Chapter 18: The Greatest Erythrocyte

To face a neutrophil in combat was to face an avatar of death incarnate.

Anyone foolish enough to fight the world's first line of defense would suddenly find their lives drastically shortened to mere seconds before meeting certain doom. Many antigens had tried fighting them off, thinking their strain could take them down, only to have their last memories of this world that of a snarling neutrophil just moments away from slithering their throats.

In fact, to even withstand the onslaught of a neutrophil was to earn a spot on a short list that included cells who also had an even shorter list of opponents that could technically out-best them.

Macrophages, in theory, would have no problem holding their ground against a neutrophil so as Natural Killer cells. Perhaps a couple more antigens could pose some threats as well, but an erythrocyte?

To even entertain the idea of an erythrocyte besting a neutrophil in combat was as absurd and insulting as someone claiming the venerable neurons, beloved and blessed by all, were nothing more than a bunch of senile old cells. Such a thing was just impossible.

But NT4201 was not any ordinary erythrocyte.

With a swerve to the right, she deflected a sharp dagger thrust from U1141 intended for her throat before lunging forward to deliver her own furious counterattack. Her lips curled into a snarl as she struck, blocked, and parried with such ferocity never seen coming from a red blood cell.

Her opponent, on the other hand, fought her with calculated fury. Not once did she saw him bare any emotions or befuddlement at the thought of fighting an erythrocyte in combat. U1146's face looked like it was carved in stone, expressionless and cold, but nevertheless deadly.

It was not the usual way neutrophils conduct battle. Most of the time, these ashen murderers fought with wanton abandon, screaming and roaring as they tear down their opponent's membrane bit by bit. If not for their noble obligation of defending those who could not defend themselves, then they would be no better than the monsters that they swore to fight or so she believed.

A creased of concern wrinkled her forehead.

Was he downplaying her?

Was she not a monster enough for him to fight her with all his attention and strength?

Her snarl formed into a wide grin.

"Have you nothing to say neutrophil?!" she laughed as she traded multiple blows with the ashen killer. "I am what happens when you fail to protect those you swore to defend!"

She swung her dagger sideways. Got blocked. Then countered again.

"You failed me!" she growled. "You and senpai failed me!"

U1146 glared at her for a moment before lunging in for another attack.

For all the corruption that had been done on her, she still should not be able to last this long against a seasoned neutrophil even if said neutrophil didn't take her seriously. The moment she bared her weapon against her senpai was the moment she damned herself to death.

And yet, she lives on.

Kill him! Strike him down!

The voices in her head screamed at her to spill the organelles of her ashen opponent. She ignored them, but she could feel their anger coursing through her body, giving her strength beyond what a normal erythrocyte could accomplish.

KILL HIM! They roared, and she roared with them in unison.

Blow after blow, she struck faster and faster until she and her opponent blurred into an uncoordinated dance of carnage.

NT4201 launched a savage swipe of her dagger that made the veteran neutrophil stagger a couple of steps back. She seized the opening and lunged to connect her attack with a thrust aimed at his mitochondrion. U1146 now seemed to be faltering from her attacks.

She cackled every time their daggers screeched, and she could feel malicious powers coursing through her body.

With the essences of the virus corrupting her very core, standing her ground against a seasoned neutrophil had become a possibility. Even out besting the ashen warrior now seemed within her grasp.

All she needed to do was to give in to the voices.

Rage boiled her insides, and she roared as she threw a wild haymaker at the veteran neutrophil.

It didn't connect.

U1146's instincts, honed from countless battles, kicked in and he immediately shifted his footing to the left, deftly evading the crazed erythrocyte's fist.

Which was exactly what NT4201 wanted.

With speeds unimaginable for a rookie erythrocyte, she thrust her dagger right into the veteran neutrophil's vulnerable throat.

This time, U1146 blinked.

And NT4201 caught his fraction of a second worth of hesitation. That was all she needed, and she could hear the screams in her head, reaching a crescendo as they goaded her to strike her first kill.

This was it. This was what she needed to be.

