"Diabolo Febri-what?" I look at him in question. "What in hell's sake is that? What do you mean by 'Devil's Fever'?"

He gave me a weird look, then stood and unbuttoned his pants. I immediately covered my eyes in embarrassment.
"Woah! Slow down speed rac... " I started but ended up coughing and doubling over before I could spit out a finished insult, spitting up blood instead. It burned in my chest, and made me want to just curl up and cry the searing pain away. Even with this much pain, I have gotten used to blocking it off and not telling anyone.

He ended up just reaching down the side of his hip and pulling out a small dagger with engravings along the blade. He tried to hand it to me, buttoning up his dark blue jeans. "I want you to slice me with this. Make sure to cut my skin deep enough to where I would surely bleed. Do you understand?"

"That was just in your pants! I'm not touching that! Are you kidding me?!" I coughed out. The pain was starting again, so I huffed and just took the dagger, "Why would you ask something like this of me?" I gazed down at the small weapon and ran my thumb over the ancient looking engravings along the shiny silver blade. The symbols seemed so familiar to the point that it was almost as if I could read what was inscribed, but nevertheless it was still foreign to me.

"Just do it, and promise me to not yell or scream and run. Please?" He seemed to beg, kneeling in front of me again. He rolled up his sleeve to the hot pink and black long sleeve shirt he was wearing. Then he placed his forearm on my lap and took my hand with the dagger in it. 

"I'm not promising anything, but I'm also pretty sure I am in no condition to be screaming, yelling, or running anywhere." I looked in his eyes and had a sudden urge to throw the knife aside and run away as fast as I could, but I also had the feeling of trust and loyalty seeping through me. I went with the latter and slit his forearm without any hesitation.

Blood began to well up along the cut, but it never ran. It never even dripped off his arm. It did, though, begin to heal and the blood slowly seeps back into the cut. The slice I made in his arm healed at a slow pace, but it healed faster than any human ever could. I looked up at him, then back down at his arm, then up and down again over and over till it was completely healed.

"What the actual fuck just happened?" I nearly yelled but stopped myself, trying to stay calm as requested.

"I...I'm not human, Amaya." He stated.

"Oh?! Really!? Heterochromic red eyes, grey tinted skin, the ability to smell a small amount of blood, and the knowledge of this 'Devil's fever'. You know... I never would have guessed that you were something other than human. You really had me going. . . I knew you were different from the first moment I met you. There was something off about you." I stood up quickly, fear rushing through my veins, my blood pounding in my ears. I stumbled forward and Rou caught me around the middle gripping all of the bruises by accident. He cringed as it made my cough and blood poured from my mouth. I could feel the pain surge up my torso and through my organs. I weakly collapsed in his arms then looked at him in fear as my blood dripped from the ends of his hair, soaking areas on both of our shirts.

"What's wrong with me?" I said shakily, giving up fighting against him. The pain was too great to fight against. Not any more. I know now, like a dreadful feeling creeping around one's gut, that I don't have much longer. "I'll listen. To everything. Everything you have to say."

He nodded slowly, "Diabolus Febricitantem, Latin for Devil's fever, more or less. It is a disease that can only be contracted by devils and demons. Human's can't contract this sickness, which is why I'm puzzled at the fact that you show the symptoms. However, it is rare even for demons. It's not hereditary and you don't contract it like any human illnesses that I know of so it has a hard time spreading from one to another. Before I left, they had still not found a justification for how it chooses its victims but it knows no boundaries. It is a disease of the blood."

"Wait- wait... devils and demons? Y...you mean...? Human's can't contract this, but demons can. But I'm human. I know I am. I mean, I have never had a reason to think I am not one. And who's the 'they' you mentioned?"

He sighed, setting me down ever so gingerly back on the lid of the toilet. "I am an incubus and the youngest of my brothers. The oldest of the three of us is luckily a blood demon, and a somewhat doctor for demons. I want to take you to him so he can look at you and hopefully heal you. I am sure I could pick out any demon from the crowd and I did not expect you to one. Even right now you give off the scent and aura of a human. I need to take you to him. I need to see if he can help you."

"So, does that mean I have to go to Hell?" I ask, trying to stay calm.

