Hi this is Benji Himura. I am now starting a new fanfic. Is a Sakura Taisen story. I don't own Sakura or any of the characters. Some anime or manga characters might show up in the story I also don't own then. I own Benji Himura and others characters that will show up in the story. It might be violence and sex in the story so if you are underage of seventeen are warned the content might be too improper to your age. Read by your own will and risk. In anyway enjoy the story.

Signed: Benji Himura.

Author pre-story notes:

Well I am going to try a new thing to spice up my fics. I am adding songs to certain scenes; like Sakura Taisen did, for example the episode nine when Maria recalled when she meets her captain. I have showed Benji humming, singing and hearing to many songs, in different occasions. Well I just love hearing musing when I am on the computer, when I got outside my house I always carry my CD player so I can listen to it when I walk, when I am not watching TV or anime on my computer I always have the winamp on with my favorite playlist. For example if I stay too long with out hearing music I began to think on music or sing. I will place the songs that suit more the scenes. Try hearing it sometime. If you can listen to the song when reading the scene might be even better. Sorry for taking too long. Now we can return to the normal fic.

"Text" Talked sentences.

'Text' Thoughts.

-Text- Sounds effects.

(Text) Talked sentences in a foreign language as English when everyone else speaks Japanese.

: Text: Messages show in an electronic screen or written.

Text: something being recalled, flashbacks, scenes being replayed.

Text: a detail found in a location, scene, person, recording and images that originally wasn't there.

Chapter thirty four: Determination

Teito March eleventh 1923; Wednesday 4:35 PM

Benji sighs tired back on the hospital, he was trapped in that hole for nearly seventeen hours, and thankfully Tsugumi found him, actually heard him singing to pass the time and led the rescue party to his location. Even with hours passed since he was released Benji was still feeling sore, numb and tired, to make things worse Maria's condition was worsening and he don't know what to do to help her.

He was slightly feverish but kept that a secret, Chisato was busy dealing with the girls of his organization, Yoriko, Yu and Mio are also busy dealing with everything on the theater, and Tsugumi is the only one with some time off, a deserved break for finding Benji after searching for long hours.

Benji looks at Maria who is sleeping on her quarantine room, her catheter is connected to an IV drip and Benji's blood drip, and she has dark rings under her eyes and is with an oxygen mask. 'What can I do to save you?' Benji thinks looking at the sleeping blonde. 'I can't let you die…there must me something that I can do…'

The ultimatum that the mysterious woman gave to Benji still weights on his thoughts as the end of the fifth day approaches, after all that time Benji wasn't able to figure what she meant with her words much less why she appeared to him and said them.

Benji leaves Maria's bedside to think somewhere else, actually he needs to vent out some frustration and he can't do it there. Benji moves to the hospital kitchen and finds it empty, hungry and tired Benji decides to fix himself something in hope of clearing his mind.

Benji takes out his coat and tosses it over the chair that he used just few days before to rest a little, after that he takes out his uniform jacket and shirt revealing a black metal armor covering his entire upper body, he opens the chest plate and places the piece of armor over the table, then he removes the arms of the armor.

"It feels much better." Benji whispered rubbing his shoulders, under all the clothes and the armor he was still wearing a long sleeved t-shirt. "I can't complain much, the armor is really good." Benji moves to the refrigerator and scans what he can fix for himself, after ten minutes Benji is cutting some steaks.

"If you want I can do that." Mio said entering on the kitchen. "I prefer doing it myself, but thanks." Benji replied not looking to the woman. "How you found me?" "No one saw you leaving the hospital; you weren't in Tachibana-san's room or in any other room with a member of the teigeki, neither in the bathrooms nor in your room here." Mio said listing the reasons. "Considering everything the kitchen sounded as a place to look."

"Well I am hungry and needing to cut something." Benji commented. "I must say Benji-sama that I am very impressed with the fact that you can move with the armor." Mio said in an honest tone. "You are even wearing the lower half of the armor with out the actuators working."

"I have strong legs." Benji replied. "The full armor is kind of heavy but the actuators do their job quite well so I can't complain." "So the project is still going to proceed?" Mio questioned in a serious tone. "Yes." Benji answered seasoning the steaks. "It might be handy for us."

