• CHAPTER 62 - WHAT NOW?

    Of course, being pregnant with a Werewolf's baby when you're only human is dangerous...but when it's time to give birth, how much worse does it get?

    "Sh-she's in labor?" I stuttered.

    "It's about time," Kai sighed.

    "But what if it's false labor again? What if there's nothing wrong?" I looked up at Kai worriedly.

    "We're pretty sure it's real this time," he confirmed. "It's nothing short of a miracle that she's made it this far."

    "That's because I was waiting for your goddamn a** to get Arisa back!!" Miku lifted her head and shouted at Kai. She moaned and lay back down in pain.

    "Kai, will she be okay?" I looked up at him again.

    Kai's words were absent; he wasn't sure. Great, one of my best friends could die from giving birth to a half Werewolf. Would it be the same way if a human were pregnant with a Vampire's baby? A half Vampire pregnancy?

    "You'd die for sure then," Kai answered my thoughts.

    I continued to watch Miku groan in pain from being in labor. She started complaining about wanting to go to a hospital but Matsuda reassured that he was the best help she could have considering how many centuries he's been in medical school. Takeuchi continued to rub Miku's head and hold her hand, gazing down at her in awe and worry. I hadn't seen him so serious...not since that time he told his other friends about my blood and they were coming to get me.

    "Come on," Kai firmly gripped my shoulder and turned me around to exit the study room, "Let's get you something to eat."

    "Wh-why?" I stuttered in confusion. "Miku's having a baby!"

    "She's only in labor; it will be a few hours," Kai drug me into the kitchen.

    "Kai, I'm scared," I stopped where I was and looked down.

    Kai rubbed my arm gently and looked down at me, "She's going to be okay,"

    I shook my head, "Not from the things I've heard about with giving birth to halflings," I felt that saying "half breeds" was too rude.

    "See, that would be one problem about our engagement," he scratched his head.

    I froze and gridlocked where I was. I stared at him with one eye twitching, "What...?"

    "Well, you know, if something ever goes wrong and you get...pregnant," he almost whispered that last word and his cheeks were flushed with pale pink, "then it would be even more dangerous than a human-Werewolf baby."

    "A-are you saying sex comes with marriage?!" I panicked.

    His expression immediately changed from an embarrassed face to a "you didn't know that?" face, "You didn't know that?" he asked. See?

    "When did you think sex came?" he interrogated.

    "I-I-I, um--" I stumbled over my words. How embarrassing it is to talk about sex with my ex fiancée. "Then I-I'll just wait until then." I looked away, my face turning crimson. But one thing didn't make sense; Kai and Ayame had slept with each other once, right? The thought hurt me to bring up to myself, but they weren't even married.

    Kai's face fell in self-disappointment and regret. I rubbed his arm in a friendly manner and immediately turned red again once the thought of talking about sex with Kai came up. I didn't have any images, but it's still weird to think about. Kai chuckled and headed to the refrigerator and I sat at the breakfast bar. I pressed my forehead and my cheeks against the counter top to cool down the embarrassment. I almost freaked out when I could hear Miku groaning from the other room but Kai reassured me that she wasn't giving birth quite yet.

    "Do you think she'll be okay?" I asked Kai while he was sitting next to me and I took a bite of my onigiri.

    "Likely," he pointed out. "But it could develop to be pretty grotesque."

    I flinched and choked down my bite of onigiri, "I didn't need to know that,"

    "You don't have to watch if you don't want to," he pointed out.

    I nodded, "I will,"

    "You sure?" he cocked an eyebrow again. "Because I know how you are with blood."

    "I'll learn to get over it," I sighed. "I'm living with Vampires again, so I'm gonna have to get used to it sooner or later."

    Kai frowned at me and I only ignored him by eating the rest of the food he prepared, although I was too worked up on nerves to feel any appetite.

    ~*~*~*~*~*~

    "Arisa," I heard Kai whisper to me and he shook my shoulder lightly. "Arisa, Miku's about to give birth."

    At that, I snapped my eyes open and shot upright on the couch I fell asleep at, "What?!"

    "Come on," he took my hand and drug me into the study room.

    I had little time to muster up my courage and when we got into the study room, Miku wasn't all that different. She was still panting and pale and sweating and Takeuchi was still holding her hand. Orihime dabbed Miku's forehead with a washcloth and held her other hand. She was breathing a little heavier, though, and she kept arching her back upwards. I was about to say something to Kai until Miku's sudden shriek interrupted me. My heart stopped for a second and started beating again once I realized it was just her trying to push the baby out.

    "Takeuchi, I can't do this!" she shouted at him. "It hurts too much!"

    "Just keep pushing, babe, okay?" Takeuchi whispered to her and kissed her forehead.

    "Wh-when did she last see her parents?" I looked up at Kai and stuttered.

    "Just several hours ago when they went to the ultrasound," he confirmed. Before I could ask my other question, he already answered it, "We can't have her parents here because this birth will be more gruesome that a normal human birth. We can't risk having her parents know about what all of us are."

    I would agree with that if I knew what an inhuman birth looked like, so I only nodded to show him I halfway understood. We continued to watch Miku as she withered in pain and continued to raise her swollen belly upwards. It almost looked as though the baby wanted to burst right through her stomach with the way she kept arching her back so high. Matsuda had to keep pushing Miku's back down and there were a couple of times where she tried to kick Matsuda.

    "Miku, you're going to need to push harder; the baby isn't crowning yet," Matsuda ordered her.

