Splish.

Swish.

Splish.

The sound of water softly splashing.

Hushed voices were gradually registered. Two of them, coming from somewhere to the left. Female-pitched, seemingly, but not with complete certainty. Too muffled to be sure; even if Kyali did understand Japanese, she would not have been able to decipher the words.

Smooth movement against her skin. On her torso. Her legs. Her feet.

Another splash, sounding larger this time, coming from the space in front of her.

Something – fingers, it felt like, five small points of pressure – holding her right arm. What felt like a wet cloth ran over her skin. Down her outer arm starting at the bone of her elbow, then from the crook of her elbow to the inside of her wrist, ranging from light pressure to something more like soft scrubbing.

Her head rested on a hard surface, as did her back, propping her up in a slightly inclined sitting position. The surface under her head was cold, but the one at her back was slightly warmer.

It slowly occurred to Kyali that she was immersed in water. The water was cool – not too cold, but comfortably so. Its coolness was refreshing and soothing against her limbs and body, and from where the water lapped at her collarbone as its surface was disturbed. She was no longer stuck in the miserable contradiction of being both too hot and too cold, like she had been the last time she was awake.

Also, the nausea was also nowhere to be found, for which Kyali was very grateful. She was still thirsty, but not with the overwhelming dryness as before.

Water. Scrubbing.

(Oh. I'm being given a bath.) Kyali realized.

She wanted to open her eyes, and see where she was and who the voices belonged to. But her eyelids were heavy and felt glued shut, and when she tried to open them, they did not respond to her commands.

The voices talked on, the cloth scrubbing at various parts of her body. Despite not knowing exactly where she was and who was handling her while she was in such a vulnerable, exposed state, the thought of protesting didn't even cross her mind for a moment.

She was still so tired, and at the same time, somewhat restless. It was like her limbs wanted to move, but did not have the energy. The cool water felt so good, so relaxing, especially against her heated skin, and Kyali couldn't help but succumb to the sensation, feeling herself begin to fall back asleep.

Fingers were in her hair now. Not yanking and pulling like the recent times before. They ran along her scalp soothingly, with slight tugs – but not painful ones – whenever their movements where obstructed by tangles. Kyali couldn't help but let out a small, barely audible sigh at the feeling.

That was the last thing she was aware off before she drifted off to oblivion.

Mika turned a page from the papers in his hands. The young, blue-eyed half-vampire was sitting at his desk, reading the forms he had gotten from the scientists who had been involved with the human prisoner.

Well, she both technically was and technically wasn't a prisoner; she was still here in Sanguinem as a prisoner of war – the war which Krul had declared mere days ago – yet Mika had released her from the dungeon and was now keeping her as a…well, as a "ward," so to speak. At least for the time being.

Earlier, he had summoned a doctor to take a look at her, as well as two women doctors to bathe her and dress her in clean garments.

- 1 hour earlier -

The older male vampire stood over the human girl who was lying on the bed. He was dressed in very much what Mika imagined a regular human doctor would wear: white scrubs and hat, complete with a stethoscope that hung around his neck. Some of the tools Mika recognized, while there were others he had never seen before. Granted, he had only been in the human-run world for his first eight years, and vampires had more advanced technology than they did.

It had been surprisingly easy to find the older vampire and get him to come with him, after explaining that he had a sick human he wanted him to look at. Apparently, it didn't take much arm-twisting after all.

The man had recognized him, of course – everyone in Sanguinem did, practically, who had spent any amount of time with Krul, and the doctors were subject to an inspection every now and again, to make sure they were doing their jobs correctly or to receive new orders. Mika had found him in a section near the blood-collecting facility – he'd had to skirt past young children on his way there, many of them lined up just has he had years ago, and boy was that not a sight that was easy to stomach – simply approaching the first man in uniform he had seen.

As he did, Mika had spied two women doctors to his right, farther into the room. Going to them would have been preferable, of course, but those two were having meal and chatting over glasses of blood – probably on lunch break or something like that – and he couldn't interrupt that, especially not since their patient would be a human. Asking them would have to wait.

So, for now, the male vampire would have to do. The doctor had given the teen a once-over, looking him up and down, and once Mika had finished telling what he wanted, simply nodded and followed after him.

"Thank you for coming." Mika had said as a polite formality when they stepped into the room.

"Of course," the man had answered. He had then gone to work.

The doctor was now rechecking the girl's temperature, calculating her pulse, opening her mouth and checking for swelling or redness, listening to her breathing, and various other things that, since Mika had no medical knowledge whatsoever, save for the very basics that were common to everyone, were lost on the blue-eyed boy.

The raven-haired girl was still asleep. The red blanket had been taken off of her to give the doctor better access, and now was in a haphazard heap on the bed to her right. If the older vampire had realized the human was dressed in a military uniform, he didn't comment or give any indication.