…

Few more hours passed and Benji is back to Maria's room, she is awake and they are chatting, at least Benji is trying to make a conversation and Maria is trying to follow, after one week locked in a closed room with out any kind of distraction it was hard to make small talk.

Maria notices that Benji's shoulders and chest appears to be bigger. "Don't tell me that you are finding time to work out?" Maria asked in an attempt of teasing tone. "You look bigger." "It is the armor that I am wearing under my clothes." Benji answered with a smile. "It is kind of bulky."

"For sure is, but why you are wearing armor in here?" Maria asked casually before adding a playful tease. "Afraid of being hit by a gurney?" "I am not having much time to get ready lately so I am always ready to leave now." Benji answered in the same tone. "It is a pain to go to the bathroom." "I don't want to know." Maria said with a tired chuckle.

Benji smiled happy for making her laugh. "So this is it the last night isn't it?" Maria asked in a serious tone. "What?" Benji questioned unsure of how to respond to that. "I am feeling really bad." Maria said looking at him. "My lungs feel like they are on fire, my whole body is heavy, tired and I can't move it well, you are somber and thinking too hard about something. I can tell that something is wrong from all that, wanting or not I am the person that fought by your side more than everyone else in the theater as you can sometimes read me I can read you in other times."

"You are going to live Maria." Benji said in a firm tone, actually unsure if he is trying to convince her or himself. "You are going to live even if I have to hold your soul to your body with my bare hands." 'I really want to believe in you as you seem to believe on me.' Maria thinks looking at him. 'But if you knew about all my crimes you wouldn't treat me like this.'

"Yes I would." Benji said looking back at her eyes. "We both killed." Maria looks at him shocked and shows in her eyes. "I hate when you do this." She muttered half-heartily, it was all those hours that they trained, played and fought together showing how well they are tunned. 'I hate when you give me hope when I am hopeless. I guess that dying with you on my side wouldn't be all that bad.'

"You are not going to die." Benji said in a serious tone. "Get that inside that pretty head of yours, you are not going to die and I am not going to let you die." Maria nods with a blush on her cheeks.

A worried series of knocks in the door breaks that moment making the duo look at the door, Yu is worriedly gesturing for him to leave with Mio on her side. "I will see what they want." Benji said standing up, Maria nods and sees him leaving the room.

"What is wrong?" Benji asked to the duo. "Another attack sir." Yu answered in a serious tone. "It is the kuronosukai again; Peçonha, Rasetsu and Setsuna are attacking Shinjuku, the force isn't big but they are with wakijis." "Get everything ready I will meet you two in the garage." Benji ordered in a sharp tone.

The duo obeys after saluting him. "An attack right?" Maria asked when he returns. "Sadly yes, it seems that they finally noticed that the defenses are weakened now." Benji answered while moving to her. "I will finish there as soon as I can and I will return here, don't die while I am not here or you won't like what I will do when I find you."

"I won't die alone." Maria said in a serious tone. "But I won't promise that I won't die, I don't feel like I will live." "You will live even if I have to give you my life." Benji replied while making Maria more comfortable. Maria stays in silence once again not knowing that to say after his passionate words, they filled her with warmth and made her a little more alive.

"I am leaving now." Benji said in a gentle tone. "I won't take long." "Take care." Maria replied in the same tone, it could be the last time that she would see him; the least that she could do after everything that he did is see him off in a pleasant way, Maria shakes her head inwardly before saying. "I hate you." Benji sneers lightly, more to a smile than sneering before saying. "And I love you."

"If you try kissing me you will pay." Maria said in a mock acid tone. "I think that would be worth but I will save that for a later time." Benji replied in a casual tone. Maria chuckles and sees him leaving, that small event was a welcome blast from the past, originally it was Maria venting out her frustration and Benji rubbing her in the wrong way and embarrassing and frustrating her even more, and with the time it became more like a small bicker or sketch. Benji leaves the room feeling a bit better thanks to the small event.

…

Benji's fever escalated with the stress and the low amount of blood on his body, how he arrived in the battlefield was a blurred memory, he is now facing the small horde of demons and envoys of evil. His arsenal is depleted and he is left only with one of the four swords that was once part of the four swords of his glaives, his machine pistols are damaged and he is left only with MF-1HD from the Kanzaki industries, other than that he is only with the knife from Maria, the naginata edge from Sumire and an disassembled weapon wrapped in a leather carrier on his back.

