Chapter 22 : Mainly scary.
The innocent one's hand grips his hand like a lifeline, even as the blood pools under her, her vibrant green eyes glassy, the ghost of a shaky smile on her lips as she mutters her last words.
"I'm sorry…"
His vision turns black, thunder roars in his ears, and maddened voices hisses and screams about vengeance in his mind.
The heartbroken warrior howl in anger, and-
Hyoudou Issei snaps awake, his eyes landing on an unfamiliar ceiling, memories rushing him like water through a broken dam.
He doesn't even register the fact that he has already thrown the comforter and bed sheets off, his sole focus on one unique thing.
He needs to see her, he needs to know what happened, he needs to-
"Easy there, Hyoudou-kun. The battle is over. We won." A smooth, feminine voice interjects, a hand pushing him back down with startling ease, "Stay still, you shouldn't move so soon."
His head snaps toward the speaker, his mind only very distantly registering the third Hime's figure, shoulder-length bubblegum hair framing her visage as she leans over his struggling form, her hand still pinning him in the bed.
"L-Let me go!" The teen struggles harder, alas his Pawn empowered body fails to move the maybe-a-Mahou-Shoujo one lick, "I need to see her!"
Amber eyes lock into his own, the Hime's eyebrow imperiously arched.
"If you're speaking about Asia-chan-" The Hime starts.
"Yes! I need to-" He snaps.
It happens faster than he can blink.
One instant he is struggling against the bubblegum haired girl's grip, the next he is clutching at his forehead and wincing.
"Ow!" He yelps.
Did she just flick me in the forehead?! The teen internally boggles.
"Let me finish." The Hime insists, her tone stern and brokering no arguments, her eyes squinted, "I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
"Why?!" Issei snaps, because he needs to know if she's alright, or- or-
"Calm down, Hyoudou-kun." The bubblegum haired girl demands, "Let. Me. Finish."
The two teens keep staring at each other for a while longer, until Issei ultimately wises up and realizes that he won't make the vastly stronger girl budge.
Physically and verbally.
The teenage boy slumps back in his bed, but not before giving the Hime a furious glare.
"... You successfully brought Argento-san in time for Gremory-san to be able to piece her." The Hime preludes, "But she still hasn't recovered from her injuries."
"Then why-"
"Do you recall how Devils heal each other?" The amber-eyed girl asks, an eyebrow arched questioningly.
Issei pauses, then recalls his own brush with death, then the morning after, then blushes.
"I see that you're now getting my point. Both the Queen and Rook of your peerage are currently attending to Argento-san's needs at the moment. And while Himejima-san probably won't give a damn if she happens to give you a show, I really don't think it'll be the case for Toujo-chan, hmm?" The Hime tells him pointedly.
"Y-Yeah, I get it!" He blurts out quickly, the fight finally leaving him, "S-So, Asia-chan's alright?"
"She should be, for a certain definition of the term." The bubblegum haired girl ends up saying after mulling her words for a couple of seconds while leaning away from him, her back meeting the back of a chair and crossing her arms under her impressive chest, "The poor girl still died and got turned into a Devil. Things won't be easy for her. She'll probably need a period of adjustment to acclimate herself, especially considering that she is a fervent Catholic."
Issei winces at that, before looking away.
"I-I didn't know what to do, I panicked, there was so much blood, and then- then- the voices, they were yelling, and-"
His head snaps back to the Hime, Linlin-san, a half-formed memory jumping at the forefront of his mind.
"Did you really knock me out with a backhand?!" He asks, befuddled.
Because that's the kind of shit you only see in anime!
The girl blinks, before snorting, a gesture echoed by the dragon - familiar? golem? - laying across her shoulders that the teen only now notices.
Actually, did her plushie always look so… real? The teen asks himself curiously.
"Yes, yes I did." Linlin-san answers amusedly, "There's no way to say this without making it any less frightening, so I'm going to be blatantly honest here. If I hadn't done that, you would have died."
For a beat, you could hear a pin drop in the room as Issei processes the bubblegum haired girl's words.
"W-What?!" He ends up squeaking out, wide eyed.
"I think it's easier if I just show you. One moment." Linlin-san settles on saying, an index raised in the air while she bends slightly over and to the side to fetch something, only to straighten while holding a pocket-mirror that she unceremoniously snaps open before turning it the teen's way.
At first, Issei doesn't understand what he is supposed to see, and it's only after the amber-eyed girl jostles the mirror a couple of times in his direction that he takes it for himself, giving the Hime a confused look.
"Your hair, Hyoudou-kun." The bubblegum haired girl informs him patiently, her eyes eerily locked in his own.
It takes the teen a second to angle the mirror the correct way only for him to pause, hard.
Slowly, his free hand comes to probe, a bit shakily at the white bang covering his right temple amid his brunette hair in baffled confusion and a no small amount of fright.
"Wha…" He mumbles.
"Le syndrôme de Marie-Antoinette."Marie-Antoinette's syndrom. The french girl explains, gesturing at his temple, "An admittedly rare phenomenon where someone's hair whitens on their own for good because their body undergoes an extreme amount of stress.
"When you witnessed Argento-san's demise, something broke in here." She points at his torso, and Issei squirms a little in discomfort, images he'd rather forgot flashing through his mind, "Intense emotions can sometimes be the trigger a Sacred Gear needs to evolve, their owner obtaining what's colloquially known as a Balance Breaker.
"That's what happened to you. You unlocked your Balance Breaker, but it was extremely unstable, making you nearly mindless. You were in some kind of berserker's state when I knocked you out. And good thing I did, because it was doing a number on your body. I managed to patch things up somewhat, except for the white hair." Linlin-san elaborates further.
