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Post by Ogata Rinsaku on Aug 15, 2007 14:30:27 GMT -5
Rinsaku stopped at the outskirts of the Lightning country. It seemed fitting, to her at least, to stop here. She'd never been here before, but it was almost as far as you could get. It was quiet in Kumo anyways and she liked quiet. Rinsaku stopped to lean up against a wall of what looked to be an unused, most likely an abandoned building. It's white surface was cool against her warm body. Rinsaku pulled a canteen off of the strap that was hanging on her shoulder. After taking three long sips, she put her hand to her mouth.
Thinking again... She tilted her head.
Rinsaku stood, breathing heavily for a few moments, before painfully sliding down the wall. She put her hand to her abdomen, it wasn't bleeding anymore, but it burned. Three angry claw marks adorned her side. She took out her wire, there was barely any left for stiches, instead she made bandages out of parts of her shirt. She pulled another out of her pouch, similar to the one she had on. Untying her hood, she glanced around to make sure that no one was there. Even though she didn't see anyone, she still turned to the wall and quickly changed shirts. Carefully avoiding hurting her shoulder and side. Shoulder.
That's right. She remembered now
Timidly, she ran her fingers along the jagged laceration on her shoulder. Feeling something hard, she quickly pulled out a shard of a blood red katana, moaning a little. The shard came from a serrated katana. She put the piece in her pouch.
Leaning her head back, she listened as the wind picked up. It only ever spoke of the past, really. She listened for something in particular, more like familiarity, but that had grown scarce a while ago, but it never hurt to look for them.
The gentle wind still spoke, so she listened...
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Post by Uchiha Sasuke on Aug 15, 2007 15:13:13 GMT -5
This was it, the last tree. There were no signs that he was still being tracked by Sakura and that boy, but he still could not afford to cease with the caution. Alerting Sakura to his identity was definitely something he wasn't going to do. For her own good.
Sasuke wanted no more scenes and pleas for his return to Konoha. He didn't truly want to have to kill her. Though he would have done it, if she had managed to get to him.
Briefly touching the tree with his hand, he drifted off into a longer sprint, towards the fence that limited the park. A simple shadow for anyone in his immediate proximity, and nearly invisible to any eyes that watched from a distance. Such was the true extent of his speed. The air whipped his body with an impressive force because of that, puncturing him with pressure points, but he was used to it, and he knew how to move and where to focus chakra in order not to suffer damage from it.
In a matter of a mere second, the fence was reached, and he grabbed at its top with one hand, jumping it breathlessly. In midair, his hand was removed, its hold broken, leaving him more room to maneuver. His feet found the ground on the other side with a hollow thud, and he straightened himself almost immediately after the fall's impact was dulled.
They shouldn't be able to find him anymore.
The very moment he thought that, his eyes fell on the wall of the nearest building, whose roof he had intended to climb to in order to move through the village more efficiently and leave. And leaning against it, obviously tending to some wounds, of a pretty acute nature as it seemed, was a girl. Sasuke stood there, looking at her. He was surprised, but that was never enough for him to actually show any visible signs.
Slowly, he changed his intent and stepped towards her, to at least get a closer look.
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Post by Ogata Rinsaku on Aug 15, 2007 16:00:56 GMT -5
Countless battles had been fought here. Great warriors left their marks here, on the trees. They deemed invisible now though, covered up by new bark or hidden beneath the leaves. One story in particular stood out, not for being of a great battle, or of a great ninja, but it was of the country itself. What happened, who lived there, how it came to be. And that's all she ever got. Stories of the past... It seemed childish, listening to the trees through the wind.
Against the pleas of those she had not listened to yet, Rinsaku opened her eyes. The soft whispers immediately stopped, but the breeze continued. She stared at her feet, eyes half closed and whispered something so quiet, she seemed not to be speaking at all. She did this from time to time, in places she visited. Calling out. Out to the few like her who listened, but she could never find them.
Stray pieces of hair flew into her face and she lifted her hands to brush them away. She touched her right hand to her face first, there a dull throbbing pain in her shoulder, but no feeling in the tips of her fingers.
The venom...she thought.
