Jane didn’t regain consciousness even in the hour that Brock chose to sit by her side. Mostly, it was just him recounting his experiences from the past months to her, despite the fact that he very much doubted she could hear a word he was saying.

Of course, with Kim being the blabbermouth he knew she was, he had politely asked her to go do something else while he spent some time alone with his sister. The woman may talk a lot, but she had least known how to read the room, unlike a certain someone he knew, and she went off to go do her job. Before she left, he’d told her to come back later, as he’d need someone to lead him to Carrie and Mio afterwards.

Blessedly, Ryan had left his sister’s bloodcrusted blindfold on, and the healers had too. He knew how much she hated having it off, and it was at least some solace that she’d wake up with comfort. He remembered thinking it was a stupid reason when she’d first told him many years ago, but as he grew older, he began to understand perfectly.

He never did understand how she could ‘see’ without seeing, however. She’d done it all her life, and that shit was terrifying.

A series of doctors had come in midway through his little one-sided chat and given her another ‘routine’ check up on her stability. They’d told him that she was going to be fine, although she had lost an extreme amount of blood and would be comatose for a while until her heart managed to create more.

He had thought to suggest a blood transplant, but he realised there might be some complications with that, now more than ever. The reasoning was simple. Blood colours. He had absolutely no idea what that entailed and actually meant - though maybe Fon would have an idea – but he had red blood and she had yellow. Both were products of a different kind of fluid in a Shard, and he wondered if it would create some sort of negative chemical reaction or something.

Sure, he could probably find another yellow blooded person, but until there was some concrete research on all this stuff, he’d rather not chance anything.

That aside, he eventually realised it was time to go, and he gave Jane a hug goodbye, before proceeding to track down Kim. It wasn’t all that hard, as all he had to use was his ears, and he found her chatting away with another healer, this one a man. He was pretty handsome, with a shaven head and finely kempt facial hair.

Brock self consciously felt his own stubble, which was not kempt. Not at all. It reminded him that he needed to shave, and as his lengthening hair swung into his vision and he pushed it away, to get a haircut too.

As he approached, Kim noticed him and waved him over loudly, “Hey, Brock! Over here!”

Out of the corners of his eye, he saw many sleeping patients wake up with a start and look directly at him, and he resisted the urge to sigh, “I’m coming mate. Hang on.”

Unfortunately.

The short girl rushed up to him and grabbed him by the hand without any prior warning. Brock didn’t really care, as he could tell there was no ulterior motive for the contact, but he could see buzzcut over there frown imperceptibly.

She finally stopped him in front of the man and gestured to him excitedly, “Brock, this is Tyler. He was a doctor before the System!”

“Ok…”

Tyler, who could see Brock was somewhat confused on why that mattered, coughed, “I was… uh… actually a surgeon. I suppose it doesn’t matter now though…”

He threw a glance Kim’s way and smirked slightly when her eyes sparkled at his words.

Brock raised a brow but chose not to comment on it, “You ever lost a scalpel inside a patient?”

“No…?” Tyler furrowed his brows.

Brock snorted, and Kim bounded up to him, her eyes wide with excitement, “It’s so cool, right? That he’s helped so many people? It’s cool isn’t it?”

He cocked a brow and met Tyler’s eyes. The surgeon shrugged, although Brock could see he was very clearly enjoying Kim’s adoring attention, “Yeah. It’s awesome. You should totally date him.”

A small smirk immediately began to mar Brock’s face as he watched Tyler’s eyes widen momentarily with shock, then shift to smouldering fear. Then finally to exasperation as he met the other man’s eyes once more, “I… I think that’s going a bit too quick there…”

Yep. The guy just likes attention from women, Brock snorted. Nice one, knobhead.

Kim began to pepper the guy with questions, mostly relating to a possible relationship and its logistics. For the most part, Tyler managed to deflect them, although he did answer a few with some cryptic answers that didn’t really mean anything. Eventually, Brock had his fill watching the interaction unfold and he tapped the girl on the shoulder.

“Hey, Kim. Can you take me to Carrie and Mio now?” he asked, sending a small grin Tyler’s way. Buzzcut only responded with a tired grimace.

She glanced between him and Tyler, before telling the latter she’d find him later and hurrying up to Brock’s side, “I know where Carrie is. I have no idea who Mio is though. Is she pretty? Oh, is she nice??”

