AE3803 held the little thrombocyte close to her chest as she sobbed silently.
At last, she had Platelet-chan in her arms... At last, she could finally hold her for real instead of clinging to nothing but the emptiness of the dark. It was stupid of her, now that she had time to think, to jump into the open wound thinking she could just somehow find the little platelet without any plan or worry.
Perhaps this was the advantage of an airhead? She could admit that she was not mainly the sharpest knife in the bone marrow, and being smart was never her forte. Many of her classmates would remind her of that, especially when she makes mistakes.
And she does make plenty of mistakes...
However, being in the bottom rung in the ladder actually taught her the value of never giving up. Her sense of direction was practically non-existent, but it had never stopped her in from reaching her destination. By any means, she would definitely find her way.
Thus, when she plunged down into the darkness, all she thought was to rescue Platelet-chan at all cost. It never occurred to her what on to expect, or what nightmares she would face, or how the darkness surrounding her felt utterly suffocating as if it was some invisible goo slowly closing in around her.
In fact, she had never experienced this type of darkness before. Even the light shining from the flashlight strapped in front of her cap did little to fully illuminate her surrounding.
Still, she trudged on.
She didn't have the luxury to worry or to pause and ponder how she could have survived from a fall deep into the underbelly of the abyss. True, she hit the ground hard, but it wasn't enough to take her down. It did hurt though and took all of her willpower to push herself to stand up and move forward micrometer after micrometer. Pain ached all over her body, like a hundred stingers of a Pneumonia Coccus slicing her slowly from the inside, but still, she pushed herself to move on and find her ward.
That was a few hours ago, or an eternity, she couldn't tell. The aching pain made her search agonizingly unbearable. Every step she took felt like an individual battle that she needed to win.
And then there were the screams... By the Consciousness, there were the screams.
As an erythrocyte, she'd always been told to run and make a lot of noise if ever she was in danger. With no way to defend themselves, her kind had to resort to flight rather than fight off wayward antigen. Thus, whenever she heard a fellow red blood cell scream, she knew a threat was nearby, and she needed to get out.
But these cries of the damned that echoed from everywhere and nowhere were not cries of warning, but cries of sheer terror and agony. Every time she thought she was nearing toward the source of a particular scream, it abruptly stopped and followed by shrieks that she believed could not have been uttered from the mouths of fellow erythrocytes or any cell under the Consciousness' light.
But still, she trudged on until she finally stumbled across the little chestnut-haired thrombocyte, all alone, wounded, and sobbing.
She blinked and realized her visions had blurred. Tears had formed in her eyes as she remembered the sorry state of the little platelet that loves to call her onee-chan despite her all her inadequacy.
The pain she felt didn't matter... The hell she went through didn't matter as long as Platelet-chan was now safe in her arms, that was all that mattered to her and-
She shook her head vigorously, trying to bring herself back into focus.
No. She can't stop now, she must continue. She can't delude herself that her ordeal was over now that her ward was in her hands. She couldn't allow lowering down her guard at all.
She furrowed her brows into deep thought as she started devising a plan but instead only ended up breathing out a sigh.
Thinking anything complex like a plan somehow hurts her head. She had always relied more on instincts and her single-minded nature rather than think her actions through. Somehow, her stubbornness had always helped her overcome obstacles in the past.
She would bring back Platelet-chan back to the world of light one way or another, even at the cost of her life.
She lowered her face as she looked down at her ward's sleeping face. The light from her cap provided a faint glow of illumination that made her see the pained expression of Platelet-chan as her chest rose and fell for every raspy breath.
She could only imagine what sort of nightmares her ward must have seen... Cold and alone walking around this forsaken place... Before she managed to find her.
She shook her head once again, unwilling to finish her thoughts.
"I will protect you, Platelet-chan..." she promised as she slowly stood up, carrying the little thrombocyte in between her arms. The little thrombocyte felt hot to the touch as if she was overheating from stress. "Just hang in there... We'll play once again and drink tea along with your other platelet fri-"
She stopped mid-sentence and immediately turned her to her right. An icy chill ran down her back, and she could feel every molecule in her membrane screaming at her of impending danger.
She tightened her grip on Platelet-chan as she focused her willpower to steady herself.
Amidst the fading screams from far away, she could hear the heavy trudging of boots coming toward her with each step sounding louder than the previous one. She steadied her gaze toward the direction of the incoming footsteps, but the dimming light from her cap could not pierce through the sheer blackness in front of her.
She stepped back... Then another one... Two...
She was about to turn and run toward the opposite direction when the darkness suddenly called out to her.
And it spoke in a voice she recognized.
"S-S-Senpai..."
She froze.
A silhouette figure was walking toward her. She could hear groans and pained grunts coming from the figure. Her raw instincts urged her to run, but something was keeping her in place.
Finally, she let go of her left hand from holding Platelet-chan as she adjusted her cap-light to focus on the approaching stranger.
