 8th National Gendarmerie rescued some civilians from a golf resort, and at the time of rescue, the tendons in their wrists and forearms had been severed.
They had been severed for so long that even the Kibele emergency kit couldn’t repair the cells. But strangely, not long after being rescued, the tendons reattached. An amazing recovery ability, right? Unnaturally so.”
I remembered.
They were the people Camilla and I had saved at the resort. Those people had also been immersed in the same ‘source of contamination’ as me. In the first-floor parking lot of the resort’s shopping center, where the water spewing from the sprinklers had mixed with zombie blood.
The next time I saw them was in front of the Hampton Continental Hotel. The pamphlet the cultists handed out had said something along the lines of ‘The goddess’s messenger saved the oppressed and reattached their severed tendons, what is this if not a blessing.’
At the time, I just thought it was nonsense.
“So, what, you’re saying if we cut my and Camilla’s tendons, they’ll grow back?”
“I doubt it. Because your virus isn’t a 100% match with those people’s either. And it’s not a good thing. It means the virus has taken that much control of the body. It’s by no means a positive sign.”
“That sounds grim.”
Cassandra explained the pattern of the Cro-virus.
All living things in the world want to survive. If they can’t survive themselves, they want to at least leave behind offspring. That is the law, and viruses are no exception.
Most viruses find various means to ‘spread.’ That’s why the influenza virus is transmitted through the respiratory system and cholera spreads through water.
Therefore, the spread of most viruses can be controlled by cutting off the source of infection. That’s how it had been until now. Except for the Cro-virus.
“The Cro-virus uses almost every means of transmission. There have been no cases of respiratory transmission yet, but there have been cases of droplet infection.
It crossed the species barrier a long time ago, and as you can see from your cases, it can also be transmitted through contaminated water.
By doing so, it seems to analyze and find for itself which method is most effective. Biting animals is one of them.”
That was unexpected.
“What do you mean?”
“95% of Elza’s population is infected, but not everyone bites each other. But the things we commonly call ‘zombies,’ that’s what they are, right?
They eat whatever they can catch, be it human or beast, and if you get bitten, you get infected… That’s because the virus that has taken over that person’s body is of ‘that kind.’
A type that needs to be transmitted through saliva and skin contact. The easiest way to do that is to bite. Chomp.
But normally, people don’t just bite into something living because they’re hungry. So this virus found another way. By lowering judgment and heightening instincts.
In other words, zombies aren’t stupid. Their intelligence itself is similar to that of the original person. It’s just that they have almost no judgment and follow their instincts. We don’t say a person suffering from hallucinations due to a high fever has become stupid. We say they’re sick. It’s the same thing.
That’s why the zombies in the human unprotected zones attack so viciously when they see something covered in blood. Because they’re hungry. The zombies in the protected zones are violent and sensitive to stimuli. Because it heightens their aggression. That’s how the virus controls people. But you two are a little different.”
Camilla came over to me and sat right next to me. She placed a hand on my thigh and fumbled with it. When I covered the back of her hand firmly, she calmed down.
Cassandra made a slightly strange expression, but I nodded for her to continue.
“The virus in both of you isn’t trying to take over your bodies. Rather, it’s more like… it seems to be trying to settle into your bodies.”
“Please, don’t say such a horrible…”
“…thing. It’s not. Camilla. How many bacteria are there in a person’s body? Especially in the intestines. We call things like lactobacillus beneficial bacteria, don’t we?”
Camilla was horrified, but I thought I understood what she meant.
“Are you saying the Cro-virus is trying to help me and Camilla?”
“To be precise, it seems to be trying to help your survival. A feeling of testing the waters? It’s only at the level of helping with fatigue recovery in a minor way, but this is literally just a feeling and hasn’t been verified. Please just think of it as a hypothesis.
It seems the virus in your bodies has chosen to coexist. It seems to have judged that it has to keep you alive for a long time in order to live for a long time itself. Congratulations. You won’t become monsters that bite people and have poor judgment.”
Camilla let out a sigh as if the ground would collapse. Her body swayed, so I quickly wrapped my arm around her. Cassandra made that unreadable expression again.
“And Cassandra thinks she knows why the virus in your bodies made that judgment. From what I heard, not long after you two were infected, you were in a sealed, enclosed space for quite a long time. And you two were quite… vigorously ‘exercising.’”
