A month passed by and Davi and Yu Chen’s group of specialists had been working tirelessly on the project. Kyuu’s deadline was drawing closer with only one month left until his time was up according to their estimations. His condition was becoming worse and there was no telling if he could even hang on for another month.
In the lab, Davi was looking down the microscope, intently watching for changes in Kyuu’s blood sample as she placed a drop of liquid formulation on it. She had done this many times before, with many different formulations and the result was always the same, no change or worse, faster deterioration. But this time around, she saw something different. The cells started to react to the formulation but not in a bad way! What!? Did they finally find a cure?! As Davi kept observing the changes, hope bloomed within her heart but a few seconds later, it deflated again. It seemed that this formula was not the cure. In the end, the cells still died. However, there was a good possibility that this might be able to at least prolong Kyuu’s life, and Juu’s and Zaki’s.
Davi called the other specialists in and she had them observe the reaction with their own eyes but didn’t say anything about her conclusion. She wanted to know if they would come to the same conclusion as she did and to make sure that her hope hadn’t clouded her judgement. All the scientists became excited after seeing the reactions under that microscope and a low, excited murmur filled the room.
“So, what do you think?” Davi asked everyone in the room nervously.
“I think this is definitely a positive step. If we can refine this formulation, we might be able to prolong their lives. However, it still isn’t a cure and there is no telling whether how long it will prolong their life, nor the side effects. There is also a possibility that this remedy might only work initially after one use and that it won’t have the same effect if they consume it the second or third time. However, this could give us more time to find the cure and this is definitely a good step towards that goal.”
Everyone else nodded, as if this person had spoken for them all. Davi felt relieved and excited and a newfound motivation sparked within her again.
Having worked on this for a long time now without success, her hope had started to dwindle. But even so, she never would have given up because this involved someone very close to her. Giving up was not part of her vocabulary, not when it came to this.
Feeling a new sense of urgency, all the scientists had a meeting to discuss the formula and work on a plan of attack. They still had plenty of work to do to assess the viability of this potion and to find out as much as possible about the potential unwanted side effects to it. That would be the more challenging aspect because they couldn’t use lab rats or anything of the kind because the makeup of the three gentlemen were not one would consider normal and therefore, there was no way they could know the full effect of this unless one of the three took it.
The two month timeframe was fast approaching and Davi, after a couple of more weeks of experimentation, broke the news to Yu Chen, Sei, Hinari, Kyuu, Juu and Zaki. They were sitting in the hospital-like room where Kyuu had been staying, with Sei and Hinari on a conference call, as Davi explained to them their progress. There was a feeling of newfound hope and lightness in the atmosphere as Davi continued to update them and even though she had gotten to the part where they of course didn’t know what the side effects were or how long this would last for, the mood didn’t dampen.
This was a huge breakthrough in everyone’s mind. Huge!
“I’ll take it,” Kyuu’s voice broke through the conversation.
Everyone’s eyes were drawn to the man who spoke those words in an emotionless manner.
“Kyuu, you need to think about this carefully. While the experiment might have been successful in-vitro, it might not be the same when it is taken by a live person. We aren’t able to experiment on lab rats and there are just so many unknowns,” Davi explained.
Even though Davi had seen positive results, in the end, this was still very experimental and she felt that she needed to warn Kyuu of their misgivings because as a scientist, she still hasn’t been able to determine what kind of effects this would have on a person. It was just too hard and just because it might work in theory doesn’t necessarily mean that it would in reality.
However, in Kyuu’s mind, there really was no other option. He would die in a couple of weeks’ time anyway so what harm could this do? He was confident in Davi’s abilities and deductions and he trusted her. If she was right, then he would live longer, if not, he would die anyway. Sure, they didn’t know how much longer he would stay on this Earth and he understood that this was a huge risk to take but to him, it was an easy choice. It was this or certain death. He didn’t really care too much about whether he lived or not because he knew he had served his purpose, the reason he was created, but despite all that, some part of him wanted his brothers to have the greatest chance of surviving. So, if he had to be the guinea pig for them, then he would gladly offer his life.
Kyuu looked at them all, his face still expressionless, as if he was a lifeless mannequin. All these people, all these faces he had become familiar with, cared enough to go through all of this to help them. In his rock solid, frozen heart, he felt a little warmth seep through it.
“I will do it.”
