A/N: Chapter 5 of Eighty-Six. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters except my own OC. Chrome Shelled Regios belongs to the rightful owner.
Special thanks to the reviewer and to the readers who Fav/Alert this story, I really appreciate it.
Chapter 5: Back on my feet
The next morning...
Sunlight shot through the blinds, rousing me from my sleep. I thought I had a dream but I couldn't quite remember what it was about. Looking around I noticed I was in the infirmary at school and I was wearing one of those hospital gowns which told me I was transferred back to school. Sitting up I tried to remember the events happened, rubbing the sleepiness from my eyes.
Layfon and I...we were fighting...The outside world and Filth Monsters...ugh...I racked my brain some more when the bell rang. "Oh shit! I'm late to class!" Throwing the covers off I scrambled to change outfits. Articles of clothing flew all over the place as I put my bottoms on first, moving faster than I ever had my whole life. "This is bad, this is bad, this is bad!"
"Whoa, calm down there." Nina's voice reached my ears, a shirt barely half way over my head. After I finished dressing I noticed my captain leaning against the door frame with a grin on her face. "I already talked with your professors so you'll be excused a little longer."
"B-B-But..."
"Come on now, don't give me that look." She walked over and rested her hands on my shoulders, giving me a once over. "You look fine on the outside but you need to let what's on the inside recover. You did use up a lot of energy back there so the level of your kei is below the approval line."
"Hey! Rias!" I looked over to see Harley sauntering up, a goofy grin upon his face. "Glad to see you already walking around!"
"Harley..."
"Man you were out like a light." He chuckled as my cheeks puffed out into a pout. "Even Layfon couldn't be roused when he was asleep, he was a lump on a log. Felli tried and failed. Sharnid tried and failed. We all failed!"
"Didn't you mention about today being busy for you?" Nina interrupted, giving he a small glare.
"U-U-Uh yeah! I did!" He scratched the back of his neck nervously and high-tailed it out of there, wishing me a speedy recovery. "I can't wait to see you back on the field!"
"Heh, that Harley." I laughed.
"Now then...since you are excused for the day from class doesn't mean you're excused from cleaning duty!"
"Excuse me?" I blinked and looked at Nina with my mouth open.
"Don't tell me you forgot?" She narrowed her eyes a bit, threatening me to deny it. "This is punishment for yesterday after the fight."
"Of course you'd bring that back up..." I mumbled as I remembered the incident between her and Layfon. The image of their predicament was lodged in my mind and I let out a chuckle. "I should've known..."
"So clean that mind of yours and get to it!" She ushered me out the door and yelled, "And I order you to not come to the meeting later today! You have to wash the department all over till it's sparkling clean!"
"Okay okay! Quit rushing me!" I yelled back and hurried on my way.
Student Council room...
"You wished to see me sir?"
"Oh you are right on time, Alseif-kun." Kalian turned to see Layfon at the door. "Have a seat."
"Thank you very much." Layfon chose a spot on the couch, setting his bag down right beside him. "I heard you wanted to tell me something urgent?"
"Ah yes, please take a look at this if you will. I had a chat with the police department hence I wasn't around for a while." He slid a picture across the table. "I figured we have to keep an eye on the situation outside the city as well as on the inside. A drone was sent out for an experiment so the point photographed is about 500km in the direction this city is heading."
"Brother, who was at the door?" Felli called as she walked out of the kitchen. "Hmmm? FonFon?" Cleaning up quickly she made herself comfortable on Layfon's side. "What's that?"
"Hmmm...I think it is just what you're assuming." Layfon spoke as he placed the item down. "It's a Filth Monster in its baby stage."
"Huh?" Felli stared at the picture again. "A baby Filth Monster?"
"The Alchemy Studies department checked up on my kei for this specific purpose right?" Layfon directed his attention to Kalian.
"It's really a great help that you can guess matters well." The president nodded his head in agreement. "Oh, I'm not being sarcastic here by any means. This is pure appraisal."
"Brother. Are you trying to make use of him again?" Felli asked, anger rising in her voice as she glared at him.