Rinsaku knew of no remedy, mostly because she did not know of the snake. Still feeling light, which was not good, she took out her canteen again. She didn't want to pass out from blood loss, so she stayed still and alert as possible.
The wind around her stopped abruptly. She opened her eyes up all the way, slightly confused. Just before its end, something felt different. Rinsaku was curious, so she closed her eyes and concentrated. If someone was there she had to be cautious, she wasn't looking for a battle. The wind picked up again, this time it was by her command. Stretching out her mind, she directed the wind around the forest ahead of her. The wind wrapped around something, but she didn't know what. Under normal circumstances, she'd be able to trace it out and find out who it was, but if she did that she would lose some of the chakra she was building up, in case of an attack. Also, if a person was there and they were smart enough, they'd know if they were being traced out. She abruptly pulled back, it felt like a person, if not a large animal. There was no way she could tell in her condition. She shakily stood up to her full height and became tense...
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Post by Uchiha Sasuke on Aug 15, 2007 17:04:45 GMT -5
This particular gust of wind felt different as it pressed against his body. It almost gave Sasuke the impression that it was curling around him, like a ribbon, in an organized sequence of moves, feeling at every inch of him. Almost as if it were made of chakra, except he did not detect any such thing in it. He wondered if the fallen, battered figure he was looking at had anything to do with that sensation. If, even in such a condition, she would become aware of a presence and still dispose of means to identify or locate them.
Despite that he continued to approach the girl with steady, firm steps, changing directions a little to end up in front of her. From there, a mere few feet away, where he finally stopped, he watched her yet more intently, trying to guess how many wounds she had. She seemed to be protective of her side, maybe her shoulder. That should be where the bad ones were located. But there could be much more to it, too.
She looked like an easy kill. But he had no reason to do any such thing to a stranger.
So then, she qualified for in need of assistance, as well. But why would he do that for the same thing, a stranger?
Sasuke continued to just stand in front of her, waiting to be noticed, or for her to reveal some more about herself, if she was truly that unknowing of his presence there. Then, the strange wind went away. His eyes narrowed a little under the weight of lowered eyebrows, and soft creases were etched into the skin right above his nose. He had been pondering the deactivation of Sharingan now that things seemed safe for him, but now he decided against it.
The girl was standing up. Slowly, shakily, but she was. Her eyes had snapped open. Surely she could see him, unless her mind had also taken damage and she did not anchor herself in reality anymore. She surely did look lost enough for that to be a possibility.
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Post by Ogata Rinsaku on Aug 15, 2007 18:00:11 GMT -5
A figure stepped from in between the trees. So there was a person there, and he must've felt the wind trace him out. She continued to watch him come forward. Rinsaku didn't recognize him at all. Eyes slightly moving around him, she studied him. The way he moved. Slowly. He didn't seem to be here to attack her, but that question was still in the air. She guessed he was alone, but she could be wrong.
His eyes. She focused on them. They were quiet eyes and they refused speak to her. They looked mildly bored too, she wondered if they always looked like that. Rinsaku tilted her head slightly. His eyes were red, with carved out flecks of black that made an intricate design. What was that? Never seeing anything like this before, Rinsaku looked away and decided to focus on a spot just above his mouth. She didn't want to chance anything else happening to her.
She may have looked and felt horrible. Vacant if another. But her mind was reeling, trying to conjure up a plan of action if she had to.
The mysterious figure in front of her wasn't threatening her now, to her, he seemed to be contemplating something. Rinsaku decided to speak. Maybe if she gave him something concrete, she'd get something back.
"I am Ogata Rinsaku, I'm not of here," She paused for a second, hesitating, "Who are you?"
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Post by Uchiha Sasuke on Aug 15, 2007 18:48:08 GMT -5
Sasuke didn't fail to notice the signs of her caution, and the fact that she was observing him just as closely and carefully as he did with her. He saw her gaze lower when it met the Sharingan, but the fact that it wasn't done immediately made him think she just wanted to be safe, not really that she could identify it exactly.
Should he answer her question or merely turn and leave? Somehow, something made him decide that she could just be worthy of his attention.
He had seen her body, the way she moved it, and the way she bore those wounds. Those were not firsts to her. She was undoubtedly a shinobi, though he couldn't spot a plate that would identify her village for him. Maybe she was a missing nin, much like himself, roaming about from one place to another. He allowed his eyebrows to rise again, and his frown faded into clear skin again.
