(From the last chapter…)

Shigure sat beside Kagura who was now lying on a hospital bed in a private hospital room in the Intensive Care Unit. There was an oxygen mask on her face, dextrose on her left arm, and her eyes were shut tight. Only her irregular breaths and the continuous beeping of the vital signs monitor were the sounds in the room.

"Poor kid." Shigure whispered practically to no one, "She's terribly ill… She's going to die too soon…"

(Chapter 4 – Death Takes No Mercy)

Shigure then remembered what had happened a while ago.

:Flashback:

It so happened that Hatori also works in that same hospital where Kagura was rushed. It was also he who was in charge of her situation.

Shigure sat in the waiting area outside the emergency room with an amount of Kagura's blood on his dark pants, on his white polo and on his blue tie. He was sure that Kagura will soon die.

Then, someone went outside of the emergency and Shigure heard the footsteps approaching him. He was staring on the floor but when he saw shoes and a doctor's robe dangling above these shoes, he looked up and saw Hatori with a surgeon's mask on. There was blood on the mask and on the surgeon's apron he's wearing.

"What is it?" Shigure asked with a tone of uncertainty.

Hatori closed his eyes and sighed.

"No… Kagura… Sh-she's dead…?" Shigure's eyes narrowed.

Hatori lowered his mask and said, "She's safe for now… But her body is in no good condition. Any more sickness aside from what she is suffering right now will mean critical. Even a simple case of fever will affect her whole body system greatly. Kagura is incredibly weak right now… And she only has 2 more years to live… We can't possibly do anything more than machines taking place of her vital organs."

"What do you mean?" Shigure asked, confused.

"I already asked the greater surgeons if we could give Kagura an artificial heart and an artificial pair of lungs but they said her body might reject the services of these machines and might cut her life short to a year or half a year. And there's a 70 risk she'll die from the operation." Hatori spoke in an anxious tone, "Shigure, Kagura is a slowly rotting body."

"Are you sure we can't do anything?" Shigure asked.

"Shigure, if ever Kagura will survive… She needs to go back to this hospital for a monthly check-up and stay here for 2 days. In those two days, medical machines will help her vital organs to do their tasks more efficiently, in order for her to survive for 2 years."

"That's how weak she is now?"

Hatori sighed, "I'm trying my best to keep her alive. If Fate destined her to die in 2 years at the age of 20, that's that."

"Without a child?" Shigure spoke, "Kagura would definitely want a child from Kyo. She loves Kyo and wants to bear his child-"

"Hey body won't be able to make it." Hatori sternly said, "If her body can't keep up with what she wants to do now, what more in bearing a child for 9 months?"

:End of Flashback:

"Too bad Kagura." Shigure said, "I wish that you have loved a better man. If you have not loved Kyo, then… you wouldn't have been in this pitiful situation."

In Kyo and Kagura's residence…

Kyo came home and noticed Yuki sitting on a couch in the living room with a phone in hand.

"Kagura! What's for dinner?" Kyo shouted as he removed his shoes.

Yuki just eyed him with a problematic stare.

"And what are you doing here?" Kyo asked arrogantly, "And what's with the dramatic face? It doesn't suit you, Rat."

Yuki just tightened his grip on the wireless phone and tried to find the right words to tell Kyo.

"Kagura! Get the table ready!" Kyo shouted once more, loosening his necktie.

No response.

"I'm afraid you came home without your wife in this household." Yuki blurted out.

"Then where is she?" Kyo smirked, "You look so smart, could you guess where she is? I bet she's just in the grocery buying some stuff."

"I'm not saying I'm smart, Kyo." Yuki stared blankly at the wooden floor.

Kyo was still carrying his attaché case and went to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and got a bottle of water. He drank from the bottle and placed it beside the sink.

"What is that smell?" Kyo whined, irritated, "Smells like fresh pig's blood spilled on wood."

"You know what, you're right." The rat replied from the living room, "Can you not see a boar's blood on the floor of your kitchen, Kyo?"

Kyo eyed the floor and indeed found blood drying up on the wooden floor.

"Kagura is being careless nowadays. First she left the glass unwashed in the bathroom and now, she left pig's blood on the floor unattended?" Kyo mocked, "She's becoming lazy."

"The truth is…" Yuki told Kyo, "The blood you see right now is Kagura's blood. Kagura is not home. She's unconscious right now in the hospital Hatori-san is working for."

Kyo stopped on his tracks. He was about to go upstairs and smirked, "Stop playing with me, Rat. That Boar's got strong guts. She won't rot that easily."

"If her husband is greatly hurting her heart, how much more damage will her illness cause her, if right now, it is trying to kill her softly but mercilessly." Yuki managed to speak, "Do you want to see your dying wife, Kyo?"

Kyo shivered as fear dominated all over his body, sending spine-tingling chills all over his nerves. His hands sweated cold and trembled that his attaché case fell on the floor.

He then remembers the blood on the pillow this morning, the blood on her dress and then the blood on the floor.

"She is sick… Why didn't I notice that…? Why didn't she tell me she wasn't feeling well…?" Kyo thought.

"You see, Kagura loves you so much, Kyo. She wanted you not to worry, she wanted to protect you." Yuki approached his side, "So she chose to lie. It is a sin to lie to her husband. She has two options: die without telling her husband or choose death over her husband. If she told you, you'll get stuck dead-worried about her. But she'll rather be dead than you worrying about her."

Kyo was still trembling, his eyes shifted gazes on the floor from left and right. Then he stared at his hands, trying to find the answers.

"You still can bring back her purpose of living Kyo." Yuki told his cousin, "She's dying but she's still alive. As long as she's alive, you still have a chance to make her happy as your wife."

30 minutes later…

Shigure stared at the vital signs monitor and eyed the heartbeat readings. The counts were slowing down… Her heartbeat is much slower compared to normal humans. And indeed, that's terrible. Shigure watched Kagura's chest go up and down irregularly as she breathed through the oxygen mask. He also eyed the bag of blood suspended high from the bed with a tube running down from the bag and into a small hole on her right arm.

He noticed the darkened rims just below her pale eyelids with its veins visible in a light purplish color. Her face was pale and there was a discoloration on the lining of her lips. Kagura's lips were also light purple. She looked like a corpse still moving.

Then, someone barged into the room with a swift opening of the door.

It was Yuki and Kyo.

Kyo nervously walked to the side of Kagura's bed and his eyes hovered over her corpse-like features.

"Kagura… what happened to you?" Kyo thought as he set his eyes upon hers, her eyelids tightly covering them.

TBC…