Chapter 32: Legacy
TG-1310. That was her name before ascending to the rank of the head priestess of the Kupffer shrine macrophages. It had been so long since someone addressed her with her serial number that she almost forgot about it. Nowadays, she goes by the title Lady Kupffer.
When she was still a novitiate, she often wondered the story behind her serial number and who did it belong to before her. As serial numbers go, each cell in the world was given one during their creation. A newly formed cell could be given any of the available thirty-eight trillion serial numbers in the world. No cell existing concurrently would be given the same serial numbers. When a cell dies, his or her serial number becomes available for use for the next generation of cells. As such, she wondered how many times her name had been used and who were her predecessors?
Were they Kupffer cells like her? A Natural Killer cell? A neutrophil? Or even an industrious erythrocyte?
Alas, she would never know, and perhaps that might be for the better.
After all, it would only plague her with constant guilt, knowing she might end up shaming her predecessors by failing to live up to their legacy. To know that she could be the last cell to hold her serial number numbed her endlessly with absolute dread.
A tremble in the temple's floor shook her out of her reverie as she heard muted explosions outside of the Caudate Lobe.
The Caudate Lobe is a small lobe somewhere in the back portion of the liver. It's positioned between the left lobe of the liver and the Inferior Vena Cava, a large vein that serves as an expressway for deoxygenated blood heading to the right atrium of the heart.
Due to its location near the Inferior Vena Cava, temples of cleansing and meditation make up much of its composition. It is here that erythrocytes pray for luck and safe travels before going back to the heart.
Aside from the distant rumblings of battle, TG-1310 could also hear the frantic movement of red blood cells trying to escape into the Inferior Vena Cava. This express vein would surely take them away from the liver and out of harm's way, but liver cells like her could never leave.
She didn't envy them. She even muttered a quiet prayer for the fleeing red blood cells, interceding to the Consciousness to guide them in their fates. As for her, however, her fate was sealed the moment she joined the Kupffer Shrine Macrophages.
"Pardon me, Lady Kupffer," she heard a firm but an apologetic voice from behind. "But the enemy has already breached the inner defenses."
TG-1310 remained in her meditative seiza position. She didn't even turn to face her head to address her attendant. She already knows this. It was only a matter of time before the damned warhost of the archtraitor would breach into the inner sanctum of the sacred liver.
For what seemed like a long time, she didn't respond. An air of silence descended upon her meditation chamber. Her attendant didn't even press the issue further, opting instead to remain quiet.
"Consciousness, give me strength," she muttered a prayer.
Finally, TG-1310 stood up and faced her kneeling attendant.
Like the rest of the Kupffer shrine macrophages in the liver, her attendant wore a shrine maiden's traditional red and white clothing plus detachable sleeves. Her attendant also wore a half-kitsune mask, which covered her eyes and nose, but not her mouth.
Contrast this with her outfit, which consists of an all-red hakama and black leotards underneath her clothes. She also wore detached white sleeves tightened on her arms with red ribbons. Unlike her attendant, however, she wore no mask, which revealed her long, jet-black hair, sharp, red eyes, and deep scars running down on one side of her face. In fact, her arms and shoulders bore multiple painful marks of past battles.
Her attendant bowed low in respect, unable to meet her piercing gaze.
"The enemy will breach the Caudate Lobe sanctum in less than an hour, milady." Her attendant answered her unuttered question.
TG-1310 nodded.
"Have all our sisters been called out for the defense?"
"They have, but we're scattered all across the liver." Her attendant reported. "I'm afraid the defense of the Caudate Lobe is severely depleted."
"It will be enough."
"But, milady," her attendant rose from her supplication to finally face her. Even with her mask, TG-1310 could sense the dread and urgency within her young attendant.
"It has always been like this," she placed an assuring hand on her attendant's shoulder. "Even before this rebellion, we've always been understaffed and overworked."
Her attendant pursed her lips, unsure what to make of her words. "We… We can't hold on to the Caudate Lobe with such few numbers."
TG-1310 shook her head. "Maybe, but that is not an excuse why we shouldn't."
She patted her attendant on the head a few times before proceeding towards the doors of her meditation chamber.
The odds against them were incredibly high. She was under no illusion of her even surviving to live another circadian cycle. It would seem her fear of being the last cell to inherit her serial number was undoubtedly becoming a reality.
She muttered a silent prayer to her serial number's previous owners and another prayer for her and her sister shrine maidens. She would fall, but the archtraitor and her minions would have to pay a steep price for their treachery.
"Gather everyone, and I mean everyone in the field." She ordered. "We strike the enemy at our own terms."
=0=0=0=
"I did not retreat," U-4989 assured himself for the hundredth time, but every time he did it, the more his conviction waned.
It had always been drilled down in every trainee's head that neutrophils like them never retreat. When faced with an enemy too powerful for one to handle, the standard protocol was to continue to engage with the target until reinforcements arrived.
Tactical redeployment was a valid strategy also taught in the bone marrow academy. There were instances when the fighting ground was disadvantageous for a neutrophil to fight on, so the more practical approach was to redeploy to a more advantageous position.