"... Thanks, I guess?" Issei ends up saying after a beat, one hand coming mechanically to play with his white lock, not really understanding everything the Hime said.
"I think the boy doesn't get it." Linlin-san's familiar/golem/whatever squeaks out in his admittedly goofily high-pitched voice.
"I've gathered." The bubblegum haired woman huffs, before shaking her head and spear the teen with a look, "You were consuming your own body to maintain your Balance Breaker, Hyoudou-kun. Even if it could have granted you the strength needed to fight the Fallen Angels responsible for this whole mess, you very narrowly avoided dying earlier today."
Issei instantly stops playing with the - kinda cool - white lock, freezing at Linlin-san's words.
Then, the teen starts shaking as the implications catch on him.
"Eh, eh, none of that." A steady, reassuring hand lands atop his shoulder, and Issei locks eyes with Linlin-san once again, "I told you, didn't I? I fixed it. Even now, your Sacred Gear is steadily feeding you some life-force, hence why you don't even have a scratch."
Issei blinks, before looking at his left arm as if only now realizing its pristine state.
The teen inhales, then slowly exhales, the shaking slowly receding.
"... Then it's fine." He mumbles, slowly clenching his fists, the pocket-mirror long discarded next to him on the bed, "I saved Asia-chan. I'm alive. It's fine"
A pause.
Unprompted, Linlin-san snorts ruefully, a lopsided grin distorting her lips.
"Sure, that's a way to see it." She grins, before pointing a finger in Issei's general direction, "Though we still have to ascertain how your Sacred Gear changed in this whole mess' wake."
Once again, Issei winces, one of his hands coming to awkwardly rub at the back of his head.
"Erh… Buchou and the others… They said that my Sacred Gear didn't do much, or that they didn't know what it did?" He fumbles through an explanation, feeling self-conscious next to the confident and capable Hime.
"Well, there's no time like the present to ascertain if it's still the case, isn't it?" Linlin-san answers easily, jerking her head in his direction, "Go on, give it a shot."
The teen slowly nods, not feeling very confident at the moment after the latest revelation.
Focusing inward, Issei quickly locates the mental button that he needs to push.
The effect is instantaneous, and his limbs suddenly feel both heavier and stronger at the same time.
The teen dips his head, his eyes landing on a pair of gray, scaled unadorned gauntlets over his arms.
"Is that it, Hyoudou-kun?" The Hime asks.
"Not quite, I…" Issei answers, his brows furrowed, a clawed hand reaching for the comforter and bedsheets to jostle them away from his legs, revealing a greave of similar make on his right leg - the sole currently visible.
"Arms and legs?" The bubblegum haired girl presses, and Issei turns his head back her way to nod in assent, "Do you feel any different?"
"... Stronger, but at the same time…" He moves his arms this way and that, clenching his armor clad fists a couple times, "Slower?" He ends up saying, tilting his head in confusion.
"He feels like a fledgling Middle-Class." The goofy dragon squeaks out, one half-lidded gem-like eye peering lazily back at him.
"And before?" Linlin-san asks, turning her head to look at her companion.
"... Low-Class. Very Low-Class." The familiar squeak-grunts and Issei feels like an arrow just went through his heart, "The boy will have to put in the work if he wants to go anywhere."
"Hmm, a full class jump is still nothing to scoff at." The amber-eyed girl hums consideringly.
"It probably won't be as impressive when he reaches High-Class." The golem squeaks, tilting his reptilian muzzle this way and that, "Though what I felt from his Balance Breaker has some potential. As long as he works on it."
"Maybe, but I'm not about to ask him," She turns back to Issei, "To ask you to try it right now. It seems to work, and that's enough for now. I'll ask your King to give me a ring in a couple of days when you're back on your feet and not anxiously fretting over your 'little friend'."
She punctuates her sentence with a wink, making Issei's cheeks turn a little red at her implications, before smoothly standing up, holding her backpack with one hand.
"... The little nun seems to look up to you, for some reason." The Hime suddenly adds, almost like an afterthought.
Standing as she is, looming over him, Issei can't help but gulp a little.
"M-Maybe?" He squeaks out, feeling self-conscious and uncomfortable all of a sudden.
"She's going to need someone ready to give her a shoulder to lean on in the coming days. The transition is going to be… Jarring for her, to say the least. So, if you want to repay me for the help I've given you…"
The bubblegum haired girl's looming seems to intensify, and Issei feels like she is the only thing he can focus on in the room.
"Y-Yes?" He whispers, unconsciously leaning away from the Hime.
"Then you'll be her rock, her anchor, in those troubled times. Is that understood?" The amber-eyed girl demands, eyes wide open, staring straight into the teen's soul.
There's only one thing Issei can do.
He wordlessly nods his head as frantically as he can, almost getting a crick in the neck for his effort.
"Hai, Hime-sama!" He blurts out.
The french girl maintains her pose for a second, before suddenly straightening away.
"Good boy." She tells him imperiously, the corner of her lips curled up, before about facing in the door's direction, "We'll be in touch, Hyoudou-kun. And no Balance Breaker before I get a look!"
As the door closes behind the larger than life girl, Issei can only slumps back in his bed with a groan.
He doesn't know if it's the case with every foreign girl, but the teen finds the third Hime kind of scary.
… And hot, too. But mainly scary.
[AN: Writing a panicking, over-his-head character is actually sort of difficult, who knew?
Hope you enjoy, xoxo!]