A/N: This chapter is a bit on the short side, but that's because it is the only chapter to involve only one character so far (Not counting the prologue). Without further delay, here is Chapter Two: "Chiyo's Baptism of Fire."

--In the mist of the predawn hour a ship comes into a small port in Japan--

"I've finally made it," the small girl happily noted, "Japan!" Chiyo jumped off her vessel and began tying her ship to the dock. While performing the menial task she was repeatedly distracted by eerie sounds. Once she had finished tying off her boat she looked around for the source and discovered, much to her horror, that it was a giant insect feasting on the carcass of an animal just a few meters from where she stood. Unable to contain herself the shocked teenager jumped at the sight and let out a yelp. The insect immediately snapped its head up at the invasive sound and locked its gaze on the frozen girl. With the creature staring at her with ravenous intent, poor Chiyo was barely able to make her legs work as she slowly made her way toward her small vessel. The insect let out a shriek and began charging toward the small girl, this sudden motion sparking Chiyo's body into motion as she quickly jumped onto her boat. She desperately headed to the cabin where she knew she had left her gun. But no sooner did she scramble to her feet did she feel the boat lunge from the insect landing right behind her. She was able to reach the open cabin but as she grasped her handgun she was hit violently from behind, an impact so powerful it sent her through her vessel's windscreen and out onto the bow.

The searing pain was almost too much for the girl to bear; her back and shoulder were ablaze with pain. She was also vaguely aware of several serious cuts to her arms from traversing through the windshield. She struggled to a sitting position to see the beast lumbering through the windscreen. "My gun!" she thought desperately trying to figure out where it went. Chiyo quickly spotted her weapon at the edge of the bow, blocked from going overboard by the railing. She started to scramble towards the weapon when a new pain reached her as the bug sunk its claws deep into her calf. Chiyo let out a cry as she began panicking trying desperately to reach the firearm. In spite of her efforts it drew ever further away as the monster drew her towards it. Giving up on the hopes of reaching the firearm the girl turned to face her assailant. "Please," she thought, "I don't want to die!" The creature opened its mandibles, ready to rend the small girl as she prayed to whatever gods would listen to save her.

One god surely must have heard her prayer as the mist seemed to evaporate at that very moment, allowing sunlight to fall on the dueling pair. Instantly the insect released its grip on Chiyo's leg and scrambled about. The sudden and bizarre behavior of the bug had Chiyo truly puzzled as she watched the insect desperately climb once more into the cabin, only to turn and face Chiyo, and shriek angrily at her. "Why did it stop?" She found herself wondering, before her senses snapped to and she crawled painfully over to her firearm. Picking up the weapon she turned once more to the bug, still hiding inside the cabin. Chiyo raised the weapon to aim at the creature, but instead of firing she found herself wondering why the bug was now watching her from the cabin instead of attacking. "Is it afraid of me?" it didn't make any sense, but as she weighed her options she realized she had to kill the beast to unload her things from the ship.

Raising her firearm once more and fired at the creature, scoring a hit the bug let out another shriek and quickly darted from view. This both relieved and bothered Chiyo, the monster was finally gone from view, but now she needed to go hunt out the wounded beast from inside her ship. Trying to stand she used the railing of the ship of get on her feet. Wincing at the pain in her back and leg protesting being used Chiyo looked down at herself and only then did she realize how badly she had been injured. Her arms were bleeding badly, and her left calf had two deep gashes in it. "This is serious," she thought to herself, "I need to get my wounds treated." She did need to treat her wounds, but there was one very big, obstacle in her way: a very large bug. Steeling herself she walked along the rail doing her best to keep standing, always having her gun pointed in the general direction of the cabin.

After clambering over to the stern side of the boat she gazed into the open cabin. Chiyo was disgusted at the sight of the creature's blood, she was also worried, as it was nowhere in sight. "I need my medical supplies," she thought over and over as she tried to convince herself to go below deck and face that horrible creature. Limping over to the control panel she turned on the lights to illuminate below deck and immediately heard thumping from below her. No question about it, the creature was still aboard, and below deck. Feeling sick and dizzy Chiyo made her way slowly below deck, seeing nothing she began moving toward where she knew she had a first aid kit.

