Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima owns the series. This story was just made for fun.
Summer Red, Part 1: Morning Chore of The Kimono Dance Academy! From Plates of Breakfasts To Seeing Blonde Hair & Blood! Cana Alberona Appears!
Cana Alberona walked towards a river of sparkling blue water that had been bordered by two large areas of light green grass, and she held a large orange tray in her hands. The tray contained a high amount of dirty dishes, dirty cups, and dirty kitchen utensils that desperately had to be washed and scrubbed with the river's water, along with soap to where they would be very clean. Cana was the person who had to clean these dishes because of the fact that it was another one of her morning shifts for making the dishes from breakfast time be clean for all of the other girls who worked in the Kimono Dance Academy, a place that was merely a dance academy for girls who lived in this part of Fiore.
Cana attended the Kimono Dance Academy because of how she wanted to learn some good dancing techniques for her future job of working in a prominent bar of nightclub that would be popular enough for her to make some money, but attending the Kimono Dance Academy wasn't exactly the fastest way for Cana to learn the best techniques for dancing. She was currently relegated to being in the intermediate-level classes again, since that was her punishment for not doing very good work in the advanced-level classes where the process of learning dance steps was much faster and stricter than the lower levels.
She groaned in frustration at how the head girl of the Kimono Dance Academy chose to initially punish her by making the shifts for washing dishes and cups be assigned to her, since that punishment was only on Cana for being the only one who failed to do a good job on her final exam during the spring semester for dance classes, but that wasn't Cana's only punishment. The next punishment would be that she'd need to take dance classes in the summer, and that meant Cana would have to dance under the hot sun with rays of harsh sunlight coming down on her during the day.
The sunlight was definitely coming down on her quite harshly right now, heating up her long brown hair that had to reach down to her back for her to feel more heat during the punishment, and Cana even had drops of sweat going down her body to touch her orange kimono. Cana's kimono also had to have its sleeves be long for the fabric to feel very warm against her body, and she also had to wear orange sandals that were made from hard wood that somewhat burnt the soles of her feet. She attempted to take off the sandals before she'd put the dishes in the river, but a female's voice from a few feet away kept her from doing that.
"If you try to reduce your punishment for not working hard, Cana-sama, I'll have to report this disobedience to Haruka-sama. She might give you an even harsher punishment like bathing in cold water, always having to wash her back in a hot spring, or-" A green-haired student at the Kimono Dance Academy informed Cana in a calm tone, standing in the doorway of this path with a small frown on her face.
Cana rudely responded to the girl with an annoyed look on her face, making her feet firmly be in the sandals, "Yeah, I understand! This is my damn punishment for not doing well on a final exam where the dance steps were part of the routine that I studied the least about! Hizuki, maybe you should suggest that the final exam be on something that I've mastered!"
"Well, you certainly haven't mastered the art of cleaning those dirty things and other kitchen items to make them spotless. You should probably work hard at making them glisten and shine, instead of arguing." Hizuki responded to her in a relaxed manner, pushing up her glasses with her right hand's middle finger.
The girl who heard Cana loudly scoff was named Hizuki Hanamidori, an older student who had her long and dark green hair flowing down to her hips. Hizuki's hair went well with her glasses that had mint queen square-shaped frames, which complimented her light green kimono that had the floral pattern of plain green rose petals forming the roses without the stems, and Hizuki also wore some juniper green sandals. She kept her feet in the sandals while walking closer to Cana, who began to wash the dishes. Cana soaked a white plate in water, before scrubbing it rapidly with the sponge to soap up the plate while the stains from food were starting to come off.
As the stains from the food began to come off of the first plate, Cana scrubbed the entire plate until it shined with soap bubbles on it. She dried the plate with an orange cloth that had been in the tray, before squeezing the cloth to rid it of all the water it just absorbed, and Cana repeated this process several times. She even put the dishes into the river very quickly right before she took them out the scrub them all at fast speeds, and Cana wanted to be done by the time lunch would come around for the students who had to take summer classes.
They would probably make many more plates be dirtied, prompting Cana to create a technique where she went up to a northern part of the river to dump several dirty dishes and other kitchenware into it. Cana even put the sponge with dishwashing liquid in the river, too, letting it flow down the river while creating several soap bubbles that would make the dishes be cleaner on their way to the tray. Once those dishes and other types of kitchenware reached the tray, Cana would dry them until they were spotless and shiny. Once the dishes were shimmering in the sunlight, she would wash the silverware.
