1ST PATIENT: the scarred young man (1)

❄︎ ❄︎ ❄︎

A hooded figure quickly ran along a narrow pathway within Rakushou, her breathing labored as she quickly navigated her way, her attention seemingly stuck on the colossal palace that lay in front of her, not too far away. The closer she got to the palace, the more she could smell the scent of blood permeating throughout the air. Gritting her teeth, the figure harshly took off her hood, letting her long magenta colored hair flow freely behind her. The fresh wind and air seemed to lessen the heat that was radiating off from her body. Her mustard green eyes shining with determination, the female forced her already numb leg to run faster, feeling adrenaline pump more and more into her already agitated body.

A bit more.

Just a little bit more…!

At last, the female emerged from the narrow streetways and stepped into the wide public square, filled with rubbles and soldiers. The worried expression that she had on her face all along deepened a little. Glancing around, she felt saddened that some were already dead, but she also reveled in the fact that most of the soldiers were alive. Forgetting how tired her body was, the female once again dove straight into the chaotic scene in front of her, mindful not to step on any rubbles.

Her eyes were still glued to the palace that had puffs of smoke emerging from the exploded area.

—

Meanwhile, the soldiers near the palace were ordering each other to clean the mess. It was quite saddening to think that they were forced to clean the rubbles first, when their injured comrades were slowly dying. No doctor was here to inspect the injury, they were left on their own to treat themselves, but they had no medical kits to help themselves. They wished somebody came along to help them... It was shameful to have weak thoughts, but their bodies and minds were too strained to stay strong. While thinking like so, the soldiers sluggishly moved, their attention, however, quickly shifting to the quick footsteps that were heading towards their way. Turning around the soldiers saw a magenta haired female was running towards them. Bodies tensing in nervousness, the soldiers who had enough energy to at least lift up their weapons stepped out, pointing their respective weapons to the female.

"Who are you?!" One of the soldiers yelled out, pointing his sword towards the female who halted just in front of them. Her breathing just as labored as they were, and the soldiers watched as the female just blinked, trying to calm her breathing down. Her eyes glanced upwards at the palace, then returned her gaze back to the public square.

They flinched when at last, the female clapped her hands together, her expression turning apologetic and worried.

"Oh! I'm sincerely sorry. I must have been too tired to think!" The female exclaimed, her face flushing in embarrassment. Her hand quickly rose to tidy up her rather messy hair, taking out a pin to stay put her long strands. The soldiers, however, didn't let down their guard, eyes glaring cautiously as they watched the female in front of them with suspicion. "I'm Aria, and I'm a physician!" The female — Aria — exclaimed once again when she was done with calming down her hair.

"And also, I'm here to volunteer as a physician!" The female chirped, her face still flushed.

The soldiers quirked an eyebrow at Aria's introduction, but nonetheless finally let their guard down, for they were too tired. She looked young and weak, so if she had tried to do any suspicious act, three or four soldiers would be enough to suppress her. While concluding their thoughts like so, the soldiers all let out a groan, falling down in fatigue. Somehow, the appearance of this girl made their entire body relaxed.

Meanwhile, Aria, upon seeing the soldiers, frowned in concern, her head looking around to find out that all other soldiers were either like the soldiers in front of her, or even worse: She saw several soldiers on the verge of death. Biting her lips, the magenta haired female thought fast, shifting through all of the choices she had. Really, her primary goal was to get inside the palace to heal one deeply injured man, but now that she had seen this, she couldn't bring herself to ignore these people. From the first place, the reason why she came here was to because of the explosion that came from the palace. It wasn't like she had come here with no reason: She had to save people in the palace!

If she were to fully heal each every member of the soldiers here, it would take sleepless weeks. As much as she wanted to take time in doing so, Aria knew she didn't have that much time. So, she finally decided to rely on the powers of a rather special being. It seemed like the explosion luckily didn't spread to fire...So she guessed she had a tiny little time to spare.

"Beleth!"

As Aria exclaimed, the pin that was pinned behind her shone brightly, an eight-pointed star symbol shining brightly as a warm zephyr suddenly brew amongst the chaotic public square. Comforting aura engulfed each and every member of the soldiers as they watched in awe as their wounds healed. They turned their attention to the female in front of them, smiling warmly.

Once the zephyr stopped and soldiers were fully healed, they all watched Aria in silence.

"Are you all okay? I hope Beleth did a good job in taking care of the injury…" The magenta haired female worriedly spoke, looking around to check if her magic had affected all of the soldiers she intended to heal. "Please, although your wounds have healed, please don't strain yourself too much," she continued, smiling brightly upon realizing that everyone was healed.

Silence was loaded for a short period of time as all of a sudden, all of the soldiers broke out into a loud cheer. They all ran towards Aria, thanking her for curing them, smiling genuinely in happiness and gratitude. The soldier's mind filled with happiness as most of them happily thought of returning to his or her family, proudly showing them their uninjured body.

