Chapter 10: Epidemic

Dr. Ozaki was practically banging his head against the wall—not only had he misdiagnosed Megumi, but "she" paid the ultimate price with her life...unfortunately, things were about to get worse.

Earlier, Nao Yasumori—the wife of his childhood friend, Mikiyatsu—had come in for some tests, as her husband thought that she didn't look so well. At the same time, more deaths occurred, all with the same symptoms. Ozaki started to suspect an epidemic.

Days later:

The heat was intense. Even worse for him, Natsuno had missed the bus, and was now walking to school. Ever since the funeral, he couldn't sleep well at all - it seemed like someone or something was watching him, eerily.

Luckily, a white car pulled up to him - and Natsuno immediately saw, and identified the driver.

"Hey, Natsuno!" It was Tohru, and as usual he was smiling, "What're you walkin' around in your school uniform for?" Natsuno replied, "It's not a school day?", then he quickly changed the subject, "Hey, what're you doing driving? You have your license already?"

"Still just a permit." The blonde pointed to the young woman sitting next to him, "Ritsuko here is keepin' an eye on me while I get some driving practice." Ritsuko waved to Natsuno, "Hey, how are you?"

"Uh, fine, thanks."

"In any case, Why're you walkin' around in this heat? Come on hop in back."

Later:

"Bus didn't come. I waited for an hour, then started walking to the next stop, and it passed me on the way there."

Tohru chuckled, "Yeah, the same thing happened to me before."

"It's about three hours to Mizobe if you're traveling on foot, isn't it?"

Natsuno laid his head back on the seat, "Yeah...", he said in an exhausted manner, just showing how bad the burning, late summer heat was, "If there were trains it wouldn't matter - There's just the stupid bus."

"Yeah, I know."

Tohru snickered, "What's wrong, not sleeping enough?"

"Pretty much.", Natsuno thought back to the night before, and recalled what appeared to be glowing, red circles outside his window. "Sometimes, all I can think about is how much I want to get out of here."

"Your parents moved all the way out here to be closer to nature, maybe you should humor them a bit."

"Eyes on the road!"

At the next stop sign, Tohru stopped for two more.

"Tomotsu, Masao..."

"Nice ride!"

"What's up Tohru?"

Tohru's little brother looked at the rather lanky Masao and spoke excitedly, "We're in luck, no more walking!"

"Yeah...", Masao paused at the sight of Natsuno, "On second thought, I'm gonna pass."

"Walk back, are you crazy?" Tomotsu was confused by his friend's sudden change of attitude, "The car will be a lot cooler than out here!"

"I said forget it,", Masao said angrily, "If you wanna ride with him, go for yourself!" After that, he ran off.

"Calm down, what's with you?" Tomotsu took off after him, "Wait, I'm coming!"

Ritsuko didn't know what to make of Masao's sudden change of attitude. "That was strange, what's wrong?"

"Masao isn't exactly Natsuno's biggest fan. Not that Natsuno seems to care all that much?" Natsuno hit the blonde on the head, which surprised Ritsuko, "What did hafta do that for?"

"Like I said, I don't want you calling me by my first name."

Ozaki Clinic:

Dr. Ozaki was starting to undergo alot of stress - the death count had risen from 4 to 29 in just a week. He was viewing the blood test results of Nao, which really confused him.

Ritsuko worked at the clinic as a nurse, and she was curious about how Nao's results were. "Doctor..." she began to ask him, "Is Nao's condition really bad?"

He calmly replied, "No...but her test results are puzzling. I want them to run the tests again. Can you call her, and schedule her for another appointment as soon as possible?"

"Yes Doctor..." and with that, Ritsuko walked out of the room.

Just as I thought. It's the same as Megumi's Anemia. Results of the Microscope analysis of blood and bone marrow.

Blood: Reticulocyte increase. Nucleated Red Blood cells present.

Bone marrow: Hyperplasia of the erythroblast. No irregular shapes detected.

No abnormality in the structural level. Instead, large amounts of Red blood cells are being consumed, Hematosis is even accelerated isn't it?

But, she's not bleeding externally or internally. The coombs test is negative. The Bilirubin and LOH levels in the serum are both normal...There isn't any Hemolytic either.

The More I think about it, the more I feel I've ruled out every possibility.

It was at this point that Dr. Ozaki was more confused about the matter than ever.

The next day:

"Toshio, come quick!", Mikiyasu burst into the clinic, holding Nao up - she was getting worse.

"Why didn't you come in yesterday when I CONTACTED HER?" Dr. Ozaki was speaking in an infuriated manner.

"Eh...Nao didn't say anything about that..."

"Nao, how do you feel?" Her words weren't even audible.

Dr. Ozaki checked her pulse, and was alarmed immediately. Her pulse is racing.

When he looked further up her arm, he saw two, small puncture marks. Insect bites?

Alerted by Nao's worsening condition, he immediately began barking out orders to the staff, "Yasuyo, blood test! Her pulse is too fast. Go and get the EKG just in case. After that, tell Dr. Shimoyama to get the Ultrasound and CT scan ready!"

Outside:

"Toshio, what's wrong with Nao...", Mikiyasu was asking the Doctor about his wife's horrifying condition, "Don't tell me she's contracted some terrible illness..."

