Chapter 34 – Schematic

Sai Summers

I had managed to be rid of Justin when we arrived back; he left on the pretense that he had to turn in what we had found to Shinigami-sama. As a result I sat alone on the wall at the large porch, in front of the school's main entrance. Kid returned on his teal aerial skateboard about a half-hour after I arrived at Shibusen. He was still wearing his tattered coat and looking worse for wear, but I was more concerned about the dark expression on his face. When he touched down, the guns from his hands disappeared, and the sisters appeared behind him.

Liz stretched. "That was a long trip. I'm so stiff…"

Kid interrupted her. "Liz, Patty, return to the mansion and bring me a change a clothes. I can't go around looking like this."

Liz gave a slight nod and her face fell. "Sure Kid." She looked a little sad, perhaps at Kid's attitude. She pulled Patty's arm, and they started down the long staircase to the ground level of the city.

Kid came towards me. "Hey…you're back…." I started.

He grabbed my left arm with his right hand. "You come with me." He said flatly, and started to drag me towards the school's front gate.

I grimaced. "Kid! What's wrong? You're hurting me."

Kid didn't respond. He didn't even turn back and look at me. I realized something was wrong, and it was likely serious. I tried to pull back, but he had an iron grasp. He pulled me along several hallways, and a number of students noticed us. A few groups people who noticed seem to whisper amongst themselves when we passed by them.

His pace was brisk, and I was having trouble keeping up. He was close to actually dragging me. "Kid, stop! People are looked at us…" I begged, huffing.

Kid came to a halt outside of the infirmary's hallway door. He pulled it open abruptly with his injured arm. He released his arm grasp from my arm, relieving the pressure, but then put his arm on my upper back and pushed. I stumbled slightly as I ended up in the clinics entranceway area. His attitude was starting to disturb me. "Kid…?" I asked quietly. "What's wrong...?"

He slipped in behind me into the room, and closed the door behind him. For a moment Kid leaned against it with his head slightly bowed. I could see the dark expression on his face, despite his hair hanging down in front of it. Suddenly he leaned forward, grabbed me by the upper arms with both hands, and pulled my face towards him. His eyes were narrow, and there was rage in them.

"Is your life worth so little to you that you would let Justin risk it so easily?" He hissed.

"Kid…" I started, but I had no real response for me. For once I was genuinely afraid of him.

He shook me slightly. "I gave you part of my blood, my life…and you act like its nothing." He paused and exhaled loudly several times. "Why are you're willing to throw away your life so easily?!"

I was confused. "I'm not! I don't even understand what you're talking about!"

He squeezed my arms, and his voice grew louder. "Then why did you trust him?! He risked your life today!"

My voice shuddered. "But I'm fine now, Kid!"

His face flushed red in anger and he shook me again. "But what if you weren't? What if I had shot you? Then what?!"

I hiccupped a sob. "Kid…I trusted you…t-to not hit me!"

His face fell, his anger streak having been broken. He pulled me closer and put his forehead against mine; his skin was cold, but his forehead and hair were damp. He loosened his grip on my arms. "You have so much faith in me…I'm not sure I've earned it." He muttered.

My eyes were damp, but I blinked it away. "Sorry…" I sniffed.

There was a rustle to my left. A slightly-heavy set woman in a nurses' uniform entered. "Is everything all right? Someone said they heard shouting. I was in the…Oh goodness, your arm!"

Kid pulled back and released my arms. While his left arm didn't appear to be bleeding still, it was evident that there were untreated gashes and his arm was caked in dried blood.

The nurse waved at Kid. "Come with me. We need to get that cleaned up."

She walked around behind me, and Kid and I followed her into the main area of the infirmary. She pulled out a stool from under the middle bed in the room and pointed to the edge of the bed. "Go ahead and sit on the edge so I can take a look."

Kid did as she instructed, and the nurse examined his damaged arm. "It doesn't look quite as bad as I first thought it did, but we'll still need to clean it up and dress it." She pulled open the drawer on the nightstand table to her left and looked inside. "Hmm. The gauze I have in here is a little thin for what we need." She rose from the stool and started to walk back into the other office. "I'm going to the storage room for something better. Wait right there for me." She disappeared from sight.

