Attack Of Parasites

"I asked how you feel about what we might find in the bag. You seem worried," Dekim said after noticing the visible tension on Izumi. 

"Ah, yes, a little. It's just that I'm not used to things like this," Izumi replied.

In a secluded place late at night, with no one else around, the only sound was the flowing water of the river. The full moon illuminated the scene as if they were on a stage with spotlights on them, while the surrounding areas were engulfed in deep darkness...

Dekim took the slice and placed it in its proper position to open the bag. The sound of the bag being unzipped echoed in the quiet night...

"Ha ha ha, we did it!" Dekim laughed loudly. 

"Be quiet!" Izumi interrupted, covering Dekim's mouth after hearing footsteps approaching nearby.

They lay flat on the grass for a moment to get a better look at the passerby... a stranger who didn't notice them, walking with heavy steps, showing signs of intoxication. Dekim recognized him from a distance; he was the local farmer known for his alcohol addiction. They watched him until he moved farther away, then sat back against the tree. Dekim began to open the bag slowly...

"Aah, what is this?" Izumi said, his tone reflecting his disappointment. 

"Didn't I tell you, you idiot? There's nothing like that nonsense you were talking about! A time travel machine, you said, right? How naive you are! I can't believe I trusted what you said— all this effort and risk just to find a cup full of ugly bugs!" Dekim shouted, venting his anger at Izumi as he walked away toward the river, tears streaming down his face.

The contents of the bag did not meet the boys' expectations, but its impact was strong, especially on Dekim, who had high hopes based on what Izumi was saying, and his anticipation of events by embarking on a journey to solve the mystery of his sister's killer and seek revenge on all those found to be involved...

But did Dekim exaggerate in taking his friend's predictions as facts? Even if the contents of the bag were something of high material value, he would not be happy, because what drove him to do all this was not a desire for wealth or possessing supernatural power that he could not harness for his purpose.

Izumi was selfish in pursuing his goal, even at the expense of inflicting deep emotional harm on others. At first, he didn't care about this, but after seeing his friend before him in despair after reopening a buried wound, he felt the guilt of the wrong he had committed.

A transparent glass cup shaped like a cone with a capacity of 750 ml, filled with creeping insects that moved slowly within it. The insects were strange in both shape and movement, a sight the boys had never encountered before. It was a sample of living organisms brought by Albert in a sturdy, crush-resistant metal bag for study. It was not worth all this trouble and effort, neither on Albert's part, who cut short his vacation, or on Dekim's, who overstepped his boundaries and intruded into matters concerning his father.

After Dekim left the place, leaving Izumi with the open bag, he headed toward the riverbank, trying to move on and gather his strength. Izumi remained where he was watching the glass cup. He noticed that the insects had all stopped crawling, then they all began to crawl again at once, as if something connected them, making them not independent of one another. each time the process repeated without change, all the insects moved at the same time and stopped moving at the same time.

Strange, could it be that one insect split into many! How could that happen?" Confusion was evident on Izumi's face as he spoke to himself.

"If one of the insects encounters harm, what will happen to the others? Are they venomous? And before all this, what type of insect is this? I don't think it's an ordinary insect... I've never encountered anything like this before," Izumi continued his self-dialogue.

Izumi's mind was restless because of the insects, and he kept trying to find answers to his questions, but to no avail. He realized that he would only get answers from Albert's father. he was confident that these insects were special compared to others. If they weren't, why would Albert go through all this effort to secure them?

Izumi lifted the glass cup between his hands, focusing his gaze on the shape of the insects that were in a state of stillness. He began to shake the cup vigorously, hoping to awaken the insects and make them move again. But it was futile... the insects remained unaffected by Izumi's actions, their stillness unchanged.

"Ah, what are these damned insects? They're stuck to one another! Come on, wake up!" Izumi continued shaking the cup with both hands, talking to himself in frustration.

His arms grew tired from the constant shaking, and the glass cup slipped from his grip, flying through the air. Izumi's heart raced as he lifted his neck, his eyes widening in fear as he watched the cup's descent.

It landed several meters away on a medium-sized rock, shattering into pieces! 

Dekim heard the sound of breaking glass and rushed toward his friend.

"What happened? What did you break?" Dekim asked.

concern etched on his face. He turned to find the glass cup shattered, with the insects scattered around.

"Fool, fool, fool..." Dekim continued to repeat the word in a fit of anger.

"Your troubles never end! Speak up, what happened?" Dekim said with a light slap on Izumi's head.

"The cup slipped from my hand and fell on the rock," Izumi replied in a hushed voice, clearly embarrassed.

"Who gave you permission to take the cup out of the bag and mess with it? What are we going to do now? What's the fate of those ugly insects?" Dekim said.

"Let's collect them," Izumi said as he pulled out a paper bag from his pocket.

"We'll put them in the sack, return them to their place, and close the bag. Hurry up!" Izumi added.

Izumi started picking up the sticky insects from the grass while kneeling, and Dekim joined him to help. 

"Ugh, it's sticky!!!" Dekim said disgusted. 

"Stink" Dekim added after he smelled his hands.

"Ugh, what is that!!!" Dekim jumped away in fright after the insect crawled on his palm. 

"Put it in the bag quickly, don't mind its movement," Izumi said.

Suddenly, all the insects began to move again after Izumi had been trying to wake them up and observe their movements, but to no avail. Now they were crawling, but with two changes: they were moving in the outside world unrestricted, and their size had grown a little larger.

As the boys continued to gather the insects more quickly in an atmosphere of panic and fear, the crawling speed increased, making their task of chasing them more difficult. An additional obstacle was the grass, which closely matched the color of the insects.