Type-V mutant

Type-V mutant is a term used in the Battle Angel Alita: Last Order manga to refer to humans who are infected with a retrovirus called the V-virus. The virus causes mutations in the DNA which result in the carriers exhibiting vampire-like characteristics, most notably pronounced canines and a thirst for blood. However, they are not vampires in the classic sense of the term as they do not exhibit many of the characteristics traditionally associated with vampires. Nonetheless, they are regarded as such by the rest of humanity. The origins of the V-virus have not been made clear, but Type-V mutants have existed throughout human history. Only in the late 20th century did advances biology reveal that vampires were humans who had been infected with the V-virus.

Characteristics
Type-V mutants suck human blood, are resistant to injury, and possess eternal youth, but have many characteristics that defy the common perceptions of what a vampire is. Among these are the abilities to go about in daylight, eat regular foods (even garlic depending on their tastes), and cast reflections in reflective surfaces. Type-V mutants cannot transform themselves into creatures such as bats, do not need to rest in coffins or be surrounded by their native soil at night, and are not immortal, as they can die or be killed.

Interestingly, Type-V mutants can get sunburned or form stigmata if they are devout Christians when confronted with a crucifix. They gain additional abilities in the forms of physical strength and heightened senses, and depending on the individual, may also gain unique powers, particularly if they live long lives. This is because they experience additional states of “Altered Shock” that grant them these additional abilities if they survive them. Because they lose their reproductive abilities, the only means of creating new Type-V mutants is to infect more humans. Nano-infused antidotes can prevent infection, taking the form of, for example, a piece of candy that Caerula Sanguis shows to Aga Mbadi when she confronts him in a secluded hallway on Ketheres.

While infection can be achieved through bites, the chances of an individual surviving the transmission of the V-Virus are extremely low. The body goes into a state of what the Cognate term “Altered Shock” for 70 hours, during which the victim experiences hallucinations, agonizing pain, a drop in blood pressure, convulsions, rigidity, and stupor. The survival rate is 1% among healthy individuals, and almost all children and the elderly die. A factor that may impact the survival rates is the temperature, as it decreases if this rises above 25° C during the onset of symptoms. The levels of growth and sex hormones are also thought to play a factor.

Means of death
After having survived Altered Shock, there are only three means left by which a Type-V mutant can die.

Suicide
The suicide rate within ten years of infection can be as high as 60%. Because their thirst for blood (“carnivorous aggression”) becomes marked, infected victims are afflicted with psychological anguish, as they are faced with the need to fill this thirst. If they were unwillingly infected, they turn to moral or religious reasons as a means of suppressing it, and the change that has come over them may prove unacceptable. Unless they are willing to think nothing of taking lives, they cannot continue to exist as Type-V mutants.

Disease
Type-V mutants are prone to disease, in particular cancer, and cancer rates are 30 times normal within the first 50 years of infection. This particular susceptibility is likely due to the ageless cell division that their bodies undergo. The cancer rates however, drop 100 years after infection. A Society superstition held that once an individual reached 200 years of age, their likelihood of death was practically nil, barring conflict with other Type-V mutants.

Murder
The Society will take necessary action against Type-V mutants who enjoy killing too much if they are unable to confine or shelter such individuals, usually by terminating them. Conflict with other Type-V mutants can also result in death once an individual is experienced and skilled enough to kill proficiently and not draw too much attention to themselves. Vilma Fachiri was targeted by assassins sent by the Society in their bid to gain control over Asia, but was able to kill them all.

The Society
The Society was formed in the 17th century by Type-V mutant elders in response to Christian persecution throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. It served to organize Type-V mutants worldwide, teaching them how to integrate themselves into human society and not draw attention to themselves with excessive violence. Members of the Society referred to themselves as “the Cognate,” as the term “vampire” was considered derisive. The Society became influential enough to wield political influence, primarily in Europe. It also attempted to gain power in Asia, but this was short-lived, as it was destroyed by the Catastrophe in ES 55, when a giant meteorite impacted Japan and wiped out civilization, causing a prolonged impact winter. Victor Bryon, the Society’s last known leader, survived, along with a handful of other Type-V mutants including Vilma Fachiri. Subsequent events over the next 60 years or so, resulted in her being the sole surviving member of the Cognate left. By ES 173, after Arthur Farrell had established Star City, the future site of the Scrapyard, the truth about Type-V mutants has been lost to legend, and they have again become the vampires of folkore.

Caerula Sanguis/Vilma Fachiri
Originally born in 1808 as Vilma Fachiri in Transylvania, Careula became a Type-V mutant at an undisclosed time, after which she left her homeland and relocated to the Far East, where she eventually settled in Hong Kong. After 700 years, she is a martial artist whose only peers seem to be Alita and Trinidad. Caerula fights with dual jian, but is also extremely skilled in hand to hand combat. Although fully flesh and blood, her long history of combat experience enables her to anticipate her opponents' moves, and a unique ability she has a result of being a Cognate enables her to see actions during a fight in a sort of slow motion, even to the point of being able to see bullet trajectories, thus nullifying any speed advantage a more cyberized opponent may have over her. Caerula is first introduced as the chairman of the Stellar Nursery Society, a small faction that operates within the main asteroid belt. They enter the Z.O.T.T as the GUNTROLL team after their asteroid base is destroyed by the Jupiter Union and they are unable to gain asylum from the other asteroid nations. However, she has a much older history, including being on Mbadi's ill-fated mission to Pluto. Her taken name, Caerula Sanguis, is Latin for "blue blood," as in royal blood.

