Twisted Virology

[Zabuza825]

Noboru Hazama sat in his quaint clinic, he had just finished his last visit for the day and it was time to close shop. This was a small, rural village, one that was heavily affected by an ageing population and a young people flocking to the big cities. There were no big hospitals to speak of, as a matter of fact if aside from Noboru's clinic the town didn't have any medical facilities. That also meant that 90% of the time Noboru was barely paying for the bills. If Noboru had his way, this wouldn't be happening. He was from a rich family and had attended the University of Kobara's medical field, passed with flying colors too. Noboru's skill was also unmatched by anyone his age. With all this going for him, one might wonder why Noboru was in this tiny clinic that barely payed.

Well, if Noboru had his way he wouldn't be here right now. He'd be in some big hospital, working to save lives day in and day out. But Noboru made the mistake of directly fighting against hospital establishment, hell he was probably the biggest pain in the ass to the head doctor. Not only did he not listen to the head doctor when he saw a potential to save someone, he also embarrassed the head doctor numerous times. That was probably why the head doctor asked Noboru to resign after the first mistake he made as a doctor. Noboru had to suck up to his family, and everyone in it save for his younger sister weren't very sympathetic to his plight. His family viewed him as a disgrace, and all they did was buy him a small clinic in the middle of nowhere so they could ship him off. The only person in his family that still came to see him was his younger sister, who by now had married off into another family but still came to visit every so often.

So now a young genius doctor was stuck here, out in the middle of nowhere, barely making money. It was the last place where anyone would expect to get a noteworthy visitor.

And yet before he could leave the clinic, he was approched by a man. Not just any man, but Masaji Ishii, professor of virology at the University of Kobara. He was probably one of the most well-known people in his field, with his research into synthesizing oncolytic viruses - viruses that infect and attack cancer cells but not normal cells. Should his research be successful, the plague of cancer might be cured forever. Of course, progress was slow, and while progress towards synthesizing an oncolytic virus was slow he had managed to synthesize viruses before. So what the heck was he doing here?

Masaji was flanked by two men in black, and while Noboru didn't recognize either one of them, neither one seemed friendly. In fact, they seemed like the last people that he would want to associate with.

"What are you guys doing here?" Noboru asked "The clinic's closed, so unless you're ill I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"We're not going anywhere before we talk to you." It was one of the men in black "But send all the nurses home, we don't want anyone else hearing this." Noboru sighed.

"They've already left, what do you want?"

This time, Masaji answered the question. "We're here to recruit you for a very special project. You'll be given a position in Kobara, with an income triple what you get right now. All you have to do is treat the patients that we send you, and only the patients that we send you."

"That limits the number of people I can treat" Noboru's answer was obvious "so I refuse. Besides, it seems too good to be true, what was the catch if I had accepted?" Masaji gave out a chuckle.

"I'm afraid you misunderstand." he said "You don't have a choice here, you will come with us." One of the men in black came up to Noboru, and showed him a picture. It was of his sister........

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

"Nothing yet, but it would be a shame if she were to be infected with something....." said that man "and don't think this is a bluff, we're with the Restoration Party. I think you know what we're capable of."

The Restoration Party? The party that had just taken over Akitsu? The man could be lying, but at the same time it could be true. Did Noboru really want to take a risk and refuse still? The answer was no.

"Fine."

"A wise choice." said the man in black "Pack your things, you leave for Kobara the day after tomorrow. Don't worry about the clinic, we'll find a suitable replacement for you."

[Zabuza825]

Ochtyr 20, 1579

Noboru was being led somewhere, against his will one might add. The compound that Noboru had to move into wasn't anything unusual from the outside, in fact from the outside it just looked like another building of the University of Kobara School of Medicine. But going a bit inside revealed it was special, sprawling for two stories underground were a series of rooms. These rooms were isolated from each other, and while they were well-kept you could tell that they were also quite old. Anyone familiar with Akitian military history would know what this place was for, a place that everyone in Akitsu knew existed but didn't know where exactly it was, a place that was supposed to have been abandoned after the passage of the article of Akitsu's constitution forbidding the development of WMD's.

