No. 6

CHAPTER 5 - The City of Light

After their meal, Nezumi placed a petri dish and a pair of tweezers in front of Shion.

"I extracted this out of your incision. Try opening it up. This is probably right in your field."

"My field?"

In the petri dish was something black and stringy, about two centimetres long. Shion plucked it up with the tweezers. The slimy black object dangled from them, and looked half-melted. Upon closer scrutiny, Shion could make out evidence of something filmy at the end of it.

"These are― wings?"

"Looks like. I have no idea. There's one other thing I pulled out too," Nezumi added. "What do you have to say about this?"

It was another black lump. This one was hard, and resembled a seed. There was a hole in it as if something had eaten its way out.

"A pupa― I think," said Shion slowly.

"Pupa? Like what moths and butterflies make themselves into? Oh wait, butterflies make cocoons."

"Cocoons are the outer shell of pupae," Shion explained. "Embryo, larva, pupa, and imago― most insects go through their development stages in this order. This one... is probably some kind of bee."

"You can tell?"

"There are signs of wings beginning to form. The membranous qualities, the fact that there are four of them... and more than anything―" Shion swallowed. "I saw it with my own eyes― a black bee flying out of Yamase-san's neck."

"And that bee and this black thing are the same thing?"

"If I'm not mistaken, probably. This one couldn't complete its metamorphosis in the pupal stage. It managed to eat its way out of the shell, but it couldn't become a fully grown imago. It failed."

"Why?"

Why? He was right, why was that? Why was same bee that had hatched, undergone metamorphosis and become an imago inside Yamase unable to break out of its pupal stage here? Was it a coincidence, or― Shion shook his head.

"I don't know. All I know is that this is a parasitic organism, and it feeds off humans."

Nezumi stared unblinkingly at the petri dish.

"A parasite bee..." he muttered. "I thought bees only fed off flower nectar."

"Those are just one species of bee, like the honey bee. Most bees ― or wasp, in this case ― are hunters, and solitary by nature."

"And there are parasitic wasps too?"

Shion nodded. Nezumi's questions were simple and brief, and were easy to answer from Shion's knowledge. But none of the questions were off the mark. They tread lightly but accurately on the point of focus. With each question he answered, Shion felt a growing uneasiness like he was being backed into a corner. He felt like he would unwittingly slip and let something horrific escape from his lips. But you can't be afraid, he told himself. He couldn't turn a blind eye and let things slip past him. He couldn't pretend that nothing had happened, and refuse to enquire, to take action. He stood in the position of one who had experienced it. He had been host to the parasite, fought with it, and prevailed. And like a symbol of this battle, he bore the red serpent on his body. Yes, this was his imprint. Nezumi's face was peering into his. Shion returned his gaze steadily, and spoke.

"There are said to be about 200,000 different species of parasitic wasps. Hymenoptera such as bees and ants are highly specialized insects, and there are still tens of thousands of species that are undocumented. This is particularly so for parasitic wasps― or so I've heard."