For example, the battle outside the liver had become too one-sided for the defenders of the world to continue fighting. Dying in the protection of the world was something all white blood cells recognize as the ultimate honor one can achieve. However, everyone knows it was also their duty to protect the world's important organs at all costs.
Again, tactical redeployment was a valid strategy, and no neutrophil would even think of this as a form of retreat.
And yet, to what advantageous position was he trying to head out?
"Damn it!" He slammed his fist on the wall, denting it from impact. "I did not retreat…"
The light in the blood vessel he was in dimmed, followed by another rumbling as if to mock his words.
Still fresh in his nucleus, he recalled the glasses-wearing macrophage slaying his brothers with such ease and efficiency. The way she annihilated his group sent shivers down his back.
The macrophage was clearly insane to commit such unspeakable debauchery. No sane cell could ever do what she had done. And yet, there were more of her kind waiting outside of the liver. Truly there was no hope, and this world was utterly doomed.
He gritted his teeth as tears fell down his cheeks.
"I… I retreated." He finally admitted it. The admission seemed to drain him of his strength. He fell to his knees, disgusted by what he had done.
The three stubs on his right hand that used to be his fingers pulsed with pain, but it seemed like it didn't hurt that much compared to the shame he had committed on his honor.
A group of red blood cells passed him by. One of them was heavily injured, and he had to be supported by two of his colleagues. None of them paid him any mind. Before, some erythrocytes would seek to avoid getting closer with them. The more fearful ones would even go into circuitous routes simply to avoid crossing their paths.
Now, they didn't even seem to register his presence.
I have failed them. He thought as he closed his eyes.
He was supposed to be the defender of these non-combatant cells. He was supposed to keep them safe from the antigen, the cancer, and the infected. Now, these normal cells die en masse along with his brothers and colleagues in arms.
The guardians of this world had failed, condemning everyone to a fate brought up by fire and ash. They were utterly taken aback by the sheer cruelty of the archtraitor's undead warhost. Their drills and training were all for naught. They have never seen such a virus strain before that directly infected the immune system themselves.
He cursed Lady Em and her treachery. He cursed her damned rampaging horde. He cursed the glasses-wearing macrophage and her insane battle prowess. He cursed that arrogant MT for questioning him of his tactical redeployment. He cursed the whole immune system for such an abject failure. He cursed the Consciousness.
But most of all, he cursed himself.
As if to accompany him in his despair, he suddenly noticed a sobbing sound echoing across the blood vessel corridor. For a moment, he ignored it. He, too, was shedding tears, and hearing erythrocytes sobbing was only a normal reaction to the sheer chaos happening around.
Except, the weeping didn't seem to come from any erythrocytes.
Slowly, he opened his eyes as he started to perk up. He realized the whimpering didn't come only from one cell. The echoing sobs came from multiple mouths and noses.
Up ahead of you, there are a bunch of platelets that might need your help.
He stood up. He began to move toward the source of the crying.
If you're not fighting in the frontlines, you might as well help the less fortunate at the back.
The words of the arrogant MT reverberated inside his nucleus, and he quickened his pace. He passed by other groups of erythrocytes, desperately trying to find ways out of the liver. He saw some who had not been completely taken out by panic deciding to move into the direction of the Caudate Lobe and into the multiple veins connected to the Inferior Vena Cava.
He paid these erythrocytes no heed. For some reason, the cries drew him in like it was from a Cytokine scream.
He was now running, moving from one adjoining capillary to another. He never paid too much thought into the teachings of his macrophage teachers about the concept of fate. As a neutrophil, he didn't have time to ponder about the Consciousness's philosophies and their implication to each individual cell in the world. For him, concepts like fate were best left to his instructors and the neurons to ponder. All he needed to do was make sure this world was safe from those seeking to harm it.
However, right now, he could feel an intense burning sensation inside him to go and investigate the crying sound as if his entire existence depended on it. It seemed utterly ridiculous he would be driven mad by something other than his duty as a neutrophil.
Could this be what his macrophage instructors meant about the burning desire to seek one's fate?
He shook his head. He didn't know, nor did he really care.
But he'd be damned if he couldn't find the source of the crying.
Finally, on one dimly lit capillary, he saw what he was trying to find.
A/N:
Not much going on in this chapter. However, we finally did meet the Kupffer cells in the story. Now as you may have noticed, I have a completely different interpretation of what the liver looks like compared to the show. Instead of a bar, the liver is a shrine town where erythrocytes visit for detoxification and cleansing. The Hepatocytes are shrine maidens while the Kupffer cells are warrior shrine maidens.
I'm also putting out my musing as to how the serial numbering of cells works. In a previous chapter, I've mentioned that once a cell dies, its serial number is struck out and then set to available for the next cell to use. If this is true, then we can speculate that U-1146 and AE-3803 had a long legacy of predecessors. It's fun to think that AE-3803's predecessor might be a formidable macrophage once upon a time and now the serial number belongs to a bumbling erythrocyte.
Lastly, we see the toll of U-4989's tactical redeployment has finally caught up with him. Apparently, the words of the MT in the previous chapter got him real good.
Anyways, this is actually a transition chapter and there'll be more exciting updates on the next chapter.
Until next time!
Revision History:
- Originally published on Feb 3, 2021.