A bizarre creature that appears to be a mix of a dog's skeleton, an insect and plant attacks Benji. With a swift and flow movement Benji ducks under the summoned demon and slashes it in the half with the knife that Maria loaned to him, the steel slices the demon cleanly.

The creature falls on the ground in two parts before the blood gushes out from the cut, more of those creatures attack Benji and he slashes them with his two knives. 'Not bad.' Lisa thinks seeing Benji fighting. 'If I didn't know I would never guess that you are exhausted. Well the slashes are a bit reckless but that is hardly his fault on this kind of situation.' She sighs inwardly seeing the last of her new summons being killed. 'And once again my summons are useless, maybe I should have chosen another skill…' she dryly thinks seeing Benji with the usually ease killing her skeletal minions.

"Get ready to coordinate the wakijis." Peçonha says to Setsuna while summoning her usual skeletal demons, they are easier to summon and because they are spear wielding it forces Benji to change his range. Setsuna nods and waits for the signal, he doesn't want to risk reading Benji's mind and see the horrors there stored.

Benji parries and dodges the spears while approaching the skeletons knowing that to kill then he has to destroy the only soft part of their bodies, the parasite in the back that animates the stone, shapes and command the skeleton. On each strike green goo jets out from the parasites making the skeletons fall.

'Damn… I forgot that he is even better with a knife…' Lisa thinks seeing how Benji is moving and easily taking out the skeletons. 'But as long he is distracted it is okay…' Suddenly one wakiji strikes and destroys one of the skeletons and hits Benji on the chest with its axe. Benji is tossed away with the impact; he lands hard in the street many meters away.

Benji clutches his chest in pain content that the armor held the brunt of the damage. Benji rolls to the side and avoids another attack, now all the wakijis try to attack him. Benji decides to explore the lack of intelligence of the wakijis and in one of the dodges he runs to a wakiji and slide under its legs, as he hoped the others attack the wakiji destroying it.

Benji chuckles and repeats the stunt until Setsuna manages to control the four remnants of the ten wakijis. "Kill him!" Setsuna shouts to the wakijis. Benji calmly looks at the horde. 'Shit he is going to do it!' Lisa shouted to herself. "Hitotsu me no kotoba wa yume nemuri no naka kara mune no oku no kurayami wo sotto tsuredasu no." Benji sang softly while dodging the wakijis, the confusion on the creatures is clear while they suddenly stop their charge and try to look around with their grid faces.

'Fuck… I knew that he was going to resort to that…' Lisa cursed seeing Benji idly slashing the wakijis that just stay there waiting to be cut. 'He is canceling his fighting spirit with a soothing song, with out anger, hate, fear or negative emotions to see the wakijis are blind…'

Setsuna makes Rasetsu attack Benji and this time Benji's plan doesn't work because Rasetsu can see him, unable to keep up the plan Benji is forced to stop and fight, the remaining two wakijis join the combat now able to see Benji again. Benji is hit by Rasetsu and is launched even farther than when the wakiji hit him; Benji hits a wall and falls on the ground not moving.

Setsuna chuckles evilly seeing Benji like that, it was the very first time for them to render Benji like that, a small part of the demon boy's mind is wishing that Benji is alive so he can be tortured. Rasetsu roars and charges at Benji. The charge is stopped by a pair of missiles hitting his chest dead on.

"No one will harm him!" Yoriko shouted in a firm tone, she is wearing an armor clearly taller than she is, her arms, legs and waist are covered by the armor's arms, legs and waist while her upper body is exposed covered only by a skintight black and red uniform and two cables across her chest, her eyes are covered by a transparent visor and the upper half of her head is protected by a helmet.

Yu and Mio are wearing similar armors, but the differences are visible in the armament of each of the girls, Yoriko is armed with one missile pack, a machine gun and a rather large barreled gun on her left arm, over the left arm is a small shield; Mio is armed with a naginata and a katana; and lastly Yu is armed with a katana and a pair of tonfas.

"Yu secure the commander!" Yoriko shouted thorough the radio while firing more missiles against the kuronosukai. "Mio take care of the wakijis!" "Ryokai!" The duo exclaimed rushing to obey. "Remember we only have one tenth of the armor comparing to the hanagumi, our only advantage is that we have three times their speed and mobility! Do not get hit!" Yoriko added seriously. "We know!" Yu and Mio replied while skating to the direction of their orders.

