Warning: This story contains strange biology. Please, proceed with caution.
Yuuri felt weaker that morning. His frail body was more fragile than normal, and in addition to dizziness and extreme fatigue, he was experiencing an unpleasant tingling in his muscles and dull headache in his sinuses. He rubbed his forehead, attempting to sooth the pain, as if expecting the tension to be lifted by mere kneading. If he didn't know any better, he would have taken some type of antibiotic, assuming it was an infection that caused the pain, but he was well aware of his body's limitations.
He was very well aware... that's why he had left figure-skating. He was forced to leave behind what he loved doing most. Being a skater was an unfulfilled dream he would never achieve. He was only ten years old when that happened. The accident. It was thirteen years ago. He couldn't believe that much time had passed.
He sat down, not wanting to tire his body anymore than he had too. His parents and his sister would worry even more if they saw him exhausting himself. It was pitiful that simple things like standing up for a few moments could exhaust him to the point of fainting. He had spent so much time with doctors in the early days of his sickness, but none of them could explain what was wrong with him. All of them were confused and intrigued at the same time. They claimed his body was supposed to function in a normal manner.
There was no reason for his extreme physical fragility and weakness. Of course, if he wasn't a soma and didn't establish a somatic binding with an exterior body. Only somas were that weak. One doctor in Detroit was so certain that he was a soma and had found an appropriate axon to form a nerve-binding, that the man didn't believe him when he and his parents ensured he had never experienced anything of that sort.
Of course, the chances of a person having such a strange cellular abnormality to carry out a nerve-binding outside one's body was so slim, that being a soma sounded absurd.
It was the only thing that could explain his condition, but other doctors and professors assured the nerve-binding was such a phenomenal experience that Yuuri would know if he had undergone through such process. Somas were rare and nerve-bound only if their entire nervous system and all the cells were in danger of apoptosis - a certain death.
The fragile somatic cells, given a very stressful situation, would kill themselves, and to prevent such dangerous occurrences, in normal human bodies terminal boutons would make contact with survival factor sources. For strange humans with abnormal cellular-neural hypersensitivity, the body would make a contact with an external human body. Nerve-binding to another person, striped away a lot of energy from the soma and granted all of the physical strength a given soma could possess to the axon it bound to.
Yuuri wondered sometimes, if he had missed somehow the person he nerve-bound. But that day, thirteen years ago, he was perfectly healthy and fine, he wasn't in danger, nor was he feeling stressed to even attempt such a ridiculous thing, if he indeed was a soma which he wasn't. His family kept his sickness in secret from everyone else in Hasetsu, in case someone had decided that Yuuri was really a soma and decided to take advantage of the fact.
He turned on the tv, hoping to busy himself with something and forget about the pain in his skull.
"Recently, another incident calls authorities' attention towards the laws on somas who make a very small percentage of population. By latest estimates, there are around 200 somas registered in the world. But experts argue that there are a lot more somas, considering a global study conducted last year, trying to find possible unexplained deaths, which could only be caused by an unregistered soma experiencing an extreme event and causing a neural damage in an individual axon they have nerve-bound to. Some experts believe the numbers go as high as two thousand globally."
Yuuri rolled his eyes. There was a world-wide craze over this soma thing and he couldn't understand it at all. People were arguing about it constantly. It was impossible to watch something on TV without hearing about some reference to soma. The reporter made a pause and a footage started to play while another journalist started to report.
"...A highschooler is dead after bullying his victim, who was a soma and nerve-bounded to the said bully. The parents of the dead axon demand action from the authorities."
A woman appeared on the screen, cleaning her tears with a napkin. "I just want justice," she said. "My son shouldn't have died because some freak did a strange, disgusting thing on him. They say my son bullied him. He didn't do anything bad. High school kids tease each other all the time."
The footage changed to a scene taken in a school yard where kids were chatting with each other happily. "While some of the witnesses don't agree with the side that demands soma's punishment." The reporter continued.
"You know, I don't think he controlled it or something," a young boy said, scratching his head, feeling a little flustered at the idea of being shown on TV. "I mean Tanaka was always bullying Aki. It was like he had something against him. I mean, dude it was always bad, and today it just happened even worse. They harassed him so much that Aki started hyperventilating and then Tanaka lost it. If he just left him alone, that wouldn't happen. That soma shit is like an instant karma or some crap."