She knew even when she was a young erythroblast that she was destined for greatness. All of her macrophage instructors told her that she would definitely become one of the top erythrocytes in the world. She would be a model for all upcoming erythrocytes to follow and all other cells to praise.

It would have been a great honor of which it was something easily within her grasp.

But it was not enough.

To be the number one erythrocyte was nothing compared to what a neutrophil or a lymphocyte could accomplish. A white blood cell who died in glorious battle was given full military honors of being discharged into the sacred fluids of the Urinary Tract. A lymphocyte who had proven himself during an invasion was given the honors of becoming a Memory T cell whose insights and legacy would be passed on to all succeeding generations.

There would be no honors for any great erythrocyte. The best among the red blood cells would still end up getting destroyed inside the spleen with no trace of any of their deeds preserved whatsoever.

For a time, she resented her lot in life as nothing but a lowly red blood cell. There was no greatness to be had with spending all day delivering nutrients to various parts of the world.

Her job was nothing to be proud of even though she bested everyone else. It was boring, mundane, and she hated it.

That was, of course, until she met her senpai.

When she met her bumbling senpai for the first time, her first instinct was to jump right into the acid waters of the stomach. Never had she met a more dimwitted and directionally challenged cell in her entire life.

To even be assigned as her upperclassman was an insult to her stellar performance. Compared to her senpai, hands down, there was no comparison. The moment her senpai opened her mouth to introduce herself, she knew then and there, she'd already surpassed her as a more competent erythrocyte by default.

And yet, for all her misgivings, her senpai still showed her that even the clumsiest of all cells was capable of greatness. It was a lesson she would definitely adhere all the way to her dismantling.

Back when the world experienced massive hemorrhagic bleeding, she broke down thinking it was all futile now. But then, her senpai showed her to never give up, but instead continue moving forward and quietly carry on.

From that moment on, she realized that it was truly fate that AE3803 would become her beloved bumbling senpai.

And yet, she was taken from her.

A wretched thrombocyte took her senpai from her, and an insane macrophage turned her into an abomination.

Truly, there was no justice in this world.

"DIE!" she screamed, plunging her dagger deep into the uniform of the veteran neutrophil.

She could see him buckle as finally, her opponent let out a pained grunt.

Her lips went wide to start cackling again, but then, her eyes locked with his and, in just an instant, she finally realized how badly she miscalculated.

The eyes of her opponent were not those of someone who just got stabbed by a dagger…

They were the eyes of someone who just won a fight.

Before she could strike another blow, the ground she stood disappeared, and she suddenly found herself dangling in the air, legs squirming, mouth wide open into a gurgling scream, as a stone-cold hand started crushing her windpipe.

Instincts immediately kicked in, and she swung her dagger at the hand gripping her neck, but the ashen neutrophil caught her arm, and with a slight twist of his wrist, broke her hold on her weapon.

Finally, her vision began to blur. Finally, she realized her mistaken hubris of even thinking she could take down a neutrophil in the first place.

"K-KILL M-ME!" she wheezed. "KI-"

But her words died in her lips as her world flipped and now she found herself smashed down in the ground, with every molecule in her membrane screaming at her of pain.

She squirmed, kicking and slamming her hands on her opponent, but the hand crumpling her throat held her at bay. U1146 loomed above her, his gaze burning with cold fury.

"Do it... " she croaked. This was it. It was all over now. She closed her eyes and again ignored the voices in her head, raging at her for giving up. "You got me now… Do your duty…"

"No," replied the ashen neutrophil.

Her eyes snapped wide open as her brows furrowed with confusion. The pressure squeezing around her had suddenly vanished.

U1146 let go his hold on her as he got up to stand beside her.

Confused and still dazed. She looked up to stare right into the eyes of her would-be executioner and no longer saw any trace of a blood-thirsty killer.

"W-Why?" she managed to ask.

Now it was her opponent's turn to furrow his brows and give her a quizzical look.

"Because you're not a threat," he said as a matter of fact as if it was the most obvious thing to explain. "You never were, and so there's no need to end you."

Renewed fury burned in her insides as her face contorted into a snarl. She tried getting up, but the veteran neutrophil placed his boots right above her chest, pinning her down in place.

