Oakaigus #1: Red Bloom (3 page)

CHAPTER 5

Later that morning, back at the diner,
Mr. Singu was busy cleaning his pots. No customers were in at the time. He
hummed rhythmically, rocking side to side while cleaning one small pot in his
hand.

Suddenly, Jogen came bursting through
the door, taking deep breaths, in and out. “Mr. Singu!”

Mr. Singu turned around with a slight
jump. “Jo,” he said with his hand on his chest, “you scared me. You two done
already?”

“It’s Lilah!”

“Hm? What’s going on?”

After a brief talk, Jogen and Mr. Singu
were on the road as Mr. Singu pedaled the cart and Jogen, with a new shirt on,
talked while riding in the back.

“Rhokuji, huh?” Mr. Singu said.

“Yeah. At least that’s what the doctors
told me.”

Mr. Singu breathed out and shook his
head. “Man,” he said, “I seriously hope she’s alright.”

“Yeah…”

After sharing a moment of silence, Mr.
Singu perked his head up. “Wait a minute,” he said, “I just realized something.”

“What?”

“They said rhokuji, but the thing is,
rhokuji can’t live in this type of climate.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, but you said you saw a whole
colony
?”

“Yup. At least 60 of ‘em.”

“Interesting. First the berries, now
this
.
Something weird is going on…”

“What do you think it might be?”

“No clue. Nothing like this has ever
happened before. We’ll just have to see.”

As they rode further down the path, they
passed by Badigeon Fields.

“Oh yeah,” Jogen said, “I left the other
cart here when I took Lilah to the hospital.”

“Okay, then you hop on that one and
we’ll ride together.”

“Got it.”

CHAPTER 6

After more of the morning had passed,
Jogen and Mr. Singu parked their carts in front of the care center. They rushed
up the stairs and through the front doors.

As they ran to the front desk, they saw
the receptionist talking to a woman wearing a silk, burgundy robe adorned with
golden shoulder patches that were slightly covered by her coiled, grey hair.

“Hey,” Jogen said, “how’s Lilah?”

“We’re actually almost finished with her
treatment,” the receptionist said, “so it’s all up to the Grand Doctor now.”

“Grand Doctor?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, let me introduce you!
This is the region’s Grand Doctor, Yanja Kosungo! She was elected by the
region’s Health Association.”

“Aw, come on,” Dr. Yanja said as she
rubbed her neck. She turned to Jogen and Mr. Singu with a smile and said,
“Please, just call me Yanie.”

“An honor to meet you,” Mr. Singu said,
“I’m Remi Singu, Lilah’s guardian.”

“A pleasure,” Dr. Yanja replied, “so, let’s
cut to it. Right now, we’re running an analysis on Lilah’s blood. I was called
over because there were some ‘strange’ things they noticed before it finished.”

“Strange?” Mr. Singu said.

“Yup. They said they’ve never seen this
before, so they needed me to see the results myself and go from there.”

“Is it almost done?”

“Just about. If you don’t mind, could
you two wait here while I finish up?”

“Of course!”

“Perfect! I should be done in about 40
minutes or so.”

“Okay.”

Dr. Yanja rested her hands in her
pockets and made her way to the emergency hallway.

CHAPTER 7

An hour later, Jogen and Mr. Singu were
sitting in the lobby, slumped in chairs near a window. Jogen stared out below
at the children playing with their mothers.

Jogen then overheard the passing voices
of a physician and a patient as the physician rolled the patient’s frail body
in on a wheelchair.

“How’ve you been holding up, Ms.
Jemenba?” the physician said.

“Eh,” the patient said, “my PID’s been
acting up alot lately, but it’s nothin’ I haven’t dealt with the past 14 years.
Could always be worse...”

“Good to see you still fighting.”

As they passed by, soon afterwards, Dr.
Yanja finally came back with her hands in her robe pockets.

Jogen and Mr. Singu saw her from the corner
of their eyes and rushed out of their seats.

“How is she,” Mr. Singu asked.

“…Follow me,” she replied.

The three of them walked to the
emergency hallway. In the midst of the chatter surrounding them, Dr. Yanja led
them to a right turn down a quiet, stone hallway.

After another turn to the left, followed
by another to the left again, Dr. Yanja led them to an empty room with only a
large desk, a couple chairs, and crooked stacks of paper scattered around the
room.

