Emily begins to regain consciousness, a feeling of numbness throughout. For having broken her thumb, nose, and who knows what else by getting smashed into a wall, she's surprised at how disconnected she feels. All she can feel is the pressure from the floor and from something decently heavy on her stomach. She opens her eyes, seeing something pink and blurry as they adjust.
"Welcome back," a masculine voice says from out of view. Emily strains to recognize it, figuring out fairly quickly that it isn't Riku. Too deep. The pink blur on her chest gets off, going to the side. Emily lies there, quite dizzy and not really feeling strong enough to move. It takes a minute before her eyes adjust, enough strength returning for her to lift her head. She looks around to see Riku, Chou, and an anonymous looking 16 year old boy all around her watching.
"Do you feel okay?" Chou asks, lifting Emily's arm up and pressing her fingers on her wrist.
"I... um... I... guess..." Emily says, forcing herself to sit up. She fights against gravity as she gets to her feet, stumbling to a side as she tries to stand up. Riku and the anonymous boy quickly catch her by the arms before she hits the ground, holding her up. She starts to develop a headache as her vision swishes around, a bit of mild queasiness going through her.
"What happened?" Emily asks as Riku and the boy prop her on her feet.
"It's a side effect of healing you," Chou starts, "It should pass soon."
"Oh," Emily replies. Seems sort of weird, since Aerith's cure didn't involve feeling like this. Whatever.
"Are you okay to walk?" Chou asks.
"...yeah, let's roll," Emily says, trying to take a step and stumbling. Riku and anonymous boy quickly move in to catch her.
"Need some help?" Riku asks as they get Emily back on her feet.
"...sure," Emily replies. They start walking, heading out the open door and passing by a couple robots holding plaster and paint. The robots hover inside, closing the door behind themselves. Emily didn't really notice the first time through, but the grand hallway is really quite impressive. The room takes up about four regular stories, with the mezzanine located around the third story. The room is painted a regal blue, an intricate silver flower and vine border running along the edges of the wall. The floor is carpeted in the same color, with an elaborate pattern of its own similar to the wall borders. The ceiling is divided in four domed sections, each with an elaborate painting that look like the floor emblems from 'Awakening' in the games. She doesn't recognize any of the imagery, though.
"So... how did the rest of class go?" Emily asks as they walk around the mezzanine towards the grand staircase.
"Pretty much exactly what you saw," Riku responds, "He mocked everybody and gave us all nicknames. Then he made us all do 100 push-ups, walking across our backs. He just left you lying there as he continued class. You got off light, though."
"My nickname is Knockoff," the boy says, "Because my name is also Christopher."
"God, I hate him," Emily says, "Did he do that to you, too, Chou?"
"Yes," she says, looking a bit sad, "Thank you for standing up for me, though."
"No problem," Emily responds, "I couldn't let him be like that to you."
"People like you are why I joined," Chou starts, a smile on her face, "I want to protect you and everybody like you that is willing to stand up for what's right."
"Speaking of which," Emily starts, "You're not really going to be that useful of a healer if every cure makes people feel like what I imagine a hangover is."
"Oh," Chou starts, "This is just from fanlasnir. It will go away soon."
"Fanlasnir?" Emily asks as they stop by the stairs.
"I can only cure people that go through fanlasnir," Chou starts, "We usually try to arrange for it to be done at night before bed so the effects can be slept off."
"But what does it involve?" Emily asks.
"Swapping bodily fluids with a feylinus," Chou replies.
"Oh, you gave me some of your blood?" Emily asks, looking a bit wary.
"No," Chou replies, "That's impractical and a bit painful."
"Then what did... oh, EWW!" Emily shouts, breaking herself away from Riku and Christopher number two. She runs towards a nearby trash can, swerving and tilting around as she barely keeps herself from stumbling. She loses balance, stumbling towards the trash can. She catches onto it with both arms, propping herself up on it. She wants to throw up, but something within her prevents it. Instead, she starts spitting inside, her saliva tinted a bright pink. She keeps spitting, distressed at the color and indignant at the feeling of privacy invasion. Chou's eyes start to water again, an expression of sorrow on her face.
