Post-Battle Fever.

"All right. What did you do this time?"
The Office Dork glared at me from above.

"Me?" I shot him a seductive smile, "Nothing!"
He pinched the ridge of his nose, "Miss Carlyle, in my five years of experience as administrator in Rasheul **** Tournament Office, I have never seen nothing turn a contestant inside out! What... Did... You... Do?"

"All right, all right, cutie. How about you help me up first. I'll be more than happy to give you the full scope, once I'm standing..." My eyes wandered to between his legs, "...Erect, mmm."
He made a sound, something between a sigh and a groan. Something any seasoned mad scientist is used to hearing.
I thought he was gonna leave me on the floor, for a moment. Just to keep staring at me disapprovingly. But he did extend his hand towards me. Eventually. Slowly and carefully. You'd think he was deliberating on whether to stick his hand into garbage.
Was he expecting me to bite his hand or something?
Listen, if I got my longing hands on him, biting should be the least of his concerns.

I attempted to raise my hand... And it worked! Felt like it was screwed on backwards from how clunky it was, but it lifted off the floor. Somehow.
I took his hand with mine. Then took it with my other hand, enveloping it as if I held on to the rarest treasure. My fingers roamed over the contours of his knuckles, stroking them sensually.
Did he always have hands that nice?

He cleared his throat and averted his gaze.
Oh, right. I was supposed to be getting up.
I pulled against his strength. With the odd stumble, I rose to my feet. Step by step, I found my footing. I couldn't really tell whether my legs were solid or puddy though. No idea what'd happen once I let go. I kept hanging from his hands, imagining us engaged in an erotic dance where I strutted around him.
Turns out my legs wobbled like a pair of unicyclists in a tug-of-war, but they actually held. Mostly. I lowered myself bit by bit, until I held on to him just as a token gesture, in case I was going to collapse. Soon it became clear I wouldn't, so I let go.
Weak and wobbly as I was, that was a far cry from being paralyzed, even though the effect of the venom lingered in my body.

"Heal all injuries my ass..." I grumbled.
The official rubbed his hand off his trousers, "Nothing is wrong with the spell, miss Carlyle. Your injuries are healed. Your stamina is restored. What it can not do, as I am sure you have noticed, is to destroy or remove foreign matter from your body. Such as the toxin, in your case."
I pretended to lose balance, coming toppling into less-than-waiting his arms. I looked up at the dork with an apologetic, yet enticing, smile, "Ah... So it fixed the damage the poison did to my nervous system, but the poison itself still roams through my veins, right? Hmm, should I be worried?"

He gripped me by my shoulders, forcefully yet carefully guiding me away. He held me down firmly, as if attempting to fix me to the floor.
"By no means, miss Carlyle. Most of the dose was consumed in the Arena already. The worst damage has already been done and healed. Besides, we've confirmed miss Hebi-san's venom is, in fact, benign. You have shown nothing but all the regular symptoms: Paralysis, sensitivity, confusion and..." His eyes glanced at my leering eyes from above his glasses, "...Excitement. They should go away with time then. You do have a full free day before the finals. We can presume you will have completely recovered by then. Wouldn't you say so, miss Hebi?"

He peered over his shoulder, looking towards the Snake Lady. There she stood as she had this entire time, scowling towards me. Sure was as grumpy as I've ever seen her, but she looked much better off than last time.
"Who careth about that poithon?" She snapped, her arms crossed, "We demand to be briefed on what in all the Continent happened to Uth back there!"
"Indeed so, miss Carlyle. You have quite a bit of explaining to do." The official settled behind his desk, gesturing to a chair in front, "Take a seat. It seems we'll be here a while."
"I thought you'd never ask!" I kicked off my feet and planted my curvy posterior upon the desk in full view of the startled office dork. I crossed my legs, leaning towards him.

He groaned, shifting the chair away from my dashing, shimmering figure, "I presume you used another kind of poison, correct? But... How come I didn't see you use anything like a container or distributer."
"Right," I crossed my legs, flicking my hair over my shoulder, "That's cause it's not quite a poison. More like a virus, you see?"
"What ith thith... Viruth, of whicthh you thpeak?"
I glanced between them. None of them seemed sure what I was talking about.
Right. These guys didn't have a theory of pathogens.
How fun.