Yoriko had to admit that the armors are great; she would never imagine that so much could be accomplished in such a short time, even with most of the armor being taken from an existent failed project she couldn't believe that it took few days to convert the armor to be piloted and be so effective. Yu carefully picks Benji and skates back to their command truck, Mio and Yoriko attack the wakijis being careful to avoid being hit by them.

In the truck Chisato takes Benji from Yu allowing the girl to return to the battle. "Tsugumi help me." She said while opening Benji's uniform. The shorter brunette nods and obeys. "He is burning with fever." Chisato whispered feeling his forehead. "No wonder he collapsed, he must be feeling the effects of this past week."

"We have to get him up, they won't be able to fend off the kuronosukai for long, and they just have twenty more minutes in their batteries." Tsugumi warned in a serious tone. "I know, but I don't think that we can send him to battle like this." Chisato replied seriously. "He isn't in shape to even be out of a bed."

Tsugumi rushed back inside the truck and grabs the emergency medical kit. "We have to force him up." She said rummaging inside the medic kit. "Yes!" She exclaimed finding the desired item. "Smelling salts?" Chisato asked confused. "It will force him to wake up." Tsugumi said breaking the vial after lowering his mask.

Benji inhales and tries to force her hand and the vial away. "Easy there leader." Tsugumi said in a gentle tone. "You are back to the world of the living." Benji rubs his nose in pain while sitting up. "What happened?" he asks looking at the duo, he knows that wasn't good.

"You were hit by Rasetsu and knocked out." Chisato answered in a worried tone. "You should be resting, you aren't in fighting condition." "How I got here?" Benji asked seriously. "Yu carried you." Tsugumi answered. "Yoriko, Mio and Yu are using the kishi armors to fight with the remnants of the kuronosukai, but they must be in the half charge of their batteries."

Benji nods understanding, he begins to take out his armor. "I can't move with this." He said while the duo aids him. "Right now I am too tired to use it." Benji stands up after removing the last piece of the armor, now he is only wearing a pair of jeans pants, a t-shirt and he is putting on his torn coat.

"Be careful my lord." Chisato said in a worried tone. "I will." Benji replied before running to the direction of the battle. Tsugumi stays in silence wondering why Chisato was like that, she just couldn't understand it.

Benji arrives and smiles under his mask seeing how well the trio is handling the situation, Yoriko is in the rear line providing back up fire to Mio and Yu who are dealing with the remaining wakiji together. Setsuna, Rasetsu and Peçonha are forced back thanks to Yoriko's bullets.

Benji used the fact that no one is aware of his presence yet to strike, drawing his sword Benji jumps from the rooftop where he was standing and slashes Setsuna. The demon boy howls in pain before teleporting away, Rasetsu charges at Benji and the ninja dodges the mad charge.

Peçonha stares at Benji before realizing that Benji changed his grip on the sword. Benji is now holding the sword as he would hold a spear and he tosses the sword against her as hard as he can. Unable to fully dodge the attack Peçonha avoided a lethal strike taking the sword on her left shoulder. She shouts in pain with the blade buried deep on her flesh.

Using that moment Yoriko fires all her remaining missiles against Rasetsu who is leaving a hole in a wall. The massive explosion that follows throws debris on the air. Peçonha removes the sword from her shoulder and charges at Benji with a war cry. Benji responds with a similar cry while drawing the two knives again.

"Mio, Yu we have to retreat now." Yoriko said in a serious tone after checking some readings on her sensors. "Our batteries are in the red zone, Rasetsu was taken by the enemy." "Ryokai!" The duo replied moving away. "Sir we will be moving out now." Yoriko said to Benji. "Okay!" Benji replied. "Thanks for the help!" The trio skates away content with themselves.

"You never told me about having subordinates." Lisa hissed with the sword is locked against Benji's knives. "Of course I haven't." Benji replied casually. "After all you are the enemy." After those words Benji stabs Lisa with the naginata blade. "And I only need one knife to hold the sword." He added in a teasing tone.

