"Well, let's get you cleaned up, then."
The boy looked like he didn't see any point in doing that, and Frankenstein sighed.
"You don't want your friend to see you like this, do you?" It was a bit of a cruel tactic, and Frankenstein saw him flinch a little despite his attempt at saying it nicely, but it seemed like the easiest way to convince him.
The boy was a mess, and Frankenstein was not going to bring him to his house in this state if he didn't have to. (And, well, if the houseowner ended up coming home while they were still here, Frankenstein certainly wouldn't complain.)
"Let's get that collar off first."
When Frankenstein reached for the collar, the boy predictably pulled away. It wasn't unexpected, but it would make things more difficult if he refused to cooperate.
"All right," Frankenstein said in appeasement. "Can you take it off yourself, then?"
The boy didn't say anything, but he scowled and made no attempt at removing the collar himself, so Frankenstein took that as a 'no'.
"Now then, hold still, please."
Frankenstein could hear the stutter of the boy's breath as he moved towards him again, but, to his credit, the boy didn't move an inch.
Frankenstein examined the collar, trying to determine the best way to remove it. It didn't look like it would come off easily. Well, for most people, at least.
Frankenstein could get it off easily, of course, but he didn't really want to risk scaring the boy even further.
Noting the boy's obvious discomfort, Frankenstein finally decided that it would probably be better to just get it over with even if it ended up scaring the boy a little. Like ripping off a band aid, it would hurt a little, but it was better than dragging it out.
He used a little bit of Dark Spear to corrode the collar, snapping it off easily as soon as the material was suitably weakened.
The boy had tensed up even more when he'd sensed the dark energy of Dark Spear, but now he relaxed a little bit as Frankenstein moved away.
Frankenstein allowed the collar to crumble away completely. "Can you walk?"
He suspected they both knew the answer to that question, but that didn't stop the boy from giving a valiant effort anyway. He barely managed to stand before his legs gave out and he collapsed back onto the bed with a barely concealed wince.
"I'll help you." Frankenstein wrapped the blanket that had been discarded during the attempt to stand back around him for modesty's sake and instructed him to stand and lean on him.
The boy was tense beside him as he led him into what he had correctly guessed was a bathroom.
Frankenstein carefully lowered him to the ground and then turned to the bathtub.
After adjusting the temperature until he deemed it suitable, he plugged the drain and filled the tub. Once the tub was filled, he helped the boy get in.
"Here. Get yourself cleaned up. I'll go find some clothes for you."
Honestly, M-21 wasn't entirely sure what to think of the strange man who'd just suddenly appeared.
The man—Frankenstein, apparently—had claimed M-24 had sent him, but M-21 couldn't possibly imagine how M-24 could have come across this man who'd broken into a Union scientist's house like it was nothing and was walking around like he owned the place. Nor could he understand how M-24 had managed to convince the man to help him. (He couldn't help but worry about what it had cost him. Because there was no way anyone would bother to help them without demanding something in return.)
The man had said he'd take M-21 to M-24. He wondered if that was actually true. He wondered if it could really be that easy.
Could he trust Frankenstein? Well, the answer to that at least was obvious. Of course he couldn't.
But it wasn't like he really had any choice. The weak could do nothing but be swept along by the whims of the strong.
It was fine, though. It wasn't like things could get any worse. (That was lie, he knew. Things could always get worse.)
But, if the man had at least been telling the truth about M-24, then he would be with his comrade again, and that would be better.
Of course, this could all just be a dream, and in a few minutes he would wake up to hands crawling over his skin—
A banging sound startled him out of his thoughts.
His mind raced with possibilities of what could be happening, but the sound had been followed by nothing but silence.
The noise came again, slightly louder, but this time it was followed by Frankenstein's voice asking, "May I come in?"
Why would he ask that? It wasn't like Frankenstein needed his permission to do anything. And that was true, obviously, because M-21 heard the door open anyway after a few moments had passed without him answering.
"Oh, so you are still awake." The tone of Frankenstein's voice was weird. Like he was joking but somehow concerned at the same time. That didn't make any sense, though, so M-21 ignored it. "Are you finished?"
Another useless question. He was done whenever Frankenstein said he was.
He nodded anyway, though, because Frankenstein seemed like he wanted responses to his questions for whatever reason (why did he have to ask so many questions?) and because the answer he wanted was obviously "yes".
He tensed as he heard the man's footsteps come closer.
"I found you some clothes. Here's a towel."
He really wished that a simple thing like that didn't feel like such a monumental task, but that wasn't anything he wasn't already used to.
He forced one shaky hand to reach out and closed it around the fabric of the towel. He placed his other hand on the edge of the bathtub and took a second to steel himself before using all the strength he could muster to push himself up.
Immediately, he felt extremely lightheaded. The man's voice sounded like it was a mile away.
He felt his legs give out, and then everything faded away.
Frankenstein caught the boy. He sighed. His clothes were definitely wet now.
Well, he'd expected as much. When he hadn't gotten any answer after knocking on the door, he'd been worried the boy had passed out in the tub.
He wrapped the towel around the boy and lowered him to the ground, propping him up against the wall.
Frankenstein took a moment to debate what he wanted to do now given the circumstances. He had gone through the trouble of finding clothes for him, but he was sure the boy wanted Frankenstein to dress him even less than he did.
Still, he could hardly leave the boy in a state of undress.
Fortunately, Frankenstein had picked up a rather useful ability from his time living among the Nobles. He figured doing it this way would be easier and less uncomfortable for both of them.
He stretched his hand out towards the boy and pieces of fabric fluttered into place and joined together so that he was dressed in a simple black long-sleeved shirt and pants.
When he looked at the boy, he felt the familiar anger that burned in him whenever he witnessed injustice. He wanted nothing more than to rip apart whoever was responsible for this, but, faced with the boy's deteriorating condition and without an enemy to fight, Frankenstein had to admit it was time to stop stalling in the hopes that he'd get someone to fight.
He needed to get the boy home so that he could take a closer look at his condition.
But there was one last thing he wanted to do first.
Frankenstein grabbed the first-aid kit he'd managed to find when he'd been looking for clothes and knelt in front of the boy. The boy twitched away from him when Frankenstein tried to clean the wound around his neck from where the collar had dug into his skin, but he didn't wake up. With a muttered apology, Frankenstein quickly finished cleaning the wound and wrapped it with bandages.
"Now, I know you won't like this, but…" Frankenstein gently picked him up. It was time to go.
The front door opened almost as soon as Frankenstein stepped into the front hallway.
"Oh, so you did decide to show up after all."
The Union scientist froze in the doorway. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" The demanding tone of his queries was a poor cover for his obvious terror.
So he was one of those pathetic people enjoyed stepping all over those who were weaker than them but who were spineless when they were actually faced with someone who had real power.
"Oh, I'm nobody, really. I was just tasked with delivering this one to someone." He allowed his menacing aura to leak out. "And I'm terribly sorry, but you're in my way."