Poisoned

“D-Dright?! What happened to you?!” The short girl with red hair asked while panicking. It happened all too suddenly that it threw her in that state.

“M-more importantly… a-antidote… urk!” Dright answered with a pained expression as he positioned himself to face up. After facing up from the bed, Dright coughed severely.

The short girl with red hair took a deep breath and regained her composure. She then took out a needle and slightly pierced her index finger, causing blood to flow from it then placed it atop Dright’s mouth. A drop of blood fell to Dright’s mouth and swallowed it. Upon swallowing the girl’s blood, Dright’s pained expression softened and his breathing became more stable.

“The unknown creature, Hanzo Romacrova, has retreated… No other threats detected… applying repairs to the damages within the city… announcing the elimination of threat…”

Ceda’s voice sounded on Dright’s earpiece, but he didn’t respond due to his current situation. In the meantime, Ceda automatically initiated what he reported to Dright.

The red-haired girl took out tools and analyzed Dright’s situation and applied proper procedures.

Meanwhile, with Quare and the others.

The huge smoke that Lia was interested in soon dissipated as the drones efficiently repaired the area. Lia, after the smoke vanished, stared at the broad sky clear of clouds above the tall buildings of the city in a daze. Quare stayed with Lia, and Rheyya went back to their table as she fiddles with her smartphone.

“Hey, Rheyya! I’m back! What did I miss?” Then suddenly, Raven slipped in back to her seat before she left. Rheyya got startled because she didn’t hear any noise, nor did she sense Raven’s presence before she spoke.

“Nothing much. Just that Lia took some interest in the sky and is now staring at it in a daze,” Rheyya answered as she stops fiddling with her phone and took her unfinished glass of juice, and had a sip.

“I see… well it seems that Lia lost interest,” Raven said as she rests her cheek atop her palm. Quare and Lia are now walking back while holding hands and sat at their previous seat in the same setup. Quare sat at the chair while Lia sat on her lap.

“By the way, what took you so long, Raven-senpai?” Rheyya asked Raven with curiosity since it took Raven twenty minutes before she got back.

“Oh, something urgent came up hehe,” Raven answered while hiding her lie with a smile.

“I see…”

Quare was caressing Lia’s hair, and Lia seemed to love it as she closed her eyes. At the same time, Quare looked somewhat worried. Raven took notice of it and immediately asked Quare what she was concerned about.

“Are you worried about your big brother?” Raven asked Quare. Raven mostly sees Quare and Dright having lunch together, and there are rare times when Quare eats alone. Seeing her with Rheyya made Raven happy for Quare for making a friend of the same age.

Whenever Raven sees Quare without her brother, she’d accompany her, for she could feel her loneliness. She’d see Crimson with the siblings from time to time, or sometimes Quare with Crimson.

Quare nodded to Raven’s question.

“Don’t worry! I’m sure your brother is fine. He probably got too caught up with whatever he's doing again. I’m sure he’ll come ten minutes before the afternoon bell rings like usual!” Raven said, assuring Quare. As Raven said, this was always the case whenever she sees Quare without Dright at the Cafeteria for lunch.

“Whew, I’m hungry! I remember I haven’t eaten lunch yet… welp, I guess I’ll order now.”

Raven changed the subject as a holographic panel containing the food menu appeared beside her. She tapped several icons. After some time, a drone came, delivering Raven’s order. An omelet coupled with an apple juice, with three ice creams. After she received it, Raven held her phone in front of the holographic menu.

“Payment received…” The drone replied. After a second, it went back to where it originally came from after serving Raven's order and the ice creams to Lia, Quare, and Rheyya.

Puzzled, Quare and Rheyya looked at Raven with a confused expression. Unlike the two, Lia immediately took the ice cream and drooled with a dull expression.

“It’s my treat! Help yourselves!” Raven told Rheyya and Quare with a joyful expression while taking a piece of the omelet with her spoon.

The flavor that Quare got was chocolate, Lia got strawberry, and Rheyya got vanilla. Each of them looked in awe as all of them looked quite delicious. On the other hand, Lia was already eating it. After one bite, she let out cute noises.

Rheyya and Quare saw Lia, and they also helped themselves with their ice creams.

“THREAT ELIMINATED. PLEASE RETURN TO YOU ROUTINES…” An announcement from Ceda resounded on the evacuation sites and the academy. Soon, the pathway from the evacuation sites opened, and citizens returned to their jobs. Some drones were still repairing some damages, but they are now up to the point of finishing up.

Back at the Academy, Raven and the other three are happily dining. After hearing the announcement, they felt a breeze hit them even though the entrance was closed.

“Hello! Can I sit with you guys?” Suddenly, a short boy with red hair was now standing in front of the four. It was Crimson. The table can take up to four people, but since Lia was sitting on Quare’s lap, there is still an empty space.

“Go ahead, Crimson. You girls don’t mind, right?” Since Raven was the oldest among them and is more well-acquainted with Crimson than Quare, she was the one that answered him. Lia ignored the new presence and kept focusing on the ice cream.

“We don’t mind.” Quare replied, and Rheyya nodded. Seeing their approval, Crimson went ahead to grab an empty seat near them and positioned himself on the dining table.