"Uchiha Sasuke," he finally decided to reply.
His stare darkened a little when he introduced himself, and his tone sounded a little firmer than the usual, especially on the first of the two words. There had been a while since he had last required to introduce himself. He heard his name on people's lips constantly, more so since he had killed Orochimaru, but he almost never said it himself.
Uchiha Sasuke.
The Uchiha part of that. It reminded him of Itachi's existence out there somewhere, every time he heard it. Yet now, when he attached it to his own persona himself, it made him think of its renown, much rather. Another thing that angered him, with its present state: former.
He waited to see if this girl was going to recognize it.
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Post by Ogata Rinsaku on Aug 15, 2007 19:43:26 GMT -5
Rinsaku stared at the figure in front of her. She didn't expect him to know her name, very few people did. He seemed to question the fact that weather he should respond or not. But he did, Uchiha Sasuke. The two words lingered in the air. She felt his tone, how it became firm, and his words dug into her brain.
Uchiha Sasuke... The name rolled around in her head. She racked her mind, trying to make a connection to something, anything. She'd only heard the name once, Uchiha, that is. She didn't remember where she was, probably because she never stayed in one place for too long. But it was in connection with Orochimaru, a man whom she'd never meet but heard of, it was at the same time she heard Uchiha. They were connected in someway, but she didn't know what. She didn't let her curiosity wander too far on that matter though. It was probably his business anyway.
Recognition flashed in her eyes, but that was all she recognized. Just a name. No faces, no events. This Sasuke didn't look familiar to her and he had no visible sign of a home country, but then again, she didn't either. Used to though, she vaguely remembered where she'd left it.
She looked at the ground by his feet, "Uchiha..." she repeated slowly. Still nothing.
He seemed to not be here to kill her, nor help her. What was he here for? Letting out a slow breath, she relaxed a little. She slumped back against the wall, standing against it, her right arm still hung limply at her side. It may not have been the smartest thing to do, but she didn't like standing straight at the moment.
"What are you doing out here?" She wondered aloud, still cautious.
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Post by Uchiha Sasuke on Aug 16, 2007 10:56:27 GMT -5
When his last name escaped her lips, Sasuke's attention, the rest of it, even the part that never locked off of the surroundings, was drawn to her like iron dust to a magnet. His gaze bore into her expression, searching for any signs that she was identifying it, but she hesitated too much. Pushing back the side of him that was obsessed and saw Itachi in everything, he calmed himself down and admitted the truth that she was only vaguely aware of anything.
He noticed her slip towards the wall and press her back against it, once again giving signs of her weakness. It could either be that she was a risk-taker, like many others he had met, or that she simply was much more injured than she seemed. Either way, he couldn't help the feeling of responsibility that was starting to creep up on him. Going around, he had been trying to avoid any kill, and just incapacitating his opponents, even telling his platoon to do the same. But just leaving someone there, even with the slimmest chance of death... wasn't it equal to killing them yourself?
That, however, far from meant it was any of her business what he was doing here. He ignored her question and offered no answer.
Maybe he could somehow alert Sakura to this girl's presence. She would undoubtedly stop to help her. He glanced briefly back towards the fence surrounding the park he had just fled. He could go back there, and somehow cause another pursuit, and this time make sure he was followed, instead of not. But doing it without having Sakura recognize him would be more than tricky, and he did not want the identification to occur.
After another moment of thought, his decision was made.
"You need to get to a hospital," he told the girl directly, his voice remaining the same emotionless sequence of words.
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Post by Ogata Rinsaku on Aug 16, 2007 22:53:46 GMT -5
Leaning against the wall, Rinsaku continued to watch Sasuke. They seemed to do that a lot. Just watch. Study. She was very curious about the boy in front of her. There were moments when he seemed to be battling his own mind. She didn't push him any further. He didn't look like the kind of person who took well to being annoyed. Especially about what he was thinking. So instead of dancing around, trying to find away in, she thought it best to just leave him alone.
He didn't offer an answer to what he was doing anyway.
