"Are you almost finished?" Saya asked her little sister, who had spent quite a bit of time working with the clothes she had been given, as well as the torn up dress.
"Just about." She responded, surprising her with how normal and responsive she was being.
"I guess she can act a bit normal." Saya thought to herself.
Though this was hardly the kind of activity you would see most people doing in their free time.
However, considering most people hadn't been alive since the 1880's, hadn't experienced what it's like to be a "vampire" and haven't stayed a "child" their whole life.
After they'd finally stopped hugging each other, which had been quite a while, Diva had immediately gone to work on some sort of new outfit of hers.
Personally, when this was over, Saya was expecting that she would have to just go and get her sister some new clothes and tell her not to "modify" them.
Luckily, Haji had left the room for them when they were embracing each other, so at least Saya didn't have to feel embarrassed about Diva being fully nude as she worked on the clothes.
As the tearing and cutting continued, Saya's mind drifted off to thinking about how to go about things now.
They couldn't appear to be as close as they were now. At least not at first, so that her objectivity couldn't be doubted. The only reason the two had grown so close in the past hour was because she was sure Diva was not responsible for Kai condition.
"Speaking of that, I have to find out how he's doing as soon as possible. He's too stubborn to die easily, but I still want to check on him." Saya whispered to herself.
"Saya?" Her little sister asked her from the bench she had been sitting on.
Her eyes blinked, and she was looking at the world again.
"What is it?"
As she paid attention, Saya could see that Diva had in fact not done a bad job altering the clothes. The bottom of her dress, which had become almost like a miniskirt after all of the tearing, was worn on her lower body, while the dress shirt had been torn so that it could be tucked beneath the skirt without making it bulge.
Somehow, her little sister had made a tie as well and while she had absolutely no idea how her normally air-headed-like sister knew how to do so, the tie was around her neck, beneath the collar. Though it looked more like it belonged in a schoolgirl costume in college than on an agent.
She now looked like some sort of school-girl. Of a non-innocent nature if she was the critic.
"Diva! How can you wear something like that! The skirt doesn't even reach close to your knees! And the tie! It makes you look-"
Her baby sister began giggling and it took a moment before Saya realized why.
She had just been lecturing Diva on her clothes.
The big-sister "scolding" had been the first one she'd given to Diva ever.
With a sigh, Saya smiled while Diva finished giggling.
"It doesn't look bad though, right?" The long-haired girl asked her.
She shook her head.
"It doesn't look bad. It just looks a bit…inviting."
Diva took a suggestive pose which made Saya blush and go after her to make the childish girl stop acting in this way.
She just knew Diva was doing this simply to bother her.
Eventually she caught up to the girl and got her by the wrist.
"It's dangerous to run around when the floor's wet." She told the girl who began giggling again as they say down on a bench and she helped comb her sister's hair, if only with her fingers.
Though their non-aging bodies kept issues such as dandruff from becoming problems they did occasionally need to run their hands through it to keep the thing managed. And Diva being the childish girl she was, of course there was never any "time" or desire to properly take care of her long black mane of hair.
However, Diva wanted to keep the little "wisps" of hair that stuck out here and there so Saya left it alone. But not before licking a finger and taking care of one last little problem.
"Ew! Saya! It's like you spat on me!"
She became flustered and told her not to overreact- as her little sister began to giggle again, apparently having been joking.
"You're so serious!"
Deep breathing was the key to get through this situation without messing up Diva's hair completely to get back at her and she told her sister that they needed to go now.
"We can't act as friendly as we are now around other people." She told her, keeping her voice calm and controlled.
Nevertheless, it didn't keep Diva from sniffling and putting on a sad expression.
"You mean, you have to be mean to me?" She asked.
Saya shook her head, hoping this wouldn't get out of hand.
"No. I can still be nice to you. But we can't act as friendly as we are right now. Running around and playing."
Her sister's whole upper body slumped and her long hair seemed to cover her much like that big cowl had all those years ago.
"You mean…we can't be sisters."
She sighed and pushed her way across the bench and pulled her little sister's head down to her shoulder, the girl eagerly accepting the supportive gesture.
"We'll always be sisters, Diva. Even when we were fighting each other. That never changed. Not ever. It's just that if we act around everyone else like we have in here, people will start to question if I can be trusted to guard you. You don't want to go back into that cell do you?"
The head shook itself, Diva not even giving a verbal answer.
As much as Saya wanted to stay here like this as long as Diva needed, they both knew that the longer they remained together like this, the harder it would be for them to act differently once they left the security of the room.
So she pulled her sister away and placed a kiss on her forehead before raising the girl's face to look at her own.
"Don't worry. We can still act like this when others aren't around. It's just when we're "out"."
Diva nodded her head sadly as she wiped beneath her eyes to rub away the beginnings of any tears, and they separated completely.
"Then why don't we just go back to our room and stay there the whole time?" Her sister offered.
