Yoshimi Seki's 1997 horror manga, "Virus Fang," feels like an eerie foreshadowing of the later coronavirus crisis. The story is set in Japan, where a highly lethal strain of Type D influenza originating in Country T has arrived and begun to rage out of control, causing people to gradually bare their raw egos in the face of the epidemic. Type D influenza was so deadly that infected individuals would vomit blood and die within one to three days. Because there was no cure at the start of the story, people had no choice but to prevent infection using masks and other precautions.
The protagonist, Hitomi Kimura, is a middle school student whose parents run a pharmacy, and she harbors a crush on her homeroom teacher, Mr. Yamazaki. Triggered by the outbreak of Type D influenza, people became obsessed with prevention, and taking advantage of this, high-tech masks advertised as having superior performance were sold at exorbitant prices. Eventually, the infection spread, claiming over 500 lives. Paralyzed by fear, schools and businesses throughout the city were shut down, and the Kimura family's pharmacy also closed its doors. From that point on, the Kimura family was forced into a lifestyle of isolation at home, while siren-equipped vehicles prowled the streets to transport infected people to the crematorium.
Later, Hitomi's mother also became infected and was taken away in a siren vehicle, while one of Hitomi's classmates took her own life with poison out of sheer despair. Her father and Mr. Yamazaki were shot and killed by members of a squad wearing protective suits. Meanwhile, the man who had sold the high-tech masks had also died of the infection. Terrified by the thought that "surviving all alone is even scarier," a despairing Hitomi tried to end her life with the same poison her classmate had used, but she was stopped from committing suicide when she was approached by another young girl who, like her, had lost her parents and friends. Hitomi took the girl by the hand and walked away somewhere.
As a side note, the story mentions that the epidemic of Type D influenza eventually subsided, but the future looks bleak for a protagonist who has lost her parents, friends, and the person she loved.