"Zuellni has been a peaceful city until now. But somehow, it's now trying to encounter Filth Monsters one after the other. I don't know why but it is clear that we have no other means of survival other than relying on him..." Kalian paused before looking at his guest. "Sorry...not just him. That girl is also something spectacular and possibly one of the better chances. I think Zuellni is fortunate to have her."
"What is it about her that intrigues you?" Felli asked. "Aside from the fact that she can't wield weapons like us?"
"She may not be able to wield Dites like us but..." Kalian stared out the window with a calm expression. "She has another weapon that we can't possibly imagine wielding. Unfortunately not much is known about her upbringing nor her powers so I need to keep a close eye on her."
BRIIIIIIING~
"Oh! That must be your cue, Alseif-kun." The president smiled. "I shouldn't take precious time out of your training regiment."
"O-Of course, Sir!" He hastily grabbed his bag and was escorted to the door by Felli. "Then I'll be off!" As he disappeared to the training room, Felli gave her brother one last glance before departing as well. There were things she wanted to talk to her brother about but she just didn't have the time.
Training grounds...
There was still light outside by the time I was done with my job cleaning the machinery department floors. My coworkers greeted me, congratulated me on helping saving the city before walking off, leaving me to myself. Zuellni showed up like she normally does, giving me her usual greeting and watched me work until it was time for me to head out. I waved goodbye to the spirit, cursing at the aches and pains my body exhibited from scrubbing the tiles.
"Another tiring day...but it feels like I haven't accomplished anything..." I whined to myself on the way back to the dorms. I could already picture a warm bath, some good food and most of all, sleeping in my cozy bed instead of the rock-hard hospital beds. "Now that sounds like heaven." Turning my head I noticed the empty training area and a thought went off like a light bulb. Checking the time on my phone I made a small detour before entering the training space.
Hmmmm...I didn't get much done since I was in the hospital and Captain made me wash all day...All this pent up energy needs to be released and what better way than training! Putting my bag down near the benches I changed into clothes more suited for work out. I dragged out a large practice dummy and positioned it so it had its back facing the wooded areas. A quick warming up of the muscles and I soon found myself standing eager and ready to begin.
"Restoration." I held one of the training Dites in my hand. The training shed was full of those things so I picked one up just for fun. Nothing happened. "Of course this wouldn't work, I knew that already." I tossed the weapon aside with a huff, hearing it hit the ground with a dull thud. With my right hand I removed my eye patch and held the cloth in my hand. I felt the energy wash over me and took a deep breath. It's all about restrain and control. My arms were the next to change and I stared at the black scales, the ivory claws and the silver gauntlets. Curling my fingers into fists I started throwing punches into the dummy.
Hmmm...my attacks are getting sluggish and sloppy. I noted, going over the tips and pointers from Nina's lecture. Did me over using my energy make my body weak? I threw some more, imagining my target standing before me. Sweat rolled down the side of my face and I wiped them away. Strange, I shouldn't be this fatigued...Even after sleeping why the hell do I feel so tired?
Feeling frustration building up within me I channeled as much energy as I could muster into my right hand and lunged forward. "Flame Styker!" My fist struck the dummy in the chest area, resulting in an explosion and a plume of smoke to rise into the air. I stood, kneeling on my knees to catch my breath and watched the destroyed dummy fall to the ground. Smoke was still rising from the charred body. Well! I'm glad to see that I still got that move down!
"What do you think you're doing?" A voice spoke up behind me. "With a flashy move like that I'm surprise no one came running..."
"Eek!" I was so engrossed with my training I didn't notice her presence. Covering up my nonhuman eye with my hand I turned to greet Felli. "Oh it's you, I thought it was -"
"Nina? She's busy."
"I see..." It was rare for me to talk to Felli, I think the only times when she actually talked to me was after we won a match and leading me to Layfon during the attack. "Well...I need to go back to training. I'm surprisingly weak at the moment...ahahaha."
"Halt." Her voice stopped me. "Remove your hand."