"Now that the dishes are easily getting washed, this seems like less of a punishment and more of a fun thing to see when you're near the-" Cana stated aloud while smiling happily at the dirty dishes that calmly flowed down the river to get soaped up, before she was interrupted by something that made her look very curious.
Cana thought to herself with a concerned facial expression, as she walked up the river saw a heavily bruised girl partially resting her head up against a large grey river stone with several severe bloody wounds still bleeding out, "Wait... There's a person bleeding nearby, and they definitely don't look like they were having fun! What's with all that blood?!"
After pulling the blonde-haired girl out of the water and seeing some blonde hairs still fall from her head like her hair was cut on the previous night, Cana shouted in an alarmed tone while thinking about how the girl's mouth had been submerged in river water, "Blood! Tons of blood! Hizuki, there's someone badly bleeding! Come see them, and take a picture if you have to! Afterwards, get the school nurse to call an ambulance!"
The alarmed tone of Cana's voice made Hizuki quickly pick up the somewhat-cleaned dishes from the river, before just placing them and the other dishes away from the edge of the river. Hizuki ran along the edge of the river, though, and she quickly got to Cana. The green-haired girl and her violet-eyed friend both looked down at the blonde-haired girl who was heavily injured like she had been beaten by someone who really intended to kill her, and Hizuki put her face near the wounded girl's mouth. She could hear her breathing, but her breaths were immensely faint like a combination of being severely wounded with salty river water also being in her body.
Hizuki faced Cana in a stern manner while making the gesture for her to push on the stranger's chest, and Cana pushed both of her hands down on Lucy's chest three times. That caused some of the river water to be spat out of the girl's mouth, and Cana placed her lips on the girl's lips to give her a heavy breath of air. That only made more river water be spat out towards Cana's face, almost like this girl floated down the river for several hours, and touching the bits of blood on her face made Cana get it on her fingers. She went over to the river to see if there were any massive pools of blood, but Cana only see faint trails of blood and small blonde hairs in the river. There had to be a starting point for those trails, but Cana didn't have the time to go up the river right now.
"Cana, I'll tell Lady Haruka that we found ourselves in a serious emergency! You can get this girl taken to the Kuchiba Town Hospital after I call the nurse, since all of her bleeding means that she needs a blood transfusion!" Hizuki told Cana with a concerned look on her face, as she pulled out her dark green cell phone from her kimono's right pocket to take several pictures of the injured girl and importantly focused on getting pictures of her wounds.
As Cana pulled out her brown rectangular cell phone from her kimono's left pocket to also take pictures for her own phone to have proof of this incident, Hizuki quickly called the nurse's office to say in a very panicked manner, "There's someone by the river, and they're severely injured! Cana Alberona will go with that person to make sure that the doctors can help her with understanding the full extent of the girl's injuries, but her life is in danger! Please call the hospital right now, and request an ambulance!"
The wounded girl managed to quietly utter in a pained and wounded manner, even feeling tremendous pain to where she couldn't open her black eyes that were very swollen, "H... hel... help..."
She would soon get help from how Cana carried her to the school's entrance in a bridal-style manner, carrying her quickly while running with her phone now tightly in her mouth, and she left Hizuki with the task of calling the principal about this situation. Cana ran back through the doorway to be running across the dark brown wooden floor that quickly changed into walking across the dining area's white tatami rugs, and she even ran through a nearby hallway to pass by several students. Some of them looked surprised at how Cana was holding a wounded girl, and others only got a glimpse of how the stranger wore only a bra with some underwear.
Cana glanced down at the girl's clothing while wondering if this had been a fight on a beach or something similar, and she hoped that the stranger would be okay. She soon reached the front of the school while the ambulance from the town's nearby hospital made its loud siren wail towards the Kimono Dance Academy, and Cana was hearing the sound of hope from how the doctors were coming soon. They actually drove up to the school at high speeds with urgency in their driving, stopping the ambulance only a few feet away from Cana, and seven female doctors came out of the back of the van.
They came out of there with a white stretcher being unfolded for their patient, walking up to Cana for her to gently place Lucy on the stretcher, and the female doctors began to examine her wounds. The ambulance's medical team looked quite concerned noticed more than just the blood, as they saw her arms and legs be very swollen like they were dislocated from a harsh fight and falling from a very high height, and six of the doctors hurriedly carried Lucy into the ambulance. The one doctor who wasn't in the ambulance right now had short brown hair tied back into two brown loops, and her brown eyes looked down at her white medical coat with worry for a moment before she calmly looked up at Cana.
