A Day Of Change

"AJ-4523, please step forward."

"Yes!"

It was the big day.

This was one of the moments UA-3846 had been waiting for the most for a long time.
Today, for most erythroblasts, it was the day that they would officially become erythrocytes. They will begin their job, transporting oxygen and nutrients.

For him, things would be a little different.

"AM-2432! Please step forward."

"It's my turn! I'll be right back!" his red blood cell friend, smiling at him, separated from him momentarily. UA-3846 just gave her a thumbs up.

Today was be the day when he was going to become a Neutrocyte... it was the day when he would not only begin to transport things but also commence to hunt whatever bacteria or virus appeared to threaten the body.

His training was almost entirely complete after all, the only thing he still needed was his first real combat experience.
He could see his parents watching the scene, they weren't very far but still outside the room.

U-1146 still mostly maintained that serious expression that he always possessed, but a proud smile was clearly visible.
AE-3803, on the other hand, had her arms covering her mouth, UA-3846 thought that she was probably trying to wipe away the tears which were coming out from her "crystalline" eyes. Both maternal pride and nostalgia were the emotions that the already quite adult erythrocyte felt at that moment.

Regarding how well he had graduated, his average score was not exactly the best, but an 85 was quite acceptable as far as he knew. He only had to polish some little details once he had gotten more experience delivering through the body.

"MN-1972, please step forward."

Regarding his knife skills, UA-3846 had a preference for the stance that focused on speed. True, precise slashes surely had their deadly power, but having to focus on so much to attack was partially stressful for him.

His friend finally came back "I feel so happy!" She then hugged him tightly.

He had grown a lot since the day he met her. The first time they discovered the existence of each other, they could both look directly into each other's eyes without any problems.

He was even taller than his father now.

Whether or not he would grow larger was still a mystery.

This difference in size meant that, during the hug, UA-3846 had mostly a vision of his friend's cap.

The cap no longer had that ball that represented her nucleus.

Sure, the real thing had previously been removed with a less... painful operation.

However, he could still detect that sound his red nucleus generated on the left side of his body. To his right side, the white core also was making sounds.

According to what he had been told, the two were so connected that removing the red one would be dangerous...

This, apart from his dire need to eat so much (which explained why he was biting chocolate at that moment) meant that even though his wounds healed more quickly, he had two fatal weak spots instead of just one like any other. neutrophil...

"UA-3846, please step forward."

It took him a second to process that they had finally said his name. AM-2432 pushed him using her left hand. "Go!" she giggled.

As he walked in direction to the macrophage, nobody said a thing.

It had been a long time since others tried to bother him.

Not because they had changed at all. It was just that it's never a good idea to piss off the tall guy holding a knife.

It was no coincidence that the macrophage that was his "grandmother" was the one in front of him right now. However, as much as she wanted to tell him various things, she could not delay the ceremony due to personal preferences.

UA-3846 simply inclined his body so that the "nucleus" could be removed from its cap.

"We are all so proud." Lady Macrophage told him. She had a particularly heartwarming facial expression.
He simply nodded, smiling, and grabbed the graduation paper that certified him as an erythrocyte.
He then returned to AM-2432's side. They both high-fived.

While the others also took their turn, the two started a small conversation.

"So ... would you like to go celebrate with my friends?" AM-2432 offered that possibility.

UA-3846 shook his head. "As I said over and over again, I enjoy your company, but they don't enjoy mine."

AM-2432 scratched his head. "If you don't try to convince them you're just another normal cell, that will never change."

"And that is the detail," UA-3846 pulled out from his pocket another chocolate bar and was about to bite it... but then he preferred to break it in half and share with AM-2432. "I don't care about changing it at all. I don't have to please people who have always treated me badly for no apparent reason... and obviously, I also don't want to." He shrugged. "Also, my father promised to take me on a bacteria hunting trip as soon as we got out of here so… I'm sorry."

AM-2432 sighed and shook her head. "I was afraid you would say something like that." By the time they left the graduation room, UA-3846 received a very loving hug from his mother.

