Chapter 26: A Promise to Keep

"So Fountain-kun finally defeated you?" a voice from behind asked.

"Yeah," he said, without turning his head towards the speaker. He was sitting on the edge of a window located on the topmost empty floor of their dormitory, overlooking the training field below. "That idiot just got lucky."

"Did he now? From what I saw, he soundly beat you up with his signature Falcon-Punch."

"Hah!" He sneered as he adjusted his glasses. "I still can't believe he actually learned such skill and then gave it a stupid name."

"If it works, then it's not stupid."

He turned his head to his left and saw a girl with blonde hair tied up in a braided bun with long side-locks that curled up at the tip. She wore the same uniform as his, which consisted of a plain white shirt, army pants, and combat boots.

For a second, he could feel one of his mitochondrions skipping a beat as his eyes met with hers.

It was not too long ago after their graduation that he confessed his feelings for her, not expecting his confession to succeed. Surprisingly, she reciprocated his feelings for him, and the two became a couple, though they tried to hide it from their classmates.

"Well, it's not optimal," He tried to reason out as his partner leaned in closer to inspect the bandages plastered on his left cheek. "You… You don't need to shout the name of the move while performing the punch. It's… It's just too stupid."

His blond-haired partner continued to look closer at him, noting at the other places on his membrane that got injured from Fountain-kun's secret move.

"But you're the one who suggested it to him in the first place, did you not?"

"Pfft." he jeered. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do," his partner countered. "You saw Fountain-kun crying again, so you devise a technique that even an idiot could master in no time."

He looked away.

"All I did was give him the notes on how to properly release the cytotoxins, perforin, granzymes, and granulysin within us and channel them into one single attack. I didn't think he would call such a scientific-based attack with a stupid name as a Falcon punch."

Her partner tilted her head, giving him a quizzical look. "You are indeed a good friend, I can see it now."

"Hah? Me? Friends with that oaf?" He stepped back from the window's edge to stand. "Blondie-chan, you must be mistaken."

"I never make mistakes, Glasses-kun." she countered. "I'm sure you are aware of such facts when I accepted your confession?"

He smiled and once again stared at her cool emerald eyes. He leaned closer as he placed a hand on one of her cheeks.

"Listening to you say 'yes' to my confession was the greatest thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life," he whispered. "Thank you Blondie-chan, you made me such a happy cell."

Before her partner could reply, he gently pressed his lips on hers as she wrapped her arms around him.

For a long time, they didn't move as they savored each other's warmth and affection. The sound of footsteps climbing the stairs stopped them from their embrace. They stepped back from each other just in time for a lady in a white maid uniform to appear from the stairs.

"Good afternoon, Lady Macrophage," both thymocytes bowed with respect.

"Ara Ara?" the elder phagocyte quipped with her usual cheerful smile. "What might bring you two here in this deserted corridor?"

The two immediately tensed up.

"I was uh," Glasses-kun began, struggling to find the right words to say as well as trying his best not to blush. "I was just resting here afte-"

"I came here to find Glasses-kun, and when I did, we ended up kissing." The blond-haired thymocyte declared, her lips pursed into a straight line.

Glasses-kun instantly went red from embarrassment.

"Blondie!" He whispered through gritted teeth.

As for the elder phagocyte, she placed a hand on her mouth as she let out a chuckle.

"Oh my, you're surprisingly bold, Blondie-chan," Lady Macrophage began, a hint of admiration could be seen on her face. "I expect nothing else from our Regulatory T Cell candidate."

"Thank you, milady," Blondie-chan nodded. "I will not fail you."

"I have my complete trust on you, upcoming Regulatory T Cell-chan," Lady Macrophage then turned her attention to her partner. "And the same can be said for you, Glasses-kun, you will make a Fine Commander as a Helper T Cell."

"You honor me, milady," Glasses-kun bowed low in deep respect. "I know such a task will be challenging, but I will not fail you."

Then, she grabbed his partner on the waist, pulling her closer to him. "We will not fail you… We will not fail the world."

Helper T opened his eyes and saw destruction all around him, tinted with the color of crimson. The sound of Klaxons wailed their high-pitched screams around him. He closed his eyes again, and everything went black.

He felt so exhausted. He tried to focus his mind on waking up, but the more he concentrated, the more he wanted to go back to the silent bliss of undisturbed rest.

And yet, something was insisting him to open his eyes and wake up.

But for why?

Why was everything all red?

Why were the sirens blaring?

What was the emergency?

He wanted to remember, but his memories appeared like broken RNA his ribosomes had a hard time decoding.

Once again, he attempted to wake up. He slowly opened his eyes and was again greeted by the screeching blares of klaxons and the blinking hues of red and yellow hues. He shut his eyes, and the noise and sickening lights disappeared.

He felt no pain in the darkness, it insisted for him to say, but soon he heard a voice called out to him to remain awake at all costs. The voice sounded faint and distant, but gradually, it became clearer and closer.

It was the voice of someone he knew, someone he cared, someone, he loved.

It was the voice of his partner.

For the third time, he opened his eyes once more and saw a woman with blond hair and curly locks kneeling beside him.

"Re-Regu… Regulatory?" he croaked and immediately winced at the sharp pain, coursing all through his membrane and organelles. He was sitting on the floor and leaning on a wall. Smears of caked cytoplasm stained his uniform, and he realized he was injured.

