Chapter Twenty-Three: Recovery

Not much happened after I absorbed Raito's element. I ended up collapsing and passing out from exhausting all my energy and from the many wounds I received. The next I woke, I was in my bedroom, staring at the ceiling just like when I had first arrived. I sat up slowly, my wounds completely healed thanks to Hanako, I assumed. When I sat up, I could feel the warmth of my brother's hoodie, and I looked at it to see it had been completely patched up and looked good as new. "I'll have to thank whoever did this for me.." I gently clenched the cloth of the hoodie over my chest. It was all finally starting to sink in, the memories I had lost, who my brother really was, his death, and the fact that I now carried his element.

I laid back down on my back slowly and everything suddenly seemed much darker. As if the world couldn't be any more cruel. Tears fell from my eyes as I thought about all the good memories I had with Raito, but that sadness quickly turned to rage as I remembered that Atiyama was the one who made him like that. Despite my rage, I was just so tired, and I just wanted to rest for a little while.

I happened to look over at my bedside drawer and saw a phone there. I picked it up, not seeing any notifications or anything, so I flipped through it and such, seeing all of my Elementia friends' names in the contact list. I'm guessing someone had went out and got them all for us after I revealed what Raito had said to me. His words still rang through my mind, and I silently spoke them. "There are other forces at work.. Nobody in the cities.." It made sense, considering Atiyama would most likely attack random cities and villages to get our attention whenever he wanted it. "But who could be doing something like this..? God..?" I covered my eyes with my forearm and sighed.

I set the phone down, deciding that not texting everyone would be best. My thoughts of my dead family and my past began consuming my mind once again, erasing any previous thoughts I had. The other Elementia had gotten me headphones as well, so I did whatever I always did when I got depressed. I put on my headphones, laid back, and just listened to music, tuning out the rest of the world. Eventually I ended up falling back asleep, the thoughts I had and the memories of my past still consuming my mind.

A couple weeks passed after that. Atiyama hadn't attacked or made any moves yet. In that time span, I had also gotten over what had happened. Not completely, but enough to act like my usual self and spend time with everyone else. At first I was just a little ball of doom and gloom; I didn't talk to anyone and I just ate food in my room instead of sharing meals with the others. I even tried to get food when no one was roaming the kitchen or halls to try and avoid seeing them completely. I know they hadn't done anything to deserve that treatment, but I didn't want anyone to see me the way I was at the time.

After about three days of this, Jinny had finally come to see me. She didn't say anything at first, just walked into my room all of a sudden, sat on my bed, and stared at me. "What're you doing Jinny..?" I asked.

"I miss you.. Is it unusual to want to see my boyfriend?" Her face showed a mix of worry, sadness, and annoyance as she muttered that. My face went red at the question as I remembered how I had kissed and confessed to her. She then smiled at me, specifically at how red my face got, and gave me a hug, which I returned. She was warm, just her presence comforted me. She kissed the top of my head, running her fingers through my hair.

I looked up at her and raised an eyebrow. "Are you comforting me or teasing me..?"

She giggled softly at the question and smiled at me. "Both.." I looked into her eyes for a moment, her expression growing softer as she gazed back. I leaned in and she cupped my cheeks, both of us kissing one another. She started running her fingers through my hair and moved into my lap, to which I wrapped my arms around her waist and returned her kisses passionately. I held her close and she clenched my hair in her hands gently, our kisses getting rough as our need for one another began to grow. Her tongue slipped into my mouth and mine happily met her's in response. We sat there, passionately making out for a few moments before we had to pull away to breath. As we panted, we never broke our gazes from one another.

She leaned in and kissed my cheek, resting her head on my shoulder afterward. I held her close to me still, not wanting to let go, feeling as if I did I'd wake up as if it were a cruel fantasy. Judging from how tight she hugged me, I figured she felt the same. After a few minutes, we laid down and cuddled with each other, falling asleep together. I never imagined I'd ever get to experience something like that back then, the warmth of having a loving partner.

Jinny and I slept together every night after that. It was very comforting for the both of us and pretty much an unspoken thing. She just started sleeping in my room with me every night. At first I thought it was just for comfort, but even after I started being my usual self, she still came to my room. Some people might say we're moving too fast or something like that, but it really helped me recover from everything that happened and got me back to my usual fun and energetic self. Besides, I wasn't going to tell her she couldn't sleep with me or question it when I wanted it just as much as her.

Aside from that, I had trained a bit here and there with everyone else as well, getting used to my new plasma element that was yellow instead of mint green. Akari said it probably changed to match the color of my personality and soul and to fit to its new host. I didn't really understand at first, but I'm guessing the color of your element depended on what kind of person you are. Considering the Elementia on my side and I all have the natural colors of our elements, which means we're pure. Atiyama's darkness was pure black, so that just further explained his evil. Boris' ice was a dark blue-clear color, Bobina's lava was red, Kristy's crystals were dark colors, mostly dark purple, Isek's smoke was dark grey, and Attor's chemicals were all dark purple. Isek and Bobina were the only ones that seemed to have colors that were somewhat natural to their actual elements. Considering what type of people they seemed to be, that didn't really surprise me all that much.

I had also hung out with everyone as well as trained with each of them, whether it be individually or in groups, and sometimes all of them at once. It didn't take long for me to get used to the plasma element since it was a lot like my lightning. It was thanks to everyone there that I got over my sadness so quickly. Jinny was definitely the biggest part of that, but everyone played a role in my recovery. The thing that helped the most was that everyone acted normal and cheerful as they always did. Doing so helped me to do the same in no time at all.

I thought I'd never have friends again because of my brother's genius and my memory loss, but these guys accepted me for who I was and called me a friend everyday. For that, I'm half thankful and half spiteful for becoming an Elementia. One, because I lost my entire family, but on the other hand, I made a lot of friends and gained a lover because of it. I feel like my existence is actually important now. That's why I'm going to protect this life I have and protect all of them along with it. I don't know what challenges we'll all face ahead, and I know the future is probably going to get a lot more difficult from here on out, but no matter what we face, I know as long as we have each other, we'll be able to get through it. It may have sounded cheesy and/or cringey, but I truly believed all of those words from the bottom of my heart.