34 Blood Plague

Ai had spent the weeks following their return to Lockwood resting. Her injuries had been severe, but thanks to [Sloth], she had mostly recovered, however, she still felt weak. Perhaps this was due to the mental strain she had received from the whole ordeal.

Now that Andromeda and Aiya took residence within her Domain, things had been awkward as she didn't know how to handle the two. Sure, Aiya had appeared before in her mind to offer advice and give warnings, but now she was actually there, to talk to at any time.

The real problem was that Andromeda was there as well, she was, until recently, the biggest threat to Ai and everyone she cared about. Now she was sane, but she still said she loved her. Ai was creeped out about this, but something deep within her lost memories seemed to normalize this, as strange as it was.

Still, perhaps it was good that all three of them were reunited within her Domain, perhaps they could help Ai with her missing identity.

Ai sat up in her bed, looking at her prosthetics, she flexed a few of the fingers to check if she was successful in maintaining the mana flow and smiled when she saw that she was successful. It was a pain in the ass but she got the hang of it with a few days of practice, maybe now Hoat'l would tell her what these 'additions' were.

She let out a light cough and frowned. "Fuck, I better not have come down with a fever." She said to herself as she reached her hand up to check her forehead, only to remember that she didn't actually have feeling in her hands.

Sighing, she placed her forearm to her head and noticed that she was a little on the warm side. "Well fuck." She cursed and thought about just sleeping for a few days straight and seeing if that might heal her back to full.

Laying back down on the bed, she started to count the number of cracks in the ceiling, realizing exactly how bored she was. "Come on body, quit fucking around and let me go have some fun already."

She let out another cough that triggered a much stronger reaction as she sat up and continued to cough into her arm.

Her face paled.

Blood.

Black blood.

"No."

"No way."

Ai started to get dizzy as Aiya's memories of the same situation started to enter her mind.

Aiya had done the same, coughing up black blood into her hands. Back then Aiya knew what that meant, at least she knew about the first three stages.

But now that the memories became clearer, Ai realized something. When Aiya contracted the Blood Plague and left the village, it wasn't Aiya, it was Andromeda posing as her. These memories were Andromeda's.

She closed her eyes and immediately went into her Domain, the void quickly enveloping her.

"Girls. We have a major problem." Ai said as she landed within the coiled mana strand.

Aiya and Andromeda looked up at her with a worried expression.

"It's the Blood Plague. I have it." Both of their eyes widened.

"A-are you sure?" Andromeda asked.

Ai nodded, holding out her arm with the black blood.

"Damnit, I tried really hard to make sure I didn't pass it on." Andromeda punched the mana strand, causing it to ripple.

Ai clenched her fists, fighting the urge to attack Andromeda, she took a deep breath to calm down. "Is there any way to cure it?"

Andromeda shook her head. "None that I know of."

Ai clenched her teeth, glaring at Andromeda. 'Useless.' She dropped her head when she realized the malice that Ai stared her down with. "I know, I am useless. I'm sorry."

"Oi, Ai, fuck off with the hostility, Ameda, you're not useless, Ai just doesn't fully understand what happened." Aiya finally snapped into the conversation.

'Ameda? This bitch doesn't deserve a pet name.'

"Listen, Ai, there is a way to cure the Blood Plague, Memory Virus, whatever the fuck you want to call it. The problem is, you were the one to discover the cure, but a little too late."

Ai's eyes widened. "I did? What the hell happened? Why don't I remember? Rather, why can't I recall my own memories when both of yours hit me on a daily basis?"

Aiya shrugged, but Andromeda responded. "You went through all of the stages, and before splitting me off, you placed a seal on yourself that redirected the memory drain solely to yourself, so that..." She trailed off. "...so that I would remember."

Ai looked at Andromeda in surprise. 'Why the hell would I do that? There's no way I'd be willing to do something like that, did I love her too? That's insane, that would be something akin to self-cest, right? We are all the same person split off, right? Was she like a close friend? How would that even work? Were we all able to meet in my, er, our Domain like we are now? Maybe if I never saw that crazy side, we could have been friends, but again, she loves me, and to me, that shit just wouldn't fly. I'm not like that... right?'

"Oi, Selis to Ai, do you read me?" Aiya was standing in front of Ai as she finished her internal rant.

"Ah, sorry. I'm just... so damn confused." Ai admitted as she looked down.

"Well, on the bright side, we have the recollection system, so maybe we can figure out how to use that to regain Ai's memories." Andromeda said with a smile.

"Isn't it automatic though? Like I get fragments of memories all the time from you two and 'those' two." Ai said as Aiya nodded.

"Yeah, I don't think it's that simple, although maybe exposing you to more significant figures from your past will trigger something. Something personal to only you like your husband, or..." Aiya stopped suddenly looked away.

Ai blinked. "Or.... what?"

"Nothing." Aiya quickly responded.

Ai furrowed her brows, glaring at Aiya. "Or what? Anything could be useful at this point."

Aiya looked hesitant and then responded. "It's slightly personal to me too, so it might not work, ok? But your husband is a good place to start."

Ai had a pouty face but then relented. "Still, I don't have a clue how to find my supposed husband."

Aiya smiled and pointed a finger in a matter-of-fact manner. "Actually, I know exactly where he is, and even how to get there quickly. You'll need to access your system and find an item called the [Celestial Key], that item will take you straight there and back."

Ai stared at Aiya with a dead expression. "Oi, twin sis, I don't have access to my system."

"Ah fuck, that explains why we can't see anything you do... And twin sis? Really? More like big sis, since I'm technically older than you."

Ai thought about asking what she meant but decided this conversation was enough of a mind fuck as it was. "Whatever, so my next task should be to get another tattoo as quickly as possible, then use this key to meet my 'husband'."

Andromeda sat to the side quietly with a smile, a fake smile, but Ai decided to ignore her for now.

"Alright, ladies, thanks for the council, I've got a lot of work to do, so I'll catch y'all up after I meet with my husband." 'Y'all?' Aiya looked at her quizzically but shook her head before nodding. "Mn, good luck, Ai."

Andromeda stepped forward as Ai had prepared to depart. "There is one more person who might also be able to help. You've seen him before, in that dream we shared. The wolfman neighbor, he is a renowned alchemist and one of the seven. His name is Rolf Kanin."