A/N: Chapter 4 of Eighty-Six. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters except my own. Chrome Shelled Regios belongs to the rightful owner.

Chapter 4: Hospital bound

Near the edge of the city...

In the silence, Nina stood rooted on the spot as the wind blew gently through the skies. Before her lay the decapitated corpses of the larvae. No one at the battle scene understood what had happened. The medical students collected themselves and scurried around to administer healing medicine to the wounded. If she had lost her life, she wouldn't be here, thinking like this now. Without our help, she would've died already. Layfon wasn't proud of his exceptional skills and I...I wasn't too clear of what I should feel about this skill that was ingrained in my body since my birth.

"Those newbies..." She murmured as her gaze found us standing near the edge of the city, our backs to her. Layfon was staring out towards the horizon while I was hunched over trying to catch my breath by his side. He used one of his wires to get back up and since I didn't have any of the wires I climbed my way back up as if I was doing a rock-climbing exercise. To say that I was struggling was an understatement, the battle was long and I used up almost all of my strength just to keep up with Layfon's stamina. Honestly, that man has a lot of potential and power but even he couldn't hide the fact that he was tired as well.

"Ah, it's great that you're okay Senpai." Layfon staggered over to her, his appearance appallingly terrible. She looked over at me and I saw an eyebrow arched up in confusion. It must be because I wasn't as "terrible-looking" as Layfon thanks to my beast transformation. However I still had some swollen red patches on my skin where it wasn't protected by the scales.

"We kind of ran a little too far from the city, which is why we look like this." We were in pain and Layfon's smile looked like a spasm. "If we didn't destroy the mother, other filth monsters would have come..."

"You were stupid...both of you." Nina said as she looked at the two of us like a mother would. "We have gear tailored for combat outside."

"Eh!? Really!" We looked at each other before releasing a couple of laughs, scratching the back of our heads in sheepishness.

"Of course." Nina replied. "This might be an Academy City, but even so, it's a famous one. You can find standard equipment here." Oh my, those two...She laughed at our dumbstruck expressions, which must have looked ridiculous from her perspective.

This is the first time I've seen Layfon smile. I mused, watching his mouth twitch upwards. It looks a little bit sour.

"Hey!" Nina suddenly yelped as Layfon suddenly fell against her causing both of them to fall to the ground.

"Sorry, I'm a bit tired. Let me rest a bit." He mumbled as his head fell against her chest, using her bosom as a make-shift pillow.

"Oh my..."

"Shut it." Nina snapped at me as I turned away with a cheeky grin on my face. "You better not be formulating any dirty thoughts in that head of yours!"

"How could I not?" I asked, turning back to face her. "Just look at that position..."

"I'm going to punish you for the rest of the week by making you scrubbed the floors and staying over-time!" She paused just as the sound of peaceful snoring reached our ears. "Jeez...you did really well...the both of you."

"Cough! Cough!" Layfon's body suddenly convulsed and he coughed blood onto the ground.

"Huh!?" Nina quickly looked down with worry when he continued convulsing. "Aaahhh! Blood! He's vomiting blood!" She looked around in panic in search of medical students. "Stretcher! Get a stretcher over!"

"R-Right! Stretchers immediately!" The medical students jumped into action and quickly placed Layfon on a stretcher, whisking him away to a hospital.

"Rest on this stretcher! Quickly!" One of the students guided me to a vacant one and lowered me gently onto the cloth before waving over another medic to help out. "This one isn't suffering as badly but we need to hurry to the hospital. The particles from outside the city probably contaminated her lungs much like Layfon's. Let's hurry."

At the hospital...

"How's his pulse coming along?"

"The patient looks to be in stable condition."

"Good. Keep a close eye on him for the rest of the week and he should make a speedy recovery."

"Yes! Doctor!"

"Keep up the good work, Nurse."

So noisy...Layfon thought, flickering between consciousness and unconsciousness. Oh right, I have to write a letter back to Leerin before I forget. I'll tell her everything that's happened up to now...but until I do...Losing the thought, he fell back into a slumber.

"Oh? It looks like he's sound asleep Doctor." The nurse spoke in a whisper when she noticed the slight rising and falling of his chest.

"Then we shouldn't worry too much about him, let's leave him alone for now." There was a shuffling of paper and the sound of the door opening and closing slightly. "How is our other patient?"

"Surprisingly her condition is slightly better than the boy's but..." The nurse's voice was filled with surprise as she looked at the sheets of paper on her clipboard. "We've ran test data countless times but we haven't figured out why that is. In theory, those of us who went to the outside world without a protection suit usually don't have conditions such as these. I would think that she's an abnormal one."

"Hmm..." The doctor paused to stroke his beard in thought, his eyes darting back and forth from behind his glasses. "That's quite intriguing..."

"Currently we are making sure she doesn't have anymore contaminated air in her lungs." The nurse continued her report. "Once that's finished she'll be in the green and perhaps ready for further battles in the future. But there's one thing I don't understand..." The nurse looked at him in confusion as if she had been wondering about something for awhile. "When I tried to get the patient's eye-patch off, something about it didn't feel right. I felt as though something bigger than what we know lies hidden underneath that cloth. It gave me goosebumps and the hairs on the back of my neck and arms stood up straight. It wasn't normal by any means."

"...Could it possibly some hidden power that we can't harness yet?" The man mused to himself, scratching his chin as he thought about it some more. "Or is it something so powerful that it manifested itself into the child to keep it safe from someone else's gain?"

"Possibly sir. None of the other nurses wishes to remove the cloth so we kind of left it alone." The nurse answered. "They start to fidget as if someone or something was watching them so they try to avoid her at all cost. What do you recommend we do?"

"If things continue like this, we will not be able to keep an eye on our patient and as doctors it is our duty to put the patient's life before everything else." The doctor nodded his head with agreement before turning to his assistant. "Nurse, continue your observation and give me a full report by tomorrow morning. Do not leave out any details if something strange occurs but please, be careful."

"Yes Doctor."