Chapter 2:

Break Time in the Nurse's Office!

A Weapon of a Guilty Conscious?

Nurse Nygus insisted that the blonde meister stay in bed. Hiro, being one that could never say no, followed her instructions and stayed in the nurse's office, lying down on the white sheets. After giving Hiro a glass of water, she sat down on a chair beside the bed and waited for him to finish the cup.

"So how long have you been having these nightmares?" Nygus asked, taking his empty cup and putting it on the desk next to her.

"For about three days now," Hiro answered quietly, "And I haven't been getting much sleep because of them."

"Care to tell me what they're about?"

Hiro sat up and turned to the nurse. "Um...sure. They usually start the same way, me picking up someone's lunch or talking with a couple of friends but then...I get these chest pains."

Nygus tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Chest pains?"

"Yeah, it's like a terrible sharp feeling in my chest. And then, after I can't take the pain anymore..." Hiro trailed off, gesturing the space in front of his chest, "...this sword just bursts through my chest! And it doesn't just end there, this sword just pops outta me and then goes back in and then continues making more holes in me until I wake up!" The sped up the last part as he spoke, leaving him a little winded.

"And there's no one holding the sword?" she asked, trying to get a better picture of these nightmares.

Hiro shook his head. "No. There's never anyone doing this to me! It's...it's like it was inside my body and then needed to escape so it ripping me open to do it!"

She sat back and sighed. Nygus had a vast knowledge of medical procedures when it came to physical pains but psychological ones were a completely different story. She couldn't prescribe anything to the young meister for bad dreams but if those reoccurring nightmares gave him such panic attacks in his sleep like this on a nightly basis, they could do some serious damage to him, physically and mentally.

Then something came to her. "Hiro, weren't you the student that befriended and wielded the holy sword Excalibur a few days ago?" Nygus remembered having a few students walk in last week that had fought and lost to the holy sword.

Hiro nodded his head. "Yeah, these nightmares started after I returned him. I just had to get rid of him. He was just...gross." He finished his sentence while making the notorious "Excalibur is annoying" face.

"Then maybe you're having these nightmares because you're feeling a bit guilty for what you did last week. I don't have to tell you the amount of people who ended up in that bed that you're sitting on because of you and that sword." The damages weren't as bad as what she expected from a legendary sword with indescribable power; some mild burns here, a few scars there. Maybe these nightmares were coming from his subconscious guilt.

Hiro put the bandaged nurse's theory under consideration. It did sound plausible. There were still a few major people that he didn't apologize to yet. Some people he hasn't seen yet and others that he was just too afraid to close to. Even though no one that he fought suffered anything serious he did leave some people in bad shape. He only wanted to teach everyone that picked on him a lesson. He didn't want anyone really hurt.

But there was an eerie feeling that he couldn't shake that made him feel like there was more to these nightmares than guilt. The sword that pierced through his flesh resembled nothing like Excalibur. He could say without a shadow of a doubt that he has never seen that sword in his life but there was something—a small voice in the back of his head or a gut feeling (no pun intended)—that screamed at him, saying that he was connected to the steel weapon.

He shook his head, rejecting the latter idea. How could he know a weapon he's never seen before? "Maybe you're right. Maybe I still do feel guilty about the whole thing...but right now I just need to lie down for a while." He looked up at the clock hanging on the wall and then turned back to Nygus. "Is it alright if I skip my classes and stay here for the rest of the day? I don't think I have the energy to go through classes right now."

Nygus looked at the tired meister and nodded, granting his request. She got up from her chair and returned to her work while Hiro threw his head back down on the pillow and stared at the white ceiling.

The image of that sword still plagued his mind. Despite the imaginary but seemingly real pain it brought him, he wondered if it was a sign that his future partner and weapon would be a sword. He worked well with Excalibur, even if it was for a short time. Who knows? Maybe he was suited to be a sword meister.

He made a mental note to seek other students that were swords.

...