He took a moment, then nodded. "Believe me that when I say, not all of the levels are like what humans perceive Hell to be."

I leaned back slowly and smirked. I was talking to a stranger, no less, that says he's a demon and wants to take me to Hell. I run my hands down my face, sighing and mumbling to myself, "What, in anyone's right mind, have I done to be put in this... this situation?"

Rou looked at me weird, "What do you mean? You don't believe me do you?"

"It's not that I don't believe you. It's more along the lines that I know you're not lying. Somehow, I know that you just aren't. Like a gut feeling, that's not caused by this illness that I have. Speaking of so, explain to me more of this Devil's Fever. What are the symptoms exactly, the possible outcomes, and how is it to be cured, if there is one."

He nodded. "As I said before, it is a blood oriented disease. It flows and travels through your blood consistently, slowly attaching to places and eating away at your organs. It is rare so there aren't many cases of it, but we were doing research on how to solve it without my eldest brother being there."

"Who's your eldest brother and why is he so important?" I asked, resting a hand on his shoulder as his face and expression had grown solemn.

He took my hand, holding it in his as he took a deep breath, "his name is Ryuketsuki. Personality wise, he's basically just your average flirty asshat, but aside from that he is a blood demon. He can manipulate his blood and the blood of others even when it's inside their bodies still. I've seen him tear apart a person from the inside out. His blood though, if ingested can cure you."

"Gross, so I have to drink his blood and hope that he doesn't make me explode from the inside out. That's not so reassuring, stranger." I frowned. I balled up my hand while it was still resting in his.

"Please. Call me Rou. I don't want to be a stranger to you. Not after what you've been through. I want to help. If you don't want to trust my brother, then trust me. Above anything else, I want you to trust me regardless. There's something about you that I just can't shake. You are absolutely captivating."

"You can't go without flirting or insulting me can you?" I give him a frown, then exhale, "Fine. I'll give you a chance to prove that you're worth trusting. In order for that to happen you have to get me healed before I die."

He smirked and his eyes lit up with the possibility that I would actually grow to trust him, but trusting a so-said demon isn't the easiest. I've been taught through the orphanage's church that demons are lying, deceiving monsters that shouldn't exist on this plane of world. I want to itch at the feeling in the back of my mind to just run away from him, to help it spread into reality. However, Rou, though flirtatious and already somewhat annoying, seems to not be as much of a liar and a deceiver as foretold. Was he really a demon? How am I able to take this all in so easily? The lack of worrying is possibly due to the fact that I am dying and have other things to stress over.

I can feel that I don't have much time left, like a ticking time-bomb. If I don't get this handled soon, I am going to die. I looked down at Rou, who was still looking closely at the bruising across my torse. "Rou?"

"Mhm?" He looked up at me and we made eye contact.

For that short moment of close connection between us, my heart sped up and my cheeks flushed. I mean, upon closer inspection he is actually pretty hot. I shoved my hands quickly in his face, maybe too roughly, but enough to make his head turn away so I couldn't see him. I attempted to clear my throat, coughing a little which made my stomach and intestinal area begin to hurt. Taking a deep breath, "How close are you to this Ryutefumi guy? And does Hatsurin and the other guy know about you being... a...um..."

He took my hands and pulled them away from his face so he could smile at me, "Ryuketsuki and I are sort of close. And both you sister and Hemlock know. Hemlock isn't normal either, by the way."

"Oh, yay. Totally didn't expect your friend to not be normal." I gave him a placid look and then continued, "Is he a demon too? He seems a little too pure and innocent, despite his get-up, to be one of your kind."

The corner of his mouth twitched in an almost annoyed sort of way and shook his head, "No, Hemlock is a spirit, and not as innocent as he may appear. I'll admit he's changed for the better but he has been through some things that have opened his eyes to the cruelty of reality. Anyways, to be precise, he's a hemlock plant spirit. Your sister happens to be all over his green abnormality. "

"I hope that is not an innuendo for something phallic. But my sister has always been a tree hugger in a way," I smirked and we both chuckled lightly.

My body must not have agreed with the mild humor because it suddenly felt like half my organs turned to liquid. A pained gasp tore from my throat and I fell forward, not even able to sit up due to the pain. I could feel beads of sweat starting to form on my forehead, while my eyes started to water with tears.

