"Never again!" Shinso burst into his apartment room and collapsed onto his bed, clutching the sheets tightly, which whitened his knuckles. When he had returned to the Parterre de Fleurs later than the others, it was well into the wee hours of the night. The crimson moon shone through the linen curtains, casting an eerie glow onto the entire room.
Above his head, he heard the gushing of pipes as they circulated water throughout the entire building. Suddenly, the bathroom door opened behind him. I slowly walked out, clad in nothing but a towel wrapped around my waist.
"All of my outfits are dirty, and I think my coat and stuff are back at Madame Fitzgerald's," I groaned, collapsing onto my bed on the other end of the room.
"I just got back from collecting creepy-ass bugs with the captain of the Pollinators," Shinso's voice carried a slightly whiny edge as he grumbled, burying his head into his hands.
"Bugs?" I cocked an eyebrow, leaning up in my bed.
"Y-yeah, these Demon Maggots we found within the cocoons in the basement of her house. You and Oboro were inside them, so we had to collect them to check for human DNA."
"Why would they need my DNA?" I leaned up even more, my body stiffening slightly.
"Probably checking you for diseases or something," Shinso collapsed back onto the bed, letting out a heavy sigh.
Upon hearing his claim, I felt my blood run cold. The amount of time I had been within the Tremebrus sac was beyond my current perception. If it were long enough, perhaps I had contracted some sort of malignant disease.
"Did the Captain give you any information about the disease?" I asked, my voice rising in pitch. I felt the air gradually leave my lungs, and a feeling of lightheadedness rushed over me like a tidal wave. This caused me to fall back into my bed, staring up at the ceiling.
"I'm supposed to stop by the cathedral tomorrow to gain new information. If you have contracted the disease, you'll most likely be rushed to the hospital."
At that moment, there was a firm knock on our apartment door. Shinso's half-lidded gaze drifted to the source. His legs quivered slightly as he stood up, slowly walking over to the door and opening it.
Standing at the door was a man a little taller than Shinso, with long blonde hair that cascaded past his shoulders, a prominent jawline, and pupils reminiscent of deep pools of water. It was Captain Moffin! In his left hands, he carried the outfit I had dawned before Florence changed me, and in his right he carried a small wooden box.
"I assume this belongs to your friend," When Captain Moffin tossed Shinso my outfit, a purifying smell gushed into the air. The outfit's fabric had darkened slightly, and it dripped onto the floor.
"It's still wet, we washed the Tremebrus essence off of it earlier," He explained, his voice carrying a no-nonsense solemnity.
"Is that why you stopped by?" Shinso turned to face the captain and asked a question.
He shook his head as he stepped into the apartment room. The floorboards creaked underneath his heavy, polished black boots. This time, his outfit was more resembling a commoner rather than a member of an organization.
Captain Moffin removed his cap from his head and stowed it away into his double breasted coat. "You were among the ones found within the Tremebrus sac's, yes?"
The moment his dark eyes focused on my form, I felt my body tense up. In this strange daze, I nodded my head in confirmation.
"Is he scared?" The Captain took notice of my reluctant body language and whispered to Shinso.
"I don't know; he's always acted this way around figures of authority."
Just then, Captain Moffin's expression gradually shifted, taking on a more genial and calm demeanor. "No need to be frightened; I don't intend to harm you."
He took a step forward, slowly extruding his arm in my direction. "We have a few things to discuss."
Shinso, who had been watching the entire interaction, stepped between the two of us. "Look at him, he's tired as hell."
He pointed to the dark circles around my eyes, which were bloodshot around the edges. My skin had turned pale, which was detrimental due to the fact that I was clad in nothing but a towel at the moment.
Within my surroundings, the walls and floors appeared hazy, and the two figures before me gradually turned blurry and inscrutable, as if my eyes were cameras losing focus. The corners of my vision darkened, illusory black cracks slithering down to the middle. Just then, I fell back in my bed, succumbing to a brutal slumber.
Seeing this, Captain Moffin sighed softly, stepping back towards the doorway. "While this interaction was pivotal, I believe rest is the best option."
"Pivotal?" Shinso walked to the doorway, leaning back against the frame as he looked the captain up and down.
"Makes it sound like it's serious. Are you sure you can't just ask me questions?"
The captain adjusted the notched lapels of his coat and held up the box and opened the lid. Inside the box was a bottle of transparent fluid. "This is a sample of the Tremebrus sac fluid. If it does contain his DNA, he'll show tell-tale signs after he ingests it."
"You want him to drink this stuff?" Shinso snatched the bottle from the captain, his grip vice-like as he bored into his eyes.
The indigo-haired boy's voice lowered to an almost protective whisper. "Do you know what'll happen if it's not his DNA? Are you sure there aren't other ways to test this fluid?"
The flurry of questions in his direction were like a heat that caused the captain to sweat. He raised his arms, wiping away the accumulated moisture with the cuff of his coat.
"In a world with hidden existences and dangers, sometimes, you must throw caution to the wind to protect yourself and others," He snatched the bottle from Shinso's hand, before slamming the boy's wrist against the doorframe with an iron grip.
The boy tried in vain to escape, but he failed to do so as he was handcuffed to the hinges.
