5: Confrontation

[ HARU'S POINT OF VIEW ]

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar white ceiling. Trying to get up proved to be a challenge when I felt resonating pain in my legs as if I had just run a thousand mile marathon. Judging by the curtains and blinds on the wall, I deduced that I was brought into a hospital after the fight with that giant monster. The sky was also already dark and only a little noise can be heard outside. I winced while massaging my legs, trying to reduce the pain even for a little bit.

"Probably because of carrying Ueda while running." I mumbled to myself.

Hearing a familiar "Hmm." almost made me jump in shock before Ueda Nozomi's voice broke the silence. "Cheeky brat. Are you implying that I'm heavy?" It was dumbfounding that I didn't even realize someone was sitting on another bed just beside mine. I turned my head towards Ueda who was already glaring at me. Bandages covered her arms and the top of her head but over all she seemed like she had recovered compared to the state she had been in a few hours ago. It also seemed like they had changed our outer clothing with clean ones.

"No." I replied. "The fact that I was able to carry you at all is enough proof that you are very light." she didn't seem convinced nor amused with my response but oh well.

"Still as cheeky as ever huh, Takahashi Haruto." I felt a little shocked when I heard her say my name. "You're not hurt anywhere else?"

So she had already learned my name. I guess someone told her. But still, it felt surreal to have some as popular as her to know about me. It took me a couple seconds to contemplate the answer to her question. "My head does hurt a little. It's a side effect whenever my barrier gets broken."

"I see."

After a short period of silence, I decided to speak up for the sake of politeness. "And yourself?" she suddenly looked up in my direction. "You were way beat up earlier than I was, and yet you look like nothing ever happened."

"Rapid healing." she quickly answered. "I recover almost twenty times as fast as other people do. If it weren't for this, we would have been dead."

What a convenient ability. On top of monstrous strength, her body also automatically healed damage. Though she wasn't fully invincible if the rate of damage she received surpassed that of her self-healing, or the damage she sustained was way too severe.

"You're right." I said, facing her properly as I continued. "Thank you for saving me."

She stared at me, the tension in her eyebrows releasing, turning her glare into a blank gaze. Her notorious demeanor seemed to have softened. Kind of ironic how someone who was supposed to be a hero was acting like a full fledged delinquent.

"Don't thank me." she said before her eyes dropped on her thighs.

"What?"

"Shinohara Kazuki." I felt the urge to swallow the lump in my throat as I heard the name that came from Ueda's lips. Though, it was quite surprising that she had already learned about us in such a short period of time. "He was your friend, right?"

Her expression had become too hard for me to read when she gazed into nothingness while gripping the bedsheets tightly. "Yes." I simply answered before silence dampened the mood once again.

"He's... dead because of me." she suddenly blurted out, still not making any eye contact. "Masashi and Ryosuke too." her voice got more unstable as she spoke. "So don't thank me. I didn't save anyone."

People always gave off a certain energy around them whenever they were feeling like shit, and Ueda had almost drowned me with it. Silence grew colder as I chose to keep my mouth shut because I didn't really know what words to say in this type of situation. And then suddenly, as rare as crows turning white, my one prayer at the moment had come true.

Our heads turned to the door that had just been pushed open gently as a girl slowly peeped into the room.

"Excuse me." Narumi Shiho whispered as she stepped inside, she was holding a basket of what I thought to be apples and some utensils.

"Shiho-chan?" Ueda uttered as their eyes met. "You're safe."

Narumi's gaze fell to the floor as I saw her shoulders drop. "Yeah." she quietly replied before walking up to us and then placing her things on the table between my bed and Ueda's. She took a deep breath before speaking. "H-How's your recovery going, Ueda-senpai?" her tone didn't even bother to try and sound lively, it was full of glum.

Narumi Shiho— one of the five members of Saito Masashi's club, and one of the three that remained. Her ability "Healing" was a truly spectacular superpower that could nullify even the most fatal injury. From just hearsay information I had, her ability worked by reversing time only within the body of her target. That meant she healed her targets by reverting their bodies back to their state during a certain point of time within a maximum of two hours as long as the target was still alive. Her downside would be she wouldn't be able to heal people if their injury had happened more than two hours ago. Additionally, she wasn't able to cause damage with her ability. Although her ability was about reversing the body's condition, she, for some reason, couldn't bring back a wound that had already been healed even if it was within her time limit range. In other words, all she could do was heal injuries.

"It's going well." Ueda tried to smile, but it barely reached her eyes. "Thank you for these." she said, referring to the food she bought.

"Yamada-kun is resting in another room." Narumi said.

Ueda nodded. "I know."

I knew I wished for someone to enter the room and save me the awkward conversation, and it had happened. But the atmosphere now had just become worse with the conversation happening before my eyes. As much as I wanted to walk away, I knew that I needed to rest.

Of course Narumi just had to turn to me. "You must be Takahashi-san." she said, finally including me in the conversation.

"Yes." I simply answered looking at her eyes. "How'd you know me?"

"Your club mates probably told her." Ueda answered for her. "They were here when I woke up, they were worried about you."

"I see." my short response. I hoped that she didn't scare them or anything.

I couldn't help but be shocked when Narumi suddenly bowed before me, her hair fell downwards, covering whatever expression she was making. "Thank you for saving Ueda-senpai." she said, bending down firmly.

I put my hands up in front of me. "Please raise your head, Narumi-san. Anyone would have done the same."

"No." she quickly remarked. "No one but you could've done that." she stood up straight but her gaze still remained on the floor. "I selfishly ran without even thinking, I was so scared."

"Shiho-chan." Ueda spoke. "I completely understand. What you did back there was the best course of action."

Narumi turned to Ueda. "But..."

"If anything, I'm glad that you chose to run. Had you ended up getting hurt too, I..."

How sweet. Anyway, now that my legs seemed to have recovered, I thought that I could just sneak out. While the two of the most famous girls in my school chattered about friendship and stuff, I quietly got off of bed and slowly walked up to the door. I had a feeling that all of this still wasn't over. That mysterious ability that saved us from the monster—I had never seen anything like that before. Someone as powerful as that wouldn't be hiding their ability and just randomly reveal it just for that situation. Deep in thought, I approached the door until Ueda's voice stopped my tracks.

"Where are you going?" she simply asked.

I was about to reach for the door when I heard her. I then turned to look at them both.

"Out?" I answered. "Don't you two want some privacy?"

Her piercing gaze made me feel my soul being revealed inside out. I didn't know if it was just her, or girls were just naturally scary.

"You should rest more." she replied.

What now? Why was she even minding my business? She shouldn't have anything to do with me now that the battle was over, right?

"I agree, Takahashi-san." Narumi seconded.

"Besides," Ueda's tone had gone colder. "I have questions for you."