“So,” she said with a sigh, “There’s a
lot of stuff I have to go over before my next meeting, so I apologize in
advance. Please bear with me.”

Jogen and Mr. Singu felt tiny knots well
up in their throats after they seated themselves. As their heartbeats pounded
harder, beat by beat, they stared into Dr. Yanja’s eyes.

“Alright,” she continued, “here’s
Lilah’s situation: the crystal laser treatment killed most of the poisonous
bacteria in her blood. Her breathing’s back to normal too.”

Jogen and Mr. Singu released long sighs
as weights of tension lifted from their chests.

“But,” she resumed, “there were traces
of other strange bacteria left still attacking her. Somehow, they managed to
survive the entire treatment.”

“Will she live,” Mr. Singu asked.

“At this rate, with nothing we have to
fight it, I estimate that she has about six months to live.”

“No…” Jogen mumbled as his body fell
into a slump.

“W-Wait,” Mr. Singu said as his voice
cracked, “is there
ANYTHING
left to do?!”

“Well…there is
one
thing. That’s
why I called you back here. This is mainly for you, Mr. Singu, but before I
ask, you have to promise to not mention this to any other doctor, okay?”

“Sure.”

“Alright. Quick quiz: have you ever
heard of the Salei Study incident?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Not many people have. So, about six
years ago, a man named Dr. Salei was studying remedies from the Kengongbo
region. Every other doctor was afraid to go because of all the vicious beasts
there. But he didn’t care. Before he went, he was so dedicated to his work, he
would sleep on the floor in the lab for weeks on end, only seeing his family
two days out of a month.”

“Question,” Jogen said.

“Yes?”

“If the beasts were so vicious, how’d he
manage to survive?”

A grin grew on Dr. Yanja’s face.

“Let’s just say he developed a
special
‘talent.’ It’s honestly way too much to explain right now on top of what I
already have to say. Maybe someday, you’ll find out.”

“Oh, okay…”

“Where was I? Oh, right—so while
researching there, he came across a strange fungus. He called it ‘
babaseing
.’
This thing changed
everything
!”

“How?” Mr. Singu asked.

“Another quiz: is the PID virus
curable?”

“No, but who doesn’t know—“

“
Wrong
.”

Jogen and Mr. Singu’s eyes perked up.

“This fungus,” she said, “
completely
killed the virus within 3 hours.”

“WHAT?!” Mr. Singu said as he rose out
of his seat.

“Not only that,” she continued, “but 27
other bacteria strains that
also
withstood laser treatments, were
instantly wiped out by babaseing.”

“B-but, why—“

“—aren’t hospitals using it? Well, a
problem came up. During Dr. Salei’s tests, this stuff did in fact kill all
these viruses, no doubt, but, he missed something. He didn’t realize that
babaseing also had compounds in it that made the patients hallucinate for 83
hours.”

“Whoa.”

“Granted, a couple of the patients’ depression
was cured from this, but on the flip side, the majority of the others were
driven insane. They could never form a complete sentence ever since.”

“That’s sad…”

“Yeah…after that, babaseing was banned
by the Association from every care center in this region.”

“So, what happened to Salei?”

“Well, around that time was the time I
was elected Grand Doctor, so I heard debates in the Association between people
wanting him fired, and others who just wanted him on probation. But after a
while, he just disappeared. Nobody’s heard from him since.”

“I see. So, what exactly does this have
to do with
me
?”

“I wanted you to see that there’s
some
hope for Lilah. Babaseing is her best bet…that is,
if
you’re willing to
go for it.”

“Of course I’m will--…wait a minute.
Didn’t you just say that this stuff made people go
crazy
?!”

“I did, but, I know a guy that finally
found a solution to this.”

“Really?! Where is he?!”

“Kengongbo. When the incident happened,
my friend found out about it and said he saw potential in babaseing. Problem
was, he couldn’t get around the hallucinogenic compounds in it, so he told me
was going to find a way to extract compounds he wanted, and leave the rest
behind.”

“Did he?”

“Yup! Matter of fact, he visited me two
weeks ago to give me his notes. He wants me to submit his technique for peer
review. Crazy thing is, he wants me to take credit for it.”

“Sounds like a great guy.”

