Haruka was perplexed.

-What the hell has happened?- she thought while going to Michiru's bedroom. However, she wasn't too worried. Michiru was always crying for anything.

When she entered the room she remained astonished, staring at the girl laying on the bed. It took her a few seconds to realize it was Setsuna; that painful figure was really different from the fascinating one she remembered. She came closer and called her name but she got no answer. Her eyes became full of tears.

After a couple of minutes Michiru arrived and said:

-I've called Mamoru. He will be there as soon as he can.-

-What has happened to her?- Haruka asked with a low voice.

Michiru told her everything, and Haruka started weeping too, her heart beating faster and faster. It wasn't possible that someone they consider (and thought they were considered by) a friend could fell so seriously ill without them even imagining it.

-Things can't be so terrible, she would have called us if she had been really in difficult.-

-Are you sure?-

-Of course I am. Maybe she's got just a bad flu and she is too weak to talk.-

-Don't be silly! Do you think that a flu can make someone look like a ghost?- Michiru answered angrily.

Haruka shoot up. She was right. She stared at Setsuna's bloody face, at her dark eye-tips, at her closed eyes: she really looked like a deadbody although she was breathing, even if hardly. It was so surreal.

-It's just a nightmare, it must be.- Haruka thought. She usually was a woman of fact, a pragmatic person, but this time she was resourceless, she didn't know what to do for the first time in her life.

She observed Michiru washing blood away from her friend's face. No reaction at all. Time seemed to have stopped.

Suddenly, the bell rang. When they opened they saw Mamoru waiting. He noticed them crying and followed them upstairs without a word. When he entered the room his expression changed. He came closer and put two fingers on her neck to check her heartbeats.

-Was she unconscious when you found her?-

-Yes, she was.-

-From when?-

-I don't know.-

-Do you know what kind of symptoms did she showed? When did she start feeling bad?-

-I don't. I haven't seen her for more than three years.-

Mamoru looked her into her eyes.

-Neither have I.-

-I think that nobody has.-

He took some instruments off his bag and put a smart machine into her left ear, then put it out after a loud ring.

-Help me taking her shirt off. I want to visit her.-

They did it and they became able to see what the shirt was hiding. Michiru almost stopped breathing and she had to sit down. Her arms and chest were covered with bruises and sores. They checked her legs and saw they were martyrized the same way.

Michiru was so shocked that she felt sick. She run out of the room and saw Haruka sitting on the floor in front of the door. She sat beside her, waiting. After a while, Mamoru came out.

-So?-

-I don't know exactly, but it's serious. I want to hospitalize her.-

-The Queen doesn't want to.-

-Why?- asked Mamoru astonished.

-I don't know, but maybe she knows something we don't. We must trust her.-

-Well, I'll try to do the tests without bringing her to hospital.-

-What did you find out?-

-First of all, she's seriously underfed and dehydrated. It's crucial to rehydrated her as soon as possible. Secondly, she's deadly weak. It seems that strenghts completely left her, I haven't ever seen something like that. Her heart beats too slowly, too, and I don't know why. It is difficult without talking to the patient or to someone close to him that knows his conditions. However, what really worries me it's the temperature. It's 40.9.-

He breathed deeply.

-She could be unconscious because of fever, but there's another possibility. If the temperature hadn't raisen down for more than a week, it could have damaged her brain permanently.-

-Are you saying that she could remain vegetative for her whole life?-

-I can't exclude it.-

Michiru wasn't able to say nothing. She was wordless.

-I'm going to the chemist's and to my surgery to take some drugs. Now I want you to bath her and medicate her cuts, most of all are angry. Use this to disinfect them and then band her arms and legs.-

-What about those cuts and bruises?-

-I don't know about the bruises, but I'm sure aboute the cuts. These are typical self-mutilations. She made them by herself.-