Standing in the hallways of a hospital, I leaned back on the steel railings as I looked through the windows to Theresa's room.
In that room, she laid on the bed with IV drips attached to her. An oxygen mask also laid on her face, helping her breath.
"Gojo! Is she okay?"
Kiana's loud voice immediately pierced through the silence of the hospital, her frantic footsteps audible from far away.
Behind her, Bronya and Mei hurriedly followed. It seemed like Herrscher Mei had given control back by now, probably since she'd been hogging the body for quite a while. Their expressions also contained hints of uncertainty and worry about the situation.
It was when Kiana finally arrived in front of me that I could not help but sigh.
"No. I think she's fucking dead."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Yeah… I kinda thought that joke was a bit too much too after I said it…
"Sorry."
I pushed myself off the wall as their glares poked at me a bit.
"She seems ok. She's not getting worse but she's not getting better either." I said as I got closer to the window to look at Theresa. "I think she's in a bit of a coma right now."
"Coma?" Kiana repeated after me in surprise. "So is she gonna be like, asleep forever? Then we'll need to talk to her from the bedside, and then she can hear us, but she'll never be able to-"
"Kiana. Breathe."
At that, she froze and took a deep breath. After she was done, she was remarkably more calm.
"Ah thank you…"
"No prob." I patted her on the shoulder. "But let's talk outside."
Several nods came in response to that. And thus, we went outside. A brief explanation from me was all it took to bring them up to speed on the current situation.
"The principal was in critical condition but condition has stablised due to antitoxins for now?"
Bronya's words were phrased as if it was a question, but it was pretty much a summary of the whole situation.
"Yup. Pretty much."
"That means she's okay right?" Hope glittered in Kiana's eyes. "She just needs to rest for a bit and then she'll be ok soon!"
"Well… not really."
"?"
"Kiana…" Mei spoke up softly. "I think what Gojo is saying is that we don't know when she's going to wake up, right?"
I nodded.
The situation wasn't as bad as Cocolia had pretended it to be. While the toxins were potent, it wasn't like the pseudo Herrscher had actually stabbed her in the chest and then pumped a truck load of poison into her or something.
Now if that happened, I think this whole scene would be quite a bit different.
Luckily, it was just the stuff that Cocolia managed to get her hands on. It wasn't a small amount, but it wasn't a catastrophic one either.
At that, realisation dawned on her face.
"So she's comatose? But isn't that pretty much dying already?"
"Kiana. Probability of the principal waking up is likely a non-zero percentage."
There was a hint of surprise on my face for a moment as I heard Bronya's words.
Was she… comforting her?
Ah…
Why should I be surprised by this?
I always knew that their relationship wasn't as harsh as seen on the surface. It was just how they got along normally.
"O-oh. That's good." Kiana sighed a breath of relief. "At… least she can wake up…"
"Don't worry alright. We'll find a way to wake her up." I told her nonchalantly. "She'll just need to sleep for a bit."
I suppose… I could find some way to adapt up a healing ability. RCT unfortunately doesn't exist in this world so I have to come up with it from scratch.
While I do feel like other things were more important to train since I had my own healing factor, I guess it would be fine to help out Theresa.
She would likely become an ally in the future after all…
Plus, I guess she was Kiana's relative as well…
I turned around and with closed eyes, I called out.
"C'mon guys. Let's go back first."
I should start coming up-
"Hey. Why do you guys look so down?"
?
I opened my eyes and then…
"What the fuck? Ghost?"/"What the fuck? Ghost?"
"What? Ghost? Where?!!"
Our screams rang out in the clearing as Kiana and I jumped back and huddled together.
In the meantime, this person in front of us seemed shaken by it too as her face turned as pale as snow.
I ignored it though. After all, how the fuck could Theresa here in front of us right now? Wasn't she still in a coma or something???
No way she literally just recovered while we were doing all that serious talky stuff!
"Who are you?!" Kiana shouted out with a trembling voice.
"Are you here to do some funny business to us?" I asked with gritted teeth.
And as for the ghost's response…
"Wh-where is it?" She asked shakily. "Who are you talking about?"
In the meantime, Bronya and Mei, in spite of the shock in their eyes, could not help but shake their heads and sighed.
"Sister Mei. Are those two stupid?"
"... No comment."
—---------------------------
"You're fine?"
Confusion was clear on my face as Theresa was getting a checkup on the medical Valkyries.
She tried to pump up her biceps and gave a bright smile.
"Yup. I feel as good as new!"
"Huh. I guess that's good."
"Are you sure you didn't become a vampire or something and gained super healing? Maybe you're just leading us along before you suck us dry!!!"
Kiana's accusation rang harshly. Her finger was pointed towards Theresa rudely but she didn't seem to care.
"Of blood?" I asked amusedly.
"Of course. What did you think it would be huh?" Kiana smiled mischievously. "You weren't thinking of something perverted were you, Gojo?"
"No. I'm just shocked that you'd say this here." I pointed at Theresa. "In front of her."
"Eh?"
It seems like Kiana.exe has crashed.
But then, it seems like a quick reboot came online as she cleared out her throat and then whistled innocently.
"Nice weather today, yeah?
"Yeah. Just a cloudy day. Absolutely something that we'd call good weather."
"Well, it's good weather for me! Have a problem with that?"
I just gave a cheeky shrug, causing Kiana to puff out her cheeks.
Then, I returned my attention to a smiling Theresa.
"What? Why are you smiling?" I asked.
"I think you guys are kinda funny."
She immediately admitted with no hesitation.
"Hear that Kiana? I think we can do a comedy show together." I laughed. But before Kiana could reply, I had already asked the next question.
"What happened though? How did you heal so quickly?"
"Ah. About that…"
A hint of confusion appeared on Theresa's face.
"I think that I saw something pink?"
Oh?
"Yeah." She confirmed to herself. "I think I saw pink bunny ears. Then after that, I was as good as new!"
Hearing her words, there was realistically one thing I could say to her.
"...Are you sure you weren't hallucinating?"
—------------------------
With a small stretch, I stepped onto the cold pavement on the street while humming a song.
"Something something something something, bunny girl."
What?
I don't know the lyrics to the song okay. I just know the words bunny girl.
But anyways.
Things were nice and all about Theresa's recovery, but I felt that there were things left undone.
That bunny girl… what were the chances that it was the Herrscher-like figure that the other Mei talked about?
I'm guessing more or less a hundred percent chance.
…
Just kidding. But in all seriousness, I did feel that it was a pretty high chance.
After all, pretty much all of the people who could do things like sneaking in and doing supernatural stuff with Honkai like this were Herrschers thus far…
The humans…
Well they were more of stat sticks without their weapons rather than anything else from what I saw.
Maybe that would change in the future, but I don't have enough info now.
But the question now is…
Why?
And what was that person's goal?
I suppose I need to spend more time with Theresa to see if there was anything wrong with her.
It wouldn't be good if our ally suddenly had some sort of body takeover.
Oh well.
The sun was setting.
I wanna get back home before the others did dinner.
There was still a pseudo Herrscher on the loose after all.
(A/N: Please give powerstones if you liked the chapter guys. Please comment and review as well!)