[X] "-We'll help you look for her." Follow Two, monitor her, and talk to her when the time is right.

Yang Xiao Long awoke to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling.

It was a rather boring ceiling, really. Not very colourful, no decorations, just a greyish metal without a stain or scratch. It was like watching grass grow, except if you watched it for long enough there would be a noticeable change, thus making looking at the unfamiliar ceiling somehow even more boring.

This was no good. Yang tiled her head to the side in order to hopefully see something more interesting, and instantly regretted it when she felt pain shoot through her neck.

"Ow..." She complained to herself. Well, hopefully, anything to her left would be a more interesting si-

...Oh, a wall.

Drat.

Well, it didn't hurt that much...

Turning her head to the right this time, Yang winced. At least she was expecting it to hurt this time.

Over to her right, there was several beds that looked like they had been taken right out of a hospital. All of them were currently unoccupied, though a few of them looked like they had been rested in recently. Ruffled sheets and unmade beds and whatnot.

Apart from that, the room was also fairly boring. Man, being injured sucked. She was almost tempted to stand up, but she knew how much it hurt to move neck. Did she still have the wound from the harpoon in her stomach, and if she did, how bad would that hurt if she stood up?

She didn't want to check the wound, either. It was on her back, which meant checking it would involve moving it around...

Probably best to wait until someone got here so she could have them tell her how bad her injuries were. And have an excuse to make puns. Puns were the best medicine.

Sure another, after a moment, Yang heard a door open and Winter walked into her path of view.

"Hey." Yang said. "Is it just me, or..."

Yang trailed off.

"Crap." She eventually continued. "I had some sort of pun planned earlier involving Winter the season and Winter your name, but I can't recall it now."

"Trust me." Winter said. "I've heard them all."

"I'm creative." Yang claimed defensively.

"The one thing I am grateful for." Winter continued. "Was that I wasn't named Summer or Spring. I get enough 'It's hot in here' jokes as it is, and they don't even make sense."

Yang took a moment to consider. "It's got some good irony, but that's hardly a pun. People need to hammer it out a bit more, turn that iron into something as witty as a sword is sharp."

Winter gave a small smile, before moving on to business.

"How are your wounds?" She asked.

"Dunno." Yang replied. "Neck hurts when I turn my head, but I don't feel much more than that. Is there still a hole in my back?"

"That was the priority to be fixed." Winter explained. "It was patched up the first day you were out. Your ribs are the bigger concern, right now."

"...Right, I did break those." Yang noted. "It doesn't hurt to breath, at least."

"Your Aura must be holding them together." Winter noted. "I wouldn't recommend letting yourself run low anytime soon. Your healing might be accelerated, but it might take a bit longer for the wounds you had to really heal."

"How long was I out, anyway?" Yang asked.

"Four days." Winter replied. "Do you think you can move your limbs or stand up, or do you need some more time before you're able to do that?"

Yang considered for a moment, then moved her arm up and down. "Arm's fine. Legs don't seem to have any problems, either. Feeling a bit tired, though. Like I could keep a car rolling."

"...That was terrible." Winter replied. "I understand that making puns seems to be how you deal with being hospitalised, but-"

"Aw, don't be so cold." Yang interrupted, with a smile.

Winter was quiet for a moment, before she decided to change the topic of the conversation altogether.

"You should rest for a bit longer." Winter ordered. "You just regained consciousness, and even if you don't feel hurt, it would be wise to give your Aura more time to patch your body back together."

"How long do you think?" Yang asked.

"You said your neck hurts?" Winter asked. "When that doesn't hurt as much, we'll talk about it."

Yang nodded, and then immediately winced. "Ow. Ow. That was a mistake."

"Perhaps I should also diagnose your cognition." Winter noted. "Test to make sure your memory is fully functional."

"This sucks." Yang complained. "Can you at least set up my scroll so I can watch a movie while I wait?"

"If it'll keep you confined." Winter agreed. "Oh, and Yang?"

"Hm?"

"You did good, in that fight." Winter said. "When you're feeling better, I'm going to yell at you for fighting alone against a superior foe with unknown abilities, but you performed admirably, and did so in an attempt to prevent casualties. You should feel proud of yourself."

Yang took a moment to consider it, but deigned not to answer.

"If you wish, a trophy of sorts could be arranged." Winter said. "The mercenaries armour was obtained in the aftermath. If you want a memento of your good work, his weapon could be passed on to you."

"Is it normal for Hunters to pick up weapons that nearly killed them?" Yang asked.

"It varies between the Kingdoms." Winter explained. "There's a lot of different Hunters with lots of different perspectives. I'll give you time to think about it, while I find your scroll for you."

"Thanks." Yang replied.

Winter nodded. "I'll return shortl-"

There was a sudden crash, and the sound of metal tearing, from the direction of the door. Winter looked in that direction for a moment, and there was silence, before a small voice spoke.

"...I broke it..."

Curious, Yang ignored the pain in her neck to turn towards the source of the voice.

Two was standing at the door, looking at the automatic sliding metal. Usually, it was designed to open when it sensed someone approaching. However, the oddly two-shaped hole in the metal had left the door stuck half-open, leaving the perfect imprint of Two's upper body as a gap in the upper half while the lower half was left wide open.

"I..." Winter was at a loss for words, and after a moment, she seemed to just focus on looking at what had happened, rather than trying to talk about it.