Brock’s shoulders slumped in defeat as her face lowered and she looked up at him conspiratorially, “Do you like her?”

“Yes. No. And no, not in the way you’re thinking.” He sighed and waved her follow up questions away.

The girl led him through the winding halls of the hospital. Aside from the surprising amount of patients, the place was quite an architectural marvel. It seemed to fuse both traditional Japanese structure with the modern tech of a normal hospital, and it worked perfectly. Honestly, it made Brock excited for all the new styles of architecture that would be given rise during humanity’s eventual rebuilding.

And he wasn’t even an architecture nut. Even months later, he still knew next to nothing about it.

Like he had initially thought, Carrie was located in a far more easy-going section of the hospital, although as he was made privy to Jane’s blood loss situation, he thought it wasn’t so much favouritism that saw his sister in the intensive care area, but necessity.

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Which led him to something that just wasn’t making sense; his penchant for avoiding death and recovering from it. The amount of blood he himself would have lost since the coming of the System would be enough to fill a bathtub or five, he had no doubt. Even with his enhanced Stats, there was no way he should have survived the final blow from the Tyrant of the Sky all those months ago.

Hell, even with his current stats, he was sure he still would have died.

His organs had been literally falling out of him, and he had been bleeding for an entire two hours. He even still had the blood stains in his backseat, though he had cleaned it and they were less noticeable now. It almost seemed like… well… he was resistant to death.

He wasn’t even comatose for long afterwards.

Idly, Brock’s attention turned to his body. He wondered if something had happened to make it so resilient. Or maybe if that was just how he’s always been? He supposed he didn’t have any point of reference before the System, though. It was entirely possible that the System just made blood loss a difficult way to die. So many questions and no answers.

So, this is what it feels like to be Kim, huh?

In the end, his thoughts were cut short as his guide finally led him into the hospital room that held Carrie. Immediately, he noticed Mio sitting on the chair beside her bed, idly reading a book, though it was faded, and the pages were browned to an odd colour.

Unexpectedly, Kim didn’t leave this time, instead dashing right up to Carrie – who was sleeping – and waking her up. Brock recalled their relationship before the System, and remembered them being really good friends, so he didn’t begrudge the girl a chance to speak with her friend.

Brock walked over and pulled a chair from beside a nearby, unoccupied bed and placed it next to Mio’s. The woman had been stripped of her bulky armour, and was now wearing only a button up T-shirt and a pair of shorts. The man eyed the bloodstains on her sneakers. He assumed she was always ready for combat.

She briefly glanced up from her book and to the new arrivals, before throwing Brock a nod and returning her eyes to the page. He cocked a brow, but otherwise didn’t comment. Absentmindedly, he noticed her broken leg was heavily bandaged.

Most likely, the healers had already fixed it for the majority.

A quick scan told him her aura was still mere dregs, and he knew it’d be a little while before she was back to her peak. His own aura was doing well, having recovered enough to utilise Ethereal Shackles once or twice, although he knew trying to would end badly. His pathways were still in shambles, and he’d have to wait for them to heal up naturally.

He didn’t bother to ask the woman what she was reading, as it was clear she was quite invested in it, and instead listened to Kim and Carrie speak, although it was more the former doing the speaking than the latter. In fact, the blonde-haired woman was yet to get a word in, and seemed rather dazed. He chuckled lightly, and both of them looked over at him.

Immediately, he noticed Carrie’s eyes dart away from him, and Kim smiled at her friend, “Oh yeah! He’s not dead Car! How great is that?!”

She didn’t respond, and even Kim noticed something was amiss, “…Carrie?”

Brock’s eyebrows furrowed as he saw the tears began to drip from her lowered face and onto her blanket, darkening it in spots. He got out of his chair and moved toward her. Kim rubbed her back and consoled her, “Hey it’s ok. It’s ok. You’re safe now, you know?”

“…No, it’s not…” She paused in her back rubbing as Carrie whimpered something, although it was cut short by a series of racking sobs.

He felt like he probably shouldn’t be here to see her like this, as they weren’t even that close before the System, though when he began to head for the door, Carrie stopped him dead, “Brock… I’m sorry…”

He halted mid step, “you’re… sorry? For what?”

