The infirmary was dressed in soft colors by the light seeping through the curtains of the small round window at the back of the room; the clean coldness of the white walls was balanced by the glossy brown of the wooden furniture within. Its air smelled faintly of lavender, no doubt in an effort to mask the characteristic scent of antiseptics, and it was softly reverberating the quiet echoes of breathing coming from the two men lying in the beds at the opposite ends of the room.

The calm silence was promptly broken by hushed voices from the other side of the curtain in the corner of the room. Two silhouettes moved across the hangings, their vague shapes drawn hazily upon them by the light shining through the window.

Kay: "Is it going to hurt?" Came the girl’s voice from behind the curtain. Her small shadow was fidgeting on something that looked like an examination table. The shade of a man turned towards her and reached for her shoulders.

Pabloc: "Just a little, but it’s only natural."

Kay: "Ummm…"

Pabloc: "It’s your first time, right?"

Her shadow quietly nodded as the man turned around once again, searching for something.

Kay: "Are you sure that this is going to help me?"

Pabloc: "Yes, it’s a very simple and safe method of transferring viridia; it should work with you as well…"

Soketsu: "…"

The man’s shadow faced her yet again, and their shades quietly overlapped in the dim light.

Pabloc: "Just relax, okay? I’ll try to be gentle."

Kay: "Ummm… Okay."

Soketsu: "……"

Kay: "O…Ouch!"

Pabloc: "You see? It’s in already."

Soketsu: "……………"

Kay: "But it hurts!"

Pabloc: "Don’t worry, it’s going to fade soon once you get used to the feeling."

Soketsu: "…………………………….."

Kay: "Ummmm… There’s blood…"

Pabloc: "Of course there is. Here, let me wipe it for y—"

Soketsu: "……………………………………………….."

Finally reaching his boiling point, the man closer to the curtains suddenly sit up in his bed with a furious bellow.

Soketsu: "JUST WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING OVER THERE!?"

For a moment Soketsu’s yelling flatly echoed between the walls of the infirmary, right until another voice drowned out its last traces from the air.

Gabe: "AGREED! QUIT YOUR INNUENDO PARADE ALREADY! PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP OVER HERE!"

For a few moments Soketsu’s face couldn’t decide whether he was angry, surprised or bewildered as the mad scientist sat up in the other bed, scowling at the direction of the curtains without paying him any attention. In the end his visage ended up in a pained grimace as his back suddenly gave in and he fell back onto the bed with a soft thump and a muted groan. Then another voice entered the fray…

Kay: "Soketsu!!!"

Soketsu: "Wha—?"

Out of the blue Kay jumped onto his lap with a huge thud and hugged his neck like her life was depending on it.

Kay: "You are alive! You are alive!"

To the injured man’s surprise it was Pabloc who appeared behind her after pulling the drapes. He was dressed in a white doctor’s coat, subtly different from the other white coat he wore during their previous encounter, and he had a stethoscope around his neck. The bespectacled scientist gave him a small nod, probably as a means of greeting, and spoke to the girl on his lap with a chiding voice.

Pabloc: "Yes, yes, but he won’t be alive for long if you keep strangling him like that."

Kay let out a small gasp as she finally noticed Soketsu’s face twisted in pain and quickly let go of him, holding her hands in front of her chest in anxiety.

Kay: "S-Sorry! Are you all right?"

Soketsu: "…Ugh… My head…"

Kay: "Is he all right?"

Kay turned to Pabloc while her hands were unconsciously clawing at Soketsu’s blanket, her eyes teary and seemingly just about to burst. The scientist stepped over to the bed and gently pushed her aside while the bed creaked under them.

By the time he carefully placed his hand against Soketsu’s shoulder the fore of the bed already rose up in and angle to accommodate him into a half-lying position.

Once he was done with that he gestured for the girl to get off the bed and spoke to her with a gentle voice.

Pabloc: "Don’t worry, he’s fine. The high-regenerative treatment is almost done; he’ll be as good as new in a few days." He glanced over to the girl’s arm and paused for a moment. "You on the other hand…"

He gently reached out to her hand and pulled her back behind the now open curtains.

Soketsu: "Okay, just what’s going on here? What are you doing to her?"

Pabloc: "Me?"

The scientist turned towards the bedridden man with a slightly amused smile, completely disregarding his chilling glare.

Pabloc: "Don’t worry. I’m not hurting your partner or anything. She over-exerted herself in your battle with the idiot over there—"

Gabe: "I pretend I didn’t hear that." Gabe quipped between two gigantic yawns.

