Cross-Beta

Cross-Beta is a fictional sexually transmitted disease, featured in K. M. Hirosaki's Blue Forest series of stories. Its full official name is the Cross-Species Sexually Transmitted Malignant Neuropathy Virus (Beta Strain). Capable of bridging the divide between herbivore and carnivore species, its symptoms include the degeneration of motor functions, dementia and death.

The Duhamel Corporation devised a bloodchecker, a device which, when loaded with mass-produced capsules of specific chemical compounds, can quickly test a sample of blood for infection with Cross-Beta. Many social establishments have a public 'checker available for a fee of one dee.

Several decades before the timeframe of Blue Forest, there was an Alpha strain of the virus, known at the time simply as "Cross," but which is now referred to as Cross-Alpha to distinguish it from Cross-Beta. In the current story timeline, the last known case of Cross-Alpha was over fifty years ago.