The woman now identified as Koln was unconscious and lying on her side. She held a small blue cube, seemingly made of glass, to her chest. There weren't any visible wounds or signs of injury. But her breathing was off and her skin was incredibly pale. One could practically hear her lungs rattle. Reaching into the dumpster Jaune carefully picked her up.
"Hey Sims, can you get the others? I need to use my semblance and I'll probably pass out like the other times."
Sims hesitated for a moment before nodding and rushing back inside. Taking a moment to crouch down onto his knees in case he passed out again, he didn't have the best track record so far. Juane took a deep breath and began to channel his semblance.
Just like the other times he did this the effect was instant but slow. Koln was covered in a soft golden light and her breathing steadied. But the same as all other times Jaune had used his semblance he soon lost control. Unable to stop the healing process and with the pain soon to come Jaune mentally prepared himself as best he could.
It wasn't till the golden light of his semblance reached the cube clutched to Koln's chest that the pain began. Sharp and instant Jaune could only describe it like scalpels cutting up every part of his body. From his internals to his skin, the feeling of the knives made themselves known. Just like all the times before the pain proved to be too much for Jaune and the sweet embrace of unconsciousness claimed him just as a bright flash of gold filled his fading vision.
Consciousness came slowly back to Jaune starting first with the faint beeping of medical machines. Then the sterile smell of a hospital filtered into his nose. Finally opening his eyes Jaune took in his surroundings. He was indeed in a hospital room. Probably in Vale General Hospital. The room like most hospital rooms in Vale was well equipped to handle visitors for the patient staying in said room. There was a small couch off to the right of the bed tucked against the wall. There were also two chairs in the room, one on either side of the bed.
It was the occupants of said furniture that really grabbed his attention. On the couch sat Sims and Enterprise. The two of them lightly dozing. In the chair to his right sat Melanie, tapping away at some scroll game. To his left was Militia also on her scroll but she was watching a video instead of playing a game. Junior, Tirpitz, and Koln were all nowhere to be seen.
Turning towards Militia Jaune tapped her arm lightly before asking, "Hey what did I miss?"
Jumping slightly at the unexpected touch Militia quickly regained her composure, "Well you passed out again dummy and we had to bring you to the hospital. Do you pass out everytime you use your semblance or something?" The exasperation in her tone was evident as she put her scroll away.
"Yeah seriously. From what the others tell us it happens every time you use it." Melanie spoke up as she too put away her scroll.
Jaune grumbled at the criticism for a moment before answering, "It's just with major injuries as far as I can tell. After all, I healed your hand without issues. This has happened before anyway. You could have just brought me back to the club."
Melanie just shrugged, "Well you worried us so, suffer." At that all Jaune could do was sigh in defeat. He had dealt with the twins enough to know that if they were worried about him then it was best to just go along with whatever they came up with to make their worries go away. This time it seemed that a hospital visit was the solution. It honestly wouldn't have been the first time either. He got hurt a lot when he was younger. The fact that the twins were somehow involved in most of those incidents would be left unsaid.
Deciding to move on, Jaune asked his next question, "Where is everyone else?"
It was Militia who answered, "Junior took the others back home to get them settled in. By the way, you may have brought someone back from the dead."
"I what?" the confusion that Jaune felt at her statement plain to all.
A new voice spoke up from the couch this time, "Actually I think I should explain this one if that's alright?" Enterprise had apparently woken up as had Sims the two of them standing by his bed now. The twins just shrugged and gave nods of conformation for her to go ahead.
"Its not actually bringing someone back for the dead in the same sense as normal. It's more akin to raising a ship from the ocean floor."
"What do you mean?" Jaune interrupted, now even more confused.
"When you first started learning about kansen, do you remember how we talked about what exactly Wisdom Cubes mean to us with Tirpitz?"
Jaune nodded slowly, " I remember most of that conversation but to be honest I was still adjusting to… everything." He drifted off toward the end. Truth be told he was still adjusting even after just over a month later.
Enterprise nodded, "That's fine we'll go over all of that later but I want to talk about one aspect in particular. We as Kansen don't have bodies made up of flesh and bone. Rather we are made up of Wisdom Cubes that mimic flesh. However instead of a heart we have one main Cube that acts as the heart. It contains the individual essentially. So long as that Cube remains undamaged technically any of us Kansen can "come back" from the dead."
Jaune still couldn't quite wrap his head around it, "Can you clarify it a bit more I'm still having trouble understanding."
After a moment, Enterprise spoke back up, "Do you know how a keel holds together the entire ship?" Jaune nodded yes before Enterprise continued her explanation.
"Think of the Main Wisdom Cube like that. So long as the keel remains undamaged then the ship can still be repaired. It may require a massive amount of effort to rebuild and repair but the concept applies to the Main Wisdom Cube that acts as our heart. If it remains undamaged we technically aren't dead just… dormant I guess would be the term."
Jaune answered slowly, "I guess that makes some sense but I'll need some time to process all of that." Taking an extra moment to think he also asked, "By the way how do you know all this?"