"HOW DARE YOU LOOK DOWN ON ME?!" she screamed, black ichor started streaming down her eyes. "FIGHT ME FAIR AND SQUARE YOU MONSTER!"

U1146 continued staring down at her seemingly perplexed at her reaction. "But miss, I don't sense any inherent malice from you. There's no need to fight."

"Hah?!" now it was her turn to stare at him in confusion. "What do you-... Are you blind?! Can't you see I'm infected?!"

As if to prove her point, she pointed a finger at the virus cap perched on top of her head.

He shook her head as he too pointed his finger on his gray cap. "No, you're not."

"What does your cap have to do with-"

Then it hit her.

"No…" NT4201 stared at him, utterly dumbfounded. "That can't be… You must be mistaken!"

"My receptor has never failed me, miss," U1146 assured her. "It didn't detect you as an infected or even a threat."

"NO!" She screamed, refusing to believe at the absurdity of what her opponent just said. "That's impossible! I… I was infected by the virus!"

"You are enucleated. You can't be infected by a virus." the ashen veteran pointed out.

NT4201 fumed with fury. Was this neutrophil playing tricks with her?

"Then these voices... " her voice hoarse and strained. "A-Are you telling me I'm… I'm just imagining them?"

"What voices, miss?" U1146 removed his foot that was pinning her down. He then crouched in order to get a closer look on her. "I'm sorry, but I don't understand."

"These voices… I hear-" but before she could finish her sentence, a blur of red and black slammed at her, scooping her up into a sitting position as the blur hugged her tightly.

"Kouhai-chan!" AE3803 wailed as she dug her nails at her kouhai's back in a crushing embrace. "Thank the Consciousness you're alive!"

"S-Senpai?" NT4201 blurted, different shades of emotions from happiness to anger swirled inside her.

"I'm so happy... " AE3803 cried. Tears streamed down her eyes uncontrollably. "I thought… I thought I lost you!"

"I... " NT4201 tried to make a coherent sentence to speak, but just couldn't find the words to express.

"I'm s-sorry... " her senpai continued in between sobs. "I'm sorry for not being with you when you needed me the most!"

"Senpai, I..." then it was NT4201's turn to cry, but her tears were the color of bile. "I was so... "

But then, rage and regret succeeded clawing themselves up above all other emotions, and she could feel a renewed sense of fury burning inside her.

"S-Senpai... " she croaked, her voice near at the point of breaking. "You abandon me."

"I'm sorry!" her senpai sobbed. "It's my fault, I know! I… I should be there for you as your senpai!"

"But it's done..." NT4201 said with much regret in her tone. "You made your choice, and now I'm… I'm evil… I'm an abomination."

"No, you're not!"

"I am..."

"No, you're no-"

"I AM!" NT4201 bellowed. "I AM DA-"

"NO, YOU'RE NOT!" her senpai countered and proceeded to even hug her tightly.

The voices in NT4201's head began to howl at her to renew her rampage. An idiot erythrocyte had just presented herself for slaughter, and all she needed to do was to deliver the kill.

"You're not damned, Kouhai-chan."

This time, AE3803 released her hold on her junior as she shifted her position so she could look directly at her junior's eyes.

"You are my beloved Kouhai, please don't say you're evil because you really are not."

"How can you say that, senpai?!" she wailed. "I… I tried to kill you! How could you say I'm not evil?!"

"Because I believe in you, kouhai-chan."

Then, AE3803 proceeded to unfasten her jacket as she leaned her head to one side so as to expose her bare neck to her junior.

"Kouhai-chan," AE3803 began. This time, her voice was soft and clear. "If you really are evil..."

She then placed a hand on her kouhai's left check as she wiped off the muddy tears from her eyes.

"If you really are evil, Kouhai-chan, then I offer you my neck… It is the least I could do to atone for my sins."

NT4201 sat stunned and unmoving at what her senpai just said. She stared straight into AE3803's eyes, searching any hint of treachery, but all she found was her senpai's resolve that she was not evil.

And that troubled her even more.

"T-That's…"

NT4201 broke eye contact as she dug her fingers into her temples. The pain in her head was unbearable, and she could hear the voices rising into a fever pitch, shrieking at her to rip out her senpai's throat.

