--

13.

"He's right you know."

Dark enters the hallway, frowning at Carolyn and Cancer. Still thinking about what he did to Kyo, and why he made his attack so intense in the first place. It was only suppose to be a sparring match and yet he almost killed his best friend.

"Not only would you be a murderer like the man last night, you would also be kicked out of this Academy. Speaking of which, why were you there to begin with?"

#14

Kyo awoke with a start and sat bolt upright, gasping for air as he looked around nervously. To his horror and cringe-inducing embarrassment, he found his gaze meeting a fellow student's; pale, pretty and looking thoroughly unimpressed.

"Jesus." he said finally, punctuating the long and awkward silence. "Sorry about that."

He laid back down, his head landing on the fluffy pillow with a soft flump. Visiting a hospital was an egregious way to spend the evening, but being a patient within that very hospital was ineffable.

As he stared at the brilliantly white ceiling, he could not help but reflect on the very few times he had been here. The horrific injuries that Dark had inflicted upon him far outstripped the severity of his previous visits, but this one came with a new element: Mei. He found that he was much more comfortable being treated by the head nurse than an attractive female who looked to be the same age as he was. Silently cursing himself for being so concerned with matters that should have seemed trivial, Kyo glanced over at Mei who was still engaged with the task of finding gauze.

"No. No way. I am not having my bandages changed by her." he thought to himself firmly, sitting back up and swinging his legs around the hospital bed.

"Well, uh, thanks for waking me up... guess I'll be off now..." he said feebly, getting up to his feet. The pressure was almost enough to make him collapse but, fortunately, he was able to grab the bedside desk and steady himself.

It was mortifying enough to be entrapped in the hospital with Mei as the only other company, but what made his skin crawl even more was the defeatism he had displayed in his battle with Dark. He had almost willingly resigned himself to ablution by fire as punishment for what he had done.

#13

Carolyn reluictantly let go of Cancer and turned around to face Dark instead. What was this, a witness convention?

"I don't have to answer to you!" she shot at him sullenly.

Dark lets out a snort at Carolyn's response. "It is a free country, quite frankly neither of us have to answer to anyone if we don't want to. However, I wouldn't take this as an interrogation Carolyn, but you're actions seemed off last night. As in you should have been able to break through that dome last night, yet I feel like you resisted. Why was that, why did that murder become so personal to you last night? Honestly I expected you to throw the attacker against the wall the moment you got through his barrier."

Dark lets out a sigh. "Also I could relate to how he felt, not 100% but know what it's like to have the power to do what you want to do. I just hope he doesn't dwell on it anymore. Oh and if you care, I almost killed Kyo a little bit ago. He's in the hospital wing. I had to take sometime to think about what I done and going to pay him a visit if there is time. You should as well, he was your favorite detention attendant after all."

Scenario #14

"Ohhh no you don't," Mei said hurriedly, immediately clearing the way straight towards Kyo, trying to ease him back into bed. "You need to lay your ass back down and get some rest. Last thing you need to do is roam the halls looking like that." Bedside manner was not her strong suit. Probably for the best, she often thought.

Once she had him laid back down, Mei turned again. She took the gauze quickly and spun back around on her heel, keeping this guy in her sights. She approached him, reaching for the dried, yellowed bandages covering his face.

Cancer shook himself off and pointed a finger at her. "Yes you fuckin' do! You're a Prefect, but you're not above the law!"

He turned to Dark, confused. "Wait. What..?"

Scenario 13

Jacob was passing by the Black Mage's Guild Hall when he heard several painfully familiar voices engaged in a shouting match. Trying to debate between intervening and simply walking away, he chose a much simpler road: just watch.

When he poked his head around the corner to watch the argument, he got the hilarious sight of Carolyn being accosted by other students. It seems the previous night had had some major effects on everybody around. Biting down on his lip to keep himself from making some smart-ass comment, he contented himself with watching for the moment. To be honest, if what that killer, and the victim, has said were true...well, Jacob had killed better men for less than that. He wasn't gonna hold it against anybody for giving the guy a few words of encouragement. Hell, he'd probably have done the same thing in those circumstances.

-deleted- -_-

#13

Carolyn opened her mouth to retort with the classic acidity that was so characteristic of her, but once she heard Dark's admission of almost killing Kyo, she was lost for words.
"What?" she said in a hollow voice. "You almost killed him?"

She understood what Dark was attempting to insinuate, but he was sorely mistaken. Carolyn felt no special affinity towards Kyo but Dark's observation about her being unable to break through the dome was alarming. She had genuinely felt as if she didn't possess the power needed to force her way through it. Was it possible that she had held back?

And what of this new development? Dark's blase attitude towards almost taking his best friend's life was something to be concerned about. She, of course, was not going to visit Kyo in the hospital. She had purposely avoided him since the events of that night and she had no desire to alter that unbroken streak.

"Looks like being Balthazar's pets didn't work out so well for you two." she remarked snidely.

#14

Kyo groaned in defeat and closed his eyes, capitulating to the bandage change. There was no way he was getting out of this and, after all, Mei did have a point. Besides the fact that the other students would find the sight of a shuffling, mummified corpse terrifying, he wasn't sure he had enough energy to even leave the hospital wing.

"I believe it did, just showed we have more potential than what Kyo and I previously thought and if we have to we can execute any action if necessary. But I need to be more careful in our next sparring match." Dark says with a shrug as he walks past them towards the Hospital Wing. "Think about what I said why don't ya."

-Dark left the scenario-

#14

Mei let her shoulders sink, exhaling. He was complying. Good. She delicately began to remove his bandages, careful to not accidentally touch his sensitive flesh. The somatic components required for her magic made her fingerwork much more delicate.

