Chapter 7: Sacrifice Pt. 2

"Okay, so run that by me again. What exactly do you plan to do?" Nana Moe asked arms crossed as she gazed up at Doctor Ai in confusion while he walked toward the room Sebastian was situated in.

"It's not a hard task in all honesty and it's not that hard to understand," he groaned, "Okay, make sure you're following. I'm going to go through a transplant with them both."

"Yeah, I follow, but that would make Sebastian a vampire wouldn't it? And Corniellia, what about her? How would she live through this?"

"That, is why you let me finish speaking before you but in," Ai said, rolling his eyes just before he took a deep, sharp breath, "Okay, where was I? Yes, I'm going to do a transplant. Corniellia's body is already beginning to regenerate due to the black blood cells that inhabit her vampiric body. After the regeneration brings her to a stable state, I will then inject a serum that I've been working on for quite a while... It weakens the very same black blood cells that supply them with strength and their connection to chaos."

"So you're going to weaken Corniellia?"

"Precisely. Even though I've never done this before, if my prediction is correct, if they're weakened in an already weakened state, that should lay them dormant for quite a while. That should make her human, at least temporarily."

Moe nodded, her right hand pinching her chin, "So, when you do start the transplant, Sebastian would take these weaker cells?"

"There you go! Someone's been paying attention in biology class. That should at least allow for him to heal himself, without outright making him a vampire. With that in mind, however, I'm not a hundred per cent certain that would be what happens. That's why I'd have you in the room."

"What do I have to do with this?"

"You're a witch Moe, I refuse to believe for a singular moment that you've forgotten your own origins and just how much help you can be in this situation. If this all fails and he does actually start changing into a vampire, you can just... change him back before the process is done," Ai shrugged with a slight smile, "No pressure though."

Moe groaned, her arms folded as a look of displeasure formed along her face. She bit onto her lower lip and shrugged, both her arms falling to her side as she gave up on any form of opposition, "Fine, I'll do it... As long as no one else from the institution is involved... This stays between you and me, got it?"

Ai chuckled to himself as a form of response, using his index finger to gently push his glasses further on his nose as he looked Moe in the eye, the gentle smile from earlier still on his face, "I really don't care nearly as much as you assume I do. I just want to get my job done and leave, you seem to be forgetting this."

***

The air was cold and stiff as a mist slowly settled on the forest-like area. It could easily be assumed that rain had recently fallen, with the leaves still dripping with moisture, with the bark of each tree in the vicinity being a very dark brown, making the dampness that resided in them all the more eminent.

Though muffled by the mudded soil, footsteps could still be heard in the area as the grass rustled underneath each and every step.

"How are we supposed to find anything in this mist?" asked a masculine voice in a tone that carried across the feelings of both confusion and frustration. The voice was deep but not enough to have the bass be as audible as other deep voices would be.

"We probably would've been off this assignment by now if you hadn't been complaining the whole time though!" exclaimed another masculine voice, though this one was much softer than the one that spoke earlier.

The footsteps have come to a stop, the two men standing in the middle of the forest, both of them locking eyes with each other, visible distaste in both their facial expressions. The taller one had bright red hair and was dressed in a full white uniform that had silver linings at each and every edge of it as well as on a crest placed on the right chest of the shirt that resembled that of a wolf's head in a shield. A sword was strapped against his waist with the sheath also of silver colour, blending in nicely with the uniform-like attire he travelled in. His green eyes stared into that of his companion, his gaze being reflected in the other's blue eyes as he looked up at him. His brown hair hung low, almost interfering with his vision as it stopped directly above his eyebrows. He wore a royal blue uniform that had gold outlines on the edges, however, unlike his companion, his clothing did not bear a symbol of any kind. He also didn't carry a sword of any sort, but he wore a magenta necklace that shone in the night's mist.

"Okay, we won't get anywhere arguing with each other for the fifth time today," the red-haired person sighed, his voice matching that of the first speaker.

"You don't say?" replied his companion in a smug tone, turning away from his gaze, "He says this, yet he's the very same person who complains about anything and everything for every bloody minute of the day!"

"Okay Thaddeus, you can calm down now. Let's just get this over with so we don't have to wake up to each other's faces."

"Oh, so we're calling names now? That's what we doing? Okay Reinhardt. How about, you shut up every now and then, and just let me do this job? You obviously don't know how to get stuff done, so you can just sit and relax for the rest of the time. I'll handle it," Thaddeus replied, brushing the sides of his hair backwards and seemingly storming off into the mist.

"Yeah, no. Despite how tempting that sounds, my morale won't sit well with me in that scenario. We were assigned to this case together, so we'll carry it out together," Reinhardt said, his arms folded as he watched his partner walk off in the distance.

"As I said," Thaddeus replied as a mere shadow in the misty forest, "This is a B-class mission and I'm an A-class hunter. I'll be more than fine handling this on my own. You can just sit back and take some credit random credit."

"Are the elders always this difficult to negotiate with?" Reinhardt sighed, resting his right hand on the hilt of his sword, following Thaddeus deeper into the misty forest.

***

"How's she holding up?" Moe asked Ai as he finished up with Corniellia, her body almost fully healed, yet she remained unconscious as Ai held a syringe over her that contained a purple solution. He injected the solution into her body, watching as she reacted to it. Her veins coloured themselves, becoming purple as it spread throughout her body, stopping at the centre of her neck while she winced and groaned slightly in pain. For a brief moment, her eyes opened wide, revealing her bloodshot eyes, with the red being replaced with a similar purplish colour of the solution. Her body shot upward, writhing in complete and utter pain, her screams filling the previously silent room for a few seconds before she fell onto the bed once more, unconscious.

"Did that answer your question?" Ai asked in a monotone voice as he took another syringe, only this time it was empty. He placed the needle inside her arm and started to pull out a decent amount of blood, filling it up before he pulled it out of her body. He flicked the needle and smiled to himself for a short while, walking past where Moe stood. "Now stop worrying, she'll be fine... Now on to patient number two."

Ai quickly walked past Moe into the nearby room that Sebastian was moved to. He looked at the boy and glanced at his vitals for a moment, verifying that he is in decent enough condition before carrying on with the operation. He readied his arm to receive the needle and slowly started injecting Corniellia's blood into Sebastian's body.

Once the syringe was emptied, he pulled it out of Sebastian's arm and eased himself back, watching patiently for any changes to come.

Moe stood at the frame of the door, waiting for something to happen as Ai described earlier. After a few minutes have passed, the location Sebastian's leg used to be slowly filled itself, slowly forming to an identical version of the leg he lost earlier. After giving it a few more minutes for the leg to fully form and for any other wounds to close themselves, Moe moved from the door, flashing her hands as she approached Sebastian's unconscious body.

"It's nothing too hard, just stop the flow of the black blood cells." Ai reminded her, his fingers resting on his forehead.

"Yeah yeah, I know what I'm doing," she scoffed, raising her hands over Sebastian as her eyes glowed a bright, light shade of periwinkle while her hands emanated a faint amount of light.

"That's... off," she muttered.

"What's off? What happened?"

"The cells aren't spreading," she said, utterly confused, "But they aren't receding either."