Chapter XXXV (35)- Victory

Harvey was sitting beside his bed when Kizu woke up. Funnily enough, the first thing Kizu did was groan at the familiar sight of the medical wing. It was the last place he wanted to be back at. The air smelled as sterile and stagnant as he remembered. He immediately felt homesick for the swampy smells of the basin. Every inch of the jungle smelled unique and told a story. Even his room in the academy, filled with Basil’s pungent perfumes and Mort’s musk, was far better than the medical wing’s blatant lack of scent.

“You’re awake,” Harvey said, stating the obvious.

“Yes,” Kizu croaked. His throat was raw and parched. It took him a second to remember why. Those fire breathing potions had done a number on him.

“I’m sorry Kizu,” Harvey said miserably. “You’re only here because of me. I should be the one bandaged up and bedridden.”

Bandaged up? Kizu looked down at himself. Sure enough, white cloth was tightly wound all around his body. He lifted an arm. It felt sore, but responsive. He wiggled his bandaged fingers. They seemed fine. Then he tried to do the same with his toes. He only felt the left five.

He painfully sat up and pulled back his covers to examine his body. Where the bandages weren’t wrapped, his skin had bruised to ugly shades of purple and black. The longest stretch of skin without a bruise was barely more than a dozen centimeters.

But what he was looking for was his leg. It was still attached, thankfully - part of him had been worried. But he felt nothing from it. And he feared what it might look like under those bandages.

“I think they had to do some complex spells to numb your leg,” Harvey said quietly. “They were worried the pain might kill you.”

“You can die from pain?” Kizu asked, more to himself. He wondered how that worked. Could a person simply decide to die? Maybe it was some sort of innate spell driven into the minds of every individual for when they were pushed too far. A final escape for when things were too hard. Would that be considered a type of soul magic?

Harvey was talking. Kizu had to ground his mind and focus to make out the words. He kept wanting to let his thoughts drift off, away from reality. He was pretty certain he was still concussed.

“Nobody expected you to win. And granted, it was only a technicality, but-”

“Wait,” Kizu said, confused. “I won?”

“Yeah, your tooth chipped and got embedded in his fist. Inari declared you the victor.”

“I won,” Kizu mumbled. He certainly did not feel like a winner. He felt his tooth with his tongue. It felt as stable and normal as ever. They must have healed it.

“Everyone’s talking about you. You went up over a hundred ranks in a single bout. You’re ranked 674 now. Apparently, your opponent wasn’t massively popular either. You might even get some fangirls from this.”

“Fangirls.” That was the absolute last thing Kizu wanted.

“Yeah! All the best competitors have some.”

“You came out of it far better off than I did. Hopefully they all flock to you.” Kizu knew they were the wrong words the second they were out of his mouth. His mind had been wandering and hadn’t been thinking about what he was saying.

“I…don’t think I earned many fans,” Harvey said with a fake smile. “In fact, Professor Arclight explained to me that I should avoid going out alone for the next few weeks. I only barely managed to not get disqualified from all future matches.”

“Ah, yeah… well, if you want to go do something, just let me know. I’ll come with.”

Harvey’s fake smile slipped into a frown. “Why, Kizu? You just experienced the most brutal beating the academy has seen in over three years.”

“Oh, I think you mean ‘how,’ not ‘why.’” Kizu said, trying to be upbeat. “I’ll do my best to get out of here as soon as I can, don’t worry. Then we can hit up some parties down in the town. I bet Basil can get us into some crazy ones.” Not that he actually wanted to go to such a party. He figured Harvey would, though.

Harvey opened his mouth to say more but then closed it and looked away. They passed the next hour or so talking about anything but the combat test.

When Emilia arrived, Harvey excused himself. Kizu couldn’t help but note the absence of even a wink, let alone a lighthearted comment. Before he walked out, Kizu considered telling him to find someone to walk back to his dorm with, but decided against it. Arclight had definitely given him strict instructions to follow on how to keep himself safe from the student body.

“How do you feel?” Emilia asked as she slipping into Harvey’s seat.

“Oh, I’m fine,” Kizu lied. He tried to sit up straighter. His body protested the effort immediately.

“I saw your fight.”

He winced. And not from the pain.

“I was actually set up to fight today, too. But I withdrew my name yesterday when I heard what Lucas planned to do.”

“You were smarter than me,” Kizu said. He tried to laugh, but his raw throat transformed it into a coughing fit instead.

“Hardly,” she said, once his coughing fit subsided. “Everyone knows Harvey now. His name is all over the academy, and with that, everyone knows he’s my cousin. Not only am I related to the student who manipulated others into acting as his human shields, but I also didn’t even have the loyalty or the bravery to stand beside him like you did. Instead, I pulled my name out.”