As she walked by a small door she froze as a thump was heard behind it. Chiyo immediately raised her gun, but was caught off guard as the door burst open, the wounded bug tackling the small girl to the ground. Without any delay or thought, the brave teenager raised the gun to the bug's thorax and shot round after round into the creature. Giving one last inhuman wail the large bug collapsed down onto her. With great effort the traumatized teenager managed to escape from the crushing carcass and reached into her belongings, retrieving the much needed first aid kit. Dizzy and feeling sick Chiyo began dressing her grave wounds, "This is really serious!" she thought.

Chiyo first tightly wrapped gauze around her leg to help stem the bleeding. After doing so she hurriedly applied antiseptic to her arms before having to decide weather or not to try and suture some of the deeper cuts. After a moments meditation Chiyo came to the conclusion that she didn't have the heart to sew her own wounds up and decided instead to wrap her arms tightly in gauze. That task complete she once again focused on the more serious injury of her leg. After removing the bandage Chiyo nearly fainted upon seeing so much blood ooze from the deep wounds. She liberally dumped the rest of her antiseptic into the wound causing waves of pain soaring through the small woman. She let out a scream that surely could have been heard for kilometers, if there was anyone around to hear it. After recovering from the searing pain Chiyo shakily applied more gauze to the wound.

Having dressed all of her wounds she hobbled around the insect's carcass and made her way, painstakingly, up the steps and back onto the deck. She sat into the captain's chair and almost immediately passed out. Chiyo reached out, turned on the ship's radio, and began speaking into the receiver, "Please, can anyone hear me? I'm badly wounded, I…I need help. Please…anyone…" Hearing no response she changed the frequency and made her plea once again upon deaf ears. Repeating this throughout the channels she quickly lost heart. Slowly she slipped into unconsciousness her last thoughts echoing in her head, "Please…help me…someone…"

--Several hours later--

Chiyo stirred to wakefulness in her chair, and was immediately overcome with searing pain. She cried out from the intense pain. After getting ahold of herself, Chiyo desperately looked about for her first aid kit only to realize it was still below deck. Chiyo began to move to get to her first aid kit, but quickly stopped as the motions caused even more pain upon the poor girl. Her small hand reached out once more for the radio, which once again only brought her even more pain. Giving up she slumped back into her chair. "It hurts so much!" she thought bitterly, "What am I going to do?" Suddenly a thought struck her that chilled her to the core. "Why didn't bugs attack me?" she wondered aloud as she desperately thought of a course of action to prevent such an attack. She steeled herself as she decided she would have to get up and barricade herself inside the ship, back where she left the body of that horrible creature.

Moving slowly she got up and made certain to place most of her bodyweight on her right leg. Cursing her luck Chiyo then slowly hobbled to the steps as she tried her best to tolerate the ache even the tinyest movement made. Once below deck, Chiyo made sure to close and lock the feeble door behind her. "It won't stop one of those…those things" she thought after locking the door. At that moment the desperation of her situation hit her, "I'm really going to die here!" she cried out. She slumped down and sat on the steps and started to cry. However it didn't take long for her physical pain to outweigh her emotional distress. She dried her tears, slowly got to her feet, and made her way to her first aid kit. Once again stepping carefully around the now rotting and stinking carcass she retrieved some pain medicine and quickly downed it. "It was so stupid of me to come here," she thought, "I should have stayed back in California where it's safe." Upon these thoughts Chiyo was reminded why she came here in the first place as she looked to the carcass of the insect she slew. "Even if I die, I have to try and figure out these things," she told herself and she shuffled around the cramped quarters looking for the proper tools to dissect the disgusting thing.

Chiyo gathered up a few rudimentary tools and painfully set about her task. "It's even bigger than I thought," she said aloud as she measured the beast. It having died in an awkward position and being too big for her to move she was unable to get an exact measurement, but still she wrote 214cm from one end to the other. She also noted that it had wings, but they appeared undersized, "No way can it fly, it's too big," she noted. She took several more measurements. Chiyo noted that the front pair of legs was significantly longer than the other four. Also she found the compound eyes to appear very large compared to that of what she envisioned a normal insect would have. The little genius also took several other measurements and observations including the apparent small size of the antennae.