"I'm sorry!" Chou says, her voice wavering a bit, "I really needed to heal you."
"What did you do to me?!" Emily shouts in between spits. The taste of something sickeningly sweet with a tinge of saltiness starts to register as the numbness begins to wear off from Emily's head.
"I'm sorry!" Chou apologizes again, some tears breaking down her cheeks, "I'm so sorry! I thought you'd be fine with it. Everybody where I come from considers this a big honor, but I should have thought about the possibility of it being offensive to other people! I'm sorry!"
"I can't get the taste out," Emily says, continuing her spitting fit, "God, what the hell is this? Why is my spit still pink?"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Chou keeps repeating, each repetition getting more distorted by her sobs.
"Kiko, you're overreacting," Riku says, walking up to her. Upon hearing that, Emily starts trying to calm herself down. She's distraught over the thought that her first kiss was with an alien girl. A girl! And she was unconscious, so she didn't exactly give her consent. Is this what rape is like, only even further? With that thought, she starts to get even more disturbing images of what the 'bodily fluids' could be. She banishes the icky thoughts from her head, realizing that there's no way Riku would just idly stand by and watch something like that. She thinks back to when she woke up, realizing that Riku looked a bit apprehensive but otherwise fine. No reason to believe that something too disgusting happened. She hyperventilates a little, clearing her face of emotion and speaking in as soft and calm a tone as possible.
"I'm sorry," Emily says, "You were acting in my best interest and had no reason to think I'd react like this. Please forgive me."
"Really?" Chou says, sniffling a bit as she ceases her sobbing.
"Come on, Kiko," Riku starts, "We need to go to the doctor's office."
"I'm fine," Emily states, taking a couple deep breaths, "I think I can walk on my own in a minute."
"That's not it," Riku starts, "You didn't get a physical examination. Everyone else got it before they came here, but you are a last minute addition."
"Oh," Emily says, pushing herself up onto her feet and standing up, "That makes sense."
"Shall we?" Riku asks, offering his hand.
"Yeah, let's," Emily says, allowing Riku to hold her as she slowly walks beside him to the other two people. Chou is still crying a little, wiping her tears as she tries to calm herself down. Emily, giving her best friendly expression, lets go of Riku and walks up to her.
"I'm sorry," Emily says, "It was cruel of me to react like that. I'm just very... sensitive about this sort of thing, you know?"
"I forgive you," Chou says, lightening up a bit, "I'm sorry for not getting your permission."
"It's okay," Emily says, "Is there anything else I should expect from your kiss? Am I going to turn into a 'feylinus' like you?"
"Nothing like that," Chou responds, ceasing her sobbing, "It just makes you immune to non-magical disease and allows us to cure you. It won't change you in any other way."
"So long as nothing else changes, I'm perfectly fine with what you did," Emily responds, turning to Riku, "Okay, lead the way, Riku."
"Okay," Riku says, facing the other two people, "We'll see you in the tower in a bit."
"See you later," Christopher number two says, walking around the mezzanine to one of the large archway doors leading outside. Chou follows behind after making a second glance towards Emily and Riku.
"I like Chou," Emily says as the two of them walk down the stairs, "She's so interesting."
"I'm glad you're making friends," Riku starts, "I was worried you were going to cling to me the entire time."
"Oh," Emily says, a bit self-conscious, "Sorry."
The two of them finish walking down the stairs, making a right U-turn and going to a hallway located behind the stairs. They walk through the large foyer, itself quite a spectacle. The ceiling is about fifteen meters above them, with marble pillars on either side of the walkway. The regal yellow wallpaper contains a large amount of detailed imagery, with artistic depictions of epic moments from the games... history all around. In between each pair of pillars is a shiny bronze statue of the various influential people across the worlds, seated on blocks of marble with plaques on the front detailing some basic information. Emily recognizes some of them such as Beast, Jack Skellington, Aladdin, Jack Sparrow, and others, but she's baffled by all the completely normal people. What place does General Trevor Mithas have amongst these legendary people? And why aren't Sora and Riku here? Are their statues kept somewhere more visible or something? It doesn't make much sense.