"I-I..." Crap, if she sees this eye she'll tell the others and it's bad enough that they're already used to my arms. I started to sweat, unsure of how the girl would react and truthfully I really don't want to find out. "Y-You don't want me to do that..."
"And why not?" Her voice had a hint of curiosity and she took a step forward. I took a step back, noting the twitch of her eyebrow. "What's so secretive about it?"
"I can't tell you!"
"Why can't you?"
"I just can't!"
"What kind of answer is that? The more you resist the more I want to know." She cornered me until I had no where left to run. Not wasting any more time she knocked me to the ground, straddling my hips so I couldn't move. "Now you can't go anywhere."
"W-W-Wait!" I watched as she peeled her hand from my face and pinned both of my arms above my head. Silence washed over us as she continued staring at my eye now. My heart hammered loudly within my chest as I tried to read the emotions racing through her storm-grey eyes. Funny how she is normally emotionless around us but now that it's just the two of us and given how close our bodies were touching, she's just filled to the brim with emotions.
"Did it hurt?" She finally asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"No..." I answered back. "I've had this eye for as long as I could remember. But there are a few blank spots that I don't recall...such as how I received it..."
"But it gives you your transformation ability right?" She slowly reached up to touch my face, her fingers lightly tracing around my eye in a gentle way. Never before had I ever allowed someone to get close to it but here I allowed her to almost touch it. It was a first for me. "I sense...so much power coming from here. Is that why you cover it with that cloth?"
"Yeah, the cloth limits how much power can be released." I sat up, resting my back against a tree with the girl still sitting in my lap. I took a deep breath and sighed. "Something feels off..."
"Were your lungs damaged while you were outside?" asked Felli. "I thought I told you, 5 minutes was your limit."
"No it's not that..." I shook my head and pointed to my eye with a finger. "It's this...it pulses when something irritates it but..."
"Are you undergoing some kind of changes?" She asked me. "Or perhaps you're still tired."
"There you two are!" Layfon's voice called out to us and we looked to see the guy standing with his hand raised. "What are you guys doing? I called both of your cellphones but there was no answer."
"He called?" I whispered. "Why didn't you say anything? Couldn't you hear him through your telepathic...petal things?"
"I blocked him out...what's your excuse?"
"My phone's in my bag but I have it on vibrate. Didn't want to get distracted during class." The two of us laughed to ourselves.
"Well then, I best be going. We're still gonna discuss some more later. Just the two of us." Felli whispered in my ear and slowly stood up. She had sensed Layfon coming so she covered my eye with her hand when he approached, shielding it from view. She walked passed Layfon, gave him a small greeting and disappeared.
"Didn't know you and Felli were close..." He noted after I secured the cloth over my eye. "Well...closer than normal in this case."
"She just happened to see me train and gave me pointers. Can't just rely on our leader for help, I want to learn all that I can." I replied before looking at him. "What have you been up to? How was the meeting?"
"Well aside from class, which I assumed the captain vouched for you since you didn't show, I got a letter from Leerin."
"Who?"
"Leerin Marfes, a good friend of mine from Grendan. I wrote to her the moment I arrived at this school during my down time." He grinned broadly. "I've been waiting a long to receive something from her. The captain came in to cancel our training so I just ended up spending time talking to Harley. And then the Student Council President called me in right after my class and rambled about important matters."
"Important matters?"
"To be honest I may have zoned out...he really loves to talk." Layfon laughed although the smile upon his face seemed force. "Something about Filth monsters entering the city...yadda yadda yadda..."
Why is it that he's somehow covering up more than what he's telling me? I stared at him silently. I should probably pay the Student Council president a visit when I get the chance...
"But besides that, why don't we train together? You wouldn't get much out of a dummy like that."
"Huh? You sure?" I asked, noting the change immediately. "You didn't walk away without injuries yourself."
"I'll be fine." He assured me and got into a fighting stance, gesturing for me to do the same. "This can just be a sparring match." Shrugging my shoulders I decided to take me up on his offer and sparred til the sun disappeared.