What could she have possibly done? He hadn’t had any contact with her in months, and Kim seemed to like him still despite being quite an openly outspoken person, so he definitely hadn’t done something to Carrie before the System. He knew if he had, Kim would be the first to know after all.

So… what then?

Another series of sobs followed, and he frowned as her fingers gripped the blanket tightly, “I’m sorry… for letting you die that day.”

“Carrie. I’m not dead.”

She shook her head and looked up, meeting him right in the eyes, “I… I saw it happen! You’re head… it…”

“Exploded? Yeah, I saw. But I’m not dead.” He replied, cocking a brow.

“But… but…” her sobs continued, and no longer was she given the ability to speak.

Brock sighed and moved forward. With a swift movement, he snatched her wrist and punched her own hand into his chest, showing it was solid. That he was here, “Like I said, I’m not dead.”

She gazed to him with wide eyes. He saw a bundle of tension in her shoulders release as his words finally got through to her, and she wiped the tears from her cheeks, opting to lean back into the pillows she had been gifted temporarily, “How are you alive? I know… I know what I- oh my god! What happened to your arm?!”

The man settled back in his chair and shrugged, “Long story.”

“But…” she stumbled for words, but seeing how nonchalant Brock was about it, she let it go. Instead, she continued what she was saying earlier, “Ok. But… how are you still alive?”

From the corner of his eye, he caught Mio glancing up at them covertly, clearly intrigued and curious by their conversation. He had thought she would have already known from her shadow spying, but apparently not.

“Luck, I guess.”

Everyone present stewed on his words for a few seconds, before Mio snorted and broke the silence, “Look at you. We all know that.”

A conversation surrounding his humble beginnings ensued for a little while after that, only around another hour or so, before Carrie got tired and they decided it was best she slept. She too was running pretty low on blood from Ryan’s careless treatment of them, and while Brock was feeling a little nugget of guilt and doubt at his actions, he knew killing him was the right decision. After all of humanity and those he cared for had suffered, it really was.

He paid Jane one last visit, although she was still unconscious, and silently, he lamented on the fact that the healers could patch up someone with a gaping hole in their torso, but not recreate blood. He had even asked one of the people in question, but they had told him that as each person’s blood seemed to contain a unique type of energy, their powers were unable to replicate it.

They’d be able to rejuvenate normal blood though, but that would be akin to pumping diarrhea into their veins. It’d poison and kill a patient very quickly, though they had no idea why. It’d already killed one person, and Brock didn’t blame them for being leery of doing so a second time to find out.

He was somewhat worried about Fon and Harry, though he assumed they were powerful enough to take care of themselves. Either way, he couldn’t and didn’t really want to return just yet. Mio was still dim in her aura, and he’d need to wait for her recover enough to send them the full distance. He also wanted to be easily accessible when Jane finally awoke, which shouldn’t be too long.

Fortunately, as he exited the hospital, he found Mio waiting outside. She had seemed to have put her book away and was crossing her arms, “you want to see where you’re sleeping tonight?”

Of course, the only thing he could really answer was yes. Sure, he was technically meant to still be admitted to the hospital for ‘recovery’, but he’d rather sleep somewhere else. It was too noisy in that place. Too many auras.

Mio nodded, before proceeding to lead him through the winding streets of Meiyo until they started trekking along a stream and into the forest that surrounded the place. The walk only lasted a further five minutes and they came upon a simple house. There was a series of well worn training dummies stationed in the yard outside of it, and almost every tree nearby was slashed and embedded with a weapon of one sort or another.

“Currently,” Mio began, “All our housing is used up for our actual residents, so you’ll have to use Jane’s house for the time being. A week at most.”

Brock shrugged, “that’s fine by me.”

If he was honest, he was the most tired he’d ever been since the System had come. He had killed an E Grade beast, then immediately rushed across the continent to save his sister and old co-worker from a man creating hordes of extinction level monsters. It had been a long week, and now, he wanted nothing more than to embrace the blissfulness of slumber.

He bid Mio a goodnight as she walked off and left him alone, and he settled down on a soft patch of grass. He and Jane were family, but it felt somewhat wrong to just sleep in her house without permission. He was used to sleeping outdoors anyway, and he barely noticed the evening chill.

Then finally, as he gazed up at the glittering stars peaking through the shifting treetops, Brock’s eyelids drooped and he fell asleep.