"I have to go see how Kai is doing. After that maybe we can go back to my room. Though I'll have to leave to meet with Joel and the others."
At the mention of the word "Joel", one of Diva's hands twitched.
"Yes, let's go see how Kai's doing. I want to know too."
Saya nodded and they both stood up, heading for the door that exited the showers.
The world was black.
He didn't know why, but everything was just solid darkness.
He felt something, like a hole, in his chest, but couldn't really feel any pain. Nor could he hear, smell, touch or taste anything else.
It was like the instant it took for a bullet to pass through your body, or for a sword to pierce it; you feel something you never experience in real life.
Your body isn't as it should be, and yet it doesn't feel strange. You feel the air blowing through the tender area, the inside of your body never having sustained the bitterness of how the actual world can be.
Then his eyes opened and he thought five words.
"What a load of crap."
Kai had always tried his best not to get too philosophical. It just wasn't his style.
Actions do more than words. At least most of the time. But he'd always explored his own philosophy of life simply by interacting with the world around him, as opposed to being cooped up in a room somewhere pondering what the "meaning of life" was or anything else like that.
Of course, this didn't matter all that much to him when his eyes went from pitch-black darkness to bright-grey walls with lights all around.
Needless to say, he didn't enjoy the transition all that much.
Instantly his eyes snapped shut and Kai groaned at the realization that he had to wake up now.
"Can't be lazy anymore. Too many things to do." He told himself while pushing up off of whatever he'd been lying on-
-and was immediately pushed right back down by soft hands.
Kai forced his eyes open, if only so that they were squinting, to look at the person who'd nudged him back down.
He instantly recognized Saya's beautiful, but always seemingly-troubled face above him.
"The doctors say you aren't healthy enough to get up yet. Just rest and wait." She instructed him, as if it was supposed to be as easy as it was simple.
"Heh." He responded, bringing an arm up to go through his hair, since it was really all he could do.
As he did, Kai remembered what happened and looked back at Saya again.
"Saya, is she…"
His sister shook her head.
"No, she's fine now. Though I didn't want to let her come in here, since I was sure she would jump on top of you and open your wound again."
Kai started to chuckle a bit, but stopped as the vibrations caused his chest to tighten.
He must have been on some sort of painkillers, because it only felt harder to breath, as opposed to there being an immense pain in his chest.
"So she's not locked-up anymore huh? Glad to hear it. I thought for sure you were going to do something after what you saw."
Her soft smile lowered to a neutral expression as she pulled a small chair up beside the bed and sat down in it.
"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that, if you can."
His hand came back down to rest at his side.
"I'm fine. What did you want to know?"
"Well, first off, was it her who did that to you or was it-"
"Alessandro. The chiropteran king, or whatever he likes to call himself. Yeah, it was him."
She nodded, seeming glad that Diva hadn't been the killer.
"He came after us and drank the blood of the guards who came with us, and then came after the two of us. I tried to stun the guy but he was pretty tough. Not even a grenade was enough to make him stop coming."
Even Saya, with her decades of experience fighting chiropterans, was surprised at the news.
A grenade wasn't enough to kill any chiropteran, but usually even a strong handgun could at least stun them.
"Saya… I can see why you're so worried. It looks like nothing short of a nuclear bomb could take this guy down."
Kai wasn't normally a pessimistic person, which probably proved to Saya just how strong he was.
"He drank mine and the others' blood to make it look like Diva had done it. That way, you would kill her. Or something else… I don't know what his problem is, but the guy's picked her out for some reason."
Saya bit her lip for a second, seeming to wonder why Diva had, in particular, been where his hate was focused.
"So," Kai started, having had enough of the dreary talk.
", when can I get outa here?"
She gave an attempt at a smile.
"You still need to stay a while longer. From what I've heard, the wounds will go away, and it's safe to walk around without opening them, but you still need to replenish your blood. Otherwise you might faint."
"Yeah." He conceded, admitting to himself that he'd felt dizzy just by trying to push himself up.
"Well, try to do okay without me, huh?"
She frowned.
"I can take care of myself just fine!" She said, in a pout.
He felt himself give a tired smile.
"You haven't acted like that for years." He stated, seeming to surprise her.
"I-" She couldn't manage a whole response.
He closed his eyes.
"It's not a bad thing. And it proves something else."
She leaned in somewhat.
"What?"
"That you two can live together."
She swallowed while backing away. But managed a relieved smile.
"Thank you, Kai. It means a lot."
"Silly girl. You don't have to thank me for anything."
She nodded.
"Thank- I appreciate it."
He opened his eyes again.
"Go on. Go have fun with her."
After a moment she nodded appreciatively and put a hand on one of his.
"I'll see you again soon."
Kai nodded.
"Yeah. Don't worry. I'll be fine in no time."
Her hand squeezed his before she moved away and left the room, walking like she was weightless.
I'm not really satisfied with the ending of the chapter, but I suppose there doesn't absolutely have to be a dramatic closing to all of them.