Attack Of Parasites

The mother placed her right hand on the wall, her left pupil moving up and down in a way no normal human could manage.

"What's going on here? Why have you taken control of his hand?" she asked, addressing Megi.

"One of the parasites has taken over your mother's brain," Megi replied, speaking to Izumi.

Izumi raised the knife and pointed it at Megi, ignoring what he had said. He turned to his mother, trembling as he spoke. "What? My right hand? I should have told you about it earlier, but... I thought it would scare you too much. I was afraid you'd see your son as a killer and a partner in the crimes of the torn flesh."

"Izumi, what are you doing? She's not..." Megi warned, turning toward Izumi.

"Shut up!" Izumi yelled, not letting him finish.

"Then that man must be dead. I don't know; I need to go back and check for myself," the mother said.

"Izumi, your knife is blocking my way. Put it down before it's too late," Megi said, realizing the danger if the mother attacked.

"Mom, it's not normal for me to have a talking right hand, is it?" Izumi said, hoping for some interaction from her, just like before.

Megi watched Izumi's strange behavior in disbelief, staring at him for a long time, trying to recognize his host. Despite all the signs that the mother was no longer human, Izumi insisted it was her, dismissing everything Megi said.

"The right hand? How unfortunate! You've fallen under the control of a weak human. You couldn't even devour his head; you bring no honor to our kind," the mother, now controlled by the parasite Oki, said while addressing Megi.

Another signal to Izumi that his mother had been killed and replaced.

"Mom... I'll tell you everything I've been hiding from you, starting with the story of my right hand, so please stop..." Izumi pleaded, breaking down.

Izumi still didn't want to believe what he saw; it was his mother. How could the purest and gentlest creature in his eyes be capable of killing mercilessly?

"Izumi, wake up while there's still time. She's not your mother, and you know that," Megi tried again to convince him.

"Shut up! Shut up!" Izumi shouted, then slammed his right arm hard against the wall.

"You are the monster; you've destroyed the life of your own kind," Izumi yelled at the top of his lungs.

"If you keep talking, I will cut you," he threatened, pressing the knife he held in his left hand against his right hand, applying pressure. Blood began to flow and drip onto the floor. Megi couldn't do anything; his life depended on Izumi's survival.

"Mom... Mom..." Izumi repeated the word, tears streaming down his face.

"You remember, don't you? That scar on your right arm? Every time I see it, it haunts me and makes me feel guilty, like I owe you an apology," Izumi played his last card, hoping to bring his mother back to her true self.

(The scar Izumi spoke of dates back years. When he was 7 years old, he approached his mother in the kitchen to ask for a silver plate for a science experiment at school. His mother was busy preparing food and gestured to a high shelf where the plate was. She instructed Izumi to wait until she finished cooking to get it for him. However, Izumi, in his eagerness, grabbed a chair and climbed on it to reach the plate himself. He fell from the chair, knocking all the plates down while managing to hold onto one. The fall caused him to collide with a pot of soup, making it topple over directly onto him. His mother's quick reflexes led her to grab the hot pot, burning her hand instead of letting her son get hurt.)

Izumi's emotional turmoil did not affect his mother; she showed no feelings. Her face began to crack into horizontal layers.

"Mom..." Izumi managed to utter the first syllable of the word "Mom" as he witnessed his mother's transformation.

Her face split into four horizontal layers, revealing a dwarven spear with two sharp blades, each 80 centimeters long. In the blink of an eye, before Izumi could finish saying "Mom," it pierced through his chest and exited from his back.

"Izumi!!!" Megi shouted, unable to defend his host due to the knife blocking his path.

Izumi raised his eyes toward his mother, blood spilling from his mouth. Tears flowed like a river from his eyes, and the last thing he focused on before collapsing and losing consciousness was the scar on his mother's hand.

Lying on the ground, the knife beside him, his white shirt soaked red with the blood he had lost, Megi was living his final moments, surrendering to the reality of the situation.

"Good shot; your human host died instantly. Your fate will be the same in just a few minutes. There is no place for the weak in this world; you will perish like those who failed to control their brains," the mother said before leaving the house.

**The sound of the door closing.**

Megi stretched to take a closer look at Izumi.

"I don't have time! A direct hit to the heart—there's no way I can fix this! What to do? Izumi's brain will die in a short time!" (Megi thought aloud), then he pulled back slightly.

"That means my only option is to merge myself with his heart," Megi said audibly as he positioned himself above Izumi, who lay face down on the ground, forming himself into a heart-like shape.

Megi pierced through Izumi's back, aiming to seal the hole in his heart and maintain its function, while also supplying himself with blood to stay alive. He separated from his right hand in a dangerous gamble to stabilize inside Izumi's body and mend the damage done to him.

Minutes passed, and Izumi began to breathe again, coughing while still unconscious. It seemed Megi was able to make it work; even if it wasn't a complete healing, gradually integrating his cells throughout Izumi's body would increase the chances of healing the wound. Meanwhile, Megi would work on gradually returning to his right arm through Izumi's blood flow.

**In one of the university corridors**

"What? Izumi didn't show up again today?!" Murano exclaimed after being informed by Yuko. (Murano was no longer in Izumi's class due to the new student division implemented by the administration.)

"Yes, the teacher in charge of the class tried calling his house, but no one answered," Yuko replied.

"He told me that his parents went on vacation, and that worries me..." Murano said, sadness evident on her face.

"Do you want to go to his house after class?" Yuko suggested, trying to comfort Murano.

"Sure," Murano said.

"But I don't know his address," Yuko added.

"I know; I went to Izumi's house the day he had that fight with the Mitsu group," Murano said shyly.

"What?!" Yuko exclaimed, surprised.

One of the students who had been listening to the conversation chimed in, circling around Murano. "Wait! Since when do you and Izumi have anything that would lead you to visit his house?"

"No! That's not it..." Murano said, annoyed by the student's comment.

"Really? Then what is it?!" the student pressed.

Murano fell silent for a moment, unable to label the kind of relationship that would lead a girl to visit a boy at home.

Yuko intervened to save Murano from the embarrassing situation. "That's none of your business; stay out of things that don't concern you."

"Why not? What's it to you whether I intervene or not?" the student snapped back, raising her voice at Yuko. A number of students heard the exchange, and it became clear that Izumi and Murano were rumored to be in a romantic relationship.