"How is the blood so structured?" Yamato asked. "Shouldn't it be flowing?"
We all stared into the microscope.
The blood wasn't liquid like normal blood.
Instead, it formed a strange honeycomb pattern.
Running through it were tiny bright-green crystals.
The doctor frowned.
"Is that radium?"
The assistant immediately shook his head.
"No."
He adjusted the microscope.
"It's Eradium."
The room fell silent.
"Eradium?" Yamato repeated.
"A long-lost element."
The assistant's eyes remained fixed on the sample.
"And far more radioactive than radium."
The doctor's face turned pale.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"Because they should be dead."
Everyone looked at him.
"That amount of radiation should have killed them years ago."
The assistant nodded slowly.
"Exactly."
Then a smile appeared on his face.
The smile of someone who had just solved a puzzle.
"I think I know what's happening."
Everyone immediately gathered around him.
"Well?" Yamato asked.
The assistant pointed toward the strange holes on the monster's neck and hips.
"Look at the evidence."
He took a deep breath.
"My theory is that monsters reproduce by transforming humans."
The room became completely silent.
"When a monster bites a victim's neck and pierces their hips, Eradium enters the body."
He pointed at the glowing crystals.
"The radiation destroys the victim's DNA."
The doctor nodded.
"So they should die."
"They would."
The assistant smiled.
"If monster DNA didn't replace it."
Nobody spoke.
"The monster DNA repairs the damage."
"But instead of rebuilding the human..."
"It rebuilds a monster."
For a few moments, nobody moved.
Then—
CLAP.
Yamato started clapping.
Soon everyone joined him.
The assistant scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
"Thank you, thank you."
The doctor suddenly raised a hand.
"Wait."
Everyone stopped.
"If that's true..."
He pointed at the microscope.
"Why isn't the blood flowing normally?"
The assistant grinned.
"Easy."
He tapped the glass slide.
"To conserve energy."
Everyone stared.
"The monsters drastically slow their blood flow."
"That lowers their body temperature."
"Which means they require less energy."
"So the blood IS flowing..."
He pointed at the honeycomb structure.
"...just very, very slowly."
The room erupted into applause again.
"Brilliant!"
"Amazing!"
The assistant looked proud of himself.
Meanwhile, I was completely lost.
"Umm..."
Everyone turned toward me.
"What's DNA?"
The room became silent.
The doctor's eye twitched.
Then he slowly turned toward me.
"Daddy's Nagayas Aulat."
"Oh."
I nodded.
"Makes sense."
"It doesn't make sense!"
the doctor exploded.
He lunged toward me.
"How are you twenty-four years old and don't know what DNA is?!"
Before he could strangle me, the assistant grabbed him.
"Sir!"
"LET ME GO!"
"Sir, please!"
Meanwhile, Yamato continued explaining the theory.
As if a doctor trying to murder me was completely normal.