a/n: I own nothing.
Blood: Contamination
Chapter One: The Beginning is the End is the Beginning
Click, click click.
The camera spits the sound out constantly as the large button atop is pressed. Peering through the lens, we see a simple arrangement of colorful powders. Finely grounded and divided in columns of red, purple and yellow. Chalky in appearance, one without an artistic eye would see this as an organized mess. But to the dark haired girl with startling scarlet eyes, it was a goldmine. The spring air around her clings with a wintry chill, kissing her cheeks with every breeze.
Her uniform insignia gave strangers the impression of her current station in life: a student. A simple student, harmless to the world, a face to overlook in a crowd. She turned her camera lenses to the strangers passing by the paint stall in the busy streets. She took pictures of children, grandparents, and couples. All of them oblivious of their likeness being captured. She gave a smile, and put her camera back to its proper place in the case around her shoulders. Her smile still lingering, she walked into the crowd of Okinawa, Japan.
"AHHHH!"
"Please, just keep pushing." The wet nurse continued as if in mantra. A man of 40+ years stood nervously outside the door. Jittery, jumpy, and sweating, the man kept hearing the same loud scream, and the calming obsolete words of the nurse. His wife had gone in at four this morning, and had been in labor since. At long last, a nurse stepped outside the room.
"Mr. Kai Miyagusuku?" The nurse inquired. The man in question simply nodded furiously, rubbing his sweaty hands together.
"Yes, yes?" He replied too eagerly. But just as the nurse was about to open her lips, a loud yell called from down the hallway.
"Uncle Kai!" A clumsy girl rang out as she nearly tripped from running down the hospital halls. Her long black hair in twin braids, her school uniform stained from food, and her ice-blue eyes brightened by the jog.
"Riku! Where've you been! And where is your sister?" Kai called back as the girl caught up with her uncle and the nurse, who was still waiting for the episode to end to continue.
"Nevermind, what was it you were going to say?" Kai asked the nurse.
"There seems to be a slight complication, I'll have to ask you to return to the waiting room." The nurse explained seriously.
"Complication? What kind of complication?" He was frantic. The nurse took a last look inside and stepped out fully and closed the door, but not without a loud scream from the occupant inside.
"As it seems, the baby needs to be turned. We do not know how long it will take. But her health is working to our advantage." She tried to put it simply.
"Wait, the baby is turned the wrong way?" Riku asked, her blue eyes rimmed with tears. "Is this something serious?"
"It happens more often then not, so we do not see any dangers. Now, please return to the waiting room, we will come and get you when it's done." With that the nurse went back inside the loud room.
Kai stepped back and rubbed his sweaty hands against his sweaty face. Riku stands near, not knowing what to do, or how to feel. As they silently make their way back to the sitting room down the hall, they are nearly ran over by a blurred figure.
:"Oh, Gomenasi," the person says and bows furiously. Kai watches his niece, and Riku watches her sister continue to bow and make a fool of herself.
"Namie, you can stop now." Riku said.
The said girl looked up, her scarlet eyes and short black hair moving with her. It suddenly dawns on her of who it is, and a blush creeps up her face.
"Uncle Kai, Riku,- How's Aunt Reiko?" Namie asks with obliviousness.
"There seems to be a small problem, where have you been? Don't tell me you were off taking pictures while we were waiting here!" Riku scolded after seeing the camera pack around Namie's shoulders.
"Riku, you only got here five minutes ago, where were you?" Kai retorted.
"Traffic was bad."
"So is anyone going to answer my question?" Namie complained.
"It seems that the baby needs to be turned before they can make a successful delivery." Kai said, the situation finally returning and snapping him out of his pervious comfortable mood.
"An odyssey at its finest, haven't you been here since dawn?" Namie asked.
"It seems to only be getting more frustrating." Kai said, as he sunk himself into an empty chair in the waiting room.
"I wonder how much pain a woman goes through during childbirth?" Riku asked as she and her sister followed suit.
"I want to have a baby!" Namie exclaimed. Kai, growing even more uneasy, decided to change the subject.
"So how was school?" There, a safe subject.
"Fell asleep through most of it." They both said simultaneously, there similar appearances making the event even more queer.
"It wouldn't be so bad if we didn't keep changing schools every four years." Namie said lowly.
"ahh, what time is it?" Kai asked.
"About a quarter till five." Riku answered.
"ahh, what day is it?" He asked again.
"March 5, 2035. Tuesday." Namie answered.
"ahh." Kai began to drift off to sleep, the stress and worrying taking it's toll.
Flashback
30 years ago.
"What do you mean? Where are you going?" Kai asked, confused about his adopted sister's sentence.
"I won't be coming back with you, neither will these two." A girl forlornly replied, holding a large katana that contrasted with her harmless appearance. Her bloodstained tattered pink dress swayed in the night air.
"Saya, I don't understand." Kai implored again.
"It's the way it has to be, we can't be used as weapons." The girl named Saya said tearfully, her hands shaking. "I'm going to kill these two, and then myself." A tall man stood halfway between Kai and Saya, looking through emotionless eyes. Kai quickly ran forward, only to be stopped by the man's outstretched arm. "Saya! You can't do this!" Kai pleaded.
