Chapter 2: Birth

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*

GenTek.

A corporate giant renowned in biology and genetics, they were searching for a new breakthrough.

Research was progressing slowly with only two samples. One sample in particular did not even show a viral response, leaving the research completely stalled.

There was only one conclusion: create more samples.

And today, the result was about to make its appearance in the world.

"They say her delivery is imminent."

"...Is that so?"

A GenTek laboratory office.

A middle-aged man with glasses delivered the news to a man in a lab coat.

The man in the lab coat was shorter than the middle-aged man, but his gleaming white hair and blood-red eyes left a powerful impression.

For several seconds—or no, several minutes—they silently looked at each other. Then, breaking the silence, the white-haired man spoke.

"Doctor."

"What is it, Minazuki?"

"May I give it a name?"

"...It will be assigned a codename anyway. I suppose it does not matter if you name it."

Dr. Minazuki Kir's expression was tangled with unreadable emotions. Joy, anticipation, and something else he could not explain, all mixed together.

"No. I mean it literally."

He smiled.

"I want to give the child about to be born... a name."

Kir's voice trembled faintly, as though his racing heartbeat came through in every word.

"If it is a boy, Kiria. If it is a girl, Kiriko."

Raymond McMullen, GenTek's CEO and the man in charge of research into DX-1118—the virus commonly known as Redlight—looked at Kir with concern in his eyes.

"...Are you developing special feelings for that child and her, Dr. Minazuki?"

McMullen spoke quietly.

"If so, give up on that idea. Those things are not human."

They had exposed her to Kir for several days, even impregnated her with his genes.

It had all been procedure for research and the creation of a sample.

Yet seeing Kir unable to hide his joy, McMullen deliberately and coldly referred to them as "things."

But Kir did not wipe the smile from his face.

"Do not worry, Doctor.

I know perfectly well that the research comes first."

"Then that is fine."

As if reassured by those words, McMullen nodded several times and left the office.

Several dozen seconds after the sound of his footsteps clicking down the corridor had faded away...

"...But if necessary, I can fall in love too, Doctor."

A quiet murmur to himself.

His expression was one difficult to call human, joy and madness thickly entwined together.

*

Bubble, bubble...

An unknown place.

I regained consciousness.

'W-Where am I? This place...'

It was dark around me, but I could vaguely see.

Walls writhing like flesh.

I opened my mouth, but instead of air, a warm, viscous liquid flooded down my throat.

'No way...'

Was I inside a test tube?

But it did not feel like hard glass. It felt like soft flesh.

No, why was I even here in the first place?

'I definitely collapsed...'

Right. After answering that survey and seeing the message that popped up, I had been hit by a terrible dizzy spell and passed out.

The message I had seen then definitely said...

[Thank you for the excellent material. Now, please become the sample yourself.]

'...Huh?'

Right... it had definitely asked me to become a "sample."

Then, could it be—

'Did I become that character?'

Throb—!?

'...Whoa!?'

All at once, the inside began convulsing violently.

The walls of flesh closed in. I could feel this place growing narrower and narrower.

'No way...'

I saw a passage. A faint beam of light shone from within it.

Struggling as hard as I could, I thrust my head toward the opening.

The flesh slid around me as though it were sucking me in.

And then—

An intense light burst forth.

Sploosh—!!

With a wet, sliding sound, my head and body slipped out.

Having been in darkness before suddenly facing such a powerful light source, my vision was blindingly bright.

Only after blinking several times and adjusting to the light could I see my surroundings.

It was a bleak place.

A place made to confine test subjects, perhaps. The facility, constructed from masses of steel-like metal, was plainly meant to deny freedom.

Beyond the glass window above, researchers and heavily armed soldiers were looking down at me.

I turned my head in another direction.

There was a woman wearing what looked like a straitjacket-like lab gown.

No, calling her one "person" might be misleading. I had to wonder whether that being was even human.

I saw brown hair. Her green eyes turned toward me, newly born into this world. The gaze visible between her hair carried complicated emotions.

Right, she was definitely...

'Elizabeth Greene?'

The source of the virus, the queen of the infected.

And given the circumstances—

the mother who had given birth to me.

Perhaps because she had just given birth, she breathed in ragged gasps.

