Blood+: The Delta Strain
By Nintendoman01
Disclaimer:
Blood+ is the property of Production I.G. I do not own the series or any of its characters; if I did, it would've had an official continuation by now. I do, however, own this story and any characters and scenarios not featured in the actual series. All rights reserved.
Author's Note:
This is my attempt at a continuation of the Blood+ anime, and I hope to do it some justice here. Constructive criticism is appreciated, but I will not tolerate flames of any kind: if you don't like it, don't read it. I'm really just seeing where it goes here, so... yeah. Okay, let's do this.
- Prologue -
Five Years Gone
The human race is widely believed to be the dominant species of this planet. They're the most widespread, the most intelligent, have made so many advancements in technology. The truth is, the world they live in and own is nothing but a sugar-coated topping. There's another world beneath it, the real world, and it's nothing short of pure hell.
There's another race, superior to humans in nearly every way. The chiropterans. Biologically immortal bat-like creatures, they can assume human form and survive on human blood. They're everywhere, could be anybody.
But that's where I come in. My name is Saya Otonashi. I'm a chiropteran myself, one of the current queens of the species. Make no mistake, though: I may be a chiropteran biologically, but I was adopted by humans and raised as one. Me and my associates, the Red Shield, work to fight the chiropterans and keep them under control.
It all started in the year 1833, in a château in Bordeaux they called the Zoo. Two scientists, Joel Goldschmidt I and
Amshel Goldsmith, found the mummified body of a chiropteran in Iceland and brought it to the Zoo for study. That mummy was my mother, who died while she was pregnant with me and my twin sister, Diva. Joel and Amshel cut the cocoons that contained the two of us out of our mother's body, and when we hatched, they decided to experiment. Joel adopted me and raised me as his daughter, but locked up Diva in a tower for "science." For the first fifty years of her life, Diva was tortured, experimented on, barely fed, and treated like an animal. She didn't even have a name until I met her and gave her one.
I tried to be friends with Diva, but when I let her out of the tower for her to sing at Joel's birthday party, she burned the mansion to the ground and killed every human there, including Joel himself. From that day on, I dedicated myself to fighting and eventually killing Diva, with the help of the Red Shield, founded by the original Joel's children and grandchildren, and currently led by Joel Goldschmidt VI. Through it all, I've been aided by Haji, my closest friend and oldest living chevalier. He's been at my side through thick and thin.
Of course, I haven't exactly spent the past hundred-plus years relentlessly hunting Diva. Chiropteran queens only stay active for so long until they enter hibernation periods for thirty years at a time. When I awoke from my last one in 2004, it was in Okinawa, and I couldn't remember anything about my life before except my name. I was adopted by a kind man named George Miyagusuku, along with my brothers Kai and Riku. After a year, Haji and the Red Shield found me again, and I returned to the fold and eventually regained my memories.
The fight with Diva has cost me a lot, including the life of my father and my little brother Riku, but when I finally fought and killed her, I gained something in return: Diva's newborn twin daughters, my little nieces. It was after the war with Diva finally ended that I entered my next hibernation period.
It's been five years. We all thought it was over, and that with Diva gone we could finally live our lives in peace however we wanted. We couldn't have been more mistaken...
The sun was just beginning to peak in the sky as Kai made his way up to the Miyagusuku family crypt, sitting at the top of the hill. He stopped just outside the entrance of the mausoleum, and bent down to see a fresh pink rose with a blue ribbon tied to it resting on the stairs.
"So he's been here again," Kai thought aloud. With a small smile, he picked up the rose and made his way into the mausoleum. Turning on his flashlight, he sat on the floor just in front of a large flesh-colored cocoon: the resting place of his "little" sister Saya. Kai just sat there for a few minutes in silence, listening to the sound of Saya's heartbeat.
"Hey, it's me," he said at last, resting his hand on the cocoon. "I know I haven't been here in a while, but things have been really busy for me lately. Omoro's become a big hangout since you've been gone, and it's been pretty tough running it by myself."
Kai stopped and took a deep breath to compose himself. He wasn't completely sure if Saya could even hear him, but it just felt good to talk to her. After a moment, he told her about all that had happened and what their friends had been up to while she was away. Despite Diva's demise, there was still the occasional chiropteran attack, and the Red Shield had stayed active to combat them to the best of their abilities, aided by Lulu, the last living Schiff. As he himself had promised, Kai was taking care of Diva's daughters, whom they had named Kanade and Hibiki Miyagusuku, and had begun dating Mao. David and Julia had settled down together and gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Robin shortly after Saya entered hibernation, and were currently expecting a second child, this one a girl. Julia still worked as a doctor and was assigned as Kanade and Hibiki's personal physician just as she was to Saya. Lewis had continued his role as the Red Shield's technician and occasionally watched over Kanade and Hibiki. Joel was still the head of the Red Shield, and Okamura had returned from the Middle East and occasionally helped the organization.
