It's too bright.
Keeping her eyes shut only helped a tiny bit against the artificial lights that adorned the employee break room. Granted, her position on the couch was not helping, only her eyelids prevented the harsh fluorescents from hitting her corneas directly. Moving her neck wasn't even an option either, her entire body was too exhausted, ached too much for such a move currently.
Letting out a groan of discomfort, she spent the better part of the next two minutes trying to rotate her body in any sort of manner to avoid the blinding rays coming from above, but it was no use, her fatigued muscles just wouldn't budge at all. More importantly, she had no clue where she was at this point. From the blue light, it was obvious she was inside some sort of windowless building, or maybe just a room of that same regard. Her ears took forever to adjust back to reality after waking, and now there weren't even any auditory clues for her.
Ah, damnit, where even am I?
The air was slightly stale, but controlled be at a comfortable temperature and dry. Somehow she ended up inside a building without even knowing. Was this of her own accord, or did somebody pick her up and move her? In that case, she should be on guard, there's no telling what kind of horrors are promised from being taken by force.
Straining her muscles, she finally felt them come alive from their own personal slumber to shift her position a few centimeters of distance around. Her entire being still hurt like hell, but at least they were beginning to regain at least a modicum of strength again. Feeling helpless and incapacitated was very quickly becoming one of Kanashima's least favorite experiences, and especially within the past two weeks, it has happened far too much.
Her charcoal grey eyes were able to adjust next, the few centimeters she shifted really helped her with the amount of light hitting her retinas, making it actually bearable to open her optics to the rest of the room. The artificial illumination was still harsh, still causing an intensified headache just like the past few minutes of staring at it through eyelids, but it was a start.
It… looks kind of familiar.
On the direct opposite side of the room from the couch was a midsized holo projector box mounted on the wall. A couple of dark brown shelves sat against the wall under it, housing some weird rectangular boxes she'd never seen before. Either that, or immense brain fog was really disrupting her ability to think.
Off to one of the sides, a square table of similar construction to the console filled a little bit of the extra space, adorned with four chairs, one on each side. A rather simplistic glass vase sat with a singular fake flower in the middle of the table. Just like the contents of the rack under the holographic screen, she couldn't recall the classification of the object either. That one wasn't as surprising, she had never been one for flowers.
The other side of the holographic emitter housed a black fridge and a small kitchen bar area topped with a white stone. A few magnets and papers were attached to the front of the refrigerator, but from this distance and through the painful blue light, she couldn't make out any of the information. The microwave and sink presented itself quite normally at least, but there weren't any distinct features that gave her any sort of clue.
Am I in somebody's apartment? This couch is comfy…
Two footsteps rapidly approached the singular door of the small living area, pushing open the door and exploding into the rest of the room. Immediately honing in on Kanashima's downed body, the older woman crouched down to her eye level, studying her facial features. Reaching under her blanket, the muscular lady in front of her took her right hand into both of hers, clasped in front of her.
"Boss..?"
"You… Kanashima, you survived. I thought for sure- nevermind. I'm just so glad…"
The second set of footsteps stopped a little bit further away and off of one of the couch's diagonals. A thin and slender feminine body held the position, white opera gloves clasped in front of their hip. Their face was the biggest clue, the striking periwinkle eyes and a wide smile framed by straight hair of matching color cascading down both the front and back of the torso.
"Congratulations! I knew you could!"
"Cipher? What are you two doing here?"
"We? This is the coffee shop, I found you outside."
How did I get to the outside of the shop? I was in Vanity…
Before her recent hazy memories, the only thing she could recall was fighting those cops in the alley of Vanity, and then proceeding to pass out near three of those bodies. She was with somebody too, but he took off before she fully succumbed to slumber. Could he have, or did he come back for her? If so, why would he drop her off here specifically? This was a long way from Vanity to drop off some poor slum rat. Why not keep her where she belonged? Did Kailao somehow know that she had some sort of connection to this coffee shop?
It's kinda messed up… dropping an unconscious body at their work.
Another groan prefaced her next statement. So many more questions piled onto the burning pile in her head, she just had to start picking away at the hottest ones.
"I have… no idea how I got here."
"Hey, relax, it's okay. I'll answer your questions, you just need rest. Cipher said you're really injured."
Her boss's tattooed arm reached up and over her own head, the large hand patting the top of her black hair. Kanashima wanted to flinch away, retreat further back into the couch, but her pained muscles would not budge. Stroking her matted, blood stained, and no doubt dirty, hair, the tall woman gave a smaller, genuine smile to her. Her amber eyes filled with emotion, radiating warmth and comfort to anybody in the surroundings.
Wow, she's sweet…
"I'm sorry-"
"It's okay. Cipher, call Mahkai and Mirren, get their status. We'll get somebody here to at least help some of your injuries. How do you rate your pain?"
"Uh- like a lot? Like I just got stepped on by heavy boots for an hour."