"Woah. Amaya?!" Rou seems to be even more panicked then before, "Amaya, stay with me. Don't pass out or anything!"

I gritted my teeth and dug my nails into his arm to where I felt the skin give, "I'm... not even... tired, dib-shit. My...My head, it suddenly... it really really hurts."

"Wow okay already to the brain degeneration. We need to get you to my brother a.s.a.p." He said and picked me up, tearing out a shout of pain that had been lingering in my throat for a while now. He carried me out of the bathroom and to the dining room to where my sister and her new boy toy sat, chatting between themselves, "I'm taking Amaya to see Ryuketsuki. She needs to go now. Hemlock, you know to watch closely over Hatsurin."

The tree of a man nodded to me, then looked to Rou, "I will protect her no matter what happens, but what's so wrong with Amaya that you have to take her to see a brother you haven't seen in almost 4 years?"

I could hear Rou gulp even over the blood pounding in my ears and the growing dizziness. I glared up at him, "You...said you two were....close."

Before Rou could answer, Hatsurin stood up quickly, knocking her chair over behind her, "I'm coming with you. Even if that means that I'm going to hell."

Hemlock bolted up, grabbing her arm. "No, Hatsurin. You can't. Even if you could, we don't belong down there. We are creatures of the light, or of the overworld. We won't last long down there biologically."

"I don't care. I'm not leaving my sister's side. Look at her! She's as white as a sheet of paper!" She argued back at him.

"It's not impossible, you two just have to stick close with me, and you can't stay very long overall." Rou commented.

"Then let's do that. I am not leaving Amaya's side. Just until i know she'll be okay.." Hatsurin walked over and held onto my hand.

"Then let's go. You're coming, right Hemlock?" Rou said, beginning to walk towards the door.

"Of course," was all that was replied as he stepped forward and took Hatsurin's other hand while we exited my dear home.

Rou carried me part of the way, but I could feel through the pain, that he started to get shaky after a while so he handed me over to Hemlock. The tall green-haired man carried me easily as if I were a small flower, walking quietly behind Rou, Hatsurin close to his side. We continued walking for what seemed like 30 minutes, stopping every 30 feet so I could literally hack up parts of my lungs and organs.

Rou had explained while we walked that with Diabolus Febricitantem, bruising was the first sign of illness, and then the organ deterioration slowly progressing towards death. The progression of the illness goes fast, and I was already at the end of the line. He said that I might not even survive if I ended up falling asleep. Through my fear of dying too early before doing something with my life, I stare and watch the actions of both Rou and Hemlock, analyzing them as closely as I could manage.

Hemlock would look at Hatsurin every now and then as they chatted quietly. His expressions were soft despite his hard sculpted facial structure. When he would glance down at me or look at Rou in front of him, his expression would change to something less soft but not terrible. He just treated my sister sweeter than the rest. They started discussing their favorites and I rolled my eyes, turning my head slowly and looking at Rou's back.

Surprisingly for his shorter stature, even though he was still an inch or two taller than me, his back was toned and had an almost chiseled look to his muscles through his long sleeve shirt. He didn't turn around once as he walked briskly, at a near jog. I noticed his hand by his side. His fingers fidgeted as if he was nervous about something. Hemlock had mentioned that he hadn't seen his brother in a while, I wondered why. He had lied to me about his brother so maybe he was more of a demon then I wanted to admit. My curiosity kept me awake until we came to a quick stop.

"Stand back," Rou said and stepped forward towards a humongous, almost wall like gates that appeared out of nowhere. Through the small cracks in between the gate, I could see nothing but a reddish orange haze. The wall-like gate seems to be sizzling with heat. I looked to Hatsurin to see if it was just me seeing it like that, but her expression showed almost exactly what I was feeling; a mix of fear, curiosity, and the urge to run. She was gingerly holding onto Hemlock's sleeve. These truly must be the gates of Hell. I was surprised even more because our surroundings had faded to being a dull light grey haze with a gleaming path under our feet. Where were we and how long had we been here? How long had I been thinking to myself to not notice such a drastic scenery change?

I heard a groan of pain and saw Rou with his hand immersed in an almost keyhole looking area of the gates. My eyes widened when he pulled his hand out of the darkness, There was blood dripping from slits across the pads of his fingers, the palm, and the back of his hand. He wiped the blood off on the inside of his shirt as the gates began to open. 