It was a pointless question to begin with. Half of her believed that he wouldn't answer and the other half was just curious. She never really had contact or talked much with other people. Rinsaku felt she didn't really need to. She got by just fine. Unless it was a necessity to get where she wanted. Sometimes she questioned herself, about her capabilities, to get to them... It was not that she used people, it was definitely not that. Its just that she was always curious, but never ventured. Curiosity did kill the cat...
Then Sasuke mentioned the hospital. The message practically stamped itself to her forehead. No. She'd been worse than this once. At the hospital, she had no control over what they did to her. Truthfully, she didn't give anyone she didn't know the benefit of the doubt. And no, she wasn't paranoid.
But there was the issue of the venom. She didn't know if it would spread or if she would permanently lose feeling in her right arm. Next to that, she was completely worn from blood loss and sore.
"I shouldn't need to, I'm mostly tired, so I'll rest. Although," she paused for a second, clicking her tongue, "what do you know about extracting snake venom?"
Rinsaku hoped Sasuke would know something and could be of some help. She just needed it out, besides, not being able to use her arm would most certainly not be to her benefit. If he didn't, then she guessed she'd have to go have someone else look at it.
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Post by Uchiha Sasuke on Aug 17, 2007 18:08:02 GMT -5
"No."
Sasuke's reply was short, inexpressive, and to the point. Obviously, he made a small note, she didn't want to go to the hospital. He wouldn't, either. Too many people there, too little privacy.
He had never needed to treat a snakebite, ironically, despite how much he had worked with them. After all, they were his own summons. He would have never allowed something he had called, something he was supposed to control, to rebel against him in such a fashion. But, if he couldn't help from experience, maybe...
Without a second thought, he pulled his sleeve upwards, revealing his left arm, the skin and the summoning contract inscribed on it. His right hand pulled out a kunai and two fingers manipulated it expertly, stinging the tip of another open, digging for blood. The first droplet showed, so he placed the kunai back into the equipment pouch, and he dragged a clear line of red across the written contract. Then, he leaned forward, touching the ground with his palm, firmly pressing against it.
Kuchiyose no Jutsu.
He didn't need anything big, but he required one that could talk, so he focused a medium amount of chakra. He got a fair-sized snake, but still small by the standards of what he usually needed, in combat. It was a dull brown, with some black stains irregularly positioned in odd lines across its back. Its sharp, golden-green eyes looked up to Sasuke expectantly, as the creature obviously desired to know why it had been called.
At least it was one of the more obedient he had seen. Some required a great deal of effort to simply control.
"How do you treat a snakebite?" Sasuke asked, not wasting any time.
The snake hissed, its bifurcated tongue flicking out for a second, in what oddly looked like thoughtful consideration. Finally, since it was able to guess Sasuke was not the one that got bitten, it turned to stare at the girl, Rinsaku.
"Where did it bite?" the creature asked, stopping close to her right foot.
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Post by Ogata Rinsaku on Aug 18, 2007 2:02:23 GMT -5
No. Rinsaku raised her eyebrows. Not in questioning or confusion. But in slight disappointment. She couldn't blame him for not knowing though, she wasn't sure how many people actually did. At least not the ones that you came across unexpectedly. Rinsaku started thinking of who she could talk to, but before she could conjure up a plan that avoided a hospital, Sasuke pulled up his left sleeve.
Now she raised an eyebrow in question, standing up fully again. He revealed a contract and grabbed a kunai with his right hand. He moved the kunai like he'd done it a million times. It punctured his skin. A small crimson drop appeared and expanded. He then slid his finger down the parchment, leaving a thin but sure stripe of blood in it's path. As Rinsaku watched, she found the sequence to be quite graceful. As if it wasn't a sequence at all, but one fluid movement.
The second Sasuke touched his hand to the ground, Rinsaku grew tense. A summoning jutsu. She couldn't help the tiny fear that reeled through her. For all she could've known, he was summoning to finish her off. She brushed the thought away. He was sparing her by saying that she needed to go to a hospital. If he wanted to kill her, he would've done it. And she had no doubt that he'd hesitate, or even converse with her.
A dark figure came to near Sasuke. It was a snake. It was of good size, brown with black intricately placed along its back, his eyes seductive.