Cassandra still seemed suspicious. But even now, just thinking about that time made my calves tremble. It was truly a grueling training session.
“Uh, we were, right?”
Camilla’s face turned red. It seemed she had remembered what happened that night.
“To speculate. The virus would have tried to quickly take over your bodies, and it would have done all sorts of things to spread. It probably would have caused coughing or something.
But you two took the lead, sweating and exhaling through exercise. From the virus’s perspective, it would have been convenient. It was as if you were ‘spreading’ it for them without them having to do anything.
And surely, the breath you exhaled would have been transmitted to each other’s respiratory systems… If it had accepted it, thinking it was an enemy, only to find a virus almost identical to itself, there would have been no reason to fight. It means there’s no reason to become more virulent.
Instead, some kind of reinforcement must have taken place. You two seem to have shared… acts of affection for quite a long time.”
“I said no. We were just exercising really hard!”
Unfairly, Cassandra was not listening to me.
“I’ll take your word for it. Anyway, in the process, you constantly shared saliva, had skin contact, and so on, right?
Thanks to that, the viruses in both of you reinforced each other in the process, made each other stronger, fixed errors, and caught mutations. Because they judged the current state to be optimal.
You two reinforced the virus in each other’s bodies. That’s why I tried mixing it with Cassandra’s virus. Cassandra’s virus is also quite robust, but you two are even more so.”
Should I be happy about this, or should I say no? I needed some time to think. I pulled Camilla’s body closer. She smelled as lovely as ever.
So, the virus in me and Camilla was planning to settle into our bodies. But instead of ‘taking over’ our bodies and turning us into zombie monsters, it had changed its strategy to live with us. A defensive method, building and protecting a solid fortress.
“So it’s coexistence?”
“If you had to put it that way, yes. Whether it was intentional or not on either side, I don’t know. But at least in the realm of judgment, it won’t touch you.”
“How merciful.”
It sounded sarcastic, but Camilla even smiled, as if she were quite relieved. But Cassandra’s face still looked serious.
“But, is there really no effect?”
“There’s no way. This is just a bit peculiar to you, Johan.”
I knew it. Camilla held my waist tightly. As if I were about to be snatched away by a ghost.
“What, what is it!”
“It would be more accurate to call it emotional amplification.”
“…Huh? What did you say?”
Did I hear something wrong?
“I’ll put it more simply. Sorry. This is a first for Cassandra too. Um… what should I call it? Arousal? Or.”
“What are you talking about right now?”
“Heat?”
It felt like 100 alarm bells were going off in my head. Camilla’s mouth dropped open as she looked back and forth between me and Cassandra. Cassandra, having thought of something, nodded as if this would be the right way to put it.
“The virus in your body, Johan, produces a very special substance and transmits it outside the body. It stimulates the other person’s nerves, but it works in a very peculiar way. It amplifies the other person’s emotions, you could say.
If someone tries to attack you, their own excitement will make them more aggressive. Your tactic, Johan, is to piss off your opponent and make them lose their reason. Because that increases the survival rate of you and your body’s virus.
But on the other hand, if they don’t threaten your body. It will make them feel favorable towards you, and in some cases, it will draw them in. If they already like you…”
At that point, something in Cassandra’s gaze changed. It was something squirming, undulating, sticky, you could say. A strange glint appeared in her green eyes.
“…If they like me, what happens?”
“It will make them come unbearably close, enough to spread and infect them with the virus in your body.”
“What… what did you say?”
Camilla looked at Cassandra as if she were absurd. And Camilla, too, seemed to have read the strange atmosphere around Cassandra. She pulled me closer as if she didn’t want to lose me.
But Cassandra also looked at Camilla. For some reason, it was a look mixed with pity and sympathy.
“…How on earth have you been holding it in all this time? Your patience is admirable.”
“Doctor! Please! Just! Don’t talk about personal matters!”
But Cassandra pointed at me.
“But, Johan said that health-related issues, meaning things about the virus, aren’t private. Because it’s a story that affects all of us beyond the personal realm, he asked me to speak publicly, didn’t he?”
She’s using it like this? But Cassandra’s words weren’t finished.
“So from now on, Cassandra is going to talk about something very, very important. It’s for the three of us. We must become one.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