This was the old facility used by the Akitian military to develop chemical and biological weapons, and it seemed like even after the building was bought by the Universtity of Kobara, the military still used it as a facility for experiments. Judging by the instruments that Noboru could see, it seemed like they had been researching how to counteract threats from chemical and biological weapons. Of course, whatever that research was must've either been abandoned or moved elsewhere, since Noboru had been given full reigns over this facility. Formally he was hired by the University of Kobara as a professor in medicine, but he wouldn't be appearing on campus to teach any classes or work in the teaching hospital run by the university. Noboru didn't know why the university agreed to this, but he thought that threats probably had something to do with it.

When Noboru finally was led to his office, he sat down, and soon afterwards he was approached by Masaji.

"Quite the compound, isn't it?" he said.

"Indeed, hard to believe a place like this existed right under the university." Noboru was careful with his words, he knew he was supposed to treat whatever patients were sent to him, but he needed more than just that. He needed nurses and medicine, and most of all to know what the hell he was dealing with.

"It would help my job greatly if you'd let me know what conditions I'm going to have to treat." Noboru said "Knowing about the condition ahead of time will make preparing for treatment easier."

"That information will be provided to you on a need-to-know basis." Masaji wasn't being very forthcoming with the information now, was he? Noboru still wasn't sure why that was, but he had a growing suspicion that he was probably being forced to do something he shouldn't be involved with.

[Zabuza825]

Elva 10th, 1579

Three months, three long months had passed since Noboru was brought here. During that time he'd seen numerous patients, but none of them showed any symptoms of anything out of the ordinary. It was almost as if he was back at the rural clinic, with the only difference being that he was in the city and seeing only slightly more patients here. But, why? This didn't make any sense, if all that the new government wanted to do was treat patients than they didn't need someone like Noboru. Any doctor would've done if that was the case, so why did if have to be Noboru? He didn't know what was going on, but Noboru didn't like it.

But today was another day, and Noboru had to do what had become his job, whether he liked it or not. As he walked into the examination room, he looked at the patient who was sitting on the bed. He was a man, and had tattoo's all over him. The tattoos were indicative of a former member of a Yakuza gang, not the usual type of people that come here. On top of that there was something...... different about this person. He didn't know what, but something about this person made Noboru's gut wrench. He had no idea what, but there was just something not right with this person.

"Hello, I'm Noboru Hazama, I will be your doctor for the duration of your stay here." he said, the patient didn't answer.

"Well, I'm sure you don't want to stay here any longer than you have to. Let's get this examination started, do you feel anything wrong with your body?"

"Headache." the patient answerd with only one or two word descriptions of what he felt, pausing between each symptom. "Stomachache. Fever. Muscle pain. Fatigue. Weakness."

"I see..... anything else?"

"Not now."

Hm..... it looked like a simple cold, was there really nothing here? Noboru wasn't sure, in any case he had been instructed to keep the person here for the next few weeks, so he'd have to wait and see if anything changed in the next few weeks. Hopefully, his gut feeling didn't mean anything.

[Zabuza825]

Dosa 5th, 1580

Another 5 months, and today Noboru met someone he recognized. It was the person who had been here months ago with symptoms that appeared to be a simple cold. That time, the man got better in about 2 weeks and was discharged with a clean bill of health. This time he came with the exact same symptoms. That feeling Noboru had the last time he came was back, and Noboru didn't like it. He examined the guy carefully this time, but at first nothing seemed to be off. Again, Noboru kept the guy in the hospital just to be safe.