“Whew! Finally…” Crimson sat lump on his seat as his stomach growled, reminding him again of his hunger. A panel appeared once again beside Crimson and tapped several icons. A moment later, a drone came out to deliver his order. It contained seven servings of different varieties of burgers along with a soda. Crimson paid in the same manner as Raven and Rheyya looked in surprise.

“Oh, Hey! You’re that girl with Quare yesterday! I’m Crimson, and you are?” Crimson noticed Rheyya’s gaze and recognized her from yesterday. He immediately introduced himself.

“Rheyya… isn’t that unhealthy..?” Rheyya introduced herself while still surprised at the burgers on Crimson’s table.

Raven sighed upon hearing Rheyya’s statement.

“That’s what we keep telling him, and he just won’t listen!” Raven said while Quare gave a wry smile. Crimson ignored them as he happily ate his burgers.

“By the way, Crimson-senpai, have you seen my brother?” Quare asked, unaware that Crimson came from outside the academy.

“Oh, him? I just saw him a while ago outside the academy. I don’t know what he was up to, but it seems that he was quite in a hurry.” Crimson answered after swallowing the food in his mouth.

“Oh…” Upon hearing Crimson’s answer, Quare became more worried as she placed a spoon with ice cream on her mouth.

“Which reminds me…” Crimson followed up.

“How’d you get here so fast Ra- OUCH!!” but he didn’t finish his words as Raven kicked Crimson’s shin under the table with a smile.

Since Crimson encountered Raven outside the academy, he thought that she was also patrolling the vicinity. After parting, he believed that she went to patrol a different area, but that wasn’t the case. Raven was trying to conceal that she went out of the academy, so she shut Crimson’s mouth by kicking his shin.

“Is something wrong, Crimson-senpai?” Quare asked, but when Crimson tried to answer, Raven kicked his shin once again with a smile, releasing another scream.

“Stop that!” Crimson was about to retort to Raven, but when she saw her menacing smile, his face became pale.

“Oh, nothing! Ahahaha!” Crimson said while scratching the back of his head nervously and grabbed his burger once again. Then, he noticed someone staring at him intently. It was Lia who has finished eating her ice cream.

“W-what..?” Crimson told Lia while raising a brow. Lia didn’t answer and continued staring at him, specifically, at the burger that Crimson was about to bite. Then he noticed what Lia was really looking at.

“No…” Crimson said while Lia had no change of expressions. Crimson didn’t take a bite and instead kept observing Lia.

“. . .”

“. . .”

After a minute of staring, Crimson’s conscience gave in and decided to hand one of his burgers to Lia and sighed.

“Here…” Crimson said as Lia was hesitant to take it, but she took it in the end. She took a look at Crimson once again. He nodded with a wry smile as approval. Lia happily took a bite, but then Crimson recognized the burger he gave. It was the extra spicy one that he ordered, making him drop cold sweat. He got worried that a child couldn’t handle its spiciness.

“W-wait!” Crimson said in an attempt to stop Lia, but he was too late. Lia already took a bite, but to his surprise, Lia did not react.

“H-hey kid, isn’t that spicy?” Crimson asked, amazed. Lia shook his head in response.

“It’s delicious…” Lia answered. Crimson then gave a relieved sigh. He was worried that a kid wouldn’t be able to handle the spiciness, but he was wrong.

“Quare, who is this kid? Your cousin?” Crimson asked.

“Oh, Ummm, her name is Lia. My brother saved her from the streets. She has no memory of her past…” Quare introduced Lia. Hearing it made Crimson sad on her behalf.

“I see… That’s quite tragic…” But it wasn’t enough to ruin his appetite as he finished the burger he was holding and grabbed another.

Moments later, the afternoon bell rang, and Quare somehow felt something bad happened to her brother, adding it to her uneasiness.

The support course students returned to their classrooms, while Combat course students proceeded to the training grounds. Some of the combat course students didn’t go to the training grounds since it wasn’t mandatory for them. Raven was one of them.

Quare, Crimson, and Rheyya waved goodbye to Lia and Raven, leaving them alone together once again.

“Would you like to go for a stroll now? It’s going to be more fun now that you’re all energized!” Raven once again encouraged Lia to stroll with her. Lia nodded, and with that, they both went out of the school.

Two hours later at the infirmary with Dright.

Dright is now asleep with a blanket covering his whole body. His blazer and his polo are currently folded neatly by the edge of the bed, topless. The girl with red hair is now resting by the table at the corner of the room, sleeping soundly as she mumbles unrecognizable words in her sleep.

As seconds passed by, the red-haired girl slowly regained her consciousness as she stretched to lose her drowsiness, yawning and scratching her eyelids in the process. Then, she proceeded with checking Dright’s status and grabbed her clipboard.

The red-haired girl checked Dright’s breathing and anything observable at first glance.

“Breathing stable, complexion stable, and he doesn’t seem to be in pain anymore…”

She mumbled as she proceeded into checking Dright’s pulse. She removed Dright’s blanket, but then she suddenly felt weak. The operation she did with Dright was too taxing because it wasn't just regular treatment.

Even though the red-haired girl just woke up, she only had about thirty minutes of rest since she finished treating Dright.

Feeling weak, she fell beside Dright as her consciousness slowly fades away once again.

"So... tired..."