"Do you have any identification of the girl? Is she a student at this academy, or should we call all the regional academies for information on her?" The doctor asked Cana in a calm manner, as she had been thinking the same thing as Hizuki about a blood transfusion for the injured stranger.
Cana took the phone out of her mouth and responded with a frustrated frown on her face, only having a slight bit of information, "She doesn't attend this school, but I resuscitated her to get the river water out of her throat. However, you should be aware that her blood's still in the river with some of her blonde hair. Maybe that can help you with identifying her at the hospital."
"I'll collect some samples of her blood from the river, as well as getting samples her hair. It may be good for us that you quickly reported your timing of finding her, so I'd request for you to go with that girl to the hospital for you to be the first one from this school who can hear about the results of her treatment."
Cana merely nodded at the doctor's orders, before running into the ambulance to sit next to one of the doctors, and she hoped that the woman who seemed like the Head Emergency Doctor right now would be able to get vital samples of the girl's blood and hair. Cana looked down at the wounded girl, seeing her bruises to start being in a sickly shade of purple against her skin while some were still red from her wounds being very bloody, and Cana hoped that the doctors in Kuchiba Town would be capable of saving her life.
Three hours later, at the hospital...
When the doctors got to the hospital with Cana, they had informed her about how the blonde-haired girl needed to be taken to the section for patient who needed to undergo intensive care. That would require the stranger to undergo some various types of surgeries, as her injuries were very severe, and the doctors carried that girl on a stretcher to one of the rooms for intensive care. Since they had to work in that hospital room, Cana wasn't allowed to be in there. Instead, she had to wait outside the room while sitting one of the orange wooden benches.
The orange wooden bench was on the left side of the hallway while it complimented the pastel orange walls of the hospital, along with the pumpkin orange tiled floor. and Cana simply sat down on the bench with an anxious look on her face. She wondered if the girl would survive being so heavily injured or end up dying from her injuries, since Cana couldn't be sure that she rescued her at a moment where she hadn't bled out enough for blood loss to not be a massively serious issue. She had heard the doctors in the operating room loudly asking for blood transfusions, which made her seem quite worried.
She wondered if they would even be giving the right type of blood to the stranger, since Cana had been looking down at her body instead of seeing which medical professionals were running into that room. A medical receptionist who managed to contact the correct academy had actually gotten in touch with the principal, who wasted no time with telling the nurse to send the proper medical records to the Kuchiba Town Hospital, and the receptionist had also given the principal a thorough description of the patient who Cana had brought to the doctors.
Still, Cana felt uneasy. She had never experienced anything like this before, going through the hardship of dealing with the immense pressure pertaining to a person living or dying. Cana kept looking anxious about this situation, but she tried to have some hope in her eyes. She tried to have hope that the stranger would survive, as the chances of survival weren't nonexistent if there was still even a slim chance. Even the slightest chance of a full recovery would require Cana to put all of her faith into that chance, and she let out a soft sigh. That soft occurred at the same moment where the operating room's white door slowly opened, and a female doctor with long blue hair walked over to Cana with a calm facial expression.
"Hello, Miss. I have news for you. Well, it's good news and bad news." The doctor told Cana with a slight frown on her face, wondering which kind of news to deliver first.
Cana asked her in a worried tone, wanting the good news to not be insignificant when compared to the bad news, "What's the good news?"
"The good news is that we managed to restore your friend's blood to a decent amount, and her limbs aren't dislocated anymore. We've also bandaged up all of her injuries." The doctor told Cana with a feeling of regret in her amber eyes, disliking what she'd have to say next.
Cana worriedly asked, hoping that the girl's blood wouldn't drip out, "What's the bad news?"
"Despite bandaging up her injuries, her wounds had traces of wood and river water in them. We had to use all of our medicine to stop the infections from spreading more than they already did, but I'm afraid that's not the worst of it. In addition to those bleeding wounds causing her so much pain, we had to use several major doses of anesthesia to numb every part of her body. Particularly, the pain in her swollen limbs came from bone fractures and muscle tears throughout her body. She even fractured a few ribs from what seemed like a very hard fall, and her spinal cord also seems to have suffered some extensive damage. We've given her medicine that will be pumped into her body through injections, but that's not the full extent of things." The doctor thoroughly explained to Cana with a regretful facial expression, leaving Cana looking stunned.