"What the hell!" Shinso growled, his vision turning a blistering red as he saw the captain walking over to my unconscious body. His wrists habitually tugged and pulled against the cuffs, and his legs planted into the wall.
The closer he got to my body, the more his movements grew in insistence. He watched helplessly as the captain unscrewed the bottle, pouring a small amount of the liquid into my mouth. The liquid grew hazy and unfocused on my tongue, gradually morphing and changing as if undergoing some spontaneous change.
Shinso watched as the transparent liquid diffused into the form of numerous small maggots resembling the ones under the floorboards. They settled on my tongue for a few brief moments before gradually turning transparent and crawling down my throat. At that moment, my body began to twist and writhe slightly on the bed.
Across my body, numerous blisters began to sprout on my skin like a fungus, and an immense rush of heat poured across my unconscious form. My eyes shot open, rolling back and showing the whites. My tongue lolled out of my mouth as more pores sprouted on the spongy skin. The sickly pale color of my skin gradually darkened, turning an almost abysmal gray color.
Shinso watched in horror, sweat beaming down his forehead as he continued to pull against the handcuffs. At that moment, his vision turned a hazy orange, and something in his pocket buzzed. When he looked down, he spotted the pocket watch which had manifested earlier that night.
The corners of his vision darkened, but he didn't experience any signs of fatigue or a worsening condition. The watch continued to buzz, the sensation intensifying the longer it happened. When Shinso looked back to the scene in a panic, he noticed all the colours had become more saturated than usual.
Strangely, there were some peculiar changes. Both of the forms in front of him were outlined with a mysterious aura. The aura around the captain was a mixture of purple and black. The aura was rippling and pulsing, the illusory, complex sight of bugs crawling beneath the skin of the captain's aura sent shivers down his spine.
My aura was tainted with a mixture of red and black, though, the sensation of the bugs wasn't as heavy. When he looked back at the captain, Shinso was suddenly overcome with a sensation of nausea. The man's spiritual aura had begun to dissipate, edges of green gradually creeping towards the center of the man's body—his heart.
At that moment, his material body began to twitch slightly. The moment he noticed that, the green aura exploded with illusory maggots. The tiny bugs slithered up into the man's eyes, nose, mouth, or any other passage of entry they could find.
Shinso struggled more against the cuffs, his fists clenching enough to leave tiny crescents in his palms. The twitching of the captain's body continued, then he suddenly dropped to his knees. The blonde-haired man let out a yell as he clutched his hair with his hands, pulling away at the strands.
At the same time, my form had also undergone a few changes. The color shifting of my skin had ceased, but the blisters littered across my body receded as if they never existed to begin with. Shinso watched as the maggots crawled out of my body, making their way towards the writhing captain on the floor. The moment the two entities connected, his eyes shot open as he stood up with inhuman speed.
His hands ripped out a good portion of his golden locks, the tufts gently drifting to the floor. The captain's eyes drifted in Shinso's direction, the pupils focused and mad on the indigo-haired boy. His knuckles clenched so hard they turned a ghastly white. At that moment, his body suddenly collapsed inwards on itself.
His back began to twitch and ripple as a pair of bug-like wings emerged, causing a torrent of blood to sprout alongside the winds, splattering against the walls. His eyes bulged to an inhuman capacity, before exploding into black orbs resembling a bug's eyes. His hands curled inwards, new tendons and limbs shooting out of his sides and extending outwards.
His mouth disappeared, and a pair of malicious fangs and pedipalps tore through the skin. The newly transformed captain let out a deafening sound resembling a roar.
In Shinso's vision, the spiritual aura had diffused into a rotting green color with an abhorrent amount of spiritual maggots crawling all over it. At that moment, a revelation shot through him like an icy chill.
He's been infected by the Demon Maggot Disease!
The watch in Shinso's pocket buzzed insistantly, as if wanting him to take action. Shinso, still unable to move, watched in horror as the newly transformed captain clicked its fangs together, the sickening sound of the captains squishing and clicking echoing throughout the room.
He was taken aback with terror the moment the captain lunged at Shinso, extending its six bug-like appendages in his direction.
Wasn't Captain Moffin a seeker of the Vitality Pathway? Did he verify himself that he wouldn't succumb to corruption and risk a dangerous outcome from touching the Demon Maggots in the cellar? Without much time to answer those questions or make a reasonable guess, Shinso extended his loose foot and kicked him in the chest, sending him backwards.
When he collided with the wall and fell slack, his body began to twitch and move involuntarily. Suddenly, he looked up and let out another shriek, before turning his head towards the closed doors of the apartment balcony. With a quick burst of motion, the captain thrusted forward, the wings on his back extending as he broke open the doors and flew out into the snowy weather.
After a short while of locomotion, the captain's movements grew slow and sluggish. The wings on his back, along with the arms on his sides, gradually froze over with an icy sheet. Shinso finally slid himself free and darted over to the balcony, peering out at the figure in the air.
The captain then dropped downwards with a lifeless grace, his bug-like head slicing into a metal fence post, causing a fountain of blood to gush upwards into the air. He let out wanton shrieks and screams at the excruciating pain, before finally falling limp and silent.