Chapter 10: Recovery Time – Part 2

"GAAAHHH!"

Brian woke up from his nightmare and sat up in a panic, he heard startled voices to his right but he couldn't see who it was but there was several of them from what he could hear.

"Goodness Blue, that was a little frightening," said one voice. Brian believed that belonged to Nepgear.

"The heck was that for?! Are you trying to give us a heart attack or what?" asked another voice. This one he didn't recognise but it sounded as if it was a she, and 'she' sounded rather annoyed.

"You big dummy! You scared Rom!" shouted another voice. It seemed as if it was another girl, but quite a younger one at that, plus she sounded like a loud kid.

"Uh-huh, that was a little scary," said yet another voice. This one sounded more low-key than the others, Brian could tell that it belonged to a rather young girl.

Well, I think that last one was a 'Rom' if I am not mistaken from what that previous girl said.

"Hey, can you talk? You're not very responsive you know," asked the girl with the serious tone.

"If you must know my vision hasn't returned yet, so pipe down!" replied Brian in a not-so-happy voice.

"Goodness … that was uncalled for Blue, um … sorry," said Nepgear.

"Don't blame yourself for that, but this guy is completely rude. How are you even friends with him?" spoke the serious toned girl.

"Um, we barely know each other so I don't think we're friends just yet."

Brian waved his hands in front of him before rubbing his eyes in an attempt to see what was around him, and it appeared to be working. He continued to ignore the voices of the girls near him as he attempted to regain his sight.

"Hey, are you even listening to us?" asked the serious girl.

"I don't think he is. Let's use this to get his attention," suggested the loud girl.

Brian began to see what was around him after a few seconds, it appeared he was in a hospital room from what he could tell. Before he looked to his right something hard slammed into the right side of his head that sent him smashing into the wall and rendered him an agonising pain in his head. He looked on his bed and found the source of the flying object; his history book.

"Who threw this at me with such force?" Brian asked in a tone that was too calm to be sane.

"That would be me!" answered the loud girl.

Brian looked over to his right and saw four girls standing around near his bed, one he recognised at Nepgear but the other three he definitely didn't know. There was a girl with black hair with two twin tails on either side of her head with black ribbons, she had dark red eyes and wore a short black dress with white and grey lining, a black and grey collar, black sleeves with the shoulders uncovered and black boots that reached her knees. Then there were the other two girls who Brian thought, correctly, were twins. Both wore a winter jacket over plain grey and white overall dress while the jacket appeared to have puffed sleeves and a frilled centre part with many golden buttons, a collar with a big bow and six puffballs were on the centre of the jacket. They both wore the same hat as each other which Brian found it hard to describe. One notable difference between the two outfits was colour. The one on the left had red on her clothes and had long brown hair while the other had blue on her clothes but had short brown hair.

"My name is Uni, don't forget it," greeted the girl in the black dress.

"I'm Ram," said the girl in the red coloured jacket. "And this is my twin sister Rom."

"Um … hi, it's nice to meet you," Rom said in a shy tone.

"Um, good to meet you … I suppose. Anyway, why did you throw it at me, pray tell?" Brian asked Ram, his voice becoming an insane calm tone again.

"To get your attention of course!" beamed Ram.

Unlike Ram the rest of the girls had started to get a little crept out by Brian's tone, it even made Rom hide behind her twin sister. "Um, goodness … Blue, I think you're starting to scare us," Nepgear pointed out to Brian.

"Well it ain't my fault if someone had the idea to throw my only damn book in this dimension at my freaking head!" shouted Brian. Suddenly he felt something go through his chest, it was pain and it was around where he had been slashed and stabbed.

He clenched shut his mouth shut and bit his lower lip as the pain jolted through his chest, he grabbed a hold on the bed frame and breathed in and out slowly, attempting to calm the pain away. When it finally subsided he looked back at the four girls and noticed that they had a concerned look on their faces.

"Try and take it easy Blue, please," pleaded Nepgear. "Neptune won't handle it well if she hears you're still in pain."

Brian nodded and looked over at Uni who appeared to have a worried expression and an uncaring look plastered on her face. He then looked down at the bed he was in and sighed.

I guess I was a bit of a jerk just because she was just a little bit serious, I suppose I can apologise to her before Ram.

"Um … sorry about going off at you earlier Uni, I didn't mean any harm towards you," apologised Brian.

"Well, I suppose I can accept your apology this one time, but I won't be so forgiving if it happens again," she replied. Brian chuckled to himself at her reply.

"As for you two," he said as he looked at Rom and Ram. "Sorry about the little misunderstanding."

"Meh who cares about that, but you better get well soon so we can play," said Ram with a smile.

"Uh-huh, do get better please," said Rom in a quite voice.

"Get better will you? I-its not as if I'm co-concerned about you or anything, its just that you need to get out of bed at some point and walk around again," stammered Uni.