“I wouldn’t call it bravery,” Kizu said. “Stupidity, maybe.”

“Whatever you want to call it, you faced down one of the most dangerous students here. And more than that, you hurt him. Hurt him badly. You have the academy’s attention now, and in the best way possible.”

Kizu glanced around the room, a terrible thought occurring to him. Several of the beds had closed curtains.

“Um, where exactly did my opponent go after the test?”

“Not here, if that’s what you’re worried about. He refused any care offered beyond a simple skin balm.”

Kizu tried not to let his relief show too obviously.

“Ulric’s always been like that,” she said flippantly. “He hates letting anyone help him. Wants to do everything himself.”

Ulric. Kizu hadn’t even known his opponent's name. He tried to think back. Maybe they had said it at the beginning of the match, but he’d been so focused on his strategy that he hadn’t heard it. Somehow, he doubted Ulric didn’t know his name. And Kizu also doubted that Ulric would forget the burns Kizu had given him any time soon.

Harvey had angered the entire academy with his performance, but earned praise from his opponent. Meanwhile, Kizu had managed the exact opposite. He wondered which of the two had been the worse trade.

“Do you know Ulric well?” he asked Emilia.

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She bristled at the question. “Not anymore. We used to be friends.”

Kizu sighed. “No chance of convincing him not to swap my insides with my outsides?”

“Don’t worry about him. He’ll spend the next few weeks sulking about his new punishment and the loss, but won’t ever do anything about it. Trust me. He’s not worth the time it takes to think about him.”

That did not sound like the same experience Kizu had just had. Ulric likely treated his old friends a bit differently. Or maybe that treatment was reserved for pretty girls. Kizu decided to change the subject.

“Any parties tonight?” Kizu asked. He inwardly cursed himself for the awkward delivery. It was still on his mind from his conversation with Harvey.

“Not really. There was supposed to be one over on the hillside this evening, but the host suffered a few injuries courtesy of my cousin and Lucas. I think she’s actually in this room still.”

Kizu looked again at the closed curtains. Now that he paid attention, there were quite a few more in use than the last time he’d been stuck in the medical wing.

“I’ll let you know the next time one comes up though. I bet you’ll be a hit after today.”

As much as Kizu didn’t want to go to another party, his heart leapt at the idea of Emilia inviting him to one.

They continued chatting for a little while until Emilia had to excuse herself. She still had readings that needed to be finished before tomorrow.

Emilia’s perfume lingered after she left, giving the dead room a ribbon of life.

The curtains of the opposite bed swung open, revealing Ione. She lay on top of her blankets with her bandaged leg suspended.

“You look horrible,” she said.

“Thanks.”

“I was wondering when you’d stop by to visit. Glad my partner in crime finally deemed me worthy of his time.”

“I’m not here because I want to be,” Kizu pointed out.

“Eh, I’ll take what I can get.” She shrugged and leaned back on her bed. “Picture this - you live in a magic castle nestled at the foot of a volcano on a tropical island with some of the most powerful mages in the world acting as your professors. Then, find a way to make it the most boring place imaginable. That’s this room. An impossibility made reality. What an incredible feat.”

“Which is exactly why I didn’t want to visit you.”

“You owe me.”

She was right, Kizu had to admit. And if he hadn’t gotten wrapped up in the fight earlier, he probably would have visited. He opened his mouth to apologize.

“After all, you and your gabbing with the Tainted girl woke me up. The first boy was quiet and sulky, easy to sleep through. But then that girl came. Your voice became so much louder and more obnoxious.”

That… was not what Kizu thought he owed her for.

“Well, she’s gone now. You can sleep in peace. I promise not to talk.”

“Now it eludes me!” She threw her head back on her pillow in exasperation. “Sleep is more fickle than any lover.”

“Lots of experience there?” Kizu teased.

“Better than none at all,” she jabbed back.

“Hey, I lived in a jungle coven full of women. Men barely even exist out there. I have plenty of experience.” He left out the part where the crone’s friends were all roughly at least a hundred years old. And she never let him meet any of their apprentices, telling him it would be better not to form attachments when they might not be around in another week or two. It wasn’t uncommon for witches to eat their younger apprentices if they upset them.

“Good. You can tell me about it as payment for waking me up. Nobody ever wants to talk about the witch covens in the Basin.”

“Probably because they don’t know anything about them,” Kizu said. “At least, if Krimpit’s lessons are anything to go by.”

“Yes, yes. I am aware of your grudge against our history professor. I want to hear about the crazy man-eaters living in the jungle. Continue.”