"It's the only way Kai." Saya began to hold the large katana up, beginning to set her plan in motion.
"Hagi! You care about her too, you can't let her do this!" He pleaded with the man who was holding him back. These words had an affect of a sort, because the man named Hagi let him go. Hagi turned toward Saya with no emotion in his face, but a tell tale sign of it in his eyes.
"I wished to see you smile once again, a smile I came to adore when I first met you." Hagi exclaimed. Saya lowered her sword hand, and stared back in a weary tear-filled look.
"I wish for you to live on."
End flashback
"UNCLE KAI!"
Instantly Kai awoke from his forgotten dream by the simultaneous yelling of his nieces. He looked at both of them quizzically, not sure where he was.
"Uncle Kai, Aunt Reiko had the baby already! She wants to see us!" Namie said. This caused Kai to literally lurch out of his seat and sprint down the hallway in less than 3 seconds.
Okinawa Military Base
"Mr. Argiano, I understand that you had a run in with the military before. And not on good terms." A commanding officer said. He wore military garb, adorned in metals reflecting his time of service, along with his salt and pepper beard.
In a circular room sits 6 other military gentleman, looking straight at a man in the front of the table. This Argiano, wore a white suit and tried to appear suave but his old age took away from the visage. In his hands was a suitcase, black and locked with a number combination.
"Yez, you are correct in zat respect." His accent still thick even after his long years of prior imprisonment. "but, I offer you a weapon zat does not need a specimen. Rather it finds one all it's own."
"You have our attention." One of the Military men said.
"Allow me to show you a bio-weapon that will end any use of soldiers." With this Argiano set the briefcase onto the table, and did the combination to unlock it. The case opened with an electronic 'hiss' showing two containers of different colored liquid.
"With zis virus, we can reanimate deceased soldiers." Argiano explained. "If you shall allow me a demonstration, I shall prove zis to you."
"We don't have dead bodies lying around." Another Military man interjected.
"Of courze, zat iz why a simple cadaver shall prove fine."
"Very well, we shall indulge you in this, so we will provide you one from the military hospital."
"You will not be disappointed!" and with this Argiano bowed deeply.
Kai looked down at his new son, overwhelmed with so much emotion. Reiko, a woman in her late 30s, with light brown hair that stuck to her face due to the previous straining sweat, and eyes that were brimming with tears for reasons other than the pain of labor- looked on as her husband held their child. She smiled up, and looked toward her nieces who stood nervously at the doorway.
"Come, come, both of you. Come see your cousin." She motioned weakly. Both Riku and Namie launched themselves over to their uncle who held the baby in his hands. All three of them were cooing over the newborn.
"So, what are you going to name him?" Riku asked, looking back at Reiko.
"I left that up to Kai." She answered.
"How about David?" He said, still mesmerized with the baby in his arms.
"How original." Namie said sarcastically.
"David, is a very respectable name." Kai defended.
"Then David it is, sweetie." Reiko said.
"Hello David, I'm your daddy, and you will have such a happy life."
As they were celebrating the birth of their new addition, a loud yelling could be heard. Echoing throughout the Hospital, that got most of the nurses to leave their stations.
"YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM!" A small Asian woman yelled as she played tug-a-war with a large burly Military man a stretcher holding a body bag inbetween them.
"I'm sorry ma'm. But since you cannot pay for the Medical bills let alone the funeral arrangements, it is better in your interest to let us take care of the body."
"NO! HE IS MY HUSBAND, YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM! I KNOW THE THINGS YOU MILITARY PEOPLE DO!" She was on her knees still holding on to the stretcher. But to no avail, as more men in uniform came up to restrain her. The man, now getting control over the stretcher with the body bag laying atop- pushed it outside where a truck was waiting.
The woman was restrained by two men, still yelling- but incoherent due to the constant crying
Okinawa Military Base
A large containment room held a rather grotesque creature, scraping against the glass walls in desperation. It's leather skin sunken in and it's eyes blackened with basic instinct.
"Yes, it was worth the effort Mr. Argiano." The commanding officer said as he observed the miracle before him.
"As you can see sir, za virus choozes za host and infects the host through blood contact. Za virus zen attacks the body's white cells, implanting itzelf into the host indefinitely. Of courze, the host doesn't need to be dead for zis to occur, but it takes longer in living specimens." Argiano explained.
"But, wouldn't that be more of a liability than a profit?" Another military man said.
"I azzure you, zat can only happen if one comes into direct contact with za virus. Za specimens can eazily be disarmed by head trauma."
"How does it animate them? I still don't understand." The commanding officer asked.
"Well, za dead body iz infected with za virus and zen it sets off charges through za subjects veins. Zis charge sparks activity to the brain, heart, and lungs. Zey have no intelligence, and only thrive on zeir basic needs." Argiano continued.
"And what's that?"
"To survive: to eat. However, more monitoring is needed."
"Well, I'm sold. With this Bioweapon, there is no need for an army if we can have a few of these cadavers literally eat the enemy." One of the military men said.
"I agree, as much of a risk as it is, I believe we'll profit from this greatly. What could go wrong."
With that the Commanding officer and Van Argiano shook hands.