Before Dr. Ozaki replied he thought to himself, Look at him...just like when we were kids., "Right now we don't have any evidence of a serious illness." The doctor sighed, "What about you, Mikiyasu?"

"-Me?"

"You, or your family, or your employees? Anyone that you've been in contact with. Can you think of anyone who seemed sick?"

"Let me see..."

"She could've caught a summer cold from someone." Ozaki closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I can't think of anybody..."

He exhaled slowly and sparked up yet another cigarette. "Well, what about clients?"

"Huh?"

"I need you to concentrate. Did anybody look sick or act strangely?"

Finally, Mikiyasu said something that piqued the doctor's interest.

"About three days ago, our family was celebrating a festival. In the middle of our activities a man and his wife came up to us... He said that he was the owner of the new mansion. We offered to let them stay and enjoy it with us, but they said they were buisy. So all of us offered to let them visit us sometime. Then they just up and left... There was something...off about them, I can't really explain it." Mikiyasu put his hands on his face and let out a concerned sigh.

"Don't worry. I'm sure this is just caused by stress. She had been working alot lately right? We are going to patch her up and send her home with you...I don't want to have her stay here and risk infecting the other patients who come in...or I can call a government hospital if you prefer."

"No, that's ok, I can take her home, our son would worry, she couln't possibly be that sick right?"

"Thats the spirit."

I'm sorry old friend, Nao won't survive this.

Night time:

Megumi was standing outside Natsuno's bedroom window - her burial outfit replaced by a pink lollita dress, with high-heeled boots, and shoulder-high gloves, as well as a black choker with a tiny rosary on it. She knew she wasn't human anymore - and Natsuno wouldn't even accept her as a person if he ever saw her, and Kaori would be terrified of seeing her friend as an Okiagari.

Megumi had never felt so alone in her life. Worse still, her parents wouldn't be there to comfort her.

The following day:

It was a tragic day for the Yasumori family—Nao had passed away. Masao happened to stumble across the funeral. He was as surprised as anyone to see this. Though he had more of a smug look on his face than one of sadness.

Mutou House:

Masao burst through the door, "Tohru! Tohru! Did you hear?!" he turned his head to see Natsuno was in the same room, much to his displeasure. "What is it?" Tohru replied, "Nao died I saw the pole-bearers carrying her coffin across the trail!" Masao he yelled that in his usual grating voice. Tohru looked up from his game in surprise, "Wasn't she kinda young?" he said. "Shimizu died last month, remember? I think there's a strange disease going around!" Natsuno looked up from a magazine he was reading. He glanced at Masao but only briefly, before returning to his reading. This angered Masao and he turned a sharp glare at Natsuno.

"You know Natsuno…..you're cold. People are dying left and right and you don't so much as bat an eye. Are you just stupid or is there something actually wrong with you?" Masao sneered at Natsuno with a smug look. Natsuno continued to ignore him. But this only sent him into a frenzy.

"HEY KID, DON'T IGNORE ME! I'M OLDER THAN YOU!" Masao grabbed Natsuno's scruff and stared at him with gritted teeth and bulging eyes.

"The deaths don't bother me because I don't know these people, dude. Do you cry everytime you see a death on the news? Why should they bother me? Its sad people are dying sure, but since I didn't know them then they aren't worth much more than a fleeting thought to me, if I was an emotional wreck over every person I don't know who died, then I couldn't function in society." Natsuno spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. Masao mistook this for malice however and snorted back at him gripping his shirt tighter.

"But doesn't it bother you that Nao was so young? With a family too, she must have had so many regrets!" Masao snarled at him, the fire in his eyes burned at the mere sight of Natsuno.

"Young people die all the time. Like I said it's kind of sad but it's not my problem…it's a matter of probability." At that point Masao readied to punch Natsuno but Tohru grabbed him and held him back.

"Tohru! Let me at him! He's cold! A heartless monster, didn't you hear about how he rejected a memoir from Shimizu!? Why are you holding me back!?" Masao kept struggling but with every movement, Tohru held him tighter.

"I know he seems kind of cold, and he can act impulsively sometimes, but think man! He is also being rational right now! Let it go, for god's sake Masao! Let it go!" Tohru kept a tight hold of Masao and caught a couple of off kicks in the struggle. Masao finally calmed down and slammed the doors open.

"Fine….forget this! I'm out of here!" Masao walked off and slammed the door again. The whole house vibrated and some lint fell from the ceiling.

Natsuno didn't show it, but Masao bringing up the fact that he turned down Megumi's postcard stung as bad as a hornet, Did he have to say that?, he then changed his focus, Maybe I should spend the night, I can't sleep in my own house anyway.

Inferno:

The evil energy...it is stronger than before! And yet, I do not know who the source is.

Outside:

"Aw, man." Tohru dropped ten yen under the vending machine outside his house.

"Hey, how's it going?" He turned to see blue-haired, young man right next to him, "Good, except I dropped some of my money."

"No problem, that's why I always carry a backscratcher with me!"

To Tohru's surprise, it actually worked.

"Wow, thanks, I'm Tohru Mutou by the way."

"I'm Tatsumi, I'm new here!"

"Why don't you come and visit some time?"

"Sure, is it alright if I bring a friend?"

"Of Course! See you soon!"

"Yeah, see ya...very soon." Tohru didn't notice that Tatsumi's left eye started to eerily glow red.