I see what Uni's personality is; a tsundere. I'm not going to complain about that just yet, but it'll take me a while to get used to it, I can feel it. But I think I'll have a little bit if fun first.

"Well then, may I ask why you lot are worried about my current state?" asked Brian. "Excluding Uni of course."

"Hey! What do you mean by that?" Uni asked.

"You said that you weren't concerned, unlike the other three, so I excluded you from my question," replied Brian in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You didn't have to word it like that," pouted Uni as she looked away from him.

"Well, to answer your question Blue, we've been visiting you for a while now," Nepgear responded. "My friends started to come along with me after the fourth day you were here."

Brian nodded as he looked at a nearby wall. "A good a reason as any, I suppose. Wait, how long was I here for?"

"You've been unconscious for a week now, probably due to the amount of damage you took and the operation itself," replied Nepgear.

Brian didn't know how to respond to what he had just heard, instead he said the only thing that came to his mind. "Oh."

Seriously, a week? Could've been worse I suppose. Wait a tick, what was I like when I was asleep during that whole time, especially just before I woke up? And where's Neptune, IF and Compa for that matter?

"Um … sorry to ask this, but what was I like when I was asleep for the week?" Brian asked the group.

"Well, you seemed quite peaceful when you were resting, Neptune couldn't help it when she saw you sleeping peacefully so she took pictures of you to show the other goddesses … and maybe embarrass you when you got out," answered Nepgear hesitantly. "My sister isn't here right now because she's being … held up by Histoire."

Brian clicked his tongue with a hint of annoyance. "Now I'll know what to do when I get out of here. By the way, where are IF and Compa?"

"IF has been running some missions with the Guild to track down our attackers," Nepgear replied. "She hasn't found any leads so far. As for Compa, she's working part time here so she'll be held up by other patients, but they have been visiting you for a while now though."

Suddenly a though came to his mind, one that was troubling him for the entire time he woke up.

Who was that other guy, the one with the flaring blue and red eyes?

"Who was he, the one with those strange eyes?" Brian asked Nepgear.

"Um, I think he was called The Wraith, but I'm not sure why. He was rather scary even if he did save me," replied Nepgear.

"I wouldn't trust this 'Wraith' if I were you Nepgear," commented Uni. "Even if he did managed to save you from being harmed you shouldn't trust him, the way you described his appearance is not only spooky but also suspicious."

"So he's a bad guy then?" asked Ram.

"Scary bad guy?" Rom asked in her shy voice.

"Well, I would have counted him as one of the attackers if he didn't block their attacks," said Nepgear. "But I'm sure he isn't that bad."

"Oh really? Why is he here then and why did he appear when they attacked you?" Uni questioned. "If you bumped into him again just remember that I told you not to trust him, especially if he has those weird eyes."

"Well at any rate, um … thanks for dropping by," Brian said to them with a little smile growing on his face. It was obvious to the girls that he wasn't used to this type of attention.

"No worries, I hope you get better soon," replied Nepgear.

"Yeah, you take care of yourself," said Uni.

"Bye for now dummy!," shouted Ram energetically.

"Uh-huh … please take care," spoke Rom.

Brian nodded to them as they left his hospital room, leaving him alone once again. After several minutes in silence he sighed and got out of his bed, almost falling to the floor in the attempt to stand on his two feet. He grabbed hold on the desk and saw his book as well as the clothes he wore during the attack, they were all patched up and his hat was on top of the pile with his boots set down next to them. With a little difficulty, due to the stings of pain that occurred in his chest, he managed to get back into his clothes, put on his boots, trench coat and his hat before attempting to look for his sword, throwing knives and sharpening stone. After looking for over two minutes he concluded that they must be stored in Compa's house or the Basilicom.

I won't worry about that right now, I'm sure that there would be a sword I can use where I'm going.

Brian grabbed his book and put the object in a large pocket in his coat, he then opened the door and peeked outside, making sure that there was no one around, feeling confident that there was nobody in sight he closed the door behind him and walked down the corridors, evading the gazes of nurses and doctors in case they recognised him.

I know that the girls won't forgive me for this, but I need answers as soon as possible, my nightmare was more than just that, it was a vision of what may come. Now that I think about it … Uni, Rom and Ram were also dead in the nightmare. This gets even more confusing!

As he made his way outside the hospital he heard someone calling out to him from behind, he turned around and saw a nurse with a confused face.

"What are you doing out of bed? The doctor said you needed at least two weeks before you are dismissed from the hospital," she stated.

"I'm doing this because I need answers," replied Brian before leaving the hospital grounds.

The nurse was left in the reception area in confusion, unable to understand what Brian had told her, It didn't take long for her to call the doctor who looked after Brian and inform him about his sudden departure. When the doctor was informed of the news he knew of one thing; the CPUs and CPU Candidates were not going to be happy about this.