I sat down on the edge of the bed on Kid's left. I noticed worry on his face. "Are you still upset at me from before?"

He half-smiled. "No. The fact that you place your faith in me makes me feel somewhat better. That's not what's really bothering me at the moment, I presume."

My eyebrows rose. "What is it?"

He leaned forward and tried to look into the adjoining room. "Don't say anything on it until after we leave."

I confused, and somewhat worried. "Okay…"

Kid's tone of voice was serious. "That thing we went to look for…there was something like that in the papers I found in the library. A line drawing of it."

I inhaled quickly. What does that mean?

There were footsteps and the nurse returned with a roll of gauze and a plastic tub of what I assumed to be water from the splashing noise. I rose up from the bed and stood at its side. The urge to ask Kid questions was high, especially when every so often during the bandaging he'd eye me with serious eyes.

After she finished cleaning and dressing the wounds – with Kid's arm was covered from his wrist to near his shoulder in gauze – she put the tub to the side. The ruddy colored water made me a little sick to my stomach, so I tried to avoid looking at it.

"I'd like you to wait a little while, to lay down for a bit." She stood and pushed the stool back under the bed. "I was told you had some significant blood loss, even for you."

He shuffled himself back to the center of the bed and turned to lay out on it. "That's fine. I don't plan to leave until my partners return with new clothes for me." He stated, shutting his eyes.

I watched the nurse open the double-doors on the lower half of the nightstand. She pulled out a folded blue blanket, and then turned to hand it to me. She closed the doors back, and they shut with a light thud. She picked up the supplies she had brought in and turned around; she then crossed behind me. "If you two need anything let me know. You're welcome to stay until you feeling up to leaving, Kid." She then left the room.

I held the blanket against my chest and watched in the direction she had left. "She probably wonders how we end up here so often."

"I wonder that myself, sometimes…" Kid mumbled.

I dropped out the blanket and let it unfold towards the floor. I threw the end that was away from me on the end of the bed, and used it to cover Kid. He inhaled and exhaled loudly, and his eyes remained shut. I sat down on the bed at his right side, and put my left hand on his forehead, brushing back his hair. "You're clammy."

He grimaced slightly. "I'm tired…"

I brushed his hair back down, and returned my hand to my lap. "You need rest, Kid. The last few days have been tough on you physically."

He opened his eyes slightly. "I know. But now I have concerns about what that key…or sword, or what have you, is…"

I doubted he was going to let it go for now, so I opted to ask my questions anyway. "Is it really a drawing of that item itself? What are the chances that whoever wrote those notes saw the actual item considering what was roaming around there?"

His brow furrowed. "Hmm. Probably not very good. The drawing is probably a copy of a technical line drawing from the original book."

I chewed on that thought. "So…someone who actually saw that item made the original drawings. And that book is missing…"

Kid turned to me. "Whoever did the original drawings must have had access to the item itself. But how…?"

There was no answer for his question.

I tried to add to his thoughts. "And even if they had just come across the item, and managed to deal with what we did today…why would they leave it there? Why stop and make a drawing but not take it? That makes no sense considering how easy it was to remove it from the location after dealing with the clown."

Kid turned away and looked towards the end of the bed. "And…it has to be of value…otherwise my Father wouldn't have wanted Justin to retrieve it." He whispered.

I realized something was wrong with that thought. "Kid…how did Shinigami-sama know that item was there if no one's been able to leave when they go there? The number of deaths must be…I mean, it took three of us just to get the thing…"

Kid's eyes opened wider. "My Father knows something about this item…I need to know what we're risking our lives for."

I sighed. "You need to rest."

He bit his lip. "I can't rest while this is happening."

I squeezed his right hand. "You have no choice, Kid. You look exhausted."

There was a knock at the door, and Kid turned abruptly to me. "Say nothing to anyone. This needs to remain a matter between us." He stated flatly.

I smiled and nodded. It was somewhat amusing watching him play private eye, but I knew his concerns were valid.