Pabloc: "… so I’m giving her a direct intravenous infusion of viridia to get her back on her feet as fast as possible."

While saying so, he cleaned Kay’s arm once again and readied a new needle. For a moment or two Soketsu was wondering whether it was even possible to infuse viridia like that but he didn’t have the opportunity to voice his concern.

Kay: "Are you going to stab me again?"

Pabloc: "We can’t help it. The previous needle fell out because you jumped like that." Pabloc flashed a small smile with practiced ease and began smearing disinfectant on her arm. "Just bear with it and everything will be all right."

Kay: "Ummm… Okay." Kay meekly nodded.

Soketsu, though still a little dizzy (either from his injuries or the previous events, he couldn’t tell), slowly started to get a grasp on his situation.

The first question was: Where?

That was the easy part: He was lying in a hospital bed linked to some strange machinery in a sterile white room with green tiled floor. That kind of environment didn’t really give much room for interpretation. As for where the room itself was, that question was a fair bit more troublesome, though he quickly concluded that he could do little about solving the question from his bed.

As such he moved on to the second issue: What happened?

The last thing he could remember his fairly one-sided battle against the mad scientist now leisurely whistling in the other bed. He also remembered trying to gamble on his strongest Holy Imprint— then his memories were suddenly filled with a bright crimson light and then he woke up to the sound of Kay’s voice.

As to what happened between those two events he could only guess, but if the current state of his body was any indication, he had to conclude that he must have been beaten, and by a quite embarrassing margin. His legs and right arm were encased in cast, or at least bandaged to the point he could barely move them, and to be honest he wasn’t entirely sure he even wanted to move them on the first place, as they hurt quite enough already. He also had his eye patch back on, though he was so used to it by then that he only just noticed it.

What he did notice was that his whole body was burning with pain as if all his bones had been broken, even ones he didn’t even know about, and he soon had to realize that he probably wouldn’t be able to stand on his own legs for a while. That also meant escape was out of the question, at least for the moment.

Now came the final and most important question: Why?

Apparently his enemies not only kept him alive but they were actually nursing him back to health. At first he felt strangely curious about that, but then he remembered how Pabloc mentioned ‘recovering’ him. In other words, he was held captive. Curiously though, he wasn’t cuffed or restrained in any way, though it might have been just his captors considering him too battered to even mount an escape attempt.

But then they also got Kay, and judging by her behavior it seemed like they treated her well. He was relieved by that but it also made him even more uneasy.

Also, there was one last thing he didn’t quite understand.

Gabe: "……. What? Why are you staring at me like that?"

The mad scientist cocked his head in puzzlement as he met Soketsu’s piercing stare. Or at least he hoped it was piercing, although he had no idea just how swollen his face was, so his expression was more akin to grimacing. The question behind his gaze was just as genuine either way.

What was the mad scientist doing here? He couldn’t land a single clean hit on him, or at least none that he remembered, yet he also appeared to be bed-ridden beside him… though again, he didn’t seem worse for wear, so maybe it was unrelated?

After a few moments of silence he finally decided to do the only thing he could and ask the man himself.

Soketsu: "Where am I?"

Gabe blinked at him, apparently not expecting such a direct question.

Gabe: "In the facility’s infirmary?" He asked back with an amused twinkle in his eyes.

Soketsu: "But the window…"

Gabe: "Artificial sunlight."

Soketsu: "Why?"

Gabe: "Helps the mood. Also good for recovery and stuff. Ask Pabloc, it was his idea."

Unperturbed by the man’s affable manner, Soketsu pressed on.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Soketsu: "So we are still underground…"

Gabe: "Yup. Fifteen meters, to be exact."

Soketsu looked over Gabe one more time and couldn’t help but let the question slip out of his mouth.

Soketsu: "Why?"

Gabe: "Why underground? Well, because—"

Soketsu: "No! I was asking why I’m here!"

The mad scientist seemed genuinely shocked by Soketsu’s outburst and shook his head with a pitiful expression.

Gabe: "Geez, I guess I hit your head a bit too hard after all. I don’t remember you ever being that dumb."

Soketsu: "Just answer the damn question!" The Rover’s snarled between clenched teeth.

Gabe: "What is there to answer?" Gabe leaned forward and began talking really slowly. "You were injured. This is the infirmary. We take injured people to the infirmary. End of story."

Even though his brow was twitching with frustration over the man’s condescending tone, Soketsu pressed on.

Soketsu: "Why are you avoiding the question?"

Gabe: "I’m not avoiding anything! You just suck at asking questions!"

