It has been a couple of days since the mixer and Reito goes on to date the rest of the girls. That morning everyone had gotten up and freshened up for the day to have breakfast, an announcement is made by Anastasia.
"Reito-dono had left last night to go up to Sweden to be with Elisa."
"Well that lucky dog, he is finally going to give Elisa his v card," Akane mused.
"But why go all the way up there?" Jason mused.
"Perhaps to set the mood?" Akane pondered.
"How did they get up there in the first place?" Mahiru asked.
"They got a ride up there in a helicopter," Bingbing answered. "First Elisa, then Reito after I told him. I also saw her injecting something into her arm beforehand, so I told Reito about it."
"Do you have any idea what it was?" Jason asked.
"None," Bingbing admitted.
"So now what?" Mahiru asked.
"Now we-" Anastasia began, only to be cut off by Origa whispering something in her ear. "Reito-dono just sent word that Elisa is sick!"
The group gather around Anastasia to speak with Reito as he appears on screen.
"Rei-nii, we just got word! Is Elisa-chan going to be all right!" Mahiru squealed with concern.
"I think she will be," Reito said. "I am about to return in the chopper, but Elisa will not be left alone." As he moves to reveal the Izunami girl behind him. "I am returning to create the vaccine. I cannot talk about it now, but I will when I return. See you all soon."
The screen goes blank.
"Does this mean that he and Elisa did it?" Jason assumed.
"It must since his male hormones are needed in order to provoke an immune reaction to the MK Virus," Akane said.
"W-W-We should get prepared for when Reito returns," Maria said.
"That we must," Anastasia said.
Reito does return to explain the situation to them and why Elisa had refused to mate with him from the start.
"Sterility, eh?" Jason mused. "I don't see why that should be a hinderance for her in the first place."
"But it did not remain a hinderance though," Akane smirked with amusement.
"What?" Jason asked.
"Am I the only one here who can see that Reito-kun got laid?" Akane teased.
"I did the moment he arrived," Bingbing said as she raises her hand.
"Then that means your male hormones are active now," Jason said to Reito.
"That they are, so let us get this vaccine created while we still can," Reito said.
"Did you have any breakfast, Reito-dono?" Anastasia said.
"I had a breakfast bar on the way back and a drink of water," Reito answered, then starts walking past them. "Come now. Time has become important."
Reito and the rest of the group head on over to that medical laboratory and prep for the procedure. They enter the room with the isolation chamber. It is essentially a room within a room, that room being windowed and the size of a walk-in closet with a bed and mechanical arms ending in needles folded up against the walls.
"Wish me luck," Reito said.
"Wait a minute," Bingbing said. "What about Jinshujuan?"
"What about me?" Jason asked.
"Grandmother said that you are the man of metal," Bingbing explained. "In Chinese philosophy, metal aids water. Think of metal pipes and pails that carry water."
"Then how should I help Reito?" Jason asked.
"By having a sample of the MK Virus injected into you," Bingbing answered. "That way we will know if Shuiyuan's heightened hormone levels are what is needed."
"Ah, okay," Jason said.
"It looks like I arrived in time," a new voice said in a Hindi accent.
They look to see a South Asian woman with long bleached hair wearing a short sari-like skirt underneath a lab coat.
"Dr. Ragini Shin!" Anastasia gasped.
"So you decided to help me after all!" Reito gasped.
Ragini walks up to Reito and strokes his face. "You have the face of a man now." Then turns to Jason and strokes his. "But you still have the face of a boy."
"Jason Welsh," he introduced himself to Ragini as he holds his hand out for a handshake.
"Yes, Reito told me all about you," Ragini said as she briefly and lightly shakes Jason's hand. "The immune male from Canada who had been trapped in Japan for the past five years, hiding out at an abandoned inn until Reito and his women found you."
Then turns to the others. "So are we ready to do this?"
"We-We-We have all the cards in our hand now," Maria said triumphantly. "The crystallized form of the MK Virus, Rosalia's glorious cutting-edge research facility, two men who have immunity against the MK Virus!"
"And," Reito adds. "We even have a genius scientist that specializes in vaccine research!"
"That's super genius scientist for you," Ragini said with a smirk and crossed arms.
"We are going to let Jeeson-san go first," Reito said. "That way we will know for certain if male hormones are necessary to invoke an immunological reaction with the crystallized MK Virus."
"That is a good idea," Ragini said.
"So what do I have to do?" Jason asked.
"You have to disrobe and lie down on that table in there," Ragini said while pointing at the table within the isolation chamber.
"You mean . . . take off all my clothes?" Jason winced.
"What's wrong, Jeeson-kun? Performance anxiety?" Akane teased.
"You can keep your pants on," Ragini assured.
"I can go with that," Jason said as he is about to remove the lab coat.
"Do it in there," Ragini said.
Jason enters the isolation chamber and the door is closed. He removes his lab coat and shirt.
"What a lot of leech bites you have, Jeeson-kun," Akane noted. "Turn in a full circle, slowly, with your arms raised."
Jason does so, showing off his torso to reveal a multitude of faint red circles all over his pale relatively hairless skin. Hair that is not so readily noticable since it is blonde.
"It looks like you got dozens of those bites," Akane winced.
"Those are only the bites you can see," Jason said. "I also got a lot of these scars on my legs and feet, and some had even gotten in my underwear."
"Ewww! Stop it! I'm getting all itchy!" Mahiru squealed as she rubs her arms.
"Focus now," Ragini said into a microphone. "Jason Welsh, lie upon the table." Causing Jason to do so. "Okay, now hold still."
There is a moment of nothing happening as a sample of the crystallized MK Virus is loaded into a mechanical needle arm. Ragini studies a screen to line up where she wants the needle to go.