She didn't stir at all as the man worked, although her breathing hitched and her brow creased minutely every now and then, as if something unseen were causing her discomfort.

Finished, the male vampire stepped away. "She has a high fever of 39.5°C. No sign of bacteria or viruses, although she does have an abnormally high white blood cell count; it seems as if her body is having an allergic reaction to something foreign that somehow entered her system. She has quite a bit of bruising, but those are nearly healed, so they are nothing to worry about. She is also very dehydrated." The man looked at Mika. "Will you be the one providing her with care?"

There was a simpler way to say all that, but Mika supposed doctors were all the same in that regard, whether they were human or vampire.

Mika nodded. "Yes."

The doctor leaned down, reached into his bag, and pulled out a transparent, pink-colored bottle with measurement markings along the sides. "This is medicine to bring down the fever and keep her immune system from being overworked." The man handed the medicine to Mika, and the teen took it from him and set the bottle down on the nightstand. "She is to be given the indicated amount every two hours, for as long as the symptoms persist. Make sure she drinks plenty of fluids, as well. If her condition worsens, you know where to find me."

Mika nodded again. "Yes. Thank you."

The doctor hummed in reply, picked up his bag, and left the room.

When the door snicked shut, Mika turned back to the prone form on the bed. He picked up the bottle of medicine and read the label carefully, before unscrewing the cap. It would be easier to wait and do this when the girl was awake, but there was no telling when she should wake up, and Mika didn't want her to get worse in the meantime; her fever was already higher than it had been when he had checked it himself in the prison cell.

No; she needed the medicine now.

Mika slid his free arm underneath the ill human's neck and shoulders, so that her head was resting in the crook of his elbow. As she was unconscious, he would have to take extra care for her not to choke. Propping her up into a semi-sitting position, Mika put the bottle against the girl's lips, which opened slightly at the contact, and poured the dose of medicine into her mouth.

Much to Mika's relief, the girl swallowed reflexively when the liquid pooled at the back of her throat, although she grimaced slightly in her sleep at the taste. The blue-eyed teenager gingerly laid her back down on the bed and white fluffy pillow – which, from the dirt and grease in the girl's hair, wasn't so white anymore – and slowly slid his arm out from underneath her.

Both hands now free, he screwed the top back onto the medicine bottle and placed it back on the nightstand, his gaze finding the plastic water container. It would be best to go ahead and give the girl more water now, too. He opened the container and repeated the process as when he gave her the medicine, except this time, there was no grimace on the girl's features.

Lowering her back down once more, he replaced the lid on the water container and put it back on the nightstand, next to the medicine. His eyes glanced up to the clock on the wall. (Those doctors should be finished by now.)

Now that a doctor had seen her and she had been given medicine, the human really needed a bath and change of clothes. He would need to get the clothes beforehand, though.

Mika debated for a moment. He could get a simple livestock uniform dress to clothe her in, minus the collar and bands, of course. Or, he could get some regular clothes, perhaps some pajamas that other vampires sometimes wore when they felt like sleeping, even though they didn't really need to sleep.

Dressing the girl in a livestock uniform might stave off unwanted attention that had the potential to be attracted otherwise. But Mika wanted her to be comfortable, and it wasn't as if she was going to be wandering around, anyway. She was in his care, so technically he could clothe in whatever he wanted without raising too many questions. And if there were any questioning, well…he was a weird vampire, after all.

That settled it, then.

After tucking the girl in the blanket, Mika went clothes hunting and found what he was looking for: a set of pajamas, just about the right size. They were a white pajama shirt and pants. A little frilly, but not too fancy.

Now that that was done, he just had to ask those two women doctors he had seen earlier, or others, if he couldn't find them.

- Present -

He had found the same women doctors from before, now finished with their meal. It had taken some verbal arm wrestling and a mention of his status in relation to Krul to get them to come with him. Which both surprised and didn't surprise him, what with how easily the male doctor had come with him and Mika's first thoughts about having to twist the doctor's arms to look at ill livestock.

The two of them had trailed close behind him, side-by-side, as he'd led them through the streets, into his living quarters, and to the bedroom where the girl was kept. Mika had instructed them to bathe her in the adjoining bathroom – "Be gentle with her," – and then dress her in the pajamas that he had previously folded on the foot of the bed, to the far right of where the girl was laying.

The women had nodded and said various versions of "Yes, sir." Then one had untucked the human from the blanket, narrowing her eyes for a moment but making no comment on the girl's uniform, and scooped her up in her arms, cradling her as one would an infant, while the other doctor had taken the folded clothes. Mika had watched them until the bathroom door shut.

