Hiro and Rize returned home, each carrying the ingredients they had just bought from the supermarket.
"The refrigerator is a bit small."
As she spoke, Rize helped sort the food and place it neatly inside.
The cramped space was soon packed full, and the last bit of room was taken up by eggs and milk.
Rize turned and walked into the kitchen, filling the kettle with water to boil. "Hiro-kun, I'm going to make coffee. Do you want some?"
When she did not receive a reply, she turned back and saw that Hiro was already sitting on the sofa with his eyes closed, as if asleep. Rize smiled faintly and did not disturb him.
At this moment, Hiro's consciousness was slowly sinking inward. He focused his mind, trying to verify the guess in his heart.
Suddenly, a flash of light crossed his mind, and in his perception his entire body transformed into countless flickering points of light.
These points varied in size and brightness. About half of them were exceptionally bright, radiating surging energy. These should be the RC cells that had mutated after fusing with Carnage.
He could feel that these cells were far more violent than ordinary cells, and their activity was much stronger.
"Can I control their activity?" Hiro thought to himself.
He tried issuing a command to these cells, telling them to restrain their energy and lower their activity.
At first, the effect was minimal, like a stone sinking into the sea. He changed his approach and concentrated all his focus on a single cell.
Under his full control, the light of that cell gradually dimmed. The originally restless energy settled down and became almost indistinguishable from ordinary cells.
It worked.
A surge of ecstasy rose in Hiro's heart. With the first success as experience, he began to replicate the process on a large scale.
From one cell to an entire region, his control became more and more skilled, as if he had flipped a crucial switch.
He did not know how much time passed. When the last mutated cell was subdued, he felt a wave of lightness throughout his body, as if a thousand-pound burden had been lifted. This increasingly perfect control over his body was something he had never experienced before.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Rize sitting across from him, elbows on her knees and chin resting in her hands, watching him. When she saw him awake, she smiled gently. "You're awake?"
Only then did Hiro notice that there was a blanket draped over him. "How long was I 'asleep'?"
"Hmm, a little over an hour." Rize tilted her head. "If Hiro-kun is tired, you should go rest in your room."
He paused slightly, not expecting so much time to have passed. In his perception, the whole process had only lasted an instant.
"I'm fine." He stood up and walked to the refrigerator, taking out a bottle of milk. He twisted off the cap and cautiously took a sip.
The sensation on his taste buds made his heart race. Although the flavor was still faint, he could indeed taste the sweetness of the milk, and his body produced no rejection at all.
Excitement surged through him. Without realizing it, he tightened his grip, and the milk bottle shattered with a crack.
"Hiro-kun." Rize stood up in concern.
Hiro turned and picked her up, spinning her around once in the living room. His voice was full of irrepressible joy. "Rize, I did it."
Rize was startled at first, then she laughed as well. Even though she did not yet understand what had happened, she could feel his genuine happiness.
After gently setting her back on the ground, Hiro looked into her eyes filled with curiosity and concern. His excitement eased slightly as he considered how to explain this astonishing discovery.
"Rize." He took a deep breath, his tone solemn. "I've discovered a method that might allow ghouls to become closer to humans. More precisely, it might let us enjoy human food normally."
He paused before adding, "Although this method seems very difficult to popularize at the moment, at least in my case, it worked."
"What?" Rize's violet-red eyes widened in shock, as if she had just heard the most unbelievable fantasy in the world.
"Hiro-kun, do you know what you're saying?"
To change from ghoul toward human was a complete overturning of a rule that had stood for hundreds of years.
In the long history of ghouls, there had never been such a precedent. It was no different from telling a myth.
Hiro organized his thoughts and described as clearly as possible how he had delved into his body through consciousness, sensed the violent RC cells, and subdued them.
As Rize listened, the shock on her face gradually turned into a deeper kind of disbelief.
She could understand every word Hiro said, but the implications went far beyond the boundaries of her cognition.
She might vaguely sense the existence of RC cells within her own body, but to precisely control them as he had done. In her perception, that level of difficulty was no less than asking an ant to complete an exquisite basketball game. It was nothing but a foolish dream.
Rize sat quietly on the sofa, her eyes lowered, her long lashes casting a small shadow beneath them.
It was as if she was repeatedly weighing and digesting Hiro's earth-shattering words in her heart.
For a moment, the only sounds in the room were the faint city noise from outside the window and their soft breathing.
Hiro turned and took another bottle of milk from the refrigerator. He twisted off the cap and slowly tasted it.
That long-lost richness belonging to food once again brushed across his taste buds. Though still faint, it was real enough to stir his emotions.
He thought that the fundamental reason for his success was likely his fusion with Carnage. It was that external power that had broken the inherent physiological barrier of ghouls.
For other ghouls, trying to replicate this step would probably be as difficult as ascending to the heavens, perhaps even an absolute dead end.
He took another sip of milk, the cool liquid sliding down his throat.
A bolder and more peculiar idea flashed through his mind like lightning in the dark. He recalled the film. Carnage had been born from a portion separated from Venom.
If that was the case, did the Carnage fused with him also possess the same potential? Could it also give birth to an entirely new symbiote?
What were the conditions for birth? Pure material division, or a seed of consciousness?
The symbiote within him was a "pure" version processed by the system, without independent self-awareness.
It was more like a tool with limitless potential, a living armor that obeyed commands.
He did not know whether a separated portion, after fusing with a host, would become an independent entity or remain under his control.
Nor did he know whether consciousness would be born after separation and fusion.
The idea was both exciting and fraught with enormous risk. It was undoubtedly worth trying, but only under the premise of absolute control.
If he truly succeeded in separating it, only to create a malicious and uncontrollable monster, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Opportunity and crisis, like two sides of the same coin, slowly turned in his mind.