"So, it's like this teeny tiny bug. Much smaller than any bug you've ever seen. In fact, it's way, way too small to be seen at all! You literally wouldn't know if you looked at it. Can't make little baby-bugs on their own though. They have to find a strong, virile host, such as yourself! They then turn your body into a factory to make more bugs!"
The official blinked, staring slack-jawed at me. His glasses slipped down to the tip of his nose.
"WHAT!?" The Snake Lady slammed her hands on the desk, "You uthed thomething like that on me!? Thomething that pickth me apart by the theamth tho it can make more of itthelf!?"

I chuckled, "Not quite. Viruses normally don't work like that. Had to tweak it quite a bit to make it make the body eat itself. Some viruses are more dangerous than others, sure, but normally they just make you feel hot, weak and get a runny nose for a while. Along with the occasional sneeze."

"Like... Like a cold?" He pushed the glasses back to the ridge of his nose.
"Exactly like a cold!" I confirmed, "In fact, that's the reason we get diseases such as the common cold! Usually it goes away by itself. Your body drives out the virus, and it has to find somewhere else to go. Someone literally within spitting distance of the infected."

The official looked back at the Snake Lady, shuffling his chair away from her carefully. She gasped at the indignity, looking back at him, angry as well as hurt.
"Thith ith prepothturous! We will not be treated like some filthy peasant who smells!"
"Yeah?" I smirked at her, "Then maybe it's your personality that needs to be fixed!"

"Ladies, please." The official said, "Miss Carlyle, I do not know the nature of this... Virus. But you described it as a bug. Then by all means, you should not have been able to use our teleporters to bring them with you to the Arena. They are specifically restricted to a single piece of organic material."

...Can you believe that cutie?
He hadn't listened to a word that I said!
"Like I said, the 'bug' turns your body into a factory to make more bugs. All I had to do was infect myself, then contaminate her in the Arena!"
"But... But," He stammered, "Then the virus would disintegrate you yourself!"
"Nope! Cause I'm a human, and she's a galmon... A virus doesn't have to affect different species the same way! I specifically made it so that it'd be deadly for Galmon. When humans are affected on the other hand, they'll be find. Nothing worse than what amounts to a common cold."

Sniff.

All color drained from the official's face as he looked at me horrified, "That... That sounds like genocide."
"You sound like genocide!" I retorted.
"Carlyle!"
No doubt he tried to muster a sense of finality and authority in his voice, but just sounded like he was about to cry. Looked like it too.
"This time you've gone too far!" He flipped his glasses up and buried his face in his palms.
"Aww, did Little Old Ally get your feelings hurt?" I leaned in to him with a mock pout, playing with the locks hidden in his five dollar haircut, "It's not like she actually wanted to eradicate an entire species. But see, if you didn't want me to use any weapon, you shouldn't have made it a rule that all weapons are allowed."
"...Little Old Ally still has to obey the Free Cities Laws convention on warfare and genocide."
"You say that. But come on! Surely I'm not actually the worst contestant you've got? You've got a literal devil running around here. Not to mention an apocalyptic overlord. And then there's Goldfish Knight... I'm sure you know as well as I do that he's not just some self-righteous asshole with a cute butt. That guy's got his fair share of skeletons in his closet. So... Did I really overstep my boundaries? Or do you just enjoy giving me the special attention?"

"But... That's... Ugh..."
The Tournament does like to present itself as open to all races, nations and creeds; where the only thing that counts is battle prowess. No doubt each side is guilty of their fair share of unspeakable atrocities, all in the name of the color of their banner. But in the Arena that counts for nothing. All that's supposed to matter is battle prowess.
Which is good, of course. But it's a different story entirely when it comes to science. It's true that it's not any kind of ideology, and shouldn't be treated as such. The downside of that is that, unlike ideologies, no one doubts science should be restricted on what it should do and how it should work. By kneejerk reaction, everyone thinks science has no value in and of itself, but simply gets its value in service of whatever ideology the big-whigs decide is in fashion.
Let's leave the horrific atrocities to those who claim to have all the answers, shall we?

"...You, uh... Have a point. I guess." The official tugged his collar, "Guh... And here I thought the Devil of Lust was going to be the worst I'd have to worry about... Oh, how naive I was."
"What...?" The Snake Lady spat, "NO! Do not agree with her!"
The Snake Lady pointed at me accusingly, "Thith ith an outrage! Thhe crafted diabolical new weapon to bring Our kind to the brink of annihilation! We demand... DEMAND you lock up her and her 'viruth'! Throw away the key! Then maybe... Maybe our kind will be free to roam the thurfacthe happy and free!"
I shrugged, "Sure. Sounds like a plan to me. Not gonna lie, it's probably best to let me out only when we can be absolutely sure there's no risk of further contagion. So... What about you?" I glanced towards the Snake Lady, giving her a challenging smirk from on top the desk.
"What about Uth?" She folded her arms, "We have done nothing wrong."