"Her black eyes look like she was hit with a high amount of pressure, and her dislocated limbs gave her tremendous pain. She even seemed to have immense pain in her swollen face, her chest, and everywhere else. The pain in her eyes caused her to seem very dizzy, and we've put medicine on her eyes. The pain in her head harsh injuries seemed so severe, and it coupled with her losing so much blood from other painful wounds to where her several instances of having low blood pressure while her wounds were severe and infected meant that we had to put her in a medically-induced coma to save her life. She can stay alive, but Lucy Heartfilia will have a long and difficult rehabilitation." The doctor continued with a saddened look on her face, watching Cana look more shocked at the bad news.
Cana soon saw the medical team of doctors and nurses in orange scrub uniforms come out of the room with the girl named Lucy Heartfilia now being wheeled to her room on a stretcher table that could be pushed, and Cana proceeded to look at her with worry on her face. She saw white bandages over Lucy's eyes while a light blue oxygen mask was over her nose and mouth, her entire body being in a full-body cast of white bandages, and one female doctor even had several rebreathers in her hands for when Lucy would need her rebreather changed.
There was even a small grey machine on the bottom layer of the grey stretcher, and the rebreather was connected to it while medicines were poured into a small compartment that would make them flow through the rebreather's tube for them to reach Lucy's mouth. She could ingest the liquid medicine because of how her body was still allowing her to breathe, but Cana hoped that Lucy wasn't going to never fully recover. She noticed that some of the bandages were wrapped much tighter than others, almost like the tightest kinds of protection was for her swollen muscles or severely-infected wounds.
If that would be enough to help Lucy's body recover, then Cana would be happy. She simply followed the doctors down the hallway to make a left turn, and Cana watched a female doctor place Lucy on a white bed. Lucy was comfortably placed in the bed, the machine at her feet, and that same doctor gently picked up the machine to place it on a nearby nightstand. She watched the machine send medicine into Lucy's mouth at a decent pace, not going too slow for her to have any risk of the oxygen by itself failing to be enough, and not going too fast for the medicine to hurt Lucy's throat. As Cana glanced at her throat, the doctor turned around to calmly smile at the girl who needed some assurance when she couldn't provide comfort when she was worried.
"She'll be okay now in her medically-induced coma, but Lucy Heartfilia just needs rest right now." The doctor assured Cana in a kind manner, wanting to reduce Cana's worries.
Cana asked the doctor with a curious facial expression, wondering about something, "Since she's in a coma, are visitors not allowed?"
"She can have visitors, but please come back during visiting hours and sign your name on the visitor's sheet at the reception desk." The doctor replied to Cana in a calm manner, maintaining a smile of assurance.
That made Cana start to smile in a somewhat happier manner, glad that she would be allowed to visit the person who she found in a river. Cana would make herself remember to ask Lucy about what led to her being in the river, but she did think about how it would be a bit insensitive to ask Lucy some serious questions on the first day where she'd wake up. Therefore, Cana would just have to take it slow with talking to Lucy. Taking things slow with some patience would be good for her, especially since Cana didn't want to bombard Lucy with too many questions in a short amount of time.
She was already bombarded with injuries that made her be put to sleep, even to the point where bandages were tightly wrapped over her eyes like someone who had been staring closely at a seemingly-beautiful thing that had its outward brightness greatly glisten and obscure how it actually had no beauty whatsoever. Cana thought that Lucy would probably look genuinely beautiful after her eyes and other injuries for healed for her to no longer look like she had taken a brutal beating. The fact that she seemed to have been beaten up also raised questions for Cana, such as how she kept looking curious about why Lucy was floating in the river.
Upon thinking about the river, Cana's violet eyes soon widened in shock from recalling how she had to wash dishes as punishment at the Kimono Dance Academy. The academy was serving lunch around this time, prompting Cana to run towards the hospital's entrance, and she would run back to the school. Going back to the school after not getting official authorization from the principal to leave the academy would probably make getting have a much harsher punishment now, but at least she could now smile at how Lucy would stay alive.
How was Chapter 1 of the main story's "Summer Red" Arc? This chapter is meant to introduce Cana to the audience, as well as show how she and Lucy met in an AU where they attend different schools. This chapter is also meant to display Cana's emotions about discovery Lucy when she was heavily injured, and Cana even sacrificed her act of doing dishes to save Lucy's life ahead. Sacrifice is one aspect of romantic love, in case you don't know. Anyway, there will be more LuCana moments in this fanfic. I'll update as soon as possible. :)
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