"That's so... " she growled through clenched teeth. "That's so unfair, senpai!"

The last thing NT4201 remembered was her vision blurring into a red misty haze before lunging toward AE3803, her hands reaching out to her senpai's neck, and her mouth wide open into a snarling scream.

The voices in her head bellowed their unworldly cackle.


A/N:

And we finally come to a close to the Platelet-chan/AE3803/NT4201 arc! Wait, what? The arc ends with a cliff-hanger?

Yeah... Apologies for that, but based on my Storybeat, the next chapter will focus back on Lady Macrophage and after that, we're back to our beloved tsundere couples.

Don't worry though, this is not the end, we'll definitely see more of our cute Platelet-chan, U1146, and AE3803. How about NT4201? Yeah, we'll see. XD

Anywho...

As you may all be wondering, how could Kouhai-chan fight off U1146? Is this all completely made up? Or is this somehow based on science?

Well honestly, I'm no medical expert and I don't even have any medical background at all. However, as an author, I love taking tidbits of ideas from what I've read or seen on the internet and apply them to the plot on my stories.

As such, one article I've read was a medical journal regarding making erythrocytes as virus traps. (From NCBI site: The erythrocyte viral trap: Transgenic expression of viral receptor on erythrocytes attenuates coxsackievirus B infection)

Basically, a group of scientists was researching if it was possible to make red blood cells as traps for viruses. In their study, they mentioned that since red blood cells don't have a nucleus, if a virus tries to infect it, then there would be no cellular mechanism to let it replicate.

As such, if we could somehow lure viruses to their destruction via traps (and by traps they mean Red Blood Cells) then we could prevent the virus from spreading. (NYT Article by Carl Zimmer, March 27, 2007: Scientists Explore Ways to Lure Viruses to Their Death)

It's really a neat idea though I think the result of the study was rather mixed.

Anyways, as I explained when I introduced NT4201, I somehow painted myself into a corner when I wrote that she was infected by the virus not realizing that red blood cells don't have a nucleus for the virus to infect. I would have made a huuuuge change to my plot, but luckily, I saw those articles, and I'm glad I was able to apply their ideas to my story.

And that's why we see NT4201 able to withstand a fight against a veteran neutrophil such as U1146. NT4201 was never infected because she doesn't have a nucleus. The virus that injected its DNA into her could not replicate itself and that's why we won't be able to see a face-hugger crawling out of her mouth like what we saw with the macrophages.

The DNA of the virus, however, does make her go delusional and that's why she could somehow hear voices in her head. I also took some liberties in the article's mentioning of Red Blood Cells as 'virus traps' to mean that they could somehow keep the virus at bay. And by that loose interpretation, I made it in such a way that NT4201 got the fighting know-how of the virus without getting infected herself.

Anyways, that's the story behind NT4201 and I'm really surprised at such a development. On the first draft, NT4201 was just an extra that was going to be killed by Lady Si so I could show how she's evil. But then, when writing NT4201, I somehow felt really sad for her so I didn't kill her and just made her story even more tragic.

No worries though, let's just wait and see what would happen to her. ^^

...

Ok, now that explanation is done, I have some announcements.

I will still aim to release the next chapter in August, but it might be slightly delayed since I'm also writing a short story that is a fanfic of a fanfic. It's an old promise I made to one of the authors that inspired me to become an author myself.

I promised him that I'll write a story of his story around 5 years ago. However, back then, I still didn't have the confidence as an author so I never got into writing that story. Fast forward to now, I happened to see him still active in Tumblr so I contacted him and I'm happy that he still remembers me.

So anyway, is anyone here a Touhou Project fan? The name of the author that inspired me is Takerfoxx who is the author of the 1 MILLION PLUS words Touhou fanfic called Imperfect Metamorphosis.

I plan to release this short story sometime in the middle of August and I'll aim to release the next chapter for this story by the end of August.

If you're a fan of HP Lovecraft and his ideas of cosmic horrors, then you might like this story.

Ok, that's all for me, until next time everyone! ^^


Revision History:

- Originally published on July 31, 2019