"Shouldn't there be a statue of you and Sora somewhere around here?" Emily asks, looking all around to make sure she didn't miss something.
"None of the people with statues here are active outside of their own worlds," Riku explains, "I'll let you figure out why."
"...oh," Emily says, realizing that it's for security reasons. They finish walking through the foyer, coming out to a large circular tower room. It's about 200 meters in diameter, with a softly ascending circular walkway about ten meters wide spiraling around on the outside wall of the room. In the cavernous center section, a waterfall cascades around a couple vertical thin brass beams traveling from the floor to the ceiling in the absolute center of the room. At the bottom of the structure is a cage, with some type of clockwork mechanism attached to the brass beams. The brass structure sits on an artificial island, covered in wet wildflowers and surrounded by deep blue water. Emily looks up to see that the walkway ends after about eight stories, the brass structure ending near a brass grate bridge extending from the end of the walkway. There's still another 30 or so stories of clustered towers and spires visible beyond where the walkway ends. The water comes out of eight rooftops near the tenth story level, the water arching towards the center. Some invisible force bends the water around the bridges, looking like an arched tunnel of water around them.
"Wow," Emily says, taking in the sights. The air around here has a soft, cool wetness to it. The light level is just perfect, casting the place in a bit of shadow but still leaving everything visible. Emily is just in total awe at this room. She walks with Riku up about a circle and a half of walkway, almost loathe to leave the room as they exit into a rather blank white hallway. The stark contrast with the elegant former rooms compared to this normal height, placid room takes Emily by surprise. Besides a computer terminal to the right as they enter, all she can see are simple wooden doors. This has to be one of the new additions to the castle. The two of them walk towards one of the nondescript doors, stopping a few meters away.
"Okay," Riku starts, "I'll wait for you in the atrium."
"Atrium?" Emily asks, unsure of what Riku is referring to.
"That big room we just came from," Riku explains, "I'll be on the bench to the left of the hallway."
"Oh," Emily responds, "Okay."
"See you in a bit," Riku says, walking away. Emily stands there a little, a bit intimidated by what she expects on the other side of the door. She is sort of apprehensive about doctors, with their impersonal remarks about her making her feel useless. She was always told that she needed counseling over her non-existent 'anorexia' and they always refused to believe that she just has a naturally fast metabolism and lack of appetite. Still, she's literally a new person now and there's no reason for her to expect the doctor in charge of a superhero school to be anything less than incredible. Thus, she opens the door to find... a grey haired man in his late fifties, wearing a white uniform and holding a clipboard. Disappointing. The rest of the room looks just like a regular doctor's office, with a bed covered by paper, a counter with a sink, a couple simple chairs, and some diagnostic equipment. Only thing that really catches her eye is a large brass machine in a corner. It has a skeletal cylinder shape to it, with a ring carrying some complex machine attached to six vertical beams. In the other corner is a more mundane looking machine made of stainless steel and just looking like a rectangular box with a few buttons on top, some thick cables connecting it to the larger machine.
"Hello..." the doctor says in a thick accent, looking down at his clipboard, "Kei koo?"
"It's Kiko," Emily starts, walking the rest of the way into the room and closing the door behind her, "You know, Ki as in a key for a lock and Ko, rhymes with low or bow."
"Ah," the doctor says, "Well, Kiko, my name is Doctor Leseus. Good meeting you. I am sorry my English, it is not good. You are here for physical, yah?"
"Yes," Emily says, "Should I sit down somewhere?"
"Ah, no, keep standing," he responds, grabbing some unfamiliar machine off the counter and walking over to Emily, "How did you get in school with no physical? Everyone got physical before were even consider for school."