At this an embarrassed look appeared on Enterprise's face accompanied by a light blush. "Well I spent a lot of time in dock for repairs with Vestal, one of the repair Kansen and she had a lot to say to me about the damage I tend to take in my engagements. The possibility of my sinking may have come up." After finishing her explanation Enterprise shifted uncomfortably clearly wanting to move on.
"Well that's like a thing and all but I'm ready to get out of here and go home. How about you Jaune?" Melanie asked, trying to get past the awkward mood that had developed.
Jaune shrugged, "Yeah it would be nice to get out of here, never really liked staying at hospitals overnight."
Thankfully the process to get checked out was fairly simple. After a quick check up and an assurance to the doctors that he was in fact fine Jaune was let out despite the desire of the hospital staff to keep him there for a few more days to make sure he was fine.
The drive home in the car was actually more exciting. With the twins arguing over who got to ride in the front seat and Sims slipping past them to take it for herself. Which started a whole new argument between the twins about whose fault it was before the driver, one of the goons from Juniors club herded them into the back clearly experienced in dealing with the twins' antics. The long suffering sigh he let out after getting them into the car earned him some sympathy from Jaune. The Twins really could be a handful.
Jaune climbed in the back followed by Enterprise before the driver closed the door and climbed into the driver's seat. They made a quick stop for gas before finally arriving at Junior's club and they all quickly exited the car and made their way upstairs towards the living quarters. Here Jaune finally got to meet Koln and the other Kansen that he had "brought back from the dead".
Before him stood Koln and one other Kansen. Koln had gray hair, wore red rimmed glasses, a small black cap with a golden eagle and white brim turned up, a long red coat that fell to her knees with golden lines running through the red and a white inner lining. She also wore a black cape that had red white and gold running along one edge of the cape. Her boots went up to mid thigh with small metal plates on the front and golden trim on the top. In her hands she held a clipboard that made her give off vibes of either an instructor or a secretary. Jaune honestly couldn't decide which one she reminded him of more.
Next to her stood another Kansen, one he hadn't met before and presumably was the recently "revived" Kansen. She wore silver rimmed round glasses, had white hair with two braids and a white black cloth holding part of her hair in a ponytail. She wore a maid uniform that didn't cover her shoulders, had detached sleeves and had a rather short skirt. At least shorter than the maids had back home. She also had black gloves that went halfway up her forearms and had two gold bands on them. She wore knee high socks with two blue bands on each and black shoes with low heels. All in all she looked like a maid.
Koln was the first to introduce herself. Stepping forward and offering her hand, "Hello I am Koln. Nice to finally meet you Jaune and thank you for healing my injuries." Her accent was the same as Tirpitz so Jaune figured that she must be an Iron Blood ship.
Jaune shook her hand before answering, "Nice to meet you as well Koln and I'm glad you are doing better"
Next the girl dressed as a maid stepped up and introduced herself with a curtsy, "I am Edinburgh. A maid in the Royal Navy and thank you for bringing me back." Edinburgh's accent was different than any Jaune had heard before but he didn't think it was a bad one.
"It's good to meet you as well. I… I don't really know how I brought you back but I'm glad you're here."
Edinburgh smiled while nodding before moving towards the coffee table that had a tea set sitting on it. Unfortunately she tripped over the corner of the couch and fell forward landing flat on her face. Jaune had moved to help but wasn't fast enough only able to help her up asking if she was okay.
"It's fine I'm just a little clumsy is all." The bashful way she said it was endearing in its own way. But before anything else could happen Junior made his appearance.
"Glad you could meet each other but I got some bad news for you Jaune."
"What is it?" Jaune asked. After all he couldn't think of what the bad news could possibly be.
"I just got off the phone with Beacon. Luckily I was able to come up with a story about your absence but you're going to need to go back and finish out the year before you can do anything else."
"Oh. Right. That. I guess that can be bad news yeah. Alright I'll go get ready then."
For the next few hours Jaune packed up what few clothes he had bought since arriving back in Vale and preparing dinner with Edinburgh. Everyone gathered around the table for dinner, and they ended up talking late into the night before Junior sent everyone off to bed quoting the fact that Jaune had to go back to Beacon in the morning as the reason for the night to end. Honestly Jaune just thought he was tired and didn't want to deal with the noise of eight people talking all night. Nevertheless, Jaune was grateful after all he was going to have a long day tomorrow.
Author's Note: Alright it has been a while. Sorry for long wait but I have been back and forth on this chapter for so long. The ending I feel is weak but if I didn't post it now the whole thing would be deleted and rewritten. Taking even more time to get published so yeah. Anyway, I was having trouble figuring out who I wanted to add but I made a list and just picked one. Good news I actually like the choice I made and have plans for Edinburgh to intergrate her into the story. But enough of that hopefully the next chapter won't take so long. I already have a few ideas I'm tossing around. So have a great day thank you for reading, and God Bless.