Rui opened his eyes, groggy and disoriented. As his vision proceeded to unblur itself, a white ceiling came into view.

"An unfamiliar ceiling." Rui muttered, taking the opportunity to utter a common trope he heard in anime, before chuckling. His head throbbed as he got up, struggling to remember what happened.

('The spar with Squire Kyrie.') He realized. ('The last thing I remember is Kane using his that Apprentice-level technique...') He closed his eyes, as he struggled to remember.

('And then I woke up here... I see. We failed, and miserably too.') He chuckled self-deprecatingly. Although he knew the chances of success were low, it still wasn't a pleasant outcome.

Rui's eyes caught something to his right, he turned only to be surprised.

"Kane."

Kane was still unconscious, however he looked perfectly fine physically, lying in a bed not too far away.

"They must have healed us up and allowed us to rest and wake up."

Rui sighed getting back to bed. He immersed himself in his thoughts peacefully as his headache slowly subsided.

('I wonder what she did to us.') To be able to knock both of them out and hospitalize them in the circumstances she was in was truly amazing. He just didn't know whether it was possible with Apprentice-level prowess.

Could any Apprentice really replicate her feat in those circumstances?

('Probably not.') He felt. Sure, both Rui and Kane were young. But Kane's technique was surely somewhat close to the pinnacle of Apprentice-level as far as efficiency went. It has a handful of rather severe shortcomings in general, which Rui had done a pretty decent job of mitigating. Yet for them to be crushed despite that, Rui wasn't sure it was possible for an Apprentice to replicate that.

('Which means... She must have used Squire-level battle prowess.') Rui concluded. That would explain how they got crushed instantly. She must have used a Squire-level technique of some sort, allowing to dispel the threat and knock them out.

In a way, Rui felt a bit happy that they were knocked out. If Kyrie knocked them out, then it must have been necessary for her to do that. She never knocked out the students in these sparring sessions, only pushing them to their physical limits. The fact that she knocked them out, meant they had managed to push her farther than she had in any previous sparring session.

Although a loss was still a loss, knowing this made the loss much more tolerable. He even felt a measure of pride well up.

"Ugh..." Kane woke up with a disoriented expression.

Rui waited a few seconds for him to process himself and his surroundings, before calling out to him.

"Hey."

Kane turned towards him with squinted eyes.

"You look like shit." Rui chuckled. "How are you feeling?"

"Where are we?" Kane wondered.

"Medical wing."

"Huh..."

"We were knocked out during the fight with Kyrie." He explained. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I recall using Flash Burst at the timing you told me to..." He continued, trying to recall. "...But after that, I dunno."

"Hmmm... She must have knocked both of us nigh-simultaneously then." Rui surmised. "Definitely a Squire-level technique."

"That's crazy."

"Right?" Rui grinned.

Suddenly, a nurse walked into the medical room they were in, taking note of their awakening.

"Apprentice Rui Quarrier and Apprentice Kane Arrancar. You're awake. Both of you were rendered unconscious during a sparring session." She dutifully informed. "You have made almost full recoveries physically, however we'll be performing a few check-ups and examinations."

"How long have been unconscious?" Rui asked, he still didn't know how long it had been since the sparring session ended.

"It's been a little over six hours since you were brought to the medical wing." She replied as she prepared some medical instruments and other items.

She proceeded to wear a stethoscope-like instrument, and placed one end of the instrument on Kane's chest. "Breathe deeply." She instructed.

A few more checkups and lines of questioning of various sorts followed until she moved onto Rui, performing them on him as well.

"Both of you are fit to be discharged." She told them. "The headaches will persist for anywhere between a few hours or a day. Be sure to take rest for a day until you have recovered fully. If the headache persists beyond a day then be sure to revisit the medical wing."

After a bit of paperwork, Rui and Kane walked together towards the Apprentice dormitory.

"Next time we see instructor Kyrie, we should ask her about what actually happened." Rui said. "It's a shame she isn't always free and available in the sparring center like the Apprentice Sparring head instructor was."

"She is a Martial Squire after all, and a particularly powerful one." Kane replied.

"Heh, hearing that just makes getting knocked out by her all the more worth it." Rui smirked.

"That's a weird fetish, you Martial pervert."

"Shut up." Rui retorted lightly.

They bantered a bit before Kane remembered something. "Oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask. Are you going back home for the winter break?"

Rui's ears perked when he heard that. "It's that time of the year already?" He wondered. He'd begun to lose track of time very easily once he had joined the Academy, especially since rejuvenation potions made it difficult to keep track of the passage of days.

"Yeah, it's in three days. You going?"

"Absolutely, I haven't seen them in quite a while." Rui had gone back home once after he had become an Explorer, although it was a brief visit. He didn't want to miss any chance of seeing his family.

"I thought you intended to get into missions the moment you formed the basic foundation of your Martial Art." Kane noted.

"Yeah but, missions can be done any time. I can't see my family any time." He replied. "I can just begin missions when I get back. I won't be able to see them during the break if I begin doing missions now."

"I see."

"What about you?" Rui asked.

"Psshht, hell no!" Kane exclaimed. "In fact, I'm going to take a longer mission so I have a good excuse for not going back!" He declared, earning Rui's laughter.Copyright by Nôv/elDrama.Org.