Pabloc: "That’s about enough." Pabloc interjected, emerging from behind the curtains with Kay on his side. There was a small IV-package attached to the green haired girl’s shoulder; it looked like a blood-pack at first glance but it was also strangely sparkling as the light reflected off the red liquid inside.

A single glance at his partner was enough to instantly melt the man’s previous scowl and it immediately gave way to a worried expression. The fidgeting girl walked over to his side and grabbed hold of him, her small fingers curling around the man’s bruised hand in a tight grip.

Soketsu: "Kay?"

Kay: "S-Sorry for jumping on you like that. I didn’t want to hurt you."

Soketsu: "No problem, but…"

Kay: "I was just so happy you woke up…" The girl continued while teetering on the edge of sobbing. "You have been lying there for three days, and… and—"

The man suddenly cut her off mid-sentence with a face like he had just seen a ghost.

Soketsu: "Three days? I have been unconscious for three days?"

Pabloc: "You are lucky you are even alive." The scientist pressed a few buttons on the screen beside Soketsu’s bed before turning to him again. "That idiot over there broke more than forty-five percent of the bones in your body."

Gabe: "Forty-seven point five, to be exact."

Pabloc let out a small groan as he reached for his glasses and frowned at the mad scientist.

Pabloc: "I don’t think that’s the thing you should be saying right now."

For a few awkward seconds Gabe stared back at him in puzzlement until he suddenly snapped his finger.

Gabe: "Ah, I got it! You want me to apologize, right?"

The bespectacled man shook his head in mild irritation.

Pabloc: "Why do I even have to tell you that…?"

Gabe: "Whatever. So yeah, sorry for increasing your workload. My bad."

For a moment Pabloc could only blink at him in response and then he began angrily fidgeting with his glasses again.

Pabloc: "You know it’s not me you were supposed to apologize to, right?"

Gabe: "No? But I already apologized to Kay and she said it was okay."

Pabloc: "Gabe… Stop playing dumb." The scientist asserted dryly, his words emphasized with a dangerous frown.

Gabe: "Oh come on! It was self-defense!" Gabe protested with his arms in the air. "And I was careful as I promised!"

Pabloc: "You broke half his bones!"

Gabe: "Well, okay. I tried to be careful… But hey, he is still alive!" Suddenly a ballpoint pen rocketed through the air and hit Gabe squarely in the middle of his forehead. "Ouch! Hey, that hurt!"

Pabloc: "Stop stalling or the next one will have the point out." The man with the glasses declared matter-of-factly as another pen rose from the nearby table and fixated itself towards Gabe’s forehead.

Gabe: "Whose side are you on anyways!?" The mad scientist complained but it was obvious from his demeanor that it was only for show. In the end he turned to the other bedridden man and gave him a small smile. "Sorry for breaking your bones pal. I promise I will try to attempt to take a stab at making an effort to do my best not do that again. Ever. Or at least in the foreseeable future." The man paused for a moment and then flashed a childish grin. "… Let’s make it until next month, shall we?"

Soketsu kept staring at Gabe for a few seconds with the kind of bewilderment usually associated with meeting a ghost or a benevolent tax collector. At last he slowly turned to the more reasonable of the two men in the room.

Soketsu: "Okay, seriously… What the hell is going on?"

Pabloc: "What do you mean in particular?"

Soketsu: "I mean… I…"

Soketsu let out a desperate groan as he collected his thoughts and, maybe unconsciously, squeezed the hand holding onto his own. Once feeling adequately prepared he spoke with the firmest tone he could manage.

Soketsu: "First of all, what am I doing here?"

Pabloc: "We carried you here for treatment, of course." The bespectacled scientist answered just as naturally as Gabe did beforehand.

Soketsu: "But why?"

Gabe: "Didn’t I already answer that question?" The mad scientist grumbled while rubbing his forehead. "You were injured, so we took you to the infirmary."

Soketsu: "I’m asking why you did that."

Gabe: "Because that’s what you do when someone on the team gets hurt. Duh."

Now this was an answer that finally seemed to go somewhere. The only problem was that Soketsu had a feeling he wasn’t going to like that destination.

Soketsu: "The team…?"

Gabe: "Yeah. I mean, not right now, at least not yet, but you were and it’s kind of a permanent membership thing and it’s also kinda complicated. You are lucky we saved your health- and dental-care package for you." Gabe paused for a moment and with a smile added, "And your free parking space too."

Soketsu looked at the man in the bed, then the scientist standing by the bedside, and after a few long seconds of quiet brain-wrecking he finally let out a defeated groan.

