Pathology

"Yo, the bandages on your eyes are off?" That familiar female voice came from the end of the hallway. Hesta turned her head and saw a tall young woman.

This was the first time Hesta had seen Chiba Masaki after removing the bandages from her eyes.

She wore men's khaki overalls over a simple gray-white cotton shirt, seemingly layered over a thin black turtleneck sweater. Chiba wore rimless glasses with shallow yellow, pentagonal lenses, behind which her gray eyes looked sharp and imposing.

Her black hair was tied up in a high, short ponytail. She had a slate-gray coat draped over her arm and wore black boots.

This was twenty-year-old Chiba Masaki.

Hesta stood up. "Miss Chiba?"

"It's our first 'meeting,' nice to meet you." Chiba extended her hand to Hesta. Hesta shook it lightly, feeling that Chiba's hand had a very peculiar texture.

"Let's go, I'll show you the convent." Chiba jiggled the car keys in her hand. "It just so happens I picked up a new car today."

Chiba's new car was a wine-red, old-fashioned hatchback. She had modified the car's dashboard, loving the design of brass levers. The controls for the windows, air conditioning, and radio had all been replaced with levers.

There was a smell of tobacco in the car. In the gap between the window and the dashboard, Hesta saw a half-smoked pack of women's cigarettes.

"You smoke?"

"Do you mind?" Chiba started the car. "I can not smoke in front of you."

"It's fine."

They didn't speak again on the way. It wasn't until they were nearing the borders of Severn Mountain that a group of people in white protective suits stopped them.

These people wore badges from the District 3 security team and had set up a roadblock on the main road. Chiba presented her identification, and only then did they let them pass.

"Has it already been closed off?" Hesta asked.

"Yes. There haven't been any new cases of Chelation Disease in the habitable zones of District 3 for almost ten years. The authorities are taking this very seriously," Chiba replied. "From now on, this whole area around Severn Mountain will likely be designated as a new quarantine zone, with entry and exit prohibited unless absolutely necessary."

Hesta gazed out the car window at the scenery, which gradually shifted from unfamiliar to familiar. Hesta felt a prickling sensation in her eyes. The car was taking her to the place where she had lived for over three years—a place destined to fall into desolation.

"We're here."

The car stopped near the mountaintop. Chiba and Hesta got out together.

From a distance, Hesta could see the black, burnt stone roof of the church.

They walked side by side, and Chiba initiated the conversation. "The over twenty children from the convent have been sent to the public nursery; they'll be taken care of."

Hesta heard her but didn't respond.

She walked along the stone corridor, through the collapsed church, and towards the direction of the solitary confinement room—the two-story old house was completely black but still maintained its basic structure.

Returning to the solitary confinement room, the wooden door had long since turned to ash in the fire. After only a month, green grass had already grown in the cracks of the walls.

Hesta stepped over the stone threshold and saw three or four strangely shaped iron cages in front of her—their steel bars had melted in the fire.

Hesta walked silently to the iron cage where Boheng had been held. She knelt on the ground and reached under the cage.

Amidst the ashes, she touched the asbestos cloth that had wrapped Boheng's scrapbook. Its surface was damp from the past few days' rain.

In an instant, Hesta's limbs felt stiff—if Boheng had escaped on his own, there was no reason for him not to have taken this book with him.

"What is th—" Chiba started to ask, but then saw a few tears continuously falling onto the asbestos cloth. Hesta's back was still to her, and she hadn't turned around.

The girl opened the asbestos cloth. The scrapbook inside was still in its original shape, but the entire book had carbonized. Both the news clippings from District 14 that Boheng had meticulously cut out and the handwriting he had left inside were now illegible.

Chiba didn't ask any more questions. "...I'm going down to have a smoke."

"Wait, Miss Chiba," Hesta turned around, her eyes red. "Do you know the reason? About... this infection..."

"The detailed report isn't out yet; it'll be out next week." Chiba frowned slightly. "But I have a guess, would you like to hear it?"

"Yes."

"We've detected some chelating fungus spores in the jungles of Severn Mountain. Although the concentration is very low and won't cause illness if inhaled... it at least indicates that beings that chelate were active in this area before Director Elma got sick. Does your director have a lot of contact with wild animals?"

Hesta froze for a moment. She lowered her head and answered after a long pause, "Sometimes there are injured animals... like baby birds. If the director encountered them... she would take care of them."

"It wouldn't be birds; Chelation Disease only occurs in mammals," Chiba said. "I'm guessing it was something like squirrels or rats—there are quite a few around here."

Hesta looked at Chiba. "If Director Elma contracted Chelation Disease, she would have felt something herself... right?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"I don't understand..." Hesta murmured. "Then why... why didn't she say anything?"

"Ha," Chiba raised her hand and scratched her head. "This isn't something that can be explained in a few words..."

The words Hesta heard made her feel a sense of overlapping destiny.

She was quiet for a moment. "Then, Miss Chiba, would you be willing to talk to me in detail?"

"Well... of course." Chiba pointed outside the door. "But let's talk in the car; it looks like it's going to rain again."

"Okay."

From Chiba, Hesta learned the origin and development of Chelation Disease for the first time.

This terrible infectious disease originated from a fungus that grows in deep-sea regions—the Many-toothed Coordination Fungus. Its variant that grows on land is the chelating fungus.

The deep-sea Many-toothed Coordination Fungus resembles a jellyfish and usually stays dormant in waters below 200 meters, only surfacing to shallow waters during its breeding season.

The mycelium of the Many-toothed Coordination Fungus typically does not exceed 5 millimeters. Its body is 99.3% water. It was originally just an unremarkable fungus among the many fungal organisms on the seabed. However, in the dark, high-pressure deep-sea world, it began a long endosymbiosis with certain dinoflagellate organisms, eventually evolving a type of parasitic zoospore.

These zoospores cannot survive independently of the Many-toothed Coordination Fungus. Their survival and reproduction are entirely dependent on these small, gravel-like fungi.

Through the zoospores, these deep-sea fungi suddenly became ferocious. Gradually, the Many-toothed Coordination Fungus began to manipulate mammals that were hundreds or thousands of times larger than them. Once infected, marine mammals' bodies completely became breeding grounds for the Many-toothed Coordination Fungus. During this time, the animals would actively approach their own kind and release pathogenic spores to them. By the time the animals' insides were completely consumed, their remains would swell up like balloons and explode, sending the Many-toothed Coordination Fungus to further waters one last time.

For a long time, this was merely a problem that troubled some marine scientists and animal protection organizations, until the year 4412. Near the Cook Islands in the Longtail Ocean, the first case of infection among human fishermen appeared.

Initially, the patient experienced persistent low mood, lethargy, lack of motivation, social avoidance, and severe insomnia—all typical symptoms of depression. So, after seeking medical attention, the patient was quickly diagnosed with depression and began medication, but it had no effect.

These symptoms lasted for about a month, and then the patient's mood suddenly returned to normal. Not only that, but he started to become outgoing and lively. However, people soon discovered the abnormality—his wife and child were the first victims. The patient split open his loved ones' skulls with an axe and hid their bodies in the closet.

As if possessed by a demon, he began to extend his claws to his neighbors and was discovered in the act while trying to forcibly abduct a neighbor's child.

After being exposed, the patient was captured and tied up by angry residents. They removed his gloves and discovered that the patient's arms from the elbow down had become as thick as thighs and had turned a terrifying bright red. Simultaneously, his index, middle, ring, and pinky fingers had fused together, allowing him only simple gripping actions with the help of his thumb—a sight resembling the claws of a lobster.

"Chelated Being Sickness" thus got its name.