Lisa gasps in pain and leaps backwards, she tosses something on the ground and a cloud of smoke rises, when the cloud is gone so is she. Benji sighs tiredly and cleans the edges on his pants before sheathing them. "Well it is over again…" he muttered walking to the command truck. "At least for now…"

In the truck he sees the trio leaving the armors that are now connected and locked on pods, the clothes of the trio has a ten centimeters long cable on the base of the spine and few sockets similar to the ones in the hanagumi uniform. "Good job everyone." Benji said to Yoriko, Mio, Yu, Chisato and Tsugumi.

"Thank you sir." The group said as one. "What is the verdict of the new kishi armors?" Benji asked to the trio. "Other than the issues with the short lasting battery we are quite pleased with the performance." Yoriko said in behalf of the trio. "Of course we wouldn't complain in having armor covering our torsos."

"I share the feeling." Benji commented. "Bear for a while, those three are only the prototypes made from the kishi units that I destroyed. I am thankful that it is working as well as it is in such short time." "We all agree with that sir." The group agreed. "I will be taking the prototypes back to the factory." Eri said while leaving the transport truck with the three armors' pods. "They still need to be developed more before they become fully operational, but tonight's data will be very precious in the development."

"I agree with that, let us know if you need them for more tests." Benji said to the blonde girl. "I will, right now I want to take the armors back and dismantle them to see how every system took the stress of the battle." Eri replied seriously. "You can take the armors back but do not dismantle them." Benji said in a serious tone. "We are still in a red alert here and we might need them again, do all the exams with out dismantling the armors, recharge the batteries and reload the ammo."

"Understood." Eri replied. "I will be leaving now." Benji nods and sees her moving back to the truck and giving orders to three girls on it, Benji recognizes them as three of the girls of his organization, but he isn't familiar with them. "Well now back to the hospital." Benji exclaimed casually.

"From where you take so much energy?" Yoriko asked surprised. "It must be that spirit energy thing." Mio commented chuckling. "According to the records he has one of the higher levels of the hanagumi." "Must be it." Yoriko chuckled.

Benji looks at the duo shocked; the answer that he was so frantically looking was there as plain as day and he couldn't find it. "I need to go now!" Benji shouted racing to Tsugumi's car. He doesn't even hear the calls from Chisato telling for him to rest because his illness.

Later Benji stops the car in the front of the hospital and looks at his watch; the night was almost over with the last hour of the night ending and the dawn nearing. Benji runs to Maria's room ignoring the few night shift nurses that tell him to not run, Benji's presence was very common in the hospital and most of the times he was running on the halls to leave to fight, it wasn't an odd sight anymore.

Benji enters on the quarantine room and seems Maria looking closer of death than ever. "For sure you took your time." Maria said in a half conscious state. "It was a hard fight." Benji replied locking the door behind him. "You are too serious, what happened?" Maria asked looking at him with some more attention; it was getting harder for her to stay awake.

"Your state." Benji answered walking to her. "I am one step away from the grave, well with one foot on it." Maria replied under her oxygen mask. "At least I won't be alone now."

"You won't die." Benji said while taking out his coat. "I am." Maria replied slowly closing her eyes because her tiredness. "You are not." Benji said now rolling up his right sleeve and taking out his watch. "I finally found what was lacking for you to get better."

His words barely reach Maria's mind as the sleep begins to win the battle against her awareness. "You are lacking spirit energy that is why you are feeling so tired and sleeping so much." Benji explained while pulling his butterfly knife from his belt. "The process of production of the vaccine allows my spirit energy to vanish from my blood, the air here is sterile even the spirit energy is gone, your illness is blocking your spirit energy from reaching your body that is why you are so ill."

Maria looks at him not really understanding what he is saying. "So you need an energy transfusion. At least that is my theory." Benji said opening the knife and slashing the almost empty IV plastic bottle open. "I might be wrong about this, but if I am wrong we will be sharing the trip."

Maria's mind registers with shock while Benji change the knife to his left hand and he raises his right arm and the knife. "I don't really recall everything because the fever but I remember that I was electrocuted by Peçonha in today's attack." Benji said approaching the knife to his right wrist. "It didn't harm me; actually it cleared my head and gave me energy so I think that I am with a decent level of spirit energy now."

Maria eyes go wide when everything begins to make sense to her mind, she tries to tell to him to stop, shout to him not do it that wasn't worth it, but no words came out from her mouth. The pain on her body and the exhaustion didn't allow her to do anything to prevent that.