"Congratulations! mommy is very proud!" she was crying with happiness so much.

AM-2432 had to rub her chin while watching the scene...

Although the macrophages had taken care of her… she doubted that the bond she had with her teachers was as strong as the one UA-3846 shared with his mother AE-3803. It was a pretty… unfamiliar concept, but… she could guess it must be very cheerful.

"See you later." AM-2432 said goodbye with a smile, UA-3846 used his hand to say goodbye.

The truth was he didn't want to stop hugging AE-3803. He could have grown a lot... but he still felt like a child every time he had to experience the soft love of mommy.

U-1146 still hadn't quite gotten used to the fact that his little boy was now outgrowing him in height, especially since UA-3846 hadn't yet reached the age where U-1146 had reached his maximum height, but he still decided to join in the family hug.

Since his work as a transporter would not begin until the next day, UA-3846 and U-1146 began to walk through the different veins of the body.

AE-3803, by the way, didn't want to miss the possible show either.

"Now, I'm gonna be honest with you, everything has been very… quiet for a while now. Not as many or as varied bacteria or viruses invade our world as often as before... it's strange. " U-1146 had felt that, since the moment his little one was born, it was as if the enemies of the body seemed to be too calm...

He did not know if, in some way or another, they might be organizing themselves for an attack...

UA-3846 simply nodded. "Okay, it's better this way." still, he had a somewhat uncomfortable look.

And that was because he had an idea of why the body was too secure recently.

In his pocket, at that very moment, was the golden card. Which, as he later discovered, had one... brain signal sender?

A specific memory from long ago crossed his mind.

"Hello!" LM-4321 moved her chair aside a little when she saw a certain hybrid cell that she knew to arrive at her place. The neuron smiled at how, despite having the humanoid appearance of a 15-year-old teenager, he was much taller than normal.

It almost felt like it was only yesterday that he was that cute boy...

He certainly looked better.

"Hello." UA-3846 placed his own chair next to her and leaned against it. His arms settled behind his head. "How has the day been for you?"

"Not very different from what has become the new normality." LM-4321 started looking for some images. "Given that we have not left the place we call home for more than 1 year and we take virtual classes, there is not much difference. Just studying, playing video games, and things of little importance, I guess."

"And I felt I had no real purpose in life." UA-3846 chuckled as he shook his head.

LM-4321 giggled. "I mean, we all want to become scientists, it's not a super important purpose on a universal scale but, meh. It's still a good one."

"Any interesting news regarding that cursed virus?" UA-3846 started eating part of his lunch while asking.

"Considering the average level of stupidity of all entities of the world and especially our country, I highly doubt that this will end until 2023 if I'm completely honest." LM-4321 rubbed her face.

Sometimes she wondered if the neurons in this brain were of the few ones, relatively speaking, that really cared about using the function they were supposed to have. High intelligence.

"That at least means that the white blood cells can more or less relax for a while." UA-3846 shrugged.

"Maybe yes... oh! " LM-4321's face lit up. "Watch this."

UA-3846 brought his face closer to the monitor. It was an image with the following text.
My parents: I want grandchildren.
Me: The best thing I can grant you is a cat.

Both cells started laughing like crazy, which was not unusual at all in those offices and was not frowned upon.
That was the result of having billions of people with personalities that are so similar that the variations were incredibly short. They barely could be noticed.

"Long live the internet." UA-3846 drank some of his tea.

"Indeed, there is nothing better than the internet," LM-4321 recalled that, according to historical records, there had been a time when such a wonderful invention was not even remotely possible to develop. Although she had an idea of what the "entities" did to entertain themselves back then in those distant days, the truth was that she imagined that living just for the sake of trying to survive... sounded even less pleasant than the mere fact of knowing that the existence did not seem to have any real purpose.

"It's times like these that I wish I was a neuron," UA-3846 commented, grabbing the mouse and proceeding to search for more meme images.

