“I understand. I want to help ease your pain, Gong, and allow you to live a normal life.

Before I start though, I always ask this. I want you to feel comfortable, that I’m not taking advantage of your trust in any way. I’ll have to touch various parts of your body to heal them, and it might be a bit uncomfortable. I promise I’m just doing it to get closer access to afflicted areas.”

I pause, as Gong’s face wrinkles in confusion and then relaxes as she laughs uncontrollably, pointing at me, “Hahahaha, ow ow ow, hahahaha.” She continues laughing, but is seems to get control after quite a while. I hope she didn’t rupture anything with that…

“You really know how to surprise me, James. You seem to always do things that no one else does. Please. Use my body as much as you want. Trust me when I say I won’t be dissatisfied,” she teases.

It appears that with that laugh, her teasing personality came back.

I don’t mind this part of her, it’s quite nice.

With her permission, though, I begin working.

Starting with the worst afflicted areas, I heal them as thoroughly as possible. As a catchall, I also have the general healing active as I work. While it takes some time because of the sheer number of conditions, it is definitely getting easier to do as I continue. I can overhear her heavy breathing, as different interior nerves are being shifted around.

Once again, I am glad that it is a pleasant feeling for them, rather than the very traumatic screams of pain it would be normally.

Honestly, it’s kind of frightening to think of what it would be without it.

Nonetheless, I finally get through the entire list, exempting one condition: the demi-human racial curse.

I’m pretty sure that I could get away with not healing this and in no shape or form would Gong blame me or even know that I could fix this for her. But would I be able to live with myself, knowing that I can heal this?

I’m not sure I’m at that emotional point, where I can disregard this sort of thing. Maybe for someone I don’t know or feel close to. However, I’ve let myself get close to Gong.

There’s no way I could live with it, seeing the person she is.

Hoping that she won’t notice and that I can tell her later, I place my hands on her stomach, just below the navel. Slowly inserting my healing energies, I can feel it travel into something and then around her body.

Once it has passed through two other areas, I can feel something released and the condition removed. Before I can even heave a sigh of relief, Gong immediately looks at me with a fiery intensity.

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“What did you do?” her voice quiet, but with urgency.

Gulp.

“I… uh… healed you.”

Her body raising up, she towers over me, “Don’t play around with me. I know you changed something radically different, I can feel it flowing around my body. Don’t tell me. It was something to do with my ability to cultivate, wasn’t it?”

With her showing such an intimidating and honestly frightening figure, I can’t help but meekly nod.

With my answer, her legs practically crumple to the ground. She just sits there for a period.

Suddenly, she looks up sharply, staring at my face. Feeling awkward, I almost say something, but the look in her eyes is clearly telling me to stay quiet. She grips her hands around her head. “Ughhh.” Then she paces.

Back and forth. Up and down.

You haven’t experienced anxiety until you’ve seen an irritated spider woman, the size of a 1998 Hummer H1 four passenger wagons, pacing around a room on the ceilings and walls.

After a few minutes of this, she finally stops in front of me.

“You.”

I sit up, straight as a rod.

Her eyes narrow. Then, points to the bed, “Sit.”

I sit in that bed, the fastest I’ve ever moved. I may have even broken a record.

Back to Gong, with a hand on the bridge of her nose, she looks like she is dealing with the conundrum of a lifetime. Which, considering the enormity of my actions, is quite warranted.

Finally climbing to her feet, she seems to have come to a decision.

Coming closer, she raises her hands… and gives me an enormous hug.

If the previous hug was one of attraction and curiosity, this one was one of intimacy and gratefulness. Cautiously, I reciprocate the hug and embracing her. As we sit there for a period of time, she heaves a sigh and begins speaking.

“Thank you, James. You have truly changed my life and other’s lives in ways that you can hardly imagine. You’ve healed me of so much pain, that I’ve had­­ to bear with since my childhood. I feel so much stronger, healthier, and honestly saner than I have ever had. In some sense, I feel you might have even helped my heart, a bit.”

She pauses and biting her lips in thought, but then opens them, “To be honest, other demi-humans and I have a deep mistrust of most humans. You helped immensely with that, not only because of your reaction to me but also your non-discriminating kindness.

Since I saw you, I couldn’t help but want to know more about you. I’ve always dr…”

I can feel her head look over to a corner of the room and she quickly coughs “I mean, I’ve always thought about what would happen if there were a human like yourself that would be willing to associate with demi-humans. Equally.”

She separates from our hug and looks passionately into my eyes.

“You were much more than just that… and this only reaffirms how much more you are, than I could have ever hoped to imagine.” Gesturing to her now non-existent wounds “I don’t think I will ever be able to repay you for this. No matter what I do.”

Leaning back in quickly, her face blushes as she surprises me by shyly kissing my cheek. Releasing me, her own are aflush.

She quickly turns away as I sit there in shock.

I’m ashamed to say it… but that was the closest to a romantic kiss I’ve ever had in my 27 years of life. Wow… So, this is what I’ve been missing. I have so many regrets. Healing her is DEFINITELY not one.

However, she doesn’t turn back around after that. Standing there, with her arms wrapped around herself and appearing to be a bit smaller.

Just when I am about to speak up, due to the growing awkwardness, she finally turns around, her body seeming to grow as she rotates. What she reveals, looks like a different side of Gong, that I haven’t seen yet facing me.

Her face stern and hard.

Her stance… reminds me of her battle stance!

“You’ve messed up, though.”

Casually raising one of her hands, a stream of web shoots out, pinning me to the bed. The only part of my body that I can move is my head now.

Ahhhhhh shit. Is this the betrayal arc?