Dosa 6th, 1580

BWAAA, BWAAA, BWAAA, BWAAA

Well, that was quite the way to wake up. Noboru looked at the time, 4 AM. Who in the world had set off the emergency alarm? That was only meant to be turned on if there was an emergency situation or one of the patients experience a sudden change in condition.....

The moment the thought crossed his head, Noboru got up. He barely got into his clothes before he was out the door, he was still pulling on his jacket as he raced down the hall. He finally reached the room, where nurses were struggling to keep the man under control. His coughing was out of control, and with each cough blood spewed out of his mouth, and only a moment later he seemed to thow up a huge amount of blood.  As Noboru walked in the man suddenly seemed to calm down...... too calm. He suddenly fell silent, dead silent, and was just lying there on the bed. The nurses seemed to be as surprised as everyone else, but everyone knew this was a bad sign. A really, really bad sign.

"HE MIGHT BE GOING INTO SHOCK, LOWER HIS HEAD, GET A BLOOD TRANSFUSION!" Noboru yelled the instructions at the top of his lungs, and everyone sprang into action. Within three minutes, the man had a blood transfusion inside him. But as his head was lowered, Noboru noticed something he hadn't seen before. Noboru didn't waste a second to rip the mans shirt off, where the chest had been perfectly normal before Noboru could now see red spots all over.

"He's hemmorhaging from his skin...... and his eyes!" Noboru didn't notice it until he took another look at the mans face, but this mans eyes were bloodshot.

For the next three hours, Noboru and his team struggled to get this man under control. But in the end it was a failure, he died surrounded by a pool of his own blood. Noboru walked to the wall, and punched it as hard as he could.

"DAMNIT!" He screamed "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"

Only a moment later, a few men in black suits walked in. They looked at the now-dead man on the table, and then back at Noboru.

"Thank you for your service, we got some valuable information." they said.

"What do you mean?"

The men in black didn't answer they simply grabbed the hospital bed the corpse was on and hauled the whole damn thing off. Noboru and the others tried to object, but they wouldn't listen. And all of them knew better than to fight against these people too much, they were the lacky's of the Restoration Party after all.

Noboru only wished he'd get another chance at figuring out what was happening.

[Zabuza825]

Dosa 12th, 1580

6 days since the mans untimely demise, and now Noboru was facing a new dilemma. In front of him sat one of the nurses that had worked on the man who died, and when that man had his last fit he coughed blood right on her face. Two days after that, she started complaining of a small cough. A day after that she started feeling cold even when it was hot out, and a days after that she developed a fever. She took a two days off work, but when she kept developing more symptoms she tried to go to the doctor. That was when she was told by some men in black, probably belonging to the same organization that had forced Noboru into this mess, told her that she wouldn't be permitted to go to her normal doctor. Instead she had to go see Noboru. Apparently, if she tried to see her normal doctor, she would not only be denied medical coverage for that visit, but her future insurance plan would be canceled also. If she wanted to keep her insurance, she didn't have a choice.

The list of symptoms were eerily similar. Headache, stomachache, muscle pain, fatigue, fever, cough, chills.... Noboru had a bad feeling about this. He ordered all the tests that he could think of be done, he wasn't going to let anything happen to this person. It'd be a few days before the results came back, but he wanted to make sure he didn't miss anything.

[Zabuza825]

Dosa 13th, 1580

Noboru looked through the microscope, down at a blood sample taken from the nurse. And he couldn't believe his eyes.......



There it was, the image was unmistakable. That was something bursting out of a cell..... no it wasn't just "something", most bacteria didn't invade the inside of cells. This was most likely a virus. Noboru looked to one of this assistants.

"Get a specialist to look at this, we need to know exactly what the hell this is and fast." he said. And with that, he sprinted out of the lab.... and right into where the medicines were stored. A nurse was there, startled by his intrusion.

"D- Doctor, what do you need?"

"What antiviral drugs to we have?"

"Antiviral? They should be stored over there..." the nurse pointed.

