"Hey."
"Hm?"
"Had a spacey look there. Already regret coming here?" Asked one of the researchers I was about to pass by.
"No. Just had a nostalgic dream." I yawned out before taking a sip of my coffee. Although, I said that, the contents of said dream have already left me.
"You'll be shadowing Kimura, right?" Another researcher popped up.
"Yeah. I'm looking forward to learning whatever."
"Heh. Good attitude." The first one laughed. "Starry-eyed types never last long with Kimura."
"Wanna bet if he last longer than Meru?" The second one ribbed the first.
"Oh yeah? I bet-"
I let the two adults alone and walked away. Their discussion didn't really sound that important anyway, and from context clues, I'm guessing that Kimura-sensei is a strict person so there's all the more reason to keep going on my way.
The kindness she's shown me so far might just be a newbie thing and Sensei is the type to take her role seriously so I have to watch myself and not screw up.
I knocked on her office door and waited for her permission to enter.
Kimura-sensei stood up from her desk while holding a clipboard with one hand. "For the most part, you'll be shadowing me and assisting in my work."
"Understood."
"Good. Follow me." She strode briskly, making me widen my gait a bit to keep up. "First thing on the list, we'll take stock of the inventory, see if anything needs to be replenished or replaced. Having expired resources lying around is both irresponsible and a potential accident in the making."
"Of course."
When we got to the storage, there were already a handful of other people there who are also looking over everything.
The storage is very large, accomodating all the numerous supplies that are needed in the facility and are categorised and separated. While the others headed off to check food and daily necessities, me and Kimura-sensei looked over medical supplies.
The two of us spent about two hours into there and found no discrepancies or any missing items. The only reason it didn't take longer than that is because of how well organized it already was. If it wasn't then we would have had to stay for another hour.
Once that was done, Kimura-sensei began leading me to another area of the institute, one that I don't recognise.
"I didn't show you the next place during your tour yesterday. For a good reason." She said, her gaze forward. "I wanted you to have a good night's rest with a peace of mind so I skipped it over."
"I see." Not like that happened anyway. My investigation at the shrine didn't give me a good night's rest or a peace of mind.
"The next place is were we keep live specimens. Culture plates, sample vials... The infected."
"I see."
Briefly, she turned her gaze to see meet my eyes staring at hers. My tone suggested nonchalance and my eyes spoke of no deceit. A flicker of emotion flashed through her gaze before it settle forwards again.
She didn't berate me saying that I wasn't taking this seriously not did she ask about why my attitude was like this.
She didn't need to.
"...Interns don't normally have the right to enter, but your credentials and referrals were willing to vouch for you. Don't betray that trust."
"I won't."
We approached a door with two pairs of armed personnel standing guard at the sides. Kimura-sensei didn't so much as give them a nod but one of them slightly shivered as she accidentally brushed her hand against his arm when she scanned her ID card.
The door cracked open with a loud hiss as we then entered the preliminary cleansing chamber. The cleaning chemical dousing us head to toe in a thick mist before clearing up and another door opened that let us inside a changing room.
We didn't remove anything. Or rather, other than the shoes, we added more layers of protective clothing on top of the regular clothes we already have one. A quick hydration and relief in the bathroom later, we put on our protective gear.
Three masks, two eyewear, three headwear, two tops and bottoms, and finally, the fullbody overalls that's zipped tight and additional boots.
It might seem excessive at first glance, but even with these in place, it isn't enough.
Listening to Kimura-sensei, this institution also has contingencies and backups in place in the event of a breakout. "Worst comes to worst-" she proclaimed. "-We detonate the entire place. Most viruses don't survive high heat and pressure after all." She jokes. "Most viruses."
When I asked this place really houses such dangerous illness and she confirmed it.
"What, is it like a zombie virus or something?"
"No, that's in another facility." She shrugged. "In any case, you'll be seeing them next. I'll explain then in order before we handle some of the sample vials."
"Wait- go back, there's a zombie virus?" I had to raise my voice a bit due to the masks muffling the sound, but I managed to convey my confusion to Kimura-sensei.
"Yes, there is." She nodded. Unfortunately, I don't know what expression she's wearing as her features are completely covered up as well. "It is a virus made from a quirk. Originally, there was plenty of concerned individuals when the child first manifested their ability. However, after determining that the effects of their quirk only lasted for a few hours, the child was deemed mostly safe enough to be in a regular environment. Under supervision of course." She shrugged nonchalantly as if she didn't just spoke of a terrible fate. "In any case, someone figured that it would be a good idea to look into how that child quirk affects living tissue and raised an vote to study the phenomenon. You know, to understand and counter a possible world-ending disease and definitely not because some general thought it'd be a good idea to weaponize it."
"I... See?" That sounded like a big wallop of not-my-problem. And if it was, an actual Hero can go and save the day.
Walking through the labyrinthine layout of the institute, there was a noticeable difference here compared to the before.