Once all of the measurements were completed she set about the task of dissecting the monster. "Its exoskeleton is partially transparent, I can see most of its innards," she took note of the queer exoskeleton and made sure to record it before cracking it open and examining its innards. "I really wish I knew more about this," Chiyo lamented as she realized just how few of the innards she could identify. After studying the various parts and organs for a few minutes Chiyo decided that at this point doing an autopsy on this thing was pointless. She really didn't have the knowledge base for this. Chiyo made sure to write down that she needed to find books and study insect anatomy vigorously. "I really should have thought this through," Chiyo berated herself. Having done all she could to examine the beast, the young genius retrieved a tissue sample from one of its fleshier organs.

"Let's see if it is you that spread the virus," she talked to the corpse as she set down the sliver of tissue and went about finding a microscope. After locating one and setting it up Chiyo placed the tissue on a slide and observed it. "Nothing," she thought bitterly, "I know they brought the virus!" She turned to the dismembered corpse and thought, "Maybe it's carried elsewhere." She got up to retrieve more samples and was overcome with a coughing fit. "Oh no!" she thought, "Digging around in a corpse with my arms all cut up, idiot!" Chiyo decided she would have to continue her examination later. Putting away her instruments and data she moved once more towards the deck, she didn't make it far when she had the presence of mind to find something to use as a crutch.

Finding an old ore she grabbed it and used it as a makeshift crutch to relive some weight from her wounded leg. Chiyo then made her way to the door, unlocked it, and proceeded to the deck, where she washed all the gore from herself. Looking out over the ocean she saw the sun setting, feeling tired and a little dizzy she wondered, "Is this the last sunset I'll see?" The girl gave into another fit of coughs, "I don't want to die," she choked out. Pushing the unpleasant thoughts from her mind she made her way back below deck, closing and locking the door behind her. She moved once more to her first aid kit, where she took the time to replace her dressings and take some antibiotics. Chiyo then laid down on some boxes, and quickly gave way into slumber's embrace.

Several hours later she awoke, burning hot and sweating. She immediately sat up, regretting the quick movement that agitated her wounds. Chiyo began once again coughing, and as soon as she had her bearings decided to take her temperature. She stared angrily at the thermometer, its digital display reading 38.4 degrees. After taking more antibiotics and pain medicine she laid back down into her makeshift bed. "If I don't get help I'm going to die," she mumbled aloud, "I have to get to help." Chiyo's thoughts ran to the stacks of research she brought, none of which she could carry in her condition. "My laptop," she continued to mumble as she shifted sloppily through her supplies. Retrieving her laptop she decided to copy all of her most important research onto it, and then she would have to leave the boat and find people.

After recording her notes from her autopsy from the beast, and a few other important pieces she packed away her laptop and a few essential supplies into a duffel bag. Coughing, the teenager proceeded to grab her makeshift crutch, and swing the duffel bag onto her uninjured shoulder. Chiyo then managed to hobble up the steps and opened the door leading outside. Stepping out onto the deck it appeared to be sometime in the morning. Having no watch the little genius couldn't really tell.

She felt like shit. Chiyo was in an incredible amount of pain, making walking difficult; a process further complicated by her dizziness, disorientation, and rapidly draining energy from the illness and blood loss. Getting from the boat to the dock was no easy task. She had to first throw across her bag followed by the would-be crutch. Sitting on the railing of the boat she carefully placed her good foot on the dock, and using her injured arms and leg threw her body weight at her good foot. Her technique failed miserably as she overshot and ended up falling painfully onto her duffel bag.

Struggling to her feet she once again gathered her belongings and set off towards shore on shaky legs. With each step growing weaker the teenage girl failed to make it even twenty meters from her boat when she collapsed painfully to the ground. She then watched helplessly as her crutch skidded away from her before it teetered over the edge of the dock and into the waters below. Once again feeling despair wash over her, Chiyo began crawling despite the pain the motions caused her injured arms and leg. She didn't make it far before her movements stopped, "I can't do it," she cried softly to herself, "I'm not strong enough." Giving up on getting to shore, or even back to her vessel she merely retrieved more painkillers from her bag and a bottle of water. Rolling onto her back she struggled to sit up enough to down the medicine before collapsing to the ground. "If only I had turned out more like her, she would have made it," Chiyo mused aloud as she turned onto her side and curled into a fetal position.

A/N: A small note, Chiyo's measurement of the insect is from the tip of the mandibles down to the tip of the abdomen. A common way to measure a bug's length. Once again, for those of you unfamiliar with metrics 214cm is almost 7ft on the dot and 38.4 degrees celsius is approximately 101 fahrenheit.