"Thanks," Noboru sprinted there and grabbed the most generic antiviral he could find. With that he sprinted out, and back into where the nurse was. He set up an IV as quickly as he could, and got the drug going. Once it was in, all he could do was wait......

---

Dosa 16th, 1580

There was good news and bad news. Starting with the good news: Thank the Rei, the nurse was doing better!

But the bad news? That sample that Noboru asked be tested was confiscated by the Chiankei, as he now knew those men in black were called. While Noboru now knew for sure that he was up against a virus, he wasn't any closer to actual answers as to what the virus was he did know a hell of a lot more about what he was up against.... but he wasn't going to be able to get any more answers without being able to test the actual virus, and the Chiankei were being a constant obstacle in that front.

So, Noboru decided he'd confront them. He demanded a meeting with Masaji and whoever was working with him. Noboru didn't expect any answer to come quickly but.......

He heard the door click, and then open. Noboru swung around to see Masaji, again flanked by men in black.

"So...... unusual of you to request a meeting. Did you find something wrong with your accomadations?"

"Cut the shit, Masaji, you know why I called you." Noboru threw down several medical files on the desk. "These patients that you sent me, what's wrong with them?"

"You're a doctor, you tell me." as Masaji said that, Noboru's left eyebrow twitched. Noboru did NOT appreciate being toyed with.

"Fine." Noboru slammed the files on the virus he had. "They have a viral hemorrhagic fever, unlike anything I've seen before. I can't even find examples of it any academic papers published. It infects it's host, after which it has a dark phase. This dark phase lasts at l least a week. After that it moves into it's active phase. The first signs of the active phase can be mistaken as the flu or a cold, but after a day things get worse. Once the active phase kicks off, it kills in days if left untreated."

"Well done," Masaji said, skimming through the files on the virus "I'm surprised you were able to get that much information on it without access to a virologists lab."

"You're the one sending me these patients. You know where they are coming from. I want answers."

Masaji smirked....... and then gave Noboru a look. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"Damn right I do, if there's an epidemic going on we have to inform the public and start serious research right away."

"Follow all containment protocols and you won't have to worry about an epidemic."

"Tell me, what the hell is that virus?"

"I guess you could say.... it's my child." after the words left Masaji's mouth, Noboru froze.......

"You..... made that thing?"

Masaji nodded, a grin going over his face.

"WHY? WHAT PURPOSE COULD THAT POSSIBLY SERVE?!"

The look on Masaji changed. "IT'LL BE OUR COUNTRIES SALVATION!"

"What?"

"Other countries have chemical and biological weapons, and yet our government continued to refuse to even consider them! We even had a nuclear program, and were on track to becoming one of the most powerful nations not just in Ostara but in all of Siora! And what did our government do? Scrap all of that progress, just because of one disaster in Sakamoto! Idiots! What are a few lives in exchange for the greater progress of the country!"

"When the Restoration Party first approached me, I was skeptical about their aims. But they provided me with all the services I need, including YOU! By saving these people, you tell me what medicines I need to counter!" Masaji walked closer to Noboru, and then whispered into his ears.

"It's unfortunate that these people have to die, but it's for the greater good."

Masaji then started walking out of the room.... Noboru wanted to talk.... say something to object... but he couldn't.

"If you know what's good for you and you're sister, you'll keep your mouth shut about this."

[Zabuza825]

Another day, another patient. This time Noboru wasn't taking any chances. He knew what he had been recruited to do - treat whatever virus that Masaji was creating. The purpose was obvious, so Masaji could counter any attempts at a cure that Noboru made. But now that Noboru had a better idea of what he was up against, he could prepare better.

