Chapter 17

The Blue Boy and the Red Girl

In the darkness, Felix’s fingers wrapped iron bars, the cold seeping in through his skin. Only thin slivers of light slipped through the narrow slits of the door. From the other side of it, violent screams erupted from the other side as men cast blame on one another.

“What did you do?!”

“You took the wrong vial!”

“That was the experimental!”

The white slivers of light turned gold, and grew brighter and brighter until the walls cracked and shattered into a yellow boom.

Felix’s eyes shot open to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling. He turned his head and saw a familiar face sat on a chair and curled up on the left of his bedside. Her head peacefully resting on the bed that he was in.

He turned to the right as he caught the faint scent of coffee, where he found a cup standing atop a small white table, and next to it was a vase full of half-wilted flowers.

“Asters?” He muttered out with a quiet, gravelly voice, “I see…”

“Felix…you are…” Maria gleefully snored out.

He smiled lightly and reached his hand to pat her head, but the memory of her with a blood-stained smile flashed in his head, stopping him. He pulled back his hand with a nervous expression.

The door slid open and a nurse entered. With black hair tied into a bun, she walked to the counter.

“Good afternoon, Mister Aster. You’re finally awake. How are you feeling?” She asked with a soft voice as to not wake up Maria.

“Still sore, and a little uncomfortable with her sleeping on my bed.”

The nurse placed her palm on her cheek, “Truly now? That sounds rather cold considering that she’s been by your side this entire time.”

“This place is... a Golden Lion hospital?”

The nurse smiled and introduced herself, “Correct. Lauren Williams, at your service.”

“Where’s my stuff? My necklace?” He panicked as he scoured his chest frantically, only to stop and gaze at his right hand in disbelief.

“Try to relax. It’s safely placed there in the cabinet with the rest of your belongings.”

“So, how long have I been here?”

“You’ve been asleep for almost five days now.”

“Urgh, five days? How bad was my condition?” Felix rigidly dragged his body to sit up.

The nurse retrieved the clipboard from the desk as she listed down the things that happened to him, “You were in pretty bad shape when you got here. Three fractured ribs, one of your lungs were punctured, internal bleeding, and your entire body was covered in bruises.”

“Is that all?”

“There’s also this unusual concentration of caffeine in your body which we believe to have contributed to slowing down your recovery.”

His eyebrows curled slightly, “It hurts to be betrayed by something I hold so dear to me.” Felix jokingly lamented as he thoughtlessly petted Maria’s head like a cat.

“When you arrived, your body was already undergoing some form of hyper-accelerated healing, and by the time the doctors were about to begin operating on you, you were already out of critical condition. We’ve never seen anything like it. It’s amazing how quickly you’ve recovered. But that’s probably thanks to Professor Tetsuya’s genius.”

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I don’t know why, but listening to her praise the professor felt like listening to a grating noise.

“R-right… if that’s the case, then I should probably get some exercise. Five days is a long time— urgk!” He suddenly grabbed his stomach, feeling a piercing pain run through it.

“Nope, you should rest for a little while longer. Your body burnt itself out by accelerating the healing process.”

“Is that so?” His bed creaked as he plopped back down.

“Now that you’re awake, I’ll need to perform routine checks on you, so would you please wake up Miss Readman and ask her? I’d do it myself, but truth be told, she scares me.”

“… Understandable. Hey Marie, Marie…”

“Mhm… five more minutes…” The black-haired woman mumbled.

Felix scowled and gently placed his hand on Maria’s head, but as he did, he stared at his hand. His eyes widened, and his mouth parted. A ringing filled his ears as his memories began to flood back in his mind. Of his battle against Moritz, Beast, and Oscar.

Sweat dripped down his face. A wave of panic came rushing through his body, and his breathing grew heavy as he vividly remembered his hand being turned into a burnt, empty stump.

“Ow, ow! I’m up, I’m up.” Maria yelled out, and Felix snapped out of it. He found himself gripping her hair tightly.

“Ah… Marie… I’m sorry.” He apologized as he let go of her.

