Chapter 7: Kouhai

Platelet-chan shut her eyes closed as she tightly wrapped her tiny hands around RBC-san's neck.

"Onee-chan!" she wailed, her little body shaking. "I'm scared!"

AE3803 hugged the little platelet closer to her chest, placing a hand on the back of her head in an attempt to calm her down.

She opened her mouth as if to say something but no words would even dare come out from her lips.

A sea of her fellow red blood cells scurried away from the conflict zones, fleeing into exit veins in panic, as the handful of neutrophils in the vicinity tried to buy enough time for them to escape.

She also wanted to run, she also wanted to flee, but her legs refused to move. She tiptoed as she tried to look passed the moving red blood cells and watch the destruction taking place in the plaza.

WBC-san… she thought. She could feel her chest aching. WBC-san, where are you?

Strong emotions swirling inside her pleaded with her to confirm the whereabouts of her neutrophil friend. True, she knew that he was strong and he could handle himself, but she couldn't stop herself from worrying about him.

"Onee-chan!"

Like a smack to the head, Platelet-chan's crying voice took her out from her debilitating stupor.

AE3803 blinked a couple of times as she looked down on the trembling platelet clutching her little arms around her neck.

That's right, she told WBC-san that she'd protect Platelet-chan with her own life. This was no time to stand around and worry about things she had no control over… This was now the time to move and act.

She shook her head vigorously to clear out her thoughts, forcing herself to focus solely on survival.

"D-Don't worry, Platelet-chan," she whispered at the little platelet's ear as she mustered all her willpower to move her legs. "Let's go to a safer place."

-0-0-0-

The apartment buildings surrounding the liver and plaza burned like pillars of fire as the traitorous maids torched each of them with resident cells still trapped inside.

Screams of the desperate and the laughter of the deranged echoed throughout the residential quarters. Some occupants tried to run and escape from the burning buildings only to be sliced down by macrophages waiting for them in the entrance.

On top of the dead KT cells piling up in droves in the plaza, so too the corpses non-immune cells also littered the streets and open spaces surrounding the battlefield while the dying prayed to the consciousness for protection and deliverance.

It would never come for them.

A red blood cell with long black hair and straight bangs laid face down on the cracked pavement, sobbing and praying for rescue. Her red uniform was in tatters, drenched heavily with her own cellular fluids. One of her legs got twisted into a disgusting angle that removed all doubt if she could ever walk again.

Tears ran down from her eyes as she clenched her teeth to stop herself from crying.

This was not supposed to happen. She was supposed to have a bright future ahead of her as a rising red blood cell rookie.

Her teachers in the bone marrow always told her that she was destined for greatness. She was a top achiever of her class as well as an excellent newbie with no records of any late or incorrect deliveries.

Her career life was just about to start.

But for NT4201, her future ended when the maidens of death started to set the whole world on fire.

Still laying prone face down, she craned her head up to level her eyes with the ground. Though tears made her vision all blurry, she still caught a glimpse of a redheaded red blood cell standing idiotically on the far side of the plaza, holding what appeared to be a platelet in her arms.

NT4201 stretched out her left hand toward the redhead red blood cell, as if wanting to touch her, before a crowd of other panic-stricken red blood cells all running toward the exit veins blocked her view.

"S-Senpai…" she mewled, her voice hoarse and in pain. "Help… Me..."

NT4201 had met her senpai some time ago, and she quickly found out that her senpai was a total klutz and an airhead who always gets lost even with the guidance of a map. In fact, in almost every category of her job description, she had already surpassed her senpai by a huge margin. There was even a time that she almost decided to confront her senpai and tell her directly in her face of her clumsiness and incompetence.

However, during a disaster that almost ended their world, her senpai ultimately proved her worth when she never gave up in her duty of delivering oxygen amidst the serious destruction inflicted to the circulatory system. Even when their situation became so helpless and futile, her senpai never hanged up her jacket but instead brave forth the perils so that no normal cells would suffocate to death.

From that day on, NT4201 found a new respect for her senpai, and she had looked up to her ever since even though her senpai was still directionally-challenged.

"Please senpai…" she sobbed. "Don't leave me…"

"To whom are you looking at, little one?"

NT4201's eyes went wide with absolute terror. Her body started to tremble uncontrollably. Slowly, she tilted her head to her side and saw the incarnation of death looking down on her.

