Our story begins in Germany, shortly after World War 2 ended. A viral epidemic appeared not far from the site of one of the former Nazi concentration camps.
The origin of this virus is unknown (Though it was discovered to be artificial), and, ultimately, unimportant. What is important is the fact that the virus spread like wildfire. Within a month, Europe was completely overrun, and the virus was over a quarter of the way through Asia.
Despite having an entire ocean between them, The virus eventually reached the shores of both North and South America. By years end, only the most remote areas on the planet were free of infection.
Whoever or whatever created the virus made absolutely positive that it could not be wiped out with a simple injection; it stubbornly resisted all attempts at curing it. Some began to think that it was intelligent or even sentient. It certainly seemed that way as it countered, adapted, and evolved to withstand everything thrown at it.
The initial symptoms of the virus were mild at best: a light fever, a red tinge to the skin, perhaps even the occasional fainting. They would last for a few days before they vanished as suddenly as they appeared, though they would always reappear within a few weeks.
As time passed, people began to care less and less about getting it cured and simply accepted it. The illness had steadfastly weathered all attempts to remove it and, apart from routinely making life miserable, it didn't seem to do anything. Moreover, the rising generation had never known life without it and had come to know it as an aspect of life that you simply had to deal with.
Then the second wave struck.
Roughly fifteen years after the initial outbreak, the symptoms began to change. Rather than simply giving the victim a fever, it seemed to infect their minds, causing them to become confused and erratic. People began to black out, usually waking up hours later feeling like a million bucks.
Then a few months after the second wave, the virus changed again. It was mostly the same as the second wave, with a few exceptions. People would go through 'phases' where they would find most of their inhibitions lowered or totally removed, particularly concerning sex.
These phases seemed to come and go like the wind, and had a tendency to appear with the suddenness of a shotgun blast. It was becoming increasingly common for a person to be going about their day, be it working, shopping, or even attending classes, only to suddenly wake up, butt naked, and surrounded by people in similar states of undress.
Children, it should be noted, were immune to the phases, if only the due to the fact that they hadn't gone through puberty yet. The virus, however, tried to change this and in a way succeeded. By altering the body's chemistry, it caused the age and length of the average persons puberty to occur in younger people. By the time it was finished, people as young as 14 were becoming parents.
More than that, however, was the fact that fertility rates were sky rocketing. It was becoming alarmingly common for women to become pregnant and give birth more than once every five years. Multiple children per conception were also becoming widespread, though single children still held the majority.
However, the single biggest change to come because of the virus did not occur until the first of the new generation was born.
Over a third of the children born world wide during that year had physical defects.
These defects ranged from missing body parts, to additional body parts, to parts that were mixed up or, more frequently, some bizarre combination thereof.
Perhaps as a trade-off, The intelligence of the human race as a whole grew at an exceptional rate all its own. Within a decade, the mean IQ was 110 and rising.
The number of the children born with defects grew at an out-of-control pace (ignoring the fact that it was never in control in the first place). By the time the late 70's rolled around they made up roughly 3/4 of the population.
Today only one in twenty children was born normal. Our hero is one of those few. This is the world they live in.
As for our hero...
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(Posted Fri, 20 Aug 2010 05:30)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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