This chapter's a big one, but I really couldn't make it shorter. I estimate this story should end in about 4-5 chapters at the most.
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Yunsung felt sweat dribbling down the side of his head. He had walked for at least an hour with Tornado on his back, Taki limping along beside him. His jaw ached now- he hadn't noticed how hard Tornado had actually hit him, and now his gritted teeth set off impulses of pain through his spinal cord. And now, at long last, they saw town gates.
"Look..."Yunsung panted, his voice croaked because of his sore throat, "There! A town!"
"Yes..."Taki replied-she hadn't talked since they left the camp. She was still holding her stomach.
It took them a while to get into the gates themselves. Once they were inside the town, Yunsung felt so relieved that he felt his legs wobble underneath him...the sun blinding him...his world spiraled in the lids of his eyes...
"Yunsung!"Taki croaked in warning. It was too late-Yunsung closed his eyes, and felt himself slumping sideways, and his fall through the air felt like slow-motion...But he didn't reach the ground, caught by two pairs of strong hands.
"Steady!" said a gruff voice, "Steady there lad, watch the girl now!" Yunsung found, to his half-gratitude and half-annoyance, that he was being roused. He was pushed back onto his feet, and Tornado was taken off his arms. He still felt weak, his legs still oddly numb. Through his blurred vision, eyelids only half-open, he saw two people who looked like guards, in chain mail armour, carrying Tornado oddly at arms' length, as if they were objected to touching her.
"What the hell is going on here??" said the gruff voice of one of the guards, "This looks like a wound, but what's all this?"
"Don't you touch 'er!" said Yunsung immediately, drowsily, not quite sure what he was saying or who he was saying it to, "Don't you dare touch 'er..."
"Easy, lad!" said the gruff voice, "We're not gonna hurt her. We'll take you and your two lady friends here to the hospital."
"Yes! The hospital!" Yunsung wheezed, as if it was the only thing he understood right now, "We need to get to the hospital! Perform the procedure!"
"That's right, son."said the man gently, and felt the middle of his back being pushed, and he walked in the direction he was pushed in, "Which one of these ladies is yours, then?"he chucked friendlily.
"Talim."he said, smiling vaguely, his blurry vision telling him nothing about where he was, "She's got black hair, and brown eyes. She's very beautiful..."
"Indeed she is." said the man.
"Don't look at me!!!"Yunsung heard Taki say indignantly.
"Oh. Sorry ma'am, my mistake. What is going on with this little one, though?"
"It is a long story. One that Yunsung would be better to tell if he was in any fit shape. He is more socially inclined than I would be." Taki said, in a very dignified and dark voice.
"Riiight." the man's voice sounded a bit wary of Taki's intimidating manner, "We'll ask him once he's rested."
Yunsung allowed himself to be pushed forwards, his feet scraping against the gravel, seeing scattered images of modest houses, and was urged along until he heard a plummy female voice say, "Oh? A few invalids?"
"A bit more than "invalids", Madam Sarene."said the guard. "This girl's gravely injured, the other doesn't look so good, and this guy- he's so tired he's delirious."
"Oh, send them in! Quickly now! Careful!" said the plummy, motherly voice. Yunsung was ushered into a doorway, and pushed firmly into a sitting position on something which had a cushion on it. He sat there, head slumped, noticing vaguely the large array of movement around him. Then he found one of his hands being pushed up to hold something which felt like glass.
"Drink." said Taki's voice.
Yunsung drank-it was water, and that one sip was so refreshing that he began to gulp down the entire contents of the glass. He drank it dry, shook his head free from drowsiness, and looked at the confusing scene in front of him.
He was in a small room well lit by several windows letting in pleasant sunlight, so it seemed a little bigger. The lighting was occasionally shadowed by large figures-the strong guards carrying Tornado, and heaving her onto a bed. Two women in white were bustling around the room fiddling and attaching medical equipment, and a third woman who looked slightly older was barking out orders to them. Taki was sitting beside him, sipping water, her face now relaxed and as impassive as usual, though she still held her cut stomach.
Tornado was laid face down on the bed. Yunsung, on instinct, stood up and pushed past the guards to see her. "Talim!" was the only thing he could say, as he saw the chasm and spikes that was her back.
"Steady on, lad." said the same guard again-he was a tall, black man with a moustache, round shoulders and a wide, strong build-he had every aspect of a man in charge. "You still need your rest, doesn't he Madam Sarene?"
"Indeed." said the older of the women in white, swooping her hands on Yunsung's shoulders and trying to usher him backwards- Yunsung stayed where he was. Madam Sarene continued, "Don't worry, we're doing all we can to help her."
"No!" said Yunsung, "You don't understand. She needs an operation!"
"Of course she does." said Madam Sarene, "But it's not a very deep wound, we'll have it done soon. Now, I don't know what these spikes are...and I'm not sure how we could remove them...if at all..."
"What are you talking about?" Yunsung yelled- how could they be acting so calmly?? That wound was near fatal if they didn't do something fast! "The cut's very, very deep!!" he stressed, "She could die!"
"No it isn't, don't you fret young man!"she twittered, stepping in front of him and looking at him-she was about his height, "Come and look. See? It's not very deep at all, is it?"
Yunsung peered over to Tornado's back and saw, to his astonishment, that the wedge seemed smaller than it was before. It was like the chasm had shrunk, that the spikes had pushed it thinner. "But I swear it was deeper..."he said slowly, "I swear it was..."