Rinsaku watched, captivated. Sasuke spoke to the snake and her question was answered about his summoning. Who better to ask about venom than a snake. The creature moved his head in her direction and worked his way toward her. It's movements were smooth and sophisticated.
The snake spoke to her. It's voice just as seductive as his golden eyes. Rinsaku lifted her eyes to Sasuke, only for a second, before giving her attention to the snake beside her. With her left hand, she peeled off the shoulder of her right shirt sleeve, revealing a jagged cut from the top of her back to the front of her shoulder. She knelt down by the snake.
"Here." Rinsaku said and touched her hand to the spot where her arm and shoulder met. There were two puncture marks. They were an angry red, with rings around them. A thin red line around each fang mark and a larger ring connecting them together.
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Post by Uchiha Sasuke on Aug 18, 2007 12:51:05 GMT -5
Sasuke studied the girl's reaction, unable to suppress the small trace of curiosity he did feel. She was choosing a slightly different approach from anyone he could imagine or think of. It made him reconsider the reasons why he had stopped to actually pay attention to her and add another one to the fray. For the first time in quite some while, he was actually interested in some person. Particularly, since he had been studying Orochimaru's followers to pick those he wanted on his team.
She seemed to be oddly fascinated with the snake he had summoned. Sasuke watched as she traced its length with her eyes, somewhat admiring of characteristics it had that eluded him. She seemed to see something in it that he was blind to, something beyond the practical means to efficiently solve a problem that he saw there.
That didn't surprise him. People often seemed to appreciate things he didn't even bother to notice. Things that he considered a waste of time.
He cast an apprehensive look at the bite when Rinsaku revealed it. He was not an expert, far from it, but he could tell it wasn't of the most recent kind, so the venom couldn't be one of the strongest. However, he knew for a certainty that, if allowed to spread, even weak poison could cause massive damage to the body's muscular and neural systems, eventually leading to death. And this particular bite was disturbingly cl--
With another mild hiss, the snake interrupted his thoughts. Only to voice the very same thing itself a mere moment later.
"Hmm, that's pretty close to the heart."
The snake coiled on itself, elevating its head gracefully to a higher position to inspect the two small marks more closely. Its eyes flickered a little in the gentle daylight.
"It will take some while more until it gets to the left side of your body..." it said conclusively. "But if it does, you're as good as dead."
It slithered back down to the ground, then moved back to Sasuke, tangling itself at his feet in a two-ringed shape. From there, it looked up again, to the taller form of its summoner.
"She needs antidote," it said plainly. "It's too late for simple extraction."
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Post by Ogata Rinsaku on Aug 18, 2007 17:01:35 GMT -5
As the snake lingered near her arm, she was tempted to run her fingers over it's skin. He did brush against the knuckles on her right hand, but she only felt pressure along with a tingling sensation that rippled through out her whole hand and crept up her forearm. But she didn't feel his skin. That disappointed her.
Rinsaku briefly recalled the fight. She'd been hit upside the head, with who knows what, and was followed by the bite. That had been about six hours ago. A drop of sweat crawled down Rinsaku's temple. She pushed away the thought of feeling her own heart slow and come to an eventual stop. It was a morbid thought, but it still played in her mind. Snake venom. What a substance. So small and seemingly insignificant when really, it murdered. And tortured. Fate was sealed if one couldn't get an antidote in time. Her fate. And she seemed to be a victim of that maxim.
Her eyes darkened when the snake mentioned her death. But how long was some while? She didn't bother to take a guess. She hoped that the venom wouldn't spread to her legs in the next few hours or else she'd be at a huge disadvantage. And probably dead. So as long as she could get her hands on some anti-venom, then she'd end up fine.
When the snake finished examining the bite, he made his way back to Sasuke. He curled in between Sasuke's feet, looking slightly fond of him. The snake lifted it's head and spoke to Sasuke. Extracting the venom was out of the question. So Rinsaku started thinking of anyone she'd come across that could know of an antidote. Only one person she knew came to mind. No. Rinsaku couldn't do that to her...
Sasuke might have known. It seemed he dealt with snakes quite often. Rinsaku looked up. Tilting her head slightly, her eyes moved back and forth, on Sasuke and the snake, "Where can I get one?"