"My love," his partner replied amidst the wails of the sirens. "I'm here with you. Don't worry."

A hundred thoughts swirled around his nucleus, and it took all his willpower not to faint once again. He attempted to stand up, but the pain in his chest kept him in place.

"W-Wha… What h-happened?" he labored to ask.

Regulatory cell said nothing but swerved her attention to a body lying a short distance from them.

He followed her gaze and saw a maid lying face down on the floor with her cytoplasm forming a red puddle around her.

"You fought a traitor macrophage and defeated her," the blond-haired cell replied. "Barely."

He continued staring at the downed maid and realized her skin was unusually pale, and she wore a disgusting looking cap with spikes and a long chitinous tail.

He remembered everything.

"Did we... " he winced with pain. "Did we stop them?"

"Yes," Regulatory nodded. "For now."

Once again, she shifted her attention to her surroundings, and he once more followed her gaze.

The command center was in ruins. Terminals and interfaces used to monitor the armies of the immune system lay destroyed and burned during the fight. Corpses of his staff littered the floor alongside those they fought off.

When the last doors to the command center were breached, everyone took up arms to mount a desperate defense. He, too, joined in repelling the enemy and instead got almost mortally wounded by a fallen macrophage.

"Is everyone dead?" he asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"We are the only ones left," his partner said grimly.

"Then we've… we've failed." His shoulders sagged in despair. "Everyone died in vai-"

He coughed and spat out a mouthful of cytoplasm. Regulatory cell held his hand to calm him down.

"Den… Dendritic c-cell betrayed us," he declared through gritted teeth. "That bastard b-betrayed us!"

"He is coming," his partner said with certainty. "He will use our comm channels to broadcast his self-kill code to all our forces."

As an antigen-presenting cell, Dendritic cell works as a messenger between the forces of the innate and adaptive immune system. He could also activate cells during a battle, boosting their powers for a short period. He also could activate the self-termination codes to a compromised cell to prevent any corruption from spreading.

However, now that he had turned his back from the light, there was no stopping him from using his powers to end the lives of healthy cells prematurely.

"We can't… let him… do that..." he wheezed. "Please, Reg, help me get up."

"No." Regulatory placed a hand on his chest, staving him off from rising up. "You stay here, my love, you must not get up."

"I-I can still fight," he assured her, though his pained expression betrayed his statement.

Regulatory cell leaned closer to his face until their eyes were leveled. "No, you can't. Not with your injuries."

As if on cue, a surge of pain from his chest made him wince and pant for air. "But… But I c-can't let you fight alone…"

She shook her head. "I am here to share with your burdens, my love. That also means fighting at your stead when you cannot."

For a long moment, he continued locking his gaze with hers, noting all her facial features and minute expressions. This was the face that made his mitochondrion skip a beat many circadian cycles ago. He loved her more than anything else in this world. If a concept like fate really existed, then there was no question that the two, among all the trillions of cells in this world, were meant for each other.

"I…" His vision started to blur. He blinked a couple of times and felt tears running down his cheeks. "There's no point in living without you. The world can b-burn for a-all I care and-"

"I know, my love," Regulatory interrupted him before he could continue to spew out more unsavory views. "But we promised Lady Macrophage after our graduation we will not fail her or this world. I still intend to keep that promise."

Finally, she stood up. He noticed that her office uniform had multiple tears from battle, while grime and dried cytoplasm stained her sleeves and blouse. "All is not lost. If we defeat Dendritic cell, then we can use his cytokine code to unleash a-"

"Cytokine Storm."

Regulatory turned and instinctively stepped in front of her injured partner.

A newcomer stood in front of the destroyed doors of the command center wearing a green business suit and a tie.

"I believe you are referring to a Cytokine Storm, yes?" the newcomer asked, his lips forming a sinister grin. "If it helps ease any doubts, yes, I can activate such a last-ditch effort to defeat this invasion."

He loosened his tie and collar to take out a necklace with a small card. "But first, you need to get this from me."

"Dendritic cell," Helper T cell growled through clenched teeth. Again, he tried to get up, but the pain in his chest made him go slump back on the floor. "You damn traitor!"


A/N:

And we're back to the Thymus HQ. It's been a long time since we saw our lovely couples, Helper T and Regulatory T cell. I have to read back the part in the Manga where we see Regulatory T cell in action so as to give an accurate or similar portrayal of herself in the fanfic. She's badass and actually a capable cell although somewhat a bit ditzy sometimes.

She's always serious and I applied the same personality of her in the manga into this fanfic. However, unlike our two tsundere couples, I also picture her as very direct and not embarrassed to show her affection toward her partner. I got this personality quirk not from the manga, but from what real-life Regulatory T Cells (or Tregs) actually do.

As their name suggests, they 'regulate' the cells of the immune system once they go out of their way and attack the healthy cells in the body in a disease known as an 'autoimmune disorder'. This is further portrayed when Helper T cell was despairing that he didn't care what happens to the world as long as he was with Regulatory cell and she stopped him from saying any further.

Btw, if you want to know how absolutely badass Regulatory cell is in the manga, I suggest Chapter 24 and 25.

Stay safe everyone!


Revision History:

- Originally published on Apr. 10, 2020