Greene lifted me in both hands. I could plainly feel her hands trembling. As she held me quietly, she seemed lost in thought.

Then, as though she had reached a decision, she pulled me deep into her chest.

Warm.

It was the pure warmth of a mother, enough to erase every label—source of the virus, queen of the infected hordes.

Creak—

The sound of a door opening. Soldiers entered. Greene hugged me tighter, as though she meant to shield me from them...

"Move that thing. Right now."

"Hey, should we not deal with that bitch first?"

The soldiers' voices came through their masks. As the armed men approached, Greene's hold on me tightened.

As if neither I nor the woman mattered to them at all, they reached toward Greene... no, to be precise, toward me in Greene's arms.

"■■■■■────!!"

At that moment, she let out a monstrous shriek made of several overlapping voices and reached toward the soldier approaching her.

Slice—!!!

"...Ah!?"

The sound of something being severed. Feeling a sudden, alien sensation, the soldier looked at one of his arms.

There was no arm there—only an empty gap. His arm lay in a corner, severed at some point without him noticing. The soldier's face turned deathly pale as he realized it.

"Aaaaagh—!?"

I looked at her arm. Something alien, mixed black and red, had covered it and transformed it into a grotesque shape. At its end, sharp steel blades protruded like claws, sharp enough to cut at a touch.

'This is...'

Viral biomass. Greene had transformed her arm into biomass, creating a weapon shaped like a claw.

"Damn it!"

Another soldier aimed his gun at her. He looked ready to pull the trigger at any moment. She immediately transformed her arm into a whip and used its sharp tip to pierce the soldier through the stomach.

Whoosh—!!!

"Ghk—!"

Two men went down in only a few seconds. The people beyond the glass could not hide their confusion either.

Watching the scene unfold, I thought,

'What... is going on here?'

*

"Damn it, send more personnel in at once—" "There is no need."

I cut off the commander who was about to send in more soldiers. Even to my own ears, my voice carried irritation and resolve. Those ignorant brutes were useless, as always. Sending them to where Greene was would only repeat the carnage from moments ago.

I would have to step in here. The child carried my genes, after all, and I also wanted to see my own child.

I raised a hand to stop the soldiers and said,

"I will go in there. There is no reason for anyone to die needlessly."

"What!? But Doctor—"

I could imagine the expressions beneath those soldiers' masks. Every last one of them had the same predictable reaction. Of course, people trapped within their limits could never take another step forward. That was why I had no choice but to act.

"I will not die. Just stand back and watch quietly."

I opened the door. I stepped into the corridor and headed for Elizabeth Greene, with a little tension, a little curiosity, and a little... something I could not identify.

*

The door opened. I could see the silhouette of someone entering. I could tell it was not a soldier.

A man in a lab coat. Was he a doctor? He looked shorter than the others. Perhaps because of his small stature, he had a youthful appearance. White hair, red eyes, and a different kind of human that I could recognize instinctively.

'An albino?'

Fearless, he approached Elizabeth Greene without hesitation.

"Hello."

The man's voice was somehow excited. His tone was buoyant, and his expression was strangely bright.

His emotions practically seemed ready to flutter away. The smile on his lips made him look as though he felt paternal affection.

"So you... are my child..."

He approached Greene slowly, slowly. She watched him with wary eyes. But unlike with the two soldiers from before, she did not reveal any killing intent.

"You will not be able to understand me, but I am Minazuki Kir, your father."

He spoke on the assumption that I was a newborn fresh out of the womb and naturally could not understand him. Ironically, however, the mind inhabiting this baby was that of an adult, so I could understand him.

Strange. I did not know English to begin with, did I? Well, becoming reincarnated as a character I created was impossible too, so I might as well let that slide...

"I sincerely hope that you can bring good results to our research."

The man—no, my "father"—said so. In his eyes, the gaze of someone looking upon something precious coexisted with one full of rapture.

Elizabeth Greene. No, was she "Mother" now...?

Ignoring the mother who was wary of him, Father came closer and reached out as though to touch me.

Mother fumbled with the hands holding me, unable to decide whether she should hand me over, but in the end, she gave me to Father.

"Thank you."

His smile deepened further.

"Kiria. That is your name."

Kiria. Father called the name once again.

Kiria...

That name was the name I had created,

and now the name of the new "me" who would live in this world.

*

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