"Okay, here it comes, Jason Welsh," Ragini said and she presses a button. "Hold still."
The needle arm slowly extends and punctures Jason's shoulder, causing him to wince. The needle is removed and the arm folds up in its resting place.
"So how long?" Jason called.
"We will know in a couple of minutes," Ragini said.
They wait. Those couple of minutes seem like a couple of hours.
"So far no reaction," Reito said into the microphone.
"Maybe it takes more time?" Jason suggested.
"I do not think so," Ragini said. "There should have been a reaction by now, such as bleeding from the nose. How do you feel, Jason Welsh?"
"I feel fine."
"Then it proves that a higher quantity of male hormones are needed to provoke the immune system into a reaction against the MK Virus," Ragini said. "But in order to verify that once and for all, I will need a sample of your blood. Again, hold still."
At the push of another button, another mechanical arm extends from the wall to puncture Jason's other shoulder, also making him wince, but this time extracting some blood and soon returns to the wall with his sample of blood.
"Okay, you can come out of there now, Jason Welsh," Ragini announced.
Jason gets up and puts his shirt and labcoat back on, then exits the chamber. He walks over to the group as they are looking up at a screen with blood cells upon it.
"So what are we looking for?" Jason asked.
"We are looking for an immunological response to the virus," Reito answered, then starts pointing out. "Those are your red blood cells, your white blood cells, platelets. And these," as she adjusts the screen via a key control, "are the MK Viruses."
"I see," Jason answered.
"We are looking for your immune system's reaction to the virus," Ragini said. "And so far, there is no reaction."
"You mean I've been a carrier all this time?!" Jason gasped. "Reito too?!"
"You misunderstand, Jeeson-san," Reito said. "Watch carefully."
Jason watches as his immune system goes to work.
"Are my white blood cells . . . eating those viruses?" Jason asked with astonishment.
"Yes, your immune system is killing them off," Reito answered.
"But I don't feel sick," Jason noted.
"The feeling of sickness is when your body begins employing other means of fighting a pathogen," Reito explained. "It happens when your immune system encounters a new pathogen it is not familiar with, so it sends an alarm to your body to provoke symptoms to weaken it to be better able to fight it."
"Symptoms such as fever to weaken the pathogens since they do not like heat," Ragini added. "And chills since pathogens also do not like the cold. Runny nose, coughing, and sneezing to flush out the pathogens. General weakness to focus more energy on fighting the pathogens, resulting in loss of appetite, since digestion takes energy. Increased thirst since fluid intake is easier to digest and to replace the fluid lost through sweating and mucus, or through the sudden voiding of the bowels and stomach, and as a coolant to prevent fevers from rising too high. Symptoms like that."
"B-B-But when those symptoms intensify," Maria also added, "it means that the pathogens are still not being affected by those bodily responses. So our bodies become more desperate in trying to weaken the pathogens long enough to buy time for our immune systems to create the necessary antibodies to combat them. That was why the males died from this. Their bodies overreacted to the MK Virus."
"Oh I get it now," Jason said. "The reason why Reito, myself, and those other three males did not feel sick was because our immune systems could deal with this virus right away without having to make such symptoms appear. Without . . . needing to create antibodies!" His tone rising as his eyes light up in epiphany while pointing at them.
"That is right," Ragini said.
"Yes, it all makes sense now!" Jason rasped upset with himself for not understanding as he makes a clenched fist while looking elsewhere momentarily. "It's because our immune systems were able to destroy this virus so casually without a symptom is because our bodies did not need to create any antibodies against it! That is only against pathogens it is unable to deal with right away! And since there is nothing to take out of my blood to create that vaccine, what you are trying to do is bully Reito's immune system into reacting to it because male hormones will now have his white blood cells spoiling for a fight!"
"Right again," Ragini said, then turns to Reito. "And now . . . it is Reito's turn. Are you ready?"
Reito takes a deep breath and exhales. "Let us do this."
Mahiru gives Reito a hug. "Please come out of this safe!"
The others give him grave looks.
"Wish me luck," Reito sighed.
Reito enters the chamber and the door closes. He removes his lab coat and shirt to lie on the table.
"We will now commence development of the MK Virus vaccine," Ragini announced, then turns to the others. "Well then, I'm going to start."
"Please take care of him," Anastasia fretted.
At the push of a button, the same thing happens to Reito as was done to Jason.
"I can't watch!" Mahiru fretted while turning away to be consoled by Akane.
"It'll be fine," Akane assured her as she stares at Reito in the chamber. "Reito won't lose to the MK Virus."
"Yeah, what you said," Jason mused not understanding what was being said, but getting the sense of the words. "Hey, Maria? What do you think?"
"If we stimulate an anti-viral reaction in Reito-kun, extract the aforementioned protein, and perform x-ray diffraction at the synchrotron radiation facility here, we can convert you Number's defence mechanism against the MK Virus into a medicine and popularize it . . . !"
The sound of a high-pitched repetitive beeping fills the room.
"What's going on?!" Anastasia exclaimed.
"This is bad!" Ragani gasped.
"His pulse is rising!" Maria exclaimed.
"He's got a nosebleed!" Jason exclaimed while pointing ardently at Reito upon seeing blood trickling down the side of his face from his nose.
"It cannot be!" Bingbing gasped while staring intently through the glass at Reito.
"That's!" Anastasia gasped fearfully while staring at Reito.
"An MK Virus reaction!" Ragini stated dreadfully.
"Th-Th-Then," Maria tried to stammer as she clutches her own head.
"At this rate, Reito is," Ragini rasped through clenched teeth, "going to die!"