The light dimmed for a second before it brightened just barely enough that she could see the pale face of the figure.
And what she saw made her even paler.
"Kouhai-chan?" she blurted out, unsure of what she saw. "NT4201?"
"Senpai..." the pale figure of an erythrocyte groaned back. "I... f-finally... found you..."
The hemoglobin inside AE3803 started to swirl with mixed emotions of relief and sadness at seeing her kouhai still alive but only barely. Her kouhai looked disheveled and worn out. Her once long and sickly jet-black hair was now unkempt and full of ash, covering much of her face as she kept her gaze downward. Her crimson uniform in which AE3803 always remembered she took pride in keeping clean was now in tatters and covered in grime. NT4201 also now walked with a limp, and every step she took looked labored and forced.
"Kouhai-chan!" AE3803 shouted back as she dashed right toward her. "You're... You're alive!"
Before NT4201 could react, the redhead erythrocyte hugged her with her free left arm while simultaneously carrying Platelet-chan with the other, locking all three individuals into a tight embrace. The little thrombocyte shrugged when AE3803 glomped at her kouhai, but other than that, she remained asleep.
"It's so good to see you again, Kouhai-chan!" the redhead pressed her cheeks with her junior as she started rubbing them. A fresh batch of tears started flowing from her eyes. "I thought I'd never see you again!"
NT4201 didn't respond. She just continued looking down while allowing her senpai to hug her tightly with her free arm.
"It's so terrible, Kouhai-chan!" AE3803 continued without waiting for her junior to respond. "First, I was walking near the liver when I found Platelet-chan crying. I approached her to comfort her but then I bumped into WBC-san who was in a hurry to go to the liver due to a commotion, and the next thing I know, the macrophages became evil and one of them who wore glasses threw Platelet-chan to the abyss! Oh, Kouhai-chan, it's so terrible!"
The black-haired junior let out a groan before mumbling something under her mouth.
"Don't... ch... me..."
"Hmm?" AE3803 tilted her head to her side in a quizzing look. "Did you say something, Kouhai-chan?"
"I said DON'T TOUCH ME!" NT4201 roared, pushing her redhead senior away from her.
AE3803 almost lost her balance from the sudden shove. She staggered for a couple of steps before balancing her weight out. Surprisingly, Platelet-chan continued to sleep and unaffected on her arms.
"Kouhai-chan?" AE3803 asked, her brows furrowed with confusion. "Is everything alri-wait... Are you bleeding?!"
Her instincts for preservation started to kick in, begging her to put as much distance between herself and her junior, but then she got a closer inspection at her face, and she almost let out a yelp.
NT4201's face had changed so much that AE3803 almost didn't recognize her. Her junior's membrane had turned deathly pale, and streams of crimson hemoglobin bled out from her forehead and temples. What's more, her eyes... Her eyes were hued in sickly green like the eyes of that evil glasses-wearing macrophage.
"Oh, Consciousness you're bleeding Kouhai-chan! Wait, let me hel-"
"Why Senpai?" NT4201 interrupted her.
AE3803 seemed to have not heard her question since she proceeded once again to approach her.
"I said WHY SENPAI?!" The black-haired erythrocyte suddenly took out a dagger from her pouch bag strapped to the back of her belt.
This time, AE3803 stopped in her tracks, her eyes wide with surprise at her kouhai's sudden hostility and the dagger in her hand.
"WHY DID YOU NOT NOTICE ME SENPAI?!" NT4201 shrieked. Tears the color of the night ran down her eyes, mixing up with the red hemoglobin dripping from her forehead. "I... I called up to you... I cried out your name but... But..."
AE3803 opened up her mouth to reply, but no words dared to come out of her lips.
The black-haired erythrocyte's contorted in pain for a couple of seconds before pointing her dagger at the little thrombocyte. Instinctively, AE3803 tightened her grip on Platelet-chan.
"But you chose her over me..." NT4201 snarled, every syllable she uttered dripped with venomous accusation. "You chose a disposable platelet over me!"
AE3803 placed a hand on the back of Platelet-chan's head, drawing her even closer to her.
"What are you saying, Kouhai-chan?" AE3803 responded, her voice cracking from the sobs she tried to withhold. "Please... Let me help you... Let your senpai he-"
"NO!" NT4201 roared, her pale face turning red with anger. "There's nothing you can do now senpai, you abandoned me when I needed you the most! You left me to be defiled and deformed by the enemy!"
As if to prove a point, she pointed her dagger toward her cap which was not really a cap, AE3803 now realized, but a grotesque pulsating blob like the ones worn by cells infected with a virus.
"Kouhai-chan... Is that... " the redhead erythrocyte stared at the thing leeching off at her junior's head. "Are you infected with a virus?"
NT4201 stared back at her senpai for a couple of seconds before barking out a humorless laugh. "Now you noticed me!"
"But that's impossible!" AE3803 continued. "We're red blood cells! We don't have any nucleus inside our bodies!"