"Now I think that's the heat getting to you." said Madam Sarene gently, finally succeeding in ushering him backwards, "Now, we're going to treat it, while you sit down over here with this young lady here. Goodness, you're hurt too?" she said to Taki in her motherly tone. She returned a withering look, which Madam Sarene ignored, pushing Yunsung down onto the chair beside Taki and attempting to lift up Taki's ninja outfit to look at the cut underneath. On her second attempt, Taki pushed her backwards and took out two blades from somewhere. Madam Sarene gasped loudly, and the whole room suddenly froze.
Yunsung initially thought that the reason Taki had acted in this way was because she, in a bizarre way, wore something similar to black hot pants underneath her robe-which was visible when Madam Sarene lifted it. However, given that the blades seemed to have come from underneath the robe, he thought otherwise. There were two seconds of silence, where Taki stood, blades arched in a stance with a piercing look in her eyes that was frightening. Then, the vocal, gruff-voiced guard said, "Put those away, woman! They have no place here!"
Taki's head moved to face him statically, letting her cold gaze wither him like it withered anyone. "Fine." she said, "Do not approach me without proper consent next time. It may be the last thing you do."
She let the impact of these words strike into every heart in the room, before putting the knives in the hilts on her back (where Soul Calibur usually was) and sitting down, with the same impassive glare. The nurses and the guards returned to their duties, each of them giving Taki nervous glances-in fact, the only reason why the guards were staying appeared to be because of her.
"What was that about?" Yunsung asked her.
"I have things hidden in my robes which are dangerous, too dangerous for just anyone to touch." she told him.
Yunsung smirked, "Like hot pants?"
Taki glared at him for a few seconds, as if forcibly restraining herself. Then, to his complete and utter astonishment, she smiled at Yunsung, and remarked, "Yes. Like hot pants."
He was completely flabbergasted. Taki? Making a sassy remark? She now had her eyes firmly fixed on the congregation around Tornado. As he continued to be confused, mind not functioning well due to his fatigue, Madam Sarene called him over.
"Now we really must ask..." she declared, pointing to Tornado's back, "What is this growth she is experiencing? It's solid metal!"
"It's..."Yunsung wasn't sure whether to tell the truth or not- the people might react badly to the knowledge that Soul Edge was amongst them. He hesitated, thinking fast, "It's..."
"It's Soul Edge."said Taki's voice.
Yunsung closed his eyes with the damnation of the truth. The room gasped, and looked from Taki to Tornado in horror. Yunsung looked at Taki- she looked as emotionless as always- didn't she see that they could have been thrown out of this prime opportunity to cleanse Talim? Or worse, killed? She just sat there, looking straight at Yunsung, then around at the others plainly, as if she hadn't realized what she had said.
"What...is...this abomination..." said Madam Sarene in a deathly voice, glaring at Yunsung, "doing in my practice??"
"I can-I can explain!" pleaded Yunsung, backing away from the guard's spears now being forcibly pointed towards his face, and Madam Sarene's dangerous glare, "Look-just look at her, she's harmless! She doesn't mean to hurt people! I knew her before!"
"You better make your way very quickly out of this town, mate." said the tall black guard, his spear foremost of the others, pointing at the bridge of Yunsung's nose.
"No! Please!"he begged, "Please! I've been traveling for ages trying to find someone who can help her! I found Taki and she says she needs professionals to help remove the metal! Please! I'll pay you! I'll pay for the procedure!"
"Hmm..."Madam Sarene looked slightly swung by the offer of money, "This place could use a sprucing up..."
"Hold on, Madam!" said the guard, "We need to take into account that this is the most dangerous being on the planet right now! If she were to escape, she'd be the death of us all!"
"No!" Yunsung cut in, "She's weak, weakened by the cut and that she hasn't had people to feast on for a while-"
Madam Sarene shrieked. "Oh lord!"
"What?"
"Don't say such things!" she cried, looking visibly horrified, "feast on people, for goodness sake! You frightened the wits out of us!" She cast her hands around to the three other nurses, each looking about the age of him, who each were looking pale-faced and were fidgeting nervously. It came to Yunsung how much of an impact Tornado had had on these people- just by mention of her wrath, people were scared witless.
"It's all the more reason you should help her!" he insisted, "Help her and no-one will have to be scared any more! Thousands will be saved! Please!" He cast his eyes around at them, desperate for one of them to speak up and say yes. The people looked at each other deliberatively, "Please!" Yunsung pleaded- he couldn't fail now, not when he was so close! He looked up at Madam Sarene, who was visibly thinking in her head. The wait, which might have only been a few seconds, was unbearable.
Eventually, she said, "Alright, alright. I'll do anything to stop all of this."
The huge wash of relief was like a cool refreshing summer breeze. "Thank you." he said earnestly, and grabbed Madam Sarene's hand and shook it firmly, "Thank you! Thank you so much!"
"I'll expect a nice, hefty sum when I'm done with this. I need a vacation." she remarked, looking weary. Then she grinned at the younger nurses, "I'm joking girls, I'm joking! Right, the procedure will begin tomorrow. You meanwhile can stay at one of the houses in the village-there's rooms for rent."
"Thank you." he said again, "Oh, wait! You wouldn't happen to have any rope would you?"
"Rope?" she said bemusedly.
"Um, yeah rope..."he said nervously, "We have to tie her down..." he pointed to the operating table.
Madam Sarene stared him, her light blue eyes almost popping out of their sockets and her mouth hanging open. Then, she did something Yunsung had only heard of happening in folk tales and fairy stories. Her eyes rolled to the ceiling, her knees swayed dangerously, and she fainted!