Afterwards, he had gone and gotten the file on the information that was currently known about the girl. He had gotten the expected sideways looks, but no one had argued with him, and he was given the forms without complaint.

Being the vampire queen's "pet" was worth something, he supposed.

He now sat at his desk, flipping through the pages. There really wasn't much to go on. A few bits of information he already knew, and a few others he hadn't known but weren't much use to his mission. Or that least, didn't seem to be at the moment. Mika read over the pages one more time, filing the information away in his mind, just in case it revealed itself to be important later.

Name: Unknown

Gender: Female

Age: Unknown, mature adolescent; Est. 16 – 18 years

Huh. That was a surprise. The girl looked younger; if Mika had reasoned a guess, he would have said she was about fourteen, simply from her appearance and petite stature.

Status: Member of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army; Rank: Corporal

If the vampires didn't even know her name, how did they know her military rank?

(Probably from her uniform.) Mika reasoned. He read on.

Blood Test Results

Blood Type: O -

Viral Infections: negative

Bacterial Infections: negative

Blood Diseases: negative

Autoimmune Diseases: Eczema

(That's probably what those rashes are from. I wonder why the doctor didn't mention them. Maybe he knew what they were already and thought they weren't anything to worry about. I'll have to find out what that is, exactly, so I know what should be done about it.) His eyes then jumped to the next line.

Allergies: Strawberries

(Okay, so I won't offer her any of those.) Not that Mika could remember the last time he actually saw a strawberry.

Seraph Gene: positive; inactivated

Evidence of Receiving Experimentation: positive

Those last two lines caused Mika to grit his teeth in anger. How dare those horrible humans….

But that was the very thing that gave him the chance to find Yuu in the first place: the girl being in the same situation as they were, Mika reflected, cutting off the first train of thought. He shook his head to clear it. He needed stay calm about this, however hard it may be.

A knock on the door pulled the teen from his musings, and he looked up from the paper, turning his head toward the sound. He settled the file neatly on his desk, then got up and opened the door. Greeting him on the other side was one of the women doctors.

"The human has been washed and redressed." The woman informed him, her tone surprisingly pleasant.

Although, perhaps it was not so surprising. The walls of the building were not thick enough to block a vampire's super-human hearing, and the sounds from the bathroom next door had seeped in to his bedroom. For half an hour, up until about fifteen minutes ago, Mika had had to hear the women titter about how "cute" this livestock child was, and how it was a shame, really, that it was ill, and that it had to be kept in a dark, underground place such as here. It appeared not all women lost their sentimental-ness once they became vampires.

"Do you want her old clothes cleaned, or discarded?" The doctor in front of him continued.

It would be best to keep them, if the girl was going to help him find Yuu among those in the military. "Washed and returned." Mika answered.

"Very well."

"And how is the human doing?"

"She's sleeping in the bedroom now."

"Thank you," Mika answered. "You and your partner may go."

Being dismissed, the doctor bowed respectfully, then went on her way.

Shutting the door, Mika turned back to his desk to put the forms away, hiding them in a drawer, underneath other papers and items. He would at some point return them to the people he had gotten them from, but in the meantime, Mika didn't want the cleaning staff, or any snooping vampire – such as Ferid; he wouldn't put it past that creep to wander into his quarters and stick his nose where it did not belong – to find them.

File secure, Mika left his bedroom to go check on the human girl. It was about time to give her the medicine again, anyway.

When Kyali awoke, she was laying on something soft. The relaxing coolness of the water was gone. Instead, something soft and warm was wrapped around her, covering her feet and tucked over her shoulders.

She blinked open her eyes; they weren't so heavy anymore, and she didn't have to struggle with the action. Right after she did, there was something hard underneath her head and shoulders, and Kyali felt her upper half being lifted. Through her blurry vision, she could see a pink bottle, and a person with blond hair.

The bottle was pressed to her lips, and the contents poured into her mouth. Her tongue curled at the disgusting taste, and she grimaced and turned her head to the side to get away from it.

"I know it tastes bad, but you need it to bring down your fever." A male voice said, his tone coaxing.

It was the same voice as before, that soothed her nerves and reassured her, telling her not to be afraid, when she was given water and her chains were broken.

A shift in movement underneath her turned her head back to front-facing, and the liquid was tipped into her mouth again. This time, she didn't turn her head away, though Kyali still grimaced as she swallowed the foul-tasting substance. The owner of the voice told her that she had a fever, and that she needed this to bring her temperature down. It would be foolish to refuse it.

Luckily, she didn't have to force down much. The bottle was soon pulled away, and her upper body was lowered back onto the soft surface – a bed, her mind told her. She registered that the surface underneath her head felt softer and plushier; it must be a pillow.

She heard a quiet, plastic screwing noise and a quiet thud on her left; the person…no, the boy, because that's what he was – with a high chance of being a vampire, but Kyali didn't want to think about that – must have closed the medicine bottle and set it down off to the side.