"And yet I am!" the black-haired kouhai shot back. Her voice breaking into fits of sadness and hysteria. "And yet you didn't choose me... Instead, you chose her!"
"I... I didn't mean to abandon you or anything Kouhai-chan," AE3803 quivered as she tried to defend herself. "And I'm sorry if I did, but I didn't notice you at all!"
"I called out to you... I yelled out to you... I SCREAMED OUT TO YOU!" NT4201 was now sobbing, her eyes becoming filthy with black ichor that had become her tears. "You were supposed to be my senpai, you're supposed to look after me even though you're clumsy and bad with directions! You were my senpai who I've come to respect and love!"
Then, NT4201 narrowed her eyes as she stared directly toward her redhead senpai full of sadness and contempt.
"I loved you, senpai... " she muttered, almost a whisper. "And you just left me to die."
AE3803's jaw fell, still unable to believe what her kouhai was saying. NT4201's accusation cut even deeper than any cut to her physical self. She wanted to reason out... She wanted to tell her junior that she was wrong and that she'd never abandoned her under any circumstances.
But how could she convince her kouhai of her side when in her arms was Platelet-Chan, safe and loved, and was standing in front of her, infected and mangled almost beyond recognition?
"I'm... " AE3803 started.
Then she dropped down to her knees, bowing her head in contrition. "I'm sorry, Kouhai-chan... I'm sorry that I was not there for you and I'm sorry that I failed you as your sen-"
"SHUT UP!" NT4201 shrieked once again, black bile spitting out from her mouth. "Shut up... Shut up... SHUT UP!"
The mad erythrocyte bowed her head low, fingers clawing at the abomination on top of her head, as she continued to scream.
"Hnnggghhh... Senpai... It... It hurts!"
"Kouhai-chan! I beg you! Please let me help you!"
"No... I'm n-not..." then, NT4201 arched backward so that her gaze was now locked upwards as if goading fate to strike her down.
"I'm not a slave!" She shrieked. "You don't control me!"
AE3803 watched helplessly as her mad kouhai continued with her incoherent ramblings. She looked like she was trying to resist something or someone, but there was no one else here besides them.
"Onee-chan?"
Platelet-chan's voice broke AE3803 from her stupor. She shifted her gaze toward little thrombocyte she carried and saw fear and confusion in her eyes.
"What's going on?"
"Oh? Is the little one already awake?" NT4201 interjected before her redhead senpai could respond. "Is the one who stole my senpai from me already awake?"
"Kouhai-chan please!" AE3803 immediately went back to her feet as she turned her back on her kouhai so as to shield Platelet-chan with her body. "If you must hate, then hate me instead! Platelet-chan is innocent! Do not hate her, please!"
"She turned you away from me!" NT4201 snarled. "She pretended to be helpless to take advantage of your kindness senpai!"
"That's not true!" AE3803 shouted back, this time more forceful and with conviction. She could understand why her kouhai would hate her... In fact, she felt incredibly guilty that she failed at being a role model senpai to her black-haired kouhai, and she would accept any hatred or punishment for such a failure. However, she couldn't just allow anyone to accuse the little thrombocyte of a crime she'd never committed. "Platelet-chan just lost her friends, and I tried to help her find them when the evil macrophages attack! I was the one who failed to find you when you needed my help so please blame me, not her!"
For a long moment, NT4201 didn't reply.
AE3803 shut her eyes as she tightened her hold on the little thrombocyte. Platelet-chan, for her part, had now taken back much of her wits to realize what was happening, but she kept silent and extremely still.
Then, NT4201 let out a chuckle.
At first, it was not louder than mutter then it became a snicker, then a peal of rumbling laughter until finally, a maniacal cackle no erythrocyte throat should even have the capability to utter.
"You are right senpai..." NT4201 said in between cackles. "She's indeed innocent... So innocent in fact that she has no place in this world already damned to burn in ashes!"
AE3803's eyes widened with horror. She swiftly turned her head to face her kouhai and immediately saw her lunging right at her with her dagger solely aimed at her back.
Instincts quickly took hold of her so as she could flee, but alas everything was already too late.
For just a fraction of a second, AE3803's world slowed down into a crawl. This was it. She and her ward would die here on the arms of a kouhai she'd abandoned.
In the end, she would die as a failure... In the end, she would be unable to protect her ward.
She closed her eyes and waited for the strike.
...
...
...
But her kouhai's strike never hit her.
She heard a loud scream and then a sharp clang of two weapons colliding.
Finally, she mustered all her courage to open her eyes.
That was when she saw her deliverer wrapped in the ashen color of white.
"YOU!" growled NT4201.
Her lips had curled into a snarl as she continued to press her rusted weapon against her opponent's own dagger.
"DO NOT STOP ME NEUTROPHIL!"
U1146 just stared right into the sickly eyes of the infected erythrocyte before he made his counterattack.
-----
A/N:
Originally Posted on November 14, 2020