When she finally reached the last layer, she could see the reddened, slightly blackened flesh. With proper care, his face might get back to some semblance of normal color, but the scar tissue was deep and plentiful. Even if it did heal, there'd be so many patches of scarring he'd look like a tire tread for the rest of his life. It would take a powerful white mage to fix this kind of damage.

With the bandages removed, Mei finally got a full look at his face. It was a miracle his eyelids and lips were still functioning in the red roadmap of scars and blisters. She bit her lip, not to stifle a scream, but to stop herself from asking questions. It was probably better she didn't know what happened to this poor guy. The head nurse didn't even tell her anything.

She turned slightly, opening the jar of antiseptic, dipping some fresh bandage into it. Once it was soaked, she approached Kyo's face. "This may sting a bit...if you need it, I can dull the pain for a second. Not a great option, but easier than starting a morphine drip..." Slowly, she pressed the bandage to his face, beginning to wrap it around his head.

#13

"What the hell are y'all going on about?" Jade walked up, hugging her books to her chest. "Is this the most private place y'all could find?" She stopped a few feet short of Carolyn and Cancer, watching as Dark left. "Wait.... Carolyn... What are you doing here?" Jade's head tilted slightly to the side as she questioned the prefect, her eyes shooting a glance to Cancer, then back again.

#13

Carolyn watched Dark leave and then turned her attention back towards Cancer, the hostility resuming as if it had never been interrupted.

"You saw someone about to get murdered, and the only thing you could think of doing was encouraging him, as a joke? I'm supposed to believe that you thought joking around then was a good idea? Are you really that fucking shallow?" she demanded furiously, unable to comprehend Cancer's insanity.

Before she could scold him further, a familiar voice heralded the arrival of Jade.

"I'm not in the mood for your inane questions right now." she said scathingly to the newcomer.

#14

"I'll do it." he said gruffly, pretending as if he hadn't seen the subtle flickers of revulsion flit across Mei's face at the sight of his charred visage.

It would take a while before his face was able to return to normal and it would require an intense amount of white magic to reverse the damage. He felt a twinge of frustration towards Dark but realised that he was just as much at fault. Concentrating the vestiges of power remaining within him, Kyo summoned a white aura around his face that clung to him like a brilliant, iridescent mask, intangible to touch but powerful enough to provide a much-needed sense of numbness.

#14

Mei shielded her eyes from the sudden white light. "Hey, I can't work with that in the way," she told him. "Besides, you shouldn't be straining yourself with magic. Just let me get these bandages back on so you can get back to resting."

#14

Kyo regarded her with a confused look, wondering if she wasn't entirely certain how White Magic worked or if she simply thought he was too inept to create anything other than a solid healing mask.
"You can, just... Ohhhhh." he said, comprehension dawning on what was left of his face. "It's too bright. Well, you look like you could use some sunlight."
His amused chortling soon turned to pained coughing as the mask completely dissipated, his hand waving lamentably in a way that was supposed to imply an apology.

#14

Mei kept a satisfied smile from her lips, thinking of the pain as karma. She continued about her work, applying the first layer of the bandages, making sure they fit snugly. "Oh yeah? You look like you may have gotten too much." She turned to her side, smiling to herself as she went to soak another layer of bandages.

#13

"Oh and it's totally MY fault that this happened? If I said something he probably would have done it anyway, just check out how that dude tried his hardest to put up that dome shield and shut ALL of you out! If he wanted to settle down and chat he would have. But he didn't. So there's that. And If you're gonna kill someone, you don't have to stab them a thousand fuckin' times in the chest fer crissakes."

"And yes, I AM shallow, thank you very much. I like the easy life, beautiful women with nice fannies and little to no intelligence, and food. Lots and lots of food", Cancer said, counting on one hand of several of his favorite things.

#13

Jacob couldn't help but laugh at what Cancer had to say. He was too used to that kind of joke. Hell, sometimes he wondered how different things would have been if he'd gone to college or just entered the working world out of high school. Stepping out from behind the corner, he leaned against the wall casually and shook his head. "And Carolyn, I hate to break it to ya, but joking about that sorta thing is far from uncommon. People cope with stress in different ways. I mean, obviously you don't have to cope with stress, since you're perfect in every way, but most people have something they use to deal with stressful situations. Our masked friend here simply finds jokes to be his outlet. Nothing wrong with that."

#13

At his last remark, it took every ounce of Carolyn's willpower to not punch a hole through Cancer's helmet and send Kyo another visitor.

"I am personally going to make sure you get kicked out of here and I mean that." she threatened resolutely. "I am going to use every single bit of my clout to make sure you're out of here. I have no idea how they let someone as batshit crazy as you are into these hallowed grounds."

It seemed as if today, judging by the arrival of Jacob, was a test designed for her by the heavens. If she managed to go through the day without committing the same crime Kyo had, she would consider it a victory.

"Don't lecture me, Joseph." she spat at Jacob. "The last thing I need right now is to deal with this fucking psychopath and a pompous army brat."

#14

"Yeah..." mumbled Kyo, his mind not entirely certain on whether he should laugh or not. After a few seconds of deliberation, though, he started chortling (and coughing) again.
"How bad is it?" he asked gently, once his laughter had subsided.

#14

Mei chewed on her lip as she went to apply the second set of bandages. If there were ever a point where her awful bedside manner would fail her, it'd be now. "Not that bad....considering we're in a school full of people that know healing magic, you know?" she finally said after a couple moments of uncomfortable silence, trying to punctuate her statement with an upward inflection.