Hehehehehhehhehhehhhh… It's Scene 20!! :D

Thanks, Shoko-Chan, for reviewing, and I do have an average of 2 reviews per scene, even if there's only one review last chapter. But if there's no two review average after this week, I don't know what- Actually, I'll just keep reviewing. I know there's non-reviewing fans out there. Heh.

Thanks to everyone who faved and alerted and reviewed and liked and read and criticized and etc. etc. etc. about the story. I know it was writer's block induced, but now I'm out of that, and this story is going to be awesome. And I mean awesome. xD

Here's the votes, though I don't think they changed, didn't they? No… Well, I'll just not post them since they haven't changed for the last few chapters…

Please, please review and vote!! Happy Reading!!

:D

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"Kaia?!"

She perked up at this, recognizing Soto's voice. But she remained in bed, under the covers; it might not be Soto that's at the door.

"Kaia? Kaia!" the voice became louder and louder and closer and closer, so much that Kaia couldn't stand it any longer. At last, the door to her room slammed open, and a searching voice called, "Kaiashi!"

"Kaia!" repeated the same concerned voice. "Kaia, come out! Kaia-" A hand pulled on the blankets and dragged them off of Kaia. Soto frowned.

"What were you doing in there?! You know that your mother would murder me without a second thought if something happened to you?!"

Kaia just looked fearfully up at Soto. The Cloud Guardian could tell she was trembling, and obviously madly frightened of something. He breathed an exasperated sigh. Kaia sat up at the edge of the bed.

"Kaia, are you sure you're okay?"

"I-I'm fine…" she whispered, averting her eyes. Soto caught that, sensing an air of dishonesty.

"Kaia, look at me," he said in a commanding tone. Kaia did, and Soto repeated slowly, "Are you okay?"

Kaia looked away, without an answer, the single word stuck in her throat. She was afraid of saying the truth, and Soto frowned, knowing his job was getting harder by the second.

"Do you want to see a doctor?"

Kaia shook her head. Never again would I go back to that horrible place, Soto…

"Oh-okay, then, um, Kaia, I'll call one of your Mom's friends, okay? She'll probably know what to do." Kaia looked up to Soto fearfully.

"She'll be here in a few hours, so I want you to, um not alarm either of us anymore, okay? Here," Soto took Kaia by her arm and led her out to the living room. "Sit down; I'll get you something warm to drink." He sat Kaia down on the couch and wrapped a blanket over her. He left shortly after.

Kaia looked at the door Soto left through then looked elsewhere. The outside interested her more than everything else in the room; unlike the inside, the outside moved, spoke, made noises. Kaia was extremely interested in the goings on outside.

She smiled.

"Ah, Kaia, here," Soto set down a cup of tea, "Drink up; it's good." Kaia turned her head to face Soto, and took the tea, warming her hands with it. Kaia's eyes were locked on her hands; she didn't want to see the concern of Soto's face. She knew the other reason why Soto was taking care of her; not because her mother would kill Soto for not taking care of her, but because Soto was her mother's best friend. Soto wouldn't want to cause grief to her mother, of course.

Soto sat down next to Kaia, and looked as if he wanted to say something. Kaia didn't acknowledge him, so he decided to speak up, like when all of his teachers used to say to him at school.

Speak up…

"Um, Kaia," started Soto, but he was at a loss for words. "What…do you think…is…wrong?" He leaned in to try and see Kaia's face. Kaia glanced at Soto and barely whispered:

"Prolonging…suffering…"

Soto fell silent. Though Kaia probably has something up from her injury in her head, it showed that Kaia's logic section of her brain wasn't damaged. Yet. He was happy about that. But about her answer – if she was suffering, was it a sin to help her live on?

"I-I'm going to call your mother's friend now, okay? Your mother's still very busy, though, so she isn't going to be back in quite a while…" Soto detected a ghost of a sigh from Kaia, but he nevertheless stood up and left Kaia to her thoughts.

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There you go, scene 20!! :D

Thanks to everyone, again, and the fans that keep on coming back to read~!

Please review and vote – I want to make sure that people are okay with the pairings: Mukuro/Kaia [and a Hibari twist?], Gokudera/Kaia, Yamamoto/Chrome, Haruka/Hibari [but I probably wouldn't write that much about them, since they're not that much in the spotlight – and it leaves space for the imagination to explore possibilities. :D]. Any other pairings I forgot to mention, just vote, or tell me what I forgot. I just wrote down what I remember was on the votes list.

Wait, I could have just put the vote list up… Oh well, readers, just look back to scene 19 headnotes for the votes.

Thanks again everyone~!

Have an awesome life, everyone, and good luck to those testing~!

xD