Out there still had the warmth of life and was bustling with activity, researchers a d goons carrying stacks of reports and rushing off to meetings. Here however, was something you'd expect from a place like this; cold, cynical, oppressive.
The importance of taking this place seriously cannot be understated as even a small mistake can lead to Catastrophic consequences.
The steady rhythm of echoing footsteps halted as Kimura-sensei paused in front of a window, peering down inside the room. I stood next to her and looked inside with the occupants not reacting to our appearance.
The area was designed similar to a humanitarian prison, closer to a dormitory with very strict curfew. It was even complete with a small indoor yard and miniature gardens with the people inside intermingling.
Actually, there doesn't seem to be any outward discrepancy with their appearance.
"This is the tamest virus we have on site." Began Kimura-sensei. "The TS-Virus spreads through the exchange of mucus with the patient gradually changing under its effects within less than six-hours. No cure. However, it does fade away after a week so we have three sets of volunteers take shifts in order to study the specimens."
"TS... You meant their sexes are flipped?" I asked incredulously.
"That's right." She began walking away again. "On to the next one."
"And I thought quirks are weird enough..." I mutter under my breath.
Kimura-sensei paused by another window as I stood next to her. This next area looked more like a capsule hotel and a morgue put together, with the patient put inside and drawn out like corpses.
"Before you run off to file a complaint, this is all consensual." She clarified indifferently, as if someone else did run to file a complaint before. "Metamorphic Chrysalis Syndrome- a disease were the infected begins producing a new kind of silk from their pores and enveloping themselves within."
Kimura-sensei pointed to one of the patients who was drawn out of their hole in the wall and cut free. Their mouth was pried open before a nutrition tube was inserted by a researcher who was covered with a faint layer of silk.
"Patients would first exhibit slower neural relapses and a significant drop in motor functions before they produce any threads that latch onto any surface. Then, the patient's body would consume resources in order to produce more silk. Thankfully, the disease only spreads through individuals with quirks related to the arthropod genus, keeping the overall fatality rates on the lower side. Unfortunately, however, the patient can and will die of malnutrition as well as a significant risk of fire accidents as the silk was tested to be flammable as regularly-sourced silk."
"...Sounds terrible. And the progress for the cure?"
"Not much." She shook her head flatly. "The best result so far was lowering the silk output, but that was only because they modified the diet to include less protein. The end result lead to the body slipping into malnutrition anyway as it defaulted to cannibalizing the muscles."
Kimura-sensei began to walk again, and unspoken phrase of 'On to the next one.' with the only difference this time was that she slowed down a small fraction.
"The next disease is the worst one by far." She began, voice monotone. "Boasting fatality rates of over eighty-nine percent, It is also the disease with the lowest contraction rate, thankfully."
Kimura-sensei stood Infront another window and peered down. The area inside is something straight out of sci-fi, less than a dozen giant tubes filled with an unconscious person inside.
Each tube is filled with a mysterious liquid along with small transparent tubes that are inserted to the patients body. It appears that the liquid is constantly flowing and swirling in a deliberate manner courtesy two researchers stationed for each tube's control panel.
"An average adult has anywhere between two-hundred-and-six to two-hundred-and-thirteen bones inside their body and this is disease that affects the musculoskeletal system. Meaning that it not only affects the bones but also joints, ligaments, tendons and cartilage- essentially the entire framework." She sighed in frustration. "The disease originated from a transplant using illegally acquired bone marrow. We suspect that it came about due to a particularly resilient quirk that survived postmortem and became what it is today due to an unknown mutation we still haven't found."
"If the disease spreads from bone marrow, how are there so many patients?"
"Improper handling likely caused a cross contamination with other marrow, which was then transplanted to the victims. There used to be almost fifty subjects, the one's you see here are the last ones, hopefully, as the source of the original was raided and shut down." A harsh sounded alarm cut through her words. Down below, one of the tubes went from green to red and the pair of researchers shook their heads. "The first phase is similar to cancer- bones turning brittle and full of tiny holes like a common sponge. Second phase is when the marrow turns into a soft jelly-like substance and exhibit similar traits to slime mold. The new marrow breaks down the calcium and minerals that make up the musculoskeletal system in order to grow. However, once the resources have run out, the new marrow simply dies off in short order without leaving a trace. It was also the last point that made studying this disease difficult as collecting any sample becomes a Sisyphean task in and of itself."
"That sounds... Horrifying." Without the supporting liquids holding everything together, they'd be no different than slabs of meat at the butcher's chopping board.
Forget tearing a muscle, twisting their spinal cord is more than sufficient to cause unimaginable pain.
"Horrifying indeed." Kimura-sensei muttered before addressing me. "During your tenure here, you'll be assisting in the study of the diseases here. You can choose not to, of course, but you'll have to revoke the right to enter this area."
"I'm good." I denied with a shrug. "I'd be fun trying to unravel a mystery, half-expected it when I signed the NDA's."
"Good. Let's start you off with something easy." She began walking to where we came from. "Back to the TS-Virus."