The pain was not over even when she transformed back into a mermaid. Now she could feel the usual symptoms for the transfusion reaction. Her body felt feverish, she was rapidly breathing, and eventually she coughed out some blood. She was pale and swimming in her own sweat, barely keeping consciousness.
Harker clutched her hand. "Princess!"
Roland and Dr. Rothstein had just arrived with the wheelchair. They were surprised to find the princess back to being a mermaid again and now in severe condition.
"We should hurry and administer some saline solution." Dr. Rothstein said. "Let us hope that this does not result in inner blood clotting and kidney failure. I'll put an oxygen mask on her right away."
Roland and Harker helped out the old doctor to stabilize the mermaid's condition. It took a long while to get Princess Jinzhu's breathing to be steady again. The men could not help but pity her as they could viscerally receive her suffering just from the hoarse sounds on her throat and her spasming.
Eventually, it was suggested by the doctor to put her to sleep for now to stop suffering longer.
They all collapsed to their chairs, rubbing their foreheads and thinking about what to do.
Harker felt the most guilty, of course. It was his blood that caused Princess Jinzhu's torment. Even if she told him he wasn't to blame, and that it was her decision, he still felt terrible. He wished he didn't give her his blood in the first place.
"Is there really no other way?" Harker sighed. "A way where she wouldn't be so hurt while receiving human DNA?"
Roland furrowed his brows. "I don't know much about science. But I suppose the best thing to do would be to transfer DNA without involving blood."
"Yeah, but blood is the best way to receive DNA. Princess Jinzhu doesn't absorb DNA like I do even when she obtained the Shapeshifting Ability. She can't just randomly eat hair or skin samples and suddenly turn into a human. Even her transformation was painfully slow…. I saw it before my eyes, she had to get her skin, muscles, and bones deconstructed….."
The horror of that sight still lasted in Harker's mind. And he knows that the Princess would also be forever traumatized by that experience too. They need to lessen the need for her transformation and de-transformation as much as possible.
The only key to that was for her to stay human and have consistent DNA input.
The only person who had answers for that was Yan. But Yan only seemed to appear when humans were not around. Yan even seemed to be….
Scared of humans. He avoids showing up at all cost in front of them.
He was missing when he was in Ms. Lovette's secret room of boys, when he was at school….. And even when he did materialize to get the pearl, he did his best not to be noticed by the guards.
So Harker asked the two humans in the room to leave. "Roland….. Doctor Rothstein... Can you go and call other experts you know for some help? Anything at all… I also just want to be alone with the princess for now."
Roland frowned. "I'm not sure if any of them could help in this specific situation, but we'll see what we could do."
And just like he thought, the eyeball finally made its appearance.
"You…. You really won't tell me anything unless I specifically ask you to." Harker rubbed his head. "You're like a little child."
Yan blinked. "I'm sorry, Master. I was just made this way. Your word is my command, it is also the only action I could take."
"I understand now. From now on, I will ask all the possible questions." Harker said. "Now…. You heard me. Is there any way to not have this kind of reaction?"
"Your friend Roland was right. Blood transfusion was the most efficient way, but it is the most dangerous." Yan said.
"Yeah, because the antibodies of the recipient react to the white blood cell of the donor and kill it." Harker said. "So what's the solution?"
"Well…. Saliva is also a high source of genomic DNA, along with other body fluids. It's the same thing as how HIV could also be passed through sex. However, this is different as HIV could not be passed through saliva unless the infected have bleeding gums or sores. Your Shapeshifter cells could still travel through Princess Jinzhu's digestive system and be absorbed."
This made Harker almost cough out blood. "So you're suggesting that I kiss her!? That's the solution to all our problems!? What is this, Pisney where a kiss can turn a mermaid into a human???"
"It's kinda like that, I suppose." Yan chuckled. "Except it's not just any random kiss. It needs to be a deep, open-mouthed tongue kiss where the saliva would be passed successfully. And it needs to be consistent. If you want her to stay human, you need to kiss deeply for at least 15 minutes once a week."
"15 whole minutes!???" Harker exclaimed. "Wouldn't our jaws hurt by then???"
"There's always passing seminal and vaginal fluids—"
Harker shook his head. "No, I don't want the princess to be forced to do it with me just for her to be human. I want it to mean something. But for the kiss…. I'll think about it."
"That's not enough though, Master. Kissing is just for transferring your Shapeshifter cells and DNA. She still needs human DNA to copy, and the only efficient way to do that is to receive human blood."
Harker frowned. "But her body reacts terribly to human blood. That's the whole point—"
"If she received it while still in mermaid form. You would have to do the transfusion again, but after that, the human blood she must receive must match her own. The reason why she had the symptoms of transfusion reaction was that after turning into a human, her blood type became RH null type. Everyday, she must receive at least 100 ml of RH null blood."
"RH null…."
RH null was the rarest blood phenotype. It was first discovered not too long ago in 1967 from an Australian Aboriginal woman. It was considered 'golden blood', and only exists in 1 out of 6 million people.
And Harker happened to know one person who has the RH null blood type.
"Roland has RH null blood."
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