The footage ended, and then the main reporter smiled widely as if something very cheerful had just ended. "We have invited an expert of neuroscience and a pioneer of soma studies, doctor Minami," the woman referred to the man sitting in front of her. "Doctor Minami, thank you for accepting our invitation."
The man nodded, politely. "Can you tell us when was the first known soma emerged?" the anchor asked her guest.
"1946, April 2nd," the man replied. "It was a polish woman named Alina Malinowska. She is the first known person with a somatic nerve-binding. She was suffering an extreme PTSD in the aftermath of the war, and some theories suggest that exterior nerve-binding is a natural evolution of human physiognomy to find new ways to survive. The doctors working with her documented that her cells were in the process of accelerated death and if not the nerve-binding, she would have died."
"Minami-sensei," the anchor nodded, not caring to go into the details of the new information. "Is there any particular way a soma body is different from a regular one or the one of an axon?"
"It's hard to say. We don't have enough data to draw certain conclusions, but soma biology is different only in the sense that it's neural receptors are less active than in an average person while a person who can be a potential axon has a more heightened receptors. If something happens to the bound soma, the pain is going to be experienced by the axon."
"So, somas are harmful?" the woman tried to clarify.
"The nerve-binding grants the axons near invincibility," the doctor explained. "If you poison a nerve-bound axon and a regular person with 10ml of cyanide for example, a regular person would die instantaneously, while axons would experience very little effects and would recover very soon. From a scientific perspective, that's a miracle. I would say axons win much more in this situation that somas, considering their health declines drastically after the connection. But of course, Axons experience the physical pain of the somas if the somas who are bound to them get hurt, while somas don't experience anything coming from the axons they bound themselves to."
"Some lawmakers and lobbyists think that this is a reason not to consider somas separate individuals, as they are axons' extended bodies. Do you consider somas to be their own people or should they be given to the respective axons, as the latter's well-being depends on the somas' health and security? As we see, there have been cases when famous people who have been somaticly bound had their somas abducted for ransom or for other reasons like to hurt the axon."
"There is no genetic connection between bound axons and somas," professor frowned. "They are completely different individuals even though they share a neurological connection. I don't see how anyone could justify making laws on somas to be perceived as a bodily continuation to a different person."
Yuuri sighed and turned the TV off. Doctor Minami was Minami Kenjirou's father. Yuuri sometimes watched his figure skating programs on TV whenever he felt well enough to leave his room. He was a few years younger than Yuuri, but Yuuri still remembered him from a local competition they both participated in, before Yuuri's accident.
"Yuuri, why did you leave your room?" Mari walked in quickly, carrying baskets of newly washed towels. She helped her parents with the onsen and ran a lot of maintenance related errands.
"I just wanted to watch something," he said apologetically.
"You should have asked me to help you out of your room," Mari said softly. "You should take better care of yourself, Yuuri."
"Mari." It was Toshiya's disgruntled voice that startled both of them. "Where is Yuuri?"
He opened the doors as he said it and then sighed seeing his son, Yuuri suspected he didn't want him to know about the biggest yakuza syndicate doing business in their onsen, but he already knew about it. "Take Yuuri to his room and make sure no one goes there. We are having guests."
Mari looked at their father, worry in her eyes. "Again?" she sighed. "What do they want from us? Why aren't they taking their dirty business somewhere else?"
She pulled Yuuri up and helped him to his room in the second floor. There was no way she would allow some stupid thugs to get their eyes on her brother. If they falsely suspected that he was a soma, which most people did for some reason once they saw Yuuri, they would either try to make him nerve-bound to them to become invincible, or if they thought he was already bound to someone else they would try to keep him to get leverage on someone important. It was no secret that nerve-bound axons always managed to become people of great status and position.
But because Yuuri wasn't a soma, she knew it would end very badly for him and for them all.
"Come, I will give you painkillers so you can rest," she told him. "It will help you with your headache. Is it getting worse? You didn't have a headache before."
"I will be fine, Mari-chan," she told him gently. "Don't worry about me."
He felt guilty that he was causing so many problems for his family.
Okay, so I hope this is interesting and the concept of the story is clear. I wanted to try a somaxon story for a while and here it is. Please, tell me what you think of it. If you have any questions, leave them on the comments.