A macrophage wearing dark-rimmed glasses knelt down beside her. Her voices sounded concern and helpful, but her scarred pale face only conveyed otherwise. Gone was the friendly smile expected of an elegant maid, replaced instead with a sinister smirk that showed rows of sharp teeth. Her eyes glowed a sickly yellowish hue, and she wore a dark, gelatinous beret with spikes protruding from its surface instead of a usual maid hat. A long scaly appendage dangled behind her cap which ended into a sharp metal stinger.

"Do not be afraid, my child," the death maid cooed. "This pain, this suffering is just temporary."

The macrophage spoke softly, but to NT4201's ears, her words boomed like thunder, easily drowning the loud screams and shouts of the battle nearby.

Even when her traitorous sisters were busy fighting off the rest of the KT cells, this four-eyed maid had decided to take some time off from her brutal slaughter in order to talk with her.

NT4201 closed her eyes as her jaw began to rattle uncontrollably. "Please… Leave me alone."

The battle maid chuckled. She placed a hand on her head, gently ruffling her jet-black hair.

"I heard your prayers, little erythrocyte," the macrophage stopped ruffling her hair. "But I'm afraid your beloved senpai won't be able to help you at all."

"No…" NT4201 wailed. "Please… I don't want to die."

"There, there, rest assured, child," her tormentor patted her on the head. "There is no need to cry."

NT4201 felt a hand lifting up her chin.

For a moment, she believed that this was just a dream. This terrible ordeal was nothing more than a terrifying lucid dream being broadcasted by the neuron cells every time the world goes to REM sleep. Everyone here were just actors and she was just part of the extras playing out a nightmare scenario to scare off the Consciousness into waking up. This had happened before in the past and based on what the older red blood cells told her, lucid dreams were horrifying.

With tears still streaming from her eyes, she peered slightly from her left eye and saw the blurry face of what appeared to be an angel. Gone were the horrible scars and jagged rows of teeth, now replaced with a smile only a caring mentor would possess.

For a fraction of a moment, she dared to hope against all hope that this was indeed just a dream.

"Your death will be quick, and you will be reborn to something else."

NT4201's face turned to white with terror. The angel laughed and her visage returned back to the face of evil incarnate.

Before she could scream, the deranged four-eyed maid placed a hand on her mouth, preventing from making any noise.

She watched with pure horror as the macrophage opened her mouth and out crawled a spawn of incredible malice. The creature had thorns sticking out from its gelatinous hide, and it had a tail with a sharp tipped blade at the end.

She finally realized that this abomination was the same as the gruesome caps that these insane maids wore and that it was not a living organism at all.

It was neither living or dead… It was a virus.

No… Please… She shook her head vigorously. No! Help! Senpai! Senpai, help me!

She tried to get away from the spindly monster, but the battle maid held her in place with a hand gripping her mouth.

The thing then crawled on top of the maid's arm, slowly making its way toward her.

NT4201 blurted out a muffled scream. She tried desperately to yank out the maid's hand away from her mouth to no avail.

The virus now climbed on top of her head. She could feel its spindly legs burying deep into her temples, sending jolts of pain throughout her body. Primal fear finally took hold of her, and she squirmed, cried, and begged to be spared from such a horrifying fate.

"Nooo, shenfaii… shenfaii heelff me! Shenfai! SHENFAI-"

Her face contorted into a silent scream as her eyes went wide with her pupils rolling up behind her eyelids. The virus had just pierced the top of her head with a sharp needle-like proboscis, injecting her with a disgusting black ichor that contained its viral data.

Her rolled-up pupils fluttered as she felt her mind getting warped up by the influx of information injected into her. The feelings of hate, regret, and murder all swirled inside her head, twisting her personality and her ego into something.

This was it, she was going to die.

Her last regret was that she wasn't able to muster enough courage to confess to her senpai how much she felt for her.

Senpai… she thought fleetingly. I love you…


A/N:

This chapter was not really part of my outline. This was just supposed to be a short scene of a dying random Red Blood Cell getting tormented by a macrophage before switching back to U1146's perspective. Then I remembered that AE3803 had a cute dependable kouhai and I immediately realized the potential of the kouhai inserted into the story.

So yeah, outlines are good, I love outlines, but still, make yourself flexible enough to add things that were not part of the plan.

Until next time!

A/N (Oct 20, 2018):

Btw, forgot to mention... This is not the whole second part that I mentioned in the previous chapter. This was just supposed to be a short scene that ballooned into its own chapter.


Revision History:

- Originally published on Oct. 17, 2018

- Updated some lines in the story to be consistent with Chapter 8 scene. Oct. 19, 2018

- Major update to fix up grammar and descriptions. Oct. 20, 2018