"So, Haji was here the other day," he said. "I didn't see him, but he left you a rose. I'm sure he's out there, watching over you like always." He looked up in surprise as he heard Saya shift around in the cocoon, almost as if she was reacting to the news.
Kai looked down at the rose still clutched in his hand, and recalled that fateful night at the Metropolitan Opera House, when Haji had been badly injured facing Amshel in order to protect Saya and Diva's children, and ended up trapped in the building when it was bombed by the military. Saya had been absolutely devastated by the apparent loss of her closest friend, and he had often heard her crying in her room at night after they returned to Okinawa. Even now, Kai wished he could have done something to try and ease his sister's pain.
After a few more moments in silence, Kai stood, ran a hand through his spiky red hair, and gently placed the rose on top of Saya's cocoon.
"I'm sorry I've gotta go so soon, but I'll be back," Kai said, feeling the sting of tears in his eyes. "See ya later, Saya. I love you."
With that, Kai turned and made his way out of the mausoleum.
Across town, an elderly man wearing a black business suit and a matching necktie under a white lab coat was working diligently in an old building. Sitting on the desk before him was a large beaker filled with a blood red liquid, slowly boiling over a Bunsen burner and marked "Delta 67000. When the liquid began to boil, he nodded in approval, turned off the burner, and picked up a small hypodermic syringe, which he proceeded to fill with the liquid.
Ever since the fall of Diva, Aston Collins had been in hiding and working for five years to perfect his research and enhance the Delta 67 agent created by Cinq Flèches to transform humans into chiropterans, all to get revenge on the Red Shield for his pain and humiliation. He had even gone so far as to inject himself with the serum, becoming a chiropteran himself.
Clutching the syringe, Collins stood and made his way into another room. Standing before him, strapped to tables and kept in medically-induced comas, were numerous unfortunate humans whom Collins and his associates had kidnapped to use as test subjects for his experiments, along with live chiropterans locked in cages specifically designed to hold them, attempting to break out without success. He laid his eyes on one human in particular, a young girl who had the misfortune of not being drugged, who was trying in vain to break free of her restraints.
"Five years of hiding and experimentation are finally going to pay off," Collins said aloud, an insane smile on his face that exposed his newly formed chiropteran fangs as he made his way toward the terrified girl. "With this formula, I will bring about the birth of a new world. Soon, everyone will know the name Aston Collins, and with that little brat Saya Otonashi gone, there's nothing and no one in this world who can stop me."
Finally reaching the captive girl, Collins jabbed the syringe into her carotid artery and injected its contents into her body. Almost as soon as the syringe was removed, the girl began to jerk, her back arching and eyes flying wide open. A low gargling sound emitted from deep in her throat as she began to spasm, lightly at first, then violently as an epileptic tremor ran through her body. Her hands clenched, her torso contorted, her eyes rolled back into her head, and her head whipped back and forth as the veins and arteries in her arms, neck, and face began to bulge out from her skin, red and black streaking across her body like a road map.
Through it all, Collins watched the spectacle with psychotic glee, his face lit up with an unholy joy as his serum continued to do its work on his victim, to batter change upon a girl who's only crime was to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. As suddenly as it had begun, the girl's seizure ceased, and she settled back onto the table. After a moment, she let out a roar and began struggling against her restraints. Her eyes flashed red, her teeth elongated into fangs, and her fingernails shifted into flesh-rending claws. Collins let out a cry of joy at the sight.
"It works," he said, then chuckled. "It works!" At that, Collins threw his head back and let out an utterly deranged cackle. "Now the world is mine!"
Unbeknownst to Collins, just outside the window of the testing room sat a seemingly young man with long black hair tied back with a blue ribbon, dressed in a Victorian fashion with a cello case strapped across his back, who had seen everything. Though his face showed no emotion, inside Haji was seething with rage at Collins' inhumane experiments.
Haji had seen Collins walking through town shortly after he had departed the Miyagusuku family crypt after visiting Saya. Knowing of the man's betrayal of the Red Shield and affiliation with Diva, he had followed him to see what he was up to, and he had seen enough. He had to warn the Red Shield as quickly as possible, but one thing was certain. They had to awaken the one person who had the power to stop Collins' fiendish plot.
Whether she liked it or not, Saya Otonashi would have to step forward and play the hero once again.
Author's Note:
Well, I think I'm off to a good start here. I plan on bringing Saya back into the fold as earlier as either next chapter or the third one.
The names of Diva's daughters are taken from the Blood+ wiki, just FYI.
Please R&R. Until next chapter...