“They mostly keep to themselves. You could walk for an entire day in any direction from the crone’s house and not encounter another witch. They usually only convene in groups for specific events. Like a blood moon, or a new witch’s initiation into the coven.”

“What happens at an initiate’s ceremony?”

Kizu shrugged. “I don’t know the details. I never received an invitation, obviously. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly witch material.”

“But you were a witch’s apprentice.”

Kizu thought about that for a minute. He supposed she was right. The crone had never named him as one, but she’d treated him about the same as any other apprentice living in the basin.

“Not in the same way,” he finally said. “Most other witches I met disdained me, and questioned the crone’s judgment for teaching me.” More than once he had overheard witches attempting to barter with the crone for a taste of his flesh. He decided to keep that to himself.

“What about their apprentices?”

“What about them?”

“You implied you knew some more… intimately?”

“Oh yeah, plenty,” Kizu lied. “They’d come over all the time, um, running errands.”

“Like what?”

“Oh you know, fetch this, report that. Mundane stuff. They were always tight-lipped about their duties.”

“Too bad. Do you think you’ll go back?”

Go back to the Hon Basin? Kizu had never really considered it before. He missed the jungle a lot, but at the same time, it wouldn’t be the same without the crone. But maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing. There were men that lived in the basin, separate from the witch covens. The crone had a male necromancer acquaintance that lived there, for example. He and his young daughter had always been relatively friendly.

“Maybe,” he decided. “It depends on a lot of other things.”

“Such as?”

“My sister, for one. Once I find her, it might actually be a really good place to move with her. Honestly, I could see Anna joining a witch coven.”

“What about me?”

“You want to come with us to the Hon Basin?” Kizu asked, confused. “I suppose you could. I don’t see why you would want to, though.”

“No, not that. Do you think I could join a witch coven? What do they require? Surely not all of them were apprentices to witches before joining.”

“I’m not sure. I think most of them were apprentices at some point. But the crone never said anything about her ever being anyone’s apprentice. I imagine if you make enough of a name for yourself, you might be able to join as you are. But aren’t you ranked dead last in brewing?”

She waved a hand dismissively. “I just wanted to know if it was possible. Not in my current life’s trajectory, but still, got to know your options, right?”

“Kaga Kizu?” One of the rejuvenation and restoration assistants approached him. She was a Tainted student with light red, almost pink scales across her brow. Raygen. She had been the one to heal him after the fight. Surprisingly, she wasn’t giving off the same hostility he remembered. Instead, she appeared nervous and jittery, looking anywhere but at his eyes. Behind her, Edgar, her ex-boyfriend followed.

“Yes?”

“I have some… bad news for you,” she said.

“Did something happen to Harvey?” Kizu asked immediately. He knew he should have told him to find someone to walk him to his dorm.

“Who?” She blinked and met his eyes briefly before she tore them away, staring at the wall behind him. “No. This is about your leg.”

“My leg?”

“I hate this,” she muttered. Her eyes flickered over to Edgar for a fraction of a second. “The damage Ulric did to it was extensive. He didn’t just break it; he almost tore it off. I have no idea how he managed to cause so much damage without tearing the skin, but… Kateshi wasn’t here. I couldn’t just leave you with your leg like that. So…I healed it.”

Kizu blinked. “Okay.”

“By healed,” Edgar interrupted. “She means she mangled the appendage.”

“What?”

“It’s not like that!” she said defensively. “Kateshi wasn’t going to be back until tonight. I tried my best.”

“Your best is this.”

He pulled back Kizu’s blanket, revealing a completely bandaged leg. Even hidden beneath gauze, Kizu could see the swollen leg off-kilter. He tried to move it. Nothing.

“If you’d left it alone, he could have been healed. Any number of us here could have gone through the proper procedure to set the leg.” Edgar sounded furious. “You though, you decided to accelerate the healing in the wrong direction. Because of course you did, Raygen. Imagine thinking something through for once? Why bother setting a shattered bone? Now, even if we chopped the thing off it would still be likely to grow back crooked. It won’t ever be the same again.”

“I tried my best,” she repeated miserably.

“I’d smash your skull in right now and let him heal it as payback, but you’re already too brain damaged to notice a difference.”

“Can I walk?” Kizu asked. What they were saying didn’t seem real. He had trouble grasping it.

“Yes,” Edgar said, his voice returning to a more neutral tone as he spoke to Kizu. “It will be painful at first, but walking should be manageable in time. You likely won’t be able to run unassisted ever again.”

“I’m sorry.” Raygen wept, her face in her hands while her shoulders heaved.

He looked to Ione, hoping maybe this was a prank she’d arranged earlier. She wouldn’t meet his eyes either.

He’d been crippled.