“Owie…” She rubbed the back of her aching head, “Hey there, you. You’re finally awake. How you feeling?” She mumbled out, still half-asleep.

“Alive. It’s all foggy, I can’t remember much after I fought with that one guy, Moritz. What… what happened?”

“Well, we failed our mission, and all we have to show for it is the joker card he left behind.” She said as she showed him the card.

As he grabbed it, she spoke, “Don’t bother. No fingerprints or any trace of who this Moritz guy was. It’s a card you can get anywhere.”

“I see…” He muttered as he rubbed the cardboard between his fingers, before pausing to look at his own hand.

His eyes widened with the realization as he looked at both of his hands. Looking front and back as his breathing began to race, “My… my hand… MY— ”

“Your hand is fine.” She quickly grabbed his hand, squeezing it between hers, “Calm down, I made you some coffee… but… it’s probably cold now.” She glanced at the small white table beside him where the wilted flowers lay.

His breathing steadied, and he pressed his hand against his forehead, “Th-thanks Marie.” He weakly replied as he glanced back at the now-crumpled joker card.

“Now let me get back to sleeping...” She blurted as she placed her face back to his bedside.

“Actually, you kinda have to go at the moment.”

“We’re going to do some quick medical exams to see if he’s a hundred-percent alright now. You’re free to return as soon as we’re done.” The nurse said as she held up a syringe.

Felix felt a mild chill crawl through his spine, but as his eyebrows furrowed with discomfort, Maria smirked.

“Want I should hold your hand before she sticks it inside you?”

“Leave.”

“Well, it’s good to see you’re already getting better. But before I go…” She said as she handed him a mirror before leaving.

“Huh?”

Maria pointed to her own left eye before leaving the room. As Felix looked into the mirror, he smiled and placed his hand on his cheek. His left eye had finally turned blue.

“Finally.” He sighed, “Took it long enough…”

But his time to revel was cut-short as the nurse spoke, “Mister Aster. Your physical exams.”

“Oh, um… right.”

A few moments passed and his physical exams were finished. Felix was putting on his necklace.

The nurse wrote on her clipboard as she went through it, “Everything seems to be in proper functioning order. The soreness should go away after two days or so, and we can discharge you immediately. I’ll leave you some pain killers here, just in case.”

He placed his necklace underneath his shirt and asked, “And… my right hand?”

“It appears your hand was in pretty bad shape, but by the time you arrive, it was already recovering.”

His eyes lowered as the memory flashed to when he was younger, where a bleeding hand reached out towards the sky from the rubble.

“Well, call me if you need anything.”

“Alright. Ah, wait… Can you leave the pen?” Felix asked as the nurse was about to leave.

“Alright then. I’ll be back in a bit, okay?” She cheerfully replied before leaving the room.

“…Stars, huh?”

Felix fiddled with the pen with a blank expression on his face, but while he did, he began to recollect the memories of his last mission, as well as the humiliation that he was put through.

Though as he lowered the pen, a thought still persisted to linger in his mind, “What it means to be an esper?”

These words leave him stranded and clueless, yet his frustration could not be seen in his face. He brought the pen up again. His blue eyes focused on the pen between his fingers, waiting for it to lift.

“Come on, come on…”

He looked to the side where the wilted asters were. With a sip of his coffee, he whispered to himself; “Again.”

He picked up the pen once more.

“A fire that doesn’t burn…” He took a deep breath.

A surge of heat began to course through him, from his arms, focusing on his palms. The pen between his hands began to radiate with blue particles of light, lifting in the air.

As he kept it steady, his empty expression turned into a smile. However, it didn’t take long for the pen to shake rapidly between his hands, evidently growing unstable as the light that surrounded it overflowed like a wildfire. It shook more and more violently, yet Felix was unaware of how to stop it.

There was a knock on his door as a voice called out, “May I come in?”

The door slid open, and Isabelle took a step inside with flowers in her arms. But as she walked in, the rogue pen struck directly above her.

A scared whimper escaped her lips as her knees gave up on her.

As the flowers scattered to the floor, Felix could only mutter two words; “Ah… sorry.”

~