"You are already part neutrophil and part erythrocyte, don't wish to add more things unless you want your genetic structure "to collapse" on itself." LM-4321 touched his cheek with her index finger.

"Good point." UA-3846 crossed his arms. "By the way, that brings me a question. Has there ever been a hybrid between a neuron and something else here?"

"Not that I remember." LM-4321 had reasons to believe that he was the only hybrid that existed in this body. She then smirked as she brought her face closer to his. "And don't even think about wanting to make one."

UA-3846 shook his head very quickly "Of course not!" he rubbed his face in shame. "Also, remember that I am sterile."

"I know, I know." LM-4321 gave another of her giggles. "I'm just messing with you."

UA-3846 smiled again with his eyes closed.

"Maybe they just realized that they can't beat the powerful white blood cells, father." He still hadn't told his parents about his continuous visits to the brain... let alone the things he had learned.

LM-4321 said that his reaction had been much better in comparison… he didn't want to risk his parents… going crazy.
He now understood perfectly why the forbidden knowledge was forbidden in the first place... or at least that was the reason in this body... as LM-4321 commented to him, some neurons from other bodies she had met were... not exactly good people.

"Well, thanks to that everything is very peaceful," AE-3803 commented while looking at the landscape.

Of course, that was the moment when something bad finally decided to happen.

"I just have to make an adjustment here and..." a standard cell rubbed his forehead in frustration. He really didn't feel like doing this. In his opinion, what was even the point?

His life only consisted of... creating duplicates of himself and that's it... sure, there were moments of entertainment, but... this? It had no purpose...

Also, there were many other cells that could create copies every day to supply the demand.

That cell, in frustration, hit the cloning machine.

Which ended up spilling coffee on it.

"Shit!"

Although he tried to fix the issue, it soon became apparent that the damage to the machine had made it unable to create a clone the intended way as it progressively started to change.

The cell was horrified to see its copy seemed... deformed... he also had white hair.
He desperately tried to press the buttons of the machine to fix his mistake...

But then something broke the cloning tube.

From inside.

The cell fell on his back because of the fear.

The clone was awake.

"Another day..." the clone rubbed his forehead. "Another body..." his face twisted in fury. "Another moment living this miserable existence..." then it deformed again... into a smile...

Green eyes... he had green eyes...

The normal cell tried to run, but by the time he could react, his clone had hit him and had him pinned from the neck to a wall... using the same hand that had broken the tube… for which cytoplasm was still being spilled.

"Where do you think you're going... you goddman buggy bastard?" Cancer gave his victim the most miserable smirk he could.

Although that normal cell had received its daily oxygen... in the end, he would never use it.

By the time the T cells arrived, all that was left was a pool of cytoplasm and cell body parts all over the room.

As I mentioned once, UA-3846 is based on the concept of Liger, an animal that grows much larger than any lion or tiger. Therefore, if we were to use realistic scales for cell size, he would probably be half the size of a macrophage. In this case, we could say that he is the equivalent of a 2.10-meter man.

In case you feel Cancer is kinda behaving as if he's out of character... consider this. Unlike the other enemies, the Cancer cell we know is always the same character reincarnated (although there are more minds that are Cancer cells because the body generates many of them, this Cancer is the Cancer we know and love to hate). So... because there are mistakes generating Cancer cells every single day... many times he reincarnates only to be killed immediately. How many times do you think has he gone through this between the first time we met him (which is his first life) and this one? especially considering the timeskip... well... I'm not gonna reveal it yet... but if he was insane in his fight against U-1146, NK and Killer T... now... well...

Anyway, at least I finally can enjoy writing with homework and test awaiting for me in a near future so expect more chapters faster than normal!

So, time to answer reviews! If you really like the story, leave reviews and questions! as long as it does not imply spoilers, I will gladly answer! :3

Guest:

Yeah, that's why I make the character lampshade the fact UA-3846 is something that, as far as they knew, he could not exist in the first place. To acknowledge this detail.