"If you don't get better we both will die." Benji said with a sad smile. "We will walk down the path together; life or death will be all up to you. I guess that you was right in many insults I am a idiot." After those words Benji cuts open his wrist.

The blood that squirted from the cut hits the right side of Benji's face and because he ran all the way to the room some drops even hit Maria's face and pajamas. Maria's eyes go wide with horror and her mouth is open in a silent cry of terror. Benji drops the knife that nails itself on the floor, by the tip of the knife a small pool of blood begins to form.

"In the end this might be everything that I can do…" Benji said moving his bloody hand to the IV bottle and let's his blood freely fall on it mixing with the transparent remains of the IV. Maria tries to move her hand to press the button to call a nurse but even that she is unable to do.

In a horrified silence Maria sees the blood running down the transparent line to her veins, she wants to deny, she wants to believe that is just her imagination but she can feel the warmth of his blood while it begins to enter on her veins as if filling her with life.

In a short while the bottle is overflowing with blood and Benji lowers his wrist, the blood falls on the floor on thick streams and drops. "I am getting…too…used…" Benji murmured before falling on his knees. "To bleed…" "Raise your hand!" Maria tried to exclaim but came only as a whisper. "Get help!"

Benji smiles tiredly when hearing her voice. "I…hope that…it means…that…I …was…right…" Benji whispered with the pool of blood growing under him. "You can't die!" Maria said with her voice now a little louder. "Don't you dare to die! Not in front of me! Not for me!"

"For you isn't….such a bad…death…" Benji whispered feeling faint because the blood loss. He begins to fall back and to get unconscious, he never sees Maria leaving her bed and rushing to his side. "Don't die!" She shouted holding his right wrist with her right hand and supporting him with her left arm and her body. "Why the bleeding isn't stopping?"

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no..." Maria frantically whispered while beginning to despair at the fact that Benji's life is dissipating as she watches helplessly. "Not again…not again…I can't endure it again…DON'T DIE!"

Benji slowly recovers his conscience feeling cold, his eyes slowly get adjust to the new light setting, it wasn't the dim moonlight from before but a cold bluish light surrounding him, with small white bluish specks falling down around him. A warm drop of liquid falls on his left cheek and is followed by another one. He looks up and says. "You are crying Maria?"

Maria is with her hair covering her eyes and lightly moving with an unearthly breeze replied. "No, I am not crying…" After a small pause she continued. "It is sweat…I am forcing myself too much by only freezing your inner right wrist…" Benji looks at his right wrist and sees her hand holding it tightly and the cut between her fingers covered with a thin layer of frozen blood.

"I believe in you…" Benji whispered tiredly. "No you don't…" Maria shot back not allowing him to see her face, using her hair as a barrier. "I am not seeing any tears…" Benji said gently moving her hair away from her face with his left hand and lightly tucking it behind her left ear.

"Idiot." Maria whispered now unable to hide the tears that fell from her eyes. "If you weren't dying I would beat you." "No you wouldn't." Benji replied trying to sound casually teasing her. "Why you didn't get help here now that you are better?" Benji asked after few moments of comfortable silence.

"I did when I managed to stop the bleeding, I called the nurses but they are not entering here." Maria said in a disgusted tone. "They are too afraid of being infected with something that isn't here anymore; they left us here to die. I am sure that the others don't even know about this…they wouldn't tell until we both died and they would come with an excuse that they found us dead."

"We will make the old man change the hospital of our health plan." Benji said casually. "This place lacks the care that we need when ill." "Whatever." Maria replied with a small smile. "At least the glory of saving our lives is only ours." "I don't do it for glory." Benji commented. "I know." Maria said looking at him. "Neither do I."

End of the chapter thirty four:

I want to thank everyone that is reading and that reviewed the story, I also want to thank to everyone that is just reading this story; even with out a review I can see your support on the hit count.

Extra scene

An unknown amount of time passed until someone arrived, it was the tsukigumi member in charge of guarding the room, see Benji and Maria on the ground with a pool of blood around them he rushes to get aid. After few minutes Benji is taken to another room to be treated.

Maria stays alone in her room, she had to admit that she was feeling much better than she was before, she pulls the knife from its resting place on the floor and closes the bloodied edge, her clothes are also soaked in slowly drying blood, the IV line have long stopped giving her the blood that Benji filled the bottle and she carefully removes the line, she knows that isn't needed anymore.