    "s**t," Kai whispered under his breath.

    I quickly whipped my head up and looked at him, "What?"

    "After this long, it should have started crowning by now," he whispered again.

    "Wh-what does that mean?" I was halfway relieved that Kai knew this stuff; relieved because he actually knew what could possibly happen and frightened because he probably knew something bad would happen now.

    "Kai, you might be right," Matsuda turned his head at Kai. "Go get the other supplies."

    And at that, Kai teleported and I was standing at the edge of the room by myself. I inched my way over to Miku who continued to squirm in pain. The closer I got, the more I noticed the tears building up at the bottom of her eyes. After another second, a few stray tears billowed over her bottom eyelids and she continued to breathe oddly. She groaned again at a failed effort to push the baby out.

    "Arisa, you might want to stand back," Matsuda warned.

    I nodded and without argument, took a few steps back. Kai teleported back into the room and handed Matsuda a bigger medical box. Kai set the box next to Matsuda and wrapped his arm around my waist again and pulled me back away from Miku a little more. I gripped onto Kai's shirt to keep myself balanced right and continued to observe in fear.

    "Get it out," Miku moaned. "Get the goddamn thing out!!"

    And right after she said that, an ear-splitting tear--followed by an equally ear-splitting shriek--echoed off of the walls. I flinched and when I turned my attention back to Miku, there was a giant tear in her stomach. I looked around and noticed that nobody had any sharp utensils on them or any sort of sharp object or thing. I started shaking violently after I noticed that it was the baby...trying to rip its way through her from the inside. Miku squirmed around violently and tried to knock her limbs loose from everybody's grasp.

    Miku managed to barely lift her head up to observe where the pain came from. She gasped and widened her eyes and threw her head back and shireked again, "It's ripping me open!!"

    Hearing her shout that made me want to vomit, "Kai!" I shouted and covered my mouth, although Kai was already right next to me.

    "Kai, open the medical box for me!" Matsuda ordered Kai.

    Kai rushed over to Matsuda and opened the larger medical box he handed to Matsuda just a few seconds before Miku's stomach tore open. Another deafening tear and shriek indicated that the baby tried to tear through again. I regrettably looked over at Miku again and the tear in her stomach was even bigger. Her blood was cascading everywhere and her body--along with the blankets covering her--were dyed crimson red already. A few pops echoed off of the walls after the tearing and shrieking and I was about to lose it. What looked like a tiny hand tried to dig its way through Miku's womb from the inside and out into the open. Takeuchi was truly panicked now; he stared at Miku wide-eyed and continued to whisper to her. Miku's crying and breathing was out of her control now and her bleeding was soon to become excessive. It almost looked as though she were starting to thrash, either because of the pain or because she was about to die. She was thrashing just as Aya did when she was on the verge of dying from her blood. I truly started panicking when Miku's eyes started rolling to the back of her head.

    "Miku, no!" I cried, tears finally making their way out of my eyes.

    I saw something shimmer in Kai's hand and something else shimmer in Matsuda's hand. Whatever they were holding started slowly slicing Miku's stomach open; knives. There was too much shouting and screaming and panicked conversing for me to comprehend anything. My heartbeat crecendoed in my ears and my heart lodged into my throat. Another loud pop made me flinch again and I covered my ears. Miku continued to scream and she clenched her fists and the thrashing worsened from the pain she was drowning in. It didn't make any sense, Miku seemed just fine when she was in labor just a few hours ago, so why is her life suddenly on edge now?!

    Matsuda peeked over at me and ordered Kai to do whatever he ordered him to do and Kai was at my side in a second. He wrapped his arms around me quickly--without touching me with his blood-stained hands--and we teleported out of the study room and into the bedroom upstairs. My crying was uncontrollable and my hands were shaking like crazy as Kai wiped off his hands with a t-shirt and he held me close to him while we sat on the bed. My chest was hurting from so much crying and I was almost choking on the lump in my throat. Kai stroked my head and rocked us back and forth slowly, whispering hush's to me and trying to tell me everything would be okay.

    "It won't be okay!" I shouted at him. "That thing is ripping through her! It's tearing her apart!!"

    Kai pursed his lips together and looked away, "Those fracturing noises you caught were her ribs. The baby grew agitated somehow and resided to violent thrashing."

    "Kai, it's going to kill her!" I couldn't see anything from my tear-blurred eyes. The only image that was crystal-clear in my mind was Miku's blood-stained body.

    Kai cupped my cheek and kissed my forehead, "Now you comprehend why her parents were prohibited from watching the birth,"

    "B-but she seemed just fine from the beginning!" I cried. "When she was in labor, during the pregnancy, everything! Why is it now that it's gone awry??"

    "She's been feeding all of her strength to survive thus far," he whispered. "She figured that since she's made it this far, that she won't have to filter in so much exertion as she had to during the pregnancy."

    "Kai..." I cried again and buried my face in his frozen torso.

    I flinched as I heard more screaming and groaning coming from the study room...which was right below Kai's room. There was no escaping the birth now; it was already fused into my mind. The sound of her popping ribs from earlier continued to echo in my head and I flinched every time. She couldn't die now, not when her and Takeuchi are having their baby.

    "If the time comes," he whispered to me gravely, "Takeuchi might infect her."

    I pulled away from Kai and searched his face for any sign of lying or joking and there was nothing. Just apathy etched into porcelain, "What?"

    Miku become a Werewolf?