"A friend got me in," Emily responds, flatly and honestly.
"Ah, good friend, yah?" Dr. Leseus says, "Still need fit school standard, though. Very high standard, yah. Hold arm out, please."
"Okay," Emily says, holding her left arm out. Emily gets a minor shock from the cold hands as Dr. Leseus holds her arm and places the unfamiliar machine on Emily's arteries.
"This hurt little," the doctor says, pressing a button on the machine. Emily gets a moderate jolt of pain through her as she feels several sharp things puncture her skin, the pain dissipating after less than a second. Dr. Leseus takes the machine off of her, gently pushing down slightly on her arm to signify that he doesn't need her to hold it up any more.
"Okay, Kiko, now need you standing on scale here," he says, pointing to the large brass machine. Emily walks over to it, stepping inside the the middle and turning to face the doctor.
"Like this?" Emily asks.
"Yah," Dr. Leseus responds, walking over to the other corner machine, "You stand there, arms at side, and no moving. Ready?"
"Ready," Emily replies. The doctor presses a button on the console, causing the ring structure to start descending very slowly as the machine makes a moderate humming and clicking noise. The machine sitting on the ring starts spinning around, emitting a soft blue light that seems to pierce through Emily's skin. The doctor places the unfamiliar handheld machine into a nearby slot on the wall, pressing a button. He then walks over to the counter, picks up the chart, and walks back to Emily.
"So," Dr. Leseus starts, "What bringing you here?"
"It's a required check up?" Emily responds, blinking a bit as the machine passes by her eyes.
"No," Dr. Leseus starts, "To Reidiahnt Gahrdeen Ahcahdeemy."
"Oh," Emily says, "I, um... just want to fight the Heartless?" Emily has no clue how to talk about her entrance to the world. She's even starting to doubt it herself.
"Says here you came from different world, yah?" the doctor says, reading something on the clipboard, "Heartless kill it?"
"Yes," Emily starts, "I don't really know what happened."
"It not important," Leseus says, "So... what eating habits you have?"
"I don't know," Emily says, "I haven't really had a chance to see what I like around here."
"But before, yah?" Leseus starts, "Lots, little? Lot of meat, lot of fruit, lot of candy?"
"It doesn't really matter that much," Emily starts, "I lost my old body and was given this one."
"Ah," he says, writing something down, "I guess other question sort of silly." The brass machine finishes circling around Emily, ascending back to its original position. Something starts printing from the console, dropping about three pages a second into the tray for a few seconds.
"What does this machine do?" Emily asks.
"It scan you," the doctor starts, picking up the stack of papers, "Gets graph. Let see... that's weird, you have no birth or genetic defect in human genome. 5'9 and three sixteen inch, 143 pound. Visual 10/20, reflex time 0.08 seconds, perfect color. Very high white muscle count, 240 pound bench press, and 10.4 second 100 meter sprint. You are best natural human I've ever tested."
"Really?" Emily asks, just looking at herself in awe. She was never the best anything and now she's told that she's the best 'natural' human. "What do you mean by 'natural'?" Emily asks, the language of the wording seeping in.
"You are not as good magic humans," he says, "Maybe middle of road to them."
"Oh," Emily says, her hopes dashed. The doctor picks up a small, flat wooden stick and a magnifying glass with a light from the counter, walking over to Emily.
"Say 'ahhh'," he says, holding the stick up. Emily, already knowing what this is for, opens her mouth. He gently pushes her tongue down, looking around inside. After a few uncomfortable seconds, he takes the stick out. He looks at the thick, pink saliva on the bottom of the stick,
"Already met fieleenoos, yah?" he asks.
"Yeah," Emily responds, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Dr. Leseus starts, "Just machine not see fieleenoos microbe yet. Say unknown type. Why middle of day, though?"
"Oh," Emily responds, "I... um... got injured."
"Ah," the doctor responds, "You are ready. Thank you for cooperation."
"Thank you," Emily says, walking through the door.