Her boss's companion and helper pulled out his phone as he exited the room, the phone already ringing one of the names Serafin just rattled off. She watched him leave the room with just her eyes before returning the gaze back to the warm yellow eyes.
"Of course, I would be surprised if you weren't. On a scale from one through ten?"
Raising her right eyebrow, Kanashima continued to stare her gunmetal grey eyes at the older woman, adorning a few new shades of confusion. Her boss tilted her head for a moment, then nodded in understanding.
"Right. Like a ranking or level system. If you rate it a ten, it's the worst thing ever."
"Yeah, that."
I got really good at hiding that I'm in pain then, huh?
"Got it. We should take care of those clothes, you'll get sick if you stay in them. I can wash them in the shop, and we can get you some new ones in the meantime?"
Taking a couple glances around the garments clad around her body, what was originally beautiful white trims and accents were now maroon and heavy with dried liquid. Somehow, her face and hands were clean and free of any sort of blood, but she could still see the ruby red coating dripping off her hands. She took a couple minutes to fully upright herself through the screaming muscles, only succeeding with the tall woman's assistance.
"Okay."
"Great, I'll help you. We'll wash your scarf too. Smart move covering your face."
How does she know that? Was it obvious that's what I used it for?
"That will be appreciated. I guess it's kind of obvious, huh?"
"Don't worry about it, just sit back."
Standing up from her crouched position from her previous eye level, her large hands grabbed both sides of the Adrienne's overcoat, sliding each blood soaked side off of her battered arms. Once the garment was fully off and discarded to the side, Serafin just continued to work her way down the scavenged designer clothing set.
With the socks coming off, the pile of gothic gore to the side was complete, and she was left in the old dirty bandages across her chest and calf. The extent of her external wounds were evident now that the fabrics were gone, the horrifying wound on her left shoulder drawing most of the attention.
"Holy shit Kanashima… Cipher was not kidding. We need to get those bandages off too, how long has it been?"
"Three days… maybe four?"
"Good grief… okay."
Soon enough, all of her bandages fell into the trash can in the corner, her lacerated skin fully exposed to the stale air. The cut along her entire back was healing up, albeit slow as ever, the large red gash still glowing in pain. The calf injury was more shallow, and has faded a bit more than its partner.
"You really did a good job surviving, Kanashima. Morgan would be proud."
I'm not so sure about that.
Declining to respond with any audible message of substance, she simply nodded at her boss as a corner of her lips curled downward ever so slightly. Despite the minute change, the motion caught the amber eyes all the same, the head attached shaking. Even though she didn't vocalize her thoughts, it seemed her elder had too good of a read on her.
"Okay, I'll take these and be back with a change. Just… sit tight."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"That you aren't."
She put on a half hearted smile at the attempt of a joke, but shook it off after it fell flat. Scooping the laundry into her arms, Serafin opened the door with a barely free hand and backed up through the doorway, closing it once more and leaving Kanashima alone with her thoughts once again. The dehydrated air bit into her skin, causing some uncomfortable cracks in her skin, especially around the closed cuts and left shoulder.
Morgan, be proud of me surviving? If what I did is surviving… he probably would've fainted.
After the second Nihility encounter, she swore to herself that she wouldn't kill anybody again, accidentally or on purpose, and yet she failed. She failed four more times, actually. Gripping tightly on the thin blanket, she slammed her right fist down into the couch cushions. She could feel her hands were clean, and yet all she could see was the liquid embodiment of life dripping off of her fingers, staining the grey blanket.
What… what the fuck is wrong with me?
Staring off to the side, her right hand raised up to rub her right cheek. Even though it was just a horrific dream, her face remembered the painful backhanded slaps, the same disappointed face, the same smell of cigarette smoke from that same pack sitting on the sub basement apartment counter.
Her cigarettes! They were in the coat pocket. Damnit, so was my yuan.
On the opposite side of the couch, a dark brown table stood, holding down the corner. While there wasn't anything on top of it earlier, now there was a stack of cash and a half opened red and gold cigarette box, the name of the brand stretching across a white plate.
"Krong Thips…"
The door opened up once more, only a minute or so had passed since Serafin had left the room. From the footsteps themselves, it was obvious that her boss wasn't back yet, these were too light, too soft.
"Alright, so as far as Mahkai and Mirren go… I got some pretty bad news, Serafin."
Finally stepping forward more and closing the door behind him, Cipher surveyed the break room in search of his boss, but after not locating her, his periwinkle eyes locked in on the only other inhabitant. The giant hole spanning most of her shoulder caught his initial gaze, then it trailed down toward her torso.
"Oh, Kanashima! Where did… holy shit your shoulder! That's- oh my God, I'm sorry! I didn't see anything, I swear!"
Whipping his head back in fright, her own gunmetal grey eyes squinted at the cascading flow of periwinkle on the top of Cipher's head.
What was that about? Am I… that ugly?