The hospital was eerily quiet, the kind of silence that makes you notice every little hum of the fluorescent lights. A man walked slowly down the long, empty corridor, the sharp smell of bleach and medicine stinging his nose. He looked calm on the outside, but his eyes were empty, like someone who had already given up.
"The task Father assigned me... was destined to fail," he thought to himself. He felt like a failure, stuck in a cycle he couldn't break. "I've tried everything. Even fate seems to reject our bloodline...".
He stopped suddenly when a tiny, high-pitched cry of a baby broke the silence.
"Excuse me, sir!" a voice called out.
He turned around and saw a nurse running toward him, looking completely out of breath. "What's your blood type?" she asked desperately.
The man blinked, confused. "My... blood type? Why do you ask?".
"There's a newborn in the ward—his blood is severely infected," she explained, her voice shaking. "We're out of donors. He needs O-negative, and he needs it right now".
The man stood there for a second, a look of shock crossing his face before it turned into a sad, knowing smile. "O-negative, huh...?" he whispered to himself. He looked at the nurse and nodded. "Take me to the doctor. I'm a match".
A Shady Deal
Inside the office, the doctor stared at a computer screen, his face pale. The blood test results were flashing in a weird, glitchy pattern he had never seen before.
"What... is this?" the doctor whispered, his forehead wrinkling in confusion.
The man didn't care about the science. "You don't need to understand," he said firmly. "Just follow my instructions".
He pulled out a leather wallet and slid a thick stack of cash across the desk. The doctor looked at the money, hesitated for a heartbeat, and then let his greed take over. He quickly tucked the money away.
"... Understood," the doctor replied.
"Do it exactly as I said," the man warned. "No questions".
The Transfer
The room was filled with the soft beep... beep... beep of machines. The man lay still on a bed, watching his own blood flow through a tube and into the tiny baby. The nurse looked worried, while the doctor kept his head down, looking guilty about the deal he'd just made.
"It's stabilizing!" the nurse suddenly cried out, her eyes lighting up. "The baby's heartbeat—it's going back to normal!".
The man let out a long breath and closed his eyes, a small smile appearing on his face. "So this is how it ends..." he thought. "Not with failure. But with continuation".
By the time they were done, the man looked incredibly pale and weak, but he was still breathing.
A Strange Goodbye
Later that night, the baby's parents ran up to him in the hallway with tears streaming down their faces.
"Thank you! You saved our child!" the mother sobbed, clutching the man's hand. "We can never repay you for this!".
The father looked at the bundle in his wife's arms. "We named him Kai," he said. "Our son owes you his life".
The man looked down at the baby named Kai. For just a split second, the baby's eyes snapped open—and they were glowing a bright, whiteish light blue.
"Kai... A good name," the man said quietly. He turned around and walked away, his footsteps echoing through the exit.
Standing outside in the cold night air, he looked up at the stars. "Mission accomplished..." he whispered to the sky. "The pure blood continues... through you, Kai".
As he walked into the dark, a single drop of blood dripped from his sleeve onto the ground. It glowed a faint red for a moment before disappearing into the concrete.
Few Days Later
Somewhere far away, in a broken-down old Japanese house, the air felt heavy and wrong. The paper doors were ripped, and the floor was covered in blood. Dead bodies—samurai and villagers—were scattered everywhere, their faces twisted in fear.
A tall, thin shadow with horns moved through the dark, its eyes glowing red.
" I love the taste of Pure blood... ," it whispered in a terrifying, low voice.
The man from the hospital was there, too, but he was in bad shape. He was kneeling on the bloody floor, his shirt torn and a wound in his chest dripping blood. He looked up at the horned creature and gave a weak, tired smile.
"So... it begins again..." he gasped. "Live well... Kai"...he whispered to himself
The creature let out a horrifying scream and lunged forward, and the room was swallowed by thick black smoke.