Even before the next patient came in, Noboru had already asked that extra blood be brought in. IV's were also stockpiled. The way that viruses were generally treated was to take care of the symptoms and hope things got better eventually, but Noboru knew better than to think that would work. Masaji is a virologist, he would know that's the standard way that viruses are created. Noboru could only guess as to the process used to create the virus, but either it was a completely original creation (unlikely due to the short amount of time that had passed) or it's genetic code was modified from an existing virus. Since the latter was more likely, Noboru knew he needed to identify which virus it was based off of. There was no doubt that Masaji was deliberately choosing more deadly strains of the virus to use, but that only made Noboru's job more urgent.

Noboru's plan was simple - keep the patients as long as possible while he searched for a possible treatment, hopefully one that Masaji wouldn't be able to counter. Hopefully one would recover naturally, so Noboru could try to make a vaccine (not that he had the proper facilities to do that). But then Masaji would probably use a new strain of the virus, so Noboru couldn't make a vaccine too early.

All the while, patients came in.

Dosa 15th, 1580 - two patients with the virus came in, Noboru tries antiviral drugs.

Dosa 17th - both patients develop heavy bleeding, treatment is required.

Dosa 18th - One patient dies, Chiankei retrieve bodies before an autopsy can be performed.

Dosa 20th - One more patient with the virus comes in, Noboru tries an antiviral drug.

Dosa 21st - Patient dies, Chinakei retrieves bodies before an autopsy can be performed.

Dosa 22nd - The remaining patient from the 15th recovers, but barely. Chiankei takes him away before further tests can be done on him.

This pattern continued, though usually not as quickly as what was shown above. Sometimes the antiviral drugs would work. But the Chiankei kept a close eye on things, they knew which antiviral drugs worked and which ones didn't. And they systematically eliminated the effectiveness of every antiviral drug that worked.

Noboru could only guess as to how this was happening. If the base virus belonged to the right genus, it would lack an enzyme that proofreads it's RNA. This would mean it would naturally mutate at a much faster rate, something which the scientists might be using to their advantage. If they infected tons of "guinea pigs" with the virus and treated them with said antiviral drug, they could extract samples of the virus from the "guinea pigs" that died. This would probably mean a lot of "guinea pigs" were dying, which to Noboru meant that either a lot of lab rats were dying or a lot of people were dying. Either way, it meant that Masaji was constantly developing new strains of the virus that was not only deadlier but also more resistant to existing antiviral drugs.

It was near the end of the year, around Treizen, that Noboru started running out of antiviral drugs to try. Not that many antivirals worked with the virus to begin with (considering most antivirals were made to combat a specific virus, that shouldn't have been surprising). But gradually, treatment of the symptoms became less and less effective as well. As far as Noboru could tell, the virus killed by causing so much damage to the circulatory system that if the person doesn't die of internal bleeding their circulatory system would just fail and shut down.

At the end of that month, Noboru finally asked to see Masaji again.

---

Treizen 27th, 1580

When Masaji finally came into Noboru's office, Noboru didn't even pay attention to the two men in black near him. He immediately charged towards Masaji, grabbing him by the neck and pinning him on the wall. Or at least, that's what Noboru tried to do, but he very quickly found himself on the ground and with the men in black beating the living shit out of him. When the beating finally stopped, Noboru looked up at Masaji from the ground. Masaji was smirking.

"Why are you doing this? What would this accomplish?" Noboru asked.

"I think you already know that."

Masaji was right. There was only one reason why the Restoration Party would want him to develop a super-deadly virus that's resistant to existing treatments. That was if they somehow planned on using it against their enemies. The logical conclusion was simple - this was a bioweapons program. Noboru had realized this a long time ago, but he didn't want to acknowledge it. He wanted to pretend that by some miracle this was for some better cause, some cause that wouldn't involve killing people for the simple reason that they dared stand against the fascist government's plans.

"You're work showing us how a doctor would treat the condition was invaluable." said Masaji as he left the room "If I didn't have your example, it would've taken forever to narrow down what drugs to make the virus resistant to. A new batch of test subjects should arrive tomorrow, you know what to do."

And Noboru had played right into their hands.

