Chapter 79: Mutation Part Four

"Alright, everything is set up, Shogo you get out and go shower." Mia quickly kicked Shogo out of the room leaving only her, Ai, and Eiji. Shogo looked back at Eiji who was washing his body with a rag and let out a sigh as he walked out of the room closing the door behind him.

"You should not have acted like that." Mai said as she began undressing Ai. 

"I know. I will talk to him later. I am just frustrated because I couldn't stop anything from happening. I didn't even see when Ai was infected by whatever it is that is in her now." Eiji complained. He felt weak. The girl he set his eyes on was now lying on a cot with a high fever, unconscious, and there was nothing he could do to help her.

"Eiji do you like Ai?" Mai asked. She was busy wiping down AI's body but when she heard Eiji talk, she felt that Eiji was overly concerned for Ai, someone he had just gotten to know. So the only thing she could assume was that Eiji liked Ai. But she felt like this was not so much a bad thing but a good thing. Mai felt Eiji was a good guy and has proven as such so far. She just hoped that if they do get together he would not hurt Ai down the road.

"Mmm…. But I know she has no interest in anything like that right now, so I will just let things take its course. Please do not say anything. I do not want things to become awkward between us." Eiji did not want to scare Ai off. So he would just wait, wait until she would accept him. 

"I won't but… I will tell you this. If you ever hurt her, I will kill you. She is the only family I got left in this world. She means the world to me. So if one day she does accept you I will give you two my blessing." Mai was speaking honestly and from her heart. Ai was her sister, mother, and father all in one. They relied on each other to live and will also do so in the future.

"You have my promise. I will never hurt her. I'd probably die by her hand before I do!" Eiji let out a chuckle which only lasted for less than a second before letting out a long sigh.

"Ai is strong, she will pull through I am sure. Ai has always been a fighter, someone who does not give up. As you get to know her, she may open up to you and you will find out about the real Ai." Mai finished putting the hospital gown she prepared on to Ai before covering her with a blanket. Once that was done, she got a temperature reading and wrote down the reading before putting an ice pack on her head. 

"Okay, she's dressed. Her temperature is high but it is within bounds of what a human can deal with. Watch her for me while I go give instructions to Yoshi. I put a bedpan underneath her so if she does go to the bathroom call me right away. I will come back and clean it up. I can't have you doing that or you will end up dead when she wakes up I'm sure. But if you can, wipe her face for me with a rag if it gets too sweaty and change out the ice packs with a new one if it goes warm. I shouldn't be long, but since I have no idea what this thing is, I do not want to risk it. Also, I am trusting you, so do not do anything that would make me lose my trust in you." Mai was giving Eiji the benefit of the doubt and from his actions so far he was not the kind of guy who would sneak a peek at a girl's body while she slept. At least she hoped so anyway.

"Don't worry, I do not want my eyes dug out and used for your experiments if I did anything that would make you lose trust in me." Eiji said jokingly, causing Mai to smile. Mai quickly left the room and tossed her gloves and mask into the trash outside. She then pulled off the scrubs she was wearing over her clothes and tossed those away as well. 

Eiji walked over to the cot and sat down on the stool next to it and gently tucked a stray lock of hair behind Ai's ears. He then took a clean cloth from the tray and began to gently dab the sweat from Ai's cheeks. 

Mai found Shogo with Yoshi in the command room with the two girls. They were both staring at the monitor in front of them. "What's going on?"

"Shogo told me what had happened, so I figured I would check to see if I could spot anything on the camera. Luckily it was not damaged in the blast. After going through it slowly, I finally found something. Look here." Yoshi pointed at the screen. 

It was a slow motion image of Ai right after she had cut herself. As the images went frame by frame, a purple liquid could be seen shooting out of the mutant and on to Ai's finger. "I could be wrong, but it seems this fluid entered Ai's cut. Because as soon as it touched her finger it disappeared and Ai faints."

"When I looked at her blood, there were purple cells eating or more like mutating her other cells into more purple cells. Unfortunately, I am not knowledgeable enough to know what exactly it is since I have only been studying medicine for a short time now. Even today was my first time drawing blood. All we can do is keep an eye on her. Yoshi, Shogo I will need to count on you two to make food for us all. I will be with Eiji watching over Ai." Mai wished she knew more about what was happening to Ai but at least they have an idea of what the cause was, but now it was what was going to happen to Ai. She couldn't stop herself from feeling very worried.

"You can count on us. We will deliver it once it is ready."

***

If you are not reading this at [W.e.b.n.o.v.e.l .c.o.m.], then the content you're reading is stolen! Please support the author at [w.w.w.w.e.b.n.o.v.e.l.c.o.m./.b.o.o.k./ito-ai-a-new-dawn_17791889705928505] remove periods for address since some sites monitor warnings like this.