Maria stands up and for the first time in many weeks she feels refreshed and healthy. 'He was right after all.' She thinks while slowly moving around her room. 'I can feel my own energy now, as well his mixing with mine…it isn't longer his it is mine now as is the blood that once was his and now is mine….'

Maria looks down to herself and wonders what to do, it was the last set of pajamas that she had, at least that wasn't washing, she wanted to leave the room but if she leaves with large blood stains on her clothes it would cause much confusion, she looks around and finds the abandoned coat that Benji tossed on his chair when he arrived there.

Maria puts it on and is surprised with the weight. 'This must be at least three times heavier than my own coat.' She thinks running her hands on the torn coat, she can feel something hard under the layers of fabric covering the chest and the back, where the fabric is torn she can see a dull shine of metal and understands why it so heavy. 'This is armored…not only armored this is also damaged, he was shot, cut, burned and god knows what else while wearing this.'

She closes the coat and is about to leave the room when her bare feet hit something on the floor, she looks down and sees a something sparkling on the dim lights. Maria picks up and sees two small spheres of something transparent and red fused frozen when mixing together but not fully mixed.

"This can't be what I think that is…" Maria murmured understanding what could produce such spheres; it was two of her tears mixed with Benji's blood frozen by the cold spirit energy burst when she finally managed to stop the bleeding by freezing the cut.

Everything else had melted when she began to focus only on Benji's wrist, Maria can't think of those two small orbs as ice, it wasn't cool or slippery, deciding to think about it later she carefully wraps those two crystals on a napkin forgotten in one of her meals and hide it on her nightstand before she leaves the room by the front door by the first time since she arrived there.

'I think that I will need to train more when I get the leave…I feel that I got dull.' Maria thought while walking to a nearby surgery room, as she expected she finds Benji there being treated, two surgeons are carefully repairing his vein.

Oddly enough Benji is fully conscious and is looking away from the operation. Maria chuckled seeing the expression on his face contrasting with the one that he had when he slited his wrist in order to save her. The operation doesn't last long and the cut is stitched and bandaged.

"Man I so want to sleep now." Benji muttered while leaving the room, he was tired and bloodless and had one week worth of sleep to catch up. "You should consider yourself lucky in not being sleeping the eternal sleep." Maria said while he walked out of the room.

"I agree with that but I am still tired." Benji replied casually. "You should take that coat off, it is very dirty. I haven't time to send it to the cleaners in the past two days." "I am fine with it." Maria commented. "My pajamas are soaked with your blood, this at least cover it and make easier to walk around."

"I can solve the pajamas issue." Benji said before gesturing to a tsukigumi member, he quickly issue few orders and the agent leave. "What you ordered him to do?" Maria asked curious. "I told him to tell to Yu to fetch the emergency bag number two in the car." Benji answered casually. "Meaning a backpack with back up clothes that I stashed there this past week. I am also bloody and want to change. If you don't mind wearing something other than normal pajamas you can use some of the clothes there."

"As long the clothes are clean I think that I can endure that." Maria replied in a mock disgusted tone. "Want to grab something to eat?" Benji asked casually. "I don't know about you but I am hungry." "I think that I could use something to eat right now." Maria answered. "Then let's raid the kitchen." Benji added.

Maria nods and follows him to the kitchen; they ignore the comments and remarks about Benji's resistance or Maria's condition. "You will cook?" Maria asked sitting down in a chair, she defiantly was out of shape to be so tired with such small walk. "Not if I find what I am looking for." Benji replied opening the refrigerator. "And I did found it."

"What is it?" Maria asked curious while Benji takes from there a jar of something and something wrapped in tin foil. "Leftovers from a meal that one of my unit girls made." Benji answered placing the food on the table in front of Maria. "This is a nutritious vitamin of fruit and condensate milk, and this is beef sandwich." Benji explained unwrapping the sandwiches.

"There is more than just beef there." Maria commented seeing the sandwiches. "It has lettuce, onion, garlic, and some more energetic ingredients; I think that she even added ell here." Benji replied casually. "I was running down on blood and energy on the past week."

"Point taken." Maria said picking one of the sandwiches. "They aren't bad." Maria commented after eating a small bite of one." "I know, she cooks well." Benji commented while serving a glass of the vitamin for each one of them.