During Round 2 of the Z.O.T.T., Caerula takes the field after Qu Tsang is defeated by Alita, in order to give the Stellar Nursery Society enough time to escape to Mars, where they have been granted asylum by the Mars Kingdom Parliament. The fight between Alita and Caerula is a close one, which Alita only wins because Caerula diverts one of her swords from killing Alita at the last second, taking the opportunity to give her one of her earrings which contains Fata Morgana, the secret program which can unlock Melchizedek, and which Ping searched for himself for 100 years but was unable to find. It appears initially that Careula has been killed, but when Mbadi later visits the participants’ morgue, he finds Caerula’s body gone and the desiccated body of the attendant in its place. The event however, does not surprise him, as he is the only one at the time who knows Caerula better than anyone else.

More of Caerula’s history is discovered when Alita, Ping, and Nova dive into Melchizedek using the Fata Morgan program.

Victor Byron
Another Type-V mutant and Vilma's husband, Victor was a knight during the Crusades and has been alive for more than 1,000 years, becoming a Type-V mutant after he was hanged as a human for an unspecified crime. He is the last surviving leader of The Society, although his followers have dwindled to a handful of Type-V mutants who roam the snow-covered post-apocalyptic world. Victor is a skilled swordsman, but his real abilities lie in being able to withstand devastating amounts of damage that would kill any other Type-V mutant many times over. After having gone through and survived numerous states of "Altered Shock" due to his prolonged age, Victor can increase the hardness and durability of his body surface until it reaches a near impenetrable armored state. He won the previously recalcitrant Vilma over when she challenged him in ES 32 in Hong Kong by being able to withstand nine attacks that she threw at him in an attempt to kill him. Realizing that she had been defeated, she was unable to make her tenth attack.

Based on his experiences, Victor distrusts all humans, and sees Type-V mutants as wolves who prey on human sheep. Following Zapolska's death and as he and his followers migrate from place to place, killing and eating the humans they find and then moving on, he is content to continue this existence until the Type-V mutants are the only ones left on Earch, after which he would kill Jacco and Morse, eat them, then die together with Vilma. Indeed, Vilma is the only other Type-V mutant Victor cares for more than himself, as he nearly committed suicide in his grief and depression after Vilma disappeared, and was willing to sacrifice Zapolska to demonstrate human treachery to Vilma. He also threatened to kill anyone who insulted her when Jacco questioned his motivations for leading them into the trap set by Keiran Farrell and left it up to Vilma whether to choose them or the humans.

Jacco
Styling himself as a cowboy, Jacco is a skilled gunman who wields dual Glock 17s in combat, although he also has a knife. The main problem he faces in the post-apocalyptic world is how to maintain and replenish his ammunition supply. In spite of this, he prefers to stick with guns. After Vilma’s prolonged disappearance, he is disgusted with Victor’s lapse into deep depression and contemplates challenging him for the leadership of the Cognate. Victor’s willingness to kill him after he insults Vilma when all the Cognate members save her are trapped within Farrell Shelter and her forcing Victor to swear not to kill Keiran and John Farrell make him distrustful of Vilma, and he takes her later meeting with John Farrell more than 50 years later as a sign that she plans to betray them. Jacco tries to kill Arthur Farrell, but his shot is skillfully blocked by Vilma. He then fights her, forcing her to close on him to bring her sword to bear. Vilma is unable to block all his shots, but Jacco looses his footing on some icicles, which causes him to cease firing for a split second. Vilma exploits this with deadly effect. She knocks his guns away, and before Jacco can fire two backup pistols he has concealed in his sleeves, cuts his arms to pieces before decapitating him.

Morse
A huge man, Morse is blind, but has exceptional senses of hearing and smell. Physically powerful, he wields a club that appears to have been a former street sign, as it is composed of a metal pole with a large concrete slab at its head. Morse also pulls the sled which contains the group’s provisions and supplies, and can kill a mutant human as large as he is with a single punch to the face. Loyal to Vilma, he barely prevents Victor from committing suicide as a result of his depression and grief at her disappearance. While out hunting, Morse is targeted by Arthur Farrell, who manages to skillfully put arrows into the tendons between his muscles and kill him at range, thus emerging from their encounter unscathed.

Zapolska
His faced totally swathed in bandages, Zapolska wields a pair of knife dusters in combat. He has a brain tumor that appears to have recently metastasized, as he thinks that his long dead daughter Eliza is still alive. This suggests that he is the one of the younger surviving members of the Cognate. When they are invited to have a meal in the Farrell Shelter by Keiran Farrell, Zapolska is the first to fall on some food set before them, but Victor stops Morse and Jacco from eating. The food turns out to be poisoned, killing Zapolska. Victor knew that they were being led into a trap, but uses Zapolska’s death to demonstrate to Vilma that humans are treacherous and cannot be trusted.