"Stay close. Don't talk. Don't try anything. Listen to exactly what I have to say. Do exactly as I say. Unless you want to be eaten by demons, then listen and follow what I tell you." Rou commanded.

Hemlock nodded, but Hatsurin didn't seem so sure. Nevertheless, she followed quietly as we continued walking along the path into the reddish orange haze that seemed to dissipate as we walked. After a few yards of walking quietly, Rou's shoulders tense as he looked left and right many times, the haze dissipated completely to reveal a town with late medieval cottages and stone houses all over. There was no fire, no extreme heat, and no poor souls slaving away for their sins. There were, though, larger houses arranged here and there, but what stood out the most besides from the non-hell expectation appearance was the giant old Victorian mansions everywhere. Whoever decorated this whole landscape obviously couldn't keep a scheme of architecture.

"Tatakaima!"

The only man in the stone courtyard froze for a moment, then continued what he was doing as if he didn't hear anything.

His long black hair was pulled up in a high ponytail. Even pulled up, it easily reached his upper legs in length. It looked like he was dressed in old Japanese clothing, hanging around his waist as his torso stood exposed. There were scars glittering his skin that I could just barely see from the distance between us. He raised a long glistening sword above his head, bringing it down in front of him sharply, exhaling as he did.

"Tatakaima! Please! I know you heard me!" Rou shouted again.

Suddenly, the topless man threw his sword towards us. It pierced the brick fence beside Rou's head as if it were butter and not molded cement.

"What do you want, my absentee brother?" He turns to face Rou, appearing inches in front of him within a breath. He held Rou by his shirt through the bars, as if there was no gate between them. 

Rou coughed slightly, grabbing onto the threatening man's hand. I felt something move from under Hemlock's hoodie and looked to see vines start to creep out from inside his jacket. I freaked out of course, and without thinking. I fell to the ground and landed on my back, coughing out in pain as the air was knocked out of my deteriorating lungs. I could feel the blood make its way into my throat and I coughed up the blood. It seeps down my cheeks and onto the ground under my neck.

The long black haired man had let go of Rou and taken a step back watching me with wide eyes when another man appeared. This one had fiery red hair and eyes that smiled, though his mouth didn't. He knelt next to me as I tried to cough up the blood preventing air from getting into my lungs. I felt like puking as the suffocating feeling increased.

"Help her! Please! She's dying!" Rou shouted at the red-haired new man. "Ryuketsuki, please!"

The red-haired man sighed walking up to us, opening the gate. He pushed his sleeve down and put his wrist up to his mouth, biting into his skin till blood dripped to the ground next to mine. Red blood, just like a human's, but his was different then both mine and Rou's. His glitters like it held miniature jewels in the thick liquid.

He pressed his bleeding wrist to mouth, "Drink. My blood can be used as an antidote to anything that has to do with the heart, so no worries."

My eyes widened and I wanted to pull away, but the taste of his blood was so sweet despite the metallic essence that was blood itself. I couldn't help but swallow instinctively. I suddenly felt his blood course through my body, my back arching in pain, but the air disappearing from my lungs completely.

"Don't force anything. I'm almost a hundred percent sure it's Devil's Fever, and at a late stage too." Rou commented. As soon as he mentioned this to the red-haired man, the pain stopped and I relaxed. I could breathe, but I was exhausted and extremely fatigued.

The tall red-haired man picked me up off the ground and stood, starting to make his way inside the mansion. I could feel the lulls of sleep start to pull my vision into the darkness. The man carrying me gently blew in my face to pull me back and winked as he smiled at me, "no sleeping just yet little human."

"About that, I thought demons could only get Diabolus Febricitantem?" Rou questioned, pacing with even strides besides the red-haired man that I assumed to be his brother Ryuketsuki as this point.

"Only demons contract this illness. You are right my puny brother, which means your friend here is a demon or at least part demon. We'll need to do a blood test later to see for sure." Ryuketsuki smirked and winked at me again when he caught me staring up at him. It made me think otherwise of my decision to come here. This brother of Rou's didn't seem like a doctor at all. What am I going to do now?