...Right. Except for forcing innocent people into slavery.
"Sure. Not yet, at least. But the moment you step outside, you could well be taking the virus out to the big wide world. You heard my litte boytoy over there; the Arena magic only heals external wounds. It can't actually remove the virus."
"That... That ith prepothterouth! There ith nothing wrong with Uth! We are fine! Outraged, perhapth, and mortified over meeting my end in thucthh a humiliatingly cthheap trick. But if I thtill had the infection I motht cthertainly would be able to tell!"
"She... Has a point..." The official rearranged his glasses, "If she was still infected, wouldn't she fall apart like a gross heap, like before?"
"Exactly, We... HEY! THERE WATH A CTHHANCTHE THOMETHING LIKE THAT COULD HAPPEN!?"

"Of course not!" I tried to sound soothing, even though the amusement in my voice was clear as day, "You've already had the virus once, haven't you? And your reward for surviving thus far; your immune system now has an impervious defence against the disease! Congratulations! Not that it means you can't infect others though. So what about the other ba-gillions out there whose bodies never even heard of that virus, who might be infected when getting within spitting distance of you?"
"...Look, that will not be a problem. We will be ever tho careful. No one take tho mucthh ath a thtepth in to Our royal thpatche. There will not be a cthhancthe that thith bug of yourth flee the domain of our body before it hath been thqueezthed out of exthithtencthe."
"Oh, I have no doubt you don't even have to try getting out of people's way. Still, all it takes is one misstep, and we won't know that someone got infected. Or that the next guy the newly infected one meets got infected too. We'd be thinking we quenched the virus once and for all, until it's too late. All I'm saying is, if this virus at some point in the future becomes a catastrophe for all Galmon, then now was the time to **** it out before it could do any harm."
"But... You're the one who created it." The Snake Lady hissed.
"Be that as it may," The official sighed, "What she says does make sense. We have to treat this new threat with the severity it deserves. Until we can confirm that you are in fact virus free, we confine you to your room, and..."
"Oh, no, no, no, nope!" I cut in, brushing off that idea with my hand, "What? You wanna see if the virus will end up having a party on her slaves? She's got Galmons galore locked up back there! Not to mention all the humans who could still spread it around if given half the chance! Haha, but no. She and her key gotta stay somewhere she can be kept under proper quarantine. You've got somewhere secure? Somewhere void of both humans and Galmon?"
"I, uh... Ahem... N-no?" The official stammered, straightening his glasses, "Well, except... There is the basement. But...The tentacles in there can get a bit... Touchy-Feely down there."

...I'd like to think I've got quite the poker face going on. Still, back then I'm fairly sure they could see my smile from space.
Operation Chocolotastic was progressing far better than I could ever hope.

"Oh... That... Does sound unfortunate." My expression probably only looked less serious when scrunched up in a grimace in an effort to suppress my smile, "But... We all need to make sacrifices for the greater good. We're talking the survival of an entire species over here."
The official nodded, "I see... Yes, I see your point. Miss Hebi-san... I regret to inform you that..."
"Thtop!" The Snake Lady waved her arms in a hysteric fit, "Thith ith inconctheivable! You are taking her at her word? Her!? When thhe by her own admithion created a plague to annihilate Our kind!? Over Uth, a beloved and rethpectable Queen of the realm? No!"
The Snake Lady stomped her foot, "We thhall not thtand for thith! Thhe ith obviouthly trying to get back at me! That ith all thith ith! How can you not underthand thhe ith pulling your thtringth becauthe I took the very thlaveth you and your Tournament gave to me juthtly? Lieth and thlander! That ith all thith ith! Nothing thhe hath thaid hath even the remotetht thhred of proof! I will not, I thay, not be made victim of thith vile cthharlatan'th dectheit! Thith ith an outrage! It'th an abomination! It.. It... AAAAHH-CHHOOOOO!"
The Snake Lady rubbed her finger under her cute little nose.
The sneeze wasn't exactly loud enough to shatter mountains, but the dork almost fell off his chair.
He and I shared knowing glances, then looked back at the Snake Lady.

She looked looked pleadingly up at him, but he shook his head...