Soketsu: "I give up. I don’t know what you want to achieve by telling me we know each other… but I’m listening. For now."

Gabe: "Oh. Good, I suppose." Gabe said while kicking off his blanket and sitting up cross-legged on his bed. This act was also revealing a teddy-bear print pajama, but Soketsu decided it wasn’t prudent pointing it out and making fun of the man who just wiped the floor with him. "It’s a pretty long story though, especially if you don’t remember what happened 300 years ago..."

A single eyebrow rose on the eye-patched man’s face.

Soketsu: "I’m not that old."

Gabe: "Oh, but you are. Well, not the you you, at least not technically, but that’s another veeeeeeery long story."

Soketsu looked all over his bandaged limbs before he turned to Gabe again.

Soketsu: "Do I look like I’m in a hurry?"

The mad scientist blinked at Soketsu and suddenly burst into his familiar cackle, apparently finding the situation quite amusing. Soketsu didn’t share his views.

Gabe: "Well, no you don’t. But we should wait for Ahaz first, he’s way better at info-dumping than me…"

Pabloc: "Now that you mention it, he arrived just a few hours ago. He should be here in any moment."

Gabe: "Any moment, you say?" Gabe inquired with a knowing smile. "That means… Three… two… one—" Just as he reached the end of his countdown the door of the infirmary suddenly opened with a quiet hiss and a tall man wearing white clothes entered with a girl on his side. "Rrrrrright on cue, as always."

The newcomer looked over the room and sent an annoyed glance towards the scientist on the bed. He was tall, not particularly muscular and wore a simple silver headband. His clothes were simple, following pre-Devastation fashion; light pants, a white shirt with a light gray west and a pair of elegant, similarly colored leather shoes.

Soketsu’s gaze however was actually drawn to the girl next to him. She looked fairly young, somewhere around her late teens, and had long, curly black hair. Unlike her monochrome companion she was wearing a more varied attire, sporting a pair of black jeans, a blue blouse and a loose amber-bead necklace around her neck. Those traits were secondary in importance though, as the main attraction the girl sported were the pair of feline ears perking up from the top of her head and the long cat’s tail at her rear, apparently poking through a hole in her custom-made pants.

The man glanced at Pabloc, then at Soketsu and Kay, giving both of them small nods in greeting, and finally turned back to the scientist in the bed with a barely visible frown.

Ahazkun: "I’m happy to see you too, Gabe."

Gabe: "Yeah, yeah." The mad scientist gave a deadpan wave to the newcomer and a moment later hopped forward while still sitting cross-legged and flashed a mischievous smile at the catgirl. "Now, would you kindly step out the way so I can properly greet Tiari?"

The mere mention of her name was enough to prompt the girl to hide herself behind Ahazkun while quietly hissing. To his amusement, Soketsu also noted that her ears were slightly twitching and pointing skyward.

Gabe: "Tch. Cold as always…"

While Gabe and Tiari was playing a pretty pointless game of hide and seek around the newcomer, Pabloc finally turned away from the medical equipment and returned the man’s nod in kind.

Pabloc: "Welcome back. How did it go?"

Ahazkun: "Just as planned."

Gabe: "Boooring…"

The tall man’s eyes jumped back to the mad scientist, this time his frown slightly more visible.

Ahazkun: "Says the man who almost ruined our plans… Again."

Gabe: "What can I say? Following your strategies was never my strong point, and it was pretty much a given that I was going to have to take him down at the end." Suddenly the man’s eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers again. "Oh, speaking of plans; I think Pabloc owes you five bucks."

The scientist by the machine visible twitched at the mention of his name and faced Gabe.

Pabloc: "Did you really have to remind him of that?"

Gabe: "Yup." Gabe gave Pabloc a satisfied smile so wide it seemingly threatened to run off the sides of his face.

Pabloc in turn just sighed in resignation and faced Ahazkun.

Pabloc: "Right, I lost my bet."

Ahazkun: "Of course you did." The white-clad man answered with a certain sense of detachment. "It was only a three percent chance."

Pabloc: "Hey, at least I was trying!" The scientist sighed again and shrugged his shoulders. "Now where the hell should I find five dollars? It’s a currency that’s been out of print for three centuries and it wasn’t even used on this part of the globe…"

Ahazkun: "Why did we even bet in dollars again?" The tall man mused with a knowing glance at the bed-ridden scientist.

Tiari: "Gabe’s idea."

Pabloc and Ahazkun nodded in unison the moment the girl’s whispers reached their ears.

Pabloc: "Gabe’s idea indeed."

Ahazkun: "Of course it was his idea."

