Disclaimer: Noblesse isn't mine.


I am Tao (Part 53)

"You could have told me, you know." Tao searched through the hospital's phone record to see which students were targeted and cross-referenced the children in the lobby against their student ID cards to separate the possibly infected victims from the pool of potential candidates. "You knew I was dying to do something for that kid."

"I didn't want to distract you from your work." Takeo looked around for something to hold the blood bags, but nothing looked promising. "What you were doing was important, and I couldn't just let the kid… How is he?"

"Seira's watching over all three of them." He set the footage back to locate the students that had already passed through the clinic's treatment process. "M-21 won't leave Regis' side. You know how he gets when he drops the tough guy act. He's doing alright. Regis and the kid are doing about the same. No changes for them."

"At least they're not getting any worse." Takeo took a lab coat from the back of a chair and spread it out on a desk. If he tied the corners, it could work as a makeshift container.

"I'll check on them again once I get this set up." Tao pointed at his computer screen even though his comrade couldn't see it. "I'm going to send an automated message to all the children that the hospital called. Try to buy us some time for the kids that haven't made it to the clinic yet."

"Yeah, it'll be best if they never make it there." Takeo gathered a variety of blood bags and stuffed them into the lab coat.

"Someone's coming your way. Better hurry."

"No problem." Takeo smiled. "I'm fast enough not to get caught."

[-] [-] [-]

"I really don't want to go through with this." She nervously clutched her

white lab coat to her chest. After all that had happened, she couldn't bear to wear the scientist costume anymore. "We shouldn't have come."

"The shot didn't hurt." He slapped his palm against his shoulder to prove the point, but winced as pain flared through his arms. "That much."

"Your eyes are watering."

"It's just these contacts." He pulled his eyelid back, fishing out the contacts one at a time, and displayed the colored lenses on his fingertips. "See? I wasn't crying or anything."

"Your eyes are still red." She leaned in to study the color more carefully.

"They're just bloodshot."

"No, they're turning red."

"No way." He looked around for a reflective surface, and she offered him the mirror in her compact. "Maybe it's an allergic reaction?"

"That wouldn't change the color of your irises, would it?"

"Maybe some of the dye from the lenses…" He snapped the compact closed and shoved it into her hand. "It's just dye. That's all."

"I don't know. It's creepy how realistic it is. You look just like one of the experiments in the comic."

"Mi Son?" A nurse poked her head through the door and smiled at the girl. "It's time."

"I just need a minute." She said anxiously.

"You'll be in the first room on the left. Come in when you're ready." The nurse disappeared, shutting the door behind her.

"Seon, I don't want to go."

"Come on, this was your idea. You'll have to miss school if you don't get the immunization. You know that. It's all over the news."

"I just don't feel right about this. After your eyes…"

"It's just dye. There's nothing to worry about." He opened the door and held it for her. "I already went through it, and I'll take you through it. I'll be right there with you."

[-] [-] [-]

M-21.

He stared at the experiment number on his wrist.

M-21

His fingers traced over the letters.

M-2—

He stopped over the '2' and followed the curve until it jutted out into a flat line. There was something there. He pressed harder until he could clearly feel the outline of an oval under the surface and clawed a half circle in his skin around the object. M-21 squeezed it through the cut and rolled it between his fingers to clear the blood away.

Crombel had left something behind. What was it? Some kind of capsule? He pinched the object between his fingers and held it up to the light. The outer casing was clear and undissolvable if it had remained fully intact for this long. What was it? Some kind of circuitry filled the interior. Was it some kind of a monitor? A tracker?

He snatched Regis' wrist and turned it over, feeling the length of his forearm for a hard bump. The first arm came up clean. Maybe Crombel hadn't had the opportunity to do the same thing to the boy? He grabbed his second arm and twisted it around so that the underside faced upward.

N A-1

M-21 delicately touched the black letters tattooed onto the noble's skin.

N A-1

Crombel's brand. Regis bore that man's brand.

-Vapor


A/N: If you don't remember the kids, that's probably because they have been missing for 20 chapters. Check out "I Am Tao" Chapter 33.