A few hours later, Hiro decided to rid of all his guilt by apologizing to the remaining people on his list that he has hurt or offended.

His first targets were Black Star, Kilik Lung, and Death the Kid for the three-on-one fight that led to the academy's three best fighters being instantaneously roasted like marshmallows. The latter two accepted the apology nonchalantly while the former laughed manically then used him as a practice dummy for painful death holds. Hiro protested to having his spine nearly snapped in two but the blue haired assassin said it was his way of accepting the apology.

Later, Hiro found the girls that he peeped on in the locker room and gave them his request for forgiveness. They accepted the apology only after they got all the anger out their system by giving Hiro a good ol' fashion all-girl group ass-kicking. No bones were broken and he suffered minor bruises but the kicks to a certain vulnerable area on his body reduced the probability of the blonde meister ever having children.

After a few more beat downs and threats, all Hiro had to do was apologize to two more students and his conscious should be set free. He just hoped that they were more understanding and merciful than the others.

"...so please, would you ever forgive me?" Hiro finished his long speech of how he found the error of his ways and how he will never do that again. After it all, he bowed his head in shame and closed his eyes, expecting the worst.

The female meister-weapon pair looked at each other and then down at Hiro. He had a few visible scars and bruises on him so the duo could tell he went through a lot and whatever they did wouldn't have been different from what he suffered through.

Kim sighed and said, "Fine. I'm in a good mood today but don't make a habit of it!"

Jacqueline, mirroring her meister's pity, had her hands at her hips and nodded in agreement. "Or next time we won't be so merciful. I'll light you ass on fire, got it?"

Hiro bowed to them again, thanking them for their mercy and forgiveness. He was overwhelmed that they didn't use his body as a punching bag. But as his body filled with joy and hope, a pain filled him as well: a sharp chest pain followed by heavy breathing and a racing heart.

He fell down on his knees, clutching the chest at the source of the pain. "Hiro, are you okay?" Kim asked, very concerned. She kneeled and rested her hand on his shoulder. Hiro felt the hand on him so he pushed away the pink haired meister as a warning.

"What the hell is wrong with you Hiro?" Hiro heard Jacqueline say with a less than compassionate tone. She helped Kim back up to her feet and the two of them watched the blonde teen collapse, lying on the ground and holding his chest.

He groaned in agony, knowing what was coming next but fought it. However, the pain got worse and worse until he felt that his body couldn't take it anymore and relinquished its strength in stopping the inevitable.

"NO!" he wailed. He watched in horror as a long and thin steel blade tore open his chest and exposed itself in front of Kim and Jacqueline. This horrific sight scared the girls, causing them to run in terror.

Hiro watched as the blade couldn't free itself completely so it retreated inside the blonde's body and reappeared, stabbing through his flesh once more. Blood slowly pooled around his body as more holes were made by the sword in its attempt to escape. Hiro tried to stop this phenomenon but he couldn't muster any strength to do so. He was alone, scared, unsure of what he did to deserve this level of pain.

"Hiro!"

"Hiro!"

"Hiro!"

Hiro gasped loudly, sitting from the bed again and finding Nygus standing above him. When she heard his squirming and shouting from the other side of the room, she ran to his side to free him from his sleeping torment. She gave him a glass of drinking water and stayed by his side until his heart rate returned to normal.

The drowsy sun was slowly setting, indicating that the school day was over. The bandaged nurse told him that he could stay the night but he declined the offer. Somehow he didn't think that staying over in the nurse's office would make him sleep any better. If he was going to have night terrors, he'd rather have them in the comfort of his apartment than an empty and dark school that was only a few carved pumpkins away from looking like a Halloween haunted mansion.

He left the office and walked down the hallways, colored yellow from the sun. Tomorrow, Hiro is going to apologize to everyone, no matter how much he gets beaten up. If there was a chance in him finally getting a single night's rest, getting his ass kicked several times in one day was completely worth it.

Reviews, following, or favorite-ing helps me continue this story! But no pressure! Mwahahaha!