"What's the status of the boy, Therdirus?"

"Yes, Sir. I have successfully poisoned Echizen Ryoma. I assume he will awaken anytime soon"

"Good. I'll be looking forward to the boy's arrival"

"I will ensure his safety on the way here"

"You do know what will happen if you disappoint me, right?" knuckles cracking sounded through the room.

"Yes, Sir"

"Good. You're dismissed"


Ryoma's bare chest rose and fell steadily to the rhythm of his breathing, along with a steady beeping of the heart monitor.

His condition finally stabilized after a night's struggle between the boundaries of life and death, which also caused a lot of stress to the ones looking after him. One moment he was having an extremely high fever, and the next he would suddenly become as cold as an ice block. He almost kicked the bucket 3 times due to heart failure; luckily Oishi was there to save him, which wasn't an easy task either.

The three didn't even get a chance to close their eyelids as they need to be prepared for what will happen next. But to their relief, the purple shaded area of his skin had slowly diminished throughout the night and now there was no sign of any purple skin near the bite mark. But this only means that either the antidote worked or the poison has done its job.

"I'm beat!" Momo slumped down onto the nearby chair; his eyes were already halfway closed.

"You're not the only one" Oishi exhaled exhaustedly in agreement and sat on the bed that was next to Ryoma's. "And he still hasn't shown any signs of waking up."

"I don't know about you guys but I surely don't wanna deal with that now" Momo said sleepily following with a yawn.

"I have just contacted the others, in case things get out of hand. They will be arriving soon," Fuji walked in while slipping his phone into his pocket. But all the response he got were the snoring sounds that came from Momo, and a very tired Oishi who was nodding off while leaning on the bed frame.

"I guess I'll take it from here, good job guys" he said softly, while putting some blankets, which were used to warm up Ryoma during his icy breakdowns, on top of them.

"Now, for safety measures" Fuji gave a thought and walked out. He came back with his hand holding onto a bunch of steel chains and padlocks.


"FUJIII! How's O'chibi?!" Eiji came half jumping and half running into the infirmary, successfully waking up the three tired Zanteis, followed by Kaidoh, Inui and Kawamura.

"Huh? What? I'm not sleeping! I'm not!" Momo defended himself in his half awake state. The other two just stretched their arms and gave a yawn at the sudden wake up call.

"Fsshhh… you're lucky that Echizen hasn't awaken yet, you lazy peach head" Kaidoh commented.

"What was that?! You tree snake!" Momo, who was now fully awake, argued back.

"Keep it down, you two" Oishi scolded softly.

"Nya! Oishiii! How's O'chibi doing?" Eiji asked again since the first time ended up as a wakeup call.

"Echizen's condition is stable now. But he hasn't shown any signs of waking up yet" Fuji answered instead, seeing that Oishi was still busy trying to calm down the idiot duo who were arguing head to head now.

"Ano… what's with steel chains and padlocks?" Kawamura asked and pointed at Ryoma's direction. This made the people in the room to turn around and actually noticed the chains that bounded Ryoma to the bed.

"Just how many layers of chains are there?" It was surprising that he could still breathe under all that weight of the chains. They eyed the chains and soon saw that the end of the chains was held by a certain person.

"Safety measures" Fuji said bluntly and shrugged when he noticed where everyone's gazes were on. "And in case he wakes up during my nap, the tug of the chain will let me know" He raised his hand which was holding the end of the chain to prove his point.

"Fuji! What are you doing?! That's gonna cause asphyxiation!" Oishi exclaimed while trying to loosen the chains around Ryoma's chest but paused when he noticed that everyone was looking at him in a dumbfounded way.

"I don't know what that means but being fixated on ash isn't that bad, right?" Everyone just stared at Momo in a weird way.

"What?" Momo placed his hands on his hips as an act of protest.

"Congratulations. You've just achieved a whole new level of stupidity" Kaidoh said sarcastically

"What was that?!" Momo glared at Kaidoh. The others just ignored them and looked back at Oishi for a more proper explanation.

"Umm… It's gonna cause an interruption in breathing with oxygen deprivation due to the obstruction in his airways?" Oishi tried explaining but they were still staring at him with the English-please expression.

"He's going to suffocate"

"Oooohh…." They finally nodded and gave a sound of acknowledgement. Oishi just sighed at the scene.

"According to my data, Echizen will be waking up anytime soon. So I think it's best to keep it that way, just in case." Inui intervened when he saw Oishi was going to continue loosening the chains.

"I'm just going to loosen it a little, so that he can breathe better" as the healer of the group, Oishi worried more about Ryoma's health condition, rather than the effectiveness of the chains in holding him down if he goes on rampage.

"According to my data on Echizen's amount of power, there will be an 80% chance that Echizen will be able to break out of the chains if it loosens anymore. With his current strength, the probability that we can restrain him without any casualties in the process is 60%." The data man added. After processing the information that they just received, the regulars all looked at Inui with shocked faces.

"You mean O'chibi is that strong?!" Eiji jumped into Oishi's arms in fear. "According to what Fuji has described to me, yes, he is" Inui answered as if it was a very obvious thing. "On second thought, the chains aren't so tight after all" Oishi retracted his hands from the chains. Inui grinned at his victory.

"So what do we do when Echizen wakes up?" Kawamura asked while giving a troubled look at the said person. It's not every day a Zantei gets poisoned by a Vonkage. Besides Fuji who got the poison removed just in time, this was only the second time that one of the Zanteis they know got poisoned.

"A type A's poison is very deadly, there are only 2 outcomes if it isn't removed in time, either you survive and turn into one of them or you die during the process." Kaidoh stated composedly while leaning on the wall.

"But with the new antidote that I have developed, there is a possibility that Echizen can survive without turning into one of them, but that is if he survives. It nullifies the substance that causes one to change into a Vonkage but not the poison itself." Oishi paused before he continued.

"We almost lost him throughout the night but he is now finally stable, and hopefully he will wake up soon without any mishaps." Oishi explained. "The only problem now is that I haven't actually tried out the antidote yet, so even if he does wake up, there's still the possibility that he has turned and survived instead" he declared solemnly.

"If his eyes are their normal color when he wakes up, then we can say that the antidote worked and we will have nothing to worry about" Fuji continued the explanation.

"And if they aren't?"

"They will be red, like what we see from the Vonkages. This means that the antidote failed and Echizen wouldn't be himself anymore. Well, at least not in his sane state." The atmosphere in the room suddenly became heavy, everyone was on edge after hearing that.

"So that means…"

"We will have to end him if we have to" Fuji said firmly with his icy blue eyes opened.


Me: Yoshh! Chapter 13 done!

Fuji: Wow, first time seeing you post 3 chapters without a long hiatus.

Me: Yup! I broke my own record! *grins proudly* But... My holiday is gonna end soon... =(

Ryoma: So what? You have been away for like... a year? Before you updated again.

Me: Yea, I know. I kinda feel bad and I apologize to everyone for the long wait. *bows*

Fuji: Saa... maybe you could at least reveal what happened to Ryoma before your holiday ends.

Me: Hmm...You know what? I might just do that! Yosshh! One more chapter! Oh! And about the asphyxiation joke , I know it's stupid but I hope you found it funny. Haha =D See you in the next chapter~ *rushes to work*

Fuji: Minna, please R&R and thank you for your support. Yoshiro-chan will be back soon with the next chapter. =)

Ryoma: Mada mada dane~