[Zabuza825]

17 Elva, 1583

Noboru didn't want to keep doing this for three years, but he did it. Nobody would tell him directly what would happen to his sister if he didn't, but Noboru wasn't about to try and find out.

So he did his best, he kept trying to help his patients, and Masaji just kept sending more to him to die. Three years of this, and Noboru was getting sick of it.

It had first started off with death-row inmates, but now there were clearly others being sent. Those with life-sentences, or those who acted out in prison. Hell, some community leaders that rebelled even came by Noboru.

Noboru did what he could to help these people. But the virus that Masaji was making only got more virulent with every patient.

Then, a bombshell. Noboru was given a massive amount of files on this day, about five times the normal amount of patients. It was obvious that the program was being rushed. This probably wouldn't actually make development of the virus any faster, which by this time was already nearing completion, but to those uninitiated to medical literature it would probably look like it. That was probably what Masaji was going for.

But Noboru knew this massive influx of patients only meant one thing - the innocent would start coming at his doorstep en masse. There was no way that enough people were regularly sentenced to death for the old, slow rate to be fulfilled, this one was just ridiculous.

Luckily, by this time Noboru had developed a sort of friendship with one of the guards. Now if he could convince the guard to help him, then he could reveal this injustice to the world while keeping his sister stave, and hopefully make it stop. He just needed to hope the guard wouldn't tattle..........

[Zabuza825]

EDIT OOC NOTE: Retconn. Original post in spoiler tags for record keeping purposes.

Show ContentSpoiler:

5 Treizen, 1583

It was a freaking miracle, the guard had actually agreed to help Noboru out! Not only that, but he organized something on a scale that Noboru wasn't ever expecting. He and his family would escape the family, his family was being smuggled to Sainam. His family's escape was something that was to happen as quietly as possible, minimizing the risk to them. Noboru, on the other hand, wanted to make a scene out his escape.

He wanted people to pay attention to what was happening, and for the truth about what he had done to come out. He didn't care that it meant risking his career and reputation as a doctor. He was tired of taking part in unethical projects, unethical experiments, and furthering someone's goal of killing people. Noboru's a doctor, not a mad scientist. He was about to make that abundantly clear.

So he had an arrangement made. With the cooperation of that guard, Noboru snuck out of the lab this day, carrying with him all of the documents on what was happening that he could. During the night his family should have been snuck out as well, and should now be well on their way to Sainam. It pained him to leave his patients behind, but he had to make this stop before anyone else came on.

A few hours later, Noboru was on a plane heading for Adwest. New Magawa Airways flight 352. Again with the help of the guard he was able to sneak a pistol on board the plane, along with a small empty box made to look like a bomb. Noboru placed himself in an aisle seat, and watched the flight attendants. He kept an eye out on the location of the plane displayed on the in-flight entertainment system. When the plane reached the edge of the Adwestene Sea, he approached a flight attendant. He placed the pistol on her back, being careful so as to not alert the other passengers, and told her to call the cockpit so he could relay a message to the captain.

Scared, she complied. When the call was made, Noboru demanded the phone be handed to him. Once he was on the plane's intercom and speaking with the captain, he threatened to blow up the plane if his demands weren't made and then made his demands clear.

"First - I know you have an international transponder signal telling the world this plane was hijacked. I want you to activate it. Let the world know that you've been hijacked.

Second - Land this plane in Goudadam. In Goldecia.

Third - Let me know when you get into contact with Goldecian air traffic control. I will make further demands then."

The pilots, not wanting to take a chance that the bomb was fake, decided to comply.

[Zabuza825]

OOC: on iPhone. Not only do I currently not have a working computer, I also have lost all desire for RP'ing here for the time being. Consider this a retconn - since it doesn't make sense for there to be a several week-long gap in a hijacking incident and I am not going to be posting here for a while. This RP should be back at the state before Noboru went on the plane. Will continue this when I actually have some muse.