Pabloc: "Quite obvious in retrospect."

Tiari: "And dumb."

Ahazkun: "Don’t be rude." Ahazkun suddenly chided his lover still hiding behind his back.

Gabe: "What?" The man in the bed opened his arms in a comical expression and smiled at the united front of his comrades with the self-conscious cheerfulness of the jester. "What?"

From Soketsu’s point of view the scene unfolding in from of him was as strange as it was uncomfortable. It felt like he was an outsider who accidentally stumbled upon a school reunion where he knew no one. On the other hand though…

Strange as it might have felt like, the situation seemed vaguely familiar. Not the exact details, but there was something eerily cozy about the circumstances, like as if he had already seen it play out countless times. It was a vexing feeling and the more he tried to concentrate on it the more it felt like it was slipping from his grasp.

Ahazkun: "By the way, nice to see you again, Soketsu."

Suddenly disturbed, Soketsu blinked at the tall man with an expression so dumbfounded even he would have found it hilarious in retrospect. At the moment though he couldn’t help but groan and drop his tense shoulders in dejection as the topic reared its ugly head yet again.

Soketsu: "… Here we go again."

Ahazkun: "I see…" The oracle’s eyes seemed intent yet his face remained completely emotionless to the point where Soketsu actually felt a little uncomfortable while trying to match the man’s gaze. "So you really don’t remember after all. Not that surprising, it had a fairly high chance."

Gabe: "Did you hear that Pabloc? That’s another five bucks."

Pabloc: "Oh, shut up…"

The tall man looked over at the two and shook his head in disapproval but quickly turned back to Soketsu without saying a word to them and instead focused his full attention on the wounded man.

Ahazkun: "No memories at all?"

Soketsu: "I have no idea how to answer that. I don’t even know what I am supposed to remember on the first place…"

After a few moments of thinking Ahazkun turned towards the green-haired girl next to Soketsu, silently sitting beside him on his bed while nervously clutching his hand.

Ahazkun: "You are Kay, right?"

The girl was surprised for a second as she heard her name from the mouth of a stranger but she quickly pulled herself together.

Kay: "Y-Yes. Pleased to meet you."

The seemingly cold expression of the man suddenly gave way to a slight smile in face of the girl’s shivering voice.

Ahazkun: "The pleasure is all mine. If you would let me, I just want to introduce you to someone."

Saying so, Ahazkun reached behind his back and gently shoved the catgirl to the front. For a second or two Tiari seemed so baffled by the sudden attention that she forgot to even put up any resistance.

Ahazkun: "She is Tiari, my familiar."

Both girls seemed confused and more than a little embarrassed by the awkward introduction, neither of them saying a word and instead just nervously staring at each other.

Ahazkun: "I believe you haven’t been here for long. Would it be all right if she gave you a tour around the town?"

Kay: "Town?"

Finally breaking out of her surprised stupor the catgirl suddenly turned around and glared at Ahazkun.

Tiari: "Hey! Do I have a word in this!?"

Ahazkun: "I will get you something nice in exchange later. Please be friendly with her, okay?"

Tiari tried to protest, but after a few moments of soundless gasping she finally dropped her head in resignation.

Tiari: "Oh, fine. If you want this to be a sausage-fest, be my guest! Come on!"

Kay: "B-But…"

The catgirl stomped over to Soketsu’s bed, forcefully grabbed Kay’s hand and stormed off with her through the infirmary door before the green-haired girl could really say anything, all the while fuming like an especially angry steam engine. What followed were a few moments of uncomfortable silence as the four men awkwardly glanced at each other.

Gabe: "She still has problems with socializing, I see." Gabe broke the silence with his usual tact. "Not that I expected any improvement, being paired up with mister pokerface and everything…"

The oracle sent an annoyed glance towards the bedridden scientist, but in the end he just sat down onto the end of his bed without saying a word and faced the man on the other bed instead.

Soketsu seemed lost and somewhat fidgety after Kay left his side in such a sudden manner, but his eyes looked firm and a tiny bit hostile. Ahazkun met his gaze and returned it in kind, except without any hostility whatsoever, and instead spoke to him in a voice as dry and serious as a human throat could muster.

Ahazkun: "Even if it makes no sense to you now, you will remember."

For a moment Soketsu was taken aback by the tone of the man but then he answered with words dipped in vitriol.

Soketsu: "So I don’t have any choice in this matter, huh?"

The oracle took a deep breath and spoke again, though this time his voice was more strained than before, like he was struggling not to let his own anxiety spill out, forcing his words into a low whisper.

Ahazkun: "No. The Plan demands it."