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Post by Uchiha Sasuke on Aug 20, 2007 11:36:16 GMT -5
This was a practical person, Sasuke noted to himself when he heard the first question she asked. Most people panicked when their death was mentioned, and they lost control of the situation. What they usually wished was to be told what to do. But she knew that well, and only required help towards reaching her purpose, not with identifying it.
"If extracting is out of the question," Sasuke spoke, lowering his head only slightly, for his eyes to meet the snake's. "Then how do we obtain the corresponding antivenin?"
Once again, he showed no emotion and no desire to speculate. His knowledge was limited to what little of Kabuto's medical activity he had deemed worthy of his attention. But he recalled the process, or part of it, and he knew that the beginning to any efficient antidote was the very thing that needed to be countered. Beyond that, he didn't want to make assumptions.
"We'd need to know what kind of snake bit her," his summon replied calmly, its tail flicking in an idle fashion on the ground, close to Sasuke's foot. "I might just be able to tell from the bite type. But that's still no use. We also should obtain some of the venom and inject an insufficient quantity of it into an animal's blood, to produce antibodies. Even if all this was done, we don't have the means to extract those in here. Why don't you two go to a hospital? It would be much simpler."
Sasuke ignored its last comment, focusing on the useful parts of what it had said before that. Even if he managed to obtain an animal and a small quantity of the venom in the girl's blood stream, he would be unable to obtain the actual antivenin. Unless...
It was a slim chance, having in mind that his blood type was the one that could only donate to those of the same kind. But also, it would have been the quickest and simplest solution. His decision was made to at least check.
"What's your blood type?" he asked quietly, his attention returning to Rinsaku.
"You can't be thinking of--"
The snake's words were cut when Sasuke's gaze, slightly less friendly, was set back upon it. He hated it when they tried to contest his judgment.
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Post by Ogata Rinsaku on Aug 20, 2007 13:54:01 GMT -5
The process of creating an antivenin sounded vaguely familiar, but she didn't carry the proper instuments to complete it and she highly doubted Sasuke would either.
Rinsaku thought about the snake that bit her. It had been part of a Chimera. She recalled the head of a lion, wings and legs of a dragon, body and arms of an ape, and the tail..The snake. She put the whole picture in her head. Normally, she made it a habit to notice details, but the snake was fuzzy in her mind. She looked at the snake at Sasuke's feet. They were near the same size, the Chimera snake a bit smaller. It was black, underbelly a pale brown. It's head was shaped like a spade, and thinner than the head of the snake Sasuke had summoned.
"The snake that bit me was part of a Chimera," Rinsaku started, "It was smaller than you," her eyes flicked to the snake, "and it's head was thin, shaped like a spade. And it was black and a pale brown."
She gave her answer, hoping it would help, if at all. When she'd been bitten, she hadn't of even thought of obtaining some more venom, for her benefit. It struck her funny at how people became so idiotic in battle, clouded by the fight, instead of her future well being. Besides, when he had been bitten, she didn't collapse right away. She continued fighting, and she didn't feel it until she couldn't feel her right arm. She leaned up against the wall again, thinking of other possible solutions to get her hands on an antivenin. Rinsaku felt the fatigue in her body and how slow her mind started working, it took a bit of effort to remember the snake and she was conjuring up nothing on the antivenin. Her thoughts were inturrupted when Sasuke inquired about her blood type. At first she questioned the relevance of her blood type, but then she thought some more. Would really use his own blood?
The chances of both of them having the same blood type was slim. Very slim. But if it was the quickest way to cancel out the venom, then she'd do it. It would involve her not going to the hospital and if she collapsed, ultimately it avoided her death. Perfect. But not so when she thought about her blood type. She was sure she'd forgotten it long ago, with many other things that had left her. But she did recall what her parents told her. Her father's was AB and her mother's was B. She did the equation over and over in her head. There was a fifty fifty chance of her having AB or B. She rolled them both around in her head. AB left an imprint in her brain. She was postive it was, she'd always associated herself with her father to always remember it because they were similar.
"I have the blood type AB," she replied, slightly stressing the last part, for her. It clicked in her head. That was definetly it, and she'd be d**ned if she was wrong.
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