Burning Bright

Biohazard

Inside, everyone stared at the collapsed Rion in shock, worried for her.

"A... Akagami...?" Miyauchi said.

"Ri-Rion!" Akira yelled, running over to her. "What's wrong? Hang in there, Rion..."

"Wait, Sengoku!!" Mariya shouted, rushing over to stop him from touching her.

"!? W... What is it, Mariya?" Akira asked anxiously. "Get out of the way!"

"..." Mariya stared at Rion with an incredibly worried expression on his face. 'It's strange. It seems that under a little while ago Akagami was doing fine. Was it by chance? Or is there something else...?'

"Mariya, hey!" Akira said.

"!!" Mariya gasped when he saw the problem. "E-Everyone, look at this!" He pointed to Rion's neck.

"Huh?" Akira said as he and everyone else looked where he was pointing. There was something blue and nasty-looking on Rion's neck.

"!?" they all gasped.

"Wh... What is that!?" Akira asked. The blue thing slowly crept further up Rion's neck. "It's... It's moving... Is it living...?"

"It's a strange color, blue-ish..." Mariya said. "That color... it seems like I've seen it somewhere before..."

"!" Torako gasped, looking extremely troubled and concerned. "We all have... That bottle of blue stuff in the church!!" She gritted her teeth. 'Mariya-kun was right! It was something dangerous after all... Could this be what killed all those people at the gate and in the cars...!?'

"...!?" everyone said.

"Th-That broken bottle...?" Miyauchi said.

"It does look just like the color of the paint that was inside of it..." the vice president said.

"But the contents of the bottle were dried up..." Rei said.

"Wasn't it not dangerous?" the president said.

"N... Now that I think about it, when we were leaving the dining hall, there was something staining Rion-chan's shoes, and Rion-chan wiped it away with her hand. That stain's color was that kind of blue..." Yuki said nervously.

"So, when the bottle broke, it stuck to Rion, and she's been carrying it with her all the way here?" Akira said. "Damn, that thing like dried-up paint was the contents of the bottle itself!" He was horrified.

"B-But... could it exist in that kind of situation?" Mariya asked. "To think there would be a creature like that in existence..."

"... It isn't... a type of myxomycete, is it?" Yarai asked.

"... Myxomycete...?" Mariya said, looking at him. "If... If that's it, then there's a possibility..."

"...? H-Hey, what is that 'myxomycete' thing...?" Miyauchi asked.

"Myxomycete is another organism that both animals and plants possess within them," Yarai said. "Myxomycete that were just born grow while moving about in an amoeba state and eating bacterial and organic matter. Before long, when it matures, it changes into a form like a mushroom and the spores scatter. When it gets cold or dry or when the environment is bad, it lies dormant. For years it goes on sleeping in a form like dried paint... And once it's environment had improved again, it revives in its original amoeba state and becomes active again."

"..." The others stared at him.

'That fits...' Torako thought.

"Myxomycete, huh... It certainly resembles it," the president said.