Upon the gratitude she received, Aria, too, smiled even more brightly than before, giving them her megawatt smile. It made her extremely happy to see them so thankful. This was the reason why she helped people out: She absolutely loved seeing happiness overriding the sad expression the injured or sick people had. Shaking each and every one of the soldier's hands, Aria momentarily forgot about her mission of trying to hurry up and save the ones in the palace, smiling brightly as her mind focused on the happy expressions the soldiers gave her.

Too immersed in the situation, Aria didn't quite notice one of the soldiers escaping into the palace while using the chance.

The aftermath of the battle between Gyokuen was just mindblowingly great. Hakuryuu watched with labored breath as he looked around the destroyed interior of the inner sanctuary. With labored breath, he looked around at the splatter of blood and at the unconscious forms of Li Seiryuu and Shuu Kokuhyou, the thought of finally defeating Gyokuen seeping into his mind. Despite his fatigue and injury, the thought made him indescribably happy, but at the same time, indescribably...empty.

Whatever. Hakuryuu looked at his injured body, then to Judar who was also complaining mildly about his injuries. To be honest, at this point, Hakuryuu was decently surprised at his body for enduring such heavy injury. Blood continued to escape from the injury, wetting his clothes and falling to the ground, forming a rather large pool. He wondered why Zagan wasn't specialized in healing despite the fact that he was a life magic djinn. He winced as his thoughts bounced around all over the place, his brain unable to logically order them.

One moment he was thinking about Hakuyuu and Hakuren, and then at the next moment, his mind was wondering when would the doctor come. Hakuryuu winced at the randomness of his thoughts and slightly turned around when he heard haste footsteps coming toward his way.

"P-Prince Hakuryuu!" One soldier hastily entered, almost tripping over one of the rubbles.

Hakuryuu and Judar both raised their eyebrows at this, wondering what made this soldier so panicked. The mental checklist Hakuryuu had was sure that there weren't any enemies he had abided to kill...At least for now. So, what was going on?

The soldier, taking the sign of Hakuryuu's eyebrows raised at him as giving him the permission to speak, started to ramble about a girl at the public square. Hakuryuu, trying his best to understand what the soldier was trying to say, just ended up frowning while closing his eyes as he conclusively didn't understand a single thing. He knew that it was something simple, but his mind was too tired to comprehend even the simplest things. His gaze was turning fuzzy — he must have lost too much blood. He heard Judar say something to soldier, but then again, that too, fell on deaf's ears as Hakuryuu just dully watched all the blood that had pooled under his body.

Just then, it was the surprised cry that the soldier gave out that brought Hakuryuu back to the present world. He heard Judar's faintly surprised cry, which further sparked his interest. Sluggishly opening his eyes, Hakuryuu felt his heart drop to the ground when he caught a flash of magenta colored hair — the trademark hair color of the fanalis clan. Was that...? All of the fuzziness in his head cleared as an image of a young fanalis girl he loved flashed across his mind, his eyes widening in shock. His heart began to thump wildly, both in excitement and dread. Millions of thoughts ran across his mind, ranging from the excitement of her possibly coming over to check upon him to the dread of making her see the despicable state he was in. After all, he had killed his mother. Who would even care for such man? But, Hakuryuu smiled a little cynically to himself at the small spark of hope still flickering amongst the waves of negative thoughts.

Unfortunately...Or fortunately, perhaps, all those thoughts vanished away when a pair of bright, mustard green eyes met with his own heterochromic ones instead of the magenta colored eyes he was expecting so see. His heart dropped once again in disappointment, but his mind reveled in the fact that "she" didn't come.

The cloak she had around herself hid what she was wearing, but with her hood off, Hakuryuu was able to see the surprised expression of the female, her eyes fixated on both him and Judar. He then wondered how she could enter the palace so easily when there would have been guards and soldiers what was protecting the palace gate. Maybe she was a skilled person? He didn't know. He didn't want to think. He felt a sense of guiltiness when he looked at her upright and bright mustard green eyes. It was like seeing Alibaba, and Hakuryuu didn't like the fact that looking at this female reminded the blonde haired man.

"Oh!"

His thoughts were interrupted when the female in front of her exclaimed, causing both Judar and Hakuryuu to slightly flinch at the surprised — and possibly delighted? — tone the female exclaimed.

"There you were! The scarred young man!"

A/N: ...

...

...

Okay, everyone, put that stone down, I'm ready to apologize. ㅠㅁㅠ Everyone, I'm so sorry for posting another story when I'm supposed to freaking update "Dearest Friend"! To be completely, honest, I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out what I should to with the formatting of the story...Plus, the load of assignments I had for the past two weeks didn't help me with writing AT ALL. I'm on a short one week vacation at the moment, so I would probably update another chapter of Dearest Friend within this week. Pinky promise!

And as for this story, I just wanted to let it out from my head because, I honestly love Hakuryuu. He's my favorite character in the world of Magi. I just love how he tries to stay strong when in reality, his mind is almost basically as soft as a tofu. Not to mention, I love it when he turns...I dunno, dark? XD Anyways, as always, I apologize for any grammatical, spelling or choppy storyline issues here, and I hope you enjoyed this new chapter of the second series of { alis propriis volat }! Favs and reviews are always welcomed with a big heart! :)