“Yup! Honestly, I never would’ve even
gotten this far up the ladder if it wasn’t for him. Everything secret he’s taught
me about cures, the potential of our bodies, and all the mysteries in the world,
is just mind-blowing. That’s why I want
you
to look for babaseing under
him.

“M-ME?”

“Look, I’m
really
sorry to just
drop this on you all of a sudden, but you’re the only free person who I haven’t
asked before about this. It would help Lilah, and, an extra person would be a
big help for him.”

“Why? He’s the genius, it seems.”

“It’s not that simple. In Salei’s
research, he documented how short the lifespan of a babaseing patch was: no
longer than half-a-day. It fruits fast, but dies fast, so once a patch dies,
you’d have to wait for the perfect environmental conditions again for them to
fruit. That is,
if
you know where its spore were blown off to. That’s
why he’s been there for two extra years.”

“And we’ve only got
six
months…”

“Unfortunately.”

“Okay, I know that region’s huge, so
where exactly is he? What’s his name?”

“He goes by Prai, and he’s at Kaiser
Mount. It’s the only place known to have the conditions babaseing can grow in.
If you decide to take the Lekobo Express, I’ll pay the fare.”

“Really? Well…if I’m really the only
person, I’ve got no choice.”

“But what about the diner?” Jogen said.

“Oh yeah. Ummm…I guess I’ll just get my
sister to take over for me. She’s done it before.”

“Perfect,” Dr. Yanja said, “Just let me
know when you’re ready and I’ll set everything up!”

“That’s fine,” Mr. Singu said, “but what
about you? Are you coming?”

“Tch, I wish. I’m tied up with work. I
really wish I knew someone to join you, but everybody’s so scared of the beasts
there.”

Jogen gulped and tightened his grip on
his thigh.

“Um,” Jogen said, “a-are the beasts
there really
THAT
strong?”

“I take it you haven’t heard much about
Kengongbo either. Let me ask you this: you ever heard of the
Fauna Scale
?”

“No.”

“Okay, so there’s a book called the ‘
Oakaigan
Continental Explorer’s Guide
.’ It’s on its 3
^rd
edition right
now, but the weird thing is, the author’s unknown.”

“No clues at all?”

“
None
. Weird if you ask me, but
all the info in it is spot-on, so researchers approve of it. Oh, by the way,
thanks for reminding me. I’ll get a copy for Mr. Singu.”

“Thanks for that,” Mr. Singu replied.

“Anyway,” Dr. Yanja resumed, “in the
guide, there are sections dedicated to all the known wildlife. It covers the twenty-eight
continents known so far. Now, at the start of the chapter, there’s a chart
showing the six ranks of life: in order, first is ‘fauna,’ then ‘superfauna,’
then ‘hyperfauna,’ ‘gigafauna,’ ‘terrafauna,’ and finally, ‘
Deivafauna
.’
Life at the fauna rank are the weakest, while the Deivafauna are the deadliest
of all. This chart measures a species’ rank on the food chain based on its
average size, strength, speed, intelligence, special abilities, and social
coordination.”

“Are we on there too?”

“Yup! Now us humalds, we’re superfauna.
Our intelligence is considered our best weapon with our social coordination
being a major help, but we’re SERIOUSLY lacking in all other departments
compared to the beasts out there…on ‘average,’ that is. See, there’s one, big
thing the chart can never predict, and that’s
latent
potential
.
It can only measure average abilities commonly known, which brings me to me
next point: Kengongbo.”

Jogen straightened up his posture.

“That region,” she resumed, “is swarming
with hyperfauna, meaning overall, they’re a step above us. One example: ever
heard of
bhragons
?”

“What are they?”

“They’re only about a couple feet taller
than us. They’re not very smart, with barely any special abilities. But, a
couple years ago, twelve scientists were studying bhragon clans. One day, they
saw a baby bhragon throwing a tantrum, and next thing they knew, it made a
mountain crumble with just a swipe from its claw.”

Jogen and Mr. Singu felt sudden jolts in
their heartbeats.

“A mountain?!” Jogen said.

“A
whole
mountain. And sad thing
is, only two of those twelve scientists came back alive.”

“Damn…” Mr. Singu whispered.

“I promise I’m not trying to scare you.
It’d be a crime if I didn’t tell you the truth about the things you’ll face.
Now, I’m not forcing you to go, I just wanted to throw out what the best bet
is. It’s entirely up to you, Singu. Still in?”