"Hey, hey, Two, don't worry." A voice said from the other side of the door. Slipping under it, a young man who looked about Two's age slipped in, wearing all black. His face was rather...

Well, if this was some cartoon, he'd be the smug pretty boy who just invites a punch to the face.

"I broke it, Cent..." Two complained again. "I keep doing this..."

"It's fine." Cent promised. "Nobody's going to blame you for it. You were just overexcited. Nobody's going to blame a problem on a beautiful girl being happy."

Winter looked like she really, really wanted to say something, but held her tongue.

"Cent..."

"No." Cent continued. "No complained, Two. Focus on happy things. This'll be easy to fix. I'll fix it myself. It'll buff right out."

"...Really?"

"Of course!" Cent said cheerily. "It's a well-known fact that polishing something enough will cause something to return to an undamaged form."

Two blinked, then giggled. "Cent, I don't think it works like that..."

"Of course it does." Cent replied. "I said it, so it has to be true."

Two giggled again.

"But don't worry about it." Cent continued. "You wanted to talk to Yang, didn't you?"

Two looked at him, then nodded. "Oh! Yeah! Right!"

Two turned towards Yang, and walked up to the side of the bed. "Yang, are you alright?"

Yang smiled. "Feelin' fine."

"Really?" Two asked. "Because if you're still hurt, Cent and I were talking earlier, he thinks he could figure out how to help with my Song to heal up wounds and make your Aura stronger-"

"That sounds dangerous." Winter interrupted. "Have you tested it before?"

Two frowned. "No... But it-"

"I would prefer if you didn't start on one of my students." Winter said. "There would be a controversy if the side-effects turned her into a zombie or something like that. If you want to try that trick, start with animals or something."

Two took a moment to consider that, then nodded. "Okay."

"How's everyone else?" Yang asked. "Piran? Blast? Civilians?"

"The kids are alright!" Two chirped. "Some of them reallyy want to see you, too! Tommy wanted to thank you for saving his brother and Carmine's been sad a lot but really looks up to you. They think you're the coolest! I'm kinda jealous, actually..."

"Don't be jealous." Cent interrupted. "They're just having some hero worship because they saw her fight the bad guy for a bit. I bet if they saw you fighting, they'd consider you cooler, as is right and proper."

"No, it's fine." Two replied. "There's already tons of people cooler than me. One was so much smarter, and Zero..."

Two trailed off for a bit.

"One?" Yang asked. "Zero?"

"My sisters." Two said. "They're the coolest! I just... Haven't seen them in a while."

"I'd like to meet them myself one day." Cent interrupted. "So I can prove once and for all that you're the coolest and most beautiful, my love."

Two blushed. "C-Cent! People are watching..."

"Get a room." Yang deadpanned.

"This is, technically, a room." Cent argued.

"An empty one, then." Winter interrupted. "Otherwise, I can arrange for you to be kicked off the airship, and you can walk."

"Fine, I'll behave." Cent complained.

Two turned away from him, slapping her blush away.

"Where was I?" Two wondered. "Cent flirting, sisters, coolest... Oh right, the kids! They'd love to see you, Yang. Though, uh, if you're still in a bed, maybe later."

"I'll see what I can do when I feel better." Yang replied.

"I hope you can walk around soon." Two continued. "Most of them are going to have to stay in the village we landed at once we set out."

"...We?"

"I hadn't mentioned it yet." Winter continued. "But Two found informatiom regarding children who are without a source of food because of the attack four days ago. She wanted to go find them and take them in, and I decided that we could assist her."

"Cool." Yang smiled. "When do we set off?"

"Tomorrow." Winter replied. "We were waiting for you to regain consciousness to set off."

"Thanks." Yang said, before her smile grew wider. "You two, Two."

Two blinked, then giggled. "Hee.. Too, Two. Because my name is pronounced the same as the word Too and it's said two times. I get it."

"It was a good pun." Cent admitted. "Speaking of which, did you know that the word pun is derived from the word punishment, as in ancient times, puns were used as a form of torture against those who had committed crimes that did not warrant death?"

Two laughed louder at that.

"I doubt the accuracy of that statement." Winter noted. "But if it was true, I would understand why."

Two restrained her laughter, then turned back to Yang. "Okay, bye Yang! I'll see you later!"

She waved, then walked out the door, walking perfectly in the hole she had left when she had walked in.

"I should probably get to work fixing that..." Cent noted.

"Indeed." Winter replied. "I look forward to seeing how well this 'Polish fixes everything' plan of yours works out."

Cent gulped, looking around. "Well, you see... The thing is... Oh, I think I hear Two calling for me, gotta g-"

He bolted away at the last second, running from his responsibilities.

Winter looked at the door, and sighed. "That's going to come right out of my paycheck..."

In the remainder of the day before the airship leaves to go look for orphans, Yang has enough time to talk to some people. Who? Pick 2.

[X] Piran.

[X] Blast.

[X] Two and the civilians.

[X] Two specific civilians- That Nora girl, and her friend, Ren or whatever it was.

[X] Forget talking to people, just sit down and watch a movie.

[X] Yang should probably write how about what happened, so she can phrase it in a manner that's not likely to end with her dad refusing to ever let her out of his sight again.

Does Yang want to take a trophy from the mercenary guy?

[X] Yes- His weapon.

[X] Yes- All of his armour.

[X] No. That seems like a weird habit to get into.