(Where am I?) The raven-haired girl wondered. (Am I still with the vampires?) A rescue wasn't exactly plausible, given the nature of the vampires being so overpowering to humans, and the fact that no one had seen her be taken. But if she was still with the vampires, would she be treated so well as she was being treated now?

She was about to ask, when her upper body was being lifted again, and a liquid – water this time – was put against her lips. Remembering her thirst that the medicine did very little to sate, Kyali sipped the water greedily, relishing at the cool stream that filled her mouth and ran down her throat.

There was no protest when the water was taken away; with the water and the medicine, even though the latter was a small amount, she didn't think her stomach could handle anything else, and she really wasn't thirsty anymore.

"Where…?" She tried again to ask. But talking was more effort than she thought it would be, and her voice came out a soft whisper, slightly raspy from disuse.

"Shhh," the boy hushed her, and she felt cool fingers on her forehead. "You need to rest. Save your questions for later. You're safe. Just sleep for now."

It was true; she was tired, and the speaking attempt just sapped at her meager energy supply more. She closed her eyes and sighed, the muscles exhausted from being held open, and not long after, her awareness slipped away.

Soft breathing filled the room. Mika sat in the chair he had pushed next to the bed. He brushed at the girl's hairline idly, watching her as she slept. The girl was breathing much easier now, deeper, especially now in the natural way that came with sleep, and no longer labored.

Her fever had lowered a little bit after the bath, and after the fourth dose of medicine, had lowered a bit more. She had been awake for it, and seemed more coherent than last time; she even tried to ask a question, though the effort seemed to exhaust her. She had not protested Mika's urgings to rest, and she had fallen asleep moments afterward.

The progress was slow going, though; her fever was still high: 38.4°C. A few minutes ago, not long after the ill human had fallen back to sleep, Mika had gone to the bathroom and wet a washcloth under the sink tap, ringing out the excess water. He'd then come back to the room and laid the damp rag on the human's forehead.

Hopefully that would help.

It was still a little while before he had to drink, and report to Krul – he couldn't disappear for long before she wondered of his whereabouts. And he couldn't push himself to his limit like he often did. Not with a human under his care.

He sat there a bit more, listening to the sound of the human breathing, her soft, now clean hair under his fingertips. He wondered, for a moment, what would happen if – when – he found Yuu. What would happen to the girl; if she would stay with them, become a new family member – though he wasn't quite sure if that idea appealed to him or not. Still, using her and then abandoning her just would not do.

It was too early to think about that.

Finally, Mika got up out of his chair. With one last glance at the sleeping figure of the girl, he left the room and locked the door.

Of course he would run into Ferid Bathory. Why wouldn't he?

And, also of course, with the snooping creep he was, being especially insistent on tormenting Mika in whatever possible way he could find to do so, he had somehow found out about the human Mika was keeping.

That vampire's name ought to be turned into a curse word, Mika thought with conviction. Describing only the most disgusting, filthy, horrid of things in existence.

"Oi, Mi-kaaa!" The older man called to him, coming up beside the younger male as he walked. He lowered his voice, as if he were entrusting to Mika a treasured secret. "I heard you were keeping a human in your chambers. It wouldn't happen to be the prisoner that was brought in a day ago, would it?"

"'You heard'?" Mika deadpanned, keeping his face neutral. "And where did you hear that from?"

Ferid didn't answer the question. "Or," the man continued, "could it be that you finally caved in to your thirst for human blood? Drinking from the source is illegal, you know, but of course I'm in no position to rat you out, so I would look the other way. You can tell me."

The two reached an incline on the stone street. Whirling around, his cloak twirling with the movement, Mika held up a hand, palm facing out, as if to ward off the vampire below him.

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear, Ferid." Mika stated. "And what I do is none of your business." He turned and stalked off.

"Now, Mika, is that any way to treat your greatest admirer?" Ferid continued to speak, following after the teen. Mika gave no reply, and Ferid, seeing where the boy was headed, finally stopped trailing him.

Although it probably wouldn't do much good against Ferid, Mika was grateful that he had locked that door.

-Author's Note-

So I THINK I edited out all the typos in this one...I hope so. Woo, it's longer than I expected it to be.

I've also fixed a continuity error in chapter 4.

Disclaimer: I still do not own Seraph of the End.

For those who don't use the metric system, 38.4 degrees Celsius is about 101 degrees Fahrenheit, and 39.5 degrees Celsius is about 103 degrees Fahrenheit.

Question to you readers: I'm thinking about doing profiles on Kyali and Hanai'ame-Rin. Is that something you would like to read?

Reviews and questions are always welcome!

'Til next time,

Sky